Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 755 The Traitor Emerges

For the next half hour, Bill and Charlie described in detail the trouble they had encountered, leaving out every single detail.

“They know we’re going to Aunt Muriel’s, Dad,” Bill said earnestly, looking at Mr. Weasley. “But they couldn’t possibly know who Aunt Muriel is. Someone must have told the Mysterious Man about our plans.”

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

"What?" Bill was stunned.

"Severus Snape, he's the one who told the Mystic about our plan." Moody stood up and walked over with a limp.

No one spoke; the only sound in the room was the thumping of the wooden prosthetic leg on the floor.

A moment later, Sirius was the first to come to his senses.

"Ah, I should have guessed it was that snotty-nosed guy!" He slammed his hand on the table. "He's a Death Eater, lots of people know that, but for some reason, Dumbledore trusts him completely and insists he's innocent!"

His tone carried a hint of satisfaction, as if the truth had finally come to light.

Sirius Black had never understood why Dumbledore would trust Snape, a former Death Eater, so much.

It was no secret at Hogwarts that the snotty-nosed boy had joined the Death Eaters before even graduating; many people knew this. Furthermore, during the First Wizarding War, many members of the Order of the Phoenix, including himself, were nearly cut in half by Snape's Shadowstep Charm, a fact Dumbledore was also well aware of.

Yet this same person, after the war ended and all the Death Eaters were about to face trial, somehow transformed into one of Dumbledore's most trusted men, becoming not only a professor at Hogwarts but also the head of Slytherin.

When Sirius found out about this in Azkaban, he thought it was a misprint of his name in the Daily Prophet.

For so many years, he had wanted to ask Dumbledore for clarification, but the latter had always avoided the question and never given a direct answer.

"Don't rush, Sirius." Lupin stopped Sirius, who was about to say something, and asked, "Alastor, are you sure it's him?"

"It should be right," Moody said. "Almost everyone who knew our real plan was involved in the operation, with only a very few exceptions."

"First is Dedalow." Moody looked at the short wizard in the crowd. "I had my suspicions, but he proved himself to be trustworthy and can be ruled out."

Dedalow Dygol initially appeared panicked, only relaxing after Moody assured him he was trustworthy. He nodded repeatedly to everyone who looked his way, seemingly to indicate that he had not betrayed the Order of the Phoenix.

"Besides that, several Hogwarts professors also did not participate in this operation," Moody continued. "Minerva McGonagall, I told her that the real Harry would go to his parents' house with Kingsley."

"Wait a minute." Harry paused for a moment, then quickly said, "But I didn't go with Kingsley."

"It's me!" Hermione raised her hand. "After Kingsley and I left Privet Drive, we went to his parents' house."

"So you lied to Professor McGonagall." Upon seeing Hermione, Harry immediately understood what had happened.

"You lied to Professor McGonagall and gave her the wrong directions."

“That’s right.” Moody readily admitted, nodding as he said, “But it turns out that it was necessary. Not just Minerva, but everyone who knew the real plan but didn’t participate in the operation received different information.”

"And those who knew Harry would be going to Muriel's house—" Moody paused, his blue magic eyes sweeping over everyone present, finally settling on Dedalus Deegar.

Dedalo, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly tensed up again, standing there stiffly and shaking his head rigidly.

"No—I don't know—I've been at the Leaky Cauldron the whole time, Mr. Siren Ollivander can attest to that."

"Of course you don't know," Moody said in a deep voice. "The one who knows this news is Severus Snape."

"Aha, the evidence is conclusive!" Sirius sneered. "What did I tell you? He's a Death Eater, a damned traitor!"

"But Dumbledore believed him," Lupin sighed.

Although he didn't like Snape either, he found it even more unacceptable that someone so trusted by Dumbledore would betray the Order of the Phoenix immediately after his death.

"Yes, Dumbledore trusts him." Kingsley sighed softly.

Like Sirius Black and Lupin, he also fought Severus Snape in the First Wizarding War and knew that the latter had been a Death Eater.

"I asked Dumbledore about it seventeen years ago, but he always implied that he had unbreakable reasons to trust Snape."

"That snotty-nosed guy must have lied to Dumbledore," Sirius said with absolute certainty. "Slytherins are all good at sweet talk, and Snape is obviously an expert in it too. Besides, Dumbledore is over a hundred years old; his judgment is certainly not as good as—"

Sirius's voice suddenly stopped, and he didn't continue speaking.

He actually wanted to say that Dumbledore was senile and that's why he was fooled by Snape, but he felt that it would be a bit impolite to say that.

However, everyone else could guess what he was thinking, and they stood there in silence, no one refuting him.

"Anyway, this is a good thing," Moody broke the silence, saying, "At least we know who the traitor who tipped us off was."

"Even if that's not true, I know Snape is suspicious." Sirius poured himself a glass of strong whiskey and drank it down.

"If you ask me, we should go to Hogwarts right now and capture that snotty-nosed brat!"

"It's no use," Kingsley shook his head. "Do you think he'll stay among us after betraying the Order of the Phoenix?"

"So, we'll just leave it at that?"

"Of course not, but there really isn't much we can do right now."

"No matter what, we should go and see."

"Going to Hogwarts now would be tantamount to deliberately exposing ourselves."

"But I don't want to do nothing!"

The sounds of arguing rose and fell among the crowd.

"Is this how they usually are?"

In the kitchen, Aunt Muriel glanced disdainfully at the group around the table. "Constantly chattering and arguing, are they still children?"

"It only happens occasionally; most of the time, they are quite rational," Mrs. Weasley shook her head.

"Excuse me, Billiers, your house—"

"You don't need to apologize for such a small thing, Molly," Aunt Muriel waved her hand dismissively. "Once those filthy bugs are gone, I can build a new one in five minutes."