Location: Hogwarts Headmaster’s Office. Present: A. Dumbledore, S. Snape. Dumbledore and Snape examine a Hogwarts security map.
DUMBLEDORE: What do you reckon, Severus? My thoughts go first to Dungeon 4 or 5.
SNAPE: If it’s security you want, Dungeon 5 is the last I’d recommend. It’s immediately accessible from the Potions corridor, and you can hear whatever’s in it through the Slytherin common room.
DUMBLEDORE: Hmm, no, that will not do. That will not do. What do you recommend?
SNAPE: For security? 9 and 10 are nearly impenetrable. They can only be accessed through 6. 8 is of course quite secure too, though I’d prefer that be left open for – personal reasons.
DUMBLEDORE: Yes, yes, indeed. I wonder – [points to a spot on the map] what about these rooms in the south-west?
SNAPE: The south-west? Those are already in use for –
DUMBLEDORE: No no, not the storage facilities. I mean this complex – here.
SNAPE: Hm. I’ve never noticed those. Is there – any – a door, or – ?
DUMBLEDORE: Where is the access point, I wonder? They seem to be interwoven between the private stores. Is there an unmarked passage?
SNAPE: None that I know of. Nor Filch, I don’t expect, else I would have heard. From above, perhaps?
DUMBLEDORE: Above is the courtyard. Surely not there – the west tower?
SNAPE: Why would there be a passage from the owlery to the dungeons?
DUMBLEDORE: Why would there be a passage to Hogsmeade under the hump of Gunhilda de Gorsemoor? Do not questions the mysteries of this place, Severus. I certainly do not. Perhaps it was a space to store dung and owl pellets.
SNAPE: Perhaps. But surely we’d know of a passage –
DUMBLEDORE: The third floor corridor – this one, that passes along the west side of the courtyard to the owlery. Directly beneath that lies this first chamber. I wonder –
SNAPE: I doubt –
DUMBLEDORE: Come, Severus. Let us – investigate.
New location: Hogwarts third-floor corridor. Present: A. Dumbledore, S. Snape.
SNAPE: There’s nothing here. Unless there are concealment charms outside both of our powers –
DUMBLEDORE: Oh, there could be, Severus. But – I doubt it.
SNAPE: What’s underneath us now? Solid stone?
DUMBLEDORE: Hmm. I doubt that too. There’s likely a gap between the outer and inner wall. [Pause.] What are you suggesting?
SNAPE: We could install a door here. Yes. A trap door.
DUMBLEDORE: That’s quite a distance down – three stories.
SNAPE: We are wizards, are we not? We could dampen the fall. We could even magic in a ladder.
DUMBLEDORE: Hmm. [Taps floor]. Yes. Yes.
SNAPE: If it’s secrecy you want, though, this hardly seems the place. It’s quite a high-traffic area. It’s the only access to the owlery from indoors –
DUMBLEDORE: Oh, did I say I hope for secrecy? Security, perhaps – but not secrecy.
SNAPE: You want students to know about this?
DUMBLEDORE: Oh, now, I didn’t say that either.
SNAPE: [Pauses, stares.] I don’t follow you. Some might say you’d prefer we don’t question your mysteries any more than we question this castle’s.
DUMBLEDORE: And some might say the same of you. [Several seconds pause.] Are you prepared, Severus?
SNAPE: Prepared?
DUMBLEDORE: Prepared to meet the object of so many year’s care?
SNAPE: Damn you.
DUMBLEDORE: I will need your eyes on him, Severus. I will need your eyes all the time. Even more so than those years your eyes turned toward –
SNAPE: Enough. Enough. Stay out of my head.
DUMBLEDORE: Very well. [Pause.] I only suggest that any son of James Potter will require, er, assistance if he is to uncover the mysteries of this school. Intelligence is hereditary, I’m afraid. Are you prepared to provide the necessary support?
SNAPE: What do you have planned, Albus? I thought you wanted this for Qui –
DUMBLEDORE: Yes, yes, him too. We are dealing with simple and unintuitive minds, Severus. It is our duty as pedagogues to provide – direction. Sensitivity. Care. Love. Do you have it, Severus?
[A pause of nearly one minute.]
SNAPE: I will see to it that Filch installs a trapdoor in the corridor. I suspect you’ll want it blocked off for the year. Students will have to access the owlery from the courtyard stair. Quite a bother, I’d say, especially in the winter months. You’ll have to put something bloody obvious there to protect the corridor. I think less of your target’s powers of obversation than I expect from your, er – protégé.
DUMBLEDORE: [Applying a penetrating stare] Very well, Severus. Very well.
THE PENSIEVE PAPERS 