Disclaimer: still not mine.

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Chapter 24: Keeping Mum

Harry was drumming his fingers on a desk quietly, trying not to think about what Severus had said as it was distracting him from thinking about tunnels, when a movement next to him made him twitch.

"Sorry. Didn't mind to startle you," said a quiet voice. "Mind if I sit down?"

It was Remus Lupin. The impulse to tell him to go away flitted through Harry's brain. He shook his head and waved a hand at the seat opposite. Severus had gone to hunt down some more archaeology books.

Remus sat down gingerly, obviously unsure about his welcome.

"Did you want something?"

"I… just wanted to apologise for my friends. I know they haven't been particularly nice to you, but they're not usually like that with people."

"No. Just people they don't know. I've met quite a few people like that, but usually they've been supporters of Voldemort."

Lupin winced, as Harry had meant him to. Harry wasn't normally cruel and maybe it was from spending too much time with Severus, but – no. It wasn't because of Severus. It was because Lupin and his friends had hurt him personally – badly – and Harry wanted Remus to have a taste of just how devastated Harry had felt.

"Don't bother apologising for them. It's a hollow and patronising apology at best – and at worst it's pardoning their behaviour."

Remus dipped his head, conceding the point. "Well then… I understand you're here to do research. Is there anything I can help you with?"

About to tell him no, Harry paused. "And can I rely on you to keep my research secret?"

Remus considered for a few seconds. "Providing it doesn't endanger anyone I care for and won't be used against Hogwarts, then yes."

Harry smiled. "That's almost exactly what Severus said. I have your word?" Remus nodded. "All right, then. I need a spell to reveal secret passages."

Remus' eyebrows shot up as if Harry had stumbled on a private joke. Harry didn't doubt he had – so the Marauders' Map was underway, then. "I believe I can offer some assistance with that," Remus said, lips twitching slightly.

"I thought you might. Well? Do I need a charm, a potion, a hex, or what?"

"You need some very special paper."

ooOOoo

Half an hour later (and after having to reassure a nettled Severus, who hadn't taken kindly to having his chair taken by Remus), Harry had the basics of the Marauders' Map magic worked out. "It would take years to map out a castle this size," he said. "All I really need to know is how to get the tunnels sorted out – finding them, accessing them, things like that."

"Hmm. Well, tunnels are tricky blighters. Do you have a familiar with you to send down the tunnel? Something small, like a rat."

Harry hoped his eye wasn't developing a twitch. "No. A friend of mine had one once, but the rat turned rabid. Can we practise on the Hogwarts tunnels?"

"Well, I suppose," Remus allowed. "If Dumbledore lets us."

"We can go and ask him if you like. But can we do that later? I'd like to do a little more research on something else first." He was pretty sure he'd seen something on memory charms in the Restricted Section. And he was hopeful of finding something else on myths about Helga Hufflepuff. He wasn't counting on that book surviving the toxins in the dungeons, especially given the fact that Draco and the Mendeleev gloves hadn't managed to find it in the future.

"Can I help with that?" Remus asked.

Harry glanced at Severus, who'd barely spoken in the past half hour and was studiously ignoring Remus' continued existence in the universe. "Uh – no. I think we've got it covered."

"All right. Well, I'll just show you the tunnel location charms…"

"I'll just go and locate some more books," Severus growled.

"Nice fellow," Remus remarked softly, watching Severus' retreating back.

"Well, at least he hasn't tried to kill anyone lately. I don't know about you, but your friend Sirius didn't seem braindead. I'm not doing the same classes as you, but even I know that you don't just throw bits of newt around – especially when you're using peatpallum. And I'm still curious about that door locking so unexpectedly like that. I haven't told Severus my suspicions, of course. I think if he was given any more excuse he'd simply and quietly make your friend disappear. Can't say as I blame him, actually."

Lupin eyed him carefully. "And did you say you knew many Death Eaters?"

"I've met Voldemort a couple of times. He's the one who gave me this scar when he killed my parents." Harry tapped his forehead. "He doesn't like me much. That's why I'm doing research here – and why if you open your mouth about what we've been discussing I'll have Professor Dumbledore Obliviate you."

"Oh. I'm… sorry about your parents."

"Thanks. But the funny thing is that coming here has kind of helped me get over their deaths."

