Chapter 14
"Ron, please! You know I hate flying!" Hermione screamed as she clung on to Ron's shirt. They were speeding after Harry's Firebolt and passing students left stunned in their wake. "What's going on?" Ahead of them, Hermione could hear Harry yell in warning to other unsuspecting students. Ron muttered apologies to some of those who dodged out of their path in time.
"I don't know. Harry just… He nearly fell off his broom during Quidditch practice. Then he grabbed me and asked where you were. Then we came to fetch you. I don't know Hermione. Harry's got hit one too many times by the Bludger I reckon." Ron shouted back. He steered his broom with sheer skill and recklessness, until they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office, where Hermione and Ron saw Harry halt his broom.
"Password," Harry turned his head to them and said hoarsely. "What's the password?"
"Harry," said Hermione unnerved, "What happened?"
"No time… no time." Harry shook his head in a way that betrayed his increasing franticness. "Password."
As if the gargoyle sensed Harry's urgency, it leapt back even though none of the trio had said the password.
"What do you know." Ron shrugged and realised that Dumbledore was standing behind the gargoyle.
Dumbledore frowned.
"I wanted to see Professor McGonagall but it seems that you have some pressing matters." He led them to his office, where Ron landed his broom unceremoniously into an unexpected cupboard that he swore appeared out of nowhere. When Ron and Hermione got off the broom and walked to Dumbledore's table, Harry was already standing there talking to Dumbledore rapidly.
"He got into my head professor. Somehow. I tried to block him. I really did!" Harry cried, "But he still managed to break in."
"Are you referring to Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked quietly as he sat behind the table. Beside her, Hermione felt Ron flinch as usual whenever the name was uttered.
"Yes! It can't be! I practised really hard." Harry gestured at Hermione, "Hermione's been helping me Professor. I've been practising! It hasn't happened. Not since the holidays. I practised!" There was such a wild desperation in Harry's voice that Hermione and Ron could not refrain from reaching out to their friend and comforting him. "He got into my head!"
"You have been practising Occlumency on your own I believe." Dumbledore said and he glanced at Hermione. She understood that Severus had informed him of their summer activities.
"Yes. I have. Oh Professor I have! And now he's messing up my mind again!" Harry appeared so affected, that Hermione knew that whatever event he had witnessed, real and fake, was devastating.
So Voldemort had not given up his hold on Harry. Nor had Harry successfully repelled Voldemort's attempts to read his mind or even possess him. And Voldemort had just done what Harry had prayed would not happen when Harry was conscious too. Hermione worried for Harry, but if anything, she was also relieved that she had not told Harry and Ron yet of Severus's friendship with her. It would have put Severus under unnecessary and serious risk of being exposed to Voldemort through Harry's thoughts.
"Calm down Harry." Dumbledore said. "You must calm down and tell us what you saw."
"I saw… I saw… Probus Professor." Harry said unsteadily, causing Hermione to gasp. "Adora Probus sir. That can't be right, can it Professor?" Harry's forehead creased as his eyebrows lifted in bewilderment. "And I heard him laugh. Oh god, that laugh…" Harry closed his eyes momentarily as he recalled the piercing, maniacal laughter that would chill even his most loyal followers. "He was pleased. Very pleased. And then… then I saw someone else… Another wizard. Not so much older than us. He looked familiar. He looked so familiar! I can't remember!" He said wretchedly, "My god, he's dead!"
And the images flooded Harry's mind. A memory, as seen through Voldemort's perspective. The deliberate interrogation that Voldemort subjected his man to, until that unknown yet familiar-looking wizard realised that he had been discovered to have betrayed his master. That slow, agonising revelation that he was going to die could be read from his eyes. Then Voldemort attacked him. Blood, bone, screaming and then more screaming. Until… until…
"Harry!" Ron shouted as Harry staggered backwards and would have collapsed if not for Ron's strong grip. Ron said, "Easy Harry. I've got you."
Dumbledore summoned forward a sofa to the front of his table for the three students to sit in.
"That was inconsiderate of me." Dumbledore murmured, "I should have summoned the sofa when you came in. But… I was anxious."
Bit by bit, Harry managed to describe the horrors the wizard had undergone before he finally died. He also described the wizard's appearance, which prompted Hermione and Dumbledore to exchange looks of fear when they realised just who it was Harry had seen killed.
"You saw Roger Everett Harry." Hermione whispered, "Oh, of all the wizards, you saw him!"
Harry was too shaken to wonder at Hermione's intense tone but Ron glanced swiftly at Hermione.
"What do you mean Hermione?" Ron asked.
But before Hermione could respond, Harry spoke up, "I don't even know if it's real."
