Crush

Trials and Tribulations - Chapter 5


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***
Fill the Earth and Subdue It
Harry sat on a hard wooden bench with his head cradled in his hands. 
He had given up on trying to reason with his two arguing friends a good
ten minutes ago and was now happily thinking of the various ways he would
torture Snape for getting him into this situation.
“He saved Harry’s life, Ron.  He’s risked his neck repeatedly for
the cause.  Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“But he’s a complete git, Hermione.  Besides, you don’t even know
what he’s been doing in his spare time.  If he was just acting as
a Death Eater the bloke deserves a BAFTA because I honestly couldn’t have
told the difference.”
“The difference is he stopped them from killing people, he relayed us
information…”
“And how do you know he wasn’t doing the same for Voldemort?” 
There was a short silence and Hermione looked down at her feet.  “Precisely. 
You don’t.”
Harry sighed in exasperation and stood up dramatically.  “Look,
you two can argue all night for all I care but if you don’t mind, I have
to go shout at my old Potions Professor and find out what the hell is going
on.”
Harry turned abruptly and walked towards the MLE’s holding cells. 
Ron caught up with him quickly and thrust a yellow folder at him. 
“Your copy of the evidence and exact accusations.”
Harry nodded and tucked the file under his arm.  “Thanks.”
“Listen, I know you sort of like Snape,” Ron made a face like the statement
gave him pain.  “I mean, you fought with him in the war without complaining
too much about it and stuff – but I really believe he’s guilty and he deserves
to go down for this.  I want you to understand this, Harry. 
Just because you’re one of my best friends and you’re representing him,
that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you an easy ride.”
Harry’s voice was dangerously low as he replied, “Likewise.”  Before
walking briskly down the hallway, his footsteps echoing off the vast marble
walls.
*****
“Visitor, Snape.”  The familiar gravely voice of the warden called
out before the door swung open and Harry walked impatiently into the room.
“Potter,” Snape began, sitting up right on the bunk.
“Don’t you ‘Potter’ me, Snape.”  Harry was waving a canary yellow
file around.  “Just explain to me what exactly this is about.”
Harry half dropped, half threw the folder onto the bunk beside his former
Potions Master and continued pacing.  Snape picked up the file and
read its neatly written header, ‘The Department of Magical Law Enforcement
(MLE) Prosecution notes – Prof. Severus A. Snape – First Copy’.  He
frowned and opened it to the first page, which contained the list of charges,
and skimmed over it quickly.
“What?”
“My reaction precisely.  Now, if you’d like to explain…”
“But I never touched him!”
Harry paused in his pacing and frowned.  He moved to stand next
to Snape, reading over his shoulder.  “‘Him’?  I’d presumed it
was a ‘her’.  They didn’t mention any names and I came straight here
from the hearing – no time to look over it.”
Snape raised an eyebrow at his ex-student before reading aloud from
the page before him, “’Charge in the third – the Defendant is accused of
physically and mentally abusing a child in his care.  Witnesses and
testifiers to this charge: Lucius M. Malfoy, Draco L. Malfoy, Donna P.
Fudge.’  It would appear I am being accused of at least contributing
to Draco’s insanity.”
Harry sank heavily onto the bunk, a sudden calm coming over him. 
He spoke very quietly but his words rang out in the silence of the cell,
“Did you do it?”
Severus turned his head sharply and scowled at the man beside him. 
Then his anger at the impertinent question softened at the scared look
on his face and the hollow, empty green eyes.  He looked at the floor. 
“No.  No, I didn’t.”
He heard a heavy sigh and when he looked up again he met a pair of glistening
green eyes and a weak smile.  “If you say you didn’t do it then I
believe you.  But a jury’s going to take more convincing.”
“Your old friend is choosing to call a convict and a mad man to the
stand.  Their case cannot be that strong.”
Harry raised his rowsrows slightly that Snape knew who was prosecuting
but wasn’t really surprised.  This was, after all, the all-knowing,
all-seeing.  “They’re also calling the Minister of Magic’s sister. 
That must have been the witness Ron had trouble securing.”  Harry
sighed heavily and pulled the folder into his own lap to start scanning
over the information it held.  “Listen, can you think of why they’d
accuse you of this?”
Snape also sighed and ld hid his head back against the wall.  “More
than part of it will have been Lucius’ idea.  We were once very…close. 
It hit him hard when he discovered I was not a ‘true follower’.  He
obviously wanted to see me punished.”
