Chapter 3 - Discoveries
Thirty minutes later, they were sneaking to the main fireplace. They had briefly argued about who would go over to Snapdragon Manor. Harry had wanted Luna to remain behind, but she insisted she was perfectly able to go with them.
They had a quick argument over the safety of floo travel.
"Is it safe for a pregnant woman to travel that way?" Harry asked. "Muggle women aren't supposed to fly during some parts of the pregnancy, I think."
"Third trimester," Hermione said, "but I've never heard anything about witches having problems."
"She could stay here with Draco," Ron said.
"I'm going with you," Draco said. "I may have one eye, but I can help ransack a manor just as well as the knocked-up broad."
"We need someone to keep lookout," Hermione said. "What if Ron and Luna drove over in the flying car, and Draco, Harry, and I flooed over? The three of us could search while Ron and Luna keep watch over the grounds."
"You think we need that much of a lookout?" Ron asked.
"By now everyone knows we've left Hogwarts," Hermione said. "They'll come to the manor, looking for us. We need a lookout."
Ron and Luna slipped out a side door, and Harry paused to watch his friend help Luna into the car. Ron glanced around attentively as Luna got in and he shut the passenger door. Ron seemed older than he had over Christmas break; the scar on his face gave him an almost menacing look – a look Harry had never associated with his best friend before.
"Harry," Draco whispered, holding out the bowl of floo powder.
Harry hurried towards them and scooped up a handful of rough, green powder.
"Wait," Hermione grabbed his arm. "We can get into the manor, yes? You said something about coming through the wrong fireplace when you first got there."
"Yes, that was a different fireplace," Harry said. "The one in Snape's study is open now – he put it back on the floo network in the summer."
"So we all say 'Snapdragon Manor'?"
"Yeah," Harry took the powder and stepped into the fireplace. He flung down the powder and said the words. A moment later, he dropped out of the fireplace in Snape's study.
It was dark, the only light coming from the windows, and the room was icy cold.
Harry stepped out of the way, and Hermione came through next. A second later, Draco dropped out.
"Brr," Draco chattered. "Ruddy freezing."
"Nabby," Harry called out. "Minnonty ? Are you two here?"
Both house elves popped out in front of him as the study candles came on.
"Master Harry," Nabby came forward and flung her thin arms around Harry's legs. Minnonty, the more conservative of the two, stood still, but his eyes were shining.
"Hey," Harry knelt down to get on eye-level with them. "I'm back. You – you heard about Snape?"
They both nodded, and Nabby burst into tears.
"It's all right," Harry put a hand on her shoulder. "Snape isn't dead, not yet. He's out there somewhere, and we're going to find him."
He explained to them what had happened, and both elves edged close as he promised that he would bring Snape back in one piece.
"Maybe so," Minnonty said, "we is missing Master Snape very much, but for now, you is the new master. You is now master of the house."
"I need to search the manor," Harry said. "I need to be able to look everywhere."
The elves looked at each other. "But – but," Nabby said in a low voice, "Master Snape – he told Nabby that Master Harry is not allowed –"
"But Master Harry is now the real master," Minnonty said firmly. "We must do what Master Harry wants."
"I don't want to do anything wrong," Harry told them. "I would never snoop around this house if Snape was here, but he isn't. I need you to unlock all the doors and turn some heat on and get some lights on. If anyone shows up, you need to say I was never here. Can you do that?"
"Minnonty and Nabby will obey Master Harry," Nabby said.
Hermione had been watching the whole proceeding with a slight frown, and she finally burst out, "But wait. You get passed down like property? Harry gets the house, so he gets you, too?"
Harry sighed and asked, "Nabby, Minnonty, do you want me to give you your freedom?"
Looks of terror came over the house elves' faces.
"Is Master Harry angry with Nabby and Minnonty?" Nabby asked.
"The manor is home – Minnonty and Nabby live here," Minnonty said.
"Just wanted to make sure," Harry looked up at Hermione.
"Fine," she pursed her lips together. "But if Harry treats you badly, he'll have me to answer to."
"Let's start searching," Harry stood up.
"I'll go with the house elves and make sure the doors all can open," Draco said. "Why don't you two start at the top and work your way down?"
