Thursday, January 15
"Point me Harry Potter," Severus hissed at his wand, following it as it had him turn down another damn abandoned corridor.
The brat was impossible to find at present time.
He was moving quickly, quietly, and furtively; a man on a mission it seemed.
"I am trying to help you, you god damned imbecile," Severus snarled to the air.
He would not assist Harry on what he was certain was a murder mission, but he could teach the child a few difficult to trace curses before he drug Goyle to the Headmaster's office by his hair.
It could be a bonding exercise.
The two of them could torture the mother fucking, god damned, idiot who left Granger to bleed to death in an abandoned classroom together.
It had been mere luck that led the Bloody Baron to find the girl and alert Severus of her place before she bled out on the stone floor.
And it had been the most horrifically unlucky experience of Severus' life, levitating a topless, unconscious, bloody, teenage girl to the Hospital Wing for rapid treatment.
It had also, admittedly, been a bit more luck that Severus had taken to carrying Harry's priceless Invisibility Cloak with him at all times, having built up a small amount of paranoia about losing one of the three items he counted on to save the child's life, which meant Severus was able to give Granger a quick and invisible trip to the Hospital Wing with no student the wiser.
Then bad luck once more, as Minerva called for Severus and he arrived in the Hospital Wing to find all of Harry's friends, sans Harry, surrounding a wide-awake and teary eyed Granger.
"She knows who did it," Minerva told him, fury lighting her face. "Gregory Goyle. Go get him, bring him to Albus' office. I'll call for the aurors."
Severus had looked around the others surrounding Granger and quirked a brow at Bones as he realized why the cloak had been abruptly summoned from his person less than an hour ago. "I presume I am racing against Harry?"
"You are," Bones said, her voice hard and unfeeling. She tightened her arm around Granger's shoulder and glanced at her before glaring at Severus. "And I hope he fucking wins, sir."
And thus, Severus' morning of searching for Goyle, searching for Harry, had began.
It was nearly dinner time, and Severus was no closer to finding the damned brat than he had been when he started.
Goyle was also missing, much to Severus' chagrin.
Severus tore the Slytherin rooms apart from top to bottom, neither boy was there.
They were not in any of the classrooms when Severus searched them.
Neither boy attended any of their classes.
The teachers had not seen them.
The students were clueless.
The ghosts promised to inform Severus if they saw either student.
When Severus continued his search throughout the dinner meal, Albus approached him, flanked by Shacklebolt and a female auror by the name of Joan Foster.
"Have you found Gregory Goyle?" Albus asked, his blue eyes covered with ice and his voice fearsome.
"I have not," Severus admitted. "I am unsure if he is still on Hogwarts grounds, he may have fled."
"I believe he is still on the grounds," Albus said vaguely, no doubt referencing one of the many tools the Headmaster of Hogwarts had at their disposal to protect the students. "Aurors Shacklebolt and Foster are going to search, as well as the other professors. I'm going to keep the students in the Great Hall until he is found. I want him out of my castle and in custody, immediately."
There were not many reasons left to respect Albus, but with the cold chill that he emitted with his words, Severus felt a small amount remind him that Albus, at least, would never allow such a heinous crime to go unpunished.
As long as the victim was sympathetic, as Granger was and Severus had not been when Black nearly killed him as a boy.
"Is Granger still in the Hospital Wing?" Severus asked Albus as Shacklebolt and Foster took off immediately with their wands held aloft.
"She is," Albus said, pity softening his words. "As are her friends, aside from Harry, who failed to appear at his morning classes."
Severus hummed noncommittally.
"Severus." Severus turned and met Albus' solemn eyes and grave face. "Find them before the aurors do."
Severus understood this to be as much of an apology for his past actions as Albus would give.
He accepted it at face value as he fled to quickly find Harry before he killed the boy and was arrested.
Severus rounded the corner and quickly thought of Harry, bright eyed and out of his mind high as he told Severus he loved him.
"Expecto Patronum." Severus eyed the fox for a moment as he formulated a careful message. "There are aurors in the school, allow me to assist you." He sent Harry his third message of the day and attempted to put himself in Harry's mindset.
If he were a furious sixteen year old boy with unspeakable levels of magical power on a mission to kill another sixteen year old boy, where would he go?
'If I killed Finnigan, I would have put him in the Room of Secrets or Slytherin's Chamber.'
