Chapter 7

"The Ministry report says that the Muggles were levitated, humiliated, subjected to the Cruciatus Curse, and dropped from thirty feet high. In addition to that, considerable property destruction was caused, and a witch suffered serious injuries when being trapped inside a burning tent."

Severus winced internally while he kept his face a blank mask. It sounded like no one had died, at least. He had not been sure if someone would catch the Muggles before they hit the ground.

"Well?" asked the Headmaster.

"Well what?"

"Did you know about this?"

Severus sighed.

"Yes."

"Were you involved?"

Dumbledore was piercing him with eyes cold as ice through his half-moon spectacles.

"Yes. I thought the tents were empty, though."

Several portraits around the office voiced their indignation, but Severus ignored them all and after a moment the Headmaster raised a hand to shut them up.

"Would you be so kind as to cast your Patronus, Severus?" asked the old wizard.

It never really came as a surprize to be required to demonstrate his Patronus, but it offended Severus every time.

"Why, Dumbledore, one might think that you don't trust me as much as you claim," he said coldly.

"I do trust you, Severus."

Yeah, right. Anyone who thought Dumbledore a trustful fool didn't know the man at all. The most annoying part was that no one preached about the power of love louder than Albus Dumbledore, and yet the man clearly had his doubts about its constancy.

Severus wondered what would happen if one of these days something different came out of his wand. Would Dumbledore immediately proclaim him a traitor and ship him off to Azkaban? He also wondered what would mean for him if that change happened. Truth be told, casting his Patronus terrified him.

He considered refusing, but in the end he decided it was not worth the argument so he raised his wand to call forth the silver doe.

The sight filled him with warmth and bitterness, as it had every time since he had first seen it come out of his wand fifteen years ago. The doe cantered around the office for a few seconds before stopping and turning to look at him with big silver eyes that he couldn't help imagining the deepest green.

Lily's doe was a painful reminder that she had loved the jerk, and that Severus was pathetic for still being unable to let her go. Why did Dumbledore think that it was evidence of trustworthiness, he had no idea. After all, Severus' Patronus had been a doe long before he had switched sides, and its shape had not stopped him from doing terrible things. If anything, it had intensified his hate and escalated his darkness even more.

The silver doe flickered and died when his thoughts became too tempestuous. Dumbledore was nodding to himself as if satisfied with the demonstration.

"You do know that seeing that isn't exactly pleasant for me, don't you?"

"I know. Thank you for showing me, Severus. Now, as to the World Cup events... You should have told me you were going to do something like this," he admonished.

Severus took a deep breath and slowly let it out. It might be just a quick trustworthiness check for Dumbledore (the only one he could perform on Severus), but casting his Patronus always left Severus feeling emotionally weak. And angry.

"You might have messed it up, Dumbledore," he finally said, trying not to snap at the Headmaster. "Or you might have tried to stop me. I didn't know what I would have to do, it could have been bad."

"You don't think abusing innocent Muggles is bad?"

"I think that what we did was tame. No one died, after all."

"That was just lucky, as far as I can tell. The Muggles could have broken their necks. Even if no one died, I would say torturing children is bad enough."

I didn't handle the children. Just the father.

"Lucius was going to do it anyway, I was lucky to receive an invitation. And let me remind you that it was you, Dumbledore, who insisted in that I should keep my cover. This is a first step."

"There is a difference between working a cover and doing the real thing."

"No, there isn't. Thinking otherwise is what makes you such a lousy spy handler, and the reason why I didn't tell you about this beforehand. I can't trust you to let me do my job without interference."

Dumbledore sighed.

"I understand, Severus. I admit it's difficult for me to handle these matters. But I think we need to come to an agreement regarding how far are you ready to go to keep your cover. We never really discussed it."

"We didn't discuss it because you don't want to hear it, Dumbledore. But you must know that I will have to torture and kill. Hopefully it will be just Muggles, at least to begin with."

He could see that his words didn't please the old man. The 'just Muggles' bit in particular had made his eyes flash. But Severus was not in the mood to beat around the bush.

"It was the same fourteen years ago," he added. "Or did you think that I only brewed potions for the Dark Lord? He would never waste someone like me in a lab."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a long minute.

"All right," he said at last. "I will think about this, and we will discuss it more thoroughly at another time. But you can't just act on your own, Severus. I need you to tell me what you're going to do before you do it. Else the next time it might end in disaster. You could have been caught by the Ministry last night, and it would have been difficult for me to bail you out when I didn't even know that you were going to be there."

