Chapter 72: A Sliver Of Hope
{A/N: Here's Another Update...To all concerned I still had to get rid of my cat...hopes he's doing well where ever he is...but fear not...he is very much like our favorite Potions Professor, resilient and intelligent...hence why I named him accordingly...As for other news...All is well as side from the theft of my beloved gaming system while I was at work...alas...I'm getting two new ones for the price of one...Slytherin tact if ever there was any...now without further a due...}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S
{"Well I wanted you, I wanted no one else...I thought it through, I got you to myself...You got off every time you got on to me...An' I got caught up in favorable slavery...I guess it wasn't really right, I guess it wasn't meant to be...It didn't matter what they said cause we were good in bed...I guess I stuck around so I could watch us...Fight for all the wrong reasons..."} Fight For All The Wrong Reasons, Nickelback
Unknown Location, Unknown World...
Silence filled the strange place where Severus Snape found himself held captive. Bellatrix had been staring at him from across the room and the sight of the derange nutter made him bristle with annoyance. He should by all rights have either been dead in a grave or at home with a certain amber eyed witch with bushy hair. That was the end he fought so hard for when he took on the dark lord and ensured that Hogwarts got back into the hands of the Order of Phoenix. He had not anticipated the spawn of James Potter using his own curse against him and binding it with his personal magical signature. The humiliation of being taken down by his own bloody curse was more than Snape could bare given the circumstances. The fact that it was baby Potter that had done what not even The Dark Lord could accomplish was even more infuriating.
"Somebody's in a sour mood." said Bellatrix in a taunting fashion. "Cat got your tongue today lover?"
"I'm no lover of yours." replied Snape bitterly.
"Not yet." replied Bellatrix with a sly grin. "But soon you will be."
Snape had been amazed when she held up a tome depicting transference of spirit. The potions Master had been at a loss for words as his obsidian eyes took in the sight of the very book that he once read prior to this whole ordeal, the book Hermione and Phaeron had been looking for to reverse his misfortune.
"W-Where did you get that?" he asked trying to reign in his temper lest he ruin his chance at restoration.
Bellatrix smiled. She had his attention now that was for sure.
"Would you believe I got it from dear old Dumbledore?" she asked as in a mock innocent tone.
"I wouldn't put it passed the old sod." replied Snape bitterly. "He's been so supportive before..."
Bellatrix smiled brightly.
"He has hasn't he?" she asked either missing the sarcasm completely or just choosing to ignore it. "Anyway I believe it's time to get you back into your body."
Snape's eyebrows rose hearing this.
"Y-You hope to restore me?" he asked truly caught off guard.
"Yes." replied Bellatrix with a domesticated grin that would have made Snape's skin crawl if he had been indeed back in his body.
Snape was no fool, he figured that there was some type of catch at the end of all of this but he couldn't pass up a chance to be returned to his body...it meant returning to Hermione and Phaeron. He would let Bellatrix restore him, if she could. He knew that Bellatrix had been a talented witch well versed in the dark arts as he had been and a former member of the Slug Club as he had been. If anyone other than Hermione had been capable of restoring him it was definitely this witch as deranged as she was she had been his best hope at the moment.
"Solve ligat!" shouted Bellatrix.
Snape found himself freed from his magical shackles. It was a surreal feeling to be unbound even in spirit form.
Bellatrix smiled and opened the tome.
Snape watched her intently.
It had only taken her a moment or two to find the correct reversing spell. The Potions Master would have been lying to himself it he said that he wasn't impressed. Bellatrix was quite a talented witch and well verse in a great many things, it was easy to see why he had been so attracted to her in his youth. Despite her crude words and harsh punishments, she had been the total package when it came to his tastes, possessing both brains and beauty beyond compare.
It was easy to see why she made it through the ranks of the Death Eaters.
She commanded respect and punished those who failed to meet her standards without remorse. Seventeen year old Severus was caught in the twisted web of intoxicating power and lust. She was the most formidable woman he had ever met and being one of the few wizards to have access to her exquisite body made him all the more addicted to her brand of cruelty.
{ Severus had been standing in the center of the Malfoys' meeting room. Bellatrix eyed him rather intently. The ramifications of their first encounter together had been still felt well into the next day. Severus noted the heat behind the deranged witch's dark eyes as she focused them on him. The memory of their night in the guest bedroom came flooding back to the surface.
