It wasn't hard to convince the Order that he needed more time to develop an effective poison. Most of the members had never even seen a Basilisk or heard of a Horcrux—they had no arguments against it.
Harry, predictably, didn't suspect a thing. He just gave him a quiet, resigned nod, as if to say, 'Of course, it couldn't have been that simple,' which made Severus wonder once again how it was possible that he, of all people in the world, was the Chosen One. Professor McGonagall seemed to have some doubts, but he maintained a determined look, and her concerns eventually dissipated.
Only Professor Slughorn, who must have sensed that something was amiss, gave him a questioning look. For a moment, he feared he was going to ask questions. Eventually, however, he could clearly see on his face the decision to mind his own business.
When they entered his office that morning, Omegas was as happy as he hadn't seen her in weeks.
"I think I'll send Slughorn a fruit basket!" she exclaimed.
Severus gave a hint of a smile. "Pineapple."
"What?"
"Pineapple is his favourite," he remarked.
"Ah," she said cheerfully. "Pineapple, of course!"
She pirouetted around the desk and settled in her usual spot.
"Splendid man. So wonderfully indifferent! All he cares about is his little world of soft armchairs and vintage wine."
She chuckled as she took out the bottle of Animagus Potion she'd left there the previous evening.
"Professor Zakoten is just the same way, you know? Of course, his little world is more about poison cocktails and dead rats, but still…"
Severus' curiosity about the Professor grew every time she mentioned him, which happened at least three times a day. So, seizing her good mood, he finally decided to ask the question.
"What… what is he exactly?"
She turned to him and blinked confusedly. "What is who?"
"Professor Zakoten."
Omegas gave the question a long thought, her cauldron suspended in mid air.
"He's my Professor," she replied.
Severus considered dropping the matter altogether, convinced that she was deflecting. But then he read genuine naivety on her face and decided to press on.
"He's not exactly a man, is he?"
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, he's… he's…"
He met her gaze and struggled to find the appropriate term.
"Odd," he concluded.
She chuckled and looked away dreamily. "Yes, he is, isn't he?" she said fondly. "I had a huge crush on him back at Durmstrang…"
Severus turned to her with a frown and a sarcastic eyebrow raised.
Omegas froze with her ladle in one hand and seemed to suddenly realise what she had said. She bowed her head and blushed furiously.
"I… I've never told anyone," she breathed. She gave him a fleeting look of pure panic. "Forget about it."
She returned to her work without saying another word; a clear indication that the words she had just uttered were not a bizarre joke. That very woman, with her pale skin, raven hair and amethyst eyes, had indeed had a crush on a man who resembled more of a folklore creature than a human being when she was a teenager.
Severus considered pointing out the absurdity of it all, but when he saw her trying to hide her face behind the bottle of Animagus Potion in embarrassment, he changed his mind. He resigned himself to the fact that the mystery of Professor Zakoten's monstrousity would remain unsolved forever.
The morning passed quietly. After at least ten minutes of awkward silence, Omegas seemed to regain her usual composure, and both continued with the day's preparations in their usual quiet.
Around lunchtime, much to Severus' dismay, they were interrupted by a knock on the office door.
"Come in," he said coldly.
The dismay turned to outright bile as Sirius Black took the first step into the room.
"Good morning," he said, a bit too cordially for Severus's liking.
"Good morning," Severus repeated through clenched teeth.
"Good morning!" said Omegas.
"Ah, we're in a good mood!" Sirius remarked, ignoring the look of sheer disgust on Severus' face.
"For now," she replied.
Sirius cautiously approached the desk and placed a large white ceramic jar in front of them.
"What is it?" Severus asked.
"The Mandrake Leaves you asked Professor Sprout for," he replied. "She told me to bring them to you."
Severus looked up at him suspiciously. He took the jar, opened it and pulled out a few gnarled leaves.
"You're welcome," Sirius sneered.
Severus shot him a murderous glare.
Sirius took a few more steps along the table and stopped in front of the cauldron in the middle.
"What is it?" he asked, making it clear with an eloquent look that he was addressing Omegas and certainly not him.
