In Every Darkness
Chapter Fifty Eight: Potion of Death
1.10.1996
Severus Snape was sweating over a large cauldron, making a start on the Caducas potion. I don't see why you must make this potion, Lupin remarked suddenly, for about the tenth time. You could leave your position as a spy and return to Dumbledore.
I've told you, Lupin. If I leave this place, we'll have no warning of attacks – we'll be blind to all the Dark Lord's plans. I can't put the magical world at that risk. If I make this potion, I'll allow Fudge to drink it, and there will be some way to keep Dumbledore alive. I don't know how, exactly, but it will be possible, Severus replied.
Still …
That's enough Lupin. I'll go through with this, or I'll die – if I left here, and the Dark Lord realised this had all been a trick, he would not rest until I was dead. It's possibly safer for me to stay here than it is for me to leave.
Oh, fine.
Convinced he'd put an end to this argument at least, Severus returned to making the potion. It would take six months to brew, if done correctly. There would be no room for mistakes, Severus knew. If he failed … the Dark Lord would kill him.
Harry circled warily, his eyes watching a spinning silver blade. It looked familiar, and it felt so … right in his hands. He spun it, fast and faster, over his head, behind his back, jumping into the air to whirl it round his feet.
Suddenly his rhythmn changed, though he made no concious decision to start something new. Now he was moving as if blocking something, then parrying.
Somehow, his body knew the patterns he had to make, his mind felt devoid of any thoughts, let alone those that might control his movements.
His body moved in perfect sync with the sword in his hands, twisting, leaping, a dance of death that he had no control of.
Suddenly, applause came from somewhere around him, and Harry blinked and looked up, the sword dissapearing, and with it the supernatural calm. Sirius was standing near by, smiling, and clapping.
"Sirius!" Harry called out. "I didn't see you there!"
"I noticed," Sirius replied, laughing softly. "No matter … You looked awsome doing that sword dance."
"I think I was actually dreaming then," Harry admitted. "I wasn't in control of my actions, it was just … happening."
"Still looked cool," Sirius replied, shrugging. "So, got a girlfriend yet?"
"Sirius!" Harry yelled, throwing a mock punch in his godfathers direction. "I told you! After Cho last year, I don't think I'm that interested in getting in a relationship! How would I know if the girl I was with liked me, or my fame?"
"Does it matter?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," Harry replied in exasperation. "Five girls have asked me to be their boyfriend since I got back from the Court Case with my picture all over the front pages of the news papers."
"Who were they?" Sirius asked, sounding just like a gossipy wife from a bad Muggle movie.
"Well, one girl I don't know who I remember saying last year that I didn't even look that good, a few other girls that I've only met once or twice and who never hinted at wanting be more than aquaintances! And then Cho asked me two days ago," Harry replied.
"Ooh! What did ya say?" Sirius asked eagerly.
Harry rolled his eyes. "I told her it wouldn't work. We'd tried once, and we'd both blown it. She was a bit pissed when I told her she'd looked pretty happy going out with Michael Corner."
"You should have gotten back together with her, I thought you like her!" Sirius protested.
"Why is it that you have to burrow into my love life?" Harry asked. "I thought that was supposed to be a mothers role?"
"Nah, us guys are interested in these things as well. Remember, I used to be the guy at Hogwarts, along with your father!"
Harry rolled his eyes again. "I did like her, till I figured out that she only cared that I was famous and tried to make me jealous. It was stupid, and it made me realise that looks aren't everything. I didn't even know anything about her, except for her name and her face, until last year!"
"So everything has changed, huh? Well, she probably wasn't such a good match anyway. But you gotta learn about girls kid! It's important."
"Not to me. The person I fall in love with will be the one that sees and cares about me for me, not my fame. And that's why I'll love her," Harry replied, thrusting his chin out stubbornly.
"You'll be waiting for love forever. Face it kid, almost no one finds their perfect match. Your parents were a bit of an exception, they didn't even know they were perfect for a long time," Sirius told his godson dryly.
"What about Arthur and Molly? Aren't they a good match?" Harry asked.
"I'm not sure … They say opposites attract, and that certainly seems to be the case for them. They've managed to stay together for a long time, and they do love each other, in their own fashion, but you've got to admit, Molly would be a hard woman to put up with for long," Sirius said, drawing a laugh from Harry.
