Innocence | Severus Snape x Reader

40 - The Girl Who Lived

When we landed, I heard cheers and music. No one had yet realized what happened. 

My eyes were clouded with tears. The pain in my side was unbearable. All I could do was clutch it. I looked up to see Harry crying, clinging to Cedric. I could do nothing. It would be too painful to move. 

In the cheering, I could hear a scream, and Dumbledore rushed over to Harry, trying to pry him from the boy's body. 

"What happened?" I heard someone say. 

"He's back, he's back! Voldemort is back!" I could hear Harry say. I looked up and saw the twins, who looked frightened, and when they saw me their expressions grew more fearful. They came over and tried helping me sit up, I groaned in pain as they did so. 

"Cedric, he asked me to bring his body back. We couldn't leave him, not there." Dumbledore grabbed Harry while looking back at me. His eyes grew wide as he did. 

It was only then that I brought a hand up to wipe my tears and look down at my side. My shirt had been burned away where I was hit, and there was a nasty, vein-like wound that glowed green where I had been hit (shitty reference picture above). I had been hit with the killing curse and survived. 

"It's alright Harry, he's home. You all are. It's alright." Dumbledore tried comforting the boy over Cedric's body. I was crying just as well as Harry, but I tried keeping quiet. 

I was on high alert, I didn't want to miss anything. 

I was able to crawl over to Harry, despite my pain, and I hugged him. As I did so, I felt a hand on my back. I knew exactly who it was by the touch. I looked up, and I had never seen Severus so concerned. 

"The body must be moved, Dumbledore. There are too many people." I heard the minister say. 

"That's my son!" I heard a man say, I presumed it was Cedric's father. "That's my boy!" He said, falling to his knees and beginning to cry as well. 

I moved back, falling back into Severus' legs as I did so. He placed a hand on my shoulder and crouched down, rubbing my back. It was the most he could do for me without making a scene, and I understood that even though I wanted to turn into him and cry just as hard as everyone else was. 

The pain in my side had grown so intense that it surpassed anything I could even feel, and was more of a numb, dull throbbing now. 

Harry was taken away by Mad-Eye and I felt my energy draining out of my body. I'd lose consciousness soon and I was too scared to let go of it. On the off chance that what had hit me, would kill me anyway.

"Severus," I whispered. He probably was the only one who heard it, but if he wasn't, I didn't care. I needed help. 

He waved his wand and said an incantation. All feeling of pain and drowsiness left my body. I looked down to see the wound still there and settling, but I felt better. I knew this wouldn't last very long. 

"Potter," I said, standing up. He was long gone but I needed to make sure he was okay. 

"Y/N?" Severus said, before following me. Dumbledore and McGonagall came as well. Perhaps their concern for my well-being was what provoked them to follow me, or maybe they had that anxious feeling much did I. 

McGonagall helped me as I walked, my body carried a limp despite me unable to feel any pain. 

"The cup, it was a portkey. It took us to a graveyard where they resurrected him. Where Cedric died." I explained in as few words as I could. My mind was latched on t Harry. 

"The only person who would have touched that cup is Moody," Dumbledore said, and suddenly everyone quickened their pace, including me. 

"What happened to you, Y/N?" Severus asked. He walked on my left side, examining my wound. 

"Voldemort, he.. he used the killing curse. It just barely hit me before we got away." I said. 

"You should be dead..." McGonagall said quietly. 

"That's not important right now." 

The four of us reached the top of the stairs.

"Expelliarmus!" Dumbledore said. The spell had opened the door and hit "Moody", sending him flying back, revealing Harry cowered in a corner. 

Dumbledore grabbed the man's collar while Severus handed him the bottle of Verita Serum, and poured it into the man's mouth. Harry moved towards McGonagall and I, and I pulled him towards me, hugging him before he turned to watch. 

"Do you know who I am?" Dumbledore asked the gurgling and shaking man. 

"Albus Dumbledore." The man replied. 

"Are you Allister Moody?" 

"No." 

"Is he in this room?" Dumbledore asked, "Is he in this room?!" The man looked towards a locked metal chest in the corner of the room.

I pulled Harry away from the chest as Minerva, Severus, and I backed away from it. Severus waved his wand and opened the chest, which had six layers. 

Severus cautiously approached, and the rest of us followed. At the bottom was the real Mad-Eye Moody. 

"Are you alright, Allister?" Dumbledore asked. 

"I'm sorry, Albus," Moody said from below. 

"If that's the real professor Moody then whose-" Harry said. 

I looked to Severus who was holding the flask I had seen the fake Moody with quite a bit. He held it to his nose. 

"Polyjuice potion." He said. 

"Now we know who's been stealing from your stores, Severus," Dumbledore said. 

I heard groaning from behind us and looked. The fake Moody who was sitting in the chair started twitching about. The potion wore off and revealed a much smaller and thinner man. 

Harry leaned forward to get a better look, and the man lunged at him. Dumbledore pushed Harry back, and Severus did the same to me, keeping his arm crossed over my chest while Dumbledore stood in front of the revealed man, and Minerva held her wand at his face. 

"Barty Crouch Junior," Albus said, revealing his identity. 

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." He rolled up his sleeve, and revealed a tattoo of a snake and skull, though it was... moving. 

Was it... was that the dark mark? Was that why Igor had asked Severus to roll up his sleeve? But why... why would Severus even be suspected of being one of... them? I looked up at him, but he only stared at Barty, so I looked away. 

"Your arm, Harry." Dumbledore grabbed Harry's cut-up arm and compared it to Barty's.

"You know what it means, don't you? He's back." Crouch said. "Lord Voldemort has returned." 

"I'm sorry sir, I couldn't help," Harry said. 

"Send an owl back to Azkaban, we've found their missing prisoner.

"I'll be welcomed back like a hero!" Crouch said. 

"Perhaps, personally I've never had much time for heroes." Dumbledore took Harry and Minerva with him, leaving the room. 

Severus pressed his want into the man's cheek, then looked at me, nodding towards the door, and I left.