Chapter 16: When Trust Is Broken
{A/N: Here's Another Update...late post...}
My Thanks To All My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy S.S.
{"Feeling...Nothing ...Lonely...Empty... You try to walk away but you fall... You cannot understand what's this for...In this world I see it more...The pain you feel that I ignore...You see my face and then you see nothin' ...Confused. you turn and live on... I turn my face... You're staring back again... Look at yourself and live again..."} Live Again, Sevendust
The Battlements,Hogwarts Castle,Wizarding World...
The echo of silence had been almost maddening as Severus Snape stood atop the battlements of Hogwarts Castle. It had been the place he frequented as the second wizarding war's final phase had been stretched out before him shortly before his assassination of Albus Dumbledore. It was almost pathetic looking back into the depths of his hollowed memories. The current Headmaster of Hogwarts smirked as he looked over the fog filled school. In a matter of weeks since the untimely death of Albus Dumbledore it had become a joyless, soulless husk of a place. All the life and vibrancy seemingly gone out of it in one foul swoop. The chill of darkness seeping into every ancient stone and then some. The place had been a definite reflection of the man that controlled nearly all of the wizarding world with the exception of a few pockets of underground resistance here and there. The second most powerful wizard in both worlds, Severus Snape had been greatly feared and begrudgingly respected by many of the high ranking members of wizarding society. Voldemort had been largely out of the picture due to his injuries after his battle with the late Harry James Potter.
He could still recall the day he lost the ability to feel as his enemies do. When fear and love ceased to be and rage accompanied by hatred became all he knew. Pain sadly, had been the only emotion unchanged by the antics of Dumbledore that fateful afternoon. Snape had known his share of pain all too well and it only served to fuel his hatred.
He had been betrayed and shunned by the very man that he respected more so than own "brother" Lucius Malfoy. It had been a very painful shift when is eyes were opened and his heart snuffed out like a candle burned for far too long. The in-roads he had been making with his fellow colleagues and Hermione Granger lost in an fraction of an instant.
It was amusing in a way to think of what might have become of his begrudging association with that silly little chit, but it seemed to have been a life time ago...many life times if one asked Snape.
Obsidian eyes fell upon the spot where the old sod in his infinite cruelty enlightened him of his new found predicament. The ice in the old wizard's heart as cold as his own that day as misery sought to take him.
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The Battlements,Hogwarts Castle,Wizarding World...(Years Prior)...
White-hot pain shot through the weary body of the Potions Professor as he climbed the numerous stone steps of Hogwarts castle and made his way toward the ill frequently used battlements. He had known where the treacherous old bastard would be just as he announced shortly before the poor younger wizard lost consciousness. Snape climbed the stairs despite his condition determined to know what the elder wizard had done to him and why the agony of whatever it had been never seemed to subside not matter how many potions he downed. The ebony clad wizard stumbled as he reached the top feeling a great deal weaker than previously. The urge to vomit the moment he was hit with the unnervingly rancid air.
Standing with his hands clasped behind his back and his light blue robes with half moons shapes imprinted in them had been Albus Dumbledore looking out over the vast Scottish land beyond Hogwarts castle. Snape composed himself as best he could and made his way over toward the elder wizard the urge to push him over stronger than anything he had felt in terms of malice for a long time.
"So you have awakened Severus." said Albus not even giving him the courtesy of turning to face him. "No doubt you have questions."
"W-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?" demanded Snape growing weaker as he struggled to contain his justified rage.
Albus sighed briefly before finally turning to meet the disheveled Potions Professor.
"I'm afraid your refusal to uphold your end of the bargain was not an option." said the Headmaster with a deathly serious look upon his face. "At this very moment I can imagine that you are feeling excruciating agony."
Snape had attempted to speak but found as the pain continued to intensify that he was driven to his knees from the force of it. He let out a cough feeling as if his lungs were being submerged and his eyes widened to see blood splatter across the stone. He looked up at Dumbledore meeting the elder wizard's icy blue eyes and feeling only a sense of abandonment as the pain continued to hack away at him.
"W-Why?" he managed helplessly.
Dumbledore turned away from him once more.
"It was necessary." he replied in a rather cold tone. "For you to continue your assignment."
Snape felt an intense throbbing in his head that became a sensation similar to having his skull be on fire.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" shouted the pain crippled Potions Professor.
"I suppose you deserve some sort of explanation." said Dumbledore in as cold a tone as Snape had ever heard him speak. "What you are experiencing is the profound effect of a dark curse."
Snape eyes widened once more. As much dark magic as he studied over the course of his time in and out of Hogwarts he had never encountered anything this powerful. His already keen mind had come to the conclusion that whatever this was it had been. The only thing he could decipher was that it had been ancient and darker than anything he had ever known in terms of spell work.
"The best rough translation is that of The Black Heart Blight." continued Dumbledore as if giving a class lecture.
"B-Black heart?" asked Snape looking in horror at the inaccurately described benevolent wizard before him.
"I can see that the pain is getting to be too much for you Severus, so I will enlighten you a bit more." said Dumbledore still in the same tone of voice as before. "You will no longer have the ability to love, nor will you receive it...this curse is specially designed to manufacture hatred and reciprocate it."
Snape dug his pale fingers into the stone as the pain became more intense.
"No." he said in disbelief.
