A/N:OMG I am so sorry this took... for frikkin ever to upload. I wanted to wait until my room was finished being painted and the trim was up, but that's still not even finished... then I got bored with Harry Potter, then I got wrapped up in other things, but I'm back now! Well... for now anyway. xD Sorry!
Chapter 11
Harry sighed as he poured the silver memory into the pensive that Severus had let him use. He took a breath and dropped his head into it.
Bill's nearly nude form was sitting tied to a strange looking chair that was attached to the room at the ceiling and floor via it's back and feet. It looked like a strange mutation of a tree instead of a piece of furniture. His wrists were bound above his head, the charmed rope resting in a carved out nook that was seemingly carved out specifically for that purpose, judging by its placement. His feet were tied with the same kind of rope to the chair's legs, and his head hung down, dirty hair covering a good portion of his chest.
The door to the room slammed open causing the eldest Weasley son to jump lightly and raise his head. Blood could be seen running down his chin. "Now maybe you'll tell me what you know." The man stated smugly.
"I told you, I don't know anything about that." Bill said defiantly.
"Lies!" The man bellowed, sending his fist hurdling into Bill's solar plexus. "He sent you, didn't he?"
"No!"
"Shut up!" The man shouted, slapping Bill across the face. "Some old man from your lot is always hanging around that place like a leech. He had to have sent you through him!"
"Why would he send me when he could send someone more powerful, like Potter?" Bill demanded.
"To throw me off!" The man argued back. "If he sends his precious 'friend' after me, he's telling me that he sees me as a real threat, however if he sends you he's telling me I'm not worth his concern. His underestimation of me will be his downfall once you tell me how to get in!"
"What the hell are you on about?"
"Enough of your insolence!" The man screeched. "Perhaps some more quality time with my fist will loosen your tongue."
Harry blinked as he emerged from the memory. He was more confused now than he had been before he went in. Was this Preece? Who would send Bill after him, and what was he doing to make him think anyone had been sent after him? Who was the 'old man from Bill's lot'? Ugh, too many unanswered questions.
It was beginning to look like Harry would have to pay another visit to the Burrow if he planned on getting any answers, but that would have to wait until the classes let out today. He just wished he knew more of what was going on. And why in Merlin's name was Firenze always watching him lately?
He rubbed at his temples but stopped his ministrations suddenly when he heard Teddy whimpering from the monitoring charm he'd set up. Harry quickly made his way to the toddler's side and assessed the situation. Tossing and turning, scrunched face, clenched hands, whimpers, it definitely looked like the boy was having a nightmare. Harry picked him up and spoke softly to him, trying to reassure the toddler that he was okay. He glanced to the other bed noting that Alden was still asleep, thank goodness.
Teddy cried softly while Harry kept telling him that everything was going to be alright and clung to him, his little face buried in the young man's shirt. The man felt guilty for telling Teddy something like that when he wasn't sure himself whether things were going to be alright or not. After all, nightmares had become a nightly occurrence between the four of them, and some loon looked to be attempting to kill Bill out of paranoia.
Our young hero was beginning to wonder if maybe they were taking on too much. After all, Severus recently had to stop his Wolfsbane research because he just didn't have the time. It was beginning to look like the werewolves of the community wouldn't be able to adopt after all.
When Teddy's whimpering died down, Harry put him back into his little bed and recast the barrier charms. He gave one last check over to ensure both boys were asleep and went back to his and Severus' rooms.
Oh for the love of Merlin. "Sev, wake up." Harry called out, climbing on to the bed and grabbing his lovers' arm. Was everyone going to have a nightmare tonight? Geeze. "Sev come on, wake up now. You're having a nightmare."
Severus' eyes scrunched and he let out a shaky groan. "Wha?" The man asked, finally registering that someone was shaking him.
"You were having a nightmare... So was Teddy actually." Harry said with a sigh.
"Again?" Severus asked, more than a bit confused. That was one thing about the man, he rarely ever remembered his dreams or nightmares. In fact, the only one he could actually remember having was the one with Lucius, the Dark Lord, and the rainbow walls. Actually, when he stopped to think about it, that seemed more like a trippy ride than it did a nightmare.
