Chapter 37

Severus was feeling increasingly worried and desperate. The second task looked much closer from this side of the holidays than it had looked before, and still no champion seemed to have cracked the egg clue.

Potter's disrespect during the Yule Ball had been worth only one detention, to his frustration, and even though Severus had exploited the occasion to the last minute, he had only managed to finally insult the brat into doing some research and dedicating some time to his egg. If the other champions had not managed to crack the clue on their own, however, there was absolutely no hope for the moron.

At his request, Minerva had gone into Potter's dorm a few days ago to make sure the boy had received the presents Severus had sent him. She reported that at least the book was resting over the boy's night table, although it was a question whether he had opened it at all. Of course she had laughed endlessly at the idea of Severus purchasing a fairy tale for Harry Potter, and when she had finished laughing she had declared that he had already paid enough for the obliviation crime. On his part, he still hadn't forgiven her for sending the brat to him with a messed up face while he was trying to keep up a Death Eater cover with Karkaroff.

Why he hadn't obliviated Minerva, he had no idea. Perhaps some part of him was afraid she would transfigure him into a piece of chalk if he ever raised his wand at her. She might be old and weak of heart, but Minerva McGonagall was a powerful witch and still had fast reflexes. She was also extremely protective of her mental integrity, and as far as Severus knew not even Dumbledore had ever dared using Legilimency on her (which was fortunate considering the secrets she was now keeping from the old man).

Severus didn't know what else to do. It was infuriating not to be able to do more with his Vow, and also not to be able to extract information from the judges. He had a strong feeling that even the Merpeople would be unapproachable, and at this point he had learned to recognize that feeling so he didn't even bother trying.

The way things were going, he feared the second task would be very much like the first one, with a completely unprepared Potter whose survival would depend entirely of external help. Help that Severus might or might not be able to provide.

It wasn't the same to protect the boy out in the open from a dragon than to do the same underwater. The dark protecting charm he had used during the first task required visual contact with the target, so Severus would need to be underwater with the brat to use it again. That would not only almost certainly blow up his cover and risk Potter being disqualified, but it would also be highly impractical or even impossible. Just as Severus doubted he would have been able to jump into the dragon enclosure, he doubted he would be able to dive into the lake.

Even if he could do that, if the boy didn't figure out the clue then Severus would most likely drown, and then Potter would drown.

Things were not looking good.

He had began researching protective magic after the first task, hoping to find less painful and less costly tools to use in the future, but so far he hadn't unearthed anything that he didn't already know. Dumbledore might have something useful in his personal library, but Severus didn't dare requesting access knowing that the old man would likely know what he had been researching. Lucius also might have valuable information (although no doubt even darker and more expensive than the spell Severus had used), but of course he couldn't risk his fellow Death Eater to suspect either. All he had besides his personal collection was the Hogwarts' library, which was a stressful affair to consult with Moody always following him around and watching him through the walls. Severus always cast notice-me-not charms whenever he wanted to avoid the Auror's gaze, but he wasn't yet sure if they worked. It might have been just good luck that Moody had not spotted him during the first task.

For the moment, all he could do was to wait and hope that Potter would somehow crack the clue. The brat seemed to live on sheer luck, so perhaps he would get lucky again this time.

Severus had never been good at just sit and hope for the best. Nor at handling powerlessness. So he continued researching, and he continued trying —in vain— to dispatch more useful gifts to Potter. And of course he continued insulting the brat at every possible opportunity.

He had thought people would be talking about the Yule Ball at least until some champion died in the second task, but unfortunately that was not the case. Soon Severus had much more serious rumours to worry about than the ones inspired by his coaxed dance with Minerva.

He was having breakfast while quietly arguing with Pomona, Filius and Minerva about the possibility that Longbottom might have something Gryffindor in him after all (Severus still had trouble believing both that the boy had had the daring of punching Draco and that he had not missed his mark) when the daily owl post flew in. They all put on pause the conversation to focus on their newspapers.

He heard his colleagues' loud intakes of breath, and felt their eyes on him, but he was too busy staring at a picture of himself as to pay attention to them. It wasn't a current picture, but one from his youth, which was worrying.

Calling to his aid all his Occlumency abilities to keep his face from betraying anything, Severus braced himself for something bad and began reading the article.

