Disclaimer: Sir Cadogan belong to JK Rowling.

A/N: So, this chapter went in a weird direction, but after rereading Book 3 directly, I felt that it was simply not something that Snape would let pass by, so it kind of had to be this way. I don't know if this will be popular or unpopular based on past comments, but it made sense to me.

Chapter 14: Tonks

Snape's Grudge

"Chapter Fourteen," Tonks said. "Snape's Grudge…Oh, this'll be fun. He has so many of them."

"Even better than she thinks," Harry whispered to his housemates. "Everybody listen up."

Snape coughed loudly. "Headmistress, wasn't there something earlier about professional behaviour by the staff."

Tonks guffawed: "Pot, kettle, Snape. After all the stuff you've done in these books? I'm looking forward to this. Now…No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole house stayed awake in the Common Room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught—Wait a minute. Why didn't you have the students go down to the Great Hall again. Especially if you knew the dorms weren't secure against him anymore. If they were all in one place, Dumbledore and the other teachers could have protected them."

There was silence as the Great Hall waited, and Dumbledore sighed heavily. Harry could have sworn he looked disappointed with himself. "As I mentioned before, in the previous incident, the Gryffindor dormitories were temporarily inaccessible to us, and the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw dorms were not as well protected as we would like. Thus, it made sense to make alternative accommodations. In this incident, that Gryffindor Tower was breached led us to believe that no passive security was safe, and only armed guards would suffice. In that case, it was better not to move the students.

"I might add," he continued, "that while we did search the castle that night, the Heads of House remained on guard outside their respective dorms. This unfortunately reduced the effectiveness of our search, but we knew it was unlikely we would capture Sirius regardless."

Tonks's mouth moved silently as she repeated his words to herself. Meanwhile, Kingsley asked, "And you did not summon Aurors to help?"

"We already had dementors," Dumbledore said, "which, with no offence meant, are regarded as even more effective guards than the Aurors. That is one thing on which I could agree with the Ministry."

Kingsley looked grim. Tonks started to object, but she tilted her head and thought. "Okay, I can give you that. But still—okay, Shack? We need to draw up some proper security procedures for incursions into the school. We can't just go by whatever strikes our fancy."

"I quite agree," Kingsley said. He turned back to Dumbledore and told him, "You are a powerful wizard and an excellent battlefield commander, Professor, but security is not your area of expertise. Unfortunately, these books have made that clear."

Dumbledore didn't object, nor did McGonagall, and Tonks finally went back to reading the book. The castle continued to raise its security, with the front doors being specifically charmed against Sirius's photograph (which they maybe should have done sooner), sealing up any cracks in the walls (against what Harry wasn't certain) and Sir Cadogan replaced with the Fat Lady again plus a troop of security trolls.

"How did you two stand that after what happened our first year?" Hermione demanded. "I couldn't walk past them alone for weeks."

"You couldn't?" Ron said in surprise.

Hermione glared at him sourly. "You still weren't speaking to me at the time, or you might've known."

Harry shrugged, turning pink as he realised he hadn't noticed either. "Guess I didn't think about it that much," he said. "I was more worried about Sirius, I think. Or I figured trained trolls weren't so bad."

But for all this security, the secret passage to Honeyduke's, however, remained unguarded and seemingly undetected to the teachers.

"'D'you reckon we should tell someone?' Harry asked Ron.

"'We know he's not coming in through Honeyduke's,' said Ron dismissively. 'We'd've heard if the shop had been broken into.'" Tonks shook her head. "You really should've told someone, Harry. I know you would've lost your route to Hogsmeade, but leaving security holes like that is really dangerous. And you might not've heard about a break-in if there were one."

Harry turned even redder, but McGonagall cut off the discussion: "That is something we will investigate later, Professor Tonks," she said. Harry felt grateful for that. He remembered he had crossed out a couple of the conversations along similar lines in the book that he didn't want aired out. Still, he had a nasty feeling McGonagall would be giving him that same lecture later.

