Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 13

Fudge checked his large gold pocket watch. It was, Harry noted with sudden understanding, the fourth time he had done so. The painfully prolonged, seemingly pointless conversation was a thinly veiled way of waiting out the effects of Polyjuice Potion. For whatever reason, it seemed Fudge was unwilling to act directly.

"Hrmph," Fudge cleared his throat, snapping the watch shut and putting it away.

Harry knew the required hour must have passed, and since he had failed to change in appearance, as Fudge must have been expecting, there was good reason to believe Fudge would now try something else. His stomach clenched, the muscles sore from an hour of nervous tension.

"This has been most enlightening," Fudge said in a sickeningly false tone. "Always a pleasure to visit Hogwarts and spend time with young people."

Harry forced a smile onto his face, not believing for a moment that Fudge was getting ready to leave. "It was an honor to meet you, Minister."

"Hrmph! Yes, I'm sure it was." Fudge turned to Snape, who had remained silent throughout Harry's interrogation. "Your son is quite charming, Mr. Snape."

"Thank you, Minister," Snape said, inclining his head.

"Still..."

Harry braced himself, for the Aurors who had stood as still and silent as statues at Fudge's side had moved almost imperceptibly, as though readying themselves to obey Fudge's next command.

"You must see the oddness of this, Mr. Snape. I do not trust coincidences, as I have said before."

Snape did not reply.

"Don't want to make it difficult, of course," Fudge said. His hands folded and unfolded in a gesture that seemed almost nervous. "Don't mean to imply that you are not trusted. Our own courts found you at no fault."

Snape inclined his head again, and still remained silent.

Fudge, failing now to hide his fluster, reddened and cleared his throat. "Must be quite certain the school remains a safe place... you understand."

Snape didn't grant him the benefit of indicating any such understanding. Harry tried to fight down the fear that Snape would antagonize Fudge into taking action that might have otherwise been avoided.

"The Office of Child and Family Services was satisfied up to this point, but I must say I find it difficult to believe that you should be named guardian of two minors within the span of a few weeks by mere chance. And now a third!"

Snape's eyebrow arched, and it was only by virtue of five years of familiarity that Harry knew Fudge's last utterance had hit him by surprise.

"And a known Death Eater's son, this time," Fudge finished, his eyes narrowing. "You see why I would be concerned. It is for the safety of the students at this school that I must act."

But Fudge faltered. Perhaps, Harry thought with a hopeful pang, what he had been told was correct, and Fudge no longer had the kind of support that would allow him to act with impunity.

"I'm sure you will agree to a simple procedure to put any remaining suspicions to rest. I had requested it at the hearing..."

"Certainly," Snape said. Harry wasn't sure if he imagined the slight lessening of tension in Snape's voice. "I had no objection then, and have none now."

"Hrmph!" Fudge reddened still more, but now in apparent relief. "Very understanding of you, Mr. Snape. Proceed!"

The last word had been directed to the Aurors, and now the taller of the two produced a pair of small vials filled with pink fluid and bound together by a gold band, while the other Auror produced a sharp silver lancet.

Snape extended his hand across the desk, not flinching as a short incision was made across his finger. Blood dripped slowly into one of the vials, the drops swirling within the pink fluid.

Harry's heart hammered.

The Auror moved toward him, and he had no chance even to glance at Snape, his view blocked.

The cut stung.

The pair of vials were placed on the desk, and Fudge leaned closer, eyes narrowed.

Harry glanced at Snape, unable to stop himself. Snape was not smiling; there was no expression on his face at all, and yet something about his posture struck Harry as smug... utterly unconcerned.

He looked back at the vials of pink potion, where the drops of blood, Snape's and his own, had finally dissolved. A vapor was rising upward through the narrow glass tubes like columns of thin smoke.

Just past the tops of the vials, the twin columns found each other and linked, swirling together until one could not be told apart from the other.

"Ah," said Fudge, sitting back in his chair. It was not difficult to see that he was disappointed. "Well..." He smiled a sort of forced grimace. "Just as I expected, of course." He stood and motioned to the Aurors. "I shall be able to make appropriate recommendations to the Office of Child and Family Services now. Someone will be in touch. Good day!"

"Good day, Minister," Snape said, rising almost lazily out of his chair.

Harry, too, scrambled up.

Fudge, who had already been on his way toward the door, paused and turned, his face so close to Harry's that Harry could feel his slightly wheezing breath. Fudge's eyes raked over Harry's face, searching...

But there was no lightning bolt scar to be found on Harry's forehead, nor any sign of enchantment. There was no reason for the Minister to be aware that the cursed scar had been excised at Voldemort's death. It had left Harry with a serious wound, but one that was free of Dark magic, and though Harry's forehead had been bandaged for days, it had healed cleanly, leaving nothing behind.

