A/N - Hello everyone. I have the newest chapter for you today. I'm happy that people seemed to like the way I dealt with Juggernaut in the last chapter. Thank you for the comments everyone.

User Saralas posted the bare bones of a scene in the reviews section that last week's chapter made her think of. I turned it into a full Omake which you will find after the end of this week's chapter. Saralas gets co-author credit for it.

Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.

"Normal speech"

"Telepathy"

31) EQUINOX

Albus Dumbledore was not having an easy day. That morning in mid-March before breakfast Professor Snape had reappeared. He was found alive but unconscious outside of the Hogwarts gates with most of his clothing hanging on him in ripped pieces. His body showed signs of major trauma. An envelope addressed to Dumbledore was stuck to his chest. He was quickly taken to the hospital wing by Hagrid while Dumbledore scanned the envelope and, once he knew it was safe, opened it and read the note within.

Did you really think – the note said – that I wouldn't know that Snape turned away from me? I was able to observe him for a whole year while I was possessing that poor fool Quirrel. From the way he behaved it was clear that he had left me. I don't stand for treachery. I and my Death Eaters took turns subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse for days on end as well as doing other things to him. Like the Longbottoms before him he's now permanently insane and will never recover. The only reason I didn't kill him was so that he could serve as a visible and tangible warning against those who would cross me.

The note was unsigned but the headmaster had no doubt who it was from. Dumbledore went to the hospital wing. Snape had been put on a bed and Madame Pomfrey was casting diagnostic spells on him. Dumbledore cautioned Hagrid not to say anything about this to anyone yet except for Professor McGonagall and if he saw her to let her know what was going on.

"How is he?" Dumbledore asked Pomfrey after Hagrid left.

"Completely unresponsive" was the reply, "he seems completely unaware of anything happening around him. There are also signs of extended and heavy exposure to the Cruciatus Curse, a lot of physical trauma over much of his body, and malnutrition bordering on starvation."

"Can you heal him?"

"I can handle a lot of the physical damage" said Madame Pomfrey, "healing someone who has been driven insane from that curse? That's beyond me. I'm unaware of any cure for that condition. This is the same condition that Frank and Alice Longbottom are suffering from and they've been in St, Mungo's for over a decade."

"I know" said Dumbledore, "what do you recommend?"

"Honestly I see no alternative to sending him to St. Mungo's too" said Pomfrey, "Hogwarts isn't set up to house patients long term."

"I understand" said Dumbledore, "please heal his physical injuries as best you can but don't send him to St. Mungo's just yet. If you need to consult with any experts have them come here. If Severus is truly incurable it will make no difference to him one way or the other and I would like to hear what his prognosis is first hand."

"Very well headmaster" said the Medi-Witch, "it will take some time to heal his various physical traumas. I'll keep you updated on his condition."

"Thank you Poppy" said Dumbledore who took a long last look at Snape and then left to head down to breakfast. Outside the hospital wing doors he met Professor McGonagall.

"How is he Albus?" she asked him.

"Not good Minerva" he said and filled her in on Snape's condition.

"Nay, that's not good at all" said McGonagall, "we'll never get him back now. No healer that I know of has ever been able to cure the insanity brought about that curse. If any of his mind is still in there it's probably been driven so deeply inside of him that not even the most skilled legilimens could reach him." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at that as a new thought struck him.

"You're right" he said in a sort of absent way as he processed his new idea, "I also know of no magical healer who could do that."

The two of them stopped talking when they reached the Great Hall where they sat at the high table for their morning meal. It was still early students were only just starting to drift in. So far no one had seen Snape when Hagrid had carried him through the castle and Dumbledore decided to wait until later in the day before announcing to the students what had happened.

After breakfast he returned to his office and tried as hard as he could to concentrate on his work but his mind wouldn't let him. Instead he went back to the hospital wing to check up on Severus but Madame Pomfrey couldn't give him any new information. Dumbledore sat down in a chair next to Snape's bed while Pomfrey worked on his many physical injuries. It was slow going and it would take time for him to heal from it all even without factoring in his insanity.

"My poor boy" Dumbledore said softly to Snape, "I'm sorry you had to come in for this. I should have tried to stop you from going back to that monster – not that you would have let me of course, but I could have tried."

Eventually he left the hospital wing and returned to his office. The morning was passing very slowly and he had a hard time getting anything done. He was relieved when lunch finally rolled around and he could put his work aside for the moment.

When lunch was over he returned to his office. He cast a tempus spell.

