...A Long Road Ahead...
read first chapter for backstory
Chapter 4- An Inquiry and a Plan
Severus Snape apparated with a loud pop right outside the gates of the surrounding the stone fortress. Azkaban. What an ugly name. Of course it was filled with dangerous creatures and psychopathic killers, only meant for this hellhole.
He touched the potions in his left pocket. It had been his idea to use fake worthless potions for some "useful" purposes. He had an idea but wasn't about to waste it on Bella. All he had to do was act seductive and she would fall. Imagine a beautiful woman falling for Severus Snape. The conceited James Potter was probably rolling in his grave because of that thought.
He strode past several dementors that were guarding the door--forcefully trying to hide his shivers--and entered into the dimly lit hall. To his left was a spiral staircase that led to the most highly potential watched criminals, or in their case, Black's cell.
To his right were three doors. The first was where four of Voldemort's most faithful death eaters were going to stay. The second and third were passageways to other cells.
Severus walked along through the first door and flicked on the light, inside was a small messy room with four beds. Only the lone bed in the corner was being used. A tall man with blonde hair was snoring loudly, and his unnaturally large feet were sticking out from under the blankets. Snape grimaced and walked around to the other beds. There was no one else there. The others must have been wracking evil throughout the muggle world or at the death eater headquarters in the old Riddle House.
Suddenly, a muffled scream was heard from the door. He quickly sprinted into the hallway and up the stairs, passing a few lounging death eaters every corner. He slowed down as he neared the cell, feeling the power of the dementors. A flicker of emotion crossed his face as he thought about how Potter was doing with the herd of dementors surrounding him. The screams vibrated through the halls and Severus quickly slipped soundly into the small cells.
"You insolent FOOL. What did you tell them?" Bellatrix shrieked. Harry was laying on the stone floor, twisting his body in silent screams. His black robes were in tatters and he had a very large gash across his stomach.
"Bella he's not going to be able to answer you if he's insane." He sneered at her from the doorway. He leaned against the stone in a hopefully casual way.
"I see your back from your precious order meeting," she hissed back silkily. "What do they want you to do?" She cut off the curse leaving Harry panting for air. He sat up weakly against the wall and watched the exchange. Snape rolled his eyes.
"You know the deal. Give him potions, check and see if he's all right. Blah, blah, blah. Like I would do that." He said. He withdrew his hand from his pocket and held two bottles. He opened one up and pink smoke filled the air. He poured it onto the floor in slow motion, letting each drop fall to the ground. He threw it on the ground and watched it break in many pieces. He laughed harshly and was joined by Bellatrix' cackle. She walked toward him.
"We're on seven cruciatus curses, make it up to 10. You'll do that, won't you Sevy?" she asked twisting a strand of her long black hair around her index finger. She puckered her lips and winked at him. She ran a finger down his face and smiled. Severus felt sick just looking at her. He knew well enough to keep up the seductive charade until she left, even if it kept him gagging in the back of his throat.
"Not too much flirty Bella, don't want to get Rud jealous," he answered taking out his wand and pointing it at Harry.
"Goodbye Potty. I'll be back later to give you more fun. Diffindo." She used her wand to slashed across his chest leaving a large blood trail to drip down. He gasped and clutched it. She laughed gleefully and exited the room. Snape looked out the door and seeing no one quickly closed it.
"Muffliato. Colloportus" he hissed softly. He strode forward and knelt down next to Potter. He dug his hand into his inner robe pocket and brought out four small bottles. Each one had a different color and smoke trail.
"What are those for?" Harry asked. He squeezed his eyes shut in pain as he tried to sit up better.
"Do you really think I'd try to kill you now with the entire Weasley family, not to mention Black and that werewolf all back at headquarters?" He sneered, pulling a block of chocolate out of his pocket. He raised his wand and skillfully healed the gash on his arm, making it seem like it was still bleeding. He nearly laughed with glee at the wide-eyed shocked look on Potter's face when he thought that Severus would seriously try to kill him.
