Spur of the Moment

Chapter 51

A week and a half passed before Harry and Severus stopped feeling exhausted after only a few hours. They had moved into June and the weather followed suit as a horrible heat wave swept over Scotland and seemed to have decided to settle around Hogwarts for an indefinite amount of time. Harry and Severus rarely left the dungeons now as they were still blissfully cool, though they could occasionally feel the heat trying to get into their rooms.

It was two weeks into June and the heat wave had been present for nearly six days now. Harry and Severus were once again sitting at the kitchen table with the Gaunt ring in front of them, a container filled with a bright green liquid, and an eyedropper.

"Do you really think this will work?" Harry asked, staring between the ring and the Basilisk venom.

"I believe it will and, unless you have another option, this is what we must try," Severus said and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Fine." Harry sighed and brought all the items closer. As Severus put some venom in the eyedropper, Harry cast a spell on the table to prevent any of the venom from getting on the wood and destroying it. "Alright. The table's protected."

Severus inclined his head and held the eyedropper over the ring. He squeezed out three drops and they watched them fall on the black stone. For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then green smoke began rising up from the stone and the ring shook. Harry and Severus pushed away from the table and watched the proceedings. The ring continued to shake, and the smoke grew and shifted until it formed an eye. It looked at Harry and Severus and narrowed. Harry and Severus jumped up quickly when the eye soared towards them, but disappeared before it reached them and a scream accompanied it. Harry cringed at the sound. It didn't sound human. They looked back to the ring and found it was in one piece and had ceased shaking.

"Do you think it worked?" Harry asked, not making any move towards the ring.

"I do not feel anything coming from it anymore," Severus said.

"I don't either," Harry said and walked back up to the table and stared down at the ring, cocking his head to the side. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and picked up the ring. "I think it worked. I don't feel any of the Dark magic that I did before."

"We may claim success then," Severus said, sitting at the table as if nothing had happened.

Harry chuckled. "Yes, we can." He looked at the ring in his palm. "Three done. Four more left." He breathed deeply.

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The rest of June passed with the heat hardly wavering. There was a slight decrease, but it was hardly noticeable. July made an entrance and with it the anticipation of Harry's seventeenth birthday. While he was at Hogwarts and was already able to do magic, he would enjoy being of age and being able to use his magic outside of the school.

For the past few weeks, Harry had been spending his time with Draco, Luna, Dean, and Seamus whenever he wasn't in his rooms with Severus trying to make more headway on the war. So far, only Draco knew all of what Harry and Severus were doing, but Harry couldn't help but wonder if Luna knew more than she was letting on.

It was a week and a half before Harry's birthday and he could be found lounging on the sofa with a Muggle novel in his hands. Sure they were in a major war and he was basically in the center of it and they had many things to figure out, but he was allowed to relax and pretend everything was fine. Turning the page in The Chronicles of Narnia, he barely glanced up when he heard the door to Severus' private lab open.

"You're actually reading something other than Slytherin's book. I'm impressed."

At that, Harry lowered the book and glared at Severus who was smirking. "Shut up. I've been reading that book for ages."