Disclaimer: See previous chapters
A/N – Once again I am posting with minimal editing. I just barely finished this, but I did not want to leave you hanging there, clutching desperately at the foliage to keep from falling off the cliff. Grin.
Here, it has been less than 24 hours. Have the next chapter; it is quite a bit longer than average. There was a lot to fit in. I just hope the conversation is not too jumpy.
Azure – for the sake of simplicity any kinship between James and Severus is so distant that it can be ignored. As for formality in my writing… I do the best I can. I really do try to put in all the contractions I see possible. I just have a hard time seeing them.
Cerberis – Thank you for the snake info. I fear I have made more mistakes than that regarding Zinnia. Sigh.
*****
"Hullo, who are you?" Asked a voice from across the room.
Harry jumped and turned toward the voice. "Harry Potter, ma'am." He said. A tall woman stood by a kitchen sink staring at him.
Severus appeared behind him and stepped around him.
"Rose!" He exclaimed. "You look spectacular, as always." He crossed the room and kissed her cheek casually. "Rose, may I present Harry…um…Potter. My son."
"Oh dear." She reached behind her to find the chair and sat heavily. "So Della's child didn't die after all." She murmured.
"Harry, I'd like you to meet my aunt, Rosemary Thornton." Severus finished the introductions. "I have asked Harry to join us for the holidays, if that is all right with you."
"Does that mean you are actually joining me this year?" She asked, brow raised. He just nodded. "I think that is a lovely idea. You don't visit nearly enough. Come, sit, we'll have a cuppa tea."
Rose gestured to the chairs around the kitchen table. Harry took a seat next to Severus.
Harry could see the resemblance between Rose and Severus far more than he could see his own resemblance to them.
"Um, Mrs. Thornton…" Harry began, thinking of something.
"You had better call me Rose if we're to be related." She corrected smiling.
"Rose." Harry repeated. "Did you write a book?"
"A book? Why yes. Reading the Leaves, we called it. Odd title, if you ask me, but my editor seemed to like it. Have you seen it?" She bustled about the kitchen.
"Yes, I have a copy." Harry said. "Professor Lupin gave me a copy as a birthday present this summer. It is very informative. Especially the section on alternative herbs for the divining medium. I had actually been using some of them already."
"Well, this is a surprise, Sev." Rose said, seeming pleased. "Looks like the Thornton Gift may have a chance of survival after all."
Severus harrumphed and started to slice the loaf of bread Rose set before him.
"Would you care to prepare the tea, Harry?" Rose offered.
"If you want me to." Harry said, flattered.
Rose sat a tray of small stoneware jars in front of him and he began his usual ritual of sniffing and measuring. He crushed the resulting pile of leaves and transferred them to the teapot.
Rose poured the water on. She set on cream, sugar, a plate of cakes, cheese, and sliced meat along with plates and cups and spoons.
"Since you never sent an owl, Sev, I presume that you have not known long?" Rose said dryly. She buttered a slice of bread before constructing a sandwich on top of it.
Her nephew blushed and mumbled something vague.
"Pour the tea, Sev, there's a good lad." Rose instructed. "And don't be shy, Harry, eat up."
Severus poured out the tea, and handed the cups around.
"Cream and sugar, Harry" Rose asked.
"No, thank you, ma'am." Harry smiled and chose a rich cake from the plate nearest him.
"How are your classes going, Sev?" Rose stirred sugar into her own tea.
"As well as can be expected." Severus replied with a small grimace. "As usual, there are very few students who actually understand potions, and fewer still that see the joy in them."
"Indeed?" Rose smiled slightly. "And is Harry one of them?"
Severus looked uncomfortable. His eyes sought Harry's.
"No. I wouldn't say so." Harry said. "However, I have recently come to understand why Severus teaches the way he does. That understanding has led me to enjoy the subject more."
"Really." Rose smiled broadly. "What sort of understanding?"
"Even though I do not agree with it," Harry's eyes darted over to Severus. "I understand why he emphasizes discipline above all. Acting out can be very dangerous, after all."
