snape and skull

30

Crime and Punishment
H

arry couldn't believe how menacing and scary Severus looked. He had never seen that terrible hatred upon the elder wizard's face before. Of course, Severus had a right to hate Marlene—not only was she crazy with jealousy and prejudiced towards Slytherins, she had dared to hurt Skull and also Harry, the two Severus loved best. Harry could understand that, but at the same time he didn't want Severus to get in trouble for striking down an adversary in cold blood. So when he heard Severus ask McGonagall to give him one good reason not to kill Marlene, he spoke up. "Because she's not worth going to jail over, Uncle Severus. She's totally cracked and all and she does deserve to be punished for what she did, but you shouldn't kill her . . . not like this." He shot Severus a half-pleading glance from his green eyes. He set the Codex down beside the stunned raven and gently felt him over for broken bones. As far as he could tell, nothing was broken.
"

He's right, Sev." Skullduggery suddenly interrupted, sitting up and shaking himself. "She's two sandwiches short of a picnic and I really don't like her, but you ought not to dirty your hands with her. Let the Ministry, or better yet, the Society, deal with her. Her crimes were against them as well as Harry. Let her be judged by a jury of her peers."
Severus was silent, mulling it over while giving the bitch time to squirm, since his face was still wearing its dreadful glare. He knew that Harry and Skull were correct in telling him not to commit murder. But his rage was very close to the surface and it longed to be unleashed upon the witch who had targeted Harry for humiliation and abuse. Not to mention had also harmed Irma and Skull and stolen a rare magical book from the Society of Ravens. Yes, Marlene was guilty of many things, especially kidnapping Harry and holding him prisoner. That alone was worth a number of curses.
But seeing Harry standing there, looking unharmed, his huge green eyes gazing innocently into Snape's own, cooled some of the fires of revenge. The boy was all right, and Severus didn't wish to tarnish that innocence by making Harry witness an execution, no matter how deserved. Then too, McKinnon was a pureblood, and her death by his hand would cause a scandal, as he was a half-blood former Death Eater.
"Severus, think of Harry," Minerva whispered.
The Potions Master heaved a sharp sigh. "I am." Slowly he lowered his wand. "You walk for now, McKinnon. But the devil shall have his due, woman. I'm bringing you back to face a trial. And if the fates are kind, you will be put away for life or face a Dementor or the judgment of the Society." He bared his teeth in a cold malicious smile.
Marlene tried to meet his gaze, but failed.
"Well done, Sev!" the raven croaked, perching on Harry's arm.
"Skullduggery, are you all right?" Severus asked, concerned.
The raven fluffed his feathers. "Just a small knock on the head. I'll be fine in a day or two."
Severus breathed again. Losing Skull was unthinkable. He turned to Harry, "Are you all right?"
In answer, Harry walked over to his guardian and hugged him hard. He buried his face in Snape's robes and just breathed in the scent of the other man. "I am now. You came for me."
Severus wrapped his arms about the small boy and hugged him tight. "I will always come for you, Harry." One hand gently stroked his hair. He found that he was very close to tears, so great was his relief that Harry was found at last. He had to blink several times to keep the threatened tears at bay, for he refused to cry in front of McKinnon.
He felt Skull settle on his shoulder and start preening his hair. Then he heard the insolent raven squawk, "What you lookin' at, bitch?"
Severus raised his head and saw McKinnon staring at him, and the look in her eyes could have slain a dragon. Severus smiled coolly. Clearly she was not enjoying the reunion with his ward. That pleased Severus to no end. He felt Harry shudder against him and knew the boy was crying silently. Automatically, he moved a hand to the boy's back and rubbed small circles. "There now, bran-boy," he murmured. "You're safe now, she can't hurt you."
Harry wasn't sure why he was crying all of a sudden. Perhaps it was from relief, because he was incredibly grateful that Severus was here. His guardian always made him feel so safe. Safe and wanted and most of all loved. Sniffling sharply, he kept his face hidden in the soft black robes, and listened to the comforting sound of Snape's heart beating. The nightmare of his captivity was over and he leaned against his guardian and basked in his presence. It felt so very good to have someone to hug, to chase away the shadow of fear.
Marlene watched and ground her teeth in rage. She felt betrayed by the young wizard. How dare that brat cozy up to Snape? After all she had done, Snape got hugs and tears, and she didn't get so much as a glance. In that moment she hated the dark-haired boy more than anything. He was a traitor to his blood and a disgrace to Gryffindor House. She washed her hands of him. His loyalties clearly lay with the House of Serpents. Let him rot with them and be tainted with darkness.
After a few moments, Harry stepped away from Severus and wiped his eyes. He went and picked up the Codex from the floor. "What do we do now?" he asked his teachers.
"We take her to the Auror Department," Minerva answered. "Get up, McKinnon." She tugged on the rope binding the other witch much as she would have a leash.
Marlene snarled, but rose to her feet.
"I wish to take Harry back to the castle first." Severus said. "Can you handle her on your own?"
Minerva snorted. "I'm not in my dotage yet, Severus! She canna do anything to me all tied up." An instant later, they were gone in a flicker of blue light.
"Come, Harry. It's time to go home." Severus put an arm about his ward and Apparated to Hogsmeade and from there they Flooed back to his quarters.
