25. Separating the Good from the Bad.

River zapped back into being and looked quickly around, checking her surroundings. She was in a living room – one that she recognised almost as if it was her own, though she had never had the chance to step inside it. Moving portraits dozed in their frames, unfazed by her sudden appearance, and there was a stillness about the room which did not seem entirely natural.

She supposed that she had expected it to be more chaotic than this, what with a war being planned. As it was, the seats were all empty save for one.

The Doctor had been sitting quietly on the sofa, presumably staring into space, before jerking upright at River's arrival. He then proceeded to get up and make his way to the window, staring out of it for a few seconds. He stared in confusion at the sky, apparently having been under the impression that there was some sort of oncoming storm. People presumed that a lot – after all, the Manipulator could sound like lightning.

River smirked. "Over here, Sweetie."

The Doctor span round so fast he could have fooled River into thinking he was being attacked, before paling and collapsing rather abruptly onto the carpet with a loud and painful sounding thump. River winced and hurried over to him, turning him over gently, trying to ignore the sweat making his hair stick to his face and his shirt cling to his too-thin form.

The Doctor fuzzily batted at her hair as if he was a cat. "You look like a Weeping Angel from this angle."

River felt his forehead. Just as she thought. "I think you mean Weeping Willow."

"That's what I said."

"No it isn't, you said 'Angel'."

He fell silent, his eyes moving from a point just over her shoulder to her eyes. "What took you so long?"

"You told me to."

Staring at her, the Doctor sat up. "No I didn't."

"Yes you did," River explained, not really in the mood to enjoy knowing information that he didn't. There was a time and place for spoilers. "Or you will."

"Not the time for timey-wimeyness," he sighed, agreeing with her. "Did you find it?"

River nodded. "Yes – it's in my backpack. Where's Harry?"

"Upstairs – Ron and Hermione are talking to him. But Snape hasn't come back yet. Actually, I'm not sure if he has," he corrected himself. "The last thing I remember was them going off to the bank in other people's bodies, and then it was all fluffy Daleks and rabbits."

River stared at him, not really sure what to make of that. There was just something innately wrong about the image of a stuffed Dalek toy. Imagine giving that to a child to cuddle. She resisted the urge to shudder.

"Yes, you're right, that sounds completely stupid. We both know I meant fluffy rabbits and Daleks."

Well, of course that cleared it up completely…

River sighed and wordlessly helped the Doctor back to his seat. "I'm just going to see who's here and who isn't. Where did you say Snape had gone?"

"To the bank with Dumbledore – you remember the Horcruxes."

"Yes," River said, "of course. What you said makes more sense now. When will they be back?"

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, screwing his face up comically as he tried to work it out. "Depends how long it takes Snape to outrun a dragon while wearing stilettos, I suppose."

River nodded dubiously. "I see. Stay here, Doctor. I'll be right back."

Giving him a quick glance to make sure that he was actually following her orders, River swept out of the living room and made her way upstairs. The stairs creaked ominously, and River found herself avoiding the gazes of the long dead house elves, who stared permanently in front of them. Finally, she heard voices coming from what had to be Sirius' room – old room, she corrected herself – so she knocked and walked in without waiting for an answer.

The three teenagers inside stared at her in confusion. One of them – Harry – dropped his eyes in slight embarrassment, and River noted that they were slightly red. River shut the door gently behind her and moved to stand in front of the trio, who were all crowded onto the one bed.

"It's you," Hermione finally said.

"Yes," she replied. "I'm here to help."

"But… How can you be here?" Harry asked, his curiosity getting the better of his pride as he looked her dead in the eye. "Umbridge kicked you out of Hogwarts."

"You may have heard rumours going around the school that I was a spy, Death Eater, Squib… You name it," River explained, "and there was probably a rumour about it. The truth is, I am the wife of the man downstairs-"

"The Doctor?" Hermione confirmed.

"I see you've met him," River commented.

"He told me that I have a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head."

"I see he was his usual sensitive self," River muttered.

"Wait… You knew?" Harry asked. "How can you know? Why did Dumbledore tell everyone but me?"

"He didn't tell me," River replied, trying her best to forestall what could very well become an explosion. "I'm from another universe, like the Doctor, where there are books written about you and how it all ends. That's all. The Doctor did tell you that he thought of a way to fix this?"

Harry looked slightly sheepish, so Hermione replied for him. "He tried, but Harry ran out of the room."

"Understandable, given the circumstances," River said gently when Harry angrily opened his mouth to correct Hermione. "In our universe, there is a piece of technology called the Soul Separator, which the Doctor sent me to get. We can use it to siphon off any soul that isn't yours, contain it, and destroy it safely, so that Voldemort will never come back."

"Er…" Harry looked a bit baffled.

"It's completely safe," she assured him. "We just need to perform the procedure now."

"Now?" Ron repeated, looking a bit nervous on his friend's behalf.

