Thankyou so much to all my reviewer, I know I haven't replied to you all yet, though I will eventually, I swear. :D
It's all happening now... Poor Severus, he's jsut decided to quit the spy gig, and now they've threatened his Phoebe... will the guy ever get a break? Probably not - I just love the angst, can't you all tell???
On with the tale...
Chapter 44 – The Fidelus Flaw
Fleur, Tonks and Molly clung to each other in horror in the shelter cupboard at the Burrow, listening to the carnage being wreaked on the dwelling and the Weasley belongings by the remaining Death Eater, who was also intermittently yelling out lewd, disgusting commentary, for a good five to ten minutes; although it felt eons to the hidden witches.
"Oh, I can't just stand by any longer," whispered Tonks, frantic in her worry for Phoebe, "Severus risked his life to save mine… I can't sit back and let this happen! Molly… let me out."
Tonks cocked her head sideways for a second. "He's upstairs… let me out now and I can get out without him even realising."
"No, he's already on his way back down stairs, I can hear the creak of the seventh step… the twins only realised this past year how it was that I always seemed to catch them at mischief," Molly explained in her nervousness, clutching at Tonks to ensure the brash woman didn't just dash past her as a result of her anxiety.
"But we can't just sit here, Molly-"
"I know…" Molly caught Tonk's eyes with her own, "we can't … and we won't!" she said, with a renewed determination. "There are three of us," she continued, "and only one of him," she observed, looking in the direction of the staircase, still listening intently.
"We'll ambush him… are you ready?" she said, and all three witches adjusted their grips on their wands subconsciously.
Both young women nodded.
"The door will take several seconds to reform… if he is in the room he will see and be ready. We can't risk that; we'll have to wait until he has made his way into the sitting room again."
Nodding their understanding again, the women waited on edge until their host was content to disable the shelter's protective wards.
The pipe was abruptly and unexpectedly battered on the panel of wood that made up the door to their shelter; causing Fleur to shriek with fright and the other women to flinch horribly. But fortunately the spell preventing any sound from reaching the intruders' ears held strong. The Death Eater continued to remain ignorant of the existence of the door and cupboard, and therefore unaware of just how close he had come to the witches' hiding place.
The series of spells protecting the bunker were, to date, impenetrable… throughout the whole of wizarding Britain not a single case of failure was documented. But the method had its limitations including no magic being able to penetrate in either direction through the wards; the only space that was able to be protected was one that was sealed by six surfaces – effectively boxing in the protected. That is to say; a roof, floor and four walls… not even a sphere was able to be protected with the charms. Its practicality was therefore considered useful, yet restricted to emergency bunkers such as the Burrows' closet shelter.
Molly listened carefully. She knew every inch of this house she had called home since before the birth of her first child, and therefore knew every squeak, groan and snap that signified movement around the rooms of the dwelling that by all appearances seemed to defy the laws of gravity… and in fact did with the assistance of magic.
The Death Eater walked slowly around the kitchen, and Molly almost screeched in her urgency to have the disgusting man exit her domain. Her knuckles were white from squeezing her fist so tightly around her wand.
Molly hissed a final set of instructions to the two younger witches behind her in the bunker, "He's just leaving the kitchen now, he'll move into the sitting room and then if he does what he did last time, he'll linger at the far window. Fleur, you'll have the job of backup, okay?"
"Ov courze, Molly," Fleur answered assuredly, "votever you zay."
"Good girl! Ready Tonks?"
"Absolutely," Tonks replied determinedly, her intense focus due to strict Auror training undeniable.
Listening acutely once again, Molly heard the vague squeak emanate from the floorboards just inside the sitting room doorway.
"Enderecto disserpartae mona Burrow," Molly whispered to the door with a gentle flourish of her wand.
The door shimmered, glowed a soft orange colour before settling several moments later back to its regular solid form.
Molly grasped the door handle, twisted and gently pushed the thin door open. Quickly her and Tonks, wands held aloft, assessed the room and then beckoned Fleur from the cupboard to follow them. Molly peeked into the sitting room off to her right to see the ugly Death Eater with his back to her. She moved slightly into the room and began to swing her wand, but at that precise moment Tonks inadvertently stepped on the squeaky floorboard as she came up alongside Molly.
The Death Eater was instantly alert, diving to his right to shelter behind the thick supporting post holding up the ceiling. As he turned to consider his adversaries, a look of surprise blossomed on his face, though it quickly faded to sneering determination.
