June 9th, 1993
Severus could hear the traitors talking, but was still too far away to hear what words were actually being said. He was sure that it was by luck that Potter's Invisibility Cloak had been laid face down on the ground below the immobilized Whomping Willow – but he could not help the genuine worry that seemed to make his heart beat a little more strongly. This cloak was as beloved to that boy as it had been to his father – for Potter to just leave it behind was a sign that something had happened. And who knew who knew what the circumstances beyond leaving it could have been; it may have been in the boy's interest to waltz towards danger, but it was not in the girl's. She was smarter than this – he had warned her what Black was capable of, he had warned her to stay away.
Then again, even if she didn't like danger, she quite enjoyed ignoring warnings.
"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus. I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer!" he could hear the madness in Black's voice. The tone had hardened over time but he sounded just as excited and urgent to cause trouble as ever – it made Snape grip his wand tighter. The fury was instantaneous – Lupin was there too, then? He knew – he knew that they had been in on it together! Dumbledore should have listened – you could never trust a werewolf.
"All right..." Lupin began speaking and Snape quickly stepped forward, slowly opening the Shrieking Shack's bedroom door and peering through the crack. When he saw that no one was paying attention to the swaying of the lifeless door, he took the moment to step closer to get a good look at the scene: he could see Granger, she looked terrified. Weasley looked to be injured, which hardly surprised him, and the Potters – ah yes, they were standing, boldly, in front of their friends.
Typical heroes.
He noticed too late the rickety board that he had stepped on, just to get closer and check on the twin's condition – what a mistake. The creak of the floorboard immediately cut the werewolf off his speech and caused six of them turned to look at him – or rather, straight through him. Still, he dared not move another inch. If he did, another floorboard could creak and they would know exactly where he was standing.
"No one there..." Lupin muttered as he walked toward the open door and examined the landing, where Snape had been just moments prior.
"This place is haunted!" Weasley exclaimed. He sounded terrified by the fact and were he to have known any better, Snape would have thought it was from the threat of the killer in his midst – but no, it was likely from the threat of ghosts.
"It's not," Lupin responded, looking around in confusion. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted...the screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."
Lupin took another step, dangerously close to where Severus stood. Had he not known better, he would have feared that Lupin would be able to smell him...but Lupin only pushed his hair from his face and continued on.
"That's where all of this starts – with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitter...and if I hadn't been so foolhardy..."
Circe, Potter's prized pet, moved to rub against the werewolf's leg as if to comfort him. It set Snape's nerves on edge at once – that cat was enough to convince the girl to throw away her instincts and trust someone; it had been a bad purchase on her part. Now it was putting it's trust in the werewolf – no doubt that the girl would, too.
"I as a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery," and how he wished it hadn't been discovered. Lupin would not have been here and let Black so close to the twins without that damned potion...then again, revenge could be very, very sweet if he get played his cards properly. "It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week, preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform...I'm able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again.
"Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me.
"But then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school..." The werewolf sighed, looking directly to the twins, who looked so innocently back to him.
"So you came into the Shrieking Shack?" the girl asked quietly. "I knew it wasn't haunted – Malfoy tried to tell me it was, but-"
"I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts," he nodded, smiling a little at her rambling. That girl had always had to prove the Malfoy boy wrong...it was something Snape had noticed in a sadly familiar way to her very own mother and other men...other men who would later ruin her life. "The truth is that it was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house, the tunnel that leads to it, they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous."
A rat, one that was slightly familiar as Ron Weasley's, was writhing and making a lot of noise within the boy's hands. Snape moved slightly closer, ready to attack and wondering, idly, how much time he would have between disarming Lupin and attacking Black – he also couldn't help but wonder if the children were too close for that kind of action.
He didn't want them to get in the way of his vengeance, after all. He'd waited too long for a misfired curse.
"My transformations in those days were-were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor...even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it...
"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black...Peter Pettigrew...and, of course, your father, Harry – James Potter."
Each of those men were the bane of Severus Snape's being. These were the very men who had ruined his childhood, his adolescence, and who had taken everything valuable in his life away from him – friends, power, Lily...
"Now, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her...I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth...
"And they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."
"My dad too?" Potter – the boy – asked, looking astounded.
"Yes, indeed," said Lupin.
"But-" Potter – the girl – shook her head. Snape was disappointed that she was naive enough to give this plot any merit at all; she was smart enough to know when she was being lied to and tricked. "But – you can't just become Animagi, can you? I mean, it's a lot of work. And it's hard, really hard magic."
"It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it," Lupin agreed with her. "Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong – one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."
"Really, they learned? Does that mean we can learn?" Audrey asked excitedly, moving to pick up her kneazle and hold her to give her shaking hands something to do.
