Author's Note: First, thank you for reading and reviewing. Second, this is for Alan Rickman. I loved his roles; they are some of my most favorite. Aside from his uncanny ability to bring Severus Snape to life – which SHOULD have won the man an Oscar – he was brilliant as Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest and Metatron in Dogma. And so… so many others.

Also, for those also following Soul Magic, I had to start over. The fic was deleted (no idea why) and I'm going to edit and repost each chapter. Really bummed but can't really do much else. I think it had something to do with the site issues this past weekend.

Standard disclaimer about not owning anything; I am so thankful for JKR and all that she did for us. She gave us one of the greatest gifts, and so many people have taken to this site and played brilliantly with her creation. We should have a JKR day and it should be a global holiday!

It took Severus several seconds to regain the use of his voice after being presented with such a rare commodity.

Since he had first become a recognized Potions Master, Basilisk venom had been at the top of his list of ingredients that he desired to work with but never in his wildest dreams had entertained that such a thing would be possible. Really, any part of the Basilisk would have been a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with and he couldn't quite believe that this was real life as he held a small vial of venom in his hands.

Slowly, he became aware that Potter was still present and looking at him with an amused expression.

"Where did you get this?" he said in an uncharacteristically stunned manner. Severus was normally much more put together than this.

Harry continued to smile at him, enjoying the lack of condescending undertones and with the man who had made his very unpleasant during his first few years at Hogwarts. He took the opportunity to be a little cheeky.

"Where do you think I got this?" Harry replied, having too much fun watching Severus struggle with words. It was nice to be on the other side of things for once.

Snape thought for a moment, not even bothered with Harry's antics. He would have done practically anything for a vial of Basilisk venom.

It didn't take him long to narrow down his list of options. He highly doubted that Harry had bought some Basilisk parts because the price was so astronomical, and it wouldn't have made sense for him to then turn around and sell it again.

Which only meant that Harry must have come into contact with a Basilisk, and lived. True, he was a Parselmouth and thus could speak with snakes but Severus didn't think that the gift of conversing with serpents would have helped much in that situation. It wasn't like one could have politely asked such a powerful, magical creature to die.

However, Harry always had a penchant for getting himself into the most unusual situations. In fact, he seemed to stumble upon a few of them every year.

Following that train of thoughts, Snape arrived at the events of the boy's second year. He had always remained skeptical of the explanation that Albus had given the staff about the chamber incident. However, over the years he had become used to Albus never revealing more than he intended to and keeping his secrets very close to him.

It was infuriating sometimes but he supposed that was one of the prices he had paid for switching sides. He owed Albus a great deal for his second chance at life and did his best to accept the man's oddities and unusual way of handling things. At least he wasn't constantly being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse like service to Voldemort often entailed.

Seeing the snakeskin on his desk only led him to conclude that the chamber had in fact existed and that a Basilisk was the horror that had slumbered within.

Briefly, his stomach began to churn at the thought that such a deadly creature had been on the loose within the school. They were extremely fortunate that no one had died. Had Albus been aware? Or had he only known after the fact and didn't want to worry anyone by saying what had really happened?

Snape's eyes darted to Harry. He looked the young man over, rationalizing that at some point the snake had to have been alive to cause the petrification of all those students. Mrs. Norris and Nearly-Headless Nick just didn't factor into his thinking. But his brain couldn't quite get passed the fact that Harry must have gone against it… and won, somehow.

"The Chamber of Secrets," Snape finally said.

Harry nodded, his smile gone after watching Severus think over the dreadful circumstances to ultimately arrive at that conclusion. Sometimes Harry had trouble remembering just how close to death he had gotten in several situations.

"Dumbledore never told you I take it?"

Harry had always wondered if the other professors had been told.

Severus shook his head.

"Albus tells us only as much as he thinks we need to know."

"Story of my life," Harry responded frankly.

"Do you want to see it?" Harry then asked suddenly. He hadn't been planning on showing the man, but once he said it he supposed that it would be easier for Snape to extract some of the ingredients to be sold himself.

"Obviously," Snape said, sounding a little bit more like his old self. Of course he wouldn't pass up this opportunity.

"Meet me outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom at nine then," Harry said as he gathered his things and turned to head towards the Great Hall for supper.

It would make more sense for them to be out and about together when no one else was able to spot them. And they would have more time; dinner was starting shortly.

"The girls' lavatory?" Snape called out after him.

"It's just where the entrance is," Harry shrugged as he turned by the door. "I really can't believe Dumbledore never said anything," Harry then said in parting before he left.

