A/N: I apologize for the delay. I had hoped to have this chapter up for Christmas but got nailed with Influenza (yep, the real thing) and was doped up on Tamiflu and cough syrup with codeine, and you don't want to see the initial drafts of this chapter (they were positively frightening!). With the return of my health, my muse has also returned and has forgiven me for putting her through such trauma, so the chapter is a bit longer than the usual. Enjoy!
What Will Come, Will Come
Chapter Eight
By RowanRhys
Harry rose out of darkness to the sensation of something pawing at his shoulder. He twitched away from it, annoyed, and immediately received two rather hard head bumps near his scar.
"Ow!" He opened his eyes to find a pair of wide jade-coloured ones staring into his, and the strong smell of cat-breath assaulting his nose. One more head bump and the black cat backed off watching him. "You didn't have to do that!" he complained.
Then he realized that he couldn't feel the presence of the Dementors and pushed himself up on his elbows to look around him. There were dozens of them, like that day on the Quidditch pitch-- His thought was broken off as he absorbed his surroundings.
Stone walls, tapestries, dusty furniture-and, except for the cat, he was alone in the darkening chamber. He unconsciously wrapped his arms around the black cat on his lap, hugging the creature to himself as he looked about at the empty, dark grate and the half-shrouded windows that admitted a faint glow of reddish light but were too high for him to see out of from his supine position on a tatty, dusty rug on the floor. At first look he couldn't see a doorway, and terror reared up in him as he came to the immediate conclusion that he'd been imprisoned. The last thing he clearly remembered was being unable to summon up a Patronus, and Snape bursting into the spare bedroom at Mrs. Figg's, an expression of combined panic and anger on the pale, sallow face.
Harry abruptly let go of the cat, groping at his pockets for his wand. His heart sank as he didn't find it. "They've taken it from me--" He scrambled to his feet and wavered for a moment before stumbling towards the nearest of the windows. Even as he got to the dirty, dusty panes, the light beyond faded into a murky twilight, and he could see nothing beyond the rippled, distorted glass. He shuddered as he turned back to the room, and peered through the increasing darkness, looking for anything that he could use to make a light. But he lacked the cat's night vision and, after barking his shins on a broken bit of unidentifiable furniture, he backed up against the wall and slid down to sit, huddled in Dudley's over-large shirt and jeans. He tried to make sense of his situation, to push incipient panic back. If the Deatheaters were going to come for him, he wanted to meet his fate with some vestige of dignity. He rubbed at the bruised place on his left calf and rested his forehead on his drawn-up knees. Why am I here? You'd have thought that they'd have taken me straight to Voldemort--
The cat suddenly curled about his ankles, rumbling deeply as he settled his body in the gap between Harry's cold bare feet and under his knees. Despite the fear that gibbered inside of him, Harry was relieved to have company, even if it was just a cat.
"You know, I don't even know your name," he whispered to his companion, dropping a hand from his knees to stroke the smooth black fur. "When they come for me, you'd best hide. No sense in you getting killed too."
The cat made a chuffing noise and adjusted his position so that Harry was feeling warm puffs of breath on his toes.
"I--"
Harry's next statement was cut off by the sharp, cracking sound of someone Apparating into the room. He cringed back, despite his resolve to bravely face the Deatheaters, and hit the back of his head on the stone wall. The wave of pain and dizziness that followed made him miss the initial words of the new arrival, but the sharply barked "Lumos" dragged his attention back to the situation at hand.
Initially, all he focused on was the sweeping black robes. *Deatheater!*
"Bloody Potter! Where the hell are you hiding?" The angry tones of the voice were familiar, but the frantic expression on the Potion Master's face was not.
"P-professor?" Harry pushed himself up, careful not to step on the cat, and blinked owlishly in the glare of the magical light being emitted by the end of Snape's wand.
"Couldn't just lay there until I got back with Floo Powder, could you?" the older man sneered.
