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The Talisman By chips challenge Chapter One: The Talisman Harry saw the glittering twinkle of the flying snitch out of the corner of his eye and dove towards it instinctively. "Harry, you shouldn't be trying to get the Snitch," Sirius protested turning around on his broom and physically blocking Harry’s path. "Sorry, force of habit I guess," Harry answered. He broke out of his dive and flew around back towards the goal rings. He was in the middle of a playful game of Quidditch with his godfather and was having a hard time remembering that he was supposed to be playing keeper. He had been allowed to spend the second half of his summer with his godfather, if they both agreed to go to an un-plotable location. Harry had agreed right away simply because anyplace would be better than staying with the Dursely’s, and if Sirius were also there, this would be his best summer ever. Harry smiled as he watched Sirius aiming the Quaffle towards the far left hoop, and he forced himself away from the snitch and towards the goal. They had really only released the snitch as a distraction, and because it wouldn’t seem like a Quidditch game if there weren’t

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Page 1: The Talisman

The TalismanBy chips challengeChapter One: The TalismanHarry saw the glittering twinkle of the flying snitch out ofthe corner of his eye and dove towards it instinctively."Harry, you shouldn't be trying to get the Snitch," Siriusprotested turning around on his broom and physicallyblocking Harry’s path."Sorry, force of habit I guess," Harry answered. Hebroke out of his dive and flew around back towards thegoal rings. He was in the middle of a playful game ofQuidditch with his godfather and was having a hardtime remembering that he was supposed to be playingkeeper. He had been allowed to spend the second halfof his summer with his godfather, if they both agreed togo to an un-plotable location. Harry had agreed rightaway simply because anyplace would be better thanstaying with the Dursely’s, and if Sirius were also there,this would be his best summer ever.Harry smiled as he watched Sirius aiming the Quaffletowards the far left hoop, and he forced himself awayfrom the snitch and towards the goal. They had reallyonly released the snitch as a distraction, and becauseit wouldn’t seem like a Quidditch game if there weren’t

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a snitch flying around. Harry saw the Quaffle comingtowards him at what seemed like excessive speed, buton his Nimbus 2001, Harry knew he was pretty fast,too. Harry raced towards the Quaffle as the ball racedtowards him, and then the world began to go darkaround him.**********"Why is he unconscious?”“What's wrong with him?"Harry heard the voices beside him and slowly began torealize that they were talking about him. He tried to turnhis head towards them, but he found it just too heavy tomove.Out of the silence came the undeniable voice of theschool nurse. "What’s this?"He heard some shuffling, and he was turned over to hisside. Cold fingers touched the back of his neck andsent a chill down his spine. Then pain came. The paingreater than crucio, greater than the loss of hisparents, greater than anything he'd ever felt before.Just when he thought he wouldn’t be able to bare it anylonger, it was gone.With the pain gone, Harry tried to sit up, and with somehelp he was able to prop himself up against the

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headboard of his bed. As he opened his eyes, his firstquestion, ‘where am I?’, was answered right away. Hewas in the hospital wing. Sirius stood on one side ofhis bed and the nurse on the other. He voiced his nextquestion because he had no idea of the answer."Why am I here?" His throat was extremely dry as if hehadn't used it for several days. Madam Pomfreyhanded him a glass of water, which he acceptedgratefully."We were hoping that you would be able to tell us that,"she said."What? Wait, I was playing Quidditch, right?" Harrylooked to his godfather for confirmation. Sirius noddedand urged him to continue. "Then I blacked out. I musthave run into something, right? Was it that Quaffle?"This time Sirius shook his head. "We don't really know.You just disappeared." Harry saw the worried look inhis godfather’s eyes and felt his chest tighten."Disappeared? What do you mean? I just fell down-into the brush maybe, but you found me."“I wish it were that simple, Harry. We searched thearea for two days straight. You weren’t there. Youdisappeared.”“But where did I go? And how did I get here now?”

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"We don’t know where you were. I can tell you anumber of places that you weren’t; I mean all theplaces we looked. You were gone for a whole weekand then you appeared just like that on the Quidditchpitch."Sirius suddenly reached down and hugged Harry. "Iwas so worried about you. I'm so glad you're all right.You are all right, aren't you?""I’m sorry, Sirius. I didn’t mean to make you worry. Ithink I’m all right. I mean I feel okay now," Harryanswered. He turned towards the nurse, "Whathappened to me just now? Did you do something?”"You have this particular glowing at the back of yourneck. It appeared to be some kind of stone, so I triedto remove it. But removing it caused you great pain, soI put it back. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”Harry frowned as Sirius reached down and put hishand behind Harry's head pushing him down slightly sohe could see what the nurse was talking about. Siriusgasped. Harry shook his head. He had something inthe back of his neck that made his godfather gasp andthat the school’s best medi-witch had never seenbefore."I want to see," Harry said. Madam Pomfrey looked up

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at Sirius and then nodded. She handed a mirror toSirius to hold behind him and she held another in frontof him. He saw his especially unruly hair sticking outfrom sleeping on it, but that was normal. But then helooked a bit further down and saw a soft glowingcoming from beneath his collar. Sirius slowly pulleddown the back of Harry's shirt, and he saw a smallgreen rod embedded in his skin."What is that? Take it out!" Harry demanded."We can't Harry, not until we know more about it.Removing it appears to cause you great pain, is thattrue?"Harry nodded. He hated to admit when he was in pain,but he had felt the worst pain that he could rememberwhen she had removed it. And he would much ratheradmit that, then go through it again. But he couldn’t justkeep some strange glowing stone in his neck. Whatwas it doing to him? What had happened while he hadbeen missing?"I will ask the other members of the staff if they haveseen anything like this. In the mean time you shouldprobably get some rest. Maybe you'll be able start upyour classes tomorrow. The headmaster doesn't wantyou to get behind."

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"Classes?" The last thing Harry remembered, it hadbeen summer."Yeah, kiddo classes started while your were onvacation. Don't worry, Moony or I will help you catchup," Sirius added."Remus is here?" Harry asked."Yeah, he's teaching again. You've already missed twoof his lessons."Harry rolled his eyes, and settled back into his bed. Hewas glad that his godfather was here."Are you hungry?" Sirius asked almost as anafterthought."No,” Harry thought, “not really. They must have fed mewherever I was.”"Well then, have a good rest. I’m sure Madam Pomfreywill have a nutrient potion for you in the morning."Harry settled down beneath his blankets and closedhis eyes. He honestly tried to rest, but his thoughts keptdrifting back to the weird glowing thing embedded inthe back of his neck that now seemed to be a part ofhim. Several moments later, he head Sirius transforminto his dog form and position himself at the foot of thebed.Rustling and movement at the end of his bed woke

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Harry several hours after he had finally managed todrift off to sleep. "I've seen that before, yes." Harry’s brain kicked intoaction. They were talking about him. Someone knewwhat that thing was."Educate us please, then Severus," Harry heard Siriussay.“It's a Talisman used generally to keep wizards sane orawake while they are being tortured. It sendsendorphins to the brain and deadens nerve impulsesamong other not as well defined things. If usedconsistently, it can eventually be used to control awizard. He can not live without it.""You mean Voldemort can use that thing to controlHarry. We have to remove it.""I don't know who put it there, and I agree that it wouldbe prudent to remove it, but that will not be easy.""Why? Can't we just knock him out until the pain isgone?""First of all we can not just remove it all at once. He willgo insane. His body has grown used to the support theTalisman gives him. His body needs that support.""Ah Severus; then what do you suggest?" ProfessorDumbledore asked.

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"He'll need to be weaned off it slowly but consistently.As he becomes less dependent on the Talisman, it willhave less control over him. He should be able to forgoneed of it at all.""Should?" Sirius questioned."I don't *know* if it will work. Dark Talismans generallyare not made to be removed. Ever.""Does he have to know?" Sirius asked.Snape gaped and Harry knew that he was glaring athis godfather as if he didn't believe he could be talkingto anyone who was that stupid."First of all, Black, he's been listening to every word ofthis conversation. If the headmaster didn't want him toknow we'd be talking in his office. Secondly, the painfrom removing the Talisman will be a dead giveaway.""Why does it hurt when it's removed?" Harry askedsuddenly."Because, Mr. Potter, every sensation you don't feel isstored in your memory. With nothing to block them theyall come back. The pain ensures that someone doesnot remove his own Talisman.""What do you think of this matter, Harry?" ProfessorDumbledore asked."I think that I want it removed. I don't want Voldemort

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controlling me.""I want Professor Snape to do it like he said, slowly,"Harry added suddenly. "I mean if you will, Professor."Snape began to protest at once, but he stopped whenhe saw the headmaster's eyes twinkling at him. Harryknew he couldn't ask his godfather to do it, Siriuswould never be able to sit and do nothing while he wasin pain, but Snape could do it. He might even enjoy it,but at least Harry knew Snape wouldn't show him pity."For me to agree to this, Mr. Potter, you must agree todo I tell you. None of your normal insolence.""I will sir," Harry said sincerely."Very well then, it's settled," Professor Dumbledoresaid. "You'll report to Severus's rooms tonight. Nowseeing how it's almost morning, why don't you getsome breakfast Harry, so you can get to classes today.Your schedule and your books along with your worriedfriends are up in your dormitory."Harry's first day back in school felt quite normal. Hepushed all thoughts of the Talisman and what he wassure would be hell to endue tonight out of his mind asmuch as he could. He'd explained to his friendseverything that had happened. Everything except theTalisman. He didn't want them feeling sorry for him. He

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even enjoyed his classes: care of magical creatures,flying, and defense against the dark arts. He was veryquiet during dinner for even though he had been ableto avoid potions during the day, he would be unable toavoid the potion's master that night.**********Harry timidly knocked on the solid dungeon door. Harryscowled at the situation he found himself in. Not onlydid he have to spend his free time with the professorwhom he most disliked, he had to spend time with theprofessor who disliked *him* the most. And he had togive that man an extraordinary amount of trust. Harrydidn't even like Madam Pomfrey having control overhim when he was weak, but he felt comfortable trustingher, and he certainly never went to her voluntarily. Buthere he was, standing alone of his own will beforeProfessor Snape's door.Harry lowered his hand wondering if Snape had heardhim knock. The sound seemed to absorb right into thedoor. But then the door opened slowly splashing asmall amount of torch light into the hallway. Harrydoused his wand light that he had used to find theroom and waited for permission to enter. After anothermoment of silence, a hand reached out into the hall

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and grabbed Harry's robe near his neck and pulled himinto the room."You're late," Snape said from a shadow that didn'tallow Harry to see him completely.*I'm not!* Harry demanded to himself. He wasn't. Harryhad made sure that he gave himself ample amount oftime to find Snape's rooms. Once he'd found them,he'd waited on the stairs around the corner for tenminutes so that he would arrive exactly on time. "I'msorry sir," Harry answered quietly."Ten points from Gryffindor. I don't have time for this."Harry couldn't believe that Snape was actually going totake points away for this. In Harry's mind, he though heshould get points just for showing up. He'd certainlyreceived points for much lesser things before. ButHarry knew that he wasn't in a position to argue. IfSnape didn't do this, then the duty would have to fall onsomeone else, and Harry didn't want anyone else tohave to do it. So, he just remained silent and lookeddown at the ground."My time is valuable, Potter. Remove your robes."Snape sounded irritated, but Harry was sure that hewas enjoying the power Harry now acknowledged thathe held over his pupil. Harry obediently slipped off his