"But how did that help you?" asked the bushy-haired know-it-all.
"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," Lupin explained. Snape sneered heavily at the memory knowing that this, if the only, part was true. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed...Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."
"Hurry up, Remus," Black snarled from beside him, taking a step toward the Weasley boy with a vicious luck on his face. He looked ready to kill and Snape, no matter how much he hated Lupin, could not help but feel shocked that he was about to let this happen. Snape moved closer to Lupin, his wand trained on him as he tried to discover how they were going to attack these children – Black did not have a wand, so his best bet was to watch the werewolf's moves closely.
"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there...well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did... And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."
"What sort of animal-" Potter – the girl – began, but the know-it-all cut her off. "That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"
"A thought that still haunts me," Lupin sighed heavily, but Snape did not believe him for a second – this was all a farce. He wanted – needed to attack them now. "And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless – carried away with our own cleverness.
"I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course...he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed...
"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me...and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it...so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along."
Of course he has.
"Snape?" For the first time Black looked away from the rat so that he could sneer out Severus' own name. The Potion's Master couldn't help but smirk to himself, knowing that the hatred between them was mutual and just as palpable as ever. "What's Snape got to do with it?"
"He's here, Sirius," Lupin sighed heavily. "He's teaching here as well. He's Audrey's Head of House."
"I'm a Slytherin," she elaborated, Snape was glad to see that she took pride when she announced it. "But you already knew that, I guess."
"I did," he said vaguely, narrowing his eyes on her face.
"He's my Potions Professor. He hates you both," she said with a frown, looking at them both with those eyes of hers – eyes much more calculating than Lily's had ever been. Like Lily, this girl always tried to find the good in people – but unlike Lily, she was still capable of seeing the bad. "I guess you knew that, too."
"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job," Lupin explained to her. Snape nearly rolled his eyes – he had done more than fight against it, he had vehemently refused to work alongside him – how he had been roped into helping the monster keep himself at bay was still beyond him. "He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons...you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me-"
Black made a derisive noise that made Snape's knuckles turn white against the hilt of his wand.
"It served him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to...hoping he could get us expelled..."
The girl's eyes widened. "What do you mean 'sneaking around'? Do you mean – that you...on a full moon..."
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month." Lupin nodded slowly, addressing the children. The girl's eyes were now hard on both Black and Lupin – Severus could not help but notice the similarities of that glare to her mother ...he also could not help but notice just how nice it was to see that glare directed at someone that was not him. "We were in the same year, you know, and we – er – didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field...we fought much like you and Draco Malfoy do."
"Draco Malfoy?" Black sneered. "Don't even give him your time of day."
"At least he hasn't been hacking up portraits to come and get us," The girl hissed out, making Severus smirk. "He's a git, but he hasn't lead people to get killed..."
"Actually..." Her twin began slowly.
"He hasn't!" She defended with a growl.
"That one time he did leave us to get eaten by Voldemort when he was feeding from the unicorn," her brother reminded. She rolled her eyes.
"Okay, yes, but him being a baby is not the same as him being cruel."
"Yes, not even Malfoy would have been as cruel as Sirius was that day," Lupin agreed with a frown to his old friend. "Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be – er – amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it...if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf – but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life...Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..."
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," the boy realized slowly.
"He hates you because our Dad had to save him?" The girl asked. Snape could not understand why she seemed confused, but the boy shook his head and finished for her. "Or is it because he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right, Potter," Snape couldn't help but sneer from the wall behind Lupin.
Severus figured it was as good a time as any to reveal himself, now that his wand was trained on Lupin and Lupin would not be able to swivel around to attack him. Granger screamed when he appeared, Black leapt to his feet, the girl let out a loud gasp and took another step forward – Severus was sure to shake his head at her and watched, pleased, as she stopped mid-step.
"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," Snape explained, throwing the Invisibility Cloak aside while he kept his wand well trained on Lupin. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you..."
Snape vaguely wondered if the disturbed look on the girl's face was because she could tell of how victorious he felt – he had finally gotten Black and Lupin on their own. They were finally at his mercy.
"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he asked. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did...lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."
"Severus-"
"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout-"
"He didn't-" Audrey began.
"Severus, you're making a mistake," Lupin agreed with urgency. "You haven't heard everything – I can explain – Sirius is not here to kill Harry or Audrey-"
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," he interrupted, smirking darkly as he thought of them behind bars...his vivid imagination even granted him the image of Dementors coming for them – it was a beautiful thought. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this. He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin...a tame werewolf-"
"You fool," said Lupin softly, making Severus sneer. How was he so calm? How could he be so nonplussed knowing that he was about to rot in prison. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"
But Sirius Black was not innocent and with that knowledge, Snape hardly thought the incantation before thin cords burst from the tip of his wand and twisted around Lupin – his mouth, wrists, ankles...the sad excuse for a man lost his balance from the force and fell to the floor, covering himself in dust and dirt. With an animalistic growl that only surmised just how Black was an animal, the criminal rushed him.
