Fear of a Name

Chapter Sixty-Five: Snape's Grudge

"Who's there?" I said in a low voice.
That's when Snape stepped out from under a cloak — Harry's invisibility cloak, to be precise.
I opened my mouth to yell up to Lupin that Snape was here, sure that it could only mean trouble. Before I could make a sound, however, I felt ropes twist their way around my wrists and mouth. I looked at Snape, my eyes wide with fear. He was looking madder than I'd ever seen him.
"You're not telling anyone," he hissed, a mad glint in his eyes that sent a shiver of fear down my spine. "I've waited so long for this moment, I'm not having you messing it up now."

He snapped his fingers, and the ropes that were binding my wrists flew to his hands.
"Now, you'll do whatever I say, understand?"
I nodded quickly, too terrified to even think of struggling.
"Good. Now get under the cloak and stay completely silent."
He half dragged me up the stairs, the invisibility cloak hiding both of us from sight.

"Right again, Hermione!" I heard Lupin say, as we got nearer the room everyone was in. "But the Ministry never knew there were three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."
"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," snarled Sirius. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."
"All right... but you'll need to help me, Sirius," said Lupin, "I only know how it began..."
Snape's face was now full of suppressed triumph. He pushed the door open and pulled me over to the corner, making sure to keep both of us hidden.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Lupin were all staring at the door. Of course, to them it would've looked like it had just opened of its own accord.
Lupin strode towards it and looked out onto the landing.
"No one there..."
"This place is haunted!" said Ron.
"It's not," Lupin said, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted... the screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."
He pushed his greying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment, then said, "That's where all of this starts — with my becoming a werewolf."

Lupin explained everything. I wasn't really paying attention to it since I knew most of it already... well, I wasn't paying attention until Sirius started talking about Snape.
"Snape?" he said harshly. "What's Snape got to do with it?"
"He's here, Sirius," said Lupin heavily. "He's teaching here as well." He looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me—"
Sirius made a derisive noise.
"It served him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month," Lupin said. "We were in the same year, you know, and we — er — didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James' talent on the Quidditch pitch... anyway, Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey as she led me to the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be — er — amusing to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree-trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it — if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf- but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden to tell anybody by Dumbledore, but from that time on he knew what I was..."

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right," Snape said, revealing himself, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.
Hermione screamed, Sirius leaped to his feet, and Harry gave a jolt as if he'd just received an electric shock.
"I have someone here to make sure everyone cooperates," sneered Snape, as he pulled the invisibility cloak off me.
"I found this cloak at the base of the Whomping Willow," he added, throwing the cloak to one side, careful to keep his wand pointing directly at Lupin's chest. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you..."

"Severus, let her go," Lupin said, his voice firm.
"As I said, I've got her here to make sure you cooperate," Snape said, pulling on the ropes. I winced slightly as they cut into my wrists.
"Let her go."
Snape just ignored him this time.
"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map."
Lupin and I looked at each other, our eyes wide. We'd forgotten to wipe the Marauders Map... we'd led Snape right to us...
"One glance at it told me all I needed to know," he continued. "I saw you and Riddle running along this passageway and out of sight."

"Severus—" Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.
"I've told the headmaster again and again that you've been helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. You've even got Riddle involved, acting as lookout for you. Not even I dreamed you'd have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout—"
"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You haven't heard everything — I can explain — Sirius is not here to kill Harry—"

"Two more for Azkaban tonight, three if they'll take Riddle," said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... he was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... a tame werewolf..."
"You fool," said Lupin softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban? And throwing a child in there as well?"
BANG! Thin, snake-like cords burst from the end of Snape's wand — the same cords that were binding me — and they twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. Then — BANG! The ropes twisted their way around my ankles as well, and I fell to the floor too.

With a roar of rage, Sirius started towards Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Sirius' eyes.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."