Moonlit Horizons – Chapter 30B - Interlude

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Yes, im well aware that all these interludes have mucked up my chapter numbers… but oh well, I like it. So we are back to an interlude, mainly solely Snape and Drae… mostly… lol!

Dues to Linkin Park for a lyric line or two J A Place For My Head

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"You used to be calm, used to be strong…" Draezyc hissed "Whatever happened to that oh so perfect oh so beautiful, so powerful, so holy, so supreme in your belief of justice, so enigmatic, so heroic, so GODDAMN MIGHTY… HUH DUCRUET!? WHERE'D THAT GO?  REALISED IT'S NOT ALL SUNNY IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU?"

Edea shrank back into the corner of her cell, shivering with the cold, only made worse by the striking blue gaze of Draezyc's glare.

"I… I… I…" Edea mumbled incoherently, she'd been hexed, cursed, beaten and finally she was too tired to rise up against it anymore, Sirius wasn't coming for her, he'd given up hope.

"You want your prince to save you." Draezyc gleamed. "Let me tell you this, your prince isn't going to save you this time.  Your prince is useless, a whimpering mess on the floor, lost in confusion and hatred.  He'll leave you here to rot and die because you're not worth the effort."

"No… he wouldn't… he… he…. Cant… leave.. me… he wont… he cant… he wont…" Edea was crying silent tears, she curled into a ball, her dirty robes torn and wet from the damp walls.

"NOT SO SECURE NOW, ARE WE" Draezyc laughed, it echoed off the walls and Edea covered her ears, trying to block out the noise… "Oh the torture… the undying torture." She smirked, and silently closed the door behind her, careful not to smear her robes with the grime that covered the doors and walls.

"Satisfactory, Draezyc?" The guard asked tentatively as Draezyc climbed the stairs out of the dungeons

"As always." Draezyc murmured. "Even when I close my eyes."

~*~

"Your looks belie you, you look fatigued." Severus ran a long finger down his wife's pale cheek. "Some wine?"

"Would love some." Draezyc fell back into one of the many black velvet armchairs in the main dining room of the Snape Manor.  "Do I really look that bad?"

"Like a veritable fera festiva on her day off."

"I never in my life resembled a party animal thank you very much." Draezyc plucked the glass of red wine from Severus' hand.  "And what was with the latin?"

"Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar?"

"Yes, you were speaking latin again, Severus that isn't funny."

"Me ineptum"

"Evidently." Draezyc muttered to herself, swirling the wine around in the glass.  "I watch how the Moon sits in the sky in the dark night, shining with the light from the sun.  The sun doesn't give light to the moon assuming the moon's going to owe it one."

"Metaphorically you're talking about Black again aren't you." Severus sat down opposite her. "Listen to me." He tipped up her chin so she was looking directly at him.  "You don't have to do anything over and above what you want to.  I would not want you to sacrifice yourself on behalf of some oversized-humoured clown."

"Public scrutiny, Severus.  Why I never walked away from what he was asking was simply that."

Severus frowned "I didn't have you marked down as one who particularly cared for the views of those around you."

"It isn't Black's crew I'm bothered about, honestly."

"Ah." Severus leaned back. "Voldemort."

"Transparent."

"You always were to me."

Draezyc smiled slightly, "A constant wave of tension on top of broken trust.  That's what its like to be around Voldemort day after day after day… not even for my own purposes, but for that of some prankster who I never liked anyway." She poured another glass of wine.  "And on top of that, I'd feel bad if I gloated."

"Guilty by association, I'm afraid."

"Oh you haven't." Draezyc smiled wanly "You have!  Temptation too great to miss a chance to point some sly comment towards them."

"Perpetually, my love."

Draezyc laughed. "I was torturing DuCruet today, I think I got the better deal."

"Dumbledore will be so pleased." Severus rolled his eyes, "She'll enlarge all stories the moment she gets out of that cell."

"And who's saying she's going to escape that cell?"

"That… was malicious." Severus gleamed.  "My Draezyc is not so fatigued after all."

"Perhaps not." Draezyc raised an eyebrow. "Do you have plans?"

"I always have plans, call it a job necessity if you will." Severus matched her eyebrow.

"Cunning, intelligence, pride and stealth.  Marks of the best Slytherin alumni."  Draezyc smiled faintly.  "How very true."

"You forgot one." Severus stood up, replacing the empty wine bottle in front of Draezyc with a new unopened one. "Unrivalled taste in vintage wines"

"Ah no, that's just my personal trait." Draezyc decorked the bottle with a flick of her wand.  "Did Malfoy have the best tasting champagne at his wedding? I think not, but he had the most expensive, and he's what one would call a Slytherin."

