Voldemort's Assassin - Chapter 38
The Rescue
Madigan Berger glared at the unconscious female at his feet. It annoyed him that she was so weak that she passed out after he used only a few curses, including Cruciatus, to torment her. He had half a mind to kill her before Lucius showed up with the Traitor. She was a useless thing anyway. As if making his decision, he withdrew a knife from his robes.
A sharp chime alerted him to the fact that a wizard had crossed the ward that showed the Riddle Cemetery as a refuse dump, and also carried a spell that kept the annoyingly inquisitive from approaching. Tightening his grip upon his wand, Berger left the woman where she was and he strode swiftly to the entrance of the cave he occupied.
The portkey that was Lucius' old snake-headed cane delivered Lucius, Hermione, and Severus to the center of the Riddle Cemetery. As Hermione glanced around she shivered, and stepped a little bit closer to Severus.
Riddle Cemetery was a nightmare of a place with graves of broken stone overrun by a grayish ivy, and tombs that had all suffered damage from something almost like an earthquake. This was further enhanced by a number of Death-Angel statues: terrifying sculptures of the Grim Reaper at his best. All of it was slowly being consumed by the grey ivy, and silvery lichen on every stone surface.
"What happened to the tombs?" asked Hermione just to hear her voice.
"Voldemort was angry after Mr. Potter escaped him the night he returned," answered Lucius. He glanced over at Severus. He recalled that his friend had been late to their Dark Master's summons (due to the murderous end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament), and when he showed some several hours later, Voldemort decided to 'teach him a lesson' by torturing him near unto death.
Once the Death Eaters were released and Severus had been thrown back into the Forbidden Forest as no more than trash Lucius had searched for him, and taken him to Malfoy Manor. There he took care of the younger wizard until he recovered. Lucius had informed Dumbledore of what had happened to his spy, as well. It had greatly bothered Lucius that Dumbledore had not once inquired as to how Severus was faring then, nor during that long summer.
"You need to shackle us now, Lucius," Severus said in a soft whisper, breaking into his friend's thoughts.
Lucius nodded. Both the witch and wizard turned, with their hands behind their backs. He held out his wand to each of their wrists, and murmured, "Non tamen in compedibus." Each of them were bound by a set of manacles that shimmered dully of copper. Hermione tested hers, and was slightly dismayed to find them so tight.
Severus merely nudged her shoulder to let her know he understood her worry.
"One more charm," said Lucius with a hiss, and he cast one more spell to silence each of them. He then called out, "Berger! I have brought you the Traitor and... a Mudblood gift!"
A large mound near a particularly aggressively posed Angel of Death shimmered as the entrance to an ancient burial cave within was revealed. Madigan Berger, pale, skeletally thin, and wearing the dark grey that had always been his preference sauntered out just enough to show himself, and just enough to remain within the entrance-arch.
Berger's icy blue eyes that lent even more to his deathly-mien glittered as he saw Severus. "Well, as I live and breathe, it really is Severus Snape, the Traitor that brutally betrayed his Master. How kind of you to live just long enough for me to destroy you."
Severus said nothing. Hermione protested, but as she was silenced by a spell no one could hear her. Lucius took one step forward. "Where is my Mudblood, Berger?" spat Lucius.
For the moment Madigan ignored Lucius' question. Subtly he moved so that he could easily curse all of them in the space of a few seconds. "You," sneered the assassin, "you were the darling of our Master, Lucius. And, you kept him alive?"
"He's been my 'plaything' for the last three years, Berger." He bowed slightly as he touched his wand to Severus' chest. "Would you care for a list of the tortures I've subjected him to?"
The runic list tumbled upward along Severus chest, and Madigan's sharp gaze caught them all. His eyes widened at one point. "Lucius! Did you really break all of his fingers? Show me your hands, Traitor!" demanded Madigan as he pointed with his free hand towards Severus.
Slowly Severus lifted the Glamoured vision of his hands, the digits bent badly, bumped by knuckles badly healed, and flesh swollen from fresh torture. Hermione saw the state of Severus' hands, and cried out silently at the horrible damage.
"Remarkable," smiled Berger evilly. "However, it must be a Glamour." He waved his wand at Severus, and cast the spell to end a Glamour, "Finite Incantatem!"