With a last disappointed "Hrmph!" Fudge strode out of Snape's office, his silent Aurors following close at his heel like shadows. Their footsteps died away.

Harry collapsed back onto the bench, his legs giving out from under him, but was prevented from any other display of relief by a sharp look from Snape.

He repeated Lupin's words in his mind. Assume everything you do is seen... assume everything you say is heard...

"That was really weird, Dad," he said in what barely passed as a light tone. "I can't believe I got to meet the Minister of Magic!"

"Well," Snape said, and Harry knew he wasn't imagining the relief in Snape's voice this time, "you're in proper wizard society now. I'm afraid it will be quite a change from the sheltered life you're used to." Snape paused. "Shall we have breakfast now?"

"Sure."

Snape led the way to his quarters. They walked in silence, Harry's ears straining for sounds that should not be there. All was silent.

Snape had his wand out in the same moment the door shut behind them, muttering spells that made the air shimmer and waiver around them even as he strode to the bookshelf in the corner and took from between the pages of a heavy tome a square of parchment that Harry instantly recognized.

Snape's eyes searched over the Marauder's Map for several long minutes before he folded it and put it back inside the book, taking down from another shelf a spindly instrument that he regarded intensely for another minute, then returned to the shelf in favor of a glass ball filled with dark smoke. Finally, that, too, was returned to the shelf.

"They've gone," he said flatly.

Harry's sides ached as for the first time in over an hour he drew in a full breath.

"I need to reinforce the wards around the school," Snape continued in the same flat, empty tone. "Until I've done so you should assume they've left monitoring devices. I need you to go upstairs... I need you to check on Lupin."

The air Harry had drawn into his lungs seemed to turn to lead.

"No telling what they did; he doesn't have the same legal protections, and they were desperate if they came here and dared to perform blood testing already denied through legal channels..." Snape seemed to catch himself suddenly, and rounded on Harry. "Well? Go!"

It was all Harry could do not to run heedlessly up the staircase. Forcing himself to walk, when every second felt like an eternity, was almost beyond his ability.

The door to Lupin's office was closed, but it was thrown open just as he raised his hand to knock.

"Come in, Hadrian," Lupin said in a clipped tone, shutting the door behind him almost before Harry had a chance to get out of the way.

Without giving him a further glance, Lupin returned to the task Harry must have interrupted, which involved viciously stabbing his wand at every object in the cluttered office in turn, muttering spells. Slightly unnerved by the manic energy and the anger etched into Lupin's face, and needing to catch his breath anyway, Harry perched silently on the edge of a chair.

Presently, Lupin appeared satisfied that his office was secure, kicked one of Umbridge's frilled throw pillows to the other end of the room, where it lodged under a cabinet, and reinforced the wards on the door.

He leaned against the door, his slumped shoulders at odds with his clenched fists and barred teeth.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked quietly, afraid of his own voice in the sudden silence.

"Lovely," Lupin said, leaning back his head so that it hit the door with a thump. He closed his eyes. "Had a lovely chat with our unexpected guests."

"They... they didn't...?"

Harry couldn't see any obvious injuries on Lupin, but Lupin was pale and the hand not clenched around his wand was shaking.

"No," Lupin said after a moment. His eyes opened. He looked exhausted. "No."

Harry wasn't certain he believed him. Not after what Snape had said, and not when he remembered too well the ease with which Umbridge convinced herself that the best way to get what she was after was to torture him.

With obvious great effort, Lupin seemed to be struggling to pull himself together. "Some way to start the day. I assume Professor Snape is securing the castle?"

"Yes."

"We'll wait."

Lupin sat down in the chair behind his desk, slumping and shutting his eyes.

Harry was sure that if Lupin really was all right, he would be offering tea or asking Harry to tell him what happened or... or at least not look like he was hanging on to consciousness by a thread. He forced back the tide of questions that seemed to need to be asked, wishing he had been standing close enough to Snape to see the Weasleys on the Map.

Ten minutes passed, and then fifteen, according to his watch.

"Professor?"

Lupin grunted, not opening his eyes.

"The Weasleys...?"

"Safe."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

He wanted to ask how; how everyone but him always seemed to know these things, and why he had been the only one stumbling around the castle unaware of Ministry intruders.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to ask just then.

He was about to check his watch again when a buzzing alerted him to an incoming call through the fireplace. He looked at Lupin in time to see Lupin struggle to sit up, only to fall against the back of the chair, more pale than ever.

"Should I get it?"

"Please do."

Harry kneeled down in front of the fireplace and tossed in a pinch of Floo powder.

