Harry Potter, Heir of Gryffindor

Where Loyalties Lie

At the end of the last Potions class before the Easter Holiday Severus pulled Harry aside and closed the door to his classroom after everyone else had left. Harry looked curiously over at the Potions Master as he locked and cast a silencing charm on the door. "What's wrong, professor?" Harry asked once the Potions Mater had turned back to face him.

Severus walked briskly over and sat behind his desk. Once seated, he unlocked and opened one of his drawers. Pulling out a small scrap of parchment he studied it for several seconds, placed it back in the drawer and closed and locked the drawer again. After sitting silently for a few more seconds he looked up and said, "I will not be at Friday night's meeting." At the confused expression on Harry's face he continued. "The Dark Lord has called a meeting for that night."

Harry pulled a chair out from behind one of the desks and sat down facing the man he had learned to hate but who, over the past seven months, had come to call 'friend.' "I'm already guessing that Albus knows so why are you telling me?"

Severus looked up suddenly and glared at Harry, his cold, black eyes pinning Harry to his seat. "I'm telling you," Severus growled, "because there is a very high probability that I will not be coming back from this meeting!"

Harry's mouth fell open.

"Oh, don't worry," Severus spat, in his usual silky voice. "Your secrets are safe. But I want you to know that if I should not return the Headmaster has made arrangements for you, Weasley, Granger, Longbottom and Krum to teach Potions for the rest of the year."

Harry thought about this for a moment then stood up. "After carefully replacing the chair he had been using he looked cautiously over at Severus and said, "All right. Is there anything else?"

"Yes!" Severus said darkly. "I will have a potions bottle in my pocket. I know you can do it because I have seen some of your work at Headquarters. If worse comes to worse, Harry, make sure I take that potion. I am not afraid of a little pain; but I will not reveal any of the Order's secrets."

Harry nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, sir," he began hesitantly, "what is going to be in the bottle?"

Severus' eyes flared again and Harry could tell that he should not have asked that question. "Never mind, Potter!" Severus fumed. "Now get out of my sight!"

Harry was slightly taken aback by Severus' sudden rage but said nothing and as soon as Severus had unlocked the door and removed the silencing charm walked quickly from the room.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked an apparently fuming Harry.

Harry, Severus and Neville had perfected their acting skills over the course over the past year so that Severus' cover would not be blown, even though Severus suspected that someone had discovered his role as long ago as September. "Ill tell you later," Harry growled as they raced up the steps and out of the dungeons.

Harry begged out of the Order meeting on Good Friday because he wanted to monitor the Death Eater meeting. He hadn't felt right about it ever since his impromptu meeting with Severus but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. He had been monitoring Tom's moods and emotions, through his scar, since late in November and had even been able to translate many of them into thoughts. But nothing - nothing more than, when turned around, a sense of foreboding - accompanied his impressions of what would be taking place at this meeting.

When he lay down that evening he quickly entered the ethos, activated his crystal ball and went in search of Voldemort and his minions. He found them in the same graveyard Wormtail had used when resurrecting his master a little less than two years previous. Tom was standing in front of the headstone Harry had been tied to on the fateful night, surrounded by what remained of his inner circle. Of the thirty Harry had seen that night fifteen plus two (Severus and Bellatrix Lestrange) remained.

Over the months Harry had learned where each member of Tom's shrinking inner circle stood. And as the circle grew smaller he had learned to tell them apart by their standing postures. He found Severus without much trouble and did a quick search of his person to locate the potions bottle Severus had told him about. Finding it in a trouser pocket he pressed it gently into Severus' leg to let the former Death Eater know that he was there. With a quick, almost imperceptible nod of his head Severus acknowledged Harry's ethereal presence and Harry could sense his former enemy relaxing slightly.

Over time Harry had learned to program his crystal to record these meetings on its own so that he could look around and try to discover what was going on behind the scenes. So far he had reproduced almost fifty charts and diagrams of planned attacks on sheets of parchment at Order Headquarters, which had helped save countless lives and resulted in the capture of innumerable Death Eaters. This time, however, his attention was focused on Severus.

After the opening of the meeting, during which all of the members of Tom's inner circle were required to step forward, kneel before their master, kiss the hem of his robe and mutter an oath of allegiance, Wormtail and Lestrange gave their reports on the most recent attacks in the south and north. As usual Harry had to restrain himself from ethereally attacking Wormtail - an attack he was not at all certain would succeed as he had never lifted anything heavier than a bottle of ink while in the ethereal and even then had been drained of energy for close to two hours - but he didn't really mind because, more often than not, Tom would wind up punishing Peter for him and tonight was no different.

