Beyond the Shadows of the Night

Chapter Six: The Net Draws In

"Professor...!" Harry panted, "Professor, I..." But Snape pretended to be deaf and didn´t stop walking until they had reached his office.

"What?" he finally asked irritably, locking the door from inside.

"The Invisibility Cloak..." Harry began timidly, "I´ve left it inside the Slytherin common room."

In seconds, Snape´s sallow face turned white, then brick red. "You what?"

"I´m sorry..." Harry muttered, looking at his shoes.

"So," Snape said in a dangerous whisper, "you´re sorry. Are you aware of the consequences your carelessness will have? Do you realise that this cloak of yours will be recognized? By tomorrow the first owl will have reached the Dark Lord telling him that you have invaded the Slytherin common room." Snape´s voice had risen to a shout.

"Can´t we just go and fetch..." Harry began to venture in a small voice.

"No!" Snape thundered, his face a mask of fury. "The place will be swarming with students already. What have I done to deserve being saddled with you!" he cursed between his teeth.

Harry felt bad about having left the cloak behind. Not only would Malfoy recognize the cloak as his, but Harry had also lost his father´s only bequest.

Snape was studying Harry, his facial muscles twitching. "Should your negligence place us in considerable danger, you will be the one to swallow the bitter pill!" he said nastily. "I´ll make sure of it! Show me the Ayrin."

Harry realized that he was still clutching the Ayrin in his hand. Curious himself, he laid it upon Snape´s desk.

The Ayrin was a hemispherical-shaped jewel, about the size of a Galleon, and Harry had been right -- something was moving inside it. It was some substance that swirled around incessantly, like a small wisp of green smoke meandering its way through the fiber of the emerald as if the gem was made of nothing but water. And there was something else Harry hadn´t noticed before: a tiny hole in the emerald, smaller than a pinprick, into which an incredibly thin chain was inserted. The chain was not much thicker than a hair but it seemed to be very firm.

Curiously, Harry took the Ayrin again and turned it around. On the flat side of it, he noticed an inscription, written in tiny interlaced letters: Omnis pretium habet. He didn´t understand the words, so he pointed them out to Snape.

"Hmm..." Snape said after a pause, his eyes lingering on the words. He wore an odd expression that Harry - if he hadn´t known better -- would almost have called `worried´. "It is Latin and it means: `Everything has a price.´"

A funny feeling grew in the pit of Harry´s stomach. He found the inscription a little unsettling. He knew his worries might be groundless, but it usually wasn´t a good sign if something spoke of `a price´, and particularly not when done in such a cryptic way.

"Put the chain around your neck," Snape commanded, casting all caution to the wind.

"But what if the inscription is a warning?" Harry began. "What if it..."

"We can´t delay on account of your insignificant worries," Snape interrupted, quite unkindly and without the slightest trace of compassion for Harry´s concern. "Put it around your neck."

Mentally Harry let out a tirade about the Potions Master. It was all very well for Snape. He didn´t have to wear the Ayrin and risk the possible consequences, after all!

Even though he was still unsure whether this was the right thing or not, Harry did as he was told. As the Ayrin touched the skin of his chest, he suddenly felt a chilling cold, like an icy blade, pierce him, while, for a split second, blinding white light exploded in his vision. Harry yelped and clapped a hand to his eyes, gasping for breath. Then it was over.

"What´s wrong?" Snape demanded, giving him a sharp look.

Harry could feel the dull chill clutching his heart in an icy grip of steel. "It feels... cold," he whispered.

At that moment, he saw a ball of black feathers fly past him and land on Snape´s shoulder. The bird emitted a croaking noise that Harry could have sworn sounded like `Good evening´.

"What´s that?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh, this ... this is Cara," Snape said, seeming embarrassed.

Then the crow definitely spoke. "Don´t you want to intrrrroduce the boy to me, Severrrrrus?" Cara said reproachfully, picking at Snape´s ear.

"Harry Potter," Snape said carelessly.

"So that´s your s ..." Cara began enthusiastically but was instantly silenced by a poisonous look from Snape. "... Ssstudent," Cara finished in a small voice.

This obvious near-slip of Cara´s made Harry wonder. What had she wanted to say and why had Snape wanted to shut her up? But he put the question out of his mind again. He liked the funny bird straight off and if he hadn´t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed her to be Snape´s pet. Snape was the last person you would associate with such a creature.

"Er ... nice to meet you," Harry said to the crow.

"I hope you will visit us morrrre often," Cara replied, cocking her head.

Snape looked as though his patience was wearing thin. "Now that you´ve made each other´s acquaintance, kindly let me work. Potter, you may go," he snapped.

