Version: 1.0 (2006); 1.1 (2012)

Chapter 20: Detention

As mid-March arrived, so did the Quidditch matches. First up was Hufflepuff versus Slytherin. Hufflepuff's team wasn't that good this year so they never had a chance, even with a lot of penalty shots. The game ended 330-80 in Slytherin's favor.

The next weekend was Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw had a pretty good team this year, but Harry knew he could outfly Cho Chang any day of the week; so the game would be decided by the Chasers. If they could keep Gryffindor even close, Harry would win it for them. Harry's catch, coupled with Ron having an exceptionally good day, left the score at 340-140. Ginny scored twelve goals all by herself; and when they double teamed her, Katie took advantage of the situation to score six of her own.

Monday afternoon, Harry again faced Dumbledore in a dueling contest. To prepare, he'd been reading the books in his portable library trunk with a vengeance. He'd also discussed some of the spells Dumbledore had used last time with Professor Cobb to learn more about them, as well as how to block or defend against them.

Harry looked at Tonks, who gave him an encouraging sign before she started them. Taking a risk by not using a shield, Harry started with a Cutting Curse and a wandless Stunning Spell. He had to dodge like crazy, but survived the first wave of spells and did his best to overcome his professor by shear volume of magic. A very hard four and a half minutes, double Stunning Spells, one with his wand and one wandlessly, finally did the trick. The Headmaster couldn't dodge that many spells that quickly.

His joy was so complete, if she hadn't been in Binns's class, Ginny would have gotten in trouble for knocking all her things off her desk when the wave of euphoria hit her. He enjoyed Ginny's congratulatory kiss later.

As Dumbledore slowly rose from the floor after Tonks had revived him, he congratulated Harry and felt some hope for the young man; however, he still had concerns. Dumbledore didn't want to dampen the boy's morale by pointing out the spell selection was in Harry's favor. Albus knew spells that would have ended the match sooner, but to have used them on Harry was unthinkable. The bare room with a lack of materials to transfigure was also to Harry's advantage. Also, Albus was certain that if he had been even ten years younger, Harry probably wouldn't have had a chance; the Headmaster knew his age and condition were now liabilities. Albus kept those thoughts to himself as he knew Harry would be getting even better with time and a confidence boost could help that.

Tuesday was not as good, however. Harry made an honest mistake in Potions that day. He'd been so engrossed in trying to understand the instructions that he'd forgotten to stir. Heating up too fast, his cauldron spewed its contents all over his workstation. Unfortunately for him, Snape was standing behind him watching and he got some goop on him too.

"Detention tonight at seven, Potter," Snape growled. "I don't think you're going to get it all cleaned up before class is over."

Harry groaned to himself. He didn't dare make a sound out loud lest Snape make it worse. He had planned on spending at least a little time with Ginny, but he now guessed that was not going to happen. "Yes, Professor."

After dinner, Harry went down to the Potions lab and Ginny decided at the last minute to walk with him before heading to the library. When they reached the door to Snape's class, Harry turned to Ginny. "I'm sorry about this, Ginny. I know I've ruined our evening."

"Sssh," she told him. "The apology earlier was enough. Hopefully, you'll be done early and we can have a few minutes by the fire in the common room before going to bed." Trying to comfort him a little more, she stood up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before swishing her hair as she turned around and slowly sauntered away to go to the library.

Her teasing had the appropriate affect as Harry couldn't take his eyes off of her. With his mantra of I'm a Gryffindor going through his head, he opened the classroom door and went in to face his detention.

He had barely entered the classroom when he heard Snape sneer, "Late as usual, Potter." He saw Snape fling a spell at the door causing it to close and lock. The unusual action had Harry reaching for his wand, but not soon enough.

Snape then fired a bludgeoning spell at Harry, who dodged enough so it only grazed him. Still, Harry screamed in pain as he knew his left arm had to be broken, it hurt so badly. It wouldn't respond to any command he gave it, except to shoot waves of pain through him.

Ginny was starting up the stairs leading from the dungeon when she felt an incredibly large spike of pain, then anger and betrayal mixing into the emotional surge, from Harry. While she had no idea what had just happened to him, there was only one thing to do. She jumped down the three steps she'd gone up and ran as fast as she could back towards the Potions lab.

Harry saw a workstation next to him on his right and scrambled behind it as bolt of red magical energy shot through the space he'd just been standing in. His wand in his good hand, he cast a reflective shield in front of him and peered over the work table to find Snape, only to have a Stunner hit his shield and bounce off to hit jars of unknown potion ingredients on a shelf on the side of the room. Harry's anger was solidly focused on Snape now, but he did his best to keep his anger under control so he could try to think of a way out of this. Now that he knew where Snape was, he fired a Stunner of his own, but Snape neatly blocked it. They continued to trade spells, blocking and dodging where necessary. Snape was gaining the advantage because Harry's injury significantly decreased his mobility.

