Hey everyone,
So this is the second part of To Ensnare a Snake. In this Albus is going to tell Hogwarts about the whole thing with the Evans' being murdered, why Sirius never spoke up, what they found out after the match and what Amelia, Pepper and he found out. After that, we are going to go on to a quick little "meeting" between Snape and Pepper. And I'm going to be honest. Just like with Jessica, I know I am running the risk of pissing a few people of with what I have planned, but
Oh well,

Venquine1990


Chapter 30
To Ensnare A Snake – Part 02

12th of November 1995
Great Hall, Hogwarts
Albus' POV

Returning to Hogwarts felt like stepping into a hot, warm bath after coming home on a cold winter's day or after just getting out of a heavy, cold rainstorm. It had felt like a balm on the wounds caused to my heart and soul by what I had learned within the last few hours. Now I feel better and feel ready to explain the whole story to both staff and students. And while Pomona had been the first to notice that I was back, had the woman accepted my request for her to wait until lunch.
Though because of what happened to me at the cemetery, do I stand up once the first students start coming into Great Hall and say: "Please take your seats and leave the plates empty. I do not wish to deprive you of your lunchtime meals, but the news I wish to share with you will make you grateful that you did not eat yet once you have heard it. I know this as, upon myself finding out about this, I lost my breakfast."
Instantly all of the students that are present are muttering amongst each other with great curiosity, though some of them are also voicing their concerns and worries over whether or not they want to even hear this. Luckily enough, all of the muttering between students and Houses makes it so that I don't have to repeat my warning and once all students are inside, they actually prove this by instantly falling silent and turning my way.

This actually reminds me of the Choosing of the Champions and this, in turn, reminds me of the memory that we all watched some time ago. I take a deep breath in order to give myself the mental strength to push these memories away and focus on the task at hand. I stand up and want to start my explanation, but get beaten to this by Mss. Johnson who gasps and says: "Oh, before I forget, Professor Dumbledore.
We read the Potter Will last night and they left various things for you and Professor McGonagall. The will stated that you'll be able to find these in the bookcases that are at Godric's Hollow, though they might have been moved to the Potter vaults after James and Lily were killed." And while I am grateful for her words, do I also feel a sense of loss as I wonder if there is a chance that Snape has destroyed the books James meant for me to have upon his death. This makes me sincerely hope, just a little bit more, that Pepper will let Snape have it.
I give the girl a grateful nod and say: "Thank you for informing me, Mss. Johnson. Professor McGonagall and I will definitely look into this after lunch. Also, it just so happens that the info you wished to share with me coincides with the info I wish to share with all of you. However, I must also insist that the rules and guidelines that were put in place when we all viewed the Graveyard memory are reinstated for this. Please, for your own good, follow these rules if necessary."

And thanks to the conversation topic of my earlier warning and thanks to their own experience from the previous memory, do a lot more students leave the tables this time around, yet the hall still remains halfway full at the end of it. I personally feel relieved as it's obvious that everyone in Mss. Weasley's year and below, bar apparently Mr. Creevey, have left the room, yet I still wonder if perhaps more will leave the hall as time goes on.
"Thank you all for your bravery and your strength of character. Now please understand, because this time the story will be told through words instead of a memory, you will be able to leave of your own volition at any point. Also, for those of you truly hungry, I would recommend you keep your meals to just the crackers, the grapes and the bottles of water." And with that do the plates, bowls and jugs all over the four tables fill themselves with these kinds of food and water.
A couple of students look grateful for this and start to fill their goblets and plates while I start my explanation. "As I am sure you've noticed, we have another vacant seat, this time at the staff table. And until late last night, I would have felt sorrow and regret over announcing this, but after learning what I have, I no longer do. Former professor Severus Tobias Snape is now in the custody of the Department of Mysteries.

He was arrested for violation of ancient family graves earlier this morning by Madam Bones after breakfast, but after seeing the amount of damage he actually caused to the graves in question, did Madam Bones wipe her hands clean off the case and transfer it over to Pepper Pomfrey, who is both an Unspeakable and the sister of our own Madam Poppy Pomfrey. And please note, even Lord Voldemort, in his prime, respected ancient families enough to leave their homes alone, even if their line had been ended by Grindelwald."
This makes everyone who is in the hall look shocked, horrified or disgusted and while I do hear a few Gryffindors whisper amongst each other: "I knew he was no good." Do none of the snakes that hear these whispers glare at the offending lions as they themselves feel either too disgusted or horrified to care, I do believe. I take a deep breath and say:
"Onto my findings of last night. Let me make two things clear. One, you are still allowed to leave the hall if you so desire. Second, I want to make it 222% clear that, if I had known about any of this before last night, Severus Tobias Snape would have been inside Sirius Black's former cell long before Halloween 1981 happened. And yes, I would swear this on the very essence of my magic and this is the reason why I am no longer willing to blindly defend the man. If nothing else, this news makes me feel that to be my greatest regret."

