Disclaimer: I don't own hp
Also. There is a character death in this chapter, and funky formatting which is on purpose ;)
(Tuesday, June 20th. Full Moon. 0 days.)
"STUPIFY! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS! INCARCEROUS!" Jugson roared, making Avery want to facepalm. Prince had been rising from the loveseat by the fire when they entered, but Jugson's spells slammed into him before he could raise his wand. He fell to the stone floor with a satisfying thump.
"You are fucking lucky your spells landed before he could recognize you, you fucking moron," Avery hissed.
"I told you a Mudblood couldn't be better than me!" Jugson crowed.
"Whatever, celebrate later," Avery snapped. "Help me give him the Nightmare potion."
A deep growl permeated the room, freezing Jugson and Avery in their tracks. A massive feline-like creature came slinking out from the bathroom. It had them pinned in a stare that pierced through their very beings and had them frozen where they stood. Another growl came, louder this time, and the beast lunged for them, claws outstretched.
"Protego!" Jugson yelped.
"Depulso!" Avery shouted.
The beast yowled, slamming into the wall. It hissed at them before running from the room.
"What the fuck was that?!" Jugson asked, his voice shrill.
"At a guess, Prince's familiar," Avery said faintly. "Come on, we have to hurry."
They approached Prince with caution, despite all of their earlier bravado.
"How much do we give him?" Jugson asked.
"Does it matter?" Avery replied. He took the cap off the vial and spelled the entire container into Prince's stomach.
Jugson smiled wickedly at him. "Undo his bindings and get out of the way?"
"You leave first, go back to the common room," Avery said. "I'll repair his room and then release him."
}~{
Severus staggered out of his room, eyes bloodshot and unfocused; hand trembling along the wall, breath coming in ragged pants. His aura dark, deep, and oppressive, thrumming and writhing around him.
The Slytherins who saw him carefully stepped out of his way, shying from his magic that hung heavy around him.
They had never seen him so utterly undone - and what a frightening notion that was: Severus Prince pushed past his limit.
As he walked jerkily through the common room, all eyes were on him - not that he noticed. He was like a dying man in a desert, using the last of his energy to make it to water. As soon as the wall slid shut behind him, the trance broke and Regulus stood. "Malbuz! Go get my cousin – now!"
"Heir Black?"
He ignored Yaxley and turned to the Slytherins sitting in the Common Room – all of Severus's past tormentors were there. Good. "Which of you fucking idiots did this to him?
Do you seriously not know who his patron is by this point? Do you not know he is one of his Chosen? His Left Hand?! If you come forward now, you might just have a chance to live."
Silence.
Regulus laughed, sounding on the verge of hysteria, the Black Family madness clawing its way out. He was livid that they would attack Severus - the man who would risk all that he was for his dearest cousin Narcissa. The man who had become his friend somewhere along the way.
"You really think you can get away with this?! If you still do not believe his patron to be who he is, then perhaps you will bend under the weight of the Black Family – Narcissa! You need to go after Severus, he's been bewitched in some manner."
Her gaze sharpened. The temperature in the common room plummeted, some of the constitutionally weaker Slytherins shivered. Oh, how he adored his cousin! "I will deal with these fools. Go."
She swiftly left the common room, leaving the Slytherins to Regulus. "Lord Severus Prince is a friend of the Black Family. Any harm comes to him, and the Blacks will repay that tenfold."
"He is a friend of the Yaxley Family as well. When we find which of you fucks did this… if there is anything of you left after the Blacks deal with you, there will be nothing after the Yaxleys do."
}~{
Narcissa. Had to get to Narcissa. Had to help her. Had to save her. Narcissa.
Severus could think of nothing but his friend. His love. His heart. Where was she? She was in danger. Where?
Breaking from behind the clouds, the full moon bathed the corridor in pale light and Severus knew.
Narcissa!
He broke out into a run. Thundering past portraits, ghosts, prefects, and professors alike, not even noticing them.
("Severus!") He could hear calling for him. She needed him. Needed his help. This urged him to run faster, faster, faster. ("Severus!")
Narcissa was in danger.
He blasted the main doors open, the crack of splintering wood deafening as the centuries-old doors fell from their hinges. He bolted across the grounds, heedless of the icy rain and the rolling thunder. He didn't care.
Narcissa.
Narcissa.
Narcissa.
With a hissed incantation a whip of fire and lightning fell from his wand, spitting and crackling in fury. Slamming it down into the Whomping Willow with all his strength, the tree split in half with another deafening crack. He slid into the tunnel and ran as fast as he could. Tripping and stumbling, bloodying his hands and knees as he went, heedless of his own pain.
Narcissa.
