Disclaimer: The characters in the following story belong to JK Rowling. I am not making any money from the publishing or writing of this story.
Author's Notes:
The basic premise for this story was inspired by one of my favourite movies, Equilibrium. As such, Nox is (rather vastly) AU. It does not matter if you've not seen the movie; this fic stands alone as a story.
Thank you to Annie Talbot for holding my hand and telling me to 'keep on writing'.
Each dose of Nox will be metered out in 1000 word increments, by order of the Ministry of Justice.
"Well, what have we got?"
The Beater turns to face Snape and immediately stands up a little straighter, respect stiffening his spine. The joints of his anti-magic assault carapace click as he salutes smartly. "Chaser Snape, sir. We tracked down a group of six or seven Order members and managed to get a Hex around this house and trap them, sir, before they could Apparate away. As far as we could see, they're only wanded, sir."
Snape's eyes flick to the derelict house and the wire-thin cable that encircles the property like a noose. "Hex holding steady?"
The Beater tilts a small readout screen towards Snape. "As a heartbeat, sir."
"Keep it that way while we're in there." Snape glances over his shoulder as he unholsters his semi-automatic pistol. "Coming?"
Snape's partner, Chaser Regulus Black, is leaning against the car, surveying the scene with narrowed eyes. "You can handle seven in your sleep." He gestures towards the neighbouring houses that have drooped miserably on their foundations. "I'll circle around the perimeter; see if this lot missed anything."
Snape nods, checks the pistol's magazine with expert grace, then closes his eyes for a moment. He can hear the whining buzz of the Hex; the click-click of the Beaters as they shift nervously at the perimeter; the urgent, hushed whispers of the desperate.
Snape's eyes snap open.
"Break down the door," he tells the Beaters.
*
"I will leave you to deal with these magic offenders," Snape says to the lead Beater, staring pitilessly down the line of handcuffed Order members. "I need to find where they have hidden their wands."
One of the wizards—a scruffy, hollow-eyed youth with blood oozing from his nose—spits a hack of saliva onto the steel-capped boot of the Beater. In a blink, he's pinned to the wall by the barrel of an assault rifle.
"Go ahead, shoot me, then!" He leans forward into the barrel. "We all know we're headed for a firing squad, anyway."
One of the women whimpers, "Seamus, no."
Seamus' bloodied lips curl into a snarl. "You're no death eaters—you fucking Chasers and your Beater squads, you aren't saving humanity; you bring death on…"
Snape puts a hand on the barrel of the rifle when he sees the Beater tensing up, preparing to shoot. "No," he orders. "I want this one interrogated, thoroughly. If he gives you any trouble, shoot his girlfriend." He tips his head towards the woman.
"Yes, sir."
As the Beaters lead the Order members out of the door, Seamus lunges forward towards Snape, struggling hard against the two Beaters who are restraining him. He manages to pry one arm loose and strike Snape square on the jaw before they get him under control again. "Fuck you, Chaser. I'll never give Dumbledore up, never!"
Snape calmly pulls his pistol out and shoots the woman—a neat double tap dead-centre on her forehead. She drops like a stone.
And then Snape stands, statue-still, while the Beaters drag the Order members out of the house, their screams echoing across the gloom of the empty neighbourhood.
*
Snape is running his long, spidery fingers across the faded wallpaper when Chaser Black enters the room and carefully steps around the pool of blood that is seeping into the dusty floorboards.
"Find anything?" Black asks.
"Not yet."
While Snape continues to trace a path around the circumference of the room, Black ransacks the chest of drawers in the corner.
"Too obvious," Snape murmurs to himself. When his fingertips start to tingle strangely, like he's been sitting on them for hours, Snape stops. "Behind the wall," he says to the Beater at the door.
Snape and Black stand shoulder-to-shoulder as the Beaters tear the wall down, revealing a narrow, hidden room.
Black shakes his head. "I don't know how you do it, Severus."
Snape shrugs. "The dimensions of the room were… off."
"Hmm." Black steps into the room. "Let's see what we've got…"
*
As well as a fistful of wands, they find a trunk overflowing with spell books and magical gadgets. Snape can identify crystal balls and pewter cauldrons, but some of the silver, spidery instruments are a mystery to him, and the little ball with shimmering wings is absolutely bizarre.
He places the ball back into its box. "Well, I suppose the Keepers will know what to do with it." Until they decide to destroy it or log it into the Hall of Evidence, though, Snape will ensure the magical artefacts stay under the Hex, just in case one of the wizards has booby-trapped something.
Snape turns around and scowls at his partner. "What are you doing?" he asks Black.
Chaser Black continues to stick the wands into the pockets of his long, black Chaser's tunic. "I think it's probably safer to take this many wands directly to the Hall of Evidence and log them with the Head Keeper."
Snape concedes that it's entirely possible—it's happened too many times before, yes—that one of their Beaters or Keepers has stopped taking Nox and might be tempted to return the wands to the Order. But Snape smirks anyway. "Paranoid."
Chaser Black grins. "Almost as paranoid as you, then."
*
On the return trip to the city, Black sighs and turns from the window, where the gutted remains of London speed past, ever bleak and grey. "It's so damn grim out of the city. When will the war finally be over, do you think?"
"When every last Order member is either dead or taking Nox." Snape checks his watch and extracts a little black tablet from a silver pillbox. It's glossy, shines like a speck of obsidian in his palm. He swallows it, feels a familiar weight unfurl in his veins.
"It's worth it." The way Black says it, it sounds almost like a question, curling up at the end.
Snape turns to his partner, eyes narrowed. "What?"
Black swallows his own dose of Nox and nods, reiterating firmly, "It's worth it."