Chapter Thirty-Two: The Burrow
The house was a catastrophe - bookshelves overturned, old tomes torn to bits, furniture smashed, drawers turned out onto the floor. From upstairs came the sound of further searching as, in typical form, the Death Eaters tore the house apart to gain any clues to their prey's whereabouts and acquire any items which might prove to be of use to their cause.
After the entire place had been gone over in this fashion, it would be razed to the ground, just to make a point. A quick glance at her surroundings and Emily curled her lip in disgust.
Not much of a loss, really.
Angrily, she shook the condescending thought aside. These people had been nothing but kind to her, and despite her innate dislike of their way of life, she really rather liked them. Except for Ron - nasty little brat. Still, by the gods, this house! One could barely call it that. Grimacing in revulsion, she moved on, trying to look less conspicuous than she felt.
The children had managed to escape detection so far; that was made obvious by the nonchalant attitude of the present occupants as they laughed and called out to one another about their findings or lack thereof. She made a mental note of the number of voices, most she didn't recognize, but a few were the kind one never forgot: Crabbe, Goyle - impossible to tell which was which - and was that Bellatrix Lestrange? If Lucius or any of the other higher-ranking Death Eaters were present, they were being unusually subdued.
I might just live through this, she thought wildly, trying to cheer herself with a bit of humor. It was impossible to do so, of course. What the hell she was doing there, risking her life for two kids she barely knew, was beyond her. It was doubtful that any of them would make it out, and even if they did, it was even more doubtful that they would then survive the war. Shaking her head at her own stupidity, she moved on.
Quickly, she made for the stairs, knowing that the likelihood of the little ones being hidden somewhere in the ruin of the first floor was almost nil. The second floor landing was blessedly clear of people, the body of the group moving steadily from room to room in both directions. Arbitrarily, hoping for some long-overdue luck, she turned to the left, now very thankful for the manner in which she habitually carried herself - straight and sure, head high, shoulders squared - body language which kept the others away from her and silenced questions before they were asked. As she progressed, they stepped aside and allowed her room to pass through the narrow passage, then continued on their way without a word. The rooms were in shambles, a turbulent ocean of scrolls and books and loose papers, everything turned inside-out and upside-down, occasionally even blown to bits. No one was hiding in there, that was certain.
Damn.
Two more rooms faced one another at the end of the hall, past a rickety stair spanning the second and third floors. It was to these that she hurried now, past a short, stocky, dumpy-looking creature who, even behind the mask, she knew to be Goyle. She let out a slightly nervous titter as she watched his eyes follow her stupidly. Severus had informed her at dinner one night that the younger Goyle was more like a twin than a son to his father, and she felt a stab of pity for the poor child. When was something going to be done about that unfortunate bloodline?
Suddenly her thoughts were stilled by a panicked shout of "Expelliarmus!" - a very young voice, suddenly filling her with dread, as the entire house, for a long moment, seemed to hold its breath.
She didn't register moving, only found herself standing in the doorway of the next room watching in horror a scene which, in any other circumstance, would've been hysterical: Ron Weasley holding two wands, his own in one hand, his adversary's - a tall, bony Death Eater - in the other, looking somehow shocked, horrified, and elated all at once as his opponent took a moment to recover from the surprise as well.
The moment lasted far too long as Emily stared helplessly at the terrified young man. If she rescued him and somehow managed to escape, the little girl was dead... and that was not acceptable. She had come here for a single purpose: to get Ginny, the bright-eyed little one with the mischievous grin who reminded her so much of Eric, out of harm's way. She had not come with any intention of rescuing Harry Potter's hateful little crony. There was no possibility of choosing Ron over Ginny. The boy was doomed to endless torment as Voldemort used him as a weapon against his parents, of that there was no doubt. His only hope lay in one of the Death Eaters being stupid enough to...
"Avada Kedavra!"
She couldn't help but watch, couldn't stop the spread of grim satisfaction as the boy's body dropped unceremoniously to the floor and a deep voice from directly behind her began to violently berate the responsible wizard for not stunning the boy and taking him prisoner. Always quick to recover, the host had already converged on the small study where Ron Weasley had hidden, but Emily was moving on, slipping quickly and quietly down the hall, anticipating the order to search the house for any others. By the time that order came, she had gained the stairs and managed to be the first pair of eyes on the third floor and in the first room on the hallway.
Carefully she searched what had to have been the girl's bedroom for any sign that she'd been here recently as others moved past, laughing and calling to one another, eager for more sport. Shaking her head in disgust at the jeering voices, she turned to leave just as the shriek of a terrified young girl tore through the house, turning her blood to ice.
