Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Pairings: (I loved the HP/SS pairing so this story is about their love. Enjoy!) HP/SS, HP/LM, HP/TN, NT/TN, HR/RW, NM/LM (and many others pairs later).
Summary: Harry's lost more than just the battle when Voldemort springs a surprise attack on No. 4 Privet Drive. Will the wizarding war end there? Or perhaps the wizarding world will now be forever under Voldemort's brutal regime?
Thank you Suraiyah for beta my story. She is the best.
I'm really sorry for the late posting but I've been busy and reogranised my life. Thank you everyone for the reviewed: Winnie2, texasjeanette and Kateri1 .I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.
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Chapter 7: A New Beginning
The ever-bustling streets of London showed nothing out of the ordinary, only the usual hubbub of everyday activities. However, there was an uneasy feeling running through everyone's hearts, particularly those of the Muggles, as they hastily and furtively went to their destinations and about their business.
It stood to reason that a canary dashing into one of the apartment windows on the fourth floor of an obscure London avenue was nothing more than an ordinary house pet returning to its home. Nevertheless, no other canaries could have travelled as far as this one had. It momentarily swirled around the room as if searching for any danger, before finally landing atop a nearby sofa. Its striking feathers - a beautiful deep-red orange in colour - showed its breed to be none other than a Red Factor Canary.
The crimson canary then did something completely unexpected; it stretched into a human form. The vivid red hair of the tall man that appeared was the only reminder of his Animagi form. The red headed man automatically latched his eyes onto the door, waiting for it to be opened so that he could go home as soon as the business was over. But then his eyes suddenly widened; he had detected a tint of magic being performed beside him. As his head quickly turned aside, he came face to face with none other than his once ago pet, Scabbers.
It seemed that he was not the only unregistered Animagi staying in this room.
"I'll take this!"
The other Animagi's hand immediately seized his wand while he was still frozen in surprise. Before he could even think to fight for it, the door burst open as Death Eaters struck inside, paralysing him. The Death Eaters quickly spell bound him in tight ropes, awaiting the order to ship him out.
Scabbers was a short sandy-haired man; his real name was Peter Pettigew, the infamous traitor of the Order of Phoenix, who happened to be idly playing with Ron's wand at the moment. He bent and stretched the slender piece of wood as if measuring its elasticity, until eventually a cracking sound was heard,
"Oops…did I break your wand?"
He asked innocently, his eggy blue eyes focused on the young man's reaction instead of the wand he had just fractured.
"But then, you won't need this where you're going."
Pettigrew paused as he waved the wand and amusement lit his eyes as if he were going to immensely enjoy what was coming to the bewildered young man, who had not thus far taken his eyes off his broken wand,
"Take him away, but before that, since you had been such a good master to me once, it is my greatest honour to give you a departing thankyou gift. I'd like to present to you, the traitor."
Ron's eyes narrowed at his enemy, not believing that any of the Order would have betrayed their cause, and yet he could feel the doubt of being wrong creeping onto him as he heard footsteps stopping just outside the room.
"Hey, don't be shy. Come in!"
Pettigrew commanded, his voice bearing a hint of laughter.
Ron looked over to the door just as a bony man walked into the room. His eyes widened with hurt and surprise when he saw whom the other man was. The traitor's face was blank, shouldering an emotionless expression when he met Ron's gaze, but his lips twisted into a malicious smirk upon seeing the dismay showing on Ron's face. The smirk on the traitor's face was the last thing Ron could remember seeing before he became unconscious.
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Severus' serene face betrayed none of his irritation. However, many long hours had passed by since he had started walking along this road. He had only walked because he could neither be able to apparate nor use his Pegasus to go to his destination. It vexed him to no end, but not as much as the reason behind the trip. Severus tightened his thin lips without realising it.
'Blasted road!'
'She should have known better than to go there. Typical Gryffindor, does not consider the trouble and inconvenience they're causing other people.'
Severus stopped after awhile when he began to become conscious of the fact that he had become lost.
"Bloody brilliant!"
He swore sarcastically under his breath.
'Just how did I get lost in the first place?'
