Chapter 9: Anguish Has Many Forms
{A/N: Here's Another Update...}
My Thanks To All My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy S.S.
Master Bedroom, Snape Manor, Unknown World...
Dawn greeted Snape as he stretched some in bed feeling the added weight upon his chest. His pale lips turned upward in a contented smirk as he blinked away the disorientation of the previous night's sleep. Although he had been sated when it came to his ever apparent libido, he was still intrigued by the prospect of another go round. In the wake of the ever pleasant feelings of post coital bliss, the feeling of weight mixed with the heated sensation of something sharp and metallic dipping into his formerly rigid pale flesh. The dark wizard's obsidian eyes shot open and he found himself eye to eye with his apparently murderous better half. The crimson of his blood had been more pronounced as it seeped from the freshly made gash in his abdomen. The shock must have been new to her as she continued to drive the blood slick blade into his slumped form.
"Sweetheart..."said Snape as the blood dripped from his mouth. "Is this about last night?"
The witch above him continued to stab him as if driven by some maddening force. Snape for all his talk felt every ounce of pain she sent rushing through him. As the unhinged witch continued to relieve her frustrations, he simply smiled a smile of unstated madness in his own right. He coughed up more blood as she finally pulled back noting how he made no move to save himself.
"Go on." he said choking on his own blood. "Finish it...punish me for all my sins...punish me... for murdering that gullible old fool you loved so much."
Enraged, she ran the thick blade's end across the exposed pale flesh of his neck. More blood spilled over his exposed pale chest and the smile never left his twisted face.
"Yesss." he hissed despite the blood. "Give me your hate...it's all I am worth in this world...It took quite some time to understand...such painful lessons in learning one's place in this world."
The stunned would be murderess gasped and attempted to run. Snape was having none of it as he flipped her onto her back staining her green silk robe with his blood. The bloodied wizard towered above her as his blood oozed all over her otherwise intact form. He maneuvered until his bloodied form had been between her shapely thighs and met her terrified gaze.
"So formidable." he said softly as if the treacherous stabbing had never occurred. "If blood play was what you wanted...you need to have only asked."
Before the deranged wizard's wife could protest, their collective groans filled the room in the wake of their bodies joining.
"You see." hissed Snape. "We belong together...me the unrepentant sinner and you my eternal judge, jury, and executioner."
"I...regret the day you ever came to Hogwarts." said his wife as his body slid into her warm depths.
"How sweet..." said Snape thrusting rather easily into the witch below him.
Her green eyes flickering with pure loathing as her audible cries began to get the better of her in the wake of his antics. The wounds she caused had stopped their bleeding leaving behind more scars in their wake.
"I regret the accursed day of my very birth." he said in an emotionless tone.
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Strange Bedroom,Snape's Manor, Unknown Location...
Hermione awoke to find herself in the center of a large canopy bed with elegant gold dress. The sheets had been scarlet with shelves filled with books from top to bottom. Plain red wall paper lined the walls with an elegant cherry wood finish in terms of a boarder. The floor had been black marble much as the entrance hall had been and heavily polished. Despite the welcome comfort of the plush soft pillows. The newly awakened witch shot out of bed and bolted for the door recalling at last that she had been a prisoner in this place, with a murderous Snape as her jailer.
Ginny had not been anywhere in sight. Hermione supposed that was for the best given here her loyalties now lie. As she continued to try and pry herself from her gilded cage, she had not noticed the obsidian eyes of Severus Snape watching her from the darkened corner of the newly acquired bedroom.
After a few moments, she settled down knowing there was no way she could easily escape the room he had placed her in. Of course that didn't stop her from venturing toward the desk and as quickly as she could grabbing the nearest hardest covered book and tossing it in the dungeon bat's direction.
"Miss Granger..." he said as if shocked by her violent display. "Such a terrible way to treat a book, and to think you were once fascinated by them."
"A lot has changed in the wake of my friends dying." she said defiantly. "Don't pretend you know me."
Snape treated her to a dastardly smirk before taking his seat in a chair by the corner. She had been as feisty as the Mrs. all things considered. His eyes flickered with amusement as he thought of his morning with the battle ax.
"Why are you here?" she asked bitterly.
Snape sighed.
"You'd think that would be obvious." he said still clearly amused.
"If you think you can come in her wave your hand and make me like Ginny you are sorely mistaken." said Hermione ready to fight at a moment's notice.
All amusement had been drained from Snape's face.
"I do not take kindly to being threatened Miss Granger, you of all people should know at least that much about me." he said annoyed.
"I don't care to know anything about you." countered Hermione. "You are aren't even worthy to lick Voldemort's boots."
Snape hissed at her brazen use of the dark lord's name. On reflex he had been out of the chair and his hand came down across her cheek in a violent collision.
"DON'T YOU EVER USE THAT NAME IN MY PRESENCE!" he barked more enraged than Hermione had ever seen him.
Feeling fear for the first time since her arrival, The nervous witch found herself second guessing her tendency to goad the bastard that held her freedom in the palm of his hand.
Not at all calm after his outburst, Snape forced Hermione into the seat near the wooden desk and dumped a strange looking tome in front of her. Her amber eyes widened as she noted it had been wrapped in black velvet.
"Recognize this?" he asked in a gruff tone.
Hermione nodded rather numb as she vaguely recalled retrieving it for the former Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.
Snape gripped the end of the top of the chair in an uneasy fashion.
"So..." he said bitterly as his obsidian eyes blazed with hate. "You did help him."
Hermione arched an eyebrow at this as she looked up from the strange tome.
