Snape's Redemption

Disclaimer: I might write as slowly as her, but I’m not J K Rowling. Nor do I make any money from this. The only payment I get is reviews …

**Don't know what happened and why this chapter disappeared, but here it is again**


Chapter Twenty – After such knowledge, what forgiveness

At Grimmauld Place Harry Potter sat at the kitchen table, his head buried in his hands as he listened to the conversations flowing all around him. The whole of the Order of the Phoenix was there: making plans, shooting down suggestions, ranting and raving, moaning, and basically ensuring nothing was accomplished. Aside from Bill Weasley finding Ravenclaw’s wand, which Bill had confessed had been a complete fluke, the Order had achieved very little.

Well, they had kept Hogwarts open, but that was due to following Snape’s advice.

Harry ground his teeth in frustration as he finally admitted, fully and without reservation, that they indeed needed Severus Snape.

He winced as a sharp pain suddenly shot through his head. Reaching up, he massaged his scar.

“Are you all right, Harry?”

His brow creased with concern, Remus Lupin stretched across the table, reaching out and touching Harry’s hand which was still rubbing his forehead.

“I’m fine, Remus. Just a bit, you know, fed up. With this,” he added significantly, rolling his eyes at the fighting members.

Sympathy oozed from the werewolf as he gazed at the son of his lost friends. “I know things are difficult, Harry, but you do know that I’m always here…”

The rest of his consolation and support was drowned out as Harry’s screams resounded throughout the crowded room.

In a whirl of robes, Kingsley Shacklebolt leapt up onto the table and, pointing his wand at Harry (who was now writhing on the floor in agony), boomed out, “MENTIS CONTEGO!”

Suddenly the room was quiet, save for Harry’s gasping breath.

“Hermione,” he rasped out, struggling to his feet. “Danger – we have to save her.”

A brief silence greeted this revelation.

“I don’t think she wants to be saved,” Molly Weasley huffed out.

Harry ignored her, but did note that a few of the other Order members were nodding in agreement.

“She’s at the orphanage,” he began.

“Which doesn’t exist,” Tonks interrupted shortly. “Harry, we’ve been through this before – it’s just a vacant lot and the Horcrux isn’t there!”

“It’s not vacant,” Harry snapped out whilst pulling himself up from the floor to lean against the table. “I just saw it.”

He looked around at all the people gathered around him, but they reflected back only incomprehension or scepticism. There was no support.

“Through Voldemort’s eyes,” he clarified, reaching up and touching his scar.

The room gasped and Harry rolled his eyes, automatically seeking the two people who would have sympathised with the useless fear displayed by saying that name. But they were not there, of course: one was dead, and the other - she needed him now.

“Where’s this orphanage meant to be?” Mad-Eye bit out, his magic eye whirling furiously.

As Tonks answered him, giving him the directions and reporting on the various Aurors who had failed to find anything when they visited the site, Harry straightened up and moved towards the door.

“And where do you think you’re going?” screeched Mrs Weasley. Everyone in the room winced at the high pitched squeal of her voice.

“Toilet,” Harry answered brusquely, before striding out and up the stairs.

Upon reaching the hallway, he Accio’d his broom and invisibility cloak. While waiting for them to appear, he cast a Disillusionment Spell on himself, then flew out the front door, heading for the help he could only find at Hogwarts.

Remus Lupin burst into the hallway just as the front door slammed shut. Once again, the werewolf was too late to be of any help to his former students.

*~*~*~*~

Severus Snape was laughing. He stood there, flanked by Lucius Malfoy and Rodolphus Lestrange, with his head thrown back, almost convulsing with apparent mirth.

At a signal from the Dark Lord, Bellatrix stepped in front of Snape and slapped him hard across the face, causing his laughter to halt abruptly. When he made no move to retaliate, Hermione began to suspect something was seriously wrong. A movement from Lucius drew her gaze to him and she watched in horror as he negligently twirled Snape’s wand between his fingers. The suspicion moved to an affirmation – they were in very deep trouble.

Still panting, she shifted slightly, slipping the cup into her robes and thence into one of the many disappearing pockets that Severus had spelled into all her clothing. Then she slowly rose to her feet and met the serpentine eyes of Voldemort. A slight sneer graced her features momentarily.

Anger flared in his eyes and they glowed brighter as he hissed at her, “You dare to face me, Mudblood!”

Reaching forward, he grasped her by the neck, crushing her throat and making her gasp in pain, before he backhanded her across the face and threw her to the ground.

“Give me the cup,” he commanded as she desperately tried to draw breath into her lungs through her aching throat.

“No,” she croaked out defiantly.

“Splendid,” exclaimed Rodolphus to his wife. “I do so love Gryffindors and their tiresome heroism, don’t you, my love?”

Bella smiled dreamily. “It will be just like the Longbottoms,” she purred, slipping her hand into her husband’s. “It is a pity that Barty cannot be here,” she added, casting a sidelong glance at the immobile Severus Snape.

