The United Front
In his heart of hearts, Harry knew that Dumbledore would not have devoted the end of his life to preparing him to face up to the Prophecy, if what had to be done could simply be handed off to the first volunteer. Although his fathers were united in their determination to minimize his involvement, Harry knew with every fibre of his being that he was the one who ultimately would have to face Voldemort. It could not be any other way and he was always conscious of that. Just like how he recognized that the reprieve from the persistent anxiety he’d been enduring all summer was only temporary and would return with a vengeance the moment Professor Snape was called back to the Dark Lord’s side.
“I forget,” Snape smirked, as he walked around the perimeter of the pool and caught the glare that Harry was giving him while treading water in the very center. “Am I giving you a swimming lesson, Harry? That seems to be all that’s happening…”
“How did you make it look so easy?” Harry complained, as he parted the water in front of him with his arms and began to kick his way over to the ladder.
Wanting to be respectful of Snape's understandable need and desire for a break from an existence centered entirely around Lord Voldemort had kept Harry from blurting out all of the questions that had been burning in his mind since Snape had arrived yesterday - but he had jumped at his offer to teach him unassisted flight. Snape had been taught this by Voldemort himself, but there was nothing inherently dark about this rare ability. It was an interesting shift to practice magic for the sake of having fun and expressing creativity. It made Harry feel closer to his mother as that had been her signature style, and it was a stark contrast to the intense lessons that Snape had given Harry in all the things he had to know. This, for a change, was about pure enjoyment.
“Try to recall how it felt to have accidental instinctive magic working in you,” Snape advised, as Harry climbed out of the pool. “You’d be surprised how much blind faith plays a role in your magical exertion. The innocence of children and their lack of understanding when it comes to factual boundaries can actually be a tremendous strength - like when Dudley was chasing you and you wound up on the school roof. For me to do the same thing now would require a great deal of focus.”
And he stepped right into the water but did not sink. He didn’t even get wet past his ankles as he walked with a bounce across the pool to the other side, as though maneuvering himself on a trampoline. Harry turned to keep him in view and saw for one moment a light in Professor Snape’s dark eyes, like the one in the eyes of the young boy who had played at the lake with his best friend. Neither Severus nor Lily had had a care in the world as they’d plunged beneath the surface and then swam up laughing. Just like Harry had no other thoughts in his mind right now besides happiness.
“Remember what I’ve told you before,” Snape said, as Harry raised his wand. “Magic can be limitless if you’re adaptable and intuitive. There’s a way around almost every rule and everything taken for fact. It’s about focusing your mind where it needs to be and making seemingly impossible things happen by being adaptable.”
“Tristique Sursum,” Harry thought of the incantation in his mind, as he used a light touch to hold his wand pointed down at his feet.
He envisioned himself not even needing to touch his wand to expel his magic. Using only his mind power to block out any unnecessary doubts that would make the water immediately consume him. The bottom of his right foot pressed against the surface of the pool and he didn’t worry about sinking because he was weightless. Pretending he was in the fantastical realm that he always visited before bed, but instead of soaring like a bird above the water, he was part of it now. Harry moved quickly, pulling his feet up with determination when they plunged too deep. He was three quarters of the way across when he finally fell entirely into the pool and surrendered to the fight.
“Very good,” Snape was smiling sincerely when Harry kicked up to the surface. “Once you master it on water, I'll start you in the air.”
“It'll be so strange to be up there without my firebolt," said Harry, as he swam the rest of the way across the pool.
Snape nodded. “It’s an extremely advanced and rare ability, but the most liberating experience you can imagine. I’m one of the limited few that the Dark Lord thought it worth the time to teach it to.”
“I can’t imagine what learning from him would be like,” Harry shivered, as he hoisted himself up to try again.
“Quite a more unpleasant teacher than myself, I would think,” Snape’s mouth twitched.
