Thank you, for the reviews. It is great to see that someone is reading and enjoying this story. It inspires me to continue. I am happy that I was finally able to tell you something about Severus´s childhood in the last chapters. Instead of the common story line of a male muggle abuser, who hates magic, I found mentally unstable Eileen, who has been traumatized by the wizarding world, more interesting and real. Emotional abuse and neglect can be as cruel and harmful as physical abuse, but it is often over-looked. In real life, abusers are rarely simply sadistic monsters, who beat children without any reason at all. More often than not the abuser himself/herself has been deeply wounded, too. It doesn´t excuse what they are doing, but gives some insight to how they became as they are.
But now... Back to Hogwarts!
-EveryJohn
Minerva strode past the bushes and through the path that lead to the quidditch pitch as fast as she could. Her robe hem caught on a nearby tree and when she couldn´t get herself free fast enough she blasted the whole branch. She was hoping against all odds that the students had managed to stay far enough from the beast and that professor Kettleburn was still somehow holding it back.
Finally, she reached open area, where the place of the lesson was in sight. Her wand was risen in air and the first syllables of a shield spell were already on her lips, but she stopped herself there. The scene unfolding in front of her, was vastly different from what she had expected. First of all, it was far more quiet than she had predicted. The students were gathered together in one group and though they seemed frightened no-one was panicking. They were protected by a herd of skeletal leather-winged horses. The spooky creatures stood side by side forming a ring around the students. A ring that most students could not see. Minerva had known that the school had some kind of pact with the thestrals and some other sentient creatures, which lived near the school grounds, but she had never seen these mysterious horse-like creatures acting out their part before this.
She didn´t see Professor Kettleburn anywhere. The manticore, however, was easy to spot. Its three rows of deathly sharp teeth were frozen in tense growl and the blood red fur of the creature glistered in sun. The manticore was huge and muscular and she could hear even from where she stood that it was purring softly. Opposite to cats a manticore purring was not a friendly sign. It meant that the beast was ready to devour its prey. Minerva walked slowly closer and saw more details. The poisonous tail, which should have bent behind the back of the creature ready to shoot at its victim, was gone. In its place was but a bleeding stump. From the direction of her arrival it was hard to see as the big creature almost blocked the view, but finally she understood why the manticore stood so still seemingly ignoring both the students and the thestrals. Its attention was elsewhere. Someone stood right in front of the ravaging beast.
Minerva slipped past the thestrals. They recognized her as a friend and gave the way only gently sniffing her hair as she walked past them.
"What is he doing?" McGonagall asked. Her eyes were glued to student and the beast. Student´s wand was drawn, but neither the beast or the boy had moved an inch. Neither of them attacked. Neither of them retreated. The boy was sprayed with blood. His face was sheet white and he was trembling, but he also had deep scowl of determination on his face. His gaze was locked in the sapphire blue eyes of the beast.
"Professor McGonagall!" some of the nearest students exclaimed, effectively bringing attention to her. Until then, most of the students had been too focused on the beast to have fully recognized her arrival.
"Snape is keeping it engaged, professor. To prevent it from bolting", one of the Ravenclaws explained. McGonagall nodded to this remark. She glanced the girl, Pandora Rifley, if she remembered right. She had sounded surprisingly rational despite the situation, but on a closer look her eyes were wide and glazed with shock.
"Why did he leave the protection of the thestrals?" McGonagall pressed.
"Are theastrals the ones keeping us safe? I suspected it when I heard the clatter of hoofs. I could not see anything and I would have ran away, but Snape and some others told us to stay in place. I think that some of the Slytherins can see those."
"Yes, they probably do. But why in the name of Merlin did that foolish boy leave the ring?"
"He must have thought that if the manticore escaped, the ones at the Quidditch pitch would be in danger. Some students are practicing there."
That was logical and now that the girl mentioned it, McGonagall saw movement in the direction of the quidditch pitch.
"And who managed to cut the tail, Miss Rifley? Professor Kettleburn?"
"Kettleburn could do nothing before he was taken down. It took his hand in a split second before anyone could react. Most of the blood is his. It was Snape. I think, the curse was his own creation. He is really innovative. There was blood everywhere, and then Paula Parkins suddenly took off. I guess, it was too much for her and she freaked out. The manticore intended to kill her. It stroke with its tail, but Snape hit it at the same time with his cutting curse. I could not think off anything to use against manticore as almost nothing cuts through its spell-resistant skin. But that curse of Severus worked like miracle."
Creating spells. Stepping up to a manticore for the sake of his fellow students. How many times... How many times would she be surprised by Mr. Snape today? Minerva looked at the boy in her thoughts. She was not sure, what the boy was doing to the manticore, but suspected some kind of mind arts. She remembered that his mother´s family, The Princes, were famous for that kind of magic.
"And how long have they been like this?"
"For some time. But I think that Snape is getting exhausted. Do you see, how he is sweating. I don´t know how long he is going to last. Is there anything that you could do to help him?"
McGonagall glanced the boy, who really seemed about to black out, any moment. She shook her head. She was not sure if she could take the beast head on alone. And if she disturbed boy´s concentration and the manticore managed to escape because of that or attacked the boy... She would never be able to forgive herself.
