Imperio

Chapter 6: I Can Sense Them

Harry slouched in one of the tatty chairs in the parlor, his legs draped over one arm, only half-listening to Snape and Sirius arguing over the merits of various plans to defeat Voldemort. They'd been arguing all day. Remus had just left with Bill--to do something involving whichever Sirius had deemed the best of all the plans; Harry hadn't been paying attention--not since dinner.

Mostly because he was sifting lazily through the streams in his mind.

He wasn't combing them for anything in particular--certainly not for Voldemort, which would have given Sirius heart failure. Sieving through the water had become something of a habit in the past few days, one he was fairly convinced that neither Sirius nor Snape would approve of. Especially considering yesterday.

But at least Remus hadn't held a grudge.

"...that Harry?"

Harry brought his head up. Sirius and Snape were clearly waiting for an answer to whatever Sirius had been saying. "Erm... What?"

Both of them frowned, Snape with annoyance, Sirius with concern. "Snape wants to use the Legilimency spell to see if there are any lingering effects... from the dark magic."

Harry straightened out of his slouch; his feet hit the floor with a thud. "Why?"

Sirius' eyebrows swept up. Harry frowned, a bit surprised himself at how sharply the question had emerged. "I mean," he tried again, "we don't really need to do that, do we? I feel fine."

"How you feel is irrelevant."

Harry flicked an annoyed gaze at the professor. "No it isn't. I feel fine, so obviously there aren't any lingering effects."

"You might not be able to tell--"

"I'm inside my own mind," Harry said, ignoring Sirius' surprise; this time at being interrupted. "And I know there aren't." He wasn't entirely certain why it was so important, but he did know that he didn't want Snape prowling around his mind right now.

"I think we should make certain," Sirius said quietly as he moved away from Snape to sit across from Harry.

Frustrated, Harry stood up. "We didn't when I was affected before."

"Had you attempted to kill someone then, we would have," Snape retorted. Harry rounded on him.

"I wasn't trying to kill him!"

Snape curled a lip.

"Harry," Sirius interrupted gently, standing as well. He put a light hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry sighed and turned back to his godfather. "Just to be certain. We'll all feel better."

"You and Snape, you mean," Harry grumbled but giving in was apparently safer than further resistance. He waved a hand with a short, "All right."

"How very generous of you," Snape said sarcastically. Sirius was giving him a funny look as well. Then the streams that Harry was so carefully guarding rippled, sending a huge wave crashing outward. Harry's knees buckled as if he'd been in its wake. He felt Sirius steadying him, but it was over as quickly as it had come, the waves quieting again, leaving no trace of disturbance.

"You all right?" Sirius asked anxiously. Snape was right behind him, eyes as shrewd as ever.

Harry shoved the annoying shock of fringe away from his itching scar. "Yeah..."

"What happened?"

Harry paused to study the streams once more; they were perfectly calm. "The streams were a bit stormy... just for a second, but they're fine now."

"Stormy?" Snape demanded in his soft voice; meant to be menacing. Harry shrugged though, unaffected by it after so much time spent at its mercy.

"Usually they're calm--"

"I am aware," Snape interrupted, his hand waving impatiently. "How were they stormy?"

"Just..." Harry searched for the right explanation. "...waves, I guess."

Frowning, Sirius nudged him toward the chair. "I really think Snape ought to perform the Legilimency Spell."

"OK," Harry said with a shrug. He settled himself in the chair.

Snape and Sirius exchanged a look, which would have intrigued Harry if he hadn't been so tired. Sleep sounded a brilliant idea. He kept his eyes open though while Snape chanted the familiar spell. He accepted the intrusion and waited patiently while Snape peered into all the crevices he would have preferred to keep to himself.

The inspection took much longer than it should have, but then Snape was forever suspicious. Even though Harry knew there was no dark magic lingering in him. He would have sensed it, after all.

When Snape finally ended the spell, he glared down at Harry, breathing harshly. He spun away without a word. The library door closed behind him with a heavy click.

Sirius stared after him. "I suppose that means that everything is as it should be..."

Harry slumped back into his chair; rocking a little as the vast ocean sloshed a little. Hardly enough to take note this time. "It is," he murmured. He cracked an eye when Sirius' hand settled on his forehead. "I'm all right," he said, feeling like there was an echo.

"Except that the streams are acting oddly?"

"I don't think they're in danger of splitting again."

Sirius squinted down at him. "Would you be able to tell though?"

"Think so," Harry said with a shrug. He closed his eyes, opened them again when Sirius didn't move his hand. "If something was the matter, Snape would have said so."

Sirius continued to gaze down at him, finally sighing. But instead of letting go, his fingertips pressed lightly against Harry's forehead, though he didn't immediately speak.

