Twenty-Two
A sharp breath is all he lets out, as he leaves the ghost's mind. A drop on a sink, another, as Myrtle stares at him, shocked and hurt, a hand brushing cloudy tears.
A frown, a hateful look settles on her face. He can almost listen to her accusations, even if he doesn't hear her thoughts any longer.
How could you, who does that? Hurtless monster.
Severus can tell. He has been the recipient of such looks before. Of the words to accompany them.
There is fear, too, attached to it. It's in the way she moves her transparent hand, at the crooked knuckle. In the quick glance elsewhere, and then again on him. Waiting for mockery, preparing for cruelty.
Severus is familiar with the sentiment.
There was nothing funny.
"Hey, Myrtle..." Black starts, but she moves away from him. A wounded animal that was tricked to participate in a joke it didn't understand.
She still has her eyes on Severus.
"Your thoughts were very informative." Severus tells her. He turns a little, leaning over the sink with the engraved snake. There and missed at the same time.
Her mouth moves, contracts, but she is quiet in her crying now.
"You tricked me." She says.
Severus glances at her.
"So you lied when you agreed to cooperate?" He asks and Myrtle floats just a little away.
Severus feels Black's eyes on him.
Perhaps, he thinks that this should be dealt differently, with care. Perhaps he thinks this is the answer.
Maybe it is. For people weak, but likeable. A comfort after hurt, a kind word.
"Sirius was supposed to tell me a secret. And after I would..."
"Ask for something else." Severus tells her.
It doesn't work, the comfort, for people like her. Myrtle is annoying, a resentful ghost, a girl who never grew up. Nobody ever liked her. Nobody will.
"I wouldn't." She says. "I..."
"Yes." Severus tells her. "I tricked you."
"So you agree that..." She finds herself slowly, the shock of her unnecessary death fading into the background of her rage towards Severus, of the hurt of exposure, of a boy that talked to her just because he wanted something.
"Snape." Black warns him.
Severus looks at him, at the way his expression moves rapidly from irritation, to uneasiness, as if he doesn't know what he exactly feels.
Black fails to understand what it means to be unlikeable. How it truly works.
"And it will happen again. Because you are weak and boring." Severus says.
"Don't listen to him." Black moves, a wall between them.
"But you listen to him. You told me to trust him." Myrtle starts crying again, or she never stopped.
"Yeah, he's..." Black groans, a side glance at Severus as if that will help him find the words to finish that sentence.
"You will be tricked again, and you will stay here to cry alone in this sad bathroom." Severus says. "Alone, you are an easy target. Too easy."
Black stares at him. At every word that leaves his mouth. Perhaps into the concealed intent they carry. Perhaps in a way to understand. Maybe after all this time he realises that Severus is rarely cruel, for cruelty itself.
"You are a bad..." Myrtle starts, her mouth pressed in an angry blur.
"There are other ghosts in the castle." Black stops her. "Nice ones. You should go. Better than staying here listening to him."
Myrtle scoffs, hesitates. But Black stays firm, his attention shifts to her, a barely there smile on his face.
"I don't forgive you." She tells Black after a while. She doesn't look at Severus again, before she leaves.
"I'm sorry anyway." He says, even if she can't hear him.
"You could have been nicer." Black tells him, as he approaches, a hand on the sink Severus studies.
"I leave the charms to you." He responds, his breath almost visible in the air. "You made her go."
The winter slips into school in its abandoned corners.
"You intruded her mind." Black leans forward, checking the spot that's supposed to be the entrance. His hair has grown, it almost touches the marble.
"I got results." Severus says. "I don't need to be nice."
Black looks at him. He parts his lips, a question left unspoken, replaced with another as his gaze turns down again.
"Did you get it?"
Severus straightens his back and he nods.
"Be ready." He says, inhaling the cold air.
The sound that leaves his mouth, the word, it's foreign, foreign and as familiar as Myrtle's thoughts, as the surrender when she first stared at her dead body.
_____
The sink drops down before it vanishes entirely, only to reveal a pipe behind it—a round, open entrance, big enough for them to fit through. It is unsettling that this is here, in a girl's bathroom in a school full of children. It’s unsettling and fitting; Hogwarts is both a safe place and a prison.
"I expected something else. Something grander." Black says, as he stares at the entrance.
"Grand." Severus replies flatly.
"Yeah. Not a pipe under a sink." He says.
"Too subtle for you? Not heroic enough to walk into?" Severus says, only for Black to groan.
"Aren't we past the insults?" Black asks, and Severus doesn't look at him.
