The next morning, Hecate awoke slowly; last night seemed to have been a nightmare, but the moment she hit the satin sheets, a dreamless sleep took her. Now that she was up, it seemed as if everything would be all right. Standing up and stretching, she noticed only one small thing that seemed to make her nightmare a reality; the Dark Mark, still sizzling slightly on her skin. Applying a new layer of murtlap to it (and sighing with relief), she dressed quickly and opened the door only to find Snape fast asleep in the hallway in front of her. For a moment, she didn't know what to do, then, "Er...Professor..." she nudged him slightly, "Professor...it's...ah...time to get up."
Snape's eyes opened blearily, then he jumped up, "I fell asleep!" She stared at him, "Yes. You did. In front of my door, of all places." "It was for your protection," he said, rearranging his disheveled robes, "I was thinking about it last night...decided it'd be better to just sleep out here." He yawned and stretched, then let out a grunt of pain; "That's not the softest bit of carpet you could have pulled up, I'll bet," said Hecate, "you're probably all stiff and sore now." He frowned, "Don't remind me." The rest of the day passed with little event, since Hecate had to stay inside the estate manor for fear of Death Eaters out on patrol.
It wasn't until that evening that everything went horribly wrong.
Snape and Hecate were sitting in the parlor, talking about nothing in particular when Albus Dumbledore's head suddenly appeared in the fireplace. "Severus get out of the house!" he cried, "Out now! Go to Diagon Alley and hide in the crowds! They've found you!" Snape immediately jumped up and grabbed hold of Hecate's hand, raised his wand, cried, "Aparecium!" And just as the world began to spin, Hecate noticed three more distinct pops of Apparation occurring in the room that were not their own...
* * *
When they had finished Apparating, they were at the junction of Diagon and Knockturn Alley. Hecate was almost breathless, and her stomach flip-flopped nervously when she saw the chaos erupting around them. People were running everywhere, and the gigantic clock at the junction was cracked; something was terribly wrong. "He's finally struck," said Snape warily, "it was just a matter of time..." Hecate gasped with horror when she saw several Death Eaters running from Knockturn Alley, and Snape immediately grabbed her and jerked her into a dark corner, where they both stood pressed against the wall in silence. They passed quickly, heading for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions without a second glance at them. "We're not safe even here," said Snape, "they could spot us at any moment."
Hecate was suddenly struck by an idea, "Could we go to Hogwarts?" Snape thought on it for a moment, "We could, but they're probably outside the gates. And you know we can't Apparate into Hogwarts. We'd be running for it." She looked around, noticing the spells flying every which way, "I think it'd be best to chance it."
Snape's mind became a balance; on the one hand, he had Hecate's life to worry about; on the other, he had to think about what the odds were of Hogwarts still being safe. 'She's right,' he thought bitterly, 'we'll have to chance it.' "Alright," he said, turning to her swiftly, "the moment we're done Apparating, run. Don't look back to see if I'm there, don't say anything, just run through the gates. I'll be there, but it's best if we make as little noise as possible with as little disturbance as is necessary. If they're there at the gates, we'll be firing spells over our backs blindly, because there will be no time to stop and defend ourselves. Do you understand me?" She nodded gravely, winced as the Dark Mark burned; Snape, in turn, also winced, and clutched his arm slightly, "Ready?" She nodded again, "Ready," she rasped.
He took hold of her arm, "Don't look back.
"APARECIUM!"
* * *
Hecate almost screamed as the first spell whizzed over her head, then she turned and ran as quickly as her suddenly lead feet would allow. She heard Snape right behind her, gasping for breath, and soon their lungs were burning and their legs were steadily exhausting. More spells went off, there was a sound of running; Snape and Hecate both fired off spells blindly over their backs, hoping they were hitting someone. The Hogwarts front doors were fifty yards away, twenty-five, ten, nine...
Then Snape fell.
