-82-
Back in the forest, I'm standing stunned look on my face what I have just discovered. Severus... It's him! First, my mind goes completely blank - like I lost my hearing at this point. All I can see how his mouth is moving, but it's like he has gone on mute. This can't be real. It just can't! All this time... He's the mystery Death Eater. Then, my eyes goes to his side that is bleeding. The blood is increasing. My head starts shaking on it's own and let out under my breath:"No...". What do I do?! Quickly, I kneel down beside him and ignore everything he's muttering weakly under his breath. With shaky fingers, I try to unbutton his black vest as fast as I can. But there are too many buttons, it frustrates me. C'mon... C'mon..! After five buttons, I end up hissing:"Damn it! I'm sorry..-", then, with strong move, I rip the vest open by using both of my hands, revealing the white bloody shirt he has underneath it. The buttons goes flying. Now I can see the wound better.
Some of the blood gets into my hands, but I don't care. I can just feel how my nose starts to tinkle as the tears wants to come up, but I keep brave face and pull out my wand again. Then, I take a deep breath and gently place it above the bleeding wound. "Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur, Vulnera Sanentur..." I keep repeating under my breath like a song. The wand keeps shaking, but I do this as carefully as I can. Slowly - but surely, the blood starts going back in and the deep wound starts to knit close. At this point, I don't care what the situation is between us. I don't care if he killed the Greatest Wizard of all time. I don't care if he's a traitor. I don't care if he'll hurt me after I have healed him. I don't care if the feelings he showed towards me were fake... All I care now is to safe him. I can't let him die. I won't.
The wound is no near healed when all of sudden, Severus grabs my wrist I'm holding the wand in. My head snaps right to look at his face. He's gritting his teeth thru the pain:"You dumb badger... Didn't you hear what I said? Leave..! For this instant.". My eyes flutter as the tears raises on my (e/c) eyes. He then shoves my hand away in angry manner, but I can tell that the sudden movement hurt the wound. Before I can say anything, I feel a hand grabbing me tight and I get yanked on my feet. What the..-?! Quickly, I turn to look over my shoulder. It's Mad-eye Moody! "Let's go." he hisses annoyed and starts leading me away. "Wh..-Wait..! Alastor!!" I protest, but for vain. He won't listen to me and keeps on walking while having his big hand around my arm. Severus's breathing keeps shuddering as he watches us go while laying on the ground. He's too weak to do anything.
No matter how I try to talk to Moody we need to go back and make sure Severus is alright, he won't budge. He only tells me to shut up and keep on walking while yanking me deeper into the woods. "No! You don't understand, Alastor..-!" the more I talk and make resistance, it annoys him more and more. But I don't care. I want to see he's alright! We walk a while like that until I have enough and rip my hand out of his reach:"Enough!!!". Moody quickly turns to me and brings his face very close to mine while hissing his index finger up:"I am not letting that insignificant, unfaithful coward take the credit for bringing you to the Dark Lord!". What?! Then, he does this weird tongue movement, like snakes do. Never seen him do that before. My whole face is written by confusion what he just said:"Wha..?". I don't understand anything what's he saying.
Moody then takes a step away from me, but I keep the stern stare:"Are you saying that Severus was just using his injury... To trap me?". That... Can't be right. Moody won't say anything. It angers me. He then picks up the flask from his pocket and is about to drink from it, but I quickly snatch it from his hand:"Hey! I asked you a question here!". He isn't happy what I just did and reaches his hand:"(Y/N)... Give that back.". I take a step back to create distance and snap:"No! I'm done with your little riddles and constant alcohol consumption! You don't need it!". Then, I turn around and with strong move throw the flask somewhere in the forest. There! Maybe I cross a line here, but I don't care. Not right now. I'm too upset to care if he's going to get angry with me for not giving him his alcohol.
Mad-eye's eye widens for a split second, surprised by my action. Until his face turns to dark one:"Very well... Thought I'd stay like this until I've finished my mission, but... You leave me no choice.". My chest keeps going up and down as this anger inside me keeps bubbling, and I turn to look at him to huff:"What?". My eyes widens out of shock when I see how his face slowly falls down, like it's melting. What?! "A-Are you having a stroke?!" I gasp, immediately thinking if the liquid in the flask wasn't alcohol, but his medicine or something. Oh, no! He starts twitching while doing the weird tongue thing. "Alastor!" I yell and hold onto him as he falls down to his knees. He starts growling like he's hurting. This is bad! Panic hits and I try to get up:"Let me..-", "No." he grabs me by the wrist, preventing me to leave by his side. "Wh-what you want me to do?! I'm not a doctor!" I keep panicking. As he starts taking his artificial eye off, my heart drops, thinking he's really going to die here and now - because of me:"ALASTOR!!".