“Well…” Harry considered, as he stood up and posed himself with one foot forward in preparation for another attempt. “Treating your students better than a mass murderer treats his servants isn’t really saying much, is it? Maybe if Neville hadn’t been so jumpy in class all the time he wouldn’t have melted so many cauldrons.”
“Is that your theory?” Snape asked with a slight frown.
“Yes,” said Harry firmly. “You - and Professor McGonagall as well - you just made him feel stupid in class and then people believe that about themselves and make even more mistakes. Professor Sprout was always good to Neville and so he loves her subject and is top of Herbology, after Hermione. I’m just saying that you could be a little less mean.”
“Well, maybe you’ll do better with hopeless cases someday when you’re a teacher,” Snape said quietly.
“I’m going to be an Auror,” Harry corrected him.
“Perhaps,” Snape shrugged. “But let’s not ignore how much of an aptitude and patience you have for teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Look at what you accomplished with the DA in your fifth year. You’re quite proficient at explaining how to do the things that come naturally to yourself in a way that others can understand. Just something to consider.”
“Alright,” Harry replied, looking back over his shoulder at his father. “I’ll consider it. ”
“Try again,” said Snape. “You just have to know it's possible and it will be. Your mother would have been a natural at this. Light magic, that's entirely good and feels like art personified - that was her specialty.”
Harry smiled at the thought of his mother. She had been there with them all night as he learned this trick and cherished all the ways he had come to understand her from one of the people who had known her best. Lily had been so much like Severus in her flair and love of magic, but Harry could see how what had connected the two as children was what later had helped to rip them apart. With magical cores based in the same beliefs but expanded into opposite directions of darkness and light, which both nonetheless channeled through him now. Harry ran onto the water and remained entirely above it due to the faith he had in the depths of his magic because he came from a family that recognized the infinite possibilities of your own inner power.
“Tristique Sursum”, Harry was thinking in his mind as his feet bounced across the surface of the pool and he remained entirely above it for a minute - perhaps longer. Running around with no real course in mind and not even noticing that he wasn’t holding his wand until he walked back onto the solid floor and spotted it lying next to the edge of the pool where he had set it down to climb out before. Snape had also noticed that Harry had just performed extraordinary wandless magic and for a moment he seemed struck speechless.
“Just like her,” he eventually said, with a sparkle in his eyes that Harry hoped they would start to see more of.
XXX
As the next day brought about more fond memories and no progress. Voldemort couldn't reach them here, the Dark Mark had not burned at all, and everyone continued their pleasant and oddly uneventful existence in hiding. The Weasleys consciously chose to not acknowledge Severus’s return by acting like he had simply always been there. Treating him like Harry’s father and nothing more as they accepted the secrecy surrounding the perceived most loyal supporter of Voldemort and trusted him to really be part of their family.
For there had never been any remote distinction at all between the Burrow and Black manor anyway, but the non-existent boundaries had only become more pronounced since the arrival of Hermione’s parents. With everyone flitting back and forth between both places and sharing meals together every night. The found and blended family was a pleasure for everyone, with Sirius having appointed himself an unofficial Uncle to the Weasley children with the gift of brand new brooms, comparable to Harry’s, at the start of summer, before their parents could object. Ensuring that Ron quite forgot to feel envious of all the attention and privileges that Harry had.
“There’s a bit of blind faith involved,” Harry explained, as he was attempting to teach Ron the trick he himself had only learned how to do the previous night. "As soon as you think about what you’re doing, it stops working. It took me a lot of tries to manage even a few steps.”
The two of them were dripping matching puddles of water on the floor next to the pool, while Hermione sat on the edge with her feet in and watched them with amusement. Empty bottles of butterbeer and a half eaten box of chocolate cauldrons were scattered around the room that felt akin to a vacation getaway somewhere magnificent. Ginny kept diving under the water while Fred and George sat on lounge chairs and perused a clipboard between them.
"It's harder than I thought," Ron panted. "You made it look easy."