DUMBLEDORE'S BLIND MISTAKE

Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writesRita Skeeter, Special Correspondent.

In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Not two weeks into the term, Mad-Eye Moody had already proven to be a more than debatable choice when he began subjecting his students to the Unforgivable and highly illegal Imperius Curse, believe it or not with the Headmaster's permission.

Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside his predecessor, a werewolf named Remus Lupin, hired last year by Albus Dumbledore to teach our young and innocent (conveniently neglecting to teach them how to recognize and kill a werewolf). The werewolf resigned after unverified rumours were spread of an escapade through Hogwarts' grounds during June's full moon in which several students —including Harry Potter— were almost bitten.

To add to the controversy, last year was also hired as Care of Magical Creatures' teacher an unqualified candidate named Rubeus Hagrid, a suspected half-giant who was expelled in his third year due to his involvement in the murder of a Muggle-born, and who lost his job after endangering the life of a pureblood student in a Hippogriff attack.

Questionable as all these choices of staff undoubtedly are, this reporter has discovered an even more worrisome appointment in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Many will probably refuse to believe it from the famous opponent of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and defender of Muggle rights, but Albus Dumbledore has for the last fourteen years employed a Death Eater as Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. One of You-Know-Who's most loyal subjects, Severus Snape worked as a spy for the dark side during the war, and managed to stay out of Azkaban by fooling Dumbledore into vouching for him.

A dark wizard like few, and a frightening-looking man, Snape has been using his authority to terrify most of the students in his care, often unfairly punishing them while Dumbledore turns a blind eye. Particularly alarming is the fact that this Death Eater seems to despise and mistreat Harry Potter more than any other student. "Snape really hates Harry," says Colin Creevey, a third year student, "he looks at him as if he wanted to poison him, and he's always giving him detention for no reason."

As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Snape is not —as he has always pretended as Head of Slytherin House— a pure-blood wizard, but a half-blood. While his mother was the last pure descendant of a renown blood purist lineage, his father was a Muggle by the name of Tobias Snape, who was suspiciously killed during a Death Eater raid in '78. Severus Snape was never charged for his father's murder, but it can be speculated that he might have been required to 'prune' that contaminated part of the family tree in order to be accepted in You-Know-Who's ranks.

Despite his less than pure blood status, Snape seems to uphold You-Know-Who's values to the last letter, openly despising and deprecating Muggle-borns and the so called 'blood traitors' whenever he's not too busy insulting the Boy-Who-Lived. And he doesn't seem to have any intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation.

To make things more dire, this reporter personally overheard Severus Snape plotting to return You-Know-Who to power, and to continue spying on Albus Dumbledore as return gift for his master. It can even be speculated that he might be in contact with Sirius Black, another You-Know-Who supporter who last year mysteriously —and probably with inside help— managed to break into Hogwarts several times to attempt to kill Harry Potter.

Perhaps Albus Dumbledore has gone blind in his old age, but it can be hoped that at least the Ministry will now keep an eye on this dangerous Professor with such close access to students in general and to Harry Potter in particular. No one would want anything to happen to the youngest Triwizard champion during a private detention in the dungeons, after all.

Severus calmly put down the newspaper and even more calmly drank another sip of his coffee.

Fuck.

With a perfectly steady hand, he picked up another toast and took a bite. It tasted like ashes.

Fuck.

He could feel the eyes of the entire staff on him, and also of a considerable portion of the student body.

Fuck.

As students no doubt began to move around sharing Prophets and murmurs, the Great Hall slowly grew silent until it could only be heard the sound of Severus' cup of coffee as he calmly put it down after drinking another sip.

Then silence was broken by a thousand loud whispers. Severus risked a look at the Slytherin table and saw that all his students were staring at him, some with fear, some with confusion, some with obvious admiration. Most of them looked away when they realized their terrifying Head of House was watching.

He wanted to catch a glimpse of Potter, but he didn't dare. Everyone would be expecting for him to turn his eyes in that direction.

Instead he took another bite of toast and pretended to continue reading his newspaper.

"I never knew that you had made your peace with Sirius Black, Severus," commented Minerva after another moment.

