Last Time:
The headmaster left his office to find the Deputy headmistress, "Minerva, would you see me in my office. We need to discuss something." Dumbledore said and the transfiguration professor obediently followed him ...
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Blaise smirked as Draco watched Cache walk Ginny out of the Great Hall after breakfast, "He would make a great mate." He said with a longing sigh as if he meant 'mate' as boyfriend, but he only ever means 'mate' as in the traditional friend meaning. Like how he always calls Draco his mate or best mate. He always means friend, but he wanted to see how easily he can get Draco to react and sure enough the violent twitching in Draco's eyebrow paired with a barely concealed homicidal glare was Blaise's answer.
"He's not your type." Draco said trying to ignore Crabbe and Goyle who were sulking behind them. It's like they wanted to be part of the conversation, but Blaise set up a privacy bubble so no one could hear him and Draco.
"You're right. He's more your type apparently." Blaise snickered at the shocked expression on Draco's face. "You aren't as subtle as you like to think Draco."
"Shut up." Draco snapped trying to hide his blush.
"Calm down. I can see why you like him. Tell me about him." Blaise said mentally getting ready to use every detail to help Draco get closer to Cache.
Draco huffed, but after a moment of sulking he sighed, "He was raised by muggles."
"That much is obvious considering he carries around that muggle music player, but what else?" Blaise urged trying to get his friend to think.
Draco opened his mouth to say something about Cache's home at Eventide or about the potion to fix nerve damage or the scars that were healed, but he stopped himself since it was too personal. "He ... he likes blue, prefers fresh vegetables, is open minded and respectful of all creatures. He has patience if he can put up with that idiot Granger. Professor Snape likes him so he is a hard worker ... he might've had a difficult life, but it didn't stop him." He said taking into everything he noticed during the time he had been with Harry.
Blaise smiled at the soft smile that came to Draco's lips, "You have it bad for him." He grinned earning a glare from the blonde, "This is a good start. You should ask him some muggle related question like ... I'll think of something, but it will help you understand him better if you knew a little more." He said ignoring Draco's rolling eyes.
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"Hello, Professor Snape." Ginny greeted as Cache shut the door to Severus's living quarters and took a seat near the desk.
"Good morning, Ms. Weasley. Your father will be flooing here in a moment and Percy is dragging your brother here as we speak." Severus said and gestured for her to take a seat.
As Ginny sat down she became a little nervous, "Ummm ... it's just my father right? Not my mother too?"
"Yes, your father made a point of saying it will only be him." Severus confirmed and he and Cache noticed that she looked rather relieved that it will be only her father, which was curious to say the least.
"Speaking of your mother, you know that proposal Ron mentioned?" Ginny, like a true Slytherin, caught the hint towards Ron's comment about her marrying Harry Potter right away. "Apparently there was a payment that was higher than the payments Ron, your mother and Granger were being given. It was for you from Dumbledore through my vaults."
Ginny blinked and tears started shining in her eyes as she realized her mother sold her, "I'll pay you-"
"That's not your problem. First, the transaction was canceled before it could go through and even if it did it would not be your responsibility." Cache smiled making Ginny smile softly, but before anything else could be said Percy knocked on the door and literally dragged Ron into the room.
Percy glared down at his younger brother, "For Merlin's sake Ron get up!" He hissed as he tried to hold up his uncooperative brother by his robes!
"Fuck you, traitor!" Ron snapped trying to make this entire situation as difficult as possible starting with going dead weight so his brother had to fight to get him there.
Severus scowled at the display, "Thank you for bringing him here, Percy. Feel free to leave him there on the floor."
"Fine with me." Percy huffed fed up with his little brother's behavior and just let go of Ron's robes, which resulted in Ron tumbling to the floor.
Ron yelped and rubbed his head where it hit the floor as he shot his brother a glare "Fucking bast-"
"RONALD WEASLEY, DON'T YOU DARE COMPLETE THAT SENTENCE!" Every person in the room was startled by the voice. They either looked as startled as they were as turned to face the red haired man standing or was like Severus and was good at hiding it. Somehow no one noticed the man floo into the room, "I'm sorry for being late, Professor Snape. I'm Ron and Ginny's father, Arthur Weasley. I was delayed at the ministry. What is going on with you?" Arthur Weasley said managing to go from furious to politely introducing himself to glaring down at his youngest son all in one breath.
