Sometimes That's What It Takes

Chapter 6

Snape's house was dark. The whole row was dark, in fact. The nearest lamp dangled forlornly from a wire two streets back. Harry slipped out his wand and whispered a Hominem Revelio toward the house. A cold sensation gripped his heart when there was no reaction, but a second later, he relaxed slightly as he felt the magical protections surrounding the house gently pushing his spell back at him. Snape wasn't necessarily dead or missing, then, simply well-warded.

He'd have to do this the old-fashioned way. Cringing inwardly at what he feared Snape's reaction would be to being awakened at 4 a.m., he reached up and clacked the knocker as loud as he dared. He didn't want to wake the entire neighbourhood. When there was no response after thirty seconds, he repeated the action. "Professor!" he called, softly. "Professor Snape? It's Harry Potter!"

He knocked again, more forcefully. "Professor Snape! It's important; please. It's about Hermione!"

"Do you mind?" The door knocker wiggled its nose disdainfully. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

Harry took his hand off the knocker and spoke to the ugly little face. "Is Professor Snape in? Please, it's urgent."

"Password?" the knocker drawled, suppressing a yawn.

Harry swore. "I don't know the bloody password! Uh..." He tried frantically to think of what Snape might possibly have used. "Slytherin, potions, Dumbledore ... Hogwarts!"

The door opened abruptly. Harry blinked, nonplussed. The password was Hogwarts?

"The hallmark of a decent password, Potter, is that it cannot be guessed." Harry found himself at the receiving end of one of Snape's famous death glares. Not Hogwarts, then. "This had better be good."

"It is, sir. I mean, it's not good at all. Quite bad, in fact. If you'd let me in..."

Snape stepped back into the unilluminated interior of his house. "Yes," he agreed dryly, "the Office of Misinformation would have a field day if I were to hex you on the open street."

"Thank you, sir." Harry entered the house. He'd been here before, when Snape had first been brought home to continue his convalescence in familiar surroundings. It still smelled the same.

Snape raised the lights slightly with a wave of his wand, just enough so they weren't standing in the dark. The bookshelf-lined room looked much the same, as well, although less dusty and unkempt. Snape was wearing his ubiquitous black robes, buttoned high up over his neck.

"It's about Hermione, sir," Harry began, cutting right to the chase. "It's a bit complicated, so I'll come right to it."

Snape's eyes widened in something akin to alarm, but he remained otherwise impassive.

"She's been the victim of a rather nasty curse from Susan Bones. Your physical therapist."

"I know who Healer Bones is!" Snape snapped. "Don't belabour your report with unnecessary details. How is Miss Granger? Where is she?"

"She's fine... sort of. Physically, anyway. And mentally, too, I mean, it's not like she was Confunded or anything."

"Potter! You're babbling!"

"Yes, sir. Hermione is at this moment at an altitude of approximately two kilometres, somewhere between Bolton and Blackburn, drifting north on a raincloud."

Snape gave Harry a severe look. "Talk sense, man!"

"That's the honest-to-Merlin truth, sir. Healer Bones sent her up there because she thought she was a rival for your affection." Harry summarised the events of the evening while Snape's expression became more and more thunderous. Out of respect for Hermione's wishes, Harry glossed over the fact that Susan's spell had only worked on her because of her affection for Professor Snape, instead making it sound like Susan had targeted her on a mad whim.

"Miss Granger is safe for the time being?" was Snape's first question, once Harry was finished.

"Yes, sir, as safe as we could make her. Ron's with her, just in case."

"And I assume the reason for you showing up on my doorstep at this hour is that you are hoping I can work a counter-curse." He stepped over to the nearest bookshelf and ran his finger along the row, scanning the titles.

"Actually, sir, we have people working on it already. The real reason I came is because Hermione was worried about you."

Snape's finger hesitated, but he didn't turn around. "Explain."

"Hermione thought Healer Bones might have done something to you. Put you under an enchantment, or cursed you."

"Ridiculous."

"It seems so," Harry agreed. "Which means one less thing for me to worry about tonight. I'd appreciate it if you could come to the Department tomorrow -- that is, later today, at a more convenient time, to give a statement. I need to get back now, see if our people have made any progress on breaking the enchantment." Harry stood.

"Your people couldn't turn off Bluebell Flames in a typhoon. I'll need to talk to Healer Bones myself." Snape was already at the door, moving surprisingly quickly despite his handicap. "Have you been immobilised, Potter?" he snapped.

"No, sir," Harry responded, grinning. "Would you like me to Side-Along you?"

Snape regarded Harry disdainfully. "I'm a cripple, not a Squib."

"Right you are, sir." Harry preceded Snape out of the house. Once they were out of range of the protective enchantments and certain no one was watching, both disappeared with a pop.