Severus' hands remained crippled, and Berger smiled even tighter but aimed it at the older wizard, "So you DID break his fingers! Did you also... flay him?"
Hermione's face whitened in shock. She wished she could not hear the exchange between the two wizards. She kept still, though, as she felt a change in the shackles upon her wrist. They had loosened.
Lucius replied laconically, "I have a spell that allows a re-growth of the skin." Lucius then pierced him with a sharp look. "Now, I brought you the Traitor, and, if you have not guessed, I have also brought to you the Princess of Gryffindor, Hermione Granger. I would like my Mudblood."
Berger narrowed his gaze at Lucius. "She's alive, but whatever do you want with her? She's weak. Two Crucio's and she was begging to be released." Berger leaned forward but not enough to leave himself vulnerable. He sneered, "Do you like to f...?"
"Do not be crass, Berger. The cow is my slave." Lucius tried not to show how the knowledge of Julia's torture affected him adversely. "I happen to have connections to a buyer who prefers a properly trained Mudblood as his housekeeper and 'bed-warmer'."
Seemingly convinced of Lucius retaining of his sordid Death Eater nature, Berger chuckled softly. He stepped to the side. "In the cave. The Mudblood was alive a moment ago." Berger shrugged, then showed his complete trust by turning aside from Lucius to study his prizes.
Madigan Berger stepped over to both Severus and Hermione, and studied them as he slowly walked around them.
"Ahhh, the Mudblood Heroine." He sneered at her. "Since a female heart will not work in my potion, I shall just... eat... yours." He then snapped his avaricious gaze to Severus. "As for yours... well, I know how powerful you are, Snape, so I bet your heart will be like that of two wizards." Berger smirked. "Of course, death will only come after I've played a bit. Lucius might like the more pedestrian of tortures but I like many of the things the Dark Arts hold." He almost drooled with anticipation as he continued, "I can keep you alive, and grind every bone in your body to dust, I can turn your blood into ice, I can..." for a brief moment he glanced slyly at Hermione. His smile was vicious. "I can make you rape her so brutally that she will beg for death."
Berger glared disdainfully at the Potions Master, "Have you nothing to say to me, Traitor? I know you still have your tongue."
"Conteram ferulam," declared Severus with wandless magic. To Berger's horror his wand splintered in his hand. He cried out, and lunged at the wizard but found that Severus was coldly pointing a blood dripping wand right in his face. Berger froze with sudden terror.
As Severus' voice lowered to deadly darkness he intoned, "noli despicere animam meam sanguinem minuere!" Berger screamed as he felt flames burst into crackling intensity within his body. He coughed as he tried to gather breath. Without stopping, Severus then swiped his wand through the air in a cutting motion across Berger. "Confrigo!"
With another scream as his back arched with a crack the Assassin fell helplessly to the ground. Severus had accelerated the damage Berger had already created with his Dark Arts Invisibility Spell, and to add insult to injury the Potions Master had fractured several vertebrae in Berger's spine.
Yanking at her shackles that no longer held her bound Hermione turned to Severus who had fallen to his knees in reaction to his blood loss. Though Severus' curse was in plain Latin, Hermione's counter spell was Irish. Touching Severus with her hand, she quickly, and accurately voiced the counter-spell, "Mé a thabhairt duit an anáil na beatha i ngrá póg fíor." She then pressed her mouth against his, and breathed into his own.
The flow of blood stopped, and Severus drew in a deep breath. Hermione held out a Blood Replenishing Potion which he swiftly swallowed to replace the blood lost. He had only a moment to draw in a breath of relief when Hermione threw her arms around him, and hugged him close.
"It worked!" Hermione gasped into his ear.
"A fortunate thing that it did, or we would be the worse for wear." Severus captured her lips in his. He kissed her firmly, thoroughly, and never wanted it to end.
Madigan Berger, just barely alive, writhed in deep pain upon the ground. He managed a glare in their direction but it was all he could do. Today he lost but he would strike back with extreme vengeance. This he vowed to himself as another pain racked his body, and made him shiver.
"Brother!" Lucius voice called from within the cave. "Come help!"
a/n: noli despicere animam meam sanguinem minuere = let my blood weaken, confrigo = break, Mé a thabhairt duit an anáil na beatha i ngrá póg fíor = I give you the breath of life in love's true kiss
Translations from Google Translate. My apologies for any unintentional mangling of either language.