"Give me a reason," Snape whispered as his wand honed right between Black's charcoal eyes. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."
"Snape, please!" The girl cried, sounding horribly like her mother as she did it. Sirius' eyes dared not leave Snape's but he could see the monster wanting to look at her – it made him sneer more.
"Not now, Potter..." he managed to hiss to her.
"You have to listen to him," she begged again. He could not take that tone – that tone that he remembered all too vividly...but she had argued just the opposite. She had begged him not to listen, not to do what he was told and ignore the men that were ordering them...he would listen to Lily's words now. Even if it meant ignoring her daughter's.
"Professor Snape," the know-it-all began carefully, "it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"
"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat, not even humouring her with a glance. "You, Weasley, Mr and Miss Potter are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."
"But if – if there was a mistake-"
"Keep quiet, you stupid girl!" Snape shouted, not daring to look away from his captive. He finally had the chance to get revenge for everything that was taken from him and this loud-mouth little brat was not going to take this from him.
"Snape," her voice begged again. "He's innocent-"
"He is not and I do not want to hear anymore on this, Potter," Snape hissed.
"You've never doubted me before," she argued. "Why don't you-"
"I can only imagine why," Black sneered, glaring right at Snape. "I can only imagine that he favours you, doesn't he, Audrey? I could have told that the minute I saw you..."
"DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Snape roared, unable to stop the sparks that spat from the end of his wand, nearly catching Black in the face. He wished they had.
"Snape," the girl's voice whispered again. "Snape, he didn't do it-"
"You know nothing, none of you," Snape hissed.
"He didn't! Circe wouldn't be able to be near him if he had and Circe has been leading me to him all year!" She disagreed, stomping her foot. "I trust him, he-"
"Then you are a fool," he spat, glowering at Black again. He felt furious that the man had tricked someone as foolhardy and trusting as this little girl – he should have known that she would fall for his ploy. But there was no need to worry, he convinced himself...not when Black's fate was now in his hands. "Vengeance is very sweet. How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."
"The joke's on you again, Severus," Black snarled, looking as enraged as Snape felt. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle, I'll come quietly..."
But Snape did not want Black to come quietly – nevertheless where he had been trying to get into the entire year. "Up to the castle? I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black...pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay...I-"
"You -you've got to hear me out," Black croaked, all colour drained from his face and fear replacing the rage behind his eyes. It was a stunning sight. "The rat – look at the rat-"
"Come on, all of you," Snape hissed, no longer able to think of anything but how much he wanted to watch the Dementors welcome Black home. He snapped his fingers, feeling immediately how the edges of the cords around Lupin flew into his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for him too-"
"No!" Snape finally looked away from Black, only to see that both Potters had crossed the room and were blocking the exit toward the tunnel. Just as they had blocked the access to their friends – trying to be heroes again.
It disgusted him, seeing them in that position – just as their parents had been. So ready to protect the people who would later betray them; so ready to lay themselves on the line for something they didn't even understand...
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," he hissed. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin-"
"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," the boy threw his arms toward the werewolf held by Snape's hand. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"
"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," he hissed in return. "Get out of the way, Potter."
"But I've been alone with Sirius Black!" the girl countered. Snape could hardly stop his face from falling – the image of what danger could have befallen that girl was as vivid as the image of what would become of Sirius Black. It made his stomach churn. "He's never hurt me once and I've been seeing him, alone, nearly every week!"
"Then consider yourself lucky," Snape hissed again. "Move, you two, or you will be expelled."
"You're pathetic," the boy sneered at him. It was painful to see so much distain in those eyes of his. "Just because they made a fool of you in school, you won't even listen-"
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape bellowed, feeling his anger get the best of him again. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black – now get out of the way, or I will make you."
Neither Potter moved so much as their furious gazes.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"
"No, Snape, you're arrogant! Leave him alone!" the girl screeched, stomping her foot for emphasis. Snape could hardly acknowledge how awful the look of disgust she was giving him felt before it happened: it was like a bomb had detonated as soon as her foot hit the ground. It was a blast of air or energy or something just as strong that threw Lupin – still held by his cords – farther into the middle of the Shrieking bedroom. Both Black and himself fell back four or five steps just from the harshness of the blow.
In the moment he had before looking back up, he saw that the boy had raised his wand, his eyes just as determined as his sister's were before he screamed a spell and everything around him disappeared.
Snape awoke to his head pounding and his heart racing. At first, he was not aware what was making his body react in such an obvious show of fear...not until he heard the screaming – it was Lily's scream. And there, in the distance, warding off a cloud of Dementors was a patronus of...of a deer?
