Prologue
JUNE 1996
Just when Neasa Casey felt like she could fight the masked Death Eater no longer she heard Neville Longbottom shouting, "DUBBLEDORE!"
The shout didn't distract the Death Eater – Neasa saw over his shoulder Dumbledore descending the stairs into the Death Chamber, his face white with anger.
The other Death Eaters began to scamper when they spotted him – Alastor and Tonks were passed out on the ground, Remus and Shacklebolt's Death Eaters had fled – but Sirius was still fighting Bellatrix Lestrange near the Veil on the raised dais.
Quite suddenly Neasa's Death Eater made a lunge for her and she sprinted in the opposite direction, towards the steps on the dais, catching some precious few moments when he was distracted. She was halfway up when she reached for her pistol; with a weapon in each hand she finally had the advantage, and she attempted to Stun him again.
Unfortunately the Death Eater was too fast; as soon as he saw her he dashed up the dais and her Stunner made a pathetic little dent in the ground where he'd been.
Bellatrix and Sirius were still chasing each other around the Veil. Neasa's hands were sweaty and she couldn't get a grip on the handle of her pistol; her fake blonde hair had fallen in front of her eyes and she shot at random, missing and hitting the masked Death Eater in the arm, causing him to shriek in pain and crumple to the floor.
Sirius and Bellatrix hurtled towards Neasa and she ran out of their way, trying to regain her breath – she felt even dizzier, and she knew her magical core was weakening.
Sirius ducked Bellatrix's Expelliarmus – "Come on, you can do better than that!" he mocked.
She aimed again, and this time the red spell hit his chest and his laughter seemed to hang still in mid-air, his shocked expression frozen as such, and he stumbled backwards, dangerously close to the misty Veil. He lost his balance and grabbed onto the stone arch, and Bellatrix raised her wand to fire again.
"Protego!" Neasa cried, but she was too late – Bellatrix's spell hit Sirius and the useless Shield Charm went up a second later. Before Neasa could concern herself with Sirius, Bellatrix rounded on her and made to attack – Neasa raised another shield but the spell broke through. Her powers were becoming so weak she couldn't fight Bellatrix with magic alone, so she raised her pistol instead, ready to fire a killing shot.
But the Death Eater she had shot earlier was too fast. Despite his bleeding arm he raised his wand at her and Stunned her before she could fire, and she was thrown back against the far wall, unconscious before her pistol and wand clattered to the floor.
0o0o0o
AN - So that was the prologue of what will (hopefully) be a three-part series but since school is starting again I will only have time to upload the first part.
I had the idea for it while reading the stories for the first time this year. Snape was my favourite character from the start and his story was the most poignant, and, because of that, the saddest too, and I wanted to write this as a tribute to him. Also I hadn't written anything big in a long time and I missed writing, and as soon as I created Neasa, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Not to mention I wrote the first drafts while studying for a maths exam so if it hadn't been for this I would actually understand calculus. from that point of view alone I don't want it to be wasted :')
The plot will move a little slowly for the first two or three chapters but it'll pick up quickly after that.