My dear readers and followers,
I was not struck by the virus, as some have feared in the comments – my long, terribly long absence can be easily explained by me having to finish my college postgrad degree and extra job qualification in relatively short succession, which has prevented me from doing anything else than studying (and the ocassional fanfic read). I hope I can make it up to you now, with all due interest, as I plan to continue this wonderful story – don't worry, I've already written the end of this little fic long before my duties consumed me!
Thank you, with all my heart, for bearing with me so long, and if it pleases you, I'd be more than grateful if you'd like to travel with me through this magical invention of mine again. Till the end, this time for sure.
All comments and reviews are dear to me, I read every single one of them. Thank you.
-oOo-
He yawned and sipped his late night coffee. He stayed at the office late again, and he hated himself for that. Tomorrow you've got a very difficult task to do, you idiot, he berated himself, but it was no good, it wouldn't help him to get his last task of the day done any way quicker. He heard the click of the latch as the door opened noiselessly. He looked up. There she was, his secretary, his young, beautiful secretary, wearing that red skirt she always wore, and which, in his opinion, made her look really pretty (of course he wouldn't say anything out loud) and giving him a sweet smile, she brought the small plate to the desk.
"I brought you something to nibble at." She said and placed the plate of Hobnobs next to his inkpot. She gave him a smile, so nice, so radiant, that he felt his heart was falling somewhere down, down, down, beating like crazy.
"Something wrong?" She asked innocently. She must have noticed the scowl on my face, he thought.
"Nothing." He murmured, but didn't stop looking at her. Suddenly, a realisation crept up to him how perfectly beautiful she was. His eyes travelled to hers, which were big and brown and innocent, round face, pink, swollen lips, curly silk hair, and the white top which wouldn't give her gorgeous curves the credit they deserved, but that made the whole thought even more interesting.
As she turned to leave, he said quickly: "Don't go."
She turned to him again, a quizzical look on her face.
"Come closer." He said softly. Her ears got slightly pink, but she obeyed – like the good office kneazle she was. He rose from his chair, and now he stood level with her, leaving only a small gap between them. He took another step closer, looking into her eyes as he moved, and placed a strand of hair behind her ear, the earlobe of which radiated dark pink like a lighthouse.
"You're not afraid of me, are you?" He asked her softly, however, before she could respond, he bent down slightly, cupped her chin gently and gave her a soft kiss.
He expected her to punch him, to berate him, to jump back in disgust.
But she did none of the sort.
Instead, she parted her lips, her sweet, delicious lips, and started kissing him back, entangling her long arms around his neck.
And in this moment, he stopped caring about the world altogether. He stopped caring if Potter won the war, he stopped caring whether the Dark Lord would like to see him dead or not, the only thing he cared about was her. Only her. He wondered if she would desire him, too, in the same way as he wanted her, he wondered whether it might scare her too much if he lifted her on his lap right there and then. The only thing that mattered was his sweet, beautiful subordinate in his arms, and his tongue in her mouth.
"Severus, please…" She begged and when he looked into her eyes, he could see colours that hadn't been there before, he could see green, and black, and red, and various shades of brown, and he knew exactly what she was begging him to do, and it made his his body tense with an intense sense of anticipation…
With a silent gasp, he jerked upright. Everything was buried in darkness. He lit his wand and as the Lumos rays illuminated the covers of his bed, he felt a deep sense of guilt and shame. It was just a dream. A stupid dream. But everything felt so real… He got up and, greatly disturbed by his own vivid imagination, he went to the bathroom sink and washed his face with cold water. Enough sleep for tonight, he concluded, such dreams were a stupid and dangerous luxury he couldn't afford.
Why are you berating yourself so much? A little voice inside his head said. The dream felt quite enjoyable, didn't it? You liked it.
"She's my colleague!" He spat at everyone and at no one. "My colleague, my subordinate, and – Merlin's sake – she's my friend too!"
He got dressed up quickly and walking down the stairs into the Headmaster's office, he lit the chandelier and began working. A glance at the ornate clock on the mantlepiece told him it was half past five in the morning.
Two hours later, just when he was sipping his morning dose of caffeine, Tara showed up, her arms full of parchments. She also carried a small plate.
"Hello!" She gave him a radiant smile. He felt his ears burn. That's ridiculous, he thought, I haven't even done anything! It was just adream!
"I noticed you were up here since Merlin-knows-when, and I haven't seen you at breakfast either, so I brought you something to nibble at." She said and placed the plate of Hobnobs next to his inkpot. She gave him a smile, so nice, so radiant, that he felt his heart was falling somewhere down, down, down, beating like crazy. This is exactly like the dream, he thought angrily, what is she playing at?! Could she – by any chance – could she know what I dreamed about last night?! Impossible. Unthinkable. You're going crazy, you old bat, he thought. There is no such thing as intercepting someone's dreams – unless you are the Dark Lord, of course… No, this has to be a strange coincidence.
