The Wand of Ravenclaw

Heirs and Graces

For a moment, Harry felt frozen. Whatever he had expected to find at the school gates this turn of events was about as far away from that as he could have imagined. His momentary paralysis gave him time to weigh up Snape; his skin seemed somehow sallower than usual, though Harry accepted this could be due to the lack of light around, but he also appeared somewhat bedraggled and untidy. No matter how much Harry had always detested the sight of Snape he always looked well presented.

"You!" Harry breathed.

"Potter," Snape sneered by way of reply.

Harry righted himself at the sound of his name escaping the lips of this most hated of men. His wand was out quick as a flash, pointing at the small target where Harry assumed Snape's black heart might have been.

"Harry, I don't think that's a good idea," Hermione whispered at his side.

"I think I know best on this one, Hermione," said Harry, barely able to believe that she was trying to talk him out of this.

"Please yourself," Hermione sighed. Harry ignored her for the most part, but there was lack of conviction in the way he performed the Disarming spell.

"Expelliarmus!" he cried. It took only a moment to remember why Hermione was always worth listening to. Harry's spell shot from the end of his wand, hit the gates separating him from Snape and rebounded back, smashing him squarely in the chest. He was thrown back several feet by the impact and landed with an uncomfortable thud on the path behind. His wand span in the air and came down neatly for Hermione to catch.

"Now, you know I'm not the kind to say 'I told you so,'" Hermione began as Harry got gingerly to his feet and rejoined her.

"Then don't start being one now," Harry snapped as he interrupted her.

"There's no need to be like that, Harry," said Hermione, her voice betraying a trace of hurt. "I'm only looking out for you, you know."

"Then in future why not just tell me when something like that's going to happen before I make myself look like an idiot. You may enjoy riddles but they aren't my thing."

"You're right, I'm sorry," said Hermione solemnly.

"What a pair of dunderheads you are," cackled Snape. "You would have thought, in your position, that you would be concentrating on bigger issues, but instead you bicker between yourselves. The Dark Lord knows all too well that your greatest weakness is each other. He really has little to fear from either of you."

"I wouldn't be so confident about yourself," said Harry.

"Really?" said Snape sarcastically. "Have you developed hitherto unknown skills, Potter? Or are you just relying on someone else's talents yet again? You really are a joke. Without Dumbledore you're just a puny little boy; just as vulnerable, just as powerless to prevent the inevitable."

"Vulnerable, eh?" said Harry. "You can't even get through the gates! How dangerous can you be?"

"The magic on this school is older and more powerful than anything you could even perceive," said Snape. "But like all barriers there is a way through."

"And why exactly would you want to get through?" asked Harry.

"The day I start sharing my personal business with you, Potter, is the day Hagrid becomes a member of the League of Geniuses," Snape sneered. "And in any case, do you really think I would just come out and answer your question? Interrogation seems to be yet another area in which you have the skills and subtlety of a troll."

"Well perhaps you could teach him now that it looks like Voldemort has kicked you out," said Hermione.

Snape recoiled slightly. "The Dark Lord has not kicked me out."