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Breaking Forwards	By : lastcrazyhorn Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > General Views: 13749 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Not mine. J.K. Rowling's fandom. She's makes money off these stories and I do not. Nor will I ever. Harry Potter is all hers. sniffles But the weird twisted shit? Muahahhaa.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chapter 13 – Downhill
After a quick discussion with his Slytherin, Snape had sent Nott back to the Slytherin table, and then had stalked after Dumbledore up to the man's office. The door had just latched behind them when he began to speak.
"Albus," he spat, just steps behind the old man.
He didn't wait for his employer to turn.
"You will fix this. You will make this right."
"Has Harry seen it yet?" Albus asked calmly, finally moving around to look at Severus.
"No," Severus growled. "But he will. And do you know what he'll wonder? He'll wonder why the headmaster isn't doing a DAMN thing to stop this! You are the head of the Wizengamot, are you not!"
"What would you have me do? Obliviate everyone?" His employer said in a frighteningly calm voice.
"You are a fool, old man. Everything you've worked for since the Dark Lord's downfall is going to become moot when Harry learns of your betrayal."
Personally, Severus thought that Harry had already made up his mind about the old man long before this, but he wasn't about to say such a thing now.
"Whose side are you on? You're certainly not on Harry's," he growled.
. . .
A hand was shaking him from his slumber.
"Severus?" Harry mumbled into the darkness around his bed.
"No, it's me, Draco."
"Is Severus here? What's going on?" Harry asked, trying to wake up. His headache was mysteriously quiet, but perhaps it was just the additional kick of adrenaline.
"No, he's with the headmaster. He sent me here to find you. The Weasel told a pack of lies about you to Rita Skeeter, and now the Daily Prophet is trying to pin the fault of Granger's attacks on you."
"What!"
Okay, he was definitely awake now, even if they were still talking to one another in the dark.
"Lumos," he muttered, lighting a small lamp beside his bed.
He could see the other boy's face clearly now in the soft light, and judging from Draco's somber expression, it was obviously not a joke.
"That's not all," Draco paused, taking a seat beside him.
"There's more?" Harry asked incredulously. His stomach was already slopping in his shoes; just how much worse could it get?
. . .
"The Daily Prophet has all but declared Harry to be the next Dark Lord!" Severus snarled out at the headmaster.
"We should be thankful that he is not then," Dumbledore answered, moving to sit behind his desk finally.
Severus's anger was making the knick knacks on the shelves rattle.
"Why shouldn't he be? What has the Light ever done for him?" He asked in a dangerously soft voice.
"I would think Harry mature enough to see the answer to that. After all, we were not the ones to make him an orphan," Dumbledore shot back with a harsh look at his potions professor.
"No. You just stood by while his uncle nearly killed him."
"But didn't," Dumbledore answered, a new light shining in his ancient blue eyes. "Harry's a strong boy."
"Listen to what you're saying. He is only a boy, Albus! You are giving him plenty of fodder to use against the Light. So the Dark Lord killed his parents, so what! His memories of that time are inconsistent at best," he glared at Dumbledore as the old man tried to interject.
"You will listen to me for once in your existence, Albus," he hissed angrily. "He may not remember the death of his parents with crystal clarity, but he is aware that the Light never tried to protect him while he suffered with his wretched relatives!"
"So he didn't fit in well with his family; sometimes these things happen, Severus!"
"And that was a good enough excuse to beat him? To starve him? To treat him like a house elf throughout his childhood?" Severus paced back and forth in front of Albus's desk, his fury heating up his chest.
"Tell me old man," he had stopped abruptly. "Does rape just happen?"
"What are you talking about?" Severus was pleased to see that Albus's eyes had lost their previous shine.
"Rape. I'm sure you are aware of what it is, yes?" He sneered cruelly. "Does it just 'happen sometimes,' Albus? Yes, the Dark Lord may have killed Harry's parents, but you are every bit as vile, old man, for standing by and doing nothing while Harry was raped by his uncle."
There. He had laid his cards all out on the table. The old man had better respond appropriately, or Severus felt that he would surely explode.
. . .
As it happened, the Weasley twins and Ginny were very angry with their brother and the rest of the house. So, they tried to confront him about it.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Had been the twins' approach.
"I'll tell mum what you're up to!" Had been Ginny's tactic.
