Down On Your Knees

Tile: Down on Your Knees

Author: Exis* Exis_@hotmail.com

Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape

Warnings: This fic will contain M/M sex....Gay sex. For thoes who don't like that, you should go away now. It will also highlight a love afair with a teacher so if that makes you unhappy, scram. I haven't finished writing it, but you should assume that it will have spoilers from ALL FOUR BOOKS.....if that displeases you, you can go away as well. My last warning is that this is my first slash fic, and my first Harry Potter fic. I haven't sli slightest clue whether it's horrible, and I'd like to pretend it's not....

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, nor am I making any money off this. You know the drill, I won't elaborate.

Dedicated: To my Lovely Beta Tealish. Thanks for your patience, and your trust.

"Once again we are down on our knees. Our prayers are the wrong prayers and the wrong gods are listening."


Chapter 3: "The wrong gods"

Something felt funny about that particular Friday. There was just something strange in the air as Harry rose out of bed and got dressed. He wondered if it was nerves about the important Quidditch practice that was scheduled that afternoon, or maybe it was the quiz he was expecting in Charms that day. Harry really didn’t know what he was apprehensive about, but something wasn’t right.

He met Hermione and Ron for breakfast. They were in the middle of an argument about whether licensing Animagis was moral or not. Harry felt even worse at that moment, wanting to yell at them to talk about something important, but he didn’t. It wasn’t their fault, and Harry really did love them... they just weren’t really ready to handle the things Harry had to. In any case, he didn’t bring up the worries he was experiencing that morning.

He dragged behind as they walked to breakfast. His head felt foggy and his joints ached. He tried to think what he could have done to put him in this much pain. Perhaps he slept funny. He really didn’t have much time to worry about it, because before he really figured out what was going on, he was in the Great Hall.

He sat himself down at the table in his usual spot. He thoughtfully watched Seamus mouth tiny kisses all over Dean. Seamus was so loving and kind. He soon noticed Harry was watching, and winked at Harry, only to go back to running his hands down Dean’s chest. Dean was half asleep, but smiled warmly. ‘That’s true love,’ Harry thought.
But Harry wasn’t the only one watching the exchange. Severus Snape sat perched at the high table and was looking down at Harry. He noticed him walk in, almost zombie-like, and wondered whether he was in need of more sleeping potion. It wasn’t healthy to walk around like the undead, and he was considering going to Poppy to ask her about some kind of remedy for the problem. His thoughts were interrupted by blinding pain that shot through his left forearm.

He clutched his arm beneath the table, trying to maintain a normal statement. But, try as hard as he might, he couldn’t stop his face from contracting. It had been a long tine sincldemldemort had sent him such a strong summons. He scanned the Great Hall looking to see if anyone was noticing him, and found that no one was looking at him. In fact, every eye was glued on another person. Harry Potter laid curled up, clutching his forehead.
Then, just as suddenly as the pain had come, it left. Severus locked eyes with Harry immediately. With sad eyes Harry nodded slowly, answering the unasked question that lay on Snape’s face.

“Fuck,” Snape muttered under his breath. While the staff and students fussed over Potter, Snape grabbed Dumbledore’s hand and dragged him into the hallway. There were things to say

~*~

“HARRY! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” Ron screamed as Harry uncurled himself. Harry didn’t answer. Instead he cast his eyes up at Snape. From the look on Snape’s face, there was no need to explain, he knew.

“He always knew,” Harry muttered to himself, and looked into the worried faces of his two best friends.

“Ron, Hermione, I need you to make me omisomise. No matter what you see or hear today, I want you to do whatever the staff tells you to. Don’t look for me, or search for glory. I don’t have time to explain what’s going on, just follow directions. It’s important.”

“Harry, what are you talking about. Is it...” Ron started to ask, but was quickly cut off.

“No time to explain, just promise me,” Harry asked with a small quaver in his voice.

“We promise,” Hermione said, looking at Harry with a sad expression on her face. She understood what was going on. She’d keep Ron out of harm. Harry wanted to tell them both just how much they meant to him, but at that moment he watched Snape stand up and take Dumbledore’s arm. He’d have to move fast.

“Just remember,” Harry whispered, “I always loved both of you.” He gave them both hugs, hoping they weren’t the last ones, and made his way through the crowd to follow Snape.

~*~

Dumbledore’s heavy eyes had lost their sparkle. “What’s going on Severus?” he asked, con evn evident in his voice.

“I have reasons to believe that the final battle is coming. You need to assemble the staff. Send the children to the Slytherin common room. I’ve made sure it’s wards are intact, so even if they do get through the rest of them, the common room will hold up. Tell the staff to assemble weapons and meet in the entrance hall. Send Poppy to my dungeons where she’ll find a large amount of healing draught and other extremities. Owl the Ministry, but Albus, be quick. We have no time for tact. Expect the Death Eaters on the edge of the grounds within fifteen minutes.”

