The Art of Peace

Chapter 10

Revelations

Deception is the key to winning any confrontation.

By resorting to brute force you have taken

your first step towards losing the battle.

Severus rolled out of bed with a groan. If it were not for that Potter boy he could have been long gone from this filthy place. Of course Potter did not care about his feelings though. All he cared about was his own pleasure. Why else would he leave all the people who foolishly looked up to him the way they did without telling them he was alive? No, all the Potters were were glory hounds with the money and charisma to actually get what they wanted. Always getting the big breaks, the Potters were. Of course James had gotten a bad break once, but it was not like he had not deserved it for all the people he had brought done in his quest for glory. Lily, though, she had not deserved it. She was too nice for something like that to happen to her. Ah well, no sense in dwelling on the past. Shrugging on his robe, Severus headed out into the streets of Marseilles once more.

Inès was just heading out of her door for school when she saw a strange sight. A man was walking down the street covered from head to toe in an ancient looking robe, waving a piece of glass around in front of him. She shugged her head at yet another lunatic on the streets and headed for school.

Harry had just dropped Claude off at school when Inès caught up with him.

"Harry!"

He turned around, and, seeing who it was, smiled.

"Inès! How are you doing?"

"I'm great! I just love getting up at six in the morning for school, don't you?" She smiled at Harry and suddenly called out, "Nicolas, Sylvie! Come here!"

A boy and girl their age came walking over.

"Harry, I want to introduce you to Nicolas and Sylvie. They're my best friends in the world. Nicolas and Sylvie, this is Harry. He's new here, so don't be too mean to him."

They both laughed good-naturedly and shook Harry's hand. They were soon in an animated conversation and continued like that until they reachedthe school. Once there they split up to their respective classes; Harry and Nicolas heading to History, and Inès and Sylvie going to math. The classes passed quickly and before they knew it, it was time for lunch. The kids filling the halls were still giving Harry a wide berth as a general rule, but they were obviously starting to feel more at ease around him since he had yet to attack any of them. Nicolas turned to Harry with a smile.

"I could get used to this, you know. It's like I'm the cool kid in school."

"Well, trust me; it's not something you would want to live with for your whole life."

Nicolas looked at him strangely for a moment, and then shrugged it off. After all, he was not that normal himelf, so some idiosyncrasies were to be expected in a friend of Inès'. They walked in silence to the cafeteria and settled in to eat, Inez and Sylvie joining them. No one bothered Harry this time. He saw the group of kids from the day before, but none of them would meet his eyes, and Gaston was nowhere to be seen. The rest of day proceeded in much the same way. Other students avoided him like the plague, and he ended up going to get Claude alone because Inès went to Sylvie's house. The walk home was enjoyable, however, and Claude was a good companion when you just wanted to listen and not have to speak.

Severus was getting angrier by the minute. His morning was not going well at all. The detector was picking up intermittent traces of stray magic, but it was like dirt in a river, there for a moment before disappearing. Finally, walking down one of the numerous side streets, the detector picked up a solid signal. It was coming from an apartment house a couple blocks down on the corner. He walked around the building and got different measurements, finally determining that the source was the upstairs apartment. Casting a version of the 'Revelo' charm on the building, he saw that no one was inside and apparated into what looked like the main room.

Carefully he cast several more revealing charms on the objects in the room to make sure he would not be caught in his search. Whoever lived here was obviously living as a muggle, so Severus could go through the rooms safely. Locking the main door, he started searching the room. It looked like a normal kitchen with a small table that had been used that morning for breakfast and the dishes were still on it. The cupboards were similarly unenlightening, being filled with kitchen supplies and foodstuffs. The first bedroom he checked was also empty of clues, just having a small bed and some muggle contraptions. Moving into the other living area he stopped short. There were two cots and a nightstand, but it was the contents of the nightstand that were interesting. Right there in plain sights were the books that the store owner had told him he had sold to the Potter look-alike. Curiously Severus went and looked at them. Sure enough they were on wandless magic, and upon opening them, Severus found several pages bookmarked and notes on them. With a small smile of success, Severus cast a small alarm charm to notify him when three people were in the house so he could be sure Potter was there. Satisfied with his work, Severus apparated back to his room. It was time to get some rest. He had a double apparition to England coming up tonight, and he wanted to be ready for it.

