Chapter 15
“Yes, indeed!” A voice rang in the darkness. “What are you doing here?” Jeremy Potter descended the grand staircase. Standing in the dark behind him were several large figures. Harry thought it likely that Kaldensky was somewhere nearby, keeping hidden. One person he recognized immediately was Marcuso.
“You slimy….,” Harry raised his wand. Marcuso raised his hand, palm outward and mumbled something. Lightening shot from his hand and threw Harry across the room. He skidded on his back for several feet before stopping. His clothes smoked from the heat of the lightening. Harry was aware that Marcuso had done something that Jolie had told him about at one time- he had ‘thrown the lightening’.
Snape rose from the floor and watched Harry gasp for breath. He then turned to Jeremy Potter. Jeremy circled the large room, his eyes glittering cold like that of a serpent. Harry thought he had the eyes of a ‘fascinator’.
“The curtain is about to fall gentlemen,” he said. “I have had just about enough of both of you. I really don’t need you Snape. You provided a little fun for Lestrange and now I see you’ve ‘done her in’, as the locals like to say. I thought to use you in the ‘reversal charm’ but our Master’s faithful followers are becoming rather sparse of late. He’s not going to like it that you killed her.”
Jeremy moved around the room slowly, examining the statuary that lined the foyer. Tall windows flashed with lightening and a gale wind whistled through the cathedral ceiling. He was dressed in a dark suit, with a spotless white shirt and a robe that trailed the floor. He held a wand lazily in his hand.
“You cannot reverse the spell without Severus,” Harry said. He slowly rose to his feet and was talking to stall for time. The front door to the veranda was feet away. He thought that at least one of the people hidden around the Manor would stumble on the scene. Not even the Dementors that were standing watch at various parts of the house had shown up in the large Hall.
“Not true, Mr. Potter, “ Jeremy said, “or should I call you- son?”
“My mother loved Severus,” Harry shouted above the roar of the wind and the thunder. “The spell was binding because of it. We did it together.” Snape glanced at him, his eyes clear. “Clearly, I am not your son,” Harry said scathingly, “but he is.” Harry looked at Snape and began to edge towards him. Snape was standing bent over slightly, still in pain from the torture he had endured.
Jeremy laughed softly, “Yes.” He twirled the wand. “Bloody brilliant thing to do. The Master was very clever. However, my SON is a small disappointment to me, I must confess,” Potter sat down in a red velvet chair that looked almost black in the light. Snape still had his wand in his hand although it was pointed to the floor.
Harry was edging closer to Snape, hoping that his Potion's Master was himself, hoping that he knew what was happening. They had very little chance to escape. They were probably going to die, but he needed Snape’s help. The only hope that remained was that there were three people besides himself and Snape in the room; two against three.
“Our Master will be here shortly in case you were considering attempting to leave.” Jeremy’s voice was filled with sarcasm. “Not that you’d get very far. There are at least twenty Death Eaters outside and a few little surprises inside.” The white teeth suddenly glimmered in the half light. “I must say, Potter, I am intrigued about how you managed to get in. I shall be only too interested in the answers as you scream them out with your last breath. Our Master does like a good time, you know,” he said and chuckled in the dark.
He stood and circled a statute made of black marble, stroking it with his hands. “You must care for our friend Severus very much to put your life at risk so often for him. Not that I mind your putting yourself so easily into my hands.” He strolled to the next statue in line with the others. His voice was mellow and low, “It’s very strange that you feel that way, unless you weren’t aware…” he draped himself against the statute.
Snape stood erect. “That’s enough!” his baritone voice rang out followed by a clap of thunder for emphasis.
Potter laughed, “He’s not aware… he doesn’t know! How very rich. Oh this is fun. We will have many hours to teach you about your Professor’s life.” The voice was contemptuous. “How he had an affair with that seedy little tramp you call your mother. How many men was she with Severus, a hundred…more? Whose to say whose son you are, Harry. Perhaps Severus can say. Did you have a good time with her too?”
“That’s a lie,” Harry shouted. He was now standing shoulder to shoulder with Snape. His wand was up and pointed at Jeremy.
“Is it?” Potter stepped away from the statute and into the dim light. “I should know. You see I carry his memories inside me. I am the sum of two you might say.” Potter opened wide his arms.
“Harry,” it was Snape. He spoke very quietly and gently, “He is the master of lies. Don’t believe or listen to what he tells you.”
Suddenly for the first time in months Harry suddenly felt his scar burning. Voldemort had not been aware of his existence, thought he had actually killed Harry up until a short time ago. Now he was aware, very aware and he was coming. It was almost like second nature for Harry to reach for the scar.
Potter noticed and laughed. “I see you are aware that he is coming. Very useful, that scar, isn’t it.”
“How….how did you know?” Harry asked, bending slightly hoping the blinding pain would ease and knowing it wouldn’t.
“Oh we have known for a long time,” Potter said.