"Don´t take him too seriously," Cara said to Harry with what was clearly a wink. "He´s in a difficult perrrriod. He´s sufferrrring frrrrom rrrreality shock."

Trying hard to hide his silent laughter, Harry watched as Snape´s face slowly turned an apoplectic shade of purple. "Hush!" he barked at the crow, then rounded on Harry. "Well? What are you still doing here?"

Harry quickly fled from the room before his self-control snapped and he laughed out loud. Undoubtedly Gryffindor would have lost a considerable amount of points had he done so. It was rather astonishing to Harry that Snape hadn´t yet wrung Cara´s neck.

~*~

There was turmoil in Slytherin House. After some of the older students had managed to unlock the doors to the dormitories, the whole house had flooded into the common room to see what had caused such a noise in the middle of the night.

Draco strutted around, trying to pick up on each theory that was being discussed among the different groups of students. The wildest rumours were already beginning to spread, most of which concerned Voldemort attacking Hogwarts.

As he spotted the Invisibility Cloak lying on a chair, Draco´s features split into a triumphant smirk. This was Potter´s! Unobserved in all the tumult, he snatched the silvery cloth and secretly tucked it beneath his robes.

~*~

Harry was standing in what looked like a spacious hall. The ceiling was so high and the distant end of the hall so far away that he couldn´t make out either of them. There were no windows in between the walls´ large square stones. Instead, several feet-high pillars stood at regular intervals on either side, bearing blazing fires.

Before Harry stood an assembly of black-clad creatures, forming a semicircle around him. Their voluminous robes revealed nothing of what lay beneath, save for flat, shrewd-looking faces with slanting yellow eyes that seemed to gleam in the dark. The creatures bore a peculiar resemblance to Grindylows, but they were taller and -- instead of the sickly green hide of the water-dwelling creatures -- their skin was the colour of grey granite.

One of the creatures stepped forward from the semicircle and came to a halt in front of Harry. "You have called the powers of hell, Master," it said in a cold hiss. "Many of them are in your possession now. You are granted immortality; you have the power over life and death; you are able to control nature. All this and much more will be at your service for but a small price. As compensation for lending you our powers, we claim one soul for each day they are at your disposal. It is your duty to provide those souls to us, as is set in the ancient contract. We, too, once sacrificed one of our own so that this means of power transference could be created -- Ayrin. And should you choose to wear both halves of him united, your power would be so great that your mortal brain would be incapable of grasping it. Hell itself would be under your command." The demon made a sweeping gesture.

"However, never forget to fulfil your duty, for should you not comply with it, we will take what we want." The demon bared its pointed black teeth in a horrible smile. "Take heed!"

Harry noticed that the others were drawing closer around him. His heart beating wildly, he stumbled backwards until his back touched the wall, while the black-robed figures kept closing in around him, all baring their gleaming black teeth and hissing menacingly...

Harry woke up, his heart pounding painfully against his ribcage. What a strange dream! It had been so vivid that it had seemed real - unnervingly so ... Silently, he drew back the curtains from his four-poster and got up to creep over to the window. Through it, the pale moonlight was oozing softly into the room. Everything was quiet in the castle and down upon the Hogwarts grounds. Hagrid´s hut stood peacefully at the edge of the Forbidden Forest; not a mouse stirred. It had only been a dream after all, nothing more ...

Relieved, Harry went back to his bed and drew the curtains shut. He had overreacted. The strain of the last days was telling on him and causing him to have nightmares. It was nothing to worry about.

Harry rolled up under his blanket and closed his eyes. A few minutes later he had fallen asleep again, and when he woke up the next morning he had forgotten all about his dream.

Tired and puffy-eyed, he went to the greenhouses for Herbology with Ron and Hermione. He hadn´t had a chance yet to tell them what had happened the previous night -- that he had found the Ayrin -- for they were constantly surrounded by other students or teachers.

For that day´s lesson, Professor Sprout made them cut the twigs of a red-leafed, wildly proliferous shrub called Autumncrown, the leaves of which were used to make a tea that was supposed to cure headaches. Harry couldn´t quite keep his mind on the task before him. The cuts he made were very untidy and he received several admonitions from Professor Sprout for mutilating the plant.

Ron, in the meantime, was whispering animatedly to Harry. "What happened last night?" he kept asking. "You were out until way after midnight!"

"I can´t tell you now," Harry hissed back for the fifth time, hitting out at the Autumncrown with his knife. "You´ll have to wait until we´re alone."

Suddenly Ron´s mouth fell open. He stared at Harry´s hand. Harry followed Ron´s gaze but couldn´t see what was so interesting. "What´s the matter with you?" he asked, confused.

