Disclaimers: Neither the idea of Harry Potter nor the characters belong to
me in any way. They are the sole property of JKR. I do not make any money
of this story either.
Chapter 5 - Truths
Holding onto the hand of an unconscious Harry Potter, Severus did not know what to do. Poppy was at her wits end. She had said that whatever happened had nothing to do with the injuries to the young DADA teacher's brain.
"Why do I feel like all this is connected to the night he defeated Voldemort?" Dumbledore's thoughtful remark was only underlined by Harry's slow breathing. They had deigned it best to bring him to his rooms instead of the hospital wing, as there was nothing Poppy could do. The young DADA teacher had not stirred since he had collapsed two days ago and they had to magically sustain him.
Rubbing his burning eyes Severus nodded. "Yes, I agree. We never found Ron and Hermione Weasley's bodies either. What if the same thing happened to them?"
Dumbledore sat down in one of the easy chairs by the fireplace and thought about that for a while. "You missed that part, Severus, but we did find their bodies after hours of searching. The three of them were thankfully the only ones missing. After seeing the state they were in we believed Harry might have fallen to the same deadly spell." Lowering his gaze to the lush carpet he sighed heavily, "As you see, we were wrong. But you never gave up the search and the hope. Why not?"
Intent on Harry resting in a comfortable way Severus never looked away from him. "There was no body. If Voldemort had killed him there certainly would have been one, he would have wanted me to suffer for my betrayal."
"How right you are, traitor!"
Jumping up the two of them drew their wands in an astonishing speed, looking at the unmoving figure of Harry Potter. He was still out cold but his mouth had moved in accord to the words. "How on..." Lost for words Dumbledore carefully came closer to the bed again.
"For reasons unknown to me, my deadlier spells never worked on this brat. But there is nothing you can do about me, without killing your precious Harry Potter now." Eerie laughter sounded through the room.
"Merlin," Severus breathed then did the identification spell on the sleeping figure. It still said Harry Potter but the writing was more vague, like the spell was not quite sure.
At hearing the voice, Dumbledore's demeanour had changed from lovable, old, eccentric headmaster to deadly wizard. "You think Harry would want to live, knowing that you are hiding out in him?" Voice cold as ice he held his wand at the ready. He had the suspicion that Voldemort could only speak through Harry when he was unconscious and was more or less only a passenger. Not about to try this hypothesis, he did not intent to lower his guard anytime soon. In the corner of his eye he saw Severus tense at his words. "You will never leave Hogwarts alive, Voldemort." At that he turned around, motioned Severus to follow him and cast a spell on the room that would allow him to not only look into it from afar but also would alarm him as soon as someone or something moved. It had been too easy.
Severus was stunned. His thoughts were racing and he could not seem to string them together into anything remotely understandable. Harry was still alive. So was Voldemort.
He had seen the look on Dumbledore's face. The coldness he knew was directed solely at Lord Voldemort. The hatred between those two powerful wizards was almost palpable when they were in the same room. Severus himself did not have that kind of emotion left at the moment. The last month – no, the last year had drained everything out of him save for pain and loneliness. He feared that, if this went on a little longer, there would be nothing left of him to enjoy a safe and long future.
Nothing meant anything to him. No one was waiting for him. His family was either dead or had turned their backs to him, turned him out or exiled him. Some had done so because he had betrayed Voldemort, others because he had pretended to be a Death Eater. It seemed he could make no one happy. Not even himself.
His thoughts were focussed on Harry and what would probably be happening now. Voldemort could not be allowed to live.
Fervently wishing he had been there that fateful day when Harry, Hermione and Ron had run off the battlefield to corner Voldemort, he could do nothing more than sink down into the overstuffed armchair Dumbledore pointed at and accept the tea he pressed into his right hand. His left was still clutching his wand. The large mug was not even filled half, and with good reason as Severus was shaking severely.
"It is okay, my boy. Drink your tea and then we will see if we can come up with anything." Gentle hands removed the wand from unresisting fingers and put a plate with some kind of cake into it.
Severus just stared at the two items. "How can it be okay? It couldn't be any worse, Albus." It seemed to be an exercise in futility. "Next to going back and chaining Harry to his chair before he goes into that fruitless battle, there is nothing we can do to stop all this from happening."
Stopping in the middle of stirring his tea Albus suddenly froze. "What an interesting idea." He put down his cup and practically jumped up. "Splendid! Going back in time, yes, that would definitely be the way to dispose of our problems."