"Yeah. I'm starting to think maybe someone's put something in our food because this is getting ridiculous."
"Well it's not a potion." Severus said, flopping his head back down on the pillow. "I'd be able to taste it, not to mention the elves know better than to try to dose me with anything, no matter who requests it."
"Even me or Dumbledore?" Harry asked curiously. "Well, when he was alive that is."
"Yes, to both. They'd be severely punished, as would the culprit."
"Speaking of culprits..." Harry said with a sigh. "Remember I told you about what Bill said? Well, I think this Preece guy is doing something big."
"How do you come to that conclusion?" Severus asked with a yawn.
"Well, I just watched the memory, and he was totally paranoid that someone was sending Bill after him. I think it'd just be easier if you watched it yourself rather than have me sit here and try to explain to you what happened."
"Probably." Severus said with a slight nod. "I would get up to go view it, but I seem to be unable to feel my foot."
Harry looked down and pulled the covers up a bit. He chuckled and went to work removing the obstruction. Hey, put me down! Serenity hissed as she was being unraveled from her Master's foot.
Sorry, but Severus needs to get up. Harry tried.
You could have sssimply sssaid sssomething inssstead of moving me around. The snake huffed as she uncurled her tail and made her way to Harry's shoulders. Nexxxt time, asssk.
"You know," Severus said as he watched the ensuing conversation between his husband and his snake. "one of these days I am going to find a way to understand what the hell you two are saying."
Why not ussse what Harry usssed? The snake suggested.
Harry blinked and shook his head. What was used to make me speak parseltongue should have killed me. I would never try to kill him.
Severus rolled his foot around a bit. "And now to wait for that awful prickling sensation." He stated with a grimace.
Harry laughed, but his amusement was quickly whisked away when he heard one of his alarms go off. Oh no, which one was this? He quickly walked over to his table and looked at the trinkets both on his side and Severus' side. It sounded like a fog croaking, therefore that meant it was high level magic in use not being taught in the school. The trinket that was emitting the noise was a turnip which meant... which meant... "Hey what does the turnip mean again?"
"Girl's dormitory." Severus replied. "And before you ask, yours are on the right."
"Thanks." Harry replied sheepishly. Okay, illegal use of high level magic in the Gryffindor girl's dorm. "Be back in a few."
He rushed off through the special hallway and into the Gryffindor area, then quickly made his way towards the girl's dorm. As soon as he heard frantic voices very nearly screaming, he bolted out into a run. "What's happened?" He shouted, bursting through the door and towards where a group of girls were clamoring around.
"It started just-" "She was asleep and-" "The sound was-" "Then there was light-" "We all woke up-" "But I was trying to-" "-and it looks like she's-" "-when we couldn't-" Several of the girls all said at once.
"STOP!" Harry shouted. "Areos, go get Madame Pomfrey. Stofer, tell me exactly what Ms. Malshrot was doing before this happened."
"S-she was practicing something. I don't know what though. It sounded like a charm." Leah stuttered.
This was definitely not just some charm, the girl had been doing something high level. There was no blood, no visible wounds, no magic radiating from her, no sign that she had been doing anything other than the fact that everyone seemed to be in agreement that she was doing something and she was unconscious.
Ms. Areos returned a few minutes later with Madame Pomfrey who assessed the situation but couldn't find anything wrong with her other than exhaustion. Whatever the child had been doing, it had drained a lot of her power.
Harry cast a quick revealing spell to see what the last spell from Marina's wand was, but it only came up blank as if the wand had never been used. That meant that whatever spell it was had been strong enough to wipe the residual memory that the magic should have left... What could it be?
Poppy took the girl to the infirmary, Harry calmed the other girls down and sent them back to bed, then he went back to his rooms.
Falling down into the bed, Severus grunted in response. "I watched the memory while you were out."
"Good, maybe you can tell me some things I don't get. For instance, who's the 'old one' from Bill's lot?" Harry asked.
"Probably Arthur." Severus mused.