In retrospect it was bad timing that he said it right as a girl put her books down on the desk. "Hi there," she said brightly as Harry looked up. Her smile was lovely. Harry had seen an older version of it in some of the photos Hagrid had given him. "You must be the student who's come to do research. How's it going? Are you…?" She trailed off.

Harry stopped staring at her smile as it faded, and took another, longer look at her. Red hair, green eyes – he recognised her instantly. As she gave him a puzzled look, he realised he was staring.

Horrified that she would say something and prove to be just as awful as his father, Harry clutched his stomach and prayed not to throw up.

"Um…?" she began. "Are you feeling all right?"

Breathing heavily, feeling like he'd just woken from one nightmare and gone straight into another, Harry stood and pushed past her.

He didn't remember going and finding Severus and dragging him out of the library. The next thing he knew, they were outside walking by the lake. For some reason they were heading along around the side of the castle towards the low, rolling hills behind Hogwarts. Harry stopped, confused, as he realised there was no paddock and no Simon. It hit him like an avalanche: this wasn't his Hogwarts. There was no Simon. No Ron and Hermione. No Luna, no Draco, and certainly nobody who knew who he was and understood what he had to do. Only lies of one magnitude or another.

"What's wrong? You look like someone hexed you. Was it Lupin? Do you want me to go and curse him into protoplasm?"

Severus was there, sitting down on a low, flat rock left behind by a glacier, nervously plucking a strand of grass out of its sheath and chewing on the pale green stem.

Harry sat down next to him and put his head in his hands. "I'm a very long way from home."

"Oh." There was a pause then a tentative hand on his shoulder. Severus seemed as new to this whole having-a-friend business as Harry was to the concept of Severus having a friend. The hand dropped. Harry missed it immediately – he missed Ron and Hermione so much it felt physical. "Um… I was thinking about some location spells. Would you like me to teach them to you? Maybe if you feel like you're doing something constructive you'll feel better."

Harry looked up and forced a smile. "Yeah. That'd take my mind of things." He sighed; "Would it sound crazy if I told you I missed a horse?"

Black eyebrows shot up almost to the greasy hairline. "You have a horse? Wow – you're so lucky!" A light went on in Severus' eyes. "My sister's been wanting one ever since she started walking. She thinks they're better than any wizarding animal in the world. It's a shame you won't meet her. She'd like you."

It was the most Severus had said about his family.

"What's she like?"

Severus gave him a fossilised look. "Why? Are you looking for a girlfriend? Because she's already dating someone."

Harry grinned. "No. I've got one. Sort of. Well, if I can ever get the nerve up to ask her to go out with me. The last girl I had a crush on turned out to be awful. It was as if she was dating me because I had a cool scar on my head or something."

"Ouch. That must have hurt."

"It did a bit. But I'm used to it. This other girl, you know, she doesn't see me as Mr Famous Scar Person. And she's a bit weird but it kind of gives her really amazing ideas, and she's got long blonde hair and gorgeous legs."

"Robes aren't exactly give-aways to what someone's legs look like."

"No, but she was giving me horse riding lessons, and she was wearing really tight trousers and – wow. She looked hot in them."

"What's her name?"

"Luna."

"Nice name." Severus looked more puzzled than pleased by it, though. "And what's the name of your horse?"

"Well, he's not just mine. He's his own horse, really. And it's Luna who knows all about horses – she named him, too. Simon."

"The horse is called Simon?"

"Uh-huh. I know it sounds boring, but –"

Severus waved a hand. "No, no! It's a good name. Possibly brilliant. What does Simon look like?"

"Oh, well, I don't know what he looks like compared to other horses, but he's quite tall – his back's eye-level – and pretty fast. Handy on stairs, too, which you wouldn't expect from something with long legs like those. He's an absolutely brilliant horse – but he's got a bit of a temper. He doesn't like people arguing around him and gets involved if you forget that rule. I was out in the Forest with another boy and we were attacked by an acromantula. That was how we found Simon – he must have wandered into the Forest during the battle when the Death Eaters tried to invade the castle, right before they put up the barrier. I guess he had been following us, and when he saw the spider he ran out and trampled it into the ground and carried Draco, who'd been bitten, back to Hogwarts. Another time when a monster – a vrikolaki – came into the barn he was being kept in, he stayed when he could have run away, and killed it and saved the life of Draco again, so that was pretty brave. But he can be a little bit too overzealous. One time Remus – Remus from my world – did something the horse didn't like and Simon attacked him… and then tried to keep me away from Remus for some reason. He's pretty protective, actually," Harry mused. "Not just of me. If there are other students around he'll try and keep himself between anything dangerous and us. Hmm. What else? Luna says that he's a thoroughbred. A Muggle racehorse, although he seems better at something called… what was it? 'Dress old'? 'Dress arm'?"

