Unintended Consequences 2

Chapter 8: In Vino Veritas?

Snape sat in an armchair in the library of Malfoy Manor, a half-empty glass of the Malfoys' excellent elf-made wine in his right hand. A few of his fellow stragglers, their formal dress in various states of disarray, sat nearby, warmed by the blazing fire in the grand marble fireplace. Carved jack-o-lanterns lit by magical flames adorned the mantelpiece and windowsills. Snape's letter to Lucius had resulted in a prompt summons to a Death Eater meeting, at which Snape had reported the news about the Potters. As a result, he was now back in Lucius's good graces, just in time to be roped in for Narcissa's annual Halloween ball. He rather wished the Potters had made their decision just a week or two later....

He had no desire to socialize, let alone attend a formal ball, with Lucius, his important friends, and fellow Death Eaters. Yet he was acutely aware how limited his ability to procure useful information had become since he had started teaching. Any chance to mingle with his old crowd, where he might overhear some nugget of information, was not to be missed. Reluctantly, he had arranged to be free of all duties at Hogwarts until Monday, by volunteering to oversee the first Hogsmeade visit of the year, which had taken place earlier in the day.

Lucius rose to uncork yet another bottle of the excellent wine. Reluctantly, Snape Vanished the rest of his on the sly. It was a shame to waste wine of that quality. He'd had very little; he could not risk getting drunk, and Lucius was sure to offer him some along with the others.

Bellatrix, he could see, had taken no such precautions. Her flushed cheeks and overly bright eyes revealed her inebriation. Rodolphus, his formal robes rumpled and stained with wine, had long since nodded off in an armchair, and she was looking for a source of amusement. Her glance settled on him.

"Snape," she said loudly, drawing the attention of the others present and raising her now-full glass, "I propose a toast to your position at Hogwarts. Finally, a task that suits you - toadying up to Dumbledore, where you no longer need to worry about how you will slither out of action."

Snape rose, keeping his expression neutral to hide his delight. The opportunity presented was perfect. No one would find his response to the insult suspicious, and getting Bellatrix angry was not only entertaining, but also a good way to get her to say things she should not. After Lucius refilled his glass as well, Snape raised it to Bellatrix in acknowledgment.

"My thanks, Bellatrix," Snape said smoothly. "I am pleased to have obtained such a responsible post. Spying on the leader of the Order of the Phoenix is far more meaningful than the harassment and elimination of a random Muggle now and again, exciting though such pursuits may be."

Bellatrix's cheeks flushed darker than the wine had already made them.

"Full of yourself now, aren't you, Snape?" she said. "You're not the only spy in the Dark Lord's service, and by no means the most useful or most valued."

"Useful enough," Snape replied coolly. "I enjoy the Dark Lord's favor as a result of my present successes, and I have brought the Dark Lord valuable information in the past, as well."

"You refer to the prophecy, I presume," Bellatrix retorted. "The Dark Lord does not care anymore, Snape. The Potters' days are numbered at last!"

"I regret the necessity to contradict a lady," Snape said, with a mocking bow in her direction. It was less than a week ago that he had sent the Dark Lord confirmation that the Fidelius Charm had been performed, so her information had to be wrong. Of course, it could simply be outdated. That would really annoy her, he thought with a sneer.

"The Fidelius Charm has been cast on them already. I myself reported it to the Dark Lord," he explained.

"Nonetheless, the Dark Lord will shortly end their puny lives!" Bellatrix insisted heatedly.

"Impossible!" Snape stated flatly. "Unless..."

"...their Secret Keeper is a traitor," he finished under his breath, just barely speaking aloud the thought that had suddenly struck him like a bolt of lightning out of a blue sky.

Bellatrix seemed to realize that she had said too much and stayed silent as well.

"Enough!" Lucius hissed at Snape, at the same time shooting an angry look at Bellatrix.

Snape wanted only to get away with the news, as quickly as possible. He hardly dared to believe his good fortune, that the quarry he has sought for so long and at such cost had just fallen into his lap.

"My apologies, Lucius," Snape responded. "I must plead to having had too much of your excellent wine, and too much of your ... delightful sister-in-law. I am not fit company anymore. I pray you will excuse me."

"Yes, I think it is time for us all to call it a night," Lucius agreed.

