Trinity

Chapter 6

Severus Snape hurried through the Forest near Hogwarts, pulling his cloak closer around him and keeping to the shadows as much as he could. It was well after midnight so he wasn't worried about running into any of the Hogwarts teachers but he was concerned about the inhabitants of the Forest. He was unlikely to get a friendly or even neutral greeting from the centaurs and Hagrid's idiot brother was still in here somewhere.

He slipped out of the Forest and into the outskirts of Hogsmeade, being careful to avoid the buildings that still showed signs of life. The Hog's Head was clearly still open even at this hour and Severus stole around to the back door and very carefully let himself in. He made his way to the back stairs and carefully depressed the section of wall that would open the passageway leading down. He slid into the stairwell and closed the door behind him before making his way soundlessly down the stairs. He opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and carefully entered the room beyond. A quick glance showed him that only the Headmaster was in the room and he appeared to have fallen asleep while reading in his bed.

Severus removed his long black cloak and flung it and the white mask that was hidden within it onto the couch. He sighed as he walked over to the credenza and poured himself a glass of wine from the carafe that had been left there. He slowly sipped the wine, letting the tension slide out of his shoulders.

"Are you well, Severus?" came the quite voice from behind him, startling him slightly.

"You are supposed to be resting," he growled as he turned around to see the Headmaster watching him with concern.

"I have been," Albus replied, his eyes twinkling at the Potions Master's grumpy reply. "I have been very obedient. Poppy would not credit it if she could see me."

Severus grumbled as he sank down into the comfortable armchair next to the bed.

"I am more worried about you, my boy," Albus continued. "It has been nearly two weeks since I have seen you. Is all well?"

"How can anything be well?" Severus snarled then he sighed and waved an apologetic hand. "Forgive me, Albus. Things have been...tense. The Dark Lord has been keeping me close at hand." He smirked maliciously. "His snake is quite ill."

Albus raised an eyebrow. "I see. How unfortunate for Tom. And what is the prognosis for poor Nagini?"

"I fear she is not long for this world," Severus replied blandly. "Nothing I brew seems to help. I was dismissed this evening to try and find a solution."

"And will you?" Albus asked innocently, his eyes twinkling madly.

"After to going to all that effort to poison her?" Snape asked with sly amusement. "I should think not."

"Have you had any inkling if he intends to replace her with another Horcrux?" Albus asked intently.

"He has spoken of it in the most oblique terms. He talks of her as being a Vessel," Severus replied shortly. "But he was wounded last year and has not recovered well. His reflexes are still slow and he weakens easily." He paused and smirked again. "I have been encouraging that as subtly as I can. He is agitated about this because he feels it would preclude him creating another Vessel."

"Do any of the Death Eaters know what he is speaking about when he uses that term?"

Severus shook his head. "No. They believe that she has been used as part of some ritual but none have connected that with the idea of a Horcrux." He snorted. "What sane person would?"

"Have you made any progress on finding the remaining two Horcruxes?" Albus asked.

"Not as such," Severus replied. "But I believe the information must be among his personal things. Getting that close will take time."

Albus nodded. "Perhaps it might be best to allow Nagini's health to improve before her final demise. Surely Tom would look favourably upon that, no matter what eventually happens to her?"

"Perhaps," Severus allowed. "It is certainly worth the effort."

There was a comfortable silence between the two men as Severus sipped at his wine and Albus eyed him with a mix of approval and worry.

"What is Potter up to?" Severus asked suddenly.

"Preparing," Albus replied succinctly. "He, Miss Granger and Mr Weasley are being trained by Alastor Moody, according to Abe's information. Apparently Alastor has been telling anyone who asks that they are the best students he has ever had. He is exceedingly pleased with their progress. It seems motivation makes a wonderful taskmaster."

"And the locket?"

"Abe handed over the information he found amongst my belongings at last night's meeting," Albus said. "I believe it will not take Harry and Miss Granger long to decipher my notes. Then we will see if Harry believes in himself enough to try destroying the Horcrux contained within the locket."

