Chapter 15 – Radioactive

Note: Chapter Title from Imagine Dragon's song 'Radioactive'

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

Now that that's out of the way, let's begin…

Last time,

Whatever it is they are truly doing, whoever it is they are backing, all three children are prepared to go against Lord Voldemort and their parents.

"I suppose my marking is going to wait a night then." He mutters to himself.

Now,

Nobody sees Harry again until Dinner, for the last three lessons of the day, Hermione goes to the teacher to explain that Harry isn't feeling well, but is stopped and told that Snape sent a memo alerting his teachers that Potter has taken ill and will not be attending their lesson for which Hermione is very grateful. She, and the others, are actually rather surprised when he finally does turn up. Though Pansy, Blaise, and Draco are relieved. If Inimicus could not show up to his meeting with Snape, it would have been entirely too obvious who he is dealing with.

"Harry, hey, where have you been? We were worried," Neville tells him as he sits beside the boy and across from Lavender and Blaise.

"Visiting Remus," He replies numbly as he grabs food with shaking hands. It reassures everyone though.

"Just so you know, Sev is trying to get the potion removed from the curriculum," Pansy tells him.

He nods sagely, "If I never have to experience that thing again it will still be like a hundred years too late." Everyone kind of chuckles at his words, he seems to try to shake himself out of his funk, "So, what have we got tomorrow, Mio?"

"First up is Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, then we have…we have Charms with Professor Flitwick. Then you have Divination, free period, and then Ancient Runes."

"Not looking forward to Charms?" Ron asks her.

She looks around shiftily, "Let's just say that this potion is not the only thing Snape is trying to have removed from the curriculum, or compulsory part anyway." Everyone seems concerned, minus those from the holidays.

After dinner, Hermione drags Harry and Ron to the back of the library and pulls out a piece of parchment.

"What's this?" Ron asks.

Hermione sighs, "Charms tomorrow, we're doing a spell that shows your family tree. Given my situation, I decided to perform the spell first amongst friends so that I least I know what I'm going to see first. You showed up on my tree, Harry," She explains, showing him the parchment.

"Bloody 'ell," Ron exclaims when he reads the names. Harry just stares at it with wide eyes, turning to Hermione and seeing the hope glimmering in her teary eyes, a smile slowly breaks out on his face, the tension fading from Hermione as she sees it. He pulls her into a hug and her head drops to his shoulder as she cries in relief.

"I always said you were practically my sister anyway," Harry tells her as he pulls away, she smiles at him as he wipes away the tears on her face. Harry feels his reserves about his true parentage being irrelevant slipping further and further away, no matter how much he scrambles to hold onto it. He knows now that it is relevant, that it's happening now and they are here, he's just being stubborn because he doesn't really want to deal with it all.

"Seriously how does your make-up never smudge?" Ron asks, the siblings look at him in exasperation. "Yeah, bad timing, sorry. Congrats though, both of you. Even if your Fathers are a little…horrid."

"Yeah, my sister is a Malfoy," Harry says, scrunching up his nose.

Hermione hits his arm, "My brother is the spawn of Voldemort," She replies.

He nods sagely, "Yes, that is rather unfortunate."

"I was really expecting a bigger reaction," Hermione tells him.

He shrugs, "Remus told me that much." The other two look surprised, but calmer now that they know he's not just sidestepping it, "Holy crap, I completely forgot that Snape's my godfather as well as Uncle James and Sirius!"

"Mine to, but I don't have Dad as my God-Father, obviously since he was a parent from the beginning for me, I have Remus."

Ron seems confused, "Dad?"

"See this stem?" Ron nods. "The reason it's segmented is because it's a line showing adoption. Mum and Dad got married, Dad adopted Harry and I."

"I just still don't understand, why didn't Sirius tell me? Why did Snape hate me so much when James Potter isn't even my Father?" Harry asks, brows furrowed.

