Title: No Fortress Is So Strong
Summary: In 1981, the two Potter sons had their fates switched, and Nicolas Potter became a famous face. But there are those who know the truth, that the real Chosen One was the younger child. The Slytherin. Now, two brothers share a destiny.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Brothers. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Notes & Caveats: This is a rewrite of the fanfiction story Slytherin Serpent. The premise was originally thought up in 2004, rewritten in 2006, and rewritten again in 2009. This is the only complete version.
This chapter is as yet unbeta'ed for spelling, grammar, and brit-picking. I apologize for this in advance. If you spot any error, no matter how small, please tell me in a review so that I can fix it.
Many thanks to Micah, who examined this story for plot and continuity errors.
"When brothers agree, no fortress is so strong as their common life." ~Antisthenes
Chapter Thirteen: Puzzle Piece
Dumbledore's warnings had done as he'd wished, and neither Harry nor Nick went looking for the Mirror again. For the rest of the winter holidays, Harry entertained himself by playing with his brother and his friends. He even played a game of chess with a begrudging Ron Weasley and lost spectacularly.
Then, the night before the rest of the students returned, he dreamed of the three headed dog on the third floor. In his dream, he caught a flash of reflected flame in the blood-red surface of a ruby-like stone, and the vision startled him awake.
Unable to sleep for the remainder of the night, Harry huddled unhappily by the fire in the common room, and when the sun finally rose he forcibly put the somewhat disturbing images out of his mind and went up to breakfast early.
After term began, Nick was kept busy with Quidditch training, and it seemed like he was out on the pitch every spare moment Wood could get reserved.
The reason for this was the fast approaching Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game, and the fact that Snape had insisted on taking Hooch's place as referee.
The morning of the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match dawned overcast and cold. As usual, Harry made it a point to be up early to sit with Nick, although he persisted in heckling him quietly. Harry knew that if Gryffindor won this match they'd overtake Harry's own House in the points standings, and Harry was nothing if not a Slytherin.
By eleven-o-clock he was in the stands, dressed blatantly in favor of Hufflepuff with a black-and-yellow scarf. When the teams arrived, the Gryffindor team sent him rude hand gestures, which Harry gamely sent back twofold and with gruesome expressions as a supplement.
The game started with Gryffindor in possession, as Angelina Johnson grabbed the Quaffle.
"And they're off! Gryffindor in possession with Johnson flying like an eagle, she passes to Potter, who ducks Rogers, who's swinging a Beater's bat at his head – Potter drops the Quaffle, to be picked up by Cadwallader…"
Harry kept half an eye on the game and the other half on Quirrell, who was sitting docilely in the stands across from the Slytherin section, hands folded neatly in his lap.
Harry glanced back up at the game in time to see one of the Weasley twins whack a Bludger hard in Snape's direction. Snape neatly spun out of the way and raised his whistle to his lips.
"Foul called," Jordan said uncertainly. "For Hufflepuff. Cadwallader puts it away, ten-zero Hufflepuff, with Hufflepuff in possession."
Above the game, the Seekers flew like hawks, looking this way and that for the Snitch. Below them, Snape blew his whistle again for no apparent reason.
"Twenty-zero, Hufflepuff," Jordan said, getting angry. "Why, that – "
"AHEM!"
"Sorry, Professor. Hufflepuff in possession as they charge down the field, Quaffle intercepted by Potter's signature move – go Potter! He's really tearing down the field now, setting it up, he shoots – damn, blocked by the Hufflepuff Keeper. Good try, Nick – and Bell's diving! The Gryffindor Seeker is moving now, drops through the Chaser huddle – she's heading towards Snape, what's she doing…?"
Katie shot by Snape just an inch in front of his nose – the Professor rocked backwards in startled surprise, and Katie pulled out of her dive with the Snitch fluttering helplessly in her fist.
"GRYFFINDOR WINS!" Jordan shouted. "Hundred-fifty to twenty, Gryffindor! They're in the lead now!"
