Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 11 A Strangling Incantation

The next morning at dawn, when Harry woke up, Ron was already gone. To the Owlery, Harry thought. Harry went down to have an early breakfast. There were only a few students scattered in the Great Hall and Auror Simmings was seated at one end of the Gryffindor table. He spotted Harry and gestured him over.

“Are you a former Gryffindor student?” asked Harry and sat down at his side.

“Of course,” grinned Simmings.

“And where’s your object of protection? Aren’t you supposed to be by his side twenty-four hours a day?” asked Harry.

Simmings pulled a bothered face.

“I’ve been relayed by Bellamy Burgess for a short while. Approved by Mrs Steadfast. Must be allowed to lower my guard a few times a day. Not that I expect much to happen. Although, yesterday there were a few students who were a bit nasty towards Mr Malfoy. He’s not much liked, and that’s an understatement,” said the Auror who was eating neatly from a bowl of porridge which made him look very much like a good little boy who ate what his mother had placed before him.

“Well, he did go along with Voldemort almost until the very end,” said Harry.

“You defended him in the pub,” Simmings pointed out.

“I didn’t really, I just wanted to calm things down,” retorted Harry. “Although there might be some extenuating circumstances in Malfoy’s case. I don’t think that Voldemort was what Malfoy thought at first when he became involved. And he couldn’t bring himself to kill Dumbledore.”

“Maybe not. I’ll leave that for the judges of the Wizengamot to decide.” Simmings shrugged. “Meanwhile, I’ll do my job. It’s tedious though.” 

“I guess they let you inside the Slytherin house?” asked Harry with curiosity.

Simmings nodded.

“Burgess too? Which house did he belong to?”

“Burgess didn’t go to Hogwarts,” said Simmings. “His parents worked abroad and he went to Beauxbatons.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and Slytherin house is a creepy place. Dungeons. Green light,” said Simmings.

“I know,” said Harry and told Simmings how he had once sneaked into the Slytherin common room together with Ron, transformed by a Polyjuice extract to Slytherin pupils. Simmings laughed heartily. Heads turned to look at them.

“Sorry, I had better get back to duty now,” said Simmings. ”Not exactly my idea of an Auror’s job when I started this career, but it has to be done. Nice to have a chat with you, Mr Potter.”

”Harry,” said Harry. Simmings grinned.

”Thanks, Harry,” he said. ”I’m never going to be on first name terms with Mr Malfoy. He treats me more like some kind of servant. I have to keep within three steps from him - those are orders. He knows it and he still scowls haughtily at me.”

“Do you have to sleep in his bed, too?” joked Harry, but to his surprise Simmings coloured up to his hair roots. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,“ Harry hastened to say, confused.

“Not at all... I... I actually sleep in a bed next to him. Anyone who wants to attack him has to get past me and my alarm charms. It feels weird, though, to be back sleeping in a dormitory, like a pupil. I left school nearly ten years ago...” mumbled Simmings and set off.

Ron showed up with Ginny and Hermione and settled down for breakfast. When Harry had come back from Snape’s office last night, still fuming with anger, he had found Ron sitting by himself in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. He had interrupted his friend’s reverie and confided in him. Ron had been sympathising for what he saw as an unjust assignment with extra work. Harry did not care so much about the essay. He was more upset about the violation of his mind. It had allowed them to call Snape a number of names, however, which calmed Harry down eventually. Ron still did not get the Legilimency part.

“Occlumency was always a scary business and it never worked for you, right? But at least we know now why you’re so good at incantations. You got it from your mother,” he said.

Harry realised that his friends were not up to date when it came to everything that had passed between Snape and himself the last week. They knew that he had had troubles with nightmares and that it had turned out to be the remnants of Voldemort that plagued him and that Snape had helped him get rid of it. But there had been so much more pleasant things to be told about the journey to Australia, so much unpleasant worry about different family members and such haste to prepare everything for the start of term, that there had been no time left for Harry to go into details.

