Author's Notes: Thank you to inu-youkai 911 for the beta read.
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The Bodyguard
Chapter 34: The Gryffindor Horcrux
"No," said Harry, shaking his head in disbelief. He backed away from Nagini so quickly that he stumbled and nearly fell.
Draco caught him and Harry leaned back into his arms. Now they both were trembling.
"Yes, Potter. You're the Gryffindor Horcrux," said Snape silkily. "Why else would Voldemort have given orders to spare your miserable life? He knew a Killing Curse, fired into your scar, would have destroyed his soul, as well as yours. Ordering the Death Eaters to avoid your scar would have begged the question why, and Voldemort trusts no one with the secret of his immortality." Snape sneered. "No, he had to kill you himself, while preserving the Horcrux in your head."
"If we destroy the Horcrux in Harry's scar, he'll burn to ashes. Look at what happened to Hufflepuff's Cup," said Hermione unsteadily. She and Ron were hugging each other for comfort.
"Voldemort protected his Horcruxes with terrible Curses," said Snape. "He wanted those who destroyed his soul fragments to die in agony."
"We can't kill Harry," cried Draco, giving his boyfriend a protective, possessive squeeze.
Ron was shaking his head as though trying to dispel a bad dream. Hermione whimpered.
"Can we be certain Nagini's scar - and my scar - are Horcruxes?" asked Harry. He knew what he had to do, if he were truly the Gryffindor Horcrux. But first he had to be sure...
"I devised a test," said Snape, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Nagini. "Animus Aperio!" he said.
Nothing happened at first. The quartet leaned in. Then Ron cried, "Look!"
Faint, white light was pouring from Nagini's scar. As they watched, it grew blindingly bright. They backed away, shielding their eyes.
"That's a positive result, I take it," said Harry grimly, as the light began to fade.
Snape nodded. There was a strange, unfathomable glitter in his black eyes. "Your turn, Potter," he said.
Harry felt Draco's embrace tighten to the point of being painful, as Snape approached.
"Animus Aperio!"
Instantly, Harry's body glowed white. Fascinated, he raised a bright hand, and flexed fingers resembling neon tubes. He had to avert his eyes from the painful brilliance.
Draco released him and turned him around by his shoulders, squinting at his scar through a curtain white-blond hair.
"Well?" asked Harry breathlessly.
"You're glowing all over. That must be YOUR soul," said Hermione. "But now your scar is starting to glow even brighter."
"No, it's not, it's just a trick of the light!" insisted Draco. His hands squeezed Harry's shoulders so hard that they hurt.
"Draco, the scar is a Horcrux," said Snape.
"It can't be! I won't let you kill him!"
"Specul!" said Harry. The air before him took on a mirror-like sheen, and he examined his reflection. The glow of an extra piece of soul in his scar was unmistakeable. "It all makes sense," he said shakily. "Before Voldemort closed his mind against me, I could FEEL him inside me. Feel his emotions, see through his eyes. Sense his nearness. I can speak in Parselmouth just like him. Well, Voldemort IS inside me. I am the Gryffindor Horcrux. Not the sword. Not the hat. Me!" He was absolutely certain now and he knew what his fate would be. Everything seemed so clear and distinct in the light shining from his body. The dear, worried faces of his friends. The pointed, breathtakingly gorgeous face of his beloved...
The light from Harry's body began to fade, and his conjured mirror shimmered into nothingness. Draco embraced him again and pressed his face hard into his neck. Harry hugged him back hard, mentally saying goodbye.
"No, this isn't happening," wailed Hermione.
"You were right, Draco," said Harry. "You told me Avada Kedavra doesn't scar, and some other powerful Curse had marked me. No wonder Voldemort told me my mother didn't have to die."
Draco lifted his head.
Snape made a sudden, convulsive movement. "What?" he snapped.
