A/N: Chapter beta read by Forty-Two Dreams. All remaining mistakes are mine.
A WANTED OFFER
Snape stared at Draco Malfoy. The boy was hesitating. How could he hesitate? He didn't have any choice if he wanted to live!
"What are you waiting for boy? Kill him!" the Dark Lord exclaimed angrily.
Snape nodded imperceptibly to Draco. Malfoy set his jaw firmly and tightened his grip on his wand.
"Avada – " he began, but was interrupted by a loud noise: a group of wizards had just burst in. Snape immediately spotted Dumbledore, Moody, Shacklebolt, Tonks, Lupin and a couple of red-headed Weasleys among them.
During the next couple of awkward seconds, Snape saw an opportunity to escape from his captors. With a sudden surge of strength, he knocked over the Death Eater on his left and stole his wand, figuring quickly that this wizard wasn't subtle enough to have placed a backfire curse on it, before using his newly acquired wand to stupefy the Death Eater on his right.
During the chaos that ensued, with Aurors and other Order members fighting off Death Eaters, Snape did his best to make his way towards his rescuers. But they were clearly outnumbered by Death Eaters and they wouldn't manage to hold very long. A couple of Death Eaters were already Stupefied, but the others were fighting for the kill.
Voldemort shouted furious orders to his followers, but Snape was too focused on trying to escape to really listen to what he was saying, advancing almost at random in the middle of the growing mess.
As Snape had almost managed to reach his allies, Fawkes appeared next to Dumbledore's head.
At the sight of the phoenix, Dumbledore waved to all his party. "The front gate is clear, let's go!" he called.
They all started to retreat. When Snape was about to join his fellow Order members, backed up by a couple of them, he felt a hand grab his wrist. As he turned to curse the one who was holding him back, he barely had the time to recognise the former owner of the wand and see a fist flying towards his face, before he fell to the ground under the shock, losing his grip on his wand.
He extended his hand towards the wand but was knocked unconscious before he could reach it.
When Snape regained consciousness, he felt strangely comfy. He opened his eyes slowly and gave a cautious look around: he was lying in a bed in Hogwart's Hospital Wing. Snape let go a sigh of relief: he was safe. He had rarely been so glad to be at Hogwarts. Contented, he closed his eyes and plunged into a blissful sleep.
When he woke up again, he was welcomed by the warmth of daylight, feeling rested and at peace. A genuine smile found its way to his lips. He felt no more hunger, no more thirst, no more pain. Madam Pomfrey was truly a gifted Healer.
As Snape was about to stand up and get off the bed, said Healer returned to the Hospital Wing.
"What do you think you're doing, Severus?" Madam Pomfrey scolded. "Get back in this bed at once!" Snape complied wordlessly like a child. Nothing could spoil this day. "You need to rest a couple more days. I'll go warn the Headmaster that you're awake. Don't move!" she instructed.
Snape waited patiently for Dumbledore to show up several minutes later.
"Severus! I'm so glad to see you're finally feeling better!" the old wizard exclaimed. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions regarding your rescue from Voldemort's clutches, but first of all I would like to apologise for not coming to your aid earlier."
"To be honest," Snape began, "I didn't expect anyone to come rescue me." He paused. "Were there any losses on our side?"
"Fortunately, none," Dumbledore informed him.
"How did you find out where I was? And where was I, by the way?" Snape asked.
"Ah, so many questions… But let's start at the beginning, shall we?" Dumbledore offered, and Snape nodded. "It was Harry Potter who alerted me, as soon as he discovered you were missing when he came to your office for the Occlumency lesson."
"How could he assume I had been captured just from my absence?" Snape asked, slightly sickened to learn Potter had something to do with his rescue.
"The Pensieve was missing too," Dumbledore explained. "So Harry decided to warn me, just in case it was serious. And you should be thankful he did. Without his warning we would have noticed your absence only many hours later, and consequently we would have arrived too late to save you."
Snape smiled grimly.
"Soon we also found out Mizar was missing too. I had some suspicions, but I would never have thought…" Dumbledore's voice trailed off. "He took you to the same spot you usually used to disapparate for Death Eater meetings, just outside the school's grounds. Which is why we should be thankful to him as well, in a way."
Snape frowned. "Why should we be thankful to him for that?" he asked, slightly puzzled.
"Well, after Voldemort discovered there was a spy among his Death Eaters, I feared greatly for your safety," Dumbledore began to explain. "So I asked Endora a little favour. Knowing you always disapparate from the same spot, I asked her to place a tracing charm on that area, so that we would be able to find you should something turn wrong."
"It's a comfort to learn you would have been able to find my dead body before it disaggregated completely," Snape noted ironically.
Dumbledore smiled. "I'm so glad to see you recovered totally, Severus," he said on a playful tone. "But you might wonder why it took us so long to come rescue you if we had such a reliable means of finding your location."
"Do tell me," Snape invited.
