"Obliviate them!" Harry said fiercely, fixing Hermione with a frantic stare.
"What?" Hermione blinked at him.
"Obliviate them!" Harry demanded again. He reached out a hand to grab her arm. "Hermione! I know you can! You've been doing extra charms classes!"
Hermione sighed and ran a hand through her bushy hair. She glanced quickly around to make sure no-one could overhear them. "Harry – "
"Hermione, please...."
"I can't, Harry. You must see I can't. Firstly, it's illegal just to randomly use Memory Charms…yes, all right, all right, I know you don't care, but I would quite like to finish my school year, thank you very much." Hermione paused, and went on. "Secondly, they're already talking about something else now. I only know how to obliviate safely memories which are only just immediately past….."
"I'll have a go at it then," Harry said stubbornly. "Lockhart managed it, how hard it can it be? I'll have them forget the last half hour or so. Surely, if I make it strong enough.."
"..then they'll all very likely end up in St Mungo's," Hermione finished for him, giving him a stern look. "You're not trained in obliviation. I know you're not very happy with them right now, but do you really want them to end up on a closed ward like Lockhart?"
Harry looked as if he could have coped quite well with such a fate befalling Ron, Dean and Seamus.
"But we've got to do something," Harry continued to insist, angrily. "There has to be something we can do…"
"Well," Hermione said slowly. "I do have one idea… it's a bit more subtle than a Memory Charm…we'll need your invisibility cloak. Oh, and the penknife Lupin gave you, as well…."
She leaned in closer and murmured to Harry what she had in mind. His brow furrowed.
A Cloud of Unknowing?
He had never heard of such a thing.
I was feeling remarkably cheerful. It was Saturday tomorrow, and I was off-duty. No children, I thought with deep satisfaction. No teaching; no dispiriting attempts to raise the idiocy level of the next generation from the imbecilic to the averagely moronic. I would have the whole day to spend on my Potions research. That meant I could start the next phase of my experiments now.
I sniffed at the shimmering liquid in the cauldron. It just needed a few last little touches, I thought…Silverwings…Purple Elysium…
It had, of course, occurred to me that testing the potion might be rather awkward. I would only know it had failed to achieve the desired effect if the Dark Lord managed to enspell me. And once I was in Voldemort's hands, progressing the potion beyond the beta testing stage would perhaps be a tad difficult. 'Whoops, I see I need to do a little bit more work on this... I'll just be getting along then' was unlikely to see Voldemort waving me happily on my way.
However, as far as I could tell from laboratory investigation the potion was developing nicely, and should protect the whole body from external magical invasion. Thus, it ought to block Voldemort from getting at me through the Dark Mark. That would only leave me with homocidal Death Eaters, hit men, and wizard assassins to worry about. And then, I could leave this damned Castle.
I wondered whether the potion would work on Potter's curse scar? His Occlumency had come along enormously, but he might still be able use some extra help with repelling the Dark Lord at times.
In fact, I thought, I must speak to Dumbledore. I didn't trust Potter to keep up the Occlumency exercises as rigorously as he should now classes, detentions and Quidditch were underway. I rather thought we should return to having an evening or two a week scheduled for further practice and training.
Purely for his own good, and because it would please Dumbledore: naturally. It wasn't as though I did not have better and more entertaining things to do with my time.
Harry kept a close eye on his dormitory mates until they finally decided to go to bed. As far as he could tell, Ron, Seamus and Dean had not spoken with anyone except each other since he had blurted out his unfortunate revelations. He shuddered in recollection. Maybe he should ask Hermione to cast that silencing spell on him on a permanent basis, he thought ruefully.
After a while, he reluctantly went up to the dorm himself. He supposed he ought to at least try and get some rest before venturing out again once the Castle was quiet for the night.
He stopped short for a moment in the doorway, and groaned to himself. Neville was already snoring. But Dean, Seamus and Ron were not asleep, nor even laying quietly in their beds. They were still arguing about Quidditch.
Until they saw Harry, that is.
"Hey, Harry!" Seamus said, his small eyes every bright. "What you said earlier… is it true?"
"No." Harry said, shortly.
