A/N: This chapter has a memory from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Some of the narration has been changed but it is still taken from the book. So, do not sue me. It's not mine. :]
I hope you like this chapter and please review. Thank you. :]
Harry groaned, as usual, when he and Severus landed. He had a brief thought of going back in time and finding the person who invented Portkeys and seriously hurting them.
"No, you can't go back and stop the invention of Portkeys," Severus said absently and Harry glared at him.
"Well, it's no fun if you're picking around in my thoughts," Harry said.
"I don't have to do that to know what you're thinking," Severus said with a smirk. Harry shook his head and began walking forward towards the house they had landed in front of. It was a pretty rundown house. The paint was chipped and peeling off. The front door was hanging on by a single hinge and was cracked. There were no lights on in the house and Harry frowned. Were they at the right place?
"Did Dumbledore send us to the right house?" Harry said, glancing up at Severus.
"He may be completely mental and manipulative but he knows how to make a Portkey," Severus said. "Come on. Keep your wand out."
Harry nodded and flicked his wrist, pulling his wand from his holster. They walked through the creaky wrought iron waist-high gate and proceeded up the short cobblestone drive. Arriving at the door, Severus gently pushed Harry behind him so that he would be the one to enter the house first. Harry mentally rolled his eyes but deep down he appreciated the protection. Severus quietly lit his wand and pushed the broken door open. The house was shrouded in darkness, all curtains being pulled closed to keep out the morning light. Slowly following Severus, Harry gripped his wand and gazed around. It appeared that the place had been attacked.
"Do you think Death Eaters were here?" Harry whispered.
"It's possible. Perhaps they are after Slughorn," Severus said.
They walked slowly through the rooms, hearing glass crunch under their shoes. Harry followed Severus through a doorway and into what Harry assumed was the sitting room. Furniture was strewn everywhere in pieces and a chandelier was shattered on the floor. Only two things remained intact in the room: a red armchair and a cabinet filled with pictures and framed documents. Harry glanced down when he felt himself kick something which happened to be a piece of crystal from the chandelier. However, he also found his foot in close distance with a few thick drops of red liquid.
"Sev'rus," he whispered and Severus turned to face him. "Blood," he said simply.
Severus looked down and his eyebrows furrowed at the liquid on the floor. He knelt down and held his wand over the blood. Harry's eyes widened when Severus dipped his fingertip in one of the drops.
"It's not human blood," Severus said after a few moments of inspection.
"Then what is it?"
"Dragon's blood."
They both whirled around and raised their wands when they heard a creak come from the direction of the chair. Severus slowly moved forward and waved his wand over the chair. They stared at it for a while as nothing happened. Harry jumped when the chair cracked and began to contort and change shape. With wide eyes, he and Severus watched as the armchair changed into a man…the very man they were looking for.
Who changes themselves into an armchair? Harry thought absently.
"Merlin's beard!" Horace Slughorn exclaimed as he summoned a robe and pulled it over his red pajamas. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Professor Slughorn," Severus said, lowering his wand.
"Professor?" Slughorn said. "Definitely not, my boy. I haven't been a professor in over twenty years."
"I'm aware," Severus said. "However, that is truly the only position I have known you to be in."
Slughorn frowned at Severus before his eyes lit up. "Severus Snape!"
Severus inclined his head as he crossed his arms.
"Good lord, man. I haven't seen you in years," Slughorn said.
"That is because you retired not long after I left school," Severus said.
"Right, right." Slughorn nodded. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"Looking for you," Severus said.
"For me? Whatever for?"
"That, I believe, is for Mr. Potter to tell you," Severus said and rolled his eyes at the way Slughorn's eyes widened.
"Harry Potter?" Slughorn said in a near whisper as Severus pushed Harry forward, ignoring the young man's glare.
"Um, hello, sir," Harry said, not quite sure what to do or say. How in the world was he supposed to get a total stranger to give him such a personal memory?
"Oh, sweet Merlin, what an honour," Slughorn said and Harry shot Severus a glare as the man covered a laugh with a very fake cough. "Whatever can I do for you, my boy?"
Harry gave a minute shake of his head. How was he supposed to go about this? He couldn't just ask for the memory. "Um, well, you see. I actually have a favour to ask."
"What is it?" Slughorn asked.
Harry glanced around as if searching for what to say next. However, his eyes caught a picture in the cabinet before he could speak. With furrowed eyebrows, he walked towards it.
"Harry?" Severus said but Harry said nothing.
Finally stopping in front of the cabinet, he stared at the picture. It was a group of people, a group of Hogwarts students, standing with Slughorn. He recognized a couple of the others in the picture but only one really caught his eye. She had flaming red hair and had a very happy smile as she slung an arm around the nervous looking dark haired boy beside her. A young Severus Snape had a tiny smile on his face as a young Lily Evans kissed his cheek.
"My mother?" Harry breathed, looking back at Slughorn who had moved beside him and had a sad smile on his face.
"Yes. A bright young witch she was." Slughorn nodded. "Absolutely excellent at Potions."
"What is this?" Harry asked.
