Chapter thirty eight: your mark of bravery 

"YOUR NAME IS JOSHUA KINGSTON!" Snape yelled at the man 

Silence filled the air,the only sounds in which could be heard were Shona's pawing at the ground, then Joshua let out a menacing laugh. 

"Very good, Snape! I knew you were a clever man!" Joshua continued to laugh, "and what am I, Snape?" 

"A vampire" 

"And what is Jessica?" 

"A vampire" Snape was forced to admit it, he really didn't want to but that was the truth 

"Very good! And now we have the orb, Lord Zuc will be unbeatable! The medieval islands will be back again and there is nothing you can do!" Kingston whispered, "oh not to mention that your daughter and the Worthing will be stuck in animal form forever now. They look good, don't they?" 

"Kingston, Sir!" Someone yelled as they ran towards the vampire, "I see you have captured them!" 

"Yes Ryan I have and you are late, I have already cursed the daughter and the Worthing, I'm just giving Snape a little lesson" 

"Are you sure about the talk and kill method?" Ryan asked

"There is nothing Snape can do because we have the orb!" 

"Sweet! Lord Zuc will be proud!" 

"He will! I'll just have to kill Snape first before we tell Lord Zuc about our mission that will be finally completed" Kingston said as his canines grew longer and sharper 

"Why? We could have him as a slave! Oh! Oh! Wait! Kill the daughter! Then he'll be too depressed then! And mud blood is my favourite kind! Please Kingston! Please!" Ryan begged 

"He'll just avenge her death you stupid man!" Kingston snapped and all Ryan got was a hit across the face 

"Oh yeah..." 

"There's nothing you can do now, Snape, there is no way out!" Kingston laughed but stopped when Shona bounded towards him in anger. He held out his hand and with one motion Shona was on the floor shaking. 

Lucy advanced back when Ryan walked towards her and licked his lips, his canines grew longer and hunger filled his eyes. Lucy whimpered and was petrified. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't use her wand and she didn't even know how doe's attacked people. 

"I smell a mud blood!" Ryan rasped 

"Don't you dare touch my daughter!" Snape yelled 

"One move Snape and I'll kill you!" Kingston laughed 

"Leave my daughter! Just take me!" Snape whined 

"You claim a doe as your daughter?!" Kingston howled with laughter, "you hear this Jessica?!" 

"Yeah..." Jessica muttered

"LAUGH Jessica! You don't love him! You never did!" Jessica gave a soft laugh but didn't mean it, Ryan continued to step forward which made Lucy whimper still. 

"Girls and love, honestly you tell them to fake love and they do fall in love!" Ryan shook his head 

But then Ryan had enjoyed his torture, it was time to make his move. He dived at Lucy and bit into her side, Lucy screamed but all that came out was a whine. Ryan let go when he was satisfied and licked his fangs. Lucy limped towards Snape, she wanted to die in his arms if she was going to die at all. 

"Kingston! Stop! Please!" Snape protested, "I beg you!" 

"Oh no! I haven't had all of my fun yet!" 

"Let her go! Just let me heal her and then you can have me!" 

"That's how I wanted to see you die, Snape" Kingston narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice, "begging for mercy" 

"It's all I ask!" 

But despite the bite in her side which was making her feel very weak, she had other ideas. Lucy leapt towards Kingston and bit his wrist as hard as she could making kingston yell out. He dropped the orb and Shona, who had just regained consciousness, grabbed it in her mouth. 

"YOU IDIOT, SNAPE!!!" Kingston yelled as loud as he could, he grew his claws and then took a swipe at Lucy's cheek. Lucy squealed in pain and fell onto the floor in a heap. 

"LUCY!" Snape yelled 

"What's going on?!" Ron asked over my the shrieking shack 

"Not now, Ron!" Hermione said, her hands were clasped over her mouth. Harry look horrified, Remus who was now a werewolf even looked confused and Sirius looked disgusted at Joshua. 

"I knew he wasn't a nice guy!" Sirius shook his head

"Be quiet!" Ryan snapped as he continued to chase Shona 

"What do we do?" Harry asked 

"Get out of here!" Snape demanded, "take Mr Black up to the castle as well as Mr Pettigrew just leave!" 

But Lupin had other ideas, he was now fighting with Sirius who had turned into a dog again. They disappeared out of sight and Harry gasped, then chased after them. 

"Potter!" Snape yelled, "Miss Granger! Get Weasley back to the castle! Take him to the hospital wing" Snape ordered and with Hermione's best effort she managed to get Ron up and down to the castle. 

"Hey! I was going to kill them off!" Ryan hissed 

"Well you were too late weren't you?" Snape said casually 

"DO NOT BACK CHAT US, SNAPE!" Kingston roared, he got out the wand he owned and aimed it at Snape but of course Snape was too quick for Kingston. The two men began to duel as quick as they could. Obviously Kingston hadn't trained enough to fight because he was struggling to block Snape's spells. 

"It's obvious that vampires can't duel, isn't it, Mr Son?" Snape said, his teeth bearing 

"It's obvious that wizards are too soft, isn't it, Mr Snape?" Kingston retorted, "your daughter is going to die and there is nothing you can do about it! She's too weak! Look at her!" 

Snape stopped battling Kingston and looked down at his daughter, or the doe in other words. Her side wound was pouring out blood and not to mention her face too. 

"She'll survive!" Snape hissed, "BUT YOU WON'T!"

"OH YES I WILL!"