"When Voldemort killed my father, he must have planned to use Dad's death to turn me into his Horcrux." Harry shook his head, righteous anger displacing some of his sadness and dread. "The final Horcrux of Slytherin's heir, buried in the dead skull of Gryffindor's last descendant, and made from death of Gryffindor's second-last descendant. How Voldemort must have congratulated himself for thinking of that! How could I ever been stupid enough to think that psychopath would have stooped to using a mere sword, a hat or piece of stone as a Horcrux, when he used and destroyed my entire family instead?" said Harry bitterly. He steeled himself and went on.
"But my mother stood in Voldemort's way. A mere Muggle-born, but she wouldn't let him kill me. So he killed her, and made this Horcrux with her death instead." Harry touched his scar and shivered, as though the hot cellar was cold. "A Horcrux made from my mother's selfless, loving sacrifice. No wonder, when Voldemort used Avada Kedavra on me afterwards, it backfired on him. No wonder he feels so much pain when he possesses me."
To Harry's astonishment, Snape stared at the floor, breathing hard, as though struggling to control his emotions.
"You dated my mother," said Harry, unable to keep the coldness out of his voice. "She loved you, but you cheated on her."
Snape looked up and, despite his rage, Harry flinched. Those black eyes were abysses of pain and loss. Snape spoke, in a voice as hollow as his eyes, "Lily Evans was, and remains, the most gifted, beautiful, intelligent and above all, the kindest woman I have ever met in my life. I count myself lucky that we were together for two years. They were the happiest two years of my life."
Harry choked.
"What is it?" snapped Snape.
"It's just that I've never heard you say a single, positive thing about my family before," said Harry.
"Your father was an arrogant bully, Potter." Harry opened his mouth to retaliate. "But your mother was absolute perfection."
Harry closed his mouth, wracked with conflicting emotions. He wanted to smash Snape to smithereens for insulting his father, even though intellectually, he knew Snape was quite right about him. But Harry loved his father. He couldn't stand by and let the greasy git insult him, any more than he'd let someone tell him Draco was boastful and spoiled.
At the same time, Harry desperately wanted to hear more about his mother. He'd never heard her little stories. No one had ever told him what she was like. He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, but Snape was already speaking again.
"I met Lily Evans at the Slug Club, on our very first trip on the Hogwart's Express. Slughorn found me on the train and invited me because of my mother's gift with Potions and Gobstones. He invited Lily, when he found every cushion in her compartment tap dancing down the corridor and Lily trying desperately to round them up. He'd never seen an untrained witch manage such a powerful Dancing Charm."
Despite the fact it was Snape speaking, Harry's lips twitched. He stared at his ex-teacher and wondered how many people he had spoken to about Lily. Very few, he guessed. No wonder the floodgates were opening now.
"Lily and I became best friends. We sat together in Potions, visited each other's homes. She was so funny, no one could fail to fall in love with her."
"I remember Slughorn saying that," said Harry.
"But Voldemort decided I should be groomed for the Death Eaters," Snape's eyes, which had been misty with reminiscence, suddenly grew hard, and his voice dripped with self-recrimination. "Suddenly, I gained a group of new 'friends'. All of them with hardline views against Muggles and Muggle-born. They tried to drive a wedge between Lily and I, but they only succeeded when one of them drugged me with Love Potion and made Lily think I was cheating on her. I was disgusted with Lily for being so easily driven away and, when James Potter started torturing me that day you saw in my memory, flipping me over with Levicorpus and washing my mouth out-"
"What memory was that, Professor Snape?" asked Hermione nervously.
Snape blinked. "You didn't tell them about my worst memory you saw in the Pensieve, Potter?"
"Of course not," said Harry. "I promised not to tell."
Snape stared at him with disbelief. "Your father never kept a promise in his life." Harry bristled. "But your mother was utterly trustworthy." Harry subsided slightly and Snape continued. "That day, Lily came to my rescue and I called her a ... Mudblood."
Harry heard Ron and Hermione's sharp intakes of breath.
The tinge of colour in Snape's cheeks suggested he was thoroughly ashamed of himself. "I was embarrassed at having a girl rescue me in public. Particularly a girl who had doubted me, and one my new so-called friends despised. After that day, Lily never said another word to me," Snape finished. Was it Harry's imagination, or were Snape's eyes damp?