"Alright, what's 'that place'?"
"Now that I've no idea. There are several places that Arthur frequents when he's off work."
"Right then... who do you think might send someone like Bill to investigate something like that?"
"I don't think Bill was there investigating anything. I think he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He looked to be dosed with veritaserum, judging by his eyes."
Harry furrowed his brow. "But if he was dosed with the truth serum, wouldn't he be unable to lie and therefore the Preece fella would have believed him?"
Severus shook his head. "There are ways around the truth serum. One can dose themselves with an anti-serum beforehand, or if they're exceptionally good in Occlumency, they might block the potion's effects altogether."
Harry blinked. "I never knew that!"
"The general public isn't exactly aware of that, it's something only Potions Masters and those at the Ministry are supposed to be aware of." The older man explained.
"Oh... Hey Severus? I was wondering something..."
"What is it?"
"You know how you guys would put your wands to your arms to apparate to the location of the Dark Lord when he called you and you didn't know where a location was? Well I was wondering what would happen now if that happened, because he's dead and I kind of control the mark, I was wondering if I sent out a distress call to just one person would they be able to come to me immediately, or even if I could."
Severus studied his young lover. "What did you just call him?"
"Voldemort?"
"No, I'm fairly certain you said 'the Dark Lord'."
Harry narrowed his eyebrows and looked slightly confused. "I don't... I don't think I did... I'm pretty sure I called him Voldemort. That is his name after all, and you're not answering the question."
Severus decided to let it slip this one time, but if it happened again... "Well, Voldemort could summon whomever he chose whenever he chose, so if the power was passed on to you, yes I would presume that you could do so as well. A distress call and a summons have no distinction, if someone is called through the dark mark, they are called period. No one can simply put a wand to their mark and apparate without being called though, so there's no way to find out unless you do try to call someone."
"Could... could we maybe try it?"
Severus quickly turned his entire body to face Harry and stared at him intently. "Why would you want to do that?"
"C-curiosities sake." Harry said sheepishly.
"There are only two levels of being called via the dark mark, tolerable pain, and intolerable pain. There is no making it tickle, no trying to soften it, nothing of the sort. Voldemort had done an experiment in his early days as a way to make the callings hurt less – when he still had emotions and felt pity – but that proved to be unsuccessful." Severus said.
Harry bit his bottom lip. "Oh... I thought maybe I could call you with something that would just tingle instead of hurt."
"It's simply not possible." Severus stated.
Well he didn't say I couldn't call him... but I don't want to make him hurt anymore than I already do when he has to pull me out of the red zone. I could ask Draco, I'm sure he'd be willing to do it for money... I just really want to find out if I can do it to begin with. Harry thought. He'd made up his mind and bid his husband goodnight.
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
"Point me... Cygnus Preece." Harry whispered. "Target locked, ready to begin."
"Alright." Hermione's voice rang through the cell phone attached to his hip. "Point Me... Cygnus Preece... Ready when you are."
Severus sighed. He didn't understand why they needed to use the muggle contraptions to speak with one another, but seeing as they were on opposite sides of the town, he supposed they did come in semi-useful. "Point me Cygnus Preece... Ready." He said into his own talking square thing.
The group started walking to where their wands pointed, all expecting to wind up somewhere in London's wizarding community's center. Imagine their surprise when Harry wound up in a muggle bar, Hermione wound up in a wizarding dance club, and Severus wound up at the gates of an ongoing Renaissance Faire before their spells all stopped working. "Uh guys?" Harry asked into his cell phone. "Where are you? I'm in a bar somewhere."
"Dance club." Hermione answered.
"I haven't the faintest idea where I am." Severus said.
"Hey, cool getup bro, you supposed to be young Merlin or something?" Hermione and Harry heard a strange voice say through their cell phones.
"Excuse me?" Snape asked.
"The wand. You look more Victorian than Renn era though, work on your costume for next year man, and Merlin had a staff not a wand. Still, it's pretty awesome." The man said. "Don't forget to check out the turkey legs, they're delicious."
