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UnBroken	By : OddDoll Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 6172 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 34
- 35
- 36
Unbroken
By Odd Doll
Chapter 35
Minerva McGonagall lived in a small house set in the center of a trim garden. Neat rows of roses set along a low stone wall surrounded a thriving vegetable garden. A stone path wound around it from the back gate to a wooden porch. They avoided the front in case the house was watched.
"We don't even know if she's home," Phoebe whispered as she followed Severus up the path.
"It's better if she isn't expecting us."
"Why?"
He didn't answer, but rapped on the back door three times.
Minvera McGonagall answered within a minute. A spare, elderly woman, she still possessed a sharp gaze that expressed a strength of character.
"Severus! What in the world? We thought you were dead."
"May we come in?" he asked.
Her expression turned sour. "If you must. I will have words with you, Severus Snape."
He knew it had been inevitable that McGonagall would have questions, but he still didn't like it. Phoebe grabbed his shoulder. He turned to see her pointed expression but wouldn't explain. She would find out soon enough.
The door opened into a simple parlor, feminine without being frilly, and well lit. He had been here several times before, but since his captivity, everything familiar looked new.
"Minerva, this is Phoebe Baher, a witch from America who has been helping me."
"How do you do?" Phoebe said, holding out her hand. McGonagall shook it firmly.
They took seats and McGonagall, adhering to good manners despite her obvious discomfort with their presence, offered tea and coffee. Phoebe accepted for them, saving him the trouble. While McGonagall went to prepare the tea, Phoebe, always quick and sharp, leaned toward him and whispered, "She didn't seem overjoyed to see you alive and well."
"McGonagall is a straightforward woman. I think we'll understand soon enough." After a second he added, "It would be best if I did the talking."
"It's your story."
They sat quietly until McGonagall returned bearing a tray. After she had poured, McGonagall launched the conversation. "Where the hell have you been?"
"I was held prisoner for fourteen months."
"By the Dark Lord?"
"A Muggle. I lost my wand fighting Malfoy, and his man was able to overpower me."
McGonagall's mouth opened, closed, and she blinked. "Did this have anything to do with the war?"
"No. Merely poor timing."
"Fourteen months?"
"Yes. From February of last year until this past April, when Phoebe found me. I've been recovering since then."
"Hogwarts fell in November of '96. That leaves three months unaccounted for where no one could reach you."
"I was searching for Dumbledore."
"Did you find him?"
"I was close, but the kidnapping interfered."
McGonagall set down her cup on the pristine table at her side and leaned back in her chair. "I no longer trust you, Severus."
"I imagine you've put two and two together, but tell me what you are thinking." He saw Phoebe's head turn rapidly from McGonagall to himself and back. He held out a hand to stop her from saying anything.
"We all were so grateful to you Severus, you saved us all, that it was weeks before anyone started to really think about what happened. You were so prepared. You had a plan, as if you knew what would happen and when. We all knew you were exceedingly clever, so we just chalked it up to prescient thinking. But then I started to remember."
He could almost feel Phoebe's muscles tense, see her attention riveted on McGonagall. In an instant he saw whatever ground he had gained with her crumble beneath him. Not just the sex, but the intimacy and the trust would soon be gone. "Say what you have to say, Minerva."
"Those wards were not just keyed to Dumbledore, but as his second, they were partially keyed to me, too. I felt the attacks and only later realized that one by one, You-Know-Who hit every single weak spot. All of them. It was no coincidence, Severus. Someone who knew those wards intimately had to have told him. That person could only have been you."
He looked at Phoebe and for a few minutes forgot everything else. Her face, even her lips, had paled. "Severus, is it true?"
He watched her sadly. "Yes."
She rose, limbs jerking as if her body couldn't quite work, and took out her wand with a shaking hand. Tears formed on her lower lashes.
"Phoebe..." he said, but she Disapparated without a word.
*****
Snape returned to the cold, silent cottage an hour later. The car still waited outside, but he checked her belongings first thing. Everything still remained. Wherever Phoebe was, she would come back. Whether she would stay remained to be seen. He settled into his chair by the fire and did nothing but stare at the cold ashes and think. He knew he had been a bad person, had been hateful and made horrible choices, but it also seemed to him that since the day he'd been born he had never had a break. The very few bright spots in his life never lasted long. He thought of Phoebe lying naked beside him, soft and warm, legs tangled with his. He hadn't even had her long enough to experience all she had to give him, all he wanted to do with her. He wanted to show her Hogwarts and the beauty of the Highlands. He never would. Resignation replaced the bitterness and anger he once would have felt.
Noon came, but he had no appetite. After another half hour, he went looking for her. After looking in the hollow he soon found her seated at the cliff overlooking the beach. Good. Perhaps she wanted to talk.
Her shoulders rounded, her head lowered, she said nothing when he sat beside her. Their silence dragged on. Below them, birds raced against the surf, chattering. At last he had to speak.
"The Dark Lord never trusted me. I never knew when he would use his Legilimency on me. He tested me over and over again, almost every time I saw him." She didn't move, but he sensed she listened. "I lied to him successfully for over a year. Then he finally broke me."
She looked up then, her expression cautious. "He stole the wards?"
"No. I gave them to him."
Her anger exploded. "Why, Severus? Why? How could you do that?"
"Because I had even bigger secrets to hide. Hogwarts would fall sooner or later. I was always certain of that, even though I couldn't convince anyone else. By giving him that, I could control when and how, and make sure everyone got out safely."
"So you got to be the hero," she said derisively.
"I never expected that. I didn't even expect to get away with it. That's one of the reasons why I went off in search of Dumbledore and didn't come back."
"So Dumbledore is alive?"
"Yes, I believe so."
She sighed and said softly, "I almost abandoned you, you know. Shoved you into a nursing home and walked away. I've sacrificed my whole life for you. I'm not a nice person, really, but you were the Hero of Hogwarts."
"You are a nice person. You are good at heart, despite the things you do."
"I'm not." She shook her head and closed her eyes briefly. "The things I've done. I married mostly for money. I flirted outrageously with his nasty old father, hoping to charm him into investing in my sex resort dream." She snorted. "It worked so well, he left me a fortune when he died. I'm a dominatrix, Severus. I've done horrible things to make my place in the world. No, I'm not a nice person."
"You're not bad, Phoebe. Just broken. I think you broke a long time ago, long before I came along. We're broken, Phoebe. Both of us."
Her shoulders hunched over again, and she stared at the hands clasped in her lap. Severus wanted desperately to feel her warmth, to hold her in his arms to comfort himself as much as her. "Phoebe," he whispered and tentatively reached up to run his fingertips through her hair, but she leaned away and he lowered his hand uselessly to his side.
"Severus, tell me something, anything, that makes what I sacrificed worth it."
It was time, he thought. He took a deep breath.
"Harry Potter is alive, and I'm the only person in the world who can find him."
End of Part III
- 34
- 35
- 36
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UnBroken