Chapter 6:

Avada Kedavra:

One week later, not much had changed about Snape's behaviour. Ron was immensely enjoying the unusual respite from the hated teacher. Hermione, on the other hand, was often found to be in the library, angrily brooding and catching up on the stuff the professor failed to teach them.

Harry felt unsettled with the whole situation. He remembered Sirius' warning all too clearly. Oh, he wasn't really worried about his own safety; often enough he had accused Snape of multiple evil doings and each time they had proven to be false accusations. In fact, the only threat he felt coming from the man was the amalgamated possibilities of being yelled at, having points deducted and getting a detention. What bothered him more was if they should lose Snape to the dark side once again. No matter what a sorry excuse for a human being the man was, the bad things people said about him, Snape was nevertheless a talented wizard and Potions Master. Foremost, he had valuable information about the Order and Dumbledore's plans, which would prove catastrophic in Voldemort's hands.

All his fears proved to be underestimated, one week after the horrendous potions class. He was in the Great Hall, seated at the Gryffindor table.

Harry could not exactly tell what had provoked him into looking up at the teachers' table, but he found himself observing how Snape was heatedly discussing something with the Headmaster. Dumbledore seemed to be trying to remain calm, whereas Snape looked like he was about to go ballistic. The Potions Master was telling the older wizard something, his face pulled into an angry grimace. Harry would have loved to hear what it was all about, but the words of the two were drowned out by the constant chatting and clattering of silverware that filled the great hall.

His gaze wandered to the other teachers, who were following the dispute with worried faces. Those professors, sitting at the same table, would without any doubt have heard all that was being said. Only Snuffles lay on the ground beneath the table, lapping up some water from a bowl, not showing any interest in the commotion above him.

Suddenly, Snape shot up from his chair with such force that it fell backwards, his angry gaze still on the Headmaster. It was only then that the great dog lifted his head to pay attention. Simultaneously, the voices of the students died and the clattering noise of the silverware and plates quickly faded away. The racket of the falling chair had caught everyone's attention and all eyes were glued to the head table.

Through the sudden silence it was perfectly audible; Snape was yelling at Dumbledore.

"I will not let you treat me this way anymore, Headmaster. You can't order me around!"

"Can't we speak about this another time, Severus?" Dumbledore replied in a placating voice, looking uncomfortable. "This is hardly the place for this kind of discussion."

But Snape wouldn't hear any of it. His face mutated more and more into a hateful grimace. "You certainly don't want your precious, 'innocent' children to hear any of this? But I don't care if they see this or not. I will no longer let myself be used, humiliated and ordered around by you. Do I make myself clear?"

A loud growl attracted the Potion Master's attention away from the headmaster. Harry could spot through the space under the table that 'Snuffles' had closed up on Snape, threatening him with bared fangs.

"Get lost, you flee ridden beast," Snape quietly hissed towards the dog, who didn't back down but took another step towards the Potions Master, barking a warning.

Snape pulled his wand out, pointing it at the Animagus. "Get lost, I said."

At this moment, Dumbledore rose from the table. "Snuffles, lay back. Severus, leave the dog alone."

"Dog?" Snape asked angrily. He then laughed mirthlessly. "It's a dear old dog, that is." He faced the Animagus again with his wand. "Repercuti conditio humana!" A white and blue sparkling stream left his wand and hit the dog, which instantly started to change, grow and morph into a human being.

A surprised, collective gasp went through the rows of students and to his right, Ron whispered: "That idiot's blown Sirius' cover."

Before Harry had time to think about the possible implications of this revelation, Sirius had already recovered from his surprise. He jumped forward and grabbed Snape by the collar.

"You filthy, mean…"

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore called out. The Headmaster stepped between the two of them and separated them with a strength that belied his old appearance.

"Sirius, back down. And you, Severus, put your wand away. NOW!"

Still visibly angry, Sirius took a step back. Snape, however, refused to lower his wand for even a second.

"Severus, you either put it away or I will take it from you." Dumbledore's voice was low but held a hidden warning.

With another loathing look at Sirius, Snape reluctantly put his wand back up his sleeve.

The situation for now was under control, the Headmaster turning back to address the students. They looked still quite shocked at the display and some seemed, even though he had much changed since his face had been plastered in the newspapers, to have recognised Sirius Black. They were now frightfully whispering with their neighbours.

"Children. Please calm down. Don't be afraid, every thing is under perfect control"

The nervous whispering remained, increasing rapidly as the news of this Animagus being Sirius Black carried along the tables. Harry didn't pay attention to the others and fixed his Godfather with his eyes. Black looked beyond angry. A feeling which he shared perfectly. Snape had destroyed everything. Now Sirius would be in even more danger and would have to go into complete hiding because his Animagus form had been revealed.

