Severus Snape And The Marauders

Chapter 16

What Will Eventually Be Known as the Diagon Alley Fiasco

The sun had begun to consider retiring, and shadows fell long and pleasant upon the cobblestones. The air was warm and touched with the faintest hint of a breeze; in short, it was a beautiful midsummer's evening, the sort that ought to be spent with friends and a large portion of strawberry ice-cream.

The Marauders spilled out of the fireplace into a Diagon Alley that had no attention to spare for such glorious weather. The streets were filled with terrified witches and wizards running this way and that. The burning apothecary emitted waves of smoke and numerous explosions; children screamed while hexes flew over the crowd. The sounds of dueling were barely audible through the noise of the streets; Severus turned towards Gringotts' and glimpsed the brilliant white of a Death Eater mask...

He clutched Sirius' shoulder more tightly, shouting in his ear: "We have to get away from all these people!" Sirius nodded and began pushing through the crowd, leading the way towards the nearest store. James kicked the door open and they hurried inside a tiny junk shop Severus remembered from his second year as containing some of the most fantastically boringliterature on the planet—who would ever read anything titled Prefects Who Gained Power? No one was in the shop, likely because the ceiling had been damaged and now trembled on the verge of collapse.

James pulled the door shut behind Remus and the noise dimmed from a roar to a growl. "What now?" he asked.

"Precautions," Severus said, glancing about as Sirius laid him on the dusty floorboards. He sneezed, shivered; a heavy cloak settled around his shoulders and he smiled gratefully at Remus. "We'll have to do them physically... this isn't a ritually-prepared spot. Candles first..."

For the next few minutes the Gryffindors dashed around, clearing the floor and hunting for a half dozen miscellaneous items he'd need for the warding. Severus tore off strips of his shredded, blood-soaked robe—no need to draw any more blood when there's so much available—and laid them out in a circle just big enough to hold four teenagers. He instructed Remus to secure the ends with some of the boring, but heavy, books they'd found, and to place four candles at the four points of the compass. When Sirius and James returned—with a chicken sandwich and pocketknife, respectively—he was scrawling on the floor in spidery, unbroken Latin that stretched all the way around the outside of the circle. Severus paused to dip the quill in the inkwell.

"Is that a chicken sandwich?" Remus asked. "Can I ask why we need a chicken sandwich?"

"Put it there," Severus interrupted, pointing at one of the books. "And the steel goes... there." He continued to scrawl the incantation across the floor, stopping two words short. "Okay, get inside now—and whatever you do afterwards, don't cross the line."

The Gryffindors complied, but Remus still looked puzzled. "Hello? Chicken sandwich?"

"It's got bone in it," Sirius answered. "He said to find a bone—"

"And the knife is steel, and the blood completes it," said Severus as he ended the incantation with a flourish. He tapped the words with his wand and they shimmered before fading into the ground. "That's the most important ward." He glanced up at them briefly. "I should warn you that this is going to be dangerous and the warding is extremely primitive. The odds are not as good as I'd like."

"Let's get on with it then," Sirius said. "Before you talk us out of it."

"Just don't cross the line—and don't distract me. Incendio." The candles flickered to life. "And when the Death Eaters come, don't let them interrupt me."