Harry considered what he'd just heard. It made sense. He'd wondered why a man, who'd been a Death Eater and lived through Voldemort's worst excesses, could possibly have considered a school taunting to be the worst of his memories. But what if Snape had been in love with Lily, and that memory had been the moment he'd managed to drive her away for good, with a few ill-chosen words, into his enemy's arms? The only woman he'd ever loved? Now THAT was a worst memory.
"Do you have any idea what the last few years have been like?" breathed Snape, his face contorted with hatred. "Every Potions class, you'd be there, looking and acting just like your father, with your mother's eyes. Mocking me. You should have been MY son! Your mother deserved better than James Potter! She would have divorced him in a few years, if Voldemort hadn't murdered her. I know it! I would have loved her until the day she died. I still do."
Draco's warm arms around his chest reminded Harry how close he'd come to losing his own love of his life. Compassion, and the Occlumency Draco had taught him allowed Harry to turn twinkling eyes towards Snape, instead of hate filled ones.
"My father DID love my mother until the day he died. He died trying to protect her and me," Harry stated quietly.
Snape had clearly prepared himself for a screaming match. He looked uncertain at Harry's calm reply.
"My mother must have really have been an amazing person to have been so loved," added Harry.
"She was," breathed Snape.
"But you betrayed her. It's your fault she's dead. You overheard half of the prophecy, before Aberforth kicked you out. Then you went and told Voldemort, and he went after my family." Anger slipped into Harry's voice, though his eyes remained shielded.
Snape winced, as though stabbed through the heart with his own guilt.
"Prophecy?" asked Draco. "The prophecy that my father failed to retrieve?"
"Yes," said Harry. "The prophecy about the Chosen One, made by Trelawney."
"That old fraud?" Draco was scandalized.
"She's not a fraud all the time," said Harry. "Very rarely, she goes into a trance, and starts speaking in a weird, deep voice. When that happens, her prophecy is true. But she doesn't remember what she's said afterwards."
Doubt was written all over Draco's face. "So when did she make this prophecy?"
"1980, in the Hog's Head," said Harry. He wondered at the way he'd struggled so hard to keep the prophecy from the older Malfoy, when he loved and trusted his son so much he was just giving the information away. "Trelawney told me Dumbledore was interviewing her for the position of Divination Professor, when she went into a trance in front of him. When she woke up after making the prophecy, Snape was there at the door, making excuses." Harry noticed Hermione was listening in. Had he told her this complete story before? "Then Aberforth threw Snape out-"
"Dumbledore's brother doesn't like Death Eaters. I know that from personal experience," said Draco ruefully.
Harry nodded. "Snape went straight to Voldemort, and told him the first half of the prophecy, which was all he'd managed to overhear." There was only a touch of accusation in his voice. Harry felt proud of his Occlumency skills.
But the white-blond Slytherin was looking puzzled. "All of the prophecy, Harry."
"No, he only heard half."
"ALL of it," Draco insisted. "You told me Trelawney loses consciousness when making her prophecies."
"She does."
"So if she made her prophecy, woke up, and Snape was still there, he must have heard ALL of it."
Harry froze. Draco was right. Why hadn't he thought of that before? Here was incontrovertible evidence that Snape hadn't been loyal to Voldemort.
Snape was smiling. "Trust a Slytherin to be more cunning than three Gryffindors," he said proudly.
"B-But you only told Voldemort half the prophecy. The first half," Harry spluttered. "Dumbledore told me."
"I DID only tell Voldemort the first half. But if Dumbledore told you I only HEARD the first half, he lied."
Opening and closing his mouth in shock, Harry said, "How dare you? Albus Dumbledore was not a liar!"
Snape sneered. "Of course he wasn't! But he was the smartest wizard I have ever had the honour of knowing, and he knew what it was safe for people to know. The enemy reads minds! How could Dumbledore possibly have told a boy, who at that time, had a mind that leaked like a sieve and a direct mental connection to Voldemort, the news that I had listened to the entire prophecy Voldemort was so desperate to hear?"
