The Price
"SEVERUS SNAPE!" Lucius was ready to tear him in pieces, "I now have to take a leave of absence because of what you have done!!" His cold grey eyes narrowed, "And I won't be able to go on my date tonight with Medusa ether! Do you know why, Severus? BECAUSE I HAVE TO CORRECT HOMEWORK!! Yes, HOMEWORK!" He lifted his snake cane to club Snape with and successfully try to kill him.
"LUCIUS!" McGonagall pushed him away from Snape, "It's not worth it," she eyed Snape.
"What did you say to her, Severus?" Dumbledore made Snape move away from Lucius' reach.
"Too much..." Snape lowered his head.
"You really 'urt 'er feelings too," Hagrid shook his head. "She was outside in the cold, cryin'. She wouldn't even come inside and talk with me," he stood next to McGonagall. "'unter won' be comin' back, will she, Albus?"
"That scares me the most...the Ministry passed a law that will allow the Dementors to kiss anyone they find that belongs to Tom Riddle's group," Dumbledore looked to Snape, "With or without trial, they'll kill her either way..."
Snape looked up to Dumbledore, "What do you know?" McGonagall nudged Lucius and Hagrid to exit and wait outside; they obeyed without arguing; she followed them out the office door.
"She's a DeathEater...an old member but has just recently switched sides...and she's a vampire-but you knew that already," Dumbledore sat in his office chair. "With a good heart and she loves you very much..."
"Where is she?" Snape's face went paler than usual.
"Where ever you are...she's been checking up on you when you haven't been watching your back. She had no where else to go so I allowed her to stay- she hasn't come out of her room of course though." Dumbledore got up from his seat, "The so called 'attack' from a week ago is flashing in front of the Ministry...they're sending Dementors out today to check Hogwarts and a Ministry member will accompany them. One we all know too well, sadly..."
"Umbridge..." Snape growled.
Dumbledore nodded, "Correct. She's coming to question you...I think she'll use you to get to Hunter..."
McGonagall walked into Dumbledore's office, "The frog and her toads have arrived," she coughed sneakily to the two of them. "Should I hold Umbridge off for a while?" Snape ran to the door; he and Dumbledore nodded to her to do so.
"I'll get her out of here..." Snape promised to Dumbledore. He bolted through the hallways and went to his office to get something; his door was open; he pulled his wand out. He carefully walked in and his office door slammed shut behind him; he flipped around; "Avalon..." he sighed with relief.
Hunter tipped her head to Snape; her eyes were white as snow; "They'll get me..." she sighed unpleasantly. "One kiss and one silver bullet to the heart..." her hands were shaking, "Just like tha-that..."
Snape bit his lip, "I won't let that happen to you..." he heard footsteps approaching his office door. "Get behind me!!"
A rapping came on the door, "Professor Snape? Could I speak with you for a moment?" chimed a high pitch voice he knew all too well.
Hunter hid behind his desk; Snape opened the door slightly; Hunter pulled her wand out of her back robe pocket. "Umbridge! How good it is to see you," he lied coolly to her.
"Cut the act-where is that rabid, foul, creature that you know of?!" Umbridge growled to him.
Snape stared blankly at her, "If you're looking for Lucius-he's upstairs in the Dark Arts classroom..." he grinned menacingly to her.
Umbridge went bright red; "If you don't tell me where she is-I'll have these Dementors-with me here-do the talking instead..." she threatened him.
Snape shrugged, "I don't know anything...try-" A Dementor grabbed his throat to silence his lies.
Hunter appeared out of nowhere behind Snape, pointing her wand at the door; she yelled a spell and the door came crashing down on Umbridge and her Dementors. Snape fell to the ground; gasping for air once the door had crashed on his attackers. Hunter helped Snape up, "Come on!" she jumped over the paralyzed Umbridge.
"Take that you slimly, pompous, old, green toad-looking bitch!" Snape grinned as he jumped over her.
