Chapter Two
"You need to control your feelings, Potter," Snape said. He was being particularly harsh to Harry that evening as they discussed the day's events. "This is an opportunity for you to find out who her source is. She will not disclose that information unless you can be a bit more beguiling than you have been up to this point. There is every chance this is connected to the Dark Lord." The man was standing near his own cauldron, adding ingredients and setting his sand glass to mark the time.
Harry was watching. He used all of his strength not to begin shouting at the man who worked so calmly . This is my life, my family! he thought furiously. Your playing at this like a game of chess. "Why did you keep the information about Nadya from me?" he asked.
Snape looked up. "Because she asked me to and made me swear an oath to it." He said it matter-of-factly.
Harry was growing angry and also feeling puzzled. He didn't understand why Nadya would choose Snape, a person she hardly knew. "She did?"
Snape held up his index finger in a gesture indicating Harry needed to wait to ask further questions. He then added an ingredient to the cauldron, stirred counter-clockwise twice and put out the flame underneath. "There. That needs to breath." He pulled his apron over his head and pulled his robe sleeves down. "Sit, Mr. Potter."
Harry sat at a desk, waiting. All he could do was think about how much he disliked Snape at this moment.
Snape sat opposite. "Nadya came to me Halloween night. She told me about her pregnancy then. Your young wife is very wise for her age. She is aware of the person she married and the tasks which lie before you. She chooses to not stand in the way of your work. She also knew she could become a target; a way to manipulate you and control you." Harry started to speak and Snape held up his hand to stop him, "Please, Mr. Potter, let me finish."
Harry waited. For once Snape was not growling or snapping at him. "That has suddenly and unexpectedly become the situation," Snape said. "She asked me to take on the job of giving you more education and training, to prepare you for the work you have ahead. In turn, I offered her a means to stay safe. Thus; the Fidelius Charm."
"Why you?!" Harry gasped.
Snape stood and moved away, answering very calmly, "You would have to ask her."
"I want to go to her," Harry said.
"That is the very thing you cannot and should not do," Snape replied, turning back to him. "You would lead them directly to her and risk your wife and the life of your child. I will not tell you where they are."
Harry stood and faced Snape and felt his strength ooze away into despair. He was aware unless Snape revealed her whereabouts he and anyone else looking for her would never find her.
"Why can't we use veritaserum on my Aunt?" Harry asked, searching frantically for another solution.
Snape looked at him curiously, a small frown on his face. "It would poison her. Muggles do not have the same body chemistry, nor can we use any other form of magic if that was your next question."
Harry left Snape's office and returned to the common rooms. Ron was there as well as Ginny. The rest of the Gryffindors were finishing up there suppers in the Great Hall.
"Ron did you know?" Harry asked after explaining what had happened earlier in the day. "Did you know Nadya was pregnant?"
Ron shook his head. "I really didn't mate, honest. But I think Hermione did. She's been really secretive lately and she's been learning Romani (the language of the gypsy)." Ron looked mildly apologetic. "Leave it the her to do that kind of thing."
"Ginny?" Harry turned on the red head girl. Ginny was pretending to study.
"I didn't know, Harry, I swear," she answered, also looking concerned. "Harry, I know this must be really awful for you, but if you'd let us, I think we can help a little."
Harry shook his head, grumbling, "How can you help?" All he could think of was Nadya. The camp or what the Rom called the Kumpania had long since dispersed for winter. Each family wagon would be sheltering in some house in some area and he would never be able to find her without Snape. He also couldn't find it in himself to control his rage at his aunt. It broke out, "I just want to kill my Aunt!"
"Harry," Ginny began and edged closer. "Look, we have this opportunity we can't miss. Whoever is feeding your aunt information will contact her at some point, probably tonight even. I mean she just had a meeting with you and that person is going to want information on how it went. Now, I know Hermione is there, but the person is behind your Aunt isn't going to show themselves when she's around. Someone needs to be there out of sight watching."
Ron looked at his younger sister and his eyebrows went up in surprise. "Good thinking Sis." He turned to Harry, "What do you think? We could sneak down to Hogsmeade and spy on your aunt. I mean we could get a few of us together and take watches through the day and night." Ron looked enthusiastic. He lowered his head as a few people began to file into the room, "We have to choose carefully, but I think we can find a way to watch her even when we have classes during the day."