Severus snorted derisively. "The boy has had enough self-belief to go running into danger every year he has been at the school. Why would this be any different?"

Albus chuckled. "True enough. Though this is a danger of a different magnitude."

Severus grunted sourly. "He is your typical Gryffindor. More courage than sense."

"Is that so?" Albus replied slyly. "Then what would be your reaction to hearing that Harry and Miss Granger are providing potions for the Order...and using your improved instructions from your Advanced Potions book? Odd that such a passionate Gryffindor would put aside his apparent hatred to use what he knows is best. Even more so when you hear that many of the spells he and his friends are working so hard to perfect are from that very same book. Apparently Mr Potter was overheard saying that they could be useful and he would not discard anything useful just because he does not like its origins."

Severus' eyes narrowed then he scowled, refusing to answer. Albus chuckled and patted his arm.

"Now, now, Severus," he said soothingly. "I would be flattered if I were you."

Severus' scowl deepened and he stood sharply. "I must go," he snapped. "I cannot be away for too long."

Albus watched with amusement as his Potions Master stalked over to the couch and gathered up his cloak and mask.

Severus flung the cloak around his shoulders then paused with one hand on the door. "Keep taking those potions," he said neutrally. "And keep resting. There is time enough for you to recover."

"Anything you say, dear boy," Albus replied and Severus slipped out of the room and into the night.

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Harry sat in a window seat in the upstairs parlour at Grimmauld Place and gently stroked Casimir's feathers. The phoenix was perched on his upraised knees and Hedwig was sitting near his feet. Harry was staring out into the growing dark and worrying. Tonight was the full moon and he was worried not only for Remus but also for Bill. The eldest of the Weasley children had gone to Hogwarts this evening to use the Shrieking Shack since they did not know if the full moon would have any effect on him. Remus was locked up in room somewhere in the bowels of Hogwarts. With the betrayal of Snape, he had no Wolfsbane this month and would not have any more until Hermione managed to brew it. She had placed that on the top of her list and Harry knew she was feverishly studying the potion even as he sat here.

"Brooding again, I see," Ginny said softly from the doorway.

She walked across the room, lifting Hedwig up and sitting down where the owl had been. Hedwig seemed happy to perch in Ginny's lap and the red haired girl gently stroked the owl's feathers.

"Not really," Harry replied. "Just worried."

"About Remus?"

"And Bill," Harry said, looking at Ginny. "He's been a bit...well, short-tempered the last couple of days."

"I know," Ginny said, her voice full of concern. "Remus doesn't think Bill will change though."

Casimir let out a beautiful, liquid note and they both smiled to hear it.

"I think Casimir's given his opinion," Ginny said, smiling at the phoenix.

Harry chuckled dryly. "Casimir is full of opinions."

The phoenix gave Harry a distinctly amused look as Ginny laughed. Hedwig suddenly took flight and went to perch on one of the chairs and Ginny took the opportunity to lean against Harry's legs.

"Ginny," Harry protested softly.

Casimir seemed to take this as his cue to join Hedwig and Ginny crossed her arms on Harry's knees, resting her chin on them.

"I know," Ginny said with a quirk of a smile. "We broke up. To keep me safe." She snorted. "Well, as safe as possible." She cocked her head at Harry. "Well, I am safe, Harry. How could I be safer than here under Hermione's Fidelius?" She paused again and smiled wickedly. "Besides, who needs to know? You know as well as I do that my family would keep this under their hats if we asked. So would Hermione and everyone in the Order." Her expression became determined. "I didn't wait six years to get you just to let you go so easily. I'm a Weasley, Harry. We're very stubborn and we always get what we want in the end."

Harry felt his resolve starting to falter then he shored it up as best he could. "Ginny, you do realise I could die. Voldemort wants me dead and there's no guarantee he won't succeed."

Ginny's expression became fierce. "Rubbish," she growled. "And I'm not going to fall for that one, Mr Potter."

With a sudden move she leaned over his raised knees and kissed him. It resembled their first kiss, the one after Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup, and Harry felt his hastily raised resolve crumble. When they pulled apart, he ran a hand down the side of Ginny's face.

