Proof of Life

Safeguards, Part II



Before leaving work, Harry stopped by Ron\'s office, and pulled him off duty as well. Ron didn\'t ask what the problem was, and Harry assumed that Percy had already briefed him. Together, they firecalled Hermione, and a few others, and half an hour later a small number of the Light Brigade members gathered in Harry\'s home: Marietta, looking a bit sleepy, Draco, who appeared to be even more irritated than usual, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Luna.



“Creating your own Inner Circle, Potter?” Draco taunted, dropping into an armchair and looking at Harry with contemptuous amusement.



“Trust me, if I were, you wouldn\'t be a part of it,” Harry said dryly. “I\'ve got news. It\'s important, and it\'s top secret, and I expect you all to keep your mouth shut and not blab outside of this room. Is that clear?”



Everyone nodded quickly.



“The Death Eaters are conjuring Dark Marks on new recruits. I\'m guessing that the Dark Mark has spread through most of the Underground by now,” Harry said. “The idea is for the Underground to establish an undetectable network of communication, and...”



“Severus!” Draco snapped, bolting to sit up as if he\'d been burned.



“I know,” Harry said quickly, stopping Draco in mid sentence. “I imagine that they are making plans to recapture him...”



Draco bit his lip, looking sickened. “Potter...” he said softly. “Look, you can\'t let that happen.”



“It won\'t happen,” Harry said flatly. “By the way, Draco, your own Dark Mark places you in danger...”



Draco glared at Harry angrily. “You\'ve told someone about it? Potter! Fuck! You promised you wouldn\'t!”



“Very few people know,” Harry said flatly. “Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Kingsley, Molly and Arthur. I\'d be more worried about your Slytherin housemates, who might know, and still have connections to the Underground,” Harry pointed out ruthlessly.



“Nobody knows!” Draco dismissed the matter quickly. “Well, Blaise, Pansy, Daphne, and Gregory know, but that\'s all...”



“And you\'re sure they won\'t tell anyone?” Harry pressed, looking at Draco with concern.



Draco nodded vigorously. “They won\'t. We have an understanding.”



“What about Astoria?” Hermione asked softly. “You two used to date, right?”



“That was a long time ago,” Draco said dismissively. “We aren\'t even in touch much. She doesn\'t know. And even if she did, she wouldn\'t tell anyone.”



“You\'re sure about that?” Ron asked with a small frown.



“So far, it\'s been the Ravenclaws blabbing about things that should have been kept quiet,” Draco said irritably. “Unlike the lot of you, Slytherins know how to keep secrets.”



Luna opened her mouth, clearly about to object in no uncertain terms on behalf of the Ravenclaws, but Harry placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her.



“Look, anybody can make mistakes, that\'s not the point,” Harry said quickly. “The point is that we need to adjust the wards on all our homes – and the homes of everyone involved. We shouldn\'t have any weak links...”



Ron nodded quickly, catching on instantly. “Remember the configuration we developed three years ago? It\'s tied to the home owner, and the wards are so tight, not even a fly will get through...”



“Right,” Harry agreed. “By the way, the new wards can also detect the Polyjuice Potion, so we won\'t need to worry about someone trying to impersonate one of us... I also think we need to set up an alarm that will inform everyone should any of our houses come under attack. That way, if anyone decides to use brute force to break in, the entire group can respond.”



“I might not be able to respond, depending on where I am,” Marietta pointed out gruffly. “I can\'t very well walk out in the middle of a surgery to rush to the rescue, no offense...”



“That\'s all right,” Hermione said softly, clearly remembering the fiasco of their fifth year all too well. “Either way, you probably shouldn\'t be involved in a direct action. You don\'t want to attract too much attention to yourself...”



“Thanks,” Marietta muttered, looking absolutely miserable. “Fuck it all. I promised my mother I wouldn\'t get myself, or her, into any more trouble like this...”



“Marietta, listen, it\'ll be all right,” Harry said firmly. “We\'ll secure your home as soon as we\'re done here. Should something happen, we\'ll all respond at once. And...” Harry hesitated for a moment, before continuing. “If you like, I can look for another healer to consult if something goes wrong with Severus...”



“No,” Marietta cut him off abruptly. “I\'ll still help out. Just... try not to advertise my involvement, all right?”



