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Entry tags:
Scars, Part 31
Rating: NC-17 overall
Pairings: Snape/Lupin, Ash/Tsubasa (OMCs), and a few other minor pairings
Author's note: {} Indicates character's unspoken thoughts.
Disclaimer: Based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Warning: AU. This story contains a character from Half-Blood Prince, but does not follow the HBP storyline.
Sequel to: Always, Summer Vacation, For Old Time's Sake, Three's a Crowd, Return of the Raven, Phoenix Reborn, Phoenix Rising, Aftermaths, The Revenant, Ash's Story, and Summer Vacation III. (These stories are archived on my website and also on Moonshadow.)
Summary: The battle between Lukas and Greyback continues, as Snape and Lupin confront the Macnairs.
Part 30
Pairings: Snape/Lupin, Ash/Tsubasa (OMCs), and a few other minor pairings
Author's note: {} Indicates character's unspoken thoughts.
Disclaimer: Based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
Warning: AU. This story contains a character from Half-Blood Prince, but does not follow the HBP storyline.
Sequel to: Always, Summer Vacation, For Old Time's Sake, Three's a Crowd, Return of the Raven, Phoenix Reborn, Phoenix Rising, Aftermaths, The Revenant, Ash's Story, and Summer Vacation III. (These stories are archived on my website and also on Moonshadow.)
Summary: The battle between Lukas and Greyback continues, as Snape and Lupin confront the Macnairs.
Part 30
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Imogen turned away from the fight, and for a moment, Snape wondered if she had seen through the obscuring spell. But her gaze passed over him and Lupin without pausing; it seemed that she was merely turning towards her brother to whisper something in his ear. He nodded and laughed maliciously, and they both grinned as they turned their attention back to the dueling werewolves.
"Yes, I don't think Diggory will last much longer," Warren said, apparently in response to Imogen's comment. The blond wolf--who must of course be Lukas--was still fighting fiercely, but looked considerably more wounded and bloody than the gray, whom Snape easily recognized as his former comrade Greyback. Those yellowish eyes, filled with murderous glee and bloodlust, looked the same no matter what form he was in. There was a strange medallion strung around his neck, which must be the artifact that Theodore had mentioned. Normally anything on a werewolf's body, such as clothes and jewelry, transformed along with him, so only a very powerful magic item would remain unchanged after a transformation. Usually even a wizard's wand was absorbed into the werewolf's body, if it was in the pocket of his robes when he transformed.
The wolves separated briefly, trying to catch their breath, tongues lolling out and sides heaving as they panted. Lukas started forward again, then whined as his right hind leg--which was gashed and bleeding--buckled beneath him.
Greyback lunged at him, and Snape pushed Lupin towards the wolves, whispering, "Go!" Then Snape raised his wand, choosing to attack Warren first; freeing the hostage would allow them to fight without having to worry about Ash being killed.
He silently cast a Stupefying Charm, to keep the element of surprise until the very last moment, but things did not go as planned. Imogen shouted, "Warren!" and the boy twisted away to dodge the spell--not quite in time, because it still grazed him, and he staggered, dropping to his knees, but he did not fall unconscious either. He did drop the chain leash he was holding, but Ash remained standing in place like a statue, apparently still bound by the Imperius or whatever spell the Macnairs were using to control him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Snape saw that Lukas's stumble had merely been a feint; he easily sidestepped and dodged Greyback's attack. Then, while the other wolf was taken off-guard, Lukas pounced on him, knocking him over onto his back and going for his throat. Lupin had drawn his wand, but was hesitating, probably afraid to attack in case he hit Lukas by mistake.
Meanwhile, Imogen had turned to confront Snape with her wand raised. "I personally set the anti-Apparition barrier around the safe house, Professor," she said in an almost conversational tone of voice. "And when something tries to breach that barrier, it automatically alerts me. That was a nice obscuring charm, though; it probably would have worked if I hadn't been expecting company."
"If you and your brother surrender now, I'll plead for mercy on your behalf with the Ministry," Snape said. He knew that any attempts to reason with the Macnairs were probably futile, but he still had to try. For one thing, he didn't want to have to kill his former students unless absolutely necessary, and from a more practical viewpoint, if he could stall and keep the twins talking long enough, the Aurors would arrive and they would have a better chance of capturing the Macnairs and Greyback without anyone on either side being killed--except maybe Greyback. Snape was secretly hoping that Lukas would kill him; Greyback had already escaped what seemed like certain death once, and Snape would prefer to have that particular problem dealt with permanently.
"Greyback was the one who committed the murders, after all," Snape continued persuasively. "There's no blood directly staining your hands--yet. You were devoted children, acting out of misguided love for your father..."
"You are sadly mistaken, Snape, if you think that we would ever betray our father to save ourselves!" Imogen snapped, her normally cool eyes flashing with a sudden burst of hatred and contempt. "We have no intention of surrendering! Inferi Resurrectio!"
She waved her wand, and suddenly corpses began clawing their way out of the earth beneath his feet. A skeletal hand wrapped itself around Snape's ankle and tried to pull him to the ground.
"Sectumsempra!" he shouted, neatly severing the hand. Unfortunately, it continued to attack him while the rest of the body rose up out of the ground. The unattached hand no longer had the strength to pull him off-balance, but it did claw and scratch at him--mostly ineffectually, but it was still rather unnerving.
Snape cursed under his breath. Inferi were merely animated corpses controlled by magic and apparently the enchantment on them was strong enough that they continued to remain animated even after being cut into pieces. He managed to shake the hand off his leg and set it on fire with an Incendio spell, which worked nicely, leaving a small pile of charred--and unmoving--bones on the ground.
Fire was the best defense against Inferi, but it took a lot longer to incinerate an entire corpse than it did a single hand, and they kept attacking until the fire reduced them to bone and ash--with the unexpected side-effect of nearly setting Snape on fire in the process when they tried to grab him while their bodies were still burning. One or two or even three, he could have handled easily enough, but there were more than a dozen Inferi in varying stages of decay. Some were little more than skeletons with a few shreds of rotting flesh and rags still hanging off their bones, while others were more intact, although their flesh was still putrid and decaying. The less rotted corpses were easily identifiable as Muggles by their clothing--probably victims Walden Macnair had killed as a Death Eater, and then seeded here as Inferi to guard his safe house. There was a reason why Macnair had taken a job as an executioner of dangerous beasts at the Ministry: he took pleasure in the act of killing, although he preferred human victims over animals.
The Inferi were disgusting to look at, and the stench of decaying flesh was even worse, but that was not enough to adversely affect Snape, who had seen even more horrific things as a Death Eater. No, what truly turned his stomach was the fact that while most of the Inferi appeared to be grown men and women, a few of them were children. One of them, a little girl, still had long blonde hair clinging to what remained of her scalp, and wore a tattered lacy dress that had probably once been white, but was now yellowed with age and covered with brown smears of dirt. There was another who was obviously a boy, perhaps a few years older than the girl at the time of his death--possibly an older brother, since they were in a similar state of decomposition, and had probably been killed at about the same time. There was also a third corpse that was so decayed that it was impossible to determine the gender, but its size clearly marked it as a child.