As they emerged from the fireplace, Skullduggery took wing off of Snape's shoulder and shook himself vigorously. "Rrrawk! Next time I'll use my own wings, Sev. Less chance of being choked to death by a cloud of soot." He began preening his feathers, cleaning them of soot.
Severus cast a cleaning charm on himself and Harry, then said, "Forgive me, Skull. I should have warned you beforehand, so you could fly back on your own."
The raven made a non-commital noise and continued grooming.
Harry made his way over to the couch, still holding the Codex Magicka. The book was silent in his grasp now, and he wondered if it knew it was no longer in Marlene's house. As he sat down with the book in his lap, Severus asked, "How did you know to take the book with you? That's a rare ancient spellbook known as the Codex Magicka. It contains much old magic and it could have done great harm in that woman's hands."
"It wanted me to take it with me," Harry explained.
"What do you mean it wanted you to?"
"It spoke to me . . . in my mind," Harry told him. "It said it was a repository for ancient magic and it didn't want Marlene to keep using it. It taught me how to project myself out of my body so I could get help, but first it made me promise to take it with me when I left."
"How precisely, did it teach you?"
"It copied pages of itself with instructions on how to project myself astrally. I destroyed them though, so Marlene wouldn't find out."
"I see. I never knew the Codex was sentient."
"What's that mean?"
"It means to be conscious or self-aware. The Society never spoke of the Codex as a sentient book. But perhaps they did not know, if no one had used it in a long time," Severus mused. "Or perhaps it only speaks to those it finds worthy or in need."
"Yeah. It sure didn't like Marlene. Then again, who would? It got real mad after she . . . err . . . whacked me with a ruler for touching it the first time."
"She did what?" Severus exclaimed, his voice sharp with anger. "When did that happen?"
"Uh, a day or two ago. She said she punished me like that because I disobeyed her, but she never told me I couldn't touch the book." Harry said.
Severus' face was dark with anger. "Where did she hit you?"
"My hands, a few times. And also my bum. It really hurt at first, but then she gave me a potion for the pain and it's not so bad now." Harry admitted, coloring slightly.
"Show me your hands, please."
Harry flipped up the palms of his hands and Severus saw the faint white lines on them. He swore under his breath.
"I'm assuming your backside is the same?" his guardian said.
"Uh . . . I guess so."
"Would you mind if I looked at it? Just to make sure there aren't any bleeding welts there? You wouldn't want to get an infection."
Harry blushed a sunset rose and slowly nodded. He turned around and unbuttoned his jeans.
Severus gently lowered jeans and underpants. Nothing was bleeding, but there were white lines across Harry's bum. "That bitch!" he swore. "I'm going to have her up for abuse of a child besides the other crimes she stands accused of." He replaced Harry's clothing. He was fairly shaking with rage, because those marks reminded him of his own horrible childhood. That Marlene had done such a thing to Harry made him want to horsewhip her to pieces. How dare she lay a hand on the boy?
"I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner," he said regretfully. "Then I might have prevented that."
"It's not your fault, Uncle Severus. She was using the Codex Magicka to hide herself and her house, I'll bet."
"You are probably right," Severus agreed. But that still didn't make him feel better. He felt guilty that he hadn't been there to protect Harry. He looked down at the Codex, the book that had saved Harry, and thought that at least he had one ally in that madwoman's prison house. "I believe I should return this to Irma, as she is the one who was originally in charge of it. The one thing we couldn't figure out was how Marlene found it."
"I think she summoned a creature to find it. She told me she learned how to call it from a book of dark magic. I think it was called . . . a revenant."
Severus looked alarmed at the name. "She must be insane! Revenants are extremely hard to control and if they slip your control they are like death unleashed."
"She said she used it to get revenge on people who were mean to her," Harry said, scowling. "I think she sent it to hurt Madam Pince. Either that or she followed it and knocked her out. I think she knocked me out too, now that I think about it."
"I wouldn't put anything past her." Severus said darkly. "Here. I found your amulet on the ground. Put it on, I've mended the chain." He gave Harry his amulet back.
Harry took it and put it on. He felt much better with it on. "I was afraid I'd lost it. I hid my watch from her," he pulled out the pocket watch and opened it, smiling at his mum waving.
"That was good thinking. And now, I must go and give this back to Irma. She's the archivist of the Society and the book should be back in her possession." Severus picked up the book. "I shall be back soon. Why don't you take a rest while I'm gone? Then we can have dinner."
"Here? Or in the hall?"
"I think it best if we eat in the hall tonight. Everyone in the school will want to see you, they were quite worried about you. Some of my fifth year Slytherins and Gryffindors volunteered to search for you in the forest with me. It was how I discovered the barrier surrounding her estate." Severus said. "We can talk more about it later. Skull will keep you company." Then he left the room, his black cloak swirling.
Harry just sat on the couch, amazed that Slytherins and Gryffindors had actually gotten together and searched for him. That must have been the first time in years that both Houses had cooperated like that. And he was the cause of it. He had to admit, it felt strange that such a thing had come about because of him, he hadn't thought any other Slytherins except Draco and Blaise cared about him. He would have to ask how that had come about when he saw Draco at supper. Or Ron, Hermione, and Neville.
He yawned, for he was quite tired after the day he'd had, and then he curled up on the couch and fell asleep.