Ginny was the one who had the best idea of the poor state Harry had deteriorated to during the summer, but not even she knew the full extent of his condition. She was overjoyed about having him restored and well again, though, and Harry had debated fiercely with her to prevent her from sending a “Thank you”-note to Snape. “Aren’t you grateful? He saved your life!” she had said. “I am - and I have thanked him duly. But he’s also a git! And you cannot send him a card like that!” Harry pointed indignantly at the butterflies that Ginny had magicked on to the letter that would take off when someone opened it. “It’s beautiful magic, but not to a man like him! He’ll either sneer at it, or he’ll get hallucinations and think it’s from Lily and he’ll have one of his fits of rage like he always seems to do when my mother is mentioned, or hinted at, or simply thought of! Didn’t you listen? Snape has forbidden me to talk about her in front of him.” Harry had at last dissuaded her from the butterflies, but to his vexation, Ginny did send a letter to thank Snape for saving Harry from his horrible nightmare spells.

In the Great Hall, Harry had a second helping of breakfast while he listened to the enthusiastic talks of Ginny on quidditch. She had been appointed captain of the Gryffindor team and speculated wildly on tactics and on possible team members.

“It’s such a pity you cannot play, Harry,” she said for the twentieth time that morning.

“And me... Your brother...” added Ron, also for the twentieth time. He sighed and looked unhappy.

“Time to go to class,” said Hermione.

***

The day passed pleasantly between lessons and small talk in the corridors, interrupted from time to time by some second or third year pupil who would come up to them and stare at them until they were taken notice of. Then they would ask questions about last spring and the fight against Voldemort. It was mostly Harry who was addressed, but he, Ron and Hermione would take turns to answer the questions as politely and as briefly as they possibly could and they would move on.

Harry survived a class of Potions with Snape at the end of the day by sitting in the back row, bending over his cauldron, careful not to meet the eyes of his teacher once. He handed in an impeccable Skele-Gro draught and hastened out of the dungeons. Ron and Hermione lingered behind and Harry thought he would see them later in the common room.

When he emerged from the stairs into the Entrance Hall, the brown-haired, sixth year boy who Harry had noticed in the pub the other day, came out from a corridor to his left. They were about to collide. Harry stopped to let him pass, but the boy stopped as well and stared at Harry.

“Hello, I’m Harry Potter.” Harry stretched out his hand. “Maybe you knew that...” He smiled apologetically. The boy took his hand.

“Hello... David...“ The boy started to introduce himself, but Harry’s attention was suddenly drawn to a sound that came from the corridor behind the boy. Harry lifted his left hand.

“Wait. What’s that?” Unknowingly Harry grasped the boy’s hand a little harder as he listened, then let go of it, to advance slowly into the corridor.

It was an old man’s voice, coarse and strange. It was singing in a weird, hissing tone. Suddenly two figures appeared, tumbling towards Harry in the corridor. It was Simmings, who was dragging Malfoy along. Malfoy’s face was blue, his breathing rattling and his own hands clutched at his throat. The young Slytherin fell to his knees.

“Help…” he whimpered. The boy whose name was David backed off with a terrified expression on his face. Simmings turned to Harry.

“I don’t know what‘s the matter with Mr Malfoy. Why’s he ill? It started when that man began to sing. Where’s Professor Snape? Or Mrs Steadfast? I’ve given the alert on my security watch,” said the Auror in a strained tone.

The singing voice was coming nearer and it was joined by the howling voice of a younger man, coming from the dungeons that Harry had just left. The incantation - for it was one, Harry was sure of it - was the same, but the two reciters were completely out of tune. Malfoy started to jerk. On an impulse, Harry turned to him.

Muffliato,” he said. The spell would cause a ringing sound in the ears of the person it was directed at and was mostly used to prevent a person from listening in on a private conversation. As soon as the spell hit Malfoy, his breathing eased and he regained normal colour. He did not rise from the floor, but cowered up against the wall, still terrified. Screams and thuds were heard from the dungeons. Harry wondered if Ron and Hermione were involved in what was happening down there.