"Try again," Harry said encouragingly. "It’s all about visualizing where you want to go and just making it happen. You’re weightless and you're floating - the magic works so long as you continue to believe that."
"Tristique Sursum", Ron raised his wand and cried the incantation aloud.
While Harry did the same nonverbally and tried to ignore his own wand stuffed into the pocket of his swimming shorts. He hadn't had much luck without it since his first demonstration the previous night with Snape, but he was determined to keep trying. To feel like his mother and to revel in this renowned strength. Even though he only made it halfway across the pool this time, he got to watch Ron jet all the way to the other side.
"That's absolutely incredible," Hermione praised, as Ron punched the air in triumph. "I can't believe they did that without their wands though. It’s nearly impossible with a wand."
"Snape said that a lot could probably be attributed to the accidental magic of children," Harry said. "It was nothing for my mum to fall into the water because she loved it, so why not challenge herself to a fun game? We have to work to feel that free and invincible when we grow up."
"It's not the most useful application of Magic though," Hermione considered, which was probably what had made her most hesitant to try with them.
Just like with Quidditch and flying, she lacked the desire and coordination to do things that couldn't be taught in a literal way. It was this about her that had always prompted Snape to be dismissive of her recited-from-the-book answers in class. Snape was inclined to always ask “what else?” in a situation, and his influence had had a profound effect on the way Harry now regarded magic.
"No, it's just for fun," Harry said, as Ginny burst up from underneath the water again, but this time holding what appeared to be a golden snitch high above her head.
"Caught it!" she exclaimed, showing it off to her brothers.
"Six minutes and thirty-nine seconds that time," George said, checking his watch while Fred scribbled something down on the clipboard.
"Do you think that speed was too fast or could you go up another setting?" Fred asked.
"Pretty sure I could handle it," Ginny said confidently. "Let me have another go."
George pulled another tiny golden ball from his pocket and tapped it with his wand. It resembled a snitch so closely except that it seemed to have fins instead of wings. They called them water snitches and had invented them for their joke shop. They race underneath the water so divers can try and catch them.
"We figured they’d be the perfect thing to take along on beach holidays," said George, after he'd tossed it into the pool and watched Ginny take after it. "We’ve got ones slow enough for tiny tots in the shallows too. Unfortunately, everyone's just been going into hiding instead."
"Ah well," Fred shrugged. "It gives us time to work on the settings and add some features."
After an extremely successful run-up, the twins had made the hard decision to close up their joke shop and move back home once Voldemort had officially taken over. They were still operating a mail-order business to move products by owl, while continuing to come up with ideas for new merchandise, but it simply wasn’t the same. Even if everyone was grateful to have them back where it was safe.
"Do you want to go try them out in the pond next?" George asked him. "The natural obstacles there might be exciting."
"It’s pitch black out," Hermione reminded him.
"That’s why we charmed them to glow in the dark," Fred replied. "The best fun happens when the sun goes down after all. Do you want to come check them out with us, Hermione?"
"No thanks," Hermione shook her head. "We’re probably going to be eating soon anyway."
"Yeah, Dad should be home by now," Ginny agreed, who had come up for air once again.
They had been having supper later and later it seemed, waiting up for Mr. Weasley, who never was able to leave the Ministry by a reasonable hour anymore. Known to be a member of the finished Order of the Phoenix and a potential contact of 'Undesirable Number One', it was accepted that Arthur was being watched closely to, from, and at work. Just like Tonks, Kingsley, Mad Eye, McGonagall, and everyone else opposing Voldemort but coexisting in the public sphere, appearances and constant vigilance had become everything.
"When you two are finished designing those snitches, you should invent something that works like a Bubblehead Charm," Ginny called to the twins, who had gathered up their stuff and were preparing to go out to the pond that existed on the border of the property, but still within the confines of the Fidelius Charm. "I'd love to be able to swim underwater longer. I can’t wait until I’m seventeen and able to use magic outside school."