"Your ... your hand!" Ron stuttered, pointing. "I saw that knife go right through it! And you aren´t even bleeding!"

Baffled, Harry looked at his hand again. There was nothing - no scratch, not a mark upon his skin. "Rubbish!" he said. "You´re putting me on."

"No, I´m serious!" Ron said emphatically. "You were cutting those twigs and not paying attention, and then the blade went through your hand instead of the twig! Do it again!"

Harry tapped himself on the forehead. "Why should I cut myself on purpose? I´m not stupid!"

But Ron had already seized Harry´s hand and with his own knife was carefully scratching the skin. When Ron removed the knife there was a tiny wound, but it instantly healed, leaving no mark at all. Harry hadn´t felt a thing.

Incredulously, Harry stared at his hand and then at the short and rather blunt knife. He cut himself again. And again. Each time the same happened.

Under Harry´s robes, the Ayrin lay cold against his chest. He had become invulnerable.

~*~

Under the pretence of having a stomach ache, Draco left his History of Magic lesson. Going straight to his dormitory, he retrieved the Invisibility Cloak from where he had safely tucked it beneath the mattress of his four-poster.

Disappearing beneath the cloak, he then marched through the dark corridors towards the rear of the castle. The sound of his footsteps was muffled by the thick layer of dust upon the floor. It seemed that no one must have entered that part of the castle for ages. The beam of Draco´s wand was the only source of light in the dark maze of ancient corridors.

Soon the wand-beam hit an old door with iron fittings, covered in cobwebs. Draco pulled a rusty key out of his pocket and fit it into the keyhole. It was very difficult, but finally he managed to turn the key, unlatching the lock. He pulled at the iron ring which served as a doorknob, and creaking with centuries of disuse, the door opened.

The daylight of the grounds outside was dimmed, as a curtain of ivy covered the entrance almost completely. Only some weeds upon the ground and the twigs of a thorny bush on the right were visible.

All of a sudden, the curtain of ivy parted and Draco felt something brush him. He closed the door again and locked it. Then he tugged at the Invisibility Cloak, letting it slide down from his head. The person in front of him did the same.

The Death Eater wore a black cloak and mask over his face. "Did everything go according to plan?" he asked in a deep voice that Draco didn´t recognize.

Draco nodded. "I´ll lead you to his office."

They both put on their Invisibility Cloaks again and vanished from sight.

~*~

Sirius sat in Dumbledore´s office, drinking tea with the headmaster as they discussed how they were going to proceed. Even though Sirius wasn´t happy about having to put up with Snape´s presence, he felt his sense of adventure awakening. The mission that Dumbledore had planned was right after his own heart. And he got to share it with his godson.

"So we will leave early tomorrow morning?" Sirius asked, taking another swig of tea.

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "You will need time because you have to fly by broom. You can´t Apparate as Harry hasn´t got his licence yet, and there´s no connection to the Floonetwork anywhere near the village."

Sirius snorted with laughter. "We are going to fly? What does Snape say to that?" Snape had always been a miserable flyer, and Sirius had never missed a chance to taunt him about it.

"To tell you the truth -- he doesn´t know that yet," Dumbledore replied with a sigh. Obviously he too expected a refusal on Snape´s part.

"Well, flying is fine with me," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair. "And then we are going to stay at a pub, you said?"

"Yes, I have booked two rooms for you at the Flashing Wands in Godric´s Hollow. You and Harry can share one."

"Godric´s Hollow?" Sirius asked, alarmed. Everything in him strove against going there. Since James´s and Lily´s deaths he had avoided the quaint little village. It still hurt to think about what he had lost there, and a visit to Godric´s Hollow would only refresh painful memories.

"If I could spare you the stay in Godric´s Hollow," Dumbledore said, giving Sirius a sympathetic look over his half-moon glasses, "I would. Believe me. But you must go there. It is the closest village to Voldemort´s current hide-out."

Sirius nodded. "I understand," he said in a somewhat choked voice, then added with sudden savageness, "We will finish him off, I promise!"

Dumbledore´s expression remained grave. "Don´t let yourself be driven by your hatred of Voldemort," he cautioned, "for many a man has lost his life by giving way to his passions when cool reason and sharp wit had been needed instead."

There was a short pause in which Sirius, staring out the window, reminisced about the times he had spent with James and Lily. Even though fourteen years had passed since their death, Sirius sometimes still couldn´t quite believe that his best friends were gone. How much they had done together! All their pranks at school, all their conspiracies, and then one day it had all been over. James and Lily were no more ...

