Chapter Seven of 'Anularius'- Different Discoveries
Chapter Six.
Title: Anularius (7/16)
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Snape
Warnings: Angst, time travel
Rating: R
Summary: Traveling back in time is safe. All you have to do is keep away from people who affect time, who are pretty rare. It's just Horcrux-collecting Harry Potter's luck that Severus Snape is one of them.
Author's Notes: A late Advent fic for thebookivore, who gave me this prompt: Harry/Snape. Time travelling Harry. As an unspeakable explains to Harry, time travel is actually very safe, because most people cannot affect the time stream except a rare few. You can tell who can affect time because they can see time travelers, otherwise "it's similar to how most Muggles cannot see magic, their minds naturally shy away from it and come up with the most incredible explanations for what they have seen". Harry knows to hide out from himself but doesn't realize that Snape can see him ...
I meant to complete this fic on time for Advent, but it got too long for me to finish on time, so I’m posting it as a chaptered story. The title is Latin for “maker of rings.”
Chapter One.
Thank you again for all the reviews!
Chapter Seven--Different Discoveries
"Time travel should be practiced more often," Snape murmured, lifting a book from the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library and squinting at it for a moment before shaking his head and laying it aside. "Then we would have more knowledge about how it actually affects the timeline."
Harry didn't bother to dignity that with a response. He had learned that keeping silent was the best way to irritate Snape.
Not that he wanted to irritate Snape all the time. He knew he needed to rely at least a little on the bastard to help him out and get him back to his own time. And Snape was the one who had told him about the cross being a Horcrux.
But he was looking through the books that Snape tossed aside, on the off-chance he was getting rid of them not because they said nothing but because they said too much, and would actually help Harry go back to his time and escape Snape's clutches.
Listen to me. Snape's clutches. I sound like I think I'm a princess in a fairy story or something, Harry thought in disgust, and paged through the book. A second later, he sighed. No, this was only theories of time-travel that were outdated, since the first page said, "There is no method to reliably travel back in time even for a few minutes." That meant it had been written before the invention of Time-Turners.
Harry pushed back the book and picked up another one, moving down the shelf ahead of Snape. Snape turned to the side so he could pass, but kept his shoulder pointing a little into the aisle of books, so Harry had to brush his arm against Snape's robes.
Harry snarled in soft irritation. "Are you this hard up?" he demanded. "You couldn't find someone to sleep with if you wanted to?"
"No," said Snape, without looking up. Harry thought that was the answer to his question and was about to follow it with a caustic remark when Snape added, "I could if I wanted to, but I only sleep with fascinating people." He gave Harry a grin full of teeth. "And you are simply that fascinating."
Harry cursed again and picked up a different book. Again, useless. He put it back on the shelf--Snape promptly snatched it out to join his growing pile of discarded ones on the floor instead--and reached for another.
Secrets of Time. Guaranteeing History. How to Become an Unspeakable. Harry shook his head. Hermione had once complained about the organization of the Hogwarts library and how it seemed to have been arranged by someone who didn't want students to find anything useful. Ron and Harry had hidden yawns and nodded along. But this far back in time and with a secret so important to find, Harry could see Hermione's point. He would apologize to her when he got back to his own time.
If I ever see her again.
Harry violently swallowed back his anger and pain and reached for another book. He wouldn't get anything accomplished by standing around brooding, the way that Snape had for so many years.
"What is this?" Snape asked abruptly, and thrust a book under his nose. Harry turned towards it willingly. He thought Snape had a sixth sense for when Harry was getting "too maudlin," as he put it, and knew how to distract him.
For a second, Harry didn't see the point of what Snape was holding in front of him. It seemed to be a book on jewels instead of time travel, and not only did that have no relevance to their search, it probably shouldn't even be in the Restricted Section. Harry was about to comment on that when his eye caught the text Snape's finger was tapping right beneath.
...most wonderful for their properties when inserted in artifacts. Heartsblood resemble rubies, but as is well-known, rubies have little effect on magical artifacts. Their wonderful hardness means that they can take only small impressions from magic--not the best guarantee for a successful, working artifact.
But heartsblood are much smoother and softer, and can be easily carved with runes, shaped to fit different holes in artifacts, or made to serve as the focal point of a pattern. They can glow with light that looks exactly like the light of rubies and has little or no difference. They are also supposedly being used in experimental artifacts that would permit time travel, although as yet there are no results from this.
Harry's hand went once more to the golden cross around his neck, and the small red stones that starred it.
"Did they actually tell you that those jewels were rubies?" Snape asked, in a soft, insistent voice.
"No...." Harry whispered. He had assumed without thinking it, and he thought Hermione had referred to them as rubies once. But not even Hermione could know everything, and she could easily have been fooled by the similarities between the stones.
