Snape goes too far

Harry was feeling relieved. They had just been about to start another occlumency lesson when Snape had been called away because Montague was stuck inside a toilet. Thankfully, the lessons had been cancelled and Harry had just been about to leave Snape's office when he saw it: a patch of shivering light dancing on the doorframe. He stopped, looking at it, reminded of something… Then he remembered: It was a little like the lights he had seen in his dream last night, the lights in the second room he had walked through on his journey through the Department of Mysteries.

He turned around. The light was coming from the Pensieve sitting on Snape's desk. The silver-white contents were ebbing and swirling within. Snape's thoughts … things he supposedly did not want Harry to see if he broke through Snape's defences accidentally.

Harry gazed at the Pensieve, curiosity welling inside him. What memory had Snape seen fit to put into the pensieve?

The silvery lights shivered on the wall. Harry took two steps toward the desk, thinking hard. What could it possibly be?

Harry looked over his shoulder, his heart now pumping harder and faster than ever. How long would it take Snape to release Montague from the toilet? Would he come straight back to his office afterward, or accompany Montague to the hospital wing? Surely the latter … Montague was Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team; Snape would want to make sure he was all right.

Harry walked the remaining few feet to the Pensieve and stood over it, gazing into its depths. He hesitated, listening, then pulled out his wand again. The office and the corridor beyond were completely silent. He gave the contents of the Pensieve a small prod with the end of his wand.

The silvery stuff within began to swirl very fast. Harry leaned forward over it and saw that it had become transparent. He was, once again, looking down into a room as though through a circular window in the ceiling. In fact, unless he was much mistaken, he was looking down upon the Great Hall.

His breath was actually fogging the surface of Snape's thoughts… His brain seemed to be in limbo… It would be insane to do the thing that he was so strongly tempted to do … He was trembling. Snape could be back at any moment … but a reckless daring seized Harry.

He took a great gulp of breath and plunged his face into the surface of Snape's thoughts. At once, the floor of the office lurched, tipping Harry headfirst into the Pensieve.

He was falling through cold blackness, spinning furiously as he went, and then —

"This'll liven you up, Padfoot," said James quietly. "Look who it is…"

"Excellent," he said softly. "Snivellus."

...

Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water's edge as he went. Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.

...

"Wash out your mouth," said James coldly. "Scourgify!"

...

"There you go," he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus —"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

Lily blinked. "Fine," she said coolly. "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

...

"Well," said James, appearing to deliberate the point, "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…"

...

Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James's face, spattering his robes with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.

...

"Right," said James, who looked furious now, "right —"

There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.

"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"

But whether James really did take off Snape's pants, Harry never found out. A hand had closed tight over his upper arm, closed with a pincerlike grip. Wincing, Harry looked around to see who had hold of him, and saw, with a thrill of horror, a fully grown, adult-sized Snape standing right beside him, white with rage.

"Having fun?"

Harry felt himself rising into the air. The summer's day evaporated around him, he was floating upward through icy blackness, Snape's hand still tight upon his upper arm. Then, with a swooping feeling as though he had turned head over heels in midair, his feet hit the stone floor of Snape's dungeon, and he was standing again beside the Pensieve on Snape's desk in the shadowy, present-day Potions master's study.

"So," said Snape, gripping Harry's arm so tightly Harry's hand was starting to feel numb. "So … been enjoying yourself, Potter?"

"N-no …" said Harry, trying to free his arm.

It was scary: Snape's lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared.

"Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?" said Snape, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses slipped down his nose.

Harry suddenly found himself shaking all over. He had never been so angry in his life.

"Don't you dare..." he shouted.

Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor. He was still shaking... his head filled with nothing but a fierce burning hatred for Snape.

"You will not tell anybody what you saw!" Snape bellowed before he found himself flying threw the air. Snape crashed against the wall with a sickening crunch. His wand flew out of his hand as he crumpled to the ground unconscious.

Harry was breathing heavily, eyes wide in panic as he looked at the fallen form of his detested potions professor. He looked around the room wildly; thank goodness, there were no portraits in there, he thought.

"R-Right then, serves you bloody well right," he spat before collapsing into a nearby chair. He pulled out his wand and fired off several locking charms upon the door to the room.

