Re: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Auror - Severus Snape
Snape had never had the same taste for flair some of his colleagues seemed to, and he knew that a simple, single-minded pursuit of his assigned goal would have raised no real comment. He could easily have made his way directly to Shacklebolt's supposed whereabouts, and - finding nothing, seeing as the man had been warned off hours ago - simply have retreated deeper into the building to pretend to search for him, avoiding all the excitement. He might even have been able to leave entirely; there was nothing to say he couldn't 'pursue' the man outside of the Ministry, after all. He might have been able to go home the same night, having failed (through no fault of his own), but not been spotted.
Pettigrew had derailed his plans rather nicely, simply by refusing to be shaken off. The man was sticking within two paces of him. It was infuriating - he was shameless in his cowardice, and exceedingly inconvenient. Snape found himself wishing he had been much less tolerant of the man during their time together. It was a little insulting, really, that Pettigrew seemed to be less afraid of him than of anyone else here. Surely he didn't deserve that. But, against all reason and despite all efforts to the contrary, Pettigrew seemed absolutely determined to stay with him.
And so when Snape found Shacklebolt absent from his office, and from the entire floor, he was forced to make a much more thorough show of sniffing out his missing target than he would otherwise have liked. He started down the staircases, one floor at a time, Pettigrew ever in tow. His nerves were fraying a little by the time they neared the final descent, to the Department of Mysteries. Aside from the insufferable company, Dumbldore's exhortation that he remember their agreement was eating at him. Things weren't going exactly to plan, and cryptic messages from the former Headmaster were not encouraging in the least.
He let himself hope that if he could get himself out of here soon enough, he wouldn't have to find out what exactly he had meant. Arriving at the rather perplexing entrance to the lowest Department, he decided to lose Pettigrew as quickly as possible, so he could report back to the Dark Lord and, hopefully, be returned to Hogwarts. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing.