'Anything specific?'
'Voldemort was reported dead thirteen years ago, though no body was found, and they cited the lack of the Dark Mark over any of the disappearances that were claimed to be the work of Death Eaters.'
Slytherin smiled triumphantly. 'There you have it,' he proclaimed.
'What do I have?' Harry asked, not at all following.
'If someone disappears under the Dark Mark, that should begin to make people think twice about the Ministry's propaganda. Especially if it's someone noticeable.'
'The Ministry dismissed.
will just cover it
up,' Harry
'So find someone willing to publish or spread the story, or make it so spectacular that it cannot be ignored,' Slytherin replied evenly.
'The Dark Mark is quite hard to miss by all accounts.' Harry had seen the court transcripts and seen the pictures from the last war. 'I could cast it in a handful of locations that make it hard to ignore, but I don't know how.'
'Find out,' Salazar shrugged, making his serpent bob upon his shoulders. 'There must be some former followers of Riddle around somewhere.'
'I suspect most of them are with Voldemort,' Harry commented wryly, 'but I'll ask around, Sirius might know.'
He reached for the mirror and started towards the nearest dark corner. 'Don't say anything,' he warned his ancestor, 'he has sharp hearing.'
'Sirius,' he said, waiting for his godfather's face to appear in the mirror.
'Harry.' It took a few minutes for him to appear. 'This isn't the best time, Podmore got himself caught and sentenced to time in Azkaban for being somewhere he shouldn't be.'
'He's an order member?'
'Yes, we're trying to re-organise everything so it works without him, but it's proving difficult.'
'I have a question, just a quick one,' Harry smiled winningly. 'Are there any former Death Eaters I should be looking out for, ones that aren't obvious?'
Sirius snorted. 'I can think of one or two straight off the top of my head. There are a handful of those who were acquitted under suspicious circumstances like Malfoy and Macnair, but the only one close enough to be a risk to you is Snape, though Dumbledore assures us he's trustworthy.'
'Snape?' Harry asked, not believing his luck was quite so brilliant.
'Oh yes,' Sirius glowered, 'don't turn your back on Snivellus, he's not to be trusted, no matter what Dumbledore says.'
'I won't,' Harry assured him, 'and I'll be taking Dumbledore's advice with a pinch of salt from now on too. A former Death Eater shouldn't be teaching at a school.' 'He doesn't always make the best decisions,' Sirius agreed, 'but I have to go, this is quite serious.'
'Bye, Sirius.' Harry raised a hand into the mirror's view just before it flared white and he found himself staring into his own, ever so slightly luminous eyes.
'Did I understand that correctly?' Salazar asked. His speech was very quiet, but slightly distorted with anger, wavering between English and Parseltongue. 'Your Potions teacher, the wizard Dumbledore forced you into learning occlumency from without knowing you could defend your mind, was, and likely still is, a Death Eater.'
'I believe so,' Harry answered coldly.
'If I were still alive.' Slytherin's speech shifted all the way into Parseltongue as angry silver and green sparks shot from his wand across the canvas, making his snake flinch.
'He knows how to conjure the Dark Mark,' Harry reminded him. 'This betrayal is a blessing in disguise.'
'What will you do?'
'I will take it from his mind,' Harry decided, turning to leave. 'I promised I'd practice with Neville for the first time before my detention, I'll be ready.'
'It won't be easy,' Slytherin warned, catching him at the door. 'If Dumbledore trusts him he's either going to be righteously angry or a very impressive occlumens.'
'Nothing that is necessary is easy,' Harry replied, smiling bitterly. 'I have an idea of how to get past his defences easily, without him ever realising, in fact.' 'What?'
'I believe he was fond of my mother.' Harry's reply echoed back through down the chamber to the founder.
He strode towards the stairs up to the bathroom, turning things over in his head. Harry needed the incantation, and this was likely the only chance he would get to learn it without anyone realising. The risk would have to be taken eventually, and it would only grow larger the longer waited.
Perhaps it would be best to learn a little more about Snape first.
He realised then that it would have been a good idea to ask Sirius, but it was too late for that, the mirror was in Salazar's study, he was halfway up the steps and Neville was already waiting for him. Harry stepped out into Myrtle's bathroom, splashing quietly across the floor towards the exit.
'Harry?' The ghost drifted tentatively through the side of her cubicle.
'It's me, Myrtle,' he smiled. 'How have you been? Seen anyone in the Prefect's Bathroom lately?' He asked lightly.
'Not that I was interested in,' she sulked, 'but I did once watch Cedric Diggory and his girlfriend take a very long bath together.'
'I did not need to know that,' Harry remarked. He'd never be able to look at Cedric and Cho the same way again. They were an intimate couple, always staring close to each other, touching, and kissing, but there were some lines his imagination just didn't want to cross. 'There aren't many attractive male prefects at the moment,' she commented, rather wistfully. 'You'd be surprised how many couples I've seen in there, though.' She gave him a rather wicked glance. 'I remember a certain head boy and head girl going there together once.'
Harry knew instantly she was probably referring to his parents, and fought down a shudder. Myrtle probably had half a century of naked male prefects stored in her head. An idea suddenly occurred to him.
'Did my mother know Professor Snape?' Harry asked, feigning mild curiosity perfectly.
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