A/N: Thanks for the reviews...and don't worry I won't let anything too bad happen to our Snape : )
"I've just gotten off the floo with Alex." Ginny said as she walked into the kitchen. "Nearly every available Auror is out looking for Narcissa. He told them that she broke into your house and attacked you, so hopefully there won't be too many questions."
Hermione had her wand pressed up against Harry's face, healing the wounds that Narcissa had left. Her hand shook a little at the mention of Alex's name, and Harry could tell she was trying very hard to hold her tongue.
"What's the matter?" Harry implored, cringing as Hermione pressed the tip of her wand against a particularly deep scratch.
"Why don't you ask her." Hermione replied, sending a sharp glance in Ginny's direction.
Ginny let out a huff of breath, and fell into the empty chair beside Harry with a purposeful thud. She looked up at Hermione for a moment, before quickly darting her eyes back towards Harry.
"Last night I told Alex about Snape being seen the graveyard." Ginny explained, pausing to bite her lip. "Hermione thinks he's the one that told the papers about it, since we obviously didn't."
"But you don't think he did?" Harry asked, trying very hard not to look into her soft warm eyes.
"I couldn't see him doing that." She gently replied.
"But you don't know for a fact that he didn't." Hermione responded in a quick retort. "And doesn't it seem a little odd that he's quoted in the article? You'd have to be pretty stupid to think..."
"Don't you dare call me stupid!" Ginny shouted suddenly, her face quickly growing red with embarrassment and anger.
"I wasn't." Hermione snorted bitterly, though her expression softened as she spoke. "I didn't mean it that way."
Harry looked at both women, wishing very much that Ron was here right now. At least then he wouldn't be outnumbered.
"When is Ron getting out of work again?" Harry asked hopefully, praying this would be enough to change the subject.
After Voldemort was defeated Ron began working at Fred and George's bustling joke shop. Although he complained about it endlessly and claimed to hate it, he was still there after two years.
"He has to stay late, to finish some inventory." Hermione answered, healing the final wound on Harry's face. "You know how Fred and George get when they think he's slacking off."
Ginny shifted her weight and cleared her throat loudly, and suddenly seemed more uncomfortable than she had even when she was fighting with Hermione. Harry shrugged it off, and as the last cut closed with a sting, he rose up out of his seat.
"You know I'd wait for him" Harry said. "But the sooner I get to Snape the better."
"Harry, are you sure this isn't something that would be better left to the ministry?" Ginny asked, dangerously close to pleading.
Harry reached up and rubbed his temples, because he had been expecting this. He supposed that he would say the same if were any of his friends. After several years of waking up and not knowing if that day would be their last spent alive...well, the desire to avoid that threat ever again was more than understandable.
"The house he's hiding in, its unplottable." Harry said, logically running through each point, maybe more for his benefit than theirs. "So right now I'm the only one who can find it, or get inside. By the time the ministry figures that out, it might be too late."
"But Harry." Ginny interjected. "You're starting work tomorrow! This honestly can't wait a day? We can convince our supervisor to let us go with a whole team of Aurors. It'll be so much safer that way, and I bet catching a criminal like Snape on your very first day will get you a promotion right on the spot."
"Tomorrow might be too late." Harry said, his fingers instinctively curling around his wand as he spoke. "I can't let him get away again, not after what he did."
The memories of that night came flooding into forefront of his mind like a tidal wave, each image more painful than the last. The sickening look of hatred of Snape's face, the eerie green light spilling from his wand, Dumbeldore falling over lifelessly...
Harry shook his head violently, dislodging his thoughts. It was almost ironic now, to think how each death had hurt so much worse than the last. When Cedric died Harry had thought he couldn't feel a guilt any stronger. Then when Sirius had been murdered, he couldn't imagine a pain any deeper. Seeing Dumbledore killed right before his eyes had shattered his beliefs on how painful grief could become. His sole comfort had been his ability to avenge those deaths. For Cedric, he had killed Voldemort. For Sirius, he had captured Bellatrix. Knowing she would never see the world outside of Azkaban again at least dulled the pain a little. But for Dumbledore, he had been unable to do anything. Now he had been given that chance, and he wasn't about to let it slip away.
"I'm going now." Harry said, his feet firmly planted on the floor.
He waited, expecting all sorts of arguments from Ginny and Hermione. To his surprise they only exchanged a brief fleeting glance.
"I'm coming with you." Ginny said, stepping forward to stand beside him.
"Me too." Hermione added. "We should all be in this together, just like we've always been"
Harry nodded, feeling both grateful and worried. He didn't really want to go alone, but if either of them got hurt he didn't think he could live with himself.
"Alright." Harry said gruffly, after a moment of thought. "But be careful!"
---
Harry moved quickly through the slick city streets, Ginny and Hermione struggling to keep pace beside him. Already his heart was beating wildly, giving him a strange light-headed feeling. He slowed his steps as they reached the corner, and craned his neck up to read the street sign.
"Court Street." Harry said aloud, turning to look at his friends. "This has got to be it."
He slipped his backpack off of his shoulders, and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He wasn't sure why he had brought it until this very moment.
