A/N: Thanks to Amehh, SolitaryNyght, FredAndGeorge'sAwesomeness, owlcity89, xXMissAlecVolturi ,BookWorm77071, Blue-bird-11, im-the-doctor, muentigerand koekie101.
For MadHatterG3000 and slytheringirl4life.
A warning: This chapter contains swearing. (Skye's not a very happy camper.)
Chapter 50: Mindgames.
(Meanwhile, a week before, just after Dumbledore's death and Skye being sucked into darkness.)
Skye's POV
I was lying on something soft – but how was that possible? I'd just hit my head on what I think is a rock, and there's no way in hell that I'd been passed out for that long.
I opened my eyes. Where the hell was I? The room I was in was silver, metallic almost. The room wasn't very well decorated, it only consisted of a bed – the one on which I was lying. I sat up. I realized I didn't have any clothes on – how embarrassing…
My Glamour Charms weren't working. The ring Draco had given me was gone, and I saw the light green streaks in my hair from the corner of my eye.
I wished for clothes to wear, what if someone saw me like this? Out of nowhere some clothes appeared. I quickly pulled them on, just as I was finished the door (I didn't even know this room had a door) opened.
"Good day, Empress." She said, her dirty hair fell in strands across her face and her eyes were crossed. She didn't seem very impressed with me.
"Merope." I nodded, not knowing why I wanted 'me rope', because, indeed, why on earth did I want a rope? Oh, maybe there was a window here I could climb out of… I looked around, my shoulders sagged. There wasn't a window in the room.
She gasped.
"How do you know my name?" She asked.
"Really? Your name's Merope? No wonder you're such a…"
"Hold your tongue!" She snapped, cutting across me. Now I recognized her, she'd been the one to hold Storm prisoner. Oh, now I remembered her name too. My mind was fuzzy – like a teddybear! I giggled at the idea of a teddybear-type brain in my head. I could just see myself, unscrewing my head at night and taking out my plush brain to sleep with it in my arms…
Speaking of teddybears, where's Draco? And more importantly, where the hell was I? My giggling faded.
"Where am I?" I asked, looking up at her, but she was gone. Majorly weird.
I stood up and went to the open door.
"You will pay… Empress of Shape-shifters, for taking my son from me and standing in my way…" Her voice came from absolutely everywhere, reverberating from the very walls themselves.
"What do you want with me?" I yelled, but the sound came out as a whisper. She cackled, and evil sound that chilled me fully.
"You are the Empress, and I hate you because of it." Her figure showed up to the right in the hall. The hall was also metallic; it seemed the whole building was.
"What have I done to you?" I demanded.
"You took my gift, my destiny… I was supposed to be the Empress, not you… you're a simple muggle raised child, what have you got that I lack?" Her ghostly figure came close to me and disappeared just as she was about to touch me. I'd cringed away from the touch and was now standing against the wall, wishing to go through it.
"You are nothing." All light around me went out. I gasped. No! I wasn't afraid anymore! No, no, no, no, no, no…
Something began crawling up my leg. Its hairy legs scratching me through the jeans I was wearing. I could feel the small creature crawling up and up and up…
Wait, I was bigger than a spider.
I reached down to where the little beast was and moved to flick it off, but it was already gone. How…
Man, I wish there was light in this forsaken place!
And with that the lights went on. But the building wasn't metallic anymore; it looked more like a bathroom at a public restroom that was never cleaned. Incredibly dirty, grime between the tiles and the light bulb hanging from the ceiling flickered feebly. I stared at it, cursing it in my mind. It flickered one last time and went out, but light in general remained.
The floor beneath me opened and fell, infinitely it seemed to me.
Then out of nowhere I hit the ground. I stood up, grunting.
Hiss….
I whirled around at the sound.
A giant snake was slithering slowly over to me. Was Merope perhaps trying to feed on my fears?
"Poof." I said, waving at the snake. I watched it evaporate.
I looked up, her ghostly figure standing at the top. I wanted to be up there, and within seconds I stood next to her. I reached out and seized her behind the neck. I didn't have my wand; she must've taken it, so instead I placed my other hand in front of her neck in a threat. She was a foot shorter than me, so it was easy to do this.
"You are one evil little thing." I whispered in her ear, "But it's not like I didn't know that already."
She cackled that awful laugh again and vanished.
The lights went out again.
"I know your biggest fears, Empress, and I will use them against you."
Her voice was like a lullaby – it made me tired and I wished to just close my eyes.
