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We are all just standing there, unsure what to do next. Sirius keeps the wand steady towards us. "Sirius, what on earth are you doing?" I frown confused. "It seems they think you're my hostage." Severus mutters from the side of his lip. I turn to look at him:"Hostage?". Sirius scoffs:"She's clearly under a curse..-", "I am not! You duff, fleabag!" my head snaps back to him. Just when Sirius is about to say something back, Remus steps forward:"How about we all put down the wands and..-", "Are you mad?! No way in hell we're going to let our guards down in front of the man who killed Dumbledore!" Ron exclaims. Hearing someone saying that out loud yet again makes this pang of a feeling in my heart. They don't understand. Severus stays quiet, silently accepting his position in this situation.
I can feel how his grip around my wrist loosens. Like he's ready to let me go by his side to their side if that's what I want. But I quickly hold onto his hand and make us interlock our fingers without taking eyes off the people in front of us, and place myself more in front of him as a shield. This obviously surprises him, but keeps the composure. Some of them also look more baffled than the other when they notice this. "If you wanna get to him, you need to go thru me first." my eyes travels from all of their faces, ending up to Harry, who has been peeking behind Sirius this whole time. Hermione tries to reason:"Professor (Y/L)... You can't be this oblivious. He..-", "I know what he has done. But I also know how he had no choice either." I explain with somewhat calm, yet stern manner.
Hermione's brows raise. She's clearly having a hard time to wrap around her head what's the right thing to do here. Tonks looks up to her husband beside her. It's hard to read from Remus's face what's going thru his mind right now as he's staring back at me. Sirius seems to get more and more impatient as he keeps shifting his eyes from us to Remus. Like he's waiting him to make the call if they should do something before it'll be too late. There is a pleading look in my eyes, hoping they would understand and not to go against us. I don't want to fight any of them. Not because I would be loosing to them, but because the damage I would be willing to do to if they would raise their wands towards the love of my life.
When all of sudden, out of all of the eight people - Neville is the one who takes a step forward. The grip around my wand tightens as well as the grip around Severus's hand. There is this turn in my heart. Neville..- As soon as he has taken few steps towards us, he turns to face the others. Huh? Ron frowns in disbelieve:"Neville?! What are you..-", "If you wanna get to them... You need to go thru me as well." Neville stated with the mix of bravery and nervousness. We're all looking at him baffled. Out of all people... Neville Longbottom, who has been terrified of Snape thru out all of his school years, is actually standing up for him. There is a mix of confusion and proud in me while staring at the boy's back. It's like he went from this small, frightened young boy to this tall and brave man in that moment.
Without a word, Luna comes to stand beside her boyfriend. The couple shares this shy smile before looking back at the group in front of us. Tonks follows pretty much right after. "Wh..?" Ron looks all baffled this turn of event. Remus sighs like the decision has been made and turns his body a little towards his long time friend as a sign it is time to put the wand down. With gritted teeth, Sirius comply, and the rest of the group follows. Remus gives two heavy, brotherly pats on his friend's shoulder. "Guess she truly is crooked from the head." Sirius mutters to himself. I do understand where Sirius is coming from. He only wants to protect his loved ones. But so do I. Despite all of this, I do feel relieved they all put down their wands and none of us needs to fight against each other. We need to work together. I look up to Severus and offer him a reassuring smile. He notices this and his eyes softens a bit. "What you mean you had no choice?" Harry finally speaks up, eyes narrowed to the man beside me.
We all turn to look at the boy. That's when I remember why we were running with Severus in the first place - to find him and tell him the truth. Just when Severus and I are about to answer to the question, we hear two bombing sounds in the distance, followed by three Death Eaters flying behind the corner with high speed in smoke form above us. Severus is quick to yank me back into his arms to protect, shoot a spell to get one of them down in mid air as well as Tonks and Remus gets the other two. The enemies groans from pain as they hit the hard ground and their bodies roll few times before stopping. We are all back in alert, knowing they will get up anytime soon. Right after, we hear how there are more people coming this way, bringing their fight where we are standing.
I quickly shake my head to refocus and turn to Harry:"We don't have the time to explain. But there is something you must know.". Before Harry can say anything to that, Remus interrupts:"Think you'll need continue your discussion somewhere else before we get more company.". The battle cries in the distance becomes more and more loud as the people are approaching. Everyone gets their wands ready to deal whatever is about to run behind that corner the Death Eaters came from. Sirius and I then share a look as in asking if he'll trust Harry to come with me and Severus while they'll handle the enemies. He ends up nudging his head the direction we should go to:"Go.". Without wasting any time, Severus and I rush to Harry to leave the place. In that brief moment, as I past by Neville, I give him a quick pat on the side of his arm:"Hold the fort, Neville.".
We are now heading towards my chamber with haste. There, we can have a breather and I can make sure Dongy has indeed get Muffin out of there to safety. Even Harry is fully capable of protecting himself, Severus and I keep walking near him, so the boy is walking between us as I'm leading ahead and Severus coming right behind us. We cast spells left and right if anyone tries to come close. Every turn of a corner we make, we haveto be careful that there's no one there trying to ambush us. "I can't believe Dumbledore would actually go as far as asking you to kill him." Harry sounds amazed after Severus just told his side of the story as we walk along the broken corridors. Of course, Severus hasn't told him the most important part yet. I'm still not sure how are we going to bring it up. And it seems neither does Severus. Maybe we should just go for it? Rip it off like a band-aid.