Hermione sighs, "It was Mum's idea to lie, to pretend you were Aunt Lily and Uncle James' son. I don't know if the same would have happened to me or not. We were both given to other people, Petunia and Vernon clearly had been told by our Aunt and Uncle that you were their kid so you were raised believing that. Everyone believed that to be the truth. I truly don't know why no one ever told you though, Dumbledore knew but McGonagall didn't."

"Aunt Petunia does know, knows more than I ever knew," Harry tells them quietly, neither quite know what he means, clearly it being more than the obvious, but they don't think now is the time to address it.

"This is what you were talking about when you said you'd found something on Dumbledore, isn't it?" Ron asks to side-step whatever Hornet's nest of Harry's they'd inadvertently stumbled into this time.

Hermione nods, "Partially anyway. Listen there is more you should know Harry. Our Mother is alive." Harry gasps lightly, sure he had known that, but the possibility of actually being able to find her? It had not even crossed his mind. Or rather, he hadn't allowed it to. "She's in a muggle Prison, I don't know which one, nor do I know why, neither do Remus or Snape. Well, they know where, they just don't know why." Harry remains silent for a while, processing and already knowing he has no intention of going to see Delilah Black. Even so he cannot help but stare down at her place on his sister's family tree. Because he has a sister, and she's right here, and he's not sure what he's thinking or feeling about that.

"Are you going to tell Lord Malfoy?" Harry asks to shift the subject slightly.

Hermione looks uncomfortable, "I haven't decided yet."

"Fair enough, he's a git, I wouldn't want to," Ron says cruelly.

Harry punches his arm, "Lucius Malfoy is a good man. A dick sometimes sure, and maybe he isn't the warmest or friendliest person around either, but he cares for his family more than anything. You don't know him, Ron, I know he has a long history with your family, but he's a good person and if given the chance he would have been a great father for his daughter just like he has been for Draco. He'd have looked out for her like he does him, and like he looks out for me."

"Now you're defending the git? He's a Malfoy! Like father like son, you can't trust either of the pasty bastards," Ron tells him harshly.

Harry glares at his best friend, "Ron, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh like your entire schooling life with Malfoy hasn't given you a clue?"

"We were kids Ron! Kids can be cruel, we weren't exactly nice to them either."

"HE started it!"

"And we never bothered to finish it. If we'd ignored him from the beginning he'd have gotten bored and stopped."

"So what? It's our fault?"

"No Ron, I'm just saying it doesn't matter anymore. We cannot hold a grudge over stuff that happened when we were kids forever. He hasn't made a single cruel comment to any of us since we got back from holidays, can't you just accept the truce being offered? Why keep fighting?"

"Because I'm not just going to forget about everything he's done to us over the years, Harry. Maybe you can just let go of five years of that but I can't, especially last year."

"I'm not forgetting Ron, I just don't see the point of fighting. What does any of it matter? If he offends us in some way, we aren't gonna die. It only matters if we actually listen. If he's decided to be a nice person, who are we to deny him that chance? Like it or not I'm living with him now, and he's Mio's brother. Regardless of whether or not she tells him, that remains true unless she decides to completely disown him. He's grown up, Ron, you need to as well."

Ron looks angry for a second before he forcibly calms. He spends a few moments looking rather constipated before he looks up at them, "All right," He says slowly, "I guess we have more important things to worry about anyway, like Voldemort and Dumbledore and stuff."

Harry nods, smiling slightly and knowing that's the most he'll get out of Ron at the moment. "What did you find on Dumbledore anyway, Hermione?"

"Actually, real quick, about the whole it's Hermione's choice if she tells him or not," Ron says, looking worried.

"What about it?" Harry asks.

"Well, he's doing the charms thing too, isn't he?" Harry and Hermione look at each other for a moment before Hermione groans.

"I can talk to him if you want? Or Pansy probably would if you asked."

"I appreciate that Harry but, I should probably do this."

He nods, accepting her choice, "Okay, so, Dumbledore?" Harry asks again.

