Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 10

A couple of hours later, Harry was making his way down to the dungeons. The time he had just spent with his friends had been great. They had apparently finally come to terms with his blindness and conversations no longer centred on it. Instead they asked about his training and when they were going to get their chance. Fred and George had piped up saying they wouldn't mind a bit of training which had of course led into discussions of the Order. The twins told them they had joined, much to their mother's horror, and were working on a variety of booby traps and assorted other devices under the supervision of Mad-Eye Moody. They described him as a hard taskmaster but very creative. He'd had suggestions that even the twins hadn't thought about and had even floated the idea of the twins doing some research work for the Aurors as a sideline after all of this was over. That had led the discussion to Voldemort and what he was doing and Harry's current destination. He wanted to know what had happened in the meeting. Though he had witnessed it all, there were a lot of undercurrents running through even such a short meeting that Harry hadn't really understood. He also wanted to know why Snape had told Voldemort about what had happened to him and why it was so exaggerated.

He stood in front of the door to the Potions classroom for a moment before finally knocking. He was therefore startled to hear Snape's voice come from further down the corridor.

"I might have known you would insist upon knowing things which you should not," Snape said with a sneer.

"Er, Professor, I think I ought to know," Harry said in a tone that was both defiant and hesitant. "What happened in that meeting was about me and, under the circumstances, I need all the information I can get if he is going to make an attempt at me."

Snape considered the boy standing in front of the door to his classroom. There was a certain amount of truth in what the boy had said. He scowled down at the glass in his hand and swirled the deep red wine around for moment while he considered his answer.

"Perhaps," he said sourly. "Well, if you insist on knowing about this then I insist on being comfortable for it. Come in."

Harry stared blindly in the direction of the Potions Master for a moment and then cautiously made his way down to the corridor to the door to Snape's private quarters.

Snape smirked at the expression on the boy's face and when Harry got to the door, he took the boy's arm and led him across the room to a chair in front of the fire. Harry ran a hand over the arm of the chair as he sat down. The fabric was soft and well worn and the chair was large and the cushions soft. Obviously the Potions Master liked his comforts. If he had been able to see he would have noticed that comfort was a theme in the room. The two chairs by the fire were large and comfortable, upholstered in faded and worn green velvet. The walls were covered in bookshelves which were in turn crammed full of books. Most were, of course, devoted to potion-making but there were many books on Defence, as well as Transfiguration and Charms. One bookshelf was entirely devoted to fiction, mostly muggle and mostly mysteries and, oddly enough, detective novels. A desk against one wall was covered in papers, books, quills and ink. There were three doors that had been left slightly ajar. One led to a bathroom. The second opened onto an equally comfortable bedroom and the third led to a large workroom, where potions bubbled in large cauldrons. The colour that abounded in all four rooms was a dark emerald green.

Harry felt oddly comfortable in these rooms; they felt warm and, strangely enough, cosy; not exactly words he would have associated with Snape. But then, he considered, he didn't really know the Potions Master that well. He heard the sound of someone sitting down opposite him.

"Well, Potter?" Snape said sourly.

"Er, well," Harry stammered and Snape sighed in exasperation.

"If you must disturb my evening, Mr Potter," he said acidly, "the least you could do is stop stammering and get to the point."

Harry blushed. "Sorry, sir. Erm, why did you exaggerate what had happened to me so much?"

"Because that is what the Headmaster and I decided on," Snape replied. "We felt that if the Dark Lord thought you were seriously injured he would take his time on his planning, giving us time to counter those plans."

Harry thought about this for a moment and nodded. "Okay, that makes a lot of it make sense. Has Vol...er, He asked you to do anything yet? And what was your reward?" Harry paused and shuddered. "Or do I not want know that?"

