Home At Last
He'd made it almost halfway down to the gates when he changed his mind, stopped and turned back around.
Now he knew where Malfoy had to be. Severus couldn't understand why he hadn't thought of it sooner; Lucius had been using the secret passage from the dungeons to the gardens regularly throughout his time as a student, so if he was trying to get inside the castle, that's the way he'd take. Of course, he'd been away for too long to know that the passage had become impassable years ago. Then again, if he didn't know it, the demon might not know it either and things might not be what they were supposed to be.
He walked back up to the school and around the towers on the right towards the gardens that lay behind the castle. The sky was still overcast with clouds, but the cold moonlight that shone through was enough for him to see perfectly well. He let his eyes wander across the black silhouettes of various arrangements of small trees, bushes and stone statues that were intersected by narrow paths covered with white gravel stones. In the distance, he spotted a shadow as it moved swiftly across the path and then disappeared behind the spread wings of a stone gargoyle.
The sculpture that guarded the entrance to the passageway was much further to the left and not anywhere near that gargoyle, which meant that either Lucius had already found out that it was blocked or that he had a problem with his memory.
Or maybe it meant that the shadow hadn't even been Malfoy. He'd expected to find him out here; but how could he now know that it was really him? It could just as well be another one of Escharoth's little tricks.
But Lord Macius had told him that Malfoy and Thesdale were out here. Even though he couldn't deny that he might appear a bit eccentric and out of touch at times, Severus was convinced that this time the painted wizard knew what he was talking about. And Severus still had his instincts to rely on; whenever the demon had been near, he'd felt its presence. Only once had it been able to fool him, and that had been his own fault – he just hadn't been vigilant enough. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Severus was rather sure that his presence had already been noticed as he started walking down the narrow path, and he was soon to be proven right.
He'd just walked up to the stone gargoyle when suddenly a hand reached out from the shadows to his left. It grabbed him by his collar and dragged him off the gravel path just to smash him backwards into a block of white marble on which the gargoyle sculpture was standing.
Severus raised his hands a little in an attempt to conciliate a rather enraged Lucius Malfoy who was glaring at him and holding him by his collar so firmly that he had good chances of accidentally choking him.
"Damn it, Lucius, let go of me," he hissed. He felt nothing; whenever he'd been near the demon, he'd felt its presence. And the closer he'd gotten to it, the more intense the feeling had been – coldness, fear and anxiety. Now there was nothing at all. It wasn't here. Standing right in front of him was no product of his imagination, but a very real and very furious Lucius Malfoy. And for a moment, Severus wasn't entirely sure whether that was really a good thing.
"What's going on here?" Lucius roared while tightening his grip on him even more. "Where's the kid and what are you doing here?"
"If you'd refrain from choking me, I could tell you," Severus replied angrily. Glancing past him he now saw Thesdale standing in the shadows, watching them.
Malfoy considered his options for a moment before he shot him a final glare out of narrowed eyes and let go of him.
"So?" Lucius asked. "Where's the boy?"
"Gone," Severus replied.
"Gone?" Malfoy asked angrily. "What do you mean, gone?"
"I mean he's back at Hogwarts," Severus replied calmly.
Malfoy's eyes were ablaze with fury and his teeth were bared, making him look like a hungry wolf ready to strike.
"Are you saying that you let him get away?" he asked, as he stepped towards him and pushed him backwards with both hands. "Again?"
"I've had enough problems of my own to deal with."
Rather unexpected and suddenly Lucius jumped at him, threw him to the ground and pinned him down to stare straight into his eyes, their faces only a few inches apart. "I'm not an idiot," he hissed. "I know you. There's no way he could've escaped you – unless you wanted him to."
"What?" Severus asked. "Are you actually accusing me of deliberately working against you? Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Everything went perfectly well, until you showed up."
"You do realise that you're not making sense, don't you?" He knew that while lying on the ground with Malfoy pinning him down he wasn't in a very good position to get his point across and decided to change that. "Now get off me," he said and pushed Lucius away from him.
Malfoy reluctantly complied and stood up, releasing him. "What are you doing, Severus?" he asked in a quiet, yet threatening voice. "Did you let him get away? Have you decided that you'd rather play on Dumbledore's side? Play it safe?"
