A/N:

Thanks to everyone who has left reviews or fav/followed so far, you make my day!

There is a Trigger Warning at the end of this chapter so please scroll down and read that first if you don't want to be taken off guard by some difficult topics.

Alice's grubby trainers looked ludicrously muggle against the polished marble as they ascended to the upper floors. She kept her head lowered, but her eyes darted around as she looked for hints of anything significant; a hushed meeting through a slit in a door, the sounds of new recruits being trained, an unrolled parchment containing battle plans- anything that could make this nightmare less painfully pointless.

All she had learnt so far was that Dolohov enjoyed torturing female rebels, hardly shocking information, and that Snape used veritaserum on captives deemed important enough, which included aurors, even trainee ones only months on the job, apparently.

She felt a guilty lurch at the thought that the Aurory would have been better off if she'd never joined. She didn't know any really sensitive information, but she knew enough.

"Up," Snape ordered as they approached a wide, swooping staircase.

"What do we have here?" a high-pitched, teasing voice called out.

Bellatrix Lestrange was gliding down the staircase. Her face was still somewhat gaunt from her years in Azkaban, but her recent freedom had returned the shine to her long, thick, black hair. Her eyelids were heavy as if with desire, but her lips twisted with suspicion.

"Bellatrix," Snape said, his voice caressing each syllable. "Are there no muggles left in the greater Wiltshire area for you to terrorise?"

The witch narrowed her eyes.

"Where are you taking the captive?"

"To be interrogated."

Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. "Not in the dungeons?"

"Evidently not." Bellatrix grinned haughtily and Snape added flatly, "I don't store the veritaserum in the dungeons."

The witch's lips curled into a broader smirk.

Snape grabbed Alice roughly by the upper arm and she almost stumbled as he dragged her past Lestrange.

"I'll tell Him, you know," she said excitedly to Snape's back. He replied without turning around,

"I'm sure he'll be pleased, he had suggested a stress outlet."

Alice's gut twisted. Had she miscalculated what her former professor was capable of? Panicking, she shoved at his hard chest and tried to wrench her arm out of his grip.

Suddenly her hands and feet were bound, and as she tripped forward, Snape caught her, wrapping one arm around her back and the other beneath her knees, lifting her effortlessly as she twisted in his arms.

"Petrificus totalus."

His deep voice cut through her, squeezing her chest as her muscles froze all over.

He strode down the corridor and through a set of double doors which opened at his approach, revealing a large suite.

The doors slammed shut behind them as he dropped her onto the large, four-poster bed and she bounced twice, completely immobile. Then he stood still, listening. He pointed his wand at the door and cast, "Homenum revelio," his voice barely a whisper.

A silhouette flickered at the door. Snape sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, after a long, agonising moment, he moved again, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it on the bed.

He flicked his wand at her. The petrificus lifted and the binds disappeared. Alice scrambled from the bed and leapt at one of the two side doors, which clicked with the sound of a lock turning just before she grabbed the handle and desperately tugged at it.

His hard, heavy body enveloped hers and she squirmed against it, his skin hot beneath his thin shirt when she shoved at his chest, his heady smell filling her nose. She thrust her knee up to hit him where it would hurt, but he was too tall, and he pinned her with his torso and hips as his hands slid down her arms, found her wrists and shoved them against the door. She hissed in pain. Then he stated casually, as if containing her violent wriggling was effortless to him,

"If you speak a word of what happens in these chambers to anyone, Miss Duclos, I will kill you. Understood?" Alice whimpered as the fear ripped through her. "Answer me," he growled loudly while he released a wrist, reached down her body and deftly undid the button and zip of her jeans. With a fresh rush of adrenaline, she slapped and grabbed at his hand, but he rapidly recaptured her wrist, gripping so tightly that she yelped. He restrained both of her wrists in one hand while his other went up her shirt and yanked forward, ripping it open.

A button rattled as it skipped away on the marble floor.

He released her and she went to dart around him, but he easily grabbed her around the waist and threw her backwards, her lower back hitting the door handle painfully, making her grunt. She lunged at him but he caught her wrists mid-strike in two strong hands.

"Relax," he ordered smoothly.

Something about his tone made Alice feel so defeated that a sob tore through her. She kicked out, but his hold on her put her off balance and she stumbled head first into his chest. He walked her back into the door almost gently and sighed heavily as her chest shuddered against him. He lowered his mouth to her ear, so close she could feel the heat of his breath, and whispered,

"I don't want to hurt you, but I need you to scream for me."

Whimpering, she twisted against him as he drove his knee roughly between her legs, pinning her in place and sending a shock of fear up her body.

"Scream."

The fear pounding through her drowned out his words and she shook her head in confusion. She continued wrestling against his hold and he managed to wrap his large hand around the base of her neck. A blind panic took over her and she let out a strangled scream that felt like fire escaping her throat.

He immediately loosened his hand and Alice sobbed with relief.

Through the blur of her tears, she saw another silhouette flicker by the door. Snape turned his head to follow her diverted gaze. Abruptly, he took his hands off her and stepped away.

Deep breaths dragged in and out of her as she sagged onto the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees so she wouldn't fall apart.

Snape undid the buttons of his shirt with quick, deft movements while he strode to the door and flung it open.

"Bellatrix," he said silkily. The tall witch was leaning against the wall of the corridor twiddling her wand between her fingers and staring past him at Alice. "Well-adjusted adults don't eavesdrop on their superiors… relaxing in their rooms."

Alice held her breath, unnerved by the steady glare of the witch's vacant black eyes.

"Superior," Bellatrix spat, narrowing her eyes with disgust as she turned them on Snape. "You're lucky a foul half-blood like you is even allowed to serve my Master."