As the aurors had taken the staircase to the upper floors that held the Room of Secrets, Severus ran quickly towards the girls restroom that hid the entrance to Slytherin's Chamber.
He turned in to a new corridor and ran straight in to Black, knocking the man on his backside.
"Watch where you're going," Black scowled as he jumped to his feet and brushed his robes off quickly.
"I am in a hurry," Severus hissed. "Do you know where your godson is?"
"No, and I keep trying to summon the damn map and it isn't relinquishing itself to me," Black said with furrowed brows. "Apparently it likes Harry."
Severus had no idea what that was meant to mean, and he had no time to decipher it.
"Come," Severus said curtly, resuming his quick stride towards the restroom. "I may know where Harry is."
"I saw Kingsley on the third floor, are they looking for Goyle or Harry?" Black asked, keeping pace easily with Severus.
"Technically, Goyle. Though I believe it is one and the same at present," Severus murmured, conscious of the portraits on the walls. He lingered outside of the restroom long enough to knock and announce his presence before slowly entering the room and releasing a breath at its emptiness.
"Over here," Severus said. He moved to the sink with the serpent engraving on the tap and stared hard at it. He drew up his many, many, memories of Harry cursing in Parsletongue and attempted to mimic the noise.
"What the fuck was that?" Black chuckled. "Harry doesn't sound like that."
"Be my guest then," Severus scowled. He stepped aside and allowed Black to approach. Black took a deep breath then let out a smooth hiss that ultimately did nothing.
"Excellent," Severus drawled. "Truly, I am certain that is exactly how Harry sounds."
"Why is he so damn impulsive?" Black growled, stepping away and running his hands through his hair. "God damnit, James. You bastard."
Severus gave Black an interested look.
"Harry's got too much of James in him, and James isn't even here to appreciate the karma of it."
"Indeed," Severus agreed. He made another few, poor, attempts to open the chamber entrance before conceding in defeat. "We need—"
Imbecile.
"Mavis!"
Mavis appeared nearly instantly, his yellow eyes alert and his green robes, the only thing marking him outside of the Hogwarts elves, were pressed nearly.
"Mister Snoop is needing Mavis?" he squeaked.
"Can you take us in the Chamber?" Severus asked quickly. "Or go ensure that Harry is not in there?"
"Mavis can take Mister Snoop... but Mavis should not be taking Mister Mutt..." he said slowly, eyeing Black carefully. "Master Harry will not be wanting Mister Mutt is his nasty snake chamber."
"Fine," Black said, apparently unbothered. "Just—,"
Black fell silent as a silver lynx flew through the walls of the restroom and landed before him.
"We found Gregory Goyle, meet us in Albus' office."
Black's eyes flew to Severus' and they shared a horrifying moment where they seemed to be thinking the same thing:
That sounded ominous.
"We found Gregory Goyle on the seventh floor," Albus said solemnly after Severus and Black made it from the entrance to the chamber up to his office. "He's dead."
Fuck, Severus thought.
"Fuck," Black breathed.
Apparently Harry found Goyle before Severus found either of them.
"Where is he?" Black asked sharply as the fire flared green and Foster and Shacklebolt stepped out.
Severus knew he likely meant Harry, but Albus responded as if he meant Goyle.
"St Mungo's," Albus said. "They are attempting to contact his mother now."
Severus had a terrible feeling in his stomach at the two aurors continued presence.
"How did he die?" Severus asked evenly.
Please be the killing curse.
They could never convict Severus' child with his immense talent for wandless magic if it had been the killing curse.
"Goyle was killed in the same manner as Bellatrix Lestrange," Shacklebolt said, his deep voice somber as if this were a tragedy rather than another disgusting soul removed from the earth. "Shot twice in the chest."
Oh thank God.
The Wizengamot, as of last May when Amelia checked on Severus' behalf, did not recognize murder with a muggle gun to be a crime.
"Finally understood what those metal bits are then?" Black scoffed.
"I do," Shacklebolt said. "And we believe we know who shot him."
"And?" Black sneered, remarkably resembling Regulus in the moment—
Had Severus told Black the details about his brothers death? He meant to do that at some point.
"It isn't a crime, and I say good riddance, personally," Black said.
Foster's lips twitched, as if she wanted to smile, which sent a cold chill down Severus' spine.