The girl-Inferius attacked Snape, trying to bite and claw him, and he hurled her away from him with a spell, then set her on fire with another. He fought the urge to vomit as the little corpse ran in frantic circles, her--its--mouth open in a silent scream until it finally collapsed on the ground and mercifully fell still. He tried to remind himself that it was not really a child that he had just killed, merely an empty husk of a body, but it didn't make him feel any better. If he survived this battle, he just might go to Azkaban and kill Walden Macnair with his bare hands.
However, that was a pretty big "if" at the moment. The Inferi were swarming him, trying to bring him down, and he cried out in pain as another child-corpse sank its teeth into his leg, hard enough to tear through his trousers. He blasted it with a spell, and felt blood trickling down his leg as he turned to repel one of the adult Inferi. Inferi-inflicted wounds carried a serious risk of infection, but that was the least of his worries right now. He glanced around and was relieved to see that Lupin was unharmed, although he was too busy fending off Inferi of his own to come to Snape's aid. Interestingly enough, the Inferi seemed to be leaving the wolves alone, perhaps at Imogen's command. She was motioning with her wand, as if trying to direct the Inferi, almost like a conductor leading a symphony, although with much less subtlety and finesse, as Inferi lacked intelligence and could respond only to general commands along the lines of "guard this place" and "attack intruders".
However, Imogen didn't really need any finesse to kill them, and it wasn't so much the Inferi that Snape was worried about. If it had only been the Inferi that they were dealing with, he and Lupin could manage to defeat them, given enough time. The real danger was that the Inferi might pin them down long enough for one or both of the twins to hit them with a Killing Curse.
Sure enough, Warren pointed his wand at Snape and shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" There was no room to dodge, but Snape managed to shove one of the Inferi into the path of the spell, just in the nick of time. The corpse was merely stunned for a moment, then resumed attacking him. It was impossible to kill something that was already dead, so the curse had no effect on the Inferius, but at least it had come in handy as a shield.
"Damn you, Snape!" Warren snarled in frustration. "But you won't be able to dodge all of my spells! Imogen, can't you make the Inferi overpower him?"
"I'm trying, dear brother!" Imogen snapped irritably.
Lukas saw that they were in trouble and started to move towards them, but Greyback wouldn't him allow him to break off their duel, howling in rage and lunging at his opponent, raking his claws across the yellow wolf's side. Lukas yelped in pain and was forced to turn his full attention back to Greyback.
{Where are the damned Aurors?!} Snape wondered as he tried to simultaneously fight the Inferi and avoid Warren's spells. He should have known better than to count on the Ministry for backup! Potter had probably carelessly stumbled into a trap, in which case Tonks and Shacklebolt would have stopped to save him. Merlin forbid that any harm should befall the boy hero of the war, never mind that he and Lupin were fending off Inferi and Killing Curses, not to mention Lukas being mauled by Greyback.
Or to be fair, it was equally likely that the accident-prone Tonks was the one who had stumbled--quite literally--into a trap, but Snape was not in a mood to be fair. He wanted someone to blame, and it was much more satisfying to blame Potter for his troubles. Then again, he didn't have much fondness for the overly-cheerful Miss Tonks, either, so maybe he'd just go ahead and blame both of them--and throw in Shacklebolt, too, for good measure.
Just then, Tsubasa came charging towards them with his sword drawn. He was covered in blood, but it must have belonged to the troll, since he was moving quickly and easily, showing no sign of being injured. He ruthlessly and determinedly began hacking his way through the corpses, not even flinching as he lopped off the head of the boy-Inferius, which went sailing through the air until it hit the ground and rolled to a stop at Lupin's feet. Lupin did flinch, letting out a startled cry as he jumped back in revulsion.
Drenched in blood and eyes gleaming with a cold, grim intensity, Tsubasa looked like an avenging demon as he cut his way through the Inferi, his sword whirling in a deadly silver blur as severed limbs flew every which way; one struck Snape and nearly knocked his wand out of his hand. He started to cast an Incendio spell, but then noticed that all the body parts that Tsubasa hacked off instantly reverted back to their natural state of dead, unmoving flesh and bone. The crane warrior had mentioned that his sword could dispel minor wards, but he might have been overly modest, because the enchantment on his weapon was clearly strong enough to break the spells that animated the Inferi, and those spells were not exactly what Snape would call "minor". They were advanced Dark Magic, difficult to cast, and even more difficult to break.
With Tsubasa's help, the Inferi were rapidly being destroyed, and Imogen was beginning to look a little worried, while Warren looked downright panicky. "Avada Kedavra!" Imogen shouted, aiming the curse at Tsubasa, but he whipped his sword up in front of him and used the blade to deflect the spell, sending it bouncing back towards her, and Imogen had to duck to avoid being hit by her own curse.
Warren pointed his wand at Tsubasa, and Ash finally seemed to shake off the spell that was immobilizing him. Still bound and shackled, he couldn't cast a spell or even walk freely, so he simply hurled his entire body at Warren, knocking him to the ground and disrupting his spell.
Warren angrily shoved Ash off of him and shouted, "Crucio!" The werewolf screamed in agony, and the coldness in Tsubasa's eyes rapidly ignited into a much more heated state of fury. He headed in a straight line towards Warren, cutting down any of the Inferi unlucky enough to be blocking his path. Although dead, they must have retained some sense of self-preservation, because they scrambled to get out of his way. Tsubasa cleaved one Inferius that wasn't quick enough nearly in two, then kicked the body aside without sparing it a second glance. Snape made a mental note never to get on the swordsman's bad side, and revised his opinion of physical combat upwards a few notches.
"Let's retreat for now," Imogen said to her brother, who nodded in fervent agreement. A look of concentration filled their faces, quickly replaced by one of chagrin as they realized that they were unable to Disapparate.
"You're not the only ones who can cast anti-Apparition wards," Snape informed them with a nasty smile. "Better surrender now, or I'll let Professor Tsubasa deal with you."
Either the Macnairs weren't willing to give up yet, or they didn't trust Snape to keep Tsubasa from killing them, because they turned and fled into the house. He couldn't entirely blame them, because he wasn't sure himself if he could control Tsubasa.
"It would be preferable to take them alive, if possible, Professor," Snape called out to his colleague, although he remained well out of range of Tsubasa's sword, just to be on the safe side.
"I'll spare them if they surrender," Tsubasa replied curtly. He glanced at Ash, who was lying on the ground, groaning softly in pain as he recovered from the effects of the Cruciatus, and amended his statement with a "Maybe." His path now clear, he made his way over to his lover, knelt down beside him, and asked in a much gentler voice, "Are you all right, Ash?"
"Ye...yeah," Ash replied, a little unsteadily. "I'm fine; go help Lukas."
"I'll free you first, and then we can both help him," Tsubasa said, raising his sword. "Hold still for a moment."
