Chapter 6: The Staff Meeting and What Followed

As a matter of fact, Snape had noticed. How could such a meticulous man, while putting away his precious gifts in his private stores, have not noticed the missing bottles of Lad's Love, or the lowered levels of dragon's blood and scales?

So he arrived in the Staff Room rather put out. He was too pleased by the newest additions to his Rare Ingredients Collection to be enraged by the loss of anything replaceable, but he was certainly annoyed. His mood did not long escape the Headmaster's notice.

"Severus! What ever is going on? There's a spring in your step, yet you're scowling even more heavily than usual."

"Be on the lookout for students sneaking around brewing illicit potions; that is all I can say. I am missing a few things from my personal stores."

Professor McGonagall, sitting in an armchair near the two men, noticed something amiss with Snape's words as Albus left him to his thoughts.

"Severus, why would a student steal from you? Most people probably wouldn't think of it – everyone knows how badly you wanted to be quit of the Potions' job. Any student after ingredients would target Horace."

Snape stared at her for a moment.

"True enough." His voice was grim. "Which means … someone among the staff … or an intruder …"

"May I aid the search? I don't know how much you trust me, being Heads of rival Houses and such, but I would never steal from you; I would ask."

"Of course you would, assuming you had any use for potions ingredients in the first place." Snape refrained from saying outright that he doubted Minerva McGonagall would know what to do with most of the things he had stored away.

"So, logically, we should first focus on who has the ability to use whatever you've lost … or might be working for someone who does …"

"And hope it was merely a case of borrowing without asking, since they could not find me. Of course, it would also have to be someone who knows me well enough to guess I would have kept a few stores, and where I might hide them … and someone who knew what they were looking for. Nothing else was touched or riffled through."

"That all narrows it down quite nicely, then," the Head of Gryffindor said cheerfully.

"Too nicely." Snape's voice became even grimmer. "After all, who does it leave? Albus, Poppy, or Horace."

Minerva's good humour dissolved on hearing this. Still, her charitable Gryffindor instincts prompted:

"I admit Horace can be rather … trying at times, Severus, but other than the fact we can rule the other two out – "

"Not necessarily," Severus murmured. "I wouldn't put it past Albus to do something like this."

"What all was taken? What do you think they might be used in?"

"Blood and powdered scales from a Chinese Fireball, and a few bottles of dried, powdered Lad's Love roots – the magical kind. I don't know off the top of my head what potions use all three of those, but I also haven't had much time to research yet."

"Well, their uses might give us a clue, but we don't need it urgently. How do you wish to proceed now?"

"Hmm…" Snape frowned. "I think we should each talk to one of our two 'suspects'. Which would you prefer to tackle?"

"I have no preference."

"Ah – in that case, would you mind questioning Slughorn? He … how shall I put this … he sort of puts my back up," Severus admitted stiffly.

"Alright. We have twenty minutes before the meeting; let's get started."

They parted company and Snape went to talk to the Headmaster. Once he explained the peculiarities of the situation, Dumbledore stopped teasing him and offered reasonably straight answers. Severus was relieved, for he had expected to have a hard time convincing Albus to cooperate. The upshot was:

"No, Severus, I most definitely did not steal from you. You are right in that I might have, but not this time."

"That's good, I suppose … though to be perfectly frank, Albus, I almost wish you had. I trust you more than Horace, our other prime suspect."

"'Our'?"

"Minerva is helping me investigate."

"I see. Er, Severus, what will you do if it is not Horace?"

"Hope that whoever it is does not have a nefarious purpose in mind. And search out the true thief."

"I may be able to help you with that – Oh, hello Remus."

"Hello Headmaster, Severus," Remus greeted them.

"Good day, Remus." Severus' greeting was guarded and half-suspicious, as usual – then a sudden surge of humour made him ask, "Did you happen to steal some of my potions ingredients?"

"Oh, how did you ever guess?" Remus wondered sarcastically. Snape raised an eyebrow, unsure whether this was a confession or a joke.

