Lemon Drop?
Chapter 3
Something To Tell Snape
~liquid-time

Thank you bananas in pyjamas for beta-ing this chapter

"Professor Snape?" I asked, knocking on his office door.

Draco was beside me. I had told him about my talk with Dumbledore, and he had insisted that we see Snape first thing next morning. As the only Death Eater inside Hogwarts (besides Draco), he figured that Snape was the best person to tell about someone slipping information to Dumbledore. The sooner Voldemort knew that there was a rat in his ranks, the better.

Snape opened the door while my fist was still raised mid-knock. Cold eyes swept over the pair of us, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure so early in the morning?"

My cheeks turned slightly pink and I mumbled, "It's not that early," but Draco had spoken up, asking if we were allowed into the office, because we had private things to discuss.

"Of course," was the reply, and Snape stood back, holding the door open for us.

He closed the door and locked it before sweeping to the other side of his mahogany desk and sitting down. I took this time to examine the contents of his office. Although familiar with the layout - I had been there fair amounts before - the jars of ingredients and the bottles of potions which lined the shelved walls were always changing. There was a particularly nice looking potion that was corked, sitting on a very high shelf and I had to stop myself from asking about it.

"Professor," Draco started with a sidelong glance at me, "Pansy had a discussion with Dumbledore last night and we thought we ought to tell you about it because…" he trailed off allowing me to pick up.

"Professor he knows about what's going to happen on Friday. He said that someone told him that there was a plan for me to join the Death Eaters and he wanted to talk with me about it."

I didn't know it was possible for someone to look so surprised, but the look on Snape's face told me that whatever he was expecting us to tell him, this certainly wasn't it. Then his eyes narrowed into small slits.

"Did he tell you who gave him this information?" his words were sharp and clipped.

I scoffed. "No. He said it was an unreliable source, but it's obviously not, right?"

"No, it's not. Have you told anyone besides," he gestured to Draco, "him?"

"Of course not," I couldn't help adding, "I'm not an idiot."

Snape clicked his tongue and contorted his face into one that was a cross between a smirk and a frown, contemplating what to do next. After a few tense moments of silence, he spoke.

"I will inform the Dark Lord about this. As it stands now, the plans for your ceremony will go on as usual. If they change I will inform you. Do not talk to anyone about this. Dismissed."

Draco and I stood to leave.

"Thank you for telling me," Snape added, perhaps as an afterthought, "if anything of this nature comes up again, I would appreciate the tip, considering my unique position to, smooth over anything that might go 'bump'."

Nodding, I turned and left, Draco next to me. We set off down the stone hallway, heading to the Great Hall. We were just in time for breakfast and judging by the noises (I hoped only I could hear) that were coming from my stomach, I could use some toast, bacon, and kippers.

"Snape seemed to take that fairly well," I commented as we emerged from the dungeons, turning down another corridor.

"Yeah, well, he's normally cool on the outside, but did you see his eyes after you told him about it? He's livid. I bet he's flooing someone right now with the news."

"Right now?" I asked, looking at him, "couldn't he get caught?"

We turned a corner sharply, and ran into none other than Potter, Weasley, and Granger, with me literally colliding with the mudblood.

"My God Granger, are you really that intent on infecting everyone?" Draco sneered while helping me up. I took his hand gratefully, attempting to look as elegant as possible whilst retrieving myself from the ground.

"I would," she responded, "if I had anything to infect you with."

"It just goes to show you," I said curtly, brushing myself off, "that you can't detect your own pestilence."

I could see Weasley's hands knot into fists. Potter didn't look like he was very much into practicing self restraint, so with my nose slightly in the air I stated, "let's leave, it smells horrible here," and proceeded to push past them into the Great Hall.

Sliding into seats across from Millicent and Blaise, I proceeded to spoon large amounts of egg on to my plate before lightly salting them.

"Where've you been?" Millicent asked through a large mouthful of sausage, "you weren't in the dormitory when I got up."

"Having an unfortunate run-in with Granger," I grumbled. Half true, I thought to myself.

Millicent grunted, accepting my half-lie. I glanced up to the grand table at the front of the hall where the professors ate, noticing that Snape was absent.

In fact Snape didn't turn up to breakfast at all.

Snape slapped his hand on the table. "I told you not to talk to her about it. How am I supposed to explain to Voldemort that you knew?"

"I'm sorry Severus," Dumbledore conceded, "but I couldn't watch another one of my students join his ranks without doing something to intervene. I admit," he continued when Snape opened his mouth to retort, "that it was not the smartest decision, and now we both have to live with the consequences. For this, I am very sorry, but you have to understand where I'm coming from."

"I understand fully where you're coming from," he spat back, "I just thought you would have exercised a little more self restraint. It was foolish of you to think that you could have swayed her opinion."

"I agree."

Dumbledore let out a long sigh. Fawkes hooted from his perch in the corner of the office and ruffled his wings, nudging the sorting hat by accident. Snape glared at the phoenix before turning his attention back to Dumbledore, waiting for the headmaster to speak.

"It didn't push the date for her joining back at all, did it?"

Snape pursed his lips. "No."

"I think," Dumbledore started, pushing his spectacles back up his nose, "we should discuss what we're going to do about how I figured this out."

Snape had the urge to throw something. He also felt slightly sick. How Dumbledore could put him in this position, he didn't know. There was one thing that was for sure, and that was that at this moment it seemed to Snape like Voldemort would see straight through whatever lie they came up with, and as a result he would be very dead, very soon.

AUTHORS NOTE: Next chapter will finally have some romance in it, I promise! There will be a seriously (hopefully) hot make-out session, with some tender-ish-ness. Just keep in mind that it might take awhile. I've all of a sudden found myself to be super-busy. I hate having a life sometimes.

The End
(of the chapter)