Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.
A/N: Thanks givetherabbitthefreakintrix, Duskfire1954, and Atem and Tea for the reviews!
Any new guesses on who the spy is? There's a very subtle hint in here – let's see if you can find it!
Chapter 8
The bell rang, and with it, the class of sixth-year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs shuffled out. I sat down at my desk and ran my fingers through my hair – it stressful class that had been. The Slytherins had berated me with questions about when Severus would be coming back, and the Hufflepuffs had with questions about my "other life," as they had called it.
The next day marked the exact two weeks since I had seen Severus. I wanted to go again, but Dumbledore had forbade me from doing so, and I decided that, this time, I was going to trust him and not go.
I sighed and pulled a stack of papers to grade close to me. I never knew how stressful teaching could be. I had a newfound respect for all teachers, especially those who had been teaching for years – Sprout, McGonagall, Flitwick, etc.
I heard the door open quietly and looked up to see Harry entering quietly.
"Hey Harry," I said, "I haven't talked to you for a while. How're you doing?"
Harry closed the door behind him and silently walked forward and sat on the desk right in front of me. I noticed that he looked upset about something.
"You okay?" I asked. He nodded silently. "You sure?"
"Just stressed," he replied quietly. "I graduate soon, and with the war going on – it's going to be hard, being alone out in the world for the first time during a war – "
"Hey," I interrupted soothingly, "you're never going to be alone. You've got Mom, Dad, me, Hermine, Ron, Ginny – "
"I know, it's just – different, being in school and then having graduated."
"I know," I replied kindly.
"That's why I came to talk to you," he said. "I mean, you know what it's like – being in your seventh year during the war, and having to go out into the world to fight right away and – stuff. I just wondered – how did you do it? How could you handle all of that stress, and then the fact that you were a spy on top of it all?"
"I know that I had to," I answered after a moment. "If I didn't, nobody else would – it was up to me. Was it stressful? Yes. Was it easy? No. But the best path isn't always the easiest one – as a matter of fact, it hardly ever is. Was it worth it? One hundred percent." Harry stared at me for a moment.
"Right," he said, standing up. "I better get to class. Thanks, Nick."
"Anytime." I watched as he left the room, then sat back down to finish grading papers.
I sighed as I heard the door open again, but didn't bother to glance up to see who it was this time – probably just a student who had forgotten something in the room. The door shut. But to my surprise, the footsteps in the quiet room sounded heavier than any of the fourth-years should've been able to make, and they came right up to my desk. After a moment of silence, looking at the paper in front of me and waiting for whoever it was to talk, I looked up to see –
"Severus!" I exclaimed. "You're back!"
"Yes, I see that I'm back," he replied in his usual dry, sarcastic voice.
"When did you get here?" I asked as he pulled up a chair and sat down across from me.
"Just now. I came here first, Dumbledore told me you'd be here. Of course, I had to wait for class to be over – didn't want to interrupt."
"You should have," I replied sourly. "It wasn't a very fun class." I hit my head on my desk just thinking about it and left it there.
"You looked stressed still."
"Oh, you have no idea," I said quietly, my head still on my desk.
"Ever find out who the spies were?"
"Oh, I sure did, and you're going to find this interesting," I said, sitting up again quickly. "Well, I found out who two of them are. One was Draco Malfoy – which I totally called, by the way – and the other was, wait for it – me." Severus stared at me, at first thinking that I was joking, and then looking confused.
"You? Have you and Dumbledore gone mad?"
"Well, Dumbledore's completely bonkers," I replied. He rolled his eyes and said,
"Anyway, this isn't going to work! Bellatrix will kill you as soon as looking at you."
"Oh, you should know Dumbledore better than that," I said smoothly. "He has a plan." I quickly told him everything that Dumbledore had told me. Severus listened intently, but when I was finished, he still didn't seem convinced that it would work. "What?" I asked, annoyed.
"Well, don't you think that, as soon as you go undercover, they're going to torture and kill you?" I shrugged.
"I know," I replied, getting up and pacing behind the desk. "I know, I know, I know! You're not the first to tell me. But isn't it worth the risk? Isn't it worth risking your life, in case it does work, for all those other lives that you could be saving? I could simply tell Dumbledore where they're planning to attack and save tons – hundreds, maybe even – of innocent Muggles and wizards alike. Do I think they'll torture me? Yes. Do I think they'll kill me? No. They know how powerful and influential I can be – "
"No need to brag," Severus muttered. I shrugged.