"Sleep, for now, Empress, you'll need your rest."
And without my permission I fell asleep.
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"Wake up, Empress, day two has arrived."
I jerked awake. I was on the bed again. I wondered vaguely how I'd gotten there. I stood up and opened the door immediately. I wanted to get this over with. She was standing outside, leaning against a door, almost casually. Her dirty hair was swept into a ponytail that looked haggard. I hadn't realized how small the woman really was.
"Morning, Empress."
I glowered at her.
"Today I shall humor you, I will answer your questions – even if it for just a while."
I nodded, and then we were swept to a living room, which was decorated in a very elaborate sense. She sat down in one of the arm chairs and motioned for me to do the same. I hesitated.
"I'll alert you when I'll attack again, Empress." She said, I sat down and waited. "But rest assured, this is the last time I shall have a civilized conversation with you."
"What do you want from me?" I asked her.
"Your ultimate demise, m' dear." She said pleasantly. "You are a thorn in my side, and I know that to defeat you, I have to feed on your fears."
"What makes you think you know my fears?" I demanded from her. She smiled at me; several of her teeth were missing.
"You are the Empress, dear girl; don't you think I'd done research on you?"
I froze, what did she know? I phrased my question.
"What do I know?" She repeated my question, "Well, I know who you are, your real identity, I know who your mother is, your father, I know about your mate, I know about the veela man… and above all, I know your fears."
"Oh yeah?" I asked, adding Draco's smirk. She looked angry for a moment, before her expression returned to neutral.
"Yes, I do. I believe you asked me yesterday where you were? Well, my answer is a riddle." She took a breath before going on.
"You are neither there where you fell,
nor are you where you appear to be,
a little personal shell,
and also your own private hell. "
I considered her words.
"You'll never figure it out." She said smugly. I eyed her. She didn't look like the smartest person out there, but then again, real geniuses never do.
"You should never miss with a Merlin." I said softly, with a sly smile. She stared at me because of my words, her eyes for once not cross.
"What?"
But I stood up and headed for the door, it opened at my touch. I went out, and fell into darkness once again.
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"Day three has arrived." She didn't even bother with a 'morning' today, how awfully rude.
"Go screw yourself, Merope." I said, knowing full well she'd be able to hear me.
"That's not as much fun." She said. She was waiting outside my door, revealing herself to me. I thought this was a rather clever tactic. She wanted me to sort of trust her – her movements anyway. She was doing it on purpose. Making her predictable. She was either incredible smart in doing this, or incredible stupid.
"So, are you ready for this?"
"Ready or not, you'll still go ahead with your plans."
She smirked at me before pushing herself away from the wall.
"True." She inclined her head. The lights went out again – predictably.
"I'm waiting." I said, impatiently into the darkness.
Out of nowhere a fire sprung up. At first small, then it grew larger gradually… and thousands of rats streamed from it. I shrieked, turning around and trying to run away from them… but they fell onto me, drowning me in a puddle of rats…
"Oh no, you don't!" I gasped, wishing with all my might they were gone.
And like that it stopped.
"No!" Merope yelled frustrated.
The fire was still there, still growing gradually larger and redder. I squinted at it… nothing…
"You are neither there where you fell,
nor are you where you appear to be,
a little personal shell,
and also your own private hell. "
Her voice whispered again, but this time it was my own head rather than out here.
Private hell? Personal shell? Hmm… you are neither where you fell, nor am I where I appear to be… where do I appear to be?
In a mental hospital, a haunted and abandoned one at that.
Where did I fall?
Just inside the gates of Hogwarts.
So I'm not at a mental hospital, nor am I at the gates of Hogwarts? Did that mean I was still in the Hogwarts grounds? The Room of Requirement perhaps? I couldn't be, I reasoned. Draco had been there, and he'd rather eat Hogwarts rock cakes than let me be abducted – that I knew now.
Private hell?
Personal shell?
What if the words were scrambled? A private shell and a personal hell? What was my personal hell?
My imagination, I guess. I could scare myself easily by thoughts only…
The fire grew larger and redder still – I didn't get the point of the fire, though.
If my imagination was my personal hell, it could be my personal heaven too…
I doused the fire in my mind; it was starting to irritate me.
Water flowed from out of nowhere towards the nearing fire, but it evaporated before it reached the flames.
