long chapter. i know. figured i'd change the scenary and keep up with what i said in chapter one. sevvie's on the run.
Her head snapped up, and Severus watched as her eyes filled with hatred. She was scrambling up off the couch and pulling her wand out from her robes.
It was pointed at him in a flash.
"Bellatrix. Bellatrix!" But his words held no impact on her. She was coming at him, wand held out, and face screwed up in a pain that he couldn't possibly understand.
"Bellatrix! Stop!" But just as the words left his mouth, Severus found himself having to dive onto the floor in order to dodge the spell that she'd cast.
"What are you doing in here?" Severus didn't answer her, but continued to scrambled away across the floor on his hands and knees. For some reason he didn't want to hurt her unless he had to. He crawled behind his desk.
"Bellatrix. Calm down. I just want to talk to you." A spell shot by his ear and he ducked again.
"Calm down? Calm down!" She shot several more spells at Severus' head, one which sat his desk on fire. He quickly put the fire out with his wand, causing her to scream in rage. It was obvious that she was angry. Severus had, of course, seen her angry so many times before, but this, this had to be the epitome.
"Come out, Severus." He hated the way that she spat his name out, as if it were a curse, a word not meant to be heard. "Are you afraid?" He heard her footsteps coming closer.
She was on the other side of the desk.
"No." He answered, sardonically. "I only want to talk to you. You can't keep yourself hoarded up in my study for the rest of your stay here."
"Talk to me?" She shrieked. "You want to talk to me? About what?" She fired another spell at the wall, directly above his head, just for spite. The spell ricocheted off the wall, sending a bookshelf clattering to the floor. "You couldn't possibly understand. You don't understand. Have you ever had someone ripped away from you, someone you care about?" Her voice had risen an octave. "You've never lost someone, and known that no matter what you'll do, you'll never get them back. You'll never see them again. You've never woken up to roll over, and roll off of a couch instead of your own bed; the bed in which you expect to find your husband laying beside you in!"
Another spell was fired at the wall and another bookshelf fell.
Severus was still crouching behind his desk, every word that left her lips ringing around his head. He'd never heard Bellatrix talk like this. Never. Her voice was horribly high pitched and she was referring to love, something that, again, Severus didn't think that Bellatrix had the capacity to do.
But he remembered how it had been when she and Rodolphus had finally clashed. When Rodolphus had finally gotten hold of her. Three years after Hogwarts, a fight that the pair had gotten into, a fight that had been established to prove who could dominate the other, had led to sex, and sex to their relationship, which had turned into a marriage.
Snape knew that Bellatrix had been Rodolphus' world. That the man would give his life for her. Do anything in the world for her. But, he hadn't been sure that Bellatrix had felt the same way. But hadn't she always beaten anyone who dared even harm Rodolphus, when they were little? Hadn't Rodolphus been Bellatrix's only true friend? Then, couldn't it be possible that Bellatrix had loved him as much as he had loved her, if not more?
Severus shook his head experimentally, banishing these thoughts from his mind. While the couple had been as happy as they could be, it only brought back pain for him.
"I think I can imagine, Bella. Don't you remember your last year in Hogwarts?" He stood up from behind his desk, wand hanging at his side, incase he needed it. "Don't you remember that stupid Halloween Masquerade? I'm sure you do, after all, that was the night you started sleeping with Lucius. Or, wait. It appears I'm wrong." He spat every word, clearly disgusted by her. "You didn't sleep with him until the morning after. While I lay, unconscious in a hospital bed, you were off playing the common whore."
He paused, waiting for a reaction. He knew his words had made an impact. If there was one thing Bellatrix couldn't stand, it was being told where her faults lied. And while he hated to bring up the past, if bringing it up would cause her half the pain it had caused him, then he was willing to do so.
He watched as her eyes narrowed to slits, watched as every memory that she'd expertly blocked out was brought to the surface. He watched as she opened her mouth to say something, but could say nothing, so just closed it again.
Finally, she did manage to utter a sound. "It's Bellatrix."
Severus laughed out loud. But he didn't move from his desk. If need be, it offered him a shield and kept a needed distance. "Is that all you can come up with Bellatrix, to correct me with the usage of a pet name, which you never allowed anyone but your precious Rodolphus to use?" He knew he'd stuck a nerve.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix had pointed her wand at him, intent on causing as much pain as humanly possible.
The curse his Severus squarely in the chest and he was slammed backwards into the wall. He slid down the wall, coming to lie on his back, and writhing all over in pain. It felt as if a hundred hot knives were being stabbed through his body. His skin was being ripped from his bones, nails being pulled from his fingers, and hair being yanked from his scalp. His body was slowly twisting into inhuman shapes, that it shouldn't be able to take.
Somehow he managed to focus in on Bellatrix's face as she leaned over the desk. A sadistic bliss radiated from her every feature. She was clearly enjoying this, watching him writhe in pain.
Severus bit down on his tongue, determined not to give her the satisfaction of his screams. If he didn't scream, then she hadn't gotten what she wanted.