"Lily?" he found himself asking, looking around for whoever had cast the strong and vivid Patronus which was running around and banishing the Dementors from around them. There was no one conscious around him – and most importantly, there was no Lily.
It caused unintelligible pain just to remember that there would never be Lily to save him, just as he had never been there to save her. That was a hopeless dream now; one that even the most horrible of nightmares could not duplicate and the sweetest of dreams could not delude him well enough...Lily was gone. Forever.
But still, even knowing she was gone the patronus continued to trot around and chase the Dementors away from them. Now that his vision was clearing, it was larger than Lily's patronus – but only just. From here, something looked different from it – but he was too far away to compare.
So if Lily had not cast the Patronus, who had?
Weasley was unconscious and grasping his leg – tears streaked down his face. Granger and Potter, the boy, had fainted from their exertion with their wands out. The girl had fainted over top of Black – who was also unconscious and on his back.
She was protecting him.
His anger flared – she had been the one to scream, not Lily, and she had injured herself to protect a man who wanted to kill her. The girl was as foolish as her mother had been: protecting a man who didn't deserve to be protected. Still, he took a moment to gather his bearings, watching to ensure that the Dementors had fled, before moving.
He conjured stretchers and gathered Weasley onto one first – the freckled boy was bleeding everywhere and looked considerably more pale than normal. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious so found it difficult to assess how much blood he had lost, but it looked like a lot. After he had put him on a stretcher, he put Granger on the next. He moved the girl off of Black next – but didn't put her on a stretcher. Instead, he couldn't help himself from waiting.
The Potters, who had tried so valiantly to defend the man who had gotten Lily murdered, who had tried to murder them...He could not tell if he was more disturbed, or more disgusted.
He put them on their stretchers next, trying hard to avoid looking at the girl's face – had that been her Patronus? Did she have a Patronus just like her mother...and himself?
After securing Black to the last stretcher and making sure to both bind and gag him, he levitated the group of them towards the castle. Lupin was gone and as the moon had risen, he could only imagine where he could be hiding – it made him keep his wand held out in front of him. Black had gotten those scratches across his face somehow...Snape could only hope he was stricken with the curse, as well.
When he finally made it back up to the castle, it was closer to daylight than nightfall. He lifted his wand, keeping his mind focused on both the levitation of the stretchers and his happiest thought of the moment – Sirius Black will be as soulless as he has always seemed – before he waved his wand.
"Black has been captured, children were attacked. Contact the Ministry, come to the infirmary."
After his silvery doe sped towards Dumbledore's office with his message, he continued toward the hospital wing. His legs felt weak, he was unsure if it was from the attack on him or the overall attack from the Dementors, but he would avoid mentioning it until Black was dealt with. He would not rest until he was put down like a dog...
Madame Pomfrey was out the doors before he even entered. "Dementor attacks! Albus warned me – is it true? Is Sirius Black-"
"Here," Snape confirmed. "Has he contacted the Minister?"
"Of course," she bustled, coming to help him with the stretchers and levitating them each to a separate bed. "Why were students out in the – the twins, of course! – and what happened to Mr Weasley? Surely not Professor Lupin..."
"No, this is not a werewolf's bite," Snape answered simply, watching as she put them into their own beds. "He was attacked before Lupin turned – hello Headmaster, Minister."
With timing more perfect than could be described, both Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge walked through the doors. They were trailed by a handful of Aurors that stayed hovering outside the large, oak doors as the Minister for Magic paused in his tracks at the sight before him.
"Black!" he gasped. "It's true – you've caught him, Snape!"
"Yes, Minister," he nodded, unable to hold back his pride from the smile that marred his features. "I suggest that you detain him properly before he comes to – he has a way of escaping punishment."
"Yes, yes of course-" the Minister stuttered, moving forward to look at Black before snapping his fingers at the Aurors behind him. Poppy Pomfrey nearly complained as they took him on the stretcher that Snape had already conjured and headed out of the Hospital Wing without her able to check his vitals.
"Do you need looking after, Severus?" Poppy asked, looking at him with a very calculating glare.
"I'm fine, Poppy," he said at once. "Nothing more than a bump on the head."
"Then you can leave my wing," she said firmly. "I don't want you to wake up my patients."
"What happened to those patients...is that – is that Harry Potter? And is that-"
"His sister and his friends? Yes," Snape looked over to them, hardly able to avoid Poppy's glare. "They were all present for everything – including the attack on myself."
"Terrible! Tell me everything that happened, Snape."
"Shall we tell the story outside of Poppy's wing?" Albus asked pleasantly. "I daresay she will-"
"Yes, now out!" Poppy snapped, overhearing and leering at them all. "My patients will need their rest, not to be giddy from your storytelling!"
