His Guardian Angel

Chapter 6

“Would you mind telling me what happened from the moment you entered that maze? In as much detail as you can.” Harry described the entire thing and then Dumbledore helped him extract his memories of the event so they could observe them later. 

“Sir...do you feel sorry for Tom?” Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue. “It’s just that...he spent his childhood just wanting someone to be friends with and when no one would be friends with him he started talking to snakes when they took that outing and everyone that tolerated him turned on him-it must have been terrifyingly lonely for him. Do you think...do you ever wonder if that’s why he turned out the way he has? That when he came to Hogwarts and was finally recognized and liked by everyone he took it to an extreme because he didn’t know how else to handle it?” Harry watched in awe as Dumbledore’s jaw dropped. He looked to be in a faraway place, thinking incredibly hard and muttering to himself. 

“Harry, you may be the most insightful person I’ve ever met. That would make complete sense.”

“Sorry sir, but I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“It’s quite alright, it has to do with Tom’s sixth year. We’re not quite that far, but there’s less of his fifth year so we should be able to make it that far this summer. For now, I want you to know something because I can see you were conflicted about it when you talked about it. Severus came to me years ago, just before you were born, and turned his back on Voldemort. He’s a spy for us, and a clever one at that. Tonight when his mark flared to life, he informed me that the maze was taking longer than anticipated and that he had some Skele-Gro brewing that required his immediate attention. He said that so he’d have an excuse for his absence; he went to Voldemort tonight to try and get into his good graces with bits and pieces of information that would sell his “usefulness” to Voldemort. In turn, Voldemort will entrust Severus with information that will be incredibly useful for us. I don’t want you to fear him, he’s the most loyal man I’ve ever come across.” Just then Snape entered the office and slammed the door shut just before collapsing into a chair that conveniently flew from across the room to get under him before he hit the floor. 

“Severus, what good timing. Here, I can see you’ll be needing this,” Dumbledore handed Snape a vial of something the colour of deep rubies. He gulped it down and sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and then opening them again. 

“The Dark Lord is, indeed, back. He is even more insane than he was before, believing himself to be immortal. He plans to overthrow the ministry from the inside out-he’s already got spies there, infiltrating things.”

“Yes, we had suspected as much.” Snape’s entire body shuddered and Dumbledore handed over a second vial. The contents were gone before Harry could even think to ask what was in it. “Crouch is one of his followers. He’s been trying to kill Potter with the tournament, either by design or by negligent dangers. While the Dark Lord no longer cares that he’s escaped, his followers certainly do and will stop at nothing to eradicate him.” A strong silence followed. 

“Um...professor? Are you alright?” Snape nodded, but he looked older than Harry had ever seen him. 

“He is fond of the cruciatus curse and I had no time to prepare prior to being called. I shall live.”

“Harry, I think it’s best if you go up to bed now. Since you no longer have classes, I will expect you in my office when your friends go to class in the morning. We’ll pick up our explorations then. And Harry?” Dumbledore handed him a vial with a deep purple potion in it. “Take one spoonful of this before bed if you think you’ll need it to sleep but no more. I expect you to return this tomorrow morning.” Harry took it.