Ginny finally made it to the classroom only to find the door locked. A simple "Alohomora" did nothing to it. Feeling Harry's anger continuing to mount, still with a large amount of pain, she threw all caution to the wind and shot her heaviest bludgeoning spell at the door. It wasn't until after she saw it splinter into what must have been hundreds of pieces and fly inward that she guiltily hoped Harry hadn't been behind the now non-existent door. She registered surprise from Harry, quickly followed by determination.

Dropping her book bag, she started to run into the classroom only to have a bolt of energy sail through the doorway where she would have been had she not paused to deal with her bag. But with that out of the way, she felt mostly safe to create her strongest shield. With it glowing slightly golden at the edges and pointed towards where the spell had come from, she now ran into the room and scanned it for Harry so she could join him.

When Harry heard the door blow in, he finally felt Ginny's desperation pierce his own feelings. With the knowledge that she was about to join him, he again stood up and this time shot a concussion spell at Snape. While it only hit the man's shield, it was still quite effective because Snape was flinging a Stunner at the doorway to catch whoever was trying to come in, and the concussion blindsided him, throwing him to the floor, unfortunately without any real damage.

The distraction gave Ginny time to come through the doorway and see Harry not far away from her. Half a dozen strides later, she was crouched behind the solid workstation with him.

"Oh Harry, what happened?!" Ginny tried to put her hand on his arm so they could power share.

Harry gave a cry of pain as she jostled his left arm. Doing his best to ignore the pain, he told her, "My arm is broken. Put your hand on my neck so we can take care of this git." As she did so, her shield failed, but Harry was already conjuring up another one; this one with their combined strength. As it came up, it clanged loudly from some spell Snape had used, indicating he had recovered from the concussion and was back on the attack.

"Give it up, Potter! Even your pathetic girlfriend can't help you now."

Anger rose up in Harry again, but he contained it just long enough to whisper to Ginny, "Hit him with any spell you can, just focus to use all your energy. I need you to break his shield."

Ginny couldn't cast with her left hand nearly as well as Harry could, and she'd have to do that because her right hand was holding onto his neck. Still, she thought she could do a Stunner. Nodding to him, she stood up behind his shield and concentrated as hard as she could while shouting, "Stupefy!" As she felt the spell leave her wand, she felt Harry stand up and heard him shout, "Expelliarmus!"

While Ginny's Stunner didn't quite break through Snape's shield and stun him, it did collapse the professor's shield. That allowed Harry's Expelliarmus to hit Snape fully in the body, a body which flew backwards the nine feet to the blackboard on the wall and hit with a crack. Harry wasn't sure if the cracking sound was the blackboard or Snape's bones; he frankly didn't care, though he sort of hoped it came from snapping bones. Snape's wand came flying through the air at Harry; since he couldn't catch it and still hold his own wand with only one hand, he ducked to let it fly by, but Ginny lifted her hand from Harry's neck and caught it. Their shield fell at the loss of contact, but neither cared too much as it was pretty obvious Snape wasn't going anywhere soon.

Harry slowly advanced on Snape with his wand warily trained on the greasy haired Potions master. As he was about to have Ginny tie him up, it occurred to him to be a little more careful. "Accio Portkeys!" An object on a necklace and a Knut in Snape's cloak came flying to him. Now that the stress of battle had lessened, he thought to use a quick levitation charm to catch them in the air; then he dropped them to the floor on his right side where they wouldn't get in the way.

"Ginny, would you please move him to a chair and tie him there. I think Snivellus," he snarled the name, "and I need to talk and I don't want him leaving us."

"My pleasure, Harry." Ginny levitated him over and shot ropes out the end of her wand to keep the Potions master in place. While she was doing that, she noticed Harry doing another spell on him. "What spell was that?" she asked.

"An Anti-Disapparation spell. He shouldn't be able to do it here, but I'm really paranoid right now. Be right back," he told her as he strode towards Snape's personal potion closet. Searching the shelves, he quickly found the "V's" in the orderly closet. Seeing the label he was looking for, he grabbed one of the small phials of the potion he wanted.

Returning to Ginny and what he thought of as his prisoner, he handed her the small phial. "I'm really sorry to have to ask you to touch him, but can you please dump some of this down his throat? I can't even uncork it with one hand much less make him drink it."

She looked at the label on the phial then looked up at him. "Harry, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. I have to know. I have to know several things and this is the only way to find out."

"But shouldn't we get the headmaster?" It wasn't that Ginny was afraid to do this, she just didn't want Harry to get in trouble.

"We will ... after I have a few answers and know what's going on, we'll get others down here. Just open his mouth and pour several drops in. I'll give it a minute or so to take affect before I awake him so he can't fight it." Harry seemed so in control on the outside, though she could still feel his feelings of anger, betrayal, and pain. Seeing that control gave her the confidence to see this through. So she popped the cork off, then pulled Snape's chin down, pushed his head back, and poured a dose from the phial down the man's throat.

