"Oh?"
"Go on." "It's about news regarding you. I heard... you once appeared at the station."
"And what else?"
"...You nearly killed that boy!"
"Heh," Voldemort sneered coldly. "You mean Harry Potter? I will kill him, but not that time at the station. Dumbledore protected him too well. If not for seizing that brief moment during the holiday return home, how could Nagini have obtained his blood, and how could I have perfectly resurrected?"
"Master, you—"
Snape looked up in surprise.
He carefully let his gaze slide over Voldemort: the skin pallid in a sickly way, not a single hair visible, taking on a strange waxy sheen; eyes blood-red, nose flattened like a snake's... It was hard to say how much resembled a human.
Yet Voldemort had no intention of explaining. One hand stroked the wand in his grasp, his sight drifting over the vast, pitch-black mountains as he paced lazily. "Tell me about the Ministry of Magic... and Dumbledore. What have they been up to lately..."
Snape temporarily suppressed his questions, followed, and reported everything he knew.
After a while.
"Dumbledore has reorganized the Order of the Phoenix. My task is to monitor the Death Eaters that the Ministry can't get a handle on, to probe their inclinations... Lucius, Crabbe, Goyle, the Carrows... Not many in number, but I have to admit Dumbledore has a sharp eye; every one he picked is solid."
"Crabbe, Goyle?" Voldemort raised his voice slightly.
Snape understood Voldemort's meaning: those two were utter fools. When the Dark Lord had fallen from power back then, they had panicked and scrambled for any lifeline.
"It was Lucius who sheltered them," Snape said respectfully. "For years, Lucius has continuously donated money to the Ministry without interruption. So even though old Crouch racked his brains to lock him up, and Amelia Bones desperately sent her subordinates to inspect his home, they couldn't find any flaws. At the very least, the arrest warrants couldn't pass through Fudge."
Voldemort let out a scornful laugh.
"That's good news. At least when we return, we'll have a place to land. Don't you think so, Severus?"
Snape bowed deeply, like a house-elf.
"I'm not certain about Lucius's attitude. No matter how outsiders think he and I are close, I could never see through his mind. However..." He spoke slowly. "If you stand before him, I think he'll return to our big family."
They had already stopped. Not far away, a large snake slithered in the shadows.
Voldemort gazed at Nagini; his pupils were slit like a snake's as well.
"Lucius, that sly old dog," he said softly. "Let me guess: Dumbledore ordered you to probe their inclinations, to act as a double agent?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the atmosphere tensed instantly. Snape felt himself scrutinized by a terrifying gaze.
Yaxley, who had been quietly following the two, looked somewhat surprised, but in the next second drew his wand and aimed it at Snape. As long as Voldemort gave the order, he would act without hesitation. Unfortunately—neither Voldemort nor Snape turned to glance at him.
"You've guessed it again," Snape said. "That is indeed Dumbledore's idea. He wants me to be a double agent... just as you required of me back then."
Yaxley was greatly shocked.
Voldemort curled his fingers while carefully scrutinizing this man he couldn't quite see through. "It's been too long, Severus. I'm not sure if you've maintained the loyalty from those days."
"My loyalty remains unchanged." Snape said.
A moment of silence.
"What's the situation at the Ministry?" Voldemort didn't dwell on the issue; for him, the answer to that question wasn't important.
"I'm not clear on that either," Snape revealed a bitter smile. "In fact, even my knowledge of the Order of the Phoenix's intelligence is limited. Dumbledore has built more than one secret stronghold, and only he knows all the details. One of them, the old Black family home, connects the Weasley, Black, Potter, and Ministry lines. The problem is, my relationship with Sirius Black is very poor."
Voldemort's face darkened. According to Snape, Dumbledore was elusive, Harry Potter was hidden in a safe house, and Ministry intelligence converged at the home of an enemy who held a grudge against him... It was simply use—
"But I've ferreted out a piece of top-secret information." Snape hurried to say.
Voldemort's lips twisted into a ferocious grin. "...I'm not sure if it's useful."
"Speak it, Severus. I'll judge." Voldemort said.
Snape steadied himself and said: "Little Crouch is still alive."
Voldemort's head snapped up.
"Old Crouch's son? Little Barty, who was locked in Azkaban with Bella?"
"I'm not certain... About a year ago, I improved the Wolfsbane Potion and received a reward from the Ministry for it. You know, the Ministry has a real headache with those werewolves. Even though the earliest version of the potion has been around for over a decade, not many werewolves are willing to buy it—one, because the potion is expensive and they simply can't afford it; two, because they don't want to be monitored by the Ministry."
"...And the discrimination." Snape sneered.
"I encountered a female staff member at the Ministry, Bertha Jorkins. She was about my age, known even back in school for her big mouth. I overheard her by chance talking about reporting to her superior's home, where she noticed traces of someone else living there and even heard that person conversing with a house-elf. But she was severely scolded by her superior—that is, old Crouch—and driven out. I've looked into it carefully: old Crouch's wife died long ago, he's always lived alone with only one house-elf to care for him. There couldn't possibly be anyone else, yet..."
Voldemort unconsciously rubbed his pale, slender fingers, a glint of excited red light flashing in his eyes.
"You're saying that the former head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, known for his stern rigidity and intolerance of favoritism... showed partiality?" Voldemort said unhurriedly. "With his position, he certainly could fish someone out of Azkaban without a whisper leaking out. Since he's kept it hidden for over a decade, and Fudge still trusts him to review those old cases... There's only one possibility: old Crouch used trickery to fool everyone...
Voldemort's narrow nostrils flared slightly, his eyes growing even redder.
Snape and Yaxley both watched him.
Snape seized the moment and continued: "I have another piece of corroborating evidence, though it's not quite proof—shortly after that, Jorkins was swept out the door by old Crouch and transferred to the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Her memory seems much worse than before, but she's always been careless and unpopular, causing plenty of trouble, so no one suspected anything was wrong."
Voldemort let out a "heh heh" cold laugh. "Obliviate, Confundus Charm."