Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Bright Lights in the Night

Saturnine’s answering spell was a jet of yellow light that slashed through the night, loosely aiming towards where the attack had come from. It probably missed its target, but it made her intention clear enough.

Severus’ free hand grabbed a handful of Draco’s shirt and yanked him behind a tall headstone. Harry followed suit without needing to be told that he had better comply with the unspoken command, as he’d promised. That earned him an approving nod from the man.

“Who are they?” Harry asked in a whisper as he crouched behind the tomb of a baronet who’d died in the eighteen hundreds.

“Death Eaters, probably,” Saturnine replied as she approached them. “Lucius must have had the place kept under surveillance.”

“If they have called for reinforcements, the cemetery will be crawling with hordes of them in no time,” Severus warned. “We have to get away.”

“Can’t we just Apparate back home?” Harry asked.

“Not from within the cemetery,” Severus replied. The young Gryffindor felt like asking why, but he refrained from it.

Another curse flew their way, and he felt the thick headstone at their back take the hit. It shook under the strain but resisted. The attack was followed by another and another, the frequency making it obvious there was more than one wizard throwing curses at them.

“There aren’t that many of them. Two—maybe three,” Saturnine said, daring to peek over the protective granite slab.

“I’ll cast protective spells, and you can cast attack spells,” Severus instructed. “We can get them together.”

“They’re too far away. There’s nothing I can aim for,” she countered. “I need to draw them out and away from you.”

“It’s too dangerous, ’Nine. No,” he said.

Another curse hit the headstone behind Harry’s back and he curled up a little more tightly on himself.

“I can take them, Sev,” Saturnine countered, chancing another look to gauge their attackers’ positions. “Take the boys back to the cottage. I’ll be right behind you.”

Severus shook his head, his thin black hair lashing angrily at the air. “No! No way.”

“We don’t have a choice,” she said as another curse hit the granite shields protecting their group. She had ducked back to safety just in time. “You’re not up to full strength yet; you won’t last long. The boys are our primary concern—take them home. I can fend for myself for a little while. I’ll be okay.”

Harry could see the conflict in Severus’ face—his need to protect his godson waging war with his need to protect his sister. He looked beyond tense—he was coiled more tightly than a spring. His dark eyes narrowed at his sister, and his lips clenched into a tight line. Fleetingly, Harry saw in his agonised eyes the moment the dark-haired wizard realised he couldn’t have both—that he had to choose.

“Be careful,” Severus cautioned tensely, looking his sister straight in the eyes.

Their gazes locked, and Saturnine said, “Always.” There was such a deep sense of finality to the way she said the word that Harry understood it to have a deeper meaning for the siblings. Severus bowed his head in reply, a dark curtain of hair hiding whatever emotion had just risen to his face.

An instant later, Saturnine rose to her feet in one graceful movement, her wand held out as she assumed a well-practised battle stance. A burst of light spilt from the end of her wand, then another and another. She cast spell after spell at their attackers, all the while moving from headstone to headstone and drawing the fight away from them. Lithe as a panther, she moved towards the edge of the cemetery, near the cliff. Their attackers’ curses followed her relentlessly.

Severus, Draco, and Harry stayed where they were, crouched low and hidden in the shadows. It was too soon for them to move. The Death Eaters could still double back at any time and get them from behind.

Harry couldn’t help himself from leaning forward a little so that he could keep an eye on Saturnine over Severus’ shoulder. He could see the Death Eaters clearly now, their robed figures undulating in the darkness. There were two of them, and they were at Saturnine’s back, driving her further and further away from them.

Harry wondered why she was still willing to be pushed back in that direction. If she didn’t try to alter her course soon, she’d run out of tombstones to hide behind. Then it would be an open fight—two against one. Harry felt his free hand curl into a fist at the unfairness of it all. If the two wizards coordinated their attacks, in a face-off, there’d be little Saturnine could do to defeat them.

But the dark-haired witch was more resourceful than Harry had thought. And suddenly, a jet of flames burst out from where she’d crouched behind a tall marble stall. It was long and bright, and the flames seemed to have a life of their own as they surged through the darkness. They leapt towards the Death Eaters, galloping in the darkness, seeking flesh to sink their teeth into.

Harry had no idea which spell that was, but it was impressive. Next to him, Draco let out a soft-spoken, “Wow!” of admiration.

Angry, red flames crashed upon a hastily thrown-up shield but didn’t disappear. Instead, they tried reaching around the shield, licking above and snaking to the sides. The second Death Eater was forced to bring up another shield to cover all angles, trapping the two men inside a luminous dome that was protecting them as much as it was imprisoning them.

