Chapter Thirteen: An Unexpected Event
Minutes later, Valerie and Severus turned at a four-way intersection to cross the street to the same kind of rows of dilappidated houses on Spinner's End.
As they turned the corner they saw that it was a lot darker than they expected on the street. The lampposts had apparently gone out. Valerie shivered from a strong draft, and the air became icy. She noticed a layer of frost on a nearby building.
Suddenly red sparks burst in the sky, followed by another and another in varying locations behind the houses. It lit up the vicinity swirling in the sky like drops of blood. Almost a high-pitched alarm sounded, as if from everywhere on the street.
"What is it? What is it?," Valerie screamed in terror, and her hands had gone instinctively over her ears at the high-pitched alarm. Snape, meanwhile already had his wand poised, and his other hand he grabbed Valerie.
The red lights continued to flash like searchlights, casting themselves below on the street as they ran for cover, as if they could be struck by it like lightning. It was exactly like an aerial bombing, but there were no explosives.
Thick, tall hooded figures were gliding down an alleyway, Snape and Valerie were passing it. "Hide….Sir, we have to hide in here!," Valerie screeched in terror more for herself, and with great effort she freed herself from Snape's hand and she was running down the dark alleyway. Snape followed dtermindedly, not wanting to lose her.
"Valerie, come back here!," he said with great exasperation.
He suddenly heard a scream of terror issue from her, one of the most frightened screams he ever heard. The tip of his wand glimmering with pure, white light Snape searched the dark alleyway. Second later he found, Valerie huddling on the ground, a great hooded cloaked figure swarming above her.
Snape jabbed his wand at the dementor, there was a twanging sound issuing from the force of the spell as it hit the dementor, and then it crept away from Snape and Valerie, out of the alleyway. Apparently, Snape knew a different way to control dementors besides a patronus, he did not use the patronus charm, because he feared a Death Eater could be watching them.
Snape's heels sounded hard on the pavement, as he ran to Valerie and knelt before her, "Are you okay?"
Valerie was sobbing on the ground, but at the sound of Snape's voice she quickly regained her bearings, and forced herself up on her own.
'Was that thing – the dementor going to kiss me?," said Valerie, shakily.
"I don't know," said Snape thoughtfully, looking pensive. "I believe on these raids they've been ordered not to suck the souls," said Snape. For he thought he knew what this was.
Apparently he did, as his suspicions were confirmed as they came out of the dark alleyway. Another second later and the alarm faded out, until no sound was left but the same eerie silence of the street before. It was the silence of something evil like a dormant snake waiting to rise.
From a distance, Valerie caught her breath in a constrained gasp from fright, as she saw other figures come out of the alleyways from the interconnected backyards. With the wand lights flashing, she could see they were wizards. They howled like raucous dogs, and some of them were holding bags of loot over their shoulder.
"We're getting rich, Scabior!," shouted one of them in a filthy, corrupted tone.
There was another figure, in the darkness that looked different than the others, as he wasn't wearing black robes, but red ones.
Snape and Valerie watched as several of the wizards rounded on the one lone anomaly in red robes. "So they were hiding out here," muttered Snape, his hypothesis confirmed true.
They watched from a distance, as one of them stepped in front of the elderly, kneeling wizard in red, hands outstretched, pleading, "Please. Not them! Take me instead I tell you! Take me instead"
But the others merely laughed, and one of the leaders stepped forward in front of the bearded old man. The leader of the gang spat on the floor at the old man's feet, and at once, grabbed his wand from his hand and snapped it cruelly, as the others closed in eagerly.
Suddenly, the wizards turned at once at the sound of more screams, and cries issuing from behind them, and the pounding of feet running again.
In the darkness, they could make out the cries of children, and it was apparent from their size as well, as other Snatchers, emerged dragging a family, all tied back to back.
Valerie was overcome with fiery compassion, burning in her stomach. She knew they would eventually all be executed. But first, they would languish for weeks with the dementors and then be interrogated at the Muggle-born Registration Commission. She watched as the wizards continued to drag the bodies of the captured.
She lurched to run, but Snape grabbed her arms from her back, holding her. She tried to free herself but couldn't. "We have to help them Professor Snape! Please…"
Snape turned Valerie around, wanting to tell her to shut-up before they came over to them. "Professor! Professor! No!"
She felt Snape slap her in the face, and she came out of her emotional tirade. Snape continued to hold her down, not trusting what she would do.
"Trying to play the hero like Potter?," said Snape nastily.
Valerie slowly shook her head and whispered miserably, "No…But-"
Snape turned around at the sound of a harsh voice, yet it was whining with irritation, "I didn't see those two," and it was likely he meant Snape and Valerie, unidentified in the darkness. "I put the Catermole charm on to alert if anyone was out trying to flee…They can't disapparate. But we'll have them Mudbloods. Every one of them!"
