Snape sat in his office thinking how he was going to go with this.
The only problem was that how was he to get Potter on board with this. The explanation of him actually working against Voldemort would take too long for the boy to understand and he would demand answers and Snape was not ready to tell him everything. Was he, he thought.
He thought about it again and again and all he could come up to in the end was to tell Harry the truth. He knew that doing so will get a huge load off of him but every time he saw Harry he was reminded of James, which would make him think as if he was telling everything to James and not Harry. Why did the boy have to look so much like his father?
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Luna was sitting at the Ravenclaw table away from other students as she ate her dinner. She was oblivious to some of her house mates talking and making fun of her amongst themselves as she was mentally engaged in a conversation with her own friend while she took short glances at Harry's group over at the Gryffindor table.
'This place…you never thought we would encounter Griffin here as well, did you?' she thought inside her mind and nodded. 'Do you think he or his vessel has noticed us or what Harry has inside of him?' She stopped eating for a moment as her smile was gone before it came back. 'I think so, too.'
"Hey, Looney." Luna looked up to one of her house mate Amy Jacobs. "Why are you so happy?"
"Oh, I was just talking to my friend," Luna said slowly as she looked at Amy.
"Why don't you introduce us to this friend of yours?" someone from behind her said and Amy chuckled. She turned to see it was Cho Chang who came and sat beside her while Amy sat in front of her. "Don't you have any real friends, the ones we can, you know, see?"
"I do," Luna replied before pointing at Ginny who was busy eating and chatting with her dorm mates at. Amy and Cho snickered before they started laughing. Luna looked at them smiling, although a little confused. "Why are you laughing?" she asked.
"Are you sure that she's your friend, Luna?" Cho asked before taking out a small diary from her robes and opening it. Luna's smile vanished as she saw her diary in Cho's hand and reached to grab it but Cho was already expecting that as she moved away from her. "Let's see what we have here," she said.
Harry was watching all of this from where he was sitting. He didn't know why he felt he needed to know that girl ever since he'd seen her at Hogwarts. She was clearly not what one would call normal as Harry had figured that out in the past few days and it was clear that due to her odd behavior she had no friends at all. He could hear her conversation with the senior Ravenclaw girls and saw what she meant when she pointed at Ginny as Harry thought why he hadn't seen Luna with her at all. It wouldn't surprise him if Ginny was actually not Luna's friend, seeing that she was Ron's sister. He knew that because he'd heard everyone talk about it on his first day of their second year when she'd been sorted in Gryffindor. Ever since his incident with Ron he had kept his distance with all the Weasely siblings. He had enough reasons seeing how he had bad encounters with both Ron and Percy who would still glare at him whenever they would look at each other during meals or in the hallways.
"Harry?" he came out of his thoughts when he heard Hermione call his name. "Why aren't you eating?" she asked looking at him.
"Oh, ah…I was just…do you know who that girl is?" he asked pointing towards Luna.
"Oh, that's Looney…Luna Lovegood," Hermione said correcting her name. "Why do you ask?"
"Because she's being bullied by her house's seniors," he said.
"It's been like that ever since the start of this year," Neville said. "Everyone at Hogwarts think that she's weird."
"Why so?' Harry asked.
"Because she reads books upside-down, wears wrong shoe on wrong foot, talk weird and is probably always sleepwalking with the way she looks at others," he said. "She also talks about these weird creatures which apparently only she can see."
"But still, that isn't something to bully her for," Harry said as he looked at her. It reminded him of his cousin and his friends who would pick on him in school. "I thought Ravenclaw students didn't involve themselves into such things. I mean...aren't they supposed to be perfect students?"
"You can't judge a student's character mostly based on which house he/she belongs to, Harry," Hermione said. "Take a look at Gryffindor. You have Ron, Cormac, Percy and a few others. They are anything but Gryffindor. Cormac is all about showing off his body and his 'perfect' charm and you've already met Ron and Percy."