"It's a bit hard to argue with that," he said weakly.

"I know," Ginny said smugly then she sobered. "I'm not going to throw myself at you in public, Harry. I heard what you said at Dumbledore's funeral and I did understand. I know I'd be in an enormous amount of danger if people know that I'm your girlfriend but I happen to agree with Bill and Fleur. I don't think we should let Voldemort get in the way of our lives."

Harry looked out the window for a moment then turned back to Ginny and smiled. "You have a point there, I suppose."

Ginny took a ridiculously love-struck pose and batted her eyes ferociously at Harry. "Oh, a secret romance," she breathed, clearly trying desperately not to laugh. "How wonderful! How tragic!"

"How full of dragon dung," came the amused voice of Charlie from the doorway, causing both Harry and Ginny to collapse laughing. He walked into the room and eyed the laughing teens with a grin. "A secret romance, eh? In this house? You two are optimistic."

"I wasn't planning on keeping it secret from the family. I know that's impossible," Ginny said, leaning against Harry's legs again. "Just from the Death Eaters. And Voldemort. And anyone who might tell Voldemort and the Death Eaters."

"Ah, well, that's much better," Charlie replied.

"What's better?" Tonks asked brightly as she walked into the room, her hair neon pink.

"I didn't know you were here," Harry said with a smile.

Tonks shrugged and slumped down into a chair. "Yeah, well, McGonagall kicked me out of Hogwarts, didn't she? Said I was annoying the castle."

"He'll be fine...well, sort of anyway," Harry said, accurately divining the reason for Tonks' mood. "He's done this without Wolfsbane before."

Tonks sighed. "I know. It's just..." She shrugged again and smiled wryly. "We weren't...well, official before."

"I'm glad you're official now," Harry said.

Tonks beamed and her hair changed from pink to bright purple. "Speaking of being official, that kind of gives me the right to say this." She hesitated for a moment. "He...wants to be closer to you but he's afraid of you're going to reject him or accuse him of trying to take Sirius' place," she said in a rush.

Harry blinked as he worked his way through that then his jaw dropped. "I wouldn't think either of those things," he said indignantly. "And yeah, I'd like to get to know Prof...Remus better but I haven't exactly had a chance, have I? He was off doing Merlin only knows what with Greyback during the last year." He paused and looked concerned. "He hasn't gone back, has he?"

Tonks shook her head. "No, he didn't really like doing that. Only did it because Dumbledore insisted. He decided to rebel a bit. He'll only go back if you ask him to."

"Well, I'm not going to," Harry said firmly. "Remus shouldn't have to deal with Greyback."

Tonks smiled warmly. "Thank you, Harry. I...didn't like the idea of him being there."

Harry gave her a wry look. "I didn't notice at all." He looked around at his visitors. "You lot wouldn't be here deliberately to try and distract me, would you?"

"Hey, I had a reason for coming to speak to you," Ginny objected.

"So did I," Tonks said. "I wanted someone who was going to really sympathise."

"Mea culpa," Charlie said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "I was sent up by Mum. She was worried about you. At least, the parts of her that aren't worried about Bill and Remus are worried about you." He paused and grinned. "Mind you, I was glad of any opportunity to get out of the kitchen. Between Mum and Fleur the place is going to be spotless and full of food."

Harry blinked and looked confused.

"They're alternately cooking and cleaning," Charlie elaborated.

"Why do I think there's not going to be a lot of sleeping going on here tonight?" Ginny said wryly.

Snorts of grim amusement greeted her words and Harry shifted so that he could wrap his arms around her.

"I think I'd better try," he said resting his chin on her shoulder. "I don't think Moody's going to accept any excuses."

Tonks eyed the two of them with a grin. "I see your resolution to stay away from Ginny didn't last long."

Harry laughed. "Blame Ginny."

"It's a thecret romanthe," Ginny said dramatically, lisping the words outrageously.

Tonks snickered. "My lips are sealed. Why the secret?"

"Because I'd be a powerful tool to use against Harry if Voldemort or the Death Eaters ever found out," Ginny said bluntly before Harry could answer.

