Harry Potter and the Dreamer of Fears

Chapter 16 - The Deceased Laugh

Severus Snape wasn't too pleased with the results.  In fact, he wasn't pleased at all; he was down right shaken by the results.  He had Apparated to one of the locations where Voldemort had installed some of his Death Eaters to hold as a fort and outside the walls of the makeshift fort were bodies of Muggles, wizards, and witches alike.  All their heads had been cut off and put on pikes as a grisly reminder of whose work it was.  But he suspected that it was Lucius Malfoy and his cohorts that did the Muggle hunting, while someone else, probably Avery and Williamson that did the wizard and witch killings.

Now, shadowy creatures, which Snape recognized as Spawns were crawling over the headless bodies, eating and drinking the bodies' blood and flesh.  It was a sickening sight to see and he felt bile in his throat but managed not to throw up.

"Oi, Snape, you okay?" a gruff voice spoke next to him as they were in one of the towers of the fort, one side of the fort overlooking the sea, and he recognized the voice as Denetial, one of the Death Eaters who had not been at Voldemort's rebirth, but had arrived later since he was serving time in Azkaban.

He was lucky that no one knew he was a spy among their ranks, but he felt not to push his luck so far.  Dumbledore had warned him to tread lightly and by God, he was going to tread lightly.

"Yeah.  Just got to get used to the carnage.  It's always a fresh start to see them," he replied a bit dryly as he turned from the bodies and stared at the tower that sprouted from the middle of the fort.

"Yah.  Malfoy, Avery, and Williamson sure do put on good shows, don't they?" Denetial elbowed him slightly and Snape managed not to grimace from the fact that the Death Eater next to him was enjoying the carnage.

"Speaking of Avery, you know if he's been contacting his family recently?" he asked lightly, making it so that his question was just one of curiosity.

"No," Denetial replied, shrugging, "Last I heard of good ol' Avery was that he was out huntin' some Muggles in Ireland.  You know, killin' those Leprechaun-worshippers."  "But," the younger man drawled as he smiled wistfully, "it be good to have some women here.  You know, besides Narcissa and the other wives.  I mean like unmarried women.  Unmarried women Death Eaters, so we can...play around so to speak..."

Snape was at a lost of words; he looked at the man with disgust.  Was he actually even thinking of trying to recruit Cho Chang, the pretty sixth year, and maybe other girls from Hogwarts?

"Saw a recent picture of Avery's little girl...damn she's hot," Denetial stared off into space and Snape nodded, unable to speak as he quickly walked away.

Pushing away the disgust that was threatening to spew the bile out of his throat again, he realized that Voldemort was planning to recruit some of the students at Hogwarts, mainly to act as spies.  That was one thing he had to warn Dumbledore about.  He had also learned other things from his short time in the fort.

Many of the Death Eaters were still recovering, some recently broke out of Azkaban, while others were just testing their resources.  But he had noticed that most of the Death Eaters who had not gone to Azkaban had families and this was the weakest link in their loyalty to Voldemort.  Or it could be their greatest strength, as he knew that Voldemort would use the Death Eater's families as bait.

Another weakness that he had seen was the fact that the Dark Lord didn't have all the support of dark creatures with him.  Sure he had Spawns with him and Faydes, the crossbreeds of Spawns and Dementors, but Snape knew that most of the giants had sided secretly with Dumbledore from Hagrid's report, and most of the other creatures still remember the harsh treatment they received when Voldemort wasn't too pleased with their efforts.

As he made his way towards the tower and down the dark musty steps of the tower he frowned as he remembered what he had overheard the Death Eater named Pettigrew, who was charged with the murder of Harry Potter's parents, whispering about something.

"The Dark Lord...he must not know about this..."

"The Dark Lord...he knows nothing of this..."

"This is the answers, the results, use it wisely...my debt has been repaid."

That was in the slimy rat's dreams as the diminutive silver-hand man had stayed in the one room at the spire of the tower last week.  He had been wondering about what Pettigrew was mumbling but didn't get the chance to ask as the man left as early as he did arrive.  Now, he was making his way down towards the library archives hidden beneath the tower.  In reality, he didn't have to check the archives for any records, but it was for Marion's sake.

