Chapter XVII - Truth Revealed

Throughout the next several weeks Rosemary started observing Snape's daily routine, at least that routine outside of his classroom and office. There was only a slight pattern to it and it varied day by day in one area or another, but one thing she did notice was the fact that every few nights he would leave the dungeons and venture through the castle.

Where he went exactly was difficult to figure because she often lost him in trying to follow undetected; some nights she could follow in her Animagus form as far as the corridors near the Grand Staircase, while other nights she got as far as the courtyard outside before he disappeared into the shadows and she couldn't risk following.

It was perhaps by luck, then, that she finally did succeed in following him out onto the grounds and into the Forbidden Forest. His scent was much easier to follow on the ground here amongst the others she recognized from all those years ago. Her eyes locking on to his form moving in the shadows cast from the trees above, Breen followed several yards behind him.

Where was he going? He moved with determination, not seeming to notice her presence- and she didn't expect him to. There wasn't a lot here that escaped her perked ears, but there was so much that any person would miss.

Snape slowed, then stopped altogether. Breen lifted her nose but could smell nothing- nothing unusual, anyway. Then out of the darkness stepped the maned wolf, the necklace buried in the fur at her chest. Tyra. Breen moved to take a step forward and caught herself.

Tyra approached Snape slowly, turning her eyes upward at him before stopping to sit at his feet. Snape pulled a vial out of his cloak, the contents of which Breen couldn't determine, and a small bowl. He set the bowl on the ground and Tyra glanced at it expectantly.

Snape complied, pouring the vial's contents into the bowl, which the maned wolf then eagerly lapped. Breen tensed, wanting with all her might to rush in and reveal herself, accusing Snape of what Sirius had suspected all along. And then, before she could do so much as think, Tyra stood and, having thoroughly cleaned the bowl, left into the depths of the Forbidden Forest once more. Snape picked up the bowl and slipped it and the vial back into his cloak.

"Looking for something?"

She snarled, leaping forward before transforming. "You've been- been- All this time, and Dumbledore trusted you-"

He turned to face her, red-faced and flaring with anger, and raised his eyebrows slightly. "You always have been terrible at sneaking about. Pity, you'd think you might have learned with all those years around your dear friends."

"Shut up," she said, feeling for her wand and then pulling it out and pointing it his way. "I'm taking you to Dumbledore."

"Put your wand away, DiNozzo," he said, a hardness entering his snide voice. "I can't imagine Dumbledore would be concerned with this, considering it was his idea to begin with."

"He- what?" Her wand hand faltered.

"It's really not a difficult concept to grasp."

"But- you're-" She thrust her wand his way again, unsure. "You're helping her. Helping him."

"Yes I am, though not in the way you think, now put your wand away or I shall have to do it for you."

She lowered it slightly.

"I gave her a potion I've been brewing to help with the control of the amulet. Clearly Ancient Runes isn't the only subject you need remedial lessons in."

"Just stop it, Snape." She tightened her grip on her wand once more, tone still strained despite the relaxed quality of his voice. "How is it helping, exactly?"

"I assumed the control was already beginning to break at the first Death Eater meeting, and later Narcissa noticed something similar. The potion dulls the amulet's power, but it will take her own will to break it completely. This will take time, however; do try to keep up, as much as is possible for you." He paused only briefly. "Had it not already been working, she would have surely attacked and likely killed you before you even revealed yourself."

"So..." She tried to wrap her head around the vast misunderstanding. "Why didn't you tell anyone before? If you are really helping her?"

Snape blinked an unamused blink. "Were I to tell anyone the chances of this information getting to the Dark Lord would have increased vastly. Your knowledge even now puts her in more danger than you could possibly imagine, which is why you must keep this to yourself if you wish her to have any possibility of living."

"To myself?"

He lowered his voice. "No one can know. Not anyone else in the Order, not even your precious friends."

She grew defensive. "What am I going to tell Sirius now?"

His shrug was nonchalant as he headed toward the castle once more. "Tell him she's dead for all I care, DiNozzo. Black's emotional state is no concern of mine."

Weeks went by and the arrival of March saw the first Order meeting in a long while. The return to Grimmauld Place was something Rosemary looked forward to and yet dreaded. She had not contacted Sirius and Remus either through the fireplace or some other means in a month, but they had tried contacting her. Often times she pretended to be napping when Sirius' voice came hissing from the fire, or simply not gone into the room at all.

The knowledge that she could not tell them what she knew and that she still hadn't devised an explanation still weighed on her mind. As the meeting ended Snape pulled Dumbledore to the side to explain what had transpired that night in the Forbidden Forest and Rosemary hurried out of the dining room away from her friends. She could hear their footsteps behind her as she ascended the stairs.

"What's the hurry?"

"There's no hurry," she lied, not turning back as she pushed open the door of a room on the first floor.

"What have you found out?" Sirius asked, his voice lower this time as he and Remus entered the room behind her. She glanced over their shoulders out the door to be sure they were alone.

"I... You're going to have to take Dumbledore's word on Snape."

"Why?"

"Because... Just because."

"Has he been sneaking off?"

"Please just drop it, Sirius."

"Maybe you sh-"

"Be quiet, Remus." Sirius' face grew hard suddenly. "This is my wife we're talking about, how do you expect me to drop it?"

She sighed, moving past them out the door. "Look, I've told you what I can. Have some faith, for her sake."

"Faith?" She heard him ask as she left the room and started to ascend the stairs another flight. His face appeared in the doorway and he stepped out. "Faith never saved anyone, did it?"