"How long have you known me?" Severus asked. "If that was true, I'd just have followed the kid out of here instead of staying to search for you. And anyway, I wouldn't regard Dumbledore's side as the safe one. Would you?"
For a few seconds, Malfoy just stood there and looked at him, then he smiled. "Yes," he said softly. "You're right."
Severus was well aware that he hadn't changed his mind so quickly; Lucius was still suspicious of him, but he'd also realised that right now he didn't really have a choice.
"How do we get out of here then?" Malfoy asked after a moment's silence.
"We have to get inside the castle," he replied. "We might run into a few problems, though."
"What sort of problems?"
"There's something here. It's a kind of a demon, and it would prefer to keep us here," Snape explained. "It will probably make it difficult for us to find our way out."
"A demon?" Lucius asked. "How come I haven't seen anything?"
No emotions, no fears and no regrets. I suppose that's why. And you've never been alone around here either. "It seems to have been concentrating on the boy, but now that he's gone, it will find itself a new victim. We shouldn't waste time."
#-#
They walked around the school and back to the entrance doors in silence, Malfoy next to Snape, Thesdale following them at a few steps distance, right where he belonged.
Just as Severus was about to open the large wooden doors, Malfoy held him back. He took him by his arm, made him turn towards him and looked straight into his eyes.
Severus knew that he wasn't going to find what he was searching for; he was a well-trained liar, and nobody could tell when he was lying from just looking at him. With one or two exceptions maybe, and none of them being Lucius Malfoy.
"You wouldn't lie to me, would you?" he whispered.
"Have I ever?"
"You know the consequences," Lucius said. "You'd pay for it. You wouldn't simply be killed; you'd suffer for it. Nobody betrays me."
"If you don't trust me – leave. It's your decision and I won't hold you back. And if you really believe that I'd put my own life at stake for that damn bastard James Potter's son..." Severus shook his head at him and lowered his voice again. "Lucius – we've known each other all our lives. These aren't really your thoughts. It's the demon; it's inside your head, trying to influence you and to set us against each other."
Malfoy nodded slowly. "I know what you mean," he said softly. "I can sense it."
Suddenly so sensitive; who'd have expected that.
Severus opened the doors and stepped into the Entrance Hall. Looking around, he saw Lord Macius still standing in the painting of the stormy landscape, watching them without moving or making a sound.
"We'll have to find the painting now," Severus said. "I'd suggest we split up to search for it. What we're looking for is a painting of a landscape with a forest and a small house."
"And you have no idea where it is?" Malfoy asked.
"Well, no," Severus replied. "It's the demon. It keeps moving things around in order to make it more difficult for us to leave this place," he said quickly and turned to Thesdale. "I'd suggest you search the upper floors while we're having a look around here and down in the dungeons."
Thesdale hesitated for a moment but then nodded and set off towards the stairs without asking any questions. Severus watched him until he'd reached the top of the staircase and disappeared around the corner; implicit obedience truly had its benefits.
He'd thrown out the bait, now he'd just have to wait for Escharoth to take it. Thesdale was weak; it wouldn't take long.
Without saying anything, Snape walked across the hall towards the door leading to the dungeons and motioned Malfoy to follow.
"The painting is down in the lower dungeons," Severus said as soon as the door had fallen closed behind them.
Malfoy gave him a questioning look in return.
"I needed to get rid of Thesdale," Severus explained. "The demon will try to keep us away from the painting. But since it seems to prefer attacking a single person, I hope that it will concentrate on him instead of us and not be in our way."
"Well done," Malfoy said. "Lead the way."
Severus nodded and started walking down the stairs. "The demon can read your thoughts," he said while leading the way down and through the dungeons. "Therefore it would be best if you tried to think of nothing at all, especially nothing that it could consider as interesting."
"And what would it find interesting?"
"I can't really tell. Just try to concentrate on something harmless to keep your thoughts from drifting off."
Severus moved quickly along the dark corridors, Malfoy following him closely. The entrance to the lower dungeons was open when they reached it, probably because Lord Macius was still somewhere upstairs.
