Harry awoke the next morning to the feeling that he had been kicked in the head by an angry three year old.
He ignored the minor hangover and groped his way to the bathroom where he inserted the first contacts he got his hands on. He looked in the mirror. The contacts were pure black and gave the impression that he was off his head. His hair looked like a blast ended skrewt had slept in it. The remainder of his eyeliner was smeared over his cheeks, and sleep was clinging ferociously to his eyelashes.
But at the moment that didn't matter to Harry. He wanted to find out where Dumbledore was. He had to be around here somewhere, if he had survived before, but the question was where.
He had wanted to ask Snape last night when they were in the wood, but he wouldn't have put it past Toni and Hermione to follow him (thank Squid they didn't) and that would have brought out a lot of awkward questions if they had heard anything at all.
Well, that's what Harry had kept telling himself all of last night. It had nothing to do with the fact he and Snape had been alone together, absolutely nothing at all. He refused to acknowledge the fact that Snape's hand had been mere inches from his own. And the fact that he had thought himself and Snape had been getting closer all the time had certainly been his drunken imagination.
Harry pushed off from the sink and made his way back through the bedroom and into the sitting room, where he had transfigured a bed for Snape from one of the sofas.
When he entered the room Snape was lying on the cot staring at the ceiling.
"About bloody time," said Snape not taking his eyes off the wallpaper, "Do you know how infuriating it is to have to lie here awake while you snore away in the next room?"
"Maybe if I could trust you I wouldn't have to bind you to the bed," said Harry grumpily, flicking his wand at Snape to release him, "and I don't snore."
"You wouldn't know," replied Snape, lounging leisurely now he had been released, "you sleep through it, which must take a lot. I couldn't,"
Harry realised he didn't have a stable argument, and even if he did, being against Snape meant he would probably further embarrass himself. And he had to find out about Dumbledore.
Harry stumped over to the kettle and flicked it on. Pulling out two mugs he asked Severus what he wanted.
"Strong coffee, small splash of milk, no sugar. What do you really want to say Potter?"
Damn man, knows everything.
"Not everything Potter. But very close."
Harry was glad his back was turned or else Snape would have had a good cackle at the expression on his face.
"Where's Dumbledore? You said he survived, but he ain't-"
"Isn't."
"You're so infuriating!" Harry half shouted. He was already wound up and Snape wasn't helping with his stupid grammatical corrections and questionable position on the bed.
Snape just stared at him blankly as the kettle squealed for attention.
"Sorry," Harry mumbled, "Hang over." Harry hoped Snape didn't see through his crap excuse, to the real reasons for his mood. It would be quite weird to have Snape know why he was feeling embarrassed and angry when he wasn't even sure himself.
Snape ignored him and carried on as if Harry hadn't said anything more than 'Where's Dumbledore?'
"You'll have to re-cap, I've forgotten exactly what I told you yesterday."
"Well, Mosag took the place of Dumbledore- wait a second, a little tangent here, how did you get her to do that? From the past encounters I've had with them, they were neither friendly nor helpful."
"There were several reasons, the first being that she had a bit of a grudge against Voldemort. He destroyed her nesting ground and all the spiders in it during the last war when they refused to help him. The second being she had very little will to live now that Aragog, her mate, was dead. Lastly, she had very little time to live anyway; she was as old as Aragog."
"Thoroughly answered sir." Harry did a mini salute before he carried their drinks over to the sofa. "So she replaced Dumbledore, and Dumbledore slid down a tree and ran away."
"Not exactly," said Snape into his coffee mug, "She replaced Dumbledore, Dumbledore slid down a tree, snapped his wand and waited for me."
"Why the hell did he snap his wand?"
"Not on purpose you dolt," said Snape, leaning across and slapping him across the back of the head, causing Harry to practically break his teeth on his cup.
Harry chose not to challenge Snape about it, that had been a pretty stupid question after all.
"He did all that while you were busy up on the tower, so then why did you help Draco?"
"I had made an unbreakable vow to his mother that I would protect him (Harry raised his eyebrows at this), plus it would have looked pretty suspicious had a made a bee line for the door without helping out."
"So you left with Draco, and... then why were you trying to kill me and shrieking at me like a demented fool on the way out?"
"I was shouting at you because, Potter, I didn't like you at the time and still don't. But if you had half a brain you would have noticed that at the time I was practically teaching you, scaring you into doing real magic. Also, to counter your other accusation, I did not send a single fatal curse. I'll go as far as to say, if memory serves correctly, I even stopped one of the other Death Eaters from torturing you."
Harry took a moment to remember back to the time he had run after Snape. After a few minutes he couldn't think of a way to counter Snape's argument, everything he had said had been true. Unless he had actually been out to kill Harry and forgotten or something.
"So you picked up Dumbledore, came here and pretended to be working for Voldemort, and keeping an eye on me...how?"
"Dumbledore put a spell on the locket on your way back to the school; after that all he had to do was channel his magic through anyone's wand and an image would appear, as if looking through your eyes, as long as you wore the locket. The best bit about the spell is even when the wand is tested it does not reveal the spell has been cast, so after Dumbledore's wand snapped he would use mine."
"So where is Dumbledore now?"
"Dead."
"But...but, you...what?"
" The day of the battle I reported back to Voldemort and he told me with his plan they were almost certain to win the battle but he didn't tell me what the plan was... I just have to wonder, I'll never know now..." Snape was quiet for a moment as he looked far away. Harry had a very strong inkling as to what the plan had been, and he wasn't inclined to tell this man who would no doubt rub Harry's face in it as much as he could.