"I used Gillyweed in the Triwizard Tournament to breathe underwater," Harry reminded her, as he cast a drying charm over himself. "Though I don't think anyone would want to experience its full effect too regularly."
"Might be able to do something with its diluted properties though," George said fairly, looking thoughtful. "Good suggestion - we could sell an underwater breathing tool in a package with the snitches."
Ginny grinned before taking a deep breath to chase after the submerged snitch once again and the twins left. Harry pulled a shirt over his head and went to sit down by Hermione so that they could watch Ron's final attempts at walking on water. He managed to run a few more laps of the pool successfully before Ginny caught the snitch and they all decided to dress and go upstairs.
"What are these?" Ron asked, walking into the kitchen and eyeing a package of white fluffy cylinders on the table with suspicion.
Hermione’s mother was the only adult in the kitchen and she laughed as she looked around at him from the salad she was preparing. "They're marshmallows," she explained. "Do wizards not eat marshmallows?"
"Yeah, we do," Ginny spoke up. "Ron's just being stupid because the kind our mum makes are usually more flat. They taste best roasted over a fire."
"Well, you should be able to do exactly that soon," Mrs Granger replied, with a quick glance out the window into the night. "Only Arthur wants to experience a real outdoor cookout and is determined to light the fire himself without magic. We might not eat for a while…"
Ginny laughed. "I swear, you and Mr. Granger coming to stay here is probably the best thing that ever happened to Dad."
"Well, we’ve been enjoying him too," Mrs Granger said with a smile, who did indeed find their wizarding lifestyle just as fascinating as their muggle ways appealed to Mr. Weasley. "If we hadn't had to close down our practice, we'd have nothing to complain about."
"It’s just closed down temporarily, mum," Hermione said sympathetically, as she selected a bowl to fill with the slices of watermelon still lying on the cutting board. "Someday life will be normal again."
Though that never felt like much of a comfort when you were in the thick of anything. It had been just as difficult for the Dursleys to abandon their lives to go into hiding and they’d taken to it much more disagreeably. Uncle Vernon had needed to leave his job and Dudley had been forced out of school. There wasn’t any other option in Voldemort's Britain. Going abroad wasn’t a very viable solution either. The Death Eaters would attempt to track down anyone they thought they could use and it only made sense to stay hidden together and make the best of things.
"Do you want some help here?" Harry offered politely, but Mrs. Granger immediately shook her head.
"Molly offered to chop the vegetables by magic for me, but honestly, I like doing it, darling," she replied. "And anyway, we aren’t exactly in a rush….why don't you all go see how the fire is coming and take the marshmallows with you."
"I’m a bit surprised that mum hasn’t gone short and started a fire herself when Dad wasn’t looking," Ron commented, grabbing the bag of marshmallows and leading the way out into the yard ahead of Harry and Ginny.
Fireflies were the only thing really lighting up the air around them on this warm night, with even the cloud covering blocking the view of the stars above. Yet the absence of fire had not affected the mood of the adults sitting together on conjured lawn chairs while they watched with amusement as Mr. Granger patiently coached Mr. Weasley in the manual conjuring of fire.
"What do you have there, Ron?" Sirius asked, sloshing some of the butterbeer in his glass over the rim as he bounced over to him with his hand outstretched.
"Marshmallows," Ron replied. "We're supposed to roast them over the fire."
"I’ll take them anyway I can," Sirius said with a wink, as he popped one into his mouth. "I’m starving."
Harry noticed Lupin sitting slouched in the chair next to Snape with his eyes unfocused and an untouched drink in his hand. He must have only just arrived that evening and Harry felt an immediate pang of guilt as he took in the depressed look on Lupin’s face. His thoughts automatically went to how living with the Dursleys was probably wearing on both him and Tonks hard and Harry felt undeservedly responsible for their misery. Simply for leaving them to endure the Dursleys’ company alone when he hadn’t so much as spoken to his relatives since they’d signed off on his adoption papers last year.
