"What in Merlin's name is the meaning of this?" A privacy curtain had been drawn around the hospital bed, but Severus had no trouble guessing who was behind it. In a low voice, he responded,
"Miss Lovegood is lucky this was her first misdemeanor. Further deviations from school rules will result in a more aggressive punishment."
"Lucky?" Minerva recoiled as if she had been shocked. "You call that lucky?"
"Might I remind you that it is I, not you, who is in charge of this institution. I intend to uphold its students to the highest standard achievable. I have made this clear from the beginning."
"That was a three this bloody morning! I will not stand for this, Severus. Neither will the others."
"I'm sure you won't. You can have your meetings, and make your insignificant plans, but you will not alter the course of history, Minerva. I, however, fully intend to by making the students within these walls learn and perform at a level that has never been achieved under my predecessors. If you as an educator disagree with these goals, I will find someone suitable to take your place."
Poppy approached then, gripping Minerva's shoulder. Severus turned his attention to her, "I expect Miss Lovegood to be back in class within the hour."
He left before either of them could respond.
He did not need to watch to see if the girl was returned to class. As he patrolled the halls, he could hear her, one cautious step after the other as she hugged the stone wall and let an outstretched hand keep her from walking into any Knights.
"Hermione." He called again, pushing the memory at her as firmly as he dared. There was no response, and he pulled himself from her mind before he lost control of his emotions and fucked her up permanently.
The rest of the day was uneventful, though Severus suspected it was more due to the students planning some form of dramatic revolt then it was of any actual obedience.
He had seen more students gathered around Lovegood than he had seen ever speak to the girl since she arrived at the school all those years ago.
He didn't imagine it would last, not once the next, more popular student was brought to him. When he would have to toss any remaining shred of conscience out the bloody window and put all the good torture methods he'd observed over the course of his time as a Death Eater to good use.
Yes, they would leave her be, then, and rally around that victim. And then the next and the next until there were more bodies crawling around the floor of the corridors then there were scrambling to pick them up.
Severus didn't sleep.
She did, next to him. And he watched her. She preferred when he was on his side, knees pressed to each other and bent slightly so that his legs created a ragged arch for her to curl up against. He propped himself up on his elbow and stared down at her.
She was warm; the most genuine, penetrating warmth he thought he'd ever felt. A thick and encompassing warmth that dug deep into his muscles, everywhere she touched.
He didn't know how it was physically possible to curl herself together so tightly. Granted, she still took up half the bed, but she didn't touch nearly enough of him.
He reached down and swept a finger over the bridge of her nose and wondered when she'd actually feel him.
He got up in the dead of night and went for a jog around the winding pathway he used to frequent. It felt like decades ago, but he could still see his own footprints from a few days before.
The lioness kept pace with him, an irritating reflection of how dreadfully slow he was travelling.
He led her down through the tunnel and around to the mouth of the lake. The moon lit the grounds just enough for him to see the path. Staring at the water, he watched as the moonlight danced through the mist gathered over the surface. It would be frigid, near incapacitating, and that was all he desired.
He stripped, tossing his clothes in a haphazard mound, biting his wand between his teeth.
He ignored Nyota and sprinted with long strides over the rough rock, toes curling over the edge as he pushed himself into the air.
He gave himself a harsh angle that took him through the layers of cold until he could no longer think, and he held himself there for a moment, that blissful numbness, before he churned and broke up through the surface. He swam a few lengths, holding his breath because he liked the burning in his lungs, and then he allowed himself to take the wand from his mouth, treading water and turning to face the lioness.
She was pacing the edge of the cliff, tail slashing through the air. The moonlight cast a silver ripple of gleaming light over her shimmering pelt, the trembling muscles making her look like more an illusion than a physical reality.
Her head lifted as he faced her, and she whipped around, sending a sliver of rock into the water as she pushed off from it.
"Come, then." He called gruffly through his labored breathing, and she did.
She swam to him, top line like an eel melding with the surface. The dark hair lining her dorsal rocked, snaking, and her tail drew out an extension of the movement.
When they met, Severus whispered in her mind, and she was nowhere.
The rising sun brought grief of an unconscionable amount. The Gryffindors hadn't even made it to breakfast before cornering the Carrows and instigating a brawl.
At least, that's what it had reduced to by the time Severus arrived.
"Enough!" He retracted his wand, cloak billowing from the movement, and with a broad stroke sent a gust of air cascading through the little army of students.
The Carrows managed to remain balanced and they bellowed as the students fumbled over each other, limbs knotted and poking in all directions.
"Professors," Severus inclined his head, "I see we have an attempt at an uprising."
Alecto snorted. "A bloody bad one." She stalked forward and shot a spell at the closest student, whose head was buried beneath the pile. "Sir." She added as an afterthought, grinning as she elicited a squeal of pain.
"Professor Carrow, please do not stoop to the incomprehensibly low level of these petty children."
Severus sneered at her until she took a step away, encouraged by the snarl from the lioness at his side.