"Madam Pomfrey, it's hardly storytelling-" the Minister complained.
"Whether true or false," she held up her hand to stop him. "Storytelling and healing to not go hand in hand. Out of my wing!"
Walking out of the wing, they situated themselves just outside the door. It seemed that Dumbledore did not want to move away from his students and quite honestly, Snape was looking for statuses of their health as well – he did not know what had happened to them after he had been attacked and he couldn't help but fear for...for her life.
"Severus," Cornelius began again. "Please, tell me everything."
"I was made aware that one of our professors was missing earlier on in the evening," Snape began, giving a cool glare to Dumbledore, "when he missed his dosage of Wolfsbane potion-"
"Wolfsbane-" Fudge stuttered. "A werewolf? You have a werewolf on your staff, Dumbledore!"
"A responsible werewolf who was no danger to the students, Cornelius," Dumbledore assured him without so much as batting an eye. "Proper precautions were taken that I'm sure you will find were all up to Ministry standard. Please, Severus, continue your tale."
"After following Professor Lupin," he could not help the urge to let the Minister know exactly who the monster was. "I was made aware that one of the secret passages leading from Hogwarts down towards Hogsmeade had been used. Following this, I was able to catch both the werewolf and Black off guard."
"Why was Professor Lupin with Black in the first place?" Fudge asked, "had he cornered him?"
"I believe he was working with him-" Snape began only to be cut off by Dumbledore.
"I'm sorry, Severus, but your facts have been skewed," Dumbledore raised a hand to interrupt. "One of the many precautions I have taken to ensure the safety of my students is containing Remus Lupin within the Shrieking Shack, just outside of Hogsmeade, while he is transformed. He knew he had missed his nightly dose of Wolfsbane potion and confronted me about headed there before he transformed."
Severus could feel his face turning red. Dumbledore was trying to save Lupin – and had quite a convincing story, by the look on Fudge's face. Still...he could not save all of Potter's little friends...
"This may be true, but I saw him coercing with Black – I noticed then that the Potter's, Mr Weasley, and Miss Granger were present and moved quickly to apprehend both men. I thought I'd had them both detained when I was attacked..." It was humiliating, admitting that he had been caught off guard, but he couldn't bring himself to admit that it was the girl who had done it. She shouldn't have gotten in trouble for her emotions being out of hand – the boy, on the other hand, had attacked him out of cold blood. He would be punished later – when Black was a vegetable.
"When I woke, it was to dozens of Dementors being driven away. I do not know the cause. Professor Lupin had disappeared into the forest while Black and the students all lay unconscious from the Dementor's influence-"
"Oh dear," Fudge took off his bowler hat and rang it in his hands. "I am quite sorry, my boy, those Dementors were – well, if they were after Black they did as they were told, but-"
"They were as close to students as they were to Sirius Black, Cornelius," Dumbledore voiced sternly. "I trust now that you have found your man, they will be removed from my school?"
"There seems no need for them now-"
"Can I take your word?" Dumbledore asked politely. Fudge looked confused for a moment before nodding fervently.
"Yes, yes, of course – they will be removed at once. After the Kiss is administered, of course – I think that's the only proper punishment, don't you?"
"Of course, Minister," Snape said, nearly too eagerly. "I think it is perfectly fitting."
"Yes, yes – the Dementors Kiss...nasty business. I hate having part in it," the Minister admitted.
"On that note, I shall go inform the Aurors of your decision, shall I?" Dumbledore asked, his blue eyes twinkling madly. Snape almost wanted to tell the Minister 'no'; warn the Minister that Dumbledore was not on their side when it came to the innocence of certain individuals...but he did not speak fast enough.
"Oh, yes, if you please, Dumbledore," Cornelius bobbed his head expressively. "I would like to speak to Snape a bit longer – make sure he is properly noted for his role today!"
"Of course, he deserves the highest standings," Dumbledore praised. Snape couldn't help but let his lips quirk up – it was nice to get some recognition...even if he was suspicious of Dumbledore's motives. And with another nod – which looked far closer to a bow – Dumbledore walked off towards Black's tomb.
"You were saying, Severus? They were all unconscious?"
"Yes. In that time, I apprehended Black again and levitated each of them back to the school. You came not long after – but who knows how long they were with Black before I had gotten there? Anything could have happened in the time I was absent." He couldn't help but growl the last – wondering just how Black had convinced someone as intelligent as Potter – the girl, of course – to believe in his story. She was a better judge of character than that...he couldn't believe that she wouldn't see through his lies.
"Shocking business – shocking," the Minister agreed, wringing his hat again. "Miracle none of them died; never heard the like...by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape..."
