Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. The literary genius JK Rowling made up this brilliant stuff.
Well, It's NOT a Snape/Bella pairing. It has tidbits of DH (not that much). Anyway, the chapter's a bit short, but I hope you love it!
Cups, Badgers, and Thorns
Chapter One: Outside the Door
A dark woman sat on the dim-lighted sidewalk at Spinner's End, her straggly, tousled, black hair pasted on her face by tears. She sat there like an idiot, like a stray cat sprawled on the cool cement, her onyx eyes puffy with tears she never thought she would shed. The moon peered out of the wispy clouds, as if gazing at her sorrows. It shone at Bellatrix Lestrange, sitting outside an obnoxious and hostile-looking structure. Any passerby would think she is absolutely preposterous to be staying at the streets in the middle of the night. Bella seemed to have lost her mind, as if she's not aware that she's in a Muggle inhabited area. All her problems give the impression that she's like a teacup about to shatter.
Suddenly the door behind her opened. A scrawny man stood in the doorway. Apparently, he heard Bellatrix's sobs, and looked exasperated with it.
"What are you doing, crying like a faucet outside my house?" Severus Snape questioned her. She raised her head and looked at him, but said nothing. Snape's mouth twitched. "What can I do for you? Surely you want to enter?" he snarled, very much puzzled at why in the world Bellatrix was crying outside his door. She sat there, making no noise, smoothing her tresses, her dark eyes staring into his.
"Very well, then. If you don't want to-I have no idea why you're here." Snape said, and with a click the door closed. Bellatrix, who seemed to return to her wits, crawled towards it and knocked. "Severus-I need your help-"
The door swung open again. "Stop playing childish games, will you?" he said annoyingly as she let her in. Bella just stood there, gazing at the cracks of the walls and the numerous books that peppered it. Snape poured himself some of the usual elf-made wine and sat down. "I do believe you want to sit." he said, looking very irritated. She finally sat down, in a robot-like movement, and began mopping up her eyes.
"Well, what can I do for you? Isn't that the reason why you're here?"he asked. She cleared her throat, and said, "The Dark Lord….t-told us-me….that he placed his hard-to-earn trust in the wrong persons."
"Ah, but what could that mean?" Snape asked in a rather sardonic tone.
"Don't you understand?!," Bellatrix fired at him suddenly, "I-we have served our master faithfully for years! I would not let such a thing destroy his trust in us! We will perish like Mudbloods!"
"So, why exactly did The Dark Lord tell you those words? Most certainly, there is a reason."
"The Dark Lord asked me, his loyal servant," Bella narrated those words with pride, "to do a very special favor. He requested me to keep something of extremely high value at Gringotts, in my husband's family vault. It's my pleasure to safeguard something for our master, but he won't let me, because darling Cissy here's such…a coward. She's saying Lucius this and that, about master's diary five years ago, and about Hogwarts-she's becoming a prat herself." She laughed shrilly afterwards, that Snape felt like rolling his eyes.
"And you want me to do-"
"I want you to keep whatever the Dark Lord gives me. Make sure precious little Cissy won't see it. The Dark Lord will give it to me. I am not mistaken."
"So, you want me to keep a possession of the Dark Lord for you, after thinking I was Dumbledore's pet. Interesting, Bellatrix, are you trying to make a fool out of me? Clearly, I'm not an elf." Snape said coolly.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that," She shot at him. " And of course, after what you did to Dumbledore, surely I can trust you."
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