Disclaimer: Not even Herbert the squirrel or the occasional wandering badger are mine.

ooOOoo

Chapter 26: Centre of the Universe

That hungry, distracted, pre-Death Eater look of Snape's faded quickly, to Harry's relief. "So what do we do now?"

Severus shrugged. "I'd love a picnic, but we don't have any food –" he broke off as there were several dull thumps in rapid succession next to them.

Harry poked one of the little lumps which had dropped from the sky with his toe. When the lump didn't explode or turn his foot into anything nasty, he went to pick it up.

"Wait. Want to lose fingers?" Severus poked the odd object with a stick. Then jabbed the stick into it and, when there were no howls of pain, lifted it. After a few seconds turning it and checking it from all angles, he carefully sniffed it.

"Any idea?"

"It's a fig. Smells nice and ripe, too, if you like figs. Which I don't. Too squishy. Not so bad dried, though –" Severus gave a pre-emptive wince and looked up. But no dried figs came tumbling out of the suspicious canopy. "Apples are nice," he said hopefully in a slightly louder voice, and then shrugged and tossed the fig on a stick aside when no apples fell. "Oh well. No apples, it would seem, and this place doesn't have exactly the happy sort of atmosphere you'd expect for a picnic, anyway."

"No. There's a definite lack of jollity."

"True. Care for a fig?"

"After what you said about the sap I'm not touching the fruit." Harry looked up and around at the louring trees. A thick mist hung in coils between branches that twisted around and occasionally through each other like the trees had some sort of middle-ear disease. And beyond them were the stars, which rippled as if viewed through the skin of some great, translucent creature.

"Normally I'm not a big fan of jollity, but right now I'd give a few Sickles for some colour."

"Sickles…! I can't believe I forgot about the Golden Sickle. Severus – can you try that spell again?"

Severus nodded. "Should have thought of that before…"

The wand, predictably enough, snapped around on Severus' fingertip until its point quivered towards the deepest darkest tangle of shadows.

"Of course it would be there," Harry sighed. "Oh well, let's give it a look."

"I didn't sense anything predatory, if it helps."

"No, but you were also sensing you were Herbert the Squirrel."

"I knew I shouldn't have told you that. All right – optimism was never my natural mindset. How about if I say that, while I didn't sense anything predatory, I probably wasn't capable of sensing traps and neutral magics so we should expect an astonishing collection of those waiting to turn us into victim soup."

"That's better. I was starting to think that sap had damaged the sarcastic lobe of your brain."

They walked through the fallen leaves as quietly as possible, which wasn't very, considering the dryness and sheer volume of the leaves. In some places they gathered between roots like snowdrifts. The roots themselves – if they were roots, because sometimes branches swooped down from on high, slithered along the ground through the leaves, and zoomed off up again – the roots rolled over and dived beneath the soil like eels in a barrel of oil. The pair had to stop and recheck their bearings several times after negotiating curling paths around, between, and occasionally under the massive trees (which Severus insisted, when Harry asked again, was only one tree of unbelievably mammoth size) until at last they reached a point where the wand tried to stand on Severus' finger.

They looked up.

Above them was the knot and Byzantine centre of gravity of this world. Harry felt literally light-headed as he stared up: the pull of it was weak from this distance, but Harry decided not to try jumping in case he suddenly found himself falling forty feet up.

"How are you with heights?" Severus asked.

"Fine, but right now I don't have a broom."

"These trees – this tree – is the most climbable tree I've ever come across."

Harry smiled despite the brooding darkness hanging above. "You like climbing trees and Ribena. You know, I never would have suspected that."

"It's not a normal combination in a wizard," Severus agreed, sounding like he wasn't really concentrating. He was looking into the knot with a slight frown of concentration on his face. "There's something beautiful beyond logic about it," he said softly.

"Sorry?" To Harry it was just a big twist of shadows. How badly had that magical tree sap affected Severus, anyway?

