The Servant

Something caught hold of Harry's sleeve. He twisted away, tripped and fell over.

'My, my, Potter. I thought you were a fearless hero,' a sardonic voice said behind him.

'You... you disappeared...' stuttered Harry.

'It is called Disapparating. I see that your idiocy is not confined to Potions,' the man replied.

'But there wasn't any sound - '

'Yes, well, some of us excel more than others. Apart from matters involving the Press, of course,' said Snape lazily.

Harry was cut off in mid-glower as Snape's fist trembled. He relaxed it slightly to show the puzzled boy the tiny cutting of the plant in his hands. The Stunner seemed to have worn off, for the cutting was struggling valiantly. Glancing back, he saw that the creeper had roused too. It rustled threateningly. Harry was glad that it was too far away to do more than shake a leafy fist at them.

Snape walked back to the cliff and pulled out a circle of thick black cloth and a jar of white powder from his Potions sack. Laying the wriggly cutting on the cloth, he liberally sprinkled the fine powder over it. That calmed it down immediately.

'It needs to dry under the moonlight for seven hours,' the Potions Master informed Harry. Harry watched as he rummaged through the sack again, taking out a bottle of pale yellow liquid. He recognized it as the protective potion he had been forced to drink before facing the more difficult tasks involved in Operation Horcrux. Pavise Protegat, as Snape had called it, was not a foolproof shield. It only conferred a certain degree of protection. For once Harry hadn't said anything when Snape had caustically told him he would need all the help he could get.

The bottle was almost empty.

Snape glanced up at him, frowning.

'I will need to brew a fresh batch of this. We will both need a dose of it before entering the cave,' he said as he searched the sack thoroughly. 'It will not take long. I am missing a few ingredients, but fortunately they may be found in this jungle. Wait here,' he said as he left.

When he returned, he laid down a fistful of iridescent golden berries, delicate yellow ferns and a few malodorous clumps of greenish moss. He began to clean the fresh ingredients. Harry jumped when the moss belched.

Clearing his throat, he said gruffly, 'Need help?'

Snape looked surprised, but after a moment's hesitation, nodded. 'Take the small collapsible cauldron out of my Potions sack and set it up in the clearing. Fill it with equal parts of water and base potion. Add one strand of golden unicorn hair, and bring it to boil. Alert me when it does', he said. 'You do know how to tell when something is boiling, don't you?' he added with a sneer.

Harry obeyed with a grimace. He watched his former professor out of the corner of his eye with unwilling admiration as Snape rapidly sliced and diced the ingredients. His hands were swift and sure as he added and stirred, incanting protection charms as he brewed. At last, he stepped back.

'It needs to simmer for another hour. Rest now, I will keep watch,' he said abruptly.

Harry drifted off to sleep.

A shrill cry broke the stillness of the night. Harry awoke with a start and looked around. He saw Snape in a yellow haze, bending over the cauldron as he bottled the potion. He was meticulously careful as he filled each vial, corking it and uttering a final protective charm over it.

He heard the cry again, and peering into the moonlit night, he could just make out a bird chasing a tiny speck in the distance. He settled back, relieved, and watched as they drew steadily nearer. An eagle was hunting a smaller bird - he couldn't identify it - which was carrying something in its beak. The smaller bird darted about in panic, little bits of whatever it was carrying scattering to the ground as it swerved. It flew towards him, close enough that he could make out the bunch of glistening red berries in its beak. Harry watched in horrified fascination as the predator caught up with prey. The smaller bird twitted in pain and the berries dropped out of its beak. Harry shot to his feet as he realized that the birds were right above the cauldron. Snape had impressed upon him that the potion was so volatile that the slightest mis-step could be disastrous. Unknown objects contaminating the potion was bound to be a bad idea.

'No!' Harry and Snape cried in unison, both scrambling to stop the impending disaster. The berries slipped past Snape's outstretched fingers, into the cauldron. Harry stared in horror as yellow flames leaped to life, engulfing both man and cauldron.