Book Two: Snape's Memories

Chapter Thirteen

Harry thought that this leave was probably the best idea Ginny had ever had and she'd had quite a few good ideas. For the next two days, he spent most of the day when the children were at school and Ginny was at work in his study, reading through Snape's papers.

Tim's visit to the Healer's had been rather uneventful. In fact, Tim was so compliant that Ginny had found it a little scary.

Ginny and Harry had an appointment on Friday to speak with the healer's about the findings. Harry was dreading that appointment.

Both Ginny and Harry hoped that Snape had recorded the potion he'd given the Hogwarts students that horrible year after Voldemort had taken over, but thus far, Harry had no luck.

Kreacher had organized the papers chronologically for Harry. Otherwise the papers were a hodge podge of notes, recipes and personal comments. Harry was trying to make some order from that.

It was strange though, reading Snapes' diaries. Harry had the intense feeling of a reunion with an old friend, though he and Snape were never that. In the pages of these journals, Harry met again the Half-Blood Prince. The brilliant wizard whose potion's textbook had taught Harry so much in his sixth and final year as a student at Hogwarts.

The writing in the early papers was the same as the cramped script Snape used to make notes in that book. As Harry slowly worked his way through the journals, he saw the handwriting begin to mature a bit. It was likely that the latest of the journals would have the Professor's script that Harry remembered

Harry was certain that Snape had started working on his potion for the Cruciatus curse not long after he started working at Hogwarts, but the potions recipes from those years, all useful and brilliant, were of the sort that any really good Potion Master could create. None of them were original, although there were some great improvements on existing formulas.

In all likelyhood, the test recipes for the anti-Crucio were probably hidden, or encrypted magically. The first thing Harry felt he needed to do was find a journal that was not what it seemed.

And then he had to decrypt it.

And then he had to understand the formula. Created by one of the most brilliant and paranoid Potions Masters to ever hold the title.

And then he had to recreate the bloody thing.

Perhaps there were some Dark Wizards he could go track down. He was much better at Dark Wizards.

Harry recognized his dismal thinking as a need for a break. A cup of tea and maybe a walk were in order. He stretched and wandered down to the kitchen where Kreacher would have a kettle boiling as soon as he heard Harry walking down the stairs.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard Kreacher talking to someone. It sounded like Penny over at the school. Harry quickened his step a little.

"Looking for me?" he asked as he saw that Penny's face was indeed in the kitchen fire.

Penny's expression looked relieved, "Yes, Harry. Tim's having some trouble this morning. Can you come through?"

"He hurt himself?" asked Harry.

"No, nothing like that. He's just upset." Penny's face withdrew from the fireplace.

Harry threw a handful of floo powder into the fire and called the name of the school, stepping out into Penny's little classroom office. Penny was the school's nurse and she also worked with children who needed just a little extra help.

"So where is he?" asked Harry, brushing soot off his robes.

Penny stood there, looking slightly embarrassed, "He's in my closet, and I can't convince him to come out." she replied, "I tried having Lily ask him to come out, but that seemed to make him worse. I think he had a disagreement with Lily at break time."