All the time he kept glancing around and listening into the silence, searching for any sign that the demon might not have given up on him yet. There was nothing. It was just dark and silent. But he could still feel its presence. It was just like he could often sense it when someone was staring at him without actually seeing it. But it was also no different from the feeling that he was being followed when he walked along a dark and empty corridor; a feeling that grew stronger and stronger, urging him to turn around, and when he finally did, there was nothing there but the empty corridor.
Once again he came to the conclusion that feelings weren't something you could rely on.
#-#
The door to the storage room was still open when they reached it. Following a nod from his companion, Snape walked into the room first.
"This is it?" Malfoy asked as he stood in front of the painting.
Severus stepped inside the rune circle, picked up the book from the floor and opened it. "This is the incantation," he said. "You read it, hand me the book and then you go through the painting."
The moment he'd said that, a feeling of doubt suddenly overcame him. What if Malfoy wouldn't give him the book? Lucius could just take it with him, and he'd be stuck here forever. Severus didn't trust him, not at all. But Lucius didn't really have a reason to do something like that, at least Severus wasn't aware of anything that could make him want to get rid of him.
"I think I'd rather have you go first," Malfoy said softly.
It seems your distrust of me just solved the problem.
"Fine, I'll go first," Severus replied. Standing in the middle of the rune circle, he cast a quick glance at the painting and then held the book up in front of him to read the incantation.
"Wait," Malfoy said suddenly.
"What?" Severus said impatiently and looked up from the book again.
"Where does it lead?" he asked.
"Back to Hogwarts," Severus replied. "It says so in the book."
"But where exactly? I'd rather search for another way out than risk ending up inside the castle."
How I hoped you wouldn't ask. "There is no other way. I've been here a couple of hours longer than you and I've been confronted by the demon more than once; I know what I'm talking about." He was beginning to get nervous, and Malfoy's indecision wasn't the only reason for that.
"Well, of course, you wouldn't mind finding yourself standing in front of your old headmaster."
"Oh, no, of course not. I'm sure he wouldn't question my motives for bringing you along," Severus replied. "As you well know, the castle is magically shielded. There's absolutely no way you could get in uninvited, no matter what kind of magic you use. The painting will lead us back to the castle grounds, just like the last painting that brought us here."
Malfoy hesitated.
"Lucius, we're wasting time." The slight hint of anxiety in his voice wasn't a lie; it was very real. "There's no way out but this. And as long as the book is here, no one else can get in either. We're on our own." At least I hope so. "Unless the Dark Lord's able to send someone after you to get you out of here."
"No, he can't," Malfoy said in a low voice. "The spell was linked to the boy. Now that he's gone..."
Good.
"We have no choice, and we have no time," Snape said again, glancing nervously around the room.
The demon was here again; it was watching him, coming closer. Severus knew it; he could feel its presence so strongly now as if it was standing right next to him. But standing next to him was only Malfoy who seemed to be immune to Escharoth's attacks and almost entirely unaware of the demon's presence.
Yes, Severus. I'm here.
The voice was no more than a whisper, but he could hear it as clearly as if the demon was whispering right into his ear.
"What is it?" Malfoy asked, frowning at him.
"You didn't hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"It's coming closer," Severus said softly. "Come here. Step inside the circle, it's the only safe place."
Lucius rolled his eyes at him, but before he got a chance to say anything, he had to realise that his companion was right; all of a sudden a tall figure was standing in the middle of the room. He was wearing a long wide cloak with a hood that was completely hiding his face.
Severus had no idea what the demon was trying to impersonate now. It might have been an image from Thesdale's memory or maybe from Malfoy's – he didn't really care. In a few minutes, he'd be gone anyway and would never have to bother about that thing again.
For a split second, Severus considered abandoning Malfoy to his fate, but then he reached out, grabbed him by his arm and quickly pulled him inside the circle. He hadn't done it because the idea of Malfoy spending the rest of his life haunted by his own demons evoked any feeling of pity in him; he had more selfish reasons. Revenge, most of all. He wanted to see Lucius behind bars till the end of his days.
It was completely silent around them as they all stood there motionless and staring at one another.
"Who's that?" Malfoy whispered.
"Escharoth," Severus replied softly. "The demon."