She turned to Severus with a fleeting glimpse of alarm in her eyes. She must have been afraid that Sirius might stick his nose in and find out about their plans—an unfounded fear, since although Black was an Animagus himself, Severus was certain he had no idea how to brew the necessary potion to become one. Even if he did, he would never make the connection with Nagini.
He tried to return Omegas' look with a reassuring one, but realised he didn't have one in his repertoire. So he remained impassive.
Omegas cleared her throat, turned to Sirius and offered one of her vague answers.
"Dew, mostly. Mermaid Scales and Bicorn Horn."
"Ah, I see…" he murmured, clearly utterly disinterested in the matter. "So, listen… fancy a bite?"
Omegas dropped the ceramic jar. Severus caught it in a flash, scolded her with a stern glare, then realised the question that had just been asked. He raised his head slowly and with a look of pure hatred aimed at him. But Sirius was too busy staring intently at her, and didn't even notice.
"With… with you?" she stammered.
"Yes," he confirmed.
Omegas turned as pale as the jar and swallowed hard. "Why?"
Sirius shrugged. "You know, to get to know each other. I haven't had a chance to thank you prop—"
"No," she cut him off.
There was a tense silence. Sirius, who possibly had never received a 'no' for an answer from anyone in his life, especially not from a woman, struggled to process it. He shook his head slightly and frowned.
"Why not?"
Omegas dropped a Mandrake Leaf into the cauldron, forgetting that she was supposed to crush it. It was the first time Severus had ever seen her make a mistake. Feigning total indifference, he pulled it out and began to work on it in his corner of the desk.
"Because I don't like you," she replied. "And you don't like me either. You just feel indebted to me for saving your life. It's happened to me before, and it wasn't pleasant, so…"
She pulled a round stone out of her bag with a wave of her wand and handed it to him.
"How about I poison myself so you can shove a Bezoar down my throat? That way we'll be even and this will be over."
Sirius looked at the stone grimly. He glanced from her hand to her raised eyebrow, as if expecting her to dismiss it as a joke and accept his offer. When she didn't, he simply backed away, exuding his usual swagger.
"All right, then," he said.
He turned and left the room as if nothing had happened.
Omegas waved her wand lazily to return the Bezoar to her bag. She closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh of relief. When she opened them again, she found Severus' gaze fixed on her. She jumped and glanced repeatedly from him to the door behind which Sirius had just disappeared. Embarrassed again, she bent over her work and began to crush a second Mandrake Leaf.
He watched her for a moment. An overwhelming feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time took hold of him, and he deliberately allowed himself to give in to it.
Severus burst out laughing. He laughed like he hadn't laughed in years. He laughed genuinely, spontaneously. It wasn't a suppressed laugh, the kind you pretend you didn't hear. He laughed without caring what she might think.
Omegas looked at him in stunned amazement, then gave in and laughed in return. It lasted no longer than a few moments before they both returned to work, pretending the exchange hadn't happened. But for those brief, fleeting moments, Severus felt happy.
Immediately after, he felt guilty. He shouldn't have been happy; he had no right to be. He didn't deserve to be happy.
He regained control and tried to stop feeling it, but it kept trying to reappear. Every time he thought back to the scene he had just witnessed, every time she handed him an ingredient before he realised he needed it, every time he was distracted from his cauldron and saw her hovering along the table—her cloud of black hair growing shinier and denser from the cauldron fumes like before a storm.
The only thought that seemed to work was the prospect of facing Voldemort's snake in a few hours—an idea that defied logic and reminded him of the unpleasant sensation he experienced every time he thought of the snake's sharp fangs tearing at his throat just a few months earlier.
Severus did not want to die.
That afternoon, Severus and Omegas worked in silence. They didn't go up to the Great Hall for lunch, didn't take any breaks, and didn't let anything or anyone distract them. When Omegas' fake galleon warmed up, she took it out of her pocket, put it on the table, watched it turn red, gave it a glare and ignored it completely.
It wasn't until the evening that Omegas put her ingredients away and spoke again, pretending, as usual, that the silent hours hadn't occurred.
"You know, I think we should be seen in the Great Hall for dinner. To avoid suspicion."
Severus nodded. He put his ingredients and cauldron away, locked the now finished Animagus Potion in his cupboard and followed her.
