Time for more stories time for lots of dark imagery guys. Be ready. It's exciting!
Disclaimer: I own nothing not the computer I'm typing on, the characters I write about or even the Chair I am sitting in.
Phantom Hope
Severus stared at the inferno raging in oak on the door. His Father had liked to talk of where various victims of the Dark Lord would be on the door. Unsurprisingly, most of them had committed no sin yet still deserved the deepest of hells layers. He clutched the handle, a heavy knob made of bronze and it turned with almost painful slowness. There was a rush of rank air that smelled of death and Severus knew: He had entered Hell. The room was large and actually comprised of three floors like a library. There were shelves of dark items and darker volumes and at the other end was the devil's desk, he had sat there deciding death with every stroke of the quill. He had been here often when he was young and then everything had screamed of the dark deeds done there. There were stains on the floor, rugs that were marred with what had once been life or at least existence. The deep stains were painful reminders of dark times he refused to remember.
"Professor?" Harry spoke the word quietly, cautiously, he was slightly scared now, Severus had frozen after only two steps into the room he had become very still and his pupils had dilated. Classic signs of fear. Harry wasn't sure what to think of that, he had unconsciously began drawing on Severus for strength and Harry knew the feelings that the professor seemed to be feeling all to well. He wasn't sure if knowing these things, likely secret things about the usually stoic man. He had seen so much emotion and light and shadow in the older man that he wasn't sure whether it made him respects him more or just understand him more. It was likely both but one thing was sure he wasn't going to find it easy to go back to the way things were. He liked the new Severus and it hurt to know that once he had his body back that it would all go back to the way it was.
"I… I'm fine." Severus forced the words and the calm sheen to override old feelings that had no place in the present. He scanned the room it was the same as it looked when he was a child but he was in charge here now.
"I don't like this" Harry intoned, uneasy "It just feels wrong there's something in the air even insubstantial, I can feel it." He shivered.
"I know but don't let it get to you the demons in here are long since dead." Severus moved swiftly to the desk. He had seen many a scroll here through the years, many of those yellowed with age. But the desk seemed frozen in time the remnants of a letter his father had been in the middle of writing on the desk. He read:
Our Holy war worsens each day but I sense we have the upper hand. The old fool and his false army will fall and our revolution will be complete, I continue to lend my families extensive library of lost arts to our efforts but there are more spells, ones that can only be safely done by those in my family and those that while powerful require the casters sacrifice. I hope that it will be done with swiftly so that we may move on to the second part of our domination: Purification once we purge this world our lord will reward us beyond our wildest dreams. On other topics I am disappointed in my son he will not listen to me I keep telling him that his pursuit of sciences are against the pure world we strive for but he will not regress I will deal with him shortly whatever happens he will follow us one way or another.
Severus blinked several times, that was where the letter ended. Thank Merlin. His father had been considering taking drastic steps to 'correct' him but he had ended his father's life before those actions had been taken. He looked across the desk and froze. The ink in the well on the table was wet not dry, as it should have been. He immediately ascertained Harry's position and scanned the room. There, the second level was a person, a death eater. And he was grinning. "Hello Severus, I hadn't expected you to ever come here again."
"No…" Severus muttered. "No."
Harry gazed at the death eater he had never heard that deep voice before and it was full of hatred. This was not good.
"You're dead." Severus ground out.
"You'd be surprised how flexible death is, Severus. Our lord escaped death and so did I." The man had dead gray eyes that showed nothing.
"No… death is irreversible, you cannot be here." Severus had drawn his wand and was glaring straight at the man as he descended from the second level to the first.
The man laughed and with a single fluid movement removed his mask to revel a dark reflection of Severus. "I can't die, you keep me alive in your memory so I'm always there. Right behind you." By magic the man was behind Severus, leaning over his shoulder and laughing softly.
"I killed you once I can do it again!" The professor spat the words as he spun to face the man who had been dead for 19 years.
Harry stared, the man was Severus's father, he recognized him from the portrait in the hall, Severus had said he'd killed him but was that possible? Something didn't seem right, Harry glanced around the room and caught a flash of movement on the very top level. He rushed up the levels and saw a very familiar face. Malfoy. The eldest one. (I can't spell his name and the school I'm typing in blocks all good sites except fan fiction) He was looking through the dusty bookcases. Harry glared at the man, he had used the illusion of Severus's father to distract him while he rifled through the papers in the file.
Below, all hell had broken loose. Severus was fighting his 'Father' and they seemed evenly matched. He looked desperate and ragged. His eyes though fierce were those of a child. It was as if he was 16 again and again fighting to save a life beyond his own, in a way he was, if he failed Harry couldn't return.
"Professor It's not real! Professor!" Harry yelled the words but Severus seemed beyond hearing. Harry knew this had to stop. Severus wasn't winning this time as Malfoy turned to the fight he seemed to be enjoying the show his smile grew and Harry realized what the man would soon do.
Harry ran down the levels and thrust himself between the two his eyes fixed on the Professor. "Please stop this, Sev! It's an illusion! Look up!" Harry yelled the words full of desperation. Malfoy had his wand out and was taking aim.
Severus heard through the sands of time the screams of that night the screams of death that had surrounded this fight. But through the mist of time a new sound reached his ears. 'Harry' the name wafted through his mind and shocked him back to reality.
"No, No, No!" Harry kept yelling as he watched the green bolt rush towards Severus. It was to him slow motion; the bolt was so slow in his mind.
Severus threw himself to the ground, and looked up. "Malfoy!"
Malfoy looked startled. "How did you like our revels, Severus?" He said with slime practically dripping off the words.
"Twisted as always." Severus spoke calmly. "But I do believe that you are trespassing in my house."
"House? Oh I was under the impression that this building was abandoned. You aren't living here. Technically you aren't supposed to be living anywhere you were well beyond the shadow of death when we left you."
"Well, you forget that death isn't the end just a brand new beginning."
"The words of a fool, I don't know how you saw through my illusion, and frankly it doesn't matter to me. Take better care of your possessions, traitor you may lose something important." He threw a book on to the desk and dissaparated.
To Severus the only important thing in the room was what Malfoy couldn't see. He shook his head and sat down.
"Professor, what happened?" Harry asked, still wide eyed.
"You can guess who the illusion was right?" Severus said slowly, it looked like it was time to confess, he just hoped he wouldn't alienate Harry.
"Yes he was your father. I feel some unresolved tension here." Harry said with a slight smirk.
Severus smiled and laughed, "You could say that, I killed him."
Silence reigned "I was 16, there was a death eater raid, there was a little five year old and he was about to murder her, I couldn't let that happen, I fought him, in an ironic twist of fate all those lessons he taught me about fighting paid of and I won, in the end it didn't make all that much of a difference."
Harry lifted his hand to Severus's shoulder and despite his lack of substance he gave cold comfort to a man who had suffered and one he now looked up to and depended on.
Hey that's it isn't it great! That was really dark and implied a lot sorry if it was too dark but hey! You didn't see that coming!
"Who shot that arrow in your throat who missed the crimson apple as it hung heavy in the tree above your head" Wine Red – The Hush Sound