"What--?" was all Ash managed to get out before the sword slashed down and sheared neatly through the silver chains without so much as nicking Ash's skin or even his robes. "Merlin's blue balls!" the werewolf shrieked, patting down his torso to make sure that his body was still intact. "Warn me the next time you're going to do something like that!"
"I did," Tsubasa replied calmly. "I told you to hold still. Here, let me get those shackles off you, too."
"You are not swinging that piece of metal anywhere near my neck!"
"Have you no faith in my skill?" Tsubasa asked with a grin. As Ash spluttered and cursed, Tsubasa laughed and said, "Relax, all I need to do is press the tip of the sword into the locks and dispel the wards on them."
"It's a magic sword," Snape informed Ash helpfully, as he and Lupin finished off what was left of the Inferi.
The shackles gave way easily, and Ash sighed, rubbing his neck and wrists, which were reddened and blistered where the silver had touched them. Then he gave his lover an accusing look and said, "Wait a minute--if the sword has some kind of dispelling magic, then you didn't really need to cut through the chains! You could have just broken the binding charm on them!"
"Well, maybe I just wanted to show off a little bit," Tsubasa admitted with a mischievous smile.
"I ought to wring your neck," Ash growled, but instead he grabbed Tsubasa and gave him a brief but passionate kiss. "But I'll kill you later. Right now we need to take care of Greyback and my dear half-brother and sister."
The Inferi were finally all dead--permanently this time. Snape was about to follow the Macnairs into the safe house when they came running out, dodging a barrage of stunning and binding spells being flung at them by Shacklebolt and Tonks. The latter's normally spiky violet hair was plastered flat against her head, and her robes were sopping wet, and she left a trail of little puddles and muddy footsteps behind her as she ran.
"Sorry we're late!" she apologized breathlessly.
"Let me guess, you fell into a trap," Snape said dryly.
"Er, no, there was no trap or magic involved," Tonks replied sheepishly. "I tripped and fell headlong into a pond." She lifted the hem of her robe, exposing a ring of bloody teeth marks on her calf. "Which contained a grindylow, by the way."
"Never mind that now!" Shacklebolt said impatiently.
The twins were standing back to back, wands raised, their eyes frantic and desperate as they looked around, uncertain whom they should attack next. They had the look of wild animals backed into a corner, and Snape knew that even a rat could be dangerous when it was trapped with nowhere to go. The Aurors obviously knew this, too, because they approached the pair cautiously, circling around them from one side as Lupin and Snape slowly closed in on the other. Lukas and Greyback remained locked in combat, and Ash was edging towards them while warily keeping an eye on the Macnairs, moving a bit stiffly after being bound for so long. Tsubasa remained at his side, sword ready and poised to strike. Snape had no idea where Potter was, but Tonks and Shacklebolt didn't seem worried about him, so presumably he was still sneaking around hidden beneath his Invisibility Cloak. If so, he might be able to disarm the twins before anyone else got hurt.
{Anytime now, Potter,} Snape thought sourly. Typical Gryffindor, waiting to make a dramatic entrance.
Maybe the boy had picked up on his thoughts, although Snape doubted it, given the difficulty he'd had learning Occlumency. But whether due to mind-reading or sheer coincidence, Potter dropped his cloak and suddenly appeared next to Snape, shouting, "Expelliarmus!"
Unfortunately, he only managed to disarm one of the twins, although it was Imogen, whom Snape judged to be the more dangerous of the two. She cried out as her wand flew from her grasp, and Potter was forced to back off as Warren shot a curse at him.
"Damn you, Potter," Warren hissed, eyes filled with pure hatred as he glared at the Boy Who Lived. "If you had died as you should have in the final battle, then my sister and I would be Death Eaters, rulers of the wizarding world, instead of fugitives on the run!"
"No, you would be slaves," Snape corrected coldly. "Pampered slaves for a time, perhaps, since your father had the Dark Lord's favor, but no one remains Voldemort's favorite for long. Sooner or later, he would always suffer a fit of temper and punish whoever was most convenient, whether or not they had actually done anything to deserve it. All of the Death Eaters, myself included, have experienced the Cruciatus at our Master's hand at one time or another. Your father knew this. Why else do you think that he sent you and Imogen away to Europe instead of having you take the Dark Mark?"
"Father was just being overprotective!" Warren snapped. "He still thought of us as children, even though we were grown and ready to fight by his side!"
"Your father was hedging his bets," Snape retorted. "He was trying to protect you in case Voldemort failed, and he was right to do so. You and Imogen were innocent of any crimes; you had the chance to rebuild your lives and live free of imprisonment or servitude, but you have wasted the gift that your father gave you. All you have done is to repeat the same mistakes he made!"
"Rebuild our lives?" Warren scoffed. "So that we can live 'free,' with all of the wizarding world sneering at us for being Death Eaters' children? So that I can remain unemployed while Imogen works at a menial clerical job?"
"I offered to help you," Snape reminded him. "And I will offer to help once again--and this time you had better think twice before you refuse me." He appealed to Imogen, who had always been the more sensible of the twins. "It's over, Imogen; you know that you can't take on all of us, not with only one wand between you. You were once my students, and I don't want to have to hurt you. Surrender for now, and live to fight another day." He pointedly turned his gaze towards Tsubasa, who looked as though he was still contemplating turning the twins into mincemeat. "There are others who don't care whether we bring you in dead or alive, and would, in fact, prefer 'dead'."
Imogen frowned thoughtfully, and Snape could see her weighing the options in her mind. "Warren, perhaps..." she said reluctantly.
"No!" Warren shouted defiantly, choosing an inopportune time to assert his independence. Snape cursed under his breath; why couldn't he simply follow his sister's lead as he had always done? But Warren appeared to have been pushed beyond his limits; his eyes glittered with the suicidal recklessness of a man with nothing left to lose. "I'll never surrender! If I'm going down, then I'm taking Potter with me! Avada Kedavra!"
Potter was taken off-guard when Warren suddenly turned away from Snape and towards him, so Snape, who was closest to the boy, hastily threw a Shield Charm in front of him. The Killing Curse rebounded straight back at Warren, who started to duck, then realized that the curse would hit Imogen, who was standing right behind him. He pushed his sister out of harm's way, but that slight delay cost him his life. The jet of green light struck him in the chest, and he toppled to the ground, his eyes frozen open in an expression of shock, staring lifelessly up at the sky.
"Damn it!" Snape swore; he hadn't wanted to kill the boy. It was bad luck that the spell had bounced back at the wrong angle, and that Warren had been too slow to avoid it.
"Warren!" Imogen screamed hysterically as she fell to her knees beside her brother, tears streaming down her cheeks as her face contorted with sorrow and rage. "You killed him!" she shouted accusingly at Snape.
"You killed my parents," Ash growled, staring at her without any sympathy. "And Mrs. Abbott, and that street vendor, and Sebastien Delauney, and that poor whore in Knockturn Alley."