Without answering, she made for her room to decide what she would tell him should he ask further, and ask further he did. That night dinner was tense. It seemed Sirius and Remus had been bickering and Rosemary had taken to ignoring them as much as she could. Several of the Order members were still around for planning and discussion concerning the Department of Mysteries and the Death Eaters that were still at large, and only a few down the table seemed to be conversing at all. Dumbledore had left already, but Snape remained. His presence agitated Sirius even more than Rosemary's general silence did.

Sirius glanced Snape's way and set his fork down with a clatter. "Funny how you haven't been reporting on the Death Eater meetings recently..."

Snape looked his way. "The Dark Lord does not assemble his followers so regularly."

"His followers? You count yourself a follower?" Sirius' accusatory tone made nearly everyone at the table look his way, but Snape hardly blinked.

"How quickly your simple mind forgets, Black; my position as Death Eater is merely a cover Dumbledore himself instructed me to take. Clearly the man knows what he's doing, especially when it comes to your instructions. Or do you doubt him?"

Sirius' voice began to rise as he did from his seat. "I doubt you. Then again, maybe Dumbledore doesn't know everthing-"

"I'm sure he'll be shocked to hear that from you." Snape raised his eyebrows mockingly.

"Just whose agenda are you working towards?"

Snape's voice began to rise this time. "I have the best interest of the Order-"

"Oh, the Order is it? Forgive me for thinking otherwise-"

"-at heart, I know where my loyalties lie-"

"-It is so very easy to tell, what with your clear respect of me and my house, your headquarters-"

"-Perhaps you ought to take it up with Dumbledore himself instead of wasting my time-"

By now Sirius was pulling out his wand. "Maybe I'll just deal with it now and you'll have nothing to worry about-"

"Sirius, put your wand away," Remus was on his feet, trying to pry Sirius' wand out of his hand.

"Remus, get off!" Sirius jerked his arm away as Snape pulled out his own wand, aimed for Sirius.

"It's more trouble than its worth, Dumbledore's going to-"

"Oh, Dumbledore can piss off, this is my-"

"How very noble of you, Black, pity your wife and dearest friend can't be here to back you up like they did in school-"

Remus pulled his own wand out of his coat, moving its aim between them. "Sirius, he's not worth-"

"How dare you talk about James," Sirius snarled. "He was fifty times the man you'll-"

"Five against one, it was always such fair odds-"

"Stop!" Rosemary was on her feet now, her own wand pointed first at Snape almost instinctively, and then settling on Sirius. "Just stop it!"

Her uncharacteristic anger startled them all and they seemed to freeze, looking her way.

"Your attitude is ridiculous, Sirius- badgering me, picking fights, treating Remus like- like-" She jabbed her wand Sirius' way. "You just shut the hell up for once and trust someone. Lauren will be back soon and how do you think she's going to react when she hears how you've been behaving?"

Sirius didn't answer; he was too stunned to.

"She's not going to like it, is she? Now stop this fighting because like it or not Snape's on our side, and I know it for a fact. If you're not going to trust Dumbledore then at the very least trust me and stop being such a baby! Put your wands away!"

There was silence, but Sirius' wand hand lowered as Snape slipped his wand back into his cloak. Finally Sirius put his own away.

"Now," She huffed, her voice quieting. "I'm sorry but you're both being ridiculous. All you're doing is making it harder for everyone to concentrate on You-Know-Who, and I've got enough to deal with without you two acting like children all the time. If you can't get along then maybe you should pretend eachother doesn't exist."

Sirius muttered something under his breath.

"Well..." Snape drawled coolly. "There's an idea. Pity I've got more important matters to attend to now than arguing with you, Black."

Sirius' gaze flickered to Snape, his voice acidic despite the calm tone. "Then get out."

"Gladly."

With that Snape left and Sirius and Remus returned to their seats. Rosemary sat with a huff. After a few seconds of being unable to eat she rose from her seat and left the room. A few people down the table started their chatter again rather awkwardly, and after a minute or so Remus got up and left the room as well.

He found her curled in a chair in the library with her eyes closed, and paused in the doorway before closing the door behind him and sitting in another chair nearby. She didn't move.

"Sirius?"

"No."

She sighed, turning in the chair slightly. "I wish he would stop this."

Remus considered his answer a moment before responding. "He's just upset that he can't do anything to get Lauren home any faster. Sirius never has been one for inaction."

"We're doing all we can. He doesn't have to take it out on us. Or Snape."

"He's always taken it out on Snape."

"Well..." She opened her eyes to look at him. "Snape is on our side now. I... can't say how I know."

"I understand."

"Will you tell him that? That everything's going to be alright and Snape's not someone to worry about? That... if I said any more, it might..."

He nodded. "I'll tell him, but I can't guarantee he'll listen."

She was silent a moment. "I don't understand why he has to be so... angry with us."

"He's worried."

"We all are. Doesn't he know that?"

"Yes. But Lauren's his wife, and they've been apart for fifteen years."

She straightened in the chair. "So he thought he'd never see her again?"

"Didn't you?"

For a moment she looked at him. "No, I guess I didn't think we would. But there's always hope... and since we know she's alive..."

"Yes..."

"We're going to get her back soon." She got up. "I have to get back to Hogwarts. Just... tell him that."

"We'll meet you through the fire soon."

She nodded, heading for the door. "If the Ministry hasn't started monitoring those too."