Hi everyone! I tried to be as quick as I could - I just hope it was quick enough.
What of Phoebe and Sev --- time to find out... :D
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Chapter 46–The Dark Lord
Phoebe had never felt such terror in her life; standing before the monster she had heard so much about. And although then she'd had difficulty imagining someone so cruel and frightening, now she could practically feel the evil radiating from him… it was… inhuman. She could finally understand why the population of the Wizarding world were too terrified to say his name aloud and how this creature had managed to spark fear into a nation of people with magical powers well beyond any talents she, a mere Muggle, possessed.
He was watching her, measuring her, gauging her… all from across the room; though it seemed as if he were inside her. He could see everything there was to see with just his icy stare and the glowing red heat of his centre.
She wanted to back away from him, retreat; but she was held in position by two repugnant Death Eaters on either side of her: one of whom, she'd noticed, had answered to the name Pettigrew. She remembered the name from a few of Severus' anecdotes, a little shocked that it turned out that he was the Secret Keeper for these castle ruins; ruins that went by the name of 'Lamnodron'; also familiar from Severus' information.
It was difficult to resist the pull of His intense glare, but at the same time she couldn't bare to glimpse upon his darkened soul; battling to find anywhere to rest her gaze but in the depths of his eyes.
Though it did not seem to make any difference; she was an open book and almost even before she knew what she was thinking, she knew he had already seen it.
And before she realised he had even moved he was standing within inches of her, his soft breaths buffering her cheek.
"You know who I am?" he whispered sinisterly.
Phoebe nodded instantly, her breaths coming in shudders, too afraid to do anything else but obey.
"Say my name… say it aloud!" he commanded, again in a whispered murmur, but he may as well have roared the order.
She flinched at the demand, so brutal and yet so seductive… utterly appreciating now how Severus had been so drawn into His service all those years ago.
Phoebe dreaded the man would lean into her and she would be forced to endure his touch, and as if she'd said the thought out loud, the evil wizard instantly swayed even closer to her, his lips dancing mere millimetres away from her skin; causing her to gasp.
"Say it!" he hissed menacingly.
"The D-Dark Lord," she breathed aloud; barely loud enough for all in the tight circle of Death Eaters that now surrounded them to hear.
His face circled hers; teasing her, mocking her as his eyes raked over her features: a smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth and stretched even further with every gasp she failed to contain until he broke into a perverse chuckle.
He abruptly stepped back away from her, continuing to laugh. "Severus has trained her well!" he announced in smug amusement to the collection of Death Eaters encircling them; who immediately began to snigger.
And suddenly the mirth was gone again from Lord Voldemort's snake-like features as he refocused his intense glare back on her.
"He is on his way, you know… and the traitor will watch you die before he himself will suffer my wrath!"
"Lock her in the pit!" he ordered, and Phoebe was bodily dragged from his presence even more horrified than before.
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Severus was standing shirtless in the middle of the bedroom whilst Molly fussed over every slash through his flesh.
"You're much too thin, you know," she commented, and he scoffed aloud. He could barely remember the last time he had eaten a decent meal.
"I shall endeavour to find more time to eat," he responded sardonically. The woman had stilled her hands at the spiteful comment and he instantly regretted his caustic attitude. Molly had been extremely kind and caring and she did not deserve such derision from him.
"No… please forgive me, Mrs Weasley… my behaviour just now was discourteous and uncalled for," he offered with guilty regret, dipping his head in shame.
The Weasley matriarch straightened herself and gave him a measuring look, "Molly, Severus… you may call me Molly," she eventually offered with a small, forgiving smile.
Severus nodded with hesitant gratitude, 'Thank you… Molly," he responded, and sighed wearily.
After a few more moments continuing to look him over, Molly said, "You would do well to take a dose of Pepper-up, Severus," reaching into her apron and producing a vial of coloured liquid; holding it out to the man. "I have purged your wounds of disease, but the infection would still have taken a toll on your body and strength. And a decent meal will go a long way to assist that," she added as an afterthought, "I'll go make you something to eat while you dress."
He nodded obediently, taking the proffered vial of potion. "Thank you… but just something light… I haven't been feeling too well lately," he explained, feeling oddly self-conscious.
Molly nodded understandingly, "It's because of the infection, no doubt… it will pass," she assured, retreating from the room to prepare the meal she had promised.
Severus sighed again as he watched the motherly woman leave the room. The task of rescuing Phoebe seemed a surreal, unattainable fantasy from his viewpoint standing in the warm, quiet cottage bedroom, and as he was still feeling quite poorly despite the attention to his infected wounds the probability of success stretched even further from reality.
