Author's note and other random things: Disclaimer: Now really, if I owned Harry Potter, would I be sitting here writing fan fiction about it? I think not.

I'm probably not going to update this too often, but you never know.

I didn't specify which two Death Eaters were speaking in the first three lines. So just imagine whoever you want talking to each other saying them. X3

Also, Snape may be acting a bit out of character, but who could actually capture his personality perfectly other than JKR herself? I try, but not the first couple of chapters, so be warned. Actually, all characters might not be acting as they normally would. If you don't like it, then don't read.

There's no description of how the characters look in the beginning because we all have different images for the characters in our minds. I expect you all to have read the books to be reading fan fiction about it. If not then, I suppose you'll have no idea how they look. You could always do an image search for a character and have the movie version or artist renderings?

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"I mean honestly, what does he expect us to do when he's not here? Just sit here waiting for a command wasting our lives away?"

"It's what we're doing, isn't it?"

"Well, I suppose. Yes. I guess it is…"

The Death Eaters sat in a room, about a fourth of the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. It was made of stone, was poorly furnished, and was filled with people, bored expressions on their faces. They really had nothing to do when Lord Voldemort wasn't with them in the winter, especially when most Hogwarts students were away for holiday. Severus Snape sat in a corner shuffling a deck of cards; Rabastan Lestrange was sitting at a glass-topped table with his brother, Rodolphus Lestrange, and sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange. Amycus and Alecto Carrow leaned against the wall talking a bit every once in a while. Barty Crouch Junior sat on the ground, his legs crossed, slowly emptying a bottle of firewhiskey.

Lucius Malfoy was reading a book, occasionally being interrupted by his son's questioning and bored complaints. His wife, Narcissa, although not really a Death Eater, was with him, draped across an armchair taking a nap. The room was silent except for the quiet sound of cards hitting each other, the impatient drumming of fingers (caused by Bellatrix), and the rare exasperated sigh.

"Not for nothing, Severus, but that card shuffling is rather irritating."

"Not for nothing, Bellatrix, but that finger drumming is rather irritating." he replied mockingly.

Bellatrix drummed her fingers one last time before flexing her fingers and letting her hand drop flatly on the table. She sighed in annoyance as Snape continued to shuffle his cards. She glared at him dangerously, but he pretended not to notice. "Severus!" Bella cried out, finally having enough.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop." Snape said, throwing the cards up in the air carelessly and watching them flutter to the ground.

"Someone entertain me. I've been sitting here for the past hour watching a spider spin a web. I'm bored out of my mind." Draco said as he crossed his arms on the top of the chair his mother was occupying, slowly lowering his head to rest on top of them.

"Well what do you expect us to do? Put on a magic show?" asked Bellatrix in annoyance. It's not as if he was the only one that was bored.

"Come on Aunt Bella, you know what I mean." he said.

"No, I really don't. Enlighten me." she replied flatly.

Draco didn't really know what to do either. He kept his eyes on the spider spinning its web, unhurried, making sure each and every strand connected where it was supposed to, and checking that each was not too short or too long. It worked so hard, and the end result was rather pretty, almost like a small bit of magic that no witch or wizard could ever produce.

"Crucio." said Bellatrix almost inaudibly, aiming her wand at the spider. A smile gradually spread across her face as she watched the spider fall to the ground, in too much pain to stay where it was. Its legs bent in directions they weren't supposed to go, and when it could, the spider thrashed about a bit, until giving in to the pain again and crumpling. Bellatrix couldn't help but let out a small giggle. Finally, she decided to stop as it was beginning to bore her. A jet of green light shot out of the tip of her wand and hit the spider. The spider ceased to move.

Draco sighed. "Now what am I supposed to do? I was watching that." Draco said coldly to his aunt. Bella merely mumbled something that no one could decipher.

"That magic show idea wasn't bad." Lucius stated, not lifting his eyes from his book.

Rodolphus scoffed at this. "Except we all know how to do magic," he said. Rabastan nodded in agreement with his brother.

"How do you expect us to be amused if we know how to do it ourselves?" Alecto questioned.

"We could do magic. Without wands." Severus answered.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Like that's possible."

Severus smirked. Maybe not real magic, but tricks and slight of hand. If no one figured out the trick, which most people didn't, then it could be enjoyable to see their reactions. He walked briskly over to the table that Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Bellatrix were seated around and sat in the last unoccupied chair. The Death Eaters that weren't currently at the table quickly walked over to it, curious as to what Severus was planning to do. Lucius woke his wife and walked over to the group to watch.

"Bellatrix, that necklace you're wearing is quite lovely." Narcissa said to her sister after arriving at the table.

"Hm. It is. Is it important to you?" asked Snape, seeming more interested in it than would be expected.

"Thank you Cissy. And yes, it's important to me." Bellatrix replied, raising her brow at Snape. "Now are you doing magic or not? I want your wand. Actually, I want everyone's wands. No one can help you, and you can't help yourself."

