Treason From Within

Author's note:

After reading HBP, I had an idea of what would happen in book 7: I thought Snape would be an important help in searching and destroying the Horcruxes. As you can imagine I was a bit disappointed with the amount of screenplay Snape got in the book. I'd also hoped for more interaction between Voldemort and Harry. These things I try to implement in my fic.

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They were upon him now. The sound of mass Apparition was unmistakable. He was utterly screwed and stupid, judging from this major error in strategy. He concentrated hard and turned on the spot, but nothing happened: the Apparition barriers were back in place. They would spot him in the shadows any moment now...

Harry gripped his wand tighter and prepared to strike, but he was disarmed as soon as he raised his arm. His wand soared over to the person standing behind him and Harry spun around to see his attacker. He gulped: greasy hair, eyes endless tunnels of black and a hawk-like nose: Severus Snape stood before him, one wand loosely at his side, the other pointed at Harry's heart.

"Shit," Harry said, but before he could consider his next move, before any emotion towards Snape could surface, Harry was thrown against the opposite wall with a flick of Snape's wrist.

The back of his head smacked against solid stone and he slid to the ground. Sickening pain went through him and black spots filled his vision. Staring at the man before him, he felt his insides burning with loathing and humiliation. He scrambled off the floor and blindly threw himself forward.

Snape staggered backwards and Harry pounded everything he could reach: a punch in the stomach, a punch to the knee, in the neck... Snape recovered quickly from his surprise and folded his arms, staring at Harry like he was a mildly interesting skin disease.

Harry was quickly getting out of breath. A small part of his mind told him he was never going to get out of this one. His punches were inaccurate because his vision was blurring, he was on the verge of collapsing and worst of all: Snape stood stoically unmoving before him. He didn't show any reaction to Harry's fevered assault. Harry was raging. He wanted Snape to acknowledge him, damnit! The bastard just stared him down, like Harry wasn't worth the bother, an uninteresting nuisance. This trail of thought brought him out of his trance. Harry took an unbalanced step back, aware that he was shaking all over. His breath sounded too loud to his own ears.

"Quite finished?" Snape said wryly.

Harry couldn't look at him. He decided to glare at a fold in Snape's cloak instead. It occurred to him that Snape hadn't used either of the two wands in his crossed arms.

"Let's analyse our actions, shall we?" His voice was little more than a whisper. "Blindly trusting our own conclusions on conducted research; thoughtlessly heading into dangerous territory - without backup obviously; not covering our Apparition signature, kindly informing everyone about our whereabouts; generally being a brainless twit. Congratulations Potter, I can always count on you to mess things up in spectacular fashion."

The nails of Harry's hands were cutting his palms open. Snape was nagging him again, but he would faint first before he'd show any emotion. As if his body was obeying his thoughts, the black spots in his vision started to absorb the world more and more. He felt his eyes water from the pain in his head and bowed it further, not to let it show. Snape of course wasn't having any of it. A rough hand tilted his head up. To his utter embarrassment, he felt tears making their way down his cheeks. Snape tsked.

Against his will Harry's eyes drew to Snape's black ones. He was immobilized by them and tried with all his might to escape the inevitable. Snape's will brushed off his pathetic attempt at Occlumency and began searching Harry's mind. A mind that was soon going to give up on consciousness... Within the whirls of his thoughts Harry felt a strange pull of a force backing off, and then he knew no more.

***

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Author's note: this is my first fic and I'm Dutch. I put this online to encourage myself and keep at it. Please let me know what you think! I'm looking for a beta(s), so if you like the feel of this little bit and are proficient in the English language, please owl me if you're interested!