"Well, the tracing charm would have allowed us to create a Portkey with the same destination," the Headmaster said, "but we couldn't take the chance of apparating blindly in a potentially extremely dangerous place. So we had to find the destination the good old way."
Snape nodded. Whenever a wizard disapparated, he left a sort of magical trail between his starting and arrival points. A high level tracing charm could 'reveal' the trail and allow one to follow it with a simple spell like the Four-point spell.
"I decided to send Remus," Dumbledore continued, "since all the other Order members have jobs that wouldn't allow them to be away for several days in a row. It took him six days to reach his final destination, an ancient castle in the depths of the Carpathians."
"Six days…" Snape repeated. He had estimated his imprisonment to nearly a week. "And how long did I remain captured?"
"Nine days," Dumbledore replied. "Again, I apologise it took us so long, but we needed to study the place, establish how many enemies we would have to face, and set up a plan of action before doing anything."
"But why come at all? Why risk losing other Order members?" Snape queried truthfully. In times of war, one life was expendable for the sake of others. "Especially since it was more than likely I would have already been dead by the time you could come."
"You more than most should know of my optimistic nature," Dumbledore began with a kind smile. "Besides, the Order will never let down one of its own. I had also hoped to retrieve the stolen experimental charms at the same time, but unfortunately we failed. Either the charms weren't there or we were unable to find them."
"What about Draco?" Snape suddenly asked with a hint of concern.
"He's still missing," Dumbledore replied with a tired voice. "A few other students are as well. I'm afraid we can't do much for them any longer. They already made their decision…" he said sadly and paused. "On another note, you have no more wand. I'll arrange things so you can get a new one quickly. It is needless to say that from now on your activities will be restricted to the school's grounds, just like Endora's have been for the last few months."
"Wonderful," Snape stated unenthusiastically. "Any other restriction that I should know of?"
"Well, it's not a restriction, but since I'm sure you'll consider it as one…" Dumbledore began, and Snape started to realise there were things that could spoil this day. "I want you to keep giving Occlumency lessons to Harry."
Yes. There were things that could definitely spoil what could otherwise have been a very decent day.
"You have to be kidding," Snape began to protest, but Dumbledore quickly interrupted him.
"Oh no, I'm not," he said. "It's now more than ever that Harry will need the protection provided by Occlumency."
"The Pensieve is gone," Snape tried to object, before adding: "though I guess it would no longer be useful now since the Dark Lord already knows about my being a spy."
"On the contrary," Dumbledore retorted. "It's all the more now that Voldemort knows of your affiliations with the Order that we can't allow him to access any information regarding the Order through Harry. When he tries to possess him again he might look specifically for that kind of information, and we can't afford any to be revealed to him."
"But as I said previously, the Pensieve is gone," Snape reminded on an almost relieved tone.
"Don't worry about that," Dumbledore reassured. "I managed to put my hands on another Pensieve; an old friend of mine allowed me to borrow his for some time."
Snape sighed with disappointment. For a second he had almost thought he would manage to get out of it…
"I know this isn't an easy situation for you, Severus," Dumbledore said soothingly, "and I also know you don't enjoy it the least bit. But we don't have much choice these days."
Snape looked away with disgust.
"As you might guess," Dumbledore continued, "we have no more DADA teacher. Even if there are only a few weeks left in the school year, I'd like to see this position filled as soon as possible. And I would like you to fill it."
Snape arched his eyebrows with surprise. He hadn't expected this at all.
"Of course, this offer isn't for the last weeks of the year only," Dumbledore went on. "It also goes for next year and possibly the years to come."
Sixteen years… Sixteen years applying for the position unsuccessfully, and now he was offered it… Oh how was he going to enjoy his next sentences…
"I'm positively delighted you thought of me to fill this position," he began, savouring each second. "However, I am afraid I have to decline the offer," he finally said with a sadistic pleasure.
Dumbledore looked slightly taken aback by his answer. Delighted to act in a way unexpected by the puppet master, Snape went on: "You will have a hard time finding another competent Potions Master, while I'm sure you'll have no trouble producing an empty-headed DADA teacher like you did these last years."
"Well, I'm quite surprised, to say the least," Dumbledore admitted. "But it is your choice to make. I have another possible professor in mind, but I doubt you will appreciate the suggestion."
"Try anyway," Snape invited.
"Remus Lupin," Dumbledore replied. "He's more than competent enough, and above all he's available. And considering the dark times we're facing, I doubt any parent will object to me hiring a mere werewolf as long as someone teaches DADA to their children. This won't be any problem to you, will it?" Dumbledore asked with a hint of teasing in his voice.
Snape had clenched his fists unconsciously at the name. "Of course not," he claimed between gritted teeth.
"Good. I will go inform him at once, then," Dumbledore concluded joyfully and left a few seconds later, leaving Snape to wonder if the puppet had really managed to trick the puppet master.
Coming Next: Imitation of Normality