"But you don't fully agree with discipline?" Rose probed.
"That's not what I meant." Harry shook his head. "I just feel that the class's fear of his enforcing that discipline is counterproductive."
"Sev?" Rose turned to him inquiringly.
"We have had this discussion many times." Severus protested. "Must we really go over it again?"
Severus drained his cup quickly. He turned it properly and glanced into it. He didn't offer an interpretation. He just handed it to Harry.
"So, Harry, what do you see?"
Harry took the cup, not a little surprised. He looked in and flinched.
"Pain." He said first. "Eventually ending. Maybe soon, maybe not."
Harry swallowed hard and turned the cup. "If you look for joy you will find it."
He looked into the cup from a third angle and sighed. "Release." He shook his head and looked up. "Release from what?" Harry shrugged and handed the cup back.
Severus took it back, mouth agape. He peered into it again. "I feel like I am twelve again." He handed the cup to Rose.
She looked into the cup briefly and turned to Harry smiling. "Seems like this part of the gift has skipped a generation. 'released from what' indeed. It could signify a release from pain, a release to joy or a release completely unrelated to the rest of the cup. It is not determinate. Very good job, Harry." She winked conspiratorially. "Sev was never good at reading the leaves."
"I prefer to think of myself as above such foolishness." Severus said with great dignity.
"We know, dear." Rose winked at Harry again. "It is a good thing that Harry and I know differently, or you would be completely insufferable."
"Hey!" Severus protested, as Rose and Harry laughed at him.
Zinnia chose that moment to emerge from one of her protected pockets.
"New place." She complained. "Taste/Smell like family."
"We are visiting Great Aunt Rose." Harry hissed soothingly. "This is her house."
Rose's eyes widened when she saw Zinnia. "Harry." She said tensely. "There is a snake on your arm."
Harry looked up. "Um, yes, there is. This is Zinnia. She is just a baby really."
"She isn't… poisonous, is she?" Rose asked.
"No, not at all." Harry said quickly. "She is a reticulated python."
Rose relaxed. "A python. Well that's all right then." She smiled. "Marlow kept a python. It was trained to participate in the magic act."
"Worry gone?" Zinnia asked. "I no more fear?"
"She was afraid you were poisonous." Harry hissed.
"I? Not I." Zinnia said. "Head hurt? Why? Arm hurt? Same?"
"What do you mean dearling?" Harry asked, trying to soothe her. "Does your head hurt?"
"No." She said. "Your head? Hurts? Your head."
"I'm fine. I don't hurt at all." Harry told her.
"Harry?" Rose said.
"Yes?" Harry looked up.
"Are you talking to that snake?" Rose asked.
"Um, yes, I am." Harry said. "I, well, I'm a Parselmouth."
"Right." Rose nodded. "I guess I might have read about that. Does she have anything interesting to say?"
"Usually." Harry said. "She is a baby still, so sometimes she is a bit incoherent. She is babbling about being hurt at the moment. Not her, someone else, me maybe, but I'm fine."
"So, how has business been, Rose?" Severus asked, changing the topic.
She seemed a bit relived to move to a familiar topic. "Business has been especially good this year. It falls off now that summer is over, of course. There seemed to be more tourists than ever this year."
"It was very hot in the South this year." Harry offered. "It drove more people to the coast to get away. What sort of business do you do?"
"What? You don't know? Sev didn't tell you?" Rose looked seriously take aback.
"No, ma'am." Harry looked over at Severus. "He just asked me to come with him to see you."
"Oh." She grinned. "I tell fortunes, Harry. Most of my clients are Muggle tourists, but I do some work for the ministry as well. Plus the profits from my book, of course."
"Don't the Muggles notice?" Harry asked.
Severus snorted over his lunch, but didn't say anything.
"I am well known as the village witch." Rose explained. "No one in the village takes it very seriously. It's as if I were a common, Muggle fortune teller. The gypsy blood helps, I suppose." She grinned. "I make sure that no one ever sees anything to change their mind."
"Sort of like hiding in plain sight?" Harry commented.