T he only sound in the room after Snape’s speech was Harry’s footsteps as he approached the two men. He locked eyes once again with Snape, and they both acknowledged what was happening. Harry ran his fingers down his wand, and turned to Dumbledore with a determined statement. Snape, too, turned toward the Headmaster, his eyes asking the question his words wouldn’t.

“Absolutely not. Harry is going to the common room with the rest of the students. His safety can’t be disregarded. We shouldn’t play into Voldemort’s wishes, nor should we endanger the boy. He can’t fight.”

“Professor Dumbledore, you know my place in this war just as well as I do. You can’t ignore it, and Voldemort won’t,” Harry retorted with defiance in his voice.

Snape looked away from the two, unable to face this. He knew Harry’s place in the war just as well as Harry did. He just hoped that Harry’s place in the war wouldn’t lead to a place in the mortuary. A familiar passage crossed his mind, something he had read a long time ago from some muggle publication. He looked at Dumbledore and Harry, locked into a silent exchange.

“Once again we are down on our knees...” Severus said, his eyes falling on the two of them. “Our Prayers are the wrong prayers, and the wrong gods are listening.”

Both of the men turned to look at Severus who stood with hollow eyes and a heavy heart. The three of them simply stood there, looking at each other. It seemed that even though every second was imperative to the safety of the wizarding world, nothing outranked that moment, that understanding.

It was Dumbledore who spoke first. “You’re rigyou you have your place just as I have mine,” Dumbledore said with his bleak statement saying more about this resolve than his words. He pulled Harry close and placed one tiny little kiss on Harry’s scar, and nodded to Severus. He then turned and walked back to the Great Hall to start the difficult task of getting the school ready for war.

Snape turned to Harry, and gave him a strong look that Harry really couldn’t read. “Potter,” Snape said, “Get your broom and your cloak. Go down to entrance hall. Remember, we do what we have to on the battlefield. Today is judgment day, but not yours.” And Snape turned and walked away, leaving Harry standing by himself in the empty hallway. In the distance you could hear the terrified cries of the student body. It seemed Dumbledore had broken the news.

Harry hurried toward the Gryffindor common room. On the way fragments of his life flashed before him. He mused how he had gone from a cupboard to this. He thought about his friends and he thought about Quidditch, and Potions class, and Snape. He thought a lot about Snape.

He reached the common room out of breath. He ran to his dorm gathered what he needed. He took another look around the room saying a prayer for the people who had lived here. Before he left he put a little note on the inside of his trunk, relinquishing all his possessions to Ron, should he not make it. That was it, there were no loose ends to tie up.

He walked quickly to the entrance hall and scanned the room. Everyone in the room stopped to watch him, as if his presence made the war they were entering tangible. The women just looked on with sad eyes. The men bowed their heads, from either emotion or respect, Harry wasn’t sure. There was only one in the room who showed no reaction.

“Draco,” Harry hissed. He turned to Dumbledore slowly. “What’s he doing here? He was the one I overheard talking about Snape in the common room. He’s working for the Dark Lord.”

But it wasn’t Dumbledore who answered. Instead Draco came forward and stood toe to toe with Harry, and met his eyes.

“You really think that was a mistake? You’d need something more powerful to sneak into the Slytherin common room than an invisibility cloak. I would have expected you would havarnearned something from following me around. I never make mistakes.” Draco smiled at Harry. It was a soft smile, not like the ones he normally gave. It was almost sad. So, instead of an unkind retort that he would have normally given, he took Draco’s hand in his own and gave it a gentle squeeze.

He walked over to Snape, and they both took their places in the ranks of teachers and ghosts, ready to fight. Snape ran his hand over Harry’s head, and whispered to him one more time, “You do what you have to.”

Harry smiled a little, and then turned his attention to Dumbledore who was speaking. Harry really wasn’t listening, because whatever he had to say it didn’t apply to him. He thought about everything that had happened in the last half-hour. He looked back on the exchange in the hallway he had, and recalled what Snape had said about them being down on their knees. Snape had been wrong about one thing, though. This was his judgment day, too.

Before he could expand on that thought, the people in the room began to walk toward the door. It was time. He made his way to the door and the group stood on the Hogwarts school steps. In the distance, black figures approached the castle. “We do what we have to,” Harry repeated to himself, and he mounted his broom and disappeared from sight.

**Authors Note***
Okay, I had to get that out of my system. Its shorter than the last chapter, and I am sorry. I should have more for you in a few days. This stuff is all intricate to the plot, and once I get that out of my system, I'll have some nice smut that you all know and love.....I won't leave you hanging.
I would like to thank all who reviewed, and give special thanks to all those who offered HTML help. I will hopefully be able to use that in the near future. I hope you liked this, but once again, if you are displeased, stick it out with me for a few more chapters. I am going to kick it up a notch.

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