Severus had then sat down and then called for a house elf to bring him dinner since he wasn't up to going to the Great Hall. What else had Albus been hiding from him? If he was going to risk his life for this side, he felt he should know more of the details. Even with Him back, Albus knew that his Occlumency was more than enough to keep the Dark Lord unaware. Severus could even keep Dumbledore out.

Which made Snape wonder: did Albus really trust him or was he being used? It was difficult for him not to feel like a plaything, since the man was clearly using Harry as his weapon against Voldemort. Though, Severus began to muse if Albus was aware of just how independent Harry was becoming.

After dinner, Harry filled in Ron and Hermione about his conversation with Snape and plan to take him into the chamber. Ron thought it was great that the man would be able to help them deal with the Basilisk and make use of its parts, while Hermione felt better about being in the chamber now that a teacher was aware of it. Of course she had also approved of Harry's idea and then the trio had begun to discuss how else Snape could help them by answering some of their questions.

So, while Hermione and Ron began their Prefect rounds for the evening, Harry headed to the second-floor lavatory that most students stayed away from because of the wailing of one, Moaning Myrtle.

During the many times that Harry had ventured into the chamber this year he had come to an understanding with the ghost and she hardly ever bothered him as long as he spent a few minutes chatting with her before she would fly over to her favorite stall.

Which Snape was appreciative of as he arrived just after Harry finished talking with her. Of course, he never actually said that to Harry; he just lifted an eyebrow as he waited for Harry to show him the entrance.

Hearing Harry hiss in that language was something that he would never get used to, for it was hard for him to associate Lily's son doing something so similar to the Dark Lord. It had always internally frightened the man when he had heard him hissing to his snakes, since pain for someone – or even death – was usually not that far behind.

"Ready?" Harry posed after he had finished opening the entrance and asking for stairs.

Snape could only nod his head. How had no one discovered this? For that matter, how did no one think to look in the bathroom where Moaning Myrtle had died? Everything suddenly became clear for Snape as he posited how she must have died by meeting the Basilisk's eyes as she had been coming out of a stall, a stall that she now frequently cried in.

Severus would have to rethink the amount of blind faith that he put in Albus. Well, it wasn't blind so much as he was just becoming complacent with how the man conducted his business.

As he followed Harry into the earth he began to become curious how Harry, and no doubt his friends, had figured all of this out.

"How did you come to discover the entrance?" Snape asked once they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Harry kept his lit wand in front of him as he continued to lead Snape over the rocks as he answered.

"Eventually Ron and I realized that Myrtle had been the student who had died when the chamber had been opened previously, and then we wondered if she had simply never left the place where she had died. Once we saw the snake on the faucet, we knew and I opened it and then we jumped right in. In our haste, we didn't think to ask for stairs."

Snape shook his head but then quickly had become distracted as they passed over the shed snakeskin; just how big was this thing?

He soon had his answer as his eyes took in the size of the ancient beast that lied in the middle of the floor of the Chamber of Secrets. It had to be over seventy feet in length!

"How…" he uttered. "How did you and Ron survive?"

"Well, Ron was trapped in the tunnel as Lockhart had come with us."

Snape whipped his head around at that.

"Lockhart? The man who now can't remember his own name?"

Harry laughed thinking about how ironic it had been for the man to end up in that state.

"He liked to use memory charms; Dumbledore never told you?"

Snape shook his head again.

"It would seem he has left a lot of things out. He only said that Lockhart had had an accident. Obviously a back-fired memory charm of some kind but nothing more than that."

"What happened?" he asked, not quite believing this whole thing and looking at Harry very differently. Looking at the Boy Who Lived differently seemed to be a running theme for him this year.

"Well, he became afraid and managed to get Ron's wand, except that Ron had his old, broken wand and when he went to obliviate us, it hit him instead. However, the magic caused the ceiling to cave-in and Ron stayed with him and I went on alone."

"Then what happened?"

"Well," Harry started as he walked toward the Basilisk.

"I saw Ginny Weasley lying on the ground; she was cold and I worried that it was too late. Then, Tom Riddle came and…" Harry stopped when he saw Severus' face tighten just a little.

Harry had been watching him closely, hoping that he would give something away.

"Professor?"

"Do you know who that is?" Severus' dark eyes narrowed.

"Voldemort," he replied with a quick nod of his head.

"Only it was what he looked like when he was at school. You see, Ginny had this diary that belonged to him and 'given to her' by Lucius Malfoy. She had been writing in it all year and it would possess her and make her open the chamber. Tom said that he was almost done draining off the last bit of her energy to come alive again."

In talking to Ron and Hermione earlier that night, they had discussed whether Snape would know what to make of this since it was something they couldn't explain. Hermione had searched the library endlessly for something that would make sense of a person coming from a diary and able to do all the things that Riddle had done.

