Silver Blood
Chapter 11: Old Rivalries
Another cup of tea was set down as silence filled the room. Several were hoping for the Headmaster's arrival shortly, and a couple were enjoying the peace. Snape stood up, brushing off his robes and headed for the door.
"Severus, where are you going?" Professor McGonagall asked.
She, along with Professor Sprout, Filch, who was busy petting Mrs. Norris, were seated quietly waiting for news from the Ministey. Professor Trelawney had also joined them only a bit ago because she had nothing else to do. She sat quietly stirring and sipping her tea. The rest of the teachers were still working on setting up for the new term.
Snape turned around slowly, casually folding his hands together, "I am going to get some work done. It seems to me that the problems arising in the Ministry aren't nearly as serious as before, otherwise Dumbledore would've been back by now."
"But, don't you think we should wait for Professor Lupin and Sirius to return with Harry?"
Snape gave her a look of displeasure, "Not I, anyway. I'll be working on what I'm going to be teaching Mr. Potter and his fan club next year. After all, he'll need something more challenging for the next year, what with becoming a celebrity again by defeating the Dark Lord."
Filch looked up from petting Mrs. Norris, a knowing smirk on his face. "Do I sense a bit of jealousy?"
Snape turned and glared at him. Filch didn't seem intimidated and looked down at Mrs. Norris, stroking her. "What do you think, Mrs. Norris?"
Mrs. Norris turned to look at Snape with her curious red eyes, yawned and went back to purring. Filch grinned at this. "She agrees with me."
Snape managed to roll his eyes a bit, glowering hatefully at the cat. "I'd prefer not to be here when that troublesome Black and his friend Professor Lupin retur— "
Suddenly, the door burst open and Remus stumbled in sweaty and pale. "Contact the Ministry immediately!"
Professor McGonagall jumped up, "Why? What has happened Remus?"
He looked grimly at all the teachers, including Snape who had jumped back from surprise when Lupin entered. "Fudge is dead. Sirius and I believe he's been killed and by the looks of it, it appears to have been powerful dark magic. We're not sure how though."
"Dark magic, are you sure?" Professor Sprout asked, looking a bit pale.
Remus nodded, "Yes and— "
"So that's why you come barging in here, barking orders?" Snape snapped. "You make it sound like it's the end of the world. I guess Mr. Potter couldn't control even one wiz— "
"You keep your mouth shut!" Remus shouted, whipping out his wand and pointing it in Snape's face. All the teachers, including Filch and Snape, looked shocked by his behavior.
"This is serious, professor Snape!" Remus continued, his eyes boring into Snape's cold black gaze. "In fact, I'd say that we may have another group of Voldemort supporters growing in our midst, while the Ministry is distracted with this creature business. I fear that was only a distraction to cover the real picture."
"Oh, I knew something dreadful was going to happen," Professor Trelawney said putting her tea cup down dramatically. "I could feel it."
Filch rolled his eyes at her.
"Remus, how do you know this is serious?" Professor Sprout spoke up. "I mean, were there any Dark Mark symbols? Did you see anyone?"
Remus remained silent. He lowered his wand and put it back into his robes, looking down. Professor McGonagall looked at him and knew what the problem was.
"It's Harry, isn't it?"
Remus hesitated and slowly nodded. He then turned to her. "Whatever or whoever got Fudge, got Harry too, although he wasn't as bad off. Still, I'm afraid that Harry's going to have a very tough time surviving this."
Professor Trelawney gasped and covered her mouth. Remus knew all about her predictions about Harry's death. She obviously felt that time was now. Professor McGonagall took a deep breath, "We've got to get in touch with Dumbledore immediately. If the meeting is supposed to be a distraction to get Dumbledore and the Ministry out of the way, we've got to be on guard! There's no telling what might happen!"
Professor Sprout nodded in agreement and set off to owl Dumbledore with the urgent news. Professor McGonagall looked back at Remus. "Will Harry be all right?"
Remus sighed heavily, looking very grim. "We don't know yet. Sirius took Harry immediately to the Hospital Wing. I don't know how long Madam Pomprey can sustain him, or even if she can't, but we can't give up. Hopefully Harry will be all right until Dumbledore gets back." He shook his head of his morbid thoughts. "So, there hasn't been any word from him?"
