Chapter 26
The Requisite Detention with Snape
The headmaster wasn't in the office when they entered and they stood looking around a little as they waited. Cassie wasn't sure if he had a way of knowing they were there or if they should ring a bell or something. No one else seemed to concerned. She glanced at her watch. It was almost six which meant they had less than an hour to do whatever it was they were going to do. Strangely, she wasn't feeling particularly nervous about this detention. After all, she had scrubbed pots many times and doing it without magic didn't sound as bad to her as it obviously did to everyone else. She was only nervous about the mind-reading thing as she didn't want Snape to find about her if it was going to be dangerous for her or anyone else.
A few moments later, Professor Dumbledore entered the office, smiling at all of them. "I see that all five of you are here. You must obviously be here on some important business. What can I do for you?"
"It's about Pia, Professor."
"Of course. How are you doing, Miss Spencer? Are you enjoying school so far?" Cassie nodded, thinking that this was a rather strange question. She was hiding, after all, not here on an exchange program. "I have heard you discussed almost any time there are two students or teachers together. I am very impressed at how well you are doing pretending to be a witch. Not only is everyone convinced you are magical but they all seem to feel you are extremely powerful."
"It's all thanks to Hermione. She's brilliant." The Headmaster's eyes twinkled at that.
"Yes. That's true. And she seems to be enjoying this foray into the world of tricking the Professors."
"It's actually one professor in particular, sir, that we have come to talk to you about." Harry apparently felt that this conversation was not moving fast enough, because he interrupted the casual conversation with his comment.
"That would be, I must assume, Professor Snape."
"Yes. He gave Pia detention and she thinks it is so he can do Legilemency on her."
"That's true. I'm quite sure you're right." He didn't say anything else and Cassie could feel the frustration coming off Harry in waves.
"Well? What are we going to do?"
"I don't think there is anything I can do. I do not interfere in detentions. If I were to do so in this case, it would be extremely strange."
"But -"
"Harry. I know how you feel about Professor Snape, but you always seem to forget that he is, after all, on our side. He is in the Order and I can assure you that if he were to discover Miss Spencer's secret, he would guard it with his life. As would any professor here at the school."
"But-"
"He is working very hard with the rest of us trying to discover all we can about this meeting. The only thing he does not know is how we found about the gathering in the first place. He is completely trustworthy-"
"But if that's true, why didn't you tell the professors about Pia to begin with? It would be a lot easier if they knew, especially Snape and McGonagall." Ron interrupted, obviously very frustrated at Dumbledore's statements, and Harry looked no happier. In fact, his face was setting into a definite scowl.
"Ron's right, Professor. It would have made our life a lot easier."
"Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall are completely trustworthy, but it is certainly easier to treat Miss Spencer the same as they do any other student if they are convinced that she is a witch."
"So this whole thing is just so they don't have to pretend?" Hermione seemed incredulous. "I thought you said that no one could know besides the seven or eight of us who had to help her. Now you say that it's all right if every one of the professors is in on the secret, too?" Everyone was nodding, now, not understanding what Professor Dumbledore was talking about.
"Obviously, I would rather he not find out. Despite his best efforts, he just would not treat her the same and the same would be true for Professor McGonagall. So, of course, Miss Spencer, if you can avoid the-"
"Professor! That doesn't even make sense! She can't avoid it. I can't avoid it and he's supposedly been teaching me how!"
"Harry. Please. I think you underestimate Miss Spencer's abilities. Trust her. She will do her best to avoid his using Legilemency on her. She has managed so far."
"But that was in a class of several students, not when it was just the two of them!"
"If I just don't look in his eyes, though, it should be all right, shouldn't it?" Harry made an exasperated noise and everyone else was looking quite panicked.
"That would certainly help."
"It never helps me, Professor!"
"Harry. I think you underestimate how well you actually do keeping Professor Snape out of your mind and you are letting all your frustration over it taint your opinion of Miss Spencer's chances tonight. Severus was telling me just last week that he is extremely impressed with how well you can repel him."
"What?!"
"He has to work harder and harder to pull things out of your mind, Harry. He told me that he has even had to practice some new techniques to break through the barriers you erect. I think you have just assumed that he is doing the same thing now as he did three years ago." Harry looked flabbergasted.
"Well, uh, yeah. I guess I did. He always does exactly the same thing."
"Hmm. Well, I think he doesn't want to give you the satisfaction of knowing how hard he is working. Truthfully, the two of you are -"
"Professor. Please. Can we get back to Pia, now?" Hermione was looking at the clock on the wall, which now said 6:15.
