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A/N: same drill, people; i'm not JK . . . yada, yada, yawn! so very sorry for the delay; hit a bit of a snag but it's over now, so here we go again! --snickers--
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Earlier in our tale:
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(Severus Snape:)
"My Lord, there is a certain power in a virgin's blood for a wizard as a Potions ingredient, and a certain power as a man in being your witch's first lover."
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(Lord Voldemort:)
"Good; that is good then. Lucius will bring the license and perform the ceremony as Minister of Magic, and you will attend to anything my Consort-to-be requires. You will make certain she is agreeable to this Severus; do not disappoint me," Voldemort sternly ended.
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Severus closed his jet-black eyes for a moment and regretfully sighed.
This would simply have to be one more black sin to stain his already ink-dark soul . . . to provide a living virgin sacrifice to this demon that was his Master.
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(Luna Lovegood:)
Perhaps she was only blowing smoke up her own arse to keep the fear at bay; she'd clearly seen exactly what was worrying the dark wizard before her concerning her fate.
And it had truly frightened her.
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is everybody back up-to-speed now? if so, here we go--snickers! (the author)
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Neville Meets Inevitable
Neville Longbottom looked back-and-forth between the former Headmaster and the young seriously mental witch that he'd fought along side of in Dumbledore's Army, just as if he'd been watching a Muggle tennis match.
Neville swallowed hard; his whole world was upside down, and now he didn't know what to believe in anymore.
It seemed to him like the other two were communicating without speech.
Neville didn't know if there were even such things as words in the silent language the two of them were currently using; Harry'd once told him a little bit about his Occlumency lessons.
He knew that Snape could go inside your mind just like it was an open book. Harry had always been very specific about not making eye-contact with Snape when you wanted to hide something from him.
The dark Potions Master only needed the briefest of seconds in which to invade and trample down all of your thoughts.
Neville's thoughts were already quite thoroughly squashed just now, thank you very much.
He had no desire for Snape to even begin to guess at the amount of suppressed fury that truly raged inside of him.
If the Potions Master (and thus Voldemort) ever learned of it, it would be his death sentence for certain.
Neville Longbottom had made up his mind; one day he was going to kill Voldemort.
He'd just play along like a good little stupid Gryffindor until that day, and silently store up more and more rage to fuel his Killing Curse. Like Bellatrix had said to Harry once long ago, "you have to mean it for it to work".
When the time finally came for him to cast the Unforgivable, Neville Longbottom would be certain that he meant it with every fiber of his being.
Wizards lived a long, long lifespan; he had scores of years in which to plan and infiltrate and practice.
Lots and lots of practice; just as Harry had taught all of them in their secret DA training when that sadistic bitch, Umbridge, had taken over Hogwarts.
"Practice will make you perfect, Neville. Just concentrate and focus," Harry had encouraged him again and again.
The time would come one day to make Harry proud. Neville vowed it to everyone that Voldemort had ever harmed and killed in his long evil lifetime; including the late Harry Potter himself.
It was the loud rumbling growl of Ginny Weasley's hungry stomach that finally pulled Neville back from the dark place his mind and soul had went.
It gave him something and someone else to focus his attention on, and immediately pulled Neville back to right now in the present.
Neville Longbottom stood and walked over to the Potion Master's desk and picked up the last cup of nutrition potion from the tray. He carried it back over to where Ginny sat, and attempted to get her to sip from the cup.
"Come on Ginny. You've got to drink this; you need it. Yes, I know that it tastes bad, but it'll make you strong again," he coaxed the traumatized redhaired girl.
The potion that might keep her alive simply dribbled down her chin; she wouldn't (or couldn't) open her lips to swallow it for Neville.
He tried again, with the same messy results.
Okay, then. Neville would have to have help with this; he had no idea how to accomplish feeding Ginny without it.
Snape could hex his balls off later for interrupting them. Right now, Ginny Weasley's needs were more important than whatever he was learning from Luna or vice-versa.
Like Loony Lovegood could really tell Snape anything that he didn't already know in spades!
Neville loudly cleared his throat; that got both the wizard and witch's attention.