Professor McGonagall shook her head, "I'm afraid not, Remus. We haven't heard anything since Snape came back. And he can't very well apparate back there because of the protection around the tower, he has to be summoned. So all we can do is wait."
Remus' brow furrowed, "All right, that means we're on our own, without Dumbledore for a little while. Whatever has been causing the creatures to act weird might try attacking Hogwarts now. I don't know how Harry fits into all of this, but he's usually the target."
"Well...seeing as how Harry was left there, it can't be Death Eaters can it?" Professor McGonagall voiced. "After all, they would bring Harry to the Dark Lord."
"Unless they just needed him out of the way so he wouldn't interfere and ruin their plans once again," Remus bitterly stated. "I've been getting bad vibes for a while now, though."
Snape, who had been unusually quiet, looked at him intently. "Did you take your potion?"
"Yes," Remus answered without looking at him.
Professor McGonagall sighed, "Then we must be on the lookout. And we'll all do what we can for Harry. It's better to be safe rather than sorry."
XXXXX
The red curtain was pushed aside to reveal one of the hospital beds.
"Lay him here," Madam Pomprey said, bustling about to get ready for her check up.
Sirius obeyed and lie Harry's body carefully down on the bed. He placed Harry's hands gently by his side and stroked his cold cheek.
Madam Pomprey came over with a large box muttering, "...Can't even get one day off...honestly." She knelt down on the bed beside Harry. Her face scrunched with worry as she saw just how bad off he looked. Doing her regular procedure she checked for a pulse, body temperature and all the basics trying to find out what was wrong with him.
Finally, she pulled her hands away, shaking her head. Her eyes were filled with concern.
"Well, what's wrong with him?" Sirius asked not hiding his impatience.
She opened the large box to reveal many potion bottles, ointments and cups filled with strange liquids. "I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult to help him. I'm not sure I have the ability to heal him, but I know a way to stabilize him. It appears to me part of the reason is that his life essence has been drained away."
"His life essence?" Sirius asked, clasping one of Harry's hands instinctively.
Madam Pomprey looked up at him and nodded almost sadly, "In other words, his powers have been drained. A witch or wizard's power not only gives them strength and power, but it completes them. Without it they're defenseless and extremely weak. But," she paused. "It's almost possible to drain someone's powers...I'm not exactly sure what the circumstances are, but not even Salazar Slytherin could figure out how to do it properly. But even with his powers drained, he shouldn't be this bad. It's almost as if he's been drained of his...very life," she whispered.
Sirius swallowed with difficulty, "Is there anything you can do for him?"
Madam Pomprey dug into the large box and pulled out a small bottle with a tiny amount, about a tablespoon, of a strange liquid maroon substance.
"This is liquid from a Healiter's pouch. It's a very rare bird from the Phoenix family. It's twice as rare though and barely ever seen. The reason why it's so rare is because of this liquid. It produces it after feeding off flower pollen and other plants. This poor creature is very vulnerable to attacks. It has no special abilities except its abnormally fast flying speed," she explained, pouring all of it in a cup and holding it to Harry's lips.
"This liquid it produces has the ability to sustain life, or heal in other words. I don't know what good it will do Harry, or how much it will help. No one knows the extent of this still recently known liquid. It's almost like a Phoenix's healing tears, but supposedly much more powerful."
She stopped for a minute to tilt Harry's head backwards to allow the liquid to flow slowly into his mouth. A drop of the maroon liquid missed Harry's mouth and fell onto his lip, instantly turning clear and sinking into his lips. Sirius watched in awe as Harry's lips began to hold some color to them, not much, but enough to give Sirius a bit more hope.
"Now," Madam Pomprey said softly, "his heartbeat should come back in just a few minutes, but truthfully I'm not sure for how long. Healing someone who is this close to death requires very powerful magic. There wasn't much left of this potion so I don't know how long it'll last," she said putting the empty bottle back. Then she turned and put a comforting hand on Sirius' hand. "Stay with him. If anything, knowing you're here might help him fight harder."