Now I knew why I should be afraid of it – it was FiendFyre! I turned around to run again, but after ten steps further into the darkness I wheeled around. Several animalistic figures rose from it, a chimaera roared at me, a dragon lifted its great head to look at me with fiery eyes; a phoenix flew above the fire…
"Die." I commanded it, and it did – just like that. The blazing animals all reared up once more before simply falling to the floor into nothingness.
The lights went on again, and dad was standing in front of me.
"I never wished for a child." He said to me, his sneer in place.
"Da…dad? How'd you get in here?"
He only deepened his sneer.
"You are such a disappointment. Why didn't you join the Dark Lord?"
I stared.
"I hated you from the moment the Dark Lord made me sleep with a veela-whore…"
"Fuck you!" I shouted at dad, it was the first time I'd swore aloud, and at dad. But this wasn't dad… he would never say that about mum! He was in love with her!
"Don't deny it, you know it's true."
I glared at dad – there was no way this was Severus Snape. Severus Snape wasn't snarly with me – he cared for me! He was my father – not this monstrosity in front of me!
"You are a worthless, little bitch! You caused deaths! You will cause deaths! No one loves you; no one could ever love you! You have no future; you will die alone and as a worthless…"
I wasn't going to listen to this. I stepped forward and pushed the thing in front of me, he laughed… but Merope's cackle came out…
I jumped up to the roof of the mental hospital and aimed a kick at dad, but he had disappeared.
"Attacking your own father, now are you, m' dear?" Merope's voice drifted to me. I looked around, where the hell was she?
"As I said: your own personal hell."
I beamed – she had slipped up now! She'd said personal hell, but in the riddle she'd said PRIVATE hell.
My own personal hell was my imagination – that much I'd already figured. Let's test it.
I took a breath and closed my eyes.
I'm afraid of Draco showing up saying he hated me, that he doesn't love me.
"Hello, Skye." I opened my eyes. Draco stood in front of me, Merope must be monitoring my thoughts for the words 'I'm afraid of' and things related to that.
"Draco." I nodded to the impostor, wanting to make her believe that I believed her.
"You know why I'm here?"
I shook my head innocently.
"I'm here to kill you." He smiled a haunting smile.
"Really, Draco, my love?"
He nodded slowly before running to attack me. I didn't move an inch – this was not Draco. His blonde hair was in place, as was his molten silver eyes and his muscled body, but Merope had forgotten one thing.
His scar.
This Draco stopped with a sword (that he suddenly had) mere inches from my face.
"Go away." I whispered, the boy that was not Draco looked horrified at my words before disappearing.
It clicked – my personal or private shell was my mind!
"No!" Merope's voice came to me. In my mind I saw her in front of me, and that was where she appeared.
"My personal shell, you say?" I enquired, smiling my eerie smile. "You meant my private shell, m' dear." I mocked her words, she glared at me.
"Since it's my personal hell, it can be my personal heaven too." I announced, throwing as much venom into my voice as I could. I felt her trying to leave, but I held her down firmly in my mind. I started to walk closer to her, menacingly, like I'd always done at the orphanage. I stopped near her ear. "My personal heaven includes you in a few strenuous activities. I shall allow you rest – only as an act of foreboding. I'm simply prolonging the inevitable."
I willed her eyes closed and into sleep. She fell into a deep sleep, sliding to the floor.
I grinned (evilly), I'd just make her nervous for a bit before leaving and sealing my mind permanently to her.
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"Wake up." I snapped at her. Her eyes opened immediately. "Now, time for you to see my heaven."
I smiled the eerie smile, she cringed.
"A word of advice before we start, you might want to overthink schemes like these – they might turn on you."
I put the lights out with that.
Now, I wasn't planning on doing anything traumatizing to her, just to make her paranoid.
I made a bunch of white, fluffy bunnies start hoping to her from a distance…
Hop… thud… hop… thud…
I heard her breath quicken, she was turning desperately on the spot to try and get away from the thudding creatures.
Just as soon as I was sure they'd surrounded her, I made the lights go on.
She screamed shrilly… then she saw that it was a bunch of bunnies… I laughed loudly from the side, making my voice reverberate of the, now metallic again, walls.
I dimmed the lights again, not entirely extinguishing them. I used her predictability on her.
I remembered a movie I saw as a child once. I couldn't remember the name, but it had made me laugh hard. I pushed that scene in here. It was a cartoon. The lights went on again.
A little girl that was quite thin and holding a headless doll came strolling in, quite happily. A boy entered after her, he had blonde hair and was rather chubby.
