Death Threat
A/N. This is the last chapter and contains blood and death…you have been warned!!!!:}
Chapter Fourteen: Wedded Bliss
Jenny wisely let go of Harry's hand as they stopped, knowing he would probably end up sprawled out on the ground. She was right.
'Eugh! I just can't get the hang of these things!' said Harry, sitting up and wiping the mud off his glasses.
After the others had picked themselves up off the floor, they looked around at their surroundings. The church was pure white with a small white gate at the end of a gravel track. The All Saints church could have been taken from a painting and was a perfect place to get married.
'Which part of the country is this?' asked Jenny, getting her wand out and glancing round suspiciously.
'The New Forest, I think,' said Lupin. 'Right down in the south of England. We're right in the middle of the forest so watch out for cow pats…no, actually more likely to be pony pats!'
Harry looked around and saw that Lupin was right. They were next to a deserted road, which was lucky seeing as any Muggles spotting them would have thought their robes a little weird, but all Harry could see for mile apon mile was heather and maybe a few bushes finishing up in a forest of trees on the horizon.
'I'm sure it's safe here,' said Harry to Jenny, watching her look up and down the empty road, her wand in her hand.
'I'm not taking any chances. The only place I've ever really felt safe was Hogwarts,' she replied.
They walked through the white washed gate and crunched up the path. Inside the church there was about twenty people, it was obviously designed to be a quiet wedding. The ushers told them to take their seat on the brides side ('Why would we want to be on the grooms side!' Ron had said).
Snape was wearing traditional Muggle wedding gear though all the guests were in robes. He looked, Harry thought might be for the first time in his life, nervous. There was a man standing next to him, talking quietly.
'The best man,' whispered Lupin, as a hush fell on the assembled crowd and the music started. 'He's Severus younger brother…not sure of his name though.'
By now Harry had taken his eyes off his potions teacher and was looking, as everyone else was, towards the doors at the back of the hall. The doors opened slowly yet when they were fully open they could see the bride clearly. She was wearing a beautiful white Muggle wedding dress and people were sighing in admiration for the dress seemed to shine with a magical quality of it's own, making the rest of the church seem dull and unimportant. She walked carefully down the isle, smiling nervously like her fiancé, with her Maid of Honour and bridesmaids following. Lupin was quietly whispering different pieces of information down their ear.
'The Maid of Honour is her younger sister, Julie. She's engaged too, to a guy named Paul…he's over there look.'
'The vicar who's marrying them is a man called Reverend Simon Birkett…he's quite knew I think.'
Lupin was soon silenced by angry glares from the family of the bride.
A man, who could only be her father, was walking Faith down the isle. In no time at all Snape and Faith had left everyone behind and were standing in front of the vicar.
'Dearly beloved…' started the vicar and proceeded with the ceremony.
Harry wondered whether his own parents wedding had been like this. He wondered whether his mother had looked as beautiful as Faith in a long, white wedding dress. And he wondered whether his parents had been this happy, although knowing Voldemort was after them but still wanting to commit themselves to each other in holy matrimony.
'…Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, in sickness and in health, an forsaking all other keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?' the vicar continued.
'I do,' said Snape.
The vicar repeated the vows to Faith.
'I do,' she replied.
Harry watched as Faith's father gave her away and the ring be slipped onto her finger.
Finally the vicar said calmly.
'Then you may kiss the bride before you die.'
It took the congregation a few seconds to realise that there was something wrong with what the vicar had said. Snape stared at the vicar in horror whilst beside Harry, Jenny leapt to her feet, wand at the ready, sensing something was going to happen.
As if summoned by some unholy terror, the church doors were blown apart and people in black robes seemed to almost glide silently through the door, their faces covered by masks.
'Surprise!' Harry heard the vicar hiss to Snape as he pulled out his own wand.
Then the shocked silence turned in to screams or pure fright.
People were panicking. Not knowing what to do or where to run, the church became a hall of terror.
Before Harry could even think of moving, Jenny grabbed him. Blasting people out of her way, she led Harry, Ron and Hermione through a side door. None of them spoke as they followed Jenny and hoped. They stopped at the end of the small corridor and Jenny threw Harry through a door, followed by the other two.
'Harry, whatever happens, whatever you hear, don't move from this room. They've come for Snape but it'll be suicide if they see you here…an added bonus,' Jenny said to him. Without waiting for an answer, she turned and fled back down the corridor into the fight, closing the door behind her.
