Chapter Eleven - The Pit
Snape hit the soft dirt ground first, surprised that none of his bones seemed to be broken. Bellatrix fell rather ungracefully on top of him and knocked the air from his lungs.
Feeling around for her wand, Bellatrix found it in peices; They had landed on it and it had split in half. She cursed angrily as Snape re-lit his own, undamaged wand.
The pit had obviously been designed for a single person; it was very small and Bellatrix noticed uncomfortably how they were sprawled, squashed in together by the narrow stone walls.
Snape looked at her. 'You okay?' he asked quickly.
'Yeah, I was lucky, I had someone to blanket my fall.' Bellatrix answered, trying to make light of the situation. 'Didn't crush you though, did I?'
'All bones intact.' Snape answered dryly, pleased at least that Bellatrix had seemed to notice his existance again. Though how could she not, they were stuck in a deep hole, crushed against one another, and it didn't look like they were going to get out so easily, not without the help of some difficult and complex spellwork..
Holding his wand aloft, Snape looked up as Bellatrix squirmed uncomfortably on his lap and slid off onto the dirt floor, her knees hunched. It was a deep, narrow pit; he could hardly see the top of it. It appeared that they had stood on a trap, and though it took a while to activate due to obviously not being used for years, the weight of both of them had crushed the flimsy surface of the pit. Leaning back against the wall, Snape let out a sigh.
Bellatrix watched his chest heave for a few moments, then looked up. 'We could still get out,' she said half-heartedly, forgetting what had made her so angry at him before. 'There were ropes on the roof, maybe we could climb-'
'They were frayed in places, obviously hundreds of years old.' Snape said with a wave if his hand. 'Even if we could somehow use them to climb out, they would probably break.'
Bellatrix swatted him on the head. 'Don't interupt me! And don't be so helpless! We could bind several of them together to make a rope strong enough.'
'Don't interupt you?' Snape mimicked with a tone of amusement in his voice. 'As I recall, it was your wish that I stop- what was it- acting the gentleman!' But with a flick of his wand, Bellatrix heard the sound of several ropes breaking far over thier heads.
'Accio ropes.' Snape said quietly, and the next moment, the long ropes fell coiled in Bellatrix's arms.
He's right, Bellatrix thought bitterly to herself, the ropes breaking like eggshells under her fingertips as she attempted to knot them together, They're frayed to hell. She had the feeling that Snape knew how to strengthen the ropes, only that he found it rather amusing to watch her struggle with them. Perhaps he wanted her to ask him nicely for it. Fuck that, she thought. I'm not asking him nicely for anything. Even if she had listened in the many years of charms classes at Hogwarts and had thus learnt to strength ropes with a flick of her wand, it would be futile now as her wand was broken.
PR&R/rigamortis.