Harrypotterbang Chapter Seven
Title: Severus Snape and the Battle of Hogwarts
Pairing: Snape/Hermione, Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG13
Warnings: AU Deathly Hallows
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Series belongs to J K Rowling. No copyright infringement intended, and no money is being made.
Beta: The wonderful glittersprite
Artist: The most talented duskblue
Summary: Severus Snape is Headmaster of Hogwarts, Death Eater, estranged member of the Order of the Phoenix, long-suffering victim of Dumbledore’s Army and battling against all the odds to ensure the Dark Lord’s defeat.
Chapter Seven
Snape avoided Dumbledore’s eyes as he pulled his picture frame forward to reveal the wall behind. Taking out his wand he uttered an incantation at the same time as twisting and jabbing his wand towards the wall, revealing the hiding place of the real sword of Godric Gryffindor. Reverently he lifted it from its resting place and wrapped it in black silk as he turned to leave the office.
“You know what to do?” Dumbledore asked quietly as he watched Snape stride to the door.
Snape pulled the door open, turned to the portrait and said tightly, “Of course.”
He allowed the spiral staircase to lower him to the gargoyle whilst he stood and calmed himself from the anger Dumbledore had stirred in him and cleared his mind so that he was fully concentrating on the task in hand. Once at the bottom he moved into the corridors and made his way swiftly through the castle and down to the apparition point. He took great care once outside to ensure he wasn’t being followed and checked again before apparating to make sure no-one was skulking nearby or watching his movements. Satisfied, he apparated to the Forest of Dean, making sure to concentrate all his thoughts on Harry Potter within the Forest of Dean in order to land as close to where the boy was hiding as possible.
On arriving in the forest he was pleased to see that the boy had some sense and was nowhere in sight. The pleasure was found in the fact that at least someone, even if it was that insufferable know-it-all Granger, had got through to him the need to be careful and not just go charging in all the time. It had only taken seven years. Knowing that he had at least landed in the area where Potter was, even if not directly near him, Snape set about finding a decent place to put the sword for it to be taken in the manner required, which had a decent enough hiding place for him so he could make sure Potter was alright and got the sword before going back to the castle to report back to Albus.
The forest was dark with some light trickling through the ceiling of leaves. The bracken under foot was thick and even with all his practice and ability as a spy he was not able to keep totally silent but with each crackle of noise he made he could ascertain none echoing it and could neither see, hear nor sense any other nearby. As he moved through the forest he saw nearby a rippling surface with more than just the dapple of light that the forest floor contained.
As he headed over to it to investigate an idea began to form in his mind. If it was a brook then the idea that was forming in his mind wouldn’t work. If it was a small lake or, indeed, a large and deep puddle then the idea just might work. He inspected the surface and ascertained that although there was a little brook flowing into it there was no brook flowing out of it at any other point so it was a small lake. It was also nice and deep too, which would work very well.
Satisfied that this was the spot where he would leave the sword, he carefully unwrapped the it, stowing the black silk in his robe and then swiftly threw it blade down into the lake. He then took out his wand and cast ‘gelidus unda’1 and watched as the lake froze across the top. Casting a ‘lumos’ Snape was satisfied to see that the goblin forged sword glinted in the light from his wand. He then looked around to see if there was somewhere that he could easily watch from, somewhere that he could be hidden and still complete the last part of his plan.
Luckily, there were two beech trees next to each other whose trunks had nearly entwined they had grown that close together. Clearing his tracks as he went, Snape took up his post hidden within the two trees and made himself as comfortable and sturdy as possible so that he would not slip or have to move and give away his presence. Once he was happy that he would do neither, he prepared himself, took a deep breath and cast his patronus.
All his feelings of love, of Lily, of safety, protection and happiness were imbued into his patronus to help the boy feel at ease with the creature and able to follow it willingly. He gazed upon the silver doe, translucent and beautiful in the dark of the forest, before allowing her to walk away from him. He watched as she picked her way through the trees, this way and that, gradually getting further and further away from him until he was left completely alone in the dark. He could still feel her strength and her love but he waited for what felt like hours before her bright light crept back across his vision.
He allowed her to walk forward until he saw that the boy had followed as he had hoped he would. Then he directed her until she was stood on the lake directly above the sword. On seeing Potter hesitate as the silver doe stopped, he made her turn her head to him hoping that this would help him see what had led him to. As the boy made to speak to her Snape ended the spell plunging them into darkness. As he grew accustomed to the empty feeling the patronus left behind and his eyes became familiar with the dimmer light he saw the boy attempting to retrieve the sword by magic and his faith in how stupid Potter could be was restored.
