Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 39: Past, Present, and Future

Chapter 39: Past, Present, and Future

Time passed quickly at Hogwarts after the Easter holidays, and before the seventh years were ready for it, it was May, which meant that NEWTs were just round the corner. Those seventh years that hadn't yet begun studying were now beginning to panic, and there was actually a crowd in the library most evenings as the fifth and seventh year students crammed for their OWLs and NEWTs respectively.

Severus Snape was not one of those in panic mode. Never one to wait till the last minute, Snape had been on a NEWT study timetable since January. This was just as well, since Snape had more pressing matters to concern himself with.

In the weeks since the Dark Lord's summons, Snape had been making rounds of discreet inquiries among his peers who had been involved in the disastrous attack on the Ministry; there was no way of knowing who, if anyone, was reporting his findings back to Voldemort. It was a pointless exercise of course, but it was crucial that he keep up appearances, lest anyone suspect the truth.

And Snape was quickly running out of time. The Dark Lord was trusting Snape to produce results, but it seemed as though the more Snape searched, the fewer options he had. His subtle inquiries had produced no solutions, and Snape was beginning to feel nervous. It was only a matter of time before he himself became suspect.

True, Snape would do a great deal to preserve himself from suspicion and, consequently, harm. But he somehow fell short of actually giving one of his classmates to Voldemort as a traitor. Though he held affection for none of them and respect for few of them, these people were at least familiar to Snape and for that reason he found, to his own disgust, that he could not wrongfully condemn them to die. His life would have been made a good deal simpler if he could have.

No, he would try to look outside of his own house, Snape decided finally. He had been shut up in his customary study room for a good part of the day, pacing and thinking. He couldn't bring a Death Eater spy to Voldemort for execution if there wasn't a Death Eater to bring. But if someone from a different house had somehow overheard something, it would absolve Snape and his housemates from any guilt in the matter.

The more he considered this option, the more appealing it became to Snape. What he had to do now was look for his opportunity and when he found it, he could not afford to hesitate to seize it. 

Coming back to Hogwarts from the Easter holidays had been like crashing back to reality for James. Nothing, it seemed, had gone his way since that one perfect week with Lily.

For one thing, he hadn't been alone with Lily since that Saturday they'd spent together in Muggle London. Not that privacy was remotely possible for them at Hogwarts, but he missed being alone with Lily all the same.

NEWT hysteria was sweeping the seventh year, and while Lily was remaining calm in the face of it, this was not true of the majority of their classmates; if Lily wasn't busy with her Head Girl duties or studying, she was helping everyone else to prepare for their exams.

Quidditch was another dividing factor; the Quidditch Cup finals were on Saturday, and any time James wasn't studying or trying to see Lily, he was holding practice on the pitch. It would be Slytherin versus Gryffindor in the final once again, and James had all he could handle trying to keep his players from hexing the Slytherins senseless, and more importantly, keeping the Gryffindors from being hexed senseless by the Slytherins, who had no such scruples about fair play on or off the pitch.

Therefore James wasn't in the best of moods when Sirius and Peter woke him as they returned to the dormitory late Thursday night.

"But it wasn't MY - OUCH!"