Chapter Five: Something Gone Awry

Sitting at the kitchen table, immune to the bustle of Order members around him, Severus stared moodily into his tumbler of blood red cognac.

He remembered, just the night his whole life had changed. He remembered, just how he came to volunteer himself to accompany Lilianna into the future.

She could not have said, later, just exactly what it was that had made her stomach churn unpleasantly or her heart to hammer wildly. The scene was a familiar one, not likely to throw her into such frenzy merely by its arrival. No, it was more a sense of apprehension, a weight against her chest that made her astute to something gone awry.

She had been in her grandfather's private quarters, just east of his office at Hogwarts. They had been reviewing maps of the world, marking the points where there had been known death eater activity, speculating as to where next Voldemort's dominions might move, and analyzing any behavioral patterns that might have, subconsciously, sprung up when they were not looking.

It was a fruitless endeavor; the odds had been against progress even before they began. But it was a time of war, and they would do everything they could, no matter how unlikely, to ensure that they would have the winning hand.

They had just pushed aside the last map, opting for a warm kettle of tea and a plate of sandwiches to nibble on while they contemplated the knowledge, or lack thereof, that they had just uncovered. Their mouths halted, mid debate, their heads turning towards the archway leading into the salon from the headmaster's office, when they heard the door adjoining Dumbledore's office open with a loud bang.

In strode Severus Snape, his black death eater robes already swung haphazardly around his shoulders. "I've been called." His voice rang out terse with his otherwise concealed distress.

Lilianna looked to her grandfather who was currently nodding his head in acknowledgement.

"It was to be expected, after all." The old man stood from his seat, striding swiftly over to a small secretary situated in the far corner of the room. He pulled from a drawer a small object that looked to be no more than an old quill.

When he turned back to the room, Severus was standing with his hand out as though familiar with these proceedings. And so he was. Lilianna's recognition caught up with her when she watched the potions master disappear from the room as soon as his fingers enclosed around the feather.

Ah, it must have been the portkey that would carry him just past the boundaries of Hogwarts; past the anti-apparation wards that would only stint his needed haste.

That was when the feeling, the sense of doom, settled itself upon Lilianna. She stood from her seat, having been idle through the brief transaction. "I must go." Was all she said to her father, before she called Fawkes to her side, holding an arm out for him to rest upon.

Then, with a flash of scarlet flame, she arrived at the gates of Hogwarts, just where the portkey would have been bound to deposit Severus. Thanking Fawkes with a soft stroke of his tail feathers, she extracted her wand from the bodice of her witch's gown. With a low muttered incantation, she spelled a tracking charm hoping to disclose Snape's unknown whereabouts.

Ah, yes. The same as last time, Malfoy Manor. Well, she thought, at least this means they will not have the dark lord, himself, to contend with. Tom Riddle would never be so foolish as to set foot into such a well-known façade.

Squaring her shoulders, still unsure of exactly what it was she hoped to gain by contributing to this fool hardy mission, she concentrated her thoughts and apparated in Severus' wake.

When next her eyes opened, Lilianna found herself standing in a short field of barley just a mile or so from Malfoy Manor. Of course, Lucius would have created protective wards of his own around his families ancestral home. She could no more apparate into the expansive manor then she could Hogwarts' own grounds, not unless she bore the mark of the death eaters.

She sighed; this would certainly delay her arrival. She only hoped she would not be to late, for…whatever it was she came intercept.

Taking long strides in an effort to cover more ground more quickly, Lilianna held her wand aloft in her hand all the while, hoping to not meet any who might be guarding the manor from intrusion on this night. Her luck held. There were no such men about. She reached the doors to the manor, wondering at how she would be able to sneak through without alerting anyone to her presence.

Casting a disillusioning charm on herself so that her body would blend like a chameleon into her surroundings, Lilianna opened the door just wide enough to squeeze her body through, hoping that no one would be standing on the other side to witness such a scene.

Sighing with relief, she wasted no time. Placing her wand on the flat of her hand, she whispered, "point me." Immediately her wand spun west, directing her towards the room where the gathering was being held. She headed west.

When she reached the furthest door down a hallway with too many rooms branching off from its walls so as to cause confusion, her wand lit a pulsing blue, warning her that this was the desired destination. Checking in a mirror that hung on the silk draped wall just before the door, she made sure that the disillusionment charm was sticking.

Then, perhaps even more cautiously then she had at the front door, she eased the thick oak panel open, slipping herself inside the room and closing it back shut, without any of the eight individuals inhabiting the solon being any the wiser.

It was a curious room, she thought. The walls were a fitting Slytherin green, the floor a black tiled marble. There were pillars erected from ceiling to floor in a semi circle encasing the sitting area in a sort of open platform that stood at least three feet taller than the surrounding flooring.