"Yes, exactly that." Rose agreed. She gestured towards a framed certificate on the wall. "Even that is seen as a joke."
Harry looked at the paper. He stared and his mouth dropped open. It had the Ministry of Magic seal on it.
"Yes, my official permit to take money from Muggle customers. Harder to come by these days. It used to be that every village hereabouts had one or two licensed magickers, but times have changed. The ministry official thought it was great good fun to have it displayed like that. I mostly just tell fortunes or sell weak love potions and healing draughts."
"Oh." Harry said. "I am studying divination in school. It often seems…"
"Like guesswork?" Rose offered. "Or charlatanry?"
"Yes." Harry said uncomfortably.
"Well, it can seem to be." Rose sipped her tea placidly. "Your Professor is Sibyll Trelawney, correct?"
Harry nodded.
"Sibyll was always most interested in manufacturing the air of mystery about her." Rose said, appearing to be somewhere between amused and disgusted. "A small measure of theatricality is necessary, of course, but when taken to extremes it becomes silliness." She shook her head. "Sibyll always was prone to silliness. Learn your lessons, Harry. Try to ignore the silliness."
"Yes, ma'am." Harry looked at Severus. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Severus? You were apprenticed to a fortune teller?"
Severus straightened his spine. "A Diviner." He corrected with dignity.
"Yes, he was my apprentice." Rose grinned. "I imagine that you have met Sev's theatrical side. He uses it in class, for one thing."
Harry thought for a moment. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again. "Yes, I think I have seen that side of him." He said finally. "I didn't realize until recently that he actually has a sense of humor."
Severus scowled at them both.
"Well, it hardly fits in with his image, does it?" Rose's eyes danced, but managed to keep her face straight. "Very image conscious is our Severus."
"I do not know to what you are referring." Severus said in a very formal manner.
Rose almost choked on her laughter.
"What?" Severus demanded, not holding on to his straight face.
"Well, that looked so much like the impression you used to do of Marlow the Magnificent." She broke off again, laughing.
Severus almost laughed, but suppressed it. "It did not. That's my best teaching voice!"
Harry laughed at that.
"No respect." Severus complained. "I never should have brought him here. I almost had him giving me the respect I deserve."
"Only that?" Rose asked, managing to almost control her mirth. "Seems to me that you used to aim higher. So, will you stay for dinner, Sev?" Rose asked. "Or is the company too cheery?"
Severus looked inquiringly at Harry. Harry nodded slightly.
"Yes, I believe we shall stay." Severus replied.
"So, who is Marlow the Magnificent?" Harry asked.
"One of the other sideshows at the Muggle circus we used to travel with." Rose said. "We traveled with two circuses for several summers, a Wizarding and a Muggle one. When we were with the Wizarding circus, Sev was in a broom trick show with two of his cousins. When we were with the Muggle circus sometimes he was Marlow's assistant, sometimes he helped at my fortune tent and sometimes…" She paused to see how Severus was taking these revelations about his past.
"Sometimes." He drawled. "I was the clown."
Harry almost choked. "You? The clown? With big shoes and lots of face paint?" He said incredulously.
Severus nodded. "It takes quite a lot to be a clown." He said seriously. "Don't let it get around." He warned. "Relative or not, you would be very sorry."
"No, it wouldn't do, would it?" Harry squinted at his father, trying to imagine him in white face paint, with a big red nose and a clown grin. He couldn't quite see it.
Suddenly, without warning, the scar on Harry's forehead erupted in blinding pain. He cried out and clutched at it.
In the same moment, Severus gasped and seized his arm.
Harry braced for a vision of some kind, but none came. The pain subsided and Harry took an uneven breath.
"Um…" Rose watched them both. "What? I mean…"
"I'm all right." Severus said, teeth clenched. "Harry?"
"Fine, I think." Harry said. "It hasn't done that to me in a long time."
Severus eyed him. "You didn't see anything, did you?"
"No, which is a bit odd as well." Harry said.
Severus shook his arm, grimacing slightly.
"Are you sure you boys are all right? I have a poultice…"
"Nothing works, Rose." Severus said. "I have tried a great many things." He shook his head. "Short of Voldemort himself releasing me, there does not seem to be a cure."
