Disclaimer: Same things apply as in Chapter One. However, I'm seeing some parallels in this story to A.I…and I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm copying…I think, if I should continue this (I'm working on a *huge* story of novel proportions also), there should be maybe…two or three more chapters. I will most likely finish it, I can't start something without finishing it - it's my way in writing. BTW- thank you to everyone who reviewed. You are the reasons why I'm continuing =).
Crystal Angel - "Chapter Two: My Responsibly "
The Crystal Angel. There she was, just like he saw her every time he was in her world, under her control. She was standing on the cliff of a rock, over looking the ocean. Snape could hear the rumbling of waves, crashing into the sides of the rocks, he could see the salty, cold ocean breeze ruffle through her long, white hair, making it fly like curtains of silk through the wind. She stood, with her enormous wings, spread far into the air around her, light from the setting sun casting a glow on them, making them burn with a golden glisten. He stood far away, admiring from a distance, how many nights had he spent chasing his Crystal Angel? She always was running from him, in a graceful way she slipped past him dose after dose. And he kept on chasing her, one day she'll be yours, he thought.
He cautiously stood there, making no noise, his prey right now unaware of his presence. The Crystal Angel moved, and he froze in a spot during the movement. She was going to take flight any minute now, leaving him this time.
No. She was moving her head slowly. And she looked over a white silk and lace covered shoulder with the Hunter green eyes she bore into his mind with each dose he took. She spoke to him through blood red lips, in a tone so wonderful, so sweet:
"Come, Severus. Come to me. We'll watch the sunset together." she said, the wind again catching her hair. The Crystal Angel lifted a pale, porcelain doll hand into the air and motioned him towards her.
He followed the wave of her hand with footsteps drawing nearer, when he reached the edge, he stood beside her, heart pounding out of his chest, he felt the wind current from her beating wings, felt the tips of them pound in his back every few seconds. Feeling that moment where they were physically in contact reminded him of one thing: Heaven.
He tasted the salt in his mouth, and felt it in his eyes as it came from the ocean. The wind blew his hair and his robes violently with the silk sheets of hair and robes standing beside him.
"Oh…" he said, feeling faint, "Crystal Angel. My love I found you." he proclaimed, falling to his knees in the worship of the One he wanted for hundreds, probably closer to thousands, of doses. And here he was, beside her, smelling the smells of honey and syrup that poured from her; she was taller than usual from his position on the ground, knelt down, head down - in complete trust and worship of the One he had known for so long.
She ran a hand through his hair, and it was like flames burning into his scalp, followed by ice - freezing the pain away.
The waves crashed against their cliff with roars that shook the ground they were on. Spit from the waves flew into the air and landed on his face.
"Speak to me, oh Great Angel, for I've gone so long for a whisper." Snape begged from the ground, feeling the dirt and grass graze his face.
Silence, and he felt his heart tear for the withdrawal from her voice.
"I don't trust many people this close to me." she said highly, she ordered him to stand, and he obeyed, feeling unworthy of such trust, of such honor to stand by her side. She continued, "But I know you, Severus. I remember you. Such a smart boy, such a young boy, such a troubled boy."
Snape cringed as she welcomed back his childhood. Yes, he remembered the first time he saw the Great Crystal Angel. It wasn't the first time the blood of her was brought to his lips, but rather months afterward, phials full afterward.
In his third year, a sixth year he highly respected asked him if he would care to join him in a walk. Stunned by the gesture, Snape quickly followed, willing to do anything that might keep this friendship with the man he so desperately wanted to befriend.
They walked some ways to the deepest dungeon in the castle, where more men (and women) of higher years stood waiting in the dark room. Most were Slytherins, but Snape noticed a few other houses, standing in the silence.
The man who brought him here quickly turned to set Snape straight before allowing him further.
"One word - to anyone - about what takes place in this room…" he said, with the most severe and frightening serious look he could give, "and I will personally kill you." His faced changed, and he looked Snape in the eyes, "I brought you here because of your strengths. Only the strong survive under Her. We have as much trust as we can give in you. She will come to you personally when she feels you are ready - all we can do is prepare you. Understood?"
Snape did not understand, but the man said he trusted him - said he thought Snape was strong! "Yes, I understand." he replied.
And they stood, waiting, until two men, actual men, with dark looks and evil eyes, walked into the room, handing out phials of clear, oily liquid while the receivers dropped coins into a bucket. They made their way to the sixth year and Snape. The man dropped twice as much change into the bucket, getting two phials in return.
"The blood of Her. She is expensive to obtain - drink up - and you will see the sunset in the glow of her wings. You must pay for your own now on." the sixth year said, opening his phial, and pouring it down his throat.
