Harry Potter and the Green Snake of Slytherin

13.

The master of Thorns

Calmly, the sly, raven-haired girl turned back: "I was awaiting you, Renatus. I'm glad to see you are right on time", she said, staring at the teacher with a look of achievement on her face.

"Very well... Let me see..."

Troomveld seized Harry's wrist and checked his pulse. The young Gryffindor was lying on the cold stone floor, his body in a state close to catalepsy.

Avara was looking at the scene with interest, her eyes a bright flickering green as the Inmentus Potion was crawling through her veins, revealing her deepest powers. For a second, she entered a state of introspection; she wondered whether she'd not better use those powers to change the plan and kill Troomveld. But that's not what she had sworn under oath to Salazar Slytherin. Her ambition would have to wait a little longer.

She finally withdrew her wand from her black witch robe. Troomveld seemed curious "So, which one did you choose?", he asked.

"Ollivander knew exactly which wand would be the right one for me, after what Lucius had told him. Mine is 9,5", rigid ebony, and - naturally - filled with a Dark Veela hair"

"Oh I see... Your grandmother was a Dark Veela too..."

"Exactly, Renatus... And this is the only wand robust enough to withstand the curse" she said confidently.

"Avara...Avara... if you were not on my side, I would kill you..."

"Please...I'm flattered", she smiled mysteriously, while her mind was digressing about killing him. "Shall we proceed?" she then asked.

She and Troomveld held the wand together and spoke the curse:

"Be under the spell of the snakes

Betray your friends' kind

Brew the lethal potion

For the Lord of Darkness

To enter your mind"

Suddenly Harry felt an itching pain on his scar, a suffering deeper than anything he had endured before. His vision was now a blurred red, he could feel the taste of blood on his tongue.

"Harry can you hear us?" asked Avara, her voice soft as honey.

He perceived her voice as if he were under water; yet, he could still recognize her sparkling green eyes in that crimson ocean. "Avara? Where are you? Help me!" he yelled.

"I fear I can't...All I can do is keep you alive for a few minutes. We do not want you to leave us right now..."

"But...why?" asked what remained of Harry's voice.

"You are thirsty to know, eh, Harry? Alright, maybe this will enlighten you. After all, you deserve to know why you will die."

Harry felt Avara's voice drifting away then come nearer to him, like an infinite circle of ebb and tide. She explained:

"You remember when I told you that you were a descendant of the Great Salazar Slytherin? Well, that was true - I don't like to lie - This explains, yet partly, your imminent death. Now, the crux is that you are also the heir of Godric Gryffindor, Salazar's greatest foe. Our master does not want such an impure blood to be mixed with his noble powers. That's why Voldemort tried to kill you when you were still a baby, and that's why we will kill you tonight."

"Voldemort had a vision fourteen years ago, the day before you defeated him. Salazar commanded him to visit my parents, who were his former schoolmates at Hogwarts, for a child would be born that night.

He came with Nagini, the royal snake the Master had offered him when he buried Tom Riddle to become Lord Voldemort, and Nagini had given birth a few months earlier to Malachius, which was there too and...seems to like you by the way."

Harry thought he was having a dreadful nightmare where he was burning in Hell and where Avara was one of the Devil's Succubi.

"That night, I was born at Argentum Manor, near Silberberg in Germany. I was a Dark Veela, with jet black hair and purple eyes, like all great women in my family, thus particularly gifted for the Dark Arts. Voldemort approached me with Malachius and the snake bit me, infiltrating me with his precious venom, conferring me those unfathomable eyes and the knowledge of my ancestor.

Salazar Slytherin had chosen me, his second pure-blood heir.

He knew I would be one of the greatest potion makers in the history of wizardry. My powers combined to Voldemort's would kill you this time, even if it took fourteen years to accomplish this task."

Although it seemed to Harry that all that was a gigantic hallucination, he hazarded to ask, his scar still intensely hurting:

"But how are you going to kill me? Avada Kedavra does not seem to work against me."

"Yes...and no...It could work if you were weak enough. That's where the Inmentus Potion comes in...It does expand your mind - there I didn't lie either - and more than that: it gives Voldemort the key to enter your mind and let you endure the most exquisite torture and pain imaginable. I would have never been able to do that to you, Harry.

But it has to be done, in the memory of the Great Salazar..."

Harry moved his lips faintly "Tell me...How come the potion does not kill you?"

