Chapter 25

"The night that Sibyl Trewlaney gave her prophecy to Dumbledore, Voldemort communicated with a certain dark entity."

"A ghost?" Hermione asked.

"No, not a ghost. As you already know, it is an accepted truth that particularly dark magic is performed through making requests of sentient evil powers,"

"Yes, I always thought that they were something like spirits of people who had been irredeemably evil in their lifetime,"

"I rather think that is an inaccurate description of them. First of all, they aren't and never were, human. The vast majority of them, who help work the simpler of the dark spells are demons. Most of them can take human form though as incubi and succubi. But what came to Voldemort that night was no mere demon. I am not a religious man by any stretch of the word, yet I can't describe the being Voldemort made a bargain with that night without saying the man was very similar to the creature many call Lucifer. I suppose, if you believe in Hell that being might have been Lucifer himself."

"Voldemort made a bargain with this being?" Hermione asked, more than a little uneasily.

"Unfortunately, yes, he did."

"I'm not sure I want to know what this bargain entailed." Hermione said slowly, with a note of trepidation in her voice.

Severus stopped and regarded Hermione solemnly.

"If you wish to me to go no further, you need only to tell me,"

"How bad is it?" Hermione asked him.

"Would my answer change your decision?"

Hermione took in a deep breath and let it out.

"No. But, . . . please tell me. I want to know."

"The bargain between Voldemort and this dark being resulted in Trewlaney's prophecy being utterly false,"

"What do you mean by false?"

"Perhaps I was wrong in thinking that you should be told of this. Before I continue, you must be entirely certain that you're ready to hear the rest of what I have to say,"

"I know I won't like it, Severus. But that doesn't mean that I won't be able to handle the truth. It is the truth, after all, right?" Hermione asked, her eyes searching his, seeking the living remains of his soul buried behind the iron walls surrounding his heart.

"Yes. Yes, it is the truth."

"I need to know, Severus. Tell me everything,"

"Very well then," Severus said with a note of finality. "The bargain was this: Voldemort would attempt to kill Harry and willingly have the killing curse rebound back on him. Harry would live with his scar and would be marked as the The Chosen One. Voldemort would be reduced to something not quite living and not quite dead. The sole purpose of the prophecy was for Harry to gain the unwavering trust and faith that nearly all who know him give him now. The truth, is that Voldemort has been planning the final battle for these past sixteen years. Voldemort agreed to let Harry grow into a hero in the wizarding world's eyes, because in reality, the prophecy was a fake.

"You see Hermione, it was the dark entity who designed the prophecy and made Sibyl Trewlaney recite the exact words that would lead the world to believe that a mere child would have the strength to singlehandedly defeat Voldemort. In actuality, the opposite is true. The reality is that whatever dark entity Voldemort was in contact with made it so that a duel with Harry is the one way that will ensure a complete victory for Voldemort."

"What would happen if Harry fought with Voldemort now?"

"He'd lose and he would die."

"So, . . . this supremely evil being created the prophecy. And Voldemort knew about the prophecy before Trewlaney delivered it to Dumbledore."

"Yes. Voldemort knew Harry was going to temporarily defeat him,"

"Let me see if I understand this correctly. You're saying that Harry is not the Chosen One. Voldemort purposefully let the world see him as a great hero because he knew when the time came to face him in the final battle, he would be more powerful than Harry and easily destroy him."

"Yes, but there's more to it than that, Hermione."

"I don't understand why Voldemort would let himself be weakened. That certainly doesn't make any sense for his character. And if it's true that Harry doesn't have the power of the prophecy behind him, why would he be so hellbent on killing him?"

Severus rolled onto his side so that he was facing Hermione.

"It was Voldemort's intention for as many people as possible to put their faith in Harry as the only person who could truly kill him. The last part of the bargain is this: if Voldemort killed Harry once he rose in the eyes of the general population to be something of a savior figure, Voldemort would not only kill Harry, but would be given the power to totally defeat all those who would stand against him, especially the Order of the Phoenix. You see, everyone who put their faith in Harry would have no strength to fight Voldemort. They'd still possess magic, but they'd be unable to stand against him. It would be mindlessly easy for Voldemort to subjugate them all as prisoners and slaves. They wouldn't stand a chance."

"What did the dark entity get out of this bargain?"

"Once Voldemort attained supreme power, he agreed to give the entity his choice of slaves to do with as he pleases. Something that evil lives to torture and destroy souls."

"What's being done to stop this from happening?"

Severus fell silent for several seconds.

"Harry cannot be allowed to face Voldemort in battle."

"What's to stop him?"

"Me."

"What!"

"I will prevent Harry from getting close to Voldemort."

Hermione didn't immediately say anything, her mind reeling from what Severus had told her.

"With the weakening potion you're developing? You said so yourself that it was by no means a definite solution."

"The solution has nothing to do with a potion."

"Then why are you working on a potion that's not going to do any good?" Hermione asked, more than a little frantic.

"Keep in mind that the Order has no idea about the truth of the prophecy."

"Why ever not? Surely everyone needs to be told so that they can work together to ensure Voldemort's downfall."

"Spoken like a true Gryffindor," Severus muttered under his breath.

Hermione gave him a sharp look. She began to say something but Severus immediately covered her mouth with his hand.

"You don't understand the gravity of the situation," he told her emphatically. "There is but one way to prevent events from happening as I just described. But because it is considered both evil and illegal, the Order would rather hide its head in the sand and stick to their belief in Harry. Even if I were to tell them what I've told you, they would still send Harry to fight Voldemort. They'd refuse to acknowledge the truth."

Severus slowly removed his hand from Hermione's mouth.

