Chapter Eight: Point of Mission

            When she closed the door, Snape grudgingly returned to his desk.  The sting in his arm started to grow again, and as he reached for his bottom drawer, he winced as his mark returned to a steady glow.  He reached inside and pulled out a black mask.  Lying next to the disguise was a quill—it shined ever so brightly as Severus retrieved his cloak.  He pulled on the shroud, covered his face with the mask, and picked up the radiating quill.  He wrote, "I am here, master.  Do with me what you will," and the Portkey immediately transported him to the deepest depths of the Forbidden Forest.

            The storm had passed as quickly as it had come but that didn't help Snape's situation any.  The welcoming he received was nothing of the sort.  As soon as he apparated he was thrown to the ground, having received the Cruico spell from a figure standing in front of him.  That figure was the one that Reign was hiding from.  Professor Snape could hear laughing echoing from all corners of the small clearing.  When his pain diminished, his eyes slowly came into focus.  And there, looming over him--smiling--was Lord Voldemort.

            "Severus," he hissed, not helping as the man shakingly stumbled to stand up, "you have betrayed me."

            "No master.  I would never betray you."

            "DO NOT LIE TO ME!"  More terrifying pains hit Severus and he fell to the ground once more.  "Get up, Severus."  The man did not move.  "GET UP!"  He flinched a little, dragging his arm from under him and using it to prop himself up, but he was too slow for Voldemort.  The Dark Lord took hold of his robes, lifted him high off the ground and scowled at him.  "Do you take me for a fool, boy?"

            "No," he whispered.

            "WHAT?"

            "NO, master."

            "Then why do you play me as such?"  Voldemort set the Potions master back on the ground.  The man shuttered at his power.  Voldemort laughed.  "Of course you don't know what I'm talking about.  You never had a logical cell in that incapable greasy head of yours."  He put a hand on Snape's head, and ripped off his mask.  Blood trickled from his mouth.  The Dark Lord put a finger to the blood, and then he licked it.  Severus contained so much rage and so much fear that all he could do was cower at his masters' feet.  Voldemort, on the other hand, was still smirking as he reached into his robes and pulled out a small green jewel.  "Do you know what this is?"

            "It looks to be an emerald, master."

            "Very good, Severus.  And why do you suppose I have an emerald with me?"

            "I don't know, master." 

            "Have you forgotten what your mission at that ridiculous school is?"  Voldemort reached again into his robes and pulled out a small photograph of a young girl; or rather, a one thousand and three year old elf.  Severus gasped and he shut his eyes tight.  "That's right, boy, after several painstaking years of searching for this little horror, she's finally let her guard down."

            'Thanks to me,' Severus thought to himself, though he dared not say it.

            "And when she did, this gem glowed like the sun, indicating she was near.  The only reasonable assumption was that she was at Hogwarts.  Where you were supposed to look out for her and tell us when she arrived."  He leaned in closer to Snape's face.  "She's been there for weeks, Severus.  Why haven't you told me?"

            "I did not know it was she you were after.  I swear I didn't know!  I apologize for my arrogance, master.  Please forgive me," he practically wept into the Dark Lord's robes.  A hand stroked his hair as a sardonic voice coaxed him. 

            "There, there, Severus.  It's all right.  I forgive you," he grabbed the man's locks and pulled his head up to where they could see eye to eye.  "But you do know that this has put us a bit behind on our master plan?"  Snape nodded.  "And someone has to make up for that lost time," another nod, though with less assurance, "and who do you suppose should be that someone?"

            "Please master.  Let it be me.  It was all my fault."

            "Yes, it was."  And the pain rushed on once more as the Potions master's surroundings faded and he returned to the castle.  Voldemort still held the stone in his hand after Severus left.  It exploded with a light so brilliant that his other hand flew to his eyes to shield them; a light so brilliant that he failed to notice the same light coming from the sky above the trees.