Harry thought about it and thought it didn't sound like a bad idea. He and Snape were going to have to find the person one way or another. This would give them a head start in gathering information and he knew Snape would also be watching him closely. "All right, but I'm going first. We can go through the tunnel under the one-eye witch. Snape still doesn't know about that one yet. We can do it tonight since I won't have to report to him until tomorrow and I've finished my work for him today."
"I'm going with you," Ginny said. "I can tell Hermione what were doing. It'd be better, I'm not as obvious as you are Harry. It'll be like I'm visiting or something. If someone is watching they'll hardly suspect me," she said and slammed the book shut. "I'll just go and get my cloak."
"I'll start talking to a few people," Ron said slipped off the bench and Harry stood with him.
"Ron," Harry held him back and commented, "Choose wisely. Whoever they run into may be very dangerous and they should be able to protect themselves. And… well...I just wanted to says , thanks."
Ron's easy blush rose in his cheeks. "No problem," he said with his usual air of forced nonchalance.
Harry climbed the steps to his dorm room and retrieved his own cloak. At that moment a 'Caw, Caw' sound came from outside his window. He opened it to retrieve a black Raven, called Dante. It was Harry's means of sending mail when he was traveling with the Kumpania. His own snowy owl, Hedwig, was used for his normal post. The two often sat on opposite sides of his bed staring at one another. The only difficulty was Dante not as well trained as Hedwig and Harry had a hard time getting him to deliver the mail properly.
He wasn't thinking of that at the moment Instead he was pondering a thought as he gazed at the raven. I can send a message to Nadya, he thought. I can use Dante. The Fidelius charm doesn't work on birds. He pulled on his robe and promised himself that as soon as he returned he was going to send a long letter to his wife. The thought didn't occur to him she might not be able to read or write in English.
He raced down the stairs and joined Ginny. Harry had retrieved his invisibility cloak after it had changed a number of hands over the course of time. He carried it with him in case he needed to use it. The halls were busy with students going back and forth to the library and other parts of the castle. He and Ginny hurried along to the corridor with the statute of the hump-backed witch. Harry knew the words to open it by heart.
The corridor was clear. "Okay. DISSENDIUM." Harry touched the tip of his wand to the statute and a space opened behind it . Ginny went in first and he followed. When the opening closed, they lit their wands and proceeded down the tunnel. He was intent on hurrying along through the tunnel as fast as he could while Ginny, who had never been in it, was looking around more.
"Ginny, hurry up," Harry exclaimed.
"Ok Harry, I'm coming." She stopped to examine a wall. "Did you know there are ancient runes inscribed on these walls. Just here. Look." She ran her hand over the small crumbling surface of an archway he had never seen before.
"Ginnnnnny!" he growled. They hurried on. He realized he had never seen the markings before and filed them in his memory for future reference. Snape would no doubt have him groveling in the dark somewhere again and paying attention to such things was paramount to his survival.
They arrived in the cellar of the shop after it had closed. It was dark and quiet as Harry raised the door that hid the tunnel. They moved through the cellar in the dark and up the stairs, Ginny holding on to his cloak. They entered the shop and could see out the ice- encrusted shop windows. It had started snowing again and the darkened street looked like undisturbed ice cream cones.
Harry reached for the front door and Ginny grabbed his hand to stop him. "You'll set off the alarms. The door are enchanted," she whispered. "I'll do it. Then we can get back in when we're ready." She waved her wand and Harry saw the faint aura of light surrounding the door disappear.
He nodded, and slipped it open mumbling his thanks. They were alone in the streets. Even the lanterns shed very little light with the deepening snow. They were able to stick to the shadows and make their way into the village covering their tracks as they went. There were several Inns in the little village. Harry headed for one and Ginny the other. "We meet back here in ten minutes," he said.
They both checked the Inns and returned to the chosen meeting site. "I found them," Harry said. "I didn't think they'd be at the Hog's Head anyway." They moved off slowly into the dark.
Neither spoke until they were under the snow-laden eaves of the chateau lodge. Ginny went up the back stairs and disappeared into the warmth of the bright light from the door she opened. Harry moved back into the dark and through a shed housing barrels and sacks of goods.
He listened intently, using all of his skills to make his way through the dark. There was a ladder on the wall leading up to the floor above. He climbed slowly and pushed the trap door gently. The opening led to a kitchen. His nose was assailed immediately by the smells of cooking and he could see feet rushing around a brightly lit area some feet away. He had entered through the storage shed.
