[From Samhain to the Solstice]: Chapter Nine of 'Adagio'- Blame and Safety

[lomonaaeren]

“And you are sure that the diary is completely destroyed by the venom, Severus? You did not think to bring it with you?”

Severus stared at Albus from beneath his eyelashes. He had been summoned straight to the Headmaster’s office once he had taken Weasley to the infirmary. “No. I was rather busy at the time, and securing Miss Weasley’s safety was a priority.”

“I have never known you to think the safety of Gryffindors a priority before.”

“I might say the same of you and the safety of Slytherins.”

There was a crackling, electrical charge to the air. Severus continued to sprawl back in his chair, while Albus stared at him and leaned over the desk, his hands fastening on either side of it.

“You will bring up ancient grudges against the Marauders now, Severus?”

“You will cast aspersions on me for not doing exactly as you would have wished me to without even instruction?”

Albus’s nostrils flared, but he sat back and shook his head. “I suppose that you would not have thought of preserving the artifact for further study instead of destroying it.”

“I can easily fetch the remains. So could you, for that matter.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best.”

Albus turned away, and Severus stood up, inclined his head in respect that he didn’t feel but which Albus’s sensibilities necessitated the pretense of, and swept out of the office.

He sincerely doubted that anything he could do would have been perfect in Albus’s eyes. If he had thought to spare the diary, he would have been admonished for preserving a dangerous magical artifact that might possess someone else before it could be properly contained. If he’d brought it along first, Albus would have harped on his lack of care for Miss Weasley. That was the way Albus kept him in chains, ensuring that there was fault found with everything Severus did.

This was well enough, Severus thought as he stepped off the bottom of the missing staircase. He had lived. Miss Weasley had lived, and Poppy thought she would recover with enough rest and potions.

And he had someone else to speak to, now.

*

“So she was possessed.”

“Yes.”

“And the boy in the diary was a shade of—the Dark Lord.”

Severus dipped his head, not taking his eyes from Potter. The boy had been unnaturally still ever since Severus had invited him into the office to hear the truth of the Chamber of Secrets. “Yes. His real name was Tom Marvolo Riddle.”

Potter—Harry—was quiet, his eyes glazed cold and green and focused on the far wall. Severus sat still and let him absorb it. In truth, Severus himself was shaking lightly as the reality of what he had confronted flooded him, but he had managed to keep the shaking entirely internal.

At last, Harry stirred and asked, “And that was news to you as well, sir?”

“In truth, I believe that I learned it at some point in the past and was then Memory Charmed.”

“The way that Lockhart was?”

Severus blinked. “What?”

Harry turned to face him, a grim amusement on his face. “Oh, yes. Lockhart came and got me while you were down in the Chamber. He was expressing some hope that I knew where the Chamber was and what the monster was. I told him I didn’t know, and I certainly wasn’t going to confront it. Then he tried to Obliviate me. But I had a shield ready, and it bounced back on him. He’s a drooling mess now.”

Severus stared at him, then murmured, “I am glad that you were able to handle that yourself. But it seems that I have been remiss in my duty.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

Severus took a deep breath and prepared to lay everything before Harry. He had already told what had happened in the Chamber, and that had meant telling Harry not only about the diary and Miss Weasley but about his ability to use powerful Dark Arts to locate the Chamber entrance.

It was time to tell him about the Unbreakable Vow.

*

When he had finished, Harry was so quiet that Severus feared the disclosure had damaged him. But then Harry looked up.

“So you swore to keep me safe,” he whispered.

“I did.”

“Safety is the most important thing.”

Severus raised his eyebrows. “There are those who would not agree, Mr. Potter.”

“But it is. If you’re not alive, you can’t do any of the rest of it! Learn things, or even just laugh and eat and sleep and—” Harry cut himself off. His eyes were flaring green, the most like Lily he had ever seemed, the most alive Severus had ever seen him look. “You have to be alive,” he said more softly. “You have to be safe.”

“Yes, I suppose that is true,” Severus said. Perhaps it was a simplistic view of the world, but simplistic views could be powerful.