"A little help here, please sir," he said, indicating the thick messy glops of brownish-green potion drooling down Ginny's chin and staining her chest with a dip of his head.
Severus stood and walked around his desk. He drew his wand. Neville sucked his breath in with a sharp inhalation and closed his eyes.
Neville simply braced himself for the 'Crucio' that was definitely about to hit him.
"Imperio," Severus softly said; he cast the Curse with only the minimum amount of foolish wand waving necessary.
Ginny's body stiffened to attention.
Severus then ordered, "Take the cup from Mister Longbottom and drink every drop, Miss Weasley."
A single crystal teardrop formed on Ginny's pale auburn eyelashes, to slowly trickle down her pallid left cheek, but her hand obediently reached for and took the cup.
Her body hesitated for the briefest of moments, but still it raised the cup to her lips and she consumed the potion without a single complaint or grimace.
Neville reached out, carefully extracted the cup from Ginny's nerveless fingers, and whispered, "How'd you do that, sir?"
Severus wiped the drooled excess potion from the statue-still girl's face with a clean white napkin he'd conjured up.
Assuming his 'teaching voice' and stance, he answered Neville's question with one of his own, "Did you ever wonder why the 'Imperious' curse is an Unforgivable, Mister Longbottom?"
"It by-passes the brain of an individual, and controls the living body as an automaton; making only the body do what ever it is commanded. The person might be fully cognizant and fighting with every fiber of their being inside of their mind, but they cannot stop their body's actions. In effect, it strips the person of their freewill. That is why it is Unforgivable; no human being should ever be denied the right to choose their actions for themselves."
Neville slowly nodded his head in complete understanding, and swallowed hard.
Merlin's Balls! Professor Severus Snape was actually conversing with him, just as if he were his equal.
Surely the world would be ending any moment now! Oh, that's right; it already had.
Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad after all; living with and learning from Snape. The Dark Lord had appointed Snape to be his Mentor and Guardian only a few hours ago when Neville had been summoned for his judgement.
He'd been granted a single year's grace period in which to conform, and become a Death Eater himself, instead of being killed immediately. It was strictly because of Snape's intercession on his behalf when the side of Light had fallen.
At the time, Neville would've preferred a quick 'Avada' to having to live with and obey his former Headmaster and personal Boggart.
Now it was rapidly becoming apparent to Neville that Severus Snape might also simply be a man; a fellow wizard with vast amounts of knowledge to share, and not simply an authority figure to fear.
It had been inevitable for all of the young survivors; to have to truly 'grow up'.
That was Neville Longbottom's first step into true adulthood; finally seeing (and accepting) another human being simply for what they are and not what you'd like for, or feared, them to be.
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The Master Takes a Wife
Luna began to gracefully glide around Severus' private office, humming her obscure little tune, pausing here and there to regretfully gaze into another jar and sadly shake her pale-haired head.
She already knew what the Professor was explaining to Neville; there was really nothing new being said on the subject to learn, so she 'tuned' it out.
Luna had researched it in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts library after Mad-Eye Moody had demonstrated the Three Unforgivables on a spider in her DADA classroom during her Fourth Year.
She was a Ravenclaw; to her very core Luna Lovegood understood that Knowledge was power.
Had she not have chosen to only concentrate and excel on the subjects that truly interested her, she'd have surpassed even Hermione Granger's scores.
That was one of the reasons that Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger had established their tentative friendship two years ago.
Both of them were extremely bright witches (each in their own way), very gifted, thought the world of their friend Harry, and loved researching obscure subjects for hours and hours in the library.
Another reason was that both girls actually revered the books themselves; the texture of their intricately tooled leather bindings, the smooth feel of the ancient parchment pages beneath their loving fingertips, the still-rich smell of the ink with which they were scribed, and the beautiful, archaic, illuminations in the borders.
Sometimes the intricate and delicate drawings took up entire pages, and one could almost tell their meaning without even bothering to read the text.
Not only were the books a source of great knowledge, they were also true works of art; simply things of beauty in their own right.
Right now Luna wished that she'd done as Padma and Parvatti Patil had done and had used her passes into the Restricted Section to study the thin selection of sexually explicit books stored there.
