Phœnix Burning, Chapter 19
AN: Here's a longer chapter, as promised. I hope you enjoy!
Severus Snape's day was actually looking up. By some quirk of fortune, he had been scheduled to chaperone the 3rd-5th year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. True, they talked much more than the Gryffindor-Slytherin group, but there were fewer fights to break up, and they were easier to keep an eye on: the Ravenclaws only ever wanted to go to Tomes and Scrolls, and the Hufflepuffs only ever wanted to go to Honeyduke's and The Three Broomsticks, so they were easier to keep track of than his Slytherins, who often tried to sneak into the shadier shops, or the Gryffindors, who were fond of exploring and occasionally vandalizing.
Not only that, but Severus had also thought of a way to partially control the link with his immense occlumency skill; if he focused on separating Potter's thoughts from his, rather than occluding him out completely, he believed that he could keep his secrets. He was trying to think through the practical application for his theory when he felt Harry contact him through the bond.
"Professor?"
Snape started. "Potter? What do you need? If you're just contacting me because your infantile mind needs more stimulus than your friends can give..."
Potter's amusement warmed Severus like hot, frothy butterbeer, not that he'd ever actually admit that. "I actually wondered if you knew a good anti-eavesdropping spell."
Snape thought for a minute. "Muffliatus," he said at last, remembering the creation of that particular spell. "The wand movement is a pass with a very slight curve. You should feel it ripple outward when you cast it; it causes any eavesdroppers to hear only an unidentified buzzing."
"Got it, thanks Professor Sevvie."
Severus was momentarily angry; then he remembered Lily's sparkling eyes as he was tutoring her, calling him the same thing, and felt the boy's bubbling amusement. And suddenly he was not angry any more. Well, he still took ten points from Gryffindor...
Potter giggled and cast the spell, then reassured Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger that they were in no danger of being overheard. Severus stood among barrels of Pepper Imps and Creeping Comfits, keeping an eye on his Hufflepuffs while still managing to listen through the link. Potter's friends were actually tolerable when they were not in his classroom blowing up cauldrons.
Granger was evidently readying herself for a volley of questions, but Weasley, always the blunt one, cut right to the chase.
"Did you actually sleep with Snape?" He managed.
"Ron!" Granger interrupted, despite looking as if she wanted to hear an answer to that as well.
"Yes and no," Potter replied after a long and totally unnecessary thought process. "We didn't have sex or do anything improper, if that's what you're worried about, but I might have fallen asleep on top of him."
"Explain." Granger sounded quite as stern as Molly Weasley, and Severus caught himself wondering if she would and up as her daughter-in-law.
"He figured that his office might be bugged, and he had some really important things to say, so he let me into his quarters. I might have gone into shock. After screaming at him."
"Harry..." Mt. Granger looked as though it were about to erupt.
"What on earth did he tell you?" asked Weasley curiously.
"Um, so you know the prophecy in the DOM?"
"Yeah- Merlin! You mean it's actually real?"
"Yeah, Dumbledore told me the text last year. Basically Voldemort and I have to fight, and one of us will have to die."
Granger's hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, Harry!"
It was Ronald, however, who caught Potter's Slytherin distraction, which honestly surprised Severus. Maybe there was, actually, something rattling around in that thick skull of his. "Hold on. You said Dumbledore told you last year, right? So why were you in shock?"
Hermione's eyes widened. "You were avoiding the question!" she accused. "And you shouldn't scream at a teacher, either, I get that you were upset, but-"
"I wasn't finished," said Harry dully, thoughts whirling. "Look, I can understand if you want to break it off after I tell you," he started. "Just...please let me finish."
"Break what off?" That was Ron.
"Our friendship." Harry closed his eyes briefly, he might have stayed that way forever, but at length Severus broke in to give him a nudge: it would be easier to get it over with, not wait in the middle. The pause would only make the shock of their reaction more painful.
"Why the _ would we do that?!" Ronald exploded, looking horrified at the very thought. Granger reached over and smacked him in the back of the head, and even with the tension in the air, Severus couldn't help a momentary smirk. If he had ever been any doubt about who wore the pants in their relationship, well, he didn't now. Weasley was lucky to have her.
Severus sobered quickly at the next words. "Because until recently, I had a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head."
"Way to break it to them, Harry," Severus commented on a flat attempt to lighten the mood. Potter ignored him.
"You WHAT?" Weasley burst out.
Potter winced, the link tingling with residual horror and humiliation. Severus absently sent him a wave of comforting feelings. "I had a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head," he repeated. "It was in my scar, that's why I had visions all last year, and why he couldn't possess me. And Dumbledore knew!" he ranted. "He knew and he wasn't going to tell me, he was just going to let me die for the greater good, that's why he never actually have me any real training." Harry's shoulders were shaking, his anger and horror and physical nausea pounding over Severus in a wave. The Potions Master was dimly aware of leaning back against the wall of Honeyduke's, struggling to occlude the raw emotion before he was sick.
