Severus escorts Potter to his seat in front of the camera, shoving him roughly down into it when he doesn't move fast enough, which earns him a glare. Severus ignores it, because he can't focus on hating Potter today.
Especially today.
It's going to be such a busy day. Playing both sides of this war puts him in this position where he is essentially battling for and against himself on rotation. He'll be helping get Potter and Black out of the Hallow, then he'll have to turn around and do everything he can to keep them trapped, should this mission go wrong. Severus hopes for the state of his headache that it doesn't go wrong.
Angering Riddle is a bonus, at least. The man has been a thorn in Severus' side since the arena break-in. He gives Severus orders that spreads his Aurors thin, a constant pushback against protests within the Hallow, harsher monitoring within the districts, gathering information at all costs, and more.
Within the Hallow, Severus has teams of Aurors on rotation at the abandoned area at the back of the city, in which those that escaped disappeared into. Where they went, Severus does not know. It's as if the very van they were in simply vanished. The entire place is empty. They did discover that the sinkhole was simply an illusion, but even past that, there was nothing to find. Regardless, Riddle has that area constantly on watch and thoroughly guarded.
How Albus plans to have Black and Potter rescued from the Azkaban without that escape route evades his understanding. He can't envision a plan that would ever work, so he suspects today will indeed be a busy day. Severus doesn't need answers, however. His only job to help Albus is to notify him once Potter has been safely dropped off at Azkaban for his promised visit to Black.
But first, yet another message from Potter. It burns through Severus that it's happening, purely because it's working. A good portion of the protests are disbanding, and now more people are coming forward with the desire to help their Master, offering information—usually false—that Severus then has to follow up on. Two days ago, a woman reported that she spotted suspicious behavior around the alley near her home, convinced it was anarchists coming to abduct or kill her family. Upon investigation, it was simply a pack of rodents digging through her trash. He had to call an exterminator.
However, there remains some protests, and there was activity within Hallow servers picked up recently that Riddle is very displeased about, only more so because he can't trace it or locate who was behind it. He only knows that whoever it was didn't go past public servers, meaning only things that are public records, such as prison blueprints. Severus isn't an idiot. If they're going to be breaking in, knowing the layout of Azkaban is just the logical next step.
So, naturally, Riddle wants Potter to be his mouthpiece yet again. This time, his reach is meant to go farther. The districts have grown restless in the aftermath of the released footage of the arena break-in. Riddle hasn't addressed it, far too distracted with the issues within the Hallow, far too obsessed with preparing for war.
In the meantime, riots have broken out in all districts except for one, two, three, and seven. Four, five, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve have been on lockdown for two weeks now. Riddle has the Aurors in each district spread thin as well, all immune and weaponized with biological warfare already, but restrained to instilling curfew and turning each district into nothing more than a prison. People are allowed to work, but only work that benefits the Hallow. Many people within the districts are slowly starving. The militaristic grip in those districts are so strong that the numbers drop by the day.
He knows if the Hallow didn't depend on the districts to flourish, then Riddle would wipe them all out and be done with it. This, at least, convinces Severus that most of the districts will take the immediate opportunity to overthrow the Hallow, no matter what message Potter gives. Regardless of dwindling numbers, they will surely fight back and lose more.