She hid herself behind such a pillar, observing the small group that consisted of the dark lord's most inner circle as they sat on any amount of dark hued furniture, talking amongst themselves.

Then she watched as Lucius Malfoy stood from the leather sofa, making his way to a wheeled serving cart on which there sat a decanter of cognac and crystal glasses. He poured himself a finger, talking with his back to the room all the while.

"—No, the reason I asked you all here is to inform you of a spy amongst our ranks."

At these words, Lilianna's eyes flashed to Severus noticing his fingers stiffening around the goblet of brandy he held in his left hand, the only tell tale sign that Lucius' words had any more of an effect on him then they did the others in the room.

"The dark lord requested I discover the identity of said traitor, and I have opted to enlist your aid."

Severus' shoulders relaxed, a display of obvious relief to hear that his true allegiance had been revealed. Or at least, they had, until he caught the eyes of Draco Malfoy sitting just across from him. The look crossing his sharp handsome features warned the potions master that his name had been tossed around as a suspect.

His shoulders knotted once more.

Lilianna almost gasped at hearing Lucius' suave voice issuing forth such words. This was why, then, she had felt such a panic when Severus had first disappeared from her grandfather's office. It would only be a matter of time, a couple of months at the most, before the dark man's identity was discovered.

Now that they were looking for such a double agent…it would only be a matter of time.

Having missed the last five minutes of conversation, lost in the torrid of thoughts that had flooded her mind, Lilianna looked up in surprise as she watched the occupants of the room stand from their relaxed postures amid the random pieces of furniture, and turn towards the door.

They were already leaving.

Steeling her breath, it was now or never. Lilianna darted out from behind the pillar having first released the disillusionment spell from her body. Completely visible now, and hard to miss in a dress of the most vivid blue, she strode casually up to Severus Snape. Watching with an ounce of satisfaction that was lost in the crowd of adrenaline pumping her blood, that the self-controlled man could not prevent a fleeting look of apprehension cross his face.

She walked slowly, as though her presence was the most ordinary thing in the world. Breeching the final distance between herself and Severus, she stood atop her tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his cheek.

Reaching for his hand, between their two bodies, she grasped it with her own, passing into his hand an object she had spelled just before she made her decision to blow his cover.

A portkey.

Then, just as suddenly as they had been taken aback by her arrival, the death eater's surrounding them caught on to the game. Severus Snape, one of their own, had just been revealed as a spy.

Lucius Malfoy was the first to catch on, the first to act. He raised his wand, pointing it in Severus' direction. Lilianna darted her eyes between Lucius and the man beside her, it was apparent from the ill conceived look on his face, that Severus had no idea that the small metal ring she was holding against his palm was a portkey. His thoughts were too busy whirling on how she had managed to follow him here in the first place.

Before the portkey had a chance to activate, before Lilianna could even blink, she heard as Lucius shouted a curse and watched with fear-widened eyes as a stream of orange light raced towards them.

Shit.

In the portion of the second she was allotted to think of a reaction, she flung herself in front of Severus, shielding him from the curse. In the process, however, her hand tore away from his clasp, releasing her bond to the portkey.

Behind her, Severus' swore resounding across the marble room as his body felt that familiar tug of a portkey and he vanished from the increasingly dire scene.

Lilianna barely had time to feel relief at having Severus sent out of harms way, now all she could concentrate on was the blast of light surging her way.

With the quick reflexes born from years of defending herself in similar situations, Lilianna raised her wand and called out a shield to protect her from the blast. It held true, and the light rebounded and was thrown back towards his owner.

Lucius sidestepped the spell easily, grabbing the man's arm that was standing next to him and flinging him into the curses fire. Best that the curse be absorbed now before it continued to bounce from one erected shield to the next.

Raising a hand to silence the incantations that were hanging from the lips of his fellow death eaters behind him, he silently communicated that they were to do nothing. She was his to kill.

After all, how could she possibly have room to escape now? The portkey had left without her, and she would not have time to establish another before he killed her. She could not disapparate from his home, nor could she run. He would catch her.

With a grim smile of satisfaction crossing his features, he took slow, deliberate steps nearer her.

But the answer to his unvoiced question had just appeared to distract his progress towards the young woman. Lilianna could have burst into song; so ecstatic was she to find Fawkes had come to her in a burst of flame. He was three feet away from her, flying steadily closer.

Until, yes, her hand closed tightly on his tail feathers.

Almost instantly they were gone from the place. Almost instantly, but not before Lilianna was nicked by a dark spell. She felt a searing pain cross her back, and could only thing in the fog of her pain, how lucky she was that the brunt of the curse had soared past her.