“All right,” Harry said quietly, deeply relieved that Marietta wasn\'t bailing on Severus now that things were getting dicey. “Well, let\'s get started, everyone. We\'ve got a lot of work to do.”



They began to reconfigure the wards at once. It took them the better part of an hour to secure Harry\'s home, and once done, everyone went to the Burrow. Molly and Arthur took the news about the Death Eater threat in their stride, and opened their wards for Harry and Ron to work on.



It was about eleven in the evening by the time they had finished securing the home of every member of the Light Brigade with painstaking diligence. The only person who\'d put up any fight over the intrusion into their wards was Blaise, but Pansy, who came along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco, told him not to be an idiot, and Blaise relented, granting them full access.



They even dropped by Percy\'s new place, and advised him, as well as a slightly stunned Penelope, that they were about to improve their home security. Percy looked at Harry and Ron with a mixture of surprise and gratitude, but didn\'t argue. The last, but not least, was Astoria Greengrass, whose name Draco brought up as an afterthought.



When they reached her home and knocked, the young woman snapped at someone, presumably a child, to get back to bed. When she opened the door, Astoria seemed almost more surprised to see Draco than the Gryffindors, but after a brief, if incomplete explanation, allowed Ron and Harry to modify her wards as well.



By the time the four left her home, everyone looked as exhausted as Harry felt.



Draco stared at all of them with a mixture of embarrassment and hesitation.



“Potter? Weasley? Thanks,” Draco said suddenly, and without waiting for a response, Disapparated with a loud crack.



“You\'re welcome,” Harry said into the empty space, wondering if something significant had just taken place.



Done for the night, Hermione, Ron and Harry Apparated to the doorstep of Harry\'s home and Hermione hugged Harry tightly. Harry stood rigid in her embrace, sensing a serious conversation coming up, and not being in the mood for it.



“Harry, are you all right?” Hermione asked finally.



Harry groaned, freeing himself from her arms. “Yes, I\'m fine. Thanks.”



“Are you sure?” Ron prodded. “You went a bit wild at work today, according to Percy...”



“Percy is being a prick,” Harry denied instantly. “Just ignore him.”



“Percy said you beat the shit out of one of the prisoners that you weren\'t supposed to be interrogating in the first place,” Ron pointed out, clearly unwilling to let the matter slide without a discussion.



“I didn\'t,” Harry protested. “I just punched him.”



Ron stared at Harry dubiously.



“Twice,” Harry muttered. “I punched him twice. That\'s all. No big deal.”



“Percy says you gave him a concussion, and nearly broke his neck,” Ron said, his brows furrowing to form a deep frown.



“What if I did?” Harry said unrepentantly, as the familiar wave of anger flooded him again. “Ron, come on, what difference does it make? The Dementors can Kiss him with a broken neck or not.”



“So you\'re saying his life and physical integrity have no value, because he\'s going to be executed in a few days anyway,” Hermione clarified, with a small tremor in her voice, staring at Harry as if she was seeing him for the first time.



“And you seem to be almost happy about him getting Kissed,” Ron pointed out. “I actually thought you were opposed to the Dementor\'s Kiss...”



“I am! But look - I\'m just being realistic,” Harry protested. “You should have heard him...”



“Somehow, during my Auror training, I must have missed the regulation that says it\'s fine to brutalize the prisoner when he\'s taunting you,” Ron said dryly. “Besides, being under Veritaserum, he didn\'t have a choice about what he was saying...”



“Sod off, Ron,” Harry spat disgruntledly. “Save some pity for those who actually deserve it.”



Ron shook his head sadly.



Hermione touched Harry\'s elbow. “Harry, remember when we were nineteen, and Kingsley was just beginning to reform the Wizengamot, and the penal system? Remember when he told us the three of us were the youngest to ever serve on the Advisory Board to the Wizengamot? Remember how excited and proud you were?”



Harry nodded mutely, not liking where this was going.



“Remember how you said in a press conference that not even someone like Voldemort deserved the Dementor\'s Kiss?”



“Yes, I remember,” Harry said impatiently.



“Remember when there was a debate about the use of Unforgivables by Aurors, and people were going back and forth, and you stood up, and told everyone how ashamed you were of casting Crucio on Carrow...”



