Two Natures of the Beast

Chapter 8, In which Voldemort finally makes an appearance, Draco does something foolish, and Hagrid makes a grand entrance. Oh, and Christmas.

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"Silence!"

The chilling voice reverberated throughout the hall. When the floating candles were relit, the entire dance floor was surrounded by and filled with Death Eaters in silver masks and black cloaks. The also encircled the teachers table, wands trained on a restrained Dumbledore. In the center of the room a tall figure loomed, red eyes blazing beneath his hood. Most of the students had never seen Voldemort before, and the Ministry was still actively denying his resurrection, and yet, instinctively, they seemed to know who stood before them. The students cowered before Voldemort, and the teachers had rendered virtually impotent by the Death Eaters infiltrating the room.

"Bring the three before me," Voldemort demanded.

Harry and Snape were thrust before the Dark Lord by two of his henchmen, bound and gagged, eyes shining indignantly.

"Ah. The defiant baby-" Voldemort gestured elegantly towards Harry, "-and the one who betrayed me," he gestured towards Snape.

The captive audience gasped, their worst fears having been unfortunately confirmed. It was indeed the whispered about You-Know-Who, the darkest wizard in living memory.

"Where is the meddling female?" Voldemort asked in a dangerously cold voice.

"She is not among them, my Lord," said one of the masked men.

Draco's eyes lifted in horror as he recognized his father's voice behind the blank, faceless mask. Disbelief filled him, followed by white-hot rage, knowing that they were talking about Aurora.

"Summon her."

"Yes, my Lord."

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

Aurora and Hermione ran to the Great Hall, out of breath and hearts slamming in their chests.

"The doors are locked!" Hermione yelled. "Alohomora!" She pounded on the door, but it didn't budge. It was no use. "Professor Jackson, help!"

She turned to Aurora, but where the professor had been standing, there was only empty air. "Professor Jackson! Oh, no..."

Hermione searched her mind for an alternative entrance to the Great Hall. There wasn't one. She had another idea. Hermione turned and ran to the school's exit.

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~

Aurora's head was spinning. One moment she had been in the corridor with Hermione, the next she was bound and gagged in the Great Hall. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Snape and Harry similarly trussed up next to her. Voldemort stood in front of them.

"You three," the evil wizard began, "are going to die today, in front of everyone in this pathetic excuse for a wizarding school, including your pathetic, old, ineffectual excuse for a Headmaster. You will stand as an example and a warning to those who would interfere with my plans. I will start with the one who betrayed me."

Voldemort pointed his wand at Snape, levitating him to float directly in front of him. He snapped his long bony fingers and the gag on Snape's mouth vanished.

"Do you have anything to say before you die, Severus Snape?"

Snape sneered at the Dark Lord, eliciting gasps from the crowd of students, shocked by his nerve. He earned a lot of newfound respect with that insane gesture.

"No, Voldemort, I believe you've said enough for everybody today. You always did talk too much."

Voldemort's red eyes glowed furiously.

"Fine!" he spat, raising his wand. "Avada-"

The next few seconds seemed to stretch out indefinitely. Aurora didn't even think. The ropes at her wrists and ankles hampered her mobility, so she simply launched her whole body at Snape. At the same time a student raced out of the crowd, knocking both her and Snape out of the path of Voldemort's curse.

"-Kedavra!"

The green light shot out of the evil wizard's wand. The beam grazed the side of their savior's head. Draco's body flopped limply to the floor.

"NOOOOO!" Lucius ripped off his mask and knelt on the floor by his son.

The staff and students stared incredulously at the elder Malfoy, and the limp he had body partially lifted into his arms, shocked into stillness. Suddenly, however, a great thundering at the doors to the Great Hall drew their attention away from the dramatic and horrifying scene. As one, the heads of nearly every person in the Hall turned to the door, which was beginning to splinter.

"Malfoy! Yeh great slimy git!"

Hagrid had ripped the door to the hall right off its hinges. Hermione and a big black lab stood defiantly next to him.

Chaos ensued as students and the more cowardly Death Eaters stampeded to the door. Hermione took advantage of the confusion to untie Harry, Aurora and Snape. The four of them, joined by Sirius, who had morphed back into his human form, drew their wands. The four Weasley siblings came to stand with them.

Seeing that Lucius had been grabbed by a truly frightening Hagrid, and that Odessa and her colleagues were taking care of the Death Eaters restraining Dumbledore, Aurora said, "Right then, you know your curses. Get them."

Hermione, Sirius, and the Weasleys took on the remaining Death Eaters. With a meaningful glance at Draco's prone body, Aurora advanced on Voldemort, Harry and Snape right beside her. At the same time, all three shot curses at him. Almost instantly, all three were blasted back.

