In Need

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A/N - Warning - this chapter contains some violence and some gore. If that will bother you, please skip this chapter.

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Harry Potter lay next to Ginny Weasley on a huge old overstuffed sofa in the library of Black Manor. The only other person who might have gone in there was Hermione, but she dislireadreading or working in there, finding the tiny dust imps that lived in the drapes and among the books on the shelves to be too distracting. The imps lived on the dust that collected in spaces where they could easily hide, and - being imps - they loved to tease and make mischief.


Whenever she needed a fresh supply of books, Hermione went quickly through the shelves and gathered her selections, batting away the little imps that popped out from behind the books and pulled at her hair and clothes. Once, one had actually crawled into her shirt through her collar, and she’d had a devil of a time getting the little pest out - it was so fast that she couldn’t catch it, and she wasn’t about to use her wand to stun it and take the chance of accidentally hitting herself. Since no one was living at the manor full time anymore, cleaning out the occasional infestations was now done on a triage basis - they only went after the pests that were harm hav having no time to chase after all of the others. Dust imps, while extremely annoying, were harmless.


Ginny had gone into the top bedrooms that weren’t used anymore, and had collected quite an impressive ball of dust from under the beds. Harry grinned as they looked both ways, saw no one, and ducked into the library, closing the door behind them. The imps immediately began peeking their heads up from behind the rows of books and from inside the drapes, already starting to jabber squeakily at one another.


“Here you go, you nasty little monkeys,” Ginny said, and tossed the huge dust bunny across the room.


The imps’ little eyes lit up in surprise, and they immediately forgot about pestering Harry and Ginny. A whole troop of them swarmed down and greedily ripped off mouthfuls, munching the fluffy shreds of dust down like clouds of spun sugar. Soon they were lying around on the floor in clusters, rubbing their full little tummies, and some sleepily closed their eyes and began to snore through tiny wide-open mouths.


Now, as they lay next to each other, Harry and Ginny grinned at each other shyly. Neither of them was very experienced at what one ought to do with a boyfriend or girlfriend, but they were having fun figuring it out. Harry leaned in to kiss her and wrapped his arms around her. She had been so pretty last night at the Yule Ball that he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. Hs gls glad that they had all decided to come back here for part of their holiday - it afforded many more quiet rooms for sneaking into than he was able to think of at Hogwarts, and their time was largely unsupervised. Ron and Hermione, catching on that Harry and Ginny wanted some time alone, had demonstrated uncanny intuition and their unspoken support through making discreet exits when it seemed like the right time to do so.


“You’re a good kisser, Harry,” said Ginny, smiling at him.


“Thanks. You… you really think it’s alright?”


He knew that she had dated and kissed some other boys, and he really hoped that he could measure up. He’d been interested in some girls since his flubbed attempts with Cho Chang a few years ago, but had been nearly as awkward with them and had had little idea about how to proceed. That hadn’t worried him too much in the past, but now - Ginny was different.


“Well, I suppose that we could each use some more prac…,” …,” she said, leaning into him again and pressing her lips to his.


Harry pulled away and looked embarrassed. “Really? I didn’t think that…”


Ginny interrupted him, smiling. “Harry, I was just teasing. I really *love* kissing you. Don’t make it into such a big deal - just relax and do what feels good, okay?”


Reassured, Harry closed his eyes once more and felt his awkwardness melt away as he kissed her again. Their lips parted, and tongues tentatively exed, ed, becoming bolder and more heated as they both got into it. Ginny ran her hand through Harry’s black hair, and he moved his kisses to her ear and neck, having heard some of the other quidditch players talking about it in the locker room. Ginny gasped and squirmed in enjoyment, and Harry was now having a difficult time disguising how hard he had gotten.


They both jumped when they heard Molly Weasley’s voice calling loudly up the stairs. “Kids! Lunch!”


Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a startled giggle, and then she whispered to Harry, “I’ll go down first. You’d better… er… give yourself a minute to relax.” As he turned crimson, she quickly reassured him, “Don’t be embarrassed Harry - I… I like that I make you feel good.”


Now she was the one turning red, which made Harry feel better instantly. He grinned at her, helped her smooth out her hair, and picked a fluff from the couch off the back of her sweater. Ssed sed the inside of her shirt cuff to wipe a smear of her pink lip gloss off his cheek, kissed him on the forehead, and left to go down to the kitchen. Harry followed a minute later, and everyone else was already at the table waiting for him. He slid into his chair trying not to make eye contact with anyone, but could tell that both Ron and Hermione were looking questioningly at him.

Harry pretended to be very interested in buttering his roll.


“Where have the two of you been all afternoon?” asked Mrs. Weasley distractedly as she levitated a steaming kettle of soup over to the table. “Ron and Hermione went for a trip to Diagon Alley and I thought you would have wanted to join them.”


George and Fred had come for lunch too, and George, catching on instantly as he watched the blush creep back up Harry’s neck and ears, pretended to sneeze, saying, “Ah-ah-ah-Snogging! Ah-ah-ah-Snogging!”


Ginny and Harry each glared at him, missing therp lrp look that Mrs. Weasley gave them. Fortunately, at a table with more than one Weasley at it, there was certain to be a ready distraction. “Quit that, George - you’re going to knock your soup over if you’re not… Oh, George!”


Indeed, George\'s arm had knocked into his bowl and sent it and its contents flying. He sheepishly did a charm to clean it up as his mother shook her head hopelessly at him. Fred, in the meantime, had turned his back toward Harry, wrapped his arms around himself, put his hands on his shoulders, and was squirming in his chair, making it look like he was kissing someone. Ron started laughing at Fred and snorted pumpkin juice out of his nose, Harry threw a roll at Ron and told him to shut up, and Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes at each other, mouthing, “Boys!”