"What do you mean we lost another battalion?" Tom screamed in his high-pitched, nails-on-chalkboard voice. "We are losing too many!"

"B-but, m-master," Wormtail stammered. "They were new and inexperienced . . ."

"I don't care!" Tom hissed angrily. "They should have been trained!"

"Th-they were, m-master."

"NOT WELL ENOUGH!" Tom bellowed, his red serpentine eyes flashing dangerously. "I want our people trained! Drive them till they drop if you have to but I want them trained!"

"Y-yes, m-master."

Apparently Tom had had enough of Wormtail's groveling for one night because he raised his wand and began hissing dangerously at Wormtail. As it was parselmouth Harry could understand the curses and threats he was making but poor Peter could do little more than grovel at Tom's feet trembling with fear. "It's a good thing I need you, Wormtail," Tom said in a deathly calm voice, "because if I didn't I would be sorely tempted to kill you." Peter looked up, his eyes betraying his gratitude at once again being spared. But Tom wasn't finished. He raised his wand, pointed it directly at Peter's masked face and screamed, "CRUCIO!"

For the next five minutes Peter was held under the Cruciatus Curse, writhing in the ground and screaming uncontrollably. Tom was pouring so much power into the curse that the skin on Wormtail's arms began to split open and from the amount of blood soaking through his robes Harry could only assume that the skin on his legs and chest was splitting as well. When Tom lifted the curse he spat at Peter's crumpled form and screamed at Nott and Rookwood to take him away and heal his wounds.

Then, turning to Severus, his flaming red eyes narrowed and his reptilian nostrils flared. "So, Severus," he hissed, his voice once again dangerously calm, cool and deadly, "What news have you for me on Dumbledore and his golden boy, Harry Potter?"

Severus bowed and slowly stepped forward. When he was little more than a meter from the Dark Lord he got down on his hands and knees and kissed the hem of Tom's robes for the second time that night. After rising to a crouched position Severus backed away until he was three meters from his master and then knelt down. Looking up into his master's face - one of the very few Death Eaters who dared be so bold - he said, "I have no news to report, Master. I know that they are aware of the events taking place outside of Hogwarts through the newspapers and other media outlets but other than that all I can say is that Dumbledore seems to be keeping a particularly close eye on the Potter brat." He spat the last words of this sentence out with the usual amount of venom he reserved for those he particularly loathed. "It would seem that ever since the events of last year he is trying to protect the boy at all costs."

"Aaaaaargh!" Tom screamed at the top of his lungs, causing even his faithful Nagini to shiver in fright. "You lie, Snape! I know you have been spying for Dumbledore! I have known ever since Potter's first year! Or have you forgotten that I was under Quirrell's turban that year?" Raising his wand and pointing it at Severus' masked face he continued. "But then you probably didn't think I would remember all of those threats did you. I want the truth, Severus, and I want it now. LEGILLIMENS!"

The curse hit Severus square between the eyes but he didn't flinch. Harry could feel the former Death Eater fighting the curse and succeeding admirably. After almost a minute Tom let the Legillimens Curse drop and changed tactics. "We shall see how strong you are after you have begun to experience my wrath," Tom hissed dangerously. Then, raising his wand once again, he screamed, "CRUCIO!"

At first Severus didn't give in to the pain and refused to scream. But after almost a minute he started to whimper slightly. Then, as Tom poured even more power into the curse, the skin began to peal away from his arms, legs, chest, abdomen and back, exposing all his nerves to the crisp night air. Harry wanted to turn away but he knew that he could not. Carefully reaching into Severus' pocket - he didn't want to alert Tom to his presence - he began sneeking the potions bottle out of Severus' trousers and up towards his mouth. He did everything he could to keep it away from Severus exposed nerves but by this time Severus was writhing and bucking so much that a few bumps were inevitable.

Severus had already lost his mask and Harry had gotten the bottle as far his collar when Tom ended the curse. "Tell me the truth!" Tom screamed.

"NEVER!" Severus yelled back.

"CRUCIO!"

Severus was writhing in pain as the skin and fleshy meat pealed off of his hands. What happened next startled everyone. Severus stuck his tongue out and bit it off. Tom was so enraged that he didn't notice the tiny blue potions bottle pop out from under Severus' robes, uncork itself and empty its contents into Severus' mouth.