At that, Dumbledore stood up. He walked over to them and grasped Harry's arm firmly.
"We should take you to the Hospital Wing. You don't look well Harry."
"I'm fine. I will be. I'm not a child." Harry said without a hint of resentment. He was worn out.
"Nevertheless a rest will do you good. Come." Dumbledore brought Harry out of the office and Ron and Hermione followed closely, after remembering to carry their brooms with them.
At the Hospital Wing, as Harry was put to bed and fussed over by Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore asked solemnly, "You say you saw Adora Probus Harry."
"A flash. That's it. Is it real Professor?" Harry asked.
"We shall find out. For now, rest." They watched over Harry as the young wizard swallowed down a bottle of Dreamless Sleep Potion and soon drifted into slumber.
===
Days would pass before any further news of Adora was heard. After Harry had fallen asleep, Dumbledore made quick inquiries as to Adora's whereabouts. Soon, word spread that Adora had not been seen since Herbology class and that Monto was also missing. A hurried search in the school's premises done by the Prefects and the professors revealed Derek Monto lying in one of the unused storerooms.
When Derek regained consciousness, he related what he and Adora had gone through and was anxious to find out what had become of his friend. Question after question put forward by Dumbledore or Flitwick were met with confusion and vague recollections. All Derek could say was that they had gone to look for Adora's books in the greenhouse when they were attacked. The voices he heard were assuredly male but he had no idea to whom they belonged. But he believed that he could point them out if he heard those voices again.
Hence, not taking any chances, Dumbledore compelled all the male students to go before Derek and speak the words he had heard the two attackers uttered. Dumbledore stayed beside Derek to make sure that none of the students tested had placed charms on themselves to alter their voices. It was a weary task, but Derek staunchly stuck to it, determined to help find Adora. A couple of days later, he cheered to uncover one, even though it was unexpected and devastating for the young Ravenclaw to know that it had been a senior Ravenclaw who had betrayed them.
Flerigin stormed and protested and accused Derek of lying. After much persuasion, stern warnings, and finally, a death-threat of poisoning from Severus, a pale-faced Flerigin admitted his crime and told the staff who his partner was. Between the two of them, they confessed everything they knew. According to Gaudeo, Flerigin's partner, someone disguised under a hood had approached them while they were in Hogsmeade one day. This person somehow knew that they had been breaking several laws of sneaking out Muggle equipment they had tinkled with Charms of their own and selling them to the shops in Knockturn Alley. He had then blackmailed them into following his instructions or he would have told the Ministry what the two boys had done.
And so Gaudeo and Flerigin had obeyed him. After knocking Adora unconscious, they had brought her to the mysterious wizard who had been waiting for them in the Dark Forest. Both students swore that they had no idea the wizard would take her away. They swore too, with shaky voices and trembling hands, that they did not think things would become so serious.
"They didn't think. They never think," was all Severus said to Hermione regarding the matter when they were together in his office.
The Hogwarts staff was kept well-informed of the proceedings in the days that followed. Several members from the Order were dispatched to seek out Adora. There was no need for secrecy at this point as in the previous time Remus and Mundungus had set out to look for the Probus family. Hogwarts had officially announced that one of their students had been seized, and that it was most probably Voldemort who was responsible for her disappearance. It was not just an ordinary search for a witch or a fight against the Dark Lord. This was now personal. Everyone in Hogwarts felt the gravity of the situation. Adora was now just like any other Hogwarts student, regardless of her family. Like everyone, she had been under the protection of Hogwarts and yet had been snatched under everyone's nose. The staff was angered, the students were solemn. Even the ghosts knew better than to disturb the living.
Everyday at lunch and dinner, the students would look furtively at the staff table, wondering if there were any news. But there was none, and as the days passed, Hogwarts was plunged into deeper sorrow.
The staff agreed, as did Hermione, that it was most probably Voldemort who had forced Everett to kidnap Adora. But if Harry's account was genuine, and Everett was dead, it could also mean that Everett, in his attempt to redeem himself in Voldemort's eyes, gave whatever valuable information he had, including Severus being a spy for Dumbledore. That logical supposition would explain why Voldemort had not waited for Severus to fulfill his duty of bringing Adora to him. Voldemort was now aware that Severus would never have harmed the Probus family. Thus, he had struck quickly and decisively. It was a massive blow to the Order, and to Severus, most of all. Severus had taken upon himself to look after the Probus children. Hermione knew how particularly attached he was to them, although he did not show it to the rest of the world.
If anything, Severus had grown harsher and colder to the people around him. His replies to any inquiry were curt and detached. He did not even bother to wrap them in sarcasm anymore.
