Proof of Life

Lost Souls



They were both still tired, so they took their time getting up. Tripod made it easy for them to linger in bed, as he continued to cling to Severus and Harry, demanding attention.



While Severus petted the cat, Harry looked at him absently, and noticed that Severus\' wrist held three dark bruises that were almost an exact copy of the ones on his own hand, the ones that Severus\' had left yesterday, when he was grabbing his hand in delirious rage.



“What happened?” Harry asked, before his brain had a chance to kick in. Severus paused slightly before answering, giving Harry a chance to collect his thoughts and remember the pertinent information from Draco\'s slavery books. “Severus? Is it part of the slave-bond? When I get hurt, you get hurt?”



“Not exactly,” Severus answered absently, still petting Tripod. “The spell you\'d cast on me tied my life-force to yours in a unique way. I cannot cause you any harm, without inflicting the same damage on myself.”



“But you won\'t feel it if I go ahead and get hurt on my own, right?” Harry clarified anxiously.



“No.”



Harry collapsed to lie on his back and shut his eyes, feeling more than slightly uneasy about the whole thing.



He supposed he should have been relieved, as he was quite certain that Severus would never harm him intentionally, but these were hardly the normal circumstances...



Severus was sick. Sick, disoriented people could lash out without meaning to. They shouldn\'t be penalized for that sort of thing, Harry knew that much.



Harry couldn\'t count the number of times he himself had woken up in St. Mungo\'s after being injured in the line of duty, flailing his arms in disorientation, landing an unintentional punch or a smack on whoever was at his side, sometimes a healer, sometimes Ron or Ginny or Hermione. Each time, they took it in stride. Bottom line, he knew it was safe for him to be sick.



“You are troubled,” Severus observed.



“Kind of,” Harry admitted. “I\'ve been meaning to ask you more about the bond, by the way. You don\'t have to tell me anything,” Harry added quickly, “but I think it\'d be helpful if I knew more about the spell I cast on you, and the way it connected us. I wouldn\'t want to hurt you inadvertently, and I promise I won\'t use the information against you in any way.”



A long silence ensued, while Severus apparently considered Harry\'s words. “I believe you,” he said finally. “What do you want to know?”



“What are the magical parameters of the bond?”



“As I said, it retaliates, if I cause you any harm,” Severus repeated. “The spell was designed to ensure the subject\'s loyalty.”



“Hmm,” Harry muttered. He felt slightly awkward asking the next question, and tried to recall Ginny\'s words exactly before he did. “Er- Ginny guessed that the bond gives me access to your central nervous system. Is this why my physical touch calms you?”



“The bond does give you access to my central nervous system,” Severus confirmed. “However, that said, your touch calms me because it is apparently your intent to calm me. Physical contact allows you to assume control over my primary emotions. If you so desire, you can make me feel anything you like: fear, anxiety, panic, revulsion, and so on. For as long as the physical contact is maintained, in any case.”



Harry issued a deep sigh. This part of the physical bond sounded perfectly dreadful, he thought. To have control over someone else\'s emotional state … he couldn\'t think of too many things that were more dangerous, and could be abused more easily.



“I wouldn\'t do that intentionally,” Harry said quickly, “but it\'s good to know. I\'ll be careful. Is there anything else?”



“No.”



Harry nodded, feeling slightly troubled and somewhat relieved at once. “Look... can you think of a way to reverse this spell?” Harry asked. “I mean, once we prove your innocence, the legal issues can be worked out, but the magical and emotional aspects of the bond require a counterspell, don\'t they?



“None that I can think of,” Severus said, standing up abruptly, “but then again, I\'m out of practice.”



~ * ~



When they both made it downstairs, Marietta, who had spent the entire night on Harry\'s couch, was already up. She examined them both quickly, asked Severus a few questions to ensure his disorientation had passed, and grinned.



“Looks like you\'re on the mend,” she said brightly. “I\'ll be on my way then.”



“What\'s the hurry? Join us for breakfast,” Harry suggested. She looked surprised by the offer, but nodded.



“I don\'t eat breakfast, but I\'ll take tea if you\'ve got it,” she said.



They had tea together, and Severus and Harry ate some of Hannah\'s Leaky Cauldron \'slop\', as Harry had privately begun to call it. After breakfast, Severus went back to his bedroom to lie down, leaving Marietta and Harry alone.



“Potter, do you want to go join the group?” Marietta asked. “I can spend the weekend with Severus if you want to go to Hogwarts.”



Harry shook his head. “I don\'t want to leave him now,” he said. “He was just so sick...”



She nodded quietly, appearing to be deep in thought.



“By the way, I wanted to ask your advice,” Harry added. “I know his magical ability is repressed for now, but would it help if I got him a wand anyway? I don\'t want to push him or anything...”



