Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Seventh Safeguard

Chapter 4 ~ The Story of Severus Snape

 When I awoke the room was filled with daylight. I took in the dreary, magnificent, dusty room, slowly comprehending that the strange events of the night before had not been a bizarre dream after all. Then I saw that the chair beside the empty fireplace was empty. A glance around the room revealed Ron and Miss Granger still sleeping amongst the blankets and cushions on the floor. But both Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter were gone.

I left the parlour in search of them, out into the dusty corridors. The house looked different in the daylight, still lonely, ugly, and forsaken, but there was less menace in it. It had become just an ill-kept, ugly old London house.

I was not searching long. I had only left the parlour behind me moments before when I heard Sherlock's voice, and turned to see him striding towards me. There was a brisk cheeriness in his manner and I deduced that he had been spending his time profitably.

"Good Morning, John." he said.

"Do you know where Harry is?" I asked.

"He's upstairs in his godfather's room, poring over an old letter his mother wrote."

"Been exploring the house this morning?"

"Oh, yes." he said, looking oh so pleased with himself. Then, as if he had a secret just too delightful not to share with somebody he turned to me and said:

"Severus Snape never defected to Riddle."

"Severus Snape? The professor who murdered the headmaster?"

"The same." replied Sherlock.

"How do you figure that? Was it not he who murdered Dumbledore after all?"

"Oh, no. He killed him. That much seems to be indisputable."

"Then, how do you get to the conclusion that the man who murdered an important counter-Riddle figure ..."

"Ah, not an important counter-Riddle figure, say rather, chief in the resistance against him."

"All right. So how do you get to the conclusion that the man who murdered the chief of the resistance against Riddle, and has now openly aligned himself with Riddle, isn't actually working for Riddle?"

"My suspicions were first aroused when we entered the house. I was rather appalled, as you may have noticed, by the young people's suggestion that those preposterous booby-traps downstairs would keep anyone out of the house, especially a seasoned murderer well-used to the tricks and illusions of the British Wizarding world. Yet we encountered no traps, and the house was quite clearly abandoned. Miss Granger tells me that this house is under an illusion, which only people who have been shown by the illusion's 'secret keeper' can see through. Snape is obviously not the secret keeper. So it is true he cannot tell the other Death Eaters how to get in. But I can see nothing to stop he himself, should he desire entry. Nor would anything prevent him from leading them in as if they were inanimate objects ... as the three in fact did with us last night."

"That's why you wanted my pistol."

"I thought it as well that the one conscious person should have the weapon. Still, this was a mere precaution. Since no attempt had been made to set a trap for Harry, and no one was stationed here to wait for him, and no one had tried to enter for all those hours to check in on the place, it did not seem to me likely that an attempt was going to be made. This has indeed proved to be the case – fortunately, since one gun would not likely be a match for an entire war party.

"As soon as the sun was up, I set out to discover who has been here recently. To bring you up to speed, in case you had wondered why they would bother to try and set up defences against Snape in a house which generally stands empty – until recently, it hasn't been empty. You may recall a reference or two last night to 'The Order'. This appears to be an organization devoted to defence against Riddle. They used this place as a base for a number of years. Harry has avoided speaking directly of this Order, so I have been left picking up hints to flesh out their occasional references. But it seems clear that Snape was a member and they abandoned this place two months ago when he appeared to turn traitor.