"I'm apparating out of here." Severus grumbled, going off to find a suitable spot to disappear from. Hermione was cracking up. Harry, having never been to such a faire, had no idea where Severus was, but Hermione had guessed it the second the man started critiquing the era of clothing that the potions master was wearing. Snape turned off his cell phone to shut her up. Well, he'd thought he turned it off, he had just muted it so he couldn't hear them, but they could still hear him. "Excuse me, where are the restrooms?" He asked one of the women in a booth.
"Right over there." She said, pointing to giant blue boxes.
"What are those?"
"Port-a-johns." She answered.
"Indeed... thank you I suppose."
"Hey wait a sec, you look like the type of guy who has a special someone in your life. Why not get a gift for them?" The woman asked, showing off her jewelry. She picked up one of the necklaces with a red vial. "How about the dragon's blood? Ladies love that one."
Severus took no turn to correct her upon her assumption of his husband's gender. "Madame, this is not dragon's blood. No dragon on earth has blood that red. I daresay this is colored water."
"Spoil-sport, use your imagination." She scolded. "How about this for the little lady then?"
"Yes, I'm sure she would enjoy a faux silver pendant with a plastic marble just as well. No thank you." He said, walking off.
"Hey! I'm not a she!" Harry cried out into the phone. Hermione just laughed more.
"Hey mister? You work here?" A child asked coming up to Severus.
"No I don't." Snape replied shortly.
The boy's eyes welled up with tears. "But you wearin' a costume and I can't find mommy."
Snape couldn't hear Harry and Hermione trying to offer their advice for the situation, so he just went with his own idea. "Come along then, we'll find someone who does work here." He said, grabbing the child's hand. He walked the boy back over to the nearest booth, the woman he'd just left. "This boy's lost. Where is your security?"
She eyed the man strangely. "Out by the gate."
"Well go get them." He snarled. "I shall wait by that tree." When the woman closed up her shop, eyed him again, and went to go get the officers commissioned to help. It was nearly five minutes later before Snape looked back down to the child. "What is your mother's name?"
"Alli." He said sticking his thumb in his mouth.
Harry and Hermione had figured out that Severus had muted the phone, and Harry had taken the chance to apparate several places within London until he found, with much asking, the Renn Faire. He couldn't very well use a point me spell in a muggle place like this, he didn't have an item he could use to do the pointing. "Severus?" He yelled out.
"Tommy?" A woman yelled out, half crying and half panicked.
"Severus?" Harry yelled again.
The woman saw Harry yelling for someone and feared the worst. "Has someone taken your child?" She asked him.
"No, it's my husband." He answered. Immediately her eyes flashed with something akin to disgust. "He's found a child and he's waiting with the kid until the security guards come back, but I got here late and his phone's on mute, so he can't hear me, but I can hear him. I don't think he realizes it's muted."
Her disgust at the fact that this man was gay was quickly washed away. "Do you think he found my child?" She asked. Harry did a quick spell to replay the last thing said on the phone.
"What is your mother's name?"
"Alli." A small voice replied.
"That's my Tommy!" The woman shrieked, pointing to his cell phone.
"Thank god." Harry said relieved. "Come on, he's by a tree near a booth somewhere." He said.
"Sorry to interrupt." Hermione's voice rang out. "You're at a Renn Faire, Harry. There are going to be hundreds of booths, and even more trees."
The woman looked at the phone, deciding it was a fancy walkie talkie. "She's right." She said with a sigh.
"Ah, there you are." Severus' voice rang back out. "This boy's lost, his mother's name is Alli."
"Why did you go up to this man?" Another male voice asked.
"Cause hes got a costume." The boy said. "I thunk he worked here."
"Can't you call him on that thing?" The woman now known as Alli asked Harry.
"No, I can't. If he's muted his phone, he wouldn't hear the rings, and I'd rather not lose voice to try." Harry said.
"I'll try on my other phone." Hermione offered. A minute later she sighed. "He's not answering, it's definitely muted."
"Come along now kid, let's get you to the front gate." The second male voice said.
"I not leave without him." The boy stated.
