CHAPTER 23-Snape Gets Even
When Harry arrived back at the dorm everyone was pretty quiet. Luna was sitting by the fire by herself and it was apparent she had been crying. Ron came over and explained to Harry that they had tried to talk with her but she was not responsive.
Harry walked over to her and gently sat down beside her. Tenderly he said, "It leaves you pretty empty, and helpless. I still want to yell at someone at times and at other times I feel like it's all a dream and they will come and pull me away from all this."
Luna looked at him and said, "I saw my Mother die a few years back and I thought that was the most horrible thing that could happen to me. I still had my Dad, even though he was never the same after she died. I think I look too much like her for his comfort. He would stay home for awhile but then he always had to go on one of his stupid trips looking for animals that don't exist. I tried to play along with his game and act like his animals were real but it wasn't enough to keep him home."
"Do you still hurt Harry?" asked Luna.
"Yes, but my hurt is more about what I was never allowed to experience. I have to rely on stories from their friends and pictures to get to know my parents. As you know, my experience with my other relatives didn't work out very well. You, on the other hand will hurt for a while but then you can start drawing memories from your very own personal experiences with them. In time you can just let the good memories rise to the surface and I think it can give you some comfort."
"Frankly Luna," said Harry, "I don't know if I could stand losing my parents after knowing them, it must hurt terribly?"
Luna laid her head on his shoulder and silently cried and Harry just held her. He knew that only time would allow her to get through this, time and her friends. Soon she fell asleep and he gently laid her down on the couch and covered her up.
Ginny came over to him and gave him a hug telling him that what he had done for Luna was really nice. "Also, did you hear, her guardianship has been given to Professor Longbottom. I hear Luna didn't have any relatives and refused to go with anyone but her. She must feel safe with her."
"You're probably right" said Harry, "She probably trusts her more than the others. Professor Longbottom has been there for her through the good and the bad. I think she is the one who gave Luna the spanking at the start of our detention, and I have also seen her give Luna a lot of hugs when she was feeling down and I know they talked about her dad a lot."
With everything that had happened everyone was in agreement with the decision to postpone the party till the next day. Nobody was in the mood to party after Hogsmeade and Luna's terrible news.
Hermione and Draco took the opportunity to share with them what they found out in the library. "According to the old laws" said Draco, "A Death Eater, who has not been cleared by the ministry, who is a wanted criminal, cannot own a House Elf. Since Lucius is now marked as a Death Eater and is wanted, we should be able to free Dobby and all the other House Elves at the Manor."
"I think we need to talk to Professor Dumbledore" said Harry. They agreed and as a group walked to his office they agreed not to mention anything they had overheard during the Order meeting and just stick with wanting to save Dobby because he tried to help Harry.
When they arrived in Dumbledore's office Professor McGonagall was there also. Harry shared with them what the kids wanted to accomplish and Hermione showed them the laws that supported their idea.
Albus, folded his hands under his chin and thought for a moment. Then he smiled and said, "You know what, it should work! Fudge is still trying to save is reputation and his job. The law is very clear and really doesn't ask Fudge to risk anything. Let's give it a try."
With that he pulled out a parchment and wrote out the formal request. According to the law, the person making the request could take custody of the elf or elves in question as long as they were willing to provide them with a good home. Hogwarts was considered a fine place for House Elves.
Albus put the formal request in an envelope, and sealed it with the Hogwart's seal. He then gave it to Fawkes to deliver in style.
It was dinner time and they tried to get Luna to go with them but she was just not up to it yet. Hermione called a House Elf and asked that a light dinner be brought to her. It was like the Elves were expecting the request because they didn't hesitate to agree. A small sandwich and warm soup were delivered and Harry made sure she was at least attempting to eat before they all went down to dinner.
They were all seated and serving themselves when Alice came in with Cassy. The youngster seemed quiet and withdrawn, totally not normal for Cassy.
Alice explained that Cassy knew about Luna's Dad and it seemed to bring back some bad memories. Cassy ate a few bites of food but what she did next shocked everyone at the table.
She quietly climbed down from her chair without anyone really noticing. She then walked over to Severus which did catch everyone's attention, especially his. She quietly climbed into his lap, not asking permission, not asking for help, just climbing by hanging on his robes.
The look on Severus' face was totally obvious. He looked like he was going into cardiac arrest. His back was straight, his eyebrows arched almost to his hairline, and his arms remained on the table as if he were still eating.
Once Cassy situated herself in his lap, she looked up and him and said, "You smell good" then she laid her head against his chest, put her thumb in her mouth, and closed her eyes. She never said another word and neither did Snape.
Severus then looked at Alice with that, 'help get me out of this' look, he was totally humiliated. Alice just smiled and continued to eat. Everyone was watching to see what his reaction would be thinking he would most likely make her get down. It was obvious that he was extremely uncomfortable but it was also obvious that if he didn't support her in some way she was going to fall off his lap eventually.