Behind Simmings, in the corridor, a limping old man with ragged clothes appeared. He reminded Harry somewhat of Mundungus, the Order member who had lived on the streets of London and hung around with criminals. But this man did not have the alert, calculating eyes of Mundungus - he looked eerie and lost and had no wand.

“Go easy on him,” Harry murmured to Simmings who had raised his wand, prepared to strike. “Just tie him up, we’ll see what he does.” Simmings did as Harry said and the wizard sank down on his knees, ropes constraining his upper body. Harry put a Langlock spell on the old man and he went silent.

More people emerged into the Entrance Hall. Pupils were hanging over the banisters and standing on the stairs, curious and apprehensive at the same time. From a third corridor opposite Harry, a gang of students appeared, in the middle of whom Harry spotted Neville and Luna. They too had a prisoner, a shabby-looking lady who muttered in a low voice to herself and seemed completely disoriented. They brought her to the middle of the hall. Neville looked inquiringly at Harry.

“What’s all this about? This lady won’t answer any questions. Who are these people? How did they get in?” wondered Neville.

“Exactly what I would like to know.” The stern voice of Mrs Steadfast resonated behind them. She had appeared in the hall and started to inspect the prisoners. The singing from the dungeons had been quieted, but the stumbling sound of many feet resounded from the stairs and told them a group of people were coming up. Snape emerged first, leading a tall young man with wild eyes and a tied tongue. The young man looked equally worn and poor, just like the old man Harry and Simmings had apprehended. Snape thrust him down on the floor and secured him with ropes. Snape looked furious, searched the crowd for someone, then started to talk in a low voice to Mrs Steadfast. Harry spotted Ron and Hermione and gestured for them to come over. He noticed that Simmings brought Malfoy forth to Snape and Mrs Steadfast.

“What happened down there?” Harry asked his friends in a low voice.

“That guy appeared out of nowhere, right in front of us as we were coming up from Potions,” said Ron.

“The wizard looked confounded at first and we were taken aback. Snape was right behind us,” said Hermione.

“How did Snape react when the guy started the recitation?” asked Harry. 

“We were so engulfed by this guy that we didn’t notice, at first, that something was wrong with Snape.”

“The others had heard the noise and were coming back to check what was going on.” Hermione and Ron were speaking in turns.

“The guy didn’t have a wand or anything so he didn’t look that dangerous. It was a curious incantation. I’m not sure he knew it very well. It sounded strange. Hissing, sort of…”

“Ron and I drew our wands as soon as he appeared,” continued Hermione. “When I looked at Snape to see what he wanted us to do, I noticed… his face! Harry, Snape was suffocating! He managed to Muffliate himself eventually and it helped. Snape got back to normal. I don’t think anyone else noticed.”

“I did the same thing to Malfoy. He was suffocating, too,” explained Harry and turned around because Luna was tugging at his sleeve.

“Harry, what about the black box that the Wary-witch brought with her?” she asked.

“What box?” said Neville.

“Didn’t you see it? She sat on it when we found her. She left it in there.” Luna pointed. Harry grabbed her resolutely by the wrist.

“Mrs Steadfast, please!” He shouted to get the head of the Aurors’ attention. “My friend here says something about a black box in that corridor!”

Both Mrs Steadfast and Snape turned their heads towards them. Harry saw their eyes widen. At the same moment a big explosion came from the corridor they pointed at.

Harry saw a swarm of black balls rushing from the corridor right into the hall. He heard screams and saw two people fall to the ground. Harry was the quickest to react. His protecting shield expanded over the heads of everyone in the hall just in time to deviate the black swarm upwards. He raised his left hand and spread his shield to protect the persons standing on the upper levels of the hall. He managed to curve the shield so that it trapped the dark bowls in a giant sack where they rushed around like mad bees. He put strenuous forces to constrain the sack and force the attacking balls back into the corridor from where they came.

“Excellent, Potter! Hold on!” shouted Mrs Steadfast as she spelled the doors wide open and started to evacuate people into the inner court. She shouted something else over her shoulder that Harry did not catch, as he was fighting hard to maintain the protection. The bowls ripped holes in his shield all the time and he had to create new sheets continuously. Other people started to shout at him as well - what were they saying? Could they not see that he was doing his very best? He was fighting furiously. In the corner of an eye, he saw Snape turn around from  where he was kneeling on the floor next to the body of an injured pupil.