"Yes, you will. Go and get them for me. Now!," said a voice with brutal distinction. Snape recognized it at once. It was Scabior, the Death Eater whom Voldemort had assigned as Chief Snatcher.
"Yes, sir!," said one of the men dutifully, apparently a Snatcher.
Another wizard came with the man along with a witch. All three of them, Valerie could see they were dressed in tight, belted black and yellow uniform robes, with high boots, and badges glittering silver on their chests, two snakes, making a double "S" on their chests.
They stepped out of the shadows. Snape lowered his wand, but did not remove it from sight. One of the men asked calmly, "Blood Statuses?"
Valerie knew what this meant and she went rummaging through her coat pockets until she had produced an indexed size card.
The female Snatcher grabbed it at once reading the details, seeing also that Valerie Powers was not being tracked by the Ministry of Magic or in contact with Undesirables.
"Half-blood?," the woman questioned for confirmation.
Valerie's face twisted into slight fury and she said with a harsh note of rationality, "Yeah…Muggle mother. Wizard father." She should not have to explain further!
And the other male Snatcher turned to Snape. Snape did not look afraid as the Snatcher asked, "And you?"
Snape tried to sound lofty and snobbish, "I don't require cards or identification! I'm Pure-blood!" But of course, Snape was being deceitful. Yet he knew Pure-bloods didn't need to show cards, and he didn't want to be forced to show his Dark Mark.
The three Snatchers frowned at Snape with obvious suspicion, eyes narrowing. One of them crossed their arms impatiently and offered to his fellow stupidly, " Dunno if Snape is a Pure-blood name. Is he?"
"All the Death Eaters, are pure they say," answered one of them.
The woman quibbled immediately, "I heard the opposite! Most of them are only pretending to be pure. It keeps them in favour with You-Know-Who!"
Snape, tired of their arguments, seeing they would not let him go free without a skirmish unless he proved himself, felt forced to slide his sleeve up from under his cloak, and he did so in one smooth motion. "Is that enough evidence for you?" Snape snarled.
They all gaped at the branded Dark Mark in wonder and fascination, Snape's black tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, black-coloured, showing a skull and a serpent leading up to it.
"I am a Death Eater. Severus Snape – the man who- who KILLED Dumbledore, someone You-Know-Who himself feared! Don't you remember? You fools…I could overpower all three of you, plus the girl will help me…."
They all suddenly looked terrified and backed away from Snape, taking a few precautionary backward steps. "Get out of here," Snape finished in a hiss.
They ran at once, turning back in the distance to where their commander, Scabior was waiting.
Snape and Valerie watched until a moment later, the dozens of Snatchers lifted the anti-apparition jink and vanished from the spot with dozens of Muggle-born families and the loot, whatever keepsakes and money the family owned they had stolen, for the Snatchers were like scavengers.
Finally, Snape and Valerie hurried to get back to the house and hopefully, some peace and quiet, now that all the ones in hiding were finally caught. They held hands again.
A moment later, Valerie sighed and said, deeply disappointed, "Why couldn't you be a hero like Schindler?"
'Oh, courage. His own courage,' Snape thought irritably, and he remembered her prior insult about his courage, which occurred after she had met the Dark Lord. Valerie continued in a trembling voice, "He saved so many Jews. We should have saved those Muggle-borns. I know you could've done it, sir!"
And she broke down into tears, actually crying.
"And what good would that have done in the end? The ends do justify the means, Valerie. I could not have saved anyone. It would blow my cover, as you know. So stop it!," he scolded.
Yet he held her against him, letting her cry on his shoulder for a brief moment and then they walked on.
"But what hypocrisy of you, Valerie. I thought you were a racist, supporting Pure-blood supremacy. However, you wanted desperately to help them."
Valerie explained with a pitying tone, still sad, "They were just innocent people, sir! And the children…"
And more tears came down Valerie's cheeks, into her lips. She swallowed hard.
"Then there is something good inside you afterall," and he added jokingly, "Before, I believed there wasn't any good in you at all!"
"What? Well, I wondered that of myself, too," said Valerie, not seeing the humor.
"I was joking, you silly girl," Snape murmured, grouchily. He was tired, drained from the experience. Watching and doing nothing in meeting real evil and injustice was taxing on a mind's conscience.
Valerie piped up again, "Are you really a Pure-blood, sir?"
Snape responded, "Look at the place where I grew up, Valerie. Does this look like the place where Pure-blood aristocratic wizards would choose to live?"
Valerie shook her head, no, as they arrived back inside the little sitting room covered in books. Snape went to light the candle from the lamp hanging in the center of the ceiling, and then gravitated at once to the threadbare sofa, stretching out on it to rest.
Note: Please review. I hope you like that chapter. Every Death Eater will play at least minimal appearance in this story, I just realized.