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dark school robes and draped them over one of hisarms. He still couldn't see his professor, who was in thedarkest corner of the room farthest from the light of thetwo torches beside the dark fireplace. In this smallliving area, there were two low tables and three smallcouches. Harry wondered why there was so muchfurniture as it was unlikely that Snape ever had anyguests here."Your shirt, Mr. Potter."Harry looked up at this command without following it.He was already feeling vulnerable enough standingalone in the brightest part of a very dark room.Professor Snape stepped out of the shadow towardsHarry wearing the slight smile that Snape wore inPotions class when he was sure that the nextingredient Harry added to his cauldron would causethe potion to fail."I need to be able to replace the Talisman, and I can'tbe fumbling through your clothing. You likely won't be inany condition to help me."Harry turned away from his professor and pulled hisjumper over his head. Feeling more exposed thanever, a chill deepened within his body. Harry heardSnape step closer to him. He could almost feel the

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professor's breath on his back."Now, I don't want you destroying my living quarters.You are to stay within the light; do you understand?"Still looking at the ground, Harry simply nodded."I asked you a question," Snape stated."Yes sir," Harry answered. “I won’t step out of the light.”"Good. Now, try to relax; you're only making it worse foryourself."Yeah, Harry thought, that's like telling Voldemort not touse unforgivables, but Harry tried to relax nonetheless.He took a deep breath that stopped short when he feltcold fingers on the back of his neck. Harry tried to stepaway, but another cold hand grabbed his shoulder andheld him in place."Don't move," Snape hissed. Harry planed his feetdeeper into the ground. He felt pressure on hisshoulder, and then all at once the pain erupted as ifsomeone had just sliced the back of his neck open.Harry bit his tongue. Hard. He would not scream outagain. He would not show that kind of weakness infront of Professor Snape. He just had to get theTalisman back; then everything would be fine, and if hedidn't get it now it would be too late because as Snapehad remarked earlier, he wouldn't be in any condition

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to do anything later.Harry reached blindly behind him, but his hands weregently restricted. The pain quickly began to spread tohis arms. Harry was pretty sure he'd lost his chance atgetting the Talisman back now as he was pretty surehe'd lost function of his arms. Then the pain moveddown to his legs and up to his head at the same time.He knew he wouldn't be able to contain himself formuch longer, but he couldn't let Snape see himdefeated. He hadn't screamed for them; he wasn'tgoing to now. Harry bit down on his tongue again,scrunched his forehead-anything to delay theinevitable, which came almost immediately after hecollapsed onto the floor. All Harry could hear was theecho of his own screaming in his head.Then there was silence.Harry didn't know how long he lay there. The reprievefrom pain was so welcome that he didn't want to moveon the chance that his movement would cause it tocome back."Wake up, Mr. Potter, before I have to ennervate you toget you out of my living quarters."Harry opened his eyes fully and sprang up to a sittingposition. Snape's voice indicated more pain. Instinct

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told him to get away. Harry suddenly realized that hewas sitting on one of the couches not on the floor andthat his sweater had been replaced. Harry didn'tquestion any of this; he wanted to leave."Can you walk?" Snape asked.Harry wasn't really sure, but if that were the only wayout, he'd find a way to. He stood a bit shakily, but foundwalking normal."Yes sir, I can walk," Harry answered."Then get out of here."Harry saw his robes draped across one of the shorttables. On top of his robes was a small Snape potionbottle."What's this?" Harry wondered."For your tongue."Harry looked back confused. "But my tongue is fine,"he insisted."Of course it is now, but if you don't take that tonight itwill swell up so much that you'll be unable to breathe bymorning."Harry accepted this reasoning as Snape shoved himout the door. Harry turned around in the hall and calledback into the room, "Professor?""Yes."

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"Thank you."The door slammed in his face.The TalismanBy AudiaaChapter Two: Going Back The slammed door was aslap to his face. Harry raised his hand to hurl the potionbottle that Snape had given him right back at the door,and a wave of calmness went through him as heimagined the shattering glass being Snape’s head.But Harry stopped himself short and tucked the potionbottle into his pocket. Snape would probably be glad tosee him so upset. And the potion must be somethingthat he really needed or Snape wouldn’t have botheredto give it to him at all. So, any relief he would havegotten from destroying the bottle would not have madeup for having to go back to Snape and get anotherone. Harry turned from the door and stormed up thestairs towards the Gryffindor tower.Snape had some nerve, Harry thought. He didn’t careat all how much he got hurt. In fact, he seemed to enjoyhurting him. He enjoyed watching the boy-who-livedwither in pain on the floor. He liked that fact that Harrywas unable to protect himself and that he wascompletely under his control. Harry imagined going

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back to the dungeon to punch the man back down tothe same earthly level that they all lived on. To showhim that he wasn’t helpless. Harry’s anger wasbeginning to seethe from him as he stormed down thehall. He was sure that anyone who passed him wouldbe able to see it, and he hoped that it would keep themaway. But where was he going to go now? He couldn’tgo back to the Gryffindor tower yet. Everyone wouldjust want to know what was wrong, and he did not wantto explain; especially since he hadn’t even told hisfriends about the Talisman. He knew that he wouldn’tbe able to fake that everything was all right, at least notuntil he cooled down a bit.Harry turned abruptly when he reached the end of thehall and began walking in the opposite direction.Suddenly, he was pulled backwards. Harry jerkedaround and saw a large black dog tugging himbackwards by the piece of his robes that it had in it’steeth. Harry reached down and jerked his robes out ofthe dog’s mouth and continued walking down the hall.He was not in the mood to play games right now.Especially with that particular dog.But the dog trotted along behind him not letting him getout of sight.

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“Not now,” Harry said spinning around and staring thedog down.The dog growled and sat down in front of Harrynuzzling his head against his leg. “What?” Harry demanded. He knew that he was beingrude and that Sirius didn’t deserve his behavior, so hetook a small breath and waited for a response.Sirius nudged his head in the opposite directionindicating that he wanted Harry to follow. But the lastthing Harry wanted right now was follow is godfather tosome vacant room so they could ‘talk.’ No, he wantedrun screaming through the Quidditch pitch or smashingcurses through the potions classroom, but he didn’twant to talk.“Not now,” Harry repeated.The dog just started walking in the direction he’dindicated earlier again pulling Harry along by hisrobes. Of course he knew that he could just slip out ofhis robes and run, but he also knew that his stubborngodfather wouldn’t give up easily and he’d have to talkto Sirius sometime, so Harry gave up silently andfollowed his godfather. He even allowed himself asmall smile - Sirius was always up for Snape bashing.Maybe he’s even cast a hologram spell of Snape so

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Harry could curse it..Harry followed his godfather down the hall, up somestairs, down another hall and around a corner beforeSirius stopped in front of a portrait of three schoolchildren jumping rope. Padfoot gestured towards thepainting with his nose, and Harry reached up to open it.“Password please,” the three girls chanted in hauntedunison. “I don’t know the password,” Harry snapped at Sirius.Padfoot just pointed his nose to the painting again.Harry looked closer. The three girls were wearingmatching school uniforms minus the robes. One had awand tucked into her skirt, and another had an icecream cone in her hand that was dripping onto theground where a small rat licked it up. A rat. “Pettigrew,”Harry said. “Wormtail.”The portrait swung open. Harry followed his godfatherinto the dark room. “Lumos,” Sirius said into the darkness.The room filled with a bright glow, and Harry squintedhis eyes as they adjusted to the light. After a fewmoments, he was able to make out his godfather’sshape as the older man stood across the room from

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him.“Have a seat, Harry. That’s one of the softest beds inthe castle.”Harry didn’t wonder how his godfather knew thatparticular bit of trivia as he looked around the room.This *was* a nice room. There was a comfortablelooking king sized bed, a desk and study areacomplete with a bookshelf filled with books, and therewas even a small sitting area with a fireplace thatSirius went to light, and a kitchen and another door thatlikely led to a bathroom.“Are you staying here?” Harry asked. Sirius would bethe one to get Dumbledore to give him the best guestroom in the castle.“You are,” Sirius answered. “You don’t have to go backto the dormitory tonight.”Harry felt his mood brighten slightly; this room was forhim. But he didn’t really need another room. He had aperfectly good bed up in the Gryffindor tower. But hedefinitely didn’t want to go to the Gryffindor tower. Sohe pushed the guilt he felt from his special treatmentaside, and sat down on the bed while he waited forSirius to finish with the fire.“You want to talk about it?” Sirius asked when he sat

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down beside his godson. “Not really,” Harry answered.Sirius didn’t push him, and Harry felt himself relax a bit.Sirius wasn’t going to make him talk; yet, as much ashe consciously knew that he didn’t want to, hisunconscious mind began spilling out words.“It just makes me angry the way he lords it over me.Like he has the power...the power to break me. Noteven Voldemort had that power.” He felt his anger andhumiliation coming back, and tears threatened to pourout of his eyes. “If only Voldemort knew that Snapecould do what he never could.”Harry felt strong arms encircling him and pulling himclose. Sirius held him there, stilling his shaking, until hebegan to relax. Sirius wiped the tears from hisgodson’s face and then turned him around so he couldsee into his eyes. “Harry, he didn’t break you. I’m sureyou just had a physical response. There is only somuch pain any person can handle. Your spirit is strong.If it were not, you would not be so upset.”Harry looked away. “But he enjoyed it. He’s so close,and he knows it. Closer than anyone’s been, and I’mwillingly going to him - that makes his control evengreater.”“I never should have let Dumbledore talk me into letting

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that git do this to you. He won’t do it again.” Siriusstood up from the bed and began marching towardsthe door directly to Dumbledore’s office.“No! Sirius, he has to,” Harry pleaded jumping off thebed and pulling Sirius back away from the door. “I haveto let him do it. It’s the only way.”Sirius turned around to face his godson. “No it isn’t. Icould do it.”“Even if you could, I’d never let you,” Harry said.“Why not?”“Because I don’t ever want to feel this way about you.”Sirius sat down silently and pulled Harry close to himagain. “You know I’d do anything for you, right Harry?”“I know,” Harry muttered.Harry was so comfortable just then, that he didn’t everwant to get up, and he felt himself beginning to nod off.Gentle shaking brought him back to completeawareness.“You can go to sleep in a moment. Let me help you getyour robes off,” Sirius said.Harry grunted softly as his only reply, but he let hisgodfather help him undress and get him under thecovers. “Do you have the potion Snape gave you?” Sirius

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asked. “Mmm?”“Did Snape give you a potion?”“In my robe pocket,” Harry answered. Harry felt Siriusget up off the bed to retrieve it. He wondered howSirius had known about the potion, because Harrydidn’t remember saying anything. Sirius sat downagain and held the vial to his mouth, and Harry drank itwithout question. Soon, he felt himself drifting off into adeep sleep that only a dreamless sleeping potioncould bring.Harry awoke the next morning in an unfamiliar bed inan unfamiliar room, but his initial panic faded quicklywhen he saw the large black dog curled up by his feet.Harry felt surprisingly refreshed and energized after hisdeep sleep, which was something that he felt he’dmissed for quite some time. As he tried to get up, hismuscles screeched with soreness. He felt as if he’djust played a rough game of Quidditch with no practiceor warm-up. Every one of his muscles was sore. Hisarms and neck were extremely stiff and twisting hisbody as he normally did to get out of bed just wasn’tpossible. Harry tried to ignore the pain and tried toslide off the bed moving slowly in the only way hecould.