“Transform the shield into Trapping web!” roared Snape. Harry frowned. It did ring a bell. Did it not have to do with cleaning? He felt confused and he supposed it showed on his face, because Snape turned away from him again, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Ron came up at Harry’s side and spoke in his ear.

“You’ve done it once. Do you remember the magical bin bags that we used to collect all the dark stuff in when we cleaned out Sirius’ house at Grimmauld Place? That’s it - Trapping web, the strongest magical material there is,” said Ron. Harry remembered vaguely, but which spell did you have to use?

Hermione stood on his other side and whispered in his ear. He concentrated to transform the incantation he was continuously reciting and insert the new spell she gave him, without dropping the power of the protection. When the grey material of the Trapping web emerged from his wand and superimposed itself upon the protection shield, Harry felt the magic stabilise. The grey, cloth-like material resisted to the attacks of the malignant balls. He was finally able to relax a little bit.

Mrs Steadfast left her post at the door and gestured at one of her Aurors to continue the evacuation of the pupils. She rushed over to Harry.

“By Mercure!”  she said. ”Now that you’ve stopped spelling protection shields like you spit out cherry stones, try to force the buzz balls back to where they came from.” Harry worked his magic with both hands and wand, shrunk the protecting sack and pushed it forward. “Make way! Make way, please!” Mrs Steadfast preceded him through the hall. He forced the protection sack to shrink and made it move back into the corridor, until they spotted a black box on the floor. Ron and Hermione followed behind him.

“That’s the kind of box my brothers use for their Filibuster Fireworks in their joke shop,” exclaimed Ron.

“Someone has hi-jacked the idea for a dark counterpart. Do you know how it closes?” asked Mrs Steadfast. Ron lay down on his knees to approach the box.

“Yes, I think so. If you thrust the balls in, Harry, I’m going to try to shut it and fasten the lid. Then you’d better wrap the whole thing up in the Trapping web sack, just to be sure,” he said.

“Careful, Ron,” said Hermione. They managed to follow out Ron’s suggestion and with still fast beating hearts, they were relieved to see Mrs Steadfast lift up the grey sack and walk out of the castle with it.

“Come on, you lot, we still need to evacuate. The castle needs to be searched,” she launched at them over her shoulder.

***

It started to get dark before they were let inside again. For several hours the pupils had been stuck at the inner court. They sat packed on the lawn. Sandwiches had been brought out for them to eat, by house-elves, and luckily it had been a sunny, warm evening. Cheers for Harry’s quick intervention alternated with taunts about his ignorance of something as basic as Trapping web. Harry tried not to be too embarrassed. Ron made a fuss about insisting on sending an owl to Mrs Weasley.

“Of course she’ll be worried!” he shouted at his friends who tried to point out that Mr Weasley, who worked at the Ministry, would receive all the information needed to reassure Mrs Weasley of their safety and that he should let the Aurors do their job, without unnecessary interruption. The squad of Aurors had been augmented tenfold and there were a lot of come-and-gos. Harry did not get the impression that the Aurors had found any other dangerous artefacts, though. They saw people from the Ministry arrive and just before the pupils were let back in, the Minister of Magic himself entered the castle.

As Harry was about to mount the Gryffindor tower with his friends, he was intercepted by the short Auror he had seen the day before. She introduced herself as Katie Swan and told him that he was expected at Snape’s office at once. Two visits to the headmaster’s office, two evenings in a row, was not a good start of the term, but contrary to the previous evening, at least, Harry supposed that he would not be left alone at Snape’s mercy this time.

He was right. Mrs Steadfast, Kingsley Shacklebolt and his secretary were in the office. Harry inclined his head in the direction of Mrs Steadfast and Snape, who had a general disapproving look on his face, and shook hands with the minister and his secretary.