He had to think about how he was going to handle this. Simply taking Snape to the Hospital Wing was out of the question. Not after what Snape had done. Part of him just wanted to leave the greasy git lying there on the floor but another part of him wanted to confront the man. To show him that he, Harry James Potter was not someone he could trifle with.

The second part won out and Harry levitated Snape into a chair. He then spent the next few minutes making sure that Snape could not move at all. The arms of the chair were transfigured by him into chains, which encircled Snape's arms. In addition to that, he put Snape under a full body bind and an incarcerous which wrapped his torso and legs up in ropes. Harry looked at his work with a critical eye and finally placed a silencing charm upon the man. He also layered the entire office with additional silencing and muffling charms. It would not do for Snape to be able to call for help.

Finally, he conjured up a glass of water and dashed it in Snape's face. An enervate would have worked just as well but somehow tossing a glass of water in the man's face was just that little bit more satisfying.

Snape awoke, his eyes took a few moments to focus but when he saw the predicament he was in his face immediately started turning purple. He was literally frothing at the mouth as he attempted to scream at Harry. Unfortunately, for him, while he was clearly shouting as loud as he could, as Harry could make out from the way the veins were standing out in his neck, not a sound actually escaped him.

Harry tapped his wand on Snape's nose, startling the man out of his rant.

"In case you haven't noticed," said Harry, "you're currently under a silencing charm so you can stop trying to scream."

Snape continued to rant and rave in utter silence so Harry pulled up a chair and waited the man out. Finally, Snape's mouth stopped moving.

"You know you're lucky I only pushed you into a wall, the last time I got as angry as this I actually blew up my aunt. Well, to clarify, she actually inflated like a balloon. Coincidentally, that was also because I got angry when she insulted my parents," said Harry.

Harry shrugged at the astonished look on Snape's face, "Not quite what you were expecting? Let me guess, instead of me getting angry at you, you expected me to be upset that my father was a bully. You've been in my head three times a week for months. Not to mention that you've also seen how I react to bullies for the last five years. You know exactly what I think about behaviour like that. What were you expecting? For me to run away crying? Oh dear me, my father was an arrogant bully and a prat. Something like that?"

Harry pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around his hand. He switched his wand to his other hand and concentrated on turning the outer surface of the handkerchief hard. He always found it a little tricky to cast with his other hand but it didn't take him more than a few seconds to change the handkerchief to something that felt more like stone. He stood up and slugged Snape as hard as he could. Snape's head swung back, droplets of blood flying from a split lip.

"That was for trying to tarnish the memory of my father, you utter berk," he spat.

Snape's mouth was moving again. If Harry knew how to lip-read he would, no doubt, have found some of the insults quite amusing. Instead, he just slugged the man in the face again, and then yet again shattering some of his teeth in the process.

"Oh dear god, you have no idea how good that feels, after years of being insulted and demeaned by you. All those unfair point deductions and detentions, this just feels so wonderfully cathartic," said Harry before he sat down and calmly regarded the man in front of him.

"You're probably wondering why I'm not reacting as you expected. You see Snape, unlike you; I try not to underestimate people. I know fully well what type of man you are. You, Severus Snape are a master spy. I still don't know whose side you're really on but both Dumbledore and Voldemort are convinced you are on their side."

"That means that you are a man capable of hiding who he really is from at least one, if not two, extremely intelligent wizards. A man capable of something like that would be a brilliant man. A man who is careful to never show who he really is. A man adept at hiding things. If such a man wanted to hide something, he would NEVER show you where the hell he was hiding it," said Harry.

"I knew the pensieve was a trap right from the very first lesson when you placed your memories in it because you did it right in front of me. If it really contained something that you had to keep secret from me you would never even have let me get so much as a glimpse of the pensieve," said Harry with a sneer.

"Then there's the pensieve itself. I first used one with Dumbledore last year you know. I read up a little bit about them afterwards. It's truly a marvellous tool. They let you look at memories as if you were right there," said Harry as he strode over to the pensieve and looked into its gleaming depths. He stirred the memory held within it with his wand. A quick twirl and a twist had the memory wrapped around his wand. He pulled it out of the pensieve and stared at the shimmering threads of light. A quick look around Snape's office found him an empty potion's vial into which he carefully deposited the memory.

"The thing is, if you just want to store a memory temporarily, any old vial will do, a pensieve is hardly needed for that," said Harry as he waved the vial in front of Snape's eyes.