"Here again Half Blood?" asked Bellatrix taunting him.
"Of course." replied Snape as if he had been unaffected.
"Another sheep being led for the slaughter." said Bellatrix. "I personally don't see why a half blood is apart of our ranks... is it not our mission to depose of such trash?"
Lucius had not taken kindly to his sister in law insulting his "little brother."
"That's enough Bella." he hissed angrily. "As long as you are a guest in my house you will show my brother the respect he is due."
This drew a cackle from Bellatrix as she sized up Snape for the first time since the incident at the Dark Lord's behest.
"This sorry excuse for a wizard is suppose to be able to command respect...?" she said still taunting Snape. "I'd sooner swear my allegiance to that half wit Dumbledork than respect a Half Blood."
Snape glared rather murderously at the witch as she circled him like a vulture taking inventory of it's prey.
"It's a pity not one good attribute can be seen on this sorry sod." she continued.
Lucius took his leave of Bellatrix lest he lose his temper and hex her to death. A move that would not have been popular with his wife of course. She did so love her deranged older sister.
Snape stood as still as he could manage while Bellatrix stepped forward crushing her ruby red lips into his pale ones. She threw her arms around his neck as if she had been desperate for contact. Once the heated kiss was concluded she stepped back slapping him across the face as if she had been trying to provoke a certain reaction.
The younger wizard simply stood with his obsidian eyes blazing as he took in the mesmerizing sight of her. She had been one of the most beautiful death eaters he ever had the pleasure of bedding. Ruthless. Cunning. The true embodiment of a Slytherin woman if ever there was one. She was intoxicating in her power as she turned her attentions to the bulge in the front of Snape's trousers. A sadistic smile filed across her pale face as she noted how valiantly he struggled for control of his wayward emotions.
"You are mine Half Blood." she whispered as she pressed her enormous chest against his.
"Yes." he replied more than willing to submit to the wiles of such an enchantress.
Once more her ruby red lips crush into his pale ones.}
Presently, Bellatrix circled Snape's motionless body letting her hands roam to places that only she had touched for so long. It filled her with unrelenting rage to know that her Half-blood was bedding that Mud-blood Hermione Granger, it made her down right homicidal to note that he was enjoying playing husband to the little tart. He belonged to her and to her alone. Not even the combined forces of the dark lord and Albus Dumbledore could shake the unwavering bond she shared with Severus.
He had been the first man she had given herself to in earnest, the first to ever claim her heart. Though he did so with little to no knowledge of having done it. Slytherin as she was, Bellatrix had been just shy of admitting to herself that she was indeed in love with the sodding git. More so than even she realized. When news of his apparent death swept the wizarding world she was shattered by the prospect of her lover never returning to her bed.
"She'll never have you." said Bellatrix turning her attention to Snape.
He arched an eyebrow at her sudden shift in conversation to Hermione.
"She's my wife." he replied not wishing to anger the witch before she helped him get back into his body. "I am obligated to see to her happiness."
"You don't love her." said Bellatrix.
"I don't love you." he replied.
"But you'd bed me just the same." she said knowing him all too well. "I am the very blood in your veins Severus Snape."
"Stop this." replied Snape not wishing to go thought this again.
"She can never satisfy you." said Bellatrix. "Everything you shared was due to the war...now that it's over do you really think you two will have a chance?"
"It's not about that." replied Snape.
Bellatrix studied him for a moment. Then a wicked smile crept across her face.
"You promised her something didn't you?" she asked. "Made an unbreakable vow?...now it all makes sense."
Snape did not want to dignify her callousness with an answer so she took it as the truth.
"Poor Severus." said the deranged witch running a finger along the ebony clad chest of the motionless Potions Master. "Bound by your own weakness for chivalry."
"Enough." said Snape growing impatient.
"Indeed." replied Bellatrix still with that smile. "Perhaps it is time we brought you back to the land of the living."
{Finally!} Snape thought.
He would soon be free to leave the lair of this wretched harpy and return to his wife and son. He had not been aware that Hermione was making preparations of her own nor had he been aware that his son was pursuing dangerous knowledge concerning what happened during the second wizarding war. In that moment all he knew was how close he was to restoration and reunion with his weary family.