Kingsley Shacklebolt gazed out of his office window with a frown, idly drumming his fingers on the desk top. Minerva McGonagall had given him the answers to every question he had asked, and it was a lot to take in. He was grateful that it was the weekend, for the place was comparatively deserted. The empty quiet gave him a chance to think and review the information.
He did not know what to make of the story he had just heard. It sounded too fantastic to be true, and if it had come from anyone else he would not have believed a word of it. But even if he did not know Professor McGonagall for the down to earth, logical witch that she was, the gravity of Dumbledore's attitude to the whole issue was the seal of veracity.
'And Dumbledore swore you all to secrecy,' he mused. 'Why, exactly? I mean, I can see why it was probably more convenient all round for it to be kept quiet; but why so secret?'
McGonagall raised an ironic eyebrow. 'Convenient would be an understatement,' she said. 'Several teachers were horrified that Dumbledore could even consider letting Severus remain at the school. I could understand their point of view, but to let that kind of power walk out of the school to be corrupted by someone else was inconceivable.'
It was Shacklebolt's turn to look ironic. 'So he stayed and got corrupted by Malfoy instead?'
McGonagall's lips tightened into a thin line for a moment. 'Hardly, since he very quickly saw the error of his ways and came back.'
'And you're absolutely sure he did come back? That he isn't a double-agent for You Know Who?'
McGonagall nodded, a slight glint in her eyes. 'Knowing dark magic and having a lot of power doesn't make someone a dark wizard. Severus could have used his spell to kill everyone in that classroom that day. But he did not. He was an angry little boy trying to prove himself, and the thought of hurting anyone never crossed his mind. And that was the argument I put to Albus when we discussed the issue of his expulsion. Talent of all levels requires nurturing. In many cases, it isn't an individual's power which confers greatness, but the manner in which they choose to use it. Severus proved himself to me that day when he had the chance to kill and passed it up, at an age when moral choices are rarely considered. And years later, when he could have easily become far worse than You Know Who, he chose instead to risk his life to fight him.'
Shacklebolt pondered this for a moment. 'How come you, James and Remus weren't affected?'
McGonagall considered the question. 'I am not sure,' she said, 'but think it may have been because James and I are animagi and Remus is a werewolf. In order to change the outward appearance of anything – or to cast it into shadow, as Severus did – you do need to understand its true nature. Severus did not know about the three of us, so his spell couldn't touch us.'
Shacklebolt frowned. 'Surely James wasn't an animagus at the age of eleven? It takes years of study to pull that one off-'
McGonagall gave a thin smile. 'Indeed it does. And I would find it highly unlikely that a sixteen year old would manage it either; yet he, Sirius and Peter Pettigrew all succeeded in their fifth year. I would strongly imagine that James was already dabbling in such magic then, and thus he was able to teach his friends later on. James was another young man who came to Hogwarts knowing rather more than he should. His father used to write books on the history of magic, so he knew rather a lot about some things. He was certainly very frightened by what happened; he wanted to leave. It took me quite some time to convince him that he was perfectly safe.'
Shacklebolt gave a cynical sniff. 'Didn't stop him bullying Severus though, did it?'
McGonagall sighed. 'Well it did for the rest of that year. And poor Severus was a much quieter person afterwards, practically invisible. By the end of their first year, James had realised that Severus really wasn't going to do any more dangerous magic, and Sirius and the rest of the class had no memory of the whole thing. So by the time they all got into the second year, James felt much safer.'
'And meanwhile, Severus became involved with Lucius Malfoy and the Slytherins,' Shacklebolt murmured thoughtfully. 'I wonder how much Malfoy knew about what happened?'
McGonagall raised an eyebrow. 'As much as you did, if your sources were the same. How much did you already know, and from whom did you learn it?'
