𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

42. SACRIFICE

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

There was no Death Eater enough to halt her race across the courtyard and to the boat house. The veela in the core of her wand that aligned with the witch's will, spared no enemy and Alice ran as fast as her legs, and the debris scattered between fallen wizards, friends and enemies alike, would allow her. Harry and Hermione were farther and farther behind her as she thrust herself through the enemy lines.

Mountain trolls threatened to smash her, but Alice didn't fret. Spiders, summoned from the Forest hoisted their threatening legs, feasting on Death Eaters and Snatchers alike. Stone walls came crumbling down inches from her, but the raven-haired witch didn't change her path, didn't flinch from danger.

She found the stone steps to the boathouse, rushing, stumbling, hasting. She didn't heed the chance of running into Voldemort when she burst through the door of the boat house, panting as her eyes roamed the room to find Severus.

He spun around, his cloak billowing behind him, his eyes dark and full of unwelcomed shock.

"No!" he breathed out harshly at the recognition.

"Go! Go! He'll kill you, Severus, please! Please!" Alice gripped his arms, pulling him to move with her. "I'll delay him— it's me he wants, please! Severus, he'll kill you!" she was hardly breathing, bursting in near cries of relief that he was still alive, and of terror that he was indeed waiting for Voldemort in the boat house.

But Severus seemed to heed not a word. His eyes, dark and for the first time in his life fearful, were looking over Alice's shoulders, knowing that soon the dark lord would march through the same door that she had walked in. He led Alice deeper into the boat house, pushed her behind a dark corner, and pressed his lips upon hers. Her fists pounded weakly against his chest, rebelling against his unshaken will not to abandon his post. Tears ran down her cheeks when their lips parted, and Severus caught her pagan gaze in his inky black pools.

"Forgive me, little swallow..." he murmured against her lips, and flicked his wand as he held her against him. A spell's faint light snaked around her torso, her arms, and her legs, tightening around her, forcing her to remain still and chained by it before she could so much as reach for her wand. Her eyes flashed with anger and desperation, but Severus flicked his wand again, and a silencing spell veiled the witch before the dark lord could hear her. "I won't let him take you too..."

He stepped away from where he'd hid the witch, and breathed heavily, trying to regain his composure and the countenance of the emotionless, heartless, stone-cold servant of the dark lord. It didn't take long for the leech of a wizard to step into the boat house.

Severus' back turned rigid and straightened, his hands clasped behind his back, and he shot a final glance at the place where he was keeping Alice hidden, praying that the dark lord would be too occupied with him to pay attention to his surroundings.

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

"She remained in Hogwarts' care all these years, yet she disappeared?" Voldemort hissed lowly, no different than a snake.

"I have no knowledge— of her whereabouts, my lord," said Severus softly. It was mere minutes after the dark lord's arrival, and yet it felt like an eternity.

"Don't you?" a hairless brow arched on the sickly pale face of the dark lord.

Severus didn't speak. Instead, he shielded his mind as best as he could, as quickly as he could.

"Yet she has been taking my servants. Fighting with my enemy, instead of serving me..."

"I am sure there is an explanation for that, my lord..."