The Traitor – Chapter Three

Snape opened his eyes and found himself covered with dust and pieces of wood. The whole cottage had collapsed because of one spell. He got up and felt a bit dizzy. He felt his head was wet for some reason and when he touched it, he looked at his hand and saw blood. Great, he had injured himself and when he looked down at his clothes, he found them ripped.

He looked around expecting to see the forest, but instead he saw that he was inside a large dark place. He couldn't find his wand at first, but after looking for it, he saw it on the ground and picked it up.

"Lumos!" He said and there was light.

All he could see was piles of woods and broken furniture. Suddenly he remembered that he wasn't alone when it happened. Valentina was there with him, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

"Miss Forester?" he called for her, but didn't receive any response. "Did she manage to escape?" he wondered, but something told him to keep looking.

After a few minutes, he saw a hand under a pile of woods.

"Oh, Merlin." Snape muttered and rushed in the direction of the hand. He levitated the larger pieces of the damaged furniture, and moved the smaller ones out of his way by hand. Finally, he was kneeling next to the hand and looked through the pile. He saw Valentina lying there motionless.

"Valentina, can you hear me?" He pushed a chair away, which made the pile of wood move. If he moved anything else, the whole thing was going to crush her.

He touched her hand and found it warm. Thank goodness, he thought, at least she's alive. He got up and pointed his wand at the top of the pile.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

He levitated each piece of the broken wood and furniture out of the way, and finally managed to get them off Valentina's body. Her right leg was bent in an awkward angle. Snape knew she had broken it. Several cuts, scratches and bruises were covering her face and body. Her clothes were ripped as well.

Snape kneeled next to Valentina and put his head close to her face. He could feel her breath and sighed in relief. He was starting to like her, although she was about to cut his head, but he didn't want to leave her here to die. It wasn't in his nature to do so. He immobilized her and picked her up, then apparated to his apartment in London.

When he was there, he put her on his bed and pulled the bed covers on her. Now, he had to get a healer. St. Mungo's would've been his first choice, but he didn't want them to see the Dark Mark on her forearm, so he decided to get Madam Pomfrey.

He went to the living room and took out a vase that contained floo powder out of a cupboard, and then he walked to the fireplace and threw some of the floo powder into the fire, which started to give green sparks.

"The Hospital Wing at Hogwarts." Snape said in a clear voice. He knelt in front of the fire and put his head threw it.

Snape's head popped out of the fire place at Madam Pomfrey's office, which caught her off guard.

"Severus! Merlin's beard! You startled me!" she said and put a hand on her chest.

"Sorry, Poppy. But I need your help. I have an injured.. friend.. at my house." He said.

"You look quite injured yourself!" she said as she got up from her seat behind her desk. "What happened?"

"No time to explain. Can you bring the Headmaster with you?"

"Yes of course. We'll be there at once."

With that, Snape pulled his head out of the fireplace and went back to his room, where Valentina was lying on his bed. The bed sheets and covers were soaked with blood. Snape cursed under his breath. He wasn't concerned about his favorite bed sheets, but for Valentina, who had obviously lost a large amount of blood.

A couple of minutes later, Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey entered Snape's bedroom. Both had a confused look on their faces as they saw Valentina lying in a pool of blood that resembled Snape's bed. Snape was sitting in an armchair, his eyes were closed, but at the moment Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey entered the room he opened his eyes and got up.

"Severus, what happened?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"It's a long story, Headmaster." Snape said, "can we discuss it outside? I'm sure Poppy needs privacy with her patient."

"Yes, of course." Dumbledore said.

"Not without dealing with my first patient!" Madam Pomfrey said. She took out her wand and pointed it at Snape and muttered an incantation, which made Snape's wounds heal instantly. "Now you can go out." She said with a smile.

"Thank you, Poppy." Snape said and turned to leave the room.

"Severus, can you at least tell me what caused this?" She asked. "I need to know that so I will know what to start from."

"A cottage collapsed on us both." He said. Madam Pomfrey's eye opened wide in shock. "Her leg is broken, by the way." He added and left the room.

