Chapter 38: A Letter from Lucius

Fawkes and Mavis the parrot watched as the big albatross faded into the distance.

"What a nasty bird!" Mavis chirped. "He has such a dirty mind. And they had to feed him six cans of anchovies before he would leave. Six cans! Are all albatrosses like him?"

"Most of them are very agreeable fellows" Fawkes assured her. "That one must have hatched from a rotten egg. At least he took my wizard's letter. I think my wizard is worried about his fledglings back at the school."

"Are they in some sort of danger?" the parrot asked.

"Not exactly. They are outcasts, shunned by all the others. The school is called Hogwarts – a stupid name, really, when they could have called it something nice like Lark Song or Bird Feathers. I wish I'd known; I would have stopped by and had a word with the founders. I mean, why the obsession with swine? Hogwarts, Hogsmeade. It's ridiculous!"

Mavis nodded. "Yes, but what about the fledglings?" she chirped.

"The fledglings are sorted into four Houses by a ratty old hat that belonged to one of the founders. The Houses were supposed to provide newly arrived fledglings with a nest and nest-mates, so they wouldn't feel lost and alone. Fledglings that age are insecure and they need to feel that they belong. The Houses seemed to serve that purpose, and the interhouse competitions used to be fun, from what I could tell, but over the last few decades it got totally out of hand. Quite vicious at times, in fact. And no one did anything about it, not even my former wizard, Albus. I don't know what the old boy was thinking; I really don't."

"Maybe they should get rid of the hat," Mavis said.

"Yes, it's a very old hat and it's been on so many heads that it's probably infested with moths and cooties by now. And worse, it's probably senile, but it must still have a bit of sense because it said that all of the Houses must come together. No one listened, though, not even Albus, and nothing has changed. I've heard a rumor that they've stopped the sorting now, but it's too late. The stigma that's attached to poor Severus's House will follow his fledglings for the rest of their lives. They don't deserve that. I'm sad for them. Hogwarts just isn't what it used to be."

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"Our plan seems to be working," Minerva told the weekly staff meeting. "The students seem to be getting along a bit better now. They're probably adjusting to their new Houses. There hasn't been a major fight all week."

I disagree," Filius said. "Nobody cares about the new Houses. There's no House loyalty. You can see that at Quidditch. North House, South House, whatever House; nobody cares who wins a match, it's just an opportunity to take a shot at anyone they don't like."

Poppy nodded. "It's been too quiet lately, if you ask me. There have only been a few minor injuries this week. No one has tried to bash anyone's head in, at Quidditch or anywhere else."

"They're probably up to something," Horace opined. "They haven't even been complaining about anything. As a Slytherin, I see that as suspicious. And not to change the subject, but have you made any progress toward finding a replacement for me? I wish to return to retirement."

"You're not all that old, Horace," Minerva pointed out. "You can hang on for another year or two, I'm sure. Good Potions Masters are hard to find, and it was good of you to take on Defense Against the Dark Arts, too. There is still a belief that the job is cursed, and no one seems to want to apply for it."

"You're going to have to try harder, Minerva," he said. "It's more than I can handle. I only came back because Albus twisted my arm, and I never agreed to stay indefinitely. Now that the crisis has passed, I want to return to private life."

"Please be patient, Horace," she said. "I'll work on it. At least I found someone to take over Transfiguration for me, so I should have more time to devote myself to my role as Headmistress, which will include recruiting new staff."

Horace sighed and slumped down in his chair. It just wasn't any fun anymore. His popularity with the staff and students had waned to nothing because, despite his efforts during the battle, he was a Slytherin and everyone knew it. He no longer had enough influence to interest anyone, and his attempts to reestablish the Slug Club had come to naught. No one even cared very much about finding a replacement for him. He was starting to feel like Professor Binns.

"Neville Longbottom has agreed to help with Herbology," Pomona said happily. "He's such a lovely boy, and he certainly has the right touch with plants."

"I wonder if we could get Neville to teach Defense, at least for a year or two," Minerva mused. "He was a late bloomer as far as that sort of thing goes, but he must have some natural talent because he certainly proved himself against Voldemort."

Horace and Pomona flinched to hear the name, and Filius looked uneasy.

"On the other hand," Minerva continued, "Neville is probably weak on theory, given some of the Defense professors that we've had over the years." She sighed. "It's too bad that Harry and Hermione don't want to join the staff, but Harry has always had his heart set on being an Auror, and Hermione says she wants to undertake some independent studies before she decides what she's going to do. She has such a brilliant mind."

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"I've been doing the Arithmancy," said Hermione, "and the best I can work out is that you owe Headmaster Snape 3.141592 … well, the decimals just keep going — life debts."

"Three-point-what?" Harry exclaimed. "How did you get that?"

"Life debts are really tricky to calculate, Harry. Think about your first Quidditch game when Quirrell was hexing your broom. In one sense I saved your life when I accidentally knocked Quirrell over on my way to set fire to Professor Snape, but if Professor Snape hadn't been counteracting the hex, you would have fallen off before I even realized what was happening. That's at least a partial life debt to the Professor."