“We haven’t decided what we’re doing yet in regards to Ron and Ginny,” Mrs Weasley was fretting on Snape’s other side. “I don’t want them to abandon their education but….” She broke off hesitantly.
“Understandable, though I believe I could keep them reasonably safe,” Snape said matter-of-factly, as Harry took a spot down in the grass in front of him to listen. “Considering attendance is now compulsory, Arthur and your other sons won’t be able to go to work or come out of hiding at all if you decide to oppose the regime by not sending them.”
“Mum, I already told you that I’m not going back,” Ginny crossed her arms defiantly as she faced her mother. “If Harry and Hermione can’t go back to Hogwarts, then why would I?”
“Because you’re not the one who gets to make those decisions,” Mrs. Weasley snapped.
Voldemort had already imposed many sanctions upon Hogwarts - the place that had always been kept well out of his reach when it had been under Dumbledore’s protection. While purebloods, like Ron and Ginny, were required to attend and be carefully kept under Voldemort’s eye, muggleborns were now forbidden. Serious consequences faced those who hadn’t yet registered themselves with the Ministry. Hermione would be arrested if she left the safety confines of the manor. She was to stand accused of stealing her magic by illicit means because Voldemort’s regime didn't recognize her as a witch. They didn’t even recognize her as human being.
“Why don’t I get to make those decisions?” Ginny stomped her foot for dramatic effect. “I’m not an infant, and Ron already told you that he wasn’t going either. He’s of age and you can’t make him do anything anymore.”
She stormed off in a huff and Mrs. Weasley was quick to jump up and go after her. Harry leaned his back against Snape’s legs and listened as their raised voices grew more muffled the further away that they walked. Watching as the pair in front of him built a teepee out of sticks around a tiny spark of flame that appeared to be getting smaller instead of growing, while Sirius and Ron worked through the bag of raw marshmallows together and paid no attention to what was happening around them.
“Are you really not going to let me give some of it back?” Lupin asked in the weary voice that Harry ordinarily only associated with him when he was recovering from the effects of a full moon, which it hadn’t been.
“No,” came Snape’s immediate response, and Harry had to resist the temptation to turn around and make it obvious that he was listening in. “I told you that I have no use for it.”
“But it feels very undeserved,” Lupin protested. “I haven’t done a thing.”
“You let me test it on you,” Snape said boredly. “I could easily have poisoned you. You’re also the reason I submitted the patent for review in the first place. If you recall, you were quite insistent on that, so why are you complaining that it’s starting to earn some gold?”
Harry understood now that they had to be discussing the Wolfsbane Potion that Snape had spent time sketching out his ideas for modifications and improvements to during their first summer together at Spinner’s End. Harry recalled that Snape had wanted to make it more tolerable to consume and also more cost effective, because the expense was what forced many werewolves to go without. The efforts had been something he’d enjoyed working on but it had also been an early glimpse for Harry into the goodness of Snape’s heart. It didn’t surprise him at all to learn that his father wanted no payment for his accomplishments. After growing up in abject poverty, accruing unnecessary wealth for himself was the opposite of what Snape was about.
“At least take half,” Lupin argued. “Put it away for Harry.”
“A boy who already has two overflowing vaults at Gringotts from the Potters and the Blacks?” Snape retorted sarcastically. “Why don’t you set up a fund to provide access to the Wolfsbane Potion for those who can’t afford it? Or else put it away for your own child if you think it’s too much - unless we’re still pretending that isn’t happening?”
Harry turned around and quite forgot to pretend he wasn’t listening now. His first instinct was to congratulate Lupin on his impending fatherhood, but he stopped himself just in time when he saw the sickly green colour of his skin and his horrified expression. It wasn’t the Durselys at all, but thoughts of his unborn child, that had Lupin appearing so poorly.
“Sirius told you?” Lupin said glumly.
There was a pause which was broken by Mr Granger offering Mr Weasley his lighter.”
