HPNSA - BOOK TWO

CHAPTER TWELVE
THE PRICE
TIMELINE: JAN. 31 – FEB. 2, 1997




(Jan. 31 – AFTERNOON)


When Harry decided to use the last stone given to him by the Keepers, Severus never thought it’d be used on him. But here they were, standing in front of each other, shaking, though one of them shook due to tears that poured from his tired eyes. Harry would occasionally look out the small window and flinch at the sight of a dancing shadow or at the rustling sound of trees that swayed with the cold wind outside, then he’d close his eyes again, as if regretting he had made the decision.

Severus could see the desperation in his eyes, as he stood there looking pale and forlorn. He could not fully understand what pushed Harry to decide to use the last stone like this though one thing was clear – it was not to be with him. They may have reached some form of understanding before he died but it was not enough for this young man to use this last chance he had to be with, as far as he knows, the only person he loves more than anyone else in this world. Something greater than that forced Harry into this desperate decision. What it was began to plant a seed of fear into the Potion Master’s mind.

Harry walked closer to him and placed his shaking hands on his arms. Severus backed a little for Harry had not looked more ghastly as he did now; his eyes, red and swollen and appeared to have been deprived of mirth and rest for many days, stared at him hoping to convey a message his lips could not say.

He turned around as though hearing something that threatened him. Then he looks at Severus once more and whispers, “Read my mind…” This time he said it more softly than the first as though the sound of his hoarse, almost inaudible voice frightened him. The urgency of the request was almost a warning that it convinced Severus that both he and Harry were now being watched and it was these invisible elements that Harry greatly feared. He realized that Harry was urging him to use Legilemency though he could not understand why.

Severus nodded curtly giving in to the uncanny request. He slowly took out his wand and Harry backed away and stood about three feet from him. Severus pointed his wand at Harry and conjured the spell.

“Legilemence!”

***


There was complete darkness. Nothing was between them or around them now – just him and Harry and a vast emptiness in pitch black.

“Harry…” Severus said though uncomfortably his voice fell like a heavy thing. “You should have waited for Ron,”

“I heard them,” Harry said. “The Burrow was attacked, he’s missing. He won’t come,”

“What if he does? You have left nothing for him, he needed this chance to give him strength in the coming days, you’ve left him with nothing but despair!” Severus said.

Harry looked up at him with green eyes filled with pain. “I cannot leave without knowing my son will be safe!”

“He is going to be well cared for…”

“…Time of the slayer will end…” Harry interrupted.

“What?” Severus asked.

“…When Pillars of worlds unite…”

“I don’t understand…”

“…The child that was stolen returned…”

“Harry…”

“…The heart that was broken will fight…”

Severus realized he was hearing some kind of Prophecy and so he remained silent and allowed Harry to finish the rhyme.

“…The enemy will fall by the heart of the dead, while neither will fall by his sword, the curse of the Keeper will turn in its stead, the world of Aum thus restored...”

“Harry…”


Then Harry disappeared and Severus became audience to an ancient world where there was no division between those who practiced magic and those who could not. Above him magical and non-magical creatures shared the skies while on the ground the unicorns roamed freely.

Then the vision changed and the world presented next was the exact opposite of the first – this world was dry and nearly dead, and the skies scorched by great flames, now choked with thick smoke from burning corpses that piled on the ground. He heard the women crying and fleeing in horror. Great beasts and legendary monsters like the Minotaur broke into every house killing all those they could find. They took them out and tore their bodies until the ground was painted red with their blood.

He reeled around and saw a young wizard surrounded by several others fighting the monsters that terrorized their land and they almost won. But then as he returned to his house he saw that one creature was able to slip through their watch and was slowly eating his son. He killed the creature but moments later his son gasped one last breath and was gone.

The man took out a book; Red in it’s covering and lined with gold, a dagger was in the inner cover at the end of the book. He took the dagger and conjured the spell and the pillar of light opened and he was allowed audience with the Keeper of the dead. He was returned for he did not have anything to buy his son from death.

Defeated, he walked out of his house and saw a small girl approaching him. She enticed him to take a small golden ball saying that it would save his son. He accepted the ball without question. But as he reached out for it, the girl lunged at him and pressed her hand on his lower abdomen and the young wizard cried out in pain. Then she was gone, the golden ball was gone, and the young wizard found that his son was gone as well. Then through the skies the Incubus came and they took him.

