A/N: Thanks ever so much to those of you who take the time to review. You're my favourite brand of readers.
xx-Kitten.
Darkness and Silence
By Kittenshift17
Chapter Twenty-Five
Severus Snape watched the brethren leave with no small amount of trepidation, though he was sure it didn't show on his face. Narcissa shot him a worried glance and squeezed his arm gently as she got to her feet and filed toward the fireplace, clearly intent on Flooing back to Malfoy Manor, rather than participating in whatever debauchery he and the rest of the brethren would be expected to engage in just as soon as the Dark Lord was finished with him.
Lucius gave him a look that might've been one of worry or pity, but he didn't touch him or say anything. He didn't need to. Severus knew the look. Despite his aloof nature, Lucius was worried that the Dark Lord might do something terrible to Severus. Greyback waited in silence alongside him as everyone else left, his eyes fixed on the Dark Lord. Severus couldn't help noticing that the werewolf looked almost resigned, as though he knew what was coming and wasn't looking forward to it.
That made him nervous.
The werewolf, ordinarily, was a bloodthirsty wretch that set Severus's teeth on edge. To see him looking grim about whatever the Dark Lord had planned was not a good sign.
When the three of them were alone in the house but for the elves down in the kitchens, the Dark Lord turned to Greyback seriously.
"Fenrir?" he asked, clearly expecting the werewolf to know what he wanted without having to state it.
"I haven't been able to get a reading on her, my Lord," Fenrir growled out, looking like he hated admitting it. "I cornered her last night and sniffed her a few times this morning. The scent of wolf in her blood is faint, even at the best of times. When she reeks of Snape and sex and all the magic from the rituals, I cannot determine if she shares a Pack bond with Lupin or not."
"Severus?" the Dark Lord asked, looking displeased by Greyback's answer.
"My Lord?" he asked.
"Are you aware whether or not your wife shares a bond with Lupin?" he asked. "Has she passed it to you through your binding ceremony?"
"I wasn't aware you believed she might share a pack bond with anyone, my Lord," Severus frowned, feigning ignorance.
"Greyback," he commanded, nodding at Severus and the wolf curled his lip, growling in fury as the Dark Lord turned and paced away once.
Severus caught the way the wolf's claws lengthened and his fangs were bared as he lifted his hands and imitated choking the life out of the Dark Lord while he wasn't looking. Growling again, he stalked across the small space separating the two of them and Severus eyed the werewolf dangerously, his wand in his hand and the curses to slaughter werewolves lingering upon his lips, just waiting to be uttered.
He wasn't expecting it when the wolf invaded his personal space, one clawed hand coming up and gripping his jaw, tilting his head to one side. Severus dug his wand into the werewolf's ribs, anticipating a bite, and he frowned when instead, Greyback sniffed him intensely.
"What are you doing?" Severus hissed, attempting to shove the wolf back.
"Hold still, Snape," Fenrir growled in his face before sniffing him some more, trailing his nose over Severus's neck and across his shoulder as he walked in a circle around him, going so far as to lift the dark hair hanging about his shoulders and burying his nose against the nape of Severus's neck.
"Severus, don't fuss," the Dark Lord commanded quietly from across the room, clearly sensing Severus's intention to hex the werewolf. "It is vitally important that I learn whether you and the mudblood are bonded to Lupin."
"I can't get a good reading, my Lord," Fenrir shook his head. "He smells too strongly of her after fucking her all night."
"What use are you, Fenrir?" the Dark Lord snarled, flicking a hex at the werewolf in annoyance when he spun on them quickly.
Fenrir dodged it and Severus's eyes widened a little when the wolf bared his fangs at him in fury for the attack. No one ever dared to dodge when the Dark Lord handed out a punishment. Had the wolf lost his already demented mind?
"I'm the reason you even know you're linked to Lupin, fuckface," Fenrir sneered at the Dark Lord and Severus wondered if the wolf truly had gone off the deep end. Only a lunatic – or Miss Granger – would dare speak to the Dark Lord in such an impolite manner!
"Get out of my sight!" the Dark Lord snarled, flinging another hex at Greyback – who dodged a second time, baring his fangs and shifting his weight like he might launch himself at the Dark Lord and rip his throat out.
