Disclaimer: I own none of this. I owe the characters to J. K. Rowling and I owe many other things to her and to many other writers.
A Forest Tale
Chapter 3
The Forest Pool
"Upon the forest pool's deep blue
Golden petalled lilies float:
Circling silver ripples play
Around an ancient rowing boat.
I pass along the sloping bank,
I pause to listen, lost in dreams;
I see "Her" rise among the reeds,
She stretches out her arms it seems."
(Mihai Eminescu: The Forest Pool)
The indignity of soon being permanently under the strict eyes of a morose and suspicious auror, who would no doubt prefer to see him in one of the dirty little cells of Azkaban, and in the company of the four men who, just a few years before, had made a sport of attacking and tormenting him, left hardly any room in Snape's mind to worry about the outcome of the dangerous Order mission. But whatever his expectations in this respect were, the coming days taught him to wholeheartedly wish that said mission started earlier, even immediately. Fighting prison guards or Death Eaters on a far away island seemed infinitely more desirable than the ordeal of the week before it.
During this week, he had to prepare for the job before him, but he also had to do (or so he thought) as much Hogwarts work as he possibly could, preparing potions and potion ingredients at an increased speed and in increased quantities to prevent any shortage in the school while he was away. He was also putting together a rich potion kit for the journey. In the remaining time, he was marking essays, as he could not bear the thought of leaving behind unfinished jobs when he unexpectedly disappeared.
But he could not do any of these jobs in peace. The Dark Lord's revenge (if the press campaign against him was indeed that) was working perfectly. Several more articles speculating about Snape's Death Eater connections were published in the Daily Prophet. One included a short interview with Dumbledore, who said he was perfectly well acquainted with Severus Snape's past and motivations, and found the young man a trustworthy and reliable member of the school staff, whose work was both needed and appreciated. Dumbledore's words were accompanied by the journalist's observations and remarks obviously aiming to discredit those very words. Still, Dumbledore was a well-respected wizard of great authority; therefore the article could not be quite as harmful as it seemed at first sight.
The journalist's free speculation concerning mainly the conspicuous silence of the Ministry was much worse.
Snape himself was not approached by any reporters. Perhaps they took their own writing seriously enough to avoid going near the alleged Death Eater. Snape did not mind that, since he suspected that his reaction to the appearance of a reporter would do nothing to heal his damaged reputation in anyone's eyes.
Perhaps the worst part was the knowledge that Dumbledore was continually receiving owls from parents and other anxious wizards and witches asking for explanation or demanding that the Headmaster sack the assistant immediately. Dumbledore did not mention these letters, but Snape saw him receive more and more of them. In the end, Dumbledore acknowledged the existence of the complaints and told Snape not to worry about them.
"It is my responsibility to read and answer my letters," said Dumbledore, "and I am perfectly able to deal with them."
But he did look a bit weary, and it made Snape feel bad. He had already realized that Dumbledore intended to keep him, but it did not seem to be an easy thing to do.
A not necessarily accidental slip of the tongue revealed that not even Slughorn succeeded in escaping the public outcry following the Snape-related articles in the Prophet, and it was rather apparent that he could not take it as well as Dumbledore. While the Headmaster quite convincingly pretended that receiving and answering letters of outraged correspondents was all in a day's work for him, the Head of Slytherin clearly regarded his involvement in the "scandal" (a term widely used at Hogwarts with reference to the case) as an issue likely to compromise his own reputation.
Though Slughorn was, for all intents and purposes, sharing Dumbledore's trust in Snape, or, at least, he was desperately clinging to it, he found that the damage control activities he was obliged to engage in took up so much of his limited free time that he had no choice but to genially relegate some more of his tasks to Snape, who was in no position to question the fairness of this move. For him, it meant even more marking as, with the exams mere weeks away, the home assignments of the NEWT students landed on his desk, too. Now he was practically spending whole nights marking the essays
Snape got owls, too. Some of the readers who took the Prophet's word at face value did not lack the courage to begin correspondence with an alleged Death Eater. Those letters could be rather nasty, some of them Howlers. Others were simply demanding that he come forward and explain himself. Snape did not take the trouble to respond to any of the letters, but they made him angry and irritable on a permanent basis, and he managed to offend almost every single person that he talked to in these days.
He also had to deal with the less openly expressed but far more palpable suspicion that surrounded him at Hogwarts. He spent most of his days in his office or in the Potions classroom alone, and with all the work he was doing he had every excuse to do so. He even avoided the library now. Still, it was impossible not come out from his seclusion sometimes.