"Thank you, Minister," he tried to sound humble...he was unsure if it worked.
"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wangle it!" Snape could hardly fight back his smirk.
"Thank you very much indeed, Minister." He bowed his head slightly, Fudge seemed to watch where his hair had moved.
"Nasty cut you've got there..." he pointed to Snape's forehead and he took a moment to press his hand to his forehead and spot that there was a bit of blood still coming from a cut there. He would have to get Poppy to look at it after all this was finished. "Black's work, I suppose?"
"As a matter of fact, it was Weasley, Granger, and the Potters, Minister..."
"No!" He gasped, looking through the crack in the door and observing the students that Poppy was still hovering over.
"Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately," he said at once, watching as the Minister's eyes narrowed on the redheaded girl that was still unconscious in the farthest bed. He couldn't help but feel protective of her – it was not her fault that her emotions had gotten out of hand...her brother, however... "A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior. They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape...they obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handedly. The Gryffindors have gotten away with a great deal before now...I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves... and of course Potter, the boy, has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the headmaster-"
"Ah, well, Snape – Harry Potter, you know – we've all got a bit of a blind spot where he's concerned."
"And yet – is it good for him to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try and treat him like any other student...he behaves more so in my class because of it. His sister, who is treated by everyone with no such leniency is a model student by most of her peers. Any other student would be suspended – at the very least – for leading their friends into such danger. Consider, Minister...against all school rules – after all the precautions put in place for he and the girl's specific protection...out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer...and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too..."
"And the girl?"
"The girl has not been so insubordinate. She acts out – a curse I'm sure comes from the mercy he is shown – but she is, as said, a model student."
"Well, well...we shall see, Snape, we shall see," The Minister nodded to himself, looking through the doors again and narrowing his eyes. "The boy has undoubtedly been foolish..."
"He is entitled, Minister. It's a plague upon men," Snape explained, making the Minister nod and hum aloud.
"Yes...still, what amazes me most is the behavior of the Dementors...you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?" He didn't want to tell Fudge that he knew the specific patronus he had seen – it had driven the Dementors away but it could have been any animal...perhaps he had only been seeing what he had wanted to see – and he was not about to explain that what he had wanted to see was Lily Evans come to his rescue. The Dementors had made him think of her in his unconscious state as well, he may have been hallucinating...
"No, Minister...by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances..." he looked out the window at his side, watching the Dementors hovering over the grounds.
"Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and Audrey-"
"All unconscious by the time I reached them," he made sure not to explain just how much the girl had tried to help save Black from the Dementors. It would do no good for her later. "I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."
"Well done, Snape, well done," The Minister nodded. "And to think – Potter went after him! Did he not realize just how dangerous Black was?"
"Undoubtedly," Snape sneered. "He thinks himself much more powerful than he is. The girl has been warning him off the idea for weeks."
"You mean this was premeditated?"
"I have no doubts," Snape sneered lightly, trying not to seem as annoyed by this as he was. "He brings his friends on all his little adventures with him."
"Fascinating," Fudge muttered. "Perhaps he is not as val-"
"WHAT?"
The scream had come from the Hospital Wing and interrupted whatever magnificent insult Fudge was about to say about the boy he so hated. In the room, both Granger and that very boy were trying to get out of their beds – Snape immediately noted that his sister was still unconscious and his friend still looked ill.
Both Fudge and Snape stepped in the Hospital Wing as they watched both patients fight to get out of their beds against Poppy's will.
"Harry, Harry, what's this?" Fudge frowned, looking at him a little less jubilantly than he normally did. Snape sincerely hoped it stayed that way. "You should be in bed – has he had any chocolate?"
"Minister, listen!" Potter rushed quickly. "Sirius Black's innocent, Peter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw him tonight! You can't let the Dementors do that thing to Sirius, he's-"
"Harry, Harry," he shook his head and spoke in a happy, calm voice. "You're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal...lie back down, now, we've got everything under control."
"YOU HAVEN'T!" The boy yelled. "YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!"
"Minister, listen, please," Granger rushed as she finally got alongside her friend. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus – Pettigrew, I mean – and he-"
"You see, Minister?" Snape interrupted with a sneer. "Confunded, both of them...Black's done a very good job on them..."
"WE'RE NOT CONFUNDED!"
Snape's sneer fully turned to Potter at that moment – Lily's eyes clashed against his own. It was hard to stare him down...it was always hard, but today it was a little more satisfying. He had gotten his sister in danger again and whenever he put the girl in danger, it was easy for Snape to feed his fury.
"Minister! Professor!" Madam Pomfrey huffed, storming towards both he and Fudge angrily. "I must insist that you leave. Potter is my patient, and he should not be distressed!"
