Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story (more's the pity--they could help pay my student loans) except for Eve Berger. Nor did I come up with the plot of PoA, and the scenes and dialogue included in that fab book, which I humbly reproduce at certain points herein. All that belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Bloomsbury, Raincoast, Scholastic...the list goes on!
A/N: Well here it is, another of the canon-event chapters. I would like to state again, that obviously the dialogue in this chapter is NOT MINE. JKR wrote it, and it is her text that inspired much of my elaboration on what might have been going through Snape's mind during this scene in PoA. She deserves all the credit, not me. This chapter and part of the next are the last where I will have to reproduce her work, thank God--writing to canon can really be a pain in the butt. However, I did want to explore what Snape's perspective would be on PoA, as well as to get Eve set up in a year without the whole Voldemort's return scenario to deal with as well.
So again: Not mine. Never was. Never will be. I merely grovel at JKR's feet, praying that some divine entity may bless me enough to bestow upon me even a mere fraction of her genius.
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Chapter 16: Through the Willow
After dinner Snape returned to his dungeons and his pile of marking. He would be very glad once exams were finished and marks handed in; probably about as excited as the students. Until then there was more than enough to do, rewriting his notes on the practical exams and making little red marks all over the theoretical ones. He had to admit to a slight feeling of satisfaction when he marked Berger's second-year exam and found it lacking. She was had probably completed about seventy-five percent of the second-year curriculum, something which would be remedied soon enough when she returned the following September, but he had to admit he found a certain glee in writing down a failing grade for her. It would be worth seeing her bubble burst for the extra work it would cause him next year. He hoped that he'd be able to do the same for Potter and his friends, but it seemed unlikely in Granger's case.
He was so intent on his marking that it was not until his clock chimed nine that a more pressing engagement came back to him. It was nearly a full moon--Lupin needed his Wolfsbane Potion. There were quite a few hours left before it would be truly needed, but it was obviously not wise to leave it to the last minute.
Cursing his uncharacteristic forgetfulness, Snape jumped up from his desk and quickly unlocked his private store cupboard. Luckily there was still a cauldronful of the potion left from the last batch, which would only take a few minutes to heat.
Once the potion had simmered for about ten minutes, Snape decanted some into a goblet and carried it up to Lupin's office. Snape knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again; still no reply. Not even the sound of someone moving about in the room beyond.
For a moment he wondered if Lupin had transformed already, but immediately dismissed the thought. The moon had not risen yet and would not actually reach full for another two hours. Snape reached out and took hold of the doorknob, wondering if luck would be in his favour and Lupin hadn't locked it.
Luck smiled on him and the knob turned easily, the door swinging open to reveal a brightly lit but completely empty room.
Snape stepped into Lupin's office, calling his name, but receiving no reply. Obviously Lupin wasn't in. Well, there was little he could do about it but go back to his marking and hope that Lupin would be back before moonrise.
But as he placed the goblet on Lupin's desk, he saw something which made him stop. A familiar-looking piece of parchment lay on Lupin's desk, the writing at the top striking a chord within him.
"The Marauders' Map". The Marauders...the nickname that James Potter and his friends had used for their little quartet of mischief-makers. He had been right! When he'd caught Potter with that piece of parchment months ago, he'd been certain that he remembered the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs from his school days, had been certain they'd had something to do with James Potter's crowd!
Snape took a second look at the map, studying it more closely this time. He could easily see that it showed Hogwarts and its environs. More peculiar however was the fact that it was covered with moving, labelled dots, presumably to represent people in the castle. There was a small dot labelled "Severus Snape" standing in the room marked "Lupin's Office", exactly where he was standing. Glancing around the map he saw one dot moving quickly across the grounds toward the Whomping Willow. In the instant before the dot went into the Willow and disappeared, he was able to read the label hovering by it: "Remus Lupin".
That was how Black was getting onto Hogwarts' grounds! Snape had never known where that tunnel led to, had thought it was a dead-end, but now the thought occurred to him that it couldn't be, that there had to be another entrance off the grounds where Black could get in.