Severus looked at him as if a little embarrassed. "Nothing."

ooOOoo

They climbed. Harry found himself warming to the task, which was easier if he didn't look down. Or up. Or in any direction other than right in front of him, really; directions were completely screwed up and put through the mincer the closer they got to the knot. One time Harry tried looking at the sky, but the stars wobbled so badly he nearly lost his balance and Severus had to grab his wrist and get his attention back on climbing. It was even worse when he looked at the knot. The sight of the twisted mass of branches and roots – thin hairs dangling in all directions as if seeking out independent means of sustenance in the mist – it touched something within him that was gut-deep and primordial. There were shadows creeping through the boughs and hiding beneath leaves that shifted and curved as he watched out of the corners of his eyes, yet did not move when he stared directly at them

Harry felt all the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. It was eerie. But at the same time the sense of raw magic hanging like storm-charge before it crackled into lightning made him grin with the joy found in the pure core of magic.

Severus, standing just above and canted a few degrees to the left, gave him another of his crooked, triangular smiles, but his eyes were a touch too bright. Harry wondered if he had that same look. "You can feel it, can't you?" Severus asked.

"Oh, yes. It's lovely." And terrible.

"Make sure you don't touch anything sticky," he was warned. "What you feel now is nothing to how you'll feel if you touch the sap. And I don't want to explain to the headmaster how you took a swandive into the ground because the happy little pixies told you it would be a good idea."

"I never trusted happy little pixies. I've had enough trouble with do-gooding house elves."

Severus grunted agreement. "I never did trust do-gooders."

Harry suddenly found he was missing Dobby. Even that overwhelming enthusiasm seemed rosier with distance. Impatient with himself and determined not to give in to homesickness – not now that he was this close to success – Harry leaped to the next branch.

"Careful," Severus said, scowling, as he grabbed Harry's elbow.

"I'm fine."

"Yes, I can see that."

Harry firmed his jaw. "I'm fine."

Severus took the hint and resumed climbing.

ooOOoo

The light came from the thin mist trailing between the trees. It took on some odd shapes, and at one point Severus nearly fell out of the tree with shock after mistaking two brighter stars shining through a billow of mist as eyes. Harry wasn't entirely sure the mist wasn't partially alive after observing one of the (apparently motionless) wisps in a different shape each time he looked back at it.

After a few times when they needed to backtrack after (literally) going out on a limb, and carefully crawling over one giant, empty nest that could have been abandoned by a pterodactyl, they found themselves circling the knot.

This close, the shadows were giant runes. They weren't drawn into the bark – they were drawn by the shadows falling from twisting roots and knots in the growing bole. It was entirely possible they spelt out the same message they'd spelt out a thousand years ago. Harry squinted at them and tried turning his head to see if that would help.

"It's Ogham," Severus murmured.

"Can you read it?"

"Not really. Something about truth."

Harry tried walking around it. It was odd being at ninety degrees from and to Severus – he had the constant nagging feeling one of them should be falling. He made it two thirds of the way around the tree, carefully pulling himself up and over and around the branches which left a faint powder on his palms but not (because he kept a careful eye out for any suspicious gleaming patches) any sap. And then he noticed the runes curling in towards a darker patch. Harry leaned in – down – or up, as he was currently standing with his feet pointing away from the ground – for a closer view. "There's a hole here," he called out softly, bending as close as he dared. He looked up as there was a soft thump next to him. Snape had landed on the branch like a squirrel – should a squirrel be close to six feet tall with greasy black hair and patched Hogwarts robes.

Severus pulled out his wand. "Reperio falx," he breathed. The wand spun to point into the hole, flipping to point down. Severus grabbed it before it could fly into it. "Lumos." The wand glowed, highlighting shadows.

They peered into the hole.

"It's pretty deep," Harry said.

"Are you ready to stick your arm in there?" Severus said doubtfully.

Harry grunted as he lay down on the branch, head down (up) towards the hole, which seemed to be the centre of gravity in this mad fig universe.