Harry didn't answer, looking down at his bare feet. There was no way he was going to let the Head of Slytherin House know of his assumption that he was a Deatheater's prisoner, nor of the terror that thought inspired in him.
"Well, come along. We'll have to Floo to Hogsmeade and figure out how to get you safely up to the school once we're at Rosemerta's."
Harry bent and scooped up the cat before walking around the table against which he'd bashed his shins and the mouldy old armchair that he'd been hidden behind when Snape arrived. "Where are we--Sir?"
"As best I can tell, someplace near Walsingham. There are several old wizarding structures in the area that have been abandoned over time. Apparently this one was never taken off of the Floo network and we ended up here." Snape picked up some bits of wood from a broken chair and tossed it into the fireplace. "I'm sending you through first. Go to Rosemerta's office, the Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade. Get it right, Potter, I have no desire to spend the rest of this night searching you out because you ended up at the wrong hearth." Snape dug in a pocket of his outer robe and pulled out a small clay pot and held it out to Harry.
"Why can't we go directly to Hogwarts?"
"Because I have no idea if the Headmaster has left the Hospital Wing Floo open or not. You don't want to slam into a closed and warded hearth. There wouldn't be enough left of you to use for a Polyjuice Potion additive."
The mental image made Harry go slightly greenish. "Oh." He dug his fingers into the pot and took a deep breath. "Are you--?"
"I will Apparate there as soon as I've sent you through." He flicked his wand a the small pile of wood. "Inferno! Now go!"
Harry took a firmer grip on the cat and called out "Rosemerta's Office, the Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade!" and flung the powder into the small fire. He barely gave it time to turn green before he leaped in. The flickering lights of open hearths rushed past him, and he heard the cat yowl in fear and anger as they went. Despite the frightened animal's claws shredding the baggy shirt he wore, Harry grimly maintained his tight hold and hoped for the trip to be quickly over.
When he fell through the designated hearth into Rosemerta's office, he felt hands grab him before he could tumble to the floor, and began to struggle against them. "Let me go!"
"Quiet down. Potter!" Snape growled at him as he set the teenager on his feet. "Unless you like falling face first onto the floor."
Harry released the cat who scurried to hide in the nearest shadows--I really need to find out your name, he thought--and stared around the small room he'd arrived in, avoiding the professor's glare. The sole door was shut and the room was filled with a large wooden desk piled high with parchment bills of lading, a bedraggled owl perch, some crates that appeared to have bottles of butterbeer in them, and various bags and bins and boxes of unidentifiable things. There was no window, and the air in the little chamber was quite close.
"So how do we get to Hogwarts from here?" he finally asked when he was sure he had control of his voice.
"We need to sort that out. There's likely to be Deatheaters at the school boundaries, so walking up the road is obviously out of the question, as is getting to the tunnel at the Shrieking Shack. We may have to wait until dawn. They won't want to be seen in daylight and should be gone by then." Snape pulled the chair out from under the desk and seated himself in it.
Harry wrapped his arms around himself and paced as far as he could away from Snape, chewing on his lip. He knew how they could get into the school, but if he revealed the secret passage, Ron, not to mention Fred and George, would probably never forgive him. But the idea of spending the night in a place vulnerable to Voldemort's attack made his blood run as cold as it had when he'd thought he had been captured again. And if they figure out I'm here, they wouldn't keep from destroying this place, no matter who else was in it. He worried over the idea for a long minute before turning to Snape.
"Professor, I know how we can get back into the school."
Snape, scowling, sneered at him. "Really, Potter? Have you somehow managed to figure out a way past the Anti-Apparition wards all unbeknownst to the rest of us?"
Harry glared at him. "I wouldn't put it past Hermione to have found out a way, but, no, it's nothing like that. We need to get into Honeyduke's cellar. There's a tunnel--"
Snape's sneer transformed into a brief expression of sudden comprehension, before returning to his usual dour visage. "One you've apparently become all too familiar with, eh, Mr. Potter?"