"It is a crime, and it now carries a life sentence in Azkaban," she said coolly. She pulled a parchment from her pocket and slapped it on Albus' desk. "Welcome to 1996, gentlemen."
Severus watched as Albus quickly snatched the parchment and read it over. His stomach sank as Albus seemed to grow older before his very eyes.
"We all know who did it," Shacklebolt said, his deep voice feeling much like sandpaper in Severus' mind. "We need Potter."
"The fuck you do," Black snapped. "Go fuck yourself, Kingsley. You've got no proof it was Harry."
"Do you have proof it wasn't?" Foster asked Black, her eyes glittering with malice.
"I don't think the defense carries the burden of proof," Black quipped with a sarcastic drawl. "If you want to talk to Harry, you'll only be doing it with a fucking warrant."
"Which we have," Shacklebolt said evenly, withdrawing his own parchment and placing it on Albus' desk.
Severus snatched it and read it quickly. It was a true warrant for Harry's arrest on suspicion of murder. It gave them complete legal backing to arrest and interrogate Harry.
And... and it was rather quickly obtained on no true evidence.
"Sirius, I'm sorry," Shacklebolt said. "I know you care for the boy, but even you must see he's gone too far. I've warned you this would happen. We need to take him in for questioning."
Severus ignored Black's heated response in favor of looking to Albus. Albus tried to kill Harry, he was undoubtedly planning Harry's death in some small corner of his expansive mind, but...
But would he allow them to arrest Harry?
Did he even have the power to protect him?
Did anyone have the power to protect him?
Albus had never looked so old, so tired, so fucking useless, as he did in that moment. His blue eyes swung to Severus' and Severus felt a brief brush against his barriers.
It felt much like an apology.
Do not, Severus thought back, staring hard in to Albus' eyes. Do not. Do not. Do not.
Albus sighed and removed his glasses to rub his eyes for a long moment before he replaced his glasses and shook his head slowly at Severus. "Severus, call for Harry, please."
Severus let a single brow express the likelihood of that scenario happening.
"Sirius, would you send a message to Harry, ask him to come here, please?" Albus said quietly, his eyes still boring sadly in to Severus'.
"No."
It was only the sound of Black's voice— insolent, disdainful, angry— that broke Severus' gaze at Albus.
No?
Black now had his wand out, pointed at Shacklebolt and Foster both, even as his hand trembled lightly with either anger or fear. His eyes looked as mad as they had on the day he had been exonerated from Azkaban, and his lips were twisted in a furious snarl.
Severus never truly thought the day would come, but he too flicked his wand to his hand and pointed it at the aurors as he stepped up, shoulder to shoulder, beside Black.
"Boys, plea—"
"I am not your fucking boy, and you are not arresting Harry," Black snarled, his words aimed at Albus, but his eyes locked on Shacklebolt. "I did it. I shot that kid. I killed him."
"You didn't," Albus said softly. "Sirius, summon Harry and let us sort it out without making matters worse."
"I did it," Severus said. He raised his chin and looked down his nose at Shacklebolt. "Goyle attacked Granger and I shot him in retaliation."
'Arrest me if you dare' was left unsaid.
"Shut the fuck up, Snape," Black sneered. "You didn't do it because you were here taking care of Harry. I shot that kid. He was a scummy ass piece of human waste and I killed him. I'll accept my award and my cell now," he told the aurors with an arrogant lilt to his voice.
Severus, unwillingly and with an extreme level of resentment, felt respect for Black welling inside him. He had always known, since the day Harry threw a knife at Black and intended to murder him and Black merely told him how much he loved him, that Black would take a curse for Harry.
It was his only redeeming quality.
And, yet, it was somehow infinitely more profound that Black would take the fall for Harry's crime and throw himself back in Azkaban as an innocent man once more.
Severus also missed Nymphadora so strongly that it felt like a wave rocking in to his body.
She would have accepted Black's false confession and arrested him on the spot.
"We'll take you in too then," Foster told Black with a placidity to her words that was undermined by her cold eyes.
Severus gripped his wand tightly, preparing to defend Black from any advances (another situation he never envisioned being placed in, courtesy of god damned Harry Potter) and felt a small shiver of magic behind him, followed by the warmth that implied the presence of a patronus.
"Harry, Severus and Sirius are in my office and they need you. If you wouldn't mind, my password is sugar floss."