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Padfoot, having been awakened by Harry’s movement,leapt off the bed and transformed into Harry’sgodfather. “You’re up early; did you sleep okay?”Harry stopped his attempts at getting out of bed for themoment and answered, “Yeah, I guess. I feel prettyrefreshed now.”“That’s good. Snape said he was trying something newwith the sleeping potion. It’s good to see you made itthrough the night.”“What? You let Snape experiment on me!?”“Ha – of course not. It’s just not a potion that’s availableto the general public yet. Well, I set the alarm so thatyou wouldn’t miss class this morning, but I guess Ididn’t need to. You feeling okay to go to class.”Harry nodded; he knew his godfather would get him outof classes if he made the slightest inclination thatsomething was wrong, but he didn’t need any morespecial treatment. But thinking of special treatmentbrought his thoughts back to the previous night and allthe things that had come gushing out of his mouth.“Sirius, you can’t tell Snape anything that stuff I told youlast night. I don’t want him to know.”Sirius paused and began speaking in what Harrythought of as his ‘serious’ voice. “He may have to do

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something unpleasant to you, but that doesn’t meanthat he has to be that demeaning to you. I won’t tolerateit.”“And you think telling him how much it hurts me is goingto help. That will only make it worse. He’ll know for surethat he’s won.”“This isn’t a contest, Harry. We all win when you getthat thing out of you for good.”Harry remained silent. He was beginning to havedoubts that the Talisman could really be removed and ifit could that he would be sane at the end of it all, but heknew he had to try; the alternatives were unthinkable.“Just don’t tell him Sirius, please.”“All right, Harry. I won’t talk to Snape.”But the smirk in Sirius’s eyes gave everything away toHarry. “Sirius, don’t tell anyone.”Sirius started to protest, but Harry cut him off, “I needsomeone that I can talk to about this whole thing.Someone who doesn’t go running off trying to help meall the time. We both knew it would be hard, andnothing is going to make it easier,” Harry paused foreffect before continuing, “Sirius, I want to talk to you,but if it’s too hard for you, I can talk to Ron or someoneelse. We don’t have to talk about it.” This last

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statement, of course, was an empty threat. Harry hadno one else that he trusted that much. If he couldn’t talkto Sirius, he wouldn’t be talking to anyone.“If that’s what you really want, Harry,” Sirius replied andhe smiled slightly.Harry nodded with relief, and got up to get ready for hisclasses. Sitting up and talking for so long had warmedhis muscles enough that he was able to make it to thebathroom himself and get dressed himself. Siriusstayed with him until after breakfast, which they sharedat the kitchen table, and then Harry went off alone to hisclasses.Harry’s first class was transfiguations with ProfessorMcGonagall. He walked into the room just as classwas starting. McGonagall looked at himsympathetically; obviously the whole staff knew at leasta little of what was happening to him. Of course as hishead of house, McGonagall would have to know whyhe hadn’t spent the night in the Gryffindor tower. Harrysimply nodded that he was fine and looked away. Hedidn’t want any more sympathy. All through class Ronand Hermione tried to talk him and ask where he’dbeen the last night, but Harry politely ignored them ashe paid attention to the lesson.

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Finally after class, his friends rushed to meet him in thehallway before he could run off to his next class.“Are you all right mate?” Ron asked. “Pansy heardfrom Lavender that Vince told Draco that you were withSnape last night. Was it detention? What did you do toget a detention that lasted *all* night? I was about torun off and tell Dumbledore, but McGonagall came inand told us not to worry that you wouldn’t be comingback tonight, but she wouldn’t tell us where you were.”“What? That’s ridiculous! I wasn’t with Snape,” Harrydemanded. “I was with Sirius. Professor McGonagallwouldn’t have been able to say anything, of course. I’dhave told you myself, but Sirius didn’t want me tobother everyone by going back to the common room,”Harry said trying to keep his expression neutral, sothey wouldn’t have any reason to question him. “He’shere for the night. Professor Dumbledore said that Icould stay with him.”“Oh,” Hermione added. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”“I just found out. I didn’t have time to tell you.”“So how is Snuffles doing?” Hermione asked.“He’s doing well. He’s doing some work for ProfessorDumbledore, so he’s going to be around the castle abit.” Harry added so that he could continue to claim that

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he was going to see his godfather at night, which hehoped, wouldn’t be entirely untrue.“Can we come see him sometime?” Ron asked.“Well er maybe. I’ll have to talk to ProfessorDumbledore,” Harry said. He didn’t want to make anypromises but maybe they could all spend some timetogether on other nights.“Great. I’m glad you didn’t really have to spend thewhole night in detention. Ron’s brothers came up withall kinds of horrible things that he could have beenmaking you do,” Hermione said.Harry faked a laugh as they headed down the stairs topotions class, but he was pretty sure that the twinsdidn’t come up with anything as horrible as what hadreally happened.Professor Snape looked up from his grading only afterHarry entered the room. “Potter, see me after class.”“Yes sir,” Harry replied. The other Gryffindors in theroom glanced at each other wondering what Harry haddone that merited him detention two days in a row.Class dragged on, but when it was finally over,Gryffindor twenty points lighter, Harry remained behind.After the rest of the class was gone, Harry made hisway to Professor Snape’s desk. Snape stood without

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acknowledging him or even looking at him and walkedto his office. Harry followed.Once inside the office, Snape stopped walkingabruptly and turned around to face him. “Turn around,”Snape ordered, and Harry obeyed. Harry felt Snape’shands pushing his robes and his shirt down from hisneck, likely to give Snape better access to view theTalisman. Apparently satisfied, Snape let go of hisclothing, but Harry knew better than to ask if everythingwere okay. If something were wrong; he’d have heardabout it.“Let me see your hands.” Harry balked at the oddrequest, but only for a moment. He knew that hecouldn’t show insubordinance at such simple andstupid things. Snape was probably just looking for anexcuse to stop helping him, and Harry wasn’t going togive him one. Harry turned and held out his handspalms down to Professor Snape. He felt a little like achild who had claimed he’d washed his hands beforedinner when really he’d be digging in the dirt. But hehadn’t been playing in the dirt. Harry looked down athis hands as Snape examined them. They looked fineto Harry.Snape grasped one of his hands and turned it over;

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then he pushed up Harry’s robe sleeve. Harry didn’tsee anything unusual. As he bent to look closer, Snapedropped his hand. Snape looked back up to Harry’seyes, with his own dark eyes revealing nothing. “Openyour mouth.” Harry did, and he gagged slightly whenSnape reached into his mouth and began feeling histongue.“You’re lucky you didn’t bite that thing off - unfortunateas it is for the rest of us.” Harry heard Snape unscrew ajar with his free hand and soon his mouth was full of athick, gritty paste. Snape withdrew his hands, andHarry choked on the sharp bitter taste. Snape thrust aglass of water into his hands, and Harry drank it downgreedily.“Lunch is almost over,” Snape stated, “but I doubt you’llfind yourself wanting to eat anyway.”Harry, knowing his dismissal, went back to the potionsclassroom and gathered up his things. The bitter tastethat remained in his mouth matched his attitude as heleft the classroom. Harry was relieved that his friendshad gone on to lunch without him. They probablyexpected him to come to the Great Hall when he wasdone, but he really just felt like spending the smallamount of time he had before class by himself. Harry

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sat down on the bottom step of the stairs leading up tothe classroom wing and plopped his bag down on thefloor beside him.Snape was acting even more unusual than normal.Why was he the one looking after his medical healthrather than Madam Pomfrey? Why did he care abouthis health at all, and why had he wanted to look at hisarms? Harry pushed up his sleeve again and lookedmore closely at his arm, but he still didn’t see anything.He absently began tracing the veins with one of hisfingers, and he began to wonder about what hadhappened while he’d been missing. He assumed thathe’d been tortured while was in captivity. That,Professor Snape had said, was one of the mainreasons for using a dark Talisman; it could keepprisoners sane that were constantly being tortured.Prisoners for which a purpose other than death wasplanned. Harry pondered this possible other purposeas he replaced his sleeve.His thoughts rushed back to what he did remember ofhis captivity. He didn’t remember much. Heremembered darkness, and he remembered notscreaming. No, he hadn’t screamed. At least not atfirst. But there was only so much that he could take.

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And how did Snape know so much about the Talismananyway? Had Snape been there? No, Harry pushedthat thought out of his mind right away. If Snape hadwanted him tortured, he’d be under Voldemort’s handright now. Still the questions lingered as Harry headedoff to class.Harry went to bed that night physically exhausted fromhis experiences the previous night with Snape andmentally exhausted from trying to avoid questions ofhis classmates and trying to remember all the storieshe’d made up. He fell asleep as soon as he put himselfto bed. But it seemed that just as he’d rolled over, itwas morning. Harry could hear his classmates gettingup and ready for the day. But that wasn’t possible wasit? He’d just gone to bed.Harry sat up in bed and pushed his curtains aside. Thesun was definitely coming through the window. It wasmorning. Harry yawned and dragged himself out ofbed. His feet were freezing. He brought his handsdown to them to warm them. They felt like ice to thetouch. He needed to warm up, so he rushed to thebathroom to take a warm shower before all of the otherboys could get there first. After showering and dressing, he felt much better. He

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was still tired, but not so tired that he couldn’t make itthrough the day. At least that was what he thought untila loud noise jerked him awake. He looked up intoProfessor Snape’s un-telling eyes. Great, Harrythought, he had to fall asleep in potions class. He’dmade it through Divination and History of Magic wherehis lack of consciousness probably wouldn’t havebrought about any attention, but no it had to happenhere.“Mr. Potter. After class. We have detention to discuss.”“Yes sir.”“I expect your essay by the end of class.”“Yes sir,” Harry repeated to Snape’s retreating back. Itwas a good thing he’d spent part of History of Magicclass working on his potions essay. Snape had saidthey would have class time and class resources towork on it as well, but Harry had wanted to get a headstart. He didn’t want to get any more on Snape’s badside.After class, Harry again followed Professor Snape intohis office where he repeated the motions of theprevious day except for the tongue paste. Snapeseemed to think that injury was healed.“Have you been sleeping?” Snape asked.

