Secret Life (as Severus Snape's Daughter) - English

Chapter 12: Green Lightning Strikes

Lily-Anne opens her eyes, shoots up from her bed and grabs her left arm, it was burning terribly and it had woken her up. She sits there for quite some time, holding her throbbing arm, biting her lip, waiting for the pain to pass. When the pain subsides she throws back het blankets and steps out of bed. She takes her night gown,  steps into her flats and walks out of her Dormitory to the abandoned Common Room. She walks straight through and up the stairs to the Entrance Hall. Maybe she just had to take a breath of fresh air, maybe the could nights air would make her forget the pain in her arm. But when she is outside, her eyes fall on the green light coming from the Astronomy Tower. She is shocked to see the Dark Mark shining proudly on top of the tower, the Mark on her left lower arm burns again, but Lily-Anne doesn't pay attention to it, her eyes are fixed on the Mark in the black night sky, no star seems to be bright enough to become visible next to the Dark Mark and even the moon decided to hide itself from the Mark. For a while she just stares at the sky, until she suddenly hears loud noises inside. She turns around, lifts her night gown and runs inside, back into the hall.

'Run, come on Draco, move!'

With a shock Lily-Anne recognizes her father as he turns the corner, holding Draco by the scuffs of his clothing. Draco is white as a sheet, like he was only a few weeks ago when Lily-Anne found him on the bathroom floor, with her father with him trying to heal his wounds. They had been healed and Draco seemed to be in perfect health, still he had seen something happen, something that surely had everything to do with the Dark Mark floating above the Astronomy Tower. His assignment had been done, and whatever it had been, it had traumatized him. Lily-Anne steps into the light of a couple of torches and Draco immediately notices her.

'Lily!'

Severus looks up and now his eyes fall on his daughter, in her white night gown and her light green dressing gown, her hair jet black in a braid that falls down over her shoulder. Draco tears himself loose from Severus's grip and rushes towards Lily, he stops right in front of her and looks at her for a while before he kisses her on the lips. But Lily-Anne quickly pulls away, she didn't want to kiss Draco, especially not now. She looks at him, almost afraid.

'Draco, what is going on? What happened on the Astronomy Tower? Do you have anything to do with...'

Before she can finish her sentence, they are passed by various other Death Eaters. Lily-Anne recognizes Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback, but all the others are unknown to her. They scream a couple of things, but Lily-Anne can't make out what they say exactly. Severus apparently does, because he quickly looks back and then grabs Draco by his scuffs again. Draco quickly shakes the grip off and looks at Severus, suddenly regaining his confidence and now that Lily-Anne looks at him a little better, a little of the colour in his face.

'I can walk on my own, I don't need your help.'

Severus doesn't respond, he only looks at Draco for a second, then at Lily-Anne for two and then he rushes on. Draco doesn't move however and seems to be paralyzed in his place, waiting for whatever is coming. Without thinking about it, she grabs Draco's hand and pulls him towards the doors, Draco looks up, into the pleading eyes of Lily-Anne.

'Please Draco, you have to keep moving.'

Lily-Anne pulls Draco along and it doesn't take long before Draco is the one leading her away from the castle and towards Hagrid's Hut and the Forbidden Forest. When they passed the Astronomy Tower, he lingered for a while before moving again, and Lily-Anne was sure that what had happened there had everything to do with a secret Draco and her father had both kept from her for an entire year. Her father would sometimes look over his shoulder, looking at his daughter as much as he could. It was done, it had happened, and this would most likely be the last time he would see his Lily-Anne for a long time. But he couldn't get distracted, he had to make sure that Draco would get away safely, and he knew that he was being followed, the dark figure stepping into their footsteps had almost caught up with them. They were almost past the cabin, where Hagrid had now emerged from the doorway trying to stop the Death Eaters in front of him from doing anything to either him or his home. Draco stops again and watches the half-giant, but Lily-Anne pulls him along. Her father stopped for a little while so the two of them could catch up with him, but now the three of them continued their way towards the gates, where they could leave the grounds of Hogwarts and where Draco and Severus would be able to Apparate, what Lily-Anne would do was not yet clear to any one of them. Then Lily-Anne hears someone yelling behind them and a curse just misses her head. Severus sees it and stops immediately.