Chapter 19: Too late to turn back
Alone, in the moonlight, he had time to think. He treasured these sacred moments when he could pause, remain unmoved, and just think. His breath was steady but his heart was not. In the back of his mind, he knew that something was not right. That something was edging closer and closer. He did not know what he would do at that precise moment when everything would shatter down and the truth would be revealed. He shook his head in resignation. He could do nothing about it now. The entire situation was out of his control and he trembled with trepidation.
Down below him, as he stood on the astronomy tower collecting his thoughts, he knew that everyone was in bed dreaming. What they dreamt of he did not know, but he knew that no ones subconscious could capture Severus's fate. It lingered in the air above him like a pungent stench of day old garbage. He could not escape the cloud of detestation that surrounded him.
He saw, in the distance beyond the castle grounds, a light flare up. It was a sign. This particular sign was not a beacon of hope, but an anchor, crashing its way toward disaster.
His heart began to race in amazement as he, too, drew his wand and began to remove the protection that Dumbledore had enforced around the buildings. Slowly his mind ticked off the list of counter-spells to make the school susceptible.
IIII
He shot up instantly in his large feather bed. He coughed up the phlegm of old age as he reached blindly.
"Accio wand!" He shouted, unable to direct his fingers. Albus felt immediately the pressure of danger upon his decrepit shoulders once more.
Finding his footing upon the stable ground, he stumbled and broke into a dash as he ran for assistance. He pointed his wand in the direction of Gryffindor Tower and his patronus left in mad flight to alert Minerva. She would receive this message and come to his aid as though she had been with him all along. He pointed his wand, down this time, and conjured yet another patronus towards Severus Snape. Unbeknownst to Dumbledore, this message would never reach its destination in the dungeons.
IIII
He ushered the group in through a statue of a witch. They all crept quietly out, awaiting instruction from their leader for the evening. Snape straightened his back as the feeling of dread crawled incessantly down his spine. He counted the men and women darkly dressed as they came out. Four. Four death-eaters to do the dark lords bidding, at the hands of the most successful double agent that Hogwarts had ever known.
He felt like twisting his hands like an anxious five-year-old on the first day of kindergarden, but instead only gripped his wand with a tighter grip. His already pale knuckles turned a white hue at the pressure.
Bellatrix Lestrange waited, anticipation gathering in her giddy heart. Narcissa Malfoy drew her eyes over her beloved son and wished her were not present. Amycus stood tall and strong, rigidly awaiting the task ahead. Draco Malfoy crouched low, away from his mother and aunt, his heart racing as he stroked the forearm that had been recently marked. Did he count himself? He didn't know. Would he actually do what he was supposed to? Which leader would he defy? The wise, brave hero... or the man so evil even his so-called friends were frightened of him?
IIII
Alone in the black of night. Alone in the one place she so hoped to have the company of another. Alone to suffer within solitude. Alone while hundreds of thoughts crowded her already teeming mind. Alone without him. Alone.
She walked for what seemed like hours but here there was no sense of time. She could not understand the place she had grown so used to. When she finally thought she was beginning to understand this world locked within her mind and chained to another, it changed on her. She wondered when had been the last time she had been here with him?
Although she was isolated within these empty walls, she knew in the outside world, the real world she reminded herself, that something was amiss. She tried not to mind, to concentrate on her brimming thoughts. She hoped, if she was to be alone, to work out her problems or detach certain feelings from her mind. That was nearly impossible. She could not focus. She waited reluctantly to awaken and find the cause of her late night distress.
IIII
"I do not understand this! I feel the presence of others, and they are here Minerva! They march amongst these halls, undetected. I will not stand this. Where is Severus?"
"Where is he? What a question to ask, Headmaster." Her eyes were red from lack of sleep, and rings were beginning to form beneath them. She was as worried as she let herself be, as she watched Dumbledore's face contort in rage and frustration. She saw no end to this schools' problems and could not give the answers to his urgent questions.
"Be at the ready. I'm going to find out everything. You head down towards the dungeons; maybe you shall find him in as deep a sleep as I saw him three days ago. I will be in Gryffindor Tower. I have a feeling that the boy is about to be awoken." He eyes searched hers for understanding, but she only pursed her lips, nodded, and marched away toward the south end of the castle.
Once he was sure she was on her way, he fervently turned and headed toward the door guarded by a large portrait of a very fat lady. His wand was raised at the ready, while hundreds of curses and jinxes floated through his mind. He could feel himself preparing, and understandably so. Whatever, or whoever, lurked he was sure to find them.
As he neared the door he sought, he whispered the password hurriedly. When he entered, the room was calm and untouched. The fires were dwindling down and the lights were naturally low. He began to head toward the boys' dormitory where a young man of seventeen lay sleeping, untouched. But then a thought occurred within his overloaded mind and he retreated toward the girls' dormitory.
Marching up the stairs, his feet moved quickly to a door farther down the hall. He opened it quietly; not intending to disturb whomever was within. As he pushed it open a fraction of an inch farther, a soft yellow glow from the hallway poured into the dark room. He could see little, causing him to push it a little more as his eyes adjusted to the night. Four beds lined up neatly upon the far wall. The curtains to each hung tightly closed, except he noticed, the one directly in front of him.
IIII
"Draco, stop playing with her! We are here to do a job, not to torture your enemies!" Narcissa's voice sounded shrill and nervous as she berated her son who was currently bouncing a redheaded girl in the air.
"On the contrary, Sissy dear," Bellatrix said, releasing an echoing guffaw. "We are here to torture the poor darling. Spin her Draco, watch her fly."
"Draco will do nothing of the sort, Bella. Direct her toward the statue, Malfoy. Once you get there wait patiently for the rest of us." Severus was growing tired of his present company, who had begun to act like the first years he so detested. As he watched the boy go, the girl floating only a few feet ahead of him, he pointed for Narcissa to follow. "Keep an eye on him. Both of you behave." He watched them walk quietly in the direction they had come. Everything was going according to plan.
"That old coot isn't up yet! You'd think he would have sensed us." Amycus whispered to the darkly posed man beside him.
"He will come. Probably with the boy in tow, no doubt," Snape said, more to himself than to the man and woman leaning against the walls. He watched them with intensity. Severus feared the results of what he was doing, but he was clasped in a magical contract that he could not deny. His future was destined for wrong doing.
Footsteps collided with the hard marble floor down the hallway. They were coming. They were rounding the corner and all he could do was hold his wand tighter, if it were possible. His stomach sank to his toes and the other too looked up. Bella's eyes were alight with excitement, while Amycus only looked expectant. It was beginning, Severus feared. Deep breath, in, out. The air was stiff with disappointment. Stale within the lungs.