The Raven II
Disclaimer: This
story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JKR,
various publishers of the HP series. No money is being made and no
copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Monday morning during breakfast, the owls came flying into the Great Hall. Severus Snape was having an animated discussion with Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress when a standard post owl landed on the table in front of him. "Please excuse me, Minerva." He turned to read the letter at the table, his back to the rest of the faculty.
SS,
Please accept my apology for challenging you to duel last summer, but you must admit, it was a fair fight. I'm sorry if your transformation experience might have been unpleasant. I'm glad you were able find a way to return to your preferred state of greasiness. I beg for your mercy and ask you to help me return to a less colorful condition. Please provide the potion I need as soon as possible.
W
Snape snorted and said to himself, "I don't think so, rat."
Not a minute later, a second owl landed in front of him. Its letter read: Severus, I will send someone for you tonight at 9 o'clock. Bring Wormtail's potion. V. Nagini's fang imprint marked the bottom of the note. Snape grimaced and swore something colorful under his breath.
"I'm sorry, Severus. Did you say something?" Dumbledore inquired.
Within two steps, the long legged professor was kneeling between the headmaster and his deputy headmistress. "I have been summoned." He held out Voldemort's note to show the fang marks, before stuffing it into an inner robe pocket.
"Now? By owl? That's very unusual, isn't it?" Dumbledore's white eyebrows arched.
"They're coming for me this evening. He wants an antidote from me. I don't have a good feeling about this meeting. I need to speak with you later."
"Later then," the Headmaster nodded.
After his morning classes, the ill-tempered professor was found pacing in front of Dumbledore's desk while Fawkes' and Harry's head followed left and right, as if watching a tennis match from the phoenix's perch. "Don't go, Severus," Dumbledore stared past his fingertips, tented in front of his face.
"I must. The repercussions would be much worse if I choose to ignore this particular summons. Besides, he's sending an escort."
"After our brief chat, I was given more information. The Muggle attacks around the country seems to have been limited to the weekend."
"I read the paper this morning. Seems random to me, from Southwest Scotland, through Wales, down to the shores of South England."
"Mad-Eye was following the Lestranges. I'm afraid the tracer scrap led them to wild geese. I can't imagine that Voldemort or his associates would be very happy right now. As you inferred yourself, the Muggle attacks happened to be incidental to their mission and nothing more than a vent for Death Eater frustrations."
"Geese?" What little color that had been in Snape's face was completely drained. "I am a dead wizard. Haven't I always said that the Potter boy would be the death of me?" He turned about on his heel and stepped in front of ex-Auror Moody, "Argh! Where the hell did you come from?"
"I always said the best Death Eater is a dead Death Eater," Moody either growled or chuckled, it was hard to tell. Harry started to cackle at the remark but was nudged into silence by Fawkes. "I've been here all along, by the way." He held up his old invisibility cloak.
"Sorry, Moody, it seems the Dark Lord, the Lestranges, and anyone else on the weekend Harry Potter hunt is going to get a piece of me tonight. I don't think there will be anything left for you when they're done. Pity, isn't it?" Snape's return to sarcasm signaled his recovery from near-panic. "Excuse me, I have potions to brew during before my next class." He turned to Dumbledore and nodded, "Headmaster."
Snape worked quietly in the dim, windowless room as Harry looked on from a perch set up on the bench and squawked at the new arrival. "What is it, Draco?" Snape drawled. "I'm very busy."
"If you have time now, Professor, I'd like to brew that antidote for last week's potion," Draco held out a parchment with a recipe written neatly on it. "It won't take but three quarter-hour to complete, I estimate."
"Weren't your little friends involved in this, as well?" Snape briefly glanced at the recipe in the Slytherin Prefect's hand, but didn't take it. His mind was focused on the antidote for Wormtail.
"I have free time right now, they don't."
"Very well. Work over there," Snape pointed to the bench next to his.
Forty-five minutes later, Snape's potion was bottled and he had his area cleaned. Draco was corking vials on his potion samples. "Draco, I have to go. I trust you will clean up after yourself. Please lock the door on your way out." The professor took the array of tiny vials from him. "We'll check this later. I'll keep it safe."
"Yes, sir." Draco eyed the little raven who remained on his perch and ran to the door to watch Snape until he was out of sight. Harry wouldn't take his eyes off of Malfoy, either.
Once he knew they were alone, Malfoy pulled a vial from his sleeve. "This is yours, Potter. Take it to your room and drink it there. I don't want to be responsible if the student body were to die of laughter from watching you run naked through the Great Hall. We're even then, for helping me in the forest." Harry croaked and bobbed his head.
