During the next week and a half Gryffindor lost more points during Potions lessons than ever before. Snape continued to be in a horrible mood, and even Dean and Harry commented on it being worse than ever. Snape had not spoken to Harry once since their confrontation more than two weeks before and he still got up and left every time Harry entered the Great Hall.
James took great pleasure in Snape’s foul mood, only complaining about his inability to worsen it. He did however take even greater pleasure in the fact that he was now, through a new found way of communicating, able to help the girls in their rule-breaking. A fact Lily didn’t find nearly as amusing as James and regularly scolded him about.
Last night had been no different. James had showed the girls one of the, very few, secret passageways they didn’t yet know about and as a result he was in an excellent mood today. The girls too were in a superb mood today, and spent most of their lunch telling Eddy and Jordan about the passageway they discovered the night before.
“You’ve should have seen it!” said Lily excitedly. “I don’t even think Uncle Fred and Uncle George know about that one,” she said with a grin.
“I wouldn’t say that, Lil. Dad and Uncle Fred knows more about the secret passageways here than anyone. Except for maybe Uncle Harry,” Eddy said laughingly. “Do you remember in our first year when we decided to try out all the different passageways that dad and Uncle Fred had told us about?” he asked with a grin turning to Jordan.
“You mean when your uncle just happened to stand outside every one of them when we came out on the other side, ready to give us detention?” Jordan asked with a smirk before turning his attention to Lily. “Seriously Potter, I spent the better part of our first year thinking your dad could see through walls,” he said frowning to the girls’ and James’ huge amusement.
Lily who was getting bored with the conversation started to drift around a bit in the Hall, listening to the conversations of the other students for a while. Especially at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables students were talking lively. Lily drew closer to hear what they said, but when she realized that the conversations were about the Potions lesson their fifth years had just had and the horrible mood Snape was in lately, she once again felt a bit bored and headed back to the girls and her husband.
Not really being in the mood to listen to the girls’ conversation and longing for some private time with her husband, she grabbed James by the arm and beckoned him to come with her. James shot a last glance at the girls, then nodded and followed her out in the Entrance Hall.
When they reached the Entrance Hall they saw Harry coming down from the marble staircase, heading into the Great Hall for lunch.
“Should we..?” started James, but Lily just shook her head.
“Today I want to be alone with you for a while,” she said with a smile. James returned her smile and they both turned to head outside.
They heard his low whispering voice just as they were about to go through the door.
“Potter, I want to speak to you!”
Instinctively James and Lily turned around. They saw Snape standing very close to Harry, looking at him with the utmost disgust. He had Harry’s right arm in a firm grip, making it impossible for Harry to leave or move. James and Lily immediately forgot their wish to head outside, or to be alone. Instead they warily moved closer to the two men staring intently at each other.
“Then speak!” said Harry calmly as if he was standing next to a student and not in the grip of a man looking like he couldn’t decide whether to talk to him or kill him.
“In private!” sneered Snape. It wasn’t a request it was an order, leaving no room for denial. James’ temper shot up, and had he been able to he would without doubt have turned a wand at him. Harry however to James’ utter surprise did nothing.
“Will my office do?” he said just as calmly as before. James stared at his son as if he just announced he didn’t believe in magic. He had expected the same kind of confrontation between the two that he had seen previously, the kind that Harry usually won. But Harry showed none of the temper or wit he had in any of those instances. He just waited for Snape’s response and then followed him back to his office when Snape pushed his way past him and headed up the marble staircase.
They didn’t speak until they were safely inside Harry’s office.
“That won’t be necessary Potter,” Snape said his voice dripping with disdain when Harry gestured to the chairs in the room offering one to Snape. “I only have a question.”
“One you couldn’t ask me in the Entrance Hall?” asked Harry coldly and somewhat surprised, not letting his eyes leave Snape’s for a second.
“Yes!” Snape responded snappishly. He did however not ask his question. Instead an uncomfortable quiet fell over the room making Lily shudder.
“I wanted to ask if your scar ever hurt nowadays,” Snape suddenly asked, cutting the silence with his hostile voice. Harry’s eyes widened with surprise.
“No!” he answered, reflexively touching the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. “It hasn’t hurt since Voldemort died,” he said ignoring the fact that Snape cringed when he said the name. “Why?” Harry added suspiciously.
“Just wanted to check, that’s all. Not that it’s any of your business,” answered Snape coldly. He turned to head for the spiral staircase and was just about to climb it when it was Harry’s time to grab him.
“You wouldn’t just check!” Harry said harshly as his hand closed around Snape’s left arm making him twitch with pain as Harry firmly pressed his thumb into his flesh. “And if you think for a second that your dark mark being active again is “none of my business”, then I will surely inform you otherwise!” Harry said in almost the same threatening whisper that Snape usually spoke with.
