A/N: Haha! Another chapter of much angst, I know most of you have already read it but now you must review! Dance with me into oblivion…
When Severus and Draco returned it was already three in the morning. Draco crawled off to bed without saying much other than, "If you expect that poisons essay to be my own work you're going to have to use the imperious to get it."
As if he ever handed his own work in when there were better things to do, thought Severus.
Night and Hogwarts went well together. The silence and the dark, punctuated by occasional flickering torches and silvery shafts of moonlight, created the perfect atmosphere for prowling and thinking. In the knowledge that the dreamless sleep he had brewed earlier was next to useless, Severus decided to forgo his bed. He had lessons whose planning the antics of the previous months had put on hold. He also had to plan his next move in this over sized chess game. Voldemort knew now that the new DADA professor at Hogwarts was possessed by a demon, and not just any demon. He had forced Lucius to explain everything that they had done, from the acquisition of the victim host to the throwing of the wrecked but still living body into the gutter. Lucius, being the ambitious, arrogant bastard he was had wanted to summon the most powerful demon he could just to see what happened. Summoning dragged the demon you wanted out of its own plane of existence into yours, and if you weren't careful you could unleash a very unhappy elemental force into the world at large with apocalyptic consequences. 'Me tis', the ancient Greek for 'no one' or 'no man' was no mere demon; it was a high demon with powers even Voldemort had trouble thinking about. 'Me tis' could open the ways between the worlds, hence the demonstration. If 'Me tis' was symbiosing with a witch, that would make her the most powerful person in the world, and Lucius Malfoy had created this…creature…by accident. Within all reason, the host body should have died, but with the perverse mind of a demon at work anything was possible. In this world the demon was no longer bound by the same rules that it was in its own. Here, its form stabilised by the partnership of a human body and mind, it could do whatever it wanted. Severus was torn between terror and joy at the combination of fear and anger in Voldemort's reaction. Now that he was running scared, having found out that his former favourite had inadvertently made him a new enemy, he was even more unpredictable than ever.
Not that demons were ever predictable either. Severus shuddered as he rounded the corner. Suddenly he was back in the past. Out of the shadows emerged the hunched figure of a woman leaning against the wall next to the bust of Salazar Slytherin. At his halted footfall, she glanced up.
"Ah, for the good old days, hey? Of course in those days I'd be on the floor out cold by now, wouldn't I?" She laughed, "You can't blame it for being a manipulative bastard, but it's taking a break for now. Of course it would never have an ulterior motive in that…"
Severus regarded her warily, 'taking a break'? In any case she carried on:
"I suppose it's best we talk. Properly this time, without Me Tis." She cocked her head, and now Severus could see what she meant. Gone was the incandescent gold in her eyes; gone was the emotionless expression. This was Isla Kittson speaking, the resonance quieter and less pronounced. She sighed,
"Well. I almost don't know what to say. I suppose we've both got questions that need answering. So – ask me – I know I owe you more answers than you've had so far."
He was speechless, "What should I ask you? Surely you've explained your reasons already?"
"Have I? Don't forget there are two voices."
He studied her face, "So it spoke through you. So why are you here, if not to get your personal revenge?"
Another laugh, "Me Tis and I both agree that revenge on you would be pointless. Lucius however…well you can tell him he might find his pretty looks spoiled if our paths chance to cross." Her expression clouded, "But my reasons for coming back did involve you. I wanted catharsis, to face you and force you to confront me. Life's screwed us both over."
Severus felt like one of his own potions specimens, pinned down and about to have his deepest, darkest parts bared to scrutiny.
"I know what I was then, surely you could see what I had become under his influence…"
"I saw, and I knew how proud and stubborn you were, still are; maybe I was naïve to think I could make you face the truth."
"You did, but only under the most appalling circumstances either of us could have imagined. Until that moment when Lucius ripped your heart out I never questioned what I was doing, I never had a second thought for the justifications of the ideas that I had been brought up to believe in. I was proud because it always made me feel that I was worth more than everyone else, and that it was them who were wrong. It made all the bullying, the insults, everything worthwhile because I thought that one day I could get my revenge on all of them and they would see how stupid they were to laugh at me. Voldemort gave me a reason to be, I was prepared to sacrifice my life for him I was so bound up in his ideas. I was so far gone – when you…is it so hard to understand?"
They stared at eachother, nerves stretched to breaking point. Suddenly she shook her head convulsively,
"Stay out of this!" Shadows seemed to gather behind her as they had done earlier, but she tried to fight the demons rising dominance, "No! You twisted bastard, I won't let you…" It subsided, leaving her seeming exhausted. Regarding him nervously, she explained,
"It's getting bored of me being in control of myself – finds me 'tiresome'. So, I suppose I should say why I hounded you for seven years. Mind you – I wouldn't have had to if I'd just gelded Lucius like I'd always wanted."
He looked down, Lucius certainly had played a large role in goading and persuading him down the path of dark magic. Severus could almost feel her anticipation of his answer, but abruptly some thing in the atmosphere changed. There was a strange, electric chill. Slowly he moved his eyes from the floor to her face. The gold was back in her eyes, but what froze Severus' blood in his veins was the stillness of the torch flames.
"Oh don't gape like a stupid mortal, it's only a small time bubble." The demon mocked his incredulity. The Isla Kittson that was not Isla Kittson waved its hand dismissively. "I'm fed up with your emotional reconciliations, but you have got me interested. That's why I needed a little time to…play."
The eyes transfixed him, so much so that he hadn't realised how close she was getting to him. He couldn't move – it had him pinned. Gold irises blazing, its smile was terrifyingly predatory, "Now – it's been a while since I possessed a man, can you remember the mechanics of the process?" Severus could feel the unyielding wall against his back, it was sapping his strength deliberately, and he knew his wand could not affect it. "This is going to be extremely interesting, Severus Snape."
The softness of lips against his own…the world implodes.
Cliffie! Don't you just love them?