Daunted Death

This one is longer, and I only have one more prewritten after this, so it mih be a while.
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As always when Snape returned a green-eyed, messy-haired boy sat on his couch in front of the fire, waiting for him. He looked over at his teacher, too terrified to ask if she was all right. The bottom dropped out of his stomach when Snape said nothing, only walked over to the fire in front of Harry and rested his forearms above it on the wall and stared silently into the flames.

“Harry,” he whispered, then paused, “I'm going to break her out.” He turned. “But I am the only spy. So many lives depend on what I do and the information I get for Dumbledore, primarily your life. If I am not there it will be that much more difficult to defeat him. You could die because of this. He could win. It's up to you.”

“If I have my mother I have to protect her. I'll have so much more to fight for,” Harry answered at once, “If you think you can get her out, do it, as soon as possible. It'll save you as well as her.”

“This war is not about the few but the many.... I do not deserve to be saved.”

Harry shook his head, “Saving Mom is not going to kill a ton of people; it's just going to make them harder to save. Their lives are not your responsibility.”

Snape looked at him for a minute, then finally said, “I need the spells that keep her in.”

In a flash, Harry pulled out a list of spells from his pocket he wrote the day he had the vision and handed it to his teacher. Snape didn't look surprised at all. He took it, walked over to his desk, Harry at his heels, and sat down with the look Hermione got before she came to a revolution no one else understood. He stared at the paper for a full fifteen minutes before he spoke.

“I know of all but one, but have performed few. It—it may take some time.”

Harry nodded, biting back his need to ask just how much time.

~

Madam Pince had never seen a professor spend so much time in the library as Snape was, digging through the Restricted section. He checked out seven books at a time, brought them back a few hours later, and checked out more to be returned at dawn when he needed more. Everyday, even the days Harry didn't have potions, he checked in on Snape. He timed it so Snape's room was empty and not many people were in the halls. A couple times he had to resort to his Maunders map and Invisibility cloak, but he always managed to knock on Snape's door.

“Who is it?” Snape asked in a bored voice.

Harry knocked again without answering. There was a pause then the door creaked open a couple inches. Harry slipped in. Snape glanced up to make sure it was Harry and looked back down at his paper.

“I have yet to perform three of the enchantments, one of which is designed to cause crippling pain to those who enter. They are not blocking spells. He wants to punish and capture anyone who tries to get through without him. Some of them are specifically intended for me. One I still cannot find any information on.”

“What can I do to help?” Harry asked in frustration, “There has to be something, some way to find that spell!”

“There is!” Snape snapped, glaring up at him from his desk, “Of course there is. You cannot honestly think I am not trying. I have to do this while keeping up with classes, being a Death Eater, and keeping Dumbledore from noticing anything... and taking care of her.”

Snape put his face in his hands and took a deep breath.

“It's got to be somewhere,” he mumbled.

Harry sat down in the chair in front of Snape's desk, the only time he had ever done this willingly.

“Let me tell Ron and Hermione,” he told Snape.

“No,” the man said immediately, “No one can know.”

“Ron and Hermione have known everything from the beginning,” Harry argued, “They would never tell. They would do anything to help. Hermione has never not found an answer. I can't do this without them.”

“Granger is logical. She will understand the idiocy of blowing my cover to save one person.”

“Yes, she will, and she would mention it several times, but she would never stop us. She can't resist not knowing something. She can't resist helping.”

“Weasley cannot hold his tongue or his temper.”

Harry stood and slammed his first on the desk, yelling, “Ron is my best friend. He would die for me, like I would for him. I get that you don't have people like that and that you rely on yourself, but I have friends, friends that stand behind me no matter what, friends that my life depends on.”

Harry expected Snape to yell or even curse him, but instead he folded his fingers against his face and closed his eyes.

“I have lost her before,” Snape whispered, “I can't loose her again, not because I trusted people, not because I made another mistake.”

Leaning forward, Harry urged him, “Then let them help get her back.”

A long silence engulfed them

~

Harry walked up the Gyffindor common room to see Ron and Hermione quietly whispering on the floor in front of the fire. They looked over when the portrait whole opened, and watched him approach.

He knelt down to their level and whispered, “We need to talk. Privately.”

They exchanged frowns and stood to follow him out of the common room, down the stairs, and out on the grounds. They headed for the edge of the lake. Harry stopped, his toes an inch from the water.

“What's going on, Harry?” Hermione asked gently.

Without looking at them, he answered, “My mother is alive.”

They threw each other alarmed looks and glanced back at Harry.

“And Snape is in love with her.” Harry turned towards them. “We're breaking her out, and we need your help.”

~

After a long, detailed recount of the story from breaking into Snape's memory during Occlumency to just ten minute ago when he was arguing with him, excluding Snape's rape, Hermione sighed and said, “Okay, we'll have to go get your cloak.”

“What?” asked Harry.

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, “How would it look if I was going to Snape's office now?”

“What do you have to go to Snape's office?” Ron asked.

