I FINISHED IT.
And lo and behold the crapsome ending. I never could get them right.
Will now go and wait around the bookstore till midnight for High Blood Pressure. Good day to you.
XVII
"Direct orders from Dumbledore," Arthur said, briskly, to the goblins. With him were a dozen people - members of the Order and ministry officials and a scattering of other blood. "Severus Snape was a professor of Hogwarts and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. His vault is to be drained in order to fund the war against You Know Who. It's what he would have wanted."
The goblin looked Arthur squarely in the eye. "His vault has already been emptied."
There was a pause.
"What?" Arthur said, finally. "Who? Severus emptied it before he died?"
"No," the goblin said. Most goblins tended not to elaborate on many things, since they mostly felt irritation towards the wizarding population in general. But this was genuinely amusing to him. "A young woman did. Just a few days ago."
"Who?"
"I didn't ask," the goblin said, mildly. "She had the key. That's all Gringotts needs. A key."
x
Bellatrix woke up, slowly, in her bed. She vaguely remembered the backseat of her car, and Voldemort driving, but she didn't remember being brought up a flight of stairs, or anything else.
Lucius was sitting on the edge of the bed.
He was an angel. He bent over her, hair falling around his face like a golden halo, tickling her nose. She sneezed; he withdrew, trying to look disgusted, but was too amused.
"You killed Severus," he said. "That's a shame."
"He wanted it," Bellatrix mumbled fuzzily.
Lucius tipped his head to the side, looking down at her; mastering with such ease the aristocratic grace of the purely born and the wealthy. The only grace that Bellatrix had ever managed to master was the flight of a running fawn.
But there was a beauty in that, too, just as there was beauty in a cobra protecting its young.
"He wanted it?" he asked.
"Yes," Bellatrix said, "he did."
She rolled over, her back to Lucius, but she did not want him to go away. He didn't.
x
Tonks was vomiting in the toilet. Her hair was spiky and black.
She could not tamp down the nausea in her.
She had been Severus' closest relative, at least, the closest relative he would ever actually acknowledge. She was his goddaughter. She had said no, when asked about whether or not there would be a funeral. The only people that would want to show up would be the people who were currently wanted for high treason.
Just bury him quietly, she'd told the undertaker. He wouldn't want a ceremony anyway. He'd roll his eyes. And he'd wanted to go, too.
All around Tonks' flat were her belongings, scattered everywhere, most waiting to be packed up but some already on its way - her life boxed up in brown, puke-ish coloured cardboard. She was moving out - Severus had named her in his will. She was to inherit the house with the strange memories and the odd belongings that held so many clues to the past of a man she loved but had never really understood.
Well, now she was going to start.
Tonks flushed the toilet, and washed the sweat from her face. Then she went back to packing.
x
'Nothing can stop me now;
Nothing can stop me now;
Nothing can stop me now;
Nothing…
Can stop me.'
--Piggy, Nine Inch Nails