Fickle Fate:Chapter 11
We're already near the end of June! How did this happen!? Please read the end notes!
Warnings: Implied child abuse, graphic (not super graphic but present) child abuse, mentions of murder and torture.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't have to apply for so many scholarships to get through school.
Please enjoy!
Lessons and Plans
Harry's mind was spinning. As soon as he had finished with Lucius Malfoy, he met Nagini and wandered out to the garden she had shown him. Rodolphus and Rabastan had expected Harry's lesson to be longer and weren't there to follow him but, Harry was barely aware of his surroundings and didn't notice. The pond and trees he stared at were a blur as he tried to grasp all he had been told.
"Magic is all about intent. It is not sentient like most tend to believe, but it can make inanimate objects sentient to some extent given a certain level of power." Harry couldn't say that he was absolutely shocked by what Lord Malfoy was telling him, but it did shake his foundation. "The majority of so called dark spells that you know were originally created with the intent to help, not harm." Here Harry was not convinced.
"Really? So Crucio was supposed to, what, tickle?" Lucius shook his head.
"I will give you some reading on the subject, but a number of them were created by Healers. The Cruciatus curse was supposed to help people suffering from seizures. It would stimulate the central nervous system in a way to counteract a dangerous seizure and aid the patient. In fact, many original recipients of the treatment reported that the spell merely felt like a buzzing under the skin. As I said, intent matters. Someone put too much power behind the spell and had an ill will towards the recipient and the spell caused harm. It's beneficial healing aspects were soon lost to history and politics and more and more bad people began using it to torture others."
Harry scowled at the memory. He picked up a rock and pulled his arm back to throw it…but then he couldn't. He might hit a bird or one of the fish in the pond with his luck. With a sigh, Harry dropped the rock and put his head in his hands.
"Young One, what is wrong?" Harry absentmindedly reached out a hand to stroke Nagini's head.
"Mr. Malfoy told me some things that mean I've been lied to a lot…but how can I trust him?" Nagini bumped Harry's hip as she slid the upper part of her body onto the bench Harry was seated on.
"He has protected Tom and you though you do not know it. He does not hurt you." At that, Harry snorted and rolled his eyes.
"He's hurt me plenty. He was going to kill me in my Second Year if it hadn't been for Dobby, his house elf." Nagini did not know what to say to that so she just stayed quiet. A few minutes of sitting in silence later and they heard someone stomping down the path towards them.
"Mr. Potter." Harry groaned as he heard Snape's drawl. The man came closer and glared down at him. "We have a potions lesson today, a fact that you seem to have conveniently forgotten. Instead I had to deal with frantic Lestranges and trudge through the woods to find you myself. Come with me." With that, the man spun and dramatically stalked away.
Harry sighed and stood to follow, knowing it would just make things worse if he didn't. Nagini followed him.
"All will be well, Young One. Potions Man smelled more scared than angry." Harry's brows furrowed at that, confused as to why Snape would be scared but then shook it off. The man was probably scared that Voldemort would take it out on him should Harry go missing.
When they made it back to the Manor, they walked down numerous flights of stairs and down a long hallway before coming to a door. Stepped inside, Harry wrinkled his nose as the familiar smell hit him. He could already feel his heart rate picking up at the thought of doing potions.
Nagini slithered over to a dark corner and curled up to observe the proceedings. Meanwhile, Severus swept his cloak off and laid it out of the way on a chair in a different corner. The Potion's Master rolled his eyes and motioned for Harry move towards one of the cauldrons.
"You should know by now that they don't bite, Mr. Potter. Since you've already wasted enough of my time, I am changing my plans from a Second Year potion to a First Year potion. I will fetch your ingredients. Read the information under Handwriting Improvement." Harry huffed but slumped down onto the available stool and flicked the textbook open to the right page.
The potion was pretty straight forward, and according to the text, wouldn't take long to brew. It was supposed to steady the drinker's hands for the purpose of improving penmanship. Harry was shocked that wasn't a daily potion that all students had to take. Surely the professors were frustrated with all of the terrible handwriting that passed across their desks. Harry was well aware how Snape felt about it.
"Here. Any utensils you need are in the drawer to your left. Begin." Harry startled at Snape's entrance but bit back a rude comment. He simply pulled out what he would need and got started.
Within thirty seconds he was being yelled at.
"It is a slug, not a zucchini, Mr. Potter! Where on earth did you learn to chop like that?!" Harry clenched his jaw.
"Cooking for the Dursleys," Harry spat out. He was shocked he admitted it, but then remembered that Snape likely already knew from rummaging around in his brain so much. Severus only huffed.
"Clearly you made no effort to study the Lab Techniques booklet and distinguish between cooking and brewing." Harry stopped with his knife stuck in the large slug, his brows drawn together.
"What are you talking about? What booklet?" Harry tried to wrack his brain for whatever Snape was talking about but came up blank. Sure, Hermione had an extra book out when she studied for potions but…it was Hermione. Severus narrowed his eyes at the boy in suspicion, as if trying to see if Harry was messing with him or not.
"It was on the Required Books list sent out each year. It explains proper technique for preparing any ingredients." Harry's mouth dropped open.
"What?! That would have been bloody helpful!" Severus pursed his lips at the language, but surprisingly managed to hold his tongue.
"Indeed," he said instead. "Are you trying to tell me you never knew about the second book?" Harry nodded, his jaw starting to ache from how hard he was clenching.