"What are you going to do?"

"You remember I said that I'd kill Dumbledore's phoenix if it proved to be the only way to truly defeat Voldemort."

"You told me that was an impractical solution."

"I lied."

"And you obviously lied to the Order and to me about the potential of that potion you were talking about."

"Can you not understand why I did that?"

Hermione looked away from him. She stared down at the mattress and did not look up.

"What makes you so sure that killing Fawkes is the only way to succeed at killing Voldemort?"

"It is the only guaranteed way of ridding Voldemort of his magic."

"And it will leave Harry without any power as well,"

"Yes, well that can't be helped."

"There was never any experimental potion was there? Everything you told me of its progress was a lie."

"I couldn't tell you the truth then."

Hermione let out a feminine snort.

"You easily could have, you just didn't want to."

Severus chose not to respond.

"So the formulas you had me work on were just a bunch of nonsense."

"No. They weren't. I'm working on developing a new potion at the lab beneath Downing Street, a potion that would serve as a sort of artificial version of Legilimency, the formulas you produced weren't entirely unusable. I need additive potions with the same formula as a weakening potion to stabilize the final product. The properties of the individual components change when the potion is in its final stages."

"For all I know, you might be lying to me now about that,"

"I'm not, Hermione."

"Does the Order know about this potion?"

"No. There's no reason for them to be told about it. Moody would probably use it as an excuse to arrest me on the spot."

"I understand why you chose to lie to me. But there is one thing I have to ask . . . are the potion and the phoenix the only subjects you lied about?" Hermione asked carefully.

Severus stilled and stared directly at Hermione's eyes.

"Yes. I've told you the truth about everything else."

Hermione didn't have to specify what exactly she was thinking about. Severus knew she had just questioned the truth of his answer regarding the question of him ever forcing himself on a woman.

Hermione visibly relaxed.

"I meant it when I said I trusted you. But if you lie to me again, I couldn't forgive you."

"Hermione . . ."

"I'm serious Severus. If you care about me even the tiniest bit, you'll think twice before being untruthful in the future."

Severus didn't reply. But Hermione didn't seem to be expecting him to.

"Did Dumbledore know the true nature of the prophecy?" she asked him.

"I told him everything I'm telling you now. In the end, he made me promise to find an alternative solution. No matter what I said, he wouldn't allow me to kill Fawkes. He was convinced that the prophecy wasn't real, but he refused to believe that Fawkes had to die. He made a point of saying that the murder of a phoenix was considered especially evil and the act itself was believed to irrevocably blacken a person's soul. But there is absolutely no proof that is true."

"Maybe there is another way," Hermione said quietly.

"There isn't." Severus said firmly.

"Dumbledore was an extremely brilliant man. He wouldn't have such unfounded reservations."

"Albus made more than a few mistakes in his lifetime. I consider that to be one of them."

Hermione held her tongue, deciding that she would let it go. For now.

"There's one more thing I don't understand," she told Severus.

"You want to know why Voldemort hasn't already killed Harry when he had ample opportunity to do so?"

"Is it because for Voldemort's power to be absolute, he needs to face Harry alone?"

"Partly. But also every time he's faced Harry and Harry has lived to tell the tale, Voldemort is well aware that Harry's confidence and self esteem in his role as the Chosen One is brought up a peg. The more Harry believes in himself, the more others will believe in him. Voldemort wants as many people as possible to look at Harry as their savior, because if he were to kill Harry the power given to him by the entity would enable him to rob every single one of those people of the power to fight him. The wider Harry's sphere of support, the more people Voldemort will have in his stranglehold."

Hermione was silent for a very long time.

"So all those times everyone had thought he wanted to kill Harry . . . they were just for show?"

"I gather that now you understand why the Order cannot know anything of what I told you."

"They really wouldn't believe it would they?"

"No. Not at all."

"I think Remus and Nymphadora might,"

"That's not a risk I'm willing to take,"

"I understand." Hermione told him. She held his gaze, openly considering him. "Severus?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Why did you choose to tell me? I understand why you told me the reasons for Dumbledore's trust in you. But what made you decide to go beyond that?"

"I felt that you'd be the only person alive who would understand. You're intellect and reasoning skills are both exceptionally remarkable, Hermione. I was hoping you'd see the logic in what I said."

"You had no other motives?"

"I haven't been able to locate Fawkes. I've tried scrying his location have a dozen times, and I can see a sunlit field near mountains, but not Fawkes himself."

"Are you asking for my help?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. It's dangerous dark magic the last thing I'd do would be to ask you to get involved."

"Severus, I've been in danger before."

"Not this kind."

Impulsively, Hermione reached out and brushed her fingertips along the side of Severus's face. Severus tensed his body at the contact.

"Don't," he told her. But the command lacked conviction.

"Stay with me tonight," she said to him.

"You do understand that when this is all over, you and I might never see each other again."

"I understand."

"Do you really?"

Severus made a move to rise from the bed, but Hermione put a hand on his shoulder and pressed firmly until he settled back down.

"I'll be gone when you awake in the morning. I'm leaving at dawn."

"Fine."

Hermione laid her head on a pillow, thinking in the silence that followed.

Severus's news had disconcerted her more than she cared to admit.

How did Severus plan to proceed with his plan?

Though the thought that weighed most heavily in her mind was what would happen to Severus at the end of all of this?

And then as she contemplated this, she was quickly coming to realize something that was startlingly clear.

She was beginning to have genuine feelings for Severus Snape.

A/N: And that's the end of the second half of Severus's explanation. I know all of you have thoughts and opinions about this chapter, so please let me know what they are by leaving me a review.

Thanks,

Dafina