"You remember what champagne he had? Isn't that a bit…"

"A bit what?"

"Characteristically you." Severus poured his wife a large glass of wine.  "You're not going to become completely inebriated tonight are you?"

"Depends," Draezyc smiled serenely "On how many bottles we have in the cellar and how strong you are in preventing me from getting them from there."

"Indeed?" Severus paused, relishing the thought of the thousands of ways Draezyc could be prevented from reaching the wine cellar.  "We shall see."

"Of course, there is the possibility of your imminent inebriation also."

"I don't think that is an issue this evening." Severus laughed. "I enjoy being in control of my senses."

"So what DO you have planned?"

"Everything and nothing.  There's a paper from the ministry I thought I might read up on, new developments in potions apparently."

"The ministry haven't forgotten about Karkaroff's death yet, you know." Draezyc sighed, letting Severus take her hand and gently kiss her fingertips.  "And Arabella Figg never liked me anyway, never liked my mother either if I remember correctly.  She's got me marked down, she wont let me get away."

Severus paused "Like DuCruet did?" he smiled slyly "Bit of turnabout there."

"Turnabout has always been fair play in my rulebook."

"And since when did Draezyc Snape have a book of rules?" Severus laughed, "Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Turks had more of a rulebook than you ever had."

"Am I being compared to a 16th century Turkish Sultan?  I have to say its not entirely flattering."  Draezyc placed her third empty bottle on the floor, a small green house elf scuttled forward to collect it, and scuttled away as silently as it had come.  The Snape family had taught it's elves well, and those who dared disobey were punished accordingly, it had been so for centuries, and so it would continue into the future… as long as there were no more Dobbys or Winkys in the elf society.

"Was it meant to be?" Severus stood up. "Come, you're tired and sleeping in a dungeon has not helped these past months."

"You don't say." Draezyc took Severus' offered hand and leaning on his arm for support, woozily made her way up the cold marble staircase. She glanced at Severus. "What?"

Severus raised an eyebrow in reply.

"What was that look for?" Draezyc conjured up her glass of wine with a flick of her wand. "Yes, it's my drink."

"You'll never wake up tomorrow."

"Maybe I don't want to wake up tomorrow." Draezyc muttered, kicking off her spike heeled boots into a corner and collapsing onto the large four posted bed, making the black sheets glitter in the faint candlelight.

"Don't say such things." Severus grimaced, neatly folding his robes over a chair, "You invariably never mean it."

"And you know this how?" Draezyc challenged, still flat out on the bed

Severus' face hardened, thinking back to another time, a different place with so familiar people, he stalked over to the bed and pulled Draezyc into a standing position and marched her over to the French windows, opening them with a small shove and pushed Draezyc out onto the balcony, the cold wind whipped at his open shirt as he tilted her head up and pointed at the blazing white crescent moon.  "Look." He shook Draezyc slightly, "Do you not remember the last time you looked at that moon like this?"  She said nothing in reply so Severus took a deep breath and continued, taking her cold hands in his own, her cheeks growing pink from the biting wind whipping her hair around her face.  "Not so very long ago, and I know very well how much you remember this, Draezyc.  You had a direct order to kill the spy, didn't you?  A direct order from Your precious Lord himself.  And you came here to find that spy.  But you couldn't kill him could you, and you'd promised yourself you would.  But you never did, and that knife is still in your drawer, I know it is."

Draezyc tried to pull away, but Severus's hold was firm. "Watching everything spin, if I turn my back I'm defenceless from you Draezyc, as you well know, but you never did, you had years to try, and yet… the spy remains.  You're feeling lost again, don't ask me how I know, I've known you for a long time and I know the way your mind works now.  I know you're on neither side, and I have no problems with that, but what I do care about, Draezyc…" Severus paused, shaking Draezyc again to regain her attention. "What I do care about, in all of this ragbag world, is you… I just wish you would understand that sometimes."

Severus sighed as Draezyc wrapped her cold arms around his back.  He looked up at the milky coloured moon as the light was obscured by a passing cloud.  "Perhaps you should go back inside, you're shaking with cold." Severus said gently untwining her arms from him.

"You…?"

"I'll stay here for a moment or two.  The night is young." Severus watched Draezyc shiver as she slowly walked back inside, rubbing her arms warm.  He turned back to the darkened landscape beyond the balcony, and watched his breath evaporate into the air.  "And you still loved me like you promised yourself you never would." He whispered to the air.

TBC