Imogen's gaze swiveled towards Ash. "It's all your fault!" she screamed, her eyes now as mad as her brother's had been. "We freed Greyback and killed those people because of you, to protect the family honor! If you hadn't been born, none of this would have happened! If you hadn't been born, Warren would still be alive!" She snatched up her brother's wand and ran towards Ash, shouting, "Avada--"
Snape and the other wizards pointed their wands at her, but before they could get a single spell off, Tsubasa had already darted out in front of Ash, dropped down on one knee, and thrust upwards with his sword. Imogen's momentum carried her forward, impaling her on the blade, which pierced her belly and emerged out of her back. Tsubasa twisted his hand sharply, then jerked the blade free, and Imogen screamed, dropping her wand to clutch at her stomach as she collapsed on the ground. Blood poured out between her fingers, and her intestines threatened to spill out of the gaping wound as her hands feebly tried to press them back into her body. Potter looked like he was going to throw up, and Snape felt a little sick himself.
"That's for trying to kill my mate," Tsubasa said coldly, as Ash stared at him wide-eyed, looking as though he didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified.
"Severus," Lupin whispered, clutching at his arm, looking almost as pale as Potter. "Do you have another healing potion?"
Snape was about to reply that he didn't think a mere healing potion would save Imogen, when a howl of anguish and fury tore through the air. Greyback broke away from Lukas and charged towards Tsubasa, his yellow eyes glowing with a single-minded desire for revenge.
Tsubasa raised his sword, still slick with Imogen's blood, preparing to meet him, and Snape and the others raised their wands. But Ash lunged at Greyback, wrapping his arms around the wolf and tackling him to the ground, refusing to let go even when Greyback's claws and teeth ripped through his robes and into his flesh. Tsubasa ran forward to defend his mate, but Lukas barked at him sharply, with a look in his eyes that clearly said, "Back off; he's mine," then clamped his jaws around Greyback's neck and tore it open.
Blood gushed out of the wound, and Ash released Greyback, letting him fall limply to the ground. "We...we had better get Imogen to St. Mungo's," Tonks said shakily.
"She has massive internal injuries," Snape said. "I doubt that she'll make it, even if we could Apparate to the hospital directly, and we still have to take down the anti-Apparition wards."
"We have to at least try," Lupin said, still looking pale. "Kingsley and I will dispel the wards; please do what you can for her in the meantime."
It was probably a waste of time, but Lupin was too tenderhearted to let the girl die without even trying to help her, even if she was a murderess, and Snape didn't have the heart to argue with him. He reached into his pocket for a vial of healing potion, then froze when he heard a low growl and saw Greyback's body stir--he wasn't quite as dead as he had appeared at first glance.
Greyback slowly crawled forward, and Tsubasa started to raise his sword, but Lupin placed a hand on his arm to stop him. "Wait," he said softly. "He's clearly no threat, and I don't think he's trying to attack us."
Snape took a closer look at Greyback, and thought Lupin might be right. The mortally wounded werewolf ignored Tsubasa and any other potential opponents; his attention was focused solely on Imogen, and there was a strangely tender look in his eyes that seemed completely out of character with the Greyback that Snape had known as a Death Eater.
"Greyback?" Imogen whispered as the wolf came to a halt beside her, still bleeding profusely. She hesitantly reached out to him with one hand, and he licked it gently, then raised his head to meet her gaze. They stared silently at each other for a long moment, and some unspoken message seemed to pass between them as that odd tenderness in Greyback's eyes hardened into a firm resolve.
"N-no," Imogen protested in response to whatever she thought Greyback was trying to tell her. "No, I'd rather die!" She tried to pull away from him, but was too weak to move, and Greyback sank his teeth into her arm. Imogen screamed with as much strength as she could muster, a thin wail of outrage and horror. Greyback released her, then slumped to the ground and lay still. A moment later, his body transformed back into his human form; there was a look of peace and contentment on his face that seemed incongruous with the bloody ruin of his throat just below.
Lukas transformed back into a man as well, looking nearly as bloody and mangled as Greyback. He also still had Greyback's blood staining his lips and running down his chin, and Tonks and Potter visibly shuddered at the sight. Lukas noticed their reaction and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, growling, "Please tell me that the bastard is really dead this time."
Lupin cautiously approached and checked the body. "Yes, he's definitely dead," he confirmed. Imogen ignored them all, still screaming and weeping hysterically.
"What just happened here?" Shacklebolt asked, looking stunned.
"I think...he saved her," Snape replied, scarcely believing it himself. If he hadn't seen the look on Greyback's face before he died, he might have suspected the werewolf of committing a final act of malice, turning one of the purebloods that he scorned into a fellow monster.
"He bit her to give her a werewolf's healing ability," Potter said, comprehension dawning in his eyes. "The way that Master Diggory bit Aric to save him from Williamson's Blood Poisoning spell."
"But why would Greyback want to save Imogen?" Shacklebolt wondered. "He was never the altruistic sort, though I suppose he might have felt some gratitude to the Macnairs for freeing him from the sanatorium. Still, I would have expected him to use his last moment of life to try to take one of his enemies down with him, not save an ally."
"While I was being held captive, I saw him interact with the Macnairs," Ash said thoughtfully. "He held Warren in contempt, but he respected Imogen. He treated her like an alpha wolf, and he looked at her the way a wolf looks at its mate. I thought maybe it was only lust, but after seeing this...I think he loved her, in his own twisted fashion. He was bound by an Unbreakable Vow, by the way--I heard them talking about it; that was how the twins kept him under control. If he attacked either one of them, he would have died, but I guess that he figured since he was dying anyway, he might as well save his mate."
"Gee, that's almost romantic," Tonks said, a bemused look on her face.
"I don't care if he picked roses and wrote poetry for her," Lukas snarled. "I'm glad he's dead, and I wouldn't shed any tears if she were dead, too."
"It might have been more merciful to kill her," Snape told him. "She's lost her beloved twin, and her pure blood has been irrevocably tainted. If it makes you feel any better, you can comfort yourself with the thought of her living in utter misery at Azkaban for the rest of her life."
"Well, maybe you're right," Lukas grudgingly acknowledged. "But it would still have been more satisfying to kill her."
"You werewolves are always simplistically direct in your motives and actions," Snape said a bit snidely, but he gazed at Imogen, and at Warren's corpse, and felt a pang of regret and sorrow. He had never been especially fond of the Macnair twins, but they had been his students, and he felt a certain sense of protectiveness for all his Slytherins, past and present, especially the offspring of his fellow Death Eaters. It wasn't their fault that they had been brainwashed with Death Eater doctrine from the moment they were born. He had managed to save the younger Slytherins from becoming Death Eaters, but Theodore and Serafina hadn't had much reason to feel loyalty towards their abusive fathers, and Draco had been betrayed by Lucius. For all his other faults, Walden had always been a loving parent to his children, so they'd had no reason to rebel against him or question his beliefs. Maybe they would have been better off in the long run if he'd been abusive like Nott and Avery, or cold and distant like Lucius Malfoy.
