Decided to combine two chapters again. I'm sure you can figure out where they used to break apart, since I do love cliffhangers grin. Technically we're all the way up to the end of Chapter 12.

Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, betaing belongs to Xikum, story belongs to me! Do tell me what you think!

Mythic Alliance

by Jendra

Severus took one look at the Tell-Tale and started swearing. Even soldiers and sailors would have been in awe of his impressive vocabulary and intimidated by the itemized list of exactly what he planned to do to an idiotic Gryffindor who was determined to push his buttons.

The Tell-Tale was a version of a tracking spell that he had placed on Harry days before. It told him, when he checked, if the boy was out of bed and about where in the castle he was. Once he was close enough, it could be used to actually track him down.

It was two o'clock in the morning, and Harry Potter was not within the walls of Hogwarts.

Severus headed towards the front door at a good clip. He debated waking some of the other teachers, but decided to try for a better idea of where the boy was before he brought them into it. Upon walking through the doors, he checked the Tell-Tale again. Any concern he might have been harboring was blown away by fury. The stupid boy was on the quidditch pitch!

As he stalked towards the boy's location, his mind conjured up pictures of the past week. A child who had always been contentious had suddenly become much more so. He was arguing with practically everything the Potions Professor said or suggested. In the last week, he'd spent more time in actual detention, scrubbing cauldrons, organizing the storeroom and preparing the nastiest ingredients, than he had spent time learning or practicing.

The more Severus thought about it, the angrier he got. He didn't know what had gotten into Harry, but he was determined to get it out of him.

As he reached the quidditch pitch his keen eyes caught movement in the air. For several minutes he watched, tracing the loops and dives the young Gryffindor was executing. To others, Harry's ride would have been a thing of beauty. A pairing of man and broom, connected by a love of flying that few could truly claim. Those who had called Harry a 'natural' on the broom were exactly right, and his grace and agility were a sight to see in the light of the waning moon.

However, Snape just saw a foolishly arrogant boy doing dangerous stunts without any spotter. If he fell now, no one would know about it until the next morning. With the picture of Harry's broken body laying upon the ground embedded in his mind, Snape didn't need any spell to make his voice loud enough to be heard by the rider. "POTTER!"

He watched as Harry jerked, obviously startled. However, not even with that surprise did he lose control of his broom. Instead, Harry turned in a gentle sweep until he was facing the glaring professor and brought his broom to a halt on the ground less than a foot in front of the glowering man. Severus Snape had never moved as the broom came flying toward him.

"Hello, Professor, is something wrong?" Harry asked superciliously.

Snape scowled mightily, and angrily reached for the boy's arm. It was the resignation in Harry's eyes as he stood there that suddenly caused everything to make sense. Harry had been testing him. Pushing him. Trying to see just what it would take to push him over the edge to physical violence. With that understanding, Severus made sure his grasp was firm but not tight enough to hurt. The scowl on his face, however, did not diminish in the slightest.

"What do you think you're doing?" he growled. "Do you have any idea how many rules you've broken? Not to mention the chance that you could have broken your neck! What did I say about foolhardy reckless stunts that would risk your life? What did I say would happen if I caught you in one?"

"I wasn't going up against Voldemort," Harry said mulishly.

"I said you would get punished for taking unnecessary risks," Severus reminded him. "This was definitely one."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

If Severus hadn't been listening closely he might never have heard the trepidation underlying the confrontational words. "Let's take things in order, shall we?" he said darkly. "First, you are out of the castle after curfew. I believe that is fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention. Second, you are flying your broom without supervision. Therefore, I believe I am fully within my rights to confiscate it. Not that that will matter much to you for the next two weeks, since you're banned from quidditch for that amount of time."

"But we've got a match against Ravenclaw!" Harry complained loudly.

