my inheritance (g.w x o.c)

chapter twenty-two: the two sacrifices

"What are you doing with Potter, all these evenings you are closeted together?" Snape yelled.

"Why? You aren't trying to give him more detentions, Severus?" Dumbledore threw back. "The boy will soon have spent more time in detention than out."

"He is his father over again—"

"In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother's. I spend time with Harry because I have things to discuss with him, information I must give him before it is too late."

"Information," Snape scoffed. "You trust him ... you do not trust me."

"It is not a question of trust. I have, as we both know, limited time. It is essential that I give the boy enough information for him to do what he needs to do." He has to know about the horcruxes too. I had to be right about that.

"And why may I not have the same information?" Snape pressed.

"I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket, particularly not a basket that spends so much time dangling on the arm of Lord Voldemort."

"Which I do on your orders," he yelled.

"And you do it extremely well. Do not think that I underestimate the constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus." He spoke with such sincerity. Snape hadn't been playing him at all. He'd been tricking Voldemort this entire time. Maybe I wasn't alone in my reservations. "To give Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you."

"Yet you confide much more in a boy who is incapable of Occlumency, whose magic is mediocre, and who has a direct connection into the Dark Lord's mind!"

"Voldemort fears that connection," said Dumbledore. "Not so long ago he had one small taste of what truly sharing Harry's mind means to him. It was pain such as he has never experienced. He will not try to possess Harry again, I am sure of it. Not in that way." I recalled the anger he felt that night. I almost got hit in the process.

"I don't understand."

Dumbledore took a deep breath. "Lord Voldemort's soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry's. Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame—"

"Souls? We were talking of minds!"

"In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other."

The horcruxes are real. I gripped the railing to keep from falling. I'd hoped I was wrong. It would have been easier to kill him if I was wrong.

"After you have killed me, Severus—"

"You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small service of me?" Snape snapped. He genuinely sounded angry. "You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore! Perhaps I have changed my mind!"

"You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?" I heard a chair topple over, followed by a groan from Snape. I thought for a moment he was going to come storming through the door. "Severus, please, listen."

"What if I don't care to hear what you say?"

"If you will sit down and listen to me, you will never again doubt my trust in you." There was silence. I heard some chairs move and decided to look through the crack in the door. Snape sat, looking out the window, and Dumbledore paced behind him. It seemed like hours before he finally spoke. "Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?"