“Oh Miss Granger! There you are!”, Professor Flitwick sighed.
“Sorry, Sir. I fell asleep In the library and just woke up fifteen minutes ago!”, her always-best-excuse for not having been in the right dormitory or even in bed as well as having missed breakfast; it had worked for many years and never failed, especially since it had really happened some times. “It seems, Madam Pince actually has a talent for overlooking me.”
“Very well, Miss Granger. Take your seat and try to be awake then.”
“Good morning,”, Harry smirked under his breath.
“Good morning.”, Hermione whispered back.
“Honestly, you shouldn’t overdo yourself. A half grade down doesn’t hurt.”
“Says someone who almost fails at Snape’s D.A.D.A. lessons though having fought one of the most evil and most powerful wizards of all time!”, she hissed very quiet. “If you concentrated more on the tasks than letting your brain shout out the oddest cheeks, you might even keep your O.”, yes, she was back.
“That man hates me. No matter what I do, he’d never give me an O.”
“Depends on the way you try to reach the goal. Give him no reason to reward you with any other mark.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that it doesn’t matter! He will always find something to complain about.”
“Then be cleverer than him!”
“You two should better pay attention,”, Susan Bones whispered, sitting left to Hermione.
“I know how to produce and control fire without speaking.”, Hermione waved her off. “You just need to want it. That’s all.”
“Anyway – what was that yesterday?”, Harry continued. “How was that supposed to bring Ron on different thoughts? He didn’t even notice – your – erm – boobs. And you got yourself detention with Snape!”
“Well, it was all tactic. I helped someone who managed to stun a flying owl from a very big distance to get out of that office much earlier.”
“Oh how kind of you.”, Harry sneered. “Snape must have loved it. Killing two birds with one stone. And that guy was a Slytherin!”
“There are also some not so bad Slytherins, you know?”
“What?”
“Oh forget it.”
“Question – was it really his birthday?”
“Yes.”, she didn’t change her fierce tone.
“How come you be sure?”
“It really was his birthday,”, Hermione snapped.
“Honestly? How do you always find out such things?”
“Because, for example, I can fully pay attention to Flitwick even while I talk to you. Get out your wand, concentrate and try not to burn the ceiling.”, in fact, everyone else had already taken out their wands without Harry noticing it.
“I don’t know what, but something’s different.”, he said, getting his wand ready.
“What should be different?”
“If I think about it, your eyes – they – changed – somehow.”
“Eyes cannot change.”
“No – if I say – there’s something different with your eyes. I can understand that thing with your skin – it helps, you know? I tried it and it does somehow. But there is definitely something different about your eyes now.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not silly – “
“Shut up and practise.”
~~#~~
The sound of bubbling liquid in cauldrons and a disgusting smell filled the air in the Potions classroom. A brown and golden mass wandered through the rows, taking glimpses at each cauldron. Normally he didn’t do that. Harry feared he would spot the notes in the Half-Blood Prince’s book. Every now and then, looks were thrown at Hermione, accompanied by whispers. She ignored them though. Her potion was about to become a solid green lump. A worried look on his face, Slughorn moved past and on to Harry, who was panicking. Though something happened he wouldn’t have guessed. It was like someone saving his life. Strangely, that person had already done it before, though Harry still had no idea why actually. And this time, the saviour for sure hadn’t intended to do so.
The door swung open, making all heads jerk in its direction. With wide steps and waving black cloak he stormed in, marching straight towards one of the jar-filled shelves. The pockets of his robe were obviously stuffed with little glasses.
“Severus!”, Horace beamed. “What a surprise! Is there anything I – ”
“Just ignore me.”, he responded coldly, his right hand searching over the labels on the vessels.
“Can I help you?”
“Actually, yes.”, he raised an eyebrow, staring at the glasses in front of him. “Have you altered my order?”
“Ah well, I arranged them the way I had them before. Your alphabetical sorting is nothing for my old brain. I need categories. Do you look for something in particular?”
“Some particular things I ran out but which I recall to have left emergency refills in here and – you see, this is an emergency. I don’t have much time. Is it exactly the same sorting?”
“I – I think so – ”
He took everything from his pockets and placed the glasses and phials hastily on the teacher’s desk, pushing some papers aside. Yet everything stood as neatly in line as though somebody had spent hours moving the glasses exactly in place.
