Chapter 42: Partners in Crime - Nov 1994

"Avada kedavra."

Hermione saw that Snape was poised to jump in front of the jet of green light, so she hit him with an Impediment Curse. She lifted her curse so quickly that he might not have realized what she'd done. That suited Hermione fine.

Once he got his bearings again, Snape looked at the third, masked Death Eater who had already begun to back away unsteadily from the gathering.

Snape told them, "Flee", and they did.

That left only Snape, Wicket, Ron, and Hermione in the graveyard alongside an unconscious Harry and Voldemort.

Hermione then looked at Voldemort's body. Harry had speculated that both he and Voldemort would fall unconscious after the latter hit Harry with the killing curse. When they both awoke, Harry might have to "duel him a bit" (his words).

However, the witch didn't think that Voldemort looked unconscious: he was slowly crumbling into dust.

Hermione took off her ring, turned it over thrice, and thought about Voldemort.

She saw a shade with the same form he had moments ago. After a long glare, he eventually said, "What."

"Piss off, forever." She would have said more, but her attention was needed elsewhere.

She slid the ring back on her finger and the shade vanished. Voldemort is well and truly gone.

Hermione waited in forced calm for Harry to return to them, having spent weeks mentally preparing for this moment. And he doesn't even have to duel Voldemort! He'll be ever so pleased.

Snape whispered to Wicket, "All of the objects must have been destroyed. I felt the magic leave my Mark."

Wicket pulled up his sleeve. "Mine's different as well. It's just an ill-advised tattoo now."

"Harry," Snape went over to his body and removed the ropes, but didn't touch him. "Harry, are you alive?"

After getting no response, Snape knelt on the ground. Professor Wicket joined him, plopping down cross-legged. Hermione kept her wand trained on the second wizard.

Every ten seconds, Snape repeated, "Harry?" His voice grew shakier and shakier as minutes passed.

What might have been two minutes later, Hermione saw Harry's arm move. "'M alive."

Snape let out a shuddering exhale. "You're alive."

Wicket repeated, "You're alive."

Harry startled at seeing Professor Wicket sitting calmly next to him. "Uh, are you going to try to kill me?"

In a cheerful voice, Wicket said, "Not anymore."

Hermione saw Snape glare daggers at Wicket, who held up two hands in appeasement, "You know that's true!"

To Harry, Snape said softly, "Are you okay?"

Harry sat up unsteadily. "I'm fine, thanks. Is Voldemort dead?"

Wicket said, "Crispy."

"We got to the… crux of the matter then?" Harry looked at Snape.

"As hard as that is to believe, it seems so."

Harry exhaled. "That's a huge relief. I don't think I could have cast a killing curse at him, or whatever. I don't think I have that kind of hate in me."

Snape said, "Good. Now, go back to school. Both of you may already have been missed."

Harry turned to Professor Wicket. "Would you mind apparating me? I'm feeling a bit… queasy from the bus ride here, so I'd rather get my return trip over quickly."

Wicket offered his arm with a huge grin. "I would be honored if Harry Potter sicked up on me in glorious victory."

From ten feet away and on the other side of a one-way silencing barrier, Hermione let out a strangled scream of frustration. The bus? The KNIGHT BUS? What about the KILLING CURSE? Why, of all those present, did Harry ask BARTY CROUCH JUNIOR for a RIDE?

Hermione's friend was not normal.

Ron found it incredibly hard to only watch and wait as Harry regained consciousness. He wouldn't forget the desperation in Lily-as-Snape's voice as she waited anytime soon either.

After Harry and Wicket left, Ron and Hermione watched Lily-as-Snape clean up the graveyard. She magicked Voldemort's dust onto his father's grave, emptied the cauldron, and tucked Voldemort's wand into the pocket of her own black robes.

She called out into the night, "Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger, might I have a word?"

Hermione removed her charms first, then Ron followed suit.

Hermione's lips were pursed. "What do you want?"

"First, let me ensure privacy." Lily-as-Snape waved her wand in several familiar patterns. "If I didn't want you to see or hear what happened tonight, you wouldn't have."

"Noted. What's up with Crouch Junior?"

"I've been working on him since he evaded the Kiss a year ago. He and I appeared to serve the Dark Lord, but I persuaded him that Voldemort was not a good master. Or father figure, but that's not especially relevant."

Hermione crossed her arms. "So you're staking your claim as 'Junior's good, actually'?"

Snape made a face. "He doesn't have a well-tuned sense of right and wrong. But he gives in easily to pressure."

"Shouldn't he go back to Azkaban?"

Snape protested vehemently. "No, he deserves better than the Kiss, which is what would await him now."

"That doesn't make him a suitable schoolteacher," Hermione pointed out. "He could go to prison under his false identity."

