Up From the Dust
Chapter 9: Shifting Thresholds
"Look, I'll admit it! He might have been a little arrogant, and conceited. But he was still my dad! You can't go insulting someone's father without making them mad."
Harry Potter and Severus Snape sat in the darkness, the bars of their shared cell wall separating them. Their debate had been going for nearly twenty minutes. What made it so incredible was that it was a relatively civil conversation.
Between Severus Snape and Harry Potter.
And neither of them was unconscious, or under the influence of alcohol or a Cheering Charm .
"You took after him," said Severus wryly. "You're just defending yourself by proxy." Potter crossed his arms.
"That's not true! I don't even remember him!"
"They why are you defending him?"
"Wouldn't you defend your own father?" Potter asked.
In the dark, Severus rolled his eyes. "No," he said.
"See, I told-" started Potter, then cut himself off. "No? Why not?"
"None of your business, Potter."
"If you hadn't noticed, we're going to die. You might as well make conversation." In fact, the bizarre lack of hostility between the two was quite disconcerting. Well, thought Severus, certainty of death does strange things.
Severus sighed and looked over at the boy. "My father was an unpleasant, power-hungry, sarcastic, cruel, and heartless bastard," he said.
"So that's where you get it from," muttered Potter. Realizing what he had just said, the boy closed his eyes. He looked like he expected fireworks from Severus. When Severus remained quiet, Potter looked over to see a surprisingly thoughtful look on his face.
Severus had never really given it much thought, but actually, he was a lot like his father.
"I suppose you're right," he said slowly. "I certainly didn't take after my mother."
Just then, a faint light appeared in Snape's cell. The light quickly coalesced into the form of an unconscious human being, much to the surprise of Severus Snape. Seconds later, another form appeared in the cell, nearly atop the first.
The two people were Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
Potter looked stricken. "Oh no…" he said softly. Severus, ignoring the sleeping friends for a moment, raised an eyebrow at Potter.
"They've been captured too!" Harry cried despondently. The two sleepers remained unaware of the noise.
"No, Potter," said Severus. "Are you daft? They're fully clothed and armed."
"They are?" Potter pressed himself against the shared cell wall, peering through at his friends.
Looking down, Severus briefly wondered which one he wanted to listen to less. Although Granger was a know-it-all, she probably knew more than Weasley did. Kneeling next to her, Severus gave Granger a slight shove. The young woman groaned but didn't wake. Severus shook her harder, and she opened her eyes and sat up lethargically, holding her head in her hands. As had Potter before her, however, she quickly snapped out of the potion-induced fog and looked around her. Her eyes, upon finding Severus and Harry behind him, lit up with triumph.
"Miss Granger, what on Earth are you doing here?" asked Severus in his most professorial tone. The smile dropped from Granger's face to be replaced with uncertainty.
"We're… um… here to save you," she said, Severus's voice driving the certainty out of her own.
"And precisely how do you intend on doing that?" he asked, gesturing toward the cell walls surrounding them.
"Well, we… brought our wands," she said, waving hers in the air.
"Does anyone know you left the castle?"
Granger was silent. Oh, gods. For an insufferable know-it-all she had the strangest lapses in practicality.
"So the two Gryffindors have come to save the day, once again, without any assistance from an adult, or gods forbid it, the Ministry? Honestly, Granger, I would have thought someone with your lack of social finesse would have at least made up for it with common sense."
"I don't see her chained to the wall," came a grumbling voice from the floor. Weasley got up stiffly and drew his wand, walking past Severus and over to Potter.
"You all right, Harry?" he asked.
"I guess so," said Potter, still in shock at seeing his friends. "If you don't count being scheduled for a human sacrifice on the night of the new moon." Granger and Weasley exchanged a look.
"What?" asked the two prisoners.
"It's the new moon tonight. It's around six o'clock now. We have to-" Hermione's comment was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Lucius Malfoy entered the room, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy held his wand in his right hand and a long dagger in his left.
The dumbfounded looks on Crabbe's and Goyle's faces were offset by the look of deadly intent on Malfoy's. Without a word, he raised his wand toward the prisoners.
- - - -
Hermione was on her feet in the blink of an eye. Drawing her wand, she cried "Accio Malfoy!" Malfoy let out an undignified yell as he dropped the dagger, flew through the air, and crashed head-first into the bars of Snape's cell. She quickly repeated the summoning charm for the slower Crabbe and Goyle, leaving three unconscious Death Eaters in front of her cell.