Filius chuckled. Severus rolled his eyes. That was definitely the most infuriating part of Skeeter's article.

"No wonder you were so certain about him receiving internal help," said Dumbledore from the center of the table, also sounding amused even though no doubt he was concerned. This stupid article would have a lot of serious consequences.

"It's not a matter for jokes, Dumbledore," growled Moody. Severus could imagine his very brain being examined by that damned eye.

"What is the meaning of this, Dumbledore?" asked Madam Maxime. "Your own teacher...?"

"It is nothing to worry about, my dear Olympe. British journalism must be taken with a grain of salt, I'm sure you know that."

"Potter looks as if he wanted to poison you, Severus," informed him Pomona. "You will have to be careful in your next class."

"Potter would be a fool if he attended his next class knowing this," said Moody. "You can't keep him here now, Dumbledore, you must see that."

"Thank you, Alastor," said the Headmaster firmly. "We can discuss this later, in private."

The words were said to Moody, but Severus knew they were directed at him. Yes, they would have to talk about this, urgently.

He would also have to have a little chat with Igor. Severus didn't dare to spare a look in his direction either, but he was noticing his fellow Death Eater's silence and he could almost hear his thoughts from the other side of the table. Or were there his own thoughts? Clearly Skeeter had somehow overheard them the night of the Yule Ball, and yet only Severus had been exposed. Why? Was Igor behind this? Why? What could he be hoping to achieve? He already had a painful death guaranteed, was he trying to make it even worse?

That Creevey boy was going to serve detention until the end of time.

Severus finished his tasteless breakfast making sure nothing in his behaviour betrayed anything but complete calm and indifference and doing his best to ignore all the stares and loud comments.

His fellow Heads of House, plus the Headmaster, were fortunately taking or pretending to take the matter with amusement, although no doubt they were wondering about Severus' muggle father. Dumbledore had never asked him about that, and the others probably had not known anything about Death Eaters' involvement in his father's death. Not that anyone ever cared much about Muggles, of course.

The rest of his colleagues plainly weren't taking it so well, although most of them were following Dumbledore's lead and pretending not to care at all about the article. Wilhelmina was the newest member of staff (not counting Moody), so she had not even known about Severus' dark past and her reaction to the article was definitely not good. Septima and Aurora had known that their colleague was a former Death Eater, but they still glanced at him in a way that made plain that they had serious doubts about his allegiance. Charity, on her part, was the only one who had completely disregarded Dumbledore's example and was openly glaring at Severus with disapproval and resentment. That wasn't new, though, they had never gotten along and of course they disagreed in a lot of Muggle-related topics.

As to the students... Severus didn't care at all what most of them thought, he didn't think being exposed as a Death Eater would change much the way they perceived him since he was already considered evil and cruel. He was a little concerned about the impact that the revelation about his blood status would have in Slytherin House, though. He had never pretended to be a pureblood, people had simply assumed, but he had not contradicted the assumption for a reason. Although some children of Death Eaters must know already, and those who hadn't would likely think that it was all right since he had killed his Muggle father.

He was actually more concerned about the portion of Slytherin House that had nothing to do with the Dark Lord and that would be afraid at the idea of having a murderer as Head of House. He promoted a healthy measure of fear in his Slytherins, to ensure good behaviour, but this would likely frighten the young ones to the point of nightmares. Perhaps he ought to call a House meeting this evening.

Had he felt watched before? That had definitely been nothing. Now he not only was constantly followed around by Moody's creepy device, everyone in Hogwarts seemed to be watching him through narrowed eyes.

Most students were now exponentially more afraid of him than ever before, which suited Severus fine. He had no such luck with the bloody Gryffindors, of course. Even though there were those who, like Longbottom, seemed to almost piss themselves at the sight of him, most of that House's idiots were more angry than afraid. They really were morons. Defying a recently exposed Death Eater who was protected by the Headmaster and had authority to give private detentions was hardly a smart thing to do.

Particularly annoying was the fact that now a lot of people seemed to be trying to protect Potter from him. The Weasley twins had actually began escorting the brat to and from the dungeons whenever he had potion class, not caring in the least if they were late for their own classes. The Weasley girl also glared at him insolently every time she saw him, as if daring him to touch a hair in Potter's hair. Severus gave detention to all three of them, in addition to Creevey, but none of them showed up so in the end Minerva exchanged the punishment for a week detention with Filch. Severus was fuming, but he let it go, or more exactly Dumbledore forced him to let it go.