Holding his left hand into the room, a small empty copper cauldron came flying towards him. He caught it easily, put it down and lightened the fire below with a snap. Some more things flew through the room, students ducking unnecessarily: a bigger bowl which he magically filled with clear water, a sharp silver knife, mortar and pestle and a cutting board. He then poured some more water into the cauldron and slightly closed his eyes, trying to remember his school time.
“Tell me and I will – ”, Slughorn was shushed by a demanding hand when the right memory cleared.
“We aren’ s’pposed ter be in ’ere. Ye know ’e’ll ask questions, if ’e returns.”, he heard himself saying, his voice a lot higher.
“Look at that, Sev!”, Lily, aged twelve, stood in front of a shelf, staring at some small corked glasses. “I wonder what they are for – can you read this?”
His eyes shot open, rushing towards a window-side shelf. He hurried over, passing confused students. Hair and cloak spinning as he stopped, his eyes came to rest on a specific glass. Another. And a third he needed. Taking all three, he looked back into the room. It was there. It was all there. The students seemed to have vanished for him. Storming around, he picked more glasses of the weirdest looking ingredients, making some of those vanished students jump aside with gasps. Back at the desk, the water was boiling already.
Watched by the marvelled class, he started cutting and grinding plants, squeezing liquid out of the most curious things and more, all in a speed not even his old teacher had seen him doing yet.
“Professor Slughorn?”, Hermione asked in an attempt to take the attention off Severus, secondly, in hope he might be able to fill one of her gaps in knowledge that had just popped into her consciousness.
“Yes, Miss Granger?”
“I wondered whether you could tell us some more about the druid Cliodna?”, she gave the substance in her cauldron a very necessary stir. “When I read about the Polyjuice Potion, it says that her sister invented it – but I couldn’t find anything more on the matter. Not even her sister’s name.”
“That is correct, Miss Granger. Cliodna and her sister, forgive me, I don’t know her name either – ”
“Meadhbh.”
“Bless you, Severus.”
“I didn’t sneeze, Meadhbh was her name.”, he snapped; a number of girls giggled subdued.
“Ah, thank you. Well, Cliodna and – er – Mayve –
“Meadhbh.”, grunted Severus.
“Yes, yes. They were descendants of a very gifted family of druids. The Dunnahars.”, Hermione could catch Severus squinting and a quiet huff as though a Dragon had snored a mile away and she knew Slughorn had pronounced that name wrongly as well. “They lived until the Medieval times – but, and I can perfectly see where this lack of further information could reside in, they unfortunately died out then. What a – ”
“They had mixed with the Peverells.”, Severus said, though sounding rather absent since he was busy.
None of the students had ever witnessed him brewing something. With trained routine, he put ingredient after ingredient into the cauldron and stirred the liquid magically, not taking out his wand. After every use he washed the tools in the bowl and renewed the water. Hermione pricked up her ears a second after the hope had already meant to leave her in a sigh, which got caught.
“Did they, Severus?”, frowned Slughorn.
“Yes. And the only woman who had been left of those, had married the member of another Pure-Blood family. Therefore both names vanished. Sometimes compromises have to be made, you see?”
“If that is true, then you know more than I do!”, Slughorn had come around and stared at the ingredients as well as the cauldron.
“Then Grindelwald came and killed most of the rest. Only one; again; survived at last. But that one married a Muggle. End of story.”, he sighed.
“Severus – is this what I think?”
“What else would it be?”, he murmured back.
“But – you cannot add all that so fast!”
“You just found me doing it,”
“Slow it down, please! You’re going to kill us all! This potion needs a month of almost constant watch to work!”
“You might want trying to understand, that I unfortunately don’t have a month. I need it latest in five minutes because I would still have to leave the barrier and Apparate away.”
“Five? Are you kidding? That is impossible!”
“Stop telling me what I can do or what not and better take care none of our students kill us. Some of those unfinished horrors are acting very dangerously already.”
“Huh? Good gracious, Mr Finnigan! Throw in your rattail pieces before you get us all blown up! Blimey!”, Seamus nervously woke up from his trance, like many others, panicking looks at their cauldrons. “But Severus – please – no one has ever done this in less than a month!”
