-- Sorry its taken so long you guys, not abandoned, never will be...just delayed...for a long time:(

--don't own don't sue! Enjoy!

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Flight of the Pure-Blood

Snape followed Draco at great speed, checking back to make sure Potter and his friends were too far to be any threat. He could see Harry in the far distance on his knees, collapsed on the grounds shouting after him. The boy had tried to curse him but he was too weak and inexperienced. Snape had stopped the others from killing Potter. It was not their duty. If the dark lord wanted the boy dead he would do it himself. Harry was lucky, and with luck on his side he was a formidable opponent. As long as Harry lived, there was hope for those opposed to Voldemort.

"Snape!" Draco called as he skidded to a halt near the gate, grabbing the bars to steady himself as he caught his breath. As he looked out he saw the thundering hooves. Ministry officials and Aurors had no doubt been informed of the Dark Mark hovering over Hogwarts, and Draco watched in horror as they headed their way.

"THEY ARE COMING!" he yelled and pointed beyond the gates.

Snape could hear them too, and he pulled out his wand. There was no time to hide in the forest. As soon as they were beyond the gates they could disapparate. He just had to get there.

Draco shook as the carriages drew near. Wizards and witch aurors began to apparate beyond the gates. He had to think fast, there was no way he could fight them all, and he had lost all desire to kill. Snape was too far to help him. He tucked his wand in his pocket and rolled down his sleeves, hiding the mark from view.

He grabbed the bars of the gates and shook them violently. "HELP!" he screamed. "HELP!!!" he shouted louder at them.

"DRACO!" Snape roared in fury, thinking he was betraying him. He lifted his wand and pointed it at the boy as he approached. He would stun him and drag him away if he had to.

An auror ran to the gate. Wand out. All he saw was a scared, teenage schoolboy. "Help us!" Draco shook the bars. "He's here!!! He's in the school!" He pointed at the Dark Mark hovering hundreds of feet above. "Please help!" he sounded weak and pathetic, but now he didn't care. He had to look weak, he had to look pathetic, if he stood a chance of getting out of here alive.

"Step back!" the auror barked and Draco did so. Had it been daylight he may have recognised the young boy as the son of Lucius Malfoy, but it was dark, and Draco didn't look immaculate and well presented as he used to be. He was skinnier and paler than ever. The man waved his wand over the locks, muttering the password and they sprang open. The iron gate creaked as it allowed them in, and the Auror grabbed Draco by the shoulders. "Stay here and hide!" He shouted above the sounds from the roaring fire beyond, and the screams and shouts coming from within the castle walls. Draco nodded obediently. The Aurors streamed past him one by one, paying no attention to the frightened, helpless teenager, who had run away from the mayhem out of fear.

Snape lowered his wand immediately as the Auror opened the gate. "Well done Draco" he smiled to himself, then prepared for his own act. He faked a limp, and breathed heavily, as if one seriously injured.

"Severus! What's happening?" A familiar face attempted to lift him up. Snape looked up wearily to see non other than Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus' own brother staring him the face.

He caught his breath. "Death…gasp…Eaters…gasp…in the Tower!" he clutched Aberforth's shoulder and pretended to choke, pointing a shaking arm at the school's highest tower.

"Severus!?" The old man shouted, concerned over his state of health. Snape sighed and wobbled uneasily.

"Professor!" Malfoy shouted and skidded over to them. His face was full of concern. Snape was playing along nicely.

Aberforth wasted no time. "Look after him!" he barked at Draco, and motioned for all the remaining Aurors to follow him toward the castle. They waited some seconds until all the Auror's backs were facing them, and then Draco helped Snape up, heading quickly and silently for the opened gate. The aurors had divided, some making their way to the castle, others toward the commotion that was gathering outside. Hagrid's hut was aflame and there were deatheaters unconscious on the floor.

Aberforth frowned as a wave of confusion and suspicion gripped him all at once. He looked back toward the gate where Snape had been laying. In what seemed like slow motion, he saw Snape and Draco facing each other, their heads turned toward him. Snape wore a victorious sneer, and Draco's face was unreadable and blank. Then with a flick of Snape's wand they both disapparated in a mass of black smoke.

---

Malfoy found himself in a dusty old house, filled with piles of books and boxes. It was very old, almost medieval. His heart was still racing from the events that had just happened and he loosened his collar in an attempt to breathe. Dumbledore was dead. He may not have made the killing blow, he may have lost some deatheaters, but he had succeeded. The man Lord Voldemort feared most, was gone. Half of Draco was dead too. One part of his soul, that had admired Dumbledore, hated the Dark Lord, and wished his downfall, was grieving. The other part, rejoicing in the fact that he was alive, his father was alive, his mother… "Mother!!!" he shouted.

Snape wearily removed his heavy cloak, and collapsed into his chair. He frowned as if in pain, but made no sound. He had seemed to have forgotten Draco was there.