Harry reached out to grab the vial, but then Draco pulled back. "You also agree not to tell on me, right?" Harry growled, ARRRR. Draco furled his brows, "What are you saying? Just nod or shake your head, bird brain." What choice did he have? Harry bobbed his head again. Once the vial was clutched firmly in his talons, he flew out the door and straight to Gryffindor tower.
From outside, Harry was able to fly into an open window in the Gryffindor common room and, fly from there, up to his dorm room without anyone's notice. He was just about to pull off the stopper when very strong feelings of panic, despair, and fear emanated from his bond. He pushed the vial under his pillow and worked one of the windows open. Using the bond, he followed the feelings the potion master's chambers.
Harry dropped through the bird window and landed on the work table, but he didn't see the professor anywhere in the main room. There were three exits, one to a bathroom and another to the outside hallway. Harry hopped to the third and waddled slowly down the hallway. The first room he came to was as dark as the rest, but he could see it was a bed chamber as his eyes dilated. He continued down the hall, finding two other rooms and a bathroom. Harry turned around and croaked, "Professor Snape, where are you?"
"Munin, is that you?" called the dark, velvety voice in the darkness. Harry followed the sound slowly. "Come boy, I have your snidget." Harry hopped more quickly once he saw the light of the candles. Snape was slumped against the wall, inside an empty closet. Harry climbed the wizard's black robes to stand on his chest and look up at his face. Snape placed the toy snidget down in front of his familiar. Balanced on one leg on the wizard's arm, the raven held the snidget in his other talon and preened the three strands of yarn on top of the toy's little head.
Harry coo'd just to start a conversation. He knew that he really wasn't understood, but he found it comforting over the summer to talk to his pets. When Harry was isolated in his room at the Dursley's he talked to Hedwig and the raven who turned out to be Severus Snape, himself. They seemed to talk back and somehow he had found it comforting, so Harry would vocalize whatever was on his mind. It was kind of nice not to have to worry the consequences of real words.
"I'm glad you're here. I was feeling a bit...hopeless." Snape ran his hand over the raven's head, back and wings. "As hopeless as ever getting these feathers on top of your head to lay down, eh?" Harry bounced on the black chest as Snape chuckled to himself. "Well, if anything, you're no longer the underfed little bird you were a week ago. If I die tonight, I think I'd like to come back as a raven. What do you think, little one? You could be my big brother and we could play with your snidget. You would share with me, wouldn't you?"
Harry looked up and bit the wing of the toy and shook it with his head. "Share with me," Snape teased and pulled on the other wing for a little tug-o-war. He pulled the little raven across his stomach and moved the toy back and forth, but the bird would not let go his toy. "Okay," Snape laughed, "you win."
Harry dropped the golden toy and nudged it with his beak toward Snape's own beak-like nose. Snape laughed again and pushed himself up to sit cross-legged on the stony floor. Snape waved his wand in the air to light the sconces on the wall to reveal an empty, thickly carpeted room. Snape's old robes hung curiously from the walls, tattered, scorched, and splotched with potions explosions and boil overs.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" The stuffed golden snidget levitated off of Snape's lap, into the air. From there, it levitated from one side of the room to the other, following the wizard's wand. Harry watched from Snape's lap for about two rounds around the room before he flew off after his toy. Upon retrieving it, he landed on the soft carpet and proceeded to peck at its head. "Accio snidget." The stuffed snidget was summoned from the raven when it lifted its head at the sound of the wizard's voice.
'That was neat magic,' Harry thought, 'really good wand control.' The raven dropped the toy in front of the wizard, turned his head to the side and croaked, "Do that again!" Harry observed the wand waving as Snape made the snidget fly in figure-eights. He continued to fetch so that he could learn more about this advanced version of the first charm they learned at Hogwarts.
Snape finally got up off the floor. "Sorry, Munin. I've got another class to teach this afternoon. I'll see you later." As he entered his potions classroom, Harry flew off his shoulder and went on to his next class.
-----ooOoo-----
After class, Harry returned to his bed through the window he had wedged open earlier. He popped the cork and gurgled down the antidote. Feeling sleepy, he wormed his way between the sheets. Ron woke him up before dinner.
