Harry Potter and the Secret of Gairech

18. Deserters

When they entered the Great hall the next morning they were greeted neither by happy chatter nor even a faint murmur of voices. There was a miserable silence, and all eyes were turned repeatedly towards the empty space at the centre of the teachers' table. No one could eat anything.

At the end of the dismal breakfast, Professor McGonagall stood up from her chair. She looked as tired and unhappy as everyone else.

"Due to the terrible events of last night, teaching will not be resumed in the foreseeable future. From now on you will all sleep in the Slytherin quarters, as the dormitories there are the safest. As we speak your belongings are being taken down from your own dormitories to the dungeons. The upper floors are out of bounds for all of you, without exception. Professor Sesachar has sealed the staircase to the second floor, for everyone's safety. I'm requesting that none of you try to break this seal or get around it. The teaching staff have now moved to the first floor. As soon as it gets dark you are to make your way immediately to the dungeon common room. For the time being the door in the entrance hall will remained sealed. None of you are to leave the castle - is that understood?"

The students nodded.

"I've sent word to the Ministry. Cornelius Fudge should arrive within the hour to collect the captured Death Eaters. A group of specially trained wizards is on its way to hunt down the harpies during the daytime. Until they have completed their work - and I'm afraid this might take several weeks - all students are to remain in the dungeons at night."

"And the silverfurs, Professor?" Ginny asked.

McGonagall looked at her. "Unlike the harpies, these creatures are only active at night. Unfortunately we have to prioritize. And that means that we have to start with the harpies. You may now go back to your common room. You will also be allowed in the classrooms on the first floor. But please be prepared to make your way to the dungeons at a moment's notice. If you see a shadow at the window, don't ignore it. What I'm asking of all of you is the utmost vigilance at all times."

Gradually the hall emptied. Harry stayed where he was, moodily stirring his porridge. Hermione had kept her seat next to him, and Robert and Lisa slid up the bench to join them.

"I wanted to thank you Harry, for yesterday," Lisa murmured. The lump on her head had vanished overnight and she seemed to have recovered. She looked at Harry curiously. "Yesterday I thought I was dreaming, when I imagined I was sitting on a black horse... But Rob said it was true..."

Harry continued stirring his porridge. "But please don't tell anyone... especially not anyone connected with Malfoy." He shuddered at the thought of what Draco would be able to do with this information.

Lisa snorted. "Like I'd go talking to him!" She leant forward. "So you really are an Animagus, Harry?"

"And you're obviously not registered," said an oily voice behind them. They turned around. Snape was standing behind their table, smiling thinly. "But we can change that as soon as Cornelius Fudge arrives."

Harry shoved his spoon back into the bowl and porridge splattered across the table. "Then we can tell him why Dumbledore died," he said, and his voice was as cold as Snape's, his gaze icy. "If you hadn't..."

"Potter..." Snape interrupted, but Harry jumped up from the bench.

"If you hadn't been so busy threatening me, if you had just been paying attention, Dumbledore would still be alive! He wouldn't have had to rescue you! But you're so incompetent that you focussed all your attention on something that had no relevance to the whole situation!"

Hermione was deadly pale. "Harry... for Heaven's sake, sit down..."

Rob and Lisa looked uneasily between Harry and Snape, who were glaring murderously at each other.

"How dare you talk to me like that, Potter?!" Snape ground out between clenched teeth. "Fifty points from Gryff..." He stopped when Harry drew his wand.

"Don't you dare take points off me because you were to blame for Dumbledore's death!" Harry shouted, his eyes blazing with anger.

Hermione grabbed his arm. "Harry, stop!" she said shrilly. "Please!"

But Snape had already drawn his wand as well. "Fine, Potter. If that's what you want..."

"Could I interrupt this little squabble, gentlemen?"

Neither Harry nor Snape looked away. Pithormin Sesachar was approaching the table. Unlike Hermione and the two Slytherins, he seemed completely unconcerned at the sight of the escalating conflict.

"A duel between the two of you would be interesting to watch, but I think we should leave it for a later date. Mr Kurzawe, Miss Lux, would you please leave the hall?"