"To answer that I have to tell you about the night Aunt Lily and Uncle James died," She tells him, he looks pensive but nods. "When Snape got there, it was all over. Our Aunt and Uncle were dead, so was Voldemort and you were crying. He went back to Remus, he'd left me with him, only I was gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Ron asks, "How can a baby just leave?"

"Snape says Dumbledore had taken it upon himself to hide me away in case Harry's Father ever returned, he felt I might be in danger."

"So it was him that put you in foster care?" Harry asks as Ron frowns.

She nods, "Yes Harry, and you with the Dursley's despite there being people who could have taken care of both of us. Then Dad is locked away without a trial, who knows what really happened with Mum, but I'd bet my Quill Collection on Dumbledore having something to do with it."

"Damn that's serious," Harry mutters seriously, Hermione nods.

Ron shakes his head, putting a hand up in a halting motion. "Okay wait, we're basing this all on the word of Severus Snape."

"Ron, what reason do we have not to trust him?"

"He's a git! And…um…" Ron trails off. They've often suspected him of things, but in the end it has never been him.

"All due respect, Ron, you can be a git too. We all can. But we have no reason not to trust him, we have many to question Dumbledore's motives and actions," Harry points out, "Besides, Remus was married to him for years and raised two kids with him. There's got to be something other than a bitter old dungeon bat there."

"Everyone's gone completely barmy this term," Ron mutters, "Fine, say we believe this. Dumbledore was right, he did come back, and if he finds out who you are you probably will be in danger."

Harry frowns in thought, "Then why is she here?"

"What?"

"Why did you get a Hogwarts letter? If he was hiding you away in the muggle world?" Harry asks.

Hermione thinks, "McGonagall is in charge of the letters, but the system of finding all the magical children in the UK is a spell she casts, then all the letters are written magically and sent to everyone the spell found. Plus, I'm here a year early, Dumbledore would have been expecting me in Ginny's year. Until the Glamor dropped, it's entirely possible he had no idea who I am, or maybe he knew the moment he saw me. But seeing as that was in sorting, it would have been far too late to do anything about it."

"Why did you get your letter early?" Ron asks.

Hermione sighs, "I really don't know." They think over this for a moment.

"What else have you got?"

"Snape warned Dumbledore what Vernon was like, plus the Squib on Privet Drive, there's no way he didn't know how the Dursleys were treating Harry. He's never been concerned with the safety of the school. In all honesty, I think he's gotten obsessed with stopping Voldemort and forgotten everything else, ignored the consequences of his plans in favour of pushing for everything to fall into place in order to stop this big bad. He hasn't noticed that Voldemort isn't the only bad guy anymore, he's fallen so far into the scheming and lying that he's just like him."

"He is nothing like Voldemort!" Ron tells her angrily.

"He has the Order as his followers, he's quite willing to lose people along the way, and he manipulates everything around him to suit him so that he might succeed in his cause, no matter the cost. Perhaps he is not yet so bad, but this is a slippery slope and he needs to be stopped! If we have a hope in hell of defeating Voldemort, we need someone who is actually good leading us. Someone we can trust!" Hermione snaps, the three fall silent again.

"I think, that we need to know more. More of what he's done, more of what he is going to do, and more of why he's doing it," Harry tells them calmly, they nod.

That night, Harry wears his invisibility cloak out to the Whomping Willow, pulling on his Inimicus outfit once there, and shrinking the invisibility cloak to fit in his pocket. A few minutes later, Snape walks down to the tree. Harry switches on his voice disguiser, hidden under the black cloak of his outfit, before looking up to him.

"You would be Inimicus."

"I am," He says, his voice sounding techno garbled. In the dark and with the outfit, the effect is rather creepy, but Severus Snape feels no fear.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

"I rather thought you'd like to speak with me. My Reapers told me of your interaction, they felt you may be more willing to help if you had the chance to speak with me directly."