“Will all of you STOP IT and settle down!” screeched an exasperated Mrs. Weasley. “I know it’s your holiday, but if you keep this up I’m sending you back to Hogwarts TODAY!”


Knowing that they were approaching the danger level, the kids all obediently settled down and began to eat their lunch, and she immediately calmed down and joined them. Harry and Ginny were glad to have the attention taken off themselves because they had every intention of getting some more time together and knew it would be impossible if everyone was watching out for it.


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Severus Snape sat at a table in the restricted section of the library, poring through one of the old volumes of potions he had pulled from the shelf. He wanted to begin work as soon as possible on the potion and spells that would be needed to link those who were going to apparate togethe fac face Voldemort. He read silently through the pages, absorbing what he needed without taking notes that would be able to fall into the wrong hands. He scowled at Madam Pince as she came through to tell him that they would be closing in an hour - he hadn’t realized that he had been there that long already, but there was a lot more that he wanted to read tonight. He levitated the large stack of tomes next to him and took them to sign out.


As he approached the library’s checkout desk, he felt a stabbing burn in his dark mark and nearly dropped all of the books that were following him. There were two students in line in front of him, but he stepped up to the desk, cutting them off. Ignoring the dirty looks that they gave him, he set his books on the counter. Madam Pince pursed her lips disapprovingly, but wasn’t about to argue with him. As he left the library, the scorching pain continued insistently, and he hurried to put the books away and get out to the edge of the grounds so he could leave. He dropped everything on his desk, grabbed his hooded cloak and mask, and had nearly made it to the castle exit when a third year Hufflepuff stepped in front of him to ask a question about her homework.


“I do not have time to talk to you,” he spat at her through clenched teeth, feeling like fire was consuming his arm. “I suggest you read your assigned chapter - it will answer any question worth asking.”


Hurt, the student continued on her way as Snape swept quickly out of the castle.


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Outside the gate, he concentrated and let himself be drawn to the forest clearing where tonight’s meeting was, stepping into his place in the circle of death eaters. There was an unusual amount of murmuring tonight, and he tried to pick out individual threads of conversations. Everyone fell silent, though, as Voldemort took his place among them. His raspy breath could be heard in the silence, and he looked around the circle at his followers.


“One of our number,” he said in his hissing, scratchy voice, “has returned to us. It took shrewd manipulation of their foolish system, but we again demonstrate our superiority by regaining him from his ‘autom lif life sentence.’”


Cold laughter rippled through the circle as Voldemort mocked the Ministry of Magic, and they waited expectantly to hear what he would say.


“I welcome one of my faithful back into our circle and into our fight to defeat those who would not see a better way of life along with us. Lucius Malfoy, return to the circle!”


Loud shouts of greeting and approval rang through the group as Malfoy walked into the clearing and took his place among them.


It had been over a year and half that he had been in Azkaban. After Potter’s encounter with the death eaters at the Ministry, when Voldemort had tried to find the prophecy, Lucius had been sentenced to a life term for using unforgivable curses. Even after his public humiliation and disgrace, many of his important ties remained intact and he had been able to use those ties to influence his sentence.


Snape frowned darkly and watched Lucius’ cold blue eyes sweep around the circle and rest briefly on him. Malfoy’s constant meddling, and his hunger for power and involvement were sure to add complications to the work of the Order. The death eaters were by no means harmless without him, but it would definitely have been much more expedient to their cause if he had remained locked up.


The entertainment was presented for the evening, and was lit into with even more vicious enthusiasm than ever. The bodies of the victims were hit with whips, ripped with teeth, kicked with steel-toed boots, burned with spells, cut with knives, and then left dangling in the chains that were holding them up and were left for dead. Severus Snape was the last one to leave the clearing that night, using his wand to unfasten the chains and administer a quick healing spell on the superficial wounds before he left. He was rapidly losing consciousness and hoped that he would be able to apparate back to Hogwarts.


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As Megan sat at her desk grading papers, she noticed her magic mirror beckoning her. Putting down her quill, she picked up the mirror and snapped it open, but had a hard time making out what she was looking at. Squinting, she saw that it was grass, and the only sign of the person who was trying to reach her was two fingertips that showed at the edge of the image.


“Severus?” she asked. “Is that you?”


After getting no response, she expanded the image to see what was surrounding him, and was relieved to see a part of the Hogwarts gate. As she ran down the hallway, she communicated with Dumbledore through her mirror, quietly filling him in. He told her that he would alert the infirmary.


As Megan got closer to the gates, she saw Severus lying on the ground. Uncertain of his injuries and not wanting to touch him and make them worse, she immobilized him and levitated his long form, bringing him behind her as she sped back toward the castle. She cast a quick concealment charm to keep anyone from seeing him, and made her way through the halls to the infirmary where she lowered him gently onto a bed and removed her binding and concealment spells.


Madam Pomfrey looked concerned as she cast the spell to remove his clothes. As she examined him, she cried out softly, “Oh my heavens!”


Dumbledore drew the curtain around them, and looked at Severus’ shattered and shredded body lying on the bed. Blood ran in a trickle from his mouth and ears, and his hair was bloody and matted. His skull had been cracked, his jaw was broken, and his eyes were swollen shut with bruises. All over his arms, torso, and legs, were deep stab marks, teeth marks, and shreds of skin hung loose where the whips had ripped through them. His breathing was shallow and sounded wet and strangled. It was among the worst conditions that Poppy had ever seen him in, and she marveled that he had even survived it this long - no one else would have. She only hoped that it wasn’t too late.

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A/N - Thanks to all of you for reading - would love to hear what you think.

Talene - You always make me smile. :-)

Best to you all,
Rapunzel

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