Severus wouldn't close his eyes, as certain as he had been that Black was inching ever so closely to being arrested, but he wanted to.
"That was purposely vague," he snarled at Albus, his wand arm twitching with the desire to point his wand at the old man instead.
"He would not come otherwise, and I will not have two of my professors arrested for false confessions," Albus said calmly.
"IT ISN'T FALSE!" Black yelled, spittle flying from his mouth as he spun his head around to glare at Albus. "YOU ARE NOT TAKING HARRY TO- TO AZKABAN!"
"We aren't, Sirius, calm yourself," Shacklebolt said slowly as he pulled his wand out. "We are taking him to the Ministry where he will be interrogated with Veritaserum. If he is innocent," Shacklebolt's expression did not change, but there was a twang to the word 'innocent' that conveyed his belief in it, "then he will be immediately returned with our full apologies. If he isn't, he'll stay in the holding cells until his trial." Shacklebolt gave Sirius a sympathetic look and added in a murmur, "I would find a good barrister."
Black was as unconvinced by Shacklebolt's words as Severus was. Harry would be treated fairly by the new DMLE Head who Nymphadora believes to either be on the Dark Lord's side or a sympathizer at a minimum?
Doubtful.
"Oh yeah, planning on following the rules this time?" Black sneered. "Sure he's not just going to be tossed in Azkaban on a bunch of circumstantial evidence without a fucking trial?"
"Sirius, see reason," Albus said. He got to his feet and Black's wand moved, like a magnet, to point at his chest. Albus held his empty hands up placatingly. "An egregious wrong was done once before, we will not allow it to be done again. They will take Harry for questioning—" Black snarled at the words, "—and he will be given an opportunity for a trial."
"He's a minor," Severus croaked. He cleared his throat and said it again. "Harry is a minor. He cannot be taken for questioning without a parent or guardian. I will go with him."
And he would undoubtedly have to break Harry out of the Ministry once he confessed.
"He's being accused of a capital crime," Foster sneered, "that negates his youth. He doesn't get daddy to come hold his hand."
Black's wand flew back to Foster.
The poor man truly had no idea which person in the room he wanted to hurt first.
Severus could surprisingly sympathize.
Yet, when Shacklebolt's hand moved to his pocket once more, Severus was certain that he would be the bigger threat of the two.
"Severus, Sirius, do not make this worse." Shacklebolt pulled a pair of navy blue magic suppression handcuffs from his pocket. "We do not want to take you all three in."
Black let out a hysterical laugh, but then they all immediately fell silent as one of the silver trinkets on Albus' desk lit up yellow and they all heard as Harry told the gargoyle guardians the password to enter.
Shacklebolt's dark eyes moved to Severus'. "Severus, tell Harry to come with us without a fight and then you go get him a barrister to meet us at the ministry. I will wait one hour to begin interrogations."
Severus and Black shared a brief look, Severus brushed the edges of his mind as his eyes seemed to be instructing him to do, and Black's question was loud and clear:
'Are we fighting them?'
We cannot apparate on Hogwarts grounds, Severus sent back to him. We get a barrister, we arrive for interrogations, then we fight if there are no legal revenues to save him.
Black's arm dropped as Severus' did a moment before there was a light knock on Albus' office door.
"Enter," Albus called neutrally as he remained standing.
Everyone turned as one as Harry slowly opened the door and edged inside. Harry left the door open behind him as he took in the tense postures of the five adults within the room.
"Professor Snape, what's going on?" Harry asked. He stuck his hands in his pockets, a casual gesture to the others, an immediate sign of stress to Severus, and remained in the open doorway.
"We found Gregory Goyle," Shacklebolt told him in his deep and soothing voice. A soothing voice that did nothing to relax any of the occupants of the office. "We need you to come with us."
Harry scoffed, and Severus saw his shoulder muscles tighten. "Why?"
"Because he's dead," Foster said. "And we have a warrant for your arrest."
"What the—" Harry slipped in to Parsletongue as his eyes flicked between Foster, Shacklebolt, and Albus. "He's dead? How?!"
Did Harry not mean to kill him or was he simply acting for the benefit of the aurors? If it was an accident, perhaps they could get Harry out of this without having to outright duel the DMLE and taking Harry on the run.
Black seemed to be thinking the same as Severus, because Severus saw his stance relax minutely out of the corner of his eye.