“Then watch me being the first.”, he smirked, visibly not very pleased about the thought either.
“I know you have been a very ambitious student and you surely know what you do, normally. But this is insane! Simply insane!”
“How wicked happy, happy life is, isn’t it? Seeing all your assumed fortune with one of your students crumbling before your eyes, aren’t you? Don’t worry, it’s not my intention to kill either of us. Even just imagining his mother’s rage when we arrive on the other side – ”
“My goodness – you aren’t supposed to take four drops!”
“I need it as strong as possible to make it work in such a time.”
“But it could kill – “
“Ha, ha.”, he said boredly.
“What?”
“Exactly. Now you are surprised.”
“That is the state of week two! Exactly the state! It is – all there! How!”, Slughorn shook his head in disbelief. “But – you would still need about another week until you could add – ”, he faced a silencing hand.
“Christ, haven’t you just said it yourself? Let me think, will you?”, Severus hissed resentful.
Spider-like, his fingers rushed between the vessels of ingredients on the desk, further up as though moving along some imaginary lines and connections, his narrowed eyes following. He shook his right hand at some point, as if crossing something out and went back down a bit in the air in front of him, giving the potion a waving stir in between.
“Shall I give you a paper?”
“No.”, Severus snarled impatient. “You know that I never needed to write down effect diagrams.”
He continued his moves for some seconds, gave the cauldron a glance and hurried over to another two shelves, picking three additional glasses, one containing a rather odd looking, green, rat-alike dead animal, missing batches of hair. The other things were some sort of plants. He cut a bit off each, put them into the mortar along with a single hair of the animal, grinded everything and filled a small phial with it, adding a bit of his unfinished potion. This way he made four more probes, always increasing the number of hairs. Then he gave the whole stand with the phials a shake and watched the reaction for some seconds, his hand rotating over the cauldron for stirring. Even Slughorn bent down and studied the phials with interest. Before he could say a word, Severus mixed some more, clearly taking the third phial as reference.
“That indeed speeds it up!”, Slughorn aspirated, eyes still resting on the middle phial. “Those – matching – I – I would have never thought – never tried – never dared to experiment like this on such a dangerous potion as – what is it? What do you need now?”
Severus stared over to a shelf in a corner. His eyes flicked around in a circle then, thinking. Lips slightly apart, he gazed into the cauldron and back at the shelf, where he hurried to after giving the potion another wave. Everyone eyed him as he picked a single glass and did the same with it what he had done with the shelf it had stood on.
“Severus?”, Slughorn raised and eyebrow.
Everyone’s eyes hung on the younger teacher who grinded his teeth, frowning. A last look on the glass and he took out one of the red feathers. The glass back in the shelf, he sped to the cauldron and examined the feather another time.
“What by all warthogs in the world are you doing!”, Slughorn bellowed at the single Phoenix feather falling in and mixing with the liquid as if nothing had happened.
“Just shut it, yes?”, Severus grunted. “We don’t know, we don’t spread news we don’t understand anyway.”
“But – ”
“Tell all of my today’s students that their lessons won’t take place.”, Severus said serious and calm again when he added the missing rest and gave it all a massive stir. “And make sure they don’t spread their joy about free periods.”
“Where are you actually going?”
“You know where to find my timetable. Tell them and assure them of the importance that none other must know about it. No whispers on the matter. Not in a single cubic inch of this whole solar system. If any of them should secretly come from another planet, tell them they are forbidden to mention it in any way there as well.”
“Pardon?”, Slughorn just stared at Severus who had started to fill the already finished, crystal clear potion into empty bottles he had summoned from a big chest in the back of the room.
“But surely Albus – ”, just one noticed Draco Malfoy pinching his eyes in the corner, clutching the fingers of his left hand in the same moment as Severus, who didn’t show any other reaction than a restrained, concerned short glance at the boy. “Would like to know why you cancel your lessons and disappear with a load of a world record – ”
“No. He will get to know when I return. In the meantime, you must swear to make the students keep silent about it.”
“Sir?”, Malfoy asked out loud.
“Yes, m’boy?”, Slughorn had heard him.
“May I go to the bathroom?”
“If you are done with – ”
“I am.”
