Harry fell. The noise from the uproar above him disappeared and all was silent except the swooshing sound of himself falling. Air support, he thought. He started wriggling about. I can’t fly this high up in the air, he thought with a gush of fear. Desperately, he conjured up air support under his feet but his speed was too high, his knees gave way, the support broke and he slid off. He tried to throw himself across it but his arms glided over it. It did attenuate his speed somewhat, though, and he started anew.

He tried to make himself go into spiral motion to mimic the Spiral Case Knight’s Move, but he still fell too fast. He fought desperately to conjure up an air support that he could control. Suddenly he became aware of a black figure in the air beside him. It was Snape who was flying, in good balance, although he let himself fall as fast as Harry to stay beside him. Snape evolved around him in big circles. He must have launched himself over the edge right after Harry had been pushed.

“You’re doing the right thing, Harry. Keep on,” Snape called out to him. “Try to slant your air support downwards so that it doesn’t break by the speed and try to get into a spiral opposite me. If we manage to get hold of each other, we’ll make it.” Snape narrowed his circles to stay opposite Harry. It was a risky procedure, as Harry was not yet in control. They still fell sharply and the ground was meeting up fast.

“Feel my position. Spin faster,” shouted Snape. Harry managed to keep his air support under his feet for a while. Suddenly, everything fell in place and it was just like when they had practiced the Move on the ground. The sucking force gripped Harry around the chest and stabilised him.

When Harry’s magic finally docked with Snape’s, Harry felt like a ship passing breakwater into harbour after nearly perishing on a stormy sea. Harry’s relief was proportional to his previous desperation. He felt incredibly safe. It did not matter that they were still several thousand feet above the ground.

“Twenty downs, four ups,” shouted Snape and they started to approach the ground in a controlled way. Harry looked upwards. There were four figures on broomsticks approaching from above.

“They’re coming after us!” he shouted to Snape.

“Let’s change to back-to-back position. We’ll try to take them out before we must land. Wait until they’re close enough.” Snape shouted back. Harry spotted Yaxley, another Death Eater and Lucinda, the pink-haired witch, together with a young Shifting who seemed to be a good flyer. The four opponents were diving at them.

“One, two, three.” They went back to back and mounted.

“Attack, now!” roared Snape and Harry started to fire curses and jinxes at the four pursuers. He hit Yaxley’s arm right off so that Yaxley had to shift his wand to his other hand, which left him no hand to support himself with on the broom. He tried to turn and come back on them again but was so unsteady on his broom that he left his companions and returned to the ledge and the cave.

Snape stunned the other Death Eater who crashed heavily into the rocky foot of the mountain and glided fifty feet downward before he stopped, lifeless. The pink-haired witch and the young wizard were good at parrying Snape’s and Harry’s attacks, but could on the other hand not fire any curses themselves. Eventually, Harry managed to squeeze through one of his forceful Expelliarmus spells that disarmed them both and they had no choice but to return upwards.

It was high time for Snape and Harry to land and gather forces. Harry could feel his internal Patronus fading away. They disengaged the air support and returned to the front-to-front position. As they approached the ground, Harry observed that they would have to land in the middle of the swamp. The surface was hard to assess. It looked like coarse grassy hillocks scattered on a slightly moist yellowish bed of vegetation.

Harry landed on a hillock and nearly lost his balance on the soft and wobbling protuberance, whereas Snape landed on the smoother vegetation bed which, however, started to sway up and down as if waves of water passed under his feet. Which was exactly what was happening. Snape let out an exclamation as one of his feet disappeared through the mattress of woven vegetation. Water started to leak up through the hole. Snape managed to levitate himself over to a hillock opposite Harry where he doubled up, panting and swearing.

“Quagmire! I landed on quagmire,” Snape said breathlessly. Before Harry had time to answer, more water emerged from the hole left by Snape’s foot, and large bubbles of air bloated up from beneath. The piece of quagmire started to move up and down turbulently and the ground trembled like an earthquake. Harry stared apprehensively at the larger surface of water which opened up. Before he had time to think or say anything to Snape, an enormous creature emerged from beneath the turbid water and shot up in the air.

Harry had the time to observe a gelatinous body, or was it a head? There seemed to be three gigantic eye globes on the side. Harry yelled and fled by a gliding movement in between the bushes and the low trees further on in the swamp away from the mountain. He had the impression something stretched out after him and he launched himself forward heedlessly.

Harry lost sight of Snape. After a minute he slowed down and listened but everything was quiet until suddenly the quagmire ground under him opened again and several thick snakes with a pallid red skin emerged and stretched out for his legs. He mounted a few feet in the air, tried to command the snakes in Parseltongue to retreat but they launched after him nonetheless and he had to sting them with his wand and flee precipitately again. The same thing happened several times and Harry became exhausted as he could not land to recover his forces without being attacked.

There was very little firm ground to land on. The trunks of the trees shot up from the water itself and where there was no open water there was quagmire and the odd hillock. Harry did not see the snakes coming because they emerged right under his feet and tried to pull him down. He could not think of a more horrid way to die than to be dragged down under the roots of the trees and to drown in the murky water, and so he fought desperately.

