Eleven
Snape stills for a moment. Sirius feels it beside him as he drags him up and away.
"Where are you going?" His mother puts both her hands on the table, then she remembers that she shouldn't touch it and she clenches her fists in front of her stomach. "You have the chance..."
"Fuck you." Sirius yells.
There's a hard look on her face. A response to his own, they look so much alike, a mirror of each other in their anger, a mirror of each other in general.
"Regulus deserves..."
"Fuck you." There are a few people that have turned by now -he's making a scene- but discretion and subtlety can fuck off too.
He's already at the door, one last look back as he pushes Snape outside. His mother sits down, a shrug of her shoulders.
He closes the door -a hand still on Snape's arm- and follows the crowd outside.
"Black."
"Let's go to Hogwarts." Sirius tells him. He doesn't look, he doesn't turn, his arm stretched enough to keep dragging Snape along. "You were right. We should have gone to Hogwarts."
Someone bumps into him, or maybe he bumps into them. He isn't sure, he just keeps walking.
"Let's find a spot to apparate."
Another step and his hand slips from Snape's. Sirius turns around and he looks -the man has stopped walking.
"They are lying." Sirius tells him. He doesn't want to hear what the man has to say. "They are lying. It's a trap." They have a mission, things that need to be done and Snape should start fucking moving. He always blames Sirius for stalling.
"It's not a trap. It's an exchange."
Someone bumps onto Snape's shoulder. He is standing still in the middle of a moving crowd.
Sirius pulls him aside. They are an obstacle, people brush past them, but there's a wall to Sirius’s left, something unmoving, like Snape in front of him.
"They are not lying." Snape continues.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asks, because it doesn't matter -lying or not. He raffles his hair, they're past his shoulders now. How much time are he and Snape on the run?
"I'm stating the truth."
"And? And what does it matter? You state the truth and what does it matter?" Sirius wants to slam his head against the wall, collapse onto the floor, run into the street and get hit by passing cars. "Let's go to Hogwarts." He whispers defeated.
"Black." Snape says and it infuriates him, the way he says his name, the name itself.
"What do you want Snape? Do you want to talk about the truth? My brother is dying and there is nothing I can do to stop it."
Snape tilts his head. Sirius grabs his jaw, forcing it straight.
"I know what you think of me. I fucking do, but there is nothing I can do about it."
"Why?" Snape asks.
"What?" A question, a whole movement of his body.
"Giving me in exchange of your brother changes nothing. They think I'm the Keeper, but they're wrong. The Potters' remain safe. As for the other matter, Albus was always going to be a last resort. He is intelligent enough to take my place." Snape stops, he looks at him. "My death changes nothing."
"What?" Sirius raises his voice this time.
"Which part was confusing to you?" Snape replies.
"Are you...?" He runs a hand down his face, trying to collect himself. "Nothing of what you said crossed my mind."
"Clearly." Snape replies and it's cutting like always, but the look he has in his eyes is not. He seems confused. He seems as if he's waiting for something.
Sirius shakes his head unconsciously, in question.
Snape frowns, the blue vein on his neck grows. He's getting angry.
"So." He says. "There is something you could do." Measured, calculated.
Sirius is angry too. Angry and terrified. He wants to go and snatch Reg away, from danger, from Voldemort, from everyone.
He wants to fall down and cry again.
"Giving you to them isn't an option." He says because he's done with Snape's bullshit. "Surprise. I'm not a total piece of shit."
"But you wouldn't be, would you?" Snape argues. He wants to fucking argue, betting his life on the line. Because that's what he does right now. Because it's so easy to give Snape. It's so fucking easy, it's mortifying. All he has to do is say Voldemort’s name.
"You clearly want to save him." Snape continues.
"Of course I want to save him, he's my baby brother." A few people stop, looking at him as if he's crazy. Blissfully ignorant. Sirius hates them. "That doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice you for that."
"Why?" Snape asks again. "This is the logical solution for you, if you take a moment to think instead of whatever you're doing."
"Do you want me to give you up?" Sirius grabs the collar of his shirt. "Do you expect me to? Did your calculations fall way off and you don't know what to do about it?"
"Do you feel like you owe me?" Snape has a frown now.
"What?"
"The solution is there. It's logical. Ethical even." Snape tells him.
"If you want to die, go do it yourself."