While they waited the short time to make sure the potion took affect, Ginny asked him, "So how's your arm?"

"Definitely been better," he told her before he turned to look at her. "Ginny, I'm so glad you came back. I can't tell you enough how good it felt to have you take the door out and come running through." Giving her a small smirk, he also told her, "You're definitely my hero for rescuing me."

She gave him a small laugh. "That's heroine, you prat!" She also gave him a light kiss on the cheek before she turned serious. "I was so scared though. When I felt the wave of panic and pain come from you, it was so intense I thought I'd hurt myself for the first second or two. When I realized you were in trouble, I was ready to do anything to make you safe again." Ginny stopped to study his lovely eyes for a moment. "I think ... I think I now realize why you feel so protective of me." She continued to gaze at him. "If anything ever happened to you, I don't know how I'd go on; it would be so difficult. So you never let it happen, you hear me, Potter?" She had ended on a fierce note, but Harry loved her for it, for her love for him. He reached over and put his good arm around her for a brief moment drawing her in for a hug and to kiss the top of her head as he held her close.

Letting go of her, he retrained his wand on his prisoner and told her, "Let's get some answers. Enervate!" Snape came to and Harry was pleased to see a somewhat glassy look in his eyes, as well as a numb look on his face.

"Severus Snape," he said crisply, "to whom is your allegiance, to Dumbledore or to Voldemort?"

"To the Dark Lord," came back the monotone answer. Ginny gasped and Harry hung his head, though he could think of several curses that would fit, swearing just didn't seem useful at this time.

"Has your allegiance always been to the Dark Lord, or have you switch sides over time?"

"Always for the Dark Lord."

Harry finally swore, commenting darkly on the Headmaster's ancestry and stupidity. Looking at Ginny, he gave her a "Sorry."

"That's OK," she told him. "I was thinking something similar, and I'm not Hermione, so I'm not going to correct you."

Harry smiled at her then became grim as he asked the next question. "What were you trying to do tonight? What was your goal?"

"I was trying to capture Harry Potter and take him to the Dark Lord to complete my mission."

Harry felt the surge of anger, which was the only thing that allowed him to use his Seeker reflexes to stop her hand before she could cast a spell at Snape. "Ginny, stop!" He was having to struggle to hold her with only one arm. "We need him a little while longer; then we can send him to the giant squid, or maybe the giant spiders in the forest."

A few seconds later, he felt her release the tension of the moment, then her arm lowered. "I think the spiders are the better option Harry. I like the squid and wouldn't want to give him indigestion."

Something between a snort and a chuckle escaped Harry's lips. "That's why I love you, Ginny, you're always thinking of others." Though she didn't laugh or giggle, Harry saw her face soften and he felt her love for him as the wave of tension ebbed. Turning back to the prisoner he continued. "Severus, is there a plan or reason to capture Ginny Weasley?"

"Yes."

"Why does the Dark Lord want her captured?"

"To use her as bait to catch Harry Potter, and to use as a toy."

Now Harry's hand flew into motion only to be stopped by two smaller hands on his forearm. His white-hot anger burned through her mind so intensely, Ginny had trouble concentrating on the task. "Harry! Stop!" she yelled to get his attention. "Harry, you have to stop! We need him alive for a little bit longer. Please, Harry." Her appeals started to break through his fog of unreason, and she felt him relax in both mind and body.

"Yes, definitely the spiders," he said intensely. She felt the hot anger being replaced by cold hatred. There was none of the humor in him now. She continued to hold his arm, even though he had relaxed his muscles, until she felt he was back in control emotionally. She saw him slowly turn to her and she saw some form of normalcy return to his eyes.

He turned facing mostly away from Snape and stood still for a few moments thinking hard. Then he waved his wand in a pattern that looked familiar but she didn't recognize: "Communis Patronum." She saw a very faint stag come out of his wand and run through the air and into the ceiling.

"Is that the spell the Order members use to send messages?" She looked at him in awe for knowing this.

"Yes. I just sent a message to Dumbledore that we have an emergency in the Potions lab and to come as quickly as possible. I guess we need some witnesses, perhaps the other Heads of House?" Ginny nodded. So Harry sent one to McGonagall, and one to Flitwick which said he should also bring Sprout.

"An Auror would be good," Ginny suggested. "Tonks would help you." She gave him a mischievous grin. "And you know Moody would like to know about this."

"I love the way you think."

"You should," she said sweetly. That got him laughing so hard his arm started hurting again causing him to rest for a moment before he could send the messages to Tonks and Moody.

"Now we wait." Though she heard him, she was concentrating on feeling his emotions, trying to figure out how he was going to handle this. He was very definitely in control. In fact she felt a steel in him she'd never felt before. But it was a steel tempered by anger, a feeling she never wanted directed at her.