Ron's response had been cool, collected; a direct contrast from their angry and hysterical words.
To the twins, he had threatened to speak to Molly regarding the seriousness of their plans to go into opening a joke shop. They had scoffed at him, but he had turned a serious glare right back onto them.
"Would you like me to mention that you've been testing your future products on unsuspecting students? I'm sure that will go over well," he had sneered.
And to Ginny, he had been even more vicious.
"Tell Mum and I'll make Percy visit you."
The idea that he knew how horrid that threat was—the idea that he knew why such a threat was so meaningful to her, was all too much. She had slumped against the wall and slid down it slowly while her brother had walked away whistling.
That night she had nightmares not too dissimilar from Harry's own.
. . .
Disgusted by the interminable silence his warnings caused, Severus Snape gave the old man across from him one more glare, and then turned on his heel and opened the door to leave. He did not expect to come face to face with one Remus Lupin. Lupin's hand was in the air poised to knock, while his face was graced with a look of surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Severus growled; his patience for idiots long gone.
"Dumbledore invited me," was the wolf's infuriatingly calm response.
"Better you than me," he sneered angrily.
He tried to pass by, but was stopped by Lupin's hand catching his arm.
"Don't touch me," Severus hissed, trying to pull his arm out of Lupin's—surprisingly—strong grip.
"What did you mean?" Lupin's amber eyes stared calculatingly at him.
And then it hit him. Severus suddenly found himself grinning a very bitter grin—one which could possibly be classified as "insane," if the other person didn't know any better.
"Tell me Lupin," he looked directly into the other's eyes and was pleased at the sudden wariness that his change in temperament had caused appear. "Harry Potter is important to you, is he not?"
From behind him, he could hear Dumbledore clear his throat loudly. They didn't have much time to finish this conversation taking place in the doorway of the old man's office.
"He's my cub," Lupin said softly, the wariness increasing in the man's eyes. "I saw the paper today," he added, rage briefly flitting across his otherwise stoic face. "Is he alright?"
"The Prophet is just at the top of your cub's concerns. I tried to get Albus to do something about the more pressing of them, but instead he chose to brush me off," Severus said, dropping his voice into a barely audible octave.
"Like what?" The other man growled, the wolf coming closer to the surface as his concern for his "cub" increased.
"Like rape," Severus snarled, loath to continue breaking his snake's confidence like this, but left with few other options.
Well, he thought to himself ruefully, there are very few legal options left to me, at least.
"WHAT?" Lupin howled, his eyes darting over Severus's shoulder to the old man still sitting patiently at the other side of the office.
"No need to get angry at him, Lupin. At least, not yet anyway," Severus said, his mind working quickly to bend the situation around to his liking.
"If not him, then who?" Lupin snarled.
Severus leaned in and put his mouth next to his old schoolmate's ear. "Personally, I'd start with your friend, Sirius Black."
The horrified expression that Lupin made was priceless, and Severus reveled in his ability to create such blood thirst with so few words.
Then deftly, without Dumbledore noticing, Severus maneuvered a small vial of Veritaserum into Lupin's front inside pocket. "To make sure," he whispered. The other man's nostril's twitched ever so slightly, and then he gave Severus an almost imperceptible nod.
Satisfied that at least some of his work was done, he stepped aside to allow the other man full access into the headmaster's office, and then headed back down to the dungeons.
. . .
"I thought that we agreed Sirius was not to be left alone with anyone? And yet you left Harry with him anyway?" Remus snarled at Dumbledore moments after shutting the door behind him.
"It was just a short visit," the wizened man in front of him said in a soothing voice.
"What part of not leaving him alone with anyone did you not understand!" Remus shouted; his insides contracting painfully as the reality of the situation began sinking in.
"Harry's his godson. Surely you don't think Sirius would have done anything to harm him," Dumbledore answered as though he thought Remus's idea to be very foolish, if not altogether silly.
"Albus, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but let's admit it. You need to get your head out of your arse and start seeing the world as it really is!" He shouted. Remus didn't wait for a reply, but instead strode quickly to the fireplace and retrieved a handful of floo powder from the small jar atop the mantle.
"Where are you going?" Dumbledore called out, finally out of his seat.
