Chapter 11

It was a very irate Potions master that stalked through the halls to the Infirmary. His conversation with the headmaster had not gone well, to say the least. It turned out that the damned old fool had kept some rather important information from Severus regarding one Harry Potter. He twitched slightly as he thought back to the conversation, berating himself for allowing his emotions to get out of control.

"What do you mean, Voldemort can still influence him?! Voldemort is dead!" Severus insisted.

"That�s true. However, parts of Voldemort�s magic remain within Harry," Dumbledore reminded the professor. Severus scoffed.

"I fail to see how that matters."

"Really? I�m surprised. Think about it, Severus, what is magic? Where does it come from?" Dumbledore prodded. Snape�s eyes widened slightly. "It comes from one�s own soul," the headmaster answered his own question. "Therefore, it is entirely possible that a part of Voldemort himself�"

"�is alive within Harry," Snape finished. "Oh, Merlin�why didn�t you say something sooner?!"

Dumbledore sighed. "What good would it have done? If Voldemort�s magic has indeed bound itself to Harry�s, and I�m sure it has, then there is nothing we can do. We have no way of extracting it without risking extracting Harry�s as well, and losing his magic would more than likely kill him."

Severus exploded. "Damn it, Albus! That�s not the point! I could have prevented something like this from happening if I�d known! I could have found a way to�to�I don�t know, put his magic into dormancy or something! At the very least, I could have kept that potion hidden better!"

"Now, Severus, putting Harry�s magic into dormancy wouldn�t have been an option anyway. He still has much ahead of him�"

"For the love of� He�s a human being, Albus, not a tool! You can�t just go on using him for the rest of his life!" Severus ranted. "It�s not fair to him, it�s not fair to his friends, it�s not fair to Lily and James�hell, it�s not even fair to Black and Lupin! And I won�t allow it to continue!" Severus finished, glaring at Dumbledore.

Albus looked at him sadly, hearing the unspoken �it�s not fair to me�. "I had no idea that you felt so strongly about this, Severus. Nevertheless, taking away Harry�s ability to use his magic cannot be allowed. There are still too many threats�"

"Oh, please, spare me," Severus scoffed, then stormed out of the office, leaving a very concerned and guilt-ridden Dumbledore behind.

Severus found himself standing before the door to the infirmary, but didn�t go in. Instead, he leaned his forehead against the wall next to the door and didn�t move, deep in thought.

Harry sat on the ground in the middle of the fog, contemplating his conversation with "Tom". He found it rather disconcerting that someone like that knew so much about him, let alone was a part of him. And that damned hissing�

"Hello," Tom greeted, appearing quite suddenly in front of Harry, causing him to start.

"Tom," Harry acknowledged before returning to his thoughts. He really wasn�t in the mood to deal with his "other half". He glared when Tom started to chuckle. "What�s so funny?"

Tom shook his head. "You still don�t want to accept that we are the same person, do you?"

Harry glared harder. "There is nothing to accept. You are not, nor will you ever be, a part of me."

"Believe what you will," Tom shrugged. "It won�t change things. The undeniable fact is that I�ve always been part of you, and there�s nothing you can do about it."

Harry felt himself growing angrier and angrier by Tom�s words. "Oh, I think there�s something I can do," he muttered, then lunged for Tom�s throat in a blind rage.

Severus was startled out of his reverie by a sudden output of magic emanating from within the Infirmary. Rushing in, he saw Harry slightly hovering over his bed, his body rigid and twitching slightly as waves of energy pulsed out of him. Severus cursed and cast a sealing spell around Harry�s body to prevent any more energy from escaping before hurrying off to find the headmaster.