silverdoe — Supernova Seeker

Harry was bent over, inspecting the ground by an ancient stand of yew trees when Kingsley Shacklebolt appeared next to him.

"Minister Shacklebolt, I didn't expect to see you here tonight," Harry said as he stood up.

"Hello, Harry," Kingsley replied. "Did you lose something?"

"No. I just thought, well, I seem to remember this being the area where I buried Moody's eye. Only I can't find it. I should have done a better job of marking the tree."

The two men were silent for a moment. Kingsley ran a hand down the trunk of the closest tree. "It's a shame we never found the body. It would have been nice to give him a proper burial," he said.

"I was thinking the same thing. Maybe I was wrong. I mean, how likely is it that I buried it here and someone found it?" Harry mused.

"Why did you think it was here?" Kingsley asked.

"It's the yew trees. I remember thinking how he would have liked them. All twisted and gnarled the way they are."

"I'm sure he would have loved it. I think his leg was made of yew."

"I didn't know that," Harry said, looking up at the sky. "I should get going to my post before it gets much later. Is there something I can help you with, Minister?"

"No, I thought I might lend a hand tonight. If this madman is trying to resurrect Voldemort, we need everyone we can spare here to help take him out."

"Oh, didn't you hear. Hermione has ruled out Voldemort," Harry said.

Kingsley looked at him in surprise.

"I should probably tell you, I took her down to verify the body was still there. I know you told her you couldn't grant access to every person who just wanted to see it, but I thought this was important enough to break the rules. We were thinking someone was trying to bring him back. We had to make sure it was still safe."

Harry was worried he might get in trouble for that. But the minister had to understand they had only the best intentions when they did it.

"I would have let her if she had asked, Harry. We had a meeting scheduled, but she never showed."

"She did. She even had Snape with her. You told them not to worry, it was safe and you couldn't allow people to go gawking at it whenever they felt like it."

Croaker flicked his wand in Hermione's direction. She found herself bound, back to front, to Severus. Their wands flew through the air and landed in Croaker's outstretched palm. She could feel Severus breathing, but was not sure if he was conscious.

"Corner is dead. It seemed he was in the belladonna field at the wrong time. He spotted me harvesting the berries. I simply couldn't let him live after that."

"He wasn't helping you?" Hermione asked.

"As if that simpleton would have had anything to do with this. Really, I expected more from you, Miss Granger. His lack of intelligence should have made it obvious he could never accomplish what I am about to do," Croaker boasted.

"But why are you trying to resurrect Dumbledore?" she asked.

"Dumbledore? Who said anything about him?"

"The clues and the ghost. It seemed logical."

Hermione hoped that by keeping Croaker talking, she would give Severus some time to wake up and think of a way of getting them out of there. The lack of response from Severus was making her nervous. She hoped he hadn't been seriously hurt when he was flung to the wall.

"You are mistaken again. Dumbledore was never as good of a wizard as Alastor was."

"Alastor? Alastor Moody? But he was just an Auror."

"Moody was a great wizard. The greatest! He rescued me and killed the men that murdered my parents," Croaker roared.

Hermione flinched. She had never seen her boss this angry or look quite as crazy as he did at the moment.

"Your parents are alive. I meet them at the last Ministry function," she stated.

"Those are my adoptive parents. My real parents raised dragons. One night my father caught some thieves trying to steal the eggs and confronted them. The men killed him and then my mother right in front of me. Moody arrived just as they turned their wands on me. I was eight at the time. He became a mentor to me, and when he was killed, I was the one who found his body. I have been researching ever since then for the potion that will allow him to come back."

Hermione felt the breathing on her neck change, and Severus' body grew tense. 'Keep him talking,' she thought to herself.

"The dragon mark in the sky..."

"Was the same as we used on all of our dragons. If you paid just a bit more attention, you would have noticed my Patronus is similar to it."

"I've seen you Patronus hundreds of times before. It is not a dragon. It's an occamy," Hermione stated.

"Wrong again. It's a baby dragon. Just as I was still very much a baby when my parents were murdered."

She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Croaker.

"Enough dillydallying. I have work to do."

"Yes, Hermione. The man is barely competent to brew the simplest of potions, let alone try and do it while holding a conversation."

"So nice of you to join us finally, Snape. Now if you both could be silent for a moment, we can get back on schedule."

Croaker turned his back towards them and stirred the cauldron that was simmering on the table. It seemed he couldn't help but include them in his plans though. He began talking to them again almost as soon as he finished the ten required stirs before the final ingredient was added.