“A lighter?” Mr. Weasley asked brightly. “And they just carry them around in their pockets like miniature wands to start fires with? That’s marvelous!”
It took some effort for him to flick the lighter correctly and produce a flame, but he had much more success within a matter of minutes then he had in nearly an hour of matches. The fire sparked and began to build successfully, crackling as it gained height. Fred and George started whooping as they ran back from the pond, the lights from their glow-in-the-dark snitches radiating through their pockets and identical smiles on their faces.
“Well, it’s starting to pick up isn’t it!” Mrs. Granger observed brightly, carrying the salad and a platter of deviled eggs over from the house, while Hermione followed behind with her wand pointed at the watermelon, bread, and tray of marinated steaks prepared for the fire that she was making float alongside her in the air.
“Tonks is probably wondering where you are Remus,” Sirius said pointedly, coming over to them but pausing to grab a piece of watermelon from the hovering bowl on the way.
“Don’t,” Lupin told him stiffly, looking down at Harry who immediately felt his face growing warm. He shuffled in the grass a bit closer to the fire, although he couldn’t help but still hear every word that they said.
“Come on,” Sirius sighed impatiently. “You really don’t want to sleep here. You’ll have to bunk with me seeing as I gave your bed away. And you might recall that I talk in my sleep and hog the blankets.”
“It’s not funny,” Lupin said shortly.
“No, it’s not,” Sirius agreed. “Nothing is funny about the way you’re acting. Sulking about when we should be celebrating. I didn’t realize that a thirty-eight year old man needed a lesson in how babies are made - why is this such a shock again?”
Not wishing to listen anymore, Harry moved even closer to the fire and pretended to be interested in watching Mr. Weasley set up the metal grate above the flames. “Do you want to help?” he asked Harry brightly.
“Yes,” said Harry, grateful for a job as he immediately jumped up to bring over the steaks and pretended not to notice how Mrs Weasley was discreetly using her wand to somehow age the fire into quickly producing a base of white-hot coals that was ideal for cooking over.
Lupin had stood up but seemed to have no intention of returning home or going anywhere. He absentmindedly picked at a deviled egg as he conversed quietly with Mr. and Mrs. Granger in the shadows, intently avoiding Sirius who had taken over his vacant chair and seemed to not regret anything. He was eating his slice of watermelon quite happily and asking Fred and George for details about their latest creation. Snape had conjured some sticks for Hermione and Ginny to roast marshmallows on. Things were silent and still, and they were just starting to tuck into their steaks a while later when a loud crack from someone apparating broke through the night.
“Bill!” Mrs. Weasley called the name of her eldest son in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming? It's very late!”
“Sorry, Mum,” Bill said breathlessly, who was still wearing his robes from the bank. Everyone’s eyes were trained on him as he walked past his mother and seemed to look at everyone and no one at the same time.
“I didn’t come here to visit,” he explained. “I just came from Gringotts and the goblins are in an uproar. This has never happened before….and I came to warn - to ask - does anyone here know why Albus Dumbledore broke into Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault before he died?”
A feeling of dread washed over Harry and he suddenly felt like he was sitting in a dark tunnel where such a discovery couldn’t be possible. Hermione had gasped loudly at Bill’s words, but she wasn’t the only one. Mrs. Weasley had covered her mouth with her hand and her other children were gaping up at their older brother with forkfuls of steak frozen in front of them. Lupin had taken a few steps forward but looked almost as confused as the Grangers standing behind him. Searching for guidance on how to proceed, Harry glanced over in the direction of his fathers, just to see Snape slowly rising to his feet to take charge of the situation.
“How many know?” he asked calmly.
“Everyone at the bank,” Bill replied. “It will be on the front page of the Daily Prophet tomorrow, I am sure, and they are going to inform the Lestranges now. Rita Skeeter will be happy, another thing to convince the masses that her deranged account of Dumbledore in that book of hers is true.”
“So it was just recently discovered?” Snape verified, with his black eyes glittering strangely. He did not bother to acknowledge the first written account on Albus Dumbledore, which none of them had any intention of ever reading.
