What Else Is There?
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
1,513
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
1,513
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Escape
_______
As the world falls down.
_______
The double-doors swung open and in a blur of black, Severus Snape marched into the crowded room, a pinched expression of impatience etched in almost every face that met him.
“Where the hell have you been?” Bellatrix stormed towards him and flailed a hand around angrily. “He called us an hour ago. Which excuse are you going to use this time, I wonder?”
“Silence.”
The room grew instantly quiet. Bellatrix turned away from Snape to gawk at the vision of her Master standing before her as if he had sprouted out of the ground. She had not been the only one to feel surprised, for many of the Death Eaters had gasped at the sudden arrival of their Dark Lord.
“Welcome, Severus. I trust you have done what I have asked of you?”
“Yes my Lord… I arrived as soon as I accomplished the task at hand.” His dark eyes flickered momentarily at Bellatrix, who glared at her own feet, her mouth twisted to reveal she might have been biting down into her tongue.
“Excellent.” Voldemort stood taller than before, almost shuddering in ominous bliss. “This is the night, my children. This is the dawn of a brand new era. The lesser mortals have only just begun to witness our rebirth and it has been sweet. We have hardly brushed the surface and they have already gone into panic and chaos. Their pitiful governments are now under our control unbeknownst to them.
“But now the time has come to take our most bold and monumental move as of yet. Tonight the world will tremble in fear as we truly make our presence known.”
-
It had been weeks since she had any contact with the outside world.
The once-fully stocked fridge quickly became devoid of cheese and vegetables. Afterwards she lived mostly on turkey sandwiches and chicken soup. The muggle-drinks she had requested months ago had all disappeared as well, and she began digging into the hot teas experimentally, having never been a fan before.
The anticipated first and third Sundays of April came and went. Nothing happened.
For all she knew Remus was dead. People seemed to be dropping like flies those days.
Perhaps it was fitting that it was still raining… still raining since the day Severus left. Somehow she knew he was still alive. Just how she knew wasn’t certain.
To her annoyance, almost everything that happened those few weeks seemed to exist only in relation to that terrible day when she told him to never come back; when he had shaken her that way and told her to stop – stop what she was feeling.
She went over the conversation again and again in her head, sometimes coming up with nastier things she could have said to make him feel bad, and other times kinder words that might have kept him there.
It also pained her to wonder what he might have told her about her mother. He must not have known she was already aware of their friendship and how his choice of friends and genetic bias had torn them apart. Maybe he had done something unforgivable to Lily oh-so-long ago?
Even with her promise to ‘make him pay’ for what he had made her feel, she couldn’t think of any way to do so but drink. But that would have conflicted with a different promise. Admittedly, she didn’t really want to binge anyway and just smelling the firewhiskey had made her physically ill in reverie at how awful the stuff had tasted coming up.
A pile of essays stayed perfectly stacked on the coffee table, perfected and extended a hundred times over, mistakes removed perfectly with erasing charms situated next to a heap of needles that had once been matches and feathers that once knew the existence of being spoons.
One Monday at lunchtime, she knew that hysteria was setting in when she started wondering whether they had been happier being spoons and that they might resent her for wrenching them away from a life of stainless steel happiness. After a heated debate with the feathers, they all decided that the latter was far more fashionable and they were quite content not to be shoved in people’s mouths anymore.
What if no one ever came? Would she go one like this and eventually snap, taking her only recreation in repeating the same twenty-odd classes, revamping essays repeatedly and eventually chatting with inanimate objects about the meaning of life?
And then she remembered those words Sirius had left her with; ‘You’ve got to take advantage of your time in this world, cause it can get snatched from you any sodding second, and all that time you spent trying to save your own skin will have just been wasted.’
It didn’t matter to her that this was the advice of a dead man, not a few days before he passed. At least Sirius had been happy. At least he knew the meaning of adventure and seemed to her to be the most free spirit she had ever come across. Her mother wasted a good deal of her life hiding from danger, miserable and heartbroken for it until the moment of her death. ‘Why am I doing the same?’
Hastily she gathered her things into what looked like an old travel-bag from the coat closet and adorned a black raincoat. Paranoid words of warning kept nagging at her angrily about better preparations and precautions, but she ignored them entirely. She would fly… Bridget would fly back to Seattle and find Claire and tell her everything. With the way the news was going, she had a feeling her old friend would believe her.
Whatever she might do next would be up in the air, she had decided. She didn’t want to plan, only to act on feeling. In no way did she give a damn anymore at this desperate point.
Stuffing her mother’s wand into her pocket, she stopped and glanced over to the pile of textbooks. Rushing over, she grabbed the Defense Against The Dark Arts book as well as the Basic Spells, feeling she should at least read over them once she arrived in Washington. Read it now! Just wait till tomorrow! The voice begged and pleaded as she stepped into the surprisingly warm rain, broomstick in hand.
The grey skies looked gorgeous in the dim sunlight, painting everything in a gentle haze. With one deep breath she soared into the sky, bag strapped around chest, its contents shifting on her back in the sudden change in velocity. Soon Godric’s Hollow was miles away as she picked up momentum, heading west like some great bird having been locked in a cage, its wings stretching in the free air once more.
