Disclaimer- While the plot is mine, the characters are not… I'm just playing with them.
A/N- There's two things I need to inform you before we begin. First is this chapter had been divided into two parts because of its length and content and while the other half of this chapter is complete, I have decided against posting that at this time. I'm still slightly annoyed at the lack of reviews my last chapter got (and will happily thank SeulWolfe for being the only one who DID!- so THANK YOU!), but the truth is that I wanted to post before the end of the week but real life and the complexity of the notes relating the trial were preventing it. So the presently unfinished notes will be posted with the next chapter.
The other is that due to the sheer number of POV changes that takes place between Harry and Snape in this chapter, Snape's POV will be written in italics while Harry's stays standard. I hope that will clear up some of the confusion that is sure to follow.
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Chapter 8
Snape looked grimly around at the room, his senses on high alert for any sort of danger. It didn't help his puppy disappeared shortly after entering leaving him alone.
"If that puppy went on ahead without me," Snape hissed under his breath knowing that there was a good chance that the trial actually required them to go separately. If that was the case, then he would be meeting his puppy at the end of the trial. He needed to hurry. He had no clue as to how far ahead Harry had gotten.
Harry ventured carefully into the cavern wondering what he would find here and where his asgre had wandered off to. He would have to find him then, and if he didn't enter the chamber than he had to be ahead of him. Maybe he could catch up if he hurried.
The surrounding area was filled with bramble and rocks that he had never seen before. His first movement also proved that they were some sort of strangler vine. He most definitely did not want to get caught by them. It was time that he tested his wings.
The chamber was too quiet and he didn't like it one bit. Before him was a path directed by thorny brambles and jagged rocks, on the other side of the wavy path were a faint glow and the sense that Severus had gone on ahead of him. He had to hurry if he wanted to catch up.
However, the thorns were determined to trip him at every step and capture whatever was near. To Harry it seemed as if the path was purposely trying to close in on him and trap him. This only served to press his resolve.
If his asgre could make it through, then he would too.
The flight was simple enough but the strain on his healing back was minimal. He wasn't expecting it to be a test on his reflexes and dodging abilities as the stalactites started raining down on him as the thorny vines tried to reach up and grab him.
He was not expecting the jolt of pain that ran down his spine when the first set of thorns pierced his skin and actually stumbled from the shock as he looked down at his skin. There was no blood to be seen anywhere or even a sign of a scratch yet the feeling of the sensation that coursed through his body seconds before left an impact.
The pain felt good and his body was craving more of it. It was then Harry noticed that the brambles had stopped and his next hesitant step confirmed that they only moved when he did. The vine that caught his ankle sent another flash of burning pleasure and he went down without a fight.
'Too much,' he thought closing his eyes and trying to get his breath as the thorns sent another wave up and down his nerve endings.
The sensation felt like what his asgre's touches did to him and he froze up. This was not his beauty. He needed to find his Severus. He was up and out of the room before he even noticed.
When he landed on the other side of the thorny maze, he turned around to glare at the obstacle before pressing on. The trials were only going to get harder the farther they head in.
cwn
Snape proceeded down the hall cautiously, on the lookout for anymore traps. The bramble-stalactite challenge in the previous room had certainly kept him on his toes and he knew there would be more ahead. The maze that was in the first room was just the start of what was to come.
Upon leaving the stone chamber, Harry found himself venturing down a tunnel whose end seemed to be a large waterfall. Through it he could see just a bare glimpse of what lay ahead. It looked like another chamber like the one he just left, only without the thorns.
In front of him stood a tunnel that divided by a waterfall that felt wrong to his senses though he wasn't certain why. He decided to ignore it for now, looking for another route and coming up empty.
Snape glared at the waterfall, realizing, "This is the Trial of Water. The other room must have been the trial of Earth." As he had managed to avoid most of the last trial, it would figure that he would that he could not avoid them all. He would have to go through the waterfall to advance.
But as he started approaching the waterfall, he could have sworn he saw his asgre on the other side being led by someone in a dark cloak. It also looked like he was badly injured.
The spray of the waterfall was just enough for him to see what lay on the other side, a room similar to the one he had just left, but without the vegetation that made up the last room. He also saw out of the corner of his eye, his puppy limping out of sight with someone in a dark cloak.