Actually, he would have thought it quite possible (he would have gladly done without the meals, for example), but Dumbledore made a point of making Snape visible in his company, and Snape, as always, obeyed. As a result, he had plenty of opportunity to observe the attitudes of the teachers and the students, usually a rather humiliating experience, which even Dumbledore's amply demonstrated trust could just barely counterbalance.
On Friday afternoon, there was an all-staff meeting, where Snape had to appear as well. He had an unpleasant presentiment, although Dumbledore had not made so much as a faint allusion to the purpose of the meeting.
As it turned out, the meeting was about Snape. It was a highly embarrassing quarter of an hour when Dumbledore announced that he would now answer publicly all the questions and doubts that had recently been addressed to him in connection with Snape - and he promptly did so. Soon everybody knew that Snape had indeed been a Death Eater, who had "returned" (Dumbledore's choice of the word did not escape Snape's attention) on his own, who had had the courage to defy the Dark Lord, and who had risked his life to save others. Dumbledore also explained that a Ministry investigation was underway, and that he, for his own part, saw no reason why Snape could not continue working at Hogwarts unless the Wizengamot reached a decision that rendered it impossible.
Everyone was staring at Snape, who would have on the spot accepted a mission involving an urgent visit to the Moon if it had given him an excuse to leave the staff room immediately. That was, however, out of the question, since Dumbledore had deliberately made him participate in the meeting and hear everything that was disclosed, as he later, privately, explained to Snape, who nevertheless continued to wish that the revelations had taken place in his absence.
So Snape stayed and watched the expressions of doubt on several faces around him, and he knew that it was only the respect surrounding the Headmaster that could make the idea of having a former Death Eater in their ranks acceptable to many of the Hogwarts staff. Some of them seemed to be outright shocked – perhaps not so much to hear the news about Snape's past but to realize that Dumbledore, who had spent a life-time fighting against the Dark Side, could be so forgiving toward a former dark wizard.
Others agreed that giving a second chance to a young man who had made a mistake was a noble idea, and they only wished such second chances were distributed and enjoyed elsewhere, far from the place where they happened to be living and working. There were also those who did not try to hide the opinion that even a reformed Death Eater could mean danger to the school as he had every reason to fear the revenge of his former "colleagues"; but Professor McGonagall pointed out that Dumbledore himself was both the Dark Lord's greatest enemy and the most important assurance that whatever happened in the outside world, the school was safe.
Many of the teachers lingered in the staff room when Snape was allowed to leave at last, giving them a chance to discuss the finer points that they were lucidly reluctant to bring up in his presence. Dumbledore, of course, had not mentioned Snape's imminent departure from the school for the sake of a secret mission; and Snape could very well picture how everyone was going to conclude that he had fled after all. Would they still believe if Dumbledore asserted that Snape was - temporarily - away with his knowledge and approval?
Such were the events that resulted in the relief, albeit mingled with anxiety, that Snape was feeling when he eventually set off from Hogwarts.
He slipped out of the building in the dark. He met Dumbledore on the grounds, where each of them got on a broomstick, and flew toward the Shrieking Shack, the designated place of departure in the village. They were the first to arrive, but Moody came only a minute later, soon followed by the others. They held one last, short discussion. Dumbledore gave Moody a small wooden box, murmuring "here they are"; then he produced a map, and showed them the location of the island which was the Order base where they would be stationed until the beginning of the attack. They also agreed on the exact spot on the coast where they would have to land. Then it was time to get ready for the Disapparition.
Moody limped closer to Snape.
"Perhaps we should Disapparate in pairs," he suggested, glancing sideways at Snape, "to minimize the risk of someone getting lost."
"I am not a child," hissed Snape angrily.
"Good idea," grinned Potter, and put his arms around Lily, who responded with half-joking, half-serious protestation.
"I can take Peter," said Black, winking.
"I know how to Disapparate," mumbled Pettigrew as Black's hand tightened around his wrist.
"That is settled then," said Moody with the unmistakable air of a leader, and grabbed Snape's arm. "Remus will Apparate on his own."
Snape barely had time to cast a last, indignant look at Dumbledore, who had given no sign of wanting to dispute Moody's idea, when he could already feel the characteristic sensation associated with Apparition.
"Here we are," grunted a raspy voice, which caused a whole set of murderous feelings to invade Snape's mind, and he shook off Moody's hand with one violent movement. Then his attention was captured by the various stimuli coming from their new environment.
