CHAPTER 29: SNAPE'S OFFICE
The next day Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting at the table for breakfast. Ron and Hermione were eating while Harry half-heartedly pushed food around his plate. So far, all of his friends' attempts to discover the source of his problem had gone unanswered.
"Harry?" Hermione asked softly, noticing his behavior. "You need to eat something," she said, remembering how Ron had to practically drag him to the Great Hall, seeing as how he didn't eat anything the day before, as he was avoiding meal times.
Harry didn't answer for a minute, but eventually he answered so quietly that Hermione thought she had missed it. "Why?" he asked. "What's the point?"
Hermione was so shocked by his words that she lost her voice for a minute. "Because," she finally sputtered, "if you don't eat, you'll get sick. Eventually you'll die." Hermione desperately wished Harry would tell her what his problem was; she couldn't stand to see her best friend like this.
"Everyone dies eventually," Harry said. "Some sooner than others."
Hermione turned to Ron, trying to get his support, when she realized that they were talking too low for anyone else to hear them. She wasn't about to alert anyone else in the Great Hall about Harry's sudden bout of depressions; who knew what rumors would circulate? "Harry," Hermione asked gently, "why don't we go for a walk before classes start?"
"No thanks," Harry sighed, about to stand up. Anything else he was going to say was lost with the arrival of the morning mail and Ron's sudden exclamation.
"Harry? What's Professor Fox doing with Hedwig?"
"What?" Harry asked, turning to look at the head table, watching in amazement as a snowy owl came and landed next to the DADA professor.
"That's strange," Hermione said quietly.
"That's not Hedwig," Harry said, noticing the truth upon careful examination, or as careful as one could be from several yards away.
"Are you sure?" Ron asked, squinting to try and see the subtle differences that Harry noticed. "She looks like Hedwig to me."
"Yeah, but Hedwig's not your owl; trust me, that's not Hedwig, although it looks remarkably like her."
"It's odd, though, isn't it?" Hermione said. "I mean, how many snowy owls do you see around here? They live mostly in the United States and Canada, as well as Greenland and Iceland."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Ron asked, amazed once again.
"I read, Ron," Hermione said nonchalantly.
"Well, why would you want to know about useless things like where Snowy Owls live? I mean, when will you ever use that information?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron, "What do you think brought this entire conversation about?"
Ron had nothing to say to that, so he chugged down the rest of his juice.
"Maybe they're related," Harry shrugged, not caring too much anymore. It wasn't important or life threatening; it was just another owl.
"I just think it's a strange coincidence, that's all," Hermione said softly, watching as Harry stood up to leave for his next class. "We need to do something, Ron."
"Mehmph," was all she got in response.
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Buffy was startled by the arrival of Morrigan at her table. She had yet to receive any mail from her friends; there wasn't much use since she stopped by every night. If they weren't exchanging pleasantries that meant something bad must have happened.
Buffy worriedly untied the letter, written on parchment like Buffy showed them so as not to arise suspicion, and read the short message.
It didn't work. We're still missing something.
That was it. No greeting, no name, nothing but the message; it was vague but understandable. If someone else had intercepted the letter, they'd have no idea whom it was to, whom it was from, or what it was about.
Of course, Buffy understood perfectly. Relief wound its way through her body, attacking the tight knot that had formed in her stomach at the thought of harm coming to someone. That feeling didn't last long before disappointment soon followed. She was sure they had it right this time! What else could they be missing?
"Is something wrong?" Dumbledore asked, seeing the professor's frown.
"Um, no, not really. Just some disappointing news from home. Family stuff," Buffy said, hoping he wouldn't question her anymore. And he didn't.
"Is that your owl?" McGonagall asked.
"No, it's my friends," Buffy said. "Why, is something wrong?"
"Oh, no," McGonagall said. "It's just that your owl looks remarkably like Mr. Potter's owl."
Buffy was surprised at this small revelation. "The shopkeeper did say that she had a sister that was bought years ago, maybe that's it."
"Yes, it's a small world, isn't it?"
"You have no idea," Buffy said with a small smile, earning a more thoughtful glance from Dumbledore.
He really had to find out who this woman was.