"Were you working for Dumbledore when you overheard the prophecy?" asked Draco.
"I was not." Snape looked ill at ease. "I thought he'd murdered my mother. But I had grave doubts about Voldemort's cause by then, and a strong intuition of whom the prophecy was about. I only told the first, most innocuous half, or so I thought, to Voldemort. I didn't care at the time, if the half prophecy sent him chasing after some random stranger. But I should have told him nothing." Snape started to pace, his robes billowing. "Two children were born at the end of July, one to the Longbottoms, one to the Potters. Voldemort decided that the one born to the descendant of Gryffindor must be the child of the prophecy. My abysmally stupid, criminally loose tongue drove Voldemort after the Potters!"
"Dumbledore told me that you considered telling half the prophecy to Voldemort, to be the single biggest regret of your life," said Harry. He hadn't believed it before. Now he did.
Snape whirled around to face Harry. "I wouldn't have harmed Lily for the world! Even if she never broke up with Potter, even if I never spoke to her again, I wanted her to be happy and safe! I was with Voldemort, when he heard of your birth and started scheming aloud about the ways he would track down the Potters and slaughter them. And the Longbottoms too, to be on the safe side. I listened, then I went straight to Dumbledore to give myself up and tell him everything I knew. He listened, and then he wanted to see my Patronus. My Patronus had been a black panther, but after that day..." Snape's eyes softened. "It looked like Lily Potter."
"So Dumbledore knew you had truly changed sides." Harry had wondered if Dumbledore had made Snape take an Unbreakable Vow of loyalty. But though the old wizard could be cunning, Harry realised now that breaking someone's will with an Unbreakable Vow, was Umbridge's style, not Dumbledore's. Patronuses were incontrovertible evidence of loyalty and caused no harm.
"Dumbledore made sure he wasn't the only one who knew my loyalties had changed," said Snape, the hint of a smile on his face. "He took me to visit my mother. I'd thought he'd killed her, but there she was, alive and well, working as the Hogwarts Librarian and engaged to be married to the caretaker. She hadn't dared to tell me she was still alive. For all she knew, I might have killed her for leaving the Death Eaters. It wouldn't have been the first time Voldemort turned family members against each other."
"Yes," said Harry. "Sirius Black was murdered by his own cousin, Bellatrix, who also murdered her own sister." He snuggled closer to Draco.
"I'd never seen my mother so happy. That was when my Patronus changed again, and Dumbledore appeared next to Lily." Snape glanced at the serene faces of his Patronus.
"No wonder Dumbledore trusted you," said Harry quietly.
"Everything changed for me that day, the 31st of July 1980. I changed my allegiances and friends, where I lived, and what I did for a living, because Dumbledore offered me a job. It was a new life."
"So when you told Dumbledore my family was in danger, what did he do?" asked Harry.
"Dumbledore took immediate steps to protect the Longbottoms and the Potters, those who had defied Voldemort three times and were expecting babies."
"Only three times? Harry's defied Voldemort more than that, and I bet you have too, Severus!" said Draco.
"Hundreds of times." Snape looked pleased with himself.
Harry laughed. "Yes, defying Voldemort's not so rare anymore. You've done it twice yourself, Draco."
"It will be three times tonight!" said Draco fiercely.
"And Dumbledore defied Voldemort three times: once when Voldemort was eleven, and still called himself Tom Marvolo Riddle, the second time when he turned him down for the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, and the third time in the Ministry of Magic, when they fought," said Harry.
"If I may continue?" Snape looked peevish, and Harry subsided. "I'd told Dumbledore exactly what Voldemort was planning. Both families went into hiding. Dumbledore put the Longbottoms under the Fidelius Charm, with himself as the Secret Keeper, and he wanted to do the same for the Potters." Snape's already sallow skin paled further. "But that was where things started to go wrong. Your father went against Dumbledore's wishes, and said he was going to use his best friend, Sirius Black. Then, at the last minute, he switched to that cringing bit of filth, with a mind even more unprotected than yours used to be, Potter - Wormtail. Wormtail didn't even have to TELL Voldemort the location of the Potters. Voldemort read it in his pathetic little mind. The broken Fidelius Charm had been going less than a week, when Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow and..." Snape stopped speaking. He looked away, head bowed.
