Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the characters but I have made them dance this time. No money made, no gratuities accepted except the reviews of my peers, for which I thank you.

I always answer my reviewers if they leave a name and I am always happy to chat with them over PM. Huge thanks and a great deal of gratitude as you are the reason I managed to get out of the mud and get going again.

If you have a flame to send, I suggest you do a spell check, the last couple look like they were written by a drunken kindergartener, sorry.

Another huge thanks to my BEsT betas Zarathustra46 and the Wicked Bunjhny who make this lot legible and grammatically sane.

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Chapter 03 – Cans of Worms

When Snape turned to seat himself, it was not quite his patented swirl of robes, but it was enough to send a shiver down many a back. As he sat in the prisoner's chair, the arm cuffs snapped around his wrists but only the left one tightened painfully. The right cuff, main chains, and restraints shivered and lifted away from the man's flesh, then fell limply to the floor much to the consternation of the Wizengamot who looked about in shock.

"Who has interfered with the Prisoner's Chains?" Minister Clearwater roared furiously, glaring around impartially at his fellow members and the crowd.

"The chains are set to automatically ensnare the guilty," the Defence Counsel offered smugly. "No one can interfere with them."

Clearwater snarled at Dumbledore, the Chief Defence Counsel, across the expanse of the courtroom floor but there was no magic emanating from the eminent wizard, just self-satisfaction. In the gallery, a certain pair of Gryffindors exchanged grimly pleased looks as their friend/ boyfriend simply destroyed an evil bit of ancient magic with a mere thought. The green eyes might no longer flash like fire but the temper was still fully functional and his wandless magic more potent than ever, if carefully directed.

Alastor merely grunted and stepped forward, selecting the first of the bottles on the tray he had placed beside the prisoner. Moody held it up for the court officers to see when directed, then carefully split the seal before turning to the prisoner. Usually the magical bands forced the prisoner's head back and mouth open but Snape was merely staring at him with a flat black gaze holding nothing but emptiness.

"Cooperation, or the thumb?" Moody asked, showing a rather battered and scarred digit with an evil grin.

After a second, Snape put his head back against the wooden headrest and voluntarily opened his mouth to receive the requisite three drops of Veritaserum, administered with skill. When a fourth drop fell in, Moody muttered 'one for luck' and the crowd hissed a little as they all knew four drops was far too much. Snape glared then blinked, a hint of curiosity flashing through his eyes before they took on the glazed look of a Veritaserum dosed prisoner.

"The prisoner is ready to answer the court's questions," Moody nodded sagely, stepping back and folding his arms over his chest.

The Prosecution proffered a scrap of parchment with a few chicken scratches on it. Moody sighed before beginning the long line of questions he was going to have to ask. "What is your name?"

"Severus Snape."

"What is your occupation?"

"Potions Master."

"Are you qualified?"

"Yes."

"Did you fight in the last war?"

"Duh! Yes."

Alastor smiled slightly as the subject began to warm up. "What was your position?"

"Which side?"

There was a low buzz around the room as Alastor grinned, his scarred face wrinkling in unexpected ways. Now the fun would begin. "Which was your first side and when did you join?"

"I suppose I was on Tom's side at first. He did save my life when my father almost killed me."

"Is that why you took the Dark Mark, because he saved your life?"

"It seemed logical."

"And so you became a Death Eater. At what age?"

"I… Define Death Eater."

There was an exasperated sigh from the prosecution and a snigger from the gallery as Alastor rolled his magical eye. "A Death Eater is a follower of Lord Voldemort who goes around terrorising Wizards and Muggles alike, killing and raping, and pillaging innocent villagers, and destroying anyone who does not agree with their ideas," the old Auror snapped, long-held anger colouring his speech.

"Never."

"Never… what?"

"I was never a Death Eater."

A furious roar blasted through the court as outraged citizens vented their fury and members of the Wizengamot added their voices to the cacophony. Shaking his head, Alastor bent forward and muttered. "Bloody hell, Snape, you really know how to truly put the cat amongst the pigeons."

"Ah yes, truth, what a slippery concept. Be careful Alastor, you tread a shaky line," the prisoner muttered back with an evil smirk. "Veritaserum, Scotch whiskey and wormwood powder, not exactly unadulterated, humm?"

Before Alastor could reply, the court was brought to order with threats of clearing the gallery. After the room settled down, the Minister motioned for Moody to continue. Alastor gave Snape another drop of Veritaserum to be sure he was still under the influence and asked him to expand on his last statement.