“Yes,” Harry admitted with a crooked, unhappy smirk. “But that was a long time ago. I really felt that way, before all this...”



Before all the reforms went down the drain, before good intentions didn\'t amount to much of anything, before the endless acts of terror had wrecked the Wizarding World, before Snape was found on the floor of the Death Eater compound, half-insane and nearly bleeding to death...



“What do you want from me, Hermione?” Harry spat. “Do you want me to feel sorry for the scum that were torturing innocent people? Snape? Why are you defending them? I thought you were on Snape\'s side...”



“I\'m on your side, Harry,” Hermione said flatly. “I don\'t like to see you this way. I don\'t think being angry all the time is good for you. For that matter, it\'s probably not great for Snape, either, if you\'re allowing your work to dehumanize you, and if you come home angry every night...”



“Leave me alone,” Harry snapped, becoming more and more frustrated, for the most part, because he knew that Hermione and Ron had a valid point, and he just didn\'t want them to be right.



Hermione seemed inclined to snap back at him and continue arguing, but Ron took her hand in his and squeezed.



“Look, Harry, we\'re all tired, it\'s been a long day. I\'ll see you tomorrow.”



“Tomorrow,” Harry said listlessly, feeling like he\'d lost the argument, even if Hermione and Ron didn\'t exactly win it. “Thanks for everything today, all right?”



“All right,” Hermione said with a small smile, and she and Ron Disapparated to return home. Harry issued a deep sigh, and opened the door to enter his home.



He smiled, as the familiar and comforting normalcy of his house enveloped him. Luna was sound asleep on the couch, and Severus was sitting in the armchair, reading. He greeted Harry with a small nod.



“Aren\'t you tired?” Harry asked, making his way to the sitting room, and dropping into the armchair next to Severus.



“Tired, but not sleepy,” Severus said, setting the book aside. Harry glanced at it: advanced Potions research, and he smiled slightly, in spite of his weariness, feeling unspeakably relieved and delighted that Severus was slowly getting back to the things that he used to be passionate about.



“How was the rest of your day?” Severus asked.



“Fine.”



“You look far from fine,” Severus observed, studying his face intently. “Anything the matter, apart from the obvious?”



“No,” Harry said reluctantly, and Severus issued a dry, hoarse laugh.



“If you say so.”



“Hermione and I got into an argument,” Harry said noncommittally, eager to be done with the conversation. “It\'s nothing. You know how she is when she decides she needs to lecture someone...”



“No, I\'m afraid I don\'t,” Severus said dryly, “but I can easily imagine. What was the lecture about this time?”



Harry shrugged awkwardly, really not wanting to mention the interrogation earlier today, and bring up his encounter with one of the men who\'d been torturing Severus less than three months ago. Severus stared at him with an eyebrow raised in a silent question.



“It\'s not important,” Harry said after a long, strained silence.



“Ah, I see,” Severus said, as if Harry had given him a complete and comprehensive answer.



“What do you see?” Harry muttered irritably.



“Earlier today, you showed up with blood on your hands, and a piece of important information that hadn\'t been available to you earlier. This leads me to believe that you lost your temper during an interrogation, and threw a few punches. Am I accurate?”



Harry swore inwardly. “Let me guess, you\'re going to lecture me too?”



Severus shrugged. “I attempted to do so for six years, without any success whatsoever. I think I\'ll leave the lecturing to Ms. Granger. I imagine she\'ll enjoy it more, and be better at it.”



“Hermione is being needlessly dramatic,” Harry said dismissively. “But yes, she\'s unhappy with me. She thinks I\'m dehumanizing myself,” Harry added flippantly, eager to be done with the conversation that was growing more and more uncomfortable by the moment.



“What do you think?” Severus asked quietly.



Harry bit his lip. “I think he had it coming.”



Severus nodded thoughtfully. “That\'s how Macnair started out, you know,” Severus murmured, and the line on his forehead deepened to form a severe frown. “He just... lost his temper, when he and his friends had captured an Auror, who\'d committed some atrocities against their side. Twenty years later you had the dubious pleasure of meeting him when he\'d come for Buckbeak, wielding the executioner\'s axe.”