Fortunately it didn´t take too long for the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey to arrive running through the yard. Charms professor Flitwick, who was small, but excellent wizard and great at combat, seemed to have joined them. Even the huge gamekeeper, Hagrid seemed to have taken along. Maybe he had noticed that something was going on here. His hut was nearby.
"Merlin´s beard, you were right, professor... Never seen a manticore this worked up", the half-giant gasped, when he saw the beast. Then his eyes spotted the mutilated tail and he turned to McGonagall a hurt look in his big eyes. "Ain´t need to cut its tail, professor. Hurting will get him only angrier", he stated softly.
"I'm sorry, Hagrid, but I would say that this time the situation required it. Besides, it happened before my arrival, so there was nothing I could have done about it", McGonagall answered dryly. "Headmaster, what should we do? Mr. Snape won´t be able to hold it much longer."
Professor McGongall followed professor Dumbledore´s expression watchfully and managed to spot a flicker of surprise.
"Do I understand right that Mr. Snape has been holding this manticore back alone?"
McGonagall nodded. Then the boy swayed on his feet, almost falling down. McGonagall twitched. Her body would have liked to rush in his aid.
Albus seemed to understand the urgency of the situation. He rose his wand and chanted an ancient spell. Great white magic spurred from his wand and for a while the beautiful spell circulated around all of them.
As if from unspoken order of the headmaster the thestrals guarding the students left their positions. The movements of the herd were smooth and silent. Soon the horse-like creatures surrounded the manticore and the boy instead. Now, Professor Dumbledore cast another spell and Mr. Snape was suddenly lifted in air and yanked towards the professors. He landed safely on McGonagall´s arms, right behind the wall of thestrals.
The manticore awoke from its trance. It rose on its hind legs and roared furiously whipping its head around. Minerva saw that it kept searching for the boy. It sucked large mouthfulls of air to get sniff of the prey that had disappeared right under its nose. Its slanted pupils widened.
"The stunning spell! Three at once! Aim at the maimed tail. There the protection should be weaker. NOW, PROFESSORS!"
Three bright red light beams hit the beast. It stumbled and then fell down. The manticore let out a powerless cry as a final note of resistance, but even that broke down almost immediately. The eyes of the beast dulled and finally rolled back. With a single deep sigh it passed out.
The beast was laying still as a corpse, but Headmaster waited carefully for a couple of minutes before granting Hagrid a permission to move the creature back to its magically enhanced cage. After the cage door was closed and both magically and mechanically locked, it was time to address the damage.
When the professors checked on the distraught students, they soon found badly injured professor Kettleburn among them. All the others seemed to have miraculously evaded serious injuries but the Care of Magical creatures professor himself was laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. His left arm was severed from the wrist. Cool-headed Hufflepuff girl had wrapped her yellow-striped school-tie tightly around the stump to prevent the bloodloss. Madam Pomfrey took over her swiftly, quickly praising the girl for the good work. She spelled in some bloodreplenishing potions and began to scan the injury with her wand.
"Merlin´s sake... What were you thinking, Silvanius? How could this kind of disaster happen in Hogwarts lesson. And look at your arm!" Professor McGonagall sighed. Although her words were harsh, her voice was soft and concern reflected on her face. She knelt on the grass next to her long time colleague and held his healthy hand, while Poppy busied herself with the other one.
The professor of Care of Magical Creatures managed to slowly move his head so that he could meet her eyes. "The nails, Minerva. Those are as sharp... as is said. Really, I swear, I don´t know, what happened, Minerva. I was cautions. I had both the spells and potion carefully prepared." The man was quiet and in his thoughts. "You know, Minerva, I borrowed... the manticore from a foreign friend... for this lesson. Of course, I knew that it was dangerous, but... I thought that the seventh-years needed too see, to get ready to handle more difficult ones too. Some of them intend to make this their career. I knew that if I were to introduce a wizard-killer, manticore was better than most. Told the students, how to behave, but of course... children are... children are children. M-miracle that no-one died, Minerva. Oh, and Albus... Albus, trusted me to protect them." He sounded defeated. The pain made his face pale and cold sweat damped his forehead. His shaggy beard was bloodstained. "I am so sorry for betraying his trust, Minerva. I should lose my job. I just hope... that it is enough. Azkaban would be bad, without my left hand."
"Stop that kind of talking, Silvanius Kettleburn! Nothing of that sort is happening to you", McGonagall commanded. She tried to soothe the man like she sometimes had to do with her first year Gryffindors, who missed their homes on the first nights of the school year. "If what you said is true, no-one can blame you for this, Silvanius. Profound investigation will clear your name. Your hand will be regrown. And if it is not possible, Hogwarts will fund you an adequate prosthesis."
The man tried to grin at her. Some of his front teeth had been missing since the day that he had stepped too close to an overjoyed graphorn, but Silvanius had never been one to shy his smile. "At least... At least, Minerva, you have to admit that I have... taught them something. The students were able to subdue a full-grown manticore. Our seventh years! H-how, did they ever manage to keep it... here?"
Minerva just smiled weakly. Actually from what she had heard and seen, it had been a single student, whose efforts had saved them all from an inevitable catastrophe. Somehow, Severus Snape had managed to keep the situation under control until the reinforcements had arrived.