"This first one is a strengthening solution. The next should help with the effects of the cruciatus curse and this third one immobilizes any broken bones as not to hurt so much. The last one will heal some of the internal damage so you won't be killed from your organs bleeding out. All of these potions are very weak so it will go undetected until the order can get you out of here." He murmured handing him potions while he talked. After Harry had gulped down the potions he collected the bottles and stuffed them into his pockets. He gave him the chocolate and stood up.
"What are they doing?" he whispered croakily.
"Right now they're planning your escape. Do not give in to them. Very soon, the Dark Lord will be coming so your scar will be blazingly painful. Also he will be very angry with you for the mirror incident." Severus said. Harry sighed. He met Snape's hard black eyes that were struggling to cover up an emotion.
"Thanks," Severus nodded and left the cell. He quickly exited the cell and walked down the spiral stairs. At the bottom were Bellatrix and Malfoy Sr.
"I heard about the mirror issue. What do they know?" Malfoy asked, looking intently at Severus. Knowing that he was trying to dig into his mind, Severus pushed up his occlumency shield, projecting only the picture of the Hogsmeade destruction.
"I don't know yet, I must go back and check with them." He said keeping his face emotionless.
"What number of curses is he on? I didn't hear any screaming."
"He's at 10. I silenced the room, I wanted to enjoy the pleasure myself. I can't get too much when I have to pretend to care about the kid," He said walking toward the door. Bellatrix smiled evilly and marched back up the stairs with Malfoy on her heels. Severus breathed a sigh of relief and left toward the apparition point they had set up.
The dark night sky was slowly turning it's usual grayish black. It was nearly dawn, and time to head back to Grimmald Place. Now he had to break the news to the order.
"Ooh I got one," Sirius said excitedly.
"If this has anything to do with sneaking into Azkaban and to pretend to be death eaters than, no we can't risk it," Remus said from his seat on the couch next to Tonks and Sirius. The seven adults (now including Kingsley and Moody) and Fred and George were sitting in the drawing room, at about two in the morning. They had been shooting ideas at each other since dinner. At about ten, Molly had finally persuaded Ron, Hermione and Ginny to go to bed, but everyone knew that they were waiting impatiently in Fred and George's room to hear about any plans.
Sirius shot Remus a glare and flopped back on the couch. "I thought it was good idea," he grumbled.
"Don't start thinking I don't. I wish we could, and then blow it to smithereens. We could finally get rid of those dementors once and for all." Remus answered back. Sirius sighed.
"I have an idea to find out if he's really in Azkaban," Tonks began. "What about Snape? We could send him in and scope out the area."
"Good idea, but his dark mark flared about five minutes before everyone else arrived here, so he's probably going to tell us about what happened then." Kingsley answered in his deep booming voice.
"Snape brought a couple of useful potions incase Harry's where they're making Snape apparate to." Remus said butting into the conversation.
"Yea, he's going to report back to us either later tonight or early tomorrow morning. We're taking shifts to wait up for him. I think you were at the Ministry when he came around." Tonks nodded and pushed back a strand of strawberry blonde hair.
"But what if when we find out we storm in there, at a weak point in the day…" Fred said sounding much more serious.
"…then we could send in three people while the other six or so protect them outside the cell and from incoming dementors." George finished.
"Hmm. Good display of Constant Vigilance." Moody said in approval.
"We're going to have to wait for Snape to come back with the lay out of the death eaters and perfect the plan."
"Okay so all we can do right now is fix up details and plan a bit more carefully." Remus said. He conjured a piece of parchment and a quill. "All right so here's what we have to do…"
I hope you lot all enjoyed this next installment. I know not much happened at headquarters but I felt that it jumped too much if I just jumped right into the rescue mission...aw snap I said too much...well you all knew that
PS…did anyone see the new HP movie? I saw it and have so much to say that I'm about to burst. None of my family share my passion for HP so I can't rant about missing details or inconsistencies with any of them. What did you think? I thought it was fantastic despite the problems. I mean they did a great job squishing almost 800 something pages in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Wow, right? Tell me what you thought of it?
What about the BOOK!!!!? What did you think?? I thought it was great but missing some of her finer aspects. It was really hyped up and than not much happened. I'm sorry if I'm ruining something for someone that hasn't read yet!!!