Snape shook his head as he snapped out of his stupor, "Anyway, I left the Dark Lord and returned to the flat Albus and myself had been staying in. We were going to get him a wand and then return to help you."
"What do you mean 'were'?" Harry said, narrowing his eyes.
Snape took a long gulp from his mug as if trying to avoid the question; he would inevitably have to answer. Unless of course he wanted to defy Harry, but he noted Harry was the only one with a wand.
"When I got back... he was lying on the floor, dead."
"What?"
"I've said it once Potter, I will not say it again," said Snape, beginning to raise his voice.
"How the hell could he be dead?! You said he was alive."
"No Potter, you imbecile, I said I didn't kill him."
"Then how did he die?"
"When I got back there were signs that he had been choking, and I saw some sherbet lemons on the counter."
Harry sat there, mouth threatening to gape. The idea that Dumbledore had died by choking on sherbet lemons was just...just bizarre.
"No, he didn't," Harry said, as if whatever he said was the truth.
"I assure you Potter, those were the circumstances," Harry, by now, was getting annoyed with Snape and all his fancy pants talk. Harry was beginning to become determined to blame Snape for something.
"I know that there is a spell that stops choking. Why wouldn't he have done that? I bet you killed him!"
"Potter, trying to accuse me because you're pissed off will get you nowhere."
"So you admit it! HA, I knew it!"
Snape sat there for a moment, his face unreadable, then he seemed to grasp his bearings. "Do you honestly think I could make up a story that stupid Potter? I don't think I could name anyone who could come up with something so far fetched and idiotic! If you had stopped to think you would have realised that Dumbledore had snapped his wand at that time so he couldn't save himself, and I wasn't going to leave him with my wand,"
Harry paused, still pissed off.
"Why didn't he have another wand then? You said yourself you were going to come to the battle, what could the two of you do with only one wand?"
"Potter, Dumbledore was supposed to be dead; he couldn't waltz into a shop at random and buy a wand. We were going to leave it to just before the battle, when, hopefully, everyone would be so pleased to see us they wouldn't ask questions until later."
"So why didn't you go to the battle," said Harry, determined to put Snape in the wrong, or anger him so much that he would jump off the bed and stop looking so damn inviting. Harry mentally slapped himself, no, he just wanted to put Snape in the wrong because he was so damn annoying.
"When Albus died the spell he had cast on the locket was broken so I couldn't see where you were that way. I had previously made sure the Dark Lord wouldn't ask me to come to the battle, so he didn't see fit to tell me where it was bound to take place. I would have come back afterwards to help get rid of the rest of the Death Eaters, but I had a huge price on my head. I can come back now though, you know the truth, you saw Rick, you can clear my name."
Harry looked down at his lap. So was that all he was? An ally that Snape would leave to clean up once his name was clear?
"You could have come back," Harry whispered into his lap, tears threatening to leak from his eyes as he remembered the last battle, the dark trees, the stench of death, the soothing words, his mother's hands around his throat.
"What?" asked Snape, so quietly Harry almost didn't hear him.
"You could have come back if you wanted. It wouldn't have been hard," Harry had been whispering but he began to raise his voice, "You could have done if you really tried, we needed all the help we could get and you never came, but then again you're so cold, you heartless bastard, how could you help anyone? Selfish Coward!"
Both men were still. Harry sat there, red in the face, tears spewing out of his eyes. Snape stayed still as death, not even breathing, his face a mask.
"Don't think just because you are a Gryffindor you are the only one who cares." Snape said the words so quietly Harry practically had to lip read, "Just because I don't wear my heart on my sleeve does not mean I can't care. Just because I have shared with you one of the most disastrous years of my life does not mean that you know me, and don't assume that you do, because you never will. You aren't the only one who has suffered at the hands of the Dark Lord. Never again talk of things you don't understand."
Snape stood and grabbed his sallopettes, boots, and board and left, leaving Harry stunned on the sofa.
Harry didn't even bother to send a spell after Snape. He didn't know if the other man would come back, and at that moment he didn't care.
Though if Snape did return, it would be Harry who was to apologise first.
"Because he's a stubborn dick," Harry said aloud.
On the other side of the wall
Toni and Hermione took their stethoscopes away from the wall, and both sighed.
"One step forward."
"Five steps back," they said, and nodded in agreement.
Sorry, this chapter took a while, but first it was sailing, then the job I had for a few days was more tiring than I thought, then I accidentally deleted 3,000 words of the chapter (this was going to be a 5,000 word chapter,) so it been all over the place. I don't foresee anything that will stop anymore regular up-dates but then again my inner eye is about as good as Trelawney's, so that isn't much to go on.
Also due to the fact I accidentally got rid of half the damn chapter it has been sufficiently shortened, so instead of this and 3,000 words on Harry's inability to ski, it is now a chapter for answering questions and posing more. And no, one of the questions is not 'How did Toni and Hermione get stethoscopes?'
One more note for the dim or mentally deranged (yes, that does include my editor), Deathly Hallows hasn't happened yet! If it had there would be one huge flaw in the story, my favourite character (Severus) would be unquestionably dead. Cries Okay, not going to get myself started on that. Just making sure you all remembered because I did actually have to remind someone. Cough editor! Cough.
Anyway thank you for tolerating me, and leave me some compliments or critique please, I've spent hours on this chapter (even though most of it is no longer here.)