The Attack
Two days after Severus' birthday, Professor Sprout assigned all the sixth years a large project with a partner from a different House. They were supposed to pick a species of rare magical plant and grow it from scratch and then write a paper on its life cycle and uses and demonstrate at least one use for it. No one could do the same plant as another pair and depending upon the plant's cycle, had to make sure that it was watered and fed every day or two. If it died, points would be subtracted from both Houses and the project would receive an Incomplete, which was almost worse than a zero. The project counted for a fourth of their final mark in Herbology.
Since the Gryffindors and Slytherins were together for this class, Severus knew he would be working with a Gryffindor for at least a month, and since Sprout was not a fussy teacher, she allowed them to choose their own partners. He, naturally, chose Lily. James ended up with Millie Bulstrode, Sirius with a boy named Tom Ponsby, Remus worked with Ava Thornwood, and Peter got stuck with Avery.
Lily and he ended up choosing the night-blooming starflower plant, whose virtues were extolled by Healers. Starflower petals were often used in Decongestion Drafts and their leaves and stems could be ground up and put in a tea which helped increase clarity of the mind and soothe a sour stomach. The starflower was so named because the petals shimmered and glowed like stars and the flower was shaped like a star as well. The petals were colored white and soft lavender. It only bloomed at night, however, and required careful tending in order to flourish.
They had chosen that particular flower so they would have an excuse to meet down by the greenhouse in the evenings, and once they had made their observations and notes and taken care of the plant, they could spend some much needed time together.
Severus arrived at the greenhouse first the second night of their assignment, his notebook tucked under an arm, his writing case shrunk inside his pocket. He spoke a soft word to unlock the greenhouse door. The building was always kept lit, since several species of plants needed low light in order to thrive. The starflower had just been planted, it was a tiny shoot and the flowers had not even opened yet.
He and Lily had done research to figure out that the starflower needed a certain amount of water and plant food the first few days it had been planted, and a constant temperature of 70 degrees Farenheit (21.1 C). The starflower was on the far side of the greenhouse, in a patch of shadow, close to the window, where the moonlight streamed down upon it. Unlike most plants, the starflower used moonlight instead of sunlight for photosynthesis.
Severus moved to where their little seedling was planted, in a blue box with their names—Snape & Evans, January 11, 1977—labeled on it. The box also had several charms on it to prevent anyone tampering with the delicate plant. Severus was taking no chances with his project being ruined by Sirius or Peter as it was a fourth of his grade. He canceled the charms and examined the shoot, it was small, only about a foot high, with small fuzzy bulbs where the flowers would be and the leaves were a fuzzy purplish green color, shaped like spades.
He took the watering can that hung up on the wall and filled it at the Green Man spout, which was a pump that had the Green Man, ancient guardian of growing things, shaped over it and water gushed out of the spout when the gardener spoke the word, "water".
Severus soon had filled the can halfway, and walked back to the starflower seedling and began to carefully water it.
Lily arrived halfway through this process. "Hey, Sev. Sorry I'm late, I was tutoring Mary in Charms again. How's it doing?"
"Looks fine to me." Severus replied, gently patting down the soil. "Check the temperature, won't you? And then we can feed it."
Lily went to the back of the greenhouse and located the special blend of food the starflower needed and measured out a scoop of it. "Were you waiting long?"
"No," Severus shrugged. He took out his notebook and a quill with magical refilling ink and began to note down the plant statistics for this night, how big it was, its color, and what had been done with it.
Professor Sprout required that they keep a detailed journal of their plant's progress and she would be grading that as well. "Every good horticulturist keeps a diary of new plant species, that way they know what to do next time they try and grow them or harvest them."
Lily carefully mixed the plant food into the soil about the seedling, turning it over with her hands and a small trowel. Once the plant had been fed, she made sure the temperature over the box was correct and it was getting enough moonlight. The first week was crucial for a starflower, after that they were very hardy and could survive in conditions that might kill another plant.
"It looks like it's doing fine, Sev," she remarked, going to return the trowel to the hook on the wall and the scoop as well. Then she rinsed off her hands and waited for him to finish taking notes.
Once he had done so and re-set the wards over the box, he put away the writing case and journal and came forward to take her in his arms.
"Miss me, little oracle?" he asked, his dark eyes glowing as brightly as a mature starflower at midnight.
"Always, my Sevvy," she laughed up at him. She was the only person in the world who ever dared to address him that way, not even Eileen did so. Her small hands gripped his shoulders, drawing him even closer. "I wish we didn't have to hide what we are to each other."
