Authors note: I have re written this chapter a bit, because as Amethyst
pointed out it would take a hell of a lot longer to make the poly juice so
hopefully this chapter makes more sense now (
Part six:
The first step of the lengthily process was complete; it had been quite a 'unique' experience. They had started to brew it in their room, it was the place that they were least likely to get caught. Which was true they didn't get caught. But they did come perilously close to melting the cauldron; none of them were very good at potions. 'Now if we had Severus here it would have been much easier. Severus? Shit' when had he started to think of the potions monster as Severus. And he actually wanted the greasy git to be there. 'He not really greasy you know' Harry was seriously doubting his mental stability, talking to himself was defiantly not a good sign. Harry mentally shrugged, he would not think about this at the moment they had plans to make. Harry Smirked at the other marauders.
"I have an idea how to use the Polyjuice." Harry mused already assuming that they would 'eventually' get it completed. "We sneak into the Slytherin common room." The others looked at him as if he had gone mad, which might very well be true but he wasn't about to give up his plan.
"You can not be serious." Si exclaimed.
"Oh but I am, all we have to do is find four Slytherin, steal some of their hair and make sure that they will be away while we want to sneak in."
"Jamie have you any idea how much trouble we would get into if we were caught, not to mention the mauling we would get from the members of Slytherin." Peter squeaked.
"Come on, don't you want to do something truly original." Si had an odd glint in his eyes, Harry recognised it, and he had seen it on Sirius' face a few times himself. He was planning something.
"Jamie you right, we are the 'marauders' we can't be bound by petty rules we have to be the best." Harry smirked; he had won the argument, if James and Sirius agreed on something the other two were bound to follow. "Now all we need are potential candidates."
After much debate they finally decided on using members of the Slytherin Quiditch team. While they were out at practice the Marauders could sneak in without running the risk of there being two of the same person at one time. It would probably be best to use people that they knew the most about so unfortunately that tended to mean the ones they liked least.
"Ok, I'll be Malfoy" Sirius decided. "I want to hit on one of the ugliest people in his house, that way we get months of entertainment."
"Well then I guess I'll be Snape." Harry said, tying to think up an excuse why he wanted to be Severus, as it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell them that the real reason was that he wanted to see him naked. "It makes sense he is the seeker of their team." He settled on, a lame reason if ever Harry had heard one but it was the best he could come up with.
"I don't know who to be." The high-pitched voice of Peter whined. Harry found it hard not to look with disgust on the boy. A million and one things came to his mind about what Peter could be but all of them were nasty and involved some kind of horrible creature.
"Well I know who I want to be, I'll be Cameron Lestrange." All eyes turned to Remus who had made the statement, anyone less like Remus would be hard to find, Cameron was loud obnoxious a bastard and probably already a Death Eater. As Harry though about Death Eaters he remembered what Severus had said, 'at least I will be able to find out if he really is a death eater'
"Reme, why do you want to be Lestrange?" Si asked. Remus shrugged his shoulders.
"He is no worse than Malfoy or Snape." Harry couldn't stop himself from thinking that he was infinitely worse than Snape. "Plus he is going out with Ivy" Reme smirked, everyone believed he was terribly shy but it was a great way to get girls and guys for that matter, and since the person he really wanted didn't want him he had to find his entertainment elsewhere.
Si must have been thinking about who Peter could be because suddenly he came out with the best idea. Well Harry thought it was a great idea.
"Peter I know who you can be, Rose Fudge." Three of them burst into laughter at the idea, while Peter looked like he was about to cry. It was perfect, Rose looked like she had seen the wrong side of a bludger to many times, her nose was Squashed flat and she was quite heavily built, in fact she looked like a female Peter. Barely female. They could all tell Peter was not amused by the suggestion but he was too spineless to complain.
