Speed Drabble: lopsided (word), "You think I'm being paranoid but the truth is I'm worth nothing to her alive." (dialogue), "You don't think that was just lemonade in your glass, do you?" (dialogue)

January Event: Severus Snape/ Bellatrix Lestrange - Medium (15)

Chocolate Frog Card: (Gold) Dzou Yen: Prompts: Sickness, Destruction, Reflection, Violent

"She's going to kill me one day," Severus mused, watching his wife walk through the gardens, talking to her sister. "Our Lord forced us into this and she's the only one out of the two of us who hasn't succumbed to our feelings."

"You're just worrying over unnecessary things," Lucius replied, taking a sip of his drink. "Everytime I look at you, you're shaking with fear. It's like a sickness, spreading through you with only one thing on it's mind: your destruction."

"That's because it is," he grumbled. "You think I'm being paranoid but the truth is, I'm worth nothing to her alive." He snorted, staring at his reflection in the window; he looked pale and gaunt, the stress of striving to make his violent wife happy taking its toll on him. "She cares nothing for me. She'd rather have my head mounted on the wall than next to her in bed."

"I still think you're being dramatic."

"You're in love with your wife; you don't understand." Severus sighed and swallowed a mouthful of his drink, savouring the tangy flavour of the lemonade. As he drained the glass, Bellatrix and Narcissa joined the pair and sat down with them. "Good afternoon," he greeted, coughing slightly. Narcissa replied politely but Bella's eyes narrowed in on him, watching patiently and almost gleefully. This didn't escape his notice.

He stared at her as pain flared in his mouth, throat and chest and he saw the quirk of her lips, hinting to her pleasure and the excitement in her eyes.

"What have you done?" he gasped, rubbing his throat urgently before reaching for a bezoar in his pocket. She snatched it from his weak and feeble fingers.

"You don't think that was just lemonade in your glass, do you?" she asked, cackling. She shot him a lopsided grin that made his insides clench. "I don't like things holding me back." The pain in his chest flared before his eyes blurred with withheld tears and then everything went black.

Severus awoke with a gasp, sweat plastering the sheets and his hair to him. The body next to him groaned and rolled over to look at him.

"Sev'rus?" she mumbled blearily. "Ev'rything okay?" Her curls were a mess around her head and he couldn't help but push a few off her face and out of her eyes.

"Yeah, Bella," he answered, lying himself back down. "I'm fine."