Avara smiled "Do you really think our Master would invent a draught that could harm him or his true heirs? Oh, and there is one more thing: the Inmentus Potions only works if the subject is already in a state of confusion and betrayal. Exactly the state you're in, Harry, after I made you lose the match against your own team, after I managed to divert you from your best friends. And that silvery substance...", she said pointing at the small vial on the bench, "is a fluid made out of Voldemort's mind. This creates the mental bond between you and him"

Between two flashes of pain, Harry started to realize what was happening. Avara noticed that and smiled.

"And nobody knows we're here. Except Cousin Draco and Snape, who will do nothing to stop us from doing it..."

"Goodbye, Harry Potter. I couldn't stand seeing you in agony, screaming for help that will never come. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed"

She headed towards the door, and hid Malachius inside her sleeve. Turning to Troomveld, she said "Renatus, stop playing with him for a moment, please, I still have something to do"

And with a flick of the wrist, she aimed her wand at Harry and enunciated "Oblivius!"

***

Harry looked all around him. He was obviously in Snape's office. What had happened? How did he come to the dungeons? Did Avara know that he was here? He could feel his head burning with pain. Troomveld was in the room too, maybe he could help him?

"Professor Troomveld? What are we doing here?"

"Hmm...Remarkable" said Troomveld, whose voice was not as silky and clear as usual. He was still admiring the effects of Avara's curse and his eyes were glowing slightly red.

"Here we meet again, Harry Potter!" hissed his voice, now almost disembodied.

It seemed to Harry that is scar was being branded with a white-hot iron. He felt a cold chill down his spine, for this voice he knew only too well:

"You...are...Voldemort?"

"How brilliant..." the teacher smirked, "Renatus Troomveld...Troomveld is Voldemort in disguise and... Renatus stands for reborn...You disappoint me, Potter. I was hoping you to be swifter this time. Anyway, your time has come to die."

"Does Avara know who you are? Where is she?"

"Tut, tut, Potter. Don't be so emotive. That girl does not know who I am, she's so pure!", he lied. He then added "She must be sleeping like the other Slytherins. Now shut up".

He spoke "Inmentus" and a silver flash of light with green sparks burst out of his wand, violently hitting Harry's scar.

The young Gryffindor had never felt such an intense agony, it was even worse than the Cruciatus curse, like thousands of sharp needles striking every single nerve with the most intense pain. Voldemort had managed to violate his mind. He was confusing his senses, alternating extreme fever with ice cold; torturing different parts of his body through is mind: eyes, spine, fingers... He could also force the most horrible nightmares into Harry's brain.

It was much more that the young boy could bear. At the gates of utter exhaustion, Harry gathered enough forces to speak to Voldemort within his mind. All that mattered to him was to stay alive as long as possible. Maybe someone would help him after all.

"Voldemort! You parasite! You only live because my blood flows through your veins. You are as mortal as I am." The effects of the Dark Lord's tortures were diminishing for Voldemort was getting angry at the boy's words.

"That was true, Harry Potter, while you were still alive. But with you dead, the bond will be broken and I will be free forever."

Harry noticed that talking to Voldemort eased his own pain. He continued: "How did you manage to get into Hogwarts?"

"Let me show you" hissed Voldemort, and he leveraged the appropriate patterns within Harry's mind to replay the scene. Harry was now watching the Flamel's bedroom. Both Nicolas and his wife Pernelle were deeply asleep. Then a green shadow crouched behind the window and let a big snake crawl into the room. The snake slithered towards the bed, strangled Nicolas Flamel to death and left the room as fast as it came in.

The picture vanished.

Voldemort explained "I had a personal revenge against Flamel. He had destroyed the Philosopher's stone, my dream of immortality! So I let Nagini kill him. This was also a perfect reason for Dumbledore to visit his poor old widow tonight...and for me to be free to act!"

"It's revolting!" said Harry, visibly disgusted. But he was stricken by an atrocious pain again; Voldemort had to weaken him enough to perform the Killing Curse. He performed the worst tortures against him, enjoying the sight of Harry howling like insane and pleading for mercy.

"I was wondering how long you could remain in that tangent state...so close to death...and yet still alive...It's quite pleasant to watch, actually, please don't stop..."

At those words, Harry tried to focus on the happiest moments of his life to fight the pain. He recalled his first night in the dungeons with Avara and Malachius. By the way, where was she? Hopefully Voldemort had not lied and she was sleeping quietly, away from all this...

And what about Ron and Hermione? Although he had not been talking to them since their dispute during the night of the Slytherin banquet, he understood what he felt for them and that he missed them too. He closed his eyes.

For the first time in his life, he was wishing he were dead.