The bedrooms that were closed up had little furniture in them, and nothing interesting that Harry or Hermione could find.
"Nothing down here," Hermione jogged down the hallway to meet Harry. "I don't think there would be anything to help us in these bedrooms – no one keeps anything important in their spare bedrooms. What about that last hallway?
"There is just one door on that side," Harry glanced down the short hallway. "It's always been closed. The door's still closed."
"We couldn't get it to open," Draco appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down the hallway where Harry and Hermione stood. "The door wouldn't budge."
Harry walked up to the closed door. Hermione followed behind, her wand drawn.
"Harry, don't do anything rash," she warned. "There could be some kind of curse in there."
"I'll go slow," Harry put his hand on the knob.
He felt the knob twitch under his fingers. The lock slid back, and the door opened.
A soft light came on.
Hermione gasped. "Oh, my. Is that -?"
Harry stepped further into the room, looking around. "It's a - a –"
"A nursery," Hermione said. "This is the playroom of a nursery. A wooden toy-box, a rocking chair, stuffed animals," she ran into the next room. "There's a crib in here. And a changing table and other baby things."
Harry went into the next room. He saw the crib and he went to it, placing his hands on the wooden rail. He could almost picture a baby sleeping there. Even though the room had been closed up, there wasn't the slightest smell of dust or mold. A baby could lie down on the soft green sheets with the cream coverlet over its sleeping form.
Above the crib hung a mobile with tiny flying dragons. Harry reached a hand up to it, and the mobile clicked on. It began to hum slowly, and the dragons flew around in a circle.
"Harry? Harry!" Hermione grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"Wh-what?" he turned towards her.
"You were standing there a long time," she said, her eyes huge. "You looked possessed."
"There's something about this room," Harry looked around. "It's alive now. It – it wants a baby. It wants me to put a baby in there."
"What?"
"I don't think it would hurt the baby – I'm not sure. But it's some kind of magic."
"We don't have time for this," Hermione pulled him towards the door. "When we get Snape back, he can tell us all about the room. But for now . . ."
"All right," Harry nodded. "I'm leaving. I'll be back, nursery rooms."
Harry felt slightly dizzy as he stumbled out, and Hermione grabbed his wrist protectively.
An hour later, Harry stood with Hermione and Draco in the main entrance hall. Every ten minutes, Ron or Luna came by and flashed their wand through the window, a sign that all was well outside.
"We've got nothing," Harry crossed his arms. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
"I thought we'd find something in the study," Hermione said.
"I thought so, too," Harry said. "Snape was always so private about the study. I would never touch anything when I went in there, and I didn't go in unless he was there."
"What other places could you not go?" Hermione asked. "The potions closet –"
"I blew that up," Harry scowled.
"The room growing poisonous, sleeping plants," Draco added.
"I nearly died in there," Harry glared at Draco.
"So, that leaves the storage place and the greenhouse," Hermione said. "But what about a lab? Snape would need a lab, wouldn't he?"
Harry paused. "He must have had a lab. He made potions all the time and made me drink them. How big would a potions lab have to be?"
"One the size of the one at school?" Hermione suggested. "Snape always had side projects going on while we had class. Even when Moretta took over, I still saw potions brewing on the back tables, and she never touched them."
"Snape would disappear for a while," Harry said, "sometimes for hours. I could never find him, but he always showed up. Where would he hide a lab where I couldn't find it?"
Draco snapped his fingers. "What about past the room with the sleeping plants? Snape put a sign for you not to go in there. What if he was hiding two things?"
They went to the small room and stared at the door that was barely cracked. Snape had put up a new note: You still can't come in here, Harry.
"Sorry, Snape," Harry grabbed the facemasks off the wooden pegs. He handed one to Draco and one to Hermione. "Hermione, you go in with me. Draco, stay here. If we get in trouble, you get the house elves to pull us out. Watch us carefully."
With the facemasks covering their noses and mouths, Hermione and Harry stepped into the room where the Dreamless Sleeping Draught plants stood. The air felt stuffy, but Harry didn't feel sleepy as they walked past the seemingly-innocent plants. Hermione held his hand, and he kept glancing at her to make sure she didn't get drowsy. Her eyes were attentive and alert over the top of her mask, and she pointed with her free hand to an open door at the end of the room.
