A/N Posting this small bit first as a trial run to figure out the uploading & format changes ffn has instituted over the last year. Will post more of this story and some other things later in the week.
A few points of warning before we begin….This chapter has not been beta checked. If that is a problem for you kindly skip it. This is an older story, written after Y5, and is not Y6 compliant. Again, if that is a problem for you, skip it.
As mentioned last chapter, this chapter will jump right into the missing night's events from the perspective of Snape. A final warning, my Snape has never been, nor ever will be, Uncle Fluffy.
Severus knew natural selection to be a necessary part of the order of life. Natural selection ensured that only the fittest, most capable survived. Natural selection purged the weak and the useless. Natural selection eliminated those too incredibly stupid to live.
Watching a bored Goyle carve his initials and the date into the wall, Severus Snape concluded that the kind of artificial selection exercised by the Dark Lord was not going to serve the Wizarding World well.
What they were doing here was most definitely not natural selection. In a fair and honorable fight, Severus knew no one, or even two, Death Eaters would have even the remotest chance of successfully overpowering Minerva McGonagall. But then, that was why eight of them were here - Death Eaters didn't fight fairly or honorable.
Severus had tried to give a warning to Albus Dumbledore, but he himself hadn't been given any real details in advance. It wasn't until after their arrival here, when he noticed the tapestry with the McGonagall family coat of arms on it that he learned the actual target.
That had been the first day, but the tapestry hadn't lasted through the first night. It had been slashed into shreds like most of the upholstery. The second day in some extremely bizarre form of foreplay, Rodolphus Lestrange had taken to throwing McGonagall's seemingly limitless supply of kitschy glass knickknacks into the air so that Bellatrix Black could practice the Cruciatus curse on a moving target. Having later watched Black lead Lestrange up the staircase leading to the bedroom, Severus had no doubt that that part of the house had been equally laid to waste. Even if it wasn't, Severus doubted that McGonagall would ever want to sleep in that bed again after what those two undoubtedly did in it - not that she would be given a chance. The wanton destruction was to be expected; Death Eaters didn't like to be kept waiting. What you had to understand was that they were very busy people, most of them lived double lives.
It was almost the fourth day and still no sign of her. By now he would have expected to see a flair of the Dark Lord's temper, outrage that his plan had been foiled. Instead, the Dark Lord sat quite composed on a chair, the sole piece of furniture not yet consumed by the frustrated carnage of his followers. When Snape had, on the third day, inquired how long they were going to wait since it seemed clear that McGonagall had changed her summer plans, the Dark Lord had smiled at him, eerily serene.
As if again feeling the weight of Severus' eyes upon him, the Dark Lord turned. Immediately Severus averted his eyes, but already it was too late.
"Crucio!"
Severus had no small sense of satisfaction watching the Dark Lord's fury fall on Goyle instead. "You carved your initials in the wall? How thick can you get?"
One of the other Death Eaters, McClaggan, moved to pick up the knife Goyle had dropped. He used it to gouge out the area Goyle had carved.
People were becoming sloppy; they weren't thinking through what they were doing. Severus wondered just how careless he could get someone to be. "Make yourself useful, Black. Open a window. Three days here with you, the stench is overwhelming."
Regulus Black, recently recruited by his cousin, Bellatrix, did as he was told.
The house's own wards had been horribly neglected for some time. They had been absurdly easy to strip and replace with wards of the Dark Lord's design. McGonagall would be able to apparate into the house, but she would not be able to disparate back out. Severus could only hope that should McGonagall ever actually arrive, she would have time and sense enough to transform into her animagus form and escape through the open window. It seemed plausible; the three day long game of hurry up and wait had done little to hone anyone's reflexes.
Not for the first time, Snape wondered why it had to be McGonagall of all people. Oh, he understood well enough from a strategic point, but he couldn't help but think of how almost satisfying it would be if it were one of the others. If nothing else, he would have liked to have seen Sprout try to fit through the small opening of the window. At the right angle, Flitwick might have stood a chance, but while he would have much preferred it to be that overly excitable little twit rather than McGonagall, a chance to torture Filch would have been almost karmic. Still, his wish of wishes would have been for it to be Sirius Black.
Severus wondered what Sirius would think when he discovered that his darling little brother had joined the ranks of the Death Eaters.
Any hopes of his that McGonagall's arrival would catch the other Death Eaters unawares were dashed as the Dark Lord removed a mirror from one of his robe pockets. The mirror was glowing. The Dark Lord made a point of angling the mirror so that only he could see it before tapping it with his wand.
Severus tried to recognize the voice that came from it. "Soon!"
However, one word simply was not enough for recognition. It seemed Lord Voldemort was not the only one with a spy in his inner circle.
The Dark Lord seemed quite pleased as he called the others to prepare. "Get ready! Wands out!"
All in all, it was incredibly unsporting. It was a wonder McGonagall didn't get splinched, she didn't even seem to be fully in the room before the first stun hit her.