Snape glanced at him. They were shoulder to shoulder. “Is it true? Is he coming?” he whispered. Potter was walking around the room again caressing the different statuary and talking. Snape used the opportunity to speak to Harry when he saw him nod in affirmation. “You must turn and look me in the eyes right now.” Harry raised his head and looked up into Snape’s face. “LEGILIMENS.”
Harry hadn’t been expecting it. He felt the same warm heated spinning he’d experienced before when they both entered Dumbledore’s mind when he was cocooned. Now Harry was whirling in synchronization with Snape. Harry heard Snape’s voice say, “It was the only way.”
They floated in a gauzy white-ish cloud and Snape walked towards him, mist swirling around them. He looked rather strange to Harry, all dressed in black amidst the white background. He spoke but his mouth did not move. “Harry, he would have ripped your mind apart to find out what you know. This way I can protect you. Do not speak to him no matter what happens.”
Harry nodded and seemed to move with Snape through his memories, once again sharing a connection, a common thread. Harry could see and feel Snape’s memories and the emotions that went with them. Harry saw himself starting school at Hogwarts, standing in line waiting to be sorted and at the same time staring down at himself from inside Snape’s mind. The scenery changed and it was Snape standing in line waiting to be sorted and two boys making cheeky remarks to him; one was James Potter, the other Sirius Black.
“So it goes back that far,” He thought to himself and was answered.
“Yes, it went back that far.” Snape’s voice drifted somewhere at the back of his head.
Memories seem to melt together, as did time and people. It was a blur to Harry who felt that sickening spin in the pit of his ethereal stomach. They were at Hogwarts and Snape was a teenager, sitting alone in the garden courtyard. He looked shaken and upset. A girl approached him from behind. Harry recognized his mother. He had seen her in Snape’s memories before, when James and Sirius were taunting him. To Harry it felt like this scene was not long after that event. Snape’s otherworldly voice was speaking to him. “Don’t watch, don’t listen.” But it was very faint and Harry was drawn to the scene by his mother.
Lily approached the sitting teen and touched him gently on the shoulder. He didn’t move. It was clear that he knew she was near. “Severus,” she said gently, “you shouldn’t let them do that to you. One of these days you’ll have to stand up for yourself. You’re a really wonderful wizard and you can make them stop.” Harry knew she was talking about his father and Sirius’ bullying.
The young Severus didn’t look up. He shook his bent head and studied the ground. “It’s not that Lily,” he said his voice quivering. “It’s that…you saw them and…and, I said something terrible to you. It‘s not how I feel.”
The young girl dropped down on the stone seat beside him and took his hand. “I know, it’s okay. I know what happened Severus, it’s ok.” She tried to get eye contact and he was refusing her. And then she lifted his head with her fingers under his chin and looked at him. His face was a study in agony and pain. Harry’s heart raced as he looked at the teenage boy and felt all of the pain he was experiencing. Lily smiled and leaned in and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Harry experienced a jolt of shock and wonder. Then she gave him a quick hug and stood. “When will you learn,” she said.
The memory faded and Harry and Snape moved on into other blinding, speeding memories. When Harry thought he was lost he realized he was suddenly standing in a dark room, lit by a single candelabra and Snape stood beside him. They were still connected and Snape looked at him and thought, “He has come. This will be terrible, for he will reach in with tiger claws.”
Standing before them was Voldemort, a wretched figure of a man. Harry remembered the desecrated man who had taken this form in the cemetery the night he had regained his human body and the night Pettigrew killed Cedric Diggory. Harry had seen him briefly once again in the Hall at the Department of Mysteries and again briefly at the Fair grounds in Godric’s Hollow.
The man was a torn and tattered remnant of a human being. His face was pocked with unhealed sores and his eyes burned red with anger and evil. His nose was half-eaten and there were no lips visible only the hollow cheekbones of a skeleton. His teeth were yellow and sharp. And he laughed. Although Harry did not hear the sound come from his throat or mouth but through his mind, it felt like a white-hot iron searing through his brain.
“What have we here,” he said, delightedly. “Very clever of you, Severus. I cannot kill your physical body without killing the boy, too. But we shall see. I want to know how to rid myself of this curse the two of you have conjured. And I will know of it or you shall suffer unspeakable pain.” The figure slowly moved around the nondescript room. “I will hear of the prophecy- the full extent of it, as well.” He grinned a horrible sickly grin before pointing a finger at Harry’s heart. “LEGILIMENS!” he said in a gravelly, cold screech.
Snape stepped in front of Harry and cried out immediately. Harry could feel and hear the pain that Snape experienced as Voldemort raped his mind; but Harry himself was buffered by Snape’s mind. Voldemort probed with mental fingers, searching Snape’s memories.