"I expect you will always bail me out even if I look completely guilty, Dumbledore," said Severus with a stern look. "Don't you bloody dare doing to me what you did to Black!"

"Of course I will try, Severus. But I can only vouch for you if I know I have to. And it's not just that. What's the point of having a spy if we cannot use what you know to protect what it's worth protecting? If you had told me ahead of time what was going to happen at the World Cup, I might have had the chance to warn you that Harry was there. I wonder if you would have chosen to engage in such activities last night if you had known that. At the very least, I could have arranged for him to be taken away earlier, if I had known."

Severus felt his blood run cold. Time seemed to stop.

"What? What the hell was Potter doing there?"

"He was attending the World Cup, of course. With the Weasleys."

"Is he... safe?"

"Yes. But he was too exposed last night, Severus. The Dark Mark was cast with Harry's own wand, with him only a few feet away."

Severus' jaw dropped. It wasn't often that something shocked him this way.

"WHAT?"

"Apparently Harry misplaced his wand at some point, and someone found it and used it to cast the Dark Mark. Harry and his friends were almost stunned by the Ministry officials when they showed up at the scene."

How the hell did Potter always end up in these situations? And how could he be so stupid as to misplace his wand? What kind of wizard lost his wand?

As Dumbledore explained the details surrounding the appearance of the Dark Mark in the sky last night, Severus' horror and anger increased. It was just lucky that Potter had not been killed. And while that happened, Severus had been having fun burning tents and torturing Muggles.

He was also perplexed about the house-elf involvement. He assured Dumbledore that only Death Eaters or the Dark Lord could cast the Dark Mark, but it was still suspicious that a house-elf —who had shared the Top Box with Potter— had been found in the scene with the boy's wand, and that Crouch had refused for it to be properly interrogated. The most likely explanation for the entire incident, however, was that Potter had simply lost the wand at some point and someone else had found it and used it to avoid leaving any evidence on his own wand, or even to compromise the brat.

Why they hadn't harmed Potter, that was a question, as well as who had cast the Mark. His fellow Death Eaters had looked genuinely surprized at the sight, although Lucius had not been nearly as scared as the others. Severus still wasn't sure whether Lucius knew something or if he just enjoyed pretending that he was on top of things. He could use Legilimency on him, sure, but that would be considered a sign of mistrust, not to mention that only the Dark Lord was allowed to invade the minds of his subjects (or to order Severus to check the minds of his brothers).

"Why wasn't I informed that Potter wasn't safe at Petunia's house?" he demanded angrily when they had exhausted the subject of the Dark Mark and its possible caster. He might have reasons to beat himself up, but he had not been on Potter duty last night.

"Why would you have been informed?" answered Dumbledore raising an eyebrow. "You told me very clearly several years ago that you didn't want to know about anything involving the boy unless his life was in danger. I did not anticipate his life would be in danger attending the World Cup."

Severus supposed that that was true. He had not wanted to know a single detail of Potter's childhood, nor about his holidays, nor about anything at all unless he needed to be protected or unless it was something for which Severus could hate him even more and hopefully give him detention. Dumbledore had informed him when the boy had ran away after blowing up his Aunt (not Petunia, unfortunately), but then only because Black was on the loose. Maybe he should demand to be informed whenever the boy left Petunia's house...

"He's Harry Potter," he pointed out with irritation. "He is bound to be a target even if the Dark Lord weren't coming back, you should always anticipate that his life might be in danger!"

"Harry attended the World Cup with the Weasleys, Severus. He had four qualified wizards protecting him. Without knowledge of a Death Eater raid about to happen, that seemed like enough protection."

"I saw four Weasleys trying to save the bloody Muggles," said Severus, making an effort to control his rage and fear. "The Dark Mark was cast miles away, so who was protecting the boy when that happened?"

Dumbledore sighed, and he suddenly looked much older.

"No one," he admitted. "He was with his friends, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. I believe Arthur told them to go hide in the woods, like many people were doing at the moment."

Severus closed his eyes and massaged his temples for a minute, trying to calm down. At the end of that minute he still hadn't managed to quell his fury one bit.

"Harry Potter was alone with a pair of kids, without his wand, in the middle of the woods at midnight while there were Death Eaters wreaking havoc, and you say he was protected?" he roared. "How can you let him stay with the Weasleys? They left him alone, Dumbledore!"

