The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|147| Shrieking Shack

Rushing into the Whomping Willow tunnel, I realized how much of a tighter squeeze it had become than it had been the last time we had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: We had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Since I had gone in first, due to Harry's resistance, I had to lead through with my illuminated wand. We moved in silence, crawling through the tunnel.

As the tunnel began to slope upward, Harry tugged on my ankle, and whispered, "The Cloak! We have to put on the Cloak!"

Harry placed the Cloak over ourselves as I extinguished the light of my wand and continued on our hands and knees, as silently as possible, all of my senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold clear voice, see a flash of green light.

And then I heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of us, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, I edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.

The room beyond was dimly lit, but I could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. I could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and my heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where he crouched, hidden.

"... my Lord, their resistance is crumbling —"

"— and it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there... almost."

"Let me find the twins. Let me bring you the Potters. I know I can find them, my Lord. Please."

Snape strode past the gap, and I stepped back, bumping into Harry; I held my breath to not make a sound.

"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly as I heard him get up.

"My Lord?" said Snape.

"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.

"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

"My — my Lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You — you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."

"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand... no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago. No difference."

Snape did not speak; I wondered whether Snape sensed danger, was trying to find the right words to reassure his master.

Voldemort move around the room again, his steps echoing in the tunnel.

"I have thought long and hard, Severus... Do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"

And for a moment I saw Snape's profile: His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.

"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."