"Yes, of course. She'll be fine. Try to keep him out of your mind, Miss Spencer. But know that if he should find out about you, he'll talk to me and I will fill him in on the entire charade. Don't worry." He smiled at her again. "Would you like to hear what progress is being made about the meeting?"
"Yes, of course." Cassie felt a lot better now. She wondered vaguely about the animosity between Harry and the Potions Master. If he was actually on Harry's side, why did they all hate him so much? And why did he seem to like the Slytherins so much when everyone knew they were all on the bad side? That didn't make sense. But then she lost interest as Professor Dumbledore launched into a recitation of the most recent findings about the wizards who had been at the meeting.
"We've got our insider in the office of the Prime Minister as we had hoped. She is posing as the secretary and will for as long as necessary. So, your father now has someone to help him if he needs it and there is someone there to keep an eye on the Prime Minister."
"But what happened to the actual secretary? You didn't, um, kill her or anything did you?"
Professor Dumbledore looked slightly shocked. "Of course we didn't kill her! What makes you think we would have done that?"
"I just wondered how you are keeping her from coming to work every morning . . . I mean, I couldn't think of what . . . . Sorry."
"We simply told her she had won an all-expense paid vacation and then set up a temporary employee to fill in for her. She just does not know that the temporary employee will look and act exactly like her."
Cassie was extremely embarrassed although she was grateful that the new secretary was in place. Dumbledore spoke for quite a few minutes about what progress they had made, which did not seem to be very much. They had eliminated a few more people from the list of possible attendees and were busy tracking down a few others who they suspected might be involved. "But basically, Miss Spencer, if you remember anything or have any thoughts, please come to me immediately. Even the smallest clue that to you would mean nothing might mean a great deal to us."
"I will, sir. I promise."
"I appreciate that. You probably should get going. You don't want to be late for a detention. It would only get you into more trouble." Cassie glanced up at the clock. He was right. She only had 20 minutes now before she was supposed to be down in the dungeons. Ginny walked down with her but as they descended further and further toward the dungeons, the more and more nervous Cassie got.
"Does it . . . hurt?"
"What? Detention with Snape?" Ginny laughed although Cassie suspected that she actually knew what she was asking. "No. Seriously. I don't think it does. It bothers Harry but that's because he has to fight it. I think you wouldn't really notice if he was able to do it."
"Oh." Somehow, though, that didn't make her feel any better. "Does he see everything at once? I mean, would he know everything I've ever thought about?"
"You should have asked Harry this. I don't know, Pia. I really don't. I'm sorry. But, I know Harry has said a couple of times that Snape still doesn't know about some things, so I don't think that's how it works, really."
"All right. If I survive, I'll tell you what it's like, okay? Maybe then you can understand Harry a little better."
"It's a deal, then. Good luck." They had reached the bottom of the stairs and Cassie left Ginny standing there as she approached the classroom door. She knocked softly on the door, cringing as she realized how weak in sounded. She knocked again, more firmly this time. The door opened and she stepped across the threshold. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk, looking at her. Cassie gulped, and remembered what Dumbledore had said. Professor Snape might be mean and grouchy, but in general he was a good person on the right side of this battle. Rightly, she should feel more nervous with Niles Caden, who hated all things Muggle and who was still undecided on the issue of Voldemort, than she should with Professor Snape. But that was hard to remember right now. And it wasn't helped by the fact that Niles could not read her mind.
"Miss Spencer, come in, please." He sounded almost gleeful and Cassie forced herself to look down at his desk as she walked toward him.
"Good evening, Professor Snape."
"Dumbledore wouldn't let you out of detention, I gather."
"What?" Cassie plastered her innocent and surprised look on her face. It had worked with Professor McGonagall, after all. "I don't know -"
"Please, Miss Spencer. Do you think I am a fool? Your little group of lackeys was practically bristling with indignation that I would dare assign you detention. And I know that is what Potter wanted to speak to the Headmaster about."
"No. I-"
"Don't lie to me!!!"
Cassie gulped. "Well, they were a little nervous about my being here alone tonight. They were afraid I might . . . get into more trouble."
Snape didn't say anything after that and after a second or two Cassie couldn't help herself. She had to know what he was doing. She glanced up quickly to find his eyes practically drilling holes in the top of her head and they snapped to hers immediately. She quickly glanced back down. Maybe he was doing it already. "Get into more trouble? Why would they think that might happen?" His voice was low and smooth, like dark silk over her skin. But she wasn't fooled by it. That was his most dangerous tone because it showed he was totally in control of himself and that he knew exactly what he was doing.