Harry nodded.  “But surely it would just be your word against his
in this case.  I mean, there’s no firm evidence…”
“Potter, were you asleep when I read the witness list?  Professor
Donna Fudge is giving evidence against me.  She works at St. Mungo’s
and is probably treating young Mr. Malfoy.  She will have evidence
that the boy has been abused.”
Harry frowned.  “I thought you said you didn’t touch him?”
“I thought you said you trusted me?”  Snape turned his head slowly
to regard the man beside him.  “Not me, you insufferable brat. 
Lucius.”
Harry at least had the grace to look slightly sheepish.  “OK. 
Sorry.  Anyway, just how am I meant to prove this?”
Snape ran his fingers through his hair and looked up at Harry who had
stood and started pacing again.  “We cannot.”
Harry frowned and paused for a moment.  “Of course we can. 
Don’t be daft.”  Snape rolled his eyes at the typical Gryffindor response. 
“We just need to…figure something out.”
“A brilliant plan, Potter.  And what is this ‘something’, exactly?”
“How they’re planning to get Draco to testify.  The man’s a raving
lunatic, he can’t string two words of sense together.”
“Well, that’s simple enough.  He will be dosed up with Veritaserum. 
They used it to get the Longbottoms to testify at Crouch’s trial. 
There is a drawback to using it, though,” Snape’s eyes lit up and a smile
began to tug at his lips.  “Veritaserum makes the user speak…”
“What they believe to be the truth.  Yes, I know.  I did pay
some attention in Potions, you know.”
“Make the most of this Potter, because it is unlikely to happen again,”
Snape turned to Harry, an actual genuine smile on his face.  “You
are a genius and I could kiss you!”
Harry sank back onto the bunk with his jaw slack and stared blankly
at the opposite wall as Snape muttered under his breath.
“Potter, do you have your wand?”  The Potions Master looked up
when there was no response and sighed heavily.  “Harry Potter, The
Boy Who Lived, you have faced down Voldemort, fought dragons and seen Filch
in just his underpants.  I refuse to believe that my calling you a
genius is really enough to render you speechless – now do you have your
wand?”
“It was actually the other but never mind.  No, I don’t. 
The warden took it before I came in.”  Harry watched smiling for a
moment while Snape swore under his breath, before reaching into a long,
thin pocket inside his robes.  “So I suppose it’s a good job I carry
two, really.”
“Excellent.  Give it to me.”
Snape held out his hand for the wand but Harry just raised his eyebrow. 
“And why would I want to do that?”
“So I can cast a spell.  Do try not to be so dense.”
Harry rolled his eyes and handed over the wand.  Snape spent a
few minutes running his fingers over the wand and allowing it to adjust
to him.
“What spell are you going to cast?”
“The Sanguinis Charm.”
Harry frowned.  “The one to share blood?  Why?”
“It never ceases to amaze me that within the confines of the classroom
you failed to utter a single syllable unless otherwise directed and now,
here you are, performing a convincing impersonation of the Spanish Inquisition. 
Give me your arm.”
The instruction caught Harry rather by surprise after the tirade so
he held out his arm without thinking.  Snape turned it over so that
it rested on his lap, palm-side up and pushed Harry’s robe sleeve up to
the elbow.  Harry was surprised to find that even in the cold of the
holding cell, Snape’s fingers were warm against his skin.  Harry’s
hand was stretched back so the skin across the wrist was taught. 
Snape used his other hand to hold the wand tip to a prominent blue vein.
“This may hurt a bit.”
Harry nodded his head once and looked up into the deep black eyes of
his companion.
“Sanguinis Snape,” Harry felt a sharp pain at his wrist like an injection
and jumped slightly.  Then he felt a warmth spread through him, raising
goosebumps on his arms and making him dizzy.  He closed his eyes for
a moment, waiting for thehinghing in his ears to stop.
“The dizziness will not take long to pass.”
A warm, callused thumb was massaging small circles on his wrist over
the spell’s point of entry.  Harry didn’t push it away.
“Why do I need your blood?”
“The wards on my house will only allow those with a Snape’s blood to
enter.”
“Oh,” there was a pause.  Harry opened his eyes, the head rush
gone and fell into two deep, obsidian pools.  He gulped and drew his
wrist away.  “Am I going to your house, then?”
Snape smirked, “I fail to see how else you would obtain a book from
my personal library.”  Harry just nodded meekly, still a little woozy
from the after-effects of the charm.
“Now listen closely, Potter.  Go to the portkey station at Diagon
Alley.  Take a portkey to Graigwyn.  Hardly any wizards live
there any more but it is a popular wizarding tourist spot so the portkey
station there is still active.  From the station you will need to
find Somewhere Cottage.  That should be easy enough, even for you. 
