Outside the Potions classroom, Snape fixed Roy, whose face was full of anxiety, with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Do you two usually use this thing to contact each other in private?"
Snape snatched the communication Notebook from Roy's hand and quickly flipped through their earlier messages.
He recognized Aisling's handwriting on the Notebook at a glance. Looking at their past exchanges about magic and their joking banter, Snape had never expected that the conflict they displayed at school had all been an act.
Snape gave a cold snort. His low, hoarse voice carried complicated emotions.
"You two really know how to put on a show."
Roy panted heavily as he explained to Snape in fits and starts.
"Dumbledore was lured away. When I was attacked in the Castle last time, they used the same trick."
"Someone attacked you?" Snape's face darkened. After thinking for a moment, he glared at Roy and demanded, "Were you the one who caused that explosion in the secondary tower?"
Now that Aisling had been kidnapped, Roy had no time to explain what had happened before. He only urged Snape to find her quickly.
"Come on, let's find Aisling first. I'll explain what happened before later."
Snape was clearly dissatisfied that Roy had hidden so many secrets from him, but this was not the time to settle scores.
He turned and entered the classroom, directly calling out a fourth-year Slytherin girl to ask about Aisling's whereabouts.
Her answer was no different from Selwyn's at the breakfast table. She only said that Aisling had left the common room sometime after seven the previous evening and had not been seen since.
Hearing that the young witch's answer matched Roy's account, Snape glanced at Roy, who was endlessly fiddling with the Notebook in the corridor. Then, with a fierce expression,