To do what is right (A Harry/Severus friendship fic- alternate DH ending)

Chapter 10

‘To do what is right’

Chapter 10

Harry, Ron and Hermione were squeezed under the invisibility cloak as they climbed the stairs to the main room of the Shrieking Shack. Now that they had destroyed the diadem, thanks to Crabbe’s fiendfyre, the only Horcrux left was Nagini, and me, Harry said to himself as they slowly approached the room ahead of them, the voices getting louder as they walked.

There was only a small gap in the door through which Harry could see through as he and his friends crouched outside the room, still under the invisibility cloak. Voldemort was talking, to whom, Harry could only guess. Feeling sorry for whoever it was cooped up in the Shrieking Shack with Voldemort, Harry’s heart skipped a beat when he heard a voice he recognized come from the room.

“No,” Harry whispered under his breath when he realised that it was Severus that Voldemort was talking to.

Hermione, who was closest to Harry, grabbed her friend’s wrist in a reassuring way, but also as a warning to Harry to not intervene with whatever was about to happen.

“I have a problem, Severus,” said Voldemort softly.

Harry gulped and strained his eyes to see as much of the room as he could, but all he saw was Voldemort’s side profile which did not include his face.

“My Lord?” said Snape.

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor’s baton.

“Why doesn’t it work for me, Severus?”

“My- my Lord?” said Snape blankly. “I do not understand. You- you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand.”

“No,” said Voldemort. “I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand… no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago.”

Voldemort’s tone was musing, calm, but Harry’s scar had begun to throb and pulse: pain was building in his forehead and he could feel a controlled sense of fury building inside Voldemort.

Harry sat, wracking his brains, trying to think of what it was that Voldemort wanted from Severus; surely he didn’t expect Professor Snape to know more about the Elder wand than Ollivander?

“No difference,” Voldemort said again.

Snape did not speak. Harry could not see his face; he wondered whether Snape sensed danger, was trying to find the right words to reassure his master.

Voldemort started to move around the room. This sign of agitation, Harry was sure meant that Voldemort was thinking about something and although Harry had no proof of it, he had the distinct feeling that Voldemort was intending to kill, but why? It didn’t make sense to Harry.

“I have thought long and hard, Severus… do you know why I have called you back from the battle?”

Wish Harry could see Professor Snape, he satisfied himself by fixing his eyes upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage/ Harry knew what this meant- the end was coming soon and Severus must have been thinking the same thing.

“No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter.”

But he already found me, Harry said to himself. Did he have more to say to me? Or does he sense what I sense, that Voldemort was going to kill, but why? Why? Why?

“You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come.”