Narcissa.
He burst into the Shrieking Shack, and had he been in his right mind he would have seen the horror on Remus's face before it contorted with pain. Before the wolf began clawing its way out of his friend.
He would have heard his friend beg him to leave in between gasps of pain. He would have listened, if he were in his right mind.
But there was Narcissa. Narcissa was there, chained to the floor. She looked at him, pale and terrified – a look of such utter horror and fear had no place on her beautiful face.
Severus threw himself in front of her, getting between her and the transforming werewolf. Hands trembling, vision shaking, he tried every spell he knew to remove the chains from her delicate wrists. To get the chains away from the floor, to take the whole bloody floor with him, if necessary. But nothing, nothing worked.
"Severus," she cried. "Help, help me, please. Help me! Severus, please!"
Her broken voice was like nails through his heart. Narcissa should never sound like that. Never. He swore to protect her. He would protect her. He'd get her out of here. Even if it cost him his life, he would get her out of here.
He couldn't hear Remus begging him to leave with almost the same words: "Severus! Leave, leave now, please! Take her and go! Severus, please!"
He did, however, hear the bloodcurdling howl of a werewolf.
Looking up, a great snarling beast was before him, lit up sporadically by lightning strikes outside the shack. The same beast that had been haunting his dreams for two years now. The beast that lurked in his mind even during the day. During all the stages of the moon, regardless if it was full or not. The same that came in the night and stole his ability to breathe, to think, to move.
But Narcissa needed him.
Narcissa.
Abandoning the chains for now, Severus slammed a shield in place – the strongest he knew. He drew runes in the air with his own blood to strengthen it.
"Severus, please. Please, Severus, help me."
He returned his attention to the chains keeping his Narcissa in place. A hair-raising snarl told him to not take his whole attention away from the werewolf. The beast was pacing outside of his ward, biding its time. As if it knew the ward was a one-time thing. That he wouldn't be able to hold it up forever. That once it fell, Severus would be easy prey.
Shaking his head, Severus redoubled his efforts in trying to free Narcissa.
Nothing was working.
The ward fell.
The wolf lunged.
Narcissa screamed.
Blood splattered.
}~{
Narcissa raced down hallway after hallway, always just a moment too late to catch sight of Severus. Only ever seeing the edge of his robes as he turned a corner, or the soles of his boots as he vaulted up a staircase.
"Severus!" she screamed, chest heaving in exertion. "Severus!"
"Miss Black!" Slughorn called after her, but she couldn't stop. She didn't dare.
She didn't have the same stamina as him, nor did she have his speed. She was quickly losing him and she couldn't. She had no idea what he was bewitched with, she couldn't let him out of her sight.
"Severus!" she called, turning a corner, only to bodily run into the last people she wanted to deal with right now. The three of them went crashing to the floor in an undignified heap of limbs, knocking the air out of all of them.
"Black - what the hell?!"
"Fuck off Evans!" Narcissa gasped, trying to work air back into her lungs as she scrambled to her feet to continue her chase after Severus.
"Oi!" Potter called, trying to grab her - she slapped his hands away. "Why the hell are you running like the Grimm's on your heels?!"
"Fuck off!" she snarled.
"Miss Black!" McGonagall scolded, as she came towards them at a brisk walk, a wooden box in her hands. "Answer Mr. Potter! Why are you running through the corridors at this hour?"
Narcissa wanted to scream in frustration. "Someone has poisoned or cursed Severus, I do not have time to explain things, least of all to people who do not care if he lives or dies!"
"What?" Evans asked sharply.
"Where is he?" McGonagall demanded at the same time.
"If I knew I wouldn't be running through the corridors!" Narcissa snarled. "And now I've lost him because you Gryffindors couldn't leave well enough alone!"
"Miss Black, that is quite enough," McGonagall scolded as she drew her wand. A cat patronus slipped from her wand - "Fetch Albus, a student has been attacked and could be in mortal danger - his location is unknown." The ghostly cat gave a slow blink before rushing off.
A great boom startled the four standing there, and Narcissa knew it was Severus.
"Severus," she gasped before taking off once more, leaving the three Gryffindors to call after her. She would not be stopped, Severus needed her.
}~{
Blood. Blood. There was so much blood. How could there be so much blood?
"Narcissa!"
His voice broke.
Or was that his heart?
His soul?
His mind?
Her delicate arm hung from the beast's mouth - his heartbeat thundered in his ears, his vision swam, his breath came in short, sharp pants, and he bared his teeth at the wolf and screamed in a feral rage.
His magic reacted and with an explosive force expanding outwards, throwing the beast into the wall. Severus itched to use the darkest magic he could, the magic that would inflict the most pain – to make the beast feel as he did.