"Fools!" Voldemort shouted. "You think I'm eliminated that easily?" He pointed his wand at them.

"Tom!"

Voldemort turned to Dumbledore and glared. "I don't answer to that Muggle name, Dumbledore."

"Tom," Dumbledore repeated. "This is the end of the line." He raised his own wand.

Aurora trembled, wondering what great magic Dumbledore was about to do. Snape stared at the world's two most powerful wizards, and trained his wand on Voldemort, just in case. Harry did the same.

At that moment, what looked like a thousand witches and wizards in Auror uniforms burst into the room. Sirius resumed canine form immediately. As Dumbledore glanced away at the interruption, there was an audible crack. Voldemort had disappeared.

"Impossible!" Hermione yelled. Ron and Harry joined in unison, a bit hysterically, "You can't Apparate out of Hogwarts!!!"

"Out of or into," said Dumbledore, "no, but within..."

"He's still on the grounds!" Snape shouted.

Several of the Aurors left to hunt him down. Harry went to run out with them, but Dumbledore held him back.

"Not now, Harry. He'll be long gone by now, anyway."

Aurora sank to the floor next to Draco. Feeling useless while the real Aurors arrested the unconscious Death Eaters that had been unable to escape, including Lucius Malfoy, she did the only thing she could do, and stroked Draco's lifeless hand. Snape knelt behind her, wrapping his arms around her. Harry and his friends and the unhurt teachers rounded up those who had been injured in the fight, Charity among them, to go to Madam Pomfrey's.

Aurora keened and wept uncontrollably over Draco, Snape holding her and trying to calm her. Odessa, miraculously not a curl out of place on her gorgeous head, came over and knelt next to Aurora, holding her sister's hand.

"Maybe he's just hurt, Rory," Odessa whispered softly.

"The Avada Kedavra kills, Odessa. Don't be stupid," she snapped.

"No, maybe she's right," Snape said gently. "It didn't hit him straight on. Let's check." He reached for Draco's wrist.

Aurora lifted her eyes, barely daring to hope, lest her heart break all over again. She couldn't take much more tonight.

"There's a very faint pulse," Snape announced incredulously.

"How?" Aurora sobbed, not understanding.

"Who cares how?" Odessa said. "We need a stretcher over here! He's still alive!"

Half in relief, half in reaction to the extremities of the evening, Aurora completely broke down. She wailed incoherently, aware of nothing, not even Snape wrapping her in his arms and carrying her down to the hospital wing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Aurora awakened, she felt imbued with a preternatural calm. She realized idly that she was in the hospital wing; it was most likely the result of some type of sedative. She didn't recall being injured, but the events of the previous night were still sort of gray and fuzzy in her head. She felt fine, at any rate. She sat up in the sterile white bed, and saw that she was not alone in her cubicle. Snape was sprawled in a chair next to her bed, fast asleep. His head lolled against the back of the chair, his dark hair loosened from its ponytail and straggling about his face. The early morning light that filtered into the room from the high beveled windows danced over the sharp planes and angles of his face, rendering them harshly beautiful. She reached out to brush the stray hair out of his eyes, letting the glossy strands sift through her fingers before tucking them behind his ear.

"It's amazing how different people look when they're sleeping, isn't it?"

Aurora turned to the knowing voice and smiled when she saw Hermione, who in the midst of the last night's happenings had crossed the line from student to friend.

"I like him better this way," she answered mischievously. "Quiet, not scowling, not sneering, not talking."

Hermione sat on the edge of Aurora's bed.

"Come off it, you like him just fine all the time. Even before the Miracle Makeover," she returned.

"Not true! At first, I thought he was a complete and utter pri- um, prat," Aurora defended herself. "But then we went on Mission Rescue-Ron together, and, well-"

"- there's some things you can't do together and not end up liking each other," Hermione finished for her. "That's how it was with me and Harry and Ron." She cast her eyes down, reminded that things were not so hot with Ron at the moment.

Aurora began to remember vaguely what had gone on the night before, but it was like a Polaroid picture not quite in focus yet, and so misinterpreted Hermione's sad look. "Ron and Harry, they're OK?" she asked.

"Oh, they're fine, as usual." Hermione decided that while she was at it, she might as well give her professor a complete run-down. "So are all the other Weasleys, and your sister. Um, let's see...it was mostly cuts and bruises, reversible hexes, for most of the staff. Professor Parsons got hit with some Bone Breaker hexes, but Madam Pomfrey fixed her right up.