They arrived at the Great Hall earlier than usual and found it half empty. As usual, the Slytherin table was empty. Omegas cast a furtive glance at the Gryffindor table, where the entire Weasley family, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and a few Hufflepuff students sat together, showing great interest in Sirius Black's ramblings.
She rolled her eyes and huffed in annoyance. "It's not even that bad, inside the Arch," she grumbled. "He's just spouting nonsense to get attention."
Severus, to whom she hadn't told much about the Arch, but certainly enough to call it 'bad', grinned in amusement, raised an eyebrow and agreed with a mellifluous, "Obviously."
They made their way to the Slytherin table and took a seat. He thought long and hard about how to start a conversation. How had he managed it until then? He couldn't find an answer. He found himself repeatedly glancing up, opening his mouth, then closing it again and bowing his head on his plate. After four failed attempts, he called himself an idiot and accepted that they were going to share that meal in silence.
Halfway through it, however, their peace was disturbed. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy entered the Great Hall, but instead of reaching the Gryffindor table as they usually did, they decided it was too crowded that day. They walked towards the Slytherin one.
"Oh, wonderful," Omegas remarked sarcastically.
The two greeted them politely and sat down a short distance away. They were, Severus observed, deep in conversation about the adventures that Harry, Ron and Hermione had been through over the past seven years. Harry seemed determined to fill Draco in on every detail.
He spoke at length. Both Severus and Omegas pretended not to listen, until, just as they were about to get up, Harry began to talk about that tragic night more than four years before, when Peter Pettigrew had escaped and Sirius had narrowly avoided the Dementor's kiss.
Severus listened intently. The background to that story had been shrouded in mystery for far too long.
"All right, you're making this up," Omegas interrupted suddenly.
Both boys turned to her.
"Ma'am?" asked Harry.
"There's no way you could have driven away hundreds of Dementors with a single Patronus," she said scornfully. "No one can drive away hundreds of Dementors with a single Patronus, not even Dumbledore. There must have been half a dozen at the most."
Harry shot her a look that Severus knew well enough, as it was filled with the same defiance he had been met with for seven long years. He glared at the boy, warning him silently to watch his mouth, but Harry ignored him.
"That's what happened," he retorted. "Ask Hermione. Ask Sirius, if you want."
She scoffed and shook her head dismissively.
"Ask Professor Snape," the boy added.
Omegas raised her head and met Severus' gaze. He, for his part, could not honestly disagree with Harry's version, as much as he would have liked to. There really had been hundreds of Dementors in that place, and although he had reserved the right not to believe a single word that came out of the mouths of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, he had to admit that there were no other logical explanations. Potter had indeed produced a Patronus capable of driving them all away.
Omegas, who had certainly interpreted his lack of arguments correctly, parted her lips and lost herself in thought for a while.
"What were you thinking?" she asked softly.
"What?" replied Harry.
She turned to him. "What were you thinking about when you cast the Patronus?"
"Oh! Well, it's a long story, but—"
"Were you thinking about what you were experiencing at that moment?"
Harry fell silent, his eyes narrowing to slits. "I… yes," he murmured. "But how do you—"
"You produced a Present Patronus," she said breathlessly.
The two boys frowned in unison and looked at each other.
"A what?" asked Draco.
"A Present Patronus," she repeated. "An extremely powerful Patronus, said to be a hundred times more powerful than a normal one, which can only be summoned when the positive thought used to create it relates to the present moment."
She stood up and slowly circled the table. She approached Harry with measured steps and a piercing gaze.
"It's an incredibly rare spell, obviously. Who would ever be happy while being attacked by a Dementor?" she said silkily. "Another thing I've only heard about and never had the chance to see with my own eyes. Like Horcruxes. Like the Resurrection Stone. Another legendary magic that just happens to revolve around you."
Harry held her gaze with as much suspicion as it was directed at him.
"How do you know all these things, ma'am?" he asked, in a tone Severus deemed far too insolent.
She raised her head and gave a smirk. "I have travelled a lot."
"Why?" Harry pressed.
Omegas lost all trace of amusement. She swept her gaze over the boy's face, turned pale, and hastily looked away.
"You were right, Severus," she said flatly. "He is bloody nosey."
She turned and walked towards the doors of the Great Hall without saying another word.