"I have to get my Mother!" Draco spotted a jar of floo powder on the fireplace, and grabbed it.

Snape had gotten up with great speed, and snatched the jar away! "Don't be foolish! They'll be looking for you! Where do you think they'll look first?" he growled angrily.

"I'm not leaving without her!" Draco hissed and glared back. Snape was no longer his professor, he no longer a student, they were deatheaters…murderers.

Snape saw Draco's defiant gaze, and saw that he was not a boy, but a man. The cold grey eyes seemed to cut him, and he reluctantly handed the jar back. "I'm coming with you." He nodded. He had made a vow, one he made many years before Narcissa had come to his doorstep in tears, a vow he intended to keep.

Draco stepped inside the fireplace with a handful of powder. "Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire!" he snarled, and threw the white soot at his feet.

In a whirring mass of colour he emerged from his fireplace in the living room, covered head to toe in soot. He stepped forward and pulled out his wand, listening for any signs of movement. Silence.

He glanced out the windows, checking to see that no Auror's were apparating outside. Confident that they had not begun the search for him yet, he ran from the room. "Mother?" he roared at the top of his lungs. "Mum?" he called louder. He got no reply. Running to the great staircase he called for her again, then he climbed.

Panic rose in his stomach. She's not here? She has to be here? Where is she? He gingerly walked to her room, and hesitantly opened the door.

---

Fenrir Greyback heard the loud voices of wizards all around, heard a roaring fire crackling and spitting as it ate the giant's hut, felt a dog's slippery nose nudging his arm. He exhaled a groan as pain engulfed him. Opening his eyes slowly he saw the Dark Mark twisting and roaring in the nightlit sky, saw a curtain of rain fall and patter his face, soaking his robes and hair. Then he saw them. Ministry officials were swarming the grounds, some deatheaters lay unconscious nearby and one by one they were binding them with ropes emanating from their wands. They were slowly heading in his direction.

He fumbled for his wand but could not find it, then he saw it, about ten feet away, lying in the grass. Could he make it? He doubted it, but he hadn't really got much choice. In the time he had taken to think about it, the aurors had moved closer and closer. He angrily cursed himself for his slow reactions and closed his eyes, playing dead.

"This makes four, including the dead one inside." A voice spoke. Fenrir could sense them towering over him.

He sensed the wand being pointed at him, and he saw his chance. His eyes snapped open. The aurors momentarily jumped from fright and before they could utter a single word Greyback had yanked the wand right out of the auror's palm.

"Gotta be quicker than that!" He smiled, and lunged for one of them. Grabbing the small balding, bespectacled man by the throat he had himself a shield. He pointed the wand at the second, who looked around helplessly, hoping someone else would notice what was happening.

"I think this will get their attention!" Fenrir laughed. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" He roared. The second man was blasted by a lightning bolt of green light from his wand. The auror was flung ten feet across the grounds and collapsed in a heap on the floor…dead.

Others cried out in alarm as they heard the curse, and appeared from all directions…now Fenrir could decipher the areas that weren't so heavily guarded…the forest was his only escape.

"Woops…butterfingers!" He smirked at them. All had their wands pointed at him, but he held the little bald man in front of him and threatened to bite his ear off. "I'm not that hungry, having eaten already, but I wouldn't mind a little snack!" he grinned, showing them his pointed wolfish teeth.

Mad-Eye Moody clunked forward, his face full of rage.

"Well, well, well…hello Cyclops!" Fenrir hissed. "Tell your men to back off, or I'll bite off his head!" He clicked his teeth. He could have sworn the man he held captive had wet himself.

"Give it up son! You can't kill us all!" Mad-Eye said gruffly, taking another step toward him.

"I'll kill as many as I have too…don't think for a second I'm gonna allow myself be taken quietly…there's no glory in it!" Greyback teased, holding the balding man between them, whilst heading toward the edge of the forest. "Back away!" He snarled.

He didn't notice the auror appear from behind Hagrid's burning hut, didn't smell him approach from downwind, and didn't feel any pain as darkness engulfed him from a blow to the head.

---

Snape found himself in what appeared to be Lucius' old study. The manor had many fireplaces, so it was likely Draco was sent to another part of the house. He knew full well that there was a silence spell in this room, and he would not know what lay beyond the door until it opened. Wand aimed, he walked briskly over to the oak frame, and opened it very slowly.

A blast of noise almost burst his eardrums as Draco's screams echoed throughout the house. Oh no! "Draco?"Snape called, and sprinted toward the source. From the sounds coming from him, one would have thought him deep under the cruciatus curse. He leapt up the stairs two at a time, as paintings began to wake up, mumbling angrily and holding their ears to block the noise.