"So now you know my name," the cloaked figure said. Its voice was a hoarse whisper and every intake of breath caused a strange rattling sound; Severus had to admit that that thing was definitely rather creepy. It looked like something between a Dementor and the Dark Lord himself.
"It makes no difference now," Severus said calmly. "I'm out of your reach. I'll leave this world and you will stay."
The cloaked man raised his arms, and it went totally dark. Only a moment later everything around them suddenly burst into flames. The room they'd been in was gone. Everything outside the rune circle had disappeared and an ocean of flames surrounded them. In the midst of the fire stood the cloaked figure, arms still raised, the flames dancing around him.
"Go ahead," Malfoy whispered to Snape. "What are you waiting for!"
Severus didn't intend to stay a second longer either. He opened the book again and began to read. The heat and the brightness of the flames stung in his eyes and made the words in the book look blurry. As soon as he'd finished reading the incantation, he handed the book to Malfoy and reached out his hand to touch the surface of the painting.
"I'm lettingyou leave now, but I'll always be there. And one day, we shall meet again. You can't understand now, but you will," the demon said in his hoarse whispering voice. "All in good time, Severus, all in good time."
Before Severus got a chance to say anything in return, he felt himself being drawn into the painting. The heat and light of the flames became weaker as the demon's world slowly faded away. Everything started spinning around him and then there was nothing but darkness.
#-#
The moment he felt the floor under his feet, there was a flash of blinding red light. Something hit him in the chest; he was blown off his feet and thrown backwards against something solid. Then it went dark around him once again.
#-#
The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes again was that he had a very bad headache. He blinked a few times and saw Dumbledore, McGonagall, Dobberstein and Lupin standing there, wands drawn and looking down at him and an apparently unconscious Lucius Malfoy who was lying on the floor next to him.
"Thank you," Severus growled at whoever might have cast the spell at him and slowly stood up again.
"I'm so sorry," Eliza Dobberstein said quickly. "It really wasn't my intention. Are you all right?"
Yes, I'm sure it wasn't... "Don't worry, that can happen," Severus muttered and glanced down at the still unconscious Malfoy. "I mean, we look almost like brothers, Lucius and me, don't we?"
"Where's Thesdale?" Lupin asked.
"He's the bait," Severus replied. "I don't expect him to return. Especially not without the book," he added and picked it up from where it had been lying on the floor a few feet away. He took a final look at it and then handed it to Dumbledore. "I suppose you should take that."
"What's going to happen to him now?" McGonagall asked with a glance at Malfoy.
"I'll modify his memory so he won't be able to remember anything that happened in the past twenty-four hours," Dumbledore said. "Then we'll hand him over to the proper authorities."
"You don't need me for that, do you?" Severus asked.
"No," Dumbledore replied with a warm smile. "Go to bed."
Severus nodded and turned to Harry who'd been standing some steps behind Lupin all the time. "Potter – you won't mention anythingabout what happened tonight to anyone, understood? I don't want to risk Malfoy or anyone else realising that I was involved in this."
"Yes, Harry," Dumbledore added. "It's very important, I'm sure you understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, sir," Harry replied slowly.
"Good night," Severus muttered quickly, then he turned away and walked past Lupin out of the room.
He'd have liked to tell Potter just how many hours of detention he'd make him serve each week until the end of his time as a student here, but right now he was really too tired to decide about that. He could still do it tomorrow. And it was going to be a lot of hours; enough so Severus wouldn't have to waste another minute of his own time with sorting potion ingredients and labelling jars.
He heard quick footsteps behind him and turned around to see McGonagall following him. She hadn't even said a word to him back in the storeroom, so he'd had his doubts as to whether she'd actually noticed that he'd returned or not; and even if she had, she definitely hadn't given him the impression that she cared much about it. Nonetheless, Severus stopped walking and waited until she'd caught up with him.
Standing in front of him, McGonagall gave him a scrutinizing look. "Are you all right?" she asked in a concerned voice and started dusting off the sleeve of his coat with her hand.
"I'm fine," he muttered. "Been wrestling with Malfoy a little..."
McGonagall frowned at him. "What on earth have you been doing there, inside that painting?"
Severus sighed deeply. "I'll tell you some other time. I'm really tired right now."
