Sands of Time

Interlude (Chapter 9)

Severus slammed the book shut, disgusted with what it told him.

Dumbledore's letter weighed heavily on his mind and he had found nothing to explain the Headmaster's apparent mis-order.

Since there was no one in the library to see him, he allowed himself a moment to massage his temples and rub the sleep out of his eyes.

The night before last he had been at a Death Eater meeting. When Voldemort finally let them go, his sleep had been plagued by dreams that had quickly progressed to the level of nightmares.

He would have gotten some sleep last night, but Dumbledore had gone and dropped that letter right under his nose - or at least it felt that way. In truth, he had been watching the Headmaster closely all year and he was unlikely to have missed something as obvious as a letter falling from his robes.

Dumbledore was acting strangely, but Severus was hard put to find any evidence of his suspicions until now. The Headmaster spoke differently. A word out of place here, a sarcastic comment when Dumbledore thought he was alone.

Severus had really become suspicious when he watched Dumbledore toy efficiently with the emotions of Flitwick and Sinistra during a staff meeting early in October. Filius had wanted to use the Astronomy tower for a demonstration of Far-seeing Charms. Sinistra had refused since she had a class in the tower at the same time.

Sinistra didn't like Flitwick. She found him too cheerful, or at least that's what she had told Severus once. Dumbledore had let them argue it out, which wasn't an unusual occurrence, since then the Headmaster would step in with a gentle reprimand and the solution to the problem. Severus had had it done to himself often enough so he should know.

But this time, Dumbledore had no gentle reprimand. His words were deliberately couched to get Sinistra angrier and had even driven Flitwick to say a few choice words. It was the manipulation of a master and the annoying thing was that no one else had noticed. Even Minerva, with her sharp watch on Dumbledore's decorum hadn't noticed anything different. How could Dumbledore have caused their argument, Severus? Are you sure you're getting enough sleep?

Snape snorted at the memory. He had been getting sleep until the Headmaster did that.

Now he spent all his spare moments watching the Headmaster. Trailing him like he had last night when he found the letter, and Potter to his great dismay. The boy suspected something was wrong with Dumbledore, same as he did, though if it was obvious enough for Potter to figure it out, why didn't anyone else see something wrong?

Severus realized he had been sitting with his head in his hands for several minutes. He straightened up slowly, relieved there was no one around. It wouldn't do for anyone to think he was having a mental breakdown. He would have to make himself a restorative potion when he got back to his rooms.

That decided, he re-shelved the book and headed out of the library. A casual check in his pocket for the letter made him stop short. It wasn't there.

He walked quickly back to the library and looked around. Nothing. He retraced his steps back to his office, his annoyance growing with each step. Who knew what someone would do if they found it?

Walking down the familiar corridor outside his office, he saw a shape crouched in front of his door. Rage took over, and he nearly pulled out his wand and cursed whoever it was out of existence. But Dumbledore would not accept him cursing students. Not after the last time.

A few steps closer and he could recognize his visitor. He nearly groaned. Potter. Never had he regretted giving a detention more. How could he have forgotten the brat's up coming punishment? Now he would have to spend time with Potter instead of brewing that restorative potion.

His groan turned to a snarl when he saw what was clutched in Potter's sweaty hands. The letter, and knowing Potter, he had already read it.

"Into my office, Potter. Now!" Snape undid the office wards, than redid them once the boy was inside. No one could listen in on them now, not even Dumbledore. At least he hoped Dumbledore couldn't listen in.

"Where did you get that letter?" he demanded.

"It was on the floor outside your office," the boy responded. And it was probably true, since he doubted Potter had the skills to break into his office. But it wouldn't do to let Potter think he believed him.

"So you just picked it up and read it," he sneered at the boy.

Potter was more likely to let something slip if he was upset. The boy opened his mouth to respond, but then stopped. He visibly relaxed before responding.

"Maybe I didn't read it," he said.

Snape was surprised. Potter seemed to have learnt some poise finally, rough though it was. Maybe that story about what he did to Draco was true. Now to see if he had learnt some cunning.

"That's funny, because the hands of anyone who reads that letter turn purple."

The boy looked down at his hands. Stupid.

"One of Dumbledore's little jokes I imagine," said Snape. One of the things that had always annoyed him about Harry Potter was how stupid the boy acted around him. And when he wasn't acting stupid, the boy was acting exactly like James. How was Potter ever going to defeat a wizard like Voldemort if he let such a little trick get by him? Luck wouldn't serve the brat forever.

"Or yours," Potter said.

At least he seemed to realize what he had done.