“To help him with the spell! You two are thick!”

She turned and stocked off. Harry exchanged a look with Ron, and they hurried after her.

~

Harry walked down the dungeon corridor with a square piece of parchment, seemingly alone. When he came to Snape's door, he knocked.

“Yes?” came Snape's voice through the door.

Harry knocked again, waited a moment, and entered. He stood back for Ron and Hermione and shut the door. They dropped the cloak. Snape watched them briefly with a neutral expression then turned back to their papers.

“Professor,” said Hermione bravely, sitting in one of the chairs in front of his deck, “What is the spell that you can't find?”

“It's advanced Dark Magic. I doubt even you would know what it is,” he told her without looking up.

“Please, Professor.”

“The incantation is Nexforis. That is all we know. No name, no movement, nothing.”

He could keep the bitter tone from his voice. Hermione seemed to go into a deep revier for several minutes of Harry and Ron standing awkwardly to the side and Snape scratching his quill.

Suddenly Hermione asked him, “Do you a quill and paper I can borrow?”

“Why?” he asked suspiciously, finally looking up at her.

“I assume Hogwarts would not have a book with that in it.”

“No.”

“So, I'm going to write Victor.”

Ron scowled. Snape clearly didn't understand, so Harry clarified, “Victor Krum from Durmstramg.”

Snape sat up straighter and told her, “You can't have him looking for it.”

“No, but he did just graduate, and he is the famous Seeker. If I asked him to get me access to their library for an advanced DADA project, and that I was bringing a teacher to supervise me, he could do it. And I could specify on a Hogsmead weekend so Dumbledore won't know we're gone.”

The second she was done speaking, Snape was riffling through his drawers to find her a quill and a roll of parchment. As soon as they were in her hands, she began writing.

“Snape, where is she going to go once she's out?” asked Harry, “If she still has to be kept from Dumbledore she can't go to the Order, and I don't think your house would exactly be safe.”

“She can stay with my family,” piped Ron at once, “My parents say Harry is family, so I imagine his family is welcome. My parents can't resist someone who needs their help.”

“But would they keep it from Dumbledore?” asked Snape quietly.

“Yes,” said Harry, “They wouldn't like it, but if that's what it took to protect her, they would keep the secret.”

~

After leaving the dungeons that day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went straight to the owlry to send off the letter to Victor Krum. Harry didn't know what he was going to do. Once a week, that's all he'd get to hear. He could hardly handle every other day.

Severus Snape had amazing self-control, but for the life of him he could not stop thinking about the woman in the basement. She was unprotected. Death Eaters could get at her at any moment to do whatever they wanted to her, and he would not know for a week, four days left this week. Worse yet, the next Hogsmead weekend wasn't until the last weekend before Christmas break, a month away.

He dropped his quill and placed his head in his hands. He was going to go crazy. He started assigning more homework just so he would have something to do, but essays could only occupy him for so long. He needed to breathe.

Making up his mind, he stood and left the dungeons, left the castle, and marched across the grounds to a little wooden hut with smoke rising from the chimney. He crunched over the snow. It was very dim on the grounds for four o'clock in the afternoon. He looked up into the gray clouds blanketing the sky. It had been a long time since he did that. With one last deep breath, he approached the door to the cabin and knocked.

A few seconds later Hagrid opened the door, surprise all over his face.

“Professor,” he said, “What cha' doin' out here?”

“Would you tell me which parts of the forest contain flux weed, inkcap mushrooms, and spliant crickets?” Snape asked politely.

“Well,” Hagrid said slowly, “Those mushrooms are 'bout twenty yards into the trees all the way 'round. The flux weed is only under the trees by the lake over there, but those crickets-- they're all the way in; they show up when you can' see the sky no more, in the pitch black. Would you like me ta go with ya as a guide? They aren' no paths that go in that far.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I will go alone. Thank you for your information,” Snape said curtly.

He turned away from Hagrid's bewildered face and made his way over to the lake trees. He spent several hours outside among the trees, pulling up weeds and cutting mushrooms in a very specific way for potions and some for a very select potion. The next morning he went back out in search of the crickets. It took his mind off Lily for whole minutes at a time, being alert for whatever creatures might be lurking in the trees, more specifically a small giant. The day after he went back to the forest, walking in deeper than ever, almost daring the giant and centaurs to confront him. It was the thrill and rush he needed to keep his sanity.

He awoke on the day he could see Lily as if he had never gone to bed. He was jumpy and distracted all day. He tried to be attentive, tried to be as normal as he could get, but for some reason he couldn't muster up the anger to yell at Potter when he started off throwing things into his cauldron without seeing anything. The boy's eyes were empty and zoning. Snape got up to make rounds of the classroom. As he passed by Potter, Snape flicked his fingers in the boy's face. Harry blinked several times and looked down at his cauldron. Snape wasn't sure how much more he could take.