"A pensieve is a tool used for VIEWING memories. Placing memories you wish to hide inside a pensieve, one that's not even locked up securely. That's like a muggle having a top-secret video and deciding to hide the tape or disk inside the player. Inside the bloody video player, just waiting for someone to press play. Not a very smart thing to do, is it? Certainly, not something you would expect from a master spy?" said Harry.

"Still, I was surprised by your choice. To tell you the truth, I've always suspected that you're actually on Voldemort's side so I was expecting a memory designed to turn me against Dumbledore. Like most people, I'm sure he also has some skeletons in his closet that would horrify me and I thought it'd be something like that... That's why I looked at the memory even though I knew it was a trap. If I had found something that showed Dumbledore in another light I would have finally known whose side you were on," said Harry.

"On the other hand, even if you were on Dumbledore's sides - you have worked for Voldemort, so I'm sure that there are hundred of skeletons in your closet. Things you did with your Death Eater pals. Death Eater raids, attacks on muggles and wizards, rapes and atrocities. Things like that - which it would not do for me or any other student to know. That pensieve could have been filled to the brim with memories like that... Instead, it's just a memory designed to show my father in the worst possible light... How very, very transparent and petty of you," sneered Harry.

"Did you seriously expect me to believe that this memory - the magical equivalent of a bloody pantsing was the memory you needed to protect above all others? Really? How stupid did you think I am that I wouldn't see right through you?" asked Harry.

"The thing is Snape, I know I don't really know that much about my father, or my mother for that matter. I'm fully aware that people like Sirius and Remus are not likely to tell me the whole story about my father. They obviously are motivated to show him in the best possible light," said Harry.

"In the same way, I'm also aware that you hated him, so of course you would cherry pick the memory of him at his worst. Something designed to make me think the worst of my own father. Just another way for you to get your revenge on the man, wasn't it?" asked Harry.

"I would guess that it's not the whole story though, is it? You forget I know you Snape, I know you only too well," stated Harry.

"You are the man who decided to humiliate me in my very first potions lesson. Why? Because you hated my father. A man who'd been dead for a decade. You decided to get revenge on his son... for what? A childhood enmity? I know exactly what kind of utter shit heel you are and from what I know of you, I know that you probably did something to instigate it. Hell, even in the memory he's using a levitation charm of some sort on you and first year spells like a Scourgify. Humiliating yes, but nothing that would require a visit to the hospital wing. And of course you retaliated with a cutting curse - One that hit his face. Tell me, were you aiming for his throat? You must have been. So of course the chances that you instigated this in some way are very high. What did you do, Snape? Did you hex him in the back the day before? Slip a little potion in his pumpkin juice? Refer to my mother as a mudblood where he could hear? You know what? I don't care..."

Harry glared at Snape and pulled his head up roughly and stared into his eyes. "It doesn't matter, you hear me Snape," shouted Harry.

"It doesn't matter! Even if my father just decided to bully you for shits and giggles, it doesn't matter. Do you know why? Because, there is one fact that I know about my father that I know to be absolutely true. He was the man who threw himself at Voldemort and tried to buy a few minutes for his wife to escape with his child. He could have tried to run. He would have known he was no match for Voldemort. He could have tried to run but he didn't. He went to his death willingly, trying to buy a few moments for his family to escape. That is the man my father was and nothing you could possibly show or tell me will make me think otherwise."

Harry let go of Snape's head and rubbed his hand upon his trousers. Disgustingly greasy, he thought. He looked around the room until he found Snape's wand. It had rolled under some furniture and he had to eventually use the summoning charm to find it. A few test spells let him know that it worked reasonably well for him. This was good, as it would not do for the spells he now needed to cast to be found upon his wand.

"In case you're wondering, you're not going to remember any of this," said Harry with a bloodthirsty grin. Severus Snape found the look on Harry's face to be absolutely chilling. He had never seen the Gryffindor look like that.

"In fact, with a little bit of luck - you're going to end up living next to Lockhart. I hope you have fun helping him answer his fan mail," said Harry.

He stopped for a moment before casting. He was suddenly finding the temptation for a monologue compelling. No wonder all those villains in the movies and books insisted on it. There was something to be said about explaining to someone exactly how badly they were going to get screwed.