Lily almost screamed and James looked with horror at the two men, now locked in a battle of wills, staring intently into each other’s eyes. Whatever was going on between them it was blatantly clear that the men loathed each other. Yet James couldn’t help but wonder how Harry could know about Snape being a Death Eater, and still let him stay on teaching. He’d been an Auror “ so why hadn’t he made sure that Snape was in Azkaban instead of at Hogwarts.
“If you think…” whispered Snape, but Harry wasn’t about to back down. Still holding a firm grip of Snape’s left arm, he took another step closer and when he spoke his voice was filled with every bit of the contempt that his face showed.
“I’m going to examine that mark “ one way or another, Snape. It’s up to you to decide exactly how unpleasant that examination will be.”
Snape didn’t even flinch, and James found himself questioning if he had blinked once since he stepped into the office. His upper lip curling, Snape began to speak “ only to once again be cut of by Harry.
“Sit down!” Harry ordered, not turning his eyes away from Snape’s for even a fraction of a second. Snape stared right back at him, his black cold eyes narrow and dangerous. He still didn’t blink. Suddenly, after what seemed as minutes, he yanked his arm free, pushed Harry out of the way and strode over to one of the chairs in the room.
“I don’t know what you expect to find, Potter,” he said venomously while rolling up his sleeve. “It’s not like I haven’t examined the mark myself. I doubt anyone with your level of incompetence can add anything to what I already found out.”
“Last I checked I was the one with the Defence Against the Dark Arts job,” Harry said insolently. He walked over to the strange looking cabinet in the corner of his office without even glancing in Snape’s direction. “And you were the one constantly turned down for it,” he added. He stroked the cabinet’s door with one finger, reminding Lily of the lock Ginny had placed on her daughter’s diary. The door sprung open.
Lily and James could see the cabinet was filled with instruments, books and parchments. Some of the things they recognised, such as a Sneakoscope and what looked like a Secrecy sensor. But many instruments were things they never laid their eyes on before. Lily tried to see what books were inside the cabinet, but they all had blank backs, and the parchments too were all blank, including the long one stuck to the inside of the cabinet door.
Watching the blank parchment, James suddenly remembered the map he, Sirius, Remus and Peter had created during their fifth and sixth year in school. A faint smile spread across his face as he remembered, but his thoughts were interrupted when the cabinet door slammed shut in front of him, bringing him back to the reality of the world. A world were Snape was now sitting in his son’s office with his left sleeve rolled up, angrily ogling Harry who bent down before him to get a better look on the dark mark glowing red on Snape’s arm.
“At least it’s not white,” commented Harry as he bent down over it.
Snape snorted disdainfully in response. “Oh really I hadn’t noticed, must be your professional skill,” he sneered sarcastically. Harry glanced irritably up at the man in front of him for a short while before harshly telling him to be quiet and let him work.
James and Lily watched Harry examine the mark with a mixture of interest and disgust. They didn’t know what to make of what was happening before them. If Snape had the Dark Mark, then surely he was a Death Eater like they had suspected. But if he was a Death Eater, then why did he let Harry examine his mark? Why had he, on his own free volition come to see Harry in the first place? Moreover, how did Harry know about his mark? Watching as Harry picked up one of the unknown instruments from the table next to him and prod Snape’s arm with it, James felt as if something had gone horribly wrong with the world.
“You could be a bit more gentle with that,” snarled Snape through gritted teeth as the instrument touched his arm.
“Probably!” answered Harry coldly. He finished what he was doing and lifted the instrument up to watch it. It had a piece of Snape’s skin stuck to it. Carefully Harry took a jar and placed the skin in it. Snape watched him intently.
“I really see no reason for that!” he said irritably, covering the Dark Mark with his hand. Harry shot an annoyed look at him.
“No, I don’t expect you would,” he answered. Not even bothering to wait for Snape’s reaction he walked over to the cabinet and opened it once more. He carefully put the jar containing part of the Dark Mark inside and took out another jar instead.
“Here!” he said throwing the small jar to Snape. “For the pain,” he added coldly getting another disdainful snort from Snape in return.
“I had the unfortunate task of trying to teach you Potions remember,” he sneered. “With that in mind I think I prefer making my own pain-killing concoction thank you very much.”
“By all means, but unless you’re part Veela you’re not going to be making that one, or anyone as efficient for that matter,” Harry said plainly. For the first time Snape looked surprised. He looked at Harry, his eyebrows slightly raised.
“You’ve managed to get a hold of Veela-cream?” he asked sceptically.