He skidded to a halt as he saw Malfoy on his knees leaning against the doorframe of a bedroom. His eyes were clenched shut, and his face grimaced painfully as he looked away from the room and cried out in anguish. For once in his life, Snape was trembling. He had killed a man without mercy not 20 minutes before, a man whom had trusted him for almost 18 years, and Snape had betrayed him, not for his master, but to protect the son of the only people he ever called his 'friends'.

He took slow steps toward the door, and stood behind Draco. Narcissa lay on the floor at the foot of her bed, cold as death. Her eyes had glassed over, and in her open palm was her wand. There was no sign of a struggle, no blood, no wound…nothing.

Snape swallowed his pain, and pushed past Draco, checking the room over again to make sure. He spotted some parchment on her desk, and knew he did not have to read it to understand.

Draco was now whimpering and bashed his head against the wooden door frame. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!" he kept repeating over and over. His voice shook from the emotions firing through his body. How could he have been foolish enough to believe they were safe? Voldemort had killed her anyway.

"We have to leave...now." Snape needed to get him out of here. The ministry were bound to call at Malfoy Manor very soon to hunt for Draco, and most likely arrest Narcissa on suspicion of being a deatheater. He grabbed Draco's arms and forced him to his feet. A cut had appeared on the boy's forehead where he had head butted the doorframe. Draco said nothing, as if he had screamed out his last breath. Instead he just sobbed and stared at the body on the floor.

"Draco move!" Snape pushed him away, forcing him toward the main staircase, and down to the main doors. He had to drag Draco by the collar, to the graveyard where the statue of Abraxas stood waiting for them. The Portkey to Woodsmanor. The house of the Deatheaters.

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Bellatrix Black looked up in surprise as Severus burst through the door, dragging Draco in behind him. His face was frowning as usual, and then she read a glimmer in his features, as one who had just witnessed death first hand.

"My God…" She stood up, a look of awe and amazement filling her face with a wide smile. "It's done!"

Snape nodded, "Albus Dumbledore is no more…and…" He hesitated.

Bellatrix set her cold gaze on Draco, obviously pleased he still lived, but surprised too. He merely glared back, as though he hated her more than ever. "What is it?" she asked innocently.

Before Snape could even finish, Draco had lunged at Bellatrix, his eyes wide with a mad fury. He reached for her throat, and she for her wand. "YOU!" he roared, "Did you do it?" he bared his teeth, "You did it didn't you? TELL ME!" he screamed.

Snape gripped Draco around the middle and hauled him off Bella, who coughed and furiously pointed her wand at Draco. "Cruc…" she began, but Snape waved his wand dismissively, blocking her curse.

"STOP!" he yelled at them both, standing between them like a guard dog. "Narcissa's dead!" he glared at them both. Draco grimaced and held back tears, and Bella's mouth was agape as she took in what he said.

"Cissy's dead?" she shook her head disbelievingly. "No." she refused to believe it. There had been no order to kill her, Bella would have known, she would have tried to plead for her, spare her. Apart from punishing Lucius, there was no other reason to kill her.

"She killed herself." Snape added. "I saw the note with my own eyes, there was no struggle…she took her life willingly." He tried to sound sympathetic, but he wasn't helping. Draco had turned completely white, and Bella the same. He wasn't aware that Bella could love, but this news had obviously crushed what little heart she had left.

"She…why would she do that to me?!" Draco grimaced. He sounded furious.

Snape didn't answer him, he patted Draco gently on the back. He had more important matters to settle than the boy's grief. He had to answer to the Dark Lord, for killing Dumbledore, when it was Draco's mission and not his own. He was prepared for the fall, for he would handle it far better than Draco could at this time.

"I need to speak with him." He told Bella, and briskly walked toward the library. Bella did not follow, nor try to stop him. She was still in too much of a shock to say anything. Instead she just stared blankly at him. She shed no tears, for she had shed enough of them in azkaban.

"He's not here." She said softly, as if in a daze.

Turning into a long Corridor Snape headed for the library door. His instincts told him the Dark Lord was not there, and he pulled out his wand, and tenderly touched the Dark Mark.

A sharp hiss seemed to rise in his ears. Snape was an accomplished Occlumens, and could block his innermost thoughts from every leglimens known to man…even the Dark Lord. He would need to use that to his advantage, if Draco was to be spared.

"What is it?" The Dark Lord's voice snapped. He hated to be disturbed, to do such a thing would have been very dangerous indeed for another deatheater.

"I have urgent news for you My Lord." Snape spoke to the air.

"Dumbledore has been destroyed." The soft voice purred. Snape thought if the Dark Lord was standing before him, he would be wearing a victorious grin. "I could feel it, like a breath of wind passing." He said gently.

"This concerns the manner of his death My Lord." Snape was nervous, and it showed. There was silence as Voldemort paused for thought.

"Severus…await my arrival." He snapped. The hissing in Snape's ears died away, and he removed the wand from his mark. He entered the Library and stared at the roaring fire, as he awaited his master's wrath.

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