She didn't speak as he reached her, nor as they descended the stairs to the dungeons, nor when they entered his quarters to wait for the time to act. The serenity of that morning had completely left her, and Severus was once again at a loss as to what to do. He reached for his cupboard while she sank into the armchair and handed her a half-full glass. Omegas accepted it with a crooked smile, took a sip and glanced at the liquor with a frown.
"Whisky, Severus?" she remarked. "Are we turning to heavy drinking?"
He gave a half-smile and sat down in front of her.
"We're about to do something stupidly dangerous," he said, finally giving voice to his thoughts, "senseless and potentially fatal. We might as well numb ourselves."
Omegas smirked and raised her glass. "To stupidly dangerous, senseless and potentially fatal things," she echoed. "My favourites."
Severus shook his head and took a sip, masking his amusement with a hint of disapproval. She took a sip in turn and leaned forward onto the edge of the chair.
"Did I ever tell you about the time I got trapped in a cave for a week while searching for a magical water source said to grant clairvoyance?"
"Yes," he replied blankly.
"Oh," she murmured. She paused to take another sip. "What about the time I wandered through the jungle for days looking for a legendary tree that—"
"That turned out to be just a particularly large ficus, yes," he cut her off.
"Oh," she said again. "And… what about that witch who lived on a mountain peak and claimed to have brought a headless knight back to life?"
"It was just an enchanted armour without a helmet, mounted on a horse," he deadpanned.
"Ah."
She paused. She downed her drink and refilled it with a wave of her wand, then swirled the liquid in the glass for a while.
"Looks like I've no stories left to tell you, Severus," she remarked, raising her eyes to meet his. "Why am I still in these quarters?"
Severus returned her gaze in silence. He calmly raised the glass to his lips and faced her next sly grin with the utmost impassivity. Finally, when he deemed it to have become too intense, he averted his gaze, cleared his throat and leaned forward on the edge of the armchair, elbows on his knees.
"What did the magical water source turn out to be?" he asked quietly.
She narrowed her eyes. "Didn't I tell you?"
She did; he remembered each and every detail of that story. He confidently shook his head and listened to her talk late into the night.
It was almost two in the morning when Omegas glanced at the clock and finally declared, "It's time."
Severus nodded with a certain gravity, put the glasses back in the cupboard and headed for the door.
The castle was sound asleep. They didn't meet anyone on their way back to his office to collect the Animagus Potion. Still, as they left, they decided to cast a Neglectus Charm on each other—just to be cautious. They reached the wall on the third floor in a few minutes and walked past it three times, thinking, 'I need a place to lock up a snake.'
Those were the words Harry had thought to make the Room of Requirement appear. Draco had told him about it that morning. No 'I need to keep her safe'; no comfortable four-poster beds or bedside tables full of food for Nagini. Just a small, dark room with the petrified snake hovering ominously in the centre.
"He didn't even bother to free her from the Petrificus," Omegas observed. She held out a hand towards Nagini and the area around her turned yellow-orange. "She's trapped, what was the point of petrifying her?"
Severus shook his head. He told himself that, if he had been in Potter's position, he would probably have done the same. The thought disgusted him for more than one reason.
She stepped forward and walked through the invisible wall. "Does it work with the Dark Mark?"
Severus tried to join her by passing through the barrier himself, but he was blocked.
"Why?" Omegas asked. "Does she have the Mark?"
"The Dark Mark is bound to Voldemort's soul," he explained. "It's not just a symbol. It's the way he communicates with his Death Eaters. We can feel it. We can—"
"They," she corrected him.
Severus looked at her. "What?"
"They, Severus. You are not a Death Eater."
She met his gaze with a pair of eyes too intense for him to bear. He felt the urge to reach for his left arm, but restrained himself.
"Nagini is bound to his soul. That's why the barrier works," he concluded.
Omegas nodded. She took off her bag, pulled out a small dark marble bowl and filled it with the Animagus Potion that Severus handed her a moment later.
"Good," she murmured.
She hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and placed the bowl on the floor inside the barrier. She stepped out and pointed her wand at the snake.
"Finite Incantatem!"
Nagini was released from the Petrificus Totalus and fell to the ground with a thud. She opened her eyes and hissed menacingly as she moved forward, her snout pressing against the orange wall. Severus instinctively stepped back. Omegas stood firm in front of the barrier and hissed in return.