"Hagrid nearly crushed Mr. Malfoy to bits, but the Aurors managed to arrest him still intact. The only two anyone was really worried about were you and Draco."

Memory flooded Aurora's mind with the force of a roaring rapid. "Oh, God- Draco. I want to see him." She started to throw back the covers.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Professor Jackson. Madam Pomfrey hasn't cleared you yet, and she's rather tetchy about that sort of thing."

"Nonsense! I wasn't even hurt last night. As a matter of fact, just why was everyone so terribly worried about me?" Aurora demanded.

Hermione wouldn't meet her eyes, staring instead at Snape's rather large feet as she answered. "Ah, well, we thought you might have had some kind of nervous breakdown."

"I see. Off to St. Mungo's with me, eh? Well, let me assure you, I'm fine- just very concerned about my cousin. So, if you don't mind..."

Aurora swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Her feet were bare, which wasn't really odd- Madam Pomfrey would hardly have put her to bed with her boots on- but the sight of the eyelet hem of her most modest nightgown swirling over them threw her a bit. She raised her hand to pat her hair. Some one had undone the complicated braids and brushed out her hair, which for once fell like a sheet to her waist.

"Who did all this?" she asked, curious who had taken the time in the chaos, casting a wondering glance at Hermione.

"I'm really, really hoping it was Madam Pomfrey." The younger girl shot a leery glance at the snoring Potions professor.

"Let's pretend that's true," Aurora answered fervently, and padded over to the curtains separating her cubicle from the rest of the hospital ward. As she followed, Hermione noticed how astonishingly young Aurora looked in her high-necked white nightgown and her hair hanging loose. It was hard to remember that in the normal course of things, Aurora was her prim and proper instructor. Hermione was suddenly uncomfortably aware that though a professor, Aurora was really not that much older than her.

Hermione remained a respectful distance from the professor as she came to stand by her cousin's bedside. Truthfully, Hermione felt a bit awkward; having spent the better part of five years hating Draco, she wasn't sure how to feel now that she was confronted by the evidence of his incredibly valiant deed. He lay deathly still in the hospital bed, even paler than he had been before.

"He's alive, but barely," Hermione explained softly. "The medi-mage from the main hospital, Dr. Pratchett, and Madam Pomfrey are still trying to decide what's to be done with him. The only other person that's survived a killing curse is Harry, but that was a totally different situation. Near as they can tell, he didn't die because the beam only grazed him, but it touched him enough to affect him in this way. They reckon it's something like a coma."

"How do you know all this?" Aurora asked in a shaky voice.

Hermione was likely the smartest girl in the school, but Aurora doubted the medi-mages had consulted he on this.

"Ginny Weasley. She was down here helping fix up the more minor injuries, and she, erm, overheard the doctors talking. She picked up Care for Magical Maladies as one of her extra subjects; she's quite good at it."

Aurora nodded, satisfied, and turned her attention back to Draco. She held his hand and ran her other hand over his arm, murmuring softly to him. She wept, but it was not the hysterical crying she had done before. Hermione hung back, not sure what to do.

"Don't you know the school motto, Aurora?" Snape's droll voice announced his wakeful presence in the room.

Aurora looked at him blankly, her eyes wide. She was, after all, still in her nightgown.

"Draco dormiens nunquam titllandus. Never tickle a sleeping dragon," he translated. "You were petting Draco. A little Latin joke. Never mind."

"Oh," she said, unable to think of a witty comeback.

Suddenly his features darkened, and he scowled at her.

"Don't ever do that again!"

Aurora was beginning to think that whatever Madam Pomfrey had given her must have been pretty strong, because she had no idea what Snape was talking about.

"What did I do?"

Snape gripped her shoulders and spun her around.

"You ran off!" he said furiously. "Bloody brilliant thing to do! Voldemort due to attack at any moment, and you go haring out of the Great Hall by yourself like some simpleton. I'm not even going to ask why."

Well, thank Merlin for small favors, Aurora thought. "You noticed I left?" she asked in a small voice.

"Of course I noticed!" he thundered at her. "I just couldn't get away to stop you because you sister would not stop talking to me! Gods, I was so worried!" Fiercely, he yanked her into his arms, putting his chin on top of her head. "Gods, I was so worried," he repeated, more quietly.

Hermione took this as her cue to leave, certain that Snape would not appreciate her witnessing this. It was far beyond his normal range of behavior, and frankly it was a bit disturbing. She had it in mind to go retrieve Odessa, who had spent the night up in Gryffindor tower. Silently, she slipped out of the room.

Aurora, initially stunned by his demonstration of concern, returned Snape's embrace with equal fierceness. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you would even care."

