Chapter 8: The ??? returns

The first thing Lucy heard when she woke up was the shouting from downstairs. She groaned and realised Snape had moved her. Lucy creeped downstairs and listened to the argument from behind the door, opening it just to see two men yelling at each other

"So what are you going to do!"

"Severus! You forget that I to am upset! The dementors were not meant to get into the grounds!"

"Yes, but what will you do!"

"Mr Son and I will talk to the dementors"

"Mr Son can talk to dementors?" Snape looked disgusted. 

"Mr Son has to be able to talk to dementors due to his educational role as a janitor." Dumbledore replied calmly

"What! You think some idiotic cleaner is going to help us!" Snape strode closer to Dumbledore "I want you to find out who is responsible for this! My daughter almost died!"

"You forget again who saved her" Dumbledore said quietly. Snape shrunk back at the words but then noticed the crack in the door. Snape strode over leaving Lucy to sprint back up the steps. Snape entered at shook his head

"You shouldn't eavesdrop" he said. Lucy didn't reply. She shivered and Snape sat on her bed "how do you feel?" He asked putting his hand on her head.

"I feel ok" she muttered

"Your temperatures ok" he said "how was it up there?"

"Terrifying. They were everywhere, I don't see how many got into the castle on their own..."

"Something isn't right" Snape muttered to himself. He saw the look on Lucy's face and stopped "we're going home for christmas, I don't like what's going on here..."

"It's nothing to do with Jessica going home is it?"

"No" Snape said innocently. He raised his eyebrows and Lucy giggled and sneezed.

"I haven't got lessons today so i'm going to be patrolling, apparently they need humans to keep an eye on the dementors..." He said as he stood up. Snape kissed Lucy on the cheek and went to get his coat.

An hour passed and Lucy was bored. She jumped out of bed and decided to slouch down to the living room she was surprised to see Snape's desk all covered in papers and quills. She sighed and cleared the mess up, Snape must of been working hard, she thought. She moved a couple of papers and placed them in the draws and placed the quills to one side. She was going to wash them until she spotted a faded piece of parchment. Then stopped. Lucy's mauderes map laid jumbled in the mess, opened but blank. A piece of paper beside it showed passwords Snape must of been trying to use to open it. Lucy snatched it and sneezed again.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good" she stuttered, the ink sunk in and the map formed.

Lucy watched for a while as Snape walked down the corridors to the boundaries of the school. Lucy stared at it and wished that she could talk to someone. Lucy just happened to lift her eyes from the page and lose Snape. 'Damn!' She thought, she looked for him and got the most surprising shock of her life.

Lucy half screamed as she saw three pairs of footsteps walking down the corridor. What scared Lucy most was that the names were '???'. They walked slowly like ghosts and Lucy had a flashback to last time. she remembered Snape taking the map off of her and wondered how long she'd lived without it, but her thoughts were stopped when she realised that they were heading towards Snape. Without thinking she scurried out the door and began to run. She got looks from the students that were bunking lessons as she raced to her dad. As she got nearer the atmosphere got colder and more miserable. Lucy felt the hairs stand up on her back and neck as she turned the corner.

Lucy turned to ice as the shadow of the dementor appeared round the other corner. Her heart raced as she checked the map. The word 'DEMENTOR' could be seen but no footprints emerged. Suddenly the mauderes map went crazy, words scribbled everywhere in different fonts. Each sentence appeared in seconds and the speed injected fear into Lucy's heart.

'Run child!'

'Get out!'

'It will suck your soul into pieces!'

There must of been a thousand comments on the map. Lucy stumbled backwards as the words dragged themselves up her hands and arms, they whispered to her as they crawled closer. The dementor turned and floated towards her slowly. Lucy screamed and fell over and the dementor swooped over her, it strangled her and sucked in her happy memories. The creature's claws grew tight around her neck and she screamed as the claws dug into her neck.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Severus Snape bellowed. A fantastic white light flew towards the dementor and it soared backwards down the hallway. The light chased it away and a form of animal galloped into it. Snape's face was full of pure anger as the dementor flew back. He paced forward next to Lucy and yelled louder.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!" He raged, his teeth showing. The light from his wand grew brighter and Lucy was blinded by a beauty of light. A swishing of the dementors cape could be heard as it was chased away, leaving Snape and Lucy alone in the dimly lit corridor. Lucy laid back on the concrete and started to choke. She felt her neck bleed a little from the talons of the dementor and an uncontrollable shake went down her spine and she started to cry.

"Ok keep calm Lucy" Snape's voice shivered, he too was disturbed at what had happened.

He bent down and held her close to him as tears rolled down from Lucy's eyes and onto his chest. Lucy's quivering was uncontrollable and it made Snape's body judder. After that scare he needed a hug as well, but he wouldn't admit it. Suddenly the map on the floor burst to life, the words stabbed the floor, trickling towards them like blood. They watched in horror as a silky voice spoke to them.

'They want the orb, they want the orb...'

'You can't be safe forever...'

'Pain is their way of death'

'They kill for fun'

'RUN!'

The last words dimmed but the words shouted at them, an eery green glow possessed the mauderes map.

'LONG LIVE LORD ZUC THE MIGHTY!' The glow lit their faces as the map flew into the air. The word fell down like snow and disappeared as it rested on the floor, like water onto paper.

Lucy clutched Snape's robes as an eery silence fell. But suddenly deadly moans could be heard.

"Dementor!" Lucy whimpered

"I won't let anything hurt you Lucy, ok?" He said hugging her. He was saying the words to assure himself as well "no ones going to get you"

He and Lucy trembled to the hospital wing, where a shocked Madam Pomfrey addressed Lucy's wounds. Snape sat down quietly as Madam Pomfrey helped stitch the wound in Lucy's neck and then turned to Snape.

"Miss Snape will be ok. Are you alright Professor?"

"Fine" he spat back. He wasn't letting anyone know how he was feeling. His hands were shaking and sweating. Madam Pomfrey led Lucy out before talking to Snape.

"Your in shock Professor, i'd advise you stay here..."

"No" he said quickly "i'm not staying here"

"Professor you really must..."

"Did you hear me? I am not staying" he pronounced the words slowly as he stood up

"Very well Professor Snape. But I advise you not to work to much today and drink some water" she finished, half intimidated by the man. He nodded and muttered a word of thanks and walked out of the vast room. Lucy stood waiting for Snape just outside, when he came out he put an arm around her and they walked back to the dungeons.

"Lucy, i'm going to teach you the patronus charm" he said abruptly. Lucy stared blankly at him as she opened the door, seeing her expression he said "it protects you from dementors. It's the spell I used earlier"