The Dark Lord threw more and more curses at the werewolf until, eventually, Greyback was forced from the room by means of his own dodging of the attacks, and Severus both heard and felt the anger he unleashed on one of the paintings in the next room before he Disapparated with a sharp crack.
When he was gone, Severus turned his attention to the Dark Lord, noting that he was breathing heavily and looking rather like the rapid-fire spells had tired him out. Severus frowned. It was no secret that the Dark Lord was getting old. After all, the rapidly approaching New Year would bring about the Dark Lord's seventy-first birthday.
Not old by wizard standards, but certainly pushing beyond his prime. The fractured and broken state of his soul must surely be affecting him, and Severus knew that though he rarely showed it, the effects of the potion he'd ingested to regain corporeal form, especially the inclusion of Nagini's blood, had left him suffering pain whenever he exerted himself too much.
"My Lord?" Severus asked, fighting to keep his tone neutral and polite when the man had slapped him across the face mere minutes earlier.
"Severus," the Dark Lord sighed, crossing the room to stand before him.
He looked… not frail, but certainly like he was beginning to weaken. Severus frowned at him.
"You are unwell," Severus said softly, frowning at the man who, once, had been the only person in the world to believe that Severus had more use than brewing potions and offering snarky comments.
It was hard for him, in moments like this, not to recall that there had once been a time when this man had been the father Severus wished he'd had. It was hard to forget that this man had once been his friend. And they had been friends, before the Dark Lord rose so far in power. Back when he was still gaining a following and seducing the brethren and the wizarding community to his way of seeing things, Severus had counted Tom Riddle amongst his dearest friends.
Mentor. Friend. Father.
All of these titles had once applied to Voldemort in Severus's mind. He had looked up to him, adored him, wanted to be him. To see him showing weakness for perhaps the first time in living memory, rattled Severus more than any slap to the cheek could've done.
"Yes," the Dark Lord allowed with a nod of this head and a heavy sigh.
"Do you require more restorative potions, My Lord?" Severus asked, frowning fiercely.
"Probably," the Dark Lord admitted. "But they are only temporary solutions, Severus. You know this. This form is failing me, and wretch though he is, Greyback has brought something unfortunate to my attention."
He waved a hand at Severus, indicating that they should both sit to continue the discussion. Severus did as he was bid, dropping into the nearest armchair and regarding the Dark Lord across the room.
"Foolishly, it escaped my notice that the inclusion of Potter's blood in my revival potion would undo the effects of Lily Potter's blood magic but would doom me to be incapable of killing Potter jus the same."
"He shares a pack bond with Lupin," Severus realized immediately, based on the questions the Dark Lord had been asking him and the inclusion of Greyback in the reasoning for their discussion and the Dark Lord's certainty. "And as such, you cannot kill him as you are not his alpha."
The Dark Lord nodded, sighing heavily.
"Sometimes I wonder if the prophecy was wrong, you know?" Voldemort shared. "It seems that no matter what I do to snuff out Potter's existence, something always stands in my way. Lily's blood magic, this wretched Pack Bond, our wands sharing a core from the same creature, sheer dumb luck. He always manages to avoid death, even when he has nowhere to run and despite being so much less skilled and less powerful a wizard."
"He has many people helping him, my Lord," Severus pointed out, frowning and wondering what all of this had to do with him.
To his surprise, the Dark Lord nodded his head, sighing heavily again and putting his face in his hands for a long moment as though reaching for strength. Severus suspected he was suffering far worse than anyone believed, and he was surprised that the Dark Lord would keep such information to himself for so long only to reveal it to him now.
"What can I do, my Lord?" Severus asked in a low voice, eyeing him and loathing the tingle of worry creeping through his belly and tightening his gut.
He was supposed to despise this wretched, evil bastard, blast it all! He wasn't supposed to care that he was suffering except to use that fact to his own gain.
"Potions will no longer restore me adequately, Severus," the Dark Lord said. "You know this."
Severus nodded slowly when the Dark Lord lifted his face to look at him from across the room.
"The only way things can proceed – both in my goal of slaughtering Potter, and my intention of living forever – is if I vacate this form and claim another," the Dark Lord said quietly. "You know the ritual of which I speak, Severus."
