"Severus, I don't recognize that name from our student rolls, and I've taught here for nearly fifty years," Minerva said.
"No, you wouldn't. He was a Hogwarts student, but not during your time," Snape answered. Harry, who knew Snape as well as anyone could ever know Snape, could tell that the Potions master was troubled by something.
"What do you mean, 'Not during my time'?" Minerva argued. "Harry told Ron that the suspect was in his fifties. If he were a Hogwarts' student, I would have to have had him in one of my classes."
"That would be true if Cascius Burke were, indeed, a man in his fifties. He was over 110 when I knew him, and that was thirty years ago," Snape replied, most of his attention still seeming to be focused within himself.
"What are you saying? I saw what happened to the boy. The man wasn't even sixty," Ron said.
"Nevertheless, it was Cascius Burke," Snape insisted.
"So you're saying he was wearing a glamour?" Hermione fixed on the most reasonable explanation.
"There wouldn't have been any reason for a glamour," Harry protested before Snape could answer. "The only person who saw him was Carl, and the blighter as good as wiped the boy's memory clean with that illusion he implanted. He wouldn't have had any reason to hide from Carl."
"But the man in the pensieve wasn't ancient," McGregor said. "I wouldn't even have put him at fifty. How can that be possible?"
"Albus Dumbledore was nearly 200 when he . . . when we lost him," Minerva said.
"Yes, but he looked old," Harry reminded.
"As did Burke when I knew him," Snape said, and Harry at last understood that this was what had him so distracted.
"Then it has to be a glamour," Ron insisted. "Or you're mistaken about his identity."
"I'm not mistaken and it wasn't a glamour," Snape insisted.
"How can you be so sure?" McGregor demanded. "It could be his son, or someone who simply resembles him."
"I'm certain because I knew the man. Like Thomas Riddle, Cascius Burke wasn't someone easily forgotten, even after a casual encounter – and our encounters were never casual," Snape answered. "This was Cascius Burke."
Neither Ron nor his fellow Aurors appeared convinced, but Harry believed Snape.
"Could he be using the Philosopher's Stone?" Harry asked. Professor Dumbledore had said it had been destroyed, but he wasn't an eleven year old child anymore. Harry knew now that Dumbledore hadn't always told him the entire truth, and, although he couldn't recall the headmaster ever telling him an outright lie, he knew he'd often been misdirected. His conversation in the infirmary when he'd awoken there after his encounter with Professor Quirrell and Lord Voldemort in first year was so long ago that Harry had only the vaguest memory of the details. The only clear things he recalled were that the stone was gone and that Nicholas Flamel would die.
Snape turned his way. To Harry's surprise, some of the hardness left those bottomless eyes. Snape seemed almost startled that he'd been believed and his protests taken seriously. After a moment's thought, Snape shook his head. "I saw it destroyed with my own eyes. And, even if it weren't, Nicholas Flamel and those exposed to it merely stopped aging; they didn't grow younger."
"A youth charm, then?" Hermione suggested.
"To what purpose?" Snape challenged. "Burke was already straining his resources by keeping the boy under Imperius while he . . . carried out his plans. There were points where he was running three separate spells simultaneously. I can't imagine that he'd waste the energy a glamour requires simply for vanity's sake."
"Vanity's sake?" Ron repeated.
"His plan left Mr. Westfield with no memory of his actual attacker," Snape reminded him.
"Oh, right," Ron said.
"Is it even possible to run three spells simultaneously?" Hermione fixed on the piece of Snape's statement that had most interested Harry.
"It's possible," Snape answered, his gaze, for some reason, turning Harry's way, "but not often done."
"Why not?" Ron asked.
"Have you cast even two at the same time?" Snape asked them.
Ron, Harry, and most of the others shook their heads.
But Hermione, who'd always been the brightest and most precocious of their group, responded,
"Once. One of my students summoned a merperson from the lake and I summoned some water to keep it alive while I transported it back. I had to simultaneously hold the water together while levitating the creature back outside."