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Buffy walked determinedly through the empty hallways down towards the dungeons. It was way past curfew for everyone and so she hoped everyone would be asleep this late. Hopefully she'd have plenty of time to sift through all his books and ingredients, trying to find the key ingredient that was missing. She'd borrowed supplies from Snape's cabinets several times before; the school paid for them anyway, it wasn't as if he was losing money.
Well, maybe not the ingredients in his personal stash, which is what Buffy looked through the most. He stored the more volatile and rare ingredients in his office, which was were she was heading tonight.
Her feet as light as an elves, she crept along towards the door. After performing the complicated counter spells to unlock his office door, Buffy quietly eased it opened and stepped into the pitch-black room. She waited for her eyes to adjust and stepped nimbly through the room, heading for the door in the back of the classroom. She had been through so many times that she really didn't need any light to navigate around the student desks.
Upon reaching the office door, Buffy stopped breathing and just listened for any bit of noise that would alert her to someone's presence. No light could be seen from underneath the door crack, but that didn't mean anything. After about a minute, Buffy continued to breathe quietly and decided that no one was in there. She eased the door open and slipped inside.
She walked carefully over to the locked cabinet in the corner and raised her wand, about to unlock it, when a voice behind her made her stop.
"Drop your wand."
"Damn it," Buffy whispered, frustrated with herself. She should've been able to sense if someone else was in the room. She'd done this so many times before she'd become careless. She didn't bother to drop her wand but did turn around slowly. She knew there was no way out of the room other than the door behind which Snape was standing. She was in trouble now.
"Lumos," Snape said, allowing the light to flood the room and illuminate his thief. "You?!" he cried in amazement.
"You were expecting someone else?" Buffy asked lightly.
"Yes, actually. I thought I had finally caught Potter," he snarled, missing Buffy's raised eyebrow and slight smirk in his frustration. "Although, this might be more interesting, as I'm sure it's grounds for dismissal. Sneaking around at night, stealing from the other Professors. I'm interested in how you get yourself out of this one."
"There's nothing to get myself out of," Buffy said, lowering her wand to her side confidently. "I work for the Ministry of Magic."
"I don't think working for them gives you permission to break the law," Snape said.
"I think you forget that I make the law," Buffy said. "It's a simple enough matter," she continued, seeing Snape about to explode, "You have dangerous and unpredictable potions in here that are not suitable for a school environment and I've slowly been confiscating them."
"And you have to take them one at a time?" Snape sneered.
"Of course. You of all people should know what happens when certain ingredients mix with others."
"Why are you coming in the middle of the night?" Snape asked, not believing her, but finding it difficult to argue with her story; she was working for the Ministry.
"For several reasons. One, I highly doubt that you'd take kindly to my coming in during the middle of a class and undermining your authority in front of all your students. Also, anything could happen and it's best if less people were around, for safety reasons, of course. Merlin forbid I should trip with all those dangerous substances. A possible explosion could happen, stretching who knows how far, destroying the classroom, your office, possibly your sleeping quarters depending upon how close they are."
"Are you threatening me, Miss Fox?" Snape asked incredulously.
"Of course not. Threatening is a waste of time and I'm not very patient. I'm just letting you know the consequences certain actions have."
"I'd be very careful around here Miss Fox," Snape said. "I'm afraid you don't have as much power as you seem to think you have."
"Are you threatening me, Snape?" Buffy asked.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he said with a smirk. "I'm just letting you know the facts of the matter so you don't go doing stupid things."
"Thanks, but I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Now, if you would," Buffy said gesturing to the still locked cupboard.
"The items in my office are mine alone and you are not to allowed to confiscate any of them. They are not a part of the students' curriculum and the students are not even allowed anywhere near my office, so you can rest assured they're all safe."
"Why do I find that hard to believe? I mean, you seemed to expect Potter to be here instead of me, so obviously you've had trouble with this before."
Snape scowled at Buffy and couldn't find anything to retort with. "You will not take anything from my supplies until an official from the Magical Law Enforcement comes and says that I've put the students at risk, is that clear?"
Buffy sighed angrily and proceeded to walk towards the door, while Snape stepped aside. "I'd watch out if I were you, professor," Snape said.