After a particularly fierce battle against the snakes, Harry rattled on in high speed and came to a larger open water surface and slowed down to deliberate which direction he should go when he was tucked down again at the same time as he spotted Snape to his left standing on a clump of reeds. He used his last forces to blast the snakes away – he had given up speaking to them – and rumbled over to Snape to land beside him as it was about the only firm ground he could spot. The clump of reed tottered under Harry’s weight and was about to tip over. When it seesawed back he almost fell backwards. Snape grabbed Harry by the shirt and pulled him towards himself in balance.

“Sorry, Sir,” panted Harry. They were so close up that Snape must feel the fast throbbing of Harry’s heart against the back of his hand. The last traces of Occlumency had left Snape’s face and his black eyes were inscrutable but no longer cold.

“I... I don’t understand why those snakes don’t obey me when I speak to them,” Harry continued in a low, breathless voice.

“Because they’re not snakes. They’re parts of the same creature we saw emerge at the foot of the mountain. Hagrid has told me about it – it’s a giant swamp squid. It’s the foul-tempered spouse of the giant squid at the lake. There’s a huge cave under the mountain filled with water - an underground lake connected with the lake at Hogwarts - where she lives. The water system reaches out under the swamp.”

Snape in his turn was about to lose his balance and Harry pulled him back by the arm.

“It chased me. Its arms reached up at me and tried to drag me down. I’m sure it’s in the water nearby. Let’s mount again and try to move above the trees to avoid it,” said Harry in a high strung voice, watching the water surface apprehensively and ready to take off any second.

“We cannot move that high or we’ll betray our position. Mr Burgess’ gang will come after us and kill us. Listen, they move above us right now.” Harry heard a dull whir above them that mounted to a weird whistling sound as it swooshed by.

“They’re moving as black smoke. It works even inside a NAZ. Just as long as you can hold your breath but it will take them ahead of us. They’ll try to intercept us,” explained Snape. A thought struck Harry.

“You could do that. Go by black smoke back to the castle and alert Mrs Steadfast and the Aurors,” said Harry. Snape turned his head away.

“I don’t want to transform into black smoke,” he said. “It’s Dark Magic. There’s a price. I’m done with that.” Harry did not protest.

“We should try to keep together then,” he said. “It’s difficult to defend yourself against the squid when it attacks from right beneath you.”

“We should move side by side at some distance and watch each other’s feet,” said Snape and explained. “It’s easier to get clear shots from some distance. Don’t look down at your own feet. Trust me to clear the way for you and you do the same for me.”

Harry nodded and they took off. It was an unaccustomed feeling to make practice out of the faith in Snape that Harry had proclaimed the day before and trust him with removing the threat from underneath. For some reason the squid had decided that Harry was its primary target and was after him constantly all the way across the swamp. Only once or twice did it reach out a tentacle for Snape’s feet that Harry strung away. They crossed the swamp from west to east where its width was smallest and it did not take them long to reach firmer ground.

They continued by walking on in silence, wands drawn, keeping their course east and aiming at the castle. The high thin clouds that had put a veil over the sun on the major part of the day had cleared away and the afternoon was hot and liberated the sweet aromas from moss and herbs in the forest. Harry and Snape had Evanesced their coats, tucked up their sleeves and loosened their collars.

A black and a white clad figure advancing side by side, equally tall and slender, but Snape the stronger looking one; Harry being thin, almost emaciated without however giving a weak impression. The Dark Mark burnt by Voldemort into Snape’s left forearm appeared when the sunbeams hit his skin and disappeared when he passed through the shadows of the trees.

Harry could not resist when he spotted some wood strawberries in a clearing, to summon a handful of the small red berries and cram them in his mouth. He was famished and his stomach felt like an empty hole. Without stopping, he picked eatable herbs here and there and fed himself. Snape stole a furtive glance at Harry and saw him chew on a piece of bark. Harry knew by experience from last year how to survive in the forest without food supplies and knew that you needed to eat constantly if you were not to start starving.

Snape pulled a face and gestured for Harry to stop. They sat down on a fallen trunk and Snape brought out a small piece of bread that he had kept from the morning. He enlarged the slice, broke it in two and gave Harry one piece. Harry wolfed up the bread, washing it down with water that he conjured up. He looked apologetically at Snape and cleared his throat.

“Shouldn’t we send a Patronus ahead to alert Mrs Steadfast?” he asked. Snape hesitated.

“I’d like to get a little closer,” he said. “If the Shiftings or the Death Eaters discover our Patronus they can deduce our trajectory and they’ll just dissolve it and head right for us.”

“I think the dense bushy part of the wood will force us up north near the swamp again, if we don’t choose to go round it by the south which is quite a detour,” said Harry. “Right ahead of us we have a rather narrow channel of accessible forest before it opens up on a clearing north of Aragog’s nest - the hollow where Voldemort killed me, you know.” Snape grunted in answer.

“You know your forest well...” he said sarcastically.

“Endless detentions with Hagrid…” Harry smiled nostalgically. “And a few imperatively called for excursions of my own and with my friends have roughly taught me the topography. I had never been near the swamps before though. I don’t know a third of what’s in the forest.” Snape arched his eyebrows, then sighed.