"Look, that could be it."
It was a lab - just as big as the classroom at Hogwarts, but filled with all kinds of complicated equipment.
"My goodness," Hermione looked around with staggering slowness. "This is incredible. Why did Snape not let you in here? With this type of sophisticated equipment, you could have been a potions master like he was."
"Really?"
Hermione shut the door. She took off her mask and took a careful breath. "It's fine. No, but, really, Harry – I've seen equipment like this in only the best labs. Wizards of the highest quality who master the art of potions, wizards who link magic with physics – they make you prove your talents before you can pay for these types of instruments. You have to prove that you're a potions master of the first class before you can buy this."
"And Snape never told me," ripping his own mask off, Harry tried not to stomp his foot as he felt his anger rising. "Snape considered me so stupid and talentless that he wouldn't even show me this."
"The plants," Hermione demonstrated to the closed door.
"The masks work! He could have given me one and shown me this. Or even told me about it. 'By the way, Harry, I have one of the world's best potion labs.' How hard would that have been?"
Hermione ducked around a large cauldron in the middle of the room and peered eagerly at the machines.
"Always hiding things from me," Harry glanced at a contraption of vials and glass twisted together. "I'm not that clumsy even though he called me a bull in a china shop after our practices. I wonder if he could walk in a straight line after carrying buckets of rocks up revolving stairs."
"Harry," Hermione called from the front of the room, "I think I found the answer."
"Answer to what?" Harry moved around the equipment, towards her.
"I think to everything," Hermione was staring at a main desk that was covered with papers and books. On the wall behind the desk, different sized pictures covered every inch, and all were alive and moving.
All the pictures were of Harry.
"It's me," Harry said blankly. "I – I don't remember any of these being taken."
In all the pictures, he didn't look directly at the camera or whoever was taking the pictures. Some were from the summer, as he wandered through the gardens. A few were from the grounds of Hogwarts, and some were even from inside classrooms. Each played for about twenty seconds and then repeated.
"Why did Snape take these?" Harry reached a hand out to touch the edge of one photo where he flew over the trees and then did a flip in the air. "It's like he was stalking me – but – but I lived here. How can you follow someone who lives with you?"
Hermione was ruffling through the stuff on the desk. "Papers, charts, books – there're all about you, Harry. Books about mark transference, powers of heirs, prophecies being altered, wizards with unique powers. Several articles on blood bonds, and you're everywhere."
She grabbed up a paper and read, "Today H unleashed his power in class. He cast lumos so bright and hot it nearly blinded the students. Check for references to 'unleashed potential'."
"That was early in the fall at school," Harry remembered.
"It goes back further," Hermione leafed through the papers. "All the way until June, only he called you P back then. P for Potter, I guess."
Harry stared at the sheets. It felt odd and uncomfortable to see himself through someone else's eyes.
"I'm in here, too," Hermione found a loose sheet. "He's writing about the picnic we went on. H went with Her, Ron, Dra, and Wor. The five of them have become friends – investigate this further. H might be interested in Her, but Ron is in love, obviously."
Hermione looked up. "Snape knew Ron loved me? I didn't think he cared about us enough to notice anything. H came back and lied for Wor. I punished them both, but H needs a firmer hand so I plan to –"
"That's enough about that," Harry grabbed the paper from her.
"Well, this is better," Hermione found another sheet. "H has passed every test I can design for him. He is ready physically and mentally to fight V. Once V appears, the Transfer of Marks will take place. Then it will be over."
"So, that was it?" Harry flushed. "Basically, Snape recorded everything that happened to me to get ready. Do you think this was part of killing Voldemort? Is that the reason for all of this?"
"Harry, I'm sure it was more than –"
"No," Harry swallowed hard. "I'm not – none of this was - it wasn't real."
Hermione said nothing, waiting for him to go on.
"I thought he took me in because he – you know," Harry's throat ached so hard he couldn't swallow. "This whole time I thought I was more, but I wasn't. I was just his experiment. He wanted to kill Voldemort, and I was a way of doing it. Yes, take in the wretched orphan and put up with him long enough to get him ready to kill. This whole time I thought – I'm so stupid."
