Words which are both bold and italicised have an influence the the story.
A naked injured man lay upon his bed that night, trembling with the aftermath of torture. A long and deep cut ran from his left shoulder, tracing along his chests, narrowly missing his heart and just a tiny part of his right nipple, where it disappeared, along his right chest, to his back.
"Bella, wouldn't want to waste your precious knife and dirty it with a pathetic half-blood." Rodolphus smirked at the last two words.
"Are you calling the Dark Lord pathetic, Rusty Rod?" Bellatrix asked her husband threateningly. A dark figure laying on the ground stopped moving.
"No-you got me all wrong, Bella-"
"Crucio!" The curse was directed at 'Rusty Rod'.
"Here's for you, Snivellus." The knife rested, ever sharp, on the dark figure's shoulder. As it nearly cut his right nipple he turned around defensively, with his stomach on the floor. The knife did not change its position, thus cutting along till his back.
Claw marks on his back and shoulders. Scars on his arms. An ink black mark on his left forearm, a mark of his sins. Deep wounds on his legs, not quite closed up. A dog bite mark on one of the legs. Bruises on his stomach. Various other old scars – of leather, probably – litter his lower and middle back, some on his upper arms. Curved marks of human nails on both his palms and a human bite mark on the back of left hand. He snaps his eyes open, quietly, as always. He didn't thrash or scream in his nightmares.
A puppet. A pawn.
A mastermind.
"What? That greasy git still didn't come?" Sirius Black's surprised voice echoed down the lonely hallway of 12 Grimmauld Place. "A'bus, b'ybe he 'eally is becominth a Deth Eathert." He remarked, stuffing toast inside his mouth. The blue-eyed not-so-innocent headmaster smiled at his childishness.
Accounting for their lost childhood, it seems.
Little does Albus Dumbledore know…
"Molly, pass me more toast!"
"I didn't think you were a foodie, Sirius." Molly said, laughing.
"I am, and a very Sirius one at that." He said, grinning. Bits of toast could be seen stuck in his tooth. The table burst into a fit of laughter. How innocent he seemed, really, as if he never went to Azkaban…
He is repeating the same mistakes…
"Finish up breakfast fast. Severus will be coming here soon."
"Now you're breaking the fast, Albus. And you're making us break it fast!" Sirius and the others laughed at this pretty much lame joke.
And this time..
So innocent, Albus thought sadly.
Knock knock
"Fuck! The greasy git's here!" Maybe not so innocent, 'fuck' after all?
It will cost him.
Black beady eyes peered from the sides of a long nose. Disgust was evident on his face as his gaze fell on the kitchen table and its occupants. Especially one – Sirius Black. The said man was sneering at said eyes, and the eyes sneered back. Black's clothing – still in his nightgown – had crumbs of rusk and bits of toasts on it, and his teeth looked like he hadn't brushed once in his life.
Better than yours.
Shut up.
Sighing, he once again drew up his Occlumency shields in a blink – the injuries couldn't possibly have been that bad to affect them. He's just overreacting.
He cleared his throat. "If you are so busy eating right now, I can-"
"Nonsense, Severus. You're staying just right here. Come, have a another breakfast." Molly shushed him. Snape scrunched up his nose in disgust.
"No, thank you Molly. I just had breakfast and would rather wait than…sit in an unclean and unhygienic kitchen." Thank you Molly for making this more difficult. Just then, a pop was heard behind the tall man. He turned around in surprise.
"Blood Traitors have messed up Mistress's kitchen? Kreacher will have to clean it again! Out, filthy traitors, you lot have been dining for almost an hour!" The poor house-elf rambled on and out of annoyance, the people finally left the kitchen. Snape just watched with an eyebrow raised. The elf did not say anything to him. He just hoped he wouldn't say anything about his connection with Regulus out loud. The Order would ask…unwanted questions.
"Why aren't you saying anything to Snivellus?" Did you just had to ask that, Black?
"Sir may be half-blood but he hates his muggle blood. It wasn't by choice he was born with filthy blood and sir treats Kreacher nicely and Kreacher respects sir. Sir is young Master's -elf sob- friend. The only good friend."
Sirius never thought that he would ever see an emotion apart from hatred and loathing on the house-elf's face. Tears were streaming down the big eyes, dripping down on the floor and cleaning it. Even their tears don't go waste, he thought. Maybe house-elves are powerful.
