A/N: Another week, another chapter. I think I might finally have fallen into a consistent posting-pattern. Too bad it's taken to such a late point in the story for me to do so.

Chapter 26

The Final Horcrux

"Well, we've got to take him back to Hogwarts," said Hermione, after they stood around Lupin's body in silence for several long seconds.

"No," said Harry. "We can't go back now, or we'll lose Snape. Unless, by some miracle, Wormtail has the Horcrux."

Ron, who had already made his way over to Wormtail, apparently to make sure he was dead, checked his pockets. "He doesn't seem to have the quill. But, Lupin does seem to have finished him off before... whatever exactly happened to him."

"So, he cast the killing curse on Wormtail, and now he's lying unconscious," said Harry. "Could the two be cause and effect, do you think?"

"Does that happen?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Well... We all know that when Voldemort's killing curse rebounded off Harry, it would've killed him if not for the killing curses. But in this case, the curse hit home, so could it have also rebounded against Lupin to hurt him?" asked Hermione.

"Why are you asking us a question like that?" retorted Ron. "Wouldn't you be the one who would know that kind of thing? Has anything like this ever happened before?"

"Er... I think I've read about it happening a couple times, when the killing curse was particularly strong," said Hermione.

"But obviously nothing like this has ever happened to... You-Know-Who. Are you saying that Lupin just cast a killing curse stronger than any of those cast by he-who-must-not-be-named?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Well..." Harry said hesitantly, "it sort of makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, think about it... Wormtail was one of Lupin's best friends growing up, and then he changed sides and got his best friend and his wife killed, then got his other best friend locked up in Azkaban for about a dozen years... You need to use hate to cast the killing curse, but Voldemort usually uses the killing curse on people who he has no real concrete reason to hate. His hate is more generic. Lupin's was personal, and therefore, apparently, stronger."

"Could it also have caused that shiver we all felt a few minutes ago?" Ron asked.

"It must have," nodded Hermione. "If it was strong enough that we all felt it, it's no wonder that it hurt Lupin, too."

"Yeah, about that," said Harry. "Remember, we still do need to get him back to the castle to let Madame Pompfrey treat this. Did the people involved in the other cases that you were talking about survive?"

"Most of them," said Hermione. "But yeah, we'd better get him back to Hogwarts. You reckon just one of us should take him back? Can two of us take Snape on?"

"We're sneaking up on him, and we've got an invisibility cloak. Since he still doesn't know we're here, he shouldn't be wearing his, and even if he is we can tell where he is by the map. We've got to be able to take him two on one, and if we can't then I don't think we could take him three on one either," reasoned Harry.

"Right," agreed Hermione. "So, who goes back?"

"You, of course," said Ron promptly.

Hermione got angry immediately. "Why me 'of course'?" she asked defensively.

"Well, it can't be me, obviously," said Harry.

"Yes, not you," agreed Hermione. "You're the quickest dueler and you know the most about Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"And I'm the second quickest dueler," Ron countered.

"But I know more spells," said Hermione.

"That's really not going to matter," pointed out Ron. "All three of us know Petrificus Totalus, and that's all we'd really have to use to win. Besides, you got to go with Harry on the whole Nagini-killing experience."

"You're only trying to protect me because I'm a girl," said Hermione.

Of course, Harry understood that neither Hermione or Ron wanted to go back to Hogwarts and have to worry about the other one. Each would much rather worry about themselves. He hated the idea of having to send either one of them home. He didn't want either one of them mad at him.

Which is why he wasn't particularly pleased when Ron said, "We should let Harry decide."

Then he was struck with a sudden idea. He grabbed his backpack and fished around for a product that the Weasley twins had given him months ago, at Christmas. He had put it in his book-bag to take it back to school, and then had forgotten it was there. He wouldn't have remembered it was there at all except that when he emptied his bookbag to fill it with clothes and things for the trip, he saw it, but decided to keep it there, since it might be worth a little entertainment if things got too boring. And now, oddly enough, it was going to come in a bit more use.

