Chapter 19: Darkness Incarnate
{A/N: Here's Another Update...Taken some time to get back to my work...my roommate bailed three days before rent was due, after she already had it and spent up all the money...right after I received news of a family friend's death...now I have a funeral to go to and a landlord breathing down my neck at the moment...I suppose Snape's life is more fun for now...}
My Thanks To All My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy S.S.
{"Such a beautiful face... Such a beautiful waste I say...Just when you think I'm lost you found your way...That little angel on my shoulder says
"Not to do those things you did"...That little angel on my shoulder screams..."I think I lost my way"...Such a beautiful land...Such a beautiful sin I say...(A sin I say)...Just when you pull me in I push away...(I push away)...That little devil on my shoulder says..."I'll make you do those things you did"...That little devil on my shoulder screams..."I think you found your way"...There's no way out for you...But you can follow me, just follow me down...There's no way out for you...So just follow me, just follow me down..."}No Way Out, Theory Of A Deadman
Unknown Location, Uncharted Beach...
Freezing rain had begun to beat down against the battered form of the ebony clad former Headmaster of Hogwarts. His sallow pale cheeks had been stained with the blackness of his strange tears as his body was ravaged by the curse. It seemed to go about attacking him at a relentless pace given his likely hood of survival at this current rate. Severus began to choke on the bitter memories and had awakened. He attempted to crawl to a safer place unsure of what he was to expect. He was the second most wanted wizard in the entire community, given that Potter couldn't wait to go shooting his mouth off to the Ministry of Magic in the wake of his absence. Minerva's vengeance was rather swift but he had not the heart to pass judgement upon her. She was pregnant with his child and any harm coming to her unnerved him all the more. Everything had gotten so wrong since Albus forced his hand at The Astronomy Tower.
His semi-peaceful existence had been shattered in the wake of the war and the overwhelming sensation of his guilt continued to plague him. The obsidian eyes of The Potions Master could see it all so clearly, he had been in the middle of nowhere and the pain of his forceful departure of Hogwarts Castle still lingered.
The fury blazing behind Minerva's notorious green eyes had been burned into his mind. She had hated him. She had hated him so much that she saw killing him as the only option. Gone was that older witch's compassion and understanding so often shown in times of turmoil. He supposed he had earned her ire, given all he had done. A begrudging smile had managed to creep across his sallow pale face.
She had been quite a formidable witch, although he had not actually been trying to fight back.
As the jagged stones of this strange coast pierced the calloused flesh of his large pale palms, Snape recalled the news she received from Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary.
Minerva had been pregnant.
She had been carrying his child.
A child that should never have existed but was not entirely unwelcome.
The ailing dark wizard had no family outside of Hogwarts and had been sadly, the last of his accursed line.
{"You love the old bat."} said a voice coming within his own fractured mind. {"I'd wager you have a little something for the girl too."}
"I have no idea what you are talking about." replied the Potions Master in a vain attempt to keep a lid on his increasing insanity.
{"Do not play the fool with Severus Snape, I am well aware of your deepest desires as well as your darkest intentions."} spoke the strange voice again. {"You have unfettered ambitions, and dark appetites no one has ever dreamed of...it's no wonder you are so unhappy...given your lack of prospects as of late...I'd say the old witch was as close to relief as you have gotten in a very long time."}
Snape tried to gain control of his wayward thoughts but this...whatever it was seemed to be flipping through his life's memories as if it were the pages of a book open for amusement.
"Stop!" he shouted gripping the slick and shifting soil below him as he continued to crawl despite the constant rain. "What the hell are you?"
After a moment of silence the voice finally spoke.
{"I am Darkness Incarnate and you are my host."} replied the terrible voice like a crack of thunder in the ailing Potions Master's head. {"The One you call Albus Dumbledore released me and I was given you...the afflicted...the soulless one...they will call you...men, women, witches, wizards, and children of every like will quake at the slightest utterance of your name...of course you should be use to it...given how...unloved you are."}
"Fuck you." muttered Snape already agitated by this thing in the darkness.
{"That's the spirit...fuck them all."} said the voice without missing a beat. {"Give into your rage...embrace your torment...feed from their hate...it will only make you stronger...and by extension make me stronger...then we shall rule this world unchecked...for all eternity."}
"I am not interested in being the puppet of notorious black sludge." said Snape with a sneer. "I would rather..."
{"Die?"} continued the voice after the interruption.. {"I'm afraid that is impossible...you see I am immortal and now that I am apart of you...you shall be immortal too."}
"Like hell I will." replied Snape unable to face the thought of being trapped in this tormented existence. "I refuse to spend the rest of my life with this sludge trapped in this state!"
He summoned the final recesses of his magic and focused his efforts into carving a stone, well fitting of an American Indian arrowhead. He pushed it toward the distant cliffs of Hogwarts Castle and pulled it with all the might he could muster in his own direction. The newly carved arrowhead came at him at alarming speed. The Potions Professor leaned back on his knees amid the wet dirt and mud, he found himself looking up at the school that had been home to him ever since his arrival at the age of eleven.
