Interlude
Hermione looked up as she heard footsteps echoing through the corridors of the Hogwarts library. Remus Lupin soon appeared around the edge of one of the bookshelves.
"May I join you?" He inquired softly.
"Please." Hermione smiled as Lupin took a seat at her table, raising his eyebrows appreciatively as he eyed the nearly three foot tall stack of books she had collected.
"A bit of light reading, eh?"
"I've been researching things I thought would be good for us to try in the DA. And trying to find something about occlumency, for Harry. And some on wizarding recent history. And-"
"Hermione, when was the last time you saw the sun?"
"Er…"
Lupin sighed, then reached out and pulled off the top book of the nearest stack. "Hmmm…Occlumency Exposed – THE Guide to the Magic of the Mind" Lupin glanced up briefly before he opened the book and began to read, "Occlumency, mind-magic, purview of the pureblooded – all its secrets exposed, here for you, gentle reader, courtesy of me. Oramiah Obeldorf, your guide on this journey. Stay by my side as we explore the magic of the mind, the secrets of shielding, the lure of lies. No longer is occlumency only to be passed from father to son, mother to daughter, no - now, it's all here for you, gentle reader, laid out on these pages, should you dare-"
Lupin snorted, eyebrows raised as he stopped reading, "This Oramiah Obeldorf must be related to Gilderoy Lockhart. Where on earth did you find this, Hermione? Not the library, I'd wager."
"Er… owl order from an ad in the Quibbler," As Hermione's cheeks begin to burn she quickly followed with, "There's not exactly a lot written on the subject, or, at least not that I've found yet. A few references here and there, yes, but nothing that really explains how to do occlumency….I thought maybe if I could learn how to do it then maybe I could help Harry with it…."
"Hermione….you should be outside, enjoying the summer, spending time with friends, and family, not here researching obscure magic to battle dark wizards…all of us should…" Lupin sighed again, his shoulders slumping for a few moments, before he gathered himself and said, "Come on, let's go for a walk. The books'll still be here after dinner."
Hermione looked torn, but in the end she stood and followed Lupin out. A few minutes later and they were headed at an easy pace towards the lake, the lingering warmth of the late afternoon sun tempered by a pleasant breeze off the cool water.
Hermione looked over at her companion as they made their way along the water's edge. "Is it true that Dumbledore's not going to let Harry leave the Dursley's early now? Ron flooed me last night."
"It's true. Snape's still missing, and he knew about that plan, so Dumbledore thought it safest that Harry stay with the Dursley's – at least for a little bit longer, anyways. In fact, there was some talk of the Weasley's coming here for a few weeks, just in case. Dumbledore did say he still had something planned with Harry for Friday though." Lupin looked out over the water as he spoke. He didn't know if he should be telling Hermione everything, but she was as involved as any order member, and who knew, a little more communication not be such a bad thing, especially considering last year.
"Things haven't been going well. A few days ago, we had not a peep from the Death Eaters, but yesterday…they were everywhere. Two muggles murdered in their locked home, a bridge collapsed, and dementors…dementors are roaming the countryside. We were right to send your parents out of the way, Hermione. Very likely it's saved their lives."
Herminoe met Lupin's eyes for a moment before she shifted her gaze out over the water. "I know…but I miss them. And Ron and Harry. Hogwarts just isn't the same with everyone gone."
Lupin sighed. "Well, Dumbledore's invited us to dinner. And, I may be wrong, but I think he's also talked some of the Weasley's into joining us tonight as well. What do you say we head back and see if they're here yet?"
Hermione flashed a quick smile as they started back to the castle, "I can't wait to show Ron the book I found on the history of dark wizards. And Ginny can start with the one on healing magic, I think that's definitely a subject we should get started on. And after that…"
Lupin smiled to himself as he listened to Hermione lay out an absolutely torturous course of study to await her friends, completely sure that they would be as eager as she to pore through the mountain of dusty tomes she had managed to accumulate in just a few short days. Maybe they'd make it out of this war after all, he thought as the setting sun behind them illuminated the Hogwarts castle in a blaze of beauty fit for a fairy tale.
