The next few months passed all too quickly for the liking of Severus and Lily. Severus would have almost have been relieved to be heading home for the holidays and away from his housemates come bodyguards and their idea of fun if not for the fact that he knew what Voldemort had lined up for him for his summer activities or rather his intense training regime to prepare him for becoming his heir and potentially taking over from him in the worst case scenario (not that that he would allow that to happen willingly). It would be anything but fun and would make his housemate's antics seem like kid's games by contrast.

Lily, I don't know when I will be able to write to you. As you know, I am being forced to spend my summer undertaking further training from the Dark Lord himself (lucky me!) no doubt to mould me into the perfect heir or more likely a cold hearted carbon copy of that monster to learn to kill and torture without thought or feeling, I certainly doubt it will be learning which silverware to use or how to drink tea proper.

Please do not be alarmed if you do not hear from me, I will be in the snake pit and do not know when or if it will be safe to write to you at all this summer, he may be monitoring my every movement and I dare not risk being caught much as it pains me not to hear from you as you give me so much solace and strength and comfort and remind me that I am not truly the monster that I must pretend to be to everyone else.

Please stay safe and well, my love forever and always Severus

It was a very reluctant Severus that set off for the summer holidays with a feeling of dread and apprehension for what he would face at the other end. He parted company with his housemates having learnt that he would see them soon either at meetings or for their initiation ceremony which had been scheduled to be a grand ceremony to take place at the summer solstice as Lord Voldemort believed that this would be a good time to mark new recruits when magic levels would reach their zenith it would he believed enhance not only his own magic going into them but also strengthen and invigorate his new followers.

He again met Lucius Malfoy in a deserted alley near to the station. Even though he had been given his apparition license after much practising he was still privately treated much the same as the other recruits and would be until he had proved himself loyal. This meant the secret location of meetings was still withheld from him and he would have to rely on someone else to take him to where the meetings took place and Voldemort's manor where he would be trained over the summer.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries, he was quickly apparated to the manor where he'd been initiated. He stared up in wonder, it looked quite different in the daylight but no less imposing, it was an impressive manor but grim and foreboding as though he had put his own stamp on the place marking it with his own dark magic. He shivered, he could feel it the dark taint practically oozing from the walls cold and foreboding.

He had little time to examine it though as Lucius set off at a quick pace across the grounds and into the house before by a set of heavy wooden doors. He pushed them open and crossed the room before kneeling in front of his master and kissing the hem of his robe "my lord I have brought your son as you requested"

"Good, you may leave us now I will call for you soon" he said dismissing his servant before turning to Severus who had followed him in and was waiting to approach.

"Severus finally you are back at my side where you should have always been. So tell me, are you excited to begin your summer training?" He said, speaking his name in a snake-like hiss.

He kneeled before him, performing the usual rituals before replying with his head bowed "of course my Lord, I have thought of little else, I could not wait for school to finish so I can begin my real education." he told him pushing the greedy, eager thoughts about all the dark magic he would learn to the forefront of his mind for him to see.

He smiled "good one of my servants will take you to your room. We will talk later over dinner, we have much to discuss with regards to your training" he said and as if on cue a servant came rushing forward bowing before him and awaiting instructions "show my son to his room."

They nodded and hurried out of the room waiting by the door for him to follow, he bowed again before exiting. Once out of the room he had a chance to examine the person showing him the way. It was a girl, fairly plain although she may once have been attractive, she appeared painfully thin and was undoubtedly a muggle, no doubt doubling as the entertainment and target practice for his followers when he got bored of her.

She led him up several flights of steps and paused outside one of the rooms that must have been designated for him, waiting for him to step inside and examine it "I hope it is to your satisfaction master" she said in a well-practised tone.

He inclined his head slightly "it is satisfactory, you may go" it was as close to thanks as he could get without appearing suspicious nonetheless she seemed surprised by his polite tone but quickly scurried away.

He turned his attention back to the room, it was spacious and reflected the wealth of the house but it was lacking any sort of character. It felt more like a prison where he would go to sleep than a room designated as his own personal space, perhaps unsurprisingly still it would do he thought unshrinking his trunk and unpacking his clothes and some items such as his school texts and dark arts books to make it look like he would be living in the place before relocking and warding the trunk.

The summer holidays passed painfully slowly as he settled into a routine. He spent his days undergoing physically and mentally gruelling training sessions, with few breaks aside from eating under his father's watchful scrutinising eye, and his evenings reading on texts of dark magic far darker and more gruesome than anything he had uncovered in the even the restricted section or the hidden Slytherin library of most potent dark art texts at Hogwarts.

