Chapter Twenty-Seven – Snape

"Relax Gin. The tenser you are, the harder it is to see clearly."

Consciously ungripping the arms of the couch, Ginny took deep breaths as she calmed down. Tom then closed his eyes along with Ginny's and let his mind enter and entwine briefly with hers. Images flashed by as he searched for the correct vision. Glimpses of the Weasley's, Hogwarts, the world cup, and the ministry visits flew by, yet Tom didn't allow himself to become distracted. The longer he resided in Ginny's mind, the tenser she became, making it harder to see images clearly.

Finally a piece of paper floated by, headlined with handwriting that wasn't his wife's. Pulling that memory to the front Tom looked for a split second before he gasped and broke contact. Opening his eyes he looked into the startled ones of the woman lying below him. With hard eyes Tom stood up and shoved on his boots. Then, grabbing his cloak he turned to Ginny and said, "Snape."

The words froze Ginny. Her mentor, someone she didn't want to work with, but had to. It all made sense now. Not allowing shock to overtake her, Ginny stood up and rushed to Tom as he prepared to leave.

"What will you do?"

"Kill him." Tom was on his hands and knees looking frantically for something. "My wand is where?"

"On the bathroom sink." Ginny called back to him as he moved around inside the bathroom. "Don't you think killing him is rash?"

"God damn it Ginny. I trusted him after his wavering alliance to me. I let him live before, thinking he was pulling wool over Dumbledore's eyes, but now…now I see that I was the one being hoodwinked."

"Still," Ginny said. "He could have been forced to write it. What if he didn't mean what he said!"

"He looked me straight in the eye and lied to me! Killed two of my best! Can I truly let him get away with that?"

Tom began to run down the halls towards the lake where he planned to apperate. Ginny sprinted to keep up with his swift pace, and continued to yelling reasons not to kill Snape at the raging man. When Tom stopped Ginny bent over and tried to catch her breath as she blurted out, "If you kill him, I will leave you."

Spinning on the spot, Tom looked Ginny in the eye and saw the seriousness. Attempting to stand up tall, Ginny inched over to Tom's side and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug.

"I love you Tom. I don't want to lose you to Dumbledore or Harry's wand. I wont let you go to Azkaban. Please, for my sake, don't go."

Squeezing tighter, Ginny forced her body not to heave with sorrow. She couldn't lose Tom know, not when she had finally allowed herself to fully love him. The feeling of Tom's smooth hands running down her back repeatedly helped Ginny calm down. Pulling back enough to see his face, she stood on the tips of her toes and pecked him on the cheek.

"Lets go back to the castle." Tom moved himself and Ginny back to the castles doors and let his anger towards Snape stay at bay until later, when he would have his revenge.

Thrashing around in his bed, Harry was awoken by Ron who thought his best friend was having a night terror. Once Harry saw that he was in a safe place, he stopped squirming.

"What was that for mate?" Ron asked, not use to Harry's visions.

"Remember from the meeting we had earlier today, Snape said that people were dying at Voldemort's castle?"

"Don't call him that Harry." Ron shifted uncomfortably as Harry observed him.

"Ron, you are going to have to call him by his name one day."

Smiling Ron looked Harry in the eye and said, "Once he is dead, I will sing his name."

"But you remember, right."

"Yeah, it was odd how Snape just appeared and all."

Harry and Ron both spaced off to remember the events from earlier.

"We must get Ginny out of there soon. The longer that she is in that confinement with her," shuddering, Professor McGonagall said, "new husband, the worse for ware she becomes."

"I understand you concern." Dumbledore waited for the room to return to quite. "Everyone wants to get her out as soon as possible, yet we don't want to rush head first into the situation."

"What can we do Albus?" The squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick made everyone's heads swivel towards him. Turning back to the man in front of them all they patiently waited for his answer.

"Harry, you have been there. What did you notice about the ceiling that was unique?"

"Mr. Potter has been there! When was this?" Professor Sprout looked at Harry curiously expecting him to answer until Dumbledore did for him.

"Mr. Potter went rashly by himself to Voldemort's hidden castle. I am upset, yes, but now it might be helpful to us all. So Harry, what did you notice?"

"Sorry to disappoint you Sir, yet I had no time to admire my surroundings. I looked only for danger, nothing else."

"The ceilings have the strongest window glass made anywhere in the world. Every time a deatheaters meeting is called, all the deatheaters apperate through the windows. If they are closed the person will be transported to the dungeons until otherwise. It is not wise though to do what you are thinking headmaster."

Snape's presence was abrupt, causing everyone to turn to the back where Snape stood in the dark corner. Moving closer to the front of the room, he continued, "I hope you aren't planning to invade when all the deatheaters are gathering for a meeting with the Dark Lord. It would be too risky."

"If not then, when?"

"I don't know Sir. It will be much harder since the recent circumstances at his castle. Attacking soon is more dangerous then ever."

Moody's growly voice barked, "What circumstances boy?"

"I am far from a boy." Snape flashed an agitated look at the man, and then said, "The deaths. Surly you knew about it now."

As the room stayed silent Snape folded his hands behind his back and proudly told all present about the death of Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. To say the least, most were surprised. "Guards around the castle will be ten fold. Entering without permission will be near to impossible."

"There is always more then one way to enter a building, no matter how secure it may be." Dumbledore ordered everyone to think about a spell, potion, or item that could help them enter and free Ginny Weasley. Off to bed they all went, only to ponder and scheme.

"Harry. What about it?"

"I had a vision Ron. Voldemort was looking through Ginny's memories to find something. It was a letter with a man's handwriting. He pulled out of her mind to quickly for me to read it. For some reason it made him very upset. Then he told Ginny one thing, a name. 'Snape.' He swore he would kill him, said he had lied and killed his best.

"Ron, I think Snape has been killing the deatheaters. Voldemort must have figured out that he isn't evil, he knows everything!"

"Blimy. What should we do?"

"Go find Dumbledore. I need to find my wand before I leave. I will meet you at his office. God, he needs to know what Snape has been up to. I honestly think he doesn't know."

"Hurry up Harry. Grab your wand and make it quick."

Ron left the room to wake up the headmaster as Harry through on some clothing and searched for his wand. Now wasn't the time to be unprotected.