Chapter 54: Enough

*Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters therein.

'Harry's thoughts'

'Severus' thoughts'

Harry sunk his conscious magick down, deeper and deeper into the Mark of the dark haired man laid prone before as with Legilimency, he could see into the magic of his surroundings, though now he was faced with spells, not memories.

Colors surrounded him in ropes of sickly hues, writhing around him in a constant thrumming push and pull. A battle between the body and the outside force controlling it. The colors were oddly bright, fluorescent even, but in a sickening way.

The greens and yellows, blues and violet hues spoke of disease and a feeble attempt to heal my the magical core of the man.

Harry watched the writhing ropes twist in on themselves as the registered his presence. He backed off a touch, then began reaching slowly for the part of his mind held by Severus. He wanted no more contact that a simple wisp of conversation would hold for fear of the interacting magics. No one needed to give Voldemort a leg up in this endeavor.

'Where do I begin, Sev'rus?'

Harry sent a mental image of what he saw and felt, hoping after when limited practice they had, that it would come through as clearly as he needed.

'Ah, I see. I want you to begin identifying at the weakest spell point. It will be in the bottom left quadrant, a pale lemon strand left attached at only one point. That, I believe is a locator spell for apparating.'

'I see it.'

Harry counted down from five before pulling on Severus' gathering magic, thus focusing the diagnostic charm. He waited, knowing the readout would be lengthier from within that anything their previous attempts had given them.

'It is done,' Severus eventually told him. 'Now speak to me the Parselmagic diagnostic.'

Harry grinned, knowing that even if it was inappropriate at the given moment that his beloved Potions Master had no self-control when faced with his sibilant tongue.

'Haas shasahth.' Harry hissed the sensual phrase over and over, slowing the syllables until Severus was able to speak them correctly.

Severus repeated the spell aloud and Harry pulled the second diagnostic charm within his consciousness, guiding the spell in it's tainted glass colored glory towards the flailing mass before him.

Again time stretched as the diagnostic was created, but eventually it finished. Severus sounded pleased as he responded.

'The registries have combined, showing us where we will find our attachments. It is a better situation than we could have hoped for. The spell we will come to first is indeed the apparition locator. Your first counter will be Inveniet Finite. I will cast, you shall focus on placement.'

'Yes, Sir! Ready and in focus.' Harry felt that if he had eyes in this realm of magical existence then they would have narrowed in focus behind his round-rimmed frames. In the back of his mind, more on the left this time, Harry could hear Severus calling the counterspell. He felt the energy gather via the crystal, pass through Severus into his body. It flashed from the center of his chest, up his spine and down his arms before flowing straight into the Dark Mark beneath his hands. Harry directed what he could, the power behind the spell stronger than he imagined it would be. He watched as the cleansing silver of the counterspell met the sickly yellow of the locator, then subtly a inky, black wave of surrounded it, helping to corrode and eat away at the countermagic.

Harry could see the countermagic failing under the onslaught of this Dark magic. Even with the combination of Severus' magic, his magic and the focusing crystal it was a close battle between the two entities.

But it wasn't going to be enough.

Enraged, harry reflexively pulled more from his own core to flow into the spell, ignoring the clash of something from the left side of his head as he watched the new magic obliterate the locator and the Dark entity.

And the next spell attached.

And the next.

Harry watched with growing horror as the spells began to self destruct…

One

By

One.

Link by link the spells began to eat away at themselves, the reaction only speeding with each successive spell. Like ash from a flame the spells disintegrated to nothing, falling away into nothingness as growing ever closer to the last connecting point of the spell: Flint's magical core.

Harry could feel pressure on him as he fought to separate his consciousness from the landscape of the Dark Mark as little by little the destruction moved closer to the dimly glowing center of Antonin's core. Harry tried to put up a block, a wall of protection, anything he could think of to stop the blackness from annihilating the man's entire core…

But it wasn't going to be enough.

With one final thought, a last pardon, Harry wrenched his consciousness back just as Severus physically yanked him back behind Godric's warding stone.

No one could look away, would look away as the young man upon the stone table seized harshly, body fighting the restraints holding it, once...twice...three times before settling. The body lay on the stone slab listless and unmoving in a way only the dead can be.

Antonin Flint was no more.

Nothing was said as Harry paced the Chamber, unable to still his mind or body over what he'd just done.

Blood once more covered his hands. Not physically, but he could feel it. The slick and tainted richness, red with iron that wrapped around you, holding you prisoner. It drug you down to the depths of your soul, demanding payment for its being shed.

