Disclaimer: The story line is mine but most other things belong to JK Rowling... Basically anything you recognise belongs to her...

Author's Note: Erm yet again I'm putting this up without having it checked and I guess it kinda sucks.. The plot is slowing now... Well I think it need to get the pace slowed... Anyhoo... Read on if you dare...

A Thousand Oceans

There was something wrong with the way Titus behaved, he worried his mother, he had misty brown eyes and hair the colour of bark on an oak tree. He was very disturbed about the loss of his father, whenever she tried to get him to talk to her he shunned her off. He wanted to be left alone, and refused to talk.

Imacia didn't think it was because he couldn't talk because Titus was quite astute. He would watch things very carefully and mimic her as she spoke with his lips if she was telling him off. He didn't like Rycrypt at all. The young man would often look at the boy with distain for the way he treated his mother.

"Speech therapy!" Rycrypt would often tell her. "He walks all over you and you let him. Get some balls woman and treat him like you would have treated anyone one else. Just because his father is dead doesn't mean you can't treat normally. If you let him get away with this he'll get away with murder." Resounding words in the air that were to stick to the boy like glue for many years.

"I'll think about it.... Perhaps Detric could help him. He is a therapist of sorts."

"Imacia he's a psychic. How will that get Titus to talk?" Rycrypt said wistfully.

"Don't be so dismissive, I think it could work... he said that if I ever wanted anything he'd be there.... Couldn't hurt to see if he could help."

"You know what he meant.... The next thing you know you'll be marrying the man; I know what you're like. Quickly falling for people is not the way to go." His words ushered caution but Imacia wasn't one for caution, partly her problem but getting better with time.

"Shut up Rye! I'm not going to marry him. Anyone would think you were jealous of any man that comes near me, you know you're always the man of my dreams." She laughed, he shrugged his shoulders. "But seriously, I'll go and see him and see what can be done about the little sprocket over there."

"He hates me.... I can see it in his eyes. He's very..... I can't pin point the word; he knows how to talk... He knows I know he can talk and he is waiting to see how long with will take to force the first words out of him. He'll only talk when you get him a wand or something to arse around with."

"Non sense! He'll talk when he's good and ready won't you." Her voice went all gooey when talking to her son.

"I'm going now. See you in a year." Rycrypt said getting to his feet and heading for the door.

"A year?" Imacia said looking at him with great sadness in her eyes.

"The Ministry is sending me to America to check out some new Dark Art techniques. Don't worry Mac... I'll be back and fusspot over there had better be able to talk to me when I get back." With that Imacia was left in the kitchen of her parents house alone with her son.

She hated her parent's house. Even though she had only been married a year she felt great deal of independence when she had her own house to keep. she didn't however like being alone. She disapparated from her home to the headquarters of the Ministry of Magic. She left Titus in the house with her mother who was only too happy to look after her only grandchild.

She walked into the main office. It was a massive building and was filled with many interesting things that Imacia thought were for detecting evil and such auras. One of them went wild as she stepped in the door and a woman dressed in red walked up to her a sad expression on her face.

"I'm sorry my dear." she said calmly.

"What?" Imacia said looking at the red headed witch.

"That is a detector, it reads death, for some reason it reads a lot of death around you. Have you recently lost a loved one?" She asked.

"About three years ago. Why do you ask?" Imacia said her eyes narrowing.

"No... today miss.... It senses death only about an hour ago, is your father well?" The witch asked.

"What makes you ask about my father?" Imacia asked desperately. "What can you see. Please he can't be dead, I saw him this morning. He was fine."

"Accio parchment!" the witch commanded and a small piece flew into her out stretched hand. "You're name please?" The witch asked her expression lifeless.

"Imacia Black, my father, he's Lord Coldwin Black. He was perfectly fine earlier. What are you reading, what has happened?!" Imacia in a fit of rage grabbed the neck of the robes of the other witch and her expression livid.

"Release me!" the younger witch commanded and a tall man who appeared to be quite young apart from the silver hair pulled her back by the shoulders. There was something haunting about that man, she couldn't quite pin point it.

"What's happened?" Imacia asked.

"Nothing.... I was wrong.... I see something else though.... A large steel bird crashing to the ground and being swallowed by the ocean. Mean anything to you?" The other witch said and Imacia's heart stopped.

"Rycrypt?" she whispered clutching her chest.

"Mr. Rycrypt Snape...... Deceased." the witch read aloud and the whole entrance hall stopped dead, after all he had worked there.