They were indeed "there". On the coast of the northerly island, the dark of the night was just beginning to turn into grey; therefore the first of these stimuli came in the form of noises and feelings. The air was significantly colder than in Hogsmeade, and a light breeze brought the smell of salty water that reminded Snape vividly of the Dark Lord's island. The earliest birds were already beginning their morning songs, and not far from where the two of them were standing, Snape could make out the dark shapes of large trees, which he just identified as pine trees, when he heard a soft plopping noise behind his back. He turned and saw that Potter had just arrived with Lily. In the half-light, it seemed Lily smiled at him, but he was not sure enough to dare return the smile.
In that moment, with another soft plop, Black Apparated, bringing a sulky-looking Pettigrew, who obviously did not like being treated like a child any more than Snape did. Soon after them, Lupin arrived; and Moody concluded with a sort of pessimistic astonishment that the journey to their destination had been successfully completed.
"Follow me," he said, and took the wooden box he had got from Dumbledore into his hands, and opened it.
Snape glanced into the box and saw a set of wooden sticks quite like wands only much shorter than any wands he had seen. Moody took out one of the sticks, and, pointing it firmly forward as he went, he took a few steps inward the island. The others followed him. Suddenly Moody turned and pointed the small stick toward the sea.
Seemingly nothing happened, but Moody put the stick back into the box with a contented face.
The auror led them to a bay on the northern coast of the island, reaching deep into the forest, where they found a very small ship harboured at the mouth of a stream, in the shade of the pine trees. Not surprisingly, the ship was much larger inside than outside, and it was fully equipped with everything they could possibly need. From the inside, it looked spacious enough for many more passengers than just the seven of them. Everyone was allotted a small cabin, except for Lily and Potter, who shared a larger one between them. Snape was not surprised to find that his cabin happened to be situated next to Moody's.
Immediately after settling down, they gathered in a larger cabin, where Moody had ordered them all. They sat down around a round table, on which the wooden box was placed, still firmly clutched by the auror as though he was afraid that someone might steal it.
"I have called you here to explain the plan to you," he began.
"Good," said Black. "I wondered if we were to find it out ever."
Potter quite openly grinned, while Lily's smile was barely perceptible. Moody turned toward Black with a stern expression.
"Security is first," he said emphatically. "The fewer people know a secret, the safer it is. There was no reason for any of you to learn the details earlier."
Black gave an impatient nod. Moody continued.
"On this island, we are as close to You-Know-Who's island as we can possibly be without actually going there. This place has been fortified by the Order by means of a range of protective spells. It is almost like a fortress now – standing opposite the fortress of the dark side. Our job is to break into their fortress – without allowing our stronghold to be compromised."
Moody opened the wooden box.
"The tools that will help us enter the prison island are here in this box."
They all stared into the box. There were seven small sticks in it, identical in every way.
"What are they?" asked Black eagerly.
"They are wands," said Moody. "Auxiliary wands."
"What is an auxiliary wand?" asked Pettigrew sheepishly.
"An auxiliary wand is a wand designed for a specific task," the auror explained. "I hear that these were very difficult to make, given the special nature of the task they will have to do. But I trust that they will work."
The intonation of the last sentence sounded as though Moody might have some reservations about the wands.
"So what do they do?" asked Potter, getting visibly restless.
"They lift the wards surrounding the prison island," Moody answered. "But that is not all. They will also lift the wards on this island. Without these wands no one can leave this island – not even for the sake of a quick swim in the sea – and no one can get through the wards from outside without them either."
He let them satisfy their curiosity by gaping at the wands for a few seconds; then he continued.
"Each of you will get one of these. Do not try to use them for anything else but what they have been made for."
Pettigrew was already putting his hand into the box, but Moody immediately closed the lid.
"Of course, at the moment, you do not need them. I will safeguard them until they are used."
"It is nice to feel to be trusted so much," Black muttered, but Moody ignored him, and put the box back under his cloak.
"So we are basically prisoners here," said Potter. "We cannot leave without those."
"Why would you want to leave," asked Moody "if not on business? Anyone who has any real reason to leave will be able to do so. But excursions for fun are strictly forbidden now. On this island, we are as safe as possible, and you'd better be a prisoner here than on the other island."
"But what are we going to do here?" asked Lupin. "We have come to attack the prison building, so what are we waiting for?"
"Getting to the prison island," said Moody "is only the first step. We must get inside the prison building, and preferably not as prisoners. For seven people to attack a fortress full of prison guards is an enterprise of dubious value unless we use are brains, not only our strength."
