So I was going to make a Snarry story with this as a first chapter, but I lost interest. Still, I saw this could be a stand-alone, so I posted it.
I love Snape, I really do, but sometimes I like to torture the characters I love lol.
If anyone is inspired by this and wants to continue it, they are welcomed to so :) Just please tell me if you do, so I can add a note about it here!
The room was dark. Empty.
Was there even a room? Or was he just floating in a void of pure darkness? He didn't know. He tried to move, but it was as if he didn't have a body to move.
Where was he?
"You are dead" Came a voice from the nothingness.
Dead. Dead? Memories came rushing to him. A battle against the remaining Death Eaters. A fatal cutting curse he couldn't dodge. The cold look in Albus's eyes as he watched him die, no compassion, only cruel satisfaction. The agony of slowly bleeding out, bleeding to…
Death.
He was dead.
It felt so liberating. No more agony. No more pain. No more balancing his life between two masters, hell no more having a master! He was dead.
He was free.
"Oh, do you really think so?" Said the voice in a mocking baby-talk. As if he was just a child who just had a ridiculous and amusing idea.
That voice sounded familiar to him. He had heard it before. Heard and loathed it. Who was it?
Suddenly, the darkness surrounding a spot in the nothingness lightened enough for him to see the silhouette of a man. The darkness lightened a bit more, and he could finally discern who it was.
"Potter" His usually smooth baritone was absent, his voice a harsh croak. Not that he really registered it in his shock.
Potter. He was the last one he expected to see here. And it was him, he was absolutely certain (though he didn't know where that certainty came from). But there was something… different about him. His eyes, once that lovely shade of emerald he inherited from his mother, had lightened and brightened until they were the exact color of the Avada Kedravra. He had also grown, looking to be near his thirties, which was odd because he died when he was eighteen, dragging the Dark Lord with him. Which was a year ago.
"Nothing is as it seems here, Severus," Potter said, smiling mockingly "Especially if I don't wish it"
"What… do you mean?" Severus managed to croak, now noticing the state of his voice. Harry didn't answer, staring at him silently. Then, he moved towards him, and Severus absently noticed that the awkward walk the boy used to have, as if he was uncomfortable in the ground, had disappeared and left in its wake a smooth, predatory glide. Harry stopped before him, and raised a hand, hovering it just above his throat – and it was then when he noticed that the sensation of not having a body had disappeared. Though, for some reason, he couldn't move it or ask what he was doing. He could only stay there, standing and looking.
"That's right, that cutting curse reached part of your throat, didn't it" Murmured the other man, his hand moving as if caressing the skin without touching it. He then made a complex gesture and stepped back a few steps. It was then when Severus could move and talk again.
"What did you do?" He asked, the startled when his voice was back to his smooth baritone.
"I fixed your voice, obviously" The other man smirked, "It would be annoying to hear that harsh screech for all eternity, don't you agree?"
Suddenly, Severus couldn't take it anymore, and confusion turned into anger.
"What the hell do you mean by eternity Potter?" He snarled "What is happening? Where am I?" When the brat just kept smirking at him amusedly, he roared "Answer me!"
"My, my, that temper of your hasn't changed, has it?" Harry chuckled. With a wave of his hand, Snape was paralyzed again, and rage turned into fear as he struggled to move, but couldn't.
"How?" He whispered. He hadn't felt any magic, nor seen a wand. It shouldn't be possible to bind him without it.
"Have you not wondered why your voice was still affected by the cutting curse when you are dead now, and thus no longer affected by physical injuries?" Harry casually asked.
He hadn't, until now.
"It seems that your voice is something you value a lot" Harry mused. Severus blinked. What did that have to do with anything? Seeing the confusion on his face, Harry chuckled.
"Come on, Severus, where is that intelligence you had in life?" He mocked "You are dead, in a place full of darkness and in the company of someone you hate. You should know exactly where you are. After all, you've known since you realized the consequences of being a Death Eater where your soul would end."
Severus stared, paling as everything slowly sank on him. His heart began to beat madly as a wave of pure panic traveled through him.
'No' He thought 'This can't be true. I thought I had redeemed myself. I thought...'
"That you would end up in heaven with your dearest Lily Evans?" Harry completed his thought with a cruel smile that didn't fit his angelic face "Oh, my dear, dear Severus" He chuckled "Do you honestly think that the blackness of your soul would suddenly disappear just because you decided to do the 'right thing' for the last seventeen years of your life? That's not how things are done"
"But..." He whispered. But he couldn't find any protest, any excuse. He knew Potter was right. After all the death and suffering he'd caused in his life, after causing the death of the woman he loved, he'd been naïve to think he would be spared. He'd always known he was destined for Hell. Hoping otherwise had been so foolish...
Despair inundated him at the same time that the hope disappeared, replaced by acceptance. He had looked for this. He had no one to blame but himself.
