Chap. 15: Dumbledore and Severus, Voldemort's attempted revenge, and triage.

Severus Snape had just passed the gargoyle and took the spiraling steps up to the headmaster's office, where he now stood before the door. He had noticed that it was nine-thirty when he left his office.

Before Snape could knock, the door opened, and Dumbledore said, "Come in, Severus."

"Headmaster," Snape said, as he nodded at the old man, and took up a chair in front of the headmaster's desk.

"What a night, what a night...," Dumbledore said as he sat back in his chair. "Horace is coming back, so, my boy, you've obtained the position you've always wanted."

"It will give me time to watch after Draco, Headmaster," Snape replied.

"Well," Dumbledore commented as if speaking about the weather, "there's nothing to be done about that now, is there? Narcissa went to the wrong person to ask for help, and I daresay that she has placed you in a bit of a predicament."

"Wrong person?" Snape asked. "You mean, you?"

"Of course not, Severus!" Dumbledore replied with a chuckle. "No, the head of her family!"

"Potter?" Severus sneered.

"He could have protected them, Severus," Dumbledore said, "and I believe that he would have if asked nicely. However, that is now water under the bridge.

"I did learn a lot about Mr. Potter, or I should now call him Lord Potter and Black, while at the Weasleys since I did a bit of snooping."

"Snooping?"

"Why yes," Dumbledore said. "I arrived just as the party was starting, and disillusioned myself for about half of it so that I could observe him and those around him, and especially his future wife.

"I could not tell if he had any part in the new paper and exposé that came out, but it is curious that the paper appeared on his birthday.

"I was fearful of using Legilimency, since young Daphne sat next to him the entire night, and as sensitive as she is to that sort of magic, I feared being caught out.

"When he was shown the paper by Miss Granger, he acted as if he didn't know anything about it."

"I fear," Snape said, "that if the Dark Lord lays his hands on a copy, that he will fly into a rage."

"Yes," Dumbledore said as he placed a lemon drop in his mouth, "I'm waiting for that to occur. The night is not over, yet.

"Now, I took my copy of the paper to Xenophilius and had him inspect it."

"Lovegood?" Snape asked, stunned.

"Why, of course, Severus," replied the headmaster. "He is a printer and publisher.

"He inspected the paper and ink, and also noticed the unmoving photos, where he declared the paper to be completely muggle. He has no idea who could be behind it, nor does Cuffe."

Here, a pregnant pause occurred for about a minute as both ruminated about the day's events.

Finally, Dumbledore stood and made his way to a sideboard, where he took out a bottle of Scotch, and poured he and Severus two fingers into two rocks glasses. Next, He handed Severus his glass, who took a sip, as Dumbledore settled himself back into his golden throne-like chair.

"What about the boy's scar, Headmaster?" Severus asked after taking another sip.

"Both Rufus and Gareth assure me that it will be healed on November 1st. That date has some importance in the States, which is where they're taking Mr. Potter."

Severus' shoulders sank at this, as he did not like what the headmaster had planned for the brat. He might not like the boy, but to send him off like a pig for slaughter was something that he felt was hard to swallow.

"There will come a time, as I've told you, Severus," Dumbledore said, "when Voldemort becomes extra-protective of his snake, Nagini. You must do everything in your power to see that she is killed. Sooner, if you can arrange it."

"I already have a poison for it," Snape replied, "but I'm still working on a way to deliver it. The poison must enter the snake's bloodstream."

"Keep at it, Severus," Dumbledore replied, "as this is of the utmost importance."

Just as the headmaster stated this, a Patronus in the form of a goat flew into his office and stopped. "You-Know-Who is in Hogsmeade, and he is angry."

Here, the goat dissipated, Dumbledore quickly rose, withdrew his wand, and he held out his left arm for Severus to take. As soon as Severus did, they disapparated.

Voldemort apparated just outside the Shrieking Shack, and on the road into Hogsmeade. He was seething mad, but he knew that he must keep his head to find the "newspaper boxes" the Carrows told him about. They said that there were three; one outside the Three Broomsticks; one outside Honeydukes; and one outside the Hog's Head. He would have to locate each, he thought, and start with the last to destroy them.

He would not allow this insult to stand, and if he could find who published them, he would kill them and their entire family.

Here, he pulled his hood up and began walking into the town.

As he passed by the Three Broomsticks, he noticed a wooden newspaper box sitting beside the steps, but it was empty. It was similar to the metal ones in the muggle world.

He continued his trek, where he noticed the one outside Honeydukes, and as he made his way closer to the Hog's Head, he could spy the other at the corner of the building. It seemed to have a paper left in the window, which made him seethe.

As he walked closer, he drew his wand and took aim at the box. However, just as his bombarda spell started to leave his wand, the bloody box popped away, and reappeared about five feet to its right! His bombarda did nothing but dig a hole in the ground where it once sat.

He tried again, but this time the box appeared five feet out in the street!

He tried a cutting curse, but the box merely popped away again, about five feet up the street.

"GAHHHHHHH!"

Next, he tried to fire off two quick bombardas to the left and right of the box, hoping to catch it. It merely popped toward him, and then back to where it first rested! Now, he was shaking with anger, so he didn't see Aberforth peering out of an upper-level window in his establishment, who then quickly walked away to warn Albus and the Aurors.

"So," Voldemort hissed and spat, "I'll need to destroy you the old way!"

