Moonlit Horizons *Extra* Chapter 16 'B'

 A snippet of one of the most un-expected relationships in the series.  Severus and Draezyc Snape.

Told form the PoV of Severus Snape

Life is so unnerving for a servant who's not serving…

~*~

"I trust you will not fail me, Severus."

"No master." Snape inwardly cringed.  He often wondered if Voldemort could see right through him and was playing along for enjoyment factors.

"Good, leave my presence."

Snape didn't need telling twice, he turned and left the dungeon chamber of Tom Marvolo Riddle's castle with the stride of someone who's confidence was their life.  It was a lie.  All a lie.  He stopped, just outside the door, someone was watching.  The hairs on the back of his neck were tingling, somebody he couldn't see, somebody was watching his every move.  He shook his head. I'm becoming paranoid, this is no good. He wrapped his travelling cloak around his shoulders and disapparated.

That night he had been talking to Dumbledore through the fire network, he had told him everything he knew about Voldemort's latest plans.  According to Dumbledore, Pyrrus Bones had been found.  The bad news was that Pyrrus Bones had not been found in one piece.  Another spy lost.  Someone was routinely taking them out, somebody knew.  Potter had been on an Auror job off up in Yorkshire, and had accidentally come across half a leg.  A small search had uncovered the rest of what was once was Pyrrus Bones.  Pyrrus had left behind a family.  A family that was at this moment fearing for their lives, and in mourning for one of the best spies Dumbledore had had in Voldemort's ranks. 

Snape was about to reach for his bottle of whiskey when his fireplace exploded, covering the room in shards of stone.  He stood up, grabbing his wand.

"Bloody hell, did you have to cover your floo network in an entire lexicon of charms?"

"What on Earth?"

"You've been a naughty boy, Sevvie."

That voice sounds familiar.  Death Eater voice.

"Really?" Snape rolled his eyes. "Enlighten me."

He only just managed to dodge the disarming charm that whizzed past his ear. 

"Tealamon." He hissed. "Nobody else aims for my ear."

"What?" She laughed at him. "Why would I aim at your ear?"

"You tell me." Snape tried to squint through the dust clouds that were floating round his drawing room.  "Anyway, you were saying…"

"Consorting with Dumbledore? Giving away Our Lord's plans? Some might think you'd got the wrong end of the stick here."

"Oh no, I have the right end of the stick, I assure you." He pointed his wand at the blurry black figure and let off a hail of different spells.

"Very amusing." She laughed.  Snape twirled round to see her sitting in his armchair.  He looked back at the murky figure who he found out was just a floating robe she had enchanted.  Tealamon herself was wearing white.  "Not as quick off the mark Sev. Tsk, Tsk."  She reached up and took his wand, placing it in her pocket.  "You admire my handiwork with Pyrrus? He wasn't playing fair with me, so I decided to remind him that I was in charge."

"YOU?" Snape hissed, "You dismembered Pyrrus Bones?"

"You sound so surprised."

"You did that? And you can still sleep at night?" Snape sounded disgusted, he noticed her face fell, just slightly, but he still noticed, and smirked to himself.

"Who's saying I sleep?" She retorted, fingering a dagger engraved with silver and emeralds.

"You're going to kill me with a dagger? Rather Muggle of you, if I may say." Snape sighed. "Fair enough, do as you wish."

"Excuse me?" She frowned. 

"Go ahead.  Take a good stab, you'll be doing the world a favour no doubt." Snape raised an eyebrow. "Come, surely you want an audience for this?"  He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out into the gardens, not noticing the flames licking at the tapestries inside the house. "For all the world to see… You have your chance, take it."

She just stared at him, blinking in disbelief.

"What's the matter Draezyc? This is what you do, you kill people who are no longer in agreement to Voldemort.  You kill people, you rip them apart, one piece at a time, here I am, I'm willing.  I don't have a place in this world any more.  Take my shattered remains back to your Dark Lord, take them and drop them at his feet, another job well done, and how does he pay you? Your continued good service to his cause.  Just another name to your list, that's all I've become is it not?  Take that blade in your hand, take it and unleash that anger that I know is inside you, because nothing else could possible want to make you do this, what is it Draezyc? Lost your precious Sirius Black to DuCruet did you?  That what drove you round the bend?  Or was it those countless suitors banging at your door, your father carefully selecting which should be arranged for you?  You took care of that, where is he now? Buried, long gone.  Who is left to care anymore Draezyc?  Is this why you go round acting like Voldemort's Loki?"

He reached forward, grabbing her wrists, twisting the dagger from her grasp, it fell to the grass, shining against the moonlight. 