This makes a lot of those that are seated around me share shocked and concerned looks and even the Snakes look as if they wonder whether or not they will regret being in the House of said man. Instantly I say: "For those currently in Slytherin House, please understand that no one in the staff will let what I am about to tell you all affect you and that, if anyone from the other Houses dares to make an attempt at retaliation, there will be consequences for those who try this.
Now, onto my findings of last night. After his visit to Malfoy Manor, did Lord Black encounter Snape in my office as both desired to report their findings of what happened at Malfoy Manor. This was because Lord Malfoy had summoned Snape to his home after his conversation with Lord Black. During this meeting, a confrontation ensued that ended in Lord Black leaving a memory in my Pensive, one he had, until recently, forgotten.
This memory concerned the first time that the late James and Lily Potter had a casual conversation instead of the usual confrontations that occurred between them due to their, at the time, clashing personas. However, the conversation was quite the depressing one as it took place three days after young Lily, at the time age 16, lost her parents to Lord Voldemort." This horrifies a lot of those around me, yet I also notice that less people than usual are flinching at the name.

This makes me smile in pride at the hall at large and I continue. "Mss. Evans received news of this through the raven messengers that Lord Voldemort and his men liked to use during these times. However, one of the pictures that showed this, a picture that she actually only ever shared with who would later on become her husband, also showed just how her parents could have been murdered. This because, out of caution, Mss. Evans had convinced her parents to move out.
The move was meant to keep them safe as the address that they were moving to was meant to be kept secret from everyone, even Mss. Evans herself, until a month after the move had taken place. However, through illegal means of Legilimency – also known as mind reading – Snape managed to gain this information for himself and when Mr. Evans refused him to see his daughter, as Snape had previously ruined his friendship with Mss. Evans most horribly, his manic obsession with poor Mss. Evans got the better of him.
He grew the belief that, without her parents in the way, Mss. Evans would want to be friends with him again and therefore, revealed their moving address to Death Eaters and requested them not to attack until the school year was well underway. Because of this, and because Mss. Evans never spoke up, not wanting to be reminded of the fact that her former friend had betrayed her like this, Snape has been left in the belief for all these years that no one knew of his betrayal. Though three people actually did. Lily Evans, James Potter and Sirius Black."

"Wait, Black knew as well? Then why didn't he ever tell anyone? Why didn't he speak up when he ended up in Azkaban? Why didn't he try to prove his innocence by proving Snape not to be innocent himself?" Someone in Gryffindor asks in shock and I sigh as I say: "I'm afraid that I am to blame for this, Mr. McLaggen. What you have to understand is this. Sirius became a member of my Order of the Phoenix right out of school. Snape didn't switch sides until the end of the war.
Sirius never spoke up while in Azkaban, because he considered this me betraying him and therefore did not believe that I would believe a traitor, especially not on someone he knew I knew he once considered nothing more than a school rival. And as the years passed, Sirius simply forgot and until Snape challenged him on his bond with Lily, this memory was something he had stopped thinking about. However, last night he remembered, read James Potter's will and found the only bit of evidence left of this case.
And I myself will be –." But then Alicia Spinnet stands up, moves over to the Hufflepuff table and hands a simple picture, one that amazingly enough has gold paint around the outer edges, which makes it look like it was framed, to young Susan Bones. This shocks and astounds me, but then Mss. Spinnet says: "Just know that this is only a copy. Harry kept the original, but he did want this to be made available to the DMLE for when it could be made useful."