Tonks, who had winced at the mention of Voldemort, nodded slowly. "Good point. I can see you've thought this through. That'll help when Molly finds out."

Ginny and Charlie snickered. "Mum's been trying to think of ways to get Harry and I together since I was eleven," Ginny replied pragmatically. "She won't care as long as we behave ourselves."

Harry blushed as Charlie laughed uproariously and Tonks grinned. In the middle of this laughter the door opened again and Ron and Hermione walked in. They looked a little startled at the mirth then walked over to the group near the windows.

"Well, that's my plan out the window," Hermione said with a smile. "I dragged Ron up here because I thought we were going to have to cheer him up and what do I find? Laughing, happy people." Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Harry and Ginny. "I thought that was all off?" she asked, waving her hand at them.

"Nope," Ginny replied. "I decided Harry was being stupidly noble and I wasn't having any of that." She paused and became serious. "We're going to keep it quiet though because he did have a point."

Ron looked both pleased and uncomfortable. "Mum'll be pleased," he finally settled on saying.

There were snorts of laughter. "That's what we were laughing about when you two came in," Charlie said. He cocked his head to one side. "How's your training coming along?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione groaned in unison. "Moody's a slave driver," Ron moaned. "But we're learning a lot."

"I only asked because you're all starting to look a bit fitter," Charlie added. "It's only been a couple of weeks but you certainly look more like the Aurors I've seen in the field."

Harry looked pleased. "That's good to hear. Moody hasn't taken us much beyond what we'd have been doing in Seventh Year and in the early stages of training, magically speaking. He wants to be sure we've got the basics down perfectly before he moves us on to the really dangerous stuff."

Hermione was about to add something when the door opened again.

"Has this become the 'in' place to be tonight?" Harry asked Ginny quietly, causing her to snicker.

The latest person who had come to join the was Aberforth Dumbledore and he ambled into the room and greeted everyone amiably before greeting the phoenix and owl perched on neighbouring chairs. Once he was finished with that, he claimed a chair for himself and pulled it up near the window where Harry and Ginny were sitting and smiled at them.

"Ah, Albus would approve, I think," he said before becoming serious. "I have some interesting information for you."

Harry gestured for him to go on then hesitated. "Did you need to tell me privately?"

Abe shook his head. "No, no. This is good news. Now, as I'm sure you already know, we do get the odd disreputable sort in at the Hog's Head." He waved his hands around for a moment. "Hard to keep them out really. Can't deny a man the right to have a drink. Anyway...I had a couple of those disreputable types in earlier this evening. Knew them. Not Death Eaters but they hang on the periphery. Don't have the courage or stupidity or whatever you want to call it to actually commit to Voldemort but they do like being associated with him. They're certainly close enough to some of the main players to know a bit of the gossip."

Everyone on the room looked at Abe with interest. This was the first direct news of Voldemort's activities that they'd had.

"Now, they spent most of their time rabbiting on about how important they were but I don't think even they believed what they were saying on that score," Abe continued. "Then they got into a bit of gossip on what's been happening with Voldemort. Now, I have no idea about the veracity of this news but it's fairly low level information, not out of the realms of possibility that they might have been telling the truth."

"Alright, Abe!" Tonks said irritably. "You've told us this might be disinformation; now get on with whatever this possible disinformation is!"

Abe chuckled. "Ah, I see the full moon also makes a werewolf's girlfriend a bit tetchy."

There were snorts of laughter in the room as Tonks glared at Abe. The twitching of her lips somewhat spoiled that glare however."

The humour suddenly dropped off Abe's face and he became quite grim. "From what these two clowns were saying, it appears that Snape has become Voldemort's new favourite; his new right-hand man. No need to guess the reason why."

There were angry mutters from many in the room and Harry clenched his fists as he turned his glare on the darkness outside the room. He relaxed only when Ginny pull his hands out of their fists and entwined her fingers with his.

"What else?" he said flatly.

