Diamond In The Rough

"If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?"
Marquise de Sévigné (French writer and lady of fashion) February 11, 1677

"The damnable agent of necromancers and sorcerers. It is well to abstain from chocolate in order to avoid the familiarity and company of a nation so suspected of sorcery (Spain)."
French cleric (1620)

 

 

"Oh Harry! Thank Merlin!"

Harry felt Lyca’s arms go round his neck, felt her tears fall upon his cheek as she hugged him tight. But he couldn’t react. He knew what he used to do, hug back and pay tears with tears in return. But he couldn’t. He felt empty. When Lyca pulled back, hurt in her golden eyes, he stared blankly back at her, his face asking but one question.

What do you want from me?

Snape turned to Hermione, his voice dry. "I think these two will suffice as my report of the meeting."

Hermione made no reaction to the sarcasm. Instead she turned to Draco, not trying to hide her confusion. "Why is he not a shell?"

"Hermione, last time I saw him, Voldemort had all the mental capability of a carrot."

"Not him, Harry."

Draco cast his eyes lazily in Harry’s direction. "Weasley, you’re the genius, not me. It’s more your line of work."

She glared at him. "All I know is that the caster is supposed to end up like the victim. Dead on the inside."

Draco looked back at her, as Minerva guided Harry to a chair in a corner of her office. "If it helps, he looks exactly how I feel, though slightly worse admittedly."

Hermione shook her head. "None of this is making sense," sighing, she raised her voice, "I think its time we heard all the news. If everyone would take a seat."

As he sat, Draco realised how quickly the time since the spell had gone, how speedily all the events had passed. From arriving at the house to taking the Floo network to the temporary Hogwarts terminal in McGonagall’s office, he’d hardly noticed anything change, it all moving forward at a pace his thoughts couldn’t keep up with. Everything required so much attention, so much concentration. Right now, he felt the world could explode and he wouldn’t care. His eyes fell on Harry and Lyca, who sat beside him, tearstains the only colour upon her cheeks. Well, maybe not as far as that. He may feel nothing else, but he still felt the burden of his oath to the Chamber upon his heart.

As his thoughts were about to wander again, Hermione’s voice through the silence, her tone one of worry.

"We all have some idea of why we’re here, but I’m afraid that none of us know the full story, for it is one of two halves. Sorry as I am to have to have such a meeting as we had less than 24 hours ago, it is necessary. We ought to start the beginning. Lyca?"

The youngest member present rose her head, not bothering to move the strands of hair that shaded part of her vision. "Draco knows as much as I do."

"Draco will have to tell his part later, you may as well speak for him in what you know."

"Very well. I couldn’t sleep. I just...couldn’t, something weighed upon me, though I didn’t know what. Then, it must have been almost 11, Harry came in. I didn’t open my eyes, I just knew it was him from the way he moved. He didn’t speak to me, he just smoothed my hair from my face. I think he might have been crying. I was about to open my eyes and speak to him when I heard Draco’s voice came from the doorway. I gathered that they were going after Voldemort. But I didn’t protest. It just...felt natural in a way. Like I had known in me that he had to go, whatever everyone else said. I heard Harry leave, at which point I looked up. Draco was just turning away, but I called out to him. Told him to look after Harry. He said that he would, before leaving himself. Thats all I can tell you. I dont know how long I lay there before Hermione came in."

Hermione nodded before turning to Draco. "If you wouldn’t mind..."

He didn’t let her finish, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible. "There isn’t much to tell. We went through the Forest until we got to where the Apparition wards ended. What with the Riddle place being an Over Apparition Zone, we had to walk from the local village...I forget its name. We found a vantage point on an overlooking bluff, and positioned ourselves behind some bushes. We stayed there watching. The Death Eaters were there before us, no less than two score of them. But Voldemort wasn’t there yet. We sat there waiting for ages. When he finally appeared...the memories came rushing back through my mind. You forget how scared you are of something until you face it. When you finally see your phobia again...you can’t describe the sort of fear that fills your veins. Harry looked as paralysed as me, when I was finally able to pull my gaze off Voldemort. I got as far as saying that I didn’t think we were going to get out of it alive when were ambushed by three Death Eaters, Crabbe and Goyle of my generation and one other I didn’t recognise. They took our wands, and took us down to Voldemort. We didn’t really put up a fight. I’m not so sure it had anything to do with getting us down to where we wanted to be. More likely that neither of us was really in the right frame of mind..."

He trailed off, it being quite obvious to the rest of the circle that he was exhausted, and wasn’t going to get much further in the retelling of the story. Everything fell silent for a moment. Then a low voice came from the corner by the fireplace. Seemingly, Snape had not taken the invitation to sit, but had chosen to remain by the hearth, his Death Eater robes held close to him as if he were very cold, shoulders hunched. He didn’t look at the group, instead gazing through the hearthstones.

