The Keeper
Chapter 52
Elizabeth Larion knew.
And my, what did she know!
"I knew you'd come! I knew it, Harry!" Neville practically leapt from the portrait in Aberforth's house, the Gryffindor ecstatic to see his friends and allies again.
"Neville, what's happened to you?"
"What? This?" Neville mentioned dismissively. "This is nothing. Come on!"
Surprised, the tri followed Neville through a previously unknown passage toward the school. Apparently now a days it was the only way in. Among the small talk Harry finally asked about Hogwarts.
"Well, it's not really like Hogwarts anymore," said Neville, his smile fading. "Do you know about the Carrows?"
"The two Death Eaters that teach here?"
"They do more than teach," explained Neville. "They're in charge of all discipline. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don't though, if they can avoid it. Amycus, the bloke, he teaches Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions -"
"What?" the trio asked in unison.
"Yeah," affirmed Neville, "And Alecto, Amycus's sister, teaches Muggle Studies. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and whole bunch of other nonsense. That's how I got this one," Neville mentioned, pointing to another gash across his face. "I asked her how much Muggle blood her and her brother have got."
Neville seemed to find the memory amusing. The others however, were horrified.
Neville continued his account of the previous year.
"We used to sneak out and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it."
"You used to?" Harry asked, noticing the past tense.
"Well, it got more difficult as time went on," said Neville. "We lost Luna at Christmas, Ginny never came back after Easter, and then the Carrows seemed to know I was behind a lot of it so they started targeting me. Then Michael Corner got caught releasing a first year they'd chained up, so they tortured him fairly badly. That scared people off. And well, we couldn't ask people to go through that so we kept to underground stuff, but then they went after Gran."
"They what?" the trio spoke united again.
"Well, they figured if they could kidnap children to make their relatives behave it was only a matter of time until they thought to try it the other way around. Thing was," Neville continued, Harry surprised to see a sudden smile on his face, "they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, the probably didn't think they needed to send anyone powerful. Anyways, Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran is on the run. Only problem is that once they realized they didn't have a hold over me, I guess they decided I was disposable. Don't know if they planned to kill me or send me to Azkaban, but I knew it was time to disappear. Yulisa helped find a place and from what I heard she took over best she could. But then with what happened to her, all fighting pretty much stopped after that."
The trio had stopped cold in the stone lined tunnel, their faces pale.
"What do you mean, with what happened to Yulisa?" Hermione demanded.
"You guys didn't hear?" Neville looked surprised. "Oh man… well, she's missing." The Gryffindor explained.
"Since when?" Harry inquired.
"Just about two weeks ago," Neville reported. "Not long after she helped me disappear. Just vanished in the middle of the night -"
"And nobody's heard anything?" Ron questioned. All three of them looking equally horrified.
"No," answered Neville looking disheartened. "And the scariest part," he continued, "is it looks like she was just taken right out of her bed in Gryffindor Tower. How anyone managed to get inside no one knows. From what Seamus told me, McGonagall was devastated."
Harry instantly felt a pang of guilt. Why hadn't he just let her come with them?
"But now you guys have returned!" Neville exclaimed, his tone taking a turn for optimism. "Look, we're here!" And with that they turned the corner to find another door, just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait.
The news of Yulisa's abduction was disheartening, though as worried as the others were, they needed to find the diadem. But what did it mean?
Had the Dark Lord learned of the opes? Had she been targeted in an attempt to control Victoria? So many questions surround the dark revealing, but there just wasn't time…
The school grounds shook with battle, and all the meanwhile, amidst the chaos, Severus Snape laid upon floor of the Shrieking Shack, bleeding. Harry Potter kneeled over him, following his final command as he collected the silvery, blue memories.
"Look… at… me…" Snape whispered weakly.
Potter's eyes met with Snape's, and while he had the sudden thought to ask if Snape knew where Yulisa had been taken, in what seemed like a second, the hand holding Harry's robes thudded to the ground. Professor Snape was still. The moment gone.
"I didn't ask…" Harry suddenly started to regret. Surely Snape would have known what had become of her. Yet his moment of remorse was suddenly pierced by the high, cold voice of Lord Voldemort.
"…If, at the end of that hour, you have to come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
Following the foreboding message Ron, Hermione, and Harry had left the Shrieking Shack, not knowing what to do with Snape's body, not knowing how to feel. With everything that was going on, they had bigger things to worry about. So they had simply left, left without seeing the small crystal ball on a necklace chain sitting within Snape's pocket…
Two years prior…
The Order of the Phoenix bustled around the young girl. The Chaos surrounding her incomparable to the war within.
