Chapter 30

Want to see more stories? Want to see extended chapters or just support the author ?

This fanfic is already finished on:

buymeacoffee.com/fanfictionforge. 

Enjoy reading.

--------------------------------------------------------------

 There was only one thing on the minds of all the students. What had happened to Albus Dumbledore since he had attacked one of the champions and what did the Death Eaters have to do with it. They got the answer to the second question as soon as the champions were released from the interrogation. The first question was left to speculation. Someone quietly whispered to a friend that the Headmaster of Hogwarts had gone mad, someone, looking back, assumed that the winner of Grindewald had begun to confuse the present with the past, because he was already over a hundred years old. And no one believed that Dumbledore was partially right. And who would want to believe that? To believe is to accept the terrible truth that the terrible times are coming back. And who wants war? That's right, no one. So the young wizards and witches chose to believe in the madness of the headmaster.

* * * * *

 Severus looked at the former Madam Lestrange with a shudder. The woman was laughing hysterically now and letting off bright sparks from her wand that must have meant fireworks. Bellatrix at this moment was eerily reminiscent of the Madam Lestrange that the Aurors and Death Eaters remembered her as. Of course, it was foolish to fear the ghosts of the past, but Snape was uneasy.

 The woman's amusement came from the fact that he had shown her the memories of the Christmas Ball. The moment Severus had moved to the Grimmauld Place house from his apartments at Hogwarts, Bellatrix had been alone, which was why she was the first to be honoured to watch Dumbledore's disgrace. Snape might not have agreed to show her the memory until the others returned, but Miss Black always knew how to persuade. No, no, don't think anything bad, she wasn't threatening him at all. But when you have an attractive witch jumping around you with burning eyes, rubbing and tugging at your clothes, behaving like a little child, try to refuse her. And if this witch is Bellatrix of the Black family, it's better to agree and give her what she wants, because the perverted fantasy of the Blacks can be directed at your modest person. The jokes of one of that sort Severus had once felt on his own, precious skin. So Severus was quick to give in to the woman's desire.

- What did you do to cheer her up so much, Severus? - Sirius asked, stepping out of the fireplace and looking in bewilderment at a madly laughing Bellatrix.

- Showed her the prank the boys pulled at the Christmas Ball," Snape replied, relaxing a little.

- Is that the one that required your Eater robes?

- That's the one," the potionist nodded.

- Lucius was talking about it. And about the old bastard still being in the Hospital Wing. By the way, Reg has now put forward a law to have all professors, starting with Dumbledore, tested for psychological stability every year before they start school. And if he pushes it through, the first test will take place in two days.

- And if he doesn't? If the Wizengamot says no? - Severus squinted.

- In that case, a special St Mungo's brigade of soul healers will be sent to Hogwarts this very evening. You know, rumours of the old man's insanity have already begun to circulate around the Ministry. How long do you think it'll take for those rumours to spread?

- Exactly as long as it takes for today's emergency edition of the Daily Prophet," Bellatrix had been silent almost at the very beginning of her cousin's appearance, listening to his conversation with the Potions Master, but now she laughed again and spun around the drawing room towards the exit.

 After the woman had left the drawing room, the men listened to the woman's frantic laughter for a few more seconds and only after it had died down did Severus speak questioningly:

- I thought the boys had cured her. Was I wrong?

- A terrible thing had been done to Bellatrix, and the dementors in Azkaban had made matters worse. Madness is never fully cured. The boys did what they could, of course, and she's almost as I remember Bellatrix before she was married. But sometimes it gets to her," Sirius found it hard to say that and even harder to realise that his cousin would never be the same.

 Sure, he'd hated her for years, thinking her a soulless creature and a fanatical follower of Voldemort. But they had been friends as children, and had often pulled pranks together. And then, then Sirius' hatred for Bellatrix had grown stronger with every news of her crimes. She was just a victim in a game of cruel bastards.

- Well, let's hope this doesn't become a regular occurrence," Snape said.

- We will. And enough of this. Let me see what my godson came up with. I'm sure it was amazing," a smirk played across Black's face.

- Why don't you wait for the others, you impatient dog? - Snape grinned as well.

- I won't be too lazy to watch it a second time, you hook-nosed snake.

- It's all about each other," chuckled Barty, who had appeared in the living room through the fireplace.

- Hello to you too, Crouch," snorted the Potions Master. - Why are you here? You're supposed to be keeping your 'friend' safe.

- Fuck that bearded beast. I laughed my arse off when I watched his memories," Barty said in his Alastor guise.

- Brrr," Black twitched, glaring at him, "don't do that until you get your own looks back!

- What's the matter, Sirius? Don't you like me? - Barty innocently clapped his eyelashes on one eye.

- Get off me, you pervert! - Black shrieked a little too girlishly, and flinched away from his friend and mate.

 Crouch and Snape laughed wildly, and Sirius pouted resentfully.

- Having fun, boys? - Bellatrix burst into the living room. - And without me! Have you no shame? Sirius, stop puffing up your cheeks, you're getting so hamster-like, I'd love to pet you.

 Another explosion of laughter shook the living room, and Miss Black gave her cousin a quick peck on the cheek, which made him pout even more, but in the end he couldn't stand it and laughed too.

