The Dark Conspiracy
Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Or not. It's all J.K.'s… I'm just messing around.
A/N: I have received good news and thus, the urge to post early. Even if you guys don't seem to like it (lack of reviews). By the way thanks to everyone who has reviewed, read and alerted so far. Here goes. Longest Chapter so far! :) READ and REVIEW, Pretty please, with sugar on top? Thank you :)
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Chapter 3: The Encounter
"Good day, Minerva." Harry greeted his former head of house and headmistress. "I see you are doing quite well."
"You, on the other hand, young Harry, seem troubled." The formidable lady motioned for him to take a seat in front of her desk. She offered her former student tea, which the latter politely declined. Harry cleared his throat. "I shall need to know if Snape- err, Professor Snape is in his classroom right now. I'm afraid that there is something I would need to speak to him about." Minerva threw him an odd look. Harry hastily added: "for the Quibbler, of course." Minerva continued to give him the odd look. "Well, if you must know Harry, Severus is no longer teaching here-"
"What?" Harry spat out. "I mean, oh… I see…" Minerva smiled at his reaction. "Now if I may continue what I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted," she gave Harry a reprimanding look while saying this. "Severus has opted for private practice after your class left Hogwarts, Harry." Minerva had a weird twinkle in her eye right then, much like Dumbledore's which was quite unnerving for Harry. Minerva continued, "He mentioned something about losing interest in educating young uh, well, in his words, dunderheads." Minerva smirked. Harry looked thoughtful. Minerva went on further, "I believe he now maintains an apothecary in Bowtruckle Alley." With that last bit of information, Harry perked up.
"Can I get his address then?" Minerva looked at him as if daring to ask if he was joking. Harry sighed.
"It's an important matter, Minerva," Harry began. "In uh, aid of the freedom of the press or something." He looked at his old professor, hopeful. Minerva snorted.
"Still no luck with those Nargles, Harry?"
"Err- nope," Harry said timidly.
"Oh, then Severus might be able to help you, then?" the former Gryffindor head asked with a knowing look on her fae.
"I believe so, yes,"
"Very well..."
Minerva had to stop herself from laughing at Harry's expression. She waited a beat and then finally relented.
"Certainly Harry," She reached for a piece of parchment and began scribbling. "Although I must warn you that Severus gave me this address for emergency purposes only. He will not be expecting your visit." She gave the rolled-up parchment to the young wizard. Harry looked bemused. Minerva looked like she would burst out laughing any time now.
"I will come prepared then." Harry said. He tipped his fedora and bid the amused-looking witch goodbye.
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Five minutes later, Harry was standing in front of an old-looking building in Bowtruckle Alley. It did not have any sign outside so Harry had to triple-check the address written on the parchment. 'This better not be a crude form of joke, Snape,' he thought. Minerva would never give him a fake address on purpose, that's just not her, but Severus Snape, ex-double agent would, just to throw everybody off his tracks. He might even be living in disguise during the day, or something. 'Oh well, nothing to lose,' Harry told himself. He warily approached a lacquered, wooden door that served as the entrance. He reached for the plain-looking knob, gave it a twist and a gentle push. His efforts were acknowledged by a soft tinkling of an invisible bell. He went in.
The space was clean, modest, adequately lighted, but there was a noticeable absence of windows; a striking contrast to the façade outside. Harry made his way through barrels of beetle eyes, jars of powdered bicorn horn and other ingredients for potions that he just could not identify. Potions really wasn't his strongest subject. That was a fact. He raised his wand and tapped the polished counter lightly to ask for the storekeeper or helper, whoever was available. A muffled "In a moment" was heard and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He leaned back against the counter and propped his both his elbows on it as well. About a minute later, Harry felt a cold draft of air as the door behind the counter opened and then closed. A rich baritone was heard next.
"How may I help you?" Hearing the tone, Harry couldn't help but smile.
"You know, if anybody heard you speak that way in class, the students would have a field day." He turned around and faced a surprised Severus Snape.
"Potter! What are you doing here?" the Dark Wizard spat out. "Leave Now!"
"Hello to you to Professor," Harry smiled. "My, my, touchy today are we? Well, I would be as well, if I were you, considering you were up all night."
"Get out of my sight this instant! You have no business to conduct in these premises." Snape made a move to throw him out the door but Harry had quicker Seeker reflexes than that of the ex-Death Eater's. He shot two quick locking spells, one at the entrance door and one at the door behind the counter.
"Now, we will speak, Professor." Harry said stressing on the last word.
"Do not refer to me as such; I am no longer your professor!" Snape said angrily. The older wizard tried to open both doors with a hastily whispered 'Alohomora' but to no avail. Harry couldn't help but chuckle.
"You see, Severus Snape, that locking charm was tied to my magical signature." Harry held up two fingers, "now there are only two ways to get rid of them: One is if I die," Harry folded one finger. "And two is if I willingly remove them." He folded the other finger. "So if I were you, find a way to either kill me or make me want to leave voluntarily." Snape looked murderous. Harry continued.
"You see, Snape, I do have business to conduct here," Harry said, twirling his wand with his left hand. He stopped and eyed Snape. "With you." Harry shifted his wand to his other hand. Snape began to reach for his own ebony wand when Harry took three steps to close the gap between them. Snape froze at the close proximity. Harry grabbed Snape's wand hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Snape's eyes widened for a moment then sighed, "Very well then, Potter" he removed his hand forcefully from the younger man's grasp. "What brings you here to my humble establishment? What moved you to disturb the peace and quiet that I have been taking pleasure out of for three good years?" The dark wizard ranted. He then went back behind the counter. Harry followed him. Snape gave him a death glare.
