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CLAWS OF A RAVEN
by Tyde

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Chapter Twenty Four

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A dark haired teenage boy flung himself at Sorora knocking her off the prisoner and they skidded across the floor while Snape tried in vain to sit up, coughing and spluttering, but the immobilising spell kept him flat on his back.

Sorora looked dazed and rubbed her head where it had connected with the wall. The boy stood up and dusted his pants off. His burst of courage suddenly disappeared and he put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. The toe of his shoe started tracing a circular pattern through the straw on the ground. She looked up at him in shock. "Neville?"

"Y-y-yes Professor. I was walking past and I heard strange noises so I came in and..." he trailed off, clearly uncomfortable to be in the same room as her and recognised for saving a teacher that he was usually terrified of. A choking sound came from Snape and Neville shuffled over (shaking all the while) to pull him into a sitting position. Fishing into his pocket he produced a stalk with a few leaves on it and pushed it into Snape's mouth. Severus was looking at him in a new light. And he was finding it very annoying. His mind was grumbling because his mouth couldn't. Saved by a dunce! I'll be the laughing stock.

The brunette looked at him curiously. "What did you give him?"

"It will counteract whatever you did to him. It's handy to carry some at all times for all sorts of ailments. I may not know a Pogrebin from a stone, Professor, but I know Herbology"

"He's killed people Neville"

"The poison it was'n-" A scraping of shoes on stone alerted them to an old woman clutching a large red handbag standing in the doorway. All three heads spun to look.

Neville gulped and stood up so quickly he almost fell down again. "Gran!"

"What are you doing? Who is this? I thought I told you to stay close behind me! Never know what type you'll run into here" she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and started dragging him out of the door. "Going into an open cell, you could have been killed! Come on now or we'll miss our chance to speak"

"Speak?" Sorora interrupted.

Edna Longbottom looked down her nose at the woman sprawled on the floor. "Not that it's any of your business but the parole hearing for the Lestranges is today. They've been saying something about evidence pointing to them not being involved. All Barty Crouch Jrs doing apparently. What a load of poppycock. We're here to give our two knuts worth. No Death Eater should go free," and she took a long hard look at Snape who now had full range of movement and was glaring at his sister.

"I'd keep the door locked if I were you. Those Dementors aren't foolproof you know. That Sirius Black is still at large," and she bustled down the hall loudly berating Neville for silly acts of heroism. Sorora stared at the doorway not sure of what she'd just witnessed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Severus stand up and come towards her. She gasped as Snape grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the wall. She never would have guessed he'd had that much strength judging by his appearance. He got up close to her face and snarled.

"Who's controlling you?"

The anger rose up inside of her again, she'd almost forgotten why she was here. "Let GO!" Her fists started beating into him but he held his ground.

Snape relaxed his grip a little and she came away from the wall a bit, then with an almighty yell he shoved her back at the wall again, her back muscles twinging in pain.

"Are you working for him? Doesn't he have the guts to face me himself?" He slapped her hard across the face and she felt tears spring forth. "I WILL NOT be defeated by a MESSENGER!"

She choked through her tears and the pressure on her throat. "W-w-ho are you...t-talking about?"

"VOLDEMORT!" he roared and she closed her eyes tightly as if afraid that he would appear at any moment and strike her dead. "If he wants me dead, he can bloody well do it himself" he released her and she slid to the ground.

"B-b-but you killed Julian. It's his revenge I seek," she tried to get up but he pushed her down with a foot.

"I did not," it was said simply, if only slightly scoffing.

"But he told me. His ghost told me," she looked confused and hurt.

"Your husband was a Slytherin, was he not?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"There wasn't a student that didn't go bad that was in Slytherin. The Dark Lord thinks he can crush not one but two people. Don't you see, he knows you. He knows that you meddle and that you always want to save me. But this time, this thing he's created, it's something you can't get over. It's something that would tear you apart inside. He is using you to do his dirty work and you are so daft you don't even realise it," the familiar sneer was coming back on his face.

"But why would a ghost b-"

"Have you heard of an Apparition Suit? Or cloak as they like to call it now?" she shook her head. "It's properties are similar to that of an Invisibility Cloak. Covered entirely by it the wearer is altered. In the case of an Apparition Cloak it turns you in a spectre, a ghost if you will. They are priceless and only one is known to have survived the Great Wars of the 1700s. I saw it myself years ago. One guess on who has the only remaining one in their possession."

"You Know Who," she whispered, wrapping herself tighter in her cloak as the temperature in the room seemed to drop dramatically. She could hear a far off rattling noise as Dementors drifted passed the open doorway.

"He played you like a harp. I'm surprised you couldn't hear the tune."

"Shut up," she spat. "Julian wouldn't do that to me. He loves me."

"The thrall of the Dark Lord is beyond love. The heart of a true Slytherin would gladly give up love for power."

"As you did."

"Once. But never again."

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Sorora sat quietly in the boat as it fought it's way through the choppy waves towards the coast of Norway. There weren't words to describe how she felt. For one thing, she believed what Severus had told her. As she sat down and thought about it, it started to make some sense. When she'd hit the table across the room he'd jumped back when a table leg almost hit him. A real ghost wouldn't have done that. And he seemed to be tiptoeing around memories she'd spoken of; he didn't seem to be the same Julian she'd married. He was tainted. And the tainting had to be the work of Voldemort.

She tried to keep all the emotion under wraps. Too many times she'd gone head first into something and screwed it up. She breathed deeply and ran through what she was going to do. Pretend like she knew nothing. Tell him it all went to plan. Return to Hogwarts where the relative safety of Dumbledore existed, then confront the lying bastard.

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Author's note: And speaking of the delightful Snape-saving Neville – I just started a little fic about him. It's called Permission to Shine and you can find it in my profile if you're interested. It's just got one chapter at the moment and I haven't even started thinking of a second one yet, I'm not entirely sure where it's going either which will be a nice adventure for me. Until Sorora finishes her tap dance in my mind Permission to Shine will be slow going.

Just in case you were wondering Harry and friends are in research mode (ala the Scooby Gang in Buffy) and have been going around training with Lupin for Dark Arts Defence stuff. We'll get to them in a little bit. Sorry for neglecting them. Oh and Hermione's parents think she is staying at Ron's place and Ron's family thinks he's gone to visit Hagrid as he wants to continue his studies in Care of Magical Creatures. Too many characters! :o)

Colleen – how did you know? :o) You'll never see me kill off Severus in a fic, there is no way in heck I could do it! Glad you found Permission to Shine. I swear if you're the only one that reads it that will be enough for me!