"Could you elaborate?" asked Black.
It was clear that Moody would have liked to keep a few secrets to himself, but in the end he decided otherwise.
"We must capture a prison guard," he explained. "Then one of us can take his place on the island and let the others into the prison building at night, so that we can surprise the real guards. Finally, we will have to take the freed prisoners to safety. Some of them will be able to fly on broomsticks; others will have to be taken care of. This ship will be the vehicle to transport those who cannot travel themselves."
"When are we going to capture our man?" asked Lupin.
"As soon as we can," said Moody. "Two of us – myself and … James," he said, casting a curious glance at Potter, who nodded as though he was answering an unpronounced question, "will begin our attempts today. I do not hope that we will be able to capture a guard at once, as the only way this move makes sense is in complete secrecy. The disappearance must not be noticed before the guard is replaced; therefore we must try to catch someone who would not be missed for a few hours, which means that we must observe the guards first. Finding out their daily routine will be useful anyway."
He threw a stern look at everyone in the cabin at large.
"As we very well know," he said, "the protective enchantments, even the strongest ones, can be broken, so they are nothing else but the equivalent of locking a door. Not foolproof but necessary. Therefore," he added, raising his voice gradually as he spoke, "what we need is CONSTANT VIGILANCE! We must have guards on the ship every hour of every day and every night."
The meeting finished, they were allowed to rest in their cabins or to explore their surroundings. None of them was tired enough to want to stay on the ship, and the exploration began. Moody was the guard this time; and he insisted that Potter at least should take a few hours' rest, as the two of them were going to have a job to do later that day. Potter nodded in agreement and went into the Potter-cabin. Snape expected that he would be ordered to stay behind as well, but Moody had apparently either decided to risk trusting Snape with a walk on that small strip of land or asked someone else to keep an eye on him.
Feeling rather awkward, Snape silently joined Lily, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew, who seemed to be waiting for someone not far from the ship. He did not want to give Moody the impression that he was deliberately taking a walk by himself with some clandestine purpose.
The others did not object to his presence, and Snape was too occupied with his own thoughts to register that Potter, obviously defying Moody's order, joined them, too. He only noticed him when all six of them set out together. Surely, James Potter did not need to worry about losing Moody's trust!
Potter and his friends immediately became immersed in an animated conversation that Snape had neither the wish nor the chance to take part in and he soon allowed the others to leave him behind - nobody took note - and he drifted away, eventually hitting a different path, continuing the walk alone.
There was very little to explore. The island was completely flat and contained nothing else but pine trees, which covered most of its soil. It had a long, narrow shape and a cool, northern climate, with very long days and very short nights at this time of the year. The fauna apparently consisted of birds and insects only, but as he was getting deeper and deeper into the pine forest, Snape could feel the increasingly intense presence of magic. The place obviously had magic of its own, apart from the spells that the Order had planted around it.
He found a small, deep pool in the forest, its water clear and transparent. On its shore, a tree trunk provided a natural seat in the shadow of a large rock. He sat down and began to ponder the chances of their endeavour. No one seemed to consider it possible that they might fail, even Moody, who always anticipated the worst, appeared to be confident that they would eventually manage to free the prisoners - even if they all perished in the attempt.
Snape was sure that none of them knew the Dark Lord as well as he did - none of them, perhaps not even the old auror, had seen the extent of his power and the power of his brains the way he had seen it - and the memory made him shudder a little.
He wondered if the Dark Lord could be truly ignorant of their plans. Of course, not even the Dark Lord was able to do everything. The Dark Lord had never tried to openly confront Dumbledore yet, and, as far as Snape knew, the Longbottoms were still alive somewhere, out of his reach. Still, the most powerful dark wizard of the century could possess the means to discover a plan that at least eight people were privy to. Or he could guess that Dumbledore would sooner or later attempt an attack, and he could have doubled the protection around the prison. Were they prepared for such a turn of events?
He looked round as though he was already expecting the Dark Lord to step out from behind a tree, but the only life he spotted was a butterfly caught in a spider's web. Its wings fluttered a little as Snape bent closer to it. He did not know why, but he suddenly imagined that the butterfly symbolised the Dark Lord's prisoners, and perhaps it was a sign - if he saved the butterfly, the prisoners would be saved as well.
It was an absolutely childish idea. It was in fact an almost forgotten habit of his childhood - when he had been insecure about the success of what he was going to do (and very often he had been), he had always tried to find something ordinary but symbolic that, in his imagination, could represent the hoped for event with its success or failure.
