Chapter 53 A Darker Shade of Grey

Snape looked at his shaking hands, quivering in front of his face. His eyes filled with a leaky flood of self-hatred, his body was possessed by an ague of terror.

He had tried not to tremble any more after he re-entered the bathroom to get himself under another boiling hot shower, but it had been no good. He'd had to calm himself down, or try to-he was so frightened!

He'd been back from the debriefing two hour and he was still shaking like a leaf. He had literally fled the office they had used , fled because of that blasted victorious smirk on the faces of Moody, Dumbledore and Fillon after the comparison of the taped operation with the contents of Harry's Pensiève.

They'd been obviously happy with the highly successful test run, since it worked with or without Voldemort. Severus' Dark Mark contained enough dark magic to activate the link with Harry and the link was so concise, that the Pensiève showed not only what he had seen and done, but also what he had felt and thought....... It was indeed a perfect tool for their purpose!

Holy Merlin, why had he had to listen and watch it all over again? It was terrible, terrible.

His fear was real and deep in every part of his body like a fever. He clutched his right hand over the faded Dark Mark on his left forearm, as if it had started to burn red with rage.

He folded his arms over his bare, muscled chest. Head bent and eyes firmly shut, he let water flow over his back and the scars of his past. Although the scars were by now healed and closed again, he had the impression that they burnt and hurt as if freshly reopened with the Dark Lord's poisoned wand. His darker side relished in the pain the almost boiling water caused on the still sensitive skin. As if pain was redemption for the fresh blood on his hands and soul!

Severus had left the memory within Harry's Pensiève in a mindset completely different from the elation and triumph of a Moody, Dumbledore and Fillon. Although with tremendous self-control he had been able to prevent his hands and body from starting to shake in front of these three, he had experienced the odd feeling to suffocate in a room full of air.  It was not the scene in itself that had caused his reaction! He'd been in the storage facility and killed those men hardly two hours earlier.

What had really come as a shock to him were his feelings and thoughts during the operation..........His feelings! It was more the complete absence of any human feelings that had been a shock to Severus. So he was indeed what many whispered behind his back: A mechanical contrivance! He was a mechanical contrivance with a very pronounced killer instinct. And this was the simple reason why he was still alive.

Harry had realized it, too. He had even articulate this reality ,How could you?'


Harry had understood that as soon as Severus was ,activated' by an order or a specific situation, he shifted into a simple shark mood....like one of those muggle machines, where you simply had to push a button.

The terrible thing about this newfound knowledge with the boy was, that Harry had asked Severus to teach him this very secret of physical and psychological survival in extreme situations.

He had tried to reason with Harry outside, on the helicopter landing zone, while his weary and drained comrades made their way back to the hangar. Harry had simply dismissed Severus' arguments and logic, that it was probably something one could not teach to another and if he could teach him, would the boy happily employ himself at fifteen years of age to completely empty himself of emotion and face the consequences of such a ,skill'?

Severus' stomach cramped agonizingly and he closed the hot water, groaning and retching dryly. Why couldn't they have accepted his resisting to have Harry run this stupid trial with the Pensiève? Instinctively he had refused it and  so had Damien and Yvan........both men with an extremely traumatizing past and very pronounced survival skills, too.

The first memory had been an accident......valuable so, because they had gained an insider view of Voldemort's brain and ways of thought. But they should have savoured the little victory over the Dark Lord and let it be.

Slowly the pain retreated from his stomach and his old scars stopped to burn and hurt. His head cleared a little. His brow felt cool at least. Harry had let go of his neck on the airfield and slipped from the elder wizards arms back onto the solid ground. He had motioned Severus to walk with him away from the hangar.

He had told him about this nightmare that came back regularly: Cedric Diggory lying on the ground with blank eyes staring at him.........and all this because he had been a young fool who had been wearing his heart proudly on his sleeve an instant earlier in the maze of the Triwizzard tournament.

Severus had let him speak. Harry had held his head down during his sad, little monologue....as if ashamed.