“I think it\'s a good idea,” she said. “He might get frustrated if he keeps flicking it without any results, but in the long term, I\'d say it\'ll do more good than harm. It\'ll help focus the magical energy, once it begins to re-emerge. Without a wand, it\'ll likely come out in disorganized, uncontrolled bursts, which might unsettle him, if he doesn\'t expect it.”



“All right,” Harry said. “I\'ll order a wand from Ollivander. I am sure he still has Snape\'s measurements and profile...”



Marietta grinned. “Yes, and the man doesn\'t even keep good records. Everything is in his brain. Kind of scary, actually.”



Harry nodded in agreement. “By the way, I can\'t thank you enough for spending the night here. Marietta, I don\'t know if you realize how much I appreciate your help.”



She shrugged. “It\'s nothing, really. I\'d do this for any patient who had gotten the short end of the proverbial stick.”



Harry nodded thoughtfully. “I know that. Still, once the dust settles down a bit, let me take you out to dinner.”



The highly inadequate token of gratitude appeared to have taken her by surprise. She stared at Harry with undisguised astonishment for a few seconds, and then, her lips formed an amused smirk. “Not afraid to ruin your stellar reputation by being seen with a traitor in public, Potter?”



“Terrified,” Harry said dryly, feeling incredibly troubled by what her words were implying. Did she really have no friends left? Were her colleagues and friends embarrassed to hang out with her? “How about this coming Thursday, at six? Luna can watch Severus, and I\'ll pick you up at your place.”



“Fine,” Marietta said, looking a little dazed. “Whatever.”



She departed quickly after that, leaving Harry to brood about the unfairness of the post-war wizarding world yet again.



The weekend was spent quietly and peacefully, until Sunday evening arrived and Hermione firecalled, telling Harry that Molly and Arthur were on their way to watch Severus, and he needed to get to the Burrow. Harry departed as soon as his parents-in-law had arrived, eager to hear any good news.



However, once he stepped out of the Floo into the living room of the Burrow, the despondent faces of his friends eloquently informed him of the dearth of good news.



Harry sighed deeply and looked around, taking note of everyone present. All the members of the Light Brigade were there, except for Draco. But even before he had a chance to voice surprise over Draco\'s absence, Ginny spoke up.



“Nothing,” Ginny spat furiously. “We found nothing.”



“Well, then you\'ve missed something,” Harry said bluntly. “We\'ll go back next weekend together and...”



Next to Neville, Hannah Longbottom issued a muffled sob. Harry fell silent for a moment, taking in the despondent expression on everybody\'s faces.



“What happened?” he demanded.



“McGonagall,” Hermione explained. “Someone told the Board of Governors we were there, and why... there was an emergency meeting of the Board this afternoon. She was accused of allowing unauthorized persons in the school, jeopardizing students\' safety, and …. she was dismissed from the post, Harry... The school is closed to us.”



“Fuck,” Harry whispered, as his fist clenched into a tight ball. “So we got her fired, and we have nothing to show for it.”



“That about covers it,” Ron confirmed dryly. “All right, any other bright ideas, anyone?”



“Assassinate Diggory?” Pansy asked helpfully, with just a touch of venom in her voice.



“Not funny,” Ron denied, but his lips were twitching into an amused smirk.



“Be serious, people,” Ginny urged. “We need a new plan.”



“New plan?” Blaise echoed with obvious disdain. “We are looking for something that\'s probably not even there. For all we know, Dumbledore didn\'t leave anything behind. So, short of resurrecting him from the dead...”



“Well, that\'s exactly what we are going to do then,” Harry said, as a quick flash of inspiration finally graced him. “We just need to find the Resurrection Stone.”



The Slytherins stared at him uncomprehendingly.



“What do you mean, find it?” Pansy asked finally. “Where is it?”



“Er, it was lost, sort of,” Harry explained. “I dropped it, back in the Forbidden Forest, when Voldemort was about to cast the Killing Curse on me.”



“You dropped it,” Blaise repeated incredulously. “A Deathly Hallow was in your possession, and you just dropped it? What, are you daft or something?”



Harry shrugged defensively. “I believed I was going to die, remember? I didn\'t think it would be a good idea for Voldemort to get his hands on the Stone, all right?”



The expression of irritation on Blaise\'s face was replaced with genuine awe. “You were walking to your death, and you had the presence of mind to think about protecting the Resurrection Stone from Voldemort?”



Harry shrugged again. “That\'s not the point. The point is, we should go back to the Forest and find the Stone.”



Pansy gave Harry a dubious glance. “It\'s been seven years... the soil could have shifted... anything could have happened in seven years!”



“Oh for fuck\'s sake!” Ginny exclaimed in frustration. “So what if the soil shifted? We\'ll comb every inch of the forest if we have to. Do you want to brood about what could have happened, or do you want to look for the Stone?”



“Of course I want to look for the Stone!” Pansy said softly.



“Then why are you arguing?” Ginny demanded.