Tearing down the hall, taking grim satisfaction at shoving aside the stunned witches and wizards in the way, she reached the room just as Bellatrix Lestrange - for there was no mistaking the shrill laugh that bled from beneath the mask - raised her wand to strike. Emily didn't think, for a single thought would've taken too long, just snapped up her own wand and spoke the unforgivable words that sent the witch's bony frame crumpling like a rag doll against the back wall.
Immediately, she sealed the door in the face of the wizard who stood there gaping, then covered the seal with her nastiest ward. That would hold them - at least for a little while.
"Are you hurt?" she asked Ginny, who seemed to be attempting to back through the stone wall behind her. The girl merely gaped in terror as her feet edged her along the wall toward the door.
"Ginny, for Mab's sake!" she began violently, but the girl's tongue was suddenly loosed.
"She's not dead!" she shouted, pointing suddenly over Emily's shoulder.
Whirling about, she had barely a second to focus as Bellatrix, standing impossibly tall and straight, her wand pointed unwaveringly at Emily's heart, opened her mouth to speak. Emily was on top of her, bearing her to the ground, before the words could be loosed. A quick shift of her finger brought the hidden blade sliding from it's sheath within her wand and immediately she buried it to the hilt through the witch's eye and deep into her brain, a satisfying gush of warm blood washing over her hand.
"She is now," Emily panted, a little disturbed by the rush of pleasure she felt as she slid the blade free.
The door quaked violently then as a formidable spell collided with the ward, reverberating through the walls like the sound of a muggle cannon. Quickly, she reinforced the magic, then turned back to Ginny, hoping to Mab that the spell would hold until they found a way out. A chuckle escaped her as she caught sight of the little girl eyeing her with great trepidation even as her hand closed around a letter opener from the desk. She laughed outright, a nearly panicked outburst, when the makeshift dagger was brought to bear, brandished with all the bravado and grand stupidity of a cornered Gryffindor. A Slytherin child would've been bargaining by now, but not a Gryffindor. The concept rarely even occurred to them. Why in the hell didn't she have her wand with her, anyway?
"If I were planning to hurt you, Ginny, I wouldn't have saved your life," she scolded lightly, her tone belying her own fear as spell after vicious spell exploded over her already weakening ward.
"Miss Grey?" the girl breathed incredulously, her fair face brightening as if Dumbledore himself had come to her rescue.
"It's Emily, kitten," she answered absently, now stalking the room as she searched for a thin outer wall whose destruction wouldn't send the house crashing down about them. The discovery of a small, soot-encrusted hearth in the corner of the room brought a smile to her face. There might just be enough floo powder left in her pouch for both of them. There was certainly enough for the little girl.
"You know where Headquarters is?"
Ginny immediately understood. "There's no floo powder," she argued, obviously frustrated.
"I have the powder, kitten, but I don't know..." another boom shook the floor and she fell silent as they struggled to keep their feet. Knowing that anywhere was safer than here, Emily tossed in a small handful of floo powder and shoved the girl none too gently toward the green flames. For a moment, the little one looked back, uncertain.
"Go!" Emily shouted, her cry lost in the shake and shudder of the endless barrage.
"Number twelve, Grimmauld Place," Ginny choked out, crouching into the tiny hearth.
Emily breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the vanishing girl - a sigh that ended as her lungs emptied in a rush of panic.
The door was blown to pieces in the next instant, showering her in its splintered remains.
"I'm quite convinced that Miss Grey is trustworthy, Headmaster," Severus stated soberly, eyeing the silent group with barely-disguised loathing. "However, I do believe that it is premature to even suggest that she join the Order, nor should she be employed to gather information. Her loyalties are... not as stable as one might wish."
"Yet her devotion to you is unmistakable," Lupin chimed in serenely.
Severus forced down a great sigh of exasperation, glancing for an instant at the finger on which he wore the concealed ring - an incredibly unexpected sign of her devotion. Would that things were not so bloody complicated! He would've accepted before she'd even finished the question. But, things being what they were - well, it didn't do to be impetuous about anything.
Presently, he had to worry about stopping this conversation before it got out of hand. After the hurried induction of three new members from the Wizengamot, the meeting had wound down and talk had somehow turned to the subject of better ways to profit from the presence of yet another slightly reformed Death Eater.
Better way to use her is more like it, he seethed inwardly.
"Her loyalty to me as a childhood friend has very little to do with anything," he returned coldly, staring the man down with a look that had the others squirming uncomfortably. Remus, however, met the gaze calmly with an equanimity which shifted out of place only in the rarest of circumstances.
Damn the man!
"It should be decided, then," Dumbledore began, turning Snape's attention away from the infuriatingly indefatigable gaze, "whether she should be permitted to answer when Voldemort summons her again... for he will do so. And, if we decide that she cannot be employed within his circle, then we must decide how we shall restrain her from rejoining her master."
