A Past Reclaimed by nuw255
Chapter Notes: Snape confronts Ginny about her supposed misuse of a Love Potion, Harry confronts Snape about his confrontation with Ginny, McGonagall confronts Harry about his confrontation with Snape.... The question is, who will emerge victorious? Will any memories be modified?
Panic flooded Harry’s mind as he hurriedly packed away his potion ingredients. He knew exactly what Snape was planning: he was going to take the Daily Prophet article about Ginny’s abuse of Love Potions seriously for no reason other than his hatred of Gryffindors in general and Harry in particular. Harry just hoped that a peaceful method of preventing him from Obliviating Ginny would present itself. If one didn’t, however, he was fully prepared to duel the Potions Master if necessary.
“Strong Protego,” Harry whispered as he passed Ginny on his way out of the classroom. She nodded bravely, and he could see that she was discreetly gripping her wand inside the pocket of her robes.
Once outside in the corridor, Harry ducked into the shadows behind a suit of armor to wait for Snape to lead Ginny out of the classroom. At least if he followed them, he might be able to find a way to help.
Sure enough, a moment later, the Potions Master and the young redheaded witch exited the classroom and strode briskly toward the stairs leading up to the ground floor. Harry noted with relief that Ginny’s right hand remained in the pocket of her robes.
As inconspicuously as possible, Harry stole out of his hiding place and followed them down the corridor, trying to keep them in sight without alerting Snape to his presence. He silently cursed himself for not having his Invisibility Cloak with him at such a critical time, but quickly pushed the thought aside; classes were just letting out, and he wouldn’t be able to keep up if he had to avoid colliding with a mass of students while invisible.
He quickened his pace as Ginny’s bright red hair disappeared into the stairwell, and didn’t slow down again until he had reached the ground floor. Cautiously, he leaned around the corner and spotted Snape ushering Ginny into a room near the end of the hall.
Harry broke into a run. He had to get there before Snape had a chance to do anything to her. He knew very well that her Shield Charm was strong enough to block a Memory Charm, but he still couldn’t risk it. He knew what memory loss was like, and there was no way he was going to allow it to be forced on someone he cared about, especially when there was no way to be sure of exactly how much Snape was going to try to make her forget.
Skidding to a stop outside the staff room door, which had been left slightly ajar, he listened carefully.
“You were well aware of my warnings, Miss Weasley,” Snape was saying, “and I am tired of your denials. Obliviate!”
“Protego!” Harry and Ginny shouted together as Harry burst into the room.
“Potter!” Snape spat the name as though it were the foulest curse he could think of.
“Snape,” Harry said coldly, acknowledging him with a curt nod.
“Lower your wand, Potter,” Snape ordered, his lip curling nastily.
“You first.”
The room was filled with silent tension for what seemed like hours, neither side willing to back down.
“Potter! Miss Weasley!” Harry jumped at the sound of Professor McGonagall’s voice. “What’s going on here?”
“Your students seem to have decided that I am a target, rather than a Professor, Minerva,” Snape replied smoothly.
“He tried to Obliviate Ginny,” Harry inserted before McGonagall could respond. “As you might imagine, I don’t take kindly to people handing out Memory Charms the way Dumbledore hands out sweets.” McGonagall arched a thin eyebrow, but otherwise her expression did not change.
“What did the girl do to merit a Memory Charm, Severus?” she asked. Her tone was completely neutral, betraying no hint of whose side she might be on.
“The students were warned not to misuse the Love Potions they’ve been learning about,” Snape explained disdainfully. “Miss Weasley has done so, and it is therefore my responsibility to remove the dangerous information from her mind.”
McGonagall’s eyes narrowed very slightly. “In what way did she misuse the knowledge gained in your class?”
Instead of answering, Snape thrust Malfoy’s copy of the Daily Prophet at her.
“Don’t tell me you believe that rubbish,” she scoffed. Harry silently cheered; finally, someone with authority was on their side.
“Test Potter’s blood if you don’t believe me,” Snape said unconcernedly. “You’ll find traces of the Eye of the Maiden Love Potion.”
“Only because you made him drink it in class to prove that it worked!” Ginny shouted, her face red with anger.
