A/N: I have not written fanfiction in quite a while, so if this story ends up being subpar, I apologize in advance. However, I would love to read any reviews and hear what you think of it!

Chapter 1: Trespassers

Hagrid jolted awake as Fang leapt at the door to his hut, growling and barking.

"Fang! What are you going on about?" Hagrid asks gruffly. He had only been asleep for a few hours, and he had classes to teach tomorrow. He hoped Fang had a good reason for pitching such a fit. He shuffled towards the door and looked out the window as Fang leapt towards the door again. Hagrid squinted his eyes against the darkness. There was a figure in a black hooded cloak staring up at the castle. Hagrid froze, his eyes widening. It was too tall to be a student. Hagrid hoped it was Professor Snape out for a late night walk again. He couldn't imagine who else it would be, but he didn't have a good feeling about it. The figure turned slowly, as though it could feel it was being watched, and a silver deatheater's mask glinted beneath the light of the moon.

Hagrid grabbed his wand and threw open the door. Fang went into a frenzy, snarling and barking as he leapt towards the deatheater. Hagrid lifted his wand and pointed it towards the castle. "Expecto patronum!" A large silvery hippogriff leapt from the tip of his wand just as two other deatheaters appeared. "Go!" Hagrid shouted at it, "Find the headmistress!"

.

Severus ran through the forbidden forest, a glowing orb keeping up with him just overhead, to light his way and help him keep his movements quick and nimble. Despite that, they still somehow managed to stay ahead of him, dodging his spells and avoiding the toppled trees and thorny bushes that should have slowed them down. Minerva and Hagrid had already given up the chase, Severus assumed, since they had fallen so far behind. Severus could still see the deatheaters just up ahead, though, and he wasn't about to let them escape. Deatheaters would only be present on Hogwarts grounds for one reason, to exact some sort of revenge against him for betraying the Dark Lord. One way or another this would be over before the sun rose. He had not fought so hard to survive and earn his freedom only to be stalked by idiots from his past now.

Severus hesitated as they vanished for a moment behind some larger brush. An odd, tingling sensation suddenly came over him and he moved forward with much more caution than he had before. He stepped out into a clearing and his eyes widened in surprise. Every time he thought he had discovered all of the secrets Hogwarts harbored, the grounds somehow managed to continue to surprise him. Standing before him, hidden by bramble and overgrown vines, was a temple made of white marble. A large set of crumbling steps lead up to a door that had been shattered into broken pieces of black stone. Movement caught his eye as the tail of one of their cloaks vanished inside. Had this always been here? How had it remained hidden for so long? And why would the deatheater's choose to hide here when they could have chosen somewhere much more discreet? There could only be one of two answers to that one. Either they had tired of running and had chosen this place to make their stand, or they were somehow familiar with this place and knew of some alternate escape route. Either way, if he wanted to pursue them and ensure they didn't return, he would have to go inside. Severus made his way up the steps slowly, clenching his wand in his hand. When he was just outside of the entrance, he paused, trying to determine exactly what the nature of this place was before he took that final step.

"Is the poor traitor frightened of the big scary temple?" A female voice cooed, sending a chill down Severus' spine. That voice could only belong to one person.

"I see you've somehow managed to hold on to that soul for a bit longer, Bella." Severus answers, stepping into the room. The last he had heard from her, she had been sentenced to the dementor's kiss.

White marble pillars with black veins lined a path towards a large solid stone table. An alter of some sort, Severus realized. Severus turned on his heel and backed up towards it as he realized Bella and the other two deatheaters had been standing just beyond his line of sight next to the door. They were taking a stand, then, and he was certainly outnumbered.

"Oh, no. I gifted that old thing to the Dark Lord ages ago." Bella chirps happily.

"And who are your two lap dogs this time?" Severus raised an eyebrow. Even if he didn't manage to capture them, the more he could tell Minerva about them later, the better off he would be.

"Oh, don't you worry about that. You won't live long enough for it to matter." Bella grins, lifting her wand towards him.

He dodged a flash of bright green light , leaping up onto the alter. The light hit the stone , shattering the corner into pieces. The other two took that as their signal to move in, and Severus found himself playing defense against all three of them faster than he could return fire against Bellatrix. Faster than he could return fire against any of them. Damn Minerva for giving up the chase so quickly. Severus was starting to see that he had underestimated his enemy. He was in over his head, and if he kept taking the defensive it wouldn't be long before he wasn't fast enough to reflect one of their spells. He took a risk and let the protective barrier he had built up around himself slip for a moment. Instead, he sent a flash of blue light towards the deatheater on Bella's left. It caught him off guard and Bella shrieked angrily as Severus' spell sent him flying across the room. The deatheater hit the ground hard and began shaking uncontrollably. One down, two to go.

Before he could pull his defenses back up, Bella's slicing hex slashed through his arm, leaving a deep gash. Severus gritted his teeth through the pain and dodged an attack from the other deatheater while making an x in the air with his wand and snarling, "Sectumsempra!" A small flash of white light erupted from the tip of his wand, headed straight for Bella's heart. The other deatheater sent a bright flash of green light towards Severus. Severus dodge the killing curse again, only to be hit in the chest with his own curse as Bellatrix reflected it back at him.

Severus fell to his knees on the alter, his eyes glazing over as blood soaked his robes. His wand fell from his hand and he fell back onto the stone as a low rumbling began to fill the temple. Bella's eyes widened as the earth began to tremble beneath their feet.

"The temple is going to collapse," Bella laughs, backing up towards the exit.

"What about him?" The other deatheater asks, levitating his friend into the air. The seizure severus had put him in had subsided some, but not enough that he would be able to walk on his own.

"Leave him," Bellatrix smiles sweetly. "Hopefully he will live long enough to be buried alive beneath the rubble. Darkness is a fitting end for a traitor. Besides, we already have what we came for." Bella shooed him out as a crack shot through the back wall of the temple, leaving Severus to die alone.