Snape's face remained expressionless, though internally, he grinned. She always thought of everything. He surrendered his wand, as did everyone else. Bellatrix stowed them away, sticking some in a bag and others in a variety of places, none of them easily reached without being seen.

"So? Get on with it then." uttered Draco, impatient and bored.

Severus started by pulling a new deck of cards out of a pocket. He began shuffling, but was interrupted by someone cutting his sleeves off. Everyone looked at Barty as if he were an escapee from St. Mungo's Janus Thickey ward.

"What are you doing?" inquired Snape as Barty continued cutting the seams of Snape's robes at the shoulder.

"Making sure you're not cheating. You know, shoving cards up your sleeves and things." replied Barty as if it were obvious.

"Alright…" Severus said, still unsure about the man's sanity. He let the cut off sleeves fall off his arms onto the floor. A simple 'reparo' would fix it later. He continued shuffling the cards then spread them in a perfect fan. "Someone pick a card."

Bellatrix ran her hand along the cards, wondering how this was going to work out. She selected a card and looked at it. It was black, the Queen of Spades. She showed it to the rest of the Death Eaters, making sure Snape couldn't see the face of the card. He cut the deck and told her to put it there. She did so, and he placed the rest of the deck on top.

"Hold on a second." Draco said, his tone laced with a hint of disappointment. "I didn't think it would be this easy to figure out… but you're just holding the place with your finger, aren't you?"

Snape simply placed the deck of cards in Draco's hands. "You shuffle it then."

"Really? It won't mess up your trick or anything?" asked Draco, obviously surprised.

"Of course not. It's magic, not a trick." Snape answered, earning a few looks of confusion and doubt from his fellow Death Eaters. "In fact, all of you can shuffle if you like."

Draco thoroughly shuffled the deck and offered it to his mother. She did the same and handed it to Rabastan. He shuffled, then handed the deck back to Snape, who passed the deck to Bellatrix. "We need something transparent. There aren't any windows that I can stand on the other side of, and the door doesn't have one. Hm."

"The table won't work?" questioned Amycus, somewhat suspicious.

"I didn't think of that. No, it'll work fine. I'll have to go under the table though." said Snape, already pushing his seat back and lowering himself under the glass. "Now Bellatrix, I need you to spread the cards out on top of the glass. Not in a fan or a line, just spread them around, sort of a pile I guess. It doesn't really matter."

Barty started mixing the cards on the table at this point, trying to make sure that they were sufficiently jumbled, creating the pile Severus had asked for at the same time. When he was satisfied, he stopped and stood back, watching with the others. Bellatrix looked interested, Draco was still doubtful it would work, Narcissa was curious, as was Lucius, Amycus, and Alecto. Barty seemed a bit drunk, but was enjoying the trick anyway, Rodolphus and Rabastan looked as if they didn't know where Snape was taking this.

"Now, I haven't seen your card and you all shuffled the deck, making sure I couldn't figure out where it was, right? Push on the cards, Bella." Severus said as Bellatrix started pushing on the cards. Snape looked as if he were trying to pull something from the bottom of the glass.

"How did you- how are you- what?" Draco spluttered, completely and utterly perplexed. Snape was pulling a card through the glass. He placed the card face up on the table and reclaimed his seat. Right there, face up on the table, was the Queen of Spades. Eyes widened and mouths dropped open, the Death Eaters all turned to Snape. In the next minute, he was faced with half-asked questions, stuttering, and more looks of amazement. After recovering a bit, the Death Eaters were all creating ideas with each other on how that was possible. Bellatrix and Draco seemed to be the only ones that weren't trying to figure out how it was done, for they were just taking pleasure in being shown the trick.

A while after conversing about the trick, trying to figure out how it was done, and failing miserably, the Death Eaters returned to where they were before. Snape collected the cards, then went over to the corner to pick up the cards he had left earlier, Bellatrix returned to hitting her fingers on the top of the table, and Draco went back to being bored. After he finished picking up the 52 cards, Severus joined the group at the glass table again. "Another trick?" asked Bellatrix, trying painfully hard to sound uninterested.

"Maybe if you stop playing percussion with your fingers." Snape replied. He was quite surprised when she stopped right after he said the word 'percussion.' "I said maybe." Bellatrix's eager expression seemed to falter at that. "Bella, may I see your necklace?" Severus asked casually.

"My… necklace?" Bellatrix questioned as if she hadn't heard him right. "I suppose. If you do another trick after." Severus rolled his eyes. She really did enjoy that trick. Hm.

