𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

39. IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

"He is not here, Alice. The Headmaster has left," Winky whispered to the raven-haired witch as she hunched down to hear the house elf. She glanced left, then right, and like a nocturnal creature, Alice slid out of the Room of Requirement.

Dark corridors, her old friends and foes made of stone. How many nights had she sneaked through them the past years? How many nights had her veins pulsed following a scent, following her instinct that led her times and times again down the dungeons of the castle where a man, as sleepless as she was, brewed potions in the solitude of the nocturnal hours.

Her hands traced the wall on her side, as she climbed up step by step the Headmaster's tower. Solely Winky's bare feet could be heard against the stone floor the closer they got to the end of the corridor. There was no light, other than that of the night, however faint, caressing the stone through the windows. The end of the corridor, however, was drenched in darkness.

There, stood sole guardian the gargoyle she remembered from the first day she stepped foot in this castle. She stepped towards it, its large body covered the staircase behind it completely. A flick of the Headmaster's wand would be enough to make it move. Or else, Alice would have to resolve to a password that, alas, she did not know.

She turned to Winky who clasped her little hands together and shook her head. "The Headmaster never spoke of it, Alice. Winky tried to follow him, but he never said the words."

"That's alright, Winky..." Alice whispered, her pagan eyes turning back to the gargoyle before her. She flipped her wand in her hand and sheathed it to her belt. "There's always another way..." and if she couldn't go through the gargoyle using magic, she would do so using more primitive methods.

She glanced at her hands. Her eyes closed, as little Winky next to her shot up her pointy ears and widened her round eyes watching the witch's hands turn darker, as if a mist of coal had smudged her fingers. Her nails now seemed longer, stronger, and black as night.

Alice opened her eyes, a hint of fiery yellow swirled in their darkness. She stepped closer to the gargoyle, her hands gripped the stone, and her claws scratched its surface as she pushed herself up, climbing on the large statue. She could barely fit at the little opening between the gargoyle's neck and the ceiling.

"Thank you, Winky," Alice whispered. "You need no longer risk for me, I'll take it from here."

Winky nodded but her round eyes still worried as they watched the raven-haired witch slid through the opening, just as the gargoyle's eyes opened, colourless and hard as the stone they were made of. Alice didn't notice the enchanted statue awaking.

Winky opened her mouth to speak, and the gargoyle glanced down at her. It made the elf's blood run cold. Then the eyes of the stone giant turned back, as if watching the witch's actions whilst the rest of its body remained still. Alice held on from the gargoyle's wing, slid down its back, gripped its tail and landed right behind it on the staircase.

As if stone could breathe, the gargoyle's chest rose and fell slowly, returning its stone glare back at the little elf.

Winky lowered her head, as if understanding what the stone silently said. And the eyes of the gargoyle closed again.

"Made it!" Alice whispered and turned her gaze up to the stairs that led to the Headmaster's office. She had a plan already carved out in her mind about her escape from the Tower with the Gryffindor sword that didn't involve the Gargoyle corridor, and she climbed up the stairs slowly. Reaching for her wand, she summoned the essence of the veela in its core; if the Carrows were in the Headmaster's office, she'd have no choice but to fight them. Regardless of Winky's assuring words that the siblings had remained in the Great Hall and then withdrew to their chambers below stairs, Alice wanted to be prepared. Besides, the Carrows were not the only Death Eaters she hoped she wouldn't come across whilst in the Headmaster's office... There was one more. One she never wanted to have to fight.