Title: Inverse Theory
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: X-over
Series: Sorcerous Solutions
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: In the last moments of the final battle several things have been resolved, including Severus Snape's loyalty. As the last blow is is struck in the fight between Harry Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle, all present must ask themselves if any of the devastation and pain that brought them there could have been prevented if they had just seen it coming in time. Severus is about to find out...
Timeframe: First at the end of Book Seven, Post-HBP; then MWPP, fifth year, just as Sirius and James hang Severus upside down.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.
All who witnessed the final battle between the Dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters versus Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would have marveled at the poetic beauty hidden in the brutality around them, as if an epic opera had come to life and was reaching its final crescendo.
Well, that's that they'd think of they weren't ducking and dodging for their lives, anyway.
In a small area, closest to where the man once known as Tom Riddle and the son of James Potter and Lily Evans stared each other down in those tense moments that seem to last for eternity as history itself prepares to be changed irrevocably once again, two of each group stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised as they psyched themselves up for one more push. Any who knew the combatants separately without the history shared between them would have expected a bloody massacre the second any of them saw the other. Of course the devil, as they say, is in the details.
On one side stood Lucius Malfoy, recently broken out of Azkaban prison by his fellow Death Eaters to bolster their ranks in the final battle; his platinum blonde hair long since torn from its traditional ponytail and his face was covered in blood and grime from and Sectumsempra curse one of the Order had used on Vincent Crabbe senior earlier in the fight when the thug had stood beside the eldest Malfoy. At Lucius' side stood Bellatrix Lestrange, also covered in a bit of gore, although hers was from spells she had cast herself, including a 'friendly fire' curse that helped tear her husband, Rudolphus, apart. The fact that it was one of four hexes or curses, one coming from each combatant, showed just how well regarded Bella's husband was. That is to say, many people on both sides wanted him very dead.
Opposite Bellatrix stood Sirius Black, her cousin., recently freed from the limbo of the Veil Bella had trapped him in as a final proof of loyalty by the unlikely wizard at his side facing down Lucius.
Lucius' nominal opponent was one he had called friend for over twenty years. A man he had named as godfather to Lucius' only son, Draco. A man that protected Draco still by petrifying him and leaving him under the care of the house elves Dobby and Winky with explicit instructions to keep the young man away from the battle. That man, one thought a traitor to each side at one time, now proven through evidence Sirius had access to as a loyal member of the Order before he ever took the Dark Mark, was the Half-blood Prince Severus Snape.
"You filthy traitor," Lucius growled, his usual cultured tones discarded in the heat of battle.
"He's a madman, Lucius. Trying to stay close enough to get you both free isn't betrayal. It's trying to save all I had left. Doubly so after what happened to Lily," Snape purred, seemingly unperturbed by the man's ire. "Or would you have preferred the I abandoned all that I cared for and let Draco come to see what has transpired here? Look around you man! This is the Dark Lord's future! There is nothing about protecting our culture and strengthening our world here. Only an abused little boy striking back at all of humanity because he lacked the stones to deal with his own problems or get help from those that would have offered! Being Slytherin's heir doesn't make him Salazar's second coming. It makes him a blight on all we were taught to hold dear! An embarrassment to the word Wizard! Hell the daft fool doesn't even know the difference between a wizard and a sorcerer. He called himself the 'greatest sorcerer ever' in front of Potter after you fiasco with his diary and the Weasley girl. If that man could cast cast so much as a spark when trying a Digger Volt I'll eat my wand!" Severus ranted in return.
"You insolent blasphemous." Lucius snarled as he readied his wand.
"He's right," Bellatrix responded quietly. A tone of voice few outside of those around her would have thought her capable of. "The Dark Lord is many things, but not a sorcerer. My mother could touch true sorcery. As could Severus' father, who was labeled a muggle. Sorcery is a different art, outside of Ministry law. If anyone could stay awake for the first week of Binns' history classes they might remember that. Not that I knew Sev had inherited sorcery power until we were well out of school."
"Any magic the Ministry can't monitor and regulate is forbidden. I'd have been expelled if I had used sorcery before graduation. Although I am surprised. Didn't you ever wonder why my mother, as conniving of a noble pureblood Slytherin as there ever was, would seek out an marry a muggle?" Snape taunted. The more verbal this became, the better equipped he was to handle it without having to kill either Bella or Lucius. For all that Bella had seemed to loathe him after her stay in Azkaban, some bonds do not break so easily as for him to wish her harm.