"Thank Merlin that's not the case. I think I'd have to kill myself. Besides, I'm smart enough to watch out whose hands are lingering near my goblet."
"I thought you didn't threat," he sneered.
"I don't. I was just stating a fact." Buffy walked out of Snape's office, muttering "Lumos," as she went. The night was ruined and now she might never get a chance to finish the impossible potion.
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"There is no Sarah Fox listed anywhere," Arthur said, completely baffled. "No birth records, no employment records, no medical records, nothing. It's like she doesn't exist. I mean, it's not too difficult to invent a name, but she's working for the ministry and she must have gotten in somehow. I've even checked the ministries in France and the United States upon your request, Dumbledore. No one has a Sarah Fox and no one has seen anyone of her description."
"I've asked around the ministry and nobody has seen her before. The guard said he saw her come in one day, but he said he never saw her before. I even tried to get the information he collected, but he doesn't have any records of her wand or identification. And I'm sure he doesn't forget things like that, especially since it's the only thing he has to do," Kingsley said.
"What's she look like?" Sirius asked from his spot next to Lupin.
"Fairly short, thin, blonde hair, blue eyes," McGonagall said. "She's looks like she can't be more than 25."
"Well where did she come from?" Tonks asked. "She couldn't have just appeared from nowhere."
"Now the real question is what she wants," Moody said, speaking up for the first time.
"Maybe she just wanted a new start. Perhaps something happened to her and she felt that her best choice was to start over," Lupin suggested.
"Even so, you can't work at the ministry unless you have proper qualifications and background checks."
"She's obviously up to something," Snape said. "I caught her sneaking around my office earlier, stealing potion ingredients."
"Really?" Dumbledore asked, surprised.
"So now will you finally get off Harry's case?" Sirius asked. "You've got proof he didn't do it."
"I'm still sure Potter's guilty. Professor Fox wasn't around in his second or fourth year, was she?"
"What'd she take? Anything that could give us a clue as to what she's putting together?" Moody asked.
"She's taken random things, nothing that could be combined together because of the dangerous repercussions. If I had to guess, I'd say she's trying to make something from memory, or just trying to invent something on her own."
"What would she want that badly?" Lupin asked.
"So, are you suggesting she's just using her place at Hogwarts in order to steal potion ingredients from your stock," McGonagall said.
"I'm sure that's only part of the reason," Snape sneered. "It isn't impossible to get what I have from other stores."
"I'm sure you've gone down Knockturn Alley more than a few times," Sirius said. "It suits your personality perfectly. Dark and slimy."
"Enough," Dumbledore said, stopping anything that was about to be said. "We still don't know what her true purpose is, whether good or bad, but for the safety of the students, we must assume it is bad."
"She did threaten me," Snape said in agreement. "Although she'll never admit to it."
"What? She threatened you? Where is she? I'm gonna give her a kiss; I like her already," Sirius said.
"For now we'll have to watch her movements a little more carefully. She is still under Fudge's care, so we must not do anything to attract more attention to ourselves."
"Now, here's an interesting thought. Is Fudge protecting her by choice, or by force?" Moody said, speaking up.
"I'd say choice," Snape said. "Umbridge is following Fudge as well but Umbridge despises the girl."
"She keeps rising on my list," Sirius said. "She's threatening Snape and hates Umbridge. I don't really see a problem."
"You will when she kills Potter," Snape said, "which it seems is probably her ultimate goal. All the DADA professors save one seemed to have it in for the boy. And I can't really blame them."
"Harry has proven time and time again that he is more than capable of defending himself. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to find out more about this Sarah Fox person," Lupin said.
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A couple of days later Harry still wasn't eating and it didn't look like he was sleeping, either. "Harry, please tell us what's wrong," a very worried Hermione said.
"It's nothing, I'm fine," he said.
"You're not fine, mate," Ron said. "We're worried about you."
"I'll be okay. I just need to figure some things out, that's all," Harry said. "It might take me awhile, but I'll get there eventually."
"If you just tell us, we can help you," Hermione said.
"No. No one can help me. I need to do this myself. I'm sorry."
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Up at the head table, everyone was eating their breakfast happily. Buffy had felt the extra set of eyes following her around everywhere since her little meeting with Snape. It was really unnerving, but now she knew they were watching her. She had to be extra careful now.
