Chapter 11.

2:45 pm, June 24th, 1993

Harry stared at the fireplace in his office in Hogwarts, contemplating.

About fifteen minutes ago, Harry was doing something that a normal twelve-year old boy would do during the summer holidays, or close to it. He sat lazily in a couch beside the window of the living room in his family's hiding place, criticizing the decisions made by the heroes of science fiction novels together with Dad.

Flipping through Doomsday Book, Dad casually said: "Kivrin Engle shouldn't travel to the dark age by herself in the first place. And by the way, Harry, I know you have a time machine, but don't mess with Time."

Harry duly nodded.

-Yeah, traveling back to the middle ages to observe history by yourself is obviously a bad idea. You should at least have companions for such expeditions. And time-traveling to some place and time that you are not completely sure of? Absurd.

Just as Harry was imagining how he could do better, a snake patronus emerged from the corner of the room. The silver Krait slithered its way to Harry, and said: "Harry, I have recently learned some information that I need to tell you. Professor Snape will be with me. Your headquarters office in Hogwarts?"

Draco used "your headquarters office in Hogwarts" in his message. According to their predetermined code system, this meant something with great potential danger. Harry knew it was a lame coding method, which he needed to change periodically, but Draco hadn't learned muggle cryptography yet, and it was better than nothing.

Harry looked at Dad apologetically. Dad laughed and said, "Go and save the world, Harry."

Dad was joking, because he thought the most damage wizards could do was to kill a bunch of people.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry was dealing with another crisis. Harry did get tired of this sometimes, but for the most part, he just thought this was just what life should be. So the Boy-Who-Lived waited for Draco and Professor Snape in his office in Hogwarts, wondering what this could be about.

From Mad-Eye's daily report, Harry knew that Severus Snape arrived at Gringotts in London this morning, every part as the greasy potions master as he was one year ago, and apparently tired and impatient. And according to Madam Bones, who had been watching the Malfoys very closely in the past year, Severus was here to deliver a message to Draco before he came into his magical majority.

It wasn't any real surprise for Harry that Lucius might have some information for Draco only when he became an adult or when he came into magical majority. After all, Lucius seemed to be quite prepared for his early death in his will. But why Severus? Were Lucius and Severus close?

Now, come to think of it, Harry realized that he knew little of that dark-haired greasy Potions Master besides his love for Lily and his desire to redeem Slytherin.

Besides the enigmatic ex-Head of House Slytherin, the more pressing question was what the danger might be. From the looks of it, it was probably related to whatever Lucius wanted Draco to know.

-Some truly powerful magic that can only be passed from one mind to another? Did Lucius trust Severus this much? Draco never showed it, but maybe even Draco didn't know. Or could it be that Draco discovered some danger within some seemingly mundane message?

Then the fireplace lit up, and the soon-to-be Lord Malfoy stepped out, with the snake-headed wand in hand. The Thief's Downfall by the fireplace washed through him without any magical alarm triggered.

Harry tried to read Draco's face, and tried to guess what level of danger he might need to deal with. The apparently newly changed and washed blond boy's eyes seemed to jump back and forth between happiness and agony, and his face twitched several times when he saw Harry.

Harry immediately had his wand at hand, and started to wonder if he should call Mad-Eye here at once, in case that Draco was under some variation of the imperius curse or something with similar effects.

Then Severus Snape stepped out of the fireplace. The man was as greasy and unkempt as ever; his skin was yellow, his cheeks were sallow, and there were blood vessels visible in his dark eyes. And he carried a grey suitcase with him, presumably the suitcase he carried out of Gringotts.

Just as Harry was wondering if both Slytherins were fighting some mind-control curses, the black-haired man opened his mouth."Mr. Potter, before we speak, I need to secure this place."

Then Severus began to cast one spell after another on the room. A lot of them Harry had seen before, but two of the spells Harry hadn't even seen Professor Quirrell cast. The "Resonantia Evado" spell sounded like having something to do with prevention of resonance or echo, and the other spell didn't even sound like pseudo-Latin.

Watching Severus casting privacy spells, Harry felt a little bit safer, since if Severus was indeed controlled by enemies, he would have attacked Harry already, unless he wanted to kill Harry without anyone noticing it.

After twenty-six spells, Severus turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, I first need to tell you that I can understand and speak some Parseltongue, so that you know what I am about to say is true."

"You what?" Harry looked at Severus in astonishment. In the peripheral part of Harry's vision, he saw Draco opened his mouth as well.

Severus rolled his eyes, and hissed. "Not ass uncom-mon ass you v-would like? Eassier to undersstand, much h-harder to sspeak for na… non-native. Albuss sspeakss too."

-Drat. Oh well.

Harry slowly closed his mouth, and duly crossed Parseltongue from his "things-only-Harry/Voldemort-can-do" list. He reminded himself again that other people could sometimes do amazing and unusual things as well, such as preventing Harry from destroying the world. For the safety of the world, Harry should do a better job learning the lesson even Voldemort tried to teach him.

-Oh, wait. Voldemort said in Parseltongue that nobody, not even snake animagus could understand Parseltongue. Then probably he didn't think of the possibility that someone could just learn it, or he was just too arrogant to think about it. Just like I was.

-And I should have thought of it earlier, that Dumbledore trusted Severus Snape for a REASON, and not only based his teenage crush on my mother. On the other hand, if everyone can learn Parseltongue, the most simple way is to use it in court. Even perfect occlumens can't lie in Parseltongue, though they can have someone else to modify their memories before trial...

Just as Harry started to formulate possible uses of Parseltongue, Severus continued uneasily in broken snake language. "I confesss to you. I wanted to rew-revive Lily, and my own... mother, and ussed La-Luciuss Malfoy ass a t-tesst ssubject."