Before summer was out, he knew all manner of potions, curses, and different ways to kill and torture, agonisingly slowly or lightning fast. How to break and fracture every bone so they snapped causing agonising pain or making sharp jagged points that pierced major organs, how to painfully strip skin or make it melt like dripping wax, to make the body slowly rot and decay from the inside out, and that was before you counted the mental tortures which could drive a person to the brink of insanity. Suddenly the killing curse looked preferable to slow torture.

This was before he even got on to learn the unforgivable curses. It had started with small subjects using insects and rodents to practise casting Crucio, getting them to attack each other in brutal fights to the death under the Imperius curse or worst of all being locked in the dank dark cellar and not being allowed out until he had successfully tracked down and killed the entire infestation of filthy rats.

Once he was satisfied with his work it quickly progressed on to gradually bigger animals, mainly muggle animals, strays brought in off the street or at least so he imagined or hunting down prey in the grounds closely monitored of course to ensure he didn't get any ideas of trying to escape beyond the warded boundaries that marked the edge of the property.

The worst of it by far though was when he decided to ramp it up and move on to human targets all in ominous preparation for his final test to prove himself. He had known it would be coming, of course, what kind of a Death Eater would he be after all if he couldn't torture and kill a human target that was after all at the heart of what they did, not that that made it any easier to assuage his guilty conscience.

The only thing that made it bearable was the knowledge that these people, much like the servant he'd met the first day, were effectively slaves and would be tortured and even killed and tossed aside like ragdolls with or without his input, they were just as much test subjects as he was doomed to lie or die at his order.

He was powerless to do anything to save them, at least until he had proven himself loyal and beyond suspicion, they had agreed that it would be stupid for him to risk his life passing information back until he had proven his own loyalty otherwise it would soon become obvious that he was the mole if information started leaking out the same time he joined.

The first time he was instructed to cast the killing curse under his father's cold scrutinising gaze he found that for all his training and building his occlumency shields he froze unable to actually cast the killing curse. That was when he felt it some alien presence like slimy black tendrils invading his mind telling him to kill, fuelling his anger and compelling him in a way that he was powerless to resist until he found himself raising his arm like a puppet and casting the curse in a voice that didn't truly belong to him.

He did not even need to turn around to feel those crimson eyes upon him. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened whether he had been under the Imperius curse or whether he had simply used the mental connection from the Horcrux he had implanted in him but somehow in spite of all his work building his mental defences he had managed to invade his mind and take control of him like a puppet. That scared him more than anything else and he had to suppress a shudder at the thought of not being in control of his own body and mind that he could take him over at any moment and there was nothing he could do to stop him.

This thought, more than anything else, did more than any punishment he could dish out drove him on to succeed and redouble his mental defences so that he would never give him reason to use that power over him again. Even though he hated himself each time and prayed silently for forgiveness for his sins, he forced himself to do it to channel his anger at the man who was controlling him into unleashing the darkest of dark curses.

In addition to the training, there was also the awkwardness of meal times sitting alone at a big stately table with the man who called himself his father.

Severus was not sure what he ate or when but he never appeared to be in front of him. His evil red eyes were constantly watching him while he ate making him feel uncomfortable and like some kind of tender meat dish. He talked or asked him questions in some perverse facsimile of trying to get to know his son, although he knew that he was in no way interested in his life so much as his loyalty he was little more than a trophy heir there for show than out of any sense of familial love.

"So Severus tell me what are your dreams for the future?" He asked, speaking in his usual hissing snake-like voice.

He looked up nervously composing himself and checking his shields were in place before answering, "I have only one dream my Lord to serve you and prove my loyalty and my worth as your heir, it is all I have ever dreamed of" he told him allowing him to see memories that supported this statement.

"But surely you have some ambition of your own beyond this?" He said, steeping his long fingers and watching him intently.

"I live to serve and follow in your footsteps master, I have no other dreams" he repeated hoping he was not making a mistake.

The other sighed "allow me to rephrase that I perhaps should have been clearer. Whilst I desire ultimate loyalty and subservience from all my followers, I also encourage ambition and creativity. Whilst I am gratified by your dedication and devotion to my cause and blind loyalty, I also expect more of my son and heir, I expect you to have ambition beyond just being a Death Eater to go out and make your mark on the world. So I ask you again do you have a dream for what you wish to do when you leave school?"

