Love For Blood

Chapter Thirty-One

Harry's voice was hoarse and every bone and muscle in his body screamed at him. Yet he couldn't stop. He had to keep going and pushing. He had to track down Severus Snape. He had to kill Severus Snape.

Harry's wand shook in his hand as he went down the steps of the astronomy tower.

It was supposed to be simple. Easy. Hell, he was supposed to get back in time to maybe get some scraps of dinner from the kitchen before the elves cleaned it all up.

No, it wasn't simple. Nothing ever was anymore, and Harry hated himself for being naive enough to believe it was.

Thoroughly in shock, his mind tried to tear apart the details over and over to find meaning in the madness.

Dumbledore called him to his office and asked him to come along on a Horcrux mission. It seemed easy enough on the surface, just some cave in the middle of nowhere.

It was mildly traumatizing, but that was to be expected with anything that had to do with Voldemort. Of course, nothing could ever be as easy as simply taking a boat to the middle of a cove, retrieving an amulet, and going home. And to think, it didn't even hold real results.

However, Harry could get over that. It wasn't anything compared to some of the things he has been through or seen. He already had enough reasons to have sleepless nights, the things in the cave wouldn't even almost make the top 10.

Then, to come back to Hogwarts only to find it under attack from the Death Eaters. Harry could barely stay on his feet from how quickly everything was happening.

Green stained the dark night sky like some twisted northern lights.

Arriving at the castle, Harry figured he'd need to prepare for a fight. In his head, he rehearsed every defensive spell he could think of.

However, there was no fight. There was only Dumbledore paralyzing him as a Slytherin boy around Harry's age burst into the astronomy tower. There was only the Slytherin disarming Dumbledore in his moment of weakness. There was only Harry watching helplessly as the boy monologued about his year-long plot and many attempts to kill Dumbledore. There was only a surge of other Death Eaters, soon followed by Severus Snape, surrounding the helpless Dumbledore.

There was only Dumbledore begging for his life and Snape killing him without a second thought. There was only Harry being useless, sitting on the floor watching as his headmaster was slaughtered in front of him. Just like his parents, just like Cedric, he was useless.

Harry remembers the burn of his throat, begging to scream out. He remembers the black cloaks of the Death Eaters swaying as they quickly left the astronomy tower. Only once they had left had the spell completely worn away. Harry remembers his moment of weakness as he leaned to the side after pulling away his invisibility cloak and promptly vomited the contents of his stomach. He screamed out a sob.

There he was again, weak and useless, sobbing next to a pile of his own puke. He truly was pathetic. Harry gripped his robes and collected himself. He needed to avenge him.

Then he rose to his feet with only one mission:

Kill Severus Snape.

He was sure his eyes were giving an animalistic glow and his jaw ached fiercely. Every urge simply let go, let his wolf control his mind. But he knew he couldn't live with killing the people he loved. So instead he focused in on Snape. He did this. He killed Professor Dumbledore.

His pace quickened down the stairs, newfound meaning in every step. Harry wasted no time rushing into the halls of Hogwarts, following the screams.

Harry wasted no time, quickly deflecting any stray curses coming his way and firing one of his own. He wasn't here for small fry.