"One o'clock" he said to himself when he saw the time, "it's late enough. I wonder if this will work? It's worth a shot and if doesn't work Severus will be no worse off than he already is." With that he concentrated hard and sent out his thoughts to Professor Xavier. He had wanted to contact him as soon as he heard the details of Snape's condition but knew that Xavier wouldn't thank him if he woke him up between two and three in the morning for something that wasn't an imminent emergency. Snape was in good hands right now and his condition had been stabilized. Dumbledore had to wait until now when it would be reasonable to assume that Professor Xavier would be awake. Once he made contact with his friend he told him what had happened and asked him for his help.

"Natural telepathy is superior to legilimency" Dumbledore said, "perhaps with your power you can do what our healers can't."

"Perhaps" said Xavier, "I've helped heal catatonic people before but I've never dealt with a Cruciatus Curse victim. I'll do my best."

"I'll send you a portkey after his physical injuries have been healed" said Dumbledore, "too much too soon would probably not help things."

"Let me know when you're ready" said Xavier before ending the connection between the two of them. He sat in thought for a few minutes and then summoned the team to his office. They had all just finished breakfast and none of them were dressed for training yet. Once they were with him he explained what had happened.

"So" said Sirius, "Snivellus got Crucioed into insanity. Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow."

"Even so no one deserves a fate like that" said Scott with a hint of reproof in his tone.

"What are we going to do professor?" asked Warren.

"This won't concern most of you" said Xavier, "but I want you all to know about it anyway. I'm going to try to bring Professor Snape out of his insanity. I've done such things before although never to a magical victim."

"What do you need from us?" asked Scott.

"I'll need Marvel Girl to accompany me" said Xavier looking at Jean, "you may be able to help me with this and it will be a good lesson for you."

The professor turned to Harry.

"I want you to come too" he said to Harry, "other than Sirius you know Hogwarts better than any of us."

"Okay" said Harry, "but what will I be doing? And is it a good idea for me to be around Snape when he wakes up?"

"Primarily you'll be watching our backs while Jean and I are working" was the reply, "not that I anticipate trouble from outsiders but you can never be too prepared."

"Ah, so you want me to come with you as Lightning?" asked Harry.

"Naturally."

"I can do that" said Harry sounding a bit relieved. Snape might hate Harry Potter but he had nothing against Lightning – as long as he didn't know that Harry was Lightning at least.

"When will this heroic event be occurring?" asked Hank.

"Not for a few days at least" said Xavier, "Snape is undergoing healing for his physical injuries and that will take some time considering how extensive they are. I'll let you know when the time comes."

Tuesday, March 21, 1995 was the Northern Spring Equinox. On this date Dr. Strange was going to go after the last horcrux besides the snake. As usual he took a portal to the Ancient One's temple and met his master there.

"At least this time" said Dr. Strange, "we know it will be a horcrux and not Voldemort himself."

"Very true my son" said the Ancient One, "nevertheless you must be careful."

"I know" said Dr. Strange. He sat down and went into a trance. Soon his astral form slipped free of his body and he floated over to the box with the streamers coming out of it. There were now only three uncut streamers left. He knew that the middle one led to Voldemort himself and that the one on the right led to the snake. Therefore he chose the streamer on the left and merged into it.

Once again he found himself in a long, dirty, dimly lit hallway stretching off into the distance. This time however nothing attacked him and the sense of evil that he always got whenever he entered one of the streamers was again passive. He knew he would be able to travel to the other end of the hallway without any interference so he set out.

When he emerged from the other end of the streamer he looked around at where he was. It looked like the remains of a deserted, run-down shack that should have fallen apart years ago but somehow was still standing. It was obvious that no one had lived here in a long, long time, so why would a horcrux be here?

There was no doubt that the horcrux was here. He could feel the evil of it in the very air, but he could also feel something else. This place was steeped in evil magic. In his astral form none of it could affect him but Dr. Strange could still see and feel it all. The floor of the shack was covered in traps which were most concentrated in one specific area centered around the horcrux itself which appeared to be under the floor there.

Dr. Strange bent down and slipped his astral head through the floor to see what was there. He saw a little golden box. Looking inside the box he saw a golden ring which had a stone that he could not yet identify but he felt he should know it. The ring itself had two spells on it. The first was a compulsion to put the ring on. The second was a withering curse which would be set off once the ring was placed on a finger.

Dr. Strange straightened up to a standing position again. This would require delicacy. He could not simply portal in here without setting off the traps. He went out through the front door and observed the area around the shack. There were more spells out here. Some of them were traps and some were meant to keep people away. A muggle repelling ward was cast at some distance around the shack. Inside that were a number of guardian snakes that were sleeping underground. Anyone who got past the first ward would wake up those snakes and they would immediately attack. If you got past them the door was next and that was booby trapped with a paralysis spell which would leave the victim at the mercy of the snakes that he would have thought he had passed.

'Clever' thought Dr. Strange, 'in all of the wrong ways, but still clever.'