***

In the meantime, Ron and Hermione had been unable to sleep because of their recent discoveries regarding mind control. Still, they could not come up with a logical explanation of what had happened. So they had decided to play a game of wizard's chess in front of the fireplace, comfortably seated in the big velvet armchairs.

Suddenly, Ron realized something "Hermione! When you woke me up, Harry was not in his bed!"

"That's true Ron! We were so focused on our stuff that we didn't think it was not normal. But where is he?"

Harry hadn't told anyone about his Potions practice with Avara.

"I don't know, maybe he has been invited to the Slytherin Common Room by You-Know-Who, no, not that one, the other You-Know-Who! Maybe she poisoned him?"

"Be serious, Hermione! I really don't think she's evil. But you're right, let's ask Snape. He might know what's going on"

When they arrived in front of Snape's office, they read a sign telling them the Potions master had retired to his private chambers. They hurried up and knocked heavily on the door.

Severus Snape shut his Potions book and opened the door, with a fainted air of surprise on his face.

"Ms Granger, Mr. Weasley. May I ask you what you are up to in the dungeons so late at night? That'll be twenty p..."

"Professor Snape," cut Hermione, "we have come here for important matters, it has nothing to do with House Points!"

"What is it? I'm listening..." asked Snape, his pitch black eyes narrowing with interest

"Harry Potter is missing in the Gryffindor boys dormitory...Ahem...Well, we thought he might be with...Avara von Argentum and maybe you could help us find him"

"Hmm...Why would he be with her?" asked Snape suspiciously, perfectly knowing that both fifth years had been training in his office for tomorrow's class.

"Actually, Harry spends a lot of time with Ms von Argentum" confessed Hermione bitterly "But we think she's trying to play a bad trick on him"

Snape did not want to take them into his office because he didn't want them to know he favoured other students. Yet he wanted to know why Potter had not returned to his dorm.

"Alright", he said, "I can take you to the Slytherin Common Room and to the dormitory, so we'll see if Ms von Argentum or maybe Mr Potter are there."

"OK, let's go," said Ron.

They walked steadily in direction of the common room, guided by the smooth flickering of the corridor's candlelights. The stone serpent's eyes glowed when Snape spoke the password and the door opened majestically. Xaver Eldritch and another sixth-year Slytherin were rehearsing Transfiguration for tomorrow's lesson in the light of the green torches. They told Snape to walk silently inside the dorm because everyone else was sleeping.

Ron, Hermione followed Professor Snape on tiptoes inside the girls' dormitory and indeed, the room was completely silent. Hermione and Ron looked at each other when they noticed that Avara von Argentum was lying in her bed, sleeping profoundly. "She does not look too mischievous when asleep", thought Hermione, obviously relieved that she was here.

"Really, you shouldn't worry so much about her, Hermione, she's ok" said Ron.

But Snape had not come to the same conclusion. He noticed that Malachius's eyes were very pale; he had been milked less than an hour ago. Suddenly, it became crystal-clear to him. She had brewed the Inmentus Potion...This was the way she had accomplished "a noble task" for Salazar Slytherin. He recalled what he had heard during his former Death Eaters meetings and what Hagrid wanted to warn the teachers about :

"The heir of Slytherin will rise and defeat the light with the snake and the draught"

They could not have meant Voldemort, for the Dark Lord was not a potions expert: he liked to curse and to kill, but was certainly not patient enough for potions making.

Snape knew from the start Avara was the long awaited Nemesis, and he had done nothing to prevent her from acting. He had deeply hated Potter from the very first day he met him and was fascinated by the thought of his imminent death.

And yet he could not let it happen in real life.

Although he did not know the effects of the Inmentus potion, nor the antidote, he fathomed something terrible was happening.

"I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore, right now" said Snape without further explanation. "Granger, Weasley, go back to your dormitory. I'll find Potter and let you know where he is"

Without further ado, he ran as fast as he could up the giant staircase that led to the Headmaster's office, in a soft swishing of his black cloak. On the way, he bumped into Professor McGonagall who was on duty to patrol the corridors that night. Still under the shock, she mumbled:

"Severus, I assume you were going to see Dumbledore. Let me inform you that he had to leave during the afternoon for urgent matters. May I help you instead?"

"I fear you can't, Minerva" replied Snape sadly, already thinking that he would never be able to see his face in the mirror again...

He hurried into the owlery and, visibly out of breath, took the first quill at his reach, a piece of purple parchment, and sent an urgent owl to Dumbledore with the following words:

"Harry Potter in deadly danger.

Please Apparate now in the owlery.

Yours,

Severus Snape"