Hidden Responsibilities

"You lying little freak. I do not owe you anything. Not an apology Not my life. Nothing. I have heard enough lies from you today. It was Fawkes who saved me. Not you. That makes your claim nothing but a lie. You're standing here making a mountain out of a gnomehole claiming I'm responsible for things I'm not. I didn't kill anyone. I was eleven and yes, I made a mistake using that book as my diary. But I didn't kill anyone."

"Or endanger the school. And you just admitted you only came to save me because Ron made you. So your intent in being there didn't have anything to do with me and my danger at the time. So I owe you nothing. I am a pureblood and I will be damned if I owe my life to a halfblood like you. But you owe me because it's your duty to put yourself in danger whenever someone else is in peril. The Headmaster says it is," she screamed.

Severus stepped out of the stacks as his Slytherins growled and stood up ready to take a stand on the matter. Even the Librarian seemed unwilling to let her get away with that declaration. But Harry cut them all off at the pass. Fawkes himself soared into the Library trilling his cheerful song. With a burst of melody he alighted on Harry's shoulder and began to butt heads with the green eyed boy.

Reaching up to stroke the fiery bird, Harry calmly replied. "I guess you'll be damned then because that's where you're wrong, Ms. Weasely." Snickers drifted quietly from the occupied nearby tables and both the adults gave little smiles as Severus sunk back into the shadows and Ginny flushed in embarrassment. her anger was still strong but he'd neatly taken the wind out of her sails and she knew it.

"You see, what you fail to understand is, Fawkes wouldn't have been in the Chamber to save either one of us had I not called for him to come aid me. Because you certainly didn't call for him. Did you? As I recall you were near dead on the dirty floor when I found you. Laying in the muck and grime of the last century as if it was a bed covered in the finest silk and satin bedding available. Totally insentient. Unable to ask anyone or anything for aid to save your life. Nor did your brother call on the school for aide when he found himself blocked by a rockslide and trapped under the school with a brain addled fool of a wanna-be teacher. He could've but then he's never been the most intelligent or quick thinking of people, has he?"

"I did though. I called out mentally for help when the shade that was stored in that damn book began calling for the basilisk to come out to play and Fawkes here answered that call. I asked him to aid you once the basilisk was no longer a threat and the diary had been dealt with. Isn't that right, Fawkes?" Fawkes trilled again and gave a bobbing nod of his head.

"I was dying. But I still asked Fawkes to help you." He rolled up his sleeve as he was speaking and now turned his arm so she could see the puckered scar from the basilisk fang that marked it. Her eyes were drawn unintentionally to the scar. All the kids in the room craned their necks trying to see what he was showing her also. They too wanted proof of his version of events. On seeing the scar still so prominent on the pale flesh of Harry's inner arm, Fawkes hopped down to the tabletop before giving a mournful trill and gently touching it with his beak as if apologizing for not being able to fully heal the wound.

"The toy you were playing with all year did this to me while I was trying to save you. The toy that ended Colin's life. That would've ended mine if not for Fawkes." Fawkes trilled and head butted Harry again. "What was my reward for that? You went around the school with these two," he gestured to Ron and Hermione. "Telling everyone I was grandstanding again. That I wasn't really lying in the infirmary recovering from another near death experience. That the snake was just a little harmless gardener snake that couldn't have hurt anybody."

"But gardener snakes don't leave scars like this behind, do they? Gardener snakes don't pose a threat to human lives. Insects yes. Humans no. You went around the school with your head held high blaming me for your own bad act in opening the Chamber and killing Hagrids roosters. You went around tearing my character and reputation to shreds to cover up your own guilt lest someone remember it was a redheaded girl Colin's notebook had fingered for the crime."

"The bottomline here, Ginerva Molly Weasely is that while Fawkes here did heal you enough for you to reach the infirmary, he only did so because he was aiding me and I was in no condition to get you out of the chamber without his aid. He knew that even if you were too stupid. Because you didn't call for his aide. I did."

"Furthermore, without me stabbing that damn diary with the poisoned fang from the monster you'd been playing with all year long, you would've died. Fawkes didn't stop the diary Tom from draining your life force. I did. And no I didn't have to do that to kill the snake. The snake was already dead by the time I did that. But you live because of that one simple little act I performed as I was dying. And yes, Ms. Weasely. I was dying because the fang I used to stab that diary I had to first pull out of my own forearm." He tapped the puckered scar for emphasis. "Where it had lodged as I slammed Gryffindor's sword into the basilisk's brain via it's mouth as it tried to have me as a Potter snack. Therefore, your life is most definitely mine to do with as I please. As is the case for all life debts."

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