"Ancient Runes" a Severus Snape ff - Snape x OC

Chapter 18

The announcement roused Lysanna from her doze quite roughly.

"All students are requested to go to their dormitories immediately. All teachers to the second floor at once." Her Aunt Minerva's voice echoed off the walls.

The second floor, it couldn't be far. Lysanna quickly got out of her chair and started running. Severus and Filius were already there, as was Minerva. Poppy arrived at almost the same time Lysanna did.

There was obviously a new message. A student had been kidnapped into the Chamber of Secrets.

HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER.

This presented them all with a whole new problem. Petrified students were bad enough, but a kidnapped child was the culmination of the whole thing. There hadn't been any major incidents in the last few weeks, but since the end of the Christmas holidays reports of suspicious events have been piling up. The students were afraid.

"I am afraid we will have to send the students home," Minerva stated with concern. She was interrupted when Lockhart arrived at the scene. A quick glance at Severus told Lysanna that he was equally excited about his presence. The potions master still had to do many of the nightly patrols with Lockhart, which, as Lysanna knew, always led to minor escalations.

"Sorry.. I dozed off. What did I miss?" he asked with a silly grin and didn't seem to be aware of the seriousness of the situation at all.

"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last." Severus informed his colleagues. It was obvious that he was fed up with Lockhart's silly behaviour.

Admittedly, Severus only said what Lysanna was thinking. The way he did it made her smile despite the seriousness of the situation.

"My...My? My moment?" Lockhart stuttered uncertainly.

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the chamber of secrets is?" Severus asked provocatively.

Lockhart's face almost froze for a moment, as if he were already facing the basilisk.

"That's settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend." Minerva announced with an undertone Lysanna hadn't expected. So far her aunt had been dazzled by Lockhart's demeanour, but apparently even she had started to doubt his abilities. Apparently Lysanna's stories had gotten her thinking after all.

After it seemed settled that Lockhart would initially be in charge of the problem, Lysanna went back to her chambers. However, the uneasy feeling that something was going to go wrong wouldn't let her go.

-

So Potter had found the Chamber of Secrets, opened it, slain a basilisk, and almost single-handedly saved Hogwarts. Inspiring. This boy was getting on Severus' nerves, just as arrogant as his father. The great hero. After the Philosopher's Stone now also the Chamber of Secrets, what came next? The Dark Lord himself? Despite all this dislike, he had sworn to himself and Albus to take care of the boy. Severus was well aware that a special connection existed between the boy and Voldemort.

The only thing that gave Severus odd satisfaction at that moment was the fact that the highly acclaimed Gilderoy Lockhart, using Weasley's broken wand, had hit himself with a memory charm and lost all his memories. The poor prat didn't even know who he was anymore.

Dumbledore had everyone come to his office after this event. At least now that the basilisk was killed, they didn't have to worry about the school being closed. Unfortunately, Severus also had to admit that the boy's performance was impressive after all.