Shacklebolt looked sheepish. 'Not much more than I told you earlier, to be honest. Peeves liked to drop hints but never said much worth hearing, and there aren't any portraits in the classrooms. The substance of the rumour was that Professor Snape knew some serious dark magic and that we should be careful of him.'
The corner of Professor McGonagall's mouth twitched. 'Did it never occur to you that Professor Snape himself may have been responsible for putting that one about?'
Shacklebolt chuckled. 'It crossed my mind, but not until I'd left. He always seemed alright to me: bit distant, rather strict, and not very fond of Gryffindors. That didn't bother us in Ravenclaw, of course.'
He noted a momentary flicker of sadness in McGonagall's eye. 'No,' she said quietly. 'I don't think he's ever really forgiven Gryffindor House. Anyway,' she said, 'now you finally know, what are you going to do?'
Shacklebolt leaned his chin in his hands, and gazed sideways out of the window. 'I'm going to review Moody's files on the Malfoys and see if it mentions him at all. There will be something; Moody was nothing if not thorough. It's not just a matter of Severus' power: where did he learn a spell like that? If James Potter knew enough about it to be scared, then there must be something documented somewhere. I'll see if Flourish and Blotts have any of Potter Senior's books. And I'm going to see if the Department of Mysteries have anything. Have to think of a good excuse though, they don't like letting even us in without a very good reason.'
McGonagall gave him a quizzical look. 'Potter and his friends managed it. And so did several Death Eaters. Why on earth should you have problems?'
Shacklebolt grinned. 'You clearly think our security is a mess.' McGonagall's eyes twinkled. 'You are wrong. Yes, it is possible for anybody to just walk into some areas. But only those areas of minimal importance. Areas like the one I want to get into are very closely guarded.'
'You'll need some high level authorisation then,' McGonagall said lightly. Shacklebolt gave her a sly look. 'A certain junior undersecretary is taking a personal interest in this case; he interviewed me himself a few days after Severus disappeared. You could probably persuade him to give you the permission you need, if you were to suggest that you would report your findings to him.'
'Ah yes, Mr Percy Weasley,' said Shacklebolt dreamily. 'Now there's a man whose ambition seriously outweighs his ability. He must have been a real credit to Slytherin; you'd think he would show his old Head a bit more sympathy.'
'Percy was actually in Gryffindor, hard though that may be to believe. And while he is ambitious and rather naive, he is also extremely clever. So bear that in mind when you go to see him.'
Shacklebolt nodded thoughtfully and stood up. 'Think I'll go and see him now. What about you, what do you need?'
'Just let me review the files you have on the Longbottoms. After Severus disappeared a fortnight ago, a few possibilities occurred to me. There are some things I would like to check-'
A flurry of wings interrupted them, and a tawny owl settled on the cubicle wall. Shacklebolt made to take the scroll held in its talon, but the bird hopped towards McGonagall, stretching out its leg. McGonagall opened the letter with a slight frown; Shacklebolt watched her face as she read it and saw her expression go blank. She swallowed.
'I have to go to Hogwarts; something important has come up,' she said faintly. She gazed into space for a moment, then focused. 'Let me know what you find out.'
The fire in Lupin's eyes seemed to fade suddenly, and he turned away to fix Snape's unconscious form with a slightly confused look. Moody had the impression that he had said more than he had intended and was now looking for a way back. No chance.
'Go on then,' he growled softly. 'You've told me too much to stop there. Are you suggesting Snape isn't human?'
'Not exactly,' Lupin muttered after a pause, frowning down into space. 'I don't have any proof; this is just what I've pieced together from my own research. The burning blood was always the clue I had that no one else did; no one else could have possibly found that out.'
'Go on then,' said Moody. 'I've got all the time in the world; and believe me, most of my life's work was about forming theories from odd little clues. Let's hear it.'
