My Immortal Love - Chapter 6 - Back at Hogwarts
"No!"
Aurora had been sleeping so peacefully in tom's arms, that she had inadvertedly connected herself to what was happening in the dungeons of Hogwarts. Just as the curse had been cast, Aurora apparated in front of Severus so she could protect him.
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The curse itself wouldn't have been a deadly, or even a painful one, just something to knock him out so he could bring Severus back with him, but when added with the amount of malice Lucius was felling, it could have leveled an entire army.
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Tom had woken with her scream and seen her apparate out of the room. He knew exactly where she was going, but couldn't readily think of a reason why she would be going with such alarm in her voice.
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Both Severus and Draco saw the light from Lucius' wand coming at them and then the barrier that Draco had created appear in front of them. Usually, a simple barrier would have been enough to either bounce back the curse or make it disappear, but this curse was fueled with far more Dark Magic than was needed for it, so it continued to barrel down on Draco's barrier.
Then, just as a crack began to form, another flash of light appeared in front of Severus, inside the barrier, and there appeared Aurora. No one saw another barrier form in front of her, but they did see the blue flash come straight at her, and then it disappeared, along with Lucius.
All of this happened within a matter of seconds.
As Lucius disappeared, aurora collapsed right there were she stood.
"Aurora!" Severus could barely believe what had happened, or that Aurora had appeared just then.
"Professor?" Draco was still stunned that his father would strike at anyone else with so much force, with him there in a possible line of fire, and not even hit his target. He knew he had to meet this young woman who was laying on the floor and had just saved their asses.
"Draco, go get Madam Pomfrey! Now!"
Aurora was unconscious, and Severus was afraid that she might die, for real, after seeing that curse break through Draco's barrier and not having saw her put one up to save herself.
"Aurora, why did you do such a foolish thing? I would never have wanted you to put yourself in danger for me. I love you too much to see you like this."
Poppy burst into the room wearing heavy bed clothes and a night cap along with Dumbledore in his bed clothes.
"What happened? Draco couldn't explain it to me on the way down here." Poppy was calm and collected on the outside, but a bundle of nerves on the inside at seeing Aurora unconscious on the floor in Severus' arms after all of these years.
"Malfoy was here, and when I wouldn't go with him to see Voldemort, he threw a curse at me. Draco tried to protect us both, but it broke through and then hit her instead of us. She didn't even have time to put up a barrier to protect herself." By the end, Severus was in tears, holding Aurora's limp body as close to him as he could, without hurting her anymore than she already was.
Madam Pomfrey gently took Aurora from Severus and levitated her to the Hospital Wing for examinations and treatment.
All were excluded from the room. Poppy couldn't have everyone seeing her running around everywhere praying that this potion was the right one for her cure, and having nothing help.
After about two hours, a rather exhausted Madam Pomfrey emerged from the Hospital Wing and collapsed on the floor in a dazed state.
"Madam Pomfrey, is she alright?" all of the men exclaimed at once.
She didn't really seem to hear them, or even understand them, she hadn't even registered that they were there. "I tried every known cure, and some experimental ones, and nothing has worked. She hasn't moved a muscle. It's almost as if she's just in a deep sleep, but that couldn't be it. She was hit with some type of curse, right?"
"Yes, I saw her get hit, and then Lucius and the flash disappeared."
"May we go in to see her now?" Dumbledore seemed as calm as Pomfrey had seemed before, but everyone knew that he was just as anxious as Severus to see her come out of this.
"Yes, but I don't see how it will do any good. She is completely unresponsive to everything."
Severus was only half aware of anything Poppy was saying. All he knew was that he was being allowed to see her, and he didn't want to waste anymore time being away from her.
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Unfortunately, Voldemort had also found out what happened to both Lucius and Aurora.
When Lucius disappeared in the dungeons he had reappeared in the presence of Voldemort. He had known Lucius had lost his temper and lashed out at Severus, against orders, Aurora had sensed the danger he was in and gone to protect him.
Voldemort had also felt Aurora's power surge to well above normal and then nose dive to too far below her danger level.
When Lucius reappeared in front of Voldemort, he simply said, "I'll deal with you later," and left his minion half dead on the floor.
Voldemort went to the tallest turret of his castle so he could project himself farther and faster. He placed extra security outside the door and locked it so he couldn't be disturbed, and astroprojected himself to the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts, to be near Aurora, the same way she ad been doing this the whole time.
When he managed to arrive, Madam Pomfrey had already left the room and was talking to those who were outside.
He arrived as his younger self who went to school here known as Tom Riddle, carrying a small red vile with a bubbling concoction within, for Aurora to take.
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As Severus came running in to the room to be near Aurora, he could see a dark form looming over her bed, and he became even more frightened than when he had seen her appear in front of him.
"Get away from her!" Severus acted on impulse and pulled the figure away from her, before he had even realized who he was yelling at. "who are you, and what were you doing to her?"
"I was simply giving her a potion to revive her, Severus. I would have thought that you would have been grateful for any help when it came to her health." He didn't look or sound like his true self, so Severus couldn't understand why one of his students were calling him by his surname as if they were his superior.
"I asked you who you were and I demand to know what you were giving her!"
"Such a temper Severus. You should know better than to talk to your master like that."
"I don't have a master, and you are one of my students. Now answer my questions!"
"Very well, my name is Tom Riddle or as I am better known, Lord Voldemort. And I was merely giving her a concentrated version of a Pepper Up Potion. Her power and energy took a plunge after saving your's and Draco's ass from Lucius' super charged curse."
"That won't work." Severus' tone went soft and remorseful. "She was hit by it. she didn't have time to create a barrier before it broke through Draco's. Pomfrey has done everything in her power to revive her, and nothing has worked." Severus completely calmed and began to talk to him as another adult who also loved her.
"If that were true, then I couldn't be here in this form, or at all. She is my anchor here, just like you are her anchor here. If she were past revival, she would have been brought back to me. You would have seen this already though if you had allowed me to finish administering the potion instead of knocking it out of my hands."
While all of the others had followed Severus into the room and had been stunned to see the young Voldemort standing over Aurora's bed, Poppy had had enough common sense to listen to what was being said and ran to her stock of Pepper Up Potion. Not really wanting to come to near the Dark Lord, even if he were just a projection of him as his younger self, she levitated it over to Severus so he could administer it to Aurora himself.
"Why isn't she waking up?" Severus was in hysterics, he had gone out on a limb and trusted the Dark Lord, and nothing was happening. He lunged at Voldemort and pinned him up against the wall, with one grasped around his neck, and the other reaching for his wand.
"The vial I was going to give her was a concentrated version. It was probably strong enough to revive the dead for a small amount of time. It is used by my Death Eaters while in battle, not that diluted shit you give students who didn't get enough sleep the night before or are coming down with a cold." All of that was being said between gasps for air.
All of those watching were amazement that Voldemort wasn't fighting back. Normally, he would have thrown a curse, or simply just not have taken any of the punishment his body was undergoing, and at least have thrown a punch.
"Severus…" it was barely above a whisper, but heard by both men standing by her bed.
Severus left Voldemort standing by the wall gasping for air and immediately returned to her side. "I'm here Aurora."