Harry Potter & The Black Sacrifice – Chapter 16

Harry Potter & The Black Sacrifice

Post 18: The Voice of Severus

Chapter 16

The Voice of Severus

As with Hogwarts, Apparation directly to and from Azkaban was prohibited, and was, therefore, impossible. Remus had steered Harry and himself to a neighboring island in order to observe the prison from a distance.

Harry felt unease (and just a little nausea) seep into his stomach. In all of Harry's imaginings of what Azkaban might look like, nothing could have prepared him for the grim reality of it all. He now understood why Hagrid could never be convinced to talk about the place (no matter how drunk he got).

The island that Remus and Harry were on was experiencing some very pleasant weather, especially for the time of year; the sun was shining on their backs and the sky was virtually cloudless above them. Less than a mile away though, across the small channel that separated the two islands, Azkaban was surrounded by a particularly violent storm.

Azkaban had the look of a place that might have long ago been a grand island fortress. A 15 foot high wall was built along the entire perimeter. Harry could see several very tall structures inside the walls, and had they not matched the stormclouds above them in color, they could be considered majestic. The towers and wall looked to be in a state of advance disrepair and decay, but Harry knew that this appearance was probably deceiving.

Worse than the mere gloomy look of the place was simply the feeling Harry got from it. The place itself seemed to bleed misery from its walls. Every once in a while when the waves on the beach quieted down for a moment, Harry thought he could hear the anguished cries of the prisoners inside. Even with the Dementors gone, their effects seemed to linger.

Harry looked over at Remus, who was shivering (or shuddering, Harry wasn't sure).

"Are you ready?" asked Remus.

"Sure.. only how do we get there?" asked Harry.

"There's an invisible bridge between islands," answered Remus. "The position of the bridge, and the island it goes to, changes every day. There's about 23 different islands that the bridge connects to, if I remember correctly."

"How do we know we're on the right island then?" asked Harry.

Remus grinned. "We don't. Let's get moving."

Remus walked down to the shoreline and stopped. As Harry watched him, Remus began to sniff the air. After about 30 seconds of sniffing, he was satisfied. "We've got to go North a ways. See that island over there?" He pointed to a speck about 5 miles to the North-Northeast. "Meet me over there." He popped out of existence, and Harry followed suit.

Remus was already not satisfied with this island when Harry got there. "Too far east. See that one?" He pointed to another island. "Race you!" POP

Harry arrived at the third island to find Remus looking satisfied. "It's here. Let's take a walk." Remus started jogging north along the shoreline, and Harry began to follow.

After about 20 minutes, Remus stopped suddenly, causing Harry to nearly run in to him. "We're here," Remus said casually.

Harry looked over to Azkaban Island with dismay. "Remus… that island has got to be 6 miles away now.."

"Nearly 7, if I'm not mistaken," said Remus cheerfully. "Cmon Harry, we don't want to draw this out. Let's get moving." With that, Remus stepped to the edge of the shoreline, took another step, and landed on nothing. For all Harry could see, Remus was levitating. Finally sure that he had found the invisible bridge, Remus began to jog along it.

"I don't suppose we could come back with our brooms and fly across?" Harry yelled after him.

"No chance!" Remus yelled back. "Anyone trying to fly this close to Azkaban would find themselves on the wrong side of about 20 stunning spells. Come on!!"

Harry groaned quietly and began to follow.

- - -

As they began to close in to within a mile of the island, Harry began to wonder why this place had even needed Dementors. The prison buildings alone seemed to be sucking the happiness right out of him. This seemed to be the reason for Remus' overtly cheery attitude: the happier he acted, the happier he felt. "Smile Harry, or you're not going to last ten minutes in here."

Harry thought of his Firebolt and Ginny and managed a small grin.

Remus nodded. "It's a start. Come on."

Harry then noticed a figure approaching them in the fog at the end of the bridge. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it was Kingsley, then realized with horror that he hadn't put on his cloak yet. Harry's next few words were drowned out by a blood curdling scream from one of the far towers.

"Harry!" Kingsley said, grinning. "Now what would Molly think of such language?"

Harry then noticed that, even though Kingsley was smiling at them, he had his wand out and it was pointed directly at both of them.