"I don't want to die." Snape replies simply.
"Then what the hell are we arguing about?"
Sirius drops his hand and leans back against the wall.
"We have to keep moving." He says.
There is no response. No argument. No stupid remark.
Reg is going to die. His mother was right. Sirius has his life on his hands. He shouldn't. He isn't delicate like Remus, or brave like James.
He isn't logical and calculating, with the ability to think twenty steps ahead like Snape.
Sirius is a nobody. Half brave, half funny, half truthful. A mimic of a person. A fraud.
And a nobody like him shouldn't get to decide who lives and who dies.
Even if he just did. He's doing it right now. With every breath. Every silence.
Reg is going to die. And yet he can't betray a man who expects to be betrayed with every blink of his eyes.
"What we have to do, it's to make sure we get caught in our own terms." Snape speaks, removes his body from the wall and he walks in front of him.
He bites his lip as he looks down. Thinking. A frown. A thumb brushing over it -trying to smooth it, or deepen it -as he thinks harder, as he puts his life on the line for Reg.
Because Sirius wants to save his brother.
Because Sirius didn't betray him.
He is a sacrificial fool. Sirius wants to tell him that he was right in that assessment. A person driven by logic, by an ethic only he knows.
He wants to take his arm and apparate them away.
"Perhaps it's a chance." Snape says. "An excuse to search for the next clue."
An excuse. Like the one he's making right now.
"Your death isn't an option." Sirius tells him, because someone has to.
"Preferably." Snape replies. He looks at the crowd - there's a barely visible mole under his right ear- and then he turns to say something, a parting of his lips, but his eyes widen and he falls forward. Sirius catches him -a solid force in his hug- looking ahead at the view Snape's body was hiding until now.
His mother's wand is raised. A second passes -a second while she stares at Sirius- before she makes a decision and hits him with a spell straight to the head.
______
The first thing that registers when Sirius opens his eyes is his aching body -as if he had been in a drunken fight and left to sleep on the pavement.
The second thing is Snape. He tries to get up, he hears the rattle of something metallic and realises that he's chained.
He groans, pulling harder.
"You're going to break your arms." The voice comes from the other side of the room.
"Snape." He says and he lets a breath out.
"Indeed." The man replies, as he's taking shape, as the fuzz of Sirius' mind clears.
"Are you hurt?" He asks, because fuck it.
"Barely." Snape replies. "But I expect it to change soon."
"Where are we?" Another pull of the chains and Snape clicks his tongue.
"I'm not sure. A cell of sorts -under the ground perhaps- the humidity indicates as such. It reminds me of the dungeons."
He sounds irritated. Statement after statement and yet -he's not scared- he's angry.
"We need to go." Sirius tells him, trying to free his arms.
"Excellent observation." His lips are pressed together. "Could you stop that?" He glares at Sirius' hands.
"Do you think it's better to do nothing?"
"I think..." There is a strain in his voice, an exhale through his nose, a contained anger. "That we didn't get caught in our terms." He looks at the ground, wet stones that deeply infuriate him.
"We should have left." Sirius can't say they shouldn't have gone at all. He can't abandon Reg like that.
"I know." Snape snaps, turning to him. "I'll fix it." He continues and Sirius thinks that Snape would have strangled him if he wasn't restrained. "I just need more information."
"So are we going to wait here until he comes and kill us?"
Snape face contorts from anger.
"The fact that we are still alive indicates he isn't here right now. I need to know where we are."
"He could be here at any second. In fact he doesn't need to, whoever is in charge could kill us." Sirius tries for a whisper and he fails.
"They won't kill me." Snape says and it's deadly. "Do you understand? You are the dead waste. Me, I'm a feast only for the Dark Lord. While you are..." He takes a breath. "Anyone can come and kill you at any moment. They don't view you as valuable -while it's clearly the other way around. Do you understand? I miscalculated."
"You can't expect to anticipate everything." Sirius tells him.
"You can't expect to anticipate everything, because your very existence defies anticipation." Snape accuses and Sirius isn't sure what he's been accused for.
He watches as Snape closes his eyes and breathes. In and out. Forceful, like he's compelling himself to be calm, like he reprimands his mind, because he's not.
"Did they take everything?" He can't reach his pocket, but they feel empty.
"Obviously." Snape replies.
"So we need an escape plan and to take our items back."