Ron said, "I think you and Snape need to split that one, Hermione."

"And all of us owe him for saving us from Remus and the Dementors that night outside the Shrieking Shack when he took us up to the hospital wing."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Harry objected. "I saved us from the Dementors by casting my stag Patronus. He didn't take anyone to the hospital wing until after I drove the Dementors off."

"Well, that's the thing. If he hadn't carried us all up to Hogwarts —"

All of us, including Sirius, Hermione refrained from saying aloud, on stretchers, not banging anyone's head against things and risking death from Second Impact Syndrome …

"— we wouldn't have been there, in the hospital wing, for Dumbledore to hint that you and I should use the time turner to go back in time to save Sirius and Buckbeak and the rest of us … and Snape for that matter. It's the circular causality that makes your total life debt come out to pi."

"Pie?" said Ron.

"It's an irrational number."

Ron muttered, "This is irrational, all right."

"Okay," Harry said, "so I owe him for those two, but how do you get more than three?"

Hermione continued, "Who knows if any of us would have survived the Department of Mysteries if Professor Snape hadn't sent the Order, or wandering around with the locket Horcrux if he hadn't brought us the Sword of Gryffindor? I personally owe him another full life debt for the Department of Mysteries, and Ron owes at least another partial one, because of the brains that were attacking him. For you, Harry, I'm counting the basic debt for that particular rescue at thirty-three percent. The Death Eaters were trying to avoid killing you, which meant you had a decent chance of surviving anyway, at least for that evening; but that's just the base percentage, before I put it through the algorithms. The Sword of Gryffindor is even harder to calculate, since your life debt to Ron is involved, for when he pulled you out of the pond."

"Yeah," said Ron, "and don't forget Snape kept the other Death Eaters from killing you when you went chasing after them when Dumbledore died, so that's another."

"But the first one — when Quirrell was hexing my broom — that shouldn't count against me, should it? What about the life debt he owed my dad?"

Hermione sighed. Harry wasn't going to like this at all. "Well, it turns out Professor Dumbledore wasn't exactly truthful with you about what happened with Professor Snape and Remus and the other Marauders."

Ron snorted out a laugh. "Dumbledore lying to Harry? No news there!"

Harry looked stricken. "But, my dad saved Snape's life. I know he was keeping Remus and Sirius out of trouble, too, but… Anyway, how could you know so much about what happened? No one was there except dad and Snape and Remus, and Remus wouldn't remember because he was transformed at the time. Dad and Snape had to explain it to Dumbledore afterward, and he would have known if they were lying."

"That doesn't mean he told you the truth, Harry," Hermione said. "There were other people who knew at least some of it. I've been investigating, and putting the stories together. Just listen and I'll explain everything."

As usual, Ron thought. But at least her explanations are more reliable than Dumbledore's.

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"Our plan seems to be working," Melody Nowak, the Hufflepuff representative said. "There hasn't been a major fight all week, and I think Headmistress McGonagall has noticed. If we can get everyone to keep this up for a few months, maybe we can start lobbying her to restore the original Houses."

"Even Harry Potter had been going around saying nice things about Slytherins and Professor Snape," Bentley Ballard, the Gryffindor rep, pointed out.

"That's Headmaster Snape," Clayton Urquhart said, "and if I have to hear any more about Harry Freakin' Potter, I'm going to vomit."

"Well, don't do it here; it will stink and stain the rug," Zinnia Goldstein, the Ravenclaw rep, said. "We need all the help we can get, and like it or not, 'Harry Freakin' Potter' has a lot of influence. I want Ravenclaw restored. I've got a cousin who's going to start Hogwarts next year, and it will break his heart if he doesn't get a chance to be sorted into Ravenclaw like the rest of the family."

Bentley scowled. "We're trying to be nice about Slytherins and Headmaster Snape, so you can try to be nice about Harry Potter, okay Clayton?"

Clayton crossed his eyes, put his hand over his mouth and said "Urp!", pretending that he was going to be sick.

"Stop that and act like an adult, Clayton!" Zinnia said. "Harry has been telling everyone how a lot of you Slytherins came back and helped Professor Slughorn during the battle, despite the way that the Headmistress kicked you out."

"Yeah, the area was crawling with Lord Moldy-Shorts' minions and we had to sneak back into the castle without them or the defenders spotting us," Clayton said. "We cast glamours on ourselves and used the tunnel from the sweet shop."

"That was very smart of you," Melody said, "and brave."

Clayton tried not to blush and continued. "Anyway," he said, "Potter's only been saying that stuff because he owes Headmaster Snape at least a gazillion life debts, and he's starting to feel guilty."

"Who cares why he's been doing it?" Zinnia said. "All that matters is that he's been doing it. Maybe we can get him to talk to McGonagall for us. I'd bet he'd like to see Gryffindor restored."

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"Actually, Harry," Hermione said, "I think your dad saved Remus's life. Those scars on his face? Those are Sectumsempra scars."

"No, Remus said he attacked himself when he was left alone with no one else to attack. He said werewolves do that."