Snape said, "If you, in all of your close observation, think he needs to be removed as a professor, I'll take care of it."

Hermione appeared to war with herself before she spat out a, "Fine. He can stay. But if he so much as looks at Neville wrong, he's out."

"Acceptable."

Ron asked, "What would Junior have done if the portkey had failed?"

Snape answered, "Apparition, but they would have ended up elsewhere. Barty then would have gotten the attention of the Ministry. Alastor Moody is working tonight, and he could be relied upon to give chase. Ideally, we would have been forced to abandon the resurrection, flee the graveyard, and relocate from Riddle Manor. That could have given us another year to come up with the next major stumbling block."

Ron was grateful that the trio made their own plan for several reasons. But, he could think more about the possibilities later. The redhead said, "I think we need to get going."

"Before you go," Lily-as-Snape spoke slowly, but not deliberately, "I want to thank you. I can't understand how… this finished the way it did, and yet I know that you both must have contributed."

Hermione started to speak, but was interrupted, "And I'm not sure that I want to know. I've learned a lesson or two about useless truths that keep one up at night. And speaking of useless, I don't see that I have any further role to play in Harry's life now that he can live it—."

Ron cut him off, "Come back to school. This isn't the end. Or, it doesn't have to be." Ron knew his friend would be devastated if Lily disappeared forever.

Hermione added sharply, "Oh, you definitely need to return to Hogwarts to supervise your rehabilitation project."

Lily-as-Snape asked, "Do you know… what Harry wants? From me?"

Ron answered, "Truth. Nothing less, and possibly more."

She jerked her chin awkwardly, removed the privacy charms, and apparated away.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione hosted a private celebration in an unused classroom after the other students went to bed that Halloween. Ron and Hermione had picked up muggle snacks for the occasion from a little shop on their way back.

That was where Harry learned that Snape was probably coming back to Hogwarts. Ron said, "We didn't talk timeline, but Hermione made it clear that he at least needed to be around to supervise Junior."

Hermione unwrapped a muggle candy bar as she said, "I bet Snape will wait until after Winter break to officially return. It's less suspicious and gives him more time to clean up any messes that Voldemort left."

Harry recoiled at that thought, but forced a smile overtop of his feelings. "We did it! We saved everyone and defeated a dark lord."

"We did." Ron offered a toast with a cheesy curl. Harry matched it with a plain potato crisp. The muggle treats felt a little silly to Harry, but they were certainly a memorable way to commemorate their quiet victory.

Hermione said, "Eventually we'll have to talk about if we have any schemes for magical society as a whole. Fix the corruption, oppression, and society's fear-hate of muggles. But we don't have to do that tonight!"

For the entire month of November, Professor Slughorn continued to teach Potions. There wasn't yet a whisper of Snape returning from sabbatical before the end of the entire school term. Harry was anxious in the face of uncertainty.

Still, Harry continued living.

Slughorn's potions classes reminded Harry of the Half Blood Prince, who he had met (if you could call it that) when he was hit by the killing curse.

Harry wondered if Sev's old potions textbook was still in a cupboard at the back of the potions classroom.

He considered asking Slughorn directly about it, but Lily-as-Snape might displeased if Harry was even halfway honest about why he wanted the battered old textbook.

So, Harry just snuck to the back of the room when Slughorn was distracted. Extracting the Prince's book was quick.

At Ron's quizzical look, Harry showed him a flash of the cover.

"Ah, makes sense," was the redhead's reaction. Later he asked, "Feeling nostalgic?"

In very careful words, Harry explained to his friend what he saw when he was briefly between life and death.

By the end of the explanation, the redhead's eyebrows were raised. "That's… wow."

Harry spoke in the barest of whisper, "I wish I had been able to get to know him better. In some ways, it's like my mother all over again." Harry dabbed at the moisture in his eyes.

Harry realized that in the other timeline he must have seen Sev through the Gaunt's ring and as the ghost that came out of Voldemort's wand during his original fourth year. He had played the part of Lily Potter even after his death.

Like Harry had in his original sixth year of Hogwarts, he looked at the potions textbook while sitting in his bed. But, Harry didn't do it in the obsessive way he had in the previous timeline.

Harry relished the opportunity to know the man who saved his life. Even if Harry only got little bits and pieces of truth about Sev, he had learned how to savor each one.

Harry couldn't put in to words how relieved he was to hear that Sev didn't deceive James about Lily when it mattered most.

Harry also appreciated that Sev thought that both he and Lily had already evolved past some of their darker tendencies.

Perhaps Sev's remaining elusiveness also didn't bother Harry because his secrets weren't from Harry. When his… ghost? impression? had been able to talk to Harry directly, he was very clear and had let Harry control the conversation.