"It would have put a different spin on our schoolyard fights if you had used your power, that's for certain," Sirius put in with a small chuckle. He had only come to know about what was being said some weeks earlier, after Snape snuck into the ruined Department of Mysteries and freed him. It was in that moment that he was never more pleased that Dumbledore had made Sirius the bonder to the Unbreakable Vow the man took to the Order of the Phoenix to do all he could to protect Harry Potter and destroy Voldemort. Without that vote of confidence from his worst enemy to get them to listen to him, Snape would never had been able to give the Order the intelligence he had gathered to bring this battle about. And if Snape hadn't needed Sirius, Sirius was certain the forbidding Potions Master would have left him to rot for all eternity.
"It doesn't matter," Lucius intoned imperially. "You have betrayed you friends, your family, and your house, Severus. You and that blood traitor beside you will pay for that."
"DEMONA CRYSTAL" Snape snapped with a wave of his free hand. In a matter of a second, Lucius Malfoy was completely encased in a solid crystal.
Bella raised her wand, ready to defend herself in the suddenly uneven odds, when Snape raised his hand. "Just a moment, Trixie. Let me dissolve enough to free his nose, at least. Draco would never forgive me if I let the prat suffocate," he soothed as he touched the crystal at the point where Lucius' face was, his face as mast of stern concentration. Soon the clear prison began to recede enough that the nose and tip of the mouth were free. Not enough to speak, thankfully for all who would have had to hear the diatribe Lucius would have spouted at this indignity, but enough to breathe and be fed a liquid diet until the spell was broken.
"You've been practicing," Bellatrix noted with a critical eyes as she watched the sallow skinned man work.
"I needed something to over the years while this came to a head. Potions research can only fill so many idle hours at Spinner's End over the summers before I was shackled with caring for Voldemort's pet rat," Snape replied with his typical sarcasm.
"Nice to see you were busy while I was left to rot in that hellhole," Bella sneered back.
"Not like you were alone there, cousin," Sirius snorted in derision. He knew Bella well enough to know she had been using her twisted idea of kid gloves two years ago against he and Tonks both. For someone who can cast the Avada Kedavra as easily as a Windgadium Leviosa, the fact she used stunning hexes was a glaring clue to her intentions. Bellatrix was guilty of many crimes and perversions, wanting her family dead was not among them.
"You brought that on yourself, you miserable prat! Honestly, letting Wormtail outsmart you! You and your half cocked-anger driven shite! That's how you got caught in the Veil too! Running off without thinking! You wouldn't have lasted a month at Hogwarts without the werewolf and Potter to hold your hand. You probably would have gotten yourself off on something as stupid as trying a handstand on the Astronomy tower window!" Bella screeched in agitation.
"Well, he does have a habit of not thinking things through. And they would have allowed him in Azkaban rightly without certain intervention," Snape purred malevolently as he recalled an incident with himself, a lupine form Remus, and Sirius nearly leading him to his death save for the intervention of James Potter.
Sirius actually looked chagrined at the two teaming of to verbally abuse him. For a moment, it was like they were kids again. Like the deadly battle brewing all around them wasn't real. The illusion was shattered when Bella let out a muted squeak as a pair of words rang out from behind where the three were situated.
"Avada KEDAVRA!" spat Neville Longbottom, followed with a contemptuous, "that was for my parents you miserable harpy."
Snape was torn at the sight of Bella's lifeless body falling to ground as he looked into Neville's eyes. Certainly, the boy had the right to kill her. She had tortured his parents to insanity, after all. But, she was also one of the few people Snape cared for. As he racked his brain to try to understand what the proper play here would be, his attention was diverted by the light show of various hexes and spells erupting from where Potter and Voldemort stood, one of which hit Neville and sent him flying back into a more chaotic part of the battlefield where he moaned and passed out.
"They've begun," Sirius intoned solemnly.
"I'd noticed," Was Snape's acerbic reply.
"Does Harry understand what must be done?" Sirius asked with an uncharacteristically sorrowful tone.
"For the most part. He knows that he himself is the last Horcrux, and the Voldemort will never use lethal force against him now that the others are gone. That half-witted prophecy about one destroying the other gave him some small hope he could walk away from this, but he knows deep down that he won't. I counciled him on what was to come just as Albus ordered," Snape responded with a similar sorrow in his voice.
"He's too young to be asked to do this," Sirius fumed angrily.
