Where Your Loyalties Lie - {Severus Snape x Reader}

-58-

It's nearly the midnight. After giving Sniffy the treats I'd promised, I came back down in the kitchen to put the dishes away while Molly is sorting things out upstairs. Not sure what she's doing there, but I bet it has something to do with the sleeping arrangements. "Need a help?" Sirius enters the kitchen. "No, thank you. I'm pretty much done already." I flash a quick smile over the shoulder. He watches me for a few moments before he speaks again:"Hope that a... Friend of yours is doing fine.". Knowing he means Severus. "Oh, I believe he's more than just fine." I answer while working around the sink. The image of him and the woman standing together at the doorway pops into my mind. They even both dress the same. All black head to toe, I mean. She even looks more of his type than someone like me. Sirius notices how I start to scrub one of the plates little bit too harsh. "What did that plate do to you?" he jokes and walks next to me. His comment makes me realize what I'm doing and stop. "Sorry. Got my mind little... Out of place, I guess." I sigh. "That's alright." he nods.

The bottle of wine and the tiny card comes to mind as well. 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to: Half Blood Prince - Albus' "Sirius..." I start. "Yes, (Y/N)?" he ask, ready to hear what I have to say. I put down the plate and look at him:"You shared lots of nicknames to each others in the past, right?". "Yes..? Of course, they were all childish, I know." he thinks he's in trouble again. The thought he's little bit on guard that I'd throw some of this dishwater on him makes me chuckle softly. Just when I'm about to ask him if he knows anything about the Half Blood Prince and if it's truly Severus, something caught corner of my eye outside of the window next to us. "What the..-?!" I gasp. There is a fire, right outside of the house. Sirius and I share a look and run towards the front door.

All the others noticed the fire too, and rushed to see what was going on. Remus stands right at the door, blocking most of it so none of us can't really get out. "What's going on?!" Sirius asks. When I saw Remus has pulled out his wand, I quickly take out mine too. Had to push myself thru to see better what is happening. There has been drawn a fire circle around the whole house! "The fire!" Arthur gasps as he notices the fire is starting to get out of control. Shit! So, most of us rush out to tame it, protecting the house. How is this possible?! Molly is quick to hold onto Tonks's arm to prevent her risking herself and the baby. Not even two seconds, a smooth whoosh can be heard flying us by. Don't tell me..-!

Dark smoke lands only five meter away from me, revealing what I was afraid; a Death Eater. Immediately, the dark figure who's wearing all black robes casts a spell right at me. Before I can react, Arthur jumps in to protect me. Having no time to thank him, more Death Eaters in black robes with different kinds of masks enters the ring. There seems to be now four of them. It becomes a battle between taking care of the fire or fight the Death Eaters. Damn it! Without saying a word, we all came to an agreement who's going to do what. Harry among the other kids are trying to tame the magical fire while us adults - Remus, Arthur, Sirius and I are fighting. Spells are being cast left and right. We are trying to block most of them, but the truth is; we can't win this battle if we continue only defence and not attack back. With that in mind, I swing my wand at the next Death Eater I see:"Stupefy!". The Death Eater gets hit by the spell and falls down. Just when the feeling of relieved comes in, thinking we at least got one of them down, more black smokes appears and lands on the yard. You got to be kidding me!

When all of sudden, Harry decides to jump thru an opening of the fire other side of the fire ring to chase down one of the Death Eaters. Ginny and I are the only ones who saw him running. "Harry!" Ginny runs after him. "Wh..-?!" I gasp. Arthur sees his only daughter jumping thru the fire opening:"Ginny!!". Can't let them face a Death Eater alone! It's like my legs are moving their own and I run towards the opening as fast as I can before it closes. In middle of all of this mess, Remus notices this and yells:"(Y/N)!!!". The sound of his voice sounds like this will be the death of me, but I won't stop running and leap thru the fire. As soon as I go thru it, the opening closes, leaving rest of our friends inside the fire ring. One of the Death Eaters pauses when they hear Remus screaming my name. Quickly after that, the Death Eater turns into black smoke and explosively flies out of the circle of fire.

