Hambares! I'm just a strange one. I've never had a flame which makes me kind of want one! The good/evil thing- kind of fun to explore those concepts through these particular characters, especially how good can be confused with evil and vice versa, or how one can come of the other, and moral relativism vs. absolutism, but will try not to whack readers over the heads since mainly I just want to tell a little story and keep everyone from getting bored enough to want to kill me. Thank you so much for your continuing interest and for taking the time to review!
Kar' Nia! Thanks! And a whale sized thank you for pointing out how confusing my description was. I changed it on the outside and will get to the one on the prologue as soon as I post this. Believe me the last thing I want is put someone off reading this because they thought there wouldn't be magic. So happy you've liked the story so far: )
Kyer! Thank you! I'd say he is more a manipulative!self-deluded!Albus, at least according to Snape. Then again he might not be much of a moral authority. I guess you'll have to decide if he's evil. I'm not sure. It's hard to tell that kind of thing when you only see a character from other characters POVs. I don't think this Albus would do things he thought were evil. I've never tried my hand at pottery. I have read quite a lot about it for this piece and know slip from glaze and greenware from a potsherd! I can hear you snickering at me: )
Aoimoku! Thanks! Sorry no more Draco in this one. I'm sure he is upset about the miniscule part that I gave him too and is looking over his contract with his army of lawyers to determine how hard he can sue me as we speak. I'm hoping to get back to Unity soon if you are interested. That is my only HP/DM piece currently a WIP. I'll stop with the shameless self -pimping now and will slap my own wrist. I'm so over the moon that you like poor cute!Harry! I like him too. : )
Fluffy! I think Albus IS Minister of Magic in this story or the closest thing to one. Snape can be hard on himself (and everyone else.) There is also lots of stuff mysterious and grim that Harry doesn't know yet. Hope you like this chapter: )
Woohoo after many creative alternatives, Grindelwald's name is spelled right. Hope you all like this chapter. I write for you.
The Potter's Tale
Chapter Five
The Book of Severus
Snape apparated Harry to a small weathered cottage deep in a wood that had one distinct benefit in its favor. Albus had never been there.
Harry glanced around. The place looked too rickety to inspire much exploration. There was a wood floor here too. This one was split in places and dangerously creaky. Stairs that did not look sturdy enough to hold Harry's weight lead to an upper level. There was a table with no chairs and a wooden book shelf empty except the left hand corner of the bottom shelf . There skeletal remains lingered of something small that had apparently curled up and died. The place was far from abandon by the living. Spiders staked out all the good corners. Sleeping bats hung in the hearth.
"Dobby!"
"Dobby is here, Master Snape," said the House-Elf setting Harry's teapot carefully on the dusty table.
"Please make this place hospitable while we are gone." Dobby grinned happily, bowed deeply, and scampered up the stairs, shaking dust loose in his wake.
"Where are we going?" asked Harry.
"I want you to meet someone. Because of the wards we will have to walk."
"I don't mind walking."
"While we are here I will use magic only as a last resort. Stay focused and do not break a leg."
The woods were thick and dark with overgrowth. Harry had to remind himself that there was daylight somewhere above, for he could not see it. The ground was uneven and rocky except where it wasn't. Snape told Harry not to step in those places. Logs, leaves and rotting debris hid caves and holes that seemed to be lurking everywhere. Snape knew the way and lead Harry carefully pointing our the worst of the dangers before they came upon them.
"I hope you are not afraid of dragons," Snape said suddenly at one point.
"No, I don't think so."
Harry looked for them did not see any. After about three hours of hard effort they were a little over a half a mile from the cabin. Snape pulled a vial out of his cloak.
"Here, drink this."
"What is it?'
"Do you care?"
"No. Would you like half?"
After perhaps another two hours, they came to a clearing with a small spring. Snape declared they would rest here. The water smelled like rotten eggs. Snape assured Harry it was fine to drink. It tasted somewhat worse than rotten eggs and the potion Snape had given him earlier. Harry drank it anyway.
"Tell me about Albus."
"I first met him when I was eleven. I lived with my father, a Muggle. He was rather like your uncle though not fat. I don't remember my mother. Albus told me she was a witch. He swept me away from my unhappy childhood to the castle he was talking about. There I found that I was very good at Potions. Albus was delighted. Apparently few of his charges had ever excelled in that discipline. When I was sixteen, he convinced me to leave the school and pledge my services to a Dark Lord."
"What's a Dark Lord?"
"That's what Albus calls wizards he decides to kill. I did not know that at the time. Albus has a talent for making his campaigns sound vitally important. That wizard's name was Grindelwald. He lived in a castle built in the middle of nowhere. He never left it. He knew Albus was hunting him. That knowledge made him distrustful and something of a hermit. I served as his potions brewer as well as his food taster. For about a year, he watched me like a hawk. Eventually, he just grew tired of watching. At Albus' behest I poisoned both of us by poisoning his food. The poison I used was not designed to kill. It weakened us temporarily both physically and magically. Albus showed up and dispatched Grindelwald, ridding the world of a Dark Lord."
"Was Grindelwald evil?"
"Not as I knew him. I'd heard stories about him. He was a very powerful wizard. Had he more ambition, courage, or good sense he may have posed a danger to Albus. In Albus' mind that is what constitutes a Dark Lord, Harry, anyone powerful enough to pose any sort of threat to Albus. After Albus defeated Grindelwald, he had no further use for me. He informed me that my service to a Dark Lord had tainted me. Perhaps it did. Regardless, I was no longer welcome at Castle Dumbledore. He left me in my physically and magically weakened state there in the ruins of Grindelwald's Castle to fend for myself."
"That's horrible. What did you do?"
"Nothing much. A day later, I was captured by a witch-finder. I don't know for certain that was Albus' doing. I will always have my suspicions. I managed to kill the witch-finder after a couple of days as soon as my magic returned. I put myself back together and began selling potions. I was on my feet with property of my own in a lucrative trade when Albus found me a couple of years later. This time he wanted my help to defeat some Dark Lord from the town of Voldemort. He promised personal redemption and a position teaching Potions at Castle Dumbledore. I rather impolitely declined his offer. He was not happy but seemed to accept that decision. Instead, we agreed to spend the rest of our lives avoiding one another. I never saw him again until this morning."
"Do you think that's what he wants from me? To kill some Dark Lord for him?"
"That is a possibility. Come Harry, these woods are a danger at night."
A few hours later the forest fell away. The ground became steep and more rocky. Eventually they were climbing. Snape went first, sometimes pulling Harry up after him. About midway up the mountain, as dusk was approaching, they came upon the mouth of a cave.
"Stay here until I call you," Snape said and disappeared into the cave. Harry stood there for a while thinking Master Snape might only be a minute. Then Harry paced back and forth a bit careful not to get too near the edge. Eventually, Harry sat down on the ledge kicking his feet at the air. He had a spectacular view of, well, nothing much really but it was pretty. The sun was setting on the other side of the mountain. There was no sign of the hand of man as far as he could see. Harry picked up a small pebble to throw and then put it down again realizing how easily and unintentionally he could have killed something, had he tossed it. Harry was about to stand up again when Snape returned, "Harry, come."
-Thanks so much for reading! All reviews welcome, FLAMES TOO! Next up, Meet the Seer!