Ron pointed accusingly at Cache, "It wasn't as bad as he made it sound-"
Severus stood up and gave Ron a withering look, "Cache gave me his memory of the event and everyone saw Ginny's injuries so, yes, it was as bad as it was described. Ginny told my apprentice and myself exactly what happened."
"There isn't a way to get out of this. Ginny's lip was bleeding and she had bruises around her neck." Cache said calmly.
Arthur looked at his son clearly horrified and furious, "Why? Ginny is your baby sister!"
"She's a snake!" Ron snapped angrily as if it explains everything and in his mind it did. He wasn't just seeing his sister in a different house he was seeing the chance at fame and fortune being pissed away because his sister betrayed them for the snakes. She was supposed to be in Gryffindor and marry Harry so they could have all the money they wanted. It was infuriating to have all that work befriending Potter turn to worthless dust without even a knut to show for it! Ginny ruined her and her family's futures and she wasn't getting it!
"Your sister." Mr. Weasley corrected harshly as he placed a comforting hand on his only daughter's shoulder when he saw her flinch at what Ron said. "I can't believe you'd treat your family in such a way. It's terrible." Arthur said disappointed in his young son.
The potion master nodded, "It is and as a professor it raises some concerns. While it's clear her other brothers, Fred, George and Percy, are caring brothers Ronald here ..." Severus drawled enjoying the cringe on Ron's face. It seems the brat didn't like his given name. Good to know. "Has yet to apologize or even show any remorse. I wouldn't be a professor if I didn't do what I could for my students especially if I feel there's a problem with their home life. I would like to assign a ghost to watch him out side of the dorm."
(Oh Merlin, Gringotts gave him inspiration. That's all we need, Severus employing all the ghosts as spies.) Cache thought in amusement.
"You can't do that! ... can you?" Ron blinked a little stunned. His mother was the one in charge of everything so she wouldn't allow this, but his father was clueless so he might. There's no way he could talk to Hermione about finding a way to get back in the deal with the headmaster with a ghost hanging over his shoulder. Actually why wasn't his mother here? Did his father really not tell her? It seemed unlikely since his father was a pathetic whipped dog. He has always bent over backwards to please their mother even working long hours at work to make more money though he insisted money wasn't more important than family, but if so he had to tell her before this gets any worse so she could fix this mess. Once she knows his father won't stand a chance ...
"With your father's permission I can and I'm going to suggest that Ginny stays apart from Ron during breaks in school until he finds it in him to behave." Severus suggested. Cache mentally smirked as he realized that it wasn't only Ron he wanted to protect Ginny. The second Ginny looked relieved about her mother not being there Severus went into his own more subtle mother owl mode ... not that Cache would ever say it like that out loud with the potion master within hearing distance. With Trocar he could get away with it, but Severus might hex him.
"Apart?" Arthur pondered a moment, but Ron was sure the fool wouldn't agree to separating family for the summer or holidays. "Ginny, would you have any problem staying with Bill or Charlie?"
Ginny bobbed her head eagerly, "It'd be nice to spend some time with them."
"Good, I'll talk to them. Do I need to sign something?" Arthur asked and Ron gaped in shock as Severus handed his father a quill to sign a couple papers.
Percy scoffed, "Careful how you explain it, Dad. Ron won't last if a Gringotts assistant and a dragon tamer are after him."
Arthur chuckled, "True, keep an eye on them too, Percy. Keep in touch, Ginny." Arthur said as he leaned over and kissed the top of Ginny's head. Then he glanced at Ron, "Slytherins are described as cunning, smart and so on ... you have two cunning brothers that I'm surprised weren't sorted into Slytherin. Fred and George even admitted being a bit surprised. You can't judge children by a school house just because one bad nut just happened to be in it. Think on that while you're serving your punishment." Arthur said before thanking Severus and leaving via the floo.
"He is right. If Fred and George cared more about whether or not they'd get caught they may be in Slytherin. Now the Bloody Baron agreed to watch over you and I added a week of detention for every swear that came but of your mouth. You're free to leave ... oh, and Ronald, don't push your luck with ghosts." Severus warned ominously as Ron and Percy headed for the door that was opened to reveal a serious ghost staring down at a rather pale Ron.
The Bloody Baron was always watching the Slytherins to see if there were any changes. He was actually quite protective of those in his house so it made sense to ask him to watch the person who hurt their snakes. At first he considered asking Nearly Headless Nick since he is the Gryffindor ghost, but that ghost has a tendency to be lenient towards those in his house or simply easy to fool.