' Since I can remember, I have been always unable to empty myself of emotions when put under strain and each time I allowed this to happen, I became an easy prey for dark and dangerous dealings.'

The boy had told him about Dudley's birthday and the zoo; a few weeks before he'd received his letter from Hogwarts, when he had been aged ten......and about the snake he'd released in an instant of strong emotion while making at the same moment fall his dunce cousin into the wild animal's terrarium.

Severus had kept his silence, allowing Harry to continue.


,Those who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked so easily - weak people in other words- they stand no chance against someone with Voldemort's powers......and this weakness makes them a danger to others, since this creature can penetrate such a mind with absurd ease and manipulate you like a puppet on strings!'

Severus had simply laid his arm around the boy's shoulder, but Harry had shaken him off and turned around. His tiny, little, sad voice becoming almost inaudible.

,I am weak! I cannot control my anger and I am unable to discipline my mind and worst of all.......I do not even try, because it is much easier to chose this way then to take upon myself responsibility or restraint! Imagine what could have happened when we decided to protect the stone of Flamel and stumbled over Voldemort on Quirell's head. Ron got himself almost killed by the enchanted chess pieces and Hermione risked her skin, solving your riddle.......and all this because I was a weak fool who was easy to manipulate! Oh shit, I cannot forget these blank eyes of Cedric starring at me and accusing me........I should have listened to that voice, telling me to take the goblet for myself......alone.....but 'No' and now he's dead and I am alive and I have obviously learned nothing from this constant stumbling into messy situations and dragging others along with me..........'

Severus dried himself with a towel and picked up a clean combat fatigue from his navy haversack. He groaned in desperation. He locked at his watch, then at the clock next to his bed. Five o'clock in the morning. The black moonless night stared back at him , as blank as his own gaze. How could they have been so blind? How could he have been so blind.......?

He opened the door of his room with a silent gesture of his hand. His eyes were adapted to the dark and he knew this building inside out. Like a silent shadow he made his way to the guest rooms. Harry's chamber was between Alastor's and Albus'. Albus would skin him alive for what Severus intended to do now, but after the reaction and monologue on the airfield the young druid did not care any more about Dumbledore's master plan against Voldemort.

He'd not allow the Headmaster to set up this child like a pawn on a chess board whenever it became him...whenever he felt, he could provoke his adversary Voldemort out into the open onto a battlefield with a simple move of the pawn!

Habitually Severus knocked before invading another person's privacy, but now old-fashioned courtesy had to step back. With a light swish of his hand he opened the door to Harry's chamber, then he murmured the strongest silencing charm he knew. He entered the room like a shadow only to realize that he had been right in his analysis of the situation.

The boy's bed was untouched. A lean silhouette was visible on the little balcony. Harry stood there, alone and lost, staring into the dark motionlessly.

'Harry, what makes you think that 'a creature' can penetrate such a mind as yours with absurd ease and manipulate you like a puppet on strings?' He asked  the marble statute on the balcony softly. He had taken a seat on a chair close to the boy's bed.


Harry let the  iron-wrought handrail of the balcony go and turned around. Although he had not heard Severus enter his room, he had felt his presence immediately.

'You do not want to teach me, don't you?' The boy replied, finding himself a place on his bed opposite to Severus' chair. 'And you are mad at me because I accepted to run this trial with our link.............and found out?'

,Found out? What?'

,That you never loose your control, that you can function without the slightest hint of emotion, that you are able to keep a hold even on your thoughts.......not to betray to others what you are up to.........not even in the most dangerous and life threatening situations and by doing so you get yourself out of each and every mess.... without ever dragging others into it or making them pay for your mistakes.'

,Oh, what a novelty!' Severus voice turned from gentle to sarcastic in an instant.

,After knowing me for four years, you finally find out that I am a cold-blooded, heartless bastard with no scruples and who is able to slice a throat without even a second thought.......and you wish to acquire these wonderful competencies, too since they seem to be the universal remedy against making mistakes!'

