My Heart Burns

"Now, dear children, pay attention

I am the voice from the pillow

I have brought you something

I ripped it from my chest"

- Rammstein "Mein Herz Brennt"

"Well, well the domain of Severus Snape" he drawled into the empty laboratory "I do hope we don't uncover anything too awful, do we gentlemen?"

The room was situated in the dungeon of Cadre Fortress, the imposing headquarters of the Dark Lord Voldemort and his group of loyal Death Eaters. "Well mostly loyal anyway" sneered Lucius mentally

Severus Snape had been the main potions producer for the Dark Lord since he had joined those many years ago. More recently, Snape had become the eyes and ears of the Dark Lord at Hogwarts, where he had kept a close eye on the comings and goings of Albus Dumbledore and, of course, Harry Potter.

However, after one too many important moves were halted by the timely appearance of the Order, Voldemort's earlier suspicions of Snape's loyalty were most definitely confirmed. When the Order had successfully rescued Snape from the old Riddle house, Voldemort and his closest followers fled to their secure fortress in the Mourne Mountains, far away from Hogwarts and England at least in Northern Ireland they had relieved some pressure. After Snape had gone Voldemort angrily demanded that the entire inventory of potions be examined.

Lucius Malfoy peered cautiously into a vial of what had been labelled Veritaserum. So far, they had discovered that most of the potions had been heavily diluted or were merely completely different, less dangerous, potions. Sneering in disgust, Lucius began the tedious task of breaking through the wards Snape had erected around some of the more derelict areas of the lab.

One, particularly heavily warded, area had contained a large supply of, what Lucius would call, Sexual Potions. Some of the most dangerous had been Eternal Love, Obsessive Lust, acidified lubrication salve and a curiously half empty bottle of Fantasia Potion. This particular potion was especially nasty as it had the effect of trapping people in their minds with their greatest sexual fantasies. It made them especially easy to extract information from and it had the side effect of being highly addictive as many people would rather chose to live in a life of fantasy rather than the bitter reality. Lucius smiled mirthlessly as the implications of a half-empty bottle dawned on him. Severus Snape was addicted to his fantasy.

"Oh Severus" he smirked "You have been a naughty boy"

"Hermione wake up!" a vaguely familiar voice echoed loudly in her head "Hermione quickly! You have to wake up!"

Her eyes opened quickly to the concerned face of her friend Ron who was bouncing on one foot looking highly nervous

"Ron?!" she croaked sleepily "What's going on? Why are you in my room?"

"You've fallen asleep in the common room again Hermione!" he sighed exasperatedly "But listen, what did you get Harry for Christmas? I really can't think of anything!"

Hermione narrowed her eyes dangerously at him. He had woken her up for that? Hermione had been patrolling the corridors of Hogwarts late into the night as the new security precautions meant that all teachers and prefects would need to be extra vigilant. Hermione had been slightly dismayed to find she would be on the twilight patrol with Snape while everyone else would be enjoying sleep.

"I don't know Ron" she spoke evenly after a moment "Why don't you ask me in a month?"

"But it's November! You always have everyone's presents bought by this time!" It was true, usually she would have had everyone's presents organised by mid-November in an attempt to avoid the rush at Christmas. However, this year she had been overwhelmed by everything including prefect duties, school work and Harry duties.

Harry had been under constant monitoring after coming back without saying much about what had happened in June at the Department of Mysteries that involved him losing the closest person he had to a father. Ron and Hermione were distraught to find him so closed up about what had happened but agreed not to pressure him into talking about it if he didn't want to; they just kept an especially close eye on him to be there to support him if he ever did crack.

"Sorry Ron… it's just everything is just so much now" she explained, pushing a particularly irritating stand of bush hair from her face. "I just hope that everything will get much better soon"

"Me too, Hermione" Ron put a strong arm around her, pulling her into a hug "Me too"

"I'm going to bed Ron" she yawned widely "Wake me up again and I'll poke you to death with a toothpick"

He grinned cheekily at her and mock saluted. "Yes milady. Duly noted."

She swatted his arm and made her way to the 6th year girl's dormitories.

"My Lord" Lucius bowed deeply "I have the potions from the dungeons"

"Very well Lucius" Voldemort replied "What is your report?"

"It seems that the only potions Snape had been making correctly were the ones he could use for sexual gain. Among them were Obsessive Lust and a small dose of Fantasia. I can only conclude that he has been using Fantasia on himself but I can not fathom why he has brewed so many of the other love potions." He paused "It seems out of character for Severus Snape, my lord"

"Yes it does" Voldemort acknowledged with a tilt of his head "Leave the potions and go Lucius"

"Yes, my Lord"

Voldemort stared at the potions sitting in front of him for a long time.