A Living Secret ~ COMPLETED

Chapter 24 ~ The Grail

Friday evening, shortly after sunset, disillusioned and surrounded by a silencing spell, Severus Snape appeared at Godric’s Hollow. He strode to the house and let himself in. The hell with knocking. He removed the disillusionment and silencing spell. Harry and Dobby were in the living room and both looked up when the Potions Master entered.

Harry was dressed in black muggle clothing from head to toe and looked like a safe cracker. Severus eyed him and shook his head.

“You’ve got your wand?” the wizard snapped.

”Yes,” Harry said, showing it to him then sticking it back in his pocket.

“Leave it here,” the Potions Master said.

“What? No! I’m not leaving my wand. I’ll be unprotected,” Harry argued.

“You bring that wand and you’ll be dead before you get anywhere near the Horcrux. Only I can bring a wand on this journey. Now either you listen to me boy or I’ll leave you here and you’ll be going it alone,” Severus growled at him.

They hadn’t even started yet and already Harry was giving him lip. Yes, it had to be disconcerting to be wandless…but that was what was required.

Harry stared at Snape mutinously. Leave his wand?

“You told me you would obey, Mr. Potter,” Severus purred, “Apparently, your word means nothing when tested. I’ve always suspected as much. You are both a liar and a coward. Good-bye. I will send you directions to the Horcrux at a later date.”

The Potions Master strode toward the front door, Harry staring after him.

“Don’t lets him go, Harry Potter sir!” Dobby hissed at him, “You needs him, sir!”

Harry threw his wand into the armchair and bolted after the Potions Master.

“Professor, wait! I’m coming!” he cried out.

Severus turned and looked at the boy.

“Without your wand?” he asked him, his black eyes flicking over Harry with distaste.

“Yes sir. I’ll listen. I swear I will. To everything you say,” Harry said sincerely.

Severus considered him, then sighed. He wanted to leave Harry behind to teach him a lesson but the mission was more important than his personal dislike.

“Come along then, Mr. Potter,” he said, walking out the front door, Harry following.

Dobby watched as Severus suddenly gripped the back of Harry’s neck hard and they both disapparated. The house elf shook his head.

“I hopes they don’t kills each other,” he muttered, closing the front door.

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The wizard’s appeared on a great moor. Harry wrenched away from Severus rubbing the back of his neck angrily. The Potions Master gave him a rather nasty smirk. Who said this couldn’t be just a little fun?

“Where are we going?” Harry asked as the wizard began to walk up a small rise in the landscape.

“To church, Mr. Potter,” the wizard replied.

“Church?” Harry mouthed, following Snape up the rise. When they reached the top, Harry saw a huge ruin.

”That’s the church?” he asked Snape, who curled his lip at him.

“No. It’s Buckingham Palace. Now stop peppering me with stupid questions and come on,” the wizard said striding toward the dilapidated stone structure.

Snape was a dick.

Harry followed the tall wizard, frowning at the back of his billowing robes. Gods, Dumbledore sure knew how to pick them. It didn’t seem as if having the Headmaster’s soul inside him sweetened Snape’s disposition at all. He was the same snarky bastard he always was.

They stopped outside the church. It had no roof but was pretty well complete, its construction of brick, carstone, flint and ashlar. Harry could see straight through it. However, there were no aisles here, no clerestory, but the tower was imposing and the bell windows deceptively complete. He did notice that most of the wooden beams and floors inside survived. There were quite a few carved gargoyles sitting on the stone façade. Ugly things to be sure.

“Professor, how could anything be hidden here? It’s just…just a skeleton. People have probably crawled all over this place. Anything interesting would have been taken long ago,” Harry said to the wizard.

“Looks can be deceiving, Mr. Potter,” Severus replied, walking toward what would be the entrance to the church, “Hogwarts itself appears to be no more than a ruin to the uninformed.”

Snape walked through the entrance area…and disappeared.

Harry blinked. He was still able to see straight through the ruin. What happened to Snape?

”Come on!” a voice hissed impatiently. It was the Professor. He was still here, though Harry couldn’t see him.

Harry walked through the same place Snape did, then stopped and stared. He was in what appeared to be kind of lobby. There were doors leading inside the church and it was whole, with a roof, walls and all the trimmings. Snape walked through the doors and Harry quickly followed.

The first thing Harry saw when they entered the church was a font, or raised bowl next to the doors. It was filled with a thick black liquid and next to it, a flickering blood red candle. Curiously, he reached for it just as Severus looked back.

“Don’t touch that you idiot!” Snape hissed at him, “Don’t you know not to stick your hand in things you know nothing about? Just follow me, damn it!”

From the moment he entered the church, Severus knew immediately that Tom Riddle had adapted this building to his own sick ends. Nothing was safe.

There was also a niche in the wall containing three vessels of what appeared to be oils, and next to that a door leading who knew where. Severus walked straight by them without pause.

Now they entered the church proper. It was filled with black pews with small kneeling benches underneath them that could be pulled down. They were also blood red.

“This doesn’t look right,” Harry whispered. His voice carried.

Severus scowled but didn’t say anything Of course it wasn’t “right.” Nothing Voldemort was involved in was “right.”