Snape went through the motions of saying goodbye to his host, as well as the remaining guests, who were also now preparing to leave. A combination of fierce elation and terrible anxiety gripped him. Bellatrix had let a huge secret slip out, and as a result, he had finally discovered the spy. Well, he did not know who the Secret Keeper was, but Dumbledore would know and could act. Snape tried to reassure himself that the Dark Lord was not right then attacking the Potters' hiding place. Surely he had learned the secret in time.

***

Once back at Hogwarts, Snape walked swiftly to Dumbledore's office. This was not a bit of news that would wait for morning. After giving the gargoyle outside his door the password and riding up the moving staircase, he pounded on the heavy oaken door with the brass griffin doorknocker .He received no response. Dumbledore was probably asleep - it was after two in the morning. He tried a second, protracted knocking on the door.

"Coming," he heard faintly from the rooms beyond.

Having thrown on his robe and kicked on his slippers, Dumbledore proceeded quickly to his office and opened the door. There stood Snape, in somewhat disheveled formal black robes. His face was flushed and he was breathing heavily, as though he had arrived in great haste. His expression indicated profound emotional excitement.

"Come in, Severus," Dumbledore said. "Tell me what has happened."

Snape stepped inside and waited for Dumbledore to close the door behind them. The Headmaster was dressed in a white and lavender striped, tasseled nightcap, an oversized and somewhat threadbare flannel bathrobe in a purple plaid over and old-fashioned nightshirt, and fuzzy slippers. Snape considered the outfit ample confirmation of his guess that the Headmaster had been sleeping, but he gazed alertly enough through his half-moon glasses at Snape.

"I know who the spy is," Snape blurted out as soon as the door closed behind them. "It's the Potters' Secret Keeper!"

Dumbledore stared at him for a moment, genuinely shocked.

"Black?" he asked. How could James Potter's best friend, who had left his family over their prejudice against Muggle blood and support of Voldemort, be the spy? Of course, the logical part of his mind reminded him, he had known the spy would be someone close to the Potters, and thus was going to be someone he would otherwise have considered above suspicion. Dumbledore shook his head regretfully.

"Sirius Black," he repeated.

"Black is their Secret Keeper!" Snape exclaimed. Black was the spy, and he had discovered it. It was almost too good to be true.

Severus seemed just as surprised as he was, Dumbledore noted, if rather more pleasantly.

"Severus, how do you know the spy is Black?" Dumbledore asked.

Snape was eager to give a fuller explanation, to share the details of his long hoped-for success. Yet even his sense of triumph, and his bitter satisfaction at learning that the spy was Black could not quite wipe out the fear he had felt since Bellatrix had spoken of the Potters' danger, that the need to act was urgent.

"Pardon me, Professor," Snape said, "do you have a way to check on the Potters, before we take any more time? Bellatrix was vague, but gave the sense that the Dark Lord might be planning to move on the Potters any time now."

Dumbledore saw the sense in that suggestion, as well as the anxiety that prompted it. He turned to a portrait of a sleeping witch in deep blue robes of an archaic style, her round face framed by a white wimple.

"Ethelfleda, dear," Dumbledore said softly, rapping on the wooden frame of her portrait. The witch opened her eyes and looked about her dazedly, before her eyes came to rest on Dumbledore.

"Albus!" she said happily, daintily hiding a yawn with a bejeweled hand. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"If you would oblige me, please visit your portrait in the place I am not able to name," Dumbledore said. "We would like to check that nothing has happened to the people who live there."

"I'm going straightaway!" she said, lifting the long skirts of her robes and stepping out of sight.

She was back almost immediately.

"All's well!" she reported, beaming at Dumbledore. "Such a sweet baby, he reminds me of my dear grandson Irminric, such a good sleeper he was too..."

"Thank you, Ethelfleda," Dumbledore said to her with a smile.

"Anytime, dear. I love to visit them, such nice people!" she replied, settling her head against the frame and closing her eyes.

"Well, Severus, there you have it. The Potters are safe for the moment," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. "I would like to learn more about how you discovered the identity of the spy. But as you rightly pointed out, there are precautions I ought to take sooner rather than later."

Pleased to see how seriously the Headmaster was taking his news, Snape watched him walk over to his desk, pull a large wad of silvery-grey cloth from one of the drawers, and stuff it into one of the pockets of his bathrobe. Snape was somewhat surprised that it fit, given its apparent size. The weave must be very fine ... which was the clue Snape needed to realize what he was seeing. Dumbledore had some use in mind for an Invisibility Cloak, then. Snape had never seen one before, they were costly items, but the cloth matched the descriptions he had read precisely.

