Ok, I don't own any of these characters or places, but the rants, the story, and even the spelling errors are mine. So leave my spelling errors alone. You want them, you ask for them. I'm generous, I'll share
I really don't want to go on that -'This is my first fanfic so please be oh-so-kind'-bit...but...this is the first time I've posted...but Dont' be kind I want Constructive Critisism. You see spelling errors, send'em in, I'll correct them. You see bad grammar, send it in, I'll correct it. You have a suggestion, send it in, I'll...well, I'll consider it. You have hate mail, keep it to yourself, it's a waste of time...though I may post your name behind some profanities later on...or not, I'm a busy slacker.
So Without much further adue, I hope you can entertain yourselves, and I hope I finish this soon...'cause I like it and I want to know what happens next...Enjoy
YaoSnoozie
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Cradled in Familiartiy: Chapter 1- Delivering Disloyal Pets
A day like any other. It was normal, not unusual in any way. This ordinary day was full of first years blowing up floating feathers and fourth years setting up pranks for their professors, of Filch prowling the halls for trouble and Dumbledore pilfering lemon drops, of jocks on brooms, beating each other with bludgers and book worms with literature, hiding in the library. But, for one student, this was not enough to add up to another boring, tidious, predictable day at Hogwarts. Something was missing.
"Harry, please, you're walking to fast." The bushy haired prodegy's hurried steps echoed in the hallway's high ceiling. "Honestly, I've been trying to slow you down since you've passed Professor Lupin's room. Are you all right Harry?"
Harry looked into his worried friend's face. 'Good old Hermione. You can always count on her to smell a secret.' Indeed, Harry was keeping something from her, and Ron as well. He had even kept the Headmaster in the dark, so far anyway. This was something that must be kept silent, not a word to anyone.
There could be consequences.
So, he settled for a half truth, "I'm fine 'Mione, just, well, edgy. Voldemort is up to something, I can feel it, but I can't do anything about it."
Hermione looked a bit skeptical, but she resumed their walk, heading for the Great Hall for lunch. 'Really, that's close enough to the truth. I'm sure that ugly git has something to do with it, and I really can't do anything. I'd like to tell you 'Mione, but you wouldn't understand. I don't think anyone would.' Harry sighed, eyes on the stone floor. He was in love with Professor Severus Snape. It was, then, a good for him that Professor Severus Snape was in love with Harry Potter. But, more than that, they had been seeing each other for over a year now. Things had been going unbelievably well. They had shed their mutual dislike after Dumbledore had forced them into a Phoenix partnership, requiring them to work together on plans and missions to defeat the Dark Lord.
As Harry had suspected, after the penseive incident, Severus bore him ill will because of his father's actions. The greasy git had assumed that, like his parents, he had been born into prosperity and given to the care of adoring relatives. Harry had been quick to prove the potions master wrong, demonstrating his good will towards greasy gits time and again in his work for the Order. He had even shared a few childhood stories with the older man, though, in truth, he had been fishing for some tales of Severus growing up. And he had gotten them. They had spent many a night in Severus' dungeons, talking by the fire, sipping at glasses of red wine, and basking in good company. Everything had been perfect, until Severus dissappeared.
Snape had been officially missing for two weeks. Not even the Order of the Phoenix knew where he was for sure. 'The old candy gobbler knows that Voldemort has something to do with this. Why won't he send anyone to help him.' The Headmaster had forbidden any of the Order from searching for him. Not that it was a problem for most of the members, only the boy-who-lived had protested, to himself, but protested none-the-less. In the mean time, he'd object by having an anxiety attack.
'Voldemort has summoned a Death Eaters' meeting to kill Sev, I know it. We'll find his corpse in the woods somewhere and that bloody git won't even know how much he hurt me. And Sev will die alone, that's what he hated most, being alone. He won't even know that I tried to find him.' Ignoring the Headmaster, he had searched for his pale beloved. How could he not? But there was no trace of him. He didn't even know where his partner last was or when, exactly, he was abducted. Not a bloody clue anywhere.
"Are you sure you're all right Harry, you nearly ran into that wall. I know the pesky things jump out at people, but...Harry? Are you even listening to me?"
He was not. His mind was still sifting through possibilities of death and torture, each worse than the last. He knew he was just going to start hyperventilating, then Hermione would notice and he'd have to lie to her.
