Chapter 11
A/N: Well, well, well. New stuff for everyone. For those of you who have read this out of my notebook, the middle of this chapter is as far as I got. Right before the part about ashwinders. Everything after that is new for everybody! Big surprises in this chapter. I hate to spoil it for you but - the Potters die.
death \Death\, n. [OE. deth, deat, AS. de['a]; akin to OS. d, D. dood, G. tod, Icel. daui, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. daupus; from a verb meaning to die. See Die, v. i., and cf. Dead.] 1. The cessation of all vital phenomena without capability of resuscitation, either in animals or plants.
Note: Local death is going on at times and in all parts of the living body, in which individual cells and elements are being cast off and replaced by new; a process essential to life. General death is of two kinds; death of the body as a whole (somatic or systemic death), and death of the tissues. By the former is implied the absolute cessation of the functions of the brain, the circulatory and the respiratory organs; by the latter the entire disappearance of the vital actions of the ultimate structural constituents of the body. When death takes place, the body as a whole dies first, the death of the tissues sometimes not occurring until after a considerable interval. --Huxley.
2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the death of memory.
The death of a language can not be exactly compared with the death of a plant. --J. Peile.
3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.
A death that I abhor. --Shak.
Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii. 10.
4. Cause of loss of life.
Swiftly flies the feathered death. --Dryden.
He caught his death the last county sessions. --Addison.
5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe.
Death! great proprietor of all. --Young.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that at on him was Death. --Rev. vi. 8.
6. Danger of death. ``In deaths oft.'' --2 Cor. xi. 23.
7. Murder; murderous character.
Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon.
8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.
9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
It was death to them to think of entertaining such doctrines. --Atterbury.
And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. --Judg. xvi. 16.
Note: Death is much used adjectively and as the first part of a compound, meaning, in general, of or pertaining to death, causing or presaging death; as, deathbed or death bed; deathblow or death blow, etc.
Syn: Death, Decease, Demise, Departure, Release.
Usage: Death applies to the termination of every form of existence, both animal and vegetable; the other words only to the human race. Decease is the term used in law for the removal of a human being out of life in the ordinary course of nature. Demise was formerly confined to decease of princes, but is now sometimes used of distinguished men in general; as, the demise of Mr. Pitt. Departure and release are peculiarly terms of Christian affection and hope. A violent death is not usually called a decease. Departure implies a friendly taking leave of life. Release implies a deliverance from a life of suffering or sorrow.
Rebecca sat at the kitchen table, absently stirring a cup of tea. She watched the loose leaves float in the amber liquid. She had never been much of a hand at divination, but it couldn't hurt to attempt to see the future.
A sudden pop behind her alerted her to someone's presence. She swung her head around. Severus stood where he had apperated. She jumped to her feet, sending her chair flying backwards, and sloshing her tea everywhere.
She had been about to admonish him for apperating somewhere that Gabby might see him, but one look at his drawn face stopped her.
"It's tonight," he said tersely. She blinked, uncomprehending. "The Dark Lord just informed the Death Eaters that we are to destroy the Potters tonight."
"Oh," was all she could manage to squeak out.
He grasped her hand and pulled her toward the fireplace. She shook her head. "I don't have any floo powder. I can't keep it around. Gabby. . ." He reached into his robes and pulled out a small bag, into which he dipped his hand to sprinkle the glowing floo powder into the flames.
"Make sure you put out the fire when you get back," he told her. You don't want to come home and find your flat in flames. You have to watch for ashwinders." She nodded as he pushed her into the fire.
When they had both stumbled out of the fireplace, Rebecca was coughing from the soot she had managed to inhale. "I h- hate floo powder," she choked out. "What idiot invented it?"
"Probably the same idiot who thought brooms would be convenient modes of transportation," he replied, brushing soot off her emerald robes. None showed on his, which were black, as always.
As the tickle in her throat eased, Rebecca looked around, realizing fully for the first time where she was. Against one wall was a high mahogany bed, with rich green hangings. The walls were grey stone, but the room was warm and dry. She was in a world of mahogany and green velvet. Severus's bedchamber.
He noticed that she was staring with her mouth hanging open. The faintest trace of a smile flickered across his lips. "Surprised?" he asked.
She nodded. "I expected it to be bare, austere, spartan, boring. . .but it's not. It's incredible."
He raised an eyebrow. "In other words, you'd like to come back and. . .explore. . .it more closely at the first available opportunity." A predatory grin played across his face. "And let me just point out that the bed is by far the finest feature. But for now, we have more pressing matters."
Rebecca had forgotten why he had brought her here, but his words were a sudden, painful reminder. She frowned.
He gestured to a chair near the fireplace, into which she sank gratefully. He remained standing and began pacing back and forth. "Why do you always have to pace?" she snapped. "You're making me nervous."
"You should be nervous," he snapped back. "Your godson is about to die."
"He won't die! He can't! We have to do something!" She tried to rise out of her chair, but Severus put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back down. "Let me up!" she cried. "I have to do something!" Frantic, wild thoughts were chasing through her head. "I'll scream! You have to let me go!"
Severus's hand slapped across her face. Instantly she shut up. "I'm sorry," he gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry. You know I didn't mean to hit you. Oh, Rebecca, I'm so sorry."
She shook her head. "No, it's all right. I needed that."
Not smiling at the cliché, he knelt on the floor beside her chair and turned her head so he could examine her face in the firelight. "You're going to have a bruise, love. I'm sorry."
"If all I have is a bruise, then I'm luckier than Lily. She'll die for her son, to protect him. And then he'll die too. Oh, how could you have ever joined the Death Eaters?" Her voice broke sharply on the last work, and she dissolved into tears. "It's all my fault." He pulled her down onto the floor with him and held her in his arms as she sobbed.
Looking back years later, the only thing Rebecca could remember about the next few hours was the endless silence. Severus had, of course, gone with the Death Eaters to the Potters, leaving her in his chambers, alone. After fretting and pacing for what seemed an eternity, she had sunk into the chair by the fire, too tense to really relax, and attempted to sleep.
When the door banged open, she jolted out of her unhappy revere. Severus, looking haggard, disgusted, and amazed at the same time, swept in, followed by the Headmaster, looking unusually grave. She rose from the chair on trembling legs.
"You might want to sit, my dear," said Dumbledore softly. "Severus has an amazing story to relate."
Rebecca shook her head. "I've been sitting waiting all night. Tell me what happened."
With a sigh, Severus related everything that had happened at the Potters that night, finishing with, "the Dark Lord isn't gone forever, though, Beck. You know better than anyone the precautions he took against death."
She nodded slowly. "Then maybe we can find some way to prevent him from coming back."
"Maybe," shrugged Severus, but she could see the doubt in his eyes. Then the practical side of her mind quit working. Doubt, disbelief and fear washed over her, and from somewhere outside of her body she saw herself collapse. She saw Dumbledore and Severus rush forward to catch her. She heard her sobs of sorrow and relief. She saw Severus lift her and lay her in his bed. She saw Dumbeldore hand him a flask, from which he poured a few drops into her mouth.
She came back into herself with a jolt, and felt the sleeping draught take effect. The world dissolved around her.