Harry watched in horror has Severus swallowed the potion mixed with blood. Less than a minute later Severus Snape - Potions Master, Former Death Eater and Spy for the Order of the Phoenix - was dead.

Harry stopped the recording at that point and returned to his body. After shakily getting to his feet and staggering into the library he grabbed a handful of floo powder, knelt down in front of the fireplace, threw the powder into the grate, stuck his head into the emerald flames and said, as he was still to traumatized to speak at anything above a whisper, "Headmaster's office."

A moment later, as the Headmaster's Office appeared before him Harry was not surprised to see Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Remus, Tonks, Neville, Luna, Minerva, Kingsley and Alastor either sitting or standing in front of Albus' desk while Albus fidgeted nervously in his seat. As soon as Harry's head appeared in the flames Remus, who had been pacing nervously in front of the desk looked up and came running over. "Harry?" he asked, noticing the traumatized look of horror in Harry's eyes. "Are you alright?"

Harry nodded his head. "Yes," he whispered. "I'm fine."

"And Severus?" Albus asked hopefully.

Harry swallowed and looked sadly up at his friend and mentor. After taking a deep breath he sighed with grief then croaked out, "Dead."

After all of the gasps and screams had died down Albus slowly walked over and knelt down in front if the fireplace. "Did he say anything, reveal any of our secrets?"

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Are you going to be all right?" Tonks asked.

Again Harry sighed and shook his head. "I don't know," he whispered. "I've got some Dreamless Sleep Potion I can use but I don't know if that will even be enough."

"You stay right where you are, Harry," Ginny said as she raced forward. "I'll be there in a few minutes. You aren't going to bed without me. You need someone to hold onto you so don't you even think of refusing!"

Harry looked up at his soul mate and nodded his head. "Okay," he whispered. "I'll meet you here in a few minutes."

Five minutes later, after racing through the castle and up into the Gryffindor sixth-year boys' dormitory, Ginny walked into Harry's library followed closely by Dobby, who was carrying two large mugs of warm milk, and Winky, who was carrying a tray laden with several dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. When Ginny saw the haunted look in Harry's eyes she ran to him and pulled him into a hug. Harry was still too traumatized by what he had seen to say or do much but he did manage to turn towards her and whisper a heart felt, "Thank you." Dobby and Winky left the milk and cookies on the coffee table and silently returned to their quarters after telling Ginny that they would take care of any messes in the morning and that they would do the cooking this weekend so that they could spend all of their time together.

Harry and Ginny stayed up talking long into the night. It was almost midnight when Ginny helped Harry into the study and got his pensieve out for him to use while she changed. Harry nodded his thanks and spent the next hour removing the memories of the Death Eater meeting from his mind. While he was doing this he promised himself that he would either get a new penseive after the war was over or find some way of storing these memories for future generations so that they could learn from his experiences.

Ginny rose early the next morning and visited with her parents for a few minutes before getting dressed and taking Harry's ball to Albus, in his office. Harry was still sleeping soundly but she left Winky to watch over him in case he should wake while she was away. After a brief conversation with the Headmaster she visited Minerva in her office and told the Head of Gryffindor House what she was doing. Then, after returning to check on Harry who was still mercifully sleeping, she took Dobby with her over to the fifth-year girl's dormitory and moved all of her stuff, trunk included, into Harry's trunk and asked Dobby to change the name on the trunk to read "HARRY POTTER and GINNY WEASLEY." She was moving in and there was nothing Harry or anyone else could either say or do to change her mind. In her heart she knew that Harry needed her and she was going to be there for him.

Harry slept soundly until almost noon.

That Saturday was a Hogsmeade weekend but neither Harry nor Ginny felt like taking advantage of the opportunity. And since it was Remus' turn to teach neither of them felt like doing much more than relaxing and taking it easy. They both did a little studying and revising for their upcoming exams but other than that they didn't really do much more than talk.

That evening, after the seminar, there was a knock on the lid of the trunk and a few minutes later Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Remus and Tonks were sitting around in the various chairs and couches in the sitting room visiting while Dobby and Winky provided them with a variety of drinks, biscuits, cookies and treats. The ever-faithful house elves went out of their way to make sure that anything Harry drank was alcohol free. They did not want him slipping into an alcoholic stupor after what he had seen.

"Well," Neville said sadly, after they had talked around the subject for a while, "he certainly proved himself loyal to the cause. Albus showed us the crystal after we got back from Hogsmeade and even though there was a time when I thought he deserved to die like that I wouldn't wish that off on anyone."