"Look what you've done, Black. You scared the kids," Snape mocked, his lips curved into a smirk. "This time, nobody will be able to help you."

The noise level died down again, curiosity winning over fear as everybody listened intently to what was being said at the head table.

"I'll kill you, Snape, if it's the last thing I'll ever do," Sirius growled.

"If you escape the Ministry, you mean."

Both fixed the other with loathing glares, and Dumbledore addressed them once again. "Calm down you two…" he said in a soothing voice, trying to keep them under control.

The two wizards just kept on staring at one another hatefully.

"I've known it all along, Snape. You're nothing but a greasy, traitorous opportunist," Sirius hissed.

Snape kept up his glare for a moment longer, but when he eventually answered it was in that kind of voice Harry knew all too well. Harry had never encountered anyone who had mastered such a deadly voice as well as the Potions Master. The kind of voice that even when whispered could easily penetrate the furthest corner of any room.

"And you, Black, are a fugitive murderer who is being searched for by the ministry -- dead or alive."

Harry didn't grasp the meaning behind Snape's words right away. All of a sudden, each and every one of his instincts was on red alert. In panic, he shot up from his chair, only to see Snape pull out his wand, pointing it again at Sirius.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Time seemed to freeze for Harry, everything occurring in slow motion as a sickly green stream left Snape's wand and, like a deadly snake, shot venomously towards his Godfather, hitting him at point blank range in the chest.

Sirius stayed on his feet for a moment longer, his unseeing eyes wide open, before his legs gave in and he crumbled to the ground, landing in a broken heap on the floor.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The scream ripped through the great hall, Harry not seeming to realise that the sound so full of shock and despair had came from his own throat.

He barely registered how more of the students jumped from their seats, Dumbledore and Lupin hurrying over to the fallen wizard. His thoughts flew wildly in his head, without him being able to grasp one long enough for it to make sense. Fragments of sentences entered his brain but disappeared too fast in the deaf chaos of his mind before he could think them through. 'No, not Sirius, like Cedric, Avada Kedavra - Sirius Black has just been killed by Severus Snape.'

This last thought broke through the turmoil in his head and at the same time that he realized the fact that Sirius was dead, his heart started to refuse the possibility. "No," he whispered. "No, no, no…"

He was vaguely aware of Hermione and Ron, who had stepped to his side and were talking urgently to him. However, he didn't hear their words over the noise of his own thoughts. 'He isn't dead. He can't be. This is only another nightmare and I will wake up any minute now,' a persistent voice in the back of his head stated, over and over again. His eyes were now on the teachers' table, where Sirius was hidden from his view by the table and the people who were bent over him.

"Hagrid, Minerva, get the children in their dormitories," he could barely hear Dumbledore's voice over the common agitation. Seconds later, students began herding reluctantly towards the exit as they got ordered to by the teachers. Harry could hardly feel it as the students bumped into him in the narrowness of the space between the tables. Nor did he seem to notice that Hermione and Ron had stayed by his side, trying to shelter him from the other children, throwing him worried and pitying looks from time to time.

Only the weight of a huge hand resting on his shoulder pulled him back into reality. He looked up to find Hagrid's devastated face above him.

"Come, Harry. Dumbledore says tha' yeh' three should be waitin' fer him in his office."

Harry distantly stared at the gamekeeper. Then he saw it; the half giant's eyes were glittering with something that looked ominously like laden tears.

Tears?

'No,' Harry told himself. Hagrid must have gotten something in his eye, because if those were tears it would mean that something terrible had happened. That someone had died.

That Sirius had died.

'He isn't dead,' the little voice in Harry's head reminded him again. 'Hagrid wouldn't cry for Sirius. He probably barely knew him.' 'But Hagrid has such a soft heart that he would cry for anyone, who he would witness to be killed in front of his eyes,' another voice insisted.

Harry didn't want to hear that voice. He shook his head weakly. "No," he breathed, all the force stolen from his voice by the shock that was still holding him prisoner.

"C'mon," Hagrid said, steering him gently toward the exit. Harry had no force to put up any resistance.

***

Harry was hardly aware of how he had got to Dumbledore's office. A short time later he was sitting on the blue couch, flanked by Hermione and Ron.

Hagrid was standing a short distance away, fidgeting nervously and looking sympathetic and helpless.

"Maybe he didn't aim right," Hermione said in an effort to encourage Harry, even though she didn't sound confident at all.

"Or maybe Snape's pronounced the curse incorrectly. You know how important that is," Ron added.

Harry didn't look up. He just sat there, slightly hunched over, his shoulders sagging and his elbows resting on his knees. Part of him had heard his friend's words and said part held onto them, as if nothing else in the world existed.

*********

T.B.C.