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[FIC] Harry Potter: How Dumbledore Found Out
Title: How Dumbledore Found Out
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 for canon character death
Characters: Severus Snape, Lily Potter
Word count: 515
Summary: In which we discover how Dumbledore found out that the Potters were dead.
The night that Lily Potter is murdered, Severus Snape stands outside.
The Dark Lord, Severus has learned, is cruel not only to Muggles and Mudbloods. Although Severus has closed his mind---or rather, has closed the alleyways that lead to light and Lily and love---the Dark Lord still knows. Lily Potter is suffused throughout.
And so in punishment for his divided loyalties the Dark Lord brings him on this night. Snape does not know until a split second before they leave where, precisely, they are going. The Dark Lord flashes him a piece of parchment, and before Severus can respond, the Dark Lord has grabbed him and Apparates. They appear outside the house, a comfortable two-story with a well-kept garden full of potions ingredients and roses. Light spills out from the windows. Severus is stilled and stiff, as if petrified, and he barely feels the wind through his thin robes. The Dark Lord moves forward, through the gate, and leaves him outside on this, the night that Severus Snape has been dreading, the night Lily Potter and her son will not survive. This is something that the Dark Lord must do himself. The part of Severus that is suppressing tears is glad; he cannot bear to watch her die, to watch the light leave her eyes and his life.
The part of him that made the Sorting Hat muse about Gryffindor is urging him towards bravery: It is the only good thing you will do in your life. Save her. Help them get away. It is worth your death. The fear of the Dark Lord, however, keeps him rooted here outside the fence. The faint scent of the last of the roses fills his nostrils.
There is yelling inside; a man's voice, and a flash of green. Severus's hands moves involuntarily for his wand. Severus tries to calm himself; he counts the number of times one of the rose leaves moves in the wind. Fifty-six leaf-movements later, an explosion knocks him backwards. When he comes to shortly after, his head is bleeding and the rose leaf he was watching has been torn off the bush. His hand reaches for his wand again, and he finds himself running into the broken house. James Potter's body lies crumpled in the hall, and from the way he has fallen Severus knows that he died defending the stair.
Severus runs up, robes catching his legs, and nearly falls into the room at the head of the stair. The Dark Lord is gone---disappeared, wand and all---and Lily is dead on the floor. In the crib sits a toddler, snuffling and starting to cry, with Lily's eyes staring out from underneath a scar.
He stumbles to Lily. He casts a Patronus as he gathers her to him, and seconds later a doe appears in Dumbledore's office.
"Lily and James Potter are dead. The boy lives. The Dark Lord is gone."
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 for canon character death
Characters: Severus Snape, Lily Potter
Word count: 515
Summary: In which we discover how Dumbledore found out that the Potters were dead.
The night that Lily Potter is murdered, Severus Snape stands outside.
The Dark Lord, Severus has learned, is cruel not only to Muggles and Mudbloods. Although Severus has closed his mind---or rather, has closed the alleyways that lead to light and Lily and love---the Dark Lord still knows. Lily Potter is suffused throughout.
And so in punishment for his divided loyalties the Dark Lord brings him on this night. Snape does not know until a split second before they leave where, precisely, they are going. The Dark Lord flashes him a piece of parchment, and before Severus can respond, the Dark Lord has grabbed him and Apparates. They appear outside the house, a comfortable two-story with a well-kept garden full of potions ingredients and roses. Light spills out from the windows. Severus is stilled and stiff, as if petrified, and he barely feels the wind through his thin robes. The Dark Lord moves forward, through the gate, and leaves him outside on this, the night that Severus Snape has been dreading, the night Lily Potter and her son will not survive. This is something that the Dark Lord must do himself. The part of Severus that is suppressing tears is glad; he cannot bear to watch her die, to watch the light leave her eyes and his life.
The part of him that made the Sorting Hat muse about Gryffindor is urging him towards bravery: It is the only good thing you will do in your life. Save her. Help them get away. It is worth your death. The fear of the Dark Lord, however, keeps him rooted here outside the fence. The faint scent of the last of the roses fills his nostrils.
There is yelling inside; a man's voice, and a flash of green. Severus's hands moves involuntarily for his wand. Severus tries to calm himself; he counts the number of times one of the rose leaves moves in the wind. Fifty-six leaf-movements later, an explosion knocks him backwards. When he comes to shortly after, his head is bleeding and the rose leaf he was watching has been torn off the bush. His hand reaches for his wand again, and he finds himself running into the broken house. James Potter's body lies crumpled in the hall, and from the way he has fallen Severus knows that he died defending the stair.
Severus runs up, robes catching his legs, and nearly falls into the room at the head of the stair. The Dark Lord is gone---disappeared, wand and all---and Lily is dead on the floor. In the crib sits a toddler, snuffling and starting to cry, with Lily's eyes staring out from underneath a scar.
He stumbles to Lily. He casts a Patronus as he gathers her to him, and seconds later a doe appears in Dumbledore's office.
"Lily and James Potter are dead. The boy lives. The Dark Lord is gone."