Harry rolled his head so that his godfather was no longer upside down. "Yeah?"

"I want you to tell me the minute anything unusual happens."

"I know."

"Has anything else unusual happened?"

Harry squinted in confusion. "No."

Sirius let his hand fall. He sat in the chair opposite, pinching his cheeks between thumb and forefinger as he continued to gaze at Harry. It was rather unnerving but before Harry could say as much Sirius said quietly, "I'm trying to convince myself you weren't attempting to manipulate the streams..."

Undecided whether or not to be offended, Harry shook his head. "I wasn't."

Balancing his elbows on the arms of his chair, Sirius leaned back. "You were doing something to them, though?"

Suddenly feeling as though he'd nicked biscuits from the cupboard, Harry shifted. "I wasn't really..." Sirius laced his fingers and waited. Harry glanced toward the kitchen briefly but there was nothing there to help him. "I was sort of... looking through them, I guess," he admitted reluctantly.

"Looking through--" Sirius sat up abruptly. "For Voldemort?"

"What? No!"

Sirius pulled back a little, a line appearing between his eyes.

Harry quickly swallowed; the squawked denial had burned his throat. "I wasn't looking for him. It's just a habit."

"Then it's one you need to be more careful with. What if you had found him without meaning to?" Sirius asked. "Or anyone dangerous for that matter? If you can find Remus through me, you should be able to find any number of Death Eaters through Snape--or even through me, since Wormtail--"

"I know all that. I would have told you if I'd sensed anyone." Sirius said nothing and Harry scowled. "I'm not completely daft, you know. I don't want Voldemort to kill me."

Sirius flinched and Harry shifted again, regret muting his irritation for the moment. "I'll tell you if anything odd happens."

"It may be too late for me to do anything," Sirius said, an edge creeping into his tone. "Or you may not have time to tell me at all."

"Well, I'll just have to try my best then," Harry said crossly. It wasn't his fault, after all, that the streams might rise up at any moment and swallow all of them whole.

Sirius leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. "I don't want you trying at all."

"I wasn't even doing anything--"

"Then leave the streams alone."

"All right."

Harry finally noticed they were glaring at one another when Sirius drooped, his fingers moving to knead the creases in his forehead. He sighed after a strained moment and dropped his hand. "I just want you to be careful--on your guard all the time," he said, his voice quiet again. "I know I'm probably being paranoid... but I can't help it."

Harry wasn't certain what to say, so he nodded. He didn't think Sirius was being paranoid, though he stopped himself from saying so. "I need to write to Hermione before I go to sleep," he said abruptly. "I promised I would."

Sirius didn't hide his surprise very well. "Sleep?" He glanced at his watch. "It's early yet."

Harry shrugged. "I'm tired."

Immediately, Sirius leaned forward, his eyebrows drawing together. "Do you feel ill?"

"No." The headache didn't count. "Just tired."

Sirius didn't look any less concerned, but at least he nodded. "All right." It sounded a bit like a question. "If you need anything--"

"Yeah, I know. Night." Harry stood quickly, his hands thrust into his pockets as he climbed the stairs. He thought Sirius was probably staring after him, and though it didn't make any sense, Harry wished he wouldn't.

OoOoOo

Sirius blinked groggily, his eyes attempting to adjust in the darkness. Trying to make out the blurry outline-- "Shit! What the hell?" he demanded, his stupor clearing as he found Snape looming over him. And then panic took over. "Harry? Is something the matter with--"

"Be quiet," Snape hissed. "He's asleep."

Sirius' struggle with his sheets ended abruptly. He squinted against Snape's Lumos. "What are you doing in here?"

"I've come for a snog," Snape drawled. He rolled his eyes as Sirius stared at him. "Don't be an idiot. I need to speak with you... without Potter."

Sirius' glance went across the corridor and then back to Snape. Not liking the feeling of the other man towering over him, he shoved the blankets aside and stood. Snape stepped back, waiting with obvious impatience as Sirius tugged his dressing gown on.

"Downstairs?" he asked as he cinched the belt.

"Obviously."

Sirius nodded, paying no mind to Snape's derision. He led the way quietly, looking into Harry's room quickly on the way; he was sound asleep in his bed.

As soon as they were in the kitchen, Snape began erecting privacy spells.

"Harry wouldn't eavesdrop," Sirius protested with a small frown.

"I'd rather not take the risk."

Sirius watched him complete several spells, one hand clutching the opposite elbow lightly, no longer frowning about Snape's lack of trust. "You found something when you were in Harry's head," he said quietly.

Snape pocketed his wand. "A rather unsophisticated description," he said, "but yes."

Sirius' fingers curled around the back of one of the chairs, but he didn't pull it out. "Well?"