And the brief look of discomfort that flashed through Severus' features gave Harry an answer: Snape knew exactly what that diary had been.

However, he finished his story about how he had then fought the Basilisk and defeated it with the sword of Godric Gryffindor and how Fawkes had saved him from the Basilisk's bite.

When that was done, he turned to Snape.

"Do you know what the diary was?" he put forth cautiously.

Snape closed his eyes and nodded. He sighed and then opened his black eyes to look at Harry clearly. By this time they had reached the snake's body, but Snape was too busy thinking about Horcruxes to spend much time looking at the fortune directly in front of him. They would get more galleons out of this than they knew what to do with.

"I guessed why the Dark Lord never truly died, of what he had done to gain immortality. I wasn't completely sure until this past summer and after hearing about what you just said. But yes, I know why the Dark Lord didn't die."

Harry looked at him expectantly.

"I think that what you have just described was a Horcrux."

"A Horcrux?" Harry repeated.

Snape then went onto explain how Horcruxes contained a bit of one's soul and tied the rest of the person to the earth should the main form be harmed in any way.

It was a lot to take in and they sat in silence for a few moments. During this time, Snape satisfied his curiosity and finally looked around the Basilisk, not being able to imagine himself going against it. He honestly had no idea how Harry hadn't been killed.

So now Harry knew why the Dark Lord had survived that night in Godric's Hallow, even knew why the man had been there in the first place. Voldemort had thought that he was getting rid of the one threat to him.

But all that Harry could think of was why the Prophecy seemed to think that he was the one that could destroy him. However, as he was rubbing his faded scar absentmindedly, he thought of something else.

"My scar!" Harry voiced, causing Snape to look his way.

"Could a Horcrux exist in a person?" All he could think of was how much better his mind had felt after the cemetery when he had woken up after seeing his mum.

"I saw a piece of his soul," he then exclaimed and told Severus about the black mass that had been next to his mum.

"That was why I could go back, because he remained."

Harry now knew what had happened that night and Severus was very impressed with the young man that stood before him. Gone was the younger version of James Potter that he had forced himself to see and in his place was someone that Severus could easily see growing into a man that Lily would have been most proud of.

They went back and forth after that, theorizing about whether Voldemort had made more Horcruxes. Ultimately they had come to the conclusion that he must have, for Severus recalled the whispers from Lucius who had talked about how the Dark Lord had gone further than anyone else in gaining immortality when he had been alive. He obviously hadn't known what he was talking about since he had given the diary away but Snape now had a pretty good idea what the man had meant.

He counted himself fortunate that Lucius spoke freely in his presence and often let slip a few things he had heard while serving the Dark Lord in his private chambers. Apparently towards the end, Voldemort had been unhinged with the revelation of the prophecy.

Creating more than one Horcrux would certainly count as going further than anyone had on record, besting Herpo the Foul and even the person who had been mentioned in the footnote of Secrets of the Darkest Art as finding redemption so as to recombine his soul. But how many was the question that was now in front of them.

One thing they became certain of was that Dumbledore had to know about this as well, since Harry had gone onto explain how he had given the man the diary that had been pierced with a Basilisk's fang.

"Why are you confiding about this in me?" Severus then wondered aloud.

His dark eyes were centered on the floor in front of him.

It was a question that Harry had thought a great deal about recently, and he had found that he needed to trust someone capable and Snape seemed to be his best choice given their recent history.

"A war is coming," said Harry frankly.

"I need to be prepared and I couldn't think of anyone else that would know about all of this. It's not like Dumbledore has been forthcoming with answers."

Snape remained silent while Harry talked, his eyes never leaving the tile they were focused on.

"Anyways, I trust you. At least I want to trust you; I need to have someone on my side that can help me match him. And I know you have the same reservations about Dumbledore that I do."

Harry's last statement wasn't entirely true because he was only guessing on that part with everything that Snape had learned recently.

"I think Dumbledore means well, Potter. If I had to take a guess it would be that he has led an opposition to Dark Magic for so long that he feels he has to do certain things alone. I think power has isolated the man."

It sure would explain how Severus had always been made to feel like he was close enough to be in on things, but not close enough to know everything that was going on.

"I think he uses people as if they were chess pieces," Harry commented.

"I believe that is a fair assessment," Snape said with his usual drawl.

"But I don't see why you took the chance on me, given our history."

"I just know you understand what we are fighting for. I know you regret what happened with my mum and I know you are against him. You, more than anyone with your history with him would be the right person."

"Your not worried that I would betray you? How can you be so certain I am on your side?"

This was the one part Snape couldn't get past. He didn't see how Harry could so easily forget Snape's treatment of him because he didn't think there would ever come a day where he would forget James Potter.

