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Chapter Forty-Nine-Drama
"All of the Death Eaters will be called together tonight."
Severus arched his eyebrows a little as he watched Harry leaning over an essay, studying the swirls of ink in a way that might have convinced anyone who didn't know him like Severus did. "And you will reveal the new Mark to them?"
"Among other things."
"You want them together so that you can destroy all of their Marks at once?"
"Among other things."
"You could simply tell me."
"But then it wouldn't be as dramatic."
Severus opened his mouth, and Harry leaned up and stared intently at him. "It's possible that there could be someone there who knows you well enough to tell if you're not surprised. I won't put you in danger."
Severus canted his head. "That is possible. But it's also possible that you just want to see me surprised with the rest of them."
Harry smiled, although with more than an edge of anxiety to the expression. "What happened with Dumbledore has me more on edge than I thought. Could you indulge me in this?"
Severus thought about it, and ended up nodding. Honestly, it would cost him little, and it would mean that he would indeed be surprised with the rest, in case anyone would be looking at him as a traitor.
And it would please Harry.
Perhaps that factor should not have weighed as much with him, but it was a fact that it did.
"Severus?"
Severus glanced up swiftly. Barty was standing in the doorway of his office, arms spread so that his hands could grip the sides. Severus stood and made his way over to his "compatriot," eyes ready in case he fell again.
"I would have come up, but Poppy didn't tell me you were awake."
"I woke up about five minutes ago, and she didn't want me to leave, but I had to. I—" Barty bit his lip. "Harry was there, and he said that he had communicated with the Dark Lord, and there is going to be a summoning tonight?"
Communicated with the Dark Lord. Severus swallowed his laughter. That was certainly one way to put it.
"Yes. I understand that the Dark Lord intends to reveal the new Mark. He presumably intends to get rid of all the existing Marks at once, and replace them with the new one."
"He didn't say anything to me."
"You were unconscious," Severus said dryly. "I assume that he probably thought a message through Harry would reach you faster than an owl. Harry has been spending all his time in the hospital wing with you when he was not in classes or with me."
And if it had been to watch in case Albus woke up and started spouting nonsense that people believed, that was not something Barty needed to know.
"True." Barty stared down at his boots in a way that made Severus want to pinch his nose, because he knew what was coming next. And sure enough—"I failed."
"You did not fail."
"You trusted me to hold Dumbledore under Imperius," Barty said, low, angry. "I failed."
"You did confuse him enough that he seemed obviously disturbed and said things tin front of other students and professors that did not make sense. He was affected by the Imperius, even if he managed to break it. He wasn't pretending all the time."
Barty's head came up. "Truly?"
Severus held in a sigh. When had he become Official Barty Reassurer? "Yes. The Dark Lord told Harry that he was impressed with your work."
And Severus was pretty sure that Harry would agree to go along with that lie, because he was fond of Barty. In a way. As long as Barty didn't threaten Harry's safety or Severus's. As long as he wasn't too needy.
Maybe I should speak to Harry, at that.
"Thank you, Severus."
Barty went away with a glowing face, and Severus shook his head a little. He had to think that no matter what Harry had planned with the reveal of the new Marks, it would not be enough to earn Barty's whole-hearted devotion. That belonged to the Dark Lord, and always would.
"My followerssss."
Despite everything he knew, Severus honestly thought for a moment that the Dark Lord was playing up the hissing for the sake of the Death Eaters who had not seen him since his resurrection. And then he wanted to shake his head. Harry was less than a meter away from Severus, kneeling with his own head bowed. Of course he was in control of everything the Dark Lord said and did at the moment.
Severus hoped, even more than he had with Albus, that the Dark Lord was screaming mentally at his loss of control over the lives of people around him.
"My lord," Lucius said, bowing his head until his hair brushed the grass of the meadow where Harry had once again arranged to summon them. "Have you come to spread the glorious news of your return?" He looked haggard when he raised his face, but then, the Dark Lord had used Malfoy Manor for a time when he had presumably been more in control of himself. Lucius looked as if he wanted to know whether that would happen again.
