Chapter 9
"Well done, Potter. You've saved me quite a bit of time." Said a silky voice, behind them. Harry immediately recognised the voice of his headmaster's murderer. He spun on the spot to see Severus Snape standing in the doorway, his wand covering them.
"YOU!" Harry shouted,
"Don't move Potter!" He snapped, "You think I'd really have any problem blasting you back to your precious mother and father and that feral mutt, Black?"
"No, I really don't." Harry ground out. He glanced sideways at Lupin who was still out cold on the floor.
"Another show of good fortune." He drawled, looking at Lupin too, "If Granger hadn't managed to take out the most competent wizard out of the lot of you, I'd have had a much harder time of it. Expelliarmus!" He barked suddenly. Caught unawares, his wand still resting at his side as he had dared not raise it at Snape, Harry's only source of rescue flew from his hand, along with Ron and Hermione's. He noticed however that Lupin's was lying at his feet. It would be of little use to him though, as it was too difficult to use someone else's wand and he couldn't exactly stroll over and try it out anyway. Snape caught the wands and pocketed them.
"I'd never have gotten the horcrux without your help, Potter." He stated, "I wasn't even aware of a trap door being there, so it's a good job I left you to find the horcrux first. The Dark Lord doesn't yet know what you're up to, but I've realised and when I return that horcrux to him and tell him what you're planning you have no idea how much I'll be rewarded."
"You traitorous SCUMBAG!" Harry yelled. Cold fury was burning through his veins, he could barely see straight, as he began to advance on the man that he had come to hate even more than Voldemort. Two pairs of hands grabbed his arms, though, as he fought to reach Snape.
"You should thank Weasel and the mudblood; I'd kill you if you came any closer." Spat the ex-potions master. His black hair was longer than it was the last time Harry had seen him, and there was dark stubble forming on his chin. His black eye's showed no pain at what he had done, and the last niggling doubt in Harry's mind vanished.
"I'll kill you!" he screamed, "You're dead!"
"I think you'll find you're confusing me with a certain ex-headmaster," Snape said easily. Something inside Harry snapped. Suddenly he lunged forwards and knocked Snape off his feet. The wands were sent skittering away across the floor. Much like he had when he first met Sirius and believed he was responsible for his parents' death, Harry completely forgot he was a young skinny wizard, and Snape was a full grown adult, he completely forgot about magic and the fact that wands were a few feet away. All he knew was he wanted to kill Snape, murder him viciously for what he had done to Dumbledore…to Harry. He punched him straight in the face, beat him over and over. Snape was taken off guard and took the first few punches before his hand flew out and grabbed one of the wands. Before Harry had enough sense to grab Snape's arm, there was an almighty bang and Harry was launched backward, slamming into the kitchen wall. For a moment he was too dazed to move. His eyesight blurring. He could just make out the sound of Ron shouting at Snape and Hermione restraining him. Harry shook his head as Snape advanced on him. Without even looking behind him, he cast two 'Petrificus Totalus' spells at Ron and Hermione, who were both suddenly silenced, and fell, completely rigid to the floor. Snape was breathing heavily as his shadow fell over Harry, who groaned and touched the back of his head. He was bleeding, already every muscle in his body ached, and this was before Snape had exacted his revenge. Harry knew, as he looked into the bloody and already bruising face of his enemy, what Snape was planning. Despite the blood dripping slowly from his split lip, and the purpling of his eye and cheek bones, Snape smiled. Not a sweet smile of happiness, but a sadistic smile of satisfaction from a man who was about to use all force necessary to punish his enemy.
"You have no idea, Potter, how long I have waited for this moment. For the chance to bring down the mighty Boy-who-lived. For the chance to finally deliver you to the Dark Lord-"
"So, you've been on his side all along! The perfect double spy! I should have known, but Dumbledore trusted you-"
"Dumbledore was a fool, and he died a fool's death…something which I am proud to claim a little responsibility for. You, Potter, are also a fool, but I want to enjoy this. Bellatrix will be sorry to have missed this, but then again, you should be thankful she is not here, or this would be a lot worse for you. Crucio!" Harry was caught off guard again. The white hot knives that stabbed through his skin, slicing through the tips of his nerves and causing the agonising pain were sweet harmony compared to the burning grip of anger that was clenching at his heart. He could hear screaming and realised a millisecond later that it was his voice. He wanted to die; he wanted it to black out, to end. He didn't want to feel if this was how things had to be. He begged for the sweet release, begged for it like it was the only thing in the worlds that could save him, and in Harry's mind it was. His skin began to split open, if he was capable of conscious thought he would have remembered Moody telling him once that prolonged exposure to the cruciatus manifests itself into physical injury. He could feel the blood, his blood trickling down his arms, his chest, his face, his legs. His very life dribbling away pathetically as he screamed in agony, writhing on the floor, barely aware of the man standing over him, not even laughing, just smirking down at him. Harry heard a different noise but he was in no fit state to register what it was,
"Stupefy!"
