Chapter Twelve

Imagine Immortality

Voldemort had managed to get his arms free. And had removed the silencing spell.

He was enjoying all this, really. The battle of wills. And more besides. Between two equally, naturally dominant men.

"This is all very jolly, all this japery, my love," he panted, "but I'm the one wearing the trousers in this relationship!"

Severus raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

The meaning was clear, even to Voldemort.

That's what you think.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes in danger. Anger. Lust.

Relishing the challenge.

"I'm going to punish you for that insolence," he murmured. "And enjoy it while I'm at it."

Voldemort suddenly tackled Severus.

Severus's reflexes were just as quick.

Both men jostled for supremacy.

Voldemort ultimately pinned Severus down.

His servant yowled with pain.

"Biting's not allowed!"

"You bit my tongue!"

"That was just a slight nip in warning! You can't try to draw blood by biting my-"

"No holds barred!" snarled the master.

Severus's heart leapt as he was held down by his hair-

Despite the fact that he expected to be handled roughly. Since it was all so sudden.

-then relaxed. At the relaxing of the grip, of the yanking of his tresses. The subsidence of pain. At the initial strokes of his hair.

So gentle.

So soft.

"My little Severus. You've no idea how sexy you are. How utterly beautiful you are. Still. After all this time... Such exquisite, luscious long locks. Promise me you'll never leave me! Promise?"

"Promise."

There's the hint of that smell again from earlier… Is it fear? Or worry? And also I sense… regret?

What an earth can it mean?

I can hardly ask the man. Or he would take so much more care to occlude, even more carefully...

If he knew what I could sense by smell alone-

Alone.

Alone!

Why was he always reminded of-

"You do mean it, don't you? You will promise never to- I do so hate being alone. It was awful, you can't imagine- When I was... away. Such a long time. Conscious. Waiting. The- My God it was- The nothingness, Severus! You can't even begin to- to comprehend. You'll stay with me."

That was an order.

"Won't you?"

That was not.

"…..Yes."

"Always?"

"…..For as long as I can."

"What does that even mean? You're sounding like Mary Poppins, or someone!"

"One of us... is the more likely to predecease the other."

No lie, that. Since Severus was tasked with killing that man, that monster- It wouldn't flag up as a lie, however good a legilimens 'the master' might be...

"The Stone, I mean. Your pursuits. The Elixir. Perhaps you will one day indeed find the path to immortality-"

"Perhaps I am now already nearly there. I who have taken further steps than any other! In the quest for immortality. In the history of humanity!"

He was bragging again.

And only realised far too late.

How easily prone to flattery he was.

How inclined to be indiscreet...

"You have made… discoveries of significance? There are further developments?"

"Don't try to get up!" snarled the Dark Lord.

Severus always leapt up, alert, at any development of significance.

"Are you interested in me, or in my researches?!"

"Well, both, really-"

Now Severus was the one crying out at the force of a slap.

"I've always said it. Everyone in life wants something of me! You want something, Severus. I can tell. But what?"

Intelligence.

"I have no interest in becoming immortal. I intend to live out my natural lifespan, and die gracefully in old age. Well, disgracefully."

Voldemort did not laugh at the joke.

Death being no laughing matter, as far as he was concerned.

His wasn't, that is. His death. The subject of other people's was another matter entirely.

Well. The deaths of those to whom he was indifferent. On whom he did not depend.

Since not for nothing was he known as 'Perhaps the most evil man ever to have lived'.

He was, how to put it? Far from above mocking his victims. Humiliating them. And deriving great pleasure from the same. In their final moments.

To put it mildly-

"Then you yourself do not seek the Stone? Severus?"

"No."

"Then- Therein lies... interesting possibilities. Which suggest themselves. To my mind."

Only one who wishes to find the Stone, but not use it, will be able to get it...

An insurance policy. Spreading his investments...

Were the man's intentions truly noble? Selfless?

There was one way to find out.

"I believe… I could locate the Stone. I have great confidence."

"Indeed?"

Severus tried not to sound too interested.

"I'll share it with you… We could be immortal. Together! Ruling side by side, as I always promised."

"We already do, sort of-"

"I mean, officially! Publicly!"

Severus barked a bitter bout of laughter.

"You never do keep your promises."

His servant did not object to the idea in principle, then?

Despite being, allegedly, such a principled man-

"You allege that I do not keep my promises. Claim that I am no man of my word. But you can always tell. When I am being sincere. When I am telling the truth. Can you not? Is that not so? Severus?"

'A man of few words' was never one of the Dark Lord's sobriquets in life.

Why make do with two or three when twenty or thirty words would do just as well?

"You know I cannot abide being alone, Severus! Share the Elixir of Life with me! Ruling or no. We can be immortal. Together! When I have the Stone. Will you help me find it? In exchange for a just reward: the sharing of the spoils of a limitless life? What say you?"