A chill raced down Severus's spine. Yes, he knew it. The process of cultivating and stealing the body of a newborn babe right out of the womb, laying claim to it as one's own. His brow furrowed, knowing that in such instances, the risk was high. Frequently the attempts of the ritual ended when the soul of the newborn refused to be snuffed out. In an instance such as that of the Dark Lord – whose soul was already tattered and shredded thanks to his Horcrux creation – it could very well be fatal.
Before he could dwell on the risks, however, it occurred to Severus just where the Dark Lord was planning to get the body of a newborn baby and Severus thought he might be sick.
"Not so very long ago, you said you would offer me some of your nose to make up for my lack of one, Severus," the Dark Lord murmured. "And while I do not seek to disfigure you, I would appreciate the sacrifice of a little of your flesh and blood to my cause."
"This is why you had me marry the mudblood," Severus said dully, working hard to keep the horror and fury from his voice.
"Yes," the Dark Lord nodded.
"This is why you had the Selwyn family slaughtered, in order to grant me Lordship. You knew it would increase my power, provide an excuse to have me marry the girl, and ensure that any progeny I sire will carry the added strength of that lordship magic."
"Yes," the Dark Lord said again, his terrible red eyes fixed on Severus and for the first time in Severus's memory the man looked anything but cunning, conniving, or evil.
No, the Dark Lord didn't look poised to force him to agree to this plan he looked… guilty. He looked remorseful. He even looked apologetic, as though he was loath to ask such a thing of his follower – his friend.
Severus stared at him, utterly at a loss for words. There was little he could say.
"You mean to…" Severus gulped leaning forward, trying to make sense of the request.
"Yes," the Dark Lord said a third time, not letting him get all the words out, as though knowing it was utterly horrible. "If you do not share a pack-bond with Lupin, and thus, Potter, I would ask that you contribute to my cause in this manner, Severus. I know it is a lot to ask, especially of one whom I already ask so much."
"My Lord," Severus said, shaking his head slowly from side to side in his horror. "I don't… why me, my Lord? Why her?"
"You already know the answer to that, Severus," the Dark Lord said quietly. "We discussed it over lunch. You are the most powerful wizard I know, outside of myself and - though I am loath to say so - Dumbledore. You are intensely powerful in your own right. Combined with the power of the lordship ritual you will sire progeny the likes of which will put the world to shame. As for the girl… you said it yourself over lunch. She is powerful. She might very well be a mudblood, but that only makes her more powerful. She is sharp-witted, clever, and possesses more magic in her little finger than some of my followers do in their entire bodies."
"My Lord, surely you don't believe that any children the mudblood and I conceived would be… attractive?" Severus said, still shaking his head, utterly horrified, subconsciously denying the request. "I have no delusions about my appearance, my Lord. My nose is too hooked and too long and too large. My complexion and my hair are oily at the best of times. My teeth are crooked. I am too thin to be considered strong, no matter my actual strength. And the girl is no better. She has wild hair and though she had them magically shrunken, she was born with enormous front teeth like a beaver. Any child we conceived would have terrible teeth, my nose, and wildly curly, yet oily hair. Probably, they would be on the short side, given her diminutive stature, and they would be weedy, as I was until I grew into my power. As I still am, if we're being frank."
"Severus, look at me," the Dark Lord snorted, seeming amused by his argument. "I am bald all over. I have slits in the place of nostrils, and no nose to speak of. My eyes are red, Severus. No amount of frizzy, oily hair, crooked teeth, or an unfortunate nose could look worse than this. Aesthetics can be fixed, anyway. The raw power that your progeny would carry in it's blood would be worth it."
"What of the risks, my Lord?" Severus frowned. "This ritual was outlawed for it's barbarism, and also because the risk was unbelievable. You might very well fail to overcome the spirit of such a child."
"I cannot go on in this form," the Dark Lord sighed.
"And if I do share a link to Lupin and Potter?" Severus asked, frowning.
The Dark Lord sighed. "Then I will have to resort to the same measures with Antonin and Alecto as the contributors, as your blood would carry the taint forevermore."
Severus frowned fiercely.
"This is why you wed them, despite Dolohov's horror," he said.