This morning was her chance to finally get what she needed. Snape would be otherwise occupied while she stepped into his office. She had studied several different books and detailed descriptions of different potion ingredients and she had a sudden insight on what she could use. It was a little risky, but it might work.
Buffy finished eating and drank the rest of her juice before standing up.
"Finished already?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"I left something in my room and I don't want to be late," Buffy said. She really hated to leave, but she needed to go now while Snape was still eating.
Snape hadn't touched his food or drink an entire day after Buffy had 'warned' him. Now he just kept close watch over his plate and goblet, realizing that the house elves prepared the food, not the professors.
Little did he know Buffy had gone down to the kitchens early that morning and asked a curiously dressed house elf, possibly Dopey, to add a little 'herbs' to freshen his meal. Needless to say, the overenthusiastic elf was more than happy to oblige.
Buffy walked out of the hall but waited right behind the doors for a couple of seconds. She was wasting precious time but she had to see this. James would've been proud.
Right on time, gasps and a couple of screams could be heard coming from the students and professors. Buffy gave a quick glance into the hall before stifling her laughter and continuing on her way.
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Hermione and Ron had been very quiet as they watched their friend try to keep them away from something. They had been friends for almost five years now and there had been very few secrets between them. Hermione and Ron just didn't know what to do. Obviously it had to be something really bad, since he wouldn't tell them. Or maybe it was about them and Harry wanted to protect them.
Harry didn't know if he wanted to tell his friends at all. He always knew that Voldemort wouldn't stop until he was dead, but it never really clicked just how bad it could be. It was officially up to him to . . kill . . Voldemort. He didn't know how his friends would react and he didn't want their pity or their rejection. He didn't know if he wanted them to stay by him, either. He didn't want them to get hurt. They'd been lucky so far but now that Voldemort was back, more people were going to die and Harry didn't know what he'd do without Ron or Hermione.
He still couldn't get over the part of the prophecy that said he had to kill or be killed. 'Just like the Vampire Slayers,' Harry thought. Maybe he was like one of them. He was just a person that had to fight the good fight.
Harry was startled out of his thoughts by the gasps and screams that erupted from various students. Harry tensed as he, Ron and Hermione looked around for the danger. It couldn't be now, could it? He wasn't ready.
A look of disbelief passed over his face quickly as he saw it wasn't an attack on the school. It was Snape. He was inflating. Just like his Aunt Marge did one time. "I didn't do it," Harry said quickly as laughter soon began to take over.
Hermione and Ron turned to Harry. "Feeling guilty, mate?" Ron asked with a smile.
"No, it's just that I accidentally blew up my aunt once, remember? But, I didn't do it this time," Harry said.
They watched in amusement as Snape's very poofy body caused him to float up over the table, but amazingly enough, stayed down near the ground. It was almost as if someone was teasing him because he couldn't stop. His arms and legs were sticking straight out like plump sausages and he was floating just high enough off the ground so he couldn't touch it. Actually, every once and a while, he'd come in contact with the ground, but as soon as he did, he was bounced up higher again.
If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed his face had stretched into a permanent smile. It was rather eerie, especially when he began flashing different colors. Red. Then Blue. Then Yellow. Then Green. Then Purple. Pink. White. Brown. Neon Green. Somehow, the candles and torches in the Great Hall all extinguished, leaving the glowing Snape as the only light.
"Brilliant!" Fred shouted.
"I wish I'd thought of that!" George yelled.
"Think whoever did that will let us use it?" Fred asked.
"You didn't do it?" Hermione asked, shocked.
"Unfortunately, no!"
"Wish I had!"
"If you didn't, who did?" Harry asked. No one had an answer to that.
The entire student body, Slytherins included, was laughing so hard, tears were coming down their eyes. Someone had gotten enough courage up and decided to hit the floating 'balloon' and it wasn't long before others joined in.
Of course, this didn't last long as Dumbledore commanded everyone's attention. Every spell he and the other Professors tried had failed. It seemed that every spell gave it more and more energy.
"To your classes!" Dumbledore commanded. Everyone got up and left, some heading to their dormitories before classes, which didn't start for fifteen more minutes.