There was silence for a while. Then Harry said, "But the Longbottoms were tortured into insanity. How did that happen if they were under a Fidelius Charm?"
"They asked Dumbledore to take it off," answered Snape turning back around. His cheeks were wet. "Months had passed and they thought they were safe. They were very skilled Aurors and keen to get back to work, chasing the last of the Death Eaters. But they were months out of practice. The Death Eaters caught them instead. Bellatrix had some deranged idea that they knew where Voldemort had gone, and tortured them until their minds broke."
There was silence again. Then Harry spoke.
"Dumbledore told me that the half prophecy sowed the seeds of Voldemort's destruction. Because he'd only heard the first part, about the time I was born, he came after me and gave me the scar, that marked me as his equal. Marked me as the Chosen One, who would destroy him."
"You are not the Chosen One," said Snape, in a voice of absolute certainty.
Draco blinked. "How can you say that?" Ron and Hermione looked aghast.
"The sign of the Chosen One, is that he has been marked as Voldemort's equal. That's what the second half of the prophecy states," said Snape.
"Harry's scar is that mark-" Draco began.
"So Dumbledore thought," interrupted Snape. "But now we know for sure - that scar is a Horcrux. Voldemort intended Potter to be a mere skull, sitting in his trophy cabinet. The scar doesn't mark Potter as Voldemort's equal, it marks him as his victim!"
Snape's words made perfect sense to Harry, and they made his duty clear. He didn't have to keep himself alive at all costs any more, so he could vanquish Voldemort. "So who is the real Chosen One?" he asked, with a calmness he didn't feel. "Is it Neville Longbottom?"
"Neville Longbottom? The Chosen One?" sniggered Draco, as though the very idea were ludicrous. "Not exactly hero material, is he?"
Even Ron chuckled a bit. Hermione looked irritated.
Harry frowned at Draco and Ron and they shut up. "I can send my Patronus to Neville and tell him to be at Hogwarts at midnight. The real Chosen One must be there, so Voldemort can be vanquished."
"That will not be necessary," said Snape briskly. "It is the nature of prophesy, that the true Chosen One will make his presence known, at the time he is needed."
"You mean, if we need Neville Longbottom, he will be there?"
Snape curled his lip in disgust. "If we need him."
"So Voldemort will still be vanquished tonight, even if you kill me to destroy the Horcrux," stated Harry baldly.
Snape gave a great start.
"Harry!" cried Draco, shocked. Ron groaned.
"That's not what I meant at all, Potter!" snapped Snape. "We must find a way of removing the Horcrux that won't kill you. Your mother would never have forgiven me if I let you die."
"Would surgery work?" ventured Draco. "Harry could go to St Mungo's."
"No," said Snape. "The scar isn't completely physical. It's a soul connection. The Horcrux must be pulled out, by Dementor."
"But that would trigger the protective spells V-Voldemort has put into Harry, and kill him," said Hermione.
"I know," said Snape. He started to pace relentlessly.
"I'm not afraid," said Harry. And, strangely, he wasn't. His purpose was clear. It was as if everything he'd ever said and done had been leading to this moment.
"Harry, no," said Draco.
"Can we ... defuse ... the protective spells?" asked Ron.
"No," said Snape, turning around. "I have already studied this. They have two default states, activated and burning, or not activated. They cannot be defused. That was why Dumbledore thought it best to destroy the ring immediately and face the consequences."
"If I have to make a sacrifice, then that's the way it is. Voldemort MUST be made mortal, so the Chosen One, whoever they are, can vanquish him," said Harry.
"Don't be such a brave Gryffindor, Potter. It's painful to my ears," sneered Snape. "And don't jump to the conclusion removing your Horcrux will kill you. I've never removed a Horcrux from a living, or once living, creature before. Perhaps Voldemort didn't use any protections for Nagini or you?"
