Debts of Life

"Robindore keeps trying to tell me about life debts, trying to claim I owe my life to him. He's wrong. I don't owe him my life. But his efforts made me research the subject and guess what I discovered, you foolish little strumpet? I discovered that while I don't owe anyone, except possibly our Potions Master, there are people who owe me."

"Our snarky Potions Master has actually saved my life more than once over the last few years while placing himself at great risk to do so. He might even have saved me from that snake you were playing with had your brother let me get him to help us as I wanted to. Just as I did for you." In the stacks, Severus Snape blinked in surprised shock. Potter had wanted to get him for that adventure? Since when? He thought the boy hated him. In fact, he knew the boy hated him. So why would he have wanted to get him?

Harry fixed Ginny with a fierce glare of his own. His glares were much more effective than hers ever would be. Then he switched his gaze to Hermione and concluded, "And her." Turning back to Ginny he said, "In that regard she's no different than you. Both of you owe me your life. Because in the case of a life debt, 'The threat to a life must be equal. The one doing the saving needs to be as imperiled as the one being saved.' My action in saving you only confirmed the debt she owed me from her own first year deadly encounter. But it established a new debt between yourself and me. Because if I hadn't saved you, the school would have closed and chances are good she'd have remained a stone statue while you would have died to the diary you were writing in all year."

"As for my debt to Professor Snape, punching out a Werewolf on a full moon night isn't exactly safe, you know. Nor is inserting yourself between said werewolf and his chosen victim. Especially when said werewolf didn't take the Nice Doggie potion to render it harmless." Snickers again erupted quietly at the spectators tables. Even Madam Pince was wearing a small smile. Snape smirked thinking he'd have to remember that name for his potion. He had to hand it to the kid. Potter had a way with words.

"Yet he did it because it was the only way to get it away from me long enough to insert himself between us. Which only meant Lupin would go through him first to get to me. And since both your brother and Hermione were ineffectively trying to hide themselves behind me, there's a damn good chance Lupin would've gotten both of them as well. So by saving me, he saved them also. But just as you've never said thank you to me for saving your life, they've never thanked him either. I have. But they haven't." The listeners again looked to the stacks wondering if that was true and the Potions Master inclined his head just enough to confirm it. Potter had thanked him for saving him that night while the other two hadn't said a word.

The dictation quills were going a mile a minute as the listeners watched and listened to the Confrontation taking place. Each student now had a second parchment and quill that they were using to write down their own thoughts and questions about what was being said. They were also taking note of the expressions on the antagonists faces or in their body language. These quills were also under a silencing spell lest their scratching make them miss something.

Harry was still speaking to Ginny but his voice was getting rough again and the Potions Master could see his shoulders tensing up. So he hit him with another soothing charm and hoped the boy would get through the scene without his voice giving out. Idly, he wondered why the teen was having such a hard time speaking right now. Teenagers normally didn't have a hard time talking. Generally they talked too much and didn't listen often enough. But it was clear to him, Potter was having a hard time with all this talking.

"He knew full well when he placed himself between me and that werewolf, he was gambling with his life. But it was also the only chance he had of keeping it away from me in the hopes that I could survive. That's the kind of actions necessary to invoke a life debt. The kind of action I took to save the two of you. Because you and your friends, as well as your boss, keep putting me into places I Do Not wish to be where my life is at grave risk of ending, he has to keep coming to my rescue."

Ginny had heard enough. He was shredding her reputation and telling the whole room things that were never supposed to see the light of day in the process. Hotly she declared.

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