Loving Lily: A Snily Story

Chapter 29 - The Newest Snape

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Severus landed with a soft thud in a vacant, dark part of the unwelcoming Albanian forest.

Lucius's blonde hair glowed strangely among the deep blackness of the dense foliage as he and Severus stared at Yaxley.

"Come on, then!" Yaxley shouted to his friends with a wave and a smile of pure joy, "It isn't far, hurry up! He's waiting for us!"

Severus and Lucius exchanged anxious, incredulous glances as they both followed their comrade through the rugged forest path.

Yaxley had spoken as if there were a simple road that they were able to traverse, but in actuality, their way proved to be treacherous and irritating.

Severus and Lucius brushed stray branches out of their faces as their shoes slipped over the uneven surface created by lumpy ground, broken sticks, and misplaced rocks.

Lucius prepared to shout at Yaxley for sending them on a false errand when they stumbled out into an unexpected clearing.

Yaxley laughed as he ran ahead.

Severus and Lucius stopped to stare up into a tall, bushy tree that stood like an ominous guardian underneath the bright light of the full moon shining in the sky.

The grass seemed almost violet in the moonlight as Severus and Lucius swept through the blades as they continued their quest of following Yaxley to the Dark Lord.

Voldemort's form was so slight and frail that he couldn't be seen from his perch high in the tree, but as Severus and Lucius stopped a short way behind Yaxley and watched him hurriedly whisper into its branches, they knew their journey had come to an end.

Yaxley's frantic, anxious whispers continued for a long moment.

Lucius became bored with waiting.

He looked around the clearing until Severus grabbed his forearm and pointed straight ahead.

There, in the center of the tree's thick bark, a massive snake slithered down.

Lucius and Severus's eyes widened in horror for a moment as they presumed that Voldemort had taken the form of the dangerous animal to summon them for wrathful purposes.

Their fears were partially eased when they noticed that Yaxley paid no attention to the snake as it moved past him, left the tree, and crawled onto the ground.

Severus and Lucius watched the snake as it slithered up to them and raised its huge head.

A bright smile crossed Yaxley's face while the white, floating orb that Voldemort's spirit had become floated down from its wary position in the tree.

"How fortunate I am to have such loyal friends who will come to my aid in this great time of need!" Voldemort's eerie, unmistakable voice croaked from that gossamer sphere.

Severus and Lucius turned away from the snake to stare at the floating orb.

"...........Master?" Lucius blinked.

"My lord?" Severus whispered incredulously as he narrowed his dark eyes.

"It is I, my friends, Lord Voldemort!.....Battered, but alive.......for now!" The floating orb hissed.

As Severus squinted at the ghostly sphere, he found that he could make out the slight features of a face deep inside its wispy folds.

When Lucius glanced back at the snake nervously, Voldemort quickly put his mind at ease as he explained, "I see you've both met Nagini, my newest servant......a Maledictus who's agreed to help me......Listen, my friends, it is of the utmost importance that I find a new body and leave this forsaken place quickly!"