"Then they might be heartsblood," said Snape, and a second later he was twisting the cross on Harry's neck around to get a better look at it. Harry jumped as he turned to face him and swung up his arm, ready to cast, but Snape only sneered at him and shook his head. "I wouldn't destroy it. You will want to stay with me of your own free will, in the end."
Harry quieted, but remained distrustful, with an eye on Snape's face, as he bent down to study them. He didn't actually know that Snape was going to keep his word. Maybe he would decide Harry was "better off" here with him and do something to destroy the cross. But if Harry had to destroy it as a Horcrux anyway...
Harry sighed. Things were confusing. They really should have chosen Hermione to come back in time.
"They are heartsblood," said Snape, after a moment. His wand twitched, and Harry tried to jump backwards, although since he was sandwiched between Snape and a bookcase, that didn't work. The jewels did nothing except glow for a second and then fade back into their usual color again. "The color isn't as clear and depthless as it would be with rubies." He slowly lowered the cross until it bumped against Harry's chest. "They told you nothing before they let you depart, did they?"
"They gave me instructions that I've already messed up," said Harry tartly, and tucked the cross inside his shirt again. "Stay out of sight. Don't let people who can affect history see you. Destroy the Horcrux."
"You haven't been able to obey the first two because of me," Snape disagreed softly, hovering. "And the last you can still complete."
Harry looked into Snape's eyes for a second. Snape slowly and delicately laid a hand over Harry's heart, all the while gazing into his face.
Harry felt breathless. He ducked his head and wriggled to the side, getting out from his pinned position, and let Snape look at him with amusement all he wanted. At least Harry was safe from doing something that would have been monumentally stupid.
"What else can we find out about heartsblood?" he asked, keeping his face averted. "I mean, it tells us something about the cross, but..." He trailed off, wondering if he could take the heartsblood out of the cross and still travel back to his time just with them. Maybe the cross was the original artifact that Voldemort had possessed to make it a Horcrux and the heartsblood were simply the things the Unspeakables had put into it to make it function as a Time-Turner.
"We should go to Borgin and Burkes," said Snape in an unexpectedly strong voice. "They may recognize the cross."
Harry turned around and stared at him. "Are you mental? I mean, I could walk into the shop without them seeing me, but they could also try to take it away! Or at least remember it in a way that could affect the timeline."
Snape arranged his face in an expression of concern. "Oh, did I not show you the book I found? It contains information about time travel that might be of some interest to us. And proves I was right," he added, and whipped the tome out from behind his back.
Harry hissed. Snape listened attentively to it, as if sifting it for a hint of Parseltongue. Harry met his eyes and impatiently pushed him out of the way, holding out a hand for the book.
"We're going to work together," said Snape placidly, avoiding Harry's reach. "After all, I don't know that you might not pry the jewels out of the cross and simply pop off when I'm not looking otherwise."
Since Harry had been considering the plan, it only made him all the more irritated to hear Snape talk about it. "Fine, but at least let me see the book," he said, and Snape nodded and lowered the book to Harry's height. Harry shook his head when he realized Snape was still holding one corner so that Harry would have to rely on him to turn the pages. "Why do you like irritating me so much if you just intend to sleep with me anyway?"
"Because your eyes shine so."
Harry tensed, keeping his head bowed. Well, it was a good reminder. Snape was mainly attracted to him for his eyes, which were the most visible reminder of Harry's mum. In case Harry ever started to slip into trusting Snape too much, then he would need to remember that.
Snape reached out and slipped a hand beneath Harry's chin, tilting his face gently back to smile down into it. "I promise," he whispered, slipping his lips swiftly along Harry's forehead, "no one else means as much as you do to me."
"At the moment," Harry muttered. "With my mum dead."
"Exactly," said Snape, as if that only made it all the more understandable.
Harry snorted and began to page through the book. Just give up on understanding Snape, the way he mostly had in his sixth year, and he would probably be better off.
*
"You have seen it before."
Harry, under his Invisibility Cloak just in case someone in the shop could affect time, blinked at Snape's blunt assertion. He had thought they were being subtle in coming here. After all, the whole point was to get information without leaving an impression on anyone that the cross was important or worth paying attention to.
But Snape had simply held it up in front of a man Harry thought was Borgin and said, "What is this?" And then Borgin had twitched or something, and that subtle clue seemed to have indicated to Snape that he knew something about it.
"Yes, fine," said Borgin, sullenly, his hands curling around the edge of the counter as though he wanted to punch Snape. "I'm only telling you this because you've been one of my best customers, mind. I first saw the ruddy thing years ago, when it was brought in by this half-mad warlock who claimed he'd found it in a cave. Said it was an artifact of Godric Gryffindor himself." Borgin sniffed. "Not that there's much proof of that. I was doing him a kindness to take it off his hands. Still remember how much I paid for it. There's no one better come to me saying I ain't kind, after that."