Snape's eyes were barely visible for the shadows dancing in eerie patterns across his face. Neither of them had bothered to spell the lamps up.

"I would not go so far as to term it possession," Snape said slowly; gooseflesh prickled up and down Sirius' arms. "The Dark Lord is in Potter's mind; how much of an influence he currently has over the boy, I cannot say--"

"Influence?" Sirius' echo came out scratchy.

"His presence is there, but Potter seems unaware," Snape explained. "I don't think he is being controlled, but it is possible the Dark Lord's presence has made him more susceptible to the influence of dark magic; he has been unusually affected. And I assume his... tetchiness is also due, in part, to whatever influence the Dark Lord is having."

Despite the anxious thrum of his heartbeat, Sirius nodded. Harry had been unduly cranky all night, though Sirius had stupidly believed that he was simply tired--and perhaps still upset about yesterday.

"How can..." Sirius swallowed so that he wouldn't sound quite so panicked. "How can we get him out of Harry's mind?"

"I do not know," Snape said, regret tingeing the words. "If we alert Potter, it stands to reason that the Dark Lord would be alerted as well. And as I do not know how far this influence extends..."

He let the threat loom and Sirius turned away abruptly, with too many emotions too keep them all at bay. His hands were shaking but he did nothing to stop them. He stared out the small kitchen window for a long time, finally turning when he could no longer stand to stay silent. "I have to kill him," he said quietly. "And I need you to help me."

He waited for Snape to sneer at him, or laugh... or perhaps cart him off to St. Mungo's. But Snape did none of those things. The planes of his face stood out at odd angles as the light from his wand cast new shadows. "The Dark Lord," he said in a voice filled with reverence, "would kill a hundred pureblood wizards for your father's library."

Confused, Sirius waited and when Snape offered nothing else, he snapped, "So?"

"I have been studying them for weeks," Snape said, still quiet. "There are spells which would assist you."

Sirius heard himself asking, "What sort of spells?"

"Children's nursery spells, Black," Snape drawled, that sneer making an appearance--along with a fair bit of disgust.

Sirius scowled. "I'm in no mood for sarcasm, Snape."

"Dark spells, of course," Snape spat. "Some of them so dark that they require the spell caster's own death."

Sirius swallowed. "And you think--"

"Not that one," Snape interrupted with an impatient wave of his hand. "But there is a spell," he said, his voice deepening, "which will supposedly return the pieces of one's soul back to its original owner."

Sirius gaped at him. "The Horcruxes..."

"Precisely."

Sirius didn't want to ask more; didn't want to admit that he was already willing to do whatever that particular spell would ask of him. Ever since he and Harry had read Dumbledore's final letter--before they even knew the world had split into two--he knew they were going to have to face this at some point. He hadn't wanted to then, but now--after everything, he wanted to more than anything.

He wouldn't have believed anything could be more important to him than his own freedom. Harry's freedom, though; that was worth everything. "What do I need to do?" he asked.

OoOoOo

Shoulder to shoulder, Sirius and Snape were bent over Arcturus Black's personal spell book; Snape was scrawling notes in the margins.

The spell that Snape wanted to use involved reanimating the victims whose lives had been stolen by Voldemort in his pursuit of eternal life. Creating Inferi--as they would essentially be--was beyond anything Sirius had ever imagined himself doing. And it was becoming more and more difficult for him to ignore the nausea plaguing him, made worse each time he reminded himself that this book had belonged to his own grandfather--and Arcturus had obviously used it often.

"A potion would ensure our success... more reliable," Snape muttered, but Sirius wasn't certain if he was actually speaking to him or just muttering so he continued on with his reading. "I suppose you would object to killing a Muggle?"

Sirius' head jerked up.

"I thought as much..." Snape hadn't even looked at him. His eyes flicked up now. "Who would you consent to kill?"

Sirius' mouth was absolutely dry.

"A Death Eater perhaps?"

"I..."

"No? Every one of the Dark Lord's followers would kill your godson without second thought," Snape reminded him briskly. "They would relish it."

The cruelty in Snape's delivery was entirely uncalculated, but Sirius still had an urge to blacken his eye. "I don't think I can relish killing anyone," he said, rather evenly, all things considered. "Not even Voldemort."

Snape snorted. "That might prove to be a problem once you've cast the Killing Curse."

Sirius wanted to deny that; to claim that he wanted to kill Voldemort more than anything. He wanted Voldemort dead more than anything, yes, but he absolutely wished he didn't have to commit the act himself.

"Perhaps you'd best leave it to me," Snape said smoothly.

Sirius' eyebrows rose. "You think you want to kill him enough?"

