Ashes of Victory Ch 5
Disclaimer: Not mine. Hers. (Points out towards the East.) Over there, across the Atlantic. The one who gets to live with all those really cool castles and such. Okay, seriously, Harry Potter and all related characters belong to JK Rowling, and please don’t sue. I’m just using this as some serious stress relief.
A rattling of keys at the cell door woke Severus. Minerva, curled in cat form at his side, turned green eyes towards him. She meowed in concern. No one should be bothering Severus at two in the morning.
The door opened to reveal Mad-Eye Moody and two unknown Aurors. They quickly pulled Severus up and cuffed him. The three Ministry officials never noticed the cat now crouched under Severus’ cot. They lead him out of the cell roughly. Minerva heard Moody muttering, “At this time of night, Dumbledore will never know. Now you’ll end up in Azkaban where you belong.”
Minerva made a beeline for the door. She squeezed her way through the bars, and headed out to get help.
Albus Dumbledore had just barely fallen asleep when there was a sudden sharp knock at the door. He laid in his bed for half a second, and then decided to do something completely irresponsible. He pulled a pillow over his head, and snuggled down into his quilts. Albus had almost drifted away to dreamland again, when one word he barely heard made him sit upright in bed. “Severus.” His child needed him.
Pulling on a dressing gown, he went out to the door. Minerva McGongall was on the other side. The angry look on her face was so fierce, Albus stepped back a step in surprise.
“Minerva? What’s wrong with Severus?”
“The-the dunderhead!” She yelled. “He is a completely useless idiotic excuse for a Prime Minister! I ought to Transfigure him into a worm, and use him as bait! Of all the underhanded-“
“Minerva!” Albus grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly. “What has Fudge done?”
“The trial, Albus. It started almost an hour ago.”
Severus stood quietly in the courtroom at the Ministry. Cornelius Fudge had read the list of charges. Severus had been about to deny them, to remind Fudge that he had been the spy in Voldemort’s upper ranks, when an Auror opened the door to admit Lucius Malfoy.
‘Damn!’ thought Severus. Then he caught the smug look on Fudge’s face, and the smirk on Moody’s, where he stood with three Dementors. Malfoy being there had to be deliberate. They knew that if he tried to use the fact he had been the spy to get out of the sentence, Malfoy would see to it that Severus was dead before the sun rose. Snape was sure that Minerva had gone for Albus, but it had been thirty minutes already.
“Severus Snape, I repeat, do you have anything to say in your defense?” Fudge demanded loudly.
“No.” Severus answered softly. He didn’t know what else he could do. At least the Dementor’s kiss would be quick.
“Then I here by find you guilty of being a Death Eater, and of using and making potions both legal and illegal to torture and kill. Your sentence will be to spend the rest of your life in Azkaban.”
Severus looked at the clock upon the wall as the Dementors glided towards him. ‘At 2:45 this morning, the life of Severus Snape as it could have ever been has ended,’ he thought. Then the Dementors reached him, and he thought no more.
The doors to the courtroom slammed open before the angry power of Albus Dumbledore, Minerva right behind him. The room was empty. Albus vaguely noted the time on the clock upon the wall as his legs slowly folded under him. 3:05 a.m. He had been too late to save his child. He had failed. His child was gone.