Harry stormed up through the castle on his way up to the Room of Requirements. 'How dare Remus act like that!' Harry thought. 'I love Severus, is that not enough?' Other students pressed themselves against the castle walls in an attempt to escape the obvious anger that Harry was harboring. Harry walked into a deserted corridor and sent a Patronus to Hermione telling her his location. He concentrated on what he needed and walked through large metal doors into a very large room.
Severus strode through the halls with a purpose only to find himself in front of the Gryffindor common rooms. He strode in after saying the password and found exactly who he had needed to talk to.
"Ms. Granger, may I speak to you for a moment?" All the Gryffindors stared at both her and Professor Snape, as she stood up behind a large mound of paperwork and walked over to the dour looking man.
"What is it you wish to speak to me about professor?" Hermione nearly trembled
"Your last paper was not preformed to your usual standards, perhaps we should speak in private?" Snape inquired as the common room burst into whispers.
"Of course, professor." Hermione said as she led Snape out into a deserted corridor and cast a silencing charm around them. "Now, what is this really about?" Hermione said much more sure of herself than before.
"Nothing escapes you, does it, Ms. Granger?"
"You are the Slytherin head of house and you just walked into the Gryffindor common room, experience tells me that it is something far more dire than a paper."
"Indeed." Snape replied "About three hours ago Harry stormed out of my office after a rather…difficult discussion with Mr. Lupin. He told me that he would send word yet he has not done so. I was hoping that you would know his whereabouts. I have walked the castle and grounds twice and have yet to locate him." Snape finished and both parties looked worried.
"No. He sent me a Patronus several hours ago telling me that he would be in the ror." Have you checked there?"
"The roar?" Snape asked looking puzzled
"The R.O.R. - the Room of Requirement. He often goes there when he trains or when he is in an awful mood. I knew that he was visiting you tonight so I just figured that he was training. I will have to escort you there, Harry wards it so that it is password protected; only Ron, or I can get in. Let me grab something from my room, first." Several moments later Hermione appeared from the portrait which she has just run back through. "Come on," Hermione started towards the seventh floor "We don't have a lot of time to waste."
"What do you mean? Is he in danger?"
"Only from himself. Sometimes he trains so hard he works himself to exhaustion." Hermione began. "But when he trains under anger or worry, well, he pushes himself too far. When Sirius died a few years back, he made the dummies, which were only able to perform low level spells before, able to perform more complicated spells."
"What kind of spells?" Snape said walking past the roving staircase.
"Well, I talked to him once after I watched him train. He said that in the final battle he would be up against Death Eaters and that would not be using low level spells. He requires the dummies to be powerful; they can perform all but the Killing Curse. He replaces the Killing curse with the Cruciatus Curse; so, if he is hit with that particular curse, then he knows that in real life, he would have been killed. He hasn't had to use the room to control his emotions for quite some time; in fact he only trains once a week any more. Not even his nightmares are bothering him as much."
"Why would anyone put themselves through that? He is crazy, stupid, or exceptionally brave." Severus mumbled before Hermione tripped over a cobblestone. Snape held his hand out and pulled her to her feet. She dusted herself off before resuming the quick walk.
"He said the same thing about you, many years ago; when he found out that you were a spy. We are almost there, when you go in, take these." Hermione handed Severus a small pouch. "There are strong pain relief potions, Blood replenishing potions, Draught of Peace for anxiety, antidotes for petrification, as well as some Skele-Gro, antidotes and slaves for burns, cuts, and bruises, and a small bottle of Nerve Replenishing Potion in case of emergency."
"Where did you get all of these?" Snape asked
"I brewed them myself."
"And he would need nerve repair potions for…?" Snape asked curious as he put the pouch in his pocket.
"Surely, Professor, you are aware of the long term effects of the Cruciatus curse?" Hermione asked
"But nerve damage only occurs after more than ten minutes exposure!" Snape nearly yelled
"I know, but I have had to use them on more than one occasion. Now let's go. " Hermione said as she crossed the corridor and walked back and forth until a door appeared. "Orion" She cast a silencing spell before peeking through a small hole in the door.
