Chapter 22: The Queen
"You have a beautiful reading voice," Ariel said, proud, as soon as he closed the book. Voldemort made a disparaging noise. "I mean it! Your voice is soft like a spring breeze when you read."
"That's the most disgusting thing you've ever said to me," he said facetiously.
Ariel smiled, saying nothing for a short while, then added just to annoy him, "And you didn't trip over your words once while you read."
Voldemort rolled his eyes then pushed himself from the couch, announcing, "I'm going to get the boy before he assumes the worst."
"Aw, you're still embarrassed by my praise?" She asked teasingly as he ascended the stairs.
He cut her a sideways glance. His upper lip quirked then stretched into a slanted smile.
He could see a ghost of his boyhood self huddled against the end of the couch behind Ariel, watching them with attention-starved eyes. If only the kid knew, he thought. All those years of dreaming. How often he prayed, back when he was young and foolish enough to think Gods listened to prayers, he would wake up in that piss-soaked cot to Ariel's beautiful voice telling him, I'm taking you home with me. The two of them living in some crummy home, like Spinners End, ending each day together with a bedtime story. Oh, little Tom, those desperate prayers may have fallen on apathetic ears but they weren't the pathetic cries of an orphan with a pipe dream. You just didn't know it was all a part of a contingency. You can have everything you want out of life but some things had to come first. Maybe there never could be an Ariel without there being a Dark Lord first. How would there have been a Bellatrix to bring you back to me had there not been an army of Death Eaters first?
He felt like fate was rewarding him with fulfilling his destiny by giving him a mom finally. That's he went quiet for a moment. Not because he was embarrassed by her love but because he was imagining himself sitting in a throne of his enemies bones, while thousands bowed before his blood-soaked feet, Potter's head impaled on a pike and a crown-wearing Ariel next to, telling him, lovingly, "I'm so proud of you."
Shortly after Voldemort went to the grab Draco, Nagini woke up from her 3rd nap of the day looked at the couch her master's beloved currently occupied and said to herself, approximately, 'I don't know what that thing is but I'm going to climb the shit out of that.'
And so Nagini maneuvered her twelve-foot-swamp-water-and-oil-colored body out of its loose coil and headed off to do what she damn well wanted.
Draco fled to the soundproof master bedroom's bathroom to avoid hearing the familiar sounds that follow defying the Dark Lord: the pleas for mercy, the killing curse, and a loud, heart-stopping thud.
He paced the small bathroom floor a thousand times, his head burning with scenarios, convinced that his bad manners were going to get that kind creature killed... or worse (there was always a worst-worst case scenario when it came to the Dark Lord).
Then, the sound of the Dark Lord calling his name yanked him out of his guilt-ridden thoughts. He quickly splashed his face with water, dried away distress, and left, bracing himself for what he imagined was going to be a bloody shitshow.
He was stunned to find the downstairs bloodless but relieved to hear humming instead of screaming. Ariel was on the couch with Nagini, stroking the venomous snake's long body while it slithered triumphantly along the back of the couch.
He looked her over, unconvinced she got away without at least a bruise or a mark. But when Ariel caught his wandering eye, she gave him an unharmed wink.
A floating tea tray had zoomed around him in order to land on the coffee table that appeared out of thin air before the couch. Draco sidestepped in order to give the approaching Dark Lord room to take his position beside Ariel.
"You might as well start on the kitchen," Voldemort said flatly as he handed Ariel a teacup full of dark purple wine. "After that, you can leave."
Draco thanked him, then Ariel then ran into the kitchen, desperate to be done with these menial tasks so he could go home and spend the rest of this miserable year as far away from the Dark Lord as he could.
Nagini descended from the top of the couch towards the back of the couch where she eventually made contact with the floor and lazily wiggled her huge body towards the kitchen where, in a chewed-out section of the molding, hid one terrified mouse.
The mouse watched from its little hole in the wall as the beast with no arms headed towards its hiding spot. Fear coursed through the small animal's body, making it jittery, drawing more unwanted attention.
Nagini was close enough for the mouse to recognize its own reflection within the pair of shiny black eyes when it made the desperate decision to run for its life instead of waiting to die.
The mouse jumped onto the inside of the wall and started climbing.
Nagini tried cramming herself inside the chewed-out opening but found her head was too big. When that plan failed, she merely followed the sounds of the mouse's claws scratching up the wall.
Ariel watched in amazement as gravity-defying Nagini followed the vertical path of the wall and continue upside down across the ceiling. "What is she doing?"
"She's on the hunt," said Voldemort with pride.
Nagini's heavy body rolled against the wall like a steamroller. No matter how fast the mouse ran, the beast chased after it, matching its speed with sickening ease.
