Saving your life

He wasn’t proud of what had happened, he knew he should have been stronger than that, but there was no point regretting it now, he had more important and pressing matters on his mind.

He went back to his place to think, he still hadn’t decided what he would do about the Dark Lord, but he knew it would have to be something important, something big enough he would forget everything that had happened lately. He had to get him to trust him completely once more, so he would be free to work against him once more.

His Master had asked for the Muggle families, but he couldn’t give him that, even if he had wanted to. He still planned to join the Order again, and it would never happen if their families were killed because of him.

He couldn’t give him the other thing he had asked for either. Most of the Death Eaters that had been captured during the two attacks he had planned were dangerous; some of them close to the Dark Lord and all of them responsible for many deaths. There was no way the Order would let them go, and he couldn’t just find their whereabouts and have other Death Eaters set them free. It would make it just as hard to become part of the Order again as the other option.

With that in his mind he went to bed, knowing there wasn’t much he could do without the information he had asked from her. He woke at dawn and checked the parchment, and he checked it again and again, until finally, around noon, he found her writing on it.

He already knew half the names on her list, but he hadn’t been sure exactly who Rodolphus had taken with him, and he couldn’t very well walk into headquarters and ask around.

He read and copied the list, crossing off some names and circling others, trying to find the right person to make his plan work. He needed someone close to the Dark Lord so that they would know important information, but someone self-centred enough to sell them all to spare themselves. At least that’s what his Master had to believe.

‘I need you to contact Kingsley Shacklebolt again,’ he wrote, and it took a few moments for her to answer.

‘He will come this evening, I think.’

‘No, it can’t wait that long.’

‘I could go to the Ministry, see if he is there,’ she offered.

‘Someone could see you there, it could be a problem.’ The parchment remained blank for a few seconds and then she wrote again.

‘I could ask someone from the Order to contact him for me.’

‘Who?’ he asked, after a moment’s thought.

‘Remus?’

‘Lupin? Can you trust him to help?’

‘Of course,’ she quickly replied. After the last few weeks, he knew he could trust her judgement, at least most of the time, so he finally agreed.

‘Alright then, have him arrange a meeting. Tell him it’s urgent and it has to be somewhere private.’

‘And what do I tell Kingsley?’

‘Go talk to Lupin first, I will tell you about the plan after that.’

He waited for her to write again, almost still, his eyes glued to the parchment as his mind tried to decide the best way to act and how to explain the plan to her. After almost fifteen minutes a new line appeared.

‘He has already left for the Ministry to find Kingsley. He will let me know what he tells him as soon as possible.’

‘Good, now pay attention. I need to have Mulciber taken to a safe house, somewhere in London, and he has to be left alone. He cannot do wandless magic, so if you just take his wand and ward the flat he won’t be able to leave. They mustn’t leave anyone guarding him.’

‘Why do you want him alone like that?’

‘Because I will probably need to get to him.’

‘You are going to set him free?’

‘No,’ he wrote and after a few seconds, he continued. ‘Once that is done I will contact you again with important information. The Order and the Aurors from the Ministry have to be ready and waiting.’

‘How will I get them to do that?’

‘You will tell Kingsley you can take them to the Dark Lord’s headquarters.’

‘Where?’

‘I can’t tell you, not yet. I can’t risk them finding out too soon.’

‘I would never tell them,’ she quickly replied, and he knew it was true.

‘They can find out by other means, you are not such a skilled occlumens.’ He waited a few moments to see if she would write something else and then continued.

‘They have to be careful, and it’s important to take as many people as possible.’

‘But will we be able to get inside?’

‘The place is not as protected as one would expect. Powerful wizards could detect that kind of concealment, using such strong magic. But if it is poorly protected no one will be interested in finding out what is inside it even if they accidentally found the building; they would just assume it wasn’t even worth the trouble. The wards around it can be easily lifted by a trained wizard.’

‘I’m not sure they will lis…’ and then the writing stopped.

‘Remus is back,’ she wrote after a few minutes.

‘Will Kingsley meet you?’

‘Yes, in half an hour.’

‘Good. Let me know as soon as you are done,’ and then he folded the parchment and put it away.

Well, he had finally made a decision. Many things could go wrong, but he believed it would work as long as he waited until the last possible minute to act.
Over two hours had gone by before she wrote again. He had used that time to go through the details of his plan. He still had to explain to her what they had to do, or at least a part of it.

‘He has agreed to do it,’ she wrote, and he couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

‘The Ministry, too?’

‘Yes.’

‘And they will move Mulciber?’

‘Well, it wasn’t easy, but finally he agreed to that, too.’

‘I need to know where he will be.’

‘I thought you might. He will tell me once we are all together and ready to leave.’

‘And when will that be?’

‘Tonight at ten.’