"What are you doing? We don't have time for this-" Severus urged
"We have to make sure he is at a stopping point, or he could get startled and hit us with a hex." Hermione said before looking in. "He is training to music right now, he should be done in a few minutes, and then you can go in when it is safe-"
"I am not a child, Ms. Granger. I am quite proficient in defense." Snape said before pulling the door open; however the sight he was expecting was not what he saw. He pulled the door open and was nearly blown back by the loud music that flowed fourth, which he recognized as an intense almost angry sounding tune behind Italian words. Snape closed the door behind him
Harry let the music of All'Improvviso Amore overwhelm his senses. With each beat of the fast music he cast a different spell at the oncoming dummies, his hands flicking with each spell cast, and his arms and body moving fluidly as if dancing. After the slow tempo of the first verse, the music picked up pace along with the attacking dummies, they came at him from all sides, even from above. Harry alternated between casting spells from his wand and using wandless magic, but as the song went on the dummies outnumbered him twenty to one, they closed in on him as he crouched to the ground, they hovered over him…
Severus watched the dummies outnumber him; he was worried about Harry's safety since she mentioned the dark curses the dummies were allowed to cast. He saw Harry crouch down as they gathered around him. He felt magic in the air crackle as he saw the wand fly out of the young man's grip.
Harry threw his wand in the air and yelled, thrusting his hands out to the side as if pushing the enemies away, as they all became engulfed in a large ball of flame, instantly turning to ash and falling to the ground around a panting Harry, who gracefully caught his wand. The anger in his eyes apparent as he cast a last hex to the one remaining dummy as the song ended, but Harry's eyes went wide as the dummy dodged and he hex hit a box behind. Harry stormed over to the dummy that remained still as Harry thrust his wand into his throat; Harry prepared to cast a spell as the Boggart flew out of the box and behind Harry taking the form of Sirius.
Severus began to snap out of his reverie and strode towards the length of the large room as he saw the Boggart take the form of Black and put his hands on Harry's shoulders.
Harry instantly forgot about the hex he was going to cast when he felt hands tightly grip his shoulders. He felt the long, wavy, black hair brush against his neck as his dead godfather whispered in his ear
"Are you afraid Harry? Afraid of one of the few people who cared for you, afraid of the man you killed?"
Harry reeled back and faced the all-too-realistic likeness of Sirius. "I didn't kill you!" Harry shouted
Sirius' face took on an evil expression of pure anger. "YOU LET ME DIE! THAT'S EVEN WORSE! I'M DEAD! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU WORTHLESS BOY!"
Severus knew that the form of Sirius would pain Harry, but when he heard what the Black-look-alike yelled, he knew that something was seriously wrong. Boggarts were not able to talk under normal circumstances, only if they are feeding off of the power of the person in front of them. Severus sped up and was running as he heard Harry yell…
"I didn't mean too! I never wanted you to die!"
"It's too late for apologies! I only hope that one of these days, a weakling like you, will finally gain the courage to finally jump out of that tower, once and for all!"
Harry fell to his knees in shock, not seeing the dummy behind him cast a Cruciatus Curse at his back. Harry writhed on the floor, jerking in pain, as he heard shouts from above him. "No one wants you! Your uncle didn't want you, your aunt, even your own parents. Hell, you are dumber than you thought if you think that Severus could possibly love something as disgusting as you. Your uncle was right; you deserved every beating, every hurtful word. You deserved it all!" The Boggart laughed as Harry gave into the darkness surrounding him; Harry barely heard the loud "Riddikulus" cast by Severus as his eyes fell closed.
Snape pulled Harry into his arms as he fished the pouch from his pocket pulling out the necessary vials. He brought them to the young man's lips, one by one, massaging his throat to make the potions go down. Severus pulled Harry close against his chest as he rocked back and forth, petting the soft black hair and whispering confirmations in the young man's ear.
"It's going to be okay, Harry. Everything will be all right. I love you; we can get through this…"
Hermione ran into the room and found her Professor rocking her friend back and forth. He was whispering words of comfort, though whether it was to the unconscious Harry or to himself, she was not sure.
"Professor, Harry keeps his invisibility cloak in his right pocket. Cover yourself and take him to Madam Pomfrey. I will tell the Headmaster what happened." Hermione saw Snape nod his head and reach for the cloak, though the tears that Severus tried to hide as he pulled the hood on the cloak, did not escape Hermione's notice. She ran out of the Room of Requirement and up to Dumbledore's office, ignoring shouts from Filtch about curfew.
Thank You for waiting so long, I've been scrambling to get papers due since the end of the school semester is upon me. The next chapter should be up soon, I may include a hot scene between Sev and Harry, if not in the next chapter, then the one after at the very latest. Thank you again for reading.
I would like it very much if you would review! Xoxo -Blossoming Nightshade.