Molly and Tonks sent their hexes anyway, though they merely bounced off the obstruction causing more destruction to the room.
The Weasley matriarch advanced into the room further to attempt to circumvent the obstruction protecting her target, but she was brought up short when a burst of red hot flame from her opposition's wand engulfed her. With a short shriek and gasp, her hands flew to her face to protect herself from the fierce burning flames.
"You look good for a dead woman," he snorted toward Tonks with shameless sarcasm, and punctuated the comment by licking his lips revoltingly. "While we wait for the crackling to be ready we can indulge in our necrophilic fantasies… can't we?" the disgusting man crooned with a lewd chuckle, his beady eyes suggestively raking the younger witch up and down.
Ignoring the Death Eater's commentary, Tonks immediately went to Molly's aid, dousing the flames with the counter spell before they could burn her too seriously.
The Death Eater swiftly lifted his wand to attack the Auror while she was distracted with helping Molly, but Fleur was competent in her support role; she had not been chosen to compete in the Tri-Wizard Championship for nothing.
The unearthly beautiful blond slipped into the left of the room unnoticed and fired off a stinging hex toward the vile man in order to inhibit his aim. A sickly green streak of light shot from the tip of his wand but crashed harmlessly into the wall just above the two other witch's heads. They both gasped at just how close they had come to death's embrace.
Enraged, the Death Eater spun and lunged at Fleur. She had not expected him to physically advance so quickly and he managed to wrap his vicious fingers around her wrist before she could scoot back out of his reach.
"Or perhaps a threesome…?" The Dark Lord's lackey yanked Fleur to him and held her firmly against his body in front of him like a shield. He continued to hiss into her ear as his filthy hands roamed over her body; groping places they should never have touched. "Nice body… firm… I'm going to enjoy this!"
Fleur whimpered in dismay.
As he spoke he had wound his way toward the door to exit; keeping the half-Veela between him and the Auror to ensure his own safety. Fleur was struggling against his tight restraint, but couldn't manage to direct her wand that she had miraculously been able to keep a hold on toward her captor to try to free herself.
Tonks finally put out the last of the flames engulfing Molly, and turned to the Death Eater to witness him take Fleur hostage. She raised her wand and waited with livid impatience for the vulgar man to unintentionally bare a large enough portion of his body from behind his living shield for her to strike.
Just before the Death Eater made it to the door for his escape he flung a hex straight at Tonks which she promptly deflected with her shield conjured by years of honing her quick reflexes. Fleur took advantage of his diverted attention and desperate to prevent the man's escape with or without her she stomped brutally on the man's foot with her own booted heel. He hissed with pain and snarled menacingly in Fleur's ear, "Fucking bitch!" He then leaned his head forward down to where her neck met her shoulder and bit her savagely with yellowed teeth, but at no time did he loosen his grip on his captive.
Fleur yelped harshly at first and then continued to whimper with pain, squirming frantically to extract her bleeding flesh from the mauling mouth. It was enough to allow Tonks to identify a target, first sending a powerful stinging hex to dislodge the attacker from her fellow Order member when he howled in pain; then bellowed, "Petrificus Totalus!" as Fleur ducked to the side.
The hex hit him squarely in the chest and immediately the Death Eater's arms snapped to his sides along with his legs and he promptly toppled backwards to the floor with a crash.
Fleur crumpled to her knees holding her injured shoulder, and Molly promptly ran to her side to aid and comfort her shaken daughter-in-law despite her own painful burns.
Tonks approached the now helpless Death Eater and swiftly straddled the man, sitting on his chest, her wand, held in her left hand, directed menacingly at his throat. But it was her right arm that instantly sort retribution. She rapidly drew back her arm and savagely thrust her closed fist forward into the man's ugly face, hearing a distinct and satisfying crack of a bone breaking.
"Watch your filthy mouth, McNair, you revolting animal!" she sneered, as the man's blood spilt in a torrent down his face.
A few minutes later with the Death Eater securely restrained and their injuries temporarily seen to, Molly sent off her dove patronus with a warning to her husband.
HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS
An echo of Molly Weasley's voice floated from the glowing dove patronus, but Severus was not paying attention.
"Release me, Lupin?" he implored quietly and desperately to the wizard whose hand was gripped around his upper arm, his entire appeal weighted with fatigue; but Severus had somewhere else he wanted to be right now, someone else he needed to be with; he felt no qualms in begging at the moment. "I have no more stake in this… I'm through. You will not find me at the Dark Lord's side again, of that I can assure you."