Not bothering to lock the door behind him, Snape ran out of Lupin's office and down to one of the many side entrances to the school that he knew of. Running across the grounds, he muttered a Lumos, and almost immediately spotted something lying on the grass that seemed to shimmer in the dim light of his wand tip. He picked it up, and the cloth seemed to flow like a liquid as it moved. Shaking it out, he could see that it was a kind of cloak, though made of no material he'd ever seen before.
A thought struck him and he quickly wrapped the cloak about him, looking down and watching as his body seemed to ripple and fade away, leaving only the sight of the grass under his feet.
It was an Invisibility Cloak--Potter's Invisibility Cloak. He had long wondered how Potter--both Junior and Senior--could move around the castle without being seen. How James Potter and friends had managed to overhear things Snape had said when he had been certain they weren't anywhere near. How Harry had managed to appear headless in front of Malfoy in Hogsmeade earlier that year. By that time he had been certain that somehow Potter must have gotten his hands on something like the cloak he was wearing at that very moment. It wasn't hard to figure out how. James Potter's family had been incredibly wealthy, and it wasn't much of a stretch that someone in that family could have bought such an expensive item with all that wizarding gold.
Snape looked back at the willow, a sense of triumph surging through him. For once, Potter's little tricks had worked in his favour. Not only would he have Black and Lupin red-handed, he would also have an even greater element of surprise. He could stand right behind them and they would never know he was there, just as he hadn't, years before. The tables had definitely turned, and Snape loved the feeling.
Pulling up the hood on the cloak he found a long stick, then prodded the knothole on the willow's trunk, just as Black had told him to all those years before. Though of course Black hadn't told him directly. He'd staged a conversation in one of the classrooms with one of his accomplices, probably Potter, though no one else had spoken in the little Snape had heard. Black had said that Lupin had gone through the willow. "He didn't waste any time after prodding the knot, though. Seemed to be in a big hurry." After hearing that, Snape had run down to the willow, prodded the knot and went in. Even all these years later, as he waited for the willow to open, he had to mentally kick himself for not suspecting that it was all a setup from Black's tone of voice, the way he'd said it, purposely telling Snape how to get in.
The flailing branches shuddered to a halt as the roots parted, opening to form an arch over a dark hole. The sight felt so familiar, though he had seen it only once before, and that had been two decades before.
Something in him urged him to stay back, to not go, something that remembered all too well what had happened the last time he was in that tunnel. But he would not listen, propelling himself forward toward whatever dangers lay ahead. The roots shut behind him with an ominous rumble, leaving him with only his wand for a light, the darkness beyond it impenetrable.
Snape walked down the few steps to the bottom of the passage, the low ceiling forcing him to bend over so that he didn't hit his head. It hadn't seemed that low last time--but then the last time he was in the passage, he'd been sixteen, not yet fully grown though still tall for his age. He stopped for a moment as he reached the bottom of the stairs, listening. He thought he heard footsteps much further down the passage, but after a moment heard nothing. If there had been footsteps, they were heading away from him.
Moving as silently as possible he swiftly made his way down the passage, following its every dip and turn. His heart was pounding in his ears as he followed the meandering path, but not just because of what he expected to find at the end of it. Everything around him seemed so familiar; the stale, damp smell of the tunnel, the sound of his footsteps on the rough dirt floor. Though he had only been in it once before in his life, and that nearly twenty years before, the experience had burned itself on his brain, etching every detail of it into his memory. He wasn't sure what was testing his courage more, the thought of the werewolf and murderer at the end of the tunnel, or his own memories. But within fifteen minutes of following the tunnel he reached a spot where he wasn't sure of what lay beyond the next turn--this was a far as he'd got that last time.
He had never found out where the passage led. Groping along in the dark, moving along as fast as he could, not knowing what Lupin was, Snape had hurried on, not knowing that the werewolf could probably have heard him coming miles away--that Lupin had heard him coming. He hadn't been through his years of spying yet, didn't know how to move with a minimum of noise. Instead he had barrelled down the tunnel paying little heed to the racket he was making as his footsteps hit the hard earth and he stumbled over tree roots.
The werewolf had come in search of him, moving much more quietly than Snape was, and a lot faster. Snape hadn't known what was coming, only at the last minute had heard the faint snarling and the sound of soft footsteps approaching. He hadn't known what was heading in his direction until he'd walked around a corner and Lupin had wandered into the light of his wand.
