Big Brat
It was all his fault,
Introduced me to knowitall
And the cannibal
Oh, well...
By the time they started showing up,
I ran the risk of blowing up These times, these times get tough
So if i stay we're going to see who's had enough
By the time i needed backing up,
Ya he was watching, cracking up
This time, this time it's tough
Well here I am and now and I think I've had enough
Stand back Take that and that and that
You're always up to no good
Ya you're always up to no good
Well I was trapped in from all sides
Caught in a slew of massive lies
No, there is no escape, only flailing arms and bellyaches
When it all started coming down, tonight, or did you run and hide?
Well I guess that we all make mistakes, I guess I forgave you didn't I?
Stand back
You're such a big brat
- "Big Brat" by Phantom Planet
Dark and cold were the first sensations to greet Snape as his mind surfaced from slumber, His surroundings felt unfamiliar, the crisp scent of falling snow mingling with the smelt/heard presence of three males, human, directly upwind of him, making enough noise to cover the subtle approach of a forest troll. He tested his extremities one by one; arms, two, check; legs, two, check; tail-
Tail?
The orb lay on the table, almost complete. The final incantations awaited Draco's arrival, which should have been five minutes ago. Tardiness was a discourtesy common among Malfoys, the insufferable lot of them firm in the conviction that the world was made exclusively to suit their demands...
The disturbance in the wards he set and the soft click of the opening door interrupted his musings, and he turned away from the large work-table in front of him in time to see the blond Slytherin enter the room, the door closing behind him. Snape watched, amused, as a disoriented Malfoy cast a low-level Lumos in an attempt to see in the pitch black room.
"Were you followed?" Snape asked.
Draco turned at the sound of his voice and squinted in his direction.
"I don't think so. Would it have killed you to leave a light on?"
"Apparently. Ready?"
"Sure, fine, whatever."
"Don't be impudent. You're wasting time." Snape left the desk and walked to the center of the small room.
"Right, sorry sir," Draco's smirk disappeared as he walked toward Snape, stopping three feet from him.
"Fide et fiducia." Snape had drawn his wand and waved it in a complex pattern before him, outlining a series of many-turned Moebius arcs in front of him in red.
"Persta atque obdura." Draco answered the patterns, his wand encircling Snape's lines in silver.
"Potius mori quam perfidia."
"Consummatum est." The blending colors wreathed the two, flashing once before fading until only a circle on the floor around them remained.
"What did you wish to speak with me about?"
"You can't go tonight. He knows."
"I have no choice, Draco. He will not trust you if I am absent, and He must if this is to work."
"My father petitioned in my behalf for the...honor of killing you," Draco's voice wavered, he could no longer hold Snape's gaze.
"Then mine is your Mark-blood?"
"It won't be if you are not there."
"I must be. We will not get another chance."
"Whatever happened to the Slytherin code of self-preservation?" Draco's tone was light, but his eyes shone with bitterness and held-back tears.
"I am prepared to sacrifice myself if it will mean His death. My place in this war demands it." Snape gently put a shaking hand on the young man's shoulder, the most outward sign of affection either was accustomed to.
"You will be missed, sir." Draco's voice broke despite all his efforts to stay in control.
"Draco-"
A noise in the direction of the desk startled them. They turned to face- in Draco's case, for the second time in his life- the floating, bodiless head of Harry Potter. Snape was the faster of the two, aiming his drawn wand in the presumed direction of the rest of the-wizarding-world-savior-from-hell, muttering, "stupefy."
Potter, anticipating the attack, ducked to one side, taking the rest of the invisibility cloak, and the orb, with him. The rest of the Gryffindor Trio appeared out of thin air to his right, wands ready. Draco raised his wand at Weasley.
"Expelliarmus!" Before he could move out of the way, Weasley was thrown back against the desk. Granger retaliated, casting a quick rope bind on Draco before turning to Snape, who was trying to locate a once-again invisible Potter.