Harry caught his breath and reached out to nudge Snape in the back, as subtly as he could without drawing attention to the movement of his limbs under the Invisibility Cloak. It being an artifact of Gryffindor would explain Voldemort's attraction to it.
Snape jabbed back with a vicious elbow that nearly caught Harry in the side of the head, and nodded at Borgin. "You'll show me the proof that it belonged to Gryffindor, of course," he said, and tapped the cross with one nail, as if assuming that making it spin would render the proof clearer to his eyes.
Borgin made an aggrieved sighing sound and reached out to stop the cross from spinning. Snape gave him a smile and refused to let go of it. Harry relaxed a little. He had been unhappy about taking the cross from around his neck and entrusting it to Snape in the first place, but at least Snape seemed properly dedicated to taking care of it.
"Right, right," Borgin muttered under his breath, and paused when he got a good look at the cross. "It didn't have these heartsblood gems in it before."
"You can let me worry about how they got there," Snape said in a smooth voice that made Borgin cringe a little. "I'm only interested in the proof that it supposedly belonged to Gryffindor."
His sneer on the last word was perfect, making Borgin roll his eyes at him as if he knew all about Snape's grudges, and probably dismiss any other motivation that Snape might have for bringing the cross into the shop from his mind. "Right there, it is," said Borgin, and jabbed his finger at the notch where one of the cross's arms joined the body. "For what it's worth. Never looked much like Gryffindor's mark to me."
Snape bent down. Harry tried to crowd up behind him and see, but it was dim in the shop, and Harry didn't want to cause any suspicious noise, even if the usual method time travel operated would make Borgin dismiss it with a harmless explanation.
"Remarkably like Gryffindor's mark for a fake," said Snape, in the disagreeable way he had of saying things that made you want to argue back on principle, and lifted his head to stare again at Borgin. "Where did the warlock say he'd found it?"
Borgin shrugged. "It's been years, Snape. You can't expect me to remember details like that--"
He stopped, because Snape's wand was resting against his temple. "You remembered the details of Gryffindor's mark and the fact that it had no gems before," Snape murmured. "I think that you will either tell me something significant, or I will take your memories."
Borgin cringed again, and then half-shouted, "All right, all right! He said he found it in a cave in Albania, hidden in a place brimming with Dark magic. I tried to go and look for the cave to see if there were any more treasures there, but I never could find it. And that's the truth."
"He did not make the directions clear enough?" Snape was still twirling the wand shaft between his fingers even as he kept the tip pressed firmly against Borgin's temple. That would unnerve him too, Harry had to admit.
"No," Borgin said. "He was half-mad, I told you. You can watch the memory, but it won't tell you more than that."
"Hmm," said Snape, and pulled his wand back. "And how long was the cross in your possession? When did it leave it?"
"At least three years." Borgin winced and rubbed his temple, but he might as well have looked to a statue for sympathy as to Snape. "Then some cloaked lot came in and bought it. He said he wanted it for a grand purpose. That's all I know."
"That will do," said Snape, and then abruptly reversed the cross and pointed to one of the heartsblood jewels on the arm. "What enchantment does this one bear?"
Harry narrowed his eyes. Discussing the magic of the blasted Horcrux with Borgin hadn't been part of the plan he and Snape had made. But since when did Snape do anything in the ordinary way?
"It has an enchantment on it?" Borgin immediately shook his head. "Wasn't there when I bought it. That's all I know." He held Snape's gaze stubbornly again, and this time, Harry didn't think he would back down. He began easing around to the side, so that if Snape did something really stupid, Harry would be there in a position to grab the cross.
Snape shifted easily, blocking Harry's access to the cross without appearing to do so. "I know it has an enchantment on it. I want you to tell me what it is."
Borgin made a grumbling, unimpressed sound, but leaned towards the heartsblood gem again. Harry drew his wand and clutched it tightly under the Cloak. Rather than allow Borgin to discover something important about the cross or destroy a jewel, Harry would simply Summon it back to him. Then he could leave Snape to cover up the breach of security that the flying cross would create.
"It's unique, isn't it?" Borgin hazarded after a second, looking at Snape out of the corner of his eye. "I mean, this isn't anything ordinary. It's...it's a travel enchantment."
If he can recognize Time-Turners, he can recognize this, Harry thought, and lifted his wand to cast the Summoning Charm after all.
"A travel enchantment? Meant to aid in Apparating?" Snape sounded honestly surprised, not calculating or affectedly ignorant, and Harry hesitated. He wondered if perhaps a travel enchantment wasn't related to time travel after all, or not only that.
