WHENE'ER YOU MAKE A PROMISE
Author: Saavik
Summary: The cell looked like all the others....
Whene'er you make a promise, consider well its importance.
And when made, engrave it upon you heart.
WW. Sheild, 1828
The cell looked like all the others. Cold, damp, small and it held a single occupant. It looked like any other dungeon cell. From the blood coating the floor to the smell of human feces. It was an ordinary cell. So ordinary that its contents shouldn't matter.
At least that's what Snape told himself as he approached it. "Find out who ssssshe isssss SSSSeverussss. SSSSShe is quite uncooperative and veritassssserum doessssn't appear to affect her. I want know. Do what you mussssst but find me ansssswerssss." The voice of the Dark Lord followed him reminding him what he must do. The war was raging and Snape wondered what new casualty he would find behind the door. The others had laughed as he gathered his potions. He didn't know what was going to be behind that iron and oak barrier, who he would be questioning nor what he would do when he found out.
Lucius wanted to watch, he always wanted to watch. Snape refused him with an easy glare. The man was so much like his son. So controllable if you knew how to push. And Snape knew, the knowledge had been painful to discover, but he knew. Malfoy left him to prepare in peace.
The door was waiting. The cell was waiting. Snape marched down the corridor with his two guards flanking him. He ordered them to wait at the end of the cellblock. He would not need them. The woman inside the plain ordinary cell had been there for three weeks. Any normal, mundane, unimportant, insignificant, unnecessary woman would not be a threat after such a long stay in the Dark Lords private dungeons. Or so Snape said.
The door looked like the others. It opened just like the others always did. The figure huddled in torn robes shrunk back like the others. But this one raised its head to meet his eyes. Recognition flashed in the brown lifeless vessels. This creature knew him. Snape closed the door, just like he always did. What the others thought he did to get the information was not his concern. He didn't care if they thought the worst, they expected the worst. They did the worst daily. The only difference appeared to be that Snape's worst always provided answers where theirs ended in corpses.
"Professor?" The thing on the floor spoke. They were not supposed to speak to him like that. Not with hope, not with awe, and not with such spirit left. She should be broken. She should be a mess of tears and pleas. She was not like the cell. She was not ordinary.
"Professor, is that you?"
Snape set his bag down and made sure the door was locked and the room unmonitored. The pathetic pile of rags was trying to stand but its legs were not at the right angles. The blood on the floor was thicker than normal. The cell seemed smaller.
"Do what you have to professor. I understand. Just...please tell him...tell him he would have been a wonderful father."
No not normal at all. The cell was a half-foot smaller than the others and the smell twice as nocuous. He cast a spell to make the thing stop moving and it sunk to the floor.
"Professor, make it quick. Please, I can't keep this up. I lost..."
The large bag was half full now. His array of vials took up a good portion of the table he had conjured just as he always did. He picked up a small yellow one and held it up to the meager light that fell from the small slit in the wall that let in the cold February air. He always started with the yellow one.
"How long have I ...it doesn't matter. I'm allergic to wormwood sir."
He put down the yellow one and picked up a purple potion instead. He didn't need to look at it, he knew what it was. He normally waited till later....the cell was not like the others.
"I know you can't take me home. Just please...tell him I never told them anything. I never gave away his secrets. Please Professor. Tell him that for me. Tell him I will always love him."
Snape turned his back and tried to understand why the cell was different. Why this one hurt him and the others didn't matter.
"You can always say it was an accidental reaction, or I pushed you too far. Two words professor. That's all I need you to say. Just two words. Please. Just two words."
The vial in his hand had warmed. He clutched it closer.
"Tell them who I am after...give them what they need. Go home sir. Go home and tell him for me. Tell him he would have been a wonderful father. Give him that for me."
Snape set his purple vial down.
"Wormwood sir. I can't take it in potion form. I go into shock."
He picked up a dark brown one instead.