As his futile attempts of retrieval continued to fail Snape started to fear that he would never be able to pull the sword out of the water. He continued to watch, his fingers twitching with irritation and the strong urge to yell at Potter like he would have had this been a classroom environment. His irritation soon turned to agitation as he watched him strip down to his boxers, leap into the frozen lake and then not come straight back up. In fact, he was taking so long to resurface that Snape was starting to feel, with trepidation, that the fool was going to drown himself. He couldn’t see very clearly but he could hear the splashing of the water caused by him thrashing around and even though he was not timing the dive he felt in his very soul that the boy had been under for too long.
Just as Snape had made up his mind to move in and rescue the boy because he was physically incapable of sitting back and watching him drown himself, even without the Unbreakable Vow, a noise that one could be forgiven to mistake for an elephant rustled through the trees and branches getting louder and louder until that youngest Weasley boy burst into the clearing throwing his rucksack onto the floor and diving into the lake fully clothed. Seconds later he re-emerged with the sword in one hand and Potter in the other.
Waiting only to make sure that he hadn’t drowned, Snape watched as Ron revived him, threw some clothes at him along with a feeble joke about being so pale he could be seen a mile off and the pair collapsed onto the ground in an awkward silence as Harry regained his lung capacity. Deciding that this was as good a time as any Snape made sure his tracks were cleared away and apparated back to Hogwarts.
On his return he regaled the actions of the evening to Dumbledore keeping to himself the full detail of the use of his patronus as this was sacred only to him. He had to deal with many interruptions from the previous headmaster. Requests to repeatedly tell him how the boy looked after his near miss experience and questions regarding his demeanour when he first saw him and his reaction to Ron. Snape resented the response that the young brat always garnered from Albus, even whilst he was led by the hand through his tasks and answered most of the interruptions with one word responses that were snapped at the headmaster with all the restlessness and annoyance he felt.
Dumbledore seemed extremely satisfied when he reached the part where Ron had appeared, saved the day and retrieved the sword.
“I had a feeling Ronald would need my clicker,” he mused mostly to himself.
Snape gave him a strange look, then shrugged the comment off and retired to his room for a nice hot shower to ease his aching muscles. He was starting to get too old to be playing around in trees in the middle of a cold winter night. His knees protesting much more than they used to about staying in one position for so long.
Footnote: 1. Roughly translated as ‘freezing water’
********
Continue
Pairing: Snape/Hermione, Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG13
Warnings: AU Deathly Hallows
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Series belongs to J K Rowling. No copyright infringement intended, and no money is being made.
Beta: The wonderful glittersprite
Artist: The most talented duskblue
Summary: Severus Snape is Headmaster of Hogwarts, Death Eater, estranged member of the Order of the Phoenix, long-suffering victim of Dumbledore’s Army and battling against all the odds to ensure the Dark Lord’s defeat.
Chapter Seven
Snape avoided Dumbledore’s eyes as he pulled his picture frame forward to reveal the wall behind. Taking out his wand he uttered an incantation at the same time as twisting and jabbing his wand towards the wall, revealing the hiding place of the real sword of Godric Gryffindor. Reverently he lifted it from its resting place and wrapped it in black silk as he turned to leave the office.
“You know what to do?” Dumbledore asked quietly as he watched Snape stride to the door.
Snape pulled the door open, turned to the portrait and said tightly, “Of course.”
He allowed the spiral staircase to lower him to the gargoyle whilst he stood and calmed himself from the anger Dumbledore had stirred in him and cleared his mind so that he was fully concentrating on the task in hand. Once at the bottom he moved into the corridors and made his way swiftly through the castle and down to the apparition point. He took great care once outside to ensure he wasn’t being followed and checked again before apparating to make sure no-one was skulking nearby or watching his movements. Satisfied, he apparated to the Forest of Dean, making sure to concentrate all his thoughts on Harry Potter within the Forest of Dean in order to land as close to where the boy was hiding as possible.
On arriving in the forest he was pleased to see that the boy had some sense and was nowhere in sight. The pleasure was found in the fact that at least someone, even if it was that insufferable know-it-all Granger, had got through to him the need to be careful and not just go charging in all the time. It had only taken seven years. Knowing that he had at least landed in the area where Potter was, even if not directly near him, Snape set about finding a decent place to put the sword for it to be taken in the manner required, which had a decent enough hiding place for him so he could make sure Potter was alright and got the sword before going back to the castle to report back to Albus.
The forest was dark with some light trickling through the ceiling of leaves. The bracken under foot was thick and even with all his practice and ability as a spy he was not able to keep totally silent but with each crackle of noise he made he could ascertain none echoing it and could neither see, hear nor sense any other nearby. As he moved through the forest he saw nearby a rippling surface with more than just the dapple of light that the forest floor contained.