"Aurora, you're my friend- probably my best friend. Of course I care if you're upset or in danger. Just promise me you won't scare me like that ever again." He lightly stroked her hair.

"I promise." She snuggled against him, resting her head in the center of his chest. She knew he embraced her only in friendship, that much ha had just made perfectly clear, and while that was painful, she still reveled in the sensation of being in his arms. It felt right. It felt like home.

Dimly, Snape and Aurora became aware that another person was in the room. He stepped back from her. She sighed, but let go.

"Ahem." Madam Pomfrey looked stern. "Professor Jackson, I don't believe I've cleared you to get out of bed."

"That's why I was retrieving her, Poppy," Snape said smoothly. Aurora shot him a dirty look.

"I was just visiting my cousin," Aurora said. "Besides, I'm fine."

"Humph." Madam Pomfrey took her by the arm and steered her back to her own cubicle. Snape followed jauntily behind.

The medi-witch sat Aurora on the bed and asked her a series of questions. Apparently she was finally capable of giving some decent answers, because Madam Pomfrey pronounced her fit and went to fetch her robes. Snape opened his mouth to say something to Aurora, who appeared very hacked off at him, but was denied the opportunity as a bunch of teenagers piled into Aurora's room.

"Merry Christmas!" Odessa sang out gaily. Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny and Charity followed her in.

Aurora couldn't believe that she had completely forgotten it was Christmas, although she certainly wasn't in the mood for celebrating. Any chance for protest was effectively ruined by the fact that Odessa had laid a great pile of brightly wrapped packages in Aurora's lap. She looked over at Snape, who shrugged. It had slipped his mind, too. Aurora sighed; perhaps this would at least help her sister and the other kids recover from what had happened the night before.

"I picked these up from your room. I guess the house-elves didn't know you were in here," said Odessa, plunking herself down on the bed next to her sister. Hermione winced as she realized how the Christmas gifts found their way to their rooms every year. Ginny patted her consolingly on the shoulder, glaring at Ron and Harry, who snickered.

"Well, open them already!" said Charity, poking Aurora in the shoulder.

Aurora began ripping the paper off the packages, feeling more than a little bit guilty celebrating Christmas while Draco lay unconscious a few cubicles away. Still, she exclaimed softly over the ermine trimmed cloak from Odessa, the CD's from Charity, and the candy from the kids. Finally, only three packages remained- one from her father, which looked suspiciously like a book, that she set aside for later, one from Draco, which she couldn't bear to open until he could open hers, and one from Snape. She began to unwrap the long slender box from the Potions professor.

"I'd rather you didn't-" he started, but it was too late.

Aurora pulled the lid off the box and lifted out a delicate gold chain with what looked like a crystal ball filled with pink smoke hanging on it.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked, raising her soft brown eyes to his onyx black ones.

He nodded reluctantly. "It's a Diviner's Orb."

"May I see it?" Hermione asked.

Aurora held it up, and Hermione leaned forward and touched the sphere gently. "It looks like the pink air that surrounded you when you did the Truth-Seeking spell," she remarked. Harry nodded his agreement.

"It is," Aurora confirmed. "The Diviner's Orb is meant for Diviners, like Professor Trelawney-" the students all snorted- "or Truth Seekers, like me. It contains a small bit of the Divinium spell, which makes it easier for us to access our skills. That way it's not as draining when we perform the spell." Aurora met Snape's eyes again. "Thank you, Severus. It's a wonderful gift."

Snape shook his head wordlessly, overwhelmed by the audience watching the exchange. He took the necklace from her hands, unclasping it and fastening the oddly glowing orb around her neck.

For a moment, everyone was quiet. Then Aurora burst out, "You guys all got my gifts, right?" Everyone assured her they had except Snape.

"I haven't been by my chambers," he explained, with uncharacteristic uncertainty.

"It's there, then," Aurora told him, lightly fingering the new weight around her neck.

Then Madam Pomfrey came in and ordered everybody out so Aurora could be discharged. Grumbling, they all did as ordered. Odessa paused before she left.

"You've had an owl from Dad," she said. "I left it in your room."

Oh, great, Aurora groaned mentally. Her father must have been told about the attack. She couldn't wait to see what he had written her.

Snape also hung back. "Aurora, all of this-" he indicated the wrapping paper scraps and the gifts on her bedside table- "is well and good, but when you're feeling more yourself, there is something we need to discuss, a vital security issue."

"But I feel fine now," she protested.

"It can wait a few hours. Rest," Snape commanded.

"Out!" Madam Pomfrey cried. "I mean it!"

Nodding, Snape glided out of the hospital wing, leaving Aurora to fume and wonder what he had to say to her.