"Harry! You're back! Mate, I've got so much to tell you. Get up, why are you sleeping in the middle of the day, anyway? While you get dressed, I'll talk. Yesterday, Pig and Errol kept pestering me and Ginny. Dunno how they knew, but just to get rid of them, we wrote letters to Mum and Dad, Fred and Gorge, 'cause they're most likely to talk. They wrote back, even got one back from Bill and said the Burrow had been attacked by Death Eaters. To make a long story short, Dumbledore let me and Ginny go home yesterday. Boy, we were as glad to see them as they were to see us. The twins made a giant version of a portable swamp! It was great! They've been working on alligator biscuits and tested it on themselves. Fred says he got a nip at one of the little Death Eaters. Unfortunately it was still a prototype and they're still stuck with their tails. Mum's upset that they're tracking mud into the house because their tails drag, but the gnome infestation is totally gone. Anyway business is good and they sent along a bunch of gifts for you. Dad sent a box of bird seed. What's that about?"
Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes and shrugged while Ron chattered on. He pulled on a bath robe and grabbed his bathroom kit. His mouth felt like it was full of feathers and motioned at Ron to follow and keep talking while he brushed his teeth. As he put on his socks, he noticed the bonding ring on his second toe and tried unsuccessfully to pull it off. His head ached and he rubbed at the scar on his forehead. "Ow! He's upset."
"Your scar? Tell Dumbledore."
"I will. After dinner, I'm starving, how about you?"
"Absolutely! You gotta tell me all about, you know, how you were hiding. What was it like, Snape and the Slytherins? Hermione and I watched you and Snape move around on the Marauder's Map. That's how we found out it was you, but Dumbledore made us promise not to tell."
"Okay, I'll tell you tonight, though. We can't let it get around the school. They still think it was a joke for everyone to call Snape's bird Harry." Harry stuffed some of the Weasley Wheezes into his pockets as he spoke.
"Cool." The boys ran down the stairs and out the portrait of the Fat Lady."
"Potter!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Never mind. Does Professor Dumbledore know? Come with me to the Headmaster's office. You too, Mr. Weasley." As they walked quickly, Ron kept looking around for someone to pass a message to Hermione, but he didn't see anyone.
The headmaster's office was empty, except for Fawkes. "You boys wait here while I get the Headmaster." McGonagall ordered. When she left, the phoenix flew to Harry's lap and accepted his affections.
"Oh, don't worry, Ron. I'm sure we're not in trouble. I just think they weren't expecting to see me so soon." Harry smiled to assure his freckled friend.
"You're very right, Harry." Ron and Harry practically jumped out of their skins on hearing Dumbledore's voice. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I'm not going to ruin your suppers by offering you a lemon drop. Dumbledore walked in front of them and leaned on the edge of his desk. "Please excuse us, Fawkes." The phoenix trilled and flew back to his perch.
"Has anyone else seen you, Harry?"
Harry sighed and shook his head. Ron answered for him, "Nobody, sir. And I was looking around."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley. I'm afraid we're not ready for your return to Hogwarts, Harry. I know you miss your mates," Dumbledore sympathized with the young man, "but I thought you were getting on well with your ...chaperone?"
"He's okay, but people are getting hurt on my account. My scar is hurting, and Professor Snape—"Harry stopped at Dumbledore's interruption.
"Mr. Weasley, you may go on to dinner. But this is our secret, Harry is still in hiding for everyone's safety."
"Yes, sir. See ya, Harry, "Ron shook Harry's hand as he left the office. "Don't worry about the family, everyone's holding their own."
Conversation continued for another quarter hour until Filch's face popped into the fireplace, "Professor, I need your help in the second floor girls bathroom. Someone has flushed a whole box of fireworks down all the toilets. Professor Flitwick has tried to help, but it's the kind which multiply when you use the vanish spell." Harry snorted out of sight of the fireplace., knowing only Ron and Ginny had a fresh supply of Weasley Wheezes.
"Excuse me, Harry." Dumbledore looked suspiciously at Harry and shook his head. As soon as he was out the door, Harry slumped in his seat. He thought he might be paranoid, but he could have sworn he heard feet shuffling and hissing. "Shhh!"
"Hello? Who's there?" Harry drew his wand and pointed it toward the door.
"Don't! It's just us!" Ron shrugged off the invisibility cloak holding two trays of food. "You look like you need some cheering up."
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Hermione set down her trays as Ron took the cloak off of her and setting it next to the raven-haired teen. "Hi Harry," she hugged him and his face instantly brightened. "But I'm willing to do the detention for this."
As Harry helped himself to the food, "I don't think you'll get detention for visiting me, but whoever flushed the Wild-Fire Whiz Bangs down the toilet is in big trouble."
"I only did one of those twirly things," Hermione said, as a matter of factly, "Moaning Myrtle is doing the rest herself."
