Chapter 7: Of Potion Books and Parchments


Snape stepped into the scarcely lit corridor. The ride down on the moving staircase hadn’t helped with his dizziness. He had to pause for a moment, holding onto the Gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the headmistress’s office. Through the faint ringing in his ears, he could hear voices coming closer. Female voices.

“He hasn’t run, Poppy, he’s in my office – with Mr Potter.”

“Are you crazy, Professor? You left that murderer alone with the boy? What if he –”

“Severus won’t harm Mr Potter in any way, trust me.”

“Nobody would have believed he would kill the headmaster, either ...”

“You may check on Mr Potter if you want to, Madam Pomfrey,” came a soft and sneering male voice from behind the Gargoyle. “But I assure you, he is as alive as ever.” Snape stepped around the statue and into view of the two witches. “Minerva, one word.”

They waited until the wall had closed after the disgruntled mediwitch.

“I need you to leak information to the Quibbler, about a run-in between me and some Order members in the Forbidden Forest. Three to four will do.”

“One wouldn’t be enough to give you an injury, of course ...”

“You know it wouldn’t,” snarled Snape. “One alone wouldn’t stand the ghost of a chance, not in open combat. As far as I remember, and in contrast to,” his lips curled in contempt, ”a certain ‘Chosen One’, the Order members don’t tend to hide under Invisibility Cloaks.”

“Severus, Harry couldn’t possibly know –”

“Will you leak that information?” Snape cut her short.

McGonagall nodded.

“Then farewell,” said Snape abruptly. He turned on his heels and strode down the corridor, his black cloak billowing behind him.

“Farewell, Severus” murmured the headmistress, watching her former colleague vanish in the shadows. “And take care.”


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The next morning saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting around the wooden table in Hagrid’s hut, the Half-Blood Prince’s copy of Advanced Potion-Making in front of them. Hagrid was bustling about in the garden, humming some tune that was supposed to make his giant pumpkins grow faster. It had been easy enough for the trio to retrieve Snape’s book earlier in the morning even among all the trash and stuff in the cathedral-like Room of Requirement, since Harry had marked the hiding place well.

“Amortentia,” Ron read out loud, then his eyes grew round. “It’s a love potion,” he exclaimed, “the one Slughorn showed us in our first lesson with him!”

“Are you sure he said the very last recipe?” asked Hermione sceptically.

Harry nodded thoughtfully. Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world. Somehow, it did make sense. But, he wasn’t supposed to make Voldemort fall obsessively in love with him, was he?

“I can’t believe it! Snape brewing love potions!” Ron said over and over again, clapping his thighs in excitement. But then a disturbing thought struck. “Urgh, I do hope he never used them on anybody ...”

“Does the book mention an addressee? Since it said the Sectumsempra was for enemies ...” asked Hermione curiously. Ron bent closer over the book, examining the Prince’s minute scribbling.

“Here! It says ‘for C. E.’. Could that be the unfortunate girl Snape fancied as a teenager?” Ron shuddered demonstratively.

Harry stared at the letters, transfixed. This was no ‘C’; after last year, he knew the Prince’s handwriting ... No, it couldn’t be, it mustn’t, he had called her a filthy Mudblood – However, it would explain so much ... The scene in the last of Dumbledore’s memories emerged before his mind’s eye, Snape clasping hands with a beautiful redheaded witch, taking the Unbreakable Vow – echoes of Dumbledore’s words ‘You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised how Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy ...’ – ‘I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely’ – ‘I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life ...’. Now it all made sense; Snape had been in love with L. E.: Lily Evans, his mother. And he had intended to brew the Amortentia Potion for her. Harry’s brain refused to go on. It was too horrible a thought. Snape and his Mom. But he couldn’t have given her the potion. She had married James, after all; loved James. James was his father; he looked so much like him. There was no chance in hell that his mother had loved Snape back. Or was there? Harry’s mind began to spin ...

“Harry? Are you still with us?” Hermione asked, concerned.

“I – I think I need some fresh air,” mumbled Harry shakily and stood up.

“Yeah, let’s have a break, didn’t Hagrid say something about wanti–”

“No break, Ron,” Hermione admonished. “Didn’t Snape say the attack would be soon? Even with the Prince’s shortcuts it will take about four days to brew the Amortentia, and then, there are those extra instructions we haven’t even looked at yet. We better get started.” Seeing Ron’s face fall, she added with a smile, “But I think we can continue outside, the sun’s coming out.”


********************************************


Two hours later, the trio were still pouring over Advanced Potion-Making and Snape’s parchment at the shore of the lake.

“Do you know what I think, Harry?” Hermione asked while studying the parchment with Snape’s instructions. ”This seems to work pretty much like creating a Horcrux. Only that you don’t split your soul but your love ...”

“Right, that’s what I thought,” Harry agreed, unconsciously rubbing his scar, “and that, in contrast to the soul, splitting your love does not diminish but strengthens it.”

“Correct.” Hermione beamed at him, obviously pleased with his reasoning. “And instead of spelling it into some object, you infuse it into the Amortentia Potion.”

“But why this love potion; could you not infuse it into something else, like, say, pumpkin juice?” Ron said hopefully. “That would save us a lot of work.”

“No, Ron. Pumpkin juice would spoil it, you should know that,” said Hermione, as she began to lecture. “The substance you infuse it into has to have a certain similarity in its magical structure, hence a love potion would be the ideal receptor, the more powerful, the better. It’s pretty logical, and at the same time so ingenious. Snape really knows what he is talking about.”

“Now you start drooling over the greasy git,” Ron muttered. “Who was it again that kept on and on about that book being dangerous, remember?”

“I never said I liked him, but you have to admit that he is quite brilliant at Potions,” Hermione snapped. “And if this is going to help Harry destroy Voldemort, so much the better.”

“There is one problem, though,” Harry said darkly, pointing at the very last paragraph of the parchment. “Somebody will have to die for me – again.”


TBC