Severus groaned. "Why do children keep attaching themselves to me?" He asked in reference to the boy's grip on his hand, not that Harry or Alli knew what he was talking about. "Fine, I'll come as well. It's not like Preece is going to be found at this rate anyway."
"Have you lost someone as well?" The second voice asked.
"No, and it's none of your business." Severus snapped.
"Are you sure he's okay to have around my son?" Alli asked, referring to the man's tone.
"Oh he's fine. We've got two children of our own." Harry told her. She eyed him warily but followed behind him back to the front gate.
As Severus was walking up, he saw the familiar mop of hair. "Harry... what are you doing here?" He asked.
"I came to look for you, you muted your phone." He told him. "This is Alli, I believe that little tyke belongs to her."
Snape let go of the boy's hand, who ran to his mom while they both cried. "I thought I turned it off."
"Nope, must have pressed the mute button. Anyway, when I heard you talking with the kid, I came here to see if I could help and found her." Harry explained.
"Yes well, I don't ever intend on using these confounded devices again." Severus said in reference to the phones. "They're confusing."
"No they're not." Hermione's voice rang out. "You're just anti-technology."
"Sir, we're going to have to ask you some questions." One of the officers said.
"Why?" Severus demanded.
"It's because you're now a suspect in kidnapping." Hermione told them, much to the officer's displeasure.
"What?" Harry yelled.
"When the kid latched on to someone, no matter who the person was, they would have automatically became a suspect in kidnapping. Lost children are common in high traffic areas such as a fair or mall, but unfortunately so are kidnappings. The officer's job is to ensure that you weren't trying to run off with the kid and just got caught. Of course the fact that you're a male also puts a bit more suspicion on you." She informed them.
"What does my gender have to do with anything?" Severus growled.
"Unfortunately she's right." The officer said with a grumble. "Now please turn that off."
"No." Harry said. "Just because you're intimidated by-"
"Harry!" Hermione said, drawing his attention back to his phone. "I'll hang up, just call me back when this is over. Cooperate with the man and don't be an idiot. I'll see if I can't figure out what we did wrong while we were looking for Preece." She then hung up the phone.
Harry and Severus were escorted down to the local station and questioned, just as Hermione had predicted, in case they were kidnappers. The two were growing increasingly irritated that these people kept asking the same questions in different ways trying to get different answers, and for the fact that they were wasting precious time that the men could be using to track down the man who nearly killed Bill.
(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)
Around 2 hours into the questioning, Harry's phone rang. "Turn it on speaker." The officer stated, wanting to be privy to the conversation.
Harry rolled his eyes but complied so Hermione couldn't yell at him later. It was her phone number on the caller ID. "Yeah?"
"Harry?" A young male voice asked.
Severus' attention immediately went to the phone. "What's wrong?" Both he and Harry asked at the same time.
"I'm not sure, it's something with Teddy." Alden told them. "Aunt Minnie put him down for a nap, then she had to go because the Malshrot girl's parents came by for a meeting, then Teddy started crying, and when I went in there to see what was wrong, he looked like he was having a nightmare, so I tried to wake him up, but he won't wake up. Poppy says he's okay, there's nothing wrong with him, but he just won't wake up." His voice was panicked.
"Who's got him now?" Severus asked.
"Uncle Charlie."
"Where did you get Hermione's phone?"
"He brought it over with him for me to call you when he came over to help with Teddy. I asked them to give me a way to contact you."
"Where's Poppy?"
"Standing right beside me."
"Hand the phone to her." Harry pleaded.
A few rustles went by and the men were greeted by Poppy's voice. "Teddy's vital signs are all positively normal, there's no sign of poison, when I ran the diagnostics I couldn't find anything there, it just looks like he's having a nightmare but can't wake up from it."
"In my personal cabinet there are four shelves. Go open it and tell me what color vials you see on the second shelf." Severus said.
The officer pulled Harry a bit further away. "What did he mean by 'meeting'?"
"Minerva, 'aunt Minnie', is a Headmistress of a boarding school." Harry explained. "Malshrot's parents were scheduled for a visit today. Malshrot being a girl who attends said school."