"Out for a stroll, Lupin?" Kingsley asked, with a seriousness that his smiling face masked well. "You know the law; nobody comes here unannounced and without permission. Especially," he looked over at Harry, "in the company of someone who is supposed to be dead."

"I'm afraid there wasn't time to ask for a formal invitation," said Remus, also looking much happier than he sounded. "Harry has a rather pressing errand here that really can't wait."

"Lupin, stand back, I'll deal with you in a second," Kingsley almost growled. "Potter! Patronus, and reason for it. Quickly now!"

"It's a stag because that was my dad's Animagus form," Harry said without hesitation. "But that's pretty well known by now." He grinned. "Better ask me something harder!"

Kingsley nodded, his tone becoming even harsher. "Fair enough. What did I do to Marietta Edgecombe in Dumbledore's office?"

"Removed the D.A. from her memory," Harry said smugly.

Kingsley nodded, satisfied. He turned his attention back to Lupin. "Harry, have you asked Lupin any security questions today?"

Harry thought about it, then shook his head.

"The reason I ask is because Lupin really does know better than to come to this place uninvited," Kingsley said menacingly. "If you really are Lupin, then your reason for coming had better be of earth shattering importance."

"When you hear why, I expect a full apology for this treatment," Remus said impishly, bringing a fleeting image of Fred and George to Harry's mind.

"In Harry's fifth year, how did we get his family out of the house so that we could pick him up?"

Remus opened his mouth to answer, then quickly shut it again. "Uhhh…"

Harry's eyes opened wide in alarm.

"No hints Harry!" yelled Kingsley, whose wand was now pointed directly at Remus' heart.

"Kingsley!" Harry cried. "It's him, I know it's him! Ask him something else!" Behind him, Remus began to panic as he searched for the correct answer.

"Out of the question, Potter!" Kingsley yelled. "This is EXACTLY why we do this. It seems you came to Azkaban in the company of a Death Eater! INCARCER…"

"LAWN!" Remus yelled. "LAWN! KEPT! LAWN BEST KEPT! Britain's… London's… someone's best kept Lawn…. Something!!!"

Kingsley hesitated, but his wand did not lower at all. "Fine. One right."

Remus' legs suddenly gave out beneath him, and he sat down hard. "This place has made you paranoid Kingsley!" Remus said angrily. "So tell me, when do we get you fitted for a magic eye?"

Kingsley ignored this. "I want an exact quote on this next one Lupin. How did Pettigrew know you weren't alone at The Grey Pilgrim?"

Lupin relaxed a little. "Because..ahh.. you, Charlie, and I couldn't mask our thoughts from a first year Hogwart's student… much less from him..?"

Kingsley nodded, then put out his hand to help Remus up. Remus refused. "My apology?"

"I won't curse you for putting me through this, that's your apology," said Kingsley. "Now get up and explain yourself. Both of you."

Remus stood up and dusted himself off. "We must speak with Mundungus Fletcher."

Kingsley's mouth dropped open. "Fletcher!? But I thought…" He looked at Harry. "Surely you…"

"What?" said Harry.

"So you came all this way, flouted Ministry protocol, and put yourself in front of an Auror's wand, to talk to Fletcher?!" asked Kingsley, stunned. "You're not here to see Peter Pettigrew at all?"

Harry's eyes widened. "What on earth would I have to say to Peter Pettigrew?!"

"I was hoping you could tell me," said Kingsley. "You are the only thing left in his empty brain, and he never shuts up about you. He hasn't slept at all since he arrived here! He keeps saying he's under some obligation to talk to you, and he can't sleep until he does. But whenever he's asked what he has to say, he says he doesn't know!"

Harry exchanged amazed looks with Remus. "I have no idea," said Harry after a pause. "But I have nothing to say to him, and am not interested in what he may have to say to me. I've got more important things to worry about."

Kingsley pondered this for a moment. "We've got 30 Aurors rotating on guard duty, and that's not even half of what would be adequate," he said. "30 rotating Aurors guarding over 400 prisoners. And Pettigrew's constant whining agitates every prisoner on his block."

Remus realized where Kingsley was going with this, and sighed. "Get to the point, please."

