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CLAWS
OF A RAVEN
by Tyde
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Chapter Thirty Two
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Lucius Malfoy lay in an undignified heap at the bottom of the cage, stunned. Sorora had her hands on her hips and she was looking at her brother with an exasperated expression. "Okay now that I've had time to take stock of the situation...what the hell are you doing here?"
"Saving you from doing something you'd regret...it appears" He frowned at his own words. "How annoying"
"I don't understand you"
"I prefer it that way"
"How did you get here so quick? I hadn't even thrown up the signal yet"
"I was already here," He pointed to the door that had been previously closed and was now ajar. "I heard suspicious noises through the door and performed a silencing charm around this room so that the Death Eaters would not come to Lucius's aide. You would be dead if they had heard anything"
Sorora sat down on the chair to collect her thoughts. "Okay I'm confused. You renounced You Know Who, at least that's what Dumbledore told me, but now you're in the midst of Death Eaters and you appear to be saving my life. The sister who you abhor"
"And still do" He crossed his arms and sighed. "You know it constantly amazes me that you ever got placed in Ravenclaw. You're stupider than some of the first years. I'm a spy for Dumbledore. But this time Voldemort knew I was disloyal and Albus asked me to see how many of them I could turn back to our side"
"Our side being??"
Snape rolled his eyes. "The Order of the Phoenix, you half-wit. Now if you'd stop incessantly chattering perhaps we could get around to getting you back to safer ground"
"Oh Sev I didn't know you cared"
"I don't...you're just jeopardising my operation. Now come on, get out" He grabbed her arm and shoved her roughly in the direction of the staircase. He then turned his back on her and pretended she had never been there.
She trudged up the dark staircase and left her brother downstairs to do whatever it was that he was going to do with whatever lay behind that door. Sorora used the beam of light from her wand to see where she was going. She shone it along the walls and various portraits shielded themselves from the light saying things rather dramatically like "You insufferable little twit" and "It burns, the light burns". The stairs came to an abrupt end and she banged unceremoniously into a wall.
"Ow. Hmmm. Okay, must be a handle or a spot to press or something," she muttered poking the hard wall with her wand in various places but to no avail. "Maybe it just needs a lot of force". She backed up to push off against the wall when the stones behind her gave way and she felt backwards into a small room that smelled of mouldy bread and rank water. Her head connected with something that felt suspiciously like a fleshy appendage and stopped her from cracking her head open on the floor. There was no light in the tiny room and the little provided by her wand did not enlighten the situation.
Sorora got up stiffly and pointed the light beam at what she'd crashed into. It was a person, covered in blood, hair matted and filthy from head to toe. The eyes were closed and the arms and legs strung around a pole to which they were strapped. For some reason it did not surprise her, she had had too many shocks and surprises over the last six months to even register this one. It just seemed that it was fact and she accepted it as such. Leaning forward Sorora brushed the hair off his face and planted a kiss lightly on his nose. A tear dripped down her cheek and onto his, creating a river through the dirt on his face. Her hand shifted to rest on his chest, which rose and fell ever so slightly. She let out a breath slowly and smiled.
"Julian? Sweetie? Can you hear me?" Her wand burned through the rough ropes keeping him tied to the pole and he fell forward into her arms. Normally the weight of her husband would have caused her to stumble backwards but he was so skinny and fragile looking that she barely felt it. "We need to get you out of here". She heard noises through the wall as the battle began. Upstairs, downstairs, all around her the sounds of curses flying back and forth met her ears. Sorora thought she heard Arthur Weasley's voice and also that of Macnair. A thud was heard as Macnair's voice was silenced.
Suddenly a dozen people rushed past her alcove and down the stairs and she turned to see flashes of golden robes passing the doorway. They were headed into the dungeon rooms to secure the compound. "POPPY!" Sorora yelled out. "Poppy, are you there? I need help" She found herself feeling the weight of Julian and leant back against a wall to steady the both of them.
