The portkey that Madame Bones had provided for him deposited Harry in the Warden's office at Azkaban prison and he managed to avoid stumbling this time.
The warden was standing there waiting for him. "Good day Lord Potter."
"Warden," Harry responded flatly. He hated this place and all the memories it brought up for him, but it wasn't this wizard's fault.
"I understand from Madame Bones that you wish to visit with Prisoner Severus Snape, is that correct?" This warden was brisk and business like. While he understood that there were sometimes changes in the daily routine, the warden preferred to get them over with as quickly as possible.
"Yes, in private if that is possible." Harry told him. "I have some business concerning my family that I would like to discuss with him. Is that possible to arrange?"
"Yes, it can be if you don't mind speaking to Mr. Snape in his cell." The warden told him after a few moments.
Harry shrugged. "If it is the only way, then I will speak to him in his cell."
...
"You have a visitor, Snape." The guard for his wing of the prison announced as he opened the door to Snape's cell.
The former potion's teacher was surprised when the last person he ever expected to see at Azkaban came strolling into his cell.
"Just call when you are ready to leave, Lord Potter." The guard requested as he locked the door again.
Harry nodded.
"Come to gloat?" Snape growled in an almost bore tone of voice.
"Nope," Harry told him. "I have a question and depending on your answer, I may be making you an offer."
"What question?" Snape couldn't help being curious as he eyed Potter as if he might be a source of some entertainment. He could only do so much meditation before even that became boring.
Harry handed over a folded piece of paper. "If I get you the ingredients and the equipment to do so, can you make this potion?"
Snape's eyes widened at the name of the potion written there. Why would Potter need this particular potion? He eyed Potter suspiciously, wondering just what the Golden boy of Gryffindor had been up to since his incarceration. "Do you understand what this potion will do?"
"Yes." Harry did not elaborate. "Can you make it?"
"Yes." Snape was equally abrupt.
"Then to my offer, since I want to keep this matter as quiet as possible." Harry told him. "If you make the potion, I will consider your debt to me paid in full. Once you are out of here, I will arrange for you to be paid for making the wolfsbane potion for the foundation every month, and if the werewolves will allow it, I will even pay you to find a cure as long as said cure is not fatal. The only thing I will require from you is a magically binding oath that you will not mention this matter or the fact that I made you this offer, either verbally, in written form, or even telepathically, if wizards are capable of such a thing with anyone or anything. "
"And if I refuse?" Snape wanted to know.
Harry shrugged, "then I will oblivate you and wipe this conversation from your mind and you will still be obligated to make the wolfsbane potion for the foundation every month and you will not be paid for doing so. This is your chance to clear the debt you owe my father and get paid for your potions skills and if you are lucky, you could go down in history as the person who found a cure for lycanthropy."
Snape stared at the boy… no young man in front of him. He had hardly expected this response from Potter, the model Gryffindor. But then again, he wouldn't have expected a Gryffindor to need or want this particular potion either.
The Fat Lady Is Singing
Hermione stared up at the canopy of her bed in the seventh year dorm, unable to go to sleep on her final night at Hogwarts, because her mind kept going over the fact that her life seemed to have come full circle today. She had arrived at Hogwarts with no friends and she was leaving Hogwarts with no real friends. Oh she had acquaintances, which was a vast improvement on what she had before, but no real friends.
Her relationship with Ron had ended that afternoon as they were discussing their plans for life after Hogwarts. There were a lot of factors responsible for it's demise; the strain of trying to deal with what they had done to Harry, even though Ron wouldn't admit they were at fault for some of it, the fact that they had very differing views about what was important in life, and she finally admitted at least to herself, the fact that Harry was not there to act as a buffer between them.
Last year they had held together because of what they saw as Harry's betrayal of the Light and everything it stood for, but once that righteous anger had been shown to have no real foundation, the rest of the pillars holding Ron's and Hermione's friendship together had begun to crumble as well. She finally acknowledged that she had no one to blame but herself for the destruction of the bonds that had made her friends with Harry and Ron the night they had saved her from the Troll. True Harry had been more responsible for her being saved than Ron, but they had still come to rescue her and that had been the beginning. She had thought it would last forever, especially given all they had gone through but that had been a childish dream.
As Hermione rolled over and closed her eyes, determined to get some sleep, she breathed a sigh of relief that there had been no more problems between Harry and the other students at school. While she was bound by her vow to stay away from him, it was apparent that the other Gryffindors had finally figured out that if they left Potter alone their lives and the lives of their fellow students would be a lot more peaceful. That peace had been essential given the fifth and seventh year students in all the houses had been getting ready for their OWLs and NEWTs. They didn't have time to make an issue of the fact that Potter still hadn't and clearly never would forgive them for what they had done the previous year and the other Gryffindors had simply followed their lead.
The fact that Potter was not going on a rampage though didn't mean that everything was all sweetness and light at Hogwarts. Rumour had it that Malfoy was still a ferret and would probably remain so for quite some time to come, even though Potter had made it quite clear in April what he would have to do to regain human form, when he had been confronted by an angry Pansy Parkinson, who was furious that her future husband was still a ferret.
.....
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