Sirius shook his head, "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
As Sirius stroked his scraggly beard, Hermione could only think of one thing; Sirius thought she was right. Probably not about house-elves as a whole, but about Crouch, about Winky. That was a first. S.P.E.W. had dead ended with very few results, and Hermione was on the verge of abandoning it altogether, or at least until the horrible Skeeter woman could be caught.
"D'you know Crouch, then?" Harry asked, shaking Hermione from her triumphant thoughts.
Sirius' face transformed into something very dark, very hateful, "Oh, I know Crouch all right. He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban without a trial."
"What?" Hermione demanded. That broke at least a dozen- including the- and no one, in 12 years had thought- what on- even Muggles weren't as horrid-
"You're kidding!" Harry said, very much alarmed. That state of alarm only grew as Sirius described what living during the height of Voldemort's power had been like. She couldn't imagine the fear, the torment of daily life, knowing that at any second one could be killed. Then she thought that if Voldemort came back... well that meant she and Ron's entire family could be targets, just for being so close to Harry. When Sirius explained that Crouch's own son was an accused Death Eater, she could see Harry and Ron nearly explode with shock.
"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione whispered, wanting to believe that there was some capacity within the grouchy man to care for some living being. If not an elf, than perhaps his own flesh and blood.
Sirius laughed sharply, and Hermione wondered for a moment if he'd half-transformed back into Padfoot. Sirius said that Crouch had given up his own son to the Dementers of Azkaban, where he had shortly died thereafter. It wasn't much like the fairytales Hermione had grown up reading, but she thought that perhaps Crouch would've made a good villain at the least.
Then they started the Snape argument all over again, which was just ridiculous because if Ron trusted Dumbledore enough to have him put in an enchanted sleep for hours on end underwater how could he possibly not trust him enough to trust Snape. Besides, Snape had tried to save Harry in their first year, and technically, he'd only ever discouraged the three from making trouble.
When Hermione tried to voice her comments, Ron only spoke over her until Harry all but shouted, "What d'you think, Sirius?"
"I think they've both got a point," Sirius said. Not a point, Hermione thought, several. At least in her case. Sirius continued, "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy haired kid, he was. Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was a part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."
Sirius went on to name several, Rosier, Wilkes, the Lestranges, and Avery, of whom Hermione hadn't heard much of.
"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet," Ron said excitedly, and Hermione just knew he thought he was winning the argument.
"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" Harry said, and Hermione sighed. She didn't even want to think of that particular class at the moment. And of course he would agree with Ron about Snape, though Harry's hate was multigenerational, "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked real worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."
Harry was a worse gossip than Rita Skeeter sometimes.
"He showed Snape something on his arm?!" Sirius said, clearly confused. Then they went back to talking about Crouch, then on to Bertha Jorkins.
Hermione almost laugh when Harry looked at his waterlogged watch and said politely, "It's half past 3."
Sirius walked them back down to the road after giving them strict instructions to call him Snuffles.
Snuffles, she repeated over to herself, Snuffles.
.o0O0o.
Thanks again to Kittyinaz and LUNA GURLZ for reviewing.