The marauders spent the next week trying to obtain the hair needed for the potion. Si and Reme got theirs with very little problem. Malfoy being possibly the vainest person alive always carried a comb about with him, Harry hated to admit it but as much as he disliked Draco he thanked Merlin that he wasn't as bad as his father. Si charmed the comb to run away from Malfoy, It was a great idea as it entertained them greatly as well as serving their purpose. The comb literary sprouted legs and ran over to Sirius. This had the entire Grifindor table in hysterics. Especially when a very irate Malfoy stormed over to the demanding to know what was going on. Si just smirked at him handing him the comb silently, this probably pissed him off more that anything else Si could have done.
Reme had the easiest time of all; he picked a stray hair of off Lestrange's robe during transfiguration. Even Peter managed to get the hair, fare enough he did cause quite a scene as he just went up to Rose and yanked it from her head but at least he had succeeded. But Harry had not; he was having a great deal of trouble trying to get the hair he needed. The main reason being he found it impossible to concentrate when Severus was around. This little problem did not bode well for potions lessons.
Each and every Potions lesson was a nightmare he spent the entire time painfully aware of Severus' presence only a couple of inches away from him. The heat he could feel coming from Severus was enough to drive him mad. Harry had devised a mantra to keep himself sane and to stop him from pouncing onto the guy. 'I do not have a thing for the greasy git.' But it sounded so false as from this position he could clearly see there was nothing greasy about Severus.
But somehow Harry had managed to keep himself in check for all the log weeks it took to brew the potion. Then the day the potion was due to completed, disaster struck. Harry's usual mantra didn't seem to be working; he sensed something wrong with Severus. it had been going on for the past two days but today was worse. It was a niggling little feeling inside his head, I felt like Severus was in pain but Harry could see anything wrong with the fellow student. So distracted was Harry that he nearly cut of a finger when chopping his bat liver.
"What are you doing?" Severus' cold voice rang out, getting Harry attention before he did indeed succeed in parting himself with one or more of his fingers.
"I. I am chopping the bat liver," Harry stammered glancing at the textbook, "like it says to." 'Severus is actually taking to me, why what is going on, has he noticed?' All these thoughts were buzzing through Harry's head.
"Well the famous Potter wit strikes again," Severus, drawled, "Maybe by the time you leave school you will be able to speak properly." He paused "Though it's doubtful. You are supposed to chop the bat liver yes, but not your fingers. of course, I have nothing against you loosing your fingers but it would disrupt the lesson and I would rather not fail. Unlike you some of us are actually here to learn." Severus glared at Harry wondering what was going on, James was not normally so careless whatever Severus might say to the contrary. 'Something is different he is not acting like himself.' Severus mused 'of course his idiot friends haven't noticed I doubt they would even say anything if he sprouted a tail and wings.' Severus himself was an expert on what was normal for Potter, he needed to be. He had to be able to recognise the signs for when Potter was planning something as whenever he was planning something Severus was normally the victim. So he always knew when something was up with Potter. Severus silently vowed that he would find out what was going on. And exploit it.
Harry was starting to get worried at the look Severus was giving him; it was as if he suspected something was wrong. For a fleeting moment Harry wondered if Severus was thinking about him in the same way as Harry thought about him but the thought was quickly squashed, his fantasizing about such things would need him to admit his 'problem'.
"Se. Snape what are you staring at?" Harry asked coldly, well he tried for cold but it had too much heat to it. Severus cocked an eyebrow noticing that Potter had almost called him by his given name. 'Something is defiantly going on' Severus thought.
"Well Potter I was charmed by your overwhelming beauty and I could not stop myself." He snarled, Harry's breath caught and Severus almost ruined his hard fought for image by laughing at him. 'What is he doing to me?' Harry almost whined but managed to stop himself from saying it out loud.
At that moment the bell rang signalling the end of class Harry was visibly relieved he picked up his books and bolted out the door not even waiting for Si. Brushing past Severus on his way. Severus looked after him as he ran out, wondering how he could use this new situation best. Smirking at the thought of having something that could potentially destroy James.