"Professor Dumbledore asked me to get this for him...when you were too sick to..." she started then paused coming to terms with the man she admired in his private struggles being the same bastard that stood before her now. "What am I suppose to do with this?"
Snape smirked despite his apparent fury.
"You're a clever girl, Miss Granger." he said unamused. "What does one do with a book when it is presented?"
Before she could offer a retort, Snape swept out of her rooms in a billow of black robes. The angry witch had not known why Snape was so interested in this strange tome and she knew even less about why she had been chosen to go over it. Perhaps, he needs some kind of assistance with something? Like I'd ever held that bastard. Then again, there may be some apparent key to stopping him Dumbledore left for me. Snape won't know what hit him.
Resolving herself to checking the tome of curiosities' sake, Hermione opened the book carefully knowing all too well the dangers of fiddling with what appeared to be dark magic.
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The Study, Snape Manor, Unknown Location...
Snape sipped his tea rather gingerly as he gazed out the window of his parlor. He had been amused by the women that inhabited his manor as of late knowing them better than they had even known themselves. His wife believed she surprised him with that message sent out to Granger, never knowing she had baited the trap for the bushy haired girl to come sniffing along to be captured. Miss Granger for all her big talk seemed engrossed in the old tome he set out for her to read. So predictable down to the last minute inner struggle.
"Is everything to your liking sir?" asked Lucius Malfoy with his gray eyes turned down in respect of his betters.
"More of the same." replied Snape still sipping his tea.
"The Granger girl appears to have started your research." said Lucius mindful not to overstep.
"Indeed she had." replied Snape with a wistful sigh. "Such a succulent little lamb...it's almost a pity she's come to a wolf to find herself primed for inevitable slaughter."
Lucius nodded in agreement. He had seen first hand the kind of damage Snape had been capable of especially, in regard to young witches. Ginerva Weasley was quite the example of such treatment.
"Should I send her in sir?" he asked knowing all too well of whom he spoke.
"No." replied Snape coldly. "I have business to attend to this evening and do not wish to be disturbed...while I am away, do take care to enlighten Mrs. Snape that she is free to move about the house if only to amuse herself...she's been in a bit of a mood as of late."
Snape ran his fingers across the scar from the slash she left on his throat as he said this.
"Poor things upset, I have taken on quite a few steady partners." he said with a wicked smirk.
"I'm sure." replied Lucius Malfoy causing Snape to grin.
"That's the spirit Lucy." said the dangerous wizard as he patted his old friend on the back. "Keep up the subtle charm...it makes life worth living."
Lucius resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His demotion to meager door man for the likes of Severus Snape, when he at one time commanded the dark lord's armies was humiliating to say the least. He supposed he couldn't really blame Severus in the end, given the violent mood swings that took place following the battle of Hogwarts, it was easy to see why he had become so...different.
Snape swept out of the study and toward the front door of the manor. He knew everyone inside would be delighted once he had gone, their fear and hatred evident in every breath they took around him. It had been the reason they were all chosen as opposed to having been killed. Lucius had been fortunate that Snape decided not only was he worth keeping around given how the dark lord despised him but so had been his wife and son, Draco was after all Severus' godson and tucked safely behind the walls of Hogwarts Castle.
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Open field, Unknown location...
The winds had continued to pick up as Severus Snape stood atop a lone hill overlooking a vast and angry sea. The swirls of vibrant deep blue and frothy white as inviting as a freshly made bed. This place would have been his grave at one point following Minerva's brutal assault. It had been almost fitting in a way, the very place where he had come to meet the Headmaster that fateful night.
{ Albus Dumbledore had been even more impressive up close than Severus Snape remembered. His light blue robes trailing down to his ankles, the prominent wizard's hat to match. His hair had been white, like fresh fallen snow and his eyes as blue as the most rare sapphires ever found, his face stoic and twisted in a kind of wisdom and pride only gifted to those who have reached the pentacle of age.
"You disgust me." said Dumbledore.
His tone as jarring as the biting words he used to pierce through to the twenty-one year old wizard's soul.
"Please.." begged Snape throwing away his wand and immediately falling to his knees at the more powerful wizard's feet. "Don't kill me."
"And why should I spare your miserable life...Merlin knows you haven't thought to spare any innocents the wrath of your dark lord." said Dumbledore, his tone still biting.
"I...I didn't...please..." said Snape wishing to make himself the equivalent of a worm beneath The Magnificent Albus Dumbledore's heel. "There is this girl...she...her son was born at the end of July."
"And what makes this girl so special that you dare seek me out knowing my contempt for you and your lot?" asked Dumbledore still clearly enraged by his presence.
"Lily." replied Snape unable to think of anything else. "Save Lily...please."
"Save Lily?" repeated Dumbledore. "Are you that much of a swine that you'd condemn her husband and their baby boy to death for your own selfish gains?"
"Fine save them all!" shouted Snape at the end of his rope. "Just keep them safe."
"And what turncoat will you give me for this service?" asked Dumbledore.
"Anything." he said broken before the words had left his mouth. }
"Anything indeed." said Severus Snape as the strange black tears trailed down his sallow pale cheeks. "I gave you my soul Albus...and you betrayed me as if it were nothing but a mere flick of dust in the winds of your war with the dark lord...you didn't even keep her safe...and these people love and respect you for your double edge words and blatant disregard for their suffering...you deserve to rot in the lowest bowels of hell."
Having enough of being in that Merlin awful place, Snape took off in a crack of thunder toward Hogwarts Castle. His resident home away from home these past grueling years following that fateful night. Only this time his jailer, Albus Dumbledore wouldn't be present. At least not in person.