"No! It isn't true!" Imacia cried running out of the building in a flood of tears.

"Imacia?" A man with blonde hair stopped her as she ran into him in her haste. He was quite short and stocky but had a kindly face and wore small round glasses that sat up at the top of his Roman nose.

"Detric?" She sobbed as he looked into her eyes as they allowed small tears to trickle over her well defined features..

"What's the matter?" he enquired.

"It's Rycrypt..... He's dead...."

"The plane crash this morning.. I heard." He said in a low voice, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It'll be okay.... He's in a better place now I'm sure."

"He told me that I shouldn't worry and that I would see him in a year yesterday.. I thought nothing of it.... He said he was coming back. He promised!" She sobbed thinking about him however made her breath cut out and her throat hurt due to the lump growing with in it..

"Come with me and I'll see if we can calm you down a bit." He said walking her along to his office.

"He promised......" She breathed as she passed out.

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"I'll be back of course........ He'd better be able to talk when I get back or I'm going to beat the words out of the little runt."

"Must you be so cruel?"

"Look at him..... He causes you such heart ache and you try so hard... If he were my child I'd have managed some way to make him talk, even if I had to bewitch his larynx."

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"Imacia?" Detric called in a soft voice. "It's okay you're at home, you're mother and father are here..... And your son.. He's here as well... Can you see them... Can you see anyone?" He placed his hand on her forehead and rushed her hair out of her face. She could see his face looming over hers and she liked it.

"I can see you.... Where's Rye? I need to tell him that I know how to get Titus to talk... I have to tell him... He's going to be so happy.... I know he is." She murmured not remembering what had happened. Her heart was refusing to believe the notion that Rycrypt was dead. It couldn't be true in her heart she wished that the ministry had made a mistake, the problem with Magic was that not many things that were foretold by parchment was wrong.

"Imacia... You can't see him... He died in a plane crash but I'm sure that he knows. In fact I'm certain he knows." He turned away from her and looked at her parents. Coldwin looked just as affected as Imacia but Kalmara wasn't particularly fond of Rycrypt she thought he was the reason she never had a very feminine attitude. "She's going to need a lot of rest.... She and Rycrypt were best friends, her life will never be the same again." Detric was oddly soothing and Imacia if she didn't know any better could see herself doing what she had promised Rycrypt she wouldn't. She felt stupid when it actually happened, was it part of her confused mind or that she really did love him but then she had felt that before. Love was something that disappeared very quickly with her. It was more infatuation she guessed but then she didn't like to be seen as amoral. The nineteen fifties didn't smile upon divorcees be they witch or Muggle. Her mother was terribly old fashioned and packed her off again before her feet had time to even hit the floor. But then Detric was a nice man and never really wanted to force her into anything. So much so that he insisted that her mother leave her alone and make her own decisions, he hadn't even asked her it was the other way around, political correctness was not something Imacia.

She may not love Detric but he fitted the bill of the ideal husband and thus was her next marriage pursuit. Lady Imacia Bell, it had a nice ring to it according to her. This time she didn't have a title to pass on to anyone, she had bestowed that upon her first husband and her son, who was just getting the hang of speaking after she had forced the little bugger to talk. It wasn't something she enjoyed doing but she had to know what he sounded like even if he didn't want her to know.

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I was a cold lonely place the ocean... Drifting up through the torrents was not an easy thing to do after having plummeted from the sky, there hadn't been time enough to think and when he thought that was it something happened.

"Good evening Mr. Snape. My name is Lord Voldemort, you have been brought here for a purpose. You're not as good within as you pass yourself off to be, a skill that can be used." A young man with a very slim face and dark eyes that were bordering on red. He knew who Rycrypt was but Rycrypt had never heard of this so-called Lord.

"How do you know my name?" Rycrypt asked very intrigued, how did this man know he wasn't the most perfect individual within. He pulled himself up from the floor where he had been left to dry out and stood to his full height almost but not quite matching the young man before him.

"Your infatuation with a certain Lady leads down an uncertain path, be sure to pursue it my friend." The younger man said again in a sinus voice.

"A certain Lady? Imacia? I hadn't ever.. She's a friend, I would never take advantage of her, it would be wrong and why do you torment me so? Tell me how you know my name and what it is you want with me." Rycrypt said beginning o fear this man.

"I am Lord Voldemort-" Rycrypt cut him off in rage.

"I know that!" He snapped.

"I know all, I see your desires and I know your name, you will be a great asset."

