- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX -
The Hedge Maze
"We only have until Midsummer to solve this," Hermione said. It was becoming a frustrating mantra. Somehow the remaining days of May had bled away, and June was staring them in the face. They were no closer to figuring out how to crack the secrets of the Slytherin book.
"We know, Hermione!" Harry groaned, covering his face with his hands.
"Three weeks, Harry!"
"We can count!" snapped Ron. Then he sighed. "Sorry, Hermione." He seemed tired all the time now, unable to maintain the kind of fiery anger that he had once been able to keep burning long after it should have died down. They were all on edge; as if the Curse of Durand wasn't enough, there were the sixth year exams to think about. A breathing space between the terrifying significance of OWLs and NEWTs of course, but still important enough to worry about - and starting in less than a week. Despite the reduced number of subjects, Harry couldn't imagine he could possibly concentrate well enough to do his best.
"We need a Slytherin we can trust," Hermione said, dismissing both the flare of temper and the apology.
"There's nobody," said Ron.
She eyed them both. "There's Snape."
"Like I said, there's nobody," he repeated.
"Ron-"
"I know, I know!" he conceded. "But Harry already tried to ask him, remember?"
"Yes, but he didn't say what for. Remember your bright idea for getting into Ravenclaw?"
Harry blinked. "You think we should just go up to Snape and tell him- what?"
"That we've been trying to solve the final clue, it needs someone from Slytherin to unlock the answer, and we need his help," she said patiently.
He scowled. "You realise if we go to him he'll just lord it over us for the next-"
"Harry!" Hermione said sharply. "This is important! I know you don't like Snape. Snape is not likeable. But he is on our side, and if you're going to keep refusing to ask him for help when he might be the only one who-"
"All right, all right!" He quickly held up his hands. "I'm not refusing. I just- I know. I'm not refusing."
She gave him a soft smile. "We do stuff that we hate, Harry," she said gently. "We all do. Because this is a war, and some things are more important than any price we have to pay to make them happen."
The angry desire to lash out rose up, to remind her how much he had lost when she had given up so little, but he ruthlessly crushed it down. She was right. He'd learned this lesson time and again, and he kept ignoring it when it came to the moment that it mattered most. People had died. Sirius had died.
Harry couldn't quite help the bitter smirk that curled across his face. He owed it Sirius to ask Snape for help. If his godfather had even had the chance to be buried, there would have been a serious amount of revolving going on in said grave right now. But he hadn't, and it was Harry's fault, and making sure that nobody else was killed or lost because of him was worth any amount of mockery and snide remarks.
"You're right," he said, standing up. "We'll go to Snape. This weekend, if the coast looks clear."
Their attempt to go and see Snape on the Saturday was derailed by the fact that he had a group of third-years in detention. ("What kind of sadist gives up his own weekend just so he can make other people miserable?" Ron grumbled.) Lurking in the dungeons was suspicious behaviour enough, especially for Ron who no longer had any classes down there, so they didn't dare try again until the next day. Harry supposed they could have taken the Cloak for cover, but he suspected Snape would confiscate it and take a few hundred points off before they even had a chance to explain their presence.
They returned on the Sunday evening, and found Snape's classroom empty and in darkness. The office, however, seemed to be occupied. Harry hesitated on the verge of knocking. "What if he's got students in there?"
Hermione shook her head. "He wouldn't ask anybody to come in for a discussion on a weekend."
"Well, they could have come to... see him... for..." Harry trailed off as he contemplated the prospect of anybody voluntarily dropping in on Snape. "Okay, I'll knock."
He almost regretted doing so as the door was swept open by an imposing, scowling, thoroughly irritated Potions master. Any of the other teachers might relax, dress casually and put their feet up on a Sunday evening when there was little prospect of encountering students, but not Snape.
"Potter," he said, glowering. His dark eyes took in the others hovering nervously behind him. "And your usual partners in crime. What do you want?"
Harry hesitated, unwilling to explain any of this in the corridor. "Er... may we come in?"
Snape stood aside, managing to signal with a single raised eyebrow a lengthy message about exactly what they could expect if this wasn't worth his time. He closed the office door, and folded his arms expectantly.
Harry eyed his friends hopefully, but they were obviously waiting for him to speak first. Ron shifted uncomfortably, and Snape's scowl deepened.
"We need your help," Harry blurted out.
"Frequently, and in many ways, but since history has shown you have a basic inability to grasp even the simplest of concepts when it is repeatedly explained to you, I fail to see that there is any point to you contacting me about it now. What, Potter, do you want?" he demanded acidly.
"We need help with the final clue," Harry explained quickly. "The Slytherin item is a book, but it's password protected and it looks completely blank to all of us. According to the clue we need to know 'words of ages past that Salazar held dear'."
Snape's eyes narrowed. "Hence your bullheaded and entirely unsubtle efforts to question members of my house over the past few weeks."