"This doesn't mean Snape didn't love you," Hermione insisted. "He could do more than one thing at a time – raise you as a son and a hero."
"No, this whole thing started because I came through the wrong floo portal," Harry said. "I came through the floo in the family room that had been cursed when Voldemort came through or something like that. He didn't tell me, but he was experimenting on me then, too. He gave me potions and I burned off the curse. He sat there, watching me catch fire, like I was some bug in a jar."
"Harry –"
"I am tired of being used. I am tired of having other people decide things for me. Snape just did whatever he wanted over and over again. This – this is demeaning! He might as well have strapped me down on a table and hacked off parts to test. At least that way I would have known what was going on. How can you trust someone who would do this to his own son?"
"Harry –"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Not real son, adopted son – adopted only so he could be turned into a weapon. Ugly bastard."
"Harry," Hermione's sharp voice cut through.
"What?" he snapped at her. "How are you going to make this better?"
"I'm not. I'm not going to say anything about this. But you need to decide if you want to go on or not."
"Meaning?"
"No one's perfect, Harry. You snuck around Snape to do what you wanted, and now you know he did the same."
"I wanted to sneak out for New Year's with friends," Harry exploded. "I didn't track every one of his movements like he was a lab rat. I won't forgive him for this."
"All right," Hermione said, "forgive or not, do you want to continue? Do you want to find Snape or not? Because if you want to find him, you have to put all of this anger on hold."
"I won't let this cloud my judgment. I'm going to have some words for him."
"So you want to proceed?"
"Oh, yes," Harry slapped the papers down on the table. "We are proceeding. Severus Snape is not going to rest in peace until I've said my piece!"
The door banged open, and Draco ran in. "They're here," he shouted. "Luna saw them come through the front gate. Ron has her in the car, and we have to – Merlin, Potter, are those all pictures of you?"
"Hurry," Harry grabbed papers and books. "Take everything you can find. We're going to spend the next few days studying up on Snape."
Draco and Hermione began grabbing books and stacking them up. Harry concentrated on his hands and ignored the feeling of resentment he had against the man who had collected so much information about the Boy who Lived.
They had a quick argument over the safety of floo travel.
"Is it safe for a pregnant woman to travel that way?" Harry asked. "Muggle women aren't supposed to fly during some parts of the pregnancy, I think."
"Third trimester," Hermione said, "but I've never heard anything about witches having problems."
"She could stay here with Draco," Ron said.
"I'm going with you," Draco said. "I may have one eye, but I can help ransack a manor just as well as the knocked-up broad."
"We need someone to keep lookout," Hermione said. "What if Ron and Luna drove over in the flying car, and Draco, Harry, and I flooed over? The three of us could search while Ron and Luna keep watch over the grounds."
"You think we need that much of a lookout?" Ron asked.
"By now everyone knows we've left Hogwarts," Hermione said. "They'll come to the manor, looking for us. We need a lookout."
Ron and Luna slipped out a side door, and Harry paused to watch his friend help Luna into the car. Ron glanced around attentively as Luna got in and he shut the passenger door. Ron seemed older than he had over Christmas break; the scar on his face gave him an almost menacing look – a look Harry had never associated with his best friend before.
"Harry," Draco whispered, holding out the bowl of floo powder.
Harry hurried towards them and scooped up a handful of rough, green powder.
"Wait," Hermione grabbed his arm. "We can get into the manor, yes? You said something about coming through the wrong fireplace when you first got there."
"Yes, that was a different fireplace," Harry said. "The one in Snape's study is open now – he put it back on the floo network in the summer."
"So we all say 'Snapdragon Manor'?"
"Yeah," Harry took the powder and stepped into the fireplace. He flung down the powder and said the words. A moment later, he dropped out of the fireplace in Snape's study.
It was dark, the only light coming from the windows, and the room was icy cold.
Harry stepped out of the way, and Hermione came through next. A second later, Draco dropped out.
"Brr," Draco chattered. "Ruddy freezing."
"Nabby," Harry called out. "Minnonty ? Are you two here?"
Both house elves popped out in front of him as the study candles came on.
