lomonaaeren

Harry had scrawled a short note at the bottom of the essay that he’d turned in for homework a few days later.

Expect a summons tonight.

Severus cast a spell that blurred the ink on those particular lines—just in case Barty ever thought to look for them—and took a deep breath.

This might be the last, the very last, summons he would ever receive to the Dark Lord’s side.

The thought made him giddy.

But giddiness was no excuse for carelessness, so Severus went back to cleaning up after the children—the children he would soon be done teaching, thank any gods who listened—and composing his mind in icy Occlumency for tonight.

*

“I don’t know what to hope for.”

Barty’s voice was low as he and Severus stood waiting in the middle of the open field to which they had been summoned. Severus inclined his head solemnly in Barty’s direction. Part of him was listening, but the rest was wondering how Harry had chosen this location and why he had forced the half-brained Dark Lord to summon them here.

For that matter, how had Harry activated the link between the Dark Marks and the Dark Lord? That was a magic that Severus had never understood himself.

Then again, he’d never studied the Mark in detail, because such an action could have seemed treasonous to the Dark Lord.

“Severus?”

Severus turned to face Barty, and found the man staring at him with an edge of desperation. Severus held back a sigh and said gently, “Yes?”

“Why are you standing there looking so unafraid?”

“I trust that our Lord has some motivation for summoning us now, and both together. Before, he kept us separate, except for the night of his resurrection. I think this must be significant.” Severus paused. “And I cannot imagine that he means for one of us to witness the other’s death.”

“It would be you witnessing mine, at this point.”

Severus started to reply, but the sharp crack of Apparition came from in front of them, and he turned and fell to one knee. Barty hastily imitated him.

Even with his eyes down, Severus could make out the Dark Lord’s steady approach. Harry was doing a great job of controlling the body—well, either that, or the reflexes that controlled things like walking would be left as some of the last things to be devoured by Harry working down the Horcrux link.

The Dark Lord stood before them and surveyed them in what would probably seem a meditative silence to Barty. Severus was struck by a ludicrous desire to stick out his tongue or otherwise make a gesture that would acknowledge Harry behind the staring red eyes.

He restrained himself, obviously. But the temptation was there.

“Rise.”

Severus did so, his eyes still on the ground. But Barty was looking up hopefully, hungrily, next to him. Severus bit back irritation. To see one of the brightest minds among the Ravenclaws of Severus’s generation turned into this slavish thing struck him now as waste, which it never had before.

I never had the time or ability to worry about it before.

“Do you know why I have summoned you here?” the puppet asked, pacing slowly back and forth in front of them.

“No, master,” Barty whispered, his voice fawning and cringing so that Severus was more than a bit embarrassed for him. But he simply shook his own head, looking no higher than the puppet’s bare feet.

“Because I have a task that only the two of you can accomplish. You must work together.”

Severus did not frown, because he was deep in his Occlumency. But he did wonder what Harry thought he was doing.

“Yes, master,” Barty said, probably taking this for implied forgiveness. Severus hoped with a vicious abruptness that startled him that the Dark Lord was aware enough behind his eyes to scream in fear and rage as his most devoted servant was directed by someone else.

“Good. I have rethought the wisdom of having a symbol of ownership that can be seen by all and sundry.”

Barty blinked. “What, master?”

Severus could not help the way that his eyes jerked up and met the red ones of the Dark Lord. The pseudo-Dark Lord. One of them closed in a slow, distinct wink at him, and then the Dark Lord, as it would seem, swung away and began to pace back and forth with his robes eddying around him.

“The Dark Mark, my servant. Too many people are aware of its presence, and gaze at it and my servants with covetous eyes. I will design a new mark. Discreet, small, and only visible to the truly devoted.”

What is he doing?

“Only visible to the truly devoted,” Barty repeated, sounding overwhelmed. Severus had to look down in what he hoped would look like abasement and was truly embarrassment as Barty knelt further. “Yes, yes, my lord, that is exactly as it should be.”

“I am glad you approve, Barty.” The Dark Lord extended his hand and let his white fingers spread over the front of Barty’s forehead for a moment—echoing the placement of Harry’s lightning bolt scar, Severus realized with a jolt. “You shall have input into the decision. Severus shall brew the potion that will erase the Dark Marks now extant and create the new design.”

Thank you very much for telling me so.

Barty’s head bobbed back and forth like it was on strings. “Yes, my lord. We’ll work together, never fear.”

