The Dark Gryffindor

Please review!


NOTE: I named the chapter “Lacrymosa” which is originally composed by Mozart. It fits perfectly for this ending. Also Evanescence's version is quoted at the beginning of this novel. If you go back and check chapter one, you will see the lyrics fit the story perfectly. Don’t forget there is also the epilogue.


Chapter Fifty-two: Lacrymosa


Valerie ran for a half-hour towards the Shrieking Shack. She stopped in front of it, mopping her sweaty forehead. From the outside the building was dark. Not a single light was visible. Even between the boarded up windows it was still possible to discern light, if there had been any. Why would it be dark when Headmaster Snape had been called back from the battle to accompany his master?

She entered the degenerate creepy building. It was deathly quiet and still. Not even the rafters were creaking like they always had. The light from her wand illuminated the way.

She came running up the stairs, her feet making loud clomping noises. At the top of the stairs she found several switches, and she flipped them all of them on. The whole Shrieking Shack filled with light. She stowed her wand away in her pocket.

Inside the first room in the long hallway was where she knew Voldemort had retired earlier. So in it she went.

“Severus! Oh no!”

Valerie ran to Snape lying on the floor. His eyes were still open, dark and unmoving. She desperately hoped he was alive.

Valerie knelt directly on top of him, not caring if she soaked her robes with the pool of blood surrounding him. She could see that he was unmoving, and cold. At his neck was the source of the blood where he’d tried to dab at it with his collar to no avail. He must have died alone in this room. Valerie did not pause to ponder how it happened. All that mattered was that he was gone.

Her knees slumped to the floor, and she rested her head against his chest. “Severus…No, no, no.”

All the hope drained out of her. This feeling was the worst she’d ever had, out of all the tortures she had endured in life.

She thought she couldn’t kill herself. She didn’t possess the self-hatred to use the Avada Kedavra on herself. Neither did she have a potion or poison on hand to do the deed. But she had pain. So much pain!

She sobbed heavily in even worse grief than finding her mother dead.

“Severus…Sever-us,” she said with a clear intention. She suddenly thought of how she could end it.

Shakily her wand came out. She supplanted the wand into her left wrist, the same place where the Death Eaters Dark Marks are branded. But it was her darkness, the darkness of a Gryffindor. She felt she must pierce her aching body with venom, an injection like that of a basilisk fang. It was the pain inside her heart and she knew only one way to counteract pain. And maybe, if she was lucky, she could hope for something better somewhere else.

So she drew the tip to the end of her elbow. “Sectumsempra!”

A straight rivulet of blood erupted out of her veins. A slit appeared down the back of her forearm and spread rapidly. It looked like the curse was eating the flesh.

Losing strength, her head thumped against his chest. Her bleeding arm found his hand to hold as she went into the Unknown. Her other hand gripped the front of his robes. It was the thought of being with Severus again that made her happy, for nothing else could ever again.

“Severus…” She heaved one final paroxysm of grief and agony. The light left her hard blue eyes, like golden sparks of her soul fading and Valerie Powers severed ties with life. She was dead upon the corpse of her lover. And of course, Snape had taught her this spell, not knowing what it would do. But so much for the Dark Arts and the Dark Gryffindor…

Now they were free. In death they would be reunited.

For a long time, well after dawn and into the early afternoon the lovers remained undiscovered. But a party had come to exhume Severus Snape’s body from the building.

Lucius led his quarry up the steps. Following behind him was Harry Potter, and all the Weasley men. Draco and Narcissa reluctantly followed the other as well.

Lucius was the first to enter and they heard him squabbling with himself, “W-what? The Dark Lord would never have killed him. Snape?!”

Harry Potter rushed forward and told Lucius edgily, and with obvious anger towards the former Death Eater. “Yes, he did. Mr. Malfoy I saw it with my own eyes. He set that hideous snake on Professor Snape.”

Lucius’s face crumpled into despair at one of his best friends lying dead before his cold, gray eyes. He slumped onto the floor, and stared at the bodies in shock.

The lovers’ blood had mixed together as a congealed mass, which had seeped into the rough-hewn floorboards.

But Lucius was still in denial. He shook his hands. “How could my master…Former master have slain his closest ally?”

“Well, let’s have a think,” said Harry sarcastically. “Voldemort had never shown a shred of remorse for his crimes. Not to my mother, my father and certainly not even for him. I suppose it was easy to kill Professor Snape after all that practice!”

Lucius did not answer but continued to stare at the demise of the two lovers. Although the blood had long since dried, Severus and Valerie lay drenched in their bloody robes. Valerie’s cheeks were still flushed, the red mouth parted slightly. Her eyes were open too, her lashes crumpled from tears, her pale skin still glowing. Death had not taken her youthful appearance away, but now that appearance was a cruel mockery of life.

The others crowded in the small room. Draco and Narcissa went over to Lucius.

Mr. Weasley strode in and sighed sadly. “Look at this. This is quite possibly the saddest of all I’ve seen since last night.”

And it was. Valerie who had lain prone on top of Snape was lifted into Mr. Weasley’s arms. Narcissa was hugging Draco for the umpteenth time that day, so happy was she that her only son made it out alive. Draco was muttering that he’d known not only Snape but Valerie as well.

Harry lifted Snape’s body and Mr. Weasley’s sons including the brawny Charlie and the tallest boy named Bill were there to help hold it erectly over their shoulders. And of course the gangly Ron and even Percy. Defiantly, Draco moved away from his father and went to help carry the man, his noble teacher who had risked his life to keep him alive. Like the hero that he was Snape was carried out of the Shrieking Shack with pride. They would go through the tunnels of the secret-passage. And Mr. Weasley had Valerie in his arms, holding her as tenderly as if she had been his own daughter. The mangled arm from where she’d cast the Sectumsempra curse hung limply.

In their wake, the Malfoy couple trailed behind. Lucius felt shocked and weakened by the events. He still had his pimp cane, but now he hobbled with it. It dragged over the floorboards. He had been wounded in battle. Pathetically, defeated in spirit if not wealth he left the Shrieking Shack, his wife at his side.


NOTE: Valerie lived a tortured life and a painful existence. It makes sense she would kill herself. This story was always meant to be a tragedy. I am sorry if you are disappointed but it was good while it lasted. In order to understand Valerie’s killing of herself look at her experiences. The incest from her father, her murdered and dis-empowered mother, Damion trying to kill her. Plus she has no good friends or siblings to help her. There was the disgusting Walpurgis Night. Being tortured in the dungeons many times and Damion’s abuse of her and attempt to kill her. A great battle where she saw so many die and then to find the one person left on the earth that she loved unconditionally…dead. It was too much. If Snape had lived she would have been all right, despite her inner scars. And for the sake of the story this was always meant to happen and was always coming. Death pervades this entire story, and I felt to show that Valerie is strong in death, unlike the villain, Voldemort. Valerie has a patronus at the thought of eternal life. Furthermore at the funeral for her mother, the muggle women talk of Jesus’ resurrection. This story was always meant to end with her death. I guess I really shocked and surprised some of you. Did any of you see Valerie’s suicide coming? Please stick around for the Epilogue, which will feature Snape/Valerie and everyone else’s funeral.