Robert and Lisa gulped and stood up. Rob gave Harry a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Best of luck, mate."

The two Slytherins left the hall, and Sesachar turned towards them again.

"Severus?"

Snape stood as if turned to stone, still pointing his wand at Harry, who was aiming back at him.

"You'll never win the boy's trust with violence," Sesachar said calmly. "Put the wand away."

"I don't care if he trusts me or not," Snape hissed.

Sesachar shrugged his shoulders. "Fine... - Expelliarmus." Snape's wand flew into Sesachar's hand, and he turned to Harry. "You'd better be reasonable now or I'll be adding another model to my collection."

Slowly and very unwillingly, Harry lowered his arm. Sesachar smiled. "So that's sorted. We can have a reasonable conversation. Would you move up a bit? Severus, sit down."

Sesachar walked around the table and sat down next to Harry. He signed to Snape to do the same.

"Blaming each other won't bring Albus back to life." Sesachar looked sternly at them both. "And you're the very people who - now more than ever - depend on each other to survive this war. He would never have wanted you to let your hatred of each other to spiral out of control until you became enemies. You both know how quickly enmity can appear. And we'll never beat Voldemort that way. Only if we work together." He looked at them both expectantly. "So bury your quarrel and shake hands."

Harry and Snape seemed more willing to break each other's necks than shake hands.

Sesachar looked insistently at Harry. "The club you've set up with your friends has peacefully united all four houses of Hogwarts for the first time in decades, and given rise to genuine friendships. You can sit at the same table as the Slytherins and the two houses no longer meet each other with suspicion or hatred. As soon as you made the effort to find like-minded people, no matter what house they were in, you noticed that you'd made a change for the better in this school. Together we're strong, as the name of your club points out..."

Harry stared at him and seemed to be considering this. His expression was as grim as before, but he held out his hand.

Sesachar gave a nod of approval. "Severus?"

Snape snorted, but then took Harry's hand reluctantly.

"I'd prefer it if you'd smile, but one can't have everything."

Sesachar leant on the tabletop. "We have half an hour left before Fudge arrives, and before then I want to have sorted out as much as possible, with all of you. And even if that's not in your interest, you should do it for Albus's sake."

Harry sighed resignedly, and Snape stopped grinding his teeth.

"You first saw the silverfurs," Sesachar said, looking at Harry and Hermione "on Hogsmeade weekend?"

Harry cleared his throat hesitantly. If he told the truth now, he would have to admit that he had been spying on Sesachar.

"No..." he finally brought out. "I saw them before."

Sesachar nodded. "The night you found out that you were an Animagus, I suppose. You'd never tried to learn the skill before."

Harry nodded. "Yes... that's right."

"When was that?" Sesachar asked. "When did you see the silverfurs for the first time?"

"Before Halloween." Harry swallowed. "The night you went to the Hog's Head."

The corner of Snape's mouth twitched. "So he's been spying on you, Pithormin..."

Harry looked at him sullenly. "My scar was hurting that night and I couldn't sleep. I was standing by the window when I saw someone leaving the grounds."

"And instead of going back to bed you sneaked out after him - against all the school rules!" Snape hissed.

Sesachar rapped his knuckles on the table. "Quiet, both of you! Or I'll hex your hands together until you're tired of sparring with each other. Go on, Harry."

"I followed you without knowing that it was you, Professor," he said truthfully. "I saw you stop for a moment by the forest path outside Hogsmeade, before you went into the village and to the Hog's Head. The silverfurs came from that path when I went back to the castle." He hesitated. "Can I ask why you stopped there, Professor?"

Sesachar scratched his head, thinking. "I'd heard a sound and I wasn't sure what it was. And it was coming from that path. That's why I stopped and waited... When nothing happened I went on."

"So you don't know where the path leads?" Harry asked.

Pithormin Sesachar shook his head. "No. Where does it lead, Severus?"

"To an old farm outside Hogsmeade," Snape answered. "But Potter hasn't finished his... story." And he gave Harry a menacing stare. Harry grimaced but carried on.