Snape, not wanting to seem childish, did the same. He felt the warm fingers travel through his veins. And he felt like he was flying, colors of the sunset flying past him at unimaginable speeds. He fell unto the floor along with most of the other users - and groped around for new things to touch, new things to taste, his body was electrified and everything was just so right.
Months later, Snape was curled on his bed inside his home - withdrawal from the months of weekly doses plagued his brain. Over time, along with the colors - he began to see the outlining of wings - great wings. He was curled in a corner of the bed by the wall, fingers tearing through his hair, body dying for the need. His father had just gotten done training him for the needs of the Dark Wizards, his mother looking on from a distance - not knowing what to say - as if there was something to say. He mother never spoke to him, and never touched him, always distant. His father ordered that…saying that female contact made a Man weak, his love for his mother would stop him from gaining power.
That's why when he heard the feminine voice, so soft, so wonderful to his ears, call him by his first name he was stunned. And he was shocked, turning slowly, half expecting his mother to be there.
But instead, a sight he had never seen stood before him. A woman, tall in height, thin in frame, with skin so pale it glowed, eyes a hunter green he had never seen before, and lips so red - they looked like someone had cut the skin, and the blood settled in its natural liquid color. Her hair, long and glowing white, flown with the non-existent wind along with her white robes, flying. And behind her, great wings that were as wide as thirty of him - glowing Gold underneath their white base.
"Don't be afraid, my child." she said at his stunned face, "For you know who I am."
"The Great Crystal Angel?" he asked, unbelieving. She closed her eyes and nodded. He sank from the bed onto his knees.
"There, there, my love." she spoke with a tone he had never experienced. So loving, so soft, so feminine, like a mother soothing her child after a terrible scare. The voice cradled his scarred body and held him, like the mother he never had. "Severus, come here, my love." and she opened her arms as he got from his knees to go to her, and settled in the warmth and softness of her breasts, "You are such a special boy, Severus. You are such a gift; you are my favorite from the rest. They say you are strong, and I agree, you are magnificent, you are a wonder to even one like myself." the Great Angel told him, running her hands through his hair. He was in an unimaginable state of bliss - he was in Heaven.
Over the years, he ran to the Crystal Angel phials for the meaning of Love, for the warmth of her, and while he rode the colors of the sunset, it was only in her arms. But, it couldn't last forever, nothing spectacular ever did, and once he joined the Death Eaters, she became furious with him, screaming and yelling at him, refusing to love him anymore. Still highly dependant on the liquid, he took it, every week, only to hear her screams through the colors.
He had quit the Death Eaters because he could no longer take the fact that the only thing that ever loved him was away. She was the curtain that was ripped from his eyes; the Great Crystal Angel saved him, even though she hated what he did. And now, after years of chasing her, trying to win her trust again, here he was - standing by her side, on the cliff of beginning of his new life. He would do anything to keep it just like this.
"Who is that?" she sounded, bringing him out of the memories of his past. Her pale hand pointed to a figure on the beach. The figure was a girl, playing with the waves, walking along them, as they splashed along her feet. Dressed head-to-toe in black, frizzy brown hair flying in her face. He recognized the deep blood lips from so far away.
"Hermione…" he whispered, and the Crystal Angel turned to him.
"Severus, who is she?" she ordered in his face. "Who dares to come in-between us again?" she face was turning horrid, evil, in her eyes, fire played.
"She is a student…I had to protect her. I gave her a dose of you; she could rise above the hatred she is going through…only through you - oh great One. My Love…" he pleaded, he knew what was coming, she would hate him again, the Crystal Angel would run from him again, trust misguided again.
She advanced on him, and he fell to his knees in panicked praise and prayer for his Angel. He only stopped when he felt a punch from her hand across his head, and he looked to her, pleading with his eyes. He loved her, loved her more and more every time he saw her, all he wanted was for her to be happy, to be loved by her.
"I want her dead, Severus." the Great Angel ordered, advancing on him still. Snape stopped his pleading for himself, and looked at her with shock in his eyes.
Dead? Hermione…Dead? No, he loved her, and all he wanted was to help her. Why couldn't the Crystal Angel see he was spreading her good soul to another person in need? Last he remembered, he was holding Hermione, and he wasn't alone, she wasn't alone. He felt important once again. And then the Crystal Angel came, and reminded him just how important he was.
"No." he said, not believing he was again fighting with her. "I won't kill her!" he yelled.
"Of course you will." she said, calmly, "Because you love me more than you love her. You're willing to die for me, you are willing to murder for me!" she said pointedly.
"NO! NOT HERMIONE! ANYONE BUT HER!" he stood screaming, and the next thing he knew, he was falling. He fell into the water, felt the rocks and the salty water jab him at all angles. He just lost again the thing he loved for so long, and fought for to have once more for so long. He was so angry with himself, the Great Crystal Angel wanted Hermione dead, and the Great Crystal Angel always got what she wanted.