Hecate refused to listen to his advice and whipped about upon hearing him hit the ground and dragged him the rest of the way, firing spells at three Death Eaters who she now saw quite clearly as Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and Macnair. She managed to hit Lestrange with a Freezing Charm, and Malfoy with a Blinding Spell, then stumbled inside. Thankfully, Dumbledore had been waiting for them, and he managed to catch Macnair with a Freezing Charm, then slammed the doors shut. "He's hurt!" said Hecate with fear as she looked at Snape's side; his ribcage was bleeding. "Take him to the dungeon," said Dumbledore, "I will be down there shortly as soon as I've taken care of the Death Eaters."
Hecate placed a Levitation Charm on Snape, moving him to the dungeons slowly. As he moved, blood dripped steadily onto the floor, leaving a trail from the Entrance Hall all the way down the stairs; Hecate grew more and more worried as she put him down on one of the Potions worktables. "Professor..." she whispered, moving him by the shoulders; he was slowly becoming unconscious. "Professor...!" she hissed, "Snap out of it!" However, he remained unmoving, so she decided to begin working on his bleeding ribcage. It looked as though he might have been hit by a Bleeding Charm, one of the most advanced charms that she knew of. Instantly she was searching through his small library there in the laboratory, hoping to find a potion to counter a heavy Bleeding Charm.
Thankfully, a minute later, she found her answer, but the potion would be very, very difficult. It said it would take thirty minutes to make; "Well," she said, as she rushed around and gathered ingredients, "thirty minutes just became ten."
* * *
For the next ten minutes, Hecate sweated heavily, chopping roots, boiling leaves, and snatching necessary ingredients from his private stores via the old-fashioned method of busting the locks off the cabinets. She was breathing hard as she prepared everything all at once, then put it all together; five minutes later, she had produced the blue, moderately thick potion. She sprinted across the room with a cup of it and a large paintbrush, then began pasting it across the bleeding area. 'Let it work, let it work, let it work...' she thought anxiously, hoping he hadn't lost too much blood. She watched what had been a steady trickle gradually begin to slow; then, after one long, grueling minute, stop altogether. She let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against the table, sinking to her knees. "Never again," she said morosely, "will I underestimate his talents as a Potions Master."
* * *
She must have been asleep against the table for an hour when Dumbledore came down and saw the miraculous work she had performed in the space of ten minutes. He looked at Snape, lying on the table, sleeping solidly, and examined his wound; it was almost gone now that the potion had had time to work. Hecate Winter, on the other hand, had chopped roots on her robe, and bits of blue paste on her fingers and sleeves; a few spatters of other fluids such as leech juice seemed to have gotten into her hair, probably from her nervous habit of running her hands through her hair. Dumbledore smiled down at her, then Conjured a blanket and laid it across her; subconsciously she snuggled into it, then was still. Deciding to let them both sleep till morning, Dumbledore left, magically locking the door behind him in case anyone should rudely decide to intrude.
* * *
Sunlight fell on Hecate's face slowly, and soon she felt as if she had been blinded by it; awaking slowly, and stretching her sore limbs, she rubbed her eyes. Then she noticed who was standing opposite of her; Snape. "Professor!" she cried, jumping up with delight at seeing him fully recovered. "It's too bad you graduated," he said suddenly, and with little expression, "because if you were I would have given you a million house points for the potion you made last night." She shrugged, her face turning slightly pink, "It was nothing anyone else wouldn't have done." "But it was you that did it, Miss Winter, and for that I'm grateful," he said. "I didn't know you could be grateful," she said with mock surprise. He smiled only just, said, "When I know I have to be, I am."
Just then the door unlocked and Dumbledore poked his head in, "Everybody alright then?" "Perfectly fine," said Hecate with a smile. "Good," said Dumbledore, "now can we please eat breakfast?" Hecate and Snape exchanged looks, "With pleasure."