Madam Pomfrey started her work at once. First she healed the minor cuts, and then the larger ones. Then she started working on Valentina's broken leg.

Snape and Dumbledore went to the living room. They sat down on the couch and Dumbledore turned to face Snape.

"Who is she? And what happened exactly?" Dumbledore asked.

"Her name is Valentina Forester." Snape said.

"Valentina Forester? The Death Eater?"

"In the flesh.. or at least, what remained of her flesh." Snape replied. "I was at the Malfoy Mansion. As you know, Lucius organized a Masquerade Ball. She was there, too. So, we met there. To tell the truth, Headmaster, I liked her. She was different from what I heard about Valentina Forester. At the end of the Ball we went to a cottage she owns, somewhere in the Sherwood forest..."

Snape told Dumbledore everything that happened in details, without missing anything. The Headmaster listened to the story patiently and when Snape was finished telling his side of the tale, Dumbledore looked at the fire place, the usual twinkle in his eyes missing.

"The question now is: how did Voldemort know?" Dumbledore said.

"I wish to know that myself. I know that I haven't done anything to give him doubts about my loyalty to him, and as you know, I'm not a social person. The only Death Eater I am in contact with out of the DE meetings is Lucius Malfoy."

"I guess we should investigate about this. I will tell the Order to take care of that." Dumbledore said. His eye twinkle has returned as he looked into Snape's black eyes. "So, tell me about this girl. Why did you save her in the first place? After all, she was going to chop your head off, and we're not certain if she wouldn't try it again."

Snape sighed. Did he have to ask that question? Out of all the questions in the world, he had to ask THAT?

"All right, from the look on your face I understand that you don't want to talk about her. I'll respect your choice. But please be careful. I do not want you to lose your head, Severus." Dumbledore said with a knowing smile.

"Don't worry about me, Headmaster. I can take care of my head perfectly." Snape replied and tilted his head back on the couch. He was tired. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This had been a long night.

The sun was starting to rise. Professor Dumbledore conjured a blanket and put it on Snape, and then he went to see how Madam Pomfrey was doing. He entered Snape's bedroom and saw Madam Pomfrey pulling the cover over Valentina, making sure her broken leg was positioned a bit higher than her body.

"How is she doing now?" Dumbledore asked.

"Everything is under control." Madam Pomfrey replied in a whisper. "She's asleep. Well, didn't wake up, anyway."

"She must've lost a large amount of blood."

"She did." Madam Pomfrey turned to look at Valentina. "Anyone else would've died by now."

"Why would you say 'anyone else'?" Dumbledore asked.

Madam Pomfrey lifted Valentina's left arm and showed Dumbledore the Dark Mark.

"I see that you've noticed it." He said.

"How can I not notice?" The healer replied. "Should we inform the Ministry about her?"

"Not yet. I believe Severus has some questions he would want to ask her first."

Madam Pomfrey nodded. Professor Dumbledore stepped closer to the bed and stared at Valentina.

"It is such a pain to see a great wizard's daughter follow the dark side." He said.

"You knew her father?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Anthony Forester. We were in the same house. He was three years older than me." He said. "We got to know each other only when I became a member of the Wizengamot."

"Is he alive now?"

"He died twenty years ago." Dumbledore sighed. "Well, I guess we should go back to Hogwarts."

"But, Headmaster, what about her?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Severus will know what to do."

They went to the living room and found Snape sleeping on the couch. They quietly took a bit of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. Then they returned to Hogwarts.

TBC

Replies to reviewers:

Taivaantuli: He's still alive in this chapter ;)

Ajnastarheart: Well, you can never be sure what would happen when Valentina is around. She faked her sleeping on the couch, otherwise, why would someone wake up after only a couple of hours if they have been drinking a lot? I wouldn't wake up, that's for sure. lol! I would love to see Snape have his 'wicked way' with her, too ;) but that one isn't for this story. Hehe. Thanks for reviewing:)

Dalamis: This was it! ;)