Jailbreak
It was close to ten in the evening already when Severus knocked on the door leading to McGonagall's quarters.
"Come to pay me my winnings?" She asked as soon as she had opened the door.
"Yes, at least if you'd be willing to accept a down payment of about five Sickles; I'm afraid that's all I have with me right now."
"I'll rather wait until you're able to pay a at least a full Galleon." She replied with a smile. "So what did you actually come to me for?"
"Actually I came here to ask you if you would mind exchanging your Tuesday afternoon class for Trelawney's Friday morning."
McGonagall just gave him a questioning look in return.
"I won't even attempt to explain it because it's really complicated, I have to admit I don't understand it myself anymore, but if you would do that then I would somehow get a Monday afternoon instead of a Tuesday morning." Severus added.
"As long as you are sure that it's going to work out that's fine with me." McGonagall replied. "I just wonder why we spend hours discussing over a schedule just to knock everything over again a few days later."
Severus shrugged his shoulders. "Someone seems to have changed his mind."
"Someone always does, each and every year; and it's never me."
"I didn't start it either." He said. "I'm just taking advantage of it."
"Well, as I said, for all I care do what you want but just make sure it works out. I never again want to spend the first day of term trying to figure out what to do with my second years and my sixth years in the same classroom at the same time."
Severus had to smile at that; she had been really annoyed that day. And he had been more than happy that he hadn't been responsible for that glorious mess of a class schedule. "No need to worry, as far as I know someone has worked out a perfect plan, although I have no idea who that someone is." He said and slowly took a step backwards. "Just one more question before I leave: You don't happen to know what exactly Fudge was doing here?"
"He came here to have a talk with the headmaster about the new situation and what influence it would have on the school." McGonagall replied curtly. "Although the situation isn't really as new to us as it is to him."
Severus frowned at her. "If you don't want to give me a straight answer, just tell me it's none of my business."
"I just gave you a straight answer."
"And why do they have to spend two hours walking about the castle if they just want to have a little chat?" Severus inquired.
"I suppose the Minister wanted to get an impression of the security measures in the school." McGonagall replied and sighed at his skeptical expression. "Severus, all I know is that they wanted to discuss the realisation of the new Ministry security guidelines, so if that's not a satisfactory answer to you I suppose you will have to ask the headmaster himself. But please keep in mind that your dislike for Fudge is not reason enough to suspect him of anything."
"What sort of security guidelines?"
"Oh, the Ministry sent us a five foot parchment with recommendations on how to guarantee our students' safety during the term, inside and outside of the castle." McGonagall replied, sounding not very delighted about it. "As if we needed their advice."
"It can't get worse than Umbridge, can it?" Severus said.
"Didn't I once or twice hear you say that you liked her?" She asked.
"What you probably heard me say was that I liked her way of dealing with Potter's insolent behaviour and that I personally found it pretty, well, amusing to watch her desperate attempts to gain control over anything or anyone in this school."
"Yes, yes, that must have been it." McGonagall said and smiled at him. "Wouldn't you like to come in for a cup of tea rather than standing in the doorway?"
"Thank you, but I think I've taken up enough of your time already." Severus replied. "And I'll have to take care of rearranging my class schedule now." He gave her a courteous smile and indicated a bow before he said "Good night.", turned around and vanished down the corridor.
Only three days later he was summoned again. It was past midnight already and the Dark Lord's call had woken him from his sleep. Had it been anything else that had pulled him out of his nightmares he would have been thankful but like this he knew that reality could be even worse than the memories that were haunting him night after night. He got out of his bed, put on some clothes and only a few minutes later he was on his way out of the castle to go where ever his master wanted him to be tonight.
Severus soon found out that it was somewhere he hadn't been in quite a long time, not for at least fifteen years. And where he hadn't really wanted to ever be again. The Dark Lord had often gathered his servants here before his downfall but not once since his return over a year ago. Still, nothing had changed here, and nothing ever would. This place had been touched by an Evil strong enough to steal all life from it and never again would birds be populating these dying trees that surrounded the lonely graveyard or would any other sign of life be seen here. Definitely not by a Muggle anyway; for decades none of them had come here to keep company with the forgotten souls buried in the misty shadows of the old church. It really was a place that suited the Dark Lord perfectly.