“Yes of course, my sister-in-law is part Veela, but surely you were aware of that. She did after all spend nearly a year at this school during the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry answered sounding somewhat surprised at Snape’s lack of knowledge. Lily looked at him and somehow she realized that even though her son detested the man in front of him, he was not used to him being ignorant of facts.
“No apparently I did not know that or I wouldn’t have been surprised!” snapped Snape. “Then I, at least, had a few other things to worry about that year than whether or not some silly French girl was part Veela or not.”
Without even saying thank you for the Veela-cream, Snape turned quickly on his heal, his robes billowing out behind him as he started to mount the stairs leading outside. Harry didn’t even bother to look at him as he walked away and therefore he didn’t notice when Snape stopped just in front of the door and turned back towards the room and took a few steps down.
“You are sure you don’t feel anything of your scar?” he asked Harry suspiciously. “You are absolutely sure that the Dark Lord is dead?” Harry looked up at him standing almost at the top of the stairs, and seemed to watch him before he answered firmly.
“Yes! I killed the man, I watched him die. I know he’s dead, I felt him die and I would most definitely know if he was still alive.” Snape looked at him apprehensively, as if he was trying to look directly into his mind and make sure what Harry told him was the truth. James and Lily couldn’t help but to be puzzled by his actions. They now had absolute proof that Snape was a Death Eater, yet he seemed to fear Voldemort’s return instead of welcoming it. Not to mention the very odd fact that he was still standing in their son’s office and talking to him about the Dark Mark on his arm.
“Severus, I really don’t think there is any reason to doubt me in this matter. As I already said, I killed the man “ you ought to know what that feels like. The certaint…”
“Do not mention that incident to me again, Potter. You know very well…” Spat Snape almost savagely. Harry however was not a man who accepted interruptions, and James guessed this applied to Snape even more so than other people. He was therefore not surprised when Harry interrupted Snape just as he himself had been interrupted earlier.
“I was speaking generally, Severus! And since I somehow doubt that Wormtail is the only man you’ve killed…”
James didn’t even hear the rest of what Harry said, nor did he care to. The hatred and fury that suddenly filled him, made his previous animosity towards Snape seem like a love-story. Had he been able to, he would have ripped the man standing in front of him to pieces with his bare hands.
Then, without warning, the full impact of the words hit him and James stared instead at his son. How could he even stand to talk to the man who he knew had murdered one of his father’s best friends and thereby without doubt aided in their own death? He wanted to scream, to attack Snape, to be angry. Instead he just felt a crippling cold spreading through his body, draining him of all the energy he had and he sank down in the sofa without even the power to cry.
As Snape left the room, Lily watched her son turning around to once again face the odd looking cabinet. There was so much she didn’t understand so much that bothered her. An unnerving feeling that lingered in her stomach telling her that her son wouldn’t talk about Peter’s death to his murderer if everything was the way she and James had thought it was.
She shot a look at her James sitting in the sofa, knowing that she neither could nor would speak to him about the feeling doubt that now started to build within her. James looked so miserable she could feel his pain in her own chest and for his sake more than her own she pushed her feelings of doubt to the back of her mind and decided to ignore them. She knew very well that he, like her, had been counting on Peter being dead. Still for him to learn that Severus Snape, the person he hated more than anyone, had killed him… She felt her heart fill with concern as she looked at him, knowing that a Cruciatus Curse could not hurt him more than this.
Her attention turned back to Harry as he once more stroked his cabinet to get it open, and in spite of everything she found herself understanding how come it looked so worn. Raising his wand Harry ran it along the parchment, making names appear simply to vanish just as quickly again. Lily had time to spot Remus’ name as well as noting the presence of many Weasley names although they glinted so fast that she couldn’t possibly see the names in greater detail. She did notice however that some of the names had shone in gold, some in silver and two of them in blood red, and she found herself wondering why.
When Harry pointed his wand at four specific places on the parchment, Lily saw names glimmer where the wand pointed, all in gold this time. They lingered a fraction of a second longer than before, long enough for Lily to read them. Once more she saw Remus’ name, but the other three were unknown to her.
Turning his back on the cabinet, making it slam shut behind him, Harry turned to face the fireplace and cast a messaging spell into it. Lily watched the silver streak leave Harry’s wand and enter the chimney, and Lily assumed that the message would reach the same four people he had singled out on the parchment.
Harry looked at the fireplace for a moment before he headed over to his desk, adorned by the pile of graded essays he was supposed to return to his students today. Leaning against the desk Harry removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, suddenly looking very tired. Silently swearing he put his glasses back on, grabbed the pile of essays and left the office, leaving James and Lily to their feelings of sorrow and confusion.