"I invited you both here tonight to be witnesses to the final step of my plan. It was much fun leading the both of you along. Now all that is needed is the final ingredient. Blood of the enemy. You, Snape, will provide the vital ingredient."

"That is a load of tripe. I am not, nor have I ever been, Moody's enemy. We fought on the same side of the war," Snape said. Hermione was not sure, but she wouldn't be surprised if Severus was glaring at the man, by the tone in his voice.

"True, but in the end, he did consider you his enemy. He died before you were exonerated. In his mind you were his enemy."

He approached Severus with a knife and a vial.

"This might sting a bit." He rolled up the sleeve of Snape's robe and pierced the skin. He filled the vial with more than enough blood. "I am sure once Alastor is restored to his rightful position at the MLE, he will make sure you take your place among your friends in Azkaban. He would never have let Death Eaters walk free, which should prove to you how much he is needed.

"And you, Miss Granger. I have seen the way you look at that piece of scum. You, who jumped at my suggestion to work with him. You shall also be punished. Oh, no. Not to worry. Azkaban is only for murders. I am sure a few years in the quod will have you back on the right path."

"Kingsley will never stand for this."

"Ha, that fool. He is so easy to manipulate. How do you think I have managed to keep this all a secret? The fool may have wards and probity probes surrounding his office to protect him, but once out in public, it was all too easy to get him under my control."

He placed the knife and vial on the table near the cauldron, and then he went to retrieve a body that was wrapped in muslin.

When his back was turned, Hermione silently summoned the knife to her. She felt Severus take the knife from her hands. She could tell he was working on the ropes that bound the two of them.

Croaker came back and placed Moody's body on the far side of the table. He pulled Moody's magical eye from a pocket of his cloak and placed it near the head.

"It took me nearly as long to track down the eye as it did to find where Alastor's father was buried," Croaker said. "As for flesh of the servant, I shall supply that. It will be worth it just to be able to bask in the praise from the great wizard we are about to resurrect."

He made it sound as if Hermione and Severus were there willingly.

"You sound every bit as demented as Voldemort's followers after his rebirth. I always thought you were a bit insane," Severus said.

Harry had been flying in circles over his section of the lineament for almost an hour. He was not really paying too much attention to what was going on below him. His mind kept running over what he had discovered from Kingsley. Harry had checked him for curses and found a few memory gaps and a mild form of the Imperius Curse. He could not figure out who could have gotten close enough to Kingsley to do such a thing, or why.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he barely registered the tingling in his chest when it started. It was a little charm Hermione had found when they were on the run many years ago. It would alert him if she was ever in trouble.

Turning sharply on his broom, he went in search of his friend, hoping he wasn't too late.

It all happened so fast. The wards at the cave entrance fell, and Harry came flying in. Croaker reached for his wand which was lying on the table, dropping the vial of blood into the cauldron. He sent a spell in Harry's direction, transfiguring the Boy-Who-Lived into the Pillar-Box-Who-Lived. When he turned back to the cauldron, he knew it was too late. The blood drained from his face. He was frozen, too afraid to run or even protect himself.

Severus saw the vial falling towards the cauldron holding the resurrection potion. He knew the additional blood would have disastrous results. He grabbed Hermione and flung her to the ground, covering her with his own body. With a flick of his hand, a shield shimmered into place over the top of them.

The explosion shook the entire mountain.

When the dust settled, Severus jumped to his feet, pulling Hermione behind him. A quick survey of the room showed the total devastation from the blast. He could hear Hermione's strangled cry for Harry. Once he decided there was no immediate danger, he released Hermione. She ran to the battered pillar box.

Moody's remains were surprisingly untouched. The same could not be said for the former head of the Unspeakables. Severus was sure there were bits and pieces of him dripping from the ceiling.

"Oh, Merlin. Severus, what should we do?"

"I'm sure he will be fine once I find my wand and return him to his former self."

"But the blast..."

"Croaker probably saved his life by transforming him into something so sturdy."

Severus pulled her to him. "You, on the other hand... Are you all right?" he asked, bending his head to kiss her gently.

She pulled away, a bit reluctantly. "I'm fine. We should really turn him back."

"If you ask me, I say we let him wait and finish what we started earlier."

This time when he kissed her, she allowed him to deepen the kiss. Harry would never know how long they let him stay a pillar box.

The End

Saturn's Notes:

Thanks go to debjunk for beta reading this chapter.

Week 7 words used: Dillydally, Probity Probe, Quod, Tripe & Pillar box.

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