Severus could not believe it; he had travelled to the secret hideout of the Order of Phoenix many times in the past. As if someone heard what he was thinking, they were laughing out loud. Upon hearing that sound, reflexively Severus spun around to get a glimpse of the mischievous person.
His eyes caught sight of brownish hair and a red scarf before whomever the person was disappeared into the forest. The childish laughter sounded quite familiar but he could not put a face to that sound.
What happened next was quite predictable on how an angry Snape would act in such situation. If Severus Snape had not given into his infamous family temper, he would not have followed the stranger, for it was forbidden to walk outside the twisting road due to the simple reason that no one had ever come back after straying off it.
If Severus had thought he was lost before, he was definitely so now, the forest was eerily silent. He could feel the magic it manifested around him, in the air, the water and even the earth below him. Although he was thoroughly lost, yet Severus began to glimpse a familiarity in the place as he walked further within the forest, deep inside where few dared to venture.
He came upon a stream by which he decided to rest as he ascertained where exactly he was, and whether the memories of his strange dreams were actually his recollection of his own hidden past. Years ago he had tried to prove it otherwise by coming to believe they were nightmares created by his Death Eater activities.
These nightmares had driven him to break down and finally confess to Albus. He had been redeeming himself ever since, hoping it would lessen the sting on his sudden conscience. It had all started on the day when he had woken up from his near death experience. Whatever dark feelings he had had felt before, they had became much more intense, a thousand times worse, starting on that very day.
Flash back
"Lestrange, if you don't shut your wife up, then I will!"
Walden McNair warned, gnashing his teeth angrily as he raised his wand and pointed it straight at Bellatrix. It was not a bluff, considering McNair was quite ready to mouth the curse. Bellatrix knew well when to be quiet and cowardly and she pulled her husband in front of her to shield herself from the firing range.
Perhaps it was being trapped in a cave that had triggered their violent natures, causing McNair to turn on his own allies, even though it was only Bellatrix and her usual ranting. There were only two Death Eaters, who despite also being trapped inside the cave, were maintaining their calm appearances. These were none other than Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, Voldemort's favourite servants. Strangely enough, both their appearances were the resemblance of the day and the night, although, Lucius' angelic face was eclipsed by his friend's dark formidable, handsome one.
It was the Aurors who had ambushed them. Ironically, it had always been the other way around, but it seemed their enemies have learnt fast. Fairness was not proving an effective tactic during the war. Lucius, in charge of this mission, knew it was time to move on before the group started falling further apart. He had formulated a plan to distract the Aurors.
Lucius waved his hand as a signal for the group to follow his instruction. After casting a spell, as the rest of Death Eaters followed suit. They were all moving slowly out of the cave so that the plan was given time to work.
"Serpensortia!"
When they reached the exterior of the cave, they found the conjured serpents had distracted the Aurors as they had expected. This gave them enough time to position themselves before attacking the Aurors. It soon becomes a heated battlefield.
Severus was busy hexing his opponent, but he was not really keen on it. He had once been an enthusiastic Death Eater. Times have changed that, as it also changed his Master into an unrecognisable man from the one he had once worshiped. Nonetheless, he had kept this to himself. Who was he kidding? He hated what he had become more than anyone in the world, but he also had friends among the Death Eaters that he had no wish to betray.
In the corner of his eyes he could see where Lucius stood. His best friend was busy fighting with two Aurors. The battle clearly showed who was dominating, but the flash of light coming from behind Lucius could have changed the balance of power. May be it was an unselfish act that Severus had not performed in years and it certainly was un-Slytherinish behaviour; Severus moved to take the curse for his friend. His body tumbled down onto the ground when the curse struck him. However, most damage was done by the second hit from his own opponent who he happened to have forgotten. His entire body started to burn, the scorching invisible flames spreading rapidly, killing each of his skin cells.
Severus rolled around on the ground, desperately hoping it would stop the inflammation of burning skin. He could hear his screaming echoed because he could not stop the pain. His heart gave out that second, he was ready to enter the other world, when he saw a spirit emerge with his body. It was then he become unconscious.