By the time the sun set, the Potions' Master was dressed in his thick cloak, pockets full of what he was bringing her, ready for his Dark Mark to burn. He had a book in his hands, doing his best to distract himself. At nearly midnight his arm finally burned. He closed his eyes and took a breath to steady his consciousness and body, then he stood and made his way out of castle grounds.

~

A tingle passed over him as he passed through the wards of the Riddle house. He calmly walked into the kitchen where the Dark Lord stood waiting for him outside the door to the basement.

“My Lord,” Snape said softly, getting down on one knee in front of his master.

“Severus,” the other man greeted, turned, and waved his wand across the door. It opened, and he proceeded down the steps to the second door. More wand waving and silent spells, and that door opened too. The Dark Lord stood aside for Severus to enter into the dark room beyond.

Snape practically ran in, his heart beating fiercely in his chest. He lit his wand and held it out as he moved in the direction she should have been sitting in.

And there she was, bone thin, oily haired, dark eyed, and waiting for him. He got down on his knees in front of her. She blinked a few times, letting her brain catch up and eyes adjust. At last she recognized him. She reached out and latched her arms around his neck. He hugged her tightly to him, resting his chin in her hair.

“I brought you water and food,” he told her softly.

She drew away and said hoarsely, “Please.”

He sat back on his heels and put his hand in one of his pockets, drawing out miniature versions of two gallon flasks. He set them down beside the two of them, poked at them with his wand, and they grew to normal size. He conjured a cup and filled it with water. She took it from him with both hands as he held it out to her and drained it. He refilled it with a tap of his wand and handed it back to her. As she worked on her second glass he began removing the food he brought: a soup bowl charmed to refill three times (the most it could be charmed to do, just like the water jugs), wheat bread, butter crackers, a large baggie charmed to keep the bacon inside it warm for two days, cookies, cereal bars, and granola bars.

Lily's eyes roved over all the food as it unfolded out in front of her. She didn't know where to start. Severus picked up the bacon and set a single piece in her hand. Her eyes flicked up to his face and back down at the meat. She took the first bite then pushed it all in her mouth. Severus produced another piece and put the rest of it away.

“Don't eat too much at once,” he told her, “You will get sick, especially with this meat. You have to spread it out to last you a week. Can you do that? Lily, I need you to promise.”

After gazing at him a moment she nodded and whispered, “Promise.”

He set his hand on her scarred wrist and gently squeezed it.

“Can we walk?” asked Lily timidly, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

“Of course,” he answered, rising to his feet at once.

He placed his hand under her arms and pulled her up. He gave her a minute to get steady before letting go, only moving his hands centimeters away. She looked down at herself in the dull light, and a smile pulled at her chapped lips. She was standing by herself! Lily raised her hand and wrapped her fingers around his forearms. He looked down at her legs. She was going to take a step, and he was ready. As soon as she began to draw her shaky right foot up, her left leg caved. Her grabbed under her arm and wrapped his other arm around her waist. She fist-ed his shirt and set her forehead to his collarbone.

“I will walk,” she mumbled against his shirt.

The corner of his lips twitched. That was the Lily he knew.

Softly he whispered, “Yes, you will.”

“That is disgusting.”

Voldemort stood a meter away, a sneer on his face. Snape pulled Lily flush against his chest , hiding her face in the front of his shoulder, keeping his wand in one hand.

Voldemort spat, “You should be ashamed of your behavior. A Death Eater, my servant, grovelling on his knees before a mudblood, jumping at every beck-and-call of a common muggle. You have no shame, no dignity. If you were not the spy I would have killed you years ago along with her and her traitorous husband.”

Voldemort spat on the floor at their feet. Snape's gaze was straight at the wall in front him.

“What would you have me do, My Lord?” asked Snape in a steady voice.

Voldemort said nothing. He turned away with a dirty look and a swish of his cloak. Snape carefully scooped Lily's knees out from under her and sat her down in the corner.

“Remember,” he whispered urgently, “Don't eat or drink everything at once. You'll get sick, and you won't have anything to eat. I'll be back, I promise.”

Snape kissed her forehead without thinking, stood, and turned to walk towards his master. Mere feet away, Snape saw it coming. Voldemort's arm came around with his wand. No spell was uttered, no sound was made, but Snape knew. He sidestepped and lunged to place his body between Voldemort and the woman behind him. The blinding yellow light that issued from Voldemort's wand hit Snape's outstretched arm. He fell to the stone floor, twitching. At first he thought the screaming was his own, but then he realized it was too high to be his. He fought against the spell to turn his head and see her. She was reaching for him, but her body would not allow her to run to him. He watched her try to crawl to him, but a furious red light slashed the stone in front of her, keeping her at bay.

After what seemed like an hour but was no where near it, the spell lifted. Immediately Snape rolled up onto his knees and stood, one hand held out to his master, in a silent beg for him to stop, the other hand held loosely out to Lily, trying to convey to her to stop and not move.

“Pathetic,” Voldemort hissed and turned to leave.

Severus looked over to her. He wanted to help her, hold her, tell her everything was okay. Instead, he placed his fingers to his lips and followed Lord Voldemort out.