a low, amused, thoroughly sane, chuckle.
She frowned at him. "I hope that means you know what to do with it because I don't think it's going to open any of the locks here."
He quit looking amused. "I know what to do with it because I made it. This was what I gave Lucius to assist in his escape from house arrest five years ago."
Ginny was sorry now she hadn't taken a closer look at the key. Hermione would kill to get her hands on something like that for the Department of Mysteries. "That' s the mystery device you told them about? What is it, exactly?"
No one who heard the story had believed in the existence of a magical device that enabled its user to open any door. Ginny included. She had assumed it was simply a story Snape was going to stick to, for better or worse.
He stared at her almost challengingly as he replied. "Gold, bronze, blood and heartbreak, forged into the shape that you see here. He twirled the key briefly before deftly palming it. "It will open any door that keeps a person from their loved one."
There was so much irony dripping from his voice, Ginny didn' t know what to say.
"It only works if you love someone on the other side of a closed door, literally? And the distance between the two individuals does not matter?"
"Yes."
"Amazing," she breathed. "I wasn't under the impression that you could collect heartbreak."
His expression suggested she could answer her own question if she thought hard enough. Well...there was blood. So made up the 'heartbreak' component? Ginny looked up.
"You mean tears?" A fleeting image of Snape crying over simmering cauldron was just too ridiculous to maintain.
Snape said nothing.
"So you and Lucius-" She knew he wasn't going to go into any details.
"You know you're the only one that still calls me Professor."
Ginny was inexplicably glad for the change in topics. "And you still call me child."
"It is what you are," he replied. "Why are you doing this?"
"The fact that I'm doing this goes to show what I think about the sentence they imposed on you. You did what you did for the greater good." "
The law does not see it that way, child. Not with my past. Especially not when we are currently at war. We have been down this road before."
"Then those of us who can will just have to make our own justice." She marched over to the door and peeked out through the small, square window at the top. The two guards were not watching.
"You're going to have to knock me out," she said when she turned to look back at him.
He remained completely unfazed. "I would have to for this idiotic plan of yours to work."
Ginny rounded on him. "It's not my idiotic plan, it's Lucius Malfoy's idiotic plan."
Snape conceded that. He stood. Ginny flinched slightly from the quick movement. The key was around his neck now, glinting against the dull prison uniform. "How does that thing work, exactly?"
"It will allow me to pass unnoticed through any doors that stand in my way. Applied to my current predicament, that means I will be able to walk out of Azkaban and as far as the last gatehouse without being seen."
"Good enough," Ginny said, impressed. "Don't hurt any of the guards if you choose to steal a wand."
Snape gave her a bland look, which she took to mean 'don't insult me.'
Ginny gathered a deep breath and then screwed her eyes. "Ok. Do it now. I'm ready."
Nothing happened. There was no blow. Her eyes opened. "Professor, you have to knock me out. I can't do it myself; they'll be able to tell."
She was expecting him to say, "No, no way! This is ridiculous!" And that he wouldn't hit her. But this was Snape. He knew what was required. He didn't look particularly apologetic before the act, nor did he offer any verbal apology.
"I was giving you time to change your mind," he said
"I'm not going to change my mind, now hurry up!"
Later, they would ask her about the last thing she remembered. Because obviously an investigation had to be launched and reports filed into how such a fatal slip in security could have occurred.
They had no clue as to how Snape managed to walk past every single checkpoint and even use the elevators without being seen. He had taken a wand, too.
Horace, the guard working at the register on the ground floor hadn't even noticed his was missing until everyone was