Severus picked up his books and headed out the door when professor Aquilina stopped him.
"Severus the headmaster wishes to see you. Now." She told him. Severus gulped no doubt this would have something to do with his 'assignment'.
*********************
"Ah Severus please do sit down." Dumbledore instructed him. "Tea?" Severus shook his head.
"No thank you sir. I need to get to my next class."
"Well Severus I am sure that can wait. What is your next class? Divination isn't it?" Severus nodded. "James is in that class I am sure you can get notes from him" Dumbledore had an odd twinkle I his eye. Severus paled slightly fearing that Dumbledore knew about the way he was taunting James earlier. But Dumbledore just carried on not giving any further indication that he something was up. "I have called you here to discuss the job you are doing for me." Severus smiled bitterly, he was right this meeting was about his 'assignment'.
"Sir, what exactly do you wish to discuss? My 'friends' my enemies or Voldemort himself." Severus spat out. Dumbledore must have heard the anger behind the words but he chose to ignore it.
"Well all three of them to be perfectly frank." Dumbledore said calmly resting his hands on his desk.
"Well my 'friends' are behaving exactly as expected. Lucius is following in his father's footsteps. Cameron, Ivy, Rose and a few others are all flocking to Voldemort he is going to end up with quite a following all Slytherin's best and brightest are going to him. My best 'friend' Lucius doesn't suspect that I might not be the loyal little Death Eater that I pretend to be. My skills in potions seem to be more advanced than anything else Voldemort has on offer, even though I am only fifth year. So I can only assume so far Voldemort has only met with incompetent fools. It would be to much to hope for that it was in reality my exception skill in the field of potion making that meant I was the best." Severus cocked his head "of course I do have an exceptional skill but." Severus raised his shoulders. Dumbledore's reports were always like this, Severus would give Dumbledore all the information he had but he was bitter about it, and Dumbledore let him get away with his disrespectful tone and language because it was his fault that Severus was in this situation in the first place. "He has had me brew a couple of illegal potions for him, poisons mostly." At this Dumbledore sat up.
"Did he ask you personally?" this was the first time that Severus had actually been asked to do something, he had never even met Voldemort personally. Severus' eyes darkened at the question, Dumbledore was worried now, 'if Severus had actually been exposed to Voldemort himself the risk was getting too great, an unacceptable risk.
"I think you already know the answer headmaster." He said coldly, he was clutching at his left arm an unconscious movement. Albus noticed what Severus was doing 'oh no, oh no. What have I done to this poor boy.' And other such thoughts were screaming through his head.
"I am sorry, there was nothing I could do' Severus's voice seemed almost at breaking point. 'If I had refused there would have known something was wrong. I just let them do it, I let them mark me." Tears were now streaming down his face. Dumbledore got to his feet.
"My poor child," He said moving to Severus's side. "You have nothing to apologize for." Albus placed a had on his shoulder, 'It is who should be apologizing, what was I thinking asking him to do this for me' Dumbledore thought about the marauders 'he should be one of them not their enemy, he shouldn't even be in Slytherin, he is too brave for that, but I. I spoiled all that for the sake of gathering information.' For a moment he thought about why he had even picked Severus, It is because he is the only one that would be able to survive it. James as good a fighter as he is, would be too weak to do it and Sirius would never even agree. Albus looked down at the dark eyed boy in front of him, regretting the day that he had asked the boy to be his spy. Albus reached for Severus's arm, pulling up the sleeve, there was no way to detect the mark magically it was to well constructed for that but it could never be totally hidden.
The mark burned darkly on Severus' pale skin. It was brand a mark of lost innocence and in this case a symbol of an unimaginable sacrifice for only a boy to have to make.
"Severus' this doesn't make you a bad person, I know that you would never betray us." Severus turned his sad eyes on Dumbledore.
