…Our place has become a sort of centre for the Order, I'm not sure what's happening with Grimmauld Place…
…Snape's never here, thank God…
…a glow of green flame went unnoticed. The figure appearing out of the fireplace, however, was impossible to miss…The silky tones of Professor Snape were unmistakable, as was the severe, black-garbed figure…
…"The work he's doing for the Order is amazing"…
…the arrival of Lupin and Snape in the fireplace…
…Snape was in the fireplace…
…"Wouldn't it be a lot easier just for you to be at Grimmauld Place?"…the answer to that question did include secret Order information…
…"the network has been fixed…only access in is via Grimmauld Place"…
…"we couldn't Floo back because…well, Grimmauld Place was rather busy"…
Snape was at Grimmauld Place. He was doing something important for the Order, something secret. Something so secret that it needed him to be at the Order's unplottable Headquarters, alone.
Hermione remembered what Snape had revealed to Harry during one of his Occlumency lessons. That his job was to work out Voldemort's intentions. Was this the same job that he had been sent to do straight after Voldemort's return? That Dumbledore had looked so apprehensive about? Harry and Ron thought that Snape was spying again for the Order, but she had never been so sure. She could not believe that Voldemort would ever again trust someone who had betrayed him so spectacularly – not for self-interest and self-preservation like Lucius Malfoy but, she assumed, for principle, and for Dumbledore. No other former Death Eater had aligned themselves with the Headmaster, the only one Voldemort had ever feared. None would dare, unless it was for principle, for belief in doing the right thing. How, then, could Snape be spying again? Harry had once said that, after his return, Voldemort had pledged to kill the Death Eater that had left him forvever. It had to be Snape. He knew Snape had betrayed him and his Death Eaters, Dumbledore had testified to it in front of the Wizengamot.
But still…one would assume from that that the Death Eaters would have hated Snape ever since Voldemort's first defeat. But Snape was friendly with the Malfoys, or had been. He favoured Draco at school, and…well, he acted strangely whenever Lucius' name was mentioned. Sirius had taunted him about Lucius, about being his "lapdog" – but why? Of course, Snape hadn't betrayed Lucius. Lucius got away with everything, pleaded innocence and Imperius. Hmm. Something else to think about.
But what was Snape doing now?