“Less than an hour ago,” Bill nodded. “Dumbledore covered his tracks unbelievably well. Nobody else could have possibly managed -”
“Yes,” Snape said quietly. “I pity whoever has been sent to deliver this message to the Lestranges, but now I have to go.”
In an instant reality came crashing down on them all and nobody knew what was happening or what to say, as they remained frozen around the campfire and Snape had already turned to go back into the house. Harry chased after him with Sirius, Ron, and Hermione not far behind. Harry hoped none of the others would follow, but needn’t have worried. They seemed to know that Dumbledore’s purposes in the Lestranges’ vault at Gringotts was not something that was going to be explained to them just now. Though the ones who had gone back inside the manor together knew exactly what this news meant.
“He’s going to know we’re hunting Horcruxes,” Harry said, once the door was closed securely behind them.
“Or at least that we know about them,” Ron replied worriedly.
“He’s probably going to want to check on the hiding places of all of them to see if any others are gone,” Hermione looked terrified. “And once he realizes….”
“I need to hurry and get back to the castle,” Snape said, raising his wand and summoning his black cloak from upstairs. “If he shows up there first, I don’t want him to know that I ever left. This is not the time for him to wonder about me.”
“But we need to figure out the snake,” Sirius said urgently, as Snape nodded curtly and slipped his arms inside the sleeves of his cloak. “We’ve been waiting to see when the right time to strike would be and if ever there was a sign -”
“It’ll be with him,” Snape said quietly, reaching his hand searchingly into the pocket of his cloak and pulling out the pocket watch that had been Harry’s grandfather’s and a small blue marble. He slipped the watch back inside his pocket but maintained a firm grip on the marble portkey. “I’ll figure out something - I’ll get it -”
“No,” Sirius shook his head firmly, as Snape raised his eyes to meet his. “Remember what we talked about?”
“I know,” Snape said softly. “But I don’t see how…”
“There’s a way,” Sirius interrupted. “I’m going to come and just scope things out. Figure out -”
“I don’t think you should,” Snape started to say, turning to look at Harry for the first time since they’d gotten inside with alarm written all over his face, but Sirius had already taken off up the stairs like a bolt of lightning and wasn’t listening.
“I’m coming with you,” Harry stepped closer to Snape, with his green eyes pleading for an understanding that he didn’t see. “I’ll kill the snake while wearing my Invisibility Cloak and he won’t see me, and then I can -”
“You will not,” Snape said firmly, cutting off Hermione and Ron who had undoubtedly been about to insist on accompanying their friend directly into the fray.
Harry looked livid at this abrupt dismissal. “Dumbledore wanted me to…said it had to be me!”
“If Dumbledore really needed you so closely involved then he had plenty of time to tell me and Severus why and he never did,” Sirius said, with untypical sternness as he reappeared at the bottom of the stairs with the Sword of Gryffindor in his hands. “Just stay put…please, Harry,” he implored him, as Snape lowered his gaze and pointed his wand at the portkey in his hand to activate it.
“You can’t both go,” Harry said, with the prospect of both of them walking into danger and maybe not coming back being more terrifying than facing Voldemort himself head on in battle.
“He’s right,” Snape said coolly to Sirius, his eyes on the marble in his hand that would pull him away from the manor in under a minute. “Stay here with him and I’ll send word when I can…I don’t have time for this back and forth.”
“You won’t get a message back to us,” Sirius retorted, placing his hand over the marble in Snape’s open palm before it could be stopped. Harry made a quick move to do the same but was suddenly held back by Hermione grasping him hard around the waist. Snape kept his eyes diverted but Sirius looked at him with as much love in his eyes as there could possibly be.
“I’m going to see what’s going on and come back to you so we can figure out a plan together,” he said, just before they were swept away. “I’ll take this Portkey right back and I won’t do anything dangerous. I promise Harry. It’s alright.”