"That is not possible, Severus, you know that… I can't take the chance." Remus whispered in reply a little regretfully. "Shh…"
Lupin was now listening intently to the patronus' message. Severus, bitter about the rebuff, barely let the words spoken penetrate his mind.
"... were here when the Message Sphere entrusted to me by Albus was activated by the pregnant lass; Phoebe is her name. They heard it all, they now have the Fidelus secret – she's in serious danger… Lucius and the others left here straight for the address that was revealed in the message! We'll need to find Severus, Arthur… he is the Secret Keeper, and he too will be in grave peril now. I'll explain how he is involved when I see you… meet us on the outskirts of Hogsmeade on the road to Hogwarts as soon as you can."
Both Order members turned immediately to Severus who, having finally processed what he'd been listening to, had drained of any colour he had managed to regain since he had his broken nose healed.
His eyes wide in alarm, he gasped audibly, "No… Phoebe…" and suddenly swayed weakly with shock, his knees buckled beneath him; his breathing shallow and erratic.
Remus clutched the collapsing man to his chest, but after a fierce intake of breath Severus' moment of weakness didn't last long; his strength returned with a flood of adrenalin, and in his panic he endeavoured to shove Remus violently away from him.
"Let me GO… I have to get to her… I have to get her! She's not part of this…" Severus struggled against the restraining sets of hands.
"No… the address first, Severus… give us the secret!" Arthur demanded clutching the dark man by the collar, trying to shake some sense into the flustered wizard. "We can help… we'll all help you! But we can't do anything without the address."
Panicked beyond reason, Severus' instinct told him to refuse to cooperate, to flee… but the two Order wizards could not be shaken off.
"Merlin's grave, Severus, you don't even have your wand!" Remus pointed out, "Divulge the secret and I'll hand over your wand!"
At seeing Severus still adamantly refusing, Arthur grew impatient. He yanked harder on Severus' collar to gain his attention, "Dammit, Snape… you're wasting time!"
Severus finally saw reason… he could now see that he would not be permitted to go to Phoebe's aid without cooperating, and he knew very well he would more than likely need their backup anyway.
"Seventy-seven Cauldron Lane, Hogsmeade," he growled out, and with one final fierce struggle he demanded feverishly, "Release me!"
With a small nod at one another, Remus and Arthur finally complied; Severus shrugging off the retreating hands with impatience. The werewolf dipped into his robes for the dark man's wand and once it was offered out to him, Severus snatched it without preamble… but a hand was laid upon his shoulder requiring him to delay just a little longer.
"Remus, go with Severus… I'll meet Molly and the others and go on from there," Arthur instructed, "Take care, the both of you," he added warningly, "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Let us be gone already," growled Severus impatiently, and with a final nod Remus grasped Severus' arm tighter and both wizards Disapparated with a ringing pop.
Arthur looked around him briefly and noticed the curtain pulled back in the nearest house's lower floor window, though it was swiftly allowed to fall shut when Arthur spied the woman there with a Muggle fellytone to her ear. And in the distance, he heard the soft wailing of Muggle police sirens. Arthur sighed heavily, he did not have the time to spare to sort out this Muggle complication now, and taking in a deep breath he too Disapparated from the street in a flurry of twirling cloak.
HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS
Severus and Remus appeared a little further south along Cauldron Lane than the location Severus usually chose to Apparate. Along with feeling highly anxious, Severus was extremely wary and exceptionally alert. He knew the element of surprise would be his only effective weapon should he and Remus need to endure a conflict with Death Eaters… these Death Eaters in particular.
He quickly threw off the hand grasping his shoulder with a sneer of distaste. Of all the Order members he could have been stuck with, why this one?
"Your presence is neither needed nor desired, Lupin, feel free to leave me to it!" he said whilst considering the cottage from afar; although he was acutely aware that Lupin would never 'leave him to it'. In fact, Lupin would have at least two reasons to never do such a thing; the first being that, as the Order member had already mentioned earlier, he could not trust Severus' motives, largely due to being deceived multiple times beforehand… and the second that Lupin's noble Gryffindor sensibilities would not allow him to abandon Severus in such a volatile situation.
