A/N: Here is chapter seven...this one is going to be long, because it will be
the last chapter of this particular story, but there is going to be a
sequel that will spill into their last year at Hogwarts, and possibly
another that will explore events after that. Let's not get too ahead of
myself, though. I'll give you details about the sequel at the end of this
chapter...Hope you enjoy it! (Do any of you even read the Author's Notes?) Oh
well...read and review and let me know what you think!
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Chapter Seven
"Dumbledore!" Harry gasped. "Ginny and Luna and Neville are...."
"Right here," Dumbledore smiled.
Harry's jaw nearly hit the floor. "What? We haven't seen you all day! What on earth have you been doing? I should choke you! We were so worried! We thought something bad had happened to you!" He scolded them. "Ron and Hermione went to go look for you!"
"We're right here, Harry." Smiled Hermione.
"Why on earth is everyone so happy?" Harry demanded. He looked down to Snape, who was lying in the hospital bed, now apparently conscious. "What happened to you?" he asked. "I would really like to know what in the world is going on here, if you all don't mind!" he groaned.
Snape sat up. It looked rather painful, but he did it anyways. "Calm down, Potter. What you are about to hear is all good news. If you could calm your temper for just a moment, I will explain to you what I have just told your friends...where I have been this school year and what exactly it is that I have been doing...."
Harry turned around. Tonks, Professor Lupin, Moody, and Kingsley Shakebolt had just entered the infirmary. They nodded, as if giving Snape permission to speak, and not soon after, he began.
"Dumbledore assigned me to the task of tailing the Death Eaters and monitoring their various activities. Unfortunately, this was quite hard to do in a simple manner. The Death Eaters were well coordinated, and very hard to keep track of. About half way into the school year, I made the decision to stop tailing them...to take a new approach to my assignment. I joined them. Now, I had full access to what they were doing, and when they were doing it. Since the dark mark was still on my arm..." Snape paused at this and frowned rather deeply, "they trusted me. They believed that I was still on their side. I had to help them get their own information. That is how I learned that Professor Sprout had switched sides..."
Luna sighed audibly.
Snape nodded at her and then continued with his story. "After Luna was attacked, I was told to monitor her house. I did, but not for long. I absolutely had to tell Dumbledore about Sprout and the danger at the castle. By the time I was able to break away long enough, Sprout had already been carried off to Azkaban." Everyone nodded. "When I returned, I was accused of helping with her capture...of still being loyal to Dumbledore..." at this, Snape laughed, "they tried to get me to talk...very painful methods they have, you know..." he whispered.
"Yes, we know." Nodded Luna.
"Anyways, right before they were about to break out the truth serum, Dumbledore busted in with the Weasleys and Moody and Shakebolt here..." Snape pointed. "Once I had reclaimed my wand, we began to duel..."
Harry sighed. "Yes, sir...we understand. But the attack on Luna was much earlier this year. Why have you been gone so long?"
"Let him get to it when he gets to it," Dumbledore smiled. "It is quite a long story..."
Snape cleared his throat. "We managed to escape, and Dumbledore hid me in his office for several weeks. I told him everything I had seen and heard before I was accused of being a traitor. We knew they were looking for me, but we also knew they were looking for you all..." he frowned. "Then, the other day, Dumbledore comes in and tells me that he just had to go enervate Longbottom after Potter hit him with Stupefy...that Potter had told him about the rather interesting nightmare that had led to Longbottom's injury..."
"Don't you think you're getting a little sidetracked?" asked Harry.
"No, actually...I'm right on track," smiled Snape. "Dumbledore thought that your dream could actually be helpful to us...and we headed to the infirmary last night to see if we could figure anything out."
Dumbledore smiled. "I'll continue from here, Severus," he nodded. "Would you like to see what happened from there, Harry?" Dumbledore pointed his wand at Harry's head.
Harry saw Dumbledore and Snape walk into the infirmary as if he was standing right behind them.