Hermione watched him and worried. She saw the black despair he was wallowing in, as if everything was his fault. For a moment, she hated Voldemort. Severus had just begun to hope, but Voldemort had robbed him even of that ray of light. Now, the fatalistic streak Severus had suppressed was threatening to break out.
===
"Longbottom! Why I have never known a student to be this blind!" Snape cried when he saw that Neville's potion was not orange but red.
"It's… it's not so bad is it Professor?" Neville tried to salvage the situation, "It's just a darker shade…"
"A darker shade? A darker shade? And you call yourself a wizard?" Snape scooped a ladle of potion from Neville's cauldron and his nostrils twitched in disgust, "This, Longbottom, is failure! It must be orange and nothing else. Not red, not yellow, for pity's sake. Orange!"
Neville's head bowed in dismay. Hermione wondered that he chose Potions as part of his N.E.W.T.S. and decided that after all, it was natural for Neville to desire following in his parents' footsteps and become an Auror. Her heart went out to Neville whenever she thought of how he had never truly known a parent's love too, much like Harry, despite Neville's parents being alive. Strange that Neville should fear Severus so much, even though he was one of the strongest and bravest lads Hermione knew. At age seventeen, Neville did not stutter in front of Severus, but remnants of fear remained and Neville was still quite clumsy in Potions now and then. With the tension the whole school was feeling in this difficult period of time, Neville was especially careless. Severus was just amazed that he had allowed Neville to pass the O.W.L.S. and have a place in his Advanced Potions classes.
"Clear up clear up clear up." Snape sneered at Neville. "It is a useless concoction. Make another one Longbottom. And this time, try to remember to put in the beetle wings when the potion turns orange."
"We're just on edge professor." Harry tried to explain for Neville. "It's Adora Probus and we…"
"You are of course naturally worried." There was a curious infraction in Snape's tone. Everyone recognised the warning signs and discretely turned their attention to their books or cauldron. Not so Harry Potter. Although the animosity between Snape and him had lessened because they had avoided each other as far as possible since their last disastrous Occlumency lesson in Harry's fifth year, there was no love lost between them. Harry might not blame Snape for Sirius's death anymore, but it did not mean that he had begun to respect Snape. Nor was Snape anxious to make up to Harry for his foul display of temper when he had thrown Harry out of his office for looking into Snape's Pensieve.
As Snape strode towards Harry's table, Harry was slightly taken aback. He had almost forgotten his face-to-face confrontations with Snape and now it was happening in front of his class.
Snape stared at him for several moments.
"Does the fact that Miss Probus has gone missing distress you Potter?" Snape's voice was dangerously soft. As it were, Harry saw that Snape was trying to contain his rage.
"Yes of course."
"Sir."
"Sir."
"And how does distress help the situation?"
"It doesn't… sir." Harry said resentfully.
"Ah… it does not help… but it disrupts our daily activities so much." Snape gave a swift glance in Neville's direction, and Neville gulped. Snape turned his attention back to Harry, "Then why do we waste our energies in distress?"
Harry was seething. He knew where the discussion was leading and he hated it.
"We distress because we care for our friends."
"Touching." Snape said grimly, "But still undeniably it gets in the way of what needs to be done. Emotion, Potter, tends to block our better judgment and cause us to become reckless. Emotion is unnecessary to make a successful potion and as Longbottom demonstrates so lamentably, it ruins any attempt at all. Don't you agree, Potter?"
Harry had enough of this kind of talk with Snape during their Occlumency lessons. And hence, he yelled.
"How are you be this cold?" Harry's outburst rang throughout the classroom and everyone stopped his or her work. They were entranced by Harry and Snape, the one indignant, the other unmoved.
"Don't you care? Don't you care what happens? How can you stand there and pretend that Adora's not with Voldemort?" As usual, everyone gasped at the name. Snape continued staring at Harry. Both ignored the rest.
"She might be…" Harry did not dare say that unspoken thought out loud. "How can you be so inhuman?"
No one heard Snape mutter, but Harry did.
"Because it is wearisome to be human."
And Harry remembered what he had told Dumbledore after Sirius had died.
Snape next spoke for all to hear.
"If you cannot help how you feel, then you must learn to take your emotions in their stride. If you want to do well in your lessons and come out of them as a wiser student, you must work to make sure you succeed. Do not say that you have tried. That is not enough. You must succeed." And although Snape wrapped his message in terms of schoolwork, how odd it was that everyone was hearing something else. Something closer to the danger that surrounded them and the impending war all were secretly preparing for.
There was silence for a terrible while. Then, all the students jumped at the sound of bells signalling the end of Potions.
