CHAPTER1: A NEW PARTNER
Silhouetted against the white glow of the full moon, Severus Snape stood staring up at it. The wind blew the robes around his feet gently away, and his dark hair fanned lightly behind him. The warm summer's night air seemed out of place in its surrounding area; there was just one rickety old shed and it had the aura of a dark and dangerous place. Severus smirked slightly at the moon, thinking of the humans that turned into werewolves upon this sight, particularly of one which he didn't have too kind feelings toward. The warm air was still, lightly engulfing the shed when Severus walked inside.
From the outside, this ruin looked merely like an old shed hidden by trees in the backyard of Muggle homes. If a wizard entered it, however, they would find a small house, complete with living, dining, bath, bonus, and bedrooms, along with a kitchen. It was quite well furnished and had a cozy look about it. Severus immediately stalked off to his bedroom, ready to go to sleep, when he let out a yelp of shock seeing his bed already occupied by someone else.
"Bellatrix!" snarled Severus, stomping over to where she sat. She had changed remarkably since her imprisonment had been lifted. After spending years in Azkaban, she had had a sunken, wasted look about her. Now, with fresh air and service to pay to her master, she had regained the colour in her cheeks and the bounce in her steps. He was also surprised to find her in Muggle attire- black pants and a long black t-shirt.
She smiled in a sinister way at the scowl Severus wore. "Surprised to see me?" she asked. "Believe me, if the Dark Lord hadn't made me do this, I wouldn't be here."
"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly, forcing a calm voice. "I was under the impression that you were with Narcissa, helping her. I guess that blood only runs so thick."
"You know very well that if I said anything to the Dark Lord, I'd be in the same position as Cissy. The Dark Lord wasn't very happy that Draco couldn't perform the task. Of course, he couldn't possibly have imagined Draco getting Dumbledore in his mercy, but when we gave him such a good setup, he should've been able to do it."
"I asked you why you are here," Severus said again.
"The Dark Lord asked me to fill you in on the new plan, and assist you with it. Aurors are everywhere now, and we need to finish off as many of them as possible." Severus nodded once at her words. She then said, "Of course, you may not want to kill any more on your side."
"Bellatrix, when are you going to realize that I have always been of service to the Dark Lord and always will?" countered Severus smoothly.
"Please. We all know that you are a superb Occlumens, how else had you been playing Dumbledore all this time?"
"And, as you know, the Dark Lord is an even more accomplished Legimens. If I was not on your side, he would know."
Bellatrix was silent for a minute. "Don't think for a minute that you've got me fooled, Severus. I personally believe that the Dark Lord placed me here to see if you are playing him false, because he has more important things on his mind than if there is one skiving piece of filth here. Keep in mind that if you attempt to contact any of our enemies- the Dark Lord will be the first to know."
"Of course, I'd be in contact with the Order. They'd be extremely happy to hear from me after I murdered their precious Dumbledore," Severus shot back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Bellatrix eyed the grim smile on his face before recognizing defeat.
"Where am I to sleep?" she asked.
"Downstairs. You can have the couch." Seeing her apprehensive face, he sneered, saying, "Don't think because you're on my bed right now you get my room. The Dark Lord might have made you stay with me, but I will not take any orders from you."
Bellatrix shouted, "And I will not take orders from you! You're a two-faced, greasy liar, and if I had my way, you would be dead!"
"Oooh, I'm trembling with fear," said Severus icily. Bellatrix stalked past him, swearing darkly under her breath before slamming the door. Severus swore loudly himself before undressing and flopping on the bed. He couldn't imagine why the Dark Lord would put Bellatrix with him. He had heard that the Death Eaters were not operating alone anymore, as it is easy to overpower a lone Death Eater but almost impossible to overpower a good team. Aurors had also learned this and now had their own teams that they operated within. But Bellatrix?
Perhaps the Dark Lord is unaware of the way Bellatrix and I regard each other, thought Severus. Bellatrix did spend many years in Azkaban for him when others tried to insist they had never had done service to him. Nevertheless, this is going to be a living hell…
Finding that he was not able to sleep, he went over to the desk in his room. It was littered with newspaper clippings. There was news about Death Eaters being caught and put in Azkaban by Aurors. Alongside this, there was news of killings and people who had been controlled by the Imperius curse. The one that stood out to Severus the most was the news bringing death of Albus Dumbledore. He saw Dumbledore looking up at him, smiling. Pictures taken before certain events only remember parts of what happened up till that point. Under Dumbledore's picture was one of Severus. Severus in the picture looked up to the real Severus, plainly wishing whoever took the picture an excruciatingly painful death. With one last look at Dumbledore's picture, Severus turned over and went to sleep.
