Hello, again! So, unfortunately I didn´t have the time to do all the corrections I had planned, but still...I promised you a chapter in May, so here it is. It´s shorter and not as good as I had planned it in my head, but it´s a nice "bridge" chapter. Already started writing the next one so it shouldn´t take that long to upload.

...

Dawlish nearly jumped out of his skin when a raven descended upon him in a dark alley close to Spinner´s End, only to swiftly reveal the form of none other than Severus Snape. He would never guess the former potions master was a (most likely unregistered) animagus, but it didn´t really surprise him,come to think of it. It was a valuable skill to have if you were a spy and Dawlish would have liked to have had enough talent for it himself, but alas, he was seemingly destined to be a bureaucrat.

"I hope I didn´t startle you" Severus offered with a sardonic smile.

"Snape." he scoffed "You really are intent of making everything more difficult for us all, aren´t you?"

"Quite the opposite, in reality."

"I thought you were going to keep a low profile. First you storm into the minister´s office and now this? Why don´t you just give them your location already?"

"I knew the minister would inform you of my visit. Is that why you´re scrambling to get to Spinner´s End to convince me to behave before I spoil whatever plan it is you´ve concocted to aprehend Sewlyn? You and Kingsley both have quite a bit of nerve. Like I´m enough of a fool to believe any of you have my best interest in mind."

"How did you even find me?"

"You´re not that hard to track, 'Officer Dawlins'... Merlin gracious, at least put some thought into it..."

"That still doesn´t answer my question: what you´re doing here?"

"What do you think I´m doing here? And what are YOU and your band of Aurors thinking of doing now? And don´t try to lie to me, Sewlyn may be in the wind, but if he had left Cokeworth you wouldn´t be here."

"He´s in a hotel across town. We are going to proceed with his arrest tonight, so if you could kindly not stand in the way"

"Stand in the way? You Aurors really are a bloody joke. You really think you can simply arrest him? Sewlyn is not going to surrender without a fight and by now he may even have reinforcements."

"We haven´t located any other..."

"Of course you haven´t...The Rotts are not dumb. Claire is a dangerous loose cannon, but Ludwig is far more calculating than she can ever hope to be, and definetly more than most give him credit for. He won´t simply let you aprehend Sewlyn, specially the dirty coward decides to give information away to save his own carcass from Azkaban...And there´s always Dimitri. God only knows where his interests are at the moment."

"So what´s your plan, then?" Dawlish seemed defeated moreso than convinced. He knew he couldn´t affort to be on Snape´s bad side, and there was no way he could keep the former potions master from doing as he pleased. Merlin willing tonight´s arrest would be a success and they would stop worrying about Snape´s current status being leaked. It was wiser to play along.

"How many men do you have?"

"Two."

"Do you trust them?"

"With my life. I´ve trained both myself."

"Where is it going to be?"

"At the old mill. Is the most accessible place where we can avoid muggles in this town."

"My, my...maybe you do have a brain after all. Just your luck, Dawlish, I happen know that old mill almost as well as I know my own childhood home...How about the other one?"

"Which other one?"

"The muggle degenerate who attacked Evelyn."

"No need to worry about that."

"Oh, but I do. What will be made of him? I don´t believe you would delegate that task after personally going after James."

"I didn´t 'go after' that boy"

"And why was he so terrified, then? For the state of his nerves, I bet you´ve used legilimency on him, haven´t you?"

"Don´t act so indignant. We both know you have no qualms about using legilimency or whatever other spell or curse to get your way. That´s why Dumbledore used you in his insane plans, after all. In any case, thanks to the muggle boy´s memories we were able to locate the man who attacked your neighbour...The poor lad was under such distress he didn´t even consciously remember he had seen the license number on the motorbyke. I wouldn´t have gotten tha information out of him without using legilimency."

"...so...?" Severus urged, his patience running thin.

"Your neighbour is a very, very lucky woman, Severus. Apparently the man who attacked her crashed his motorcycle as he was escaping from the scene. Seen as you were acting in her defense, I won´t even ask what you´ve done to scare the wretched bastard into having an accident, but it seems he was so distressed the muggle doctors who saw him thought he was under the influence of hallucinogens and put him under surveilance. Tonight Cokeworth´s police will be receiving an anonymous lead about a possible suspect fitting the desciption James has given them that checked into a hospital last night and is still there. We did everything but wrap the wanker a nice wrapping paper with a bow and deliver the package at their door step."

"Good...even tough it hardly justifies scarying a teenager half to death. I´m sure you could have found this man without resorting to this."

"And what do you care about a muggle boy´s hurt feelings. From what I heard you were never one to spare children´s feelings. Has the war made you soft? Or...well, of course. Is not the boy you care about, is it?"

"What time will you and your men be proceeding with Selwyn´s arrest" Severus trailed off.

