Chapters 111-120

Incendio!

Severus Snape watched with carefully concealed disgust how Ebenezer Sibly-Styles removed a striped sock from Alyah Beiond’s right foot and delicately kissed the girl’s ankle. Alina—still hyper from her earlier adventure—was literally rolling on the floor because she was laughing so hard, while her partner in crime, Barret ‘Crudass’ Cruddace, looked on with a face as red as Ron Weasley’s during his most embarrassed moments.

The little knights had moved their Halloween party to the floor of the Great Hall. They were sitting in a circle and playing magical spin-the-bottle, the ‘Truth or Dare’ version.

Severus had surreptitiously ascertained that the spell on the bottle would not cause anything inappropriate. Then he’d settled down in a corner with a pot of tea and a Potions Magazine. The trick was to look immersed in his reading and threatening at the same time. That way he provided a challenge and an opportunity for students to attempt clandestine and illicit activities right in front of his nose, and he’d be in the perfect position to intervene before the foolish children came to serious harm should things get out of hand. It was a Slytherin strategy. And it worked very well.

Severus was about to take another sip of his tea when the magical bond connecting him with his apprentice and wife flared up.

The rose garden! A sudden vision of a chalky face, dead eyes and elongated teeth contorted into a terrible grimace.

The cup fell from his hand. It shattered on the flagstones with a piercing clatter as hands with a strength beyond that of a mere human closed around Hermione’s throat. For a moment Severus’ vision faded in waves of grey. Then the piercing power of the magical warning was gone as suddenly as it had come over him. But his relief was short-lived. Severus recoiled, when a pain similar to the Sectumsempra spell cut through his left ring finger. When he raised a shaking hand to his eyes, he gasped at the sight of rime glittering on his marriage band.

He never stopped to think. Three strides and he was across the Hall, grabbing Alina. ‘Run to my quarters—the password is “Artemis”—get the bells. The rest of you—find Neville, Mr. Longbottom. I need the sword! In the rose garden. As quickly as he can manage. Alina, wait for Mr. Longbottom. Do not leave the castle alone. Hurry!’

‘Sir?! What’s wrong? Is—has something happened to Hermione?’

He closed his eyes. He mustn’t panic. Already precious seconds had been lost…

‘She’s been attacked. Now RUN!’

With that he was off, racing through corridors and hallways towards the garden gates. He burst out of the castle with his wands raised and ready. His breath was coming in painful gasps when he reached the rose garden. A white shape crouched on the lawn, bending over the still shape of a body. A muttering growl was issuing from the creature. As Severus drew nearer, he could make out words, but they didn’t make any sense at all.

‘Bubbleheaded, baboon-raping, gym sock-slurping, toe jam-munching, pimple-chewing, wartheaded…’

When he realised whom—what—he was looking at, Severus was so shocked that he froze for a second. Then he took in how Hermione’s head lolled to the side, her eyes open and unblinking. With a hoarse scream, he pointed his wands at the Inferius. The creature stared at him. Its mouth twitched over hideous fangs. ‘Gargantuan skip of obnoxious zit cheese,’ the Inferius spit at him. He flung Hermione’s body away and leapt to his feet, hurling himself at Severus. Only the eyes still reminded of the young Gryffindor the drawn face had once belonged to.

‘INCENDIO TOTALITER!’

Flames burst from Severus’ wands and engulfed the monster. Long dead flesh blackened and crumpled nearly instantly. The stench of burning bone filled the air. But still the creature that had once been Colin Creevey kept coming, raving and ranting incoherently beneath the roar of the fire that consumed him. Severus backed away, his wands raised, his mind feverishly searching for a spell to end this and end it quickly. He had to get to Hermione NOW!

Suddenly the Inferius stopped moving. Framed in a halo of flames, the madness suddenly drained from his face, to be replaced by the faint reminiscence of a boyish face and bright blue eyes. The eyes focused on Severus, as the frayed remains of his lips moved to form words that were barely audible.

‘Watch the robes…not the wizards…infantile wheelbarrow-full of soggy squeezings…kill…kittens…incapable sack of vulgar mule froth…wand…not what you see…’

Then the face that had once belonged to Colin Creevey exploded and the body of the Inferius collapsed.

For a heartbeat Severus stood in front of the smoking heap of bones and smouldering tissues. Then he shook himself and sprinted the last few yards towards the lawn. He barely noticed the melting rime that surrounded Hermione’s body, before he dropped onto his knees next to her, trying to find a pulse, to feel her breath—but there was nothing.

Suddenly Neville was there, with Alina at his side. The young herbologist was clutching the sword of Godric Gryffindor in his hands and Alina was carrying a bag bulging with cylindrical shapes.

‘Merlin, sir! What happened?”

‘Give me that!’ Severus snarled and tore the sword from Neville’s grasp with one hand, while reaching for the bag with the bells with the other. Standing over Hermione’s unmoving body, he swung the sword in a wide arc.

The fabric that separated the world of the living from the underworld ripped apart with noise between a scream and a sigh. Grey light and icy fog poured out and engulfed him. Hoarfrost crackled on his robes. In front of him a dark river swirled with unseen, swift currents.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Severus stepped through the boundary between Life and Death and into the river.

oooOooo

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