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Was this a trick question? Harry wondered, and whywould Snape of all people be asking him about hissleep habits? “Yes sir,” he said“I meant other than in my class.”A joke? Harry wondered. “Usually sir.”Snape was just silent. Harry could feel that he waswaiting for an explanation, and if he didn’t give oneperhaps Snape’s eyes would just bore into his mindand extract one for themselves. Harry shuttered, butanswered nonetheless, “I either have nightmares, or Iwake up feeling like I haven’t slept at all.”“And the night you spent with your godfather.”“I slept fine, sir.” Harry didn’t feel the need to add thatthat had been the best nights’ sleep that he’d had in along while. But Harry could tell that Snape knew justfrom the way that his eyes bore into him.“I expect you here at seven tonight,” Snape said.“Yes sir,” Harry answered. He retrieved his things fromthe potions classroom and ran back to his dormitory.He planned to try and get some sleep before had tomeet with Snape again that night. He didn’t want to fallasleep during his ‘detention’, well maybe he did, but hewas sure that Snape wouldn’t approve.Harry discarded his things on the floor beside his bed

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and sat on his bed to take off his shoes and robes.When he took of his glasses and placed them on hisbedside table, he noticed a small bottle and a notesitting next to his clock. He picked them both up andopened the note, which was written in ProfessorSnape’s distinct handwriting, “Do not use this as anexcuse to be late.”Harry looked back to the bottle. It was a standard vialof the type that they often used in potions class tobottle up their assignments. Was this another one ofSnape’s experiments? Harry almost hoped that it wasseeing as how well the first one had worked. Althoughhe may not like his Potions’ professor, Harry knew thathe was skilled at his work and wouldn’t give himanything that would really hurt him. So, this was anothersleeping potion; that’s what the note implied, but surelySnape didn’t care if he had a little trouble sleeping.Besides, at this point, Harry didn’t think he reallyneeded a potion to help him get to sleep. If he could fallasleep during potions class despite all his attempts tostay awake, he could fall asleep anywhere. Yet Harryknew that if Snape gave him a potion, he expected himto take it. Harry removed the cork and swallowed theclear liquid and lay back on his bed waiting for it to

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take effect.The TalismanBy AudiaaChapter Three: A pause“Wake up Harry, it’s dinner time.” Harry heard theannoying voice intruding into his pleasant sleep and hewanted to just ignore it, but the urgency in the voicereminded him that he had a reason to get up. He satup quickly and looked over at the clock on the bedsidetable. 6 o’clock. Whew, he still had an hour before hehad to meet with Snape. This time he would make surethat there would be no question about the fact that hewas on time.“Did you have a nightmare again last night?” Ronasked looking at him somewhat uncertainly. “I swearSnape was going to disintegrate you on the spot theway he looked at you when you fell asleep in his class,”he added.Harry just nodded. Agreeing would certainly be easierthan trying to explain what did happen, and he didn’teven know for sure what did happen.“I have to go to detention tonight,” Harry explained ashe got out of bed.“That git. Again?” Ron asked.

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“Yeah, well I did fall asleep in his class. I’ve gottendetention for less.”“I suppose, but still you’ve had to spend a lot of timewith Snape lately.”“Don’t I know it,” Harry replied.Harry spent the next twenty minutes trying to get somefood in his stomach before he headed down toSnape’s rooms. When dinner was over, Harry walkeddown to the dungeons. He reached out his hand andknocked on Snape’s door and waited.There was no response.He knocked again. He really just wanted to get thisover with, but there was still no response. Harry knewthat he was a little early, so maybe Snape was still inthe potions classroom. No one had seen him at dinner.Ron had even joked that Snape was probably downpreparing for his detention by making the classroommessier just so he could watch him clean it up. Hereally hoped that that wasn’t what Snape was doing.What had happened during his last detention had beenbad enough, but surely it would be worse if there wassomething that Snape had to prepare. Hoping thatSnape was just busy grading parchments or writing uphis lesson plan, Harry walked down the hall to the

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potions classroom. Harry felt a bit of relief when hesaw Snape sitting there, in the front of the room behindhis desk, marking papers with a big red quill. Maybehe had just forgotten about his detention, Harry thought.But even if he had forgotten, Harry knew that he wouldhave to stay. He knew that he couldn’t miss anysessions without the Talisman. If he did, he would justhave to start de-conditioning himself all over again.Harry walked into the classroom quietly and paused infront of Snape’s desk waiting for acknowledgment.Snape continued crossing out lines on the parchmentwith his red quill. When he reached the end of thepage, Snape placed his quill back into its holder, andfinally looked up. “You are late again, Mr. Potter.”Harry couldn’t even argue to himself this time becausehe wasn’t sure if he was on time. He’d been atSnape’s rooms on time, but then he’d had to find hisway to the classrooms.“I went to your rooms first. I’m sorry sir,” Harry tried toexplain.“Detention is not held in my rooms,” Snape saidthrusting an old book into his hands. The unexpectedweight of the book caused Harry’s hands to fall ontothe desk in front of him. Snape flipped to book open

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and pressed his thumb down on the page, “preparethis potion,” he demanded. “The ingredients are all onthe back counter.”Snape abruptly removed his thumb from the book,picked up his quill and continued marking parchments.Harry wiggled his hands from under the book andstarted rubbing his wrists to get his circulation back.Why was Snape insisting that he make a potion? Thatwasn’t the reason that he had come here.“Your detention, Mr. Potter,” Snape said answering hisunasked question. “Do not expect that you will be ableto get away with sleeping in my class. And do not useyour usual careless techniques with this potion. Youmay find it useful later.”Harry hurried to the back of the room and looked overthe ingredients on the back counter. He placed thebook down on the bench and tried his best to matchthe actual ingredient with whatever was listed on thepage. The potion was a fairly simple, even Harry wasable to realize, if all the directions were followedexactly. But Harry could not discern what the potionmight be for or why he might find it useful later – thatwas more Hermione’s forte, and he wished that shewere here to help him now. At first he’d suspected it

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might be a sleeping potion because maybe he’d usedup too much of Snape’s stocks, but none of theingredients that Harry knew were in sleeping potionswere in this brew. In fact several of the ingredientswere things that he had never heard of which was whyhe was having trouble figuring out the function of thepotion.Snape was surprisingly silent during his brewing. Hedidn’t even look up when Harry had cursed because hetorched the hot metal stirring rod or when he’d droppedthe bottle of Neetle on the ground. No, he just sat at thefront of the room marking papers as if Harry weren’teven in the room. Harry almost wished that he wouldget up and yell at him or at least tell him that he wasdoing *something* wrong, because if this potion werereally something that he would find useful later, hedidn’t want to screw it up. But the potions finishedsimmering and was complete without a word fromSnape. The color and consistency matched thedescription in the book – at least to Harry’s untrainedeye. Maybe he wasn’t completely useless in potionsafter all. He stared into the cauldron as if defying thepotion to blow up on him now.“Bottle the potion, and bring it to me,” Snape ordered.

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Well, he hasn’t said “go throw it out in the sink.” So,Harry took an empty bottle from the back shelf alongwith a label. On the label he carefully wrote the name ofthe potion, ‘canvarous oil’. The name didn’t meananything to Harry, but he wrote it nonetheless, as heclearly remembered the absence in the back of thepotion’s classroom caused by the last student that hadforgotten to label his potion.Harry took the bottle to the front of the room and placedit on Snape’s desk. Snape picked up the bottle,removed the top and swirled it around. Then hebrought the bottle to his nose and sniffed. He put the lidback on and placed the bottle in his pocket. Then hegathered together the papers that he had been gradingand placed them in a folder. He took this folder andwalked out the door. Harry followed as Snape madehis way to his rooms.They both entered the completely dark room. Harrystayed by the door where there was at least a smallamount of light. He didn’t want to trip over any of thefurniture and get Snape mad at him now.“Lumos,” Snape said, and the two torches beside thefireplace lit. Harry noted that the two small tables hadbeen pushed aside so that the entire center of the

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room was clear. Professor Snape walked over and satdown on one of the couches while Harry remainedstanding by the door.“Take your robes off and sit here,” Snape said pointingto the floor in front of him. Harry took off his robes andhis shirt and walked towards the professor and sat onthe floor Indian style with his back to Snape. Harry benthis head forward looking at his feet and waited.“Look at the wall in front of you.”Harry slowly raised his head. There was a picture onthe wall just at his eye level. The picture was a swirl ofdeep blues and purples, but no figures that Harry couldidentify.“Now, put this in your mouth so we don’t have a repeatof last time.” Harry took the small rod of rubber offeredfrom behind him without looking back. He placed it inhis mouth and bit down on it hard. Harry sighed angrily,but entirely to himself. Snape didn’t think he could stophimself from hurting himself. Snape had to have controlof everything.“Put your hands on the ground where I can see them.”Harry put his hands on the ground on either side ofhim. Pretty soon, Snape was going to be telling himwhen to breathe. He stared at the picture in front of

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him. The colors were changing to yellows and orangesand back to blues.He sucked in his breath when he felt two hands on hisshoulders. The hands lightly brushed over his arms andthen down his back. The hands paused on his lowerback.“Breathe.”“Mr. Potter, Breathe,” Snape demanded.Harry realized that he had been holding his breath andbegan to breathe slowly, concentrating on each breath,watching the colors swirl before him.The hands on his back traveled back to his neck. Harryfelt the talisman being removed, but there wasn’tinstant pain as he’d been expecting. Instead what hefelt was more like impending pain. Like he had agaping wound on the back of his neck and the slightestbreeze would flare up unimaginable pain.Harry focused on his breathing and the swirling colors.He tried to block out everything else around him.Colors, breathing, no pain. Colors, breathing, no pain.Then a soft song lifted itself from the background. Asoothing melody. Then the pain came full force andstronger than before. It engulfed his entire body beforehe had time to register it at all. Harry bit down on the

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rubber rod in his mouth and tensed his whole bodytogether into a little ball. He tried to get away from thepain, but there was no way to get away from this. Noway except darkness.Harry smelt something odd when he came around. Hewas still on the ground, but his chest was being held upsomehow. Someone was rubbing something into hisback and along his arms. The heat penetrated deepinto his muscles relaxing them.Harry’s arms were released, and he was turned aroundto face his professor. He forced himself to raise histired head and look up, and he saw Professor Snapepour some of the potion that Harry had prepared justthat night on to his hands and then he began slowlyrubbing it along Harry’s jaw muscles and then the backof his neck.Harry wanted to question his professor as to why hewas doing this, but he didn’t want him to stop. Thepotion seemed to force his cramped muscles to relax.When he was finished, Professor Snape picked upHarry’s sweater and helped him to dress.Then Snape threw Harry his robes and said, “Nexttime, be on time. Now get out.” The professor’s actionshad had a strangely intimate feel and for some reason

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Harry had expected him to let him stay. Harry wasn’tsure if his relaxed muscles would even allow him tostand, but Harry quickly realized that his legs had notbeen touched. He could walk fine. He picked himselfup and walked as quickly as he could manage towardsthe door and he felt the wind behind him as it slammedshut in his wake.From the dungeon, Harry walked directly to the roomwhere he knew Sirius would be waiting for him.“Pettigrew,” he said to the painting, and it obedientlyflew open. Harry walked directly into Sirius’s arms whodirected him to the bed.“What did that bastard do to you this time?” Siriusasked.“Nothing,” Harry answered. “He didn’t do anything. I’mjust really tired.” Maybe somehow he’d been givenanother sleeping potion without his knowledge. But hehadn’t eaten anything since dinner.“All right,” Sirius said brushing some of Harry’s wildhair off his forehead so that he could look into his eyes.Sirius helped Harry remove his clothes and slip underthe covers where he immediately fell asleep.---****-----****“What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?”

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Harry opened his eyes. What was he doing where? Hewondered. Where was he? Harry paused for a minuteto let his mind catch up with whatever was going on.He began to feel coldness seeping into his body fromthe ground that he was lying on. Hard stone coldground. Harry pushed himself up and looked around.He was in the dungeons. More specifically he was lyingon the ground outside Professor Snape’s dungeon.“How did I get here?” Harry wondered aloud. “Why are you not in bed?” Snape demanding ignoringhis question completely.Harry leaned against the wall. “I don’t know. The lastthing I remember I was.”Snape reached down and grabbed Harry’s elbow andyanked him to his feet giving no mind to the fact thatHarry had just woken up and could barley sit no lessstand.“You weren’t sneaking around the halls after hours?”Snape accused.“I... I don’t know Sir,” Harry answered honestly. He musthave been doing something because he obviouslywasn’t in the room with Sirius where he’d fallen asleep.“25 points from Gryffindor.” Snape said and he begandragging the half-conscious boy through the corridor

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back to his guardian’s room, and he started poundedloudly on the portrait. Harry just heard the poundingechoing though his head and he just wished that hecould go back to sleep. Then the crying of all three ofthe jump roping girls in the portrait was added to thecacophony.Harry saw Padfoot’s nose nudge the door open. Nodoubt when Sirius saw who was calling he realized thatit was safe to change to his human form and soonSirius was standing before them looking quite angry.“What are you doing with Harry? Once a night isn’tenough for you?”“I found him asleep on the floor outside my dungeon. Ithought you were supposed to be looking after him.”Snape accused thrusting Harry into the room. Heturned abruptly on his heel and left.Sirius caught Harry as he was flung into the room andled him back to his bed. “What happened?” he asked.“I don’t really know,” Harry replied. He wished someonecould tell him that, but really he didn’t want to thinkabout it, he wanted to go back to sleep. But knowingthat Sirius would want some kind of explanation, hecontinued, “I fell asleep here and woke up there.”“Was it some kind of curse or sleepwalking?”

