The Reality Check
After the failure that was the attack on Fleur and Bill's wedding, Severus Snape decides to leave Voldemort and help the Golden Trio finally grow up and fight. Not that I have a chance in hell of making them see this rotten world for what it is.
Disclaimer: Not mine. And how can you tell? Because were it me who wrote Harry Potter, a completely different set of characters would be dead by now. I'm not making any money out of this either. And how can you tell? This grandpa of a laptop is my witness.
Warnings: Rated M for a reason. Adult subjects, swearing, descriptions disturbing in multiple ways, rape, torture, abusive teachers, twisted ideologies, the whole lot. Not for the faint-hearted. Be warned.
No horcruxes!
Chapter 1
Standing on his athletic feet, barely supported by knees that were so wobbly it was a wonder he stood, Severus Snape was listening intently. He was attending a death eater meeting of the inner circle, however much he wished to be anywhere else. Anywhere. Even Parkinson's bed. The Dark Lord was not pleased today. Snape had trouble standing still after an especially thorough torture session that left his Occlumency barriers dangerously low.
"Aaaaaargh, yes, my Lord!" screamed Lucius next to him, trying to reign in the pain of the cruciatus curse the Dark Lord had been holding him under for a good half minute. Voldemort asked him one simple question; If he deserved to be punished. Lucius, a proud man as he is, answered that he should not be punished since he had managed to stun Augusta Longbottom with one hand and capture Xenophilius Lovegood with the other.
"What wass your mission, Luciuss Malfoy?" hissed the man, pointing his wand to Lucius' crotch.
"To catch Harry Potter alive and bring him to you, my Lord." said Lucius almost confidently. Idiot.
"And what elsse?"
"Then to capture the veela bride and anyone else we can, to kill them or have our fun with them if we so fancy, my Lord." he stated, a little too quickly.
"Yet when you failed to catch Potter, miserable foolss that you are, you went for the dessert anyway! You not only cccelebrated your failure, you alsso kept me waiting! Crucio! Now ansswer me again, dear Luciuss; do you desserve to be punished?" Voldemort said in a cold voice, slowing down his words when pronouncing the question, so as to keep Lucius in pain longer. As every Deatheater knew very well, you do not interrupt the Dark Lord. Not even by your screams.
Severus was eating lunch in his quarters, letting the sun coming through a charmed window warm up his face. He was wondering what would people think if they saw his open collar, hair thrown back, watching the sun through his closed eyes. Its warmth reminded him of the happy moments of his childhood. He had a smile on his face as he remembered the way he hid and cherished his little joys. His favourite breakfast, the colour of the sun shining through his eyes, the feeling of magic pouring from his hands to a softly bubbling cauldron, the power he had as a wizard and everything he could achieve with it...
He was about to indulge on a sticky toffee pudding, the one treat he still enjoyed, when his Dark Mark burned. Grrrrrr, so much for one quiet day. He took his watch out of his pocket and stared at the time, waiting for the second hand to reach twelve, breathing in and out twice before he started his "routine".
His career of a spy forced him to perfect his Occlumency skills to a point where he could protect his mind and call up his false persona in one minute. One minute, a routine thirty times faster than what is needed to get a Mastery and live a comfortable life giving private lessons to those who wish to hide their selves. Instead of that he is stuck teaching potions 101 to a bunch of unimpressionable dumb brats. But enough of that. 58 seconds. Focus. 59. 00.
01. Breathe in slowly, find the shining cool centre of your mind, expand it to fill your skull. Relax your face, let go of all emotions. 05. Open the trapdoor in it, let your pleasant memories jump in there. Your hope, your ideals, your feeling of being at peace with yourself, the feeling of wind on your face, the sound of boiling potions, the feeling of the one kiss he shared. 10. Close the trap door. Breathe out. 15.
Hold your breath. Now remember. Remember your father strangling you against the wall, your feet struggling to touch the ground. The helplessness. Him closing you in the closet when he went to beat up your mother. Her screaming, raising her arms to protect her face, without success. 25.
Remember and be angry. Remember staying in your room in the summer after your first year of Hogwarts, remember your mother's blank mind, unable to do magic. Remember your father coming to your room to hit you. To have you stand in the corner for hours while he drinks. Remember that having greasy hair made holding you by the hair harder for him so you never washed them. Remember kids laughing at you for that. And be angry. Be bitter. Life is not fair. Let the fury consume you. 40 seconds.
Breath in again. Focus on revenge. Blood. Joy. Cold heart. Your father's dead body, desecrated in every way. The raids where you could leash out like never before. The Death Eater meetings where your Lord's treat was to let you help him punish others. The triumph when you tortured muggles well enough to deserve the Dark Mark. 50.
Cover this in a solid Occulding wall only the Dark Lord will be able to push through. Now. Remember you being spy for the Dark Lord, making fool of Dumbledore. Let your dominance, indifference and cruelty out in the open. Torturing students. Tormenting students whose parents used to bully you out of spite. Hurting Potter, having him do as you please, and deleting his memories, all but his fear of you that lingers, sweeter than candy. 55 seconds.
Twist your face into a hateful grimace. Breathe out. Sneer. Apparate.
Fully Occluded, Snape appeared in the main hall of the Riddle Mannor. The Dark Lord was already there, standing in his dark purple robes under a giant marble staircase. Severus had to admit that the manor was grand. The entrance hall was white, with stone carvings decorating the staircase, the columns, the huge fireplace. He was standing on a black polished marble floor, feeling decidedly out of place.