Suddenly the pain stopped, the knives receded and Harry was left aching, gasping and shivering, the blood still trickling from his wounds. He kept his eyes shut. He prayed that something good had happened, that someone had found them, that Snape was gone, but he couldn't bare to open his eyes, only to see Snape standing over him, ready to begin again.
"Harry!" cried a voice, and hands began to shake him. He opened his eyes, to see Remus kneeling over him. Harry groaned and shut his eyes again,
"Ron…Hermione…" he muttered, as Lupin hauled him to his feet. He swayed slightly but managed to stay up. Slowly he cracked his eyes open. Remus waved his wand at Snape who was lying prone on the ground a few feet away, and cords shot out and tied themselves round him, pulling none too gently, Harry noticed.
"I came to and saw him standing over you" Remus muttered, he was very pale and was looking at Harry, panic and concern etched across his face. "I don't know how long he had you under that spell, but it must have been a while. Crucio doesn't manifest itself into physical wounds until after at least fifteen minutes. That's a long time to be under." Lupin said worriedly, gripping Harry's arm to keep him up, and also, Harry thought dazedly, to comfort him. He shook his head, trying to wake himself from his daze, though this did nothing to improve his already pounding head. "Harry say something, are you alright!" Remus pleaded,
"I'm…I've never been better." He muttered, He looked down and saw Ron and Hermione staring up at the ceiling, frozen. Looks of anger and fury were etched across Ron's face while Hermione was looking panicked and had her arms attached to Ron's jumper. Remus saw him looking and waved his wand silently, suddenly Ron and Hermione relaxed onto the floor, and then sat up quickly.
"Harry!" they both shouted, both of them scrabbling to get off the floor. Hermione threw her arms around Harry, who staggered slightly, groaning,
"Oh, god Harry, are you alright!" she whispered, tears streaking down her cheeks, as she released him from her grip,
"Hermione I'm fine as long as you don't do that again," he said, wincing. He noticed with some dismay, that there was blood…his blood on Hermione's clothes, which had transferred when she hugged him. He suddenly felt very weak and nausious, and he staggered sideways,
"Whoa, steady, mate," Ron said, looking very pale under his freckles, as he grabbed Harry and steadied him, "I can't believe how long that bastard did that for!" Ron cried angrily, his cheeks turning red with suppressed rage.
"How long was I under?" Harry asked weakly as he sat down,
"It must have been at least twenty minutes!" whispered Hermione, she still looked very teary.
"Harry that's a really long time…you need to rest." Said Lupin, putting a steadying hand on Harry's back, as he knelt down next to him.
"No…we need to deal with this," he said, putting a hand into his pocket and pulling out the silver pendent. The third piece of Voldemort's soul.
"Is…is that it?" Ron stuttered, looking down at the pendant nervously and then back at Harry, who nodded.
"We need to destroy it as quickly as possible." Said Lupin,
"But how?" asked Hermione, "You saw what happened to Dumbledore's hand when he destroyed Marvolo's ring, and we all know how powerful he was!"
"I don't think that happened when he destroyed the ring, I think it must have happened when he was getting to it. I mean, I destroyed the Riddle's Diary horcrux, and I wasn't hurt-"
"Unless you count the foot long, poisonous basilisk fang embedded in your arm, of course," Ron interrupted sarcastically, Harry ignored him,
"So I don't think it's going to be too hard to destroy, it seems you just treat it like a normal example of what the item is. Like a fang would destroy a book, wouldn't it?"
"I agree." Said Lupin, "I've read a few dark arts books in my time, and although they never say too much and they never tell you how to make one, they always say the same thing; choose a strong object as a horcrux, one that is harder to break or destroy. Obviously that implies their main weakness is the vessel you use." Hermione nodded her agreement.
"Alright then, how do we destroy silver?" asked Ron,
"We melt it." Harry said suddenly. He remembered a science lesson in his primary school where their teacher had told them all about the melting points of elements. Harry hadn't really understood at the time, being about nine years old, but he had always remembered that to melt things like silver the flame had to be extremely hot. Lupin was peering closely at the locket with interest. Harry swung the pendent towards him, meaning for him to take it, but he jumped back quickly. Harry looked at him curiously as Hermione rolled her eyes,
"Werewolves can't touch silver, Harry; I thought you were supposed to know about defence against the dark arts?"
"Oh right. Sorry," he muttered, feeling stupid and glancing at Lupin, who took a step closer again, smiling.
"Just, please, don't swing any more silver at me, even being this close to it is making my skin itch." He shuddered. Hermione turned around and scooped up the three wands that were next to the still unconscious form of Snape. Harry was secretly looking forward to the man waking up, just so that he could put him back to sleep again. He took his wand back from Hermione and heard Ron mutter a thanks as he looked down at the locket.
"We need to put a charm on everything in this room, so it won't set alight, and we need to protect ourselves from the heat as well, this flame is going to be pretty hot, and pretty big." Mused Lupin, Hermione looked at him,
"The sun shield spell?" she asked and Lupin nodded,
"That's what I was thinking. It would protect us and the room."
"What is it?" Harry asked, he noticed his hands were shaking slightly from weakness. He clenched his fists to stop them.