But it wouldn't be enough. How could it be?
Narcissa was dead.
There was nothing – nothing that could fix that pain.
Besides, this was Remus.
Remus?
No.
It was the beast that killed Narcissa. The one good thing in his life.
He took up an aggressive dueling stance as the wolf regained its footing and approached with a snarl. The incantations for those dark spells would not form in his mind. He could not force the magic out of him.
The green eyes of the beast stopped him.
"Incarcerous!"
Ropes tangled around the beast, making it snarl viciously. They didn't hold for long, snapping from the tension the werewolf put on them. It lunged at him - Severus slapped it to the side with a wall of magic, throwing himself in the other direction. Putting as much space as possible between him and the wolf and getting a wall behind his back.
The beast yipped as it crashed into the bed, breaking it in the process. Severus fired off more spells - nonlethal in nature, something holding him back from obliterating the wolf. It shook them all off, as if they were nothing more than rain droplets on its back.
It stood, locked eyes on him and snarled. The wolf lunged at him once more, their deadly dance continuing.
}~{
"Point me!" Narcissa snapped, stopping only long enough for her wand to swing in the direction of Severus and fall still. She went flying around the corner, only for her steps to falter upon seeing the state of the Entrance Hall. The main doors were torn asunder, splintered, and hanging precariously from the hinges. It looked like it had been barreled through by a dragon.
"Severus!" she called, running once more. She slid on the grass outside, slick with the rain that was falling. The night was lit sporadically with lightning strikes. " Severus! " she screamed, finding no sign of him.
A chain of lightning struck at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, momentarily stealing her breath at the sheer power behind the strike. It lit up the grounds, and the wrecked form of the Whomping Willow caught her eye briefly.
Shaking herself, she balanced her wand on her palm and shouted "Point me!" again, holding Severus firmly in her mind. Her wand swiveled on her hand and pointed resolutely toward Hogsmeade.
She took off running as best she could, slipping and sliding on the slick grass towards the wizarding village.
}~{
McGonagall let out a positively filthy stream of words, her Scottish accent flaring, before she turned towards James and Lily. "You two," she said. "Go down to Slytherin dorms and try to figure out what is happening."
They shared a look before looking back to their Housemistress. "Professor," Lily said, "with all due respect, that will probably only make the situation worse."
"We aren't exactly well-liked with Slytherin House," James said with a grimace - that was mostly his and his friend's fault and he knew it. "We might make things worse or put other students in danger."
McGonagall looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "Very well," she acknowledged. "Return to your dorms. I will be locking the castle down."
James and Lily shared another look. "We can help-" Lily tried, but she was cut off.
"Miss Evans, do as I ask, please. Two students in danger is enough."
James looked between her and McGonagall before visibly making a decision. "Professor," he said, his voice urgent, "it's the full moon - Remus-"
"Mister Potter," she hissed
"Lily knows," he dismissed. "We, that is, Sirius, Peter, and I, we're Animagi. We keep Remus company on the full moon so he doesn't hurt himself - point is you might need us. We know how to handle him."
If looks could kill, James would be dead ten times over, but he didn't back down. "Of all the idiotic, moronic, dangerous, foolhardy things you three boys could have done," she seethed. "I will be speaking with you all later, but right now Mr. Prince needs our help. Come."
}~{
Narcissa's wand led her to the Shrieking Shack. She could get no closer than several meters away from the building. Vicious wards stopped her. Dark wards. Blood wards. She wanted to howl in frustration - could her Point Me spell have led her astray?
She couldn't see much inside the Shack, its windows were boarded up and the storm that lashed the land further limited her sight.
An unearthly howl pierced the night, and Narcissa's blood ran cold. It was the full moon.
Spell light flashed from within the Shack and the familiar feeling of Severus's magic flooded the area.
"Severus!" she screamed - she attacked the wards with everything she had, but she knew she wouldn't be able to bring them down. She needed the blood of the caster to do that.
"Miss Black!" A voice called, but she didn't care, she had to get to Severus, she had to help him.
"Miss Black!" The caller was closer, but she did not stop the stream of dark magics she was casting at the wards.
"What are you doing?" That was the headmaster and he sounded furious.
She rounded on him. "Severus is in there with a werewolf," she snapped. "Not of his own free will. Help me dismantle these wards."
The Headmaster seemed dismayed at her words, but he raised his wand only to frown. "I did not raise these wards," he said.
She gave him a bewildered look. "Why would you raise wards around the Shack?"
He didn't answer her.
"I am unfamiliar with the nature of this ward," he murmured, but she heard him all the same.