Harry's afternoon was filled with yet more studying. He finished his regular homework, but he immediately had to start working on wandless magic so he would be able to work with Sifu that evening. He had worked up to minor hexes now. They were more difficult that anything else he had done so far. Not having anything to practice on, he had been forced to go to transfiguration for a couple days to create a test subject. Once he had his little rat to hex he started. Harry quickly discovered that knowing the hex and how to do it was the easy part. He had to have the intent as well. It was hard to hex the little animal, but then Harry thought of Pettigrew and after that it was easy. Once he was able to visualize the rat as someone else he progressed quickly, and had half dozen hexes down by the time he had to start supper.

Sifu arrived a few minutes later just as Harry realized that he was missing some ingredients. As Sifu walked in the door, Harry called out to him.

"Hey, Sifu! I'm going to run down to the store and grab some stuff for supper, alright?"

"Sure, Harry, go ahead."

Harry jogged out the door, leaving Sifu and Claude alone in the house.

Just as Severus was about to drop off to sleep from boredom, his alarm from the apartment went off.

"Finally, I have you. You're going to regret all the trouble you put me through, Potter."

Apparating to the alley behind the apartment, Severus walked around the front and ascended the stairs. He had decided not to apparate right into the house as he would not know right where the three inhabitants were and he really did not feel like splinching himself into one of them. At the top of the stairs he reached the door and began to knock impatiently. A man who looked only a few years younger than Severus opened the door and looked at him suspiciously.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Harry Potter."

The surprise on the man's face only lasted a moment before it became a mask again, but for a man as schooled in reading emotions as Severus it was an open book. This man knew who the Potter boy was and did not plan on telling him.

"Who's that? I've never head of anyone by that name."

"I know he lives here. Let me in to get him."

"No. You can't come in and I still don't know what you are talking about."

"You know who he is, don't play with me. I can do things you can only dream of."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the man returned with a menacing smile.

This brought Severus up short. This man, whoever he was, loked like he might actually know what magic was. Of course, the books were in plain sight so obviously he did. So why was he still so confident? Perhaps he was a wizard too? But that was impossible; only one person's traces had been picked up. Magical signatures were unique to the user, and anyone with the proper skill could tell the difference between people without a problem. No, this man must have some muggle methods at his disposal that he thought would be capable of defeating a wizard. Puny human, he would soon rue the day he was born.

"Open the door!"

"No!"

A boy appeared behind the man.

"Sifu? What's going on? Who is this?"

"Claude! Go to your room. Now! Stay there until I call you again."

Just as Severus was getting ready to hex the living daylights out of the foolish man, he was interrupted by a familiar voice behind him.

"What's going on here?"

Severus turned around.

"Potter!"

The only problem was this person was not the Harry Potter he knew. Instead there was a blond haired boy with brown eyes and missing a scar. If it were not for the voice, the boy would not have warranted a second look. However, once the voice combined with the face that was still the same, it was obvious who he was, and the look on Potter's face showed his recognition as well.

"What are you doing here, Snape? I don't want anything to do with your kind. Haven't you done enough to me already?"

"You know him?" Sifu asked.

"Of course Potter knows me. I'm the only person who doesn't worship him and wait on him hand and feet."

"That's only because you hated my father, and you can't stand to see anyone like him."

"Whatever you wish to believe, boy. You are still coming with me. Dumbledore still wants you for some reason."

"Well, you can go back and tell him to leave me alone. I'm not coming back so I can watch more people die."

"You don't have a choice. Stupefy!"

Severus bit off the curse with satisfaction. He had wanted to do this for years. His satisfaction quickly turned to shock when the curse dissolved into thin air in front of Potter. A tinge of yellow was the only hint as to what had happened. A shield charm of all things. Where had he learned that? When Potter muttered a curse in return, forcing Severus to throw up a shield of his own, his amazement grew. Surely he could not have grown so powerful so quickly! A rustle to his right alerted him scarcely a second before a foot struck his side. As he fell he saw the grim face of the man called Sifu above him. What was this madness? Readying himself for a last desperate attack, Severus was shocked to hear Potter's voice.

"He's mine. Obliviate!"

"Protego!"

Finally throwing up a decent shield in the half second warning Potter had given him, Severus apparated out to his flat. Gathering his things quickly he apparated once again, this time to Hogsmeade. Someone was going to pay.