They didn't have long to wait, Dumbledore came into the classroom less than two minutes later at a fast walk and with wand drawn. He'd just made it inside the door, taking in its damage, when he saw two of his best students. But they weren't what held his attention, it was his Potions master trussed up with a numb look on his face. Though he was somewhat out of breath from practically running down from his office, the raggedness of his voice came from the shock of what he was seeing. "What's going on here?"

The sneer in Harry's voice snapped Dumbledore's look to the one he thought of as his unofficial apprentice. "Well Headmaster, I would think that the condition of the room and the fact that Snape here is tied up should clue you in as to what's happened. Perhaps I should also tell you what you can't see, that my arm is broken, and that happened before everything else you see here did."

Dumbledore's mind was spinning so fast he didn't know where to stop, so he asked the obvious. "What happened, Harry?"

Harry did not let up on the contempt in his voice. "Please have a seat, Headmaster, I'll be happy to explain in a few moments when the rest arrive."

"Rest?"

"Yes, several more Professors and I hope a couple of Aurors. It should be an entertaining meeting."

Dumbledore did not look pleased to hear that, Ginny noted, but he didn't say anything. Ginny wondered what Harry was going to do; in fact, she wondered if even Harry knew what he was going to do. She also noted that Harry seemed bent on taking charge and he was getting away with it so far. It could get lively when Dumbledore's shock wore off, but she suspected Snape was going to help Harry keep the shock going.

As Dumbledore was taking the proffered seat, a faint wolf came running into the room and burst onto Harry. A moment later, he turned to Ginny with, "We'll have two Aurors here in five minutes or less."

Ginny was also wondering if someone should set up tea and scones for this meeting, which almost caused her to chuckle, but the sound of quick feet helped her to avoid the problem. In rushed Professor McGonagall, closely followed by Professors Flitwick and Sprout. Again, dismay and a flurry of "What's going on" filled the air. To which Harry, with utter politeness (which shocked Ginny compared to how Harry had just spoken to Dumbledore), told the three newcomers that if they would please take a seat, all questions would be answered in a few minutes. As the three of them got settled, Tonks came racing in with wand drawn, and Moody was heard stomping behind her as quick as he could go. This time Harry didn't wait for the obvious question, he again politely suggested a seat so they could begin. Taking it all in in a daze, Tonks and Moody also sat.

"Now that we're all here," Harry began in an almost normal voice, "I'll explain what happened, though I would appreciate you holding your questions for a few minutes." Harry ran his hand through his hair as he took a deep breath to start. Ginny found it interesting he still hadn't put his wand away so it went over his hair too, but she wasn't going to say anything about that; after all, she still had hers out and pointed in the general direction of Snape. She felt it her duty to watch the prisoner while Harry took care of the explanations.

As tightly wound up as he was, Ginny thought he did a pretty good job of sticking to the facts of what happened. She'd expected gasps at various points in the story, but surprisingly to her, she didn't hear any. Looks of great surprise were on everyone's face. Harry was finishing his story, and here it would get very interesting she knew.

"So I gave him Veritaserum to find out why he tried to hurt me, and let me tell you the answers he gave did not make me happy."

That is was McGonagall that spoke first surprised Harry. "Mr. Potter, that is most out of the ordinary. I can't believe you'd do that to one of your professors, even Severus."

"Professor..." Harry gave her his best pitying look at what he considered to be something that was beneath her. "At the moment he started attacking me, he was no longer my professor. He became an enemy, and the Death Eater that we all know he was. When he attacked me, it became personal and I was going to find out why he did it."

"Damn straight," came a gravelly voice from the back. Harry gave Moody a smile before he continued.

"Here, let me show you what I found out." Harry turn to his prisoner. "Severus Snape, to whom is your allegiance, Dumbledore or the Dark Lord?"

"The Dark Lord." Now there were gasps.

"Has it always been to the Dark Lord?"

"Yes."

At this point Harry turned to Dumbledore and Ginny felt his rage spike again and it certainly came out in his voice. All the good feelings Harry had for the old man were gone. "Headmaster! What the bloody hell were you thinking having him here when you didn't know for sure who he really followed? I mean, really. He's the third Death Eater you've had working here, and I consider Quirrell a Death Eater - who also had Voldemort himself in this castle. How could you not know?" He heard a grunt of approval from Moody, while he saw Dumbledore drop his head into his hands in shock and remorse.

Turning back to Snape, Harry asked about the purpose of tonight, and again was told it was to capture Harry. "I feel so safe now, let me tell you, Headmaster. By the way, it was at this point that I had to physically restrain my girlfriend from doing something drastic to him. I'm not sure what it was, but I'm also quite sure it would have been quite unpleasant for the prisoner."

"I believe a Reducto to the head was going through my mind at the time," Ginny acknowledged. All heads snapped toward her.