Severus ground his teeth in fury. "You intend to set her free only to imprison her once more?" he questioned, making certain to keep his voice carefully neutral.
"She is still, despite her recent actions, a wholly unrepentant Death Eater, Severus," Dumbledore declared ruefully. "If, Merlin forbid, you were ever lost to us, she would return to the arms of her master in an instant, betraying every..."
The rest of Dumbledore's argument was lost as the hearth behind him suddenly roared to life with vivid green flames and a tiny figure shot through in a tremendous belch of smoke which wholly obscured the room as the trespasser slid across the floor, crashed into and upended several chairs in its path.
Immediately, there followed a rushing scrape of wood on stone as dozens of chairs were pushed back from the table, the entire Order gaining its feet, wands trained on the likely location of the small intruder. With a terse command, the smoke vanished and the room fell cold and silent for a long moment. Then the figure raised its tear-streaked face.
"Ginny!" Arthur Weasley shouted, diving for the girl and scooping her up into deceptively strong arms. "Ginny darling, are you hurt? What happened?"
Before she could answer, the hearth roared to life once more, bathing the room in emerald light as a second figure came hurtling through, rolling to a stop at the feet of Alastor Moody who immediately stepped back out of reach, his wand trained and deadly. The smoke was cleared again, more quickly this time and the room took a collective gasp at the sight of the Death Eater, rising like a grim specter before them.
A black wand clattered noisily to the floor, echoing in the silent room as bloodstained palms turned outward in an air of surrender. Green eyes behind the bone-white mask swept the room, suddenly noticing over a dozen wands and the furious looks behind them as Dumbledore stepped forward, livid and shaking with rage. The eyes rested only a moment on the fearsome elder wizard, then continued to search the room until they found what they sought.
A sigh of relief was released , then a shivering whimper. "Sev," the robed figure called piteously, slicing through the potions master's cold exterior in an instant.
Emily! How the devil?
Suddenly, she surged forward, her arms outstretched to embrace him, then toppled like a stone as a bellowed stunning spell tore her from her senses.
Gods, her head ached!
And, her back.
She rotated her eyes behind the lids and groaned.
Merlin, even her eyes hurt!
What in the name of ... ?
"Snape," Lupin's voice called tersely. "She's coming 'round."
Suddenly, a rough, cold hand was patting her cheek none too gently. "Emily? Emily!" Severus snapped quietly. "Wake up this instant! I need to know what happened, before..."
Irritably, she batted his hand away. "Knock it off, Sev!" she growled, bringing a hand to her head to try and rub away the sharp throbbing. "Who did this?"
"Molly Weasley," he returned, obviously a bit more sharply than he intended, for his tone immediately cooled. "Thought you were coming for her child," he finished, handing her a goblet of steaming chocolate. "There's an analgesic in that. Drink it quickly."
Instead, she slammed the cup on the table beside the chair in which she'd been placed. "I'll have you know I saved that girl's life."
"We are well aware of what occurred with Bellatrix." Dumbledore's voice, cutting in from the doorway and unusually petulant, drenched her suddenly in a cold bath. "Including your first abortive attempt to take her life with a curse whose singular use could send a witch to Azkaban for life." The elder wizard rounded the chair in a flurry of robes which, usually sparkling, now shone with a menacing glow, like the last embers of a great fire. "You saved her life. That cannot be denied. But if you imagine for an instant that that absolves you of blame for the manner in which you went about it, particularly with your violent history, you are gravely mistaken."
"Headmaster, please," Lupin broke in anxiously from behind her chair. "She is not the cold-blooded killer you believe her to be. In considering her violent history, specifically the death of her brother, certain peripherals must be taken into account."
Severus' eyes widened in shock at the revelation of Lupin's unexpected knowledge, then narrowed just as quickly, fixing Emily with a malicious glare.
Oh, Perfect!
"Remus!" she broke in furiously, not believing that he would so easily betray the trust she had shown him. "Have you gone mad?"
"Emily, you must tell them what happened. You don't understand the danger..."
"That will do, Remus!" she cut in furiously, trying to rise, but held in place by strong hands squeezing her shoulders as if in warning.
Blue eyes, normally so warm and fatherly, now sparked with an inner fire. "I quite agree. This has nothing to do with her brother's murder," Albus said sharply, leveling a dangerous look in her direction. "What has happened to Ronald Weasley?"
"The same thing that happens to any fool who challenges the Dark Lord's chosen," she spat, too tired to give a damn about her tone.
The fire in his eyes sputtered. "He isn't..."
"Dead," she finished with a savage indifference.
