Snape could not move a single part of his body.
All he could do was lift his eyes toward the roof of the carriage, listening to the footsteps and voices around him.
As he was thinking about how he should defend himself before the Wizengamot, and about how Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban, there came a deafening bang, and the Knight Bus suddenly started up.
The bus accelerated so fast that his body slid a distance toward the rear of the vehicle.
"Mum, Severus is still lying on the floor."
He heard Marlene's voice.
Then he felt himself being lifted off the ground by magic and gently placed onto a bed.
Lying on the feather mattress, he thought to himself that at least now he would no longer have to endure the annoying jolting against his back.
Time slipped by almost unnoticed.
Another deafening bang sounded, and the bed frame beneath Snape slid forward about a foot.
They had reached Hogsmeade.
Carried out of the Knight Bus on his back, his eyes were filled with a wide expanse of starlit sky.
Accompanied by the squelch of a wooden leg pulling free of the mud, and the clatter of footsteps striking cobblestones, they entered a dimly lit house.
A familiar smell of goat hit Snape's nose.
"The Hog's Head?"
He guessed silently.
"Aberforth, it seems you got my message," Moody said gruffly.
"Is Albus here? Also, could you find a place for Ernie to rest properly?"
After a snort from someone's nose, Snape felt himself being lifted upward.
When the creak of wooden steps beneath him ended, he then heard the knocking of a staff against a door.
"Come in." It was Dumbledore's voice.
"Good evening, Albus," Moody said.
"Good evening, Alastor. Tell me what happened today," Dumbledore asked sternly.
"And what has happened to this child?"
Snape was lowered to the floor.
He could hear something being dragged across the boards, producing a harsh scrape.
Moody seemed to pull over a chair and sit heavily.
"Better to let MacKinnon tell you. I only came after receiving his signal."
So Mr. MacKinnon recounted everything he knew.
Marlene added the details that had happened after he lost consciousness.
"Are the bodies kept downstairs?" Dumbledore asked.
They left the room.
The place was quiet.
After a while, Snape again heard the sound of footsteps; someone returned to the room.
A red flash swept past, and the spell binding him was lifted.
He sat bolt upright, looked up at Dumbledore, and said urgently:
"Professor, could you send a letter to my home?
"Just say that I ran into you at Diagon Alley, that you had something about school to discuss with me, and that I will be home later. Please?"
Dumbledore's bright blue eyes, magnified behind half-moon spectacles, studied Snape for a moment.
Then he nodded, summoned an owl and pen and parchment with his wand.
Moments later, the owl flew out the window into the pitch-dark night.
"Could I have my wand back,uh-" Snape hesitated briefly, then blurted it out.
"No. But there is a spell that prevents conversations from being overheard,Muffliato,I suggest we use it."
Dumbledore cast the spell with a wave of his hand, then lowered it and fixed his gaze on Snape.
"Do you have something to tell me, Severus?"
"Yes, Professor." Snape nodded.
"The Knight Bus was stopped by old Avery. He stunned Ernie Prang and killed Tod Sumpak with the Killing Curse.
"Old Avery was a Death Eater,he was not under the Imperius Curse.
"He recognized me right away and tried to force me to use an Unforgivable Curse to kill Marlene."
"Anything else?" Dumbledore asked.
Snape hesitated a moment, then continued:
"Slytherin has a little group, called Walpurgis.
"We,they hold regular gatherings. At those, Death Eaters teach Dark Magic.
"It was Bellatrix Lestrange who taught the Unforgivable Curses."
"Walpurgis?" Dumbledore softly repeated the name.
"Professor," Snape explained his confusion, "that was the name the Dark Lord... well... Voldemort gave to the Death Eaters in the early days.
"Later they stopped using it, and it was handed over to the student recruits."
Someone nearby shivered audibly, as if that name alone made them struggle to breathe.
"Do you know why the Death Eaters wanted MacKinnon?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
Snape shook his head.
"I don't. Does he have something special about him?"
Dumbledore pressed a hand against the crooked bridge of his nose, clearly deep in thought.
"Then it was you who killed those two?"
"No, Professor." Snape met Dumbledore's gaze without flinching. "It was two Death Eaters."
Dumbledore rose and paced before the dark fireplace.
"If the first was under duress, then why did you attack Macnair?"
"This is war, Professor."
Snape's answer was brief.
"That is not enough to convince me not to hand you over to the Ministry at dawn."
Snape drew a deep breath, thinking: you've forced me to keep speaking.
He decided to use Dumbledore's spear against Dumbledore's shield.
"Do not pity the wicked, Professor.
"Pity more the innocents, and those willing to fight for them.
"The arrival of Death Eaters always brings death. They-"
He pointed at the MacKinnons.
"What would have happened if they had been taken away?"
Without waiting for Dumbledore's answer, Snape went on:
"There are many more out there who do not dare to say,Voldemort's,name.
"Their worst fear is to come home and see the Dark Mark swirling above their house. Because they know what they will find inside.
"I am a member of Walpurgis. To Death Eaters, a traitor is more tempting than an enemy or an innocent.
"I have family too. I also fear going home to see the Dark Mark above it."
He fixed his eyes firmly on Dumbledore's blue ones and said heavily:
"Professor, I do not want to lose the family most important to me in the name of procedure, justice, or some so-called greater good."
"He will stand trial and be sent to Azkaban, without a chance to harm your family," Dumbledore said, his voice carrying a slight rasp.
A mocking smile curved Snape's lips.
"Azkaban?
"You mean the prison guarded by Voldemort's natural allies?"
There was a silence, then Dumbledore spoke again.
"Severus, sometimes change brings good results, but sometimes it does not.
"We may keep today's events secret.
"But I want you to consider your actions carefully, and the path ahead of you."
"Thank you, Professor, I will."
Then Snape deliberately asked:
"I used magic today,will that be a problem?"
"Oh, you need not worry. The Trace cannot identify which wizard specifically cast the spells," Dumbledore said.
Snape nodded thoughtfully.
"One more thing."
Another thought struck him suddenly.
"At dawn, could you ask Mr. Moody, or someone else, to take me to Diagon Alley and then send me home?
"I want to buy an owl."