Remus threw the powder down and shouted out, "Grimmauld Place!" He turned and looked at Albus and added, "If you're not willing to face the truth, then I will!" And without further ado, he stepped through the green flames.
The drab surroundings that greeted him were to be expected, but having Dumbledore follow him through was not. Luckily for them both, Remus had already stepped further in the room proper, and thereby avoided what might have been a very uncomfortable landing.
"Sirius takes his responsibilities as god-father very seriously, Remus," Albus admonished in a quiet voice beside him.
"Open your eyes man! Azkaban changed him, and not for the better," Remus hissed back angrily. Of all people, he certainly knew better than most different his old friend was these days.
Remus walked forwards lightly, not wanting to set off the vile portrait of Sirius's "esteemed" mother. He found Sirius in the kitchen, sharing a cup of tea with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Tonks. Actually, as he eyed the scene in front of him, he realized that Kingsley and Tonks were the only ones actually drinking; Sirius, on the other hand, was staring morosely into his cup.
"Headmaster, Remus!" Tonks said by way of greeting.
Kingsley merely nodded at them both, face tired. Idly, Remus wondered what kind of trouble Sirius was getting into here, in addition to what they already knew about.
"Remus?" Sirius's voice was low, disbelieving.
"That's right Padfoot," he answered softly, going over to crouch in front of the man he'd once been very close to. He wondered if the entire situation wasn't just karma from the time that Sirius almost killed Severus with Remus.
"Moony," there were tears in the other's eyes. "I miss him so much," Sirius whispered.
"Who?" Dumbledore interjected, forever stealing into their privacy.
"James," Sirius and Remus said simultaneously, earning them a look from the rest of the room's inhabitants.
"Sirius, I want you to do something for me," Remus said, speaking very calmly as he tried to ignore the presence of the others around him.
Sirius didn't need to try. He had already forgotten that they weren't alone.
"Anything for my Moony," he grinned, a bit of lasciviousness coming into his face.
Remus also pretended not to see that.
"Open your mouth and stick out your tongue," he instructed.
Sirius's eyebrows wiggled as though Remus were suggesting something sexual, but he did as he was told.
Quick as a flash, Remus's hand had whipped out the vial of the veritaserum, and dropped three drops onto his former mate's tongue.
"What did you do!" Sirius had pulled his tongue back in and was looking at him as though he couldn't quite believe what had just happened.
"Consider it a present from a mutual acquaintance," Remus all but snarled, standing back up with a slight grimace.
"Where did you get that?" Dumbledore demanded.
"Does it matter?" Remus's smile didn't reach his eyes, let alone his heart.
At the table, both aurors were watching the proceedings carefully, but were currently keeping their mouths shut. Remus hoped that would continue to be the case.
He turned back to Sirius before Dumbledore could waste any more time, and saw from the slightly glazed look in his ex-mate's eyes that it was time.
"Who is Harry Potter?" He asked, starting out with easy questions first.
"My godson," Sirius answered in a monotone voice.
"When was the last time that you saw him?"
"This summer," Sirius answered.
"Did you enjoy the visit?" Remus's voice wavered ever so slightly on "enjoy."
"Yes."
If what Severus was saying is true—No, Remus wasn't going to finish that thought.
"Who are Harry Potter's parents?"
"Lily and James." Sirius's fingers twitched as though he were trying to fight against the drug.
"Did you love James?" Remus said, talking quicker.
"Yes."
"Did you have sex with him?" Remus caught the looks of surprise that the question caused on the others present.
"Yes."
"Did he cheat on Lily with you?"
"Yes."
All things you knew, Remus, he told himself angrily, annoyed at his mind's inherent tactics at procrastination.
"Did you have sex with Harry Potter?"
Time seemed to freeze as Sirius's hands twitched again, a bit more violently.
"Yes." Sirius closed his eyes and slumped a bit as though he had realized the futility of his fighting now.
"Did he say no?" Remus's voice was hoarse, and from the lack of sound in the room, it was clear that the others were holding their breaths.
"Yes." Sirius sounded beaten, lost. Those present had resumed breathing.
"Did he cry?"
"Yes."
"Did he beg you to stop?" Remus asked through gritted teeth.
Another pause.
"Answer me!" Remus yelled, stepping forwards and grabbing Sirius by the front of his shirt.
Sirius finally opened his eyes, and Remus saw that the serum had worn off from the relative clarity he could see looking back at him.
