The Snake Pit

by orangepenguin

A/N: Yes! Over 200 hits! Only five reviews, but eh, what can you do? I really appreciate those kind people who took two minutes out of their lives. Here it is, the final chapter in this little drama.

Tonight I hasten to eat dinner, by far preferring a detention with Slughorn to a cross examination by the leaders of my own house. I don't know why, exactly, I took the blame for Bellatrix. It just seemed, in the moment, the right thing to do. Probably I should have just stayed out of the situation entirely, but then again, it can never hurt to have someone be indebted to you, even for something as small as a detention.

Bellatrix is not at the table, she usually eats later and lingers over her food. She enjoys dinner, a time when the House hierarchy becomes apparent, and she can benevolently, or sometimes malevolently, reign.

I sometimes wonder how outsiders perceive our house. We are a tight knit group, guarded from intruders, but our loyalty is to our families and, of course, the Slytherin name. We do not care for each other, generally. There are exceptions, I will allow, but most are of the eyebrow raising variety. For example, the sounds I hear coming from the seventh year boys dormitory, and Bellatrix's strange deep connection to Rodolphus Lestrange, a connection that goes deeper than lust, or even love.

I think that even our own Head, Slughorn, would be distressed to hear of a certain Lucius Malfoy's interest in the petite blonde Black sister, six years his junior.

But after last night, I am thinking that Lucius may be just what Narcissa needs. He would certainly protect her from outside harm…although feeling my still throbbing upper arms, I suspect he would not be above inflicting some harm of his own. This line of thinking is making me slightly ill, so I drain the last of my pumpkin juice, and retreat, heading for the dungeons.

On the way, I must pass by the Gryffindor table, and unfortunately Black, Potter, and their cronies are seated right at the end that I will walk by. As I pass, head high, attempting to ignore their presence, and not bring any attention to my own. But it is useless. I feel a hand catch my robes, and I turn, sighing deeply, steeling myself.

Black looks up at me, perplexed. "I don't understand you, Snape."

I try my best to affect a sneer. "Well that isn't a surprise. It seems as though there is much you don't understand."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Potter reach for his wand, and Lupin grab his hand. How charming. Black holds fast onto my robes. "Why would you protect Bella? I didn't know there was any loyalty among snakes."

"Why do you care?" I ask him. "Surely you don't mind my getting detention."

He stares at me as though trying to read my mind. I look away, and he half laughs. "A word of advice, Snape. Don't get involved with my dear old family, some darkness is better left unexplored."

I am taken aback. "I didn't know you could be so eloquent." I give a mocking bow. "May I go now?"

He looks down at the hand still holding my robes, and releases them as if they were covered in filth. "Go. I wouldn't want to keep you from your detention."

I turn and go, but behind me, I hear Potter ask, "Sirius, why do you care so much?"

"I don't know. It's just so weird…it's like something that we would do for each other…and I didn't think that Bella would let anyone get that close."

I smile slightly to myself, in satisfaction. At least I have thoroughly mystified Sirius Black…that in itself justifies this detention. I'm sure he is now imagining all sorts of ridiculous scenarios, romantic trysts, blood debts…And if I know Black at all, he won't keep his ideas to himself. Perhaps I will gain more than I could have even expected.

When I arrive in Slughorn's office, a few minutes early, he has already laid out the ingredients for a particularly difficult potion, and has a cauldron warming over a small blue flame. I smile in anticipation, and he gestures at the setup. "I thought that tonight we could test out your skills a little more strenuously than the rest of your classmates are ready for. A Draught of Dreams, it will allow the drinker to dream of whatever they most desire, highly realistically, for an entire night. Very temperamental to make…let's see how you do."

I pushed up my sleeves and set to work. A couple of feet away, Slughorn sat at his desk seeming to grade an essay. However, I had a sneaking suspicion that he was watching me closely instead. Surely enough, after about twenty minutes, while I was chopping up salamander veins, he asked me, offhandedly, "Severus, what is it that you are planning to do after school?"

Feigning ignorance, I asked, "What do you mean, sir? This summer, I'll be going home…"

"No, no. I mean, what are you ambitions, boy?" He rises slightly from his chair, leaning towards me. "What do you want to do in life?"

"I'm not sure, sir," I say slowly, trying desperately to think of something plausible. "Probably something simple, with Potions, most likely, working in an apothecary or something." I am rarely this inarticulate, but I don't know what he wants me to say.

He frowns. "But Severus, you have real talents. Surely you don't want to spend the rest of your life working in a shop."

Does he want me to say I plan on being Minister of Magic? Or was he expecting something much darker, something along the lines of Lestrange or Malfoy? Surely he credits me with more subtlety than to admit to that.

"You know, Snape, blood counts for much in this world, but talent, and effort counts as well. You should not ever limit yourself, you have strong abilities. I mean, look at that Lily Evans, she's muggleborn, and almost as good at Potions as you are." I bristled slightly, this may have been true, but he was less clever than I thought to bring it up to a fellow Slytherin, what with all the things happening lately.

"Perhaps I have not yet decided where I want my talents to take me," I say diplomatically. But at this point, Slughorn's head snaps up: there is a knock at his office door.

"Yes, come in," Slughorn says. The door opens, and it is Bellatrix. I'm sure she has been there for some time, listening.

She smiles in a way that I'm sure she believes is sweet and innocent, but I find slightly chilling. "There's been somewhat of a disturbance in the Common Room," she says. "I'm afraid Nott had to go to the Hospital Wing."

"Oh, dear. I better go sort this out. Severus, stay here and finish that Potion, when you're done, bottle some and leave it on my desk….Oh, dear…" he muttered to himself as he left the room, distracted.

Bellatrix rounded on me, and I raised my eyebrows. "What did you do to Nott?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." She casually picks up the knife I had been using, and plays with it, flipping it through her fingers, back and forth. Bellatrix was queen of the intimidation tactic. "I heard your conversation with Slughorn. I don't believe for an instant that you don't have ambitions. I want to know what there are, and what they have to do with me." She stops and smiles. "I like to have knowledge of the people with whom I am connected."

"It's just a detention, Bellatrix."

"What do you want, Severus?"

I think for a second, of my life so far. Of my childhood growing up under my father's painful thumb, of my mother's weakness, despite her considerable power. I think of always being invited to society events, but not really being accepted into that world. I think of my precarious place in the Slytherin hierarchy, and I touch the place where my arm still burns.

"What do I want? I want to have no master—no one to answer to—besides myself."

Bella laughs, harshly, and I see in her eyes something foreign, frightening, and I wonder how far along the road of Rodolphus she has followed. "Do you really think that is possible?"

"I will make it possible." I know, in this moment, as I say those words, that the rest of my life will be devoted to that cause. My face relaxes, and I join in Bella's laughter. My fingers carefully clasp the wand in my pocket.

This will be my life.

A/N: Ta da!