Phoenix Rising

Chapter 5: Getting the Hairs

Harry closed the vial and tucked it into his robe pocket. He just hoped that Dumbledore loved Severus, because if he didn't, who did? Severus had been so nasty for so many years that Harry doubted if anyone even liked him, let alone loved him.

Hiding the sphere underneath some belongings, Harry closed the trunk and headed out the dorm room. Ron was just coming in, looking gloomy.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Fred," he mumbled, "is now the Quidditch Captain, if you can believe that."

Ron went to his bed and threw himself on it. Harry watched him, thinking. There was nothing wrong with being normal, like Ron was, but Ron was surrounded by 'special' people. Harry had survived Voldemort several times, Hermione was very smart and now a Prefect, even his own brothers usually had something going on, and Ginny was the only girl in the family and therefore special, too. But the only thing Ron was good at was chess. Maybe if they had a chess club at Hogwarts? Hermione was now a Prefect, maybe he could talk to her about it. He would after he talked with Lupin and Sirius. One thing at a time.

Harry rushed downstairs to get to Lupin when he ran into Hermione, as she was coming through the portrait hole.

"Where's Ron?" she asked, chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"Listen, Hermione," Harry said, "with you being a Prefect, and me being the Boy Who Lived, Ron is feeling worthless. I think that is why he's so angry about you becoming a Prefect. He felt you two were equal until now."

Hermione sighed. "I know. That's why I didn't want to tell him. But I can't stop living."

Her voice was high-pitched enough for Harry to realize that she was feeling very guilty about this.

"Well," Harry said slowly, "Ron is really good at chess. Maybe if you started a chess club, or got McGonagall to start one, then Ron would have something to do and...."

"That's a great idea!" Hermione interrupted, her face flushed with excitement. "I'll go talk with McGonagall. I'm sure she'll agree. It'll be perfect. Not all the kids in school are athletic and this will give those kids a chance to excel at something. Brilliant idea!"

Hermione hugged Harry and kissed him on the cheek before scurrying back through the portrait hole. Harry blushed for a second, though he knew Hermione had no romantic feelings for him, those were reserved for Ron, he had still liked the kiss.

Harry scrambled through the portrait hole himself and headed for Lupin's office.

Spotting Severus walking down the hallway with a thick book in his hands, Harry waved to him.

"Hello, sir!" he called happily.

Severus stopped walking, an eyebrow raised, as he looked at Harry. Harry didn't stop. He just smiled as he passed him by.

Turning the corner, Harry could see Severus still standing there, looking at him.

"I'll be sure to have that role of parchment you wanted on calming potions by next class. I'm going to work very hard on it. Get Hermione to help a bit, too."

Severus's face didn't give anything away but he was still staring at Harry as Harry went out of sight. Harry grinned to himself. He was going to break down Severus's stony resolve eventually. Maybe, once Severus got over the shock of it, he would start responding when Harry greeted him.

Harry knocked on Lupin's office door and hurried in as it opened. Lupin closed the door and charmed it against intruders and eavesdroppers.

"What is it?" Sirius asked, taking off his cloak.

Harry extracted the vial from his pocket. "Melusine sent me this. I have to find someone who loves Severus and get ten of their hairs. To test the hair, just drop one of the hairs into the vial and if it glows red then they love him. The brighter the red glow, the better."

Lupin looked at Sirius, his face nervous. "Uh, whose should we get?"

Harry sat down at the desk. "Dumbledore?" he asked quietly. "Surely Dumbledore loves him."

But from the look Lupin and Sirius were exchanging, they didn't think so.

"Dumbledore trusts Severus and I'm sure, I think, I assume, likes him, but that is very different from love, Harry," Lupin gently explained. "We will try him, though."

Sirius walked behind Harry. "We can test him right now. Dumbledore was here earlier and he, as usual, left some hair behind."

Harry watched, feeling numb, as Sirius lifted up a long silver hair from the back of the chair Harry was sitting on and handed it to Harry. Reluctantly, not wanting to do away with the last shred of hope he had, Harry put the hair in the vial.

Watching it, Harry could feel the tears stinging his eyes. It wasn't red, it was a bright pink. Dumbledore liked Severus, liked him a lot, but didn't love him.

Hands descended on his shoulders. "We'll try others," Sirius assured him as Lupin gently took the vial from Harry's frozen hands.

"But who?!" Harry half-screamed.

"Draco," Lupin said.

Harry laughed and then quit. Was that such a bad idea? But didn't Draco just pretend to like Severus because he was sucking up to the Head of his House?

"Okay, I'll try," Harry said, reaching for the vial.

Lupin held it away, shaking his gray-streaked head. "No. Sirius and I will do it. This has gotten you too upset."

Harry stared up at Lupin, angry. "This is my job! He trusted me! He asked me to do it! Not you!"