"Now. Seeing as our policies have attracted quite the crowd, I will be dividing the responsibilities amongst the three of us." Severus lifted one of the students from the mess with a flick of his wrist. "Amycus."
Once they were divided, Severus with the majority, he dismissed the Carrows. They were practically frothing at the mouth. Of course it wouldn't be two days before the fucking Gryffindors lost the battle of wills with their "bravery" and picked a gratuitous fight with the two most dangerous people at Hogwarts.
Severus hardly knew most of the students, but of course there were a few familiar faces. Longbottom, namely, and the Weasley girl. Severus let the girl go so he could take Neville. The first spell the Carrows would have used on him would have been the very one to incapacitate his parents.
"Let's go. Don't. Dawdle."
Now that the energy of the confrontation had dissipated, the reality of the situation had begun settling over the students, and they walked listlessly before him, eyes to the floor.
He took them to an empty classroom in an obscure corner of the castle few frequented. He had instructed both of the Carrows to inhabit rooms nearer to high traffic areas. The more fear they could induce, the less he would have to torture. That was the theory... The other outcome was much less appealing.
He made them all stand facing him as he called up Longbottom. If he was going to make an impression, he would make a lasting one.
"Mr. Longbottom. Feeling quite... brave... today?"
"It...it..." Severus knew the affect he had on the boy, and he drew on it, stretching to full height and casting his baritone throughout the room so that it echoed up the vaulted ceiling.
"It, what, you blubbering cretin?
The boy glanced at the other students, drawing what he needed from their horrified faces, and he turned square towards Severus. "It was my fault."
"You're right." Severus replied softly, growing sick at the confusion that pulled at the boy's features. He knelt forward. "Choosing to start a fight you couldn't hope to win was your fault. And informing your friends of it was your fault. And then involving them in animating it. It. Was. Your. Fault… And what else, Longbottom?"
The boy was hardly standing. Tears soaked his face, and his eyes locked on Severus' as his lips trembled, head shaking in useless refusal.
"Getting them tortured was your fault."
Severus sent a stinging hex at a random student. They screamed, falling to their knees and rolling to their side with a sick thud.
Severus didn't look to see who it was. He stared straight at Longbottom, who had turned and gasped in horror. "No," he choked.
He heard scuffling and shot a hex at the moving target, eyes still on the boy.
Another screaming voice added like a layer of a harmony.
"Do you feel it, Longbottom?" The boy couldn't pull his eyes away from the suffering.
"Stop. Please, stop."
"It's."
Hex.
"Please!"
"Your."
"No!"
Curse.
"Fault. Imperio!"
Severus brought his wand to the boy's chin, then pulled back, sending Longbottom forward towards one of the students frozen in place. Severus let his wand dance, an invisible string stretching from the pointed tip towards the boy, and with a tug, Severus brought his arms up, fingers outstretched. The boy wrapped his fingers around the girl's throat and squeezed, feeble muscles tightening under the crest of Gryffindor on his chest.
The girl's eyes bulged, and Severus counted, waiting for the moment, feeling the crushing of her windpipe beneath his fingers. When her eyelids fluttered, Severus pulled him back, the girl dropping out of his hands to the floor.
There were two more who had yet to receive punishment. Longbottom threw one into the wall, knocking them unconscious, blood seeping out into a puddle on the stone. It ran through the cracks, a little stream, towards the boy's feet. Severus made the boy kneel and dip his finger in it, wiping it over his bottom lip and down his chin.
He could feel the boy screaming, thrashing and beating against the inside of his own skull, but it was nothing to Severus.
A spark of fire burst to life as the boy approached the last student, and Severus lurched Longbottom forward. He grabbed the younger student by the hair and pressed the flame into his shoulder, then dragged it along the outside of his sleeve, letting the cloth catch fire and ignite over his entire arm.
Longbottom swiped the boy's knee out with a kick, the joint snapping backwards. With hand still fisted in hair, he spun the boy around on the floor. Ever so gently releasing him to brush the hair off his neck, Longbottom brought the tip of the wand to the exposed skin, singing "N.L." with artistic precision as the boy lay still, just conscious enough to feel it.
Severus released him, and Longbottom flopped onto the boy's flaming arm.
The lioness sat beside him the entire time, demeanor unchanged.
It wasn't until lunch that Severus was able to see the damage the Carrows had done. He scanned the tables, looking for obvious afflictions. It was not difficult to picture one of them ripping a limb off and biting into it like a strip of breaded chicken.
There were no bandaged stumps, but it was apparent that an immense amount of damage had been done. Severus had been unable to iterate any restrictions, and the Carrows had taken full advantage.
Severus made himself catalogue the visible injuries on every single one of them. After lunch, he went through the enrollment files and slit every name onto his thigh with a delicate blade.
A/N - Fun news, my dad figured out how to block certain devices from accessing the internet. Namely my devices. Actually, only and all of my devices. Such fun. (I'm currently seeking harbor somewhere else to get you guys this. I'm so devious)