Bellatrix was woken up by a loud blast being issued in her ear.
"Motherfucker!" she shouted loudly, opening her eyes to a contraption in his hand that she assumed had issued the blast. "Damn, you don't wake up to anything," he said. "Get some breakfast, and then we move out."
"I don't take orders from you! And don't you dare use that thing to wake me up ever again!" she shrieked, going to the kitchen. She tried in vein to use the stove to toast a piece of bread before lighting the tip of her wand on fire and using that to toast it. She glared at Severus who was smirking at her inept to do anything around the kitchen, still mad about the rude awakening, before realizing what he was wearing.
"Severus, you can't wear robes and walk around looking for Aurors! They, no doubt, don't bother to change their appearance, but we definitely need to!" Severus eyed her suspiciously.
"What do you mean by changing appearance? Why must we?" It was Bellatrix's turn to smirk.
"Why do you think? Every Auror is after you, me, and everyone else. Even wearing Muggle attire, we will still stand out like two sore thumbs…"
"Polyjuice potion?" asked Severus. "I do have some, but we need that to get information out of the Aurors."
"Not Polyjuice potion, you moron," said Bellatrix smoothly. "No, all we need is hair change, in your case nose change-" she smirked and he looked furious. "-and anything else we can think of."
Now it was Severus's turn to stomp around the kitchen. He loathed the idea of change. When they found Aurors, he wanted them to know that he was the one killing them. This could help you get out of instant death if you were caught by any of the good Aurors, though, thought Severus grudgingly. He walked upstairs and looked around for any Muggle attire. He found one pair of ripped jeans and a black t-shirt that said "Screw You" on it in maroon letters. He found that the jeans were quite tight for him (they were at least 10 years old) and he had to widen them, along with the shirt, a little with his wand. He checked out his appearance in the mirror, cringing at how stupid he looked. He rarely wore anything other than black robes.
"You're not going to win any fashion shows with that!" Bellatrix said with a laugh. She had changed out of her pajamas into another pair of black pants and another long black shirt.
"Neither are you. Even if you changed your hair, I'd take one look at you out on the streets and know who you are." Bellatrix scowled, but apparently thought that he had a point; she came back with slightly tighter black pants and her shirt was now a dark green.
"If you want a good disguise, dress yourself up as one of those Muggle models," said Severus. Bellatrix glared at him. She made the pants and shirt reasonably tight all the same.
"There, happy?" she asked. Severus sneered.
"I want to see your hair turned blonde."
"I'd be a damn nicer sight blonde than you'd be," shot back Bellatrix. She pointed a wand at Severus's nose and he yelped as it seared hot with pain.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY NOSE?" he shouted.
"Look in the mirror." He shot a look of pure loathing at her and looked in the mirror to see his nose reduced in size and shape. "Like it, don't you?" said Bellatrix snidely.
"I don't- THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY NOSE!" he shouted at her. She laughed out loud. They both looked into the mirror, grabbed the wands, and their old looks were back.
"This isn't working. Neither of us can dress ourselves differently," Bellatrix said regretfully.
"Right," said Severus, agreeing with her for the first time that day.
"Sit on the bed," she said, turning to him.
"What? No- you don't touch me!" he warned as she disarmed his wand and conjured ropes that tied him onto the bed. "No! You- can- not- touch me!" he shouted, trying to squirm out of the ropes that were binding him.
Bellatrix worked fast, reducing his nose again. She also changed the color of his eyes to a light brown and made his skin tone tanner (he had been extremely pale from not being in proper daylight for a while). She finished with nicely cut hair that was dark brown and a little past his ears. She then grabbed his "Screw You" shirt and, ignoring his protests, erased the words from it. She took a pair of black pants from his closet, took off the various chains and other things hanging from it and changed it to khaki, finishing by giving him some black Vans with a grey "V" on the side. Severus was seething inside, but he had to admit, she hadn't made the outfit completely unbearable.
The next thing she did surprised him a lot; she threw him back his wand and untied the ropes. "Okay, I did the best I could do, and I would like you to try on your clothes and if you keep them and whatever I did to the rest of you, I'll let you do whatever you want to me. Severus scowled but went and changed into the clothes, which weren't at all bad. He also didn't look anything like Severus Snape without his signature nose, and on top of it he looked much younger. He then grinned slyly and came back out with his wand.