Rose winced at the name.
Harry looked up at Severus, puzzled.
"Did you think I'd be afraid to say his name?" He laughed mockingly. "I who looked him in the eye and lied to him?"
Harry nodded in understanding.
Severus sighed. "You both might as well know that Voldemort has been torturing me through the mark. It burns all the time, but sometimes, like just now, it hurts almost as bad as a Cruciatus curse."
Harry placed his hand on Severus' arm where the mark lay.
"I wish it didn't hurt you." Harry said quietly.
Severus' eyes widened.
Harry snatched his hand back. "Sorry, I…"
"No." Severus said. He pulled up his sleeve, bareing the Mark. "Put your hand back on it." Severus offered his arm back to Harry. "Will it to stop hurting as you just did."
"What?" Harry blinked. Then he placed his hand directly on the pulsating Dark Mark. "I really wish you were not in pain."
All three of them watched as the symbol faded from the black of caked blood to a healthier looking brown.
"You are the key, Harry. Your link to Voldemort is the key." He smiled in relief. "We need to talk with Minerva."
"I guess dinner is off then?" Rose asked dryly.
"It might be best." Severus said.
"Harry?" Rose said speculatively.
"Yes?"
"What exactly did that snake say about hurting?" She asked.
"Well, she wanted to know why my head hurt, and she asked about…" Harry's mouth dropped open. "I think she asked about your arm. She wanted to know if the hurt was the same hurt."
"I think you should listen to that little snake." Rose said. "Has she predicted anything before?"
"No…" Harry started, then he remembered Neville. "Wait a moment. I think she has."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Rose said. "I have a feeling she will be very good to have around."
"We should get back to the castle." Severus said. "If Voldemort is thinking about us, he may perceive that we are not there."
Harry nodded.
They stood and Flooed back to Thornhollow.
*****
A/N – I really do not care if you think my Severus is completely out of character. I think so too. I like him this way. Hehehe. Sev was a clown. Hehehe.
A/N – Once again I am posting with minimal editing. I just barely finished this, but I did not want to leave you hanging there, clutching desperately at the foliage to keep from falling off the cliff. Grin.
Here, it has been less than 24 hours. Have the next chapter; it is quite a bit longer than average. There was a lot to fit in. I just hope the conversation is not too jumpy.
Azure – for the sake of simplicity any kinship between James and Severus is so distant that it can be ignored. As for formality in my writing… I do the best I can. I really do try to put in all the contractions I see possible. I just have a hard time seeing them.
Cerberis – Thank you for the snake info. I fear I have made more mistakes than that regarding Zinnia. Sigh.
*****
"Hullo, who are you?" Asked a voice from across the room.
Harry jumped and turned toward the voice. "Harry Potter, ma'am." He said. A tall woman stood by a kitchen sink staring at him.
Severus appeared behind him and stepped around him.
"Rose!" He exclaimed. "You look spectacular, as always." He crossed the room and kissed her cheek casually. "Rose, may I present Harry…um…Potter. My son."
"Oh dear." She reached behind her to find the chair and sat heavily. "So Della's child didn't die after all." She murmured.
"Harry, I'd like you to meet my aunt, Rosemary Thornton." Severus finished the introductions. "I have asked Harry to join us for the holidays, if that is all right with you."
"Does that mean you are actually joining me this year?" She asked, brow raised. He just nodded. "I think that is a lovely idea. You don't visit nearly enough. Come, sit, we'll have a cuppa tea."
Rose gestured to the chairs around the kitchen table. Harry took a seat next to Severus.
Harry could see the resemblance between Rose and Severus far more than he could see his own resemblance to them.
"Um, Mrs. Thornton…" Harry began, thinking of something.
"You had better call me Rose if we're to be related." She corrected smiling.
"Rose." Harry repeated. "Did you write a book?"
"A book? Why yes. Reading the Leaves, we called it. Odd title, if you ask me, but my editor seemed to like it. Have you seen it?" She bustled about the kitchen.