Harry knew she was right but he still couldn't help just sit around while seeing that girl being bullied. He tried to ignore it but couldn't. Finally he'd had enough when he saw that those girls started to not let her eat. He stood up and headed towards the Ravenclaw table with his plate in his hands. Hermione and Neville weren't the only ones surprised at this as all the students of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw saw Harry rise from his seat and walk towards Luna. By the time he'd reached over to her the remaining two houses also started to wonder what was going on.
Cho and Amy were at first confused but then were surprised when Harry sat beside Luna and began to eat. They kept looking at him as he kept eating when he stopped and looked at them. "You two need anything?" he asked.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked.
"Having my dinner if you can't see," he said simply.
"You think you're smart?" Amy said glaring at him.
"I think I'm hungry and so if you two would be too kind to leave me and my friend alone so that we can eat in peace," Harry said.
"Your friend?" Cho asked a little amused. "You're friends with her?"
"Should I not be?" Harry asked. Cho couldn't come up with a reply for that when she saw Flitwick approaching them.
"What is going on here?" Flitwick said as he arrived to see the situation.
"Professor, there's a Gryffindor sitting at our table," Amy said.
"Sorry, professor but the last time I checked there is no rule that says one cannot sit at a different house table with their friends," Harry said.
"You don't have to apologize, Mr Potter because there is no rule like that," Flitwick said. He then looked at the two girls. "I was observing from the head table, Ms Chang, Ms Jacobs. You two were not letting Ms Lovegood eat." Harry smiled a little. Fortunately Flitwick wasn't like Snape. "Were they bullying you, Ms Lovegood?"
"No, professor," Luna said in a dreamy voice. "We were just talking when Harry decided to join us."
Harry was surprised as to why she won't tell Flitwick the truth but decided he had no say in this. If she was not going to say that her house mates were bullying her then he didn't have any rights to say it for her. He looked at Amy and Cho who both looked equally surprised that Luna had told Flitwick about them.
"If you say so, Ms Lovegood," Flitwick said looking at Cho and Amy. "If anyone gives you any trouble, please feel free to come to me. And you can eat here if you want Mr Potter no one's going to stop you. Like you said, there is no rule which forbids students from eating at a different house's table."
Harry nodded before sitting back beside Luna who smiled at him before going back to eating her food. Cho and Amy didn't stay there and returned to their seats. They didn't forget to glare at Harry who looked back at them with a serious face which somewhat scared the two third year girls.
"You know, you didn't have to do that," Harry said.
"If I did then they'd come at me even more," Luna said. "Thank you, for helping me."
"You don't have to mention it," Harry said.
"You are quite different from him," Luna said, "as Celia tells me. It is surprising seeing how angry he is while you're so in control."
"Who?" Harry asked wondering what she was talking about.
"The Yayu," Luna said. Harry almost chocked on his food as he looked at her with wide eyes.
"How…?" he couldn't form words out of shock.
"Celia tells me that it is good that he can't come outside but I think different," she said in her normal way as if nothing had happened. "I think that you should try to befriend him."
"Yo…You know about the…the Yayu?" Harry asked lowering his voice so that no one else could hear him.
Luna nodded. "Celia told me that she felt him break out of his prison a few months ago," she said.
"Who is Celia?" Harry asked wondering what she was talking about.
"Oh, she's my friend," Luna said. "I could show you to her but then the Yayu will get mad and try to attack her once again like he did on the train."
"On the train?" Harry asked when he suddenly remembered flashes of memories of encountering Luna on the Hogwarts express and attacking her. He held his head with both hands as he groaned. His head started to ache after he'd remembered what had happened on the express. "I…I didn't know what I was doing…" he said.
"I know," Luna said. "I hope you didn't lose control when you first met Neville, too."
Harry looked up at her. "Why would you say that?" he asked wondering if he had actually hurt Neville and didn't know about it.
"Because he's also like us," she said.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Celia tells me that you know about the divine beasts," Luna said. "She doesn't like that name but I think it's funny. We often have friendly arguments about it. She told me she felt the Yayu when I boarded the express and so I went to find him and I met you. The Yayu felt her presence and took over you for a few seconds and attacked us."
