Disclaimer continues as ever. Thank you JKR for providing all these hours of fun! Keep the reviews coming please, and if anyone can help improve the awful summary I have for this story I'd be immensely grateful: email me if you can bail me out… imogenimagines@hotmail.com
Plans and potions
Hearts beating quickly, Harry and Ginny backed away silently from the doorway before they were noticed and crept as swiftly as they could out of the underground tunnels beneath the castle. Once they had reached the entrance hall again, Harry broke into a run, up the marble staircase and along corridors towards the Gryffindor common room, Ginny following swiftly at his heels.
"Skulduggery," he panted breathlessly at the fat lady, who was sitting in her frame gossiping with her friend Vi.
"All right, all right," she grumbled at him. "What's the hurry anyway?" But she swung aside to admit them to the relatively empty common room.
Scrambling through the portrait hole, Harry cast his eyes around, desperately searching for Ron and Hermione but they were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly he felt Ginny's hand on his arm, tugging him gently in the direction of the corner of the common room where they had been sitting earlier that afternoon. Sure enough, Ron and Hermione were curled up together in a large squashy armchair, which had been artfully angled so its occupants were invisible to the rest of the room. They were completely absorbed in each other. Goblin rebellions lay forgotten as they kissed.
"Ahem!" Ginny cleared her throat dramatically, and Ron and Hermione instantly sprang as far apart as they could within the confines of an armchair, both of them blushing furiously.
"Ginny!" Ron spluttered, going even redder when he saw it was his little sister grinning down at them. "Haven't you ever heard of privacy?"
"Yeah. Like when you just barge into my bedroom without knocking," she retorted. Harry could see another Weasley argument brewing and intervened. He sat down in the armchair directly opposite where Hermione was trying to disentangle herself from Ron and ran his fingers through his already untidy, slightly damp hair.
"Sorry," he said, looking across at them, "but this is really important."
"So was this," muttered Ron darkly, glowering at him.
"I'm pretty sure I've worked out who that voice in my dreams belongs to. I heard him just now when we were in the entrance hall," Harry explained.
He heard a sharp intake of breath from Hermione. She had finally extricated herself and her robes from Ron and sank in the chair next to Harry looking at him anxiously.
"Who is it?" she asked him urgently, leaning towards him. "It really is someone at Hogwarts then?"
"Come on! Tell us!" Ron added eagerly, embarrassment fading quickly from his face and his freckles reappearing.
"You're not going to believe this," Harry said slowly, hands still travelling distractedly through his hair.
"Harry!" Ron exclaimed in exasperation. "Just tell us!"
"Snape," he said quietly.
Their reactions were just as he would have predicted.
"Oh Harry," Hermione sighed, the expectation in her face falling. "We've thought it was him before, but it never has been. Just think about it for a minute. In the first year we were convinced it was him after the Philosopher's Stone, and it was Quirrell all the time."
"I know," said Harry, "but…"
"And Dumbledore trusts him," she added before Harry had a chance to add any more. "You know he was sent out on that special mission, whatever that was, at the end of last year. It can't be him, Harry. It just can't."
"He was a Death Eater once, Hermione," Ron reminded her. At this Ginny, who had been gazing idly at Harry, switched her attention immediately across to her brother.
"He was what?" she demanded, completely stunned by this information. "Snape? A Death Eater? How do you know?"
"Yeah. He has the Dark Mark burned onto his arm and everything," Ron explained, enjoying the expression of horror on his little sister's face.
"Ron!" Hermione gave him a withering look. "Seriously Harry, if it was Snape, how could you not recognise his voice before now? I mean, we have potions with him twice a week."
"I know," Harry admitted, considering the matter carefully. "I think it's because when I heard him just now his voice was echoing in the underground passageways, and that's what it sounded like in my dream. You know there's no echo in the potions dungeon."
"True," Hermione agreed, frowning a little. "What are we going to do about it, supposing you are right?"
"We can't take it to Dumbledore," Harry mulled the problem over. "Dumbledore trusts him. Didn't he say something about Snape taking a great personal risk in betraying Voldemort?"
"Yeah, really risky," Ron gave a hollow laugh. "Especially if he'd never changed sides in the first place."
"What's he going to do?" whispered Ginny, suddenly looking and sounding rather frightened. Harry reached across and squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"I don't know, Ginny," he said as calmly as he could. "At a guess I would say it's going to be a port key, or something like it. That was he can either get Voldemort into Hogwarts, or transport me somewhere else like he did last year."
"We have to find out what he's up to," interjected Hermione, sounding very determined. "I'm sure there has to be some sort of indication of what he's planning. What we really need is to be able to look round his office, dungeon and his private rooms, wherever they are."
"We're really going to be able to do that," Ron scoffed. "I'm sure Snape would love to hold the door open for us whilst we poke around through his stuff."
