Disclaimer: I obviously don't own it. It's all for fun.

Mak is of course my beta; who is amazing.

Review please, it helps me get motivated to write…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Six

Quality Time with Voldemort

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Riddle must die. It was like a mantra running through Severus Snape's head. It had only been a little over a week and already the most evil wizard in the world was slowly tearing away at Severus' nerves. The only things stopping Severus from killing him outright was the fact that Potter had to deliver the final blow and he was already killing the fool through a "replenishing potion."

Severus had been tasked to develop a replenishing potion for the Dark Lord once he became corporeal again. It took Severus a while to successfully brew a potion that was fit for Voldemort's snake like body and in the end he had needed Nagini's venom to help with the efficacy. While he was working on the potion he had also been experimenting on ways to make the potion look the way it was suppose to and do the exact opposite of Voldemort's wishes. It had been an accident but once Severus realized what he had discovered he and Dumbledore developed a plan; to slowly introduce the potion to Voldemort's system. He would think his strength was rebuilding for a while, but eventually the effects would change to make him as weak as a baby. The plan had been for the final Horcruxes to be destroyed so Potter could kill him in his weakened state with no way to come back. The potion was doing its job; it was just a matter of finding the remaining Horcruxes.

Not only did Severus have to deal with the Dark Lord all the time, he also had to deal with the rat, Wormtail. He had been unbearable while living at Spinner's End, but in the presence of the Dark Lord he was even more repulsive. The fat little man was always cowering and shivering, catering to the Dark Lord's every move like a house elf. It was disgusting to Severus, though at times he did have to act like a faithful servant himself. The only thing that eased his mind just a little was the fact that he didn't have to deal with that braggart, Lucius Malfoy, who was currently occupying a cell in Azkaban.

Due to Severus's valiant effort of finally killing Dumbledore he was now one of the Dark Lord's confidants, much to Wormtail's dismay. He was still, nothing more than a bother and something to kick around when thoroughly pissed off. Voldemort didn't mind anyone bullying the rat; he enjoyed the display. The plus side of being in the Dark Lord's favour was all the information Severus gathered. Three of the six horcruxes had been successfully destroyed, and Hufflepuff's cup had been retrieved the previous night by the Order which meant that it would soon be destroyed as well. At first, Severus didn't know what the last two horcruxes were or their locations, but through snippets of conversations, and luck, Severus was able to piece together the information and come up with some well educated guesses. Rowena Ravenclaw had saved the talon from her most favourite raven and had it dipped in bronze to preserve it. How the Dark Lord came across it was a mystery to Severus, but he didn't really care how it was acquired; he cared about where it was. From a slip of the tongue, he was able to figure out that the talon was hidden in the Muggle orphanage Tom Riddle grew up in.

Finding the final horcrux was really a mistake. Severus had had enough of Narcissa and Draco harping on him over the two-way mirror about how they "missed the comforts of home," which to Severus meant that they were sick of living like paupers. He thought it would do them a world of good to finally have to live in the real world for a bit. Nonetheless, he needed to get out of the presence of the Dark Lord and snuck out in the middle of the night to grab a few insignificant things from the manor. It was just easier to shut them up.

Severus had been to Malfoy Manor quite a few times but never unaccompanied by Lucius or Narcissa. Having free range of the Manor was an odd feeling, but Severus felt like roaming around to see if he could find anything useful. He had been walking down an unknown corridor when he came across a portrait that seemed somewhat familiar. Doing a double take, he realized it was a portrait of Godric Gryffindor. It was highly unusual for a Gryffindor item to be in a Slytherin house, especially in the house of a Malfoy. The portrait stared at him for a moment before saying. "Who are you? I haven't seen you here before."

Severus quirked an eyebrow at the portrait before replying, "Severus Snape. And you are Godric Gryffindor I suppose?"

"That is indeed correct, my boy!" Godric said cheerfully. He had been suffering for years, in dire need of some decent company.

"You used to hang in Hogwarts didn't you?" Severus asked. He had seen this portrait before, hanging up on the walls. If I remember correctly, Albus had to take down the portrait because it had a nasty habit of making the students cry.

"AH! Yes, that is correct. But, I was taken down by a handsome, rude young man. I never returned either and ended up here of all places. Quite odd if you ask me." He rambled on for a bit but Severus wasn't listening. It was peculiar that Godric Gryffindors portrait was here and there had been an exact replica of it in Hogwarts not even two years ago.

"How long have you been here?" Severus said irritably, interrupting the old wizard who was going on a tangent about poor lighting.

"Why, I say at least twenty years, but I am an old fellow, so you know, it could have been longer…" Again, Gryffindor went on and on about nothing of importance.