"Yes, of course. You should go to bed now," she said. "Would you like me to arrange for someone to fill in for you tomorrow? As far as I know you have classes in the morning."
"No, I'll be fine. What time is it anyway?"
"Almost half past four."
"Good. That means at least two hours of sleep."
"Let me know if you should change your mind."
Severus heard Dumbledore and the others approaching. "I will. Good night," he said quickly, wanting to get away before anyone else could get a chance to talk to him.
"I'm glad you're back," McGonagall said and smiled at him. "Good night."
Severus nodded at her and started walking towards the stairs leading up to the dungeons. He still had a bad headache. He couldn't tell whether it was caused by lack of sleep or simply by his head hitting the wall after Dobberstein had knocked him out so cunningly. But whatever its cause, he was sure that he had a potion in his office that would take care of it.
Walking along the corridors of his dungeons now, he immediately noticed how different it was compared to what it had been like in the demon's world. It was neither as dark nor as cold, and it didn't give him that intense feeling of loneliness.
#-#
As he searched through the cupboard in his office, he came across a small vial of Dreamless Sleep Potion and decided to take it along; he'd spent the last couple of hours with his nightmares already, it had truly been enough for one night.
He put the two vials into his pocket and looked around his office. It was dark and silent, but there was nothing scary or eerie about it. Aside from a particularly ugly dead lizard maybe that seemed to be staring at him from its jar up on the shelf. Severus looked back at it for a while, then he left his office.
#-#
When he woke up the next morning, he felt as if he hadn't slept at all. The headache came back the moment he opened his eyes and he was beginning to regret his decision to not let someone else take his first class this morning.
Instead of going down to the Great Hall for breakfast he allowed himself a few more minutes of sleep, but that didn't really help either, so he spent his third year double Potions in a state that was closer to sleeping than being awake.
He hadn't said much to his students and doubted that he'd made much sense when he had. But fortunately in his class no one would dare to complain about that. Actually, he was convinced that even if he'd fallen asleep at his desk, his students would have finished their work and wouldn't have left their seats before the end of the lesson. Yes, sometimes it wasn't the worst thing to be the school's most feared teacher.
He wasn't looking forward to the next two hours, which he'd have to spend with Potter and the rest of his NEWT class. They'd have to prepare quite a few more ingredients for their Ranunculus Potion, so it was going to be a rather boring class; especially for him.
He still had a few minutes time so he decided to go up to the staff room to get himself a cup of coffee. And he could also fetch the essays of his second year students that he still had to grade, at least then he'd have something useful to do to keep himself awake.
When he opened the door to the staff room he first spotted McGonagall; he didn't mind her, she usually wasn't too annoying. But unfortunately, sitting right next to her, was Dobberstein.
Severus knew that it would look rather strange if he just left again, and he didn't want to give up on his coffee anyway; not because of her.
He muttered a quick "Good morning" and strode across the room towards the coffee table. He took his mug from the shelf behind the table and discovered a moment later that there was no more coffee left.
"There's never any coffee here," he muttered to himself, momentarily oblivious of anyone else's presence. "Is there ever any coffee here? Is there a time of day when you actually can get some coffee here?"
"Two minutes ago would have been exactly the right time," McGonagall said. "It seems I was just a little bit faster than you."
Severus snorted, put his mug back in its place and walked over to the other shelf to get the essays he'd left there last week.
"You can have mine, if you want to. You sure look like you need it."
"No, thank you, I'm fine," Severus muttered.
"It might help against the grumpiness," McGonagall said as she continued reading her copy of the Daily Prophet.
"I'm not grumpy."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
McGonagall lowered the newspaper to look over at the clock. "I don't think you have time to continue arguing about that." She held out her cup to him. "So? Do you want it?"
Severus hesitated. Coffee was good. Coffee would assist him in his attempts to keep his eyes open during the next two hours. It wasn't as effective as some of his potions might have been, but unfortunately, he couldn't use one of those anyway; they didn't mix very well with the Dreamless Sleep Potion he'd taken just a couple of hours ago.
"Yes," he said eventually and took the cup from her. "Thank you."
He took a sip of coffee and found it much too bitter. "No sugar."
