The Best Revenge

To all my readers: thank you for your continuing interest. I wish I had more time to answer some of the comments as they come in. I am working on catching up. To those who wonder about the emphasis on material goods in this story, I can only say that if administering my brother's estate has taught me anything, it is that personal possessions sometimes matter very much for all sorts of reasons. In this chapter, think of Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore as archaeologists, learning about the inhabitants of the cottage at Godric's Hollow through the articles that belonged to them.

Chapter 13

A good-sized cottage. A spacious, beamed room for sitting, and the attached dining area making it all an L-shaped space. The floor was littered with trash. The windows were broken.

"There was some damage from the elements for about a month before the house was sealed," Dumbledore murmured. "Since then, no one has entered."

Minerva had straightened her shoulders, and was poking about briskly, going through a doorway to what must be the kitchen. Snape heard her opening cupboards, her quick steps echoing on the rustic wooden floor. Dumbledore stood lost in thought--and perhaps in memories. Snape walked about the sitting and dining areas, assessing what was there.

Not a great deal at first sight. He noted in the dining area that the table and sideboard were bare, save for a coating of dust. No candlesticks, no ornaments of any kind. There was a single painting on the wall, so badly damaged by water that at first he could not determine what it was.

Minerva came out of the kitchen, wiping dust from her hands, a grimace of disgust twisting her mouth. She laid three thin books on the dining table. "These had Lily's name in them." Then she looked at the painting and said, "Oh, dear!"

Severus looked more closely. It had been the portrait of a man and a woman in a garden. The woman's hair did not appear to be red, and so it was almost certainly not Lily. The figures moved slightly and their blurred mouths opened, but no sound emerged.

Minerva was quite distressed. "Oh, Lydia. What a shame!" She explained to Snape, "I know this picture. These people are Guy and Lydia Potter, James' father and mother. Likely it's the one portrait he took with him into hiding. I hope it can be restored."

Dumbledore, hearing the conversation, came over to examine it. "Possibly, Minerva. possibly. It ought to be sent to the experts in Florence. In fact, I shall be happy to see to it. Young Harry would want to be able to see his grandparents." He unstuck the picture from the wall, and levitated it gently into the entryway. "Something that must be taken with us," he said to himself.

Snape took a look at the books, and raised his brows. "Your Magical Little One. Charms for Hearth and Home. One Minute Feasts."

Minerva said, "There was nothing else but rotted food and some crockery in the kitchen. They must have just finished dinner. The dishes had not even been washed." Her gaze swept the dining table. "They must have had a high chair for Harry."

There was a gap at the table. Minervas lips thinned. "Someone took it as a souvenir, I daresay. Vultures."

Snape agreed, shrugging. "It looks like anything out in plain sight was scavenged. Surely they would have had candlesticks or lamps."

The doors of the sideboard were charmed shut. It took a number of attempts before they opened.

"Well!" Minerva huffed. "This is much more the thing!"

A miscellany of items. Albus sat down, and did not appear to be enjoying the inventory.

A chest of old silver flatware. The monogram "P" indicated the ownership. "I don't remember this," Minerva frowned. "Eighteenth century and fine work, but the Potters always used a set made of gold when I dined at their country house. I suppose that went to the goblins," she sighed. "The gold plates and goblets too, most likely."

There were a few pieces of old porcelain: thin and white, with a band of gold and golden stags at the cardinal points. "The Potter family crest," Minerva told Severus. "I had forgotten."

Snape said nothing. He knelt, peering into the recesses. There was a silver tea service, also quite old, also unknown to Minerva. Albus, when applied to, did not remember it from his own youth. It was set out on the table, and examined for any identifying marks. Finding nothing, Albus said, "If I cannot be certain it was my family's, I think we must assume it was the Potters'. In any case, let the child have it to brighten his home someday. I certainly have no need of it."

A pair of plain silver candlesticks caused Albus to smile gently.