"Werewolves don't attack themselves. If you hadn't skived off the reading Professor Snape assigned way back in third year you'd know that. They might harm themselves trying to escape when they're confined, but they don't claw themselves up or bite themselves."

"But Remus said …"

"Hey," Ron broke in, "Remus also said Snape was jealous of your dad's Quidditch talent. Remus was a great guy, but he wasn't exactly reliable. Besides, if he turned up at school every month with fresh wounds on his face, I don't think you'd have to be the brightest witch of your age to figure out that something was going on."

"I wish people would stop calling me that! I wasn't being brilliant at all," Hermione said with a blush. "I had real bad cramps all that year, and I remember thinking it was — I don't know — unfair that I always seemed to have Professor Snape for Defense just at that same time. Then I realized Professor Lupin and I were getting sick on the same twenty-eight day cycle, and I knew he wasn't cramping."

Ron covered his ears: "Too much information, Hermione!"

Hermione ignored Ron, continuing in her best lecturing voice, "I admit that some of this is speculation, but Professor Snape must have developed Sectumsempra specifically as a defense against Remus. I've looked into it. Professor Slughorn is pretty sure that the root spell of Sectumsempra was 'Seco', that spell we learned in fourth year for cutting soft, sticky potions ingredients. That's why it doesn't cut bone or other hard materials. Snape must have strengthened it with Dark magic to make it effective against Dark creatures, since it's one of the few spells that actually works against werewolves. It's their immunity to most magic that makes werewolves so dangerous to wizards, otherwise they'd just be dangerous to muggles."

"Remember the Half-Blood Prince's book, mate?" Ron said. "It said Sectumsempra was 'for enemies.' Snape's enemies were the Marauders. It was four to one, and they had the Map and the Cloak, so they could ambush him anywhere. He probably had to spend all his free time inside Slytherin House whether he wanted to or not."

Hermione said, "Your mum really wasn't being fair when she expected him to give up all his Slytherin friends, Harry. They were a bad crowd, but he couldn't avoid them — not when he had to keep away from the Marauders."

"But my dad saved his life …" Harry said in a small voice.

"Madame Pomfrey was attending to Remus when Professor Dumbledore interviewed them. She heard everything, and she let me read the old medical records," Hermione said. "Remus was cut up horribly with Sectumsempra. Your father showed up thinking he was going to save Snape's life, and ended up having to save Remus. Your dad stunned Snape and dragged him out of the tunnel, giving Remus a chance to crawl back to the Shrieking Shack. Haven't you ever wondered why your dad was safe from Remus that night?"

"Wasn't he in his Animagus form?"

"Not in the tunnel; he wouldn't have fit. Don't you remember how low that tunnel was? Even though he wasn't yet a full-grown stag, he was red deer, the biggest deer species in Europe. He had to stay human, and Remus would have attacked him too, if he could have. But Remus was too badly wounded."

Ron said, "So what about Snape getting sworn to secrecy?"

"That was all Dumbledore's doing. Madame Pomfrey told me that she was there in the hospital wing when Dumbledore blackmailed Snape into keeping silent about Remus's lycanthropy. He threatened to report Snape to the Ministry for creating a dangerous new Dark spell. It didn't matter that it was intended for defense against Dark creatures; it could have got Snape tossed into Azkaban for doing unauthorized Dark research."

Harry didn't know if he could stand hearing any more about what Dumbledore had done.

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"There was another letter for you, Slade," Seabiscuit said, holding up an envelope. "It was mixed in with the newspapers and we didn't notice it at first."

The envelope was of obviously expensive paper, faintly scented with sandalwood, and addressed to "Severus Snape, location unknown" in an ostentatious hand. It could only be from Lucius Malfoy.

Severus opened it. Not bad news, I hope, he thought.

Then he read it through and chuckled.

"What's up?" Kat asked.

"An old friend of mine is trying to rebuild his reputation as a pillar of the community, and he's sponsoring a masquerade ball on New Year's Eve to raise money for war orphans. It's going to be held at Hogwarts, that school where I used to teach. And he sent me a ticket."

He held up the ticket and laughed.

"You gonna go?" Biscuit asked.

"Of course not. I'd have to be crazy. They think I'm dead, remember? And most of them like me much better that way. It wouldn't do for them to find out the truth."

"Can I have the ticket, then?" Kat asked. "It sounds like a cool party."

Severus gave him a sour look. "You've never had anything to do with Hogwarts. They'd wonder who you were and what you were doing there," he said.

"But that's the point," Kat protested. "It's a masquerade ball. They're not supposed to know who you are. And I'd be disguised. I'd be a mysterious stranger. It would be great fun."

"Can you get another ticket, Slade?" Biscuit asked. "Then I could go, too."

"Absolutely not," Severus said firmly. "Nobody is going anywhere near that place."

"Well, just let me know when you've got it all worked out," Captain Clark said, "so I can arrange to have your jobs covered while you're away. No more than two days, okay?"

"Nobody is going, and that's the end of it," Severus repeated, folding his arms and scowling.

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A/N: Thanks to Very Small Prophet who provided the parts about Life Debts, of which there will be more in the next chapter.