Eventually, Nagini got bored with the chase and she crawled down from the ceiling, into the middle of the kitchen floor, and kept still.
The mouse waited for a few minutes, listening for the snake's movements but when none came, the little mouse took a chance. It scurried as fast as it could out of the opening and into the living room. It was heading towards a second, secret opening in the fireplace that the mouse knew would mean home-free.
She didn't even bother chasing the creature. She merely opened her mouth and shot venom out of her fangs, striking the mouse perfectly.
The mouse made out a terrible, high-pitched squeak, convulsed twice, then collapsed, dead against the stone-made fireplace.
"Good girl," Voldemort hissed in parseltongue.
"Wow, she has…good aim." Ariel remarked as she watched Nagini slither over and gulp the furry corpse down.
"You should see her in combat. I've seen this magnificent beast take down creatures four times her size," said Voldemort as he went to the kitchen.
Ariel watched him then turned her focus to the venomous snake who was wriggling its way back towards her. She watched the predator slink onto the back of the couch and stick its blink-less face into her own, expecting praise. Ariel, fearing nothing, raised her hand and lavished gentle affections onto the viper.
Draco happened to be sweeping in the living room when it happened.
Nagini, sick of being touched, nipped at the back of Ariel's hand as a way of saying, 'stop fucking touching me', then continued crawling along the sofa doing as she damn well pleased. Ariel drew her hand in time, missing both fangs, but felt the longer tear the back of her hand and leave behind a dripping puncture wound.
Ariel began hyperventilating immediately. "Oh, Cod. Oh, Cod. Oh, Cod..."
(Nagini: "Shouldn't have touched me, four-legged peasant.")
Something shattered behind him. Next thing he knew he was being run down by the Dark Lord. He watched as the Dark Lord rushed to Ariel's side, furiously patting over his robes' pockets in desperate, almost frantic, search for something.
"I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die." Ariel sobbed, staring at her blood-streaked hand, snot bubbling in her right nostril. She whipped her head at Draco and begged, "Tell my sisters I love them."
"You're not going to die," Voldemort shouted, his voice rising out of frustration that he couldn't find the anti-venom fast enough (but, also, because panic crying grated his ears).
But the burning in her chest, nausea in her blood, and the stabbing pain in her hand told her otherwise.
He slapped his breast pocket and felt the tiny vial. He then quickly uncorked it and reached forward to pour the contents down her throat.
"You lie every time you open your fucking mouth!" She lifted her head in time for him to pour the copper-tasting liquid down her open mouth. She stalled. They all did.
She felt…fine.
Nothing hurt. She could breathe as deeply as she wanted. Her hand no longer burned or throbbed. It didn't even bleed. The cut turned out to be no deeper than a cat scratch. It took Ariel three minutes to calm down her deep, panicked breathing.
Voldemort went to touch her back but retracted his hand once he touched cold sweat.
She came to in a cold room swathed in the navy blues of dusk, vaguely aware that someone was touching her head. She opened her eyes, expecting Voldemort, and was relieved to find her beloved Severus, sitting on the edge of the bed she laid in, stroking her cowlick. When he noticed her awake, they kissed and embraced, grateful to have another day in this horrible world together.
"How did it go?" She asked as he climbed into bed with her.
"Albus thinks he has found another Horcrux."
"But you don't?"
Snape frowned. "Nothing is ever easy when it comes to…"
Ariel stared at the ceiling for a moment in silence then asked, "Where did he find the supposed Horcrux?"
Snape turned his head but hesitated. He thought about lying. To spare her. But then he thought against it, thinking it would be an insult to her intelligence to lie to her when he knew she likely guessed the truth, and he told her, "Where else but a cave?" A lapse of silence passed before he said, "I'm sorry darling."
"Why? I'm not sorry anymore."
"You're not?"
She shook her head eyes still focused on the dark ceiling. "I was there for a kid who needed me." She turned on her side to face him and gave him a small but genuine smile. "Not my fault that kid turned out to be the most evil wizard of all time."
Snape pecked her nose with his lips and said, "I'm happy to hear that."
They held each other in silence for a moment before Snape broke it by saying, "The house looks magnificent."
"Your godson came by and cleaned."
"…Draco Malfoy…cleaned something?"
"Uh-huh. He did it without magic too."
"…Really?"
"Swear to Cod. It was a late Saturnalia present to us."
Pause. "Well…I…." Snape faltered then made another, longer pause. "He really cleaned the whole house without magic?"
"You're the one who can read minds."
He opened his mouth to correct her but he was stopped by a growing warmth in his heart. That little shit, he thought tenderly.