Many times over he had shed blood, knowingly and unknowingly, but never in such a manner. Never by falling for the tricks of a madman in this way.

Harry knew this was not something he could have worked around. None of them could know that such a failsafe was in place.

But he should have seen that that bastard would try something. He was Harry Potter, savior of Wizarding Britain to most, keeper of the magical orphans to others, friend to few.

Guilt, turmoil, roiling waves of emotion rose over him, overwhelming his defenses. He knew his Occlumency shields were crumbling, just as he could feel his chest seized tight by the iron bands of the blood spilt by his own hands.

He'd miscalculated.

Oh, how he had miscalculated, and it had only cost a single life. No matter his choice in life, Antonin Flint had been human. He'd been a despicable human, but still a man who had had the choice to continue on taken from him.

He'd let his need to accomplish something finally in this war, his pride in his team and his invincibility as Harry Bloody-Fucking Potter get to him…

This misstep had cost him more than he ever imagined it could.

Panic set its roots deep as branches of thought spiraled out, setting their boughs upon more far reaching consequences.

He was unsure what to think, how to still the errant thoughts driving him to insanity, but there was always one to come back to haunt him. One thought he could not rid himself of, no matter how he tried to logic his way back to a stable sanity.

One thought to drive him over the edge:

How could he ever save Severus now?

He was supposed to protect those around him, not cause more death. Harry could feel his lion surging forward as his thoughts spiralled down further and further. With a scream of frustration Harry lost the battle against his animagus and transformed violently.

Severus watched as his soulmate stalked through the room as he stood, pensive over the lifeless body of the student cum Death Eater. His mind circled over and over on one single thought.

It wasn't going to be enough.

The crystals were not strong enough to withstand the amount of force Harry needed to channel to break the spells binding anyone to the snake faced bastard. Indeed the one they had used lay in shattered fragments on the ground. It was a setback, but that was not what stopped them.

There was a failsafe built into the Dark Mark. One which they could never have anticipated. Severus, in his ruthless curiosity, was prepared to sacrifice more lives if only to find out how it had been done, but never would he intentionally put his bondmate in such peril of being caught again.

With his mind elsewhere Severus did not realize how wound up his mate had become until he heard the screaming roar of a lion both in his mind and ears. Jade met ebony, more words spoken in their gazes than anything spoken could ever dare to convey. Severus growled as he realized just what had thrown his mate into such a spiral, and his old feelings of satisfaction at having killed Harry's relatives flared to life once more.

'All my fault. Should have saved him. Can't save Him. Was right. So arrogant, just like your father. Killed a man. Another man. All my fault. More will die. Not enough. Should just die. Useless. Worthless. Freak. Disgusti-'

'End this useless drivel, brat.'

Severus made eye contact and kept it steady as he waited for the lion before him to return to the present.

'You could do no more than any of us, yet with what is arguably Britain's finest minds in one place we were unable to do a damned thing. You are not at fault. Lay blame at the Maker of this disaster and walk away, Harry. We will find a way to live with the Dark Marks in tact and continue on our paths to destroying the Dark Lord.'

In his feline form emotions were muted, softer, but still the Alpha could feel pure desolation chilling its way down his spine, reaching every cell of his body. He was calming after feeling the return of his bondmate to his mindscape, but he could not focus on the words spoken to him right now.

With the desolate feeling came a startling clarity that this situation had no ending without further increasing the death toll by his hand. Either he continued in experimenting, finding any possible way to disarm the Dark Mark, and killing a few in the process…

Or he left the life of his soulmate in the hands of Death through inaction.

There was only one choice he had, he could not live with himself otherwise.

With Severus knelt before him Harry transformed himself back, panic attack passed and his resolve once more returned. His eyes were diamond hard and dead to the emotion he could see in his pridemates' eyes. He knew that either path brought death, and he refused to allow the death to touch those he loved.

He would take this Mark away by morning, no matter the toll. This was why he was Alpha, this was why he was fated. He could make these decision for the sake of others that he could not face on his own.

With a hand on his knee, and a steel rod around his spine Harry stood tall and proud, his jade eyes remaining as he looked to the remaining Death Eaters.

"It is our deaths or theirs. We try again."

Four bodies. Seven crystals. Five hours.

Four bloodless, markless, useless deaths. Seven of the most powerful focusing gems the Pride had access to. Five grueling, devastating and defining hours.

They had a half-answer, but it was less than they hoped and more than they wanted.