Sirius breathed deeply and sipped at his tea. "All right," he conceded. "But how do I get into this pub without anyone recognizing me?" he finally asked matter-of-factly, hiding the sadness that the name of Godric´s Hollow had invoked.

"Well," Dumbledore said, suddenly chuckling to himself, "you will have to disguise yourself, of course. I have booked the two rooms for a Mr. and Mrs. Wheathergood, plus son. You will be Mrs. Wheathergood."

Sirius nearly choked on his tea. "What?" he exclaimed, horrified, and coughed. "You can´t be serious!" The idea of wearing a frilly dress and carrying a handbag slung around his arm made him groan inwardly.

"Yes, I am," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "You will see: it´ll be an excellent disguise -- no one will recognize you as Sirius Black. Indeed, the plan almost made it into the top ten of my best ideas."

Sirius muttered something containing the words `hard´ and `believe´ into his tea cup before draining it.

"Unfortunately, we no longer have an Invisibility Cloak to use," Dumbledore said with mild regret, "and unless you want to spent the whole time hiding in a wardrobe, I suggest you accept the plan." There was amusement sparkling in his blue eyes.

"Why can´t I simply transform into a dog while I´m in Godric´s Hollow?" Sirius asked gruffly. "No one would recognize me as a dog either."

"It would be highly impractical if you were forced to spend the whole time in your canine form," Dumbledore reasoned. "Besides, I´m afraid that dogs are not allowed inside the pub."

Sirius wasn´t quite convinced yet. "And how do you think that´ll work -- me a woman?"

"You will drink Polyjuice Potion and assume Professor Sinistra´s shape. I have discussed it with her and she has agreed that you may take her appearance."

Sirius brought his teacup down on the table with a loud thump. "I´m going to--?" he spluttered. "No! That´s going too far!"

"Why?"

"Dumbledore!" Sirius said reproachfully. "Me turning into Professor Sinistra? That´s ... that´s impossible! Even if she does approve. I mean, I´ve never drunk Polyjuice before. What if something goes wrong?" He paused for a second, searching for arguments. "Wait -- isn´t it even dangerous to attempt to turn into a member of the other sex?" he finally asked, almost triumphantly. But Dumbledore waved the question away with a dismissive gesture.

"Don´t worry," he said. "I presume that´s only a precautionary warning for less gifted potion brewers. Should the potion indeed go wrong and the brewer retains the appearance of the person he transformed into for ever, it would at least be a relief to remain the same gender as before, I daresay. But I assure you that Severus can be trusted with the concocting of the Polyjuice Potion."

That was too much for Sirius. He abruptly pushed his chair back and got to his feet. "You expect me to trust Snape with that?" he shouted. "Snape of all people? You are mad! Snape will be delighted about having a chance to finally get back at me!"

Dumbledore remained calm. "Sit down, Sirius," he said. "I guarantee that Severus won´t use the Polyjuice Potion to take revenge on you. He has given me his word."

"His word!" Sirius snorted in disgust, sitting down again. "I´m afraid his word doesn´t count for much."

"Severus has vouched for your well-being," Dumbledore said and there was a steely note in his voice. "He knows that if he betrays my trust in him, I will call him to account, and he is well aware of what that means. I think it´s not asking too much of you and Severus to set aside your dispute in view of something as essential as the battle against Lord Voldemort."

Sirius had to accept that, if reluctantly. The battle against Voldemort was more important than personal grudges and distrust. Sirius might feel anything but secure when he thought about the Polyjuice Potion -- and he still didn´t trust Snape one iota -- but he did trust Dumbledore and he was prepared to make sacrifices for the victory of good over evil. So he merely grumbled something unintelligible and then fell silent.

"Fine," Dumbledore said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I knew you would agree. That´s settled then."

There was simply no point in arguing further. Sirius was very keen to change the subject. "You told me that Snape discovered Slytherin´s notes on the Ayrin," he said, still a bit gruffly. "May I have a look at them?"

"Certainly," Dumbledore said. "They are in Snape´s office. As soon as his lessons for today are over, I´ll send for him -- or you may do so -- and he can show them to you. Would you like another cup of tea?"

~*~

It hadn´t been very difficult to break into Snape´s office. One Blasting Charm and the lock of the door had given way. A Revealing Spell and all obstacles had been obvious and easy to remove.

The Death Eater was searching all the drawers in Snape´s office, throwing everything that was of no use to him carelessly upon the floor. It was already strewn with a mess of papers, books and broken ink bottles that had spread their contents over everything. An ungraded exam was being corroded by an aggressive, green potion that was seeping across the floor.

The Death Eater was just about to pull another drawer out of the desk and dump its contents onto the tabletop when a loud, screeching noise made him stop.