"Voldemort told all of us assembled there that he had a surprise for us all, though he was not saying what. I saw three Death Eaters from the part of the circle furthest away from him, the lesser Death Eaters, not of the Inner Circle that was formed by the first six either side of him. They were gone for only a few minutes. Whilst they were gone, Voldemort told us that Pettigrew was on a mission somewhere. When they returned, it took a lot of effort not to make any reaction on the sight of Malfoy and Potter. I expected a bit of an uproar among the other Death Eaters; however, there was no such thing. Voldemort himself did not show even the faintest smile of triumph until the two of them were in the centre, their wands at his feet, and the circle completed again. Then there was a pause, before Voldemort started with the insults. That was always his failure...he couldn’t kill someone without going through the ritualistic verbal punishment. This time, it was his end. I didn’t see what was happening myself until I saw Malfoy take his eyes off Voldemort to look at something else. Potter was counting down on his fingers. When his last finger went down, they both dove for something on the floor. Two seconds later, they were back to back, with Potter facing Voldemort, wands drawn. Potter started some kind of spell, the beginning the same as the Patronus charm. Then a Death Eater two up from me raised his own wand, rasping out the Death Curse. Malfoy, from some kind of luck, noticed him do it even before I, and turned round, grabbing Potter by the wand arm and forcing him down, letting the shot pass over and hit one of the Lessers. But Potter didn’t stop there, and yelled out the last word. Animus I think it was..."

"Yes, it was."

Everyone turned back to Draco. He looked more haunted than he had than before, grey eyes no longer glazed and distant but horror-stricken as he relived it.

"It was like the Patronus I suppose. Harry’s and my own against Voldemort’s. Ours were so much fainter than his. He seemed in far more agony than us too. It wasn’t so much a battle as a ritualistic war dance, it was so patterned. It was beautiful, in an ironic sense. Harry was worse than I was; he could barely look up, and eventually gave up in doing so altogether. I, on the other hand, got to keep some kind of feeling for what was going on. After what seemed like forever, the three of them all disappeared. It was like part of me died..."

"Thats because it did..." said Hermione quietly, her brow furrowed in thought, "You see, whilst you were gone, we found out what Salazar Slytherin added to the spell that made Gryffindor and Ravenclaw not want to use it. It doesn’t just destroy the soul of the victim, as it did to Voldemort. But it also destroys the soul of the caster."

Lyca choked loudly. "You mean Harry is...."

Harry looked up confused. "But...I’m still, well, human.... and Voldemort wasn’t looking that way..."

Hermione spoke again, eyes widening a little in realisation. "Thats what was so strange, especially as Draco was in the same sort of state as you. But I understand now. When Draco grabbed Harry’s wand arm, he took ended up giving some of himself along with Harry. Neither of them ended up giving their whole soul, but both of them lost part of themselves. Because Harry cast more of the spell on his own, and spoke the words, he has lost more. I’m guessing its a sort of forty sixty split. Would I be right in saying that both of you," she looked at Draco and Harry intently, "Feel half dead, incapable of any great form of emotion, except emptiness?"

They both nodded

She sighed. "Thats all we near to hear. Sirius, Ron and Remus have gone to sort out the Voldemort situation, along with a handful of the rest of the Order. They’re going to confine him to a room in the Riddle place. They’ll put up wards, but I don’t think that they’ll really be needed for more than show. Voldemort, by the sound of it, isn’t going to be going anywhere in the very near future. Right now, I need to think about what to do about the situation. Lyca, if you would show Harry and Draco to somewhere they can rest, I’d be grateful."

Lyca nodded, and led the two of them from the room, hand clasped in Harry’s

Hermione looked to Minerva and Severus, who both returned her gaze levelly. She sighed.

"Tea, anyone?"

* * * * *

"Tea, Draco?"

Draco looked up at Lyca groggily, before nodding in the direction of the bedroom that she’d put Harry in, which he’d refused to be put in himself. "I’m sorry."

Lyca poured the boiling water into a cup, tapped it once, and watched as it slowly turned into the murky brown of tea and then tapped it again. "You owe me no apology. Milk?"

"Please....and I do. I shouldn’t have let him cast it. Should have done it myself. I knew it just as well as he!"

"I have known Harry long enough to know that nothing will stop him when he sets his heart to a task. He needed to cast it, had you done it, he’d never have forgiven you. You’ve saved him the only possible way. Had you not pulled him down, he’d have been hit by Avada Kedavra. Had you not caught him by the wand arm, he’d have been lost, worse than dead. You owe me nothing. If anything, I owe it you."

