Written for the Houses Competition, Slytherin House.
Category: Themed.
Prompt: [Speech] "Let's find out exactly how deep your betrayal runs."
Word Count: 3284
AU – Diverges from Canon after Order of the Pheonix, with some messing around with Tom Riddle's Timeline.
oOo
Severus raced into the Infirmary, shouting for Poppy. In his arms was a slender figure completely wrapped in a black cloak. A spill of black hair was the only part of his cargo visible, until he laid her down on the narrow hospital cot. A flick of his wand conjured a patronus and the spectral doe raced off to find the Headmaster.
"Goodness Severus? Who is this and what's happened?" Poppy Pomfrey demanded as she furiously cast a diagnostic spell over the young woman lying on the bed.
Severus shook his head. "I have no idea who she is. I found her trapped in some strange sort of spell deep in the Dark Forest." He'd been gathering potions ingredients when he'd felt the shimmer of an old ward, a powerful one at that. Curiosity piqued, he'd dismantled the ward with great difficulty and pressed onwards. There, in a tangle of undergrowth, had been a pillar of amber and trapped inside it had been this woman. She'd been wrapped in only a bedsheet, a hand held up to try and ward off an attack. "I managed to cancel the spell, but she went into convulsions. I got her here as quickly as I could," Severus finished reporting.
"I need an invigorating draught, and a magical replenisher. Her levels are dangerously low," Poppy said, reading the complicated charm with ease and adjusting her stabilizing spells as on the fly.
A normal day for the Hogwarts Medi-witch was healing broken bones and dispensing pepper-up potions to combat snotty noses, but every now and then she'd be handed something that truly tested her skills. As Severus returned with the potions, he was reminded just how truly skilled Poppy was. She'd certainly put his sorry form back together more than once over the years. The witch lying on the bed was unnaturally pale and her breathing came in ragged, shallow gasps. It was clear that she was fighting to stay alive, even as her body tried to give out on her.
He drew his wand and assisted the healer by infusing the potions directly into the woman's bloodstream, knowing instinctively that time was of the essence and that Poppy couldn't spare the concentration to do it herself just now. She was too busy trying to keep the woman from expiring. Just as they were making some headway, the doors to the Infirmary opened and admitted Albus. Minerva was walking quickly behind him and the Head of Gryffindor gasped in shock at the sight that awaited them.
"What manner of magic is this?" Minerva whispered, looking as if she'd seen a specter.
"Something very dark, Minerva. That much is certain," Albus said quietly, his pale blue eyes fixed on the witch.
"That's all I can do for now. The rest is up to her, I'm afraid," Poppy pronounced and sat down in a chair looking rather exhausted.
"You recognize her," Severus said shrewdly.
"Her name is Isolda Lafaye. She was a student several years ahead of Minerva and went missing in the late 1940's, shortly after she graduated. No one ever knew what became of her," Albus said quietly, a look of great trepidation on his face.
"She looks barely older than twenty." Poppy looked stunned.
"Whatever was done to her seems to have preserved her in a kind of suspended animation. I will need to view your memory of finding her, Severus. Poppy, I'm to be told the moment she awakens and it might not be a horrible idea to place a restraining spell on her bed," Albus instructed.
"You believe she could be dangerous?" The medi-witch frowned.
"She kept very dangerous company before her disappearance. It would not be a terrible leap to assume the worst," Albus said simply and turned, walking swiftly out of the hospital wing.
Severus' frown deepened and he stood, pausing only to reach out and turn over her left forearm. He wasn't entirely sure what had prompted the move, but finding the skin smooth and unblemished did not diminish the uneasy feeling in his belly. There was something about this with that had the Headmaster spooked, or at least 'unsettled'. Whatever that reason was, it likely did not bode well for any of them.
oOo
It was nearly two days later when Albus was summoned to the Infirmary again. A great chill settled into his bones as he came to stand at the foot of the bed and full weight of Miss Lafaye's blue gaze settled onto him. The former Ravenclaw prefect looked pale and fragile in the bed, tucked into crisp white linens, but once you met her eyes there was no question about her mental toughness.
