And You Know Who was obsessed with all that pureblood stuff, too. I reckon he'd want the chamber open, and he'd get one of his followers to do it. Have you seen it, by the way? Anyone who was working for him has a kind of branding, a bit like a muggle tattoo," Ron said, gesturing to his forearm. "They call it the dark mark."
Harry simply shook his head, numb.
"Honestly, Ron. If Professor Snape does have the dark mark, he's hardly going to go around showing it to Harry, is he?" Hermione pointed out.
Ron gave the other boy another sympathetic look – they seemed to be coming more and more frequently now. "If it helps, my dad did say he turned spy for Dumbledore afterwards."
"Well, there you go then," Harry breathed. "He was a spy! Do you really think Dumbledore would have him teaching at Hogwarts if he was… one of them?"
"All the same. Wizards don't just take the dark mark one day and turn good the next," Hermione said, softly.
"But… but you can't really think that he's got anything to do with what happened to Mrs Norris? Colin?" Harry asked, weakly now.
"I don't know, Harry. All I'm saying is… be careful," she urged.
Frowning, Harry sat back in his chair, trying to push his friends' words from his thoughts. He couldn't believe that his guardian had anything to do with this. He just couldn't.
But somewhere at the very back of his mind, a small seed of doubt started to take root.