"Yes, I have a copy." Harry said. "Professor Lupin gave me a copy as a birthday present this summer. It is very informative. Especially the section on alternative herbs for the divining medium. I had actually been using some of them already."
"Well, this is a surprise, Sev." Rose said, seeming pleased. "Looks like the Thornton Gift may have a chance of survival after all."
Severus harrumphed and started to slice the loaf of bread Rose set before him.
"Would you care to prepare the tea, Harry?" Rose offered.
"If you want me to." Harry said, flattered.
Rose sat a tray of small stoneware jars in front of him and he began his usual ritual of sniffing and measuring. He crushed the resulting pile of leaves and transferred them to the teapot.
Rose poured the water on. She set on cream, sugar, a plate of cakes, cheese, and sliced meat along with plates and cups and spoons.
"Since you never sent an owl, Sev, I presume that you have not known long?" Rose said dryly. She buttered a slice of bread before constructing a sandwich on top of it.
Her nephew blushed and mumbled something vague.
"Pour the tea, Sev, there's a good lad." Rose instructed. "And don't be shy, Harry, eat up."
Severus poured out the tea, and handed the cups around.
"Cream and sugar, Harry" Rose asked.
"No, thank you, ma'am." Harry smiled and chose a rich cake from the plate nearest him.
"How are your classes going, Sev?" Rose stirred sugar into her own tea.
"As well as can be expected." Severus replied with a small grimace. "As usual, there are very few students who actually understand potions, and fewer still that see the joy in them."
"Indeed?" Rose smiled slightly. "And is Harry one of them?"
Severus looked uncomfortable. His eyes sought Harry's.
"No. I wouldn't say so." Harry said. "However, I have recently come to understand why Severus teaches the way he does. That understanding has led me to enjoy the subject more."
"Really." Rose smiled broadly. "What sort of understanding?"
"Even though I do not agree with it," Harry's eyes darted over to Severus. "I understand why he emphasizes discipline above all. Acting out can be very dangerous, after all."
"But you don't fully agree with discipline?" Rose probed.
"That's not what I meant." Harry shook his head. "I just feel that the class's fear of his enforcing that discipline is counterproductive."
"Sev?" Rose turned to him inquiringly.
"We have had this discussion many times." Severus protested. "Must we really go over it again?"
Severus drained his cup quickly. He turned it properly and glanced into it. He didn't offer an interpretation. He just handed it to Harry.
"So, Harry, what do you see?"
Harry took the cup, not a little surprised. He looked in and flinched.
"Pain." He said first. "Eventually ending. Maybe soon, maybe not."
Harry swallowed hard and turned the cup. "If you look for joy you will find it."
He looked into the cup from a third angle and sighed. "Release." He shook his head and looked up. "Release from what?" Harry shrugged and handed the cup back.
Severus took it back, mouth agape. He peered into it again. "I feel like I am twelve again." He handed the cup to Rose.
She looked into the cup briefly and turned to Harry smiling. "Seems like this part of the gift has skipped a generation. 'released from what' indeed. It could signify a release from pain, a release to joy or a release completely unrelated to the rest of the cup. It is not determinate. Very good job, Harry." She winked conspiratorially. "Sev was never good at reading the leaves."
"I prefer to think of myself as above such foolishness." Severus said with great dignity.
"We know, dear." Rose winked at Harry again. "It is a good thing that Harry and I know differently, or you would be completely insufferable."
"Hey!" Severus protested, as Rose and Harry laughed at him.
Zinnia chose that moment to emerge from one of her protected pockets.
"New place." She complained. "Taste/Smell like family."
"We are visiting Great Aunt Rose." Harry hissed soothingly. "This is her house."
Rose's eyes widened when she saw Zinnia. "Harry." She said tensely. "There is a snake on your arm."
Harry looked up. "Um, yes, there is. This is Zinnia. She is just a baby really."
"She isn't… poisonous, is she?" Rose asked.
"No, not at all." Harry said quickly. "She is a reticulated python."
Rose relaxed. "A python. Well that's all right then." She smiled. "Marlow kept a python. It was trained to participate in the magic act."
