22 Jun 1997 - Sunday
All of the school year had been odd. Severus Snape had vanished from Hogwarts in the middle of May and was presumed dead. The Headmaster had taken on his prickly Potions Master's personality and hardly spoke a kind word to anyone; that included Harry Potter whom he had cozened since the boy's first year at Hogwarts. Term ended, though, on 16 June 1997. Nearly all of the students had gone home but for Harry Potter; at the order of the Headmaster he had stayed.
For a week Harry Potter prowled the empty halls and corridors seemingly in idleness. He was chasing a theory about the missing Potions Master; that he had not vanished but was still somewhere in Hogwarts. He intended to find the wizard.
Harry had some success when his Marauders Map, a magical artefact given to him by Fred & George Weasley, had led him to search down into the dungeons. There was an area on the map that was literally black as if nothing existed within it. Harry believed that there was something there because the Chamber of Secrets, even at the end of his sixth year, had appeared as a large, black spot on the map.
In the dungeons of Hogwarts, beyond where Slytherin House was, beyond where the Potions classroom was, and beyond Professor Snape's office was, the young wizard had discovered that there was a doorway hidden within the stone. Harry, who owed much of his magical skill to downright orneriness and serendipity, opened the hidden door with little trouble at all. Within was a dizzying spiral staircase that led into another Dungeon Beneath the Dungeons.
There was much to explore but Harry did not have time. He was on a mission to find the lost Potions Master so he ignored the various rooms he passed and continued to seek out the man he hated; Severus Snape.
No, Harry did not like Severus Snape and he was certain the man had no liking for him. Still, it stuck in Harry's mind that the Headmaster claimed unerring trust in the solemn wizard that greatly disliked all of Gryffindor. Hermione had been convinced that the Potions Master played a dangerous game between Voldemort and the Headmaster that would get him killed. Much of what she argued he had listened to. Hermione just did not believe Harry or Ron ever listened to her. Over the years of their school life Harry had the growing sense that the key to Voldemort's destruction lay in the Potions Master.
He had to find him!
For the hundredth time that Sunday Harry opened the Marauders Map in the hope that it might reveal the hidden area of Dungeons Beneath the Dungeon; he was met only with that blank, black area. In frustration he finally shouted, "Snape! Are you down here? SNAPE?!"
Harry was just about to turn back when he heard a distant voice answer him, "POTTER! Come down here, Potter!"
Harry began to run towards the voice. "Snape! Where are you?!"
"At the end of this corridor!" Severus Snape shouted back. "Get me out of here!"
Harry broke into a sprint that had him at the end of the corridor and facing a set of bars. Behind the bars, in a somewhat small, but neat cell, was his Potions Master.
"Snape!" Harry beamed at finally finding the missing wizard. "What are you doing down here?"
"Your inestimable Albus Dumbledore sought to save my life by imprisoning me down in this forgotten place," sneered Severus.
"Why?" asked Harry as he began to try and figure a way to open the cell door.
"He did not care for a plan of attack that I had," grumped the dark-eyed wizard.
"Voldemort found out you are a spy for the Order," stated Harry.
"Not at all, Potter. I gave the Weakening Potion meant to weaken the magical strength of the Dark Lord to Lucius. Unfortunately, he got caught "saving" Fudge's niece, Cornelia Howe from the Dark Lord. He had to flee before he was killed. Narcissa went with him, but Draco is here… safe… IF he is still in Hogwarts?" Severus pierced the boy's green-eyed gaze with his question accusingly.
Harry shook his head. "Draco wanted to stay but Dumbledore made him go home. I told him instead to go and hide in the Muggle world so Voldemort wouldn't find him. So Lucius Malfoy is on our side?"
"He has been actively on our side since that disastrous resurrection in Riddle Cemetery, Potter," replied Snape acerbically. He then glowered at Harry who had been trying several spells to open the cell door. "You might try the key, Potter." Severus' eyes went to a large, iron key hanging on the wall just out of a prisoner's reach.
"The key?" Harry scoffed. "How…?"
"The cell binds the powers of anyone within it. The door and the key are iron which is a metal that can either seal or break the bind depending on whether the cell door is open or not," elaborated Severus.
Now it was Harry's turn to glare. "Well, that's a lot more simple than I expected." He took down the key, surprised at how heavy it was, put it in the lock, and had to exert some effort to turn it.
"Potter, why are you here?" asked Severus shrewdly. "You don't trust me."
"Nope," agreed Harry. "You're a nasty bastard to me but I learned a long time ago to trust my instincts. You're the key to Voldemort's downfall, Snape. Not me. I'm no more powerful than anybody else but Dumbledore believes I'm the one to destroy him."
"You do not trust the Headmaster?" he glanced down as the key scraped in the lock, and with a clang it opened the lock and the door sprang open.
"I love Albus, Snape, but he's not entirely trustworthy. He knew the Dursleys were neglecting me. Did you know that?" asked Harry.
Severus stared in shock at the boy who was becoming a young man. "What do you mean, Potter?"
Harry opened the cell door. "Well, I can't explain it all myself but I think that Albus thought me being with the Dursleys protected me. Blood Wards he once told me. Hermione read up on those and I'm pretty sure those never existed."
"Why is that?" asked Severus.