Severus was fully aware that cuddling the boy would be the worst thing he could do in this situation: Harry had been brought up in deep distrust of the adult world because of the silly and heartless behaviour of Lily's sister and her overgrown, fat husband. At Hogwarts he had continued to live in deep distrust of all grown ups, although he had been pretending to confide in Albus, Minerva, Remus and Sirius.

But he had not! He had never ever in his life trusted. He had only tried to cope all alone and to copy a certain range of behavioural patterns from those he pretended to trust and now it was Severus' tour......since Harry could no longer deny that he was fighting the Dark Lord on Dumbledore's side and was just a darker shade of grey, not a full-fledged dark wizard!

,Please, don't be sarcastic with me. I think you understand exactly what it is all about, Severus.' Harry tucked his knees under his chin and closed his eyes.

It was all about his brain telling him one thing and his heart making him do something completely different. Severus was exactly the other way round; Harry had understood in the meantime that the bat had a heart, emotions, feelings, humanity and moral values, but he never allowed them to overcome his clear, cold logic. He controlled them and never let them interfere with what had to be done, even if he had to pay a high personal price for this. Harry was convinced that it was exactly this kind of control, he had to learn: Think first, act next!

,Why didn't you tell your godfather what was going on during last year?' Snape's voice was back from sarcastic to soft. He'd be able to teach the boy certain things.... so to say the technicalities of self control, but all the rest he had to learn for himself.......probably the hard way, from experience, trial and error.... and with the years to come, when he would grow out of childhood and into a man.

,I was afraid, he'd do something brash and get into harms way!' Harry replied honestly.

,I did not want to upset him!' He continued.


Severus nodded. The young one did not want a grown up wizard, who was perfectly capable to weight the extent of his actions to do something.......brash, while he himself jumped head first into utmost recklessness the same moment! And he had the feeling that telling Sirius, what was tormenting him and what he could not figure out would be a burden for the elder man. Harry considered that if he asked for help, he was burdening someone else, that he was a burden to others.

Well! Coddling was definitively not a way to make Mister Potter understand certain realities of life. He'd need a tougher approach!

Albus would definitively skin and quarter him , when he'd learn that Severus told Harry about the two Trelawney Prophecies.

He had kept them both from the boy, since he pretended to care about him and his happiness, more then about him knowing the truth. He believed that Harry struggled already under more burdens than any student who had ever passed through his school and that under these circumstances he could not bring upon himself to add another-the greatest one of them all!

And what had come out of this ,loving too much', ,caring too much'......?

Exactly the contrary of what Dumbledore had wished: Harry was neither happy nor living with his mind in peace!

All he had were doubts, self-loathing, a feeling of betrayal and the knowledge that a large part of his life had been built upon lies. If they'd let Harry continue to run on his track, he'd turn out sooner or later a very angry and desperate young man......an easy  prey for the Dark One and not his future potential conqueror.

,Harry, I cannot teach you, what you ask of me!'

The boy opened his eyes, lifted his head and faced Snape who still sat on his chair, legs crossed and with an unreadable expression over his fathomless, black eyes that were more raven then human in the dim morning light. His voice had not betrayed any emotion either. It had been a matter-of-fact statement.

,Harry, I cannot teach you to trust others and to judge, who is worthy and who is unworthy of this trust of yours. This is something that has to come from you!' He rose an eyebrow in his very best Hogwarts ,Snape-the-Bastard'-manner and locked his black eyes into Harry's green ones.

,Do you trust Albus Dumbledore?' He challenged the boy.

Albus had been a kind of grandfather figure for the young one over the last four years; an understanding, caring, forgiving and tremendously biased grandfather, who'd overlook each and every break of the rules of the game and pardon whatsoever ruthless deed of Harry's.

What did Albus care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in a vague future, if in his here and now Harry was alive, and well and happy?

,Generally speaking ,Yes', Severus.....for a couple of details......I have my doubts, huge doubts!' The boy replied truthful, holding the young wizard's gaze.


Snape's brow rose a bit higher, but it was not in a menacing way; it was almost an amused grin. Harry had been perfectly honest!

The young druid  had decided against coddling the boy and therefore ruthlessly entered his mind to read a little bit around during their early-morning discussion.

