A/N disclaimer: Everything you recognize is J.K Rowling's, except the plot and additional characters(if any).
Triggers for this chapter:- Violence, torture, gore.
"Its been a fortnight since Tom called you, Severus."
Albus Dumbledore tilted his head on his right, and scrutinised his spy and Potions Master, Severus Snape.
"You know what a megalomaniac he is, Albus. He will call me on a whim!" Severus Snape sneered, locking eyes with his employer.
"Yes yes, forgive an old man for his inquisitive nature, my dear boy." Albus said, popping a lemon sherbet in his mouth.
"Albus!"
Both the men turned their gazes towards the office door, as Minerva McGonagall burst in a flurry of Gryffindor coloured robes.
"What-" Albus was cut off, rather rudely, as a deep, loud voice filled the better part of the room.
"Attack on Hermione Granger's home in Hampstead Garden. The Dark Mark stamped right above it. The house is ransacked, and no one is present inside!"
And the jack-rabbit patronus of Nymphadora Tonks faded.
"Albus, there's an attack-" Minerva was the first to recover from the unexpected shock of the patronus, and the devastating news it brought.
"I figured as much, Minerva." Albus sighed, removing his moon-shaped spectacles, and standing up.
"Did Tom-"
"No, Albus! I am just as shocked. The Dark Lord never confided in me, that he plans to attack the girl."
Shaking his head, he paced on the ground with quick strides.
"Severus, Hermione Granger, Hermione is attacked!"
Minerva was hysterical, as she stared wide eyed at the two men.
"Yes, Minerva. I know the girl, as you very well know. Your most favourite cub, and one of the brutal thorns in my side for almost five years." He said, sarcasm coating his voice.
Severus Snape cared about nobody, and not even the news of the attack on the know-it-all Granger girl could inspire sympathy.
"Let's leave and see what we can find."
His eyes, which Severus saw twinkling with mirth before this news were a dark, blue colour, devoid of any merriment.
"A student, Albus!"
"Its crucial that we find the bodies, and spare them the dignity they deserve."
Albus reached the door, and it magically opened. He offered for Minerva to depart first, and then ushered Severus out, before leaving the office himself.
"But Albus, if there are no bodies, then?" Minerva inquired, her voice no more than a whisper. It was extremely out of character for Minerva McGonagall to look so vulnerable, but the circumstances were excruciatingly dire.
"Then, Minerva, I'll hope that Ms. Granger never returns. Or that they just kill her." Albus answered, hanging his head, as if sorry for response he gave.
A sharp intake of breath from Minerva, and it was the Head of Slytherin who explained what the Headmaster meant.
"Minerva, the Dark Lord's men. They will do unspeakable things to her, as she represents everything they detest. Death will be a reprieve for the girl, for she would be broken beyond repair."
His voice was low, but carried on in the evening breeze, as the three continued towards the apparition point, which was outside of the school gates.
Once reaching Hampstead Garden Suburb, in west London, they walked across the huge, birch house and came upon Lupin and Tonks deep in discussion.
"Ms. Tonks, what did you find?" Albus inquired, nodding towards the house in the distance, which stood stark against the evening sky.
"Headmaster! We came an hour before to take Hermione back to Headquarters, but came upon an empty house with the door unlocked. Upon inspection, we found there is nobody inside the house. But there are signs of magic been done, and a fight that took place." Nymphadora Tonks gave her report, and Alastor Moody trudged up towards the little gathering.
"This! This has happened all because of you!" Minerva, sounding extremely angry, glared at the senior Auror.
"Minerva, my dear-" Albus sensing the signs of an all out duel between the Gryffindor Head and the old Auror, started in a kind voice.
"No! You knew, Albus. You knew!"
"Minerva-"
"She requested this Merlin damned Auror of protection! Ms. Granger pleaded with you for protection after that fuck fest in the Department of Mysteries!" Albus looked shocked at the crass words that just issued from the prim and proper professor. Severus gazed levelly at the old Transfiguration Mistress, who was going red in the face.
"Minerva, Alastor-" Albus was cut yet again.
"He! Alastor told her that we were already spread too much on resources and won't be able to give her any protection!"
Moody growled, swishing out his wood, and pointed it at the witch, his magical blue eye swivelling with anger. Minerva too, unsheathed her wand and brought it under the old Auror's scarred nose.
