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“He was very serious about this threat.”

Harry’s voice was almost inaudible. Severus nodded and sipped again from the glass of Firewhisky he had poured himself the moment he got back to his quarters. It wouldn’t do to become too dependent on it, so this was still his first glass, but he felt that he bloody well deserved it.

“Yes,” Severus added, when it seemed that Harry was waiting for something more from him. “Barty believed that he could take care of the problem. But if not, you will be leaving under your Invisibility Cloak.”

“With Barty?”

“I had not considered that at the time, because that was before I spoke to him, but yes. Perhaps that would be for the best.”

“And you would have us go to the Dark Lord who tortured Barty?”

Severus breathed out. Yes, he could see why Harry would have objections to that plan. “You needn’t go straight there. But I believe that the Dark Lord might be growing more unstable because of the distance from you, and so it could be that—visiting—would make his mind clearer. I would not ask you to put yourself in danger, however.”

Harry kept his head turned, staring into the fire. Severus watched him, and wondered what his main objection was. That he was being chased out of Hogwarts? That he feared the Dark Lord torturing him as well? Leaving Severus behind?

Severus could hope that it was the last, but he didn’t know, not truly.

Harry bit his lip and finally turned back to face him. “I suppose that you should know…”

But he trailed off and said nothing. “Yes?” Severus finally prompted, after five minutes of no one talking but the fire.

“I told you that I’d spied enough in the Dark Lord’s mind to learn some more about the other Horcruxes, but not enough to know how to retrieve them.”

“Yes.”

“That was because I was doing something else.”

Harry seemed to be sitting taller, and his face had a smile on it that made Severus think of hungry wolves running through bloody snow. “Yes?” he repeated, warily. He wondered for a wild moment if Albus’s suspicions were true and the Dark Lord had possessed Harry after all, working back along the Horcrux link.

“I can control him.”

The words were so impossible that Severus’s brain simply refused to comprehend them at first. Then he stared at Harry, and felt his mouth opening. Harry inclined his head, eyes glittering, and seemed to wait for Severus’s mind to draw itself back together.

“What do you mean?” Severus finally whispered.

“I can control his actions. I don’t do it all the time, because it would be tiring, but he’s arrogant, and he didn’t guard the connection with me closely because he believed that a Horcrux could never affect him except positively. I can bloody well turn him into a puppet when I want to.”

“You—you made sure that he didn’t torture me when I was summoned after he had tortured Barty.”

“Yes.”

“You are part of the reason that he hasn’t been raiding and murdering people.”

Harry smiled. “Yes.”

Severus reached up and put a hand on his forehead, pinching the skin for a moment. No, this was not a dream, and he didn’t believe that he had a fever and was hallucinating, either.

“Barty and I wondered why the Dark Lord wasn’t moving more aggressively,” he whispered. “We both did. Why he wanted to concentrate on protecting the Horcruxes and—I don’t know what else. I thought that he might be researching methods to keep his constructed body safe.”

“I did nudge him in that direction. Like I said, I don’t control him all the time. But I control him more and more often, and it’s easier and easier. It helped that he didn’t have a lot of Death Eaters around him when he was resurrected who would notice the difference between one day and the next, and also, honestly, that he came back in a body so like a snake’s. I think it infects him with something like the torpor they get when they’re cold.”

“And now?”

“Now?” Harry’s smile flashed like lightning. “Now, there’s little of him left.”

“If you’re possessing him…”

“It’s not like possession, really. Or the Imperius Curse. I just—eat away at his mind and spirit. Most of him’s gone.”

Severus swallowed, staring at Harry. Harry stared back, head slightly cocked as he seemed to wait for praise or condemnation.

But Severus could find nothing in him of condemnation. Instead, rising inside him like a star was pride.

Oh, you vicious, clever child. You knew we would never be safe as things stood, and you took care of the Dark Lord while I was taking care of Albus.

“I am proud of you,” Severus whispered. “So immensely proud.”

Harry looked a little startled, as though he’d expected at least a lecture about how dangerous it had been and how he could have lost himself in the Dark Lord’s mind. Severus might have been minded to give that lecture if he had known what Harry was doing it when he began his—feeding. But as it stood, all he could feel was that pride.

And relief, washing in like a tide behind it.

He and Harry were safe from both their masters, or would be shortly. They were free.

“We do have to decide what to do about Barty, of course.”

Severus blinked. “Did you want him to be tortured by the Dark Lord?”

Harry grimaced and shook his head. “I would kill him if he was a threat to either one of us, but beyond that, I’m—a bit fond of him, I suppose. I knew that I needed to tighten my grip on the Dark Lord’s mind once I heard from you about how he’d tortured Barty. He was furious and frightened and lashing out the only way he knew how.”

“And the Horcruxes?”

“The thought of any danger to them makes him fight and almost gives him strength enough to break my grip. We’ll have to go after them later and decide what to do with them.”

“Decide what to do with them?” Severus repeated blankly. “We are going to destroy them, surely.”

“But think of how much we could learn from them if they were cleansed.” Harry’s eyes shone hungrily. “Ravenclaw’s diadem, a legendary source of wisdom. Slytherin’s locket—I’m sure that’s what the locket I saw is—supposedly possessed of magic that would make its wearer able to discover the deepest secrets of the world. And Hufflepuff’s cup! An inexhaustible source of wealth and food.”

Severus laughed shakily. It seemed that he had mistaken Harry’s deepest passion after safety. It was not for anger or vengeance. It was for knowledge.

“You are a scholar at heart, then?” he asked. He teased. He could not remember the last time he had felt light-hearted enough to tease someone.

“Don’t be silly, Severus. I’m not a Ravenclaw. But yes, I do like creating spells, and I like learning enough that I can pick up unknown secrets and keep myself safer than Divination could ever manage.”

“But what would happen to the Dark Lord if the Horcruxes remained?”

“Cleansed, they wouldn’t be Horcruxes anymore. I think his body would crumble and his spirit would fade. Of course, we would need to have some story ready to tell Barty, but it might take years for him to truly pass away, and then we would have something ready.”

“If you could secure Barty’s devotion for yourself…”

“It would be difficult. I can’t be the father figure to him that the Dark Lord was. But you’re right that it would be worthwhile to make an effort. I’ll think on it.”

And as if he hadn’t disclosed the most incredible revelation in Severus’s life, Harry turned back to the scroll in front of him, which held the components of the latest spell he had been inventing.

Harry did nothing but twitch a smile when Severus began to laugh. When the laughter crackled on the edge of tears, Severus’s Occlumency shields coming down, Harry crossed the room to him and leaned a light hand on his shoulder, not enough to imprison or restrain.

Severus reached out and embraced Harry, causing a startled intake of breath from the boy. But his ward relaxed against him, and wrapped his own arms around Severus.

“I was never going to let him hurt you,” Harry whispered. “And now neither of them can.”

Severus still found it hard to think of a future where he was free from both of his masters. It gleamed like a crystal cauldron he had once seen in a dream, and he kept thinking he would open his eyes and it would be gone.

But Harry was here, Harry with his arms around him, Harry with his incredible mind and his determination to see to Severus’s safety.

This was real.