Instantly Mss. Bones turns to me and I give her a firm nod. The girl responds this with lightning reflexes, jumping out of her seat, actually motioning for several older students who come to stand around her just like Harry and his friends did weeks ago and the whole group rushing out of the Great Hall. And while they do, do I take a deep breath and say: "It pains me to say this, but all and every charge against Snape concerns the Potters, including the desecration. And Snape didn't just desecrate James Potter's grave, but also the Potter home in Godric's Hollow.
And while I did see what Snape did to James, which is what made me lose my breakfast earlier this morning, did I not see the damage Snape caused to the Potter home. I did, upon approaching the home, sense various forms of destructive magic that had been cast upon the home –.""Wait a second. I visited the Potter home just last summer. How did I not see any of this?" Someone in Hufflepuff asks and I answer: "Snape's best – and at the same time his worst – skill; covering his tracks."
The boy nods in understanding and I sigh as I say: "Now, I would like to end this announcement by sharing a few last details. One, while sensing these destructive spells that had been cast upon the Potter home and then hidden by glamor charms, one of the spells I sensed was the Fiendfyre curse." This horrifies a lot of those around me and I say: "Second, Snape is now in the hands of the DMLE and Unspeakable Pomfrey actually activated a punishment protocol that has a chance of 1 in 3200 of being allowed by the magic of the Department."
And with that do I sit down, smiling in slightly maniacal glee and unethical satisfaction as I hear the many crazy ideas of my hormonal teenage students and what they come up with as to what the Unspeakables could be planning with the Doomed Snake as Snape seems to have been dubbed now that everyone knows about this. And while I usually try to prevent myself from doing so, do I spend the rest of lunch letting my own imagination run away with me.

At the same time
At the DoM
Pepper's POV

It had been a huge surprise to everyone at HQ to see me return after they found out that I had activated protocol #4444. But it had only taken Unspeakable #3223 coming in a few minutes after me with his intel on why Madam Bones had been summoned to Godric's Hollow for them to understand why magic had deemed my reasons acceptable. After this did we decide that, because Snape might as well be considered Target #32 – aka Dead Man Walking – we might as well reveal a little DoM secret to the man while we go through the protocol.
We have laid the man in the center hall of the DoM, actually purposely leaving the door to the Hall of Prophesies open for the man to see upon him regaining consciousness and learning that he had actually been stunned again between his arrival to the DMLE holding cells and the DoM and after this I just stayed standing with the two little secrets. Yet it seems the stunner wasn't all that strong as Snape wakes after only a couple of minutes.

He still does this a little groggily and seems to purposely not focus on anyone standing in the room with him as he looks around. And when his eyes land on the open door and the many glowing orbs that shine brightly from the dim light of the huge dome-like hallway, his eyes widen even further. This increases my sense of amusement and then his view gets blocked by the two secrets, making him finally focus and look up at them and their faces.
The sight of who these two people are makes his eyes widen even further, which would have made me wonder if his eyes could pop out, had it not been for the fact that my colleagues had proven this to be impossible without magical aid several centuries ago. "F-f-f-f-frank? A-a-a-Alice? H-h-h-h-how?" The man whimpers and stutters and the two, who are supposed to be lying in beds in the Closed Wards of St. Mungo's, smirk at each other.
"You seem to have forgotten what we were like during the war, Snape. We, after all, managed to constantly survive all of the attacks your little buddies let out on us thanks to us being able to think several steps ahead and not assume anything when we were taking any kind of action that could get us in contact with either other Order members or Death Eaters." Frank starts the explanation and while he gives Alice a side-embrace, does his wife continue the explanation.
"And this includes the time of Halloween 1981 and after. We had known for some time that Voldemort's end wouldn't mean the ultimate end of the war and we already knew, from the minute that Voldemort went after Harry, that we would be targeted the minute he, if magic so decided, met his end trying this. So, because our skill of foreseeing and predicting the moves of our friends and opponents got us spotted by the DoM, we decided to take advantage of that."
"We joined the Unspeakables, two of their prisoners – who had already been sentenced to death – took our places under close surveillance and – well, you know what happened next. Also don't you worry, Severus. Neville does know about our secret. He was told last summer and he knows not to reveal it unless we give him express permission. Oh, eh, Pepper, you did tell him that moving to the Garden is equal to us giving permission, yes?"

I nod at the father and then Snape asks: "Why am I here?" And I can easily hear the pride hidden underneath the fake curiosity, at which I roll my eyes and say: "Don't fool yourself, Snape. You're here as our prisoner, not because we want to think you are worthy to join the Unspeakable ranks. And the only reason we keep the door to the Hall open is because we know how much you played a role in that which is hidden within that room."
The man whitens and turns from me to Frank and Alice, who both roll their eyes and Alice says: "Just leave it, Pepper. Just tell him. It's obvious Albus kept it a secret from him all this time." Which makes the man look at me curiously and I smirk as I state: "Either must die at the hand of the other. The first line that came after the part of the prophesy you overheard. And guess what, little Snapey-Snape. That line is in several hundreds of prophesies of this very category.
Not only that, the term by hand is the most common phrase in all prophesies and has more different kinds of interpretations than that there are students in all magical schools all over the world. And young Harry made use of one such interpretation, held my hand and gave the magical order to me and my fellow Unspeakables to make your precious Lord Voldemort turn around on his path of immortality, turn mortal – and then end his mortal existence. And just for your information – info you will never share with anyone – our chance at succeeding is currently 123%."

