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Snape
Picked Up the Map.
Harry tried with all of
his might to keep his face impassive.
"Spare bit of parchment,"
he said with a shrug.
Snape turned it over, his
eyes on Harry.
"Surely you don't need
such a very old piece of parchment?" he said. "Why don't I just
-- throw it away?"
"No!" Harry said quickly.
"So!" said Snape, his
long nostrils quivering. "Is this another treasured gift from Mr.
Weasley? Or is it -- something else? A letter, perhaps, written in
invisible ink? Or -- instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing
the dementors?"
Harry blinked. Snape's
eyes gleamed.
"Let me see, let me see .
. . ," he muttered, taking out his wand and smoothing the map out on his
desk. "Reveal your secret!" he said, touching the wand to the parchment.
Nothing happened. Harry
clenched his hands to stop them from shaking.
"Show yourself!" Snape
said, tapping the map sharply.
It stayed blank. Harry
was taking deep, calming breaths.
"Professor Severus Snape,
master of this school, commands you to yield the information you
conceal!" Snape said, hitting the map with the wand.
As though an invisible
hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the
map.
"Mr. Moony presents
his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally
large nose out of other people's business.
Snape froze. Harry
stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn't stop there. More
writing was appearing beneath the first.
"Mr. Prongs agrees
with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly
git."
It would have been funny
if the situation hadn't been so serious. And there was more.
Mr. Padfoot would like
to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a
professor."
Harry closed his eyes in
horror. When he'd opened them, the map had had its last word.
Mr. Wormtail bids
Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the
slimeball."
Harry waited fore the
blow to fall.
"So . . . ," said Snape
softly. "We'll see about this . . . ."
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