"Come on, Wednesday, you said we would hold a dance-off today." The boy moaned to his sister, but she'd stopped in mid-stride and was staring at Merope.
A rope appeared out of nowhere, the girl pulled it. A door from out of nowhere opened and a big blue man (that reminded me a bit of Frankenstein) came in.
"You rang?" He drawled.
"Yes, Lurch, I believe we have a feast for our crocodiles…"
Merope looked positively green.
I know I hadn't actually done much, nor had she – and she was clearly not a horror story writer. Nor was I, as a matter of fact, but I'd managed to scare her with a bunch of bunnies.
"Stay out of my mind, Merope!" I yelled, making a giant hand come in and pull her out. She screamed at the hand, but it didn't struggle with her further.
I closed the door in which the giant hand had come through; I pulled a quill out of nowhere and wrote on the door.
'Anti-Merope Barrier'
Quite silly, I know, but I smiled at the door. I patted it as I would pet a dog.
"Good boy."
And then I woke up.
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Sev's POV
Tired, I arrived at my home. Prince Manor. Draco said he'd send Parkinson here, I just hope she hadn't destroyed it completely in the last week. The last week had been exhausting, to say the least. After apparating with Bellatrix to Malfoy Manor, the Dark Lord wanted a play-by-play of Dumbledore's death. How it had been done, how I'd arrived on the scene, how I'd done it, how Hagrid's (an oaf according to him, personally I had a lot of respect for the giant) hut had caught on fire, Potter's and my interactions, how we lost the Parkinson girl, how Bella was unconscious…
I told him that a student – I withheld the name – had stunned Bellatrix, and while I was trying to defend him from doing more damage the girl had run away. I don't know why he insisted on me staying for a week, he said it was so that I was under his protection. I'd almost snorted aloud at that.
Dumbledore… was gone. And I'd done it. Yes, he had asked me to do it. That didn't change the way it made me feel.
I entered the gates and went up the stairs, what I wanted now was a bed.
"Severus?" A voice called as soon as I entered the Manor. Storm was here. The lights were on and the room was clean, not dusty as I'd expected it to be.
"Yes?" I called back, closing the door. Storm appeared at the top of the stairs, her Glamour Charms activated. She looked relieved at my appearance and ran down the stairs, her hair flailing wildly behind her, at top speed and threw her arms around my neck.
"I… I thought… he'd… killed you…" She sobbed into my chest. I put my arms around her unsurely. "Hold me, for crying out loud!" I smiled at her tone, but I tightened my grip.
"I'm fine." I said. She pulled back a little; her hands flew to my face.
"You're so pale." She said, "When last did you have decent meal?"
I thought about that, the house elves at Malfoy Manor had all gone mysteriously missing and could therefore not provide food.
"At Hogwarts." I answered.
"So you've been starving for a week?" She looked ready to murder.
"Don't fuss, Storm, it's all right." I said, drawing her in again. She relaxed into my embrace before pulling back again. Her eyes looked deeply into mine, they were searching my soul – or that's what it felt like.
Again that feeling took ahold of me, the feeling I'd only felt with one other person: Lily Evans. Storm was so beautiful… and so soft… what if I ended up killing her too? It was my fault that Lily was dead. I was the one that told the Dark Lord about Trelawney's prophecy.
She leaned up and kissed me.
"You are one brave man, Severus." She whispered to me.
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"Professor Snape?"
I jumped at the sound of the child's voice.
"Yes, Miss Parkinson?"
"Thank you." Her voice was small.
I nodded to her, acknowledging her thanks. I was sitting at the breakfast table, staring at the breakfast Storm had prepared. The egg yolk made me think of Skye. She hated eggs. Was she all right? Storm had told me about an unconscious Skye in Draco's arms. I wanted to go back; I wanted to see my daughter! I wanted to make sure Draco was all right. Draco didn't know that Dumbledore's death had been planned. He must hate me right now.
Storm came into the room again; she was wearing a pretty floral dress. It accentuated her curves perfectly. She smiled at the girl.
"Morning, Pansy." She sang. Storm glanced at me. "I told her to loan Skye's clothes, is that all right?"
"Yes, just as long as she leaves Skye's fingerless gloves alone, I don't think she would mind." I said. Storm smiled again and put her arms around my shoulders from behind.
"Well, sit down, Miss Parkinson, we don't want you starving." I said, trying to keep the sneer out of my voice. I missed Skye, more than I cared to admit. Luckily it was almost summer. The child sat down, and Storm put a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her.