"I never take sugar, you know that."
"Yes, I do," he muttered, added some sugar, picked up his stack of essays and turned to leave.
"What are you up to tonight?" McGonagall asked without looking up from her newspaper just as he was about to leave the room.
"I'll probably go to bed early."
"In case you should change your mind, you can always come by for a game of chess. We haven't played in ages."
"I'll think about it," he said and then left for his classroom.
He wouldn't need to think about it; he already knew that he didn't want to. Not because he didn't like playing chess, but because he knew that this wasn't about playing chess at all. Minerva would want to know about what had happened last night, and at the moment, he really didn't feel like discussing that.
#-#
His whole NEWT class was already waiting for him by the time he reached the classroom. Without a word he crossed the room, put the essays on his desk, placed his cup of coffee right next to them and turned around to face his students. Potter was missing.
"Today you will continue your preparations for the Ranunculus Potion," he started. "You're going to begin with cleaning and peeling some foxglove roots. Each of you will need three to four of them. Step forward and take some roots from this jar, then open your Bofielder Dictionary to page seven hundred and twenty-three for detailed instructions on how to prepare them. When you're done, look up the chapter about foxglove roots in your Advanced Potions text and read it." And that will keep you busy for at least thirty minutes.
Snape sat down at his desk and waited for everyone to get their foxgloves roots and start working. He didn't pay much attention to them and just kept staring at Potter's empty seat. Where could he possibly be? Taking the day off to make up for a night with almost no sleep most likely. He'd make him serve detention for that. Definitely.
A few minutes later, just as he'd finished his coffee and was about to start reading the first essay, there was a faint knock on the door, it opened and Potter stepped inside.
"Ah, Mr. Potter," Severus said before Harry had a chance to say much. "Wouldn't you like to entertain your fellow students with an undoubtedly very creative explanation for your being late?"
"No, sir," Harry muttered.
"Then would you be so kind as to at least enlighten me?"
"I'm sorry I'm late. I didn't sleep well last night and overslept."
"Very well," Severus said and lowered his eyes to the essay again. "Detention, tomorrow after dinner, here. Miss Granger will repeat to you the instructions I've given so far."
"Yes, sir," Harry said in a low voice and walked over to his desk.
With some satisfaction, Snape noticed that Potter really didn't look too good; throughout the next two hours he seemed to constantly be fighting the urge to yawn, kept rubbing his eyes and looked as if he was going to fall off his chair any second. Unfortunately though, he never did.
Severus would have liked to make him serve his detention tonight instead of tomorrow because it would have been much more fun to watch him doing his work while he was so longing for some sleep.
But he was quite sure that he wouldn't have time for that tonight. The Dark Lord already had to know that Potter was back at Hogwarts and that Malfoy was back in prison, so he'd start wondering what went wrong with their little plan. And who would he ask if not him?
#-#
He was summoned in the late afternoon, a little earlier than he'd have expected. Usually the Dark Lord would wait till night, so obviously, he was really curious to learn more about what had gone wrong there.
As was to be expected, his master wasn't in the best of moods.
Nonetheless, Severus wasn't very concerned. The only person who knew about his involvement and who might have been able to make him look suspicious was Thesdale, and he wasn't going to tell anyone about anything for a long, long time; maybe forever. So Severus just claimed that he'd had no idea about what had been going on and hadn't heard about anything until a few hours ago. Luckily enough, his master actually believed him and decided to hold Malfoy responsible for their failure.
Snape was rather pleased with himself and with how things had worked out. It was the first time that Malfoy had no chance to put the blame on someone else, as he so often had before. Severus was convinced that once again he'd have been the one to pay; it was about time for Lucius to learn what it was like having to bear the Dark Lord's wrath. He had no illusions about Malfoy remaining locked up for very long; things were different now, without the Dementors. He'd be back soon. And the Dark Lord didn't forget your mistakes.
#-#
#-#
Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I greatly appreciate it and I'm happy that you enjoyed the previous chapter. I hope you liked this one, too.
I've been thinking about writing a sequel, but while I actually have some ideas for it, I don't really think that it's going to happen.
There's one more chapter to come, so everyone who always wanted to leave a review – take your chance! Thank you for reading :)