"They don't work just on blood, Snape. They work on love. The Dursleys never loved me. I can't tell you how many times I was able to leave that house, or that the Dursleys would go on vacation for weeks at a time leaving me in a cupboard." Harry shook his head. "There wasn't any protection."
"The Dark Lord could never find you, Potter," he stated.
Harry smiled. "I know. I think Voldemort's power can't get past whatever magic keeps the Muggle world safe. Hermione did a lot of investigating and found that the Death Eaters pretty much couldn't function in the Muggle world." He shrugged. "She said it's all the machines, and electronics in the Muggle world. It messes up magic. Just like those same things get screwed up around a lot of magic." Harry chuckled. "Muggle-borns know how to live without magic and with electricity." He smiled thinking of his smart friend. "Hermione was more scientific sounding…"
"A Know-it-all," muttered Severus.
"Yeah," nodded Harry. "Can I ask, Snape…"
"Mr. Potter," Severus emphasised. "I shall acquiesce to use your title if you will do me the respect of using mine. I am Professor Snape."
Harry paused for a moment to take in the measure of this wizard who was still taller than him by a foot. He still disliked Snape but in just the last few minutes his trust had grown in the wizard. He couldn't say why, exactly, but his intuition felt like it was working overtime in making him increase his trust.
He nodded. "Yeah, I can do that, Professor Snape. I wanted to ask you about this Weakening Potion that Lucius Malfoy is hiding that you mentioned?"
Severus drew the young wizard into an almost empty dungeon room that was cluttered with benches of all sorts. He pushed Harry down onto one of them, and began to pace.
"In your second year, Mr. Potter, when the Chamber of Secrets was discovered and opened, there was a meeting I had with the Headmaster that gave to me the belief that your life was in serious danger not just from the Dark Lord but the manipulations of Dumbledore as pertained to the fact that he saw you as the Saviour of the Wizarding World."
"Yeah, the Boy-Who-Lived," Harry harrumphed sarcastically.
"Hm, yes, him," smirked Severus. "I tell you now, Mr. Potter, the Headmaster's actions since then, and perhaps earlier, strain the Vow I made to your mother." Harry was about to ask of that Vow but the Potions Master stopped him with a raised hand. "Let us stick to one subject, Mr. Potter. The Weakening Potion was intended to weaken, physically, the Dark Lord. The problem with that is that his power would remain strong. Therefore, the weakening had to be of the wizard's own magical core, and not his body. After all, that body is not entirely human."
"Voldemort used my blood," Harry added tightly.
"And your magic, Mr. Potter. Have you never wondered since that day in the cemetery why you tend to stumble over spells or that they now lack the impetus they once had?" asked Severus.
"I… yes, but I didn't think to say anything to anyone, Professor," Harry confessed.
"For once your reluctance to speak of yourself works in our favour, Mr. Potter. No one but myself, and now you, knows the exact working of the Weakening Potion." Harry nodded in understanding. Severus continued his lecture, "The connection that I required for my Weakening Potion to work on only the Dark Lord came from an infusion of your blood."
"You took my blood?" Harry looked at his arms as if he might discover holes in his skin.
Severus chuckled. "I did, Mr. Potter. It was rather convenient that you succumbed to your wounds after you returned from the Riddle Cemetery. Whilst Poppy healed you I was able to extract the blood I needed. You were quite out of things for a few days."
"So my blood gave you a connection to Voldemort, right, Professor?" Severus nodded, and then Harry frowned. "What connection, Professor? What did you connect to Voldemort?"
Severus smiled thinly. "Myself, Mr. Potter. With that connection I am able to create a bridge to the Dark Lord's magical core and to my own. All that is needed now is for him to drink the Weakening Potion and then he will be nearly useless. However…" the Potions Master paused, and he hesitated in his pacing. "You will be severely weakened as well, Mr. Potter, as you are indelibly connected to the Dark Lord as well. I suggest, when we get into battle, that you…"
"Wait," interrupted Harry. "How are you going to get Voldemort to drink that potion? You've been gone, Professor, and so have the Malfoys. Is he going to trust you if you show up?"
"I expect the Dark Lord will torture me to death, Mr. Potter, as my punishment for having ignored him for so long. You see, I was creating a Strengthening Potion for him." His dark gaze glittered, and for a moment Harry did not understand. Instead of blurting out a question or two or three, he just opened his mind. And, then his green gaze brightened.
"Voldemort will think the Weakening Potion is the Strengthening Potion!"
"Indeed, Mr. Potter," Severus managed a small but genuine smile. "Once the Weakening Potion is ingested by the Dark Lord, anyone will be able to effect his destruction. Even you."
"I don't like that Voldemort's going to kill you, Professor," frowned Harry.
"I am none too pleased about that myself, Mr. Potter, unfortunately, I have no other way to deliver the potion," Severus said wryly.
"Couldn't I drink it?" asked Harry shrewdly. The Potions Master stared in confusion at the young boy… man for an explanation. "You said we're connected by the blood in the potion and that when Voldemort drank the potion my magic would be badly weakened, right?" Severus nodded, almost seeing what Harry was about to say. "Well, wouldn't he be affected if I drank the Weakening Potion?"
Severus nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, indeed, he would. Remarkable, Mr. Potter. I had not once thought of such a switch."
Harry beamed. "Perfect! And with his power you get to live and fight with us, Professor Snape. Devastating!"