When he woke up, Severus recognized that he was staying at the Malfoy's Manor. The purple curtains and red furnished guestroom was only the result of Narcissa's colour blindness. It seemed that Lucius had put him here to recover from his injures. Severus was annoyed at the house elves, which tiptoed around him and occasionally looked at him strangely. For some reason he felt a slight friendliness towards them and that feeling had not been there before. They would not let him have a mirror whenever he asked for one, and he howled at them until Lucius came in the room for the first time since he had awoken. Lucius turned his eyes away when he saw Severus' face, as if it were quite unbearable to look at him. Severus felt uncomfortable of the strange silence of his friend and started to speak,
"What Lucius?"
Lucius shook his head proceeding to walk to the bedside. He knew if Severus had not taken the curse he would be the one lying there at the moment and so he cleared his throat before he began conversing with Severus.
"The mediwizard said that you're lucky to be alive. However, the spells have…damaged your body, which is surprising because it was not supposed to happen that way."
"I see! I'm well enough Lucius, I would like to speak to the mediwizard now. I want to know about other available options on how my body can be healed."
" I'm sorry Severus but this is best that can come from me. The best mediwizards in the world have tried every possible charm and healing spell, but none affected your injuries in the slightest. In fact they have caused you more pain and that is why I finally had to throw them out."
"How much has the curse damaged my body?" Severus asked, shattered from the news,
"Where is my wand?" he then asked dejectedly when he received silence as his only answer.
Lucius immediately threw the wand over, having taken it out of his pocket, but his eyes had not left the ground. Severus cast a spell for a mirror to appear in front of him. He knew somehow his face would be like this, but the horror of seeing it had untold effects through his screams. Magic shimmered from him and destroyed the entire room beyond recognition. Lucius was the only object left standing and that was only because he had been using a powerful shielding charm.
Severus did not let anyone enter the room after that incident; he even shut Regulus out when his lover finally came to visit him. Only the house elves were able to get anywhere near him without being snapped at. Strange memories disturbed his thoughts so that he could not rest properly. His heart cried out in unknown loneliness and pain that seemed to be unbearable, no words were adequate enough to describe the depth of these feelings. Severus Snape was no longer Severus Snape the Death Eater once he left his injured bed.
End Flash Back
Severus began to contemplate two words from his distant memory. He knew now that they were the one truth that could set him free.
"True love."
'What is true love?'
He had come to believe many times over hundreds of years that he had finally found his true love, only to be disappointed again and again. Countless of lives he had lived and yet none of them were able to break his curse. There were only two people that Severus Snape had come to love in this life.
The first was a lover. Severus knew now that he did not truly love Regulus but merely loved the idea of being in love. However, it had still hurt him deeply when Regulus left him after seeing his changed appearance. It was not the first time during the course of his live that his lover had left when they saw him, the cursing elf living inside abnormality body. It showed him how shallow love could be, like his had been once.
The second person was the one for whom he had truly fallen, but this realisation had came too late. The feelings he had felt for the boy at his last moments on earth had indicated beyond doubt that it was love, the love his elfin heart had yet to understand. Harry Potter, who would have thought that particular boy would have imprinted deeply into his heart, and not simply Severus' human one, but also begin to slowly touch his elf's heart where no one had ventured.
Severus Snape cursed himself quietly; this was not the time for him to indulge on Harry's memories. Severus sighed sadly and extracted his flute from of his robes. He played the flute whenever his emotions became unbearable, for only his music was able to soothe his pain. Severus was not able to do so as often as he wanted because he had learnt his lesson well in the early days.
He remembered a particular incident of a foolish village girl he had come across, who had fallen for the melody of his flute and she had pined away to death in the end. At the time he had believed she was his true love, but he still lived inside the human body his presence occupied at the time when the girl's spirit slipped away into another world. This only made him guiltier of his carelessness, for it had killed another mortal. He knew then what his mother meant, it was not of simpleton loves and he chided himself for the arrogant assumption that the girl truly loved him instead of his sweet music.
