Warning: The story contains torture scenes. The individual chapters are marked with a warning like this one.
CHAPTER 1
ENJOY THE EVENING
It was one of those wretched nights where nothing good could possibly happen.
The air in the forest clearing was crisp and cold, the early night sky drenched in stars. Anyone but Severus Snape would have gazed at the skies, mesmerised by the celestial bodies and their lovely, icy glimmer. Severus cringed.
There would be nothing lovely about tonight. By the time the sun would rise, Severus would be quite a bit ruffled, in the most fortunate case that was. In the worst case — he would rather not think of that for the hundredth time. Either way, on his scale of prospects for tonight, being dead before dawn ranked somewhere in the middle.
Well, talk about a lovely night.
The only comforting thought he could find, standing alone in Longmoon Forest, was that, at least, he was hundreds of miles away from Hogwarts and the insufferable cohort of teenagers populating that place.
A gust of wind ruffled his dark hair, his black travelling cloak billowing sideways, and Severus held back the impulse to hunch his shoulders against the cold, settling instead for biting down a shiver and squaring his back.
The January night was cold enough to make him consider, on an almost serious note, whether he would rather be short and chubby, instead of tall and bony, only for the added advantage against the caprice of winter. He quite detested the cold.
Silence crackled with the electricity of an Apparition, and the frozen leaves on the ground stirred and chipped under the sudden weight of boots. Their owner was a slender woman, her dark hair ruffled without reason. She scanned the surroundings, moving jerkily like a mink searching for prey. She held none of the grace one would expect from a woman of such beauty.
"Snape." Big brown eyes sparked vulgarly mad.
And Severus felt a headache coming on already. "Bellatrix."
She wrapped her long, violet coat tighter around her waist to shield herself from the biting cold and closed the distance to Severus, swaying with every step as if the ground beneath her was quaking. Her intoxicating scent of jasmine and amber reached Severus before she did, and, for a moment, he pondered whether she used it to keep away the wild animals in the woods.
One more pace and she would have stepped on Severus' boots.
She let her head fall back to search the depths of his eyes and let out a breath of steam in the frozen air between them. It wasn't the witch's power that he dreaded, but her feral sadism. She smiled a wide, heartless smile, and Severus felt a shiver prickle his back.
"Eager to rid the world of Sirius Black?" she said, hushed.
Severus smirked. "For over a decade."
"Good."
The air behind him crackled with the sound of another Apparition, and Severus turned to see Goyle — a large, brutish man, tucking the wand in his coat, leaving the garment ostentatiously unbuttoned, as if on purpose, to prove that large men lack a sense of cold. And a sense of proper judgement, to be precise.
But before the newcomer could say a word, another figure abruptly appeared. It swung round, rich robes trailing across the frozen mud of the forest floor in a luxury of silk and velvet, so preposterously, magnificently misplaced.
"Gentlemen." The silhouette approached the others and lowered its hood to uncover a pale face with blunt features, Corban Yaxley. "And ladies," he added, flashing an unpleasant smile to which Bellatrix curled her upper lip, not caring to hide her disgust.
Severus nodded in acknowledgement.
"I believe we can skip the greeting," Severus said. "Bellatrix, you know what brings us here. Yaxley and Goyle, I'll be quick to brief you on why you've been summoned."
Yaxley's face constricted in a peculiar grimace at Severus' last words, and Severus rejoiced at every bit of it.
Yes, Severus was only thirty-five, and, yes, Yaxley had a problem with someone as young summoning him. Well, you can't please everyone.
"Tonight," Severus said, "we will capture and bring before the Dark Lord someone who's been enjoying the fresh air of freedom for too long — Sirius Black. He is on a mission to retrieve the Pearl Beak, though I doubt you would have any knowledge of that…" Severus glanced between the two men and watched Yaxley scowl, vexed. It was probably unwise, today of all days, to rekindle enmities amongst fellow Death Eaters, but Severus still had a long way to go before he would lick the boots of Yaxley and the likes of him. "For tonight, Black is in a cabin, not far from here, and he is alone. There is only one request: the Dark Lord wants and needs him alive. He's useless if —"
"He's always better dead than running free," Bellatrix cut in.
"And he is even better captured and breathing." Severus gave her a pointed look; his tone remained cold and level. "Which does not mean unharmed. Nor in one piece. So… Enjoy the evening."
Severus lowered the cold Death Eater mask over his face and turned to walk. The others followed.
"Lumos."
A sphere of light formed at the tip of his wand, lighting the ground as they left the clearing and entered the depths of Longmoon Forest.
Black's hideout wasn't far, and the hunt was on for tonight. And Severus... he had a plan — and a growing certitude that it would end badly.