"If Narcissa got to him first, and if he's still there, he's probably on the look out for us." Harry explained as he slid the cloak over his shoulders. "I don't want him to see us coming."
Ginny gave a small gasp of delight as his body disappeared, because even after all this time it was still a strange sight.
"My disillusionment charms were never very good." Hermione said. "Would you mind Ginny?"
Harry lifted his eyebrows in surprise. Hermione rarely had to ask for help with anything, and even without finishing her seventh year she was by the far the most brilliant witch he knew. But of course, Ginny had the benefit of Auror training.
"Not a problem."Ginny said brightly, tapping Hermione on the top of the head with her wand before doing the same to herself.
Before Harry's eyes both women slowly seemed to melt into their surroundings, though when they moved Harry could catch the slightest outline of a person. He imagined it must be something like being a chameleon.
"Stay close." Harry instructed, pulling his cloak up over his head.
Cold rain had begun to fall again, and the sidewalk was slick with a layer of fresh ice. Stumbling, he tried to hold up his cloak enough so that he wouldn't slip over it, but he wouldn't expose his feet either.
"Ow!" He exclaimed, as an invisible elbow slammed into his back. "Watch it!"
"Sorry." Ginny muttered. "I almost forgot you were there."
Harry stifled a laugh, because he did have the odd sensation of being alone. He could hear his friend's heavy breathing as they trudged carefully across the slippery pavement, but it seemed that there was nothing but air on either side of him. They walked in this strange manner for another block, when Hermione gasped and tugged on his sleeve.
"Harry look! Right there on your left." He turned to look at the row of houses across the street. "That's number thirty, and right next-door is number thirty-two."
Harry stopped to get his bearings, staring straight at the two brick houses. A car drove by, splashing through the puddles in the street. He squinted, trying to remember Narcissa's voice as she told him about number thirty-one Court Street. There was a squeal of breaks as the car turned the corner, breaking Harry's concentration.
"Do you see the house?" Hermione inquired, as Harry felt her place a hand on his back.
He wished it was Ginny's hand, but then quickly pushed that distracting thought straight from his mind. He squinted again, waiting for number thirty-one to appear. Agonizing seconds passed, while nothing happened. Suddenly he felt like his insides were made of lead.
"I don't see it." He said glumly. "I don't understand..."
He turned to the spot where he guessed Hermione and Ginny were standing, almost forgetting that he would only be greeted with the illusion of emptiness. When he turned back again he let out a soft gasp, because there in between numbers thirty and thirty-two was a new house almost identical to the others. It was a two-story brickdwelling with red trim painted around the large windows and a red front door. All the curtains were drawn shut so it was impossible to see inside, and there was a heavy brass lock on the front gate.
"Harry?" Ginny whispered, but was quickly hushed.
"There it is." Harry said, a small tempest brewing in his stomach.
He felt like he was going to be sick, though he wasn't exactly afraid. Clutching his wand tightly in his right hand, he turned to whisper to his friends.
"Go stand right across the street, as soon as Snape and I cross the front gate you should be able to see us." He said, dreading the way his heart had begun to race in familiar frantic rhythm.
"What if you get into trouble." Hermione implored. "They'll be nothing that we can do!"
"I won't." Harry insisted, though there was littleconfidence behind his words.
For all he knew, he might not come out alive, but it was better not to think that way.
"Just wait here." He said, sounding much braver than he felt.
Before they had a chance to say anything further, Harry pushed forward. He waved his wand in the air in front of his face, testing for enchantments. There were none, or if there had been they had been removed. He hesitantly picked up the brass lock on the front gate. It was heavy in his hands, and humming with magic. Luckily, that wasn't going to be a problem.
Careful not to catch his cloak on the iron fence, Harry hopped the gate, landing with stumbling steps in the front garden. Taking a deep breath to steel himself against whatever might wait for him, he bounded up the front steps, carefully stepping around a patch of ice.
He faltered though, when he reached the red front door. Its glossy color reminded him of blood, and he felt his throat tightening with this grim association. Harry was never one to believe in omens or signs, but he was sure this couldn't possibly be a good one.
He shook his head, hoping this action would send all of his anxious thoughts sinking back into the dark hidden places of his mind.
"Stop being stupid." He whispered to himself, reaching out for the silver doorknob with shaking hands. "This isn't anything you haven't done before."
He clamped his sweaty palm over the cold doorknob. He really didn't expect it turn, but he figured that he might as well try. Of course, it was locked. Harry could tell there was an enchantment set on the front door as well, he could almost feel the magic vibrating in the air around him. He took a step back, trying to think what the proper spell would be. He certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would alert whoever was inside that he was breaking in.
Then things seemed to happened at a very rapid pace. Harry was suddenly sure he heard the sound of muffled voices, and thrust his wand forward so violently he nearly went toppling over. He heard a clicking noise as well, which sounded remarkably like high-heels on pavement. Before Harry had time to react to any of these new developments, the front door swung open.
Harry suppressed a startled cry as he found himself staring straight in Narcissa Malfoy's watery blue eyes.
A/N: Next Chaper SNAPE!