Severus was summoned to the front gates not much later by an eager Argus Filch, who shuffled along in front of him at an irritatingly slow speed, all the while professing his excitement over the change in administration.
"S'bout time we got some proper discipline. All of the dungeon is oiled and ready for use, sir."
"That won't be necessary, Argus."
"No? Well, I -"
"We have much crueler tactics at our disposal." Severus allowed a sinister smile to pull at his features for a brief moment.
Filch's lips pulled back to reveal a set of grimy, crooked teeth, and Severus clenched his jaw as a bit of spit flew in his direction, "Bout time these filthy students got some good punishment."
"Lumos."
Two broad figures stood on the other side, a familiar set of gruesomely carved masks set over their faces.
"Let them in, Argus."
"Yessir."
The gates swung open and death poured in.
Nyota stretched, digging her claws into the frame of the door. She pulled herself down, hollowing her back, and Severus watched as her nails carved slits into the wood.
She released herself and plodded over to an ornate rug decorating the floor beneath an arrangement of book shelves.
Severus couldn't help but perk up a bit at her choice of scenery.
The arrival of the Carrow twins was not surprising, but it was cementing.
The Carrows were two of the cruelest, bloodiest, and most unmanageable members of the Dark, and that was not an easy assessment to achieve. They acted purely on their own desires; derived chiefly of needless suffering and resultantly obtuse amount of torture required to achieve it.
The Dark Lord allowed them in his ranks purely for their insatiable lust, which in his eyes, overshadowed their resistance to truly succumb to his leadership.
They were like wild, hungry dogs. You could set them loose in the direction of prey and they would never fail to kill. One just wouldn't typically expect any meat for themselves.
The very thought of them inside Hogwarts set Severus' skin on edge. It would be impossible for him to exercise complete control over their actions, which was without a doubt why his Lord had sent them. It did not worry him entirely at his Lord's lack of trust; it was innate to his being. There would be no contingency, only certainty, and the Carrows would bridge the gap.
And, of course, they seated themselves on either side of him at breakfast, chittering and chattering with one another like a pair of hyenas while he suffered in between. Though the lioness acted as a relieving buffer, the two were incessant. If Severus hadn't been Headmaster...
But he was, so he sipped his burning coffee and let it scald his throat and then he rose to address the students.
"Before I dismiss you for classes, there is a staffing change to announce. Professor Carrow will be teaching Muggle Studies, and Professor Carrow will be replacing me as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts."
The students began turning to one another in confusion, but before any could speak, he continued, all eyes reluctantly returning to him.
"You are dismissed. No talking." He turned to the table of Professors seated behind him, and snapped, "Be sure to enforce that." The weight of the unspoken threat hung heavy in the air, and Minerva met his eyes. She looked sickened, and there was the hard edge in her gaze of someone determined to make his life hell. He hoped she would. The students deserved her protection, and he deserved her wrath.
He couldn't help but notice her glance down at the lioness. When the animal ignored her, she looked at him again, this time worry etched in every feature and a moisture developing around her eyes. It was obvious, the internal scream, "What did you do?"
"S'my pleasure, Headmaster." Cooed Alecto, rising from her seat and nudging her brother, who was waiting to leave. He smirked and nodded to Severus, and the two left, both flaring their nostrils as they passed Minerva.
The thought of wild dogs came to mind again, like they were picking up the scent of prey.
Severus gave a curt nod to Minerva and breezed past her, trying to focus on anything but the loaded stare directed at his back.
Though the position of Headmaster meant bringing war home, if there was one small positive thing he could glean from it, it was that he didn't have to teach.
On the other hand, it meant he had to torture.
Which was incomparable, so Severus grabbed the signature bowl of candy on the desk and threw it across the room.
The lioness started as shards of broken glass and bits of peppermint spewed in all directions, and Severus sighed, waving it all away with a mumbled spell.
"Sorry."
"Fuck! Sorry, ok? I never... fuck, I never meant... Merlin and Circe, why won't you come back?"
The office didn't look like Albus's anymore, it looked like a fatal duel had broken out in the midst of a meeting with good intentions, and the lioness was cowered beneath the desk, trembling.