His music this time was not of his sorrowful state, but instead it spoke solemnly of the longing love for Harry, the one he had come to love, and the unspoken of what could have been if Harry did not die. It also hinted of the fear that Harry might not reciprocate his unrequited love.
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Road To Nowhere, North Entrance
"Harriet, slow down, please!"
Neville was worn-out quickly, even though he had been leaning on Ginny as they journeyed on the road. Ginny grinded her teeth to bear his heavy weight, as well as the aching of her body, because she wanted nothing more than to see her family again. She wanted to get there quickly, for it had been so long since she last had an embrace from her parents and that was what she had missed most of all - the warmth of her family. Harriet's motive was not the same as hers, but she too hurried to get there as she allowed her aching physical pain to lure away her emotional one.
"I'm sorry Neville, but we must hurry, it is not safe out here especially as the sun will be setting in an hour. We need to get to a gazebo before we can be able to rest for the night."
Harriet turned to look at them. She noticed Ginny's wane face and knew it was time to take over in helping Neville to walk. She strode back to them and took hold of Neville before Ginny let go. A few minutes later when they moved off the bended part of the road they saw the gazebo located not far ahead. They all sighed with relief, pleased that nothing had happened during their journey. When they arrived, Ginny's tiredness gave out and she collapsed onto the ground at the entrance of the building, bringing both of her companions to a state of deathly panic. After a thorough examination, they were sure that Ginny was all right, but extremely exhausted.
"She's just too tired."
Harriet commented, as she settled Ginny onto a bench that she had transfigured into a small bed and resized a blanket back to its original size to cover her friend up.
"Eat this Neville, it will help you to revive your strength."
She smiled warmly and tucked her brother in as well on another bench-bed she made, but only after he finished his meal. Although exhausted as well, Harriet chose to watch the sunset. She truly feared for the road they were travelling on. No wonder it had become the secret hide out of the Order of Phoenix. Harriet sighed,
'No one in his or her right mind would have chosen this place.'
This was one of the times when she doubted the sanity of her grandfather. The area was a sacred place that the only path or road that went through it was called the Road to Nowhere and yet it did not guarantee that the traveller was able to safely arrive to the other side.
No one was able to explain what danger was held within this forbidden place or why the ancient road was called what it was, but many have disappeared upon this road, never to be found again. The most fearful thing to a wizard/witch was that you could not perform spells once you were inside the area. The only places that you were able to do so were the gazebos, which were located aside the road.
Many researchers had shown that the gazebos were built where there were less magicfield of the sacred ground, which may explain why they were still able to perform magic within these buildings. Magic was part of a wizard/witch's life and to become defenceless without it, none would not dare to cross the road unless in desperation. Since no one used the roads regularly, over time maps of the roads had been destroyed, until only four copies had remained in the world, and one of them happened to be in the Dumbledore family heirlooms.
Unfortunately, Harriet who had thought she was safe inside the building did not once consider that her temptation was to be the cause of her downfall. As it started to get dark, her eyes began drifting close as she slowly glided off to sleep, when entrancing music suddenly soared over her. Although the tone was much different this time, Harriet had no doubt it was the same player.
'LUCIUS!'
Unable to resist the urge to find the musician, Harriet left her safety nest to search for her love. If Ginny and Neville had not been lost in their dreamless sleep, they would surely have snapped her out of her enchantment.
Harriet meandered through the forest until she came to a moor hill and it was only then that she came to her senses, even though the melody had long vanished from her hearing range. She began to berate her foolishness. She sat down on a rock, clutching her wand for protection but knowing that it was useless here.
She heard childish laughter from behind her and in a flash the sound now came from before her and then a body shimmered out of thin air.
"A Witch!"
A childish voice exclaimed aloud, almost mockingly. It kept giggling and Harriet began to make out the intruder. The intruder had the body of boy about twelve years old, yet his face was mid-aged, though his clear stormy eyes plainly showed that he was far older. The navy-blue cloak he wore hid the robe underneath, but the dark red scarf around his neck stood out. Brownish hairs escaped from under a high hat that was out of fashion even by wizarding standards.
"Hel…Hello."
Harriet returned the greeting, hoping the boy was friendly but some how she doubted that.
