The street was the picture of desolation in an industrial punk fantasy or at least that´s how Sebastian qualified it after lying eyes on it. Baby Harry looked on with his bright green eyes wide open, uncharacteristically silent for such a young child. Not that he could blame him. This street was a place filled with sadness, despair and decay. Trash, junk, grime and even some death animals littered the alleys and corners. The concrete was black in some places and nothing green could be seen around; surely the poor plants didn't even stand a chance with all the contamination of the nearby fabrics.
Sebastian walked quickly until he reached his destiny, surrounding himself and his precious cargo with shadows so they won't be seen or heard, although seeing how the street was devoid of people maybe he shouldn't have bothered. He wanted to take a look at this Snape fellow without exposing Harry and every precaution was to be observed if he didn't want problems with his lord. When they finally reached their destination, Snape´s home turned out to look like a complete dump on the outside and a pleasant surprise on the inside.
His house was functional and minimalist, it might be the pride of those who promoted living with just your bare essentials, but everything felt old and a bit too dark. It just added to the overall feeling of despair you could breathe outside. Even so it got nothing on its owner.
The man was slumped against the floor, if it weren't for his acute senses, Sebastian might've thought it was a corpse lying there. His eyes were empty, dark and dull, two empty bottomless pits of despair, that was the look of a man that had lost everything and it all clicked.
His only friend and link to a world he otherwise seemed to despise whenever he wasn't brewing potions had been Lily Evans and she died recently. Even if his investigation led him to find out about their fall out… he didn't need to have access to her to perpetuate his feelings.
This poor bastard had been in love, he loved Lily Evans and that's why he befriended her even with his poor people skills and that's why he was like this … it was clear as day. That's the only plausible explanation for what he was feeling from the wizard slumped on the floor.
The house didn't smell of alcohol or any drugs, so maybe he had drunk some potion for a moment of reprieve, he wouldn't put it past a potion master, and Snape was one particularly talented. That's why Voldemort wanted him on his ranks in the first place. For his brewing skills and nothing else, it wasn't public knowledge that he also had talent to create spells since he didn't share it with anyone, not even with his closest friend at the time, Miss Evans.
That was about the only quality people remembered him for, that and his greasy hair. It was ironic that Sirius Black had bullied him along with his friends and it wasn't precisely a secret there was no love lost between them. That's why his master advised Sebastian to proceed with caution; they didn't have information or something that might sway Snape to their side. Nothing besides Harry that is; and they couldn't risk his safety in case the man wanted to kill or harm the baby. His hatred for James Potter and his friends ran deep and could surpass his loyalty to Lily. Suddenly bringing the baby along didn't seem his brightest idea.
If his Lord knew that Harry was here he'd be angry. It was surprising how overprotective his master got over the baby…
Their host started to wake up, and something peculiar happened.
Severus Snape stared at the wall, directly at their spot. That had never happened before when Sebastian was covering himself in shadows.
_ Lily´s eyes, I must be going crazy. – He muttered standing up with difficulty.
Why only Harry´s eyes where visible? Was this Harry´s doing? And if so…Why?
Sebastian stared at the baby and then at the man. How to get the best out of this situation he couldn't explain?
…
Reaching the cave will be near impossible even for a wizard, as Sirius confirmed him; they made it without a hitch thanks to Ciel. But they couldn't circumvent the blood payment. Sirius had to do it since Ciel wasn't human and they didn't want to find out what Voldemort could do with demon blood or how the wards will react to it, they were vicious enough as it is and didn't need a plus. The wizard was dead silent after listening to the history of what happened to his younger brother. Ciel wasn't exactly versed in emotional support and was thankful for the man being able to keep himself together after getting such devastating news so suddenly.
It was short notice but they decided to explore this place before someone else could do it, right after they got the locket from Kreacher and left the creature at Grimmauld Place with strict orders of not harming himself.
Ciel had the locket containing Voldemort´s soul piece safely stored in the inner pocket of his coat. He wouldn't trust any human being not to be negatively influenced by it, less of all Sirius who had been exposed to dementors for months on end, his soul was still recovering and demon blood or not, he won't jeopardize his advances so far.
Regulus was long dead judging by all the difficulties they passed to get to the weird island surround by the creatures. Sirius called them "Inferi" but Ciel might've sworn they were ghouls.
Reanimated corpses at the end of the day won't be a problem for him. Especially after learning that fire was the sole way of killing this particular corpse.
His demon fire would do nicely.
About finding Regulus corpse… well they´ll have to see if that woke up the inferi from their slumber. They didn't need to subject themselves to drink the awful concoction on the pile that hid the fake locket. That surely had been Regulus undoing and the sole cause of his demise. They wouldn't put it past Voldemort, after listening to Kreacher´s story it didn't take a genius to piece how Regulus had died.
_ Even if you´re recovered this will be the last cut. I need just a drop and that shall bring the corpse out of the water if it's here. - Ciel said passing a glass bottle to Sirius, who just nodded and provided the blood.
