Out of the Shadows [Book Three]

Chapter Four:

DEDICATED TO Gummy_Fishy for her support on the first (and possibly second) book(s)! <3 THank you 

Chapter Four:

Stepping through Amycus Carrow's detention room, my eyes quickly took in the many torture devices built by both muggles and wizards.  Most of them were full of other students already; bloody, beaten and terrified, the children looked on at me with eyes that screamed at me to run.

To run as fast and as far away as I possibly could.

I didn't.

I caught the attention of Amycus immediately and watched the smile form on his narrow, angular face. His slightly yellowed teeth seemed to glint menacingly despite the fact that it was physically not possible for teeth to do anything menacingly.

His long fingers grasped my wrist and tightened to the point of near-excruciating pain, leaving no room for doubt in my mind that he could easily break it if he just put in a bit more effort.

My eyes flitted around the darkened room, lingering a moment longer than the other students on a first year Gryffindor. He had brown hair, dark eyes though I couldn't make out the colour of them and his thin, pale frame was decorated in cuts and bruises. Pallid skin seemed to hang off of him as though it was no longer connected to bones but I knew it was. The conclusion was that he had simply lost all will to live. An eleven year old boy who obviously would rather be dead than in this school for magical, special people.

A spark of fire ignited within me as I turned my gaze to Carrow, narrowing them on him and letting him see the hatred boiling over to the surface. 

He was another person to add to my list of people I would personally kill.  He would even go in front of Dolores Umbridge, he would be the first.

I was tossed against a wall, my wrist throbbing from Amycus' rough handling before he was pointing a wand at me.

"Here's what I want out of you. Everyone thinks you were under the Imperius curse while serving our Dark Lord but you and I know the truth.  Now I want them," he gestured to the seven other students he was in the midst of torturing, " to know as well. Let's begin."

*

I held my arm across my chest, trying desperately to stench the blood flow that came unhindered out of my body. I could not go to the infirmary, there was no chance I could make it there without help; this far into Hogwarts there weren't many options to choose from. I couldn't walk up or down any flights of stairs, in fact I could barely walk at all.

I had gone through a lot to prove myself to the Dark Lord, torturing and murdering people and even I had endured the Cruciatus Curse many times but never had I been through something like what Amycus Carrow had put me through.  I regret having put anyone through even a portion of the suffering I had endured and was continuing to endure.

The only place I could go was to Snape and there was no guarantee that he would help me like he had done all those years ago as he saved me from Aunt Marge.  But I had no choice, I would not die, I would not give anyone the satisfaction of taking me out of this game that Harry and the Dark Lord were playing.  I was just a pawn for now but I was working on taking my place as Queen and I would not die until I made it.  So despite the unlikelihood that Headmaster Severus Snape  would help me he was unfortunately the only choice I had in the moment.  

Stumbling, I used the wall to hold me up as I slowly made my way through the few corridors it would take me to reach the Headmasters office.  Upon making it to the stone gargoyle I tried to remember what the password had been when I had been called there to speak to Umbridge about my blood status but it was hard for me to remember as I hadn't been the one to say it, McGonagall had lead me to the Headmaster's office.

"Slytherin?"  

"Dark Lord?"  

"Dumbledore."

Breathing raggedly I glanced backwards to the way I had come; the corridors were empty but along the walls were red streaks where I had been leaning against them and if anyone were to come across them they would be easy enough to trace back to me.   The thought and vision of blood along the corridor walls led me to think less about what Snape would make as a password and more of what would a Slytherin put as the password.

"Pureblood."    

Sighing in relief, I let myself climb upon the first step of the spiral staircase and relished in the feeling of it moving upwards to the office by itself; I didn't have to do much else and I knew that was a good thing because I wasn't sure how much further I could go.  I felt dizzy, nauseous, enervated and weary beyond belief.  The staircase moved so slowly that by the time I made it to the top, where the only thing separating me from possible salvation was a large oak door I couldn't so much as stand.  I let my back hit the wall hard, painfully allowing myself to slide down the rough panels with the knowledge that I had almost made it the entire way there on my own.  

Just lifting my hand up to tap on the door seemed to deplete what little bit of energy I had left but still I managed it; if only just barely.  I pressed on my wounds tighter, letting my too-heavy eyelids drift closed for a few moments before I heard the door to my right swing open.  My green eyes lifted upwards to see Severus Snape staring down at me with an indiscernible look upon his face.  

"Please help me," I mumbled, wanting nothing more than to close my eyes once more but I was too terrified that they wouldn't open again if I did.  He wasted no time in bending down and lifting me up in his arms.  He strained a bit, barely managing to fit us both through the door at the same time but soon regained his balance and placed me on a small green couch.  For one singular moment my mind thought about how he would ever get the stains out, making me smile every so slightly but that only lasted a second because too soon I was grunting in pain as he pulled my arm away from my chest and used his wand to cut my shirt away.  

His eyes swept over the jagged gashes along my upper chest, taking in the deep bruises that also covered my body before he pointed his wand at me with his obsidian eyes focused on the doings of his own curse.  A curse he had invented had done the worst physical damage to me, though one of my own had done the most psychological damage.  

"Vulnera Sanentur.  Vulnera Sanentur.  Vulnera Sanentur."  It was nearly a song-like incantation that the Headmaster spoke, but even upon just the first mutters of the counter-curse I could feel the blood stop gushing out through the wound.  By the second saying, I could feel the wound painfully being knit back together as if someone was quickly sewing it back together and by the third I could feel most of the fatigue and radiating pain being lifted up off of me like a blanket.  

Nearly immediately after Severus Snape was finished, he flicked his wand and I saw my bloodied clothes, body and the couch be wiped clean.  

No time was wasted as Snape strode to a small cabinet nearer to the Headmaster's desk and he pulled out a small bottle with writing that I couldn't quite read through the blurring of my eyes.  It was a brown liquid and as the top was taken off of it I watched Snape lightly apply whatever it was to my wounds.  It didn't burn or become unnaturally painful but I could feel it become uncomfortably warm before feeling as if an ice cube had been put atop the slices.  

The wounds I had looked days old after all was said and done, leaving me to feel as if I could finally close my eyes without a worry.  I was healed, and Snape, as hateful as he seemed sometimes, would obviously take care of me and do a good job at it too.  For months I had wanted to trust him like I had done in my first year at Hogwarts, when I thought of him as my saviour, my hero, but it seemed like everything happening at the school was telling me that he couldn't be trusted any longer.  

He wasn't the same man, that was true.  But after tonight, I had no doubt about it.  

He was a hero.  He was my hero.  

"Thank you."  

[[A/N: OKAY SO I had to put the Snape scene in here as a tribute to Alan Rickman, I love and adored that man and even after 3 days I keep kind of thinking about it and then crying and man, I miss him so much!  I hope you all love this chapter!  Also for those of you who read my Snape's Daughter trilogy, I hope to start doing a few Snape/Lily or Lily/Fred oneshots at the request of one of my newest friends, so keep an eye out for those!]]