"I guess so," he agreed. "What about you? Did you ever find your match?"
"I thought I did … For awhile, I really thought I did … But she died, during my first year out of school. Her family was killed by Voldemort, and her with them. I never found anyone else. Never had much of a chance, by the time I was over her, Voldemort was at his hight, and I didn't do much but my best to fight him… I thought, after the war I'd have a chance, but when the war finished, my best friends were dead and I'll could hope for was to rot in Azkaban," Sirius said with a heavy sigh.
"Enough of this," Harry decided. "I'm not getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and the rest of this is just depressing me. Let's do some Ancient Runes, I've got a mini test tomorrow!"
Sirius laughed, "Ok, what's this one?" he asked, as a rune traced itself in the air in pale gold.
Harry woke the next morning with a faint smile playing at his lips. How he loved meeting with his godfather, even if it was only in dreams.
Harry looked around his sleeping dormitory, and wished that he, too, could sleep in with them. It had been a long time since he'd gotten out of the habit of sleeping in.
With a sigh, he rose and changed into his training uniform for with Tatsu, then covered himself with the Invisibility Cloak.
Slipping from the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry walked to the Room of Requirement, where Tatsu was waiting for him. Harry had most of his homework down there also, since he seemed to spend more time in the Room than he did the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Harry, good morning!" Tatsu said jovially.
"It was," Harry muttered, good naturedly quipping his friend and guardian.
"No call for that," Tatsu said, and attacked. Harry dropped into his Centre immediately and dropped to avoid a punch, twisting at the same time to try and get out of the way of a kick, which just grazed his shin.
Leaping upright, over a sweeping kick from Tatsu, Harry threw a kick straight at his guardians chest.
Tatsu skipped nimbly backwards, but was just a little offbalance, and Harry took advantage of this, with a partically successful sweeping kick.
Before he could attack again, however, Tatsu had left defense behind had was coming at Harry again, with a speed that was phenomenal.
"How am I supposed to do anything when I can hardly see you move?" Harry demanded from the floor, where he was flying flat on his back.
"You are supposed to learn to see me moving and defend yourself, or attack," Tatsu replied. "You'll get better at it."
"So you say," Harry replied.
"Well you've made a lot of progress for a beginner," Tatsu informed Harry. "You've only been learning a few months, there aren't all that many who can get this far. You've got the heart for it, you don't give up. You don't allow yourself to get down about being knocked down again and again, you just get up and keep going."
"I still don't think I've got that far," Harry replied.
"Take my word for it, Harry. You've progressed far more than I thought you would in this time, even though I recognised the ability in you for this art. I have seen few who are as ready to learn as you are, and therefore few who have been as successful as you are in so short a period of time."
"I'll take your word for it. Can you give this essay for Tonks a last read-through please? It's due in today," he added, shoving a few rolls of parchment towards Tatsu.
"She certainly gave you awhile to do this in," Tatsu remarked.
"Yeah, because she's been giving us other work as well," Harry explained. "We have to look up various hexes and learn how to do them, to be shown to the rest of the class the next lesson."
"Ah, now it makes sense. Couldn't have them not working you hard," Tatsu said, laughing at the expression on Harry's face. "Yes, this looks fine – a piece of work to be proud of!"
"Thanks," Harry said, blushing slightly. That was fairly high praise, coming from Tatsu.
"You'd best go off to breakfast now. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon," Tatsu told him, shooing Harry out of the door.
Harry sighed. "Yes, I'll see you then," he said. "Bye."
When Harry arrived in the Great Hall, only a few students, mostly Slytherins and the teachers were there. "Hey Potter," Malfoy hissed at Harry, "think you're so good, don't you? Think you can defeat the Dark Lord? He'll kill you in the end, Potter!"
"You can think that if you want to, Malfoy, I'm not going to stop you – but just think for a moment. You do have a brain, no matter how small it is, and I'm sure you are capable of using it – to a minimal extent. Ok, so you're thinking: if you keep up the way you are going, you're just going to follow your fathers footsteps – straight into an Azkaban cell."
Harry walked away before the Slytherin could come up with something to say back, feeling more cheerful now, despite the large amount of bruises that he'd sustained from his trainging with Tatsu that morning.