"You can tell me all about it as we walk," Dumbledore said, taking his traveling cloak off the coat rack and pulling it on over his bathrobe. "So, how did you come to learn that Black is the spy?"

"I didn't learn the name of the spy, sir," Snape explained, following Dumbledore out onto the moving staircase outside his office door. "However, the spy has to be the Secret Keeper. Bellatrix as much as told me so herself."

"How did she come to be sharing such information with you?" Dumbledore asked, stepping out into the hallway.

"She was bored, I believe, and had too much to drink," Snape replied as the gargoyle moved back into place to hide the entrance to the office. "To amuse herself, she proposed a toast to my success, and described my assignment here in insulting terms."

"How so?" Dumbledore asked, as he set off towards the stairs to the entryway.

"Her usual," Snape said with a shrug, falling into step beside him. "Spying is my way to avoid more active involvement in the struggle."

"I see," Dumbledore said, as they entered a hallway adorned by many portraits. "And so you became angry?"

Dumbledore drew his wand and cast a charm to keep the portraits asleep as they passed.

"Me, angry?" Snape repeated with surprise. "No, but it seemed the perfect excuse to make her angry. Anger and wine have led to indiscretions on her part before."

"Your stratagem seems to have succeeded tremendously, this time," Dumbledore remarked. "How did the subject of the spy come up?"

"When I boasted of my usefulness to the Dark Lord, she attempted to dismiss it by reminding me that he has better spies," Snape explained. "So I reminded her of the prophecy that I overheard, and she said that the Dark Lord no longer cares about that, since he will shortly kill the Potters."

"She could be mistaken, could she not, Severus?" Dumbledore asked. "She may be referring to some older plan thrown awry by the news you sent last week."

"I considered that," Snape said, "so I did not let her remark stand. I let slip that the Fidelius Charm has already been cast. The news did not surprise her, and she insisted on her story."

"Could it be that she simply did not wish to admit her mistake?" Dumbledore asked.

They had stopped in front of the great ironbound doors of the castle. With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore caused them to open. He stepped into the night air, waiting for Snape to follow before he caused the doors to shut again.

Snape considered the question as he strode toward the gates with Dumbledore. She had seemed only angry, to be contradicted, and to have allowed him yet another opportunity to demonstrate his success as a spy. Was she a good enough actress to hide her surprise at such news? He shook his head.

"I do not believe so. She showed no hint of surprise or shock at the news." Snape said.

Reluctantly, he added, "Also, I am afraid I betrayed the conclusion I drew from her insistence that the Fidelius Charm does not matter. That silenced her, and alarmed Lucius enough that he suggested we all leave."

"So the Dark Lord will learn that you know," Dumbledore observed.

Snape nodded. "Along with the few others who were still around and awake when Bellatrix gave it away."

He supposed the thought ought to make him nervous, yet the mistake had been entirely Bellatrix's. Once precautions were taken to protect the Potters, suspicion might again fall on him. Yet he was still too elated over his success to manage any worry on his own behalf.

They had now reached the gates. Dumbledore swiftly went through the process of undoing all the extra charms and devices that had been placed on the gates to secure the school.

"I don't want any specifics, like names," Snape said. "But, may I ask what you plan for protecting the Potters?"

If the news was indeed accurate, however distressing it proved for the Potters, Severus had earned an answer, Dumbledore decided.

"I will arrange for the hiding place to be watched by a rotation of Order members for now. I will also let the Potters know what I have learned. Monday night there is a meeting at which one of them will be present and we can discuss a more permanent solution," Dumbledore said.

The gates swung open, and Dumbledore stepped through.

"Would you be so kind as to close the gates behind me before you go off to bed, Severus?" Dumbledore asked. "I am eager to expedite those arrangements."

"Yes, sir," Snape agreed.

"Good night then, Severus," Dumbledore said, "and thank you."

Before Snape could reply, with not even a whisper of sound, Dumbledore vanished.

***

I would like to thank Chamber of Secrets Forums member gavina for his assistance with this chapter. He kindly served as a sounding board for my ideas, and suggested that Dumbledore would put Godric's Hollow under surveillance by Order members using James' Invisibility Cloak in response to the news Snape brought.