"I'm just saying it as it is, you know. Anyway, they know how helpful it can be to have a spy, even if the spy isn't really on their side and is being forced to tell. You know how helpful that can be as well."
"Helpful for them!" Severus exclaimed. "How is it helpful for us if you're off telling them everything with no choice?"
"I had to tell them everything last time as well, remember?" I replied calmly, still pacing the room. "But we still managed to win the war. We can do it again – but not if we don't have enough spies."
"Isn't Draco enough?"
"No," I answered. "Remember last time? Both you and me had to be spies for them, and even then we didn't know everything."
"But there's that other spy – him (or her) and Draco should be enough!"
"Come on, Sev, just accept it," I said smoothly, stopping my pacing right in front of him and leaning my palms onto the desk so I was leaning forward slightly. "The Order needs me to go undercover, and I'm doing it, whether you and Regulus and anybody else like it or not." Severus sighed but tried to fight it no more as I sat back down. Finally, after a moment of silence, Severus asked,
"Have you told Lily and James yet?"
"No, and I'm not looking forward to telling them."
"Of course you're not," he replied quietly. "You know that, since you're underage, they can forbid you from going, right?"
"Well, they can try," I said, "but they can't stop me. If I have to, I'll lie and say that I won't go undercover, and then do it anyway, I'm sure if Dumbledore talks to them, they'll be convinced. But it'll take time." I paused. "Yeah, I should probably tell them soon."
"Might be a good idea." We sat in silence for a moment before Severus asked, "Where's Regulus?"
"At work. He's almost always there. It's a bit annoying, really." Suddenly, I realized something. "Hey – if you're back, that means I should be able to go back to work tomorrow!"
"And I guess then you and I will probably have to search for the Death Eater hideout tomorrow too," Severus pointed out.
"Wait – if Draco told Dumbledore that they're using Malfoy Manor, then do you think that you and I will have to go anyways?"
"I don't know," Severus said slowly. "But we should probably find out. How about tomorrow, you and I will go check with Sirius?"
"Why not now?" I suggested. "That was the last Defense Against the Dark Arts class for the day. You don't even have to tell Dumbledore that you're back – unless you have already, of course – "
"I haven't," he interrupted.
"Well then we can just go straight to the Ministry right now," I said, quite loudly to be honest.
"But if Dumbledore knows that they're using Malfoy Manor, why do we need to go?" Severus said suspiciously. I shrugged innocently, but it didn't work. "You just want to go now so that you can prove that it's time for you to go back to work, don't you?" I shook my head quickly.
"No – "
"Yes you do – "
"Fine, I want to go back to work, is there something wrong with that?" I asked feverishly – hey, he had pissed me off, how else was I supposed to react? "I actually like my job, I want to help catch the Death Eaters – at least until I have to go undercover – "
"Which I still think is a terrible idea, no matter what you say," Severus said.
"What? You seemed fine with it a few minutes ago!" I exclaimed, confused.
"Yeah, well, I'm indecisive."
"I've noticed," I grumbled. "Anyway, come on, let's go!" I got up quickly and led the way to the Room of Requirement. I didn't need to look behind me to know that Severus was following – even if he hadn't been so keen on it before, I knew that he would come if I left him no choice. Once there, I opened it to the place we had been staying, and walked right up to the fireplace.
"What is this place?"
"The Room of Requirement," I said, throwing some Floo Powder into the fire and pulling Severus in with me and Flooing us to the Ministry.
"Well I know that," he exclaimed as I led the way down the busy Atrium. "I meant what was that room? You seemed really familiar with it."
"Oh, that's where those in the Order are staying. There are side bedrooms off of it for everybody who doesn't have one in Hogwarts. I don't know where everybody that's staying there was – Scarlet, Mad-Eye, Lily, Mary – usually, unless it's nighttime, it's really busy in there," I explained.
"Oh," was all he said as I threw the doors open to the Auror Headquarters. Nobody bothered to look to see who had come in, so I led the way over to Sirius's cubicle, where he was talking quickly and quitely to Ethan Humphrey, one of the other Aurors.
