A/N: I do not have much to say but... enjoy!
Disclaimer: This has many… actually, most of it is from HP&DH, "The Elder Wand", pg. 652
And… Obviously, I'm not JKR. So, yeah. I don't own any of this stuff.
"Snape. Now. I need him. There is a — service — I require from him. Go," hissed the Dark Lord, closing his eyes in concentration. He heard Lucius stumble away, the door close and thud as he exited the Shrieking Shack.
Besides Bellatrix, Snape had been his right-hand man, and for a simple, but necessary, reason, he would be exterminated.
"It is the only way, Nagini," he told the snake, but mostly to convince himself. The only way…
The Dark Lord thought. He had dwelt on the possibility of there being another way. Possibility. The Dark Lord did not believe it until he saw it, and until then, he decided the chances of it being true.
The possibility of another way… No, there was not. He had tried to find another, but there simply was not. The Dark Lord did not overlook things…
Severus Snape must die in order to seize full control of the Elder Wand, and, at last, vanquish the teenage menace…
Voldemort sneered; – it was the closest he ever gotten to a smile – if Snape had been bright enough to allow Draco to kill the Headmaster… Then Malfoy would suffer, not Severus.
Why was there sacrifice? Why was there… love?
The Dark Lord murmured to his snake, "I do not fully understand, my dear Nagini, why Snape has chosen his own demise. He could have let the Malfoy boy die, but instead, he killed Dumbledore himself. Why do you think, Nagini, he did that? Why does he care?"
The Dark Lord grimaced at his snake, troubled. Not troubled by the fact he was about to kill another; he was a merciless tyrant. He was just troubled Severus Snape had shown compassion for another; there was a crack in the old dragon's shell.
"I am here, my Lord." Came Snape's velvety voice, and he stepped around the corner.
"Good, good, Severus." Purred the Dark Lord, fingering the Elder Wand in his skeletal fingers.
There was a silence; Snape gazed at Nagini, twirling in her enchanted sphere. It was impossible for the Dark Lord to tell what Snape was thinking, even being an accomplished Legilimens. The Dark Lord could usually read the emotion off the eyes without using Legilimency… but Snape's… Snape was stoic, his eyes always midnight black. There was no emotion at all in them, no flash of fear or joy.
The Dark Lord, no matter how hard he had tried previously, could not "read his mind" as the Muggles put it.
"My Lord," Snape's satin voice interrupted the silence, although it could be hardly heard in the haunting quiet, "allow me to go help in the fight, my Lord, their resistance is crumbling–"
"– and it is doing so without your help. Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there… almost." The Dark Lord purred; the Elder Wand seemed to vibrate in his hand with excitement, eagerly awaiting its true master to step forward.
"Let me find the boy," Snape persisted, striding forward. "Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."
The Dark Lord rose in a fluid motion, his crimson eyes glowing in the dim shack. "I have a problem, Severus," he said quietly, a sigh on the wind. His eyes tried to pierce the man's standing before him, but to no avail.
"My Lord?"
The Dark Lord took the Elder Wand, holding it aloft, but with sincere care and dexterity.
"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?" hissed the Dark Lord, his frustration creeping into his voice again.
"My – my Lord? I do not understand," said Snape, his voice vacant and cool. "You – you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."
"No, I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand…" Voldemort sneered again, and he glared into the face of Snape as if it held all the answers… and it did. He was the key to this… "No. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."
"No difference," hissed the Dark Lord, gripping the Elder Wand tight again.
Severus tensed ever so slightly, his heart picking up the pace. He remained silent, keeping his eyes on the snake that had evaded him until now… now was his chance. If only…
"I have thought long and hard, Severus," the Dark Lord purred from a shadowed corner of the room, "Do you know why I have called you back from battle?"
Severus thought for a split second, his eyes darting from the snake to Voldemort's bloodshot eyes and back again. "No – no, I do not, my Lord."