“We don’t know for how long our enemies have camped in that cave. If they’ve gained knowledge about the forest, they’ll probably see the advantage of waiting for us at the exit of this land bridge. On the other hand, we won’t be far away from the castle once we’re there, right? I say that we go ahead and try to sneak upon them as close as we can before we send our Patronuses away,” said Snape. Harry acquiesced.

“We’ll have to fight them at one point or other, I guess” he said. “It would just be nice to know that reinforcements are coming before we do.”

They walked on for another hour. Compared to the enormous detour they had been forced to take the day before, they gained on the castle quickly. Finally, Harry sank down behind a bush and pointed ahead of them. Snape hid himself as well and watched two wizards on guard. It was hard to approach them without being spotted. Snape sneaked up beside Harry.

“If you approached them as a snake and Langlocked them by surprise, we could take them on easily without alerting any others,” he said.

Harry’s face darkened.

“I’d rather not,” he muttered. “I only transform in desperate situations. I had sworn not to use it at all, actually.”

“So, you’re not a registered Animagus, but Minerva suspects that you are,” said Snape grimly.

“I just couldn’t bring myself to find out if I am an Animagus. Imagine what they’d have written about me, if I had got officially listed as a snake Animagus,” objected Harry. “It was right in the middle of their speculations about my connection with Voldemort. They’d have taken it for confirmation of a kinship. You yourself had doubts as to...  And Mrs McGonagall wasn’t sure: I couldn’t kill and eat the mouse.”

“Hm...” said Snape, leaving the subject, “How to deal with them then?”

“We can just avoid them by going into the dense forest, to come out a little more to the south,” suggested Harry. “It should be possible to blast a tunnel through the bushes, no? For a short distance? We’ll be covered in there too, impossible to discover if we don’t make too much noise.” He looked to his left where thorny bushes dressed themselves like a dense wall.

“Okay, I think it’ll work. A Reducto spell interweaved with pulverising elements and we’ll bushwhack ourselves a passage. The branches are so intertwined that the roof won’t fall in upon us. Watch my back for a while before you come after me, and conceal our entrance by Regrowing some bushes,” said Snape and lifted both hands to set off the incantation.

It was actually possible to walk if you doubled over in the tunnel that Snape silently created as they went along. Their tunnel turned out to be an even better idea than they had thought to start with as it took them straight to the southwest brim of the clearing where their enemies had gathered. On the opposite side they recognised the forest as they knew it closer to Hagrid’s cabin. They must be only half an hour away from the immediate grounds of the castle.

Leaving a few feet of branches in front of them, sufficiently to shield them from view but thin enough to peek through and observe what was going on, Snape created a tunnel that went along half the clearing. They observed that there were guards placed on the south side as well, and concluded that they would not have gained in walking around the dense part.

They squatted down side by side to observe the scene in front of them.

Mr Burgess had transformed back to his ordinary appearance. He was talking to a slim and small witch with long blond hair whom Harry had not seen at the cave. The strength had augmented to at least fifty wizards and witches.

“They’ve got reinforcements,” Snape whispered to Harry. “That blond witch over there might be the one they call H. I wonder whether she’s not the real leader. Look how she talks and gestures at the others. They respect her.” Harry agreed. Snape muttered: “I don’t recognise her. Can’t have attended Hogwarts”.

Ten older Death Eaters stood by themselves and conferred with each others. Draco Malfoy and the young wizard who had followed them on a broomstick when they fell down the precipice amused themselves with playing with one of the kangabbits. They shot stinging spells at it and laughed when it avoided to be hit by making spectacular summersaults in the air.

The little animal looked frightened but did well in avoiding the shots. Finally the young wizard tired of the game and fired an Avada Kedavra at the kangabbit who however sprung several leaps up in the air and suspended itself upside down in an amazing backflip as the green light of the Avada Kedavra curse passed beneath. It wriggled sideways, landed on its four feet and ran fast as a lightening into the forest. Malfoy laughed.

“It escaped you,” he said tauntingly to the young wizard who grunted discontented.

Harry smiled gleefully in his tunnel.

“Okay, it’s time to send for the Aurors. We’d better send several Patronuses in case some are intercepted. I’ll send one to Mrs Steadfast and one to Professor McGonagall,” said Snape.

“I’ll send one to Hagrid and one to Ron then,” said Harry. “The kangabbits will show them the way to us.”

“We’ll have to try to overtake those guards on the south side to be able to get the Patronuses through,” said Snape. “The risk of us being detected is quite substantial, in which case we’ll just have to flee or stay and fight. What do you think of those options?” Harry hesitated.

“I might be mad,” he said, “but I’d rather stay and fight for a while. If Mrs Steadfast is quick to react they should be here in less than twenty minutes. And if we join in the Double Knight’s Move I think we might stand a while.” Snape’s eyes glittered.

“Just what I thought. Keen to measure your strength, are you, Mr Potter? Even if they’re fifty to two?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Only if we’re discovered, otherwise we wait for Mrs Steadfast to attack,” Harry defended himself.

