BETRAYED

3

Telling

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by Saeshmea

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Severus was getting his next class ready when, all of a sudden, some kind of force came towards him from the back and all the crystal bottles from the shelves around him shattered into little pieces. Fortunately, despite not being a trained auror, he'd fought a war and was fast enough to cast an invisible shield to protect himself.

Once the noise of the crystal rain was over, and no second curse seemed to be coming, he undid the shield and turned around to see his attacker.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, rather rudely, to the green-eyed witch standing at the door frame, "If this is about the Gryffindor students I've kept in detention this morning, Minerva, I'm afraid you're overreacting," he said, making a guess, but that didn't seem to be the reason of her anger at all because she just kept glaring at him with a rage he'd never seen in her eyes.

"How could you?" she yelled, waving her wand again, this time causing all the desks slide over the ground against Severus, trapping him in one of the classroom corners.

"Minerva," he tried to talk to her, sure that whatever had brought her here wasn't that morning punishment. What was it, then? What else could have him done to anger her that she knew about… Oh! Severus just realized, maybe it was something she didn't know about, something she learned, something big enough to cause such anger and delusion, "Minerva," he tried again, but she just shut him up pressing the tables tighter against him.

"I'm swear I'm going to watch you die slowly and painfully on my hands, Severus Snape," she spat his name, "and I'm going to enjoy it," she crossed the classroom making her heels sound loudly at every step, making sure he sensed her power and her ability to do such thing.

Severus swallowed. She didn't seem to be kidding at all and he knew that, as kind and nurturing as Minerva McGonagall could seem to her students, there was an actual lioness in her soul, more than capable of torturing him to death, especially if she'd really found out what he'd done.

He had to do something, anything, if he wanted to come out alive from that classroom but, he couldn't hurt her, she was Minerva, her former professor, her actual colleague and friend – well, probably not that anymore.

He felt his wand in his pocket. If he could only pull it out without her noticing and disarm her; then they could talk calmly. He kept eye contact with her as he slowly took his hand inside the pocket of his robes. She hadn't seen it, not that he could tell, he raised his arm and…

"EXPELLIARMUS!" she yelled before he couldn't even open his mouth.

Still in a bit of shock because the witch who doubled his age had managed to be faster than him, Severus watched Minerva pick up his wand and sit on one of the desks that kept him trapped, legs crossed.

"I want to know why," she said, her voice calmed, almost a whisper.

"Why what?" he asked, any doubt he had about her knowing, now gone. She knew, and she wanted to know more, and he would have no choice but telling her.

"Don't – play – with – me, Severus," she said, "Tell me, what did he threaten you with? Or maybe he offered you something… just tell me," she insisted, but she lost her temper soon enough, "tell me why the bloody hell you betrayed our friendship!"

"Alright," Severus muttered, "let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain!" she shouted, but it wasn't rage on her voice this time, it was desperation, almost a cry, "I just want to know why."

"Minerva," he said, but she ignored his call, stood up and showed her back to Severus to put herself together.

"I always trusted you," she said, "I always treated you like the man you were and not like the one you'd been," she added, "but you betrayed my trust."

"Minerva, I'm sorry," he said.

"No!" she cried, "you don't get to apologize, you don't get to say you're sorry," she said, nervously branding her wand against him as she paced around the room, "I just, I'd never… How cunning does someone have to be to do such a cruel thing? To make me believe I'd…" tears began to flow down her cheeks but she ignored them, "I thought I was becoming crazy. I knew it couldn't have been just a dream, it all had felt so real; not just his touch, not just his smell, but the pain, the fear…" the horror and terror on her face made Severus shiver, if only he could make it disappear, make her feel better; but not only he couldn't, but he knew he'd caused it.

"That bloody night has been haunting me ever since, coming back to me in my dreams, and I didn't understand why, when… if it all had been a dream, then… but it wasn't," she dried her tears and looked at Severus with a smirk, "now I know it wasn't. It was real. It happened. I was… He…" she bite her lip, unable to say it out loud, but she was determined to, so she had a deep breath and spat it out, "He RAPED me, and YOU brought me to him."

"Minerva," Severus tried to speak, but she wouldn't let him, not yet.

"I couldn't understand it, when it finally was clear that it hadn't been a dream, I couldn't figure out how," she said, "how had I gone from my bed to his, and from his back to mine in one night and then I saw you, it was blurry, but I do remember seeing you that same night, in my rooms. YOU let Voldemort rape me, Severus! YOU sold me to that monster and I want to know the price he paid before I kill you."

"I didn't want to!" Severus shouted, seeing this as his only chance to defend himself, to, not just saving his life but, letting her know all the truth of what happened that night.

"I'm sure you didn't," she found a hint of irony left in herself.

"No, it's true. The Dark Lord did ask me to do it, to bring you to him so you could become the mother of his child, but I couldn't do it, so I went to Dumbledore asking for help, hoping he'd come up with something but, he said there was no option, that I had to do it…"

"Liar!" she interrupted, "How can you have the nerve to lie to me when I have you trapped and wandless?"

"I'm not lying," he assured her, "The old man said that if the Dark Lord was fixated on you then he would carry on with the plan no matter what. I asked him if he didn't care about you and he said that we'd do it in a way that you'd never know it had happened, this way I would stay alive, Voldemort would be happy and you wouldn't end up giving birth to his child."