Waiting until the sound of footsteps retreated from the opening, he pushed the door open and slipped into the small room. He pulled on the invisibility cloak and stood watching and waiting. The kitchen was a flurry of activity and overheated. There were two women with large platters balanced on the tips of their wands and two cooks scurrying about the kitchen. Flames roared in the open fireplace and smoke shot up the vent.
Harry kept his back against the wall and slid along it until he reached the narrow winding stairs leading to the upper floors. These were the servants backstairs, well-worn and used. He worried about climbing them and running into someone else attempted to go up or down; worried he'd be discovered. There was not enough room for two people. Crossing his fingers, he ran up the stairs on his tiptoes and breathed with some relief when he reached the first floor landing.
He had to find a place near the room where he and others could watch with a view to both sets of stairs. Trying several doorknobs, he found a door to a cupboard at the end of the hall with a perfect view of the entire hallway. It reminded him of the cupboard he had lived in at the Dursleys. This one held fresh linen and cleaning supplies and had room to hide a fully grown person. Harry slipped in and watched. Ginny was right on time. She knocked softly on a door and waited; her hood was drawn over her head.
Hermione opened the door and there was a brief conversation before the two stepped out into the hall. Harry didn't reveal his position, but waited until they had finished speaking and Hermione returned to the room. Ginny moved down the hall past him. As planned, she took a position on the first floor to watch the activity in the main dining area and near the front door.
Harry waited in the dark, making himself comfortable in a position where he could continuously check the hallway. It was lit by one lantern and very narrow, but he could hear even the faintest of footsteps and see the whole person unless they stood in front of the door. Hermione left the room as instructed by Ginny and walked slowly towards the front stairway. She reached out, as he had done, and touched several doorknobs along the way, trying each one. Harry knew what she was thinking; perhaps his Aunt's associate was in one of the rooms. Then she disappeared down the stairs and Harry was left in silence.
Harry hadn't been alone all day and he sat thinking about Nadya. It felt very strange to think about having a baby. He wasn't sure he felt ready for it. He hadn't even spent much time with Nadya. They were married the summer before following the school year. They had spent the summer together and then he had gone to Knockturn Alley and spent the first weeks of the school term trying to survive.
Harry stared at the vacant hallway. Somebody was already trying to use her, he thought, to get to me. He once again remembered the old feelings he had earlier in the year and the words Snape had spoken, It doesn't pay to have relationships. Then he remembered his argument. He didn't want to have to go through life alone like Snape. He wanted his family and friends around him. He had to admit, it was quite a price to pay.
He waited in the dark for an hour and then slipped out and joined Ginny again in the dark shed. Lavender Brown and Colin Creevey were ready to stand watch. Harry told them where he had hidden himself. Then, he and Ginny retraced their steps, Ginny performing a vanishing charm on their footprints until they reached the door of the shop. They went back through the cellar and the tunnel. This time when they climbed through the opening behind the one-eye witch the halls were quiet.
They started back for the Gryffindor Common rooms.
"Harry don't worry about watching the rest of the night," Ginny said. "I'll manage it. Ron's rounding people up and I'll make sure they know what to do. You need to go and rest, you have to take her to Diagon Alley tomorrow."
Harry nodded as they entered through the portrait hole at the Gryffindor Common rooms. Ron was busy in the corner talking quietly to several people including Seamus and Dean Thomas. There were third and fourth year students Harry didn't recognize. Ron gave him a cursory glance and then turned back to the people around him.
How are we going to get to Diagon Alley? he wondered as he climbed the stairs to the dorms. Exhausted from the heavy schedule and Snape's exercises, and the surprise visit from his aunt, he dropped onto the bed fully clothed and closed his eyes. A baby! he thought. I'm going to have a baby. He turned and looked at the picture of his parents with him as an infant. Now more than ever, Harry wished he had someone he could talk to.
Harry slept for a few hours before he woke in the dark and felt someone sit on the edge of the bed. He was up and had his wand lit before he was fully awake.
"Hermione, what are you doing?" he bellowed in a loud whisper.
"Shhh, Harry, you'll wake Neville." She had her hand on his mouth and had pulled the bed curtains closed. "Everyone is out working except Neville and you're about to wake him."
"Hermione, you're in our dorm room!" Harry was now fully awake and sitting up. He was very aware of the sliding stairs attached to the girls dorm which automatically ejected any boy trying to enter the girls rooms. He was distracted momentarily wondering why there wasn't one attached to the boys' dorm.
"Keep your voice down. We have to talk and it's better if we do it here." She sat cross-legged at the foot of his bed. "Dean and Seamus and Ron are still in Hogsmeade watching your aunt. I can't be gone long either."