"My books were always sent to me so I wouldn't have to go out in public or Mrs. Weasley would pick them up for me. Bloody hell! Now I get why 'Mione always got so frustrated when I botched easy potions!" Severus was confused to say the least. He wasn't surprised someone got the boy's books for him, another one of Dumbledore's pamperings to 'keep the boy safe.'"
"She did not mention the book to you or offer to teach you proper technique?" Harry's cheeks darkened and he muttered his answer to the table.
"'Mione already had to teach me how to write with a quill. Besides, I always thought I bungled the potions because Malfoy and his cronies threw stuff in them." Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. Clearly, the boy did not receive any of the preliminary/introductory instruction most Muggleborns were given. Usually the professor sent to inform the future students' guardians would take care of such things. He should have known, considering Hagrid was sent to retrieve Harry.
"Within that book, among other things, is a spell to prevent that very thing from happening." Harry threw the knife down in frustration, knocking the slug he had been cutting onto the floor.
"You have got to be kidding me! I was failing your stupid class because no one picked up one really important book for me!?" Severus tried to reign in his anger.
"While it is suspicious that you were missing the same book year after year, you should have read the list carefully and noticed you were one short." Harry threw his hands up.
"I never saw the bloody list! I- You know what fine. Do you have the book here? I'll read it now." Snape was perplexed at the sudden change in attitude and sudden interest in proper brewing technique, but decided to hold his tongue. He was curious to see where this would go.
Severus walked over to one of the many book shelves and pulled out a slim, well-worn book. He passed it over to Harry and the boy immediately sat down and started reading it. Severus waited and watched as Harry's eyes grew wide. The boy dropped the book onto the table, dropped his head into the open pages and groaned.
"Are you serious? Are you actually serious? I always thought you just hated me and were being petty! I didn't know you cut different species of slugs different ways or that you even cut them like that!" Snape rolled his eyes.
"If you stop the dramatics, I would like to continue with the lesson." Harry slowly pulled his head up and, teeth clenched in frustration, nodded. Severus banished the ingredients on the table, causing Harry to look confused.
"I thought you said we would continue with the lesson." Snape sighed and walked back into the supply closet. When he emerged it was with buckets full of different slugs.
"I did, but our plans have changed again. You have not been given the knowledge your fellow students had so I will teach you from the beginning. You've read the chapter on slug preparation. I want you to prepare each of these to proper specifications and until I am satisfied that your skill is much improved." He set the large buckets down in front of Harry and the boy stared at them in trepidation.
"Sir…won't that just waste a bunch of ingredients? You always went on about how expensive they were." Snape snorted.
"Of course you remember that from my class. Some of these are expensive and some I could simply wander about in the gardens of the manor and catch a month's supply. I won't tell you which are which, so you'll just have to take care with all of them. Begin." Harry let out a breath and then reached into the closest bucket. He pulled out a slug, looked at the book by his elbow again and started cutting.
"We should have started your plan days ago! Who knows what they've done to Harry in the time we just been hanging about," Ron hissed at his brothers. The twins crossed their arms over their chests.
"You two need your wands and Mum's got them under lock and key! Do you really want to just pop into the Dark Lord's throne room without a wand?!" Fred was just as anxious as any of them to get Harry back, but the plan wouldn't work if half of the rescue party didn't have wands.
"If you two would actually pretend to do what they want they'd be more inclined to believe you and you'd have your wands back by now," Fred accused the couple. Over a week had passed since Dumbledore had sold Harry to Lucius Malfoy and they still hadn't enacted their rescue plan. There hadn't been any announcements in the papers about Harry Potter's body showing up anywhere, so they were hopeful.
"Well we might just have to take them at this point! You've got plenty of prank products. Isn't there something in your bag of tricks that will help?" They were all so desperate at this point that they didn't tease Hermione for suggesting stealing. George, who had been quiet up to that point, finally spoke.
"I heard Dumbledore and Mum talking. I think the Headmaster is planning something." He spoke quietly, even though they were in a secluded part of the house with a Privacy Spell up.
"Planning something? Like what?" George pursed his lips and shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but he's getting more and more frantic when he searches the newspaper in the mornings. It's like he's hoping to read something about Voldemort or maybe even Harry. He and Mum have been having a bunch of hushed conversations, and Mad Eye and Shacklebolt stopped by yesterday." They all soaked in the new information and were indeed concerned.
A creak on the stairs startled them, and George canceled the Privacy Spell. Fred pulled out his Exploding Snaps set in case someone wandered in, and they all held their breath.
"Albus, we've got to get him now. There hasn't been any news about the boy's death. They're probably turning him dark as we speak." Shacklebolt's voice drifted up the stairs and the four teenagers listened closely.
"I agree, Kingsley. Gather the Order members. I'm going to announce that Harry Potter has been kidnapped by Death Eaters while on holiday with his relatives. You'll need to hold Sirius back. He's too much of a wild card and would do anything to protect his Merlin-damned godson." The two wizards kept talking as they moved off and the four teens sat back. They weren't sure whether to cheer or scream.
Harry was going to be rescued, but only to go right back into the hands of the people who sold him in the first place.
The part where the unforgivable spells were originally created for non-evil purposes was inspired by a story I read. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called or who wrote it but if you do, please leave a comment with the information! It was a great story from what I can remember.
Also, I haven't read the HP books in a long time and can't tell you if the whole book-list thing for school is true or not so please just go with it. Take my "canon" with a grain of salt.
Please review!