* * *
The rest of the day was spent in Dumbledore's office, discussing various matters of the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters. "We can't stay locked up in Hogwarts forever," said Snape warily, "but after last night's events I'm afraid we may have to." Dumbledore sat back and popped a lemon drop into his mouth, "That is something I meant to discuss with the two of you. You see, last night Voldemort had a rather...bad time with his series of attacks. He coordinated several of them, but unfortunately, he lost two of his leaders right off, one of whom Miss Winter disposed of last night." "Malfoy?" said Hecate with curiosity. Dumbledore nodded, "Indeed. The other was Anton Dolohov, who was in Diagon Alley last night."
Snape and Hecate exchanged looks; he had run right past them just before they had Apparated. "Now, thankfully, these two were both the brains of many of the Death Eater operations, so within half an hour, they began to crumble apart," said Dumbledore. "Personally, I think we owe this to Voldemort's underestimation of the capabilities of the Order, as well as some of his other ex-Death Eaters that I'm sure he did not foresee," he added, winking at Hecate warmly. She smiled, and he continued, "The only person that we really have to worry about now is Bellatrix Lestrange." "Bella? Why her?! I thought we got her last night!" cried Hecate.
Dumbledore held up a hand, "True. However, when I closed the doors for a moment to allow you some retribution from their spell casting, it gave her a minute to get away. By the time the doors were open again she was gone. Either way, I don't think we'll be seeing her for at least a few days since almost all of the Death Eater forces are being destroyed even as we speak." "Considering she's daft off her rocker, I doubt it," said Hecate warily, "she'll probably blow herself up in the middle of Diagon Alley trying to take a couple of Aurors with her." "Well until then, there is little we can do but hope to scare her out of hiding," said Dumbledore. "Listen," said Snape suddenly, "this is excellent news, but will we be able to leave anytime soon? As much as I love the castle, I would like to see home sometime soon."
Dumbledore nodded, "And I have no doubt that you shall, quite possibly as early as tonight." Snape settled back in his chair, "Good." Hecate frowned, "But...where am I supposed to go?" Dumbledore shrugged, "Wherever you want to." Hecate looked down for a minute, then looked at Snape, "Can...may I...stay with you, for at least a few days?" He looked at her strangely, "I expected you to." She let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you." "Well," said Dumbledore, standing up, "I think that's all for right now." Snape and Hecate saw this as their cue to go, "Thank you very much Headmaster," said Hecate. He smiled, and his half-moon glasses twinkled, "You are very welcome." He held up his candy jar, "Lemon drop?"
To Be Continued...
Snape's eyes opened blearily, then he jumped up, "I fell asleep!" She stared at him, "Yes. You did. In front of my door, of all places." "It was for your protection," he said, rearranging his disheveled robes, "I was thinking about it last night...decided it'd be better to just sleep out here." He yawned and stretched, then let out a grunt of pain; "That's not the softest bit of carpet you could have pulled up, I'll bet," said Hecate, "you're probably all stiff and sore now." He frowned, "Don't remind me." The rest of the day passed with little event, since Hecate had to stay inside the estate manor for fear of Death Eaters out on patrol.
It wasn't until that evening that everything went horribly wrong.
Snape and Hecate were sitting in the parlor, talking about nothing in particular when Albus Dumbledore's head suddenly appeared in the fireplace. "Severus get out of the house!" he cried, "Out now! Go to Diagon Alley and hide in the crowds! They've found you!" Snape immediately jumped up and grabbed hold of Hecate's hand, raised his wand, cried, "Aparecium!" And just as the world began to spin, Hecate noticed three more distinct pops of Apparation occurring in the room that were not their own...
* * *
When they had finished Apparating, they were at the junction of Diagon and Knockturn Alley. Hecate was almost breathless, and her stomach flip-flopped nervously when she saw the chaos erupting around them. People were running everywhere, and the gigantic clock at the junction was cracked; something was terribly wrong. "He's finally struck," said Snape warily, "it was just a matter of time..." Hecate gasped with horror when she saw several Death Eaters running from Knockturn Alley, and Snape immediately grabbed her and jerked her into a dark corner, where they both stood pressed against the wall in silence. They passed quickly, heading for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions without a second glance at them. "We're not safe even here," said Snape, "they could spot us at any moment."