"Don't," said Severus as Harry reached in.

Harry had a quick grope around inside and pulled out his arm again as fast as he could. "Nothing," he said, half relieved, half disappointed. "I couldn't feel the end of it."

Severus scraped his fingers through his hair and tugged. "Merlin, Lovegood," he huffed, "you could have had your arm chopped off."

"I don't think so. You said you didn't sense anything predatory. I don't think –"

"That was your problem – you didn't think. I said I didn't sense anything predatory – I didn't say anything about defensive!"

"Oh." Harry looked into the hole. He shivered. He sat down cross-legged. After a brief, exasperated silence, Severus joined him.

They went back to staring into the hole.

"Accio sickle," Harry tried.

Nothing.

"You try."

"Accio sickle," said Severus.

Nothing.

They stared into the hole again.

"Well, this is a big bloody bag of uselessness," Severus said after a while, slapping his hands together in disgust. He climbed up onto one of the branches crossing overhead a little up (or possibly down) from the hole. It was a good, thick branch, and Severus sat astride it like it was a horse and scowled down at the hole.

Harry nodded, then followed, sitting down next to him cross-legged and resting his elbows on his knees. "We need to be able to get inside."

"I guess so." Severus pulled a small notebook and a stub of pencil out of a pocket. He started sketching. For a time there was no sound but the skritch-scratch of pencil on paper.

"Is this really the time for pretty pictures?" Harry asked after the silence went on too long. "Or are you doing one of your charms?"

"I'm doing one of my charms. I hope. It's the one my sister and I have been working on, although we haven't actually managed to make it work yet. But Herbert the Squirrel gave me an idea."

Harry decided it might be wise to ignore that last bit, which some people could construe as raving. "So what if it goes wrong now?"

Severus, not looking up from his sketch, growled, "I never said it goes wrong. I said that we hadn't made it work yet. But there's so much standing magic around here I think it might have a charge – maybe all it needed before was a catalyst."

Harry tried to look over Severus' shoulder. Severus hunched up his shoulder, blocking Harry's view. "Don't be nosy."

"That's rich coming from you."

"My nose is fine. Everyone else in the world is deficient."

Harry couldn't help laughing. "Actually, I was talking about your curiosity."

"Same goes for my curiosity. Stop bothering me." Severus paused, pencil raised over the pad, and eyed his drawing dubiously. "Uh. That's just wrong. I'm never this bad at drawing animals."

"Let me see."

"No." He flipped over to a new piece of paper and started again. After a while he said, "No. That's not right either." Severus scowled at the paper so ferociously the edges curled. There was a few minutes of frantic scribbling. "Blast."

"Let me see."

"What part of 'no' is not understood by you?"

"Oh, for…" Harry snatched it. Ignoring Severus' snarl, Harry merely held it further away from the Slytherin. "Well, I don't know much about animals, but I know that's not a squirrel. It looks like you've tried to patch a big fuzzy tail onto a badger."

Severus grabbed the paper and tore it into shreds.

"Now it looks like confetti," Harry observed helpfully. In return he was given a venomous look.

"It was meant to be a squirrel," came the soft growl after a minute's sulk.

"I guessed that by the tail and the earlier 'Herbert' remark. Maybe you're not meant to be drawing a squirrel. If this is Hufflepuff's secret place, maybe you're meant to be drawing a badger."

"Badgers aren't as nimble as squirrels."

"So were you going to draw a squirrel and send it down the hole?" Harry asked, frowning. "That's something new to me, making an animal from a drawing."

"It's not quite like that," Severus said. He sighed and started another sketch. "Damn."

"Still wrong?"

Severus passed over the pad.

"It's great!" Harry exclaimed. The badger looked almost as if it was ready to lumber out of the picture and bite someone. The stripes along the face gave a hint of intelligence to the beady black button eyes, and the powerful digging claws gleamed.