"The chamber..."

"He didn’t die. You haven’t broken any of your oath."

He looked up at her. "It feels like I have. I never break my word. Never."

"You haven’t Draco. Hermione and the others will come up with something. We’ll get through this. We always do. Drink up."

Draco took a long sip from the cup. As he placed it down again, he felt his whole body hunch up, his eyelids leaden. He looked woozily up at Lyca.

"I should have known you’d slip me a potion Lupin."

She smiled wryly, and conjured a blanket over him. "It’s been a long night. An untroubled sleep will do you good. Why did you think I didn’t offer sugar?"

Draco didn’t respond verbally. Lyca was more thanked when he pulled the blanket around him, and drifted into a dreamless slumber. With one last look at him and Harry, who hadn’t needed the encouragement of a potion, she swept quietly out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

* * * * *

"Any luck so far?"

All three looked up; Snape from the potions book, Minerva from her Counter-Curses volume and Hermione from her large pile of parchment. Hermione shook her head.

"None. There’s nothing on it."

"Well, it’s hardly a common problem. And the Ministry wouldn’t use Dementors if there were a way to get the soul back."

Hermione dropped the parchment she was reading onto the table with a loud sigh. "I know...I just dont know what else to do."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then, Hermione frowned. "Dementors...why is that word singing little alarm bells in my head."

At that moment, Remus walked in through the door, making Lyca jump. But before she could speak to her father, Hermione made a loud exclamation.

"Chocolate!"

Everyone turned to look at her as she started to explain.

"Seeing Remus reminded me of the train journey in our 3^rd year. We all know that when we’re round Dementors, they pray on our emotions, our souls. Though they can’t destroy them completely without the Kiss, they can still feed off them. And chocolate works as an antidote of sorts because it helps to rebuild what they take..."

"That’s not quite accurate Miss Granger." Cut in a voice in the corner.

Hermione bristled at the use of her maiden name, but turned to look at Snape without contempt all the same. "How so Professor?"

"Chocolate does not rebuild the soul. It opens the barriers on it, and lets parts of others soul take it to a point where it can regenerate the rest itself. A soul intact to about 90% is enough to return to its entirety within a few minutes. The average Dementor would take about 20% from a person, sometimes more or less, depending on that person’s worst experiences. Chocolate helps pull small pieces of other people’s souls to rebuild it. It is not, however, enough to pull the sort of amounts Potter and Malfoy require."

Hermione frowned in thought for a minute before looking back at Snape. "You say that it pulls on the souls of others, yes?"

"That’s is correct."

"And they give involuntarily?"

"Miss Granger, it is not a matter of wishing for it. It’s not pulled from the giver, but the person nearest."

"Just the one?"

"Yes...where are you going with this?"

Hermione steepled her fingers, elbows resting upon the desk. "If we were to create a potion that included chocolate, as a way to open the barriers, and a bit of ourselves, willing given, to the amount required...would that not do?"

Snape looked thoughtful for a moment before replying. "And how do you intend to firstly, gain access to our souls and secondly, get it into a potion form?"

Hermione seemed stuck on these. However, at this moment, Remus spoke up. "How is a Pensieve made Severus?"

The other man looked up at his former colleague. "The owner has to put a hair and a drop of blood into a solution made up of phoenix feathers, nightshade and willow sap. It takes part of them, and puts it into liquid format..."

"That would do it then, wouldn’t it?" said Hermione hopefully.

"Your wits aren’t with you Miss Granger. Nightshade, if its attributes have not changed in the last twenty four hours, is poisonous. However..."

Everyone looked up hopefully as he contemplated something. Eventually he spoke again.

"The potion format could be modified. The nightshade is an important component; it will have to remain. However, if directly after the administration of the potion, we give them an antidote to the nightshade, we have good chance of them pulling through. I would counteract it in the potion itself, but then it’d render it useless. However, after the transfer is well started, it is no longer necessary. The chocolate amount I am uncertain about, but I can’t imagine an overlarge amount being a problem..."

Lyca gulped. "Good chance?"

Snape looked at her, his eyes glittering slightly. "It is a poison Miss Lupin. Antidotes not administered straight away always have the chance of not succeeding. But unless you have a better alternative to Miss-"

"Mrs Weasley." Hermione muttered, patience finally expended

Snape cast her a dark look. "Mrs Weasley’s suggestion, then I would recommend we go and get started as soon as possible."

"Just one moment Severus," Minerva looked round the group, "There’s only five of us here. We need eight, if we are to get them both to 90% and keep ourselves at that level too."

"Well Hannah is still around," Lyca frowned in thought, "Dad, will Sirius and Ron be here soon?"

Remus nodded, "Any minute. They’re downstairs at the moment actually."