They'd been giving 'underground sex-ed classes' to the other interested girls using an ancient original copy of "The Kama Sutra", complete with wizarding moving pictures, amid much silly giggling and a certain degree of disgust from some of the more prudish girls.
Luna wasn't a prude, and knew the basics of sexual intercourse; her father had given her "the Talk" when she'd turned thirteen and had begun her menstrual cycle.
It had just been one of those subjects that hadn't fascinated the young Ravenclaw witch at the time.
Luna had covered her embarrassment by swiftly changing the subject with another typical 'Loony' off-the-wall statement and then had skipped right on out of the library, leaving the Patel twins to snicker and mock her behind her back.
That didn't bother Luna in the slightest. She was used to it.
Luna thought that perhaps if she could just study the subject for a few hours, it might not seem so intimidating.
She paused in her wandering to wonder if perhaps the Great Library had survived; most likely not, if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was planning on re-writing history.
Usually, one of the first thing that all tyrants did was to burn the books and records of the former regime in an effort to stamp out the old knowledge, in order to replace it with indoctrination more sympathetic to their own particular cause.
Luna softly sighed, and glanced back at the two dark haired wizards, trying to gauge whether or not their conversation was finished.
It was so rude to interrupt, but she needed answers and help right now.
She'd seen certain . . . images . . . in Severus' mind when attempting to see what was in store for her. They'd definitely shocked her; the lasciviousness of some of the acts had even sickened her.
She'd panicked and had hurriedly left that secret place in his mind; in doing so he'd felt her prescence there, within his consciousness.
But Luna believed that hadn't been such a bad thing after all. They had instantly recognized the other as what they truly were; kindred.
Perhaps she could talk to Severus about these worries, but not in front of Neville.
The young Gryffindor wizard would probably shit kittens if he found out that she was to mate with the Dark Lord this night. He would never be able to see the 'big picture' of just why she was even willing to do so.
Her mother had been a Slytherin. Luna Lovegood had learnt the value of secretiveness and simply keeping some things to one's self at a very young age from her Mum, before that lady's untimely death.
Neville would want to save her, or something equally stupid if he knew, and Luna couldn't bear to have yet another friend's death on her conscience.
Luna Lovegood was already busily calculating the good and bad side of her present situation.
Their former world and life had now passed away.
She'd most definitely be in a better position to help her father and her few remaining friends as the Consort to the powerful, but dark, wizard currently ruling their world.
Her fate could have been worse.
She could have ended up as simply a broodmare given as a war-trophy to some anonymus Death Eater, popping out even more babies than Molly Weasley had done; who, in turn, would be doomed from their birth to become Death Eaters themselves one day.
Who knew exactly what the future held, really?
Perhaps she could even save the Dark Lord from himself one day.
Yeah, right! When pink pigs fly!
Most likely she'd just bore that dark wizard with her inexperience; she'd never practiced any kind of 'petting' with the any of the boys, or even any real kissing before--except for that one time with Susan Bones--but she'd just been another girl, so Luna wasn't counting it as real experience.
Not the kind of experience she would need tonight, anyway.
Sweet Circe, please don't let it be as nasty as it had looked. Or let it hurt that badly!
Voldemort wasn't likely to be patient with, or consoling of, virginal jitters.
And on that note, Luna softly asked, "Professor Snape?" At the swivel of his dark head back towards her, she continued, "Sir, would it be possible for me to have a bath and a clean change of clothes?"
Severus inclined his dark head, and led the way through the hidden door at the very back of his office into his private quarters.
Neville followed them, pulling an unresisting Ginny along with him. He'd been unwilling to let Luna go anywhere by herself with Snape.
Severus situated Luna with all the amenities she'd need to bathe in his private bath, including a relaxing healing potion to pour into her bathwater as well as a calming draught to swallow beforehand. He left her with a pot of healing salve to treat her minor injuries, and a long-lasting pain potion that tasted of bitter willow for after.
Leaving his personal house elf, Gristle, to help Luna and to attend to anything else she might require while he was absent, Severus cast a quick 'Scourgify' on Ginny Weasley to remove the grime and stench of her caked-on accumulation of body functions.