"Master Harry," Nabby came forward and flung her thin arms around Harry's legs. Minnonty, the more conservative of the two, stood still, but his eyes were shining.
"Hey," Harry knelt down to get on eye-level with them. "I'm back. You – you heard about Snape?"
They both nodded, and Nabby burst into tears.
"It's all right," Harry put a hand on her shoulder. "Snape isn't dead, not yet. He's out there somewhere, and we're going to find him."
He explained to them what had happened, and both elves edged close as he promised that he would bring Snape back in one piece.
"Maybe so," Minnonty said, "we is missing Master Snape very much, but for now, you is the new master. You is now master of the house."
"I need to search the manor," Harry said. "I need to be able to look everywhere."
The elves looked at each other. "But – but," Nabby said in a low voice, "Master Snape – he told Nabby that Master Harry is not allowed –"
"But Master Harry is now the real master," Minnonty said firmly. "We must do what Master Harry wants."
"I don't want to do anything wrong," Harry told them. "I would never snoop around this house if Snape was here, but he isn't. I need you to unlock all the doors and turn some heat on and get some lights on. If anyone shows up, you need to say I was never here. Can you do that?"
"Minnonty and Nabby will obey Master Harry," Nabby said.
Hermione had been watching the whole proceeding with a slight frown, and she finally burst out, "But wait. You get passed down like property? Harry gets the house, so he gets you, too?"
Harry sighed and asked, "Nabby, Minnonty, do you want me to give you your freedom?"
Looks of terror came over the house elves' faces.
"Is Master Harry angry with Nabby and Minnonty?" Nabby asked.
"The manor is home – Minnonty and Nabby live here," Minnonty said.
"Just wanted to make sure," Harry looked up at Hermione.
"Fine," she pursed her lips together. "But if Harry treats you badly, he'll have me to answer to."
"Let's start searching," Harry stood up.
"I'll go with the house elves and make sure the doors all can open," Draco said. "Why don't you two start at the top and work your way down?"
The bedrooms that were closed up had little furniture in them, and nothing interesting that Harry or Hermione could find.
"Nothing down here," Hermione jogged down the hallway to meet Harry. "I don't think there would be anything to help us in these bedrooms – no one keeps anything important in their spare bedrooms. What about that last hallway?
"There is just one door on that side," Harry glanced down the short hallway. "It's always been closed. The door's still closed."
"We couldn't get it to open," Draco appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down the hallway where Harry and Hermione stood. "The door wouldn't budge."
Harry walked up to the closed door. Hermione followed behind, her wand drawn.
"Harry, don't do anything rash," she warned. "There could be some kind of curse in there."
"I'll go slow," Harry put his hand on the knob.
He felt the knob twitch under his fingers. The lock slid back, and the door opened.
A soft light came on.
Hermione gasped. "Oh, my. Is that -?"
Harry stepped further into the room, looking around. "It's a - a –"
"A nursery," Hermione said. "This is the playroom of a nursery. A wooden toy-box, a rocking chair, stuffed animals," she ran into the next room. "There's a crib in here. And a changing table and other baby things."
Harry went into the next room. He saw the crib and he went to it, placing his hands on the wooden rail. He could almost picture a baby sleeping there. Even though the room had been closed up, there wasn't the slightest smell of dust or mold. A baby could lie down on the soft green sheets with the cream coverlet over its sleeping form.
Above the crib hung a mobile with tiny flying dragons. Harry reached a hand up to it, and the mobile clicked on. It began to hum slowly, and the dragons flew around in a circle.
"Harry? Harry!" Hermione grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"Wh-what?" he turned towards her.
"You were standing there a long time," she said, her eyes huge. "You looked possessed."
"There's something about this room," Harry looked around. "It's alive now. It – it wants a baby. It wants me to put a baby in there."
"What?"
"I don't think it would hurt the baby – I'm not sure. But it's some kind of magic."
"We don't have time for this," Hermione pulled him towards the door. "When we get Snape back, he can tell us all about the room. But for now . . ."
"All right," Harry nodded. "I'm leaving. I'll be back, nursery rooms."
Harry felt slightly dizzy as he stumbled out, and Hermione grabbed his wrist protectively.
