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Elder


France, La Belle Alliance Inn


June 18th, 1815


Voldemort came stumbling up the stairs, so pale he looked completely grey, eyes gleaming a sickly red as he regarded me.

"Snape. What is happening to me? The Elder Wand…" He was cut off by a fit of coughing.

"My Lord, there can be no question, surely—?"*

He recovered slightly, leaning on the wall, "—but there is a question, Severus. There is."*

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the two shimmers in opposite corners, denoting the disillusioned Potter and Lupin. I could hear two people climbing the stairs behind the Dark Lord.

"Has it taken you this long to realize it, my Lord?" I murmured mockingly. It was almost a pleasure to see his body finally succumb to my potions and poisons.

With a shuddering breath, the Dark Lord drew the Elder Wand, but I was quicker, and in his weakened state he could not match me.

"Expelliarmus," I shrieked and caught the Elder Wand in one hand.

I watched as Potter dropped his charm and sent the chains flying through the air. They caught the Dark Lord in the chest, wrapping themselves around his torso. He staggered and fell under their weight. Greyback and Malfoy burst into the room, just as Lupin threw the other set of chains around Voldemort's thighs.

The room erupted into utter chaos within a moment.

Malfoy attacked Potter viciously, and Potter barely got his shield spell up in time. Lupin was not so lucky, as the werewolf hit him with the full force of his body. He staggered, facing away from the attack as he struggled to aim his wand behind him. Lupin's scream was horrific as Greyback used his teeth to rip into his back.

"Sectumsempra," I hissed, my lips pulled tightly over my teeth. Greyback went down on top of Lupin, keening, wounds opening like scarlet scrollwork over his back.

Potter hit Malfoy with a nonfatal defensive spell that knocked him backward, but Malfoy's head caught the edge of a thick wooden table with a sickening crack and he moved no longer.

Lupin shrugged the werewolf off of his back and staggered to his knees. The fight was over almost as quickly as it had begun. I was out of breath and vibrating with rage. It took a few moments to clear my vision and actually process what I could see of the inside of the former Dark Lord's personal room.

The body of my former master was bound tightly in chains and obviously unconscious, I observed dispassionately.

Potter was bleeding from a ragged gash on his forehead. A shaking and wounded Lupin was kneeling next to a very dead Frenrir Greyback and Lucius Malfoy lay in a heap in the rubble of the ruined table. We all exchanged rather stunned looks before Lupin collapsed himself.

After casting stabilizing spells over the colonel, I forced Potter to send his patronus to Dumbledore and stand guard over the room while I slipped away.


*Quotes from Chapter Thirty-Two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The Elder Wand.

Edited for grammar, spelling, capitalization & punctuation on May 8th, 2013 [courtesy of renaid, who excited to witness the defeat of the Dark Lord].

Edited for formatting and author's notes March 3rd, 2015.