"Albus, you know as well as I do, that time travelling is prohibited by the Ministry of Magic. It is too dangerous. Think about the cascade effect." He had answered out of habit alone; inside, his mind was already in turmoil with the possibilities.
A crafty smile appeared on Albus face as he turned to look at Snape. "I invented the cascade effect, Severus. The Minister of Magic needed someone to dissuade everyone from using the via tempus spell. They keep a very tight reign on time turners as well, the Ministry is way too afraid of changes to act any differently and rightly so. If every talented witch and wizard would go back to change something in their past everything would change suddenly every minute. Not that anyone would remember that it changed, but that is beside the point now, is it?"
Via tempus. One of the supposedly most dangerous spells out there. Not only for the person using it, no, for the whole time structure. Or so Snape had thought. The statement of this spell being restricted from use was solely based on the ingenious cascade effect theory that was said to have been tested with horrifying outcomes. "You made all that up?" There was a note of desperation in his voice even to his own ears.
Dumbledore nodded and the twinkle in his eyes grew stronger. "I thought if I complied with their wishes it might come to our aid at some point in the war. Honestly, I doubt anyone in the Ministry still remembers this particular hoax. The thought of the pain received during travelling alone should be enough to keep the normal witches and wizards from trying at any point. And a Dark Wizard would neither mind the pain, nor the cascade effect very much, I am surprised no-one attempted a time travel yet."
Finally taking a sip from his tea Severus smiled. A plan. At long last they had a plan. "I will do it gladly, Albus." For a second the thoughts of the reports about the time travel spell shot through his mind but there was no other choice.
"And I shall be your anchor in the present." His eyes were still twinkling but his demeanour had grown steely again. "Voldemort will have no chance out of this. No loophole to survive this time. We need to research. We need to plan. Start working Severus."
It was a plain dismissal, a call to arms that Snape followed only too gladly. "Yes, headmaster." He stood, put down his untouched cake and a half-drunk cup of unidentified tea and hurried towards the door.
"Get some sleep first; we will need your sharp mind, unclouded and awake." It had not been a fatherly advice his voice implied an order.
"Yes, headmaster." There was no other answer, even though sleep would not come easy this night. Hurrying out before Dumbledore could hand out more orders he retreated into his private chambers, crawling into bed without bothering to undress. His mind had shut down once he had left the office. "Maybe going to sleep hadn't been such a bad thing," he mumbled to himself a moment before he drifted off into oblivion.
He found himself standing on a giant chessboard on the top of a pedestal, looking over the Quidditch-sized field displayed below him. A dark figure loomed up in front of him, his black chessmen neatly on their places in front of the dark player.
Only then did Snape realise the Pawns in front of him were wearing a bright white uniform. Fearing what he would see he turned around and surely enough a giant dazzling white figure hovered imposingly above him. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out Dumbledore twinkling down at him in a rather good-natured way.
"By Merlin." Snape had invoked the name of the great ancient wizard too often for his taste in the last months. Looking to his left Snape drew a startled breath in. Harry Potter stood on a slightly higher pedestal, a white crown on his head. Reaching up Snape felt a similar adornment on his head. He could barely make out the red headed Ronald Weasley at Harry's left side. A Bishop. With a short glance to his right he saw Hermione Weasley, grinning impishly up at him, a hand resting on her swollen belly.
Snape felt numb. She looked exactly like she had when they had met before the final battle, insisting she was not sick, merely pregnant in the second trimester and would not be left behind like an invalid.
Even though Snape had never allowed himself to admit it while he had still been forced to uphold his reputation as a spy, but Hermione was one of their greatest minds. She had had the potential to become one of the best.
He saw Moody wave at him from behind Hermione, from his place as a Rook, his good eye focussed on him while his magical one contemplated their enemy. Unable to see the faces of the Pawns he was still very sure he would encounter more familiar faces.
"I'm dreaming! Come on, Severus, wake up." He almost fell off the pedestal when a hand touched his shoulder.
Harry's smile was beatific as he sat at the edge of his own place at the foot of his throne, his feet dangling down and his brilliant green eyes focussed on Snape. "It's okay, Severus, it's just a dream. Whatever happens isn't real and when you wake up, you go and give our mutual friend a kick in the ass." It was clear he meant Voldemort by the inflection on the word "friend".
To see Harry like this, happy, careless and about to go into battle was like a punch in the face. It was like his life had spiralled completely out of control in the past year. A weaker man would have broken down long ago and jumped out of one of the towers.