'I can't just stay here!' yelled Harry to the others.
'You must! She's right!' replied Hermione, tears of shock streaming down her face.
'But…' started Harry.
A scream of torturous pain rang out from the corridor, slicing into Harry's every nerve, cut him off.
'Jenny!' he yelled, recognising her voice. Without taking a second to think he yanked open the door and ran down the corridor, knowing Hermione and Ron wouldn't dare follow.
The corridor was empty but he couldn't turn back, he couldn't…not without knowing whether she was safe. Harry leapt forward out of the passage way, to join the confusion, when somebody grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and started to haul him backwards down the corridor. Choking and trying to get loose, he twisted to see who it was, but the person held him tightly. Harry was thrown roughly through the doorway of the room where Ron and Hermione still sat, and lay spluttering on the floor, trying to steady his breathing. Harry heard Hermione gasp and he looked up. Professor Snape was standing there, blood dripping down him with his suit in tatters.
'Jenny told you to stay I do believe, Potter!' Snape growled, fighting for breath.
'Jenny!' Harry echoed and leapt up to hurtle his way back through the doorway bust Snape was blocking it. 'I heard her scream. Professor! I have to find her!' she said earnestly.
'Listen,' he barked. 'She is fine. I have just seen her and she told me to come here. You are not going out this door, Potter. Do I make myself quite clear?' Snape was talking so calmly that Harry couldn't help staring. He had virtually no chance of getting out of the church alive unless they had some back up, yet here he was speaking as calmly as if he had been talking about the weather.
'Professor…' tried Harry again.
'Sit down, Potter!' Snape shrieked, loosing all previous control. 'Your parents didn't die for you to be murdered at the scene that was meant for me!'
The taunt about his parents and the ferocity in which Snape had said it, forced Harry to sit down next to Ron. Harry was shaking like a leaf yet was more terrified for Jenny's safety than his own, knowing she was contributing to the screams of pain that could be heard beyond the corridor. Yet somewhere under the wall of terror, the thought of Snape trying to keep him safe seemed almost absurd…almost…
After a few minutes, Harry couldn't hear the screaming anymore. Whether it was because they were all dead and at this very minute Death Eaters were walking down the corridor towards them, or that they had had escaped, Harry didn't know…all he knew was that he wanted this nightmare to end.
Suddenly the door to the little room burst open. The four of them jumped to their feet and pointed their wands at the door. It was Jenny but she seemed to be in a much worse state than Snape. She was covered from head to foot in blood and looked as though she was about to collapse yet her eyes were alert and looked as though she wasn't about to give in any time soon.
'It's OK,' she breathed. 'It's over. The Ministry's arrived. We beat the Death Eaters two to one. We…' Pressing her hand to her head she slid down the wall to the floor and closed her eyes. Snape crouched down next to her.
'She's exhausted and hurt but she'll live,' said Snape shortly. 'Potter, Weasley, help me move her! She can't stay here!'
Harry and Ron gently lifted her onto her feet. She tried to resist them but seemed too weak to fight. Watching her try to stand, Snape came over to her, and, with one swift movement, he had her in his arms and was carrying her down the corridor, without waiting for the others to follow.
Harry, Ron and Hermione trod carefully down the corridor and out into the main body of the church, where the service had previously been held barely ten minutes before. Everywhere Harry turned there were dead bodies. The smell of blood was heavy in the air and made Harry want to be violently sick. He saw Aurors fighting to subdue the few Death Eaters they had caught and trying to calm the odd survivors of the wedding party. Professor Lupin was, to Harry's relief, alive, and was struggling over to them. But there, at the front of the church, was a figure crumpled to the floor in a beautiful white wedding dress and the only sign of movement was the breeze that drifted through the open window. Quickly but carefully, Snape laid Jenny onto the cold flagstone floor and ran over to his motionless wife. Holding her body in his arms, Harry watched as the most hated and feared teacher at Hogwarts school, broke down and sobbed.
The End
A/N. My, my what's this?? A cliff-hanger?? I know what happens….mwahhaahahaa…you don't, you don't….er, sorry about that…got slightly carried away !!!! Yes, that's it folks, the end (like it says above)!!! Please REVIEW!!!!:}
Disclaimer: I own Jenny, Faith and the vicar, Paul and Julie are Hermione 2001's parents so they belong to her, the All Saints church and the road and scenery that were described are all real down in the south of England…..the rest belongs to JK Rowling!!!!! Cya!!!:}