"Class dismissed. Clean up and get out." And as though it were an afterthought, Snape said, "And ten points from Gryffindor." He then swept out of the dungeons leaving everyone too stunned to react. When finally, a cough broke the spell, the students gathered their belongings and things settled to normalcy, or what passed off as it. When Harry went to join Ron, he learnt that Hermione had long left the classroom.
===
"Severus." Hermione whispered uncertainly as she approached him. Severus was sitting on the stairs leading to one of the unused towers. She sat beside him, waiting for Severus to acknowledge her presence. His stillness was frightening. Hermione wondered at it. It seemed that the more distraught Severus was, the more reclusive he behaved. It was, as she believed, a defence mechanism.
"Hermione." Severus exhaled her name. It sounded hollow and far away. Severus looked up and said, "Tell me. In all honesty, do you think Adora's dead?"
Hermione reached out and grasped his hand, cold under her touch.
"In all honesty, Severus, I do not. Vol—He wouldn't simply kill her."
"Then is she… incapacitated?" Severus shuddered at the thought of Adora meeting a fate worse than death.
"I don't know." Hermione replied.
"Why isn't there news yet? What game is the Dark Lord playing at? Does he enjoy toying with us? Oh yes. Oh yes he's enjoying it. He revels in our torment as we turn around every corner not knowing what to expect…"
Hermione realised in shock that Severus was trembling.
"See how you reprimand Harry and you yourself are worried sick." She chided and wrapped her arm round Severus's thin back.
Severus jumped at her touch. Then he realised with a sort of surrealism that she had been holding his hand and he had not noticed. He looked to see Hermione's eyes filled with sympathy and that same fear he read in everyone's eyes. Gingerly, he embraced her in return and wondered at both of their boldness.
"What a damned fool I was to become attached to those two girls. Look what good it has done." Severus hissed in anger, "A member under the Order's protection ought to be a unit, nothing more. A student in Hogwarts is a factor to be taught, nothing more. Would that I have stuck to that policy. And," he added bitterly, "extended that same treatment to you too I perceive. Do you realise we are holding each other?"
"Like the friends we are." Hermione responded firmly, conveying her belief that this was no mere gesture but a genuine exchange of trust and reliance. "Just as it should be.
Severus sighed in release. "What a Gryffindor you are." Then he observed, "Potter looked unwell."
"He hasn't been sleeping soundly." Hermione replied. "Ron says he wakes the whole dormitory with recurring dreams of Cedric and Sirius. And Harry worries about Voldemort manipulating his mind."
"I must have a word with the Headmaster. He must do something for Potter. Everyone pins hope on him… if the prophecy is anything to believe in."
"What prophecy?" Hermione asked.
"No one has told you?" Severus was surprised.
After Hermione listened to Trelawney's prophecy, she said carefully, "It's not… unexpected. Shocking, yes, but… Harry and Voldemort are so linked together." She paused, "Maybe Harry didn't tell us because he didn't want us to know that in the end, he'll either turn martyr or murderer."
"I do not call killing a monster murder Hermione."
"Severus, Harry has never killed anyone before."
"Yes. He'll have to come to grips with it, the sooner the better." Severus continued in a strange sing-song fashion, "And they say that a hero will save us."
"Harry doesn't want to be a hero." Hermione said sadly.
"There are times when a person cannot stem the tide that overwhelms him. It is an evil wind blowing. What will become of us Hermione?"
They sat together for a long time.
"You should go Hermione." Severus said, "If anyone were to find us here in this somewhat compromising position, it would be…"
"Don't think so little of me professor. I put a ward around the area as soon as I found you."
"And so did I when I saw you come."
Both chuckled.
Hermione continued, "Anyway, there're no lessons for the rest of the day. I can stay here."
"How considerate." Severus said dryly and then solemnly, "It is very good of you Hermione."
"You must be tired if you pay me such compliments." Hermione observed bemusedly. "Did you sleep at all?"
"Ah…" Severus said in a long-suffering manner. "My poor, self-abused being is surrounded by good-willed people who insist that I eat three hearty meals a day and sleep eight hours every night. I slept Hermione, not well I grant you, but I did sleep."
"Then a simple draught should help you."
"Perhaps." Severus said, "But I wish to remain alert. The Dark Lord is wont to summon me in the nocturnal hours."
"He hasn't, has he?"
"No. If he had, I would have found out what the deuce he's done to Adora. I…" Severus stopped abruptly. Then he pushed Hermione away brusquely. Eyes widening, Severus rolled up his sleeve automatically. Then he paused. "No, you should not see this."