Snape smirked and then shifted in his seat. He took a long swallow of the wine in his glass. He eyed the boy sitting across from him for a long moment and was suddenly startled at how adult the boy looked. Though his eyes were staring sightless in his direction, there was a seriousness and weariness in them that was unusual in a boy of fifteen. Snape frowned as he realised that the boy's sixteenth birthday was tomorrow. He then scowled as he realised just how much the boy looked like James now and he flinched. He had found that could not, in all truth, treat the boy like he was his father anymore. He had had a very sharp lesson in how the boy had been treated by his relatives and had struggled since then to acknowledge to himself that, with such an upbringing, he could never be like his father.

He looked across at the man-child sitting opposite him and scrubbed his face with one hand. The affairs in the Department of Mysteries and the loss of both his idiot godfather and his sight had stripped a lot of the innocence from the boy. And he had to admit, the boy had been polite to him during his Occlumency lessons, in spite of his deliberate sniping. Snape came to a decision.

"I do not know what the Dark Lord has planned, though he has contacted me through Wormtail. He has asked me to make a number of potions. What he intends to do with them, I can only guess," Snape replied quietly but seriously. "He has asked for Veritaserum as well as a number of potions of my own devising. Potions that induce pain, one that is highly addictive and a few others you do not need to know about."

Harry was startled at this honest and completely acid-free answer and nodded in acknowledgment.

"I believe my 'reward' will be access to the Dark Lord's inner sanctum," Snape said musingly. "Little though I wish it. Irrespective of that, it will allow me to discover many of his plans."

"That's a reward," Harry said incredulously. "I think I'd refuse it."

To Harry's utter surprise, Snape chuckled sourly. "Would that I could. He rewards rather infrequently however and no one refuses."

Harry was struggling with his surprise and shock and finally could hold them in no longer. "Sir? Why are you treating me like this?" he blurted out and then blushed, wishing he could take that back. He hunched and waited for the scathing answer.

Snape scowled at the hunched figure in front of him. "You are wondering why I am treating you like an adult?" he asked sarcastically. "Well, perhaps that is because for the first time in your life you are acting like one. Believe me; should you decide to start acting like a child again, I shall immediately resume treating you like one."

Harry straightened up with a startled look but quickly became a little shame-faced. He looked down and swallowed, hoping that Ron and Hermione would forgive him for what he was about to say.

"Well, if you're going to treat me like an adult, I guess I had better act like one and confess a few things," he said and swallowed nervously again. "I didn't steal the Boomslang skin from your private stores, that was Hermione." He gave a small grin. "She thought Ron and I had gotten into enough trouble as it was."

Snape, whose eyebrow had risen in interest at the beginning of Harry's little speech, scowled.

"And why, may I ask, was Miss Granger stealing such an ingredient," he asked menacingly.

Harry gulped. "We needed it to make the Polyjuice potion," he blurted and Snape stared at him in surprise.

"You or rather Miss Granger I assume, brewed the Polyjuice Potion...in second year? Why?" Snape asked almost incredulously.

"Erm, well, it was during the whole thing with the Chamber of Secrets. You know how everyone seemed to think I was the Heir of Slytherin because I could speak Parseltongue?" Harry said with an irritated roll of his eyes. "Well, we wanted to find out who it actually was and, well, our best candidate was Draco Malfoy. After his comment about Mudblood's being next, we figured either he was the one or would know who it was."

Snape eyed him with interest; that was a rather well reasoned piece of thinking. He decided to ignore the slur on his House for the moment. "And was it?"

"Erm no, actually," Harry said with small shrug. "Ron and I used the potion to disguise ourselves as Crabbe and Goyle and Hermione was going to disguise herself as Millicent Bulstrode." Harry broke out into a grin. "She made a mistake though. She had what she thought was a hair from Millicent's head but it was actually from her cat." Harry laughed. "Hermione looked...well, a little strange and she spent some time in the hospital wing for that one. Anyway, the Heir wasn't Malfoy and he didn't know who it was, but he did make it pretty clear that his father knew who it was." Harry paused. "You're not going to give Hermione detention or anything, are you?" he asked nervously.