"Who trusted you?" Lupin asked, in that irritating gentle way he had. "Who asked you?"

Harry turned away, seething. How dare they?! How dare they take over his job, his responsibility, his duty?

"Harry," Sirius began.

Harry shook his head and ducked out from underneath Sirius's hands. "Go away," he muttered, glaring at the desktop.

"Harry," Lupin started, "I know you're angry. I don't blame you. But think about it. Sirius and I, as adults, are in a better position to do this than you."

Harry wouldn't listen. The tears were trying to come but he wouldn't let them.

"I'm sorry," Sirius suddenly said, handing the vial back to him. Harry latched onto it. "We had no right to try to take over. But don't do anything without one of us around. You are very emotional and might do something stupid."

Harry wiped at his eyes. "I'm sorry, too. I'm just so scared. What if no one loves him? We'll never get his kids back for him."

"Well," Lupin smiled, "at the rate you're going that might not be true for very long, even if it is true now."

Not understanding, Harry looked up at Lupin. "What?"

Sirius patted Harry on the back. "What he means is that you are starting to love Severus already, Harry. It might take a few weeks but you are getting there. Melusine strikes me as the patient type. I'm sure she'll wait if we have to. But we will try to find someone who loves him now, so don't worry. We aren't beaten yet."

Harry, embarrassed over his outburst, and relieved at them not getting mad at him, smiled a bit. "Here's the vial back. You'll need it," he said, handing it back to Lupin.

Lupin took it. "Don't worry, Harry. We will contact you as soon as we find someone."

Nodding his head, Harry sighed, got up, and left.

Sirius, having changed briefly into a dog while the door opened, then back again, looked at the door that Lupin had sealed once more. "He's taking this hard."

Lupin just nodded his head, looking half-dazed.

"I wonder who told him about all of this?" Sirius asked. "It couldn't have been Melusine. Harry dragged her off to talk with her, and I'm assuming it was about all this. But how did he know?"

Lupin shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I just hope we find someone or Harry's going to crack."

Sirius sat on the edge of the desk, fiddling with Lupin's lesson book. "You really think he might crack?"

"Yes. Harry's very sensitive. Like James was."

Remembering him, Sirius nodded his head. "Yeah, I know. James would never play a practical joke on anyone that he didn't think could handle it. He even made me quit bothering Filch since Filch got so upset over them."

Lupin looked at the vial in his hand. "I hope we can find someone."

Sirius, seeing Lupin's hand trembling slightly, took the vial from him. James hadn't been the only sensitive one in their group.

"I'll go to the Slytherins and see."

Sirius slipped the vial in his pocket and put on the invisibility cloak. As he passed Lupin on the way to the door, he squeezed his friend's shoulder. Lupin shook himself and opened the door.

It didn't take long to find a Slytherin. Snape was standing behind a large, angry-looking first-year. McGonagall was standing behind a skinny first-year, a Gryffindor it looked like, with a bloody nose.

"Severus," McGonagall said icily, "what are you going to do about this?"

Snape laid a hand on the Slytherin kid and shrugged. "Nothing. Your student deserved what he got."

McGonagall looked furious and so was Sirius. How could Snape just stand by and let his kids beat on other students?

Snape led his student away, while other Slytherin bystanders smirked, and walked to his office. Sirius followed him, determined to make Snape pay somehow. They may be trying to find Snape's kids for him, but that didn't mean they had to sit by and let Snape get away with stuff like this.

Snape opened the door for the student and he walked in, followed by Sirius.

"Why did you attack that first-year, Paul?" Snape asked as he sat behind his desk. He indicated the burly boy to take the seat on the other side.

The kid sat, angry eyes regarding Snape. "He doesn't like hags. He said they were all ugly and deformed and...." the child trailed away, wiping at his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Snape said gently. "Is your mum a hag?"

The kid, Paul, looked away from Snape, tears running down his face. "Yes. I hate it here. I want to go home."

Sirius felt his face burn. How many times had he insulted a Slytherin because they had looked like they had troll or hag blood in them?

Snape pulled out a desk drawer. It was filled with candy. "What's your favorite candy?" he asked.

"Blood lollipops," Paul said, wiping at his eyes.

Snape searched until he found one and handed it to the still crying kid. Paul sucked on it and Sirius raised an eyebrow. That wasn't normal candy, Paul's face and body were slowly relaxing as he sucked on the lollipop.

Paul grinned up at Snape. "This is very good."

Snape smiled a little. "Thank you. I want you to talk with Millicent Bulstrode. Her mother is a hag, too. She runs a club for kids with hag parents. They do all sorts of stuff together. I think you'll enjoy your time at Hogwarts much more if you join them."

Paul looked thoughtfully at Snape. "Can you introduce me to her?" he asked, almost shyly.