******

"Severus!" Susan clutched the bars of her cell with one hand and stretched the other imploringly towards Snape. He stood well back, next to Harry, watching the unfortunate witch with undisguised alarm.

"Healer Bones! Contain yourself," Snape ordered her.

"I knew you'd come for me," she said, giving Harry a triumphant look.

"I have not come for you," Snape said icily. "I have come to either induce you to release Miss Granger, or to extract such information from you that I am able to release her myself."

"But don't you see?" she pleaded. "We can only be happy together without her influence. She's stood in the way for too long."

"We will never be 'happy' together," Snape said, his lip curling in disgust.

Susan's eyes filled with tears. "How can you say that? Didn't we have a wonderful time this afternoon, just the two of us? And all the other afternoons we've spent together? Did they mean nothing to you?"

"The only reason I agreed to allow your visits was a sense of duty to a meddling group of Gryffindors, which I now see was misplaced and ill-thought. I should long ago have rejected their continued attempts to direct my life, both public and private."

"Yes, yes exactly!" Susan cried. "I'm so happy you understand me, finally. It's as I told Granger: there are going to be some major changes around here. Starting with getting rid of her. The only problem is, now... " Susan beckoned to Snape, eying Harry with mistrust. Snape took two wary steps closer, taking care to remain out of arm's reach. "They're all in it together against us, you know," Susan whispered. "Potter and all the others. They're not going to let me out of here if I don't let Granger go. It's as simple and ugly as that. I don't want to, of course. As soon as I do, she'll be right back in your house, driving a wedge between us. But..." Susan licked her lips. "If you were to marry me... Well, that would be sending the right kind of signal to her. To everyone. I'll bet that would be the end of their meddling. And I'd take such good care of you, Severus, really I would." She looked at him anxiously.

"Potter was right," Snape said in a flat tone, stepping back. "You are insane. I can see there is no other way to do this." He aimed his wand carefully at Susan's forehead. "Legili--"

"Stop!" Harry had reached out and pushed Snape's wand aside. "I'm sorry, Professor, but I'm afraid you can't do that. Proper channels and all that."

"What did you bring me here for then, Potter!" Snape snarled. "We haven't time to dally around with proper channels."

"I thought you might be more successful than me, given the... special nature of your relationship." Harry tried to hide his smirk and failed spectacularly.

Snape clenched his jaw so hard that his teeth started to hurt. "There. Is. No. Relationship."

"I can see that now. I was also curious, though, whether her story had any truth to it. I'm glad to see there wasn't. For more than merely professional reasons."

Snape narrowed his eyes. "What do you--"

His question was interrupted by Susan clearing her throat. Both Snape and Harry directed their attention back to her. She had her hands folded before her and looked much calmer than she had a moment ago.

"I've decided you're right," she said contritely. "It was awful of me, what I did to Hermione. If you'll give me my wand back, I'll end the spell right now." She regarded Harry with solemn eyes.

"What, just like that?" Harry asked, suspicious.

Susan sighed. "I see now that what I did was wrong. I'd like to make it right again. Please, Harry."

Harry considered for a moment, then said, "All right. But you'll only have the one chance."

"That's all I'll need," Susan assured him.

"I'll be right back," Harry told Snape. "Will you keep an eye on her?"

"Be quick about it," Snape said.

Once Harry was gone, Susan's remorse was instantaneously replaced by single-minded determination. She spoke rapidly and with clear intent. "Severus, quickly, I know you had to play along for Potter, but this will be our only chance. Take my hand and Apparate us away from here." She stretched her hand out between the bars.

Snape stared at the limb with affront. "I will do no such thing. It is you who has only one chance."

Susan stamped her foot and wiggled her fingers with impatience. "You said yourself you wanted to get away from all those people who have been keeping you down, holding you back. It will just be you and me. I'll get rid of everyone else, like I did Madam Raffles. No more Potter, or Weasleys, and especially no more Granger. Don't you see what she's been doing to you?"

Snape drew himself up to his full height and stared down his long nose at his would-be lover. "Yes, I believe I have finally seen what she has been trying to do for me. She is the only person who has not attempted to bully me into doing what she wants. She is the only one who has even tried to put me ahead of her own ego and her own agenda. And although I will no longer allow others to run my affairs for me, the people you are so eager to ban from my life are, for lack of a less sentimental word..." His lip curled slightly. "...friends. A fact which you apparently have failed to take into account in your obsessive campaign to ruin my life as thoroughly as you have yours."

"She's not right for you, you know. Oh, she may be in love with you, but she's wrong in the head, or maybe in the heart. She doesn't know how to make a relationship work."

"You are only further confirming my conviction that you live in a fantasy world. Miss Granger has no interest in me, other than on a cordial and professional basis."

Susan chuckled, a mirthless laugh, as she pulled her hand back. "Didn't Potter tell you why the spell worked on her?"