The Gryffindors roared with triumph, and Harry grabbed his hair in mixed exhilaration and frustration.
Afterwards, Harry waited outside the Gryffindor changing rooms for his brother to emerge, hoping to give him a quick slap on the back before he was called back to work on strategies with Flint in the common room. Wave after wave of scarlet-clad supporters passed, shouting congratulations through the changing room doors until at last they exhausted themselves and wandered back to the castle. Minutes later, Oliver Wood and all three girls came out. Harry merited a cordial nod from Wood and smiles from the girls, and when the two third year Weasley Beaters came after, merited a pair of hands ruffling his hair.
Then, at last, Nick emerged, still clutching his broom in his hands and with his dark red hair still dripping water.
"Nicely done, Nicolas," Harry said cheerfully, slapping his brother's shoulder.
"Thanks, Harry," Nick replied, smiling. "I kept thinking, you know, before the game…just a fluke, last time…"
"Never," Harry said, laughing. "You fly a broom like you're born to."
"Yeah," Nick chuckled. "Feels like it, when I'm up there."
"I know what you mean," Harry said bracingly. "You just wait – I'll be up there next year, when Higgs is gone."
"That'll be fun," Nick said, slinging an arm over Harry's shoulders. "You know, I wouldn't mind losing…every once in a while, if it was losing to you."
"Every once in a while!" Harry said, mock indignantly. "Try always! Ha!"
"You little brat," Nick said, lunging for him half-heartedly. Harry danced backwards, laughing tauntingly. Then Nick spotted something over Harry's shoulder and froze in surprise.
"It's Snape," he said dumbly, and Harry turned to look. Sure enough, a long-legged and prowling figure was coming down the front steps to the castle, striding across the lawn with his gaze focused into the distance. "C'mon," Nick whispered, leveling his broom and swinging a leg over it. Harry blinked and shrugged, getting on behind his brother. Snape was hurrying as fast as his legs would take him towards the Forbidden Forest. "Be very quiet, Harry," Nick breathed over his shoulder, and Harry nodded silently, his chin on his brother's shoulder. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Nick kicked off from the ground.
The two boys glided soundlessly over the castle, staying back and out of sight, watching as Snape entered the forest at a lope. Nick turned his head and looked at Harry out of the corner of his eye.
"What's Snape doing in the Forest when everyone's at dinner?" he asked quietly, and Harry shook his head in bewilderment. Now over the trees, Nick circled the broom lower and lower until he heard indistinct murmurs, and the pair of them alighted soundlessly on the thick limb of an ancient tree.
Below them, Snape had Quirrell's robes clenched in his fists aggressively, and Quirrell was stuttering worse than ever, so badly they could hardly make out what he was trying to say. Viciously, Snape cut him off.
"Have you managed to fool someone into telling you how to get past that beast of Hagrid's, yet?" Snape snarled, and shoved him away. Quirrell almost fell. Snape's voice grew louder and clearer, and angrier.
"You nearly killed that boy!" Snape almost screamed, and Quirrell huddled on the ground. "You aren't fooling me, Quirrell," Snape continued. "I'm watching you. You think it went unnoticed, your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'll be waiting."
Quirrell started stuttering again, but Snape cut him off.
"Very well. We'll have another little chat, very soon."
With that, Snape whirled on his heel and stalked away, robes billowing behind him, and Quirrell staggered to his feet and stared after him, silent and still.
As quietly as they could, Harry and Nick remounted Nick's broom and lifted away.
"What was that about?" Nick wondered when they were back at the broom shed, dropping off Nick's broom. Harry stuck his head out of the shed to make sure it was clear before beckoning to his brother.
"Quirrell was jinxing you during the Slytherin/Gryffindor before Christmas," Harry explained as they made for the castle. "Remember? You told me you knew you'd been jinxed."
"That was Snape!" Nick said, furrowing his brow in confusion. "Hermione Granger saw him chanting at me, not taking his eyes off me. My broom stopped trying to buck me off after she set fire to him."