He took a step towards her, but she growled, eyes wide, so he stopped.
Severus knelt, picked up a chunk of stone, and vanished it. He moved mechanically around the space, rolling each tangible object between his fingers, the only thing in his life he had control over, all these broken pieces in a prison cell, and he watched as each and every piece disappeared until there was nothing left but the bare sight of self-destruction.
The sharp crack of a single choke of laughter sliced through the silence of the room as a small shape bloomed and approached, growing larger with each step.
"That didn't take very long."
"I pride myself on punctuality." Albus smiled, seating himself in a plush leather chair.
"Of course you do." In one motion, Severus summoned a curtain from across the room and plastered it over the painting. "Now shut the fuck up."
The bit of glee Severus garnered from pissing off Albus lasted an infuriatingly short time. The walls in the room seemed to constrict, tensing and shrinking about him, almost forcing Severus out the door.
He went, a nagging feeling telling him it wasn't the castle being temperamental.
Students were pressed together outside the stairwell to the office, and they started pushing into one another in an attempt to flee as soon as he came into sight.
He reached out and grabbed the closest student by their robes. Severus hauled him back and lifted him onto his tip toes, faces inches from each other as he snarled, "What is the meaning of this?"
The pale faced student swallowed, glanced away, then began stuttering.
"Tell. Me." Lifted him up a bit further so he was hardly touching the floor.
"Prof- Pro- Profess- Uh- " The student began crying and Severus threw him back into the throng of his classmates, not bothering to see if they caught his stumbling form.
The crowd parted, and Severus stared straight ahead, though he catalogued the reactions as he passed, a sense of dread developing as it seemed most students were either trembling in horror or crying uncontrollably.
He finally broke through, saw what was happening, turned around, and growled, "Return to your dormitories. Classes will commence after lunch."
Only a few students hesitated, he recognized Longbottom and a few other Gryffindors who had been trying to make their way to the front, wands at the ready. They were swept back by their classmates, and Severus turned to face Amycus.
"Off to an ambitious start, I see, Amycus." Severus stated, ignoring the student dangling from a burly clenched fist.
"Setting the tone." He huffed, casting a sloppy spell towards the student's stomach. A small whimper in response, and Severus stormed forward, knocking the student out of the way to grab Amycus by the throat, slamming the much larger man into the wall. His wand sizzled, and he pressed the tip against his jugular, the stench of burning flesh becoming overwhelming in a mere second.
"You. Do not. Torture. The students."
Amycus struggled, a gross smirk growing, "Wait 'till our Lord hears-"
"Our Lord put me in charge, or were you unable to process that in your feeble little mind?" The tip of his wand had disappeared in his fatty neck, and Severus seethed, every ounce of him boiling with the desire to ravage the ignorant fucking mongrel.
"I fought... I served... I did my time... You... will not... reap the benefits of my loyalty."
Severus threw the man aside, reaching down to grab the limp body off the floor. He held it up like a trophy.
"Crucio!" The student screamed, the shrill sound echoing down the stone, seeping into the heart of the castle.
"You will bring the students to me... And when I am satisfied, you will get your turn."
Amycus didn't respond; shuffling away without meeting Severus' eye.
As soon as he turned the corner, Severus brought the bleeding and ravaged body of Luna Lovegood to his chest.
"Miss Lovegood."
He couldn't do this.
"Miss Lovegood? Can you hear me?"
"Pro-"
He pressed a warm washcloth to her throat, murmuring a gentle spell.
"Professor Snape?"
"I won't hurt you."
"I know."
Her face was swollen shut, both eyes nothing but angry, bulging bruises.
"I need you to tell me everything he did to you. My diagnostics can only tell me so much. I do not want to miss anything critical."
Severus had plenty of experience treating himself, but having someone else to care for was entirely new territory. He couldn't help but glance at the lioness who was lying on the floor a few feet away, watching him.
"You... You got it all."
"Miss -"
"I'm ok. Thank you for the help." She moved to rise, and Severus grabbed her a bit too tightly on her shoulders, forcing her to stay in place. He let go immediately, standing straight and taking a step back.