Severus then did the only thing he could do and retain a bit of dignity. He wrapped one arm around her to stabilize her, he then continued eating as if she were not even there. He also added one of his most hateful glares to those around him which quickly made everyone quit staring and look back at their own food.
While the majority of the people at the table wanted to smile, even laugh, they were duly intimidated. Albus and Minerva were another story. They were both smiling, in fact they were both doing all they could do not to laugh. They also knew that their son would never, ever, live this down.
Severus continued to eat long enough to give everyone the impresson that he was full and what was happening to him was not all that important. He then looked at Alice and together they rose from the table, Severus holding Cassy in place. Alice felt that she had allowed Severus to be tormented long enough and it was time to return to her quarters and put Cassy to bed.
Once they left the great hall everyone bust out laughing. Harry had tears in his eyes and was laughing so hard that he fell off the bench. The Twins had to help Harry and a couple others back up and then commented that they would be able to make pictures from the memories and make sure that everyone had a copy, especially Professor Snape.
Percy had been given an assignment by Albus to research dark items that had been reported as missing over the past year. The Professor thought perhaps they might get an idea of what to look for when they searched Malfoy Manor.
The Twins were off somewhere making copies of their memories of Snape and Cassy.
The girls decided that they would stay with Luna that evening and look at Hermione's teen magazines.
Draco, Ron, Harry and Neville decided after dinner that they wanted to take a closer look at those rooms near the Order meeting room. They had a few hours before curfew so they started down to the dungeons on the far side of the castle. Hermione taught them a couple spells that would open locked doors then Harry put his invisibility cloak in his pocket just in case they might need it.
They took their time on the way down and checked out most of the doors that they usually just walked past when going to their hiding place. Most of them they were able to open and they found nothing. The last one they tried was interesting in that they found the Twins.
The room looked to be a copy of the lab that belonged to Snape. It had a number of work stations and even a supply closet that was full of ingredients. Fred explained that they had found the room a while back and had been working on their pranks down there because it had so many things that they needed and was really neat. Right now they were developing memories. They had found a pensieve and removed the memory and were now making picture copies of it.
The boys thought this place was great. Harry said, "You know what, we can practice our potions down here without Snape breathing down our necks and maybe we can get a few of them right before we get to class. That would really set Snape off if we were able to do the potion correctly, in fact he would go nuts trying to figure out how we were able to do it."
A smile came across everyone's face, especially Neville's as they envisioned the look on Snapes face if he had to give them all good marks. Since he worked through the book in order they would have no problem figuring out what was next. They would get with the girls and set up a list and time to practice.
They left the Twins and finally arrived at the door that led to the place where the Order met. "I think we ought to send in some ears first," said Draco, "To make sure there isn't anyone in there." They agreed and slid the ears under the door. They were very surprised to hear voices inside the room and quickly pulled back the ears.
"What do we do now?" asked Neville.
"As much as I want to listen, it might put the Twins at risk of getting caught. We need to warn them first then we can just use today to check out some more room" said Harry.
They warned the Twins that someone was in the Order meeting room, then continued around the corner and checked out a few more doors. One room held a surprise. It looked to be a library. It was smaller than the main library but when they looked at the book titles they found that there was a lot of defense, dark arts and history books.
"Hermione will want to get down here and check this out" said Draco. Then his eyes got big and he pointed to the far corner of the room. When they looked at where he was pointing they saw a staircase going up.
They all looked at each other then made a silent decision to follow the stairs. As they proceeded quietly up the staircase a rat came out from nowhere, ran passed them and out the door, startling them all.
"You know what, that rat looked a lot like my rat Scabbers" said Ron.
"How can you tell one rat from another?" grinned Draco .
"Scabbers used to belong to Percy then became my pet rat. You don't spend that much time with an animal without really knowing what they look like. But Scabbers is up in the dorm sleeping, so it couldn't be him" said Ron.
"Maybe he's a close relative, you should invite him for a visit" laughed Harry.
Ron just turned red and they continued up the stairs. Finally they arrived on a landing and there was a doorway on the right and another on the left. They chose the one on the right to explore first. The door wasn't locked so Harry peeked in slowly. "There's no one in here" he said.
They all went into the room and shut the door. When they started looking around they were amazed. They saw all kinds of equipment and gadgets. "I wonder what all these are for?" asked Harry.
"These, my friends, are secrecy sensors, snoop scopes, invisibility cloaks, darkness powder, and all kinds of spy type stuff" answered Draco. "Lucius had a lot of this type stuff at the house. I wonder why it's here and why the door wasn't locked."
"Let's leave it for now" said Neville, "We might need some of this stuff later and now we know where to find it."
They all agreed and after looking around a bit more to get a cursory inventory they left the room and closed the door. They then carefully opened the other door and Harry took a peek to see if anyone was inside, what he saw shocked him. "This is Dumbledore's office" he said with a shaking voice.
"Is he in there?" asked Draco.
"No, I don't think so, I can't see anyone" said Harry.