“Very well. Slack the fire then.”, he did as said and hurried out of the still opened classroom door.
“Horace?”
“Huh?”
“Have you understood me?”, Severus pulled out his pouch; which he had put into the pocket of his trousers so he wouldn’t reveal the usual hiding place; enlarged it and stored his glasses of ingredients along with the bottles he had just filled.
“Yes, yes.”
“Good.”
A wave of his left hand and the supplies cleaned on their own, as well as the glasses he had taken, flew back to their shelves. With a look at the class, giving Hermione a split second more attention, he took a few steps backwards, turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, dematerialising to fog when he was out of sight. Draco waited at the stairs. Severus reached out and picked him up, flying him invisibly through the castle and over the school grounds. There was a humming sound when he opened a hole in the invisible barrier; being able to since he was one of the creators; and Apparated with Draco the moment it had safely closed behind.
Now walking, they approached an old manor, seemingly deserted.
“What’s that potion for?”, Draco asked.
“The Dark Lord requested it.”
“Requested?”
“Well, before you found me storming that classroom, he contacted me, asked for a large amount of it and mentioned I would have ten minutes for getting it until he would summon us all. Unfortunately I had not any of it left in a year and I know from experience that there are not enough stores in the entire world to get me a cauldronful of it, especially not fresh.”
“I guess, he knows it would take a month to make it?”
“Quite certainly, yes. You see, the Dark Lord knows to put my skills to test and finds high pleasure in my success. And to be honest, so do I.”, they had reached the large front gate.
“Already here, Severus? And bringing young Draco?”, an atrocious laugh greeted them. “Kind of you putting more importance in our Master’s desires. I hope the students weren’t disappointed that their teacher ran away,”
“I had a free hour, Bellatrix.”, Severus countered with a murderous look. “And I cancelled all my today’s lessons, if that is enough to please you. Step aside so we can enter. You know very well that the Dark Lord does not like to be kept waiting and it would be a great loss if I had to blow you out of the way just to be on time.”, Bellatrix’s grin froze and she did as ordered, watching them walk straight through the doorway, utmost uneasy about having been told off by someone younger than her.
The entrance hall was dark. Thick clouds on the sky, letting no light through and the windows covered with ivy, did their best to the ominous atmosphere inside the manor. Trails in the dust on the grand wooden staircase to the upper floors were the only evidence of living beings having moved up and down.
Quivering orange light came from the huge dining hall on the first floor. The old dark table had been cleaned, eleven noble chairs surrounded it. In front of each, laid an empty sheet of parchment. Wearing a long black cloak, the bold man stood at the end of the hall, watching the fire dance. Behind them, the rest of the summoned Death Eaters climbed the stairs. His hissing voice was raised when they had lined up at the entrance of the hall, Severus and Draco in the middle.
“It truly pleases me to see you arrived earliest, Severus.”, he said, facing them then, a nondescript glow in his cold eyes. “Do you have what I have asked for?”
Severus took the bottles from his pouch, sending them to him through the air. Staying floating in front of him, he examined them. Obvious surprise caught him when he picked one.
“It is still hot!”, the cold, emotionless expression in Severus’ face didn’t change. “You always manage to outdo yourself, congratulations.”, with a gentle wave of Voldemort’s hand, the bottles landed on the mantelpiece, aligned perfectly. “Now why don’t we all take a seat?”, he sat down on the front chair like a king and waited for his followers to emulate his deeds. “It is likely that you wonder, why I gathered the few of you. But before I tell you this, I have a simple question for our youngest. Draco – how far have you come at what I requested from you? I got to know that your little try to take a shortcut – failed?”
“Yes, my Lord.”, Draco answered, slight trembling in his voice. “But I will do better; the task you entrusted me with is still in progress, though has a great chance to work.”
“Is that so? Can you confirm his stuttering in all conscience, Severus?”
“I can, my Lord. He is doing very well now.”
“Good.”, a long, low sneer. “Now that was all I needed from you, Draco. Forgive me, but I wanted to hear it from you personally. You may wait downstairs for your teacher to take you back.”
“Yes, my Lord.”, the boy raised and left without hesitation, but squinting his eyes when he leant against a wall down in the entrance hall, close to tears.