Winking at Snape Harry got up and faced the enemy again. The tension on the chessboard was the same that had been there at the time of their final meeting before the battle.
His surroundings started to distort and Snape felt the barest hint of panic. "How exactly do you plan on defeating Voldemort, Harry?" The words he had thrown at Harry in privacy, before the meeting. "He is very powerful, and the two of you have a connection. Merlin knows what happens when you cross wands with him again."
Their rooms materialised around them, Harry facing him with determination on his face. "I don't know yet, but I'm sure Hermione, Ron and I will be able to come up with something like we always do. He has to be stopped, once and forever." He smiled serenely at him. "Don't worry, Severus, we will be fine once we're together again. I wish the two of them could get free of their duties to visit me more often. I'm practically a prisoner at Hogwarts between you and Albus. Everything will be fine Severus."
Inwardly screaming at himself to stop Harry from going out, to chain the younger man to one of the chairs and not let him leave the rooms, he still heard himself saying, "Promise me to come back." The desperation in his voice filled him with renewed panic.
"Only if you promise not to leave." There was that impish, charming smile on Harry's face that he reserved solely to torment Snape. It was a promise he had asked him to make countless times, obviously afraid the older man would start running away once the younger one turned his back. A fear that was justified. Harry had pursued him for a year before he gave in to the attraction between them. "I've never met a person more skittish and evasive than you, Severus Snape." If he had not only been a passenger in this dream sequence, Severus would have laughed. He remembered very well just how capricious he had been at the time. How afraid of letting anyone close.
"I promise." What other answer had there been?
He sat up in bed, the vestiges of his dreams still in his mind. The chess game was new, all the other bits and pieces he had dreamed of before. His mind seemed to relish in showing him his worst days over and over again. One day his dreams had featured a lot of times, was the day he had received the Dark Mark. An almost eidetic memory had its disadvantages. Remembering word for word, gesture for gesture and glance for glance what had happened years ago was one of them. Unable to forget the bad times - only with the help of a Pensieve – but also able to recall all the good times with a fascinating clearness.
Forgetting something was horrible for Snape and so he very rarely used the Pensieve, preferring to live with the bad memories as well as the good ones. It had been his misfortune that a younger Harry had once stumbled upon his Pensieve while it was still holding memories. Sometimes, it was not that bad to forget.
Rubbing a hand over a weary face, he recalled the chess-field. Dumbledore against Voldemort, Harry as the King. Just why his unconscious had cast him in the role of the Queen he had no idea. The thought was somewhat distasteful and undignified to him. He felt weak with lack of sleep but still forced his body to crawl to the rim of the king-sized bed from where he could easily slide to his feet. He more staggered than walked into the bathroom, heavily leaning onto the washbasin.
"You look like death warmed over."
He did not deign to answer the mirror. I should try and get a less chatty bathroom-mirror at one point. This one is going to drive me nuts. Although – it did have a point. He looked horrible.
Deciding to take a long, relaxing, hot shower he peeled off his slept- in clothes and cast them aside into the laundry basket with a negligent throw. The house-elves insisted he keep one, and if it made their job easier Snape was not about to differ.
Standing under the spray of almost unbearably hot water, he leaned his head against the cold wall. He tried to force his mind not to think, but could not manage to stop the flow of thoughts buzzing around. Instead he decided to guide them into the right direction. Voldemort's demise. Losing the famous Harry Potter had been a hit to the wizarding community that they had not recovered from yet. While Hermione and Ron had not been as vital in their roles, the University Hermione had attended had suffered from the loss of their brightest assistant. Ron had been quieter than his wife, but the hole he had left in the Auror's section of the Ministry of Magic was not a small one either.
How could Snape accomplish saving all three of them? He had no idea. But he had to, somehow.
Then suddenly a flash of insight hit him. He did not have to do this all by himself. All he had to do was go to the past and come up with something, together with Harry and his two best friends. They had proved time and time again how resourceful they were. Maybe all they needed was time and someone like Severus to make them think of different possibilities. Things they had not thought of before the fight.
Smiling for the first time in days he hastily dried himself off and dressed in fresh clothes. His hair was still wet when he stormed into Dumbledore's office. The headmaster was still at his desk, reading an ancient book. Probably looking the Tempus Via spell up. "Albus! I have an idea. It is extremely unusual and you might not like it the least, but I think it's the only possible way."