"Let's get out of here," said Ron. "There'll probably be more coming."
"Right," said Hermione. In seconds, she had unlocked the prisoners' manacles and burned holes in the front of both Harry's cell and the one that imprisoned Snape, Ron, and herself. Harry and Ron practically jumped out of their cells, whereas the professor moved more slowly and grasped at the remaining cage bars for support. Hermione looked back as Snape exited the cell, taking in his wet, disheveled hair, cut forehead, and shaking hands with a subtle glance. Hermione was a quick study, and not just when it came to books. Somehow she doubted Snape and Harry had simply been kept imprisoned for two days, and Snape's appearance hinted loudly at torture.
"Your shirt is all wet," she ventured as the professor exited his cell.
"I must commend you for your observational skills, Granger. I was unaware that my shirt was wet, but now that you've enlightened me, I'll be sure to start noticing the cold."
After six years, Hermione had begun to get used to Snape's sarcasm. Ignoring his comment, she turned her attention to the group as a whole.
"You two should be armed," she said, earning a muttered "obvious" from Snape. Turning toward the closed door, she gestured with her wand, calling out "Accio Harry's wand! Accio Snape's wand!"
"That's Professor Snape!" said Snape, leaning against the side wall. The three students froze for a moment, expecting further comment from the professor. Instead, Snape merely sank down onto the floor with his back to the wall. Hermione frowned slightly, as Snape wasn't usually the type of person to make himself comfortable around others.
"Professor-" she started.
"So how did you get here?" interrupted Harry. Hermione turned her attention to him.
"Well, Harry, the whole school's been in a panic since you disappeared," said Ron. "Nobody could figure out how you got out of the school through the anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards. There've been no classes or anything." Snape snorted from his place on the floor.
"And we realized that all of the professors were trying to find you by focusing on their respective fields of study," said Hermione. "But with Professor Snape missing, there were no people trying to use Potions to find you.
"So we did some research and found that a Summoning Potion could be used to transport a person to the location of another. It took me all of last night and today to brew it, and we used it to get here."
"I suppose that since you appeared in my cell, you linked the potion to me," said Snape.
"Right."
"So where did you get a sample of my blood? I wasn't aware I had started giving it away freely."
"Remember the demonstration you did for the Bezoar Restorative?"
"Of course I remember, Granger."
"Well, I managed to scrape some dried blood out of a crack in the table you put your hand on. It was barely enough, but it worked." Snape raised his eyebrows.
"If you had the wits to brew one of the most difficult potions ever created, why didn't either of you have the sense to tell Dumbledore?"
Hermione was silent for a moment.
"Well, sir, I…I suppose we've just gotten used to not telling. I didn't even think to inform the Headmaster."
"Of course you didn't think, Granger. Typical. You keep everything a secret, thinking it's all a joke, until somebody-" Snape was interrupted by the door's opening of its own accord, letting in two wands. Hermione, who had summoned them, handed them to Harry and Snape, who got back on his feet. Snape waved his wand in the shape of a question mark and asked, "Apparate okay?" The question mark shape drawn in the air turned red, then faded away..
"There is an anti-Apparation ward surrounding this place," he said flatly, without any real surprise. "We'll have to find another way." Without need for further consensus, the four left the room behind, complete with its cells and unconscious Death Eaters.
- - - -
Outside of the basement room was another, barer room, stacked with boxes and with a staircase at the other end. The group climbed the stairs and exited cautiously into a curious hallway: not at all what would be expected at the end of the basement stairs in a Muggle house. The door they had just exited was at one end of the hallway; several doors lined the corridor, and one stood out at the far end. Ron let the basement door shut behind them.
"Great. Now where?" asked Ron.
"How about the door at the end," said Harry. The three students and their professor made their way quickly down the hall and through the door, only to find themselves in another, identical corridor.
"Another corridor?" asked Ron, as he let the door close behind him. "I think we should head back the way we came." Turning around, Ron opened the door through which they had come, then jumped away from the doorway as if a nest of Acromantulas were on the other side.
What was on the other side was not a nest full of Acromantulas. However, it also wasn't the corridor that they had just left. It was, in fact, a bedroom, complete with pink canopy bed and plush carpet.
From the rear of the group, Snape cursed under his breath.
