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To furia airuf who asked, and anyone else who wonders, the other half of Snape's soul has already passed on. A horcrux gives you an anchor in the world of the living, but the only part of your soul that has to stay there is the part in the horcrux. The rest of the soul chooses where to go based on one's deepest desire of the heart. Voldemort wanted to live and rule, so his soul stayed and possessed people and etc. Snape wanted to be with Lily, who was dead, so the other half of his soul is in the afterworld, waiting patiently for this half to catch up with it. He didn't actually want to die and be miserable watching her spending all her time with James, but the deep desires of his heart were still to be near her, so he ended up there.

Chapter 4 - The Auror Test

The time had finally come. Harry sat at the little kitchen table eating the toast and eggs the house elves had left for him, when a large old owl that was missing most of it's feathers and looked more like a bat flew in from one of the high windows and dropped a package on his lap. He opened it to find that it was a letter from the Ministry of Magic, along with what appeared to be a glass disk of some sort.

The letter explained that due to the required secrecy, the place for the test was to remain completely unknown to all involved, and would never be in the same place twice. If Harry still wanted to participate, (of course he did) he was to meet them at the specified place at 10 sharp the next morning. The letter clearly stated that if he was late, he would be too late.

He turned the letter over looking for an address or some form of direction, but there was nothing. He picked up the disk and looked at it, turning it this way and that and holding it up to the light. He tapped it several different ways with his wand, and tried even asking it politely to show him the way, but if it could hear him, which frankly wasn't likely, it didn't give any indication that it had. He sighed and slumped down at the table, resting his head on his forearms and staring blankly at the object before him.

"Tch tch tch, giving up already? I would have thought you'd have at least a few hundred more things to try before reaching this point, but what can be expected? Considering how abysmal your grades always were, I imagine you weren't much of a dedicated thinker."

Unable to think of anything particular to defend himself with, Harry just glanced up at him from his place at the table and mumbled, "Well, then are you gonna help me out?"

"Of all the impudence! I would watch my tone if I were you, Potter, there are far worse punishments that I can currently inflilct than detentions and taking house points."

"Are you threatening me, Professor?"

"I am not, nor would I ever like to again be your professor. ...but yes, I am threatening you."

Harry was stressed out about the test and what it might entail, completely sure his missed 7th year would cause him to utterly fail at whatever he was asked to do. He was stressed about not knowing how to get there, and he was emotionally drained from having to live with his most hated ex-professor while keeping the peace as best he could. He was tired. Too tired to fight. Harry pressed two fingers to the vine on his arm and watched Snape hiss a curse as he was sucked into the photo. It reminded him of a TV genie being sucked back into his lamp.

Oh well. He had to stay behind anyway.

Harry tried to think back to other objects he could not activate or open in the past. He remembered the golden snitch, but that had a memory of the skin tissue in his mouth, so that was different. Not having any better ideas, however, he tried licking the thing. Nothing happened. Thinking some more, he remembered a golden egg that could only be opened under water. he tried running the tap over it, but again, no result. Then he thought back even further, and considered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry highly doubted that the Ministry of Magic would make a test that required you to speak snake, and Harry didn't even have that ability any more since he was no longer Voldemort's horcrux, but it was worth a shot. He was getting desperate. Harry stared at the glass and hissed through his teeth. He wasn't saying actual words, but he thought it would be enough. Nothing happened, but that wasn't surprising.

Harry spent most of the day trying to think of some brilliant method of activating this ... whatever it was. Finally, without any more ideas he pushed it aside for the moment, but when he set his hand on it to push it away, his palm glowed red where it hit the glass. Harry quickly pulled his hand away and a hologram of a short Ministry official popped out of the glass where his hand had been. He looked down at his hand and saw that it had stopped glowing when he pulled it away, but noticed also that his flowering vine tattoo had returned. It was not soon enough for Snape to be able to come back out after being banished, so he could only presume with some alarm that this hologram was being powered by his soul, or in some other way using his soul.

"Congratulations," the small hologram was saying, "you have submitted your entry, the test has begun. You have from now until 10 AM tomorrow to get to the location of your test. This is the first test, so no shortcuts. You may travel by any means necessary, but do not skip any destination you are asked to go to. By placing your hand on the disk you submitted to having the trace put on you for the next 48 hours, so we will know if you try anything. Good luck."