"Thank you. Promise me...please..PLEASE!"
He walked over to the woman and purred it down her throat. She did not fight him. The cell was different. The cell was grateful. The woman started to shiver and her eyes closed. He watched the light in the cell go out as night approached.
"I promise."
The door opened like all the others. The guards came like always. Lucius was not happy. His toy did not respond. Snape watched the cell empty of its meager contents. It really was like all the others. The blood, the walls, the death and the cold, all there, all waiting.
He told them what they needed. He told them her name. He told them who she was and why she didn't answer under their veritaserum. She had been trained not to. He had trained her like the others at the school. The ones the old man had ordered him to teach. He felt the punishment. He did not scream. She had never screamed, he somehow knew that. They let him go. They let him go home. He would be needed in another plain cell later. Another ordinary cell with its standard blood and its regulation smell.
Snape made it home. He climbed the steps and found him. He was sitting with the others. He was not smiling now. He hadn't smiled in three weeks. He was not normal either. Like the woman, both did not fit in those cells. Both were beyond the blood, the rot, the fear.
Snape pulled out a handful of matted hair. He set it in front of the one he had promised to tell. The man took all that remained of his love in his hand.
"Professor?"
"It was all I could get out. All I could bring back."
"I don't understand sir. Please..." His words were a sad parody of the other's.
"I'm sorry. I promised."
"What did you promise sir? Where is she, do they have her? Is that why she disappeared? I thought she.."
"She is not there anymore. I am sorry."
"Oh no, I ...she can't be.."
"She made me promise..."
"..what did you promise?"
"To tell you."
"To tell me what?"
"You would have been a wonderful father."
The man looked at his hands and a tear fell onto the once brown strands there. The once wild and uncontrollable brown strands that had caused their owner so much grief. "She was..I didn't know. Why did you tell me! Loosing her is....I would have been a father."
"Be careful what you promise Potter. Promises only cause pain."
Snape left to work in his labs. Wormwood and asphodel, salvation in death. The cell had looked like the others...
Author: Saavik
Summary: The cell looked like all the others....
Whene'er you make a promise, consider well its importance.
And when made, engrave it upon you heart.
WW. Sheild, 1828
The cell looked like all the others. Cold, damp, small and it held a single occupant. It looked like any other dungeon cell. From the blood coating the floor to the smell of human feces. It was an ordinary cell. So ordinary that its contents shouldn't matter.
At least that's what Snape told himself as he approached it. "Find out who ssssshe isssss SSSSeverussss. SSSSShe is quite uncooperative and veritassssserum doessssn't appear to affect her. I want know. Do what you mussssst but find me ansssswerssss." The voice of the Dark Lord followed him reminding him what he must do. The war was raging and Snape wondered what new casualty he would find behind the door. The others had laughed as he gathered his potions. He didn't know what was going to be behind that iron and oak barrier, who he would be questioning nor what he would do when he found out.
Lucius wanted to watch, he always wanted to watch. Snape refused him with an easy glare. The man was so much like his son. So controllable if you knew how to push. And Snape knew, the knowledge had been painful to discover, but he knew. Malfoy left him to prepare in peace.
The door was waiting. The cell was waiting. Snape marched down the corridor with his two guards flanking him. He ordered them to wait at the end of the cellblock. He would not need them. The woman inside the plain ordinary cell had been there for three weeks. Any normal, mundane, unimportant, insignificant, unnecessary woman would not be a threat after such a long stay in the Dark Lords private dungeons. Or so Snape said.
The door looked like the others. It opened just like the others always did. The figure huddled in torn robes shrunk back like the others. But this one raised its head to meet his eyes. Recognition flashed in the brown lifeless vessels. This creature knew him. Snape closed the door, just like he always did. What the others thought he did to get the information was not his concern. He didn't care if they thought the worst, they expected the worst. They did the worst daily. The only difference appeared to be that Snape's worst always provided answers where theirs ended in corpses.
