Snape's family (Severus x OC)

8 The rescue

He kicked and fought in vain, struggling not to sink further. He pulled out his wand and illuminated the water around him, wishing he could breathe, and what he saw terrified him to the core, making him almost scream.

He was surrounded by dead people.

Everywhere around him there were corpses of men, women and children in various states of putrefaction.

Corpses that looked at him. Corpses that smiled at him with cold and lifeless grimaces. Corpses that came for him and dragged him towards their abyss of darkness, towards his watery grave.

Harry struggled to escape, becoming more and more suffocated, but the cold hands did not let go, and took him deeper. Desperate and dizzy, he thought about the Incendio spell, but only bubbles and hot water came out of his wand, nothing that would scare the Inferi.

Harry believed that he would end up dying down there, and he relived scattered images of his life, fragments in which his friends, his parents and Sirius appeared, and without knowing why, it did not console him to think that perhaps he would end up reuniting with them.

And suddenly, the Inferi released him and stood still.

Harry let go and struggled to climb up, but apart from not knowing how to swim, he could never have traveled the depth that separated him from the surface, because dozens of corpses floated inertly above him, piling up, burying him... and Harry was drowning...

An invisible force pulled him up, making him pass without the slightest consideration between the bodies, at such speed that he hurt himself when he collided squarely with more than one Inferi, but Harry did not realize it.

I just wanted to breathe.

The invisible impulse took him out of the water and practically flew him towards the platform, where it dropped him.

Harry laid curled in on himself, panting, until he began to cough with all his might and filled his lungs with as much air as he could, only to cough again.
He heard someone calling him, patting him hard on the back, and with a great effort, he managed to open his eyes and focus.

"Profess ...Snape?" he gasped, not believing he was there. It had to be a nightmare, he thought.

But no, the image of his professor was real and very consistent, and as soon as the shock wore off, Harry realized that he was very angry.

"You damned arrogant brat," Snape hissed. Yes, he really was angry, angrier than Harry remembered ever seeing him. "What on Earth were you doing?"

"The Horcrux–"

"The excursion is over," Snape interrupted. He was white with fury.

Taking him by the arm, he forced him to get up, and Harry located his friends, who were a few meters away, accompanied by Adrien.
Ron was soaked, as if he had also been thrown into the water, and Hermione had red marks on her neck, as if she had been strangled.

They were still scared, but they were happy to see Harry, and allowed themselves to give him a big hug before Snape unceremoniously pushed them out of there.

As they walked along the walkway out of the black lake, Harry saw the Inferi-vampires off to the side, motionless, and was glad they weren't approaching them. However, when they returned to solid ground, one of them made an incredible leap and stood in front of Snape, baring its fangs in a gesture of clear threat.

Snape stood up, and stepping forward, rolled up his tunic and displayed his Dark Mark. The Inferi-vampire immediately hid his teeth and stepped back docilely, but without stopping looking at them with his white eyes. Snape did not stop and began to climb the stairs that led to the orphanage, followed by the others.