"All of your previous relationships will garner the necessary hatred to keep you functioning and you are bound to see your various assignments through no matter your feelings for anyone else around you." said the elder wizard. "I suppose it's fare to say that I have effectively removed your immortal soul in a bid to have you continue your fight for the greater good."
Snape wanted so badly to get to his feet and strangle the treacherous old man but found he could not. His mind was flooded with brutal images of pain and humiliation to such a degree that he could only feel his rage intensify.
"For whatever it is worth to you my boy, I do apologize for this but it was necessary to ensure that you will not fail." said Dumbledore at last looking upon the pain crippled younger wizard.
Black tears streamed down Severus Snape's sallow pale cheeks as he began to feel the first onset of the inevitable coldness attack his heart. In that instant his love for Lily Evans turned Lily Potter via her marriage to James Potter of all people had been erased. Snape struggled rather valiantly as his heart ache became nothing more than a passing thought.
He closed his eyes as the images of those he had grown to care for since his introductions to these familiar witches and wizards flooded his mind. One by one they would mean nothing to him as this curse seized him in it's entirety. To lose his humanity had been a very silent fear of his since he had been a child. To become a man like his brutish muggle father would no doubt break his already fragile psyche.
"A-Albus." said Snape in a voice devoid of all emotion.
The elder wizard's icy blue eyes met the borderline empty obsidian of the younger wizard clad in ebony.
"Yes?" he answered.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you." said Snape with a weary smile resembling more madness than actual joy.
"So be it." replied Dumbledore turning his attention back to the vastness of Scotland beyond Hogwarts.
It seemed the old man had accepted his inevitable fate right along with that of everyone else's in the wake of Snape's curse.
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The Room Of Requirement, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...
Crisp shards of reflective glass had littered the hard wood floor as an enraged Severus Snape stood amid his shattered reflection only to find emptiness and nothing in it's wake. The blood from his battered hands continued to seep from the cuts on his flesh. The urge to vomit rising deep in his throat as he turned to see a magical projection of Albus Dumbledore in the flesh beside him. The once icy blue eyes of the former Headmaster filled with much sorrow and ample concern.
"Severus." he said in a calm father-like tone. "What have you be come?"
Snape had been emotionless as he ground his fist into the shards of broken glass. Pulses of pain shot through his arm but did little to alarm him.
"I have become what my master made of me." spat the current Headmaster of Hogwarts coldly. "I am darkness incarnate."
Dumbledore wanted so badly to look away from the soulless husk before him but found he could not. For Snape controlled his magical form and his power willed his eyes gaze upon his own creation.
"You have taken everything from me." said Snape in an expressionless tone. "How does it feel to know that I will be the only lasting legacy you have left to your name?"
"Severus...please." said Dumbledore not at all pleased with how his former ally has fared in the wake of his death.
"Now where have I heard those words before." said Snape still emotionless. "Ahh yes, you said those very words the day I murdered you."
"You and I both know it was not murder." said Dumbledore with a sorrowful expression.
"Tell that to your adoring public." said Snape.
With a swipe of his hand, he had done away with the buttons on his trademark frock coat and cast it aside effortlessly.
Snape rid himself of his long sleeve white shirt and cast it aside as well. Dumbledore could not believe the numerous scars that marred the younger wizard's newly exposed pale flesh. One scar stood out above the rest, a profound scar across his throat.
"What has happened to you?" asked Dumbledore in disbelief.
"A gift." said Snape still emotionless. "From my wife."
"Minerva?" said the former Headmaster. "But she wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't what?" asked Snape inquisitive. "Wouldn't kill when pushed, wouldn't harm me of all people...perhaps we are developing a bit of selective memory in our un-age...Albus I seem to recall addressing the dark lord's rather barbaric order for me to rape Minerva and your subsequent push to do as I was told."
The Potions Master gritted his teeth as he recalled that night with absolute disgust.
"That was different." said the former Headmaster. "You were saving her life."
"A fact that means little to the here and now." said Snape bitterly.
"Severus, you must let her go." said Dumbledore attempting to reason with the younger wizard. "This is not what was suppose to occur...she is needed here with the children where she belongs."
For the first time since his arrival Snape gritted his teeth as his rage began to spike.
"She belongs with me." he hissed angrily. "She belongs in my bed with my cock between her thighs moaning my name in the darkness."
"If that is your best attempt to rile me you are doing a very poor job of it." said Dumbledore. "You and I both know she is not meant to be..."
"You will not tell me what she is meant to do." hissed Snape. "She is my wife, she belongs with me...I will do with her and this world what I please and there is nothing you or your petty little resistance can do about it!"
"This will not bring you peace." said the seemingly weary elder wizard.
"I have given up on that foolish notion a long time ago old man." replied Snape. "Peace will not bring me satisfaction...only vengeance can I will relish it far more than any who oppose me."
"It's not too late Severus." said the elder wizard in a bid to reason with the deranged younger wizard once more. "There is still hope for you."
"Beware for I am fearless and therefore powerful, I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom." quoted Snape.
The elder wizard looked upon him with confusion.
"You have said those words to me before." he said.
"A life time ago." replied Snape with an eerie smirk filed across his face. "And still you know not where they originate."
"I know a good deal more than you believe I do Severus." replied Dumbledore.
Snape's cold obsidian gaze met that of the former Headmaster's icy blue eyes but his expression remained devoid of all emotion.
"I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery." he quoted once more in an icy tone.
"I already have." replied the weary final image of the deceased Headmaster.
Snape smirked relishing the misery of his long dead employer.