If you do have any problems, though, ask in the Bug and Bootlace.”
“OK.  I think I can remember all that.  What am I to get? 
And, more importantly, why?”
“Five minutes, Mr. Potter.”  Both men tensed for a moment suddenly
worried that they were being overheard.
Snape leaned closer to Harry and lowered his voice.  “The book
will be in my private library.  You seem to be gifted at snooping
around in other peoples’ business so I doubt finding that will be
a problem for you.  It is called ‘Potions of the Mind’.”
“’Potions of the Mind’.  Right, I can remember that.  What
do I do with it?”
“One minute, Mr Potter.”
Harry shook his head.  “I’m sure he can’t tell the time properly. 
There’s no way that was four minutes!”
“I don’t have the time.  Speak to your…associate.  Tell her
what we were discussing and show her the book.  Her mind is logi eno enough that she will be able to work it out.”
Harry nodded and stood, picking up the almost forgotten yellow folder. 
“Don’t worry.  It’ll all be alright.”
Snape spoke in a perfect deadpan.  “Your optimism is truly touching.”
Harry smiled brightly, happy to see that Snape had not entirely given
up hope – sarcasm was generally a good sign so far as he was concerned. 
He slipped of thf the door as it opened and walked down the corridor, repeating
in his :
G:
Graigwyn, Somewhere Cottage, Potions of the Mind…Graigwyn, Somewhere
Cottage, Potions of the Mind…
*****
December 22nd 2003
“Ich heiße Harry Potter und ich bin die kühlste person
im das Universum.”
Snape didn’t even bother to look up.  “Beg to differ, Potter.”
The Potions classroom was colder even than usual.  It looked
darker than it did during term time, probably because the high windows
were covered with a thick layer of snow making any sunlight that did enter
seem dull and bleak.  It also seemed a lot barer than usual, and was
becoming barer by the second as Snape reduced bottle after bottle and placep
them carefully into a large wooden trunk.
Harry perched on one of the front row desks.  “Or, as you teach
it, my name is Harry Potter and I am a pest who will not leave his teacher
alone.  I really do think Hermione is the better teacher.”
“So it is Miss Granger who has been teaching you to say such useless
sentences.  I really had hoped that the girl’s brain could afford
her some common sense but no.  Heaven forbid she should teach you
to say something sensible like ‘Wo kann ich die nächste Kneipe finden?
Ich werde demnächst vom Schwarzen Lord vernichtet und möchte
noch ein letztes Bier!’”
Harry frowned.  “Could you say that again?  I’ll get Hermione
to translate for me.  She has a German pen friend.”
Snape just glared at him.  “I am very busy Potter, and have
no time for idle chatter.”
Harry looked down at his feet, suddenly quiet.  “I just wanted
to…you know…say good bye before you go.”
Snape looked up at him briefly.  “Good bye.”
He stalked off through the usually hidden door that led into his
private rooms.  Harry smiled at the closing door briefly before standing
and walking towards the open trunk.  He peered into its dark depths. 
A variety of different coloured crystal bottles and jars glinted up at
him.
Harry reached into one of his robes’ inside pockets and pulled out
a small brown leather-bound book.  He rubbed his thumb over the gold
embossed title, ‘The Complete Works of Ministry Potions Research – 2003’. 
Percy had given it to him.  As he still worked in the Cauldrons department the the Ministry he got the first drafts free, before they came out. 
He had originally given it to Ron, who of course didn’t want it, and it
had ended up with Harry.  It had struck him that Snape, going to Austria
for Christmas, may not receive any presents, and he might actually appreciate
something like this.  So he had written a short inscription on the
inside front cover – something like ‘Received this and thought of you. 
Merry Christmas’.  He was careful, though, not to write his name.
Harry now frowned at the ‘gift’.  He had never been taught a
charm to wrap presents.  He pointed his wand at the book and muttered,
“Wrap!”  Nothing happened.  Hardly surprising, really. 
Harry shrugged and instead muttered, “Reducio!”  The book shrank until
it rested neatly in his palm.  He leaned forward and placed it gently
in the trunk so it leaned up against the side.
Satisfied, he walked towards the door.  “Have a good time in
Austria,” he called.  A replying grunt floated through the oak.
Harry rolled his eyes and turned to leave.  “Fröhliche
Weihnachten, Potter.”
Harry smiled wryly.  He didn’t need Hermione to translate that. 
“Merry Christmas, Professor.”

***
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