"Worry gone?" Zinnia asked. "I no more fear?"
"She was afraid you were poisonous." Harry hissed.
"I? Not I." Zinnia said. "Head hurt? Why? Arm hurt? Same?"
"What do you mean dearling?" Harry asked, trying to soothe her. "Does your head hurt?"
"No." She said. "Your head? Hurts? Your head."
"I'm fine. I don't hurt at all." Harry told her.
"Harry?" Rose said.
"Yes?" Harry looked up.
"Are you talking to that snake?" Rose asked.
"Um, yes, I am." Harry said. "I, well, I'm a Parselmouth."
"Right." Rose nodded. "I guess I might have read about that. Does she have anything interesting to say?"
"Usually." Harry said. "She is a baby still, so sometimes she is a bit incoherent. She is babbling about being hurt at the moment. Not her, someone else, me maybe, but I'm fine."
"So, how has business been, Rose?" Severus asked, changing the topic.
She seemed a bit relived to move to a familiar topic. "Business has been especially good this year. It falls off now that summer is over, of course. There seemed to be more tourists than ever this year."
"It was very hot in the South this year." Harry offered. "It drove more people to the coast to get away. What sort of business do you do?"
"What? You don't know? Sev didn't tell you?" Rose looked seriously take aback.
"No, ma'am." Harry looked over at Severus. "He just asked me to come with him to see you."
"Oh." She grinned. "I tell fortunes, Harry. Most of my clients are Muggle tourists, but I do some work for the ministry as well. Plus the profits from my book, of course."
"Don't the Muggles notice?" Harry asked.
Severus snorted over his lunch, but didn't say anything.
"I am well known as the village witch." Rose explained. "No one in the village takes it very seriously. It's as if I were a common, Muggle fortune teller. The gypsy blood helps, I suppose." She grinned. "I make sure that no one ever sees anything to change their mind."
"Sort of like hiding in plain sight?" Harry commented.
"Yes, exactly that." Rose agreed. She gestured towards a framed certificate on the wall. "Even that is seen as a joke."
Harry looked at the paper. He stared and his mouth dropped open. It had the Ministry of Magic seal on it.
"Yes, my official permit to take money from Muggle customers. Harder to come by these days. It used to be that every village hereabouts had one or two licensed magickers, but times have changed. The ministry official thought it was great good fun to have it displayed like that. I mostly just tell fortunes or sell weak love potions and healing draughts."
"Oh." Harry said. "I am studying divination in school. It often seems…"
"Like guesswork?" Rose offered. "Or charlatanry?"
"Yes." Harry said uncomfortably.
"Well, it can seem to be." Rose sipped her tea placidly. "Your Professor is Sibyll Trelawney, correct?"
Harry nodded.
"Sibyll was always most interested in manufacturing the air of mystery about her." Rose said, appearing to be somewhere between amused and disgusted. "A small measure of theatricality is necessary, of course, but when taken to extremes it becomes silliness." She shook her head. "Sibyll always was prone to silliness. Learn your lessons, Harry. Try to ignore the silliness."
"Yes, ma'am." Harry looked at Severus. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Severus? You were apprenticed to a fortune teller?"
Severus straightened his spine. "A Diviner." He corrected with dignity.
"Yes, he was my apprentice." Rose grinned. "I imagine that you have met Sev's theatrical side. He uses it in class, for one thing."
Harry thought for a moment. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again. "Yes, I think I have seen that side of him." He said finally. "I didn't realize until recently that he actually has a sense of humor."
Severus scowled at them both.
"Well, it hardly fits in with his image, does it?" Rose's eyes danced, but managed to keep her face straight. "Very image conscious is our Severus."
"I do not know to what you are referring." Severus said in a very formal manner.
Rose almost choked on her laughter.
"What?" Severus demanded, not holding on to his straight face.
"Well, that looked so much like the impression you used to do of Marlow the Magnificent." She broke off again, laughing.
Severus almost laughed, but suppressed it. "It did not. That's my best teaching voice!"
Harry laughed at that.