"Epoximise!" Snape's lunge was halted mid-air as his feet stuck in place, and he cushioned his fall with his arms just before his nose would have been forced to undergo a rather rude introduction with the floor. He scrambled for his wand, which had fallen just out of his reach in the corner of the room.
"Potter, you imbecile! Give me that!" Snape tore his feet from his useless shoes as Granger helped a dazed Weasley up. She turned toward Snape, but was not quick enough to prevent him from reaching his wand. He immobilized both Gryffindors with the same spell Granger had used, then turned his attention to Draco, struggling to free himself on the other side of the room.
"Finite Incantem." With three of four issues resolved, Snape began to search for the remaining pain-in-the-arse. A soft shuffle to his left caught his attention.
"Accio invisibility cloak!"
But instead of revealing the-dunderhead-who-refused-to-expire, a blinding white light engulfed the room, holding for a few seconds before dissipating, taking the occupants' consciousness with it.
Bloody fucking hell. Potter and Pals were very, very dead.
He opened his eyes with not a small amount of dread. He was now blessed with a long, spiky, black snout, and large claws clenched in front of him where his hands should have been. He flexed his back experimentally, which moved the stretches of leathery skin and bone which had been protecting his head. And there was the tail, coiled around one of his back legs. If this did not justify murder, nothing would.
He raised his head just enough to look in the direction of the squabbling boys. Two-thirds of the Potter troupe was sportingly attempting to beat the shit out of Draco. The Know-it-All was nowhere to be seen.
He crept slowly through the snow in their direction, making not a sound until his stomach protested its emptiness. He noticed that the Weasley boy was closest. Fresh student was beginning to sound appetizing. It really wouldn't do much harm, he reasoned, seeing as Albus would still have his precious Potter and the other third of the Gryffindor Triumvirate. In fact, there were at least a half-dozen more Weasleys where that one came from, and it probably wouldn't take much encouragement for the over-breeding parents to pop out another of the nauseating red-haired little beasts...
He was close now; the boys were too engrossed in arguing with each other to notice his approach. Should he swallow the boy whole, or bite him in half first? Damn, Potter had spotted him. Still, the fear he could smell on both of them would only add to the flavor. He grinned, showing off rows of impossibly-sharpened teeth, and gleefully taking in Weasley's pathetic expression of absolute terror as he stopped just short of the boy's frozen form. Let it sink in for a bit, count all the teeth that will shortly tear through flesh and bone indiscriminately- WHAM!
A growling red mass slammed into his left side, throwing him away from the boys. He blindly clawed back at the form, trying to extract his head and neck from the snow bank into which he fallen. He managed to repel the beast with his hind legs just enough to take to the air in strategic retreat, his attacker quickly following. Now able to assess his opponent, he noticed that he had been ambushed by a (Gryffindor) red dragon, a bit smaller than him, which one part of his mind acknowledged as female and filed away the information for future reference. At the moment, he was more concerned with the sudden blast of flame she had aimed at his eyes. He twisted, allowing the fire to explode harmlessly on his side, and launched a counterstrike, attempting to pin her wings.
They fought; biting, clawing, and blasting fire at each other through the air for what seemed an eternity, neither gaining the upper hand. He had a size and strength advantage, but her slighter frame maneuvered easier in flight. She would not evade him so easily on the ground.
He was reviewing various modes of grounding her when he was shocked by a sudden lick, then bite, in a VERY sensitive place. The dragon-half of his mind patted itself on the back, proud of its apparent irresistibleness, while the human half stuttered incoherently. She took advantage of his incapacitation by sending him snout-first in the same snow bank he had earlier freed himself from. He managed to lift himself out of the snow enough to witness the red dragon land next to Potter, pick him up in one giant paw, gaze calculatingly at him for a few seconds, then, with great care, singe the Boy-Who-Lived-Only-To- Be-a-Human-Hemorrhoid's eyebrows clean off.
