Harry Potter and the Prophesied End
Ch.2- Night Flight
Harry's feet touch down on the hard pavement of a dark London alley. Snape had already dismounted his broom and was halfway up the alley. Harry dismounted and ran to catch up with his former teacher. He watched him out of the corner of his eye, still not quite sure if he believed his story or not. Sure, there was the Veritaserum, but surely a potion's master such as Snape, could concoct some sort of fake truth potion.
Harry ran into Snape's arm, which had been thrown out to stop Harry from walking any further than where they now stood. Harry, whose thoughts had occupied him up until this point, looked forward. A scurrying noise reached his ear. Snape silenced him with a finger to his lips and, placing his broom the wall of a building, made his way to where the sound came from, leaving Harry's sight. Harry looked behind him for a second before turning his attention to the sound they had heard and the silence that followed. Seconds later, Snape returned, something squeaking in his hand.
"What-?" Harry whispered. Snape glared at him.
"Shut up," he hissed. "Don't speak until I give you the go ahead, understand. Just listen to mean and do as your told. Death Eaters could be anywhere. Like this little rat."
He brought his hand up close to Harry's face, his fingers tight on the loose skin of the neck. Even by the dim light, it was unmistakably a rat. Harry's eyes trailed to its small paw. It was indeed metal. The rat was none other than Wormtail.
Snape pulled out the first wand he reached, which happened to be Harry's, and pointed it at the squirming rat. Harry watched his eyes fixated at the rat and new he was using an unspoken spell. Sure enough, a second later, a red beam of light shot the short distance from the wand tip to the rat, which fell limply in Snape's hold.
"Obliviate," he hissed, and the spell hit the rat and Harry realized that Snape had just erased Wormtail's memory. Though, how much of it, he didn't know. He pocketed both the wand and the rat and turned to Harry.
"Back to the brooms, Potter, and don't ask me any questions," he said and Harry had been about to do just that. He closed his mouth and followed Snape. "Answers to all your questions will be revealed soon enough."
He took up the broom once again and mounted, Harry doing the same, and together, they soared up into the now cloudy sky.
Harry made sure to keep close. He had no idea where they were going and he thought it best to keep his mouth shut. He was sure that Snape would keep true to his threat if he spoke. It was twenty minutes before Snape gave a gesture for their dissent. Keeping close, he leaned forward on his broom, following Snape down.
As they broke through the clouds, Harry's eyes found a town he had never before seen. It was in the country and many of the houses were small with farms and gardens. The site caused him to smile faintly. Even with the war going on, this little town seemed untouched, a haven for its occupants. It had an aura of protection and a feeling that nothing could go wrong. But something did go wrong. A jerking motion caught Harry's eyes, causing him to look up just in time to see Snape's broom out of control, jerking its rider from side to side. He saw Snape muttering furiously as his semi-out of control broom descended. Harry kept close, not sure what to do, after a moment, the broom ceased its jerking, and Snape looked back at him. Harry shrugged he then realized that Snape's eyes were focused behind him. Finally, he turned around and leaned down on the broom, causing it to race down. Harry followed and soon the two touched down in the extremely dusty and bare land of a farm that hadn't been farmed upon in quite some time. Dismounting off his broom just as Snape did, he saw Snape stride quickly for the house and for the second time that night, ran to catch up.
As they reached the door, Snape pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door, the door opening as if a human hand had twisted the knob. He entered and Harry followed. The moment he had entered, Snape shut the door and whispered a spell Harry could not make out, and traced the space between the door and the frame, and then at the lock itself.
"Stay here," he whispered as he passed Harry and made his way out into the hall. Harry guessed he was going to do the same service to the front door. He stood where he was and looked around. Though it was dark, and though there was no light outside the house to filter in through the dusty widow, Harry could see enough to recognize that the room he was in was a kitchen. Just outside the kitchen, in the hall, Harry heard a faint sound of heavy shoes on wood. A second later Snape emerged into the kitchen and gestured for him to follow.
Silently, they made their way through the house, climbing up the stairs—stairs that Harry realized were very old and must have been spelled silent, or they would have surely squeaked with even the tiniest amount of weight—and reached the second floor landing. There were four rooms on this landing—one to the left of the stairs, two across from the stairs, and one down the hall. It was this room that a beam of light expelled from the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door, and from it whispers reached Harry's ears, though he couldn't make out what they said. Harry glanced at Snape expecting to see him hold his wand up and order him to stay there, and was taken aback to see an expression that said this was normal, and what was more, and annoyed look soon followed as the former teacher made his way down the hall, gesturing for him to follow. Harry, more curious than wary of Snape's threat, kept quiet and followed.
They soon reached the door and Harry watched as Snape knocked three times fast, and four times slow, all seven just audible. The talking in the room ceased and the light extinguished. From inside the room, Harry heard the sound of footsteps walking across the room and stopping at the door.
"Speak," came a soft girl's whisper.
"Lemon Drop," Snape hissed back. The girl inside the room whispered something and a second later, the door opened into the room and Snape entered, Harry following hesitantly behind. Behind him, the door snapped shut and he jumped, seeing the outline of a small figure doing the same thing Snape had done downstairs. Once she had moved away, the room filled with dim light and Harry's eyes fell on the face of a wearily smiling Hermione Granger.
Note: This is an edited chapter, thanks to the person who pointed out that Wormtail's paw would be metal. I had forgotten.