"Now now, Alastor and Minerva. We can't have you two fighting now, can we?" Lupin started talking the two people out of their verbal spat, and succeeded to the point that both the witch and wizard sheathed their wands.
Moody looked at Albus, and both eyed each other before the Auror said to the Headmaster.
"I think that you should inspect the house yourself, Albus. Snape should too, for signs of dark magic in the atmosphere."
He grunted, eyeing the dark haired man.
"Indeed. You never fail to surprise me with your incompetence."
The Potions Master sneered, barely hiding his contempt at the retired Head Auror and his group of bafoons before pushing past the group and headed inside the house.
The first out-of-place thing he observed upon entering the house was the heavy air of doom, which had befallen it. The atmosphere was thick with a heavy volume of air, which irritated the professor's nasal passageways. The walls were covered with torn paintings, and most of the furniture was over turned or sideways on the floor.
The couch was torn, its filling peppering the sitting room's floor, and the television thrown across the room, its mirror shattered to smithereens. Pieces of glasses also peppered the corridors, and the stairway, crunching underneath his leather boots.
He noted the huge black hole, that was made in the centre of the cement wall, that joined the dining room and the lounge. It looked at though someone had thrown a ball of uncontrolled fiendfire through it.
All in all, they had destroyed a home where there was happiness, and where cozy and warm memories thrived.
Standing still in between the adjoining wall of dining room and the lounge, he took out his familiar ebony wand from the wand holster on his right arm, and gripped it tightly.
"Finite."
Nothing happened as he uttered the spell cancelling spell. There was no spell at work there.
"Finite Incantatum!"
Still nothing.
"Appare Vestigium!"
No recently used spells came up. His so-called brothers were more clever than he thought. Apparently, someone with a brain was behind this attack, and the answer clicked into his brain.
Lucius Malfoy.
The Malfoy patriarch was the only one Severus thought had a brain. A brain that worked, and processed, and thought outside box of torture, unlike the Dark Lord's more...avid supporters.
Pocketing his wand, into his voluminous robes, that hid his profile, he breezed out of the house, not really giving a thought to the lost girl and her parents.
Poor Granger.
His mind allowed that, because whatever trials and tribulations Ms. Hermione Granger, will go through will undoubtedly be tough.
He didn't give a thought to her parents. The parents will be regarded as shit by the Death Eaters, and his Master, and will be executed mercilessly. They will pay for bearing a daughter with magical genes, and will be punished for stealing magic.
As though magic could be stolen.
Internally smirking morbidly, the Potions Master, disapparated.
"You, Mudblood!"
Her hypnotic emerald eyes swam with unshed tears, as she looked upon him, with her piercing gaze, pinning him there in the air. Her gaze was enough to pin him, better than any curse or hex of Potter's or Black's had ever been.
Those kind green eyes, the eyes of his house, the eyes of his personality, hardened, as a rivulet of tear ran down her rozy cheek, staining the flushed skin, and running down the v of her robes.
"Hey! Leave Evans-"
He heard Potter's arrogant voice in the little distance, but all he could see and hear was how she burst into tears, and scurried away from the gathering like a terrified mouse.
He saw her first.
Even before he saw her ape of a husband, who was lying face down, his glasses askew, and totally lifeless.
Dead.
But he had eyes only for her, as she lay askance the cot,her face set in a deep state of peace. His sudden reaction was to just stop and gape at the heart wrenching sight in front of him.
She was dead.
The love of his life was dead, as dead can be, and he was still alive. Alive and standing, breathing and shuddering, while she was on the ground in front of him, a corpse.
Dead to the world.
Dead to him.
His sense registered a baby boy crying in the room.Her baby.But he couldn't make himself move his eyes, from the corpse, and to the living.
Severus Snape only cared about Lily Evans, the bright, green eyed, flaming, red haired girl, who he had first met at Spinner's End.
But the same girl was now lying lifeless, staring at nothingness.And he wept tears of blood. His tears falling of the prosaic face of the dead Lily Potter, and giving the illusion that the lifeless, dead corpse itself was crying, as salty tears trickled downwards it's temples and cheeks.
A crying corpse.
Indeed.
Hey guys,how's it going so far? Is it interesting?Thanks for the responses that a few of you sent my way. I would really appreciate it, if you would please review and tell me your response.Its my motivation to write more and often.Until next time,Rozà.