Retaliation

A/N: Okay, I have been wanting to write this chapter since I started this story. Squeee! I hope you enjoy it!

With the killing curse on the tip of his tongue, Snape reached into his pocket for his wand. With a smooth, fluidic motion, he was holding Albus Dumbledore at wand point. Before he was able to cast the curse, his wand was snatched out of his white-knuckled grip, and his body slammed into a wall of shelves where several books and trinkets toppled onto his head and shoulders.

Snape moaned as his surroundings came back into focus. He rolled his neck to the side, cracking the bones before he stood on weak legs, snarling at his audience.

Lupin stepped forward, his wand jutting out in front of his body.

"No, Remus! Stay where you are. Let me deal with him. For now," Dumbledore instructed.

"Deal with me, old man? Your powers are useless against my own. Do you not remember training me to be your secret weapon?" Snape slowly crept away from the wall, keeping his eyes locked on his prey. In his most perfect Dumbledore impersonation he mockingly said, "No, Severus! Control yourself and focus--you'll never master Legilimency and be able to conquer Voldemort without it!" Snape took a breath and continued, "Get off your knees and do it again, Severus; ancient magic isn't as easy as today's! You will practice all night until you get it!"

"Severus--"

"Or how about when you dueled me? Remember that? I do! I loathed you for making me feel so weak as I fell to the ground, sniveling like the child I used to be! 'Get up, Severus! How will you ever face Voldemort if you are crying at his feet? Bury your pain, stand up and face me!'"

"Severus, please--"

"NO! You used me for too long, Dumbledore. Just like Voldemort. Just like my father!"

Everything Snape remembered of his father, the hatred he had of Dumbledore and Voldemort and any other person who ever wronged him, flooded his mind as a strong wave of magic, dangerous magic, boiled to the surface where Snape couldn't, and didn't want to, contain it any longer.

Aiming his wand directly at Dumbledore, Snape released the restraints on the unstable magic, violently shaking as his powers erupted from him.

Panic rushed through Hermione as soon as the Portkey Dumbledore had given her activated, bringing with it the horrible and familiar feeling of being tugged from behind her navel.

Nausea swept through her as she roughly landed on her knees, skidding across the brick footpath, grunting in pain. She ignored the warm blood that trickled down her knees as she pushed herself off the ground, standing on weak legs and surveying the structure in front of her.

A small, cottage-like home was hidden behind a wall of ivy and a canopy of trees, the cobblestone chimney the only area that wasn't covered in greenery. A faint, yellow flicker danced behind the curtain in the picture window, catching Hermione's eye. She froze in her tracks, waiting for someone, or something, to jump from the shadows, her ragged breathing the only sound that reverberated through the dark night.

Where am I?

After several intense moments in the silence, Hermione decided that she couldn't stand in front of the house forever. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward, the key weighing heavily in her hand. She knew it unlocked the door, and that she was supposed to go inside, but walking blindly into a strange location was dangerous and stupid.

However, Dumbledore had given her this key, and he had arranged for her to be Portkeyed from the situation in the office. She trusted Dumbledore.

Snape's highly volatile magic jolted out of him in multiple jets of light, each of them directed at the man opposite him. But instead of hitting Dumbledore, a glass-like wall reflected the magic, directing it back towards Snape, who instantly took flight, barely dodging out of the way of the deadly beams. The magic burst through the castle walls, exploding the heavy oak door into tiny splinters and dust, leaving a gaping hole and a pile of stone rubble.

Silence filled the room as Lupin and McGonagall stared at the destruction. Snape softly landed on the ground, his eyes still locked on Dumbledore's blue ones. The raging loss of control that he had felt only seconds before obliterating half of the headmaster's office was now filled with confidence and an authority he had never known. Finally, after years of practice, dedication, and education, he had confirmed what he had known all along: Snape would be the only person in the wizarding world who could defeat Albus Dumbledore. Voldemort, who had a single-track mind and used only Dark magic for his purposes, had nothing on Severus Snape.

"Killing me will not satisfy your thirst for revenge, Severus."

"No, but it's a start."

A rain of fire shot out of Snape's wand, but Dumbledore swirled around and disappeared before it hit him.

Ignoring the other two occupants in the room, who were now standing on guard, putting out the flames he had created, Snape paced around, his wand waving widely in the air.

"You're not fooling me, Dumbledore! Everyone who has ever seen you do this disappearing trick thinks you have the power of invisibility! But I know the truth, and if you don't want me to shower this room in a Muggle pesticide, killing these other two fools in the room, then show yourself!"

