Hogwarts Castle. September 30, 1996
The mapping spell cast by the wizard set off alarm wards all over Hogwarts, of course.
The wards were even more stringent than they usually were. Albus and certain of the Professors at Hogwarts had been spending a great deal of effort tightening them, in light of the return of Lord Voldemort and the increased amount of Death Eater activity. But even at their normal level, they would have been set off by the intense power of the multiple mapping spells cast by the wizard. The violated wards, of course, did not do anything so crude as set off flashing lights or braying sirens, like muggle burglar or fire alarms did. Nevertheless, they made all of the staff at Hogwarts, with the exception of the squib caretaker, Filch, aware that something was amiss. Most of them were not aware of the details, of course, and after spending a few minutes to ascertain that there were no Death Eaters present and nothing else immediately dangerous had happened, such as Lord Voldemort sending a large exploding crystal through someone's floo, the Professors all converged on Dumbledore's office to demand an explanation.
"I am well aware of the violation of the wards around Hogwarts." Dumbledore assured his staff, after they had crowded into his office. He paused for a moment as Filch came stumbling in with and agitated, hissing Mrs. Norris, who had insisted he follow her to the Headmaster's chambers.
"Sorry Headmaster." The caretaker apologized, uncomfortable in the presence of so many who could use magic denied to a squib like himself. "Mrs. Norris practically chased me up here."
He looked around, wondering why the professors were all assembled in one place. "Is there somethin' goin' on, Headmaster?"
"Everything is fine, Argus." Dumbledore assured him. "Mrs. Norris no doubt sensed in her own way what the rest of us were just made aware of, that the wards around Hogwarts were just violated by several very powerful spells. There is no immediate danger, however."
Dumbledore waved his hands, calming Mrs. Norris instantly. "Please take Mrs. Norris and go patrol the corridors as you usually do, Argus. I would not want any students taking advantage of the current situation to violate curfew."
The caretaker nodded. Seeking out and punishing rule-breaking students was something he understood, and enjoyed. It was a way of scoring back, at least a little bit, on brats given the gift of magic who, almost universally, didn't appreciate it; and for the most part, were completely irresponsible with their use of it. He picked up Mrs. Norris, stroked her, and headed on back down the spiral staircase.
"That applies to most of the rest of you as well. I promise you, there is no immediate danger to Hogwarts from the magical spells that were cast. I would like to discuss the situation with the four heads of house, but the rest of you are dismissed. I shall send you all a letter through the floo tomorrow discussing what has just occurred. Hagrid, if you would, please assist Argus in patrolling the halls. Ask the ghosts to help you as well. The rest of you, except the four heads of house, may return to your quarters."
In a few moments, the headmasters office was emptied of all but him and the four heads of the houses at Hogwarts. They remained silent until they heard the last professor closing the door at the bottom of the staircase, and then Minerva McGonnagal burst out with the questions they all had.
"Albus, what in the world is going on?" She said with a serious expression on her face. "I felt all those spells going off at once, it was as if the wards weren't even there. What sort of spells were they? Whoever it was, cannot have any good intentions towards Hogwarts."
"They were mapping spells." Snape interjected, before the headmaster could answer. He looked slightly abashed for a moment at speaking out of turn, but then his face straigtened to it's usual dour expression once more, and he looked at the headmaster for confirmation.
"Yes, thank you, Severus." Albus nodded towards him, before turning to Professor McGonnagal once more. "They were, indeed, mapping spells. Which, as you know, are not at all dangerous."
Professor McGonnagal looked at Snape for a long moment, speculating on how he had known the nature of the spells when she had not. It seemed that Snape was far more powerful a wizard than he generally permitted people to know. She filed that bit of information silently, along with other questions she had regarding the ex-death eater. Then she turned back to Dumbledore.
"Mapping spells? But there were so many of them!"
"Yes." Albus agreed cheerfully, as if the number of mapping spells was no more significant than the number of straws in the thatched roof of Hagrid's hut. "There were over a thousand of them. One thousand and fifty-seven, if you wish to be precise."