Snape stayed silent for a moment, causing Harry's nervousness to increase tenfold. He finally relented with an amused smirk. "No, it hardly seems worth it now," he said with a snort. "Though you may inform Miss Granger that if she wishes to undertake an Extended Study Project in potions, I would be willing to supervise her work."

Harry smiled in delight for his friend. "Really? I'm sure she'd be interested."

Snape snorted again. "No doubt she would," he said snidely. "Since you are confessing, Mr Potter, what about the Gillyweed?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "That wasn't me either. That was Dobby. The fake Moody knew that I wasn't even close to figuring out how to solve the second task and staged a conversation about Gillyweed with Professor Sprout when Dobby was in the room and asked whether I would think to use it. He knew that Dobby would do anything to help me and when I ran out of time, Dobby stole it and gave it to me. You can't punish him for that!"

Snape muttered something to himself and Harry snorted with laughter, his now sensitive hearing picking up Snape's comment about being denied the golden opportunity to take points from Gryffindor. Snape glared at Harry and gave a soundless snarl of irritation at the sheer ineffectiveness of that tactic. He had forgotten about Harry's improved senses.

Harry swallowed his laughter. "I'm sorry, sir, I know I wasn't meant to hear that," he apologised.

Snape sighed. "No apology needed, Mr Potter. The comment was, I suppose, unworthy. I trust that in future if you or your little cronies feel the need for unusual potion ingredients you will refrain from raiding my supplies. I believe there is a perfectly good shop in Hogsmeade for those purposes."

Harry swallowed another grin and nodded. He got up from the chair. "I'd...better go, sir. I think I've disturbed you enough for one night." He paused. "Sir? Will you or Professor Dumbledore tell me when Vol...er, the Dark Lord makes up his mind on what he is going to do?"

"I believe that the Headmaster intends to keep both you and Lupin informed," Snape replied, then looked at Harry curiously. "May I ask why you insist upon calling the Dark Lord by his name when so many others fail to do so?"

Harry stared blindly at Snape, his face full of confusion. "I...well, I suppose at first it was because I didn't know that people didn't say it and then it was just because it seemed a bit ridiculous to keep saying You-Know-Who or He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named." He paused. "Professor Dumbledore once said that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself...or something along those lines and he's right. His name is Voldemort, or well, I suppose its Tom Riddle actually, I think we should call him that and not let his name make us afraid. That's what he wants after all."

Snape was surprised; that was a very astute answer. "You and the Headmaster are correct." He stopped and considered the young man standing in front of him. "But do you understand why I do not call him that nor think or speak of him in any way other than the Dark Lord?"

Harry nodded; that answer had occurred to him late one night during his first week back at Hogwarts when the ache in his face had kept him awake and he'd tried to bore himself to sleep by thinking of the Potions Master and his behaviour.

"You have to maintain the correct mindset. You have to call him that. If you referred to him in any other way it would be suspicious and could get you into trouble or even killed. That's why you'll continue to treat me like...well, like something you've scraped off the bottom of your shoe whenever you meet me in a public place when school restarts." Snape smirked at Harry's description; it was rather accurate. Harry continued. "There are too many children here whose parents are Death Eaters for you to ever treat me the way you have tonight in public. If you did, you would be signing your own death warrant."

Snape relaxed; the boy...no, young man did understand. He was surprised to find that he could tolerate Potter when he was acting like an adult, though he was sure that inevitably the young man's Gryffindor stupidity would shine through. He stood and ushered the young man out of his quarters. He was just closing the door when Potter turned and graced him with an impish grin.

"You might be interested to know, sir, that the Sorting Hat did consider putting me in Slytherin," he paused and continued airily, "but I talked it out of doing that." He turned and tapped his way back up the corridor as quickly as he could, leaving a very startled Potions Master behind him.

Snape stared at Potter's receding back. Potter in Slytherin; he closed his eyes and shuddered then stared back down the corridor in surprise. The Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin and he talked it out of that. That shouldn't be possible!