"You need to rest a little while longer… And I will need to Obliviate this from your mind."
He waited for the outburst, but the girl just sighed. "Yes. I agree that would be wise."
"Very well. I will wait until your departure to take care of that. I am very precise; you will not lose anything that does not pertain to your time here."
It was a moment before she replied. "The torture?"
"That will have to stay." He turned away, an unnecessary gesture considering that she couldn't see.
Her voice was smaller this time. "Ok."
He wouldn't be able to keep her longer than a few hours, if he were to realistically uphold the idea of torture, but even that was a stretch. There was nothing else he could do for her, his Crucio was untreatable, the stomach twist that Amycus had given her had already passed, and everything else he had already addressed; cracked skull, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder, multiple broken ribs, various superficial slices and cuts. True to nature, Amycus had beaten her by hand before turning to his wand.
Severus would wait for the swelling in her face to recede enough for her to see, and then she would have to leave.
Obliviating her would cover his ass as far as his helping her went, but it would do nothing for the absence of the signs of extensive torture. He would have to fabricate memories, probably utilize some muggle techniques that were more psychological than physical, base it on the idea that he got more satisfaction that way, that it broke them more.
He leaned up against the wall beneath the array of paintings, the only place in the office where they couldn't see him, and he set his head back against the cold stone as he set to work.
She had been still and silent the entire time, and Severus had the brief morbid thought that she had died.
He pushed the door open, a brief feeling of relief at the sight of her chest rising and falling, and then the sudden scene of the lioness curled against her side caused him to choke on his own saliva.
"Professor?"
"Is... Hermione?"
The lioness raised her head at the sound of his voice, but there was no profound recognition as it glanced at him.
"No, it's Nyota, I think."
"You think?"
"I can't..." The girl shifted and sat up just enough to squint down at the lioness, then nodded, wincing as she moved her head. "It's Nyota. Sorry, Professor."
The girl patted the lioness on the head once, then left her hand on top of one furry ear as she gingerly lay back down.
"How did you tell?"
"Her aura."
Of course. Her aura.
"I see."
"I'll explain to help you understand."
"That won't be necessary."
"Those who possess the skills to become Animagi essentially possess the skill to manipulate matter at will. Similar to manipulating an object, whether by making it travel through space, or by making it shift its form. That is a matter of magic." She swallowed, throat undoubtedly raw.
"Thank you for explaining the elusive idea of magic to me, Miss Lovegood." He was pissed, as if he could have honestly expected an explanation from a fucking teenager who spent more time looking for missing clothes and nargles than -
"The Animagi are different, because they are not only manipulating matter, they're manipulating life."
That was actually...
"So, when someone is in their Animagus form, I can tell. They have an aura. The air around them is unsettled, it's disturbed by the unnatural manipulation of a living thing. And she's still like that, Professor. Hermione isn't dead."
"If she... You could tell if she... were?" He didn't want to think it. Couldn't even entertain the idea that he'd have to be without her, even more so then he was now. Permanently. Absolutely.
"Yup! I've known she was with you all along, because of her aura. And she still has it. If she didn't, that would mean there wasn't any life being manipulated anymore. It would just be the animal, the lioness. No... You still have Hermione." Through the puffy cheeks, she was smiling.
"Miss Lovegood..."
"Yes, Professor? Is it time to go?"
"I don't have Hermione."
"No?"
So, she was in there. She was.
And he would not stop until she was here.
He had many more questions he would have liked to ask Miss Lovegood, but she had been with him long enough, too long, so he instructed her to cover every inch of her body as best she could to hide the lack of evidence suggesting his violent torture, and Obliviated her carefully. She was calm and quiet, accepting his instruction and letting him into her mind without the slightest resistance, all despite his rather aggressively insulting behavior towards her in his classes for the past few years.
Severus watched her limp away, hair sticking to his sweaty forehead and hollow cheeks, and he reached out to twirl a bit of the dark golden curls behind Nyota's ears.
Miss Lovegood was only the beginning.
And, there was that part of him, afraid there would be no end.