He followed Hunter upstairs and as she headed for the front doors at the Entrance Hall. He nearly tripped over her when she stopped without notice; she pushed him back. "Back-back!!" Hunter and Snape slipped behind a corridor and waited for the Dementors that were blocking their path to leave. "Shit...what are we going to do?" she paced back and forth, "They'll kill me-" she panted. Hunter leaned against a corner of the corridor and slipped to the stone floor, "I- I-" she looked up to Snape, "You-they'll take you too if-" Hunter went pale.
Snape kneeled next to her, "Hey...you'll be just fine...I'll make sure of it." He sat next to her, "I love you too much to let anything happen to you, Avalon..."
Hunter smiled weakly, "I've got an idea," she smiled evilly. "We're going to need everyone's help though," she smiled to him.
"Everyone? Including Lucius?" Snape raised an eyebrow to her; she nodded; "We're screwed then-new plan-I'll give myself up and-"
Hunter made him fall silent, "My plan will work. All we need to do is find someone who won't be seen very easily..."
"...And can fly through Hogwarts and go through walls without being noticeable...I think there's no one who-could..." Snape grinned, "Peeves," he beamed with his brilliant idea.
Hunter poked her head around the corner, "Dementors are still there so...we'll make a distraction like-" Hunter stood up and tossed her Wolfsbane potion bottle across the hallway; it clanked and clanged down the steps to the Dungeons area; the Dementors glided to the edge of the Dungeons to check what that noise was. "Run!" Hunter and Snape bolted across the hallway and went up the Grand Staircase. Hunter and Snape panted once they were out of sight, "T-he-only-way-out-will-be-the-roof. Can-you ride a-broom?" she asked him.
Snape nodded, "I'm a Quidditch referee whenever-"
"JUST SAY YES OR NO!" Hunter hissed to him, "You can tell me your life story when we're out of here...only quick replies now, okay?"
Laughter came from the staircase, "Oooooo-I can't wait to get Argus with this new prank I have-" Peeves cackled evilly. The ghost floated down the staircase; he yelped when Snape and Hunter hissed orders at him.
"Ssssh!" Hunter growled. "We need you to do us a favor and I'll repay you back as soon as possible," she begged him.
"Like what?" Peeves whined; they were ruining his plans on getting Filch back.
"Like-just shut-up and just do it or I'll make sure of it that the Bloody Barron won't be able to save you from what I would do to you-if you don't help us out!!" Snape yelled at the frightened Peeves.
"Okay..." Peeves squeaked in a small voice. He leaned in close to listen to Hunter whisper the plans to Snape and him, "Oooooooo..." Peeves grinned when she was finished; "This will be more fun anyways..." he beamed with an evil grin upon his transparent face. He floated through a wall next to Snape and went to tell everyone the plan.
Hunter and Snape waited behind the Grand Staircase for about seven minutes when they heard an enraged Umbridge screaming orders to her Dementors outside the Grand Staircase. They bolted upstairs to the first floor when Umbridge had spotted them scurrying to the floor. "THEY'RE ON THE FIRST FLOOR!" Umbridge screeched loudly.
"Run for it!" Snape cried as they dodged around a corner on the first floor. As they ran for the secret passageway that would take them to the fourth floor, Lucius stepped out of the shadows and nodded to the two of them that he would help them out. "You owe me," he growled to Snape as he slipped back into the shadows.
Umbridge and her Dementors came down the corridor in a mad dash; they all ignored everything else around them; they continued to run to the entrance of the secret passageway. Suddenly, Umbridge slipped across the stone floor and was sent to the ground screaming and flailing in anger. She rolled across the slippery stone floor and rammed into the four Dementors; knocking them to the floor also.
Lucius peeked around from a dark corner; holding a slime covered bucket in his hands; he shook his head at the sight. "Oops. How clumsy of me to do this..." He smiled, "I can't believe my bucket had a hole in it the whole time...no wonder it felt so light." He slipped back into the dark chuckling to himself about Umbridge's plump self not being able to push herself back up to her feet without four Dementor's help.
"We've lost them!" Snape cried in amazement, "I can't believe that git actually pulled it off!!" he smiled to Hunter.
They ran up the musty, stone steps and they slipped under a bookcase from a study room on the fourth floor. Hunter leaned against the bookcase and took small breathes of air; she sighed slowly; "Thirty years old isn't the greatest year to be running around like this..."
