Thank you to the beta of this chapter- songofstars
Chapter Thirty Nine – An Unexpected Ally
Tick-tock
Tick-tock
Tick-tock
Tick-tock
The ticking of a clock is a powerful sound, symbolically showing the passing of time as the minutes split into seconds, the hours into minutes, the days into hours, and so on but for the golden trio, the clock was ticking down to their approaching doom. Severus sat in one of his leather armchairs, tapping his fingers on the armrest as Harry, Hermione and Ron sat across from him on the sofa, their lips pressed together as they waited for the verdict.
Severus waited until the minute hand made it all the way around until it landed back on the twelve before he spoke "No reading from the restricted section unless you have a professor permission," Severus stated as he picked up a big leather bound book that he took from Hermione. "No taking books out of the library without checking them out." he added, setting the book down on his lap. "Lying, breaking into the Headmaster's office, stealing from the Headmaster's office. I wish I could say that was a record but I would be lying," Severus sneered.
"Professor we can explain!" Hermione blurted out, breaking her silence since they had been caught.
"You can explain why the three of you broke into the Headmaster's office and stole confidential files?" Severus inquired, picking up the files from the side table. "Detentions from your second year at Hogwarts. Now, why would you want these?"
"Professor, it was my idea," Harry admitted.
"I know it was your idea, it is always your idea. You are famous for coming up with ideas and I am sure if I wrote a book about the stupid ideas you and your two little friends come up with during your time at Hogwarts, I would be rich!" Severus yelled. He was mad, not about the fact that Harry broke into the Headmaster's office, that was probably one of the more tame things the child has done, it was the fact that Harry lied to him. Severus thought that he worked up a trust with the boy, he thought that he made some kind of friendship with the child but with this little act? It was proven that he was wrong.
Harry still didn't trust him enough to come to him and he blamed himself for that, perhaps if he was nicer to the boy, treated him as an innocent child and not his father, then Harry would be more inclined to talk to him, to come to him when he had a problem.
"I know it's hard for you but you are going to tell me what is going on and if I get a hint that you are telling me the smallest of lies, you will be scrubbing my dungeons floors for a week with your toothbrush and you can trust that I will be able to see my reflection after you are done!" Severus yelled, leaning back in his chair and waiting for Harry to speak.
Harry took a deep breath as he looked over at Ron and Hermione, both of them looking as if they were about to burst into tears. "I got a letter last night from another student," Harry spoke as he turned back to look at Severus. "They wanted me to meet with them and I did. They told me since the papers came out, they have been having feelings that they are starting to remember. They said that they recall having detentions but they couldn't remember the detention itself. They also said that some stuff doesn't add up but they couldn't put it together until now," Harry explained before looking down into his lap. "I wasn't the only one," Harry whispered, almost to the point that Severus couldn't hear him.
"So what was your plan? Find everyone who had detentions with Lockhart? Do you think of me so shortsighted that I didn't think that there could be others? Did you even think about the consequences of telling them? The same thing that happened to you will happen to them. All of their memories will come back at once, do you really want that for them? Did you think of the damage that could be done?" Severus explained.
"I wasn't going to tell them. I will never do that, '' Harry defended. "I was just going to stand by the sidelines and see if they were having the same effect as the person who contacted me, that's all. I wasn't sure what I was going to do after that but I was never going to tell them if they didn't know. I will never do that to someone."
Severus took in a deep breath as he ran his fingers through his hair as he took a moment to think. "Who was this student that contacted you?" Severus asked.
Harry pressed his lips together as he looked down into his lap and started to fiddle with the sleeves of his shirt, pulling at the loose threads.
"You're not going to tell me," Severus commented.
"I'm sorry but I can't. I promised them that I wouldn't tell anyone their name," Harry explained.
Severus nodded in understanding. "And the book you three stole from the restricted section, does it have anything to do with any of this?"
"It goes deep into explaining memory charms," Hermione spoke up. "The non- restricted section didn't have anything on it."