“It may be a project that will have to continue beyond the end of the school term.” The Dark Lord pulled his hand back from Barty’s head and began pacing back and forth once more. “There is so little that one can do without the presence of the boy…”

You had better have a plan.

“Of course, my lord! I know that Harry will be thrilled to visit and help you.”

“Yes, he will. He is my second most devoted.”

You are laying it on a little thick.

Barty shot Severus an astonished, commiserating glance, as though believing he would be upset that his “place” at the “Dark Lord’s” side would have been taken by Harry. But he said, “Please tell us of the design of the new Mark, master.”

“It will be gold, and it will resemble…”

Severus did not bother listening. He could always ask Harry later if he was curious. He maintained a steady gaze and nodded when it seemed appropriate.

And meanwhile, he wondered what in the world Harry had decided to do, and if it was for a better reason than his own entertainment.

*

“Well. Partially my own entertainment. But mostly because of what I found looking around in the Dark Lord’s head.”

Severus shook his head and nudged the glass of water across the table to Harry. Well, mostly water. He had put a small splash of Firewhisky into it. “And are you going to stretch it out all night?”

Harry laughed and picked up the glass. He wasn’t pale and shaky the way he had been after the night Severus had been summoned and he must have controlled the Dark Lord for hours. Still, Severus thought he could use the invigoration of the drink.

“We did wonder why I didn’t affect you the way I did him and Barty.”

“Well, yes. But I thought it was because—forgive me if I brag—I was sane.”

Harry blinked for a moment, and Severus stilled, wondering if he should not have made that joke. But then Harry was laughing quietly, leaning forwards in his chair with the glass shaking in his hand from the force of his mirth.

I can make jokes. We are entering the kind, the way, of life where I can make jokes.

Severus sat there savoring the freedom from his burden for a moment, and then raised an imperious eyebrow at Harry. Harry took one more sip of his water and said, “He was putting bits of his soul into the Dark Marks.”

Severus stared at him. “What?”

“From what I can see in his memories, he made his first Horcruxes years before he ever Marked someone. Decades before there were Death Eaters. So his soul was unstable when he started Marking them. And he wanted to design a spell that would be absolutely impossible for anyone to escape. So…”

“He did it on purpose?”

“No. He designed the Dark Mark as a trap, a net that would weave around the Marked person and bind them to him body and soul. But that meant, in turn, that the bond pulled on his soul. He was arrogant enough to think it wouldn’t.”

“So I have been walking around with a mini-Horcrux in my arm.”

“Yes. Sorry,” Harry added, as Severus picked up his own glass of Firewhisky and stared into it, motionless and disgusted.

“It is of no matter,” Severus said faintly, and shook himself. “Truly,” he added, when he saw Harry staring at him in concern. “I would rather know than not.”

Harry inclined his head.

“What does this have to do with the fact that the Dark Lord and Barty are more stable when you are around, but I did not need the steadying effect of your presence?”

“I have a large part of the Dark Lord’s soul compared to what’s left in his body after making all those Dark Marks as well as the actual Horcruxes. He grew more stable and sane when that larger piece was brought into proximity. And Barty’s Mark actually contained less soul than your average Death Eater because the Dark Lord trusted so much in his loyalty that he saw less need to bind him. So he also had a small piece that was balanced out by my larger one.”

“Whereas I…”

“Had a larger piece in the first place because the Dark Lord didn’t trust you that much, and you also have Occlumency to keep your emotions calmer.”

“The Dark Lord is an Occlumens. I should say, perhaps, was.”

“Yeah, but he was so much affected by the loss of large swathes of his soul that it didn’t matter that much.”

Severus nodded slowly. He thought he could venture another reason. “And he focused on Legilimency more than Occlumency—and even his Occlumency was there mostly to defend against an attacker, not to balance or calm himself.”

“Exactly.” Harry sneered a little. “He didn’t think about his safety, even though supposedly every move he made was towards securing that.”

“Safety from death. From betrayal, if putting pieces of his soul into the Dark Mark was meant to make it impossible for his Death Eaters to betray him.”

“Exactly.”

“And you are using this project so that you can remove the Mark from me and from Barty.”

“Yes. And other Death Eaters, I suppose, although frankly I don’t care about them.”

No. You care about two people in this world, and occasionally three. I do not know why my somewhat reluctant gestures on your behalf were enough to buy me entrance to the charmed world of your protection, but I would not reject it.

Severus lifted his glass in a toast, and Harry leaned forwards, with a chilly smile, to clink his own against it.