A pair of feet scurried back up the stairs and the MediWitch was standing in the doorway looking flushed. She held a lantern in one hand and shone it into the room. "Sorora?" Her eyes took in the mangled body of the Auror and her lips pressed themselves together in concern. "Goodness me, that doesn't look good at all. Best get him upstairs and lie him down. Then I'll see what I can do about those injuries"
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It looked like a massacre on a battlefield. If an impeccably decorated manor could be called a battlefield, and if dozens of unconscious bodies could be considered a massacre. Arthur Weasley stood in the middle of the formal lounge room and took out a piece of parchment.
"Bagnall. Crabbe" the quill scratched at the parchment as he drew a line through the names on his list written in Severus's precise handwriting. "Goyle. Hobson. Kilbane. Macnair. Malfoy, Narcissa. Vulinovich." Suddenly the bookcase to the left of the doorway split down the middle and opened up. Mundungus Fletcher wandered through the gaping black hole with a vague look on his face. He had his wand out ready but looked more ready to have a nap than fight a band of evildoers.
"Hello Mundungus. How many are downstairs?"
"Twelve, including Lucius. Palgetti locked him up in a cage, ingenious little piece of work. Snape told me Lucius's son was in the house too but I haven't been able to find him. He in this pile?"
"No. I did ask Arabella to see that the upstairs rooms were checked. Could you find her please"?
"Yes Arthur" and he trotted out of the room and towards the staircase.
Madam Pomfrey appeared from within the darkness of the bookcase with Sorora and they were both carrying a frail looking Julian.
"Good Lord. Is that really Julian!" exclaimed Arthur as he watched them place him on a couch. "He does look the worst for wear" A hand caught him on the back of the neck in a sharp slap and he turned to see Molly standing behind him. She looked tired and her wand was smoking slightly.
"Really Arthur" she hissed. "He's her husband. Do keep it to yourself"
"Sorry" he mumbled and went back to his list. Molly went to help Poppy with the healing spells. Sorora knelt down by the couch and held Julian's hand, whispering words of encouragement in his ear as the two women worked on his injuries. She didn't know if he could hear her or not.
Mundungus came back with Arabella in tow to confirm that the younger Malfoy was nowhere on the premises and they should send out a team to recover him. Severus had joined the group at this point and he confirmed that not only was Draco a Death Eater, he was the Dark Lord's assistant. He was to be considered very dangerous.
A groan came from the couch and Julian managed to open one of his eyes, the other was still far too swollen. His voice crackled out of his lips. "Boy...d-di-didn't kill...m-m-me"
Sorora leant forward. "Julian?"
"W-w-was...told to. D-di-didn't" he expelled a huge breath as he said the last word and then closed his eye again. Poppy looked worried and paid particular attention to the area around his lungs and heart. An array of bottles came out of her medicine bag and Molly set about measuring out doses.
Snape, meanwhile, looked annoyed. Very annoyed.
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Author's note: Taking a deep breath. Four chapters to go. Oh dear lord. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time.
Ann – Thanks for your email and thanks for wanting to read my stories in the first place! :o)
Colleen – I exist purely to entertain you, you know that right? :o) I hope the ending isn't too lame. I haven't touched the second chapter of Neville's story for about two weeks. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend. You never know.
CrinkleCutRuffles – Dumbeldore's got it under control. It's just like someone sacked the government and another party took over (that happened here once - in the 1960s I think it was). Yep they were both in Hufflepuff...um, I just wanted to use names that people vaguely knew. (Sssh, you're not supposed to bring it up :oP) Let's just say that the ancestors married pretty daft people so by the time it came down to Hannah being sorted she wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box. As for Peter – I've written a death scene for him. I haven't decided if I'll use it yet or not hehe. Cut back on the sugar darl or you might bounce out in front of a moving car or something. Voldemort is...well I answered it up there *points* :o) Sorora will be getting a well-earned rest. Let's just hope Julian pulls through!
Kaelli Karali – I seem to have a few hyper reviewers! :o) Thanks for reviewing again.
kat-tak – Thank you :o) I'm glad you like Mundungus. JK hasn't said much about him so I thought I'd make him a bit of a dottering, old bloke that gets confused easily and loves to jump up on a soap box and share his opinion.
labrisa – *stops shaking* Thank goodness you took the curse off, I was beginning to lose it! :o) Cookie for your reviews, you good little Death Eater! *puts labrisa in a cage for safe keeping* The Snapes are ferocious all right!