"Yes he did."
Remus threw Sirius back into his chair, no longer willing to touch the disgusting creature before him.
He ran a hand through his hair and then turned back once more. There was one more thing he wanted to know that he hadn't been able to ask while Sirius had been under the effect of the drug. Open ended questions weren't usually well received with veritaserum in one's system, but if Sirius was still in the sharing mood, there wasn't any reason that he couldn't ask now.
"Why?"
Silence.
Remus was on the cusp of leaving this man to the fate of the others present when Sirius finally gave him an answer.
"Because I missed James—I miss James still! They look so much alike, they are so similar," Sirius made a whining sound in the back of his throat. "And he was so good. So tight."
"BE QUIET!"
Remus blinked in surprise at the unexpected anger coming from the man beside him. Dumbledore had risen up to his full height and was staring down furiously at Sirius still huddled in his chair.
"I entrusted you with his safety, with his care!" The twinkle was gone from the headmaster's eyes, and Remus was rather glad he wasn't the old man's focus at present. Wisely, he took a few steps backwards, and peripherally, he could see Tonks and Kingsley doing the same.
"And this is how you repay me?" Dumbledore had made his way across the room and had hefted the man out of his seat, pushing him up against the wall with one gnarled hand around his neck.
Magic crackled and roiled around them. In particular, Dumbledore's hair almost seemed alive as it whipped about in the space above and around his body, like some kind of silver lightning.
"Your godson, Sirius Black! Have you no sense of duty or honor? You disgust me."
Everyone in the room winced and they watched as the remaining blood drained from Sirius's face.
Dumbledore released his hold on Sirius's throat and allowed him to fall to a heap on the floor. Abruptly, the electricity and tension in the room simply vanished, and Dumbledore turned to Kingsley with an unusually somber look on his old face.
"I think that it is high time that the aurors caught up with Sirius Black."
. . .
Harry made his way through the hallways with Blaise and Draco flanking him. Nott stalked behind them with Millicent and Pansy; each looking as if they were capable of eating children for fun. If the mood for the previous week had been volatile, then the mood that day was absolutely explosive. Harry hadn't been experiencing much difficulty with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws before the article, but now it was clear that the entire school had united against the house of Slytherin, and him in particular.
The teachers were actively roaming the hallways, but there was only so much that could be done against hundreds of angry magic wielding children.
Thankfully, the other fifth year Slytherins had met Harry and Draco at the door to Severus's quarters. Harry and Draco would have never been able to field the array of hexes being thrown at them if they had still been alone.
Before they had left, Harry had voiced his concern for the younger snakes, but Pansy had assured him that it had already been taken care of. The sixth and seventh years had taken on the responsibility of chaperoning the first through fourth years to all of their classes, with the understanding that the fifth year would stick together.
Overall, Harry was amazed at the unity within the Slytherin house; not just now in the face of a crisis, but in general as a whole.
Even though Snape's quarters were in the dungeons, they were still a good ways away from their classroom. By the time that they finally made it to Potions, Harry's head had begun pounding again from the maelstrom of flying hexes, angry faces and physical attempts to cause them and other snakes harm.
When Severus finally strode into their classroom, an unusually murderous expression on his sallow face, Harry's head felt as though someone was attempting to saw it in half. Squinting, even though the lights were never very bright down there, Harry saw a look of concern cross over his head of house's face.
He felt almost certain that his pain was the reason that Snape decided to have a theoretical session that day, rather than a practical one.
"Put your books and wands away," Snape barked at the class, glaring at a few of the Gryffindors when they stared stupidly back at him. "We are discussing theory today. I have no doubt that what comes out of most of your mouths will likely be as amusing or pitiful," here he glared at Weasley, "as what some of you write in your essays."
"Mr. Malfoy, name three ingredients used in the Befuddlement Draught," Snape snapped out, whirling on Draco like a black bat.
"Sneezewort, scurvy-grass and lovage," was Draco's calm response.
"5 points to Slytherin," Snape smirked at him, and then turned around to glare at Lavender on the other side of the room.
"Ms. Brown," he called out in a silky smooth baritone to the suddenly terrified looking girl. "Tell me, where might I find a Mackled Malaclaw? And what potion could I use it in?"