"Yeah," Ron said solemnly. "I guess Albus was right. He did have his reasons for trusting him. And Severus certainly proved himself worthy of that trust."

They talked long into the night, sharing their feelings and discussing what they should do to honor the memory of their colleague and friend. It was decided that, whether they ever found his body or not, they would talk to Albus about holding a public service for the man in the Great Hall in the afternoon of the following Saturday. Each of them would deliver a short speech, beginning with Remus who would describe the Severus Snape he knew while attending Hogwarts and ending with Harry who would describe the evolution of their friendship and his death. He was not going to be overly graphic in his descriptions but only graphic enough to show the extraordinary amount of courage the former Head of Slytherin House had shown when faced with his own death. It was also decided that while his coffin would be draped with a Slytherin House banner they would press to have Gryffindor, Huffelpuff and Ravenclaw House banners placed within his casket.

A bloodcurdling scream was heard coming from Hogsmeade on Easter Sunday as the early risers discovered Severus' mangled body lying in the center of the all-wizarding village's main street. A runner was sent to the castle and Albus was summoned from his sleep. Half an hour later, as Albus approached the scene, a small crowd of onlookers parted to let him through. As he knelt down beside his Potions Master's body, Severus' robes soaked in his own blood, he spied a bloodstained envelope tucked into the folds of Severus' robes. After checking it for spells he carefully withdrew the envelope and examined it.

The envelope was addressed in blood to "Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." It was sealed with an emerald green, wax copy of the Dark Mark. Carefully opening the envelope and extracting the piece of parchment it held he read the note, which had, once again, been written in blood.

Dumbledore,

I don't know how you are getting all of your information but this source has
dried up. I hope you are happy now that your precious Potions Master is now
dead.

Voldemort

A tear trickled down the ancient wizard's cheek as he read this note but he kept his emotions to himself. He would be using his pensieve later on; but first he needed to get the body to the Hospital Wing and begin making arrangements for the funeral.

The trip back up to the castle was one of the longest journeys Albus Dumbledore had ever made. Hagrid and Fang came out to greet him but immediately turned away when they saw what was lying on the stretcher the Headmaster had conjured to carry this burden. Many of the professors and all of the students who had risen for their early morning workouts turned away as he passed and more than just a few got sick. Harry and Alastor were among the few exceptions, Harry because he had seen it happen and Alastor because he had already seen more death and destruction than any one man should ever have to endure.

The next week was very quiet. Classes went on as usual. Harry and Hermione teamed up to teach the first and second year Potions classes and Ron and Neville teamed up to teach the third and fourth year classes while Victor took the fifth, sixth and seventh years. Victor was also appointed Temporary Head of Slytherin House. Even Argus Filch kept a low profile that week.

After lunch on Saturday Severus' black Mahoganoy coffin was carried to the front of the Great Hall. Banners from Gryffindor, Huffelpuff and Ravenclaw were draped over his body and the Slytherin banner was draped over his coffin. The service was well attended by the entire student body, the faculty, staff and most of the Order of the Phoenix. Speeches were given and Severus Snape's life was laid out for all to see. When Harry described his death there were more than a few gasps and cries of anguish, anger and outrage. When it was over Severus' wand was placed on top of his casket and he was laid to rest in a place of honor in the castle's cemetery.

Afterwards students from all houses approached Albus and the heads of house to find out if there was anything they could do to help avenge the Potions Master's death. It was not until the second week of May, however, that an opportunity arose for them to take advantage of this outpouring of good will and put it to the test. On that Friday night, as Harry was monitoring and recording the Death Eater meeting, Tom revealed his plans to simultaneously attack Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, The Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, St. Mungo's and a number of other strategic points of interest throughout western Europe in the last week of October with all of his forces. Harry made sure he got a complete list of all of the targets before presenting it to Albus at their next meeting.

On Monday, May 19th, 1997 a notice went up on all of the school bulletin boards asking all students, third year and above, who wished to fight Voldemort and help avenge the death of the late Severus Snape to report to the Great Hall at 3:00 PM on Saturday, May 24th for their first meeting.

Harry was surprised at the turnout. Every student from third year and above showed up for the meeting. A few first and second year students even tried to sneak in but were caught and sent back to their common rooms. All of the students attending the meeting were told to write letters home explaining why they wished to fight and Albus and their heads of house would send letters explaining the reasons behind their requests and the arrangements that were being made for extensive, summertime training in dueling and self defense.