Own this? Not me. You know, this has been a crazy trip so far, and I am grateful to all of you who read, review, favorite, follow, and lurk. To even those who read this and go, WTF? THANK YOU!
It was the eighth of December, and Severus had been missing for two weeks. The strain of pretending that everything was fine in class was wearing on Harry, though the support of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco, and all of the students who knew the truth kept him afloat. Seamus Finnegan had been let in on it in a rather interesting manner-Harry had punched him when Seamus had went way too far in his remarks of hoping Snape never came back from wherever he was. Everett had intervened because he had heard what Seamus had said before Harry had punched him, though both still had to serve two detentions; he assigned trigonometry equations that had to be completed before they left. He only assigned five problems, but did not make them easy. He also had a long conversation with Seamus about regard for fellow human beings, then, being the binder, let him in on the secret. Seamus, to say the least, was shocked and rather impressed that Severus and Harry had managed to keep up the illusion of mutual dislike so far into the year. He now hoped, for Harry's sake, that Severus returned in one piece.
Lavender had been another unexpected ally. She and Hermione had grown to actually like each other, though they would never agree on things like clothes and make-up charms, when Hermione had been her chaperone to some of her meetings with Carl, who was a maturing influence on her. She had accepted the soul-bond would mean that they would eventually marry, and that Severus would likely be her brother-in-law. She,surprisingly enough, was fine with it once with the initial shock wore off, as she was with the realization that Remus would also probably eventually be her brother-in-law, as he and Dale were talking about bonding after the war was over.
Lucius had sent another coded note stating that "the packages are safe", indicating that Regulus and Severus were still alive. Harry and the others were gratified to learn that news, but still worried. Lucius had been able to get away without attracting suspicion long enough to meet with Dumbledore and reveal that he had discovered exactly where in the catacombs the two were being held and was in the process of mapping our an escape route. He was also figuring out the guard schedules. He then reported something that got Everett's attention, as well as Carl's; that Rabastan was acting as though he were fighting a will-controlling curse, but did not have the glazed-over look of someone under the Imperius.
"I suspect he's under the Imprisio," Everett told the small group consisting of Dumbledore, Sirius, Dale, Remus, Carl, Jim, Chet, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lavender. "In a way, it is more evil than the Imperius. In the US, it is classified as a fourth Unforgivable, with an automatic life sentence. Albus, I would like to see your memories of both Rabastan Lestrange's trial and of Barty Crouch, Jr. The former I definitely suspect, the latter is a gut feeling. Have Eugene ship him in from Azkaban. If he is Kissed, he will be harmless. If he was under the Imprisio, one of the two cures is to be Kissed, because the dementor will only suck out the dominant false persona."
"I will admit my knowledge is lacking in the area of the Imprisio," Albus admitted, "but I will get Eugene on it. Any allies or weak links that we can utilize from the other side are invaluable. Here are the memories." He handed Everett a vial, which he immediately poured into a pensieve. He and Carl dove in, and when they came back out a few minutes later, Everett stumbled into the bathroom and was violently sick.
"They are both under the curse," Carl said, looking as though he wished to be sick himself. "For those especially sensitive to mind-magics, it is like an oily taint on the person's aura." He squeezed Lavender's hand, drawing strength from her presence through the soul-bond. "Barty should be in possession of his real consciousness, and hopefully sane. Lucius may need to Imperio Rabastan out, and does anyone have a pet dementor? The only other option is to find out who cast the Imprisio and kill them. I suspect Bellatrix, as she seems the type to do it, but she is well-protected. All right, Ev?" he asked quietly as his younger brother, white-faced and shaking, made his way back to the table.
"Not really," he rasped. "You never get used to that feeling. I will be, though." On an impulse, Lavender laid the hand that was not holding Carl's on top of one of his and squeezed. He gave a sad smile of appreciation at the gesture.
"Eugene will be asked to retrieve Barty Monday morning," Albus said gravely. "Sirius, you need to floo back to the Ministry now, as your recess is almost over and Eugene will be waiting. I shall ask Lucius to do what he can for Rabastan. Now on to our other grim task. We have established that Voldemort made seven horcruxes. A horcrux, as you know, is an object used to encase a fragment of a person's soul in order to prevent death. I long suspected Voldemort had used such a means to cheat death, but his return a few months ago confirmed it. I have since been searching out the objects that he used. To create a horcrux, which no same or moral man will do, involves a murder in order to fracture the soul, and an arcane and disgusting ritual involving a spell and desecration of the corpse must be performed. Harry has destroyed two: the diary and an accidental horcrux that was placed in his scar the night James and Lily were killed." Harry looked surprised at this. Sure, his headaches had decreased, his concentration improved, and his moods had stabilized after shoving the soul fragment out of his head that night at Grimmauld Place, but this indicated the magnitude of what he had done was much bigger than he had thought. "Everett and Regulus destroyed the locket with fiendfyre in 1979. The other four are Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, and Voldemort's serpent, Nagini. This is the knowledge that I believe got Severus captured. He is still alive, so Voldemort does not know that we know all of them. We need to obtain and destroy them in order to kill Voldemort. Otherwise, there will always be the risk of him coming back.
After that, events moved swiftly. The diadem was located in the school, and Carl destroyed it with a very controlled blast of fiendfyre after breaking the web of protections around it. Marvolo Gaunt's ring was located in Little Hangleton, and Everett and Jim departed to destroy it. Two hours later, they came back and dropped an object onto the table. "Well, now we have all three Deathly Hallows on our side: the Resurrection Stone, the Elder Wand, and the Invisibility Cloak," Jim said.
"You mean the story is real?" Hermione asked.
"Exactly that," Chet said, speaking for the first time. He looked at his watch. "The Phantom just told me that we need to get to the Great Hall to watch the outcome of Sirius' trial." Apparently, his alter-ego in his pranking younger days had been "The Phantom", and his bar was called "The Phantom and The Pigeon".
They made their way to the Great Hall, arriving just in time to watch the outcome of the trial.
"We the court find the defendant, Sirius Orion Black, not guilty."