"This house must be under a Shifting Thresholds ward," he said. "Unless you've been spelled against the ward, any door you open can lead to a dozen different places. And I doubt any of those places will be an exit." Snape sighed. "Well, we can't afford to be separated," he said. His three students stood still and did nothing. "Get in then!" he snapped, motioning them into the frilly pink bedroom.
"There's a window here," said Ron as they entered. Striding over to it, he pulled aside the curtains. A second later he reeled back, stumbled, and fell onto the pink carpet. Mercifully, the curtains fell back into place, blocking the offending window from sight.
"I could have told you not to do that," said Snape, one hand on the wall. "The ward can have unexpected effects with windows and fireplaces. Do try to avoid scrambling what little brains you have unless you've found the front door."
"Well, what do you suggest?" asked Harry. "We're probably being searched for by now."
"Undoubtedly," said Snape. "We'll just have to keep going." Pushing off of the wall, Snape opened the door and held it as the three teenagers walked into what was now a bathroom. Leaving through the same door, the group entered another bathroom, then a study, a hallway, and a bedroom with a large, broken mirror.
"This is ridiculous," said Ron as they closed the door. Reopening the door, they were confronted with the same basement stairs they had recently climbed. Sighing, Ron walked down a few stairs to let the others in…
And disappeared.
"Ron!" Harry cried, stepping down to where he had just been. Hermione paled. I guess dried blood really doesn't work as good as fresh, she thought.
Snape, a step below Hermione, turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders with no little urgency. "Tell Dumbledore," he said to Hermione, making sharp eye contact. "Understand? Tell him!"
Hermione began to nod, but never finished. Snape was left grasping at nothing, and Harry wondered for a second whether the appearance of his friends had just been a hallucination.
The door above them opened, and both Harry and Snape looked up with dismay.
"Well, well… there you are," said Juliette MacBride Snape, standing next to a very put-out Lucius Malfoy. "Going somewhere?"
- - - -
In the staff room, Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick were discussing the possibility of combining a dispelling charm with a locator when the door burst open, admitting the seventh-year Gryffindor prefects.
Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley immediately began talking at the same time. Stopping, each gestured toward the other that he or she could speak. They immediately resumed speaking at the same time.
Ron quickly gave up and let his more articulate friend do the explaining.
- - - -
Three wizards and one witch stood on the half-lit staircase. Below stood Harry Potter, wand at the ready, and Severus Snape, wand hand shaking, but more than making up for it with pure scorn. Above stood a very unhappy Lucius Malfoy, his forehead a bloody mess and platinum blonde hair in uncharacteristic disarray, and a perfectly composed, deadly ice statue of a woman formerly known to the world as Snape's wife.
There were four highly skilled magic users on the stairs, and ironically, the most effective thing any of them did was not very magical at all.
Juliette took two steps downward and gave Harry Potter a shove, and like a pair of dominoes, he and Snape went down the stairs. The landing at the bottom of the stairs knocked the wind out of Snape; having Harry land on top of him didn't help.
"Go," said Juliette to Malfoy. Malfoy, looking annoyed, opened his mouth to protest.
"I can handle them," she said, waving a hand at the stunned pair at the foot of the stairs. As if to emphasize her point, Potter groaned from his place on the floor. "You, go see if the Dark Lord has finished preparing for the ritual." When Malfoy didn't immediately reply, Juliette spun around, pointing her wand at his crotch. "Now," she said in an icy tone.
Clenching his jaw and looking as if he very much wanted to protest, Malfoy turned and left, leaving Juliette along with Harry and Snape. Harry had moved from on top of Snape and had retrieved his wand, but was wary. He had already seen enough from this woman to know that a simple spell wouldn't be enough to take her out.
"You two little worms are both going to do-" she began down the stairs, "exactly," she stopped near the bottom, "what I tell you to." She pointed her wand at Harry.
"Corpus imperius!" Surprise lit on Juliette's face as the spell she was about to cast rang through the air. At its receiving end was Harry Potter; the caster was Severus Snape.
Harry caught on. "Remember what I taught you!" hissed Snape, as Juliette turned toward him.
"Corpus imperius!" cried Harry. His spell struck the Potions professor square in the chest, and Harry could tell immediately that it had worked.
"It's such a shame the corpus imperius can only be cast by one person," said Snape with false sincerity. Undeterred, Juliette did what any Death Eater would do in that situation: She tried a stronger curse.
Unfortunately for her, she had been dead for the last sixteen years. That gave her almost no knowledge of Harry Potter or his resistance to a certain Unforgivable curse.