A buzzing tickled his left ear, and Snape swatted the air around him. When he was still again, he realized that sitting on the tip of his nose was a tiny bumblebee. Snape stared down at the bee. It was periwinkle-blue with silver sprinkles dusted across the furry body. Snape slowly and carefully lifted the tip of wand towards his nose. As soon as he thought the words to blast the bee into a million of pieces, a prick stabbed through his skin, stinging him. Snape stumbled backward, groaning and holding his nose. "Damn you!"

Dumbledore transfigured out of his Animagus form and quickly whispered something to Lupin and McGonagall as Snape cast a quick Healing Charm on his face. His eyes instantly stopped watering, and Snape noticed that Dumbledore had placed a protective shield in front of the other two.

Snape side-stepped to the left, his wand ready and his mind sharp. Knowing Dumbledore, his next move would be some sort of binding spell. Snape shut out the panicky whispers of the portraits around him, concentrating solely on his next move.

Dumbledore struck first, not surprising Snape one bit. "Incarcerous!"

"Diffindo!" Snape shouted back, his hex shredding the ropes in mid-air, falling uselessly to the ground before him.

"Pathetic, Dumbledore. Potter could do better than that."

"I do not wish to harm you, Severus. Settle down and let's discuss--"

"NO!" Snape frantically waved his wand in front of his face in an almost dance-like motion, and a thundering bang rumbled across the room as a streak of light hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. He stumbled backwards, his mouth opening to shout in pain, but no sound escaped him. Snape grinned, casting another version of the spell before the old man could protect himself. This time, Dumbledore clutched his face, flinging his glasses off the tip of his nose, rubbing his eyes.

"It's about time you used the spells I taught you!" a voice cried out from the right side of the room.

Snape grinned wickedly, glancing at the only other Slytherin in the room. "Touché." Taking away one's senses had been a brilliant curse, but Snape had always preferred to keep that spell hidden for as long as possible.

But now was the best time to use it. Dumbledore's loss of sight and speech affected him, but it wouldn't hold him off for long. Again, Snape cast the third variation of the spell attempting to deafen his opponent.

But Dumbledore's cast a nonverbal Shielding Charm, blocking the magic.

"Remember his hearing senses are heightened, Severus," Phineas bellowed.

Dumbledore stood perfectly still as he used his new found awareness. Snape froze, knowing he was going to have to use nonverbal spells to continue. Before he could cast his favorite Slicing Spell, Dumbledore's hands jolted out in front of him, magical fire spilling out of his upturned palms. A roar filled the room as the fire twisted into thin ropes, launching towards Snape, enclosing him in a cage-like barrier.

The heat around Snape suffocated him, singeing his delicate skin. The horrid smell of burnt hair offended his nostrils. No amount of water would get rid of the fiery hell he was placed in, and no spell he cast removed the barrier, giving Dumbledore time to remove the enchantment Snape had placed on him.

Not having any other option for escape, Snape pointed his wand at the floor beneath his feet. He turned his face to the side as he blasted holes through the stone until it finally crumbled beneath him, his body falling through the floor. Rubble rained onto Snape's head as he took flight, dodging the deadly rocks. As Snape flew around the room, he realized that he was in Dumbledore's private apartment, which happened to be below the office. He noticed a wrought-iron staircase in the corner of the room and used that to head back up to the office, intent on finishing this battle.

When he landed back in the destroyed room, Dumbledore had released the other two from their protective ward. Lupin and McGonagall were repairing the gaping hole Snape had created in the floor as Dumbledore stood in the middle of the room, facing the entrance to his private suite, waiting for Snape to return.

"Enough is enough, Severus," he said as Snape softly landed.

"I agree. These physical attacks on one another are ridiculous." Snape smirked, lightly wiping his arms free of the grey dust that had powdered onto his black attire. He took a single step forward. "I prefer destroying you from inside out. Legilimens!"

Snape painstakingly rammed against the wall of stone that he met in the other man's mind. Dumbledore blocked every attempt Snape made as he tried to break the lock that held Dumbledore's most guarded secrets.

Over and over Dumbledore thwarted him, but Snape pressed on, determined to find the code to unlocking the old man's past. It wasn't until he used physical magic to weaken Dumbledore's concentration that Snape finally found the key to opening the hidden door that housed all Dumbledore's secrets.

Snape burst through, rapidly sorting through every hidden thought, memory, and secret that Dumbledore had filed away. He began pulling them out one by one, causing Dumbledore to relive the most horrifying pains of his life.

When Snape came across Dumbledore's memory of learning that his sister had been brutalized by three Muggles, Snape pounced, using the Dark Magic he had learned from Voldemort to place false images in the Headmaster's mind, forcing the man to believe everything Snape planted, starting with Ariana's gruesome attack.

Ariana screamed for her mother as the three young men ripped the pink satin bow out of her hair, tying her wrists behind her back with it. She squirmed when the taller boy stood behind her, gripping her shoulders and keeping her still while the other squeezed her cheeks, opening her eyelids, poking and prodding her skin, examining the unusual little girl.