"I know. But it's only for a little while longer, then during the summer, we can just be together." His lips were inches from her own.
"How is Sorrel?" she asked.
"Doing great. She likes to pounce on my feet in the morning and play with Reg's tie that he always leaves over his chair. We charmed a toy mouse to run around the floor, so she chases it. But sometimes she likes to lie in wait under the bed and when one of us walks by, she jumps out and grabs our ankles and play bites us. The first time she did that, Reg screamed. Thought he was being attacked by a boggart or something."
Lily chuckled. "Aww, she sounds really sweet! I wish I could come down and play with her."
"Maybe one night I could sneak you into the dorm, as Zoey." Severus suggested, though he knew Lily didn't want to use the Glamour Charms too frequently at school. His hands meandered down her waist, embracing her snugly. Then he kissed her, and always that same irresistible chemistry flared between them.
She tasted of honey and cinnamon, and he knew she had been drinking chai tea again, as was her wont during a tutoring session. He felt fire scorch him as he inhaled her unique scent, some kind of exotic fruit and tantalizing spice that he could never name, but which he would recognize blindfolded. It swept from his head down to his feet, making him burn with a terrible need. Ah, Lily, how I wish we were somewhere else, with our vows spoken, so I could just give into temptation and make love to you for hours. Like I do in my dreams.
She sighed as his fingers danced up her backbone, sending small jolts of fiery pleasure through her. No other boy could make her forget herself like Severus. When he embraced her or kissed her, she became someone else, no longer the studious Lily Evans, but some wild witch woman, filled with passion and fire, and only the dark-haired man holding her could quench the fire within. His hands, so gentle and deft and yet so strong, made her quiver at their slightest touch, and she longed to throw all propriety to the winds and let him have her way with her.
But of course she never did. She knew it was foolish to do so, not until she was of age and finished with school. Having an unplanned pregnancy, even if it were Severus' child, was not something she wanted to contemplate.
His lips were trailing hot kisses down her neck and she made a soft sound of delight and threw her head back, her auburn hair spilling down over her shoulders in a blazing curtain. "Sev . . .Sev . . ."
"Like that?" he murmured. "How about this?" He moved his hands, his thumbs stroking and teasing her, his breath warm upon her skin.
"God, Severus! Where did you learn this?" she gasped, holding onto her control with the tips of her fingers. "You're going to drive me mad!"
"You've already done that to me," he laughed huskily. "I didn't get it from a book. I just . . .know. I know you, my sweet Lily."
"Too damn well." She kissed him back, returning the pleasure he had given her tenfold. "Are you reading my mind, my clever sorcerer?"
"Don't I wish," he grinned, lifting his head to stare into her brilliant eyes, eyes that shone with love for him and only him. It warmed him down to his soul. Her love had rescued him from the depths of despair and the dark hell of his childhood, she was the light in the darkness and he knew that with her beside him he could face anything.
The two were so intent upon each other that they failed to notice that they were standing directly in front of the windows, silhouetted in sharp relief in an embrace that was anything but platonic.
Neither of them heard the crunch of gravel on the pathway as Cord, Sickle and Winthrop made their way past the greenhouse down to the lake with some contraband firewhiskey. The three paused beside the greenhouse to pass the bottle around, and they couldn't help but see Lily and Severus against the backdrop of the plants beneath the light.
For a moment, none of the boys spoke, they were slightly drunk and turned on by the way the two were kissing.
"Who's that, Cord?" asked Sickle.
"Dunno, Bob." The other shrugged. "But that's one mighty fine piece of tail."
An instant later he was cuffed upside the head by Winthrop. "That's the Gryffie bitch Evans, you dungbeetle!" scolded their leader. "And Snape's snogging her, after he promised not to, the little traitor."
The Death Eater's eyes were hard and unforgiving as they gazed at the couple, who was still unaware of them. "I think maybe the little sneak needs a lesson in what happens when you break your word, huh, boys?"
There were mumurs of agreement from the other two.
"Whatcha gonna do, Winthrop?"
"We're going to wait till Snape comes out of the greenhouse and the whore leaves and then we show him what happens when he keeps company with a Mudblood. Come on." He led the other two off the path and into the shadows, behind a large elm tree.
Three minutes later, they emerged from the greenhouse. Lily turned and waved and started back up the path to the castle, her feet half dancing up the track, still half-drunk on the sensations Severus had aroused in her. She had a dreamy smile upon her lips and her face was flushed. She thanked God for Professor Sprout's assignment for it was the perfect excuse for her to spend time with Severus outside of class. She felt her knees go weak as she recalled the way he had kissed her, as if he wanted to absorb her into his very being.
