Forget about Love

The Great Hall was silent. Voldemort walked forward toward Dumbledore. Harry was as far away from him as possible, but at that moment, Voldemort’s mind was on something else.

“Hello there Dumbledore,” Voldemort said in an eager voice. Voldemort’s red eyes moved across the table to Snape and Erica. His evil smile grew.

“Lucius!” he said in a loud voice. Snape noticed Erica tense up slightly as Lucius, in full Deatheater garb, walked forward to Voldemort and bow to him.

“I believe I found something you lost,” Voldemort said staring at Erica. Lucius stood and removed his mask. He looked directly at Erica and smiled.

“Ah…yes. My little toy. I lost it some time ago. Thank you for finding it for me Master,” Lucius said.

Lucius moved closer to Erica until he was standing directly across from her. The only thing separating them was the table.

“How have you been my little trinket?” Lucius said extending a hand to her. Snape waited for her to do something, anything to Lucius, but she didn’t move. It seemed like she was rooted to the chair.

Snape watched as Lucius ran his finger along her cheek. The instant that Lucius’ finger touched her cheek, Erica flinched.

Snape understood now. He knew that Lucius had a crush on Erica in school, that he found her attractive, and that he was jealous of their friendship, but this was worse. Snape stood angrily and grabbed Lucius’ wrist.

Lucius turned and looked into Snape’s eyes with a smile. “Ah, yes. Hello again Severus. Surely you can forgive me, but I have a thing for vampires.”

“Leave her alone,” Snape said angrily. Lucius lowered his hand back to his side when Snape released it before letting out a loud laugh.

“So you know her little secret. The one she swore she’d never tell.”

“I know that you kept her locked up,” Snape said. Lucius smiled wider and looked back down at Erica.

“Ah, so you didn’t tell him.” Snape looked at Erica, whose face was staring straight ahead, but she looked scared and upset all at once.

“What are you talking about Lucius?” Snape said still keeping an eye on Erica.

“She isn’t pure anymore…I made sure of that,” Lucius said smiling down at Erica. Silent tears were falling down her face. She didn’t want to cry, but there was too much pain at the memories.

Snape’s eyes widened in understanding, Lucius had raped her.

“Yes, dear Severus. I turned her into what she is now, I took her away from you, and then I made sure to spoil her for you. The best part was knowing that she was crying for you to save her when I took her virginity.”

Snape was glaring at Lucius. He wanted to grab his wand and kill him where he stood. He glanced down at Erica. She had her eyes closed tightly. He could see the tears staining her face. He knew now what business she had to do. He knew why she wanted to be at the battle.

He knew now why she wanted to kill Lucius.

“It was so much fun listening to her sobs that night. She kept calling out for your forgiveness, even though she knew that you would never speak to her again. I guess I was wrong about that. You obviously have no problem with damaged goods, or little vampire sluts.”

Voldemort was laughing with Lucius this time. Lupin was angry, but he knew not to get involved. This was between Snape, Lucius, and Erica.

“I am going to take her back with me now. She belongs to me and always will Severus. Don’t forget that.”

Lucius reached out and grabbed Erica’s arm roughly and pulled her across the table. She gasped. He started to drag her out of the room.

“This is your punishment for betraying us Severus,” Voldemort said looking at the young girl. Lucius stopped to remove her weapons. The moment he released her arms she grabbed him and threw him across the room into the armies with such force that many fell to the ground.

The teaching staff took this opportunity to attack. Snape pulled his wand out and aimed it at the group in the back. He started throwing hexes everywhere. Many of the students took this opportunity to fight back. The vampires were so shocked by Erica’s attack and strength that they didn’t notice when she cast a single spell causing them all to become dust. Many of the other creatures fell quickly. The students had studied their magical creatures and knew their weaknesses.

Lucius looked up and saw Erica fighting the Deatheaters with promise. He watched as another fell to the ground. He moved forward and extended his wand to her. She was so preoccupied that she didn’t even notice the Jelly Legs curse until it hit her. She hit the ground unable to move her legs.

“I always knew I could turn your legs to jelly,” Lucius said by her ear. Erica took a sharp intake of breath. She could feel Lucius’ hands on her legs, but she couldn’t move them away from him.

“I know you like it when I do this,” he said again by her ear. Erica whipped her arm around to hit him, but he grabbed her arm as it swung. He pulled her up to his face.

“Now, now…is that anyway to treat your first lover?” Lucius said with a smile. Erica spit in his face, causing him to release her, before she answered.

“You were never a lover to me,” she said defiantly. Lucius grabbed her arms and pulled her up against him.

“I see that you need another lesson,” he said crushing his lips to hers. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he was holding tight.

Then she felt the counter-curse flow through her body. She had control of her legs again. She sent her knee flying into Lucius’ crotch. He hit the ground in pain and Erica stood up. Snape was there. They nodded at each other before getting back into the battle.

Erica was sending a shock to one of the Deatheaters when everyone stopped fighting. The Deatheater she was fighting fell to the ground dead as the room became silent. Voldemort and Harry Potter were facing off.

“You will never win Potter,” Voldemort said.

“I will win,” Harry replied, “for my parents.”

Voldemort growled before sending out a Crucio curse. Harry blocked it easily before throwing one of his own. The battle between them went on for several minutes until Voldemort got a good one off.

“Expelliarmus,” Voldemort shouted. Harry froze for a second too long and was hit. His wand went flying into Voldemort’s hand. Harry was helpless.

“It appears I have the upper hand now Potter,” Voldemort said smugly. Harry looked up at him from the ground where he laid.
Snape was standing behind Harry and Erica was off to the side. Voldemort pointed his wand at Harry.