In spite of being bitten and infected by Greyback, Imogen was still grievously wounded; she wouldn't receive the full healing benefits of lycanthropy until after her first transformation. So Snape went over to her and poured a vial of healing potion down her throat; he had to use a spell to force her to swallow, because she was still protesting that she didn't want to live.
By the time he was done, Lupin and Shacklebolt had dispelled the anti-Apparition wards, and they took Imogen to St. Mungo's, still ranting about how "that whoreson werewolf" had destroyed her family. Lukas was also taken to the hospital, somewhat against his will, protesting that he would heal fine on his own. Ash, however, meekly obeyed when Tsubasa sternly insisted that he should get checked by a Healer, and grinned rather foolishly at his lover.
Part 32
Imogen turned away from the fight, and for a moment, Snape wondered if she had seen through the obscuring spell. But her gaze passed over him and Lupin without pausing; it seemed that she was merely turning towards her brother to whisper something in his ear. He nodded and laughed maliciously, and they both grinned as they turned their attention back to the dueling werewolves.
"Yes, I don't think Diggory will last much longer," Warren said, apparently in response to Imogen's comment. The blond wolf--who must of course be Lukas--was still fighting fiercely, but looked considerably more wounded and bloody than the gray, whom Snape easily recognized as his former comrade Greyback. Those yellowish eyes, filled with murderous glee and bloodlust, looked the same no matter what form he was in. There was a strange medallion strung around his neck, which must be the artifact that Theodore had mentioned. Normally anything on a werewolf's body, such as clothes and jewelry, transformed along with him, so only a very powerful magic item would remain unchanged after a transformation. Usually even a wizard's wand was absorbed into the werewolf's body, if it was in the pocket of his robes when he transformed.
The wolves separated briefly, trying to catch their breath, tongues lolling out and sides heaving as they panted. Lukas started forward again, then whined as his right hind leg--which was gashed and bleeding--buckled beneath him.
Greyback lunged at him, and Snape pushed Lupin towards the wolves, whispering, "Go!" Then Snape raised his wand, choosing to attack Warren first; freeing the hostage would allow them to fight without having to worry about Ash being killed.
He silently cast a Stupefying Charm, to keep the element of surprise until the very last moment, but things did not go as planned. Imogen shouted, "Warren!" and the boy twisted away to dodge the spell--not quite in time, because it still grazed him, and he staggered, dropping to his knees, but he did not fall unconscious either. He did drop the chain leash he was holding, but Ash remained standing in place like a statue, apparently still bound by the Imperius or whatever spell the Macnairs were using to control him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Snape saw that Lukas's stumble had merely been a feint; he easily sidestepped and dodged Greyback's attack. Then, while the other wolf was taken off-guard, Lukas pounced on him, knocking him over onto his back and going for his throat. Lupin had drawn his wand, but was hesitating, probably afraid to attack in case he hit Lukas by mistake.
Meanwhile, Imogen had turned to confront Snape with her wand raised. "I personally set the anti-Apparition barrier around the safe house, Professor," she said in an almost conversational tone of voice. "And when something tries to breach that barrier, it automatically alerts me. That was a nice obscuring charm, though; it probably would have worked if I hadn't been expecting company."
"If you and your brother surrender now, I'll plead for mercy on your behalf with the Ministry," Snape said. He knew that any attempts to reason with the Macnairs were probably futile, but he still had to try. For one thing, he didn't want to have to kill his former students unless absolutely necessary, and from a more practical viewpoint, if he could stall and keep the twins talking long enough, the Aurors would arrive and they would have a better chance of capturing the Macnairs and Greyback without anyone on either side being killed--except maybe Greyback. Snape was secretly hoping that Lukas would kill him; Greyback had already escaped what seemed like certain death once, and Snape would prefer to have that particular problem dealt with permanently.
"Greyback was the one who committed the murders, after all," Snape continued persuasively. "There's no blood directly staining your hands--yet. You were devoted children, acting out of misguided love for your father..."
"You are sadly mistaken, Snape, if you think that we would ever betray our father to save ourselves!" Imogen snapped, her normally cool eyes flashing with a sudden burst of hatred and contempt. "We have no intention of surrendering! Inferi Resurrectio!"
She waved her wand, and suddenly corpses began clawing their way out of the earth beneath his feet. A skeletal hand wrapped itself around Snape's ankle and tried to pull him to the ground.
"Sectumsempra!" he shouted, neatly severing the hand. Unfortunately, it continued to attack him while the rest of the body rose up out of the ground. The unattached hand no longer had the strength to pull him off-balance, but it did claw and scratch at him--mostly ineffectually, but it was still rather unnerving.
Snape cursed under his breath. Inferi were merely animated corpses controlled by magic and apparently the enchantment on them was strong enough that they continued to remain animated even after being cut into pieces. He managed to shake the hand off his leg and set it on fire with an Incendio spell, which worked nicely, leaving a small pile of charred--and unmoving--bones on the ground.
Fire was the best defense against Inferi, but it took a lot longer to incinerate an entire corpse than it did a single hand, and they kept attacking until the fire reduced them to bone and ash--with the unexpected side-effect of nearly setting Snape on fire in the process when they tried to grab him while their bodies were still burning. One or two or even three, he could have handled easily enough, but there were more than a dozen Inferi in varying stages of decay. Some were little more than skeletons with a few shreds of rotting flesh and rags still hanging off their bones, while others were more intact, although their flesh was still putrid and decaying. The less rotted corpses were easily identifiable as Muggles by their clothing--probably victims Walden Macnair had killed as a Death Eater, and then seeded here as Inferi to guard his safe house. There was a reason why Macnair had taken a job as an executioner of dangerous beasts at the Ministry: he took pleasure in the act of killing, although he preferred human victims over animals.
The Inferi were disgusting to look at, and the stench of decaying flesh was even worse, but that was not enough to adversely affect Snape, who had seen even more horrific things as a Death Eater. No, what truly turned his stomach was the fact that while most of the Inferi appeared to be grown men and women, a few of them were children. One of them, a little girl, still had long blonde hair clinging to what remained of her scalp, and wore a tattered lacy dress that had probably once been white, but was now yellowed with age and covered with brown smears of dirt. There was another who was obviously a boy, perhaps a few years older than the girl at the time of his death--possibly an older brother, since they were in a similar state of decomposition, and had probably been killed at about the same time. There was also a third corpse that was so decayed that it was impossible to determine the gender, but its size clearly marked it as a child.
The girl-Inferius attacked Snape, trying to bite and claw him, and he hurled her away from him with a spell, then set her on fire with another. He fought the urge to vomit as the little corpse ran in frantic circles, her--its--mouth open in a silent scream until it finally collapsed on the ground and mercifully fell still. He tried to remind himself that it was not really a child that he had just killed, merely an empty husk of a body, but it didn't make him feel any better. If he survived this battle, he just might go to Azkaban and kill Walden Macnair with his bare hands.