"It is a blood ward," she said. "You need the blood of the caster to dismantle it. But it's just a ward. They can be overpowered."
"And how do you know that?" he questioned her.
"I'm a Black, Headmaster," she answered, irritated. "Now are you going to help me, or not?"
He was silent for a moment, sporadic flashes of lightning lit up the area around them as the rain thundered down.
"Very well," he said at last, raising his wand.
A scream pierced the night, a haunting scream. Spell light flashed with greater intensity from within the Shack and Narcissa redoubled her efforts to bring the ward down. Severus needed her.
}~{
"Unicornis Cornu!" Lily yelled as she barreled towards the Fat Lady portrait. It opened just barely in time for her to throw herself through the entrance.
There were very few Gryffindors up still, her dramatic and loud entrance gave her their undivided attention.
"Lily?" Sirius asked, coming up to her. "What's wrong?"
"Severus - been attacked, bewitched somehow," she gasped, trying to regain her breath. "James said - might need help with, with Moony. He told McGonagall, with her now. Sent me to gather you and Pete."
Sirius's eyes grew impossibly large. "Fuck," he swore. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. Peter! Code Black!"
The mousy boy startled awake from where he was slumped on the couch. He stared at them in confused silence until Sirius's words registered. "Code Black?!" he squeaked, jumping up. "Fuck!" He took off up the stairs.
Had it been a less serious situation, Lily would've laughed at the smallest Marauder swearing.
"You stay here," Sirius said to her.
"Like fucking hell I stay here, who do you think you are, Sirius Orion Black?!" she snapped at him.
"We're going to face a werewolf, Lily," he said, his voice pitched low so the other Gryffindors couldn't hear them. "It's not a fucking game. You aren't an Animagus, you can't come."
"He's my friend too," she hissed. "And you can't fucking stop me."
He glared at her long enough for Peter to come scurrying back down the stairs. He came to an abrupt halt next to them, picking up on the tension between them.
"If I tell you to fucking run, you had better run as if the hounds of Hades are nipping at your heels."
"Fine," she bit out. "Now let's go."
}~{
As the hours stretched, Severus regained more of his mind.
He knew werewolves were hardy creatures, but nothing he did seemed to slow his friend down for long, and he himself was fading quickly. Whatever he had been dosed with had taken a toll on more than just his mind. He felt weak, sluggish, and that was apparent in his wandwork.
He and the wolf circled each other in the cramped confines of the shack. Severus was careful to avoid looking at… at Narcissa's remains. He couldn't afford to be distracted right now-
Remus lunged again, knocking him off of his feet. His wand went clattering away and they landed with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs. The wolf snapped at him, saliva dropping on his face, his chest, and Severus could barely keep the teeth of his friend away from him.
"Remus!" he screamed, holding the maw of the beast back with shaking arms. "Remus, please! I don't want to kill you! I can't - I can't lose you too!"
The beast snapped at him, practically foaming at the mouth, aiming for his throat.
"Remus! FUCK! Remus!"
A clawed paw came up and swiped at his face, bloodying it, marking it.
"FUCK! Remus, please-please don't make me do this!"
He knew that Remus would hate himself if he found out he - he… killed Narcissa. He knew that Remus would hate himself for nearly killing Severus. Knew he would hate himself if he did kill Severus. And Severus now knew that he could not incapacitate the beast, no matter what he did. He would have to kill his friend, or lose his own life. And he knew that Remus would not survive if he killed him, be it by a Ministry official or by his own hand later on.
So, Severus would live. He would live to spare his friend that pain, regardless of the damage done to Severus himself.
What were friends for, if not this?
He would live for Remus. He would live for Narcissa. And he would bring hell on the world that pushed his two friends – his bright, precious friends – into these circumstances.
"Remus," his voice cracked. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Remus, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry… Avada Kedavra!"
Poisonous green light stole life from the werewolf. It landed heavily on Severus's chest, and he could do nothing but scream.
AH HAH pls don't kill me, I kinda deserve it tho, so like I respect anyone who wants my blood after this chapter
(I am slightly salty tho bc in the doc manager it wouldn't let me right align stuff which made the formatting less wonky and I WANTED it to be so wonky. It turned out well over on Ao3 so if you want to see what I meant for it to look like you can head over there)
We've made it to the end of this fic though! It only took a few years! I just want to say how much I appreciate all of you for sticking around despite my haphazard updating schedule, y'all are the reason I kept on writing 😊
I've been working on the sequel Furius Draconis II, getting plot points all ironed out and reworking what I already had written but no longer fits. I have ZERO clue when I'll get the first chapter of that posted, but it's coming!
Love y'all
As always, thanks to BurningRosesAmongstLilies for all of your help with everything!