'What say you?!' Arrogant arse!

Severus could not help his automatic reaction.

But this was no time to mock the master's pomposity...

"Flamel... shared it with his wife. There should be more than enough for two. By all accounts."

"I will... help you. To rediscover the Stone."

Severus needed to destroy it, if it was indeed somehow still intact, and able to be found.

"But I say again: I have no interest in immortality. Myself."

"You say that in so offhand a manner no doubt as you do not believe it can be done! Yet I tell you: it can. Be found. Restored, whatever it takes. Now, indulge in the very real phenomenon: imagine it! You yourself! Suppose, believe- truly embody the possibility, make it your reality!"

Severus resisted the urge to role his eyes at the theatrics. But could not suppress an eyebrow raise, consummate actor though he himself was.

All those trips to the theatre with Abraxus Malfoy are no doubt to blame.

"Imagine it- Believe it! Embody it! You yourself are, in this very moment, right now- Immortal! Unable ever to die! Destined to live on! Forever more! The most famous man in the world- no! Ever to have lived!"

No acting was required on Voldemort's part.

His smile was genuine. His tone, ecstatic. As he babbled and blabbered. Rushed and gushed-

"Would that not fill you with such thrills? Pride? Excitement?! What could be more enticing than to-"

"I can't think of anything more ghastly, frankly."

If any voice could sound like the pouring of a bucket of cold water on a candle, the sudden action, the snuffing out, being so excessive- Severus Snape's could.

"Nothing could fill me with more horror, dread. Disgust. I should not care to watch my friends and family die, to make new friends in a new century, watch them grow old and die, and so forth-"

"Friends?! What need has one of friends?! You are soft, Severus!"

"I thought you said-"

Severus stopped.

-that I was your friend? Unless-

Voldemort attempted his approximation of an encouraging smile.

It was.

Ergh. Indescribably off. To the extent that it made one shudder.

"Present company excepted, of course, Severus! But as for the rest- You have no family. I saw to that! In a manner of speaking. And I'm your only friend! I told you: you're my best friend. A best friend is when you have one special friend alone, no? You said!"

"Who is the best amongst all the rest, yes."

"But- but you're my only friend!"

"Yes."

"So I'm your only friend?"

"No, that's… That's not how that works."

"Wait, wait. Hang on. Where's my notebook-"

"Don't write anything down! Just listen."

"If I'm your only friend-"

"Other way round-"

"If you're my only friend-"

"Correct-"

"-then who are all these other friends of yours? Why are you allowed so many when I'm only allowed one?!"

"You're allowed as many as you like! You just- Oh Christ, is it really that complicated?! You just choose not to have any!" snapped Severus. "Other than me, apparently!"

"Well if I'm allowed only one friend-"

"-choose to have!"

"-then you're not allowed anyone else either! You're my special- best friend. AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT!"

Severus merely raised his eyebrows, accustomed as he was to all the tempter tantrums and theatrics.

"Who are all these many and varied friends you claim to have, anyway? PRODUCE THEM!"

Voldemort's voice became honeyed. Sickly sweet.

"I mean to say… Do tell me all about them. Christ- I mean, Mordred! That's a thought! Do you tell them all about me?!"

"Lucius already knows all about you!"

"Oh he's just there for sex and aesthetics. The odd dinner party. That's all. He doesn't count. Who else?"

"Colleagues."

"At the school?"

"Among the Death Eaters."

Largely…

It wouldn't do to draw attention to his friends on the staff at Hogwarts-

Former friends.

They all hate me now…

"You really do not wish to take up my most generous offer of immortality? Because you value your friendships with mortals, by all accounts..."

With mortals?

Did he not count himself among their number? Like the rest of them?

Surely-

Could that possibly mean?

My God. Is he-

"You do not wish to see them all die? Your so called friends? And to be the last? Among them? To be alone throughout the centuries?"

Red eyes stared deep into black.

Black eyes stared straight back.

Both sets an apparent blank.

Inscrutable.

To anyone but an expert legilimens-

Which, of course. Both men were.

"You and I are so alike in so many ways, Severus."

The Dark Lord began to stroke his hair again. So softly.

"And yet. You are so different. A very odd fellow indeed. You appear to have truly noble, selfless intentions."

"Very good of you to say but- What of it?"

"Nothing! I must think!"

On all this.

And on the news the boys brought-

"Never plot and scheme in bed! And never assume that you cannot be overheard!"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't seriously believe I forgot to ward our conversation earlier? I was humouring you! Never have a private conversation, Severus. It is the first rule in life."

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow-"

"Why do I never take any one single individual fully into my confidence? He might betray me!"

Severus tried very hard not to blink.

Not to react in any way.