“I tend to agree with you actually. If we flee there’s a great risk of us being separated and I think we’re more vulnerable on our own. The enemy will split up to find us too, so they’ll be more difficult to take down for Mrs Steadfast if they’re scattered throughout the forest. No, let’s try and keep them all here.”

It is questionable if either Snape or Harry really wanted to go undetected as they went for the two guards on the south side. The wizard Snape took on managed to stumble away a few steps before Snape Petrified him and it alerted the wizard Harry targeted who had time to cry out before Harry Langlocked him. A third guard further away that they had not noticed was alerted and ran towards the clearing. Snape and Harry hesitated before they decided to send their Patronuses away instead of overtaking him. At least the Patronuses were granted a safe-conduct towards the castle.

One doe with a stag along its side set off straight east and the other couple set off more to the south to their surprise. In the clearing their opponents were on their feet, moving toward the fringe of the southern wood where Harry and Snape had been detected.

Snape and Harry looked at each other and Charged up. In one swift Locomotor movement they flew over the heads of their enemies and landed on the north side of the clearing. Then they started to spin around and to battle for real with the Spiral Case Knight’s move.

***

The first to arrive to Snape’s and Harry’s aid was actually Ron, together with Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and a couple of other students. They came in from the northeast and started to battle on the ground with some Shifting members. Mrs Steadfast, Mr Soundy and two other Aurors arrived shortly afterwards from the southeast on broomsticks. They circled the clearing and stared dumbfounded at the scene beneath them.

Harry and Snape were swirling unflaggingly in the air, so fast they were barely recognisable. Curses and jinxes flew in all directions. Along the brims of the clearing at least half a dozen wizards lay knocked out, panting with exhaustion or wriggling from pain. The opponents fought doggedly, but with confusion in their eyes as they had difficulties aiming their curses and assessing the whereabouts of their enemies. Not infrequently they hit one of their own instead. A small blond witch ran about giving orders with a grim look on her face, but did not partake in the fight herself. She seemed to be the only one who could heal the wounded and it took all her time. Two Death Eaters tried to do a Double Knight’s Move of their own but were miserably unstable. Soundy gaped at the damage on the ground and at the whirling couple in the air and Mrs Steadfast invoked several of the planets of the solar system in her exclamations.

“Of all whizzing wizards those two are amazing! Here we come on a rescue mission, convinced we’ll find them half dead and instead... By Mercury, you’d say they’re evolving on a playground... Soundy, go down to those students and help them secure the already fallen people. Don’t spread, shield them. The ground forces will take some more time to arrive. We’ll help take some more out in the meantime. Focus on securing them with ropes to stop them re-entering the battle. And stop anyone who tries to flee.”

Snape and Harry kept up the Double Move for another ten minutes before they landed to fight on the ground alongside Soundy, Ron and the group of students. They were both soaked with sweat. Harry had just time to grin at Ron before he continued to battle, feet on the ground this time. He could not see Mr Burgess nor the blond witch who supposedly was “H”. They were outnumbered on the ground and under much pressure although the three broomstick-born Aurors facilitated things for them by diving daringly over the attacking Shifting crowd and cursing them.

They were joined by Ginny and four of her Quidditch members of the Gryffindor team on their brooms. They imitated Mrs Steadfast and went to attack. On their fourth go, one of them was hit and crashed with his broom on the other side of the enemy. Harry cast a look at Snape who was busy, however, fighting Lucius Malfoy and Yaxley at the same time. Instead, Harry gestured for Ron and Dean to follow him and they skirted around the fighting people, protecting themselves with shields. They arrived in the neck of time to stun two Shiftings who pointed their wands at the fallen Quidditch player ready to finish him off.

Mrs Steadfast landed by their side and they fought back the Shiftings from the wounded student. Harry bent over him and started to heal the worst injuries and pull him up on his legs to back him off the scene. Ginny landed by his side and helped him. Harry left them at the brim of the forest asking Ginny to take her Quidditch player back to the castle for further treatment. She agreed only reluctantly, having been part of the fight for so short a time.

When Harry turned to go back into the clearing, he glimpsed a flash of light in the corner of his eye and was just in time to throw himself to the side, roll over and jump up. It was the blond small witch who had sneaked upon him. They stood somewhat apart from the others and started to duel. She was skilled, Harry realised - and determined. Her slender-limbed constitution and her smallness made her look childlike and it was easy to believe her younger than she really was and therefore to underestimate her powers. She must be at least a couple of years older than Bellamy Burgess. She looked at Harry with hatred and calculation.

“You killed my brother,” she said as she circled him and prevented Harry from regaining his friends.

”I’m sorry, but he attacked me very viciously in Paris,” said Harry cautiously, disillusioned by Mr Burgess’ earlier jubilation over his own brother’s death.

”You’re sorry?” sneered the witch.

Harry’s heart took a leap of guilt at the accusatory tone of voice, but his instincts told him that she was more angered than grieved by the loss and he took a steadying breath.

“You’re another Burgess sibling then,” he said. She snorted.

"Burgess is no name of consequence. I bear the name of our father. Hatch - Henna Hatch. Ask your Master if he recognises that name.”