"Ah, well, this might just be good news," Abe continued. "They also spent some time discussing Voldemort's distraction and the reasons for it. Apparently there have been very few meetings called lately and they were rather surprised. They expected that Voldemort would step things up once word of Albus' death reached him but instead he seems distracted. He has made no move to reclaim those of his supporters still in Azkaban nor has he ordered any large scale attacks."

"Did they know why?" Harry asked, starting to get interested.

Abe nodded. "From what they said, I gathered that Nagini is very ill."

There was silence for a moment then Harry leaned forward, looking intent. "How ill is very ill?"

"They weren't very specific, I'm afraid," Abe said. "But the snake is definitely ill."

Everyone considered this for a moment.

"Do you think there's any way we could make that worse?" Ron asked quietly.

There was more silence as those in the room thought about that suggestion with varying degrees of interest and scepticism.

"I like the idea," Harry said slowly. "But the problem is we don't know where Voldemort's holed up at the moment."

Ron grunted. "Didn't think of that. What about luring him out?" Ron grimaced then answered his own question. "Argh, no. He wouldn't bring the snake with him if it is sick."

"Does he have anyone treating Nagini?" Harry asked.

Abe nodded. "Reading between the lines of what those two were saying, Snape's in charge of that."

Harry grimaced. "Well, I guess we can forget about slipping bad or fake ingredients or potions or whatever to the healer in charge. Snape'd see through that."

"He's probably making them himself," Hermione added to general agreement.

"What about distracting Voldemort even more?" Charlie suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" Harry asked.

"I know you don't like your fame and the whole Boy-Who-Lived, Chosen One thing but what about making some kind of public statement?" Charlie suggested. "You're birthday is in two days and it's the big one. You come of age; you come into your inheritance. Bill did some research into this. He just hasn't had a chance to tell you yet. But you have a pretty substantial inheritance coming. I'm not just talking about money but other more important things."

"Like what?" Harry asked warily.

"You'll be inheriting property for a start," Charlie explained. "There's Godric's Hollow, of course, but you also have two other properties. One's a manor house and the other is a cottage in Scotland. There's probably a lot of extraneous stuff like jewels, magical items, shares and whatnot but Bill looked into it and you also have a hereditary seat in the Wizengamot. The Potter line is an old one and most of the old families have something like that. Apparently it's been nearly six generations since anyone in your family actually used that seat but it's there."

Harry gaped. "Really?" he said dubiously. "How come I haven't been told about any of this?"

Charlie leaned back against the table. "Probably a combination of nobody really knowing what you were likely to inherit and there not being much point in telling you. You couldn't claim any of this until you reached seventeen no matter what the circumstances were. That's law and nobody, not even the Malfoys, can get around it."

"So you think I should take up my seat?" Harry asked, getting things back to the main subject.

Charlie thought for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe not yet. You've got enough on your plate as it is without adding Wizengamot sessions to it. But maybe you should make some kind of public statement. The press will be after you anyway and this way you can use it for your own ends. Make some grand statements about how now that you're of age you think the time is right to start thinking about avenging your parents' deaths, taking care of the one who betrayed your family, who sent the wrongfully accused Sirius to Azkaban, killed Dumbledore and so on and so forth. Stand tall and proud and say you'll never be cowed by someone like Voldemort."

"What will all of that achieve?" Ron asked.

"It'll likely infuriate Voldemort," Abe said thoughtfully. "He'll want to take some kind of action but he'll be hampered by his sick snake. I doubt he'll really want to lose that Horcrux. Then if he does take some action, there's a good chance it won't be very well thought out. We might even be able to capture a few more Death Eaters, thin out his forces some more."

Harry sat in thought for a while then nodded. "Okay, it seems like a good idea but I think I might talk it over with Moody and Remus first. Maybe Mr Weasley as well. I don't mind agitating Voldemort but I don't want people put in too much danger."

"That's going to happen no matter what you do," Hermione said suddenly. "You can't avoid that, Harry. You were always going to be an obvious key figure in this battle. I think anyone who's stuck with you for this long knows that and won't be put off by anything you choose to do as long as it's well thought out."

Harry drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I...You're right. I know you are." He straightened his shoulders. "I guess it's time to start getting serious then."