Chapter Twenty-Three

In the Wolf's Mouth

Jane walked with her head down and her wrists fixed behind her back, trying to keep up with Severus' thrusting stride as he pushed her forward with his body. Even though he had practically cured her tremors, she was still shuddering, this time on an entirely mental ground – she was afraid.

"How could I come up with this plan?!" was the thought she had to lock into the dark recesses of her mind periodically. The stone mansion they were in further oppressed her because it was the very same place where she had been held captive.

Outside of her stage fright, things happened according to the plan. Severus was walking briskly, not matching his pace with her, and Professor Dumbledore was walking at their left, almost breathing down their necks. Two guards accompanied them at a step in front and behind them respectively.

'You will be putting yourself at great risk,' the headmaster had said when he learned of her plan. 'Both you and Severus. Also, I wouldn't be able to use him as an agent anymore.'

'I doubt you'll be able to use his services after today, anyway,' Jane countered. From his office, one could see the fires that the Death Eaters were lighting across the park.

'I can't help but admit you are a bit right,' the professor relied and fell silent.

So it was decided.

And now they were on the verge of realizing her idea, and she was so shaken by it. When they passed one of the tall windows, she would involuntarily look that way, thinking that perhaps none of them would ever see the world behind them again. She had been preparing mentally for this meeting for so long, she had run and hidden so much, but with each subsequent step, the distance between her and her fate was shrinking at dizzying speed.

The corridors ran one after the other, furnished with the obligatory iron armour and torches placed respectively in the niches and on the protruding parts of the walls at regular intervals. The mansion was dark, just like last time, despite the presence of light.

The turns followed one another. After another turn to the right, the front guard, instead of forward, took a step to the left. They found themselves in front of a large wooden door rimmed with wrought iron.

As the two guards stood before the door, Snape cautiously opened it. When they were already hidden behind its broad rough surface, he slipped into the inside pocket of Jane's robes Nott's wand, which she had lifted somewhere in this manor.

The room seemed even darker than the corridor outside. As planned, there was no one inside but the source of her greatest fear, Lord Voldemort himself. He had his back to them and was looking out the window. After about ten seconds he slowly turned to face them and looked almost indifferently at Severus.

'Master, I have brought you the renegade Undead,' he bowed and unintentionally brushed her shoulder.

'You wretch!' she shouted as agreed. 'And I trusted you!'

She felt her wrists suddenly relaxing but continued to hold them behind her back. Before she could finish her lines, she saw a small light hitting an invisible shield around Voldemort. A second light flashed and the headmaster appeared, quite visible, a step to their right.

'Severus, you disappoint me,' the Lord said in a seemingly indifferent voice. 'And I don't like being disappointed.'

Snape slowly pushed Jane away from him so that he could cover her with his body at least a little.

'How did you know, master?' Snape asked as if it was the most important thing in the world. With her peripheral vision, Jane saw Professor Dumbledore turning invisible again. Severus was trying to buy him time.

'How did I know?' Voldemort fumed. 'Not from one of your priceless Legilimentic heads. No, Severus, your body language gave you away.'

Jane remembered with horror how Severus had touched her earlier. Neither of them paid attention to this gesture because they were already used to each other. She could have glossed over the situation by trying to pull away and glare at him, but Voldemort was unlikely to buy into such a one-sided simulation.

A third light crashed into Voldemort's shield. This time he didn't even bother to reveal the invisible professor, he just laughed maniacally. Dumbledore's well-mannered white magic had no chance of getting through his shield. Someone had to act dirty. Either her or Severus.

She reached for her wand and took careful aim.

'Avada Kedavra!' she shouted, but the spell didn't have enough power to do more than brush where his nose was supposed to be.

The Dark Lord emitted a throaty laugh.

'Little girl, didn't they teach you how to cast these spells at school? Of course not. With a principal like this. Bella has always said that when you apply an Unforgivable Curse, you must really want it. Let me show you.'

'Avada Kedavra!' Voldemort roared and green light shot from his wand towards Severus.

Jane had about a second to react. She couldn't push him out of the green beam's way – she wasn't heavy enough. There was only one option. She threw herself in front of him and immediately fell, struck down by the curse.

'Noooo!' Severus shouted as the last Muggle as if there wasn't a more adequate reaction for him. His beloved was dead, and he just stood as if petrified in his place, without trying to do anything.

