AN: We are at the point in this story where it's nearly half way over! Woohoo! Your reviews are wonderful and inspiring. Thanks and enjoy!
Chapter 13- Life Goes On
It wasn't long before their lives fell into an odd sort of schedule that everyone involved grew accustomed to. Severus would drop Harry off at Tuck's house and then apparate to the ministry for work. Minerva would pick Harry up and watch him until Severus returned home, usually around five, at which time Albus would sometimes join them for dinner. Him and Severus had come to a silent understanding- they would tolerate each other, treat each other with respect if only for the boy's sake, but their relationship ended there. At 8 everyone would leave and Snape would give Harry a dreamless sleep potion and tuck him in (which he would never admit to anyone). Life went on.
That was until a familiar case appeared on Severus's desk one morning. Severus flipped through it, skimming the words he had already read over in his free time. He looked up at Madame Bones, "Why are you giving me this? I thought you already had Shacklebolt and his team on the case."
She sighed. "I did, but it's been a month, Severus. The press is going wild, and the story has barely died down since this whole mess began. I need a fresh pair of eyes on this case. Any ordinary ten year old boy could hardly support himself for this long; he must have some type of help."
"He is no ordinary boy," Severus responded drily, grabbing the thick file and standing. "I will do my best."
Madame Bones thanked him and walked back to her office. Her eyes lingered on Severus as he walked to the lift with a deliberate pace to his gait. Something had changed him in the week he'd had off. She couldn't help but thinking that it had something to do with the way he kept subconsciously rubbing his arm- Madame Bones was well aware of what was concealed there.
She took a short trip to the file room, flipping through the worn papers until she found it. "Severus Snape," small letters running along the top of the file read. She cast the spell to unseal the records and picked them up delicately, hesitation written over her face. With the first thought that Voldemort might be back her mind was made for her and she tucked the overflowing folder under her arm. Time to find out what Severus was hiding.
While Severus was plotting what to do about his new case his target was standing in what he had dubbed as the "sand room." Tuck had stuck to his lesson- all Harry did, the entire time, was try to build sand castles.
And while that had held his attention for about two lessons, he was a ten year old boy and frustration quickly caught up to him. Now, after a whole month with no results, Harry was about at wits end. Tucker had told him plenty of stories and given him plenty of tea but not once had he given him any tips. The promise that "you'll get there eventually," had somehow lost it's meaning after the millions of times Tucker had repeated it.
Harry stood in the middle, desperately trying to choke down the feeling of hopeless rage that was rising in him. He clenched his fists together so tightly that his knuckles turned white, knowing that this was exactly what he needed to learn to control. Squeezing his eyes shut he took deep breathes, trying to slow the rapid beating of his heart and the hot blood thrumming angrily through his veins.
He remembered instantly why he didn't like to close his eyes.
The images flashed through his mind, some of them Severus's memories, some of them his own- they all blurred into one- the image of an angry man coming after Harry again and again. The blows were ceaseless and it wasn't long before the man wrapped his hands around Harry's throat, squeezing his air pipe so tightly that the air was forced out in a rush. With that Harry lost it.
He was barely conscious of what he was doing as the sand rose into the air, each particle vibrating with the intense surge in energy. With a cry he sent the sand flying, whirling through the room. The particles hit Harry, forcing his eyes shut again and rubbing his skin raw which only brought the memories back adding fuel to his fire. His energy spiraled out of control as the wave of emotions flooded over him- it was all too much.
Suddenly Harry felt a shift as all his energy gathered into one. It was if an external force was controlling it, yet Harry somehow knew deep inside that the force was him, a different side of him. The ball of energy quivered around him as the sand continued to swirl violently through the room. Harry could feel the energy pushing to get out, pushing to destroy.
A strange hissing filled his ears and he could make out words- kill, ruin, destroy, take, burn, rip, killl… The hissing grew louder until it was a scream in Harry's head. He tried to keep the energy together, tried to reabsorb it into himself but he knew it was too late. His scar felt like it was splitting open as he fell to his knees and the energy was released with a resounding bang.
The house didn't stand a chance. The blast tore through the rooms, destroying everything in its path in a blaze of intense heat that swallowed everything into flames. It took a matter of seconds for the house to disappear into a pile of ash, but luckily Tuck had developed quick reflexes from growing up with a ton of older brothers. He apparated away as soon as he felt the bubble of energy burst, knowing that its power was beyond his ability to stop or even slow it.
He popped into Severus's house and sprinted through the rooms, looking wildly for Snape. When he didn't find him he paced wildly around the living room, "Where in Merlin's name could he be?" he muttered to himself. "Ah the ministry!" he exclaimed to no one in particular.
Tucker quickly silenced the wards as he apparated into the ministry, chuckling to himself about how easy it was to smother them with power. Any wizard with the particular skill of Harry and him could easily apparate in unnoticed.
Unfortunately his magic could not turn off the attention of other wizards. A younger witch in front of him spluttered, "What the- where did you- what?"
The poor witch couldn't even get a full sentence out. Tuck ignored her and got right to business. "I need to speak to Auror Snape. Where is he?"
The girl just gaped like a fish out of water. Tucker suddenly wished he was wearing something other than his lime green robes with blue stripes; maybe then somebody would actually take his authorative tone seriously. "Legilemens," he whispered and easily entered the mind of the young auror who clearly had no occlumency training. Thankfully his question had brought Severus to the front of her thoughts so he didn't need to look far.
Releasing her he apparated away, a small smirk on his face from what he had seen. It looked like dear old Snape had a lady fan. When he arrived at his destination, Tucker had to stop about nine spells fired his way before he could announce his presence to Severus.
