Chapter 22

New warnings on the wall:

As soon as Harry had ended his report, Dumbledore sank tiredly and sadly into the chair behind his desk. "Charles McGregor and Emma Mithbury. They have been reported missing since two days ago. They both went to school here and were Hogwarts dream couple since their first year; you could never find them without the other close by."

A melancholic smile played around Dumbledore's lips and his gaze wandered to a distant point somewhere above Harry's left shoulder, as he sank into memories. "There even was the rumour that they had hexed their hands together, since they were so hard to separate. Even in class they couldn't function properly without the other." His smile vanished once more. "Emma had an incredible talent for potions, Severus once told me."

"And what will we do now, professor?"

Dumbledore looked back at Harry, his eyes still sad. "We will, of course protect Mr. Meaby. You have probably saved his life and the life of his family, Harry."

"And what will we be doing about Voldemort, and Snape?" The painful look in Dumbledore's eyes as he mentioned the potions master didn't escape Harry. "We know that they will meet again next new moon, in a month. With the time of the kidnapping, we should be able to pinpoint the eventual date of the gathering."

"And what do you want us to do then, Harry?" Dumbledore asked softly. "If we don't know where their meeting point is?"

"They may be meeting again in that salon. I've seen it already twice now."

"And do you know, where that salon is? Regarding your description it could be an old monastery or mansion. There are hundreds of those throughout England."

Harry lowered his head in frustration and anger. He knew that the headmaster was right. Still, the willingness with which the old wizard seemed to dismiss even the thought to try angered him. Withoutwanting to, his suspicion of an eventual relation between the two wizards shot through his head.

The headmaster seemed to feel his hesitation. "If you have another vision then please pay attention to details like wall decoration, pictures in the glass and things like that. Maybe that can help us to find out more."

Harry met Dumbledore's now stern and piercing glance again. "The war against Voldemort has reached a crucial point and we can't afford to act ill-considered. If we see a chance, we will act, but we have to be sure before, do you understand? Too many sacrifices have been brought already and in the future I don't want so many unnecessary ones to be among them."

The sadness had found its way back into Dumbledore's voice, as if the old wizard were speaking from experience, which again hardening Harry's assumption. For a split second he felt pity with the headmaster and wanted to ask straight out if Snape was his son or grandson, but then he remembered that his family had also lost their life for nothing. First his parents, then his Godfather. No matter in what relation Dumbledore stood to Snape, the Slytherin had turned into a monster and had to be stopped as urgently as Voldemort himself. The McGregors too, had been innocent victims, whose families were now left alone and it was Snape whose fault that was.

With new determination, Harry rose from his chair and faced Dumbledore's desk. "If that's all, headmaster, then I would like to go now. I have quite some homework to do still."

Dumbledore nodded. "But please remember..."

"I know", he interrupted a bit more conciliatory "I will come and see you, if I have another vision."

It's quite funny, that when you expect something bad to happen at any time, the days, hours and minutes in which nothing takes place grow into an eternity of tense torture. Eventually, in the end, you hope for the bad thing to happen, only to loose this tension.

It was exactly this feeling that followed Harry for the next few days. He waited around the clock in tense expectation that another vision would rip him away from the safety of Hogwarts, into the cruelty of Voldemorts world. He knew very well that there was absolutely nothing that he could do against it.

Yet, nothing of the sort happened. Much more, he became a witness of something much worse than a simple vision.

They were just coming from dinner and were on their way to the Gryffindor common room as a crowd of students in the corridor before them blocked the passage. They all looked frightened and confused, whispering nervously with one another, whilst directing their eyes unbelieving to the wall on their left.

"What is that supposed to mean?", a voice in the crowd right before them whispered.

"I don't know. Sounds like a threat to me", another answered.

"But what does the toad mean?"

"Patil went to get the headmaster."

"Do you think that the two S's stand for Severus Snape?", one of the girls piped up, quieting with her question all the other voices.

Harry elbowed his way through the others, whom were for the moment quietly gaping students, followed closely by Hermione and Ron.

When he got clear sight of the mysterious wall he stopped dead with a gasp on his lips, barely registering how his friends pushed through the crowd as well, staring also open mouthed at the wall.

The situation had a scary familiarity to the time when Tom Riddle had used Ginny to write warnings on the wall. Like then, big, red letters were painted to the stone.

THE SCORPION WILL ALWAYS STING THE TOAD, DUMBLEDORE. YOU HAD BETTER BE WATCHING YOUR BACK.

S.S

"Snape was here in the castle?"

Ron's voice was hardly more than a terror-filled whisper and there was not the slightest trace of doubt in his words.