The conversation in Parseltongue continued for quite some time. At first, Nagini opened her mouth wide and hissed sharply at her. Then, as Omegas talked with her, she seemed to calm down. About twenty minutes later, the snake moved to the stone bowl and dipped her long, forked tongue into the Animagus Potion.
Omegas and Severus waited in silence. It took a few minutes for the potion to take effect. Nagini slithered to the centre of her small cell and curled up into a ball. Soon enough, a thin, pale woman with wide eyes and long, dirty black hair crouched down with her knees to her chest and her arms around her.
Severus widened his eyes. She really was a Maledictus. He hadn't doubted Omegas' words, but seeing it first-hand was still quite a shock.
Omegas, on the other hand, did not bat an eyelid. She quickly removed her cloak and threw it to the other side of the barrier. Nagini lifted her head and tilted it slightly to one side, eyeing the object curiously.
"Hello," Omegas said calmly. "This is a cloak. In case you feel the need to cover yourself."
Nagini didn't move. She tilted her head again and half-closed her eyes. She leaned forward, placed her hands on the floor, and collapsed onto her chest. She was trying to crawl. The sight of her fixed eyes and unnatural elbow angles was so unsettling that Severus took another step back and found himself against the wall.
Omegas took a step forward to sit down at the edge of the barrier and face her.
"Do you speak English? Shall I carry on with the Parseltongue?"
She didn't answer. Omegas waited a moment, then resumed hissing softly in her direction.
She was interrupted halfway.
"Are you the kind woman?"
Nagini had spoken in a murmur that also sounded more like a hiss than an actual sentence.
"Are you the one who spoke to me when I was on the other side?"
Omegas smiled at her. "I am," she confirmed.
Without getting up, she reached into her bag again and pulled out a bottle and a glass.
"Do you need water?"
Omegas' arm gently reached across the barrier. Severus would have preferred her not to; he opened his mouth to say so, but before he could speak Nagini grabbed the glass and emptied it in one gulp.
"Do you remember who you are?" Omegas asked.
She looked at her, tilted her head to one side again and blinked a few times.
"Credence," she finally said.
Omegas glanced at her curiously. "No," she replied. "Your name is Nagini. You were born in the early 1900s and you are a—"
"I know what I am," she snapped.
She said it in such a dangerous hiss that Severus would have taken another step back if he could.
"Where is Credence?" she insisted.
"I don't know who Credence is," Omegas replied.
Nagini regarded her with the same unsettling gaze for a while longer, before looking around and setting her sights on Severus for the first time. He would have preferred it if she hadn't.
"Who is he?" she asked.
Omegas turned to him for a moment, then back to the other. "A friend."
"Yours?"
She nodded. "Is Credence a friend too?"
Nagini stared at her again and her eyes seemed to widen even more. "Credence is not a friend," she replied.
Omegas smiled. "I see."
"Where is he?" Nagini asked again.
She shook her head. "I don't know. When did you last see him?"
Nagini loosened her grip on her knees. Her mouth curved into what Severus thought might be a smile, but which looked more like a predatory sneer.
"We were young," she said softly.
Omegas nodded. "I see," she repeated. "Well, Nagini, you were born nearly a hundred years ago. If you were young at the same time, I'm afraid—"
"NO!" she cried.
Omegas fell silent. She raised her head and waited patiently for her to continue.
"He's not… he's not dead," Nagini breathed.
"All right."
"He can't be dead," Nagini added, hiding her face between her knees. "He's the same as me. He was supposed to die with me."
Omegas frowned. "He cannot be a Maledictus," she observed. "Only women can—"
"He is an Obscurial."
Omegas' eyes widened. She quickly turned to Severus and found him sharing her astonishment. Obscurials were another thing he had only heard about: young witches or wizards who had been forced to suppress their nature and were destined to turn into a parasitic entity known as an Obscurus. He didn't believe there were any adult or teenage Obscurials. The few documented cases hadn't survived past the age of seven.
"You were both cursed," Omegas remarked.[1]
Nagini nodded. "We are both cursed," she corrected.
"Of course."
Nagini slowly rose from the floor, turned around, and pulled the cloak over her shoulders. Omegas stood up in turn.