Not too far away he saw someone else apparating and hurrying through the undergrowth towards the church, realised he had been lingering on the spot for a little too long already and set into motion. He was convinced most of the others were here already, after all they only had to get out of bed in the middle of the night whereas he had to take quite a walk through the castle and across the grounds before he could disapparate.
The Dark Lord definitely was here already, waiting for his Death Eaters. Severus could sense his master's presence, sense that nameless evil that surrounded the Dark Lord. It was an ancient evil, older than time itself, and it made his master so much more than just a vicious dark wizard; and everyone who had ever looked into the Dark Lord's eyes knew that.
It was completely silent inside the old church and he could hear nothing but the echo of his own footsteps. Severus strode across the hall, staring at the ground and looking neither left nor right. He didn't have to look to know that he had just walked by the spot where Mackenzie Callahan had died. That had been so many years ago already, Mac couldn't have been older than eighteen or nineteen, even younger than he himself at that time. Severus still remembered that night very well. He had always known that he had been responsible for his death; he had made a mistake and Callahan had paid for it. He also remembered well how he himself had spent a few hours lying on the ground below the altar, writhing with pain and spitting blood, but nonetheless, he knew he had gotten off lightly; the Dark Lord could just as well have killed him that night.
As soon as he had reached the chancel at the other end of the building he came to a halt, took a deep breath and stepped through the moth-eaten crimson velvet curtains in the corner behind which lay a small staircase leading down into the underground. The further he descended down the stairs the more tangible the unnatural cold surrounding him became and when he had reached the catacombs at the end of the staircase nothing could have convinced him that there still was a warm summer night only a few feet above him. Severus followed a long dark corridor until he reached the large underground hall where the others had gathered in front of their master already.
"Now that everyone is finally here." Voldemort whispered in an icy voice and turned around to face his servants as soon as Severus had taken his place amongst his fellow Death Eaters. The few torches on the wall barely illuminated the room and flickered anxiously as if considering to yield to the relentless darkness that surrounded them. "It is time for those loyal Death Eaters who have lost their freedom in battle to return to our midst." Voldemort continued and a barely audible murmur arose from his audience. "Silence." He said softly; everyone obeyed immediately. "Azkaban is not the place you used to know anymore. The Dementors have abandoned the Ministry and left Azkaban, they are no longer a threat to us. I have been informed that all they have left to guard their prisoners are a few Aurors and they will not be able to stand in our way."
His words were followed by an anxious silence. Of course nobody would have dared to express only the shadow of a doubt, but things hadn't been quite the same ever since what had happened in the Ministry. Nonetheless, it would take a little more to make Voldemort's servants lose their faith and loyalty, not least because it was a loyalty born out of fear.
"Severus, come here." Voldemort said quietly, suddenly looking straight at him.
Me? What an honour, Bellatrix seems to have finally fallen from grace. He stepped forward and fell to his knees in front of the tall dark-cloaked wizard.
"I will entrust you with selecting those you think most suitable for this task. Bellatrix will await you there and she will be in command from then on."
So Bella's still her master's pet. "As you wish, my Lord." Severus whispered and decided not to ask if the island of Azkaban was protected to keep them from apparating there - maybe, although he truly doubted that, the Dark Lord had simply left that point out of consideration and their plan would fail even without his help.
Severus had tried his utmost to compile a group of the most untalented, daft and dull Death Eaters he could think of and he had definitely managed to. Nonetheless, it hadn't done harm. The whole affair had taken no longer than fifteen minutes and he was pretty sure Bellatrix would even have succeeded if she had shown up there with an army of house elves following her instead of those Death Eaters.
The Minister might or might not have taken Dumbledore's suggestion to heart but if he had done something, it hadn't been enough. He had probably been too busy making up and distributing new guidelines to have left any time for first minding his own security problems. Severus had his doubts that Fudge had even taken the headmaster seriously. Well, he had paid the price for it now. Or rather, those poor guys guarding Azkaban had. It had been easy, way easier than any of them had expected. They had outnumbered the guards two to one which wouldn't even have been necessary regarding the fact that there was merely one Auror present, backed up by a few desk jockeys and young would-be Aurors; young enough for Severus to remember having taught them. He just hoped nobody had been killed. He had heard the killing curse uttered twice, both times coming from their side; the Ministry wizards obviously still kept to their laws. One of the curses had missed, he didn't know about the other one.