"Dressage?"

"Yes. He's – wait, you must know quite a bit about horses to know that." Harry eyed Severus, who had his carefully controlled expression on again. Had Draco learned it from him? Maybe it was something that got taught on those long, winter evenings in Slytherin House.

Severus nodded, still keeping his face politely blank. "As I said, my sister has a great interest and has been wanting a horse for ages. But I'm curious about something else – was it Voldemort himself who put the barrier up? You've mentioned him a couple of times, but I notice not around anyone from my House."

"Yes, we're pretty sure it was him. And I'm a little careful about who I talk about him with, yes." Harry decided to skirt around the truth a little. "I mentioned a Remus Lupin from my world… He, like you, um, other you, has been fighting against Voldemort for several years now."

"But in your world I'm dead. You're not going to tell me that your Severus and Lupin were bosom buddies? I think I should be ill if you did."

Harry laughed. "No! You hated each other. But you were able to work together against a common enemy, which is what counted."

"And you're sure your Severus is dead?"

"Yes. Well, no-one ever found a body, but – yes. I'm sorry."

"Hmm." When he noticed Harry eyeing him, Severus shrugged and added, "Well, if there's not a Severus Snape in your world I don't see what would be so wrong with me showing up there."

"It's complicated."

"It always is." But he didn't seem upset. And when Harry looked back after checking to see if anyone was coming up to bother them, there was a small smirk on his face which vanished as soon as Harry saw it.

Strange Snape person.

"So do you like horses too?" Harry asked in an effort to change the topic back from something that could turn nasty. "Most people think they're too dangerous to be useful, and not magical so not interesting."

Severus snorted, apparently distracted from thoughts of returning with Harry. "Huh. Most people are stupid. And horses are, too, magic. Well, sort of."

"A… person I know –" he'd almost said 'friend', but Draco was still too much of an unknown factor to qualify as a friend "– said something about edge magic."

"He's not that stupid either, then. Horses are on the edge of magic. Did he tell you that many domestic animals are? Even chickens? I thought you said there was a barrier around your Hogwarts that put the castle slightly out of temporal synchronisation with the rest of the world? Well, why don't you ride your horse through it?"

"Can I do that?"

"I think you could if you put some special charms on it. Although making them stick is a tricky thing. I'll think about it. Well. Shall I show you those spells?"

"Please."

ooOOoo

They went up to Squirrel Hill and found the small flat area where one day Dumbledore would erect a small barn for a lost horse. It was great to be outside again, thought Harry, feeling the evening sun warm on the back of his neck and the wind run light fingers through his hair. How long was it since he'd played Quidditch, anyway? He was looking forward to it when he finally got back to Hogwarts and… and did whatever needed to be done. He would think of that when he had to. In the meantime, business was the best comfort.

The spells were a little tricky but Severus was a surprisingly good teacher when he chose to be. Not the most patient, but when Harry laughed at some of his worse mistakes (like when he found the bit of wood Severus had put a spell on to mimic a lost portal statue by setting it on fire), Severus didn't start shouting as he would do in twenty years time and instead slowed the lesson down until Harry got the point. By then the sun had gone down and Harry had found all the objects Severus had secreted away around the hillside.

"Well?" Severus panted. He'd just been holding a standing deflection charm for Harry to try and find a wriggling pin behind.

Harry grinned proudly, holding up the pin which he'd accio'd out from behind the charm. "Yours, I believe?"

"Thank you." Severus whacked the pin with his wand until it stopped wriggling, then fastened it back into his robes. "Bit chilly out here. Shall we go and try to find something inside? Like food?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Sounds like a plan that won't happen tonight," said a third, tightly-clipped voice. "Where the hell do you two think you get off, insulting Lily Evans like that?"

Harry groaned. "No-one insulted anyone. Although I think that's about to change. Honestly – can't you lot push off and bug someone else for a change?"