Please, let it be true… She would give anything for what Victoria had said to be true.
Fighting the tears once more, Yulisa dared to delve through her memories.
He had had a point, hadn't he? In her third year he could have left her to die. He could have just taken the opes, and gone. But he didn't. He could have refused to teach her to duel, but he agreed. What's more, he could have agreed to appease Dumbledore but done a crappy job, yet he didn't do that either.
The way he looked at her. The way he smiled, defended her… Was it possible he really cared?
She had to pause as she resisted the sensation of her world being ripped at its seams. The thoughts sometimes simply too painful.
'But what if it was true?' she asked herself. What if he had reformed? He was a member of the Order after all. Which meant Dumbledore trusted him…
But what of the risk?
Not ignorant to her own weaknesses she was scared of making the wrong decision. She had sworn to protect the necklace, but to simply refuse to listen… She wanted to believe he was good. This she knew. But this wish was admittedly clouded by her own emotion; her selfish desire for them to be together, and the thought of everything ending this way…
She paused again.
She didn't want to turn away from someone so special to her out of fear, but feared being foolish if she chose otherwise.
She needed proof, she thought. She needed to know for sure where his loyalties lie.
The soles of her shoes softly thudded against the wooden floor of 12 Grimmauld Place as she headed for her room. At her door she turned the handle, stepping in and directing herself toward the haven of her bed. She was tired and confused. When she reached the middle of the room the door softly closed behind her, and sensing a presence she quickly whipped around, her heart lunging into a race of fear and panic when she turned. By her door Severus Snape looked up calmly, his eyes holding a strange sense of determination. He was blocking her only exit.
No, her mind filled with rage, her body taking to fight or flight. "No!" she shouted taking sudden run at him.
Had he come to take the necklace? Had he come to finally complete what he had left unfinished?
Not even caring about wands, or even trying to maintain control over herself she fell upon him. Pushing and shouting and hitting his arms away. Was he here to apologize? She didn't care! She didn't want to hear it! Why did it have to be him? Why did he have to do this to her? To her!
"Yulisa," she heard him say over the ruckus. "Yulisa, get a hold of yourself!"
"No!" she continued to argue, "No! No, no, no, no, no!" And with that she broke.
Falling to her knees he reached out and caught her. Despite her repeated slaps and attempted punches aimed at his torso he hadn't once struck back. And even now, he still held her as she sobbed, grasping onto his robes as if clinging for dear life.
"I love you," she declared in what seemed a loss of self-denial. "Please forgive me, but I do."
The moment was unexpected for both of them. Would she have declared such strong words just weeks ago? Most likely not. Though faced with the pain of losing him, it simply hurt too much to be anything less.
Admittedly a bit taken aback, Snape saw his opportunity. "Then listen to me," he replied, pulling her back to her feet. "It's true…" he began. "This," he said pulling up his sleeve, Yulisa instinctively thought to look away not wanting to face the mark of fact but of course he wouldn't allow it to be so easy, "This, is who I used to be," he declared. "The prejudice, the Dark magic… all of it is true."
She had started to shake her head, simply resigning to blind ignorance.
"Yes, Yulisa," he argued. His hold on her tightened as he began to feel impatient. This had to work. "I told you, I don't want to sell you any delusions. You know that it is true."
Though she didn't want to face it, he was right. On some level, maybe she had always known. It had always made sense.
Staring back into his determined eyes, she surrendered. His past was too obvious to be ignored.
"I lost someone too," he said. His words were unexpected, sudden, but slow. She could tell almost inexplicably that it was difficult for him to admit. Very likely those words having never been spoken out loud.
Though she waited, her mind suddenly open, ready to understand; he paused. His own mouth seeming to resist him.
"He promised," he finally spoke. "He swore he would spare… them."
He released her, not appearing interested in conversation anymore. Quite suddenly she became afraid he would just turn around and leave. Still she had heard enough.
Much to his surprise Yulisa stepped forward and embraced him. Her gentle arms suddenly the greatest refuge in the world. Standing in silence, her head next to his, she finally felt she understood. He hadn't suffered a change of heart; a sudden revelation to the wrongs of his ways… it was revenge. Revenge against the enemies who had done him wrong… and this she could believe.
Stepping back she looked up at him, his face guarded and his body tense. No doubt he was taking a great personal risk.
"Tell me the part you want me to play."