Hermione looked just as sick as he felt, and Ron was wide-eyed and trembling. "I...its not your fault." Hermione said at last. "I'm not going to break it off, you're nothing like that...thing. Just...it's a little disturbing to think about, you know?"
"Dumbledore was going to let you die?" Ron shouted, tactless as always. Although to be fair, he was justified in being angry.
Potter sighed heavily, gloomy thoughts beginning to subsume the anger. "That was my reaction too."
Granger, if anything, was practical: "Surely there is some way it could be removed? What if he could hear us right now!"
"It's gone already," Potter told them. "It was destroyed by the whole ritual thing. I think the goblins could also have removed it."
"Then why didn't Dumbledore take you to the goblins?"
Potter took a deep swig of his butterbeer; Severus could actually taste it. "I have no idea. Absolutely no idea."
The trio of Gryffindors fell silent. Severus, after somewhat recovering himself, began to walk up and down the isles of Honeyduke's, making sure the Puffs were somewhere in the general vicinity and trying not to think about how they would act after they had actually consumed all the sticky confections they were purchasing. It has been a long time since he had purchased anything more than a sugar quill, and that had been for Mcgonagall, for Yule.
As no one was getting up to mischief, Severus tuned back into the conversation currently being held between the three Gryffindor 6th years. Who needs stimulus now? he thought sardonicly. "So how would a mindlink work?" Granger was saying, fingers twitching as though she wished she had a quill and parchment at hand. Severus was rather concerned when he realized he wasn't sure if it was Potter or himself who thought that her actions were 'cute'. "Can you have mental conversations, or do you just hear his general thoughts? Is there any way to block it or stop it? How long will it last? Is that why you called me 'Miss Granger'? Does the link work all the time or just when you want it to? How did it activate? How-"
"Whoa, Hermione, slow down!" Potter told her at last, Severus sympathizing. "Can you repeat all that?"
Granger reddened and clutched her mug of butterbeer like a lifeline. "How did it activate? I assume that the ritual helped, but it only said 'potential mindlink' and so I didn't think-"
"Wait," Ronald broke in, butterbeer froth still clinging to his upper lip, "I'm still back on 'Snape fancied your mum'?"
Severus groaned. Potter had to tell his friends everything?
Harry sighed. "Yeah. Apparently they were best friends. Then they had a giant fight, and Mum started going out with my dad." Severus was beginning to grow frustrated. It was painful enough to tell Potter that, and he was at least sympathetic. Severus did not want his private love life to become a gossip byte, or, worse still, some tragic, romantic, mushy pity fest to be passed around and forever corrupt his reputation in the process. That is private! Now it's going to be all over the school! Can't you just keep some things to yourself Potter?! Kindly tell Weasley and Granger that they will be rendered into potions ingredients if they gossip. At least Potter was immediately contrite. "Sorry Professor," he muttered aloud.
Severus had to admit he enjoyed the looks on the faces of the two Gryffindors. "He's listening in? Like, right now?"
Severus was compelled to disabuse them of this notion. "I assure you that that is not my intent," he commented through Potter. "The mind link, to answer your question Miss Granger, is permanent and connects us at all times except when one of us is drugged or asleep, although it allows for functional distance."
Granger, as if losing patience with the inability to take proper notes, pulled a muggle pencil from the pocket of her jacket and began to scrawl something on a butterbeer-stained napkin. Weasley pushed his chair back, staring at Potter wide-eyed, as though he had suddenly turned into a thestral, or Black, whichever was worse.
"Um. Excuse me if I'm a little unnerved by this."
"Ron, we all are!" Granger said, finishing whatever she was writing and cramming the napkin into her pocket, then sticking the mugglewriting implement over her ear. An instant later she grabbed another napkin and took out the pencil again to add something to the mess of writing. "But there's nothing we can do to change it, so it's useless to fuss."
"But think about it! We'll never be able to have a quiet moment, or sneak down to the kitchens after curfew, or, anything! Plus Harry can cheat of Snape's brain anytime he feels like it! It's an unfair advantage!"
Granger opened her mouth, but before she could continue the argument, faint apparition pops sounded outside, together with screams. "The attack," she said instead. "We gotta get back to Hogwarts."
Severus instantly refocused on his surroundings. The Death Eaters were much closer to Honeyduke's than The Three Broomsticks, and the students, as well as the general inhabitants of the town, were milling about in panic as Death Eaters shot curses into the crowd. Severus instantly gathered his group of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws around him. "Hogsmeade is being attacked, as I'm sure you can perceive. Everyone under 17, which I assume is all of you, must head back to Hogwarts at once; there is an emergency tunnel in the basement of Honeyduke's that will take you straight to Hogwarts. Prefects, you're in charge of leading everyone back and rounding up stragglers. I have to stay to fight. Go on, hurry up!"
At that moment, the front window of Honeyduke's exploded in a shower of glass, which fell among the baskets of confections like so much macabre sugar candy, and several of the girls screamed. Without looking to see if the students were obeying, Severus turned and bolted for the front door, drawing his wand as he did so.