Draco exhaled loudly in relief. "Merlin! I hope so!"
"Let's find out," said Ron.
Snape nodded. "Stand in the corner, while I summon a Dementor," he ordered. He waved his wand and once again, a cold and clammy chill broke through the heat of the cellar. Harry heard the faint screams of his parents. Draco shuddered, as though he were witnessing his mother's death again, and the Dementor flew into the room.
This time, Harry didn't recognise the withered face.
At once, Snape's Patronus seized the Dementor. "Eat that," Snape ordered the undead creature, irritably pointing at the dead snake.
The Dementor didn't need to be told twice. It picked up Nagini in its gooey, rotten hands, and raised her to its mouth.
Snape wove the barrier around himself and the quartet.
"Did you hear a sizzling sound?" asked Hermione nervously, in the sudden silence after the barrier dropped down. Her voice echoed.
No one answered her. They stared at the Dementor. Smoke had started to rise from its hands. As it consumed the last of the soul fragment, the Dementor disappeared, consumed in a firestorm.
"Oh..." faltered Hermione.
"Uh..." muttered Ron.
"Voldemort DID protect his living Horcruxes," said Harry resignedly. He hadn't expected anything less. Draco squeezed him and Harry stroked his sleek hair, trying to calm his trembling, but he realised it would take more than a last cuddle to make Draco happy now.
Snape didn't look at any of them, while he dissolved the barrier and gathered up what was left of the Dementor and Nagini. But Harry's friends gazed at each other in desperation. Harry thought they looked as though they were coming to a decision.
"We're not removing your Horcrux, Harry," stated Ron.
Snape gathered up the ashes, and put them into a Transfigured pot. He glanced at Harry and rolled his eyes.
"If Voldemort is killed tonight, and my Horcrux is intact, Voldemort will be able to return," said Harry angrily. "It might be next year, it might be fifty, but he'll be back."
"So we can live fifty years together in freedom," said Draco. "That's what I want."
"You don't understand. If we don't vanquish Voldemort tonight, thousands of innocent people may die in the future. Voldemort WILL return, more powerful than he is today. The longer it takes, the worse he's going to be."
Ron looked furious. "What ABOUT a thousand strangers? Why should we care? We don't know them!"
Hermione bit her lip and looked as though she was about to say something. But she didn't.
"Why should we care about thousands of people, who MIGHT die, when we know we can save the one person we love, who we know WILL die?" cried Draco.
"Dumbledore once thought as you do," said Harry sadly. But his friends weren't listening.
Draco glanced at Ron and Hermione. "Are you with me?" he asked.
"Yes!" exclaimed Ron, and Hermione looked guilty, then nodded.
"We won't let you commit suicide, like a stupid Gryffindor, Harry. You're staying alive, like the Slytherin you nearly were!" cried Draco.
"Slytherin?" asked Snape.
"Yes, Severus. The Sorting Hat wanted to put Harry into Slytherin. But he refused to go."
"Because all the selfish, self-centred, evil people were only in Slytherin," said Harry, with a significant wink at Snape.
"Of course! Never in Gryffindor," said Snape sarcastically, turning his withering, dark gaze onto Ron and Hermione. They returned his gaze for only a few seconds before they looked away in shame.
"This isn't fair!" Draco's voice brimmed with heartbroken petulance. "Just when we thought we were safe, and the Vow was gone, we discover your Horcrux." He grabbed possessively at Harry. "I won't let you make a martyr of yourself now! I refuse to allow it! You're mine! I don't care about Voldemort coming back!"
"But you're not safe," said Snape silkily. "I'm sorry if you got that impression. Yes, the Vow has faded, now it has detected you're in love. But the Vow is permanent, and love sadly ephemeral. Particularly teenage love." He sighed dramatically. "What's the divorce rate on teenage marriages? Half? More than half? When you stop loving Harry, Draco, when you grow and change, when he finally gets on your nerves too many times, and you can't stand him any longer, then the Vow will start to function again. I give you both about a year. Five at the most."
"What happens if I die?" asked Harry.
"Don't say that!" cried Draco.