In the shadows, three sets of unfriendly eyes watched as Lily walked back to the castle.
"What about her?" hissed Cord.
"Shouldn't we teach her some manners too, filthy Mudblood?" asked Sickle.
Winthrop elbowed the other in the ribs. "Shut up, you idiot! She'll hear us. She walks for now. We'd be expelled if we attacked a girl. But Snape is fair game." The other boy cracked his knuckles grimly.
Then he cast Silencing Charms about them and waited until Lily had reached the castle before stalking behind Severus, who though he looked about, missed them in the darkness and gloom.
Severus had his wand out, and walked quickly and lightly up the path, his feet hardly making a sound. His ears listened to the sounds of the night, the soft shush of the wind, the croaking of frogs in cattails near the lake, the humming of insects.
The attack came without warning.
One minute Severus was walking and the next he was sprawled upon the ground from a well-placed shove from behind.
He spun about, his eyes wide, only to catch Cord's boot in his face.
He tasted blood, but managed to hiss a Vomiting Hex, knowing better than to cast any truly harmful curses on his attackers, since if they were caught dueling, their wands would be examined and their punishment tripled depending upon the spells that had been cast.
Cord doubled over, retching uncontrollably, losing everything in his stomach.
Severus scrambled to his feet. "What the hell is your problem, Winthrop?" he gasped, speaking very slowly because of his bleeding and bruised lip.
"You are, Snape, you rotten slinking traitor. We saw what you were doing in the greenhouse with that little Mudblood tramp!" Winthrop snarled.
"We were working on a project," Severus said, trying to bluff his way out of it, slowly backing away, wand held at the ready.
"Uh huh. Sure you were. Was the project by any chance Kiss Your Mudblood Senseless?" sneered Sickle, his nose twitching. "You promised you were gonna leave her be and then you went back on your word . . .Snivellus!"
Severus felt his face heat at the detested nickname. His eyes flashed. Then he cast a quick Incarcerous, but Winthrop was faster than he thought, and blocked it.
He fired back with a Levicorpus, but Snape had invented that spell and knew the counter in his sleep.
Hexes flew fast and furious, and for several minutes Severus managed to hold them at bay, his torment by the Marauders standing him good stead.
Until Cord came barreling into the fray, the Vomiting Hex having worn off.
The big wizard was still feeling ill, but his fury enabled him to shake off the weakness and he tackled Severus to the ground.
Severus felt his head hit the dirt with stunning force and the breath was knocked out of his lungs. His vision blurred and all he saw were streaks of light and there was a band of iron tightening painfully across his chest. He could not draw in enough air and the world spun, revolving faster and faster.
Pain exploded in his side as Sickle's foot caught him in the ribs, and he whimpered as the agony raced through him.
Winthrop stomped upon his fingers, and he felt two break like deadwood, and then his wand was kicked away. He howled, unable to help himself. My hand, oh dear sweet Merlin, not my hand! A wizard's hands were his life.
Then Cord hauled him up by his collar and spoke a word and he was hung in midair, helpless, while the three took turns beating and hexing him.
Their laughter floated on the air, mingling with his moans of pain, and the flashes from their wands lit the night sky in red and green and blue patterns.
He struggled to remain conscious, to fight against the pain, to summon his magic, but it was useless. He started to drift away, into the place of cool nothingness that he retreated to when Tobias whipped him. The last sound he heard was an odd coughing snarling roar, then the world went black.
An ebony shadow crept out of the trees and trotted towards the wicked threesome, drawn by the cries of pain from their victim and the cruel laughter of the attackers. His keen nose twitched, wrinkling at the acrid stench of fear and the smell of blood and the darker taint of magic used to harm.
Fur bristled along his spine and he narrowed his eyes and growled, tail lashing. Something was not right. One of his master's younglings was in danger, he could smell its foul odor like rotting fish upon the wind. His ears went flat back upon his head and he crouched, creeping forward with no more noise than the shadow on the moon he was named after.
His eyes saw in the dark as if it were brightest noon, and what he saw enraged him and brought all of his protective instincts to the fore. Normally, he would not have interfered in a wizard quarrel, humans fought all the time amongst themselves and he had learned long ago to let them settle their own battles. But this . . .this was one of his master's kin, and the Egyptian temple cat could not watch and do nothing while some chickenhearted rats hurt the youngster. His kind had been bred long ago in the deserts of Egypt to guard temples and houses of the dead from thieves and would-be magicians seeking to steal the scrolls of ancient magic and items of Power buried with the dead scholar-mages of Amun-Ra. Bast had given his kind special abilities that no other cat possessed, and Eclipse used them now.