"Do you have a reason? Or are you fooling yourself, just like I was?  You see Draezyc, you can kill me because I don't have a life to live anymore.  If you don't kill me I'm sure someone else will.  If not by your side, then by the Ministry, I belong in neither category.  Alone."

He watched her.  Noticing a silent tear falling down her cheek.  Still holding tight onto her wrists with one hand, he took out a silk handkerchief with the other, dabbing at her eyes.

"You still have your chance, you know." He muttered.  "Feel free, in your own time, you have all night no doubt."

They must have stood out there all night, for when the early morning light started to leave its mark on the sky, they were still standing, in the same spot, the silver dagger in the grass, glittering.  Silently he let go of her, and walked back up to his smoking house.  The fire had left its mark in the drawing room, and thankfully because of various charms he had in place, the fire had spread no further.  He turned to look at her, she hadn't moved.  But was now staring at the sky, he shook his head and left for the study, to check for any owls.

He returned a few minutes later, parchment in hand, and saw she had gone.  Presumably to report her failure to Voldemort, who was not going to take kindly to the matter.  On the charred table lay the silver dagger, she had left it behind, but hadn't forgotten it, she had left it there on purpose.

Snape picked it up, and twirled it in his fingers.  Expensive, pure silver, genuine emeralds.  Some sort of family heirloom most probably.  She'd be back. 

~*~

Draezyc did come back.

"I thought you'd be back." Snape didn't even move from his newly restored chair.  He didn't need to, he could tell who it was.  "You still have my wand."

He reached up to catch it as she threw it at him.

"I hear that you're something of an outlaw." He murmured, watching her silhouette against the stone wall.  "Disobeying the Dark Lord and telling him in more crude terms to impregnate a tree?"  Severus smirked slightly, "No doubt you paid heavily for your moment of weakness?"

"It could have been worse." Draezyc rubbed her bruised arm.  "I'm still alive."

"So, you've come to end our little debt?  I noticed you left your ornamental sword, a quaint reminder, I might add." Severus stood up, turning to face her, she looked awful.  He frowned. "What did he do?"

Draezyc looked away. 

"The same as what he did to Karkaroff, when he failed to deliver Orion and Lyma Black into Voldemort's trap." Severus stated.  "Not very inventive, but painful, and it leaves a reminder.  You protected my status, I am grateful." Snape glanced at the cuts on her hands.  "And you still serve him, after this?"

"God, help me." Draezyc crumpled, Snape caught her, stopping her from falling to the floor.  He held her close, feeling the heaving sobs that were wracking her body. 

"Tomorrow, I'll take you to Dumbledore.  He'll help you, as he helped me." Snape reassured her.  It had been a while since he had seen Draeliana Tealamon, or Draezyc as people called her now.  His fellow Slytherin, blue eyed mystery.  She was the Slytherin's equivalent of Lily Evans in many ways.  Except fro mwhat he'd heard, Lily was far happier in her present life, than Draezyc was.  But Draezyc wasn't the hunted in Voldemort's schemes.  Snape had a brief thought that Draezc would probably prefer to be happy, but the hunted, rather than being the ally, but unhappy.  "Then maybe we can sort out this mess."

~*~

Lily and James Potter.  You couldn't step out of your house without hearing about it.  Their young son Harry.  The traitorous best friend.  Snape was sick of it all.  He threw the day's copy of the Daily Prophet out of the window, narrowly missing the owl who had delivered it.  Pulling on his warm robes, he padded across the hall and opened the door across the hall. "Draezyc?"

"Mmmhwat?"

"You fell asleep at your desk again last night?"

"Busy." Draezyc lifted her head from the parchment she had fallen sleep upon.  "Must have lost track of time or something."

Snape smiled, clicking his fingers a goblet of warm tea appeared in front of her, along with a freshly baked croissant.  "Who's bothering you now?"

"Nobody, I'm just writing random ideas." Draezyc scrumpled up the parchment and threw it into the wastebasket.  "It's useless now anyway.  He's gone."

"You believe that?"

"I'm being optimistic." Draezyc took a sip from her goblet.  "And yourself?"

"Annoyed bordering on nonchalance." Snape watched a solitary cat dart past the door.  "Did not help to find my bed empty this morning."

"It was hardly empty, you were in it." Draezyc grumbled, dipping her quill into ink again.  "They caught Ludo.  He's got his trial in a few days time."

"You're not worried he's going to name drop?"

"And who will believe him if he does?  I could outsmart Crouch if I were blindfolded."

"Very possibly." Snape nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I have a meeting with Dumbledore this morning, Malfoy's bribed his way out of a trial, rather ingenious of him."