"Over a thousand!" Minerva gasped and turned pale, nearly falling backwards into her chair. Professor Flitwick squeaked in alarm but said nothing. Using Arithmancy, he had calculated on the way to Albus's office the approximate number of spells that had probably been cast, and then rejected the answer he had come to as impossible. Only now to hear that answer confirmed from the headmaster's own lips. Minerva glanced at the tiny charms professor, who was wiping his forehead with a large white handkerchief, and turned back to the headmaster. "Over a thousand mapping spells? Why would anyone do such a thing? Who would be capable of it? Albus, the amount of magical power needed to cast so many charms simultaneously would kill many wizards who attempted it."
"It was the Dark Lord." Professor Snape interrupted once more. "It must have been. He has both the desire, and the magical ability. It could have been no other."
"Lord Voldemort! Merlin help us all!" Minerva gasped. "Headmaster, we cannot simply sit by and do nothing while Lord Voldemort violates the wards around this school and obtains maps of it. Who knows what spells he is going to cast next! We must contact the Ministry and ask them to send all the aurors they have at once to protect us!"
The tiny professor Flitwick jumped on his chair and agreed. He began giving a speech in his piping voice about his fears that Lord Voldemort would turn his house, Ravenclaw, into a nest of future Death Eaters, like he already had done to Slytherin. Snape took objection to this and began snarling at the tiny charms master, who in turn began saying some very nasty things indeed about certain of the Slytherin students, in particular Draco Malfoy and his friends.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore said. Abashed, Flitwick and Snape closed their mouths and sat down, glaring at one another across the table. "I will not have my Heads of House insulting one another. Hogwarts is already too far divided as it is. It may already be too late to heal the breach that is slowly killing us. I will not have you adding to it. You should both know better."
Flitwick and Snape both looked embarrassed, and sorry at their outbursts. Professor Sprout, who had said nothing, also looked ashamed of herself. Dumbledore glanced at her, easily divining her mood. Although she had not joined Professor Flitwick in saying aloud cruel things about Professor Snape's house, she had silently agreed with everything he had said.
Satisfied that he had properly chastened his Professors, Dumbledore pulled the sleeve of his robe over his blackened hand, and began to speak to them once more. "Now then. Although this was very powerful magic, and has invaded the sancity of Hogwarts, I do not believe that Lord Voldemort or any of his followers were responsible for what occured."
"Lord Voldemort not responsible?" Professor Spout spoke for the first time. "Albus, this was very powerful magic. Very few wizards are capable of it. And as Professor Snape pointed out, Lord Voldemort has both the ability and the motivation to do such a thing."
"I believe that Professor Snape is mistaken." Dumbledore said smoothly. "It is not your fault, Severus. If I had not spent quite so many years studying Lord Voldemort and attempting to fathom his motivations, I would probably make the same mistake as you have. As it is, I do not believe that this magic was cast by him."
"How can you say that, Headmaster?" Snape was not pleased to be disagreed with, even by Dumbledore, and it showed in the harsh tone of his voice. "Who else could it possibly have been but the Dark Lord? What could possibly convince you otherwise."
Dumbledore smiled ruefully. Sometimes when you were too close to something, it was hard to see it clearly. Thus it was with Severus and Lord Voldemort. But he would not humiliate Snape by saying so in front of the other three heads of house.
"There are several things which convince me otherwise, Severus." Dumbledore raised a finger on his healthy, left hand, as he began to ennumerate them. "First of all, despite the fact that it requires a great deal of magical power to cast so many mapping spells, power which very few wizards such as Lord Voldemort and myself possess, there ARE other wizards who do possess it. Perhaps very few in England, but England is but one very small corner of the world, containing only a fraction of the wizarding population. There are other wizards, elsewhere, who are capable of such a thing."
