A Woman's Weapon
by Oni Jade

Murder is when a man of sound memory, and of the age of discretion, unlawfully killeth within any country of the realm any reasonable creature in rerum natura under the king’s peace, with malice aforethought, either expressed by the party or implied by the law, so as the party wounded, or hurt die of the wound or hurt within a year and a day after the same.

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The earth parted with a soft moan, revealing a twisting passage into the ground. Five figures clustered around the entrance, the robes and masks they all wore stripping them clean of identity.

"You first," said the first figure, indicating the newly exposed stairs with his wand.

"Of course. I expected nothing less." One of the figures detached itself from the group and began to walk down the stairs. The rest remained, gazing down into the passage with what might have been trepidation.

"Lumos." The descending man turned on the stairs. "If you were apprehensive about returning to your old school you should have spoken sooner. I doubt that our master will be pleased if we return now."

"We are here. Just do your part."

"I have already played my part. I found the passage and dispelled the wards. It is only your own paranoia, Goyle, that led you to request my presence at this point."

"We agreed not to use names here." The speaker glanced around apprehensively. "If Dumbledore…"

Snape brushed aside the objection. "If the headmaster was really aware of everything which occurred within the school, I would not still enjoy the pleasure of your company. In any case, I have made sure that he is currently distracted by other matters. Now – as amusing as this undoubtedly is, may I suggest that we continue, while we still have time?"

With that, Snape turned sharply and began to descend. The Death Eaters followed him.

****************

Snape stopped at the bottom of the passage. Despite the short descent and the chill air, he was sweating heavily. His pulse was too loud in his ears and he had to force back his nerves before continuing. Turning to the large oak door, he crouched down. The other Death Eaters came to a ragged stop behind him.

"Hmmm…" He drew out the monosyllable, enjoying the effect.

"What is it?"

"Fascinating."

"What is it, damn you?"

"It would appear that one of the wards possesses a regenerative component. One sufficiently subtle to have evaded my attention Your paranoia may have been justified after all."

Goyle crouched next to him and stared at the lower part of the door. After a moment, he reached out to touch it with his wand.

"If I might make a suggestion…?" Before Snape could complete the sentence, Goyle snatched his hand back. Snape sneered at him behind the mask. "I doubt it would kill you, but Dumbledore has a tendency to indulge his – shall we say, unique – sense of humour in such things. And you are unlikely to appreciate the joke."

Goyle rubbed his head thoughtfully. It was clear that he realised action was called for, but had no idea what that action might be. Eventually he gave up and turned to Snape. "What do we do?"

"You should do nothing, preferably as quietly as possible. I should examine this ward. It appears to have altered somewhat since I was here last."

Long minutes passed while Snape muttered in Latin at the door. He waited until the others began to fidget. His timing had to be precise: long enough to make them nervous, but not so long that they actually began to think. A remote possibility perhaps, but not a risk he cared to take.

"I believe I have a solution," he began. "The regenerative aspect of the glyph draws on the background magical energy inherent in the school. Once triggered, it is designed to reconstruct the ward in a more complex aspect – a very rare technique, and almost impossible to detect." His voice took on a lecturing tone, intentionally modelled on Professor Binns’ "A most interesting piece of work, actually. There is a foreign influence on the regenerative component, quite similar to something I once encountered in Japan." He put in a Binnsian frown as well – it added to the academic effect. "The core part of the ward, however, is undoubtedly native ..."

"Look here, Snape." Goyle stepped closer, realising too late that such intimidation worked best when deployed against a shorter adversary. Here it just allowed Snape to look down his nose to good effect. "I didn’t ask to be treated like one of your students. Can you get rid of it or not?"

Snape smiled under the mask, knowing that it would give his speech the necessary supercilious tone. "Given the time scale, I believe that it would be wiser for me to temporarily disable it while we pass. Once it is done, I’m afraid you must precede me through the door. I will have to remain in order to maintain my spell. There will be a short passageway. Wait, and I will join you there."

Goyle nodded slowly. "Get on with it, then."

His arms outstretched – the moment required a dramatic touch – Snape began to chant. "Oviuscelo Confusimforis Iam! "

After a few moments, a series of glyphs appeared around the door. They glowed red for a moment, then blue, and finally disappeared. Snape continued to mutter under his breath while drawing intricate patterns in the air with his wand. His free hand ushered his companions forward. Goyle took a deep breath and raising his wand in front of him, opened the door and stepped through. The other Death Eaters fanned out behind him leaving Snape to mutter in the background.

He waited until they were well into the corridor before acting. Still chanting nonsense he sheathed his wand and drew two small glass spheres from a holster concealed on his forearm. Taking a deep breath – and holding it – he tossed the first sphere just ahead of Goyle’s feet. It smashed into shards, the delicate glass membrane fragmenting to release the gas inside.

Snape tossed the second phial into the corridor and closed the door, activating the wards as he did so. The volume of the corridor was approximately 400 cubic feet. The gas would expand rapidly; filling the corridor within seconds. Once that had occurred, those inside would have a only few more seconds of useful consciousness. If one of them possessed quick reflexes and the correct knowledge, there were spells to counteract or avoid poison. It had taken him almost four months of research to be sure that he’d rendered all such measures ineffective.

Despite his confidence in his work, almost twenty minutes passed before Snape opened the door to deal with the bodies. In the unlikely event that anyone was still alive on the other side, he had no intention of facing them while his hands were still shaking.

Notes

The opening quote is the classic definition of murder given by Sir Edward Coke in Institutes of the Laws of England, 1797.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Anna for fighting a valiant battle against my authorial blunders. Her victory over the wrongly used semicolon was the very least of it.