Snape's first coherent thought was to realize he was on a bed in the hospital wing.
Faces came into focus. Nearest him was Dumbledore. Across from the Headmaster stood Remus Lupin. Past the foot of the bed the figures were somewhat hazy, but gradually he recognized Pomona Sprout, and, standing next to her, the students Diggory, Minerva's niece, and one who roused his consciousness more than the others: Alice Minsky.
Slowly, due to the pain it caused him, Snape turned his head, looking for the boy, Felix Franklin, who had transformed into a vicious lupine creature. He saw the partition that afforded him some privacy and a vague view of the beds across the center aisle, but no sign of the attacker.
"You understand, Severus, that you must re-live the event in your mind in order for the healing potion to take full effect," said the gentle voice of Dumbledore.
Snape nodded. He could not speak. There was a breathing tube in his badly mangled neck. He noted the empty goblet Lupin was holding, and he remembered the agony of swallowing the potion, the sharp spasms of pain he experienced with each swallow. He was aware that the initial effects of the potion had dulled his pain to a level that was bearable, and that his memory of the event was beginning to shift his mental perspective from the present to the recent past.
Then suddenly it enveloped him totally. He had just paid a student vendor three knuts for a cup of mulled wine, and was turning his attention to the game. His house team had scored with the quaffle on three occasions, frustrating the Hufflepuff keeper. Her team executed their flights down field with excellent discipline, though their attempts to score had resulted in blocked shots and several interceptions. But it was obvious that Giselle McGonagall was superior to Draco in the seeker position. The arrival of the Snitch boded ill for the Slytherins.
Snape was only dimly aware that his memory was not all one piece, but was a patchquilt of thoughts and emotions from others besides himself. Yet in the re-living of this terrible event he accepted these sudden shifts of perspectives quite as a matter of course.
~~ Giselle's going to ruin it all, Alice thought, and with a vicious swing of her beater's bat she sent the bludger at her own seeker.
~~ Felix lost control of his broom in a moment of dizziness. He bounced off a Slytherin chaser and spun in a wobbly circle, his arms and legs going numb, his mind frozen in a fear that brought up thoughts of crawling and barking, of his mother's shrieks of despair.
~~ Giselle was in a state of denial. She angled down on her Meteor with such velocity that in seconds she had passed the hideous thing on the Shooting Star. She could not bear to think what had happened to Felix, if indeed this snarling beast of prey was him; yes, a thing on the hunt. She knew it instinctively. But to keep her sanity she must just go for the Snitch. She tried to think of nothing else. She strove with every ounce of will to catch up to it. She hadn't more than half a moment to reach the Snitch before it would be lost among the bleachers.
~~ Lupin, seated two rows up from Snape, was the first to understand the awful import of the Hufflepuff beater's uncontrollable antics. In the next instant he was certain of it. He stood and with his willow wand he conjured that which he himself could hardly bear to see: the matriarch of the woodland nymphs, a pale skeletal figure gowned in poison ivy and belladonna. The illusion grew in intensity and size as the airborne werewolf rushed ever closer to the faculty box. At sight of it the mutant beater howled in a mix of terror and defensive anger, but did not swerve from his target. The illusion vanished as its intended victim tore through it.
~~ It's done! thought Alice, exultant, her heart pounding with the sweetest wrath. She swept down to the far end of the pitch as horrified spectators gasped and screamed. Landing next to one of the easement ways, she stood trembling, gazing back at the swirl of splinters caused by the force of Felix's impact with the faculty box, the frantic movement of teachers, the figure of Dumbledore waving his wand at the slumping form of Snape, and that nuisance Giselle rolling over on the icy grass with a red dripping Snitch in her upraised hand. How wonderful to have destroyed the hated Snape and won the match in the same stroke!
~~ "Filius, your assistance," said Dumbledore, "conjure stretchers for Severus and Mr Franklin. Send for Madam Pomfrey. Pomona, we shall need supplies from Greenhouse number two. Consult Remus on that. Minerva, have Madam Hooch detain the Hufflepuff team members."
~~ Sprout could not apparate on the school grounds, but she could do the next best thing. She charmed her feet to carry her at great speed to the greenhouses. She entered number two like a blast of wind.
At once Sprout saw that something was amiss. The worktable near the carnivorous plants had been disturbed. The Maltese licorice plants were missing; removed from their clay pots. This puzzled her, for she could not think why anyone would chose to steal these rare specimens when more functional plants were available. Maltese licorice had very limited uses, primarily as an antidote for the consumption of contradictory mixtures, such as catnip and dogwort, glad-diola and weeping willow.