With that, the little wizard popped back into the disk. Harry watched, amazed, as the disk shrunk and grew pointed on one end. Straps came out of the bottom of the disk and a short beam of light glowed faintly out of the pointed end of the thing, which now resembled some sort of giant crystal pretending to be a wristwatch. He watched, amused, as numbers suddenly appeared on the back of the thing, seemingly in response to his thought. He knew what to do now. he strapped the little compass on the front of his broomstick, which he'd managed to accio to him from his apartment. He hoped no one had seen the thing flying to Hogwarts.

He was going to head out straightaway, not knowing how long it would take to get there, wherever there was, and preferring to fly by night (which it was already quickly becoming), under cover of darkness. He glanced around one more time to make sure he hadn't left anything he might need, and realized with a start that he had Snape in his pocket. He took out the scrap of photo and placed it in the sugar jar. He didn't want the house elves to think it was a piece of trash when they tried to clean up, and figured it would be pretty safe in there.

Harry looked around one more time, wondering if there was anything else he might need that they'd expect him to have brought. He packed a roll of parchment and a couple of quills in case they wanted him to take notes. He wondered nervously if he would need any muggle money. He decided not to worry about that, as his not having any made that decision easy. Without intending to, he kept looking back at the sugar jar. He really wanted to bring the scrap of photo with him for reassurance, but knew he couldn't, so without another chance to doubt what he'd packed, he quickly turned and took off, flying straight out one of the high windows in their room.

The light pointed off in a direction he thought was North, cutting over a corner of the forbidden forest. He followed it for what felt like many hours, before he suddenly felt presences behind him. He was stiff from sitting on his broom for so long in the cold night winds, but managed to turn his head back behind him somehow, and saw what appeared to be 2 death eaters following him through the clouds, wands raised.

Oh, great, he thought. Didn't they all know it was over? Or did they entertain hopes that one amongst them could repeat the terror that was Lord Voldemort? Harry wondered if this was part of the test, and out-flying them would be considered skipping out. He wished he'd brought a second opinion with him. He didn't really know how these magical tests worked, and for once there was no one to explain it to him. Ever since Harry had entered the magical world, there were friends and mentors around him always who could explain any aspect of the magical community to him that he so desired to learn. He vaguely wished he could have brought Snape. The man would never be caught dead telling Harry he had done something correctly, but he got a distinctly annoyed look on his face and threw fewer insults at Harry when he was doing something right.

Harry was still trying to decide whether he should try to outrun them or turn and fight them, when suddenly they veered off to the left and right, allowing a third figure to rise up between them. This one had no mask and needed no introduction. Voldemort.

"How the blazing hell did he get here?" Harry wondered aloud, thinking likely the answer was that the blazing hell couldn't stand the heat and spit him back out. If it was Voldemort he was facing, there wasn't really any question about whether to try to outrun him. Voldemort was an evil that needed to be (and Harry though had been) taken out, and it had to be Harry who did it. He steeled his nerves and turned to face his arch nemesis. The spectre let out it's high cold laugh, and pointed it's wand at Harry.

This was so unlike Voldemort that Harry was momentarily stunned by the idea that he would reappear and try to kill Harry without any speech about how Harry had ruined his life, or gloating about how he had managed to escape death and was so much more powerful than Harry was... Somehow, Voldemort's silence gave Harry an instinctive desire to cast a spell he had been once taught long ago, but had never gotten the chance to try.

"Riddikulus!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the center figure. Voldemort was suddenly wearing a pink bikini, and seemed to have forgotten how to fly. He flapped his arms ridiculously as Harry laughed and he fell out of sight. Harry heard a popping sound as his laughter caught up with it and the boggart was no more.

Harry wondered vaguely why boggarts would turn into two death eaters and Voldemort, thinking of all the things to be afraid of, those were very far down on his list. He shrugged that off and aimed for the left death eater. This one did not transform when he cast his spell at it, and he decided these were not boggarts. He tried a stunning spell. No effect. They weren't people, either, apparently. Harry flew backwards for a time, contemplating them, as they followed him, seemingly reluctant to cast any attack spells on him.