"Yes and while we are at it, release your brother, kill the Dark Lord and perhaps drink some tea on the way." Snape mocks.
"Why are you acting like that? I'm trying to..."
Snape opens his eyes and he looks at him.
"I will fix it." He says.
Sirius is ready for a reply, but a creak stops him. He hears a laughter, before anyone enters.
"Oh, how the mighty has fallen." A pale face man, dark curly hair that could make him a Black, a smile painting his face like a curse.
Snape face smoothes, the frown, the anger from before vanishes.
"Dolohov." He says.
Sirius knows the name. He had heard Molly cursed it many times -the only time he had heard her use that kind of language -when her brothers died.
"Killing you would taste so good." The man almost licks his lips. "But...you managed to be somehow important. One way or another. I should congratulate you. You were trying so hard." He turns his eyes on Sirius, barely settles his gaze, when Snape talks.
"It must be disappointing for you, having two prisoners and not being able to kill either."
Dolohov's stare turns again.
"I'm the Secret Keeper and he's Potter's best friend." Snape has his head raised, arrogant, compelling Dolohov to focus on him, as he's crafting a story to keep Sirius safe for a little while longer. "I imagine you think that something of the two will work. If not me breaking, surely you think you will pressure Potter to appear with his best friend's life on the line." A smirk.
Dolohov is processing the words, the implication. A swift of his head between them indicates it. Another smile.
"And to think you were carrying yourself around as smart." He says, because he bought it, because Snape sold him a thought and he mistakes it for his own.
Because Snape is that smart. Sirius wants to laugh at his face, he wants to tell him that.
"I was smart enough to deceive you all." Snape continues in that arrogant tone. It's familiar, it's an echo of corridors and potions' classrooms. Then a drop of his voice will come. Something nasty. Sirius knows it. He has been across from it countless times. And it happens, just like Sirius predicts it will, just like Snape has done before. "I was smart enough to deceive your Lord."
Dolohov's amusement fades.
"Is he coming?" Snape asks.
"The likes of you shouldn't speak of the Dark Lord. When he comes back, he will deal with you personally, and I will make sure to be here to watch."
"You were watching the first time I was beside him." Snape says and Dolohov vibrates. Sirius wants to stop him. He wants to break his chains so he can shut his mouth. This, whatever he's doing, it will end badly.
Sirius feels his heartbeat rising.
"So when will he be... Where are we? Have we been here before? A repetition will be greatly amusing." Snape says, he almost laughs at the man's face.
Sirius wants to scream when Dolohov raises his wand.
"I can't kill you, but I will enjoy preparing you for your death." His wand snaps forward. "Crucio." The rough voice says easily -so, so easily- that Sirius thinks nothing will come of it.
"Ah, that won't do. I like them screaming."
Sirius sees that Snape has shut his mouth. His fists clenched inside the restraints.
"Crucio."
No sound is coming from Snape's mouth, they're other noises though, metallic, constant, close.
"Shut up. You're next." Dolohov says and Sirius realises that his wrists are bleeding from the force of trying to break through.
"Crucio." He hits Snape again and a barely there sound comes out of him. Sirius screams, as Snape's body is shaking, the chains holding him still.
"Enjoy the next four days." Dolohov says. "They will be like this. In the end you're going to beg for your death."
_____
Severus feels his eyes are wet as he comes back to his senses. He must have cried in the end -Dolohov takes special pleasure from torture- but he's sure he never screamed.
He knows how to be silent. He had years of practice.
The aftereffects of the curse still linger; they will for days. But it doesn't matter. He got what he wanted.
His name is repeated in his head. One, two, three times. It's not in his head. It's Black.
"He doesn't know when to stop. An unreliable asset." He speaks and he hears the trembling in his voice.
"Are you nuts? He would have killed you." Black's voice is hoarse, rough and his hands move along with a tremor. He was hit too. Severus can recognise it. He has seen it too many times.
He can't catalogue the bleeding at first. Then he does.
"He could have. He takes the torture too far. But that's irrelevant now." He looks Black in the eyes. "It's easy to rile people like him up. They respond to arrogance nicely. They make mistakes. Letting on information that they otherwise shouldn't." He raises an eyebrow. It hurts. "You know, it always worked with you and Potter."
"Are you actually comparing me and James with him?" Black doesn't know where his voice wants to land. It's misplaced, like the expression on his face.