The second Juliette cast the Imperius curse on Harry, she was caught. Stuck in a battle of wills with the seventeen-year-old, she neglected to take notice of the wand trained on her until she had been blasted off her feet by Severus Snape.
Dropping her wand, Juliette tumbled down the last few stairs and landed where Snape had just been.
- - - -
Slightly lightheaded, Severus approached his wife, who lay reeling at the foot of the stairs. As he came to stand over her, a look of disbelief crossed her features.
Without hesitation, Severus cast a curse on Juliette that left her concentration shattered, ensuring that she would not be performing any wandless spells for quite some time. He also cast the rather juvenile, but effective Jelly-Legs Jinx on her.
Severus was not in very good physical condition: every nerve he possessed felt as if it had been singed with a hot iron, his chest hurt from inhaling water, he had a large cut on his forehead, he hadn't eaten in two days, and his left hand was still burned. Nonetheless, for all her magical power and capability for physical fighting, Juliette was a very small woman. Severus bound her hands behind her and hauled her to her feet with little trouble. With Harry Potter trailing behind, Severus re-entered the second basement room, slamming Juliette into the remains of Potter's cell.
"You got overconfident," he said. "You may be powerful, but you're still human. You should have kept Malfoy with you."
"You got lucky," she retorted venomously. "You're… nothing compared to me."
"I do believe I've tied you up and left you quite helpless, Juliette. That would support an argument to the contrary."
Juliette laughed coldly. "You're just a little worm, Severus, wriggling in the dirt. The Dark Lord will find you," she said wobbily, her knees threatening to give out. "He'll make you wish Malfoy had gutted you when he-"
Letting go of her robes, Severus backhanded Juliette across the face; without support, she fell to the floor in a semi-upright position.
Severus leaned over his wife, one hand braced against the bars of the cell. "I want a divorce," he said slowly, a cold, mirthless smile creeping over his lips. His voice was edged with a deadly certainty as he pointed his wand at Juliette.
"Um… Professor?"
Severus was wrenched from his moment of cold triumph by the sound of his student and fellow prisoner's voice. "We need to get out of here, Professor," continued Potter from behind Severus's back.
Severus looked over his shoulder at a rather pale-looking Harry Potter. The boy had a hand to his forehead. "Go back in the other room," Severus told him flatly.
"What are you going… to…" Potter trailed off at the look in Severus's eyes. He knew who Juliette was, and what she was. So he knew what Severus was going to do. He backed out of the room slowly, leaving Severus and Juliette alone.
Severus returned to Juliette, who still sat limply against the cell wall. Once again, he pointed his wand at her forehead.
"You must understand the necessity of this," he said, his face expressionless. "I can't let you live. Not with what you've done."
Juliette sneered up at him. "You don't have the balls to murder me," she said arrogantly.
"I haven't killed anyone in a long time," he agreed. "I hope you'll be the last." Summoning all of his will, he prepared to cast the Killing Curse, to speak two words that hadn't left his lips in over a decade.
And he found that he couldn't do it.
Several seconds ticked by, and Juliette began to laugh at him. "I told you, Severus!" she laughed, getting shakily to her feet as Severus placed his wand back in one of his deep pockets. Even weakened, fuzzy-headed, and with her hands tied behind her, Juliette managed to be condescending.
So caught up in her condescension was Juliette, however, that she took no notice of Severus as he took a quick, decisive step toward her. She didn't see the flash of movement at Severus's right side until it was too late.
Time seemed to stop for that moment, locking Severus's gaze on the face of his wife. Severus peered into her brown, human eyes, watching the disbelief coalesce there, watching as pain crowded out the disbelief.
Silently, Juliette raised a hand to Severus's face, her fingers brushing against the few days' worth of beard stubble on his cheek before falling back. It was a human touch, born of desperation and suddenly realized mortality.
Severus only let go of Malfoy's dagger as Juliette fell, the hilt slipping from his cold fingers, the blade embedded in Juliette's chest. Despite the evil and madness that lived within her, Juliette was a woman, and within her breast a heart had still beaten, human and breakable – a heart that could be stopped.
Shaking, Severus turned his back on Juliette and left the room.
A/N: Thanks to Suzuki-chan, Silverthreads, TEC, Sarah, and SiddaBJR for reviewing! You're providing me with motivation to write more Snapefics after this one. (I can't believe it's almost over – sniff!) I really appreciate your input.