They were both oddly hunched, and seemed drunk, swerving sometimes violently as they flew after him. Harry realized then that their movements were very familiar to him. A smile broke on his face and he couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity of it all. They were bewitched bludgers, wearing capes, and somehow attached to broomsticks.

Harry sent the first damage-dealing spell at them that came to mind. "Sectumsempra!" he shouted at them, and the bludgers were ripped to shreds and fell from the sky.

"Why did I think of that spell first, of all the spells it could have been?" Harry wondered to himself. Before he had much chance to think on it, a familiar cold engulfed him and there was a rushing sound in his ears. He saw 50 dementors swarming around him from all angles, and above and below him as well. Hermione was right, so far this was pretty easy. "Expecto Patronum!" the stag shot from Harry's wand and he noticed his arm glowing and flowering once again. He realized then that the reason the image of his soul on his arm didn't have anything relating to his dad in it was because so much of his dad had been put into his patronus, which apparently was soul-powered. Harry wondered just how many things in the magical world were soul-powered. He was starting to feel annoyed, like his soul was some kind of free buffet.

After the dementors, he didn't run into any more trouble, and presently he found the compass had begun to point downwards. He flew down to find that it had led him straight to the Ministry of Magic. Some hidden location, he thought, rolling his eyes. It was already 7 AM as Harry touched down beside the guest entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Luckily, though it was light out, there was a thick fog covering as far as the eye could see (which wasn't very far), so he was free from unwanted onlookers.

A red jet of light shot out from somewhere behind him, aimed at his back. Harry ducked into a summersault just in time and cast a return stunning spell upside down midway through his summersault. It hit a dumpster and loads of garbage and filth flew up at the impact. A wizard with messy blond hair and a face covered in scars stepped out from behind the dumpster, shaking garbage off his clothes and laughing. He looked like he was in his early 30's and reminded Harry distinctly of a younger, more healthy looking Remus Lupin.

"Nice job! That was the most impressive thing I've seen yet on these tests, the way you squared off with Voldemort. And what was that spell you cast on those bludgers? That was brutal, but effective." He didn't wait for an answer. He locked eyes with Harry and smiled, saying, "'Name's Angel. Angel Burton, but some people call me Scratchy," he said with an indifferent shrug, shaking Harry's hand.

"Well, come on then. You got here early, so you can start the written test early. It's easier to stagger them anyway, so there's fewer of us having to keep our eyes on everyone at once." He led Harry into the Ministry, and they took an elevator to one of the middle levels. It stopped and he was ushered into a small room two doors down the hall on the right. It looked just like an unused classroom. There were many desks, all piled against the walls, with one desk set out in the middle of the room with a test waiting on it.

"Good luck!" said Angel, giving Harry a little slap on the back and leaving the room. Harry thought it odd that he would make all that fuss about watching for cheaters and then leave him alone in the room, but he soon found out why. There was a glowing ... thing, he supposed it was a platypus or something... at any rate, he was apparently being watched by a patronus. Not that Harry was going to cheat anyway, he had left his books at home to stop himself from even finding that thought tempting.

Sitting down to take the written test, his heart sank. This would be considerably more difficult than the physical test, which had seemed almost built with him in mind. Three hours later he turned in his test, or what he had finished of it, to the platypus-thing. It had been hard. There were several questions he had had to leave blank. Things that he probably would have known if he'd grown up in a wizarding family, he thought bitterly.

Angel came back in the room with two other wizards in tow. One was a portly wizard who was missing a leg, whose name turned out to be Archibald, a fellow auror. The other was another new recruit, by the name of Jessica, who looked like she had barely made it through the physical test. She probably had just had her first encounter with "Voldemort", Harry thought.

Angel nodded to Archibald who took Jessica further into the classroom, and motioned Harry to follow him out.

"Just one more test, Harry," he said, leading Harry down to the lower level where the court rooms were. "We need you to submit to an officially documented and witnessed intentions test."

"Intentions test?" Harry asked, wondering.

