Two years had passed, and despite the efforts of those working against him, Voldemort's reign of terror was at its peak. Even the Muggles had woken up and started to notice strange events by now - but of course, they put them down as isolated incidents. On his occasional trips through the Muggle world, Severus felt embittered at their ignorance and complacency during this crisis. The Union Against Voldemort was working as hard as it could, to protect that ignorance before the Dark Lord eventually enslaved or destroyed them.
Everything seemed rather futile. It appeared that for every supporter who joined their side, Voldemort gained three more followers.
Finally, it was time. The Dark Lord called them all, all Death Eaters gathered around in a climactic meeting. Severus had been anticipating this – he had been warning Dumbledore, defences had been made – but were they enough?
They were attacking the Ministry. Tonight. Bits of the plan had been filtered through to him, but none knew the whole of it. None except Voldemort.
The whole day had had a somewhat tense feeling to it. As if he had known that today was the day. He had been uncharacteristically clumsy, his fingers had taken to disobeying him. The results of the tests had been ridiculously scattered, a sign of experimenter ineptitude. He and McKenzie had worked silently, not even meaningless pleasantries passing between them. The sky was grey, with the occasional roll of thunder emanating from its great dome, but only spatters of rain. When the Dark Mark had finally stung, it felt like inevitability.
They were all there. Solemnly in the circle, kissing Voldemort's robe and worshipping his rich, terrible power. Severus felt more wretched than usual, faced with the realisation of his own sickness. The kiss was wormwood.
The words Voldemort spoke were a deadly symphony of power – of darkness. Evil. The plan was for the first wave of of Death Eaters to break into the Ministry, destroying all they found. And yet they were to be the distraction – more would disable the Apparition barriers, a second wave would Apparate inside, and break the wards on the Minister's office. Voldemort himself would Apparate inside the office, kill the Minister, and finally declare his power over all those under the Ministry. The true reign would begin. The base of the empire would be formed.
Severus lined up with the first wave, mainly foolish Slytherins his age, hungry to satisfy their bloodlust. Their faces obscured by masks, he could not see what they had become. They were nothing but wraiths, blindly following their desire. Those who had infiltrated the Ministry would let them in. It began.
People were falling all about him, dead from the Avada Kedavra curse. Severus broke through, casting minor curses that in this mayhem looked just like killing. In some ways it felt like it too, the act was a little too real and it was wearing. He passed through and up, using passwords entrusted to him, he broke into the Minister's office.
Jairus Peacock started from his seat, horrified. Angrily, Severus pulled the mask from his face. He spoke in a firm, hard tone. "You have to get out. There are Death Eaters surrounding this building and all the Floo ways have been blocked. In a few minutes time, the Apparition Wards will be broken and you will be able to escape."
The Minister nodded dumbly, shaking as he heard the sounds of the chaos below filtering through, albeit much quietened. Severus slammed the door.
"When will I know?" Peacock asked him shakily.
"You won't," Severus said shortly. He sat down on a chair, and waited.
Peacock looked unnerved at his behaviour, as if he had no concept of the absurdity of the situation. He was silent. They waited.
A particularly loud scream made its muffled way above. Peacock jumped, his face now etched with fright.
"Now," Severus ordered. He Disapparated.
Done. So what now? He put his mask back on. Now to truly sabotage the mission. Dumbledore had ensured that there were copies of all Ministry documents. He set fire to the pile of papers on the desk. Then all the books. Exiting the office, he went to all the adjacent rooms and set every piece of useful information ablaze. The second wave was approaching. He ordered every scared official to Disapparate. They did so. He destroyed every paper, book, scroll, file and parchment in sight.
It was getting hot now, very hot. Tongues of flame were making their hungry way around everything they could, making a fierce crackling noise.
Death Eaters approached, determinedly, but choking. Severus watched them from an open door. They had wands out. They had not yet seen the fire. He held his wand out, focusing on all his strength on the spell.
"Expelliarmus," he whispered. Five wands flew towards him, he ducked out of sight and threw the wands into the flames. There was an explosion – they were destroyed and the force had blown away part of the floor beneath them. Five Death Eaters entered – alarmed, disarmed. Cautiously, two of them approached the gaping hole – another quick spell and Severus had knocked them into it. The other three looked around.
"What are you doing?" One fiercely demanded. He did not have time to recognise the voice. He ran. Out and down, into the second wave.
Now was not the time for undercover work. Severus knew that this was the final test for him – he could taste death in his mouth and he was going to go down fighting. He was a man possessed, seizing the wands of all he could, dodging curses.
A curse caught him in the shoulder. One in the foot. He stumbled, and then shielding smoke suddenly surrounded him – he could not say how, it was as spontaneous as the sort of magic a child uses. He did not remember uttering the spell, he had just done it. He ran into another room, a conference hall. It was empty. Now with some kind of manic regularity, he continued to set things ablaze. He would smoke them out like rats. From a window, he could see some Death Eaters unashamedly running. The Aurors were coming, down in the grounds they were duelling. Severus passed through a back way, and once again re-entered the chaos.
