“Severus! What’s wrong?”

Severus cried even more, and Harry was shocked even more. He had never seen Severus crying.

“If I tell you, you won’t like me anymore. You won’t be my friend anymore,” Severus hissed.

Harry sneered, “You know that I know a lot about you. There is nothing you have to hide. Let me guess, all right?”

Severus calmed down a little and nodded.

“Is it from your father?”

Severus glanced astonished at Harry and gave him a short nod.

“Does he want you to take the Dark Mark?”

Severus sighed. “He wants me to come home for Christmas to take me to the Dark Lord in order to get marked,” he said solemnly.

“All right Severus, it’s okay, we will manage that. You don’t want to take the mark, right?”

“Of course not, but you don’t know my father, he will kill me!”

“Okay, Severus, we have two possibilities. One is just not to go home but stay here and not to take the Dark Mark. I know Dumbledore will protect you, and so will I. The other one is to take the mark and to work for Dumbledore as a spy – that is what you did in the future so far. What we have to do is to talk to Dumbledore. Let’s go immediately.”

“You can’t go anywhere Harry!”

“Oh, not that again. There are more important things to discuss now. The dragon is not in sight, is she?”

“No, but she told me you have still a concussion and will have to stay in bed for a few more days. So the only way to talk to Dumbledore is to get him here.”

“Then get him, or get the dragon and I will ask her to get him if you prefer that!” He didn’t have to consider because just at this moment Madam Pomfrey came over to feed Harry some Potions. “Madam Pomfrey, could you please call Professor Dumbledore for us? We have to speak to him, and it is really very urgent,” Harry immediately asked.

“I will do that, Harry, as soon as you have taken these Potions,” the stern reply was.

-----

It only took 5 minutes for Dumbledore to arrive at the Hospital Wing. He rushed over to Harry’s bedside and asked, “What is wrong Harry?”

Harry immediately cast the strongest silencing spell he could and told him the story. “You see, in my time, he acted as a Death Eater for a few years, before he came to you and was given the possibility to work as a spy. But this time he talked about it before taking the mark, so I think we have a choice; either to take the mark and do the spying, or not to take the mark and hide from his father. What do you think?” Dumbledore’s face grew very serious.

“Severus, my boy, I think Harry is right. We have two choices. Both are possible. I will protect you in any case, as well as from Voldemort as well as from your father if necessary, and so will Harry; I am sure. You have to think about which one you would prefer. How about you consider it for a day, and we will meet here again for a talk tomorrow after your classes? Maybe you let Harry tell you a few things he knows about your work as a spy; it could help you with your decision.”

Severus sighed but seemed to have calmed a little. “Thank you very much, Professor, Harry, I really appreciate your help. I feel as if the two of you were my family; you care much more about me than anyone ever has. Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome Severus. I could say the same to both of you as well.” Harry replied seriously.

“You both are like Grandsons to me anyway, my dear boys. So I will see you here again tomorrow.”

“No, please, wait. I want to leave here. Can’t you do something for me? Tell the dragon to let me go, because I’m really fine now, and I want to go back to my classes,” Harry tried to beg his Great Grandfather.

Dumbledore laughed. “I know you would like that, but I also know how protective Minerva and Poppy are of you, and that they would have my head if I tried to get you out of here even two hours earlier than Poppy deems you fit. Therefore, I’m very sorry but you will have to wait. Apart from that, Poppy is keeping me up to date on your condition daily, and therefore I know that you are still not fine at all. Look, I leave some lemon drops here for you!” Harry groaned.

-----

Very early in the next morning Lily came to see him alone. “Oh Harry, good that you’re awake. I tried to see you several times yesterday, but you were always asleep. I have to talk to you.”

Harry laughed and said, “What is the problem? You can just wake me up. As I’m not allowed to do any school work, I don’t do anything else but sleep for the whole day. What’s wrong?”

“Pomfrey didn’t allow me to wake you up. Something is wrong with Severus I think. Yesterday he got a letter at breakfast, and later I saw him around with red eyes as if he had cried. And he came to me at dinner and asked me to postpone our Potion tutoring until Thursday. He has never done that before even when you were in the Hospital Wing before.”

Harry sighed. How well Lily was watching Severus… “Yes Lily, you’re right. Severus has a problem with his father. He has talked to me about it, and we have both talked to Dumbledore. He is going to help us. I cannot tell you now because it is not my secret, and he probably won’t either, at least not at the moment, because he is very upset about it, but please rely on me and believe me that he will be fine, and that it has nothing to do with you. I’m sure he will tell you when he is ready.”

Severus came and spent lunchtime with Harry to discuss certain spying activities. “So, Harry, could you please tell me whatever you know about these spying activities?”