Harry let that sink in a bit before he continued with the questions about Ginny's capture. Snape couldn't help but give the same answers. Ginny again noticed the rage build in Harry which did show on his face. Attempting to defuse the moment, she spoke up again following his lead. "It was at this point I had to physically restrain my boyfriend from doing something unpleasant to the prisoner. What was going through your head at the time Harry? You didn't tell me then."

Harry was looking down, still reining his temper in. He finally said, "I didn't have any special spell going through my head at the time. I just wanted to send all the magical energy I had through him in one blast, though now that you make me think about it, I probably would have Vanished him like Mrs. Black's portrait." Ginny gave a deadly smile to her boyfriend while she heard a gasp from Tonks, who realized the spells from both of them would have been quite fatal to Snape.

Now that Harry had gotten his composure back, he straightened back up as best as his injury would let him so as to continue. "It was at this point that I started calling everyone as I knew what I was dealing with, but it seems to me there are a few more questions we really should have answered. The most interesting one I think would be the one you, Headmaster, avoided and told me it was Snape's question to answer. I think now is the time for all of us to hear about it." Dumbledore finally raised his head from his hands for the first time since it had gone down, but Harry couldn't fathom the look on the old man's face, other than some form of horror. Turning back to the prisoner, "Snape, what story did you tell Dumbledore that convinced him you'd switched sides?" There was a gasp from McGonagall and another grunt of approval from Mad-Eye.

"I told him that Voldemort had my parents killed."

"Was that true?"

"No."

"What really happened?"

"My parents went to the giants as ambassadors of the Dark Lord to get them to aid us, but something went wrong and the giants killed them. The Dark Lord thought that would be a good excuse for Dumbledore to believe me so I could spy on him."

Harry was slightly shaking his head at hearing all of this. Another question popped into his head. "How were you able to convince Dumbledore that lie was the truth?"

"I'm a better Occlumens than he is a Legilimens." That made Moody swear some more.

"Snape, why did you decide to attack me now when you've had plenty of time in the past?" Harry wanted to make sure they knew this.

"The Dark Lord wants you captured soon and I knew I was being investigated because of my teaching so I had to hurry before I was no longer here."

Harry decided that was interesting and wanted to know more. "Snape, are there any other plans to try to capture me?"

"Yes, the Dark Lord has several."

"What are they?"

"I do not know."

"Why don't you know?" Harry persisted.

"The Dark Lord has assigned each of his lieutenants to come up with a plan, and only the Dark Lord knows them all."

Damn! Harry thought. I'm going to have to be really careful. "Snape, was there a plan to capture me for Valentine's Day?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't that work?"

"You did not show up at Hogsmeade."

Harry looked at Tonks and a smile slowly appeared on his face. "Sometimes we do get lucky, huh?" Tonks nodded her agreement.

"Are there any students enrolled in the school now who have taken the Dark Mark?" Harry had a new concern about being safe within the castle.

"No."

"What about Draco Malfoy. Do you know for sure about him not having it or does he just want to?" Harry wanted to know about his school nemesis.

"Draco Malfoy does not have the Dark Mark, he wants to get it this summer." Harry shot a look at Dumbledore to show he wanted to talk about that, preferably to send Draco away, but Dumbledore wouldn't look at him.

Another line of questions formed in Harry's mind, but there was one small problem. Looking slightly to the right, "Professor Sprout, are you part of the Order of the Phoenix?"

Dumbledore finally spoke. "Harry! You aren't supposed to mention that." Harry ignored him and held Sprout's gaze as he waited for her answer.

In a quiet and somewhat shaky voice she replied, "No, I'm not. I've been asked to join, but I've yet to make a decision."

Nodding in acknowledgment, Harry, still ignoring Dumbledore, turned to Moody and announced, "Mad-Eye, it's your decision then as to whether she stays or not, but there are some more questions that I feel must be asked while I still have a little more time before the potion runs out."

Moody didn't use more than a couple of seconds to consider the question. "Go ahead lad, ask away."

Returning to the prisoner, Harry asked his next one. "Snape, are there other spies within the Order?"

"Not that I know of."

As he was about to go to something else, Tonks asked a question. "Severus, is there anyone else you suspect might be a spy within the Order and if so who?" Harry thought that was a good question and wished he'd thought of it.

"I suspect Fletcher." Moody growled at that answer from Snape.

"Why?"

"He has been approached." Tonks did not like that answer. She and Moody shared a sour look and Harry knew Dung was about to be very closely scrutinized.

Moody took the next question. "What Order plans have you told Voldemort?" Harry had been thinking a similar question.

"Everything."

Now Moody swore loudly and Harry learned a few new combinations, and sneaking a look at Ginny, he saw her fighting a smile of admiration.

Tonks took the question baton back. "Severus, have you injured or killed anyone in the Order?" Harry wondered why she asked that one.

"Yes."

"Who?"