Hecate was suddenly struck by an idea, "Could we go to Hogwarts?" Snape thought on it for a moment, "We could, but they're probably outside the gates. And you know we can't Apparate into Hogwarts. We'd be running for it." She looked around, noticing the spells flying every which way, "I think it'd be best to chance it."
Snape's mind became a balance; on the one hand, he had Hecate's life to worry about; on the other, he had to think about what the odds were of Hogwarts still being safe. 'She's right,' he thought bitterly, 'we'll have to chance it.' "Alright," he said, turning to her swiftly, "the moment we're done Apparating, run. Don't look back to see if I'm there, don't say anything, just run through the gates. I'll be there, but it's best if we make as little noise as possible with as little disturbance as is necessary. If they're there at the gates, we'll be firing spells over our backs blindly, because there will be no time to stop and defend ourselves. Do you understand me?" She nodded gravely, winced as the Dark Mark burned; Snape, in turn, also winced, and clutched his arm slightly, "Ready?" She nodded again, "Ready," she rasped.
He took hold of her arm, "Don't look back.
"APARECIUM!"
* * *
Hecate almost screamed as the first spell whizzed over her head, then she turned and ran as quickly as her suddenly lead feet would allow. She heard Snape right behind her, gasping for breath, and soon their lungs were burning and their legs were steadily exhausting. More spells went off, there was a sound of running; Snape and Hecate both fired off spells blindly over their backs, hoping they were hitting someone. The Hogwarts front doors were fifty yards away, twenty-five, ten, nine...
Then Snape fell.
Hecate refused to listen to his advice and whipped about upon hearing him hit the ground and dragged him the rest of the way, firing spells at three Death Eaters who she now saw quite clearly as Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and Macnair. She managed to hit Lestrange with a Freezing Charm, and Malfoy with a Blinding Spell, then stumbled inside. Thankfully, Dumbledore had been waiting for them, and he managed to catch Macnair with a Freezing Charm, then slammed the doors shut. "He's hurt!" said Hecate with fear as she looked at Snape's side; his ribcage was bleeding. "Take him to the dungeon," said Dumbledore, "I will be down there shortly as soon as I've taken care of the Death Eaters."
Hecate placed a Levitation Charm on Snape, moving him to the dungeons slowly. As he moved, blood dripped steadily onto the floor, leaving a trail from the Entrance Hall all the way down the stairs; Hecate grew more and more worried as she put him down on one of the Potions worktables. "Professor..." she whispered, moving him by the shoulders; he was slowly becoming unconscious. "Professor...!" she hissed, "Snap out of it!" However, he remained unmoving, so she decided to begin working on his bleeding ribcage. It looked as though he might have been hit by a Bleeding Charm, one of the most advanced charms that she knew of. Instantly she was searching through his small library there in the laboratory, hoping to find a potion to counter a heavy Bleeding Charm.
Thankfully, a minute later, she found her answer, but the potion would be very, very difficult. It said it would take thirty minutes to make; "Well," she said, as she rushed around and gathered ingredients, "thirty minutes just became ten."
* * *
For the next ten minutes, Hecate sweated heavily, chopping roots, boiling leaves, and snatching necessary ingredients from his private stores via the old-fashioned method of busting the locks off the cabinets. She was breathing hard as she prepared everything all at once, then put it all together; five minutes later, she had produced the blue, moderately thick potion. She sprinted across the room with a cup of it and a large paintbrush, then began pasting it across the bleeding area. 'Let it work, let it work, let it work...' she thought anxiously, hoping he hadn't lost too much blood. She watched what had been a steady trickle gradually begin to slow; then, after one long, grueling minute, stop altogether. She let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against the table, sinking to her knees. "Never again," she said morosely, "will I underestimate his talents as a Potions Master."
