Defense Against the Dark Arts
Severus was doing his rounds that evening after he finished administering his scheduled detentions. He had gone easy on the Weasley twins, something he never did, but Avi had come to him before dinner and told him what had transpired between the students and the Defence ‘Professor’. He had had the twins work on powdering lacewing flies while the MacMillan boy skinned boomslang snakes. Ernest had complained about the unfairness of the assigned chores enough to earn a second detention for the following night. Not that Severus particularly cared, MacMillan had been caught cursing two first-year Slytherin boys that with only a week of schooling had no hope of defending themselves against a third-year Hufflepuff. Both boys were in the hospital wing overnight, but the Headmaster had only seen fit to assign one night’s detention for a ‘bit of harmless fun’. He had already spoken to Pomona about the incident and the Hufflepuff matriarch had been livid. He would not be surprised if the old badger found an excuse to add extra detentions for the boy as well.
Severus was thinking of what stomach-turning task he would be assigning next when he heard an odd sound. He was in the DADA hall at the base of the stairs to the astronomy tower. There were several pillars and tapestries, that students could use for cover, but something about the insect-like skittering sound put him on high alert. The noise came again from the opposite direction, and Snape turned in a flash with his wand drawn.
Suddenly, the room seemed darker. The clouds outside covered the moon and plunged the hall into near-total darkness. Severus lit his wand with a nonverbal spell and approached the window. The iron-plated glass had been opened to view the ominous night sky, an unseasonably cool breeze drifting through the opening. Cautiously, the professor approached the window. Perhaps a bat or owl had slipped into the school through the carelessly unlocked window.
Wand first, he leaned out the window. He looked out at the view over the Forbidden Forest. The grounds below were devoid of life and the forest beyond was eerily silent, not even a howl from the Anubi Hounds that Professor Grumbyplank had been training with the seventh years. As nocturnal creatures, they should have been active at this time of night, but not even a single leaf in the brush stirred.
He was reaching out to close the window pain when he heard it. The tooth-aching sound of a blade scoring against stone. Startled, looked up to see a creature clinging to the stone wall above. Its glowing white eyes trained on his throat. A long-fingered hand with foot-long blade-like claws struck out and the Professor was barely able to duck to avoid having his throat cut. Instead, the blade sunk into the flesh of his left eye, making the man cry out in shock. The beast leaped down to perch in the open window, looming over him from where he had fallen.
Severus pressed the palm of his left hand over his eye to staunch the bleeding, while using the other to make a slashing motion with his wand. The Sectumsempra should have cut the vermin to ribbons, but instead, the monster leaped to the side with inhuman speed. It stalked closer, walking on its elongated claws like they were a second set of feet, instead of the sickeningly disfigured humanoid hands that they were.
He lifted his wand again, but the beast leaped out of the way again. This time landing on and scaling a pillar. Its nude gray flesh was pulled taunt over emaciated bone, the dark color camouflaging it against the cold granite stone. He sent a blasting curse its way and it vaulted from one pillar to the next, this time clinging to the ceiling like an insect. Its spidery limbs contorted in inhuman ways as it watched him with the detached gaze of a hunter sizing up wounded prey.
Its teeth chattered like the sounds of dry bones being tossed in the wind and its mouth gaped to reveal a long, black, tentacle-like tongue. It tasted the air as if scenting like a snake. Severus’s good eye was graying around the edges of his limited vision. His severed ophthalmic artery was causing him to bleed out from his ruined eye. Knowing that using such a strong spell would be a risk, but seeing no other option, he cast a Patronus. His beloved doe burst from his wand and charged at the creature. The monster was knocked from the rafters, the force sending it crashing into the opposite wall. The beast wailed, its cry high and piercing, setting his teeth on edge.
The wretch slashed at the spectral deer, its claws finding no perch. Lily’s doe reared, its hooves striking the beast’s head with an audible crack. It screamed again and dove for the open window and he heard claws scraping against the stone outside. Severus knew he had little remaining magic, but he had to be sure it was gone. Using his Patronus as a crutch, he hobbled to the window and glimpsed the creature as it ran faster than anything he had ever seen into the Forbidden Forest.
The relief he felt caused him to feel lightheaded and he slumped against the rough stone wall. His face throbbed with pain and his one good eye was starting to swim with black dots. He was never truly sure if his Patronus was able to hear his last words before he flicked his wand and sent it on its way.