Harry shoved his glasses to the bridge of his nose.
"I think it's time we talk," she began.
"About the secret you've been keeping," he finished for her. This time he was angry.
She nodded and said, "And the one you've been keeping."
"Nadya told you she was pregnant," he said.
"Yes."
"That day when she left, you swore to her you wouldn't tell me," he continued.
"Yes."
"How would my aunt or anyone else find out unless she told them. She made you and Snape swear to keep it from me and she made him her secret keeper. Why would she do that Hermione?"
Hermione took a deep breath and stared at the curtain and then at him, "I think she wanted me to know about it because I could stop you from doing something foolish on her behalf. Just in case. She wouldn't want you to worry about her." She sat for a minute, scratched her nose and continued. "What you have to do is important, really important."
Harry stared at her. Her cloak was still moist from dragging it in the snow "Wait, Hermione." He pulled the curtain back and looked over at Neville's bed. The boy was fast asleep and taking little puffing snores and holding his pillow in his arms. "Go ahead."
"Your aunt didn't tell me much but she let slip that a prophecy was made before you were born. The prophecy predicted you would have to kill Lord Voldemort or be killed by him. Is that true?" Hermione leaned in speaking low.
Harry stared at her dumbfounded. "How would she know? The only people who know are Dumbledore, Snape and me."
She looked at him and then slowly nodded and said, "I knew there was something you couldn't tell us; Ron and me. I'm really sorry Harry. You've been carrying this around for a long time. No wonder you went off by yourself."
They sat in silence and listened to Neville's muffled snore through the curtains. Hermione chewed on her fingernails and frowned. "These are connected somehow. You say only Dumbledore and Snape knew about the prophecy besides you. Only Snape and I knew about Nadya."
"Snape?- Snape knew," Harry said. He couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe Snape would give secrets away. He pondered what she was saying. "Hermione, there was one other person who heard the prophecy. Dumbledore told me Professor Trelawney was in a trance and was telling the prophecy when they were overheard. The person who overheard was thrown from the Hog's Head Inn and never heard the entire prophecy. When he repeated it to Voldemort he only got part of it. That's why Voldemort wanted the recorded prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. That's why Lucius Malfoy and the other Death Eaters were there and I was tricked into thinking Sirius was being tortured. It couldn't be removed by anyone other than the person connected to it; me or Voldemort. He had to get me there to remove it." Harry hated having to remember the reason for Sirius' death and she caught him wool-gathering with her next question.
"Who was the person who overheard the prophecy?" she asked.
"Dumbledore never said," Harry answered.
"Snape was a Death Eater at the time. It could have been him. It was the year before or the year you were born," she mused.
"Dumbledore's never going to tell me who it was," Harry said.
"How is your aunt involved in this?" Hermione curled around and laid her head on his pillow while he sat holding his knees.
"I pretty sure she's being used. They pulled her in using the money as bait. She doesn't want anything else. As soon as she has it she'll go home."
"Do you think she's the bait?" Hermione mumbled with her eyes closed, "To get you out in the open?" She pulled up his blanket and covered her cold legs.
"I can't believe Professor Snape would do this, risk Nadya. Hermione, he's her secret keeper." Harry looked down at the girl who appeared almost asleep, but opened her eyes and returned his gaze.
"We could trail him," she said. "Both ways. Watch your aunt and see who visits her and trail Snape."
"Are you out of your mind?!" Harry whispered. "I've been playing these little war games with Snape for two months and I haven't been successful yet. I have no idea if I could trail him. It's just been other people, teachers, Mrs. Norris and others. He'd catch me in a minute."
"Maybe not," she began," We have an advantage. We have the invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map... and…and we'll think of other things along the way." She rolled to her side and propped her head up with her hand.
"If my aunt is bait to get me out in the open, then it will happen tomorrow," he said.
"Professor Dumbledore said he made arrangements to have you escort her by train. Instead of you going by train, I'll go instead. You apparate to Diagon Alley and meet us at Gringott's." She dropped her head on his pillow.
"Hermione, I can't let you do that!" Harry said with alarm.
"Why not? It's safest. If they want you, then they'll leave her and me alone when they discover you're not on the train," she said and snuggled, turning on her side away from him, "He'll have someone watching and they'll see I got on with her instead of you."
Harry laid back next to her and said NOX. The wand light went out leaving them in the dark. Her body was very warm laying beside him and very soon his eyes closed and he drifted off.
10