Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 10 – He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

The creature stood and began to move towards him. Harry managed to raise his wand, but couldn't think of any spells. The creature was getting closer and still Harry did not move. Then, suddenly, a whoosh was heard and Harry's head snapped upwards as a centaur leaped into the clearing. It stood between Harry and the creature, rearing up and kicking its legs at it until finally the creature turned and ran. Harry sat down on the ground, his heart pounding, as he reached up to rub his forehead, the pain in his scar receding as the creature did.

"Harry Potter." The centaur that had saved him approached. "You must leave. You are known to many creatures here, and the forest is not safe at this time. Especially not for you."

"W-what do you mean, especially for me? What was that thing?" Harry couldn't think of a single creature that would kill a unicorn, which spoke to the darkness of the creature that did.

"A monstrous creature. It is a terrible crime to slay a unicorn. Drinking the blood of a unicorn will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death." That Harry hadn't known, his knowledge of unicorns being rather rudimentary. "However, it comes at a terrible price, for you have slain something so pure, that from the moment the blood touches your lips, you will have a half-life. A cursed life."

"But who would choose such a life?"

"Can you think of no one?" Truly Harry could not. "We centaurs have long known that your battle is not yet over, Mr. Potter. No, in truth what you accomplished as a baby was just the beginning." Harry knew immediately what he was referring to, for there was only one thing he'd done as a baby that would be worth mentioning.

"No. It can't…" Harry was trying to wrap his head around what the centaur was saying. "Do you mean to tell me that you think that the creature that killed the unicorn and drank its blood…that was Voldemort?" Harry had never known fear of that name. He'd not grown up fearing it as many others had, and by the time he'd been told the story of what happened that night he'd refused to allow a name power over him. "It can't be. Voldemort's dead, everyone knows that. I killed him as a baby. It's why I'm famous!" Harry wasn't sure who he was trying to convince.

"It is true that something in you stopped him that night, but a creature as he, who has delved so deep into dark magic, he cannot be gone for good. The stars foretell of his struggle to return." Harry didn't know what to make of that. He was pretty good in astronomy class, but Professor Sinistra hadn't said a thing about the stars foretelling of Voldemort's return. Shaking that thought away, for it was unimportant, Harry looked back up at the centaur.

"He can't be back." It was both a plea and an argument.

"Do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment, Mr. Potter?" Harry's heart dropped.

"The Philosopher's Stone." Anything else the centaur may have told him was interrupted as Hagrid and Malfoy returned.

"Hello there, Firenze." Hagrid greeted the centaur. "I see you've met our young Mr. Potter. Alright there, Harry?" He asked, as if an almost attack from an unknown dark creature drinking unicorn's blood was a common occurrence. Firenze bid farewell to Harry and Hagrid decided it was time to return to the castle. Now that he knew where the unicorn was he could return in the morning and bury it properly. Harry said not a word as they walked back through the forest, the trees getting thinner as they went. He was vaguely aware of Draco sending him looks every few minutes, his old rival being able to tell that something was seriously wrong. Finally they made it back to the castle and Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room without saying goodnight. Unsurprisingly Ron and Hermione were waiting up for him and they both jumped up upon seeing his face. Harry merely shook his head and nodded towards a group of seventh years, the only other students still awake. He went up to the boy's dormitory and was closely followed by Ron, while Hermione went to her own dormitory.

"Harry…" Ron began, but again Harry shook his head.

"Later." He muttered, looking pointedly at the three other boys they shared the dormitory with. He and Ron got into their pajamas and made like they were going to bed, only neither slept. When the bell tower rang out one o'clock, Harry got up and nodded to Ron, both going back down into the common room. Hermione was already there.

"I kept checking if you were down here every few minutes. When the last seventh year went to bed I decided to just come wait for you. Now what's happened?" Harry told them about the detention, how they went into the forest and why. When he got to the part of the hooded figure, Hermione gasped and grabbed Ron's hand. The two glanced at each other before quickly letting go, their faces flushing red. He then told them what Firenze had said, and couldn't blame the whimper Ron let out.

"You mean, You-Know-Who's out there right now in the forest?" Hermione asked with no small amount of fear.

"Firenze sure seems to think so." Harry was still processing everything he'd heard tonight. Most of it went against everything he'd been told since he was seven years old, and he was trying to reconcile them and discover the truth.

"But…you defeated You-Know-Who." Said Ron. "Everyone knows it." Harry had thought the same thing, had never questioned it, until tonight.

"No one knows how you defeated him, Harry." Said Hermione. "And there was no body." Being the only one of the three who hadn't been told for their whole lives, or at least several years of their life, that Voldemort was gone, it was easier for Hermione to believe he was still alive. "It was assumed he was dead when he disappeared and never came back, but the only things about that night that are certain is that he tried to kill you, and you somehow stopped him."

"So he could have just been hiding away this whole time?" Ron didn't like the sound of that, though neither did Harry or Hermione for that matter.

"And now he's back and trying to regain his power. He's living off the unicorns right now, until he can find a better solution." He said pointedly.