"I have a different announcement."
The Dark Lord paced back and forth, head turning back and forth as smoothly as a snake's. Nagini coiled around his feet, and Severus wondered, a bit uneasily, what Harry's plan was for dealing with her.
"The Dark Mark isss too obviousss a brand of my ownership," the Dark Lord said, and Severus made out the disgusted glances more than a few people exchanged. That indicated some hope for what Harry had planned, he thought. "I will be replacing it with a new Mark."
"Will you tell us what that Mark is, my lord?" Augustus Rookwood, a cold bastard Severus had always been wary of, asked.
"Better. I will show you. But firssst…Severusss."
Severus stood and obediently came forwards to put the potion he and Barty had worked on inventing in the Dark Lord's hands. Harry made the puppet's head bob and the lipless mouth say, "Thank you," while his left eye winked.
It was the one turned away from the majority of the Death Eaters, but Severus still had to fight the temptation to scold him for taking risks.
The Dark Lord held up the crystal flask of potion. "My mossst faithful ssservants have worked on thisss day and night," he announced. "You will owe the more dissscreet Mark I have chosssen to the work of Severusss Sssnape and Barty Crouch."
More than one person, including Lucius, shot Severus a hateful glance. As Severus stared haughtily back at them, he thought he might begin to come around on the wisdom of Harry not telling him the truth of everything that would happen tonight. He was having a hard time acting with perfect conviction at the moment, and he didn't know everything.
"You will come forwardsss and receive the potion."
The Death Eaters lined up, more or less eagerly, with the truly eager one, Barty, at their head. There was more than one murmur as the Dark Mark dissolved. Severus was in the middle of the line, and he extended his arm, meeting the Dark Lord's eyes unflinchingly.
Harry performed that stupid bloody wink again. Severus stepped back convinced he would survive this night if only to scold his ward about risks. Hadn't Harry been doing the same to Severus only a few hours ago?
"Now," the Dark Lord said, and folded his hands behind his back, his red gaze sweeping the Death Eaters with ease and grace that Severus suspected Harry was playing up as much as he had the declaration of Severus and Barty's faithfulness. "I will reveal the new Mark to you."
Half the gathering leaned forwards.
The Dark Lord opened his mouth—
And exploded.
The white flesh of his constructed body shot outwards in an expanding cloud of dust and ash and foul-smelling debris. Severus ducked and cast a shield at the same time. He was spared more than a gasp of the fumes, but others of his fellows staggered away, not reaching for their wands, crying out in shock and disgust.
And horror.
Barty was one of them.
Nagini reared up, hissing, and Severus started to aim his wand at her. But at the same moment, she burst apart, body breaking up into small writhing gobbets that bled a black, blood-like liquid. There was a long, tattered scream that seemed to dissolve into nothingness. Severus watched the way that her body bubbled in numb shock, and he was fairly sure that Harry had, in fact, brought a vial of the basilisk venom with him to destroy her. He had been in and out of Severus's lab all afternoon.
There was another sharp wail, and then the Dark Lord's tattered wraith broke apart and followed the dissipating mist of Potions ingredients.
There was a long moment of silence.
"Fuck this," someone towards the back of the crowd blurted, and then Apparated out.
As the night filled with the sound of swift pops, Barty turned around in what seemed to be slow motion. He was staring towards Harry in a way that made Severus step forwards to shield his student.
No. Wait. He was staring at Severus.
"You did something with that potion," he whispered, and a second later, he was shouting, aiming his wand. "Snape is the one who destroyed the Dark Lord!"
Only two people looked as if they might step forwards to join their wands with Barty's, but that was two too many. Severus raised another shield, one that was layered so thickly in shimmering layers of light that they couldn't see behind it, and then he grabbed Harry and Apparated himself.