He floated up above the shack and took a look at the surrounding area. In one direction was a manor house that, while still standing and in one piece, looked rather run down. In the other direction was a small town that was obviously mundane. The Sorcerer Supreme turned his thoughts back to the Ancient One's temple and quickly flew back there at almost the speed of thought. Once there he quickly reunited with his body and opened his eyes.

"You look unusually thoughtful my son" said the Ancient One.

"This is going to be a harder task than the others" said Dr. Strange who filled in the Ancient One on what he had seen.

"I see" said the Ancient One, "you are right. This will be more difficult. Each spell will have to be removed separately."

"I know" was the reply, "I had better get started."

"I will assist you this time" said the Ancient One surprising his pupil, "two people will handle this more easily than just one."

"I agree master. Thank you."

Dr. Strange made a portal that opened up some distance away from the shack and the two of them stepped through it.

"Here is what we shall do" said the Ancient One, "activate the Eye of Agamotto. With it you will be able to see every spell used in the area. Describe what you see to me and we will work together to destroy them all."

Dr. Strange did as his master requested. One by one they took down the various spells and enchantments that Voldemort had created.

The muggle repelling ward fell at once with little more than a wave of the Ancient One's hand.

The snakes that were lying underground all turned out to be from other countries and were mainly chosen for their venom. They were sent back to the lands from which they had come and they actually seemed happy about that.

The paralysis spell on the door handle was also removed quite easily, something that surprised Dr. Strange a little but not the Ancient One.

"I have always known that Voldemort is not as powerful as he thinks he is" the elder sorcerer said to his pupil's unspoken question, "it is usually that way with people like him."

"Nevertheless he's still quite powerful" said Dr. Strange, "the traps inside are worse than the ones out here. We will have to clear some of them out through the doorway before we enter the shack."

Before they did that they took some time to clear out any other traps outside the shack that might still exist. Now that the muggle repelling ward was gone they didn't want any innocent person to cursed because of their possible curiosity about the shack. After that was done they turned their attention to the curses inside the shack starting the ones right behind the door.

Eventually they were able to make enough of the floor by the door safe that they could enter. After that they both worked hard to remove any and all traps inside the shack. There were a lot of traps. Voldemort must have been very paranoid about someone finding this horcrux and went with the "there's no kill like overkill" approach. It took quite a bit of time before they countered all of the traps in the shack, and what horrible traps they were too. Among the milder ones were the entrail expelling curse, the blood boiling curse, the flesh eating curse, and so on, and so on. As for the nastier curses well, the less said about those the better.

Finally everything in the shack had been removed except for the horcrux itself. Dr. Strange used a levitation spell and pulled up the floor board beneath which the horcrux had been hidden. Then he levitated the golden box up out of the hole and put it on the ruin of a table that was sitting nearby.

"That reeks of bad magic even more than the rest of the shack" said the Ancient One who could sense the horcrux inside the box.

"Yes" said Dr. Strange, "the box itself is clean but the object inside it is not. There are two spells on it that need to be removed before the horcrux itself can be destroyed." Dr. Strange explained what they were and then spelled the box to open. He levitated out the ring inside it and set it on the table next to the box.

"Let us remove them at once" said the Ancient One looking at the ring.

The two sorcerers chanted the spells to remove the final curses and soon the ring was clean of everything except for the horcrux itself. Dr. Strange turned the Eye of Agamotto onto the ring and shortly thereafter the horcrux was destroyed and the ring was completely clean.

"And now, aside from our box, there is only one more" said the Ancient One.

"A very large snake" said Dr. Strange as he picked up the now clean ring and examined it. He turned it over to look at the stone and gasped.

"Master, look at this" he said and handed it to the Ancient One. His master looked at it and his eyebrows shot up when he saw the symbol carved into the stone. A vertical line that bisected a circle inside an equilateral triangle.

"The symbol of the Deathly Hallows" said the Ancient One who examined the stone more closely.

"It has an aura" said Dr. Strange who was examining it as well, "one that feels of death and yet not death."

"It would" said the Ancient One, "this is the Resurrection Stone, the one Hallow that has been missing until now."

"This is an incredible find" said Dr. Strange.

"Yes my son" said his master, "but we must keep it a secret. It could do incalculable damage if people knew where it was. There are better ways to speak to the dead if you need to than by using this."

"What shall we do with it then?"

"I will take it back to my temple and keep it locked up along with the other dangerous artifacts present. We will tell no one that it is there."

"Agreed Master" said Dr. Strange. He made a new portal and the two of them returned to the Ancient One's study. The silver box now only had two intact streamers.

"Not far to go now" said Dr. Strange, "I will be glad when Voldemort is gone."

"So will I my son" said the Ancient One.