“Of course Severus.” They talked until Madam Pomfrey came and told Severus he had to run to be in time for his afternoon classes.

-----

When Harry woke up the next time, his Great Grandfather and Severus were sitting next to his bed, engaged in a lively discussion. Harry sat up and jumped into the conversation. “I’ve thought about something. If Severus decides to do the spying, he will have to learn Occlumency before he goes to see Voldemort for the first time. That’s absolutely necessary!”

“Oh, hello Harry. I didn’t notice that you were awake,” Severus said.

“How are you Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

Harry shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me if you don’t believe me anyway,’ he thought, but didn’t voice this and only said, “Fine, of course Sir. Severus, you know what Occlumency is, don’t you?”

“I know what it is but I’m not able to do it. I’ll have to learn.”

“I can try to help you. You actually taught me Occlumency during my 5th year and Leglimency during the summer holidays just last summer, but it was horrible and I’m not very good at it. But we will try if you decide to do the spy thing.”

“That would be good Harry. But as it is only a little more than two weeks until the holidays start, I think you should start to teach Severus immediately, starting tonight, without waiting for his decision whether to take the mark or not.”

“That sounds very reasonable, Professor. Would you be willing to do it Harry? And are you able to do it in your condition?”

Harry glared at him. “Of course, no problem. So let’s do it every evening after dinner. This week is perfect, as I don’t have Quidditch practice or any lessons in the evenings.”

Severus laughed. “Don’t worry, you won’t have any Quidditch practice next week either, and Potions tutoring can wait as well I think.”

“No Quidditch practice? Why not?”

Dumbledore smiled. “Can you imagine Poppy is going to let you play Quidditch so soon after what happened on Saturday? She told me you are grounded for at least a month.” Harry’s face fell in disappointment. It hadn’t been his fault that he had been hit by a Bludger now, had it?

Dumbledore stood. “All right, Severus, you will train with Harry every evening, and I will teach you additionally on Sunday morning after breakfast. And you still have two weeks to decide what you are going to do. Harry, Minerva and I will come to see you after curfew. Behave yourself,” he said and chuckled.

-----

“All right Severus. Let’s start right now. Are you ready?” Severus nodded. “In that case, try to clear your mind of everything. I always think of ice and water. I have an image in my mind of water flowing over an icy landscape, and I put this image in front of everything else and just try to lock it there, so that nobody can remove it to look behind it. Now try and tell me when you are ready so that I can try Leglimency on you.”

After a few minutes, Severus gave him a short nod to show he was ready. Harry took his wand, pointed it at Severus and thought ‘Leglimens’. A lot of pictures passed in front of his eyes; Severus and him talking and laughing, Severus and Lily during their Animagi studies, Severus as a small boy being pulled by the ear by a man who had to be his father, Severus as a small boy again, being shouted at by his mother for making a Potion. Suddenly the pictures stopped, and Harry got a glance at a golden cauldron with a Potion bubbling in it. He then stopped the connection and let himself fall back into his cushions.

“Severus, that was very good! You managed to stop me from getting behind this picture, a nice picture by the way. For the first time it was incredibly good,” he beamed.

“Thank you Harry, but I’ve let you see a lot of memories. That was not good at all.”

“No, Severus, for the first time it was excellent. You are very talented I think. No wonder Dumbledore had asked you to teach me last year. It took me months to get so far. Are you ready to try again?” Severus nodded affirmatively. Harry tried once more “Leglimens”. Again he was shown several pictures, this time all of them of Severus’ childhood, before he came to the golden cauldron and had to end the connection.

“Very good again. Once more. You can’t let me see any memories.”

“Wait Harry. This is very tiring.”

“I know. But if you think my pace is fast, then maybe I should show you a few of my memories how Occlumency lessons could be…” He smirked. “Leglimens.” They tried a few times more, but it was always the same. Finally, they had to stop, because Madam Pomfrey came and brought dinner for them.

-----

On the next day, they practised again after dinner. Severus was getting better. Harry was still able to watch two or three memories each time, before getting to the cauldron. They practised until Dumbledore joined them to see how they were getting along. Harry did not feel well. The Occlumency lesson had been very tiring even for him, and he couldn’t help feeling sick.

“Harry, are you alright?” Dumbledore and Severus asked simultaneously.

“No, I’m going to be sick,” he mumbled and got sick all over himself.

“Scourgify,” mumbled Dumbledore and went to get Poppy. She came over immediately and asked,

“Headmaster, what are you doing to my patients?”

Severus gave her a glare. “The Headmaster didn’t do anything; Harry and I were practising Occlumency, Mam.”

“And who gave you permission to study here? Harry was supposed to recover and not to get worse!”

“I’m sorry Poppy, it was just that Severus has to learn it very urgently, and Harry was the only one to be able to teach him. I did not want him to get worse of course,” Dumbledore said trying to calm the infuriated matron.