Harry told us how they have managed to destroy the Hufflepuff's Cup, and the Ravenclaw's Diadem not too long ago. So maybe that is why Voldemort was having that stroke like back at the Boathouse? He felt it when the diadem got destroyed, and now he's somewhere recovering. They find it from the Room of Hidden Things. He also told us how Draco was there with two of his friends. Seems that he tried to stop Harry and the others from finding the diadem after releasing the Slytherins from the dungeons - or at least pretend to be stopping him. "Do you think he would have actually done it despite his friends whispering into his ear?" I ask. Harry shook his head:"No, he was lowering his wand.". Knew Draco wouldn't be able to actually kill Harry.
"How many Horcruxes are there left?" Severus asks while now walking ahead, keeping an eye of the possible enemies. "Two. But we don't have any idea what they might be." the boy answer. His words immediately makes Severus and I stop and we both turn to look at him. "What?" Harry wonders. Two left? Like Dumbledore said, we need to wait when Voldemort is at his most vulnerable state. And I believe it's the time. My gaze shifts from the boy to Severus:"Do you know what the other one is?" I ask from Severus. "Unfortunately, no. We were never shared such information. But I do have a hunch what it could be.". "Other one? Wait, so you two know what one of them is?" Harry keeps turning his head between us two.
Just when Severus is about to tell Harry the truth, we hear how someone just used Apparate spell one corner further away from us. It got us all on alert and we lift up our wands ready. "I can't believe you two idiots actually got yourself tied up all the way up in that tower AND loose your bloody wands. How more useless can you get?!" familiar male voice hisses. "Don't blame us! It wasn't our fault." other male voice hisses back. Bartemius and the Carrow twins. They are now standing in the hallway that leads to the chamber, planning on what to do next so they can find Potter from this castle. Clearly unaware he's one corner away from them. Severus and I share yet another look, as in wondering what we should do.
We either need to fight them, or go the other way to get past them. "(Y/N)..." Severus whispers with the low and deep voice. "Hm?" I let out a hum. "Find another way into the chamber for you and Potter. I'll meet you two there." he tells. I immediately walk up to him and whisper back:"What?! No, Sev. I won't let yo..-", he holds onto my hands, shutting them inside his palms in caring way:"They are still unaware what happened in the Boathouse. Now, go. There's no time to waste.". Sev... For a quick moment, we stare into each others eyes. I don't want to leave him alone with those people, but... "Please be careful." I whisper, raise our connected hands and place a kiss on it. With that, we release the touch and Severus uses Apparate to tranfer himself to the same hallway with rest of the Death Eaters. Immediately Harry and I hear how Bartemius and the twins starts blasting him with all kinds of questions, which he answers as usual cold manner. "Let's go." I whisper to Harry and we start heading the other way.
After a while, we got into the chamber without any problems and shut the door behind. "Merlin..." I look around what the war has done to the room. The place is a mess. Most of the things has fallen down from the book shelf and piece of the ceiling has fallen down onto the desk and the small of the kitchen area that is now broken in half. The good thing is, Dongy has taken Muffin with him. The cage is gone as well. Thank you, Dongy. "I'd, uh... I would offer you some tea, but I guess the stove is busted. And, uh... Well, guess it's not the time for cozy chat." I chuckle awkwardly. For a moment Harry watches as I walk deeper into the room and look at the damage before speaking:"Can't lie, I got little bit surprised you two are an actually couple. Considering how there were the rumors you two hate each other. Or the fact Snape is a... Well, Snape.". I glance over my shoulder to see him:"Hm?". Somehow seeing him standing there all alone makes me feel more uneasy to break the news to him. How can I tell this young boy he needs to die for order to save us all?
My palms began to sweat and I start rubbing them together:"Yes, well... Life is fully of surprises, heh.". He sees how my thoughts are clearly disoriented:"Professor?". There is a twist in my heart. He must know. Little bit hesitatingly, I lift my gaze up to him across the room and start:"Harry... There is something important you must know.". "What is it?" he ask. Part of me feels I shouldn't be the one to tell him all this, but there is no turning back - not right now. "I happened to see... A memory, that gave very detailed information about you and... Him." I start with. Harry says nothing and just waits for me to continue. "That night - when your parents got killed... I can't remember the exact words Dumbledore used, but... He..- Voldemort, when he tried to cast the curse on you and your mother jumped in, something went wrong and...", "And?" Harry takes a step closer.
My eyes went up and down on him in apologetic manner:"A part of his soul got into the only living thing that it could find.". His eyes widen and the look on his face drops:"You mean..?". "You are one of the Horcruxes, Harry." I tell him. There. I said it. And I feel even more worse now. "Does..- Does he know about this? Voldemort, I mean." he ask. I shook my head:"I don't think he does.". Harry lower the gaze to let the information to sink in. The fade sound of the war keeps happening somewhere in the distance, filling the silence between us. Unsure what to say or do at this moment:"I..- I'm sorry. Wish there was something I could do to..-", "Do it then." Harry suddenly orders. "Huh?" I look at him confused what he meant by that. The boy looks more serious than afraid as he's staring dead in the eye:"Kill me.".