Disclaimer: I am a starving college student - I own nothing.
Note: Long delay, I know. Life.
Hayley: No, the rest of the Order do not yet know.
Christelle: I've been caught.
Immortal Rose: Right in one.
GShans: That had occurred to me a number of times, and is partially explained in this chapter. I didn't want to introduce it, as I wasn't sure in whose possession it was.
Chapter 35: On Curious Captors
Black eyelashes fluttered briefly, and one eyelid lifted slightly to reveal a sliver of a black eye and the sharp white that surrounded it, threaded with a deep red. The eye saw the hard, stone ground that the body to which this eye belonged to felt and protested against vehemently, and painfully.
Severus Snape groaned in his semi-conscious state. He was rewarded with a swift kick to his much-abused ribcage by a cruelly tipped, feminine black boot. Severus tried to adjust his position on the floor, but the ropes binding his wrists and ankles only bit into his skin more cruelly as he did so.
"...gedrange....nicht...das ist ein angeboren...fluch..."
Severus only caught a few of the words flowing from the angry lips of his captor as she muttered under her breath, apparently no happier to be here than Severus himself. Three days, Severus believed he had been in this room.
"What do you want?" ventured Severus. Snape received another blow to his being, though this time it was directed, or rather landed, on his abdomen. He had asked this question before. The consequences had not been pleasant then either.
"Tishtok et hapeh shelcha!" cried the voice.
Well, that, was new. That certainly wasn't English, or German for that matter. Despite himself, Severus was intrigued. Who in the name of Hades was this sociopathic woman? And more to the point, what did she want with him? Snape's thoughts were punctuated by various ramblings by Adolpha, as Snape had fondly named his captor, as well as the protestations of his own body.
Snape looked up to see that the black-haired girl was now gesticulating wildly, apparently carrying on a conversation with herself. Typical, thought Snape.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Snape, not expecting an answer. Well, not expecting a verbal reply, at any rate.
Adolpha was pulled from the row she seemed to be having with herself, and her eyes locked with Snape's. She sneered. Cold. Contemptuous. Shame, thought Snape. He had thought that perhaps he had been getting somewhere. The girl had always previously been cold and detached during her physical... ministrations. The anger in her voice when she had been ranting in whatever language she had selected to replace German was an improvement, in Snape's view. Anything but that cruel, mechanical front was a welcome reprieve as far as Severus was concerned.
Snape held her gaze. Something flashed in her eyes. Maybe this would be his lucky break. She turned away and walked to the magical mirror. Snape watched her gaze out the window for what must have been hours. There was precious little else for him to do.
You could talk to me, instead, said the annoying voice in Severus's head.
Shut up!
* * * * *
Snape came to again. The woman was still staring out of the window, but now it was dark outside. She was talking to herself again.
Snape was perplexed. Not once had the girl asked him a question. She tortured him, but she had never pulled out a wand. She used her fists, her boots, and a pocket knife to great effect, but nothing else. Was this girl a Muggle? A squib? Had a woman with no magical powers captured him, Severus Snape? And if she wasn't torturing him for information, what was she torturing him for? Fun? Snape snorted. Perhaps they would have a Dark Lady rather than a Dark Lord the next time around. Assuming, of course, that this girl was a witch, which Snape was having his doubts about.
Severus's snort seemed to break Adolpha's reverie. She seemed be noticing him for the very first time. Without a word, Adolpha pulled out her pocket knife and moved toward him. Snape suppressed a groan. Something was different, though. The girl's movements seemed jerky and uncontrolled, whereas she had always previously been very fluid and sure in her motions. She leaned over Severus, who refused to close his eyes. She slashed down at his feet, her jerky movements causing her to tear flesh and rope alike. Next she slashed at his wrists, thankfully only severing the rope, and not Severus's veins. Snape was too shocked to move for a moment, though he quickly collected his wits. Snape sat up, rubbing at his wrists. His movements too were jerky, he was weak, and his muscles were tense from lack of use.
As Severus sat up, his captor, his savior, stood. She turned, and without a backward glance left the room. She did not close the door behind her.
Snape had hardly dared to hope that Albus would find him. That his captor would abandon him had never even crossed his tired mind. Throughout his captivity, Snape had wished to Merlin that he Minerva didn't currently have possession of Harry's map. Or that Minerva hadn't left on another mission so soon after returning from the last. Or that they could have risked contacting her to ask where she kept it.
Severus slowly rose to his feet, feet that did not seem to want to support the weight of his body. He was sore, and weak. His weakness did not stem from a lack of food though. That was another oddity. The girl had a limited supply of food and water, yet she had shared everything with him evenly, rather than throwing him a crust here and there. She had even shared in the few delicacies she had. If chocolate cake and peaches could be considered delicacies, that is.
Snape stumbled slightly as he made his way to the door. He glanced about the hallway once he had crossed the threshold, and realized that he was only a few corridors down from his own rooms. Snape snorted at the irony.
Snape hobbled toward his chambers, using the walls for support as he did so. He would go was up a bit, then find Albus. And he would check on Harry. No, Snape shook his head, that order will have to be reversed.
Snape reached his son's rooms before long. His feet seemed to have taken him there automatically. Snape might have sneered at himself if he were in any condition to do so. As it so happened, he was not.
Snape raised one sore hand, and knocked on an expanse of stone wall that would hopefully soon become a door. Snape waited a moment. The door opened to reveal a shocked Harry Potter. Snape smirked. Perhaps he didn't have the energy to sneer, but apparently he still had it in him to smirk at a Potter. Well, at a sort-of-Potter, as the case happened to be.
"Dad!" cried Harry, as he saw the form standing before him.
Now it was Severus's turn to be shocked. He tried to lock Harry's gaze, but to no avail.
Harry blushed, and suddenly became extremely interested in his feet.
"Um... I mean, Severus, Professor, Sir..." stuttered Harry. Severus put a hand on his son's shoulder. Head still bowed, Harry glanced upward.
"I wanted to ascertain your safety, now I must go speak to the Headmaster. The castle has been breached, come." With that, Severus turned and stalked down the hall at a hurried pace. Something in him seemed to have awoken, allowing his body to ignore the soreness of his limbs and hurry to the Headmaster's office. Severus check to make sure Harry was following him. He was. Good.
Severus's mind was reeling. There was a psychopath roaming the castle, and Harry Potter had just called him 'dad.' How much stranger could this day get? Snape regretted that thought as soon as his mind had acknowledged it. He knew he had just tempted fate.