“I have some questions for you, Mr Potter,” said Kingsley. “But first I’d like to thank you. We owe the fact that we have no casualties after the attack today to your good judgement and quick reaction. Professor Snape was able to heal the pair of pupils who were hit, but imagine the chaos if there had been fifty or hundreds of injured - each of those black balls carried terrible curses. Thanks to your remarkably fast protective reflex we could avoid that.”

“With some help from his friends,” muttered Snape and continued disdainfully: “There is, alas, in counterbalance to the remarkably quick reflexes, a remarkably vast ignorance on Mr Potter’s side on simple matters of magic, such as the uses of Trapping web, for example.” Harry coloured a little. Why did Snape find it necessary to rub in Harry’s shortcomings at this precise moment, in front of the minister? Mrs Steadfast seemed to find it harsh, too.

“Never played ‘Trivial Records in the Magical World?’ when you were a kid, did you, Mr Potter? ‘The strongest magical material is...’?” Mrs Steadfast asked cheerfully.

“Raised in a Muggle family...” Harry muttered in answer.

“In that case, I’m afraid it’s Hogwarts as an institution that will have to take the blame for possible blanks in Mr Potter’s education,” said Kingsley evenly.

Snape snorted.

“Do you know how those people got inside the castle?” asked Harry, determined not to let himself be provoked by Snape. Mrs Steadfast took a small bottle from the desk.

“We found similar phials in the pockets of all three,” she said.

Harry examined the black content of the bottle. Instinctively, he cast a look at Snape before he cleared his voice.

“It’s a Vanishing potion,” said Harry. He remembered what Snape had told him about it. You could take the potion, vanish and reappear unpredictably at another, nearby location. His hand shook slightly as he put the bottle back on the desk. He was grateful that Snape, at least, abstained from making snide allusions to his previous dealings with that particular draught, in front of the others. “They took the potion outside the castle and reappeared within?” asked Harry a bit hoarsely.

“It seems so,” said Mrs Steadfast. “Yesterday night, it was still possible to pass the ramparts. The intruders must have sneaked right up to the walls of the castle, taken the potion during the early morning hours and not reappeared until the next afternoon on the other side of the walls. Hagrid says that some Australian guard-dogs of his alerted him last evening, but that he didn’t see anything.”

The Kangabbits, more likely, Harry thought. They must live up to Ron’s description as watchful creatures. Maybe Hagrid would stop belittling their magical senses after this.

“Do you know who those people are?” Harry continued to ask.

“Junkies from the wizard gutter of London. They were hired for the job,” answered Mrs Steadfast. “Unfortunately they cannot tell us much about their employer, but our guess is someone from the old Death Eaters’ gang. What’s odd is that they claim to have been taken to a cave somewhere and given instructions from a young woman.” 

“What do you reckon about the incantation they sang, Mr Potter?” asked Kingsley.

“Powerful,” Harry responded promptly. “They didn’t even perform the incantation perfectly. They had no wands, they made no magic with their hands, but the imperfectly uttered words were single-handedly enough to work on Mr Malfoy and on Professor Snape.” Mrs Steadfast frowned and approached Snape.

“You omitted to tell me that you were affected by the incantation, did you?” she asked in a dangerously candid voice. Snape shot a furious look at Harry who hurried to his defence, without really knowing why.

“Professor Snape knew how to protect himself, no doubt,” said Harry. “But he must know about this incantation. It’s bound to be an invention of Voldemort’s. A method of controlling his Death Eaters, maybe?” Harry looked inquiringly at Snape.

“I think I’ve heard about it. It’s called the Strangling Incantation and dates from before even my early days as a Death Eater,” Snape answered reluctantly. “Voldemort taught some of his most loyal servants this piece of magic in order to control and be able to punish their fellow Death Eaters in case of escapades from the Dark Lord’s rules and wishes. The incantation spread and was misused, however - to Voldemort’s discontent. There were deaths he had not sanctioned, in short - so he forbade all use of it and at the time I signed up, it was no longer taught and rarely spoken of.”

Kingsley nodded thoughtfully.