"Professor Dumbledore," her voice was slightly hoarse.
"Miss Lafaye, it's good to see you awake. I'm afraid your discovery has raised a great many questions," Albus said.
"We both know you're hardly pleased to see me alive, Professor," she said quietly, a wry smile settling onto her face. "Fortunately for you, Tom made a fatal error."
"Oh? Is Tom the one who did this to you?" He feigned surprised.
"He's the only one I'd ever have trusted to get so close to me, as you are well aware," she paused, closing her eyes and swallowing deeply. "He betrayed me, and because of that…I will help you destroy him."
"How do you know that he's not already dead? You've been imprisoned for nearly fifty years." Albus tried to appear reasonable.
"Because he's made himself exceedingly difficult to kill and if he were truly dead, I'd have been released from the Ambreas Charm long ago. Such a spell is tied to the intrinsic life-force of the caster. So long as they endure, in any state, the charm will hold," she explained it as if to a child, being insulting on purpose.
"The Ambreas Charm has been lost for nearly a millennia." Albus narrowed his eyes. The girl had always liked to needle and bait, even as a student she'd always been firmly convinced that her own opinions were inherently superior to her instructors.
"Did you think that Tom and I left Britain for a merry vacation in the south of Spain?" She snorted. "Between the two of us, there was no limit to the secrets we could unlock. We delved deep into arts long forgotten, pushing the boundaries of magic until we found the edges. The Ambreas Charm wasn't lost, merely misplaced. I found it in a half-destroyed Armenian Archive, along with other things." Her smile turned predatory. "I helped him craft and weave magic darker than pitch and when he'd wrung every last ounce of usefulness out of me, he thought that he could simply cast me aside. He thought wrong."
"If that is true why should we trust you now?" Albus knew better than most how addictive it could be to delve into obscure magic with a partner of similar skill. Lines blurred and morals were quickly washed away as you chased the next thrill. Once his own heart had been twisted and tainted by such a partnership, and he could see the same stain on the soul of this witch.
"Because he betrayed me, and I would burn the whole world down to pay him back in kind. I also know how to end him, once and for all. Something you clearly don't. So release this silly restraint spell and summon Abraxas Malfoy," she commanded.
"Abraxas Malfoy is dead." Came a voice from just behind Albus. The smooth, silky tones of Severus' voice delivered the news that clearly cut this witch to the bone, shattering her façade of arrogance and strength.
"Dead?" she whispered, tears shining in her eyes. "How?"
"Dragon Pox, about six years ago," Severus said, coming to stand beside the Headmaster.
"Did he have any children?" Isolda swallowed thickly, trying to cling to her composure.
"A son, Lucius," Severus said.
"Then summon him and tell him to bring one of his father's portraits," she said. "Undo this ridiculous spell, right now." She gave the Headmaster a highly unfriendly look.
Albus inclined his head and undid the spell, unsurprised when she got off the bed and walked unsteadily to the bathroom. The door shut firmly behind her, leaving him alone with Severus.
"She seems rather…distrustful of you, Headmaster," Severus observed in an all too casual voice.
"I'm afraid my attitudes towards a young Lord Voldemort and his companions while here at school may have bred some…contempt," he admitted. "Perhaps you'd be best to speak with her Severus, I will summon Lord Malfoy and request he bring his father's portrait with him. Find out what she knows, and if she is truly willing to help us."
Severus nodded. "As you wish, Headmaster."
oOo
Dead. The words had been like a dagger to the gut, a slow agonizing wound that would take days to kill her. Tom's betrayal was an easier pill to swallow; she'd always known what he was after all. The loss of 'Brax though, he'd been their third and the pivotal piece that balanced their highly dysfunctional little family. Undoing all of Tom's ills would be extremely difficult without him, but at least he had a son that could conceivably be used as a surrogate.
It was if she'd fallen asleep and woken to a world she didn't recognize. Caught up in the intoxicating rush of magic and exploration, it had been easy to turn a blind eye to the things Tom was doing and the only possible applications for the magic she'd created for him. Isolda almost didn't want to know how much blood was on her hands by proxy, but she needed to know. Knowledge was necessary, because without it she'd be stumbling around in the dark. Against a man like Tom, you needed every weapon you could possibly find. She was at a wretched disadvantage as it was. For nearly fifty years, she'd been suspended in that pillar of amber while he'd been free in the world. Her body had been frozen at 19 years old, just at the beginnings of her magical maturity and only scratching the surface of her capabilities. He was a mature wizard, honed and refined into a weapon that clearly terrified the wizarding world. This would be a fight that could claim her life, but there was no other choice. If he discovered she was free, he'd kill her anyway. She knew too much.
Reluctantly, she left the relative privacy of the bathroom and found that Albus had left the other wizard to deal with her. Coward. She nodded to the sallow-faced wizard, something familiar about his features tickling at the back of her brain.
"You're the one that freed me," she said, remembering vaguely seeing his face in the forest before everything had gone black.
He inclined his head. "I'm Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin and the resident Potions Master."
"Thank you for the rescue," she said and sat back down on the bed.
"You mentioned you know a way to undo his magic, what did you mean?" Severus summoned a chair and sat down.
"How comfortable are you with Arithmancy theory?" she asked, running a hand through her hair.
"Relatively comfortable," he said.
"Tom has always been fascinated by numbers of power and ways of using them to increase the magical energy in spells and rituals. Tom, Abraxas, and I were a triumvirate; we would use the power of three to harness the power we'd summon. Because we were the base of power behind so much of Tom's magic, by resurrecting the triumvirate in proxy we can undo much of his evil. That will destabilize him and render him vulnerable for the final blow, if he even survives the ritual," she said softly. "It would have been easier with 'Brax, but I can use his son as his proxy."
"You'd also need a Proxy for the Dark Lord and he has no children," he said softly.
"Ah…but he has placed his magic inside the bodies of his followers." She reached over and ghosted her fingers over Severus' left sleeve. "That piece of him, will be his undoing. I hope the irony is enough to choke him to death."
"You want my help?" he said.
"I certainly can't use Dumbledore." She rolled her eyes.
"Isolda?" A voice came from the entrance to the Hospital wing.
Turning, Isolda's eyes locked onto the portrait being held by a man that could only be Abraxas' son. He was older in his portrait than she remembered. There were hard lines around his eyes, but it was still him. Merlin, she had loved him.
"Brax," her voice trembled.
"Don't just stand there Lucius, take me over," Abraxas demanded from the gilded frame. "He told me you were dead, that they killed you."
"He lied, 'Brax." Isolda's voice was filled with regret. "I let my guard down and he surprised me. He took me from you, hid me away in the depth of the Dark Forest where Mr. Snape found me. We have to destroy him and I need your son's help to do it."
"Now just wait a moment here, I don't know who this witch is, but you cannot be suggesting that…" Lucius sputtered, clearly floored by the suggestion that they strike out against Lord Voldemort.
"Quiet boy," Abraxas cut him off. "You will help her and we will destroy him. He stole something very dear to me, to our family, the night he took Isolda from me. No one tricks a Malfoy and lives to tell the tale. He made a fool of me and that cannot stand." The fury radiating from the portrait was nearly palpable.
"I'll make him pay for his betrayal, I swear it," Isolda said softly, eyes locked onto Abraxas.
"Forgive me for believing him," Abraxas asked.
"Done. I know how convincing he can be," she whispered.
"What do you need for this ritual?" Severus asked cautiously, as if afraid to interrupt her conversation with the portrait of the late Lord Malfoy.
"I'll need to carve a ritual circle, anoint it with our shared blood, and then we need something connected to Tom. Something more visceral than just your dark Marks. One of his horcruxes would be best," she said, not registering the look of shock on the two wizard's faces. "Before we begin, understand that even if everything goes right…the backlash from the ritual could kill us all." Her voice was soft. There was always a price to be paid for magic, the darker the art, the steeper the price. To undo so much evil, it was very possible the magic would claim their lives in payment. It was only right that she atone for her misdeeds with her life, but these two men might not feel the same.
"Horcruxes?" Severus looked horrified.
"Yes, there were two that I knew of in my time and I'm certain he'd have created a third at the very least," she said quietly. Threes and sevens, it was always threes and sevens with Tom. Some dark knowledge passed through Severus' black eyes in that moment and Isolda could almost swear the man turned a little green just then. "What is it?"
"I know who we can use as a focus." Severus closed his eyes. "There is a boy, who shares a connection to the Dark Lord's mind."
"That would be ideal," she said, wondering who this child was to the man who had liberated her from her prison. "We will need to move quickly. The longer I'm free, the more likely that he will discover it. It will take me a good three days to prepare the circle."
Severus and Lucius shared a long look before both men nodded. "In three days then."
oOo
Three days later, they gathered in an abandoned classroom deep in the Slytherin Dungeons under Hogwarts. The room was empty except for a large runic circle that had been carved into the stone floor. Isolda was wearing a simple white shift and the two adult wizards were wearing only white linen pants. Standing in the corner of the room was a wide-eyed teenage boy, the subject of a most interesting prophecy that Albus had reluctantly shared with her. It was only fitting that he should be the focus for this ritual, the power to vanquish the Dark Lord indeed. The boy was wearing simple black robes, and he watched as she took a wickedly sharp dagger and cut into Severus' and Lucius' forearms to add their blood to a silver bowl.
"Now, it's my turn." She offered the blade to Abraxas' son and suppressed a hiss as he sliced cleanly into her flesh. There was no hesitation and distantly she wondered just when he'd grown so comfortable cutting into people. It was not something that came naturally, such ease with a blade took practice. She took the dagger back and used the tip to swirl their blood together. She dripped their blood around the edges of the circle and they all felt the shudder of magic in the room as the circle was complete.
"Mr. Potter, please come and stand in the center of the circle," she instructed. The teenager seemed to grit his teeth, but he moved to stand where she'd pointed. Next, she nodded to Severus and Lucius, together they moved over the line of runes. The magic rushing along her skin in a wave that stole her breath for a moment, a sign that the ritual had begun.
She reached out and grasped the hands that seemed to find hers instinctively. In that moment, it wasn't Lucius and Severus standing there with her; she was pulled back to a night long ago when it had been Tom and 'Brax in the circle. Their magic flowed through her, filling her and intertwining with her own unique power. Isolda opened her eyes and looked at the two men, she could feel their magic now. It was different and distinct to the men they were replacing in the ritual, but there was a bond between them that went beyond the mark they both carried on their arm. It was surprising, but in a good way. Their shared bond would strengthen the ritual.
"All right Tom," she spoke softly, knowing the ritual would carry her words directly to his ears. The Potter boy was the focus, and would act as a conduit. "Let's find out exactly how deep your betrayal runs." With those words, she gathered the swirling mass of power and willed it outwards. The magic soaked into the Dark Mark on the two wizards and she could feel just how much he had perverted the spell. He'd altered her design, changing it from a bond of power to a kind of parasitic spell that leeched life and power from those who carried it. As the magic burned the mark away, it also restored what had been stolen.
Under the fear and rage she could sense from Tom through the Potter boy, she could feel the magic reaching for someone's life force. Without a second thought, she pulled that seeking force towards her…willing to lay down her life in exchange for righting the wrongs that she'd allowed to happen. As the magic burned through her, light slowly stole her away into its brilliant embrace.
Isolda felt more than heard Tom's death cry and then she was free…released from the burning, raging inferno of magic. She felt ghostly arms wrapping around her, pulling her into a comforting embrace. Sometimes the cost for redemption was death, and it was a price she'd never been afraid to pay.
"You did it, Isolda." Abraxas' voice whispered into her ear. "We're free now."
~Fin