Lord Voldemort nodded. "I am tired, Severus," he murmured. "I grow wearier with each passing day. I find I need more sleep than I used to, and I find myself suffering the agony of the blood-sickness caused by the use of Nagini's genetics in my potion. Some days I need three Pain Potions just to get out of bed. Great feats of magic grow harder. Even flinging those curses at Greyback was taxing. If I do not find a solution soon, this body will fail and I will be left a wraith, as I was after my demise at Godric's Hollow and before I possessed Quirrell. I cannot stand the thought of another possession, Severus. The presence of another soul was so irksome."
"My Lord…." Severus whispered, trying desperately to think of some way to say no, some way to get out of this. "My Lord, the girl is barely seventeen…"
The Dark Lord nodded. "Yes. As such she is very much in her prime, or about to enter it. She will birth more viable offspring than Alecto, whose age will hinder her ability to carry the child as easily."
"You misunderstand, my Lord," Severus murmured. "Granger is my student, my Lord. She is only in her sixth year. She will never consent to this. Even if I were to keep her from knowing your intent, she would never consent to falling pregnant at seventeen. Not a full year before even completing her education. And I am her teacher."
"You are her husband."
"Yes, but that cannot be revealed, my Lord. Not if you wish to install me as Headmaster when Dumbledore dies. The Governors would sack me if I impregnated a student before Albus is removed and I have taken up his stead."
"Dumbledore knows you have married her," the Dark Lord frowned.
"And he is unhappy about it," Severus said. "He means to remove the girl from Potter's confidence to protect the Order's movements and to keep you from reaching the boy through her. He will put up with this, as a means of saving her life when she was captured, but he will not tolerate any public acknowledgement of my involvement with the girl. He would sack me before then."
"He believes you his most valued spy," Voldemort rolled his eyes.
"He loathes me as much as the rest of them, my Lord. He only tolerates my presence because of my usefulness to the Order. If that is tested with the Governors and the wizarding world slinging accusations about the safety of the students – which they will do if they think he is permitting his teachers to molest the students – he will sack me. He will have no choice. He would keep me as a spy, if he had to, but he would remove me from my post. Which would prevent me from taking over as Headmaster."
"He will be dead before year's end," Voldemort waved his hand. "I can wait a few more months before you impregnate the girl, Severus."
"My Lord, even if I managed to stave them off long enough to take over as Headmaster, do you truthfully believe that a witch like Hermione Granger would allow herself to fall pregnant and remain so at such a young age? She values her education more than her moral compass. She would terminate the pregnancy herself if she fell pregnant. She likely wouldn't even tell me she was pregnant. She would simply handle the problem. She is more than capable of brewing potions to induce a miscarriage."
"You could give her something to ensure she would fail," the Dark Lord pointed out.
"And risk her life, my Lord. Which would end your ability to use her as an incubator," Severus argued. "I wish you had shared this with me before forcing me to marry her, my Lord. Not only because it is my life you have railroaded, and my child you wish to snuff out for the sake of wearing his meat-suit, but also because I'd have warned against including Granger in this plan. She is… beyond stubborn, my Lord. She is logical. Ruthless. Cold. Defiant. She might be powerful, and she might be smart, but she will never consent to such a plan."
"I wasn't intending for you to ask her, Severus," the Dark Lord said sharply, apparently not above losing his temper even in the face of such a horrid request. "She is still just a mudblood. Stubborn or not, she is your wife and she obviously enjoys fucking you. She'd even imagined marrying you before last night's ceremony. I shouldn't think you will have much trouble luring her back into bed with you for the sake of conceiving the child, my friend."
"You misunderstand, my Lord," Severus said tightly. "I expect it will be easy enough to lure her into bed with me, but just last night I gave her a contraception potion that will be effective for the next three months, at least."
"Why?" the Dark Lord hissed, his eyes flashing in annoyance.
"Because you didn't tell me you wanted me to fuck a kid into her!" Severus snarled in retort. "Had I known that was your plan, I could've slipped her a fertility potion. I thought I would be doing us all a favour because she's seventeen and in her sixth year, and you want me to be headmaster when Dumbledore dies. I thought you were intending to ensure I kept my position, which will not be easy if I impregnate my teenage wife! You knew it had never been my intention to marry or to have children, my Lord! You've known for as long as you've known me that I despise children and that I had no intention of passing on my worthless father's name. You gave me no warning about being forced to marry her, and you mentioned nothing about me impregnating her, so I took precautions. Despite her blood status, I had no intention of letting any witch I was fucking fall pregnant, least of all one with as much potential as Miss Granger. I didn't want to ruin her life, or mine, by involving a child."