He stood in his father's old cabin, breathing heavily, his wand still raised. "What the hell are you doing here?" he snarled.
"Harry…" Tucker didn't get past that part of the sentence before Severus dissaparated. He sighed, he could have been saying that Harry had turned into bloody Lord Voldemort but Severus apparently didn't care. He quickly followed Snape, landing in front of the charred remains of his house a second later.
Tucker had never seen Severus express so much emotion as first shock, then horror, and then an overwhelming sense of pain washed over his face before his mask slid back on. Severus turned to Tucker and the mask slipped back off, this time showing uncontrollable rage.
Tucker barely blocked the first unexpected curse as it shot his way. He leaped backwards, quelling spell after spell as Severus shot Unforgivables and plenty of dark curses at him. "You were supposed to protect him," Severus screamed, the pain apparent in his voice.
"Severus," Tucker started. "Severus listen!" He shot a burst of power at Snape causing him to lose his wand and pinning him to the ground. "I can still sense his magic. Harry is still alive. But he won't be for long if you insist on attacking the only person who can help."
Severus gaped at him, hope suddenly filling him, lifting the impenetrable weight that had fallen over him at the thought of the boy dying. Tucker released him and he leapt to his feet, running towards the wreckage. It was still smoking, the coals glowing a bright red.
Severus quickly cast an aguamente and dosed the smoldering wood in gallons of water. The coals hissed angrily, letting up gigantic puffs of steam. Tucker moved to Severus's side, "He's over there." He pointed to a pile of coals a few meters from them.
As soon as Severus was in no imminent threat of burning alive he stepped onto the coals, hearing them crunch under his feet as he walked steadily towards were Tucker had pointed, his hands trembling. "Harry," he called out softly. "You're going to be okay, Harry."
His heart wrenched as nothing moved under the piles of ashes. How could anyone survive that? He stopped right in front of the spot, kneeling down on the ash. Severus could barely get his hands to move they were shaking so badly as he started to dig. Soon he could feel the air trembling in front of his hands- the feel of Harry's magic.
This snapped Severus back into action and he started digging frantically, throwing up handfuls of still hot ash, barely noticing as he burned his fingers. It wasn't long before Harry was completely revealed in front of him and Severus could see how he had survived.
It looked like Harry was surrounded by a force field. His magic formed a shield around him, repelling the debris. Harry was curled up in the center, unmoving. "Harry," Severus choked out in relief, "Harry it's okay I'm here."
The boy didn't even stir. Severus looked helplessly up at Tucker who just frowned, looking unsure on how to proceed. Severus gently reached a hand forward, cautiously touching the bubble. The magic immersed his finger, a strangely soothing feeling as the energy felt as cool and controlled as Tucker's always did.
"Let him sense you," Tucker told Severus quietly, his eyes fixed on the force field, his hand on his wand.
Severus proceeded slowly until his whole hand was surrounded by the swirling magic. He noticed with a start that his blackened finger tips had faded back into a light pink, looking as if they had never been burned. Taking a deep breathe, Severus reached down the last inch to place his hand on Harry's shoulder.
The force field flared once, throwing off a brilliant white light. Then it slowly faded away, the magic receding back into the unconscious boy. Severus felt it drain away until there was nothing left and then he scooped the boy up pulling him tightly to his chest.
He let out a breathe he didn't know he was holding and just stood there for a moment, letting the trembling that had overtaken his body fade. He carried Harry away from the ashes and laid him on the soft grain.
Tucker followed his chain of thought and was quickly besides him running every diagnostic spell he could think of. After they were certain that Harry was completely fine (even the abrasions from the sand had been healed by his magic) Tucker cast another spell. He looked at his wand and whistled quietly.
"What is it?" Severus barked at him with a little less sharpness in his voice than normal.
Tucker showed him his wand, which had a ball of glowing dark purple light on the end. Severus just raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yes, of course you wouldn't know…" Tucker ignored Severus's dirty look.
"This is a measure of how much magic is left in the core of a wizard. Each color means something, starting with yellow at the lowest, then green, then red, then purple, and then at the very top blue. Every wizard has a resting level, but his or her core is depleted every time a spell is performed or in Harry's case magic is used in any other way. After performing magic with the power to do that," Tucker pointed at his ruined house, "his core should be nearly completely depleted, a yellow. Even I would be down to a red, but I am a full grown wizard." Tucker stared at his wand in wonder, hardly blinking as if he thought the color would suddenly change.
"Does the dark tint mean anything?" Severus asked, hardly surprised by the results. He knew Harry was extraordinarily powerful; the test just gave him an exact measurement.
Tucker examined the light and winced. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," he muttered, canceling the spell. "This spell was also created to measure the capacity for dark magic in a wizard. And as you can see, Mr. Potter has quite an affinity for dark magic."
"Although that does not mean he will become a dark wizard, only that he would find that path very easy," Tucker added hastily, looking at the boy whose face was twisted up in the start of a nightmare. "I suggest you take him home now, it's been a long day. We can discuss the remainder of his lessons tomorrow."
Severus looked at his obliterated house and hesitantly asked, "Do you… Will you need a place to stay tonight?" His face made it clear that asking the question had caused him a great deal of mental trauma.
Tuck laughed, "Don't worry, I have other arrangements."
When he didn't elaborate Severus just nodded stiffly and gathered Harry up in his arms, noticing how the boy quieted, his face looking slightly more peaceful. Severus tightened his grip on the boy and quickly disapparated away before Tucker could change his mind.