"No," she said in denial, "no, that's not right, it can't be right. You are lying."

"No, I'm not," Severus insisted, "I slipped into your bedrooms in your sleep, drugged you and took you with me. Afterwards I brought you back, healed your bruises and injuries and gave you something to confuse your mind again," he explained, "on the morning Dumbledore poured a miscarrying potion on your breakfast so that…"

"No!" she interrupted again, which was beginning to frustrate Severus, "No, you see, you're lying. There was no miscarrying potion, you're lying to me."

"No, I'm not. Of course there was a… The Dark Lord's plan was to impregnate you, and you're obviously not… so…" but he then stopped, because even if he hadn't understood it by now, Minerva's face was enough to know, "that bastard! I'll kill him!" he shouted, climbing onto the tables to reach for Minerva, "let's go."

"Where?" she asked, suddenly frozen, trying to cope with all the information and the last words of their conversation.

"I might have betrayed you, but Dumbledore has definitely betrayed us both," he said, "I want answers too."

…

"Expelliarmus!" Snape's voice resounded in the big office of the Headmaster as they entered, and Dumbledore's wand flied out from his pocket and to the other side of the room.

"Don't you know how to knock a door?" the Headmaster asked, raising his face from the paperwork on his desk to look at the potions professor and his very Deputy Headmistress standing behind him by the door.

"You never gave her the potion!" Severus yelled, not giving Minerva the chance to speak, "I thought the plan was to tell the Dark Lord she'd had a miscarriage and make him believe she was sterile. Why did you lie to me?"

"I never lied," Dumbledore said, standing up and walking around his desk to face them, "and I thought you wanted her to never learn."

"I didn't tell her, she found out on her own," Severus explained.

"How, you said she'd have no recollection whatsoever."

"Oh, Merlin," Minerva muttered, "it is true, you did know, you told him how to do it…" she began to pant heavily and Severus lowered her wand and turned around to check on her.

"Minerva," he raised a hand to her shoulder but she stepped backwards.

"Don't touch me!"

"Minerva, dear," Albus was the one to speak this time, "I'm sorry you had to find out, we had no other option, but it's over, there's nothing to worry about…"

"I don't think so," Severus pointed out, "she's pregnant - of the Dark Lord's heir."

"What?!" Dumbledore looked as surprised as Severus had been, "That's not possible; I gave her the miscarrying potion that same morning."

"No, you didn't!" Severus accused.

"Yes, I did," the Headmaster insisted, and before they started a childish argument he added, "Maybe you got the wrong potion, because I do remember pouring the bottle into the orange juice I offered to her."

"You what?!" Minerva yelled regaining that rage she'd had before.

"You silly man, did you even pass your OWLs?" Severus laughed.

"Why, what's wrong?" Dumbledore asked completely oblivious.

"You can't mix any potion with a citric fruit, it spoils its effects – stops working," he added in a simpler language, "any first year would know that."

"Oh Merlin," Minerva let go a sight before losing her strength, she started to feel dizzy, just like that same morning, and before she could say a single word, she lost her balance but Severus could hold her one time and take her to the closest chair before she actually fainted.

"Are you alright?" he asked and she weakly managed to nod, "I'll get Poppy," he said, and after making sure she was comfortable, he left.

…

Not sure of what to do, Albus just stayed in his place staring at Minerva, making sure she didn't faint. After a while, he gained the courage to walk towards her and knelt down at her feet.

"I'm sorry," he said, resting both his hands on her knees.

"What for? Not having basic potions knowledge or giving your consent for the Voldemort to rape me?" she asked as she pulled his hands away from her.

"If Severus hadn't followed his instructions he would have killed him," he said, "what would you have wanted me to do?"

"Maybe asking me first," she said, "do you know how horrible it's been these last weeks thinking I was crazy to believe something I'd dreamt had actually been real?"

"Would you have done it if I'd asked? Would you have give yourself to that monster willingly?"

"I would," she answered without a single doubt, "if that was the only way to save a friend's life, I definitely would and, at least, I wouldn't feel as betrayed as I do right now."

"I'm sorry, Minerva," he insisted.

"Are you really?" she asked, with tears coming back to her eyes, "because now that I think of it, I see how Severus has been avoiding me lately, leaving the Professor's lounge every time I came in, pretending not to see me in the halls… he was probably filled with guilt, ashamed of what he'd done, of what you and his other Master had made him do, but you… nothing has been different between you and me, Albus," she pointed out, "tell, me, Albus, did you actually feel any remorse?"

The door was opened before he could answer and Severus came in with Poppy. While she examined Minerva, she could feel the tension in the room, the gazes between her friend and Albus, the headmaster and Severus, and the potion professor and the Deputy.

"You need to rest" the nurse determined, "I told you this morning, you must eat healthy and have a good sleep… stress does no good to the baby, dear," Minerva just nodded to the mediwitch, "Do you want me to walk you to your rooms?"

"No," she said, "Severus will do that," and Pomfrey turned around just to check he was alright with it before leaving.

"Yes, of course," he answered, confused that after everything that had been discovered Minerva still wanted him to walk with her.

…

They left the Headmaster's office with Poppy and walked in silence until the nurse took a turn and left them alone.

"Do you still have some of that miscarrying potion, Severus?" Minerva asked.

"I do," he said, and there was no need for further words.

…

TO BE CONTINUED…