- Bellatrix, have you already prepared the article? - Severus asked after he'd finished laughing.

- Only half done. I need to go over the memory again. Gentlemen, would you like to keep the lady company?

- Of course we would," Barty grinned. - Just wait a moment, the reversal will wear off now, because Lord Black is confused by my appearance. Isn't that right, Sirius?

- You're quite right, Barty. My delicate, soulful organisation cannot bear such horror," the head of the Black family announced gravely. - And you'd better be careful with the werewolf potion, or you'll get used to your current appearance. Now, I'm having trouble remembering your real appearance, and I'm afraid I'm going to associate you with the paranoid freak, Mad-Eye. One of these days my sense of beauty will roar like a rabid manticore and I'll have to refuse to sign some documents that could have secured my lovely cousin's future.

 There was silence in the living room. Barty stared dumbfounded at Black, trying to understand the seriousness of the threat he was making. Bellatrix studied Crouch for a moment. Snape arched an eyebrow in surprise, looking at all three of them. Sirius himself smirked venomously. The silence of the living room was broken by the sound of something glassy hitting the floor. As it turned out, it was an eye artefact that had fallen out of the eye socket, which had already begun to change its shape, showing that Barty's real eye was there, not gone, and had now taken its rightful place. Crouch stared at the artefact rolling on the floor. He'd forgotten while Sirius had been talking that the potion was coming to an end. He hadn't realised why the glass eye had fallen out. He was brought to his senses by the pain in the leg to which the prosthetic was strapped. Barty's native leg demanded that the interfering part be removed immediately. He shook his head and bent over with a groan to undo the straps. The sensation of the reversal potion was not delightfully pleasant, and the process of becoming a cripple and reversing it was doubly painful. When Barty caught his breath, the three mages bent over the dumosboro and were gone in the next second. Only Severus remained in the drawing room, immersed in his own thoughts.

 Severus Snape's POV.

 Somehow things work strangely in this life. Who would have thought that someone who was considered an unshakable pillar of Light and a great, white wizard would actually turn out to be evil, much more so than the Dark Lord himself. Why is Dumbledore playing all these games? What does he want to achieve with his intrigues? Does he really want to destroy the magical world? After all, if everything happened the way it did in the guys' future, our world would simply be destroyed. I can't and don't want to believe that the old man doesn't realise the consequences of his actions. It feels like he just hates the magical world and is doing everything he can to destroy it. What is the truth in what he says? And does it exist in his words, at all? It seems there isn't. But why in the name of all the gods, then, do we fall for his sweet speeches and light appearance so easily? He plays us like toy soldiers. And we believe he's only doing it for our own good. I wonder if the ability to believe so blindly is the hallmark of a mage. I mean, we believed Harry and the rest of the trio, too. Even before we saw the memory. Merlin, what we saw and heard then was... I don't have the words to describe it. Monstrous is the only word I can think of, but it's hardly the whole picture. Oh, by the way, here's something else. Dumbledore, for some reason, always picks his enemies out of boys. I don't mean by gender. Age. I remember hearing that he and Grindewald were more than close in his youth. Of course, they were both young, very young at the time. But still. Then Voldemort. Or rather, at the time, Tom Riddle. The old man had made an enemy of him when Riddle first went to school. Or the day he came to the orphanage to pick him up. And then Harry. Potter was just under a year and a half old at the time. Enemies... No, another word would be more appropriate - favourite toys. Maybe Dumbledore didn't have any normal toys as a child, so now he's playing with people's lives? Wait a minute, it was when Albus was a child that he first saw his father mistaking young boys for enemies of his family and killing them. Maybe the age of the ones the old man likes to play with the most has something to do with it? Mordred and Morgana, and yet he is the headmaster of a school that is full of CHILDREN!

 END OF NORTHUS SNAPE'S POV.

 The man didn't have time to develop this idea further as a house elf appeared in front of him and drew his attention with a deliberately loud cough.

- Kreacher? - Severus glanced questioningly at the little creature.

- Master Snape, Kreacher's favourite mistress wishes to have a serious talk with you," the elf muttered.

- Always a pleasure to speak with Lady Black," Severus nodded, shuddering inwardly.

 This woman, though long dead, frightened him more than the possible resurgence of the Dark Lord. Yes, it seemed he wasn't the only one. Who else would be able to silence the four time travellers with a single word? Or argue them down and insist on his own way? Certainly not him. The guys did only what they thought was right or necessary, dismissing all suggestions from the others as irrelevant, unnecessary, wrong. Who could blame them, though. They were in the future, they saw what could lead to what.

- Young man, I have two questions for you. One. Why are the Longbottoms still not cured? And two. When will the Dark Lord finally die? - Lady Black asked sharply, appearing in the picture with a comfortable chair and completely ignoring the greeting.

- Hello, Lady Black. About the first one. I have to ask a counter question. Is it possible to cure them? And as for the second. That's for Harry and his friends to decide.

- It's up to Harry and his friends," the woman mocked him. - I thought problem solving was the domain of adult mages. And don't tell me the boys are actually almost as old as the rest of you! They are children in this world. And Longbottoms, as I recently remembered, can be cured....