"What luck! I did not think anyone would fall for that trick."
He grinned like a kid that had just been given lollies as an unexpected treat. Harriet felt further threatened. She stepped back away and ready to bode from the child. She knew it was silly to ask, but she had to know,
"Trick?"
"Yeah, I heard the melody a few hours ago in the forest. It sounded great, though it was sad and idiotically romantic in my opinion, but I recorded it and played it just now. Amusing isn't it? Didn't think a witch would fall for it."
Harriet knew she was in trouble; the boy's face was now purely glinting with an evil smirk before he continued,
"It has been a long time since anyone lingered on my territory, where I'm patrolling."
"Sorry but I need to get back, my friends are waiting for me."
Harriet began to run for her life, hoping the strange boy would let her leave. No such luck, for he was on her tail and appeared to be playing a cat and mouse game with her. Suddenly the sound of horse hooves trembled the ground as a hand swept her to a stop before the body of a stallion clearly materialized to stand between her and the maniac boy. The boy looked alarmed over the knightly figure appearing before them.
"Fatis! Stay out of this, it is nothing of your concern," he demanded.
"Good evening, good Amadan. Please do introduce me to this fair maiden."
A pleasant voice inside the armour was greeting the boy and politely gave him the command for the introduction. However, Amadan blatantly ignored the request,
"Hmm…go away you goody two shoes …"
Harriet was quick to her feet and pleaded,
"Please help me! I'm lost. I just want to go back to the main road where my friends are waiting for me."
"She's lying. I demand that you go on your journey. You've no jurisdiction here or over this matter."
"My dear fellow, pardon me but I am afraid I am quite unable to do so. My chivalry and oath demand that I rescue the damsel in distress."
Fatis interrupted the sneering boy. The boy was continuing to fume while jumping up and down displaying his tantrum while he listened to the knight's winding speech.
"You've no right to interfere! I've permission to do kill any mortal who dares to wander onto the fairy haunt."
Amadan protested adamantly like a child deprived from his toys. However it was a lost cause to Fatis, who had vowed to protect the innocent and was deaf to the boy's pleading.
"I have detected the maiden's aura as pure white and that means she is innocent of your accusation. If you continue still with this nonsense, I shall take this matter to your Queen's court. I too will personally report this incident of your unbecoming behaviour with my King Oberon, be gone, fairy fool!"
Fatis immediately took up his lance, pointing it at Amadan, prepared to carry out his threat. Even Amadan, known as the fairy fool and a jester of the court, knew it was better to take leave than face the consequence of accepting this challenge that he had no hope to win.
Amadan immediately glared at them before abruptly vanishing out of sight.
"Good evening! May I enquire as to why you enter the fairy haunt, especially as it is the Litha day tomorrow."
"Litha…Oh Litha's day! You celebrate Litha Day as well."
She stated surprisedly as she worked out whom exactly they were. Paling slightly when she remembered what Fatis had called the child.
'Amadan! Merlin, I could have died if he had not come along.'
Harriet heard a chuckle from within the steel helmet,
"We always have done so, in fact it has been you mortals that have been following our custom. I would dearly love to talk to you; it has been a rather long time since I last have spoken to a human. However, you must leave to return to the road if you wish to remain alive before sunrise. The others of my kind care not much for humans. It is unfortunate we meet this time of the year, with tomorrow happening to be the only day in a thousand years that fairy are able to travel freely in the lands."
Harriet only gasped as she digested the information. He searched the surroundings before pointing to the west,
"Walk that way, you will be back onto the road in no time and I feel no magic signature of my kind active there."
Fatis turned back to the young girl and took a closer look at her. There was surprisingly powerful magic binding the girl. He wondered what it was, but he had no time to break it to satisfy his curiosity. He also had the peculiar feeling they would meet again, which seemed most unlikely.
"Goodbye, safe speed."
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After bidding farewell to her rescuer and thanking him gratefully, Harriet trekked for some time until she heard a call for help from nearby. Out of her good heart, as well as curiosity, she decided to investigate. Harriet arrived at the shrub to find an injured cub, the young wolf crying in pain. She was glad that she did not ignore its calls for help.