Sirius nodded thankfully as she left. He carefully proceeded to take off Harry's robe and tucked him under the covers. Squeezing Harry's hand tighter he bent down next to him. "Come back, Harry. Don't give up," he whispered.
Sirius kept himself from letting any tears fall. Harry proved strong countless times, even in the most impossible situations, so he wasn't about to give up on him. He bent down closer, moving Harry's bangs to reveal his scar, the legendary scar that brought power and pain, and kissed it lightly. Sirius managed to lift himself away from his Godson and walked out of the Hospital Wing.
Sirius walked down the hall toward Remus' office lost in thought. He hoped Remus was in his room by now because he needed someone to talk to. The thought of losing Harry was overwhelmingly depressing, but even more so by the fact that Sirius blamed himself for not checking up on Harry before it was too late. He was also somewhat angry with the Ministry for proposing the idea in the first place.
Sirius stopped walking, turning to a nearby window to see the late morning sun glaring down on him. Angrily, he threw his fist at the wall several times before leaning against it, panting.
"It's not fair," he whispered aloud, a few tears slipping from their place onto his cheeks. "Harry survived, he beat Voldemort and survived what his parents couldn't. What more does he have to go through? Everything was perfect!" he breathed deeply. "Why him? Why not me instead?"
Slowly, Sirius straightened up, brushing his remaining tears away as if they had never fallen. His expression turned serious and grim again and he continued toward Remus' office. He finally arrived at the office only to find it empty. Sirius discouragingly turned around to come face to face with none other than Snape. Snape stood in the doorway wearing his usual suspicious smirk, yet surprisingly his arms weren't crossed. Watching Sirius carefully, he stepped inside the room breaking their distance to a foot.
"I thought you'd come here looking for your good friend," Snape said casually.
Sirius managed to keep himself under control. "Where is Remus?" he asked through clenched teeth.
Snape smiled in amusement, "Are we in a bad mood, Black? I guess getting off murder trials so easily makes you think you can act any way you please. Personally, even though you never killed anyone, I feel you're a dangerous man."
That was the last straw. Sirius lunged out and pushed Snape hard up against the wall, his fists holding Snape's robe tightly. Snape looked a bit shocked for a minute before it turned into a teasing sneer. "Going to hurt me now, Black? Finish off what you didn't accomplish when we were in school?" My, I guess rumors have some fact to them," he drawled, referring to all the rumors about what a dangerous and sick man he was when he was "at large."
Sirius glared at him, fuming with hatred, "Yeah, well maybe I do have a temper and maybe I was a prankster, though you deserved what you got because you were too nosey. But at least I never was a servant for a madman who killed people for sport and tried to take over Europe," he spat, watching Snape's eyes narrow dangerously.
Sirius loosened his grip and let him off the wall. "Besides, it was none of your business to find out Remus was a werewolf. It was your fault you made it your business. And then," Sirius stepped closer never taking his eyes off of him, "you thought you'd try and tell the whole school about him. You knew what that would've done. It would've sent a wave of panic to all the students and their parents and Remus would be kicked out of school with no where to go. And James and I would've been expelled as well for becoming illegal Animagi..."
Snape remained silent, his eyes fixed on Sirius who was practically glowing with anger.
"But you wanted that, didn't you?" Sirius snapped bitterly. "You were always giving all of us a hard time, trying to get us in trouble by catching us in one of our pranks. But you could never catch us, could you? Because you didn't know about James' invisibility cloak, so you wanted to catch us when we were at our weakest moment, which was helping our friend. I know why you always gave us a hard time," Sirius spoke more quietly, bitterness still apparent in his voice. "You were jealous."
Snape's eyes flashed dangerously, but surprisingly he didn't interrupt him. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because Sirius was glowering at him, as if telling him if he said one word that was it. "You were jealous of all three of us because of our popularity, but you were mostly jealous of James. It was because James was so clever, handsome, funny and one of the best damn Quidditch players on his team! He was loved and adored by most everyone and you envied that, especially because he could get anything he wanted, including any girl that you might've set your eyes upon because you, being a nasty, self absorbed Slytherin you didn't have much of a chance!" Sirius spat.
