Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, you know that. English is not my mother tongue (I've been telling you that for three chapters know), so any mistake, just let me know.

So, here is the third part, the biggest one actually. I'll let you read before I say anything else. Enjoy!


Exile

by Uyuki

Chapter three. Condemned

After his realization that he was a werewolf, Severus didn't have time to think of anything, because the very next day, his Death Eater mark started to burn. The Dark Lord was calling everyone to an immediate reunion.

With all the strength he could get, he took a long cloak and stepped out of his house to start walking. It was a cold night for that time of the year, a small shower had been falling since early in the afternoon and it remained until night. Not that it bothered him or anything.

When he arrived at a graveyard, he realised that all of the Death Eaters were already there, as if they were called before or something. It was strange, and Severus knew something was wrong.

When he got closer to the circle the Death Eaters form, a spot opened and Severus stepped in to place himself next to two men. The Dark Lord was on the other side, standing inside the circle, with his snake by his feet.

"Ah, Severus, so kind of you to join us. Please, step inside."

The greasy black haired man did what he was told to and waited patiently. His heart was telling him that his life was on the edge of a knife. Anything he said may cost him his life immediately. Anything he didn't say may do the same thing.

He was trapped.

"So, did you have an interesting night yesterday?"

"Nothing unusual my Lord."

"Is that so," Lord Voldemort looked at him directly in the eyes and without a warning he took out his wand, pointing it at Severus' chest, "Liar! You know perfectly well what I'm talking about. Crucio."

A flash hit him on the chest and a excruciating pain attacked his body unmercifully. He ended up in the floor convulsing while his head pleaded for it to stop. It was torture.

Lord Voldemort lowered his wand some seconds later and waited until his Death Eater stood up again.

"I should kill you right now, you have some nerve to lie to me for so long. And I'm pretty sure you're the only one so far, no one else is stupid enough.

Severus' said nothing, it was better that way, he wasn't exactly sure what the Dark Lord referred to and so he preferred to wait before saying something that would put him in a more dangerous position.

"I must admit that you are excellent at it, I had my suspicions, but somehow you managed to blow them away with your suggestions and that character of yours. You're an excellent actor, nevertheless, that won't save you."

Lord Voldemort put his wand away for a moment and walked towards the black haired man. At just one face from each other the Dark Lord could see that various scars crossed Severus' face.

"Let me guess, those scars are self inflicted, aren't they? And my guess would be that your paws made them. Big paws, like the ones of wolfs."

Severus' expression changed immediately, denoting that it was true. The Dark Lord lowered his sight for a moment and looked at the man's hand. It was shaking.

"So you actually transform. Why didn't you tell me? For a moment I thought I was talking to the wrong man," said the Dark Lord with a sarcastic tone on his voice, "Oh yes, you are definitely a good actor."

In a whim, his arm caught Severus' neck and put pressure in it. The man gasped as the breathing was more difficult.

"You are a traitor. You lied. You spied on me. And I don't forgive any of those things. You hear me," he turned around, facing the Death Eaters, "I don't forgive traitors!"

He pushed Severus to the floor and took out his wand, pointing it at his chest. Another Crucio came out, this one for several minutes, until Severus' screams where too loud.

When they stopped, the man could barely support his weight.

"I'm not going to kill you, which would only give you some relief. I asked Fenrir to bite you and for what I see you're cursed. I'll let you go alive, with the guilt on your soul for being responsible for your other master's death. But I warn you, if any of my Death Eaters find you and they want to kill you I won't stop them."

Severus' wasn't even on his feet when another Crucio attacked him, again and again he felt so much pain in his body that he thought he was dying. But it all ended just a few moment before he passed out from the pain.

"You have ten seconds to disappear from my sight," commanded the Dark Lord, "and I don't want to see you ever again, because if I do, I'll torture you until you drop dead."

Snape stood up and ran away a few meters before trying to appear somewhere else, he was so weak.

He managed to appear a few blocks from his house, cold sweat running through his back, his breathing was accelerated.

But, all in all, he was alive.

-o0o-

Some time later, he was feeling much better, the scars were almost gone and he wasn't pale anymore. Still he was afraid.

Even though the Dark Lord told him that he was going to spare his life, he wasn't so sure about that. He never spared a life. No matter how small was the crime, he killed.

And Severus was a hundred percent sure that he would be killed when he never suspected, running away was much worse than being assassinated. Much worse.

He couldn't get any sleep at all, every little sound made him jump in his bed, covered in sweat. He had his wand under his pillow and he was always guarding his back from any possible Death Eater that could be following him.

He felt he was being spied. The only night he knew he was going to be left alone, was when the moon went full. No one would dare to go near him, the risk of being bitten was too big.

One of those days, he was walking alone through Hogsmeade, he didn't know what to do and he was out of ingredients for wolfsbane potion. He never had to do it for himself so he never had anything to do it.

While he was buying some ingredients he couldn't help to think in Remus Lupin. He remembered when he used to make the potion for him every month, how they would chat a little when Lupin went to pick it up. How he always reminded him of his decease, of his curse. How he used to laugh every time the moon was full. He remembered he used to enjoy those days, because he didn't have to look at him, he didn't have to talk to him. And he felt that Lupin deserved that.

He wasn't so sure anymore about any of that.

He had being quite cruel actually. Being a werewolf wasn't funny. It was a curse that ended with you humanity every month, that made you a savage beast looking for blood. And it was so painful.

