A/N: Just something that randomly occurred to me...
The Billowing Cloak of Doom
One-shot
"Fear is a cloak which old men huddle about their love, as if to keep it warm." William WordsworthSeverus Snape knelt before his master, greasy hair brushing his pale cheeks. That will give me a pimple, he thought with a definite sigh in his mind at this. He couldn't help having greasy hair after all!
But that was beside the point! This meeting was not about bowing, scraping, and greasy hair causing pimples... well, okay, the first two, yes, but pimples is not what this was about. No, definitely not pimples... although Severus could brew the best of pimple-removing potions, and supplied them regularly to Hogwarts students in his days there, but that still isn't the point!
The point of this meeting was some key information that young Severus Snape, aged 20, had for his master, the Dark Lord Voldemort (known also as Tom Marvolo Riddle and Voldemuffins, though anyone using those names where he could here had a rather nasty habit of turning up dead, so no one dared to bring them up) regarding a meeting held by one Albus Dumbledore not ten minutes since.
"My Lord," Severus whispered low, crawling forth on his hands and knees in a death-black cloak (if death-black is a color. It has been theorized as possible, but no one is, as of yet, quite sure. The top researchers in the Department of Ministries are currently working nonstop to unravel this most important of questions), a white mask covering the upper portion of his face, though slightly displaced by the enlarged beak of a nose resting just below it. His lips tentatively touched the rim of the Dark Lord's blackest robes.
Why black? He wondered idly. After all, isn't that Hufflepuff colors? But the Dark Lord endorses Slytherin and pureblood supremacy... surely there must be a reason... he's a Dark Lord for a reason after all! It's not like he's a closet Hufflepuff or something...
"Rise, Severus," The Dark Lord intoned. Severus backed away precisely seven shuffles (as the Dark Lord demanded of all servants) and moved into a simple kneeling position of a vassal to his Lord, keeping his eyes on the floor as he kept his head bowed in respect for the powerful wizard before him. "Report on your findings. They must be important for you to come so late."
"I believe so, my Lord," Severus replied. Yes, it was so important! "I tailed Dumbledore to the Hogshead, as demanded, for his interview of his new Divinations professor. At first, as I listened through the door of their parlor, I heard only the spoutings of a fraud, the reading of tea leaves to see the Grim, or a high screech as she would say his life line was abysmally short. I was intending to merely walk away soon, as the Headmaster had arisen from his seat and was walking to the door, but then the woman's voice was scratchy.
"My Lord... she gave true prophecy. I set up a recording spell on the doorknob quickly as she began, and the first line was missed by the spell, but I can give it to you myself before I play the rest. It began with... with this line, my Lord: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..."
He pulled a doorknob from his pocket, though how he had retrieved it would remain a mystery and tapped it. Ghostly words resonated throughout the room.
"Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."
Silence followed the recording, and Severus dare not look up. This information could be vital, quite vital, but it was not likely to be well received. The Dark Lord had no compunctions about "shooting the messenger" as Severus' filthy muggle father had said. He might die, or receive a crucio for the effort, but it was not a black mark on his record. He came directly to the Dark Lord with his findings, not sitting to stew over the possibility of death in it. In death, he would be remembered for full loyalty, no matter the cost.
"Severus," The Dark Lord's voice was low, quiet, and permeated the room's silence fully. "This is just the news I have awaited, something the fools of the light will take hope from. But I already know who this prophecy could apply to. Only two families have escaped me, twice, unscathed, and both are due at the end of July. I know who shall be more dangerous. The Potters and Longbottoms are the candidates, yes, and it is only a matter of time before I take this matter in my hands. Neither child shall live long, my faithful servant, and I shall be eternal..."
Severus bowed lower, sweating. The Potters? Lily Evans, the woman he loved, was a Potter now. He was remorseful that she should die, but knew it was inevitable. Perhaps, if he did better work now, he could request that the Dark Lord spare her when the time came.
"Yes, my Lord," He said.
"My faithful, I have decided, that, for bringing me such pivotal news... I shall grant you two gifts. One of knowledge, one physical," The Dark Lord spoke suddenly. "Ask for what you will."
The young man had to stop from gasping. A gift from the Dark Lord? He was favored then. A warm sensation filled him, and he remembered, idly, the fear which had trilled through him at first sight of the future ruler of all magical Britain, indeed, the whole of the wizarding world. There was a wind blowing from behind the master, who walked at a sedate pace, and yet his cloak billowed behind him instead of twisting about his legs. He wanted to know how to display his power in such a way as that! It would surely make small children (future Hufflepuffs surely) quail at the sight of the tall man with a billowing black cloak. And Lily... yes, he would ask for the knowledge of the billowing cloak and Lily!
"My Lord, there is... a woman, muggleborn," he said, "The Potter wife. If possible, I ask you let her live, that she might be mine..."
"So shall it be. One mudblood left alive means naught in the grand scheme of things," was the cold reply.
"I also... I wish to know how your cloak... how do you make it billow so when there is no wind to guide it?" I sounded rather stupid to speak it, but that was what he wanted. To have his cloak billow so! Yes...
The Dark Lord took two steps toward the young follower kneeling of the stone floor. "Very well, the secret is-"
However, at that exact moment, the spying device in the Dark Lord's chamber short circuited. The secret of the billowing cloak remains unkown.