"We might be able to," Harry said, his excitement building. "There's my dad's invisibility cloak for a start, and there's the Marauder's Map. I got it back at the end of last term."
"We think we know where his rooms are," Ginny remarked unexpectedly. "We followed his voice tonight, and there was a door I've never seen before with his name on it. I didn't know you had an invisibility cloak, Harry," she added, a familiar impish twinkle dancing across her eyes. Harry grinned back at her, wondering what particular mischief she had in mind for the future. He reflected that it would be rather pleasant to be wandering about at night with Ginny Weasley close beside him under the invisibility cloak.
"So, we need to decide who is going to check out which bit," Hermione said sounding very business-like and bringing Harry's attention crashing back to the task in hand. "His personal rooms will take the longest to do, so it would make sense if two of us did that, leaving one to do his office and the other to check out the dungeon."
"Hang on," Ron interjected forcibly. "I don't want Ginny to get mixed up in all this."
"I already am mixed up in all this," Ginny began hotly, but Hermione caught her eye and swiftly took up her cause before she could continue.
"Why not, Ron?" she asked reasonably. "Snape doesn't know what we're looking for. The worst thing that'll happen to any of us if we're caught will be a detention." She smiled at him and added, "You know as well as we do that detentions are part of the Weasley genes."
"Except maybe in Percy's case," chuckled Ron. "I'm not sure what went wrong with him. Even Bill had more than his fair share of detentions." He looked over at his sister. "Oh all right then! Just you be careful Ginny; you know mum'll blame me if you get into trouble." He imitated his mother's voice: "'You should set a better example for your little sister.'" Ginny giggled.
"Detention," Harry repeated thoughtfully. "Yes, that's the easiest way to get into the dungeon out of lesson time." He glanced at Ron. "You or me for that one?"
"Well it's in the Weasley blood," laughed Ron. "Leave it to me. Snape never allows you out of his sight anyway, Harry. He's more likely to let me get on with a punishment unsupervised."
"Could I do his office?" Ginny offered quietly. The others all looked at her in surprise. "Well, I've heard you all talking about him often enough," she explained. "He hates Harry with a deadly passion, calls Hermione an 'insufferable know-it-all', but he doesn't seem to mind me much for some reason. I could easily have a problem with an essay and need to see him about it. I'm pretty certain he wouldn't suspect anything, even if he did catch me in there."
"If you're sure," Harry said, looking at her with concern. "Take the map with you, Ginny. I'll show you how to use it and it'll tell you if Snape's on his way. It'll give you a chance to get things back to normal and be sitting waiting with your essay when he arrives."
"That leaves you and me to do his rooms," Hermione said to Harry. "We'll have the invisibility cloak at least, and it still covers two of us. I think we should do it when Ron is in detention. At least we'll know where Snape is then."
***
It was getting late when Harry finally looked up from his completed Astronomy homework, and threw down his quill in relief. Hermione was adding some finishing touches to her Goblin Rebellion essay, having spent much of the evening muttering about how it should have been finished hours ago. Ron had merely grinned cheekily at her, making her blush, and headed off to have a ferocious game of wizard chess with Seamus Finnegan at the other side of the common room. The storm outside had still not abated, and Harry could hear the wind pound against the windows, shaking them fiercely, making them tremble in their frames. A low distant rumble of thunder could be heard beyond the howls of the gale.
The fire burned brightly in the grate, diffusing warmth through the room. Harry's gaze idly wandered around; Ron and Seamus were still engaged in combat with a remarkable number of chess pieces remaining on the board. At Seamus' request a pawn moved forward, trembling in fear, and Ron's bishop pounced at once, dragging the piece away. Ginny was a little further across the room chatting seriously to Colin Creevey. Harry saw her rub her face with her hands, look back up at Colin and then shake her head slowly, making her hair dance quite irresistibly around her face. He felt a very familiar unsettled sensation in the pit of his stomach as he watched her. He had almost kissed her earlier. He buried his own head in his hands at the thought. What on earth was he going to do?
As if reading his thoughts, Hermione suddenly reached in her bag and threw a book at him.
"Keep looking," she whispered. "There's got to be one in there somewhere. I've just got to measure this and then I'll help."
Harry began flicking through the volume Hermione had got from the library, reading about spells to shield vegetables from frost, charms to care for cats and potions to protect pets from peril. Hermione squeezed in beside him and began leafing through the pages at a slightly faster pace. Finally they hit a promising vein of spells, designed to protect loved ones from various trials and tribulations.
"This one," she exclaimed tapping a page in the book and looking excitedly at him. "I think this'll work. A bit complicated, but the polyjuice potion was worse. What do you think?"
Harry read the page carefully, his eyes widening.
"I take it you're going to help me with it, Hermione," he chuckled. "A bit complicated? I wouldn't know where to start."
"Well, it involves making a potion as a basis for the spell. Most bits we've got," she said thoughtfully, running her finger down the list, then pausing. "We need something of Ginny's."