"But everyone else believes I have betrayed you." He said bitterly. 'Not every one' Albus thought. 'There is one who knows the truth if only you would talk to him.'
Part six:
The first step of the lengthily process was complete; it had been quite a 'unique' experience. They had started to brew it in their room, it was the place that they were least likely to get caught. Which was true they didn't get caught. But they did come perilously close to melting the cauldron; none of them were very good at potions. 'Now if we had Severus here it would have been much easier. Severus? Shit' when had he started to think of the potions monster as Severus. And he actually wanted the greasy git to be there. 'He not really greasy you know' Harry was seriously doubting his mental stability, talking to himself was defiantly not a good sign. Harry mentally shrugged, he would not think about this at the moment they had plans to make. Harry Smirked at the other marauders.
"I have an idea how to use the Polyjuice." Harry mused already assuming that they would 'eventually' get it completed. "We sneak into the Slytherin common room." The others looked at him as if he had gone mad, which might very well be true but he wasn't about to give up his plan.
"You can not be serious." Si exclaimed.
"Oh but I am, all we have to do is find four Slytherin, steal some of their hair and make sure that they will be away while we want to sneak in."
"Jamie have you any idea how much trouble we would get into if we were caught, not to mention the mauling we would get from the members of Slytherin." Peter squeaked.
"Come on, don't you want to do something truly original." Si had an odd glint in his eyes, Harry recognised it, and he had seen it on Sirius' face a few times himself. He was planning something.
"Jamie you right, we are the 'marauders' we can't be bound by petty rules we have to be the best." Harry smirked; he had won the argument, if James and Sirius agreed on something the other two were bound to follow. "Now all we need are potential candidates."
After much debate they finally decided on using members of the Slytherin Quiditch team. While they were out at practice the Marauders could sneak in without running the risk of there being two of the same person at one time. It would probably be best to use people that they knew the most about so unfortunately that tended to mean the ones they liked least.
"Ok, I'll be Malfoy" Sirius decided. "I want to hit on one of the ugliest people in his house, that way we get months of entertainment."
"Well then I guess I'll be Snape." Harry said, tying to think up an excuse why he wanted to be Severus, as it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell them that the real reason was that he wanted to see him naked. "It makes sense he is the seeker of their team." He settled on, a lame reason if ever Harry had heard one but it was the best he could come up with.
"I don't know who to be." The high-pitched voice of Peter whined. Harry found it hard not to look with disgust on the boy. A million and one things came to his mind about what Peter could be but all of them were nasty and involved some kind of horrible creature.
"Well I know who I want to be, I'll be Cameron Lestrange." All eyes turned to Remus who had made the statement, anyone less like Remus would be hard to find, Cameron was loud obnoxious a bastard and probably already a Death Eater. As Harry though about Death Eaters he remembered what Severus had said, 'at least I will be able to find out if he really is a death eater'
"Reme, why do you want to be Lestrange?" Si asked. Remus shrugged his shoulders.
"He is no worse than Malfoy or Snape." Harry couldn't stop himself from thinking that he was infinitely worse than Snape. "Plus he is going out with Ivy" Reme smirked, everyone believed he was terribly shy but it was a great way to get girls and guys for that matter, and since the person he really wanted didn't want him he had to find his entertainment elsewhere.
Si must have been thinking about who Peter could be because suddenly he came out with the best idea. Well Harry thought it was a great idea.
"Peter I know who you can be, Rose Fudge." Three of them burst into laughter at the idea, while Peter looked like he was about to cry. It was perfect, Rose looked like she had seen the wrong side of a bludger to many times, her nose was Squashed flat and she was quite heavily built, in fact she looked like a female Peter. Barely female. They could all tell Peter was not amused by the suggestion but he was too spineless to complain.