(10) Thursday, part 2
Harry turned the page, scanning – Drasporia Frassio, Drillio, Dwemr, Dyasso Vindi… the list went on, complete with notes and illustrations. Entitled One Thousand and One Curses for Fighting Foes, the book was something Hermione had given him before they left for the summer, and he hadn't yet had a chance to really look at it. It was quite good, but it would be a lot better in the room of requirement, he thought, wishing for the millionth time that he could be at Hogwarts instead of stuck here. With Snape. Who thankfully seemed to be uninterested in anything except the ceiling, seeing as how he'd been lying there staring at it for the last hour.
Harry snuck a quick glance over the top of the book. Yep. Still staring. Harry was rather glad he wasn't the ceiling. Snape had thankfully been asleep most of the afternoon, but after Harry had finally gone down to get them some dinner, he'd been up. Though aside from dinner, he'd done nothing but lie there on Harry's bed staring at the ceiling. It was creepy, Harry thought. But that wasn't the only thing bothering him. It was almost dark, and still no sign of any Dursleys. Not that he wanted them around exactly, but after this afternoon, every second they didn't return he imagined yet another horrific possibility for their absence. He'd thought of everything from an attack by Voldemort to visions of Marge dying on the operating table in a muggle hospital. Sighing to himself, he tried to put it out of his mind and looked back to the book instead. Maybe he could find something to practice that wouldn't get him arrested for underage magic.
He was just finishing up with the E's and still hadn't run across anything that didn't require a wand when a thought occurred to him. He let his eyes slide over to Snape again. Still lying there. He would probably regret this, but…
"Sir….Professor Snape?" Harry started, waiting to go on until Snape finally blinked and rolled his eyes over to fix on Harry, "I was wondering…if you might know, err, any good spells or magic that, err, I could do without getting caught-err, I mean that wouldn't violate underage magic…"
Snape stared at him for a moment, then looked back to the ceiling. Well, at least the bastard hadn't bitten his head off for trying, Harry thought as he let his eyes drop back to the pages once more. Elient, Exergeo, Expelliarmus-
"Potions." Almost a whisper, Snape paused a moment before continuing, "Occlumency. Wandless magic…"
Harry looked back up, his mouth nearly gaping in surprise. The git had actually answered his question, and was now sitting up, watching him. And of course it figured, potions and occlumency. The two subjects he probably hated the most. But the other…
"Wandless magic…" Harry mused, envisioning himself sending Malfoy's wand spinning with a mere thought. That'd be wicked, a slow smile spreading over Harry's face and lighting his eyes. Which rapidly turned into a scowl as Snape interrupted his fantasy.
"Which requires both discipline and emotional control that you lack. Utterly. A boy who can't master himself enough to make even a passing effort at occlumency is hardly going to be effective at controlling wandless magic."
"Perhaps I could master occlumency if I had someone who could actually teach it!" Harry snapped back. And meeting Snape's glare at that, he added "I mean, who taught you? How did you get so good at it, sir? Or did someone just legilimize you till you figured it out? Sir."
Braced for a stinging response, had he not already been staring at Snape, Harry would surely have missed the subtle widening of eyes and fleeting expression of…something, that his last words caused. Words that Harry realized had just unintentionally proved Snape's point about emotional control. And something more too, though he wasn't sure exactly what just yet. He snapped his mouth shut and muttered, "Never mind. I think I'll just go downstairs for a bit. See if there's anything on the muggle news."
And leaving Snape staring at him he snapped shut One Thousand and One Curses for Fighting Foes and stalked from his room.
