Chapter 32

Diagon Alley

August 30, 1997

I needed to buy my school supplies. So with the list and money that Severus had given me, I set off for Diagon Alley.

I didn't apparate, but took the long way. It was nice, somehow, to just get away from magic and be around muggles.

I walked the streets. I took a bus. It was freeing to be in a world that did not know who The Dark Lord was, but remained blissfully ignorant. To them my burning dark mark was nothing more than an ugly tattoo, no doubt the result of some drunken night out.

I sat next to this old lady with a bag bigger that she was on the bus. I helped her get off with it and she told me that I was very sweet and I almost believed her.

I walked by 'The Leaky Cauldron' three times, not wanting to leave the muggles. I went into a coffee shop. I did not have enough muggle money to buy anything. So I just sat there, watching as people came and went. Students sat together to study, but were really not getting anything done at all. A couple of mothers sat with their children on their laps as they gossiped away happily to each other. And so many other people just rushed by to grab a quick refreshment after a hard day of shopping.

I must have sat in there for hours, watching quietly. I made up stories in my head for everybody that entered the shop.

Lisa, a pretty blonde girl at the table next to mine, was furiously running her hand across page after page. She wanted more than anything to be an author and she was producing her first work of fiction. Her mind was working so fast and she was so engrossed in her own world that she would sometimes forget and stir her coffee with her pencil.

Then there was Roger, a tall dark haired man that came into the shop without sitting down and got two lattes to go. He kept putting his hand in his coat pocket and twisted its contents around with his fingers. He had an engagement ring in there. He was about to propose to his longtime girlfriend Rose.

Of course I did not know any of these people, but in my mind Lisa becomes a famous author at the end of the story and Rose accepts Roger's proposal. All of my stories had happy endings.

I wished I could have come up with a new story for myself, but I could think of one. I couldn't imagine myself in any other life but the one I was living, as crappy as it was. I could not imagine a future for myself that was not tainted with the endless service to Lord Voldemort. I felt like I was in a contently frozen state, where there was no room to move forward and where it was impossible to go back.

So I took joy in the happy lives of Lisa and Roger, where their futures where bright and full of exceptional things. I wished I could have lived in their stories forever, but it was getting late, the sun was heavy in the sky and I did not want to be walking around Diagon Alley in the dark.

I walked into a small red door that none of the muggle passersby seemed to notice.

'The Leaky Cauldron,' was pretty full when I entered, but not with the same crowd I remembered from when I can here first with Professor McGonagall.

Most of the inhabitance of the inn had the distinctive look of being up to no good. Most of the witches and wizards wore there hoods up, concealing their faces, but I was sure I caught a few familiar, yet unfriendly faces that I recognized from Malfoy Manor.

"Young lady!" cried a man as he approached me. He was very bald and very toothless. I remembered him to be Tom, the innkeeper.

I looked behind me to make sure I was the 'young lady,' he was referring to. "Yes," I answered when I realized that the only person behind me was a crazy old wizard with a glass eye and broken monocle, speaking to himself.

"Don't you think it is a bit late to be out?" said Tom.

"Well, I need to get my school supplies for Hogwarts," I told him.

"Why don't you just come back tomorrow morning with your parents," he suggested.

"My parents are dead," I said pushing my way passed him. "So if you don't mind, I will be going."

I walked to the back of the inn where there was nothing but a few garbage cans and a brick wall.

I tapped on a sequence of bricks, as Professor McGonagall had taught me, and the passage to Diagon Alley opened for me; although, it did take me a few times to get it right.

There were not very many shoppers; most people were not stupid enough to come out so soon before night fall.

"Buy an amulet," said a bent over old women, whom I was quite sure was part hag.

"No thank you," I said quickly as she approached me.

"Oh come on, pretty girl," said the hag. "Buy one, they repel the dementors."

"No," I said flatly.

She grabbed my arm with unusual strength. "Come on, pretty, BUY ONE!"

I pulled out my wand. And shot a hasty spell at her that throw her and her amulets against a wall and I ran.

Ok, I thought as I stopped running. I decided I was at a safe distance away for the old hag. I watched her as she got up slowly and collected her necklaces. When I was quite sure she was not going to come after me I pulled out my school list.

I had not taken the time to peruse it until now and I was surprised to see that many of my school supplies would have to be purchased in Knockturn Alley, a side street off Diagon Alley, completely dedicated to the dark arts. I was also surprised to see that my classes had changed. Instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts I was now enrolled in the Dark Arts. Also it seemed that I was now required to take Muggle Studies, which I normally would not have minded but the book assigned for this subject was called Muggles Must Be Eliminated, By: Morgana P. Chaincaster.

I let out a quick sign and began my shopping.

Severus strode over to the window. The sun had almost set. The girl had been gone all day and now it was getting dark and she was not back yet.

Severus yanked a random book off his shelf and walked back to his armchair.

He stared at the page of words in front of him.

She is probably with Draco Malfoy again, Severus thought scowling. But what if she was not?

Severus flipped to the next page.

Does this girl not know what is out there? Or is she just too thick headed to observe such things, Severus thought angrily.

You know what, he did not even care. This girl was just distracting him from his reading. She was probably just with the Malfoy boy.

Severus flipped to the next page rather violently, without retaining any of the previous page's information.

She could take care of herself, right? She was of age, well technically. She did not have much sense. She had blatant trust for everyone and like most teenage girls she was almost completely ruled by her raging hormones. But Severus did not care in the slightest. He was just going to continue reading his book quietly. If anything happened to the girl, it would not matter to Severus, not at all.

Severus stood and tossed his book on the armchair.

"Damn it," he said to himself before he disapparated.

Seconds later Severus was on a deserted back street just beyond Diagon Alley. The sun had set and all the shops were beginning to close for the night. Severus peered up and down the alley for the girl but there was no sign of her. He wondered if he should have checked Malfoy Manor first.

Suddenly Severus heard footsteps behind him. He turned, his wand raised.

Three wizards stood before him.

"Severus Snape," said one of the men, although Severus did not recognize any of them.

"What do you want?" Severus hissed mutinously, pointing his wand at each one of them in turn.

"You killed Albus Dumbledore," said another voice behind him. Severus looked over his shoulder. A few more wizards and a witch, with their wands pointed at Severus came to join the other three. Severus was surrounded.

"You killed Albus Dumbledore," repeated the witch, "and now we are going to put an end to you."

The witch made a slashing movement through the air with her wand and suddenly a deep cut appeared on Severus's pale cheek. Blood thickly poured down his face and onto his chest.

Severus flinched as he felt the same cutting sensation on the back of his neck. Hot blood rushed down his spine.

Severus tried to defend himself, but the numbers were too unfair, seven to one. Severus managed to stun two of his attackers, but it did not do him much good. More and more deep cuts appeared on Severus's body and as he began to lose more and more blood, the slower his reflexes became.

His attackers laughed as he stumbled about on him unstable legs. Severus seemed to fade in and out of consciousness. He tried to protect himself with a shield charm, but his defenses were as weak as he was and the shield broke.

In a lapse of perception, Severus dropped his wand and fell to the ground. He continued to feel the slashes of invisible knives on his flesh, but they became less and less painful as he slipped into a deep state of unawareness.