A crow had flown in through the open window and it was screeching madly. "Intrrrruder! Intrrrruder!" its cries reverberated off the dungeon walls.

"Shut up" the Death Eater snarled, "or you will regret it."

But the crow didn´t shut up. "Help!" it cried, fluttering around wildly. "An intrrrruder in the office!"

The Death Eater didn´t hesitate. He pulled his wand from his sleeve, pointed it at the racketing crow, and hissed, "Avada Kedavra!"

For the fraction of a second, Cara´s form froze in mid-air, illuminated by a green light; then she dropped to the floor like a stone and lay motionless.

Without hurry, the Death Eater continued to search through Snape´s belongings. Finally he found the evidence he had been looking for. He took the scrolls of parchment and pocketed them.

Looking around himself, he suddenly had an idea. Beneath his mask, his features contorted into a horrible smile. This would please the Dark Lord!

Walking over to the cupboard, he swept all the phials it held down onto the floor with one stroke of his arm. The phials shattered, their various potions hissing as they seeped across the flagstones. Numerous books were then pulled from their shelves and thrown down amid the mess, until almost no object remained in its original place.

At last, the Dark Lord´s servant trudged through the heaps of papers and books to where the dead crow lay. With a gloved hand he picked up the stiffened bird and laid it upon the bleak desk. He scribbled a note upon a scrap of parchment and placed it next to the crow, where it would be noticed easily. Then casting a last satisfied glance over the chaos he had left, and snatching his Invisibility Cloak, he disappeared the way he had come.

~*~

"... I quickly pulled out the Ayrin, and we fled from the Slytherin common room," Harry finished his story. "It´s just that ... well ... I left the Invisibility Cloak there in my hurry," he added in a small voice. "Snape nearly cut my head off!"

Sirius pulled a face. "Ah, that´s tough luck!" he said without reproval. Clearly he wanted to do the opposite of what Snape had done and thus dispensed with a reprimand. "It could have been worse," he added.

Harry and Sirius were sitting in the green room on the seventh floor, right under the roof. After his lessons, Harry had gone straight to his godfather to tell him what had happened the previous night. Sirius had already been told most of the story by Dumbledore, but he hadn´t heard Harry´s version yet.

"May I see the Ayrin?" Sirius asked curiously.

Harry pulled it out from under his shirt and held it up for Sirius to see. "It´s a strange feeling to wear it," Harry admitted. "It feels so cold -- always. And the first time I put it around my neck I saw this flash of white light."

He didn´t miss the concerned look that Sirius gave him. "Has anything else happened since you´ve been wearing it?" he asked, frowning.

Harry thought for a second, then shook his head. "Not really. But there´s an inscription on the emerald." He turned it around and showed Sirius the words. "Snape said it means `Everything has a price´."

Sirius´s frown deepened. "That´s not exactly reassuring," he said. "I don´t want to frighten you, Harry, but honestly -- it could be a serious warning."

"That´s what I worried about too," Harry said, "but Snape would have none of it."

"Bugger!" muttered Sirius, with feeling. "Promise me, Harry, that you will tell me immediately if anything unusual happens," he said gravely. "This stone is probably dangerous."

Harry nodded his consent. "Let´s hope there won´t be anything else unusual."

There was a sharp knock upon the door, and without waiting for permission, Snape entered the room. "What do you want, Black?" he asked coldly, without any preamble.

"Have you ever heard of the custom to wait outside a room until you are invited in?" Sirius asked in mock earnestness. "They call it courtesy. A word you might want to add to your vocabulary."

The look Snape gave him was more poisonous than any snake fang could have been. "Don´t you lecture me about courtesy, Black," he said in his most dangerous voice. "I would choose my words more carefully if I were you. Otherwise you might find yourself back in Azkaban sooner than you would expect." A maniacal glint appeared in Snape´s eyes that Harry -- had he been subjected to it rather than Sirius -- would have found truly frightening. "Now, what do you want? I´m not going to waste my valuable time listening to your inane rambling."

"I was wondering if I could have a look at those Ayrin notes you have in your office," Sirius replied pleasantly. But Harry could tell from the look on his face that his manner was quite forced.

Snape´s expression darkened even more. "And this was so urgent that you weren´t able to wait to call for me until my lesson was over?"

Sirius shrugged. "I like it when people respond to my calls quickly." He smirked.

It was not difficult to see that Snape was fuming inwardly for having acted the errand-boy for Sirius. "Follow me then," he said brusquely, turning sharply on his heel and stalking out the door.

Sirius followed at a leisurely pace with Harry bringing up the rear.