"Er, no. I'm done spacing though, let's get to dinner."
'I'll just put it out of my head for now. No sense in worrying myself sick. But, if he's out there, if he needs help...'
'Mione and Harry walked through the doors and sat down across from Ron and Neville. As always, on a normal Hogwarts day, there was tastey food littering the tables and ravenous students stuffing themselves. Harry wasn't hungry at all, but, unless he consumed something, the ever-watchful 'Mione would comment and worry and observe him all the harder.
"Afternoon 'Mione, what have you guys been up to?" Ron was trying to speak around a biscuit, crumbs flying from his mouth. He was barely understandable. Neville was sipping a cup of cider.
Harry let himself slip away from the conversations again, allowing his friends to chat while he started on his brooding, thoughts straying to dark things once again. He was about to go mad. Not knowing what happened to his lithe love. Not knowing let his imagination take over the possibilities. But he couldn't let that happen, 'distraction, distraction, ah! There, Ron's making a fool of himself over Hermione again. Let's make him blush then, that'll keep my mind busy.'
Ron had been staring at certain parts of the female anatomy that 'Mione had been endowed with. Judging by the lack of bruises, cut, and other physical harm, the studious schoolmate had not yet noticed. She seemed quite captivated with picking the blueberries off of her muffin. 'She could've grabbed a banana if she doesn't like blue fruit.'
"For goodness sake Ron, stop drooling. 'Miones's muffins aren't that interesting."
His comment had the desired effect, entertainment. Hermione's head rose to glance at Ron as Ron jerked his eyes from her chest, focusing on her face. She glared. He blushed. She pelted him with the berries she had painstakingly removed. He blocked her persistant attack with a loaf of bread. Harry laughed.
Really, it was funny, especially when they were shouting, "Blueberri-ous Launch-io", "Loaf-i Gaurd-rem", and other such nonsense, he didn't know how 'Mione put up with it...unless, of course, she enjoyed it...
Before Harry could take that thought very far, he felt something strange. There was something, sort of, well-poking at Hogwart's barriers. He furrowed his brow, looking to the Headmaster to confirm the feeling. He too looked purplexed, looking around the ceiling as if he could see what was doing it, maybe he could. The poking incresed to a pounding, shaking the spells that lay in place to protect the school and its students. Several more heads popped up to looking for the cause of that strange feeling. Their magic senses were searching, trying to peer outside, trying to name the threat. Harry could feel what-ever-it-was smashing the shields, crushing them, shattering. They were gone. The Headmaster stood, no doubt about to issue orders to the student body and his staff(minus one professor). But at that moment, He appeared. And he wasn't alone.
Every student stood still as stone in their seats, disbelieving. Every eye was on the new arrivals, they couldn't look away. Like a car accident, this was too gruesome and awful to avoid. The Dark Lord Voldemort stood on the far end of the staff's table, towering over the population of terrified students. His feet soiled the spot reserved for their still-absent professor. Black robes hung from his tall frame, swirling around his leather boots, hiding his body from sight. His hair was black and mussed, like Harry's, but longer. Plastering a crooked grin on his face, he turned to the headmaster, raised one arm as if holding a goblet, and whispered words too quiet to hear.
