Chapters 211-220

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

‘…in sempiternum,’ Hermione gasped and swayed. The backlash of the spell swept through her. Brought her to her knees. Her fingers tightened convulsively around her wands. Her arms, her hands, raised to the evening sky as if in supplication, trembled.

‘Hermione,’ Ron cried and started running towards her. ‘Is everything okay?’

From a distant corner of her mind, Hermione observed how Madame Dubois stepped in front of him, how Lois frowned intensely (and which woman wouldn’t frown when her lover wanted to run to another’s side while that woman moaned in orgasm?) and how Alina looked on with a wide-eyed expression of curiosity and confusion.

Awkwardly Hermione slumped back and landed on her arse with a thump, while her body still shivered with delicious tremors. She drew her legs against her body and propped her elbows onto her knees. In the icy wind her tears and damp knickers felt quickly uncomfortable, cold and sticky against her skin.

Severus, she thought, desperately. Severus.

Biting on her lower lip, she wondered how close their bodyguards were to the scene. Probably close enough, though Disillusioned as they were, she couldn’t be sure. She tried not to think of how she felt about having a dozen witnesses to what she looked like during her climax, but the state of her underwear made that rather difficult.

Hermione sighed. She should be thankful for small mercies, really. Wasn’t it far better to ponder her embarrassment than to think of what Harry and Severus were doing right now?

oooOooo

‘Okay,’ Harry said and laid the Elder Wand, the jewellery box with the second half of the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak (carefully folded so that its visible, inner side was facing upwards—he really didn’t fancy groping around the Asphodel Meadows searching for an invisible Invisibility Cloak) on the ground in front of him. Then he turned to the quivering house-elf. ‘So what’s the spell to break that curse, Dobby?’

Dobby’s eyes grew huge and dark, his bat-like ears drooped and flattened against his skull. ‘Oh, oh,’ he wailed. ‘Ohohohohohhhh.’ Trembling, his eyes wet with tears, he raised his head. ‘Is no spell, sir. No spell. Just the curse to break. Ohohohohohhhhh…’

Next to him, Harry felt how Severus’ shoulders slumped in defeat. ‘Of course,’ the Necromancer whispered. ‘That is the reason why Dumbledore wanted me to break the curse.’

‘What?’ Harry turned his head and looked at Severus. Somehow he had the feeling that he was missing something essential about the whole scene. And something very, very bad.

‘This curse was never meant to be broken,’ Severus said, his tone bitter. ‘The Necromancers that originally created the curse set it up so that it would fade away with the death of the last tattooed Muggle-born witch or wizard. They did not want it to be broken and there was no need for a safe-guard. It would simply fade away with the last death. The subsequent manipulation of the curse did not change its original set-up.’

‘Yeah, breaking the curse to give her the power of several thousands witches and wizards would have been the last thing on Umbridge’s mind. Damn. So how do you break a curse without a counter-curse?’ There had been a course about curse-breaking during Auror training, but that was really a matter for experts and not for field-agents as a rule.

‘With power and focus,’ Severus replied wearily. ‘Basically, you will the curse to be broken. Few wizards have the power to simply break potent spells. Fewer still have the focus necessary to accomplish this.’

‘But you do?’

‘How do you think I became an Occlumens that could hide my true allegiance from the Dark Lord for years?’ Severus asked, his voice harsh. ‘This is mind magic. It relies on power, on stamina, and on focus, concentration.’ He snorted. ‘That’s all there is to it.’

Harry stared at the Hallows laid out before him. Mind magic. Occlumency. Power and focus. Memories overwhelmed him, how he’d tried to fight Snape, how he’d tried to keep him out of his mind, and how he’d become distracted again and again and again. How he had never had enough focus to control his mind sufficiently to even protect himself.

He started to shiver from somewhere deep inside.

‘I can’t do it,’ he choked. ‘I may have power, but I can’t do it. You know that. Better than anyone else.’

Nausea washed over him. He had wanted to protect Severus. And what had he done? He’d ended up ruining everything. Everything.

The best laid plans of mice and men…He suppressed the hysterical laughter that was twisting his throat. Dobby’s moaning echoed in his ears. Ohohohohohohhhh…

Then, suddenly, he was completely calm. As if a switch was flicked over in his brain. There was a solution. Clear and concise it rested in his mind.

He found that he couldn’t face Severus.

‘You’ve got to kill me,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to kill me and gain the ownership of the Elder Wand.’

For a moment silence surrounded them. Even Dobby had stopped wailing.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Harry whispered. ‘I just didn’t think it through.’

At his side, Severus sighed. ‘You certainly did not. And you haven’t thought through your noble offer of self-sacrifice, either. Do you really think you could put up an honest fight against me now?’

He shifted and to Harry’s shock briefly squeezed his hand within the confines of the magical bonds of the Incarcerous spell. ‘Or that I will not kill you. If only because I don’t want to waste the effort of years spent keeping you alive. Not to mention that we don’t know if the ownership of the Elder Wand can be transferred in the Realm of Death at all.’

‘But what are we going to do now?’

‘Simple,’ Severus hissed. ‘For the first time in your life, you’ll learn to focus the considerable powers of your magic and your mind. And I suggest you do so quickly.’