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Harry made his way back to the suite he was sharing with Remus, laughing quietly to himself. The stunned silence he had left behind him was truly priceless and had allowed him to regain a little of his stability after that most unusual conversation. He had been surprised when Snape had invited him into his private quarters; as far as he was aware no student, not even a Slytherin, had ever been in there. But the Potions Master's attitude had stunned him. He had never been treated so well by the man. Oh, certainly there were plenty of snide comments and sarcastic remarks but there was none of the truly nasty stuff that he was used to from Snape. He laughed, he could put up with the snide, sarcastic and surly comments. He wouldn't know how to react to a Snape who wasn't those things but he certainly appreciated the lack of truly spiteful and hurtful comments. Maybe he wasn't the only one who was acting more like an adult these days.

He muttered the password that opened the portrait and wandered through the main room into his bedroom. He walked over to his bed and was just about to rest his cane against the bedside table when he froze. There was something or someone in the room.

He gripped his cane a little tighter and gave a tiny little twist to disengage the locking spell on the sword. He slowly turned around, listening carefully and taking deep breaths to scent the air.

There was definitely something in the room; something alive. He carefully pulled the sword out, trying to be as silent as possible. With a shake of his head he remembered the Oversight spell and muttered the words to activate it. As the room came alive with colour and light, he heard something shuffle in one corner. He whipped around and saw something...odd.

The walls in his room glowed with flowing white, silver and gold energy but on one wall there was a large rectangle of mottled black and red energies. Harry held his sword in front of him and began to back slowly towards the door. As he did the rectangle moved with him, also towards the door. He stopped and so did whatever it was on the wall. He thought furiously and started backing away from the creature. It didn't move and he drew in a deep breath and started yelling.

"REMUS! HELP! REMUS, WAKE UP! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

He was forced to stop when the creature leapt towards him. He swiped at it with his sword and was rewarded with a hiss and the creature flew off to another wall. He backed away from it again.

"REMUS!" he yelled again, hoping fervently that his guardian wasn't a sound sleeper.

The creature crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling and Harry swore. He backed up to the wall and began to edge his way around towards the door again. Before he could get too far, the creature scuttled towards him and dropped on top of him. It wrapped itself around him and he felt teeth bury themselves into his shoulder. He gave a pained yelp and dropped his sword. He struggled in the folds of the creature and finally realised what it was.

A Lethifold, he thought with something close to panic. I read something about these. Weapons can't really hurt them and neither can most spells.

He desperately wracked his brain, trying to remember what it was that could help. The Lethifold clamped down on his shoulder with its teeth and began to wrap itself more firmly around him. He gasped with pain and struggled to get his brain working. It finally came to him; the Patronus spell would work. He wiggled his hand around behind him and pulled his wand out of his back pocket. Even though he couldn't really use it well at the moment, he hadn't wanted to walk around without it. He tried to conjure up a happy memory and finally managed ignore his situation long enough to drag up the memory of winning the House Cup.

"Expecto patronum," he gasped weakly and a transparent silver stag leapt out of the end of his wand. The Lethifold let go of him with a high-pitched scream. At the same time the door to his room burst open and he saw the dark red/scarlet/light brown of Remus standing in the doorway.

"Lethifold," he gasped and pointed to the corner near the window.

Remus swore under his breath and pointed his wand in the direction Harry indicated. "Expecto patronum!" he said forcefully. A large silver wolf burst out from his wand and Harry saw the mottled black and red of the Lethifold disappear out of his partially open window.

Harry slumped down against the wall and ended the Oversight spell. His shoulder hurt and he could feel the blood running from the bites. Remus quickly ran over to the window and slammed it shut, muttering a locking spell. He turned towards Harry and swore again when he saw the blood. He helped Harry to his feet and half-carried him down to the hospital wing.

As they stumbled through the door, Remus started yelling for the school's mediwitch. She came flying out of her quarters and turned on the lights in the ward. She gasped when she saw the wound on Harry's shoulder and immediately bustled over and gently guided him onto a bed.