"Ah, yes. Let us put those aside for Harry as well." Minerva looked at the underside of one, and raised her brows skeptically, but Albus shrugged. "After all, why not?" he said, almost to himself, "So little left to him--"

Aside from what they spread out on the table, there was little enough to be found downstairs. The florid Victorian china that had been the Dumbledores' was left in the cupboard, along with their own monogrammed silver. Dumbledore shut the cupboard and charmed it locked. He paused, and patted the sideboard, as if in farewell.

Fallen beside the sofa were two books. One was so damaged as to be illegible, but the other was a copy of Quidditch through the Ages. Snape deposited it on top of the other books with a thump. "So much for the Potter Family Library," he sneered.

Minerva was too discouraged to say anything. The upstairs was next, but they all paused this time. The newel post of the staircase was splintered, and there were blast marks on the wall. James Potter had died here. Stepping carefully, they climbed the stairs in silence.

They were drawn, almost against their will, to the most damaged room. It had been Harry's nursery. Snape tried to suppress his trembling, tried not to imagine Lily's last moments: her terror and anguish--

She must have been upstairs with Harry when they broke in. They would have put up anti-apparition wards first. She was trapped. Potter was downstairs and was killed in short order. She would have heard him die. She would have heard Him coming up the stairs--

The roof had collapsed in the magical explosion. A child's cot was partially hidden under some rubble. It seemed a miracle that an infant could have survived. The remains of a decayed plush wolf lay disemboweled in a corner. Some faded curtains still hung above a hole in the wall that once held a window. Albus moved to look out through it at the back garden, a jungle of brambles and thistles.

"My old room, you know," he told them, gazing at the garden. "A great many memories--"

Snape and Minerva left him to his thoughts. Obviously nothing could be salvaged here. Snape could not even bear to look at the floor, wondering where Lily's body had lain. Had the roof crushed her? Was her face--

Minerva was a few steps ahead of him. "Bathroom," she declared. "Nothing here but old bottles, mostly broken. I don't see James shaving kit, even."

She looked into the next room. "I don't think--" she hesitated. "A guest room." He walked in behind her. It was damaged, but not too badly. A small, neat room, with an old-fashioned carved headboard. A trunk stood against the wall beside the wardrobe.

Minerva bent to look at it. "Some nasty wards here," she murmured. She looked more closely, and stood up with a hiss. "Sirius Black's trunk!"

"A frequent guest, no doubt," Snape replied acidly. "If you wish to touch that object, be my guest."

"Not for the world!" she cried, and stalked out the room, very angry.

The last room had hardly been damaged by the explosion at all, but at first it appeared so. It was the largest of the rooms, and must obviously have been Lily's room. And her husband's. Disgusted at the thought, he studied the jumble on the floor. Two trunks had crashed out of the wardrobe and had fallen to the floor by the bed, one partly on top of the other.

"The shrinking charms wore off after a few years," Minerva deduced. "Then the trunks pushed the doors of the wardrobe open." More cheerfully, she said, "Perhaps we'll find something useful here."

Snape hoped so. Like the downstairs, the surfaces of dressing table and nightstand were bare. If there had been other trunks or luggage left out, they were gone. He tested a drawer, and was relieved to find that it resisted him.

"Probably something in the drawers, at least," he agreed. "What about these trunks first?"

They were levitated and turned right side up, and were revealed to be Hogwarts student trunks.

"That's why they were shrunk!" Minerva smiled fondly. "James and Lily kept their school things. Perhaps there are books and pictures and all sorts of treasures inside."

"James had quite a nice trunk," Snape allowed. It was old, but still sound: the outside of rugged Horntail leather, bound in brass. A trunk like this was expensive--far more than Harry should lay out from his little hoard. If the inside were equally intact, perhaps it would be sensible to replace the nameplate and let Harry take it to Hogwarts. It was--appropriate--that the boy have something of his father's. Lily's standard student trunk was cheaper, and it showed in gashes and dents and splits in the wood and the cowhide.

Minerva smiled nostalgically. "I believe it was his father's before him. This sort of trunk is built to last. He was a prankster, too--Guy Potter was." Her smile fading, she ventured, "Perhaps--we should look through them carefully before we let Harry see them. Just in case there are--surprises."