"What gave you that idea?" Severus says, and before Black can reply-something stupid and personal, totally out of place as always-Severus cuts him off. "It's not insults, when it's the truth."
"Fuck you." He gets the reply, but even this is spoken wrong too. "Are we going?"
The truth is Severus would welcome something grand too. Something more obvious, more loud and showy, something that he could anticipate.
This meaningless opening is more dangerous. It leaves no clues, nothing for him to observe, to analyse.
"Yes." He says and Black takes the first step.
It's dark inside, the lights from their wands illuminate the metal around them, their steps, loud, signaling their approach to whatever is waiting at the end of the tunnel. It's wrong, Severus thinks. They are walking to a trap, exactly as Voldemort instructed, with no information of what lies ahead. A desperate move, a last resort, because they are working blind, in the hope they could make it out victorious.
His next step sounds different, less metallic. He raises his wand, lighting the stony corridor.
He spots a door as they walk forward, big enough to touch the ceiling. There are snakes engraved to it too, serpents echoing the dungeons and sigils of his youth, rooms buried deep beneath the ground.
"Grand enough for you?" He asks Black.
He hears the laughter by his side. A snort that's repeated, that feels foreign in the silence of this place, of what they're about to do. A release of anxiety and danger, of anticipation, after days of stillness.
"You're such a dick." Black looks at him, and even that carries some sort of delight.
Chaos.
Severus turns at the door, inspects it, a move of his wand, an inspection that reveals nothing.
There are two large handles on the door, big, black, metallic, Severus only needs to pull them and open the door.
The answer lies behind it. The danger.
It's a gamble, as soon as he opens it. A coin tossed in the air, an uncertainty as to where it would land. Success or defeat. Life or death. Unknown in a way Severus doesn't like.
It's their only lead. The only way forward. Towards a safe future for Lily, for her son.
Severus doesn't fear death. He never did. He never craved it either. He categorises it as something that he can exchange if it means victory. And victory for him, it's Lily's future.
"What are you thinking?" Black asks.
The problem is the lack of plan. The problem is that he's not alone. The problem is that it's not only his life that will be exchanged.
The problem is, he's hesitating.
Two sets of steps will walk into a possible death, without a plan to prevent it. No backup plan if the first goes wrong.
The problem is that Severus isn't alone. And that thought doesn't bring him any reassurance or consolation. Only dread. Anxiety for this blind movement in the dark. Because the books failed him and all that he's left with is a lead offered willingly from the very person he's trying to defeat.
He grabs the handle of the door, his hand remains there, not forward, not back. Stuck.
Black puts his hand on his arm. A move of his head in question. The light of his wand illuminates his face.
The problem is that Black is here.
The problem is that Severus must make a choice, without any evidence of what the correct one is.
The handle is cold under his fingers. His grip tightens, but his feet are rooted to the ground. Black will follow, he has no reservations when it comes to danger. As if the thrill of it fuels him, as if it makes him stronger. Until it won't. Until his luck will run out.
Severus is staring at the door, he's thinking of the end of the pipe behind them, of retreats. A failure to Lily. His best friend. The only constant that remained throughout the years.
Lily who's funny and kind, and gets angry and stubborn for the most ridiculous things. Who needs only an explanation for her anger to evaporate. Who stays, much like Severus, when she makes a choice. Who still tries for the doomed relationship with her sister. Who saw something in Potter that Severus still struggles to see-who made Potter a better version of himself.
Lily, who loves deeply like it's easy, who took Severus hand and never let go.
Lily who sees underneath people without effort, who fights to bring out the best in everything and everyone.
Lily who loves to drink hot cheap coffee and read a book on a Sunday afternoon.
Lily who trusts Severus to keep her alive. Who trusts Severus like it's easy. A person, the one person, Severus trusted in return.
Black stares at him, waiting for an answer.
"What are you thinking?" He asks again, looking around for anything that he missed. At the stone walls, at the door, for whatever caught Severus attention. He can't find it.
Severus stares at him.
An error in a carefully crafted system.
"The impossibility of choices." Severus tells him.
"You're so..." Black says, a barely there squeeze of his arm, and away.
He makes the choice for both of them, and drags the door open.
_____
The grip on his wand is almost painful, as they enter the room. It matches Black's clenched jaw.
It mirrors the silence of the room, the stillness of it, the danger.
They both know it. It's the product of the many fights before, of the constant exposure to them, the result of years living in a war.
He looks ahead. Grand walls, like Black wanted, snakes again, as if whoever built this place wanted it to be evident where he belonged, who was the master of it.