"It was an unexpected crisis, Severus. The Ministry needed help dealing with the threat, saving the Muggles..."

"Who cares about the Muggles? They were not important, not in comparison! If there is a crisis, especially one involving Death Eaters, everyone's first priority should be to take Harry Potter to safety! There were a lot of Ministry officials around, and more people willing to help, couldn't at least one 'qualified' Weasley had gone with the stupid kids? Maybe Apparate the boy away? How long could that have taken?"

Dumbledore raised his hands in defeat.

"You're right, Severus," he said. "Absolutely right. I will talk to Arthur to make sure that Harry's safety is adequately prioritized from now on. He does care about Harry, Severus. All the Weasleys care a great deal about Harry."

Severus huffed. Caring was not the same than protecting. Lily's son was not safe in the care of people who sent him alone into the woods without his wand (not that the moron knew how to defend himself with his wand, of course, he completely sucked at magic). He didn't want to argue any more, however, and he knew there was no point. Things had happened the way they had happened. The boy was still alive and well. He was beginning to realize that he would have to keep a closer watch on him, though, especially if he had so many inept protectors around. Potter had already survived too many times because of good luck. Maybe he shouldn't have trusted his protection to others so far, but... it really annoyed him to have to get involved.

"Before you go, Severus," said Dumbledore when he saw him standing up. "I wanted to inform you about the new DADA teacher I hired."

Severus sat again and braced himself. What now? He had seen fourteen DADA teachers pass by since he had began working at Hogwarts, only a few of them qualified and harmless, and at this point he had learned to be wary. He knew it was widely believed that he coveted the position, but he was actually afraid of it and what it might bring. Dumbledore really should pay him double, since he worked every year keeping an eye on the DADA teacher as well as teaching Potions.

"Who?" he asked finally, irritated by Dumbledore's intentional suspense.

"Alastor Moody."

Severus stared at the Headmaster in disbelief.

"You hired a lunatic?"

"Alastor is not crazy, Severus. And we should count ourselves very lucky that he agreed to come out of retirement. I don't remember the last time we had decent DADA teachers two years in a row."

"The man is paranoid and unstable," objected Severus. "And I doubt he has any idea of what it's appropriate to teach to children. He will probably teach the Unforgivables before the end of the first week."

"Don't be ridiculous, Severus," said Dumbledore with a sigh. "Alastor is a highly experienced Auror, and he will stick to rules just as you do. He is a bit paranoid, but that might be a good thing to pass on to the students now that a real threat is approaching."

Severus was beginning to feel uneasy.

"Moody doesn't believe I truly changed sides," he pointed out. "He will probably turn me in to the Ministry at the first suspicious thing I do around him. And I'm a bloody spy, so I'm bound to do suspicious things on a regular basis."

"Alastor knows that you are on our side. I have instructed him to leave you alone. He probably won't, but that might play in your favour, since his suspicion will help with your cover."

"He might blow up my cover!" yelled Severus angrily. "At the moment I'm pretending to be just a free Death Eater waiting for my master to summon me and give me orders. The Dark Lord will expect for all of us to keep quiet the reappearance of our Dark Marks. If you or Moody start, say, checking left arms or talking about the Dark Lord returning, it will be obvious that I told you about it. Hiring Moody is already suspicious!"

"Your cover is safe, Severus," assured him the old man patiently. "Alastor only knows that you spied for us during the war and that I trust you."

Severus narrowed his eyes at him.

"You didn't tell him about my Dark Mark?"

"No. I'm not an utter fool, you know. I trust Alastor, but I agree in that he would probably begin checking left arms all around if he knew about the Dark Marks. I did let him know that I suspect Tom might be coming back, but I have other reasons besides your Dark Mark to suspect that. The Triwizard Tournament is more than enough source of suspicion as to justify hiring a former Auror." He sighed. "We could use the extra security this year, Severus. Alastor's main job will be to keep an eye on Karkaroff, and of course on Harry. This is a good thing, don't you see? You will be able to relax a bit for once, not having to worry about the DADA Professor nor being the only one watching Harry."

Severus snorted. As if he could ever relax waiting to see how it played out whatever plot the Goblet of Fire was part of (which would involve Potter, no doubt), while living in the same castle with a paranoid Auror out to get him and a fellow Death Eater who had tried to sell him out. Oh, and expecting his Dark Mark to burn at any moment, never forget.

This was looking to be the most stressful year he had had since beginning working at Hogwarts.