Chapter 10
Chapter 9
“It’s weird isn’t it, Professor” Harry pondered as they sat at a transfigured table. It had taken a while for Snape to adjust his magic to the heightened power level to get a decent table and set of chairs but at least they had furniture now.
The professor, not one to talk while eating, simply raised a brow in Potter’s direction.
“No seriously, think about it. I’ve never seen or even heard of a platinum key in my travels.” Harry muttered as he scrutinized the key. “Say professor… maybe we should go to Gringotts tomorrow,”
“Mr. Potter,” Snape began after having swallowed. “Have you perhaps forgotten that the Headmaster and most likely the Order is now on high alert for us?”
“True but it’s not like they can do anything while we’re in broad daylight,” Harry countered. “And once we are inside the bank they can do even less if they don’t want an army of Goblins to shove stabby-pointy-things in their necks.”
“Mr. Potter, eloquent as ever. Stabby-pointy-things? Really?”
“I mean they are,” Harry shrugged. “I’m not gonna list all the weapons the Goblins have to disembowel people”
“Touche,” Snape grunted while fiddling with the core of his apple.
“It’s doable,” Harry continued. “We could find out what the key is. I say sooner rather than later because Death does things with a reason… mostly. We can stock up on supplies and even get new wands. Mine was left behind in the future. The best part, the Order wouldn’t be able to stop us. Bad press and all that if they tried to grab us in the busy streets. Though it might be weird since I’m essentially death in this reality,”
“Well….” Snape hesitated.
“Dumbledore hasn’t exactly registered your death with the Ministry yet so the public doesn’t know,” Snape stated which caused Harry to blink in confusion. “He cited panic among the masses if your death would have been made public,”
“But Professor Mcgonagall said that she was at my counterpart’s funeral.” Harry frowned.
“A small gathering of the Order and your friends in the Forbidden forest bordering the lake. We were all sworn to secrecy.
“Wait Snape, what about the Horcrux?!” Harry suddenly realized. “It’s not in me anymore but at the time when I was that age…”
“Albus was insistent on using Fiendfyre for the cremation,” Snape answered. “I suspected it was because he wanted no trace of a body when he would use you as a replacement but… if he knew there was a Horcrux then it would have been destroyed,”
“Well, that just puts an anvil in my plans?” Harry grumbled.
“And why is that Mr. Potter?” Snape queried.
“Let’s assume that events unfolded as in my time with the old coot’s machinations from the future knowledge he gained from me,” Harry stated while empathizing with his hands on the table. “It was only during my last year of Hogwarts that I found out that his Darkness could feel when a Horcrux was destroyed. Something that Dumbledore never asked me about during his veritaserum visits. Now that he has a new body, sans the nose, he’d feel the destruction happening.”
“Which means that the locations for the other Horcuxes are moot now as the Dark Lord is paranoid and will move them at first chance,” Snape finished upon realizing what Potter was getting at.
“I was hoping to blackmail the rotten bastard into a truce while holding some Horcruxes hostage,” Potter declared before groaning and banging his head on the table. “Now I have to go looking for them all again!”
Harry yawned and stretched his arms. “I don’t know why but I’m still tired even after having spent a few days in bed.”
“I’ll conjure up a bed in a bit. There is something that’s been bugging me, Mr. Potter,” Snape’s perceptive gaze pierced Harry and the other gulped for a moment. “Your interaction with Ms. Weasley. It felt like you were hiding something,”
“What?!” Harry squeaked. “I wasn’t hiding anything!”
“Very well, I won’t pry,” The potion master stated as he stood up. He turned to scan the dimly lit cave and his eyes spotted a fairly large boulder.
“This should do,” Snape muttered to himself.
Wandless and wordless, Snape concentrated the magic in his palm as the boulder morphed into a simple king-sized bed.
“Sweet!” Harry exclaimed before jumping on the mattress.
“You still act like a teen Mr. Potter,” Severus stated as he walked to the other end of the bed. “We will have to share for the night. I haven’t the concentration to transfigure another one,”
“So who’s going to be the little spoon?” Harry asked casually.
“Mr. Potter, there is enough space for us to sleep comfortably. There will be no spooning as you so eloquently put it,” Snape huffed before yanking the transfigured blanket over him.
Harry meanwhile settled down as well though he did roll his eyes once the other man’s back was turned towards him. Just his luck to get stuck in a mythical cave from Arthurian legend with his ornery Potions professor.
With a sigh, Harry closed his eyes. Before long he fell asleep after years of magicless cold nights against an uncomfortable wall slowly ebbed away.
“Awww,” Death cooed as he watched his Master sleep from the viewing pool.
“You know you’re being creepy for watching right,” Fate, a young woman in the garb of the Ancient Greek, joined the Grim Reaper at the large pool of water.
“Oh hush you,” Death grumbled. “Or do you want me to tell my Master that the only reason he ended up in 1965 was because you spilled wine on your garb during the transfer,”
“It was an honest mistake!” Fate countered.
“You know… you could…” Death gestured to the sleeping men. In the pool, the two could see Harry roll over and cuddle against Snape’s back.
“I will not help your ship along Death,” Fate grumbled. “Lady Magic already has her eyes on this timeline because you gave away ‘That’ key.”
“It was a boon well deserved,” Death stated. “Do you know anyone else who would willingly drain their magic to such dangerous levels to help someone else?”
“Just don’t cause rips in reality and space anymore,” Fate grumbled. “I’m the one that has to fix those,”
“Yeay, yeay,” Death mumbled while casually waving her off. The skeletal figure was plotting and did not notice the eye-roll Fate gave him as she walked away.