It really took twice; the first 'Scourgify' had taken care of removing the filth, but left the odor behind. The second 'Scourgify' was necessary for the removal of the stench that assailed his sensitive olfactory nerve endings.
He then grabbed Neville by his collar, and pulling Ginny in-between them to prevent 'splinching', he Apparated the three of them directly on to Malfoy Manor.
He turned his two young 'guests' over to Lucius Malfoy's personal house elf, Stubbs.
They'd both be in good hands; Stubbs was nothing, if not dependable. Lucius Malfoy would have had it no other way.
Being shown into a plush guest chamber, instead of a dank holding cell in Malfoy's cellars, was an illuminating experience for young Longbottom.
'So this is how the other half lives!' thought Neville, as he prepared to take a long, hot, shower of his very own in a spacious and luxurious private bathroom, prior to applying the healing salves and potions that Snape had left for him.
'A wizard could really get used to this.'
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Severus reappeared inside his private dungeon chambers with a dulled clap of Apparition, only to have to wait nearly half an hour for Luna to emerge from her soak and begin dressing for her wedding.
He used his time wisely by gathering together all of the potions, salves, and unguents the young witch might need for what she'd be enduring later that night.
Severus hesitated as he fingered a bottle of lust potion, but he was not thinking of Voldemort as he did so; the Dark Lord wouldn't need it.
The Potions Master was thinking that just a single drop of it slipped into the virgin's goblet when toasting her marriage at the wedding feast would insure the girl's eager participation in her wedding night.
Severus silently begged her forgiveness, and pocketed the vial.
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The Great Hall had been Transfigured into a whitely glowing Grecian temple; incense burned in a dozen golden magically suspended braisers, and a full moon shone brightly in the midst of a starry midnight-blue sky in the enchanted ceiling above.
Flowers were everywhere, releasing their various heady fragrances into the mix.
Surprisingly, Bellatrix LeStrange had been selected by the Dark Lord to provide the decorations for the ceremony, and had amazingly outdone herself.
It was tasteful, beautiful, and elegantly simple; every young witch's dream of exactly how her wedding should be.
When Luna Lovegood had entered the Great Hall on Severus' arm, she had been overwhelmed. A quickly silenced sob escaped her throat, and silent tears streamed down her ghostly pale cheeks.
As the first strains of simple Celtic harp music filled the air, they began their walk up to the temple's altar standing where the dais normally was.
Waiting there for them stood Lucius Malfoy, prepared to perform the ceremony as Minister of Magic, and her serpentine bridegroom . . . Lord Voldemort.
Luna had asked Severus to give her away as her true kinsman. He gently squeezed the slender little hand that had clutched down on his arm with nervous bruising force, at this, the point-of-no-return.
Her steps never faltered; her sing-song voice had clearly and firmly repeated the bond-vows required to tie her for life to the monster that was the Dark Lord.
The fey little witch was magnificent to Severus Snape at that moment; and his own black eyes had suspiciously misted over a bit as he watched the ceremony unfurl.
If he could have, when Lucius had asked for reasons why they should not be joined, he would have shouted a thousand reasons why.
As it stood, Severus Snape remained quiet and simply allowed it to happen.
There was truly nothing else he could have done.
Voldemort would have simply 'Avada'd him, and still would have taken the girl.
Severus prayed that one day she'd forgive him, or kill him; and at this moment in his self-hatred, he could have cared less which one it would be.
End Chapter 9
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A/A/N: MMmm-kay! We're leaving Luna's de-flowering by Voldemort to the imagination. (I haven't decided yet whether to make it very GOOD, or VERY baaaaddd!) --snickers--
Hermione has been waiting long enough in the Dark Lord's audience chamber; we'll be getting back to her and Severus soon. (after a brief check-in on Voldemort's reaction to his wedding, and the opinions of Harry and little Tommy, of course!)
Besides; just between me, you, and the wall, the girls will be engaging in "girl-talk" at a later date. Comparing "notes" on their respective partner's "skills". --snickers--
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