The worst of all is that he knew that Lupin had being suffering from it since he was a little child, he was bitten in the beginning of his life, and all his years as a teenager he had to deal with the pain, with the transformations every month.

"I wouldn't have survived," thought Severus to himself.

"Snape?"

He jumped out of fear and in a quick movement he pulled out his wand to pointed it directly at the voice that talked to him.

But it was no Death Eater. It was Lupin himself.

"What? You want to kill me too?"

"Maybe I should, you're not very popular right know."

"Yeah, I should know."

But Remus never took his wand out, nor did he made any movement to attack the Potions master, he just started to pick up the same ingredients that Severus had in his hands.

At first, Remus thought that Snape needed more things to prepare a complicated potion, but as both of them continued picking up things, he realised that Severus was just talking the same ingredients he was.

Exactly the same.

"Why do you need that?" he asked out of curiosity.

"What?"

"The ingredients. They're for wolfsbane, aren't they?"

"Yes, so?" answered Snape evasively, he didn't want to talk about it.

"Don't tell me they are for Fenrir, I know he actually enjoys being a werewolf."

"They're not for him, they're for someone else, now if you would excuse me," he said in a sarcastic tone, "I need to go before someone else finds me that actually wants to kill me."

He tried to stepped out of the store but Lupin caught his arm and didn't let him go.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you care?"

"I still don't believe what you did, I want to think there is some sort of reasonable explanation to it. He trusted you. Tell me, please. What happened? What really happened?"

Maybe it was the weather, or the water he drank early in the morning. Maybe it was just the fear he felt about going back home. Whatever it was, Severus agreed to go back to were Lupin was staying when he wasn't at Sirius' house.

Remus Lupin house, far away from the town.

-o0o-

"Sit down," offered Lupin once they were at his house.

It was a small flat, enough for one person, and it wasn't too decorated, it basically had the most important items that Remus needed.

"So, have you seen Voldemort?"

Severus' face went paler at the mention of that name.

"Yes… but not anymore."

"Why?"

"You don't need to know, it's none of your business."

Remus sighed, he knew that trying to talk to Snape was virtually impossible, but he wanted to know everything. He needed to know if there was any reason why he should hate him. Why he should kill him.

Deep inside, he wanted to know if he killed Dumbledore for Voldemort or if he did it because Dumbledore had a plan.

And he was pleading desperately for the second option.

"Severus, the Aurors are looking for you, they say that if they find you they'll send you straight to Azkaban. You can't appeal, unless you confess. Minerva is almost sure that all this is just a bad misunderstanding. She doesn't believe this either."

"Then I'll hide."

"Tell me what happened, Harry swears he saw you killing him. Why?"

At that point there was no need to keep hiding or lying anymore. There was no need to try to pretend he still worked for the Dark Lord. He couldn't go back to the Death Eaters because they would kill him. He couldn't go back to Hogwarts because they hated him.

He couldn't go back to his normal life because the Aurors would send him to Azkaban.

Anything that he said know it didn't matter. He was exiled from everywhere. The only thing left for him to do was trying to clear up his name to anyone who would listen.

"He asked me to," he confessed in a low voice.

"Voldemort?"

"No, Dumbledore did. Before the beginning of the year Narcissa asked me to protect Draco from any harm, and to complete his task if he couldn't. She made me do an Unbreakable Vow and when the headmaster knew about this he knew that I had to do whatever Draco had to do. He didn't know what it was, not until that night. He asked me to do it, he almost begged me to do it because he knew I didn't want to. That's what happened, no one is going to believe me."

"Maybe not, but we will. I'm sure the Order will, and if they don't at least Minerva and I will, you can count on us."

Severus nodded absentmindedly, that wasn't enough. Two persons wouldn't make any difference.

"Now, how is that you don't see Voldemort anymore?"

"He exiled me. He knows. He knows everything."

Remus opened his mouth but nothing came out. He knew what Severus was talking about.

Voldemort figured out Severus was a spy and he exiled him.

Nevertheless, he was curious. Voldemort usually killed people who betrayed him. Why was Severus alive then?

"How did he?"

"I don't know, maybe it was my fault, I couldn't close my mind and I think he read it all, and that isn't the worst. He punished me. He is forcing me to suffer every month."

"Torture?"

"Bite."

"What?" Remus was confused.

"Think. Look at the ingredients I have. They are for me!" he yelled in desperation, "He order Fenrir to bite me. I'm a werewolf, I can't sleep at night afraid that some Death Eater might kill me. I change every month. I don't know what to do!"

"Oh my. I'm sorry, I know how that feels."

"Yes I know you do, and I hoped I never had to suffer like that. And now look at me, suffering every month terrible pain, hiding from the world, hiding from my master, from my colleagues. Afraid. I'm paying for every single thing I've done in the past. And I'm paying for his death."

Remus said nothing more, he didn't know what to say. He couldn't help him the way he wanted to. Severus was trapped. He had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

He was cursed for a mistake he made when, as a young teenager, decided to join Voldemort.

He was cursed for things he didn't do on purpose.

He was cursed to live on exile.


Well, I almost finished, I mean. The story is actually finished (I managed to do it in three parts, I'm so happy, I thought I wouldn't). But, nonetheless, I would like to make an epilogue, just something brief, I mean, I have to do something with Severus, he can't just be like that.

Eraina, I'm really glad you're enjoying the story. I know I'm still missing a little bit, but the most important thing is covered.

Oh and sorry for being a bit slower this time. My line died so I had no Internet for a while.