Selcouth | Golden Trio Era

Chapter 25 - "They actually pushed her to save their secret!"

There was a long silence within the dimly lit cave, all of them thinking about what had just been said. "Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark Wizards!" Harry finally spoke up.

"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him!" Sirius told them. "If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater!"

"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" Ron brought up.

"Yes, that doesn't make any sense at all!" Sirius told them with a small shake of his head.

"Yeah, it does!" Ron exclaimed excitedly. But Sirius shook his head at the ginger boy.

"Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the Tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him!"

"So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" Harry asked, but Hermione broke in.

"Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape-"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione!" Ron impatiently said. "I know Dumbledore's brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark Wizard couldn't fool him-"

"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then?" Hermione asked. "Why didn't he just let him die?"

"I dunno - maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-"

"What do you think, Sirius? Raphael?" Harry asked loudly, and Ron and Hermione stopped bickering.

"I think they've both got a point!" Sirius said as he looked thoughtful. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school! Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was. Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters!"

Sirius head up his fingers, and began ticking off names. "Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azkaban. Avery - from what I've heard, he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater- not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble!"

"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet!" Ron said.

"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" Harry quickly added on. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was!"

"Also, Karkaroff and this certain student have been secretly at each other's throats!" Ron brought up. "But after what has happened to her, he's been looking a lot more worried than usual!"

"He showed Snape something on his arm?" Sirius asked looking a bit confused and bewildered. He ran his fingers through his dirty and matted hair, and shrugged. "Well, I've no idea what that's about....but if Karkaroff's genuinely worried, he's going to Snape for answers.."

Sirius looked at the wall with a grimace. "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort!"

"Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office, then?" Ron asked rather stubbornly.

"What I want to know is, why Moody and Polaris have been at each other's throats since he arrived!" Hermione spoke, and Ron shot her look for bringing her up again.