"Professor?" The thing on the floor spoke. They were not supposed to speak to him like that. Not with hope, not with awe, and not with such spirit left. She should be broken. She should be a mess of tears and pleas. She was not like the cell. She was not ordinary.
"Professor, is that you?"
Snape set his bag down and made sure the door was locked and the room unmonitored. The pathetic pile of rags was trying to stand but its legs were not at the right angles. The blood on the floor was thicker than normal. The cell seemed smaller.
"Do what you have to professor. I understand. Just...please tell him...tell him he would have been a wonderful father."
No not normal at all. The cell was a half-foot smaller than the others and the smell twice as nocuous. He cast a spell to make the thing stop moving and it sunk to the floor.
"Professor, make it quick. Please, I can't keep this up. I lost..."
The large bag was half full now. His array of vials took up a good portion of the table he had conjured just as he always did. He picked up a small yellow one and held it up to the meager light that fell from the small slit in the wall that let in the cold February air. He always started with the yellow one.
"How long have I ...it doesn't matter. I'm allergic to wormwood sir."
He put down the yellow one and picked up a purple potion instead. He didn't need to look at it, he knew what it was. He normally waited till later....the cell was not like the others.
"I know you can't take me home. Just please...tell him I never told them anything. I never gave away his secrets. Please Professor. Tell him that for me. Tell him I will always love him."
Snape turned his back and tried to understand why the cell was different. Why this one hurt him and the others didn't matter.
"You can always say it was an accidental reaction, or I pushed you too far. Two words professor. That's all I need you to say. Just two words. Please. Just two words."
The vial in his hand had warmed. He clutched it closer.
"Tell them who I am after...give them what they need. Go home sir. Go home and tell him for me. Tell him he would have been a wonderful father. Give him that for me."
Snape set his purple vial down.
"Wormwood sir. I can't take it in potion form. I go into shock."
He picked up a dark brown one instead.
"Thank you. Promise me...please..PLEASE!"
He walked over to the woman and purred it down her throat. She did not fight him. The cell was different. The cell was grateful. The woman started to shiver and her eyes closed. He watched the light in the cell go out as night approached.
"I promise."
The door opened like all the others. The guards came like always. Lucius was not happy. His toy did not respond. Snape watched the cell empty of its meager contents. It really was like all the others. The blood, the walls, the death and the cold, all there, all waiting.
He told them what they needed. He told them her name. He told them who she was and why she didn't answer under their veritaserum. She had been trained not to. He had trained her like the others at the school. The ones the old man had ordered him to teach. He felt the punishment. He did not scream. She had never screamed, he somehow knew that. They let him go. They let him go home. He would be needed in another plain cell later. Another ordinary cell with its standard blood and its regulation smell.
Snape made it home. He climbed the steps and found him. He was sitting with the others. He was not smiling now. He hadn't smiled in three weeks. He was not normal either. Like the woman, both did not fit in those cells. Both were beyond the blood, the rot, the fear.
Snape pulled out a handful of matted hair. He set it in front of the one he had promised to tell. The man took all that remained of his love in his hand.
"Professor?"
"It was all I could get out. All I could bring back."
"I don't understand sir. Please..." His words were a sad parody of the other's.
"I'm sorry. I promised."
"What did you promise sir? Where is she, do they have her? Is that why she disappeared? I thought she.."
"She is not there anymore. I am sorry."
"Oh no, I ...she can't be.."
"She made me promise..."
"..what did you promise?"
"To tell you."
"To tell me what?"
"You would have been a wonderful father."
The man looked at his hands and a tear fell onto the once brown strands there. The once wild and uncontrollable brown strands that had caused their owner so much grief. "She was..I didn't know. Why did you tell me! Loosing her is....I would have been a father."
"Be careful what you promise Potter. Promises only cause pain."
Snape left to work in his labs. Wormwood and asphodel, salvation in death. The cell had looked like the others...