"Sirius," I said loudly as I stopped beside his cubicle, Severus right behind me. "Sev got out of St. Mungo's, so this means I can come back to work now." I paused. "Do you still want us to check out the Death Eaters' usual hideouts?"
"Of course," Sirius said, "why wouldn't I?"
"Uh," I said, deciding to lie. "I don't know," I lied quickly, hoping Severus would get the point quickly – if Dumbledore hadn't told Sirius yet, I wasn't planning to. "I was just making sure."
"It'd be great if you would go now. Just check any places that you find them likely to be – places like Malfoy Manor." He suddenly turned to the cubicle next to his – James'. "Hey, James, could you lend Snape and Nicole the Invisibility Cloak? They're going to look for the Death Eater hideouts and could use it."
"Sure," James relied, throwing us the invisibility cloak. Severus caught it and tucked it into his robes.
"Alright, thanks." I started to leave, but then I realized something. "Hey," I said, turning back to Sirius. "Where's Regulus?"
"Oh, I sent him home early, he's been overworked lately," Sirius replied absentmindedly, turning back to his conversation with Ethan as Livia Lebron joined in it. I thought about contacting Regulus to let him know what was going on, but decided not to waste time with it. This time, Severus led the way out of the Atrium and Apparated us both to the outside of Malfoy Manor.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, confused.
"We might as well get in and see what's going on," he explained. He threw the Invisibility Cloak over both of us. He put his hand up against the lock and it sprung open. We entered together and Severus led the way to the Manor, opening the door just enough for us to slip through.
The Entrance Hall was deserted. "This way," Severus whispered to me, pulling me toward where I knew the Drawing Room where most of the Death Eater meetings were held.
The door was slightly ajar – just enough for Severus and I to slide through it unnoticed by the few Death Eaters inside. I recognized Draco, Bellatrix, Lucius Malfoy, and Evan Rosier. There was another there, but whoever it was had their cloak pulled low over their head so it was made nearly impossible to tell who it was. They were gathered around a huge cauldron, large enough to fit several full grown people inside, with a boiling potion in it. There was another, much smaller cauldron in the far corner. It, too, had a boiling potion in it.
"What are they doing?" Severus mouthed to me. I shrugged, but I was fairly certain that I knew what was going on.
"Do you have the final ingredient for today?" Rosier asked. Bellatrix silently put something so small into the huge cauldron in front of them that I couldn't tell what it was – at least, until Bellatrix said, so quietly that Severus and I almost couldn't hear or understand her,
"Blood of the murderer, unknowingly taken."
Now I knew what was going on.
I felt my eyes widen and was about to turn to Severus when the potion boiled more – so much that it almost boiled over. Smoke enveloped the room. The three Death Eaters and Draco started to cough just as the smoke entered my lungs. I tried to not cough – luckily, Severus was smart and pulled me quickly from the room. We waited just outside the door, where we could hear but couldn't see.
"How long before – before it happens?" Bellatrix asked.
"Exactly 24 hours," Rosier answered.
"We can all meet back here tomorrow, same time as today," Bellatrix said. The door was suddenly pushed open and Rosier and the masked Death Eater left. Severus and I pressed ourselves up against the wall as they passed.
"Draco," Bellatrix said once she was sure they were gone. "Make sure that Sawyer – well, Potter, actually – gets three drops of this in her drink by tomorrow. It would make for a nice – gift – for her to be here at the rebirth." I swallowed – thank Merlin Draco was on our side.
"Of course," said Draco's muffled voice.
"Let's get out of here," I said shakily to Severus, quickly leading the way back to the Entrance Hall and out of the gates.
"What the bloody hell was all of that about?" Severus questioned as we walked through the forest surrounding the Manor to find a spot to Disapparate from. "Rebirth of what?"
"I told you, didn't I?" I asked.
"I don't have a very good memory, I had a lot of drugs in me at the time," Severus grumbled. I stopped walking and he turned around to face me. "What?"
"They meant the rebirth of Voldemort."
A/N: Like it? Love it? Hate it? Leave me a review to tell me your opinions! Constructive criticism is appreciated! You can even tell me what you'd like to see happen later in the story if you want.