Besides the security, both Harry and Ron were also wondering about something else: "Why had Black, having got the wrong bed, not silenced Ron and proceeded to Harry? Black had proved twelve years ago that he didn't mind murdering innocent people, and this time he had been facing five unarmed boys, four of whom were asleep. Alright, at least on that part, you've got good instincts, you two," Tonks said. "In the Aurors, we see a case that doesn't add up like that; we start to wonder if we're wrong about the perp's motives. Even crazy people have them, and despite what you said then, there was no good reason for Sirius not to kill you—based on what you knew." She looked down at the book, but then looked back up. "Probably wouldn't've changed the security we'd want to use then, though," she added.

Neville, naturally, got the worst of it after he allegedly lost the passwords. He was banned from Hogsmeade, given detention, received a Howler from his grandmother, and worst of all (well, at the time, Harry had thought the Howler was the worst), he was forbidden from being told the password to the dorm.

"Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the Common Room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him…Okay, that's definitely not safe," Tonks complained. "In fact, I'm not sure if that's even legal. Shack?"

"There's probably no law against it," Kingsley said, "since it was an internal Hogwarts matter, and Longbottom wasn't left outside the castle. But you're right, Tonks. That was not an appropriate response Headmistress. You might have instead required him to be escorted to the dorm by a prefect."

Suddenly, McGonagall glared down at two people at the Gryffindor Table, and for once, it wasn't at Harry and Ron, or at the Weasley Twins. She was glaring at the seventh-year prefects. "I did tell the prefects to escort Longbottom to the dorm, Professor Shacklebolt," she said, her voice tense. "It appears that some people were neglecting their duties."

"Ooh, busted," Fred whispered conspiratorially.

"And did you tell Neville he was supposed to go to the prefects for help?" Tonks asked, and the glare suddenly vanished from McGonagall's face, replaced with worry.

"Ouch. Double busted," George echoed.

Professor Sinistra shook her head. "So once again, we've run into the problem of a lack of a formal complaint process," she concluded. "That should probably be next on our list."

"It would appear so," McGonagall agreed. "Still, for the prefects not to properly inform Longbottom at all…"

"But that's not all of it, Professor," Tonks cut in. "Maybe Neville's punishment was fair, but why didn't you go with security trolls immediately when you realised Sir Cadogan was a poor guard. His constant changing of passwords should have told you you couldn't rely on him."

"The security trolls were a compromise—especially considering this school's history with trolls," McGonagall said. "We would have rathered not use beasts for our security, but the Fat Lady and Sir Cadogan were the only portraits willing to guard the tower against black, and the Fat Lady insisted on security trolls. To be frank, we were running out of options, at least that we could deploy on short notice."

Percy was continuing to take notes on the discussion, Harry saw. He had a feeling this would get to Amelia Bones soon enough—hopefully without as much disruption as the first book had.

Regardless, satisfied for the moment, Tonks continued reading.

"Harry tore open the envelope while Hedwig helped herself to some of Neville's cornflakes."

"Huh?" said Natalie. "I don't think I've seen an owl eating cereal. I mean, owls are carnivores. Why would they?"

Harry rolled his eyes fondly. "At some point, I think I stopped questioning the things Hedwig does."

In the story, Hagrid had called them down to his hut to have a talk with them about Hermione, although he was also getting ready for Buckbeak's hearing.

"Harry saw a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a very horrible yellow-and-orange tie hanging from the top of Hagrid's wardrobe door. Hagrid, I think we need to get you some fashion advice." Tonks skimmed a few more lines. "Also, I'd like to know how taking a Hippogriff on the Knight Bus went."

"Didn't seem ta have a problem with it as long as I were there ta keep Beaky calm," Hagrid said.

Tonks tried to continue, but she stopped, confused, as lines were crossed out in a haphazard fashion. "What is all this?" she muttered to herself at the same time that it occurred to Harry that he might not have crossed things out in such a way as to get a smooth word-by-word text out as a result. "Er, well, basically, Hagrid's telling them off for being mean to Hermione," she said, and at the questioning looks, she tried to cover it by saying, "Sorry, there's, um, a stain on the page."

Harry leaned forward and slapped a hand to his forehead. This wasn't going at all the way he'd hoped. But luckily, Tonks moved on. In the story, Harry was planning how to sneak away to Hogsmeade again. Hermione threatened to tell McGonagall on him about the Marauder's Map if he did, but they ignored her.

