He felt a piercing burning somewhere. Slowly he opened his eyes. It took him quite a time to locate it; it was coming from his left forearm. He dropped the thing his right hand had been clutching and hastily removed his leather arm protective. With some amazement he stared at a jet black skull with a snake protruding from its mouth, which had been burnt into his skin. Why did it hurt him? And what did it mean? He didn't know.
And where was he? What was he doing there? He picked up the thing he had just dropped. It was a bloody dagger. Bloody? What had he used it for? Was he in danger maybe?
He decided to ignore the burning in his forearm. Maybe it would stop soon. Instead, he climbed out of the pit he had been lying in and looked around. He was in a rather gloomy forest with thick undergrowth. Only some twenty steps away or even less, a female figure was twitching in pain, with blood oozing from her side. As she saw him, she pointed a long, thin finger at him and croaked: "You? You again? You gangster! Didn't have enough, did you?" And she lifted up a heavy wand lying beside her.
He did some quick thinking. In his hand, there was a bloody dagger. There was blood all over her clothes. She wanted to take revenge. Did this mean he was the one who had stabbed her? But why should he have done that?
Now the wounded woman pointed her wand at him with shaking fingers. "You'll regret it!" she threatened.
There was only one thought in his mind now: Run for it! And he ran. He didn't look where he was going, he just tried to get as much space between him and his obvious victim. Behind him, trees were shaken by powerful spells, but she couldn't hit him. he tore through the thickets as fast as he could; he didn't care about twigs hitting him and scratching his face. Finally he was so tired he couldn't go on anymore. Still he struggled on, but soon he fell to his hands and knees. Up he got, on he ran, but then the moment came when his legs wouldn't carry him anymore and his mind would think no other thought. He fell over and remained where he was, and the Duellist once called Severus knew no more.