Lucy Snape and the Final Battle (Book Seven)

Running To Stand Still

Chapter 16: Running To Stand Still

Lucy was reminded oddly of the times when she was younger and Brian Potter would hurt her so bad she swore she was going blind. But now she was older and was gripping the uneven surface of the building behind her and subsequently cutting her hand to distract herself from the blindness. Now it was her real father doing the damage.

"LUCY! LUCY WHERE ARE YOU! I KNOW YOU'RE IN LONDON, PLEASE JUST — "

Lucy howled out in pain as Snape's thoughts continually cascaded into her mind. A few passers by stared at her in alarm but Lucy didn't care, her head was pounding. She couldn't get Snape out of her head, she figured it was because he was so close but didn't have time to go into specifics, she had to throw him off her scent. She apparated quickly to the forest and fell to the ground, writhing as the searing pain continued to worsen:

"LUCY, TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE. IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU — "

Lucy refused to give in and refused to say anything back. All she could do was scream in pain in the middle of the empty forest and wait for it to subside. But it wasn't subsiding at all, Snape's thoughts were building to a crescendo inside her head and now Shona had joined in and Lucy could feel herself going faint. She looked around blindly and decided she'd apparate as many times as it took to throw Snape off her trail.

She stood up and leaned against a tree as she apparated back to London and then back again. Her knees nearly gave way in the forest but she quickly apparated back to London and then found herself face to face with Snape. Her eyes went wide and she nearly screamed out but instead decided to return to the forest. It took Snape a moment to realise it was Lucy underneath the makeup but unfortunately for Lucy in that same moment she had hesitated. Snape wrapped an arm around her and she apparated back to the forest.

They both landed on the ground and they turned to each other. Both breathed heavily and Lucy swayed as the dizziness subsided and her head returned to normal. Lucy's green eyes pierced Snape's dull ones before she leapt up and tried to run but she hadn't yet recovered and fell pathetically to the ground.

"Stop running," Snape begged. "We need to stick together now."

Lucy spat viciously on the ground and ignored him.

Shona apparated beside Snape, stood up to observe the scene. Her eyes widened and she beamed at the sight of Lucy. "Hi, Lucky!"

"Now really isn't the time for positive comments," Lucy returned as calmly as she could.

Shona's hand retreated to her side. She stared at the two and assessed the situation. 

"Lucy," Snape reached out to her and Lucy pulled away, Snape tried to ignore the rejection and carry on. "We can't keep running from each other. We need to put our differences aside and we need to stick together to win this war — "

"Differences aside?" Lucy finally got to her feet and rounded on him. Snape was stunned into silence, he'd never heard Lucy's tone so nasty. "So we're supposed to, what? Hold hands and skip around and pretend like you aren't a murderer?"

Snape couldn't respond.

"Newsflash, you aren't part of this war. It's Shona and I who have to win this, we're Sebastian and Merlin's most recent descendants and we are the ones who will fight, as far as the bloodline is concerned you are nothing. You are not worthy of this war, all you are is a cold blooded killer."

"Lucy — " Shona tried but Lucy raised a hand to silence her.

"I don't want to hear it. Shona, if you want to stick with me you can but I will not stand at my father's side."