Raising her wand hand in tandem with her husband, they focussed on Hermione.

“Cru...,” they began, only to be interrupted by the screech of an enraged Hippogriff.

Everyone looked up to see Harry Potter astride Buckbeak, riding to the rescue.

Voldemort smiled and withdrew his wand. Lucius followed his lead.

The Lestranges turned, feral smiles on their faces, ignoring the young witch grovelling at their feet.

Hermione closed her eyes, relieved but still cursing Harry’s foolhardiness.

Severus Snape rolled his eyes and sneered dismissively.

“Fool,” the Dark Lord hissed, preparing to strike down his enemy.

Before he could, he and everyone else on the ground were enveloped in a cloud of darkness. Hermione felt herself being lifted up, placed on Buckbeak’s back and anchored by Harry’s arms around her. As they rose up into the air, she gasped out, “Professor Snape!”

“Is more than capable of looking after his own traitorous self for now,” Harry retorted as they burst out of the cloud of Peruvian Darkness. He grasped Hermione tightly as Buckbeak rolled away from a stray spell that had shot out of the blackness underneath them.

“No, Harry! We have to go back,” Hermione insisted, futilely banging her legs against Buckbeak’s side to get him to turn around.

Harry, realising he was unable to guide Buckbeack and control a struggling Hermione, regretfully placed his wand at her temple and whispered, “Lethargus”. Hermione immediately slumped back, boneless in his arms. Quickly he checked her pockets, finding her wand sheathed inside one of them. Sighing, he shook his head. It still amazed him that, in a crisis, she still sometimes forgot she was a witch.

Confidently, he guided Buckbeak back to Hogwarts. Leaving him in Hagrid’s care, he returned with his unconscious friend to Grimmauld Place.

*~*~*~*~

“Consurgo.”

Hermione awoke to find herself surrounded by key members of the Order of the Phoenix. As her eyes focussed after her spell induced sleep she realised that Bill Weasley held her wand and Mad-Eye Moody held Hufflepuff’s cup. She lurched forward, only to find herself bound to the chair she had been placed in.

“What the hell?” she rasped out, struggling futilely against the magical bonds that held her in place.

“Is there anything else?” Arthur Weasley asked Moody gruffly.

Hermione tensed as Mad-Eye leant into her, his magic eye roving all over her body.

“Only a few gobstones here and there,” he informed Arthur. “Nice set of robes there, Miss Granger. Interesting secrecy spells on the pockets.”

“Let me go,” she demanded. “I have to leave!”

“Why? Hermione, we’re here to help you,” Bill tried to soothe her. The fact that he still held her wand made the glare she sent in his direction even more potent.

“I have to help Professor Snape,” she ground out.

Abruptly Tonks and Remus, who were standing to the left of her, were pushed aside as Ron Weasley burst through.

“Help him?” he yelled. “Is that what it’s called these days? Funny, I thought opening your legs for a wizard you’re not married to was called …”

Hermione screamed as a wave of pain swiftly ripped through her body, causing her to convulse within her magical bonds.

Everyone around her stepped back.

Except for Harry, who reached forward to try and haul her from the chair. He watched in horror as Hermione started frothing at the mouth. Frantically, he turned and found that none of the inner Order was making any move to help her.

“Bill!” he cried out commandingly. “The Vow! You’ve got to break it!”

Moody reached out and placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder as Remus shadowed the movement and gripped the other.

“She’s a liability, boy,” Moody informed him gruffly. “Saving her put you in danger and risked the whole fight against the Dark Lord.”

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Remus gently inserted, his eyes awash with tears. “But Harry, we have to make sacrifices.”

Remus and Moody were forcefully thrown backwards, slamming into the wall and falling into an unconscious heap whilst Bill Weasley found himself at the wrong end of the wand of the boy who lived.

“Don’t move,” Harry cautioned everyone else in the room, his eyes taking on a slight reddish glow. Catching Bill’s gaze he ordered, “Stop it now!”

“I don’t know how,” Bill whimpered, finally realising the awesome power that Harry Potter had at his disposal. He could feel blood seeping from his nose and ears, and prayed that he would survive this encounter.

Everyone else in the room had collapsed on the floor as Harry’s unfocussed magic engulfed them.

Harry released Bill, who fell to the ground, and turned to Hermione, who was still convulsing and whose lips were blue through the foaming spittle that covered them. Pointing his wand at her, a deep voice rolled out of his still slightly boyish chest.

“Pollicitus Frango!

A jet of purple light leapt from his wand, encompassing Hermione before disappearing into her chest.

Her convulsions ceased and the ability to breathe returned to her. Harry gently wiped the spittle from her face. With a quick Finite Incantatem from Harry, Hermione was released from the chair. She staggered over to the prone Bill Weasley and retrieved her wand. She then Accio’d the cup from under Moody’s motionless body.

“What happened?” she asked Harry, gazing at all the unconscious wizards and witches surrounding her.