"I lied to you, kind woman," Nagini said through a sinister grin. "I know what I did."
"Omegas," Severus called.
He gestured for her to step back, but she ignored him.
"You know?"
"I know," Nagini confirmed. "He told me what he was going to do. He promised me that he would… dominate the others. That he would kill them. I chose to go with him."
"Why?"
"Omegas," Severus repeated, but she dismissed him with a wave of her hand.
"Because they hurt him," Nagini replied.
"Credence?"
The other nodded. Omegas looked away from her, gazing thoughtfully at an undefined point in the room.
"The Muggles hurt Credence?" she asked.
"They forced him," Nagini growled.
"Ah," Omegas breathed. "Of course. They forced him to stop using his powers, didn't they? It was a century ago. The Wizarding World and the Muggle one weren't as divided as they are today. He was forced to suppress his powers. He became an Obscurial."
Nagini nodded again. "I wanted them to die. All of them," she hissed. "And then… I wanted to die with him."
Omegas moved closer to the barrier again.
"Don't do it," Severus ordered.
She didn't listen.
"What happened next?" she asked.
Nagini lowered her head. "He did… something to me."
"Credence?"
"No, not Credence. Him. The one you're fighting."
"Riddle."
"Tom. Yes…" the other whispered. "He did something to me and I… I couldn't die." She looked up again. "Why couldn't I die?"
Omegas gave a weak smile. "He put a piece of his soul into you," she explained. "You can still die, but you can't age. There are specific ways to—"
"Is that why I'm here?" the other interrupted. "To die?"
Omegas took another step forward. She was so close to the invisible wall that, rather than wasting breath telling her to step back, Severus automatically grabbed his wand, pointed it at Nagini and stood ready.
"Yes," she finally replied.
Nagini lowered her head again, pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders. When she raised her gaze again, she was in tears.
"Credence is dead, isn't he?" she rasped.
Omegas swallowed, gave her a sombre look, and nodded slowly.
Nagini's face twisted into a grimace caught between anger and despair. She covered her face with her hands and shrieked. Severus lowered his wand.
"I'm sorry, Nagini," Omegas murmured.
She didn't stop crying. She succumbed to her grief for a while; when she had finished, her eyes returned as blank and eerie as they had been at the start. She raised a hand in front of her face and examined it curiously.
"Why am I human?" she asked.
"Because we gave you a potion."
"Will I stay like this?"
Omegas shook her head. "No. It will only last a few hours. In the morning you'll be a snake again."
Nagini lowered her hand. She approached the edge of the barrier and looked at Omegas with newfound, unnervingly fixed eyes. Now, only a very thin orange stripe separated the tips of the two women's noses.
"When you kill me…" Nagini breathed. "Will I remember him?"
Omegas swallowed. "No," she said then. "I don't think so."
Nagini's eyes filled with tears again.
Severus was too busy keeping her under control through a mixture of horror and unease to notice that Omegas had taken her wand and turned towards him.
"Expelliarmus!"
Severus' wand flew from his hand to Omegas', and the woman slipped very quickly into the barrier.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, hurrying to reach her.
"I just… I need a moment," she mumbled.
"Get out of there immediately!" he barked.
She did not move.
Severus reached the wall, but could not cross it. He glared at her—furious, unyielding. "Get. Out."
Omegas gave him a guilty look, then turned her back on him to face Nagini.
"Close your eyes," she said.
"Why?" Nagini asked.
Omegas pointed her wand at the other's chest. "To die with him."
"What the hell are you doing?" Severus shouted.
Omegas offered Nagini a gentle smile and one of her hands. She looked at it, her eyes still filled with tears, her breath heavy. Eventually, trembling and sobbing, she took it in hers and closed her eyes.
"Will it… hurt?" she croaked out.
"I don't know," Omegas replied softly.
"Omegas!" Severus hissed. "Get immediately—"
"Do you remember him?" she asked.
Nagini sniffled. "Yes."
"Omegas!" Severus insisted.
"Describe him."
Nagini hesitated for a moment. "He had… a kind smile," she whimpered. "And his… his eyes were…"
"OMEGAS!" he yelled, pounding his fist on the invisible wall. His left arm burned.