"All right, Severus. We need to find some type of clue..." Dumbledore whispered. "Anything that could help..." he said this more to himself.
The two walked around for a while in silence. Snape was standing by the window now, and Dumbledore was staring at the contents of Madam Pomfrey's bookshelf. Snape smiled. "Hey, Albus, looks like Poppy may have dropped this one..." Snape bent down to pick up a book that was sitting on the floor under the windowsill.
"No, Severus! Don't touch it!" Dumbledore yelped.
He frowned. "Why on earth not? You don't want me to trip over it, do you?" he smirked.
"Maybe that's exactly what someone wants you to do," whispered Albus.
The look of confusion on Snape's face nearly made Harry laugh out loud. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean, Albus? Why would someone want me to trip over a book? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering as how I'm not supposed to be at the school right now..."
"Exactly, Severus." Dumbledore nodded. "Have you ever known our Madam Pomfrey to leave anything lying about like this? She's paranoid enough about the students being injured as it is. She wouldn't want to contribute to it," he explained.
"Well, then, who left it sitting here?" asked Snape.
"Who did leave it sitting here?" Dumbledore repeated the question.
Snape rolled his eyes. "My dear headmaster, I believe I just asked you that question. I was hoping you could answer it."
"What do you say we pick the book up, Severus?" smiled Dumbledore.
"We? Albus, this isn't a large book at all, my friend. It would only take one of us to pick it up..."
Dumbledore shook his head. "We'll both pick it up, Severus. Just in case. Wouldn't want to hurt ourselves now, would we?"
"I think you've lost it, my friend," whispered Severus, but he listened to Dumbledore's request, and both of them bent to retrieve the book.
Harry gasped. The book wasn't a portkey, but it certainly wasn't a regular book, either. Dumbledore and Snape flew out the window of the infirmary. The book was flying, and they were in for the ride. Harry seemed to follow them...straight into the Dark Forest. The Death Eaters had lured them there with a trick book. Harry was hot with anger as he watched Bellatrix Lestrange, the Malfoys, and two other wizards he had seen before (but didn't know) surround Snape and Dumbledore. They were Voldemort's inner circle, minus Voldemort himself.
Harry closely watched the battle that ensued. Snape took on the Malfoys, and Dumbledore took on the three remaining witches and wizards that challenged them. Twice, Snape was hit with Crucio. Harry wondered how he was able to stand. Luna had crumbled after being hit with the curse only once...
Harry gasped again. He couldn't believe it!
"Adavara Kadavara!" Bellatrix Lestrange screamed. The attack was aimed at Dumbledore, who had already taken out the two wizards Harry didn't know.
"Reflecto!" Dumbledore screamed back, just when Harry thought he would surely die right in front of his eyes. Reflecto? Why had Harry not heard of it? Hadn't Professor Lupin told him that the Adavara Kadavara curse meant death? Why hadn't Harry been told of this spell?
He watched with interest. The Reflecto did reflect the Adavara Kadavara. In fact, it reflected it so well that even the Malfoys, who were nearby dueling with Snape, fell over after Dumbledore did the spell. Snape had been knocked down, too. Harry nearly screamed. But then he remembered that Snape was alive...Dumbledore was showing him things that had already happened....
Sure enough, Dumbledore looked at Snape and frowned. With one flick of his wand, a piece of parchment and a quill appeared in front of him. Whatever he wrote, Harry could not tell, but only ten minutes after he'd written it, Two Dementors showed up and carried the two unfamiliar wizards away. As for the Malfoys and Bellatrix Lestrange? Harry shook his head. They were most certainly dead. With yet another flick of Dumbledore's wand, Snape began to hover above the ground, and Dumbledore left the forest with him like this. This is how Harry had seen him when he looked out the window. That had seemed so long ago...
Harry blinked. He was back in the present. Everyone was staring at him.
"Whoa..." he whispered. "Is that what happened? What was that Reflecto thing? Are they all dead?" he fired his questions at Dumbledore. "How did Snape survive that?"