"The Slug Club. The most talented of students at Hogwarts. As you can see, Severus is there with Lily," Slughorn said. "There is Lucius Malfoy," he said, pointing to a smaller photo that had a young Lucius Malfoy and a young Lestrange. He wasn't sure if it was Rodolphus or Rabastan Lestrange. His eyes were pulled to another photo. It was one that had been taken before the others obviously as it was much older looking. It had Slughorn and a few other boys but, again, only one really stood out.
"This boy," Harry said, pointing to the dark haired boy standing next to Slughorn in the picture. "Who is he?"
"That," Slughorn said with a sigh. "That is Tom Riddle. One of the most promising students I ever met while at Hogwarts."
"You taught Tom?" Harry said.
"Yes." Slughorn nodded. "I was so proud of that boy. He had so much promise and potential."
"Do you know what happened?" Harry asked.
Slughorn glanced at him before averting his eyes. "No. No, I don't."
"Are you sure? Did he ever talk about anything that could have possibly led him to where he is now?" Harry said.
Slughorn breathed deeply. "Once," he said, "but, no, I really don't know." He turned away.
"He killed her," Harry said and Slughorn stopped. "Tom. He killed Lily. He killed my mother."
"Yes."
"Help me, sir," Harry said. "You cared for her. Help me defeat Tom so that she didn't die for nothing."
"I-I know nothing," Slughorn said.
"Sir, please. She was my mother, my mother who I never got to know because of Tom. Please help me."
Slughorn paused for a long while. "He confided in me frequently while he was at school," he spoke quietly. "He would stay behind after meetings even though he was almost always out after curfew. We would discuss a wide range of topics. One night he brought up a topic I never would have expected."
"What was it?"
Slughorn moved his eyes to Harry's. With a sigh, Slughorn waved his wand and an empty vial flew into his hand. He then put the tip of his wand to his temple and when he pulled it away, a shimmering blue strand was attached to it. He dropped it into the vial and stopped it.
"Do not think less of me, my boy, and don't let her memory die," Slughorn said, handing Harry the vial.
"I won't, sir. Thank you," Harry said. "Thank you so much."
"You did very well, Harry," Severus said as they left the house.
"Thanks, I guess. I didn't really know what I was doing. Once I saw those pictures, I just talked," Harry said. "Why didn't you say you were in that club?"
"You didn't know who Slughorn was before now. Why would I bring it up?"
"I just thought it would've come up at some point during the times you told me about my mum."
"I suppose it was an honour to be collected by Slughorn but it really got quite irritating. About a year after Lily and I stopped being friends, Slughorn more or less kicked me out of his club because I was getting too into the Dark Arts."
"That's ridiculous." Harry frowned.
"He only cares about talent and powerful parents."
"But what about Malfoy and Regulus and Avery? They were all in the club and they all became Death Eaters."
Severus gave a little shrug. "They all had powerful parents."
"I already don't like him."
Severus gave him a little grin. "Come on, let's get home and watch this memory."
Harry nodded and held onto the quill.
"School," Severus said and they disappeared.
"Ah, you're back," Dumbledore said once they landed in his office. "Harry, my boy, did you succeed?"
"Yes, sir." Harry nodded.
"Oh, excellent!" Dumbledore said happily. "You go on ahead with that and come back when you are finished."
Harry nodded again and left the office.
"Thank you for accompanying him, Severus," Dumbledore said.
Severus inclined his head. "What was the reason you sent him to Slughorn? I was unaware he knew the man."
"Another time, Severus, another time," Dumbledore said and Severus narrowed his eyes at the headmaster.
"Very well," Severus said and swept from the office, scowling. He found Harry standing outside the gargoyle, staring at the swirling memory in the vial.
"Well, don't you look impressed," Harry said, raising an eyebrow at Severus who glared at him. "Dumbledore still won't tell you anything?"
"He said 'another time'," Severus said and rolled his eyes as he and Harry started walking towards the dungeons.
"I don't know why he won't just tell you since he apparently trusts you so much," Harry said.
"Because he's manipulative. He'll tell me when it fits into his plans," Severus said with a sigh. He and Harry entered their rooms and both sat on the sofa.
"He should really just tell you. You'd be able to help, not that you aren't already," Harry said, still fiddling with the vial.
Severus shrugged again. "Shall we watch the memory?" he said, summoning his Pensieve and Harry nodded. He took out the stopper in the vial and poured the memory into the Pensieve. They watched the memory swirl for a bit before settling, a picture of a teenage Tom Riddle on the surface. Harry breathed deeply before touching his nose to the surface and allowed himself to be pulled into the memory, Severus close behind him.
Looking around, they found that the memory was beginning the same way that the false memory had. Slughorn was talking to Riddle and the other boys and then sent them to bed. Like the false memory, Riddle stayed behind.
"Look sharp, Tom, you don't want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and you a prefect…" Slughorn said once he saw that Riddle had remained.
"Sir, I wanted to ask you something," Riddle said.
"Ask away, then, m'boy, ask away…"
"Sir, I wondered what you know about…about Horcruxes?"
