Heat, Light and the Properties of Plants

Chapter 18 Blood

Harry stood at the edge of a grassy clearing. It was quite dark now. The barman had looked at him almost pityingly when he\'d presented the parchment, then taken him outside and pointed at the large bird perched on top of the inn sign. \"Just follow the crow, sonny,\" he\'d muttered gruffly. \"He\'ll show you the way.\"

It had been easy enough to follow the loudly-cawing crow through the dusk to the clearing in the woods - but now the bird seemed to have vanished, what should he do next? As Harry stood wondering, a loud roar suddenly went up, and a ring of fiery torches appeared, surrounding the clearing. By their flickering light he saw Severus Snape, standing motionless in the centre.

Harry gulped, and stepped into the light of the torches. Snape turned his head and regarded him calmly. \"Come here, Potter,\" he said. Harry walked slowly towards him, his wand held loosely at his side. Snape was completely unreadable, \'the finest Occlumens I know\' as Remus had called him. For some obscure reason this comforted Harry; he did his best to ward his own mind as he confronted Snape.

\"Are you alright, Professor?\" Harry asked, trying to match Snape\'s calmness.

\"Very much so,\" replied Snape, making a lazy gesture with his own wand. Harry\'s wand flew out of his hand, high in the air. Snape caught it as it fell. \"The same cannot, alas, be said of you.\"

And from behind Harry came a frenzied, animal howl of triumph.

Harry spun round, to see the tall, rangy figure of Fenrir Greyback standing on the far side of the clearing. \"Send him to me, Snape!\" he roared, in his rasping, inhuman voice. Harry looked back at Snape, who was still unreadable.

\"Put your bag down, Harry,\" Snape commanded. Harry slid it from his shoulder and dropped it on the grass. \"Now walk towards Greyback. Slowly!\"

Harry took a deep breath, and obeyed. It was the hardest thing he\'d ever done, turning his back on Snape and walking through the flickering torchlight to meet Merlin knew what fate at the hands - teeth? - of the werewolf.
But he had covered less than half the distance between them, when Snape suddenly roared out \"VOL!!!\" - following up a split second later by firing a curse from his wand straight at the back of Harry\'s head. Harry\'s reactions, ingrained from all their DADA sessions, sent him hurtling to his knees; the curse passed over his head, just missing him, and struck Fenrir Greyback in the chest, hurling him backwards.

\"Potter!\" Snape shouted, throwing Harry his wand. \"Get behind me and cover my back!\"

For with snarls of rage, a group of ragged, desperate looking figures had appeared from behind the ring of torches and were advancing on the pair, wands raised.

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Back in the wood near the Silent Witch, Ron and Hermione were getting worried. They had heard shouting and could see a red glow and intermittent green flashes in the distance. \"I think we ought to go after him,\" Ron said. \"I\'m sure something\'s wrong.\"

\"Perhaps we ought to go to the Silent Witch and ask the barman?\" Hermione said.

\"You think he\'d help us? No, let\'s head for the action over there!\" And Ron gestured towards the glow on the horizon.

\"Oh I don\'t know ...\" Hermione clutched his arm. \"It might just be a coincidence, nothing to do with Harry at all.\"

Ron laughed scornfully. \"And what, the local Death Eaters just happen to be holding a fireworks party? No, Hermione, that\'s where he is. I\'m sure of it. Come on!\" And he started to run down the track towards the green flashes, which were now coming much more frequently.

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Harry and Severus Snape stand back to back in the centre of the clearing, ringed by Fenrir\'s savage werewolf cohorts. The torches around the perimeter provide a sullen red background glow. Green and white flashes of light throw the surronding trees into stark relief as their antagonists fire curses from their wands.

The speed and fury of Snape\'s reactions are awesome. Harry feels a tremendous sense of connection with him and is soon fighting just as vehemently. The two wizards anticipate each other\'s actions and each frequently deflects a killing curse intended for the other.

The fierce battle rages on, at last only a couple of their antagonists are left standing; the rest are either lying on the grass or have fled the scene. But then Fenrir, so strong that Snape\'s earlier curse had merely stunned rather than killed him, begins to recover. Unnoticed by the wizards, he begins to crawl dazedly towards his wand, which is lying in the long grass...

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Ron and Hermione, gasping from their run up the track, crashed through the trees and burst into the clearing, wands raised. \"Look out!\" Ron yelled, seeing Fenrir stagger to his feet at the far side of the clearing.

Snape spins round and fires a curse at Fenrir, but the werewolf deflects it with a vicious flick of his wand. Harry is hit a glancing blow and falls; at first Snape thinks he\'s just taking evasive action ...

With a lightning response, Snape rushed forward and began duelling with Fenrir while Ron and Hermione ran out into the middle of the clearing. The two remaining Death Eaters turned on them with savage growls.

Ron managed to disarm one of them and then turned to help Hermione, who had been knocked off her feet by the other. His lips drawn back in a snarl, the Death Eater was trying to sink his fangs into her neck. Ron pointed his wand between the werewolf\'s eyes. \"LET HER GO!\" he shouted. As the werewolf relaxed his grip, Hermione sprang free and recovered her own wand. Long thin cords burst out of the end of it and restrained him.

\"Are you alright, Hermione?\" asked Ron anxiously. \"He didn\'t bite you, did he?\"

\"He just grazed my neck,\" said Hermione, \"but it doesn\'t matter, it\'s not the full moon for another week, it\'s not as if he was in wolf form. But Ron, what about Harry?\" And they ran towards their friend.