,Do you trust Sirius Black?'

Harry did not reply. He gave a simple nod to acknowledge Severus' question.

,You sure?' Snape nagged.

Harry's mind was set on Sirius in a very positive manner indeed. Sirius was his godfather, the closest thing to a real family! But on the other hand the boy was fully aware that he hardly knew the man, who had spent 12 years in Askaban and was now still in hiding and only occasional written contact with him. But since his parents had chosen Black as his godfather, he had a tendency to accept this choice without questioning.

,Yes, Severus! I do trust Sirius, also I am aware that I still have to get to know him. But since my parents......'

,So if you trust Sirius, why not go to him for help, support and advice?'

Severus knew that the question was a nasty provocation: Black was on the run.....and Black was probably not even willing to take upon himself the harder duties of being a godfather to this young man........twelve years in a filthy prison cell were not an incentive to draw a line with a fifteen years old, when need arose.

And there were other things in Siri's character that Severus remembered only too well: If ever he could, he'd most certainly first make up for the 12 years Azkaban had stolen from him and then.....only then, turn to Harry and his obligations as a substitute parent.

Sirius still topped the ,Most Wanted Criminals List' in Great Britain, Muggle and Magic alike and even on the European continent he could not be sure as to his security. Black would have to stay out of everybody's view until his name could be cleared officially........or a certain Peter Pettigrew brought to a confession and further......to a trial.

,You are a bastard, Severus!' Harry replied.

There was no aggressiveness in his voice, only a hint of sadness.

The young wizard smiled and acknowledged with a nod ,I am Harry, but could you conceive, that I have a very good reason to be one?'

,Stop to play this game with me please! Come straight to your point; you want to hear something, but I honestly cannot figure out what.'

Snape left his chair and went over to the bed.

'Harry, whom can you trust, if there is nobody else left? Hmm! Did you ever think about yourself? Learn to trust yourself, learn to trust your own judgement. Weight what facts you have against the impressions you get........that's exactly what you'd do in a game of chess. Think, employ your reason, your intelligence, your wit......'

,Severus, you know that it is easy to give such a clever theoretical piece of advise, but it is not easy to follow it......not in my situation, not with who I am....'

,You did not ask me to teach you the easy way, young man! You asked me to teach you the right way and how to get your neck off the Dark Lord's guillotine! And this is, what I try to do. My way - what you observed this night, what you dropped later on as a silvery thread of memory into the Pensiève - is perhaps not your way! There is no use to try and copy something and then to fiddle around and apply it  to a completely different case. This may lead to nothing less then utter failure! Harry you and I, we are different; we have a different background and education, a different life altogether and first and foremost a different destiny and future! To me, the Dark Lord is just a ,job', another mission......well, a pretty tough one and sometimes I am mightily pissed that I ever accepted to get myself involved in this shit, instead of slicing Islamists' throats in filthy riverside storage facilities or sneak into some godforsaken place in the middle of nowhere in order to help a handful of politically correct idealists to fight against their political regime to protect some hidden interests of the French government in some region of the world.'

Although there was quite a lot to what Severus had told him, Harry could not prevent himself from smiling. That sentence was simply too long and too complicate!

Snape answered the boy's smile with a raised eyebrow.

,So to you it is just another soldier's job, and this is the reason why ,your way' works?'

The young wizard nodded.

,I was told from the very beginning what role I had .....in general, if not in details! I was also pretty much aware of the risks I took and.....of the consequences of a failure....I had been carefully trained for two years to do this kind of work........The stuff they were hiding from me......well, either I somehow managed to figure it out myself or it was not important for the part I had to play. Now, when it comes to you, the situation is different: Nobody ever told you, what part you have to play and since you cannot figure it out yourself, you cannot draw the right conclusions and act correspondingly. And nobody taught you ever, how to face such situations and how to get yourself out of them.....if possible! It was not even intended to prevent you from running wild.......since you were considered .....'Snape withdraw slightly from Harry and crossed his arms over his chest. His voice dripped with sarcasm.