The vision changed again, and this time Severus was in another world and was looking upon a woman, she sat on a lofty throne. Before her was the broken body of a child.

Severus heard the woman cry though the language was too old for him to understand.

But Harry was there standing beside him and translated the words. “He was meant to replace the Keeper of Magical Beasts. Her name is Nin, the most evil of all the Keepers.”

“Then the Prophecy failed,” Severus asked.

“The Prophecy was made after he died.” Harry said softly. “It has not yet come to pass,”

Harry turned around and behind him there was a door. Harry opened it and told the Professor to go inside. Severus walked through the door and he found himself inside the Southern Tower. It was early morning and Harry was on the bed cradling his son – this was the day Harry used the second stone.

He walked closer to the two that were now upon the bed and he was overwhelmed with pity at the sight of them together. Then he noticed that Harry saw what seemed to be a rash on the child’s back; Severus went around the posts of the bed and sat on the floor staring at Harry as he happily fussed over the child.

Then Harry’s face change, what had been filled with so much joy was slowly filling with fear. He turned to look at what had alarmed Harry and found the pentagram upon the baby’s back.

He looked at it closely as Harry sat there trembling. He could read the writing on the outer band as it glowed bright red. CHILD OF THE IRANNA it read.


Then Severus found himself in pitch darkness – there was nothing around them save a lone candle in the middle of the vast emptiness. Then Ron and another woman appeared before him; they stood at opposite sides of the candle.

“You have done many things for him, I see,” The woman said. “Your love is great - I have seen very few that match it.”

Severus could see that the woman was searching Ron with her eyes. They never blinked though it was obvious to see that they were strained. Then she let go seeming to have satisfied herself with whatever it was that she saw.

“I will ask for a price for his life, Defender, for the curse was given out of mercy. To turn it would be to torment the Nymphrodite to a life filled with torture and danger.” The woman smiled and through her smile one could clearly see deceit.

“Not if those who love them will protect them from it. If Harry makes it to his next birthday, the Iranna will return to Nin. He will be free of it.” Ron answered.
Severus now understood that he was witnessing the parley that Ron had made with the Keeper of the dead - The Parley to bring Harry back to life.

“I’ll do anything you ask.”


“I will tell you the way to turn the curse but you must agree to the price I will ask first.” The Keeper said, and here Severus could see the gentle coaxing in her face and in the tone of her voice, as though she was forcing Ron to concede. For the first time there was doubt, Severus could almost feel it. The woman was uncertain that Ron would agree without knowing the price and he very nearly asked.

But Ron was a child, engulfed by sorrow, blinded by grief. The only thing that mattered to him at that moment was having Harry back alive. He did not consider the repercussions of such a choice for there was none presented at the time. He agreed to the deal though deceivingly the Price was never mentioned.

Then he was again standing in pitch darkness. Severus at last understood – Ron had paid his son in exchange for the chance to resurrect Harry. Archer was the replacement, and the Keepers will take him when the task is done – whether it finishes in Ron’s favor or not. As long as the child lives, the Prophecy will be fulfilled, and that was what tortured Harry so much. He gains back his life but he looses his son to the gods.

Harry trembled with fear and tears relentlessly streamed down his face and Severus found it hard not to feel great sympathy for him. For the first time he felt an almost uncontrollable urge to move closer and embrace him.


“My son matters more to me. If Nin realizes he is the answer to the Prophecy, she will not bother with me, or with Ron but will bend all her power to end my son’s life. You have to keep her eye away from him, no matter what the cost!” Harry said.

“Doesn’t she know the Prophecy?” Severus asked.

“She thinks…that I…that the Nymphrodites were the chosen ones. That is why she has made sure that none survive. Even when Ji placed the curse to help the Nymphrodites rid themselves of the Iranna still she found a way to use it for her own evil pleasure!” Harry answered.

“Is this the reason you used the stone with me? So that I…”

“She must never know the truth, or she would stop at nothing until my son is dead.” Harry begged.

“I will keep the secret with me,”

“You have to tell Dumbledore for he can save him,” Harry said turning to him with those emerald eyes overflowing with emotions. “He can protect him and the secret of the Prophecy!”

