The next great adventure

Chapter 2: Harry Potter

He'd cooked breakfast as he always did, Muggle-fashion, with a frying pan and grill - because while Spinner's End is warded to hide magic, every use of magic requires Snape to replenish the wards - and Arthur's interest in Muggles hadn't rubbed off on Ron and Ginny, they could barely strike a match, and Hermione needed a recipe book to boil an egg. There was no question of Snape cooking, the kitchen looked like it was mostly used as a potions lab, and from the pile of pizza boxes outside the back door, he'd got the impression that Snape wasn't the sort of bloke who cooked, he wasn't the sort of bloke who ate much, either – from what he could see, Snape mostly lived on firewhisky and cigarettes.

Nevertheless, he'd passed a plate of bacon, eggs and toast to Snape, and kept an eye on him to make sure that Snape at least picked at the food, but he was glad when the breakfast things had been cleared away, because the grubby little kitchen had been hopelessly crowded with five people, two owls and Crookshanks - and Ron and Snape crammed in together at close quarters was always a disaster. There were times when he felt like smacking the pair of them, Ron is his oldest friend, his friend since the day he'd first set foot on the Hogwarts Express, and Merlin knows he'd never claim that Severus Snape was a friend, but the prophecy makes a bond between them that is, if anything, stronger than friendship.

Today is the day that the Horcruxes will be destroyed – all save one, and Ron, Hermione and Ginny are totally OK about him being a Horcrux, of course it helped that Hermione had worked it out by herself, well before he could bring himself to tell them – and so for once he'd dared to think of the future, because the Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform Nine and Three-quarters tomorrow. Maybe one day when the prophecy has been fulfilled they might even go back to school and take their NEWTs, Hermione would like that, and one day she'll be the Minister for Magic, the first Muggle-born Minister for Magic ...

But then he'd had a sobering thought - what about Snape? Kreacher he could turn loose, give him clothes, let him go to Narcissa Malfoy, if that will make him happy, but how was he going to deal with Snape? And would anywhere in Britain ever be safe for the killer of Albus Dumbledore? He'd pushed the thought away, that's a problem they'll sort out when Voldemort is dead, and he's still not sure how he's going to manage that, he still has no idea what the power the Dark Lord knows not is – Snape had wondered if it was Muggle stuff, because you don't need to hate someone to kill them with a Muggle gun, all you need to do is squeeze the trigger. He'd realised then that Snape doesn't know that Voldemort is Tom Riddle, that Voldemort is a half-blood, and he'd kept his mouth shut, closed his mind – because it's better if Snape doesn't know just how much he's been deceived and manipulated by his Dark Lord, he's close enough to cracking up as it is ...

They'd run through the plan one last time, they Apparate to the car park at Sizewell B, materialize discreetly behind a bus, and mingle with the Muggles taking the visitors' tour. Hermione and Ron will head for the reactor control room, Hermione is the only one of them who's got any chance of being able to follow the instructions for operating the fuel rod assembly, because the control room is a mass of flashing lights and computer screens - it looks like the inside of a space-ship – and Ron is her back-up, it's his job to prevent the Muggles from interfering, with a stunning spell if necessary.

Getting into the control room shouldn't be a problem, they'll use the same charm that Dumbledore had used on Mrs Cole, Snape had explained how it worked, what a Muggle saw written on the blank piece of paper was whatever he or she needed to see. He'd thought, Jedi mind powers! and he couldn't stop himself from raising his hand and solemnly intoning, "You don't need to see his identification," - and Snape had laughed at the joke, not sneered or smirked, but actually laughed, while Ron, Hermione and Ginny eyed them both suspiciously.

He and Ginny have a job to do in the reactor containment building, he'll be handling the Horcruxes personally because there's no way he's delegating a dangerous job like that, and Ginny will come with him to keep an eye on the Muggles. It should be pretty simple, really, all he has to do is cram the locket and the cup in amongst the tubes of uranium dio-something, watch the fuel rod sink back into the reactor vessel – a Muggle would need to wear protective gear but their magic will shield them from the radioactivity, for a couple of minutes anyway - check the temperature gauges, because the temperature will go through the roof once the Horcruxes start disintegrating, and then get out before the Muggles start swarming everywhere.