The marauders spent the next week trying to obtain the hair needed for the potion. Si and Reme got theirs with very little problem. Malfoy being possibly the vainest person alive always carried a comb about with him, Harry hated to admit it but as much as he disliked Draco he thanked Merlin that he wasn't as bad as his father. Si charmed the comb to run away from Malfoy, It was a great idea as it entertained them greatly as well as serving their purpose. The comb literary sprouted legs and ran over to Sirius. This had the entire Grifindor table in hysterics. Especially when a very irate Malfoy stormed over to the demanding to know what was going on. Si just smirked at him handing him the comb silently, this probably pissed him off more that anything else Si could have done.
Reme had the easiest time of all; he picked a stray hair of off Lestrange's robe during transfiguration. Even Peter managed to get the hair, fare enough he did cause quite a scene as he just went up to Rose and yanked it from her head but at least he had succeeded. But Harry had not; he was having a great deal of trouble trying to get the hair he needed. The main reason being he found it impossible to concentrate when Severus was around. This little problem did not bode well for potions lessons.
Each and every Potions lesson was a nightmare he spent the entire time painfully aware of Severus' presence only a couple of inches away from him. The heat he could feel coming from Severus was enough to drive him mad. Harry had devised a mantra to keep himself sane and to stop him from pouncing onto the guy. 'I do not have a thing for the greasy git.' But it sounded so false as from this position he could clearly see there was nothing greasy about Severus.
But somehow Harry had managed to keep himself in check for all the log weeks it took to brew the potion. Then the day the potion was due to completed, disaster struck. Harry's usual mantra didn't seem to be working; he sensed something wrong with Severus. it had been going on for the past two days but today was worse. It was a niggling little feeling inside his head, I felt like Severus was in pain but Harry could see anything wrong with the fellow student. So distracted was Harry that he nearly cut of a finger when chopping his bat liver.
"What are you doing?" Severus' cold voice rang out, getting Harry attention before he did indeed succeed in parting himself with one or more of his fingers.
"I. I am chopping the bat liver," Harry stammered glancing at the textbook, "like it says to." 'Severus is actually taking to me, why what is going on, has he noticed?' All these thoughts were buzzing through Harry's head.
"Well the famous Potter wit strikes again," Severus, drawled, "Maybe by the time you leave school you will be able to speak properly." He paused "Though it's doubtful. You are supposed to chop the bat liver yes, but not your fingers. of course, I have nothing against you loosing your fingers but it would disrupt the lesson and I would rather not fail. Unlike you some of us are actually here to learn." Severus glared at Harry wondering what was going on, James was not normally so careless whatever Severus might say to the contrary. 'Something is different he is not acting like himself.' Severus mused 'of course his idiot friends haven't noticed I doubt they would even say anything if he sprouted a tail and wings.' Severus himself was an expert on what was normal for Potter, he needed to be. He had to be able to recognise the signs for when Potter was planning something as whenever he was planning something Severus was normally the victim. So he always knew when something was up with Potter. Severus silently vowed that he would find out what was going on. And exploit it.
Harry was starting to get worried at the look Severus was giving him; it was as if he suspected something was wrong. For a fleeting moment Harry wondered if Severus was thinking about him in the same way as Harry thought about him but the thought was quickly squashed, his fantasizing about such things would need him to admit his 'problem'.
"Se. Snape what are you staring at?" Harry asked coldly, well he tried for cold but it had too much heat to it. Severus cocked an eyebrow noticing that Potter had almost called him by his given name. 'Something is defiantly going on' Severus thought.
"Well Potter I was charmed by your overwhelming beauty and I could not stop myself." He snarled, Harry's breath caught and Severus almost ruined his hard fought for image by laughing at him. 'What is he doing to me?' Harry almost whined but managed to stop himself from saying it out loud.
At that moment the bell rang signalling the end of class Harry was visibly relieved he picked up his books and bolted out the door not even waiting for Si. Brushing past Severus on his way. Severus looked after him as he ran out, wondering how he could use this new situation best. Smirking at the thought of having something that could potentially destroy James.
Severus picked up his books and headed out the door when professor Aquilina stopped him.