“My Master?” said Harry, incredulous. “Do you mean Professor Snape? He’s my Headmaster, no Master in any other way.”

“Doesn’t look like that to me. You vouched for him at the Ministry’s trial and it was no half-hearted vouching either. I was in the audience, you see. And you followed him to the cave. You play extremely well together on the battle ground. He has trained you. There’s no doubt about it. You’re in this together, don’t try to fool me. You’re going to pay for what you did to my half-brother in Paris and your Master is going to pay for what he did to my father  – both of you are going to pay!”

Her eyes suddenly glimmered red and she changed her appearance – as well as her gender, Harry realised. A magnificent androgynous figure dressed himself before Harry who drew his breath. Another Metamorphmagus - an accomplished one this time, equal to the skilled “M”. Suddenly and totally unpredictably from the expression on their face Henna fired an Avada Kedavra at Harry and he thrust himself to the side and stunned them. They returned to their female self.

Having fought her brother made Harry ready for the transformations she pulled to escape the stunning and he had an arm-binding curse ready for her which she of course wriggled out of by melting away and reappearing, but it bought him time. He Apparated to the shadowy part of the clearing. It was late afternoon and the sun was sinking towards the tops of the trees which cast long shadows over half of the clearing.

Henna Hatch came after him as did Bellamy Burgess who had been hiding in the northern margin of the forest. Harry fought with both of them fiercely. As they were so prone to use the Avada Kedavra curse, it was meaningless to use protective spells or shields against them. Every time Henna Hatch produced the killing curse she would change her gender. Harry could only get out of the way of their curses by mounting, dodging or Apparating and he could only prevent them from shooting curses at him by keeping them busy parrying his. He managed to sting Burgess severely in his bad leg a couple of times.

Suddenly Harry saw Aurors streaming into the clearing from the south. Reinforcements at last! Hagrid was with them, too. Harry could not relax, however, but continued to fight, struggling to make his limbs, numb from the strenuous exercise before and the lengthy Crucio session earlier, obey him. Very soon thereafter, however, both Mrs Steadfast and Snape were at his side.

When “H” became aware of the changed situation in the clearing, she shouted to Bellamy Burgess to transform to black smoke. She covered fiercely for him, because it took him some time, and Mrs Steadfast redoubled her forces to try to get him. Eventually he managed to transform and suddenly “H” too was gone.

The fight continued on a more equal basis, wizard to wizard or witch, but a couple of the Shiftings were seen to take off toward the cave in the blue mountain as did some Death Eaters, among them Lucius Malfoy. Yaxley had been overpowered by Snape long ago and lay enrolled in trapping web like a gigantic pupa. Harry felt a powerful curse swoosh by the left side of his face and a searing pain in his forehead and cheekbone made him stagger. A rasping curse had scraped the skin off the bony parts of his temple. He doubled over which probably saved him from being hit by a stunning. Panting, almost on his knees, he shot a stunning back at the young wizard who was flying at him and managed to hit him right in the chest.

As he rose on wobbling legs to tie the enemy up, he saw in the corner of his eyes Snape hurrying towards them with a concerned look on his face. A figure appeared suddenly from the forest in the north east corner, running towards Snape with a mad expression on his face – it was Burgess. Harry opened his mouth to call out a warning, but it was too late, the Avada Kedavra had already been fired and Snape had not seen it. A Protego curse to push him out of the way would not have time to reach him. Harry gaped horrified and looked Snape right in the eyes. In the background he saw one of the kangabbits jumping away between the trees. Suddenly Snape was dangling upside down and the killing curse flew right underneath. Harry ran towards him.

“I’m sorry, Sir!” he cried out and he stunned Mr Burgess without even looking at him. Mrs Steadfast was there to disarm him and wrap him up in trapping web. Snape had lost his wand and was hanging by his heel in the typical position for one being hit by a Levicorpus spell.

Harry knew perfectly well that James Potter had taunted Snape with this spell, Snape’s very own invention, when they were teenagers at school. He had seen it in one of Snape’s memories. Harry promptly Accioed Snape’s wand to him and let him down.

“I beg your pardon, Professor, there was no other way...”

Snape rose from the ground and advanced towards Harry with barred teeth and a brandished wand. When he saw Harry’s desolate countenance he stopped, made an exasperated gesture with both arms and turned on his heels. Harry heard him mutter.

“I’m out of this! I’m off...” Heedless of the still ongoing fight, Snape walked right through the flying curses towards the East. Harry followed, pleading with him.

“He was going to kill you, Sir. I had no choice...”

“You had no business using that spell on me! I do not take it… not from you! Not from you, Potter, do you hear?” Snape hissed at him over his shoulder.

“But, Professor, the Avada had already been fired at you... It was going to hit you.  I can’t help what James did to you all those years ago...”

“I’m leaving, Potter and don’t try to follow me, do you hear?” Snape strode on without looking either right or left, and he fired stinging hexes backwards at Harry who had to jump not to be hit.

“Please Professor Snape... It happened twenty years ago, how long are you going to resent it? Why must I pay for what my father did to you? Ow...” He got stung in his left foot.

