Princess

Severus knew from the begining that the planned action was gross, but he was absolutely not prepared for how gut-wretching the experience was going to be.

The fact that he managed to find a baby whos similiarity was strikingly accurate to the real thing did not helped at all.

It was almost three in the morning, when he, concealed by disillusionment charm, sneaked out of the St Georges' Hospital morgue, clutching a tiny, terribly cold body to his chest.

From what he found out the naked, porcelain coloured corpus with awfuly familiar dark curls belonged to Ava Fitzpatrick, twenty months old girl who lost her battle to a severe bacterial infection shortly after the midnight.

When Severus apparated to the agreed meeting point he imedilately put the body on the ground, covered her with his cloak, and dropped on all fours in to near-by shruddery, to expell all remains of his lunch. 

Oh heavens, wasn't he just pathetic? A Death Eater with a weak stomach, stealing dead to save lives.

He cut off his musing and dry gags when distinct pop of apparation reverberated through the night air and he straightened up. Lucius - sure enough empty handed - walked to him in clear irritation. 

"Not a single child died in any of the hospitals I visited" he yammered imedilately, outraged by the audacity of the all surviving children.

Severus mutely pointed at the dark shape on the ground, not sparing a glance in the direction and wiped his mouth with shaky sleeve.

"Briliant!" Malfoy exclaimed, crouching over the corpse. "Though she looks little too dead, if you know what I mean" He added then, examining the bluish tinge of her white skin.

Severus sniffed in exasperation. "She died three hours ago, that's as fresh as they come, and she fits the purpose perfectly" He defended. Even though he was thoroughly disgusted by his deed, it was still a laudable achievement, and Lucius was the last one entitled to whine.

"I know, I know" Lucius cooed with hands raised in mock surrender. "All I say is that it does not look as though she was just striked with a killing curse. She needs to get little amended" He said in somewhat perverse tone, and slashed his wand.

There was a sickening sound of unfathomable amount of abuse being inflicted upon bones and flesh.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Severus whisper-screamed.

Lucius shrugged dismissively. "We can say we got bit carried away. She looks much more authentically like this"

Severus glanced towards the beaten and broken tiny body and clasped hand over his mouth thightly.

It definitetly looked authentic.

"What's the story?" Lucius then asked, packing the girl back in to cloak and swinging her over his shoulder.

"Found in a house of old muggle living few miles from the cottage. We killed him and destroyed the body" Severus offered.

"Sounds about right" Lucius flashed a wolfish grin and disapparated away with their trophy.

.

When they arived back to the Malfoys' manor the sky still did not betrayed any signs of the upcoming sunrise, but the house was alit and alive.

They marched their way straight in to the drawning-room, which was filled with about dozen of Death Eaters, centred around agitated looking Dark Lord.

The vivid conversation stopped at once and all eyes turned to them. Lucius fell on to one knee, unpacked the cloak and placed the carcass to Dark Lords' feet. "We tracked down the brat, My Lord" He breathed accommodatingly.

Severus dropped to both of his knees next to him and meekly bowed his head.

Voldemort turned girls' bruised face with the tip of his boot. "Very well" He hissed. "Don't you ever disapoint me again"

Both penitent Death Eaters eagerly promised.

Severus' palms tickled with relief; just as he anticipated, the Dark Lord was already over this aggravating mislap, his focus directed to whatever news Avery have brought.

But then he noticed someone who did not shared Dark Lords' easy denouement; Bellatrix stood in the backround, her shoulders dropped dejectedly and her crazy eyes bore in to the dead baby with smoldering suspision.

She did not took the bite.

Severus' worrisome deliberation got interupted by an ominous hissing sound which made him involuntary flinch; the Dark Lord spoke up in parseltongue.

Out of nowhere the giant snake, which the Dark Lord kept as some twisted imitation of a pet, crawled in to the centre of the room, opened it's hideous snout and pounced at the dead baby.

Severus started to his feet and panickedly backed away. The serpent - it's jaw dislocated - devoured the girl, sucking her in, in one monstrous gulp.

It cost Severus all he had not to violently vomit, or maybe even faint. But when he managed to unglue his sight from the mortifying spectacle, he realised that this time he was not the only one feeling malaise. Most of the present Death Eaters seemed genuinely stricken, Narcissa in particular appeared to be strongly affected by the display; her naturaly pale face went ashen, her jaw was locked tight and she kept swallowing rapidly while looking anywhere else but the unexpected snake picnic. 

Severus mused just how hard it have to be for her, to witness something this horrible, when her own baby was sleeping just few rooms away. The random thought of compassion fluently brought some other baby to his mind, a certain dark-curled girl sleeping in a dingy motel room, and it made him feel iller than ever before.