Snape looks considering at him, trying to work out who it is he is talking to, and unable to, for Harry was holding himself completely differently to how he is prone.

"Indeed. I have some questions."

"So ask them."

"Why do you want to kill Dumbledore?" Snape asks without preamble.

"He's a liar, he's manipulative, and he does not care at all for the people he is meant to protect. The world is not kind, sometimes things do not go as you plan them, it is long past time Albus Dumbledore learnt this."

Snape has to agree with this assessment, but he is not yet ready to stop questioning this. "Many have tried, why do you, a schoolboy, think you can stop him when so many others have failed?"

"Because I am not an idiot. They have tried hard to kill him, or they have tried to destroy him. Only a fool would neglect to do both."

"And why is that?"

"Because if it were easy to kill him it would have happened long ago. He has too much power, too many people backing him up, and too stable a ground beneath his feet. His empire must be brought crashing to the ground around him before people will allow him to die. But were he left like that, he would simply build it all back up again, he is a patient man after all. He must be destroyed to be killed, and he must be killed to ever truly be destroyed," Inimicus replies coolly.

"How do you plan on doing this?"

"By telling everyone the truth."

"And they will believe it, will they?"

"When I'm through, yes, they will," He tells Snape strongly and without doubt, "It is time to decide Severus, will you join me?"

"What will you do if I don't? By now I know far too much of your plans to simply be let go."

Inimicus chuckles, which comes out rather horrifically through the voice disguiser. "You are not a prisoner here, Severus, we are merely beneath a tree. But should you decide not to join me in this venture, you will find yourself sorely lacking any knowledge pertaining to it," He tells the other man calmly.

Snape has to admit, he's impressed. This was not what he was expecting. "Tell me one more thing, Inimicus."

"That will depend on what it is you ask."

"Did you, or any of your Reapers, kill Danielle Smigin?"

"No."

Snape still believes that they had something to do with the incident, but he also believes the boy before him speaks the truth. Clearly, there was more to all of this than meets the eye, all he does know is, he wants in.

"Dumbledore failed to protect people I cared for deeply, then failed to imprison the one who betrayed them."

"Am I to take that as your answer?"

"I will join you, if you help me prove Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters. I have a plan, but there's a problem."

Inimicus frowns beneath his mask, "Which is?"

"It will require Harry Potter's help, and informed people believe he will be unwilling to do so given the nature of what he would need to do. Get him to help and I will join you," Severus tells Inimicus, keeping a straight face through all.

"What is it he needs to do?"

"We need to show his memories before a court when we call a retrial. With some strings pulled I can get the retrial called, but he will need to allow his memories of the night James and Lily Potter died and the night Cedric Diggory died to be viewed. I got the impression from two of your Reapers that he's within your ranks, this could be an excellent test of loyalty to you and your cause."

Inimicus is silent as Harry thinks this over. He really does not want to. Were it not for Snape's offer of loyalty, he may have refused to do so. But Dumbledore must fall, and Snape can help. That has to be all that matters.

"While I can neither confirm nor deny Mr Potter's involvement in this, I can guarantee his assistance in your case. He's being told of your plan by his peers at breakfast tomorrow, at lunch he will agree if he does not simply decide on his own to do so."

Severus raises an eyebrow, looking rather unconvinced, "We shall see."

Once back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry gets out his enchanted parchment and sends a message to Blaise.

Bring up your plan for catching Pettigrew at breakfast, get the conversation started but allow Mio to take over.

~ I

Then he looks around the common room and decides everyone has been too serious lately and needs something to…liven them up a little. He smirks and gets to work.

Harry makes sure to wake up before anyone else and heads down to breakfast where only two other students, both Ravenclaws, are awake.

Slowly others trickle in, but as of yet, no Gryffindors.

"Where is everyone?" Cho asks as she takes a seat at the Gryffindor table, more commonly thought of as the 'main table' now.

