Chapter 62

Severus was in a really bad mood when he left the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore kept insisting on probing his allegiance, and he wasn't being very subtle about it. Severus had allowed the old meddler to search his personal quarters, lab and office, not bothering to conceal all the traces of Dark Magic and even leaving his nasty potions out in the open to kindle the fool's curiosity and concern, but the vague amusement that messing with the Headmaster brought him was not nearly enough to temper his irritation.

Of course turning traitor wasn't an option for Severus, not with that dangerous Vow hanging over him, but Dumbledore's obvious mistrust wasn't exactly helping with his crisis. He knew he didn't deserve anyone's blind trust, and to be honest it would probably annoy him even more if the old man trusted him blindly (how could he respect him if he did?), but a little more faith would have been nice. It might have encouraged Severus to have faith in himself.

As it was, he was a complete mess, and he was only managing to keep himself from a complete mental and emotional breakdown by completely avoiding to deal with said mess. It might not be very healthy to keep his mind carefully occluded against itself most of the time, and it definitely was not prudent to dose himself with Dreamless Sleep every single night —he had already developed an addiction—, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

He had spent the last three months in a blessedly dissociated state, not allowing himself to think or feel on a more than superficial level, and while that strategy kept him functional enough he knew that deep down the conflict was still raging. Most of the time it was easy to channel it all as anger directed at everyone and at the boy in particular, but sometimes, when his Occlumency failed him, or he unwisely let his heart wander, or bloody Dumbledore asked him to cast his Patronus, his internal hell overwhelmed him. Then he was filled with fear, and doubt, and regret. A horrible sense of wrongness and inescapable doom crept up on him, the Vow and the Mark ruthlessly weighting him down, tearing him apart, making him want to yell or kill or cry.

By the time he emerged from behind the stone gargoyle Severus had managed to firmly re-compartmentalize his tormented mind, but he was definitely not in the best mood to cross his path with anyone, lest of all with the latest champion to join Potter's fan club.

"DIGGORY!" he roared when he saw the boy turn the corner running as if his life depended on it.

The Hufflepuff skidded to a halt in front of him.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Severus harshly. "You are a Prefect, Diggory, in case you have forgotten, running in the hallways is hardly a good example to set."

"I need to see Professor Dumbledore," gasped Diggory, holding his side while he tried to recover his breath.

"Twenty points from Hufflepuff!" spat Severus. "And if it reaches my ears that you have tarnished your badge in any other way however mild I will make sure you lose it."

"Please, Professor, it's urgent," said the boy, looking over Severus' shoulder as if considering to just walk past him and through the gargoyle without permission. "It's Mr. Crouch... he's just turned up... he's in the forest... he's asking-"

"What is this rubbish? What are you talking about?"

"Mr. Crouch!" exclaimed Diggory exasperatedly. "From the Ministry! He's ill or something. He looks like a madman. Harry stayed with him, but-"

A wave of cold rage and fear washed over Severus.

"You left Potter alone with a madman?" he yelled, making the Hufflepuff shrink several inches.

"He's supposed to be safe, sir," he mumbled. "No one can harm us, right? And Mr. Crouch didn't look like he should be left alone. Please, Professor, I need to get the Headmaster!"

"Where did you leave them?" demanded Severus. He had a very bad feeling about this. Something odd had been going on with Crouch, and now he turned up here, stumbling with Harry Potter of all people and looking like a madman? It was true that champions supposedly couldn't be hurt, but Severus wasn't going to risk dropping dead by not going after the boy when it sounded like he might be in danger. At the very least he should tell him that it was stupid to stay alone in a dark forest with an unstable wizard as only company.

"They are at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, sir, close to the Abraxans' paddock."

"You are to go straight to your Common Room, Diggory," he commanded.

"But Dumbledore-"

"I will deal with this," snapped Severus. "Off with you, and no running!"

He didn't stay to see whether Diggory obeyed or not, although he hoped he would since he had no desire to spend another minute in the Headmaster's company and he would rather have the old man out of the way in case he had to do something Vow-related.

Whatever was going on, he could handle it on his own.

By the time he reached the paddock there wasn't much natural light left, but it still didn't take him too long to find the brat. Potter had his back on him, standing amongst the trees at the edge of the forest, his posture tense while he stared into the darkness.

"Potter!" called Severus sharply.

The boy's reaction was so fast and unexpected that Severus almost didn't block the stunner on time. He was better prepared when the next spell came his way, but also more furious.

"What the hell, Potter?" he snarled. "Put down your wand, you stupid boy!"