“Avada Kedavra,” Voldemort shouted. Snape moved to block Harry. Erica gasped and ran out. She wasn’t going to lose him now, and not like this. She shoved Snape out of the way and got the full blast of the curse.

She screamed in pain and fell to her knees. Snape rushed over to her and held out his left hand to her. She grabbed his wrist, pulled up the sleeve, and placed her hand over the Dark Mark.

Snape began to feel a strange sensation build up in his body before he felt pain in his arm. The other Deatheaters were screaming too, only louder. Lucius was behind Erica with his wand pointed at her back. He was feeling the pain as well, but ignoring it better.

“Avada Kedavra,” he screamed with some pain and pleasure. The light hit her between the shoulder blades, where her heart was. Erica screamed again.

The Deatheaters were falling to the ground, screaming.

Erica was beginning to glow a bright white color. She looked up at Snape and smiled. She held onto his arm tighter as a white wave shot out of her body. It hit all the Deatheaters, who died instantly. The room became quiet. Lucius lay in a lump behind Erica.

Snape was breathing. He was the only Deatheater still alive. Erica screamed once more before falling to the floor at Snape’s feet. It was deathly quiet.

Snape looked down at Erica and then at his arm. The mark was gone she had freed him. He knelt down beside her and tried to touch her, but her body was too hot to touch.

Voldemort looked around at his dead armies, at the dead students, at his own failure. He was growing angrier. Suddenly Harry’s wand flew out of his hands.

He turned to see it pointed at him. “Avada Kedavra,” Harry yelled. The bright green light flew out of his wand and hit Voldemort before he had a chance to move. Voldemort’s red eyes grew wide before he hit the ground with a thud.

Harry walked up to the corpse of the most feared wizard of all time. He picked up Voldemort’s wand and snapped it in two.

“See you in Hell,” Harry said. The surviving students were moving forward slowly. They looked around at all the death and destruction. It was Neville Longbottom who finally broke the silence.

“It’s over,” he said in a quiet voice. It became a chant. “It’s over.”

But for Severus Snape it wasn’t. “Poppy, over here,” Snape yelled.

She rushed over to him and looked down at Erica. The girl was so hot to the touch, and she was starting to glow. Her hair had silver streaks in it.

“Take her to the infirmary,” Poppy said to Snape. He nodded and quickly went to pick her up. Poppy stopped him.

“Don’t touch her if you can help it. Levitate her there. I will take care of her as soon as I can.” Once again Snape nodded and pointed his wand at Erica. “Mobilicorpus,” he said. Erica floated into the air, and Snape quickly took her to the infirmary.

He placed her on a bed carefully before removing the spell. He wanted to touch her so badly, but knew that he couldn’t.

She had saved him. She had jumped in front of the death curse for him. Snape looked at her carefully.

Because she is a vampire, it was hard to tell if she was still alive, but Snape knew that she had to be. He couldn’t live without her. He could still hear her voice, feel her near him, and still taste her kisses.

He wanted her to be his. He still loved her more than anything in the world, but he didn’t get a chance to tell her. For the first time since his mother’s death, Snape let tears fall down his cheeks.

That was how Poppy found him ten minutes later. He was sitting on the floor next to Erica’s bed crying his eyes out.

Poppy moved next to the bed and began examining Erica with her wand. Snape stopped crying when he realized that Poppy had arrived. He quickly dried his eyes and looked down at the woman he was desperately in love with.

Dumbledore arrived several minutes later. He was helping the children cope with their friends’ deaths. When all the students had been brought up to the hospital wing or sent to bed, Dumbledore approached Snape and Poppy looking over the unconscious form of Erica.

“What’s the diagnosis Poppy?” Dumbledore said. Poppy didn’t say anything as she ran her wand up and down Erica several more times. Finally she looked up at Dumbledore.

“I think that she survived,” she said.

“That’s impossible,” Snape said. “No one could survive being hit with two death curses.”

“Meet the exception,” Poppy said putting her wand away. “This girl survived, and that’s not all.”

Dumbledore and Snape looked at Poppy with curiosity in their eyes.

“She’s not a vampire anymore.”

“Then she’s human?”

Poppy shook her head. “No, a human couldn’t have survived the two killing curses.”

“Then what is she?” Snape asked impatiently. Poppy shrugged.

“I don’t know. All I know is that something kept her grounded to earth so she didn’t die, and something else changed her during those seconds when she killed all those Deatheaters.”

“Except me,” Snape said bewildered. He lifted his arm to show Dumbledore his arm. The mark was gone. Snape still couldn’t believe it.

“The Dark Mark is gone? How strange,” Dumbledore said examining Snape’s arm. Lupin came rushing in about this time.

“Is she okay? Is Erica alright?” He asked breathlessly. Dumbledore nodded and turned to leave. Snape took his place by Erica’s bedside while Lupin sat on a chair on the other side. Poppy left them alone.

“She’s okay,” Lupin said quietly. Snape nodded.

That night the two enemies reached a silent agreement to be civil to each other. If not for the students, then just for Erica’s sake.

Both men remained by her bedside until morning, when the sun shined in through the windows and over Erica’s body.
She didn’t move as the sun caressed her skin.

The sun moved over Snape’s face and woke him up. Snape looked up at the sun coming in through the windows and then at the sun on Erica’s arms. She wasn’t burning anymore.

He stood up and looked down at her face. He gently brushed several strands of her hair away from her face and behind her ear.

Suddenly her eyes flittered open and she looked at Snape.

“Hello Erica,” he said. Erica smiled before closing her eyes again and drifting back to sleep.