Then, he drops his head down and it got quiet. That's when I realize, the color of his hair has changed from the grey-blonde into darker one. Wait... The clothes he has on got too big for his size all of sudden. Like he had just shrunked. Don't tell me..- The man lift his head up with evil smirk while holding onto my wrist. That's not Alastor! No idea who the person is. But first thing that comes to my mind is some sort drug addict. Quickly, I yank my hand away and take couple steps back:"You're not Alastor..!". "Smart girl, indeed..." he chuckles while panting. Never seen anyone have these kind of affects when using Polyjuice potion. Unless it's a side effect from drinking too long for it..?
That's when I realize that the flask I just threw away might have the potion in it. "You really are slow, (Y/N)... Easy on the eyes, but slow." the man continues chuckling. Pointing my wand at him:"Who are you and what have you done to Alastor?!". There is still this little hope in me that maybe the real Alastor got separated during the fight up in the sky. "No need to bother that pretty head of yours with that, sweetheart." he smiles. The grip around my wand tightens and I take a step forward to show him I'm not afraid. Even I am. Then, I hear some rustling in the distance and my head quickly snaps towards the sound. He's not alone. The man in front of me keeps on smiling while staying on his knees:"My goal was to bring Harry Potter while all the rest of you struggle to get your way to Burrow... But having you here is the second best choice.". What?!
Then, few heads pops out of the surface of the hill in the distance where the rustling came from. My heart sinks and I take a step back. Death Eaters?! No... They are not dressed like them. "To make this more fun, (Y/N)... I suggest you to run." the man on the ground whispers with venom's tone. My gaze keeps shifting from him to the people who are now approaching. I'm struggling what to do here. There are too many of them for me to take them down on my own. What do I do..? They start to draw their own wands now. Fuck! With that, I turn around and start running as fast as I can. The fake Alastor stares after me for a moment longer, almost like giving me a small head start - just for fun. Then he tells the others:"Snatch her.". Immediately, all of them starts go running after me.
The ground keeps rustling under my feet by every running step I take. The trees and bushes keeps whooshing past me. Not even sure at this point if any of my feet touches the ground, all I know I'm moving fast. I don't even know where I'm going at this point. But it doesn't matter. I need to get away from them! "Run little badger..! Run!!" an evil laughter echoes around the woods as I keep on running. Shit. It's like this is just a game for them. A spell gets hit to a tree near me. "Ahh!!" I let out a shriek, but won't stop running. They are not only trying to stun or hurt me, they are also casting chains to catch me. Some of them gets wrapped around the trees along the way when they miss me. Fucking shit. Desperately, I try to cast counters back over my shoulder. After doing Bombarda, the ground goes 'BOOM!' and two of the Snatchers gets blasted. But that's not really giving me the reason to start celebrating - at least not yet.
Think, (Y/N)! THINK! For some reason I can just imagine Severus's voice in my head, ordering me to use the Apparate spell to escape. In intense moment like this gives way too big of a challenge for my talent and brain to do so, but... I can try. Without stopping, I put all my focus to transport myself further away from here. C'mon... C'mon..! Just when I reach the mentality where to go, I hear awfully familiar voice calling me:"There is no escape, (Y/N).". Huh?! I vanish, but end up appearing behind the group of Snatchers. FUCK. Immediately, they all stop running and turn around to see me, confused by this. Awkward smile raises on my face:"Heh...". Then I start running again - only this time to the direction I originally came from.
All I get to do is run few meters until one of the Snatchers casts the spell that shoots chains, and the chains gets wrapped around my legs and right away fall down to the ground. "Ah!!" I let out a scream when this happens. The wand flies out of my hand at the same time. No! The chains are tightly around me, can just feel how they are getting tighter and tighter by every second. Shit! The Snatchers starts laughing and are coming this way to catch me. As fast as I can, I start crawling to get the wand, but just when I'm about to grab it, someone kicks it further away, making some of the leafs on the ground fly as well. "No..." I let out under my breath. The person who kicked it now stands in front of me. "Hello, pumpkin." the person smirks. My heart sinks. That voice. Slowly, I look up to see if one of my biggest fears has come true. When our eyes meet, my whole world stopped. Dad.