OLD MAGIC

Chapter 30: No Break for Snape

"What are we supposed to do with that?" Nott asked, voicing his disgust at the message Bellatrix still held unrolled in her hands.

"Interpret it, of course. When the Dark Lord returns he will want to know about this as soon as possible and it would be to our benefit if we'd found the answers to the riddle rather than present him with it as is," Snape drawled, insolently, then winced as he moved his broken ankle injudiciously.

Bellatrix glared at him. "Of course we have to figure it out, but it makes no sense ... so how do we start getting answers?" She reluctantly asked. Figuring out puzzles was not her forte and she knew it so despite her annoyance with Snape, she knew she would have to work with him on this or Lucius. She grimaced at that last thought.

Malfoy had been involved in the search for his son as well but had only succeeded in losing the Dark Lord even more of his supporters. She thought of him as a posing fool ... always fawning at the master's feet while scheming behind his back. Snorting, she turned her thoughts back to the problem at hand and Snape in particular.

"I'm afraid I'm in too much pain to do any researching right now. I need my potions and rest..." Snape began before she rudely interrupted him.

"You should answer my questions first, Severus. How did you come to be kidnapped in the first place and why didn't you escape before now?" She demanded.

Nott scowled at her, angry that she would think she was in charge. However, since she was far more intimidating (not that he would admit that aloud) than himself, he would allow her to try and get some answers before stepping in himself.

Snape glared at her haughtily. "You are not in charge, Bellatrix ... McNair is. The only reason I'm not next in line is my duties as spy keeps me too occupied," he reminded her coldly.

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned over him menacingly. "McNair and Dolohov are both in Azkaban and, as you said, you are not normally available and since it is you that is involved in this event, it is you that must answer for what happened," she said with perfect logic.

She was right, damn it. Snape sighed inwardly. Well he hadn't intended to make this that hard so began to give the carefully crafted lie Hagrid and he had come up with. "You should already know how I was taken, but in case you weren't paying attention to what was going on ..." he said, deliberately disparaging their abilities in keeping tabs on the order knowing it would irritate and, hopefully distract them. It worked a little ... making Nott's eyes flare and Bellatrix's lips tighten with anger and annoyance.

"... I was part of that benighted search for Draco when my group was set upon by a swarm of Acromantula. As we were trying to beat off the attack, a centaur came charging through and snatched me. The brute swung me up onto his back and in the process, hit my head against a tree so I was no longer aware of much after that. I woke with a severe headache and hypothermia from the cold just as the centaur arrived at a cave somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. Three others waited him there and one hauled me off the other's back like I was nothing more than a sack of flour. I was carried into the cave which was mostly empty and fairly small. Setting me down in a smaller cave at the back, I was allowed to rest ... one of them shocked me by setting a warming spell on my body then deliberately broke my ankle all with wandless magic. Of course, they had already disarmed me so I couldn't retaliate."

"Tha ... that's impossible! They can't possibly use wandless magic!" Nott stuttered, shock and disbelieve warred on his face.

"I beg your pardon but were you there? That is what I saw and felt," Snape said coldly.

"That's not possible. They're just beasts ..." Nott repeated, unable and unwilling to believe what the potion's master was saying.

Though equally stunned, Bellatrix wasn't so stupid that she didn't realize what the implications of what Snape had revealed could mean to the Dark Lord's plans. Her face tightened as she thought hard on what to do next.

"How is it we know so little of their abilities?" She demanded to know.

"I would assume extreme prejudice as exhibited by Nott and all other wizards is responsible. We believe what we want to believe even if it isn't true. It turns out, many of the forest creatures aren't as dumb as we assumed. Witness what they just did by working together to kidnap me and perhaps Draco as well, hide us, then return me without a single auror finding me," Snape said bluntly. "By the way, do you know if Draco was found?"

"No, we haven't heard anything from that direction since you both were taken," she answered, unconcerned about the Malfoy boy. "So they broke your ankle and used wandless magic?" He nodded. "What else did you learn and why didn't you attempt to escape?" She demanded, pacing before his bed in angry agitation.

"Nothing as no one would speak with me. My demands for answers were met with indifference. I might as well have been an inanimate object. Anyway, even if I could have managed to get past the agony of broken bones, I still couldn't have escaped with a hoard of those Acromantula's surrounding me."

Nott couldn't resist shivering at the thought of a whole swarm of Acromantula watching with all those eyes. He blinked as something occurred to him. "How did they keep those spiders from attacking them? I didn't think those buggers listened to anyone or had enough brains to do more than hunt, eat, and sleep."

"That's when I learned they aren't as stupid as we thought. They were working with the centaurs not for them or controlled by them," Snape told him, smirking inwardly at the reaction to that news by the pair. Actually, that had surprised him as well when he learned of it from Hagrid. Never again would he think that all the creatures in the forbidden forest as being mindless beasts. Too be sure there were some that were just animals but there were a nearly equal number that were actually intelligent.

Nott just gaped at him, Bellatrix on the other hand...

"I don't believe you. Intelligent spiders ... really!" Snape just looked at her. "Fine, whatever. So you expect me to believe the centaurs said nothing to you nor talked among themselves the whole time you were there?" Bellatrix looked askance at him, not believing a word.

