Author's Note: Believe it or not kids, but I actually have this finished. There's one more chapter after this and then an epilogue. I have them written out in a notebook, but it'll probably be another week before I have them typed and posted. After that I'll do a re-write and fill in any remaining plot holes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters (so stop asking me.) If I Ever Leave This World Alive is a song by Flogging Molly.
Eternally Yours
Chapter 24
If I Ever Leave This World Alive
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"I should really go report to Dumbledore," Severus was mumbling, but Hermione wasn't listening. Which was okay, because he wasn't that interested in going anywhere just at the moment.
Hermione looked up from her ministrations at Severus' neck. "You can give me twenty minutes. I'm sick of the Dark Lord affecting my sex life."
Severus considered reminding Hermione that currently the Dark Lord was her sex life, but decided he rather liked his current position.
Hermione was straddling Severus' lap where he sat in the armchair, greedily kissing every inch of his body that she could reach. Severus had long since relieved her of her blouse, and it was about to be joined on the floor by Hermione's bra.
Hermione shivered as Severus tangled one hand into the hair at the nape of her neck. She threw her head back and breathed heavily out of her nostrils. Severus brushed a thumb over one of Hermione's nipples, eliciting a low moan.
Severus was going for the zipper on her jeans when a loud popping noise announced the entrance of a third party. Hermione didn't even notice, but Severus shoved her to the other armchair and conjured a blanket to cover her from sight.
What was it with damn Malfoys entering unannounced when he was in the middle of something?
"What are you doing here, Lucius?" Snape asked. He stood, ignoring the obvious bulge in the front of his robes.
Lucius' eyes flicked over to the chair where Hermione was hiding under the blanket. "Is that my wife or the mudblood?"
"Which answer would be more likely to result in you leaving?" Severus asked.
"I was thinking."
"Well, I think that under the circumstances you should be doing that at Riddle manor."
"You see, that's what I've been thinking about," Lucius said, drawing his wand.
Severus had his wand aimed at Lucius' chest before the other man could even think of firing a hex at him. "Put your wand down, Lucius. Haven't we just been over this?"
"I've been thinking."
"Yes, you said that."
"I don't think that our little agreement is really going to work out."
"Do you think we could talk about this later? I was in the middle of something."
Lucius narrowed his eyes. "That something better not be my wife, Severus."
"No, I wouldn't bother. It's not fun anymore, now that you know. It's the mudblood, but after this I'm going to have to wipe her memory and start all over."
"Oh,' Lucius smiled. "In that case," he shifted his wand back to Severus. "I've been thinking."
"Oh, please Lucius do grace me with the inner-workings of that dark and twisted lump you call a brain."
"I don't think that our little agreement is really going to work out."
"Fine," Severus said, lowering his wand a fraction of an inch, so as to seem slightly less threatening, but still kept it pointed defensively at Lucius. "If that's how you want it, then fine."
Lucius narrowed his eyes, "Fine"
"Yes, fine." Severus read Lucius as safe, at least momentarily, and lowered his wand completely. "Would you like a dictionary?" Severus gestured to a bookshelf near the fireplace. "It starts with an 'F'."
Lucius sneered at him, but lowered him wand as well.
"That's better. Now, you've got me thinking as well, and the self-preserving Slytherin in me thinks that whatever you've been thinking could be a hazard to my health."
Lucius smirked unpleasantly. "Was it the wand that gave it away?"
Severus inclined his head in response.
"What I've been thinking is that you like to convolute things so completely that they go your way before anyone has the presence of mind to second guess you."
"I do have a tendency to do that."
"And it usually works too, but not this time Severus." He brought his wand up again.
The self-preserving side of him told Severus that now would be a prudent time to draw his wand and hex Lucius into next week, but his keen sense of timing forced him to refrain.
"I'm not going to fight you Lucius. I already told you, fine; if you think you can handle it, then feel free. I'm not sure that I'm still interested anyway. I've decided that I value my life over vast amounts of self-perceived power. I'm a subtle man Lucius, and I much prefer a cunningly placed subterfuge to outright confrontation. Quieting a few protesting Death Eaters is one thing, but what about when the ministry gets wind of this? We can't keep it quiet forever you know. What do you think will happen when Dumbledore finds out?"
Severus' lips curled into a wry shadow of a smile. "You think the old man was mad that time he caught us selling fake love potions to the Hufflepuffs and the next day half of their house table had broken out in purple pustules, but that was nothing."
Lucius was smiling now too.
"I didn't think this out thoroughly. It would be in my best interest to keep my head down and not get involved. I'm still under Dumbledore's protection from the ministry. I only joined the Dark Lord in the first place because he promised me a prominent position in his ranks when he took power. But it's been years, and I'm sick of being an underling spy subject to his whims without any of the perks that I've been promised. So now, if nothing else, I have earned myself a nice reprieve from the cruciatus.