A/N: Comments? Criticism? Suggestions? Review :). I'd appreciate it.
Chapter 5 - Truths
Holding onto the hand of an unconscious Harry Potter, Severus did not know what to do. Poppy was at her wits end. She had said that whatever happened had nothing to do with the injuries to the young DADA teacher's brain.
"Why do I feel like all this is connected to the night he defeated Voldemort?" Dumbledore's thoughtful remark was only underlined by Harry's slow breathing. They had deigned it best to bring him to his rooms instead of the hospital wing, as there was nothing Poppy could do. The young DADA teacher had not stirred since he had collapsed two days ago and they had to magically sustain him.
Rubbing his burning eyes Severus nodded. "Yes, I agree. We never found Ron and Hermione Weasley's bodies either. What if the same thing happened to them?"
Dumbledore sat down in one of the easy chairs by the fireplace and thought about that for a while. "You missed that part, Severus, but we did find their bodies after hours of searching. The three of them were thankfully the only ones missing. After seeing the state they were in we believed Harry might have fallen to the same deadly spell." Lowering his gaze to the lush carpet he sighed heavily, "As you see, we were wrong. But you never gave up the search and the hope. Why not?"
Intent on Harry resting in a comfortable way Severus never looked away from him. "There was no body. If Voldemort had killed him there certainly would have been one, he would have wanted me to suffer for my betrayal."
"How right you are, traitor!"
Jumping up the two of them drew their wands in an astonishing speed, looking at the unmoving figure of Harry Potter. He was still out cold but his mouth had moved in accord to the words. "How on..." Lost for words Dumbledore carefully came closer to the bed again.
"For reasons unknown to me, my deadlier spells never worked on this brat. But there is nothing you can do about me, without killing your precious Harry Potter now." Eerie laughter sounded through the room.
"Merlin," Severus breathed then did the identification spell on the sleeping figure. It still said Harry Potter but the writing was more vague, like the spell was not quite sure.
At hearing the voice, Dumbledore's demeanour had changed from lovable, old, eccentric headmaster to deadly wizard. "You think Harry would want to live, knowing that you are hiding out in him?" Voice cold as ice he held his wand at the ready. He had the suspicion that Voldemort could only speak through Harry when he was unconscious and was more or less only a passenger. Not about to try this hypothesis, he did not intent to lower his guard anytime soon. In the corner of his eye he saw Severus tense at his words. "You will never leave Hogwarts alive, Voldemort." At that he turned around, motioned Severus to follow him and cast a spell on the room that would allow him to not only look into it from afar but also would alarm him as soon as someone or something moved. It had been too easy.
Severus was stunned. His thoughts were racing and he could not seem to string them together into anything remotely understandable. Harry was still alive. So was Voldemort.
He had seen the look on Dumbledore's face. The coldness he knew was directed solely at Lord Voldemort. The hatred between those two powerful wizards was almost palpable when they were in the same room. Severus himself did not have that kind of emotion left at the moment. The last month – no, the last year had drained everything out of him save for pain and loneliness. He feared that, if this went on a little longer, there would be nothing left of him to enjoy a safe and long future.
Nothing meant anything to him. No one was waiting for him. His family was either dead or had turned their backs to him, turned him out or exiled him. Some had done so because he had betrayed Voldemort, others because he had pretended to be a Death Eater. It seemed he could make no one happy. Not even himself.
His thoughts were focussed on Harry and what would probably be happening now. Voldemort could not be allowed to live.
Fervently wishing he had been there that fateful day when Harry, Hermione and Ron had run off the battlefield to corner Voldemort, he could do nothing more than sink down into the overstuffed armchair Dumbledore pointed at and accept the tea he pressed into his right hand. His left was still clutching his wand. The large mug was not even filled half, and with good reason as Severus was shaking severely.
"It is okay, my boy. Drink your tea and then we will see if we can come up with anything." Gentle hands removed the wand from unresisting fingers and put a plate with some kind of cake into it.
Severus just stared at the two items. "How can it be okay? It couldn't be any worse, Albus." It seemed to be an exercise in futility. "Next to going back and chaining Harry to his chair before he goes into that fruitless battle, there is nothing we can do to stop all this from happening."
Stopping in the middle of stirring his tea Albus suddenly froze. "What an interesting idea." He put down his cup and practically jumped up. "Splendid! Going back in time, yes, that would definitely be the way to dispose of our problems."
