Ch28: Preparations
A/N: Hello, everyone. I'm sorry about this unplanned hiatus. I've been trying to get back into writing, but I've left it for so long that I've actually forgotten what's going on. I had completely forgotten that this chapter was even already written and had thought that it was part of the next unfinished chapter. Unfortunately in the middle of that chapter, Emil asks where Neville is, and then I'd stopped writing. When I came back, I actually forgot where Neville was. Further the dates are quite the mess; I didn't keep track of it on paper so I had to go back and figure out the timeline. If you're confused, and you'd like, I'd be happy to post a chapter that is nothing but the timeline of when what has happened up to this point. For now, I'll ask you to remember that it is Monday the 16th of December in 1996, Harry's sixth year, four days after the attack has begun.
As always, thanks for your patience and all of your follows and reviews, and a big thank you to my Beta, JackfrostloverCadi93.
With Severus' sobs echoing around the empty classroom, the group knew they would get nothing further accomplished. Harry decided to take Severus back to the infirmary and leave the others in charge of what they knew needed to be done.
As the door shut behind them, Fred turned to Neville. "How did you learn about the Fae again?"
"They were in an old Herbology book. I was looking up the old names from some of the plants we use now. You know, seeing how they evolved, but I came across a plant that sounded really useful, but had fallen out of use due to its rarity. I looked it up in an old book Gran sent me. One of the excerpts said to be careful using Fae Creatures even in the same room as it because they were extremely volatile. It gave a description of them and how dangerous they were in the appendix."
Hermione, absolutely beaming that someone else would read the appendices, interrupted, "What exactly did it to do them?"
"Apparently it melted them, dissolved their entire bodies. It sounded-"
"You said they were rare?"
"Yeah, they-"
"Not that they were extinct?" She clarified.
"No, there just weren't a lot of them, but I don't see why it matters-"
"Hermione!" Emil yelled, "You're a genius!"
"I'm so lost." Neville muttered.
"Us, too." The twins chorused.
"Don't you see?" Emil asked. "If the plant dissolves them, we can use it to kill the ones in people. Then we can use it to kill them whenever they come near us! Because the plant is rare, not extinct, we can still use it!"
"But it's rare," pointed out Fred.
"And we don't know how to use it," added George.
"And we don't know what reaction it would have in the patients," Neville spoke up.
"We also don't know how to find it," Fred said.
"Or if it even goes by the same name," Neville chorused.
"Or if it's extinct by now," George mentioned.
"And-"
"Okay! It's a flawed plan!" Hermione exploded. "But isn't it a start?"
Ginny waited in the Room of Requirement for Draco. He'd read her note a half an hour ago so he should've been here by now.
Just as she was starting to get impatient, the door slammed open, and he rushed in.
"Sorry. Sorry I'm late."
She stood up and wrapped him in a hug. "What took so long?"
He kissed her forehead, "Pansy wanted to talk about how now might be our only chance to get together with everything going on." His face scrunched up in disgust.
Ginny just laughed. They'd talked about Pansy before, and she knew Draco had been trying to kerb her advances since before their Hogwarts years even, but that the girl wouldn't take no for an answer. "How'd you get out of that one?"
"I told her that I would have no relationship out of the one my parents planned for my marriage."
"Oh, really? You won't?" She got up on her tiptoes to press her lips against his.
The kiss quickly deepened into dancing tongues, biting lips, and heavy breathing, before Draco seemed to realise something.
"What was so urgent?"
"Hermione wants those books. I know it'll be hard to get them out of your library, but she's getting antsy."
Draco huffed. "She really can't just-"
"She didn't say anything," Ginny pacified. "We've got a war going on, and she can't do anything to help until she gets them. She doesn't want to rush you, but I can tell she's getting nervous. Her sister is dying, Draco."
"Oh."
"Yeah, 'oh'."
"I'll go home today and see if I can change the wards to let her in."
"Thank you. I know you don't like her, but-"
"But her sister is dying, and she's your friend. It's okay."
Ginny beamed at him before giving him a grateful kiss.
Harry settled Severus back into his cot. The man's crying had tapered off as they'd walked down the hall, and now he just sat and watched Harry with big, black eyes.