"What were his eyes like?"
Nagini smiled, tears falling down her cheeks. "The most beautiful… thing… I have ever seen."
"Do see them?" Omegas asked, pressing the wand against her chest.
"Please… don't," Severus begged.
"Yes," Nagini replied.
"Don't do it," he repeated. "There are other ways. You don't—"
"Avada Kedavra."
A powerful green light shot from Omegas' wand and pierced Nagini's chest. She collapsed, her eyes closed, with the cloak still wrapped around her.
Omegas had not the slightest hint of a reaction. She watched her in silence, motionless, as though Nagini had gone for a nap. She bent down and moved her hands from the floor to her lap. She calmly reached for the bowl and the glass of water, slipped them back inside her bag and stepped out of the barrier. She met Severus' clear horror with an unsettling amount of detachment.
She handed him his wand. "Shall we?"
He couldn't speak. He had no idea what was happening inside him. He didn't know which of the voices in his head disturbed him the most: the one that was horrified at the sight of Omegas coldly murdering a woman, or the one that was… fascinated. Thrilled.
She turned without a word, opened the door and left the Room of Requirement.
They crossed the third floor and headed for the stairs, not bothering to hide. The damage was done: they would have to explain to the Order why a dead woman had suddenly replaced a petrified snake. When they reached his quarters, he slammed the door behind them, furious.
"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" he asked sharply.
Omegas turned and refused yet again to lose her composure. "Yes," she replied. "I destroyed a Horcrux."
"You just used a Killing Curse!" he snapped, pointing at the door.
"I did," she confirmed.
Severus paused. He blinked rapidly—he felt the sudden urge to get a reaction out of her. Any reaction. Something that wasn't sheer calm.
"Why did you do it?"
She shrugged. "It's the only spell that works on Horcruxes."
"It's not a spell!" he snapped. "You used the Killing Curse. The one that, by your own words, is the only thing capable of breaking a soul. The one that—"
"Why do you care?" Omegas interrupted him, taking a few steps in his direction. "It was my choice. I knew what I was doing."
He didn't answer. He struggled to maintain his severe expression.
"Do you care about my soul, Severus?" she asked with a sneer.
For a fleeting moment, Severus had considered answering honestly. He had considered telling her, 'Yes, I care about your soul. Your soul is too important for you to waste it on the murderous Maledictus in league with Lord Voldemort. Your soul is too precious for you to give it away like that.'
But there was something mocking about the way Omegas had asked the question—something that suddenly made him want to die.
"This isn't about you," he lied.
She let out a small, bitter laugh. "Of course it isn't."
"We weren't supposed to be discovered," he said sharply. "You remember, don't you? I helped you talk to her on the condition that you did it in secret. She wasn't supposed to die like that, the Order—"
"TO HELL WITH THE DAMNED ORDER!" she roared.
Severus fell silent again. That was a reaction—though not the one he was looking for. Omegas' father's expression had returned to her face.
"I don't care about the Order," she spat. "I don't care what it says. I don't care what it decides. I don't care about its missions or its members."
He narrowed his eyes. "You don't… care about the Order?"
"Of course I don't."
He couldn't honestly tell whether that was a lie or not.
"Why should I care?" she added. "I don't belong here. As soon as this is over, I'm leaving."
Severus' desire to die grew.
Omegas approached and locked eyes with him. "I'd leave right now if I wasn't trapped in this bloody castle."
Finally, here it was. He could see with his own eyes the look of disgust on her face that had previously only been part of his nightmares.
He averted his gaze, drew his wand and pointed it at her. Omegas closed her eyes but did not flinch. Moments later, she opened them again and looked around in confusion.
"What have you done?"
"You're free to go," he said flatly.
This time, Omegas did have a reaction. It was brief—just a glimpse of heartbreak. But Severus didn't see it. He was too afraid of facing that disgust again to look at her.
"Good," she declared.
She picked up her bag, slung it over her shoulder and walked past him. Severus stood motionless until he heard the door slam.
[1] In case you're not familiar with it again, the love story between Nagini and Credence is canon in the Fantastic Beasts saga. I came up with the idea because Credence is objectively very similar to Severus in those movies, and Nagini is a snake, just like Omegas. This is a mirroring.