"Hi Harry," Hermione greeted a few moment later as she and Ron appeared in the Entrance way and made their way over to where Harry was seated at the end of the Gryffindor table.
"Hi," Harry replied, watching the students beginning to trickle, then flood, into the Great Hall. Several of the first years in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw came over to him.
"Harry, we've got an assignment due in for Defence Against the Dark Arts today," the Hufflepuff said. "Could you read over mine to see that it's alright?"
"How about you meet me in the Room of Requirement today at lunch time, I'll have a look over yours and the Slytherins then," Harry offered.
"Thanks Harry," the group called, before dispersing.
"You should just tell them no, if you don't want to do that," Ron said to Harry. "They're only first years. Ow!" Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. "What was that for?"
"They aren't only first years – look what we managed to do in our first year. You didn't think that first years were only anything back then," she told Ron.
"That was five years ago Hermione!" Ron protested.
"Really you two, it's alright. Ron, I don't mind, really I don't. It gives me some idea how to go about teaching them when they came to me, and therefore what I'll be able to teach them next year as well, when they'll probably end up joining DA," Harry interupted, before the fight could get any worse.
"Malfoy seems to be glaring at you more than usual this morning," Hermione remarked suddenly.
Harry told them what had happened when he walked in the door. "Serves the bastard right," Ron muttered. "He needs to be taken down a bit."
"Ron! We are supposed to be trying to mend the House rivalries!" Hermione told him.
"Hermione, what do you think I'm doing with the first years. Slowly, they'll convince the second years that it's a good idea to hang out with the rest of the classes, and then the people who are less … set in their ways … to join us in DA and other such groups, which will hopefully increase in numbers soon.
"Some of the Slytherins, however, Malfoy and his gang included, are too set in their ways of hating Gryffindors, or wanting to be Death Eaters … Those one's I may try to win over, but I doubt it'll do the least amount of good. Besides, Malfoy and I have hated each other for way too long. I'm not even sure I want redemption for him," Harry told his two friends.
"Well, I guess you are right. I mean, I don't like him either, but it would be nice, I think, not to have to watch our backs whenever there was a Slytherin around.
"Well, in a few years time, that won't be necessary," Harry pointed out, "if things continue as they are now, it won't be long before everyone is, if not friends, then at least not outright enemies."
"Harry, you don't sound like yourself, are you alright?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little … tired," Harry replied.
"No, you've been this way for ages, stop kicking me Hermione. Ever since you got back from that Death Eater attack, you've been different. We're your friends, why won't you tell us what's wrong?"
Reminded of that time, Harry felt the depression of killing someone folding around his mind. With a concious effort, he shook it off. "I'll tell you after I've talked to the first years at lunch time," Harry replied.
He wasn't looking forward to lunch time anymore.
"My Lord," Severus said, kneeling on the ground at Voldemort's feet.
"Severus. How goes your potions work?" The Dark Lord hissed.
"As well as can be expected, Lord. I have not heard of this potion being brewed in some centuries… it is a delicate potion, and any mistake I make may not be known until the potion is completely finished. I do not believe that I have made any yet, and I will, of course, do my very best to ensure that I make none in the future," Severus replied.
"Well said, Severus. But you have a silver tongue, how do I know what you say is the truth?" Voldemort mused, and Severus felt himself beginning to sweat.
"My Lord – never would I lie to you!" Severus said when the Dark Lord stopped talked.
"Tell me Severus, is there anyway for me to double check what you are doing?" Lord Voldemort hissed now.
"As far as I am aware, Lord, there are none within your army who know enough of potion making to be of any use to you in double checking my work. There are few potion masters left, these days. If you know of one who has joined you, by all means come and check my work, I have nothing to hide from you, my Lord," Severus replied.
"Well, we'll see about that, Severus. Go now, another comes."
Severus wondered why three of the Inner Circle of Death Eaters were coming to the Dark Lords chamber – it was rare for more than one of them to be summoned at a time, unless it was a full meeting.
He did notice the Dream Catcher that held Lupin's mind slip from his pocket and meld itself to the wall. He'd put an invisibility charm on it long ago, so he did not see it when he glanced back at the door, and nor would any others coming past.
***
Well, that's a longer chapter than most of mine, 2700 words!