”I ask myself who that young woman might be, who taught the intruders the incantation,” continued Snape. ”I’ve been searching my memory, but cannot pick out any likely candidates among the few female Death Eaters I know of. In any case, she’s too young to know about the incantation.”

”She might be the daughter of a Death Eater, or the grand-daughter of one of Voldemort’s older servants,” said Mrs Steadfast. Snape glanced at her, pursing his lips in doubt. ”There’s a new generation emerging, on the dark side, as well as on ours,” continued Mrs Steadfast and gestured with her head at Harry. ”I loathe to tell you, Professor, but you and me, we no longer belong to the bright, young ones. In the long run, we’ll be handing over business to them.”

”Hmpf… I hope the new generation will be more enlightened than it shows signs of being right now,” scoffed Snape with a haughty glance at Harry and changed the subject. ”We need to teach Draco Malfoy how to protect himself against the strangling incantation. It works on everyone who has ever had the Dark Mark burnt into their skin. Mr Malfoy and myself are proof of that. But it’s easy to protect oneself, once you know how,” he added, forestalling Mrs Steadfast who had grown serious and concerned.

It’s easy as long as you have your wand at hand and can cast a Muffliato spell on yourself, Harry thought. Still, what a threat to live under! To be done in by a song!

“But you didn’t react when I ventured to read the incantation,” objected Mrs Steadfast. ”Harry was right, the intruders didn’t know the incantation by heart. They read from these notes.“ She handed a creased piece of a parchment over to Harry.

“I noticed that there were elements of Parseltongue at the end of the phrases,” muttered Harry. “Maybe that’s what makes it so powerful.”

He started to read and added a hissing sound at the end of every sentence. To his surprise and mild satisfaction, Snape started to cough after only a few lines and fumbled with his wand. Harry stopped.

“Parsel-sounds, indeed!” said Kingsley with curiosity. ”Can anyone make them? I thought you needed to be a Parselmouth?”

”I believe it can be taught,” said Harry. Ron had, after all, been able to learn how to open the Chamber of Secrets with a Parsel command.

“You have earned yourself an attending Auror, twenty-four hours a day,” Mrs Steadfast hissed at Snape between clenched teeth.

“I have the right to decline that offer,” Snape retorted stiffly. Kingsley looked thoughtfully at Snape before he turned to Harry.

“I said earlier that I had a question for you, Mr Potter. Let me explain first that the attack on the school today has caused much distress, first of all among the parents of the children attending the school, but also among the members of the School Board. The management of Hogwarts has been a controversial matter ever since the end of the war. I have personally advocated that Professor Snape stay as headmaster. He has the experience of running the school, he’s resourceful and he has the potential to reconcile different parties that have long stood on different sides in the Wizard-Muggle issue. Reconciliation is a prerequisite to move on and to build a functioning and peaceful magical society for the future.”

Harry wondered what Kingsley was getting at. He liked Kingsley, but reconciliation was definitely not what he associated with Snape. Maybe the scepticism showed in his face, because Snape turned his head away and Kingsley made a pause.

“Well, considering what you just showed us, Harry, meaning that, most probably, Professor Snape was one of the targets of the attack, it’s not at all rational what the School Board now does, namely accuse him of facilitating it. They vociferously demand his immediate dismissal or suspension. I’m going to use my influence to refer all complaints to an inquiry later on. But I would like to know that I have at least someone to support my action. So I have one question and a demand of you, Harry. Firstly, would you be ready to testify in favour of Professor Snape? Secondly, will you give me the memories you told me about, which constitute proof of his true loyalty during the war?” finished Kingsley. Harry sighed. It would not be easy to disappoint the minister, but he knew the stand he had to take.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but I no longer have the memories. I’ve returned them to Professor Snape. I’m willing to testify in his favour, but I’m not sure that he wants me to. I won’t do it against his will,” answered Harry.

“What? This man is too stubborn for his own good!” Kingsley gestured irritably at Snape. “By Merlin’s beard, how do you expect me to protect you when you will not cooperate?” Snape looked troubled but determined, walked close up to Kingsley and started to talk to him in a quick, low voice. Harry could hear every word all the same. He felt embarrassed, as if he was listening in on something he should not, and stared at the floor.