"And they haven't gotten the child to an emergency room because..."
"Because Poppy is a doctor." Harry told him.
"Okay, I see three red, one blue, seven green, two purple, and four orange." Poppy finally said.
"Okay, it's one of the green vials. Take off the tops and smell them, tell me what they smell like." Severus went on.
The officer raised and eyebrow and was about to ask what that was all about, but Harry beat him to the punch. "It's medicine. We both work at the school, he's the chemistry professor, and I teach self-defense. He keeps the medicine unlabeled so the children don't try to get into it."
"Lilies... smoke... mandrake... cinnamon... bile... nightshade-"
"Stop. That's the one. Give Teddy four drops of that, he should wake up." Severus informed her.
Poppy bristled. "Excuse me? Give your son something that smells like deadly nightshade? Now Severus, I've known you for a long time and I know you're a master in your field, but-"
"There is no nightshade in it woman, it simply smells like it because of what's present, now give him four drops." The man snapped.
Poppy grumbled something and they heard her carry the phone over to where a small whimpering noise was coming from, plus the counting from one to four. A few moments later the whimpering subsided and they heard Teddy. "An Pop?" A sniffle... a different type of whimper... "Whew daddy?"
"Daddy's talking to some men right now Teddy, he'll be home in a little bit." She said, the sounds of more rustling following.
"What, did Hermione tell everyone what was happening?" Harry asked.
"Papa?"
"Papa's with him." She said.
More sniffling. "Sleep scawy..."
"I know baby, I know." A bit more rustling was heard and she spoke into the phone. "He's alright, he's awake." She said.
"Good. Give the phone back to Alden." Severus told her.
"Hello?" Alden asked into the strange device moments later.
"Alden, you did good by calling us. Five points to Slytherin." Severus said to the boy. The female officer present gasped lightly when she heard that.
Alden laughed. "You can't give me points when you're not even on school grounds."
"Then get aunt Minnie to." Harry said with a chuckle.
"I'll tell her you said that." Alden promised.
"And tell Ms. Granger to stop being such a gossip." Severus stated before they ended their call.
Once that was settled, the male officer eyed Severus even more skeptically than he had before. "Why didn't you simply tell her second shelf, green bottle, smells like nightshade?"
Severus, who was already quite irritated with the man, glared at him. "I have you know five out of the seven days of the week I personally make anywhere from 10 to 20 vials per day, not including the nearly one hundred a day I supervise the children making. If you think that after making that many a day for over a decade I can remember off of the top of my head exactly where any specific vial is at any given time, you're an even bigger fool than I initially assumed."
"You're Severus Snape." The female officer said, seeming to get over some sort of shock.
Severus fixed his stare to her. "And how have you come to that conclusion?"
"I went to Hogwarts, you were my professor!" She said. "McGonagall's the headmistress? What happened to Dumbledore?" She asked.
"He died..." Harry said sadly.
"Oh no, when?"
"'97." Harry told her.
"Well that's just sad. I was sure he was going to go on for at least another four decades after I left."
"Yes, he might have." Severus grumbled. He was not particularly fond of remembering how the old coot died, considering it was at his hand.
"What happened? It wasn't natural?" She asked. The male officer watched them all with a bewildered look on his face.
"Tom Riddle." Harry said. She ah'd in understanding. "How long have you been out of the community?"
"Oh about 10 years now." She told them.
So she had just left right before I came in. Harry thought to himself.
"If you're entirely finished, I would like to get on with this interrogation." The male officer said sternly.
What Severus and Harry weren't aware of, what Hermione was just figuring out, was that Cygnus Preece had a protection charm around his location that caused anyone trying to find him with the point me spell to go in the opposite direction. She had, of course, found this out with her handy dandy little map and tacs representing the starting and ending locations, seeing how they completely went opposite from one another. Of course, this also allowed her to guess the general area where the rat was hiding. Sometimes she was glad she was muggleborn, or these ideas simply wouldn't have come to her.
What the entire group, extended family and all, wasn't aware of, was the fact that the nightmares did have a significance, though not in the way that an old divination professor might think.