"Albus, you know as well as I do, that time travelling is prohibited by the Ministry of Magic. It is too dangerous. Think about the cascade effect." He had answered out of habit alone; inside, his mind was already in turmoil with the possibilities.
A crafty smile appeared on Albus face as he turned to look at Snape. "I invented the cascade effect, Severus. The Minister of Magic needed someone to dissuade everyone from using the via tempus spell. They keep a very tight reign on time turners as well, the Ministry is way too afraid of changes to act any differently and rightly so. If every talented witch and wizard would go back to change something in their past everything would change suddenly every minute. Not that anyone would remember that it changed, but that is beside the point now, is it?"
Via tempus. One of the supposedly most dangerous spells out there. Not only for the person using it, no, for the whole time structure. Or so Snape had thought. The statement of this spell being restricted from use was solely based on the ingenious cascade effect theory that was said to have been tested with horrifying outcomes. "You made all that up?" There was a note of desperation in his voice even to his own ears.
Dumbledore nodded and the twinkle in his eyes grew stronger. "I thought if I complied with their wishes it might come to our aid at some point in the war. Honestly, I doubt anyone in the Ministry still remembers this particular hoax. The thought of the pain received during travelling alone should be enough to keep the normal witches and wizards from trying at any point. And a Dark Wizard would neither mind the pain, nor the cascade effect very much, I am surprised no-one attempted a time travel yet."
Finally taking a sip from his tea Severus smiled. A plan. At long last they had a plan. "I will do it gladly, Albus." For a second the thoughts of the reports about the time travel spell shot through his mind but there was no other choice.
"And I shall be your anchor in the present." His eyes were still twinkling but his demeanour had grown steely again. "Voldemort will have no chance out of this. No loophole to survive this time. We need to research. We need to plan. Start working Severus."
It was a plain dismissal, a call to arms that Snape followed only too gladly. "Yes, headmaster." He stood, put down his untouched cake and a half-drunk cup of unidentified tea and hurried towards the door.
"Get some sleep first; we will need your sharp mind, unclouded and awake." It had not been a fatherly advice his voice implied an order.
"Yes, headmaster." There was no other answer, even though sleep would not come easy this night. Hurrying out before Dumbledore could hand out more orders he retreated into his private chambers, crawling into bed without bothering to undress. His mind had shut down once he had left the office. "Maybe going to sleep hadn't been such a bad thing," he mumbled to himself a moment before he drifted off into oblivion.
He found himself standing on a giant chessboard on the top of a pedestal, looking over the Quidditch-sized field displayed below him. A dark figure loomed up in front of him, his black chessmen neatly on their places in front of the dark player.
Only then did Snape realise the Pawns in front of him were wearing a bright white uniform. Fearing what he would see he turned around and surely enough a giant dazzling white figure hovered imposingly above him. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out Dumbledore twinkling down at him in a rather good-natured way.
"By Merlin." Snape had invoked the name of the great ancient wizard too often for his taste in the last months. Looking to his left Snape drew a startled breath in. Harry Potter stood on a slightly higher pedestal, a white crown on his head. Reaching up Snape felt a similar adornment on his head. He could barely make out the red headed Ronald Weasley at Harry's left side. A Bishop. With a short glance to his right he saw Hermione Weasley, grinning impishly up at him, a hand resting on her swollen belly.
Snape felt numb. She looked exactly like she had when they had met before the final battle, insisting she was not sick, merely pregnant in the second trimester and would not be left behind like an invalid.
Even though Snape had never allowed himself to admit it while he had still been forced to uphold his reputation as a spy, but Hermione was one of their greatest minds. She had had the potential to become one of the best.
He saw Moody wave at him from behind Hermione, from his place as a Rook, his good eye focussed on him while his magical one contemplated their enemy. Unable to see the faces of the Pawns he was still very sure he would encounter more familiar faces.
"I'm dreaming! Come on, Severus, wake up." He almost fell off the pedestal when a hand touched his shoulder.
Harry's smile was beatific as he sat at the edge of his own place at the foot of his throne, his feet dangling down and his brilliant green eyes focussed on Snape. "It's okay, Severus, it's just a dream. Whatever happens isn't real and when you wake up, you go and give our mutual friend a kick in the ass." It was clear he meant Voldemort by the inflection on the word "friend".
To see Harry like this, happy, careless and about to go into battle was like a punch in the face. It was like his life had spiralled completely out of control in the past year. A weaker man would have broken down long ago and jumped out of one of the towers.
