Harry Potter and the Catranas
Chapter 21- Destroying the Burden.
Severus and Toro were sitting in their room one day after dinner, talking, cuddling and kissing as usual when there was a frantic knocking on the door. Severus got up to answer it with a worried expression on his face.
Swinging the door open he saw two of his most trusted warriors leaning on the wall and looking slightly out of breath. "Oh, hello. What's wrong?" Severus asked suspiciously.
"Severus, it's good to see you again. We have some good and some bad news, well at least we think that's what we have anyway." Said the first warrior, his name was Raith, he had black hair like most other Catranas, with purple tips on the end. He had a lot of muscle, something that helped him out when he was faced with danger as no one was stupid enough to seriously take him on. "Which would you like to hear first?" He asked.
Toro spoke up for the first time since he and Severus had been interrupted "The good news, please." Wrapping his arms around Severus he looked at the men expectantly.
"Well you see, we have found and destroyed all the Horcruxes bar one, they are all gone just like you ordered sir, the snake one was hard to come by though, we had many injuries from our expedition to get it and the snake put up a bit of a fight. But don't worry, everyone will recover fully in a few days!" Said the second guard who looked identical to the first as he was Raith's twin brother, Kaiah.
"That is good news." Severus said happily but quickly sobering up again as he remembered that the guards had said that they brought good as well as bad news "What is the bad news then?"
"The last horcrux might be a little more harder to be rid of that's all." Said Raith clearly trying to avoid the next question.
"Why?"
"Well, you see, it's not exactly a thing, it's not an animal either. It's more a person. Who is unfortunately or fortunately- we haven't quite decided yet- that is living in the lair with us."
"Lemme guess, Potter?" Severus said unsurprised.
"Well sort of yes, more specifically his scar, and we have no idea how to get rid of it without killing the boy. Any suggestions?"
"Not at the moment, research it, there must be something about that sort of thing in the library. Get a group of people in there working on it, close the library to the public if you must, we need to have all the Horcrux's destroyed before the boy can even think about destroying Voldemort" Severus gave his orders very swiftly and the warriors left to carry them out.
"Great, just great" Said Severus as he turned to look at Toro who was starting to look more than a little worried "What are we going to do now? We can't be rid of Voldemort without all the horcrux's destroyed, it would be way too easy for him to come back...again"
"Don't worry Severus, I'm sure you'll think of something" Toro said encouragingly.
The next morning Severus woke up feeling a great weight hanging on his shoulders and a weird feeling that something horrible was going to happen soon. Getting up he went about his daily routine of washing and then gently woke Toro up by kissing him senseless and departed from the room to find out if any developments had been made on their current predicament.
"Raith, you look like shit, have you slept at all yet?" Severus asked as he walked into the library and found a bunch of his scientists and warriors working on finding anything which might help destroy the last remaining horcrux without harming it's bearer.
"Not yet Severus, but really, thanks for the complement. We haven't found anything of use yet, everything we have found has been proven to destroy the entire thing the horcrux is on, not just the horcrux itself."
"Well you are just going to have to keep looking then aren't you? I'm really sorry about this, but I have no idea what else to do" Severus said apologetically.
"That's alright Severus, we are just as lost as you are" Said Raith.
Severus said goodbye to the workers after a while of talking and left to talk to Potter, the boy may as well know what was going on at least.
Walking into the hall he headed for the room the resident Gryffindors were sleeping in and stopped out the front, rapping gently on the door and waiting for a reply.
"Come in" Said one of the boys and Severus pushed open the door to find that the room was full, the girls were in the room watching movies with their friends, his son and a few other people that Severus knew but could not remember their names, lack of sleep was having a disastrous effect on his brain.
"Hey dad, what are you doing this side of the palace?" Asked Lucas curiously.
Severus smiled gently at him, not feeling like talking at the moment, Lucas would understand. He turned to Harry and said "Potter, I need a word with you quietly."
Harry looked at him confusedly while his friends looked at him in pity and wondered what Snape would want with their hero friend. He got to his feet and tailed Severus out of the room and into another rather small room across the hall. Severus put up some silencing and security charms so that they would not be overheard even if the other kids decided to use the extendable ears they were no doubt in possession of and they both sat down on either side of the desk.
"Potter, you may want to keep an open mind during this session as there is a lot to take in and I couldn't really deal with an outburst at this time" Severus explained gently as he placed two glasses of water on the table before beginning to explain the current situation to Harry.
"There are rumours flying around that you had intended to go looking for the horcrux's instead of going back to school. Is this true?" Severus asked.
"Yes sir, I was planning on leaving a little while before school got back in session." Harry replied truthfully, wanting to know where this was going.
"Well you had need not do that anymore Potter as we have located all the horcrux's and destroyed all but one." Severus said, knowing that the news would not give Harry much comfort after he learnt about where the other horcrux was located.
"That's great sir!" Harry exclaimed in joy. "But why haven't you destroyed the other horcrux yet? Is it here?"
"It is here. We have not destroyed it because it is a little more complicated than destroying the rest of the horcrux's"
"Why?"
"Because, it's you Harry" Severus said, being more gentler than he had the entire conversation "Well, your scar to be exact, it's why you have his power, can see what he does and what he is feeling"
Looking for Harry's reaction to the news Severus noticed that the young man was still rather confused by everything and had no idea what to say to the information that Severus had just given him, so Severus decided to continue speaking.
"The problem is that we have no idea how to get rid of the horcrux without actually killing you. Nagini was one of the horcrux's, but she was not worth saving and a danger to people, so we just got rid of the horcrux and she died along with it. We aren't sure whether it was her that was the horcrux or only part of her, the point is she died so we can't use the same method on you" Severus saw Harry reach for the cup and mimicked the movement allowing time for this small bit of information settle on Harry before he continued. "There are currently people in the library researching what we can do to help you but it could be a while before we know anything. Unfortunately, until we have disposed of every one of the horcrux's you cannot destroy Voldemort as it would be entirely too easy for the stupid overgrown foetus to come back again."
"Wow" was all Harry said before he became very light-headed and slumped forward in his chair unconscious.
Severus levitated Harry to the medical bay rather than back to the room Harry shared with the rest of their guests, he had had enough of answering questions and worrying for the day, and walking in the room with an unconscious Potter would definitely stir up the guests when all he really wanted to do was go to bed.
Walking down the corridor to his room he felt a burning in his wrist and looked down to see the dark mark standing out very clearly on his slightly tanned skin. Rushing through the halls and onto the streets he put on his glamour and spelled his death eater clothes onto him before charging out of the door and apparating to the meeting place Voldemort had called them to.
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