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”I told you I don’t know. Professor Snape probablywould have checked for curses. He doesn’t seem thatworried about it.”“He doesn’t worry about you enough. I think you shouldgo see Madam Pomfrey. This isn’t normal,” Sirius said.“Nothing about me is normal,” Harry retorted. “I’m fine.If it happens again I’ll ask Madam Pomfrey for asleeping potion, all right?”Sirius’s expression changed from worried to guiltyalmost instantly. “I’m sorry, Harry. I should have beenwatching you more carefully. I didn’t even notice youhad left. I didn’t even wake up.”“Neither did I,” Harry said with a smile. “It’s all rightSirius. You can’t stay awake all night watching me.”“No?”“Well if you did it would be creepy, and I probablywouldn’t be able to get any sleep.”“I suppose. Maybe we should put some wards up orsomething,” Sirius said gesturing around the room.“If you think it’s necessary,” Harry complied. “But this isprobably just a one time thing. EvenMuggles sleepwalk. It just happens, I think.” Of courseHarry didn’t really think that at all; nothing unusual withhim was ever something that just happened to anyone,

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but he didn’t want Sirius to worry about him anymore,and he wanted to go back to sleep.-------_________--------------_________That day at lunch, Harry received an owl messagetelling him to be in the potions classroom at 7 o’clockthat night *if* he wanted to make another potion.So, Harry dutifully arrived in the potions room at 6:55and began to work. Snape didn’t even pause in hiswork when he had entered, and Harry didn’t really care.He knew that he could make this potion himself and hewould likely do better if Snape weren’t peering over hisshoulder. When the potion was complete, he bottled itand labeled it as before and brought it to his professor.This time Snape didn’t even look at the potion, he justslipped it into his pocket.“I still have two classes of essays to grade. You maywait in my living quarters *if* you do not touchanything,” Snape said.“Okay sir. I won’t touch anything,” Harry said. He hopedthat Snape wouldn’t take too long with his gradingthough, because he hated waiting-especially forsomething that he wasn’t looking forward to. Harrywaited awkwardly for Snape to tell him the password tohis rooms or at least let him know that they were open

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the rooms, or something. He didn’t feel right justwalking into a professor’s private rooms when hewasn’t there. But the silence dragged on, and Harry lefton his own. He would just have to figure it out when hegot there. It hadn’t been so difficult with Sirius. Butwhen Harry reached the door to Snape’s rooms itopened automatically for him. Of course, Snapewouldn’t have a password that was so easy aGryffindor could figure it out, Harry reasoned. So,Snape must have been planning to send him here, ifthe door was all ready charmed to open for him.Harry took two steps into the dark room, and the loudslamming of the door behind him made him jump.Perhaps Snape had just charmed the door to slamevery time that he walked through it, Harry mused.Harry smiled as he held up his wand. “Lumos,” he saidand, the troches surrounding the fireplace sparked intolight. The room looked just as it had the previous day.He paused where he was in the middle of the roomand pondered what he should do. Snape had told himto wait and touch nothing. He thought about just sittingon the couch and waiting, but the couch was somethingand he didn’t want to risk touching it. Harry figured thathe was just enduring another test of Snape’s. A test to

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determine if he could follow simple directions, and anexcuse for Snape to do *something* to him if he didn’tfollow them. Harry wasn’t going to give up anyopportunities.He sat down on the floor in front of the couch as he hadbefore and pulled his knees up to his chest. Snapecould not expect him to enter the room without touchingthe floor, he reasoned, so there should be nothingwrong with him sitting here. He looked ahead at thewall in front of him and saw that the swirling picture wasstill there. Once he started looking at the picture, hecouldn’t draw his eyes away from it, and soon the calmswirling movements from the picture began to seepinto his mind. His thoughts began to float away as hishead got heavier and heavier until he could no longerhold it up and he let it rest on his leg. His eyes grewheavy as well and he and he let them close as hedrifted off.The TalismanBy AudiaaChapter Four: ConsequencesHarry was woken suddenly from his light slumber by asharp and deep pain in the back of his neck. The painwas so sudden that he couldn’t help but cry out. Its

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gnawing intensity forced him to curl up as tightly aspossible to get away from it. But the pain persistednonetheless. Harry continued to hear himselfscreaming even though he put no conscious efforttowards it. Nothing Harry did could keep the pain awayor make the screaming stop. It wasn’t going to stop. Itwould stop with only with his death, he realized. Buthow was he to achieve that?He woke again to Snape rubbing potion into his soremuscles. This time Snape massaged the muscles sodeeply that Harry sighed with almost pleasure. He stillfelt too much of the residual effects from the loss of theTalisman to feel real pleasure. After Snape hadfinished rubbing in the potion he began to activelystretch all of Harry’s upper body muscles. Pulling themthis way and that way until they were so relaxed theyalmost felt liquid. Then instead of offering Harry hisclothes and the door, he lifted Harry onto the couch andlaid him down.“Rest,” he said gently and Harry’s eyes flutteredclosed.An hour later Harry was awakened by a voice, “It’s timeto go now.”Harry sat up and put on the sweater that Professor

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Snape offered to him. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”Harry asked.“I did,” Snape replied as if he were stating the obvious.“I mean before you took it out. I wasn’t ready for that,”persisted almost whining.“I told you not to touch anything.”“I didn’t, sir,” Harry answered.“I also meant that you shouldn’t use anything eithereven if using it does not require touching. You shouldnot have let the painting hypnotize you. If you had not,you would have been ready. Now, I repeat, it is time foryou to go.”Professor Snape held out Harry’s robes to him, and hesnatched them up and stormed out of the room. Hemade his way up to the main floor of the castle beforehe realized that he wasn’t going to Sirius’s rooms. Hedidn’t want to talk to Sirius right now, and he didn’twant to sleep. Those options seemed to be the onlythings he could do in that room with Sirius. But Siriuswouldn’t understand this; he would only want to makethings better, and this was something that he couldn’tmake better.Snape just had to have control over everything. ‘Hetells me what to do and where to do it,’ Harry thought.

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‘He decides when I feel pain and when I feel pleasure.’It was just too much for Harry to give up to anotherman. After wandering around the vacant areas around hisroom with Sirius, Harry eventually ended up in moaningmyrtles bathroom. He wandered into the showers andthought about just turning it on and running through withhis clothes on. He would have control of his stupidity atleast. Harry took a deep breath and slid down onto thefloor. There his hands fell upon something plastic. Hepicked it up and began playing with it in his handswhen suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his thumb.“Oww,” Harry cursed. He looked down and saw a smalltrickle of blood drip off his thumb. Then, he laughed. Itwas just a small cut, and here he was crying out like hewas really hurt or something. ‘All this pain must bemaking me soft,’ Harry thought. He began to examinethe piece of plastic that he had picked up. It was thebroken head of one of the girl’s razors. He turned itover in his hands and examined the blade that had cuthis thumb. The sharp blade glistened at him.He moved it swiftly across his other thumb, and painwelled up there and then faded when he put his thumbin his mouth. ‘He is not the only one,’ Harry thought. He

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brought the blade down again across his palm andthen his wrist - again and again and each time he feltmore alive and more powerful and more in control.Then he looked down at his arms and saw all the cutsand was suddenly ashamed. He threw the razor acrossthe room. What would Sirius think if he found out aboutthis? Harry rinsed the blood off his hands andstaunched the bleeding with toilet tissue. Luckily thecuts were superficial, and the bleeding stoppedquickly.Harry jumped up and left the room suddenly. He didn’twant to be reminded of what he had just done. Hemade his way back to Sirius’s room where he knewthat he would get support even if Sirius didn’t reallyknow what was wrong. Harry was not disappointedwhen Sirius gave him a hug as he entered the room.“You look better. Did Snape forget about you?”“Unlikely,” Harry answered realizing that even thoughhe felt much worse than after his previous sessionswith Snape, he really was physically better. “He let mesleep on his couch for a while. I think I’m going to gotake a shower before bed.” Harry grabbed his nightclothes and walked into the shower without givingSirius a chance to help him.

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When Harry came out of the bathroom, Sirius wassitting on the edge of his bed holding a potion bottle.“Snape sent up a potion for you,” Sirius said.Harry sighed and nodded. At least he wouldn’t have toworry about any nightmares or sleepwalking tonight.The next day, Harry stayed behind in potions classwithout being asked. There had not been a potionsclass this year in which he had not stayed behind, sohe had no reason to believe that today would be anydifferent.When Professor Snape stood to go to his office, Harryfollowed. “Turn around,” Snape said. Harry did and waited whilethe professor felt around his neck. “Show me yourhands,” Snape demanded.Harry froze. He’d somehow managed to forget this partof the ritual, or he’d selectively forgotten what his handsnow looked like. Snape could not find out. “I’m waiting Mr. Potter.”Harry shook his head vigorously and stepped back. Heknew there would be consequences for disobeyingProfessor Snape order, but they couldn’t be worse thanif Snape found out what he’d done after their session.He could run, Harry thought, and then get Hermione to

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heal the cuts for him and make up some story to tellSnape. He wouldn’t believe it, of course, but hewouldn’t have any proof. Dumbledore would have tomake Snape continue helping him with the Talisman.Harry turned towards the door, but out of the corner ofhis eye, he saw Snape raise his wand. The doorswung shut in front of him. He was trapped. Harryturned around slowly, but continued to back towardsthe door.“Now Potter,” Snape said his wand still raised andpointed directly at Harry. Harry swallowed hard nowrealizing that Snape *would* find out. But he still didn’tmove, but Snape’s glare forced him to bring his handsout in front of him. Snape tucked his wand away andgrabbed one of Harry’s hands in each of his. Heflipped them both over and pushed back Harry’ssleeves. The shallow cuts were now red and inflamedlooking much worse than they had the day before.Snape frowned and then dropped released his hands.“Sit down.” Snape said, and he pointed to a simplewooden chair against the back wall of his office. Harrysat as he watched Snape glance up and down each ofthe several shelves of potions and bottles behind hisdesk. Finally, he picked up a small jar and a roll of

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bandages. Then, he pulled his desk chair around infront of his desk so that he was sitting right across fromHarry. His apprehension was making his hands shake;Harry had expected Snape to yell at him or to throwhim out, but now he was going to help him. It didn’tmake sense.“You were thinking that you could control the pain thisway,” Snape stated. Harry was a little surprised thatSnape understood his motive so obviously, but thenagain from what he had learned about Snape in thepast several days, it really wasn’t that surprising.“You can not. External pain is always controlled bysomeone else. Your friend, your enemy, fate, God, me.”Snape unscrewed the lid of the jar and dipped one ofthe bandages into it. Harry rested his hands on histhighs. Snape pushed back Harry’s sleeves again andsmeared the thick solution over his palms andforearms. The sting he felt just then was several timesgreater than that of the cuts themselves. Harry tried notto show his pain, but he felt his eyes begin to water. Iwill not cry, Harry said to himself, I will not, but a singletear escaped.“You control your internal pain. You control what you dowith the pain. Well to an extent. There is only so much