The two men began to duel again until Kingston got rather crafty, he had learnt a bit about duelling from his opponent and so he copied his spells. Snape was taken aback by this, but tried his best to hold Kingston back. There was no one to help him so he had to stay strong.

"Kingston, Sir! There is no use!" Ryan protested, "they are too strong! We cannot get the orb!"

"WHY NOT?!" Kingston snapped

"The Worthing is too smart! And plus Lord Zuc is calling us!"

"Nonsense! This is our mission, Ryan!"

"We have a map!"

"The marauders map?"

"We can use that! It's very helpful!"

"Your right! But lets finish off Snape!"

"NO!" Jessica yelled, she ran in between the two men.

"MOVE MISS STONE!" Kingston demanded

"NO! I SHAN'T! LET ME FINISH HIM OFF!" Jessica protested 

"Very well, Jessica, you do the honours..." Kingston stepped out of the way and let Jessica attack Snape 

Jessica pulled out her wand and aimed it at Snape, she stepped forward but fear filled her face and she seemed to be getting paler by the minute. 

"Miss Stone..." Snape said in a panic 

"Expelliarmus!" Jessica had turned around and had attacked Kingston rather than Snape but of course Kingston was too quick, he grabbed Jessica by the hair 

"HOW DARE YOU!" Kingston shouted in her face 

"Leave him! Please!" Jessica whimpered 

"NO!" 

"But Lord Zuc is calling! We must return to him now!" She protested 

"Very well...You might of won this battle, Snape, but you haven't won the war" Kingston hissed 

The three of the disappeared with a small crack and as soon as they did Shona and Lucy returned to human form. 

"YES! I did it! I reversed the hex!" Shona cheered 

"The hex?" Snape frowned 

"Oh, y'know we were animals? I just reversed that but I couldn't get rid of it all..." Shona shook her head 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean that me and Lucy can turn into our animals any time we want! Cool huh? Animaguses without even learning it!" 

"Lucy!" Snape yelled all of a sudden, he rushed over to her and knelt down. Shona stepped over and stood next to Snape 

Snape put a hand on Lucy's cheek. Where Kingston had scratched her it had left three lines, they all stared at the corner of her eye and ended at her jaw line, it looked rather painful. Not to mention her side. 

"That Kingston claw mark is going to leave a scar" Shona tutted 

"That's the best i've ever seen you fight, Lucy" Snape smiled 

"Thanks..." Lucy said weakly, "but please could you get me down to the hospital wing? I don't think I'm going to last much longer" 

"Your second home Lucky!" Shona laughed but a look from Snape hushed her 

Snape scooped her up then walked down to the castle carrying Lucy and Shona trotting alongside. They entered the castle then went straight down to the hospital wing where Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting. 

"Oh my gosh! What happened?!" McGonagall gasped 

"Lucky's finally a fighter! But she's going to have a terrible scar on her face" Shona explained, "oh! And you know that Joshua guy?" 

And so Shona explained to Dumbledore and McGonagall what had happened and they looked horrified but in the meanwhile Madam Pomfrey and Snape did their best efforts to heal Lucy. 

"So those uni students were vampires?" Dumbledore asked Shona 

"Oh yeah! Three of them! And then we battled them!" Shona laughed 

"So you, Lucy and Severus defeated them?" McGonagall questioned 

"Well they're not dead but they've left I can tell you that now" 

"I suppose we better go, leave Miss Snape in peace as well as Mr Weasley who has unfortunately broken his leg" Dumbledore nodded 

"Yeah, fighting bad guys really tires me out!" Shona yawned and ran off to the common room, Dumbledore and McGonagall left without another word which just left Snape and Lucy. 

"How do you feel?" Snape asked the semi conscious Lucy 

"Terrible" Lucy said simply, she sat up and put her hand on the cheek in which had the claw marks on 

"I'm sorry about what you went through tonight" 

"It's OK, at least Kingston and chums are gone" 

"But, Lucy, there's something I have to tell you?" 

"What?" Lucy frowned 

Snape reached into his robe pocket and pulled out the article he had ripped out of the newspaper last year, he handed it to Lucy and she read it. It was about her parents. They had been looking for her. 

"I don't get it" Lucy said 

"Kingston found your parents he did a bit of damage then left them" 

"Best attack Kingston's done yet..." Lucy sniggered 

"Your parents were left in shock but they returned to their home but they still want to find them, I was going to tell you earlier but there was too much going on so I left it" 

"Dad?" Lucy asked, "would you ever give me back to my real parents" 

"Of course not, unless you want me to?" 

"No!" Lucy looked horrified at her fathers suggestion 

"Very well, I shan't. I don't think I could give you back anyway, i'd miss you too much"

"Fair enough!" Lucy laughed, "what are we going to do about this scar?" She ran her fingers over it 

"I'm sorry to say this but you'll have to let it heal..." 

"LET IT HEAL?!" Lucy yelled, "do you expect me to walk around school with a bloody great claw mark on my face!? Now I can lack confidence!" 

"I know, it's going to be horrible but think of it as a mark of bravery not a scar. It will heal eventually just let it take it's time" 

"Alright but I know people are going to make snide comments" 

"People mock what they don't understand" Snape whispered, "and besides you can always tell me also I know McGuire won't go down without a fight even if I do disagree about that" 

"OK, so am I staying here overnight?" 

"I'm afraid you have to I'll see you tomorrow morning. And don't forget that is a mark of bravery not a scar" 

Snape stood up gave Lucy a quick hug then left leaving Lucy to ponder on what Snape had said. She laid down and slept with a smile on her face.