…
Downstairs, Harry flopped down on the couch and flipped on the TV. As the weatherman droned on something about rain, Harry replayed the scene from a moment ago in his head. It was simple, really. Just not what he'd expected at all, given that it was Snape. He'd asked a question and Snape had answered. A real answer, not a snide, sneering comment. Well, at least not at first, anyways. And loathe as Harry was to admit it, he could hardly count the remark about lack of control, now that he'd gone and more or less proved it true by snapping back like that. Arrghhh! It made him want to punch something…which feeling brought him right back 'round to the subject of emotional control. How? How did you simply just make yourself not angry? The past year, it seemed like all he ever felt was angry. He'd been so angry all the time. And while he now knew that part of that was probably due to the link with Voldemort, just knowing that wasn't stopping the feeling. And worse, what about two nights ago? His anger had almost given Voldemort a way in.
Harry let his head drop into his hands, rubbing at his scar. Hermione, Ron, Ginny…Sirius- all because he had fallen for Voldemort's trap. Because he hadn't mastered himself and learned occlumency. And he was still vulnerable. Oh, he'd found a way to push Voldemort out of his head, which was no small feat, but the incident with Uncle Vernon proved, if nothing else, that Voldemort was not ignoring or occluding him quite as completely as Dumbledore had thought he would.
Harry groaned, then looked up. It all came back to the prophecy, didn't it? Those hateful words that wrapped around him tighter than the strongest steel chain.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ...
He was the chosen one. The boy-who-lived. It really was up to him, it wasn't just a hero-thing or a saving-people thing. He had to win. Had to do everything he could to make sure he 'vanquished the Dark Lord.' Because if he didn't, it would mean Sirius had died for nothing. That he'd wasted the sacrifice his mum and dad had made. That Hermione and Ron and Ginny and everyone else fighting against Voldemort would be wasting their effort, and quite possibly their lives. The prophecy was right – neither he, nor anybody else, was ever going to be free to live their lives until Voldemort was gone. He needed to focus on that like it was the snitch of all snitches. He needed to learn everything he could as fast as he could. Potions, occlumency, and wandless magic – all things he could do now….right now, Harry thought as eyed the remote sitting on top of TV.
Ten minutes later Harry still sat, green eyes fixed and jaw clenched. Accio remote, Accio remote, Accio re-
"Boy." It was nearly a growl, and Harry had been so concentrated on trying to wandlessly summon the remote, that he hadn't noticed Uncle Vernon's arrival. Harry slowly turned and stood to find himself face-to-face with the beady and very, very angry eyes of his uncle. Vernon's face was beet red and the vein at his temple was threatening to explode as he grasped Harry by the shoulders and began to shove him backwards.
"I told you- warned you, NO MORE FUNNY STUFF! NO MORE!"
"Uncle Vernon-"
"NOT UNDER MY ROOF! " Vernon had pushed Harry back up against a wall. Harry tried to push him off, but his grip was like a vise with his rage.
"Uncle Vernon, I haven't done any magic! "
"NOT ON ME OR MY FAMILY! NOT ON MY SISTER!" Vernon started to slam Harry back into the wall over and over again, punctuating each point with a vicious shake, his hands creeping closer and closer to Harry's throat as the spittle flew like froth from his lips.
"In the hospital she is, but they can't find anything wrong with her. EXCEPT SHE CAN'T TALK!" Harry struggled, but try as he might, he couldn't break the man's hold. Vernon began tightening his grip around his nephew's throat.
"Fed you, clothed you, took you in when it should have been straight to the orphanage with you! And this is how you repay us? I had to leave Dudley and your Aunt at the hospital because Marge near has a fit if someone isn't with her! You're behind my not getting that promotion at work too, I know it! It was a sure thing, and then, like magic, it goes to Tom Bogby? You've cost us our holiday to the beach!" And Harry saw stars creeping in from the edge of his vision as Uncle Vernon slammed him back into the wall yet again, sending a nearby picture of Dudley in his Smelting's uniform crashing to the floor.
"You cost me the Mason sale! You attacked my Sister! My Son! YOU Freak! Your mother should have died before she ever had you! YOU–"
"That is enough."
