Chapter 10
Snape's arrest:
Breakfast the following morning turned out to be a veritable run of the gauntlet. Harry deliberately rose early in the morning, going to the bathroom and locking himself into a toilet stall. There he planned to wait until all the other students had left for breakfast. He had no desire to go to the great hall and suffer the same curious and pitying looks like last night, so he stayed sitting on the closed toilet lid. His legs were pulled close to his body, while he was embracing them with his arms and listened how one student after the other entered the bathroom, getting themselves ready for the day. He couldn't be sure, but he had the impression that this morning the boys were not as loud and boisterous as usual. Nobody laughed or fooled around like they normally did, as if they were trying not to hurt his feelings, aware that he was sitting behind the closed door. But this was not likely. Even if Ron had guessed why he was missing this morning it was hardly thinkable that his friend would walk through all the other rooms to inform the other boys. Still, the tin handle of his stall had not been touched even one time.
The whole time he felt quite tense, muffled bits of conversations from his fellow student moving near him. He tried not to listen to their words. All he wanted was to be left alone and only after the door locked after the last morning bathroom visitor, an eerie silence descending upon the tile covered room, did he allow himself to take a deep relieved breath and loosen his body out of its tense position on the toilet lid. He dropped his feet to the floor, got off the toilet and opened the stall door.
"Finally, there you are."
Harry spun around. Leaning against the neighbouring stall stood Ron, hands buried deep in his pockets, and his right shoulder leaned against the stall door.
"Oh," Harry exclaimed, too perplexed to be able to muster something more intelligent. He swallowed, trying to suppress his surprise. "Wha…what are you doing here?"
Ron shrugged nonchalantly with his free left shoulder. "I'm standing here, since you decided to do the vanishing act one hour ago, hiding in here."
"I want to be alone," Harry growled.
"I'm aware of that, yet I'd be a bad friend if I leave you alone right now." Ron pushed off the door and laid a benevolent hand on Harry's shoulder. "Come on, mate. You can't hide forever. At least for the classes you have to face the others. Or did you plan in missing school altogether from this moment on?"
This time it was Harry's turn to shrug. If he was honest to himself, he hadn't even thought about that until now. All he had wanted was to be alone. But now he had to admit that it wasn't halfway bad to have someone standing by his side, offering support. Ron would help him and support him no matter what. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "I only wanted to be alone."
"Let's go downstairs, Harry. You're not alone in this," Ron encouraged. "Don't forget that Sirius was Hermione's and my friend also. Please let us help."
"I'm neither hungry nor in the mood to be stared at," Harry said bitterly.
"Harry, you can be such a stubborn git. Come downstairs. It'll do you some good to socialize a bit. I'll take care so that nobody will harass you. And no matter what you may say, I for my part, am starving but I won't go there without you." Ron's voice was unmistakably indicating that he was gradually loosing his calm.
"Alright, I'm coming, but don't ask me to eat anything."
Despite Ron, who was shadowing him closely, Harry had a queasy feeling as he entered the great hall. Since he had waited so long in the bathroom, all the other students were already sitting at their tables.
As he entered the room some of the idly chatters died down, Harry finding himself as the unwanted centre of attention. The looks he got were not limited to the Gryffindor table. The Hufflepuffs were looking at him with sympathy, the Ravenclaws with curiosity and the Slytherins with unhidden abhorrence. Yet, and to Harry's astonishment, there was also something akin to worry and uneasiness in the eyes of the latter, certainly directed at the fate of their Head of House. The saying seemed to be right after all, Harry thought bitterly. That only rumours moved faster than the light. As it appeared, the story about Sirius and his own connection to it all, which Hermione and Ron had spread in the Gryffindor tower the previous evening had already moved through all the houses.
Harry walked to the Gryffindor table, seeing that a few of the students stood up to intercept him, wanting to speak with him. Ron however, made it roughly clear to them that they were to step back. Harry silently thanked his friend for this.
He moved relatively undisturbed to his customary place, facing Hermione, while Ron took the seat besides him.
"Harry. It's good to see you here, despite the happenings yesterday." Hermione had not been present while Ron had given him the speech about this subject, a fact for which Harry was greatly thankful. No matter how good a friend Hermione was, her self-possessed logical arguing would not have been easy to handle.
Breakfast for that matter was passing with an air of strained pressure, which was lingering in the air and even seemed to affect the staff. Lupin had a sombre expression on his face and rarely lifted his eyes from his plate. McGonagall, Sprout and the other teachers did their best to appear normal, but they too seemed to be quite nervous. The worst though was Dumbledore. He looked like he hadn't gotten one minute of sleep last night. He was pushing his food around on his plate, but not once did Harry see the man actually bring the fork to his mouth and eat something. Harry didn't feel like eating himself. He was already immensely proud of himself to sit straight and not react to all the Sirius and Snape related comments that drifted over to him from the students in the near vicinity.
A loud groan of the great entrance doors, as they got pushed open, cut through all ongoing conversation like a knife through butter. The two door wings were pushed open violently and three persons entered the great hall with a strong gait.