,.....an ,ultimate weapon'!

,Why?' Harry shifted his position into an Indian seat and tugged his chin onto his hands.

It was strange; Severus was back to playing this strange ,Snape-the-Bastard' role from Hogwarts so entirely on purpose. There was something going on; a kind of test, an effort to make him react in a certain way.......a provocation! But even more intriguing; Harry could feel clearly that he did not do it in order to hurt  or even worse....to humiliate. The bat was teasing, trying to draw strings, to make him dance like that afore-mentioned puppet!


,On a cold, wet night  some fifteen years ago, right at the height of the first war with the Dark Lord and with the entire wizarding world of Great Britain in a situation of fear and terror, right in a room above the bar at the infamous and filthy Hog's Head Inn of Hogsmeade, Albus Dumbledore met an applicant for the post of Divination teacher at Hogwarts, though it was against the Headmaster's inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all at the school. The applicant however was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous and very gifted Seer and Albus thought it common politeness to meet her. They discussed for a while, had a couple of drinks. Dumbledore quizzed her a little bit......the habitual game between an employer and a potential future employee. He was disappointed! It seemed to him, that this applicant had not a trace of her ancestor's gift herself! She seemed to be a complete fraud! When Albus' patience came to an end, he told her as politely as he could, that he did not think her suitable for the job. He paid the drinks, stood up and turned to leave. But before he could get out, something very strange happened. The hour was close to midnight on September 30th 1981. The fraud suddenly rose from her place in the bar and spoke again. It was not in her usual ethereal, mystic voice, but in the harsh horse tones you had heard already once before........! I think you remember that one pretty well?'

Harry nodded. He had now his eyes looked into Severus. The stuff the young wizard told him was intriguing and the man knew how to tell a story.

Snape concentrated to recall the exact phrasing of Sybil's first prophecy. It was important! Each and every word counted. He had heard the full prophecy only once, when Dumbledore had allowed him to visit his own memory in his Pensiève, shortly before Harry started his first year at Hogwarts.

,The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches........born to those who have trice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.......and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not....and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives......the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh months dies......'

,Severus' Harry said very quietly, lowering his head and breaking eye contact with the young wizard ,....It....did that mean.....Voldemort knows, doesn't he?' 

Snape gave a small nod ,Indeed, he had been informed concerning this prophecy. There had been a spy in the inn, but they threw him out before Sybil Trelawney was finished. He transmitted only part of the thing.......not the end, not the clue about the ,neither can live while the other survives'. He was already after your parents for other reasons......the reasons Albus Dumbledore explained to you a couple of days ago and on first sight, neither the Dark One nor Albus could make something of Sybil's words. All they knew was that it had been a real prophecy and that they had to watch out.........The first real prophecy of Sybil Trelawney translated for both into the fact, that the person who has the ONLY chance of conquering the Dark Lord for good had been born at the end of July in the Year xxxx or would be born in a future year xxx and that this child -a boy probably, due to the phrasing- had been born or was to be born to parents who had already defied the Dark One three times.'

Harry felt as though something was closing in on him. His breathing became low and irregular, almost like gasping for air.

,It means -me, Severus?'


,Today, with having all the facts we have and knowing all we know.......definitively yes, Harry! Then -on the other hand- in those days long gone by.......no!  It may not have been you at all. Trelawney's prophecy could have applied already to two wizard boys Albus Dumbledore knew very well and which were both born at the end of July 1980 and both of whom had parents, having narrowly escaped the Dark Lord three times. One, of course was you. The other one was Neville Longbottom!'

Severus gave a deep sigh: It had been indeed unclear to whom Sybil had been referring and furthermore, Albus had not really paid attention to the prophecy in late September 1981. He had simply kept it in mind: Great Britain's wizarding world was at war against the Dark Lord and there were so many families that had defied him, so many who had stood up in acts of formidable heroism and who were still to perish in terrible self-sacrifice. It could have been whatsoever child. Even a girl had not been excluded, since  ,The one with the power' could refer to both sexes. It could have been a child of the past, a child of the present or even a child of the future.......it could be Harry or Neville, since their parents fulfilled the conditions of the prophecy, too.