“It happened only a minute ago, if I must remind you! Don’t pretend to be desolate! Just leave me alone. I’m done with this! I’m out of this place, right now! And I’m done with you, Potter, whether you vouched for me or not, I don’t care!” Harry had almost caught up with Snape but now he stopped dead.

“You were teenagers! The guy wasn’t even allowed to live after he was twenty-one! Isn’t that punishment enough?” he shouted exasperated after Snape who finally turned around.

Suddenly Snape’s eyes widened. He was looking at someone closing up behind Harry. Harry felt it more than he could see it and he didn’t have time to turn before he found himself hanging upside down in his turn. He saw the green light of an Avada Kedavra pass beneath him and he saw the curse hit Snape instead right in the chest.

“No!”

Snape turned and fell backwards to the ground in his full length.

“No!” Harry shouted at the top of his lungs.

Harry glimpsed the contorted face of a transformed Henna Hatch filled with hatred and triumph. He had kept his wand in his hand and, without thinking, he let himself down, landing on his neck and crumpling up on the ground. It probably saved his life a second time. Another Avada Kedavra flew over him but he did not care. He rose and ran toward Snape. Behind him four Aurors closed up on “H” and forced her to retreat.

“No, no, no...NO!”

Harry ran, stumbled, fell and rose again before he cast himself on his knees on the ground beside the still body of Snape.

“It hit you... It hit you…” Harry did not recognise his own strangled voice. ”Please, don’t be... You can’t be… Please…” He bent over the still body and his hands were stretched out, helpless and trembling in the air above Snape. He felt the warmth from the body of Snape mounting to his palms and against his thigh. Harry started to tug desperately at the robe over Snape’s chest.

“No, no... please... please!... Where did it hit you? Please let it...”

Suddenly, Snape stirred and turned his head with dazed eyes toward Harry.

"Stop whimpering, Potter! Clearly even you can make out that I’m still alive?” Snape hissed at him in a faint but irritated voice and tried feebly to push Harry away with his right hand. His left arm lay lifeless at his side.

The surge of relief over the fact that Snape was alive did not dissipate Harry’s anxiety, however.

“The Avada hit you!” he shrieked. ”It went right through your chest, I saw it. Your heart might be hurt. We must check out your heart.” Harry was still panicking over what he had just witnessed. Snape turned on his right side and sat up with difficulty. Harry gripped Snape’s collar and tried to unbutton the black shirt over the chest and uncover Snape’s left shoulder.

“You might still die of its effects. I must check the demarcation zone on your chest,” he spluttered.

Snape swayed on his knees and fought to push Harry’s hands away. He bent over to reach his wand on the ground, almost lost his balance but managed to pull back and brandished it at Harry.

“Keep away from me, Potter! Don’t touch me.”

“But I can do it! I know the incantation to revive heart muscle tissue. It’s a matter of minutes before the damage permanents itself. I’m the only one here who can do it! It’ll take you too long to go to St Mungo’s. The heart will lose its pumping capacity. You might die! It’s a new treatment that Healer Solomon taught me this winter! It’s really effective, it’ll save you. Listen!” begged Harry.

But Snape only growled at him and pointed his wand at Harry’s face. Harry lifted his arms in an exasperated gesture.

“What’s the matter with you?” he shouted angrily. “You suddenly give up after all this fighting? You’d rather die than to let me heal you?”

Snape did not yield but kept Harry at a distance.

“Why are you doing this? You’ve behaved completely irrational ever since the trial!” shouted Harry beyond himself. “So I vouched for you, so what? Why did you still want to leave Hogwarts when you came back, although you’d been freed? Why did you throw yourself in the arms of Mr Burgess and Lucius Malfoy, pretending to... trying to... impersonate some evil... caricature of yourself? How can you let all the struggle and fighting this year come to NOTHING by allowing yourself to be reduced to a HEART INVALID rather than let me treat you – AND ALL THIS JUST BECAUSE OF MY SURNAME!”

Harry gripped Snape’s wand with his left hand and steered it away and roared the last words furiously right to Snape’s face. Mrs Steadfast came up behind them and grabbed Harry by his shoulders and pulled him back from Snape.

“Go easy on your Professor, Harry. Back off!” Harry lost his balance and sunk back on his heels. Conciliatory, Mrs Steadfast bent down between Snape and Harry.

“You must understand, Harry. This has not been easy for Professor Snape. I believe he’s been prepared to leave Hogwarts at the end of term for quite some time now. He never thought he’d make it at the trial, having taken the stand he’d done,” she said.

“But he was acquitted... He can do what he wants now...” Harry spoke heatedly.

“He was confused by what you did, Harry. And it’s not so easy to reconsider matters in a rational way and to realise that you have other options than what you’ve set your mind on for a long time.”

Snape bent his head down as she spoke and let his black hair cover his face.

“He gave up at the cave. There was no resistance left in him. I had to punch him to make him start fighting.”

Snape looked up sharply at Harry.

“I was shocked. I had just seen you transform...”

Harry frowned angrily at him and Snape stopped himself in time. Harry pleaded with Mrs Steadfast.

“He’s been hit by an Avada in his chest. His heart might be damaged. He might end up just like your French friend if he’s not treated immediately. And he doesn’t even let me look at the demarcation zone.” Harry was on the verge of tears.