"I'm quite happy to settle down and live my life. I think that I deserve that much Lucius, and I suggest that you do the same. If I pass along that you were instrumental in the Dark Lord's defeat, then maybe we can both get out of this clean. My godson needs a good deal more looking after than you can give in Azkaban, or I could provide dead for that matter. We both know Narcissa isn't up to the task. If Draco told her that he wanted to go to Yugoslavia to slay dragons, she would fill him up with sweets, give him a pocketful of Galleons, and send him on his merry way, just so long as he promised to write."
Lucius snorted at that last bit.
Severus spared him the rare, true smile. "See Luci, we can still be friends. I've missed that, with all the power plays and lies I think that our friendship has fallen by the wayside."
Lucius rolled his eyes at Severus' sentimentality. "Alright then Severus, what do you say we do exactly? Just lay low for a few days and let the others fend for themselves?"
"Well, that would be admirably Slytherin of us, but I think that there's something you have forgotten to take into account."
"And what is that?"
But Severus was saved explaining as the very something in question appeared next to her brother-in-law with a loud 'pop' and began shrieking.
"YOU FILTHY TRAITOR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
Severus' wand was in his hand in a second, just in time to counter the first hex Bellatrix shot his way.
"HOW DARE YOU BETRAY MY LORD? YOU'RE NOT EVEN FIT TO LICK THE FILTH FROM HIS BOOTS, YOU FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR SCUM!"
"You sound like your aunt, Bella." Severus fired a curse at her, and she easily countered it. "Pleasant woman, she was quite fond of calling me a blood traitor as well, though I think you put the word filth to better use."
Severus dodged Bellatrix's next curse, and ended up standing right in front of Hermione. He looked pleadingly to Lucius, who was standing to the side of the tussle.
Lucius frowned and looked down at his wand. It was pretty clear where his loyalties lie: with himself, like always. But beyond that, he couldn't seem to decide, probably because there wasn't a clear winner yet.
Well, that was just great; meanwhile, Bellatrix was closing the distance between them.
Hermione nudged the back of one of his knees, and he almost got hit by a curse from Bellatrix.
"Damn," he hissed, as the sleeve of his robes was singed.
Bellatrix let out a cackle, her eyes dancing back and forth in their sockets wildly.
"You're going to die now Severus, and before you do I want you to know what it is you're dying for. I want you to know what it is you've done.
She was advancing on him slowly, deliberately, her eyes burning with rage.
"We were going to make a better world, Severus. The Dark Lord had such wondrous things planned for us, and you've ruined it all. The muggles were going to finally learn their rightful place, and we were going to send all the mudbloods back to the filth where they belong." She hissed, and spared Lucius her first glance since she arrived, and then quickly looked back to Severus. "And blood traitors like you and Lucius get a special…"
But whatever it was that was so special they never found out. At just that moment Bellatrix was knocked back by three spells.
Lucius seemed to think that being called a blood traitor was enough to finally make him choose a side. He said, "Serpensortius," in a manner lethargic enough to maintain plausible deniability later if necessary.
At the same time, Severus gave Hermione the signal she'd been waiting for, and they both fired curses at Bellatrix simultaneously.
Hermione threw back her blanket and screamed, "Avis oppugno!"
Severus grabbed Hermione around the waist a she did, and joined it with, "Sectumsempra!"
Bellatrix was knocked to the floor by the flock of birds that flew from Hermione's wand. Lying flat on her back, she had just enough time to feel Lucius' snakes strike before she was sliced open by Severus' favorite bit of foolish wand waving. Bellatrix let out one final shriek, and then the birds converged on her.
Lucius let out a startled gasp.
Hermione buried her face in Severus' shoulder and sobbed. Severus held her tight and turned to Lucius.
"Narcissa won't be pleased; we killed her sister."
"You killed her sister," Lucius clarified. "I just shot some snakes at her." He grimaced at the sight before him. "I think your mudblood's birds are finishing them off now, or is that a bit of Bella? I don't think Narcissa will mind much anyway. Bella was a bitch. Draco won't be pleased though, better not tell him that the mudblood's birds ate his favorite aunt; he doesn't like her much." Lucius narrowed his eyes at the pair of them licentiously. "Nice body on her though. I have a couple hours if you feel like repaying me for the use of my wife."
Hermione turned towards him, one arm covering her bare breasts, her other gripping her wand. "If you think the birds were bad, you should see what a mudblood can do with those snakes of yours. It's not your fault that you can't control them properly though, all that inbreeding is bound to throw off a few defects sooner or later."
Severus smirked, and cut Lucius off before he could retort. "I think you were leaving Luci. I have something I need to finish."
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Author's note: I'm not too sure about that chapter. Does it feel too forced? Please review.