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore bellowed, his mind fighting, sending a stream of images back into Snape's. This time, Dumbledore had found the weak stone in Snape's wall, yanking out all the images of his father's abuse.

However, Snape's mind had grown immune to these haunting memories, and he found himself unfazed and even able to retaliate physically, attacking Dumbledore once more.

"Crucio!"

Instantly, Dumbledore fell out of Snape's mind, his old body twitching and convulsing across the ground. As he raised his wand, ready to end the fight, Dumbledore fought against the Unforgivable, using the last of his strength to send a stream of visions into Snape's mind. Images that Snape had never seen before, images that he had actually lived through, and worse, false images of the future, weakening Snape beyond anything he had ever imagined.

Hermione as she ran from a three-headed dog. Hermione using a mirror to peer around a corner, her body frozen by the Basilisk...

Hermione looking out her bedroom window, a devious smile playing across her face as she watched Snape watching her as she fucked the disgustingly handsome man ...

Snape's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees, the shooting pain unnoticed as Dumbledore finished him off.

Not having the strength, or the desire, to fight anymore, Snape succumbed to the horrible images that Dumbledore had been showing him.

Hermione, her life, her very being, had always been his weakness. And now, Dumbledore knew it.

The older man towered over him, his brows creased and his breathing ragged. "Do you love her, boy?" Dumbledore asked, his voice gruff and hoarse.

Hermione's pain, the many times she had been on the edge of death, the thought of her disappearing from his life, overpowered his desire to rid Dumbledore. She was his entire world. The reasoning behind his actions. Did he love her? Love was such a pathetic word for how he felt for Hermione. He had no other reason in the world to live if she wasn't alive--if she wasn't his.

Snape sucked in a jagged breath, attempting to control his emotions. "Y--yes," he mumbled, mortified that he was exposing his vulnerability in front of the others.

Get control of yourself, you sniveling bastard! Show no emotions!

As he wallowed in his self-hatred, unable to gain back the drive to fight, a wicked chuckle abused his ears, taunting him. He glanced at the angry faces that were glaring at him, but no one was laughing.

Snape sighed. Of course.

The Horcrux had finally turned on him. After all the years of loyalty, the fragmented soul had weakened him beyond repair. Even locked behind Dumbledore's wall of magic, the Horcrux had affected them both, playing on their emotions. With a disgusted realization, Snape knew he had made a grave mistake--allowing himself to love Hermione. Because he had, the Horcrux had taken it as the ultimate betrayal. Instead of bestowing his once loyal servant the added strength to conquer his equal, the Horcrux shared its Dark magic with Dumbledore, which allowed him to overpower Snape.

"Albus, don't trust him!" Minerva shouted, interrupting the horrid laugh that plagued Snape's ears.

Snape ignored the remark, his body trembling too hard to react, his heart aching too much to care.

"I don't, Minerva. Except for this. Hermione is his life--his very reason for living. It's the only thing that matters to him."

Snape no longer cared that Dumbledore was still attempting to control him--he had given up. All he wanted was Hermione, safely in his arms. The memory of her falling to her death--all the wrongs he had ever done to her--plagued his mind, haunting him to his very core.

"Bring her back to me," Snape whispered under his breath as the others continued discussing his future. "Bring her back to me."

"Is he having a fit?" Lupin asked, breaking Snape's solemn chant.

Dumbledore kneeled next to Snape and placed his arm on his back. "Ah, Severus, it seems you've kept a secret from me. Perhaps I misjudged you all these years, thinking you immune to the foolish stirrings of affection. But now I see that you will be of great use to us."

"J-just let me have her," he whispered. "Bring her to me."

"You can't be serious, Dumbledore! Don't let him anywhere near Hermione!" Lupin shouted.

"After all the lies and deception, Albus!"

"I am afraid I have done worse to him, Minerva. The only reason I will not turn him over to the Aurors is his capacity to love. It is the one magic that I have always claimed would be the defeat of Voldemort. And it's the only thing that will save Severus from the damage that he is capable of."

"Because of his love for Hermione?" the older witch asked, her voice shaky and full of confusion.

"Exactly. She will not live in a world with Voldemort. Only she has the power to manage him, to keep Severus on our side. I no longer am able to, as you have just witnessed."

Dumbledore sighed. "He's been right the whole time; I am an old fool."

A/N: Thanks to my ass-kicking, get-it-done-right-Shell-or-don't-do-it-at-all beta team. You know who you are. You girls have really made my vision of this chapter come true. Many hugs to Dari_67 for her priceless suggestions regarding taking away one's senses.

Hermione's world turns upside down.