Snape looked disdainfully at her. “Do not cheek me, Miss Weasley. The potion Potter took in class didn’t work, did it? His behavior didn’t change in the slightest when he drank it because you had already snuck in and finished your concoction in time for Valentine’s Day and replaced it with something else.”
“If that’s true, then why would she have made me drink the antidote in class?” Harry demanded. “And why didn’t I decide to break up with her right after drinking it?”
“Because, Potter, unlike you, Miss Weasley knows how to read,” Snape answered in his most condescending tone. “As you ought to know, that antidote is only effective if taken within ten minutes of the original Love Potion.”
“Enough of this,” snapped McGonagall. “You’re behaving like children! Severus, do you have any of their potion with you so we can test it and get this mess dealt with?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Snape replied without taking his eyes off of Harry. “You’ll just have to take my word-”
“I’ve got it here, Professor,” Harry announced, holding up a small vial that was half full of bright red potion. “I put it in my pocket before I left class, just in case.”
Snape glared at him, but said nothing.
“Go ahead and try it, Professor,” Harry continued, holding the vial out for Snape to take. “I’m pretty sure you’re heavier than I am, so there shouldn’t be too much chocolate for you.”
Snape slowly reached out his hand and took the vial. He held it up near his face and glared at it for a long moment before throwing it down hard on the stone floor. The vial shattered.
“Severus!” McGonagall shouted.
“You shouldn’t try to poison your professors, Potter,” Snape said in a venomous whisper. “It’s not polite.”
“And how would you know it was poisoned without testing it?” McGonagall asked imperiously. Snape opened his mouth to respond, but she continued speaking over the top of him. “This has gone much too far. The Headmaster must be informed.” She flicked her wand and a silvery mass shot from its tip and flew from the room.
“Professor Dumbledore should be here momentarily,” she explained. “You may as well sit.”
“As much as I’d love to stay, Minerva, I have a class to teach at the moment,” Snape said, turning to leave.
“Your class will have to wait, Severus,” she replied authoritatively. “This cannot continue, and if your students have to miss one lesson in order for it to be dealt with, then so be it!”
Snape glowered at her, but sank into a straight-backed chair in a far corner of the room. Harry, Ginny, and McGonagall all sat nearer the door.
After several tense minutes of silent waiting, Professor Dumbledore appeared in the doorway. His face was grave, and he looked older than Harry remembered. With a sad sigh, he dropped into an armchair near the middle of the room.
“Minerva,” he began, “Your message was rather vague. Would you mind explaining what’s going on here?”
“I only arrived a few minutes ago,” McGonagall explained. “The problem apparently began in the sixth-years’ Potions class. I have a class waiting for me, Albus; do you have everything under control?”
“Yes, yes, go on,” Dumbledore muttered distractedly. “What happened, Severus?”
“Today was our final lesson on the Eye of the Maiden,” Snape answered smoothly. “Potter became angry with me when his potion did not work, and threatened me at wand-point in front of the entire class. Then, in a pathetic attempt to prove that the faulty potion had, in fact, worked, Miss Weasley stole my antidote and forced him to drink it, an action for which I have already deducted points and assigned a detention.”
Snape stood and began to walk around the room as he continued his narrative. “Near the end of the lesson, the front page of this morning’s Daily Prophet was brought to my attention. Needless to say, I was concerned, and determined to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. Now, I realize, Headmaster, that the Daily Prophet is hardly the most reliable publication in the Wizarding world, but I have reason to believe that this morning’s story has at least some merit.”
“How so?” Dumbledore asked evenly.
“Potter and Weasley’s potion had absolutely no effect when ingested. Even a very poorly concocted potion would do something, but it was as if Potter was drinking red water. The only explanation is that Miss Weasley finished the potion on her own and replaced it with something else so that she could begin giving the real potion to Potter on Saturday morning. I have warned the students repeatedly about the misuse of Love Potions, and you and I have already agreed that a Memory Charm would be the most appropriate course of action if something of this nature were to happen.”
Snape stopped in front of Ginny’s chair and drew his wand, but before he had a chance to cast a spell, Harry was on his feet, shielding her with his body. His wand was at the Potions Master’s throat.
“Stand aside, Potter,” he snapped impatiently. Something clicked in Harry’s brain as voices from long ago echoed in his memory.