“Thank you for swearing to keep me safe, sir.”

And if that simplistic view brought light back to Harry’s eyes, that had dimmed after Severus had talked about the danger from the diary and the basilisk…

Severus could see no harm in it.

(There was).

*

“You will be going back to Privet Drive for the summer, Harry.”

Albus had spoken those words in a meeting that he had called Harry to without telling him why he should come, and Harry had insisted on bringing Severus with him. When Albus had said that stupid thing, Harry had looked at Severus.

Severus only inclined his head, in a motion that could be taken for a nod.

He knew that it was an immense gesture of trust for Harry to accept Albus’s words on the surface and wait for Severus to intervene in a way that would relieve him of going to the Dursleys’. For the moment, Harry had given a sulky nod and departed the Headmaster’s office dragging his feet.

“What makes you think they will let him come back next year, either, Headmaster?”

“I have spoken with Petunia.”

Severus had been intensely sorry that he hadn’t witnessed that. And it did mean that he would have to let Vernon Dursley actually pick up Harry at the train station, so that he would know how to use either magic or words to get around whatever “safeguards” Albus might have installed.

But in the end, Vernon Dursley never appeared. Harry turned towards Severus when he removed the Disillusionment Charm that had shielded him from the view of Muggles in the station, and said, “Sir?”

Severus sighed noiselessly. “You sent them an owl months ago, didn’t you.”

“Very good, sir. Two points to Slytherin.”

Severus stared at the boy. Harry promptly drew into himself, his expression smoothing out into one of well-practiced contrition, and opened his mouth. Severus knew it would be an apology.

Which he did not want. It was another gesture of trust for Harry to have opened himself up enough to—tease. Severus would never tolerate such insolence from a student in Hogwarts, even one of his own House, but they were not at Hogwarts.

And Harry is not an ordinary student.

“You need not apologize. I was caught by surprise, not offended.”

Harry gave him a deep, long look that said he doubted that, but in the end, he only smiled and said, “All right, sir. So what now? Do you have another place that you could stash me? Someone you would trust to watch me?”

“Trust,” no.

So, in the end, Severus shook his head and murmured, “I do have a place that can never be searched, Mr. Potter. I will have to tell you the secret of it so you can enter, and once you are there, you can only leave the grounds during the summer with a disguise. But I will make sure that you are safer than you would ever be with your—family.”

Harry’s teeth flashed in a smile.

*

“Spinner’s End is located…”

Severus kept his eyes on Harry as he spoke the secret aloud for the first time since he’d put the house under Fidelius two years after the end of the war. He had always anticipated that he might be eventually forced to reveal it to another person, but he had never thought that person would be James Potter’s son.

He is far more than that, and you know it.

That much was true, so Severus put aside the emotions that the thought had churned up and kept his mind calm as he watched Harry’s eyes widen. It was probably the most surprise that the boy had shown in years.

Perhaps the most emotion.

“How did you do that?” Harry breathed, tilting his head back so he could see the house’s roof more easily.

“The spell is called the Fidelius Charm,” Severus said, ushering Harry inside with a hand hovering near but not touching him. “It hides a building or other place in the Secret-Keeper’s soul.” He paused with his hand on the doorway, watching as Harry looked around the small cottage as if it were a wonder. That said more about his deprivation than it did about the state of Spinner’s End, of course.

Then he thought of something else, and grimaced.

Harry turned around fast enough to catch the expression, of course. “What is it?” he asked, shrinking in on himself and watching Severus through his fringe.

Severus took a deep breath. “I just realized that you would not have known, because your relatives would not have known, either. The Fidelius Charm was what your parents were sheltering under just before they died.”

Harry went still, his eyes so huge that Severus thought he could find the deepest secrets in them if he used Legilimency. He did not, of course.

Harry coughed a second later and whispered, “If it stores the secret in your soul, what happened? Did someone torture the Secret-Keeper to get the secret out?”

Severus sighed. He was not looking forward to this conversation, and especially what he would have to explain about his own relationship with James Potter and Sirius Black, but he was the one who had started it.

“Come. I will make you tea, and we will speak of it.”