Harry flushed. "Er--yes." He looked away.
"The problem will be getting from here into Honeydukes unobserved--" Snape was interrupted by the click of the door latch.
"Let me get a crate out of the office then--" The clear, warm tones of Rosemerta's voice penetrated the wooden panels, and Harry saw the Potions Master relax a bit. She slipped into the office, closing the door tightly behind her, and smiled at Harry before turning her eyes on Snape. "I'm glad you--both--made it here safely. I've got a place for you to stay overnight if you need it."
"Thank you, Rosemerta, but if we can find a way to get into Honeyduke's unobserved, that should solve our problem."
Harry watched the barkeeper's eyes suddenly twinkle. "So that old tunnel is still passable? I'd have thought it would have collapsed years ago!"
"You know about it?" he blurted out, surprised.
Rosemerta put her fists on her hips and looked at him in mock sternness. "You aren't the first student to try to find ways out of school, Mr. Potter. We were young once too!" Her sternness faded into a thoughtful expression. "Hmmmm. Toby Honeyduke is out in the taproom. Perhaps--" Her voice trailed off. Scooping up one of the crates of bottles, she caught the door latch with her elbow. "I'll be right back."
Harry watched her leave and chewed on his lip some more. The idea of staying overnight with Snape shut up in this little room--or wherever else it was that Rosemerta had prepared--did not appeal. He shifted postion and realized suddenly that he was still barefoot.
With his movement, Snape apparently noticed his dearth of footwear. "Potter, where are your socks and shoes?"
"Mrs. Figgs' spare room." Harry moved over to the fireplace and stared at the merrily burning flames. "I hadn't got them on yet when everything happened. And I can't find my wand either," he added, hunching his shoulders as he waited for a stream of Snape's usual vitriol to pour out on him.
Snape said nothing and Harry warily looked up at him.
The man's face was blank and his dark eyes looked as though he were caught up deep in another place and time.
* * * * *
Severus was about to acidly comment on Harry's carelessness when he was abruptly struck with another vivid burst of memory. His awareness of the office faded as Lily's voice and the sight and sounds of a summer day at Florian Fortesque's ice cream parlour in Diagon Alley filled his mind.
"You don't swim?"
"Well, if you call thrashing about madly to keep one's head above the water swimming, then I suppose that I do. But I don't like it." He reached across and swiped a bit off of her ice cream sundae.
"Hey!" She lunged across the table to snatch the cherry back. "That's mine!"
He laughed as he held it out of her reach for a moment then moved the spoon back toward her. "How about we share?" He brushed the edge of the spoon across her lips and watched hungrily as they parted. Even white teeth bit into the marachino cherry, neatly bisecting it with a minimum spray of juice.
"Mmmmmm!" Her green eyes gleamed at him.
He put the spoon in his own mouth then nearly choked as she suddenly remarked, "You know, I'd rather like to see you in a swim suit."
She scrambled to her feet and came around the table to pound him on the back, as the half cherry insisted on going down the wrong way. As he recovered himself, she whispered in his ear. "And I've never even seen you barefoot yet."
"Professor?"
Severus fought to maintain his composure as he focused on the skinny boy before him. The long feet poking out of the bottom of the overlarge trousers looked just like Lily's he realized. He tore his eyes away from them and dragged in a deep breath. "We'll worry about that tomorrow. For now, we need to get up to the school."
He got to his feet and was reaching for the door latch when the panel opened to admit Rosemerta once more. Only this time she was followed by a short portly fellow who Harry recognized as one of the men who worked in Honeyduke's.
"Toby is going to let you into the shop," she announced.
"I've got an excuse to be in there--we're working on a new variety and the process needs to be checked around eleven." He cast an eye over Harry. "You're small enough to hide under my cloak, but, you, Professor--"
"Perhaps you might like my professional advice on your new concoction?" Severus suggested smoothly.
Toby grinned and nodded. "That would be the ticket, Professor. If anyone should ask, I'll just tell 'em that."