'How am I going to pull this off?' he wondered desolately. His eyes found the gap in the drawn curtain that was letting in a small sliver of diminishing afternoon light. Severus found that he was drawn to the window and with one hand he swept aside the curtain, gazing out onto the whitened scenery that stretched on seemingly endlessly.
"Phoebe… how do I get you back?" he whispered questioningly to nobody, but just the mere voicing of the question Severus felt lent the problem authority to be solved.
Well, to answer that, he supposed he needed to focus… and in order to achieve that he needed to gain back some of his strength, any way he could.
Opening his hand, he looked down at the vial that had been enclosed in his palm. 'Starting with this,' he thought resolutely.
Severus quickly unstoppered the glass vial and brought it to his lips, swallowing the rejuvenating potion with barely a grimace despite its bitter aftertaste. As he felt the brew warm his stomach and flood through his veins; sparking a surge of vigour to every inch of his body, he took a deep, calming breath with unwavering determination.
He could do this… he had to do this… he would do this!
All he needed now was the plan. Arthur, Lupin and Tonks were currently in the sitting room concocting the scheme; after dressing Severus was to join them – he had his own contribution to the plans to make, nothing short of cunning would get Phoebe back.
The dark man methodically replaced his freshly repaired garments, lifted his chin indomitably and strode out of the bedroom for the sitting room a much different man compared to the one that had walked in.
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"Where is he… why is he not here yet?" demanded the evil wizard, pacing urgently across the stone floor; swishing his long robes as he spun to retrace his steps. "You said he was coming right behind you!"
Wormtail cringed away from the angry, edgy wizard striding impatiently before him.
"H-He told me… t-that's what he said," the rat-like man stammered. "He h-had Lupin bound… I have his w-wand," Pettigrew offered, digging deep into his robes to produce the thin polished rod of oak.
"Perhaps the half-breed has managed to overpower him ultimately," the Dark Lord pondered aloud, but then he paused in his pacing and fixed Peter with a frightening glare.
"Did you give the Werewolf the secret… perhaps you did not divulge the correct address?" Voldemort accused the short, dumpy secret keeper, continuing to glower menacingly at him. "Severus would not have been able to bring his captive past the wards!"
At the accusation Wormtail looked extremely uncomfortable and fearful. 'It was possible,' he thought to himself, he'd been preoccupied at the time, after all. The man glanced nervously up to his red-eyed master. "My Lord… I'm sure I did not make a mistake… I mean, I don't think so… ah-"
Wormatil was interrupted in his assurances by a sharp, hot whip-like curse across his face, chest, and upper arm. He gasped in pain and bent over double grasping his paining limb.
"You imbecile!" snarled the Dark Lord, angrily. "Find him… discover the reason for their delay! You should have made sure before you left him. Fix your bungle or I assure you you'll wish you were dead long before I'm through with you!"
The watery-eyed Pettigrew backed hurriedly away, more out of fear than urgency to complete his task, attempting to pacify his master with a hand held out front in a soothing manner. "Yes, My Lord… of course… please forgive my sloppiness."
He then practically bolted out the door and headed for the boundary of Lamnordron with an urgent gait, scratching at his head, befuddled; wondering just how everything that went wrong always ended up being blamed on him.
As he passed over the boundary, with a strange mix of dread and rebellious hope, Wormtail considered whether Lupin had indeed managed to overpower Snape with the assistance of the wand Peter had slipped him, and that was the reason the other slippery Death Eater had not arrived as he'd indicated.
If that were the case, Wormtail decided then and there that he would not be returning to the Dark Lord's side… he himself admitted he had never been a particularly brilliant man, but he was far from completely stupid!
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"Wormtail… you fool!" Severus bit out at the man striding across the snow covered darkening clearing, "What bloody address did you give Lupin? He cannot pass through the wards!"
Severus had remained hidden within the edge of the small forest of trees just off to the south of Lamnordorn's boundary and wards, and only revealed himself once he was sure that no other Death Eaters had accompanied the rat-like man.
He dragged the bound figure of Remus Lupin in his wake and tossed him to the cold ground ahead of him, only a few meters from the edge of the forest.
Pettigrew frowned in confused contemplation. Despite the Dark Lord's accusation and assumption of Wormtail's failure, the rat-like man had not believed he really had failed to deliver the secret to Lupin correctly, and had in fact expected to find that Lupin had overcome Severus and subsequently escaped again.
Still perplexed he crouched to the restrained Order member; a sad and bitter emotion flooding through him at the realisation that he was no longer in a position to save his former classmate, friend and the boy he had developed feelings for many years ago.