"That's because memory charms are considered to be dark magic...If the caster of the memory charm is incompetent and I think we can all agree Lockhart was incompetent, then the memory charm won't be as effective. Small triggers can happen, bits and pieces of the memories can come back," Severus explained.
"The daily prophet," Hermione said. "That was the trigger for the student that contacted Harry. If the daily prophet triggered their memoirs then there could be others suffering the same and not knowing what's happening to them."
Severus nodded once again. The girl did have a point. If students were getting their memories back, then the school would have a problem on its hands.
"All of this could have been avoided if you…" Severus said addressing Harry. "came to me this morning and told me the truth. I thought we came to an understanding, '' Severus admitted.
"...I thought you wouldn't help us, '' Harry admitted. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to help."
"Now I am going to help you," Severus said as he tossed the file to Harry. "Track down everyone who had detention with Lockhart. They all should be in there with times and dates, along with what they did to earn themselves detention."
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked on in shock as Severus freely handed over the file.
"There's no way to stop the memoirs from coming back, but I can make a potion that would help the drinker with the memories if they are gaining some of them back. But it has to be drunk before the memories return, otherwise it has no effect," Severus explained. "It will take a couple of days to make the potion. While I'm doing that, you three can track down everyone who had detention with the man and mark down who you believe is getting memories back. Once the potion is done we can go from there," Severus explained. "Is that understood?"
"...Yes sir" Hermione and Ron said at the same time as Harry gave a small nod.
"Good," Severus said as he picked up the leather bound book." This is going back to the library. If you have any questions about memory charms, then all you have to do is ask. There will also be no more sneaking out. If you need to meet up with a student, then all you have to do is ask," Severus added.
"No more sneaking out," Harry spoke softly.
"If we are going to do this, then we need to communicate with each other, which means no more keeping secrets, no more sneaking around...from any of you. We need to handle this with care and not rush in like a bunch of animals. The last thing we need is to make any of this worse, especially with Umbridge slithering around the school. I know you three have managed to avoid her but I wouldn't put my guard down," Severus explained.
"This isn't about the detentions?" Hermione questioned.
"No, it's about the club you three set up. Umbridge doesn't know anything about it but she does know something is going on and she's sniffing around. If you three don't set up some precautions, then it's only a matter of time until she finds out and the punishment won't be light," Severus warned. "She won't hesitate to use veritaserum on you if she finds the need, which is why I'm going to give you enough bay leafs and lizard eyes for everyone. You wrap a lizard's eye in a bay leaf and place it under your tongue, it won't taste very good but it will keep you from telling the truth," Severus explained.
"Thank you sir," Hermione said with a smile.
"Just let me know how many people you have and I will get you what you need," Severus said before standing up. "You three get started on tracking everyone down. I'll get started on the potion," Severus said as he headed to his private potion lab and closed the door behind him.
"That went better than expected," Ron finally spoke. "I, for sure, thought he was going to use us for potion ingredients when he caught us."
"Me too," Hermione agreed. "I haven't seen him that angry since Neville blew up the wideye potion in third year. I thought for sure that was the day Neville was going to die," Hermione said with a small chuckle.
"We should get started," Harry said, paying zero attention to Hermione and Ron's conversation as he got up and made his way to the kitchen table with the file in hand with Ron and Hermione quickly following behind.
"What exactly is the plan once we find everyone?" Hermione inquired as she sat down at the table.
"I don't know. It's like what Snape said, one step at a time. Once we find everyone that is suffering, we go from there," Harry explained.
"Mate...who was the student that sent you the letter? Do we know them?" Ron asked.
"I'm sorry but I can't say. I promised that I wouldn't and I'm not about to betray them," Harry answered.
"We understand," Hermione said. "We just want to help. You're going to need all the help you can get."
"You can help by reading the names off," Harry ordered as he passed the file to Hermione as he took out his journal and flipped to the page where his and Draco's names were written but only appeared to be scribbles to Hermione and Ron.
Hermione nodded as she flipped open the file and started to read the names off one by one.