"Fine, Oh by the way, tell that Longbottom guy to watch his back, he's got Alan Lestrange on his tail." Draezyc grinned. "Apparently he insulted Lestrange's wife."

Snape smirked. "If that's the case, then I'm wondering why you're still alive."

"I have a knack for survival, can get very tedious at times."

~*~

Few Years Later

"What about Severus."

Draezyc spluttered into her goblet of herbal tea. "You want to call your son after yourself?"

"And what's wrong with my name?" Snap raised an eyebrow, challenging her to continue.

"Nothing, but look at all those Roman guys named Severus, look where they ended up." Draezyc shrugged. "Don't argue with me, I'm not going to have two men in the house called Severus.  One's enough."

"Alright, you suggest a name." Snape perched on his elbow in the bed. "Go on, if you're so clever and omniscient in these matters…"

"Castor."

"No." Snape laughed. "No… but we go with the classical theme for a name, yes?"

"Yes. That's agreed.  Nothing common, nothing… modern, something memorable, something that sounds nice, but something you can say seriously when you're yelling in a rage." Draezyc smirked. "How about… Zeus."

"You're not taking this seriously.  That's about on the same level as calling the boy Sirius.  Which, before you ask, is not on my list." Snape scowled.  "Daedalus."

"No 'cause people will take the piss, and call him dead boy." Draezyc sighed. "Do we have to talk about this now?"

"Aeneas." Snape mumbled. "Aegistheus."

Draezyc raised an eyebrow, and blinked. "You want your son slain by his son? Giving him a name like that is just asking for it."

"Something potion-y then. Podalirius.  He was skilled at medicine and such like."

"Apollo."

"You called your owl at Hogwarts Apollo." Snape sneered, "Sarpedon."

"Who was slain in the war?  No, no.  We go with the god theme."

"Quirinus." Snape offered, "Name given to Romulus when deified."

"You're just saying that 'cause Romulus hit Remus over the head with a rock.  I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of introducing your son as the bloke who killed his brother over a city wall dispute, which I might add, was only a few rocks high at the time."

Snape rolled his eyes and fell back, staring up at the ceiling.  "Pytheus."

"Who?"

"Pi-thay-us, you know, surname given to Apollo, which follows off your thing about naming your son after an owl…" Snape flicked off the lights with a wave of his hand.  "They called him that because he slew the Python."

"That's a bit anti-Slytherin, isn't it?" Draezyc pulled the fur lined quilt up to her ears. "But it's a nice name.  I hate these dungeons they've stuck you in."

"They suit their purpose."

"Sev, they're freezing.  How can you teach in there?"

"It keeps the students attention, stops them falling asleep.  And if it's a girl, we call her Salacia."

"Neptune's wife… nice."

"You must be tired, you're not arguing." Snape laughed, closing his eyes, trying to block out the loud thud that sporadically echoed through the walls. Peeves.  I swear one day I'll have his ghostly guts to line my potions office.

~*~

Seven Years Later

"Where's Pytheus?" Severus Snape burst into the study through the floo network.

"I don't know.  He was being watched by Dimmy, have a nice year at Hogwarts?" Draezyc looked up from her potions work, which was laying all over the table.

"You felt it burn, did you go?" Snape asked, peeling back the left sleeve of his cloak.

"I did." Draezyc nodded.  "Totally ignored me as well, I shouldn't have bothered." She sighed. "You didn't come when he called, he wanted to know where you were."

"And you said…?" Snape looked haggard, like he hadn't slept.

"I told him you couldn't risk coming at such short notice as it might blow your cover with Dumbledore.  He seemed satified."

"Potter says he is out to kill me."

"Bagman and Karkaroff, yes.  You? no.  You're too useful for him. What he said was that he knew one had left him forever and one was too cowardly to return, Bagman's left him and Karkaroff's to wimpish to return.  He's a bit teed off about the Lestranges being in Azkaban." Draezyc put down her quill.  "Guess who's on the Karkaroff job?"

"You, of course." Snape rolled his eyes. "Just don't do another Pyrrus."

"Something interesting though, he thinks he's located a Phaerren." Draezyc raised an eyebrow.  "Wants to find the Soul-Syphon ring, gain the power, et cetera."

"Please don't tell me the Phaerren's Potter."

"No, nono." Draezyc laughed. "This one's as Muggle as you can get, she doesn't know what she is.  You know, that Potter kid has spunk, duelling with the Dark Lord like that."

"Back to being the devoted servants of Voldemort then?"

"Until further notification, we are."

"Wonderful." Snape sneered, "Just wonderful."