Saturnine rose from her secure position. And something that Harry thought impossible happened: she lifted her wand and cast spell after spell at the Death Eaters, even as she kept controlling the yellow and red monster trying to burn the wizards alive. Her spells were like bolts of lightning. And they came crashing upon the shields with resounding impacts that caused the luminous bubble to flicker with each hit.

The flames, which had not diminished in intensity, even though Saturnine’s wand had been busy casting other spells, kept trying to sink their teeth in the dome. For a moment, Harry wondered if maybe this was the same type of spell used to destroy the Lovegoods’ home the summer before. But whichever spell Saturnine had used, Harry knew it couldn’t have been Dark Magic—that wasn’t her style. Besides, these flames looked too pure and magnificent to be Fiendfyre.

Saturnine sent another volley of hits the Death Eaters’ way, then another. And the flames licked at the weak spots in the shields, trying to insinuate themselves inside. Tendrils of flames made it through, and one of them latched itself onto the tallest wizard’s black cloak. The flames grew and grew as the man screamed in fear while trying to smother them, flailing his arms wildly.

The fight was all but won—and would have been—had a third figure not appeared out of the darkness—a figure that Saturnine could not see coming because it slithered its way towards her from behind.

Harry had but a split second to decide what to do: remain hidden, warn her, or attempt something. It came as no surprise that he went with option three. Rising to his feet, he held out his arm and cast a strong Bombarda towards the cloaked figure. A blue jet of light burst out of the tip of his wand and flew towards its intended target. Harry didn’t have time to see if it reached it or not because Severus grabbed a handful of his shirt to yank him back down.

“Stay down!” he intoned darkly, and Harry knew better than to argue the point. This was the same tone he’d heard for years at Hogwarts.

When Harry found his lookout spot again and returned his attention to the fight happening towards the back of the cemetery, he saw that Saturnine had now engaged the masked newcomer. Jets of coloured lightning bolts crisscrossed through the night as they threw spell after spell at each other. The flames were still licking at the two imprisoned wizards, but they’d lost some of their insidious intensity.

Both Saturnine and the tall, lean, robed figure stood next to the open horizon, the stretching sea behind them providing a stark black background to their battle. It was a one-on-one fight—a proper wizarding duel to the death.

The speed at which the attacks came was horrifying. But the sheer beauty of it—streaks of lights of blue, red, and yellow cutting through the night—was mesmerising. Even from where he stood, Harry could feel the raw power pulsing out from the area where the opponents stood. Spells met spells mid-air, coming together in small explosions of sparkling showers of light. He had never seen a proper wizards’ duel before. And at that moment, Harry felt very much a student with years of learning ahead of him still. Whatever magic he possessed, whatever spells and tricks he knew, it was nothing compared to the acute precision those two displayed. Their fight was beautiful in its cleanliness. It was all sharp motions with no flourishes, the attacks a display of single-mindedness, intent, and determination.

Saturnine held her own as the fight continued, even though she had already battled two Death Eaters, and her flames were still trying to eat their way towards the cowering fools.

When one of the newcomer’s spells reached its intended target, Saturnine let out a scream as it hit her in the shoulder. Harry felt like rushing forward, but he knew he’d only be a distraction to her at that point. Saturnine retaliated with a strong burst of red light, but the wizard facing her averted it before it could do any damage.

The fight resumed in earnest. But Saturnine was losing ground now, and Harry could see it—both literally and figuratively. She’d been forced to back away closer to the edge, and he felt she was too close to it for comfort.

The masked Death Eater kept advancing on her, throwing attack after attack, and Saturnine was forced to back away again as she parried and parried. Glancing at the flames to gauge her physical state, Harry saw that they’d lost more strength. They were no longer attacking on all sides but focusing on one fixed point. And it wouldn’t be long until the wizards inside the protective bubble could smoulder them and rejoin the fight. Then Saturnine would truly be lost.

Harry had to do something; he couldn’t stay there and watch. Briefly glancing at his side, he could see the same worry building within Severus. He looked desperate to reach out to his sister and help her out. A part of Harry was thankful that the man hadn’t had the strength to carry through with their initial plan and Apparate them all away yet. By his side, Draco looked as invested in the fight’s outcome as they all were.

In the distance, another hit got through. And Saturnine was forced to back away a little more. She was so close to the edge now that Harry could barely manage to keep watching, so afraid he was that she would tumble over.

Clearly desperate now, she called back her flames and sent them galloping towards her attacker instead. At her command, they turned on their heel, heeding her call and responding as if they were trained beasts. They leapt through the cemetery towards the cloaked man, but he saw them coming and conjured up a wind-shield with one hand and a spell with the other.

An ugly red streak burst forth from his wand, and it came barrelling towards Saturnine. Busy as she was controlling the flames, she could do very little to avert it. And it slammed into her chest and pushed her back. Only there was no more ground behind her now.

She fell backwards into the void with a scream.


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