"I'm not sure," Pansy replies, looking around as she tries to work out who is not present, then it clicks and she turns to Harry. "Harry, why are you the only one of your house present? Including Professor McGonagall?"

"I've no idea," He says, seeming just as surprised as the others. Those that stayed behind over the holidays aren't convinced.

Five minutes later McGonagall arrives, taking her seat at the teachers' table, but calling out from there, "Potter?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"Detention. For two weeks."

"Yes, Professor." Then the Gryffindors arrive.

"You. Utter. Bastard," Dean says, glaring at Harry as everyone takes their seats.

Harry smiles innocently, "I was just trying to lighten the mood, everyone's been so ser-…depressing, of late," Harry tells them, but the innocent effect is lost when he stumbles over the word serious.

"Harrison James, it took me half an hour to work out what was wrong, it's been two hours since we started trying to fix it, and we still don't think it's done!" Hermione tells him, looking pissed off, "I hate you, I completely and utterly hate you."

"Love you too, sis." She tries to stay angry, but she's too happy to have family for it to work. She sighs and starts eating her food. No one else looks to be letting it go any time soon.

"What did you do?" Draco asks him.

Harry chuckles, "I just rearranged the common room, only slightly though, they were small changes, really."

"And by that, he means he moved everything, by about 5 inches. It's all the same, that's why we didn't see it at first, but the sameness is in the wrong place," Ron explains, sounding aggravated and tired.

Ginny is the only one who doesn't look annoyed, in fact she seems to think it was bloody brilliant. "I'm writing to George about that, he'll have a bloody meltdown," She tells Ron who starts laughing.

"Why?" Lavender asks.

Ginny chuckles, "He and Fred had an argument a few years ago, which was terrifying for all of us, they didn't speak for over a month." Everyone looks horrified at the idea of the twins being so at odds. "They started playing practical jokes on each other, but not particularly funny ones since they were genuinely angry. By this point, Fred was sleeping in the attic so as not to be forced into dealing with George so frequently. Had moved most of his stuff up there and single-handedly cleaned the entire thing just so that Mum would let him remain. While George was helping Dad and I de-gnome the garden, he moved everything in the bedroom by an inch. It all looked so similar that George could not work out what was going on, but in a room that small it made a difference and he kept failing to navigate the room. He was walking into things, getting lost in his own room, it wasn't until after they made up that Fred sheepishly explained what he'd done and put it all back. George spent another twenty-four hours not talking to him."

"Is that where you got the idea?" Neville asks Harry who shakes his head.

"No, actually, your Father gave it to me, sort of. Andromeda Tonks and I write to each other, have since Remus stayed with them for a few months. She told me about a letter she'd gotten from her cousin Regulus once many years ago, his brother, Sirius, and his brother's best friend, James, were freaking out because they'd been out pranked by Frank who had moved all the posters on their dorm walls slightly to the left and used a particularly cumbersome sticking charm. Every time they moved them back, they'd be back in the wrong place almost immediately. It was years before they found out Remus and Severus had been moving them back with non-verbal spells."

Blaise clears his throat as everyone else laughs, "Speaking of Sirius Black…" He looks to Hermione who seems nervous, but nods.

"We came up with a plan over the holidays, we can prove that he's innocent and Pettigrew is guilty, but we need your help."

Harry looks shocked but hopeful, "Of course, anything, what's the plan?" He asks, sounding genuinely ecstatic at the idea, like he wants that almost more than anything.

Hermione exchanges hopeful looks with the others, "Your memory of the attack at Godric's Hollow and of you-know-who being brought back shown in a pensieve at a trial," She tells him.

His face falls as he pales. Harry stands, looking shaky, "No."

"Harry, please –"

"No, I-I'm sorry, Mio, no."

"Harry, the world thinks my Dad betrayed Aunt Lily and Uncle James, I can't let them keep thinking that!" She tells him, also standing. Many around them, seeing as most don't know of their parentage, look very surprised and confused, namely Draco.