* * *
She must have been asleep against the table for an hour when Dumbledore came down and saw the miraculous work she had performed in the space of ten minutes. He looked at Snape, lying on the table, sleeping solidly, and examined his wound; it was almost gone now that the potion had had time to work. Hecate Winter, on the other hand, had chopped roots on her robe, and bits of blue paste on her fingers and sleeves; a few spatters of other fluids such as leech juice seemed to have gotten into her hair, probably from her nervous habit of running her hands through her hair. Dumbledore smiled down at her, then Conjured a blanket and laid it across her; subconsciously she snuggled into it, then was still. Deciding to let them both sleep till morning, Dumbledore left, magically locking the door behind him in case anyone should rudely decide to intrude.
* * *
Sunlight fell on Hecate's face slowly, and soon she felt as if she had been blinded by it; awaking slowly, and stretching her sore limbs, she rubbed her eyes. Then she noticed who was standing opposite of her; Snape. "Professor!" she cried, jumping up with delight at seeing him fully recovered. "It's too bad you graduated," he said suddenly, and with little expression, "because if you were I would have given you a million house points for the potion you made last night." She shrugged, her face turning slightly pink, "It was nothing anyone else wouldn't have done." "But it was you that did it, Miss Winter, and for that I'm grateful," he said. "I didn't know you could be grateful," she said with mock surprise. He smiled only just, said, "When I know I have to be, I am."
Just then the door unlocked and Dumbledore poked his head in, "Everybody alright then?" "Perfectly fine," said Hecate with a smile. "Good," said Dumbledore, "now can we please eat breakfast?" Hecate and Snape exchanged looks, "With pleasure."
* * *
The rest of the day was spent in Dumbledore's office, discussing various matters of the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters. "We can't stay locked up in Hogwarts forever," said Snape warily, "but after last night's events I'm afraid we may have to." Dumbledore sat back and popped a lemon drop into his mouth, "That is something I meant to discuss with the two of you. You see, last night Voldemort had a rather...bad time with his series of attacks. He coordinated several of them, but unfortunately, he lost two of his leaders right off, one of whom Miss Winter disposed of last night." "Malfoy?" said Hecate with curiosity. Dumbledore nodded, "Indeed. The other was Anton Dolohov, who was in Diagon Alley last night."
Snape and Hecate exchanged looks; he had run right past them just before they had Apparated. "Now, thankfully, these two were both the brains of many of the Death Eater operations, so within half an hour, they began to crumble apart," said Dumbledore. "Personally, I think we owe this to Voldemort's underestimation of the capabilities of the Order, as well as some of his other ex-Death Eaters that I'm sure he did not foresee," he added, winking at Hecate warmly. She smiled, and he continued, "The only person that we really have to worry about now is Bellatrix Lestrange." "Bella? Why her?! I thought we got her last night!" cried Hecate.
Dumbledore held up a hand, "True. However, when I closed the doors for a moment to allow you some retribution from their spell casting, it gave her a minute to get away. By the time the doors were open again she was gone. Either way, I don't think we'll be seeing her for at least a few days since almost all of the Death Eater forces are being destroyed even as we speak." "Considering she's daft off her rocker, I doubt it," said Hecate warily, "she'll probably blow herself up in the middle of Diagon Alley trying to take a couple of Aurors with her." "Well until then, there is little we can do but hope to scare her out of hiding," said Dumbledore. "Listen," said Snape suddenly, "this is excellent news, but will we be able to leave anytime soon? As much as I love the castle, I would like to see home sometime soon."
Dumbledore nodded, "And I have no doubt that you shall, quite possibly as early as tonight." Snape settled back in his chair, "Good." Hecate frowned, "But...where am I supposed to go?" Dumbledore shrugged, "Wherever you want to." Hecate looked down for a minute, then looked at Snape, "Can...may I...stay with you, for at least a few days?" He looked at her strangely, "I expected you to." She let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you." "Well," said Dumbledore, standing up, "I think that's all for right now." Snape and Hecate saw this as their cue to go, "Thank you very much Headmaster," said Hecate. He smiled, and his half-moon glasses twinkled, "You are very welcome." He held up his candy jar, "Lemon drop?"
To Be Continued...