"Get down to the entrance," someone ordered. "The Aurors are there."
Good, he thought. He grabbed another terrified clerk, and told him to Disapparate. The clerk nodded frantically, but went nowhere. Severus dropped him, frustrated, and the man fainted. Absurd. Had he just been too afraid to do it? He tried himself to Disapparate – just to another part of the building, he wasn't leaving, not yet. But he couldn't – the Wards were back up. The end was near.
He set more things alight, seized wands and threw them in. An entire wall collapsed, the ceiling above beginning to crumble. The whole building was set to disintegrate. The Aurors were coming now, coming through and stunning all Death Eaters in range. He ran from them, not because he was afraid but because he felt it the ultimate insult to be killed by Aurors, after everything. If he was going to die, it would have to be a Death Eater that did it – supremely appropriate, everything he deserved. The main staircase had fallen to pieces, but as he passed through, he saw that several Death Eaters had found the back passage. Of course, they had nothing to find. They were running around in an empty shell now, with some alien serenity he watched them move up. Perhaps they would be engulfed by flames. Probably they would remember the correct spell, and they would return, informing the others that it was over. Over. Suddenly a wash of relief passed over him – he had done all he needed to.
"You!" someone called him from behind. Another Death Eater. He did not know who. He did not care.
"What are you doing?"
"Absolutely nothing."
The Death Eater lunged before him, and tore the mask from his face.
"Snape!"
Severus pulled the mask from the other Death Eater, seeing Tarquin, a Death Eater of only seventeen. He swallowed, horrified by the appearance of youth on the boy's face, the incongruous sight of acne.
He made a grab for Tarquin's wand, Tarquin made a grab for his, and they wrestled each other. Behind, a flaming beam fell – the fire had come. The boy was strong – he threw Severus to the floor, they were kicking and fighting like rabid dogs. Tarquin's robe caught fire, he yelped and tried to cast an appropriate charm, but Severus caught hold of his wand again. Tarquin kicked him, now insane, then made a swipe for Severus's wand with his left hand, and caught it. "Crucio."
The shock and the pain caught Severus more by surprise than usual, but the curse was considerably weakened, it being his own wand, and Tarquin's weaker wand-arm. He grabbed Tarquin by the ankle and threw him to the floor. The curse broke.
"I won't kill you," he told him. "If I don't have to. You're young – young and stupid and it's about time you worked out that you're doing a very foolish thing."
"Why are you doing this?" Tarquin demanded. He was furious and livid, gasping in the smoke.
"Because I serve Albus Dumbledore." There – the admission was out. Somehow it pleased him to say it.
"Traitor!"
"It took you that long? Your NEWTs score won't be very high." The comment was absurd, but he didn't care.
Tarquin held his wand out. "Avada Kedavra." Too tired to worry any longer, Severus waited. Nothing happened. He allowed himself a mirthless smile.
"That happened to me when I was nineteen. Disgusted by the good in you? Consider it a chance to rethink." But the boy was red with anger and frustration. And then he did the most stupid thing a wizard could ever do. He threw his wand at him.
Severus was taken aback by the sheer indiocy of the gesture. The wand didn't even hit him – it fell onto the floor, into the flames – and ironically did just what Tarquin's animal instincts had intended.
The resulting explosion caused the floor beneath him to crumble, and unable to grip a handhold, he fell.
And then he knew no more.
***
A/N – Sorry it took so long, I knew roughly what was happening this chapter and yet I was rather doubting my ability to put it into words! Please review.A/N2 – Thank you to my reviewers.
Odd World – Yeah, I like angst, it just took me a while to admit this to myself :-) I'm glad you liked the House Elves
BrindleBullfrog – Thanks! I'm glad you appreciate my knowledge of the books.
Ariana Deralte – Thanks for reviewing those chapters :D Actually yeah, Sevvie can be a bit histrionic *winks* :-)
N Snape – your wish is my command!
Manx – thanks, I'm really flattered!
Queen Momoko - *grins* aw, he was adorable wasn't he? *smile*
A/N3 – I had the urge to call this chapter 'Charge of the Dark Brigade'.
A/N4 – Hope you didn't mind the inclusion of some bizarre wandless magic, I thinkSeverus could have thought of the spell for smoke if he'd had enough presence of mind but I thought that instead his instincts would have kicked in.
A/N5 – I wrote an ickle Snape fic (in an AU to this fic) called 'Touched', you might like it.
A/N6 – You know, I'm kinda depressed about FictionPress.net, I generally get most of my original fiction readers through my fanfiction and now all my original fics are stashed away on another site :-( It means I don't think to read the originals of other writers, too.