"Did you know that we are leaving for the great adventure tomorrow?" Sirius asked Snape innocently after about a minute of walking in silence.

Snape looked at him coldly. "The headmaster has informed me," he said. "But I can assure you that it won´t be a `great adventure´, as you call it."

Sirius shrugged. "Whatever. But did the headmaster also `inform´ you that we´re flying?" There was a sly tone in his voice.

For a heartbeat, Snape paused, then he resumed walking. "You surely don´t expect me to believe that?" he replied disdainfully.

Harry noticed that Sirius was trying hard not to laugh. "You will have to believe it, Snape. Ask Dumbledore -- he will confirm it any time. We can´t Apparate with Harry, and there´s no access to the Floo Network easily available to us. I´d call it tough luck, if I were you. But of course, you can always walk." Sirius chuckled silently; Snape´s face had started to turn the same shade of red it usually assumed when he was close to a major outburst of rage.

"Laugh away, Black," he said through clenched teeth. "One day you´ll regret it."

They had reached Snape´s office. Pushing open the door, Snape stopped so abruptly that Sirius, who was following him now at a swift pace, collided with him. "What the ..." Sirius began irritably, but Snape stood rooted to the spot, blocking the office from view.

When Snape finally tottered into the room, Harry and Sirius had a chance to see what had happened.

A scene of devastation met their eyes. The floor was covered in soggy papers, books, and shards of glass, and empty drawers were scattered all around.

Sirius whistled. "Someone did a thorough job here."

Snape didn´t respond. His eyes were fixed on his desk. In slow-motion he approached it, his arms dangling limply by his side. Coming to a halt, he bent over something lying on the otherwise empty tabletop.

With a sense of apprehension, Harry hurried forward.

Cara was lying on the desk, completely stiff and immobile, her feet sticking out into the air. Harry felt a stab of sadness and pity for Snape as he watched him look at her. Harry could guess how dear the animal must have been to him.

A scrap of parchment caught Harry´s eye. It was lying partially beneath the bird. As Snape prodded Cara with his wand and muttered incantations, taking no notice of anything else, Harry took the parchment and unfolded it. It held a message written in untidy capital letters:

THIS IS THE LAST WARNING!

THE NEXT CURSE WILL HIT YOU!

The words sent a chill down Harry´s spine. Was Snape truly in such great danger?

Harry was just about to direct the others´ attention to the note when Sirius caught sight of Cara. "Since when do you collect stuffed animals?" he asked quite disrespectfully, without compassion.

"Get out!" Snape said. His voice sounded oddly hoarse, and he was still staring down at the dead crow as if petrified.

"Professor, there is a mes--" Harry began to point out, but was cut off.

"I BELIEVE I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT!" Snape yelled at the top of his voice.

Harry understood. He quickly seized Sirius by the arm and pulled him out of the dungeon.

Once they were outside, Sirius said in confusion, "What´s the matter with him? Is he ill? He didn´t even throw a tantrum over the mess."

"It´s the crow," Harry explained. "It was his pet. I think Cara´s death has really shattered him."

"Cara?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows.

"That was the crow´s name. She could talk, you know."

"Oh ..." Sirius said indifferently. He clearly didn´t feel any compassion for Snape.

Harry remembered the message he had found on the desk. "This was lying next to her," he said, showing Sirius the scrap.

"Good Lord." Sirius shook his head. "It looks like Snape is pretty deep in the soup. But that´s what comes of being one of You-Know-Who´s toadies. It´s his own fault!"

"Don´t you think you´re a bit too harsh with Snape?" Harry asked. "I mean, I don´t like him either, but he´s come back to our side and he´s turned spy against Voldemort, putting his own life at risk. And now he´s really in danger."

Sirius suddenly became very grave. "Harry, do you know what the Death Eaters are doing? Do you know what they consider as fun? I´ve seen it, Harry, in my time as an Auror and I can tell you that it would make your hair stand on end! They abduct Muggles and Mudbloods for their festivities, in which they subject their victims to the most gruesome tortures before finally killing them. For pleasure! Don´t you think someone who has ever voluntarily committed such atrocities deserves to be punished? Well, Snape never was." He laughed bitterly. "No, Dumbledore protected him -- a murderer! While I had to spend twelve years in Azkaban. Innocent! And you say I´m too harsh with Snape? No, with his little bit of spying he´s just trying to make amends for what he can never repay!"

Harry was very quiet after that. He had to admit that if anyone had a reason to hate Snape and wish him the worst, then it was Sirius. It had been horrible for him, Harry knew, to spend twelve years in Azkaban, knowing that he was innocent and that the real perpetrators were walking free.