“I will, Harry, you have my word. And when Ron comes I will make him understand why you had to make such a remorseful decision at his expense.”

Harry shook his head again and his sobs became greater. “I’m afraid…Ron will never know why, not unless he succeeds in his quest. Then I shall tell him myself though I don’t know if he will let me,”

“It will not be hard, I can relay this to him, or Dumbledore will do it. He will find out, he must if he is to continue with this quest willfully.” Severus said.

The statement seemed to have agitated Harry and he now looked at him with contempt.

“He will continue, whether he learns of this or not!”

“You don’t know what this choice will do to him. Ron is a very aggressive young man as you saw in his parley with the Keeper of the Dead. He will never understand unless he knows.”

“You underestimate his love! He loves me, and our love will endure this!” Harry said angrily.

“I don’t understand why would you keep this from him? Had he made it here as was scheduled, you would have told him anyway. Why then are you adamant to keep it from him now?” Severus said.

“Because you will not be spared by Nin!” Harry cried. “Now that you have been exposed to the Prophecy she will pursue you, as she has pursued me,” Harry said shaking terribly. “That is why we I cannot speak in the open. She has tormented me ever since I passed through the world of Aum.”

Severus felt a pang of fear run through him. “What?”

“She is not allowed entrance to the castle! You must not go out until Dumbledore returns! You must never let her know! Never let her find out, or we shall all die! Let Dumbledore read your mind and erase the memory of this day!” Harry cried.

“What have you done? You have condemned me with this curse!” Severus cried.

“Forgive me! There is no one else!” Harry begged covering his face with his hands.

Then Severus heard the voices – Harry covered his ears as they became louder and louder until the whole place was inundated with whispers. Severus felt like the whispers turned into daggers that were now stabbing him from within. The pain made him scream.


***


Severus fell backwards and found that he was now on the floor and it was rather difficult to breathe. Harry was on the floor as well, whimpering. They looked at each other for a time – though they both sat in silence the world around them was anything but quiet. They sat there covering their ears from the unrelenting whispers that seemed to come from the other side of the walls.

Harry slowly crawled near the door and looked out into the small window – the afternoon sun burned bright red outside and its warm fingers reached down through the opening in the dungeon. Harry’s face was brushed with the colours of the setting sun and Severus saw the hopelessness in his face. Suddenly the memory of the taunting he suffered from James and Sirius invaded his mind – the way they ridiculed him and how bitter he became because of the many things that were done to him in his tattered childhood that no one seems to be interested in salvaging. He suffered…but not as much as this boy. Compared to Harry, his life was like a walk in the park.

Here was a young man who has not seen a morning without dread, without some form of cruel irony that pounded the little hope he had for a better life into nothing bigger than a speck of dust. Here was a young man who had to live day in and day out not knowing why he was chosen but had to live out the life that others have chartered for him. Harry never enjoyed life – until he had Ron and even that was taken away.

Severus has never felt compassion for anyone for no one showed him how. There was always understanding, fear, trust, respect, and sometimes leniencies especially from Dumbledore, but never compassion…never love. He does not know how to display it even when it is the only emotion he could now feel.

The day was almost over; Harry was slowly becoming the impotent spirit that no one save Ron could hear. He looked at Severus one last time – an empty, sad look masked by a smile. Then he was gone. The voices were still outside – murmuring in an ancient tongue – and they were getting louder. Severus was now faced with a great challenge. Something that would take every ounce of magic he had to accomplish. Dumbledore will not return in seven days and he wondered if he would be able to endure till then.

***

Harry returned to the Southern tower waiting for the seventh day. February first was now dawning outside – another empty day without Ron, Harry thought, for he would not come as was initially planned. One burden was lifted from him today yet another replaced it. He knows that the secret he has entrusted to Professor Snape will be guarded with vigilance though the question of how long he’ll be able to endure Nin’s torment until he is broken still posed a great threat and filled Harry with fear. But for now it was the only thing he can hold on to.

The possibility that Ron would come and find nothing left for him except the memory of his death also weighed heavily on his shoulders. Harry was afraid of how Ron will take it but he believed in their love.

“Our love will see us through this…” Harry whispered. Outside Nin floated looking at him, never leaving him in peace. “…It has to.”