"Well," a sigh, "you told me Lupin's secret."
"I don't know if I want to murder you right now or..."
"While you decide on that, we have four days to leave this place." Severus still doesn't know where they are, but at least he has a time frame now.
At least he managed to remove the immediate threat at Black's life.
The start of repair.
Severus knows it's his fault, they got caught. He hesitated, when he shouldn't. When Black was driving them away from the threat, when he was insisting for them to keep moving.
They were captured, because Severus tries to understand his behaviour, the actions of someone devoid of logic, who has no reason or sense in his blood.
It was irrelevant. It was not the time to pause. A block away from two people who would be glad to imprison them, to kill them.
It was irrelevant, yet so unexpected, so illogical that Severus needed a moment to confirm it. To explain it to Black in case his empty brain hadn't come to the conclusion that the solution was there to take.
Severus would have argued. Pros and cons of the exchange between his life and Regulus's Black. He wasn't sure about the consequences of either.
Yet he never got the chance to think them through. Because Black dismissed this exchange as an option.
Because Black is too many variables stuffed in a person, for Severus to make a meaningful prediction.
Black isn't talking. Severus realizes, belatedly, that his eyes are closed. He opens them again.
"The next part is to learn where we are." Severus says to point out that he's awake.
"The next part is to break these first", a raise of his hands, a shake to make the metal move, "then the wall, then your fucking head."
Black starts to pull them, not a winch for the freshly cut skin. Harder, focused as if he will accidentally produce spontaneous magic.
Maybe he will, Severus thinks and he lets him.
_____
Sirius believes it's been hours, when he hears the click. He doesn't know if it's the result of brute force, magic or both. He doesn't care. One metal circle detached for the other. Chained still, but free.
Snape hears it too. When Sirius looks at him, he's already staring. He seems like he's infuriated and surprised, like he's looking at a peculiar object that he has yet to understand its use.
Sirius grins at him.
"Do you..?" He starts and he wants to brag about his insistence which finally paid off, but his question is cut short by the sound of steps.
He thinks of Snape's torture, of his silent endurance, he thinks about red scars on a back and his grin flatters and vanishes.
"Hide it." Snape tells him, but Sirius has already his thigh above his left hand.
He looks up, and Lucius Malfoy, with all his arrogance and pretentiousness, is standing outside the cell.
"You managed to get yourself captured. Wrapped at my door like a gift."He addresses Snape who raises an eyebrow.
Sirius wants to tell him to shut up this time. They need for Malfoy to leave, so he can free his other hand.
He wants to tell him that another repetition of cruciatus will break him. Sirius doesn't think he will be able to hide his arms for long if it happens.
"It's the company you keep around, I'm sure." Malfoy continues. "I told you before, you're wasting your talents."
"Am I? I'm just using them for different purposes than yours."
"To save lives?" Malfoy mocks. Sirius wants to punch him. He's such a perfect fit for a Black. For Narcissa.
"I saved two in this house." Snape replies and Malfoy presses his lips. It makes his jaw look sharper.
"You will get yourself killed." He says. "No wand, all your precious belongings at my safe. How are you planning to get out? Or are you resigning already?"
Malfoy stands tall, just outside the door. Still, like his prefect hair and his pinched face. Ah, Sirius wants to set him on fire.
"I will find a way." Snape replies.
"Hm. And then? Are you planning to persuade my house-elves to open my safe for you?" A pause. "They alerted me about the unexpected guests."
It’s bizarre, the casualness of the conversation; it’s odd that Malfoy hasn’t taken out his wand.
"Is that why you're here?" Snape asks. He's almost amused.
"I'm just passing by. I'm currently in the middle of an important mission. I have no reason to be here." He says. "Carrow and Avery are here at my stead."
"Not Dolohov?"
Malfoy's eyes blink, a momentary confusion. He lowers his stare, focuses, as if he searching Snape's body.
"A misshapen." He says as he raises it again. "A passing through like me. I'm sure he'll be back. He likes his breaks a little too much."
"I see."
They stare at each. Snape chained to a wall, forcefully sitting, seems more calm than Malfoy's standing figure.
"Is there anything else?" Snape asks like he is the one calling the shots.
Malfoy frowns.
"How's Draco?" Snape continues and Malfoy's frown deepens. "Is he growing well in this lovely environment?"
