Disclaimer: I don't own, so don't sue me. I'm just so sad right now … it made me feel a little better.
DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!
"We'll be there, Harry."
"What?"
"At your aunt and uncle's house. And then we'll go with you, wherever you're going."
"No-"
"You said that to us once before, that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time haven't we?'
"We're with you whatever happens …"
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p 607
Whatever happens. A lot had happened. And they'd been true to their word, staying with him, moving, tracking and searching. There was nothing for any of them but for the search. Even those signs of caring between Ron and Hermione had disappeared. They'd put their own futures, their lives, on the backburner for him. He was grateful. More than that. More than could ever be expressed. But he'd left them for tonight; tonight it was all for him - all his doing - all his revenge.
When he'd left 12 Grimmauld Place Hermione had been asleep at her desk, scrolls and old records wrinkling under her cheek. Ron had been in a comfy armchair by the fireplace, a large tome fallen open on the floor in front of him, head lolling on his own shoulder. And he'd left them there. They deserved the night's sleep. How long had it been since they had slept properly?
Harry sighed and stepped closer to the dirty river. One more minute, and then he could continue. The contact was waiting. He had to. He owed Harry, much more than this simple task, and he would do it.
Harry felt a slight vibration from his watch. Time. He pulled the Invisibility Cloak a little tighter and turned from the filthy rushing water, turned toward his mission for tonight. Maybe he'd sleep better when it was over. When he knew that he had done all he could. Righted as much as possible with a single, simple act.
Spinner's End happened to be just as dilapidated and crumby as the rest of the streets Harry had to walk through. A giant mill chimney hovered over the dark scene forebodingly. There were no shadows - all the streetlights had been broken. There were no noises - the night was windless. There was no movement - the town's inhabitants were too frightened to wander. Everything was still. The only sign of life at all was the faint, flickering light in the downstairs window of the last house of Spinner's End. Harry walked quickly and stealthily towards it.
The door opened without him even knocking. He removed the sky blue cloak as the door closed behind him.
"He's in the sitting room," whispered a voice behind him. Harry turned and stared hard at the small rat-faced man.
"He has no idea, Pettigrew?" he whispered coldly.
"None, Harry."
"Potter," he corrected venomously, handing the invisibility cloak to him. "Go. Hide. Maybe if you're lucky another family will take you in as a pet for their son. God forbid," he added, sneering slightly.
Pettigrew bowed and wrapped the cloak around himself. The door opened silently, but before it closed, he whispered to Harry, "He's not right. He hasn't been in months." The door shut and he was gone, hopefully for good. Or at least until the next time Harry saw him. Pettigrew's crimes could not be forgiven nor forgotten. But the punishment could be postponed.
The door to the sitting room was closed. Harry stood outside it and took a deep breath. Remus would confront him in the morning for not taking backup with him this night, but it didn't matter. This was something he had to do.
The door creaked slightly as he pushed it open. The room was cool, the fire in the hearth burning low. The target sat in a chair facing the fire. From the angle Harry could see a large book lying open in his lap, but his eyes stared stoically in to the flames. He didn't move as Harry closed the door quickly behind him and swept the room with his eyes, his wand never leaving the sitting man.
"There you are, Wormtail," he said quietly. "Get another bottle of wine out of the cellar. This one is almost empty."
"You've no need for it, Snape" Harry answered just as quietly, his voice still conveying all the loathing he felt for this man. This man who had lead Voldemort to his parents. This man who had killed Albus Dumbledore.
A full minute passed without sound or movement from either party. Finally, slowly, Snape turned enough in his chair to regard Harry's wand. Black eyes met green, niether showing surprise. "I thought you'd be here sooner," Snape said simply. He nodded. "Called up dear old Wormtail, I suppose? Called in your debt?"
"Partly. He owes me a lot more than admittance to your crap shack."
"Crap shack," Snape repeated. "Such a suiting name." He sat back in the chair, studying Harry. "What are you waiting for, Potter? And invitation to do me in?"
"You know I can't," Harry said, "Not until I know why you killed Dumbledore."
"Eat at you, will it?" Snape sighed again and returned his gaze to the glowing embers. He didn't speak for a long moment. "Do you know what an Unbreakable Vow is, Potter? It is a promise that will kill you if you leave it unfulfilled. I made one to Draco's mother last summer, to keep watch and guide Draco in his mission, to help him to the best of my ability, to complete the task if he is unable to. As you well know, the mission was to kill Dumbledore, thus ridding the Dark Lord of his greatest enemy. He does not think very highly of you, Potter." Snape shifted again in his chair, looking back at Harry. "In order to live, I had to kill the Headmaster. I had thought that even if he was gone I would still be able to send information to the Order. Well. We see how appreciated the information has been."
"The Order?" Harry spat. "Why keep up the pretence of working for the Order when we all know you're a Death Eater? Always was and always will be our enemy?"
No emotion was expressed in Snape's face. "I was a Death Eater," he stated bluntly. "I however, like few others, realised the horrors I would be expected to do too late. You know that I am the one who reported the prophesy to the Dark Lord?"
Harry's hand tightened on his wand handle. "Yeah. Trelawney told me."