"Interesting way to address his second-in-command, nevermind a wizard who's defeated you at every duelling opportunity. "

"Only because He dislikes when I kill those He considers useful," Bellatrix replied moodily. "I was just curious when you were planning on administering the veritaserum."

"Is that your concern? I hadn't realised you were troubled by the treatment of our prisoners. I'm not Greyback, the serum will work afterwards, I'm planning on leaving her with the ability to speak." Alice's heart clenched painfully. "Miss Selwyn, didn't I give you detention the last time I caught you loitering in a corridor?"

There was a slight young woman standing off to the side, her face bright red. There had been a Selwyn in first year at Hogwarts when Alice was in her final year. She remembered because there was gossiping at the time about the girl's Death Eater father. She must've graduated just this year, which meant Snape could have been teaching her only five months ago, up until he'd killed the Headmaster and fled Hogwarts at the start of summer.

Selwyn, clearly too embarrassed to meet the eyes of her former professor, spoke to her shoes,

"Madame Lestrange sent me sir, she instructed me to give you this." She handed Snape a folded piece of paper.

"Next time you're sent to my chambers Miss Selwyn, knock, don't hover." His eyes slid to Bellatrix as he added, "I fear your third cousin twice-removed is teaching you bad manners." He cast a silencing ward on the room and closed the door on the two witches.

Once closed, his shoulders sagged a little, whereas before he had been tense like an animal ready to strike. He tapped his wand on the door in a complicated pattern while muttering in Ancient Greek. Alice recognised the rhythm of the taps to be for some kind of advanced locking or guarding charm. That was a benefit of being a qualified arithmancer, Alice could often deduce the purpose of spells which used rhythm or numbers. From the way the air shimmered around the walls and door in response to his incantation, she guessed he was adding layers to wards that were already established. Then he muttered a cloaking charm, so heavy that the walls shook for a few seconds and Alice feared they would collapse.

He unfolded the note and his eyes moved back and forth as he scanned it. His shirt hung open, but instead of looking more exposed or vulnerable, he looked even more formidable, with raised white scars all the way down his chest, over the planes of his pectoral muscles and down the ropey muscles running along his ribs. There was a particularly angry scar that cut at an odd angle to his abs, disappearing with the black hair that trailed from his belly button to the low waistband of his trousers. He started to re-button his shirt from the bottom and Alice's eyes whipped up to his. He had been watching her. She looked away and hastily did up her trousers and held the sides of her torn shirt together. He incinerated the note with a muttered incantation and left the room through a different door, returning with another white button-up identical to the one he was wearing. Alice couldn't help but flinch as he came towards her.

"Put this on," he instructed and handed her the shirt. She shrugged it on over her torn blouse. He unlocked the door behind her with a flick of his fingers and she budged a little out of his way so he could get past. Inside was a decadent bathroom with a clawed tub and a huge shower.

She knew she should be formulating a plan to escape. That was what a more resourceful witch would do, like her older sister Laura, or what a braver witch might do, like her younger sister Jackie.

She felt a stab of guilt as she wondered when they'd find out she'd gone missing.

She didn't come up with a plan, she simply watched Snape open a cabinet in the bathroom and take out a vial, her mind frozen with fear as he approached her again.

"Sit up on the bed," he instructed. She did as she was told, not wanting to risk provoking him.

He put his wand against her lips and Alice feared he would use the same horrible speech compelling curse Dolohov had, but instead he whispered a healing chant. She felt an itch as her split lip stitched itself back together. The feeling tickled around her eyes and cheeks as he healed other cuts and abrasions she hadn't realised she'd had.

He took her forearms in his large, warm hands and rolled up the sleeves of the oversized shirt, which had been hanging down almost to her knees. He was surprisingly gentle. She wondered if he could feel her throbbing heartbeat through her thin wrists. There were bright red smears on the white sleeves and she didn't know how she hadn't noticed them at first. Only when he moved the sleeves over her stinging wrists did she remember trying to escape her binds in the dungeons.

Snape's magic caused her skin to stretch and knit itself over her red-raw wounds, the point of his wand almost touching her. Alice realised she might be able to grab it, seeing as he was concentrating on his soft, melodic chanting, but then the moment was gone and he had stepped away.

"Drink this," he said as he unstoppered a vial and handed it to her. It was a blue liquid, and veritaserum was clear, but still, the serum could have been mixed in. She took the vial but didn't drink it. She could smash it on the ground and hope he didn't have more, but he probably did, and if he wanted to, he could force her to swallow it, so maybe it'd be better just to submit, but the potion could do any number of horrific things-

"If I wanted to kill you, Miss Duclos, you would be dead. Drink it."

She lifted the vial to her nose and gave it a sniff, it smelt sugary but she didn't remember if there were any particularly sweet deadly potions…

"It was not a request."

Alice gripped the vial tighter, terrified of the wizard in front of her but equally afraid of the potion. Snape sighed, took the vial from her and, to her shock, gave it a sip before shoving it back in front of her face. Somewhat more reassured, she drank it. It felt silky on her tongue and tasted sickly sweet. Instantly, a calmness spread through her, like he'd wrapped her up beside an open fire on Christmas Eve, with Quinoa, her tortoiseshell cat, curled up on her lap.

Someone will feed Quinoa when she didn't return, a voice in her head whispered, and everything will be alright.

A/N Please let me know what you think.

I'm still working on the next chapter to the Stirring, hopefully I'll get the chance to publish soon!

Trigger Warning:

Assault and mild sexual assault. Sexual assault halts before escalating past clothes being undone.