However, that was a pretty big "if" at the moment. The Inferi were swarming him, trying to bring him down, and he cried out in pain as another child-corpse sank its teeth into his leg, hard enough to tear through his trousers. He blasted it with a spell, and felt blood trickling down his leg as he turned to repel one of the adult Inferi. Inferi-inflicted wounds carried a serious risk of infection, but that was the least of his worries right now. He glanced around and was relieved to see that Lupin was unharmed, although he was too busy fending off Inferi of his own to come to Snape's aid. Interestingly enough, the Inferi seemed to be leaving the wolves alone, perhaps at Imogen's command. She was motioning with her wand, as if trying to direct the Inferi, almost like a conductor leading a symphony, although with much less subtlety and finesse, as Inferi lacked intelligence and could respond only to general commands along the lines of "guard this place" and "attack intruders".
However, Imogen didn't really need any finesse to kill them, and it wasn't so much the Inferi that Snape was worried about. If it had only been the Inferi that they were dealing with, he and Lupin could manage to defeat them, given enough time. The real danger was that the Inferi might pin them down long enough for one or both of the twins to hit them with a Killing Curse.
Sure enough, Warren pointed his wand at Snape and shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" There was no room to dodge, but Snape managed to shove one of the Inferi into the path of the spell, just in the nick of time. The corpse was merely stunned for a moment, then resumed attacking him. It was impossible to kill something that was already dead, so the curse had no effect on the Inferius, but at least it had come in handy as a shield.
"Damn you, Snape!" Warren snarled in frustration. "But you won't be able to dodge all of my spells! Imogen, can't you make the Inferi overpower him?"
"I'm trying, dear brother!" Imogen snapped irritably.
Lukas saw that they were in trouble and started to move towards them, but Greyback wouldn't him allow him to break off their duel, howling in rage and lunging at his opponent, raking his claws across the yellow wolf's side. Lukas yelped in pain and was forced to turn his full attention back to Greyback.
{Where are the damned Aurors?!} Snape wondered as he tried to simultaneously fight the Inferi and avoid Warren's spells. He should have known better than to count on the Ministry for backup! Potter had probably carelessly stumbled into a trap, in which case Tonks and Shacklebolt would have stopped to save him. Merlin forbid that any harm should befall the boy hero of the war, never mind that he and Lupin were fending off Inferi and Killing Curses, not to mention Lukas being mauled by Greyback.
Or to be fair, it was equally likely that the accident-prone Tonks was the one who had stumbled--quite literally--into a trap, but Snape was not in a mood to be fair. He wanted someone to blame, and it was much more satisfying to blame Potter for his troubles. Then again, he didn't have much fondness for the overly-cheerful Miss Tonks, either, so maybe he'd just go ahead and blame both of them--and throw in Shacklebolt, too, for good measure.
Just then, Tsubasa came charging towards them with his sword drawn. He was covered in blood, but it must have belonged to the troll, since he was moving quickly and easily, showing no sign of being injured. He ruthlessly and determinedly began hacking his way through the corpses, not even flinching as he lopped off the head of the boy-Inferius, which went sailing through the air until it hit the ground and rolled to a stop at Lupin's feet. Lupin did flinch, letting out a startled cry as he jumped back in revulsion.
Drenched in blood and eyes gleaming with a cold, grim intensity, Tsubasa looked like an avenging demon as he cut his way through the Inferi, his sword whirling in a deadly silver blur as severed limbs flew every which way; one struck Snape and nearly knocked his wand out of his hand. He started to cast an Incendio spell, but then noticed that all the body parts that Tsubasa hacked off instantly reverted back to their natural state of dead, unmoving flesh and bone. The crane warrior had mentioned that his sword could dispel minor wards, but he might have been overly modest, because the enchantment on his weapon was clearly strong enough to break the spells that animated the Inferi, and those spells were not exactly what Snape would call "minor". They were advanced Dark Magic, difficult to cast, and even more difficult to break.
With Tsubasa's help, the Inferi were rapidly being destroyed, and Imogen was beginning to look a little worried, while Warren looked downright panicky. "Avada Kedavra!" Imogen shouted, aiming the curse at Tsubasa, but he whipped his sword up in front of him and used the blade to deflect the spell, sending it bouncing back towards her, and Imogen had to duck to avoid being hit by her own curse.
Warren pointed his wand at Tsubasa, and Ash finally seemed to shake off the spell that was immobilizing him. Still bound and shackled, he couldn't cast a spell or even walk freely, so he simply hurled his entire body at Warren, knocking him to the ground and disrupting his spell.
Warren angrily shoved Ash off of him and shouted, "Crucio!" The werewolf screamed in agony, and the coldness in Tsubasa's eyes rapidly ignited into a much more heated state of fury. He headed in a straight line towards Warren, cutting down any of the Inferi unlucky enough to be blocking his path. Although dead, they must have retained some sense of self-preservation, because they scrambled to get out of his way. Tsubasa cleaved one Inferius that wasn't quick enough nearly in two, then kicked the body aside without sparing it a second glance. Snape made a mental note never to get on the swordsman's bad side, and revised his opinion of physical combat upwards a few notches.
"Let's retreat for now," Imogen said to her brother, who nodded in fervent agreement. A look of concentration filled their faces, quickly replaced by one of chagrin as they realized that they were unable to Disapparate.
"You're not the only ones who can cast anti-Apparition wards," Snape informed them with a nasty smile. "Better surrender now, or I'll let Professor Tsubasa deal with you."
Either the Macnairs weren't willing to give up yet, or they didn't trust Snape to keep Tsubasa from killing them, because they turned and fled into the house. He couldn't entirely blame them, because he wasn't sure himself if he could control Tsubasa.
"It would be preferable to take them alive, if possible, Professor," Snape called out to his colleague, although he remained well out of range of Tsubasa's sword, just to be on the safe side.
"I'll spare them if they surrender," Tsubasa replied curtly. He glanced at Ash, who was lying on the ground, groaning softly in pain as he recovered from the effects of the Cruciatus, and amended his statement with a "Maybe." His path now clear, he made his way over to his lover, knelt down beside him, and asked in a much gentler voice, "Are you all right, Ash?"
"Ye...yeah," Ash replied, a little unsteadily. "I'm fine; go help Lukas."
"I'll free you first, and then we can both help him," Tsubasa said, raising his sword. "Hold still for a moment."
"What--?" was all Ash managed to get out before the sword slashed down and sheared neatly through the silver chains without so much as nicking Ash's skin or even his robes. "Merlin's blue balls!" the werewolf shrieked, patting down his torso to make sure that his body was still intact. "Warn me the next time you're going to do something like that!"
"I did," Tsubasa replied calmly. "I told you to hold still. Here, let me get those shackles off you, too."
"You are not swinging that piece of metal anywhere near my neck!"
"Have you no faith in my skill?" Tsubasa asked with a grin. As Ash spluttered and cursed, Tsubasa laughed and said, "Relax, all I need to do is press the tip of the sword into the locks and dispel the wards on them."