"With the master dead, the Vow would truly cease to exist."
"No!" Draco yelled.
Harry made his decision. Staring hard into Snape's eyes, he said: "All right, Draco. You've changed my mind. We WON'T remove my Horcrux."
Draco, Ron and Hermione sagged in relief.
"I love you, Harry. I'm so glad you've seen reason," said Draco, kissing Harry all over his face. Harry kissed him back.
"I love you, Draco too. Never forget that."
"You can remind me every day."
Harry's smile was tight. He moved to Hermione and Ron. "I'm sorry. You really are the best friends I ever could have had," he said, hugging one after the other.
"Harry, why are you acting like you're saying goodbye?" asked Hermione. Harry had his chin on her shoulder, as he hugged her, and he stared hard into Snape's eyes.
"Goodbye? Why would I be saying goodbye?" Harry let go of Hermione and Draco ran thankfully back into his arms.
"I'm glad you've seen reason," said Draco.
Harry reached over to kiss Draco. As their lips touched, and Draco closed his eyes, Harry surreptitiously brought his wand up to his boyfriend's head, and thought Stupefy!
Draco went limp in his arms. Holding him up with his left arm, Harry pointed his wand at Hermione, and thought the word again.
Even as Harry was stunning Hermione, Snape brought out his wand, stunned Ron and caught both him and Hermione in a spell, which gently lay them down on the floor together. Harry gave Draco a last kiss on his closed eyelids, and laid him down, next to Ron and Hermione.
"My, my, Potter. You don't do anything by halves, do you? Asking me secretly with your eyes, to help you stun your loved ones, so they'd be unable to stop you getting your Horcrux removed. The Sorting Hat was right. You really are cunning enough to have been in Slytherin."
"How would you have liked having me in your house?" Harry couldn't help asking Snape.
The ex-Head of Slytherin didn't reply right away. Then his lips twitched. "We would have won every single House Cup!"
"Is winning all you ambitious Slytherins think about?" asked Harry, amused but aghast.
Snape gave the ceiling a comical look, as though thinking hard. "No! We occasionally think of losing, but only in the context of avoiding it," he said at length. Then his face became serious. "My ambition is Voldemort's destruction. Do you dare tell me all ambition is bad, Potter?"
Shaking his head and grinning, Harry said, "No, Snape. And please call me Harry."
Snape looked shaken. "Very well. And you can call me Severus. I think you've earned the right, one last time, Harry."
"Promise me you'll look after my friends. Stop Draco having one of his tantrums, when he wakes up. This had to be done," said Harry. Now that everything was nearly over, he felt quite light and cheerful. He lay down on the floor. "I'm ready. Summon a Dementor." He grinned. "If you've got any left!"
"Plenty left, Harry," said Snape sadly.
Staring at the melted ceiling, Harry said, "While you were teaching me, I never thought you'd have your own reasons for behaving the way you did. I always thought of you as a bad guy, but I don't any more. The more I learn about the world, the more I realise it's not black and white, it's complex shades of grey."
"That understanding is called 'maturity', Harry, and I'm overjoyed that you may be experiencing it at last." Snape's voice shook. "At last..."
"I'll tell my mother you love her. That is, if I'm not with my father in hell." From the floor, Harry winked.
"Hell is a bit extreme for James Potter, Harry. Purgatory with one or two demons, perhaps."
A chill came over the room. The shadowy figure of the new Dementor loomed over Harry's head. Snape hurried over to Harry's unconscious friends and wove the barrier. "Goodbye, Harry, and thank you for introducing me to an entirely new feeling."
"What's that?"
"Being actually sorry to see you go!"
The barrier slid into place before Harry could speak. Snape had got the last word.
Now it was just Harry and the Dementor...
...and Snape's Patronus, grasping the Dementor's arms. Harry stared up at the two shining, loving faces above him. It was comforting to know Dumbledore and Lily Potter would go on, at least in some form.
Straining against the grip of the Patronus, the Dementor leaned in.