This suited Severus perfectly, for it enabled him to continue to be as caustic and as sarcastic as he liked toward his childhood enemy, serving to reduce his own tension (which was tremendous due to his anxiety for Phoebe's safety at that moment), but still know that Lupin would be there to back him up as long as he was able.
Of course, this did not make the statement of dislike any less true… he still loathed the werewolf with a passion, but he did need the man to assist him to extricate Phoebe from danger.
"Don't be ridiculous or melodramatic, Severus… I could never leave you to be slaughtered by Bellatrix," he replied with a small smirk.
'As predictable as ever,' thought Severus. 'Now who is being melodramatic?'
Remus went to move toward the cottage that must be Seventy-seven; as it certainly wasn't part of the scenery when he and Tonks had visited several weeks ago.
"Wait… Bellatrix?" Severus had just realised the sadistic woman would be among the count of Death Eaters who now had access to the cottage, and she most definitely held a grudge against Severus. Despite his bravado, this fact alone served to increase Severus' anxiety, and it must have shown on his features; Remus reached out his hand again and gave Severus' shoulder a quick squeeze. Far too disturbed and distressed, this time Severus did not even consider shaking off the comforting gesture.
"C'mon," Remus said, indicating toward the cottage with a flick of his head.
With a small nod from Severus, both wizards approached the dwelling with caution. As they neared the stretch of footpath adjacent to the cottage, Severus could see that the door stood ajar.
"Shit," he said quietly.
"Perhaps it might be a good idea to wait for Arthur," suggested Remus at a whisper, holding a halting hand out at Severus.
"No, they will have no qualms about hurting her… it'll be too late if we wait," Severus responded in a similar urgent whisper, pushing determinedly past the hand.
He scooted silently up the two steps to the door, and with his wand held aloft he gently pressed it open listening intently for any sounds from within.
Not having any choice, Remus joined him at his side.
Not a single whisper or noise was heard, that in itself was extremely unnerving and if they were honest with themselves they could acknowledge that did not bode well for Phoebe.
Instantly alarmed, Severus barged through the doorway followed by Remus; systematically checking every nook for any adversary. Severus advanced into the sitting room and almost tripped over a large obstacle on the floor. He looked down to see the body lying prone on the floor alongside the remnants of the Message Sphere… from where he stood he could detect no signs of life. His breath hitched in his throat.
Noticing Severus' reaction and catching site of the lifeless house-elf, Remus bent to check its pulse. He looked up at Severus with a sombre expression and shook his head.
Sucking in a few deep breaths to sooth his rising panic for Phoebe's safety, Severus raised his chin and continued his methodical search of the rest of the house. As he finally entered the last room of the house, the bedroom, his hopes were waning.
"Phoebe!" he called out sharply, but no answer came.
Remus joined him by his side once more. "The house is clear, Severus… she isn't here," he announced sorrowfully.
"No…" Severus responded quietly, absolutely grief-stricken. His throat feeling as though it had closed over he struggled for breath. "No…" but soon strange, ferocious incense consumed him and his chest felt as though it was on the brink of exploding with fury: and moments later, it did just that.
"No… No, no… No, no, NO, NO, NO!" he roared in agonising torment.
No longer in control of himself, Severus began to storm around the room destroying all manner of articles in a furious rage; swiping at the piles of books, bottles and trinkets covering the bedside tables, tipping over furniture, picking up a small chair from the corner and transforming it violently to mere splinters against the wall, punching holes in the plaster and shattering the mirror with his bare fist; cursing and damning all and sundry as his thoughts drove cuttingly through his mind.
Severus' distress was manifesting itself as anger and accusation and no-one was spared his internal rant.
He felt utter fury at himself for not planning well enough to ensure Phoebe was kept safe and secure; livid rage at those who had dared intrude upon his sanctuary and had stolen what was his; incensed resentment toward Dumbledore who had promised to help him and had abandoned him in the end; maddened hate for Voldemort who had torn his life to shreds at such a young age and was now campaigning to finish the job; seething animosity toward the boy who was at the centre of this war and who represented everything that had ever meant anything to him that had eventually gone wrong; exasperated bitterness for the dead house-elf who had sworn to protect his Phoebe but who had ultimately failed and paid with his own life…
The last thought though undid him completely and he instantly ceased the violent raging. He was unable to prevent himself from collapsing to the carpet when his knees finally buckled as the anger morphed once again into anguished agony. A keening wail brutally tore itself from deep within him, followed by broken sobs that left no doubt of the dark man's heartache and misery.
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