The Theory of Magic (Book 1)

27 // Wands & a Most Regrettable Outcome

Severus licked the pad of his thumb and turned a page.

Tracey Mulligan, a fifth-year Hufflepuff, let out a miserable sigh as she continued to scrub a grungy cauldron with the wrong side of the brush, her hands smudged and her face twisted in a wretched grimace. Snape knew it would take her far less time and effort to use the appropriate side of the brush, but he would allow her to toil and fix her own mistake, though he'd have to dismiss her soon for dinner. She was wasting both of their time by not paying attention.

He turned another page, bored.

Dullahan would probably help the girl complete her own punishment. Snape snorted, earning a strange look from Mulligan, whom he sneered at. She would deprive the girl of learning from missteps. Neither Dullahan nor Quirrell had been at breakfast or at lunch, and it was not like Dullahan to miss partaking in some overtly sweet confection whenever the opportunity arose. Earlier in the year Severus would have thought her behavior suspicious, but now he wagered she'd been out in the Forest, unable to let the search go even with Dumbledore's assurances. He found Quirrell's behavior far more suspicious. What was he up to?

Severus turned his attention toward the passage at hand and reached for his tea. His eyes flashed down, finding the cup—and the faintest of rumbles rose up and sent a ripple through the dark liquid. He held his breath, his hand utterly motionless. "Quiet," he snarled at Mulligan, and she stopped cleaning. This time he heard the rumble properly, and it did not stop at once.

Spellwork. Explosions.

Rising, Severus snapped, "Wait here, Miss Mulligan," before sweeping out of the dungeon. Once in the stone corridor he could hear the rebounding spells much better. The fiery cadences and fierce shrieks of tossed hexes and jinxes being slung as he rushed for the stairs built in fervor, and Severus mentally cursed stupid students with no respect for their school or each other. Given the noise, it sounded as if an entire batch of seventh years was squaring off.

If it's Gryffindors, I'll have them in detention for the rest of term.

The sound grew and grew, as did Severus' alarm. Too loud. Too vicious. Voiceless. No incantations shouted. The whole of the castle shuddered beneath the violence, and Snape knew the wards would be screaming in Albus's office and the Headmaster would be coming, but not before the Potions Master arrived. It was not students.

Severus ran onto the ground floor, foot on the bottom step, when the cadence of the dueling hiccuped and a bang resonated through the stairwell. "Professor Dullahan!" a child screamed.

Laughter ensued—cold and malicious, familiar, followed by unearthly screaming. Smoke filled Severus' lungs as he came to the corridor dominated by a line of classrooms.

The cessation of sound hit Snape like a sudden submersion into icy water. His chest ached.

"Harry—! Harry—! Hermione, what do we—?!"

Bits of door ground beneath his heels as Snape came to the obliterated entrance of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The room had been reduced to a pit of blackened scorch marks, shattered glass, and blasted desks. Quirrell lay in the room's center, utterly disfigured, red wounds seeping from him—and his head—! Blackened, crumbling to ash, to nothing.

The Potter boy lay at Quirrell's feet and Severus' heart gave an uneasy lurch. The Weasley boy crouched over him, shaking Potter, face pallid in shock and terror, freckles stark. Granger was—.

Severus' flagrant cursing brought both Granger and Weasley's stunned attentions around as he shoved the trembling girl aside. "Get Madam Pomfrey!" he barked as his hand came down on Dullahan's side in a vain attempt to keep something inside the woman's sundered abdomen. Dullahan was little more than a puddle of red and blue, her teaching robes spread about her, soaked with blood. Granger darted off and Snape shouted at Weasley. "What happened here?" he demanded, unsure if Potter lived, certain he wasn't in the same danger as Dullahan if he did. The boy stared at him. "Weasley!"