"Since when has it become of importance to you whom I consort with? The last time I checked, Mr. Potter, I am of no importance to your person, much more so to your activities as a correspondent to that appalling piece of absurdity you deem fit to call a publication!" Snape smirked at Harry's fedora and the spectrespecs hanging on his left breast pocket. Harry drew closer, pointing his wand directly at the older wizard's heart.
"I don't know, you tell me, "Harry began heatedly. "You tell me why you have been talking about me with those- those vampires!" Snape was surprised at this gesture, but his face quickly went back to a raging scowl.
"How dare you threaten my person in my own place of business with your sorry excuse for a magical ability? I can end your miserable life now, Potter, and none would be wiser!" Snape took his own wand and pointed it at Harry's neck. Harry snorted.
"Yeah, that's probably why those guys almost killed you for not being able to do me in!" Harry yelled. "You could have killed me Snape, all those years, back in 6th year right after you off-ed Dumbledore," Harry paused. "But you couldn't. No matter how snarky you portray yourself to be, you can't even hurt a fly!" Snape looked shocked at this words but he quickly recovered.
"You don't know me, Potter. Do not pretend to know me!" Snape yelled. "Clearly, you do not know what you are talking about! You are a pathetic excuse for-"
"If there's someone who's pathetic in this room, it isn't me." Harry interrupted, furious. "You are a frustrating man!" With these words, both dark and light wizard reached a momentary standstill. Snape's obsidian eyes bore into Harry's emerald orbs. Their impromptu staring match lasted for about a minute until Harry finally relented. He withdrew his wand and sighed. "Look, just tell me what the heck is going on and I'll be on my way." Snape snarled again and continued to look murderous, but again, to Harry's surprise; the former Death Eater lowered his wand.
"You have five minutes to remove yourself from these premises, Potter." Snape again turned his back on him. "You are too much of an imbecile for your own good." Harry was at his wit's end.
"Will you quit doing that?" he yelled at the once-spy.
"Doing what, exactly, as you oh so crudely put it?" Snape asked him quietly, still with his back against the wizarding savior. The man's voice was pulled together and calculated.
"That! Talking like I'm the biggest crap, using all those big words! I'm not dumb you know!"
"You have a very peculiar way of showing your competence,"
Harry wanted to scream and strangle the man. Snape remained silent. But before Harry could say another word, a low but dark chuckle escaped Snape's lips. Harry thought he was hearing things. Snape then cleared his throat.
"Get out now, Harry." The deep baritone sounded smooth and strained at the same time. It contained just a hint of danger in it.
'Did he just call me Harry?' The Boy-Who-Lived, thought. 'I'm hearing things again.'
"No, tell me what you are up to and I'll leave." Harry stood his ground. He inched closer towards his former Potions Master. Snape growled.
"You are such a moronic, bumbling foolish Gryffindor, just like your no-good father…"
Harry saw red.
"I am not my father!" He drew his wand out again. "Stop insulting me-"
"Just leave, Potter." Snape's voice was barely a whisper.
"Or else what? You're going to chop me up and turn me into potions ingredients?"
"You're a retard." A little bit louder now.
"You're a git!" Harry yelled back.
"You're a moron!" Louder now.
"You already said that!" Harry screamed.
"You're still a fool!" Even louder.
"Oh yeah, you're a coward!" Harry burst out. Snape stiffened. He spun around so quickly that Harry lost his balance from the impact.
"Never. Call. Me. A. Coward!" Snape's eyes were now red, his pupils, dilated. His hands both fisted a good amount of Harry's robes. The spectrespecs lay on the floor, broken.
"What do you call yourself then?" Harry challenged him. "I heard what you were talking about - me." He grabbed Snape's arms. "Why couldn't you just admit for once that you really don't hate me, huh, Snape? That I am actually more like my mother than my father?" Harry pulled the other man closer by imitating what the latter did to his robes. They were only a few inches apart. Snape looked uncomfortable, but so did Harry.
"Why don't you tell it to my face-?"
"Leave now!" Snape released him. "I will not have you regret coming here."
Harry stood back as the man turned his back on him once more. He breathed deeply.
"I'm not going anywhere until you explain to me why those vampires said that you lo-"
"I said, leave, Potter!"
"No!"
"Leave! Or else-"
"Or else, what? You're going to sic those two blood sucker friends of yours on me then? Oh, wait, they aren't your friends, they almost killed you, apparently because of me!" Harry said sarcastically.
"Leave!" Snape's voice rose once more.
"No! You're not going to get rid of me that easily, you coward!" Harry screamed his heart out. He expected the older wizard to curse him at that instant but the hex or whatever it was did not come. Instead, he heard Snape grunt.
"I don't think so, Potter…"
The older wizard spun around. Harry's breathing stopped at what he saw. He was speechless.
"How about now, Potter? Will you now leave me alone?"
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A/N: Oooh… CLIFF HANGER. Insert evil laugh. I got five reviews, still not much, considering the amount of visitors and hits that I got. Please review, it won't take you a minute to tell me how you feel about this. I would really appreciate it if you give me a hint if you like the direction this story is taking. That little button below? He's your best friend. Click and be heard! I'm still taking suggestions on which other characters you would like to see here. Please let me know in a review :)