~*~

In his office, Severus sank slowly into a chair. He didn´t have to ask who had caused all the devastation. From the moment he had seen his destroyed office he had known what must have happened. Obviously the Dark Lord´s suspicions about him had become so strong that he had finally sent one or several of his Death Eaters to investigate. No doubt they had found Slytherin´s notes on the Ayrin; it was very unlikely that they could have missed them in their thorough search.

Severus had seen the parchment lying next to Cara, and without even reading it, he had known what was written on it. Cara´s death was a warning. He was probably only an inch from death himself.

At the moment, however, he couldn´t have cared less. Neither his own safety nor the Ayrin were of any importance. The loss of Cara, his only friend, hurt too deeply. All his efforts to revive her had been to no avail. She was dead. Gingerly, he took the lifeless crow into his hands and stroked her smooth black feathers one last time.

Almost seven years before, in a bitterly cold winter, he had found the crow lying in the snow, half frozen to death. He had brought her to Hogwarts where he had nursed her back to health, and one day-- to his complete astonishment-- the crow had started to speak to him. At first, he had found Cara´s babbling bothersome and he had tried to get rid of her. But it had been impossible; the crow had kept coming back. In the end he had grudgingly accepted her, and soon Cara had become very dear to him. She had been a substitute for the friend he had never had. All those years he had shared his life with her, and now she was dead. Killed by one of the Dark Lords accursed sycophants!

With a heavy heart, Severus carried the crow out of the castle. It was dark and cold outside, and a sharp wind was blowing, making the trees groan. Dark menacing clouds obscured what little light the pale moon shed. It was almost as if the weather were a harbinger for the great storm that awaited them all -- the battle against Voldemort.

Fighting against the heavy wind, Severus rounded the north wing of the castle. Behind it there was a meadow, a usually peaceful place. Hardly anyone ever came there. On a bright, warm, summer day the sight would have been picturesque. Almost all the walls on the west side of the castle would then be covered with a dense curtain of rich, green ivy that entwined itself around the battlements; blooming shrubs would sprinkle the slope of lush green grass; and the sun would make the smooth surface of the great lake sparkle.

Autumn, however, had left its traces. Shrubs and trees thrust forth their bare twigs towards the starless sky, scattering their decaying leaves across the ground. A little further away, the great lake lay like a huge black mass in front of a line of trees, its inky surface rippled by the breeze.

Severus laid the crow carefully under a thorn bush and took out his wand. "Es pulvus," he muttered and the form of Cara crumbled into dust.

For a few minutes Severus remained, standing immobile, watching the remnants of Cara being blown away by the wind that tugged at his own hair and robes.

There was really only one person to blame. It was Severus himself who had destroyed everything he had ever possessed, who had tainted his honour, sullied his reputation, and even failed to save his only love. The Dark Mark that blemished his arm would always brand him as the scum he was: a coward who had wasted his life fawning over the greatest monster of all time -- Voldemort.

~*~

Harry was very pensive when he left Sirius and went to the Gryffindor common room. If it was really true what Sirius had said, and Snape had committed such atrocities, why was Dumbledore so lenient towards him? If it weren´t for Dumbledore, Snape would be sitting in Azkaban until the end of his days. What gave Dumbledore such faith in Snape? What told him that Snape wouldn´t fall back to killing people?

As Harry turned a corner, he ran into a group of Hufflepuff stalking with great excitement as they walked along the corridor.

"There was another attack yesterday," a boy was saying. "A family with two children was killed; it was in the Daily Prophet."

"I know," said a red-haired girl, while another burst into tears. "It was the Kinleys who were murdered."

"We´ll stamp them out!" the boy said savagely. "The Dark Lord and his whole Death Eater lot will have to pay."

Suddenly, Harry realized that he was holding his wand in his hand. Astonished, he stared down at it. Why was he holding his wand? He couldn´t remember having taken it out of his pocket.

He was just about to put it back into his pocket when he heard a voice that seemed to exist only inside his head, like someone else´s thought transmitted into his own mind telepathically."Kill!" the cold hiss commanded. "Kill!"

It all happened incredibly fast. Horrified, and without being able to do anything to prevent it, Harry saw his own hand jerk forward, pointing the wand at the Hufflepuffs in front of him. He felt his mouth forming words, and his breath giving voice to them in a hoarse whisper. "Avada..."

With an incredible effort, Harry wrenched his wand away from the Hufflepuffs, and suddenly he was able to control himself again.

The Hufflepuffs hadn´t noticed anything of what had happened. Talking in hushed voices, they disappeared around the next corner.