"And what was the result?" Snape questioned.
"The spells worked, but I was utterly drained afterwards and had a splitting headache. I had to dismiss the class because I couldn't even keep my eyes open," Hermione said.
"Precisely. Only the most powerful of wizards can manage even two spells," Snape said.
"And you're saying this Cascius Burke managed three?" Ron asked.
Snape nodded. "The boy was under Imperius the entire time he was with Burke. While holding Westfield under Imperius, Burke magically removed and replaced items of his clothing, used Legilimency, a memory charm, a feel good charm, and apparated away when done."
"But that's . . . ." Ron began.
"Seven," Harry finished.
"Precisely. By my count, he cast three simultaneous spells at one point in the pensieve recollection," Snape said.
"Severus, I've never heard of that," Minerva said.
The room was quiet for a few moments. Even the younger Aurors seemed to appreciate the significance of what Snape was saying.
Finally, Ron broke the silence by asking, "So, did you know this Burke character well?"
"Yes," Snape answered.
Harry wondered if anyone else could hear the tension in that single clipped syllable.
"Just 'yes'?" Ron asked. "That doesn't tell us much. Where did you meet him?"
Snape straightened. "Thirty years ago, Thomas Riddle wanted Cascius Burke to join him. Burke was reluctant at first and had to be convinced. He left Riddle's group right after Riddle became Lord Voldemort."
Harry exchanged a glance with Hermione and Minerva. He could see that they both had reacted to that information the same as he. People didn't just leave Voldemort.
"He can't be all that bad, then," McGregor confirmed his status of village idiot by saying. Perhaps it was meant as a joke, but he was making it to four people who knew the teenager Burke had raped.
"What?" Ron swung on his co-worker, fury heightening his colour. "You just saw what that pervert is capable of in the pensieve. How can you say that?"
"What I meant was that he was smart enough to leave He Who Must Not Be Named before things got bad," McGregor quickly specified.
Harry relaxed a little at the qualification, deciding that the Auror had even less social grace than Snape, and that was saying something.
"What makes you think that intelligence entered into it, Mr. McGregor?" Snape asked in the voice he used to intimidate a roomful of seventh years.
"Well, he must've seen that Voldemort was destined to lose," McGregor offered, obviously feeling defensive.
"Hardly." Snape sneered. "When Burke parted ways with the Dark Lord, there was every probability that Voldemort would emerge the victor in his battle for supremacy in the Wizarding World."
"So why didn't Burke stay with him, then?" Ron asked.
"Burke had no desire to call any man his lord," Snape explained. "He wasn't Riddle's subordinate. He was his peer."
"Do you mean that socially, Severus?" Minerva shifted in her chair.
Harry and Hermione looked nervously at each other and then returned their full attention to Snape.
"No, I do not," Snape said.
"Huh?" Ron was looking from Hermione to Minerva to Harry himself, clearly reading their worry and responding to it.
"I think Professor Snape means that this Burke was Voldemort's equal in power," Hermione said. "That is what you meant, isn't it, Professor?"
"Unfortunately," Snape agreed.
"You mean we're searching for someone -" McGregor began.
"Powerful enough to leave Lord Voldemort and live," Snape completed the sentence.
"So Burke framed you to avenge Voldemort?" Ron asked.
"I sincerely doubt it. The last time Voldemort and Burke met, it was in a duel to the death," Snape said.
"Then why is this Burke alive?" Harry couldn't help but ask. "No wizard just walked away after challenging Lord Voldemort."
"This one did," Snape replied, his tone conveying a world of meaning in those three simple words.
With every bit of information Snape offered them, the situation became more confusing.
"I don't understand why Burke framed you, if his quarrel was with Voldemort," Ron said.
"Suffice it to say that Burke had sufficient resentment to perpetrate this fraud," Snape said after a long pause. Harry could tell that Snape really didn't want to discuss this subject.
"Enough evasion. Why's he got it in for you?" McGregor demanded, his suspicion clear.