'Avada Kedavra!' he roared after a moment, but Voldemort just took a step to the right and dodged the curse which smashed into the wall.

A fierce duel ensued, with Severus and Professor Dumbledore on one side and the hateful Voldemort on the other.

'Incacerus!'

'Crucio!'

'Avada Kedavra!'

The spells hit the floor, walls, and furniture that crashed in splinters, but none was accurate enough to hit his opponent. Severus had tears streaming from his eyes, but he ignored them and continued duelling.

The commotion made Jane stir uneasily and open her eyes. At first, she couldn't figure out where she was and why she was lying on the ground. Then she remembered – they had botched the plan, Voldemort had tried to kill Severus and she had stood between him and the curse. But why was she still alive? And why was there something wet on her face?

She ran her index finger slowly under her nose and stared at the blood on it. It suddenly dawned on her – the ancestral curse had collided with the unforgivable curse and prevented it from completing its action, giving her a small reprieve. On this reprieve, she depended to save the lives of her two companions and to carry out her personal revenge.

She propped herself carefully on her elbow and surveyed the duelists. No one paid her an iota of attention, thinking quite rightly that she was no longer among the living. Jane crawled up on her elbows and bottom toward the wall and leaned against it. She closed her eyes to remember all the harm Voldemort had caused her, all her loved ones who had died at his hand. As the hatred coursed through her body, she took careful aim, waited for him to deflect a spell, and called out in a voice that seemed to come from beyond the grave, 'Avada Kedavra!'

Then she lost consciousness.

'Professor Dumbledore, she's alive!' Severus shouted, rushing towards her.

The headmaster, now fully visible, knelt over Voldemort and looked him over.

'And he's quite dead,' Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully and walked over to Jane and Snape.

'Let me see,' Dumbledore felt her pulse, then conjured and held to her mouth a mirror, which began to cloud. 'She's alive, but covered in blood,' he summed up the obvious – red streams oozed from her nose, mouth, and ears. They tried to get her up and saw that there was also a sticky red spot where she had been sitting.

On top of all, there was banging on the door, 'Open, for the master's sake!'

'What are we going to do?' Snape asked.

'You take Jane and jump out the window. Take her straight to St. Mungo's and tell them about the potions that affect her. I'll be waiting for you in half an hour outside the Hogwarts' Front Door. Then we will strike.'

Severus just nodded and took Jane in his arms like he did that first day, right before the school year started. The headmaster gave him his wand in his right hand and broke the window with a spell. At the musical accompaniment of thousands of pieces of falling glass, Severus reached the window and cast the light-falling spell. Then he jumped and landed softly on the meadow. He ran across the yard, poked a hole in the enchanted fence with the wand he still held under Jane's feet, and as soon as he was out of the manor perimeter, apparated.

He feverishly stepped over the window that led into St. Mungo's. When she saw so much blood, the attendant immediately called the emergency team, who got Jane out of his hands with all their strength. He went after them, telling them what potions he used to stop her bleeding. Finally, he forced himself to say what spell had struck her, 'It was Avada Kedavra.'

'It can't be!', the assistant healer started. 'It must have been the work of a not-so-skilled wizard.'

'The Dark Lord did it,' Snape replied, causing everyone on the emergency team to flinch. 'Use strengthening potion to stop the blood,' he added as he saw them wondering what to do. 'And take her to the manipulation room faster. I've been treating her since the beginning of the school year, so you better listen to me.'

The healers regained their composure and continued to guide her body, raised a metre above the ground, to the emergency room. When they got there, they tried to slam the door in front of him, but he insisted, 'I want to help, I'm acquainted with potions.'

'Fine,' the head healer agreed. 'Take whatever potions you think you need from the cabinet.'

He walked over to the furniture in question and began selecting vials – first the strengthening potion, then the blood-stopping one, just in case, and finally the anti-tremor potion and the "life-giving" potion. He placed the vials on the table next to the large cot on which Jane lay and ordered, 'Give her two doses of the strengthening potion first, then one dose of the anti-tremor, and finally the "life-giving". Give them to her every half hour for three hours. Then switch to "life-giving" only. If the bleeding doesn't stop, give her the blood-stopping one.'

The healers looked at him in confusion, then turned to their chief for confirmation.

'Do as he says,' she nodded. 'This is her best chance.'

'I'll come to see her as soon as I can,' he promised and started for the door.