"What caused this?" she asked them both sternly.

Harry was content to remain slumped while Remus answered. "Harry said it was a Lethifold, Poppy."

Poppy stared at Remus for a bare second and then started prodding Harry's shoulder with her wand.

"Remus, go and wake up the Headmaster," she ordered. "He'll want to know about this immediately."

Remus nodded and ran out of the hospital wing while Poppy continued poking the hideous bite marks with her wand, carefully healing them. When she was done she helped Harry into the bed and bustled off to her office to get him a Dreamless Sleep potion. As she was coming back out of her office, Dumbledore and Remus came rushing into the hospital wing.

"Poppy!" Remus gasped. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, yes," she replied, "everything's fine. The wounds were nasty but fairly clean. No scars but the boy needs some sleep so keep your questions to a minimum." She turned to Harry. "Now I want you to drink all of this when the Headmaster is done."

Remus assured her that he would see that the potion was taken and she eyed the two men severely before returning to her office. Remus sat on the edge of the bed and placed a hand over one of Harry's.

"Alright there, Harry?" he asked and Harry nodded with a tired smile.

Dumbledore came up to the end of the bed. "Now, Harry," he said kindly. "I know you probably wish to do nothing more than rest but I wish to hear the story of what happened from you."

Harry nodded again. "Well, I had just come back from speaking to Professor Snape and when I walked into my room, I...just...well, kind of knew that there was something in the room."

"How?" Remus asked with interest.

"Don't know really," Harry replied with a frown. "I...well, I could just sense it I suppose. Maybe its got something to do with my improving senses, I don't know. Anyway, I used Oversight to try and find it. It was on the wall, kind of a large rectangular shape and a mottled red and black. I, well, you did know that my cane has a sword in it?" Harry looked a bit apprehensive.

Remus looked surprised and Dumbledore patted his feet. "Yes, dear boy. And I know that Nhean will be teaching you how to use it."

Harry looked relieved and continued with his tale. "Well, I drew my sword and started backing towards the door but it moved towards the door with me and I saw that I wasn't going to beat it. I started backing away and it stayed still and I started yelling for Remus. That's when it attacked me. It sort of leapt towards me and I slashed at it with my sword and it backed off to the wall again. It crawled up onto the ceiling and I realised I wouldn't be able to get around it. I tried backing up to the wall and edging around to the door but it dropped down onto to me. That's when I realised what it was. I read about Lethifolds last year when I was preparing for the DA lessons on the Patronus spell but I wasn't expecting it to bite me. I didn't know they had teeth." He shuddered and grimaced. "I dropped my sword when it bit me which was pretty stupid. Anyway it started wrapping itself around me and I knew that spells wouldn't hurt it but it took me a bit to remember how to get rid of it. I didn't manage much of a Patronus but it was enough that it backed off. That's when Remus came in and got rid of it."

"So they have teeth," Remus mused with academic interest. "That's interesting. Nobody knows much about Lethifolds and the one eyewitness account we have doesn't mention any teeth. I wonder if that's because they don't normally need to use them. Their victims are usually asleep." He frowned. "But that doesn't explain why it attacked someone who was awake. I didn't think they did that."

"Neither did I," the Headmaster said with concern. "But I'm more interested in how it managed to get through the wards and into the room."

Remus grimaced. "It got into the room because the window was open. I've closed it and added a locking spell."

Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgment. "Hmm, but that does not explain how it crossed the wards. Remus, I would like you to stay here with Harry for the rest of the night. I shall examine the wards and see if they will need strengthening." The Headmaster patted Harry's feet again and swiftly left the room.

Remus started to get off the bed but stopped when Harry grabbed his arm.

"Remus, I know Professor Dumbledore asked you to stay but...could you just go back and get my cane for me?" he asked a little plaintively and Remus grinned.

"Of course, I won't be more than a few minutes. And I'd like to get a look at this sword."