"I did not follow Lord Voldemort. I participated in a couple of political rallies and one raid which failed to gain its objective, but never in the 'fun runs' that so delighted Bella and her charming pack of bloodhounds. Terrorising and torturing people seemed rather a waste of time to me, no real gains. How can you change someone's mind if they are dead or driven mad with pain; pointless, really. As for rape, not in this lifetime, thank you, unless…"

Alastor put in hastily, "You have a Dark Mark and yet you say you did not follow Lord Voldemort. Explain!"

"I promised to support the real man I knew as Tom Riddle in return for my life. When Tom Riddle, the man I respected, became no more than Lord Voldemort the construct in my mind, I ceased to love or cherish him. Thus I was never a supporter of Lord Voldemort; merely a very well placed spy." Snape sighed deeply. "You know, if I had known what a nuisance Tom would become, I would never have saved his life. Prophesising, what a hit and miss affair that is!"

Alastor snorted at the utter disgust in Snape's voice under the rumble of comment his last words evoked. "And when did Tom morph into Lord Voldemort?"

"When he began trying demon raising and nearly failed to send the creature back to where it belonged."

Screams and shouts of utter terror nearly lifted the roof. The threat of demon raising made the general wizarding population shudder in horror. The prosecution turned white and even Alastor stepped back in surprise with dawning realisation. This was a very dangerous line of questioning. "And is that why you changed sides?"

"No. Someone had to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't try anything so stupid again. Demon raising is a fool's game and Tom did not have the respect for the dangers he was playing with, nor the training to do anything like that safely."

"Why did you change sides?"

"Lord Voldemort sought out a teacher to train him in the art of Demon raising. The price of that training was to be my soul to the demon and my body to his teacher. Naturally, I objected rather strenuously."

"What did you do?"

"I made a deal with Albus Dumbledore. I was to continue to keep Tom in check until he could be dealt with properly. I would pass along information and generally keep the Toasted Turkeys informed of Tom's plans and objectives."

Alastor glared and leaned in. "Have a little respect for the Order there, Snape," he muttered before straightening and raising his voice to a normal speaking level to pose the next question. "You became a spy?"

"Yes."

"How many people have you killed with your own hands?"

"Two."

"Who were they?"

"Abraxas Malfoy and Luton Standish."

Again there was a mutter throughout the Wizengamot at the last name and Alastor frowned deeply. This was not an expected answer. "Why did you kill Malfoy?"

"He had Perryander's Disease and the potions were no longer effective. He was dying in agony and I had promised to make sure his suffering was over as swiftly as possible, so I smothered him with the spell that the Medi-wizards use to ease dying patients."

"A mercy killing then. And Luton Standish? He was a respected member of the Wizengamot and of the community in general. Why kill him?"

"He was a paedophile," Snape said with comfortable conviction.

Immediately the courtroom exploded into cacophony, cries of outrage echoing as people rose to try and defend the good name of the philanthropist who had done so much for the children in their community.

"Explain!" Alastor snapped out after having acceded to the calls for more Veritaserum from the Wizengamot, not that more was needed. A hefty six drops were given this time, more than enough to poison a normal man but Snape was a Potions Master and had a certain level of immunity to various ingredients. Even so, it was a life-threatening dose, but this was no time for fun and political manoeuvrings.

"Standish and his little gang of five were paedophiles, preying on the children they so carefully saved from the big bad Death Eaters. If there was a particular child he fancied, like the Montague girl, then Standish would arrange for a raid to destroy the family and leave the child orphaned, thus available to be picked up and used as he saw fit. Of course, Standish stepped over the line with Albina Montague, her father being a Death Eater, and Tom asked me to deal with the problem, so I did."

Again the courtroom exploded into cries of terror, horror and disbelief, one or two of the audience in the gallery almost jumping onto the courtroom floor to physically attack the man saying such terrible things about one of their own officials. A mighty crack of stone on stone sent a thunderous crash through the arena as the head of the Wizengamot brought down his gavel to regain order, the magically enhanced crash physically forcing people to take their seats once more and pinning the more unruly ones down. "Can you name names?" Minister Clearwater asked, jumping the chain of questioners who were demanding a hearing.

"Luton and his brother, Graff Standish, Markus Prussi, Bathilda Morgan and Giles Beamish."