As he headed over to it to investigate an idea began to form in his mind. If it was a brook then the idea that was forming in his mind wouldn’t work. If it was a small lake or, indeed, a large and deep puddle then the idea just might work. He inspected the surface and ascertained that although there was a little brook flowing into it there was no brook flowing out of it at any other point so it was a small lake. It was also nice and deep too, which would work very well.
Satisfied that this was the spot where he would leave the sword, he carefully unwrapped the it, stowing the black silk in his robe and then swiftly threw it blade down into the lake. He then took out his wand and cast ‘gelidus unda’1 and watched as the lake froze across the top. Casting a ‘lumos’ Snape was satisfied to see that the goblin forged sword glinted in the light from his wand. He then looked around to see if there was somewhere that he could easily watch from, somewhere that he could be hidden and still complete the last part of his plan.
Luckily, there were two beech trees next to each other whose trunks had nearly entwined they had grown that close together. Clearing his tracks as he went, Snape took up his post hidden within the two trees and made himself as comfortable and sturdy as possible so that he would not slip or have to move and give away his presence. Once he was happy that he would do neither, he prepared himself, took a deep breath and cast his patronus.
All his feelings of love, of Lily, of safety, protection and happiness were imbued into his patronus to help the boy feel at ease with the creature and able to follow it willingly. He gazed upon the silver doe, translucent and beautiful in the dark of the forest, before allowing her to walk away from him. He watched as she picked her way through the trees, this way and that, gradually getting further and further away from him until he was left completely alone in the dark. He could still feel her strength and her love but he waited for what felt like hours before her bright light crept back across his vision.
He allowed her to walk forward until he saw that the boy had followed as he had hoped he would. Then he directed her until she was stood on the lake directly above the sword. On seeing Potter hesitate as the silver doe stopped, he made her turn her head to him hoping that this would help him see what had led him to. As the boy made to speak to her Snape ended the spell plunging them into darkness. As he grew accustomed to the empty feeling the patronus left behind and his eyes became familiar with the dimmer light he saw the boy attempting to retrieve the sword by magic and his faith in how stupid Potter could be was restored.
As his futile attempts of retrieval continued to fail Snape started to fear that he would never be able to pull the sword out of the water. He continued to watch, his fingers twitching with irritation and the strong urge to yell at Potter like he would have had this been a classroom environment. His irritation soon turned to agitation as he watched him strip down to his boxers, leap into the frozen lake and then not come straight back up. In fact, he was taking so long to resurface that Snape was starting to feel, with trepidation, that the fool was going to drown himself. He couldn’t see very clearly but he could hear the splashing of the water caused by him thrashing around and even though he was not timing the dive he felt in his very soul that the boy had been under for too long.
Just as Snape had made up his mind to move in and rescue the boy because he was physically incapable of sitting back and watching him drown himself, even without the Unbreakable Vow, a noise that one could be forgiven to mistake for an elephant rustled through the trees and branches getting louder and louder until that youngest Weasley boy burst into the clearing throwing his rucksack onto the floor and diving into the lake fully clothed. Seconds later he re-emerged with the sword in one hand and Potter in the other.
Waiting only to make sure that he hadn’t drowned, Snape watched as Ron revived him, threw some clothes at him along with a feeble joke about being so pale he could be seen a mile off and the pair collapsed onto the ground in an awkward silence as Harry regained his lung capacity. Deciding that this was as good a time as any Snape made sure his tracks were cleared away and apparated back to Hogwarts.
On his return he regaled the actions of the evening to Dumbledore keeping to himself the full detail of the use of his patronus as this was sacred only to him. He had to deal with many interruptions from the previous headmaster. Requests to repeatedly tell him how the boy looked after his near miss experience and questions regarding his demeanour when he first saw him and his reaction to Ron. Snape resented the response that the young brat always garnered from Albus, even whilst he was led by the hand through his tasks and answered most of the interruptions with one word responses that were snapped at the headmaster with all the restlessness and annoyance he felt.
Dumbledore seemed extremely satisfied when he reached the part where Ron had appeared, saved the day and retrieved the sword.
“I had a feeling Ronald would need my clicker,” he mused mostly to himself.
Snape gave him a strange look, then shrugged the comment off and retired to his room for a nice hot shower to ease his aching muscles. He was starting to get too old to be playing around in trees in the middle of a cold winter night. His knees protesting much more than they used to about staying in one position for so long.
Footnote: 1. Roughly translated as ‘freezing water’
********
Continue