Ron didn't say anything, but pointedly turned his head away. He began to fiddle with the items on his bedside table.
"That's just so funny!" Dean joined in.
Right, Harry thought. Just absolutely hilarious, and I'll laugh ever so loudly when they do it to all of you…
"Did you know there's a song like that?" Seamus asked. "Me dad taught me it..it's from the Muggle Second World War, maybe we should sing it next Potions class…It goes, Hitler – "
Harry gritted his teeth and tried to block his ears. He grabbed his wash-bag and went to get ready for the night. He thought longingly of his wand: it was there, just there – he could point it at them right now – His mind was already supplying him with a whole range of creative hexes.
Or he could just go for the obliviation option, and wipe those stupid smirks off all of their faces for good...
But he supposed Hermione was right. He did not know how to use the Memory Charm safely. Her way would be better.
That is, he added to himself, if he managed not to kill them, hex them or permanently stupefy them before he and Hermione could get to work.
Grimly, Harry put on his pyjamas and got into bed, pulling the drapes around him.
The gentle sounds of sleep filled the dormitory. Harry glanced, again, at his bedside clock. It was time to go, at last.
He stole out of the dormitory, clutching the shimmering folds of his invisibility cloak. His magical penknife was in his pocket. The knife Sirius gave him originally had melted during the terrible battle at the Department of Mysteries. Lupin had given him another, with a rather sad smile; Sirius had given it to him in their younger days. "He would want you to have it," Lupin had said.
The knife unlocked most doors. They would need it tonight. Somehow, though, Harry didn't think Sirius would approve of the use to which Harry was about to put it. He would not think sparing Snape suffering a worthwhile activity. In fact, Harry reflected painfully, Sirius would probably think causing Snape maximum public humiliation to be a desirable end in itself...
Hermione was already waiting for him downstairs. Harry couldn't see her very well, since the only light was shed by the dying embers of the fire, but he could tell she was nervous.
"Hermione," he whispered, gratitude flooding him. "I really do appreciate this…thanks…."
He saw her shoulder shrug, silhouetted against the fire. Her face was in shadow.
"It's all right," she breathed. "I know how much this means to you, and …."
"What?"
"Nothing. Come on…can we both still fit under that cloak, do you think?"
They could. Harry draped it over the pair of them. Hermione shivered slightly at its watery touch.
The Fat Lady peered around sleepily as they drifted through the portrait hole, smoothing her pink silk dress. She closed her eyes again as Harry pushed the door shut, mumbling grumpily under her breath.
It took a while for Harry and Hermione to co-ordinate their steps under the shared cloak. "That was my toe," Hermione whispered indignantly to Harry as he tripped over her when she stopped to check the coast was clear.
It was cold and dark in the midnight corridors. Once, they heard footsteps and froze back against the wall. Yellow light spilled onto the stone floor from around the corner.
The skeletal form of Mrs Norris padded into view. She gazed with her lamp-like eyes at the spot where Harry and Hermione stood immobile. Yet again, Harry was conscious of anxiety: he had never been fully convinced that the cat could not see through invisibility cloaks.
Filch was close on her heels with his shuffling gait. He was sniffing the air as though to ferret out miscreants with his nose.
"There be people about, Mrs Norris," he wheezed to the cat. He, too, was staring suspiciously from side to side. "I can tell, I can…We'll find them, my precious, won't we? Oh yes…"
He moved slowly along the corridor and rounded the corner. Harry and Hermione sighed with relief, and resumed their cautious journey. Ever since Umbridge's departure, Filch had grown steadily more bitter about his inability to torture students. He was rumoured to weep with despair when contemplating his shiny, unused manacles. Harry was sure that one day he would just give in to temptation.
He hoped he would have graduated before that moment arrived.
The dungeons were even colder and darker than the rest of the castle. They did not dare to make a light in case Filch or Snape wandered along and noticed it. It had never seemed such a long way to their Potions classroom.
The door was locked and warded, of course. Hermione breathed out spells to stop the alarms going off, while Harry set Sirius' knife to the lock.
The door opened.
They slipped inside.
Once the door was closed, Hermione cast an illumination spell. She sighed in relief as light flooded them.