When the door closed leaving Ginny, Cache and Severus alone the professor looked at the young witch, "May I ask why you were so relieved that your mother didn't come here today?"
Ginny winced and after a moment of silence, "I always knew she wanted me to be some rich man's wife and she's been preparing me to be the perfect wife ... proper speech, proper figure, proper everything and if I didn't like it ... no marks are left." She muttered softly answering the question of abuse without specifics. "My father never knew and I never knew she decided on a husband." She said as she cast Cache an apologetic look that only got her a gentle understanding smile from the apprentice.
"That will be changing from now on. I'm sure Percy wouldn't let Ron lag around in the dungeons and neither would the Bloody Baron, but would you like one of us to walk you to the dorm?" Severus asked.
"No, I should be ok. Thank you, professor. Thank you, Cache." Ginny smiled gratefully before leaving.
Cache grinned, "She looks like a big weight has been taken off her shoulders."
"Indeed." Severus said and suddenly a ball came rolling out of his room with two kneazles chasing after it. "Now for the more important topic. Why is there a vampire hiding in my bedroom?" Severus twitched as Trocar poked his head out of the bedroom sheepishly.
"If it makes that big of a difference I can get Sanguini instead." Cache said cheekily, but quickly raised his hands in a defensive gesture when Severus pointed his wand at him. Though the fake blonde couldn't wipe the amused smile off his face. "Kidding, kidding! Obviously I got word from Gringotts."
"Of course. That's how you knew what to tell Ginny ... what else did they find?" Severus asked rather excited at the prospect of finding the last horcrux and truly ending the dark lord.
First Harry glanced at Trocar who was checking the wards securing the room. "The founders went above and beyond to protect their professors' privacy. It's safe to talk here. There's even a Censor ward like the Malfoys. You know, they didn't even know about it! I saw the sequence stepping right out the floo and told them if they wanted to prevent any slips, though I doubt they're the types, then they have the both say your real name ten times. After that they must give the ward the order' replace Harry with Cache' ... they didn't believe me until they followed the instructions and your name started being magically replaced unless they turned off the ward with the 'halt replace' order. They had fun with that, but it was nothing compared to burning that ugly staff."
Harry ignored Trocar's ramblings and smiled at Severus, "I know what you're thinking and yes. The ghost reported it and it was collected, but there's more to it than simply destroying it and calling it done. Apparently, the main fragment can possess people like Quirrell was and if he's in a body then nothing will happen until, he leaves the body. If he's just floating around you and Lucius will feel the mark disappear and it could be painful." Cache explained.
Severus's eyebrows rose in surprise at the intriguing development, "The mark will leave? Why do you make sound like it will only be Lucius and myself?"
The fake blonde smirked, "According to Griphook the curse he used was strengthened by loyalty or, at least, the lack of will to go against him. You and Lucius weren't just not loyal you actively worked against him. When you're willing to fight the person who gave you the curse it will not survive after the caster is killed, but the act of the mark leaving is painful so they set a time so you aren't caught off guard. Ten o'clock tonight ... do you want me to get you someone to stay with you? Sanguine perhaps-I'm shutting up!"
"Don't you dare let that letch into my room." Severus glared. Ever since the hickey discovery Cache has bringing up Sanguini's name a lot more often.
Trocar snickered, "Aww Sanguini misses you by the way, but there's more to the Gringotts report and it's why I'm here."
"Yeah the ghost wanted to check out a hidden place called the Chamber of Secrets." Cache said .
"The one only the heir of Slytherin can open?" Severus asked curiously wondering how anyone would be able to get in should the ghost find something.
"Well sort of." Harry sighed feeling a little nervous, but kept his face blank thanks to his mental shields, "Any parseltongue speaker can open it and since the ghost lost contact after saying he was going there they ... asked me to open the chamber."
Severus gaped slightly before composing himself, "You know parseltongue?"
Trocar immediately flashed his red eyes at Severus in a subtle warning, "It's far more common than you think. It just has a bad reputation. Not unlike Slytherin." The vampire spoke pointedly.