"A…Attacked?" Harry asked.
"It wasn't your fault, Harry," she said. "You didn't know. Even Celia was surprised as she thought that the Yayu couldn't take control of his vessel seeing as he would be too weak after breaking out of the spirit realm. So we thought that perhaps you or rather he had attacked Neville, too because he's like us."
"You mean you and Neville also have divine beasts inside of you?" Harry asked.
She nodded. "Some decided to live undetected by sheltering themselves inside witches and wizards," she said. "Celia was passed down to me by my mother. As for Neville I think that his father had Griffin before him."
"Griffin?" Harry asked.
"That's how he likes to be called," she said. "Mine likes to be called Celia. It is the name I gave her and she loves it. What do you call the Yayu?"
Harry looked at her, blinking his eyes. Was this girl for real? How could she talk about the divine beasts so casually especially if there was one inside her? 'What do you call the Yayu? What were they? Pets?' he thought. And why hadn't Neville told him about his divine beast? Who else had those beasts inside of them? He had so many questions going on in his mind right now that he didn't know which to ask first.
"I…I don't call him by any name," he said after a minute's pause. "Can…Can you talk to your…you know?" Luna nodded her head. "Can…Can Neville talk to his?"
"I don't know," she said. "I guess we could ask him."
"So you…you know…sense who has the divine beasts inside of them?" Harry asked.
"Celia can," she said. "As she told me when I first arrived here, there are currently five of them here at Hogwarts. Six if you count yours although the Yayu is not truly a divine beast."
Harry knew about that from Klameg's story. "So who else has the divine beasts?" he asked.
"I don't think he wants to harm them," Luna said. Harry looked at her confused. "Oh, Celia thinks you want to kill her and the rest of the divine beasts."
"Why…would I do that?" he asked.
"That is what I told her but she think you can't control the Yayu inside of you," she said. Harry looked a little ashamed when she said that which caused her to giggle. "You don't have to feel sad about it. See, Celia, he doesn't mean you any harm. Okay," she said after a little pause and nodded her head. "Apart from Celia and Griffin which are inside me and Neville there are three more - Dumbledore's phoenix Fawks, Agairus – the giant squid that lives in the black lake and Selandra the basilisk which lives here inside the secret chamber of Salazar Slytherin.
"Of all the known divine beasts she is the only one who found herself a familiar in a wizard – Salazar Slytherin," she said. "Those two formed a bond and he brought her with him to this castle once it was built. However, he had to fortify the chamber when people started going after the divine beasts. If someone came to know that he had one here then neither the school nor Selandra would've been safe."
"But weren't there many basilisk?" he asked. She nodded. "So why is a basilisk is considered a divine beast?"
"There are also a lot of phoenixes, Harry," she said. "Albeit rare in today's time but there are at least a hundred of them all around the world. Some divine beasts wanted to know how the beings of this world would co-habitat with them so they made their copies to live in his world. Their motive was to create a sense of familiarity between humans and themselves by using their copies so that sometimes the divine beasts could come and live in this world in harmony amongst their creation. Unfortunately, we humans failed them."
Harry remembered what Klameg had said. "How do you know all of this?" he asked.
"Celia told me," she said.
"Right," he said nodding. "But don't the divine beasts require a vessel to live like you and Neville?" he asked.
"Not necessarily," she said. "After the gateway to the spirit realm was closed off and they got stranded here some of them chose to live inside vessels in secret so as to not be found out by others while some chose to live in hiding from the rest. Celia has been living inside my mother's family line for hundreds of years now. After I was born she moved from my mother into me. She is my first and best friend. Neville's father had Griffin before Neville received him from his father. Before that Griffin lived in hiding in his true form for a few thousand years. Before that he had lived inside a king and his family line. Agairus, the giant squid has lived in the Black Lake ever since he found it. Even Celia doesn't know for how long he's been here, or where he was before coming to live in the lake. As for Fawks, Dumbledore has kept him in captivity for a few decades now. We don't know how he managed to do that but he's been looking to get Fawks' powers for himself just like Grindelwald."