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pain that a person can take. Then nature takes overand you either pass out or die. I do not wish to see youdo either, but I’d much rather see you do the former.That is why I control your pain.” Snape screwed the lidback on the jar. He cut off another clean bandage andwiped the cream off Harry’s arms. The cuts were nowall gone.“This can not continue.” Harry looked down at theground, but Professor Snape tipped his chin up so hewas forced to look in the professor’s eyes. “I know what is best for you. I can not continue if you donot submit to me. Do you understand?”Harry nodded almost unable to speak.“Do you want me to continue?”“Yes sir.”“I expect you in my rooms tonight at 9.” Snape lifted hiswand and the door opened.“Yes sir,” Harry answered. He retrieved his things fromthe classroom and hurried back to his dormitory. Thesudden change in Snape’s behavior confused him,and he wished that he could talk to Hermione about it.This was something that he was sure she would havesome insight into. But he still didn’t want to tell hisfriends what he was doing with Snape. He didn’t want

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them to feel sorry for him, and he didn’t want them todo anything to stop it.9 PM Snape had said. There would be no potiontonight, Harry understood. That was his punishment.But Professor Snape was right in his actions. Harryhad tried to regain some control, and he couldn’t dothat. He need to trust Snape completely for this towork. Harry was pretty sure that he could do that atleast for long enough to get the Talisman out of him forgood. He could do that for Sirius, he could do it forDumbledore, he could do it for the Order, and he coulddo it for Snape.Harry sat down on his bed and began reading hisTransfigurations text. He liked studying in his dormbefore dinner because there wasn’t usually anyoneelse there. The other boys liked to study in the library oroutside if the weather was good, or at least in thecommon room where they could be around girls. Harryliked to be alone when he studied – that is when hereally studied. With too many distractions, he never gotanything done, unless Hermione was giving them thehuge hints that she usually did. He got through most ofhis homework when he heard someone enter thedormitory. Sirius walked in in canine form and jumped

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up on Harry’s bed. Harry patted the dog on the headand whispered, “We’re alone, Sirius, you cantransform.” He wasn’t sure why Sirius was in his room.Sirius didn’t usually risk being around him unless hewas sure that nobody would see him. Something musthave happened. Had Snape told him what he haddone? Harry held his breath hoping that Sirius didn’tknow; he desperately didn’t want to lose his godfatherespecially now.“How were your classes today?” Sirius asked.Small talk? Harry thought. Sirius didn’t usually botherwith it. He must know, Harry thought. He picked up thecorner of his sheet and examined it carefully as heanswered. “Er, I guess they were fine. I didn’t get anydetentions. Not even from Snape.”“Good for you, kid. Listen,” Sirius paused and lookedup at his godson. “What’s wrong Harry?”“Nothing,” Harry answered succinctly. When he lookedup Sirius was still looking at him, and he looked quiteconcerned.“Would you still be here if I did something terrible?”Harry asked suddenly.“What do you mean be here? I’ll always be here foryou, no matter what happens. I love you Harry, and

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nothing’s going to change that.” Sirius put his armaround his godson and pulled him close to emphasizehis point.Harry turned around to look at Sirius, “But what if I didsomething really bad? What if I joined Voldemort?”Harry wasn’t srue where that question had come from,but maybe if Sirius could still love him then, then whathe had done wouldn’t matter.“First of all, Harry, you will never join Voldemort, buteven if you did I would still care about you. It’s you that Ilove not your actions. Now what brought this about?”“Do you still love Peter?” Harry asked.“Harry, you are not Peter.” Harry watched as Siriusstruggled with what to say next. Maybe it wasn’t thatsimple, Harry realized and decided to drop the topic“What did you want to talk to me about?” Sirius lookeda little relived at Harry’s change in direction.“I just wanted to warn you about something, but don’tworry I know Hogwarts is the safest place for you,”Sirius said.“What?” Harry asked.“Three of the Founder’s stones have gone missing inthe last week.” Sirius looked particularly serious as hesaid this, but the stones meant nothing to Harry.

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“So? I mean what are the Founder’s stones anyway?”Harry asked. Surely if these stones were somethingthat important, he would have at least heard of them.“When all four stones are brought together, the wardsof the castle are very vulnerable. When they are alltogether one person can drop or change all the wardsat once. Normally, no one person can drop all thewards.”The stones were connected to the wards. Of coursethey were important. Harry remembered how importantthe little sorcerer’s stone had been. Little things wereoften more important than they seemed. But why wasHarry hearing about this now. Unless it had somethingto do with him or perhaps the Talisman.“So where is the last stone?” Harry asked.“It’s the Slytherin Stone. Professor Snape takesresponsibility for it. I’m just worried that someone mighttry to get it. And since you spend so much time withhim, I’m worried that something might happen whileyou’re there.”“What happened to the others?” Harry asked.“They just disappeared. Each was carefully guarded bythe head of that house.”“What do you mean just disappeared? Professor

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McGonagall’s stone even?”“Yes, she can not explain it. Professor Dumbledoreseemed to think that her safeguards were more thansufficient. Whoever did it must know a great deal aboutwards and transfigurations *and* must be someonewho is all ready in the castle.”“You mean Snape? His stone is the only one that is stillsafe”“I was not accusing anyone. I’m pretty sure that it is notSeverus, or I wouldn’t let you continue going to him.Severus is sneaky enough that he would claim that hisstone was gone as well so as not to draw attention tohimself. Well, I just wanted you to know so you couldlook out for anyone that seems unusual that’s all. I’ll seeyou tonight.”______-----------------____________----------------__________That night in Snape’s rooms, Snape had very little tosay. He directed Harry to sit on the floor in front of him,and Harry noticed that the picture was no longer thereto calm him. Again, Snape gave no warning beforeremoving the Talisman, but this time, Harry expectedthat. With the talisman removed, Snape began recitingpotion ingredients. “Boomslang skin, molly,

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wolfsbane...The words seemed to drone on and on and on asHarry waited for the pain to begin.“Ennerveate,” Harry heard when it was all over. Snapedropped Harry’s shirt and his robes into his lap.Harry’s head pounded and his vision was blurred. Heknew that he wasn’t going to get any help from Snapetonight. Harry struggled to stand, but his body didn’tseem to respond to his actions. Finally, Harry heavedhimself up using the couch as support. He tried toreach down to pick up his clothes, but his muscleswere just too tight. Snape had already retreated to hisbedroom, and Harry suspected he wouldn’t be comingback.He gave up on his clothes and slowly walked orshuffled towards the door. Harry struggled up the stairsand down the halls using whatever he could find on thewalls as support. When he finally got to the portrait infront of his room, he could stand no more, and hecollapsed to the ground.Sirius must have heard him fall because at just thatmoment, the portrait swung open. Sirius helped him upand to the bed where he lay unable to sleep becausehe was unable to get comfortable. Everything hurt.

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Sirius mopped the sweat from his forehead, andremoved his shoes, but there was nothing else hecould do.Harry heard Sirius walk over to the fireplace. “Severus, what did you do to him?” Sirius demanded.“I did only what I needed to do. It does get more difficultas time goes on.”“But he’s barely coherent. Yesterday he was fine.”“You have not been paying attention.”“What? What can I do for him?”“I suggest you make sure that he moves his musclesevery hour tonight. If he does not he will not be leavingthat bed. Goodnight.”Harry did not sleep at all that night. Between the painand Sirius’s awkward attempts to keep him moving,there was little room for sleep.The next morning, Sirius left to inform the headmasterthat Harry would not be attending his classes that day.While he was gone, Harry attempted to get up on hisown. He felt like he’d just tried to run an ultra marathonwith no training. His legs wobbled, but they held hisweight. He tried to take a step, but all he could manageto do was a small shuffle. His victory for the morningwas making it all the way to the bathroom, and it only

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took him a half hour.Sirius came back from the Headmaster’s office andhelped Harry back to his bed. Harry tried to pick upsome toast, but it kept slipping through his fingers. Hedidn’t even want to attempt the spoon. Sirius tried tofeed him some toast, but Harry found he literally couldnot open his mouth. The muscles were too tight.A house elf came to the door a bit later delivering anote telling Harry to be in the potions classroom thatnight at seven.---***----***----***--The TalismanBy chips challengeChapter Five: The Talisman RemovedHarry made sure to arrive in the potion’s classroomfive minutes early that evening. He didn’t want to gothrough another session without the potion and wastruly grateful that Snape was going to let him make itagain. As Harry entered the room, he noticed thatSnape was busy at work marking papers and with aglance towards the back of the room, he saw thepotion ingredients and text laid out for him. Harrywalked silently towards the back of the room to getstarted.

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“You were truant from class today, Mr. Potter,”Professor Snape said as he walked past.“Sirius wouldn’t let me leave,” Harry muttered as a halfexcuse. All of his muscles were still quite sore andthough he could at least walk now, he still had troubletalking and moving properly. There was no way that hecould have made it through classes.“See that it doesn’t happen again.”“Yes sir,” Harry replied rather than trying to defendhimself. When he got to the back of the room, Harrynoticed that there where two cauldrons were set outalong with double the amount of ingredients. Henervously eyed the double potion ingredients. Would itbe so bad tonight that he would need two batches ofpotion? Or would he be allowed to use on beforetonight’s session. Harry shook his head at that thought.He knew that Snape wouldn’t give him any relief fromhis punishment and what would be the point rightbefore another session?Still, Harry wanted to make sure that he made thepotions properly because he was sure that he wasgoing to need it. Harry chopped slowly andmeticulously even though his muscles screamed witheach movement. He put the first root into each of the

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cauldrons along with the proper amount of solute andwaited for the fires to heat up. He picked up a longhandled spoon for each of the cauldrons and moved togently sir each pot, but his arm would not move in thatway.How was he going to make any kind of potion if hecouldn’t stir properly? The answer, he knew, was thathe couldn’t. He also knew that a blotched potion wasone thing sure to make Professor Snape angry and togive himself another horrible and uncomfortable night.Harry took out his wand and cast a simple stirring spellon the spoons. That would be sufficient until he startedadding more ingredients. But once that started, thepotion would become a disaster if he couldn’tcoordinate the stirring. He would have to get somehelp, so Harry walked to the front of the room andpaused in front of Snape’s desk. The Professor did notlook up even when he finished grading his currentpage; he just continued on with his work. Finally Harryspoke up, “Professor?”Snape acted as though it took a great deal more of histime than it was worth to look up at him.“Canyoupleasehelpmestirthepotion?” Harry sputtered.He was pretty sure that Snape would just ridicule him

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for being weak or tell him that his current problem wasthe consequence for his actions, but he had to try andhe didn’t want Snape to accuse him later of being toproud to ask for help.“Speak up Mr. Potter. Don’t waste my time.”“Can you please help me stir the potion, sir?” Harryrepeated.“Very well.” That was it? Harry thought. Maybe heshould have asked for help earlier or maybe Snapehad all ready known that he wouldn’t be able to finishthe potions on his own and was just waiting for him*not* to ask for help.Snape strode to the back of the room where he beganmeticulously stirring both of potions. Harry could easilysee ease with which the Potion’s Professor preparedthe potion and wondered if he would ever even be halfas proficient. Not, of course, that he ever cared to be aPotion’s Master. A growl from Snape snapped Harryback into action and he began adding the ingredientsin their proper orders and at their proper times.When the potion finished simmering, Snape pouredthe potions into two bottles for Harry and labeled them,and placed them in his robe pocket.“Tonight I will be stepping up the time two fold,” Snape