Snape just stared at her like she was some dimwitted student, knowing it would make Bellatrix angrier. "I don't care what you believe or not, it's what happened. It was a miserable and cold two weeks. I was kept barely fed and warm the whole time. Then suddenly as the sun was coming up this morning and without a word spoken, a centaur came into my cave, tied my legs and wrists, carried me out to a centaur waiting outside, and threw me on its back. We took off at a good clip through the forest and were met by a larger group at midday. They never stopped to eat, just kept traveling for hours through the snow before finally pausing in some clearing where they apparated as a group to arrive beside the river some miles from here. Then we traveled here and it was obvious to me they knew exactly where they were going as they never asked me for directions."

"How did they manage to travel so far and not be seen," Nott asked, not thinking.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Not difficult if one stays in the woods and it being winter, no one was about to see them."

"How did they bring down the traps then the ward?" Bellatrix asked, suddenly. Apparently, she realized what else the centaurs had done they shouldn't have been able to.

"I wasn't really in a position to see. I only know they didn't seem to have any trouble deactivating the traps and I could only feel the ward go down but not who did it among them," he lied smoothly.

Nott shook his head finding this all hard to believe while Bellatrix looked worried and angry.

"The Dark Lord needs to know about this ..." she muttered more to herself than him.

"Certainly, but since he's not been around at all, that will be difficult," Snape reminded her.

She glared but said nothing as it was only the truth. "Regardless, we need to figure this message out and find a way to deal with whatever it says," she decided.

"Good idea but I recommend you getting Lucius to help you. I need to heal and rest from my ordeal. Nott, I need some potions from that cabinet ..." Snape requested, pushing himself to a seated position, wincing at the pain that still thrummed through him.

Bellatrix snorted and shook her head. "Not just yet, Severus ... why did they take you and maybe Draco? What made you two the targets? How did they know to bring you here when they could have taken you to Hogwarts?"

Snape rolled his eyes deliberately. "Did you miss the part where I said they didn't talk to me Bellatrix? I don't have any answers to your questions. And we don't know if that's what happened to Draco though the odds are high it's true. Someone needs to check with our spies within the ministry or ask Lucius if there's been any news on the boy. If I was returned Draco may have been also. We need to see if his story matches mine. Perhaps they took me because they know of my affiliation with the Dark Lord and wanted that message to get to him? I just don't know."

Bellatrix eyed him thoughtfully. "Not a good situation for you Severus if they do."

Snape was smart enough to pretend that bothered him. "Nothing I can do about it if they do. However, since they have no love for wizards on either side, I doubt they will care what side I'm on as long as their message got where they wanted it."

"That means they may have sent a similar message with Draco," Bellatrix mused thoughtfully. "Hmm ... you may be right Severus, we do need to find out. Avery, go find Lucius and tell him we need to see him as soon as possible."

Avery who had been standing in a corner trying to look invisible started. "Where am I supposed to find him? If he's with the hunting parties I can't seek him there nor go to Hogwarts."

Bellatrix huffed out a breath of irritated air. "His home, you dolt!"

"Right," Avery said, quickly then disappeared out the door. His footsteps could be heard running up the stairs.

"Now may I get what I need to heal myself?" Snape demanded.

Bellatrix smirked nastily at him and left without saying anything. Before Nott could follow her, Snape stopped him.

"If I must heal at a normal rate, than I can't help with the puzzle of the message now can I?" He said coldly.

Nott stared out the door indecisively for a moment before turning back with an irritated look on his face. He walked over to the potion's cabinet then asked, "What do you need?"

Inwardly Snape smirked evilly. He could easily get them himself once Nott left but he needed to assert his authority a bit more over Nott so the man wouldn't get any ideas he could lord it over Snape. That attitude could cause the potion's master trouble later so he was glad to get the big lunk to obey him.

"The Skele-Grow is in that bottle to your left and I need those two green bottles just above it and a spoon from the drawer."

Scowling, Nott grabbed the indicated bottles with ill-grace, jerked open the only drawer in the cabinet and grabbed a large spoon then turned back to the bed to hand the items over to Snape.

Hurriedly, Snape quickly unstoppered the Skele-Grow and took a healthy two spoonfuls, grimacing at the taste then took a tablespoon each of the other two bottles. Though his mouth had a gross taste in it now, he sighed in relief as he felt the potions go to work.

"Here, put them back. I'll need to rest for as long as I can. I suggest you get your report ready in your mind of what happened and write it down so you have it ready when he finally asks for it," he warned Nott.

Gritting his teeth at being reminded the Dark Lord might very well return at any moment and demand a lot of answers, he angrily took the bottles and thumped them onto the cabinet sideboard then stomped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Only when Snape heard his footsteps vanish from the stairs, did he finally allow himself to relax.

Using wandless magic, he conjured a large glass of water which he gratefully chugged down, both to get rid of the taste in his mouth and to cure his intense dehydration from the long ride.

Setting the cup on his night stand, he laid down with a long sigh. He gestured and made his shoes come off, hissing as his freed ankle throbbed violently. Another gesture stripped his outer clothing off so he would be comfortable. Next, he gestured for the thick quilt laying over a chair nearby to float toward him then drop to cover his body. And, finally, he set his wards so the others couldn't sneak in on him and see he'd made himself comfortable and wonder how he'd done it.

Now wouldn't they be shocked to know I too can do wandless magic, he smirked to himself then winced as pain throbbed throughout his body. It took a concerted effort for him to shut out the pain and allow the potions to send him off into the darkness of oblivion.