"I think you would have already killed me Professor; you have certainly had your chances."

"Also, I need to hope that there is some good in people. My life has been tragic but I haven't given up. Even after Cedric," which Harry had then needed to take a deep breath before continuing.

"I don't want that to happen to anyone else. Well, I know it will happen again to someone before the man is destroyed; but I want to save as many people from that fate as possible."

"And honestly, Professor, I think you are the key to that."

Not since Lily had someone had such faith in him; was able to see things inside of him that he had trouble seeing.

He never thought that he would feel that from another person after her, and he had certainly never expected her son to be the one to do it. It was nice to be believed in again; he wasn't even sure if Albus really thought he had changed. Severus liked that Harry treated him as a person, even if felt that he didn't deserve it sometimes.

And Snape was almost positive that Voldemort would have doubts about his loyalty, but assumed he was keeping him stationed at Hogwarts until he could be sure. He grew nervous about when the Dark Lord would finally summon him.

The more he thought about his situation, the more he came to realize that both were right; for he was on neither of their sides. Snape was now firmly in the corner of Harry Potter, and he was fine with that given just who Harry had become.

"I will do everything in my power to help you defeat Voldemort."

Snape's words echoed throughout the chamber, and Harry nodded his head. He didn't have the words and wouldn't have known how to say it even if he did.

Dolores Umbridge was in a sour mood. Not even four scoops of sugar in her tea had made things better. It bothered her immensely that Harry Potter had not suffered an outburst in her classroom.

She was itching to use her new blood quill. She had braved Knockturn Alley specifically for the purpose of using it on Harry Potter.

But she was having trouble finding someway that she could use it on him. Most of her free time was being spent racking her brain, thinking of someway that would get the boy to act out in class so that she could give him a detention. Not even the mention of his dead friend had been able to anger the boy much.

Though, that particular class hadn't been a total waste. She had gotten more enjoyment out of pestering the child of that hag that she worked with than she expected.

"Easy Dolores," she chided herself.

She could feel herself getting worked up again and needed to take a moment to settle down.

With exams only a few months away she was losing her opportunity to do something. Half the year had gone by and she had little to show for it.

When she hadn't been trying to show Potter to be the liar the she knew him to be, she had spent her time trying to convince Cornelius that new Educational Decrees were in order to giver herself more power.

Cornelius, however, had other thoughts. He was still convinced with that silly notion of Him being back, and the missing prisoner – some Bellatrix Lestrange – had persuaded him of that even further. She was sure that it had been Dumbledore's doing that her Minister was thinking this way, and she couldn't stand it.

Without the Educational Decrees, she wouldn't be able to inform the public of what a good job she was doing. Grades alone were never a cause for celebration or notoriety, and so she hadn't been focusing on that.

"I'm afraid things aren't going well for you, Dolores," she ridiculed herself.

It was normal for her to have these conversations since she was so busy and important that she didn't have time for real friendships. That, and she had also started to lose her mind just a little bit.

However, something about the word 'afraid' stuck in her mind as she sat at her oak desk with pink trim.

It took several moments before an evil giggle sounded in her throat.

"Dolores, you've done it!" she congratulated herself.

"Knew you had it in you."

Her idea was perfect and it was just the sort of thing that would work without anyone being the wiser given that she was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and would have O.W.L. review sessions coming up.

Now she had an ideal way of getting a rise out of Harry. Oh, she could hardly contain her excitement. Certainly it had to be one of his greatest fears after seeing his friend get kissed that the same would happen for him, and Boggarts were on the syllabus after all.

She giggled very loud indeed at the thought of Harry Potter facing his greatest fear and the scene that it would no doubt cause.

The Dark Lord was thinking about making a move. Not an obvious move, because that could lead the Ministry to make his return known to the public. While he was certain that they knew and were preparing for an eventual war with him, he preferred to keep the public in the dark for as long as possible. It would only make his job harder if they knew and the spies that he had recently placed would be less effective.

As it was, his thoughts to use Lucius and his reputation had been immediately disregarded when the man had informed him that his reach wasn't as far inside the Ministry with their new regime. Cornelius was wary of him now.

But that didn't mean that Lucius was useless, for the man had connections that would work even better. The Dark Lord had given Lucius an assignment over the Holidays – which had been immensely entertaining, as he had dropped in out of the blue - to quietly recruit a few individuals that could be trusted. He needed to know what was happening inside of the Ministry now that he had had time to prepare a little since his return.

And while that happened, the Dark Lord was thinking about making a move towards Harry. He knew that eventually they would fight out, which of course he would win. No one would best him, not with his Horcruxes. How could the boy possibly discover those?

He would do things right this time.

Thoughts? And thanks in advance for your support with Soul Magic.