In an eyeblink he made himself appear ten times his size, taking on the shadowy shape of a great panther. It was not a true shifting, merely a manipulation of shadows and perception, but it was enough to scare the pants off of the three attackers. Just so had his kind defended the tombs of Luxor from those who sought to despoil them and the temples of Thebes and Memphis.
Eclipse sprang at them, growling ferociously and emitting a loud coughing Roar.
The boys screamed as the dark beast with the flashing claws and glowing green eyes landed among them, lashing out with his paws, clawing and slashing at their legs and screeching an ancient battlecry.
"Ahhh! It got me!" screamed a panicked Sickles. "What is it?"
He spun about frantically, trying to see where the thing was, but Eclipse used the shadows to his advantage and blended into them, vanishing from view only to spring upon the skinny boy an instant later, landing on his shoulders and clawing hard with all four feet.
The cat's claws were super sharp and easily shredded both cloth and flesh and Sickle ran screaming hysterically, "Get it off! Get it off!"
Eclipse clung for a moment more, biting the wicked child hard on the shoulder before jumping to the ground and racing back towards Severus and the other two boys, who were terrified, and quickly released the comatose Snape from the spell and left him crumpled in a heap on the ground.
Eclipse Roared again, the sound designed to strike fear into the darkest heart, and his fangs glistened in the moonlight beneath his blazing hellfire green eyes.
Cord and Winthrop's nerve broke then.
"Run for your life!" screamed Cord, bolting.
"Quick, before it tries to eat us!" yelled Winthrop, shoving his friend hard, and then running past him.
Cord stumbled and glanced back. "I think . . .it's coming after us! How come it's not eating Snape?"
"How the hell should I know?"
Faced with a deadly unknown beast, they fled, though not before Eclipse marked them as he had done the other one.
Then the black cat returned to Severus and nuzzled him, mewing softly in distress. Dickon, I need you. Your dark kit is hurt very badly.
High above, atop the Astronomy Tower, Professor Marsh was just setting up his telescope to view a rare conjunction of planets. Tonight Venus would be moving along a trajectory and become adjacent to Mars and the moon would be hung between them, like a bauble upon a necklace of crown jewels. It would be the first such occurance in over a hundred years, and the avid astronomer was not about to miss viewing it.
If his calculations were correct, he would see the heavenly phenomenon in just over five minutes. It would last about twenty-five minutes and then the planets would slip back to their normal route among the stars.
Dickon adjusted a lens and peered through it. Venus was up and Mars smoldered just on the horizon.
The astronomer felt his blood quicken in anticipation and he watched as the two drew closer and closer, his breath catching at the awesome sight.
Then it occurred, and for an instant Dickon saw both planets aligned and the moon hung between them.
A coughing roar split the tranquil night, and Professor Marsh froze.
"Great Merlin, that's Eclipse!" he exclaimed. He knew the sound of the temple cat's Roar and knew further that the cat never gave that cry unless he was in dire need.
Dickon jerked away from the telescope, all the joy in viewing the stellar bodies fled.
He snatched up his broom and concentrated upon his familiar.
The bond between them was very strong, he had been with the black cat for over twenty years and he could sense where Eclipse was in a heartbeat.
Dickon soared off the top of the tower, shooting across the sky, drawn by his familiar to a place barely ten feet from the tower. "Eclipse? Where are you?"
There came a soft meow and then Dickon lit up his wand. "Lumos!"
In front of him crouched Eclipse, meowing agitatedly, while beyond lay the still form of Severus, bloodied and battered almost beyond recognition.
"No!" Dickon cried in horror. "Stars above, what happened to you, Sev?"
He knelt down and lifted the boy's head, his face was a mess, swollen, bruised and bloodied, but he was not dead. He still breathed. Dickon felt his heart begin to beat again. He summoned a stretcher with a wave of his hand and levitated Severus on it. Then he lifted the boy's hand and swore. "Bloody hell, lad, your hand! Merlin forfend! I've got to get you to the Hospital Wing."
"Mobilicorpus!"
The stretcher began to float alongside Dickon as the professor hopped on his broom.
A second later, Eclipse sprang up behind him and sat neatly, balancing easily, Severus' wand clutched in his teeth.
Together, the three raced back to Hogwarts, there to rouse a sleepy Madam Pomfrey from her bed to heal the badly wounded Slytherin child.
Well, comments?
Thanks everyone for all your interest in this story and hope you keep reading!