"I . . . I think they think you hate me and would try to trick me into messing something up."
"I see." Cassie noticed with part of her brain that he did not disagree with the statement that he hated her. This was not a surprise. The hate practically radiated off him. He did not take his eyes off her. "Your wand, please, Miss Spencer." She reached into the arm of her robe and pulled out the delicate strip of wood, handing it to him with a grimace. For some reason, which she did not understand, she felt extremely exposed without it. He took the wand out of her hand and looked it over carefully. "Nice. It doesn't look like you have used it very much." Cassie had a sudden spurt of fear. Could you tell if a wand had never been used? Could you somehow see what spells it had actually done? "You must take good care of it, unlike most of your cronies. Their wands are usually a disgrace."
"Um, well, I like it to look nice."
"I always appreciate someone who takes care of their possessions."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
He laid her wand carefully on his desk. "I'm sure the fabulous four told you that students are never able to use magic in detention with me."
"Yes, sir. They also told me that I should expect to be scrubbing the floor, cauldrons, tables, or something like that."
"I think . . . not tonight. I have another task for you. More suited, perhaps, to your certain talents. There is a vat of pickled salamanders in the back. I need their tails removed and diced, their hearts removed intact and their claws cut off. That should keep you busy for the evening."
Cassie gulped. This was a lot worse than anything she could have possibly imagined. She would much rather scrub the floor, the tables, and the cauldrons altogether than cut up salamanders but she really couldn't back out now. Here she was and she was going to have to suffer with whatever he asked. She walked with some trepidation into the back room where he kept all his ingredients. The vat, fortunately, was not huge, holding probably 100 or so of the ugly dead amphibians. That was enough though. Her stomach turned over at the thought of what she was going to have to do. Maybe it would be better to just march out there and tell him to do his worst. But, taking a deep calming breath, she pulled the heavy container off its shelf and lugged it into the main room. By then, Professor Snape had placed three other containers and a knife on the table right in front of his desk.
"Hearts, tails, claws," he said, pointing at each of the containers in turn. "Make sure the hearts are intact. They are completely worthless if they are cut."
"Yes, sir." She sat down and pulled the first lizard out of the liquid and placed it on the cutting board. She looked at it, said a small curse under her breath, and chopped off its tail. She threw it into the correct container and then cut off the claws. Then, she carefully, slit it open and found the heart easily enough and removed it without difficulty. That wasn't so terrible. Her biology teacher would have been impressed, amazed, but impressed.
She had done the same to five more of the foot-long creatures when Professor Snape finally said something else. "I am curious about you, Miss Spencer. I will admit that." Cassie didn't say anything in response. She tried hard to concentrate on what she was doing, keeping her mind clear of anything other than the lizards.
She smiled a moment later as a memory floated to the surface of her mind, a very happy memory although it was tinged with pain as well. Harry was holding her that strange day in his hidden house, when Hermione and Ron had been there and she had been crying because she had felt so left out of their conversation. She could see Hermione coming into the kitchen to check on the two of them and feel Harry's arms around her. She paused for a moment in her chopping, remembering that day, wanting to follow the memory until he told her he was a wizard. That would be amusing, knowing all she did now. Then she suddenly stopped. Could this be . . .? She purposely shoved the memory aside, blanking her mind out again, concentrating on the slimy job in front of her. After a moment, she glanced up at Professor Snape again. He didn't say anything, but he was still looking at her with an intense stare.
A few more tails and claws later, another memory rose to the surface of her mind. This time, she was removing a rolled up piece of parchment from Icharus' leg with her mother looking on. Why was she remembering that? In her mind, she opened the piece of parchment and skimmed it quickly as her mother . . . Again, she shoved the memory aside. This time, she knew it was him doing it. She didn't know how because she hadn't met his eyes once and neither he nor his wand had moved. But she was sure that it was not a coincidence that she was remembering these things that she hadn't thought about for months now. She concentrated hard on her job, trying to keep her mind blank.
