Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 40 - Spy

In that last days of August and on his birthday, nonetheless, Harry arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place only to find himself part of a quarrel between Mrs Weasley and Sirius during dinnertime. I didn't have that much time to catch up with him even though it was mere weeks we hadn't met.

"Harry, they cannot expel you. There must be something you can do," I whispered in a dark room when we finally had the chance to talk in private.

"There is going to be a hearing. Mr Weasley arranged it. We may still have a chance to do something about it. The Order thinks that the Ministry would seem rather off, if they were to expel me. The charm was cast in the presence of a muggle, yes, but it was cast in the presence of Dementors as well. However much they want me away from Hogwarts, the papers would not be able to conceal their poor excuse."

"The Daily Prophet is with Fudge's side though. And it has been propagandizing against you all summer. The people wouldn't take it as a poor excuse." His green eyes seemed to glisten with an emotion that I couldn't identify. To me, it seemed like anger or fear.

"Anne!" a voice from downstairs called. Tonks, I would guess. "Can you come down for a minute, dear?"

"Coming!" I called back. "We will talk about this later, Harry..." I said and made to go. However, Harry held my hand and pulled me back inside the room.

"Why would they want you downstairs? The Order is having a meeting at the moment. Is there anything they could discuss with you?"

The truth was, I didn't really know. I would have to do with Voldemort, to be sure, but apart from that, I didn't think I was of any use to them. They weren't talking about the Order matters in presence of Harry, the boy who had absolutely every reason to know all about them. Why would they want to have a meeting in my presence?

"I don't know, do I?" I said. "I guess we will find out, though. I'll be back in a minute," I said surprisingly persuasively and turned my back to him again.

"Anne?" he said and pulled me back again. "Is there something I don't know?"

"What would there be that you wouldn't know, Harry?" I shook my head and raised my shoulders with an ignorant grimace. I left in silence, before he could say anything else.

Downstairs, Tonks was waiting outside the closed door of the dining room where the meeting was taking place. She took my hand, led me inside, and offered me a seat next to Sirius and Lupin. The Order members that had gathered were fewer than I would imagine, most of which had dinned with us a few hours earlier.

This meeting didn't seem as strict as the one I had attended to back in the Manor. Some members were sitting, others not, and Tonks decided to sit on top of the table. I think it was because there was not a specific leader here to put everything in order. In the Death Eaters' meeting, however, there was Voldemort to rule them all.

There were only two members that had just arrived. One, I didn't know. The other member, however, I did know. And I did know very well. It was no other than Severus Snape, the same person who had been there at the meeting with the Death Eaters a month ago. I started doubting myself and wondering what he was doing here. I knew for a fact he was a Death Eater. Could he be spying on the Order? Maybe acting like a part of it when in reality he was just another Death Eater?

"Now that we are all here, I'd like to introduce Anne to the members that just arrived. Anne, this is Sturgis Podmore, a trusted member of the Order. And of course, you recognise Professor Snape, he's our eyes and ears in the army of the enemy."

So it's the other way around. Snape is a spy for the Order. I was unsure. The same way he was lying to Voldemort he could be lying to Dumbledore. All with the small detail that I trust Dumbledore and not Voldemort.