"Agitated prisoners are bad for everyone," Kingsley continued, "especially an understaffed prison guard. I'll make you a deal Lupin. I'll let you see Fletcher, no questions asked, if Harry talks to Pettigrew and gets him to please shut up. I don't care if he simply wants to tell you a dirty joke Harry; just listen to it and be done with it and you'll make my job a lot easier."

Remus nodded. "We'll need to see both of them in private," he said. "It was not in the plan to even let you know that Harry was alive; we certainly can't have every prisoner in Azkaban privy to that information." Harry decided that was his cue to put on his cloak.

The young Auror Rahgente Gadfly arrived to cover the bridge guard post, and Kingsley motioned for Harry and Remus to follow him.

"Pettigrew first, or no deal," said Kingsley.

"Fine," said Remus. "Which block is he in?"

"Minimum security. The least dangerous criminals in here. It's there, the shortest of the four towers." Kingsley pointed in to the distance at the four prison blocks.

"We're not actually going in to one of the blocks, are we?" asked Remus nervously. "Don't you have interrogation rooms in the administrative building?"

Kingsley nodded. "Keep your robe on Lupin, the administrative building is between us and the blocks."

Kingsley trudged along the shoreline until he came to a wooden path, and began to take that uphill towards the center of the island.

"I'll arrange for Pettigrew to be waiting for us when we get there. EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Kingsley's patronus, which bore a strong resemblance to Bane the Centaur, trotted away up the path in front of them.

- - -

About 45 minutes later they arrived at the prison administrative building. It was a 2 story brick building, and about the only place on the island that looked hospitable to humans.

"Interrogation room #6," said Kingsley. "If you don't mind, I'm going to join you."

"Not at all," said Remus. "But… we'd like to be alone with Fletcher actually."

"We'll see," Kingsley grunted. "You still with us, Potter?"

"Yes," said Harry, annoyed. "Let's get this over with."

Kingsley nodded. "I'd like you to stay under your cloak, even when we get in there Harry. I'd like to try something first before he knows you're there."

Kingsley led them down a blinding white hallway with several unmarked doors on either side of them. He stopped at one that looked like every other door and let them inside.

Peter Pettigrew was standing in the center of the room with chains on every limb and one around his neck, all connected to the floor. He had the unhealthy look of a man who has lost way too much weight in a small amount of time. His eyes were sunken, and his face had several bruises on it, some fresh, some old and yellow. Harry was painfully reminded of the first time he saw Sirius.

When Peter saw Kingsley and Remus, he stiffened. "Mr. Shacklebolt," he said politely. "You've brought me here to interrogate me? When you know that I do not remember anything? What is the meaning of this?"

"I wanted to ask you something about Harry Potter," Kingsley began. The words had an obvious effect on Pettigrew: he appeared to grow hopeful and even more depressed at the same time.

"As I've said many times, I know nothing about Potter," said Peter, "other than the fact that I need to speak to him!"

"My point exactly," said Kingsley. "You need to speak to him, yet you know nothing about him, not even what he looks like. So I ask you this: What if I was to tell you that I was actually Harry Potter?"

Peter looked up at Kingsley, his eyes widening. The depressed look went away, and he looked merely hopeful and excited. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, and the hopeful look was slowly replaced once again by the depressed one.

"You're not Harry Potter," said Peter dejectedly.

"You're right, I'm not," said Kingsley, "but how do you know?"

"I DON'T KNOW! DID YOU JUST BRING ME IN HERE TO TORTURE ME, TO ASK ME ALL THE SAME QUESTIONS AGAIN!?"

"Harry," said Kingsley calmly, "please take off your cloak."

Harry stepped in front of Kingsley and removed his invisibility cloak. He stared down at Peter with as much contempt as he could muster. "Peter Pettigrew, I am Harry Potter. Now what do you want?"

For a moment, Peter simply stared at Harry, expecting another trick. Then, his face went slack and his eyes rolled up to their whites.

Harry, Remus, and Kingsley stared in shock as the voice of Severus Snape began to issue from Pettigrew's mouth.

"Potter. Congratulations. I placed this message for you in Wormtail's brain with no way of knowing if it would ever reach you. I have merged the message with the life debt Pettigrew owes you, insuring that only you could unlock it. Yet another spell I invented in my time at Hogwarts.

