Harry was astonished to find that Professor Snape, who had been furious a moment ago, now seemed to have been convinced by Allen's single sentence, exactly as Allen had just said. Snape abruptly stopped in his tracks and stood there without turning around, only his hand beneath his wizard's robes clenched into a trembling fist.
Without the slightest warning, Snape realized that the wish he had held for so long was about to come true. It left him feeling somewhat inexplicable as well, but no matter what, the excitement of his wish being on the verge of fulfillment still made it a little hard for him to restrain himself.
"Headmaster Harris, if I'm not misunderstanding you..." Snape turned back. He glanced at Harry and cut off what he had originally been about to say, his eyes already veined with blood. "If I go along with your nonsense... you'll give me that stone?"
"Afterward, it will be as you wish..." Allen nodded in reply, then shrugged when he saw Snape's distrustful expression. "Severus, Tom is no longer a major problem. Otherwise, where else could I send you? I can hardly send you into the Veil to be a spy for me, can I?"
Being mocked by Allen instead made Snape believe him a little more. He even felt somewhat glad that he had early on arranged that alley at Spinner's End bit by bit according to what he knew of Lily's tastes. In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind: it had already been transformed... afterward he would quit his job... he could not let anyone else.
Harry also sat stiffly in his chair, staring blankly at the scene before him. Wild guesses churned in his mind, and he had no idea what Allen had used to lure this cold,