Water is leaking on the floor, pools in many spots, the unkemptness of it, a contrast with the magnitude this room wants to impose. A revelation of its abandonment.
And then there is movement. Severus catches a glimpse of something as Black raises his wand. Something that moves with a sound he knows, but he can't catalogue as step. It doesn't end, the columns, the barely there light, hides the form. But Severus sees it, the more he stares, a body of something, a body familiar in everything but the size.
A snake. A serpent. Big enough to be visible in a room as large as the dining table of Hogwarts, maybe more.
There is something that he's missing. Something that's there, a connection that he can't seem to make.
His mind is failing him again.
He wanted evidence, something big and grand, a clue, and it's here, but away.
Black has taken a step forward, his wand raised, ready for an attack. He parts his mouth, the beast is just at the end of the hall, Severus is sure they will see its head in a second, in the next breath. It will see them too.
Yellow. He thinks and then death. That was all that Myrtle managed, a single thought, barely that. A killing curse, instant, a killing stare.
Severus drags Black, his hand on his eyes. A surprise that stops, as soon as he presses him behind another column, his palm moves to his mouth.
Severus closes his eyes and breaths. The insanity of this pains him. Black looks at him frowing. He stays put, though—Severus’s right hand on his arm, his left palm still on his mouth. He hears the distant movement, the slide of the beast's belly, dragging across the wet floor.
Severus leans into Black, his mouth close to his ear. He feels his tension.
"There is a way to kill a Horcrux." Severus whispers. He's glad he covers Black mouth, if his stare is an indication of what he would say otherwise. "But until now I thought it was a myth. A carefully crafted tale, a deflection of something not proven to exist, only in scattered scrolls and tales of the past. A wizard's version of fairytale." He takes a breath. "Stay quiet." He says and he removes his hand.
Black is already close, invading his space.
"And you thought of sharing it now?" An angry whisper at his ear.
"Now it's confirmed." Severus answers him.
Whispers in the forced proximity between mouths and ears. The movement of the beast is everywhere. A danger encircling them with every word, with every breath.
"It's a Basilisk." Severus says. "The thing that killed Myrtle." He stops, listening to the sound of the place, to the lack of it. "The thing that it's here."
He looks at Black.
"A stare to its eyes means death." A tight grab on his arm. "A bite from his poison means death."
Staying here means death. And yet.
"Are you sure it can destroy the Horcruxes?" Black asks and Severus nods.
"Lucky in our unluck." Black says, and Severus hears the movement too late, as Black pushes him out of the way.
Severus almost falls, the column they were standing is now missing its half. He barely manages to avert his gaze, as the snake moves towards him.
"Black." Severus says, because he is nowhere to be seen, and then. "Incendio."
He doesn't know if he hits, he can't look, it's as if he's fighting with his hands tight.
"Black." Severus says again, as he turns and runs, as the beast is cornering him.
"Confringo." He hears somewhere behind him, and a part of the wall starts falling on his side.
Severus takes a breath through his nose, he lets it escape from his mouth. "Protego." Black voice matches his steps, the magic he surrounds Severus with, as the wall crumbles, crashing the snake. "I'm fine." Black adds.
"I figured." Severus tells him. He turns around watching Black, his dusty figure, a pile of debris between them, moving as the Basilisk is shedding its temporary confinements away.
"How will we fight it if we can't look at it?" Black asks. There is an edge to his voice, a gun ready to be fired. A gun Severus holds in his hands.
The snake emerges, a glimpse of teeth, too close to an end.
"Bombarda." Severus casts, as he takes a step to the side.
"Think." Black says and Severus hears him running, his feet are hitting the water on the floor.
An open mouth nearly bites Severus shoulders, bites him whole.
"Incedio." Black casts. "Bombarda." Louder. "Move out of its way." He yells. "Reducto."
The Basilisk is disoriented for a moment from the constant assault of Black's spells.
It acknowledges him for the first time.
Severus needs to balance the fight. He needs to tip the scale just enough. He needs to create a chance, where there is none. He always did. He always does.
A space to fit.
"Aqua Eructo." Black says to disorient the beast that moves in his direction, as Severus casts, "Protego Maxima," around Black.
"It's fucking warm." Black says. "Your magic. Like a fireplace. Did I ever tell you?"
"Do you really...?" Severus stops. He is used to it by now. Unfitting sentences in the oddest of places.
The scales of the snake rattle on the ground. On Black's water. Drops from the ceiling on the floor, on the huge body of a beast ready to devour them.
"Glaceo." Severus casts. "Freeze the floor. Freeze everything." He tells to Black, not waiting to hear his response, feeling it in the next breath, in the next cast, in the way the cold becomes unbearable.