Harry, Ron and Hermione instantly recognised the young man leading the two others.
"Percy!" they all exclaimed as one.
Harry didn't care that his voice was the loudest and carried through the whole room. He observed how Percy and the two other men, whom he didn't recognize, marched purposefully to the staff table. ufflepufHHeroijurHjkn
The two unknown men – an overweight, short guy going bald and the other, an elegant looking, tall man with an overly big looking moustache, which reminded Harry strongly of uncle Vernon – fell behind Percy a couple of meters, leaving the redhead to step up to the table.
"Mr Weasley," Dumbledore welcomed him with visibly forced nonchalance.
"Professor Dumbledore. I wish I were here under more pleasant circumstances. You sent an owl to the ministry and the Aurors Mr. Mayweather and Mr. Bruce have been sent to come with me in order to arrest Severus Snape.
From the side of the Slytherins, some shouts of protest arose, but neither Percy nor the two Aurors paid them any heed.
"He's locked in his quarters," Dumbledore said with a broken voice. "Please come with me." He stood up and walked around the staff table so slowly and reluctantly, as if he were about to go to his own execution.
The rest of the staff trailed the headmaster with sympathy-filled eyes, but no one rose to accompany him. Dumbledore had probably wanted it this way; to face Snape alone, and it somehow bothered Harry. This would be hard for the headmaster.
As the small group crossed them one row away, Harry jumped off his seat. Hermione and Ron followed suite, eyeing him worriedly. Dumbledore stopped too and turned over to him. "Harry?"
"I want to come along!" Harry knew that the headmaster would probably not want him there at Snape's arrest, not even the other teachers had been allowed to follow. But to his surprise, the old wizard nodded slightly and understanding after a moment of evaluating. "All right, Harry. You three can come along, but stay in the background."
Again some angry and outraged shouts came from the Slytherins, and yet again, nobody reacted to it. Harry felt a flicker of discomfort, but only a flicker. It was his right to see how Snape paid for murdering his Godfather.
When the adults steered purposefully towards the exit, Ron leaned over to him and Hermione. "This will be especially humiliating for the greasy git. His most hated student will be present at his downfall." Ron seemed quite pleased and Harry too felt warm satisfaction at this thought.
"Thank you for not bringing the Dementors, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore addressed Percy, once they had exited the great hall and were on their way through the spacious corridors of the castle.
"You have been quite explicit in your letter that you will not tolerate them even close to the castle. Also, I perfectly recall the fiasco the last time the Dementors were here to catch Black."
"Isn't it kind of ironic?" the short Auror, Mr. Mayweather spoke up for the first time. "That we're being here now to arrest the man who has gotten rid of the murderer?"
Harry was already getting to jump forward and make the man swallow his words but Ron and Hermione, anticipating his move, held him back by his arms. "Dumbledore will not let us come, if we don't behave," Ron hissed from between clenched teeth. This made even sense to Harry and he relaxed a bit, still angrily glaring at the man. Mayweather was already panting, as if he'd run for a great distance instead of just doing a short walk down some corridors. Every few moments he wiped his sweating brow with a white handkerchief. How could such an insensitive man in such bad bodily shape even be an Auror, Harry thought angrily.
Soon they reached the dungeons and Dumbledore paused shortly before Snape's door, closing his eyes as if to gather enough will and strength to go through with it all.
He finally took one deep breath and spoke the counter curse for the door, opening it. Without any more hesitation he then stepped into the room. The three men from the Ministry pulled out their wands in precaution and then, with tightly set features, followed the elder wizard into the room.
Snape sat, like last time, in an easy chair, leaning comfortably against the backrest, holding an open book on his lap. And just like last time he was looking at the entering people with moderate interest. Only when he saw Percy did his eyebrows raise in a contemptuous manner.
"Weasley? So then, the old man has indeed alerted the ministry? Yet apparently I'm not important enough, since they've sent for the lowest scum to get me."
Percy seemed unsettled under Snape's cold glower. He too had learned for seven years to fear the potion master's voice and glares.
Snape had made an art out of it, to give his students a guilty feeling whenever he so much as looked at them. No matter if they had really done something bad or not. Apparently, this feeling didn't weaken after having graduated school.
"Severus…" Dumbledore begun in a pained voice, but Percy caught himself and interrupted the headmaster angrily and with blazing eyes.
"Severus Snape. You have committed the crime of using one of the Unforgivables against Sirius Black and therefore causing the death of said human being. You're under arrest per now and will stay imprisoned in Azkaban until the date of your trial."
Those words finally broke through the Potion Master's mask of indifference and he pushed roughly off his chair, the book landing in a heap of creased pages on the floor. "How dare you arrest me. I have done the wizarding world a favour. Black was a wanted criminal. You can't send me to Azkaban for this!"
Percy didn't seem impressed by Snape's outburst. He had overcome his initial fear of the former teacher, and now there was a look of satisfaction in his eyes. He reached in a fold of his robe and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment, which he opened self sufficiently, starting to read.