“I\'m not arguing,” Pansy denied. “I guess I\'m just nervous. It feels like it\'s our last hope, you know?”



“I know,” Ginny conceded. “But don\'t start sulking just yet. We won\'t give up until we fix this. I promise. All right?”



“All right,” Pansy said quietly. “Thanks.”



The group disbanded shortly after that. Harry went to see Lily, while Hermione, Ron and Ginny lingered in the living room. When he returned, Hermione and Ron were still there.



“Where\'s Malfoy, I wonder,” Hermione mused. “He didn\'t show up, didn\'t answer my firecalls...”



“Fuck Malfoy,” Ginny quickly dismissed. “Good riddance, I say.”



“No, something\'s up. He didn\'t show up to watch Severus on Monday,” Harry remembered. “Maybe we should check on him.”



Ron rolled his eyes. “He\'s just being a prat. Ignore him, and he\'ll come around on his own.”



“No, I think Harry is right, we should check on him,” Hermione said. “Why don\'t we go right now?”



“Fine,” Ron grumbled.



Ginny shrugged. “Well, you three go ahead. Enjoy. Harry, I\'ll see you tomorrow?”



“Absolutely,” Harry said with a smile, and gave her a quick hug. “Good night, Ginny.”



~ * ~



Harry, Ron and Hermione Apparated together at the boundary of the Manor and began to walk towards the old Malfoy home that had grown dilapidated over the past seven years, but still bore some traces of its former glory. Five minutes later, they stopped at the doorway, and Harry knocked loudly. There was no answer, and Harry knocked again.



“I hate this fucking place so much,” Hermione murmured, shivering uncomfortably. Ron wrapped his arm around her waist.



“Do you want to go back home?” he offered.



“No, I don\'t want to go back home!” Hermione said with annoyance. “I want to get this over with. Harry, knock again, and if he doesn\'t answer, kick the door in!”



“Er, it\'s probably warded,” Harry pointed out.



“Oh for crying out loud, are you an Auror or not? How hard is it to break into a private home?” Hermione demanded, clearly growing more irritated by the second.



Harry opened his mouth to argue some more, but just as he did, the door of the Manor swung open. Draco stood at the doorway, scowling at them.



“What?” he snapped. “Can\'t you three take no for an answer?”



“We wanted to make sure you were still alive,” Ron said sardonically. “For some unfathomable reason, Harry and Hermione actually care.”



“Well, thanks for caring,” Draco said without any gratitude in his voice. “As you can see, I\'m alive. You can leave now.”



Harry looked at Draco thoughtfully. Draco was undeniably alive, but he was also undeniably unwell. He had lost a few pounds since the last time Harry saw him. His face was covered in red blotches, and his eyes were bloodshot. Had he been sick? Had he been crying?



“What\'s going on?” Harry demanded, intent on finding out the truth. “You didn\'t show up to watch Severus on Monday. Why?”



“I had things to do.”



“What kind of things?” Harry pressed.



“None of your business.”



“Actually it is our business, if it interferes with your commitment to help Snape,” Hermione said coldly. “He needs stability, and people he can count on, not someone who will bail on him for no reason. So unless you explain yourself to my satisfaction, I\'m taking you off the schedule until further notice.”



“No!” Draco said instantly. “Don\'t take me off. Just give me a week. I\'ll be back after that.”



Hermione frowned at him. “A week?” she repeated, not budging for a moment. “Were you even going to tell us that you needed to take another week off, or were you just going to not show at the last moment?”



Draco sighed. “I\'m sorry, okay? I wasn\'t thinking. Look – mother and I have been trying to go to Azkaban and see my father, but the Ministry canceled the visit. Said he was sick, some highly contagious disease. That\'s why I didn\'t show. I kept trying to get in and see him. That\'s all.”



“All right,” Harry muttered, feeling slightly mollified by Draco\'s explanation. “Why didn\'t you join the group to search Hogwarts?”



“I was sick,” Draco said uncomfortably. “Stress, I guess. But I\'ll be ok.”



Hermione nodded slowly. “You still look like shit. You should go to St. Mungo\'s, check yourself out.”



“Maybe I will,” Draco conceded. “Well, er - thanks for stopping by. Good night.”



“Wait,” Harry said softly, as Draco was about to shut the door. “Do you want me to help? I can ask what\'s going on and help arrange the visit if you like...”



Draco smiled mirthlessly. “Thanks, Potter, but it\'s kind of late for that.”



“Huh?” Harry stared at him uncomprehendingly.



“He died on Friday night,” Draco said in a shockingly normal voice.



Behind him, Hermione issued a quiet gasp. Harry opened his mouth to offer automatic words of sympathy, but Draco shot him a murderous look and said, “Don\'t bother, Potter. Just leave me alone.”



The Manor\'s door slammed shut, separating them from Draco.



To Be Continued...