“You know that I don’t want to explain my motives for changing sides to Dumbledore’s long ago. I cannot let the boy testify, because he knows,” said Snape.

“My dear man, a lot of people know by now. Don’t be so sensitive about it. There’s no shame...”  Kingsley said impatiently.

“No one knows!” Snape exclaimed loudly. “And Mr Potter divulged the contents of those memories against my will.”

Harry opened his mouth to protest - against Snape’s will? By Merlin, he had been fighting Voldemort! And he thought that Snape was already dead!

”I acknowledge that it was under extreme conditions,” Snape conceded after a glance at Harry’s indignant expression, ”and in people’s minds, that makes allowances for misinterpretations. At best, what Potter divulged will be regarded as incoherent nonsense in the heat of a battle. In a courtroom, however,” Snape hissed in a quieter voice and pointed at Harry, ”what he says will carry another weight. Therefore I refuse to let him testify.”

“Then I might just as well let you down right now! Your defence won’t hold in a trial without that testimony and you know it!” Kingsley lost his temper. Harry backed a few steps. Snape spoke urgently in his quiet voice again, rushing over the words.

“Try to delay the inquiry, Kingsley. Give me the greatest part of the year. I need to tidy up after Voldemort. You know that I’m cooperating fully and working my hardest together with Mrs Steadfast. You know that we need to find the... You know what we must find. As to my position as headmaster, I promised Dumbledore to get the school going. Buy me some more time. I won’t mind stepping aside next year, but there’s still too much to do!” pleaded Snape.

Harry wondered what it was that Snape must find together with Mrs Steadfast. Kingsley turned to Harry again.

“I want you to consider whether you would vouch for Professor Snape at a trial,” he said. Harry looked puzzled.

“The boy probably doesn’t know the difference between vouching and testifying. Don’t push him,” Snape said angrily. ”I wouldn’t want him to do it anyway.”

“You wouldn’t let him vouch for you? It could be done without him revealing anything of the background you’re attempting to conceal. This is not rational! What’s wrong between you two?” Kingsley turned to Harry who did not have the faintest idea how to answer.

“I guess... I guess we’ve never got along very well, Professor Snape and me,” Harry said tentatively. “It was between Professor Snape and my father and ... and I actually don’t have that much to do with it.” He thrust his arms out in an innocent gesture.

“Then you might consider vouching for him anyhow?” insisted Kingsley.

“I...” Harry started to say, but was interrupted again by Snape who repeated:

“You cannot demand that of him. And he doesn’t know...”

Snape in his turn was interrupted by Mrs Steadfast.

“Mr Potter has many ways of finding things out, don’t you, son? You take your time and ponder on whether you would consider vouching for this irrational and hot-tempered headmaster of yours.” Snape made a grimace of incredulity and opened his mouth to protest. “And that will do for now, I think, Mr Potter. Thank you, you may return to your house,” Mrs Steadfast finished off in her voice of steel. Harry gave her a quick, broad smile and hastened out of the door.

***

“She called him what? How does she dare?” said Hermione with admiration in her voice. Ginny giggled. Harry had joined his friends in the Gryffindor common room and told them what just happened in Snape’s office. Harry smiled.

“You should’ve seen his face,” he answered. ”I don’t think her description fits Snape’s own idea of himself as the calculating, detached master of Occlumency. I like Mrs Steadfast. She and Snape work a lot together. I only wish I knew on what, precisely. She’s not afraid of him, at any rate. She’s bold and funny. She sounds all British, but I wonder whether she doesn’t have some American influence in her...”

“He’s in a really bad position, though... That’s how it sounds to me,” said Ron warningly. “Do we really want Snape to stay?” he added in a disbelieving voice. “We’ve spent seven years hating him, and now we want him to stay as headmaster?”

“He saved Harry’s life... twice,” said Ginny.

“Three times if you count when he stopped Quirrel, in first year, from throwing Harry off his broomstick in that quidditch match,” said Hermione.