"You should have thought about that earlier." Severus wondered how long it would take before Harry realized that he said he was confiscating his broom. Oh, he'd give it back… eventually. Maybe not before the match with Slytherin, but eventually. "Third, you were taking a stupid risk for absolutely no good reason. Do you remember what I said would happen if you did that?"

Harry gulped worriedly and looked apprehensive.

"I see that you do," Severus murmured. "First, we'll add another week of detention."

Harry looked at him as if he thought he was stupid. Considering he'd spent all but a week of the school year in detention with him, that wasn't much of a punishment. Snape didn't allow him to think that for much longer. "Both of these will, of course, be with Filch."

"Filch?" Harry yelped. "But what about our lessons?"

"Extra lessons are a privilege, not a right. As such, it is a privilege you have lost for the next two weeks. Any time you are found out of your room after curfew will add another week to your detention. Also, I expect an essay from you in two weeks time, detailing every non-quidditch broom accident that has happened at this school for the past century, including the details of the accident, what injuries the victim had, why it happened, how it could have been avoided, and what rules were broken that allowed it to happen. I will be checking this essay, and if I don't believe you've included *every* accident in full detail, it will be every one since the school was founded. Do you understand?"

Harry's eyes were wide. "That'll take forever!"

"You have two weeks," Severus reminded him. He turned and started to lead the way back towards the school. "And, since I don't think that alone will express to you just exactly how unhappy I am with the way you acted," completely ignoring Harry's almost desperate "It does, it does," he continued, "You've also just volunteered to be the guinea pig for all potions created in class for the next two weeks, or however long your detention ends up being."

If Harry had thought that Snape hadn't lived up to his threat of creating a truly nightmarish punishment, he soon found out he was wrong. He was exhausted. Filch loved the idea of having Harry Potter under his thumb and managed to find some of the most dirty jobs for him to do. There had been at least one major and a couple minor accidents involving brooms every single year, and that wasn't counting the quidditch ones. He was very, very glad Snape didn't include the quidditch accidents. As it was, he sometimes doubted he'd be able to get the bloody essay done in time. Every spare moment was spent on either that or getting over the reactions to whatever potion they had been working on. He'd never had to go to the Infirmary after Potions class, but it had been a close call the day they worked on Cheering potions. He was afraid his ribs would crack or his lungs give out from laughing so hard, and he had been left with massive aches.

The Gryffindors weren't very happy with him. Not only had he lost them fifty points, but he'd also lost them the game against Ravenclaw by not being able to play. The team had at least wanted to borrow his broom for the reserve seeker, so she wouldn't be stuck on a school broom, but he'd had to inform them that Snape had confiscated it.

What he found he disliked most however, was the time he wasn't spending with Snape and Malfoy. When did he become friends with them, anyway? It wasn't that long ago he couldn't stand either one of them. Now... now he was sharing things with them that he'd never dream of sharing even with the two who were supposed to be his best friends. He was... maybe... might be learning to trust them. Not something he *ever* thought could happen, but that's the way it was.

When Snape came after him on the quidditch pitch, he'd known he was furious. The anger was practically radiating from him. Yet, never once did he so much as grip his arm too hard. He didn't even yell. Of course, Professor Snape had long before mastered the art of sounding much scarier and more deadly the quieter his voice. Most telling of all, however, was the way he'd acted the very next day, when he'd told him to stay after class. The Potions Professor had walked over to him, pulled up his sleeve, and examined his arm closely, even going so far as to cast an anti-glamour charm. Then he'd done the other one. He'd never said what he was doing, but Harry knew. He saw the relief, quickly hidden, in the older man's eyes as he made sure that he hadn't hurt Harry. It was the first time anyone had cared.

One good thing about being as exhausted as he was, he wasn't dreaming very much. The few times he had woken and not been able to get back to sleep, he'd worked on his essay and the next phase in becoming an Animagus. He hadn't even considered leaving the common room on those nights; a fortnight with Filch was more than long enough.