Harry still thought of himself as a person who would always seek the truth, and Sev was no exception. But Harry also realized that seeking the truth was only part of the struggle. Accepting, sharing, and honoring it also mattered too. He might have felt overwhelmed by those realizations before, but instead he felt mostly content. He was learning truths, but he was also learning truth.

Eventually, Harry's thoughts shifted from Sev and what Harry had learned so far to his mother, who he might see only a few short weeks in the future. Harry was decidedly not content when he thought of Lily, but he tried to put what he wanted next into words.

Lily-as-Snape's situation was definitely different now. With Voldemort was dead for good, Lily-as-Snape wouldn't have to spy for either him or Dumbledore. She wouldn't have to play nice with Death Eaters or carry out Voldemort's orders.

However, Lily could respond to that change in myriad ways. Harry might be stuck waiting for her to show who she was without Voldemort. In darker moments, Harry feared continued rejection.

And then there was also Lily and Harry's past. Sev's words implied that Lily could have made many other choices when it came to baby Harry, both before and after Sev's death. Harry hoped for a chance to hear more of her reasoning, but he knew that her choices left lasting wounds on himself regardless.

Yet, Harry also held onto some (probably foolish) hope. There was still potential for a meaningful relationship with his mother.

While Harry was struggling to heed Sev's advice — make a proper decision about his mother — Harry thought that was mostly because he was stuck waiting for information. It was perhaps a bit frustrating to still have questions after more than two years in the past, but Harry tried to be patient.

Channeling Ron, Harry mentally labeled his plan: "Cautious Research and Internal Study on Parent" It even made for a neat acronym: CRISP.

A few days after Halloween, Hermione stopped by the office of Professor Wicket (aka Barty Crouch Junior). His office hours had just ended, and no other students were around.

Hermione walked in and sat opposite the professor. "Hello again."

"Hello, Miss Granger. I had a curious letter off your absent Potions professor that mentioned you. Is this visit for class or… extracurricular?"

"The latter." Hermione pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and set it on the desk in front of the professor. "Can I get you the beverage of your choosing? Two drops."

That amount of Veritaserum would compel truth but would allow the drinker to be silent by choice. She didn't want to accidentally hear if Junior had a crush on Snape, or whatever.

He poured out a very small measure of amber liquid that he had in a desk drawer to a glass and carefully added two drops of the potion. He toasted Hermione, then drank.

She looked at her list of prepared questions and asked each one rapid-fire. "Do you think Voldemort can ever return?"

"No."

"Do you want Voldemort to return?"

"No."

"Did you torture Alice and Frank Longbottom?"

"No."

"Were you there?"

"No."

"Did you take the Dark Mark willingly?"

"Yes."

"At that time, did you believe in Voldemort as a leader?"

"Yes."

"What made you choose to be a follower of Voldemort?"

"He was charismatic and powerful. He told me that he wanted to overthrow the corrupt Ministry, which appealed to me given how two-faced I knew my own father was."

"What do you think Voldemort's goals were?"

"His own power. Severus helped me see later that any other objectives he spoke of were always secondary, and he tailored his arguments to what his audience wanted to hear. He also showed me Regulus' note in the locket from the cave, which helped me leave the Dark Lord's side."

"Who is the last person that you've killed?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

Hermione shifted in her seat. She thought the rat was killed by Snape, but Harry did say that was only an inference. It wasn't a big deal either way, from Hermione's point of view.

She moved to questions about Junior as a professor. "Do you plan to harm any students in any way?"

"No."

"What are your intentions towards Neville Longbottom?"

"I want to see him succeed in my class."

"What are your intentions towards Harry Potter?"

"I want to be on good terms, in and out of the classroom. Severus and I are friends, and he talks about him as a son."

Hermione paused, then asked, "What are your intentions towards me?" It seemed prudent to ask since she had shown perhaps a little hostility by showing up here with Veritaserum.

"To teach you defense and get you to like me. I want all of my favorite students to like me." Junior blinked hard. "The serum seems to be wearing off."

Hermione waited for the serum to lose potency completely before asking, "I'm one of your favorite students?"

"You remind me of myself. Bright, driven. And, as evidenced by this little chat, not bound by the same sorts of rules as everyone else."

Hermione considered this. "I guess I don't think of it that way."

Junior pointed out, "You didn't bring your friends here because you knew that they'd disapprove. Yet, you came without them instead of abandoning the idea. I respect that."

Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure that you and I are so alike. I don't have anything like your awful relationship with your father. My parents are great."

"A little bat told me that you're adopted."

"The Grangers are still my parents. Mostly, it doesn't matter."

The professor shrugged. "Mostly."

Hermione picked up her bag and stored the vial of truth serum in it. "Thanks for answering my questions."

"Take care." Professor Wicket cleaned and put away the glass.