Disclaimer: Not JKR. Not making any money.

Chapter Warnings: A teensy bit of violence and just general creepiness.


The air around the Dark Lord had a quality to it like the absence of light. Severus had noticed it the first time he'd been brought into his presence, nearly five months after he had joined the Death Eaters and after he had proved himself loyal three times, as was custom. Whenever Severus stood before the Dark Lord something evaporated out of him, something he could not identify and yet would miss, his heart aching, if he tried to fill in the gap.

Severus learned quickly enough to ignore that gap. To do otherwise weakened him, and the Dark Lord despised weakness.

He did not know why he was being brought before the Dark Lord tonight. Lucius Malfoy was accompanying him through the woods - and only Lucius. Severus had not seen any of the other, lesser Death Eaters once, not even lurking around the pub where he met Lucius prior to their trip to the woods. Lucius had bought a bottle of red wine and the two had shared it in silence. Severus had been too nervous to ask questions.

The woods were dark and thick with cold damp mist, the trees spindly and leafless. Severus pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders, and Lucius glanced at him.

"We'll be there soon," he said.

Severus nodded, and Lucius looked forward again, and began to walk slightly faster. Severus matched his pace.

Eventually, they reached a clearing.

The Dark Lord stood there in the center in his thin black robes - no cloak against the cold, and when he spoke, to welcome Lucius and Severus to their gathering, no condensation formed around his words.

"Severus," he said. "How good to see you again."

Severus bowed.

"Come." He gestured with one of his long pale hands. "Don't be shy. Come, come closer."

Severus stepped as close as he would dare, which was close enough that Dark Lord ran the back of his hand down Severus' face. His touch was colder than the air.

"Severus Snape," he said. "How old are you?"

"Almost twenty."

"So you're nineteen." The Dark Lord smiled. He had teeth like a crocodile's.

"Yes, my lord."

"That's quite young."

Severus kept his face blank, but annoyance flashed still flashed unbidden though his thoughts, and then there was a coldness there as well, and the Dark Lord laughed. "I didn't mean it as an insult, Severus."

"Of course not, my lord."

The coldness withdrew, and Severus found himself shrouding his mind, knitting a shield out of dispassion and emptiness. He knew it was wrong, he knew it was a traitorous act - he trusted the Dark Lord, and it was no concern of his if the Dark Lord wished to rummage through his mind, stirring up bits of flotsam that might prove dangerous to their cause.

But he still did it.

"In truth," the Dark Lord said, hissing through his teeth. "I find your age impressive. You're one of the youngest amongst my ranks, but you've completed deeds men twice your age have failed at."

At the word deeds Severus' stomach clinched tight and he saw the blank eyes of a woman whose name he did know and for a split second he groped for the gap inside himself and found only pain. And then the coldness crept in, but to Severus' great relief it saw none of those things.

"You have proven yourself loyal," the Dark Lord went on. "You do as you are asked, and when problems arise you solve them with intelligence and creativity. Don't you think so, Lucius?"

"I do, my lord."

The Dark Lord smiled. "What do you have to say for yourself, Severus?"

Severus hesitated. "I am - I'm honored, my lord, that you would speak so highly of me -"

The Dark Lord swatted the air, his robes rippling. "It's an honor," he said, "To have someone such as you within my ranks."

And when the Dark Lord spoke, Severus knew that his regrets and his doubt were wind, and he knew that he was in the right place after all, because no one had ever said such a thing to him. Not once, not in his entire life.

"Thank you, my lord," he said.

"I wish to elevate you," the Dark Lord said.

Severus didn't move, didn't speak.

"You will be allowed into my inner circle, along with Lucius and Avery and others whom you have not yet met. I have an opening for you, ever since -" The Dark Lord let out a long low hiss, and for a moment the night went darker. "Your work will become more complex - those kidnapping-and-torture missions are for thugs, not someone of your intellect -"

Severus kept the shield in place.

"-You have quite the talent for spell creation, yes?"

Severus wasn't sure if he was meant to answer, so he simply nodded. The Dark Lord didn't seem to notice.

"The Opposition has strengthened their own magical weapons, despite their disdainment of the Dark Arts - with every hex and curse we use against them, they create another five charms to counteract the effects. I've agents working on infiltrating their ranks, of course, but I want you to match their output. More curses than they could ever charm away." The Dark Lord smiled again. "Could you do that for me, Severus?"

"I would do anything for you, my lord."

"I knew I chose well with you." The Dark Lord's fingers grazed against Severus' face again. With a start, Severus remembered another touch, one from long ago, a touch that was warm instead of cold -

His heart began to ache, and the shields knitted themselves tighter together. An instinctual reaction. Sometimes, that happened.

"You will need to swear your loyalty to me," the Dark Lord said, dropping his hand. "Here, now, beneath the empty sky and before the empty trees. Lucius -"

Light flared in the clearing and Severus crumpled to the ground, clutching his hand to his chest. Blood smeared across his cloak. Pain shot halfway up his arm, radiating from the slash in his palm.

"Thank you, Lucius. Severus, drop your blood into the soil."

Shaking, Severus extended his arm. Blood ran in thick lines against his skin and soaked into the fabric of his robes. It dropped from the tips of his fingers. The black earth turned blacker and began to steam and hiss.

"Swear to me," the Dark Lord said.

Severus watched his blood drip and drip and drip. The steam drifted up like ghosts from the ground. "My lord, I didn't - I'm sorry, but I don't know the words -"

"Your own words, Severus. I won't have my inner circle regurgitating memorized lines to me. Create your own magic, Severus Snape."

Severus glanced at Lucius, whose face was still as stone. Then he closed his eyes, and in the blaze of his pain the words came to him.

"I swear to you," Severus said, and his hand burned with a heat like fire. "Lord Voldemort. I swear my fealty and my loyalty. My strength and my magic and intellect are yours to command." Steam drifted thick and white into the air, and it smelled metallic and sweet, like a dead body. "I am yours to command, your servant, your Death Eater."

The steam was so thick Severus could hardly breath. The blood weighed down the fabric of his sleeve. He realized he couldn't move his fingers.

"I accept your declaration of loyalty," the Dark Lord said, and with his words the steam and the blood and the pain disappeared. But there was still a thin pink line across the palm of Severus' hand. He wiggled his fingers; his joints were stiff.

"Arise," the Dark Lord said, and Severus pushed himself shakily to his feet. He felt drained. Empty. His body swayed back and forth, and he hated himself for showing weakness. But the Dark Lord only gestured for Lucius to step forward.

"Show me your arm, Lucius," he said.

Lucius pushed back the sleeve of his robe. The Mark twisted around his forearm, a swirl of darkness against his pale skin.

Severus' breath caught in his throat.

The Dark Lord tapped his wand against Lucius' mark, and even in the shadows Snape could see darkness welling at the wand's tip like ink.

"Severus," the Dark Lord said.

Severus held out his arm. He still trembled, and he was sweating beneath his robes, and his hair clung to the sides of his face. The Dark Lord noticed none of that. He merely touched his wand to Severus' skin, and there was a dazzling blast of pain, and the world went white and then black and then reformed, mist and shadow and dead trees.

When Snape looked down, the Death Eater's skull grinned up at him, and the snake danced.