His footsteps resounded loudly on the cold stone floor as he paced back and forth in front of the fireplace. Why needed a fireplace, he did not know. He never used it; the place in which he resided was always kept cold as ice.
It was a mind game, a psychological thing. He knew this very well; his Master loved to play mind games with his servants. And with his enemies. It was a test, also; if you could survive in this cold place and not give any sign of discomfort, you were strong. If you could not, you were weak, and his Master had no use for you.
He was strong. He had trained himself for many long years to become strong, hiding his feelings from the world. It had worked, and his Master had seen his strength at last.
Though the man wasn't really his master. He had never seen him as his master, and he never would.
Snape had no master.
But the world did not need to know that. Let the world think he was a servant to Lord Voldemort. That was what he wanted them to think.
He was no man's servant, neither Voldemort's or Dumbledore's. Though he seemed to work for them both, he was really working for one man: himself. And he wanted and worked for peace. Though it sounded cliché, it was the truth.
The dying people did not bother him. The fighting did. If there was fighting, there was no peace, and he could not live his life the way he wanted to. If there was one thing he hated, it was taking away the freedom to make his own choices about his life.
He had had this battle within his head many times, and every time he came to the same conclusion: there must be peace, and there must be a spy to obtain it. And the only one who could was him.
His footsteps stopped suddenly, bringing a thick silence to the room. Snape threw the sleeve of his black robe back and watched his right arm intently.
The deep black mark stopped burning suddenly. He touched it gently, half expecting the familiar sensation of Apparating straight to Voldemort.
Nothing happened. As he watched, the edges of the mark slowly began to fade.
Snape did not need to watch it more to know what was happening. He smiled grimly. So, it was done. He and Dumbledore had worked out a way for the child to be saved, and it looked like it had worked. Of course the other two could not be helped now, and there was no way Snape could have helped them before.
Voldemort had not told him who the other spy was. Snape was too close to Dumbledore, and Voldemort feared that the older man could somehow pry it out of Snape.
Of course, Snape didn't need to be pried. But nevertheless, he had never been told who the spy was; Malfoy knew, yes, but Malfoy loved being higher-ranking than Snape, and guarded his secrets closely.
Snape bent over the fireplace and muttered something to his wand. A green fire flared up in it. The door to the room was locked magically, so no one would get in and see it. He did not fear that.
He grabbed a pinch of glittering powder out of his pocket, threw it into the fire and stepped into it. "Professor Dumbledore," he hissed. Dumbledore had provided this special transport method for the occasion, without using the Floo Network, which could be easily tapped.
A few seconds later he was standing in the Headmaster's office, looking Dumbledore in the eye. "Well?" said the older man.
Snape stepped out of the fireplace. "He is gone. It worked."
Snape's eyes opened into the darkness. He frowned, confused. Why had he had that dream? He had dreamed of many memories before, but never this one.
He well remembered what had happened that night. He had known it would happen, of course, but he could not prevent James and Lily from dying. However, he was not altogether helpless; he may not know the spy, but he did know the event, though not the exact date. So he and Dumbledore had formulated a plan to keep Harry from dying.
And it had worked.
Malfoy had shown up a few seconds after Snape arrived back at Voldemort's "lair," so to speak, told him of the "shocking news" of Voldemort's fall, and taken him straight to James and Lily's house. Snape had "tried to save" Voldemort but of course it didn't work.
He had planned it that way.
He did, however, help Malfoy and the other Death Eaters destroy the house. He had kept Harry safe, hiding him from the other Death Eaters, but of course they didn't know about it.
Harry had stayed hidden til later, when Hagrid had pulled him from the ruins. Snape, on the other hand, had gone back to life, with the rest of the Death Eaters. Of course, they had to make up stories to hide their allegiance with the Dark Lord, but Snape had Dumbledore to vouch for him and remained safe.
But now Voldemort was back, and Snape was to become the spy once more. He did not look forward to it, he did not want to do it, but he knew he had to.
He would have to fool the world yet again, but if anyone could do it, he could.
He had been doing it his whole life.
And yet, he asked himself, over and over, Why am I doing this? And over and over, the answer was the same: Because without peace, I cannot live my life the way I want to. And he did not want someone controlling his life.
And so, day by day, he laid the groundwork for defeating Voldemort. He would not defeat him; he would leave that up to those who were destined to do it; but he would make it possible.
Besides, this was a challenge. And Severus Snape never walked away from a challenge.
A huge, splitting yawn shook him from his thoughts. He had never been this tired in his life. Well, he would ponder on the meaning of all this tomorrow. With another yawn, Snape rolled over and went back to sleep.
Well, that was exhausting. That has got to be the hardest one I've written...Snape is so freaking complicated. And of course it took me three hours cuz I kept deleting the end part by accident. Stupid piece of crap.
*ahem* Shameless plug time!! If by some weird chance you actually liked this chapter, go read Nomad's series about Snape. A lot of this is based on her work. BASED ON, not stolen. Go read her stories, she RULES.
Okay, I'm done. There might be another chapter, there might not. If anyone has any bright ideas of who else I could do...besides Voldemort, no way in hell am I even gonna try that...please tell me. Thayat's all, folks!!