As Snape saw what Lupin had become he'd frozen in his tracks, forgotten all those curses he'd learned. In that moment he had realized that Black had tricked him and that he would die because of it. Would die without being able to see Black punished, would likely have his death explained away as an accident, or have the entire incident blamed on himself. He hadn't doubted that Black would rewrite the tale to any listeners so that it was entirely Snape's own fault. In the moment when he'd come to the realization that he was going to die, he felt a hatred like no other he'd ever experienced, a complete and utter loathing of Black, Lupin, Potter and Pettigrew that he would never forget, or forgive.
All that had passed through his mind in a second, from the moment he saw the werewolf to the moment when Potter had yanked him backwards, pushed him toward the other end of the tunnel and yelled at him to run. The spell holding him had been broken, but his hatred hadn't. It had burned in him as he ran down the tunnel, not looking back. As he ran straight to Dumbledore's office hoping to find justice there, and finding none. Dumbledore had given lip service to punishing Black, had lauded Potter for being so bloody brave (though Snape was convinced that Potter was in on it) and had told Snape sternly that he wasn't to tell anyone about Lupin's condition. Snape was the one who had nearly been murdered by Potter's gang, and he was the one who had been admonished. His trust in Dumbledore had broken then, and would remain that way for five years, until he himself was in need of Dumbledore's trust.
But this time, as Snape made his way along the passage, there was no far-off sound of animal snarling or of soft footsteps hurrying toward him. Instead, he thought he heard the sound of voices.
Quickening his pace he soon felt the tunnel angling upwards and he crept forward, taking care that he didn't make any noise which would give him away. He exited the tunnel and found himself in a hallway, faint shafts of light falling from boarded-up windows. In the dust on the floor he could see recent footprints, as well as a wide swath where the floor was completely dust-free. Someone had dragged something along the hallway. He tiptoed over to one of the windows and peered between the boards, the lights of Hogsmeade visible a short distance away. With a jolt he realized where he was: the Shrieking Shack.
The voices were coming from upstairs, and he carefully moved toward them, dousing his wand and using what little light filtered through the windows as well as his hands to guide his movements. With a caution he'd learned as a spy, he placed his feet at the edges of the stairs where the wall and banister would offer more structural support and they would be less likely to creak and give him away. Even still, he carefully tested his weight on each stair, holding his breath each time.
Finally he reached the top of the staircase, and listened for a moment. The voices were coming from a room to his left, right at the top of the stairs. As he listened, he suddenly heard a voice that hit him like a stunning spell: Black's voice. Though it had been almost two decades since he had last that voice, he had no doubt about who it belonged to.
The door to the room was nearly closed, Snape had to find a way to see into the room before he could plan what to do next, but how could he see in without drawing attention to himself? Invisibility Cloak or not, certainly everyone in the room would notice if the door banged open, and it very well might spook Black and Lupin into doing something drastic.
From inside he heard Black tell Lupin, "If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus. I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer." The tone of rage was unmistakable--Snape knew he had to act quickly.
Lupin had started talking but Snape didn't hear what was said, the sound of the blood pounding in his ears drowning it out. Prodding the door gently with his finger, it swung open slowly with a loud creak, exactly the action he was hoping for. Immediately he flattened himself against the wall; and just in the nick of time too, as Lupin stepped into the doorway moments later. Had Snape not moved Lupin would have run right into him.
Lupin looked to either side and Snape stiffened as Lupin looked directly at him. Even though he knew Lupin couldn't see him, it was still unnerving to have someone look in his direction. But the Invisibility Cloak worked its magic, Lupin looking around warily before uttering a low, "No one's there..."
From inside he could hear a voice say, "This place is haunted!"--Weasley, he thought--and Snape saw Lupin give a small shudder before turning back into the room.
Snape was right on Lupin's heels, ducking into a shadowy corner beside the door as soon as he entered the room so that no one would see his footprints in the dust. He only half-listened as Lupin started telling the sob story about how he'd become a werewolf, too busy taking a good look around the room. Weasley was sitting at the head of a dusty four-poster bed, one leg sticking out at a slightly odd angle--broken, obviously. Potter and Granger flanked him, wands in their hands but certainly not at the ready. Lupin or Black must have bewitched them, even Granger isn't stupid enough to not have her wand pointing at either the murderer or the werewolf, Snape thought. At the other end of the bed was the one person he hadn't ever planned on seeing again: Sirius Black. Black's hair was long and ragged, his face gaunt and twisted with rage. Snape had to feel some small twinge of ironic pleasure at seeing him so altered; all those taunts Black had launched at him years ago now applied to Black himself, who had once been so proud of his appearance.
