Chapter 52:
There were jets of light flying through darkness all around them, the sound of the lake crashed like the sea, and the Forbidden Forest, though the night was windless, creaked. The grounds seemed themselves to have risen in rebellion.
The four ran across the ground, Alicia slightly behind the others as, despite ignoring everything in her body screaming for her to stop, her usual movement was not as it should be. But she never lost sight, nor did she loose the three.
The Whomping Willow, the great tree, came into sight before Harry, it's secret below it and protected by the trees whiplike slashing branches.
Panting and gasping, Harry slowed down, skirting the Willow's swiping branches, peering through the darkness toward its thick trunk, trying to see the single knot in the bark of the old tree that would paralyse it. Ron and Hermione caught up, Hermione so out of breath she could not speak as Alicia stood beside them. She felt like she would collapse and Harry, probably feeling how in agony her body was, grabbing her around the waist to keep her upright.
She should have stayed behind, hidden somewhere, she felt like a hindrance, like she was holding the three back.
But she couldn't. She had to save Snape. She couldn't let him be killed by Voldemort, when everyone thought him a traitor, when everyone hated him. He couldn't leave this world before he had been given an Order of Merlin for doing the hardest thing ever, in order to protect a child's soul and look after a world full of people.
She thought he deserved more than that, he deserved every apology from everyone in the world, he deserved everyone to look up to him with pride and even envy. She wanted she clear him and make everyone see how wrong they were. Finally.
"How — how're we going to get in?" panted Ron as he stared at the tree before him. "I can — see the place — if we just had — Crookshanks again —"
"Crookshanks?" wheezed Hermione, bent double, clutching her chest. "Are you a wizard, or what?"
Alicia was reminded of a time when Ron had said the same thing to Hermione in their first year and almost laughed.
"Oh — right — yeah —"
Ron looked around, then directed his wand at a twig on the ground and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The twig flew up from the ground, spun through the air as if caught by a gust of wind, then zoomed directly at the trunk through the Willow's ominously swaying branches. It jabbed at a place near the roots, and at once, the writhing tree became still.
"Perfect!" panted Hermione.
"Wait."
For one teetering second, while the crashes and booms of the battle filled the air, Harry hesitated. Alicia looked at him beside her as he didn't make a move and he seemed worried.
"Harry, we're coming, just get in there!" said Ron, pushing him forward. Alicia cried out as she stumbled with her brother, not expecting the sudden movement and Ron grabbed her, apologising.
"God Ronald!" she snapped.
Regardless, Harry released her and he wriggled first into the earthy passage hidden in the trees roots. Alicia followed next, it was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: They had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Harry went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. Alicia was slow at first but as her limbs got used to the knew position they stopped complaining as much and she was able to keep up with Harry, Hermione behind her and Ron at the rear. They moved in silence, Harry's gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist.
At last the tunnel began to slope upward and Harry saw a sliver of light ahead. Hermione tugged at Alicia's ankle and she grabbed Harry's.
"The Cloak!" she whispered. "Put the Cloak on!"
He groped behind him as Hermione handed Alicia the cloak and she passed it upwards to Harry. With difficulty he dragged it over himself, murmured, "Nox," extinguishing his wandlight, and continued on his hands and knees, as silently as possible.
Voices finally filled the darkness, coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Harry edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.
Alicia stayed below him and Hermione and Ron did the same. Alicia put her finger to her lips and both nodded as Alicia closed her eyes.
She saw through Harry's eyes and into the dimly lit room beyond. Nagini was in the line of sight, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe still in her enchanted starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. There was the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and Harry's heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where he crouched, hidden. Alicia instantly reached out and grabbed Harry, she knew he wouldn't launch his way out, but there was no helping the action.
"… my Lord, their resistance is crumbling —"
"— and it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there… almost."
"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."
Alicia rolled her lips. Voldemort had called him here to kill him. Please, leave! Run! she wanted nothing more than for him to be alright.
Snape strode past the gap, and Harry drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini. Voldemort stood up. Harry could see him now, see the red eyes, the flattened, serpentine face, the pallor of him gleaming slightly in the semidarkness.
"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly.
"My Lord?" said Snape.
Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.
"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"
There was a hissing noise believed to come from Nagini, but it was Voldemort sighing, he really had little human left to him.
"My — my Lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You — you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."
"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand… no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."
Voldemort's tone was musing, calm, but Alicia's scar had begun to throb and pulse: Pain was building in her neck as Voldemort held control of his fury building inside.
"No difference," said Voldemort again.
Snape did not speak. Alicia hoped Snape could feel the danger and that he had a plan. Was he trying to find the right words to reassure his master? To save him?