The quiet words hung between them in the tense silence of the room, long after the sound of them had died.



Harry stared at Severus, knowing all too well what lay beneath the mask of near-composure that Severus had painstakingly trained himself to assume in order to survive. He knew what had caused the silver dust of grey to insinuate itself prematurely into the black hair, he knew what terrors were hidden within the deep lines now crossing Severus\' forehead, and he could almost physically feel the man\'s unease.



“Is that how you see me?” Harry whispered, trying not to be too horrified by the suggestion. “Someone like Macnair... someone like them?”



Severus shrugged. “No, but... you\'re an angry person, Potter. I am not quite sure though, whether you\'re angry on my behalf, or whether having me around as a perpetual victim of the villains you despise is simply giving you a convenient excuse to act in your usual, chaotic, self-righteous manner.”



Harry bowed his head. Severus\' words stung, but didn\'t inspire the burst of indignant irritation that would have undoubtedly emerged, had the same observation been made by Hermione, or Ron, or Ginny.



Harry knew that he really had been angry, angry and miserable, ever since Diggory took over. Going to work seemed an unpleasant chore at best. In fact, over the last three months, the only time he had felt truly at peace was the three weeks of stress leave he had taken to care for Severus.



Harry also couldn\'t deny that his temper was growing short, and his mood was becoming more and more foul every day. He could tell that from time to time, his colleagues and even friends were becoming uncomfortable around him, but for the most part, he didn\'t care.



But... this was different. Harry didn\'t want Severus to have to be guarded or uneasy around him. Harry wondered privately what it was like for Severus to be completely dependent on someone who was perpetually in a foul mood... and even as the question formed itself in Harry\'s mind, Harry already knew the answer to that. His childhood had been spent in wretched dependency on two adults who seemed to be perpetually angry, at least around Harry. Not that Harry saw himself as a copy of Vernon by any means, but he couldn\'t help but wonder if deep down, Severus was unconsciously anticipating something genuinely nasty to emerge from Harry\'s anger that was always bubbling under the surface, ready to spill.



“Maybe I should just quit,” Harry whispered, more to himself, than Severus.



“Maybe you should,” Severus said matter-of-factly. “What\'s stopping you? Is it the money, or the fear of losing the crowds of adoring fans, should you choose to fade to obscurity?”



“Fade to obscurity? I should be so lucky.” Harry knew he was sounding like a spoiled brat, and he was waiting for a suitably scathing remark from Severus. However, none came.



“What is it then?” Severus asked instead, appearing to be genuinely curious.



“Frankly, it\'s... being connected to the events that affect you... affect us both,” Harry clarified. “There\'s a measure of power in knowing what\'s going on. If I quit now, I\'ll be out of the loop. I don\'t like that.”



“I\'m certain Ron Weasley will keep you in the loop,” Severus said.



“Diggory will never appoint Ron in my place, if I quit,” Harry pointed out. “He doesn\'t trust Ron...”



Severus stood up abruptly. “Then take a lesson from the Astronomy Tower, Potter,” Severus said sharply, “and quit appropriately.”



Harry snorted under his breath. “Are you suggesting I cast Avada Kedavra on my employer?”



Severus chuckled, appearing to be faintly entertained by the suggestion. “Far from it. All I\'m saying, is that if you\'re about to commit suicide, career or otherwise, you should do so in style.”



~ * ~



When Harry had gone to bed, Severus went to his study, and sat alone for a while, immersed in his own thoughts. Even though he hadn\'t known about the Dark Mark spreading throughout the Underground, the Death Eater threat wasn\'t exactly a surprise. He knew that even if everything went his way from now on, even if he regained his freedom and social status one day, he\'d have to watch his back for as long as he lived. He\'d resigned himself to that, for the most part. However, being helpless – being magically powerless to fight off an attack....



Severus reached for his wand. He\'d taken to carrying it with him at all times, useless as it was to him at this point. Still, even though it yielded no results, he continued to try it in stubborn futility, even though each attempt brought nothing but a sharp pang of loss with it.



Severus took a deep breath and flicked his wand.



“Lumos,” he whispered into the silence of the night.



Once again, nothing happened.



Lumos, he thought nostalgically, squinting in the undisrupted darkness of Harry\'s home.



To Be Continued...