And he'd been pleased by how calm everyone was, they'd been less nervous than on the morning of an important Quidditch match, Gryffindor against Slytherin – forget that, if he ever goes back to school he'll be having a quiet chat with Minerva McGonagall about the Quidditch Cup, the game stirs up House rivalries like nothing else at Hogwarts, and it gets pretty ugly at times. Then he'd looked at the clock – it was time they were on their way, they've got to walk all the way down the hill to the smelly river-bank to get to the Apparation point – so he'd shaken Snape's hand, wished him good luck, and he hadn't tried to hide his feelings, Snape will be lucky to get out alive after he's killed the snake Horcrux, but he'd told himself that there's still a chance, Severus Snape is an exceptionally powerful and cunning wizard and if anyone can pull this off, it's Snape.

Snape's plan had gone like clockwork, and he knows that it's working, because the temperature gauges are going crazy, sirens are blaring, the Confundus Charm is wearing off the little group of Muggle technicians that Ginny is holding back at wand point, the Muggles are ashen-faced with terror, they're afraid that the whole thing is going to blow, another Windscale or Chernobyl, but nobody is going to get hurt - Snape had said that this is a pressurized water reactor and when the temperature goes up, the chain reaction will slow down, there's not going to be a bang or a fire – and Hermione and Ron have come running down from the control room to join them, it's time to clear out ...

Then through the wail of the sirens he can hear the crack of someone Apparating, Snape is striding towards him, and his heart leaps, Snape is OK - but something is wrong, because Snape is calling him "Master", Snape is kneeling at his feet – and Snape never calls him "Master", Snape calls him "Harry", unless they've had a spat about something, and then it's "Potter" ...

He looks down into those fathomless black eyes, those black eyes that had once reminded him of tunnels, empty and cold, but they're no longer empty, he can see the shadow of the snake behind the black eyes, a red-eyed serpent rearing to strike, and he can hear a voice crying out in terror ... and he knows.

And even as Snape - or the thing that possesses Snape's body - is sliding to his knees, Snape is plunging his hand into his robes, pulling out a wand, the wand is pointed at his forehead, straight between the eyes, straight at his scar ... and time has slowed down so much that it seems to stop - he's got plenty of time to think, plenty of time to see Ginny rushing forward, trying to get between them – and to reach out his right hand and push her away even as the green light bursts out of the wand in Snape's hand, because enough people have died trying to save him from Voldemort, enough people have stood between him and Voldemort, and now it's going to end.

Then the whole world turns green, and he knows that time has stopped, not just slowed down, Hermione and Ron are bending over something on the ground, Hermione has started to cry and Ron is looking stunned - but Ginny has that hard, blazing look on her face and her wand is in her hand, and he knows what she's done, what she's had to do, because if she hadn't killed Snape, Voldemort would have murdered all of them.

Now he's facing that tall, thin, black-hooded figure, and there's a look of triumph on the terrible snakelike face, but all he can think is, thank God I didn't become that, thank God Snape was there to prevent me from using the Killing Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange, I owe him my very soul ... and he finds himself saying the words aloud.

Snape is kneeling between them, Snape is looking bewildered but he'll be fine, although the sleeves of Snape's robes fall to the wrist he knows without looking that the Dark Mark has gone from Snape's arm, and Snape is telling him that the snake is dead ...

But he still has to deal with Tom Riddle - Riddle is jeering at him, "You fools who love! You haven't learned anything, Potter, since we first met - you still haven't learned that there is no good and evil, only power and those too weak to seek it. If you really wanted to kill me, you should have let the girl die for you, let her make her foolish sacrifice ..."

Riddle is gloating over the fulfilment of the prophecy, either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives, but he doesn't feel fear, or even anger, but rather pity, because the prophecy is a load of bunk, really, even Albus Dumbledore had put too much importance on the prophecy - Tom Riddle is a doomed man, and his death, when it comes, will be a terrible vortex of fear and pain. He tells him, although he knows that it won't do any good, Tom is never going to understand where he went wrong, how he's created every one of his enemies, "You set too much store on the prophecy, you've killed me, yes, but you'll never be safe now. You've destroyed the last of your Horcruxes, you're mortal again and one day soon, amongst your many victims, there'll be someone – man or woman, wizard or Muggle - who'll find a way to strike back, someone who knows that there are things worth dying for."

Now the green light is fading, the moment is over, he's got nothing more to say to Tom Riddle, and it's time to go – and while it's hard to leave the three people he cares so much about, while it's very hard to leave Ginny, he knows that he can't linger, he doesn't want to leave some pale shadow of himself to walk the earth. And there are people who have been waiting for him for a long time, he doesn't want to keep them waiting any longer, and there's someone who needs him, too - so he stretches his hand down to the man kneeling at his feet, helps him up, and tells him, "It's over, time to go ..."