Snapewatch

Snapewatch

I know something the others do not know. The headmaster, the Ministry, the rest of the staff here at Hogwarts . . . even the werewolf, Lupin. Not one of them knows the truth of the matter.

There are only three of us left who know. Only three people, in all the wide world, know the facts.

And who am I to tell the others?

Why should I tell anyone?

We are talking, after all, about the man who tried to kill me. The man who as a boy (and at the age of sixteen a boy is no longer a child) sent me to see where that other 'boy' went. His friend. A creature who had never been just a boy--not even when he was a child--not after the werewolf bit him.

How he can sit here now, biting into chocolate biscuits, like any normal human being . . .

Black thought it was a joke, sending a scholar into the tunnel after Lupin. A 'nosey git'--that was how Black thought of me. He never could see that there is a difference between being hungry for knowledge and being a common snoop. Black didn't know what it was to be hungry for anything, back in those days. He had money, he had looks, he had popularity . . . and probably any girl he wanted.

And girls were likely all he ever wanted to know. For all his cleverness, for all his pure dark blood, he had little appetite for any learning that might have stimulated the brain between his ears.

I wonder if he's hungry now, after twelve years in Azkaban. I wonder if he craves--among other things--revenge.

Does he know that I know? It wasn't he who betrayed James and Lily Potter.

There are only three people left who know. Sirius Black, the Dark Lord, and I.

There used to be a fourth who knew. Peter Pettigrew. And Black killed him . . . oh, spectacularly. A fine display of wizarding vengeance, that was, taking out a dozen Muggles as well.

And now only Black and Lupin are left of the Gryffindor Four. And Lupin is here, sipping tea like the rest of us, lapping up all the attention, the warm welcome the others have given him, basking, wallowing in it . . .

If I had my cauldron with me I might be sick.

Does Dumbledore wish he could have given jobs to all four? Black, Potter and Pettigrew as well as Lupin? They could have taught . . . now let me see . . . Arrogance, Invisibility, Breaking Rules Without Having Your Wand Broken.

I wonder if Black has got himself another wand, now he's escaped from prison. Could Lupin have bought one for him? What sort of results do you get using another wizard's wand?

Perhaps it's a bit like adding sugar to theWolfsbane Potion.

No doubt Black and Lupin are agreed as to which revenge is sweeter--leaving imprisoned someone who tried to kill you, or killing someone who left you in prison for twelve years.

Perhaps they think a Death Eater is best served cold.