As his Severus disappeared around the corner from view, Harry found himself running to where he last saw him only to find him gone.
"Harry," he stepped through the waterfall and promptly lost sight of the wounded Wybir. He also lost sight of the room that he was suppose to be in. He found himself on an archway bridge with nothing underneath him but the sound of roaring white water. One wrong step would be the end of him if he became careless.
Harry found himself biting off a curse when he found what was in his place. Before him was a chasm in which he could not see the bottom. If he had not stopped at the last minute, he would have gone over the edge.
'Eep,' he thought, before looking back at the waterfall in realization, 'It was only an illusion…'
How many more would he have to go through? He would have to be careful in case there were more traps ahead.
He needed to find Severus.
He needed to hurry. His puppy wasn't going to wait.
cwn
Harry followed the course of the bridge until it led him to another chamber that flickered with candlelight from the braziers that were stationed by each of the eight doors present. In the center of the room was a stairwell leading down into the abyss guarded by a wall of fire. The doors that branched out were also hidden behind walls of fire.
"What is this?" Harry inquired, studying the room. "Is this part of the trial?" He then turned to look behind to find the door gone & realized that this was part indeed part of the trial along with the two other obstacles that he already gone through.
But what would he have to do here? How was he going to get through the fire?
Harry went to the door closest to him ignoring the hot flames for now, curious as to what was inside. Beyond the wall he saw Snape or rather, the Snape from his past. This was the Snape that had belittled him that first day of Potions Class during his first year at Hogwarts.
Harry backed away in shock, colliding into the brazier behind him and knocking it over. The fire promptly went out, taking the door with it.
Snape warily entered the room of doors, braziers and firewalls, ignoring the stairwell in the middle of the room for the fire that blocked the way. The magic of the room was calling to him and he absently reached out for it.
"Another illusion?" the Wybir realized and looked for the other doors for answers. 'They must be illusions too so where is the right one?' Counting the number of passageways to the remaining braziers, he decided that one of them had to be real. He then proceeded to the nearest brazier and promptly tipped it over.
But no door disappeared.
"Did I do something wrong?" Harry asked himself, bending down to look for a switch of some sort that he might have stepped on accidentally but came up with nothing.
"Why didn't it go out?"
He then remembered that he had stood in from of the door and hesitantly approached, feeling both fearful and foolish. He didn't want to see what was past that door after the first one but at the same time should it prove to be nothing; he couldn't take the chance that it wasn't either.
The vision past the fire was also a memory but not one that he had ever witnessed before. A first, it looked like an image of his second year when he had played a prank in Potions class to distract Snape long enough for Hermione to get what they needed for the Polyjuice Potion they were brewing, yet at the same time it wasn't. For one, the twelve year old Harry looked sixteen. Another thing he noticed was that it was not the same potion he had brewed and when the firework exploded, the potion's reaction had been much different.
Three years ago, the Swelling Potion merely covered the Slytherins in goop that required a Deflating Potion to reverse, earning himself a vicious look from Snape in response. In this version, the damage area of the exploding potion had been much bigger, dousing everyone in the nearby area and having others dive for cover while causing the other potions in the cauldrons to erupt as well. Snape stood in the midst of this trying to regain control.
The Professor never saw the shard of exploded cauldron coming that took his life.
Harry backed away terrified. He would never have done such a thing, yet in a way, he had. How different was that scene from what he did in the past? What scared him was the look of satisfaction on the face of his sixteen year old self.
That Harry Potter had wanted the chaos to happen.
Suddenly, the Professor's lectures made a lot more sense.
Harry sat down where he stood, trying to regain his bearing as the door in front of him vanished. "What have we done?" Could his asgre really comfortable with being tied for life to such a thoughtless, reckless, arrogant child?
He needed to apologize and to do that; he needed to find his asgre.
"Blue flames?" Snape inquired as a blue fireball jumped from the center firewall and settled happily on his wrist, now knowing everything was not as it seemed. The braziers in the room promptly vanished, taking with it the doors that lined the room. The fire then proceeded to show him images of his past, each more painful than the last.
...Of his dealings with his family- the Princes and Tobias Snape whom abused him.
Harry reluctantly made his way to the third door, pushing over the nearest brazier as he passed by.