"He might be tricked! Despite the best of intentions! Get drunk! Blab! Lose paperwork! Consider that he is genuinely meeting my spies while in fact meeting those of the other side! And what is the first rule of espionage, Severus? Which must be used both when gathering, and when seeking to prevent the enemy from gathering, intelligence?"

"'There is no such thing as a valueless statement.'"

"No, that is the first rule of interrogation! The first rule of intelligence is- well I suppose it's the first rule of espionage, really, but still, all the same- or do the two rather overlap? At any rate: don't forget! 'If you've got something to hide. Don't act like it!'"

"Oh. I see. Of course."

"Which is why you are such a surprisingly good spy, since you are so clearly so dodgy and shifty a character!"

"But I'm not a spy!"

His tone was mildly surprised.

As if someone had remarked to Severus Snape "Are you going to chapel today?" and he had replied "but it's not a Sunday!"

Each Hogwarts House, of course, has its own chapel. Which, of course, the colleges of Oxford, then Cambridge, copied. Hardly surprising, the school marking Christmas and Easter and all.

The Slytherin choir sang at least one service a day, every day, of course. More commonly, two.

Not out of any sense of any genuine religious devotion, you understand.

They had to be the most exclusive chapel choir. Singing the most frequently, to the highest standards, with the most difficult repertoire, and the hardest auditions process in the school. In short: the very best! Just as they were the best at everything, Slytherins were sure.

Gryffindor had a choir open to all, with no audition, which only sang one Evensong a fortnight, the half-arsed, lazy arses that they were (so crowed the Slytherins). And welcomed, no, encouraged, 'all faiths and none' to come.

Of course- chapel attendance by all was compulsory in Slytherin House. But only on Sundays.

Thus Severus tried to distract himself with such irrelevant thoughts, which seemed to run round his mind at a million miles an hour-

So as to remain calm. To focus on the mundane.

To not give anything away.

Under interrogation by an expert.

"One, I know you are a spy!"

And yet. He's not apoplectic with rage?

Oh. He means me for him. Spying on the Order.

Thank God.

"Two: a spy would say that, wouldn't he! 'I am not a spy', indeed! Think of something better for next time! Luckily the other lot think you're spying on me, Severus, or I'd be very angry indeed at so casual and obviously false a statement-"

"But we've used wards, you say!"

"And tell me why that's a bad thing? Why did I cast none until you insisted?"

"You… you're… I thought you'd forgotten?"

As had I...

"No! It's because you'd drawn attention to the fact that we were having discrete discussions! If we had been in full view and hearing of the children it wouldn't have mattered a jot! They wouldn't have known that any of it mattered! Nor have paid particular attention!"

"But they were hanging onto our every- You mean to say you wanted the children to hear and see-"

"If you were embarrassed or somehow tried to keep our relationship a secret… It could be used for blackmailing purposes. Against us! By the other side!"

"Then the others know-"

"Of course the others amongst my servants know! Don't be so daft, Severus! I'm not giving anyone ammunition against me if I can help it!"

"Oh God. No wonder Bella hates me with such a vehement passion-"

"She doesn't come into the picture anymore. Lost her looks in Askaban. Got with far too many of the others, too, the harlot of a whore that she is! Why are all women so promiscuous, Severus?" He didn't pause for an answer, of course not. Not when the Dark Lord was in Monologue Mode. "When I bestow my favour on an individual, she can hardly expect to keep it when she gives hers away so freely! She ought to have remained chased!"

"She's a married woman!"

"She's not married to her brother-in-law!"

"She did- Lucius- WHAT?!"

"He couldn't help it. So I'm told."

Voldemort's spies really did know everything.

"She's far superior at wandless magic. And Mind Magic more generally. Well, just about everyone is better than Lucius in that respect- Hence I forgave him, and did not banish him from my chambers. Hence I find her most tiresome and tedious, the deranged harpy of a harlot that that woman is. Fancy attempting to play with my playings!"

"Poor- poor Lucius!"

"Oh do you think so? Oh. Oh if you say so, I suppose, Severus. I'll have to get the notebook out if you try to explain why. But I can't be bothered. Save that for another time."

His trousers (and, hence, the pocketbook) had, of course, long since fallen off the bed…

"What was the point of all that? Oh! Don't talk about confidential stuff of consequence in secret! Don't use special measures to mask what you're up to. Speak only of those matters which can be discussed openly before me."

"Why?"

"Because, my dear, this screen, such that we might not be seen. The wards, such that we may not be overheard. That charming charm to which you are so partial, the one that makes others remember the need to be elsewhere. They leave signs. Marks. They draw attention. They spell a message!"

"What message?"

"That all that looks suspicious. And suspiciously like a challenge!"

"What? To crack them, all these spells? And listen in in private?"

"Yes!"

"Then you… Every time… You assume people can hear when we're having sex?!"

