Chapter 2 Summary

Two Death Eaters appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and headed down a cobbled street with dilapidated buildings and broken streetlights. "Wait, Cissy," appealed Bellatrix; "No, Bella," her sister Narcissa's resolve was unshakable. They moved through a "Muggle dunghill" towards the home of another Death Eater, Severus Snape, who, of course, welcomed them and instructed Wormtail to fetch drinks. They toasted the Dark Lord and, while Bellatrix glared at Snape. Narcissa, sobbing, appealed for his assistance. Snape first asked Bellatrix why she distrusted him: where, she asked, had he been when, earlier, the Dark Lord had fallen; why wouldn't he reveal the location of the Order of the Phoenix; why, most of all, since he was a professor at Hogwart's, was Harry Potter, who had been at his mercy for five years, still alive?

Snape replied smoothly that he didn't go straight back to...