"I agree. Too innocent as well, despite what this war has done. Neville should never have had to kill Bella. Never should have the hate needed to. Bella never should have tortured his parents. She never should have lost the baby to a hex thrown in a raid led by Frank and Alice Longbottom, that made her fall completely into the darkness we all toyed with then like the foolish children we were. She never should have joined Voldemort to begin with. There is a similar tale of sorrow in each person here, on both sides of this war, that are saturated with 'if only's'. If only Riddle's father had been a good man and raised his son this may have been prevented. If only Albus had taken more decisive steps back then to curb and lead the boy instead of writing him off because he was Slytherin's heir. If only I had realized what was going to happen and been in time to save James and Lily. If only the Ministry had worked with us in the beginning to stop this instead of burying it. That's the problem. Too many 'if only's' and no way to apply them," Snape responded.
"I can't do this. He's my godson. I just...can't." Sirius said finally as he continued to watch the battle unfold.
"I know. Why do you think Albus recruited me that night after the shack incident? He needed someone that could ignore his morals for the greater good. Someone that could strike the final blow in spite of himself. Some one destined to be one more sacrificial lamb," Snape replied emotionlessly.
"What?" Sirius inquired in confusion.
Snape's answer was to turn away from Harry and Voldemort, heedless of his own safety in doing so, and drop his wand to the ground. He raised bother hands as be began to chant in a forgotten language, before finishing the the shouted words, "BOMB di WIND!" As he finished, a small ball of white light the size of a cantaloupe flew from his hands to the ground between him and those he faced with the speed of a arrow let loose from a bow and struck it. As it hit, it exploded in a maelstrom of gale-force winds that blew everyone, Death Eater and Order Member alike, a good 150 meters back away from Voldemort and Harry.
"What the devil are you doing, Snape?" Sirius asked in alarm.
"What I have to. What no one else on our side could. Just stay behind me and promise to help Nymphadora watch over Draco. The last thing this world needs is a final battle without a proper eyewitness," Snape ordered as he stepped a few paces closer to the dueling pair and raised his hands to his chest.
"You fool! You can't do this! The binding. You took an unbreakable vow to protect Harry, Snivellus! Don't you know that that means?" Sirius ranted as he realized what the spy beside him planned to do.
"Yes, three for the price of two. You can put it on my bloody headstone. Now stand back, mutt, or I'll put you in a much more painful version of what I used to bind Lucius," Snape snapped before he returned his attention to Harry and Voldemort.
Sirius looked ready to argue, but thought better of it. No matter how much it twisted him, he knew this had to be done. That Harry and Voldemort had to die together to end this nightmare. Finally he fell back onto an old friend, his cavalier attitude, to give him the strength for one more barb, "I suppose I'll see you in Hell then, Snivellus. Try to save me a good seat. Something not too warm, and with a view of what Bella will do when she realizes you called her Trixie again before she died."
"If I'm in Hell, I'll save you whatever position I can, rest assured, Black. Personally, though, I'm hoping to return to the Sea of Chaos like all good sorcerers. Maybe I'll even see Bella and Lily there. Or perhaps I'll be transformed into a mazoku, and can finally feed off of the hate and fear my students had for me instead of just rolling my eyes at their weakness," Snape replied evenly.
Those were his last words to Sirius Black before his attention turned to the still dueling pair of wizards and he prepared to finish this fight in one last decisive blow.
"Darkness beyond twilight. Crimson beyond the blood which flows,
buried in the flow if tine.
In thy great Name, I pledge myself to Darkness!
Let the Fools who stand before me be destroyed by the POWER you and I Possess!
DRAGON SLAVE!"
And with those words, the second most powerful sorcerous Black Magic spell spewed forth in a crimson flare of pure destruction as Severus called forth the power to the Lord of Nightmares herself (yes she's female and calls herself 'Lord'. Are you going to argue with a creation-deity over gender appropriate titles?) to wipe out everything in front of him for approximately on square mile. The effort left his hair snow while as he fell to the ground in a boneless heap, first from exhaustion, then from the magic of his broken vow kicking in to end his existence.
Sirius wanted to just stand there in awe of the power Snape had unleashed, but his legs propelled him to the side of his fallen childhood enemy as he knelt down to check on him.
"Tell them. Tell them I regret only the loss of Lily and her son. And they can rot in hell for their hypocrisy. But...I will miss some of them," Snape weakly rasped before he gave a shuddering cough, and died in the arms of his boyhood nemesis.
"I'll tell them, Severus. You have my word on that," Sirius Black vowed, even as he gave a tearful smile and added, "Had to go out with an insult. I hope Albus, Harry, Lily and James straighted your arse out one you get to Heaven, you greasy git. You certainly earned your place there."
END PART ONE