"Why on earth not?! I'm the most wanted man in the country! Surely the muggles must have tried! To bug me and so forth. But they can't follow me to every alley and every tree and every field-"

The isolated areas to which he travelled for really confidential business.

"You think my rooms are bugged?!"

"Severus! These people can bug tennis balls! Golf balls! Sockets! Light fittings! Clocks! Any other such like ordinary items that you should care to suppose to image! Certainly your rooms are bugged, why not? Just assume so and if that's not the case: that's grand! And if they are: ah well, good thing you took precautions, so much the better, and so on!"

"….. You really are exceptionally paranoid."

Voldemort's voice was (by his standards) dangerous low.

He was livid.

At the 'p-word'.

"I have every reason to take precautions. Not the same thing as paranoia. Not by any means. AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!"

Voldemort climbed on top of Severus, held his arms down, and claimed him with a deep kiss.

He rose for air, panting.

"Now. Stop talking business in bed. Back to bedroom business."

"I'm not having sex if you think people are trying to listen!"

"People are listening in, Severus."

He tied one of Severus's arms to the bedpost, conjuring rope.

"At some point. Somewhere."

He tied the other in much the same fashion.

"Exactly when or where or by whom, who can say? Certainly not I. Why, then, worry?"

He positioned himself at Severus's entrance.

"What's one time more in so many years?"

"No. You've completely put me off!"

His side couldn't possibly be spying on him. Surely?

MI5?

Severus was one of them! A goodie! On the Light side!

Surely they don't record and monitor their own side-

"Anyway, I think you'll find, Severus, as I said: I'm the one wearing the trousers!"

"Ha! Says the man who's stark-bollock-naked-"

Voldemort dived.

Exceptionally quick reflexes, for a man his age, he had.

Now the Dark Lord's tongue was rammed towards Severus's throat. And then-

Such sweet, soft flesh. Still.

Somehow.

Even after all this time...

Severus tried to block it all out.

To remain the consummate professional.

All in a day's work.

Keep the man onside.

So he would confide.

In Severus.

Trust him.

Tell him. Everything.

Then the man would be defeated.

Then the war would be won.

Then Severus would-

What would he do?

Severus relaxed into the soft strokes of his hair-

Frantic throws and thrusts became more relaxed.

Gentle.

When the Dark Lord was gone. When the war was won.

Severus would be alone.

His colleagues had deserted him. His old friends at Hogwarts.

His current 'friends'. The Death Eaters.

They would hate him with a passion.

Before they tried to come for him.

Kill him.

He would have to plan to run away-

Will I ever be able to settle down? Enjoy my life? Find love? Perhaps, even, have a family-

The Dark Lord held Severus's head in his hands.

Gently.

And stared into those deep. Black eyes.

"Never leave me. I- You are so- You really ought to consider it, you know. Immortality. I really couldn't abide to be without you. I- I couldn't do without you. I don't imagine I'd survive without you. Win this damn war, or-"

"Neither could I."

That was no lie.

But in reply to which statement?

One or other or all-

"Be a good boy for me, Severus. You're always so good to me. I shall endeavour to do my utmost best... to do likewise."

The intensity and forcefulness of the sudden, plunging kiss caught Severus off guard.

In spite of his better judgement... Severus found himself kissing back.

Urgently.

Desperately.

Lovingly.

A/N:

Aww... For all that this is so clearly so toxic a relationship in so many ways, and in spite of the very many obvious ways in which Voldemort is clearly so evil and, I mean, Severus probably really should run away at the earliest opportunity... I can't help but think that these two have the potential to make quite a cute couple, ultimately. Or am I just being mad, like Voldemort (and probably Severus?!)? Or are they already?! (A cute couple? We'll take the insanity as read!)

Maybe Voldemort can be redeemed by Severus, in the end. And by Ginny. Or maybe the man, or the girl, or both will come to love him... Despite his remaining obstinately irredeemable?

Let me know what you think! I have my plans for what to include of past events, of course (and of course I receive reports of their having gone off and done all sorts that I never could have anticipated!) ;) But I do take plot requests! Message or comment, whatever you prefer :)

Those awaiting Love and War are Far From Fair, Chapter Thirty: back from being briefly away, editing 20,000 words (a very substantial and gripping chapter that ended up much longer than originally in the editing process, which I hope will have been worth the wait! I could be sneaky and give neat exactly-2k chapters at a time to give you more regular updates... But don't want to break up the tension, and dramatic build up, etc. etc.!) I'm very happy with Chapter Three of 'Happy Families' but want to make Chapter Two even brillianter! (That should be a word, damn it, Bobby and Rose be damned!)

Thanks so much for your support, those of you who have sent messages, fav'ed and followed, to all of you for continuing to read along :) As ever, thoughts, concrit (constructive criticism), all welcome, so I can keep writing what you like as well as what I do, and keep it all coming. x

Be seeing you!