"Pup, don't say anything," Black said. He walked quickly over to Harry and reached out for his shoulder, which Harry wrenched away as he took note of the handcuffs in Shacklebolt's hands and rapidly paled. "Don't say a single word right now, okay?"
"But I didn't kill him," Harry said. He looked up at Shacklebolt before turning to Foster, as if believing she would be the more sympathetic of the two.
Which she would not. Foster had once been a follower of the Dark Lord who was set free under cries of 'imperius'. She was likely just as unsympathetic as Shacklebolt, who followed Albus so closely and despised Harry so strongly.
"Then you can come with us, answer our questions under Veritaserum, and we'll clear this whole thing up," Foster said kindly, slipping easily in to 'good cop' as she undoubtedly picked up on Harry's blatant dislike of Shacklebolt.
"Or I can answer questions here," Harry sneered, too intelligent and cunning to fall for her act. He looked from the aurors to Severus. "Can't I?"
He could not.
If they had a warrant, then they had every law supporting their choice to take Harry to the ministry for interrogation.
"Harry." Severus stepped up to him and put both hands on his shoulders, ducking down to look in his face. "Go with them," he said quickly and quietly. "Do not fight them. I will meet you there in less than 60 minutes with a barrister. Do not accept Veritaserum until then. Do not speak until then. Cooperate. Do you understand?"
Do not make this worse, is what he desperately said with his eyes. Do not make it worse until I see if I can fix this first.
He should have been surprised, but he was not when he felt a tingle of Harry's magic invade his mind and knock lightly at his barriers.
I didn't kill him.
It was an accident?
I didn't fucking kill him.
Severus blinked and Harry's very agitated presence was gone from his mind.
Did Harry believe that Severus would not get him out of this, somehow, if he admitted to it? Did he believe that Severus would at any point accept Veritaserum for any reason? Because he would not. Severus would likely not have killed Goyle, had he found him before Harry did, but he didn't begrudge the child for this murder either.
He desperately wished that Harry would have hidden the damned body, but he was not displeased that Goyle was dead.
Foster took the handcuffs from Shacklebolt and stepped up as Severus straightened himself.
"Harry James Potter, you are under arrest for the murder of Gregory Goyle."
Harry's entire body went rigid as he frantically looked between Severus and Black.
"I didn't do it," Harry said desperately. "Sev, please, please."
"Pup, go," Black whispered in a choked voice. "Snape'll meet you there. I'll get the barrister and be there within an hour."
Harry's hand came out of his pocket, and Severus saw a brief glint of his knife, before he quickly reached out and wrapped his hand around Harry's wrist, keeping his hand and weapon in his pocket. He shook his head at Harry briefly as he looked up at him.
Cooperate for now. I will get you out of this somehow.
Harry didn't whimper, as his eyes frantically flicked towards the handcuffs, but it was a closely related noise.
"Come with me and we'll get this sorted out," Foster said gently, causing Severus and Black both to bare their teeth at her blatant manipulation. "These are just a new formality," she said, holding up the handcuffs and causing Harry, Harry with his long-held, deeply rooted, and fairly earned fear of police, to visibly flinch. "We don't want anyone else to transform in to a rat and disappear, do we?" she smiled and winked.
Harry looked up to Severus and Black once more and found no empty assurances. His eyes shuttered and his abject terror was instantly replaced with a cold look in his eyes and a blank mask of boredom.
"My animagus wouldn't be a rat," Harry sneered at Foster. "Can I send a message to someone first, or do I get no fucking rights at all?"
"He may," Albus said, speaking up for the first time since Harry entered his office. "Harry, send your message."
Harry did not respond to Albus, he instead withdrew his left hand from his pocket and turned just slightly away from Foster and summoned his patronus.
"I'm twelve, but with less help," Harry said quietly to his 'devil ghost'. "Figure it out." He twitched his hand again and they watched as the Tasmanian Devil scampered quickly through the walls, undoubtedly to Bones or Nott to convey the message so convoluted that Severus himself could not unravel it.
The 'I'm twelve' was simple enough. Harry was once more being removed from Hogwarts, but Severus could not decipher what he meant by 'with less help'.
Harry turned back to Foster and thrust his chin out with an air of arrogance and defiance. "I suppose I'm being expelled again, huh?"
"No," Albus said firmly from behind his desk, startling Harry and Severus both with his stern response. "Not unless you are convicted. Until then, you are on a temporary leave and free to return as soon as you are able."