"Of course! The Philosopher's Stone!" Exclaimed Hermione.

"If Voldemort gets his hands on the Philosopher's Stone, there's nothing stopping him from coming back."

"So you really believe he's not dead?" Ron asked. "Even though the Ministry says he's gone? You live with the bloody Minister of Magic, Harry, surely he'd know if You-Know-Who was still alive." Harry shook his head.

"When he and Dora first told me about Voldemort, I asked how they knew for sure that he was gone and all Cornelius said was that the Ministry was certain and then repeated that he was gone and could never come back. He's been very clear on his stance about Voldemort's demise, and honestly, Voldemort could prance around in front of him in a flower bonnet and Cornelius would probably still try to deny he'd returned."

"That's just stupid!" Said Hermione. "How can he say he's certain He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone without any evidence? Without even an investigation?"

"If you're looking for rationality, Hermione, I wouldn't start with the Ministry of Magic." Hermione scowled but said no more. The three sat in silence for several minutes before Ron spoke up.

"Alright, say You-Know-Who isn't dead. You don't think he'll try to come back and kill you, do you, Harry?" Harry looked his best friend in the eyes.

"I think if he'd had the chance he'd have killed me tonight."

"And to think," Ron said with a gulp. "I've been worried about my potions final."

"Hang on a minute, we're forgetting one thing." The boys turned to look at Hermione. "Who's the one wizard that You-Know-Who always feared? Dumbledore!" She snapped when they looked confused. "As long as Dumbledore's around, Harry, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around, You-Know-Who can't touch you, or the stone." Harry decided this wasn't the moment to inform his friends about his misgivings about Dumbledore. He'd tell them later, when they had more time and weren't so wound up. But regardless of his feelings towards the Headmaster, Hermione did have a point: Voldemort had always feared Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore was around, Hogwarts was the safest place for both him and the stone. Harry just hoped it stayed that way.

-H/G-

While the safest place for the stone did stay the same over the next weeks, Harry did not. The revelation that Voldemort was indeed still alive had hit him hard, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be the same again. At the age of seven, he had been assured, in no uncertain terms, that the man who had killed his parents, and who had tried to kill him, was gone. To suddenly discover that not only wasn't he gone, but that he was actively trying to regain his power, was staggering. Harry wasn't stupid, he knew what Voldemort regaining his power would do: plunge them into another war. The wizarding world was not prepared for the return of a dark wizard, and likely would never be, especially given the current people in charge. It hadn't even crossed Harry's mind to tell Cornelius what he'd found out. He knew that the Minister would dismiss him and bury his head further into the sand and nothing Harry said would change his mind. Cornelius would disown him long before admitting Voldemort was still alive. Then there was the threat to his own life. No doubt the dark lord would want to finish what he'd started a decade ago, and now there was the added mystery of figuring out how Harry had stopped him. For those reasons, and to prove that a child could not best him, Voldemort would come after him. Understandably Harry was deeply troubled by all this, so much so that he fell into a funk, one that Ron and Hermione couldn't bring him out of, not even to save him from their least favourite teacher.

"POTTER!" Snape roared from across the room, his volume being enough to snap Harry's attention back to the present, and not a moment too soon. They'd been making a simple boil curing potion and Harry had been adding the flobberworm mucus, but in his distracted state had added the whole vial with the result that his cauldron was melting. Again. Harry jumped back before the potion seeping onto the floor could melt his shoes, as Snape waved his wand, vanishing the mess. "This is the third time in as many weeks that you have melted a cauldron, Potter. One would think that you were trying to take the title of most incompetent student from Longbottom."

"Sorry, Professor." He murmured, barely aware of the sniggers from the Slytherin side of the room.

"Sorry does not replace yet another cauldron, nor an entire vial of flobberworm mucus!" Snape snapped. "Ten points from Gryffindor, and you will report to me after dinner for detention." Harry couldn't find it in himself to care and merely nodded before packing his things and leaving with the rest of the class. Ron and Hermione stood on either side of him as they walked, chatting animatedly and trying to draw him into conversation. This had been their tactic for the last three weeks, though it had yet to work. Harry was vaguely aware that he should be grateful that they continued to try instead of abandoning him to his thoughts. Still, he couldn't find the strength to respond and so went through the rest of the day as quiet as the last few weeks before making his way down to the dungeons for his detention. Snape assigned him to scrubbing out the more nasty cauldrons, as well as gathering the mucus he'd wasted from a group of flobberworms that Hagrid had provided. Harry set to his tasks without complaint, or any emotion for that matter, and was on his third cauldron when something snapped him out of his stupor. His head shot up and immediately turned to Snape who was staring at him intently.

"You know it's illegal to use ligilimency on a person without their consent!" He all but shouted, anger actually filtering in through his numbness. Snape merely raised an eyebrow. "Don't try and deny it, Professor, you're the only one here."

"Very well, I won't." Snape sat back in his chair and continued to stare at Harry, though the pressure on his mind disappeared. "I am surprised you recognized my intrusion."