Harry barely heard the smooth voice cut in over the roar sounding in his ears, or the sounds of the scuffle that followed, but a second later the vise was gone from around his throat and he fell to the floor, greedily gulping in great breaths of sweet, precious, air. On hands and knees, Harry looked up to see Snape had snaked his left arm around Uncle Vernon's throat from behind, and was struggling to drag the fat man away from Harry. But Vernon was flailing about, one hand pulling tightly at Snape's hold and the other batting wildly at his face. Harry watched, still breathing heavily, as his uncle finally managed to send them both careening backwards into the coffee table. Vernon's weight smashed into Snape as they went down with a crash, shattering the glass top of the table. Harry just stared in shock, the only thought penetrating his brain was that Aunt Petunia was going to be furious, they had just bought that table to go with the new floor.
Snape's hold went slack as he hit the floor, landing in a pile of glass shards and nearly crushed under the weight of Vernon Dursley. Vernon rolled over with a snarl and drove a great beefy fist into Snape's side, followed by another intended for his face, but Snape jerked away and the blow landed on his shoulder instead. And the sound that tore from Snape's throat as Vernon's fist collided with the barely mended shoulder was absolutely awful. Harry watched numbly, near frozen at the sheer unreality of the scene before his eyes. How many times had Harry sat in class, or detention, wishing all sorts of horrible fates on his hated Potions Professor? But as Snape rocked on the floor in agony not five feet from Harry, those thoughts seemed as though they belonged in some other life, far and away from the brutal reality before him. Slowly, Harry pushed himself to his feet and pulled his wand from his back pocket. Vernon was straddling over Snape now, his hands locked around the Snape's throat, and his massive weight suppressing any struggles.
"Stop." Harry called, holding his wand remarkably steady as he aimed it at his Uncle. But Vernon ignored him, fully focused on his new target.
"Stu-" Harry started, but snapped his mouth shut mid-spell as a strange thing happened. Vernon, in his effort to throttle Snape, had leaned over him and was now looking right into Snape's eyes. A critical mistake, Harry realized, but Vernon Dursley had no way of knowing that…or of defending himself. Harry watched as his Uncle's face went slack, followed by his choke hold, as Snape's cold black eyes bored into him. Slowly, Vernon started trembling, and his mouth moving, but Harry only heard incoherent mumbles. At least at first. Then those mumbles rapidly escalated into a series of shrieks and wails, with the occasional no! or stop! recognizable here and there. And as Snape lay pinned to the floor, his eyes locked with Vernon, Harry stood watching, wand still extended and a sick sort of fascination filling him as the wails degenerated into sobs.
"Please. Please. Please-"
"Stupefy." Harry spoke it softly, and Uncle Vernon fell to the side as the spell struck him, stunned and silent. Harry exhaled slowly, noting that the front door had just opened to admit Aunt Petunia, whose eyes went wide as her favorite set of tea saucers as she took in the scene.
"What have you done?" She shrieked, her expression rapidly transforming from shock to one of bitter fury as she closed on Harry.
"Vernon? Vernon! Are you okay?" She rounded the couch and flew straight to Vernon, kneeling at his side trying to shake him awake, seeming not even to see Snape, who had managed to extricate himself from the massive dead weight of the stunned Uncle Vernon. Snape half stood and stumbled a few steps towards Harry (and away from Vernon) his right arm cradled tightly against his chest and his face a waxy pale grey that made his normal sallow skin look healthy by comparison. He crashed lightly into the wall behind Harry and slid down to sit, black eyes squeezed tightly shut and his breaths a barely controlled quiet panting.
"Mum, it's not in the car, you must have left it at…" Dudley trailed off mid-sentence as he stepped through door and took in the scene before him, eyes bouncing from his mum to his dad to the stranger sitting against the wall before settling warily on Harry, who still held his wand at the ready.
