Harry Potter Short Stories

A new reward

"We'll be married at the end of August." Ginny was telling Parvati and Padma. "I've got a trial with the Holy Heads and Harry's going into the Auror corps, he's going to partner with Ron." She went on to detail out the next five years of life as she saw it.

Neville sat beside Harry out in the hallway. "So… Aurors, huh?" He asked the seemingly catatonic man. Neville could see that Harry was no longer the boy he'd shared a dorm with for six years, but a war-hardened veteran.

Harry's head rose slowly and Neville flinched away from the expression on his face. Hard, cold and very determined, it was the expression that Neville never expected to see on his gentle friend's face.

"You know something, Neville?" Harry's voice was like ice. "No… Not the Aurors. I've had this shit. I've been abused, been beaten, been attacked by the papers, been attacked by the public, been attacked by Death-Eaters, been attacked by students, been attacked by teachers. I've been manipulated by the master manipulator into committing suicide by Voldemort's wand. I died for the Wizarding world. And what thanks do I get? My life planned out for me, by someone who doesn't even know me."

"Ah…?"

"Ginny told me she knew I'd never be happy until I hunted Voldemort down and killed him." Harry stated bluntly.

"Ouch." Neville winced. Even he knew better than that.

"Exactly."

"So, what're you gonna do?"

"Do you know if Kingsley is still with McGonagall?"

"Yeah, they're still in Snape's office."

"Snape's? Why would they be in his office, I though they'd be in hers?"

"Oh, shit… you didn't know? When the Minister arrived there was a pensieve in the middle of the Headmaster's office. Apparently, he figured that it had been left there, by accident by Snape and he figured it might give the Ministry an idea of why he did it."

"I could told them that. He loved my Mum." Harry sighed.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what they found out, that he's been on our side the whole time. They interviewed lots of students and discovered that he was protecting us. Yeah, sure, we were put under the Cruciatus, but given what some of the Slytherins said the Carrows wanted to do, Cruciatus is mild. Rape, torture, dismemberment, death. That's sort of thing they wanted."

"And Snape stopped them." It wasn't a question.

"Every time. He had some really good excuses." Neville said, almost admiringly.

"What that got to do with the Headmistress' office?"

"Headmaster's office. Snape's still alive, Harry." Neville said. "After the Minister told what Snape had done, Ron told us where he… died… so Seamus, Dean and me… we decided someone should go and bring him up, he should be buried with Dumbledore. But when we got there, when we laid him on a stretcher, he groaned. Dean ran back for help and we carried him up from the boathouse, we'd got as far as the first landing, when Madam Pomfrey met us. She did something that put him in stasis and the Aurors took him from there, they brought him up to the hospital wing, but healers from St Mungo's agreed with Madam Pomfrey, he couldn't be transported by any magic means. So, he stayed here. He woke up this morning, the Aurors brought him down to the Great Hall, on a stretcher, and he spoke to us. He said, we'd done Hogwarts proud and then he gave 100 points to whoever turned the Carrows' hair pink." Neville grinned.

Harry sat quietly while Neville explained, then asked a single question. "Snape's still headmaster?"

"Yes."