He stood up, and Hermione followed suit. Both of them started walking down the corridor. Severus instructed Hermione to tell the Headmaster that he was leaving.
"Voldemort's calling for you." Hermione whispered in fear.
"Yes. Speak of the devil eh?"
It was horrid to lose Adora. Seeing Severus walk to uncertain death was just as unbearable.
"But Severus," Hermione pleaded, "He knows about you."
"We don't know what Everett's told the Dark Lord. Don't worry. The Dark Lord has a tendency to channel his emotions through the Mark on our arms. He has no intention to kill that much I can sense."
"Severus I'm frightened."
Severus stopped walking and moved to her. But to Hermione's acute pain, his arms fell back as quickly as he had stretched them out and she saw Severus step away from her.
"I have my duties Hermione." Severus said quietly, "I must find out what the Dark Lord's up to." Then he winced at the burning sensation coming from the Dark Mark on his arm.
"Are you very much in pain?"
"No."
"Are you lying?"
"Yes. I'm trying to put a brave front to you." Severus said in self-deprecation. "Now go."
And Severus was caught off-guard when Hermione brushed her lips against his cheek and said, "Keep safe."
===
"My Lord, I am here." Severus said calmly.
"Severus." The voice was one of deceptive sorrow. If Severus were his younger self, he would have been persuaded that the Dark Lord was still capable of compassion. But years of associating with Voldemort made Severus keenly aware of his master's false humanity. Therein lay Voldemort's success. He could charm anyone, including Dumbledore when he was a student, into believing that he was an innocent and earnest person, who wanted only to help everyone. Coupled with his intelligence, Voldemort advocated new and impressive doctrines and ideas that perplexed the conventions and fired the imagination. The Dark Lord could be very seductive when wooing any wizard's or witch's support. However, when one drew close to him, one realised that Voldemort was nothing more than a madman.
How Severus recoiled from this formidable wizard. Yet how he revered him, even now that he was working against him and their viewpoints were different. Severus understood completely what drove Voldemort. Like Barty Crouch Jr., he saw the similarities he shared with the Dark Lord. They all felt that life had shortchanged them and society had been unkind. They had groped about in vain for some kind of answer and tried to impose their very perception of order on a chaotic world. Severus saw in the Dark Lord what he could have become, had he been blinded too, by the hunger for power and prestige. He pictured himself succumbing to the Dark Arts and all they had to offer. Whatever the reason was, he had held back. And he managed to survive with a sort of broken conscience.
And now, Severus understood fully why he was summoned. He did not exactly lie to Hermione. But he had omitted the feeling that Voldemort knew to soothe her. Hermione's kiss, he admitted secretly, felt as if it were her goodbye.
Faced with Voldemort, Severus bowed and said. "My lord, you are displeased."
"Have you been prepared for this Severus?" Voldemort whispered. He gestured at Severus and together, they walked around the caves that Voldemort adopted as his lair.
"I have come prepared my lord, if it means anything." Severus said.
"Always so respectful Severus. Oh my boy, how shall I deal with you?" Voldemort sighed. He lifted his wand and whispered a charm. "Here is someone for you to meet Severus."
For a fleeting second, Severus nearly fainted when a decomposing corpse appeared in front of them. But on closer inspection, the body belonged to an adult, and definitely not Adora. Already there were maggots crawling out from it.
"My lord, I cannot recognise the face."
"But you can guess." Voldemort said sternly.
"It is Roger Everett my lord."
"Yes. I have been suspecting his loyalties for some time. When he went to you, he implicated both you and him immediately."
"You sent that vision to Potter to warn Dumbledore that Potter was vulnerable and to test my reaction. To see if Everett's words were true."
"Yes, that is astute of you. You knew and still you came." Voldemort admonished, "That is unwise of you. A Slytherin thinks first and foremost for himself, unless you are my true servant. Then you will do everything for me. But I know you came to see the Probus child and not me. I am disappointed, very disappointed."
"Will you show her to me master, or will you kill me?"
Voldemort laughed, "You know me well Severus. That quivering Everett had tried to negotiate with me. I! Lord Voldemort does not negotiate with anyone."
"He does not know you indeed my lord."
"At least he had valuable information for me and succeeded in engaging those two Ravenclaws." Voldemort said, "And what have you to give me Severus?"
Severus sighed. "Nothing you want. No more games my lord."
"Yes, no more games. You were once my worthy servant and companion Severus. The wars we fought side by side would always be our glorious memories. You have been my worthy opponent who turned spy for the enemy. But now, it is checkmate Severus."
Voldemort swished his wand and from one of the tunnels came Adora, controlled under Imperio.