“I lost my temper,” he replied shortly, looking down at his wand before furiously cleaning it with his shirtsleeve.

Hermione shot a quick glance at him. “That’s some temper,” she finally said.

Harry coughed out a brief burst of laughter before bursting into tears.

“Oh, Hermione,” he wept. “They were going to let you die!”

She moved over to him and hugged him hard, letting him cry everything out onto her shoulder.

“I should be dead,” she muttered as her mind realised that the Unbreakable Vow’s effect had been stopped. “Harry,” she continued authoritatively, “I have to know what happened!”

She pushed him back from her embrace and gazed into his eyes. Her breath hitched as she saw the slight red glow that still pulsed in those emerald green depths.

“Oh, Harry,” she breathed. “What have you done?”

“I don’t know,” he sobbed. “You were dying. They all did nothing. They were going to let you die and then, I don’t know, I just … I don’t know, Hermione! I can’t remember!”

“You said Pollicitus Frango,” came a rasping voice from the ground. “What the hell does that mean?”

Ron Weasley sat up slowly and gazed at the carnage around him. “Wicked,” he mumbled.

“Pollicitus Frango?” Hermione repeated. “The literal translation is promise break.”

Her eyes widened in realisation. “You broke the Vow,” she gasped.

“How did you do that?” Ron queried.

Harry glared at him.

“I have to leave,” Hermione mumbled, as she stowed the cup away in one of her magical pockets. She resisted the urge to reach over and beat Ron Weasley about the head. Her hand formed into a fist as she relished the remembered feeling of smacking another annoying wizard around. Recalling Draco’s eventual fate, however, made her feel guilty and she turned to leave.

“You’re not going alone,” Harry stated. “You shouldn’t be alone anyway. Hermione, you almost died and no one you believed in helped you.”

“You did,” she stated looking straight at him. And at a terrible price, she added to herself, watching as the red glow finally faded completely from his eyes.

“The Order is over for me,” Harry announced. “From now on it’s just you and me, Hermione, as it should have been.”

“What about me?” came Ron’s whinging voice.

Hermione rolled her eyes, unable to believe that after all the vitriol he had hurled at her, he would just be forgiven and accepted back.

Harry, on the other hand, looked torn. Hermione sighed mentally. Feeling that she owed him for saving her life (twice) and breaking the Vow, she turned to Ron.

“One word about me and Professor Snape and I’m turning you into a mouse and feeding you to Crookshanks,” she threatened. “Got it?”

Ron nodded hastily and staggered to his feet.

“Hermione, I’m so sorry,” he mumbled at her. “I just get … and act stupid … you know …”

“We know,” Harry and Hermione chimed in together, remembering Ron’s previous behaviour in their fourth year.

Harry beamed brightly at Hermione. She smiled weakly back, desperately burying the insidious thought that having Ron Weasley with them was a very, very foolhardy idea. She turned and headed out the door, the two boys following her.

“Hey, Harry,” Ron began. “You didn’t answer before. How did you know how to break the Vow? I mean, that’s what you did, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s what I did,” Harry confirmed quietly.

“So?” Ron continued as their trunks shot down the stairs, having been summoned by Hermione. “How?”

Harry shrugged and held out his arm for Hedwig to land on and left Grimmauld Place.

Ron reached out and plucked Pigwidgeon out of the air.

“Did you know?” Ron turned to Hermione, his voice harsher than when he had been speaking to Harry.

Hermione ignored him and followed Harry outside. Behind her back, Ron’s face contorted into a mask of hatred which quickly dropped away when his two friends faced him.

“C’mon Ron,” Harry hurried him along. “Hermione’s going to Apparate us to her hide out.”

“With you all the way,” Ron replied with a broad grin breaking across his face.

Pigwidgeon gave a squawk of protest as Ron’s fist tightened alarmingly around him. He quickly joined the other two, smile still firmly fixed in place.

Neither Harry nor Hermione noticed that it did not reach his eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Title is from ‘Gerontion’ by TS Eliot (again). Rest of the poem doesn’t really apply to this chapter and in case you’re wondering – yes, it’s for Ron’s state of mind (or what there is of it).

Please don’t bother telling me about how wrong my Latin is. The words are correct (according to my dictionary) but as to the structure, tense or nominative whatever it is – I don’t know. Nor do I want to know. I just like using cool sounding words that mean something. So I’ve withdrawn the meanings of the words as I used them (they often have different meanings, ie Mentis = mind, intellect & other stuff).

Mentis Contego = mind protect
Lethargus = sleepiness
Consurgo = to arise
Polliticus Frango = vow break

Sorry for the delay – I got distracted with real life. Mea Culpa…..

However, if I get lots and lots and lots of reviews, I’m sure I’ll be inspired to write more (hint, hint, hint, sledgehammer, hint).

To my Betas (drumroll) GinnyW, JuneW & Claraminutes – ta, luvs!