Severus had his sour face on again. "It's good, isn't it?" he said, sounding as if he'd rather turn it into confetti than give it praise. "But I wanted it to be a squirrel."

"Well, maybe a badger needs to be the animal for the job."

"Huh. Well… I suppose I need to give it a trigger word." Severus tapped the picture with his wand three times and said 'Brock' with each tap. "The magic is already there."

"Special pencil? It's the one you used to sketch me for the glamour."

"Well done. Two points to the charity of your choice."

"Two whole points?" Harry said sarcastically.

"Yes, I'm feeling generous. Get ready… If something happens you may need to catch the badger. Oh, and to finish the spell, just say 'brock reversed'." He put the sketch down on a flat branch and knelt down in front of it. He began to chant.

"'Brock reversed'. Okay." Harry didn't like the idea of catching a badger because they'd always seemed pretty grumpy and inclined to be vicious if provoked. But interrupting Severus didn't seem to promise any happier ending.

It didn't seem to matter in the end. After staring at the drawing and chanting for a few minutes with his eyes half-shut in concentration, Severus looked up, resigned. "It's not going to work. I can feel it bottled up, but the magic needs something to catalyse it. It's like – I don't know. Learning to ride a broom, perhaps. Or whistle. One minute you don't have a clue, then the next you don't understand how anything so simple could have been so hard."

Harry wasn't sure what he was on about, but nodded anyway. "So you need something to give you that knack."

"Exactly! I need a – Hey!"

Severus was interrupted by something falling on his head. Harry caught it as it bounced off and fell towards the hole.

Harry turned it over in his hand. It smelt good – slightly dusty like the trees, but with a soft sweetness that tickled at his salivary glands. "It's a fig."

"Blast. Of course it is." Severus grabbed it and, before Harry could guess – and, more importantly, stop – what he was doing, bit into it.

"Are you crazy?!" Harry tugged at Severus' hand and threw the fig away, but not before the Slytherin had taken a good mouthful. Harry grabbed his chin and tried to stick his fingers in Severus' mouth. "Spit it out right now, you great idiot!"

Severus ground his teeth shut, glared at him, and swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing defiantly.

Harry glared back, furious and at the same time terrified he was about to have a raving egomaniacal pre-Death Eater on his hands.

Severus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "If it makes you feel any better, I still hate figs."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You git. Don't come complaining to me when the happy little pixies move into your head and start redecorating."

"Ugh." Severus squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered. "What an image. All right. You've had your revenge." He looked down at the picture of the badger, which had survived Harry's knee. "Let's try this again before the happy little pixies make me do something else." He began the chant again.

He had only repeated it a few times when he looked up, eyes wide. Harry, terrified Severus was going to go psychotic, got his wand ready.

"Brock!"

Well, Harry hadn't been expecting Severus to say that.

And he certainly hadn't been expecting Severus to start shrinking.

The other boy collapsed in on himself, nose becoming pointed, black eyes becoming round as buttons, ears creeping up on the side of his head, shadows striping his face. Then his robes fell around him, shrouding him from sight.

There was a muffled grumbling.

Harry carefully pulled back the neck of the robes. From out of it peered two bright little eyes, looking up at him myopically from a black-and-white striped face.

No, he certainly hadn't expected Severus to turn into a badger.

ooOOoo

The bundle of robes shifted on the branch as the badger tried to climb out of them. The badger barked in alarm as it struggled. Harry grabbed the bundle before the badger fell off – the fall down to the gnarled centre of gravity wasn't much, but Harry wasn't sure if the new centre of gravity would stay constant, and if it didn't the badger might bounce off and down, down, down to the ground far below.

In his arms, the badger made a high-pitched whickering sound. "You're welcome," said Harry. He disentangled the animal from the clothes, careful not to get the sharp claws caught. It was a little tricky. The Severus-badger was easily two feet long from twitching nose to end of the short tail, and heavy – maybe twenty pounds, although Harry wasn't as good at judging weight as he was dimension. And it grumbled and wriggled, wanting to be put down.