The brat ignored him and fired again, this time a Blasting Curse. Severus deflected it easily, but he couldn't help to feel certain uneasiness mixing up with his rage. As a general rule champions couldn't be attacked, so fighting one of them meant to maintain a defensive position at least until one could get close enough to punch them in the face. And Severus definitely couldn't afford to punch Potter in the face.

"ENOUGH, POTTER!" he roared.

But Potter had completely lost it. He kept coming at him, aiming one hex or curse after another, all non-verbal and overpowered. Plainly his fellow champions had made sure the brat had a lot more weapons in his arsenal than he had had six months ago, and while Potter was still a thousand years from being a threat to Severus he didn't exactly like the idea that the boy might begin throwing Killing Curses right and left while he couldn't do more than dodge or block.

He didn't even think about it, the next time he saw an opening he instinctively aimed a Disarming Charm, and to his utter surprize Potter's wand escaped the boy's grasp and flew through the air directly towards Severus. He caught it by reflex and stared at it in horror. He had sworn to provide the brat with whatever he might lack, and he had just deprived him of the most important thing a wizard possessed. He held his breath, waiting to drop dead.

Nothing happened.

He was distracted from his panic by the boy's movement as he began to retreat.

"Stop, you idiot child!" yelled Severus. "Stay where you are and don't do anything else stupid, you're in enough trouble as it is having attacked a teacher."

Potter stopped retreating, but he continued regarding Severus warily and his posture suggested he was considering to make a run for it.

"Do not run," Severus warned as he pocketed the boy's wand and began to approach very slowly. "I will not hurt you, Potter. You know the Goblet makes impossible for anyone to hurt you. Now tell me what happened here. Where is Crouch?"

The boy narrowed his eyes at him and stepped back.

"How do you know about Crouch?" he demanded.

"Diggory told me. What happened, Potter?"

The brat didn't answer, but after regarding him suspiciously for another moment he glanced back nervously, as if afraid of the dark forest. Severus continued approaching cautiously. Whatever had happened, clearly Potter was in shock, and Severus was definitely not the right person to handle that even though he was probably the only one besides Poppy who could give him a Calming Draught.

He heard voices behind and when he looked over his shoulder he saw that people were streaming out of the Beauxbatons' carriage, no doubt attracted by the loud and flashy confrontation. Great.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this before an audience gathered around them, Severus closed the remaining distance and clasped a hand around the boy's arm before he could remember his intention of running. Potter stood still, mercifully, so Severus took advantage and quickly cast a few basic diagnostic spells. He didn't offer him a Calming Draught yet knowing that he would refuse it.

"Where is Crouch, Potter?" he repeated once he had confirmed there was nothing physically wrong with the brat. "Did he try to attack you?"

No one was supposed to be able to attack Potter, but the boy's edginess suggested he must have at least felt threatened. No matter how much he hated Severus he had never before reacted this aggressively to him —even last year in the Shrieking Shack Potter had been amicable in comparison—, so something serious must have happened.

"He's dead," said Potter in that unnaturally calm voice he had used the night of the Vow, when he had been informed that he didn't stand a chance of surviving the tournament without help.

"Show me," commanded Severus.

For some reason (probably the shock), this time the boy obeyed without question nor hesitation. And a minute later Severus was kneeling over the body of Bartemius Crouch.

He glanced at Potter. Had the brat killed him? He certainly was able, and he looked unhinged to say the least.

This was bad.

Before he could do anything to cover it up, though, multiple witnesses surrounded them.

When Severus had found himself at the scene of a crime with Crouch's body and a shocked Potter standing beside him, somehow he had failed to consider that he, Severus, would be in a lot more trouble than the boy. Somehow he hadn't immediately realized that he would be a suspect too, and that of course as a prominent Death Eater he would steal the spotlight.

It helped his case that his wand came out clean (although unfortunately he had performed a lot of Dark Magic that day, which didn't make him look so good), but that wasn't enough to exonerate him given that, like the Aurors kept saying, a clean wand didn't mean anything except that that wand hadn't been the murder weapon.

It helped in some degree that Potter admitted to have been approached by Severus from the opposite direction than the attacker had fled, and also that Diggory was willing to testify that he had met him inside the castle around the time when Crouch was estimated to have died, but it didn't help the fact that Potter had initially thought him the murderer nor that Severus had interfered with Diggory's attempt to fetch Dumbledore. Since everything had happened so fast and the estimation of the time of death wasn't exact, it couldn't be ruled out the possibility that Severus might have had time enough to attack Crouch from within the forest and then go around to approach the boy from the other side (although why he would want to return to the scene of his own crime Severus couldn't imagine).