"I have to go talk to Madam Pomfrey." Harry told him. He stood from his seat on the edge of the bed, but Severus whimpered. "What?"
Severus reached a hand out to Harry, but Harry took a step back. "What?" He watched as Severus' eyes filled with tears again, his heart breaking. "Use your words. Say something. Please."
Severus just whimpered again and closed his hand around empty air.
"Please, Sev. Say something."
When Severus opening and closing his hand again was the only answer he got, Harry turned around and went in search of Madam Pomfrey. He found her in her office, and knocked on the open door to get her attention.
"Oh, hello, Mr. Potter. Did you bring him back? No trouble, I presume?"
Before he could even answer, she was bustling out the door to stand by Severus' bedside. He was crying softly, staring up at the ceiling.
She gave him a hard look before trying to attend to her patient. "Severus?" She called before waving her wand over him. He kicked at his blankets and let out a childish cry, protesting. She huffed. "If you don't let me do this now, I'll just have to come back later, and I assure you, I will not be in a very forgiving mood, young man."
Severus stilled on his cot and allowed her to run her scans. When she was finished, she turned to Harry and motioned for him to follow her back into her office. "There's no change. He still behaves just as a child."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. He acts like a child, but children learn right? Can't he learn everything back?" She tried to interrupt him, but he talked right over her. "Besides, even if he can't, kids are aware of what's going on around them. So some of him must still be in there. Right? And if some of him is still in there, maybe the rest is just buried. You said yourself, he can still talk, and that's better than any of the other patients. Maybe he's not like the other patients. Maybe he's just-"
"Mr. Potter!" Harry stopped, looking contrite. "I understand you're hurting, dear, but even if he were reverted to a child, it would take years-decades, maybe- for him to regain his current understandings, and even then, he would not be the man you knew.
"You are correct in your assumption that he might just be buried under this new manner, but we've already known that. Every victim is that way. The problem is that we have no shovel to uncover them. It's a defense of the mind that, unfortunately, has not been able to be unraveled.
"Finally, yes, Mr. Potter, he can talk. He is not like other patients. However, we have no way to know how much of his original personality is still in there. We don't know how much this new personality is covering and how much is just gone. We don't know what memories he has. He obviously remembers you, but what else? Yes, he can react to the atmosphere of a room, but what does he understand? There are too many unknowns for us to be able to bring him back. We don't even know where to start because we don't know what we have to work with."
"Can't we use Legilimency to find out?"
Madam Pomfrey opened her mouth to point out why they couldn't, but then she stopped, her mouth hanging open, and a look of shock covering her face.
Tom Riddle paced the corridors of his manor. He'd just been sent an owl from Zuma Zeller's ugly little child, Rose. How weak of them, to name all of their children after something as breakable as flowers.
The child was taught well, however. She was asking after her father. She wanted to know why no one had heard from him in the past days. Voldemort hardly remembered killing the man, but as his body was found on the floor in his sitting room, he supposed he must have. Not that he would tell the child that.
But she was in Ravenclaw for a reason. She'd learned that one cannot get information unless information is given. She also knew that if information was considered of value, it was less likely to be offered up. She'd begun her letter with the news that Snape was in the infirmary and had been for days. The talk of the school was that he had gone mad. They said he couldn't even speak anymore, that he just lay in his cot in the infirmary and cried.
This was not good. This was not good at all.
His plan was hinged upon Severus, and the fool was unable to take his punishment. Voldemort thought he was fine. He'd taken a while to pick himself off the floor the last time, yes, but he'd walked out of the manor on his own power and apparated away. He'd never heard of the symptoms of the Cruciatus taking awhile to show.
Now he'd have to find a new plan. The Fae couldn't get passed the ancient wards of Hogwarts. They could wreak havoc across the globe except where he needed it most.
The only hope he had was to bring down the wards.
A/N: I put a note at the beginning so please read that. Also, I've started on the next chapter, but I'm not going to lie to you: I don't know when it will be up. I'd originally hoped to have this finished by the new year, but that hasn't happened. I'm so sorry that I've disappeared on you, and I don't know if it will happen again. All I can give your for now is my apologies.
-faceless
Also! The poll for how Severus and Harry should do their surnames is still up and will be until I write the scene when they get married or until I decide that they no longer will get married. I hope to see you all participate!
