Muggle Hunt
By Matthew W. Quinn
September 22nd, 1978
10:30 PM
"We look immensely foolish," Severus Snape drawled. "I mean, look at your hair!"
Lily Evans had her hair done up in the gravity-defying manner that Japanese tourists delighted in photographing. Being male, Snape did not have his hair done in quite the same manner — instead, it was cut much shorter and spiked.
It was true that Snape did not feel the need to hide behind his hair as much as he used to, but it felt so alien to have shorter hair.
When we're done, I'm using a charm to grow it back out. I don't care if it takes more effort to keep up, I look like a bloody hooligan.
"Doge said it was important to blend in. We don't want to be the first ones targeted when the Death Eaters show up."
The two of them, disguised as Muggle concert-goers, stood at the fringes of a crowd gathered in front of an outdoor stage, waiting for the Muggle band to arrive. The crowd tended to be more Mod than Punk, although there were a few young men with spiked hair floating around.
Doge said that rumor has it the Death Eaters are planning a Muggle-hunt in the area. There are hundreds of people here — this would be one of the biggest targets.
He watched as the band ascended the stage. The audience roared and Snape grit his teeth at the assault on his eardrums.
"Hallo, Chipping Campden!" the lead singer called out. The audience cheered. "You ready for a party?"
"Yes!" the crowd roared back. Lily joined in and Snape allowed himself to smile. At least she's having fun.
The lead singer brought the microphone to his mouth. Then all hell broke loose.
A jet of green light erupted from some trees ringing the concert site and struck the singer dead on the spot. Snape's eyes leaped over to the woods and saw two figures robed in black with silvery skull-masks.
Looks like Doge was right.
The crowd was silent for a long moment before one of the musicians said something totally unhelpful.
"He's dead! They killed him!"
Immediately the crowd surged and Snape lost sight of the Death Eaters.
"Lily, they're to the left of the stage," Snape said. "Two of them!"
"Got it!" Lily said.
Then the surging crowd tore her away from him. Snape rushed perpendicular to the throng, hoping to get out of the way of the human tsunami. He caught glimpses of people being trampled beneath the throng, saw blood and bruises and footprints on people's faces, and wanted to avoid that.
Snape caught sight of the two Death Eaters gleefully casting curses into the crowd and heard the Muggles screaming. One Muggle fell down, howling and clawing at himself in pain.
The Cruciatus Curse.
The other Death Eater cast the Killing Curse and struck another Muggle dead. Three people tripped over his corpse and were quickly trampled by the fleeing crowds.
The assignment was to stop the Muggle-killing. Nobody said anything about taking prisoners. Sectumsempra!
He aimed his curse at one of the Death Eater's throats, but a Muggle collided with him as he fired. His chance to surprise the Death Eaters and literally cut their manpower in half failed.
Snape's spell didn't miss entirely. Instead, it opened a terrible cut across the Death Eater's chest roughly parallel with his collarbone. Blood erupted from the wound, but it was not immediately lethal, nor would it immediately prevent the Death Eater from attacking.
"The enemy's here!" one of the Death Eaters shouted. "Kill them!"
A wave of Killing Curses erupted from somewhere to Snape's left.
Snape dodged, avoiding the three jets of green light. Three Muggles died instead. The curses had come from an open space but Snape could not see any more Death Eaters.
They must be invisible somehow. Faciofarina!
His spell sent a jet of flour in the direction of the Killing Curses. The flour-cloud descended around three human-shaped lumps in the fields beyond the panicking crowd.
They're under invisibility cloaks. I think I can take them off the table all at once. Stupefy, Stupefy, Stupefy!
He'd hoped to Stun the Death Eaters before they knew they'd been revealed, but things didn't work out. He managed to knock out two of the three, but one of them threw his cloak aside and jumped out of the way.
"Enervate!" he cried out, raising the other two from unconsciousness. The other two rose to their feet and moved to attack.
Damn it.
Snape unleashed a barrage of Blasting spells that sent the Death Eaters flying and turned his attention back to the panicking crowds.
Where is Lily? He hadn't seen her since they got separated. His eyes scanned the fleeing Muggles, searching for the telltale red hair, but couldn't find her.
Very well. If I can't find her, the Patronus can.
He quickly composed a warning that there were three more Death Eaters and cast the Patronus Charm. The silvery-white bat leaped into the crowd and disappeared.
"It's the blood traitor!" one of the Death Eaters called out.
Damn it. They recognize me.
"He loves Muggles so much, let's see them kill him. Imperio!"
Snape saw several nearby Muggles' eyes glaze over.
Oh shit.
They lurched toward him, expressions blank and hands out.
"Expelliarmus!"
Snape felt his wand leaping away.
Accio!
Having reclaimed his wand, he spun and cast more Blasting spells in the direction of the Death Eaters before turning his attention back to the approaching Muggles.
Confringo! His spell sent the closest Muggles flying. He fired additional Blasting spells into the ground at their feet, hoping to keep them away.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Snape spun and a Killing Curse passed mere inches from his nose.
Blast. Time to get some Muggles between them and me and plan something.
Snape ran along the edges of the crowd, firing curses behind him to keep the Death Eaters at bay.
A silvery fox Patronus emerged from the crowds ahead of him.
"Sev," it spoke with Lily's voice. "I'm dueling the first two Death Eaters close to the stage. I need some help."
Snape pushed his way through the fleeing Muggles — there weren't as many of them now as there were before — towards the stage.