"Keep in mind that the child will be a vessel for me, Severus. You will not be forced to feed it or raise it or teach it how to use the toilet. I will inhabit it, knowing all that I know, and I will use Aging Potion to speed through the childhood years so that I can kill Potter as an adult. One of the predominant reasons for my asking you to do this was because I do know your distaste for children. I believed that, of all my followers, you would be the least likely to grow attached to the notion of producing an heir, and the least likely to object to having its soul snuffed out before I inhabited the body left behind."
Severus wondered if he ought to be thoroughly disgusted with himself for the fact that anyone could think such a thing of him, or flattered that the Dark Lord knew him so well.
"And the girl?" he asked. "How am I to convince her to remain pregnant while she's still a student, my Lord? Telling her not to worry because there won't be any nappy changing or midnight feedings at the other end will hardly be a comfort. What you're asking here is that we conceive a life specifically for you to be able to murder our child and wear its body. No one in their right mind would agree to that, my Lord."
"Don't tell her," the Dark Lord shrugged. "She is hardly in a position to object. She is your wife."
Severus furrowed his brow.
"I think you are mistaking my character if you believe I would beat or rape my wife, my Lord," Severus said stiffly. "I will not make my father's mistakes. Even if she is a mudblood."
The Dark Lord sighed. "All I need for you to do is to get her pregnant and ensure she remains healthy and doesn't miscarry, Severus. I don't care about her feelings when I take the baby from her womb and inhabit it as my own. I don't care if she never gets over it. She is not important except as an incubator."
"You would become my son, my Lord," Severus argued.
"A fitting turn of events, given that I've spent a lifetime thinking of you as mine," the Dark Lord muttered, looking away and Severus's eyes widened in shock.
He wondered if the Dark Lord was simply toying with him. Had he picked up on Severus's earlier thoughts about how the man had been like a father to him? Was he just manipulating him to get him to agree to this rubbish? Severus supposed it didn't matter. He knew there would be no choice. When he took this information to Albus, the other wizard would be horrified, but there would be no other way that they could control when Potter would be able to murder the Dark Lord. Until the Dark Lord had a new body, he would not be able to kill Potter, thus giving Potter plenty of time to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes.
"How am I to ensure she keeps it, my Lord? If I let on that I want her to be pregnant, she will grow suspicious."
"You will think of something, Severus," the Dark Lord said. "You always do. If we must wait a few months for the contraceptive to wear off, so be it. She could be pregnant by the summer, Dumbledore will be gone, and you will be in charge at the school. I can bide my time until then. As it is, I cannot kill Potter, so there is little point pursuing him."
"My Lord," Severus bowed his head, clenching his fists, trying to ignore the anger simmering in his gut.
He'd never wanted to be a father, but Merlin knew that even he wasn't so unconscionable as to condone something like this. He wanted to fling a Killing Curse at the Dark Lord at that very moment.
"You are angry," the Dark Lord noted, picking up on his thoughts or his body language, Severus couldn't tell.
"I have a right to be, my Lord," Severus replied evenly. "I would appreciate a little more warning in future if you seek to destroy my life so effectively."
"It would ruin your life to serve me, Severus?" the Dark Lord asked. "I have come to you to request that you provide me something so important that I would carry it with me for the rest of my life."
"You have doomed me to a life married to a woman twenty years my junior who will never get over the fact that upon conception of our first child, you will commit murder, consigning us to a wretched life of hatred and blame when she finds out that I knew about your intentions all along. She will never forgive me for this, and thanks to your insistence on the wretched inclusion of Olde Magic in the wedding ceremony, I cannot divorce her or ever be free of her. As though my life wasn't already miserable enough, you have compounded upon that with this request and consigned me to a life of hatred and misery until the day I die."
"Not if you kill her when she has served her purpose," the Dark Lord shrugged, rising to his feet, uncaring about Granger's fate just as soon as he got what he wanted.
Severus curled his lip, his fists clenching in fury as he rose, too. It was just as well that they were planning on raiding and wreaking havoc, Severus thought bitterly, because he was murderous enough to lay waste to the entire brethren right at that moment, and he doubted that feeling would go away any time soon.