"The sooner the better. We need to be sure that it's worked before we go into the Final Battle. Now, this is probably better done lying down, so if you-"

"River?" The Doctor stood in the doorway, apparently having opened it without anyone noticing. "What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of Voldemort's soul," she reminded him.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no. It's Snape – he's meant to do it."

Harry winced. "Does it have to be him?"

"He's safe," the Doctor assured them all. "He's definitely on your side – believe me, I wouldn't be alive now if he wasn't."

"But why him?" Hermione asked. "Why not Dumbledore? He's a Legilimens too."

"And the most powerful wizard who ever lived," Ron added for good measure.

"No," the Doctor replied. "His wand is." He considered that for a moment. "Although actually he probably is, if you think about it, because he did defeat Grindelwald – River, was that with or without the Eld-"

River coughed. "Spoilers."

The Doctor just blinked at her.

"Lie down," River instructed Harry, placing her backpack on the bed next to him.

"No, it has to be Snape!"

"Doctor, you know as well as I do that it works just as well with any telepath, and we really haven't got time to be picking favourites. We don't even know when he'll be back – if he's gone with Dumbledore, they could come back anytime!"

"Quite right," an old voice agreed, stepping through the doorway, "but I do rather pride myself on my uncanny punctuality."

"Headmaster," Harry said tightly, looking angry. "Why didn't you tell me? About the scar," he added.

"I have only just worked it out myself," Dumbledore replied solemnly. "I was always meaning to tell you, of course. I just could never bring myself to."

There was an awkward silence.

"Did you get all the Horcruxes?" The Doctor suddenly asked.

Dumbledore nodded, his eyes twinkling. "Yes, we did, and I must admit that the last one was rather fun. Severus makes an excellent Bellatrix Lestrange, don't you, Severus?" Dumbledore added as footsteps sounded on the landing.

Snape appeared in the doorway, looking very cross. "Never again."

"Now, I believe the Soul Separator has been found," Dumbledore stated, looking questioningly at River, who nodded. "Harry, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." He sounded strained and tense, quite clearly trying to hide the fact that he was nowhere near as prepared as he was trying to look.

"Severus?"

Snape nodded tersely.

"Does it have to be him?" Harry asked abruptly. "You could do it."

"I would, Harry, but I do not have the same knowledge of Voldemort's mind. Given that Severus does, it would seem more prudent to allow him to perform the procedure."

"Reassuring," Ron muttered. "Send in the guy who's intimate with You-Know-Who…"

"I trust Severus implicitly."

Snape, for his part, was getting impatient. "You still haven't grasped the obvious after all these years? How many times must I stop your pathetic, dangerous schemes and save you from your own inexperience and stupidity before you understand? Even the Death Eaters reached the right conclusion before you three."

"That's right, insult them," the Doctor commented not quiet quietly enough. "That'll win them over."

"The Death Eaters know?" Hermione asked. "But how-"

"That was probably my fault," the Doctor said, looking guiltily at his feet. "I couldn't keep them out of my mind for long enough and they saw."

"It couldn't be helped," Dumbledore said kindly. "No one can keep Voldemort out indefinitely, which is precisely why Severus was likely to be discovered, one way or another. Now, Severus, the procedure?"

Snape sighed and moved further into the room to claim the chair next to Harry, who reluctantly lay down on the bed. River fished out the Separator for him and handed it over, giving him a brief run through of how it worked. It was fairly small, easily able to fit on a patient's forehead. The base was about the size and shape of an Ipod and had two single switches on it; one to turn the machine on and off, and the other to be held down continuously to keep the channel open to the collection pod (the size of a golf ball and balanced in the middle of the base), where one of the souls was collected.

"The Headmaster and I will be nearby in case of problems," she finished, hoping that that sounded reassuring, for despite his admirable attempt at hiding it, Snape was quite clearly nervous.

"Alright, Potter," Snape announced, plonking the device on Harry's head and clearly not quite sure what to do with himself as he took his wand out of his pocket.

"Ordinarily you'd be told that it won't hurt a bit," the Doctor interjected helpfully. He turned to River. "You know, I've never understood that – why tell someone it won't hurt when it quite clearly will and the other person knows that you're just lying anyway? It just makes the situation even tenser."

"Doctor," River muttered, "they need quiet. This takes a lot of concentration."

"Right, of course. Sorry. Go ahead."

Snape placed his wand just in front of Harry's face and, keeping the Separator in place with his other hand, murmured, "Legilimens."

Snape's face gradually became devoid of all emotion and the very essence of concentration as he started to push his way into Harry's mind. Harry, for his part, suddenly winced and sat up, almost headbutting Snape in the process.

Snape looked at him in pure exasperation. "I see you have finally managed to block me out of your mind. Hardly opportune, Potter."

Harry riled at that, but lay down again, avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room. Hermione reached out and grabbed his hand, which he squeezed back gratefully. "Sorry," he said at last, sounding tense. "I'm just nervous."

Snape simply started the process all over again. This time, the light on the Separator lit up, indicating that the process was successfully in progress, and the other occupants of the room settled in for a long wait.