He felt a rage in him, and it started within his heart, boiling until it reached his throat, and with the last bit of oxygen he had, he hadn't discovered he was trapped in the water, he let out a primal roar, screaming a painful, angry roar, feeling the air bubbles tickle his face on their way up, he screamed.
Snape woke with a start, and a fleeing moment of panic flew through him as he gathered his surroundings, answers to questions like, "Why am I on the floor next to a dying fire?" "Why is a girl curled on me?" "Why am I holding her so close?" Hermione hadn't moved from the spot on his chest from the previous night as he played back what had happened. He saw the spider web on the ceiling, and the cocoon of the victim, dead, and the spider, hanging there- as if he watched Snape and Hermione, and wondered how much thread it would take to kill them too.
Hermione. Oh, Hermione. His own hands would murder the beauty and intelligence on his chest right now. He felt a wave of nausea hit him hard at the thought, and he threw Hermione off him, running towards the bathroom in a blind panic as he felt the vomit come up his throat. He reached the toilet just at the last second, and threw up heavily into the bowl. When he was finished, he hugged the bowl for a minute, starring into the toilet bowl, watching the bile and the blood swirl in the water. Saliva hung from his mouth, and his hair clung to the sides of his face with sweat, lightheaded, he rested his face on the side of the tub, and just laid there.
After what seemed to him like an hour, but the clock said was only five minutes, Snape fought off another wave of the mess he was hit with earlier. Standing up, he flushed the toilet, and went to the sink, rinsing out his mouth, washing his face, and looked at his appearance in the mirror.
Cold Blooded Killer. An old Cold Blooded Killer, at that. A puppet…worthless.
But I'm worth the world to my Angel. He thought with a blissful smile. How she'll be so proud of me when I carry out this.
Snape walked back out into the office, and picked Hermione off the floor, so light, so fragile, so beautiful. The black streaks went down her face and down her chest still, and she moaned as he laid her on the couch. He couldn't kill her now. A part of him couldn't, he had no reason to. Instead, he threw some Floo powder into the fireplace, and called for her Head of House.
Minerva McGonagall's head appeared in the fireplace, apparently worried, and her eyes darted all around.
"I have found Ms. Granger, Minerva." Snape said bluntly. "If you would be so kind to come to my office and bring her back into her rooms."
A wash of relief went across Minerva's face. "Yes, oh Thank God." she was in his office a few moments later. "Where'd you find her?" she asked.
Snape looked at Hermione. "It's Ms. Granger, Minerva, where do you think I found her?" he snapped.
Minerva rolled her eyes, "The library?" Snape nodded his head.
"She was in there after curfew. And I couldn't punish her, because - well, Minerva, you know. We've all been worried about her, and she reminded me of myself at that age, I looked it as an opportunity to discuss it with her." Snape explained.
She looked at him unbelieving, "You didn't punish her? And…you were worried about her?" she asked, clearly shocked.
Snape rolled his eyes, and went to the desk, pulling out some papers that needed grading. "Of course I was worried about her. But I wasn't about to become all open about it. I just didn't want her to fall into the same holes I did." he said.
Minerva noticed Hermione's makeup. "Why is her makeup running?" she asked. In fact, she also wondered why she had been sleeping in Snape's office.
Snape sighed. "I didn't do anything to her, Minerva. I offered for her to come back in here, to talk about it. She came, and practically cried her eyes out on my couch. Earlier she had mentioned she didn't want to go back to the Common Room, so I let her sleep in here. I also gave her some sleep draught. Because, Lord knows she needed it." hopefully that'd cover up any side effects someone would notice from the Crystal Angel.
Minerva sighed. "I wasn't saying you did anything to her. I'm just glad you helped her." she said sadly. "Hopefully she's found something in you that she hasn't found anywhere else, and you'll help her through all this." She picked up Hermione in her arms, and made for the fireplace to take her to her dorm to sleep.
"Minerva!" Snape called before she stepped in. She turned around.
"Please, Minerva, treat the girl with some respect, and some carefulness. Her situation is much worse than we thought." Snape said from his desk, and Minerva nodded, as she understood. "Also," he added, "tell her that she is more than welcome to come here anytime she needs me." Minerva smiled at this great show of hospitality. She had never heard anything like it - come from Snape at least.
She stepped through the flames, and Snape knew Hermione would come back soon, wanting more, needing more. Somehow the colors of the sunset on Golden wings worked people into slaves for Her. Snape closed his eyes, and wondered how in the Hell he was going to carry out the Great Crystal Angel's order. Through the flames, Snape could swear he saw his Angel's eyes through the flames, burning into his soul, telling him to go through with it.