Harry turned pink as he recalled how hard he'd begged off hanging out with Neville in his quest to get to Hogsmeade. (Maybe he should have crossed that out, but with Tonks reading, it might not have done much good.) But after that, he made it to the village without incident. The visit even went mostly smoothly until the end. Harry throwing mud at Malfoy and pretending to be one of the ghosts got some good laughs, even though it got him caught. It was only on his panicked run back up to the castle that things went wrong.

"He would have to leave the cloak where it was, it was too much of a giveaway in case Malfoy had tipped off a teacher…"

Ginny turned to Harry in confusion. "Really? Why didn't you just leave the cloak on? No one would've seen you then."

"Er, they still would've seen the statue open up. And if Snape was there—which he was…"

"Why didn't you check if someone was there with the Marauder's Map before you came out?"

"I…" Why hadn't he? After all, it was pretty bad luck that Snape caught him at the exact moment he was coming out. It was hard to believe even Snape could have set that up deliberately. "Well, not sure what I'd've done if he tried to wait me out, but…I guess I was tired and not thinking straight."

Frek tsked at him: "Clearly your sneaking skills still needed work, Harrikins."

"You also could've dropped your Zonko's haul in the passage and come back for it later so Snape couldn't catch you with it," George pointed out.

"And the Map," Fred agreed. "Not like anyone else knew where to find it."

"'What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?' said Snape softly. 'Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.' Okay, I admit that was a good one," Tonks said. But besides that line, Snape was generally being quite harsh with Harry about his admittedly true accusations of Harry sneaking out. And he was especially unkind to Harry's father: "'A small amount of talent on the Quidditch field made him think he was a cut above the rest of us, too. Strutting around the place with his friends and admirers…The resemblance between you is uncanny.'

"'My dad didn't strut,' said Harry before he could stop himself. 'And neither do I.' Eh, he kinda did, sorry," Tonks added. "Course, I was still pretty little when I met him."

At the Gryffindor Table, Harry wanted to protest, but given some of the stories Sirius had told him, he had to grudgingly admit that there might be something to it. However, the Harry in the book finally got fed up and did something few seventh-years would dare do and shouted at Snape to shut up, calling him out on the fact that his dad had saved Snape's life.

"Enough! This is personal material," Snape interrupted the reading. "I don't think it would be appropriate to continue the reading here."

"Well, tough luck, Snape," said Tonks. "This is too good to pass up. Besides, if you told Harry then, he could still tell everyone else anytime. Now…'Then let me correct you—your saintly father and his friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn't got cold feet at the last moment. There was nothing brave about what he did. He was saving his own skin as much as mine. Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts.'"

"Ah, I think I should clarify here," Dumbledore cut in. "I will not give details, Professor Snape, though I would not be surprised if the book does before the end. However, suffice it to say it was clear that only one of James Potter's friends was culpable in that—for lack of a better work, 'trick'—specifically, Sirius Black…as you were informed at the time." He looked at Snape sharply. "James Potter was protecting his friends rather than himself—at no small risk to himself, I might add. If he had chosen to sit on his knowledge and neither report it nor intervene, it is possible he would have been expelled, but not for the trick itself."

"And are we to hear my side of the story, Dumbledore?" Snape said with a sneer.

"I believe we just have, Severus, and we are likely to hear more later," Dumbledore answered firmly.

The reading continued, although things were tense, as Snape was clearly on edge. He did catch Harry just shy of red-handed for sneaking out of the castle. And he soon found the Marauder's Map after he forced Harry to turn out his pockets.

"'Surely you don't need such a very old piece of parchment?' he said. 'Why don't I just—throw this away?'

"His hand moved toward the fire.

"'No!' said Harry quickly."

"Bloody hell," Harry murmured to his friends. "If I'd known then that was my dad's, I might've really flipped out."

"'Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!' Master of the school, Snape?" Tonks needled him. Snape only continued to look angrier. But soon enough, the Marauders made their appearance: "'Mr Moony—'" She snorted. "'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.'"

The Great Hall roared with laughter. Even some of the teachers struggled to hide their reactions. Snape looked murderous. "That is enough," he said, standing up. "We will skip to the next chapter."

"Not a chance," Tonks said. "This is gold! 'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.'"