"Sir, do you know what words of Slytherin's the clue refers to?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"Perhaps," he said curtly. "Leave me the book and the clues, and kindly depart."
Ron looked as if he was about to make an indignant retort, but Harry stilled him with a quick touch to the arm. He'd expected nothing else. "Yes, sir," he said, with unimpeachable politeness, and handed the book over.
Sadly, the effort seemed rather wasted thanks to Snape's poker face; it didn't even win him a raised eyebrow.
They gave Snape Hermione's copies of the poems, which were of course neatly and intelligibly printed, uncrumpled, and properly bound. Ron shook his head angrily as they left the Potions master's office.
"The nerve-" he started, making Hermione snicker. She covered her mouth with a hand, and smiled round it.
"Sorry. You just sounded really like your mum for a moment," she explained. Ron looked appropriately chagrined.
"Oh, thanks, Hermione. That's all I need. Still, after everything we've done-"
"Come on, what were you expecting him to do?" said Harry. Somehow it was easier to shake off the irritation if you started from the assumption Snape was going to be totally unreasonable and weren't disappointed. "This is Snape we're talking about. If he's got the slightest idea how to unlock that book, he'll try and solve it for himself."
"Yeah, but we still have the other two items," Ron pointed out.
"He must know they're in the Room of Requirement. We showed McGonagall and Dumbledore, and they're bound to have told him." Snape was, for whatever reason, apparently right at the top of Dumbledore's list of most trusted teachers. Although considering the staff list had at times included Umbridge, Quirrel and a Polyjuiced Barty Crouch, he supposed it wasn't all that high an honour.
Ron looked even more frustrated. "Great. So he's probably just going to nab them in the middle of the night and scarper without even telling anybody?"
"Which is why we'll be waiting in the corridor with the Invisibility Cloak as soon as it gets dark. Right, Harry?" Hermione chimed in.
Harry grinned.
As it happened, they waited in more comfort than expected, since the Room of Requirement helpfully provided a trophy display room with a convenient alcove with padded seating that the Cloak could be placed over to form a kind of Invisibility Tent. Hermione immediately hauled out her books and started quizzing them both on various topics that might come up in the exams.
"Let's just hope Snape doesn't decide he needs a sit down before he leaves," Ron said, prodding the Invisibility Cloak gingerly.
It was a good thing they'd been able to take advantage of the seating, since Snape didn't arrive until shortly before midnight.
"Making sure not even the other staff see him," Ron said disapprovingly. Hermione hushed him as the Potions master prowled inside.
The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff items were once again displayed on colour-coded stands. Snape sneered momentarily over the red and gold, but lifted the shield down and somehow attached it to his arm. Harry was vaguely disappointed that the lion didn't see fit to take a swipe at him. It didn't come out to say hello, either; there was definitely no reason for it to take a liking to Snape.
The little badger statue was similarly non-responsive as the teacher slipped it into a pocket. Harry wondered if the lack of reaction from the items was not so much due to Snape's house allegiances as to the fact that the Curse had already chosen Harry himself as the person to solve it. He would have shared his idea with the others, but the need to be stealthy made it impossible to do anything but creep along keeping the Cloak in place.
Snape's long strides and alarmingly good instincts for spotting invisible troublemakers conspired to make it difficult to follow very closely, but it was easier once they got outside the castle and the sounds of the outside world at night helped cover their movements. They watched from a distance as he withdrew the Slytherin book from the folds of his robes, looking up to check the position of the moon.
"We'll never hear what he says from back here," Ron grumbled.
"Doesn't matter, as long as it opens up a pathway," Harry said.
Hermione looked rather worried. "Do you think we should have told the rest of the staff too? If he goes in there alone-"
"Well, he won't be alone if we follow him. And with the Thaumentors about, the fewer people moving in a group out here together, the better."
"You're not ditching us that easily, mate," Ron warned.
Harry smiled. "I know. Wouldn't dream of it." And he meant it. After last year, he'd learned only too well the dangers of trying to do everything himself without waiting for backup.
"Good," Ron said, mollified.
They couldn't make out Snape's exact words, but it sounded like he was quoting or reciting something, formalised speech but without the dramatic punch of an actual spell. "Oh, I wish I could hear what he's saying," Hermione moaned.
"It must be some kind of secret knowledge, passed down from Slytherin to Slytherin," Harry said.
"That or it's just in the kind of Dark Arts books that Snape would read and we wouldn't be allowed to," Ron added.
"Something's happening." Harry could see that the book was doing something, though it wasn't exactly clear what. Tendrils of green and silver light were rippling across the pages. A moment later, a brilliant globe rose up above Snape's head, and an emerald beam shot out of it to strike the hedge. The thorns seemed to burn or perhaps melt away, creating an impressive doorway, as large as the one that led into the Great Hall.