The hideous, shrivelled face with the sucking mouth, loomed large in Harry's vision. He willed himself to stay still. He could hear his mother screaming. It contrasted strangely with her serene face above him. He knew he'd be seeing his real mother soon...
Cold lips, like a fish, like a corpse, pressed against Harry's forehead, and he felt a pain beyond anything he'd ever known. His very soul was being pulled out by the roots. Though he fought to stay conscious, the pain was too much to bear.
Harry's mind was sucked into a whirling vortex of darkness...
oOoOoOo
Author's Notes: Oh my God! I killed Harry! (You bastard! ;-)
He wasn't the Chosen One, so no one will miss him. (Why are you throwing things at me? ;-)
Okay, MAYBE, just maybe he'll survive, but I've got to work out how. Please encourage me with reviews! Or if you DON'T want Harry to survive, please review and tell me. ;-)
Replies to reviews:
Thank you to the following people for reviewing: RavenclawBest, rekahneko, Kira May Maxwell, Emu Alive and Kicking, chinadoll27, Orgainoid, NinjaoftheDarkness, ThePotionsMiss, piuk, emeraud.silver, Yellowwolf, Kittendragon, black dilemma, keske, LunaSky, shadowama, dracoizumi, Crowley Black, StunningSpellRocks2345, Riku-Rocks, Gryffindorgrl86, MikoGoddess, bellajen94, Shadow, Anissina June, ExhaleDreams, 6tigercubs, telleo, GreenEyedCatDragon, Your Mom Is My Heart., lonley.hopelessly-romantic, fragonknight01, CatWriter, Royari, Secret Slashyness, SoraIsRikus, Moyima, Muchacha, txcalbud, ProperT, GenX-Revolution, Black Mirror, Yueli, draconian snowangel216, Potter's Wifey, MaisaG, Ardent Affair, thrnbrooke, inu-youkai 911, HecateDeMort, and dynonugget.
AmaranthineAnathema: Some Butterbeer would be lovely! Thank you and thank you for your review! ;-) I adore Snape too, and Alan Rickman's portrayal of Snape is glorious. Umbridge, Barnes and Voldemort will die horribly in this fanfic, I promise. The movie doesn't violate the Law of Morpheus. McGonagall would only have taught such Transfigurations that were reversible. Anything else would have been Dark. (Which would explain why the Transfigurations were so useless. Why would you want to Transfigure an animal into a water goblet? Unless it was one of the few Transfigurations that could be reversed.) I agree Harry simply has to be the Gryffindor Horcrux. The prophecy states the one cannot live if the other survives. To me, that means Harry has to get rid of his scar (the part of Voldemort that survives inside him) to completely kill off Voldemort. Whether that will mean Harry's death in the Deathly Hallows is up to Rowling. But I suspect he won't die - in the canon. There are so many 'in the know' sources predicting Harry's death and building up the tension (even Jim Dale who does the US audio books) that if Harry does die, it will be an anticlimax. Also they're building a Harry Potter theme park. I can't see a multimillion-dollar theme park idea getting off the ground, if they hadn't known Harry was going to survive. Can you imagine what the guides would have to say to little children if he dies? "And here's Hogsmeade, but don't bother looking for Harry because he's DEAD." But, that's all second-guessing Rowling at this point, and doesn't apply here. This fanfic is another matter! Bwahahahaha! Wait for the next chapter! He's not the Chosen One, so they don't NEED him. ;-)
Fmh: Okay, so canon Hermione hates flying and horses. You're completely right. Um ... well, excuses time. ;-) Everyone hates flying on Buckbeak. His wings try to tip you off when they flap. And Hermione hasn't had much experience in flying a broom. Not a very physical person, is Hermione and she was raised by Muggles. Um, Hermione might have just been saying that to Lavender to shut her up. She doesn't like her much. I'm grasping at straws to stay canon here! A rewrite may be in order! ;-)
Cara: Was I implying Snape/Dumbledore with his Patronus? No. There's such thing as platonic love. And frankly, could you see Dumbledore being capable of shagging? He was over one hundred and fifty. Certain parts of the body do wear out quicker than others! ;-)