The Dark Lord was oblivious to the effect the scene had. He carried on as though the massacre happening under his feet was nothing out of ordinary. "You may go" He vauguely motioned towards Lucius - who still bravely held his position, though visibly shaken - and turned back to Avery.

There was a clear distaste upon Lucius' face, from being dismissed in his own house, but nevertheless, he accepted the opportunity to escape with proportionally concealed eagerness. He, along with Narcissa, quietly made their way out of the congested room.

No one adressed Severus, but since the Dark Lord, with most of the others, seemed to be engaged enough in their conversation, he decided to try his luck and abscond too, and so he sneaked out of the drawning-room right in tail behind Cissy.

He felt very well done with everything; all he wanted to do right now was to get rid of Ide, find her a nice, safe place to continue her life, then take a shower and go to sleep for few months, but in a next second all of his thoughts were washed away by a feeling of singular dread - as he walked down the thick-carpeted hallway behind the two Malfoys' and was just about to quietly take his leave, he overheard a piece of Narcissas' whispered synopsis. "He is convinced that the prophecy is talking about the Potters'..." She consecrated Lucius in.

Severus choked and stopped dead in his tracks, then recovered just a second later and caugh up with the two. "What were you saying Narcissa? About what is the said prophecy speaking?" He tried to sound just accurately interested, while his heart hammered straight in to his adams' apple. His mind reeled around one thing only now; Lily. She was in danger.

Both Lucius and Narcissa turned to him in surprise, clearly unaware to have him in their wake, but then Narcissa gestured towards black polished doors and the three of them entered a smaller salon. Lucius settled comfortably in to the leather love-seat; he was obviously on the top of the world again, with the threat of the lost girl off of his back. Narcissa stood next to him, only her rigid posture betraying how shaken she still was, and without preamble she started her recount of the night events.

"Since Willkins still not returned, Avery took on the duty of spying on to Dumbledore..." She droned in soft, detached voice, and Severus got stricken by understanding. So that was the reason behind Willkins' cold call. Severus didn't find it likely that he was able to overheard his and Dumbledores' conversation, but he sure knew as much as that the two of them have met.

"...came in here, talking about some prophecy" Narcissa was getting on with the narrative, unaware of Severus' inner brooding. "The Dark Lord took it very seriously, of course. I cannot recal the exact form of the prophecy, but it talked about the approach of the one with a power to vanquish the Dark Lord..." Her voice shook and then died away and she shuddered and looked around, terrifed of saying such a things out loud.

"And the Dark Lord is convinced that it have anything to do with the Potters'?" Severus prodded when she showed no inclination to continue. He sensed Lucius' inquisitive look, but he paid it no mind, because Narcissa began to speak again.

"Yes. There were some allusions as about whom it might speak, and the Dark Lord believes that it is the Potters' child"

All the blood drained out of Severus' face and he felt as though a wind was knocked out of him. Through the dull static that took over his brain he muttered some apology and a farewell and with feigned calm he left the premises.

For once the plan was plain; he had to save Lily, no matter what.

The fact that he had no clear idea of how to do that did not stopped Severus from lurching straight in to action, and so he, just a seconds later from his franatic flight of the Malfoys' estate, found himself desperately knocking on to the locked doors of the Hogs Head pub.

At the moment of his apparation, it seemed reasonable enough to go there; he did not had any information of Lilys' whereabouts, so the only logical mean of help - again - remained Dumbledore. The dire need mostly deprived Severus of the previous bitternes towards the old man.

After waking Aberfort Dumbledore up, the plan no longer seemed too reasonable though. The old man was angry.

"Get out! Last night I caught another cockroach of yours, spying in my pub. Get out unless you want me to turn you inside out" The bartender screamed, clad only in his grey nightgown and then slashed his wand, knocking Severus off of his feet with a knot of invisble force.

In a heap of bruises and black cloth Severus cursed under his breath and slowly scrambled back up to his feet, to find the doors of the inn closed once more. Fuck.

What was it, he mused sourly, that made all of the Dumbledore kin so uninclined to help him?

Well, possibly the Dark Mark.

Resentful, but determinet all the same, Severus limped through the dead-ending aisle behind the pub and gingerly lowered himself on to low stone wall, marking the edge of the village.

With a matter as important and delicate as was the caveat he carried, Severus desired to convey it to Dumbledore in person, but with the limited options and time relentlessly ticking away, he settled for sending his Patronus, telling the beautiful doe of his about the overheard prophecy and it's dreadful consequences.

At least little bit pacified, believing that Dumbledore will do all that was necessary to ensure Lilys' safety, he took a deep breath and in his thoughts he went back to the thing that the prophecy temporarily erased from his mind - Ide; now, with the Dark Lord conciliated by the body of the poor Fitzpatrick kid, the girl was hopefully free. All Severus needed to take care of now, was to find her a suitable people and place to drop her by, with a delicately explained letter. Finally, they were free of each other.