"Who's that? " Dudley questioned, his eyes sliding between Harry and Snape, as he continued, "Your boy- Hey, that's my shirt!" And he had taken two steps forward before coming to a quick stop as Harry waved his wand at him.
"That's close enough, Big D."
"Don't you threaten my Dudders! You- You Freak!" Aunt Petunia hissed as she stood and turned on Harry. Advancing on Harry, she finally seemed to notice Snape, who had recovered somewhat and was now staring at Aunt Petunia with an odd expression on his face. "YOU!" She snarled, her face slowly going from its current beet red to a previously unknown shade of purple. "OUT! Get out of my house. Both of you!" She shrieked, shaking as she and Snape eyed each other, something passing between them in the mutual looks of loathing that Harry couldn't quite decipher.
"Potter…go get your things." Harry glanced down, but made no move to go until Snape finally turned to look at him. "That was not a suggestion." Harry's eyebrows shot up as he barely restrained himself from pointing out that Snape was hardly in a position to be giving orders.
Keeping his eyes on his Aunt, Harry lowered his wand and carefully stepped around the wreckage of the table. Reaching the stairs, Harry suddenly turned and came to a decision. After all, he'd already cast one spell tonight, another probably wouldn't make much of a difference whenever they finally got around to expelling or arresting him or whatever.
"Expecto Patronum!"
As the great silvery stag leapt from the tip of Harry's wand, he ignored the startled gasp of his Aunt, suddenly at a loss. He knew a Patronus could be used for messages, but he realized he didn't know exactly how he was supposed to do the message part.
"Just talk to it, Potter. Tell it your message and who it is for." Snape said quietly as the stag wandered over to him. His eyes tracked its movement with a look that alternated between clear distaste as it nosed him and hopeful relief as it turned back to Harry expectantly.
"Err, go to Dumbledore, tell him that he's needed at Number Four Privet Drive, uh, as soon as he can get here or send someone else if he has to…please." And the stag dipped it's head in silent acknowledgement before it wheeled, and trailing a wisp of silver where Dudley's fingers ran through it as he reached out to touch it, the great stag bounded by him and out into the night. The moment it was gone, Harry ran up the stairs and pried up the floor board, throwing his most prized possessions into a pile on his bed. Then, thinking quickly, he darted into Dudley's room and nicked his cousin's gym bag and stuffed in some spare clothes for Snape. Followed by a sizeable wad of allowance money that Dudley had carelessly left out on top of his desk, which Harry opportunistically snatched up before heading back to cram his own things into the bag slung across his shoulder. The last thing he did before heading back downstairs was one last spell, occulo reparo, which, amazingly fixed the wreckage of his glasses back to new.
Able to see clearly once again, Harry came down the stairs to find that Snape was standing and had made his way toward the door. Dudley had disappeared entirely, and Aunt Petunia was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes narrowed and filled with a fury Harry had never before seen in her, and she had pulled his trunk and broom out of the cupboard.
"Take your stuff and get out." She hissed, her voice so full of venom Harry practically expected to see a forked tongue dart out of her mouth at any moment. "I don't care what's going on or what that doddering old man says, leave us out of it! I should have never, ever, taken you in, Harry Potter. You and your kind are not welcome here, ever again! "
Harry paused, meeting his Aunt's burning gaze with an equally cold green glare, "I was never welcome here." Then he squared his shoulders and walked away, looking nowhere but straight ahead and pretending that he couldn't feel either his Aunt's or Snape's eyes following him across the room as he collected the rest of his belongings, opened the door and stepped out.
"Lily would have cried, to see this." It was so soft Harry almost didn't hear it, but his mouth fell open in shock as he looked back over his shoulder at the last minute to see Snape staring at his Aunt, the indignant fury melting from her face at Snape's quiet words, to be replaced by something so desolate it threatened to dissolve the knot of anger that had settled in Harry's stomach just a moment ago. Then Snape broke his gaze away from Petunia and followed Harry out into the night.
October 2011