The Traitor Emerges

For the next half hour, Bill and Charlie described the trouble they had encountered in detail, leaving nothing out.

"They knew we were going to Aunt Muriel's house, Dad." Bill looked at Mr. Weasley and said seriously, "But there's no way they could have known who Aunt Muriel was. Someone must have told Voldemort about our plan."

"Severus Snape," Mad-Eye Moody said in a low voice.

"What?" Bill froze for a moment.

"Severus Snape. He's the one who told Voldemort about our plan." Moody stood up and hobbled over on his wooden leg.

No one spoke. The only sound in the room was the thud of the wooden prosthetic against the floor.

A moment later, Sirius was the first to snap out of it.

"Ah, I should have known it was that greasy-haired git!" He slammed his hand on the table. "He's a Death Eater, everyone knows that, but for some reason Dumbledore trusted him completely and insisted there was nothing wrong with him!"

There was a hint of satisfaction in his voice, as though the truth had finally come to light.

Sirius had never understood why Dumbledore trusted Snape, a former Death Eater, so deeply.

That greasy-haired git had joined the Death Eaters before he had even graduated. It had been no secret at Hogwarts back then; plenty of people knew. And during the First Wizarding War, many members of the Order of the Phoenix, himself included, had nearly been sliced in half by Snape's Sectumsempra curse. Dumbledore knew that perfectly well too.

Yet after the war ended, when every Death Eater was facing trial, that man had somehow transformed into one of Dumbledore's most trusted people. Not only had he become a professor at Hogwarts, he had even become the head of Slytherin.

When Sirius had learned about