"Within the next hours. We´ve sent him a fake letter so he should be at mill at midnight."

"Fine. I´ll be there."

"I don´t recall asking for your help."

"I don´t recall offering any help. You´re in my hometown, snooping into my private life and trying to aprehend a man who´s a threat to me and those close to me. This is much more my business than it is yours, so do try not to ruin everything, will you?"

…...

Evelyn nearly ran to the door as soon as she heard someone knock. It had to be Severus. He had been gone for hours now, and she wouldn´t stop fretting no matter how much she told herself it was stupid to worry. She was just shaken by what had happened the previous night, she thought, there was nothing to worry about. It was a reasonable enough train of thought but she couldn´t stop that sinking feeling of dread that overcame her more and more as the hours passed and Severus didn´t return.

It wasn´t him, however.

"I just decided to drop by to check on you and tell you that Mr. Nolan has decided to give you the rest of week off, more if you need." Angela went in, not even noticing Evelyn´s disappointment "I showed him the copies of your hospital papers and the police report you gave me and he said you can take as much time off as you need. Since you´re only giving the remedial classes and extra curricular projects, there´s no harm done suspending your classes for a few days."

"What am I going to do with a whole week off?" Evelyn asked, offering her friend a seat on the couch "Besides, remedial classes can´t just be suspended like that, a lot of these students are struggling and finals week will be..."

"...in December...It´s still early November. You´ll have plenty of time to catch up on everything, relax. I thought I´d find you feeling better."

"I am better."

"It doesn´t look like it. Evelyn, dear, you wear your emotions on your sleeve. I can tell you´re tense. Is it about that man who attacked you? If you don´t feel safe here, you can spend some time at my place..."

"No, thank you, but that won´t be necessary..."

"Well, of course, you´d probably prefer staying at Severus" Angela laughed heartily "How did that go, speaking of which?"

"It went just fine."

"Let me guess, he was a perfect gentleman again, which means you have nothing interesting to tell me...Pity."

"Angela, please"

"Evelyn! I know what happened yesterday was awful, and you´re still very upset, but frankly you sound more aggravated today than you did at the hospital. Come on, spit it out. Did something else happen?"

"No, nothing happened...But I´m afraid it might."

"Why?"

"The police came here earlier today, then James showed up to visit. Severus spend a lot of time outside talking to that officer Parry and I´m pretty sure he talked to James as well, when I wasn´t around. He seemed very worried about something, but he wouldn´t tell me what it was. Then he left. Hasn´t come back since."

"He didn´t say where he was going?"

"No. Just that he would be back soon. It´s getting dark already and nothing."

"Evelyn, what kind of ideas are you getting into your head?"

"I´m not getting any ideas." She took a long pause before deciding to tell Angela of her true concerns "But you have to agree that it´s odd. Severus has a temper, you know... "

"You´re not thinking he...He wouldn´t do that."

"I hope not..."

...

Angela had stayed for the rest of the evening. It was past 11 when she finally had to leave; she had to work in the morning after all. That distracted Evelyn for a while, as her friend was kind enough to talk only about work and other matters that had no connection with either Severus or the events of the previous night. But once she was gone, Evelyn couldn´t do anything but start worrying and fretting again.

After escorting Angela to her car, she walked over to Severus´ door. It scared her half to death to be outside at night..But she had to check. The lights were off. She knocked just to make sure, but she knew he wasn´t home. He would have let her know if he had arrived.

Evelyn rushed back into her house, locking the door behind her and closing the blinds. After double checking the back door, she decided going to sleep was afoolish endeavour. She went up to her office and started to look for something to do...a book to read, assignments still left to grade, notes in need of revising...Anything that could distract her from the fact that Severus wasn´t back yet and she was terrified.

…..

Perched on the roof of the old mill, Severus could see the silhouette walking down the path that led to the front gate, faintly illuminated by the street lights. The mill was sinister enough in daylight...at night one would have to be entiely bonkers to venture inside. As soon as one crossed the gate, leaving the lights of the streets behind, it was pitch black. Cokeworth´s skies were morbidly dark, and stars were hard to see all thanks to the smog most industrial cities had to deal with, but at least tonight there was a full moon.