Through the gaps in the panicked crowd, Snape could see Lily taking on two Death Eaters at once, her Shield Charm protecting her from most of their attacks. One of them cast a Killing Curse and she dodged, then sent him smashing through the wooden stage with a burst of silvery light.
Then the remaining Death Eater cast a Killing Curse. A moment later, Lily fell.
NO!
His dreams of their life together, the dreams he'd had for nearly a decade, crumbled.
No more fun Potions experimenting, no hours whiled away in the woods or in front of a roaring fire, snuggling and enjoying one another's presence, no wonderful green eyes being the first thing he'd see every morning, no cute dark-haired little kids with those wonderful eyes…
Snape stopped himself. Lily's killer was still standing in front of him.
Not for long. Sectumsempra!
Fueled by his rage and pain, the attack did not just cut into the skin and upper layers of tissue. Instead, it cut through skin, both the Death Eater's carotid arteries, his esophagus, trachea, and his spinal cord too.
The Death Eater's head rolled off, everything holding it to its body severed forever. Twin crimson fountains erupted from his neck. Hot blood fell like a hellish rain among the fleeing Muggles. It trickled down Snape's face, mixing with the tears that were beginning to flow.
"What the hell! He just killed Marshall!" someone shouted behind him. The other Death Eaters were catching up.
He's just the first. He seriously considered unleashing the Killing Curse — the curse was taught in the Book of Infernal Things, since the European attitude to the use of the Unforgivables was somewhat more liberal than Britain's.
You're risking a life sentence in Azkaban.
Then he remembered how Lily fell moments after the Death Eater had cast the Killing Curse.
I don't care.
He turned. Three Death Eaters approached, wands out.
"The Dark Lord'll reward me big-time for killing this one," a Death Eater said in a guttural voice. The man raised his wand, prepared to cast a curse at Snape.
Then two arrows of silver light slammed into him, sending him flying.
Is the Order sending reinforcements? It's too bloody late! Lily was dead because someone made a mistake and if he found that person, he'd slash off their limbs and genitals and leave them begging for death…
"Sev!"
Snape's eyes leaped in the direction of the voice.
It was Lily. She was alive. Bloody and muddy, but alive.
How can this be? That is not possible. Nobody can survive the Killing Curse!
Then his rational mind took over.
You didn't see the curse actually hit her. She must've gotten out of the way somehow.
The terrible sadness and rage that threatened to blow away his rational mind ebbed somewhat, but it didn't vanish completely.
They won't get another chance.
"It's that Mudblood! Get her!" one of the Death Eaters shouted.
Oh no you don't. Accio Death Eater's heart!
The Death Eater lurched toward Snape as though an invisible hook had buried itself in his chest. Snape could swear he saw the Death Eater's rib cage bulging.
Hmm…can't rip the man's heart right out of his rib cage using the Summoning Charm, can I? Damn.
The Death Eater paled and toppled over.
Ripping it off its moorings certainly just as well, though.
"It might be a good idea to get the hell out of here," Snape called out to the remaining Death Eater.
The Death Eater snorted. "Yeah right. We've got reinforcements coming."
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Snape's heart sank further with each Apparition.
Six more Death Eaters.
Lily grinned, a feral expression that looked rather out of place on her normally-kind face.
"Seven of you? Bring it on!"
Not now, Lily!
Taking on that many opponents would have been a bad idea if they were both fresh and hearty and they certainly weren't that way now.
She's a wonderful girl, but she's so Gryffindorish sometimes.
Six Death Eaters emerged from the woods.
"Lily," Snape called out. "Time to go! Back to the rally point!"
"Yeah," one of the newly-arrived Death Eaters growled. "You and the Mudblood both run."
Mulciber.
"But don't think this is over," he continued. "We'll catch you eventually."
He shrugged. "Maybe this'll get you running. Avada Kedavra!"
A jet of green light shot right at Lily…
Levicorpus!
Snape's spell snatched up one of the dead Muggles and blocked the curse.
"Lily! Time to go!"
Lily Disapparated and Snape did likewise. As he felt the spell carry him away, he could hear Mulciber laughing.
September 22nd, 1978
11:00 PM
Snape materialized at the rally point, an isolated clearing over sixty miles away.
Lily was there waiting for him.
"Lily!" Snape cried out. The two of them rushed over to each other. With an impulsiveness bordering on being Gryffindorish, Snape kissed her fiercely, and she returned his kiss.
"I thought you were dead," he said, the tears threatening to break through again. "He cast the Killing Curse, you fell…"
"For a minute, I thought so too," Lily replied. "I felt something hit me and I fell. But I didn't die."
She swallowed. "The curse hit one of the Muggles and knocked him into me."
Snape swallowed. "I…I'm glad you're alive."
"Me too."
He swallowed again, forcing away the image of the Death Eater he'd decapitated. We failed, didn't we? Lots of Muggles died, you were nearly killed. I know no plan survives contact with the enemy, but this, this was horrible. We got ambushed."
He scowled. "They knew someone was coming. I wonder if someone's spying."
"Sev, there's no need to go there. Given what we've been doing to them, it would make sense for them to have a backup team."
True.
"Very well then. The others need to be informed." He paused and cast the Patronus Charm to inform Doge of what had happened. Perhaps the Ministry can send in reinforcements to protect the remaining Muggles and see the surviving Death Eaters off.
The bat flitted away.
Lily cast her own Patronus and the fox bounded away into the woods.
"Yep."