The door to the Staff Room opened with a bang! In the doorway stood Minerva, who seemed to have kicked it open, since he right hand was occupied with three large vials and her left was gripping the arm of a protesting Horace Slughorn.

"Severus?" McGonagall voice was loud and cold, and made everyone shift their gaze uneasily between her and Snape. "Are these the ingredients that were stolen from you?"

Snape hurried forward, followed by Dumbledore and Lupin. He took the vials. He inspected them closely. With all eyes on him, there could be no mistakes. But he was too knowledgeable to not recognize the truth – especially in his own bottles and labelled in his own handwriting.

"Yes, they are," he said at last, and looked up. "Horace, why?"

"I didn't steal them! I'm not a thief! I don't know how they got into my rooms! I know it sounds preposterous, but I swear someone must be trying to frame me!"

"Admittedly, you have no reason to steal these," Snape acknowledged, very dryly. "These are not that rare, and certainly the roots at least have no legal restrictions … But still, if you didn't steal them, who did? Whoever broke in knew exactly what they were after."

"And why not?" Slughorn sounded a bit less hysterical now that McGonagall had let go of his arm, and had dropped vehement protests in favour of a reasoning, logical approach. "I mean, if you're going to brew something that requires stolen ingredients, wouldn't you want to be damned sure you knew what you wanted? If only to save time and limit the risk of being caught."

"True enough." Slughorn looked surprised by this calm response, so Snape explained: "It's not that I particularly want you to be the thief, it's just that I've eliminated the other possibility within the school and I'd rather it was you than some intruder. I don't know what potion might require these particular three ingredients, so I have no evidence other than where they were found."

Lupin, not being very fond of Slughorn, decided to step in. After all, if worst came to worst he could just confess the whole story to Dumbledore.

"I don't know if this is valid," the lycanthropic Marauder ventured, "but there's something you might have missed. Let's say someone wants potions ingredients. Why would they bother even trying to steal them from the Defence teacher when there's a Potions Master right downstairs? One who would very likely have obscure things for his own use." Having accidentally repeated Minerva's earlier point, Lupin ended it there, confident that Snape's shrewd brain would read in what he had not said: Only Slughorn himself would know that the school's official Potions teacher didn't have those three ingredients in his personal stores.

There was a pause after Lupin's observation, which was broken by Dumbledore.

"An interesting point. How many would know of Severus' continued interest in obscure potions?"

"Anyone," cut in Poppy Pomfrey, "who knows that, whether he likes it or not, he's brilliant at the subject and has kept his hand in through the years."

"I have an idea," said Snape slowly. "It may eliminate the possibility that a student stole the ingredients and framed you – which is unlikely in any case. They know, or could guess, how I would react if it looked like I was being forced back into Horace's job," he noted acidly. "Horace, you go and lock up your stores the way you usually do, and I will attempt to 'break in' to assess whether a student could have done so."

"Excellent plan, Severus, no need to panic at this stage," McGonagall agreed.

"Then by all means let us skip this staff meeting. Go on down to your rooms and lock up, Horace. I will ensure Severus stays here where he cannot observe your procedure." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "The rest of you are free to go."

Snape sat down and the other staff members left. He thought over the events of the day, and something occurred to him that prompted a wry smile.

"What is it, Severus? Any thoughts on the matter?"

"Indeed, Headmaster, one which intrigues me and will no doubt please you."

"Oh?"

"Who do you think, among the students, I would accuse first? Go on, spit it out."

"Well, you do have a history of accusing a certain Gryffindor trio."

"I do, don't I?" Severus mused, leaning back and clasping his long, bony hands around one knee. "But all three of them have alibis, and Potter's is impeccable. Weasley and Granger were looking for Potter all morning, so I understand – and Potter was with Draco Malfoy during that time."

Albus blinked in surprise. "Please, Severus, do tell all."