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warned. “You should prepare.”Harry had been expecting something like that.“Prepare how, Sir?” he asked. Maybe Snape hadsomething new up his sleeve to help him through thepain, he thought hopefully.“Go into my rooms and practice your breathing. I will bethere shortly.”Harry sighed as he obeyed. Breathing might help alittle, but not nearly enough to make up for whateverwas going to cause him to need *two* potions. Whenhe got to Snape’s rooms, the door openedautomatically for him. He sat on the floor again in frontof the couch where he usually did. He looked up andnoticed that the swirling colors artwork was back inplace, but he consciously closed his eyes so that hewould not look at it while he began breathing deeplypaying attention to each breath. Snape was going toincrease the time two fold. Twice as long as forever,Harry thought. He seriously considered jumping up andrunning out the door. He could make it to the EntranceHall and perhaps to the forbidden forest. Maybesomething big would eat him, but at least that would bethe end of his pain.“Take off your shirt, Mr. Potter.” Harry started at the

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sudden sound. If he hadn’t been so distracted, hesurely would have noticed when Snape came back tohis rooms. There was no escaping. He knew that allalong really, but thinking about it had at least broughthis mind away from what was about to happen – atleast for a short while. Harry took hold of the bottom ofhis shirt and tried to lift it over his head, but he couldbarely lift his arms at all in that position.“I’m waiting, Mr. Potter, and I do not have time to waitfor you.”Harry tugged at his shirt some more, but still had nosuccess. “I...I” (can’t) “I need help, Sir.” Harry correctedhimself expecting that Snape would respond better tohim admitting that he needed help than to him failinghimself.“Very well,” Snape replied just as he had when Harryhad asked for help with his potion. Yes, Snape wouldhave known that he would need help. Harry just wishedfor once he could get some help without being forcedto ask for it. Maybe Snape just like to hear him admitthat he wasn’t strong enough to do it himself.Harry felt Snape grab his sweater from behind and pullit over his head. He grunted at the quick motions thathis arms were required to make, but soon sighed as

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Snape began applying the potion. So, there would bepotion before the session, Harry realized. Maybe itwouldn’t be as bad as he thought. After his arms, back,neck and jaw muscles had been attended to, Snapesaid, “I’ll need to apply the potion to your legs as well.”Snape stood up before him and Harry could just stareat him. His legs? They were still quite sore, but hecould walk. What? Did Snape expect him to take off allhis clothes now?“Well, stand up and remove your clothing.”Harry didn’t move. That answered his question, butcould he really so that. Was Snape just trying to seehow far he could go? No way, Harry thought.“Potter, I don’t have time for your insolence.”“But...” Harry said.Snape glared at Harry, and then slowly began to putthe lid back on the potion jar. Harry thought quickly.Snape wouldn’t want to use the potion on him beforehe took out the Talisman unless he had a reason.Everything Snape did seemed to have a reason, andas much as he didn’t like to just submit to whateverSnape asked him to do, so far *not* doing so hadalways turned out much worse. He stood quickly. Tooquickly; his legs began to quiver and he fell forward

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onto his knees. Harry dragged himself to his feet againand slowly began to remove his trousers. Snape hadall ready seen him at his worst, so this would really notbe much worse.Harry wiggled out of his simple, black trousers, whichwere the only ones that Sirius had been able to get onhim in the morning after trying his uniform pants and anold pair of Dudley’s jeans. Harry had begun to thinkthat he would have to go around all day in just hispants. And here he was in the same situation. An oddthough told him this was perverse and wrong, but hisrational mind told him it was necessary.Snape led Harry to the couch and laid him down on hisstomach. He removed the lid from the potion bottleagain and began to apply it to Harry’s legs. Snape’shands deeply massaged the tissue as he went. ThenSnape helped him turn to his back and began tostretch his legs in all the ways he’d been unable tomove during the day. Harry was beginning to feel sorelaxed now that he just wanted to go to sleep.“Do not question me again,” Snape said.Harry felt so comfortable that he didn’t want to moveever. If only he didn’t have several hours of pain toendure just then.

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“Turn your head and look at the wall,” Snape said.Harry did and saw the swirling colors painting again.“Concentrate on your breathing.”Harry tried to focus on his breath, but soon he feltSnape’s hands travel to the Talisman. He forced hismind back to his breathing and tried not to think ofanything else. Softly, he began to hear a soothingsong, and he let his mind attach to it as hisconsciousness surged farther from his body. He heardhis own breathing, he felt the song, and he felt his mindescaping. He imagined his body tensing with pain, buthe didn’t feel any of it. This sensation continued as if itwould last forever. But Harry knew he could last like thisforever—for two times forever. Harry woke up feelingso comfortable and content that he didn’t want toactually acknowledge that he was awake for fear thatthe feeling would go away. He noted that he waswrapped in a warm quilt and laying on a soft surface.He turned his head and noticed right away that hewasn’t in his dormitory, and he wasn’t even in the roomthat he often found himself waking up in that he sharedwith Sirius. He wasn’t sure where he was at all, but heknew that he didn’t want to leave.“You will stay here tonight,” he heard Snape’s voice.

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“And if you need a sleeping potion, you will tell me.”He was still with Snape? But he didn’t think he was inthe main room anymore. Had Snape really let him intohis bedroom? Harry seriously doubted that, but hedidn’t want to leave, so he replied, “Yes Sir.” Then histhought shifted abruptly to his godfather sitting up stairswaiting for him. “But what about Sirius?”“What about him? I’m sure your godfather is fine.”“But he’ll be worried about me,” Harry said softly.“He doesn’t worry about you enough,” Snape replied.“That’s what he said about you,” Harry said resting hishead back down on the pillow.Snape actually laughed at this. Then, he put his handon Harry’s forehead and whispered, ‘Rest’.---***---****---***--“Harry Potter, boy wonder, you performed fabulously.”Harry snapped awake. Draco Malfoy stood before himwith his wand outstretched.“Where am I?” Harry asked.“Don’t you recognize it? Isn’t that where you killed theMaster’s prize basilisk?Harry allowed his eyes to glance around hissurroundings. Yes, the large pipes and cold stonebeneath his body confirmed that he was in the

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Chamber of Secrets, but how in the world did he getthere?“Seems fitting that this is the place where he is goingto kill you.”“Voldemort can’t get inside Hogwarts,” Harrydemanded hoping that that statement was also trueabout the Chamber of Secrets. But he wasn’t sure;Tom had entered the Chamber before.“Couldn’t get inside Hogwarts would be more correct.He can now you see for you have brought together thefour founder’s stones, and now I am going to lift thewards,” Draco said waving his wand grandly above hishead.“I did no such thing,” Harry demanded. He didn’t knowwhy he was trying to defend himself to Draco who waslikely the one who was involved with the missingfounder’s stones. How else would Draco have knownthat they were missing?“Pity you don’t remember,” Draco sneered. “It reallywas good work.”“What do you mean don’t remember. I think I wouldremember if I had done that! Unless you put a memorycharm on me. You put a memory charm on me!”“I didn’t as such. Voldemort was able to direct your

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movements while you were sleeping. Didn’t you everwonder why you woke up feeling like you’d been activeall night?”“How do you know that?” Harry said under his breathand then continued louder, “It doesn’t matter; I’m notgoing to let you lower the wards.”“And how do you plan to stop me?” Draco asked hiswand still pointed at Harry. Harry then noticed that itwas his own wand that Draco pointed at him. Harrydropped all caution and ran towards Draco who cast asimple shielding spell around himself.“That Talisman you wear will direct Master directly toyou and allow him to get through any remaining wards.There is nothing you can do to stop me now.”“Really?” Harry questioned. He glanced around rashlylooking for a way out, some help…anything, but he wasalone. He couldn’t let Voldemort get into Hogwarts. Hecouldn’t be the one that lead the Dark Lord right to allthe people that he cared about. He reached behindhim suddenly and grasped the Talisman and ripped itfrom his neck. Without the Talisman, Voldemortwouldn’t be able to get to him. The Talisman was thekey. He threw the Talisman against the ground, and itshattered into many pieces that soon crumbled to dust

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and dissipated.Harry watched his composure dissipate with theremains of the Talisman. He turned and ran down thecorridor to find his way out. He had to warn theHeadmaster that Draco was going to lower the wards.Maybe if he found a way to get back to ProfessorSnape’s rooms he could both ward the headmasterand maybe just maybe Snape would be able to helphim so that he wouldn’t die or at least his deathwouldn’t be so horrible.Harry’s thoughts paused as he continued running. Hadhe just committed his stupidest act ever? Without theTalisman he would surely die. He knew that his bodywasn’t ready for it to be gone and soon he would befeeling its absence. But he couldn’t lead Voldemortright to Hogwarts. He couldn’t put all his friends indanger. He had to block Voldemort’s path. He knewthat he had to do what he did even if he didn’t live longenough to see the results. But what now? Harrystopped for a moment to catch his breath when heheard a familiar voice.“Draco, must you be so long winded?”Professor Snape? How had Snape gotten here? Hemust have followed me, Harry realized. The wards in

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Snape’s room seemed to recognize him when heentered; maybe they also recognized when he left.Harry slowly began to sneak back towards the voice.He sighed with relief; everything would be okay. Or atleast the headmaster would be warned of what Dracowas about to do. He hoped that Snape would deal withDraco quickly though because he knew the pain fromthe Talisman’s absence would come soon and hereally just didn’t want to be alone.“I had Potter eating out of my hand,” Snape continued.“He would have done anything. Now look what you’vedone. He is just going to die. Voldemort will not behappy.” Harry felt his mouth falling open in horror. Howcould he have missed Snape’s true allegiance?“But...Severus how was I supposed to know he wouldbe that stupid?” Draco stammered.“You are the one who is stupid. You just told him thatVoldemort was coming directly to him, and how he wasgoing to do it. Even Gryffindors are not that daft.”“Potter will still be dead. How he dies should notmatter.”“You know better than that, Draco. Potter was to beVoldemort’s,” Snape replied.Harry stumbled backwards shivering and betrayed. He

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picked himself up and ran as fast as he could. HadSnape just been torturing him to make him even morevulnerable? It really had just been a game for Snape.He didn’t even want to think about what Snape woulddo to him now; however, he didn’t plan to wait aroundto find out. Since he was going to die anyway, therewas no reason for him to do it for the pleasure ofSnape.“Potter stop.” Harry didn’t even look back. Hecontinued running until he reached a dead end. Theentrance to the Chamber was several hundred feetabove him, and he could hear Snape running after him,but there was no way for him to get up there. Therewas nowhere for him to go.Harry panicked. His heart began beating faster than hethought possible, and it was getting faster by thesecond. Soon his body was going to explode. Good,Harry thought, maybe he’d take Snape out in the blastas well.Harry knew that he wouldn’t be able to stand muchlonger. The pain was coming. He could feel it like achange in pressure before a storm.---***---****---***--The Talisman