Snape snorted. "I'll look through Lily's. You are welcome to Potter and his surprises. I had all I cared for in my school days."

She glared at him, but did not outright refuse. With little effort the old student wards were lifted, and the trunks opened.

Lily's trunk had been left in good order, but contained things that Snape was not quite prepared to face. An album was filled with pictures of her family and her days at Hogwarts. Snape flipped through it, and was touched when he discovered that she had not thrown out the pictures of them together in those early, golden years. There were some muggle pictures too: of Snape and Lily and Petunia playing outside the Evans house. He turned the page and saw young Severus and Lily on the day they first left for Hogwarts. He shuddered. Lily looked enchanting. He, on the other hand, had been a scrawny little gnome of a boy: all nose and staring black eyes. He thumbed through the book, mourning as the pictures of him grew fewer, and more of more of them depicted Potter and his minions. A picture of Lily standing between Potter and Black particularly incensed him. Both had an arm around her. Black winked at him. Snape clapped the album shut, and set it aside with a growl.

A set of student robes from her seventh year were neatly folded. Pinned to them was her Head Girl badge. Underneath was every single textbook from her Hogwarts years, along with her detailed notebooks. Her best essays were preserved. A folder held her first Hogwarts letter, the letter giving her a prefectship, and the letter awarding her the position of Head Girl. On the other side of the folder were her grade reports and her O.W.L. and N.E.W.T results. Snape read them with interest.

Ha! On their O.W.L.s they had done about equally well. She had an outstanding in Charms rather than his Exceeds Expectations, but he had surpassed her--by far--in Defense. She did better in Transfiguration, and he in History. Their grades were the same in Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Astronomy--all Outstandings. She had an extra O.W.L.-- Outstanding--since she had troubled to take the Muggle Studies test.

Her N.E.W.T scores made him acknowledge that their lives had diverged in the two years after their estrangement. He had taken Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, History, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She had N.E.W.T.s in Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Muggle Studies. She had done extremely well. He knew that Slughorn had recommended her to his contacts among the Unspeakables. When she showed no interest in that, he had tried to set up interviews with Ministry Department Heads and even with the editor of Potions Today. She had refused them all, always with a charming smile. She was planning her wedding, and was not ready to commit herself to any position other than that of James Potter's wife. Slughorn had confided his disappointment to Snape.

"Frightful waste. Frightful. Of course, she's done very nicely for herself. Good blood, old money. She'll move in the very first circles of society. But--" Slughorn shook his head until the ends of his mustache quivered. "I never thought she would throw the Art over to be a society girl. Didn't imagine it. Well, well, perhaps in a few years time she'll find herself at loose ends--"

Minerva was muttering to herself, and Snape looked up guiltily. He bit back a harsh laugh as she removed a half-empty bottle of Ogden's from James' trunk, along with a pile of muggle girlie magazines. One of them flopped open, and a picture unfolded. Minerva tossed them aside with a huff. Still glaring at the magazines, she reached into the trunk and drew out a pair of girl's knickers. A name was scrawled on them in scarlet ink.

"'Mary!'" Minerva exclaimed in shock, dropping them.

Snape laughed outright. She glared at him, very flustered, and then pulled out a succession of more knickers. All were inscribed with names he recognized. All houses were represented. Minerva was livid with indignation, while Snape only laughed harder. She pulled out the last fragile garment, and read, 'Lily.'"

Snape's laughter ceased abruptly. He snarled, and tore through the rest of Lily's trunk. There were some additional books: Most Potente Potions and Alchemist Supreme: The Life of Nicholas Flamel. Both of them would be worthy additions to Harry's small library. Snape wondered where Lily's potions gear was. There was a packet of cards and letters from her family. There was nothing else remaining but a small white box. As he opened it, Snape remembered what it was.

Inside was a little enameled lily pendant on a silver chain. Snape had given it to her the last Christmas they were friends. She had kept it. He sat back on his heels, and blew out a breath. "Done here. She kept all her books and notes. While some of the texts have changed, the notes will still be of some use. And there's a photo album. Harry will enjoy looking at it."

