To all:
This had been my first story, but now that I have some more experience, I am going back and re-working it. I wrote it to try to deal with what I believe to be a truth about Snape. I want to try to finish this story before book 7 came out. This first chap is just an opening will update at least every other day for a while.
Have fun!
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Ron, beyond just frightened, was paralyzed stiff as the huge black spider came towards them out of a side tunnel of the secret chamber. Voldemort, now a basilisk, was looking the other way, towards the side where Hermione had thrown the stone.
She saw the spider too, but something didn't frighten her as much about it, something was familiar, but regardless, logically she knew it didn't matter; any way you cut it they could die, but she knew that Voldemort must go first.
"Harry, Ron" she called with clipped authority, "Incendio on the left eye, and then the right as it turns."
Hermione looked at Ron, stiff and still, an alarm shot through her, "RON NOW!"
With her shout, the basilisk started to turn. Just then, the spider reached them and turned with the snake.
The spider had positioned itself to the side so it was horizontal to them and perpendicular to Voldemort. Ron stared at this, and then in shocked action, obeyed Hermione's call. All three of them fired together before the basilisk's turn was complete; they hit it.
The huge snake was rearing and writhing. As it did, they instinctively turned toward the back wall, the spider turning with them, keeping its same angle as though it knew not to look. Distantly, to Hermione, this action seemed logical, the eight-eyed creature couldn't blink.
"Close your eyes" said Harry in a whisper. "Accio basilisk's eye."
There was a loud pop and a shrill echoing scream from the beast. Harry held out his hand blindly, catching the slippery slimy ball in the crook of his arm. Being about twice the size of a quaffle, the impact threw him forward and to the right, he stumbled into Ron, who blocked the fall. Unfortunately, only seconds later, Harry recognized a burning feeling penetrating his clothing that was all too familiar. He put the orb on the floor noting its position with his foot.
"Feel for my hand." Harry said putting out his clean arm.
Although all three were now looking towards the ceiling away from the eye, they knew the spider had moved into a defensive position facing the snake. Harry's hand guiding them they touched their wands, and pointed down at the eye.
" Ron, Hermione, cast Incendio, then I'll do a quick Protego."
"But are you fast -" whispered Ron.
"RON!" Hermione let out in a whispered shout.
While the girl's voice echoed off the wall, another voice spoke in an all too familiar commanding tone, "No!"
They froze.
"All three of you do it, I'll cast the Protego"
They looked over their shoulders, the spider was gone and there stood Snape.
"Now!"
After six years of habit, his voice made them obey. They all turned their eyes heavenward. Harry, Ron and Hermione called out a count of three, then shouted "Incendio!" While a half second later, Snape commanded "Protego."
It worked!
However, in the seconds it took for them to turn, they found a familiar site, Snape's back was to them with his arms out wide and bent in a protective arch. Now they were all now facing the same way, towards evil incarnate. Voldemort, now basilisk, was barring down upon them.
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I would like to thank Louise Fecher on Mugglenet and Snapeforte on for their essays about Snape as an animagus spider.