Snape's head materialized amidst green flames, Snape's eyes narrowing when he saw that it was Harry who had taken his call. "Clear," he said, and with that single word, his head vanished.

Harry had barely stood up and returned to his chair before the door to Lupin's office opened by an unseen force, and Snape himself appeared.

He spared only a momentary glance in Harry's direction. "Go down to the Great Hall and have your breakfast."

Harry hesitated, unwilling to be banished from Lupin's office so easily. Lupin didn't look any better for the potion Snape poured into his mouth. His skin glistened with sweat.

Snape turned to see that he was still there. "Go to Greenhouse Two and collect fresh sage and mallowsweet. Bring them to my quarters."

The new set of orders suited him better, and, feeling slightly less as though he was being unceremoniously shoved aside, Harry hastened to obey.

It was only as he was cutting the choicest stalks of mallowsweet that it occurred to him that only the day before he would have failed to recognize either one of the plants Snape had sent him for.

The thought that Snape had taught him something of use settled uncomfortably next to his conviction that the study schedule Snape had drawn up for him had been intended to fill up his free time with tedious work.


 


 

Snape accepted the the plants without a word, and then left Harry standing in the chilly corridor, shut out and with no further instructions. What little of Snape's quarters Harry had been able to see showed him a roaring fire but no sign of Lupin.

He waited. Minutes passed, and then an hour, until cold and hunger finally drove him up to the Great Hall, where he picked at the food that appeared in front of him. He still had not seen anyone; no sign that he and Snape and Lupin were not Hogwarts' only inhabitants that morning.

Where was everyone? The Weasleys might have reason to stay in hiding longer, but McGonagall? The castle felt so empty, like all the life had been sapped from it by the unwelcome intrusion of those who meant its occupants harm.

Shoving the plate of food aside, though his stomach still ached with hunger, Harry went back to the dungeons and resumed his vigil outside of Snape's door.

He hadn't expected it to open -- Snape clearly didn't want him there... didn't care if Harry was worried about Lupin, or that there was nothing for him to do but worry -- but with a whoosh of warm air the door was pushed open. Snape saw Harry at once, revealing no surprise at finding him there.

"Go back to Lupin's office and find his wand," Snape said. "It may be on the corridor floor anywhere between here and there." His lips twitched and thinned, and Harry knew Snape didn't like admitting the oversight. "I didn't notice when he lost his grasp on it."

"I'll find it," Harry said, getting up stiffly, half frozen from sitting on the stone floor for so long. "Do you need me to do anything else?"

"No." But Snape hesitated, as though the word had slipped prematurely from his tongue. "Have you seen the Headmistress?"

"I haven't seen --" The word 'anyone' nearly escaped, but Harry was still on edge, every word examined in his head for the possibility of revealing too much. "-- her."

Snape nodded slowly, and Harry couldn't tell if he was worried about McGonagall or if her absence was merely an inconvenience. "Find the wand and return quickly. Lupin can't be left alone and I will need to make another round of the castle."

Harry swallowed. That was not a very reassuring assessment of Lupin's condition.

"Go," Snape said, turning abruptly to go back inside. The door shut behind him.

Harry took out his wand and lit it, and with its additional light began the walk back to Lupin's office, searching the shadows and corners.

The lost wand was not found until he was nearly at the office door. It had rolled underneath a large window with a shattered lower pane, and lay among glittering shards of glass.

Harry plucked it out of the the mess carefully, his boots crunching the glass into dust as he was forced to step across it. A gentle breeze ruffled his hair, fanning him even as warm sunlight hit his face, pleasant after a morning spent in the cold dungeons. He was unable to help the involuntary step forward, toward the window and the warmth. For a moment, he pushed all the mixed up thoughts and pent up worries out of his mind, closed his eyes, and breathed the fresh air deeply.

When he opened his eyes they rested upon Hogwarts' gates and beyond them the dusty road to Hogsmeade.

A lone figure swathed in a hooded cloak made its way slowly up the road, dragging behind it a school trunk, the weight of which finally became too much. The trunk was abandoned in the dust and the traveler pressed onward, stumbling and pausing frequently in apparent effort to catch his breath.

Still yards away from the gate, the strength to keep upright and moving forward seemed to fail him and he fell, crumbling into a heap and not moving again. The hood of the cloak had slipped back in the fall, and the gentle breeze that had felt so good on Harry's face just moments ago blew through pale blond hair.

With a shuddering exhale as his breath choked in his throat, Harry turned away from the window, glass grinding under his boots, and began the long walk back down to the dungeons to deliver Lupin's wand and relieve Snape from his sickbed vigil so that he may retrieve Draco Malfoy's unconscious body from outside the school's gates.


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