"Well," she said. "We made it this far…."
Her voice echoed in the empty classroom. The place seemed oddly menacing at night. The only other noise was the gargoyle perpetually emptying cold water into its stone basin. Harry deliberately chose not to look at the pickle bottles. He didn't like them even in the day-time. Now, it would be all too easy to imagine rolling eyeballs staring back at him….
"All right," Harry said with false cheer. "So, what do we need then?"
"Silver cauldron," Hermione instructed him. "A little one will do…"
They opened the cupboard for students' supplies and began to assemble what they required.
"We're going to need some lethe-juice," Hermione said, catching Harry's eye.
"I'm guessing that isn't in student supplies…" Harry replied, with a sinking feeling. Breaking into Snape's Potions classroom was bad enough. Snape guarded his private supplies like a dragon with one egg. And Harry could recall all too clearly just how dangerous that scenario was.
"Well. Lethe-juice does get added right at the end," Hermione said. "I think we should fetch that last, when we need it. I know Professor Snape strengthened the wards on his private cupboard last time somebody broke in; if the alarms sound, we'll have him turning up here before we've even finished…We don't want that."
"No. That would be bad," Harry agreed, feeling this was something of an understatement.
"OK," said Hermione. "The most difficult part will be when we need to identify the information we want suppressing…"
"Erm, Hermione," Harry interrupted. He continued carefully chopping the leaves Hermione had shoved in front of him. "First of all could you explain just what, exactly, we are doing here?"
"I told you," Hermione replied impatiently. "We're making A Cloud of Unknowing." As she spoke, she sliced a fat white root into neat, tiny shavings.
"Yes, I got that. But how does it work?"
"Well, you magically capture the information you want people to forget. Like I said, that's the hard bit. Then you make the potion, and anyone who inhales the fumes for more than an hour or so will simply forget they ever knew it."
"Oh." Harry cursed as he nicked a finger, and muttered a swift healing charm. Luckily he hadn't dripped any blood over his leaves. "And this is better than obliviation how?"
"Because it isn't invasive," Hermione explained. "It doesn't modify the mind. It's a lot subtler. And you can't accidentally damage people's brains."
"Oh." Harry still wasn't entirely sure he got the moral difference, but he supposed he didn't really care. Just as long as it worked.
They worked in silence for about an hour, until finally a green liquid was stewing in the silver cauldron.
"Right," said Hermione. "Now we capture the information…"
I rubbed at my left forearm, cursing. The Dark Mark was starting to hurt again. Voldemort might not be able to cast spells on me while I remained within the protection of Hogwarts Castle, but this didn't stop the blasted thing on my arm from burning me every time he summoned his Death Eaters to their unpleasant little revels.
I had always thought it a pity the Dark Lord wanted his followers to have something rather more permanent than membership cards.
I wondered what he was up to. Fleetingly, I thought of Potter. He too was linked to the Dark Lord through that scar on his head. It was possible he was even now suffering nightmares and horrific visions in consequence.
Of course, if he practised Occlumency as diligently as he should….
I thought I might take a stroll soon. Just to make sure Potter wasn't curled up in a frozen heap somewhere in my dungeon corridors.
I scowled. Damned boy. I would hate to be someone who really cared about him.
One would never get any sleep with the worry of it all.
How fortunate, I thought, that life had already stripped away from me the capacity for emotional attachments.
Hermione's wand was pointed directly at Harry's forehead. He found this made him nervous. He could now appreciate at a rather more personal level why Hermione had been hesitant about performing obliviation charms. She was about to do something to his head, and he did not like the feeling: at all.
"Focus, Harry," she said tersely. "Think really really hard of what you want them to forget…."
Hermione's own eyes were narrow with concentration. "Capio data," she muttered. She moved her wand very precisely in a circle around Harry's head, and then made the same motion with it as one uses to wrap spaghetti around a fork. "Glomera!"
Before Harry's fascinated gaze, a small glowing sphere appeared and floated in the air. Hermione did not touch it with her hands. She prodded it with her wand, and guided it into the cauldron. It sank into the steaming potion already partially brewed, and dissolved. The green liquid became shot with silver.
"There!" Hermione said with satisfaction.