Harry laughed and Remus loped out of the room. He was back shortly and handed the cane over to Harry.

"It's a little loose in the scabbard there," he observed and Harry grinned. He gave the tiny little twist that engaged the locking spell and then had to show Remus exactly how it worked. After a couple of minutes of this, Remus shook his head.

"What am I doing?" he muttered to himself and picked up the potion from the bedside table. He took the cane out of Harry's hands and gave him the potion. "Come on, Harry, drink this and get some rest."

Harry grinned and swallowed the potion. He shuffled down in the bed until he was comfortable and quickly nodded off. Remus watched for a moment then conjured himself a comfortable chair and settled in for the night.

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Remus was woken from his light doze the next morning by Severus Snape entering the hospital wing, potion flasks in hand. He quickly stood, spun around and levelled his wand at the Potions Master before becoming fully awake and putting his wand away with an apology.

Snape eyed the two inhabitants of the hospital wing with sarcasm. "Dare I ask how Potter managed to end up in here again?"

"Wasn't my fault this time, Professor," came the amused response from Harry. Remus turned to grin at him and Harry levered himself into a sitting position. "I got attacked in my own room. Definitely wasn't my fault."

Snape sobered. "Attacked? By what?"

"A Lethifold. And a rather nasty one. It bit me." Harry said with a frown. "I still can't believe it did that. I thought they just smothered people to death."

"How did it get past the wards?" Snape asked with suspicion. "A Lethifold should have been stopped well before it reached the castle."

"That's what was worrying Albus last night," said Remus with a sigh. "He's checking the wards; has been all night. It shouldn't have been able to get through and its behaviour was unusual."

Snape frowned. "Are you sure it was a Lethifold then?"

"Harry is," Remus replied. "I didn't see it myself; it was too dark in the room. I could see Harry in the light coming in from the door but I couldn't see the Lethifold. I just cast the Patronus spell in the direction Harry indicated."

"Well, Mr Potter?" Snape asked impatiently.

Harry frowned, trying to remember all the details from the night before. "Well, the shape was right and the way it wrapped itself around me was right from the descriptions I read. It definitely reacted to the Patronus spells that both Remus and I cast. I don't see how it could be anything else. Admittedly there was nothing in the books about teeth but then the books also admitted not much was known about Lethifolds." He shrugged. "As for its behaviour, I don't know. It was waiting for me but whether that was deliberate or not, well, I can't say. Would Vol...er, the Dark Lord send something like that after me?"

Remus looked back and forth between the two of them while Snape considered the question. This was the first time he had seen them have a civil conversation that didn't descend into insults and he was rather pleased with the change. Having to separate them wasn't something he enjoyed. Obviously the conversation Harry mentioned had allowed them to bury a few hatchets...and not in each other for once.

"I suppose it is possible," Snape mused, "but it would be unusual. He wants to triumph over you, Mr Potter, not just kill you. He wants to stand over you and tell you how much better he is just before he kills you." Snape said this last with a sneer.

Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it," he said with exasperation.

A corner of Snape's mouth twitched upwards for a moment and Remus grinned.

"Under the circumstances, I will excuse you from today's lesson," Snape said. "You would be unable to concentrate and I wish to offer my services to the Headmaster." He nodded briefly to Remus and strode quickly into Pomfrey's office to offload the potions he had brought. He then made his rapid way out of the hospital wing.

Remus watched him go and turned back to Harry. "Well, I think you should get up. Severus may have excused you but somehow I don't think Master Nhean will."

Harry grimaced and groped along the bedside table for his cane. "I know, though I don't really want him to. I felt pretty useless standing there last night. I think I need to start learning how to defend myself as soon as possible."

Remus laughed and agreed with him and went to get Madam Pomfrey. The school's mediwitch gave him a quick check and reluctantly released him with the stern injunction that if he started feeling at all strange or in pain he was to return immediately. Remus offered his arm to Harry and the two of them returned to their suite.