"Well, after our discussion I went back to my office and found Potter and Draco waiting for me. Both were almost unrecognisable with filth, a state which they explained by claiming to have spent the morning cleaning the Chamber of Secrets. Not only was Draco backing this tale, Salazar's portrait spoke up and confirmed it. The other reason I don't think they did it was that it was apparently Potter's idea to harvest some of the dead Basilisk and give it to me, ensuring that I would be going to my stores to put my new acquisitions away. I doubt that everyone's Golden Gryffindor is quite so good at covering his tracks that he would practically send me searching for them."

"Good gracious, my boy! Do you mean to tell me that Harry and Draco are no longer at each other's throats?" Apparently Albus was still a few sentences back.

"I believe Potter's words were, 'You'd be surprised what you can do with someone when you're not trying to kill them'."

"Why that's marvellous!" exclaimed Albus.

"You would think so," Snape retorted, but before they could continue, Slughorn returned. Snape and Dumbledore set off for the dungeons to attempt to 'steal' more potions ingredients.

Meanwhile, Remus Lupin had wandered off in vague search of Draco Malfoy, hoping an opportunity would present itself to give him the potion. He wasn't really expecting one, though.

He climbed down a staircase, turned a corner and heard:

"You've got to be joking! You mean I'm not the only one who's a Canons fan?!"

"They do have the best teamwork of any team I've seen … they've just had a really long streak of bad luck."

Recognizing the first voice as Ron Weasley, Lupin walked down the hall just in time to see said redhead give a high five to a familiar blond.

"Honestly!" said Hermione, loudly and exasperatedly, from the sidelines.

"Easy, Hermione," Harry murmured to her "Please don't smash the bridges we're building here."

"Fine … Oh, hello Professor."

"Hello, Hermione." Lupin remained calm – outwardly. "I see you found Harry."

"Yeah. Draco and I went down to the Chamber – sorry if we worried you or anyone."

"No harm done. Find anything interesting?"

"Well, Draco and I pooled our knowledge, and it turns out that the Basilisk was really useful."

"What use is a dead Basilisk?" In addition to wanting to get the students talking, Lupin was genuinely curious.

"Potions ingredients, Professor!" explained Draco eagerly. "The only way anyone can sell, buy, or use pieces of a Basilisk is if the person who killed it signs off rights to its use to them. We found copies of the documents, Harry signed them, and … and …" He trailed off and glanced to Harry, who rolled his eyes and finished the story.

"And we gave as much as we could carry – plus the documentation – to Professor Snape. You know, Drake, Lupin won't kill us for being nice to someone he doesn't like."

"You think?"

"I'm sure. That was more my godfather's style."

The Gryffindors all smiled, if somewhat painedly. They were getting over the loss of Padfoot. (Sirius himself, watching the scene, was overall glad about this – like any true prankster he preferred laughter over tears or solemnity.) Hermione moved over, making room for Lupin to sit down with the students in the smallish alcove off the hallway. He joined them and noted casually, "It's nearly teatime. Refreshments, anyone?"

"Sure!" came a chorus.

"Your call, Draco, you're the host here!" Ron added.

"I'll do it. I'm the old fogey who has to earn a place in your group," laughed Lupin as he stood up. "What do you all want?"

"How about firewhiskey?" joked Ron.

"Whatever's not too much trouble, Professor," Hermione said seriously.

"How about tea?" Lupin suggested.

"Yeah!"

So Lupin left, laughing to himself. Tea was perfect it would mask the colour and taste of the potion perfectly. It was almost too easy to slip into the kitchen and ask a passing elf for 'tea for five'. The small creature squeaked in happy acquiescence, and soon Remus was walking back to the alcove with a heavily laden tea tray. He charmed the cups so that each would be subtly more appealing to a particular person, so he could be sure Draco got the right one.

Sure enough, they all picked the cups they were supposed to, and soon the potion was safely inside Draco. Lily had warned Remus it would not take effect right away, so it would feel natural. She estimated they had twenty-four before things started to get interesting.

"Here's to friendship!" Ron held up his cup to propose a toast with the last of the tea.

"To friendship," repeated the others. Draco and Remus were especially fervent.