An hour later, Harry stood with Hermione and Draco in the main entrance hall. Every ten minutes, Ron or Luna came by and flashed their wand through the window, a sign that all was well outside.
"We've got nothing," Harry crossed his arms. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
"I thought we'd find something in the study," Hermione said.
"I thought so, too," Harry said. "Snape was always so private about the study. I would never touch anything when I went in there, and I didn't go in unless he was there."
"What other places could you not go?" Hermione asked. "The potions closet –"
"I blew that up," Harry scowled.
"The room growing poisonous, sleeping plants," Draco added.
"I nearly died in there," Harry glared at Draco.
"So, that leaves the storage place and the greenhouse," Hermione said. "But what about a lab? Snape would need a lab, wouldn't he?"
Harry paused. "He must have had a lab. He made potions all the time and made me drink them. How big would a potions lab have to be?"
"One the size of the one at school?" Hermione suggested. "Snape always had side projects going on while we had class. Even when Moretta took over, I still saw potions brewing on the back tables, and she never touched them."
"Snape would disappear for a while," Harry said, "sometimes for hours. I could never find him, but he always showed up. Where would he hide a lab where I couldn't find it?"
Draco snapped his fingers. "What about past the room with the sleeping plants? Snape put a sign for you not to go in there. What if he was hiding two things?"
They went to the small room and stared at the door that was barely cracked. Snape had put up a new note: You still can't come in here, Harry.
"Sorry, Snape," Harry grabbed the facemasks off the wooden pegs. He handed one to Draco and one to Hermione. "Hermione, you go in with me. Draco, stay here. If we get in trouble, you get the house elves to pull us out. Watch us carefully."
With the facemasks covering their noses and mouths, Hermione and Harry stepped into the room where the Dreamless Sleeping Draught plants stood. The air felt stuffy, but Harry didn't feel sleepy as they walked past the seemingly-innocent plants. Hermione held his hand, and he kept glancing at her to make sure she didn't get drowsy. Her eyes were attentive and alert over the top of her mask, and she pointed with her free hand to an open door at the end of the room.
"Look, that could be it."
It was a lab - just as big as the classroom at Hogwarts, but filled with all kinds of complicated equipment.
"My goodness," Hermione looked around with staggering slowness. "This is incredible. Why did Snape not let you in here? With this type of sophisticated equipment, you could have been a potions master like he was."
"Really?"
Hermione shut the door. She took off her mask and took a careful breath. "It's fine. No, but, really, Harry – I've seen equipment like this in only the best labs. Wizards of the highest quality who master the art of potions, wizards who link magic with physics – they make you prove your talents before you can pay for these types of instruments. You have to prove that you're a potions master of the first class before you can buy this."
"And Snape never told me," ripping his own mask off, Harry tried not to stomp his foot as he felt his anger rising. "Snape considered me so stupid and talentless that he wouldn't even show me this."
"The plants," Hermione demonstrated to the closed door.
"The masks work! He could have given me one and shown me this. Or even told me about it. 'By the way, Harry, I have one of the world's best potion labs.' How hard would that have been?"
Hermione ducked around a large cauldron in the middle of the room and peered eagerly at the machines.
"Always hiding things from me," Harry glanced at a contraption of vials and glass twisted together. "I'm not that clumsy even though he called me a bull in a china shop after our practices. I wonder if he could walk in a straight line after carrying buckets of rocks up revolving stairs."
"Harry," Hermione called from the front of the room, "I think I found the answer."
"Answer to what?" Harry moved around the equipment, towards her.
"I think to everything," Hermione was staring at a main desk that was covered with papers and books. On the wall behind the desk, different sized pictures covered every inch, and all were alive and moving.
All the pictures were of Harry.
"It's me," Harry said blankly. "I – I don't remember any of these being taken."
In all the pictures, he didn't look directly at the camera or whoever was taking the pictures. Some were from the summer, as he wandered through the gardens. A few were from the grounds of Hogwarts, and some were even from inside classrooms. Each played for about twenty seconds and then repeated.
"Why did Snape take these?" Harry reached a hand out to touch the edge of one photo where he flew over the trees and then did a flip in the air. "It's like he was stalking me – but – but I lived here. How can you follow someone who lives with you?"