The laughter was even louder, and Tonks was loving it. She was finally getting to say things that a whole generation of wizards would have loved to say to Snape's face. Her superiors, however, were less enthusiastic.

"Professor Tonks," the Headmistress said. "I think that is enough. Repeating insults against a fellow member of Hogwarts' staff is unnecessary." A few students actually booed her, but she silenced them with a glare.

"Come on, Professor. I can't pass up an opportunity like this," Tonks said. "Mr. Padfoot—"

"Enough!" roared Snape. He drew his wand and, in a flash, he summoned the book to himself. It leapt out of Tonks's hands, and there was a gasp as, in one motion, he caught it in midair grabbed the top few pages and started to tear them out. But at that very moment, Tonks, still looking surprisingly in control, waved her own wand. The book didn't move, but the pages flew out of Snape's fingers even as he tore them and back to her own waiting hands.

"Oh, no you don't," she said with a smirk. She leaned back as she quickly squared the pages and found her place. "Here we go: 'Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.'"

The laughter began, but it was quickly cut short when the pages in Tonks's hands suddenly burst into flames. She let out a squawk as she dropped them, more from indignation than fear, but she acted immediately. She shot to her feet. Snape pointed his wand. Kingsley shot to his feet. But this time, Dumbledore was faster. So fast that Harry, transfixed on the scene, hadn't even seen him move, Dumbledore stood and flicked his wand; there was a loud crack that silenced the Hall, and Snape, Tonks, and Kingsley froze. For a split second, it was almost like they had been petrified, but it quickly passed, and they lowered their wands.

"Severus, Nymphadora, I will not allow you to disrupt this school any further," Dumbledore spoke. His voice was quiet, but there was a deadly fire in his tone. "This is highly inappropriate behaviour on both of your parts. Please sit."

They all sat. None of the students dared speak.

"Thank you." Dumbledore flicked his wand again, what was left of the book flew from Snape place at the table to McGonagall's hands. Then, he sat too.

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," McGonagall said heavily. More quietly, too quiet for the students to hear, she added, "That was foolish on your part, Tonks. And that was especially foolish on your part, Severus. I only hope that we haven't lost anything important." She stood up and called out to the Great Hall, "Mister Potter."

Harry, already shocked from the sight, paled further. He hadn't expected Snape to freak that badly. (Maybe he should have, but he hadn't.) But was McGonagall going to call him out for that in public, too? It wasn't his responsibility, exactly, but he'd had the opportunity to redact the book if he'd wanted. Nervously, he stood up. "Yes, Professor?"

"The top of the next page in the book reads… breakneck speed, trying to avoid a spurt of flames from Malfoy's steed's mouth, when he realised he had forgotten his Firebolt. He fell through the air and woke with a start.

"It was a few seconds before Harry remembered that the match hadn't taken place yet. That would be shortly before the Quidditch final. Can you tell us if anything of import happened in the missing pages?"

"What? Oh—OH! That. Yes, Professor…" He tried not to let the relief show too much on his face as he thought back to the chapters he'd skimmed last night. What order had things gone in again? Of course, he'd lived through those events, but it was so handy having them written down like that. "Well, Lupin confiscated the Map. Buckbeak lost his appeal. Oh, that was when Hermione slapped Malfoy," he said with a chuckle, and there was an indignant noise from Malfoy. "I'm pretty sure that was when Hermione walked out of Divination Class, too—yeah, it must've been. It was around Easter. That's about it."

Harry dearly wish he could repeat the Map's final insult to Snape, Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball. He wanted to finish that scene. But that would be monumentally stupid under the current circumstances.

"Thank you Potter," McGonagall said as he sat down. "In the interest of maintaining decorum, I will not allow this to disrupt the remainder of the reading." She levitated the now-torn book to the far end of the table. "Professor Bragnam, please read the remainder of the next chapter. But I urge all of our readers to be more cautious about any further offensive material that may appear."

Professor Bragnam, also looking a bit shell-shocked, composed himself and took up the book. "Well, I don't know what the chapter title was, but I assume we're about to hear about the Quidditch final…" he began.

A/N: The "top of the next page" is not correct for the British edition McGonagall is reading, since I only have an American edition, but it is correct for my version.