"Calm down, Harry. I made Reflecto up myself. It was a spur of the moment thing to try and avoid a most painful death, and it worked quite well...on the people I wanted it to work on most." He smiled.
Harry blinked. "You mean...they are dead?" Harry gulped.
"Not really. Those two you saw taken off to Azkaban...alive, but not better off, if you know what I mean," Dumbledore sighed. "But yes, Voldemort's inner circle perished at the hands of an unwritten spell. This, of course, still doesn't rule out the threat of Voldemort himself. But it should be a lot harder for him to get what he wants done now that he actually has to do it for himself." Dumbledore couldn't help but laugh at this.
"Dumbledore, that's great!" smiled Harry, hugging the old man. "...but I still don't get how Snape..."
"I don't know why Professor Snape survived the curse, Harry. I don't think I will ever know. Maybe it's simply because I wanted him to...I don't know..."
Harry nodded, and smiled at his friends. "You all could have just told me when I got here, couldn't you? It would have made things much simpler, wouldn't it?" he smirked.
"Not with you biting our heads off, mate," Ron sighed.
Harry blushed. "Sorry,"
Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley Shakebolt left the school the next day. Snape returned to his job as potions master, despite the fact that there were only technically four days left in the actual school year.
Professor Lupin did not leave with the rest. He was offered a permanent job as Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher two days after he brought Hermione's parents to the castle. The summer break had officially began for Hogwarts students, but the difference with Harry, Ron and Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Neville was that they never would leave the school that summer. However, who's to say that took away from their fun?...
A/N: Okay, here are some details on what is soon to come. The sequel will be called 'In Perfect Love, and Perfect Trust', and will start off with the summer before their seventh year and go up until their graduation. The character pairing will be the same as it was in this one...(although I didn't make it too obvious in this one did I?) but it will focus more on the pairing and the character relationships in general. Don't get me wrong...I still have to throw my occasional drama in there...
Anyway, the new one should be up soon! I hope you enjoyed this one! Please review and tell me what you think! And if you have anything you want me to include in the sequel, please be sure and let me know, and I will certainly try to work it in!
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Chapter Seven
"Dumbledore!" Harry gasped. "Ginny and Luna and Neville are...."
"Right here," Dumbledore smiled.
Harry's jaw nearly hit the floor. "What? We haven't seen you all day! What on earth have you been doing? I should choke you! We were so worried! We thought something bad had happened to you!" He scolded them. "Ron and Hermione went to go look for you!"
"We're right here, Harry." Smiled Hermione.
"Why on earth is everyone so happy?" Harry demanded. He looked down to Snape, who was lying in the hospital bed, now apparently conscious. "What happened to you?" he asked. "I would really like to know what in the world is going on here, if you all don't mind!" he groaned.
Snape sat up. It looked rather painful, but he did it anyways. "Calm down, Potter. What you are about to hear is all good news. If you could calm your temper for just a moment, I will explain to you what I have just told your friends...where I have been this school year and what exactly it is that I have been doing...."
Harry turned around. Tonks, Professor Lupin, Moody, and Kingsley Shakebolt had just entered the infirmary. They nodded, as if giving Snape permission to speak, and not soon after, he began.
"Dumbledore assigned me to the task of tailing the Death Eaters and monitoring their various activities. Unfortunately, this was quite hard to do in a simple manner. The Death Eaters were well coordinated, and very hard to keep track of. About half way into the school year, I made the decision to stop tailing them...to take a new approach to my assignment. I joined them. Now, I had full access to what they were doing, and when they were doing it. Since the dark mark was still on my arm..." Snape paused at this and frowned rather deeply, "they trusted me. They believed that I was still on their side. I had to help them get their own information. That is how I learned that Professor Sprout had switched sides..."
Luna sighed audibly.
