Continued
A huge cetaur. He was tall and authoritive, shining brute force.
"Are you Dumbledore's people?"
They both nodded, too stunned to speak.
"And you are-?" Snape asked suspiciously.
"Tegar, but my name is of no matter to either of you. We must hurry."
"Hurry where?" Sirius asked concerned.
"You'll see." He simply said and sped off. Serius and Snape exchanged curious
glances, momentarily forgetting their hostility and hurried after him. They ran for what
seemed like ages until he stopped. Both men were panting hard, doubled over.
Sirius raised his glance to see why did Tegar stop and he gasped. Snape looked up and saw-
....Winky, the house elf, held in the pincers of a giant
spider.
She was crying and saying over again "I is such a bad elf, I keep my masters secrets,
even though he is not here any more."
On the other side of the clearing was another centaur, talking to the spider, trying to
persuade it to drop winky.
"Whats going on" demanded Snape of Tegar. "Why do you need us?"
"The elf is of much importance in time to come. The planets have said so. You must
persuade the spider to let it go." explained Tegar.
"Leave this to me, Black" said Snape.
He strode into the clearing, readying his wand in preperation.
"Drop the elf or I will kill you" he demanded in a loud voice.
The spider replied in a rasping voice "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Rustling sounds were suddenly heard from all around the clearing.
"As you can see I have company" as from all around the clearing giant spiders
emerged.
One came up behind Sirius and........
knocked him to the ground,his wand fell just out of reach and as he scrambled to his feet another spider sunk his fangs deep into his back, ripping his cloak and shirt.Snape sprank round and he to was pushed into the forest floor, a hugh spider straddled over him spitting venom over his mud stained shirt and face. Then as Black tried to get to his feet, blood oozing down the small of his back, a third spider spun it's sticky web,tight around his dishevelled form ,leaving him paralysed. Snape then wriggled from under his attacker and tried to find his wand in the undergrowth, but just as he felt it, the spider crushed his hand and Snape too was bound in a vile web.......
After one last struggle within the complex threads of the silver netting, he fell unconscious and all faded into black.
Snape regained consciousness after several hours. Pain spread through his hand that had been crushed by giant spider, and was now bleeding. In vain, he tried to make sense of what had happened, but all his eyes could register was darkness. Opening them, he could barely get a glimpse of what had attacked him, let alone see where Sirius had been taken. Yet, somehow, this didn't seem right...
Suddenly the whole area was flooded with light. Snape shut his eyes at the sudden shock of such a bright light. He squinted at the direction of the light, but couldn't see anything. Turning his head around all he could see was.........
...Sirius, still bound in the confining web,then he heard the pathetic sobbing of Winky, the House Elf sitting between himself and Black, who was still out cold. Sirius was lying in a pool of deep red blood and Snapes hand was contorted and twitching, but then the light swung round and a shadow fell over the gruesome scene and there was a sound out of the blackness coming nearer......
It was difficult to tell what it was. It was hovering...surreal...offering safety and warmth that reminded Snape faintly of Dumbledore's Fawkes whom he owed his life to many years ago. Yet it seemed momentarily. He shut his eyes, and savoured the sensation, feeling as if he were floating among serenity and peace itself. What was this marvellous entrancing substance? It wasn't natural...almost dangerous. It must have been of the work of evil Severus concluded. After a while he moaned gently and opened his eyes with which he could see the old familiar surroundings of the tall frightening trees. His hand was healed and all soft webbing had uncurled itself, leaving itself to lie limply beside him. Yet the air was musty with the stench of struggle and Sirius had disappeared.
He couldn't spot winky anywhere. "She must be
with Black" he thought.
Struggling a bit, he got to his feet and gathered up his wand and the webbing to take back
to Dumbledore. It seemed to take ages to find his way back to the school, but eventually
he arrived and went straight to Dumbledore's office. Walking in he began "Headmaster,
I......."
His voice trailed off into nothing as before him he saw........
..sitting in one of Dumbledores large oak chairs was
Sirius,looking remarkable well despite his bloody back and shredded shirt; Fawkes was
resting on the arm of the chair, leaning towards Blacks arm. Snape looked stunned to see
him their but managed to contain his suprise.
"Ah, Severus, yes an unusual turn of events"
said the Headmaster, in his understated way.
"What, where's the Elf, Black?"
"What Elf, oh Severus you seem to be confused, did you get a blow to the head, aswell
as a crushed hand?"
Sirius let out a supressed laugh,but Dumbledore looked disapprovingly at him, like Sirius'
Headmaster of old.
Dumbledore broke the resentful bitterness between the two,
"Listen, to me Severus, this is not easy for me to tell you ,but there's something
about tonight that you are not aware off.......
Dumbledore paused a moment, making sure he had the full attention
of Severus.
"Well," he continued. "This is a bit difficult to explain.... I needed to
know what you would find out tonight, but I couldn't tell you why. Let me tell you now. I
received an owl telling me of recent disturbances in Hogsmeade, but not the residents
causing these. I had reason to believe that these were being caused by some creature in
the forbidden forest, but I needed to find out what. What you've just told me gives me
reason to believe that something bad is about to happen and it involves the house-elf,
Winky."
He broke off to look at their faces; Snape's was calm whilst Sirius was burning with
passion.
"What I am about to reveal must not go beyond these walls....
To be continued...