"I want to speak to you, Severus," murmured the Dark Lord, his hissing voice slicing through the still air. "You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."
Severus did not like the past tense. His midnight black eyes slid back to the coiling snake, cursing mentally. He tried to calm his breathing, to slow his heart, before he answered, "My Lord knows only to serve him–"
Severus cut off bringing up Potter again. The way Voldemort's eyes were burning a fierce red, his stride lithe but too silent, his face a mask but too calm; it would all shatter soon. Too soon. There must be another way of buying more time…
"My Lord," he started again, watching his master's progress through the tattered room, "I… believe you are mistaken."
That stopped him. Voldemort's burning hot-red eyes settled on Severus's cool and icy ones. "By what way?" He hissed, an iron grip on the Elder Wand.
Severus scrambled for something to say. Anything to keep him distracted… "About –" Think, you git, think. "About Draco Malfoy, my Lord."
"You think I am mistaken of young Malfoy?" purred Voldemort in a musing voice. He began to pace again, deep in thought. "Continue, Severus."
"My Lord, the boy has potential–"
"You sound like Lucius, Severus. The boy is slacking and not willing to stand up to me. He is pathetic and weak."
"I said potential, my Lord. However slow the pendulum swings, he will have his golden day and you will be glad you kept him." Thinking back to science, now, Severus? Potential and kinetic… let us see if it works.
Voldemort took his time answering, his cloak sweeping about the shack and upsetting the dust bunnies that hid underneath the furniture. Finally, he turned, and stared at Severus in front of the snake's sphere. "Tell me, Severus, why you sacrificed yourself for him." His tone was, again, soft; it was the mask of calm, the mask that withheld his true and current emotions.
"My Lord, I – I did it out of–"
"Out of what, Severus?" snapped the Dark Lord impatiently, turning on his heel and prowling the room once more, "out of love? Out of kindness, compassion? Where does it come from? Why care for a sniveling creature as Malfoy? Why not take advantage over their weaknesses, why not gain power and glory?" The Dark Lord turned and glared at Severus with fury eyes; his face was a mask, but the eyes still shone through.
Severus was silent. He continued to stare at the snake before finally shifting his glance to the Dark Lord. I have a heart, Voldemort. And you do not, which is why you do not understand the balances of humanity. You, Voldemort, are a disgrace.
"Severus" hissed the Dark Lord, his voice sending an actual chill down Severus's back, "I do not understand, but you have been a good and faithful servant; I regret what must happen."
"You have fought to save Draco Malfoy's life; however, valor and selflessness is what a Gryffindor might do. Severus, I believe the Sorting Hat was mistaken." A sneer played about Voldemort's face, and he began to finger his wand again.
"I do not understand, Severus, the Elder Wand," continued the Dark Lord, his eyes darting to the pallid man before him. Voldemort's crimson eyes bored holes into the midnight black ones, a competition. "But it cannot serve me properly. Severus, I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbldore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."
"My Lord–!" Severus objected, raising his wand.
"I do not understand many things in this world, Severus," the Dark Lord cut across Snape's protest, but his voice was quiet once more; the snake was rearing back for the strike. "I do not understand, but this is surely the only way. I do not overlook things, Severus. I must master the wand. Master the wand, and I master Potter at long last."
The Dark Lord then slashed his wand through the air; Nagini's sphere cage rolled tumbled from where it had perched and encased the man standing before him.
"Kill."
The giant snake lunged for the man, but suddenly, "SECTUMSEMPRA!"
The snake staggered as sword-like slashes darted along its body; with one last swipe from Snape's wand, the snake became beheaded, and it keeled to the ground.
The Dark Lord stared at the man. Anger and fury ignited in him like an infuriated beehive. His red eyes smoldering, he raised the Elder Wand himself and pointed it at the man: "Avada Kedavra!"
A/N: This was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It turns I can type things faster at their climax (no duh) and I'm surprised I could type this up in less than 12 hours.
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