Snape nodded at her and then continued with his story. "After Luna was attacked, I was told to monitor her house. I did, but not for long. I absolutely had to tell Dumbledore about Sprout and the danger at the castle. By the time I was able to break away long enough, Sprout had already been carried off to Azkaban." Everyone nodded. "When I returned, I was accused of helping with her capture...of still being loyal to Dumbledore..." at this, Snape laughed, "they tried to get me to talk...very painful methods they have, you know..." he whispered.
"Yes, we know." Nodded Luna.
"Anyways, right before they were about to break out the truth serum, Dumbledore busted in with the Weasleys and Moody and Shakebolt here..." Snape pointed. "Once I had reclaimed my wand, we began to duel..."
Harry sighed. "Yes, sir...we understand. But the attack on Luna was much earlier this year. Why have you been gone so long?"
"Let him get to it when he gets to it," Dumbledore smiled. "It is quite a long story..."
Snape cleared his throat. "We managed to escape, and Dumbledore hid me in his office for several weeks. I told him everything I had seen and heard before I was accused of being a traitor. We knew they were looking for me, but we also knew they were looking for you all..." he frowned. "Then, the other day, Dumbledore comes in and tells me that he just had to go enervate Longbottom after Potter hit him with Stupefy...that Potter had told him about the rather interesting nightmare that had led to Longbottom's injury..."
"Don't you think you're getting a little sidetracked?" asked Harry.
"No, actually...I'm right on track," smiled Snape. "Dumbledore thought that your dream could actually be helpful to us...and we headed to the infirmary last night to see if we could figure anything out."
Dumbledore smiled. "I'll continue from here, Severus," he nodded. "Would you like to see what happened from there, Harry?" Dumbledore pointed his wand at Harry's head.
Harry saw Dumbledore and Snape walk into the infirmary as if he was standing right behind them.
"All right, Severus. We need to find some type of clue..." Dumbledore whispered. "Anything that could help..." he said this more to himself.
The two walked around for a while in silence. Snape was standing by the window now, and Dumbledore was staring at the contents of Madam Pomfrey's bookshelf. Snape smiled. "Hey, Albus, looks like Poppy may have dropped this one..." Snape bent down to pick up a book that was sitting on the floor under the windowsill.
"No, Severus! Don't touch it!" Dumbledore yelped.
He frowned. "Why on earth not? You don't want me to trip over it, do you?" he smirked.
"Maybe that's exactly what someone wants you to do," whispered Albus.
The look of confusion on Snape's face nearly made Harry laugh out loud. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean, Albus? Why would someone want me to trip over a book? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering as how I'm not supposed to be at the school right now..."
"Exactly, Severus." Dumbledore nodded. "Have you ever known our Madam Pomfrey to leave anything lying about like this? She's paranoid enough about the students being injured as it is. She wouldn't want to contribute to it," he explained.
"Well, then, who left it sitting here?" asked Snape.
"Who did leave it sitting here?" Dumbledore repeated the question.
Snape rolled his eyes. "My dear headmaster, I believe I just asked you that question. I was hoping you could answer it."
"What do you say we pick the book up, Severus?" smiled Dumbledore.
"We? Albus, this isn't a large book at all, my friend. It would only take one of us to pick it up..."
Dumbledore shook his head. "We'll both pick it up, Severus. Just in case. Wouldn't want to hurt ourselves now, would we?"
"I think you've lost it, my friend," whispered Severus, but he listened to Dumbledore's request, and both of them bent to retrieve the book.
Harry gasped. The book wasn't a portkey, but it certainly wasn't a regular book, either. Dumbledore and Snape flew out the window of the infirmary. The book was flying, and they were in for the ride. Harry seemed to follow them...straight into the Dark Forest. The Death Eaters had lured them there with a trick book. Harry was hot with anger as he watched Bellatrix Lestrange, the Malfoys, and two other wizards he had seen before (but didn't know) surround Snape and Dumbledore. They were Voldemort's inner circle, minus Voldemort himself.