He paused, licking his lips wondering if he should speak of his true dream "come now there must be something, you are clearly intelligent and Lucius informs me that you displayed much talent and promise as a first year, don't tell me he was lying to me I would hate to think that any son of mine would waste their talent when they could put it to good use"

"There was one other thing" he said hesitantly, chancing a look at him as he indicated for him to continue, "I had thought of being a potions master if it pleases you Lord. It is something I am good at and I thought it could be useful" he said keeping his answer modest and his head bowed as he waited for a response.

He appeared to consider this before replying slowly, "ah yes a potions master Lucius did mention this he said that you had talent in this area" he said considering "yes it pleases me talent in this field is hard to come by and I have use of a good potions master to serve me. Yes, I will ensure you get sponsorship for this"

Severus breathed a sigh of relief "thank you master you are most kind"

"However, there will be conditions" he interrupted. He should really have expected this, Severus knew he would not get anything for free. "You will be my personal potions master your first priority will be to brew potions for me and to create new potions whatever I request you will brew in payment for your tuition"

"Of course master, I live to serve will be an honour to brew for you"

He continued, "I will expect the best from you and will accept nothing more than the best from you, your peers inform me that you are already working far beyond the NEWT level that is required of you"

He considered his response "Slughorn's classes, they do not challenge me, I know I am capable of far more but he is too blind as to see me as important as I am not one of his pureblood students. I have already started making my own improvements and creating my own potions"

"Yes, Slughorn has always been a blind fool but this can work to our advantage, he has many connections, he is easy to manipulate" he smiled evilly "it is worth indulging the old fool. This is good though you are already experimenting this shows promise. I want you to also research new potions that can be used to advance our worthy cause and start brewing them when you have spare time. You will request use of one of the empty classrooms on the pretence of conducting research for your NEWTS when you return to Hogwarts, you will be provided with a list of potions to brew"

"Yes master, of course, I have a few ideas already which require some testing" he replied giving enough to satisfy him.

"Good now I hear you are also quite adept at creating curses as well?"

Severus glanced up wondering who had spilt the beans on that, he would have to be careful he would prefer not to give away anything that could give them the upper hand. Sectumsempra for example would be a lethal spell in the hands of a bloodthirsty Death Eater, Levicorpus as well, and Muffilato could be very useful. Yet to not tell him was a risk, he did not know who had informed him of his skill but many of his curses were well known and used across Hogwarts and there had been a time when Levicorpus, for example, had been quite the rage and there was still the mystery fo how the Marauders had learnt his spells. Assuming that the informant had been a Slytherin they would know most of the spells that were his own invention as he had used or taught many to his housemates with the exception of Sectumsempra, if he omitted any it might look like the was deliberately holding back.

He tried to act nonchalant "it is a hobby of mine. I was being targeted by a group of arrogant Gryffindors who outnumbered me, it was necessary to be creative in my own spells. Mainly childish hexes but there may be some that may be of use, if it pleases my Lord I could write them down or demonstrate them for you"

The monster grinned evilly "good this is the sort of creativity I desire from my was one other thing" he said causing the young man's head to snap up.

"My Lord?"

"Lucius informs me that you were friendly with a mudblood, some of your year mates confirm that you appeared quite infatuated with her until recently" he said his red eyes piercing Severus's own.

He gulped, he would have to play this right "she means nothing to me. She is a Gryffindor, stubborn and full of noble ideas, always poking her nose in where it's not wanted and trying to defend the weak. She saw me being attacked by four of her housemates and decided to intervene and defend me to my embarrassment and shame" he continued quickly so he would not think that he was implying that he was weak "I discovered that she was quite pleasing to look at and talented in charms and potions and I found her company tolerable, I took advantage for a while. There was an incident last year, I became tired of her constant interference, I followed your advice and put her in her place, she has learnt not to bother me"

"Good you know how I feel about relationships with mudbloods" he warned.

"I do I assure you there is no need to worry, I would not besmirch or honourable name by associating with mudbloods"

He was pleased with his progress, everything was going as planned even if it sometimes required his intervention to prod things along. The first part of his training was nearing completion soon his son would face his first real bloody test of loyalty.

Author's Notes:

Apologies for not updating last week, I was simply busy and realised I wouldn't have time to add a new chapter. I'm not entirely happy with the pregnancy but I couldn't think of a better way to do it and I can't see Severus having much chance to meet up with Lily in secret after being initiated. I'll admit some of the ideas for the curses and practising the unforgiveables on rats have come from other fanfics I've read (can't remember which but it involved Harry and his friend's training to defeat Voldemort) it sounded like just the sort of thing this brutal cold-hearted version of Voldemort would do to train his son and heir to be ruthless and just like him.