Here, Voldemort walked up to the box and tried to topple it, but it would not budge no matter how hard he pulled or tugged.

"Neh - heh," Voldemort sneered as he stepped back away from the box, and gave it a sideways scowl. Finally, he reached into his cloak and withdrew a long sword from his pocket. It was a goblin-made sword that Bellatrix had taken from the Lestrange's vault, and had given it to him long ago.

Here, he raised the sword up high over his head, and just as he started to bring it down upon the box, the box flashed, and Voldemort found his arms going backward, taking him with them.

He landed on the wet flagstone street on his back, his breath half-knocked out of him, where the sword clattered off the stone street a few feet away. The top of his bald head made a wet "smack" upon the flagstones.

"YOU DIRTY, BLOODY...," Voldemort shouted. Nobody made a fool out of him in this manner!

He ignored the slight tingling feeling in his body, and slowly made his way to his feet. When he tried to move toward the box, it was as if someone had tied his shoes together. He tripped, and fell face-first upon the flagstones, where his flat nose became well-acquainted with another flagstone with a wet "whack."

"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Voldemort's loud scream had covered up the sound of the many apparations all around him.

When Voldemort tried to sit up, he found that the entire world seemed to spin, and that caused him to honk. Vomitus went everywhere, including down the front of his robes.

Rufus Scrimgeour, who was with the Aurors, looked at the so-called dark lord with his bloody flat nose and scraped head, and asked Gareth Greengrass, who was beside him in his Unspeakable robes, "Is he drunk?"

Voldemort now knew that he was under some spell, so his wand shot into his hand. However, when he tried to aim the wand at himself to cast Finite, his arm went in the other direction, and the spell splashed onto the street.

The spell had his movements reversed! Now, he thought of trying to bend his arm backward, which resulted in it moving forward, but he stabbed himself in his left eye with his wand.

"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU DIRTY, ROTTEN, BLOODY, FUCKIN', BELL-ENDED MUNTER...!"

The pain caused his hand to shake, and he dropped his Yew wand, where it clattered upon the flagstone street. That was when he noticed that he was surrounded.

There were Aurors, Hit Wizards, Unspeakables, and others he could make out through his swimming and swirling gaze.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," Minister Scrimgeour announced, "you are under arrest for treason and high crimes against the people of Wizarding Britain. Please come quietly."

Here Tom loudly cackled out, knowing that he had been defeated by a simple newspaper box. However, he had one trick still left up his sleeve, and he disapparated. However, he mistakenly left part of himself behind.

"Wands down, everyone," Scrimgeour said, as he slowly made his way over to Voldemort's wand, and picked it up. It felt slimy in his hand, but that didn't stop him from breaking it across his knee. A bit of Phoenix feather was the only thing holding it together, and he would find a way of sending the broken wand back to Voldemort.

Next, Rufus walked over to the gaudy silver sword, which had an emerald in its pommel, and picked it up. That would make a rather good trophy, he thought.

Gareth walked up to the scene and started looking around the wet street, where he saw it, and smirked. Voldemort had left his right ear behind. He had splinched himself!

Here, Gareth removed an evidence bag and levitated Tom's ear into it, and then sealed it shut. That, and Tom's blood could come in very handy!

Dumbledore walked forward with a scowling Snape behind him, then, and looked at the damage to the street and grounds at the front of his brother's establishment. He gave a quick flick of the Elder Wand, where the street and holes healed over as if nothing had ever happened.

Next, Dumbledore walked over to the newspaper box, and studied it for a moment, before he patted it on the top like a pet, and walked away.

"Nothing to see here, now, I do not think," he said and apparated he and Snape back to Hogwarts.

Nobody had noticed a disillusioned Daniel Davis, who had been at the Three Broomsticks. He had taken a photo of a vomit-covered Voldemort twisting about on the street. As everyone left, he made his way back to the Three Broomsticks, paid Rosie his bill, and left for home.

Thirty minutes later, Severus Snape was trying to cancel the jinxes on the Dark Lord. Finite and Finite Incantatem did not work, nor did several other counter-jinxes, counter-hexes, or counter-curses.

Snape gave Voldemort several potions for his head swimming, nausea, and vertigo, and he did his best to heal the stump where his right ear used to be, as well as his scraped head, and a busted nose. There was no obtaining that ear back, however.

"My Lord," Snape said, "I believe that this jinx will need to run its course. Nothing that I've tried will work."

Here, Voldemort closed his eyes to stop his head from spinning.

Bellatrix simpered and gave out a girly cry of anguish to her lord at that, but then gave Snape a scowl.

"Enough, Bella," Voldemort scowled, "leave us!"

Bellatrix scowled at Snape one more time, but then hurriedly left the room. She still had to help Cissy and Draco repair the damage to their dining hall.

"Find out who owns that paper, Severus! I want their head on a pike!"

"Yes, my Lord," Snape said.

"Leave me, now, Severus," Voldemort hissed, "and go back to Hogwarts before that doddering old fool finds out that you're missing."

Snape turned on his heel and quickly left. Surely, the Dark Lord thought that Albus already knew that he had been called? How bad had that newspaper box rattled his mind to this extent?

Later that early morning, though, Voldemort was regretting sending Severus back, as he couldn't leave his bed, so he shat himself because nobody was there to help.

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though it's a short one!