Fic: Wishing Well.
Author: serendu
Rating: pg:13. Knowing how I write there will probably be swearing in it at some point.
Disclaimer: If you recognise it - then it isn't mine. Unfortunately. *sulks* HP belongs to Rowling, BTVS to Whedon. Lucky them.
Distribution: TTH, My LiveJournal, FF.net.
Note: This was mostly written whilst I was in work. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Working over Christmas & New Year sucks.

Chapter 5:Wishing Well
Turn Back Time

I've seen it coming like a thief in the night,
I've seen it coming from the flesh of your light.

So give me strength,
to face this test of mine.

If only I could turn back time,
if only I had saved what I still had.
if only I could turn back time,
I would stay.

Aqua: Turn Back Time

***

"Aside from the spell..." Severus Snape trailed off and paused before finishing his sentence. "Why me?"

His companion nodded knowingly. "Knew you'd ask that." He smirked.

Snape merely raised an eyebrow and waited for the answer.

"You know you're no fun." His companion complained. "Fine. It's quite simple. Everyone is searching for something. For you it's payment."

"Payment?" Snape repeated with a frown.

"For your crimes." His partner paused. "You don't believe you can truly be redeemed, there's too much that you've seen and done. You believe you can make up for it - pay for it so to speak by whatever actions you think will do. You were a spy for Dumbledore. Not the easiest of tasks it must be said, but you saw it as something that could help balance out your crimes, even if it resulted in your death."

"I do not wish for death." Snape stated firmly.

"No, but you don't go out of your way to avoid it if you believe it's necessary. That is partly why you were chosen."

"Only partly?" Snape queried, gazing at his partner speculatively.

His companion remained quiet, before becoming uncomfortable with Snape's gaze. "I can't say a word... So don't ask." He mumbled before turning away from Snape's face.

"So this next task will..." Snape began, changing the subject.

"Add more to balance out the debt."

"If you say so."

"Oh it will."

***

Lucius Malfoy sat at his desk deep in thought. He poured some whisky from the crystal decanter sitting on his desk before drinking his whisky from a fine crystal whisky glass. The last revel had been something of an eye opener. That Lord Voldemort, his Master had discovered that there was a spy had not been a surprise.

Dumbledore, fool that he is had to have been getting his information from somewhere other than Potter's link. Malfoy sneered. But that it was Severus was a real surprise. And he, Lucius Malfoy disliked surprises intensely. Especially when they revealed that the man who had been Draco's godfather was actually a spy for Dumbledore.

He was... A friend. Lucius sipped his whisky, revelling in the burn as it slipped down his throat. But I will have no regrets. He told himself. What's done is done. He is dead now. It would be best to put this behind us. He frowned and put down his glass as he remembered what had happened after his Master had declared Severus, no, Snape a traitor.

"Crucio!"

Severus Snape fell to the ground writhing in agony. There were no pleas for mercy. No screams either. Dumbledore's spy would not give them the satisfaction.

"Lucius."

"My Lord?"

"Dispose of this filth."

"Yes my Lord."

Quite what had happened after that was something of a blur. Lucius Malfoy shook his head to clear it. His frown deepened. He could remember casting the Killing Curse... Then nothing.

"Obliviate cast on myself perhaps?" He mused aloud. "I wonder who would dare?" He inwardly shrugged to himself. "However the curse was cast and Snape was not able to apparate. It's not important." He said convincingly in a louder voice. He paused before muttering. "He wasn't able to move." He picked up his glass and drank more of his whisky, leaning back in his chair. But a voice he couldn't ignore inside his head asked the question that had been plaguing him ever since he had arrived back at Malfoy Manor.

'But where did the traitor's body go?'

***

"When do I get to meet this person?" Snape demanded. "You've kept me here long enough."

"Time passes differently here." His companion held up a hand to placate Snape and gestured with his other. "Just look down here. As soon as what needs to happen, happens you'll be all set." His companion noting that Snape had sat on a cloud of nothing whilst watching what he had pointed at began to walk away. "It'll happen soon enough, and they'll be perfect."

"Wonderful. 'Perfect'" Snape quoted sarcastically to himself as soon as he thought he was alone. "No doubt I'll be cast onto some awful Potter-esque do-gooder. As long as there won't be a Weasley. Or a Granger." He thought about his former students and muttered with venom. "Or Merlin forbid a Longbottom."

His companion off in the distance chuckled to himself. In a voice not heard by Snape he insisted, "They will be perfect. For you."

******

Hmm. That last line makes it sound like a romance. It isn't. At least - it isn't *planned* to be one. R&R please.