"You think I want them to? He's my Dad too, Hermione! I-I can't go through that again, and I won't. Besides, there are some things I just don't need to see. Whatever happened that night at Godric's Hollow is at the top of that list," He tells her harshly as he steps away from the table, "I'm sorry," He says again before he leaves the room.

Hermione sits back down, looking crestfallen.

"He might still come around," Suse tries to reassure her.

Hermione shakes her head, "You don't know him like I do, once he's made up his mind, it doesn't change."

"You and I both know that isn't him making up his mind, that's him not being ready to deal with it," Ron tells her.

She nods as Pansy rubs soothing circles on her back.

"I hope you're right."

Harry doesn't speak at all during lessons, then disappears for half of lunch. Really he's just sitting in the Chamber in Salazar's office, going through his desk draws. The blood magic seal Pansy and Blaise have been working on had given him the key to opening the previously locked desk, his blood. Upon opening it, he finds an old leather-bound book.

It's all written in Latin, but he recognises the lay out of it, plus there's more than a few ripped pages throughout the book. This is the diary of Salazar Slytherin, this could provide the answers to many of the questions they'd all had.

Of course, to get a translation, he either needs to get Severus to help, risky given the current state of things, or get Pansy to, which would mean filling her in on Order business.

Ultimately, he decides, he's not a part of the Order, and Remus is one of his now. His Father is targeting him still, Harry needs to find out why to call it off and protect his people.

Harry puts the book away, getting out his enchanted paper, he writes a message to Pansy.

A,

I have a task for you.

Graveyard 4am

I

She replies within a minute.

Yes, Sir

He then gets out a piece of parchment and uses the desk to write out a letter to his Father.

Father,

A great many things have just come to light, not the least of which is the compulsory element to the curriculum of a family tree being created.

Just thought I should prepare you for that.

Also, I'd like to talk to you about my Uncle.

Your Son,

Harry

He hurries to the Owlery and sends it off immediately with Hedwig. Then he goes to lunch.

"Hey, where've you been, Mate?" Ron asks him as he takes a seat.

Instead of replying, Harry just looks to his sister. "All right Mio, I'll do it."

She seems shocked, but then her face breaks out in a huge grin and she flings herself at him, hugging him tightly, "Thank you."

"Anything for you, that's what siblings are for, right?"

"I'm going to talk to Draco after dinner, come with me?" She whisper-asks, he nods, she smiles. They both sit back down and start eating.

Severus watches from the table as Harry asks how exactly they plan to get a trial and they explain that they haven't gotten that far yet. Draco looks to his Father who gives him a nod, he then tells the others that there would be a trial, and the others seem to immediately have a far higher opinion of their DADA teacher.

What interests Severus the most is the fact that his nephew is doing this at all. He had been emphatically against it only a few hours ago, this Inimicus seems to hold more sway than he had believed. But what is Harry's involvement in all of this? He'd never join a man who wants to kill Albus, unless Blaise was right? Severus sighs, looking at Harry, Hermione, and Neville, and remembering when things were simpler, and they'd just watch Bambi endlessly.

Severus blinks and looks around, suddenly finding himself in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Before him stands Remus facing off against Sirius.

How is this possible? Sirius is dead! I can't have a vision of the future with a dead man in it! Severus thinks to himself.

"I won't fight you, Moony," Sirius tells Remus.

Remus sneers at him, "Which will only serve to make it far easier for me to take you down. I warned you, you won't get away with any of it."

Sirius shakes his head sadly, "This won't change what I did. Please, you don't have to do this."

"Yes," Remus says, "I do." Remus thrusts a hand out towards him, "Avada Kedavra!" He casts. The vision disappears instantly and Severus sees only the Great Hall once more.

Severus puts a solid minute of intense concentration into keeping his breathing even and not throwing up. He blinks away tears of shock and fright and confusion, eventually able to release the death grip he has on his goblet. He swallows harshly, finally able to create a coherent thought.

What the bloody hell was that about?