Snape smiled, "We're almost there! Come on, Avalon," he jogged to the doorway of the study room and peered around the corner, "It's clear...c'mon!"
Hunter rolled her eyes and they slipped across the hallway back to the Grand Staircase entrance. "SHIT!" Hunter grabbed Snape's arm and she pulled him up to the fifth floor.
"What? What?" Snape went pale and he looked around nervously, "What's wrong?"
Hunter and Snape went next to a door and they panted for a few moments when the air around them went from a nuke warm to a chilling breeze. "That's what's wrong..." she slightly turned her head to Snape and gave him an eye signal to move across the hall. "Go..." she hissed.
They ran across the hallway and the door they we leaning against swung open and three Dementors came storming towards them. Hunter pointed her wand at them; she froze when two more Dementors came from the sides of them and cornered Snape and her into a wall. "I'll take four and you take one, alright?" Hunter whispered to Snape as the Dementors closed in on them.
"WHAT?" he yelled at her.
"Fine-fine...you take two and I'll take three...happy now?" Hunter went pale when one more Dementor had joined the rest. "Severus-" her eyes went white, "I think we've lost..."
A loud whistle came from the other end of the hallway; "Hey!" yelled a young voice. "Why don't you pick on someone who's a real challenge huh?"
Snape watched the Dementors flip around and advance themselves upon the young problem. "I thought I'd never see this day..." he smiled.
Harry stood in front of the Dementors with his arms folded across his chest proudly, "Come on, I dare ya," he grinned to them. The Dementors looked to each other and they continued to go at Harry; the boy just stood there grinning at them.
Hunter sighed, "That boy gets an A in Dark Arts," she whispered to Snape as they creped across the hallway; trying to stay unnoticed.
Harry waited until the Dementors were ten feet away from him, "I thought you wouldn't be that pathetic and retarded," he laughed. A pair of silver antlers lifted above Harry's head, "Your loss," he stepped aside and his Patronus charged at the six Dementors and chased them back down the Grand Staircase.
"A PLUS POTTER!" Hunter yelled to him as she and Snape went through another passageway to the seventh floor.
They continued to slip through passageways until they had finally reached the steps that led up to the roof. Hunter ran up the stairs as fast as she could without looking back to even see if Snape was behind her. She kicked the door down that was at the top of the stairs and took a deep breathe of the fresh evening air. Hunter spotted the two brooms at the edge of the roof and she leaped in the air with excitement, "We've made it!!" she cried with joy.
She didn't hear any other noises behind her, "...Severus...?" Hunter went pale as snow when she turned around to see Snape. There was no one behind her; she was all alone; the cool night breeze lifted a dead leaf into the air where Snape should have been standing. "No..." Hunter looked back to the roof's door that was still open. Hunter cautiously walked back down the stone steps and saw a horrible sight at the bottom of the stairs.
"Nice of you to join us finally," Umbridge muttered under her breathe to Hunter. Snape was pinned to a stone wall by two Dementors and his wand laid on the ground next to his feet in pieces. He struggled to get free as the Dementors leaned closer and closer to his face; Umbridge yelled at the Dementors to not do anything to Snape yet; he continued to struggle free from their grips. "So-" Umbridge said in a cool, collective voice. "-You have two options here..." She lifted her chubby hand towards Snape who was still pressed against the wall by the two Dementors. "You can ether give yourself up and I'll let Professor Snape here go free..." she turned her hand away from Snape and pointed to the six Dementors that were standing behind her. "Or...I can let my Dementors take you down the hard way with Professor Snape." Her beady black eyes shinned evilly to Hunter as she scanned the situation with all of her options.
Hunter looked over to Snape; his eyes were telling her not to do what she was going to do; she snapped her wand in half and tossed it across the steps to Umbridge's feet. "Option one," Hunter growled bitterly to her as she lifted her hands in the air to be taken away. Umbridge signaled to the six other Dementors and they swooped around Hunter and tied her hands with silver chains and gripped her wrists, shoulders, and arms tightly to keep her from escaping.
