Saving Ravenclaw (Severus x Rowena)

2- The rescue

Severus turned around for a long time, so long that he thought he would continue like this for the rest of his life. Around him there were blurry images, diffuse sounds, and sensations and smells that he could not identify exactly. When he finally stopped, Severus fell over a hill, and rolled back to the base.

It took him a few moments to be able to raise his head, due to dizziness, and when he did, he saw that he was alone, on the outskirts of a leafy forest. He did not recognize the landscape, and began to doubt the success of the spell, thinking that he had only appeared somewhere else in the present, as if he had used a portkey.

Confirmation of that idea came from looking at his clothes, which were still the same, and he thought that perhaps the whole story about the trip to the past had been a joke on Dumbledore's part.

"Damned old man, he had no one else to deceive."

Not knowing where he was, he tried to use magic to apparate to Hosmeade, and thus return to Hogwarts before anyone noticed his absence, but he couldn't do it. He tried again, concentrating harder, but the apparition didn't work. Thinking that this was part of the joke, Severus resigned himself to returning on foot, and without having any idea where he was going, he entered the forest, imagining that it surely was the Forbidden Forest.

His mood worsened with every step he took between the puddles and the roots, and very soon he began to grumble and curse the headmaster and himself for having been so stupid and allowing himself to be fooled in that way, telling himself that after that stunt no one would take him seriously, that now he would have to endure until the effects of the little joke wore off, and to make matters worse, his asthma threatened to make an appearance.

He was about to use his wand to clear the rough path when the sound of voices made him stop. Those men walked in front of him, making a lot of noise, and instantly, his death eater instinct kicked in.

Severus approached slowly and in complete silence towards the two men, but he did not let them see him, but crouched down to listen. To his surprise, those men spoke in an ancient dialect, a mixture of Norman and Latin, but which he understood perfectly despite having never heard it in his life.

"But why so much vigilance over a simple girl?" asked one of the men.

"Apparently she is important to him," replied the second man, whose voice was hoarse. "Lord Siveon wants her locked up and watched, and that's what we'll do, as long as he pays us like he has been up to now."

"I'm not complaining about the gold, but it seems strange to me," the first said again. "But how he tortures her, he seems willing to kill her. Why hasn't he done it already?"

"Lord Siveon may have his own reasons," answered the one with the hoarse voice, sharply. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if he is waiting for orders from his lord."

"It seems silly to me to mobilize an entire army for a woman... who is going to end up executed anyway."

"Pray that you are not the one who dies in her place."

The men walked away, and Severus followed them, silent as a shadow, beginning to believe that he had really traveled to the 11th century, and that those men were talking about Rowena. He followed his noisy guides through the forest until they reached a clearing, in the middle of which stood a tower, not very tall, but old, gray, and dilapidated.

Severus stayed hidden among the trees but did not miss a detail of the keep or the dozens of men who stood guard around it. For the first time Severus understood the problem he faced, and he had to stop and think seriously about how he could get into the keep.

He looked closely at the men guarding the building: they were all armed with spears and swords, but they were not organized, and many of them were distracted by talking, drinking, and playing with small lamb bones. Severus assumed that they were part of a small, hastily recruited army of bandits and ruffians, who only appeared serious if their leader was in front of them.