Ron and Hermione had managed to get the whole story out of him. Hermione had lectured him for over half an hour on the stupidity of being outside at that time of night, riding a broom of all things. Ron had simply wanted to know why he didn't bring him along. Of course, after seeing the punishment Harry'd received for it, he wasn't quite so keen on that particular bit of rule breaking.

Finally, his two weeks were up. Harry managed to finish the last year on his twelve-foot essay only five minutes before he needed to turn it in. He raced to get down to the dungeons on time, extremely happy to be heading there instead of Filch's office. He headed to the Potions classroom. He was very surprised to find that Draco wasn't there yet, since always before he'd been there at least an hour before Harry was. He handed over his essay and stood nervously as Snape looked it over. He was sure he hadn't missed any. Well, he was almost sure, nearly positive.

Snape had looked up from the essay to make a comment when Draco came rushing into the room. He was panting hard as he skidded to a stop, but his face was wildly excited. "I found it! I found a way we can destroy Voldemort!"

Harry and Professor Snape ran over to the young Slytherin, eagerly looking at his findings. Draco's smile faded as he noticed that neither of the other two were anywhere near as excited as he was.

"What?" he snapped. "It's a great spell! It'll totally destroy him, and since it hasn't been used in a couple of centuries, it's not even banned by the Ministry."

Harry shook his head. "It'll destroy his *body*," Harry said slowly. "But I somehow doubt that's enough to kill him. It didn't work last time."

Severus Snape's answer was much more succinct, although sympathetic. "It will not work," he told his student. "Destroying his body will not destroy his spirit. It would, in fact, make things worse. Since his current body was created by a combination of Pettigrew's flesh and Potter's blood, releasing him from his body would allow him to possess one of those he is bonded to through the body. I believe all of us know which of the two he would pick."

"He can possess me?" Harry shouted in shock.

"Only if he loses his own body," Severus comforted.

"That's it, we aren't doing this spell," Harry stated the obvious.

Draco pouted but he couldn't disagree. He didn't want to see the Dark Lord take over Harry's body either. He sighed. But it had been such a *great* spell.

"What we really need," Harry said thoughtfully, "is a way to connect his soul to his body. Then we could use that spell and it would destroy both."

Draco looked up at that while Severus looked contemplative.

"Maybe a healing spell?" Harry continued thinking out loud. "Surely they have a spell that will keep the soul in the body long enough for them to heal it."

Severus slowly shook his head. "I don't believe so. Spells dealing with the soul are tricky and very hard to work. There have also been intense debates about whether it's even ethical to use such spells."

"But if there's been debate about it, then there must be spells to be debated over, right?" Draco asked, perking back up. After all, if they could find one like that, they'd be able to use the spell he'd found.

"I am not a medi-wizard, so I can't say for sure," Severus admitted. "But I have never heard of one that actually works."

"But maybe that's only because whoever tried wasn't strong enough," Draco suggested.

"We will look," was all Snape would concede.

"It's the best idea we've come up with yet," Harry reminded him.

"And you, of course, know everything," Snape said scathingly. Harry let the comment slide off his back; he had finally learned to do so, now that he knew it was far more bark than bite. "Meanwhile, we have already wasted a great deal of my very precious time." Snape glared at Draco. "I assume it will not happen again?"

Draco nodded, chastened.

"In that case, I believe the ingredients for today's potion are still in the storeroom, even though they should have been removed well over an hour ago."

The boys took their teacher's hint and ran off to retrieve the materials. Draco waited until they were alone before beginning to speak. "What were you up to?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't act so innocent. I'd think you'd been willfully pushing Snape's buttons the way you'd been going on of late. And then to get caught out flying at night!"

Harry stared at him seriously as the blonde was looking through the vials. "I did." He finally admitted.

"You did what?" Draco asked absently as he tried to read the writing on one of the vials.

"I did do it on purpose."

Draco put the bottle down deliberately and turned to face his friend. "You did what?" he asked in a reasonable tone of voice.