,Harry, the part of the prophecy that was brought to ,His' attention was exactly the following: ,The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches........born to those who have trice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.......and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not!' This generated something, you may easily figure out yourself: He was brought to the conviction, that a concurrent, not a potential conqueror was already around or would be born sometime soon. He did therefore something extremely clever; he decided to investigate silently and secretly, who could be that potential pretender to the job of biggest bully on the playground. He made it also known, that there would be quite a nice reward for the one, who brought him the name of such a possible pretender.........'

,This is were Pettigrew forfeited his friendship for my mum and dad?'

Severus gave another sigh. Pettigrew never ever had had the slightest feeling of friendship for James, Sirius, Remus or Lily. He had simply clung to the Marauders, because nobody else wanted him and with friends like Black and Potter, he had been basically safe from the harassing from other groups at the school. Hogwarts in his days in the late seventies had been a school.....with all its advantages and flaws and the pupils had been as good or as bad as today: Friendships and enmities, boiling hormones and brainless youth........it had been a tremendously normal educational environment with tremendously normal youngsters and with a terribly frightened Peter Pettigrew, who had been always a diehard coward. He had gone with the Marauders, because they had been a group of strong bullies! He could have gone with others, too......but for a Gryffindor James and Sirius had been the first choice........


,I suppose so, Harry! I have seen Pettigrew.....whom I believed dead for fourteen years a couple of days ago by the side of the Dark One alive and kicking myself. You saw him already in the graveyard. From this we must suppose that it was indeed him who sold you and your parents. Let me say it that way: Pettigrew was the one who brought the information most liable to attract ,His' attention and fall in line with ,His' knowledge and interpretation of the prophecy. There have been others......as far as I know. But in the end it was you, who got the scar for one reason or another, while other ,targets' that fell in line with Sybil's stuff simply died.......or ended up mad in St.Mungo's........or were left hardly better then squibs. Well, Harry I cannot spare you the fact, that considering all this stuff I told you and the contents of Trelawney's prophecy, which are now known to you, there is nothing else left but to take my bit of advise from before: learn to trust yourself, learn to trust your own judgement. Weight what facts you have against the impressions you get........that's exactly what you'd do in a game of chess. Think, employ your reason, your intelligence, your wit......You have no other choice and if you mess it up.........there is more to it then just you and your life and future! It means that we are all stuck with the Dark One forever and he'll win and then he'll ravage the grounds and many of us will pay the ultimate prize for having fought him, defied him, opposed him, betrayed him........lied at him or beguiled him!'                  

Harry gasped at Severus' last sentences. He understood perfectly what game the old bat had been playing with him.

Severus had literally put a knife to his throat and this knife translated: 'Continue in your old ways and everything goes to the dustbin and it will be your fault or take upon yourself to change your ways, grow up and ........do your job like a man! The choice is yours! Make it and face the consequences!'

That was pretty hard stuff and so..........unfair......Unfair? No! It was dead honest, straightforward und blunt! It was the best piece of advice he'd ever had in his life: You are cornered? You want a way out? Fight!

,You are really a cold-blooded, heartless bastard, Severus. You tell me the truth and  the very moment a grown up is finally honest with me and worth of my trust, he is blackmailing me without even flinching a teeth!'

,Young man, you asked me to teach you! This was simply the first lesson. The world is a tough place to be! You want to learn? Then we play this game by my rules......nothing else! Allow me to be honest with you for the second time today and to tell you another truth and to put another piece of my trust in you: Sybil made a second prophecy, exactly one year after the first defeat of the Dark One! I was made aware of this prophecy only a couple of days ago and it has influenced to a very large extent my decision on what you shall be taught and how.'

,What is the second one?'