He respected the Auror and former Hogwarts student even though she was a friend of James Potter and his unruly gang (he sneered slightly at the memory).  He remembered that a time ago, he would have laughed in her face had she decided to become an Auror, but now, with her as an Auror, one of Crouch's Aurors to be more precise, it was within her eyes, haunted and piercing, that made him give the respect she deserved.  He knew that he wasn't in love with her; love had gone out from him ever since he became a Death Eater against his will.

He had been recruited to become a Death Eater during his seventh year at Hogwarts, and had refused then.  But after a bit of persuasion, on the part of Voldemort's second, Anri Jordan, who threatened to kill his family, he had received the Dark Mark.  It was then that he was bound to serve the Dark Lord, but there was a loophole within the Dark Mark.  He didn't have to serve so willingly.  If he only kept a continuous trail of thought that he was going to betray those at Hogwarts towards the Dark Mark, then he would be able to keep Voldemort from worrying.  That loophole also allowed him to become a spy for Dumbledore.

After all, as soon as he received the Dark Mark, Jordan had killed his family without a second thought, but he wasn't supposed to know that.  Killed them with the Killing Curse and left their bodies to rot in the sun.  He had found his family, all of the flesh ripped away by Spawns and remembered his younger brother and sister, both whom had gone to Pellinger School of Wizardry, a small wizarding school that rivaled Hogwarts, but was mostly unknown to the wizarding world.

The school, however, was promptly destroyed by Voldemort and his followers and on the land, a fort was built.  This particular fort.  His family's death drove him to look closely at what he had sacrificed himself for, and he had turned to Dumbledore for help, to become a spy among the Death Eaters, working from within.

When he became a spy, it was also the first time out of Hogwarts that he had met Marion, Marius, and their older brother, Nigel.  Back then, Marion and Marius were Auror-trainees with their brother who was a simple apothecary.  He had heard later that Marius dropped Auror training and went traversing the world before ending up in his older brother's apothecary shop.  Now Marion was asking him to look into the files for her brother's adventuring in the world.  He would have sneered it in her face and tell her to look it up herself, but not for the fact that she had told him that she suspected Marius was in league with Voldemort.  As a Death Eater, he didn't know if Marius was one, and neither did she, but he had agreed on her condition that no one else, not even Dumbledore would know of their covert activities.

As he made his way down the creaky musty steps, Snape shivered slightly and wrapped his cloak around him tighter.  In northern Russia, there was barely any heat to go around, and everything was either ice or tundra.  Entering the library that was housed at the bottom of the tower, or what used to be the remnants of a library, he picked his way through the broken shards of glass, remnant tubes for torture chambers.  He knew that Voldemort used this place from time to time to torture Muggles and wizards before releasing them, broken, back to the civilized world.  Most wizards who were tortured here ended up in St. Mungo's Hospital.

He approached the back of the library and drew out his wand.  "Lumos," he whispered and the wand glowed a slight light to show him words in ancient script hanging on a wall, arched in the shape of the door.  "Ardente cum veritate diebus fatalibus (Burn with truth, from the days of destiny)," he spoke, reading the ancient Latin script above the wall.

The wall suddenly hissed open and was revealed to be a door.  He stepped through and it closed silently behind him.  Holding his wand up he let the light glow brighter and saw some shelves full of dusty thick books, some dark objects, wands, but what he was after was sitting in the middle of the room.  To a common Muggle, he knew that it looked like a birdbath, but in reality was a Rengal, cousin of the Pensieve, but stored the records of most Death Eater activities instead of memories from a particular individual.

Heading towards the Rengal, he stopped in front of it and glanced down into its greenish milky depths.  "Marius Sadow.  July 1979-1984."  July was the month that Marion had provided for him, telling him that it was the month where Marius had dropped out of Auror training.  1984 was roughly the year he had appeared back in his brother's apothecary business.

The Rengal swirled around for a few moments before images projected themselves up to his eye level, their greenish hues misting slightly.  A frown grew on his face as he read what was written by the hue.  No records of a Marius Sadow were recorded into the Rengal.  Please try another name.