"Come, everybody. Let's just go to the living room." Molly said in an attempt to cheer up the atmosphere. Lupin agreed with her. Snape and Black followed quietly, glaring daggers at each other. No one noticed that a certain twinkle in a certain wizard's eyes was gone.
Nobody spoke anything until Black spoke up. "What're we waiting for? I want to get this walking grease can out of my house as soon as possible."
"Shut it with the childishness, Sirius. We're waiting for Alastor and Tonks." Molly answered. Sirius smirked at Lupin's blush at the mention of Tonks.
"She's too young for you, wolf. If you were teaching at Hogwarts at that time, you'd be her teacher. I was." Snape remarked. Sirius immediately jumped to his best friend's defence.
Always the loyal dog.
"Have you ever loved, Snape? Of course, you haven't. Spending your days torturing people just for sport and fun? Killing them on a whim? Who are you to talk about love? What do you know about spending 12 years in Azkaban, longing for revenge? What do you know?" The man's voice was increasing every word and he was practically shouting by the end of the last word. While speaking he had stood up and had grabbed the Death Eater by the front of his robes, pulled him up from the sofa and held him against the nearest wall.
"Tell me!" He shouted, "Tell me what do you know about pain? About suffering? About love and sacrifice? Nothing." The dark clothed man did not fight back. He didn't say anything – he kept quiet.
"Coward!"
"Enough!" Yelled Dumbledore. Their grappling was getting out of hand. "Molly, Minerva, please go to the other sofa. Both of you! Come sit with me!"
Growling, the Animagus let go of the Death Eater and the both sat on opposite sides with Albus. Sirius towards his left and Snape towards his right. What a way to mock me, thought the spy, Gryffindors will always be his right-hands, thank you for reminding me.
"Now," Albus started, leaning back in the sofa, "Introduce yourself to each other."
(-said together)
"What? No way." Sirius barked.
"A mutt isn't worth my time." Snape sneered.
Molly sighed. So did Lupin. Dumbledore put his head in his hands. Just then they heard they main door open and close, with footsteps stopping outside the kitchen. He removed head from his hands, and rested them on his lap. There was gasp of surprise. A pair of footsteps, fast paced, entered the living room.
"The kitchen and the rest of the house is so clean! I – oh sorry, hi there cousin, hello Remus, Dumbledore and Molly. Arthur's not here? Minerva, hello to you too. Ah, you too Snape." Tonks' hair has turned a very unique shade of vermillion-ish pink. She was probably excited about something or surprised. Maybe both, former for Lupin and the latter for 'so clean'.
Of course, I'm the last person she wishes hello, thought Snape. He would prefer to tune out the greetings, but in this situation it's highly likely he will be questioned early.
"Hello, Tonks! Arthur's right behind you!" Another voice, Arthur's chimed in. "Moody! Come 'ver here!"
"Aye." A grumbling Mad-Eye stepped in and found himself a place in the living room. Molly magically got them a glass of water.
"Snape." Growled Moody. "You kept us quite awake last night."
"Yes, you did Severus. I take it as that you were busy?" Dumbledore asked, politely.
"Of course I was I was busy. Why else would I miss an important Order meeting?" The potions master snapped back. He was getting wary of this.
"I don't know, to shag with You-Know-Who?" Sirius smirked. "And maybe that's probably true."
"Enough, Sirius! Now that everyone has arrived, we can start the meeting." Minerva pursed her lips.
"Well, then Severus shall begin with his report."
"The Dark Lord had punished the Death Eaters for their incompetence." He left out the all, "He is still in denial about the killing curse not affected H-Potter." He hoped nobody had noticed his slip – he had almost called Potter Harry. "He will still try to use it on him and is making plans to capture the boy. He told us that the plan would be lain out to us next week."
"Harry! My poor godson! He has to suffer so much in his short life." Sirius whined. Like actually the dog whine.
Black's whine struck something inside Snape. "Shut up. It's not even that bad." At this, the mutt stood up and slapped his palms against the table. Hard.
"What would you know?"
"ENOUGH, FOR THE SECOND THE TIME!" Dumbledore bellowed. He was getting tired of this.
"The mutt started it-"
"The Death Eater started it!"
"SHUT UP! The meeting is aborted. Severus, you may leave." Dumbledore said, standing up. Sirius swallowed at his expression. He felt like a school boy again. Getting into trouble.
"Yes, headmaster." With a nod, he left.
Sighing, Dumbledore turned to Sirius.
"Now, listen to me Sirius…"
