Snape's family (Severus x OC)

21 The last duel

"Severus, run!" Astrid shouted.

He reacted in time and jumped to the side, dragging Ginny along as a part of the ceiling fell on them. They fell to the ground, but in a second, they got up and ran away.

Arriving in front of the crack, Snape cast a spell on Ginny and threw her to the other side. Then he too prepared to jump, but a new tremor made him stumble and lose momentum.

He fell into the void, but managed to catch himself in time, at the cost of a hard blow against the wall that made him lose his breath and caused great pain in his side. Struggling to overcome the pain, he clenched his fingers, tensed his muscles, and pushed himself up.

He had to climb up by hand because he had nowhere to put his feet, and he was on the verge of falling into the void again due to the violent tremors. The area of the wall to which he was clinging was gradually disintegrating under his fingers.

Snape was not fast enough to climb up, and suddenly he was left hanging by only one hand, because the handhold of the other had turned to fine sand. He managed to keep the wand and tried to push himself up to grab some place so as not to fall.

The house shook again, and its only point of support turned into sand as well, causing Snape to fall into the void.

A hand caught his wrist just in time, stopping him from falling. Snape looked up and saw Astrid holding him. The woman had half her body protruding above the crack, and thin blue lines emerged from her ring that intertwined around the man's arm, holding him.

He pushed himself and managed to grab Astrid's arm with both hands, but they both began to slide down the crack when the house shook again.

A spell surrounded them, preventing them from falling into the void. Snape realized that both he and Astrid were restrained by a golden light that acted as a harness.

"Get ready to run!" they heard Adrien shout.

They linked arms, holding each other tightly. The golden light pulled at them, facilitating their rescue. Finally, they came out of the crevice and rolled away from that dangerous place.

Then they stood up, pulling each other, and ran, desperately, without letting go. Adrien was waiting for them, without stopping his spell, while Celine covered him with a shield. Together, the four of them ran towards the exit, without looking back.

Draco and Ginny waited at the door, keeping it from collapsing. With great effort, they kept their spell up until everyone was safe.

The house was literally collapsing, and the ground was moving in such a way that it seemed like the entire place was going to disappear. Moments after their escape, the mansion completely collapsed, creating a cloud of dust and debris that knocked them to the ground.

Snape and Astrid remained for a few seconds without moving from where they had fallen, until they had enough strength to sit up and look at each other. They were wounded and completely covered in dust, but alive.

Their children pounced on them, almost suffocating them in a hug. The four of them stayed in each other's arms for a few minutes, full of relief. Draco watched them from a little distance, with a lump in his throat.

Beside him, Ginny looked at the enormous mass of rubble that could be seen despite the darkness of the night. Harry was still there, trapped.

***

Shia stood suddenly still, neither trying to escape nor attack. Her eyes turned golden again, and she slowly regained her snake-woman form.

"What happen?" Dumbledore asked.