Secret Passage

"Excuse me." Snape called out to the team captain who was about to leave.

Montague stopped and looked at Snape.

He was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with coarse, stiff hair and huge forearms like hairy hams.

The broom in his hand looked like a little twig against him. It was hard not to wonder how it managed to carry him into the air.

"What do you want?" Montague asked in a deep, muffled voice.

"Hello, I wanted to ask whether non-Quidditch team members could use your training room."

"Sure." Montague looked Snape up and down. "A bean sprout like you really should exercise more. Today's tryouts were dreadful. Not one candidate was as sturdy as me."

Snape forcibly suppressed the urge to mock him. A son as dumb and huge as you really ought to get his head stuck in a toilet.

"Wait here." Montague went into the captain's office.

When he came out, he had changed out of his team uniform and was carrying a black package.

"Have you ever eaten a Chocolate Frog?" Montague asked mysteriously, though the expression on his face looked more like constipation.

"What are you talking about, Montague?"

"The kind of candy that hops around like a real frog."

Montague dramatically spread his arms, startling Snape so badly that he nearly thought a gorilla was lunging at him.

"I know what that is!" Snape took two steps back.

"Oh, good." Montague motioned for Snape to come closer. "Take a look at this."

Inside the package were several glass bottles filled with dark red liquid.

"What is this?"

"Polyjuice Potion."

"Can it turn people into Fire Dragons?" This only confused Snape further. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Haven't you seen the cards?" Montague was growing impatient. "Dumbledore's card—the twelve uses of dragon blood."

"You mean—"

"That's right, it strengthens the body." Montague nodded. "If you want to train properly, you might as well have some.

"It contains the blood of nine kinds of dragons, including the Norwegian Ridgeback, Hungarian Horntail, Chinese Fireball, Welsh Green, Swedish Short-Snout, Ukrainian Ironbelly, Antipodean Opaleye, Peruvian Vipertooth, and Romanian Longhorn.

"One bottle is only ten Galleons. If you buy five or more at once, I can even give you ten percent off..."

"No, I don't need it." Snape jumped far back again. "I don't use technology."

"What technology? This is magic!" Montague said disgruntledly. "If you weren't from the same House and interested in getting fit, I wouldn't have told you about it."

Snape instinctively glanced at the top of Montague's head. Merlin's beard, it was only 1976. Was the Quidditch world already this advanced?

"Mondo—oh, no, Montague, thank you very much. But I have no money! Just let me use your training room. My friend is still waiting for me..."

Snape fled at once.

After dinner in the Great Hall, Snape reluctantly headed toward Professor McGonagall's office.

Tonight, he was going there again to serve detention with James.

So far, he and James had sorted through Filch's old records, washed the bed sheets and covers in the Hospital Wing for Madam Pomfrey, wiped the dust from Tom Riddle's award plaques, and handled several other trivial, boring tasks.

After working together so many times without getting into a fight, it was practically a miracle. At least, that was what Snape thought.

He knocked softly on the door.

"Come in." Professor McGonagall's stern voice came from within.

The room suited her personality. Compared to Dumbledore's fantastical office, this place had no flashy decorations at all. It could even be called plain.

Aside from a Gryffindor banner and several House Cups, there were only books and rolls of parchment on her shelves and desk.

"Good evening, Professor," Snape said. "It appears Mr. Potter has not arrived yet. What will we be doing tonight?"

"Good evening, Severus." Professor McGonagall handed him a stack of parchment. "Today is the last day. You will write lines: 'I will get along peacefully with students from other Houses and stand united as one.'

"Once you have filled those sheets, you may leave. You can begin first."

Snape took the parchment, sat at a small table, and began writing the sentence over and over with a quill.

This was much easier than he had expected. It was not as if that perverted old toad Umbridge were making him write lines. There was nothing to fear.

Before long, James arrived as well. He sat as far away from Snape as possible and joined the line-writing.

Professor McGonagall sat nearby, reading the latest issue of Transfiguration Today by lamplight.

Nearly two hours passed before Snape finally finished.

He examined his work with satisfaction, only to discover that his handwriting had become increasingly sloppy and larger toward the end.

Uneasily, Snape handed the parchment to Professor McGonagall and hoped she would not be too particular.

Fortunately, Professor McGonagall did not make things difficult for him. She merely frowned and said, "That will do."

Before leaving, Snape suddenly remembered something. He said to James, "Mr. Potter, the parchment to replace yours will arrive in a few days."

"Screech—"

James's chair let out a piercing noise. He struggled not to rise, but his quill halted uncontrollably over the page, and ink spread across the parchment.

"Potter, what are you doing? You will have to rewrite that sheet."

Hearing Professor McGonagall's voice, Snape pulled the door shut with complete satisfaction.

Standing in the corridor, Snape pulled out the Marauder's Map from inside his robes.

With a light tap of his Wand, fine ink lines spread from the spot the tip had touched like a spiderweb, connecting and crisscrossing as they expanded into every corner of the parchment.

Snape casually watched the many moving black dots on the map. His gaze swept up and down the familiar corridors.

Then, suddenly, he spotted a familiar name—Mulciber.

Mulciber was moving near the Library on the fifth floor of the castle.

Then the black dot representing him vanished from the map completely.

Alarm bells immediately went off in Snape's mind.

Unless Mulciber had changed into another person like Snape had, there was no way he could enter the Library.

Moreover, right where he had disappeared, the Marauder's Map marked a Secret Passage leading to Hogsmeade.

After seeing Filch sitting quietly in his office behind the marble staircase, Snape dashed upstairs.

He cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and hid carefully between several suits of armor like a human chameleon, watching the people leaving after the Library closed scatter in all directions.

Only after Madam Pince shut the main doors did Snape step out from beside the wall.

He came before a large mirror not far from the Library. Following the Marauder's Map's instructions, he drew a strange pattern on it with his Wand and whispered:

"Wingardium Leviosa."

At once, the mirror parted the ways and sank into the wall.

A broad passage appeared before him.