"I followed you into the Hog's Head, and when you took off your hood to speak to the landlord I recognised you. And then you argued..." Harry hesitated. He didn't mention the fact that he had seen Sesachar almost strangle the landlord in fury. "I saw the Mark on your arm..."

Hermione, who had kept silent the whole time, stared at Sesachar. He stretched out his right arm and pushed back the folds of his cloak, so that they could all clearly see the Dark Mark on his skin.

"You're... you really were... a Death Eater?" she asked.

Sesachar nodded. "Yes, I was. Just like Severus."

Snape drew in his breath angrily at this open statement of fact.

"My wife was a fierce opponent of the Dark Lord," Sesachar told them. "She joined a resistance group which was condemned by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Voldemort checked up on every family which had no members in his service. And anyone even suspected of being against him was murdered. Many people died back then. Great wizards and witches who had committed no crime, apart from not being on the side of evil. To divert suspicion from my family, I joined the Death Eaters," he raised his tattooed arm, "and swore my allegiance to the Dark Lord. For a while things went well... Until they ordered me to kill an innocent child, after they had tortured its mother in the cruellest possible way. But instead of killing the child, I took it and fled. Voldemort has cruel ways of punishing anyone who doesn't obey his commands..." Suddenly Sesachar looked tired, and at least ten years older. "When I arrived home with the little girl, I found the corpses of my wife and sons. And two Death Eaters waiting for me. I was too weak to fight..."

"He just stood there." Snape stared down at the tabletop. "Ready to die without begging for mercy." Harry and Hermione looked at Snape in surprise, and he continued. "Kain and Diomán were about to kill him too..."

"But they never did," Sesachar carried on with the story. "Severus saved my life and brought me and the child out of the house. From then on the two of us were on the run. Severus told his master that he'd killed me, after I supposedly overpowered Kain and Diomán. He saved my life... And I remained in hiding with the girl, until the Dark Lord disappeared, the moment he marked you." He looked at Harry, who swallowed hard.

"And then?" he asked quietly.

"Then I brought Severus to my uncle." Sesachar leant back. "Albus Dumbledore."

Silence. The students looked back and forth between Snape and Sesachar. They were sitting opposite two former Death Eaters, who had both voluntarily betrayed their master to save the life of another. One had saved the life of an innocent young girl, the other the life of the man who was to be executed for sparing her.

"Who was the child that Professor Snape saved you for?" Hermione asked suddenly.

But instead of Sesachar it was the Head of Slytherin who answered. "She was my daughter."

Harry's jaw dropped. "You have a daughter?"

Snape gave him a poisonous glare, and was about to raise his voice when Sesachar hastily stepped in. "Albus vindicated us and gave Severus this position in Hogwarts. His daughter went to live with her aunt, who welcomed her with open arms. She didn't trust Severus and blamed him for her sister's death. And Violetta does to."

"Our Violetta?" Hermione gripped the table. "Violetta Ziob?"

Snape nodded grimly.

Harry's thoughts raced. Since he'd known Violetta she had never spoken about her parents, only about her aunt Kirsty. And as far as he could remember, she hadn't even looked at Snape outside of class. And she didn't look that much like him - apart from the unfathomable, coal-black eyes there was nothing about her that reminded him of the Head of Slytherin.

"I've never seen you talk to Violetta," he said, confused.

Snape stared darkly ahead of him. "She doesn't speak to me. She despises me. And I'm not going to run after her like a whining dog begging for forgiveness. I didn't betray her mother."

Harry bit back the comment that Snape wasn't exactly the type to beg for forgiveness.

"So that's why Dumbledore trusted you? Because you saved his nephew's life? But you were only repaying a debt - Sesachar saved your daughter."

"I realised that the loyalty of the Death Eaters was not true loyalty, because they're not just fighting the wizards outside of their group." Snape looked at Harry reluctantly. "The Death Eaters can only operate if they eliminate any weak link in their chain before it causes the chain to break. They have no loyalty towards one another. Only submissive devotion to the Dark Lord. Anyone who defies him defies the whole group. There's no such thing as sympathy for other people. Not even your own wife, daughter or son!"

McGonagall appeared in the doorway, interrupting their conversation. "Pithormin, Severus - Cornelius Fudge has arrived."