The Princess and the Bloodstone

The Importance of Labels

Holly

Only one thing mattered right now — and that was Severus Snape — the wizard who lay motionless in her lap. He had given too much of his energy to bolster her during Voldemort's deadly Legillimens attack, he shielded her to give her a fighting chance...

There was no way to tell how far he was gone, and for all logical reasons, he was gone for good. Dead. Unalived. Just like he promised so many times before.

But she couldn't accept it. It just couldn't be true... Wishing feverishly that she knew healing magic, she turned out Severus' pockets while searching for anything that could help. Along with a vast amount of tiny vials, spare parchment, a quill, a heavy set of keys, and the phone she'd given him for Christmas; Holly found a tiny, empty bottle wrapped neatly in a handkerchief inside the pocket by his heart. Luckily, the Potions Master was a chronic labeller and the tiny tag around the vial identified the contents as Phoenix Tears, 1989.

Holly rocked back on her heels as she stared at the label. It seemed empty — and it was only when she held it to her nose that she saw a single, colourless droplet move inside.

Shit. 1989? Do phoenix tears have an expiry date?

Voldemort was watching Holly with mild interest - like one might watch birds in a garden. She frowned at him and looked back at Severus still lying motionless on the moss, and, trusting blindly, she opened his lips and carefully shook out the single droplet onto his tongue. She gripped his cold hand hard as she stared at him, trying to see if his eyes moved underneath the bruised eyelids.

Minutes passed. Nothing happened.

The longer she stared at him, the more she became aware of the cold night soaking into her naked, wet skin. She shuddered and collected the invisibility cloak to cover herself, finding some small relief in its warmth. It smelled like Severus. But mostly of his blood.

Voldemort appeared to have fallen asleep on the leaves of the clearing where he'd been sitting, holding his shoulder.

He must've lost a lot of blood already, she thought. What a fright the Death Eaters would get when they finally rallied up the confidence to check up on their Dark Lord after they gave him enough time to "complete the ritual" with her....

GROSS.

And coming to a decision, Holly stood, pocketing Severus' wand, and after a glance at the sleeping shape of Tom Riddle, she scooped up his bony wand too. Voldemort had no need of it anymore.

Come to think of it... I don't either, now that he took away my ability to talk... Well. Then I'll take it as evidence that Severus didn't die for nothing. That the Dark Lord was defeated at last.

Holly circled the clearing to find Uncle Vernon's gun as well as the diadem that was chucked in a patch of ferns by Severus. It was weird how the (recent) Dark Lord was lying vulnerable on the ground. She stuffed the wands into the invisibility cloak and hung the crown on it like it was a peg. She placed the gun back in the holster that was magically glued to her back.

When she got back to Severus' body, she braced herself to lift him and spent a minute trying to find the best way to move him. In the end, it was dragging him by his feet either side of her hips and leaning forward. She swore at his weight, even as a relatively thin man, he was tall and had much more mass than her.

His body can't stay here...

They would surely defile it when they found him lying next to the incapacitated Voldemort — and then he'd not even know peace in death. So she dragged him to the tree line, fighting for every single step. Soon, a stitch in her side made her stop to catch her breath.

Merlin, he's so freaking heavy. I've barely gotten him out of the clearing, she thought as she mopped her brow. Voldemort's outline was still visible on the ground beyond the altar stones. It was all the motivation she needed to continue dragging Severus away.

On top of moving at a snail's pace, she'd ploughed a path with him as she pulled with all her strength, making the perfect trial for the Death Eaters to follow. She hastily kicked a few leaves over the furrow and picked up his feet again with determination, ignoring the way her own feet slipped on wet plants and stones as she strained to move Severus' leaden body. Every few feet she stopped to cover their tracks until the forest had swallowed them completely.

Even if I get out of the apparition wards, there's no way I can apparate without being able to speak the spell... They'll realise what's happened and search the forest; we won't be hard to find. And there's no fighting them without magic...

But despite the hopelessness of her situation, she continued to drag Severus through the endless black trees.

Severus

It was rude of Lily not to let him sleep. Why couldn't she just leave him be? He couldn't hear what exactly she said or where she was, but above the sound of loud buzzing, he could deduce that she was extremely vexed. She shook him hard, he could feel her hands balling against his chest. Didn't she see he was tired? Couldn't she just let him rest? Severus tried to tell her to let him be but found he couldn't move his lips. All he wanted was to sink deeper into the beautiful sleep he was already flowing into: floating on his back in a giant, warm river of wonderful nothingness. But Lily kept touching him and making urgent noises — but much too softly for him to grasp its meaning.

Then she placed something warm into his mouth, and music sounded in his head like a sweet song reverberating through his skull. Or was it coming from outside? Wherever it came from, it lifted him from the embrace of the warm river and made the horrible cold come back. He wanted to go back to the warmth. He fought the song, but it wouldn't let him go. Slowly he became more and more aware of his body, and soon red-black pain blossomed behind his eyes. Then Severus' entire being was now made of pain: ears ringing louder and louder with the high-pitched sound, legs, and feet fizzing with pins and needles, and by God, his back felt like the Hogwarts Express had run over it. He was so thirsty, that he was even grateful for the blood in his mouth slating his parched throat.

Why does it smell of pine needles and rain?

'Lily?' He finally managed to ask the cold darkness. He forced his eyes open and after a few dazed seconds, he made out the outline of a floating head bobbing up and down in front of him in the low light... Then it clicked; the head was dragging him by his boots. Severus struggled and kicked out, slipping out of the head's grasp. But it quickly bobbed closer to hang over him.

'You're alive,' He croaked, reaching for the familiar face. Holly pressed his hand against her cheek and nodded fervently. Severus traced the shape of her jaw and neck. It took him a while to remember the Dark Lord. The duel. The torture...

'Where are they?' He asked, turning his head to the side in confusion.

Holly looked anxiously over her shoulder and pointed into the darkness. Severus saw pinpricks light in the distance, drawing nearer. She pressed his wand into his hand and squeezed his fingers over it, making a prayer gesture and pointing at the wand. Why didn't she talk? He could make out her glittering, wide eyes in the near darkness of the night.

'Lumos,' Severus said, unable to hear his own voice.

He blinked in the sudden bright light and reached for her invisible shoulder. 'Where is the Dark Lord?'

Holly shook her head and made another desperate gesture at the wand, this time holding the light closer to the ground where she was scribbling quickly in the wet mud.

APPARATE.

Severus looked around at the lights in the distance, he could count half a dozen bouncing closer and closer to where they were huddled together against the roots of a behemoth tree. Holly pushed his wand to his chest while stabbing a finger at the search party combing the forest. They had clearly seen Severus' Lumos because they were moving faster now, the shadows of the trees growing larger very quickly.

He looked down at the familiar Hawthorn wand. Would he be able to apparate with her?

I just died, for Salazar's sake... there's no way I can make this apparition...

But he grasped Holly's hand and closed his eyes intently, thinking hard of Spinner's End.