"Can I help?"
Harriet offered her hand, few of the animals allowed humans to be near them, even if she was a Faunspeaker. The cub winced from pain as he pulled his paw out, showing his injury. It was shred by a sharp branch piercing through the young skin as blood smudged out of the wound. Knowing the pain that was going to come Harriet tightened her lips as she said,
"Hold on, this will hurt."
Harriet efficiently pulled the branch out as fast but as gently as she could. The young witch poured the bottled water she carried over the wounds to sterilize possible germs. She then fastened hastily the bandages over the injuries - it was the torn fabric from her sleeve - to stop the bleeding. She gave a smile and fell back on the ground exhausted mainly from worry; it was the first time she had done this without magic. It was far more complicated than the simple spell she had been used to before.
"Better?"
"Thank you, Faunspeaker!"
"You're welcome. No don't lick the bandage, let it heal by itself before taking it off. Is there anyone to help you to pull the bandage free when your skin heals?"
Harriet frowned, wondering how the cub would look after himself. Shouldn't his mother be somewhere? She gave the cub a smile when she noticed others animals gathering around,
"I can help him, don't worry Faunspeaker."
Another cub slightly older spoke out loud, as he moved forward to snug his friend's head.
"It's a long time since I've seen a Faunspeaker."
A small squirrel commented from a hole, and on the pine tree in front of them, a snort greeted the statement. Harriet made it out to be from an owl, which was now hooting on the branch,
"There have been no Faunspeakers passing here for the last seven hundreds years. I rather doubt you've been around that long, Squirrel!"
Harriet could not help but laugh; sometimes listening to animals could be quite entertaining. She turned to asked the owl where she was and how far away from the main road, since owls were the only animals that seemed to have intelligence enough to answer her question without going off the tangent. She found that she needed half an hour walking west before she could reach the road and at least another hour on the road before she returned to the gazebo where she left Neville and Ginny.
"Goodbye and thanks sister."
She bowed to the owl and kneeled down beside the cub giving his fur a little ruffle to say goodbye before departing.
"Take care of the injured young one."
As she was about to leave the area, the chipping of two nearby robins caught her attention.
"… just sitting there. Pity he won't survive after tonight… to come here at the time like this."
"Brother! Whom are you speaking of?"
"Ah, a Faunspeaker! Why should we tell you?"
"Yeah, you've just saved one of our predators, foolish human."
His companion sneered at her, standing bravely upon the highest branch, fearing she would reach for him if he moved any closer.
"I would have done the same thing if you had been injured. Please tell me, it's important. A life is more important than this juvenile gibbering."
"No!"
"You better answer her now or I'll have you for my dinner."
A deep roaring voice threatened, as a creature swooped down onto them, and the two robins squeaked when they saw it was a black blue-hawk ready to pounce on them for her next meal.
"It's south of here, behind the stream on the mountain side."
They responded in unison and flew off the branch hastily to get away from the hawk.
"Thank you sister."
"You're welcome, child. But, are you sure want to search for this stranger? You only have a few hours until sunrise. If you have not found him when you reach there, flee immediately to the west to get to the main road. Promise me child! I hate the thought of losing you, it is rare nowadays to meet a Faunspeaker."
Harriet nodded and continued on her journey. She has been warned numerous times of facing uncertain death if she did not get out of this place by the coming morning. Harriet tiredly marched on; knowing that time was essential for her life, as well as that of the stranger.
She was climbing over rocky lands, hiking around thick forest trees that concealed the world around them. The mysterious sense of the place becoming alive only enhanced her fear of the unknown. Each step she took forward got harder, as if she were being dragged back by a stronger force, but she kept going somehow. Maybe deep inside she had a feeling that the other person who was lost within this forest was Lucius and it was this motivation that helped her to carry on.
When she reached her destination, Harriet searched for any moving forms but she found none. Fearing that she had come to late, she sighed and began heading west as she was told to get out as soon as possible. She immediately slumped forward and tripped over when her foot hit a solid body. A sleepy voice called out the moment she fell over.