"No man can profess to knowing all it would be illogical. The gift of divination is something you may have but I doubt very much that you know all!" Rycrypt was getting annoyed with this man.

"Let me see, Imacia Black yes, you like her do you not?"

"I.. yes.. She's my best friend." Rycrypt said slowly. "My only friend." He added in a whisper.

"She's no longer Lady Black is she."

"No she's Lady Thrust."

"No, her name is now Lady Imacia Bell..... You're friend Detric, he's now her husband." Voldemort narrowed his eyes and glowered at Rycrypt who looked ready to kill someone.

"We were never friends!" He snapped drawing his wand.

"Very good Mr. Snape, that however will not help here. I'm offering you a chance to live." Voldemort hissed paralysing Rycrypt and taking his wand from his hand. "I can make it so that you don't exist and therefore can be free to do what I wish of you and gain untold power with me, or I can kill you. Two choices, both you end up dead but one still gives you life. What will you do?" Voldemort freed him and Rycrypt thought about what was happening, he was an Auror and it went against all of his moral fibres but then there was something about this young man that promised him something he couldn't refuse, he liked the sound of untold power. Who wouldn't? There would be the chance to exercise the unforgivable curses against all the people he hated. Detric would be the first on his list, the rage was building up within him so much it hurt.

"I'll do it!" He said kneeling to the younger man, it seemed the right thing to do. "I want to be part of this power, what is it that I must do?"

"You will be the first of my followers Rycrypt, hold out your left arm and you shall receive the mark." Rycrypt did so, this was wrong and he knew it but, if only Imacia knew he was alive and, he wished at that point that he had been able to save the Muggles that had been o that flight.

"You're wondering what will happen to the Muggles trapped within the steel bird. They'll die, slowly, drowning. A punishment for the persecution of our race, they so liked to burn us, torture us, a taste of their own medicine I think." Voldemort hissed again pointing his wand to the water where the plane had crashed and then all the air shot to the surface and then they were dead, there was nothing else that Rycrypt could assume, how had he survived.

"It was you that I wanted, the rest of the passengers were doomed the moment you got on board. Muggles are not to be tolerated." Voldemort looked at the water with distain. Rycrypt went to pull his arm back before Voldemort drove the tip of his wand into his forearm placing a spell into the skin forming a tattoo of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth. It was dark green and horrified Rycrypt so much he threw up over the side of the boat. "My name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, I call myself Lord Voldemort, I am the last heir of Salazar Slytherin. You are now the first Death Eater in our number. Feel proud that I have selected you for you are one of the most powerful wizards of the age."

"But what exactly is it that you plan to do Voldemort?" Rycrypt asked as the expression on Voldemort's face became contorted and he pulled his wand back.

"Crucio!" The younger wizard roared. Rycrypt fell to the floor howling in pain as the foreign curse hit his flesh. He couldn't think or breathe, the pain was immense and all he could here was the high pitched laughter of the tall dark wizard exercising the curse upon him. "You will learn to fear me Mr. Snape! I will not be treated as if I were like you!" The young voice cackled still holding the curse on Rycrypt.

A year?

The Ministry is sending me to America to check out some new Dark Art techniques. Don't worry Mac... I'll be back....

The promise he had made her rung in his head like an alarm bell.... I'll be back, that would be a lie unless he chose to be defiant and run, but that wasn't going to work and he knew it. The curse was lifted and he lay on the sodden wooden floor his chest heaving, spluttering up blood and writhing in agony.

"I see you are ready to be more compliant now Mr. Snape. You will call me my Lord or Master or I shall curse you. No questions asked. Understand?!" There was an insane glint in Voldemort's eyes, one that hadn't been present earlier. Rycrypt looked up at him still unable to talk. "I said understand?!" Rycrypt still lay unable to move his mind cloudy. "We shall try again!" Voldemort hissed. "Crucio!" He roared. Yet again Rycrypt was screaming for mercy, he had always hated having these curses used upon him and the lengths of time his was being cursed for didn't ever seem to end.

"Yes Master!" Rycrypt yelled through the pain in an effort to stop this mad man. The curse was lifted.

"Very good Rycrypt, I see you understand me." A low laugh escaped him. Stand up my feisty friend, we have a lot to do. I sense there is something you already wish to do... I shall not stop you, I watch you with great interest." Rycrypt though it best to wait a while before doing what he wanted, there would be nothing worse than hurting Imacia again so quickly.

Author's note: Okay what did you think.. Tell me? Review!

I.C. Fire

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