Tail, claws, heart . . . tail, claws, heart. The piles slowly grew and she relaxed under the rhythm of the knife. Suddenly, another memory surfaced. She and George were laughing over his drink, the Terrible Twins' Tonic, and one of the bubbles exploded, splashing the blue liquid onto her chin. She pushed that aside, only to instantly have it replaced with a memory of standing in the ice cream shop, looking at George as he grabbed her shoulders and bent toward her. She pushed back from the table, standing up and shaking her head, desperate to remove the memory of the kiss before he saw it. For now she had no doubt that it was he causing these memories to suddenly come into focus. She raised her head and for the first time met his gaze fully, his black eyes meeting hers in a sudden gasp of realization. Then, she was standing in her living room, Arthur and Remus next to her as she modeled her new uniform, wand clutched tightly in her hand. Then she was in Dumbledore's office . . .the memories were coming faster now and even though she tried as hard as she could to stop them, it was like trying to dam a river with her hands. It was June and she was watching Harry, Ron, and Ginny waiting on their brooms before they flew out the window into battle, . . .she was running over the front lawn of the school, desperate to find Harry, hearing the screaming of the people under Cruciatus . . . she was running down the alley only a week ago, as the curses flew above her head. . . she was hiding in the back of George's shop as the yelling . . .
"Stop it!" She yelled, pulling her eyes away from Professor Snape's. "Stop messing around in my mind!"
"Messing around? What do you mean, Miss Spencer?" But she knew from the half smile on his face that he had seen what she had seen and had been amused. Somehow that angered her more than anything.
"Do you think I'm a fool?" She parroted back to him what he had asked her earlier. "I know what you're doing! Stop it! You have no right to . . ."
"To what, Miss Spencer? What have I done?"
"You're trying to read my mind, to do that legitimacy stuff on me!"
"You mean Legilemency. And if I were, I would not apologize for it."
"Well, you should! You're invading my privacy."
"You don't want me to know about you and Potter? I think we all assumed you met him only a few days ago, but that's not true, is it? And somehow, I think that . . . "
"Stop it! Stop it!" She stared around the room, anxious to find somewhere to fix her eyes before he called up more memories, those that were a lot more dangerous than those he had already seen. But suddenly, their gazes clashed again and she felt as though it were a physical touch, the invasion into her brain. She concentrated hard on pushing him out of it. If he wanted to mess around in her memories, he was going to have to fight her for the privilege. Now she was watching the Quidditch game from Saturday, her heart racing as she watched Harry race toward the ground, then suddenly she knew it was another Quidditch game, one she had never witnessed. There was another dark-haired boy on a broom, flying fast, but this time he had a Quaffle in his hand, flying toward the Slytherin? goal . . . Cassie stared. This wasn't her . . . and then she saw Ginny, no, it couldn't be Ginny, she was older than . . . her red hair flashed in the bright sunlight as she watched the boy from the stands and a feeling of such longing flooded through Cassie that she almost gasped at the pain of it. The girl turned and met her (his?)eyes, a smile on her mouth. Her eyes were the most brilliant shade of green . . . they were Harry's eyes! With a start, as though she had been dropped from a great height and had landed flat on the ground, she realized that she was back in the Potions classroom, staring at Professor Snape and she realized with a horrifying insight that she had actually seen his memories rather than allowing him to see hers. "That was . . . Harry's mother! You knew her . . . you loved . . ."
This time, it was him yelling. "Get out! Get out! Now! Leave this classroom at once!" He was so angry that Cassie was honestly afraid he was going to curse her. All the cool control was gone and he was absolutely livid. She looked quickly at the desk where her wand was sitting. She took a deep breath and approached him to get it and he actually backed up, grabbing her wand and thrusting it at her. "Get out!" She grabbed the wand and turned, running to the door, throwing it open, and stepping out into the hall only a second before the door slammed shut behind her. She leaned against the wall, panting, a headache making itself known in the back of her skull. She didn't even want to try to analyze what had just happened. It was strange. She felt . . . well, she didn't know what she felt. She hadn't meant to pry into his memories. She didn't even know it was possible to do that. But that was certainly what had happened. She stood up, taking a fortifying breath. It was his fault. He was the one who had started it. If he hadn't been poking around in her brain, it never would have happened. She walked through the dark quiet corridors, thinking hard about what Professor Snape had seen, what memories he had been looking at. She also thought for a few minutes about the memory of his that she had seen. Harry's father and mother, obviously. Those eyes were so incredibly green. She went to turn the corner to start back toward the common room when she actually looked around her. Where was she?