Snape got up. "If you are satisfied Minerva, I’m going down to start with the potion. If you would join me in the next ten minutes, I would be most grateful." With that, he swept out the room. Remus followed him, going to get Ron and Sirius. Ten minutes later, the seven of them went down to the dungeons.

* * * * *

No one spoke in the Potions classroom. Everyone was huddled round the cauldron, watching the liquid within simmer. After what seemed like hours, Snape tapped his wand on the side of the cauldron.

"Finite Incantatum"

The heat charm no longer in place, the bubbles on the surface subsided. Snape took only a moment to pull a hair from his head and drop it into the cauldron, before deftly cutting a slit on his left index finger with a small knife he produced from his pocket. Letting one drop fall into the potion, he wiped the surface of the knife, and passed it to Hermione. The potion turned the darkest shade of silver the woman had ever seen. Hermione performed the ritual herself, the potion turning a deep burgundy for her. Minerva was next, she turning it a glowing gold. Ron’s turned it maroon, which amused Hermione no end. After Ron, the solution went ivory white, sky blue, deep purple and finally pine green with Sirius. As soon as the potion changed colour one final time, Snape started stirring it again. It slowly started to show all the colours, working backwards from Sirius’, an unmixed swirl of colours. When all eight colours showed, he picked up two vials, which already had the dark brown of melted chocolate at the bottom. Pouring in some of the potion in each, he capped them both, and shook them hard, so that the chocolate mixed with the potion. Pocketing them, he swept into his office. The others waited patiently. In a couple of minutes he returned, a larger vial in his hand, containing a clear liquid. He met Ron’s questioning gaze, the traces of a sneer on his face.

"The antidote to the nightshade Mr Weasley."

"I wasn’t thinking of that. I was wondering why the other two vials are so small."

"We don’t need much. And I was trying to keep the amount of poison in their blood to the bare minimum."

Hermione took the opportunity the break in conversation gave her. "No time like the present. Lyca, if you’d show us to where you put them?"

The girl nodded, and turned on her heel, leading the rest of them out of the dungeons and up into the higher parts of the castle.

* * * * *

"Draco....."

Upon hearing his name, Draco opened his eyelid lazily. Lyca Lupin was shaking him awake. Surprised that the drug had worn off, he sat up.

"If you’re thinking about giving me another cup of tea, you can take that idea and...."

She smiled. "No, I wasn’t. They came up with something. Come on, Hermione’s got Harry. We’ve got a potion you need to take."

Draco gave her a confused frown, before swinging his legs over the arm of the chair where they’d been resting, and let Lyca pull him through an adjoining door into a larger room. He raised his eyebrows to see a very large group gathered. Hermione stood by Harry who sat looking a little confused in an armchair. Then, around the room stood Snape, McGonagall, Lupin, Black, Hannah and Ron Weasley. Lyca led him to another armchair, before going over to Snape. He gave her a small vial, which Draco watched suspiciously as she brought it back to him. It was a swirl of many colours, making him feel quite dizzy. Lyca unscrewed the lid, Hermione doing the same with another vial in front of Harry. The two women exchanged looks, and then both consecutively tipped the vial’s contents down the open mouths of their victims.

Harry and Draco exchanged looks in silence, before gazing back at the person in front of them. Draco began to speak.

"Well, that wor-"

"Draco, give it time." Hermione snapped. A few seconds later, everyone in the room blacked out.

Hermione saw a little hummingbird dance on the back of her eyelids. Its plumage was one of a beautiful burgundy, streaked with gold. Its beak was the same metallic colour. She felt a great need rise within her to put out a hand and pull it to her. But she couldn’t, unable to feel her limbs to do so. Giving a little twitter, it bird flew away. Hermione’s view followed it. Its faint form went to the slightly brighter forms of a silver stag and a black stallion resting on the stallion first, it brushed its head against it. As it did so, it lost some of its light, the stallion gaining more. It then went to the stag to do the same. This time, the hummingbird disappeared completely. Hermione could feel tears pricking in her eyes as she fell backwards......

And hit the floor with a bang. Eyes darting open, she saw that no one else had awoken yet. She gasped as the thin form of a wolf passed over her head. Sitting up, she saw that the whole room was filled with souls travelling. Her own hummingbird had already passed. Beside her, she could see Lyca stirring. She looked next to Snape, who had the antidote to the nightshade. He was braced against the wall, and looked no nearer awakening. Scrambling to her feet, Hermione went to him, searching his robe pockets. As she pulled out the vial. She gulped as she felt something cold go through her. Looking around, she saw his soul move towards the two. Walking back to the seats, she tipped their heads back, pouring three drops into each of their mouths, and settling down to wait.