"I live with the Minister of Magic and am often around other high-ranking Ministry officials. Cornelius knows that some people might try and spy on my mind to gather information so he had me trained to recognize even the most subtle intrusions."

"But not to stop the intruder?"

"He figured anytime someone would try to enter my mind I'd be with him or Aldora so I could tell them and they'd deal with it." He explained, recognizing the weakness of the excuse as Snape did.

"Clearly he thought wrong. Not to mention that your mind is an open book, Potter. It would take a skilled legilimens mere moments to sift through it to find what they're looking for. They'd be in and out long before your guardians could mount any kind of counter attack." Harry's anger receded as he realized what that meant.

"Then…you saw? You saw what happened in the forest?" While trained only to recognize an intrusion on his mind, Harry had read enough to know that the thoughts a person was currently thinking would be the very first thing a legilimens saw, and for the last three weeks he'd only been thinking about one thing.

"Yes."

"And?" Snape was now the only person aside from Ron and Hermione to know what he was thinking and Harry was desperate enough for another opinion. Especially one with Snape's history. "I know you were a Death Eater, Professor. You may have changed sides, but at one time you were close to Voldemort-"

"Do not say his name!" Snape hissed.

"I'm not afraid of his name." Harry insisted, but acquiesced anyways. "You were once close to him, and likely will be again if he returns, or at least you'll have to pretend to be. So what do you think?" Snape was silent for several moments and Harry wondered if he had just lost Gryffindor every point they had and earned himself detention for the rest of the year. Finally, though, Snape spoke, and it wasn't to lash out or punish him.

"You are correct, about everything." Surprisingly he didn't sound in pain saying that. "The Dark Lord is not as gone as your witless guardian would have us believe, and there is little doubt he will return, though when I cannot say. When he does he will quickly recall his followers and, as you said, I will be a Death Eater once more, for anyone not in Azkaban that ignores his summons will face certain death, and I will not be among those stupid enough to try and run from him."

"So you'll spy for our side? Like before?" Snape ignored that question.

"Aside from re-building his power, the Dark Lord's next task will no doubt be to kill you. He will not countenance having lost to a mere child with no extraordinary powers and will seek to eliminate that stain upon him."

"So what do I do?" Harry exclaimed, getting to the root of what had been upsetting him so much. "I can't tell Cornelius, at best he'll ignore me and do nothing, at worst he'll disown me and vilify me to the public. Yes, Voldemort's afraid of Dumbledore, and he never attacked Hogwarts last time, but if I'm here that might change, and I can't stay near Dumbledore my whole life. My friends are in danger because of me…" Tears formed in Harry's eyes and he broke off, not sure where to go from here.

"I never took you for an idiot, Potter. Yes, all of what you have said is true, but it is true for many more people than just yourself. What do you do? You do what anyone with half a brain is doing: you fight and you survive. That is all any of us can do."

"But how? There's no class on how to survive a dark wizard. Yes, we have Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's hardly up to the task of training us to fight Voldemort, and while you may be right that others will have to fight, he's coming after me, because for some reason I stopped him that night-"

"You think you possess some extraordinary power that can defeat the Dark Lord?" Snape sneered.

"I don't know! No one knows how I survived. What I do know is that I did survive and because I did I have a target on my head. Because I survived people started calling me the Boy Who Lived and when he finally does return I have little doubt they'll look to me to defeat him again. Now granted, disappointing the public isn't exactly something I care about, but Voldemort will and he'll want to make an example of me because so many people believe I can defeat him. So how do I stop him? Training is the obvious answer, learning magic beyond the curriculum, dueling, finally learning occlumency…none of which is taught here at Hogwarts I might add! And I can't ask Cornelius for extra tutors, he'll want to know why, and it's probably best if Voldemort doesn't find out about my training, which means I need to do it in secret, which isn't going to be easy to do even if I could find people to teach me. I'd be best with one teacher, but there's no one that-" He broke off and looked up at Snape. The potions master had stayed silent during Harry's rant, letting him get it out of his system, but now he didn't like the way Harry was looking at him.

"No." He said, though he was ignored.

"One person who can teach me everything, who knows how Voldemort thinks, what his actions are likely to be. One person who would have as much to lose as I did if our training ever became public." Snape was now frozen in place. Even Longbottom would be able to figure out who Harry was referring to, though the mere thought of it was so preposterous, so rash, so foolish and so repulsive that the fact Harry was actually suggesting it had shocked him to his core."Will you help me?" He met Snape's eye, and Snape stared at him for a long moment, long enough that Harry began questioning if what he was doing would get him killed before Voldemort even returned. Several more moments passed in which Snape stared so deeply into Harry's eyes it was as if he could see his every thought and feeling, though no legilimency was being used. Finally, Snape moved and, taking in the boy's tear filled, emerald green eyes, one last time, he sighed.

"Yes."

A/N - Yes, Snape isn't a complete bastard in this fic. That being said he still only agreed because it was Lily's eyes he was staring into. It reminded him of the vow he took to protect her son and he knows that training Harry to protect himself is a good way to go about that.

Review please!