To Live And To Look Ahead
I think it's time you met Dom, Professor.
As far as words went by, those weren't too ominous, Severus thought. When he asked her for the sources of her rather 'impossible' feats, he'd come to expect much more earth shaking statements from her. Perhaps something dramatic like 'The Dominion Jewel decided he liked me and protected me against the resonancebefore sacrificing his form,' would have cut it.
"Dom?" Severus repeated dryly.
Harry looked very sheepish, "The Dominion Jewel, Professor."
Ah, the Dominion Jewe— wait WHAT?
"What did you just say, Harriet Potter?" Severus said sharply, "The Dominion Jewel was your filter for the resonance?!"
"...yes?"
Oh Merlin.
He had been joking, he thought poorly, he had been joking!
"And now I suppose you'll claim it decided it liked you and did it out of goodwill?" Salazar help him, help her, if Severus was right on this. He didn't think he could believe such madness.
"Um… not really?" Harry pushed her hands into her robes so he wouldn't see them fidget, "He didn't do anything out of goodwill back then, but now, well,"
"Back then?" Severus was having a mild panic attack, "What do you mean 'back then', you foolish girl? It wasn’t destroyed?"
"Professor," She interrupted him firmly, "Breathe. I'll explain everything, I promise, but I think it's best if we talk this out in my mindscape?"
Severus pulled on his Occlumency barriers to bring himself a semblance of calm, all the while muttering about children who tempted fate and gave their masters grey hairs.
Harry looked faintly amused at that, and waited for him to perform legilimency on her with a clear-toned, "Don't underestimate our defences, okay, Professor? Dom… doesn't pride himself on them for nothing."
She gave it a nickname, he thought hysterically, a nickname.
He gently pushed his way in through a mental passage, and Harry's mind let him in deceptively easily. The moment he was in, Severus' vision went dark, and his limbs felt strangely uncoordinated. It took him a moment to realise he was underwater. In her mindscape. When has it changed so much?
It took him a lot of focus, but a minute later he materialised out of it, and right in front of… a mirror?
The image in it caught him so off gaurd he needed a strong shake of his head to realise it worked a bit like the ancient Mirror of Erised.
What has she been reading, to come across the knowledge of the workings of an artefact so old and obscure?
Severus was positively despairing of her, and he could see why she had been so hesitant with this knowledge.
That realisation sobered him a little.
So though it was more painful he'd ever admit, he looked the image in the mirror head on, regarding it quietly; it was him, once Riddle had stopped pushing for discriminating legislations, once the mad construct that was slowly setting the world ablaze was gone, once he and Lily had made up and once Harriet Potter had recieved her Potions Mastery and been deemed the world's greatest potioneer. He was smiling. Bright, and pure, and content; he was smiling.
He looked at the image, and told himself to not dwell on dreams. He looked, and told himself to recognize reality, to live, to see ahead. And the mirror was gone.
Those were some very powerful enchantments.
It was all he allowed himself room to think afterwards.
And so he went defence past defence, through a desert with rather convincing sandstorms, through underground caverns that seemed to land him back where he was before he took a path, through a pair of sphinx that looked like they would relish tearing him apart, until he reached a hall he was fairly certain he was meant to be in.
"Professor!" Harry exclaimed when she saw him, "I'm so sorry, I convinced him to forgo the second half of the defences but he claimed he at least needed to test his latest ideas. But these are excuses, I guess, so I'm sorry."
Severus didn't quite know what to say to that, so he said nothing at all.
There were three theatrical clapps from behind Harriet, and from her right came into view a boy who looked surprisingly like Rigel.
Only, Rigel would never grin that shark-like grin.
The construct looked at him with equal parts affected condescension and genuine curiosity.
"Hello, Professor," Again that feasting grin, "Enjoyed your ride?"