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The next chapter should be longer . . .
.: This is thought speech :.
Chapter 4 - Alliances
Severus waited. He wasn't sure whether or not he could fully trust the kids. And if he could, would they help? They appeared to be fighting for good. But would they realize the consequences if they didn't help? Severus didn't know, so he waited.
He didn't have to wait long. The girls were only in the boys' room for a few minutes before they left, still half sleeping, and entered their own room. That wasn't long to discuss anything, he thought. They were smart enough to keep their voices down, so Severus had no idea what they were discussing, or even if it had any relevance.
The first ones up the next morning were Jake and Harry. In reality, neither slept much at all, just sat in bed, mulling things over.
"Hi," greeted Harry sullenly when Jake entered the kitchen.
"Hi."
"Er . . ." With nothing else to say, Harry turned back to staring at the stove, deciding whether or not to eat.
"I think you have to put something on the stove to cook," Jake teased. "Unless the magic does it for you here."
"Er . . . yes, I mean, no. Well, no, magic doesn't cook it. I just don't know if I want to eat," Harry answered, trying not to blush.
"I'm just teasing," Jake said, noticing Harry's blush. So, what's to eat. Any cereal or something?"
"Cereal?" Harry wondered.
"You know, breakfast cereal. Comes in a box, you pour milk on it . . ."
"I know what cereal is, I just don't think there is anything here. I've also never had it. My relatives always had real breakfasts, and I don't think they have it in the wizarding world."
"Oh. So, by 'real breakfast', you mean . . . eggs and stuff?"
"Er . . . yeah," Harry replied. What else would it be?
"Oh, well, we mostly have cereal at my house. Definitely at Rachel's. Her mom doesn't really cook . . . never mind. So . . . I'm not really hungry," Jake decided.
"Neither am I," said Harry. "Er . . . fancy a game of chess?"
"Chess? I've never played . . . so, no video games, I guess. Not that I should really be playing. The sooner we take care of the Yeerks, the sooner we can get back to . . . well, I'd say normal, but I guess our lives aren't really normal."
"I wish mine was," mumbled Harry, and Jake didn't know what to say, so he stayed silent.
"Um . . . so, want to teach me how to play chess?" Jake asked, trying to change the subject.
"Sure. I think there is a chess board in the library. Or, at least there was last summer. So, what do you have to do with the Yeerks?"
"Stop them, pretty much. As soon as the others wake up and eat, we have to figure out what to do," Jake answered, following Harry into the library. "What do you know about that Snape guy?" he whispered.
"Snape? Some things. Not a lot, though. He hates me, so I try to avoid him as much as possible . . ."
"Yeah, but do you trust him?"
"Er . . . I don't know. He's saved my life several times . . . Dumbledore trusts him completely, I know. Why, is what I don't know."
"Dumbledore? Do you trust him?"
"Mostly, yeah. I'm mad at him right now, but I trust him," Harry said, staring at the wizard chess board on the table. "So, wizard chess is different from real chess. All you have to do is tell the pieces where to move, and they'll move. The pieces fix themselves after the game is finished . . ."
"I like Hermione," said Cassie, defensively.
"She seems like a know-it-all," Marco said. "Those type of girls are annoying. All they do is read!"
"Marco, you rat!" Rachel said. "Those type of girls? What, you prefer the brainless plastics?"
"Well, as long as they're not smarter than me . . ."
"You are so shallow!" Rachel announced. "I can't believe you!"
"I can. He's always like this," muttered Jake. "Can we get onto business? So we all agree we have two objectives: stop this Voldemort from making agreements with the Yeerks, and get the Yeerks out of the UK?" Everyone nodded. "Okay, then. Now, we just need to find Voldemort."
.:Yes, warning him should be our first objective. From what the magical humans say, he is not someone we want to deal with. Prince Jake has already compared him to Visser three.:.
"He almost sounds worse. Good thing he can't morph, though," said Cassie. "But he can do magic. And Harry said he wouldn't hesitate to kill."
"We need help from Snape," said Jake flatly. "I don't know if I trust him, but he's our only change to get close to him. Since he spies, next time he is called, we could hitchhike on him as fleas or something. We don't want Voldemort to suspect him, so we only can do it if more than just Snape is called. We shouldn't all go, though. I think I should be the one to talk to him . . ."
"Jake, if he kills you . . ."
"I already have planned what I want to say. I think I can do it without him killing me. But I'll need back up."
"I'll go," volunteered Marco, and everyone in the room gave him a weird look. "What? Jake, you're my best friend. I'm not letting you do this alone." Jake nodded.
.:When did you have time to think about this? And get all this information:. Tobias asked.
"I talked to Snape last night, and Harry this morning. As for trusting Snape, well, Dumbledore trusts him and Harry trusts Dumbledore."
"That's all we have to go on?" Rachel asked, hand on her hip. "That doesn't say a lot."
"No, it doesn't, but we don't have much of a choice. So is that basic plan agreed upon?"
"Yeah," Cassie said. "The less of us to go, the better. But what about getting the Yeerks out of here?"
"We should find and blow up the Yeerk pool. Let everyone know there's something going on," Rachel said.
"We'd have to find the Yeerk pool, first," pointed out Marco. "How do you suggest we do that?"
"Well, we know where that club is. We'll start there," Rachel said. "Does anyone have any better ideas?" she challenged. When no one answered, she smirked.
"Well, That's where we can start," Jake agreed. "I'm going to go find Snape or someone that can help. The sooner we take care of Voldemort, we can all work on surveillance," Jake said, getting up to leave. No one stopped him, so he left the room and went down to the living room. He didn't make it, though. On the stairs, he ran into Snape.
"Um . . ." Jake was at a loss of what to call him. Calling him Snape to his face seemed kind of rude. "Mr. Snape?"
"Professor," corrected Snape.
"Professor? What do you teach?" Jake stalled, remembering the others calling him professor.
"Potions," Snape answered flatly, starting to get annoyed. "But I am positive that is not what you wanted to ask."
"Oh, yeah. Is. . . is it safe to talk in the hall? With those paintings . . ." Jake eyed the uncovered paintings, who were obviously pretending to sleep."
"We will go to the lab," Snape answered, and the man walked up the stairs, and onto the third floor. Jake slowly followed, not knowing if he wanted to be in the same room, alone, with the man. After all, he was rather suspicious.
"Now, what is it you wish to speak with me about?" Snape asked when the door was closed. He also warded the door, unknown to Jake.
"Well . . . remember you were saying that Voldemort was . . ."
"Don't speak his name!" hissed Severus, startling Jake.
"Then what do I call him?" he asked, confused.
"Call him You-Know-Who, if you must."
"Okay," Jake replied slowly. "Well, if You-Know-Who is making deals with the Yeerks, we need to stop him. Since you spy, and we don't have a way to find him . . ."
"Yes?"
"Well, next time you are called, we could come along."
"Too dangerous. He would notice!" hissed Severus. No, he wouldn't. We'd be in morph. Fleas or something. And it would only be two of us, me and Marco.
"He will probably kill you."
"It's a chance we'll have to take. I'll have back up, and we cannot have the Yeerks infesting Vold-You Know Who. He has too much influence," argued Jake, and Snape smirked. This is going to work, the potions master thought to himself.