"I'll have to remember to visit her as soon as I come back," Harry chuckled and enjoyed the moment of camaraderie. He went on to tell them about the night he followed Snape the Death Eater.
"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed, "so you got to see the Burrow turned into a swamp."
"Yeh, and the alligators, too. At the time I wasn't sure it was the twins, but they had a familiar grin."
"Harry," Hermione scolded, "now you're exaggerating."
"No I'm not, look at Ron, you can see the resemblance!" Just then Ron chomped down on a tall sandwich that he had been stacking during the conversation. "Wha'?" he muffled.
"Okay, I see your point," she resigned. Harry just smiled and nodded.
"Ahem," Dumbledore cleared his throat upon intruding on the picnic the trio had set in the middle of his office.
"Mr. Weasley, I thought I told you to go to dinner." Dumbledore lightly scolded Ron.
"I did," he pointed at the plate on his lap, "but Harry said he was starving on the way here. Then Hermione wouldn't let me go without telling her where I was going with two trays of food. I didn't tell her, she followed me, and nobody saw us come in, not even Harry.
"No, I suppose not. Ms. Granger, you are also sworn to secrecy."
"Yes, Professor," Hermione held up a lemon tart, "Have you eaten yet?"
"Thank you. Why don't you take that, I'll start with one of these sandwiches." He took the top four layers off of one of Ron's towers and set his twinkling eyes on Harry, who was giggling to himself.
Dumbledore answered the knock on the door, calling out, "Come in, Severus! Do have something to eat."
"No thank you, I couldn't." His eyes narrowed at the sight of Harry Potter and walked in only a few steps. "I was looking for Munin. I felt, rather, I thought he might be here."
Dumbledore asked, "Ron, Hermione, please excuse us. We have business to conduct." Ron patted Harry on the shoulder and Hermione gave his arm a squeeze on their way out.
"Must he stay too?" Snape sneered at Harry before picking off the top layers of one of the sandwich towers and folded it into a half sandwich. "Where is my bird?" he asked softly as he took a chair in front of the headmaster's desk and flicked capers off the meat onto the tray.
"Severus, I have something to tell you. Harry was your raven, Munin. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but you were both getting on so well. Except for when you took him with you to a Death Eater assignment, I felt he was always well cared for and guarded." Snape's jaw dropped. Harry could feel through the bond that the man before him felt like the whole world was crashing down on him at once.
"I'm sorry, Professor." Harry said softly, "I really enjoyed your lessons and playing catch with you. Anyway, you put this band on me and then you named me and sealed the spell. Speaking of which, can you remove it, please?" Harry took his shoe off and pointed to the band on his toe.
Snape jumped out of his chair and confronted the youth in his face. "I don't need this foolishness right now! I am not touching your foot. I did not take Harry Potter on a Death Eater assignment. I did not play catch with Harry Potter. And I certainly did not kiss him on the head!"
"Nobody knows that," Harry whispered.
"Calm down, Severus. You did not do any of those things with Mr. Potter, you did it with Munin. Did you say you kissed him?"
"NO! Where is he? He's upset right now and a little scared." Snape stood up to continue conversation with Dumbledore.
"Unavailable, I'm afraid." Dumbledore looked sternly at Harry, who was struggling to keep a blank face. "Don't worry, he'll come around."
At the same time that Harry closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, Snape grimace and said, "I've got to go now. Perhaps Fawkes can bring this to me when I call for it." He handed a leather pouch with a flask in it.
"Severus, for that to work, you might have to expose your true loyalty which will could get you killed for certain."
"What's the difference, I go to my death anyway."
"Yet you continue to fight." Dumbledore smiled, "This, no doubt, is your insurance. Don't worry, I'll get it to you. Munin will tell me when you call."
"Headmaster, it's been a pleasure serving you," Severus bowed his head and turned in a billow of black robes. He swept gracefully out the door with his jaw set.
----- ooOoo -----
To be continued...
A/N: I cannot say it enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reviewing. Starangel2106, Silverthreads, Lucky, Persephone Lupin, Sky, Toras, Romm, lilith, ataraxis, Anna Taure, Snowfox, sakurasaisaka, ShadowedHand, Wren Truesong, texasjeanette, Werinaya, chambermaid, Mystic Phoenix, gaul1, EAV. My apologies for not answering the questions individually this time. I tried to answer them in the chapter, if not this one, then maybe the next one if I don't forget. I don't know how many chapters it will take to tell my story, I'll just keep writing until it's all told. This chap was longer than usual because I couldn't find a good break point without leaving a cliff hanger, so I just wrote and wrote. I'm sure you don't mind.