Snape smiled. "Sure. I won't take any points off of Slytherin for your behavior over the next couple of weeks, not until you are more used to Hogwarts and can handle the insults that will be thrown your way," he added.

Nodding his head, Paul got up, followed by Snape. Sirius slipped through the door behind them and walked with them to find this Millicent person.

As they walked through the hallways, Sirius couldn't help but feel a bit chagrined for what he had been about to do to Snape.

Millicent was in the Slytherin common room, surrounded by other kids that obviously had hag blood in them, too. Sirius had never been in the Slytherin part of the castle before and darted a look around. The room looked cold and dark and the greenish lamps gave off an eerie glow that the blazing fire did little to compensate for, but the kids sitting all around looked at home, and relaxed.

"I like you to welcome your newest member, Paul Stone, his mum is a hag," Snape introduced the first-year.

Millicent smiled at Paul. "Same here. Sit down. We were just planning a hike into the Forbidden Forest to gather Blue-Speckled mushrooms to make a batch of hag stew with," she said, tapping a piece of parchment she had on her lap.

Paul licked his lips. "Yummy!"

Millicent laughed. "The House-Elves don't know how to make it right, they cook for humans, so we make ourselves batches every year. Professor Snape has donated the use of his classroom for us to use on a Saturday. We can use three of his largest cauldrons so we can make plenty!"

"Whose taking us into the Forest?" asked Paul, looking worried.

"Professor Snape," Millicent said, nodding to the wall. "He always takes us."

Sirius almost gasped. Snape had already gone. Oops.

Paul smiled. "I like Professor Snape. He didn't even get mad at me for beating that idiot up."

"That's because that Gryffindor deserved it," growled another kid in the group. I get so tired of them teasing us."

"Let's not think about it," Millicent cautioned. "We have things to plan."

The kids grumbled for a few seconds, obviously still very angry, but most of them settled down and started to plan on making the hag stew, which sounded rather complicated.

But what was more interesting was Millicent. Every time Snape's name was brought up she sounded odd, like she was very respectful of him.

Sirius walked around to her and carefully spotted a loose hair, making sure it was her hair and not someone else's, and pulled. It came away. Sirius hurried into the empty hallway that led to the dormitories, slipped the vial out, and stuck the hair in the hurriedly opened end. It was bright red. Sirius leaned against the wall, putting the lid back on the vial and placing it back in his pocket.

They had found someone!

"Professor Snape looked ill," came a voice.

Sirius quickly made sure he was all the way invisible and waited for the people to pass.

"He's just upset about that first-year," came Draco Malfoy's voice as he came into view. "He doesn't like it when his kids get teased."

Crabbe and Goyle nodded their thick heads as they too came into view.

"Did you get more candy?" asked Crabbe.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Don't you ever think about anything but food?"

Crabbe leered at him. "Sure, but polite little boys like you aren't supposed to know about those kinds of things."

Draco's pale face flushed red. "Vincent!"

Crabbe laughed, along with Goyle. Draco looked indignant.

"That's not... I mean... don't talk about it..." Draco spluttered.

Crabbe and Goyle fell into each other.

"Humans!" Crabbe laughed. "They are so proper!"

"Just the rich ones," Goyle added.

Draco turned on his heel and marched away, leaving his two cronies to fall on the ground, laughing.

Sirius snagged a hair from each of them, neither noticed even though he had to yank it out, and headed to where Draco had gone to. Sirius entered the Slytherin fifth year dorm and walked around the beds until he found Draco.

He was sitting on his bed, the curtains mostly closed, reading a book with a bookmark by his side. Curious at the very good shape of the bookmark, Sirius looked down at it. It was from Snape. Just a brief note. 'Keep up the good work, Draco. I'm very proud to have you in my house. Professor Severus Snape, Year 3'.

It was odd, most kids probably would have thrown that note away, but Draco hadn't. And as Sirius looked around he noticed a stack of notes that were on a night stand by Draco's bed. Each one was in as good a shape as the bookmark was. The top was dated during Draco's first year.

Sirius carefully snagged a hair off Draco's bed. He walked to an area that was out of Draco's sight and put the hair in the vial. It glowed red too, just like Millicent's had. He checked Crabbe and Goyle's. Crabbe's was pink but Goyle's was red.

This was so weird! How many other Slytherin students felt this way?

Harry nervously paced Lupin's office. He was about to have to go to bed and wanted to know if he had something to send to Melusine tonight, but Sirius still wasn't back yet.

"What's taking him so long?" Harry asked for the tenth time.

Lupin shrugged.

The door closed and Lupin charmed the door as the cloak came off of Sirius's body. Sirius was grinning and he had a stack of envelopes in his hand.

"I found ten!" Sirius exclaimed, his eyes dancing.

"Ten?" Harry asked, his heart racing. "Ten?"