"Ouch!"
"Who's there?"
'That voice!'
Harriet's face turned colourless when she recognised the voice she had heard, wondering if by any chance she mistook the tone, but she knew she was not that lucky. Forgetting her pain from having fallen, she moved to the light, revealing herself before she noticed she had automatically obeyed the voice.
"Oh it's you!"
Severus' tones have always managed to get a rise in her, so that she could not resist returning the favour as she insolently turned to the Potion Master,
"Disappointed!? Were you waiting for someone else to rescue you?"
"You! Rescue me!?!"
"What's wrong?"
"Bugger off! I don't need your help. Play your hero complex game somewhere else."
"Why you…"
"Miss Velius, your rattling is giving me the most awful headache."
"ME! I DID NOT RATTLE!"
"If you have not noticed, you're waking the entire neighbourhood with your shrieks."
Harriet could not take any more insults from him when she had tried so hard to get here. She threw her hands up in the air as if giving up and started to walk off, not really caring where she was going as long as it was as far away as possible from this impossible man.
'Why can't we not even have a normal conversation for once? I mean what about hello; it has been a long time since I saw you etc. Huh? Who am I kidding, it's the greasy… '
"Where are you going?"
"Far away from you, git."
Harriet murmured so that only she was able to hear.
"Bloody hell! Stop Velius!"
Harriet ignored the warning from Severus as she continued to walk, when she suddenly felt a hand pulling her back against a solid torso. Harriet's heart bumped so fast against her ribs, even more so than the last time she had spoken to him, and in panic she struggled hard to get away from Severus' clutches. They were both too busy to notice the slipping of the land in a landslide slide and abruptly fell off along with pieces of rock. They crashed onto hard ground a few seconds later but not far off the cliff; the impact brought a shock jolting through them both.
Harriet could feel her body throbbing with the bruises procured from the fall. It was only then that she realised she was still wrapped around Severus' body. She knew by the hard breathing of the Potion Master that he had not gotten off lightly from the fall, and maybe even had more injuries from their fall since he had used his body to reduce the collision force that hammered her own body when they hit onto the floor. It mellowed her heart just thinking about it. Harriet may have been boorish, but she knew she owed the man and felt she needed to thank him, and so swallowing her resentment, she began,
"Thank you, are you alright?"
Severus did not answer, only grunting, as he pulled both of them back against the wall.
"It is a long way down."
"How do you know?"
"I have seen it before the night set."
"OH!"
Silence stretched until Harriet spoke again as fear crept onto her,
"Did you try to warn me about the cliff?"
"Did it take you this long to deduce what happened?"
"You…I'm sorry!"
"Please spare me, your grovel is quite unbecoming."
"I did not…can we not have a decent conversation? After all …"
"After all?"
"Nothing! Is there anyway we could climb up?"
"No, I'm a Potion Master not a climber Miss Velius."
"We need to get out of this place before sunrise."
"We're stuck here, if you've not noticed, and the least of our problems is sunrise. Of course miracles do happen, so you never know."
Severus smiled almost teasingly, his eyes glinting with a strange light and Harriet had a feeling he knew more about this place than she. Harriet turned away and as she looked up to the sky, it reminded her of Albus' will. She began to cry stiffly, trying not to make a sound, especially not in front of this man. However, Severus was a well trained spy, he could detect the snivelling from the crouching body beside him. He did not know why, but he gently drew the girl into his arms, once again wrapping them around her. Harriet did not turn away from the comfort that was given to her either, in fact she moved closer, snuggling against the warmth that was his body and sobbing louder when she could no longer conceal her anguish.
Severus was struck with disbelief after discovering a bit of information Harriet told him between her whimpering, not really knowing what she had unconsciously revealed. Finally thoroughly exhausted, she fell asleep in his arms. Severus tenderly brushed the unshed tears off her sleeping face. Quietly pulling his cloak to cover them both and leaning his chin to rest onto the girl's head, he too fell asleep.
Far away, a powerful being watched the sleeping couple and smiled secretively. It was after all a new beginning she had been weaving for them.
T.B.C.