Harry snorted and his eyes glanced down towards the magical cuffs quickly before he clenched his jaw and slowly held his empty hands out in front of them.
"You're getting a barrister?" he asked Black.
"I am."
Harry looked over at Severus, and Severus thought he saw a flash of betrayal in his eyes.
As if Severus could keep them from taking him to the Ministry at present moment.
We cannot apparate inside the school, he mentally pushed towards Harry. Cooperate. Get the handcuffs removed. Then we flee.
Harry curled his upper lip up at Severus, blatantly furious. His voice was soft despite that fury, betraying his fear. "You- you'll follow right behind me?"
"I will," Severus swore. He raised a brow at Shacklebolt, "I suppose I am floo'ing to your office?"
"The visitors entrance," Foster cut in before Shacklebolt could reply. "Sign in and meet us in the holding area. One of us will come get you to bring you back to Harry's interrogation room. He'll have to wait outside," she told Harry, "you're being arrested for murder, and you're nearly seventeen. You don't get a guardian in the room, only a barrister if you want one."
Harry bit his lower lip and nodded curtly.
And then, in a moment that Severus always feared would come to pass, yet he prayed would not:
Harry was arrested.
***
Severus was pacing the length of the Ministry corridor that held the locked entrance that would lead to the corridor with the holding cells and interrogation rooms.
It had been 32 minutes.
Where the hell was Black?
Severus knew the Hit Wizards watching him pace were greatly amused. Blue Ritters had a pained grimace on his face though, his own eyes watching the clock as closely as Severus' were.
In twenty six minutes they would begin interrogating Harry.
Severus paced and watched the clock.
Twenty three minutes.
Eighteen.
At fourteen minutes, a man came striding confidently down the corridor towards Severus. He was tall, wore crisp black robes that likely cost more than Severus made on a Professor's salary, and had neatly combed salt and pepper hair.
"Severus Snape," the man offered his hand, "Barrister Darrow. I've been retained on Mister Potter's behalf by Sirius Black."
"Where is Black?" Severus asked as he briefly shook the man's hand. The man glanced at the ministry staff watching them then stared intently at him, his hazel eyes burning in to Severus'.
Severus barely withheld a sigh as he lightly legilimized the man.
Couldn't find a lawyer that would take on his case in the 'current political climate'. Borrowed some hair from a muggle. I'm going in, if he confesses under Veritaserum, I'm apparating him to Invisibility Way and killing anyone who tries to stop me. If I'm not back out here in less than an hour, go there. We'll meet you there.
Apparently, barristers were the scum of the earth, as cowardly as lambs, and Black possessed much more cunning than Severus ever credited him with.
"I advised him to remain at home," Black said smoothly, showing no interruption in their conversation. He looked over his shoulder towards the watching staff and raised a brow elegantly. "I presume one of you can show me to my client?"
"I can," Ritters offered immediately. "Come with me, Mister Darrow."
Severus watched as Black strutted away with Ritters, straight through the door he was unable to pass through.
Why had he not considered polyjuice?
Aah. Because Black had more experience in both subterfuge and the ways of the law than Severus had.
Obviously.
Severus resumed his agitated pacing, idly planning as he did.
He would have to retrieve Theodore, Lovegood, and Bones at some point, if they were to leave. Theodore and Lovegood were his wards, and Severus swore to Nymphadora that he would keep an eye on Bones for her while she completed her mission for him.
... would taking Bones on the run out of the country be considered good caretaking or would it be better to leave her at Hogwarts?
Harry would never go without her. So Bones would go.
Severus was considering the best places to take the child to hide, debating on how to get out of the country with the least amount of fighting, when Black and Ritters came storming back out.
Even under polyjuice, Black's eyes conveyed his identity through their sheer madness and rage.
Severus imagined only something terrible could cause Black to return so quickly, without Harry.
Sure enough...
"He's gone," Black said, his voice harsh with rage and... and fear, Severus had been certain of it.
"Gone?" Severus echoed. "Gone where?"
"Azkaban," Ritters said flatly as Black seemed unable to speak. "Thicknesse ordered him to be sent to Azkaban, pending his trial."
Severus closed his eyes and felt his entire body freeze. "Repeat yourself," he said softly. "Where the fuck did you say my child is at?!"