He had the attention of his professors. Raising another finger, Dumbledore continued. "Secondly, consider the sort of spell that was cast. A mapping spell. Why would Lord Voldemort need to map the interior of Hogwarts? He attended this school for seven years, during which he learned almost as much about it's interior as I do, I dare say. No, Lord Voldemort would not need to cast so many powerful spells to map Hogwarts. He could make a far better map from his own memory."
Snape considered this thoughtfully. Having once been a Death Eater, he knew that Lord Voldemort was loathe to weaken himself for any reason, much less a pointless one. And Albus was right. Lord Voldemort already knew all he needed to about the interior of Hogwarts. He hardly needed to weaken himself by casting so many powerful spells to get a map of it.
"I believe you are right, Headmaster." Snape said respectfully, bowing his head slightly. "Please go on."
"Thank you, Severus." The thank you was for more than his current agreement, though the other heads of house did not know that as of yet. Albus raised yet another finger. "Thirdly, Hogwarts was not the only place in which these mapping spells were cast. Although far many more such spells were cast here than anywhere else, there were a number of them which were cast in Hogsmeade Village, as well as in certain locations in the wizarding areas of London. And though I am not certain, I suspect they were cast elsewhere, as well."
The heads of house knew better than to ask how Albus knew what had occured in other cities. He had his own sources of information that they were not privy to.
"This does not smack of Lord Voldemort's sort of magic at all." Albus said. "Even if he wished to map Hogwarts, which he does not need to, he would do so far more efficiently than this. He would not waste his magic mapping other areas. No, whoever cast this magic is far more patient than Lord Voldemort, and willing to trust in chance, and dare I say it, fate, as well, to accomplish his goals."
"Which are what, Albus?' Professor McGonnagal said with pursed lips. "Even if this is not Lord Voldemort, I am still worried about it. Any wizard with this sort of power is a serious threat, and if he is violating our wards to map our school, his intentions towards us can hardly be good. And how did he accomplish this, anyways? Even Lord Voldemort has never been able to get magic past our wards."
"Ah, there are ways, Minerva." Albus told her. "There will always be ways past every barrier. If they were completely impenetrable, we would not be able to get in or out ourselves. And neither would the air we breath, for that matter. As for precisely how it was done, would you believe that I am not entirely certain as of yet. I have several ideas, but until this wizard does something further, I will not be able to determine which of them is correct."
"So you would just have us do NOTHING, Headmaster? Wait for this wizard to play his next hand?" Snape stood up again, outraged at this thought. "What if the next thing he gets past our wards are 1000 inceniary spells to burn Hogwarts down?"
"Do sit down, Severus." Albus said to him. He offered him a lemon drop, which was sullenly refused. "As I said before, this magic does not have the signature of Lord Voldemort on it. I say so not only because of the sort of magic that was done, and the way in which it was done, but also because of the very feel of the magic itself."
Albus got up from his chair and ran his hand slowly over one stone wall, which glowed beneath his palm with the arcane, ethereal runes that formed the wards everywhere in Hogwarts. "When you are a little older, Severus, you will learn that you can detect not only magic, but the intentions behind it. The feelings of the caster, if you will. I am sure that the other professors know what I am talking about, even if they are not as skilled at this branch of legilimency as myself."
He ran his hand over a few more of the glowing runes, and sat back down. "This is one reason why I never trusted Lord Voldemort. Even when he was a young student, his spells constantly had their root in greed, and even more so in fear and hatred. I warned the other professors at the time about this, of course, but they were not as skilled at I at this. They did not see what I saw, and Lord Voldemort could be very charming, when he wished to be."
"These spells," Albus waved his hands at the wards he had just shown them. "Do not have the same sort of emotions behind them that Lord Voldemort has been possessed by all his life. There is greed in them, oh yes. Probably more greed than Lord Voldemort has ever known. But no hatred. Just the opposite, in fact."
"Love, Albus?" Snape concluded correctly what the headmaster was refering to, and then snorted his derision. "How do love and greed go hand in hand? And I find it hard to believe that someone is more greedy than the Dark Lord."