"Merely a test, but maybe you won't be caught by it next time," Severus said, surprising himself. He tested his Slytherins this way, well his first-year Slytherins, not a Gryffindor and certainly not Potter. He must really be tired. Suspecting Dumbledore was a lot harder than suspecting Quirell, though the lack of three-headed monstrosities trying to bite his leg off was welcome. "For your detention tonight, you'll be extracting the poison from the sulphur root. Wear dragon hide gloves and follow the instructions in this book. Maybe you'll even learn something." That should put Potter back in his place and out of his hair. Hopefully, the boy wouldn't remember to ask him about the letter.

Severus settled down behind his desk with a book on magical transference and pretended to read. He didn't dare take any books on vampires out of the library in case Dumbledore got suspicious, but he was certain that if he did go back to the library he would find nothing to absolve the Headmaster. No matter how he tried to explain it, Dumbledore was making a mistake.

He watched Potter carefully out of the corner of his eye. He had had to improvise the detention, which meant he had ended up assigning Potter a task that was far too advanced for him. He wouldn't have trusted one of his seventh-years to extract that poison.

The mistake he was waiting for came.

"Get to work, Potter!" he commanded. The boy's mind certainly wasn't focused on the potion.

Severus saw what Potter had in his hand and went to snatch it before the brat blew them both up. "What are you doing? You only need half this much or else the mixture will over boil. You're supposed to read all the instructions." He pointed to the bottom of the page. The note at the bottom had actually been added by himself after doing exactly what Potter had almost done. He decided reluctantly that the boy would need a bit more help if he was going to extract the poison without killing them both. He went to point out another note in the margins, but discovered that the idiot was no longer listening.

"Potter! You had better pay attention, or else you'll be doing this again with me tomorrow," Severus said threateningly. He would have to give Filch the detention. He was not spending another night explaining things to the brat.

Potter blithely ignored the threat.

"Do you know anything about vampires, sir?" he asked.

Severus stared at the boy. Potter hadn't forgotten the letter after all. His first instinct was to assign that detention he had threatened, but he quelled the urge. Much as he'd like to punish Potter, the boy obviously had some information he didn't. There was no reason for Potter to begin suspecting Dumbledore - that he knew of. If he let the boy talk and answered a few questions perhaps he would get his own answers as well. Not to mention he could always assign a detention later.

"I know enough."

"Can they drink from someone without killing them?" The brat sounded worried about his friends.

Snape sneered at the idea of caring about a werewolf and an idiot like Black.

"Yes," he said. "But not without making the person they drink from their mental slave, or another vampire."

Potter looked disappointed. You'd think he would have learned that betrayal is a common place thing in this world. The thought made Severus feel tired.

"But Dumbledore can't do that!" protested Harry. "He would never sacrifice someone just to make a deal."

"How do you know he hasn't done it before?" Severus asked. He was curious where the boy had gotten such faith in the Headmaster. Potter didn't answer though, and Snape finally relented. "But much as it galls me, I agree with you. Dumbledore wouldn't sacrifice anyone, even a werewolf, for the help of a few bloodsuckers. Vampires are useless against Dementors anyway since they used to be human." His research had shown that.

Vampires were almost impossible to control as well. Wards and garlic kept them away, as did running water, which explained the island, but you couldn't trust a vampire once freed of those constraints. They got distracted too easily, and then things started to get messy.

"Then what is Dumbledore doing? Maybe the letter is a fake?"

Severus barely heard the question and it took him a moment to answer.

"I verified it," he responded. About twenty times.

Potter seemed to take this as permission to talk. He started babbling about a book on the founders. Snape almost told him to shut up and get back to his detention, but something Potter said intrigued him. Slytherin's diary entries? Severus was sure the old snake hadn't been stupid enough to let any survive even if he had a diary in the first place.

"Slytheirn left no writings, nor did Hufflepuff or Gryffindor," he explained. "And only one of Ravenclaw's diaries has ever been found." Two actually, but the second was in Voldemort's hands, and Snape doubted it would ever make its way into the public eye.

Potter shrugged, unconcerned at this anomaly.

"They could have been fakes, but then why such an elaborate attempt to take them away?" the boy asked.

There was something in what Potter had just said...

"You said attempt," Severus said slowly. "That implies that you still have the book, or that you managed to get it back."

Potter's panic was obvious, but at least he tried to hide it.

"And if I did have it?" the boy asked cautiously. "What would you do?" Snape was impressed. This was the second time tonight the boy had shown some sense. He would have expected that answer of one of his Slytherins.

He stared at the boy, faced with a choice. He could take some revenge - petty revenge he admitted to himself - on the boy by turning him and his friends in, or he could choose to believe Potter and ignore the transgression in favour of seeing the book. Had he been well rested and less on the edge, he might have chosen differently. But somehow, a decades old enmity didn't seem half as important as finding out what was really wrong with Dumbledore.

"The book is no longer on the Forbidden list," he said. "Therefore your possession of it posses no problem." If Potter was lying to him, the boy would never live to face Voldemort..."Fetch the book, Potter, and don't make me regret this."