On the walls were fourteen painted scenes of terrible situations, slaughter, mayhem, rape and murder. There was one image that stood out in grisly detail in each painted scene, and it looked like Voldemort, but not as scaly and snake-like as he was now. In the last image, he was bringing down a sword on the neck of someone who looked like a younger Albus Dumbledore, who was on his hands and knees before him. Blood and the bodies of dead wizards and witches were strewn all around the Headmaster, his robes soaked in crimson and his wand broken and useless as the Dark Lord grinned victoriously.

They walked up the aisle and stopped in front of the sanctuary, where there was a kind of throne made of bones, a lectern on which a large, yellowed book rested and a huge stone altar that appeared to have a removable top. But it would require several men to move it. A thin cross was carved into the granite and little holes perforated the stone.

A barricade also made of bones bordered the right and left of the sanctuary, and red candles rested on small black tables, creating frightening shadows on the walls of the church. But it was the twisted images of misshapened people and creatures behind the sanctuary that made Harry’s heart pound. Some were horned, clawed and had terrible glittering eyes that almost looked alive as they snarled down at the pair. A nude inverted man on a cross in obvious pain looked toward them, his eyes the only ones not frightening, but resigned.

”This is sick,” Harry said as Severus walked between the barricade and stood behind the lectern.

In the eerie red glow of the candlelight, he looked like some kind of evil priest, his lank hair curtaining around his shadowed face as he slowly leafed through the book. On a small table next to the lectern was a black ornate cup, decorated with horribly contorted faces and a small silver dagger, the handle topped by a screaming fanged skull.

Severus shook his head, then retrieved the cup and dagger.

“Voldemort has always been rather theatrical,” the wizard muttered as he pulled up the sleeve of his right arm.

Harry watched as the Potions Master grimaced and sliced his arm open deeply, catching the blood in the cup until it was almost full. Then he sat the cup down and pulled out his wand, swaying a little as he healed the gash. He was much paler than usual.

“Professor, are you all right?” Harry asked as the wizard pulled a small flask out of his other pocket, opened it and drank it. In a moment, his color returned. But the cut didn’t heal cleanly. An ugly scar remained.

Severus nodded, then picked up the cup of blood and walked to the stone altar. Carefully he poured the blood into the etched cross. The dark crimson flowed slowly until it filled the cross completely, then began to bubble as it seeped through the holes. There was a grating sound.

Severus moved quickly back as the great stone top slid off the altar heavily, crashing to the floor. Harry peered inside and saw only a ladder leading down into darkness.

“Mr. Potter,” Severus breathed at him, “You follow me down and you don’t utter a sound, not a single blessed sound. Not a word! No matter what you see or hear do not react…do you understand me?”

Harry nodded and Severus stared at him, scowling for a moment before he climbed into the altar and began to descend the ladder. Harry hesitated, looking about the church again then froze as he saw several skeletons kneeling in the front pews, heads bowed and bony fingers clasped together as if in prayer. They weren’t there before.

Suddenly, one of them moved…or seemed to. Harry stared at it but there was no other motion. Maybe a trick of the candlelight. He climbed into the altar and followed Snape down.
Harry wanted to say something about the skeletons, but Snape told him not to say a word. Harry could hear the wizard below him and the darkness was lifting the further down they climbed. It took about three minutes for them to reach the bottom. They were in a small circular stone room, a single doorway leading down a very close hallway. Several small torches illuminated the room.

Severus waved at Harry to follow him, scowling to insure the boy didn’t say anything. He entered the hall, Harry right behind him. His foot scuffed, and Severus spun on him…his black eyes narrowed angrily as if he wanted to scream at him. Harry ducked his head in apology and followed the Potions Master quietly.

After about a minute the hall widened, and there were recesses in the walls on both sides of them. Harry’s eyes widened as he saw the recesses were filled with skeletons lying on their backs. But they weren’t dry. They looked rather…wet. Oily. He also noticed some had spears and swords lying next to them. Oh, this didn’t look good. He made an extra effort to be quiet.

As he walked, Harry could have sworn he glimpsed slight movements. He hoped it was rats scuttling between the bones. His heart started pounding. He didn’t have a wand to defend himself if anything were to come after him. He’d have to count on Snape to protect him and that wasn’t a good feeling.

Severus also saw the motions, but kept going. The sooner they were out of the catacombs the better. Finally they came to a blank wall. The Potions Master pulled out his wand and muttered something in a low voice, touching the center of the stone with the tip. Light flared and an image of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth appeared.

Now Severus pulled up his left sleeve and pressed his Dark Mark against it, his face contorting terribly as what felt like white-hot flames shot up his arm and through his body. He still couldn’t make a sound though and held his arm there until he was trembling with effort, sweat pouring down his face. Then the wall vanished and he stumbled through, followed by Harry.

“Gods damn him!” the wizard hissed, rubbing his mark which had turned blood red, “The sadistic bastard! I know there was an easier way to get in here than that!”

Harry stared at the Potions Master who bent with his hands on his knees for a moment, panting as the pain subsided.

“Is it safe to talk now?” Harry asked him.

”Yes,” Snape panted, “And there is the prize.”

He pointed a pale finger at a pedestal that held an ornate golden cup with two finely wrought handles, engraved with a badger. A beam of light from an unknown source fell on it, illuminating the vessel.

“Voldemort’s idea of the Holy Grail…except it contains an unholy spirit,” Snape said, straightening, “His.”

Harry’s eyes widened as he looked at the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff

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A/N: Another chappie up. Thanks for reading. ***