"Well, you can help me here," Minerva told him sharply. "This trunk is a pig's breakfast. I'd deduct points if I could. I'm hardly going to give Harry these--" she said, with an angry wave at the discarded knickers and magazines.

"Are you going to give him the Ogden's?" Snape asked archly.

She sniffed. "No. Im going to confiscate it, just as I would have at Hogwarts. It doesn't belong in a student trunk!"

In the trunk were James' seventh year textbooks and notebooks. There were no letters or test scores, but his Head Boy badge was there. His Gryffindor tie was tangled up with a lone sock and a red and gold scarf. A few other books were inside the trunk.

Minerva read the titles. "Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches... Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks...Ars Animagi!" she exclaimed. "I wonder if James succeeded with the transformation. That's a valuable book, Severus, but I don't think Harry is quite ready for it."

Snape was paging through a small leather notebook. He said, "I believe he must have succeeded, Minerva. Look."

The book included notes about Potter's progress in the animagus transformation. There were dates and details, and some sketches of a hand or foot.

Minerva was grave. She took a look at the last few entries. "Yes. He was an animagus. His form was a stag. And he was not alone. Black and little Peter Pettigrew also succeeded. So young!" She briefly looked very proud, and then her face hardened. "They were running wild together in the Forbidden Forest every full moon, along with Remus Lupin. Those wretched--"

"Just so," Snape agreed smoothly. "I daresay Harry will be inspired."

"I don't want him to see this yet either," Minerva declared, glancing further through the book. "Not just for all the rule-breaking, but because there are some very rude remarks in here about some of his classmates."

"I daresay I feature prominently," Snape drawled.

"You do. And I dont think Harry would be impressed by either his father's attitude toward you or by the things he writes about some of the girls in his classes. When he's older, perhaps he'll be able to understand that his father was very young and silly when he wrote this."

There were some expensive trifles in the bottom of the trunk. A small mirror had shattered, making Snape pick warily through the broken glass until he could find the frame and repair it. He wondered what it was meant to do, and tossed it to the side. There was a fine pair of Omnioculars in a leather case, and a compact chess set of ebony and ivory. At the very bottom was a clutter of broken quills and sticky, ancient sweets. Snape took the lot out, and scourgified the inside.

"A very nice trunk," Snape repeated. "Harry will find it useful. I have no idea if he knows how to play chess, but perhaps I'll find time to teach him a bit about it. He could use the chessmen and some of the notes. I'll order a new nameplate. Whatever else we preserve can be crated and stored in the Gringotts vault. He might want Lily's trunk to remain as it is, but I'll take the album to show him. He might want to keep that by him."

"We're hardly finished," Minerva sighed, getting to her feet. She pushed open the broken doors of the wardrobe. Amid the humdrum clothing of black and brown and dark red, robes of iridescent white hung inside.

"Lily's wedding robes," Minerva said, stroking a delicate bell sleeve. "We must take them, too."

Snape rooted through the wardrobe. There was some good clothing and haberdashery there, including a splendid fur-trimmed cloak, but obviously nothing that would fit the boy. Lily's dress robes were here too, gleaming golden silk, along with a wrap of white ermine. Minerva enlarged some boxes she had brought with her. She packed what had not been eaten by moths, and shrank the boxes again. Snape allowed himself to touch the wedding gown once only. She would have looked like a queen

All the drawers were pulled open, and the contents evaluated. Minerva sat at the dressing table, while Snape opened the chest of drawers. The top drawer held clothing of Potters', and on top of the linen handkerchiefs was a small object of gold. Snape touched it, and felt a faint flutter. In a flash, he pictured James Potter, toying with that bloody Snitch, tossing it up, catching it, smirking...

There were many things he was prepared to do for Harry. However, he had just discovered one that was completely beyond his strength. He covered the snitch with the handkerchiefs, and pushed the drawer to.

"Anything there?" Minerva asked, as she discarded dried-up toiletries.

"Just old rubbish," Snape replied, moving on to the next drawer.