After what seemed like an eternity of being at her mercy, just when he was beginning to wish for death, she lifted the curse. Severus gasped for breath, panting . He struggled to sit up, feeling as if everyone bone in his body might snap in half if he moved too much.
He looked up at Bellatrix, glaring at her. She was smirking down at him, looking as if she'd won the war.
He couldn't let her keep on getting the upper hand. "You've think you've won, don't you Bellatrix?"
Her face suddenly lined with confusion. "Of course." She stated matter of factly.
"You're wrong." Severus leaned up and wrapped his hands around her neck. In one swift movement, he'd drug her over the desk and down to the floor. Now he straddled her stomach as she made feeble swats at him. He pinned her wrists to the floor and leaned down so that his face was only an inch from hers.
"You can't even win the battle and you're trying to start a war Bellatrix." His weight was pressed into her. There was no way that she wasn't having trouble breathing. Severus looked down at her.
Her eyes were large and wet with crying, face streaked with tears. Her jaw was set, teeth pushed together in an effort that had to be hurting her. Her hair was splayed about her face and her breathing was heavy.
He shifted somewhat to allow her room to breath.
"Let me explain something to you, while I have you at my disposal." He let go of one of her wrists to push his hair from his face. "You're in my house, Bellatrix. That means you're under my care. I can do whatever I like with you, that includes killing you. Right now, I'd rather have you dead, because you've been nothing but a pain since you've got here. I understand that your husband is dead, but crying, sulking, and ruining my life isn't going to bring him back." He was harsh with her, for he knew, had the situation been reversed, she would have been just as horrible to him. She was glaring at him, not quite happy with the situation that he'd put her in.
"Now, while you're under my care, which could end up being a long time, why don't you make yourself scarce? I'll stay out of your way, if you stay out of mine. It's not as if I want you here, anyway."
There was a knock at the door to the study and both heads turned to see who had intruded. Rabastan Lestrange stood in the once-locked doorway.
"How did you get in?" Severus asked. How had Lestrange gotten in when Bellatrix had locked the door?
"Turned the handle." Rabastan raised his eyebrows and stepped over the threshold.
Severus looked back down at Bellatrix, who was sneering from ear to ear. "It was only locked against you."
"You bitch--" Severus raised his hand to hit her.
"I hope I'm not intruding on anything." Rabastan spoke and Severus stopped his hand in mid air.
"No. It's not." He pushed himself off of Bellatrix and crossed the room, sitting down in an armchair. He noticed that Rabastan was looking around, taking in the fallen bookshelves and charred desk. "I'm not even going to ask." He shook his head and Severus smiled on the inside.
I'm not even going to ask. Now there was an old Rabastan comment, for the Hogwarts days. Sometimes Severus found himself longing to have figured out how to freeze time in order to have stopped in when they were all still in Hogwarts. To stop time where it was, long before they were all Death Eaters, before any of the muderings. He'd give almost anything for the old school daily drama.
On the other side of the room, Bellatrix was getting up. While he had pinned her, she didn't' look defeated. She refused to give up; such a fighter. Severus frowned, turning his eyes back on Rabastan. "To what do I owe this pleasure of a visit?"
"This." Rabastan held out a black envelope. Severus took it, and flipped it over in his hands. It was sealed; the dark mark embedded in the red wax. Severus knew who this letter was from. He'd received plenty of others.
He carefully broke the seal, and unfolded the piece of blood red paper inside.
You are to be relocated to another house. Wormtail is to be taken out of your hands, but Bella will remain. Be packed and ready by dusk.
The note was very short and written in a sharp, deadly handwriting. He read it over twice, looking for more instruction and maybe even a reason or two, but found nothing. Severus understood completely and rose from his chair, intent on being obedient to his master.
"Are we to be escorted?" He asked Rabastan.
"Yes." Rabastan nodded. "By MacNair, Avery, and myself."
"Escorted where?" Bellatrix had come to stand behind Severus.
"Here." Snape thrust the letter into her hand, and headed out of the room and down the hall to his living room.
Bellatrix followed him. "But, why? Why are we moving?" Snape stopped, halfway through opening the curtains, out of habit, to make sure no one was outside. Those words sounded odd coming from her mouth. She no longer seemed angry with him, but confused instead. And, the way in which she'd said it…she made it sound like they were living together and had been for a long time.
Snape turned around to face her, drawing the curtains again as he did so. "Because, Bellatrix, I've killed a man."
"I've realised that." She interrupted. "But-" He held up his hand for silence, and oddly enough, she granted it.
"I've killed Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts. I've worked at the school for over a decade now."
She interrupted him again. "And they'll have your address on file and the Order will come looking for you." Looking up from the floor, realisation dawned in her eyes. Severus loved the way she looked now. Simply loved it. That spark in her eye, telling him that she knew what he was saying.
He nodded. "Exactly."
Rabastan chose that moment to enter the room. He crossed over to the door , and rested his hand on it before he turned around to look at the pair. "I'll be back at dusk. And try not to kill each other while I'm gone. You can do that once we get you both relocated."
He gave a halfhearted smile and opened the door, a moment after he'd stepped over the threshold, he'd vanished on the spot, leaving Bellatrix and Severus alone for eight hours until his return.