The Gryffindors eyes widened, but surprisingly, Lavender answered the first question correctly, with a quietly spoken, "On the shoreline, sir."
"And the potion?" Snape looked down at the girl with a glare; his expression exactly the same as it was before she answered a question right.
"I don't know sir," she shook her head wildly, her eyes frightened.
"Not able to divine the answer from any of your little cohorts, were you? Pity. 5 points from Gryffindor."
Snape turned back towards the Slytherin side once more, and barked, "Mr. Zabini!"
"Sir?" Blaise looked up with an interested look in his eyes.
"Please enlighten Ms. Brown as to what you would use a Mackled Malaclaw in," Snape instructed him, a nasty grin lighting his face for a split second before vanishing.
"Felix Felicis," was Blaise's crisply spoken answer.
"Very good, 5 points to Slytherin," Snape said tersely, turning back towards the other side of the room.
Harry was glad that he and Blaise had studied far ahead into the upcoming year's curriculum. Felix Felicis was a sixth year potion. He doubted that Lavender or any of the rest of the Gryffindors even knew that.
Well, other than Hermione, he thought ruefully, thinking of his bushy haired ex-friend. She was still in the infirmary, and from he had heard, would be until they figured out who obliviated her.
The rest of the class continued on around him as his headache continued beating his brains into what felt like little more than barely congealed goop. By the time that Snape called on Neville, the Slytherins had racked up nearly 30 points and the Gryffindors had lost more than twice that.
In the world outside of his migraine, Harry had distantly felt a bit of happiness at seeing the Gryffindors so bowled over by the Slytherins, but that feeling now vanished as he watched Snape start in on Neville. Of all of the Gryffindors other than the Weasley twins and a few others, Neville had been the only one from his year who had not yet turned on him.
Perhaps Snape knows that too.
His suspicions were confirmed when he heard the question that his professor threw at Neville.
"What three main ingredients are used in the Draught of Living Peace?"
Poor Neville, Harry thought as he watched his shy clumsy friend tremble.
"P-P-Powdered moonstone," the other boy finally whispered after a few heartbeats of terrified silence.
"And?" Snape's tone was merely clipped and not nasty as it had been with the other Gryffindors.
"S-S-Syrup of hellebore," Neville finally choked out, causing eyebrows to go up around the room.
"And?"
"P-Pine," Neville's face crumpled on itself and Harry commiserated from a distance. It was obvious that the other boy's mind had just gone blank.
"P-P-Pine needles," Neville finally said.
"Pine needles?" Snape asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh, no! Pine cones!" Neville tried to correct himself, sensing from their professor's dark expression that he had answered incorrectly.
"You must pick one," Snape answered in a syrupy smooth voice that sent involuntary shivers down everyone's spines.
"I don't know, sir! I don't know," Neville whimpered, holding his hands in front of his face as though he expected Snape to hit him with something from the other side of the room.
"Which is it then, Evans? Pine cones or pine needles?" Snape asked; his dark eyes completely fathomless as he turned towards the Slytherin side.
"Neither," Harry responded dully, still slumped forwards with his head in his hands.
The class gasped at what they were certain was an idiotic response to what should have been a simple question.
"Explain." The instruction was terse, leaving no room for discussion.
"The use of pine cones or pine needles is redundant, provided that the moonstones have been crushed completely and adequately into an extremely fine powder, and then mixed with the graphorn powder, rather than added separately," he said tiredly.
"According to whom?" The voice Snape used was dangerously soft, but it no longer frightened Harry the same way it did the rest of the class.
"The latest researchers."
"Humour me. Specifically whose research?"
"Yours sir," he said, finally squinting painfully up at the man, trying not to wince at the light now filtering in around the blinding edges of his migraine.
The room was shocked absolutely silent. Was he actually right about this? Or was he just making it all up? But if he was making the information up, why would he cite Professor Snape as his source?
"Well done, Evans." The man said grudgingly after another moment, a modicum of respect in his tone. "10 points to Slytherin," Snape said with almost an invisible nod, before turning around in a flash and glaring down at the rest of the class.
"Class is dismissed."
Harry smiled weakly at the man's back, before closing his eyes back against the pain, allowing the darkness to claim him once more.
A/N - Reviews are like jelly in my PB and J . . . ice in my slushy . . . heat in my baked potato? Er . . .
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