Where you're taking me
+ I guess I stuck around to watch us fight for all the wrong reasons.
by littlelesslostboys.
DISCLAIMER: I wish.
Severus Snape/Lucius Malfoy.
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"I'm getting married."
It was the first time in as many years that Severus Snape had, effectively, been made speechless. A sneer was still held, almost stubbornly, on his face. But he didn't say anything. Just stared, resolutely into those steel grey eyes. His hair was slightly longer, a little less grease-ridden but he looked more world-worn than ever.
Lucius Malfoy, however, couldn't have been grinning any wider.
"She's a pureblood, of course," he said, continuing as if Snape's silence meant nothing, "It was my father's idea. He introduced us. He said we'd be a perfect match. She's -- she's like us Severus."
He knew, right off, exactly what he meant. And that made it so much worse. Not that Severus Snape cared and he most certainly didn't love. But, up until that moment, Severus Snape didn't lose either. And the way his jaw was squared and Lucius tilted his head, just barely, to the side, so his smirk could weigh on the left of his face, he was pretty sure that's exactly what was happening.
"You finally found some unsuspecting wench who will, undoubtedly, be forced to put up with you then?" Snape said dryly, not letting his gaze linger too long but unwilling to look away. With Lucius it was always a challenge. Always a game. Always a fight. That's how everything had started, after all, it only seemed fit that's how it was to finish too.
Lucius parted his lips at that, almost speechless himself before his eyes twinkled and he nodded curtly.
"I suppose she's better than me then?" Snape asked again. Before he meant to. His lips curling around the sounds and spitting them out. Not moving an inch. But neither was Malfoy.
"She washes her hair occasionally if that's what you mean" and he laughed. The kind of laugh only Lucius could turn cold. And it always hit whoever it was aimed at, directly in the pit of their stomach. He supposed that was his intention, never one to go anywhere without a presence, Lucius even spoke in such a manner than demanded full attention. Pauses, ridiculously long pauses before he ever spoke a word. To assure he was being heard, to assert his dominance. To prove he meant everything.
Lucius Malfoy, Snape decided, as he stood beside him on his wedding day and refused point blank to give a speech, was unforgettable (and he knew damn well, he intended it that way).
He hadn't washed his hair once since then. He liked to think it made him the strong one. But Lucius, no matter what, and no matter how, was always the winner.