Harry opened his mouth again. On a certain level, Harry had been feeling quite lonely that it seemed that Harry was the only wizard who had cared enough to try to revive dead friends or lovers for that matter. And now, the greasy ex-Potions Master seemed to have taken some serious steps in that. Harry felt warm and anxious at the same time: Did Severus hide my mother's body after she died? Did he do it fast enough, so that mother was not brain dead? And he tried on Lucius, what method did he use? Could it be -

Then Harry wanted to hit himself with a hammer: Severus had demonstrated how easy it was to break the protection charms on the magical trunk almost in front of him before, it would be no trouble at all for him to take Harry's pouch and make a duplicate copy of Voldemort's revival instructions. And, and -

Harry realized in dawning horror that the current copy in his pouch might not be the original one at all, and he might never know until it was time to try. After Harry got the detailed instructions, he pointedly avoided reading it, because he didn't trust himself on such dangerous magic. Harry did have a plan to resurrect everyone that had ever lived, and Lily and James Potter were on the top of that list, but that would be in some distant future, say, after he graduated from Hogwarts and learned how not to destroy the world.

Come to think of it, Harry also found how lucky the world had been that it hadn't be destroyed because Harry didn't really secure his pouch. Even now, all the protection charms on Harry's pouch came from Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, which Harry assumed Severus or some random powerful dark wizard could break with a breath.

Before Harry could formulate more worst-case scenarios in his mind, Severus hissed uneasily. "Ressult wass ssuccesssful, ek-except no orignal Sstone to v-fix... form."

Severus opened his suitcase, and a Blue Krait was revealed on the floor in the room inside the suitcase. Before Harry could cast any protection charms, the snake swirled and twisted into a pale looking Lucius Malfoy with no wand at hand. And Severus ran down the stairs of his suitcase, and start casting diagnostic and healing spells on Lucius.

As Harry subconsciously recognized the resemblance of some of the healing spells as those ones mentioned by six or seven year transfiguration textbook for healing accidental ingestion of transfigured food, the white-haired man swayed, tilted his head, and hissed faintly. "Good afternoon, Lord Potter."

By the time Lucius spoke in Parseltongue, the snake language was no longer that much of a shock to Harry. Lucius was apparently a snake animagus, anyway. And this also partially explained why Severus and Lucius might be closer than others thought they were.

The way bigger news was: whatever resurrection ritual Severus used, it could actually be conducted by a moderately powerful wizard. Harry had worried that the resurrection ritual Lord Voldemort gave him might require some extra powerful wizards to perform, or maybe it was specifically designed for either Tom Riddle. Though resurrecting everyone was one of Harry's ultimate goals, Harry didn't want to spend all his time reviving people, or Hermione's time, for that matter. This could be really great news for humanity.

Besides that, there were several minor notes that: first, the Hogwarts security system had some deficiency in detecting animagi; second, a possible ex-Death Eater had been revived; and third, Severus did mention the need for the Stone, so the ability to revive people was still limited.

The only one who didn't know Parseltongue in this room had an entirely different focus on subject. "Harry, would you use the Stone to heal Father? Otherwise, Professor Snape would have to reapply healing charms on him every one or two hours, or, or... " The blond boy's eyes began to glister.

-Oh, right.

A year ago, Harry had preferred Lucius to stay temporarily dead until it was time to revive everyone, because he thought it would be easier to reform magical Britain. Now, the power structure in wizarding Britain was largely adjusted to Harry's taste, so Lucius didn't need to be dead. Moreover, Harry couldn't let Draco lose his Father again, not again, not in front of him, not slowly and painfully.

"Of course. But Draco, and Lord Malfoy, you do need to understand, err," Harry found it hard to let Draco know that his Father would be locked up in prison. Harry tried to find the words.

Lucius calmly finished Harry's sentence for him. "I shall be subjected to the laws of Britain for what I have conducted before my demise. Lord Potter, please rest assured that I have no intention to jeopardize my sson's political future, nor do I bear any intention to do harm to you or yoursss."

Draco's face twisted, and Severus looked away for a second. But Harry knew due legal process needed to be carried out for the sake of justice and the victims of Lucius' past crimes, for example, Madam Bones' brother's whole family except Susan.

Harry knew that he couldn't just send Lucius to the Hospital to be treated by the Stone without a plausible story made up and agreed upon, and according to what was said, Lucius would be fine within the next hour or so.

"Lord Malfoy, we need to talk." Harry wasn't too sure whether to have Draco and Severus by their side or not. They might venture into dangerous topics that Harry might not want either Draco or Severus to know, and Harry had lost his trust on the privacy of Parseltongue entirely. On the other side, there's no guarantee that Lucius won't change his mind and decided to attack Harry, in which case Harry might need Draco to remind him of the consequences and need Severus for protection.

Lucius eyed his son collectedly, and sat down on a couch in the suitcase. "Lord Potter, you may put a full-body binding charm on me if you like."

That was a pretty good idea, actually. Harry raised his wand and cast, "Petrificus Totalus." Harry made sure not to use too much magic in the charm, because he didn't want to actually hurt Lucius.

Lucius' entire body froze up except his head.

Severus then cast some additional restrictive charms on Lucius, including an anti-animagus charm. When Severus conjured a rope and start to physically bind Lucius to the couch, Harry reached into his pouch and offered a muggle rope. Severus paused, then nodded approvingly, and used the muggle rope instead.

Harry knew Draco was clenching his fists the whole time, but this had to be done.

Finally, Severus hissed. "I'll leave, and make ssure no one hearss conw-converssation."

After Severus exited the suitcase, Harry slowly entered, stood on the top-most stair, and closed the suitcase door behind him.