"You're probably thinking something along the lines about how I'm not going to get away with it. You're forgetting something, Dumbledore ran away two days ago. He's no longer here to save you Snape. Heh heh, come to think of it, that's probably why you decided to leave the room today with the pensieve just sitting on your desk. You knew Dumbledore wasn't around to tell you anything. Funny isn't it, how the shoe's on the other foot now. Who else is going to bother to investigate if something happens to you? Umbridge? I think not," said Harry.

"Even if Dumbledore does come back, it shouldn't be hard to explain myself," Harry scrunched up his face and started speaking in a teary emotional voice -"I'm sorry Professor Dumbledore, I don't know what happened, we were practicing occlumency as we usually do and all I was trying to do was get Professor Snape out of my head so I just gathered up all of my magic and sort of... pushed. I was only trying to repel his legilimency probe, it surprised the hell out of me when he went flying and hit his head. I don't know why he can't remember anything, perhaps his head injury or maybe... well I was concentrating on how I wanted him out of my head and how I didn't want him to know anything that I was thinking and... I may have had a bout of accidental magic and obliviated him... Do you think that's what happened? I didn't tell anyone, as... you weren't there and... I couldn't take the chance of Umbridge using it as an excuse to expel me. I'm so very sorry!"

Harry dropped the teary look and sneered at Snape, "Bet you're wishing that you actually taught me some proper occlumency techniques now. Such a pity that I had to figure things out on my own. Oh well, what can you do, accidents will happen in such situations. Poor old Snape, he really should have known better."

Harry giggled - "In fact, I think I'm going to pull a page out of your book and just pull this memory out of my head and store it someplace safe from nosy legilimencers. Not in a pensieve, oh no, no, no. That would be very stupid," said Harry as he wagged his finger in front of him.

"Oh and before I forget," said Harry as he once again wrapped his transfigured hanky around his hand. He drove his fist into Snape's gut as hard as he could. "That was for calling my mother a mudblood, you greasy git."

"Now, let's see episkey, episkey, episkey. That should get rid of the bruises. Now, stupefy and obliviate, obliviate, obliviate. Oh and just to be sure," said Harry as he paused and gathered his magic to cast the spell as strongly as he could - "Obliviate!"

With a few more waves of Snape's wand, Harry then vanished the ropes around Snape and reversed the transfiguration on the chains holding him to the chair. He quickly cancelled the remaining charms he had cast around the room before snapping Snape's wand and tossing the remnants in the lit fireplace. He then arranged Snape in such a way to make it look like the man stumbled and fell, hitting his head with his wand flying out of his hand and into the fire. He shrugged, probably wouldn't hold water if anyone really cared to look but that didn't matter. As long as no one could link him to the event what did it matter what people thought.

Harry strode from the room without a backwards glance at the crumpled, drooling form of Snape that he left behind.

~oo00oo~

Dolores Umbridge stared at John Dawlish in absolute astonishment.

"Surely, that can't be right," she exclaimed. "Who would do such a thing to themselves?"

"I'm afraid the evidence is incontrovertible, Madam Umbridge," said John Dawlish. "Even though Professor Snape's wand was nearly destroyed, possibly by his own hand, we were able to ascertain that the last spell cast from it was a Memory charm. Clearly, the mans personal demons got the better of him and he attempted to obliviate himself. It fits with what we know of the man. Everyone says he was a highly unpleasant individual, a loner with no close friends."

"But-But the... what about... the Malfoy boy said he saw Potter with him earlier," stuttered Umbridge.

"He stated that Potter was there for a remedial potions lesson which Snape cancelled. That hardly means that Potter had anything to do with whatever happened to Snape later Madam, no matter what Mr. Malfoy would like to insinuate," said Dawlish.

"Besides, I had a look at the boy's file before interviewing him. His grades in DADA this year are amongst the lowest in his class. Surely, someone like that would never have been able to get the better of Professor Snape who rumour has it was quite talented in the Dark Arts. No, I'm afraid that the Professor's injuries were entirely self-inflicted," stated Dawlish.

"And Snape? What happens to him now?" asked Umbridge, purely for forms sake. Truly, she couldn't really be bothered.

"Off to the Janus Thickey ward, I should imagine," said Dawlish with an uninterested shrug.

~oo00oo~

A/N: This chapter contained excerpts from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.