"Are you to be my torment in Hell, Potter?" He asked after a while of silence, his voice rough with the overwhelming emotions. He didn't look at him as his head was bowed, face hidden by his dark hair.
"I suppose you could say that you have the privilege of having me as your personal torturer, yes" Potter chuckled.
Severus looked up for a second before looking away, though he couldn't help but snark, "Privilege?"
"Why, of course it's a privilege!" Harry exclaimed in a mock scandalized tone "After all, most souls would die to have the King of Hell all to themselves." He chuckled at his own joke, but Severus didn't notice. He was too busy staring at him with his mouth open, terror visible on his dark eyes.
"King... of Hell?" He whispered.
"Oh yes, that's me" He chuckled. His voice then changed, becoming darker, more sinister, sending shivers through Severus's spine "And as a soul destined for my realm, you belong to me." The darkened room somehow became even darker, glowing Avada Kedavra eyes the only thing visible.
The sight made Severus mute with terror. He wanted to move, to run away from this, this… monster Potter seemed to have turned into, but his body still couldn't move, couldn't react to the commands his brain was frantically giving it.
"Seeing how you are so desperate to move..." Potter said with vicious amusement "Then I suppose I shall grant you your wish"
And Severus finally moved, yes. But not the way he wanted. Out of his control, he could only widen his eyes as his body walked towards the shadow that was Potter until he was just in front of him. Then, in a move too smooth to be natural, he knelt before him, head bowed once again, but this time in submission.
"You are surprisingly pretty like that" Harry murmured "That position suits you incredibly well… I think I will keep you like this. Would you like that, my pretty soul?"
He didn't know what came over him. Maybe he found courage in fear, maybe it was pure defiance, but Severus lifted his head and glared.
"I am not your anything" He growled "You do not own me" And he didn't, Severus wouldn't let him. Not when he was finally free of serving a master, any master. And besides, what would Potter gain from this? Hell was supposed to be about pain and torture, not… not…
"This?" Potter chuckled when he started "Don't be so surprised, my dear Severus, no matter how much you deny it, the fact is that as a soul destined for Hell I. Own. You. All of you; there is nothing you can hide from me… not your thoughts, not your feelings… everything is transparent to me. As for to what you were wondering" He added "Yes, Hell is supposed to be about all that. But you, you are used to all that, aren't you? You've suffered so much when you were alive that pain and torture mean nothing to you. Sure, I can increase their intensity to levels you've never imagined..." His sadistically demented grin made Severus shudder "But I won't do that" He shrugged, his expression returning to the amused one he'd been sporting all this time "It would hardly be original, would it? No" He continued, "I think that the best way to torture you is to make you into something you hate" His smile was feral "I will make you into my pet, my slave, my servant… my pretty little plaything. And best of all, I will make you enjoy it, so much that in the end, you will not remember what your life was before entering my service, you won't want to remember. You will be mine, all of you devoted to me and only me." Avada eyes bored into onyx "How do you like the plan?" He mockingly asked.
"Never"
"Oh, really?" Harry asked mildly. Severus tried to move, he really tried but in the end, he could only stare as a hand materialized from the shadows and moved towards him. It came closer and closer until it touched him and-
His.
All thoughts stopped. All his worries, all his fear, melted under the utter certainty that word echoing through him invoked. He, Severus Snape, was his. It was all that mattered, and he relaxed into that hand as it started to card through his hair. He didn't make any sound as it suddenly gripped his hair, tight. He was his, he could do anything to him and he would just accept it. Crave it. Love it.
"Tell me, my pretty" His Owner said, moving his head so he could meet His eyes "Are you mine?"
"Yes Master" He murmured without any hesitation, his tone serene and eyes only showing mindless adoration towards him. Harry chuckled and suddenly released him, stepping back.
Severus felt as if he was swimming up through a viscous liquid. What happened? He just remembered staring at a hand slowly moving towards him… why did that fill him with dread and terror?
"Well? Are we convinced now?"
Suddenly all his memories returned and Severus's head snapped up to stare at Potter in horror. No… no, he couldn't… he had, he had…
"That is the usual effect I have on the souls of my realm" Harry informed him nonchalantly "I could make it permanent, you know. You would be like that for as long as I please, mindless and adoring" Severus tensed at this information "But again, I won't do that. It would be boring to have you so easily. No, I will make you submit in a way that will have you willing to kneel for me."
"As I said before, never" Severus snarled, nonetheless relaxing slightly. This way he had a chance to resist.
"Never is such a long time" Harry mused before smirking "Good thing I have even longer to break you, don't you think?"
Severus just snarled, but inside he was feeling unsure. Could he really resist for all eternity?
"We will see, Severus. We will see"
He didn't know if he was responding to his defiance or his thoughts.
It didn't matter.