"I killed Hestia Jones when she got in the way."

Tonks must have suspected that as she made no other comment. "Anyone else?"

"I tried to kill Charlie Weasley but only injured him." Harry didn't think he'd heard about Charlie being hurt then it came to him. Charlie had been hurt during ...

Harry's voice got very cold. "You were at the raid on The Burrow during Christmas break, weren't you?"

"Yes."

Again, the only thing that allowed Harry to react fast enough was feeling the spike of fury that preceded the action. He whirled and caught Ginny's arm as she was starting the down stroke. "Reducto!" but the wand motion hadn't been completed so only angry red sparks come out the end of her wand and a little bit of dust came off the ceiling sprinkling Snape like a light snow.

"Ginny!" A pair of blazing but beautiful brown eyes grabbed his, begging to be released. "Soon," he softly said as he tried to pull her back down to a controlled state. "Soon, Ginny..." She finally relaxed and Harry now allowed his gaze to sweep over the adults and noticed that only Dumbledore wasn't sitting a bit further back in his seat in surprise; but that was probably only because he still wore the expression of extreme shock. "Any other questions?" he asked the group. "Oh wait, there's one more I want to know. Snape, when you were giving me Occlumency lessons last year, were you really trying to teach me or did you have a different goal?"

"I was trying to open your mind to the Dark Lord so you'd retrieve the prophecy for him." Harry barely contained his anger by giving a very dark look at Dumbledore.

"If there are no other questions?" he asked the group. Not getting any answer, he made a little circular motion around Snape with his wand and cast an Imperturbable charm. Now Snape couldn't hear what was going to be said, just in case.

"Well, Headmaster, I hope you're happy with all this, not to mention all the abuse I and almost every other student has ever suffered under this git in class. Plus he injured and almost killed me tonight, as well as tried to do the same to Ginny. In my opinion, every plan you have going in the Order should be consider compromised." He was almost sure he heard a muttered "Damn straight" from Moody but he wasn't positive.

"I'll also have you know that I'm not going back to," he suddenly remembered Sprout sitting there before he could say Grimmauld, "headquarters, even if another Fidelius Charm was done. And if you can let things get this compromised, I don't want to join the Order now either. Should you decide I need to know something, tell Tonks; she can pass it along. In the meantime, I'll keep working to take on Voldemort since he won't leave me alone. I guess I'll just have to hope and pray the Order will help out as needed, or at least some of them will." Dumbledore did not meet his scathing look.

With an almost casual voice, Harry spoke to the group. "Well, it seems there's only one question left to answer, what to do with this piece of trash. Ginny and I seem to be of the opinion that the giant spiders in the forest need a snack, but I'm willing to feed the giant squid too, unless there is some other creature you're aware of that need Snape's company more." That got their attention.

It was no surprise that McGonagall was the first to speak. "Harry, you really don't want to do that."

"Actually, I do. A part of me would prefer it to be a very painful death for him, but I'm willing to be civil and make it quick."

Now Tonks joined in. "Harry, you really shouldn't do that."

For Harry, it was more than revenge, though he thought that would be sweet. "Tonks, I would think you would be one of the ones encouraging me. Look at all the escapees from Azkaban; it's like they have a revolving door there. I don't want him to come back to hurt us again. He's too good at it." There was a look of understanding on Mad-Eye's face, and he knew Mad-Eye would go with him.

Tonks was still against it. "Harry, I'm really not supposed to tell you this, but for your own good, I think I will. We've got a new device called 'The Collar'. The idea came from a Muggle movie if you can believe it. Once it's put on, if the wearer ever goes more than a mile from the key, it instantly contracts to the size of a finger ring." Harry gulped at that thought. "The key is closely guarded and hidden. I'm not totally sure but I think they're even invisible to all but a few Aurors who use the spell to see them for a few seconds at a time. The collars can't be charmed off either without activating them. Since we started using them about a month ago, we've had no escapes, though we've had two deaths from trying." Harry considered that carefully as she paused for him to think.

"Harry," Tonks pleaded, "I'll promise on whatever you like that he'll get the collar before he leaves the castle while he's awaiting trial as a Death Eater and the deaths he's caused. I'll get a team of Aurors to go over all of Snape's things to find out his secrets and anything else we can use to our advantage to keep you and your friends safe. If that's not enough, please don't do it for me. Killing in defense of someone is one thing, what you're discussing is another. But if none of that matters, please don't do it because of what it will do to you, and what Ginny will think of you."

Harry had never thought of it like that. He turned to Ginny with a "What will you think?" look. Ginny took the half step towards him as if she was going to hug him, but instead she reached up and threaded her fingers through his hair to literally hold his attention. "Harry," she whispered, "you know I'll always love you no matter what. I know you can feel that."

