HP - Shadow Monarch!

Chapter 103 - The Headmaster's Manipulation.

[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]

Third Person POV

Hogwarts.

...

...

Lily was in the headmaster's office, while he led the way. Following him, she went to his desk. The headmaster went in front of her while grabbing some lemon sherbets and handed them to the girl, as he usually did every time.

Lily easily ate the candy while turning back to the headmaster with some sincerity. "Headmaster... how can I help you? Will Snape be alright? He won't have any trouble with the Ministry of Magic, right?" She seemed worried.

"You are certainly concerned about something happening to your friend... this is certainly a sudden change from the past few months... I see that you have rekindled your friendship with him," he praised with a certain cheer in his voice.

"Yes... it's hard to explain, headmaster..." Lily murmured uneasily.

"But you are much more concerned about him, which means things are starting to go well between you two... that is very good," he said, noting that Lily being there without Snape driving her away meant they had made some progress.

"I'm trying to start over with him..." she murmured.

"That is good... I heard that you two danced together at Professor Slughorn's monthly gathering, then left the party without telling anyone... I wasn't paying attention, but I heard some rumors that you had disappeared..." he said, looking into her eyes while quickly entering her mind.

"I..." Lily was about to respond while the headmaster tried to gather information on what had happened. The problem with the Auror certainly shocked him, but even he suspected that Snape could be the author of the massacre in the forest, and had called Lily here because of it.

However, what he found was Snape and her sitting somewhere in the castle talking, which left him perplexed, as he didn't expect to find that. Later, he took her to the office.

'Is that it... how strange... Snape doesn't seem to act so friendly with her... could this be a planted memory?' He couldn't help but mutter, feeling lost, as he had hoped to finally find proof that Snape was the one they were seeking.

"... and Snape and I went to talk a bit, and we discussed some things about Transfiguration," she murmured.

"I see..." Dumbledore was somewhat confused by this but continued. "Anyway... you seem closer to him than before," he commented.

Lily blushed slightly at this, with a small blush appearing. "Do you think... it's strange... after everything that happened... I can't explain it," she murmured, while Dumbledore nodded, satisfied with her reaction. After all, Lily being close to Snape was something he desired.

Since he didn't get anything from her memories, as he couldn't see anything that proved his thesis, he tried to see her thoughts on his suspicions.

"You know... that Auror, he attacked Snape saying he believed Snape had killed the dark wizards from Hogsmeade and the spiders in the Forbidden Forest... Do you believe that?" Dumbledore asked.

"What?! He believes Snape would do that?! That's absurd." Lily exclaimed with an expression of disbelief.

'She is telling the truth... there's no way she is lying...' Dumbledore thought, somewhat disappointed. Maybe those memories weren't planted after all, he began to conclude.

"I know it's a bit much to say that a student could do that... So the Ministry is dealing with that Auror," he said, but his mind thought differently.

'No... Snape has to be the one behind all of this... after what I saw that day... that black abyss... how he bypassed my Legilimency, he does things that no one else could so easily, I can't read his mind or even see his memories...' Dumbledore debated in his mind.