Voldemort started to move around the room: Harry lost sight of him for seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the pain and fury mounted in Harry, passing in on to Alicia.
"I have thought long and hard, Severus… Do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"
And for a moment Harry and Alicia saw Snape's profile: His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage. Alicia's eyes furrowed, Snape didn't look afraid of the snake, so why was he transfixed?
"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."
She paused "Professor, if you're time is limited, and Harry was supposed to know this, and you didn't plan on telling me, who was supposed to tell Harry in the end?" she asked
"Can you think of no one?" his eyes glinted
"Would it be Snape's joy to deliver the news that the son of the man he hated most was to walk to his death I wonder… though I'd never like to think him that harsh no matter his hatred." Alicia said
Snape knew… he knew of Harry's fate, and he had to tell Harry. He did not know Alicia knew… he didn't want to find them to hand them over, he, somehow, knew it was time to tell Harry what he needed. What his fate was likely to be.
"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."
"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by one other than yourself —"
"My instructions to my Death Eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture Potter. Kill his friends — the more, the better — but do not kill him.
"But it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."
"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But — let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can —"
"I have told you, no!" said Voldemort, and Harry caught the glint of red in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake. Alicia felt Voldemort's impatience in her burning scar. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"
"My Lord, there can be no question, surely — ?"
"— but there is a question, Severus. There is."
Voldemort halted, and Harry could see him plainly again as he slid the Elder Wand through his white fingers, staring at Snape. "Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter?"
"I — I cannot answer that, my Lord."
"Can't you?"
The stab of rage felt like a spike driven through Alicia's neck: her mouth was clamped shut and she placed a hand over it as she kept her eyes closed, stopping her from making her noise. At the same time, Harry forced his own fist into his mouth to stop himself from crying too. Harry closed his eyes and now Alicia wasn't looking through Harry's eyes, she was with Harry, looking through Voldemort's eyes, looking into Snape's pale face.
"My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."
"I — I have no explanation, my Lord."
Snape was not looking at Voldemort now. His dark eyes were still fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.
"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."
And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape's face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.
"My Lord — let me go to the boy —"
Alicia could sense Snape's desperation but she felt nothing but pain at watching this scene, at fearing how it would turn out. Voldemort wanted to kill Snape, because Snape had killed Dumbledore. Voldemort wanted Dumbledore's wand, but he believed Snape stood in the way of him possessing it properly.
But Dumbledore had not even had his wand in his hand when Snape had cast the curse. What's more, Snape wouldn't have won the wand even if Dumbledore had still had it, because Snape had not been the victor of that fight. It had not even been a fight.
Voldemort was going to kill Snape in vain.
Alicia felt tears running onto her hand over her mouth.
"All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner… and I think I have the answer."
Snape did not speak.
"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."
"My Lord —"
"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."
"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.
"It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last."
And Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then Voldemort's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.
"Kill."
Alicia pulled herself from Voldemort's head and from Harry's. She clapped her hands over her ears as there was a terrible scream. There was a thump as Snape's knees hit the ground and Alicia cried silently.
"I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.
There was silence before there was another thump and Snape's body toppled sideways to the floor.
She heard nothing as Voldemort left the room and Alicia moved first. Her wand went upwards and with a flick the crate lifted off the exit.
She pushed on Harry and forced him through the hole. It seemed he didn't need much forcing, he was climbing through himself.
"Harry!" breathed Hermione behind them but Alicia climbed through the hole and scurried, ignoring the pain in her body over to Snape. His face was white and his fingers were trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck.
His eyes found Alicia as she instantly got her wand and tried to stop the bleeding, but the poison of Nagini was no ordinary poison, it could not be healed with simple spells.
"No." she whispered at Snape, who's blackened eyes watched her as she sobbed. "No you can't. W-We have to tell everyone… th-they need to know… you don't deserve—" she couldn't help it as her tears fell and she placed her hand against his throat too, trying to stop the bleeding.
Snape's eyes widened slightly as Harry pulled off the invisibility cloak and kneeled beside his sister. Snape instantly grabbed the front of Harry's robes and pulled him closer.
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.
"Take… it… Take… it…"
Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and they all knew what it was.
A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into Harry's shaking hands by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened.
He turned to Alicia.
"You can't, we have to tell them what you did. You have to see them understand. You can't leave with how everyone treated you." she whispered at him but he rose his hand to her face. He was looking at her, taking in her appearance, the appearance that was, beside her hair, the exact same as the women he had loved for so many years.
She stared, her green eyes into his black ones.
"Please…"
But even as she said the word, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand on Alicia's cheek thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.