He began to repeat the secret to Lupin in a similarly cautious tone and volume as in Surrey, "Lamnor-"
"Louder, you fool!" Severus demanded angrily, "he won't be able to hear you! This is probably what happened last time!" he grumbled in annoyance.
Without his earlier caution Wormtail complied, sick of this saga and just wishing the whole mess would be over and done with. The Death Eater's now irritated voice carried well past the initial line of frosted trees of the forest… he wanted to make sure Remus could not possibly have failed to hear or mishear him this time!
After fully disclosing the address, Pettigrew glanced up at Severus, "Satisfied?" he snapped dryly.
The dark man began to nod in a contented manner, an arrogant smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth; supplanting the previous dour expression.
"Utterly!" he murmured smugly, taking a perverse amount of pleasure from the sight of Wormtail's forehead instantly creasing with bewildered uneasiness.
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Severus pushed a bound and gagged Lupin in front of him over the boundary protected by the wards; heading for Lamnordron's stone steps that lead up to the only series of intact rooms.
The dark man knew Phoebe was still alive, and up until now relatively unhurt… well, as far a Wormtail had been aware at any rate. Severus had wasted no time subduing the piggy-eyed man, retrieving the long stashed vial of Veritaserum from within his robes and promptly pouring it down the wizard's throat.
Under the influence of the truth-telling serum, along with Phoebe's treatment and condition, Pettigrew was easily persuaded to divulge the exact location of where Phoebe was being detained.
The documented result of Veritaserum ingestion included a guiding and encouraging effect, and once the rat-like man had gotten going, he generously and gleefully offered a general depiction of what the Dark Lord had in store for Severus. The dark man was hard pressed to resist uttering a shuddering gasp of alarm, his memory of recent torture particularly fresh in his mind. But his dismay did not last long… he'd angrily thrust the vile man in his grasp to the snow coated ground in disgust.
With fury and determination building fiercely inside his chest, Severus had immediately put into play the remainder of the cleverly crafted plan; pausing only briefly to take the deep breaths required to concentrate on creating a smooth and relaxed countenance once more. He could not let on too early that he was aware of Phoebe's capture, else he would surely not succeed in escaping, and even less likely with Phoebe (and/or himself) unharmed.
The rat-like man followed alongside him, just a step behind. Severus glanced back at him, his stony expression giving away nothing of the turmoil that was swirling in his gut.
"Keep up!" he demanded sharply, and Wormtail quickened his step obediently, giving a small nod of acknowledgement and support that was so uncharacteristic of the insipid man… but that tended to be the case when another was controlling your body.
Severus turned his concentration to locating Phoebe. He would deliver Lupin to the Dark Lord's feet, and whilst he was dealing with the Werewolf, he would slip out as silently as he could to find her. He only had to trust that his evil Master would indulge himself with Lupin before exposing and toying with the spy… it was their only chance.
So when Lucius, Bellatrix, Rodlphus, and Draco, along with several other notorious Death Eaters practically melted into view from behind various objects in the now dark courtyard and surrounded them as the trio reached the foot of the icy stairs, Severus knew that control of the situation was all but lost.
"Severus Snape!" Voldemort's high, cold voice rang out from the staircase.
The dark man's neck snapped upwards to see his Master descending the steps. Severus immediately forced Lupin to the snow covered ground and also took a kneeling position with his head bent low in a show of respect. Despite every instinct screaming at him not to take his eyes off his enemy, he sensed correctly that he was likely to survive longer if he played along as if in ignorance. Hopefully it would buy him enough time to reassess the situation.
Wormtail had backed quietly and inconspicuously into the circle to join the other Death Eaters… Severus wished for a brief moment that he could do the same. But knowing the congregation was there for him alone, he steeled himself determinedly and lifted his gaze to meet the Dark Lord's.
"I deliver you, Remus Lupin, My Lord… alive, as requested," Severus offered with a do or die attitude; and absolute commitment to his plan.
Voldemort began to chuckle hideously, "So you have, Snape… so you have. And what would you have me do with him?"
It was a bizarre question and Severus had no clue how to properly answer.
"He is at your mercy, my Lord… whatever you wish," Severus said, more than aware that the man crouched in front of him was in a very perilous position.
"Indeed…" Voldemort replied coldly, shifting his intense gaze from Severus to Lupin. The stooped man's eyes suddenly widened in alarm and he began to yell and beg desperately, but uselessly, around his gag to anyone he could make eye contact with.
The Dark Lord did not hesitate; he abruptly raised his wand and brought it down with a whipping slash, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" he screamed, and the man instantly crumpled to the dirty, compacted, icy snow unmoving.
Severus merely watched on with a hint of a sneer.