"Yes. It won't hurt, and you don't have to do anything. It is the easiest of the tests. For most people." He gave Harry an unreadable look and added "It may be more difficult for you."

Harry was about to protest but just at that moment they arrived at the court room where there was a strict-looking witch with wand ready standing in front of an empty chair. A wizard with a long scroll was busily scratching onto it at a small table beside her. She motioned Harry to take a seat, and Angel stood to the side to watch.

As soon as Harry sat down, the witch in front of him shouted "Legilimens!"

Had she been more subtle about it, and used the silent casting that he was sure Snape so often employed, he may not have gotten his defenses up in time. In fact, if she'd had any finesse, she may have gotten a peek in his mind without him even knowing she'd been there, as Dumbledore always seemed able to do. But this was a thundering intrusion. Harry jolted back with such force at the surprise that his chair fell backwards, and he put his arms up in front of his face as if to ward off the attack. He mentally threw up an imaginary brick barrier and turned on an imaginary hose to full blast, picturing his mind filling loudly with black ink.

The witch pulled him up by the front of his robes, looking overly angry. "What are you hiding, boy?"

Harry shrank back from this unknown witch who clutched his robes and quickly thought up a half-truth. "There are horrors in my memories," he mumbled, "in a very large number of them. If I am made to relive them, I may go mad. I will agree to a veritaserum test, if you'd like."

That did it. Veritaserum was, of course, illegal, but the Ministry being the makers of the law naturally thought themselves above it. This woman reminded Harry of a weird mix between Professor McGonagall and Umbridge. She agreed, and he soon found himself answering all kinds of questions about his intentions, and how he felt when he fought with Voldemort, how he felt about the attention people always gave him, and what he hoped for his future. They were kindly careful to avoid asking him questions they thought would bring up "old ghosts" as the saying goes. He knew they would never ask, "So, have you seen any photographs of your dead mum turned into horcruxes of dead teachers lately?" so he would be safe.

It all went rather well, but the veritaserum they used seemed to have a soporific affect on him, and the next thing Harry knew, he was being prodded awake by the auror called Archibald. He sat up a bit too quickly, and almost fell back down, dazed as his head momentarily spun. Judging by the light out the window, it seemed to be dawn. He slept the whole day and night at the Ministry...

Archibald was saying something to him, and he focused hard until he could hear what the man was saying. His head was still swimming a bit. "...never saw a reaction like that to our organic veritaserum mix," he was shaking his head, "but you did it, Harry, good job. Welcome to the Ministry." He was shaking Harry's hand, and then he was pulling him up.

The next thing Harry knew he was sitting in a diner with Archibald and Angel and a witch named Nel, having lunch and listening to their stories of when they were first inducted into the Ministry as new aurors.

Harry zoned out, staring at his chips and wondering how he would do his auror duties without these people ever finding out about Snape. He heard his name a few times, though, and came back to the conversation.

"What do you think they'll send him on first?" asked Nel. She was a dark-haired witch who looked like she could have been younger than Harry, but when he mentioned this she just laughed. "I have been an auror for 15 years already. I'm 1/4 veela. I age rather more gracefully because of it."

Harry just stared. He'd had no idea. Aren't you supposed to be madly attracted to veela? He assumed 1/4 must just not be enough. She looked nice, but her hair seemed disturbingly silky and fluffy, and didn't hang in strings as it should...

"I'm going to ask them to give him the vampire job. They might not, since he's new, but after what he did to Voldemort-" Harry suddenly realized each one of these people had used Voldemort's name repeatedly since he met them yesterday, "and what he did during that physical test, well, I think he might have a shot at it. " Angel was saying. "Besides, he said with a knowing twinkle in his eye, I think it might do Harry a bit of good to get bitten. Best man for the job."

The others just shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. It seemed that they were used to this one having inner jokes with himself and knowing odd things that no one else knew.

They finished up their lunch and headed out. Harry was told he could go and they would contact him by owl with his first assignment. He wouldn't be made to show up and sit in an office every day like many ministry positions, he was glad of that. He said his goodbyes, hopped on his broom, draped his invisibility cloak over himself, and set off. It didn't cover him well with his broom, but would be good enough.

--

- To be continued -

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