"I did it on purpose," Harry replied again. "I knew about the tracking spell he has on me, and I knew that he checked it every night. So I just made sure I was out at the right time."

"Why?" Draco asked, completely surprised. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"I needed to know," Harry said softly.

"Know what? How mad you could make him?" Draco asked facetiously.

"Exactly," Harry agreed. "I need to know how far I can push him before he'll react."

"Physically, you mean?" Draco suddenly understood.

Harry just shrugged.

"And what did you find out?" he asked quietly.

"That I haven't found that button yet," Harry answered. He then held up a vial. "Is this one of the ingredients we were looking for?"

Snape stepped away from the door as Draco answered. He didn't need to hear anything more. It was one thing to believe it was teenage testing behavior, but another thing altogether to know it was a purposeful test. And Harry's belief that he would become physically harmful under the right circumstances? That was obviously something he was going to have to work at. That his students would believe him mean and hurtful, ridiculously prejudiced and liable to take points at the drop of a hat was one thing, but to believe he would actually *harm* a child?

Obviously he hadn't gotten as far with Harry as he'd believed.

How many more tests would he have to survive before Harry actually trusted him? Did the boy even have the ability to trust an adult any longer? He was pondering those questions as the two walked back in. They began to set up with a minimum of conversation. Once the potion was going well, they began to talk again.

"Perhaps the two of you should look through the library while I try other sources," Severus suggested, upon being asked what he thought their next move should be.

Harry shook his head regretfully. "I'd prefer not. My House is already very close to turning on me again, and I'd prefer not to give them the extra ammunition of being obviously friendly with Draco. Even if we said that you ordered it, we'd have to fight practically every minute of every day. Not much would get done in that case."

"Oh, come now, surely they wouldn't be so quick to turn on their Golden Boy."

Harry laughed briefly. "Yeah, right, it's not like they haven't done it several times already."

Severus was watching him closely, trying to come to grips with what he had heard earlier, and now he had another question to add to his list. Did Harry trust anyone at all?

"What about the weasel and the mudblood?" Draco asked scathingly.

Harry leveled a glare in his direction. "I would watch what you call them," he said threateningly.

Draco looked singularly unimpressed, but Severus knew it was only long exposure to his own glares that allowed that. "Fine," he snapped. "What about Weasley and Granger?"

"Do you by any chance remember the beginning of last year?" Harry asked impatiently.

Draco grinned. "You mean when I made those buttons?"

"Yeah, then."

"What? You didn't like them? I thought they were brilliant."

"Well, you know what they say about small minds," Harry said mock-sympathetically.

"Funny," Draco answered back darkly. "Anyway, what about last year? Oh, you mean the time when it seemed like nobody was talking to you?"

"Exactly. Ron was convinced I had gotten into it on purpose, and 'Mione was so busy with her own thing that she didn't notice anything else. Things didn't turn around until they realized exactly how dangerous the tasks were going to be." Harry shook his head. "I really don't know what got into Ron. He knows how much I hate my fame. I've never understood why he thought I'd go searching out more."

"Fame that is given to you is entirely different from fame that you earn," Snape spoke up. "I don't think you would mind being famous as much if you felt you had earned it by something besides surviving."

"I disagree. I don't want it in any way, shape, or form," Harry said seriously.

"Hmm," was all Severus answered.

"So, how are we going to break up the research?" Harry asked, changing the subject easily.

"Well, since you can't get into the Restricted Section…" Draco started.

Harry interrupted him. "Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked, pulling out a pass. "Having a st... less than perfect Defense teacher is good for some things."

"Well, then we can do that, while Professor Snape finds his own books," Draco suggested. "But someone should probably speak to Madam Pomfrey."

"I'll do that, since I usually see her several times a month for one reason or another," Harry sighed.

"I've got someone I can talk to that might be able to help as well," Draco said slowly. He refused to say any more about it, but had a thoughtful expression on his face for the rest of the night.