Finally, there was Lupin, who was pacing near Snape's hiding spot. Instinctively Snape trained his wand on Lupin. Lupin might have been wandless, but he was also a fully grown wizard and nearer to Snape than any of the others, therefore posing more of a threat.
Keeping his attention on Lupin, Snape listened to the werewolf's story, finding it rather hard to keep from revealing himself. He certainly didn't want to have to listen to the werewolf ramble on, but he needed to wait until Lupin or Black stated their intention of what they were going to do, or made a first move. He needed to apprehend them at an incriminating moment, so that he could have some proof against Lupin from the man's own lips. Only then would Dumbledore actually believe that he had been mistaken in trusting him.
Lupin was telling how Potter, Black and Pettigrew had become Animagi, something which Snape found both surprising and not surprising in the least. If he had to pick anyone to become illegal Animagi, those three would have been his first candidates. However, he still had to feel somewhat surprised that they had gone so far as to break Wizarding World laws, not just school ones. Then again, they had treated school rules so lightly that it probably shouldn't have been at all astonishing that they had broken government ones as well, or that they had actually had the audacity to walk around Hogsmeade at night, a werewolf in tow. Obviously whatever charm the two collaborators had used to put the children under their spell was not entirely effective on Granger, as she admonished them for doing something so dangerous, and for a moment Snape almost felt proud of her. Almost.
Lupin made some pathetic statement of regret of what he'd done, but Snape certainly didn't buy any of it. Lupin had not felt so awful as to tell Dumbledore about what his gang had done in their school days, and though Lupin said he'd been battling within himself about telling the headmaster, Snape doubted it had been anything so dramatic. Had he really felt guilty about it Lupin certainly would have told Dumbledore. It would have been the only right thing to do, particularly after Black had gained entrance to the castle. Keeping the secret was obviously putting all the students in danger, which was inexcusable.
"So in a way, Snape's been right about me all along," Lupin said, just as Snape was thinking the same thing.
Black's head popped up. "Snape? What's Snape got to do with it?"
Lupin informed Black that Snape was a teacher at the school, and Snape could instantly see Black's face change into a sneer.
"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. He had been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons...you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me--"
Black gave a snort and the smirk on his face made Snape want to throttle him.
"It served him right. Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to...hoping he could get us expelled..."
Lupin began explaining their prank to the children, but Snape paid little heed to what he was saying, too busy trying to keep himself in check. He could walk right across the room, wrap his hands around Black's scrawny neck and choke him to death, watch him gasp for breath and stare blindly at an attacker he couldn't see while the others gawped. The temptation to do so was great, none would blame him for killing Black then and there. He was wanted dead or alive, would be given the Dementors' Kiss as soon as he was captured. Why not save them the trouble? Why not kill him then and there?
But as the thought crept through his mind Snape discarded it. No, he wanted Black to see who his captor was, wanted Black to realize that Snape's "sneaking around" had finally ended the way it should: in Black being brought to justice. He just had to keep his wand on Lupin and wait for the right moment...
The moment came, surprisingly enough, through Harry Potter. "So that's why Snape doesn't like you, because he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right," Snape replied, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak with a flick of his wrist.
The effect was just what Snape had hoped. The others looked looked incredibly shocked as they turned to see him appear out of thin air. Granger yelped in surprise and Potter gave a small jump, while Black was immediately on his feet.
Snape tossed the Invisibility Cloak to one side, allowing himself a quick glance at Potter and Black before fixing his eyes on Lupin once more. Despite his usual self control, he couldn't help but smile triumphantly at the thought that he finally had caught Black red handed, that he would finally gain justice.
"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow. Very useful, Potter, I thank you. You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here? I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your Potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did...lucky for me, I mean," Snape said, his smile growing a little wider at that, "Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."
Lupin tried to interject but Snape wasn't about to let him. He wasn't going to run the risk of being Confunded himself; or that Lupin would spoil his moment.