He knew exactly what she meant, he could feel her love. It was there as strong as ever and he reveled in it, and used it to calm himself. Yet deep down, he also felt something else in her. Looking into her eyes and focusing on their bond, he felt it again and identified it. It was a small nugget of doubt or uncertainty. He didn't know about what, he wondered if she even did, but there was something there marring her love for him that hadn't been there earlier.

Tonks watched the two young people stare at each other intimately, sharing something only the two of them knew. Tonks knew there was some sort of link between them, but this made her wonder what was really there. She wondered if there was more they hadn't told about when asked about their awareness.

Finally Harry looked at her and said, "OK, Tonks, I'll do it your way, he's all yours. I'm holding you to your promises, everything you said." Tonks was so relieved all she could do was nod, though his next sentence chilled her. "But if he ever escapes and I catch him, he'll disappear and no one will ever know."

Tonks only nodded again, and no one else said anything. Who could blame him for having that feeling?

Harry seemed to waver on his feet and a grimace filled his face. Ginny pulled her hands down and put them around his waist to help hold him up. She felt the tingle as her hand touched his side where his jumper and shirt had ridden up. As he got control over himself again he announced to the room at large, "If you'll excuse me, I really need to go visit Madam Pomfrey." They slowly made their way out.

As they neared the door, Ginny felt a wave of mischievousness from him, but couldn't understand why he had it. She looked up at him as he leaned down slightly to whisper in her ear, "Wait just a second." She gave him a questioning look, but all he said was, "Just for a second." His hand and wand snapped out and she heard him mutter "Stupefy". Only because she'd seen where he was aiming did she see it hit Snape, and with their amplified power no less. As everyone but Tonks and Moody was looking at them, they didn't see the bolt hit, though it was obviously going to be for Snape. Tonks and Moody, who were both contemplating their new prisoner, saw it hit Snape in his privates and a brief look of something beyond shock come over the prisoner's face before he slumped against his ropes.

"Was it really necessary to stun him, Harry?" McGonagall asked, who was oblivious as to where the spell had hit Snape. "He was already tied up."

"Just making sure he wasn't going anywhere for awhile, Professor. I wanted the Auror team to have plenty of time to get here," he replied.

McGonagall gave him a look of disapproval but let that topic go. "Mr. Potter, while we are all shocked this would happen to you or any other student, I trust there will be no repeat of dousing one of your professors with a restricted potion?" Her stern expression indicated there was only one correct answer.

"As I don't expect any of the other current professors to try and kill me, I can agree to that," he told her with a hint of contrition for his heavy handedness tonight.

She seemed to understand and nodded to him.

With his reprimand done, he turned them around with his good arm on Ginny's shoulders for support and left.

When they had walked down the hallway to the bottom of the stairs, Ginny finally couldn't take it anymore and scolded him. "Harry Potter, do you know how unfair that was?"

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that because her harsh words did not match the feeling of mirth he got from her. So he decided to follow the words. "Snape deserved that and more for all he's done to me over the years."

"Yes, of course he does, but it was still unfair."

He was still confused but tried to continue to play along. "OK, why was it unfair?"

"Because I didn't get to do it too." Now her suppressed laughter finally came out.

Harry chuckled with her, though that started hurting his arm. "You're my kind of woman, Ginny."

"You got that right, Potter." She helped him up the steps. "Did you see Tonks after you shot that spell?"

"Yeah, I thought she was going choke and pass out from trying to hold her laughter in. Moody wasn't much better off."

Ginny chuckled with him.

Harry continued up to the hospital wing when a disturbing thought come into his mind. Now that he knew what the Death Eater's goals were for him and Ginny, and how serious Malfoy was about his future, Harry definitely didn't want Ginny going anywhere alone for the rest of the term. And that applied to him too.

The adults all looked at one another as they heard the two students walk down hall. No one said anything until the footsteps had faded to nothing. Because of the silence, Tonks' normal voice saying "Communis Patronum" seemed like a shout.

"Who was that to?" The hoarse voice was barely recognizable as Dumbledore's.

"Kingsley. I told him to bring a collar and a full investigative team. I'm keeping my promises. That's one young man, or rather one young couple, I never want to have to fight for real." Then with less seriousness, she added, "Training him is painful enough." The two of them beat Tonks and Cobb with ease every time now. Lupin was about to join those sessions to make it more fair, then they might have a small chance of beating Harry and Ginny.

"I'd really like to keep this out of the news," Dumbledore said wishfully.

McGonagall now spoke up. "That Snape has been arrested and sacked? Not a chance. As to why? Maybe. It will probably depend on Minister Bones." Minerva thought there was a decent chance that Minister Bones would help keep the real reason quiet, but she wasn't sure. "Once the trial starts, it will all come out. The Board of Governors will have a field day with this one." Her voice was heavy with sarcasm and there were lots of nodding heads on that one.

Finally Moody couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Albus, why didn't you test Snape with Veritaserum at the beginning? Damn! Why didn't I try it?"

