One Tin Soldier

Chapter 24: Draw Your Sword

Severus Snape was many things, but the one thing he wasn't was stupid. The Harry Potter he was used to dealing with was gone. In the Potter spawn's place was a young wizard who no longer allowed anyone to tell him what to do, especially the so called 'Leader of the Light.'

After that very public display of power, when Potter took down Fudge in front of the Wizengamot and the leading wizard publications, Severus backed off on his snarky behaviour towards the brat.

He thanked Merlin that he did when he saw what Potter did to Molly Weasley. After that meeting he warned his Slytherins to not antagonize Potter any further. Of course Draco had failed to heed the warning, and now he was paying the price.

Now he, Severus Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin, was kneeling on the cold, wet, disgustingly dirty ground of the Forbidden Forest. Trapped, with six beams of light pinning his arms to his side.

Beside him, his employer and one of his masters, Albus Dumbledore, was thrashing wildly trying to break free of the same light prison that had trapped Severus.

"No! NO! This cant be happening! I must stop them; Harry doesn't know everything!"

"Albus, give it up. They are long gone."

"But Harry..."

"Albus, you said it yourself," Snape said, trying to stand, glaring at the shaft of lights radiating out from him. "The brat doesn't know everything, when he realizes that, he'll be back."

He hoped.

However, he had a sinking feeling that those who went with the Potter brat actually knew what they were doing.

~~

They landed in a very weedy graveyard that Harry wished he never had to see again – Little Hangleton Cemetery.

"I sense something from that direction," Ichigo said, pointing up the hill at a rundown manor house.

"I also feel something stronger over that way," Shinji said, pointing in a different direction.

Harry frowned. He, too, could feel the pull coming from two different directions. "I think, let's go to the lesser one first. I have a feeling it's a soul anchor."

"How are we going to work this?" Ichigo asked, looking over at Byakuya.

The stoic captain looked in both directions. "I agree with Harry-kun," he commented. "I have the feeling it is the last soul anchor. Let's deal with it first."

"I really don't want to open the Gates of Hell twice tonight," Harry said with a shiver.

"We don't have to, if we do this right," Shinji muttered with his trademark Cheshire-cat grin. "Besides, I have a date tonight."

Madam Bones said nothing. She was feeling very overwhelmed by the power that radiated off everyone.

They pushed through overgrown hedges and walked down a tangled path to a small, broken-down shack with a dead snake nailed to the door.

Hachigen clapped his hands together and muttered a spell. A lone sweat drop ran down the side of his pudgy cheek. Everyone waited patiently until he was finished. "It is now safe to enter. Do not touch anything."

Harry walked into the dilapidated shack, feeling the lingering, ghostly presence of Tom Riddle in every room. As he stepped closer to the fireplace, he could feel the evil radiating from the floorboards.

"Here." He pointed to a floorboard.

"Touch nothing," Byakuya warned. "Harry, use your magic and lift out whatever is there. Hachigen, a barrier."