"Well, it's opened a way into the maze all right," said Ron. Snape's triumphant smirk was briefly lit by the glow from the book, and then he closed it and the light winked out. The doorway, however, remained.
"Quickly!" Harry tugged the Invisibility Cloak off as Snape disappeared into the maze. "The hedges should be enough to hide us, but we'd better not lose track of Snape."
The maze reminded him unpleasantly of the Triwizard Tournament, although in truth it little resembled the relatively neat hedges specially planted for that occasion. These passageways were dark and narrow, vicious thorns as long as his hands ready to snag and tear at anybody who passed too close to them. It was hard to keep up with Snape when they couldn't see him - sounds were difficult to track in the tangle of branches, and sometimes they had no choice but to use a Locating Charm to figure out which path to take.
Harry got scratched rather badly several times, usually because of his nervous glances up at the night sky. They didn't dare risk lighting their wands for fear of attracting attention; fortunately, Snape was under no such restriction, so they could at least see him whenever they had a straight enough line of vision.
Harry swore as his robes became tangled yet again. It was a nightmare trying to move around stealthily in these things. Why couldn't Hogwarts have adopted Muggle modes of dress for casualwear? He wouldn't be having this problem if he'd been wearing jeans. Well, unless they'd been inherited from Dudley. Then they'd probably be even baggier than his robes.
"Stop struggling, you're making it worse," Hermione hissed at him. She began unwinding his robes from the branch they had caught on while he jiggled impatiently. Harry glanced towards Professor Snape, just visible up ahead - and then happened to look up.
"Hermione, get down!" he whispered urgently. The three of them all hunched over as the dark shape of a Thaumentor swept overhead. However, it was interested in a more tempting target than the three of them.
"It's after Snape!" Ron was caught between conflicting urges to keep his voice down and call out in warning. Hermione gripped Harry's arm as the creature swooped down on their Professor. If he hadn't seen...
Snape suddenly executed one of those sharp turns he had made an art of in the classroom, and threw up his right arm with the Gryffindor shield. The lion roared, and reared up out of the shield to take a swipe at the Thaumentor, apparently unaffected by its magic-sucking powers. The creature gave a screech that made no sound but reverberated through Harry's skull, and wheeled away.
"Wow," Ron whispered, stunned. "Who would think the Gryffindor shield would work like that for Snape?"
"Well, he is brave," Hermione pointed out. "He has to be, with all the things he's done for Dumbledore."
Harry grinned in delight. "Oh, please, please, tell Professor Snape he has Gryffindor qualities," he begged. "I'll pay any money you want to see the look on his face."
"Come on. We're losing him." Hermione finally freed Harry from the thorns, and they started moving again. Snape had already vanished into the darkness, and it took several turns before they caught sight of his glowing wand again.
"I don't think he knows where he's going," Harry observed. They seemed to have been following a meandering path, and he was sure Snape was following the old standby of left, right, left, right whenever they came to a choice.
"The Ravenclaw item is supposed to be the guide," Hermione whispered. "Slytherin to get in, Hufflepuff to end the Curse, and Gryffindor to protect. Without the third item, he should still be able to end the Curse, but only if he can find out where to go."
"What if he can't?" Harry wondered nervously. She could only shrug worriedly.
It was not long later that Harry began to get the impression that someone was following them. Not a hovering attacker from the skies, this time, but more mundane pursuit on the ground. Had Voldemort's agent in the castle been alerted to the fact they'd entered the maze?
He managed to signal, through a series of quick whispers and hand gestures, that the others should continue following Snape, while he put the Invisibility Cloak on and doubled back to see if he could surprise whoever was tailing them. Neither of them looked happy, but they saw the sense in only one person going, and Harry was really the best equipped to fight if there was a Death Eater on their trail.
And, also, he didn't give them much of a chance to argue.
Backtracking was even more difficult than following Snape. There seemed to be many more side turnings than he remembered from going the other way. Had they come through that one, or that one? They'd taken a right turn here, but was that narrow gap big enough for them to have emerged from, or should he move further on and look for the next one?
Despite himself, Harry started to panic. He'd lost his bearings completely. The Invisibility Cloak felt stifling, and he was nervous about ripping it on the thorns - should he risk taking it off? Where were Ron and Hermione? He turned this way and that, torn between going forward and back. Assuming he could identify either of those directions, which was looking less and less likely every second.
He could heard footsteps.
Harry stopped, heart pounding. Yes, footsteps. Somebody moving stealthily - off to the right? Or maybe up ahead? His eyes flickered wildly in the dark, trying to see in all directions at once.
He drew his wand, and realised that in his current position, he couldn't use it. He slowly eased the Invisibility Cloak over his head, and balled it up so it wouldn't impede his movements. The footsteps seemed closer, now, perhaps only a few-
A hand grabbed him by the back of the neck.