The haughty look on Snape's face didn't last long. He scowled and began turning the fragile pages in Arcturus' tome. He abandoned it a moment later however and went back to the shelves, muttering again. "It should be possible to bid the reanimated spirits to do our bidding after they give up the pieces of soul... Ah, yes. Here it is."

"You want the Inferi to kill him?" Sirius had no idea why that sounded more monstrous than murdering Voldemort themselves but the bile rose in his throat at the very idea.

"They are not Inferi; not technically."

"Who in the hell cares?"

Snape glanced up from his fervent study of the new text. "You object to their killing the Dark Lord... more than you yourself as the killer?"

Sirius shivered and then wished he wouldn't. "It's my choice to kill him; we can't make someone else do it."

"They are not actually, alive, Black." Snape seemed more concerned than sarcastic. Sirius didn't want concern though; especially not now that he was about to commit unspeakable acts.

"Look," he said impatiently, "I'm not going to pretend I'm being rational, but to ask them--"

"They are merely bodies. Temporary vessels for the pieces of the Dark Lord's soul," Snape said, in such a dispassionate voice that Sirius knew he was just as spooked. He began reading from the book in his hands, "Without lives themselves; their own souls have already been committed to where ever they belong."

As if he no longer controlled his own body, Sirius crossed his arms and tucked his fists into his armpits. "That doesn't make me feel better."

Snape nodded, a jerked movement that Sirius almost missed. "I can think of no other option," he murmured.

So, Sirius did what he had always done as a child, when he could no longer bear the obscenities screeched at him by his mother--or the silence from his father; he carefully sealed his emotions away. "I'll need to ask Remus to stay with Harry," he said. "Perhaps Bill as well. He won't react well--"

"We cannot tell him," Snape interrupted sharply. "Anything Potter hears, the Dark Lord may hear as well."

"I know--"

"I already spelled him to sleep."

Sirius snapped his mouth shut.

"I could not risk his overhearing," Snape defending himself; belligerently.

In light of everything they were about to do, Snape's presumption hardly mattered. But that didn't stop Sirius from saying angrily, "You had no right to do that."

"Do you want to your godson be free of the Dark Lord or not?"

Sirius scowled at him. "How long will the spell last?"

"Until I release him."

Sirius buried the remainder of his irritation--he knew very well it had little to do with Snape anyway. "Send a message along to Remus and Bill," he ordered as he turned to the door. "I'll be right back."

"He will not be aware of your presence," Snape said to his back. Sirius didn't answer. He climbed the stairs quickly, unease rattling his nerves and making it difficult to focus. He made it to Regulus' room anyway. Harry was still asleep and as Sirius stood beside the bed, it was easy to see that the deep rise and fall of his chest was too even to be natural.

He stood there for a long time, every sealed emotion threatening to overwhelm him.

Harry looked peaceful at least, his face relaxed. Without thinking about it Sirius swept his godson's fringe aside with his fingertips. And as he glimpsed the scar, he knew Snape had done right. Harry would fight any plan that put Sirius in danger.

But no matter what danger he would be in, Sirius wouldn't come back until Voldemort was no longer a threat. Knowing he was betraying Harry, Sirius slipped his wand from his sleeve and chanted a Sleeping Spell with as much power as he had. Guilt settled in immediately as he felt it weaving with Snape's, making the spell twice as powerful.

Twice the insurance that Harry wouldn't wake up and find him gone.

Praying that he would be forgiven, Sirius bent and kissed Harry's forehead. "Love you, kid," he whispered. He turned away quickly, without looking back.

Snape was waiting in the parlour with Bill and Remus.

"Thanks for coming," he murmured, grasping both men's shoulders as he approached. "Did Snape explain anything?"

"Just that you needed us to stay with Harry," Remus said.

"I explained that we are putting a plan into action," Snape said from his quiet place beside the fireplace.

Sirius nodded. "We're leaving for several hours, most likely. Harry has been spelled to sleep--with two very powerful spells. Whatever happens," he said, gazing right at them, "do not allow him to leave this house. I don't care what you have to do to make certain of that."

"A force field proved quite useful in keeping him captive a few weeks ago," Snape volunteered as he fastened his cloak. Sirius shot him a glare. Snape's pointed glance did nothing to quell his anxiety.

"If it comes to that," he agreed as he turned back to the Harry's new minders. They glanced at one another, neither one looking particularly put out by the suggestion. "He's in Regulus' room; stay beside him until we return."

"We won't let him out of our sight," Remus said, with Bill nodding his very firm agreement. "Good luck," he added quietly before he and Bill went up the stairs.

"We must finish our preparations," Snape said, already moving back to the library. Nodding, Sirius set his teeth and turned away from the dark stairwell.

TBC...

A/N: A huge thank you to jogger for your help with this chapter. I'd still be staring at a blank screen without it. :o)