She stared around. She was seeing things that she knew she had never seen before. None of the paintings looked familiar and the statue of the troll that she was standing by was something she knew she would have remembered. What had she done wrong? She tried to remember how she had come up from the dungeons, trying to reconstruct where she had made her wrong turn. She even turned around, thinking that she could walk back down to the Potions classroom and start over. But after a few minutes, she realized that she was hopelessly lost. She had no idea how she had come to this location and even less idea how to get back to familiar territory. She walked down one dark corridor after another, fright rising in her throat as she walked and walked, never seeing another soul. Certainly there should be students around. It wasn't that late. Her watch said that it was barely 8 and she knew that curfew wasn't until 9. But the place was deadly still and she couldn't help the bubble of fear that rose in her throat. The cold air in the unfamiliar halls was making her break out in goose bumps. She came to a dead end in one of the corridors before she leaned against the wall and started crying, trying to wipe them away on the sleeve of her robes. Despite herself, it reminded her of that evening when she had gotten lost down Knockturn Alley. She remembered how she had seen the wizards walking down the street . . . .
As though a light had suddenly gone on her mind, she remembered something. She had seen them walking. There was a group of them, four or maybe five of the wizards. They were walking down the street. And one of them was limping. Lucius Malfoy was carrying his cane as usual, but one of the other wizards was actually limping, making a very distinct gait pattern. She had completely forgotten that she had seen them walking. She had seen how tall they were and seen them walk. She focused hard for a long time on the scene in her mind, replaying over and over again the few moments when she had tried to catch up with them. Yes. This might actually help. Okay. Now she had something that might help Professor Dumbledore identify who was walking down the street. If she could ever find his office again. She heard one of the ugly characters in a painting laughing at her predicament and she realized that it was time to test Hermione's theory that it was impossible to get lost in Hogwarts.
"Excuse me." The man was nasty looking, covered with boils, and wearing some type of dirty-looking rags.
"Yes, dearie?" He fixed an eye on her with what was unmistakably a leer, and Cassie shuddered.
"I'm lost. Could you tell me, please, how to get to the Headmaster's office?"
"Is that where you were trying to go? You're ever so far away."
"Yes. I know. Please, just tell me how to get there."
"Maybe I will and maybe I won't. What will you give me in return, pretty? A kiss perhaps?"
"What will I . . . just tell me how to get to the Headmaster's office. Now." She tried to sound firm and it must have worked for the man looked disappointed, but rattled off a rather lengthy set of instructions that Cassie tried to absorb. She started off a few moments later, at least knowing now that she was headed in the right direction, thinking that if necessary she could always ask another painting. One who wasn't quite so gruesome.
It took about 20 minutes but she finally stood in front of the familiar gargoyle. "Mars Bars." The gargoyle jumped aside and Cassie stepped onto the moving stairs.
The Headmaster was sitting at his desk as she entered a few moments later and she entered hesitantly, unsure of what protocol was. Should she knock or just walk in? Harry seemed comfortable here and she had never seen him knock, but she knew that she and the Headmaster were not on nearly as intimate of terms. "Professor?"
"Ah, Miss Spencer. You survived detention, I see."
"Yes. Although I'm afraid Professor Snape is rather angry with me. Well, very angry actually. He . . . I . . .He . . . I think he might try to kill me if he sees me again." Professor Dumbledore chuckled.
"If you should turn up dead, then, I will question him first. What can I do for you?" Cassie told about her memory of seeing the wizards walking down the street.
"I can't believe I didn't think of it before. I . . .was just remembering the meeting, but not that I had actually seen them enter the store."
"Of course, of course. You mentioned several times that it was because you were following them that you even went into the store but I had also not thought about you seeing how they walked. Foolish on my part. Please, Miss Spencer, tell me everything you recall." Cassie described as thoroughly as she could the way each of the wizards had walked, their heights, and their positions in the group. Professor Dumbledore nodded, making some notes on a piece of parchment. When she got to the part about the man who limped, he looked up sharply at her. "Tell me that again, please."
"He walked putting all his weight on his right leg, dragging the left leg up behind him, then quickly shifting the weight onto the left as he swung the right leg forward again. It was a short step, almost a hop, obviously very painful. He was hunched over, leaning to the right, counterbalancing the left leg's inability to hold weight."
"Yes. Yes. I know the walk. I know the wizard. Thank you, Miss Spencer, thank you! If he was there . . . well. Let me just say that it could take our inquiries in a completely different direction." He looked excited, the blue eyes twinkling. "Amazing. That would be very unexpected. And yet to be honest, I would not be overly surprised. Perhaps I should have seen it myself."
A few minutes later, after declining a sherbet lemon, Cassie was walking confidently down the hall toward the Gryffindor common room. For the first time in a long time she felt that she had done something useful and that her being here was actually serving some purpose. "Jingle Bells." And the portrait hole opened, allowing her to slide through into the warmth and noise of a place she was quickly starting to think of as home.