"I've told the Headmaster again and again that you've been helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed that you'd use this old place as your hideout--"
"Severus, you're making a mistake, Sirius is not here to kill Harry--"
But Snape wasn't about to listen to any more explanations, had been hearing them far too long. His heart was pounding wildly with the adrenaline coursing through him, his mind entirely focussed on a single idea, the thought that Black would finally get what was coming to him, and that he, Severus Snape, would be the one to make it happen. Even the thought of how Dumbledore would take this news was not enough to dull his feeling of triumph. "Two more for Azkaban tonight. I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this...he was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin...a tame werewolf," he continued, unable to resist letting a sneer cross his lips.
Lupin looked at him suddenly with that flat stare Snape had seen earlier that year, and when he spoke it was with the calm tone that had always gotten under Snape's skin. "You fool... Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"
Snape's temper flared and ropes spouted from the end of his wand without him even having to speak the spell; the thought was strong enough. The ropes wound around Lupin like an attacking boa constrictor and he toppled to the floor, immobilized and silenced by his bonds.
Out of the corner of his eye Snape saw movement, just at the same Black gave a yell of rage. Instinctively, Snape turned, his wand pointing directly between Black's hatred-filled eyes before Black could get within three feet of him.
For a moment Snape simply glared at Black with all the loathing that had built within him, before issuing one threat unlike those he usually gave; one that he was more than willing and able to follow up on.
"Give me a reason... Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will," he said in a forceful whisper.
There was a dead silence, then a voice spoke up: Granger's, which came as no surprise.
"Professor Snape, it--it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, would it?"
Snape was in no mood to bear with her butting in where she wasn't needed. To be lectured by a student at a time like this!
"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape said in a voice that would have any student quaking in their shoes, "You, Potter and Weasley are out of bounds in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in you life, hold your tongue."
"But if--if there was a mistake--"
Snape's temper snapped. "Keep quiet you stupid girl! Don't talk about what you don't understand!" A few sparks popped from his wand tip and Snape saw Black go cross-eyed to watch them fall just short of his face. Black raised his eyes once more until they were staring directly at one another.
"Vengeance is very sweet... How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..." Snape said, the triumphant smile creeping back onto his face.
"The joke's on you again, Severus. As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle, I'll come quietly," Black growled, tilting his head in Weasley's direction.
"Up to the castle? I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black...want to give you a little kiss I daresay..."
It was worth any risk Snape had taken that night to see the colour leave Black's face. "You--you've got to hear me out... The rat--look at the rat--"
But there was no way Snape was about to do anything Black suggested, no way he would let Black trick him again, or spoil his moment.
With a click of his fingers, the ropes that bound Lupin were in Snape's hands. It was time to end this little drama once and for all.
"Come on, all of you. I'll drag the werewolf, perhaps the Dementors will have a little kiss for him too..."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Potter stand up, but instead of leaving the room, the little brat stood at the door, blocking it.
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already. If I hadn't been here to save your skin--"
"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year, I've been alone with him loads of times, having defence lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black why didn't he just finish me off then?"
Once a Potter, always a Potter, too ungrateful to see a helping hand when it's staring him in the face... Snape thought. Aloud, all he said was, "Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works. Get out of the way, Potter!"
Potter was now looking back at Snape with the same sort of hatred Black was showing, and the sight made Snape's blood boil.
"You're pathetic! Just because they made a fool of you at school, you won't even listen--" Potter shouted.
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape yelled, risking a single venomous glance at Potter. He looked so like his father, Snape could almost hear Potter senior asking Dumbledore how he could trust Snape's word that the Secret-Keeper had turned, that Voldemort knew where James and Lily were hiding...
"Like father like son, Potter," Snape spat, "I have just saved your neck, you should be thanking me on bended knee! You'd have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died just like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black! Now get out of the way or I will make you--GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"
Snape turned, perfectly ready and willing to hex Potter out of his way, but he wasn't quite fast enough. Suddenly there was a unified shout of "Expelliarmus!" and he felt the spell hitting him in the chest with enough force to blast him off his feet. Slamming into something hard, a burst of light exploded in front of his eyes as an intense pain pierced his skull and the world winked out to blackness.