Only his Inner Circle was allowed to see the Dark Lord's ancestral manor. It was a great honour to be called in here, as he was intently thinking when he felt his mind being probed almost inconspicuously. Seconds later, the feeling was gone and he was still alive. Good.
Six Death Eaters apparated around their Master and waited for instructions. To have their minds checked, thought Snape.
Today's mission was straightforward. "Potter will be vulnerable. He iss to be attending the wedding of the blood traitorss Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley. Snape, Avery, Macnair, Carrows and Malfoy. My mosst reliable Death Eaterss. You were chosen to usse thiss opportunity to catch him, stun him, bind him and bring him. Once thiss iss done, enjoy the resst of the wedding. The Weassley Blood Traitor iss to marry a French Veela, I hear!" the Dark Lord said in a high voice, looking at Avery whose eyes darkened at the thought. "Make me proud!"
With that, the six of them Disapparated in a swirl of black smoke. The wards around the house being no real obstruction, the Death Eaters were free to enter the shelter. They stunned, cut, burned or tore random guests, all the while looking around for one of the three students. Granger, Weasley and Potter were never far apart.
Screams and smoke filled the air. As was to be predicted, when Potter proved difficult to locate, they quickly got distracted.
Macnair was somewhere outside of the wedding tent, probably looking for a victim of his own. The Carrow brothers were fighting left and right, trying to prevent people from Disapparating. Never heard of anti-apparition wards or they are too dumb-witted to cast them.. probably the latter. thought Snape bitterly.
Avery already had Fleur in his hands, breaking her right wrist to make her unable to defend herself with a wand. He held both her wrists and stood behind her, pulling her close to him and her hands behind his back. This way he was perfectly shielded and was clearly enjoying the way she screamed in pain and cursed in French. Her back was too close to him for her comfort and she was pressing her bottom at him in an effort to push him further away from her. The excitement and lust in Avery's eyes was evident. Rather unfortunate, Snape thought, to be accidentally turning on your enemy.
The Weasley groom was on the floor unconscious, a small wound on his head bleeding.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Potter and Granger waiting for the Weasley nitwit to join them, urging him around so that they can Apparate away. He couldn't risk them being spotted so he did what he had to. He caught a girl passing by by her hair and pushed her to him, taking her wand in the process. He was holding her and subtly manoeuvring himself to stand between the trio and the rest of the Death Eaters so that they had extra time to disappear without being spotted, instead of standing there like a bunch of useless fools they are, watching him as he restrained Luna Lovegood from kicking him in a place that God only meant to be treated nicely.
For a moment there it almost looked as if Potter was about to rush to her aid, the hell is he thinking, does he have no survival instinct or is he foolish enough to think he has a chance in hell to fight six Death Eaters and live?! The brat has a death wish. but Weasley just reached them and Granger had enough brains to Disapparate the three of them, looking Snape straight in the eyes the whole time. Did she see a look of relief in that bastard Snape's face or is she completely crazy.
Now that the Brat-Who-Lived is gone, I can finally concentrate on putting on a good show i may just enjoy. He held Luna firmly, using a wordless spell to dim her mind. Her eyes became slightly clouded, she stopped fighting so vigorously and he had a good chance to look her over. Not bad. Certainly not a child anymore. The dress she wore showed her knees but that can be altered...
Lucius was out of luck. He was hoping to get hold of Charlie Weasley, a man he had been interested in for a few months now. He would have to make do with the Lovegood guy. The Longbottom old hag he stunned straight away, no way I am dirtying myself with that one.
It took them good two hours to get ready to return, leaving the Dark Mark behind. They took the captives and while they knew the mission was a failure, they had their fun and that counts. They could tell their Master some story and appease him with the captives.
Well that had not worked. Voldemort was using his newly developed technique, the aimed crucio, to express his opinion about his servants. Severus was first to be questioned and first to be punished. Voldemort found in his mind the memory of Luna Lovegood doing his bidding while under the imperius. The memory of Snape deleting that particular event from her mind was hidden deep under his shields. He had to protect himself, after all. What if he switched sides again.
His Lord was furious. "Are you under the impression that I will allow you to seek pleasure insstead of following my direct orderss? Fooling around iss what raidss are for, not missionss you worthless...! You thought you could fool me. You will pay for thiss. Crucio concretus!" he hissed with the wand pointed at Severus's chest. The pain was immense. White knives piercing every bit of my body, but the place he aimed his wand hurt ten times as much. Pieces of flesh being ripped out and burned. In just a few seconds, Severus was on the ground, panting, wishing for unconsciousness to come.
The punishment got worse with every Death Eater, eventually settling on Lucius. The Dark Lord tortured him the longest and aimed the wand at various places, his arse, his stomach, then even his crotch. Voldemort only stopped when Lucius started crying between screams, begging for mercy, proclaiming that he deserves to be punished and will never repeat this again. Disgusting.
Snape watched this with only one thought in mind and that was I've had enough of this. He remembered the promise of superiority, of respect and wealth awaiting those who prove to be strong enough to accept the Dark Mark. The rape and torture, the sacrifice others of the circle have made by leaving their own pure-blooded children for hours with the Dark Lord to do as he pleases. And he made a vow to himself to never answer a call again, quickly Occluding his thoughts just to be on the safe side. Standing not that far from crying Lucius, the noble Lord of the wizarding culture, who had wet himself from pain, it was not a particularly hard decision to make.
He mentally curled a part of his upper lip as he realized what exactly this meant. Potter.
A/N Hi guys, let me know if this is a story you would like to see go further than one shot. Thank you for reading and please, take a moment to review. Until next time!