'Wait, how do we find you if we need you?'

'I'll be somewhere around Hogwarts Castle. Address the owls to Professor Snape.'

And he closed the door behind him.

The battle went as expected – without any particular difficulties. The Death Eaters were so disorganized and frightened by their master's absence that they behaved more like frightened cattle than an army. Although Bella Lestrange took command, many men were unwilling to listen to her and were accordingly captured and sent to Azkaban.

It wasn't a challenge for Snape, he was much more worried about Jane's fate. As soon as they turned the Death Eaters to flight, he asked the headmaster to excommunicate himself and immediately apparated at the hospital.

Jane's condition had stabilized, but she hadn't yet regained consciousness. They had already stopped the strengthening potion and the anti-tremor potion, as well as the blood transfusion, and were only keeping her on the "life-giving" potion. He stayed there for the night and was woken up in the morning by her cousin Alison who had come right after the last Death Eater was captured.

'How are you, Alison?' Snape asked as he rose from the armchair he had been sleeping in.

'It's not my health I'm here to talk about,' she snapped. 'What happened to my cousin?'

'The Dark Lord hit her with the Avada Kedavra curse,' he answered.

Alison shivered.

'And she's still alive?'

Severus nodded.

'They support her with potions. I hope they're enough to wake her, but I'm unlikely to be right. I think something more will be needed, something that escapes me now. Say, Alison, do you have any special magical abilities? Apart from Legilimency.'

'How did you know?'

'Just a lucky guess. Will you deny it?'

'No.'

'Does everyone in the family have it?'

'As far as I know.'

'Jane was talking about some family curses, do you know anything about that?'

'Those stories where we don't have any men in the family? I've heard them from my mother and aunts, too,' she snapped, not particularly pleased with the interrogation.

'Do you know anything more?' Snape persisted.

'No. Jane was more interested in the family history than me.'

'Have you personally had things happen to you that don't happen to ordinary witches and wizards?'

Alison thought about it, but after a moment answered, 'The spells I cast sometimes go wrong. Especially the speechless ones. I've always put it down to absent-mindedness on my part, but maybe it's not just that.' She paused. 'Sometimes, on very rare occasions, they turn back at me.'

'Do you know the reason for all of this?'

'I'm sorry, no.'

'I'll have to ask your aunt the same things. Warn her, if you must. We need to find out the roots in order to know how to treat Jane.'

Snape was thoughtful. He had expected Alison to know more than Jane, but the battle was not yet lost.

After another half day of standing around Jane's bed, Severus decided he was hardly of any use here and convinced Alison to take him to their aunt. The old woman greeted him with a hug, obviously informed by the headmaster and Alison what he had done for her niece. She hurried to seat him in front of the fire, as it was foggy outside, and served tea with biscuits. Severus barely forced himself to eat one because he remembered that Jane had made some for him at the beginning of the school year.

Since they had been silent for too long, Alison called out, 'Aunt Charlotte, Professor Snape wants to ask you about the family history and some particulars regarding Jane's condition.'

'I think that's the key to her recovery,' he added. 'So please tell me everything you know about the family.'

'You won't find most things interesting,' Aunt Charlotte hesitated. 'But I'll tell you anyway. Our lineage was started by a witch named Amanda Undead six generations before me. She had a husband and two daughters, but her husband died – he drowned in the river. An accident. It isn't known what happened to one daughter, but the other was my great-great-great-grandmother. From there follows a long story in which many baby girls were born with the Undead surname. A large part of them survived, but few produced offspring. Nevertheless, something always happened to their men – whether it was dragon pox or some unfortunate accident, the Undead women were left without a husband very early. So if you're looking for something in our genealogy to help you, look for it in the female line. Men are irrelevant in this case. I don't know my father, and neither does Susan. We weren't even sure he was the same. My mother kept quiet about it. I'm afraid that's all I can offer you.'

'My father died on an expedition,' Alison said in support of her aunt's words.

'And where did your ancestors live?' he asked.

'Oh, everywhere,' the aunt answered. 'We lived with my mother in Darbyshire and my grandmother – in Sussex. It seems that each new generation, in its desire to separate itself from the previous one, went to live in another county.'

Severus also questioned her about her special abilities, but he didn't glean more than Jane had told him. He stayed another half hour out of politeness and left for London, saying he was going to the London Library.