A spark of shame hit Severus and he nodded, "I understand why you didn't bring it up before, but I'm not mad, Cache. Just startled and don't think otherwise. So where is this chamber?" He said, making damn sure to stick to Cache despite the security, as he picked up his potion bag off the floor. He checked the contents to make sure everything so he was prepared. After all, a GHOST went missing. That doesn't happen in good circumstances and he refused to let Harry go without him. Everything was there, but just in case something happened he took out the antidotes for the love potion and put it on his desk for safety. Severus actually only had enough ingredients to brew half of what they needed so Harry had to brew he rest at home, which is why there was a slight difference in the vials used.
"The founders always kept copies of blueprints in the vaults so we know it's in the first floor bathroom ... before we leave ..." Cache pulled a muggle newspaper out of the bag in his pocket and showed it to the potion master. The dark eyes widened as he read the article featuring the Dursleys.
Trocar grinned, "Isn't it great! This'll be like a stunner to the chest for Dumbledore! Frank found it-Oh right! Remus Lupin is back, but first, Frank smelled Remus and went to see what they were doing in the Three Broomsticks and found this! Since muggle newspapers don't have magic photos it's safe to copy them and several of the werewolves did and snuck them into every place imaginable. I even took one to Lucius."
In all honesty Severus thought it was good news, but he noticed the blank look on Cache's face and it got him thinking. Harry wasn't the type of person to stand back and let people get hurt or let people get killed and yet he didn't speak up in two instances. The one where Armel broke the potion master's wrist and the Dursleys. He recalled the look on Harry's face when he was healing the broken wrist. It was blank just like now and Harry didn't show too much emotion concerning the Dursleys' demise. What if Harry wanted to say something, but didn't? Why? The only common link was the creatures ...
No ... it was so much more than that. The common link was the one thing he never had before and didn't want to risk losing it. It was trustworthy people who cared for him! With that in mind Severus set the newspaper down and stood in front of Harry, "You have the most stubborn people on your side now. It will be impossible to pry any of them away from you so you don't have to fear speaking against anyone if you don't approve of something so tell me, is this moving too fast?"
Trocar saw Harry avoid eye contact for a second in a silent sign of nervousness and pouted, "You know, you can talk to us. What is it about this that bothers you? Just because we can't stop the news doesn't mean we can't change some things so you can get feel more comfortable." The vampire said feeling really bad about letting himself and the others get carried away and not taking Harry's thoughts into consideration.
"I knew this would happen eventually, but ... I don't think I want Harry Potter to return. It's nothing. We should go to the chamber. Griphook sent me this portkey to summon them. The room the last horcrux was in had a secret way in so retrieving it was easy, but they can't go to the bathroom since Dumbledore might catch them. I'm just supposed to get them passed the two doors and let them deal with the rest." Cache said as he showed them the portkey made from a small stone bead complete with the Gringotts seal.
"Personally I don't think they should've asked you. Merlin knows you do enough around here." Trocar huffed and shot Severus a look.
Severus scowled, "Blame Dumbledore for that. I didn't want Cache saddled with that amount of work, but Dumbledore volunteered him and as people who are supposed to be under the influence of a loyalty potion Poppy and I couldn't very well argue or we'd blow our cover."
With that minor disagreement out of the way they headed out to go to the first floor bathroom. For Trocar's protection Harry had him hide under the invisibility cloak. After all the last thing they needed was for someone to scream vampire. The trip to the bathroom went quickly and without any issues. Harry recalled the instructions he was given by Griphook and spoke parseltongue into the sink marked with a snake making a large tunnel open up.
"Hard to believe this was right here the whole time. Let's move before Moaning Myrtle appears. She annoys me." Severus said and after Trocar gave Harry back the invisibility cloak they jumped into the tunnel. Libra and Lyra were made to wait at the entrance. Gross landing of rotten fish skeletons and garbage aside they made it through another door with parseltongue and Harry tossed the portkey onto the ground of the ancient chamber that was crumbling after several cave ins.
Their job was done ... the goblins had everything handled though it was puzzling why the ghost was found actually paralyzed floating in mid air, but they still insisted Harry, Trocar and Severus should leave. That's when it happened ...
Harry turned to see if they could find a safer way out and suddenly fell to the ground making Trocar turn and see a pair of big golden eyes, "Basilisk!" He screamed as he scooped up the limp wizard since as a vampire he was unaffected by those eyes ...
Severus felt his body turn cold as he shut his eyes to keep from accidentally seeing the deadly gaze. He feared it was too late for Harry ...