"I can still remember," said Harry worriedly. "Should I be able to? Did it work?"
"That's fine," Hermione assured him, stirring the potion. "I copied the information from your mind. I didn't remove it. Hm… we need that lethe-juice now…"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
"All right then," Harry said staunchly. "Let's go…"
He rubbed absently at his forehead as he moved. The spell Hermione had cast on him seemed to have weakened the shields around his mind. His scar was hurting again, with a dull throb.
My potion needed to steep overnight now. Tomorrow it would be ready for the next stage. It was a good thing I had to stop, really. The Dark Mark was distracting: its burning did not mix well with the delicate art of potions-making.
I decided I would go for that walk.
Despite the annoying pain in my arm, I was still feeling in an unusually good mood. I strolled along the corridors thinking fondly of my potion bubbling away. It should be ready in a week or so. The Ministry would probably be able to find a use for it as well. I would make them beg for it….
I fingered the dictapin fastened to my robes as I prowled the chill, dark corriors. It was turning out really very useful. A small smile twitched at the corner of my mouth. I hastily suppressed it. I wasn't in that good a mood.
When my wards were breached, I was at the far end of the dungeon. I whirled in annoyance.
My private store!
Someone was breaking into my private store!
I growled deep in my throat, turned on my heel and lengthened my stride.
Whoever it was, they were going to pay for this, I vowed. Few things in my life were sacrosanct. My private Potions store was one of them. I hated the thought of intruders pawing around my delicate ingredients, upsetting the carefully balanced light and humidity levels….
There was light from under the door of my Potions classroom, I noticed with indignation. I burst it open with a wave of my hand, and strode forward to tower vengefully in the doorway.
Potter, stirring a cauldron.
Potter and Granger.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Severus, I admonished myself, why are you so surprised? Who else would it be, sneaking about, breaking my wards, and brewing potions with my private ingredients in the middle of the night?
Potter and Granger. Naturally. I was only surprised the Weasley boy wasn't with them.
"Just what," I hissed at them, "do you think you are doing?"
They stared at me with identical expressions of horror. Granger cleared her throat, tried to speak, and failed.
I tapped my foot, and raised an eyebrow.
Whatever pathetic explanation they were about to bleat out had better be good.
A/N Reference to Second World War song about Hitler…see the Colonel Bogey March!!
XiaoGui -Aww, thanks. So pleased you like the story…and 'my' Harry!! /me waves to Austria. From England, by the way.
Vyxagallanxchi - I'm sure Harry could do with you as a sort of guardian angel figure, lol, to pop along from time to time and stop him from making his worst mistakes..even if you do want to punch him sometimes!!! I'm sure Snape would be touched by how many people have been feeling all protective of him…and maybe, just maybe, the think-before-acting bit will sink in for Harry…!? Work. Hm. But thanks for good wishes J
Tevkins - Thanks very much!
ok - Erm, I'm afraid there will be lots more unrealistic angst to follow.
Jaws - Thanks!! Glad you liked the last couple of chapters so much.
Molly Morrison - Hello. What a pity you are not a millionaire then! For both of us!Well, Lockhart just didn't have Hermione's scruples…Glad you're enjoying the story. Initially, it was going to have some mild slash themes, but the dynamic wasn't working like that so I posted a note to that effect.
Padawan Jan-AQ - Yep. Big blunder. Huge.
tomfeltatonofme - I can never seem to write Ron as anything other than slightly prattish…..
Read300300 - /me hands you an inhaler with concern. Glad you liked it though!!
we3 - I'm just evil like that…..
charl1e - lol, Harry was kind of keen that the rumour wasn't allowed to spread as well..
Oya - They certainly would given half the chance….
Lady Bard ) - Thanks!! Aww, poor Harry.
Adenara Yatman – TY!
Jen - lol, well, here's Hermione to the rescue…..!
Child-of-Darkness1988 – TY!
lucidity – hehehe, I expect that thought would cross Snape's mind, if he finds out….And he does have all those sharp potions knives…ouch…
Silverthreads – yep. Serious mistake, Harry mate.
MYSTICAL PANTHER – TY. And Potter's still in trouble, from the looks of it…