‘Good. I need you to contact me then and I will tell you where to go, but you can’t use the parchment anywhere near them, they can’t know how we communicate. Just tell Kingsley you have to talk to your informant and Apparate away. Once we are done I will destroy both parchments, you can go back to them and tell them the location.’

‘How many Death Eaters will we find there?’

‘Don’t worry about that; just make sure they are ready. I will take care of the rest.’

‘Oh, and just one more thing,’ she wrote just before he put the parchment away. ‘Kinsley asked me to tell you something.’

‘What is it?’

‘He said this is it, this will be the last thing he does on faith. No matter how much your information helped so far or that I trust you, he will not help again until he knows who you are.’

Well, he had been expecting something like that for some time now, he was just glad the Auror had agreed to do this last thing before getting the answers he wanted.

‘We will see to that later, for now just focus on this. I will be waiting at ten, don’t be late.’

‘I won’t,’ she wrote back, and then he rolled the parchment and put it back in his pocket.

There were still a few hours before then and he spent them deciding exactly what he would tell his Master. There could be no mistakes.


‘We are ready,’ she finally wrote just a few minutes after ten.

‘You have the address?’ he asked.

‘36 Carter Lane. Here in London like you asked.’

‘Is he alone?’

‘Yes.’

He then wrote the address to the Dark Lord’s headquarters and asked her to memorize it.

‘I will be there tonight. If there is anything else, I need to tell you I will find a way to let you know. Wait right where you are ten minutes and go back to them, then Apparate there. How many of you will it be?’

‘I didn’t count them, but I’d say about eighty people in all.’

‘Good, that should be more than enough. Be careful.’

‘You, too.’ As soon as the last word was finished, he flicked his wand and the parchment burst into flames.

Now it had started there was no turning back. He took the cloak and mask he had left on the table and walked out of the house.

He Apparated almost half a mile away from headquarters, and as soon as his feet hit the ground, he started running. He needed to sound convincing.

He slammed the front door open and ran through the narrow hallway, bumping into surprised Death Eaters on the way until he finally reached his Master’s studio. He knocked on the door, much harder than usual, and then opened it without waiting for a response.

“I’m sorry, my Lord,” he panted, bowing slightly and taking off his mask.

“What is it, Severus?” he heard him ask, and noticed the annoyance and slight anger in his voice at the interruption.

“Mulciber has talked.” Well, he did have his Master’s attention now.

“How do you know?”

“The witch told me. They’ve moved him to a flat in London.”

“Do you know what he said?”

“He told them where to find us, gave them this address.” The room fell silent as his Master frowned, taking in the new information.

“I’m sorry, my Lord, but there is no time.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, anger flashing in his red eyes.

“They are already on their way.”

“How many?” he asked as he stood up.

“At least a hundred.”

“How long until they get here?”

“The witch contacted me as soon as she found out, but they were already about to leave. We probably have less than five minutes left.”

He watched the Dark Lord raise his head and look around, but his eyes were unfocused.

“There are less than twenty Death Eaters here,” he said as he looked back at him.

“But if you called the others they would come to you in a moment, Master. We could fight them.”

“I have already lost too many men. We can’t stop this attack without time to prepare.”

“But, my Lord, with the others here we could at least keep them out. We could hold them up long enough to plan something, maybe we could force them to retreat if we work together.”

“You are brave, Severus, but it would be foolish to fight now. Let them come, let them think we are weakened, and then we will strike back when they least expect it. We will prove just how strong we are.”

“You are right, Master,” he said, bowing.

“Tell the others to leave right away.”

“Yes, my Lord,” he said and they both walked to the door.

“Master, the prisoners,” he said, sounding alarmed.

“Take a few men and go down to the dungeons. You can use the other entrance to leave.”

They both set for the main room when they heard a loud bang, doors and windows suddenly flying off their frames.

He looked outside and could see robed men and women pointing their wands at them as they walked closer. The whole building was surrounded.

He turned to his Master and saw him draw his wand and aim it at every entrance, blocking them with dark blue flames.

“That will give us a minute or two. You three,” he said, pointing at some of the still shocked Death Eaters, “follow Severus.”

He then turned to face him and spoke again.

“Take only the prisoners that can still be useful. Leave the others behind. When you are done meet me again. You know where to find me.”

The walls were shaking by then from the power of the spells the Aurors were using to get in and the flames had turned pale blue. They wouldn’t hold much longer. The Dark Lord raised his wand again and muttered a few words, lifting some of the wards, before turning to the other men.

“The rest of you,” he said, his voice loud and full of anger, “Apparate away,” and the next second he was gone.

Some of the spells were already going through the flames and hitting the walls inside the building, and the rest of the Death Eaters present followed their Master’s lead and Disapparated. Soon there were only four men left inside. “To the dungeons,” Severus yelled then as he put his mask back on.

