Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Ninety

Have fun with this one :)

Capture the flag lasted thirteen days, resulting in damage to the castle, four students in the hospital wing, and an ugly scar on the back of Silvanna's wrist. In hindsight, she regarded that as her first scar of the war.

The Saturday didn't leave anything interesting, other than the discovery that Silvanna's daggers had landed Severus a night in the hospital wing. When she arrived at the bell towers in the evening, Sirius reported that the Ravenclaw's were in the haunted girls' loos, right down the corridor from them, the Slytherins were in some concealed passage in the dungeons, and the Hufflepuffs were in the kitchens.

"That doesn't sound like it'll be too hard," said Silvanna, frowning.

"No," agreed Sirius, "Except the fact that they've boobytrapped the Dungeons, and the entrance to the loos have disappeared. And the Puffs have got the protection of the house elves." Silvanna thought she knew what house elves were. Slaves or something.

Naturally, Silvanna was interested, so she spent her attack shift the next day trying to get through to the Ravenclaw base, with no luck at all. The full eight hours she threw spells at it, carved Runes, tried everything, to no avail. And the worst part was that now Severus was out of the hospital wing, according to Sirius.

Nothing happened again until Tuesday. Silvanna would give the Ravenclaws full credit for a genius and well-thought-out plan. Only problem was, they hadn't monitored the three Gryffindors closely enough, and thus, mistimed themselves.

It was five in the morning, and Silvanna and Louisa were just waiting for Sirius to arrive so they could do the changeover. The smaller of the two bells struck five, and Sirius came up the stairs, stumbling, out of breath, and still in his pyjamas. "Sorry," he gasped. "Forgot."

"Typical," snorted Louisa. "You can manage here by yourself, no?"

"Yes, I'll-" Sirius began, but he was cut off when a stunning spell flew in through the window. Silvanna dropped to the floor, drawing her wand as she landed with a thud, and watched as Sirius tackled Louisa out the way of another spell.

"It's the Ravenclaws!" he yelled, bobbing up and down and firing spells at the assailants. "They've got brooms!"

"How many?" asked Silvanna. She was all the way across the room, and couldn't safely get to the window. "Louisa?"

"I do not fucking know!" she cried back, also firing out the window. "Five? Or six?"

Well that wasn't right. There definitely weren't that many Ravenclaws in the building. Without first confirming, deciding the changeover had already happened, Silvanna sprinted out the tower and down the stairs to the Transfiguration corridor. Straight across the courtyard, into a classroom, and out a window.

Making sure to stay pressed against the wall, she flew up to the tiny hatch of a window that looked into the second floor toilet. It was empty, and there, pinned to a wall, was the blue banner. Bingo.

It was easy for Silvanna to get in, but much harder for her to actually get to the banner. There were layers and layers of protective spells around it, that would take hours to undo. No wonder they'd left it alone. Merlin, they could just enjoy their holidays with this lot, and come and check on it every hour.

"I always did find Gryffindors, silly," said a voice from behind her. Silvanna turned to see Moaning Myrtle, the ghost she'd been warned about throughout her entire time here.

"Hello," said Silvanna politely, turning back to the banner, trying to ignore her.

"You're friends with Sirius Black, aren't you?" said Myrtle floating so she blocked Silvanna's view. Well, blocked was one word for it. Hindered.

"Mm-hm."

"I wish he'd come instead."

"That's nice," said Silvanna. "He might come and thank you if you help me out with this."

"Do you think?" asked Myrtle with a giggle. Silvanna nodded, her mind still whirring. "In that case - there's a way they've set it up so that they can get in and out quickly."

"What kind of way?" pushed Silvanna, frowning.

"A switch," said Myrtle simply. "A password."

"Brilliant," said Silvanna, rolling her eyes. That could be anything with a Ravenclaw's creativity. Probably wasn't even a real word. "Can I have a clue?"

"Hmm," said Myrtle thoughtfully. "It's to do with quidditch. And Sirius Black." But Sirius didn't play quidditch...

"James Potter?" Silvanna suggested. The magic before her shimmered but remained put. "OK...James Potter is good at quidditch...James Potter has nice hair...James Potter is in love with Lily Evans?" The last one seemed the best. "James Potter is...amazing...James Potter is...fit?" With a. light pop, the magic all disappeared. "Oh for fuck's sake!"

"You don't think so?" asked Myrtle.

"No, I do not," said Silvanna. But nevertheless, now the Gryffindors had two banners.

Louisa had wanted to keep them separate. Sirius had wanted to celebrate. Silvanna wanted both, but saw that neither was practical. "Oh," said Silvanna, as she hung it up and began casting protections. "The ghost in the second floor girls loos wants to fuck you."

Apparently, the news that someone had taken the Ravenclaw flag spread quickly, because the Wednesday brought another attack on the bell tower. A historical one, arguably.

The Slytherins had taken the idea from the Ravenclaws, but with the idea of go big or go home. It was less capture the flag, and more attempted murder. And Silvanna had never been so plainly terrified in her life.

It had been fine. It had been quiet. It was the morning, about eight or nine o'clock, and Silvanna had been there for a few hours or so. The birds had been twittering away, and the air coming from a crack in the wall was chilly but fresh. The sky was a pale blue, almost white, and completely devoid of any clouds. It had been a beautiful morning.

And then the tower shook, and Silvanna felt herself falling through the air. Something hit her leg, her back, her neck. Something heavy and solid. All she could hear was a deafening roar of some kind. And then she was still again. Her head was pounding, every part of her body ached and cried. Now she could see the sky above her, but it was streaked with mucky black, and the birds no longer tweeted but screeched, like they were the ones that needed help.

Although confused, Silvanna tried to gather her mind. What did she know? The tower had fallen. Suddenly. There was the smell of acrid smoke hanging in the air. Someone had knocked the tower down. Someone had attacked the tower.

She could hear the crumbling of rocks a few metres from her. There was someone there. Somebody had almost killed Silvanna, and now they were looking for those fucking banners. And the only thing that crossed her mind was, not a chance in hell.

She had her wand. They didn't know where she was. And within moments, the two Slytherins had the full body bind placed on them.