"Pay attention Potter, because this will not be repeated. Your pathetic ineptitude at closing off your mind gave me an idea after I had escaped your wrath at Hogwarts. Miss Granger's idea of making you disappear fit perfectly with this idea, so I put it into action immediately following the rumors of your disappearance. Quite simply, it is because of me that the world now thinks you are dead.

"How I managed this is not important; what is important is that the Dark Lord believes the story to be true. You'll have noticed by now that you have easy access to his thoughts and emotions once again. Since he thinks you are dead, he no longer needs to block the link between you. How you choose to use this information is up to you, but as I have risked more than my life to give you this advantage, don't jeopardize it by doing something careless and stupid, like letting anyone know you're alive…"

Harry looked at Remus and Kingsley and grinned sheepishly.

"Make no mistake Potter, you are still every bit as loathsome to me as your father was, and it gives me no pleasure to help you like this. However, I took an unbreakable vow to Dumbledore to follow all of his orders, even in the event of his death, and he has ordered me to assist you in any way I can. Do not squander the enormous trust he has placed in you……"

Pettigrew shook his head twice, and his eyes came back to normal.

"That was… enlightening," said Kingsley. "How much of it do you believe?" he asked, mostly to Remus.

Remus shook his head. "Well… we never did find out how the Prophet deduced that Harry was dead," he said. "I suppose it's possible." He then looked at Harry. "Harry… have you been experiencing…"

"Yes," Harry interrupted. "Mostly just the feelings, but I'll have a dream about once or twice a week now. Usually nothing terribly interesting…." Harry's mouth dropped open. "Hagrid…"

"What about him?" Remus asked.

"If Voldemort thinks I'm dead, then he'd have no reason to try and bait me out into the open… which means that Hagrid really has been captured!"

Pettigrew had been watching these exchanges with mild interest. He finally spoke up. "Mr. Shacklebolt? If you had no point in bringing me here, can I go now?"

"No point?" Kingsley shouted. "I brought you here to talk to Harry Potter, like you've been asking me to for months!!"

"Harry.. Potter?" asked Peter uncertainly.

"Yeah," said Harry, "you know, me??"

Once again, Pettigrew went slack and his eyes rolled up to their whites. And once again, the voice of Severus Snape came from Pettigrew's mouth. It sounded angrier this time.

"Potter!! Killing Nagini like that was very sloppy! It's carelessness like that that will get you and I killed! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU USE A SPELL THAT I INVENTED!

"I placed this additional message for you as Pettigrew was being led out of the ministry after hearing his sentencing. I have new and crucial information for you. Due to your foul up at the Riddle Mansion, the Dark Lord knows that the cup has been taken.

"He is now sending me to check up on the rest of his Horcruxes, many of which you and I know are not where he expects me to find them. But he does not know that I know what the cup was, giving us another advantage – he has revealed to me the identity and location of all but one of the remaining Horcruxes. He also does not know that the ring has been destroyed, and I assume by now that you have destroyed the cup and the locket.

"There are two more for you to find, and though I do not know for sure what the final one is, I have a theory. The one I know for sure is a Black genealogy and history book which currently is in a library in the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. This may seem like an odd choice for him. The reason he has chosen this book is because he plans to merge the Black family bloodline with his own, the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin. Narcissa Black is now pregnant with the Dark Lord's son."

Harry had a brief flash of Nagini asking him why Narcissa smelled of a Mudblood. He looked over at Kingsley, who looked stupefied, like he couldn't process what he had just heard. Remus merely looked exhausted and defeated.

"I will do my best to convince the Dark Lord that his Horcruxes are safe, but from this moment on you must act as if I will fail, or have already failed. Get the book and destroy it!

"Which brings me to the last Horcrux. The Dark Lord let his guard down for a fraction of a second in my presence when revealing all of this to me. I wish I could tell you that I know this for a fact, but unfortunately it is merely an educated guess. Potter, at this moment in time, I believe that in an act of desperation in the moments immediately following the backfire of Avada Kedavra on him when you were a baby, he hastily made his final Horcrux out of whatever he could.

"I believe the Dark Lord's final Horcrux is the scar on your forehead. The scar you have carried with you all of your life."