“Agh!” Voldemort withdrew and seethed in fury. “You know Severus that you cannot protect him forever. I will destroy your mind. You will be a babbling lunatic before I am finished.” Voldemort stepped back and then said, “Tell me what I wish to know and return to me as my servant. I will give you a place next to me. I will forgive you.” The mental voice of Voldemort softened and was now beguiling and charming.
Harry was entwined in Snape’s mind, alone with him for the moment. He focused his mind trying to reach the one that was standing shuddering with him. “Don’t do it Severus.”
“Harry, he will break me in the end and he will enter your mind,” Severus’ said his mental voice shaking. “All is lost.”
Harry struggled. He knew that if Snape was not guarding him that Voldemort would reach into his mind immediately and it would feel ten times worse then it did watching Snape absorb it.
“Severus,” Harry forced the thought towards the man beside him bent in agony. “Severus, she did care about you. It wasn’t a lie. My mother did love you.” He sent the message with all of his strength.
Snape didn’t move, but Harry sensed the words reaching the man. The room grew lighter, the edges softened. A warm, sweet breeze seemed to reach Harry’s nose. It was the garden.
“Yes, that’s it. Remember, feel her touch you,” Harry sent the thought.
Voldemort realizing that something was happening reached out his hand to probe again. This time Snape’s screams were deafening. He was reliving in minute detail his most horrific memories. Harry saw the flow of memories like a gushing wound. Snape’s son being born and his death, Snape’s wife dying in agony, his father abusing and then in the act of murdering his mother and Snape walking in on it and murdering his father. Each tender and horrendous pain probed and picked apart and reviewed by the Master of Agony.
“Stop it!” he shouted, “Stop, your killing him!” Harry looked at his mental partner who was now on his knees and moaning. Harry knew they had seconds before Snape collapsed altogether. He formed an image, as he had many times before, in the same way he had performed the Patronus Charm. He thought of his mother, his long dead mother, standing in the ruins of her home. She was looking at both of them, the look of happiness on her face. “PROTEGO!” He shouted feeling his mind sending forth the charm before darkness closed in.
He had done it! Harry once again found his feet firmly planted on the black marble tile of the foyer and Snape standing beside him as lightening cracked so loudly he was deafened and could not hear what was being said to him.
On the stairs, almost in total darkness, stood Voldemort. Standing beside him, hands folded neatly in front of him was Jeremy Potter and kneeling at Voldemort’s feet was the Gypsy, Marcuso. He had a look of surprise on his face.
Harry could feel Snape weaving unsteadily beside him but didn’t chance to look in his face. I’ve done it! he thought to himself. I pushed him out of our minds. Harry looked up into Voldemort’s face almost hidden in darkness. A flash of lightening revealed the same evil, skull-like face. He could tell Voldemort was furious.
“Kill them both,” he commanded Potter. “I want them to suffer.”
“Lord,” Potter stepped down and knelt in front of the dark figure, “let us perform the Reversal spell and then I will kill them with pleasure.”
“It cannot be done here,” Voldemort said. “We must return to Godric’s Hollow.”
It was at that instant that Marcuso looked over his shoulder at Harry and nodded slightly. As he rolled to one side, Harry raised his arm, his hand up and palm outward and ‘threw the lightening’.
“Drop your wand!” he shouted at Potter.
Suddenly people began to appear in the doorways growing from long shadows into the dark. Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagal, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Fred and George, Bill Weasley, Hermione and Ron. At the other end; the members of the D.A., Ginny Weasley, Dean Thomas, Ernie Macmillan, Seamus Finnigan, Cho Chang, the Creevey brothers, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lavender Brown and Neville Longbottom. There were others slipping out of the shadows; Nymphadora Tonks and Dumbledore.
Voldemort vanished in an instant. Suddenly dozens of wands were being lit and the room was illuminated with a bluish glow.
“Harry!” Potter said, stepping back when he found himself alone. He waved his wand in a slow circumference around the room. “Son?” Harry saw the look in the eyes change, it softened and glowed. “Harry?” He could see something there and for a minute, he could feel his father’s presence. And then it was gone, as if the ugly malignant force snuffed it out.
Harry raised his arm, his hand up and palm outward and threw the lightening.
“Harry, NO! You cannot kill him!” Snape swung around in front of him just as the spell was cast. The white-hot light hit him in the chest. His arms were flung out and he looked at his chest with surprise and then flew back and slid on his back to Jeremy Potter’s feet.
Harry looked up and the last thing he saw was Dumbledore sending his own beam of green light at Jeremy Potter who died with a look of surprise on his face; still staring down at Snape’s lifeless body at his feet.
Thirty people watched as Harry went over to Snape and dropped to his knees. He lifted Snape’s head and cradled it in his arms breaking into sobs. “No!” he sobbed, “You’re not dead. I won’t let you die! Wake up!”
Dumbledore walked over slowly and knelt beside him; his own face was ashen. His trembling hand took Snape’s.
“Albus, I’ve killed him!” Harry sobbed.