Snape rose from the bed and went over to the balcony. He turned his back to Harry. The boy was clever! He'd captured the attempt blackmail! But he was still a child and fortunately so: He had no clue, why Severus had chosen this rough-and-ready approach. Harry lacked to a huge amount self-confidence and he made this up with recklessness and thoughtless adventuring onto forbidden and dangerous grounds. He loathed himself for it, but could not prevent himself from continuing on this path of doom. And the drama was, that Harry had set up his mind so much in his erroneous ways, that he even claimed the responsibility for Cedric Diggory's death......an unfortunate casualty of war. A casualty of war like many others. Cedric would have died anyhow.....with or without Harry. He'd taken the portkey himself and alone, he'd have been exterminated. He took it with Harry, his destiny had been exactly the same....

But that fatality was slowly eating up the boy's soul and heart, causing damage which could soon be beyond repair.

On the other hand Harry was courageous, loyal and intelligent. These three peculiar traits of character could be used to counter-balance his flaws and shortcomings.

Severus had decided to employ Harry's good sides in a very reckless manner: Loyalty, courage, and intelligence! With a little bit of manipulation here and there he could show him a way to self-confidence and control. A self-confidence beyond the permanent need for the approval of third parties.

It was this permanent quest for approval from others that made Harry so reckless and dangerous.......not his powers and already remarkable magic skills.

The young druid closed his eyes and dived deep into his own mind to recall Albus' exact wording.


'The Dark Lord is the beast that has been loosed upon the world and who has tasted human blood and now must be destroyed. The Raven is my servant that I have stationed to protect the helpless one and to hunt down and destroy that which would hurt and destroy my little one, the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord and who will be born as the seventh months dies. Since the Raven when he defies the Dark Lord three times will hand my little one his shield. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord thrust in the sword with all his might and know that the Raven not only fights beside him but that the power of the Raven is inside him as well giving him the might to strike sure and deep to the heart of the beast that would slay my sheep and that the victory is already won for those with courage enough to start the Hunt!'

When Severus spoke the last sentences he already felt a presence behind his back. He brought the slight smile over his face back under control and returned to expressionless and unreadable. Now it would be very interesting with young Mister Potter. How would he react?

Two hands were placed firmly on the Potions Master's shoulders and a strange voice declared  ,You lied to me, Severus!'

Snape grinned inwardly. The two hands forced him to turn around and face his ,opponent'. He was still a head smaller and Severus would be able to enjoy towering him like a menacing, mean old bat for.........maximum another year! The second smirk ......inwardly! Outside long years of training showed an unreadable face and a pair of dark pits that instantly locked into the green eyes of young Mister Potter. He'd have to profit from this slight advantage to marauder his mind.....before Harry would understand the game.

,It is not just a job for you......a mission like other missions. It is as much your destiny as it is mine!'

An eyebrow rose in a familiar high arch ,Indeed? After four years of knowing me you should be aware that I can chose to be quite........elusive in my wordings.'

Harry took a deep breath. He would not allow Severus to provoke him. Severus was playing a game he did not understand 100% and he preferred to be careful with this secret inside a mystery within a cloud who had been shepherding him for the last four years out of harms way as much as possible and who had already once almost let his life in order to save his.

,Do I understand this prophecy correctly if I assume that.........should I ever mess up my act I do risk not only my skin but yours too.......and since you have to open the game of chess, it will be your head first?'

,Do you wish me to comment on this, Harry?'

A second eyebrow rose and Hogwarts' well-known bastard stood right in front of his favourite prey. Only the habitually quivering nostrils of that eagles' beak where not ......activated.

'Why did you chose to place your trust in me.........knowing exactly my flaws and shortcomings and having them smeared into my face quite viciously over the last four years, whenever occasion arose?'

Harry replied with a question. He had the feeling that Severus was testing to which point he'd stand his ground if attacked, provoked or beguiled. He had also the feeling, that his elusive and secretive Potions Master was reading his mind to check out the veracity of statements and allegations.

Snape did not reply. He only let go his habitual mask and smiled. Then he threw a glance at Harry's clock by the bedside. It was a little bit past eight in the morning. Time for breakfast and to get young Mr.Potter back home to Montmuran, his summer term holidays, his youthful pastimes and his lady-love.

'What about a cup of coffee and fresh pastries, young man?'