"Grindelwald?" Harry was shocked to hear that name.
"He broke out of Azkaban to finish his hunt for the divine beasts," she said. "He already has three of them inside him which makes him the strongest individual in this whole world both magically and physically. His goal is to take all of the divine beasts' powers for himself as that will grant him pure, unfiltered immortality."
Harry didn't know what to say after this. He didn't know things were this deep with the divine beasts. It made the Voldemort problem look like nothing. Is that why the book wanted him to know about them? He wondered if the book had actually been sent to him by a divine beast. But why him, he wondered.
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Harry was heading for his quarters after dinner when Snape called him. He wondered what the potions professor wanted from him.
"Evening, professor," he greeted the greasy haired man with an expressionless look.
"Potter, follow me," Snape said before turning around and heading towards the dungeons. Harry wondered what he wanted as he saw Hermione and Neville look at him with confused expressions. He also caught Daphne looking at him for a moment before walking ahead of him towards the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was.
Harry sighed as he followed Snape to his office. Once he had entered he saw Snape apply a series of privacy charms which got him a little worried. Did the man plan to kill him, Harry thought when, Snape conjured a chair. "If you want you can sit, Potter," Snape said before walking up to a cupboard on one side of his office and opened it.
Harry recognized what was inside it. It was a pensive. He had a few back at the manor but he hadn't actually used them although he knew what they were used for. He looked at Snape in confusion as the man put his wand's tip to his temple and pulled out a silver strand of memory before putting it in the pensive. He then turned to face Harry. "I want you to look at this, Potter," he said.
"What is it?" Harry asked wondering what Snape wanted to show him.
"All I can say is I can help you get the basilisk's venom but I need your help in return," Snape said which caused Harry to look at him in both surprise and confusion. "Please."
He never thought he would hear Snape say the word 'please' to him or anyone in general as he wondered what was in that memory which Snape wanted him to see so badly. He cautiously walked forward and stopped and looked down into the grey liquid of the pensive which showed a few floating images when Harry recognized the woman in it. He looked at Snape in shock and realized Snape's eyes were wet. Curious to see what the memory was as he saw his mother in it he put his head in the pensive and was pulled into the memory.
Although he knew how pensives worked it was still his first time using one so he panicked a little when he started to fall into Snape's memory. Once he'd landed he found himself in a familiar location. He looked to his left and saw his grandparents' house – the house where his mother grew up.
He then saw a girl a few years younger than him come out of the house looking at another house across the street from hers. Harry couldn't mistake her hair and eyes as emotions made his eyes turn wet. He was staring at his mother. He walked ahead and wanted to hug her but then he realized he couldn't as he passed through her like air. He remembered she couldn't see him and it only brought him close to tears.
As he saw her walk towards the house across from hers he saw a boy exit the house. He had a frown on his face and Harry heard a man shouting at him as the boy closed the door and looked at Lily. The boy extended his hand which Lily held in hers as the two walked down the street.
The memory changed as Harry then saw the two lying on the grass by the lake in a forest. They were watching a flower which Lily was floating in the air.
I don't know why she hates me," she said.
"Maybe because she's just jealous," the boy said. "Give her time. I think she will come around."
Lily looked at him and smiled. "Thank you, Severus," she said.
As Harry processed the name of the boy the memory changed once more as he saw them both leave for Hogwarts. His mother got sorted in Gryffindor while Snape got sorted in Slytherin. Harry saw the look of sadness on Snape's face as he looked at Lily from the distant. The memory changed again as Harry saw them both grow up. As years passed by his mother and Snape grew more distant because of their different houses. She befriended Harry's father and soon enough they were both together. This often caused arguments between Snape and James and once out of anger he accidently shouted on Lily and called her a mudblood. Things took a sharp turn from there as Lily stopped talking to him completely while James began to torment him more with the help of Sirius. Things became so bad that once James and Sirius led Snape to the shrieking shack on a full moon night where Remus was in his transformed state. The potions master almost died that night and ever since then he held a grudge against James and Sirius.