Snape nodded. "That was the last mission I ever did willingly for the Dark Lord. He had asked me to follow Albus should he leave Hogwarts. I was promised great rewards, riches, prizes and women. Anything I asked for. I gave him the information, proud of myself." He spat the last part out angrily. A look of disgust passed his features. "I was happy with the arrangement, pleased with the praise and position, with the gifts and gold. And then I was asked to - " He stopped, took a breath, blinked several times. "I was given a new assignment. I can't even begin … I would have never - I mean it was so … so …" Snape's eyes glazed over slightly as he watched an event take place inside his mind. After a moment he said, "The rewards did not outweigh the action. I've always regretted falling prey to his promises. To his lies.
"It was the mission that made me again go to Albus. I begged him to help me, to get me out. I admitted that my first confession had been less than honest. This time he questioned me with Vertiserum. When he was satisfied I was being true, he told me there was nothing he could do to get me out. Even though I already worked there, at the school, he could not help me further. But he could help me after it was over, if I did this one thing for him. If I spied for him. So I joined the Order, begrudgingly of course. It was filled with people I hated and whom loathed me in return." He raised his hands to his eyes and rubbed them as though exhausted. "And then the Dark Lord attacked your home."
Harry stiffened. "I bet you felt just horrible about James Potter's death," he sneered.
Snape looked him in the eye. "I will not lie, Potter. I was never overly upset by his death." Harry's hand shook visually with barely suppressed rage. "I was however," Snape continued quickly, "somewhat saddened by your mother's death. She was too kind for her own good. But what affected me most was the fact that I had condemned a child to a life without his parents, to be raised by abusive relatives. Like mine. And many years later, only two years ago in fact, I regretted not being so highly valued that I could have known who was the Order's traitor. Peter Pettigrew. It still amazes me that he could possibly have made it so high in the Dark Lord's circle."
"Yeah, yeah, Peter was a shock, I've heard that before."
"But not from me."
They stared in silence at each other. Finally Harry said, "You want someone to believe you? That you really worked with us?" Snape simply looked at him, waiting. "Tell me what you know about the Horcruxes. Voldemort's Horcruxes."
Snape said, "You, Potter, of all people would not believe anything I would tell you."
"We know enough about them that I can tell if you're lying or not."
"I expect this will change nothing then. You came here for a specific purpose."
"No. Nothing will change."
"Good," Snape said with the air of a man about to be relived of a great burden. "Life is too good a punishment for me. Perhaps something in the afterlife will be arranged. Something appropriate. If you'll look in the urn in the cupboard, Potter, you'll find something that may interest you."
Keeping his wand trained on Snape, Harry walked cautiously to the cupboard. He never took his eyes off his prey as he pulled out the urn and tipped it over onto the desk beside it. Inside was a leather case for reading glasses. On the top of it was the Ravenclaw eagle engraved in gold with their motto beneath it. With his thumb he opened the case and saw the glasses sitting on a soft silk blue cloth.
"Do not touch it. You cannot touch any of them. That is what happened to Albus' hand."
"Do you know were the others are?" Harry asked, closing the case and pocketing it.
"Mostly. Riddles diary was one, but you destroyed it. Albus destroyed Gaunts' ring. Slytherin's locket is another, then Hufflepuff's goblet, and Ravenclaw's reading glasses. The other pieces are in the snake he always has with him and he himself. There are - were seven."
Harry nodded. "Those are the ones Dumbledore and I thought he may have picked. Do you know where the others are? The ones that haven't been destroyed?"
"The snake is always with the Dark Lord. The goblet is hidden in Borgin and Burkes. You have the glasses now." He rubbed his face again.
"Do you know who took Slytherin's locket?" Snape nodded but didn't speak. "Who? Did they manage to destroy it?"
"No. He wasn't strong enough," Snape murmured.
"Who is R.A.B?" Harry demanded urgently. He had just got a sense of someone approaching the dirty river, breaking through the alert-wards he'd set up.
"Regulus Ambrose Black. We took the locket together, but the spells on it were too strong for us to break." He reached into his robes, pulled out a small black velvet box and held it out to Harry. " I believe that you have, or soon will have, all the object Horcruxes. The last two will most likely have to be taken out in the same battle. The snake and himself."
Harry opened the box and stared at the golden locket. The one Dumbledore had died needlessly for. The stylized 'S' glinted in the dieing firelight. He snapped the box closed and pocketed it as well. "Anything else?" he demanded.
Snape met his eyes sadly. "There is a sealed letter in my desk drawer. I wrote it to the Dark Lord long ago, but I still hold fast to what I had to say then. Also in there is my Gringotts vault key. I want the money to go to the Order."
"Done." Harry watched warily as Snape stood and faced him.
"Goodbye Potter."
"Goodbye … Professor."
Once Harry's eyes adjusted to the gloom after the bright green light, he went over to the desk. As Snape had requested he took the key and pulled out the letter. He set it in the chair beside his former teachers crumpled body and took another from his own pocket. A dark smile crossed him face. They now knew where the last object was, the goblet. They would set out for it tomorrow. Soon, he would be ready.