Mrs Steadfast’s eyes widened and she took Snape’s wand delicately but firmly from his hand, then she cut the cloth covering his left shoulder with her own wand.

“Now, you let Harry take a look at that curse mark, Severus!” she said in a tight voice. Snape looked to the side but did not push Harry away. His left shoulder which Harry had seen covered in motley bright red and pink scars from the snake bites was now an ugly grey-lilac colour, slightly swollen and pallid all the way out to the fingers. It was a muscular, strong arm but it looked dead. On the chest, from where the collar bone meet the breastbone and obliquely down to the eighth or ninth rib on his left flank, the dead-looking flesh above stood out sharply against the healthy looking skin beneath that line. Snape flinched when he saw the mark on his own chest. Harry pulled himself together and observed the demarcation zone carefully.

“It has gone through part of the thorax, there’s no doubt.  You must have managed to swirl around at the same time as it went through you - that’s why you made it at all... I’m going to examine the heart,” muttered Harry and positioned himself on Snape’s left side. He pointed his wand with his right hand over the shoulder at the heart at the same time as he held his left hand in front of Snape’s chest.

“Stay still,” he said and started to read an incantation. After a while a clearly visible copy of Snape’s heart lay in his hand, contracting and relaxing. Snape grimaced uneasily.

“Stay still,” repeated Harry, concentrating on the heart. “The anterior and lateral parts are not contracting properly. Let me feel it.” Harry felt his way delicately with the fingers over the surface of Snape’s heart. “A third, if not half of the muscle has been hit. I’m going to revive it. Stay still, or you’ll never be able to make a five by five round on the Knight’s Move without being out of breath before you even take off,” Harry said threateningly.

Snape pulled a wry face.

Harry muttered a long incantation and swayed his wand slowly from side to side, carefully aiming the tip of the wand at different parts of Snape’s heart. At the same time he made small modulating movements with the fingers on his left hand. Finally he closed the incantation, the image of the heart disappeared and he removed his hand. Instead he started doing the Reviving spell counteracting the Avada effect on the shoulder and on the arm. He worked his way conscientiously all the way down to the fingertips before he sank down on his heels, exhausted.

They remained silent for a while. The fight around them was abating. The Aurors were gathering the prisoners with Hagrid’s help. Only a few persons still fought. Several black balls were seen over the forest and a squad of Aurors had gone after them on broomsticks to the cave. Harry started to pull himself up, muttering to Mrs Steadfast.

“You must take him to St Mungo’s to see Healer Solomon and finish the treatment. It must be repeated at regular intervals, but at least I’ve bought him some time.” Harry did not look at Snape and was about to leave when Mrs Steadfast held him back.

“Please stay, Harry. I’m so sorry it’s so difficult between you. I sincerely regret the way he treats you. He was shocked that you vouched for him yesterday, that’s all I can say to his defence,” she said.

“He hates me, I’d better leave,” Harry muttered in a thick voice.

“Wait. He’s pretty awful to have to do with at times but I know that you care about him and...” Mrs Steadfast prevented Harry from going.

“I don’t care about him,” retorted Harry angrily in a muffled tone. “I just don’t want him to die, nor become a heart invalid, that’s all.” Mrs Steadfast sighed.

“This reminds me of what someone else said in a similar situation...” she said and riveted her gaze upon Snape who looked back defiantly at her without answering. “And why do you care if he becomes a heart invalid or not, Harry?” Mrs Steadfast asked evenly.

Harry frowned. On the one hand he just wanted to leave. He had a lump in his throat and he did not want to show Snape how affected he was by almost having seen him die. On the other hand he felt an undefined wish to sort out the answer to Mrs Steadfast’s question, for his own sake. He drew a deep breath.

“I just want him to stay around,” he said to Mrs Steadfast. “He has taught me things. He knows things others don’t. He doesn’t back off in front of bad things that others shun... and stuff like that...” his voice trailed off.

“And...?” Mrs Steadfast softly urged him on.

“And... and... well, he’s the only one left, isn’t he?” Harry said brusquely to her. She frowned. “Everyone else is dead,” continued Harry in a slightly aggressive tone. “My parents are dead and their friends, Sirius and Lupin are dead too. And Dumbledore’s dead.”

Snape suddenly looked perplexed and Harry drew a new breath.

“My aunt and uncle were happy to get rid of me when I turned of age. Mr and Mrs Weasley have been very kind and helpful, of course. They know me since I was twelve. But... but… It’s kind of... nice... to have someone that knows of your past - other than the official tale that is... He... he knows stuff about me that others don’t... and he knew my parents. He was a friend of my mother’s - and yes... I know they were more than friends - and yes... That is kind of embarrassing for me, too, to think about,” said Harry with some emphasis, indirectly addressing Snape. “I don’t intend to pry into that part. It’s between him and my mother. But it’s not as if… as if I mind or anything… It was their business... I’m not James, you know...”

“No, of course you’re not James. You have a very different kind of disposition than your father. You’re Lily’s son and your very own person.”

