Enjoy!
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Chapter 69Tallis faced the classroom with relief. This would be the last time he would ever have to teach a Transfiguration class.
It hadn't been as bad as he had expected, but he still thought that having an apprentice teach the seventh years was incredibly thoughtless and unfair to the students. Now they could at least finish their year with a proper professor. In the end, he had only had to teach them for seven weeks, before Minerva was able to find a full time replacement.
He had just broken the news to them and they were not taking it well.
"Who exactly is this new professor?" Draco asked snidely. He was not looking forward to losing his friend as a professor.
"Madame Renier," Tallis repeated. "She is one of the foremost masters in the field of transfiguration today. She has agreed to finish the school year and, if she enjoys the position, she will remain for another few years."
"Is she an animagus?" a Ravenclaw asked. "All of the best witches and wizards are."
Tallis rolled his eyes. "If the ministry records are to be believed, only a fraction of one percent of witches and wizards ever achieve the full transformation. Perhaps you should find another method by which to measure your new professor."
"Are you saying she isn't?" a young woman asked, scandalized.
None of the students officially knew that he was an animagus, but they seemed to have taken it as read that he was. What story the students had come up with for why it was a secret was completely unknown to Tallis, and he had no interest in investigating the rumor mills of Hogwarts. Whatever story they had come up with, they didn't harass him to show them his form, so he didn't particularly care.
Tallis sighed. "I have no idea. It is rather her own business, is it not? Now, perhaps we could return to today's lesson so she does not find you horribly behind, come Monday."
The class groaned as one, but the pulled out their books as instructed and got ready to work on transfiguring furniture.
They had barely begun their work when someone knocked at the door, their urgency evident in the very pounding of the fist.
Tallis looked up, startled. He waved his wand absently at the door, swinging it open with alarming force.
His eyes widened as he took in Ron and Hermione's pale faces.
"They've taken him," Ron stuttered out. "He went out to the pub for lunch and didn't go back. They must have got him there."
The world collapsed. His mind melted and burned and flooded. His body tingled with death and throbbed with life. In that one, black moment, everything froze in its place and everything came into being, all at once.
"How long?" Tallis asked quietly.
"Not an hour since."
Tallis gave a jerky nod. He stared blankly at the doorway, not taking in the sight of his friends.
Bill. Gone.
The words refused to even be linked in his mind, much less by his tongue.
Bill. Gone.
His past and his future—his everything. The man who knew him as Harry Potter but who loved him as Tallis Snape. The man who knew his love so completely that he was completely unaffected by his lover's abrupt change in appearance and name.
The man who made him a whole person, and who then taught him how to be whole on his own.
The man who taught him how to love. To live.
His strength and his weakness.
Gone.
Tallis straightened up, squared his shoulders and walked out of the classroom.
The students stared at each other in wonder for a moment, before breaking into wild gossip.
Draco jumped up and followed his friend and the two Gryffindors down to the dungeons. "Do you think he knows?" he whispered to Hermione.
"He must. Why else would he take Bill, of all the Weasleys? If he were merely trying to flush out Harry Potter he would have gone for Ron or Ginny. Maybe even the twins. Not Bill though."
Tallis ignored their whispers and walked purposefully toward the door to the potions classroom. He opened it immediately, not even bothering to knock.
Severus looked over to the doorway, the color draining from his face as his eyes met with his son's.
Tallis opened his mind up fully to his father, unable to even say the words aloud.
Severus visibly flinched as he was flooded with snatches of the scene in which Tallis learned that Bill had been taken. Worse than the memories though, were the numbing despair, the terror, the self doubt, the…the relief that the prophecy was nearly complete.
His son forcibly regained control and closed his barriers again, his slim form still vibrating with desperation.
"Class dismissed," Severus bit out, before leaving the classroom. The students stared at the empty doorway in shock, before chattering loudly about what had happened.
Father and son walked side by side to their rooms, a new purpose leading them. They entered their chambers and proceeded to Severus' room without pause.
"What are they doing? Are we going to find Bill?" Ron asked.
Draco pushed past them and into his godfather's bedroom.
He watched in silence as the two Snapes stripped methodically out of their clothing and pulled on more battle appropriate clothing. Ron and Hermione joined him at the door, watching the men dress in silence.
"You can't think to go after him," Hermione said, finally understanding the purpose with which the Snapes had returned to their rooms.
Severus nodded and handed his son some black slacks, before he started donning his own.
"Do you think to become invisible?" she said, the sarcasm heavy in her voice. "Do you think to become a legion of men in time to win this battle?" her voice shook with anger and fear. She could not bear to lose both of these men, as well as Bill.
Severus handed Tallis a dark shirt, their hands meeting briefly. In that moment Tallis felt his strength return to him, and his resolve. His fear did not leave him, it was merely bolstered by a new, clearer sense of purpose.
"Do you even have a plan?" Draco snapped. "You're being a fucking Gryffindor. You're just going to run into this, blind, aren't you?"