A collective gasp was heard as everyone, ghosts and elves included, expressed their surprise. Now hanging from You-Know-Who's bruising grip was a very naked Severus Snape. He looked positively awful. His hair looked greasier than normal and plastered to his face with sweat, dirt, blood, and other vile substances. His arms were bent at angles that couldn't possibly be normal, obviously brocken and twisted out of place. Long legs were looked limp, the knees swollen and lumps of skin, caused by more broken bones, on his shins and thighs. Elegant fingers were black and curled in unnatural directions, looking as if they had too many joints. Bruises covered him from head to foot, in shades of yellow, green, violet, and, most commenly, black. There were dark finger shaped marks on his hips. There were teeth marks covering his neck and shoulders and surrounding his nipples. One shoulder was covered in the network of intricate marks made by fire. He was covered in small cuts and was dripping crimson onto the dinner table. No bit of skin was spared punishment of somekind, even the soles of his feet had been cut to shreds of skin. His lips looked torn and blue, his nose was broken and had obviously been pouring blood, one eye was swollen shut along with half his face, his jaw was crooked, his cheeks bruised and sporting abrasions. His other eye was clenched shut in pain, trying to to forget his stay away from Howarts, his treatment at the Dark Lord's hands, and the realization that his peers and students were staring at him. His students were seeing his naked body, brutalized by his master, helpless in the hands of his rough keeper. He was being presented bare, his shame on show. He was left two small reliefs, injuries left hidden from view, but Voldemort slowly curled his arm inwards, revolving Severus and stripping away the last of his protection, pride, and dignity. His face was pressed into a hard shoulder, making his nose start bleeding anew. His back now to the long tables, the last of his injuries were revealed. Long welts and bloody gashes, old and new, some leaking pus and foul liquids, covered his back, not bleeding much, but obviously painful. But the worst of all to be on display for the public was below that. Blood smeared the backs and insides of his legs, still dripping from the man's arse. He had kept himself from shivering, containing his fear and exhastion, but now, it was pointless, nothing could be more terrible that this, he had nothing left to hide behind. No worse shame left to hide
Voldemort grinned from ear to ear, pleased with himself for thinking of such an entrance. "Headmaster Dumbledore, so good to see you on such a fine evening." Yes, he was enjoying this turn of events. Finding that pesky spy had made his day. He clultched his pet closer to his chest, gently stroking his back. Even those light strokes were excrutiating. "I have not visited the school grounds since I was a boy here. How dissappointed I was to find that you had sealed it away from me." His strokes grew less careful, drawing pained groans from the horrified victim still held by the neck. "I've come to make it known that I am strong. I will not shield myself with servants. I offer you a challenge of sorts, a offer to let you 'kill me if you can.' Try your hardest--" he saught Harry out form the crowd, "--Potter." Voldemort hurled Severus to the ground and dissaperated. Severus rolled across the floor, coming to a stop on his stomach in front of the staff's table.
Dumbledore was the first to reach his fallen form, carefully bending over him. Harry was a quick second, scrambling to his feet with a cry of distress, sprinting down the Great Hall to his lover's side. He fell to his knees and put his hands on the abused flesh. He rolled him over with the utmost care, needing to see life in the dark orbs. Severus opened his one good eye and tried to focused on Harry's face, "Har-...you're, here."
Harry's vision blurred as tears filled his eyes. Seeing his partner shivering on the cold stone floor, he undid the clasp of his robe and spread it over Severus' naked form, covering him from neck to mid-shin. Harry tenderly touched his face, smoothing the hair from his blackened eye, giving a small, encouraging smile drenched in sorrow. Severus tried a warm smile of his own, slowly raising his battered arm so he could touch that beautiful face. "Harry, sorry a, about...leaving."
Tears flooded down the boy's cheeks as he leaned into the feathery carress. "I'm right here Sev. Everything fine now, I'll take care of you now. Just, just rest."
Severus tilted his head towards Harry's kind hand. He gave two light kisses to the shaking digits before letting himself relax, immersing himself in the sweet oblivion of sleep.
Harry's throat was tight. 'Well, I finally have an answer to my sweet's whereabouts. At least he wasn't on a trist.' Harry giggled, a little histerical, a little worried, and more than a little scared. 'What am I thinking, he's a bleeding mess for Merlin's sake. Dumbledore, see what happens when you cut people off from your plans you old bastard? I'm surprized this doesn't happen more often with you 'wiser-than-thou' attitude. A wonder we don't run in to each other and kill ourselevs off.' He stopped his not quite sane laughter to get to his feet.
Dumbledore had conjured a stretcher and was waiting for Pomfrey's okay to move the poor injured soul onto it. She finished reviewing her mediwitches' spells and curtly nodded, lips pressed together, trying to keep the sorrow from her face. Harry beat the Headmast to it, lovingly tracing the patterns of a levitation spell. Magically lifting the abused body from the hard floor, he focused on getting Severus safe. He'd worry about Voldemort later, right now, Sev was more important, much more important. He guided his love's supported form down the spacious halls, headed for the hospital wing, Dumbledore, Pomfrey, McGonagall, Sprout, and Hermione, dragging Ron, in tow.
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Ok, that bit's up, I've got more to work on...but the system's different...but I'll cope...maybe.
So R&R if you want, self esteem is always a good thing to boost. Or fun to crush if you're mean. Come again.
YaoS