The two of them sat down and the Ancient One's servant brought tea for both sorcerers.

"You said that the Resurrection Stone was the missing Hallow" said Dr. Strange, "what of the others? I'm aware that Dumbledore has the Elder Wand. He won it from Grindelwald back in 1945."

"Yes" said the Ancient One, "the history of the Elder Wand is not hard to trace. Many wizards have possessed it over the centuries. It has a long and bloody history."

"And the invisibility cloak?" asked Dr. Strange, "who has that?" The Ancient One actually smiled a soft smile at this.

"The cloak has been in the possession of the Potter family for many generations" he said, "going all the way back to their ancestor Ignotus Peverell. It has never been owned by any other family. Very few people know this and it should stay that way."

"So Harry Potter possesses it now?" asked Dr. Strange with a raised eyebrow.

"He does" confirmed the Ancient One, "I imagine he'll pass it on to one of his children when the time comes."

"It finally happened" said Sirius to Harry two days later as the two of them were having breakfast at the X-Mansion.

"What happened?" asked Harry.

"Your uncle Vernon went too far and got himself fired from Grunnings."

Harry dropped the knife he'd been using to butter his toast.

"How? Why?" he demanded in surprise.

"Your bully of an uncle turned out to be even more of a bully than we knew" said Sirius, "he's always been a bully towards his underlings but it was never too bad and he did his job well so top management turned a blind eye as long as no one complained. Well for the last two months he's gotten much worse. He's been a lot more open about screaming at people and intimidating them so that underlings have been starting to file complaints against him. Two days ago it came to a head when he lost his temper with his secretary and punched her in the face."

"WHAT?!"

"Yes, that was my reaction when I heard about it" said Sirius, "the president of the company dismissed him before the day was over."

"Wow" said Harry, "I wish I could say I was surprised but I'm not. How long have you known about all of this?"

"I found out yesterday" said Sirius, "today is the first real chance I've had to tell you."

"Two months" said Harry sounding a bit reflective, "it was two months ago that he and Petunia were told they would have to pay back all of the money they took from my estate. I wonder if that had something to do with it?"

"Probably" said Sirius, "despite how Juggernaut reacted when you yelled at him bullies often get worse when they get called out on their behavior. Since you weren't there your uncle couldn't take his rage out on you. He took it out on other targets instead."

"And now he's out" said Harry, "so what now? Do we swoop in and seize the house and all of the Dursleys' stuff?"

"Not yet" said Sirius, "as long as they keep making the scheduled payments we can't do that. But I think it's only a matter of time now unless he or Petunia gets another job."

"Am I a bad person for hoping that neither of them will do that?" asked Harry.

"After what they put you through?" said Sirius, "I don't think so. You're only human pup, even if you're also a wizard and a mutant."

"Thanks Padfoot" said Harry. The two of them finished their breakfasts and went off to prepare for that morning's training session in the Danger Room.

(To Be Continued)

A/N - I have sometimes wondered how Snape convinced Voldemort that he was still trustworthy after the latter came back in book 4. Voldemort was present for all of Harry's first year and would have seen (or heard) Snape plenty of times from the back of Quirrel's head. In book 4 after his resurrection Voldemort comments on one Death Eater that he thinks "has left me forever." The implication always seemed to be that this was Snape. We never saw the first meeting between Snape and Voldemort after Voldemort's return so how did Snape do it?

BONUS OMAKE (co-author Saralas)

This Omake would have taken place during the fight with Juggernaut.

Dobby watched the X-Men fighting Juggernaut and wished that there was something he could do to help. As he watched he remembered a show that Harry and several of the other team members watched regularly and that he had watched some of the time too. The show contained a lot of fighting and there was a specific move a he'd seen a certain character do which quickly came to his mind.

"Dobby remembers show Master watch" Dobby said to himself, "Dobby been waiting to try this." He snapped his fingers and a frying pan appeared in one of his hands. Then he vanished from where he was standing and reappeared with a CRACK in between the X-Men and Juggernaut.

"Dobby what the hell are you doing?" yelled Lightning,"get out of here!" Dobby ignored him. With a resolute look on his face as he faced Juggernaut he dropped the pan.

"Senbonzakura BONKshiyoshi" the house elf yelled.

Suddenly all of the kitchen pots and pans and knives and forks appeared. Dobby directed them to fly straight at Juggernaut who began cursing up a blue streak as he tried to deal with the unexpected attack.

Lightning looked at this in surprise before turning to Iceman who looked equally surprised by what was happening.

"We are never letting Dobby watch anime again" said Lightning to Iceman who nodded his head in agreement.

END

The anime in question is Bleach. We are both well aware that it didn't start until the 2000s but this is just an Omake so who cares?

As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone