Joining the Fold
By Duckflesh
Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor any of the characters used in the story to follow. The characters and all other Harry Potter trademarks are used here without permission.
Chapter 10
Several days had passed since the lunch with Rookwood. Snape awoke groggily in the late morning, surprised by how much sleep he had managed to get. His workload had increased significantly of late, and he often got so tired that his body forced him to sleep whether his troubled mind wanted to allow it or not. He crossed into the bathroom, where he splashed water onto his face and pulled on his robes, which he had left crumpled on the floor the night before. He wracked his tired mind to figure out which tasks he had scheduled for that morning, and then remembered what he had so gleefully realized before going to bed last night.
For once, this morning, he didn't have anything on his agenda.
Since being relegated Yaxley's old job, Snape had been constantly busy. Immediately upon returning from the meeting with Rookwood, he and Travers had been required to sort through a heap of letters that had come in via owl from Death Eaters stationed all around the country. Those that were urgent had to be brought to the Dark Lord immediately, and personally.
Worse still was the scheduling, a task that never seemed to be finished. Snape had little aptitude for it; something about assigning a set time and date to when a member of the opposition was going to have their home invaded and their family murdered was rather hard to get used to.
Travers, to Snape's surprise, tackled most of the tasks with abandon. He seemed anxious enough to gain favor that he'd do anything, however monotonous, to get into the Dark Lord's good graces. For Snape, though, the tedious work brought little joy. He would have much rather been helping the Dark Lord brew advanced-level potions. Even guard duty during night missions was preferable to the bureaucratic busy work. He was often tempted to cede all of his duties over to Travers, but knew better than to try; the Dark Lord might not be pleased if he discovered that Snape had been modifying his orders.
Much to his annoyance, Snape had yet to find enough time to talk to Malfoy or Rodolphus, despite having desired to do so for days. They no doubt took his silence as a sign of guilt, and this concerned him; he was grateful to finally have made enough time that morning to hunt them down and try to tell his side of the story; that is to say, a lie. It wasn't so much that he even missed seeing them; it was more that losing friends was something he never wanted to do again.
So, on that morning, having somehow obtained for himself a clear schedule, he trekked down flight after flight of stairs, the noise echoing up and down the shaft in a cacophony of sound not worthy of its single architect. Snape had been taking the stairs quite often lately; when he took the elevator, he constantly worried about running into Bellatrix, Rodolphus, or, God forbid, Mulciber.
Today, though, any of those three would have been preferable to the person he nearly crashed into as he exited the second floor stair platform. It was Travers, and whenever Snape ran into Travers these days, he ended up with several hours' worth of work to perform. He preferred how things had been before, when running into Travers just meant having to listen to an especially off-color joke.
"Snape!" Travers exclaimed happily. "Been looking for you."
"I'm a bit busy, Travers," Snape said snippily, knowing that being nice wasn't going to convince Travers to give him any less work to do.
"Well, yes, aren't we all?" Travers asked, not waiting for an answer. "I just saw the Dark Lord. He's got a job for you."
Snape cursed under his breath. More letter sorting, no doubt. But Travers had invoked the name of the Dark Lord, which meant it would be treachery if Snape tried to walk away. He sighed in surrender.
"Fine, then," he said. "What's the job?"
"Kidnapping!"
Snape blinked. Kidnapping? That was a change, at least.
"Ah…" Snape said cautiously, "Of who, precisely?"
"Barty Crouch!" Travers said happily. "He's becoming a problem. Needs to be taken care of."
"So I'm going to kidnap him?"
"Well, you won't be alone, of course. The Dark Lord says to take four others with you. It won't be an easy job."
"No, I wouldn't think so… Crouch is head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He'll be well guarded. It won't be any small task to get him back here."
"No, I'd imagine not."
"How should I start?"
"You want me to tell you how to start? Why don't I just do the whole damn job for you? I've been given other stuff to do, Snape." Travers said, sounding quite happy about the fact. He slapped Snape heartily on the back."Have fun!"
Travers pushed past him and into the stairwell, leaving Snape standing sulkily in the hallway. Dammit… Snape thought. He'd wanted to…
Well, actually, if he had to take four people with him, he may as well bring the ones he needed to talk to. It could be a long mission; maybe he'd get some time to explain himself after all. Feeling a bit better, he walked down the hall until he reached the large double doors to the parlor, which he pushed through.
Yaxley was the room's only occupant, and, as was a common sight since his demotion, he was reading in front of the fire. The sling was freshly gone from his arm, which looked healed. The blonde man looked up as Snape entered, then grunted something that was probably offensive and went back to his book.
Snape leaned against the wall and shut his eyes. He had no idea how to proceed. He was barely capable of administrative work; now he was supposed to coordinate kidnapping operations as well? It wasn't as though he had any practical experience in this kind of work. How would he even find out where Crouch was? How would he get him alone, capture him alive, get him back here? Snape sighed audibly.
"Need help?" Yaxley said, not looking up from whatever he was reading. Snape ignored him, not in any particular mood to be mocked.
"Fine," said Yaxley. "If you don't need help kidnapping Crouch, than I'll just stay here and read."
This caught Snape's attention. He strode over to Yaxley, trying to look intimidating. Yaxley looked up, and his expression suggested that this didn't work very well.
"How do you know I have to kidnap Barty Crouch?" Snape demanded.
"It's not exactly a secret. Travers is loud enough that you'd think he has some kind of constant Sonorus charm going. Hell, I'd suspect he did, if he didn't have the magical skill of an especially stupid baboon. Still, though; I bet the tied up muggles in the basement heard him, volume he yells things at."
"…There are muggles in the basement?"
"Maybe. So do you want help, or don't you?"
"What kind of help are you offering?" Snape asked carefully. He knew he had to be careful. Yaxley was not pleased that the Dark Lord had chosen Snape over him, and the big man was currently quite likely to take the first chance he got to stab Snape in the back, in a very literal sense.
"Well," Yaxley said patiently, "I figure, I could pull this off easy, but have no authority. You have authority, but no goddamn clue as to how to proceed. The most practical solution is for you to make me the first member of your team, and then we could lead in conjunction with each other."
Snape thought about this, staring levelly at Yaxley, who smirked happily back at him. Would Yaxley sabotage the mission on purpose, to make Snape look like a failure? Would he use the fact that Snape needed his help to argue against Snape's reliability in the future? Would he attempt to abuse his temporary leadership position? Probably at least one of the three, if not all of them. But Snape knew there was no other practical choice; Yaxley was right. He had no goddamn clue what he was doing. And besides; if Yaxley took over his old job again, all the better. If Snape saw another owl, he was libel to cast the Death Curse upon it.
"Alright," Snape said resignedly.
Yaxley grinned. "Fine, fine. You're allowed to bring three others, right? I'll pick one, you pick two."
"Malfoy," Snape said.
"Dolohov," Yaxley replied smoothly.
Snape fought down an objection. He didn't exactly love Dolohov, but the man was one of the best casters they had; bringing him made sense.
"Hmm… Rodolphus Lestrange," Snape said.
Yaxley raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about that."
"Well, too bad. It's my choice," Snape said obstinately.
"Sure. But I'd say there's about a fifty-fifty chance that he'll strangle you to death first chance he gets."
Snape felt his resolve slipping. "It's… that bad?"
"I don't know what you did that got him so riled up, Snape, but he is not happy with you. I get that you want to make nice, but this isn't the best venue for it. If he doesn't accept your apology, you're stuck with an enemy by your side for the entirety of the mission.
Snape almost laughed. He was already stuck with that. Still, Yaxley made a good point.
"Fine," he said. "Narcissa Black."
Yaxley frowned. "I don't know abou—"
"No," Snape insisted firmly. "It's my choice, and I pick her."
"Very well," Yaxley said, rolling his eyes. I'll go get Dolohov, and you can go find Lord Malfoy and Lady Black. Meet back here in ten minutes.
Snape nodded, leaving the parlor and taking the stairs up to the floor that Malfoy stayed on. He rapped on their door hesitantly, worried that Lucius and Narcissa might be just about as pleased to see him as Yaxley claimed Rodolphus would have been. The door creaked open, revealing Narcissa Malfoy. Her pale blonde hair hung loose around her shoulders, and she was garbed in what appeared to be one of Malfoy's white Hogwarts shirts, which hung well down to her bare thighs.
Snape took a step backwards, averting his eyes. "Oh, erm, excuse me…"
"Sev!" She exclaimed, ignoring his awkwardness. "It's been so long! Where the hell have you been?" She stepped forward and hugged him around the chest. Odd though it was, he enjoyed the feeling, the warmth of another human. One didn't exactly get frequent hugs in the Death Eater Hilton. He left his arms hanging limply at his sides for lack of a better idea of what to do with them. When she'd let go and taken a step back, she stared at him until he was forced to make eye contact. She looked angry, but, he was pleased to note, not murderous.
"Who do you think you are, Sev? Have you been avoiding me?"
"Oh, no, it's just that…"
"Well, here, come on," she interrupted, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the room. She picked up a pair of shorts off the ground and pulled them on before sitting down on the edge of the large bed that dominated the room. Snape quickly surveyed the area for a chair, but did not find one.
"Oh, come on, Sev, sit down," she said, patting the bed next to her.
Grudgingly, he did as she said.
"Where is Malfoy?" he asked.
"Lucius? I think he went off to find Dolohov for help with a spell."
"Oh, good," Snape said. "Yaxley will tell him, then."
"Tell him what?" She asked, clearly confused. "No, wait, wait. Start from the beginning. First of all, why haven't you been around lately?"
"I've had a lot of work to do for the Dark Lord."
"Clearly. But why are you being given so much more to do than Lucius and I?"
"Oh…" Snape said, surprised. "I'd assumed it would have become public knowledge by now. The Dark Lord became displeased with Yaxley after that evening on Diagon Alley. He appointed Travers and I to take over for him."
Narcissa's eyes widened. "Are you serious? Yaxley has been demoted? Serves him right, the old bastard! And you took his place! He must be furious!"
"He wasn't pleased at all, no. But today, he and I—"
"Beginning, Severus, from the beginning. So, you and Travers are sort of in charge now?"
"Well… after the Dark Lord… and I think after that man Nott…"
"Tall fellow with glasses?"
"Yes, that's him."
"Alright."
"And no doubt there are others I don't know about…"
"Hmm," she mumbled thoughtfully, "Why Travers? He's kind of a head case, isn't he? At least Yaxley was a smart head case."
"I don't know," Snape admitted. "Seniority, perhaps?"
"Sure, but if that's the reason, then why you? You haven't been here all that long."
"Erm… perhaps just because I was the closest when he needed to appoint someone new?"
She snorted. "Listen to that modesty! Come on, Snape, we both know you're a genius. You helped the Dark Lord make potions, for God's sake! How many people can say that?"
Snape felt his pale cheeks flushing, and looked away.
"Alright, fine," she giggled. "So that's that. Now… back to the beginning once again, before any of this even happened. Rodolphus."
"Rodolphus," Snape said grimly. "I—"
"Stop," Narcissa said. "I don't want to know if what he's saying is true or not, alright? Frankly, I'm not sure what to believe, but you're a smart guy. I know you'd have to lie to me if I asked you, to save your own skin. I don't want that. So just don't tell me.
"I…" he started, but he knew she was right. He would be forced to lie, and he'd prefer not to. "Alright," he finished.
"Look. Lily Evans… well, I always knew how you felt about her. And if you did what Rodolphus says you did… well, you must really love her, Sev. And I get that. I mean, I know she's a mudblood, and that's pretty disgusting, but… well, keep this a secret… but that stuff isn't actually all that important to me."
He turned to face her, surprised. "It's not? Then why are you here?"
"Because Lucius is here, Sev. I would follow him anywhere. You probably know how that is. If you love Lily—and I'm not saying you do—then you probably thought about following her to the Order of the Phoenix. But it's different for you. You and her had that falling out, and then she got together with Potter. You couldn't follow. But I bet you would have, if you could've. And me? Well, hell, Sev, of course I believe in blood purity, of course I believe muggles are rubbish, of course I want the Dark Lord to win the war. But that stuff all comes after Lucius."
"But…" Snape asked cautiously, "That's just Lucius. Why do you—I mean, would you—not care about my… you know. Loving a mudblood."
"Sev… I… my family growing up… my parents weren't abusive, or anything. They were good parents. They loved me, I love them. And my sisters… I guess I love them too, even though one of them is a self-satisfied blood traitor and the other is a half crazy bitch who tried to kill the love of my life in cold blood. But… we were never close. None of us. Not even me and my parents. We were all fine, and I guess there's love there, but we weren't… close. And now I'm making a new family, and I don't want it to be like that anymore. It's all about family for me now, Severus. That comes first. Before blood purity, even before the Dark Lord." She paused, taking a deep breath.
"And I want you to be part of that, Sev. I don't care if you're in love with a mudblood, because… you're my family now, and nothing else really matters. The reason I don't want to know is that, even though I don't care what you think of mudbloods… Lucius probably does. And if I ever had to choose between you and Lucius, Sev… you know you could never win. I don't want it to come to that. I told him that Rodolphus is lying about you, and he believes me. Don't tell him any differently, alright? It's better this way."
Snape nodded, a little shocked by all the information he had just received. He had never been close to his family either, of course; he'd hated his parents, and that had grown into a slow, seething hatred of almost everyone around him. But he hadn't hated Lily—somehow, he still didn't—and he didn't hate Narcissa. And he realized that she did feel like a sister to him, and that it was closer bond than he'd felt with anyone for years. He was filled with a desire to say something kind, which was not a talent of his.
"Lucius is a good man," he ventured. "You couldn't have chosen better."
She smiled. "I agree. He's… he's amazing. But…"
"But?" he asked, eager at the chance to help with a problem, to validate her choosing him a as a friend.
"But… you know how Lucius gets when he's confident, in charge? The way he was when we went and got Rookwood to join up that night? You've probably seen it other times, too, when it's just you and him."
Snape remembered the day he had met Lucius at the train station, and knew exactly what she meant.
"I've seen that side of Lucius, and I like it, and I think it's… I think it might be one of the most real parts of him. But he hides it from me. When we're alone, he's a different person, and I love that person, too. But he's sheltering me, and I hate that, Severus. I don't want to be sheltered, not from anything. I want all of it, the good and the bad, not just from Lucius, but from everyone, and everything. You know what I mean?"
He nodded, though he didn't quite sympathize. Personally, he wouldn't have minded being a bit shielded from the harmful and depressing aspects of life. They had been so prevalent for so long…
"Okay!" she said abruptly, smiling again. "What were you saying about you and Yaxley?"
"Oh," Snape sputtered, having totally forgotten. He suddenly wondered just how long they had been talking. "I've been assigned a kidnapping mission, and since I have no experience, Yaxley and I agreed to run it together. We're bringing you, Lucius, and Dolohov. I need to get going, they'll be waiting. Will you come?"
"Hmm… well, I hate Yaxley, and Dolohov's a creep, but… hell, anything to get out of this old dump!" she said, grinning. She disappeared into what Snape assumed was the bathroom, and emerged in her black robes impressively quickly, her hair tied into a pony tail.
As she was reaching to open the door to the hall, she turned to him. "Sev. One last thing, before we go. It's important."
He nodded, ready.
"Look. I know you would have followed Lily to the Order, but you couldn't, and that's why you chose this. But you did choose it, Severus. You can't have her; you know that. That life is closed to you. You have to look to your other options now. If you became a Death Eater, at least a part of you must have wanted it. This is the life you have… and it's not that bad, Sev, you know? My point is… it's time to make a decision. It's time to decide which side you're on."
Snape knew it was true, but he didn't want to think about it. He avoided her gaze. She stared at him until he nodded, grudgingly, and then she pulled the door open. They took the elevator down to the second floor lounge, where Yaxley and Dolohov were standing in the hallway, talking at a very fast pace about ancient Dark Arts techniques. Lucius Malfoy stood with them, though his expression suggested that he wasn't quite able to keep up with the conversation. His mouth rose into a just barely noticeable smile as he saw Snape and Narcissa approaching.
Yaxley turned as well, smirking. "Jesus, Snape. You took so long, Crouch has reached the end of his term, retired from politics, moved to the country, and died of old age. So… mission accomplished, I guess!"
Snape ignored him, smirking slightly. Dolohov stepped forward, bowing his head.
"Severus. Miss Black. It is a pleasure."
Snape shook Dolohov's hand, and Narcissa bowed her head in return. "It's nice to see you, Antonin," she said pleasantly.
"Alright," Yaxley said, "The first thing we need to do is figure out how to find Crouch, and the best way to do that is have a talk with Rookwood. Since the scheduled meeting isn't for a few days, we'll have to stage sort of an impromptu one. Sound good, Snape?
Snape nodded. It was better than anything he had come up with. They quickly apparated, following Yaxley, and ended up in a deserted alley somewhere in London. Snape noticed that Narcissa had side-along apparated with Malfoy, and remembered suddenly that she wasn't allowed to—and actually couldn't, thanks to having no wand—use magic.
"Alright," Yaxley said pleasantly, "This is part of a network of alleys that Rookwood likes to take during lunchtime to get from the Ministry to a restaurant for wizards a few blocks away. He's one of the only people who uses it, since most other Ministry employees are social enough to just eat in the cafeteria."
Yaxley pulled a pocket watch out of his robes and glanced at it. "It's just about lunch time, so he should be coming by soon."
They crowded up against the wall, trying to appear like less than they were; five figures shrouded in jet black robes. They were ready to apparate at a moment's notice in case someone other than Rookwood came round the bend at the end of the alley.
However, Rookwood, dressed in brown, immaculately clean Ministry robes, was indeed the first person to show up. He was reading the Prophet, and was quite startled when, as he was just about to pass them, Yaxley made a sharp "pssst" sound.
"Jesus!" Rookwood hissed, laying eyes on them. "Oh no!" he suddenly said rather loudly, and not quite convincingly. "Death Eaters! Get way from me, you foul people!"
However, he quickly approached, pushing into the group until they were surrounding him.
"Uhm," Yaxley said.
"If I am being watched, it doesn't exactly look good if I'm seen friendlily conversing with Death Eaters. Pretend you're beating me up, or something!"
"Ohhh," Yaxley said, and punched Rookwood in the stomach. Rookwood doubled over, wheezing.
"Jesus Christ! Don't really do it, you moron! God!"
Malfoy grabbed Rookwood under the arms and pulled him back up to full height.
"Good, yeah," Rookwood panted, clearly still trying to keep his voice low. "Hold me like that. Now, what the hell is this?"
"Since when are you so easy to sneak up on, Rookwood?" Yaxley asked, not really bothering to lower his voice.
"It looks suspicious if I'm looking around nervously all the time! It's best to stay totally unaware of my surroundings, just like everyone else," Rookwood whispered testily. "You're putting me into serious jeopardy, coming here. What the hell do you want?"
Yaxley glanced at Snape and nodded, and Snape realized that he had been passed the baton of authority. He took a small step forward.
"We need to know when Barty Crouch will be vulnerable, and where to find him," he said, as calmly as he could.
"Well, too bad, because I don't know!" Rookwood hissed.
Snape blinked, unsure of how to proceed. Maybe finding Rookwood hadn't been a very good plan after all.
"Come on, Rookwood," Yaxley grunted, "give us something."
Rookwood rolled his eyes. "Fine… let me think…"
His closed his eyes, apparently searching through the massive database of inside Ministry knowledge that was his brain. The five robed Death Eaters watched him intently.
"Alright," he said finally. "I overheard a conversation in the elevator a few days ago. There are two aides in the Office of Magical Law Enforcement that work pretty closely with Crouch. Kula and Ripsom. At two o'clock today, they should be at Madam Malkin's buying Crouch a new set of Dress Robes for the Ministry Ball coming up. They'll have access to Crouch's schedule."
Narcissa looked amazed. "How did you remember the exact time like that?" She asked. "It was just a conversation you overheard? You didn't even know you'd need to remember the information!"
"Just a talent," Rookwood said, smiling uncharacteristically.
"He's got one hell of a memory, yeah," Yaxley grunted. "Trust me, though, it gets old fast. I think that tip should do us just fine. Thanks, Rook."
The smile disappeared from Rookwood's face. "Do not do this again. We meet once a week. No more, no less. If I need you urgently, I'll send you an owl, but you aren't to send me any owls, you aren't to contact me by floo, and you sure as hell aren't to try and meet me in person.
"Yeah, I know, Rookwood, we arranged all this together, remember?"
"Yes, I do remember, but apparently you don't. Never again!"
And Rookwood ran off down the alley, putting on a relatively convincing act that they had let him go and he was running for his life.
"Let's go back to the hotel and regroup," Snape suggested.
"Sounds good," Yaxley agreed, and in moments, they were in the hotel lobby, standing in a circle in front of the check-in desk.
"Alright," Yaxley continued, "Two o'clock isn't all that far off, so we'd better get going."
"Just a moment," Malfoy said. They all turned to face him, surprised. It was the first time he'd spoken.
"This is going to become quite dangerous," Malfoy said carefully, "and Narcissa is unable to use magic. She will be in serious danger, and I don't know that I'll be able to protect her. I would like to ask that she… not accompany us."
Narcissa frowned, grasping Malfoy by the shoulder. "But… Lucius… they picked me to come with them. I can defend myself, really. I'll stay back. You don't have to worry about protecting me."
"I'm sorry Narcissa," he said, and sounded like he meant it. "I was barely able to protect you on our last trip to Diagon Alley… if we try it again, you might not come back, and I… I could not…" he didn't seem to be able to say it in front of the three men. "It simply cannot happen," he said instead. "You must wait here for us. I shall come to you immediately upon our return."
"Well," she said coldly, clearly becoming angry, but forcing herself to remain calm, "I appreciate that, Lucius, but I'm afraid your concerns for my welfare are yours alone."
"Actually," Yaxley said in a surprisingly kind voice, "I have to agree. You're defenseless. Makes no sense for you to come, it endangers you both."
"Yes," Dolohov added. "I am sorry, Miss Black, but your presence will only weigh the rest of us down. You must wait until you are of age to start going on dangerous missions."
Her eyes darted from Malfoy to Yaxley to Dolohov as they spoke in turn, and she seemed to be becoming angrier by the second. She finally turned to Snape, quivering softly.
"And you, Severus? What do you think?"
He stared into her eyes, trying to tell her with his gaze everything that he couldn't say out loud in front of the others. That he wanted her to come with, that he thought of her as family, that she was essentially his best, perhaps his only, friend. But they were right, all of them. And there was just no way to get around that.
"I'm sorry, Narcissa," Snape said, and wished his voice did not sound so cold. "They're right. We'll send for you as soon as we return, but until you can defend yourself, and your safety is assured, you must stay home during the more dangerous missions."
The look in here eyes crushed him. She may as well have slapped him and called him a traitorous son of a bitch.
"As though the safety of any of us is assured!" She screamed. "We're Death Eaters, for God's sake!"
And before anyone could say anything else, she had stormed off.
"Do not worry, Lucius," Dolohov said after she had disappeared from sight. "We all know how women are. She will feel much better once she has cried and talked to her women friends about it. You made the right choice. This is men's work."
Malfoy had a pained expression on his face. He glanced at Dolohov and looked like he wanted to point out that the man had entirely missed the point, but apparently decided that it would be pointless to do so. Seconds later, he had managed to return his face to a mask of passivity.
"Well," Yaxley said, "With that out of the way, let's go. Now, the guys we're looking for might be there already… so non-lethal spells only, alright? This means you, Dolohov."
Dolohov smiled slightly.
Counting down to assure they'd all arrive at the same time, they apparated to Diagon Alley, appearing in the middle of Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions. As soon as they had appeared, all four of them had drawn wands, and the store lit up as stunning spells shot in all directions. Two third year Hogwarts students toppled off fitting stools into unconscious heaps on the ground. One of their mothers, who was looking through racks of dress robes on the other side of the store, did likewise. Snape looked around for other shoppers, but saw no one else. Dolohov was holding a middle aged woman by her collar, wand pressed against her forehead. She was writhing in an attempt to throw him off, but didn't stand a chance of doing so. His hand was clasped firmly over her mouth, and she could make only a weak, muffled sound. Snape recognized her from when he had come here to buy his school robes for his sixth year. Madam Malkin.
"Should I kill her?" Dolohov asked, in a voice which suggested that he wouldn't at all mind doing so.
"No," Yaxley said, "This is a pretty good place for robes… and it has sentimental value to us Hogwarts alum. Unless Snape disagrees."
"No," Snape said quickly, "Yaxley is right. Just knock her out."
Dolohov shrugged. "Stupefy," he said carefully, and, with a flash of red light, the woman collapsed to the ground.
They quickly hid the unconscious customers and shopkeeper in a storage room in back, then took up positions around the store. It was a perfect environment for an ambush; rows and rows of black robes hung from racks, allowing Snape, Dolohov, Malfoy, and Yaxley to simply step into them and disappear. This they did, and then they waited in silence, hoping that the brief light show they had put on had not been noticed outside.
If the firefight had been noticed, nobody had warned Kula and Ripsom. The two aides to Barty Crouch marched into Madam Malkin's with apparently no idea whatsoever of what was going on. One of them was a younger man, tall and slender. The other was short and plump, and getting quite on in years.
They walked up to the fitting stools in the middle of the store, looking about curiously. "Hullo?" tried the skinny one. "Madam Malkin?"
He had good reflexes. Dolohov's wand was barely visible as it poked from a stand of robes and blasted a curse at the man, but he somehow saw it, diving out of the way. The plump man, too, immediately threw himself behind cover. It suddenly occurred to Snape that aides to the Minister of Magical Law Enforcement were probably either retired Aurors or Aurors in training, and they were probably facing one of each.
The place had exploded into a dangerous rainbow of jinxes and curses. Now the multitude of robe racks was working against them, lending cover to their enemies. The Death Eaters, contrary to normal policy but in accordance to their earlier agreement, were firing only non-lethal spells. They were all quite surprised when the younger aide, briefly hauling himself on top of a rack of robes, pointed his wand at Dolohov and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"
Dolohov managed to duck just in time, the green jet of light boring a hole into the wall and sending splinters flying in all directions.
Yaxley and Malfoy were both sneaking around towards the man, attempting to close in on him from the sides. Both shot body-bind curses from behind cover, but the aide countered with a shield charm, nullifying each attack.. Dolohov, looking slightly injured, soon joined in the effort of hurling non-lethal jinxes into the flagging shield charm.
Snape, realizing that the other aide was still hiding somewhere, stood up from behind his cover to survey the store. He spotted the older man creeping around the side of the shop towards the battle raging in the back, and watched as he shot a stunning spell at Malfoy, hitting him hard in the back and sending the Death Eater to the ground. Snape pointed his own wand and fired a stinging jinx, which the squat man just barely managed to avoid with quick back step before ducking behind cover.
Snape heaved himself up onto a rack to try and get a better view, but instantly regretted it. A green death curse shot by his head, narrowly missing him and smashing into the roof. Snape rolled roughly off the robe display, hitting the floor hard. The wind flew out of him, and he lay there impotent, gasping for air.
It was surreal to have the Death Curse used against him. It was unlike any other spell; it could not be blocked by a shielding charm, and there was no counter-curse. If it hit you, that was it. You weren't getting back up. It was the most effective curse known to man; suddenly Snape appreciated a little more just why the Death Eaters were so feared.
"Got him!" Yaxley yelled triumphantly, and Snape, finally able to breath again, crawled halfway through a row of robes just in time to see the younger aide collapsed on the ground. He crawled out of the robes and stood, looking around for the retired Auror. He spotted the old man just as he was pointing his wand at Snape.
"Expelliarmus!" he cried, and Snape's wand shot out of his hand.
Now the Auror was making a run for the door, and neither Dolohov nor Yaxley seemed to notice. Snape felt a bit relieved; all he had to do was stay quiet, and the man would make it to safety. Except…
It's time to make a decision. It's time to decide which side you're on.
He knew he had to choose. And he did.
"The other one's escaping!" he yelled. And that was all it took.
Dolohov leaped with impressive agility onto a rack of robes, which shook under him as he landed. He was bleeding from several superficial shrapnel wounds, and his dark eyes had malice in them. Within seconds, Dolohov had drawn his wand, aimed it, and shot a Death Curse directly into the escaping Auror's back.
The old man was dead before he hit the ground.