“Now, all of you may have noticed these sheets in front of you,”, he snapped with his fingers and different writing appeared on each of the parchments. “These are some things I want to be done by the end of the week. Just a few small tasks that will make it easier for me to plan bigger movements. I shall wait for you to be back here by seven o’clock, Monday morning, only in case you need a little extra time. You will then prove to have succeeded so I can consider how to go on.”
“My Lord – ”, Bellatrix Lestrange started. “I can see things to be done on all lists around me, however, there are only names on Severus’ list.”
“Very well spotted.”, Voldemort cackled scornfully. “That must be utterly confusing to you, yes. I am certain that you, Severus, know what it means?”
“They are deserters.”
“Indeed, yes. You, Severus, will have hunted them all down by the time set. Whether you torture them for their pitiful acts, is on you. The only wish I have is to know them dead. I do not tolerate traitors, you see?”
“Oh.”, a played moan from a man in front of him. “Is that name there – Igor Karkaroff? So he faked his death again? But that will be painful for you, won’t it? Being the one who has to finally finish him off. After all he’s your – best friend?”, laughter broke out among the Death Eaters, but Severus managed to silence them in less than a second.
“Igor has betrayed many of us, Amycus.”, he said stern, staring straight into the other man’s eyes. “Including me. I do not consider him as a friend.”
“Say that again when you show me his dead body, right here, on that table.”, Amycus Carrow hissed, drilling his finger into the wood.
“There will be no need for Severus to drag fifty corpses into this house!”, Voldemort barked. “I do not wish to see those filthy turncoats ever again, neither alive, nor dead. A fully meant Killing Curse as the last spell on Severus’ wand, showing one of those on the list and the truthful honesty in his eyes shall be enough proof of his resolve. Are there any more questions concerning the tasks I imposed upon each single one of you?”, he waited for a reaction, but there was none, only bone-chilling silence. “Good. This would be all until Monday.”
Severus was fastest to stand up. He had no idea where to find all those people. They could be anywhere on the earth. Nevertheless he had to find them, whatever the cost. But before he could set foot on the stairs, black fog blocked his way. More of such rushed past them.
“And you think, you can do that?”, Bellatrix sneered. “Kill them all?”, she added aspirating with utter disbelief, but her grin got stuck when Severus gave her a prodigiously sublime smile and he spoke as calm as if they were talking about where to go for dinner.
“I have killed more than you have ever raised your wand against for a little bit of torture. My first successful Killing Curse I performed at the age of fourteen, a year later I needed no incantation anymore. I could make you tap-dance on the ceiling of the hall behind us without moving a single muscle. Do not question my abilities. You are only the third brightest star around here.”
“Is this a threat?”, she was such a nervous kind of a woman that she was boiling already, still he remained unimpressed.
“A fact, Bellatrix. Like the fact that your time is running out. You heard the Dark Lord. Monday morning, seven o’clock. I will be there and I will leave unscathed. Go fry an egg. Maybe it propitiates him, in case you should fail. If you excuse me, you do not wish your nephew to be late for his next lesson, do you?”
“Tz.”
“Get out of my way.”, he snarled.
“Or what. Will you push me down the stairs?”, cackled Bellatrix.
“I will string you up on the tree outside by your own hair.”, strands of them slowly glided around her neck and her eyes were filled with horror instantly – her heavy breath was still thundering in his ears when he had already left her several yards behind.
“Severus may be more than a decade younger than you,”, he heard Voldemort’s hissing voice, “But he as well knows how to play with his food. You rather believe his words, as you might indeed find yourself high above the ground. You are a good servant. It would be a pity if I had to call him back for writing another name onto his list, or do it latest at Monday, seven o’clock, in the morning.”
Downstairs, Severus grabbed Draco’s arm, dragged him out of the house and through the gate and Apparated to an empty back alley of Hogsmeade before he would be forced to get any more looks on either of the two. From there, they flew up to the castle and landed at the wall in front of the Slytherin common room. A little fierce, he wiped the tears off Draco’s crumpled face.
“Now don’t let those be seen.”, he whispered, his voice filled with concern. “Go back to your lessons. And for Heaven’s sake – take a rest over the weekend. I won’t be there to even out your childish mistakes.”
“Where are you going, Sir?”