The failsafe to the entire Mark lay in the links between each individual spell. It was set with the burning intent that no one would ever be able to leave the service of its caster. Coming in to this, the Gryffindor Lions thought that were fairly well prepared to battle the known spells within the Mark. The Siphon and locator, the spells that caused them such pain and pulled them to Voldemort's side. The insidious nature of the Mark was well known, but this went far beyond their imaginations.

While they knew that the Siphon spell was embedded within both the wizard's magical core and the Dark Mark- the Mark that so happened to be an invisible link, a conduit straight to Lord Voldemort-they had no idea just how deep that conduit ran. Now, with the research they had conducted on their unconscious Prisoners of War it was more than apparent to those in the Chamber that they were wholly unprepared to combat the malintent of the Dark Lord's ingenuity with their normal repertoire.

An idea came to them, via Ron's strategical mind, while waiting for Harry to return to them.

"I think we're going about this too nicely," Ron murmured. Every eye focused on him at this, some incredulously, some in a half-glare. Ires were raised around the room as the trials and deaths continued. Four bodies littered the wall, and still another was in the throes of death as Harry pulled himself out.

It had been a harsh battle to convince everyone present that the trials were necessary, and those on the fence wavered more with each wrong turn. Harry himself never wavered after his first breakdown, but even he could not ignore the growing pile of death.

Ron, realizing he had spoken aloud, looked back at those in the room. "What? We're supposed to be combatting this big evil badass, but we're just playing by the rules. I think if we're going to go against his spellwork we need to fight fire with fire!"

"And how do you propose doing such a thing?" Lucius asked in a hiss, his nerves shot through as he sat, unable to make himself engage any further. His chance, his one chance at freedom was slipping away bit by tiny bit. He couldn't be expected to remain civil, could he?

"Cut him off at the knees," Ron stated. He looked at his father, eyebrows furrowed. "What was it those things you work on...testers? Tisters? You know, the bread thing. Whenever it starts sparking you have to cut the ickletricity, right?"

Mya, who was leaning against her boyfriend groaned at his utter mangling of her home technology. "It's a Toaster, Ronald. And e-lec-tricity. You'd think…" She trailed off as his idea began taking root. She scrambled up, running to Harry who was taking long breaths in the corner, away from the others. She knew he needed a moment, but this was too much.

"I've got an idea! We just need to cut the power and vacuum away the debris!"

Harry stared into her eyes, searching for something, he didn't know what, but after a moment he gave a single nod.

"Bring me the next Death Eater."

Augusta was the first to stop them, demanding to know what they meant. "I can't understand you, girl. You speak of muggle terms?"

Mya nodded, her mind further gone. "It's just MSE. Easy enough to interpret."

The adults spluttered at her offhand comment while the students who knew the joke chuckled, too emotionally exhausted to do more.

"MSE?" Lucius asked, too tired to pull the acerbic nature of his voice to heel.

"Muggle Standard English, I call it. I want Harry to try again but now he's going to cut off the spells from the Core then use the crystal to siphon the spell work and its implosions away before they can destroy anything important." She looked at Ron with a raw sparkle in her eye. She truly believed that this could work. "We're going to use the bastards spells against him!"

Harry steeled himself. There was no room for error this time. Without thought or doubt Harry tossed back a Pepper-Up Potion and let the bitter liquid work on his system. With renewed energy he sank his consciousness into the Dark Mark for the fifth time that day. He felt Severus connect to him and together they poured every ounce of energy the crystal could muster into cutting the spell linking the Mark to the Core he faced.

Black and gold clashed and fought, rolling in on each other until finally, just as Harry had lost hope in ever completing his task, the gold overwhelmed and obliterated the inky blackness.

Harry gasped, or he would if magical essence could gasp, and relayed the events to Severus. He could see the magic gathering in the failsafe of the freeform spell work. Harry heard the Siphon cast in the back of his mind and swiftly swept his focus over the ropes of disgusting magic, making sure to cleanse the entire area of the infecting magical signature that Voldemort used.

With a bit of awe, Harry watched as the magical core of the now ex-Death Eater crept forward, the weak magic coming out like a rabbit from its burrow to take stock of the landscape. The grey, dull color of the host magic slunk through the area once held by the Dark Mark. It pressed against Harry tentatively, then gave him a push out as if to say "thank you, but you need to leave now."

Harry could feel amusement fill him, though if from the magic's attitude or just from the elation of having accomplished this one goal...he didn't know for sure.

All he knew was he would be keeping his promise. He was going to save his Severus.

Nothing was going to get in his way now.

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