"Alright, I'll do another after I look at it." he said. Snape pushed back from the table and walked over behind Bellatrix. He moved her hair over her right shoulder and unhooked the clasp of the necklace. Rodolphus seemed a bit uncomfortable seeing Snape so close to his wife. Severus pretended not to notice, but brushed his fingers lightly on the back of her neck before turning around and returning to his seat, necklace in hand. He didn't see that his touch had caused Bellatrix to shiver. The small brush of skin was light enough to pass as unintentional, though that didn't keep Rodolphus from looking shocked if not slightly hurt, at his wife's reaction to it. He recovered quickly when the other Death Eaters gathered around the table again.

"He's not doing another trick yet." Bellatrix stated when the other Death Eaters started arriving.

"Hm." Snape grunted as he examined the necklace closely. "That's really beautiful." Severus said, tightening the chain in his hands so it was a flat, silver line leading from one to the other, the ornament staying somewhere near the middle of the chain. The silver necklace really was quite attractive, the person that made the pendant had tried incredibly hard to make it flawless. It was a small silver heart, encrusted with tiny diamonds, probably meant to sparkle when in the sun. If one looked really closely, he or she could see a design engraved into the silver where there were no diamonds. That amount of detail, and the precision at which it had been done was breathtaking. The piece of jewelry was gorgeous.

Severus stretched the chain tighter and tighter until finally, it broke into three pieces. A couple people gasped, Bellatrix gave him a dark look, and Rodolphus looked as if he were about to explode. "You- you- you… SNAPE! How could you have done that? I said it was precious to me, and you just broke it." Bellatrix yelled. She hoped she was acting angry enough. She'd never say, but the necklace really wasn't that important to her. It was simply another reminder that Rodolphus cared about her, and she already knew that.

"I gave that to her the day after we got married, git!" shouted Rodolphus. All the rage directed at Snape seemed to fly over him. He didn't look the least bit guilty.

"I apologize." said Severus, not really meaning it. "Bella, if I can fix it, I'd deserve a little peck on the cheek. You'd do it, wouldn't you?"

Rodolphus grew angrier. Bellatrix was married to him. How could Snape just ask that? Bellatrix laughed at Snape. "Of course I will, if you fix it without your wand, without just replacing the chain, and without taking it to a jeweler." she stated. She figured he had no way out of this.

"Hm. Fine. I'm not going to fix it though. You are." said Snape, sliding the three pieces and the heart over towards Bella.

Draco seemed to catch on first. "This is another trick, isn't it?" he asked. Lucius seemed genuinely more interested after hearing this. Severus simply shrugged his shoulders in response to the question. Barty picked up the three pieces of the necklace to make sure they really were broken. He slid the heart off the piece of the chain it was on for good measure. When he was done, he placed the pieces and the heart back on the table near Bellatrix.

"Bella, I need you to put your hand over the pieces. Yes, just like that." Snape instructed as Bellatrix moved her right hand to cover the four parts of the destroyed accessory. Snape stared intently at Bella's hand for a moment. "Now Bellatrix, grab the chain and lift it slowly off the table. Remember, slowly." Severus said.

Bellatrix did as she was told. She grabbed a piece of chain between her index finger and thumb and slowly lifted the piece. Though now, it wasn't actually a piece. It was the whole chain, unbroken, clasped, and with the heart on it.

"Severus, won't you please tell how you did that?" begged Narcissa. She wasn't the only one that wanted to know. Draco asked the same question, Alecto and Amycus were examining the necklace, and Bellatrix was speechless. Rodolphus looked slightly jealous, Rabastan was unconvinced that was possible, and Barty was purely amused. Severus smirked at them all.

"I'm not telling how I did it." Severus answered Cissy.

"Did you see? He didn't even touch the chain!" Draco exclaimed to Barty. The necklace was returned to Bellatrix, who looked at it in astonishment. It wasn't possible. She didn't do that. She couldn't have fixed it without knowing, could she? Severus did it. But how? He didn't even touch the thing, like Draco said. A small smile graced her lips. Some things were just too odd to understand.

"Bella, I do remember a certain promise before this trick…?" Severus said. Rodolphus clenched his jaw as Severus got up from his seat and approached Bellatrix. She bent forward to kiss his cheek, when suddenly, he turned his head to hers so she kissed him on the lips. Lucius chuckled at this. Rodolphus glared at everyone. Today was not exactly the best day of his life. Snape pulled back to find a very emotionally confused Bellatrix looking back at him. He smirked at her. Her expression changed too fast to know how she truly felt. At first, it was pleasurable, then shocked, then angry, then confused, then loving, then guilty, then worried. She looked to Rodolphus to see his reaction. He was giving Severus a foul look. Bella excused herself from the table and left the room.

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Author's note and more other random things: In case you all are wondering, the first effect performed by Severus is called 'Kaos' by Sean Beard. The second is something I saw Criss Angel do on tv. I don't know how to do either of them, but they're both really fun to watch. -

I forgot Yaxley, Dolohov, Macnair, Mulciber, Avery, and everyone else. I might put them in later chapters though. Depends on what you all want. Is there anyone else I'm forgetting?