Outside, the streets of Hogsmeade were a riot of students and citizens running, masked and plainclothes Death Eaters flinging unforgivables at close quarters, and a pitiful detail of aurors trying to defend against at least two score their number.
Severus was instantly in the thick of it, flinging curses himself as he fought to give his students the time to return to Hogwarts. Storefronts were blasted with spells and Death Eaters and citizens fell, until the mäilstrom had abated, by virtue of the fact that there were no more Death Eaters left.
Severus lowered his wand, wand-hand shaking. It was over, at least in this part of town.
"Professor? Are you hurt?"
Severus whirled. It was a Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott if he recalled correctly; her face was badly gashed, but she was grinning uncontrollably. She'd evidently been fighting alongside him, and Severus was both unimaginatly frustrated at her disobedience and strangely touched by her concern.
"Go back to Hogwarts," he stated, without a trace of his usual vitriol. He was simply too tired! And that was when the memories hit him.
A chill. A feeling as though all the happiness in the world was being sucked away, drop by drop.
Sirius Black was falling backwards through whispering drapery, his back arching with the blasting curse Bellatrix had cast, laughter on his wasted, Azkaban-weary face, as Potter screamed his name. / James Potter, Sirius laughing and nudging a guilty-looking Lupin as a juvenile Snape hung upside down in the air, slowly rotating, Lily whirling and running as he called her something hateful in his humiliation. / the Dark Lord's high, wavering voice as he screamed "Kill the spare!" and Cedric Diggory fell dead. / Sirius Black once again. / Ronald Weasley being struck in the skull with what looked to be an animated, lifesized chess piece. / Quirinus Quirrell"s face twisting into a horrible smile. "Oh, Severus seems just the type, doesn't he, swooping about like an overgrown bat. With him around, who would suspect p-poor, st-stuttering p-professor Q-Quirrell?' / A frankly terrifyingly large snake rearing over him, swaying as it fought to sense without its blinded eyes, as he rammed a sword down its gullet, as one of its fangs broke off in his arm. / Umbridge, her voice dripping like frosting which hadn't set up: "Oh, until it sinks in," as he wrote lines with an illegal contract quill-
Severus gasped, the world swimming into focus as Potter lost consciousness.
"Are you ok, sir?" Hannah repeated louder, and he became aware that she had been shaking him.
"Dementors," he gasped, struggling to suppress his own worst memories. "Dementors in Hogsmeade. AND WHY ARE YOU NOT BACK AT HOGWARTS, MISS ABBOTT!"
Miss Abbott flinched. "I couldn't leave you!"
A peculiar feeling swept over the potion master then, his black eyes widening ever so slightly as he tried to think of what it was, and realized with a shock he hadn't words to describe it. "I-thank you, Miss Abbott." A pause, then Severus got unsteadily to his feet. "Come. You should be back at the castle now; it's not safe."
"What about you, sir?"
"I-I'll live, I was simply taken by surprise. Go on-"
The girl turned in the direction of Hogwarts, turning in shock at Severus's next, ever so quiet words: "And Miss Abbott? Fifty points to Hufflepuff for saving a teacher."
The dementors grew closer, the chill and heaviness in the air so thick it was like wading through syrup. Severus raced down the street, in the direction of the dementors, blasting Death Eaters on the way. And then his heart nearly stopped. The golden trio was in the middle of the road. Potter lay senseless on the cobblestones, while Weasley, still half conscious, levered himself up on his elbow in an attempt to use his wand. Granger stood over them, trying to fight off two Death Eaters and a coven of dementors. And Severus lost it.
Severus Snape had never considered himself, by any stretch of the imagination protective. Loyal, yes. Dangerous, yes. Righteous? Well, it depended. But when he saw the danger his students were in, something snapped. And he forgot the torrent of memories, forgot his mismatched wand, forgot the fact he was outnumbered two to one.
"FENRIR, WALDEN, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY STUDENTS!" he roared, and then, as a dementor bent over the struggling Weasley, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Nothing happened for a solid minute, except that his wand grew blisteringly hot in his hand. And then a burst of golden light exploded from the tip, coalescing into a blazing golden doe, which bounded towards the dementors surrounding the outnumbered Gryffindors and tore them to shreds of black, slimy cloth and fragments of bone.
The Death Eaters stared at him mute and slack-jawed, and before they knew what was happening, both of them were flat on their backs, bleeding from the throat. Severus was too tired for the "stun only" game the headmaster liked to play.
Then he turned towards the three Gryffindors, oblivious to the other students and citizens staring at him.
"How bad are the injuries?"
"Harry got hit by a nasty cutting curse and Ron's been hit by a few good hexes," she replied automatically, sounding somewhat dazed. "How- patronuses aren't supposed to do that. They can't kill dementors! How did you kill them?"
"I honestly do not know," Severus replied. "Come, let's get you back to the castle."
Granger nodded. Suddenly, her gaze fixed on something behind Severus and her eyes widened. "Professor, behind you!"
Severus whirled- too late. And looked into Alecto Carrow's grinning face as she shouted "Incarcerus!", grabbed his immobilized body, and disapperated.