The man looks at me wide-eyed and with his mouth agape, but I had already, while talking, noticed that he was faking the shock and that he was slowly but surely trying to move his body in a way that he could attack me and make a run for it. And so, when I finish my statement, I decide to prove my point about him never sharing anything with anyone and use my magic to slam the door to the hall of prophesies closed. And thanks to my profession, I only need to think it and it happens.
This does startle the man for a short second, but then he tries to reach for his wand, only for his eyes to genuinely widen as he realizes that he is wandless. "Okay seriously? When have you ever heard of anyone leaving their prisoners with any kind of weapon on their person? And don't think we don't know about that little cyanide in your tooth. My mother may have been Pureblood, but she had a stronger obsession with Muggle culture than Arthur Weasley."
The man stares at me, his face paling whiter than I ever saw the complexion of any human, even a vampire, turn and while I feel curious as to whether or not the man might have a vampire anywhere down his lineage, do I just love the expression that is slowly but surely seeping onto his face. "Yes Snape. You are ours now. And we have plenty of plans for you." I think to myself and then decide to just get down to protocol.

And at that thought do several burned, ripped and destroyed objects come up from the floor between Snape and myself. The man looks at them and a smirk of gleeful pride grows on his face at which I say: "Yeah, enjoy the sight while you can. When I realized you had done this, Snape, I activated a protocol that, if magic deemed my request unworthy, would have ended my existence. So you can imagine how far you need to push an Unspeakable for them to risk that."
The man looks at me, all of his emotions up to this point being genuine and I give him the same kind of smirk he just send to the objects before I snap my fingers. And instantly the man starts to hiss and snarl in pain before he starts to softly scream. And while I know that this is a man that has been suffering several Cruciatus curses cast by Lord Voldemort himself, I still consider this a fact that proves that the man's actual endurance levels are just pathetic.
Yet at the same time my smirk turns into a smile of pride as I see the magic of protocol #4444 set in as it forcefully uses Snape's own magic to undo the magical damage he caused to the objects between us, repairing the book, the picture, the robe, the dress robes and the dress that are lying on the ground. And I even snort when I notice Snape spotting this and, even with the pain that he is feeling, he seems to have realized what is going on. And the sight of the man trying to prevent this from happening is just one word in my opinion; pathetic.

The objects slowly but surely repair themselves, fixing the damage that had been caused to them and Snape himself even starts to scream even louder as he tries to keep his magic from answering to the demands of the protocol, to no avail. Then, when I feel that the damage has been repaired plenty enough and that the objects look decent once again, do I snap my fingers once more. Instantly the magic of the protocol ends and Snape collapses in exhaustion.
"Yes Snape, you better rest up. Because thanks to all the destruction you caused, from now until the day your master meets his end, this is going to be your day to day life. And maybe, if you misbehave, we'll even make it a nighttime exercise from time to time." I mockingly tell the man and while Frank and Alice come over to drag him to his new home, a cell, do I smirk as I think: "Though the fact that I took that curse out of your mark – I think I'll keep that to myself – for now."


JIKES!
Don't mess with Pepper Pomfrey. She's not an Unspeakable without reason. So yeah, Frank and Alice are perfectly fine and healthy and have been this entire time. Now don't you guys worry, I am going to go into their backstory and create an acceptable storyline for them and what they would have done had it not been for three things. 1. Harry's destiny. 2. Harry's pregnancy. 3. Pepper having everything under control with the other Unspeakables.
Also expect me to cover the whole thing with Unspeakable Burk sometime soon. Though for now, I'm going to go back to Harry and the Garden. Though I am going to do two things. One, I'm going to make a time jump to the 18th of November, one week after the match that made them decide to move. Two, I am going to write a small bit of a summary of how Harry and the others adapt to the new world and how they spent their time on their first day there.
Hope you enjoy,

Venquine1990
PS. Expect a time jump to the Thursday before the Hogsmeade weekend to come soon.