Tallis stopped dressing and turned to his friend. "What do you believe that my father and I do every day when we are together? What precisely do you believe happens during these times?"
Draco stared at him, mouth agape. "I…I always assumed you chatted about your students and your friends and Bill."
"We are in the midst of a war, Draco," Tallis said softly. "No, I do not have time to chat about my students or my friends. I have never had that luxury." He turned his attention back to dressing himself, trying to calm his violently shaking hands.
Draco nodded in understanding of the statement as well as understanding of what Tallis had implied. He studied his friend closely as his mind turned over the possibilities. He pushed away from the door and started fastening the small buttons on Tallis' shirt when he noticed that his hands were shaking too much to manage. "There won't be a battle, will there?" he asked softly.
"No," Severus replied. "There will be no battle."
"You'll not give yourselves up, will you?" Ron asked anxiously. "You need an army with you, to protect you and ensure that you can make it to Voldemort to fight. There's no use in going there by yourself. You'll be dead before you even enter his headquarters."
"This is the end, Ron," Tallis said hoarsely. "No legion of soldiers will change this. It comes down to only the two of us."
"We're coming with you," Hermione said firmly.
Tallis accepted the battle robes from his father, the robes heavy with spells. "No, Mione."
"You'll need us, mate," Ron added. "You'll need all the help you can get."
"I'll have my father. That is help enough."
"The two of you cannot take on Voldemort and all of his Death Eaters!" Hermione exclaimed.
Tallis turned away and fastened the robes at his chest, before stepping over to the closet with his father to accept a few weapons. They both knew better than to weigh themselves down with useless weapons. It would be no toy, no wonderful artifact or dangerous weapon that would destroy Voldemort now.
"I do believe that is precisely what they mean to do," Draco said calmly.
"How can you be so calm! How can you allow them to go to their deaths!" Hermione snapped.
"They are not going to their deaths," Draco said calmly. "They have a plan, and a back up plan, if I'm not mistaken."
Severus' short nod confirmed it, as he handed his son a small dagger. It was lightweight enough to be nearly unnoticeable but it could prove to be needed during the hours to come.
"What plan? You always include us in your plans," Ron said, confused. "We're a team, the three of us."
"Not this time, mate," Tallis said quietly.
"We could come with," Hermione suggested hesitantly.
"Look at us, Granger," Draco snapped. "Do you honestly think we would be anything more than a liability if we went with them?"
"We could help," she said, although self doubt was creeping into her voice. "We've trained with Tallis for years."
"And we're still school kids. This isn't a game, Granger. You can't call a bloody time out when you're tired, or scared or when you want to look up a spell."
"I know that!" she all but screamed.
Severus broke his silence. "If you forced your presence on my son at this point, he would waste countless minutes worrying about you, about protecting you when you cannot protect yourself. And count on it, Miss Granger, you cannot protect yourself—not at the level you will have to do to survive this."
"And if we choose to come along and fight for as long as we can—as long as we can survive?" Ron asked.
"When you die, my son will be distracted from his purpose. Right now, he is evenly matched against the Dark Lord. A single distraction would destroy him. And his Death Eaters know that."
"Then what will you be if not another distraction?" Hermione asked, not willing to give up yet.
Tallis turned to her, all fear gone from his face and replaced by a calm, unmovable faith that he was following the only path open to him. "I go into this fight, prepared to lose everything. I go there, knowing that Bill might already be dead. I go knowing that my father might die trying to defend my. I go knowing that I might die."
"Then why not let us go with you?" Hermione asked through her tears.
"Because there would be no 'maybe' for you. You would die, and it would destroy me."
"What will you do if you find Bill already dead?" Draco asked softly.
Tallis closed his eyes for a moment.
"What will you do if your father dies?"
Tallis opened his eyes, all trace of emotion gone.
"Leave us," Severus said softly but firmly.
Hermione let out a choked sob but nodded, throwing her arms around Tallis. "I love you. Come back to us."
Ron wrapped his arms around both of them, resting his head on top of his friend's dark head. "Come home," he whispered.
The two reluctantly let go of their friend and stepped into the sitting room.
Draco looked at the two Snapes. "We will be waiting for you at the Manor."
Severus nodded his understanding.
"I will see you there tonight," he said firmly, refusing to say goodbye.
Severus nodded once more. "When we meet again."
Draco stepped into the sitting room to join the two Gryffindors. The three held onto Draco's portkey and blinked from sight, ready to start awaiting the Snape's return.
Severus and Tallis walked through the hallways and toward the front gates of Hogwarts. They stood in front of them for a moment, not moving.
"Are you ready?" Severus asked quietly.
Silence.
"No."
The two stood in silence for a few moments. Severus did not bother to offer empty words of comfort or platitudes. Both Snapes knew how useless they would be right now.
"Are you ready?" he asked again, his intonation the same.
Silence.
"Yes."
Severus reached out and opened the gate.