The product was a set of small sticks. Six of them were of the same length, and the seventh was shorter. They were, to all appearances, normal drawing-straws. But, since they could change lengths at the command of the user, if someone held them in their hand and concentrated, they could determine who drew the short-straw. The product, which the twins were calling 'pre-drawn straws,' had not yet hit the market but had only been given to Harry, since he was their prime investor. Thus, neither Ron nor Hermione would know that the drawing was fixed, which would prevent Hermione from being angry. He did feel a little bit bad being dishonest with Hermione, but they really didn't have time for a fight right then.

Hermione had just finished saying, "Harry will try to protect me because I'm a girl, too."

Harry responded with, "Let's draw straws."

Ron was the first to object to this, "We're going to leave this up to chance?"

Hermione decided not to object, probably mostly because Ron had, and she said, "Sure, that should work."

So, Harry held out the straws. "All right, there's seven here," he explained. "You can take turns pulling until one of you pulls the short straw. That one gets to stay here."

Once Harry was grasping all the straws in his hand, he concentrated on the phrase, "Let Ron grab the short straw." He really hoped that this product from the Weasley twins was as clever as their others.

Hermione drew first, but as soon as Ron drew, he drew the short straw.

Hermione, still somewhat begrudgingly, said, "All right, I'll take him back to near the Hogwarts grounds and then levitate him up to Madame Pompfrey's office. But, Harry, please promise not to use the Avada Kedavra Curse. We've seen what the curse can do to someone who really hates the person he's casting it against. We can't risk you going down, too. And you probably would, since you have just as much reason to hate Snape as Lupin had to hate Wormtail. Probably quite a bit more, in fact. And if you want to see him die, after he was responsible for telling Voldemort the prophecy and getting your family killed, I don't think there's any way we could blame you. Maybe you could convince Moody to let you watch the execution or something. Maybe he would even let you do it yourself. He is mad, after-all. But it'd just be best to not do it out here in the middle of the forest when you're not within immediate access to medical attention. So promise. Please."

Harry, who had not thought too much about whether he'd use the killing curse on Snape, decided that Hermione was probably right, overall. It would do no harm to petrify him and take him back to the castle, where he could be turned over to someone else to be dealt with. "I promise, Hermione," he said.

After wishing Harry and Ron good luck, she disapparated with Lupin. Harry was rather worried about Lupin, but he figured that chances were good that he'd survive. If there had been similar situations to this before, Madame Pompfrey had probably heard about them and must know how to fix it. Besides, Harry was able to push his concern for Lupin mostly out of his mind by concentrating on the task at hand.

If all went well, they could still get the Horcrux that morning.

Once Harry and Ron were alone, Ron looked at Harry and said, "So, what's the plan, mate?"

"Why don't we just sneak up on him in the invisibility cloak?" asked Harry, looking down at the Marauders' Map of the United Kingdom. "He's still in basically the same spot as before, although he's moving around a little bit. I think he might be packing up his camp."

"I don't think we should both use the cloak," countered Ron, whose opinion Harry was eager to learn because if Harry had learned nothing else from his hundreds of losses to Ron in Wizards' Chess over the years, it was that he really was a great strategist. "If we somehow give our position away again, it'd be easier for one of us to move to a new position than two of us. So, here's what we ought to do: You get under the cloak, and I'll hang back, behind a tree, in a spot where he won't be able to see me, and I'll keep my wand ready in case something goes wrong. Gives you more mobility, and a back-up."

"You're sure you can keep out of sight?" asked Harry.

"Of course," said Ron.

"Okay, but, just keep in mind, you're just covering me. Only step in if I'm losing. And remember, he won't kill me, considering that Voldemort would much rather kill me himself, so the only thing you really need to do is intervene before he gets close enough to me to make me apparate side-along with him after disabling me. So, the most important point is that you stay out of sight. Because you, he would probably have no qualms killing," said Harry grimly. And then he decided that he didn't want to end on such a grim note, so he gave another of those half-jokes that seemed to characterize the potentially deadly situations that Harry and his friends kept getting into. "And it really wouldn't be decent for you to make me have to explain that to Hermione."

Ron gave a small laugh. "Wouldn't dream of it, mate. Wouldn't dream of it."

They performed a quick charm on their feet to stop them from making noise by breaking twigs or crumbling leaves and whatnot as they walked through the forest. Luna Lovegood had shown the spell to them at their previous DA meeting, as they had recently been focusing their attention on spells to improve their stealth.