"It's a magic sword," Snape informed Ash helpfully, as he and Lupin finished off what was left of the Inferi.
The shackles gave way easily, and Ash sighed, rubbing his neck and wrists, which were reddened and blistered where the silver had touched them. Then he gave his lover an accusing look and said, "Wait a minute--if the sword has some kind of dispelling magic, then you didn't really need to cut through the chains! You could have just broken the binding charm on them!"
"Well, maybe I just wanted to show off a little bit," Tsubasa admitted with a mischievous smile.
"I ought to wring your neck," Ash growled, but instead he grabbed Tsubasa and gave him a brief but passionate kiss. "But I'll kill you later. Right now we need to take care of Greyback and my dear half-brother and sister."
The Inferi were finally all dead--permanently this time. Snape was about to follow the Macnairs into the safe house when they came running out, dodging a barrage of stunning and binding spells being flung at them by Shacklebolt and Tonks. The latter's normally spiky violet hair was plastered flat against her head, and her robes were sopping wet, and she left a trail of little puddles and muddy footsteps behind her as she ran.
"Sorry we're late!" she apologized breathlessly.
"Let me guess, you fell into a trap," Snape said dryly.
"Er, no, there was no trap or magic involved," Tonks replied sheepishly. "I tripped and fell headlong into a pond." She lifted the hem of her robe, exposing a ring of bloody teeth marks on her calf. "Which contained a grindylow, by the way."
"Never mind that now!" Shacklebolt said impatiently.
The twins were standing back to back, wands raised, their eyes frantic and desperate as they looked around, uncertain whom they should attack next. They had the look of wild animals backed into a corner, and Snape knew that even a rat could be dangerous when it was trapped with nowhere to go. The Aurors obviously knew this, too, because they approached the pair cautiously, circling around them from one side as Lupin and Snape slowly closed in on the other. Lukas and Greyback remained locked in combat, and Ash was edging towards them while warily keeping an eye on the Macnairs, moving a bit stiffly after being bound for so long. Tsubasa remained at his side, sword ready and poised to strike. Snape had no idea where Potter was, but Tonks and Shacklebolt didn't seem worried about him, so presumably he was still sneaking around hidden beneath his Invisibility Cloak. If so, he might be able to disarm the twins before anyone else got hurt.
{Anytime now, Potter,} Snape thought sourly. Typical Gryffindor, waiting to make a dramatic entrance.
Maybe the boy had picked up on his thoughts, although Snape doubted it, given the difficulty he'd had learning Occlumency. But whether due to mind-reading or sheer coincidence, Potter dropped his cloak and suddenly appeared next to Snape, shouting, "Expelliarmus!"
Unfortunately, he only managed to disarm one of the twins, although it was Imogen, whom Snape judged to be the more dangerous of the two. She cried out as her wand flew from her grasp, and Potter was forced to back off as Warren shot a curse at him.
"Damn you, Potter," Warren hissed, eyes filled with pure hatred as he glared at the Boy Who Lived. "If you had died as you should have in the final battle, then my sister and I would be Death Eaters, rulers of the wizarding world, instead of fugitives on the run!"
"No, you would be slaves," Snape corrected coldly. "Pampered slaves for a time, perhaps, since your father had the Dark Lord's favor, but no one remains Voldemort's favorite for long. Sooner or later, he would always suffer a fit of temper and punish whoever was most convenient, whether or not they had actually done anything to deserve it. All of the Death Eaters, myself included, have experienced the Cruciatus at our Master's hand at one time or another. Your father knew this. Why else do you think that he sent you and Imogen away to Europe instead of having you take the Dark Mark?"
"Father was just being overprotective!" Warren snapped. "He still thought of us as children, even though we were grown and ready to fight by his side!"
"Your father was hedging his bets," Snape retorted. "He was trying to protect you in case Voldemort failed, and he was right to do so. You and Imogen were innocent of any crimes; you had the chance to rebuild your lives and live free of imprisonment or servitude, but you have wasted the gift that your father gave you. All you have done is to repeat the same mistakes he made!"
"Rebuild our lives?" Warren scoffed. "So that we can live 'free,' with all of the wizarding world sneering at us for being Death Eaters' children? So that I can remain unemployed while Imogen works at a menial clerical job?"
"I offered to help you," Snape reminded him. "And I will offer to help once again--and this time you had better think twice before you refuse me." He appealed to Imogen, who had always been the more sensible of the twins. "It's over, Imogen; you know that you can't take on all of us, not with only one wand between you. You were once my students, and I don't want to have to hurt you. Surrender for now, and live to fight another day." He pointedly turned his gaze towards Tsubasa, who looked as though he was still contemplating turning the twins into mincemeat. "There are others who don't care whether we bring you in dead or alive, and would, in fact, prefer 'dead'."
Imogen frowned thoughtfully, and Snape could see her weighing the options in her mind. "Warren, perhaps..." she said reluctantly.
"No!" Warren shouted defiantly, choosing an inopportune time to assert his independence. Snape cursed under his breath; why couldn't he simply follow his sister's lead as he had always done? But Warren appeared to have been pushed beyond his limits; his eyes glittered with the suicidal recklessness of a man with nothing left to lose. "I'll never surrender! If I'm going down, then I'm taking Potter with me! Avada Kedavra!"
Potter was taken off-guard when Warren suddenly turned away from Snape and towards him, so Snape, who was closest to the boy, hastily threw a Shield Charm in front of him. The Killing Curse rebounded straight back at Warren, who started to duck, then realized that the curse would hit Imogen, who was standing right behind him. He pushed his sister out of harm's way, but that slight delay cost him his life. The jet of green light struck him in the chest, and he toppled to the ground, his eyes frozen open in an expression of shock, staring lifelessly up at the sky.
"Damn it!" Snape swore; he hadn't wanted to kill the boy. It was bad luck that the spell had bounced back at the wrong angle, and that Warren had been too slow to avoid it.
"Warren!" Imogen screamed hysterically as she fell to her knees beside her brother, tears streaming down her cheeks as her face contorted with sorrow and rage. "You killed him!" she shouted accusingly at Snape.
"You killed my parents," Ash growled, staring at her without any sympathy. "And Mrs. Abbott, and that street vendor, and Sebastien Delauney, and that poor whore in Knockturn Alley."
Imogen's gaze swiveled towards Ash. "It's all your fault!" she screamed, her eyes now as mad as her brother's had been. "We freed Greyback and killed those people because of you, to protect the family honor! If you hadn't been born, none of this would have happened! If you hadn't been born, Warren would still be alive!" She snatched up her brother's wand and ran towards Ash, shouting, "Avada--"
Snape and the other wizards pointed their wands at her, but before they could get a single spell off, Tsubasa had already darted out in front of Ash, dropped down on one knee, and thrust upwards with his sword. Imogen's momentum carried her forward, impaling her on the blade, which pierced her belly and emerged out of her back. Tsubasa twisted his hand sharply, then jerked the blade free, and Imogen screamed, dropping her wand to clutch at her stomach as she collapsed on the ground. Blood poured out between her fingers, and her intestines threatened to spill out of the gaping wound as her hands feebly tried to press them back into her body. Potter looked like he was going to throw up, and Snape felt a little sick himself.
