450 Chapter 449 Backstab (2 in 1)

Snape covered his stomach, where his robes had been completely blown up and turned into a bloody mess as well.

Blood continued to drip from his body, but he had no intention of stopping, still flying in one direction with a clear goal.

And, behind him, the five Death Eaters were also pursuing him relentlessly, not looking like they were going to let him slip in the slightest.

Even though the orders they had received from Voldemort were to bring Snape back alive, the purebloods still wanted to use this opportunity to make Snape suffer.

There are many different kinds of captures, and Snape's apparently strong resistance gives them even more reason to "take care" of this out-of-favour half-blood wizard.

This was just a little appetizer, not a real meal yet.

Although they couldn't quite understand why Snape would return to Britain when he had escaped and was unwilling to return to Voldemort, the Death Eaters knew that Snape's actions were tantamount to throwing himself into a trap.

The British Ministry of Magic had been in control of the whole of Britain for many years, and not only had a stable order been established in the magical community, but it had also inherited the contacts and resources of the previous Ministry of Magic on the side of the Muggle government, leading the Muggle top politicians to believe that the British Ministry of Magic was still the same group of peace-seeking wizards as before.

This left Snape in a state of being unable to escape from the moment he was discovered, and even if he could use Apparition, the Death Eaters could immediately continue to find him based on the trail he left behind.

The distance between them and Snape was slowly closing, and the speed of flight of the magic created by Voldemort was not slow, but Snape had been badly injured before he took off, so it slowed him down considerably.

Just as they left the industrial city and began to enter the countryside, Snape began to fall from the sky, like a kite with a broken string, straight down towards a shack in a field on the ground.

The five Death Eaters who were chasing him didn't seem to understand the situation, not knowing whether Snape was in a state where he was too weak to control his flight or whether he had started to land of his own accord.

It was also because of this lack of understanding that they all began to panic.

Their lord had become much crazier than before, and since Voldemort had demanded to capture Snape alive, they would never dare to return with his dead body.

If that were to happen, they would only end up buried together with Snape!

So, these Death Eaters began to desperately lower the flying brooms beneath them and started to accelerate their descent!

One by one, they showed the pro qualities of professional Quidditch players, staring down at Snape as if he is a golden snitch while diving towards him!

But just as the fastest three of them were about to get within ten metres of Snape, Snape's figure abruptly disappeared in mid-air.

The five of them froze for a second, but then someone quickly reacted!

"He's used the Apparition! Check it out!"

This group had a high-ranking member of the current Department of Magical Transportation with the highest level of access to Apparition reconnaissance, and almost as soon as the third second after Snape disappeared, he had already determined where the Apparition manifestation had landed.

"Just three kilometres further down on the left!"

Confusingly, this time Snape's Apparition did not instantaneously move too far away, or to a location that was less travelled, but right underneath them.

"After him!"

But no one stopped; this is Britain, their home base, and they certainly had nothing to fear.

Soon the five Death Eaters rushed to Snape's Apparition landing site, a shack that from the outside looked like it had only been built a short time ago.

The Death Eaters rushed inside and Snape sat gasping for breath on a sofa chair inside the shack, as if his body was stretched to the limit and the injuries to his stomach would not allow him to escape any further.

Looking at the Death Eaters who had stormed in, Snape didn't beg for mercy, not even having a half-hearted expression on his face, he just looked at the man leading the group.

"Mulciber, we sure are a pair of long-time friends."

He calmly let out an exclamation, and the Death Eater known as Mulciber is clearly one of Snape's fellow schoolmates that he had befriended in Slytherin House when he was a student, only now he was looking at Snape with a cold look on his face.

"Friendship is friendship. You should know what kind of mistake you have made, Severus, since you managed to escape from Dumbledore's men. Why did you not return to our lord's side immediately?"

Snape laughed, and there was certainly no pleasant smile on his face, with what looked like a permanent display of nothing but sarcasm, it was clearly a sneer.

"And I wonder if that lord of ours, did he ever figure out exactly why he needed to get me back with such urgency?"

Mulciber and his companions around him looked at each other, none of them had a clue what Snape was saying here, though they all clearly heard the disrespect for Voldemort in Snape's tone.

Their faces turned dark and each of them raised the wands in their hands and pointed them at Snape.

It wasn't that they were all so loyal to the current Voldemort, but there was no way for anyone to guarantee whether or not the teammates around them were truly die-hard, and if any of them told Voldemort something terrible behind the scenes, they would certainly shed their skin, if not die afterwards.

"The Lord naturally has his own ideas as to what he wants you to do, so it's better to wait until you see him and then talk to him."

He only wanted to get Snape back to Voldemort, whether he would be rewarded or not seemed to be secondary, as long as he was not punished.

However, just as the words were leaving his mouth and he was about to direct the men around him to do something, somehow a group of men blocked the sunlight coming in from outside the entrance to the shack.

Mulciber and the others turned back in horror, but when they saw who was coming, each breathed a sigh of relief.

"So it's Rufus, you've found your way here based on the Apparition surveillance? Rest assured Snape is under our control."

There were three visitors, they were wearing the same black robes as Mulciber and the others and were obviously also members of the Death Eaters, so after seeing them, Mulciber and the others were not much wary.