"All right, all right…" Harry made sure to put the badger on a level part of the branch they were sitting on. "There. How's that?"

The badger purred. Apparently it was acceptable. It waddled carefully down to where the branch dived down towards its join with the central bole. Sharp claws scraped on the bark and the badger barked again as it slid down to the massive trunk. Harry scrabbled forward, too late to save his friend. "Severus!"

The badger hit the trunk on its salt-and-pepper shoulder, twisting and barking with indignation. It picked itself up and shook itself off, grumbling in a very Snape-esque manner. Harry slid down the branch after it, ignoring the uneasy tingle that ran up from the soles of his sneakers as his feet hit the mysterious centre of the tree. The badger was picking up its own feet gingerly, as if something about the tree bothered it.

Everything about the tree bothered Harry.

He squatted down to look the badger in the eye as best as he could. "Awesome spell, Severus," he said softly.

The badger peered up at him and blinked. It made a small whicker, and turned to look down the hole briefly before looking up at Harry again.

"You sure?"

The badger growled and hunched its powerful shoulders, ducking its head.

Harry didn't have to be a whiz at Legilimency to know that was a 'no'. "You don't have to go down there, you know."

The badger sighed. It hesitated on the brink of the hole, nose twitching furiously, then crawled inside.

Harry crept closer to the hole. All he could see was the round rump of the badger quickly disappearing into shadow. The hole was just the right size for the animal. Then there was a sudden flurry of claws and a couple of sharp barks followed by a muffled thump. The badger had disappeared.

"Severus!"

Harry leaned forward and thrust his arm into the hole. His hand found only emptiness.

"Severus?"

A grumbling growl echoed up from the darkness.

"Are you all right?"

A sigh, then a faint, reluctant, high-pitched whicker. After a slightly longer moment there was a series of snuffling noises.

Then a bark.

"How about if I say 'accio badger'?" Harry called down the hole.

A growl.

"Fine. Fine. Just trying to help. Any tentacled monsters about to disembowel you down there?"

A stronger growl followed by a hiss.

Well, he didn't sound hurt, anyway. Harry sat back on his heels and listened as hard as he could. He tried hard to hear how the badger was doing, but the trouble was every falling leaf and slight movement of branch scraping gently over branch sounded like someone creeping up on him.

Harry had the distinct feeling someone was looking over his shoulder down the hole.

He turned swiftly, hurting his neck, but no-one was there.

Still the hairs down the nape of his neck prickled.

For a split second there – the barest sliver of time – he'd fancied he'd seen a face. But it was only the leaves. From where he was sitting the branches and leaves had shaped out a round, bonny face, with stars over on the horizon twinkling for eyes. But then he'd seen how the trees had tricked his eyes. He told himself that.

But he try as hard as he could, he didn't believe it when he told himself that someone hadn't winked at him.

"Still there, Severus?"

There was another grumbling growl followed by another surprised bark that had Harry kneeling and calling down the hole, "Severus!"

But the bark was quickly followed by a rough purr and then a dull clunk.

Claws scraped against wood and the badger grumbled again, but this time the grumbling sounded a little self-satisfied.

Harry thought he saw something gleaming in the darkness. Yes – there it was. The white stripes on the badger's face gleamed like strips of platinum. The face lurched a little as the claws lost their grip briefly, then steadied again, pushing up towards the light. Harry grinned in relief. "Want me to pull you out?"

The nose twitched left to right. No. But the head moved awkwardly, as if harnessed.

Oh – there was a stick in the badger's mouth. Pale fangs gleamed against the dark wood.

"Severus…" Harry breathed, barely daring to hope.

And then the badger was pulling itself out, its powerful shoulders and hindquarters bunching and pushing beneath the shaggy salt-and-pepper coat.

It dropped a gleaming crescent of gold at Harry's feet.

ooOOoo