"Yeah," said Borgin. "I mean, the first, not the second. This ain't just Apparating!" For a moment, his fingers danced over the surface of the cross, but he didn't attempt to either take it away or pry out the jewels, to Harry's relief. "They're meant as anchors. So you could travel a long way through space, and still be able to come back to them accurately. Like you'd be able to open a Floo connection and travel through it to any other Floo where you'd left one of these beauties, whether or not the Floo you'd opened normally connected there. Or, yeah, you could Apparate to a jewel like this from any distance and even if you couldn't remember the Apparition coordinates of the place you'd left it. Or never seen them. You could have someone hide one and be able to come in that way!" In his enthusiasm, Borgin leaned forwards and prodded at Snape under the ribs. "Or you could travel other ways. Through time, eh?"
Snape only looked back with a bored, bland face, although Harry had come near leaping out of his skin and the Cloak when Borgin said that. Then Snape nodded once and said, "That tells me what I need to know," and turned away with the cross.
"You don't want to sell it?" Borgin called after him, sounding a little desolate.
Snape didn't bother replying, only nudged the door open with his elbow. Harry ducked rapidly through after him, and made sure to keep at his side as Snape hastened up towards the mouth of the alley.
When Harry was sure they were alone, he hissed out of the side of his mouth to Snape, "What were you thinking, to mention the jewels to him?"
"That we'd gain extra information," said Snape, and reached sideways with one arm. Harry found himself seized and bundled close, and then Snape was Apparating. They landed on the road to Hogsmeade.
Snape took a few rapid steps until a large tree hid him and Harry from both anyone coming from the town and anyone coming down from Hogwarts, and then turned to face Harry with his eyes shining. "Do you understand what this is?" he asked, and shook the cross in his face.
"A Horcrux, and my ticket out of here," said Harry, and grabbed one of the cross's arms.
Snape didn't even attempt to take it back, although he resisted when Harry tried to turn the cross to see Gryffindor's mark. "A Horcrux, yes," he breathed. "But what makes it special are the jewels that your Unspeakable friends inserted into it. No wonder they thought you could use it to return to your own time. They must have embedded a similar enchanted jewel somewhere in the Department of Mysteries in your year, and the cross would then be able to connect you to it across time."
Harry relaxed completely. Assuming his future was still there to travel to--something he and Snape hadn't settled completely yet, although that last book had been promising--he shouldn't have any trouble getting back.
It occurred to him, belatedly, that a secure way for him to leave wouldn't make Snape look like that. Harry glared a little. "And what else does it mean? What does it mean to get you so happy?"
"It means," said Snape, "that you could leave a jewel here, and still be assured of finding your way back. No matter how far away you went. No matter if you returned to your own time. You would still have someone waiting for you here." For a moment, his hands clenched down hard enough on Harry's shoulders to make him wince. "Me."
"You don't want me that much," said Harry after a second of thinking about it. "You might think you do, but you don't. Not really," he added, when he saw the way Snape's eyebrow went up. "Maybe as someone who's strange and exotic and can tell you things about the future, but for a long time? No."
"What about someone who is several times a fleeting visitor, and does keep going away after that, but always comes back?" Snape breathed, and reached out to cup Harry's cheek. Harry had never had someone with such long hands touch his face. He jerked a little, but the motion seemed to go entirely unnoticed by Snape. "Do you really want to abandon me forever?"
Harry forced his eyes shut. He was liable to agree to things he shouldn't when he met Snape's gaze for too long, he thought. Witness the things Snape had already got him to do.
"I don't know you," he said. "I know a different version of you, and that one is a man I admire and honor, but can't say I exactly like." Present tense, a lie, but one that would keep Harry from revealing some painful truths. "I can't--I only came to this time to destroy the Horcrux. Only. I can't pretend that I came for any other reason. And you're sort of a fool if you want me to pretend, honestly. Sorry, Snape," he added belatedly, and forced his eyes open again.
Snape didn't look angry or hurt or disappointed, although the man Harry had known would probably have looked all three when being deprived of something he wanted. He only stood there and looked into Harry's face, and then nodded a little, as if he was confirmed in some belief by his gazing.
Then he said, "Let me show you one thing you would miss out on if you left now."
"I didn't ever say I was leaving now," Harry began.
But Snape had leaned forwards and started kissing him again, and Harry was left flailing at Snape's shoulders in a way that Snape seemed to find pleasurable, if the sigh he made was any indication. Then he urged his tongue past Harry's lips, with a motion Harry could never reconstruct in his own head afterwards, and Harry was being pressed against the tree and kissed.
And this time, he doubted Snape intended to stop.
Chapter Eight.
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