Re: Snape, Rosier Sr & Various DEs
Severus had been waiting for the alert ever since he'd received Granger's warning. The rush of adrenaline it had sent through him had set him almost painfully on edge, and at every twinge or itch he threw back his sleeve, ready to leap up the instant the Mark called him to action. It was finally happening - he was so tired of being patient - and he couldn't wait until it was all set into motion, until the moment the Dark Lord realized the trap he'd been set. Severus wanted to see it, which was foolish. The next half hour dragged on interminably, rivaling the seventeen years that had come before in sheer frustration. There was one small, nagging doubt - Potter has to die - that threatened to taint his anticipation, but he made himself believe it was unimportant. If that was what was required, so be it. Potter wasn't her. All that mattered now was that her murderer was finally about to die, to stay dead, and, he fervently hoped, realize exactly at whose hands he was meeting his demise.
When the summons came, he went immediately to the Main Hall, hearing already the sounds of increasing disorder in the corridors. He made a rough calculation of the match-up between the Order and the Death Eaters who had arrived - there were few enough students he thought warranted factoring in at all - but dismissed the result as ultimately irrelevant. When the Dark Lord met his end, his minions would scatter anyhow. The elder Rosier hailed him from where he was feebly stalking the center of the room. Severus joined him, holding his wand at the ready.
"Potter is here," Rosier said in his creaking voice, as though he didn't already know. "The Dark Lord is on his way, and -"
"He'll get what's coming to him, yes," Severus interrupted with a casual wave of his hand. "Excellent."
Rosier floundered for a moment. "I - the boy, yes, quite -"
"Not the boy, you doddering idiot. That bumptious reptile who's scared so witless of dying he's convinced himself of something every five year-old knows isn't -"
Someone nearby gave an indignant curse; Severus was speaking loudly enough for nearly everyone to hear, but he didn't care. All the better.
"I hope he arrives soon," he continued. "The Order of the Phoenix ought to be here any moment, and I would like for some of you to see him get his due before you all become puddles in the hallway. It's a moment some seventeen years in the making - but I suppose he'll be keeping well to rear, as usual."
Rosier had finally drawn his wand. "You would dare -"
"Yes. He'll learn he can't prance around killing anyone he pleases. A lighter sentence than he deserves," he said into the increasingly dangerous silence, "for murdering someone worth more than the whole miserable lot of you."
"All traitors and m-"
Severus' wand snapped up to the man's chest. "Avada Kedavra." There was a quick flash of green, and he watched as Rosier collapsed into a pile at his feet - another old man. He felt nothing at all, this time, and half expected never to feel anything again, which might not have been so terrible - but then the screaming started, the alarm announcing that the students had disappeared. If he could get out in time, perhaps he wouldn't be too late to see this out to its end.