Bellatrix was already sitting on the bed. He used the rope to tie her hands behind her back ("Only a precaution") and started changing her appearance. The first thing he did was use his wand to trim her hair from down to her waist to slightly angled (though lopsided) and a little shorter. Then, smirking, he made it dirty blonde with highlights that looked outrageously light and changed her green top to an extremely tight pink tube top along with a short white miniskirt (changed from her baggy black pants), topping it off with hot pink flip flops with heels. He even gave her ridiculously huge hoops. As an afterthought, he changed her eyes to a sparkling blue. He laughed at her while throwing her the clothes and she threw him a look that plainly said that she wished him utmost pain.
Severus waited impatiently for her to come out of the closet where she had been changing. When she emerged, he was extremely shocked. He had done such a good job with her that she no longer resembled Bellatrix Lestrange; she looked more like an American supermodel. She looked about ten or fifteen years younger, and (he grudgingly admitted to himself), quite pretty. She noticed his shock and mistaking it for distaste said, "I'm not wearing this!" She then tripped over the heels (while Severus laughed at her, glad for a reason to cover up his expression) on the way to the mirror and looked at herself. She took out her wand and fixed her hair, and changed it to a light brown with highlights that looked natural and then straightened up. She looked at herself in the mirror again.
"I look like an effing whore." She changed the top to a light green, brighter than her old colour, and added sleeves, but made it off shoulder.
"Are you done?" Severus asked. She shot him a look that could've killed and changed her skirt to white pants instead. She cut off two inches from the heels, and changed her eyes to match her shirt. After surveying herself one last time, she decided she was done. He didn't object to her changes, so they both Apperated at the same time in a dump right in the middle of London. Together, they snuck out to the streets, starting outside a dingy coffee shop.
"Mundungus Fletcher," said Severus quietly. "Last seen completely baked outside a coffee shop in London."
"Gee, couldn't have made it any more obvious, could they?" asked Bellatrix sarcastically. "There must be only- what- a thousand coffee shops in London."
"Shit!" said Severus, smacking his forehead.
"What?" she said.
"Our voices. We forgot that we can be given away by our voices."
"No prob," said Bellatrix. She bent over, pretending to be examining her outrageously tall heels. "Womsorus," she whispered with her wand pointed at her throat. She yanked him down by his shirt and hissed, "Masorus."
"There we go," she said, and Severus noticed her voice had become higher, not by too much, but it sounded ridiculous on her. Severus started laughing at her and then realized that his voice had become a deep growl.
They both walked inside the first coffee shop.
"You two lovebirds want a booth or table?" asked the waitress with an annoyingly winning smile when they walked in.
"What- we aren't-" started Severus. Bellatrix stamped hard on his foot. "OW! Moth-!"
"Yes, we'd like a booth," said Bellatrix. The waiter led them to a little booth in the corner, where they attempted to sit as far away from each other as possible.
"I don't see Mundungus. Or any witch in a veil…" whispered Bellatrix while she attempted to study her menu. "Wait- who is that?" She nodded her head toward a young, pretty redhead in the opposite side of the café.
"That looks to me like Ginny Weasley… but-"Severus whispered back.
"Exactly!" said Bellatrix, grinning. "Want to go make friends?"
"She'll recognize us!" Severus said stupidly. Bellatrix looked at him in disbelief. "Okay- right now, you look halfway acceptable and like a man in his early twenties… she'll never mistake that for her greasy-haired, hook-nosed teacher!" She got up and grabbed his hand, walking toward the table. He jerked it out of her grip.
Ginny looked up as they approached. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked, looking at them.
"I'm sorry, I was convinced that we had met at one of those parties!" Severus chortled. Bellatrix shot him a look. "It's very hard to mistake you… aren't you Ginny?"
"Yes… I am Ginny…" she answered, looking confused. Bellatrix sat down and yanked Severus down next to her.
"That was a fun night!" Bellatrix said in a fake-happy voice. "I'm not surprised if you don't remember it- we were both pretty baked. Se- I mean, Scotty here nearly passed out."
"Scotty?" muttered Severus.
"Sorry, what?" asked Ginny, turning to him.
"I'm Scotty," he quickly covered. "This is Bonnie." This time it was Bellatrix's turn to scowl. "We met at that party… but I can't really remember it past the seventh beer…"
Ginny laughed. "Well, I'm sorry I don't remember it." Bellatrix gave Severus a kick under the table. Severus patted her hand. They were in.