Winking at Snape Harry got up and faced the enemy again. The tension on the chessboard was the same that had been there at the time of their final meeting before the battle.
His surroundings started to distort and Snape felt the barest hint of panic. "How exactly do you plan on defeating Voldemort, Harry?" The words he had thrown at Harry in privacy, before the meeting. "He is very powerful, and the two of you have a connection. Merlin knows what happens when you cross wands with him again."
Their rooms materialised around them, Harry facing him with determination on his face. "I don't know yet, but I'm sure Hermione, Ron and I will be able to come up with something like we always do. He has to be stopped, once and forever." He smiled serenely at him. "Don't worry, Severus, we will be fine once we're together again. I wish the two of them could get free of their duties to visit me more often. I'm practically a prisoner at Hogwarts between you and Albus. Everything will be fine Severus."
Inwardly screaming at himself to stop Harry from going out, to chain the younger man to one of the chairs and not let him leave the rooms, he still heard himself saying, "Promise me to come back." The desperation in his voice filled him with renewed panic.
"Only if you promise not to leave." There was that impish, charming smile on Harry's face that he reserved solely to torment Snape. It was a promise he had asked him to make countless times, obviously afraid the older man would start running away once the younger one turned his back. A fear that was justified. Harry had pursued him for a year before he gave in to the attraction between them. "I've never met a person more skittish and evasive than you, Severus Snape." If he had not only been a passenger in this dream sequence, Severus would have laughed. He remembered very well just how capricious he had been at the time. How afraid of letting anyone close.
"I promise." What other answer had there been?
He sat up in bed, the vestiges of his dreams still in his mind. The chess game was new, all the other bits and pieces he had dreamed of before. His mind seemed to relish in showing him his worst days over and over again. One day his dreams had featured a lot of times, was the day he had received the Dark Mark. An almost eidetic memory had its disadvantages. Remembering word for word, gesture for gesture and glance for glance what had happened years ago was one of them. Unable to forget the bad times - only with the help of a Pensieve – but also able to recall all the good times with a fascinating clearness.
Forgetting something was horrible for Snape and so he very rarely used the Pensieve, preferring to live with the bad memories as well as the good ones. It had been his misfortune that a younger Harry had once stumbled upon his Pensieve while it was still holding memories. Sometimes, it was not that bad to forget.
Rubbing a hand over a weary face, he recalled the chess-field. Dumbledore against Voldemort, Harry as the King. Just why his unconscious had cast him in the role of the Queen he had no idea. The thought was somewhat distasteful and undignified to him. He felt weak with lack of sleep but still forced his body to crawl to the rim of the king-sized bed from where he could easily slide to his feet. He more staggered than walked into the bathroom, heavily leaning onto the washbasin.
"You look like death warmed over."
He did not deign to answer the mirror. I should try and get a less chatty bathroom-mirror at one point. This one is going to drive me nuts. Although – it did have a point. He looked horrible.
Deciding to take a long, relaxing, hot shower he peeled off his slept- in clothes and cast them aside into the laundry basket with a negligent throw. The house-elves insisted he keep one, and if it made their job easier Snape was not about to differ.
Standing under the spray of almost unbearably hot water, he leaned his head against the cold wall. He tried to force his mind not to think, but could not manage to stop the flow of thoughts buzzing around. Instead he decided to guide them into the right direction. Voldemort's demise. Losing the famous Harry Potter had been a hit to the wizarding community that they had not recovered from yet. While Hermione and Ron had not been as vital in their roles, the University Hermione had attended had suffered from the loss of their brightest assistant. Ron had been quieter than his wife, but the hole he had left in the Auror's section of the Ministry of Magic was not a small one either.
How could Snape accomplish saving all three of them? He had no idea. But he had to, somehow.
Then suddenly a flash of insight hit him. He did not have to do this all by himself. All he had to do was go to the past and come up with something, together with Harry and his two best friends. They had proved time and time again how resourceful they were. Maybe all they needed was time and someone like Severus to make them think of different possibilities. Things they had not thought of before the fight.
Smiling for the first time in days he hastily dried himself off and dressed in fresh clothes. His hair was still wet when he stormed into Dumbledore's office. The headmaster was still at his desk, reading an ancient book. Probably looking the Tempus Via spell up. "Albus! I have an idea. It is extremely unusual and you might not like it the least, but I think it's the only possible way."
A/N: Comments? Criticism? Suggestions? Review :). I'd appreciate it.