Lupin sat down on the end of Snape's bed, collecting his thoughts. He had been developing this particular theory for years, but never shared it with anyone until now. And now, he reflected, it suddenly seemed a bit thin, now he was going to open it up to the possibility of someone's ridicule. Too late to go back now
'The book I found contained a legend about how vampires were created. As you probably know, there are many; but this one actually claimed that vampires and Dementors, among other things, all came as a result of the same failed spell. An attempt to bring someone back from the dead which only succeeded in releasing a terrible demon.'
Moody grunted. 'I've heard stories like that, they're usually warnings against necromancy and similar dark arts.'
Lupin nodded. 'In this case, the wizard who tried it was consumed by the demon, which then went on a devastating rampage, sucking life and soul out of every living thing. Not just people and animals, but crop failures too-'
There was a sudden hammering on the door; then it burst open and Tonks fell into the room. Moody glowered.
'I'm sorry,' Tonks gasped, 'but it's urgent. Harry's ill, Professor Snape cast a spell that's going wrong and killing them both, Dumbledore says there's a Pensieve somewhere with his bad memories in it and we need to find it if we're going to save their lives-'
Moody held up his hand to stem the incoherent stream, his gaze becoming angry and intense as Tonks' words sank in.
Moody and Dumbledore sat alone in the kitchen, opposite each other at the table.
Moody had given Harry a potion to keep him in from sleeping so deeply that he would enter Snape's coma dream; now the boy dozed in a state of semi-consciousness with Tonks watching over him. Lupin stayed with Snape, alone with his memories and his worries, the rest of his intriguing tale untold. But Moody had realised, even as he listened, that Albus Dumbledore was in a far better position to know the truth of Snape's peculiar talents than Lupin. Dumbledore had accepted a werewolf into his school. How could he have admitted someone like Snape without knowing what the boy was capable of?
Now, decided Moody, now he would finally have some real answers.
Yay beautiful people! Thank you, as ever, for the wonderful reviews and feedback! And sorry I've been so lax in updating. May was unbelievable! And now, annoyingly, I've lost the thread of my story somewhat... so sorry if this chapter seems like I'm spinning it all out a bit. There are important clues in it, even though I really haven't got to the main bones yet. But... serious revelations are coming up in the next chapter!
Sev as a Gryffindor - a theory I've had for a while, since reading PoA the second time. The defining characteristic of a Gryffindor is courage - almost the heroic kind of courage that gets a person killed. While according to Phineas, in OotP, Slytherins are also brave, but not stupid (e.g. not heroic). Yet Sev is sticking his head in the lion's mouth every time he spys for Dumbledore. And in PoA, we see him rush to save the trio when he sees on the Marauders map that they are in the Shrieking Shack with Sirius Black, an escaped murderer, and Remus Lupin, a werewolf who hasn't taken his potion at the full moon (and who almost killed Sev once before). So what does Sev do? If he was an ambitious, careful Slyth, then he would surely have raised the alarm and summoned a handy nearby Dementor before going anywhere near. He would still have had the glory of catching Sirius and saving the kids. But no... he rushes straight after them with nothing but his wand, without telling anyone where he's going. Very heroic - very Gryffindor. If you go through the books, there are other examples of Sev's rather single-minded courage; but that, for me, was the most striking.
And as for a Gryffindor being head of Slytherin - there's nothing to say that the head of a house has to have been a member of that house. And it would a clever move by Dumbledore, to have one of his own in there, checking out who was going towards Voldemort, listening to the kids of existing supporters, and keeping an eye out for those might not want to support Voldemort but find themselves compelled by people like Malfoy.
At the end of the day, it seems to me that there is equal evidence pointing to Sev being either a Slytherin or a Gryffindor, and I won't be surprised if he turns out to have been either. But at the moment... I think he is a Gryffindor ;D
Usually I like to say hi and thanks and respond to general comments to people by name, but I am so unbelievebly cut for time just now (haven't even seen the film yet!). So I'd just like to say, very best wishes to everyone who read my story, and blessings upon all those kind enough to review. LOVE YA!