A flick of a wand sent Aurors scurrying off to arrest those named while Alastor stood back and reassessed the man in front of him. Snape looked awfully pale and sweaty. Alastor signalled that it was time to stop. Minister Clearwater called for a recess and had the prisoner marched out under even heavier guard than even he had been marched in to the chamber. The Minister had been warned that he was opening a can of worms but he'd no idea what was going to crawl out. To learn that people he had trusted, people he had even had in his home and around his own children were, were… It was unbelievable! The Minister determined he would know the truth of the accusations as quickly as possible!

oo0oo

Moira Beamish stared at her husband in something akin to shock. "A transfer to America? Now? But, but the children, their schools… Why now?"

"Woman, either pack or don't, but we leave in ten minutes, do you hear me?"

Huffing furiously, Moira flicked her wand and caused the bare necessities to pack themselves into a trunk. The baby was quickly dressed in warm clothes and four-year old Sandria pulled on her winter cloak with a giggle of excitement. In less than the commanded ten minutes, the family held onto the Portkey and Giles Beamish tapped it with his wand. "America Ho, portus." He intoned as the Portkey activated with a scream of power.

'Now let the Ministry try and catch me,' he thought with conceit, before the swirling mist tore him and his family away.

oo0oo

In the privacy of the holding room behind the Prisoner's Door, Severus Snape continued to answer questions put to him by Alastor and the Minister's personal secretary, once the woman had been cleared by Snape's own brand of truth. Names ranging from Unspeakables to Aurors, clerks to Under-Ministers, were given up, along with a complete description of their activities and what they had done or not to support the Dark Lord. Teams of Aurors were pulled off court duty and sent scurrying out to grab the named citizens and drag them back. The number of marked Death Eaters who had not even been suspected was horrifying. By midafternoon the contamination in the Ministry and its bureaucracy had been mostly excised with the holding cells full to overflowing.

Minister Clearwater himself came down to confer with the Aurors and shake his head in shock. "How could we have not known?"

"Tom Riddle began his rise to power more than forty years ago. While he was yet out of his body his organisation still flourished in a quiet and hidden way. Had a long time to mature and grow tentacles into most every aspect of our lives," Shacklebolt muttered, shaking his head as Snape finally began to droop under the burden of sheer exhaustion.

"Snape is going to have to finish his trial, you know?" Constantine murmured as the former Death Eater was force-fed some Pepper-up Potion followed by a water chaser and finally a plate of what looked like thick porridge.

Shacklebolt turned to watch as his fellow Auror, McGonagall, ministered to the prisoner, a sigh of resignation breaking out. "Snape is one of the good guys, you realise?" the man said grimly. "Certainly not one of the nice guys, but a Light fighter all the same."

"I know, I know, as hard as it is to believe. He just looks the part of the villain, doesn't he? All black and greasy and grim with a nasty temper."

"And Lucius looked like an angel, all fair and blond and sweetly spoken…" Alastor Moody reminded them harshly, "…while a complete bastard. When are we, as a society, going to get over that bloody stereotyping habit we have?" A number of Aurors around the room rolled their eyes in resignation as Alastor began to mount his hobbyhorse.

"We look for constants when most of our world is… not solid... always shifting and changing," Snape said dreamily, eyes unfocussed. "Magic makes most things not what they seem; therefore, we latch onto a racial memory and hope to fit all into the mould. Salazar Slytherin was bad, dark and plain looking, therefore all dark, plain people had a chance to be bad. Godric Gryffindor was blond and therefore all blond people are most likely good. By the way, your Veritaserum is most effective, Moody. I've been working on a variant that is even more effective; we'll have to compare notes some time," Snape muttered in a daze.

Alastor sniggered at the dumbfounded looks on the faces around him. "What? You thought he didn't have a theory? He's a Slytherin; they always have theories. How are we going to proceed now?"

"We proceed as planned," Minister Clearwater commanded. "I want Snape to publicly and loudly state the course of the war and his part in it. I want my Ministry cleansed and disinfected so that we can go forward with at least a chance of being a wholesome society again."

"Not going to happen," Severus said unconcernedly. "You cannot have light without shadow, and you can't have good without evil. Nature is about balance. Nature will always strive to find it. Without balance you get Dark Lords and Light Lords and quite frankly, it is getting very hard to tell the difference between them from the history books. Nature is grey."

A deep shudder ran around the room as the softly spoken words seemed to burn in the air long after the voice fell silent.

Shaking his head finally, Clearwater sighed. "Very well, we will strive for balance and see how we progress from there."

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