"I'm not distressed, I'm trying to tell them what happened!" The boy bellowed. "If they'd just listen-"
Poppy took a large chunk of the chocolate in her hands and harshly shoved it into the boy's mouth. Snape nearly smirked while he gagged on it and tried to resist as the nurse steered him back toward his bed. Over her shoulder, she spoke to the men.
"Now, please, Minister, these children need care. Please leave."
"Yes, yes, of course," Fudge nodded, playing with his bowling hat. He was just about to turn around when the door opened again – Dumbledore had returned.
"Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black-" Potter began again. Snape wanted to hex him into silence, but was too distracted to do anything more than consider it when he realized that Dumbledore was actually seeming to listen to his pleas.
"For heaven's sake!" Madam Pomfrey cried. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist-"
"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr. Potter and Miss Granger," Dumbledore explained calmly. Snape tried to catch the old wizard's eye – to tell him that he could explain everything that had happened – but the Headmaster did not meet his glance. "I have just been talking to Sirius Black-"
Snape felt his fury boil. Of course he had – and now, Snape was no longer necessary to him. Snape's bravery, his fight and protection for these students meant so little it didn't even need to be acknowledged... "I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter's mind? Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive-"
"That, indeed, is Black's story," Dumbledore nodded, looking at Snape evenly. He did not seem sorrowful at all, but determined. Snape felt his face begin to redden in his frustration.
"And does my evidence count for nothing?" he snarled. "Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds."
"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" The know-it-all cried desperately. "You didn't arrive in time to hear..."
"Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" Snape bellowed, glaring at her in a way that made her sit back down on her bed and look helplessly toward the headmaster. Good.
"Now, Snape," Fudge began soothingly, "the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances-"
"I would like to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," Dumbledore repeated strongly. "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy – please leave us."
"Headmaster!" Poppy gasped, looking outraged at being asked to leave her own duty. "They need treatment, they need rest-"
"This cannot wait," said Dumbledore. "I must insist."
He was planning something – Dumbledore was always planning something – and it infuriated him that for once, he was not in on the end-goal. In fact, he was vehemently against it if it had anything to do with whatever talks he had just had with Sirius Black. Snape could feel his fury mounting, he could feel the blood rushing from his face as he realized that he had to act quickly or this victory would be stripped from him...
"The Dementors should have arrived by now," Fudge thought aloud as he examined his old pocket watch. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs."
Dumbledore nodded to him but showed no other sign of listening. Snape, knowing something was about to go disastrously wrong if Dumbledore was not willing to speak to these three in front of him, could not help but feel disastrously betrayed.
"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face – he could not make himself sneer, for beneath his rage he was actually concerned...Dumbledore never believed false stories. He only believed true ones. Snape, himself, was the truth of that.
"I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," was all the headmaster would repeat.
"Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen," he breathed, taking a step forward to show his emphasis. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"
"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," Dumbledore nodded quietly to himself. Dumbledore looked almost ashamed for Black...and this only fuelled Severus Snape's anger more.
He was going to get to that tower and he would watch as the Dementors feasted on what little humanity Black had ever had...
"Is everything alright, Snape?" Fudge asked nervously as he watched the anger seeping through the Potion Master's guarded expression.
"Of course, Minister. We have finally gotten Sirius Black – everything is as it should be. I can only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties," he muttered, noting that Fudge nodded himself. "The Kiss will be performed immediately?"
"As soon as Macnair returns with the Dementors," Snape couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief while his chest constricted with the excitement of it all – Black would finally be punished for the abomination to wizard kind that he was. "This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last... I daresay they'll want to interview you, Snape... and once young Harry's back in his right mind, I expect he'll want to tell the Prophet exactly how you saved him..."
He wasn't so sure of that, but this was no time to think of details such as that. If they really were Confunded, which he doubted but couldn't help but hope, perhaps Audrey Potter would give that interview for her brother. As unlikely as that was, it was the only probable option.
As they reached the corridor leading to where Sirius Black was being kept, Kingsley Shacklebolt – one of the Ministry's most familiar Aurors – fell into step with him.
"All has been quiet, Minister," he informed. "Macnair is on hand with the Dementors."
"All is well, then," Fudge nodded to himself, straightening his bowler hat. "I assume you want to stay, Snape? Witness how you have saved the lives of so many future victims?"
"I feel obligated to," Snape smirked to himself, trying to seem somber. "The Dementors Kiss is a frightening affair, however, I would like to see him pay for his crimes."
"Yes, yes, he certainly will," Fudge agreed with a smile. "If we hurry, we may just be able to make this morning's copy of the Prophet with the story – yes, that will cheer everyone's spirits. Where did you take him, Kingsley?"