"Ah, Severus." Albus chided him. "Love can often be the most selfish of all emotions. Far more so than hatred. In order to truly be greedy, to truly desire something, you must be capable of loving it. Which Lord Voldemort is not. His greed is a shallow thing, compared to his hatred. I doubt he feels a real, honest desire for anything at all. He collects things, oh yes. But he does not want those things for their own sake, but rather for the satisfaction of taking them away from others."
"You're saying Voldemort doesn't want anything?" Minerva pursed her lips. "Albus, that can't be right. Among other things, he obviously wants to live, probably forever."
"No, Minerva." Albus shook his head sadly. He had failed so many people in his life, first Voldemort, and then others. "Voldemort is ruled by fear and hatred, not love. I doubt very much if he truly wants to live. He simply wants not to die, which is a different matter entirely. As afraid as he is of living, he is even more afraid of death. And the sort of existence he has now can hardly be called life. I doubt that a man who truly wanted to live could tolerate such an existence for long, as Lord Voldemort had made for himself. He would not seek out such a twisted, half living form of existence in the first place. And if he found himself in it, he would most certainly seek to kill himself at the first opportunity. To a man who truly wanted to live, death itself would be far preferable than the sort of twisted existence Voldemort has made for himself."
"So what do we do then, Headmaster." The tiny Professor Flitwick spoke up. "You say this wizard wants something. That he's greedy. What does he want? Will he hurt us to get it? What should we do?"
"I do not believe he is a danger, at least not yet." Dumbledore told him. "I think we should merely be on our guard. And I want you all to remain silent about this incident. If Lord Voldemort discovers that it is possible to get past the wards on this school, he will no doubt not rest until he discovers how it was done. I shall tell the other professors the same thing in the morning. As for what this wizard wants, I am not yet certain of that either. I very much doubt if he merely wants a map of Hogwarts to satisfy a hobby involving geography. He has a purpose for it, of that I am sure. As to what it might be, well it could be anything. There are many things in all our pasts that could someday catch up with us. We shall simply have to wait for him to play his next hand."
He waved his hand. "You are all dismissed. Return to your houses. Severus, if I may speak with you a moment after the others leave?"
Snape nodded, and remained. After the door closed once more, Albus looked at him closely.
"Severus, I did not wish to say so, in front of the others, but you do have a darker past than the rest of the Professors here. Is there anything you know about this? Anything at all you wish to tell me?"
Snape looked at the headmaster. He honestly did not recall anything he could have done as a Death Eater which would cause this specific incident. He had hurt people of course, but had been careful only to hurt those who were weaker than himself. It was not something he was proud of. He supposed that any one of those people could have had a very powerful wizard for a relative or friend, just now coming around looking for revenge, but if so, there was no way for him to find out who it was, or why."
"No, headmaster. I'm sorry." Snape bowed his head. "I told you long ago everything I did of significance, when I still followed the Dark Lord. By now, you probably know more than I do about all of it."
"Yes." Albus gazed at his potions master, using legilemency to divine his thoughts. Snape was telling the truth, at least as he saw it. "Very well, you may go, Severus. Return to your house, and recall what I told you about certain of your students."
"Yes, Headmaster." Snape turned swiftly, closing the door. As he did, a chocolate frog card from his pocket, that he had confiscated from a first year Hufflepuff, fell out, and was blown by a draft back into Dumbledore's office. The headmaster heard the barely perceptible sound of paperboard scraping along the stone floor, and turned to see what it was. Spying the moving portrait on the tiny card, he went over to pick it up with his good hand. It was Morgan Le Fey, one of the darker witches in England's history. Though she had done some good, as well. A bit of magical energy from the card tingled through his hand, reminding him oddly enough of that in the violated wards.
"How very peculiar." He muttered to himself. "I wonder...".
He sat down at the table and placed the chocolate frog card in front of him, regarding it with curious eyes until late in the night.