Hermione was ruffling through the stuff on the desk. "Papers, charts, books – there're all about you, Harry. Books about mark transference, powers of heirs, prophecies being altered, wizards with unique powers. Several articles on blood bonds, and you're everywhere."
She grabbed up a paper and read, "Today H unleashed his power in class. He cast lumos so bright and hot it nearly blinded the students. Check for references to 'unleashed potential'."
"That was early in the fall at school," Harry remembered.
"It goes back further," Hermione leafed through the papers. "All the way until June, only he called you P back then. P for Potter, I guess."
Harry stared at the sheets. It felt odd and uncomfortable to see himself through someone else's eyes.
"I'm in here, too," Hermione found a loose sheet. "He's writing about the picnic we went on. H went with Her, Ron, Dra, and Wor. The five of them have become friends – investigate this further. H might be interested in Her, but Ron is in love, obviously."
Hermione looked up. "Snape knew Ron loved me? I didn't think he cared about us enough to notice anything. H came back and lied for Wor. I punished them both, but H needs a firmer hand so I plan to –"
"That's enough about that," Harry grabbed the paper from her.
"Well, this is better," Hermione found another sheet. "H has passed every test I can design for him. He is ready physically and mentally to fight V. Once V appears, the Transfer of Marks will take place. Then it will be over."
"So, that was it?" Harry flushed. "Basically, Snape recorded everything that happened to me to get ready. Do you think this was part of killing Voldemort? Is that the reason for all of this?"
"Harry, I'm sure it was more than –"
"No," Harry swallowed hard. "I'm not – none of this was - it wasn't real."
Hermione said nothing, waiting for him to go on.
"I thought he took me in because he – you know," Harry's throat ached so hard he couldn't swallow. "This whole time I thought I was more, but I wasn't. I was just his experiment. He wanted to kill Voldemort, and I was a way of doing it. Yes, take in the wretched orphan and put up with him long enough to get him ready to kill. This whole time I thought – I'm so stupid."
"This doesn't mean Snape didn't love you," Hermione insisted. "He could do more than one thing at a time – raise you as a son and a hero."
"No, this whole thing started because I came through the wrong floo portal," Harry said. "I came through the floo in the family room that had been cursed when Voldemort came through or something like that. He didn't tell me, but he was experimenting on me then, too. He gave me potions and I burned off the curse. He sat there, watching me catch fire, like I was some bug in a jar."
"Harry –"
"I am tired of being used. I am tired of having other people decide things for me. Snape just did whatever he wanted over and over again. This – this is demeaning! He might as well have strapped me down on a table and hacked off parts to test. At least that way I would have known what was going on. How can you trust someone who would do this to his own son?"
"Harry –"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Not real son, adopted son – adopted only so he could be turned into a weapon. Ugly bastard."
"Harry," Hermione's sharp voice cut through.
"What?" he snapped at her. "How are you going to make this better?"
"I'm not. I'm not going to say anything about this. But you need to decide if you want to go on or not."
"Meaning?"
"No one's perfect, Harry. You snuck around Snape to do what you wanted, and now you know he did the same."
"I wanted to sneak out for New Year's with friends," Harry exploded. "I didn't track every one of his movements like he was a lab rat. I won't forgive him for this."
"All right," Hermione said, "forgive or not, do you want to continue? Do you want to find Snape or not? Because if you want to find him, you have to put all of this anger on hold."
"I won't let this cloud my judgment. I'm going to have some words for him."
"So you want to proceed?"
"Oh, yes," Harry slapped the papers down on the table. "We are proceeding. Severus Snape is not going to rest in peace until I've said my piece!"
The door banged open, and Draco ran in. "They're here," he shouted. "Luna saw them come through the front gate. Ron has her in the car, and we have to – Merlin, Potter, are those all pictures of you?"
"Hurry," Harry grabbed papers and books. "Take everything you can find. We're going to spend the next few days studying up on Snape."
Draco and Hermione began grabbing books and stacking them up. Harry concentrated on his hands and ignored the feeling of resentment he had against the man who had collected so much information about the Boy who Lived.