"See? That wasn't so bad now was it?" Umbridge grinned to Hunter in a boasting matter. Umbridge glanced back to Snape who was yelling loudly and was fighting with the Dementors to get free from their grip. "Just kill him already..." she groaned to the two Dementors. "The Ministry will only know that they both resisted arrest..."
Hunter's eyes went blood red, "What did you just say?" she yelled at her. She wrapped her silver chains around one of the Dementors where its neck should have been and flipped him over her shoulder and she kicked one into the other four. The six were screeching as they fumbled over one another to get up quickly enough; Hunter was already face to face with Umbridge.
"Did you say kill him? I thought you said for me to kill you," Hunter growled to Umbridge in a dangerously low voice. Her blood red eyes glowed in the darkening room, "I don't like liars...do you?"
The side door bursted open and Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter, and Hagrid came pouring into the room. "SEVERUS!" McGonagall yelped in fright when she saw him pinned against the wall.
They all stopped when they saw Hunter growling at Umbridge with her fangs showing; "Hunter!" they all yelled at her.
Hunter took no notice of them; she kept her eyes on Umbridge; she caught Umbridge's hand signaling for the Dementors to kill Snape. Hunter took a step closer and grabbed Umbridge's plump throat with her right hand, "By the time you signal to your Dementors to kill Severus or I-you would already be dead on the floor with your throat cut. So-you have two options- Umbridge..." Hunter snapped to her. "Let him go now-and you can go ahead and kill me whichever way you want...or...I could let my fangs do the talking..." she hissed to tease Umbridge. "What will it be-froggy?"
Umbridge sighed loudly, "Let the professor go," she ordered to her two Dementors.
"Good show," Hunter grinned pleasantly, "Now let him go over with the rest of the group and I'll let you go peacefully." Her eyes were still blood red but her voice was calmer and smoother then it had ever been.
"Do it!" Umbridge snapped to the Dementors in a peeved expression.
The Dementors tossed Snape over to the others and the hooded creatures backed away from Snape; who was bloody and bruised all over from being held back. Hunter glanced over to Snape; he was lying on the ground gasping for air and McGonagall was helping Lucius Malfoy lift Snape back to his feet.
With a dark smile, Hunter released Umbridge's throat, "At least I keep my promises...and I'm only a half breed..." she smiled brightly to Umbridge to piss her off even more.
The Dementors pulled Hunter away from Umbridge when the Ministry worker snapped her fingers. Clearing her throat, she unpocketed two things, an old piece of parchment and a revolver; she read the parchment out loud. "For threatening a Ministry of Magic employee and attacking certain students at Hogwarts, Avalon Hunter is sentenced to Azkaban. If resisting arrest, I here by grant Miss Umbridge permission to use other means to make Avalon Hunter cooperate with the arrest. The Minister of Magic- Cornelius Fudge." Umbridge pointed to the roof, leading the Dementors up the stone steps with the revolver in her hand. "Let's make this quick," she mumbled.
"NOOOOOOO!!" Snape yelled at Umbridge; he leaped from the ground and was ready to tear her to shreds. "AVALON!!" He was pulled back by Hagrid, "I'LL KILL YOU!!" Snape cried at the top of his lungs; yelled at Hagrid to let him free; he continued to scream at Umbridge as she went upstairs.
Hunter was shoved up the stairs to the roof and everything went silent when all of the Dementors were on the roof with Umbridge and her.
Snape stopped screaming; he could hear his world dying; the gun shot rung in his ears. He went white and he could still hear the gun shot inside his head; he felt his world turning blacker; he felt Hagrid release his grip on him. Snape's eyes went cold and icy; they narrowed towards Umbridge when she was coming back downstairs; his fists were shaking. "I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Snape tried to tackle Umbridge but was pulled back by Hagrid; the half-giant pinned Snape to the stone wall to stop him from killing Umbridge.
The Dementors floated back down the stairs and helped their master back to her chubby feet; she was red hot from anger and purple from the lack of air. "Take-hi-m to the Ministry of Magic-immediately!" she yelped to her Dementors.
Hagrid stood in front of Snape to protect him from the Dementors but Dumbledore told him to not to start another conflict. The Dementors scooped up Snape and took him down to the seventh floor; Snape could care less.