Title: Sweet Revenge

Rating: PG-13? for mention of abuse and attempted suicide

Characters: Severus Snape (main) Bellatrix Black (minor) A few others mentioned

Pairing: A little Snape/Bellatrix

Summary: In the middle of his seventh year Severus Snape contemplates the events in his life that lead to his decision to become a Death Eater.

Slightly AU due to one inconsistency (Yes Katie, I made a note of that just for you)

This was the final straw.

The boy called Severus Snape laughed humorlessly, scornfully. How many times had he said that now? He'd said it every time those filthy Gryffindors who called themselves Marauders played some nasty prank on him. He'd said it every time since his second year. Now an angry seventh year student, he reveled in the thought of that moment when he would finally make them pay.

What made them single him out anyways? He mused silently What made them decide it was his life they wanted to make miserable so many years ago?

Hardly anyone even noticed him. His permanent place in any situation was a corner. Every class, every gathering, he was in a corner, by choice, glaring moodily from sad, angry black eyes that barely showed through the dark hair that hung too long around his face.

Brave Gryffindors He sneered How brave for them to go prey off only the seemingly weak. They were nothing but common bullies.

He laughed again, this time humorously, though it was an ill humor. He took comfort in the idea of his torturers being nothing but cowards, and in the fact that he was most definitely not weak. Anything but in fact. At seventeen he was already more accomplished at the powers of the mind than half the professional witches and wizards at the ministry. His knowledge of the dark arts (and their defenses) surpassed many of the great villains in Azkaban, and the Aurors who caught them. And he had never yet failed to correctly brew a potion, weather it was to heal or poison.

If he wanted, he could wipe those cocky smirks of Potter and Black right off their faces without even making an effort, but instead he chose not to give them the satisfaction of knowing they had gotten to him. No, he would have his revenge later, and it would be much crueler and sweeter than anything he could accomplish here in the middle of Hogwarts.

"Severus?"

Severus flinched sharply at the voice that called him and wracked his brain furiously to figure out what hole was in his request that enabled him to be found.

He had gone to the room of requirement specifically thinking, I need a quiet place to think where I can't be found by anyone. The room had accommodated marvelously to his needs, forming a small chamber lit by a few candles. A comfortable chair sat, of course, in the far corner.

"Severus?" Came the voice again.

He looked up as Bellatrix Black stepped into the dim candlelight.

"How did you get in here?" He demanded, not unkindly. She smiled at his confusion.

"Quite simple," she answered her voice taking on a mock know-it-all tone. "I figured you'd be hiding here thought the door had disappeared. You requested not to be found I assume?" Severus nodded curtly in affirmation and she continued. "I merely expressed the need to find you."

He wondered how the room could so blatantly contradict itself but said nothing, instead he continued brooding, and Bellatrix silently took the seat next to him, one that had materialized without his knowledge.

In the very beginning of his time at Hogwarts, before even the Marauders had targeted him, Bellatrix penetrated his cold exterior, saw through the angry façade he hid behind to the scared, lonely boy underneath. It was she whom he confided in. He poured out his soul to her as he had never been able to before.

His dismal childhood had left little room for friends. And obviously he couldn't talk to his family. The only images he had of his mother were of her cowering in the corner from his raging father. She would be either whimpering or screaming. Bellatrix would comfort him and it was her shoulder he cried on.

She was the one who first discovered the cuts and bruises he returned to school with after every visit home. And to her horror, during his fourth and fifth year, the cuts and bruises self-inflicted when the domestic abuse and that of the Marauders became too much. How she had raged at this revelation.

"There is enough pain in your life without you causing it on yourself as well!" She screamed, her voice full of hurt and anger. In a second her wand was out and raised it malevolently. He had flinched and cowered, in that moment reminded of his father's image, raising his wand over him, the sadistic gleam in his eye before he bellowed, "Crucio!"

Instead he heard, "Accio!" and opened his eyes to see all his blades flying from their hidden places. With another wave of her wand Bellatrix destroyed them all.

Angry tears sparkled in her dark eyes. "Don't ever do that again," she whispered sorrowfully, though to Severus, there was somewhat of a dangerous hint to her voice as well. In his depression, he ignored her warning, instead savoring the control he held over his own pain.

He never forgot the time two weeks before his fifth year was over. He had gone to the Room of Requirement requesting not to be found, but only for an hour. He did, after all, want his body to be found though it wasn't until long after his given hour he found the courage to go through with his plan. Unknown to him, she had watched from the doorway, frozen in horror as he took the razor to his wrists, slashing them so wide and deep that no sooner had the crimson blood erupted from the wounds when his vision began to blur.

He knelt slowly on the floor and watched in morbid fascination as his life flowed in rivulets away from him. As blackness closed in, he became vaguely aware of Bellatrix's voice.

"How could you?" She sobbed as she tried in vain with her inferior healing skills to close the gaping gashes.

"Ah, Bella," He replied faintly, "you know as well as I how the sight of blood and death appeal to you. Surely this is enjoyable?"

"Not your blood!" She was hysterical now. "Not your death!"

She was furious that he had tried to use her sadism as an excuse to make his suicide seem logical. And she was more frightened than she had ever been in her life.

"Oh Severus, Severus," she choked through her tears. "Why would you do this?"

As she shrieked a stream of obscenities at her feeble attempts to heal him, Severus had lost consciousness.

To his surprise, he did wake up again. In the hospital wing. Apparently, in desperation, Bellatrix had resorted to muggle methods to save him. She tore the hem off her robe and tied off and bandaged his wounds. What a sight it must have been, her rushing into the infirmary with his levitated body next to her, both drenched in blood with a trail of bloody footprints behind her. No questions were asked.

He never forgot that she had saved him. That one person in the world had cared enough to prevent his death. A multitude of emotions rose up inside of him, the most pronounced was rage. At himself for what he had done and how it had affected her, and at those who drove him to do what he had done. All at once all the boyish sadness and depression matured into a fiery, unquenchable wrath. Hatred as he had never felt before welled up inside of him, threatening to explode the second he saw those it was directed at.

She was there at his bedside when he woke up, and as he examined the distinguishable scars that stretched on both arms from his forearms to the heel of his hands, they created their plan for revenge.

Upon graduation from Hogwarts they would join the Dark Lord's ranks as Death Eaters. She would fulfill her sadistic nature as he extracted his revenge, as well as put his superior magic to good use, of course. Oh yes, it was all planned out with pin point precision mixed with the harshest cruelty only their two minds could concoct. From the Dark Lord's ranks he would get his petty revenge, but that would all be child's play. When it seemed all his spite had dried up, he would seemingly betray his master, and join forces with the side of those he hated. He would play his part and play it well, but then, at the most crucial point of their war, when everything that matters was magnified to the utmost importance, he would turn, everything their side had worked for would come crashing down around him. It might be twenty years until then but it would be more then worth it. The ultimate betrayal. The ultimate revenge.

Severus started Bellatrix took his hand into hers. Had she been here this whole time? He glanced again at the ropy scars on his arms, his eyes lingering on the left. Imagining, hungrily awaiting the moment the dark mark would burn on it, sealing everything. He looked up at her and tightened his hold on her hand. She crawled onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. Bestowing on him a delicate kiss which he returned passionately. When they broke apart she lay her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes and held him tighter. As though she knew what he had been thinking before, she whispered in his ear,

"Soon, my love, you will have your sweet revenge."

-Fin-