As Harry and Ron approached the spot where they expected Snape to still be packing up his camp, always keeping an eye on the map to make sure he didn't do anything unexpected, Harry felt quite confident about their situation. One person under the invisibility cloak could almost definitely take care of an unprepared opponent, and they were taking the added precaution of having Ron hang back at essentially no risk to himself.

When they came closer, Harry left Ron behind a tree with a wide trunk, leaving him the map so that he would be able to monitor where Snape was without even poking his head out from behind the tree. Then Harry himself emerged into the clearing where Snape was still packing up his camp.

Harry was glad to see that Snape was visible, because if he hadn't been, he would have had to go back to Ron to grab the map, which would have made Ron's task a bit more complicated. Harry had already started practicing Occlumency to make sure Snape couldn't sense him coming, even though Harry was relatively sure Snape could only practice Legilimancy on him if he could actually see him. He didn't want to take any chances.

Harry looked at Snape and saw that he didn't even have his wand drawn yet. That, of course, made sense, since he still had no way of knowing that someone had found him in the forest. Although Harry did wonder briefly why it hadn't bothered Snape that Wormtail was missing. Then again, Harry imagined that if Snape was the one with the Horcrux, which he must be, it wouldn't worry Snape too much that Wormtail was missing. He couldn't be providing that much help anyway. And the fact that Wormtail was simply missing instead of lying dead in the camp-site probably suggested to Snape that Wormtail had left of his own volition instead of having been ambushed. And this, as it turned out, was true.

Snape, it seemed, was completely unprepared. But then he looked directly at Harry, and kept looking at him. Harry was so shocked that he lost his concentration for long enough for Snape to grab his wand and almost raise it before he reacted by saying, "Expelliarmus!" How had Snape seen him?

But it seemed that it would be rather more appropriate to petrify Snape first and ask questions later.

However, to Harry's surprise, Snape simply said, "Wait," again, as he'd done back in the room where he had originally been guarding the Horcrux.

Harry knew Snape couldn't be reading his mind, he had gotten good enough at Occlumency that he figured there was no way Snape knew that Ron was there. But the authority in Snape's voice when he told Harry to wait made Harry curious, if nothing else. And he also did want to know how Snape could see him.

"You know you don't want to have a duel with an unarmed man," said Snape, still confident. Now, instead of curious, Harry was simply frustrated at Snape's confidence. Did Snape really thing Harry was so predictable that he would be confident that he could convince him to let him grab his wand and have an actual duel? What had Snape ever done for him to make him think that he deserved to be given a fair duel?

But, Harry knew now that at the very least, he would not let petrify Snape without first being given the satisfaction of seeing him lose that idiotic overconfidence. He knew, of course, that Snape would be panicked once he petrified him to take him back to the castle. But Harry wouldn't be able to see the panic then. And he really, really wanted to see Snape panic. He wondered for a moment whether or not he could justify using the Cruciatus Curse on Snape. There would, of course, be no tactical benefit to it, but he was pretty sure it would make him feel good. Still, he was pretty sure that Hermione would never let him live it down if he somehow got hurt himself trying to use the Cruciatus curse. And Harry honestly didn't think Snape was worth an unforgivable curse. But that didn't mean he couldn't have a little bit of fun with this.

Harry, who hadn't taken his wand off Snape, decided that he was going to take control of the conversation, and cure his curiosity at the same time. "Stay standing up straight, and we'll talk about whether you're right about that statement," advised Harry. Snape's wand was still laying about two meters from him.

Snape glared. Well, now he was at least angry. But not quite frightened yet, it seemed. "That sounds acceptable," Snape conceded.

"I assume you're just dying to tell me how you can see me even though I have an invisibility cloak on," said Harry.

Harry must have been right about this, because Snape did not hesitate at all before saying, although in a voice of seeming detachment, "I drank a potion which makes it possible for me to see people through invisibility cloaks. I would have brewed it while we were guarding the Horcrux, but no one's been able to brew the potion for years as some of the ingredients needed to brew it were thought to be extinct. But I found them here in this forest."

"Fat lot of good it's done you, then," Harry retorted. "As you still didn't have your wand ready when I snuck up on you. And now you have to rely on the idea that I wouldn't want to disable a wizard who wasn't properly prepared for a duel."