"July 1979-1984.  Major Death Eater activity, bypassing the Dark Lord's unfortunate encounter with Potter," he spoke again, and this time the Rengal glowed a bright green and a vortex of swirling green engulfed him.

Snape opened his mouth to give a cry as he felt himself dragged downwards, until he landed on soft grassy ground.  He shook his head slightly and stood up, brushing himself off.  That was when he noticed that he wasn't in the old library anymore and instead was out on an open field.

Glancing up the sky was full of stars and not a cloud was in sight.  He looked all around him and saw at least eight Death Eaters, all who wore the customary black cloak with hoods raised as so to hide their features.  They all were standing in a semi circle and he saw them holding their wands up, waiting for something.  He had a faint memory of something like this, but couldn't pin point it.

Suddenly the air crackled and there was a blinding flash.  Snape raised his hands to protect his eyes from the glare and when it subsided he lowered it and blinked.  There were at least ten Aurors, wands out and facing the Death Eaters who did nothing.

"Surrender, Death Eaters," one of the Aurors growled and Snape vaguely recognized the voice.

One of the Death Eaters shuffled to the middle and was chuckling all the way as he came to a stop in front of the Aurors who tensed slightly.  "I pity you fools," a familiar drawl made Snape freeze in his tracks.  It was Lucius Malfoy.  "You think protecting Mudbloods and Half-bloods is the right way?  No...Lord Voldemort will rise, and starting with your sacrifice."

"What sacrifice?" another Auror scoffed, this one a female voice.

"What, you mean you didn't know?  Oh, so sorry," Lucius sneered then flicked his wand, "allow me to welcome you to your death.  Avada Kedavra!"

From his wand, a green light sped towards the female Auror who had spoken before and surprise lit her features before she fell backwards, dead.

"NO!" came the unison cry of all the Aurors and the surge of battle started.

Snape cursed silently to himself as he tried to duck the barrage of spells coming from the Aurors and from the Death Eaters, each rebounding from the shields erected with wands or hands, and winced as a couple of deadly spells passed right through him.  He realized that he was still in the Rengal, not in the real world and that the spells wouldn't hurt him...at least he hoped it wouldn't.

He watched as other Death Eaters suddenly surrounded the Aurors, and each one of them fell at the onslaught of spells coming from the circle of Death Eaters.  Soon there were only two left and then the spells stop coming towards them.

"Lower your wands, my Death Eaters," a hissing voice Snape recognized and he turned to see Voldemort strolling from the outside of the Death Eaters' circle and towards the two people who were standing in the middle, their hoods down, their expressions defiant.  They looked elderly, but the fire in their eyes told a different story.  Not to mention they looked vaguely familiar.

Then it suddenly hit him who those two elderly people were.  A certain Hufflepuff named Susan Bones came to Snape's mind and he realized that these were here grandparents...about to be killed by Voldemort.

"No," he breathed and stepped forward to stop the Dark Lord from performing his devious deed.

"Severus," the Dark Lord suddenly spoke up and he froze, thinking that Voldemort spotted him when a figure from the circle of Death Eaters stepped out and removed his hood.  Snape stared at the younger figure of himself, hair slicked back, eyes shining with pride, but underneath that pride he recognized the hatred that was directed to the Dark Lord even though Voldemort couldn't not see it.

"My Lord?" the younger version of himself asked.

"Raven," Voldemort suddenly called to the circle of Death Eaters once more and another figure stepped out.

"My Lord?" the figure asked, not removing his hood.

"Raven, please tell Severus how to kill Aurors.  It seems our youngest one doesn't really know too much," the Dark Lord stepped back and the Death Eater named Raven stepped forward.

"Yes, Milord," Raven obeyed and raised his wand, "shall I use the Killing Curse or make it as painful for them?"

"Killing Curse would do, Raven.  You are a son to me, so you should know what to expect," Voldemort replied.

"Avada Kedavra," Raven intoned and the curse hit both elderly couples square in the chest.  They both fell to the ground at the same time, their expressions etched in eternity as one of defiance.

"Thank you, Raven," Voldemort absolutely purred.

"My pleasure to serve you, Milord," Raven took his hood off and Snape gasped slightly at the face that greeted him.

There was a traitor in the midst and he knew who it was.

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