"Get your cat, Mr. Potter, if you insist on bringing him along," Severus told the student. Glancing down at the tears in his trouser leg and then to the rips in Harry's shirt, he added, "He's done more than enough damage to my wardrobe tonight."
* * * * *
With far less drama than Severus feared, the three wizards quietly made their way out of the Three Broomsticks' back door and along the alleyway that paralleled the main street. Harry found himself wishing that he were hidden under Snape's cloak instead of Toby's. At least then he wouldn't be hunched over awkwardly to keep his head out of sight. At his current height, he would have just fit under the Professor's arm, and would have been less likely to end up with his toes stepped on. It didn't help that the cat was also under the cloak with him, draped over his shoulders and grumbling about being confined under the fabric.
Toby unlocked the back door of the sweets shop and magically illuminated the kitchen that was redolent of chocolate and other delicacies. Harry gratefully hurried inside and stood where he wouldn't be visible through any of the small windows, nor through the passageway into the sales part of the store.
"So, Rosemerta says there's a way up to the school from here, lad. Why don't you enlighten me?" Toby pitched his cloak at a chair and bent over a cauldron that was bubbling gently over a low blue flame, giving it a quick stir.
Harry mentally asked Ron to forgive him, and cautiously led the way into the shop itself and silently went to the door that led to the cellar. Toby grabbed a candle and followed closely; Snape right behind him.
"Down in the basement, eh? Makes sense, I suppose, although why no one ever noticed anyone coming and going is beyond me." Toby peered over Harry's shoulder at the boxes and barrels and bags stored neatly in the cellar.
"Well, it's not that visible." Keeping a hand on the cat, he went to the place on the board floor where the trapdoor was disguised and tugged on it, awkwardly pulling it up to reveal the steps that led down into the dank tunnel below.
"Well, I'll say--" Toby shook his head and stared into the dark hole. "If I'd have known about this, I'd have locked up--"
"Obliviate!
Harry stared at the abruptly silent and blank-faced Toby in shock.
"Move it, Potter!" Snape pushed him down through the trap door and immediately followed, pulling the panel down into place as silently as possible.
"Why did you do that for?" Harry demanded, only to find a hand sealing his mouth.
"Quiet! Don't let him hear you." Snape's voice was an urgent whisper.
Harry swallowed hard, trying to see anything through the darkness, and all too aware of the looming presence of the Potions Master on the step next to him. From above came a confused mumble as Tony emerged from the initial impact of Snape's spell.
"Eh, what did I come down 'ere for?" He stumped around the cellar for a few seconds, "Ah, that's it, more sugar." After a couple more thumping sounds, Harry faintly heard the fading impacts of feet on wooden stairs as the candymaker left the cellar.
The hand across Harry's mouth fell away and he dragged in a deep breath. "Why--?"
"Lumos." Snape's wand cast a greenish glow that illuminated the tunnel and gave the professor's face a livid cast. "What he can't remember, he can't tell. If certain people got wind that Honeyduke brought us here tonight, his life would be shorter than the time it would take for you to eat a Pepper Imp. Not to mention that it would not be good for outsiders to realize this passage to the school exists."
Harry shuddered at the thought of the candymaker being tortured and killed by the Deatheaters and turned to go down the narrow steps to the dirt floor of the tunnel. The cat squirmed down from his shoulders and padded at his side, and he could hear Snape behind him.
As they made their way through the long damp tunnel, ducking dangling tree roots and avoiding fallen rocks and clods of dirt, Harry tiredly wondered what else could go wrong.
When Snape preceded him up the steps that led into the school through the Humpbacked Witch statue, he found out.
"You bloody Deatheater! What have you done with Harry?"
Sirius?
There came the sound of a fist smashing into bone and flesh, and the impact of a body hitting the floor. Harry frantically squirmed through the opening in the statue to find his Godfather standing over a supine, and apparently unconscious, Potions Master.
TBC