Breathing heavily, Harry slumped against the wall. He felt sweat trickling down the back of his neck. That had been close! He had come within a hair´s breadth of killing those Hufflepuffs. There was a tight knot of fear in his stomach. What on earth had happened to him? Some dark power must have seized hold of him and made him do what he had done. There was no other explanation. But where had this dark power come from?

Inside, he felt the cold sensation tighten its grip on his heart, and suddenly he remembered the dream from the night before. Those demons -- hadn´t they said that he had to give them souls as compensation for the power of the Ayrin? What if it hadn´t been a mere dream? What if it had been more than that?

Harry suddenly felt as though he carried a heavy weight on his shoulders. Slowly, and with legs that felt like lead, he went on to the Gryffindor Common room.

Ron and Hermione were already waiting for him when he arrived. The moment he stepped through the portrait hole, they hurried over to him, bombarding him with whispered questions.

Even though he didn´t feel at all like answering their questions, especially not after the terrible thing that had almost happened, Harry nonetheless beckoned for them to follow him out into the corridor again. There he pulled them into a quiet side passage.

"Harry, will you tell us now what has been happening?" Ron asked eagerly.

Harry nodded and drew a deep breath. "We found the Ayrin." And he told them the whole story -- how he and Snape had found the Ayrin in the Slytherin common room, that Sirius was at Hogwarts, and that he, Snape, and Sirius would leave together the next day -- while Ron and Hermione listened with riveted attention. Harry couldn´t have said what held him back, but he mentioned neither the dream nor the incident with the Hufflepuffs.

At last he broke off, wearily. "Well ... I think I´ll go and catch some sleep now because we´re leaving really early next morning and it´ll be a long journey. In case we don´t see each other anymore before I´m off, I better say goodbye to you now. I hope I´ll be back soon." He smiled wanly. "And take care of Hedwig, won´t you? Good night, then." He turned his back on Ron and Hermione and disappeared through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Hermione looked after him.

"Didn´t he seem a bit odd to you?" Hermione asked Ron worriedly. "He was so exhausted and he looked as pale as a ghost."

Ron shrugged. "He´s probably just suffering from strain. It´s no fun searching for ancient magical emeralds, I suppose, especially not when you´ve got Snape at your elbow. Harry will be fine. There´s still Sirius after all."

~*~

Harry was standing in the same room he had found himself in the night before. He recognized the rows of pillars to his left and right, their tops ablaze. Again, he stood in the centre of the semicircle formed by the demons. They were looking at him greedily with their gleaming yellow eyes.

Just as the previous time, one of them stepped forward. It seemed to be the head of the group.

"You have failed," the demon hissed. "Not only did you neglect your duty, you also wilfully denied us our chosen sacrifice. By doing so you have violated the treaty. We are therefore authorized to take from you what we are entitled to."

It closed the distance between itself and Harry and from the depths of its black robes a grey hand with long spindly fingers appeared. It brutally seized the front of Harry´s robes and tore them apart, exposing his bare chest. With one of its sharp black fingernails, the demon then slit open Harry´s skin. He gasped as a searing pain shot through his body, and he staggered backwards, feeling the rough, cold stone wall behind him.

"Herewith the servants of hell take their rightful recompense." The demon held open its hand and a thin thread of blue smoke wavered out of the cut on Harry´s chest and into the demon´s grip.

Once the demon had drawn forth a fistful of the blue smoke, it cut the thread off with a wave of its hand. "This should suffice for now," it said.

Harry looked at it bewildered. "What is that?" he asked, pointing at the blue smoke.

The demon gave him a shrewd look out of its feline eyes. "What is this? This is a part of your soul, boy," it said in a low hiss. "For each soul you deny us, we will take a part of your own soul. Therefore be warned: deny us more souls, and yours won´t last long. And once we have drained you of the last bit, it will be irretrievably lost, and you will belong to us."

At these final words, the other demons burst into infernal laughter. Harry put his hands over his ears so that he didn´t have to listen to the terrible unearthly noises that grew louder and louder...

Once again Harry woke up, lying soaking wet and panting in his four-poster. This time he was sure that his dream hadn´t been born of his fantasies. And neither had the first one. It all made sense -- the Ayrin and its power, the Hufflepuffs that he had almost killed ... They must have been the sacrifice the demon had been talking about. Thank God he had been able to prevent himself from killing one of them! To think that he had almost -- even if unwillingly -- sold an innocent soul to demons for a little bit of power ... It was unthinkable!

But what about his own soul? In the dream the demon had taken a piece of it from him. If it were true and he had really lost a part of his soul ...

With frantic fingers Harry pulled up his pyjama top. There was a long bleeding gash on his chest.

****************