"Please, let us through", another, stern voice rang towards them and some of the students moved instantly, making way for an upset looking headmaster whom was approaching them fast, followed by McGonagall and Pavati Patil.

Dumbledore stopped dumbstruck as the students opened a lane and he saw the writing. After having carefully studied the words, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Minerva, get the children back to the dormitories and tell Filch to take care of this..." he seemed to search for words for a moment, "This here."

Without losing a single word about the open threat, or the fact that apparently Snape had come to deposit it here in the school, Dumbledore turned and walked away so fast as if he couldn't get away from there soon enough.

"There is nothing more to see here. Please go back to your rooms now." McGonagall had her typical draconic expression on her face and spoke with her best this-is-no-question-and-I-will-not-tolerate-any-contradiction-voice.

More than reluctantly, the students started to leave under disgruntled whispers.

"How the hell did Snape manage to get in here", Ron asked, after they let themselves fall back behind the others a bit.

Harry shrugged, but didn't really manage to chase the anger from his face. The whole thing was getting a bit too personal for his liking. Not only had Sirius' murderer escaped his punishment and ran over to Voldemort again, now he had threatened Dumbledore, the only adult that really cared about Harry anymore. The moment that he had seen Dumbledore's stunned face, whilst reading the message, he had decided to do all he could to keep that crazy Slytherin from the headmaster. Snape had already killed one person close to Harry; he would not do it again.

It wouldn't be the first time that he had taken on Voldemort, and Snape would experience what it meant if one messed with Harry Potter's friends. With this threat against Dumbledore, Snape had finally managed to make an archenemy out of him and Harry felt a deep loathing blossom inside his heart. A hateful feeling which even surpassed what he felt for Pettigrew and Voldemort himself. If he ever got his hands on the former professor, he would not spare him, like he had Pettigrew. He would take it upon himself to protect Dumbledore, if the man would not do it himself out of some twisted emotions he felt towards Snape.

"Sirius has found a way in the castle once. Maybe Snape knew about another secret passage. This old building must be full of those, and Snape has spent almost half his life here."

"But if he knew a secret passage, why would he leave only the warning and not bring you-know-who here?" Ron asked.

Hermione, who had up until now remained silent, which in itself proved that she didn't doubt the message writer's identity, spoke for the first time. "Most hidden passages, especially those still secret, would certainly not be big enough to let an army through and I also doubt that Voldemort will attack Dumbledore on his own terrain."

Harry nodded. "Yes, Dumbledore is the only wizard whose strength Voldemort fears. Still, it's dangerous if he knows of such a passage. He could try all sorts of things."

Hermione threw a worried look at Harry. "Especially since we know how much he'd like to get rid of certain persons here."

"I am certain that Dumbledore knows about that too and that he will take the appropriate counter measures", Ron said.

Harry too was convinced about that. He wasn't worried about his own safety. Dumbledore would do everything to protect him. What worried him more was that the old wizard would not go through with effectively eliminating the danger Snape posed, if it became necessary. Harry feared that, if it was really true that those two were related, then Dumbledore would rather let himself be executed then kill Snape. It was that which scared him immensely.

"And what is this thing with a scorpion stinging the toad?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione, as if he'd simply expect her to have an answer right away, Even though he mocked her love for knowledge at every opportunity, often calling her a walking encyclopaedia, he still couldn't deny the usefulness of that knowledge.

This time too, her face morphed into an expression of a mother, explaining something absolutely obvious to her little kid, which normally got on Harry's and Ron's nerves like hell, but for now they just let her speak.

"That's easy. There's a famous muggle fable about a scorpion and a toad", she begun. "A scorpion wanted to cross a river, but he couldn't swim so he asked a toad if it could carry him over the water.

The toad said no, because it feared the scorpion's sting.

The scorpion reasoned that, if he were to sting the toad, he would drown as well.The toad agreed upon that and carried the scorpion on it's back across the river.When they were in its middle, however, the scorpion stung the toad anyway.The toad said that they both would be dying now and asked the scorpion, why he had done that, even though he had known about the consequences.The scorpion answered that he had done it because it was in his nature." After that, they were silent for several minutes, while they kept on walking. Ron chewed the inside of his cheek and seemed kind of nervous. Harry understood why, too; with the sentence on the wall, Snape had himself proved that he had gone back to his old ways. All right. If the greasy Git wanted to play on that side, he had to expect that someone would kick his ass. At those thoughts, his mind drifted inevitably back a TV-show that he had once seen as a kid, where a huge frog had eaten a scorpion and that thought brought a menacing smirk to his face. Snape would get the surprise of his life.

T.B.C

Slytherin's silver snake: You're the best hugzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz