(A/N) Right- here is the ninth chapter. You may have noticed that I have changed my name. And that I haven't updated since Easter. That is because I have had a virus on my computer which didn't allow me to access certain sites. Anyway it was very hard to get rid of but it seems to have gone now- so here is the next chapter!!!!!!!!

CHAPTER NINE: Everything Sweet Soon Turns Sour

Remus glanced fondly down at white-blond head that lay in his lap. He sifted his pale fingers through the smooth hair and smiled as Lucius shifted beneath his hand. It was seven pm, the Halloween ball started in an hour and Remus had no intention of going. Going to the said ball would mean being separated from Lucius and Remus wasn't ready for that yet, especially when he had just got him back. Remus wanted to stay in that moment, under the willow tree, with Lucius, forever.

"The ball starts soon." Lucius said absently, twisting to smile up at Remus.

"Hmmmm." Remus said.

"We should go."

Remus frowned and stared at the blond boy who sat up, a little smile on his pale face.

"Why?" he asked.

Lucius shrugged, he wasn't sure why. He just felt like he needed to go. To show Sirius and everyone that nothing could break him, that he was still okay. Also he wanted to do something normal. He was tired of hiding in the shadows and lying to everyone. He was tired of being pushed into things that he didn't want to do by his father and he wanted to show everyone he could be whoever he wanted to be.

"Lets go together." He whispered.

Remus gazed in wonder at the blushing boy in front of him; he didn't think he had ever seen Lucius blush before. Did he mean together? Like as in a couple together? What would everyone think; did he actually care what anyone would think? This was Lucius and he wanted Lucius therefore if Lucius wanted to go to the Halloween ball with him then Remus would gladly agree.

"Yes," he said with a smile. "Yes."

Lucius grinned, a smile which lit his whole face and set a sparkle in his silver eyes. A few hours ago it had seemed that all was lost and now he was happy again.

Remus was dancing inside; he had never imagined that one person could make him so happy. He felt like flying.

Silently the two boys walked back up to the castle. Two figures walking side by side, white-gold and honey hair blowing in the breeze, the russet autumn leaves curling about their feet and a smile on both their faces.

"I'll meet you at the entrance to the Great Hall." Lucius said as they entered the deserted entrance hall, everybody was already up in their dormitories dressing for the occasion. Dumbledore had decorated the entrance with large carved pumpkins and their flickering candlelight was the only thing that lit the room. Looking at Lucius, his pale face flickering in gold and black shadows Remus just couldn't help but kiss him.

"At seven o'clock." He breathed.

Lucius nodded, "Seven o'clock."

Lucius stepped through the entrance to the Slytherin common room where he was instantly greeted by a fair few members of his house inquiring why he was not yet dressed for the occasion. A few of the girls, trussed up like turkeys, hung on him as he tried to make his way to his own room. No doubt they were hoping he'd ask them to the ball. Well, there was no chance of that, not now he had Remus; the honey haired boy who had saved him.

Shaking the various girls away Lucius pushed open the door of his room and then slammed it, loudly, in their pouting faces.

The fire was flaming gold and red in the fireplace and the orange candles flickered in their holders. Lucius smirked; Dumbledore and his loyal army of house elves had really outdone themselves this time.

"Lucius." said a voice from behind him.

Lucius jumped and whirled around, whipping out his wand. He sighed in relief as Severus stepped out from the shadows beside the door. The black haired boy was dressed in his black dress robes and his rather unruly hair had been tied back. He looked almost good, for Snape.

"Where have you been?" Severus asked, his black eyes glinting in the candle light as he crossed over to sit on Lucius's unmade bed.

"With Remus."

Snape nodded and sighed, his long, bony fingers playing with the green tassels on the bed cover.

"I won't become my father Severus." Lucius said walking over to his dressing table. "I won't become a Death Eater."

Severus nodded and rose to stand beside the pale boy. Running his fingers through the smooth white-blond hair Severus hissed "I know."

Lucius turned to face him, his wide silver eyes staring into Severus's narrow black ones. "And you won't either," he whispered. "I won't let you."

Severus breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of the boy before him. Lucius smelt of rain and autumn and something else.....someone else- Remus.

"I know you won't." Severus breathed raggedly. He opened his eyes and saw Lucius, his eyes closed, thick eyelashes resting on his cheeks and his mouth open, breathing quietly. Severus moved his hand, his dark fingers tangled in the silky strands of pale hair and Lucius leaned into his touch. Severus inhaled deeply and then sighed. For a moment he could almost imagine that Lucius was in love with him and not Remus. He could almost imagine that it would be alright to kiss him, almost.

Then the spell was broken and Lucius turned around again, his silver eyes scanning the dresser until they found what he was looking for. With a soft smile Lucius reached out with one hand and picked up his hairbrush.

Suddenly he felt a tug around his navel. Immediately his whole world collapsed. He just managed to turn to Severus, a look of panic in his silver eyes before he was transported.

Severus watched in horror as Lucius disappeared from the room before his very eyes. All that was left was the hairbrush which had fallen to the floor. Severus stared at it for about ten minutes, frozen in horror, frozen in sadness, frozen knowing it was destiny. No matter what Lucius did, no matter how often he said he wouldn't it was Lucius's destiny to become a Death Eater. It had been his destiny from birth as it was now Severus's destiny to follow him.

With shaking fingers Severus picked up the portkey, Lucius's hairbrush, Lucius's destiny, both their doom.

Remus sighed and played with the hem of his dark green dress robes. They were Slytherin colour and they made him look like Robin Hood but he had figured that Lucius would like them and that was all that mattered. Lucius: that was all that mattered.

But Lucius was late; the ball had started half an hour ago. Everyone was already there, everyone except the one person he wanted to be there. Even Sirius and James had gone into the hall without him, they hadn't forgotten him. Every five minutes they waved him over or made a silly face at him, trying to make him laugh.

But Remus couldn't laugh; he was too nervous. What if Lucius had stood him up? What if Lucius didn't really like him? What if it had all been some cruel and twisted joke that the Slytherin had cooked up to humiliate him?

But how could he think that? Lucius was the only one who understood him, the only one. The only one Remus had ever loved. The only one he would ever love. Before his eyes couples danced together under the black and orange streamers that adorned the ceiling and walls, lit by the flickering candlelight, their faces relaxed and smiling. No worries clouding their brains. How Remus wanted that. He knew he could have it with Lucius, but where was Lucius?

Lucius lay on a cold stone floor, his long, silky hair spread out in the dirt beneath him, and his back sending splinters of pain through his body. Lucius coughed and blood bubbled up over his lips, painting two red trails over his snow-white skin. Suddenly he felt a hand wrap itself in the white-gold strands of his hair.

"Such beautiful hair," a cold voice hissed from the darkness. Another hand caressed his cheek and Lucius coughed again sending more blood bubbling up. Suddenly he felt a snake-like tongue on his face, licking away the blood. "Such beautiful skin, such beautiful pure-blood." The tongue came again, this time descending into Lucius's open mouth, tasting the blood on his tongue.

Lucius coughed again and pushed the figure away with his slim hands, ignoring the pain this caused him. For a moment there was nothing and Lucius moaned in pain and anger, the noise echoing around him. He should have known he could never escape it. He should have known his father would trick him. Midnight? Hah! The portkey would be something he least expected it to be at the time he least expected. Lucius closed his eyes and an image of Remus tattooed itself onto his closed eyelids. Remus, Lucius choked out a sob, then the tears started to flow, mingling with the blood on his face. Before he knew what was happening the tongue was back again, tasting the tears that fell and fell. Tears that fell for Remus who waited for him at a ball that Lucius would never attend.

"Your son is perfect Jared, another Malfoy for my collection. I can almost taste his pain."

There was some shuffling and then out of the darkness Lucius heard his father's voice, "Yes my lord."

Suddenly Lucius screamed. Why did this have to happen to him? What had he done to deserve it except be born a Malfoy?

"He is wilful." Voldemort hissed clasping Lucius's left arm in his hands. "But he will be mine."

In one smooth motion Voldemort ripped away Lucius sleeve and flung it across the floor where it landed, unbeknownst to Lucius, at the feet of a terrified Severus Snape.

Voldemort ran his own claw-like hand up the pale arm as Lucius continued to cry, his heart breaking inside. "Silence." Voldemort hissed, placing a hand over the boy's mouth. With his other hand he pressed his wand painfully into the pale white flesh and muttered a spell. Immediately Lucius was overcome with pain, he screamed Remus's name as his body twisted and writhed on the dirty stone floor. Then all the pain disappeared and he was left with a smouldering Dark Mark burnt into his pale flesh.

Voldemort smiled cruelly before forcing Lucius up into his arms. Stroking the boy's bloodstained face with his claws he then kissed Lucius roughly, biting his tongue till blood once again filled the boy's mouth and spilt out onto his chin.

"Mine." He hissed.

Then Voldemort and Lucius's father were gone.

In the darkness Lucius cried, curled up on the floor in the blood and dirt, his left arm in pain and his heart burnt to dust by the same spell.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and a voice whispered his name, a voice that Lucius recognised very well. "Severus?" he asked the darkness, his voice raw and crackly.

"Yes," came the reply. "I'm here."

Lucius scrambled to sit up and tentatively he reached out to touch the other boy. "Are you....did he?"

"Yes." Severus said shakily. "He marked me; it wasn't as bad as what he did to you though."

Lucius choked back another sob. "Severus, I'm so sorry...I'm so, so sorry."

Remus sat in the middle of the Great Hall, tears streaming silently down his face. The ball had long since ended and Lucius had not turned up. Remus felt helpless, like he could do nothing. He didn't want to do anything, he wanted to cry until he had cried so much that every part of him had turned to water and he no longer existed.

The candlelight flickered over him making the tears on his face sparkle and glisten. "Lucius, why?" he sobbed. "WHY?????"

The only answer he got was his own echo, and so he sat in the candlelight, the streamers falling down around him, trapping him in a circle of coloured paper. A honey haired boy,

his heart burnt to dust.

(A/N) okay the end of another chapter. Nice huh? Heh heh. I know it was a bit dark and gloomy but I never said this was a happy story. Anyway please review!!!! If u review I will finish the story for u!!!!!