“Anyway, both of you will leave the Hospital Wing NOW. OUT. And don’t even try to come back tonight,” she shouted and fussed over Harry.

-----

After curfew, Minerva came alone to see Harry, and fortunately Pomfrey had just left the room for a few minutes. “Hello Harry, how are you?”

“Hi… Granny. Fine. How did you get around the dragon?” he smiled, although his smile didn’t really reach his eyes.

“I believe that immediately,” his Great Grandmother snorted. “May I ask you about the Occlumency lessons?”

“Of course. Severus is very talented I think. Yesterday I always got to see about five or six memories, and then he managed to show me a cauldron, which I couldn’t get behind. Today I could only see about two memories before it ended with the cauldron. After one or two more practise sessions he will be alright I think. But Grandfather has to train him as well, because he is much better than me, and Voldemort is VERY good at Leglimency!”

At this moment, Pomfrey came back and frowned. “What are you doing here Minerva? Harry is ill and needs his rest.”

“Yes, I know that and I’m not doing anything except talking to him as long as he is fine with that. By the way what is wrong with him?”

“He overdid himself practising Leglimency on Severus for quite a time it seems. He has thrown up four or five times, has a fever, and his concussion has gotten worse again. I am not pleased with either the headmaster or Severus and Harry. I was going to release him tomorrow evening, but now he has earned himself at least two more days in this bed. You have five minutes to talk, afterwards please pour this Dreamless sleep Potion into him and let him sleep Min.”

“All right Poppy, good night.”

“Um… Grandmother, I have thought about something.” McGonagall looked inquiringly. “In fact, I would like to have Grandfather here as well, but he won’t come, will he? After the dragon shooed him out and told him not to think about coming back today?”

“He had the intention of listening to Poppy, but when you need to speak to him too, I can go and get him.”

“No. You can tell him then. And maybe he can come see me tomorrow morning. You know how I killed Voldemort, don’t you.”

“Yes Harry, you’ve told us.”

“All right. So, what I thought is… I could do the same thing now. I have to try to establish the link from my side, because Tom still doesn’t know about the connection, but that should be no problem. If I vanquished him now, Severus wouldn’t have this difficult decision to make, and a lot of lives would be saved, for example the lives of my parents. I’m coming to the point where I have stopped caring if I’m changing the future or not. Can you understand that? Anyway, I think I would like to try to kill him now.”

“Do you think you could do that any time?”

“Yes I think so. I could not do it today, because I’m sick. I really need all the powers and all magic I have. Therefore, I would have to wait a few days. On the other hand, I should do it here, because I’ll end up here later anyway.”

Minerva laughed. “Harry, I don’t know what to say about that. On the one hand, of course I would appreciate it very much. I mean who wouldn’t? On the other hand I’m afraid that something will happen to you.”

“I can understand that. Therefore, I would ask Grandfather to stay here with me. He is very good at Leglimency, and if I encountered any real problems, he could use Leglimency on me and help me. He also could just try to wake me up. Or our dear dragon could as well. But the last time I was able to do it, so why shouldn’t I be able to do it now.”

“Harry we will discuss this tomorrow with your Grandfather. You have to go to sleep now.” She put a hand on his forehead. “Poppy is right. You are burning up. Try to rest and think… the earlier you get well the earlier you can have a go at it… in case Albus agrees with it of course. Good night my boy.” She let Harry drink the Dreamless Sleep Potion, gave him a kiss on the forehead and only had to wait a minute until Harry was fast asleep.

Harry was finally released from the Hospital Wing on Sunday evening just before curfew. He had agreed with his Great Grandparents that it would be good to try to finish Voldemort off in the same way as he had done it before. That only left the question for the timing. They had also consulted with Poppy, who had advised them to wait at least a full week, which meant afterwards there would still be a week until the start of the holidays. Severus had decided to choose the spying option, mainly because in Harry’s future he had already done so. But now, of course, he hoped that Harry could prevent everything by finishing the Dark Lord off.

-----

The Marauders cheered when he returned to the dormitory. They had not seen him after the Quidditch game, as only Severus and Lily had been allowed to visit him.

“So, Harry, did the dragon finally let you go,” Sirius beamed.

“Yes, fortunately. I can’t even think about how much I missed and how much homework I’ll have to do in the coming two weeks. And we also have tests during the last week before the holidays, don’t we?”

“Yes Harry, there will be the mid-term tests, but I don’t think any teacher will ask you for homework from last week. McGonagall told me that all teachers have orders from Pomfrey to spare you from everything strenuous during the two weeks until the holidays.”

Harry raised an eyebrow and shook his head, very annoyed. “All right,” he said, however. “By the way, did we actually win that crazy Quidditch game last weekend?”