"Something wrong?" She asked innocently.
She must have noticed the scowl on my face.
"Nothing." He murmured.
Now she'll know for sure. I'm just being pathetic.
"Why are you acting so weird?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Has something happened? Do you– Do you want me to go?"
"Don't go. Please." He blurted.
"Now, you are acting oddly. Out with it." She leaned on his desk facing him, her face was level with his and her brown eyes were looking straight into his. "What's wrong, Severus?"
"I had… a strange dream last night." He admitted.
Why are you telling the truth, you sodding moron?!
"I have nightmares so often that I've stopped counting." She sighed and touched his hand affectionately. "It's just a dream. Once you wake up, everything gets better. It always does."
"Yeah." He nodded. "Sorry to bother you with that."
"Oh, it's no problem!" She gave him another wide smile, then turned on the spot. "Anytime!"
He bent over his parchment again, and considered the matter over, when suddenly–
"Severus, please…" He jerked upright, knocking over the inkpot on his desk. Cursing, he cast a quick cleaning charm on the parchments and looked at her with mixed feelings of curiosity and exasperation. She was standing in front of him, so tentatively, so innocently, that he just couldn't be mad at her, not after the similar replicas from his stupid dream had their way of coming back in real life – she couldn't have known what was in his dream, could she?
"Stop overworking yourself. Please. Maybe we could find a way to relax together? Maybe a game of chess?"
"Anything you'd like." He murmured.
Fuck's sake, am I blushing?!?!
-oOo-
"Do you think the old bastard is sleeping with her?" Avery asked, his mouth full of unchewed lunch. A few Slytherin students looked away in disgust.
"Definitely." Said Dolohov, throwing a glance at the staff table. "Seeing how he ogles her, that greasy git!"
"Never liked him much." Said the first Death Eater. "Gods, how I should like to have my way with her… She wouldn't have been looking at him like that."
"I heard Grayback had a blast with her the other day." Avery smirked.
"She rather blasted him, I'd say!" Snorted Dolohov. "Never liked that guy much either."
The two Death Eaters broke into derisive fits of laughter, before realising the Headmaster was looking straight at them with a scowl.
"He'll probably nag us about spoiling his precious kids, eh?" Avery noted and Dolohov gave a dangerous chuckle: "They're almost of age. There wouldn't be anything your kid wouldn't have already known."
"You wish you knew what my son has seen and heard." Avery said with a sneer. He was proud of himself for allowing his offspring such liberties. After all, how better could his son turn up than like his father?
-oOo-
"It was brought to my attention that your little secretary likes to play with fire." The cold voice of Lord Voldemort froze him to the spot.
"My Lord?" He asked innocently.
"Your secretary thinks its wise to throw my followers out of a moving train. Explain, Severus." The Dark Lord demanded icily.
"Maybe we should ask her to explain, my Lord?" Severus suggested. He didn't really want Voldemort to interrogate Tara, he just needed to buy time. "Until yesterday, I've been unaware of the incident myself – may I?" He asked and by a jerk of his arm, he indicated the sending forth of Tara Henley.
"Indeed. She's still under the Imperius, I presume." Said Voldemort. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
The young woman took a tentative step forward, her knees shaking.
"Do you recall the incident, girl?" Voldemort asked lazily and Tara nodded. Greyback grinned in victory.
"It was on the Hogwarts Express two days ago." She began. "There was some scuffle between them and the Gryffindor students for their seats. There were other houses, too, and it seemed they would soon start firing curses at each other, so I intervened. The Headmaster said they were not to harm the students."
"I said that they were not to harm the students yet." Severus smirked.
"It is my wish not to spill as much magical blood as I do already, however, a few Gryffindor students would be but a fly on the wall for me." Voldemort said, twirling his wand in his hand. Severus' hands began to shake with anxiety and he had to hide them behind his back. He always did that before he tortured someone… Before he killed someone…
"My Lord – from what I understood – the parents of the students shouldn't be worried for their offspring – their students getting hurt on the first day of school after the administration changed, that wouldn't be a good impression to give…"
Tara cast him a worried glance. Voldemort smiled a crooked, hideous smile.
"You're absolutely right, Severus. It wouldn't."
Severus let out a tiny gasp of relief.
"However," Voldemort began twirling his wand again, "I am disconcerted that you hadn't made me aware of the extraordinary abilities your secretary possesses – surely you must have been aware of those?"
"Extraordinary abilities, my Lord?!" Severus snorted in derision. "That's a mere Muggle fist-fighting! It was the previous Headmaster who had taught her such atrocious practices, not I, my Lord!"