As the world falls down.
_______
The double-doors swung open and in a blur of black, Severus Snape marched into the crowded room, a pinched expression of impatience etched in almost every face that met him.
“Where the hell have you been?” Bellatrix stormed towards him and flailed a hand around angrily. “He called us an hour ago. Which excuse are you going to use this time, I wonder?”
“Silence.”
The room grew instantly quiet. Bellatrix turned away from Snape to gawk at the vision of her Master standing before her as if he had sprouted out of the ground. She had not been the only one to feel surprised, for many of the Death Eaters had gasped at the sudden arrival of their Dark Lord.
“Welcome, Severus. I trust you have done what I have asked of you?”
“Yes my Lord… I arrived as soon as I accomplished the task at hand.” His dark eyes flickered momentarily at Bellatrix, who glared at her own feet, her mouth twisted to reveal she might have been biting down into her tongue.
“Excellent.” Voldemort stood taller than before, almost shuddering in ominous bliss. “This is the night, my children. This is the dawn of a brand new era. The lesser mortals have only just begun to witness our rebirth and it has been sweet. We have hardly brushed the surface and they have already gone into panic and chaos. Their pitiful governments are now under our control unbeknownst to them.
“But now the time has come to take our most bold and monumental move as of yet. Tonight the world will tremble in fear as we truly make our presence known.”
-
It had been weeks since she had any contact with the outside world.
The once-fully stocked fridge quickly became devoid of cheese and vegetables. Afterwards she lived mostly on turkey sandwiches and chicken soup. The muggle-drinks she had requested months ago had all disappeared as well, and she began digging into the hot teas experimentally, having never been a fan before.
The anticipated first and third Sundays of April came and went. Nothing happened.
For all she knew Remus was dead. People seemed to be dropping like flies those days.
Perhaps it was fitting that it was still raining… still raining since the day Severus left. Somehow she knew he was still alive. Just how she knew wasn’t certain.
To her annoyance, almost everything that happened those few weeks seemed to exist only in relation to that terrible day when she told him to never come back; when he had shaken her that way and told her to stop – stop what she was feeling.
She went over the conversation again and again in her head, sometimes coming up with nastier things she could have said to make him feel bad, and other times kinder words that might have kept him there.
It also pained her to wonder what he might have told her about her mother. He must not have known she was already aware of their friendship and how his choice of friends and genetic bias had torn them apart. Maybe he had done something unforgivable to Lily oh-so-long ago?
Even with her promise to ‘make him pay’ for what he had made her feel, she couldn’t think of any way to do so but drink. But that would have conflicted with a different promise. Admittedly, she didn’t really want to binge anyway and just smelling the firewhiskey had made her physically ill in reverie at how awful the stuff had tasted coming up.
A pile of essays stayed perfectly stacked on the coffee table, perfected and extended a hundred times over, mistakes removed perfectly with erasing charms situated next to a heap of needles that had once been matches and feathers that once knew the existence of being spoons.
One Monday at lunchtime, she knew that hysteria was setting in when she started wondering whether they had been happier being spoons and that they might resent her for wrenching them away from a life of stainless steel happiness. After a heated debate with the feathers, they all decided that the latter was far more fashionable and they were quite content not to be shoved in people’s mouths anymore.
What if no one ever came? Would she go one like this and eventually snap, taking her only recreation in repeating the same twenty-odd classes, revamping essays repeatedly and eventually chatting with inanimate objects about the meaning of life?
And then she remembered those words Sirius had left her with; ‘You’ve got to take advantage of your time in this world, cause it can get snatched from you any sodding second, and all that time you spent trying to save your own skin will have just been wasted.’
It didn’t matter to her that this was the advice of a dead man, not a few days before he passed. At least Sirius had been happy. At least he knew the meaning of adventure and seemed to her to be the most free spirit she had ever come across. Her mother wasted a good deal of her life hiding from danger, miserable and heartbroken for it until the moment of her death. ‘Why am I doing the same?’
Hastily she gathered her things into what looked like an old travel-bag from the coat closet and adorned a black raincoat. Paranoid words of warning kept nagging at her angrily about better preparations and precautions, but she ignored them entirely. She would fly… Bridget would fly back to Seattle and find Claire and tell her everything. With the way the news was going, she had a feeling her old friend would believe her.
Whatever she might do next would be up in the air, she had decided. She didn’t want to plan, only to act on feeling. In no way did she give a damn anymore at this desperate point.
Stuffing her mother’s wand into her pocket, she stopped and glanced over to the pile of textbooks. Rushing over, she grabbed the Defense Against The Dark Arts book as well as the Basic Spells, feeling she should at least read over them once she arrived in Washington. Read it now! Just wait till tomorrow! The voice begged and pleaded as she stepped into the surprisingly warm rain, broomstick in hand.
The grey skies looked gorgeous in the dim sunlight, painting everything in a gentle haze. With one deep breath she soared into the sky, bag strapped around chest, its contents shifting on her back in the sudden change in velocity. Soon Godric’s Hollow was miles away as she picked up momentum, heading west like some great bird having been locked in a cage, its wings stretching in the free air once more.