But there was no time to ponder this little mystery. Sprout snatched up the ingredients Lupin had listed for her and then went off like a roadrunner, back to the scene of the tragedy.
Giselle watched Snape's eyelids twitch. He moaned, shifting his legs under the quilt. He was coming out of the healing trance. Pomfrey had removed the now unnecessary breathing tube and was unwrapping the bloodied cloth bandages. The wounds were nearly gone.
Giselle looked past the half-folded partition and reassured herself that Felix, asleep on his side in a nearby bed, was normal again. At the footboard Auntie was whispering to Professor Trelawney, who had a mortified look on her thin angular face.
Dumbledore had the Snitch in one of those small gift bags that patients are given. Giselle had gathered from his comments to Lupin that Felix, in his wolf form, was led by the Snitch as if he had been chained to it. She recalled getting hold of it just as that bizarre image of a goddess pointed its gnarled stick at the werewolf. This had so startled Giselle that she screamed with eyes closed and threw herself down and to her right, her broom losing its aerodynamic energy. She couldn't remember coming to ground, just the cold feel of the grass.
She felt Alice's agitation. It wasn't like the girl next to her was afraid of what punishments might come her way, but rather it was like she was angry at having to explain herself, either truthfully or otherwise. Dumbledore had questioned her briefly on the walk to the Infirmary room, her and Cedric, who had accompanied her when Madam Hooch's detaining spell was gathering the team together amidst the general hubbub of the dispersing crowds. Now she stood there unresponsive to Cedric's shy caresses. Her face was a mask of stubbornness.
"Were it not for Miss McGonagall catching the Snitch," said Dumbledore to the room at large, "the flying wolf would have followed the Snitch straight to Professor Snape with a result even more grievous than what we witnessed. As it was, Giselle caught the Snitch after it had struck Severus and was about to strike again. Had she missed it, I fear the Snitch would have been in the fanged jaws of the werewolf and led it directly at Severus' head... or his heart."
All it took was the Headmaster's inquiring look at Alice for the girl to begin her defense. "I had no choice," she was saying in an exasperated voice, glancing around at the teachers. "The assistant school master of Durmstrang is, according to rumor anyway, a devotee of You-Know-Who. He and Granpapa Igor made it clear to me that I must co-operate with an escapee of Azkaban for the liquidation of Professor Snape. And I will tell you why," she added, her face red with a suppressed fury, glaring at Snape. "That man there, that contemptible egoist, murdered my father!"
Everyone was surprised by this except Dumbledore. He was merely intrigued. He looked somberly at Snape, who was staring at Alice with what appeared to be only a mild interest. This angered the girl even more.
"I see you can't deny it," she said, as Cedric stepped back from her, dazed by her comportment.
"Have you had contact with Sirius Black?" the Headmaster asked her.
"No! I've no idea where he is hiding. He sends a raven when he wants to contact me."
"Were you aware of Felix Franklin's shape-changing propensity?"
Alice was silent a moment. Her face paled slightly. Giselle could feel the girl struggling to calm herself, to think in the crafty manner her Durmstrang education had taught her.
"I suspected as much," Alice said with a devious smile. "I tell you I had no choice but to obey my superiors. The raven brought me a message and some sprigs of a plant which Felix was to chew this morning before our match with Slytherin."
Dumbledore raised his brows. "And the boy obliged you?"
"I..." Alice made a helpless gesture. "What could I do but cast an enducement hex on him?"
"Ah. I see. A mild form of the imperius curse. And do you realize that the unauthorized use of such a hex may get you a year's confinement in the juvenile detention center on the Isle of Azkaban?"
Alice flared up again. "Must I repeat myself over and over again? Had I disobeyed them, the Grendelwald Society enforcers would have--" She gasped, a hand to her mouth.
Giselle sensed that a secret had been inadvertantly revealed. Dumbledore smiled and said, "Don't worry yourself over that. I have some small knowledge of this dark society. And I understand why you would harbor a strong dislike for Professor Snape, though you ought to consider that your father, Gunther Minsky, had put Severus Snape in the same predicament that your superiors have put you; a case of having to act in self defense."
Alice glowered at him. Giselle could see that the girl was not the least mollified by Dumbledore's comment.
"A last question," the Headmaster said, raising the gift bag. "How was the Snitch ensorcelled?"
Alice forced a laugh. "Oh, that is very simple. It is a Snitch from Durmstrang. Our Snitches are much more challenging than your timid ones. The raven brought it to me. It was crafted so as to respond to my influence. But don't blame me for that," she amended with a cold, defensive look at the attentive teachers.
"Yes, we know," drawled Dumbledore. "And now let us leave the patients to their rest."
[Next: the epilogue.]
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