"You're wrong, Severus." Voldemort snapped and Severus fell on his knees in the never-ending agony of the Cruciatus. "She employs magic to do it." He stroke his snake's head gently. "And you've known about this, and yet, you haven't told me… I'm starting to question your loyalty to me, Severus…"
He hit him with a Cruciatus curse, stronger than the previous one. Only by employing the entirety of his moral composure he didn't scream like a madman. Panting and sweating heavily, Severus looked up at Voldemort and he found his face stone-like and merciless.
"M-My Lord," Tara spoke tentatively and took a step forward to partially cover her friend and Headmaster, "I advised the Headmaster not to inform you just yet. I advocated for driving my skills to perfection first, and telling you afterwards, so that you could be satisfied with such a valuable asset at your disposal when you see for yourself, my Lord."
"You are a captive, a hostage. You have no place to give advice." Sneered Voldemort and by a flick of his wand, he gave Tara's left cheek a deep, heavily bleeding cut. However, she didn't take his eyes off him – she flinched slightly, but didn't check her wound. Her white top was soaking blood, but she didn't move.
"And you," Voldemort turned to Snape, "you have no reason to listen to doormats like this one. Next time she blabs nonsense, you kill her, or better still, you give her to Greyback. I hope it's clear to you now, Severus, my friend."
The third Cruciatus was the most vile of them all. He couldn't hold his tongue anymore, it was too much, too much pain, it was too strong. He was screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Flinching, are we, kitten?" Said Voldemort and a devilish, crooked smile spread across his lips as he saw Tara's face contorted in an expression of deep terror. "Afraid of the Cruciatus curse, are we? Your heart races like a Firebolt, don't you think I don't know…" Voldemort took a deep breath through his snake-like nostrils.
"You've been a good and faithful servant to me, Severus." Voldemort said. "So I'm giving you the option of choosing to pass your remaining punishment onto your secretary, so that she could endure it instead of you."
Severus gritted his teeth. Did Voldemort truly lose faith in him? Is he going to kill him and now he's just playing with him? Does he know he, Severus, cares for his secretary? Is this a ruse to break his cover? It must be. Voldemort must be testing his loyalty, even if he says he trusts him. Because if Tara indeed was under the Imperius, she would endure it and he, Severus, would put her through it, as the Dark Lord believes, because she's supposed to be but a tool for him, right?
But she's not. She's so much more, he thought. I can't do it. I'm going to blow it all up, and then take Tara and hide somewhere, and forget the ruddy war…
"I'll do what the Headmaster tells me to." Said Tara and stepped forth. She casted him a quick look. The brown eyes met the black. This was a signal. Keep going, her brown eyes said. We'll go through this together. It doesn't end here, keep going.
"I'm eternally grateful, my Lord." Severus got to his feet and gave a deep bow. "You can inflict as many Cruciatuses on her as you see fit, my Lord, for all I care."
"No, Severus, I'm afraid you have misunderstood me." Voldemort gave a crooked smile. "You will inflict as many Cruciatuses on her as I see fit."
Tara made an effort not to cast him a worried glance. Her heart was pounding in her chest again.
"To teach her to keep her persuasive tongue in her head. Go on, Severus, everyone's waiting." Said Voldemort and by a slight wave of his arm he brought his attention to all the other Death Eaters watching. Snape lifted his wand and Tara closed her eyes, standing there in front of everyone as a martyr ready for his death penalty. As her first cries resonated through the hall, Severus knew his worst nightmare had come true.
An hour or so later, as Tara was lying on the stone floor, panting and sobbing quietly, Voldemort turned to Severus: "Now, where are the extraordinary powers you two yearned to show me?"
"My Lord, I don't know if she would be able to–"
"My dear Severus, you've come to forget the principles of the Imperius over the years." Voldemort gave another hideous smile. "You clearly know the subject will do anything its master wills them to, even if it cost them their life?"
So that's his real punishment. He wants her dead, and he wants me to kill her myself, slowly and gradually, by torturing her to death. No. I can't take it anymore.
"If the Headmaster wills me to…" They heard Tara say softly: the woman was slowly getting on her feet, her body shaking and trembling from the previous torturing curses. She truly was a pitiful sight. Her legs were shaking, she was panting heavily as if she'd run a marathon, and clearly, she had to exercise a lot of effort just to be standing.
"If the Headmaster wills me to… I'll do it."
"Excellent." Voldemort grinned. The entrance door swung open and three swaying bodies came into view.
"Inferi…" Gasped Severus, barely audibly.
"If you can destroy them, everything is forgotten." Grinned Voldemort. "If you can beat them without your wand, you'll convince me what Severus told me is true."
But they are in-fucking-destructible!