"Here too," Minerva mourned. "I wonder if Lily kept any of the family jewels at all."

Snape pawed through Potter's oddments, more and more revolted. The next drawer was even more painful, as Lily's dainty lingerie was exposed. It was just as well that Minerva was present, lest he be tempted to filch trophies like a teenaged James Potter. He shut that drawer, and then looked briefly at folded jumpers in the colors she had loved: soft peach, russet brown, a bluish-green that reminded him of Harry. With her hair and eyes, Lily had looked magnificent in true greens, but never wore them at school after third year or so. And then, after she was married, I daresay James Potter banned green altogether. Snape could not quite square the concept of Lily, the obedient wife, with the fiery girl he had known; but he did not want to imagine that she herself would have done something so silly as to choose never to wear the color that became her best.

"I see no point in taking their everyday clothing," he told Minerva, who only nodded.

At last, he reached the deep bottom drawer of the chest, and knelt to spell it open. The wards seemed very complicated, and Minerva was finished with the dressing table before the drawer was open. There were other footsteps, and Snape realized that Albus had entered the room.

Minerva said to him, "I believe we might have found something important, Albus. Whatever is in here is heavily protected."

In the end, they all worked together for half an hour to open the drawer. It finally surrendered with a groan, and slid open of its own accord. Inside was an aged tome that Dumbledore immediately identified as the Potter Family Grimoire: a collection of spells, enchantments, potions recipes, stories, and genealogy. Next to it was a rather large chest of inlaid wood.

"Oh, I hope--" Minerva breathed. Snape did not understand what she meant, until Albus found a way to open the chest and reveal what lay inside.

Snape's jaw dropped. Now this was what he called treasure!

Albus lifted out an ancient gold diadem, set with huge cabochon rubies and gleaming pearls. Little gold leaves dangled trembling all around the bottom of it. At the front was a goddess, carved out of rock crystal, in something of an ancient Greek style. Above the goddess soared a golden tree flanked by a pair of golden stags. Astonishing gold animals followed them in a procession.

Snape sat on the bed, staring at it, winded. "That's--very old."

"Indeed it is, Severus," Albus agreed in his reedy voice. "Sarmatian--probably from the first century. For hundreds of years it has been worn by Potter brides, and for a thousand years before that it was worn as part of the ritual regalia of the Witch Queens of their line, long before they were Potters, or de Poitiers, or Poddarghs."

"I have a picture of Lily on the day of her wedding," Minerva said mildly. "Perhaps you would like to see it."

Snape thought he was choking. "Yes," he coughed out. "Yes. Very much. Thank you."

Out of the chest was drawn a long chain of rough cut rubies, held together by square gold links. It was old, too, but not as old as the diadem. "Tenth century Byzantine," Snape guessed.

"Well spotted, Severus," said Albus with a nod. "And in here is also a jeweled cloak pin from the same period, and this--"

He held up a heavy gold signet ring. A coat of arms was surmounted by a heavy-antlered stag.

"The Potter Family Ring," Minerva said with relief. "I'm glad Harry will have that. Lily would never let James wear it," she told Snape. "She thought it too feudal for words."

In the box was a piece of parchment, which proved to be the contract by which the wizard James Potter leased Hartwold Hall and its demesne--the Potter family estate--to the witch Celestina Warbeck for the sum, paid in full, of fifty thousand galleons. It was signed in 1980, and would end December 31, 2079, or five days after the death of said witch Celestina Warbeck, whichever occurred first. Albus folded it carefully and laid it back in the box.

Minerva said, "The rest of the jewels are long gone, no doubt. Lydia's diamonds, the old Peverell pearls--"

Snape examined the signet ring, but dropped it as he was passing it back to Albus. The ring fell heavily to the floor and rolled away under the bed. Snape bent to pick it up--it could be awkward to summon small, heavy objects of metal when standing with other people. When he flipped up the bed cover he saw it, and by it the corner of a thick volume bound in dull red leather.

"There's something else here," he told his companions. He gave the ring to Minerva, and reached for the book.

As his fingertips touched it, he screamed.