The snake is following him again, even if Black casts too. Even if he's right there.
"Smooth the surface." Severus tells him. He feels a breath that rattles almost at his neck. "Tergeo." He casts as the place freezes gradually, entirely, a frozen cage. For them. For the beast that Voldemort wanted to unleash for his cleansing.
"Tergeo." Black echoes from the other side of the room and the frozen haze clears, ice smoothed like glass, still and reflective. A make swift mirror, a chance.
"You are an absolute lunatic." Black tells him, as Severus circles the room, as he's standing in front of him, to the place they started.
A stare, for a moment, not even that and Severus looks at the floor, at the beast reflecting on it.
"We have to blind it." Severus says, as the beast dives, as Black grabs his shoulder, pulling him.
Severus sees the end of his robes scattered on the floor. Black is ready to look too, a large head appears on it.
Severus puts his hand on his eyes.
"No." He says and Black breath hits his face. "It will still cause damage." He says.
"Okay." Black breathes out.
And they move again.
But the attacks are more precise now. Not enough to be lethal, but they are moving, not running, waiting for a chance. A way to blind the creature. That will give them the true leverage.
It's evident, as they move and cast, apart, then together again, that the beast is fixed on Severus. Even if Black is louder, more tense, a whirl of spells flying rapidly from the almost lazy way he swings his wand.
It's a prospect. A possibility. Maybe Severus should be cleansed too. He can't afford to think about it now.
He pushes Black just enough. Just to create a distance. And he moves purposely, with intent, a resemblance of control for the first time since they came here.
"What are you doing?" Black yells.
"Blind it." Severus tells him. "Blast his eyes."
"Snape." Black yells again, but Severus has already moved, the creature predictably has moved with him. He stands still in front of a crumbled wall, the reflection of the snake on the floor, its presence looming almost above him.
"Snape."
Maybe he can survive a bite. Maybe Black is lucky enough for the both of them.
He stares at the floor, as the creature moves his body down at him, a dot for it to crush, to devour.
Severus takes a breath, he grips his wand tighter. He's creating a chance.
He sees the mouth opening, big enough to cover its eyes. He wonders briefly if they can be blasted, the precision it needs for that.
He wonders if Lily will forgive him.
"Sectumsempra." Black says and it's so foreign coming out of his mouth, in his voice. The desperation of it. "Sectumsempra." He says again and it's angry.
Severus sees the drops of blood on his feet, the seething comes next, as the snake surges forward. Blind as it is, it hits the wall behind Severus.
He loses his balance, or he had lost it already, his back hits a broken pipe, the edge of it. A cut, he feels it, as Black drags him away from the crumbling wall, from a snake that it's blindly trying to eat him alive.
"I'm going to kill you." Black tells him. "I'm going to..."
But there is no time. They gained a footing, but the Basilisk is not dead yet.
"Focus." He says to Black, an echo of it, a command to himself.
The beast is furious as it emerges. He hits Black with enough force that even Severus shield can't block entirely.
"I'm fine." Black says from the floor. Severus can't afford to disagree.
Severus feels the ache on his back, a spot he can't reach with his hands, a deep cut, that he's sure is bleeding.
He raises his gaze and he looks at the Basilisk for the first time. The skin on its face is intact, no lines, no bleeding, but his eyes are wounded, scratched, the evidence that Severus spell worked, that Black managed to use it right.
The creature dives down at him, maybe there is something on his blood, on his magic that lures it, but it takes a step for Severus to avoid it. A lift of his wand to hit it with a spell.
He gets a dark satisfaction from it. Even when it's far from over, even if his back burns, and the exhaustion slips slowly in.
"Incedio." Severus says pointing at his eyes. Its scale seems mostly unscathed. He needs a weak point.
"Bombarda Maxima." Black aims at its head as he's getting up.
The snake opens its mouth. Severus levitates a large stone from the fallen wall. Black blasts his head again, standing still on Severus side.
"Now." He says and Severus forces the stone in, keeping its mouth open.
"Do you believe a killing curse will work?" Black asks as the beast seethes, trying to crush the stone.
"Do you have enough intend to do it?" Severus glances at him." Enough for dark magic?"
Black looks feral, exhausted, accelerated, all at once.
He used Severus's spell. He owned it.
"Follow my lead." Severus says and the green lines hit the creature. "Don't stop until it's down."
Severus doesn't know if it falls on the first try, on the tenth. All he sees is green. All he feels is Black shoulder on his side.
The crash of the creature echoes all around them.