"No respect." Severus complained. "I never should have brought him here. I almost had him giving me the respect I deserve."
"Only that?" Rose asked, managing to almost control her mirth. "Seems to me that you used to aim higher. So, will you stay for dinner, Sev?" Rose asked. "Or is the company too cheery?"
Severus looked inquiringly at Harry. Harry nodded slightly.
"Yes, I believe we shall stay." Severus replied.
"So, who is Marlow the Magnificent?" Harry asked.
"One of the other sideshows at the Muggle circus we used to travel with." Rose said. "We traveled with two circuses for several summers, a Wizarding and a Muggle one. When we were with the Wizarding circus, Sev was in a broom trick show with two of his cousins. When we were with the Muggle circus sometimes he was Marlow's assistant, sometimes he helped at my fortune tent and sometimes…" She paused to see how Severus was taking these revelations about his past.
"Sometimes." He drawled. "I was the clown."
Harry almost choked. "You? The clown? With big shoes and lots of face paint?" He said incredulously.
Severus nodded. "It takes quite a lot to be a clown." He said seriously. "Don't let it get around." He warned. "Relative or not, you would be very sorry."
"No, it wouldn't do, would it?" Harry squinted at his father, trying to imagine him in white face paint, with a big red nose and a clown grin. He couldn't quite see it.
Suddenly, without warning, the scar on Harry's forehead erupted in blinding pain. He cried out and clutched at it.
In the same moment, Severus gasped and seized his arm.
Harry braced for a vision of some kind, but none came. The pain subsided and Harry took an uneven breath.
"Um…" Rose watched them both. "What? I mean…"
"I'm all right." Severus said, teeth clenched. "Harry?"
"Fine, I think." Harry said. "It hasn't done that to me in a long time."
Severus eyed him. "You didn't see anything, did you?"
"No, which is a bit odd as well." Harry said.
Severus shook his arm, grimacing slightly.
"Are you sure you boys are all right? I have a poultice…"
"Nothing works, Rose." Severus said. "I have tried a great many things." He shook his head. "Short of Voldemort himself releasing me, there does not seem to be a cure."
Rose winced at the name.
Harry looked up at Severus, puzzled.
"Did you think I'd be afraid to say his name?" He laughed mockingly. "I who looked him in the eye and lied to him?"
Harry nodded in understanding.
Severus sighed. "You both might as well know that Voldemort has been torturing me through the mark. It burns all the time, but sometimes, like just now, it hurts almost as bad as a Cruciatus curse."
Harry placed his hand on Severus' arm where the mark lay.
"I wish it didn't hurt you." Harry said quietly.
Severus' eyes widened.
Harry snatched his hand back. "Sorry, I…"
"No." Severus said. He pulled up his sleeve, bareing the Mark. "Put your hand back on it." Severus offered his arm back to Harry. "Will it to stop hurting as you just did."
"What?" Harry blinked. Then he placed his hand directly on the pulsating Dark Mark. "I really wish you were not in pain."
All three of them watched as the symbol faded from the black of caked blood to a healthier looking brown.
"You are the key, Harry. Your link to Voldemort is the key." He smiled in relief. "We need to talk with Minerva."
"I guess dinner is off then?" Rose asked dryly.
"It might be best." Severus said.
"Harry?" Rose said speculatively.
"Yes?"
"What exactly did that snake say about hurting?" She asked.
"Well, she wanted to know why my head hurt, and she asked about…" Harry's mouth dropped open. "I think she asked about your arm. She wanted to know if the hurt was the same hurt."
"I think you should listen to that little snake." Rose said. "Has she predicted anything before?"
"No…" Harry started, then he remembered Neville. "Wait a moment. I think she has."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Rose said. "I have a feeling she will be very good to have around."
"We should get back to the castle." Severus said. "If Voldemort is thinking about us, he may perceive that we are not there."
Harry nodded.
They stood and Flooed back to Thornhollow.
*****
A/N – I really do not care if you think my Severus is completely out of character. I think so too. I like him this way. Hehehe. Sev was a clown. Hehehe.