"On the ministry resolution of the 13.11.1981 you have been cleared of the accusation of being a faithful death eater to he-who-shall-not-be-named. It has however been proved, without any doubt, that you did have contact with above mentioned dark wizard, therefore you had been warned to never and under no circumstances use one of the unforgivable curses. You would have easily been able to get hold of Sirius Black by other means."
The fury disappeared as fast as it had come and Snape sneered evilly. Harry swallowed hard. Right now, the potion master reminded him much of the man from yesterday, who had only madly laughed at having killed another wizard and suddenly a chill made its way up Harry's spine. He had always despised, sometimes even feared the potions master, but now he was scaring him shitless.
Snape still smiled lopsided, crossing his arm in front of his chest. "I am aware of those 'conditions', yet I would not have thought that the 'good' side of the wizarding world forgets so easily who is doing it a favour." Snape basically spat the word 'good', throwing a loathing sideways glance at Dumbledore while doing so. The old wizard's eyes turned a shade darker in anguish at the allusion.
"I am well aware that the circumstances are peculiar. Unfortunately, the whole affair will not be possible to be kept secret from the public eye. Because of that, and because Professor Dumbledore pleaded for your case, you will be getting a fair trial and not get the Dementor's kiss right away."
"Oh, how overly noble of you, Albus," Snape laughed sarcastically.
"Severus, please. I know what I owe you and I will make sure that you'll be treated fairly. I am not able to do more for you. You have done something terrible, child, and now you have to deal with the consequences. I am truly sorry."
That was a clear understatement. Dumbledore looked devastated, Harry thought.
"Please step away from the chair!" Percy ordered, mocking the 'please' with the sharp authority in his voice. He seemed to have complete control over his anger now but the self-sufficient look in his eyes remained. Snape just sneered at him at first, but then he took a step forwards.
Mr. Mayweather and Mr. Bruce flanked him instantly, their wands positioned at his chest. Percy stepped around him and took both his wrists, to tie them together behind him, but startled when he saw the white handkerchief, which was wrapped around the potion master's right hand. He turned the hand over and Harry saw a dark red stain, where the tissue covered the inside of the palm. "Are you hurt? Do you need medical attendance before we get moving?" Percy didn't seem very concerned about Snape's well being, but he was taking his duty extremely serious and would surely want to deliver the prisoner in good shape.
Snape snorted. "I certainly need no medical assistance because of a little run in with a student." While saying this, he eyed Harry with an arrogant sneer. Harry only answered the look coldly. Snape was really incredible, he thought. Even in this situation he kept on being an arrogant idiot. Still, he was surprised. He hadn't even realized that he had injured Snape's hand; so angry he had been while attacking Sirius' murderer.
Percy turned his attention back to carry out his order. He grabbed Snape's wrists and crossed them at the potion master's back and holding them with one hand, while he pulled out his wand, pointed it to the wrists and, with, a spell tied them together. During the whole procedure Snape didn't even flinch, holding his eyes stubbornly and coldly on Harry who answered the look steadfast and just as cold.
Only when Percy gave him a little shove and he briefly stumbled did Snape lose eye contact, and after getting his equilibrium back he marched with a high held head to the door as if he were neither tied up nor being guarded at wand–point by three Ministry men.
They didn't cross anybody on their way out of the dungeons. This changed though, when they reached the entrance hall. It looked like the whole school had assembled there to witness the Potions Master's arrest. They had built a wide cleft from their corridor to the entrance door, but Harry saw hundreds of students lining the walls up the stairs in thick groups. Even Lupin and the other teachers stood beside the entrance, Hagrid towering over them all. Their faces, like the Slytherins' too, were mirrors of concern and shock. Yet, on the faces of the latter was also barely contained fury. Snape though, seemed to get angrier with every step he took, yet his eyes didn't waver left nor right. Only when the great portal swung open, filling the front of the place with bright daylight did Snape spin around, staring at Dumbledore with blazing eyes.
"I hope you are happy now, headmaster. You may have gotten rid of me, but I swear that you will pay. I have risked my life for you and you betray me. You will remember my warning, mind you. I will not be here anymore to get my revenge, but the Dark Lord will win and you will perish. And on the day this is happening I will be laughing wherever I'll be, be it in Azkaban or in hell."
"He really has lost it," Ron said. "Completely nuts this guy."
"He must have somehow lost his mind otherwise he would never say something which will get him into even more trouble," Hermione mused. "I just wonder what may have happened to him."
"I don't care," Harry said. "He killed Sirius and no matter why he has done it, nothing will give me my godfather back."
Dumbledore, even though he was standing just in front of them, didn't react on their words and only stared at Snape with watery eyes. "Severus…" he whispered but Snape had already turned back and walked, his guards by his side, with head held high out of the door.
T.B.C.
Author's note. Okay. Even if you found a lynch mob and come after me, there will be no Snape for the next three chapters. But we can't very well just throw Sirius out of the hospital wing window and let him rot on the grass below, right?
So, the next chapters --Taking off her hat and pressing it meaningful against her heart -- we will take our farewell from Sirius Black. I expect you all to wear something dark and show up numerously at the funeral ceremony.