Stand aside you silly girl ... stand aside now.
Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-
Expelliarmus! Harry shouted in his mind. To his satisfaction, his nonverbal use of the spell caught Snape by surprise, and the professor’s wand flew from his hand. Harry pressed the tip of his wand into the flesh of Snape’s neck.
“You’re sounding a bit too much like your old master, Professor,” he spat, scornfully exaggerating the title. “Did you know that was what he told my mother just before he killed her?”
“Harry-” Dumbledore began.
“But she didn’t stand aside, Professor, and neither will I,” Harry continued, ignoring the Headmaster.
Without warning, Harry’s wand flew out of his grasp. He looked around in alarm to see Professor Dumbledore standing a few feet away, holding both Harry’s and Snape’s wands.
“That’s quite enough from both of you,” Dumbledore said, taking control of the situation. His voice was as calm as ever, but there was an intangible forcefulness that accompanied it. “Miss Weasley, you are free to go, and your detention will be served with Professor McGonagall, rather than Professor Snape. I will inform her of the change as soon as we are finished here.” He turned to look intently at her as he added, “I would appreciate it if what has transpired today remained just between us.”
“Yes, Professor,” Ginny answered with a nod as she picked up her bag and headed for the door. When she reached it, she turned back to look anxiously at Harry, who was still glaring daggers at Snape.
“Not to worry, Miss Weasley,” Dumbledore reassured her. “Harry will be joining you shortly.” Ginny sighed heavily and left the room.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Dumbledore rounded on Harry and Professor Snape.
“Sit down,” he ordered. His voice was neither loud nor soft, but there was something about his tone that made disobedience next to impossible. Snape and Harry sank into chairs a short distance from one another.
“Severus,” Dumbledore began, “you know as well as the rest of the school that Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley have been involved since the Christmas holiday. Your excuses for accusing her of misusing a Love Potion are uncharacteristically weak. Furthermore, we both know that I have never given you or anyone else authority to Obliviate a student without my direct involvement. Why would you lie to me so blatantly and unconvincingly?”
Snape remained silent.
“I have not seen you behave in this manner since you were a student yourself, feuding with James Potter and Sirius Black.” Dumbledore sat down across from Snape, forcing the Potions Master to meet his gaze. “You are a Hogwarts Professor, Severus. You must put these childish grudges behind you.” Their gazes remained locked for several minutes, causing Harry to wonder if Dumbledore was continuing his lecture by means of Legilimency. Just as he was beginning to think they might be sitting like that all day, Dumbledore broke eye-contact and turned to face him.
“I realize that your heart was in the right place, Harry, but I still cannot condone any sort of attack on a teacher by a student. You will serve detention with Professor McGonagall tomorrow night.”
Harry bit his tongue and nodded as the Headmaster sighed.
“I had thought that you had finally decided to put aside your father’s grudge. What happened to change your mind?”
“This has nothing to do with my father,” Harry spat, much more bitterly than he had intended. “At least, to me it doesn’t. If Professor Snape wants to continue doing his best to make me fail Potions, I can take it. I can even take the rude comments about my family, my House, my friends, and me personally. But if he thinks he can get away with cursing someone I care about-”
“A Memory Charm is not a curse, Harry,” Dumbledore interrupted.
“Oh, really?” Harry shot back, making sure to inject as much sarcasm into his voice as possible. “What would you call it, then?”
Dumbledore sighed heavily and massaged the bridge of his nose. “I see your point. In your unique experience, I suppose it would qualify as a most dreadful curse.”
“It is,” Harry quietly agreed. The room was silent for a moment before Dumbledore dismissed him. Harry picked up his bag and walked to the door, but he stopped with his hand on the knob and turned to face Professor Snape.
“I’m willing to move past this for the time being, Professor,” Harry announced, and he was surprised to note something similar to Dumbledore’s forceful tone in his own voice. “But if you ever threaten me or someone I care about again, I won’t hesitate to do whatever’s necessary to eliminate the threat. I have no qualms about hexing a professor - if the situation calls for it.”
From the look on Snape’s face as the door slammed shut, Harry could tell that he recognized the similarity between this threat and the one he had just tried to carry out on Ginny. Even better, Snape knew that he meant it.