"You invented a devious cross between two different spells. An accomplishment which, under different circumstances, might have been worthy of admiration."

"I think you'll feel quite admiring after I explain a bit more," Susan said smugly. "One of the spells I used was the Unwanted Suitor Charm. An obscure little spell I found in a Mediaeval manuscript. The Normans were terribly romantic. The gist of it is, it's keyed to whomever the target is in love with, and sets off a secondary enchantment on everyone else who comes too near -- anything from a Confunding to a case of leprosy. Girls used to have it cast on them in secret, to make sure their families couldn't marry them off to someone they didn't love for political reasons.

"I used a similar idea, and some of the wand movements, but keyed it to myself. My spell will only affect someone who is in love with the same person I am. I'll leave it to you to figure out the rest." Susan gave Snape a smug look. "Who's living in a fantasy world now?"

Snape, for his part, stared back at her, his expression unreadable, but remained silent.

"But I ask you," Susan went on, "given the choice, who would you rather have? Granger, who's apparently in love with you, but has done next to nothing for four years except run your errands -- hardly more than a house-elf, or even an owl, could have done. Or me, a fully trained Healer whose entire life is a showcase of my devotion and affection for you. Everything I've done, every goal I've set and reached, has been to put me in a position to help and take care of you."

"There is no choice," Snape said stiffly. "I truly find what you have done unfortunate, and I regret that I may have encouraged you in any manner whatsoever. You need help more than you are able to give it, I'm afraid."

Susan's countenance became stony. "You are making a big mistake."

"As I am certain a large portion of the Wizarding world will be happy to attest, it wouldn't be my first. Nevertheless, I believe I will, as they say, 'take my chances'."

The door opened again, and Harry came in, flanked by two Magical Law Enforcement officers.

"I have your wand here, Susan," he said. "Are you still willing to release Hermione from your spell?"

Susan took one more look at Snape, then nodded grimly. "I'll do it. You've forced my hand."

Harry held the wand up, but didn't hand it over yet. "I'll have my wand trained on you, along with my associates here. I'd advise you not to try anything. If the first word out of your mouth isn't 'Finite', you will be hit immediately by three Disarming Charms. "

"Four," Snape said, holding his wand at the ready as well.

Harry nodded in acknowledgement. "Four. Disarm only, Professor. Leave the rest to us." He then continued, to Susan, "You will also relinquish your wand immediately after reversing the spell. Again, failure to comply will result in a disarming. Do you understand?"

Susan smirked. "Perfectly. My wand? I just want to get it over with and get out of here." She held out her hand.

Harry placed her wand on the ground and rolled it over into the cell. By the time Susan bent over to retrieve it, the four wizards opposite her already had their wands trained on her.

She straightened up, gripping her wand, a strange smile on her face. "So much concern for one little witch. I wonder... how you'll feel when she's plummeting to her death? Finite abrupto!" Susan slashed at the air with her wand, and then several things happened at once.

Snape lunged at Susan, roaring, "No!" as Harry and the two MLE officers all shouted, "Expelliarmus!" While one of them was able to deflect his aim, the other two spells hit Snape in the back, causing his wand to fly out of his hand and clatter into the corner. Knocked off-balance, Snape crashed into Susan's cell, one arm reaching through to grab her by the robes.

"What have you done! What have you done!" he raved, wild-eyed, pulling her forward with such force that her cheek smashed against the bars.

"I loved you, Severus," she gasped; then in a faint, strangled voice, she murmured one more incantation, and all of a sudden, there was blood everywhere, spreading across her robes, running down his arm.

"Mobilicorpus! Arretisangui!" Harry commanded in quick succession.

Snape flew backwards none too gracefully, and landed with his back against the opposite wall.

Harry was already opening Susan's cell and kneeling down next to her while barking out further orders to the other officers.

Snape staggered to his feet and lurched forward, toward Harry and Susan. "Where is she? You have to tell me! There could still be time--" He seized hold of Harry's shoulder.

"Back off, Professor!" Harry said, ripping away Susan's blood-soaked robes. "Unless you want to help me here, stay back, or I'll be forced to immobilise you!"

"Have you no care for Miss Granger?" Snape demanded, aghast.

Harry paused in his ministrations to turn a cold eye on the other wizard. "More than you will ever know. And if you had a care for her, like she deserves, maybe none of this would ever have happened." He turned his attention back to Susan.

Stunned and confused, Snape groped his way back to the wall. "I do... have a care."

Harry relented a little, saying tiredly, his back still to Snape, "I think she's fine. We took precautions in case something like this happened. And anyway, there's nothing we can do now. If she did fall, my people tell me she would have hit the ground within 20.2 seconds. So let's all hope our precautions worked. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a suspect to save."