"That's why you joined Voldemort in the first place, because you didn't think you had a future or anything to lose."
Sirius' face relaxed a little and he raised his hand and pointed a finger in Snape's face. "Don't deny it, Snape! I can read you like a book. It makes perfect sense. That's why you hate Harry too, and also because he reminded you of James and all the torment you endured at school watching all three of us live your dream."
Sirius stepped even closer so their noses were inches apart, "That's why you followed us that night. You were so desperate to find a way, any way, to get us kicked out of school so your main competitions were out of the way. But it backfired on you. You were lucky Remus didn't bite your head off when sneaking into the Shrieking Shack, which he would have if James and I hadn't held him back in our Animagi forms."
They glared at each other for what seemed like the longest time. Snape still hadn't said a word through all of Sirius' ranting. Sirius backed away, still refusing to break eye contact.
"The past is the past, Severus. I've even managed to accept that you were a Death Eater once but have seen that it brings nothing more than pain and fear. The future is all any of us have, now that evil has been given a boost down. The children now in our world are what we have to protect if we want this world to have a peaceful, or at least safer, future. And," he hesitated, feeling his lip trembling slightly out of pain and anger, "Harry is the key to that future. And right now I'm not even sure he's going to make it," Sirius barely choked out.
It was silent for a couple minutes and the tension was left hanging in the air. Sirius would rather die than cry in front of Snape, so instead he looked determinedly at Snape as if it was he who was the problem. Snape's expression hadn't changed, but he hadn't even snapped at Sirius telling him he was wrong. Instead, he turned his back to Sirius and moved toward the door.
"Professor Lupin is with the other teachers in the Headmaster's office. They just sent an urgent note to Dumbledore telling him about Fudge and Potter's condition," he said smoothly, without any emotion. "If you want to help anyone you better get control of your emotions."
Without another glance back, Snape walked out of the room, his robe swaying around him. Sirius watched him go with an odd look of confusion and gratitude.
"I think that's the nicest thing he ever said to me," Sirius thought aloud.
Quickly, Sirius made his way to the Headmaster's office. Stopping in front of the gargoyle, he muttered "toffee beans" and climbed the spiral staircase leading up. Surprisingly, Sirius was wondering why Snape didn't join the teachers.
Guess he feels more at home with his potions. I actually feel sorry for him.
Sirius smiled slightly and shook his head, entering into the large office. There, as Snape had told him, were the teachers sitting together talking. Remus was discussing something with Professor McGonagall when he turned to see Sirius standing in the doorway.
Immediately he stood up. "How's Harry holding up?"
Sirius' expression dimmed slightly, "I'm afraid it's not good. His powers have been drained along with something else, but Madam Pomprey's not sure what else is wrong with him. She thinks...," he hesitated, "that his life has been drained away as well. She was able to sustain his heartbeat with a potion, for now anyway, but he's running out of time."
Remus was looking down, while the other teachers looked stressed and worried. Finally, he set down his cup of tea.
"Excuse us for a moment."
Remus walked over to Sirius and led him out the door. Once the door was shut tight Remus turned to him, stress and worry written on his features.
"How long will the potion last?" he asked calmly.
Sirius leaned heavily against the wall. "She's not sure, but she says only a short while. I'm guessing no more than a day."
Remus too leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths. Sirius worriedly bent down.
"Remus, are you all right?"
Slowly, he lifted himself upright, "I'm fine, Sirius, I'm just worried about Harry. This whole situation doesn't seem right."
"You mean with the creatures?" Sirius asked.
"Everything," Remus answered. "Even Fudge."
Sirius ground his fist into the wall, "Fudge!" he spat. "Too bad he's all ready dead or I would make sure he paid for doing this!"
Remus frowned, "I don't think he had anything to do with what's happened."
"What?" Sirius asked, turning to him sharply.
"Didn't you see how...rotten his body was, Sirius? By the looks of it, he was long since dead even before Harry got there."
Sirius looked down, frowning in thought. "If that's true," he looked back up at Remus, "then how did Harry get that way?"
TO BE CONINUED...