Finders Keepers | Severus Snape [Book Two]

Chapter Fourteen | The Mission

Author's Notes

... Thats my cat. She's cute. Her name is Molly and she's a princess.

* * * * *

It was time.

We stood before a few Death Eaters, in the center of the vacant Quidditch Field in the dead night. It was nearly midnight and Draco was right beside me, his hand entwined with mine. We were both wearing long black robes and matching attire underneath.

Dementors glided over us, high up in the night sky, flying through the dusty clouds. I tried to avoid the howling of these creepy creatures and tried my best to look as calm as possible. I couldn't help, but look around though, somewhat hoping Severus would pop out of nowhere and sneak up on me like he usually does, but to no avail. I didn't understand why I hoped for that or why would he even be here, but his presence would've kept me at ease. Maybe that outburst I given him was enough to keep himself away from me.

One Death Eater pulled out an object wrapped in a satin cloth from his robes and unraveled it, exposing a large chipped teacup. He handed it to us, still holding it in the satin.

"It's a Portkey," Draco mentioned to me and I nodded.

"This will send you straight to where you are needed to be," The Death Eater said, "After that, you'll be informed by the others of what is expected of you both."

Draco and I held out our hands and as soon as we touched the Portkey, I felt my whole body being thrown into the air. It was a rush, feeling as though I'm spinning rapidly until the motions slowed and I focused my vision. As everything came to view, I looked down and landed my feet firmly on a dirt floor, crushing dried leaves and twigs. I looked around to find myself in a dark foggy woods, the wind whispering through the trees.

"Olly!" I heard Draco shout and I turned around to see him just a few yards away. He held out his hands and motioned me to follow him and I ran towards him, finding him at the edge of the woods, overlooking a cliff. I noticed a small flicker of lights that occupied a small village by a even smaller seaport. We were at the edge of the ocean, the moon and stars reflecting their light against the waters.

"In here," I heard a dark ominous voice behind me which startled me as I jumped around to see a tiny tent a few feet from us with a dark stringy old man poking out of it, ushering us in. The tent was extremely small, maybe enough to fit a small child or a large dog. That man obviously looked like twice its size as he scurried back in the tent. Draco took my hand and tugged me to go inside. I got down on my knees and crawled into the entrance of the tent, finding myself in a much larger room; draped in dark tapestries and many large carpets that practically covered most of the floor, maybe three times the size of my dormitory back at Hogwarts.

We walked in, looking around and noticed at least ten large and honestly, hideous rugged men and woman walking amongst the room. "Body Snatchers?" Draco scoffed as we reached the old man who invited us in, "I thought we were working with Death Eaters."

"Watch your tongue, boy," the old man snarled, "Who do you think was tracking this imbecilic blood traitor and his crew a thousand miles in dirt, snow, and concrete? Now, the Death Eaters will be closing in tonight and our job is to escort you both down to that port to burn down that village."

"Burn the village?" I asked surprised, "Aren't we just here to kill him and be done with?"

The old man snickered, "This village is keeping a fugitive in their homes, designing a strategy to escort him on a ship to take him to America. They're all fugitives to us, treacherous scum that deserve the same death."

My nerves were getting to me. Draco stepped in and asked, "What's the plan?"

As the old man described the plan to us, it was hard for me to focus in. All I could think about was that I was inching closer to what McGonagall asked of me, my secret little phial of Fake Death in my inner pocket of my cloak. My heart was racing and I honestly felt a bit nauseous. What I did manage to comprehend was that in a couple hours, we will follow the Snatchers down a forbidden dark path and the Death Eaters will form a protective barrier around the village so no one can get in or out. That's when the Death Eaters will close in and Draco and I had the job to find Audley. Because they knew I was a Legilimens, they relied on me to find out where Audley would be hiding. Once we were done talking about the inevitable, Draco and I decided to sit by some old book trunks, away from the Snatchers.