Harry saw as the memory changed once more and by that time tears were falling from his eyes as he realized how much Snape cared about his mother even after she got married to Harry's father. The memories changed to the night Voldemort had killed his parents as Harry saw Snape enter the nursery and fall on his knees beside Lily's body. "I'm sorry," he said crying as he held her close to him. The memory then changed again as Harry saw Snape with Dumbledore. "If you want to make things right with her even after her death then you can do so by being my spy," Dumbledore said to him before he had Snape make an unbreakable vow to him. The memory than ended and Harry found himself back in Snape's office.
He looked at the man and saw him on his knees, crying. Harry had never thought he would see the day where the professor he hated the most was on his knees, crying. For the most part he understood why as right now he had nothing but utter respect for the man in front of him. He'd lost the woman he'd loved his whole life. The memories had shaken Harry to the core but he managed to walk towards Snape and helped Snape up.
"I'm sorry," Snape said.
"You don't have to apologize," Harry said. "You did nothing wrong."
"But I did," Snape said. "I am the reason she's dead!" Harry looked at him for a moment there wondering why Snape would say such a thing. He stayed beside the man until he'd calmed down a little. "It is because of me that the dark lord is after your life."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.
Snape paused for a minute as he collected himself. "There is a prophecy," he said slowly, "which concerns with the dark lord and a certain individual – a kid – who has been prophesized to either defeat or be defeated at the hands of the dark lord. It was foretold by professor Trelawney, when Voldemort had first attacked our world. I overheard the prophecy and told the dark lord about it. I did it in a jealousy fit because I was angry on your father for…" he couldn't say.
"What was the prophecy, professor?" Harry asked. His voice was monotonous and serious. Snape looked at him.
"The prophecy speaks of a boy who was born at the end of July to the parents who've previously defied the dark lord three times," Snape said. "It says that this boy is someone whom the dark lord will mark as his equal and in the end either this boy or the dark lord will survive."
"And how does this prophecy make you the reason behind my parents' murder?" Harry asked.
"I did many evil things in my life, Harry," Snape said. For some reason Harry thought it felt weird when the professor called him by his first name. "Loving your mother was not one of it. To this very day I wish I could go back in time and stop my past self from calling her a mudblood. I was angry…I was…I was not thinking straight and I was jealous of your father because she chose him. After what I called her I don't think she'd have liked me either way even if she hadn't met James.
"She was the only hope of light for me and when she accepted your father instead of me I felt that light going away from me," he said. Harry sat there listening to him. "I dwelled myself more into the dark arts and found solace in the company of other dark wizards from my house who wanted to follow the dark lord. I followed their footsteps and ultimately became a death eater. Lily would've known because James and Sirius caught me many times but each of those times they let me go because of my relation with Lily. I accept it now that James perhaps respected my feelings for her but she had made the choice so he could not tell her anything to change her mind. At that time I was so angry on your father that I wanted to get back to him for everything that he'd done to me. So when I overheard Trelawney's prophecy went to the dark lord and told him about it.
"I was proud that in someone's eyes I was not a worthless piece," Snape said. "When I informed him about the prophecy the dark lord awarded me with a higher position amongst his followers. My…My peers respected me for showing loyalty to the dark lord but soon enough I realized what I had done when I thought about it carefully." He then looked into Harry's eyes. "Do you know when your birthday is, Harry?"
Harry wondered why Snape was asking him such a question when his eyes widened with realization. "July 31st," he said slowly.
"I had told the dark lord that you were the child who'd been prophesized to challenge him," Snape said. "I wanted to get back at your father so bad that I didn't know that doing so I had also pulled your mother into the mouth of danger. I couldn't do anything when he went to your place that night and killed them. I came in afterwards and all I could see was the result of my jealousy – Lily was gone. She was gone because of me."
Harry remembered seeing his memory of him holding his mother.