Rufus, who had been gnawing on carrots and onions for days, had a smile on his face as if he was equally happy to have managed to capture Snape and now finally return to his lord.

"That's wonderful, let's bring him back right now!"

In response, Mulciber and the others did not suspect anything, and they turned around unprepared, about to use the stunning spell on Snape and take him back to Voldemort to resume their duties.

Three neat, coordinated spells burst forth!

"Avada Kedavra!" ×3

The five of them were not prepared for the sudden green light, and in the next instant three of them had a complete lack of life in their eyes, and even in the last moment before they died, their faces were still facing Snape with a relieved smile.

As the two remaining Death Eaters watched their companions fall to the ground, it was clear that neither of them had reacted to what was happening, and by the time they were about to turn their heads in bewilderment to look at Rufus and the others, two more killing curses rang out at the same time without a moment's pause!

The five Death Eaters didn't have time to react to the friendly backstabbing, none of them expected that their colleagues, who had been in the same class and shared the same interests, would just strike them without saying a word.

Snape's gaze was cold as he watched the vile backstabbing and spoke indifferently.

"Just straight to the death like that? There aren't many Death Eaters, and there are even fewer elites. If we really have to kill all of them, how many of the purebloods in the British magic world will be usable in the future?"

A look of disbelief appeared on Rufus' face when he heard these words from Snape.

"You also know that there aren't really many elites among us at all, so do you think that Mulciber and the others deserve to be called elites? These fence-sitters have no loyalty to our lord at all to speak of, what difference does it make if they are dead or alive, it would be a good thing to have a major reshuffle within us this time on the contrary, there are too many losers left to die."

Snape's voice was still flat.

"No loyalty to our lord? And which lord are they supposed to be loyal to, exactly who you are calling a lord now?"

At the question, Rufus' trio's faces turned cold as they stared intently at Snape.

"Don't play dumb, Severus, I have thought you'd have recognised the situation and were just waiting for us to come to you."

"I don't think I'm playing dumb." Snape said calmly, "Which lord are you representing, at least show some proof, I had expected that if I am truly valued by him like before, he would be here in person."

"You are too insolent!"

Rufus' face didn't look like he was putting on a deliberate show; he looked like he was genuinely angry at Snape for this great disrespectful remark.

But he wasn't about to strike down Snape to capture him either because he could tell that Snape was actually waiting for them, otherwise, he wouldn't have even gone to the trouble of escaping from Dumbledore and not wanting to make contact with the current Voldemort when he returned to Britain.

Otherwise, then who was he waiting for?

Surely he must be waiting for their true lord!

As one of the first Death Eaters to make contact with Voldemort II, Rufus scoffed at the "great sir" of today.

His true allegiance was to the man who could lead the Purebloods to glory, not to the madman who was preparing to impose his own tyranny on the entire British magical community.

The change in Voldemort around the time of the Triwizard Tournament was so obvious that anyone with a little brain could see that the contrast was simply a change of person.

As a subordinate, a servant, Rufus was not in a position to know what was wrong with his lord, but he could choose whom he wanted to be loyal to.

And, as a discerning pureblood, Rufus naturally offered his complete loyalty only to the one who had truly ruled them for over a decade.

They had in the meantime contacted a number of their fellow Death Eaters who were also suffering from the torment of the current Voldemort One, with the intention of re-screening a selection of servants who possessed loyalty to their true lord.

Snape is obviously one of the most important people, and after learning of his escape back to Britain, Voldemort Two contacted Rufus and the others, asking them to find an opportunity to make contact with Snape and bring him back safely.

It was for this reason that Rufus and the others had actually been following Jon and Lily at first, as the channel for this part of the Death Eaters was their own, and if they found anything at all they could not hide it from the others.

And now as long as they had Jon in their sights, they would be able to lock down any possible destination to find Snape.

It's just, early morning yesterday, it was as if they had been exposed, they had lost track of Jon and Lily somehow, and just as Rufus was all over the city trying to find Jon and the others again.

The Death Eaters had made a discovery first.

This of course is good for Rufus and the group and represents an easier way to get Snape in their pocket.

As for Snape's request for verification of identity now, this was something that Voldemort Two had considered as if it was something that had been discussed long before he had sent them to find Snape.

Rufus, despite his reluctance, pulled out a small glass vial from the pocket of his robes, that contained a small half vial of pale golden sand and gravel.

He tossed the vial of sand and gravel to Snape.

"Our lord told me to bring it to you, and he told me to tell you that no one can take your place."

Snape took the vial of sand and gravel that looked bright with a faint golden glow as if the small golden particles were all reflected in those formerly vacant eyes.

"He always thought I had put it down."

Inexplicably, he suddenly spoke the words.

"All these years of me acting more and more rude to Lily, abusive, even willing to use a killing curse on her, had made him think that I had truly stopped caring about such a low-bred woman, that, as he had once told me, there is more in this world than her. But actually, I would have liked to tell him in his face that he had actually guessed wrong."

An awful feeling suddenly rose in Rufus' mind as they stared at Snape, gripping their wands tightly in their hands, and just as they were considering whether to just make a move, Snape's faint voice rang out again.

"You've got the stuff, how long are you going to watch the show from the sidelines for."

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