His arm still hurt like hell when he walked back up to the castle. He had been hit by a well aimed curse that had thrown his wand out of his hand and in addition to that probably broken his wrist. At least he had managed to get his wand back, it would have meant quite a lot of trouble if he had lost it there. It was raining again, that sort of rain that got everyone soaked to the skin who only dared to think about going outside. At least things probably couldn't get worse now, unless the rain would turn into a thunderstorm within the next five minutes and he would get struck by lightning.
Macnair and Avery were still securely locked up but the rest of them were at large again and had already returned to their master, including his dear old friend Lucius. And that was definitely something worth worrying about. But probably still not worth waking everyone at this ungodly hour, they would be able to learn more from the newspaper than he could have told them anyway.
He went in through a side entrance, closed the door behind him as quietly as possible and headed straight for his office; he didn't want to go up to the infirmary and decided that in case he wouldn't manage to get his bones back together the way they belonged he could still go there in the morning.
Severus had fallen asleep in an armchair in his office just seconds after sitting down and woke up again only two hours later to discover that his arm was hurting worse than before so that he would have no other choice than to see the mediwitch about it. It was pretty early in the morning and the castle still seemed to be sleeping but that would definitely change within the next hour. He reached the infirmary without meeting anyone on his way, Madam Pomfrey scolded him for not coming to her straight away, told him he should know better by now and half an hour later sent him on his way again with a bandage around his wrist and hand which he would have to wear for the next twenty-four hours.
He still felt tired but rather than going back to sleep he went to the Great Hall for breakfast an hour later. The other staff members were there already, most of them had chosen to spend the rest of their holidays at Hogwarts to help setting up the new protection charms and whatever else the Ministry regarded as necessary. Even Potter was there, the only one missing was Dumbledore.
"Where's the headmaster?" Severus asked as he took his seat next to McGonagall.
"A good morning to you, too." She replied, folded up her copy of the Daily Prophet and placed it on the table. "He's in his office, speaking to the Minister. I suppose you're not interested in the newspaper?"
"Not too much." He muttered, leaned back in his chair and concentrated on keeping his eyes from falling closed. "Any casualties?"
"Luckily not." McGonagall said, leaned across the table and poured him a cup of coffee. "Two in St. Mungo's, nothing too serious though."
"Good." Severus said softly, reached out for his cup, pulled back his right hand again as soon as he remembered that it was pretty useless at the moment and used his left hand instead.
"Broke your hand?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes. Fudge once again took a little too much time before deciding to come crawling back to us, didn't he?"
McGonagall didn't say anything about that, everyone knew what she thought about the Minister by now. "Albus will probably have to attend a conference of the British Wizards Security Council next week."
"They should concentrate on doing something rather than wasting their time holding meetings." Severus muttered.
"We all feel like that but right now we have to concentrate on working together, we can't afford arguing all the time."
"When divided we stand, united we fall?" Severus said.
"Exactly. And speaking about it, Albus mentioned that he had been thinking about asking Remus to help the students with their Defense Against the Dark Arts training. He will probably suggest that in our next staff meeting."
He sighed inaudibly. Dumbledore never suggested vague ideas that he had just been thinking about. Now that he had told McGonagall about it Severus was pretty sure that the headmaster had already made up his mind about this matter.
AN: Thank you for reading.
sara: Thank you. I'm really glad you liked it!
shadowycat: Thank you. Yes, I thought it was about time I started to work on something like a plot ;) Interesting issue about Lupin and Potions, for some reason I usually assumed him to be completely incompetent there as well, without any reason at all really... I don't have a beta at the moment (anyone interested? ;) so I usually just read it myself a few times before I upload it, if I have the time...
Alexandrus W. Pendragon: Thank you. Yes, I have something like a plan, I hope... ;)
Corgi: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it :) lol the victory dance ;)
greengirlblue: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it and that you think they're still in character :)
frogfoot24: Thank you. I'm glad you liked that far!
samson: Thank you. I'm glad you like it :)
sparkle-2oo3: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it :) Thank you for the 2nd review, got the first one mailed to me although it never showed up here...