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By chips challengeChapter Six: Understanding“Potter calm yourself and listen to me,” Harry couldhear Snape’s voice, but he could not comply as thepain stepped up. He fell to the ground shivering as hewas still wearing nothing more than his boxer shorts.He could still hear a voice and a soothing sound buttrying to comprehend them just took too much effort.He seemed to feel something covering him and a softsong begun to ring through his mind.Harry wasn’t sure if weeks or minutes had passedbefore he woke up wrapped in a quilt on a soft bed.But, somehow he wasn’t dead. That much he was sureof, but he didn’t know why. Had he actually been closeenough to being free from the Talisman that he wasable to make it though? Had someone found him in theChamber of Secrets and brought him here? Or hadSnape done something?He tried to sit up, but his body hurt too much to movemuch at all. He was able to discern that he was in afamiliar room. The one that he had been in theprevious night. Had Snape brought him back here sohe could finish what he started? Harry felt himselfbeginning to panic though he couldn’t feel his body

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moving. He wasn’t sure if his body *could* move. Thenhe saw something out of the corner of his eye. Therewas a big black dog sitting on the end of the bed.“Sirius?” Harry tried to say, but noting came out of hismouth. He wasn’t even sure that he had even moved atall. Harry saw the dog moving towards him and actuallyfelt it’s cold wet nose on his hand. The dog looked upat him once more before he hopped off the bed andleft the room.Harry was too confused to think straight. He knew thatSirius would never be in on any plot against him, butyet he was here in Snape’s room. Then ProfessorSnape himself appeared at the end of the bed withSirius in his human form standing right behind him.*I had Potter eating out of my hand.* Harry backedaway as far as he could, which wasn’t much. He wastrapped. His breathing quickened. He heard hisheartbeat echoing in his head. Sweat began to rolldown his face. His eye began to sting as a drop ofsweat rolled into it causing his eyes to start wateringuncontrollably. There was nothing he could do.Somehow Sirius had made it to his bedside, and hebegan to wipe the sweat from Harry’s brow. “It’s okay,kid. I know you probably don’t remember what

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happened, but that’s why Severus is here. So he canexplain it to you. He was there. Do you remember that?” Harry soon began to shiver, and his already crampedmuscles began to twitch with pain.“He needs a calming potion now.” Snape said.Snape handed a small potion bottle to Sirius whobrought the bottle to Harry’s lips. Harry turned his headaway. He couldn’t really move enough to stop Siriusfrom giving him the potion, but he was grateful whenSirius didn’t force him.“It’s okay Harry. It’s just a calming potion. Severusmade it; I’m sure it’s fine,” Sirius said.Snape cursed silently and shook his head at Blacksblatant lack of understanding of the situation. “Drink ityourself Black,” Snape whispered.Clearly not understanding but willing to try anything tohelp his godson, Sirius slowly brought the small potionbottle to his mouth and took a small sip. “See Harry, it’sfine. It will just help you think a little clearer.” Butwouldn’t Snape want to hurt Sirius as well, Harrywondered. Why was his godfather trusting Snape tomake him a potion? Harry felt the potion vial at his lipsagain and didn’t have time or the energy to move awaybefore its contents were tipped into his mouth.

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Harry watched Sirius as he began to sway on his feetand then he suddenly tipped over and fell to the groundwith a soft thud. He had just drank the same potion…he just had a minute to live…after all that hadhappened his life was coming down to this…and hehad just let it happen.Snape reached down and put a hand on his foreheadwhile turning around and looking down at his fallengodfather. “It is really just a calming potion and a lightone at that.”Seeming to notice that his words had no calmingeffect, he continued, “Your godfather had been upwatching you day and night for the last three days. Hewas practically asleep on his feet. I should not besurprised the potion put him to sleep. I tried to get himto sleep before, but he wouldn’t. I should have knownyou would be able to get him to without even trying.”Snape walked to the other side of the bed and satdown. Harry just stared at him wide-eyed. Why wasSnape still pretending to be nice to him?“I’m going to put the potion on you jaw and facemuscles so you can talk back to me, and then we cantalk about what happened. This is the last thing that Iam going to do without your explicit permission,”

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Snape said in a deliberate tone from which Harry coulddecipher nothing. Harry watched as Snape took outanother potion bottle made sure that Harry could seeeverything that he was doing. Snape carefully pouredthe potion onto a white cloth and began working it intohis stiff and sore jaw muscles. The muscles soonbegan to relax, and Harry tested this by opening hismouth.“You bastard!” he croaked. “Get out. I will not let youmanipulate me anymore.”“I will gladly do that, even though you are in mybedroom, as soon as I explain to you what happenedin the Chamber of Secrets.”“I already know what happened. I was there. You soldme out to Voldemort. Gods even Draco knew about it,”Harry exclaimed.“Draco knows nothing,” Snape replied. “He thinks thathe can gain power by doing whatever his father tellshim, and I didn’t even know of this plan. I would havebeen much more careful with you if you’d known.”“I heard what you said to Draco.”“I said what I had to say. I could not very well tell himthat I was helping you to remove the Talisman.”No, of course he couldn’t, but…

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“Harry, if I had wanted to give you over to Voldemort,then why are you sleeping in my bedroom rather thanone of his cells?” Snape said.Harry couldn’t answer that, but if he had been thinkingproperly at all he would have realized that someonemust have brought him out of the Chamber of Secretsand that person must have been Snape since he wasnow sleeping in his room.“But how did I survive?” Harry wondered out loud.“You removed the Talisman sooner than I would haveliked, but you were left little choice. However, you haveall ready made it though the worst of it and will now justneed some time to recover. If you can trust me, I think Ican help you.”Harry, who didn’t want to face the question of whetherhe could trust Snape or not and still had manyquestions floating around in his head, changed thesubject, “How did I get down the Chamber of Secretswhen I was sleeping in your quarters?“I suspect it was the same way you got out of yourroom with Black. Voldemort was manipulating you inyour sleep so that he could get you to collect all thefounder’s stones for him. You are the only student whowould have been able to do this.”

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”But why me? Couldn’t Draco have collected thestones?”“No, your magic is subliminally stronger than anyothers. You could will the wards to open for you.Dumbledore will not be pleased. He thought his wardswere unbreakable, but the Gryffindor stone was the firstto go missing. Besides, Voldemort liked the idea thathe could control you right under Dumbledore’s eyes.The satisfaction would not hav been the same for him ifDraco had completed the task.”“But how did you find me there?” Harry asked quietly.What Snape said was making sense, and he wantedto believe it.“I have set my wards to recognize you. They informedme when you left. I followed you.”“But, Draco could have killed me!”“He would not have, and I didn’t know what he didplaned to do. This plan was one that I knew nothingabout. I just listened to him tell you everything. I wouldhave done the same thing that you did, Harry,” Snapeadmitted.Harry, who was feeling a little awkward having Snapesuddenly calling him by his given name asked, “Whathappened after that? How did I get back here?” Harry

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asked.“I sat with you while you began to withdraw from theTalisman,” Snape said slowly.“How long?”“Two days.”“And how long have I been here?”“An additional three days.”“Were you really there for two full days? Why? Why areyou doing this for me?” Snape nodded. “That is aquestion I will answer for you another time. Now, youneed to get some rest. Will you let me apply the rest ofthe potion?”“Yes sir,” Harry said softly, and he closed his eyes asSnape helped him roll over and began to apply thepotion.When Harry was comfortably asleep, Severus walkedaround to the other side of the bed to Harry’s fallengodfather.“Ennervate,” he said.“Shit Severus, what was in that potion?” Siriusdemanded.“It’s just a light calming potion,” Snape replied. “I toldyou that you needed to get some sleep. I just didn’tknow how much you really needed to get some sleep. I

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don’t know how you managed not to fall over at anymoment.”“I had an important reason to stay awake,” Sirius said.He sat up, and then accepted Severus’s help to stand.“How’s Harry?”“I think he will be okay. I told him what happened, and Ithink he understood, but he didn’t have much choice.You will have to talk to him.”“I will. Is he going to be okay though?”“I suspect. It will be hard for the next few days, but heshould be out of bed by the end of the week and backto class the following week. You can stay here tonight,but I’d like the use of my own bedroom after that,”Snape said.“What about Harry?”“Harry may stay until he’s well enough to leave.”Sirius nodded, changed into his dog form, and slid intobed next to his godson.Harry woke up again in Snape’s rooms. Sirius wascomfortably dozing next to him is his dog form. Harryrolled over and found that though his muscles were stillextremely sore, he could move modestly. As much ashe wanted to talk to his godfather, he didn’t want towake him up especially if he were really as tired as

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Snape had said he was. Harry decided just to wait.This wait turned out not to take long. Sirius seemed tobe able to sense when he woke up.“Hey Harry. How are you feeling this morning?”“I feel better. It still hurts but I’m much better,” Harryanswered.“What hurts?” Sirius asked. “Everything.”“Oh, I’m sorry Harry.”“No, it’s not your fault. It’s Voldemort. He managed tosucceed even when he failed.”“No, he didn’t succeed. You’ll make it though.”“Did Snape tell you what happened?” Harry asked.“Yes,” Sirius answered. “I found him down in theChamber of Secrets with you when I went looking foryou after you didn’t show up in our rooms that night. Iwatched him there for the next two days. I didn’t knowwhat else to do.”“So it’s true?” Harry asked.“What’s true? Severus did save your life. I don’t knowwhat happened before that, but I believe what he toldme, and he’s let me stay here. I am going to have toleave today. You can leave if you want to, or I’ll comehere whenever you want me to.”“Thanks Sirius. Snape has helped me.”

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“I’m going to go get him now. He wanted to give yousome more of that potion when you woke up.”Sirius left and when Snape appeared, Harry didn’tknow what to say. After Snape applied the potion to hisbody, Harry rolled over and asked Snape, “Will you tellme why? I though you wouldn’t care one way or anotherif I died.“I did act that way. I’m sorry that I acted too well, but itdid allow me to play my part,” Snape replied. “I had toplay my part to help you. If I had been thinking abouthow you felt or what you thought, I would have been asuseless as Black in this endeavor. I’m not saying that itdidn’t affect me, but I couldn’t let it show to you.“Albus had to force me to drink a calming potion afterthe first night. I had to block it all out. Blocking myfeelings is what made this process achievable for meand completing it possible for you. I know that youhaven’t had it easy, but maybe it will get better in thefuture,” he continued.Harry again didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t thoughtabout how this might be hard for Snape, too. But hedidn’t have much time to think about it as he felt Snapeplace his hand on his head and sent him off to sleep.That night, he felt Snape remove the quilt from his body

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and work the potion into all of his muscles again. Thisritual repeated itself every time Harry woke up for thenext three days until finally Snape declared that heshould try to walk. Snape helped him to a small table inthe living room that was set out for breakfast. Harrymanaged to eat some of each dish presented withhelp from Snape, and then Snape helped him dress inpajama pants and his dark school robes.“Sirius is expecting you back in your rooms today,” hesaid.“No,” Harry replied, too quickly. “He won’t understand.”“He understands more than you think, and he’s worriedabout you. Getting out will be good for you.”“But...”“You may still come here.”“Thank you, sir.”“You are welcome.”---***----***----***--A few weeks later, Harry sat on the floor of Snape’squarters doing his potions homework. He had beendown to the dungeons several times since he’d startedback to class. Sometimes he did his homeworksometimes he sat by the fire reading one of Snape’smany interesting books. Sometimes if he pretended to

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fall asleep, Snape let him spend the night. Sometimesthey talked about the war or classes. Sometimes theytalked about nothing at all, because sometimes theydidn’t need to.**END**