"It works like a sun block, so it'll be strong enough to protect us from this fire; it puts a protective film over everything in a five metre radius of the source of heat, which should be enough." He explained, "It doesn't require much power to make this spell very strong, but it will take a lot to make the fire burn hot enough, so me and Hermione will create the fire and you two can hold up the protective spell." Harry frowned at Lupin, and the old professor caught him, "Don't look at me like that Harry. I know you want to help, but you were under the cruciatus for twenty minutes! You can barely stand let alone cast a difficult spell!" Harry sighed and dragged himself up off the floor, wand in one hand, locket in the other.
"The incantation for the sun protection spell is 'solarus guardianis!'" he supplied, "Cast it at the table and then when it's in place everything will take on a blue tint except for a small area in the middle which will be normal, then place the locket on the table, and keep the spell up until the horcrux has been destroyed and me and Hermione let the fire go out, understood?" Harry and Ron nodded. Then Lupin turned to Hermione, "You know the charm for the hottest flame, Hermione?" She nodded quickly and Remus smiled briefly, "Of course you do." She beamed at him, "Okay, Harry, Ron, when you're ready."
"On three Ron, One…two…THREE!"
"Solarus Guardianis!" They both shouted, aiming their wands at the centre of the kitchen table. Immediately what looked like blue ice shot from the end of both of their wands. As it hit the table it spread out and up, creating a dome of blue that was steadily increasing and enveloping the room except for a small sphere where the blue ice hit the table,
"Keep it steady!" shouted Remus, for as soon as the spell had been launched, Harry's hand had begun to shake worse than ever. Remus had been right, he would not have been able to cast anything more involved than this.The blue quickly gained strength and eventually spread out, touching the tip of Ron and Harry's wands, Harry shut his eyes as the blue sphere enveloped him, but he did not feel a thing as he was included in its protection ring. When he opened his eyes everything was shaded blue, it was like looking through a tinted wine bottle and seeing everything strangely, only nothing was distorted; just blue. The azure bubble had stopped moving, and Harry, still pointing his wand at the table, which was still shooting out the blue ice despite the still nature of the bubble now, moved forwards and placed the locket on the table, in the small gap that was not covered by the blue protection, then moved as far away from the locket as possible. He glanced at Hermione and Lupin, who nodded once at each other and then shouted,
"Solaris maximus!" and what looked like bright orange fire spurted from their wands enveloping the locket in it. With Harry's free hand he shielded his eyes from the light, amazingly, however, he could not feel any heat radiating from the lava-like fire that was blazing and swirling around the barely visible locket. Harry was not aware that he had fallen to his knees until his knee caps began to pound from the pain, even more so than they had been previously from the cruciatus. He could feel the sweat building on his forehead as, in his weakened state, he struggled to hold the spell for much longer. He could hear the roaring of the fire and could barely pick out Lupin's concerned voice, yelling if he was okay. Suddenly there was an echoey scream of pain…Harry had heard it once before, when he had destroyed Tom Riddle's Diary. The horcrux was melting. Harry forced himself to his feet. If Voldemort ever invaded his mind, he wanted this to be one of the memories he saw. The silver locket had turned black and the edges were rippling and bubbling as the whole locket liquidised and finally burnt itself into ash. The screams of Tom Riddle ceased and Hermione and Lupin waved their wands, Hermione muttering an incantation to stop her fire. Harry dropped his wand arm along with Ron. All four of them were gasping, as they cautiously stepped forward.
"We did it!" whooped Ron,
"Well that was good!" Hermione smiled, "That wasn't bad at all!"
"Harry, are you okay?" Remus asked, looking at him. Harry, however, did not have a chance to answer.
"Of course not, werewolf. While you were snoozing away in the corner, he was suffering at my feet." A voice said from behind them, Remus spun round. His face looked perfectly calm, but Harry could sense the anger radiating off him. He himself was too exhausted to waste precious energy fighting Snape, so he just watched as Lupin approached the tightly bound man.
"My, Severus, you really have let yourself down." Said Lupin, "I can't believe what you've done," he muttered, looking down at his ex-colleague, "I knew it was difficult for you, but I never really saw quite how difficult."
"Don't you dare pity me!" Snape snapped from the floor,
"It's very difficult not to, Severus. You see, not only have you murdered the only man who ever trusted you, you have destroyed any chance of redemption, something I know you were working towards with Albus for seventeen years, regardless of whose side you were on. And to top it all, you have been captured by the very people you betrayed. It does not look good for you, my friend. Even if you escape our clutches, how well received do you think you'll be when your master finds out that you were here and did not prevent us from destroying a third horcrux?" Harry was sure that if the man wasn't as pale as death normally, that he would have gone even whiter at Lupin's last comment. "And as for what you have done to Harry, and I do not just mean today, I am sure Mad-eye, Tonks, Minerva and Kingsley will have something to say about that, along with the rest of the Order. I would, however, like to have my say, though. Petrificus Totalus!" Remus shouted, the anger finally making it's way into his voice. He turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were all watching Snape with mixtures of hate and disgust etched across their faces.