Another prolonged pause followed before Snape finally said, "I betrayed Burke's trust by informing Voldemort of Burke's plan to murder him."
"You – what?" Ron gaped, as stunned as everyone in the room.
Harry was so accustomed to thinking of Snape as Professor Dumbledore's inside agent that he often forgot that Snape had been a true Death Eater for years before he'd had whatever change of heart that had driven him to help Dumbledore.
"I'm surprised Burke is still alive, in that case," Harry said as the silence stretched uncomfortably. "Voldemort wasn't particularly forgiving of disloyalty."
Snape met his eyes. "No, he wasn't. However, Burke's power was such that even Voldemort would not lightly challenge him."
"What?" McGregor asked.
"Cascius Burke was one of the most powerful, pureblood wizards of his age. Voldemort courted his favour for more than three years before Burke deigned to join the Death Eaters. When Burke learned the truth about Voldemort's Muggle background, he plotted to kill Voldemort and take his place."
"And you told Voldemort?" McGregor's sneer was so disdainful; it was worthy of Snape.
"Yes," Snape gave another of those single syllable replies in which Harry could sense a world of repressed emotion.
"Why?" Ron asked.
For the most part, Minerva and Hermione seemed as content as Harry to allow the Aurors to ask the difficult questions to which they all wanted answers. He and his co-workers had to deal with Snape on a daily basis, and were, therefore, more reluctant to violate Snape's privacy.
"When he first started to draw followers, Voldemort wanted to elevate Wizardkind over the Muggles, to restore the old ways, and reclaim our noble past. Burke wanted to exterminate the Muggles. What's more, he was almost powerful enough to do so."
"I'd think that would be right up your alley," McGregor said. "We know what Death Eaters think of Muggles."
"Like many men in their early twenties, I held many arrogant beliefs and prejudices that maturity eventually led me to question," Snape said to the twenty-something year old Auror in front of him. The subtlety of the sarcasm was wasted on McGregor, however.
"You betrayed him to Voldemort to save the Muggles?" The taller Auror, Martin, asked in a disbelieving tone.
"Hardly. At that age, I had no concern for a species I considered below my notice," Snape answered with ruthless honesty.
Harry could see how adversely Snape's bluntness affected his companions. Only he seemed to have heard the qualifier with which Snape had begun his answer, the 'at that age'. Wanting to dispel the growing hostility he could feel against Snape in the room, Harry softly asked, "Why'd you do it, then?"
Harry wasn't sure why he felt compelled to dispel the hostility. The prejudices Snape was admitting to were totally reprehensible.
"It was my belief that Burke was underestimating the Muggles. They mightn't have magic, but their recent technological advances mimicked magic in many ways. It was my fear that if we were to attack the Muggles as Burke planned, that they would become aware of us and eventually use their technology to penetrate our world and destroy us," Snape explained.
"Makes sense," Ron said.
"So what happened between Voldemort and Burke?" Harry asked.
"Voldemort was forewarned. When Burke made his play for control, he and his followers were put down by Death Eaters loyal to Voldemort. Burke's only son and three grandsons were killed in the coup. Though grievously injured, Burke himself escaped. I'd always believed him dead of his wounds, but . . . apparently, I was mistaken," Snape said.
"His son and grandchildren were all killed?" Hermione asked.
Snape nodded. "Burke's entire line ended that night, so, as you can see, he has more than sufficient reason to hate me."
"How did you find out about Burke's plan to overthrow Voldemort?" Ron questioned.
Another of those weighty silences followed before Snape replied, "Burke revealed it to me himself. I was . . . in his confidence at that point."
Harry sensed that there was a hell of a lot more to that story than Snape was letting on, but he didn't hound Snape for the details of what must have been a very painful decision for him to have made.
"You've got quite a charming history of betraying people, don't you?" McGregor asked with the kind of self-righteous disgust that Harry had occasionally seen levelled against Snape.
"That's enough," Harry said. "You asked him why Burke would go to such lengths to incriminate him. I think Professor Snape has satisfied your curiosity."