"That was Hermione?" Harry said, and laughed out loud. "Goodness, I would never have thought. He came back with scorched robes and none of us dared to ask him what happened." Harry laughed again. "Hermione. Wow."
"Yeah," Nick said. "She caught him jinxing my broom."
"Well that's funny," Harry said musingly, "because I remember things quite differently. I remember Quirrell jinxing you, and me shoving him down the stands to make him stop. Your broom stopped trying to buck you off right after that."
"Er," Nick said intelligently, and Harry cuffed him lightly on the head.
"Clearly, one of them was issuing the counter jinx, and if that was the case, the conversation we just heard starts to make a bizarre kind of sense, doesn't it?
"I suppose," Nick said reluctantly. "Bloody hell though, I really hate Snape."
"He's a little frightening," Harry said, nodding, "but he's done a lot for me. I think he just doesn't like Gryffindors. Probably they weren't nice to him when he was in school."
"I suppose," Nick said again. "I still hate him, though."
"Yes well, I seriously dislike Draco Malfoy," Harry said, shrugging. "That doesn't mean I think he's trying to do you in."
"All right, all right," Nick grumbled. "I'll keep an eye on Quirrell."
"And please keep me in the know, will you?" Harry implored, and Nick nodded his head without hesitation.
"As soon as I know anything," he promised as he shoved open the door to the castle. They peered cautiously inside, but the Entrance Hall was empty.
"Okay," Harry whispered, squeezing in. "All clear. Come on."
"What are you doing now?"
"Flint was taking notes the whole game," Harry said, grinning wickedly. "I'm sure I'm terribly late for the Slytherin team strategy meeting, but it was worth it. Gotta run, though. See you later!"
"Bye, Harry!" Nick called, and hurried up the marble staircase towards Gryffindor tower. Harry jumped down the stairway that led to the dungeons, and almost collided with Flint at the bottom. Only a sharp twist of his body saved him from being knocked out on Flint's chest.
"Potter!" Flint said, nearly spitting he was so angry. "Where have you been?!"
"Sorry, Flint!" Harry babbled, looking up at his team Captain with a wide-eyed look of innocence. "Sorry, won't happen again!"
"Get back to the common room!" Flint spat, herding Harry along the dark corridor. "You'll be dodging double Bludgers next practice, for this!"
Harry felt his mouth stretch wide in a wicked, laughing grin.
"Guys," Nick said breathlessly as he all but fell through the portrait hole. "Guys, guess what?"
"Where have you been?" Hermione demanded, hands on her hips. Nick spared a moment wondering why she was in the Gryffindor Common Room when she was a Ravenclaw, but the thought was chased right out of his head before he thought to ask.
"You won!" Jon said gleefully, pounding Nick on his already abused back.
"Never mind that," Nick said, tugging insistently on Jon's sleeves. "Just wait until you hear this…come on, let's go find somewhere quiet."
Lifting his head, Nick waved madly to Katie, who stared at him with a furrowed brow. Something in his face must have alerted her to something amiss, for she rose to her feet and left her group of friends to step up to him. Nick tugged on her sleeve impatiently, gesturing at the portrait hole, then pulled Jon, Hermione, and Katie out into the corridor and down to an empty classroom, where he shut the door firmly. He then proceeded to tell them everything he and Harry had heard down in the Forest.
"And Harry thinks one of them was spelling a counter-curse, and he thinks it was Snape," he finished, out of breath.
"So Harry thinks Quirrell was jinxing you?" Hermione asked uncertainly. "But why?"
"I don't know yet," Nick said, shaking his head. "But I know how we can find out. And we need to get Harry's help – he can keep an eye on Snape and Quirrell when we can't. Come on, let's go to the library."
"We should write down everything we know," Hermione nodded, struggling with the heavy oak door. Jon helped, heaving against it to open it. All four students slipped out and shoved the door closed again, and Hermione led the way towards the library, where they would put their heads together and figure out what was going on.