Harry made an incoherent noise, and began rummaging frantically under the piles of books on the table, until his fingers closed on a small handful of singed red hair.
"Just the thing." She continued to read through the spell and suddenly glanced up and grinned at him. "Oh you're going to love this, Harry. We need some blood from the person who wants to protect her. I take it you'll be a willing donor?"
"I suppose so," Harry grimaced. Then an awful thought occurred to him. "You know, we're going to have to do this in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom again. Nowhere else is deserted enough to brew a potion in secret."
"What's wrong with that?" asked Hermione in amazement. "I know Myrtle's not the most stimulating of companions, but she does sort of let you get on with things."
"She hasn't been watching you in the bath," muttered Harry grimly, as he thought of Myrtle's unexpected appearance in the prefect's bathroom last year. "Isn't there anywhere else, Hermione?"
"Do you want to do this or not?" she asked him severely. "It's a fast potion to do. We could start it one morning and it'll be ready the same night. You'd only need to be in there a couple of times."
Harry looked over at Ginny who was still talking away, smiling gently at Colin Creevey, and felt his stomach flip.
"Definitely," he said firmly.
"Definitely what?" Ron appeared unexpectedly beside then, triumphant in victory, clutching his chessmen under his arm. He eyed the book in Hermione's hands. "Don't tell me you're still doing homework?" he said incredulously, peering closer to see what she was up to.
"No," she said slowly, staring meaningfully at Harry. Ron followed her gaze, and frowned in bemusement.
"OK, what's going on?" he asked, settling himself down and putting his things on the table. "You two are up to something."
"It's a bit of a long story," said Harry, watching him uncertainly. Ron was his best friend, and he didn't want to argue with him if he could help it. However, he was very protective of his little sister and had made his opinions about any sort of relationship between Ginny and Harry patently clear; Harry pressed on regardless. "You know how we talked about Voldemort getting hold of Ginny again?" He paused again, thinking fast. Ron nodded, a frown furrowing deeply across his brow.
"Go on," he prompted.
"We've found a spell in this book which should help to protect her," Harry continued, feeling more and more awkward by the second. "I've not mentioned it to her yet. You know how she feels about people looking out for her."
"Yeah," Ron grinned sheepishly. Then much to Harry's surprise he added, "It's a good idea actually. I've been worried about her after her nightmares." He held out his hand and Hermione passed the volume across to him, pointing out the page containing the spell. He skimmed through it quickly, and nodded his approval.
"We could even do it tomorrow in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione said with enthusiasm. "It looks like a really interesting spell. I've not done one quite like this before."
Suddenly she reached across and seized the book out of Ron's hands, pushing it quickly out of sight and into her school bag. The reason became apparent a few seconds later when a tornado of scarlet hair threw herself angrily into a nearby chair.
"Are you all right Ginny?" she asked tentatively, seeing the younger girl's expression.
"Just about," replied Ginny tensely. "Colin just asked me to go to the Christmas ball with him."
"He did what?" exploded Ron.
"Don't start," she replied heavily, glaring at him. "I told him I wouldn't, and I think he was a bit upset about it. Are you happy now?"
"Ginny!" Ron sounded hurt by her accusation.
"It's true though, isn't it?" she said miserably. "No matter who wanted to take me you would have had something to say about it."
"No," he said slowly. "What you said last time was right. You make your own decisions about your life." He shifted his gaze from his sister to Harry. "Why don't you ask her?" he suggested cautiously.
Harry's mind almost exploded with the impact of the last question. He would like nothing more than to take Ginny to the ball with him, and had resigned himself to going alone this year rather than asking someone else. It seemed nothing short of miraculous that Ron was actually suggesting he spend time with Ginny rather than opposing it. Just as suddenly a feeling of dread settled in his mind; Ron didn't know about the charm bond between them. They had to tell him.
"Ron, there's something else we've got to tell you first," he said, looking nervously across at Ginny. "You might have noticed I've not been suffering from pains in my scar for the past couple of weeks. There's a reason for that."
"Dumbledore suggested something to help him, and I wanted to do it," Ginny swiftly took over from Harry who was struggling to find the words. "You saw how bad it was, Ron. We couldn't leave him to face Voldemort like that. He'd have killed him."
Hermione placed her hand on Ron's arm but he shook it off brusquely.
"A charm," Ginny continued quietly, watching her brother's frozen expression. "It transfers the pain away from Harry to me, when and if he needs to. For some reason it seems to work the other way round as well. That's how I can overthrow the Imperius Curse."
Ron had gone a ghastly white colour.
"How does it work?" he whispered hoarsely. Ginny kept her eyes fixed on his face, and slowly undid her watch strap, revealing the ghostly mirror image of a lightning bolt scar, which Ron recognised instantly.
Without another word he turned his back and strode out of the room.