“The Dark Lord entrusted me with a task as well. A very challenging one, but rather like you, I know what to do and how. Just – take care of yourself.”
In a whirl of vanishing fog, Severus was gone.
~~#~~
“I mean, what was this about? Storming into the class, brewing some strange potion in no time that’s supposed to take a month and rushing off again?”, Harry murmured, stomping up the inner stairs of the Astronomy Tower, Hermione running after him. “And wanting us to shut up on it? And what was that thing with the feather?”
“Give it a rest, Harry. He said clearly that we aren’t to talk about it.”, she panted.
“And have you seen Malfoy? Don’t you think it’s strange that he suddenly needs to go to the loo? He never did before a lesson ended.”
“Ridiculous, Harry. Just ridiculous.”, she shook her head. “That doesn’t say anything.”
“But I saw his face!”, Harry rushed around, stopping in place, making Hermione almost run into him. “I bet his Mark burnt.”, he symbolically pointed on his left forearm, so hard he knew immediately he would keep a bruise from it. “He didn’t return, if you should have missed that. His bag was still in the classroom as well, when we left. So he didn’t sneak in for it.”
“Maybe he went to get it later.”
“And Snape clutched his fingers at the same moment!”, Harry raged. “They’ve been summoned!”
“You still don’t even have proof that Malfoy is branded.”, Hermione sighed.
“And if I have to rip off his entire uniform during lunch!”, he hissed at her. “I will get that proof!”
“The only thing you will get is trouble!”
Harry climbed up the last steps to the door and tore it open, stepping out into the cold air he was longing for. He just wanted to calm down and think. Hermione’s stubbornness concerning Snape’s innocence was too much for him. The evidence was there. He only needed to find something to convince her. The gangplank rattling under his heavy feet, he hurried to the metal stairs, stopping right before them. Again, Hermione almost crashed into his back. There was a voice upstairs. A girl was singing. For a while he just gazed up, listening. She actually had a beautiful, soft voice, Harry thought.
“Bà i ù o hò, bà i ù o hò.”, at first he had thought it was one of the ghosts.
“You hear that?”, he whispered.
“Yes.”, Hermione aspirated. “Very hard not to catch.”
“Bà i ù o hò, bà i ò ho bà.”, some strange, tickling sensation ran through every inch of his body. “Cha bhi mise bhuat.”, he didn’t know why, but the song – the melody – the words he didn’t really understand – it seemed so familiar – he felt warmth. “Cha bhi mise bhuat.”, warm, protective arms holding him. “Cha bhi mise bhuat.”, he felt small in those arms, but safe. “Mach air uair no dhà.”
“That must be – ”
“Sh!”, he cut Hermione off.
“Bà i ù o hò, bà i ù o hò.”, somehow the song made him tired. “Bà i ù o hò, bà i ò ho bà.”, slowly, fearing he would fall asleep right away, he started climbing the stairs. “Caidil thusa luaidh.”, a bit clumsy, he moved further upstairs, Hermione on his heels. “Caidil thusa luaidh.”, the voice became a bit louder with every foot they drew closer. “Caidil thusa luaidh.”, they had reached the topmost platform now. “Is na gluais gu là.”, there she stood, her blond hair waving in the soft cold wind, looking over the snowy grounds. “Bà i ù o hò, bà i ù o hò.”, still he did not know why it felt like home to him. “Bà i ù o hò, bà i ò ho bà.”, some seconds of silence, then she turned around to them, obviously having heard them coming.
“That – was beautiful – ”, Hermione breathed.
“Thank you.”, Luna smiled. “What is it, Harry? You look so – absent.”
“I – I don’t know – that – I think I – heard that before – somewhere – ”, he scratched his neck, not noticing he did. “What’s it called?”
“Oh I don’t know. But it’s a Scottish lullaby. Mum used to sing it for me.”, Harry nodded. “Maybe your mother sang it as well?”
“No – it – was a deep voice – ”
“Then, your Dad, perhaps?”
“I – ”, could that be? “Is it really possible I remember – ”
“There are many things kept in our memory.”, Luna said and he was reminded of his involuntary excursions to his own memory last year – as well as – “Nothing is really forgotten, you know? We just need to come across something that reawakens the memory.”
~~#~~
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