Sirius nodded his head, shaking the envelopes. "Can you believe it?! Let's just send them all to Melusine and let her decide which ones to use."

"Who?" Lupin asked while Sirius went and sat down, resting his feet on the desk and groaning slightly.

"I've been on my feet all day, it feels like," Sirius sighed. "I was testing every Slytherin I could find in the Slytherin dungeons. I didn't even get to all of them! I only know half of the names of the ones I did get. The names are Gregory Goyle, Millicent Bulstrode, Draco Malfoy, Malcolm Baddock, and Graham Pritchard."

Harry felt like someone had punched him in the stomach as he sat down. "The Slytherins? I don't love McGonagall," he said, confused. "Why do they love him?"

Sirius shrugged. "Snape's relationship with the Slytherins isn't like the ones that the other Heads of Houses have. From what I overheard when I was in there, most of those kids view him as more of a father-figure than an authority figure. He's very nice to them, understands them, and they love him for it. And," Sirius said, thoughtfully, "he apparently, from the conversations I overheard, takes points off Slytherin all the time. He just never does it in public. Those kids really appreciate that. Many of them have gone to Snape and confessed to things they have done because they know no one but Snape will ever know about it."

Harry sat still, letting what Sirius was saying sink in.

"That's smart," Lupin commented, nodding his head. "Those kids know who they can turn to. Maybe, this time, Voldemort won't get nearly as many Slytherins as he did before."

Sirius grinned, taking his feet off the table. "Many of the Slytherins I overheard will be on whatever side that Snape is on, whether it be Dumbledore's or Voldemort's. And many of the kids that were talking about joining Voldemort sounded unsure. I have to hand it to Snape, he's the best Head of House that Slytherin could possibly have right now. Dumbledore was right to put him there."

"Do you want to be his friend now?" Harry jumped in as he took the envelopes from Sirius.

Sirius shook his head. "I don't hate him anymore, but I still don't like him."

Harry nodded his head, fingering the envelopes. Melusine would have them tonight. Pocketing them all, Harry nodded to both Lupin and Sirius and ran out the door.

"Thank you!" he yelled back as he ran off down the halls, barely noticing where he was going, the tears making everything blurry. He had been so worried, so afraid that they wouldn't be able to find anyone. But they had found ten!

Harry crashed into something and went sprawling to the ground.

"Potter?" asked a familiar voice.

Harry froze. Severus! He had crashed right into Severus!

"I'm sorry!" Harry apologized, trying to get up, but his ankle hurt too bad.

"You okay?" came Severus's voice as he extracted himself from the tangle and moved away.

"My ankle," Harry said, grimacing, "I think I broke it," though Harry was rather aware that it might have been his emotional state that Severus was referring to and not his physical one. Severus would have seen the tears.

Severus knelt next to Harry and felt his ankle. Harry winced in pain. Over Severus's head, Harry spotted Ron and Hermione coming toward him. Ron looked like he was about to launch himself at Severus, but Hermione held him back.

"What's wrong, Professor Snape?" Hermione asked, moving around him to stand next to Harry.

"Potter sprained his ankle," Severus said, taking his wand out and touching the tip to Harry's uncovered ankle.

He mumbled a few words and Harry felt a soothing warmth flood the area, then a horrible ripping pain, and then more warmth. He didn't even have time to scream the pain had gone so quickly.

"It's fine," Severus said, getting up and letting Ron and Hermione help Harry up. With that Severus brushed past them and headed to wherever he was going.

Harry tested his ankle. It felt fine. He hopped on it.

"Quit!" Ron gasped. "I'm sure Snape just pretended to fix your ankle. We need to get you to Pomfrey before it falls off."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Severus fixed it, Ron," Harry said impatiently.

Hermione looked at Harry oddly but she didn't say anything, instead she turned to Ron. "McGonagall is going to start a chess club tomorrow. I'm supposed to ask who would like to join," she said, sounding half-bored, "would you?"

Ron stared, his mouth slightly opened. "A chess club?"

Hermione nodded her head. "Someone asked her to create one. Did you?"

Ron shook his head as his face split into a grin. "That is so cool!"

They went off together, discussing the plans, while Harry raced to his dorm room and sent off the rolled up envelopes and a short note explaining why there were so many.

Harry went to bed, but as the night wore on, he couldn't sleep. He was too wound up. Harry crawled out of bed and checked the sphere. A note was there. Grabbing it, Harry pulled his curtains shut and lit his wand with a tiny light.

'Thank you for the hairs, Harry. Now for the next item. A photograph of Severus. Take one and send it to me along with a dab of his blood. Put the blood in a vial I sent. Have fun getting the blood!'

Harry stared at the note. A dab of Severus's blood? What was he going to do? Stick a needle in the guy? That would really help with his cause of trying to be Severus's friend. And how was he going to take a picture of him?