It was all his fault,
Introduced me to knowitall
And the cannibal
Oh, well...
By the time they started showing up,
I ran the risk of blowing up These times, these times get tough
So if i stay we're going to see who's had enough
By the time i needed backing up,
Ya he was watching, cracking up
This time, this time it's tough
Well here I am and now and I think I've had enough
Stand back Take that and that and that
You're always up to no good
Ya you're always up to no good
Well I was trapped in from all sides
Caught in a slew of massive lies
No, there is no escape, only flailing arms and bellyaches
When it all started coming down, tonight, or did you run and hide?
Well I guess that we all make mistakes, I guess I forgave you didn't I?
Stand back
You're such a big brat
- "Big Brat" by Phantom Planet
Dark and cold were the first sensations to greet Snape as his mind surfaced from slumber, His surroundings felt unfamiliar, the crisp scent of falling snow mingling with the smelt/heard presence of three males, human, directly upwind of him, making enough noise to cover the subtle approach of a forest troll. He tested his extremities one by one; arms, two, check; legs, two, check; tail-
Tail?
The orb lay on the table, almost complete. The final incantations awaited Draco's arrival, which should have been five minutes ago. Tardiness was a discourtesy common among Malfoys, the insufferable lot of them firm in the conviction that the world was made exclusively to suit their demands...
The disturbance in the wards he set and the soft click of the opening door interrupted his musings, and he turned away from the large work-table in front of him in time to see the blond Slytherin enter the room, the door closing behind him. Snape watched, amused, as a disoriented Malfoy cast a low-level Lumos in an attempt to see in the pitch black room.
"Were you followed?" Snape asked.
Draco turned at the sound of his voice and squinted in his direction.
"I don't think so. Would it have killed you to leave a light on?"
"Apparently. Ready?"
"Sure, fine, whatever."
"Don't be impudent. You're wasting time." Snape left the desk and walked to the center of the small room.
"Right, sorry sir," Draco's smirk disappeared as he walked toward Snape, stopping three feet from him.
"Fide et fiducia." Snape had drawn his wand and waved it in a complex pattern before him, outlining a series of many-turned Moebius arcs in front of him in red.
"Persta atque obdura." Draco answered the patterns, his wand encircling Snape's lines in silver.
"Potius mori quam perfidia."
"Consummatum est." The blending colors wreathed the two, flashing once before fading until only a circle on the floor around them remained.
"What did you wish to speak with me about?"
"You can't go tonight. He knows."
"I have no choice, Draco. He will not trust you if I am absent, and He must if this is to work."
"My father petitioned in my behalf for the...honor of killing you," Draco's voice wavered, he could no longer hold Snape's gaze.
"Then mine is your Mark-blood?"
"It won't be if you are not there."
"I must be. We will not get another chance."
"Whatever happened to the Slytherin code of self-preservation?" Draco's tone was light, but his eyes shone with bitterness and held-back tears.
"I am prepared to sacrifice myself if it will mean His death. My place in this war demands it." Snape gently put a shaking hand on the young man's shoulder, the most outward sign of affection either was accustomed to.
"You will be missed, sir." Draco's voice broke despite all his efforts to stay in control.
"Draco-"
A noise in the direction of the desk startled them. They turned to face- in Draco's case, for the second time in his life- the floating, bodiless head of Harry Potter. Snape was the faster of the two, aiming his drawn wand in the presumed direction of the rest of the-wizarding-world-savior-from-hell, muttering, "stupefy."
Potter, anticipating the attack, ducked to one side, taking the rest of the invisibility cloak, and the orb, with him. The rest of the Gryffindor Trio appeared out of thin air to his right, wands ready. Draco raised his wand at Weasley.
"Expelliarmus!" Before he could move out of the way, Weasley was thrown back against the desk. Granger retaliated, casting a quick rope bind on Draco before turning to Snape, who was trying to locate a once-again invisible Potter.