"But I'm right," said Snape calmly. "Why else would you have come here alone when you could just as easily have brought your friends with you, or even sent McGonagall and the rest of the Order in to do your dirty work for you? You want all the glory for yourself, and even you're not too thick to realize that there's no glory in cursing a helpless man. Your father was too thick to realize that, but you're not."

"You still don't have a wand," pointed out Harry, "so perhaps for once you ought to refrain from taunting me about my parents." But the important point was that Snape clearly hadn't realized that Ron was there. His potion, apparently, allowed him to see through invisibility cloaks, but not through trees.

Snape remained silent. But he still didn't seem scared.

Harry didn't mind Snape's silence. He had a few things to say to Snape, which was another reason why he had not simply paralyzed him and taken him back to the castle, as would have been the more conventional move under these circumstances.

"You have no right to try to make me feel bad about what my father did to you. It worked before, of course, since I thought what he did was a mistake. But, it turns out, he was right about you. He sincerely thought that you were a greasy, good-for-nothing, dark-arts-loving, muggle-born-hating git. And he was right. You had so many people fooled, making them think you were capable of change, but you never had my father fooled. He hated you for you what he knew you'd become. Are you suggesting that he caused you to become what you became?" asked Harry angrily.

Snape still didn't say anything.

"Answer me," said Harry, with venom in his voice, wand pointing toward Snape.

"Of course not," said Snape. But the arrogance had still not left his voice. And that would have to change. He even had the gall to continue, saying, "James, arrogant as he was, could never have had that much of an impact on me. He wasn't half the wizard he thought he was. And neither are you."

"And you reckon you could prove this, if I would let you have your wand back?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I will," said Snape, still confident.

"You remember I've beaten you in a duel before, don't you?" asked Harry.

"You mean the one on Halloween night?" sneered Snape. "That was simply a fluke, and I was distracted by trying to keep Nagini safe. Besides, I hadn't realized at that point that you'd proceeded so far on your Occlumency without me, so I was overconfident."

"But you're not now?" asked Harry, trying to keep himself from laughing.

"Why don't you decide that for yourself?" he challenged. "Just let me pick up my wand, and we'll settle this like wizards."

"Fine," said Harry, in arrogant tones. "Let it be so."

Harry's control over the situation must have been eating away at Snape, which was why Harry was milking it so much. But it was with a certain air of smugness that Snape walked over to his wand and bent down to pick it up.

As soon as Snape lifted the wand from the ground, and before he was able to even think about aiming it, Harry yelled, "Expelliarmus!" again, with such force that it knocked the wand about three meters away, and caused Snape to fall to the ground. And from that position, Harry could tell that he looked quite frightened now. And that, Harry reckoned, was enough for him.

Harry could only imagine how hard it must be for Ron, who could no doubt hear enough of the exchange from behind the tree to realize what had just happened, to keep from laughing.

But, he'd had his fun. "Petrificus Totalus," muttered Harry, aiming the spell at Snape, who, seemingly beyond the point of negotiation at this point, was scuttling on his back across the forest floor in an attempt to grab his wand.

Snape stopped moving.

"Well done, mate," said Ron with a laugh, as he made his way from behind a tree.

"Did you really think I'd be stupid enough to risk losing a duel to a cornered man?" Harry asked Snape. And then, although he knew Snape had no way means of answering anyway, he said, "No, wait, don't bother answering that. Of course you thought that's how stupid I was. But it looks like you're the stupid one, doesn't it?"

Ron and Harry both approached Snape. "So where do you reckon he was keeping the Horcrux?" asked Harry conversationally. He was now completely calm, although he was having a rather difficult time fighting the urge to torture Snape at that point.

"Why don't we check his pockets first?" asked Ron.

In this case, the obvious answer was also the correct one. Harry found the quill in the first pocket he checked. They had found the final Horcrux.

A/N: Ok... I think I was justified in having Harry be a bit cruel toward Snape... He certainly deserves it, and I think that I've got Harry reacting somewhat realistically. Of course, if you disagree, feel free to let me know in a review, as I am all for constructive criticism. And, feel free to review even if you actually liked the chapter. Anyway... Sorry the chapter's a bit short... If I get a decent number of reviews for this one, I might be able to post the next chapter this weekend, otherwise I'll probably post it next Friday (February 9).