Potter's case was actually a lot more dire, since by his own admission he had definitely been there at the moment of Crouch's death and his tale of an invisible attacker whose existence no one had been able to confirm was rather weak. The boy's wand had come out clean too, but again that didn't mean anything, especially since Crouch's wand had not been found. Those who suspected the boy assumed that he had used Crouch's wand to kill him and then disposed of it before Severus and the others arrived.

If Severus had not been found at the scene, Potter would definitely have been in a tight spot. As it was, most people preferred to think that it had been Severus who had murdered the notable Bartemius Crouch using the man's own wand. He certainly had more motive than the fourteen-year-old Boy-Who-Lived, since Crouch had been his prosecutor after the Dark Lord's downfall, and everyone had been expecting something like this from him ever since Skeeter's article.

Severus was glad that he hadn't completely lost Dumbledore's trust yet.

Not even Dumbledore's protection was enough to spare him a trip to the Ministry, though. The Headmaster was adamant in that Potter could not and would not leave Hogwarts under any circumstances, being a champion, but he was unable to present a similar argument for Severus. Likewise, as an underage student Potter was not interrogated under Veritaserum, but Severus didn't have the same luck. Not that Veritaserum worked on him, of course, but even without having anything to hide —regarding Crouch's murder, at least— it was unpleasant and annoying to be under the potions' effects. It particularly irritated him to imagine Granger's smug expression when she learned that Severus had been given Veritaserum.

In the end there wasn't sufficient evidence —or evidence at all— to formally accuse anyone, so the DMLE had no choice but to declare Crouch's murder an unresolved mystery even though most Aurors were completely convinced that Severus had been involved somehow.

If Severus had been in an ill-mood before, now he was seriously pissed off.

He was angry at the insolent brat for daring to attack him. Resentful towards the Dark Lord for not trusting him enough yet to summon him and explain what the hell was going on. Beyond sick of Moody and his damned eye that now seemed to be following him even more closely if that was possible. And angry at Dumbledore too for not having told him before that Crouch's freaking house-elf had been working at Hogwarts for months.

That elf had clearly known something. Crouch's insistence on dealing with it himself instead of allowing Amos Diggory to take it to the Ministry for interrogation after the Dark Mark incident last summer had been suspicious. If Severus had known that the elf was living in the castle he definitely would have summoned the creature long ago to interrogate it himself, as Dumbledore should have done the instant he took it in.

Now it was too late.

The first thing Dumbledore had done upon discovering Crouch's death had been to raise a powerful ward all around Hogwarts to prevent anyone from leaving, put all the students in lock down and organize a thorough search of the entire grounds and castle.

The second thing the old man had done after examining the body and listening to Potter's description of Crouch's behaviour right before he was killed had been to send Moody to the kitchens to look for the elf and escort it to the Headmaster's office. The Auror had returned reporting that no such elf had been found, and Dumbledore's attempts to summon it (he had not tried it before just in case the creature was drunk, he said) had been unsuccessful. Questioning of the other house-elves revealed that they had last seen the elf wasted on a corner not so long ago, but that they had not noticed its disappearance and were unable to track it down.

So the elf was dead. Everything indicated that whoever had silenced Crouch had also taken the measure of silencing the creature before it could be interrogated.

Dumbledore had glanced speculatively at Severus when the elf's death had been all but confirmed, but fortunately his suspicion had not seemed to last. It really was fortunate that the old man still believed Severus on the right side, because things weren't looking good for him at all.

There was definitely someone inside Hogwarts —someone deeply infiltrated judging by the fact that the person had known about the house-elf— working for the Dark Lord, and they had no idea who it was.

Moody had performed another security check over all members of staff, even verifying their wands just in case, but everyone had come out clean. Karkaroff —who was the main suspect after Severus and Potter— had a solid alibi, since he had been in the company of the Bulgarian Head of Magical Games and within sight of several students at the time of the murder. Severus' best guess, considering that all adults had been cleared, was that it was a student —most likely a Slytherin— or someone posing as a student —he was beginning to suspect someone other than Granger might have stolen the Boomslang Skin—, but because of his cover he couldn't take active steps to discover his or her identity. He had finally decided to confront Potter and demand him to surrender his bloody map (even if it was risky to deprive him of yet another thing the brat might need), but to his frustration the boy had claimed not to have it anymore and he had not been lying about that.

Severus was angry, and he was worried.

There was someone inside Hogwarts working for the Dark Lord, and it was easy to guess what that person's two tasks might be: to kill Harry Potter if the boy survived the tournament, and to keep and eye on Severus Snape.

Severus was seriously pissed off.