(no subject)
Ok can't get LJ to insert the cut so just in case any unwary reader happens by...
THIS IS AN UNBETA'D STORY CONTAING MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HP&HBP SO DO NOT READ IT FI YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED.
Harry Potter stood in the shadows on the top tier of the assembly hall of the Wizangamot. He had occupied exactly the same position 24 hours earlier and the scene he had stood watching then was being repeated in front of him now.
Severus Snape the most wanted man in the wizarding world was being brought in through the prisoners entrance. The man moved slowly, weighed down by chains on wrists and ankles but also by physical infirmity. Those who captured the murderer of Albus Dumbledore had not been kind and Snape moved stiffly and spoke through smashed lips, seeing the world around him through eyes almost swollen shut. Yesterday Harry had understood and taken vicarious pleasure in that need to physically hurt the man he hated so much, who the entire wizarding world hated so much.
But that was yesterday, when he stood here waiting for this moment. There was a point in the charms protecting the bowl and its prisoners where an overlap of protections to keep the prisoner in or the audience out conflicted, creating a weakness. There was a point during that walk from the entrance to the chair where the prisoner was vulnerable to a powerful wizard with the connections to get a wand into the chamber. A spell cast then, just so and with sufficient strength, that spell could succeed. Harry Potter was a powerful wizard and if the vanquisher of Voldemort didn’t want to hand his wand in at the desk no one was going to argue.
Harry had stood waiting, wand held loosely at his side as Snape shuffled in and then Snape had looked up directly at him, directly at where any assassain must stand and seeing the shape in the darkness he had smiled and stilled, looking and waiting and Harry had frozen. The bastard wanted it and if he wanted it he damn well wasn’t going to get it.
To Harry the moment seemed to stretch endlessly Snape’s smile turned to a sneer and just as the impatient guards started to push him forward he spoke “The pensieve, you’ve not been over bothered by scruples before”. His voice, magically amplified, boomed around the chamber, the first words the man had spoken since his capture and the speculation was loud and instantaneous.
Harry had slipped away before the noise had died. All that day the Wizangamot questioned Severus Snape. Veritaserum was used, charms were used, other less benign methods were used, but Snape had returned to his silence and it could not be broken. Eventually the exhausted council called it a day and the man was dragged out
Harry returned to his flat and took out Dumbledore’s pensieve. Dumbledore had willed it to him and Harry had used it often, continuing Dumbledore’s lessons as best he could but one thing he had never done, a deliberate and disciplined decision that he would never look at any memory of Severus Snape. He would not cloud his mind with hatred when there was a job to be done.
He sat for some time looking at the Pensieve and remembering carefully every detail of the last time he had seen Snape, the day he had seen him murder Albus Dumbledore. Then, decision made, he bent his head to the bowl.
He was in the forbidden forest, a little ahead of him Dumbledore and Snape were walking. Snape seemed to be taking two steps for Dumbledore’s one. Agitated he appeared to be pacing back and forth even as they walked.
“You’re taking too much for granted,” Severus vice was loud, angry, but at a gesture from Albus he lowered it. “Malfoy may not meet your expectations nor Potter and what of the Dark Lord, you’ve said it yourself he has no true confidantes, no one, why would he change that for me?”
Dumbledore spoke so quietly that Harry had the illusion of having to strain to hear.
“Severus, my boy, I understand what I am asking of you, yours is the hardest part of us all and I would take this burden if I could ..”
Severus tried to interrupt and Albus raised his hand and his voice became stronger “No, you will do it because you have said that you will” but then softened and Harry watched in astonishment as Albus Dumbledore raised his hand to the potion masters cheek and Severus leaned into it with a sigh. Tears ran down Severus’ face as he stood that one cradling hand the most intimate connection that Harry had ever seen.
Harry watched no more that night or ever. But the next day he returned to the Wizangamot.
There was a point in the charms protecting the bowl and its prisoners where an overlap of protections to keep the prisoner in or the audience out conflicted, creating a weakness. There was a point during that walk from the entrance to the chair where the prisoner was vulnerable to a powerful wizard with the connections to get a wand into the chamber. A spell cast then, just so and with sufficient strength, that spell could succeed. Harry Potter was a powerful wizard and if the vanquisher of Voldemort didn’t want to hand his wand in at the desk no one was going to argue.
Harry stood waiting, wand held loosely at his side as Snape shuffled in. Snape looked up, more unsure today and saw him. Once more he smiled and stilled, looking and waiting and Harry forgave him.
“Adava Kedavra”.