Connivance of Silence: First Impressions

Chapter 4

Sev and Lily were probably the only ones who knew the true reason behind Fennel's towering fury. Even Audley Fletcher flinched away from him when he started to rant and rave in earnest.

Sev and Sirius ended up in detention, naturally. So did James and Peter, who'd had the misfortune of standing nearby when Fennel went ballistic.

Sirius had obviously explained to his best friend how Snape had been the cause of it all, and the two of them spent their detention period sending evil glares in his direction. Peter wasn't quite brave enough to do that, but he sat with them and sort of pretended to be joining in.

Sev had come no closer to guessing why the Sorting Hat had put Pettigrew in Gryffindor. In Remus Lupin, the Gryffindor qualities had been slow to show up because of his quiet voice and polite manner. In Pettigrew, they were simply nonexistent.

James had taken to him, in the manner boys like James Potter took to people they felt sorry for. Peter was fumblingly, pathetically eager to be a part of the gang, with a level of fawning hero-worship Snape found quite sickening.

The sickened feeling was decidedly mutual. Sirius Black was no friend to the Slytherins at the best of times. This, apparently, had been the final straw; now it was personal.

"We'll get you back for this, Snape," he muttered darkly as they finally escaped from the Potions dungeon.

"Oh, of course you will," he sniped back, with his most mocking sneer. He had no use for the friendship of Sirius Black, and his hatred served a purpose. The more the Gryffindors were convinced he was their enemy, the less he actually had to do to make Malfoy believe that.

He swung by the library on a hunch, to see if Lily had waited for him. She had.

"We have to go to Dumbledore," she said instantly, abandoning their usual pretence of casually discussing homework assignments.

"With what?" Sev refuted. "'While we were sneaking about in the middle of the night, we heard something that sounded like Professor Fennel mightbe planning to do something to Audley Fletcher, and we think he deliberately sabotaged a potion in an attempt to injure him'?"

"You don't think all that stuff, you know," Lily argued.

"Such confidence you have in me," he noted dryly.

"Such confidence you have in yourself," she countered.

"And it's well-founded."

"If you're that sure, Dumbledore could-"

"Dumbledore could do exactly nothing, without proof."

"Yes, but at least he'd know."

"The more people that know, the more chance Fennel will notice he's being watched. Dumbledore's more than sharp, but he trusts too easily. We have to be spies, and that's not something you share. The only safe spy is the one who works alone."

Lily was shaking her head in something like disbelief. "You're so... how do you live, being so cynical all the time? Not trusting anybody."

He shrugged. "It's how I've always been."

"It's awful," she said, hugging herself as if the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped.

"It saved Audley Fletcher today," he reminded her. "It'll probably save a whole lot more people tomorrow."

"Yeah," she said softly, "but who's gonna save you?"

In the weeks that followed, Professor Fennel and Audley Fletcher acquired two extremely discreet shadows. Most of the time, they were safe enough. Dumbledore was, as usual, seeming close to omnipresent. Fennel was growing steadily more bad-tempered; even the other staff fled from his scowls. Sev wondered if his unseen master was growing impatient.