Meanwhile Snape had managed to disarm Fenrir and knock him off his feet. He glared down at the werewolf as he lay panting in the long grass. \"I suppose I\'d better bind you and let the Aurors return you to Azkaban,\" he said reluctantly, then turned to see that Harry was still lying on the ground, Ron and Hermione kneeling beside him.

In a few swift strides, Snape reached them and stared down at the youth, horrified. Harry\'s face was chalk white, his mouth had fallen open, and he seemed to have stopped breathing. \"Oh Professor Snape\" gasped Hermione \"I think he\'s -\"

With a terrible, anguished howl of rage Severus Snape ran back to where a dazed Fenrir was now trying to struggle to his feet again. He gave a savage kick to the werewolf\'s head and another to his balls. Fenrir opened his snout in a snarl and Snape thrust his wand, his hand, his entire arm it seemed down the werewolf\'s throat and shouted out a dark curse.

There was a flash, a loud bang, and Fenrir exploded - \"It was horrible, huge bleeding gobbets of flesh everywhere - I even got some in my hair\" Hermione told Remus later - and Snape staggered back to the others. Calmer now he lifted Harry up into his arms and breathed into his mouth. Harry\'s eyes flickered open; he smiled weakly up at Snape and gave a small sigh. His eyes closed again.

\"Did you have to do that?\" asked Ron, wiping werewolf blood from his nose.

Snape gave a mirthless grin.\"You may not have noticed Mr Weasley but I have this unfortunate propensity to, ah, bear grudges. \"

\"Oh, we\'d noticed!\" said Ron fervently.

\"We\'d better get Harry to St Mungo\'s at once,\" said Hermione.

\"No.\" Snape was decisive. \"He\'s coming back to Hogwarts with me, I\'m going to look after him personally. I need to be within reach of my own potions ingredients.\" He nodded towards Harry\'s backpack, lying forgotten in the middle of the clearing. \"Bring that, would you?\" And cradling Harry in his arms he prepared to Apparate to Hogwarts\' gates.

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Ron and Hermione sat by Harry\'s bedside in the hospital wing. Snape had wanted to care for him in his own rooms but had been overruled by Professor MacGonagall and Madame Pomfrey. The latter had been concerned for the welfare of her patient, and Professor MacGonagall was in no mood to humour Snape - not after having had, as she put it, \'to clean his mess up after him\'.

(\"I don\'t know,\" Ron had said, on hearing this \"anyone would think she\'d been round personally picking bits of Fenrir Greyback off every twig and gorse bush for miles, instead of just telling a string of lies to the Minister for Magic.\")

Harry was still unconscious, pale and unmoving. Both Snape and Madame Pomfey had tried spells and potions, but to no avail. The last time Madame Pomfrey had been in she\'d looked grave and shaken her head.

\"There must be something we can do,\" Ron groaned. \"He\'s my best mate. Couldn\'t I, I dunno, give him a Muggle blood transfusion or something?\"

\"Only magic remedies can cure magic ailments.\" A tired voice came from behind them. They turned to see Professor Snape. He looked ghastly, almost as bad as Harry. Clenching his fists and looking at the ground, he said hoarsely \"Miss Granger.\"

Hermione looked at him in surprise. \"Yes, Professor?\"

\"I know you helped Potter create the Essences Potion - the one that saved me - \" he broke off. Hermione nodded.
\"Would you - \" Snape was having a hard time with this. For possibly the first time in his life, he was asking for help from a pupil, and a female pupil, Muggle-born, at that. \"I need - assistance. I do not think anything short of the Essences potion can save him now.\"

\"Of course, Professor Snape,\" Hermione said warmly. \"When we made the potion for you last March, we found all the ingredients we needed in your Potions cupboard.\" She blushed. \"Apart from the three main ones, of course.\"
\"Then follow me,\" said Snape, and swept out, heading for the dungeons.

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Later, down in the dungeons, Hermione succeeded in recreating the basic Essences potion. She\'d gone back to the Restricted section of the library armed with a permission slip from Snape and returned with Dittander\'s On Potions tucked under her arm. But she didn\'t need to refer to it often: that terrible time in March when she and Harry had struggled to save Snape\'s life would probably always be etched on her memory.

Snape sat quietly behind his desk, watching her, occasionally putting in a word of advice. When he saw that she\'d come to a stop, he stood up and pulled the silver keepsake dagger from Harry\'s backpack, which was now lying on his desk. It somehow seemed appropriate to him to use the dagger he\'d given Harry, for this task.

Hermione wordlessly proferred a goblet of the potion. Snape held his arm over it and carefully nicked his wrist with the dagger. A large drop of blood welled up and fell into the goblet, followed by another, and then another. As each drop hit the potion it hissed, and a faint purple vapour rose from the surface.

Snape withdrew his hand, tapped the wound on his wrist with his wand and sealed it. Then he sat back down behind his desk and buried his head in his hands. He looked so lost and lonely that Hermione had to fight down an impulse to stroke his hair. She was sure the gesture wouldn\'t be appreciated.

Hermione carried the goblet back to the table she was working at and stirred the potion. Referring to the text, she muttered an incantation. \'Mind you\' she thought \'We didn\'t do a lot of this for Snape\'s potion, we didn\'t know about it then. Still, can\'t hurt I suppose.\'

She finished the incantation, then sat patiently, waiting for Snape. After about ten minutes had gone by she looked up, wondering at his silence.

\"Professor?\" she said. \"Er, the tears?\"

But Snape just sat at his desk, dry-eyed, sunk in blackest despair.

TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>