"Severus the headmaster wishes to see you. Now." She told him. Severus gulped no doubt this would have something to do with his 'assignment'.
*********************
"Ah Severus please do sit down." Dumbledore instructed him. "Tea?" Severus shook his head.
"No thank you sir. I need to get to my next class."
"Well Severus I am sure that can wait. What is your next class? Divination isn't it?" Severus nodded. "James is in that class I am sure you can get notes from him" Dumbledore had an odd twinkle I his eye. Severus paled slightly fearing that Dumbledore knew about the way he was taunting James earlier. But Dumbledore just carried on not giving any further indication that he something was up. "I have called you here to discuss the job you are doing for me." Severus smiled bitterly, he was right this meeting was about his 'assignment'.
"Sir, what exactly do you wish to discuss? My 'friends' my enemies or Voldemort himself." Severus spat out. Dumbledore must have heard the anger behind the words but he chose to ignore it.
"Well all three of them to be perfectly frank." Dumbledore said calmly resting his hands on his desk.
"Well my 'friends' are behaving exactly as expected. Lucius is following in his father's footsteps. Cameron, Ivy, Rose and a few others are all flocking to Voldemort he is going to end up with quite a following all Slytherin's best and brightest are going to him. My best 'friend' Lucius doesn't suspect that I might not be the loyal little Death Eater that I pretend to be. My skills in potions seem to be more advanced than anything else Voldemort has on offer, even though I am only fifth year. So I can only assume so far Voldemort has only met with incompetent fools. It would be to much to hope for that it was in reality my exception skill in the field of potion making that meant I was the best." Severus cocked his head "of course I do have an exceptional skill but." Severus raised his shoulders. Dumbledore's reports were always like this, Severus would give Dumbledore all the information he had but he was bitter about it, and Dumbledore let him get away with his disrespectful tone and language because it was his fault that Severus was in this situation in the first place. "He has had me brew a couple of illegal potions for him, poisons mostly." At this Dumbledore sat up.
"Did he ask you personally?" this was the first time that Severus had actually been asked to do something, he had never even met Voldemort personally. Severus' eyes darkened at the question, Dumbledore was worried now, 'if Severus had actually been exposed to Voldemort himself the risk was getting too great, an unacceptable risk.
"I think you already know the answer headmaster." He said coldly, he was clutching at his left arm an unconscious movement. Albus noticed what Severus was doing 'oh no, oh no. What have I done to this poor boy.' And other such thoughts were screaming through his head.
"I am sorry, there was nothing I could do' Severus's voice seemed almost at breaking point. 'If I had refused there would have known something was wrong. I just let them do it, I let them mark me." Tears were now streaming down his face. Dumbledore got to his feet.
"My poor child," He said moving to Severus's side. "You have nothing to apologize for." Albus placed a had on his shoulder, 'It is who should be apologizing, what was I thinking asking him to do this for me' Dumbledore thought about the marauders 'he should be one of them not their enemy, he shouldn't even be in Slytherin, he is too brave for that, but I. I spoiled all that for the sake of gathering information.' For a moment he thought about why he had even picked Severus, It is because he is the only one that would be able to survive it. James as good a fighter as he is, would be too weak to do it and Sirius would never even agree. Albus looked down at the dark eyed boy in front of him, regretting the day that he had asked the boy to be his spy. Albus reached for Severus's arm, pulling up the sleeve, there was no way to detect the mark magically it was to well constructed for that but it could never be totally hidden.
The mark burned darkly on Severus' pale skin. It was brand a mark of lost innocence and in this case a symbol of an unimaginable sacrifice for only a boy to have to make.
"Severus' this doesn't make you a bad person, I know that you would never betray us." Severus turned his sad eyes on Dumbledore.
"But everyone else believes I have betrayed you." He said bitterly. 'Not every one' Albus thought. 'There is one who knows the truth if only you would talk to him.'