Author's Note: I hadn't had any ideas to get this chapter done, but in light of the reunion special, I felt that I needed to take a second look.

Chapter 5:

"I have to go find out why he wants Snape." Harry insisted, staring at Hermione in a stubborn way. "I'm the only one who can end this, and that's where Nagini is."

"Someone please explain what is going on here!" James demanded. "If we're going to defeat You-Know-Who, I want to help!"

"James, you don't know what he's capable of." Hermione pointed out. "He was just gaining power when you were alive. Things are a thousand times worse now."

"He's right, James. You don't know what happened in the last twenty years." Harry pointed out.

"I can't let that psycho hurt my future self and get away with it, Harry. If you really know me like you say, you know I can't stand my loved ones being hurt." James pointed out, heatedly. "I can fight, I can help you out."

"Harry, we don't have time to argue with him." Ron reasoned. "If he says he can help, let's let him."

Hrry sighed in resignation. "Fine. You can come with us. We need to go to the Shrieking Shack, so keep up."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the four Marauders ran through scenes of fierce fighting in an effort to get to the front door. They reached the front door unscathed and Harry pushed open the heavy oak door.

The grounds before them was lit intermittently with flashes of spells as they weaved through the grounds. Their goal up ahead stood silhouetted against the black sky: The Whomping Willow.

Harry came up short as he heard her give a shuttering gasp. In an instant, the night turned bitingly cold, a signal that dementors were swarming in upon them. Looking up, hundreds of dementors descended upon the grounds from the borders.

Harry stumbled backward into his friends, trembling all over. "We need to conjure our Patronuses." Harry instructed the others. "Come on."

Harry waved his wand, shouting, "Expecto Patronum!" Beside him he heard James shout it as well. Twin stags erupted from their owners wand, quickly joined by an a terrier, a rat, and a wolf. Hermione had difficulty, only producing vapor.

"She's always had trouble with that spell." Harry chuckled at James.

"She reminds me of Lily, to be honest." James cast Hermione a look. "Muggleborn?"

"Like father, like son." Harry gave him a smile.

Hermione finally managed to produce an otter Patronus and the seven Patronuses charged, causing the dementors to swoop away. The warm summer night returned in full measure, as the Patronuses vanished in a shimmer of vapor.

Harry led the others to the Whomping Willow. "Wormtail, do your thing." James urged his friend.

Wormtail disappeared from Sirius's side and a worm-like tail whipped out of sight as they watched. After a few minutes the Whomping Willow's whipping branches froze in place.

"I'll go first. You come after me only if I say the coast is clear." Harry said firmly. "If it's a trap, I'm not letting you risk your lives. Especially when you just got them back." Harry addressed the four Marauders with the last words.

"Nice try, Harry. Have you been paying attention for the last six years?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "We're all going in there or no one is."

Harry rolled his eyes at her theatrics but conceded to her. He led the way, crawling into the narrow passage at the base of the tree. As he approached the Shrieking Shack's entrance hidden beneath the Willow's trunk, he heard voices from the room at the end of the passage. A faint emerald light illuminated the room.

"Forgive me, my Lord, but why did you call me back from the battle?" Harry heard Snape's voice ask from the other side. Harry could see Snape's robe-clad lower half and his shiny black shoes.

"Their defenses are crumbling, I'm sure my Death Eaters can handle them on their own. I require something of you, however." Voldemort's cold voice replied.

"My Lord?" Snape questioned, unsure how to respond.

"You see, ever since I took the Elder Wand from the previous owner, I expected it to do whatever magic I wished. However, it has not done anything extraordinary."

"My Lord, you have done magic beyond anything anyone can-" Snape said at once, in a placating tone.

"This wand has performed my usual magic, not the magic promised by lore. Do you know why that is, Severus?" Voldemort continued, a dangerous note in his cold voice.

"My Lord, I don't know what you mean." Snape said quickly, as though sensing he was in danger.

"I am sorry to have to do this. But for me to attain the power I desire out of this wand, it must be done." Voldemort flicked his wand, and the unusual emerald light became brighter at once as it moved.

Snape hastily backed away and Harry caught a vision from Voldemort's point of view. The cage that Harry had seen that enclosed Nagini hovered across the room and covered Snape's upper half. Snape tried to fight against it, as the snake struck, biting his neck once, then again.

Voldemort flicked his wand again the cage rose. Snape fell heavily to the rotted wood floor of the Shrieking Shack as he was free of the cage. "I regret it." Voldemort said finally and disappeared with Nagini.

"Harry, no!" Hermione whispered desperately as Harry climbed out of the passage to kneel before the dying man.

Hermione, Ron, and the four Marauders followed suit, staring down at Snape. Snape's black eyes widened as they saw his four school enemies. His lips quivered to form words and Harry leaned down to listen.

"Take…take it…" Snape breathed, barely audible over his rattling breath.

Harry could now see more than blood was issuing in copious amounts from Snape. Hermione handed him a glass phial from her beaded bag and Harry scooped the white substance into the phial. When it was gone, Snape looked as if he had nothing left in him. His hand fell to the floor with a thud and Snape moved no more.

"I can't believe You-Know-Who would kill someone so callously, over a stupid wand." Sirius said, angrily. "I mean, I've always hated Snivellus, but no one deserves a death like that. Not even him."

"That isn't an ordinary wand, Sirius." Harry said quietly as he got to his feet. "It's the Elder Wand."

"That's just a children's story." James answered at once, looking at Harry. "A story to get children to behave. My dad told me. Your grandfather, of course."

"James, the Deathly Hallows are real, and you owned one of them." Harry reached into the pouch that hung around his neck and pulled out the Invisibility Cloak he had stashed there.

"My Cloak! How did you get it?" James asked, his eyes lighting up. He touched the silky fabric, as if remembering a fond memory.

"Dumbledore gave me the Cloak for my first Christmas at Hogwarts. He thought he should return it to me since it was my inheritance." Harry answered, knowing it would lead to a harder truth.

"Speaking of Professor Dumbledore, how is he not here fighting with us?" Remus asked at once. "If anything, he didn't tolerate anything dark when we were in school."

Harry sighed heavily. "He died. Last year in fact. That's why he's not here. I'm sorry to have to tell you like this."

The four Marauders were horrified into silence.