The door gave him an unaltered series of images of his home life with the Dursleys before he moved on to the next one remembering to disable a brazier as he went past.
...Of his dealings with the Marauders whom bullied him.
The fourth door's image froze him in his tracks. Before him stood a boy that looked a lot like him, his own age, but it wasn't him. At his side were three boys that were helping the look-alike taunt and hex a fourth boy in front of a crowd of onlookers. He saw the victim lash out in pain and embarrassment at the one nearest to him, a red-haired girl that had tried to protect him, driving her away with barely a protest.
Harry watched this with growing horror as only one adult stepped in to stop this. The other Professors then proceeded to punish the victim for what Harry felt was a rather mild offense while letting the bullies talk their way out of punishment. He knew that the rivalry at Hogwarts between Gryffindor and Slytherin was bad, but not that bad.
It was the faces that had horrified him.
The Slytherin victim had been his beloved Severus Snape.
The adult that had saved him had been Hagrid- Harry would have to thank him for that the next time he saw him.
The red-headed girl had been his mother, Lily Evans.
The Gryffindor bullies had been the traitor, Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew; his former DADA professor, Remus "Moony" Lupin; his godfather, Sirius "Padfoot" Black; and his father, James "Prongs" Potter, better known to everyone as the Marauders.
They had all been people he looked up to.
His beloved's insults made a lot more sense now. It was a good thing he was never returning to Hogwarts again or there would be Hell to pay.
"Four more to go," he said shaking as he slowly approached the next one.
...Of his dealings with Harry Potter and the Gryffindors whom he in turn bullied.
The fifth one proved to be no easier as it revealed to him a pair of prophecies that no one ever told him about. It was those prophecies that had turned the Longbottoms and the Potters into Death Eater targets. It was his beloved that had given Voldemort the first half of one prophecy on Dumbledore's order. Wormtail had given the Dark Lord another complete prophecy before directing him to where he could find the Potter family, also on Dumbledore's command.
Harry was going to kill the Headmaster the next time he saw him.
...Of his dealings with the Death Eaters and Voldemort whom tortured him.
The sixth door confirmed what Harry already knew about Snape and Dumbledore. Dumbledore had indeed cast a number of charms on Snape to make him more manageable and easier to control. Harry had not expected the charms to be cast when his asgre was only ten years old nor the ones he cast on Eileen Snape as well.
Dumbledore would not receive a quick and painless death.
...Of his dealings with the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore whom merely used him.
The seventh door revealed the Minister's part in his banishment, enabled on upon by a woman by the name of Delores Umbridge. This did not really surprise Harry as he knew Fudge was corrupt, and he had seen the woman before. She was at the trial.
He would ask Draco when he got back to the village. The Slytherin boy would know more about her. Harry knew that the blond wasn't completely ignorant on the politics in the Ministry. Lucius Malfoy would have seen to that.
...Of his dealings with Lily Potter nee Evans and Eileen Snape nee Prince whom saved him but never loved him despite his affection for them both.
"Last door," Harry thought as he pushed the last brazier over as he moved before the final door. Only the flame of the last two firewalls lit the chamber now.
What he saw was an argument between Dumbledore and his Aunt Petunia about Dudley and him ten years ago. Dumbledore threatened her with the safety of her family if she did not do what he said.
Harry sat down as the scene continued to play out. The Evans family was a Wizarding family, a powerful family with ties to the war and to Grindelwald. Grindelwald had sent them into hiding where they pretended to be Muggles but Dumbledore had found them first and sealed away their magic, taking their fortunes as his own.
He had missed Lily by accident and decided to use her instead and afterwards her son.
As the scene reached its conclusion, Harry knew why no one mentioned this happening. They had been Obliviated-
By Dumbledore.
Harry approached the stairwell as the final firewall died. He would ask Dumbledore why the Evans name scared him so much.
His answer would determine just how long he lived.
As the firewall vanished to allow him access, he heard a voice, "Fire is a light that purifies the darkness. It is both a great healer and a great destroyer.
"River Child, when the time comes, will you be amongst those that get burned?"
Snape demanded, "Who are you?"
His only answer was silence and darkness as the little blue fireball disappeared as well.
Maybe he would find his answers before him.