As I'm now running in middle of the grain field, some steam is coming out of my mouth. It's quite freezing out here. Ruby's made sweater might've not being knitted in cases like these. The long grains keeps rustling and scraping the bare parts of my skin such as the hands and face. "Harry?! Ginny!!" I try to call them with no success. It's really hard to see where the kids went since the grains are so tall. So tall, even one of us reached their hand up in the sky, no one would know we would be in here. Would need to get up in the sky able to spot them. All of sudden, I step on something and stumble a bit, making me stop running:"Ah!". Realizing I have just stepped on a partly muddy pond. Immediately can feel how my shoe absorbs the cold water, making the sock inside the shoe wet. Bullocks! While cursing this, I hear how a smooth whoosh can be heard somewhere near by. My body froze for a second. Then I start sharply turning my head each direction, wand ready.

Being like a prey animal, intensively watching every direction possible if someone's gonna come out. Heart beating fast. Hands shaking. The grains keeps rustling, but I can't see none of them move. Nor target which way the noises are coming from. This is too intense! It's like there is a snake in there somewhere, ready to jump out when I least expect it. Then, I hear how someone calmly approaches me. Is it one of the kids? "Harry?" I whisper. No answer. About to whisper again:"Gin..-", a large man with pointy teeth and long yellowish nails comes thru the grains. He looks like half werewolf, half human. Unlike other Death Eaters, he doesn't have the same long, black robes on. The man has a crooked smile on his face as he slowly comes closer. "Stay back." I order while pointing the wand at him. It makes him stop walking, but the smile on his face won't go away. Now what?!

On my left, I hear again some rustling and notice how another person joins us in calm manner. Shit! This one has full on black, basic Death Eater clothes on with metal looking mask covering their face. My heart beats faster now as I'm trying to point both of them at the same time. This isn't good. What I can tell in middle of all this, that the furry guy takes a step aside as in giving space for the more powerful wizard. It makes me little bit more nervous. If a scary looking wolf-man like him feels intimidated by this person, I can only image the power that they must have. What is more concerning about this, is that the person doesn't even has their wand out. They must be really powerful then? Slowly, while keeping an eye on these two, I slide my free hand against my hips towards the pocket of the jeans. Ever since I heard about the massive escape from Azkaban, I have always made sure I got something to use against the Dark Wizards - other than the wand, no matter where I'd go. And as former Herbology teacher, I have some particular beans stored inside these jeans.

The sounds of spells being cast, hitting either to the ground or being blocked by others can be heard all the way here. It's like neither of them are yet winning - or loosing. I just hope nothing bad happens to anyone - specially to Tonks and the baby. Before any of us can say or do anything, a third person walks in from my right side. This one also has the regular outfit of a Death Eater. Immediately I draw my wand towards their direction. Fuck! Slight panic in me starts to raise at this point more and more. This time, the werewolf-man won't do any gesture of submission towards the new arrival, which gives me the idea that these two are equal - or at least he isn't as scared of them as the other one.

Neither of them say anything, they all just keep staring. Nervous chuckle comes out of me:"Three against one? Doesn't seem fair.". "On the contrarily." the Death Eater's - who's on my right side, words slithers into my ears. Huh? Automatically, my attention goes to the person. At first I point my wand at them, but quickly switch it to point at the werewolf-man. The Death Eater keeps talking thru the metal mask:"I think it's quite fair, considering how brave you claim to be.". That voice... Even my attention is at them, I still keep my guards high and keep the wand ready for everything. They continue:"So taking down three Death Eaters should be an easy task for you... Professor (Y/L).". With that, the mask comes off. My eyes widens as soon as I recognize him. Lucius Malfoy!