"This tower, here," Kingsley pointed to the Astronomy tower, just to the left. A few moments later they were climbing up the steps, Snape was almost buzzing with anticipation – were he alone, he would have been jumping them three or four at a time. Instead, he kept pace with the Minister...only to keep himself calm. He was excited to see Black punished, but surpassing his excitement was the worry of whatever it was that Dumbledore was planning...and he was even more worried why on earthit would involve Potter...
At the top of the tower, the door was locked to get into the Astronomy classroom.
"Kingsley," Fudge ordered. Removing the lock on the door and having his wand at the ready, Kingsley opened the door and Snape moved in front of the Minister to get a better look at the man he had doomed to a fate so much worse than death...
"What?" Kingsley gasped, walking into the room with his wand still held high. At his cry, Fudge and Snape immediately took out their wands and entered the room, Snape's eyes wide and the grip on his wand as tight as elastic.
Sirius Black was gone.
"Where is he, Shacklebolt?" Snape hissed, his eyes raking every inch of the tower as his heart began to thud, releasing venom through his bloodstream. "SHACKLEBOLT!"
"I don't know! The other's have not seen any movement," he confirmed, sounding frustrated and dumbfounded. "He should be here!"
"He's not, though," Fudge panicked. "He's escaped us again!"
"But how-" the Auror began.
"What's this, no Sirius Black?" Dumbledore asked, walking up behind them and investigating the scene. "Are you sure you have the proper tower?"
"Of course we are," Fudge frowned. "He's not here, Dumbledore! He's escaped again!"
"Quite frightening," he said calmly, not sounding at all perturbed – it made the venom in Severus' blood boil. "This is quite a loss – the Dementors were already on hand."
"How did this happen?" Fudge asked, looking around to all of the men in the room.
And Snape, knowing the exact answer – having already seen the answer in Dumbledore's twinkling eyes – could only respond with a roar of rage. It shook the room around them and had the Minister for Magic asking him to quiet himself.
"IT – WAS – POTTER!" He raged, leaving the Aurors to investigate the empty tower as he stormed down the stairs and back towards the infirmary.
"Severus, Potter was down in the Hospital Wing, what do you think he had to do with it?"
"It was him! He's the only one who would have even cared to do anything!"
"I locked them in there myself, Severus," Dumbledore argued evenly. "Poppy will attest to that."
"Then he got out!"
"No, no," The Minister began again. "He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out-"
"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, picking up speed as he saw the Hospital Wing doors before him – he wanted to burst them down with the rage he was feeling. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS – HAS – SOMETHING – TO – DO – WITH – POTTER!"
"Severus, be reasonable – Harry has been locked up in the infirm-"
Severus raised his wand and using the most violent curse he could think of, he blew the locks clean off the doors of the hospital wing, tossing the doors wide open. Potter was awake and in bed, covered in awkward chunks of chocolate. Granger was also awake in her bed – Weasley was still unconscious but the other Potter was awake and she looked absolutely petrified when she saw the look on his face. He must have looked murderous – he certainly felt it.
"OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" Snape bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Professor Snape!" Poppy gasped, moving closer to the boy out of instinct. "Control yourself!"
"See here, Snape, be reasonable," Fudge begged. "This door's been locked, we just saw-"
"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" he howled, pointing at Potter and his bushy-haired friend. He was so furious he couldn't hear how ridiculous he sounded and even if he could, he would not have cared. Everything he had hoped for, for so many years, was so close – was in his grasp – and it had just been taken from between his fingers.
"Calm down, man!" Fudge ordered. "You're talking nonsense!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT-"
"That will do, Severus," said Dumbledore steadily, placing his hand on Severus' raised wand arm and lowering it with a witheringly calm gaze. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"
"Of course not!" the nurse said, bristling defensively. "I would have heard them!"
"I woke up just when the doors were closed by Dumbledore and Harry was explaining everything that's going on..." the Potter girl said in an impression far too believable of her mother. She looked at her brother, hardly able to hide her father's smirk, before she asked, "has something gone wrong with the Dementors Kiss?"
"Well, there you have it, Severus," Dumbledore answered calmly. "Unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further."
Snape, understanding just how overruled he had been, could not see anything else but red. The Potter girl looked at him briefly before she ducked away from the fury in his glare, just as her mother had so many years before and the boy, he held the glare boldly – proudly even. And then, disgustingly, the boy smiled...just as his father would have.
Severus Snape would never be rid of them. So yes, it was all Potter's fault...an entire generation after he had already died.
Based off of my story Green Eyed Monster.
I do not own the Harry Potter universe or its characters. I do own Audrey Potter, her ridiculously vivid potion-making skills, and her wicked nicknames.
Thanks go out to Angel of the Night Watchers, incitanemxx, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, Mischief and Magic, SwiftAlice, and Lizzy B for their reviews.
Enjoy the flashbacks and please review :)