White lids closed over blue eyes as the wizened head bowed in sorrow, then slowly, he rose. "It's as we feared," he whispered brokenly to Remus whose hands now lightly stroked her hair as if to offer silent comfort. "I will go and ... inform them."
"What of Emily?" Severus asked.
"Miss Grey remains in your custody," Dumbledore returned angrily. "Unarmed." Her heart skipped a beat. This wasn't a promising beginning. "On your life, Severus Snape, if she procures a weapon or more floo powder. If she escapes..."
"She will not," he answered tightly, a dangerous edge to his voice. "Not again."
"She will remain in your custody until the task is complete," the Headmaster continued coldly. "Remus will be joining you tomorrow morning to assist. You will go nowhere. You will do nothing except seek and destroy the last circle. When the assignment is completed, I will gather the Wizengamot and we will decide whether Miss Grey will return to Azkaban to complete her sentence."
"Headmaster..." Severus began furiously.
"Severus Snape," Dumbledore cut in quietly, in a tone which, nevertheless, brooked no argument. "She is far too quick to leap into darkness, to take the easiest path." He shook his head slowly, studying her carefully. "She has blinded us all to the truth of what she is. While she is not a malevolent witch, Miss Grey made her choice long ago. And that has left us with little choice at all." His gaze returned to Severus, then, his eyes gentle once more. "I am truly sorry, Severus, but she does not possess your strength of character, and I do not feel that she can be trusted with the freedom you so greatly desire for her."
A wrinkled hand rested for a moment on the potion master's shoulder. "That is my final word on the matter."
coffeedreams:
Wow, thanks, coffeedreams! I really appreciate the good word. Sweeties like you just keep me typing.
Oya:
Large Mansion. Impervious meeting room. Sorry. No can do. Sigh. If only my character's lives were that simple. Nah. You guys would be bored to tears and not read my work any more. Then I'd get all depressed and eat lots of chocolate and stop working out and start watching TV (yuck) and my hair would fall out and ... oh ... heh heh. Sorry.
bluebird161221:
Dinatyne: No brain-zapping... this time. The Weasley kids are really that dumb. I'm tickled pink that you enjoy the relationship between Sev and Emily. I hoped that it would at least be unique. I assure you that you're not the only one whose glad I'm back. I missed you guys like crazy!
Elessar Evenstar:
Well, I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it. I know I had fun writing it. Thank you so much for the compliments. If those don't keep my fingers typing, nothing will. I'm so glad that you're so warm toward the dark side. I know I'm a fan. Find it in your heart to forgive Emily. She's trying to hold on to the most difficult man in the world. Poor girl. Thanks for the good word and invitation to chat. I may just take you up on that. My life has been put back in order now and I'm starting to merge back onto my own highway. Soon, I'll be back up to par. Yay, me!
Sesshomaru's Angel:
I'm glad you're feeling better, sweetie. Hope this update was fast enough for you.
dalamis:
Thank you for the kind words. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story. Reviewers like you are the reason I write.
Winter Celchu:
Hi. Thanks for chiming in. I really appreciate the compliments. I'm fond of cliffies, and I'd apologize but I just, in good conscience, do so. Messing with my readers is just too fun.
Lady Jenilyn:
Oh, come on, at least he took her virginity in a warm, fuzzy way. That's about all the fuzz I can stand without choking. I know what Severus would have answered had Fawkes not interrupted, but I'm not telling. As for the Order, hmm... I suppose I'll say that I can't see Emily joining the Order, particularly now. Of course, whether she doesor not is entirely up to her. I'm just the storyteller. Thanks for being there for me during this insanity, sweetie. Just knowing that you were out there and that you cared made a big difference.
1lonelyangel:
Thanks for the good word. You're right. Jenilyn usually has the proper measure of things. That's why her own story is so great! Hopefully this chapter answered your questions about why Death Eaters were in the house. Whoa! Those do look kinda like a single sentence. That's freaky. I think I have located that convenient opening you wanted.
sevrox:
Wow. That's a lot of info and inquiries in such few words. I'm glad to be back as well. I missed you guys. Glad you liked the love scene. I always enjoy writing them. The man in the portrait was a Weasley ancestor, probably hung up in one of their rooms now that they're staying at Grimmauld Place. I'm so pleased that the Alex stories are such a hit. I am outlining a third and final story which I'll begin when this one is finished. Hope to see you there.
emerald sparrow:
I'm thrilled to be back as well, sparrow. I have missed you guys like crazy. Hope this update was fast enough.
Captain Oblivious!:
Ginny deserved the smack on the head. She really was that stupid. I can relate to not being overly fond of the more technical side of English. Grammar is not a huge problem for me, but my spelling sucks! I can only hope that I'm a "POOF" English teacher when I finish. Thanks for the good word, Captain O.