The Nothing I've Become (Areas of Expertise II) | By : SickPuppy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 18635 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
-- Be glad I felt inspired! I've spent the past week cursing about the non-functioning computer, and watching Top Gear re-runs on a new channel. SP
Chapter Seven -And Lead it Back Home
Severus paced in his study, almost, but not quite, chewing his lip. That would have betrayed his inner turmoil, and he never did that. He limped across the room mechanically, not seeing the portraits' glares or glowers. Instead he was thinking of Harry, and well, to be honest, Ron and Hermione too.
Where are they? I understand them not returning to Hogwarts - well, Harry and the Granger female - but where can he be? I hope he isn't planning on doing anything stupider than normal.
Severus considered the odds of that happening. They weren't good.
Dumbledore's painting twinkled merrily at him.
'You do realise this is all your fault?' he pouted, 'Harry became pregnant because of you, you were supposed to help with the Bonding but instead you went off somewhere utterly random, then you had to go and be killed by ME, and now I'm left as Headmaster - a job I don't want - Harry no doubt hates me, and I don't have him or my daughter!' He glared angrily. 'It's all your fault!' he repeated.
The picture smiled slightly. 'My dear Severus, Harry is a sensible child. He will understand what really happened.'
Snape snorted. He really doubted that Harry would wait long enough to listen to his explanations before turning his wand on the older man. This was why he'd wanted to tell Harry the truth during their blissful year together, but Dumbledore had decided against it. Now he was really paying the price for what he had had the previous year. Life, Severus thought, sucked.
***
Harry paced the room at the Burrow, almost, but not quite, chewing his lip. He walked across the room mechanically, not seeing his friends' looks of concern. Instead he was thinking of Snape, and well, to be honest, Hogwarts.
Where can I stay? They'll have spotted we haven't returned by now, and no doubt one of Voldemort's goons will come knocking on the door soon, so where can we go? The Room of Requirement would be best, but can we get into it without anyone finding out?
Harry considered the odds of that happening. They weren't good.
He fixed his gaze on Hermione's face.
'You do realise this is all your fault?' he pouted. 'I never would have thought of staying at Hogwarts if you hadn't suggested it. You were supposed to be safely hidden with your parents, and Ron was supposed to be too, but instead you both decide to come with me, and now I need to find somewhere where we can hide at Hogwarts without alerting the Death Eaters.' He glared angrily, 'It's all your fault!' he repeated.
Hermione shook her head slightly. 'Harry, you're making this more difficult than it needs to be. We can easily get into Hogsmeade and then through the passage in Honeydukes, and into the school. I don't think it'd be a good idea to actually stay in the school, but the grounds are big enough that we can easily hide in them. The Forbidden Forest would probably be best.'
'No it wouldn't,' Ron interrupted obstinately, 'it'd be mental to hide in there. Harry wouldn't need to face off against You-Know-Who, the spiders or the werewolves or the centaurs, or any of the other weird creatures would do the job!'
'Honestly, Ronald!' Hermione snapped, 'Don't be idiotic. We are quite competent at magic - well, some of us are - and we could cast spells to protect us. No one in the school would be able to detect the spells, there is too much magical activity at Hogwarts for a few rogue spells to be traced.'
'Why can't we hide in the Room of Requirement?' Harry asked, a little confused. It seemed so obvious to him, hide at the school, in the secret room.
Hermione opened her mouth as if to speak, then abruptly closed it again. She turned a worried face to Ron.
'Because, mate,' Ron began, hoping desperately to come up with something plausible, 'er...'
Hermione butted in triumphantly, 'Snape knows about the Room! Remember, he knows about it from our fifth year, when we were fighting that foul Umbridge woman. If we hid there, he'd know where to look for us.'
Harry protested, 'But, if we made sure one of us was always in there, that would stop anyone else from getting in, right? I remember last year, there was one time we couldn't get into it cos Malfoy was in there...' he trailed off, an arrested look on his face.
Hermione and Ron eyed him warily.
He looked puzzled. 'Dunno why I wanted to get into the room,' he admitted. Then he shrugged, 'Ah well, but it is an option, right?'
Hermione sighed heavily. She spoke slowly and clearly, as if afraid Harry wouldn't understand her. 'He knows where the room is. All he has to do is wait on the corridor until we sneak out and we'll be caught!'
Harry shook his head. 'No, if we needed the room to have a different exit, it would have it right?'
His friends both shrugged, not sure that was the case.
'Anyway, we could cast spells along that corridor and if anyone was there we wouldn't leave. It's not like Se - Snape has the Map and could follow us around the school, is it?'
Hermione felt panic grip her. The map. Snape had had the map. Where had she last seen it? She remembered meeting Harry after a Potions lesson. Harry had been in the Room, but she had been in the dungeon, and Snape had had the map then. That had been the day Harry had been kidnapped. What had happened to the map since then?
Ron swallowed nervously. He didn't remember seeing the Marauders' Map when they had gone through Harry's belongings. Where was it?
Harry went on, unaware of his friends' inner turmoil. 'We can use the Map ourselves to see if anyone is about. We'll be really safe there, and we could get Dobby to help us; he wouldn't say anything if we asked him not to.'
He frowned, thinking. 'has one of you got the map?' he queried. 'I haven't seen it for ages.'
It was Ron who told Harry that the map was gone.
'Gone? How? Why? What happened to it?'
Hermione gently made up a convincing lie ' that when his things had been packed at the end of the year, the piece of parchment must have been left out, and someone else might have picked it up, or, more likely, it had been binned because it looked so old.
Harry fought back tears. The map - the strongest link he had to his Dad and Sirius - gone.
Life, Harry thought, sucked.
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