Severus walked off deep in thought over his discovery. The Dark Lord must have made a copy of the portrait and sent the original to be placed here. Then that means the duplicate portrait could be a horcrux. That could account for its horrid behaviour. Yes, that's it. Now, I need to find out where that wretched copy is.

Severus knew what the final horcrux was; it was just a matter of locating the blasted thing. No matter how much he tried to slyly pry it out of the Dark Lord, he came up empty handed. He couldn't push too much or else the Dark Lord would become suspicious. It was now only a matter of figuring out how to leak the information to the Order without either party getting too suspicious. Severus knew he had to be very careful with the information he had gained. Thinking through the endless possibilities he decided that he would have to give information carefully and spaced out over time. He couldn't risk Voldemort finding out that the Order was receiving the information through a spy, let alone him. Coming to an adequate solution he decided to feed the information to Narcissa and let her get in contact with Miss Granger. It was up to Narcissa on how to give the information safely to the Gryffindor.

When Severus wasn't brewing the potion, at meetings, or just pacifying the Dark Lord, he had plenty of time to think about things. He dwelled on the events of that fateful night when he became the murderer of the great Albus Dumbledore. The Headmaster had been like a father-figure to Severus in his adult years. As much as Severus hated being emotionally attached to people, he had become fond of the old wizard. They had been through their difficulties of course, such as, dealing with how Severus was treated at Hogwarts and his error at joining the Dark Lord in the first place. In the end they had come to a silent agreement to leave the past in the past and make the best of what they had in the moment.

Severus regretted having to kill Albus, but he had been ordered to, by the Headmaster himself. No matter how much Severus argued with Albus, he would never relent. Albus always told Severus that he had to protect Draco from becoming a murderer and falling in league with the Dark Lord. It made Severus wonder if Albus had known about the lost prophecy, though, he never mentioned it, even in all of their discussions. It would be no surprise to Severus if Albus had known about the prophecy, but part of him believed that Albus would have told him if he had. Or at least he hoped that was true.

Severus would always try to make Albus resend his demand that Severus kill him if there was no other way out of it. It finally took an argument at the edge of the Forbidden Forest for Albus to get fed up with arguing. Severus owed Albus a wizarding debt and he finally called it forth. He was magically bound to kill Albus if Draco was placed in the position to do it. It was a sickening feeling having that hanging over his head.

Severus had tried to get information from Draco, but the young man was withdrawn and only aware of himself at the time. He had no focus and looked pale. Severus had never seen the boy so bad off and tried constantly to get something from him. Narcissa had, of course, told him about the task Draco was supposed to accomplish but he wanted Draco to come to him or at least pry the information from Draco. It would have been folly to come right out and ask the young Slytherin about it. Draco would have immediately closed off and never spoken about it again.

Severus knew it was Miss Granger who was helping him on the outside. He had not been pleased when Albus had told him the plan to have her find a letter in the office. Severus hated the fact that he had to trust his fate to a Gryffindor. Though, if he had to entrust it to someone, at least it was someone who was competent. He would have surely been condemned if Ron Weasley had been the choice.

It had been quite the argument on giving a Gryffindor the password to his room. Albus conceded slightly and said he would leave her the entire passage so she would have to read the whole thing. If she had to say the whole passage she would have a harder time figuring out the password was only a few words. Severus still didn't feel alright about it. He certainly didn't feel happy when he had to give up his only Russian copy of The Idiot, to be placed beside the English text in the library. It seemed that for a while all the two men did was argue. Thankfully, it wasn't always like that. They did have some very in-depth conversations about the future and what would happen with the war.

Albus was always optimistic that Potter would defeat the Dark Lord. Severus was always sceptical. He hoped that the Dark Lord would be conquered, but something about this whole thing made him uneasy. To live past this war was not really an option to Severus. His fate was sealed the moment he cast the Killing Curse. Nothing could save him now.

He had spoken his fears to Albus one night. The Headmaster had smiled at him with twinkling eyes and told him not to worry about that. Severus knew he had something up his sleeves, but like Voldemort, prying did no good.

There was no doubt in Severus's mind that Hermione Granger had gotten the horcrux. When Avery, Alecto, and Amycus failed to show up, he knew that they had failed. He was almost positive that they were dead and those bodies would never show up. Narcissa must have been the one to kill them, it's no matter they were idiots to begin with. He had not spoken to Narcissa yet. The two would only talk every four days for less than five minutes on the two-way mirror. Severus was scheduled to talk with Narcissa in one day and he was hopeful the information was what he wanted to hear. If Granger had taken the horcrux, it would certainly be destroyed soon.

All Narcissa needed to do was get in touch with the Gryffindor and tell her the location of the talon and what the final horcrux was. The rest was up to her. He was confident, more than he felt he should have been that she would be able to figure out the location of the portrait. People said she was the brightest witch of her age, he hoped they were correct.