Selwyn had walked into the trap so willingly Severus was suspiscious. Did he really trust Ludwig and Claire that much, or was he simply stupid? He watched as Selwyn stopped a few steps past the gate and pulled out his wand. He seemed to hesitate before casting a lighting charm to see his way. He crossed the patio that was once used to load the lorries and stopped in front of the main entrance. Dawlish´s two men hadn´t moved from their positions inside the building, one at the entrance and another at the backdoor of the main machinery room which led to the second floor, as Severus sugested. The building had no back door and to leave that room one could only use the front door or go up, and more one went up the more claustrophobic and difficult to navigate the building became. The only open spaces were the patio and the roof where he had taken Evelyn after the Halloween party. For a wizard leaping off the roof would be no issue, so it was necessary to block that access, regardless of how unlikely it would have been for Sewlyn to have the idea of using it. Once lured into the machinery room, which was dark and cluttered enough that he wouln´t he see his surroundings well enough to escape, even with magic and a surprise attack would leave him no time to get his bearings and react, Sewlyn would have nowhere to go. If he was smart, he would surrender and the whole thing would be over in minutes. Severus was to stay back unless he was needed, which Dawlish found unlikely. It seemed like a straightfoward and simple plan, but something still bothered Severus.

It was too easy.

He wouldn´t put past the Rotts to sacrifice a spy, but that could come back to bite them. If Sewlyn was under their orders, he would certainly have useful information about them, which the Ministry would gladly bargain for...And Sewlyn was never a loyal man...he would jump at the first chance to collaborate. Severus wondered if the Rotts would indeed abandon him like this...Unless of course they trusted their connections with the French ministry só much that even Sewlyn´s possible testimony wouldn´t hurt them. That was a hell of a gamble as far as Severus was concerned. Which is why he refused to believe Sewlyn would show up alone...that the Rotts would allow him to...

As if the whole scene had been rehearsed, Sewlyn finally walked in, certainly tired of waiting outside. Patience had never been his forté...Severus moved from his perching spot outside to one of the high beams of the machinery room ceilling, from which he had a panoramic view of the yet-to-unfold drama. The clutter and machines cast long shadows on the walls as the faint light of Sewlyn´s wand lit the way, and the more he advanced the less the moonlight could be of any help. If Sewlyn had an ounce of critical thinking he would turn around now, but he didn´t.

It all happened faster than his eyes could discern in the dark. As soon as Sewlyn found himself in the middle of the room, both aurors had descended upon him with swift efficiency. Confundus followed by a full body binding spell was a tough combination of attacks to pull off on a moving target and in the dark, but if well executed it would end the action in seconds. Alas, as Severus predicted, the plan was much too smooth on paper to go well on the field. While the confundus charm did its job, the body binding spell missed the mak by centimeters by sheer luck, or lack thereof. The confunded Sewlyn was such an erratic moving target that the second auror could not have aimed no matter how he tried and using any light-casting spell would give their positions away. The fumble had allowed Sewlyn time to counteratack. But caught off guard and confunded, he had mere seconds to decide on a spell and figure out where to aim it, having no idea how many attackers were coming for him. Of course he would do something stupid, Severus tought. And something stupid he did, indeed.

The yellowing white sheets of dusty fabric covering the machinery all went up in flames in a matter of seconds.

Fiendfyre. That lunatic was going to kill them all.

As he left his post on the high beam and dove in, Severus could see Dawlish and his two men casting spells to try and put out the rapidly spreading inferno. A fire in the mill was the last thing they needed, it would alert the muggle authorities and with the amount of rubbish piled up outside, it might spread into the neighbouring houses. The whole thing was a fiasco if he had ever seen one. If Severus could accept the notion that Sewlyn had a brain after all he would say he had done it on purpose, to give himself time to flee. But the dimwit was still struggling to get his bearings as a circle of fire of his own creation closed in on him.

Suprisingly, Sewlyn seemed to immediately recover most of his wits the moment Severus landed in front of him, fully reverted to his human form, as if sheer hatred had dispersed the confusing effects of the first attack he´d suffered. Dawlish and his men had succeeeded in keeping the fire from spreading, but Severus knew there was no way they could get to epicenter of the blast. It was up to him to end it, and he had to do it fast.

"Snape." Sewlyn grimace maniacally "´been a while"

"I may have missed an invitation for tea or two." Severus quipped before raising his wand. Severus had half a mind to simply throw him into the flames and call it a suicide, but he had enough of a body count to his name. Still, nobody had asked him to go nicely about this

"SECTUMSEMPRA"

Severus slashed him twice. The first time on his wand hand, a gash deep enough for the blood to gush out painting a dark crescent on the ground, the dark red liquid looking ominously black under the flaming lights. The second time on his face. A small token of Severus´appreciation for that little piece of elgant prose in Evelyn´s hommage. Sewlyn fell back, screeching from the pain.

Then it happened. Precisely as Severus had feared.

As Sewlyn lay on the ground powerless to do anything but shriek in agony, and Dawlish and his men were finally putting out the last embers of the fire, the deafening noise of breaking glass and howling wind came from above them. Severus and the aurors looked up to see two shapeless, smokey clouds of black burst in with the violence of a tornado, obliterating the windows and sending a rain of glass shards down on them.

"Well, fuck me..." Severus hissed "...the cavalry has arrived."