Harry and Severus watched Slughorn as his body tensed and his finger paused on the glass it was circling.
"Project for Defence Against the Dark Arts, is it?" Slughorn said, obviously knowing that the question had nothing to do with Riddle's schoolwork.
"Not exactly, sir," Riddle said. "I came across the term while reading and I didn't fully understand it."
Harry snorted mentally. He doubted that Riddle didn't know what he had been reading.
"No…well…you'd be hard-pushed to find a book at Hogwarts that'll give you details on Horcruxes, Tom. That's very Dark stuff, very Dark indeed," Slughorn said.
"But you obviously know all about them, sir? I mean, a wizard like you—sorry, I mean, if you can't tell me, obviously—I just knew if anyone could tell me, you could—so I just thought I'd ask—"
Harry and Severus noticed how easy it came to Riddle to flatter the professor enough to get what he wanted. Riddle had obviously been quite intelligent and manipulative and cunning when he was younger before he became deranged.
"Well," Slughorn began, not looking at Riddle. Harry watched and listened intently, "well, it can't hurt to give you an overview, of course. Just so that you understand the term. A Horcrux is a word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul."
Harry watched the fake frown cross Riddle's face. "I don't quite understand how that works, though, sir," he said.
"Well, you split your soul, you see," Slughorn said, "and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form…"
Slughorn paused and Harry fund himself remembering words that had been spoken upon Voldemort's resurrection.
'I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost…but still, I was alive.'
"…few would want it, Tom, very few. Death would be preferable."
Harry removed his eyes from Slughorn and looked at Riddle. The young man was excited and hungry and his expression was one of longing. Clearly the young man was obsessed with immortality by this time already.
"How do you split your soul?" Riddle asked.
Slughorn was clearly uncomfortable with the question or the conversation in general. "Well, you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature."
"But how do you do it?" Riddle pushed.
"By an act of evil—the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: he would encase the torn portion—"
"Encase? But how-?"
"There is a spell, do not ask me, I don't know!" Slughorn said, losing his composure and shaking his head. "Do I look as though I have tried it—do I look like a killer?"
Harry was somewhat taken aback at the strong reaction. It was a natural reaction, definitely, but it seemed out of place on the man he had just met.
"No, sir, of course not," Riddle said quickly. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to offend.."
"Not at all, not at all, not offended," Slughorn said in a low voice. "It is natural to feel some curiosity about these things…wizards of a certain calibre have always been drawn to that aspect of magic…"
"Yes, sir," Riddle said. "What I don't understand though—just out of curiosity—I mean, would one Horcrux be much use? Can you only split your soul once? Wouldn't it be better, make you stronger, to have your soul in more pieces? I mean, for instance, isn't seven the most powerfully magical number, wouldn't seven-?"
"Merlin's beard, Tom!" Slughorn cried. "Seven! Isn't it bad enough to think of killing one person? And in any case…bad enough to divide the soul…but to rip it into seven pieces…"
Slughorn was deeply troubled by now. He was staring at Riddle as though he had never seen him before and it was obvious that he regretted ever going ahead with the conversation.
"Of course," Slughorn muttered, "this is all hypothetical, what we're discussing, isn't it? All academic…"
"Yes, sir, of course." Riddle nodded sincerely.
"But all the same, Tom…keep it quiet, what I've told—that's to say, what we've discussed. People wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about Horcruxes. It's a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know…Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it…"
"I won't say a word, sir," Riddle said and left the room but Harry and Severus managed to see his face briefly. The young man was full of happiness with almost a wild look in his eyes. As Riddle left the room, he felt himself being pulled out of the Pensieve.
He and Severus were once again sitting on the sofa and Harry let his thoughts run. If Riddle had found out about Horcruxes through a book, what book had it been? Was it the same book Harry, himself, was reading? Salazar Slytherin's book? It was possible. How else would he have discovered Horcruxes? Regardless of how he found out about Horcruxes in the first place, his ideas and knowledge on the items were solidified by Slughorn.
"Not that we didn't already know it but now we know for sure that Voldemort made seven Horcruxes," Harry said and Severus nodded.
"We also know that it is because of Slughorn that Voldemort knew about Horcruxes. What kind of a professor tells a sixteen, seventeen year old about Horcruxes? Unbelievable," Severus said with a shake of his head.
"I think Voldemort would have found out all he could on Horcruxes even without Slughorn's help," Harry said.
"Most likely but that man still told a child about Horcruxes even though he was aware of how Dark they are and that they were a banned subject," Severus said.
"With this memory, Dumbledore's going to tell me about the Horcruxes now. It only took over five years," Harry said with a roll of his eyes.
Severus smirked. "He still hasn't told me and it's been over twenty years now."
Harry rolled his eyes again. "Shut up. I'll be back."
Severus nodded and Harry left the quarters, once again heading for the headmaster's office.
A/N: With the pictures of the Slug Club, I realize that Severus was never in the picture with Lily but I wanted to put him in there as well as having the picture of Lucius Malfoy. I had to look up who all had been in the Slug Club during Slughorn's first tenure and I picked out a few of the main people we know to mention.