Malfoy takes his wand out. Snape is so good at pushing people's buttons.
And yet nothing hits him. No spell or curse.
Like a reply to an accusation never heard.
"Narcissa will be disappointed that she won't be able to see her cousin, after she saw the other one."
"It's unfortunate." Snape says.
"Indeed." Malfoy replies as if it pains him, every word. As if this whole farce is tipping him closer to the edge. "It was a proper family reunion."
Malfoy turns, a step.
"Lucius." Snape says. He receives a side glance.
"You are going to get yourself killed." Malfoy tells him and he takes three more steps. And then there is silence.
"What the fucking hell was that?" Sirius asks.
"How long were you holding it in?" Snape says. "Patience is a virtue you're slowly learning."
"Fuck you."
"Manners on the other hand escape you, still."
Then, before Sirius can reply, Snape smiles. It’s hidden, a little pained. His body trembles and Sirius isn't sure if it's from the uplift of his head as it's resting on the wall behind him or the previous torture. A movement of his throat, as he slowly stops, looking at Sirius through half-open eyes.
"Have you lost it?" Sirius asks, his voice sounding off, as if the entire scene has thrown him off balance.
"I don't believe in luck." Snape replies. "Yet you claimed you're lucky." He closes his eyes, a slight uplift of his lips, as he opens them again. "I might consider it an asset of yours if we survive this. We are in the best possible place we could be, considering the circumstances."
_____
Black wants to know the plan, he demands that Severus let out his thoughts, constantly, with persistent intensity, even when, more than half the time, he gets angry about them.
After the painful explanation, and the more excruciating process of getting him to agree to wait until he attacks -because he's free now and believes they're halfway out- he wants to talk about Lucius.
"So you trust him?"
"How many times will you ask me this particular question? Are you going to get bored eventually to hear the same reply?"
"You don't trust anyone." Black groans, a restless energy, his broken chains barely hidden. "So why are we operating as if Malfoy has helped us somehow?"
"Because he did." Severus tells him.
"Why? Malfoy doesn't do anything that can't benefit him."
"That is a right assessment." Severus says, as he tries to move his hands as little as he can. It aches from the weird angle, his skin and bones protesting. Cruciatus is a nasty curse, meant to exploit every part of the body, meant for amusement more than the harm that it causes.
"Thank you." Black replies and he's impatient. "So?"
"Lucius is paying off a debt." Severus replies.
"Because you saved his wife?"
The thing is that Black asks the right questions when he doesn't let his emotions cloud his judgement. He doesn't do it because he put a thought into it, rather, it's more of a lingering afterthought, an itch.
"Partly." Severus replies.
"You did something for him." Black stares.
The last conversation they had on the matter, left them exhausted, and then there was a room and a bed to regroup. Here, there will be a battle of survival. Severus prefers not to engage in something exhausting.
"Yes." Severus says.
"Something awful?" Black asks.
"No." Severus tells him.
"But it still helped him." It's there in the icy blue of his eyes, that the accusation hangs. Lucius Malfoy isn't a person that should be able to receive help of any kind.
"Precisely." Severus challenges him. Irrational, because he should try to drift the conversation away, he should try to make Black to focus on the upcoming steps.
Yet he doesn't like to be questioned about his decisions. About who he chooses to help. About the reasons why.
"What is it?" Black doesn't hesitate to rise to the challenge. He wants to know and at the same time he doesn't.
"Don't be scared, Black nothing nefarious." A glance. "Nothing that you would find too unethical."
"Tell me then." Black is still now, ready for an attack.
Severus sighs.
"When I first became a spy, I needed a way in. Someone to take me to all the right places, to pave the way for me to establish my status. Lucius did that."
Black waits. He isn't satisfied.
"I warned him, before I left. I told him I was a spy."
"What? Why?"
"Because he needed to be the one to sniff out my betrayal, to try and stop me. I had already taken care of everything else. A few carefully crafted memories about who vouched for me, who was the one that let me in. Someone other than Lucius." A blink of his eyes. "Someone for Voldemort to kill when he learnt about my true loyalty."
"Because Lucius Malfoy is what this world needs."
"Perhaps not. The world's needs have never been my concern."
Silence, a far away drip of water.
"He was another Death Eater, if that consoles you. The one who died."