It had been a long time since he had last done anything similar. He did not believe in primitive imitation magic any more, but now he could not leave the symbolic act undone. He carefully picked up the butterfly, took it out of the spider's web, and the butterfly was now balancing at the tip of a long finger. In his childhood, it had been an important part of the "magic" to think of a condition and a result in precise terms.
If the butterfly flies away, the mission will be successful.
The butterfly rose into the air and flew toward the pool. Snape watched it fly until he glimpsed something on the surface of the water. He started and then stared at the reflection of the familiar face with a thumping heart. Lily was bending over the pool on the other side of the rock, washing her hands and face in the water. She rose and smiled at him.
"I slipped and grabbed a thorny bush and got my hand cut," she explained to Snape.
"Let me see," he said, reaching for her still slightly bleeding hand.
"Nothing serious," she answered softly, but let him examine her hand nevertheless.
"I hope it was not a poisonous plant," he said.
But the wound was not very deep and, as he traced his wand over the injury, he soon found that it was just an ordinary cut. His wand would recognize all toxic materials, he had no doubt about that. Snape murmured a spell, and the wound healed at once.
"Thanks," she said, leaning her back against the large rock.
Snape felt some inexplicable warmth in his cheeks. He was certain that Lily could have healed the wound herself just as well as he could, and that he benefited more from helping her than Lily from receiving his help. Still, she was kind enough to thank him.
"Did you know that pools in magical pine forests were said to be able to show the future?" asked Lily suddenly.
"No, I didn't," he replied. "I am not a Divination expert."
"It is more like a legend than real divination," said Lily, who knew full well that legends and tales were no more Snape's area of expertise than Divination. "They say if you look into a pool like this one at a certain time of the day - most often it is sunrise, but it may be different in some places - you can see your future reflected on the surface of the water."
"Would you like to try?" he asked just to say something, carefully avoiding her eyes.
"No," she answered. "It may not be a good thing to know the future in advance ... and anyway... there is usually a price you have to pay in such places."
"What price?"
"For example, you won't be able to smile or laugh any more," she said without the faintest trace of irony in her voice.
They stood still, watching the pool for a minute.
"Can you feel the presence of magic here?" Snape asked when the silence between them had grown heavy.
"Yes, very much," she said, smiling. "I wanted to find magical spots on the island, and that is how I got to this place."
Snape thought it would indeed be a most unreasonable price to pay if she lost her smile in return for a glimpse into the future.
"I read about the islands in this area before coming here," Lily continued. "It is mentioned that several magical stones were found here in the past."
"Such as?"
"Such as the Stone of Loss," said Lily. "It is a small blue stone, which is allegedly the solidified form of water nymphs' tears."
"You are not looking for one though?" Snape said somewhat sharply.
Lily shook her head.
"Of course, I'm not! I know very well that you have to experience a great loss before you can find it, and even if you can ask the stone to become the kind of magical object that you want it to be, most great losses cannot be compensated for by any magical objects."
That was certainly true, and who would have known it better than Snape? He thought it wise to change the topic.
"You are still fond of legends and other stories," he said.
"And fairy tales," nodded Lily, "including the Muggle ones. I want to tell my son all the tales and legends of wizards and all the Muggle fairy tales that my parents used to tell me."
Her eyes began to shine brightly as soon as she mentioned her son. Snape was unsure how to respond. He had no experience with children at all, and the memories of his own childhood were nothing to boast about.
"Where is your son now?" he asked finally.
"We left him in the care of a good friend," Lily replied. "I hope we will get home to him within a few days."
The mention of Lily's family reminded him of something.
"Why have you been walking alone?"
He peered into the dark of the forest half- expecting Potter to all of a sudden jump into sight.
"The others are playing," she answered lightly.
"Playing"? Snape asked in an incredulous tone.
Lily shrugged.
"They're throwing sticks to Sirius."
Seeing his bewildered expression, she broke into a ringing laughter.
"Never mind," she said, wiping her eyes. "They are just being childish."
But before Snape could respond, she turned serious again.
"I have wanted to say," she said gingerly, "that I'm sorry to hear about that article. Dumbledore said you were really upset."
"Did he?" Snape muttered, rather wishing she had brought up a less embarrassing topic.
"Yes ... I hope it will be all right."
"I hope, too," he answered vaguely.
"If you need witnesses," she continued, "you can count on me ... and James, of course."
"Thanks."
But he thought that he would sooner die than live to see the day when he needed James Potter's help to keep him out of Azkaban.