“Four times if you consider that he alerted the Order when we went to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius and were ambushed by the Death Eaters...” Ron added thoughtfully.

“He risked his life when he returned to Voldemort as a spy,” said Harry. He sighed. “And still he’s a git,” he concluded.

“Do you think he went out with your mother?” Ginny blurted out. Harry fidgeted and looked around, but the Muffliato they had covered themselves with was still working.

“Yes...” he said slowly. “I think so, but he hasn’t really told me anything. First I thought that they were only childhood friends and that they grew apart, or that she started to dislike him for his anti-Muggle ideas or something. But I sort of deduced, from what he said, that they did see each other - starting in the summer after that row they had after the OWL exams, probably during their sixth year as well, and the following summer too, before she started to go out with my father in their seventh year. You can’t speak about this though - Snape will murder me if you do.”

“Of course they must have gone out together,” said Ron. “You don’t go nuts with grief over a lost love, for seventeen years, if you haven’t at  least at one time, you know, been together in that way...”

“Stop it, Ron...” squirmed Harry. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay? I can’t help what my mother did or did not do before I was born.” 

“She was free to do whatever she wanted. She had two guys who liked her, so what?” intervened Ginny.

“Yeah... whatever...” Harry wanted to end this part of the conversation. “I still think we must defend his position as headmaster. Dumbledore trusted him and Kingsley believes in him. The problem is that he doesn’t want to be defended... Hermione, what’s the difference between testifying and vouching for a person?” asked Harry.

“When you testify you’re supposed to tell the whole truth and answer all the questions the court might have for you truthfully. You’re able to elaborate on what you know or have witnessed in detail. When you vouch for someone in the magical court, all you do is to assure the court that you know this is a good person. Period. No elaboration. No nuances.”

“A good person…?” gasped Harry. “No less... But what difference will that do? It all comes down to the credibility of the person who vouches.”

“Yes, it does, but I reckon your credibility is extremely high, as was Dumbledore’s at the time he vouched for Snape seventeen years ago, after the first fall of Voldemort,” Hermione pointed out. Harry shook his head.

“I have no illusions,” he said. “Things like that can change. They write something in the Daily Prophet about me and people will start doubting me again - it has happened before.”

“It’s different now!” protested Ron. “You’ve really conquered Voldemort. You killed him.”

“Technically, he killed himself,” retorted Harry. “I would feel more at ease if we could come up with something more substantial to use for Snape’s defence, than my vouching for him. I’m not sure I believe him to be a good man - I mean in some aspects, yes I do, but not… I don’t know what to think about him, really.” Harry shook his head in confusion before he continued. ”Hermione, this is something for you... If you want to go into law, this is an excellent case to practice on.” Ron looked appalled.

“You could look at it that way, I suppose,…” Ron said slowly. “But if Hermione’s to defend Snape, it means additional work, doesn’t it? It will take more of her time from me. She has already started to disappear into the library…” Hermione wriggled.

“Ron...” she said, but Harry interrupted them.

”We’ll all help out then, and see if we can come up with any good ideas. Speaking of which, I have another one...” He started to tell them.

“It’s an interesting idea...” said Hermione after listening, “...but I’m afraid I won’t have time to help you. I’m not as prepared as I used to be at the start of term and if I’m to plunge into a defence case I’d better skip this one. You’ll manage very well on your own anyhow. I noticed that you’ve improved tremendously in that area during the summer.”

“Okay, you’re excused.” Harry smiled at her.

“I’m busy with the quidditch team,” said Ginny quickly. “There are try-outs and tactics to manage... and I think it sounds boring...” she added and laughed at Harry. He was not offended.

“You do quidditch, then,” he smiled back at her. “Ron?”

“All right then, I’ll help you,” Ron said unenthusiastically.

 


You must login (register) to review.
[Report This]


Disclaimer Charm: Harry Potter and all related works including movie stills belong to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic, Warner Bros, and Bloomsbury. Used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended. No money is being made off of this site. All fanfiction and fanart are the property of the individual writers and artists represented on this site and do not represent the views and opinions of the Webmistress.

Powered by eFiction 3.5