James, Sirius and Peter were standing just down the hill. Remus was either hiding or somewhere else. "Not when you two make such tempting targets," Sirius said, grinning to show all his teeth.

"How was detention?" Severus asked sweetly.

Sirius frowned and shifted his feet for better balance.

Harry, recognising the signs (and recognising that Severus was tired from holding the static charm), didn't wait for the first spell.

"Expelliarmus," he said matter-of-factly. Three times. "Accio wands." The trio's wands flew into his hand. "Now go away," he said.

Peter was pale, James reddening, and Sirius' frown turned astonished then disbelieving then ferocious in rapid succession as Harry turned away.

"Come on," he said to Severus. "I've had enough of –"

The spell crashed into him from behind. Something crinkled across his face like burning cellophane as Harry pitched forward. He heard Severus snarl out a spell and the whizz-crack-yelp as it found its target. Harry looked up, carefully keeping his face covered with a fold of his robes.

James had managed to borrow a second wand from someone. He was pointing it at Severus who had his wand pointed at James. Both boys were breathing heavily and watching each other like cats.

"Hey – what happened to his hair?" Peter said, shaking his hands which were smoking faintly. He must have been the one Severus hexed. "It looks like yours, James."

James blinked.

Severus twitched his wand and a blue light flickered over James' face like marsh fire. James screamed. And Sirius leaped on Severus.

Harry, still keeping his face covered as best he could, hit Wormtail with a petrification hex that toppled the short round boy over onto his back. James was still howling, batting at the cold flames licking at his face, and Severus was rolling on the ground with Sirius, both of them growling and snarling and (in Severus' case) biting like a pair of animals as they tried to inflict maximum damage with minimum leverage.

Finally Sirius, who was bigger and heavier, managed to pull back his arm. He might have punched Severus into the future had Harry not risked a spell. It worked: Sirius was lifted off the other boy like he had a rocket under his robes and flung twenty feet into a young oak tree.

"You all right?" Harry asked as he pulled Severus up with his wand hand – the other hand was still keeping his face covered.

Severus' eyes shot malicious sparks as he saw James rolling in the heather to try and put out the flames, which were now spreading over his robes, and Sirius hanging upside-down from the tree, cursing fluently. He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. "Harry," he purred. "You gave me a Catherine wheel and a piñata – and it's not even my birthday. You shouldn't ha–"

"Drop your wands," quavered Pettigrew from behind them. He'd picked up the wand James had dropped.

Harry and Severus turned.

Severus gave him the almost exact version of the coldest glare he'd reserve for Harry in the future. To his morbid pleasure, Harry found he could appreciate it when it was being used against someone he hated.

Wormtail swallowed audibly. The tip of his wand wobbled in figure-eights. "I said…"

"Run away," Harry told him from behind his concealing fold of robe. "Run away now, little rat, or I will cut out your heart with a spoon."

Wormtail went white. For a moment he stood there, trembling like a jelly, then he turned and bolted down the hill.

"Nice line," Severus said. "I may use it some time."

"Thanks," said Harry. "Now let's –"

They worked out later from the scorch-mark on the shoulder of Severus' robes that the spell had come from the young oak. They didn't work out how Sirius had had a second wand hidden away – or why he'd chosen to pounce on Severus instead of use it before: all they knew was the terrifying way the world suddenly burst into thunder around them.

"Harry –"

Harry reached out and found he had to concentrate hard to make his arm and hand move as they were meant to. For some reason his body was moving as if it was being controlled only sporadically by his mind. And the world was dissolving around it. He needed something concrete to hang onto – something he could rely on. "Hold on to my hand!"

Severus reached out and clasped his hand.

Now the swaying universe had an anchor. Harry's knuckles tightened on his wand. He didn't know what way was up. He didn't know if it was suddenly day again or the darkest, most primordial night. He didn't know his name and he knew that should bother him. And still the thunder rolled on, blocking out all other sound and thought. But what he knew for fact was that Severus was on his left and his wand was in his right hand. And he was a wizard in search of something in the storm. His wand was trembling; everything was trembling; he shouted the first spell that came to mind.

The thunder snapped inwards, crushing them with sound and buffeting them into darkness.

When it stopped, so did the rest of the world.

ooOOoo