Severus Snape did not blink when the arrowhead pierced his heart. The force knocking him onto his back and a giddy smile filed across his sallow pale face. As he lost consciousness once more the voice again spoke to him but like a comforting friend as his wound gushed blood as black and slick as tar. The same black tears streamed down his cheeks as his final thought of Hogwarts passed through his weary mind.
Home.
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The Strange Bedroom, Snape's Estate, Unknown Location...
Hermione Granger had been silent as she tried to absorb all the new information she had received from Albus Dumbledore's portrait. The former Headmaster had purposely, cursed the already unwell Potions Professor in a bid to get him to murder him. When the young witch thought of all that Snape had suffered due to everyone believing he had been a murderer, when she thought about what the Hogwarts staff had done to him.
It was almost enough to make her induce vomit.
Severus Snape had done his job as spy for The Order of Phoenix right down to that moment when they all turned on him.
The crunching of bone from when McGonagall beat him with the magical sledgehammer had resounded throughout Hogwarts for a very long time. Students reenacting and telling the story with glee despite the malice behind it. Cheers had gone up in the hopes of Snape's gruesome death by all except Slytherin house. They were kept in the dungeons like prisoners of war and treated like second class citizens, due to the perceived actions of their Head of House.
Hermione had not liked what was happening but she had not been overjoyed when she found out Snape had murdered Dumbledore. In fact, she burned with absolute rage and wanted so badly to hex The Potions Professor to pieces for his cruel act. The thought that he had betrayed everything the Order stood for, that he betrayed Dumbledore, the supposed kind and benevolent leader who spoke in pleasant tones and issued advice made her blood boil.
Only now, she had learned that it was Dumbledore and The Order that betrayed Snape casting him aside when his role was no longer required. The amber eyed witch in no way condoned what Snape had done to everyone, or to Ginny and Professor McGonagall. She simply had this nagging feeling that if Dumbledore had not brought all this upon them, then Snape would have been better off.
What was more hurtful to her was the knowledge that Harry and Ron both died hating Snape and believing him to be a traitor.
With her mind and feelings at war with one another, Hermione paced the small bedroom trying to find the solution or any solution to this nightmarish world she found herself living in.
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The Study, Snape's Estate, Unknown World...
Minerva McGonagall had watched the sleeping form of Severus Snape for more than an hour. His seemingly at peace breathing and less than numerous movements as he slumbered had been unnerving. To her, he slept like the dead, a fitting analogy given his ability to become almost non existent even before the curse. The elder witch knew not what to make of him. He still earned her ire, and the fury had not cooled in the wake of his actions, but at the present moment she had began to understand why. This was not the boy she had grown to care for during the course of their association. This was a monster inhabiting a very weak and weary man whom had spent the better part of his life fighting for survival and acceptance and barely making due with either.
McGonagall slipped into her night gown and made her way out of bed. Snape did not move as he continued to sleep seemingly undisturbed by her apparent absence. She wanted to believe that it would last, but she knew better. Eventually, he would seek her out and he would find her. He always did.
However, Professor McGonagall had other things on her mind as she reached the end of the winding staircase and stepped into Snape's study. Her green eyes narrowed on Albus Dumbledore's portrait.
"How could do this Albus?" she asked barely able to control her fury. "Everything that's happened is your fault."
The blue eyes of the former Headmaster twinkled in their usually unpleasant way.
"I am aware of that." he replied in an unwavering tone.
"You forced him to..." she could hardly keep from breaking down as the images flooded her already rattled mind.
"I did what I thought was best." said Dumbledore meeting her eyes. "I understand your rage and your grief..."
"You know nothing of my grief." spat Minerva enraged once more. "And you should consider yourself fortunate that you are not here in person to witness my rage."
"As I have said." continued Dumbledore. "What I did was for the greater good."
"Forcing that boy to rape me...was for the greater good?" asked Minerva not letting up on her fury. "Cursing him with dark magic was for the greater good?"
"You may not understand these motives but given time..." said Dumbledore.
"Fuck you Albus." said McGonagall spitefully. "The things that were done to that boy were inhuman...and you right it off as if it were merely a stain on a good suit."
"Minerva..." began Dumbledore only to be cut off.
"Save it." she hissed angrily. "There is no amount of excuse you could conjure to make what was done seem rational."
Dumbledore sighed knowing his oldest and dearest friend had been disgusted by his actions.
"If it is any consolation Minerva...I am truly sorry." he said in a sorrowful tone. "I did not think beyond what lie ahead...and in that I made a gross miscalculation in judgement."
"Albus...I will never forgive you for what you've done." said Minerva glaring murderously at the portrait of her former friend. "But you will fix this...and you will help that boy find peace...he's bloody earned it after all you've done to him."
Dumbledore conceded the point. Minerva made her way over to an old shelf and got her hands on the firewhiskey bottle left behind. She sat down in Snape's chair and glared once more at Dumbledore from across the room, green eyes of fury meeting twinkling blue.
"I suggest you start from the beginning Albus, I would like to know exactly what has been going on behind my back all these years." she demanded taking a sip from the bottle. "And why you felt it necessary to keep The Order of Phoenix in the dark concerning Severus' association."
The former Headmaster sighed.
This was going to be a long tale and from the looks of it, Minerva was primed and ready to hear all the intimate little details of his complete control over Severus Snape's life.