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Harry, Ron and Hermione left the Great Hall but didn't go back to the common room.
"I'm never going to forget that, as long as I live," Ron said. He could still hear the professors trying to help Snape and their unfortunate failures. "That was even better than Malfoy's ferret last year. I can now die happy."
"Well, that's good, because we have Potions first," Hermione said bitterly. That stopped Ron's laughter.
"What? He's going to be in a horrible mood!"
"And it's double potions," Harry groaned, his good mood effectively diminished.
"We're doomed," Ron moaned. "There's no hope. Say your goodbyes now."
"We might as well get there early. We don't want to give him reasons to take off points; he comes up with ways all by himself," Hermione said. The three friends lapsed into depressed silence for a while on their way to the dungeons.
Until Ron burst out laughing again, causing the three friends to relive the great moment. As soon as they calmed down enough, they entered the potions classroom, only to see Professor Fox exiting and locking Snape's office door.
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Buffy was so immersed in the complicated spell procedure (he'd redone all the spells since she last been there) that she didn't hear the trio enter the room behind her. Needless to say, she was quite startled when she turned around; she almost dropped the important ingredient she took from his office.
"Merlin's beard!" Buffy yelped. "You scared me. How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough," Hermione said with narrowed eyes.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Buffy asked, confused. "Class doesn't start for another ten minutes."
"We could ask you the same question," Harry said, looking pointedly at the bottle in her hand.
"I had to get something from Snape's office," Buffy said, holding up the bottle, hoping they wouldn't see what it was.
"What for?" Hermione asked.
"I wanted to find some shampoo," Buffy deadpanned. "Obviously I wanted to make a potion."
"Why don't you get Snape to make it? He's a potions master," Hermione said.
"He doesn't have time to be making all the little potions I want. Just like you don't have to have him make all of yours."
"Yes, but the potions I want to make don't include ingredients from his locked cupboard in his locked office," Hermione said.
"Most of the time, anyway," Buffy said, looking at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. When she saw Hermione's shocked face, she knew she'd been right. "I mean, how could you know he keeps a locked cupboard of special ingredients in his locked office? Unless you've been there yourself."
Hermione didn't have anything to say at that, but a bit of a blush crept up her cheeks at having been caught.
"Let's make a deal. I won't tell if you won't," Buffy said, walking towards them to leave before other students came.
"What do you need Nightshade for anyway?" Hermione asked suddenly.
"I don't see how it's any of your business," Buffy said.
"It is my business if you're stealing from Professor Snape in order to slip Nightshade into someone's drink," Hermione said.
"I wouldn't slip anything into anyone's drink," Buffy said seriously. "I'd make it into a powder and have the house-elves put it in their food," she said with a wink, causing all three jaws to drop.
"You did that?" Ron asked with wide eyes.
"Did what?" Buffy asked innocently. "See you in class," she called out before she left.
"It does make sense," Hermione said after recovering from her shock. "She set up a diversion so neither Snape nor the students would come into his classroom, giving her enough time to steal the Nightshade."
"The question is, should we tell anyone?" Harry asked.
"Are you kidding?" Ron asked. "She's my hero! That was the greatest prank of all times! It was better than anything Fred and George have come up with and I'll be willing to bet it's better than anything your dad came up with."
"Yes, but she took Nightshade, Ron," Harry said, being the voice of reason. "Who knows what she's going to do with that? I mean, if she could blow up Snape just to take an ingredient, who knows what she's capable of."
"I don't know," Hermione said, surprising Harry and Ron. "There are tons of uses for Nightshade besides poisoning someone. I'm sure she won't use it for something awful."
"You just don't want her to tell on you for stealing the ingredients for the Polyjuice potion, do you?" Harry asked with a smile, knowing he was right when a blush came over her features once again.
"Hermione! That was in second year! I don't think you'll get in trouble," Ron said.
"You never know," Hermione said stubbornly. "I just don't think it'd be smart to go around and volunteer information like that." Hermione walked over and sat down at her desk, opening up her potions book and studying a page on the uses of Nightshade.
Harry and Ron just looked at each other and sighed. "Don't come running to Harry when someone collapses at lunch," Ron said before joining Harry at a different table.