"In my desperation I went to Dumbledore for help but he only saw an opportunity and told me that the only way I could ever make up for that mistake was by working for him," Snape said. "I wasn't thinking straight and I made an unbreakable vow with him to serve him until he said so. It was later that I came to realize my mistake when I learnt that he actually meant to harm you."
"Me?" Harry said.
"Dumbledore doesn't know this but you are not the prophesized child," Snape said. Harry looked at him shocked. Didn't he say so just a moment ago? "At first there were two who fit the prophecy – you and Longbottom because he had been born just a few hours before you but in reality neither of you fit the prophecy."
"So who does?" Harry asked.
"Draco," Snape said.
Harry didn't know what to say. Draco was prophesized to defeat Voldemort? "But isn't his birthday on June 5th?" Harry remembered that because last year the whole Slytherin house had celebrated his birthday before…well, Draco and his mother were presumed dead.
"No public information about the Malfoys is true," Snape said. "It is a very pureblood thing to do, especially considering they're a dark family. It is not unheard of but is often overlooked most of the times. Dumbledore also didn't think of it because he was more focused on determining whether the child of the prophecy were you or Longbottom. In reality Draco was born on the same day as you and Longbottom, only his time of birth was eleven forty-three in the night. He was delivered in his manor under the strong observation of private healers and So Lucius was able to change his date of birth. You and Longbottom were born on the same day but in the morning, few hours apart."
"But what about the part where the prophecy says that his parents defied Voldemort?" Harry asked.
"Many have done so even in the dark Lord's innermost circle just so they could avoid his anger," Snape said. "Defiance doesn't mean an open rebellion or going against someone. It also means lying to someone which Draco's parents did before Draco was born. That and the fact that he was the last child to be born on July 31st already prove two of the prophecy's lines. It is still unknown, though, how the dark lord will mark him as his equal."
"So he's destined to either kill or be killed by Voldemort," Harry said.
"Dumbledore doesn't know that," Snape said. "He still thinks that you are the child of the prophecy. He wants you to sacrifice yourself in defeating the dark lord. Why he wants that is something I don't know but I don't think that his motives are in anyone's good interest but his. So you see I was horribly mistaken when I, too, thought that you were the child of the prophecy and told the dark lord about it which got your parents killed. I know there's no way something like this could be forgiven so I've decided that I will help you."
"And how do you propose to do that?" Harry asked. He couldn't believe he was saying something like that to Snape but he needed to think all of this through so for now he will just go along with whatever Snape had to say.
"I am already an inner circle member in the dark lord's army of death eaters," Snape said. "I am also trusted by Dumbledore because he thinks that I can't betray him. So I would like to help you in any way I can. I want to do it because I want to make things right…at least for you. I failed Lily. It would kill me if I failed you, too. I know about each and every horcrux of the dark lord and where they are placed. I also know how to access the hidden chamber. I know that you are looking for a way to get in there in order to get the basilisk's venom which lives in that chamber."
"You do?" Harry couldn't believe.
"Yes," he said. "But I would need your help in opening the entrance to that chamber."
"Why me?" Harry asked.
"Because you are the only one who can use parseltongue," Snape said. "It is the language of the snakes."
"How do you know that?" Harry asked. He knew he could talk to snakes because he'd done so whenever would visit the zoo with his relatives. He'd made friends with a boa python there with whom he'd talk every time he'd visit that place. Once his aunt had caught him and he'd been denied food for two full days along with severe beating from his uncle. They'd told him never to repeat his freakishness ever again. They stopped taking him anywhere after that.
"Because of the horcrux which is inside you," Snape said. "The dark lord is a parseltongue himself and so because his soul is inside you, you, too, has gotten the ability to talk to snakes. Only the descendants of Salazar Slytherin can talk to snakes."
"You mean to say that Voldemort is Salazar Slytherin's descendant?" Harry couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Snape nodded.
"And as a parseltongue you are the only one who can open the entrance to the secret chamber," he said.
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Thanks for reading…