Harry closely watched the battle that ensued. Snape took on the Malfoys, and Dumbledore took on the three remaining witches and wizards that challenged them. Twice, Snape was hit with Crucio. Harry wondered how he was able to stand. Luna had crumbled after being hit with the curse only once...
Harry gasped again. He couldn't believe it!
"Adavara Kadavara!" Bellatrix Lestrange screamed. The attack was aimed at Dumbledore, who had already taken out the two wizards Harry didn't know.
"Reflecto!" Dumbledore screamed back, just when Harry thought he would surely die right in front of his eyes. Reflecto? Why had Harry not heard of it? Hadn't Professor Lupin told him that the Adavara Kadavara curse meant death? Why hadn't Harry been told of this spell?
He watched with interest. The Reflecto did reflect the Adavara Kadavara. In fact, it reflected it so well that even the Malfoys, who were nearby dueling with Snape, fell over after Dumbledore did the spell. Snape had been knocked down, too. Harry nearly screamed. But then he remembered that Snape was alive...Dumbledore was showing him things that had already happened....
Sure enough, Dumbledore looked at Snape and frowned. With one flick of his wand, a piece of parchment and a quill appeared in front of him. Whatever he wrote, Harry could not tell, but only ten minutes after he'd written it, Two Dementors showed up and carried the two unfamiliar wizards away. As for the Malfoys and Bellatrix Lestrange? Harry shook his head. They were most certainly dead. With yet another flick of Dumbledore's wand, Snape began to hover above the ground, and Dumbledore left the forest with him like this. This is how Harry had seen him when he looked out the window. That had seemed so long ago...
Harry blinked. He was back in the present. Everyone was staring at him.
"Whoa..." he whispered. "Is that what happened? What was that Reflecto thing? Are they all dead?" he fired his questions at Dumbledore. "How did Snape survive that?"
"Calm down, Harry. I made Reflecto up myself. It was a spur of the moment thing to try and avoid a most painful death, and it worked quite well...on the people I wanted it to work on most." He smiled.
Harry blinked. "You mean...they are dead?" Harry gulped.
"Not really. Those two you saw taken off to Azkaban...alive, but not better off, if you know what I mean," Dumbledore sighed. "But yes, Voldemort's inner circle perished at the hands of an unwritten spell. This, of course, still doesn't rule out the threat of Voldemort himself. But it should be a lot harder for him to get what he wants done now that he actually has to do it for himself." Dumbledore couldn't help but laugh at this.
"Dumbledore, that's great!" smiled Harry, hugging the old man. "...but I still don't get how Snape..."
"I don't know why Professor Snape survived the curse, Harry. I don't think I will ever know. Maybe it's simply because I wanted him to...I don't know..."
Harry nodded, and smiled at his friends. "You all could have just told me when I got here, couldn't you? It would have made things much simpler, wouldn't it?" he smirked.
"Not with you biting our heads off, mate," Ron sighed.
Harry blushed. "Sorry,"
Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley Shakebolt left the school the next day. Snape returned to his job as potions master, despite the fact that there were only technically four days left in the actual school year.
Professor Lupin did not leave with the rest. He was offered a permanent job as Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher two days after he brought Hermione's parents to the castle. The summer break had officially began for Hogwarts students, but the difference with Harry, Ron and Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Neville was that they never would leave the school that summer. However, who's to say that took away from their fun?...
A/N: Okay, here are some details on what is soon to come. The sequel will be called 'In Perfect Love, and Perfect Trust', and will start off with the summer before their seventh year and go up until their graduation. The character pairing will be the same as it was in this one...(although I didn't make it too obvious in this one did I?) but it will focus more on the pairing and the character relationships in general. Don't get me wrong...I still have to throw my occasional drama in there...
Anyway, the new one should be up soon! I hope you enjoyed this one! Please review and tell me what you think! And if you have anything you want me to include in the sequel, please be sure and let me know, and I will certainly try to work it in!