"And now Malfoy owes you. Why didn't he open this cell? Escort us out?" Another accusation, with his voice this time. His stare remains on Severus, a mockery, as if his help to Lucius was somehow betrayed.
"You already answered your question. If he lets us out, he is a dead man."
"Great guy." Black mocks.
"He's not. Still, he gave us a way out. More than that. He gave us a lead. I'm contempt."
"What do you mean more?" Black catches it, but now it's not the time. He is already ready to bounce up his feet, to try and take down this entire mansion.
"Later." Severus says.
"You don't get to..."
But he stops, puts the broken chains under his feet. A distant creak of a door cuts through the air.
"Be patient." Severus says.
"I'm giving you the finger right now, just so you know." He states and looks at the door, waiting for whoever is coming.
"Fascinating." Severus replies and he stares at the door too.
Avery appears darting his eyes between them. He stays outside the cell, because he's born a coward and that will never change.
He was scared of Severus at school and now years later, a mark on his hand, he stays just as scared.
Severus needs to lure him in.
He needs to know where Carrow is.
He needs to know how many of them there are upstairs.
Lucius didn't know about Dolohov, perhaps he missed some other crucial parts.
"A rare occasion to see you alone." Severus starts as Avery raises his wand. "Prisoners in a cell are a perfect opportunity for fake bravery. Especially the ones delivered without effort."
"I don't need anyone to curse you. Stop pretending you're above us. You were always a scum." Avery says. "A filthy dirty scum, we all allowed to exist among us."
"A scum you're scared of." Severus smirks. "At least Dolohov entered the cell."
"Anton can do whatever he wants, when he comes back. I won't smell your filth. Did you manage to buy a second pair of robes? A change of underwear?" A fake laughter.
He hears the sound of Black's restrains. It's not the time yet.
"Eloquent." Severus makes a move, as if he's trying to get up. Avery backs a step. Severus laughs. "Try not to shake too much. You won't be able to deliver the curse correctly."
Avery's nose flares. "Crucio."
It hits him, but unlike Dolohov, this man is not concentrated. Severus has endured worse.
He yells, though he has to, only looking at Black when it stops.
Black stares at him, searching how much of it's performance, how much it's true.
Severus wants to stop everything and ask him if he actually listened when Severus explained, if he heard a single word, when he was the one pestering him about explaining.
"Not so brave now?" Avery takes a step. "Crucio."
It lands better than before, Severus has to close his eyes, he needs something to focus other than pain, so he opens them again, Black's stare a constant a few feet across.
"Snape." Black says, warns, a sitting target with a moving energy.
"How does he look, Black?" Avery asks. "Watch him, you're next." Fake bravery, cruelty from a safe distance, a safe point.
"Call your friends," Severus grits his teeth, "show them the spectacle."
"Levicorpus." Avery laughs as if it's a joke like the ones he said back at Hogwarts. "You showed me this one."
His body tries to follow the magic, to be turned upside down like it should, but it's restrained, it can't. The metal rubs at his skin, piercing it in any place of contact.
"Snape." Black warns again. It's not the time yet. Avery needs to get inside, trap himself in.
"Ah." The man turns his attention to Black, letting Snape fall. "What was your favourite one, Black? Oh, yes exposing him to the whole school. Even I found that funny." He stares at Severus again. "Maybe I will do that next. Cruc..." He starts, but Black gets up, a jolt and he's at the bars.
Not yet, Severus wants to tell him, but he is faster than his voice. He has already grabbed Avery robes.
"H.." A letter, a sound, not even a word, and Black has his hand out of the space between bars and at Avery's hair. A pull back and then forward, towards him, towards the metal.
This time Avery manages a yell, only one, because Black hits him again, constant hits before a wand is even raised. Brute force, a repetition of dull sounds, as he nearly smashes his head.
He lets Avery fall to the ground as he turns to look at Severus. He's breathing hard and fast, his hand has blood on it.
"That wasn't the plan." Severus tells him.
"Fuck your plan." He wipes his hand on his thigh. "I took care of him."
"He could have screamed. Inform the others."
Black is breathing through his mouth. It feels like he could kill him too.
"You could have passed out." Then, as if he's unwilling to continue arguing, as if he's scared of what he'll do, he turns his back on Severus, bending his knees to search for Avery's wand. "Don't test me." He says and there is an edge to his voice. "Let's get out of here."