By chips challenge
A/N: a few sentences were written by ckat44. This is the last chapter of our first RR fic. There's a vote up at the group about starting a new RR fic. Join the group to vote and or potentially take part in the next fic.
Professor Snape walked into Potter's room and transfigured a chair to sit on beside the boy's bed. Potter was asleep now, but he could tell that the boy was having nightmares. He had talked with Lupin and he had talked with the headmaster and together they had decided that the only way Harry would be able to get through this would be to have someone enter his mind and help him sort out his memories. That someone would have to be him, because some of the memories were his, and he would be the best one to recognize Harry's memories due to his close contact with the boy during Occlumency lessons.
He looked deeply into Potters closed eyes and said, "Legilimens!"
Snape had to force himself to relax as he was pulled into Harry's memories.
"You will be in Slytherin my son, or you are not welcome in this home. Do you understand me?" Harry nodded at his mother.
"Torok, what are you doing? I told you not to put the wignetree bark in the cauldron! The potion will turn out wrong!" Harry felt bad for making his teacher upset, but he knew the only way to create something new was to try something different. He just wanted to see what would happen if wigentree bark were added to the potion.
Then, Harry felt someone grab his collar tightly from behind and throw him into the cupboard under the stairs. "Stay there, you will not eat for a week!" his Uncle Vernon yelled at him.
Snape grabbed at the memory of his mother first and placed his wand to his temple sending it swiftly to the new pensive. He was also pretty sure that the potion making memory did not belong to Potter either and so he removed that one as well. At this rate, it would be a very slow and imprecise process removing all the wrong memories from Potter's mind. And Potter would have to remember or have all the memories in his conscious mind for this to even work. If he didn't then some of the memories would stay dominant and could pop up at any time. There had to be another way to do it. He would have to force the boy to remember the things that had just recently been dumped into his mind.
Snape knew that he would be able to attract his own memories if he could get deep enough into Potter's mind, which was somewhere that he really had no desire to go. But once there, he would be able to call his own memories towards him, and he did remember which memories he had put in the pensive. There weren't that many of his memories there. However getting Torok's memories out would be more difficult. Snape took a deep breath and allowed himself to fall deeper into Potter's mind. "Legilimens Persona" he said and waited. Snape soon found himself back in his sixth year being tortured by Potter and his friends, but he didn't let himself become lost in the memory instead he quickly passed it on to the pensive. His memories kept coming steadily, and he passed them on as quickly. Within a half hour all of his memories had been safely passed out of Harry's mind and back into a pensive. Now he just had to figure out how to separate Torok's memories.
Snape withdrew himself from Harry's mind and watched as Potter fell back into a somewhat more restful sleep. Without as many conflicting memories, Potter wouldn't be in danger of losing his mind so quickly. He had a little bit of time to work on a solution.
Snape decided to call a meeting of the available Order members together to help him come up with a solution for getting out Torok's memories.
"Is anyone familiar with Torok's history?" Snape asked. He was really hoping that someone would be and that he could pass the responsibility of going back into Potter's mind to someone else.
Everyone looked at each other blankly except for the headmaster who gave away nothing with his expression. Snape was pretty sure that Dumbledore knew something, but he also knew that Dumbledore wouldn't go into Potter's mind under any condition – unless there was not other way. And Snape was sure that Dumbledore would always find another way.
"Alright, well I can not just sift through his mind and try to find just those memories. That task is too difficult, and if Potter is not consciously thinking about the memories, I will not be able to extract them. We must find a way to attract the memories and force them to the front of Potter's consciousness to the exclusion of his own memories."
"What if we used one of his books to attract the memories?" Lupin suggested. "Did he ever write a diary?"
"If so, I seriously doubt that Black would have had a copy of it," Snape said. "I don't see why Torok would have bothered to remove those memories if he thought they were important enough to record in a diary."
"Maybe he did just that so that he could read through the memories without having to experience them directly," Lupin replied.
"But the memories came from the book not from Torok himself didn't they?" Tonks spoke up. "Perhaps the book held Toroks's memory in the same way that Tom Riddle held his memories in that diary. Do you think there is a way that we could use that book to attract the memories?"
"Perhaps," Snape said and he turned to Dumbledore. Any spellwork that allowed the memory storage would be difficult and would likely require the magic of several wizards and the expertise of the headmaster.
"We will need one of Torok's relatives to complete the spell," Dumbledore said.
Snape sighed with exasperation. Torok had been dead for many years; his lineage was not well known. For all they knew someone in this very room could be a blood relative of Torok, or there could be no blood relatives alive anywhere.
Dumbledore crossed the room to the family tree that was plastered on the wall. This was a tree of the Black family, but Dumbledore taped his wand to it and instantly it changed to Toroks and several names at the bottom glowed lightly.
"Those glowing names are relatives that are still alive," Dumbledore said. "Perhaps you should look more closely at that, Severus," he said tapping his wand towards one of the names at the bottom of the tree.
Severus looked closely at the new tree and was not that surprised to find his own name there. Dumbledore must have known this because he didn't seem surprised either.
"You have had some great Potion's Masters in your bloodline."
"Humph," Snape said though he couldn't say that he was displeased to find that he was somewhat distantly related to Torok.
"Okay, so what does this spell involve?" Snape asked.
"We'll just need a little of your blood and a potion that I'm sure will be no problem for you to create. The plans are in one of Torok's books that is present in this house," Dumbledore said.
'Have you read absolutely every book in the world?' Snape wanted to ask but he didn't and just nodded.
"I'll help Severus get started with the potion," Dumbledore said, "and then we can discuss the spells that will be required to make Severus become Torok for a moment."
"What?" Snape asked. "I didn't agree to anything like that. Taking on another's memories is very dangerous as we all know from the stupid thing that Potter did. I'm not going to put myself in the same situation."
"It will not be the same," Dumbledore said calmly. "For the time that you are Torok, you will be Torok and not Severus. You will never have the memories of both persons. You will not have mixed memories."
"If that is so, then how will I remember what I am supposed to be doing?"
"You won't, but Torok is a reasonable man and with just a short explanation he will be able to and willing to help Harry."
"I suppose you knew him then," Snape said.
Dumbledore didn't reply but simply winked. Infuriated, Snape left the room quickly heading towards the workroom. He was not happy about any of this situation that he felt forced upon him, but he did realize that he was likely the only one who could help Potter, and as much as he hated the child, he didn't wish him to go insane. But Snape did want to want to get it over with as quickly as possible.
"Harry my boy, time to wake up. I think you have something that belongs to me," a deep voice said.
The voice seemed somehow familiar to Harry, but he couldn't place it. He didn't feel threatened though, and so he replied, "Something of yours? Who are you?"
"Torok."
"Torok? But I'm Torok," Harry said.
"I thought you were Harry."
"I…I don't know."
"It's all right. Just relax. I'm going to call my memories towards me, and soon you'll be free of them and less confused. Just try not to fight the memories."
Harry waited and soon memories started flying around in his head. But one by one the memories flew out, and he started feeling what he knew was more normal.
"That's about all," Torok said.
"About?"
Harry felt himself being pulled towards a specific memory. He was preparing a potion meticulously and writing some things down in a large book. The language looked strange, but he could understand it. The spell was difficult, the potion was complicated, everything seemed way beyond his ability, but he could do it. He understood it and he knew how useful it could be to him in the future.
"I want you to keep this one. The reason that I saved my memories in this way was so that I could give it to someone who would be able to use it to prevent what I couldn't. You can use it fight the darkness that is overcoming your world now. Use it well."
"Thank You," Harry replied.
The end
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