A few insolent students were the least of his problems, anyway. Although it was definitely a problem that now Potter seemed completely immune to all his insults no matter how constructive, and also that the brat seemed to have completely forgotten to work on his golden egg caught up as he was by his hate towards the potions Professor. It was good that the Unbreakable Vow was already sworn and sealed, because now it would have been absolutely impossible to get the boy to trust Severus with anything.

The situation inside Slytherin House had been quickly managed to his satisfaction. He had addressed the entire House and made clear that he wasn't an agent of the Dark Lord nor any sort of criminal, and that he would not tolerate any disrespect nor comment about his blood status. Half the House seemed reassured by his words, while the other half clearly saw through them and understood that he was trying to maintain a cover. Probably all the children of Death Eaters had received letters from their parents instructing them to not do or say anything that could blow up such cover, so Severus didn't have much to worry inside his House. Always nice to have loyal brothers.

As to the issues with his colleagues, Dumbledore called for an extraordinary staff meeting to quickly clarify things and get them all in the same page. Wilhelmina was somewhat briefed about Severus' spy status, and the rest were reassured about his true allegiance and especially about the safety of Harry Potter. Of course not all were truly reassured, but they all trusted Dumbledore so there was nothing more to say. Moody spent the entire meeting huffing and growling whenever he wasn't calling Dumbledore a fool or Severus a piece of filth.

Skeeter's article's more serious consequences had nothing to do with Hogwarts' daily life, however.

Unbelievable as it might be, apparently Fudge had had no idea about Severus' past, and his first impulse when finding out had been to send a squad of Aurors to arrest him, to Moody's undisguised glee. Luckily Dumbledore had intervened before Severus could think of killing anyone who dared touching him, but unluckily there had been enough witnesses of the scene as to ensure that every last soul in Hogwarts had heard of it by dinner.

Dumbledore spent the best part of three days at the Ministry handling the crisis, and by the end of it he had managed to keep Severus out of Azkaban and in Hogwarts, although at the cost of being called a fool by half the Ministry. Clearly Skeeter's scoop had been a blow aimed at Dumbledore, and it had damaged his reputation quite effectively. Which made Severus wonder...

Igor had not been in any rush to be seen with Severus after his public exposure, but eventually Severus had managed to corner him and to obtain an assurance that Igor had had nothing to do with it. The coward was actually panicking at the possibility that he might be the next one to be exposed.

So that left the Dark Lord. Dumbledore was convinced that Skeeter was being used by someone to create political chaos and undermine his reputation, and until now Severus had agreed. But it didn't make much sense for the Dark Lord to risk such a well placed spy. So either the Dark Lord wasn't behind Skeeter, or he didn't trust Severus and was trying to ruin him. Or perhaps it was a test to see how far Dumbledore's protection would go? If so, it wasn't a very good test, since Dumbledore protecting him could mean either that Severus had him completely fooled or that the old man had good reasons to trust him.

To clarify that issue, he paid a visit to Lucius as soon as he dared leaving the castle. His fellow Death Eater was pretending to be on top of things as usual, but Severus noticed that he was actually uneasy. And with good reason. Apparently he was behind Skeeter, but he had had no idea that she would expose Severus in her attempt to cause trouble to Dumbledore. And he was plainly afraid of what the Dark Lord would think of Lucius endangering his most precious spy.

Assuming Lucius had not lied through his teeth, those were good news, but still Severus had never been so stressed out in his life. He was taking Calming Draughts nearly every day now, since Occlumency wasn't enough to keep himself from a nervous breakdown.

He felt as if he were being attacked from multiple angles, half the blows unseen, while struggling to juggle multiple covers. And he was failing. For while currently his biggest problems seemed to be of public domain, he was actually far more worried about Potter and the secret Vow he had sworn to keep him safe. A Vow and a promise to Lily that he would not be able to keep.

Severus sighed, emptied another phial of Calming Draught, vanished all the Howlers and cursed letters that had been redirected to his office this morning, and went back to try and send insulting messages to Harry Potter.