1195 Words
Harry rushes forward, into the strange, wavering light, then stops in horror, watching Snape's blood run like syrup over the weathered boards toward him. Regulus bumps past, heading in the direction Voldemort took.
Hermione pauses by Harry. Harry kneels by Snape. He lays his fingers upon the bloody wound at his neck, but it's no use. Snape's eyes shift and, briefly, look deep into Harry's. And then he begins to...Cry.
SNAPE: Take them...
Harry looks confused, hesitant.
SNAPE: Take them!
Snape's face SHUDDERS softly and his tears TRANSFORM, from clear water to SILVERY BLUE.
Harry reacts to the color. He's seen it before...Suddenly Snape grabs his collar, pulls him close.
SNAPE: Please.
Snape holds Harry captive briefly, then drops back to the floor. Harry blinks, shaken.
HARRY: Give me something! Quickly! A flask! Anything.
Instantly, Hermione CONJURES a flask from thin air. Hands trembling, Harry presses it to Snape's ashen cheek, letting the fluid flow within.
SNAPE: They are the same...
Harry searches Snape's face, trying to decipher his words. Snape stares at Harry in wonder, lost in his eyes, then his pupils dilate, his voice trailing off.
SNAPE: You have your mother's eyes...
Snape's face goes slack. Harry shivers. Regulus reappears.
Regulus: He's gone. The snake too.
Just then the sound of THUNDER, like a GATHERING STORM, engulfs them. The joists of the shack GROAN, as if in agony. The entire room begins to tremble. Regulus yanks aboard from the window and the trio peers out. As in the Enchanted Ceiling before, a face appears in the dark clouds above.
And then VOLDEMORT'S VOICE ECHOES:
Harry remained kneeling at Snape's side, simply staring down at him, until quite suddenly a high, cold voice spoke so close to them that Harry jumped to his feet, the flask gripped tightly in his hands, thinking that Voldemort had reentered the room.
Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Harry realized that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, that the residents of Hogsmeade and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them, his breath on the back of their necks, a deathblow away.
"You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. "Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. "Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately
"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."
"I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
Both Regulus and Hermione shook their heads frantically, looking at Harry.
"Don't listen to him," said Regulus.
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Mercy || Hermione Granger (Permanently Discontinued)
Fanfiction(Permanently Discontinued) Sorry folks :) Hermione Granger had enough. When she dies saving the wizarding world in The Battle Of Hogwarts, she wants a second chance. With all her friends dead, she thinks that she might reunite with them in the after...