"Let's go in and check it out" said Ron.
"No", said Harry, "Remember, the portraits are in there, and they would just tell Dumbledore that we were there." Everyone agreed it would not be a good idea and turned to leave when they heard voices coming up the stairs.
"Quick, in here" said Neville, as he opened the door to the room with all the spy equipment. They all piled into the room, locked the door and remained very, very still. The voices came closer and closer and finally they could make out two of them, one being Severus and the other being Dumbledore. The two people that they would want least to catch them snooping.
Their luck held as the two men did not enter the room the kids were hiding in but went into Dumbledore's office. With a sigh of relief they crept out and swiftly headed down the stairs, and back to the common room. Their hearts were going ninety miles and hour and they had enough snooping for one day.
When they got back to the common room they filled the rest of the students in on what had happened. "At least we know who owns the stuff and I'm glad we didn't take any of it...yet" said Harry.
"Yeh, I bet Dumbledore knows every piece of equipment he has in that room and probably has it marked or charmed to scream if touched by someone other than him" said Ron.
Hermione was thinking deep thoughts and Draco nudged her, "What's going on in your brain that would cause you to look like your in pain?"
She just smiled, then turned to Ron and said, "Ron do me a favor please, go check on Scabbers and see if he is up in your bed, would you?"
Ron gave her a funny look, but it was a nice request and it was Hermione so he walked up to check on Scabbers. When he came down he had a frown on his face and told her, "No, he's not up there. He's probably out trying to find some food or something."
Hermione smiled and said, "Yes, 'or something'" but said no more for the moment. She really wanted to talk to Lupin and get him to tell her about 'The Rat'. But it was close to curfew so she would have to wait until the next day, perhaps she could catch him during the party. She walked over to Luna and offered to walk with her up to the dorm so they could get some sleep. Luna looked at her like she was going to decline but then took a deep breath, rose up from her chair, and followed Hermione up the stairs to bed.
The birthday party the next day turned into a BBQ and swim party. They had the kitchen Elves provide salads and drinks. Hagrid built a big bonfire and provided a bunch of what looked like spears. They told the kids to wear swim suits, with shorts and a t-shirt over the top.
The kids and Alice had transfigured an old muggle tire into a swimming pool for their enjoyment. They had to show everyone how to cook their own hotdogs on a stick or spear as they called them. Hermione was the only one of the kids who had ever cooked hotdogs over an open fire before but the rest of them got into it and really had a good time. Of course they burnt half of them but found that they tasted better that way.
Right after lunch they were led out to the Quidditch where a circle had been transfigured with ten miniature cars inside. They were then shown how to drive the cars, and not only drive them but run into each other as they were called "bumper cars". The kids, and some of the professors, had a ball with the cars, trying to bump into each other. It was the only time that kids and professors could ram each other and get away with it. It took an order from Albus to get Severus into one of the cars and Albus soon saw the error of this move as everyone kid in the circle took out after him, ramming into him over and over and over again. Albus finally waved his wand stopping it all and allowed Severus to get out of the circle. If looks could kill, Albus would die a hundred very terrible deaths.
After a while they were hot so decided to head to the pool and cool off. They were also introduced to 'smores' later, and thought that smores were great. In fact they were thinking that they could do this when they wanted to in their common room fire at night and teach the rest of the kids about this picnic stuff when they came back to school.
They had already received their first birthday gift when they were given the fifty galleons to spend. This day they were all given one more gift. The adults decided to include Cassy as she would not understand if they didn't include her. The adults handed out the second gift to each of them. When they opened the gift they were all the same; a necklace that was very small. While it looked delicate it was very strong and would not break. When they put them on the necklace disappeared from view.
Alice explained, "We want you to all wear these at all times. They are port-keys, like the ones that Madame Pomfrey gives you when your not released from the hospital but allowed to walk around. All you have to do is grab it in your hand and speak the word "Companion". It will bring you to the hospital wing immediately. Alice then took Cassy aside and explained that hers would work if she got really scared and wanted to come home. All she had to do was hold it and say mama and it would bring her to Madame Pomfrey. Cassy and the rest of them thought it was a really cool gift and it also gave them all a sense of feeling a bit safer.
The day was far from over, but after another hour in the pool they all retired to the showers and clean clothes. By the time they all arrived at dinner their skin had turned blue with pink poka-dots, with the exception of Severus.
Severus started eating dinner as if nothing was wrong, ignoring his Mom and Dad's angry looks, and the questioning looks from the others. He finally looked up and said, "You really thought you could prank me with the bat guts" looking at the kids. "And laugh at me earlier" he said, looking at his folks, "And I wouldn't get even?" Have a nice evening. "Mom, Dad, yours will wear off in about two days, looking at the kids, "Yours will stop when you tell us how you completed your tasks during detention so quickly". With that he shook his hair out of his eyes and turned quickly to get that "bat"effect on his robes, and walked out leaving them all looking stunned. The Potion Master had pulled a prank.