“Ah but yes of course we won!” James and Sirius cheered.

“That’s good. Then it was worth it,” Harry said and climbed into his bed.

“Good night, everyone.” He lay down and let out a tired yawn.

“NOOOOOOOOO” Sirius and James suddenly shouted, “don’t even think about it!”

“What?” Harry asked and had to laugh about his friends’ indignant faces.

Remus came over to his bed. “You know Harry, when we won the Quidditch match, you were in such a bad condition that no one felt like having a party. So we decided to make up for it the evening you returned. That’s why your presence is requested in the common room as soon as curfew starts in two minutes.”

“You mean we’re having a Quidditch victory party NOW?” Harry couldn’t believe it. “Cool!”

-----

When they descended the stairs to the common room, the whole room was decorated nicely and a big banner was put up on the wall

‘Gryffindor 350 - Slytherin 70’

Tears were building up in Harry’s eyes. It was too good to be real. He beamed with joy. “HARRY!” Lily ran over and embraced him fiercely. “I’m so glad to have you back.”

Harry smirked. “Believe me I’m even happier to have escaped from the dragon, especially after such a long time!”

Frank Longbottom, the head boy and Gryffindor 7th year raised a glass and spoke, “Dear Gryffindors, welcome to the Quidditch Slytherin demise party. Thanks to the Marauders and the Hogwarts house elves we are having butterbeer and many delicacies tonight. Cheers!”

James whispered in Harry’s ear, “We’ve tried out your secret passage to Hogsmeade! It works. That’s why we’re having butterbeer tonight!”

The party was joyous but quite loud. Harry was nearly asleep when the portrait hole opened and a very annoyed McGonagall entered the common room and began to shout “What do you think you are doing here? It is 2 o’clock in the morning!”

James and Lily went over to the angry professor immediately. “Sorry, Professor, but we had to celebrate our victory over Slytherin; you surely understand that, don’t you?” James said beaming at his teacher.

Lily tried to help him. “And Professor, we had to postpone our party until now, because Harry wasn’t here. You know that we normally wouldn’t do such a thing, but in this case it was necessary.”

“Now look, it’s not our fault that the hospital dragon did not release him earlier but on a Sunday evening just before curfew,” Sirius jumped into the conversation.

McGonagall had to try hard not to laugh. Of course, she appreciated her Grandchild and Great Grandson to be happy with their friends, but… “Allright. Don’t let it happen ever again! Go to bed immediately, and I tell you now, if only one of you misses so much as breakfast tomorrow morning, you will ALL end up in detention for the rest of the week! Good night.”

-----

The week passed by quickly. Harry had to do a lot to catch up for the tests that were due the next week. Most of the time, he could be found in the library studying together with Severus and sometimes also with Lily, although she seemed to prefer the Gryffindor common room for studying to the great pleasure of James. Fortunately, his Great Grandparents had suspended their private lessons with Harry until after Christmas, and as he was not allowed to do any more Occlumency lessons with Severus and was banned from Quidditch as well for the time being, he really had a lot of time to catch up.

Harry was very careful not to use large amounts of magic at one time, not only because his Grandmother reminded him to take it easy every time she had the opportunity to do so, but because he knew that he had to save all his powers for the big strike if he wanted to succeed.

Dumbledore had agreed with him to try the attack on Voldemort on Sunday morning. Harry was supposed to come to the Hospital Wing directly after breakfast, where Severus, Dumbledore and McGonagall would join him in order to help if necessary.

However, as the week passed by, Harry was getting restless and worried about how to finally get into Tom’s mind. On Friday evening, he summoned all his courage and tried to get his scar connection into life. It worked! He was inside of Tom’s head. Should he do it straight away? It was very tempting, but he decided against it. The matter was too important to do it improperly, and it was much too dangerous for himself to try alone in the dormitory. So he just exited Tom’s mind before being noticed and tried to sleep.

-----

For Saturday, the last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas was planned. Harry had agreed with Lily and Severus to meet after breakfast and go to the town together. After lunch at the Three Broomsticks, they would split up for an hour to buy each other’s Christmas presents. But as often happens it came differently as planned.

Harry and the Marauders had just entered the Great Hall for breakfast, their outdoor robes already with them, when McGonagall came over. “Mr. Pane, Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you after breakfast.”

“But Professor! I’m going to Hogsmeade with Lily and Severus!” he told the teacher, already being very annoyed.

“I’m sorry Harry, I suppose he doesn’t want you to leave the castle today, but I’m not sure. Maybe you can tell your friends that you will meet them for lunch, if you are allowed to go,” she suggested in a small voice, only for Harry to hear.

Very disappointed he made a bee-line for the Slytherin table and told Severus the story.