Everyone was looking at Dumbledore, awaiting his answer. There was a long silence and Moody was beginning to wonder if Dumbledore didn't hear him or was ignoring him to get out of answering the obviously critical question. In more whisper than anything else, Dumbledore finally spoke. "He was so sincere when he begged me for a second chance. He let me go into his mind and search. All I saw was horror and regret of what he'd done, of what had happened to him. I never saw any other shields blocking any other thoughts." Though they didn't hear any sobs, they all saw tears trickle down the old man's cheeks as he came to grips with the enormity of his mistake.

"Albus," McGonagall said softly, "do you have anyone in mind we can get on short notice to finish teaching Potions for the rest of the term?"

"Yes, that will need to be a priority. I can think of one or two. I'll give you their names first thing in the morning. Minerva, can I ask you to please speak with Professor Sinistra about being the Slytherin Head of House for the last few months?"

"Certainly."

"And take over running the school for a few days? I need to think about all this most carefully..." Dumbledore seemed to fade along with his request.

"I understand," the Deputy Headmistress told him.

"Alastor?" Dumbledore didn't raise his voice from the loud whisper, almost as if he couldn't. "Will you please assume leadership of the Order for a while?"

"I can," the old Auror told him.

"Please discuss all this. I'll abide by whatever the group decides to do." Mad-Eye acknowledged with a nod. "And Alastor, Mr. Potter is quite correct that we should consider everything we're doing compromised. You'll need to let everyone know that tonight so all contacts, passwords, and assignments can be changed before morning when word of Severus' incarceration gets out."

"I'll take care of it, Albus," Moody told him.

"Thank you all for your help in this troubled time. If you need me, I'll be in my quarters or somewhere nearby where an owl can find me. I bid you all a good night and I'll see you in three or four days." The Headmaster arose and slowly walked from the classroom. There was no twinkle in his eye, none of his power; Minerva thought she'd never see him look frail, but he did look it for the first time. No one spoke for several minutes.

For the first time that evening, Flitwick spoke up. "Minerva, what is to be done about Mr. Malfoy? I'm most concerned about the safety of the students. The fact that Mr. Potter asked specifically about him is most significant, I would say."

"We can't really do anything about him, Filius. He hasn't done anything warranting expulsion or even suspension," Minerva explained. "We could encourage him to transfer to Durmstrang, but we can't really force that until next year, and even that might be difficult given the Malfoy connections."

Flitwick nodded in understanding. "I'm still left wondering exactly what we can do to prevent problems. Knowing the past difficulties between Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter, and how Mr. Malfoy likes to bait Mr. Potter, I'd say the probability is very high there will be an incident between them before the year is finished. Should the baiting, as it were, be directed at Ms. Weasley, I do not believe any of us in this room could stop Mr. Potter, if his work in my class is any indication of his real capabilities. Your statement, Ms. Tonks, would support that view." Tonks nodded in agreement. "While I wish no harm to any student, I most especially do not want Mr. Potter to get into trouble with the law considering what he must do, or at least what I guess he must do based on his history over the last few years."

Tonks thought she was the only one left in the room that knew the complete prophecy, but it didn't take a genius to guess the gist of it. The difficult thing was, as much as she agreed with what Flitwick had just said, she also didn't know what to do about Draco Malfoy, short of doing something to him herself; and that really wasn't an option either.

"I will have Professor Sinistra speak with him about leaving Harry and his friends alone, or face expulsion," McGonagall temporized. "We'll also discuss this at a staff meeting tomorrow. Perhaps a good idea can be found. If not, then at least all the teachers can be made aware of the situation and watch both of them more closely, as well as watch out for Ms. Weasley."

Whatever else McGonagall was going to say was interrupted by Kingsley Shacklebolt and seven other Aurors coming into the classroom. One of them looked at the door and gave a low whistle at the destruction. What grabbed Shacklebolt's attention was the man in ropes. "It's true then, our worst fear was true."

Tonks nodded and said cheekily, "Right in one. But it's not really my worst fear, because the Boy-Who-Lived is still alive, so I'm good." Shacklebolt just shook his head as he took in the rest of the battle scene, with debris and curse scorch marks all over the room. The professors got up to leave and take care of the school, while Tonks and Moody filled in the Auror team with what happened to get them started on their work.

By the time the story was finished the collar was locked on Snape. As the key holder was about to Portkey back to a maximum security holding cell, Tonks stopped him with a warning, "He's probably going to be quite pissed off when he wakes up, so I wouldn't be anywhere near him when that happens."

The Unspeakable who was the key holder shrugged. "I don't plan to be, but that's his tough luck from what you told me. Perhaps we can arrange it so he can try to escape, minus his key of course." The man smiled at his own joke. "I bet that would make Potter and a large number of other people quite happy." Tonks grinned evilly as the man and his prisoner Portkeyed out.

.