“Well, thank you, Mrs Steadfast, yes I am.” Harry struggled not to let his voice crack up. “And he doesn’t have to like me or even speak to me if he doesn’t want to, I don’t care. I know he hates me. But I still want him to stay around...” Harry finished off. He was embarrassed for having said so much.

“I don’t hate you,” Snape muttered down at his own hands. Mrs Steadfast waited for more and looked exasperated at him.

“And that’s all we’re going to get from Severus Snape, is it? Lavishing expressions and explanations to the point? I‘ll give you credit for at least being able to express yourself, Harry. This Headmaster of yours is clearly destitute of language. Or perhaps the Avada hit his tongue as well? This is outrageous, Severus! Here Harry comes, pouring his heart out and putting words, finally, to his feelings on this difficult matter and you’re mute, reluctant, repelling, resistant...” Mrs Steadfast was working herself up in indignation. “You’re his superior on every single point, Harry...”

Harry, still on the verge of tears from humiliation and embarrassment over the confession he’d made, started to laugh softly in the middle of all his misery. Mrs Steadfast halted her agitated scolding of Snape and looked irritated at Harry.

“You’re laughing?” she said incredulous. Harry could not help himself.

“It’s just that... he’s been on to me all this year about how out-and-out hopeless I am at expressing myself and now you’re telling him off... Did you hear her, Professor? I’m your superior in ways of expressing myself!”

Harry was convulsed with laughter and suddenly Snape joined in. He thrust his head back and let out his ringing, contagious laughter. Harry doubled up. Mrs Steadfast looked affronted at them and their laughter redoubled at the sight of her indignation. They could not stop themselves but roared and wriggled. There were tears in the eyes of both of them. Harry clasped his stomach and Snape laid a hand on the chest and pulled a face in the middle of all merriment.

Mrs Steadfast shook her head as she stood up with a countenance of incredulity and puzzlement, looking down on them exasperated. Finally she started to smile faintly. The salt of the running tears made the scraped skin on Harry’s cheekbone sting.

“Ow...” he said and tried to dab the tears and the blood away with his rolled up sleeve. His arm ached and felt heavy as lead. He let it fall to his side with a grimace of pain. Their laughter faded away gradually.

“You need some medical attendance as well.” Snape scrutinised Harry. “He was tortured up in the cave. Crucioed for a substantial amount of time,” Snape added to Mrs Steadfast. She looked at Harry.

“Do you want to go with Professor Snape to St Mungo’s, Harry?”

“No... no thanks, I’d better let him have a rest from me. I’ve been at him like a... like a teasel for more than twenty four hours now,” said Harry.

Snape pulled a face again.

“I didn’t mean all the things I said up there...” he muttered.

“It’s true nonetheless.” Harry stole a quick glance at Snape to show him he wasn’t cross. “I’d rather go back to Hogwarts and see Mme Pomfrey. I’m starved and they don’t have any proper food at St Mungo’s at any rate... only yucky sandwiches.” Harry made a grimace of distaste. He did not have particularly nice memories from his visit to St Mungo’s as a patient. Snape smiled slightly and arched one eyebrow.

“Let’s see then,” Mrs Steadfast said efficiently. She waved her nearest Auror over which happened to be Simmings. “Emile, you’ll be so nice as to take Professor Snape to St Mungo’s hospital. He has received an Avada curse through his heart that he needs to nurse. I’ll join you as soon as I have sorted things out here. I want to hear the whole story of what happened in that cave.” Snape rose with some difficulty. Harry conjured up a stretcher.

“Make sure Healer Solomon attends to him, Simmings. He’s the expert on heart conditions at St Mungo’s,” said Harry.

“I can speak for myself, if you don’t mind, Potter. I have worked at the place, remember?” said Snape irritably. “And I won’t go on a stretcher. There’s nothing wrong with my legs.”

“There is half an hour’s march to reach the gate at Hogwarts and you must not exert your heart...”

Snape and Harry started to argue heatedly again. Mrs Steadfast tried to intervene on Harry’s side. Jointly they made Snape sit on the edge of the stretcher but he refused to lie down. Snape scolded increasingly at Harry. Mrs Steadfast sighed.

“Severus... Severus! Look at me!” she said.

Reluctantly Snape looked away from Harry and glanced at Mrs Steadfast. She met his eyes and made a quick movement with her left hand in front of his face and Snape closed his eyes and went limp. Mrs Steadfast was prepared and caught him gently around the neck and lowered him on the stretcher at the same time as her wand lifted his legs up on the other end of the stretcher. Harry stared dumbfounded at her.

“What did you do to him? Did you make him go to sleep? How did you do that?” Mrs Steadfast smiled cunningly at him at the same time as she put Snape’s arms neatly along his sides.

“Oh, I know some stuff, too...  Join me at the Auror program and I’ll teach you. But I’d never have managed to pull that sleeping spell through on him had he retained his usual mental strength. It just shows how wrought out he is, poor thing.”

Harry squinted at her, incredulous. To him Snape was everything but “a poor thing” but he guessed that Mrs Steadfast had some other perspective which he found hard to enter into. He watched Simmings lead Snape away on the stretcher and he went to look for Ron to make company back to the castle.