"That's for trying to kill my mate," Tsubasa said coldly, as Ash stared at him wide-eyed, looking as though he didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified.
"Severus," Lupin whispered, clutching at his arm, looking almost as pale as Potter. "Do you have another healing potion?"
Snape was about to reply that he didn't think a mere healing potion would save Imogen, when a howl of anguish and fury tore through the air. Greyback broke away from Lukas and charged towards Tsubasa, his yellow eyes glowing with a single-minded desire for revenge.
Tsubasa raised his sword, still slick with Imogen's blood, preparing to meet him, and Snape and the others raised their wands. But Ash lunged at Greyback, wrapping his arms around the wolf and tackling him to the ground, refusing to let go even when Greyback's claws and teeth ripped through his robes and into his flesh. Tsubasa ran forward to defend his mate, but Lukas barked at him sharply, with a look in his eyes that clearly said, "Back off; he's mine," then clamped his jaws around Greyback's neck and tore it open.
Blood gushed out of the wound, and Ash released Greyback, letting him fall limply to the ground. "We...we had better get Imogen to St. Mungo's," Tonks said shakily.
"She has massive internal injuries," Snape said. "I doubt that she'll make it, even if we could Apparate to the hospital directly, and we still have to take down the anti-Apparition wards."
"We have to at least try," Lupin said, still looking pale. "Kingsley and I will dispel the wards; please do what you can for her in the meantime."
It was probably a waste of time, but Lupin was too tenderhearted to let the girl die without even trying to help her, even if she was a murderess, and Snape didn't have the heart to argue with him. He reached into his pocket for a vial of healing potion, then froze when he heard a low growl and saw Greyback's body stir--he wasn't quite as dead as he had appeared at first glance.
Greyback slowly crawled forward, and Tsubasa started to raise his sword, but Lupin placed a hand on his arm to stop him. "Wait," he said softly. "He's clearly no threat, and I don't think he's trying to attack us."
Snape took a closer look at Greyback, and thought Lupin might be right. The mortally wounded werewolf ignored Tsubasa and any other potential opponents; his attention was focused solely on Imogen, and there was a strangely tender look in his eyes that seemed completely out of character with the Greyback that Snape had known as a Death Eater.
"Greyback?" Imogen whispered as the wolf came to a halt beside her, still bleeding profusely. She hesitantly reached out to him with one hand, and he licked it gently, then raised his head to meet her gaze. They stared silently at each other for a long moment, and some unspoken message seemed to pass between them as that odd tenderness in Greyback's eyes hardened into a firm resolve.
"N-no," Imogen protested in response to whatever she thought Greyback was trying to tell her. "No, I'd rather die!" She tried to pull away from him, but was too weak to move, and Greyback sank his teeth into her arm. Imogen screamed with as much strength as she could muster, a thin wail of outrage and horror. Greyback released her, then slumped to the ground and lay still. A moment later, his body transformed back into his human form; there was a look of peace and contentment on his face that seemed incongruous with the bloody ruin of his throat just below.
Lukas transformed back into a man as well, looking nearly as bloody and mangled as Greyback. He also still had Greyback's blood staining his lips and running down his chin, and Tonks and Potter visibly shuddered at the sight. Lukas noticed their reaction and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, growling, "Please tell me that the bastard is really dead this time."
Lupin cautiously approached and checked the body. "Yes, he's definitely dead," he confirmed. Imogen ignored them all, still screaming and weeping hysterically.
"What just happened here?" Shacklebolt asked, looking stunned.
"I think...he saved her," Snape replied, scarcely believing it himself. If he hadn't seen the look on Greyback's face before he died, he might have suspected the werewolf of committing a final act of malice, turning one of the purebloods that he scorned into a fellow monster.
"He bit her to give her a werewolf's healing ability," Potter said, comprehension dawning in his eyes. "The way that Master Diggory bit Aric to save him from Williamson's Blood Poisoning spell."
"But why would Greyback want to save Imogen?" Shacklebolt wondered. "He was never the altruistic sort, though I suppose he might have felt some gratitude to the Macnairs for freeing him from the sanatorium. Still, I would have expected him to use his last moment of life to try to take one of his enemies down with him, not save an ally."
"While I was being held captive, I saw him interact with the Macnairs," Ash said thoughtfully. "He held Warren in contempt, but he respected Imogen. He treated her like an alpha wolf, and he looked at her the way a wolf looks at its mate. I thought maybe it was only lust, but after seeing this...I think he loved her, in his own twisted fashion. He was bound by an Unbreakable Vow, by the way--I heard them talking about it; that was how the twins kept him under control. If he attacked either one of them, he would have died, but I guess that he figured since he was dying anyway, he might as well save his mate."
"Gee, that's almost romantic," Tonks said, a bemused look on her face.
"I don't care if he picked roses and wrote poetry for her," Lukas snarled. "I'm glad he's dead, and I wouldn't shed any tears if she were dead, too."
"It might have been more merciful to kill her," Snape told him. "She's lost her beloved twin, and her pure blood has been irrevocably tainted. If it makes you feel any better, you can comfort yourself with the thought of her living in utter misery at Azkaban for the rest of her life."
"Well, maybe you're right," Lukas grudgingly acknowledged. "But it would still have been more satisfying to kill her."
"You werewolves are always simplistically direct in your motives and actions," Snape said a bit snidely, but he gazed at Imogen, and at Warren's corpse, and felt a pang of regret and sorrow. He had never been especially fond of the Macnair twins, but they had been his students, and he felt a certain sense of protectiveness for all his Slytherins, past and present, especially the offspring of his fellow Death Eaters. It wasn't their fault that they had been brainwashed with Death Eater doctrine from the moment they were born. He had managed to save the younger Slytherins from becoming Death Eaters, but Theodore and Serafina hadn't had much reason to feel loyalty towards their abusive fathers, and Draco had been betrayed by Lucius. For all his other faults, Walden had always been a loving parent to his children, so they'd had no reason to rebel against him or question his beliefs. Maybe they would have been better off in the long run if he'd been abusive like Nott and Avery, or cold and distant like Lucius Malfoy.
In spite of being bitten and infected by Greyback, Imogen was still grievously wounded; she wouldn't receive the full healing benefits of lycanthropy until after her first transformation. So Snape went over to her and poured a vial of healing potion down her throat; he had to use a spell to force her to swallow, because she was still protesting that she didn't want to live.
By the time he was done, Lupin and Shacklebolt had dispelled the anti-Apparition wards, and they took Imogen to St. Mungo's, still ranting about how "that whoreson werewolf" had destroyed her family. Lukas was also taken to the hospital, somewhat against his will, protesting that he would heal fine on his own. Ash, however, meekly obeyed when Tsubasa sternly insisted that he should get checked by a Healer, and grinned rather foolishly at his lover.
Part 32