ICLYLM Chapter 29 "The Morning After"
A/N: short but not sweet.
Severus Snape was slow in regaining consciousness, but not as slow as some. The Dark Lord had been beyond livid when he'd returned to find Jeffrey Barnes and Phoebe Taylor gone the evening before. He'd sent a Death Eater to the apparition point in the Forbidden Forest outside Hogwarts, but the man had returned empty handed.
While he waited he had applied the cruciatus curse liberally to the two Death Eaters who had been left with the prisoners. The older one hadn't lasted long. He'd gone purple in the face and ceased breathing after about fifteen minutes. Severus was pretty sure it had been a heart attack. He went over the external symptoms confirming this in his mind over and over in a scientific fashion trying not to react with the horror he felt. The thick-headed guard who had also acted as a sort of courier lasted much longer. His screams would probably haunt Severus' nightmares for a long time to come.
When McNair returned with the news that the prisoners had truly escaped onto the Hogwarts grounds Voldemort applied the Imperious Curse to the guard. With a look of horror he pointed his wand at himself and whispered "Avada Kedavara" Severus felt his insides freeze. The emotional doors slammed shut. They were either unable to take any more or they were responding to the survival instinct which demanded wit not feeling. In any case Severus was now acutely aware of the reaction of the Death Eaters around him. Malfoy, in particular, was shifting uncomfortably. If Crabbe and Goyle had two brain cells between them, they'd be fidgiting, too. Then it struck Severus. This was his opportunity, and a golden one at that.
"Well, Malfoy," he hissed contemptuously, "How very convenient that you should show up and invite us to your manor on a whim only to have us return to find the woman and the doctor gone!"
Malfoy's eyes flashed with anger, but he also went a shade paler. "I had nothing to do with it, Snape" he said dangerously.
"Oh, really?" Snape sneered back, conscious of the rapt attention of all in the room, especially Lord Voldemort, "It's mere co-incidence, then? You just happen to lure us all out of here and when we return the Heir that would threaten to displace you in the order to come is gone. Oh, yes, Lucius, quite a co-incidence, indeed. Good thing we have your word that it only is a coincidence." Severus spat the rest angrily.
"How do we know you had nothing to do with it? After all, the woman was with you at that wretched school!" Malfoy countered (a bit desperately, Severus thought... and he wasn't alone)
"Yes, she was. She was there to keep an eye on me as I recall. She was rather an annoyance. I never trusted the woman and with her pregnancy I would have had the best of both worlds... an heir to the Dark Lord and her dead and out of my hair! But you had to go and put your fingers into the pie, didn't you Malfoy? The child is likely dead by now and, knowing Dumbledore, that muggle-loving idiot, she is not. She's gone back to blow my cover, Malfoy, Thanks to you! But, no, you think I arranged for that, YOU SNIVELING IDIOT!" Severus allowed himself to come to a furious pitch and he was a sight to behold.
Severus, however, was nothing next to the glaring red eyes and palpable dark power of the angered Voldemort. As Malfoy opened his mouth to retort he was hit
with a binding charm. Voldemort oozed over to the frozen Death Eater and fairly hissed in his ear, "If this is not a co-incidence, Malfoy, I shall be sure that you
live a long life so that you may spend it regretting you were ever born." With that he flicked his wand and Malfoy went crashing into the wall opposite with a
sickening crunch. His bound body rolled onto the floor like a log. The other Death Eaters stared at his prone form on the carpet, holding their collective breaths.
Moment's later they had joined him on the floor as Voldemort took his frustration out of them all, including Severus, making them write in agony and scream for
mercy as he applied the Cruciatus Curse to them each in turn in what promised to be a continuing cycle.
Snape was among the last to pass out. Malfoy, unable to even write or scream had been the first. Severus pulled his mind away from the night before and listened carefully to the sounds around him, trying to ascertain what was going on before he opened his eyes. All he heard was the occasional low moan. He opened his eyes. Voldemort was seated in his wing-backed chair regarding the prone death eaters before him. He seemed oddly pleased to see Severus awaken.
"Ah, last to scream, last to faint, first to wake," The Dark Lord said in a odd voice as he licked his lips. Severus didn't like this, but he was distracted from thinking about it by what came next.
"Get up Snape, I have a job for you." Voldemort intoned. Severus rose unsteadily too his feet trying hard not to think what that job might be.
"I want you to sneak back into that school of yours and be sure the Taylor woman is no longer pregnant. If, by chance, she is you will find a way to bring her to me. If she is not and she lives, kill her. In either case I shall expect you to return with her by midnight. Be gone."
Severus turned as steadily as he could manage and made his way out of the room. Once out of Voldemort's sight he leaned heavily against a wall trying to collect his thoughts, and stave off his feelings.
After a moment Malfoy and his cronies shoved unsteadily past him and slammed out of the house. Severus saw a flash of light and heard a sharp yelp followed by a thud. Through the a window down the corridor he could just see the form of a large black dog go flying. Malfoy gave Bastard a bad name, that was to be sure and he was nothing compared with Voldemort.
Snape could barely move, let along think and now he was supposed to bring Phoebe back or kill her. Voldemort was a clever, to be sure. What better way to get what he wanted AND test Snape's loyalties. Would the Dark Lord believe he had killed Phoebe if he didn't produce a body? He doubted it. Thing was, he wasn't going to kill her. What the hell was he supposed to do now?