"Sir, what are you doing here?" She asked me, her eyes wide.
"I live here, Miss Parkinson." I answered evenly.
"But…"
"I told you to wait until Skye gets here to start asking questions." Storm said to the girl kindly' then she seemed to remember something. "Sev, where's your part of the three-way mirror?"
I pulled it out of my pocket – I always had it on my person, just in case.
"Thank you." She smiled brightly before saying Draco's name into the mirror. We waited several minutes before anything happened. In the meanwhile I'd told her not to tell him I was in the same room as her.
"What?" A groggy Draco spoke from the mirror.
"Well, hello to you too, dear." Storm said sarcastically. I smiled inwardly; she was my type of woman – or veela as it were.
"Oh, hi, Storm… what are you doing with Sev's mirror?"
"I'm dancing with it, what does it look like?"
I actually allowed a smile to play on my lips at this. Parkinson's fork clattered to the floor. She gazed at me, not believing her eyes.
"What was that?" Draco asked, more awake by the sounds of it.
"Pansy just dropped her fork. How's Skye?" She asked the mirror. Parkinson quickly dropped under the table and picked her fork up.
I heard Draco sigh. "Still asleep, but maybe she'll wake up in an hour or so."
"Will you let us know?"
"Of course, Storm. But while I have you, there's something I want to ask you."
"What is it, Draco?"
"Um…" He said awkwardly, I smirked – I knew what was coming. "Would you… I mean… I want to… Gah!"
I snickered; the boy didn't know how to put it.
"I want to ask Skye to marry me." He said quickly. I quickly got up from the table because Parkinson had just taken a sip of pumpkin juice, and at Draco's question she spewed all of it out of her mouth and across the table. Storm laughed.
"What the hell was that?" Draco asked.
"Pansy, she just did an amazing spittake." Storm answered as if she was the commentator of a Quidditch game. "Anyways, how do you plan on doing it?"
I waved my wand to clean Parkinson's mess; she nodded her head in thanks.
"Does that mean you consent?" Draco asked excitedly.
"No, I'm being sarcastic." She smiled. "So, how are you going to do it?"
"I don't know yet, Sev said to avoid anything cliché, because she just hates that."
"The man has a point." Storm said.
"Have you seen him?"
"Yes."
"Is he okay?"
"Yes."
I heard Draco sigh in relief.
"Thanks. I'll see you later, mum." Draco added the last word playfully. Storm chortled.
"See you, son."
She looked at me as she set the mirror down.
"Do you think Skye will accept it?" She asked me.
"That's a silly question." I mused; Storm nodded and turned to the dumbstruck teenage girl.
"Pansy, dear, I realize this is incredibly odd right now, but I promise you that Skye will explain everything when she arrives, all right?"
The girl nodded, though she still looked curious.
Well, curiosity killed the cat – luckily Miss Parkinson is not a feline.
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Draco's POV
That had been one very odd conversation, in which Pansy performed an excellent spittake too, it seemed. I would have loved to play witness to that. I was glad Sev was okay, I think he and Skye had a lot of explaining to do.
I was sitting on my temporary bed next to Skye's. She was as yet still unconscious.
The door opened. Potter and pals came in.
"Hello, Draco." Potter greeted me, his friends echoing him.
"Hello, Ron, Hermione, Potter." I said with a slight smile. Potter groaned dramatically and took a seat next to me.
"When are you going to start calling me Harry, Malfoy?" He asked as his friends sat down opposite us.
"Because I have no wish to call you 'Harry Malfoy', Potter, I already have that last name reserved for someone else."
He laughed at my joke. Ron and Hermione laughed too, and it wasn't forced laughter.
Skye stirred, I was on my feet instantly.
"Draco?" Her eyes were open.
Thank goodness! Her eyes were open! She'd come back to the land of the living.
I smiled down at her, tears forming in my eyes. I hastily wiped them away. Skye sat up slowly, not taking her eyes off me.
"How are you feeling?" I asked softly. I saw Hermione get up and go to Madam Pomfrey's office – good idea.
"Wait until you hear how my week's been." She said. I smiled.
"Ditto. And you have some explaining to do."
She just smiled at me. She lifted her hands to my face and drew me down to kiss me. I hadn't kissed her in a long time, and I was quite happy to be feeling the sensation again.
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A/N: Hey, if you'd like a dedication review or PM me. And if you've reviewed and I haven't left a dedication, attempt to virtually steal my pet alien. For more info on my pet alien and his friends, visit my profile.