They ran down the stairs until they reached the first dark room. He lit the candles on the walls with a flick of his wand and walked to the cells. After just a moment’s thought, he opened two of them. “Take these two and leave. There are still anti-Apparition wards here, so use the pathway on the other floor.”

He turned around when he heard the first footsteps on the stairs. They were almost there. He looked back at the only Death Eater left with him and whispered, “Follow me,” before running to the opposite side of the room and down the other set of stairs.
After just a few moments, they stepped into a big circular room. With another flick of his wand, the centre of the room was lit, but the rest remained in shadows. There were over twenty pillars around the room, and most had people chained to them. At the sight of them, a few prisoners started to scream, others to cry, but he quickly stunned them all. He still needed a few more minutes and didn’t want the Order finding them before then.

He pointed his wand at a man and a woman chained together and released them. He then muttered a spell, making the bodies float and sending them to the Death Eater as he ordered him to take them away.

There was only one more prisoner they would need, but before he could take him, he heard voices and more footsteps down the stairs.
With just two steps, he found himself hidden in the shadows, his back to the wall. The sounds grew closer then, and soon he saw six people walk into the room.

He tightened his grip on the wand as he waited to see what they would do.

“Do you think they are gone?” he heard one of them ask. It was Potter.

“It seems they are,” Lupin’s calm voice answered.

The other four soon joined them in the centre of the room, an all too recognizable bushy haired woman and three more people he didn’t know. Probably Ministry Aurors, he thought.

Without uttering a single word, he aimed his wand at two of them, and they were lying on the floor before anyone even noticed he was there. As soon as the second jet of light left his wand he ducked and ran, still hidden in the darkness, avoiding the spells and curses shot his way. He watched as the four remaining people circled the fallen ones, back to back, wands aiming in every direction, eyes searching the area.

He started pacing the room, keeping his back against the wall, trying to decide what to do. He couldn’t leave without the last prisoner. After a few seconds, he stopped again, facing Potter. He knew he had to act fast, couldn’t give them time to think. He shot a curse at the boy and watched him easily deflect it. They all turned to the spot the light had come from, and he used the distraction to jump to the side, avoiding their spells, and stun the man standing next to Potter. Ducking again, he watched him fall. Only three left now.

He knew they were holding back in fear of hitting the people chained to the pillars, and he used that to his advantage, but they finally did what they should have done from the beginning, they lowered the light and stepped into the shadows.

With the advantage of having his eyes already adjusted to the darkness, he watched them spread, each walking in a different direction, circling the room to find him. He knew Potter was somewhere to his left and Lupin in front of him, on the other side of the room, so he decided to take care of the boy first. He sent a minor curse blindly in the direction he knew the boy was, and as soon as he heard him gasp and block it, he sent a much more powerful one, sending him flying against the wall.

He heard a loud thud as the boy fell to the floor, unconscious, but the next second light filled the room again, blinding him long enough to get hit by a spell. He felt something cut deep into his flesh, blood running down his leg as he tried to remain standing and block the next curse.

He could see Lupin walking closer to him, and focused on blocking the spells coming from him he groaned in surprise when he felt another cut on his arm, the spell coming from his side and making him drop his wand. As he cursed and held his injured arm with his other hand he heard her gasp, and then whisper “Oh, no,” and he knew she had recognized him.

He looked back at the wizard, watched him lift his wand again, but before he could mutter any words she screamed “Remus, no,” and ran to him, pushing him in the last second and making the spell miss Severus by inches.

Lupin fell to the floor, his confused eyes on her. “Hermione, what…?” he asked, and then, seeming to understand, he looked back at him, but before he could do anything else Severus had his wand in his hand once more and pointing it at him he stunned him.

“Why did you do that?” he heard her ask.

“I don’t want him to see me.”

“Are you alright?” she asked worriedly as she watched him, noticing the blood covering his robes.

“I’m fine,” he said, and tried to walk to one of the pillars for support.

“Wait, let me heal those cuts,” she muttered as she walked to his side.

“No, I can do that later. There’s no time now, I have to leave before others find me here.” He looked around the room and found the man he was looking for. Pointing his wand at him, he freed him from the chains and made him float his way.

“Who is that?” she asked.

“A wandmaker. I have to take him with me.”

“What? Where?”

“To the Dark Lord, we can’t leave him behind.” He could tell she wanted to ask many things, and was glad she didn’t. He slowly walked to the hidden door, but turned back to her as he reached it.

“I have to stun you; we can’t have them ask questions.” He watched her consider it and then nod.

“Will Lupin be a problem? I could obliviate him.”

“No, I can take care of that. He won’t say anything.”

“There’s a hidden room behind one of the cells on the other floor. You will find Ollivander there. We will talk again soon,” he said, and then pointed his wand at her, a red jet of light hitting her and making her fall.