"Epoximise!" Snape's lunge was halted mid-air as his feet stuck in place, and he cushioned his fall with his arms just before his nose would have been forced to undergo a rather rude introduction with the floor. He scrambled for his wand, which had fallen just out of his reach in the corner of the room.
"Potter, you imbecile! Give me that!" Snape tore his feet from his useless shoes as Granger helped a dazed Weasley up. She turned toward Snape, but was not quick enough to prevent him from reaching his wand. He immobilized both Gryffindors with the same spell Granger had used, then turned his attention to Draco, struggling to free himself on the other side of the room.
"Finite Incantem." With three of four issues resolved, Snape began to search for the remaining pain-in-the-arse. A soft shuffle to his left caught his attention.
"Accio invisibility cloak!"
But instead of revealing the-dunderhead-who-refused-to-expire, a blinding white light engulfed the room, holding for a few seconds before dissipating, taking the occupants' consciousness with it.
Bloody fucking hell. Potter and Pals were very, very dead.
He opened his eyes with not a small amount of dread. He was now blessed with a long, spiky, black snout, and large claws clenched in front of him where his hands should have been. He flexed his back experimentally, which moved the stretches of leathery skin and bone which had been protecting his head. And there was the tail, coiled around one of his back legs. If this did not justify murder, nothing would.
He raised his head just enough to look in the direction of the squabbling boys. Two-thirds of the Potter troupe was sportingly attempting to beat the shit out of Draco. The Know-it-All was nowhere to be seen.
He crept slowly through the snow in their direction, making not a sound until his stomach protested its emptiness. He noticed that the Weasley boy was closest. Fresh student was beginning to sound appetizing. It really wouldn't do much harm, he reasoned, seeing as Albus would still have his precious Potter and the other third of the Gryffindor Triumvirate. In fact, there were at least a half-dozen more Weasleys where that one came from, and it probably wouldn't take much encouragement for the over-breeding parents to pop out another of the nauseating red-haired little beasts...
He was close now; the boys were too engrossed in arguing with each other to notice his approach. Should he swallow the boy whole, or bite him in half first? Damn, Potter had spotted him. Still, the fear he could smell on both of them would only add to the flavor. He grinned, showing off rows of impossibly-sharpened teeth, and gleefully taking in Weasley's pathetic expression of absolute terror as he stopped just short of the boy's frozen form. Let it sink in for a bit, count all the teeth that will shortly tear through flesh and bone indiscriminately- WHAM!
A growling red mass slammed into his left side, throwing him away from the boys. He blindly clawed back at the form, trying to extract his head and neck from the snow bank into which he fallen. He managed to repel the beast with his hind legs just enough to take to the air in strategic retreat, his attacker quickly following. Now able to assess his opponent, he noticed that he had been ambushed by a (Gryffindor) red dragon, a bit smaller than him, which one part of his mind acknowledged as female and filed away the information for future reference. At the moment, he was more concerned with the sudden blast of flame she had aimed at his eyes. He twisted, allowing the fire to explode harmlessly on his side, and launched a counterstrike, attempting to pin her wings.
They fought; biting, clawing, and blasting fire at each other through the air for what seemed an eternity, neither gaining the upper hand. He had a size and strength advantage, but her slighter frame maneuvered easier in flight. She would not evade him so easily on the ground.
He was reviewing various modes of grounding her when he was shocked by a sudden lick, then bite, in a VERY sensitive place. The dragon-half of his mind patted itself on the back, proud of its apparent irresistibleness, while the human half stuttered incoherently. She took advantage of his incapacitation by sending him snout-first in the same snow bank he had earlier freed himself from. He managed to lift himself out of the snow enough to witness the red dragon land next to Potter, pick him up in one giant paw, gaze calculatingly at him for a few seconds, then, with great care, singe the Boy-Who-Lived-Only-To- Be-a-Human-Hemorrhoid's eyebrows clean off.