Ciel cast the incantation and watched as Sirius´ drop of blood shined in the darkness. The water started to react, gurgling and boiling. It was clear as day it didn't want to release its prey but Ciel won't budge and added more power to his summons. Adding some of his blood as well to potentiate the strength of it, they won't be leaving this place without it.
He had to be quick, that much was certain and he had one chance before the cave alerted its master that something was going wrong. He didn't believe for a second that Voldemort died.
His eyes were fixed on the water were it seemed the disturbance was bigger; a corpse emerged from the water where his eyes had fixed. This one wasn't moving. It had arms attached to his extremities, some of those arms still connected to its owner, others hanged ominously. He didn't have time to gather Sirius reaction that must be it.
He acted. Leaving the bubble created by his power; Ciel soared through the air until he reached his target and the corpses and extremities holding onto it were consumed by demon fire, objective secured and located, they abandoned the cave after destroying it all. Ciel relished on wreaking havoc and not containing his destructive power, wishing he could do the same with Voldemort.
Surely those corpses used as a security measure were innocent people killed by Voldemort and his death eaters.
This so called Dark Lord might be defeated but he surely will come back and his first objective will be Harry. And like hell he will let that happen.
…
Luckily for Sebastian, Severus Snape seemed to think his vision of the characteristic green eyes was consequence of something he took and he didn't pay it any mind after that first comment, dismissing it as a hallucination. And the wizard couldn't hear them so they were safe in the meantime.
That didn't serve as a detriment for Harry though; the baby was squirming and crying. It didn't matter what Sebastian did, it seemed the babe wanted to be noticed and he won't take no for an answer. Why? The demon couldn't fathom. He just wanted Harry to settle so he could concentrate on Snape and not on how to stop his cries.
Just watching Snape go through his routine wouldn't do but he couldn't do something else given the circumstances. Not with a fuzzy baby at least.
They watched as the man read the newspaper and potion magazines, went about fixing something to eat and even checked his letters.
That's when a change occurred, he set eyes on a particular letter and it seemed as it something was important about this one. That the sender happened to be Albus Dumbledore was of interest too. His master was dead set on bringing the man down for the whole Black affair, add what happened to Harry into the mix and you had a pretty angry devil lord.
He definitely will be interested in this. He had to get a hold of that letter somehow. That was an acceptable goal to accomplish on this opportunity.
…
It didn't matter how many times he tried to fake that nothing happened, the shadows seemed to crawl after him, watch his every move and even laugh at him.
He though just with signing the papers that freak handed him in is office his particular hell will stop. He had given them what they wanted of him. They surely will leave him alone, right?
It seemed laughable now. How could he hope for something reasonable out of those damned freaks? They were the devil on earth, monster prowling the earth with human faces and those… sticks. They could do a hell of a lot with just a damn wooden stick.
He had locked up Petunia for less than what he know lived, he couldn't possibly keep living like this. It didn't matter how he tried to ignore it, it always succeeded in getting his attention one way or the other.
Dudley and Beverly (his new wife) seemed unaffected.
Why, Beverly was even more of a chatterbox than Petunia, she hated doing housework of any kind and made him hire a maid. He had the money for it and she didn't complain half as much as Petunia, for him that was enough. She just had to look lovely, socialize and be a good host for his guests; with no freaks in the picture he had sealed a lot of deals.
And she kept him company, that's why he had married again at the end of the day. He dreaded being alone, that's when the shadows ran free and wrecked his mind.
It was all targeted to him. No one else could see or hear what he did. Heck, why? Surely if something could touch you, someone else was bound to notice, right? The darned things could kill him and no one would be the wiser. They might even think he killed himself or such nonsense.
He was sure Petunia was experiencing the same in the asylum. She was to blame for all of this! She was the sole connection he had to the freaks. Why would they target him otherwise?
She wouldn't answer him whenever he tried to get something out of her in his visits. It didn't even work trying to blackmail or guilt trip her with Dudley. She knew the freaks weren't targeting him and only them could've given her that information, how they did it he didn't know. He had instructed the asylum about her not being allowed any other visitors other than him and Dudley when he felt so obliged to bring the baby along. And lately he didn't care. If Petunia didn't want to cooperate, why would he?
She wouldn't budge and tell him what this was all about. She had to know something.
She had this knowing look in her eye and if he had to adventure something, he´d say she seemed satisfied. At this point he didn't discard she had something to do and even cooperated with the freaks.
He didn't recognize her anymore and it just went to show how little you can know someone that shares your life. Well, she certainly didn't hope he will get her locked up in a mental ward. But, what else was he supposed to do when she started to act weird?
But now he was right there with her. He kept seeing and hearing strange things. Shadows transformed in something beyond realistic and more fitting for some cheap horror movie.
Everything happened since that weird man visited him with some papers he wanted signed.
It seemed he was only waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop it will.
…
Ever since they recovered Regulus´ corpse from that cave, the silence between them was unbearable for Sirius and he wasn't exactly known for his prudence and patience. After what seemed like an eternity but it was just a couple of hours, he finally snapped and had to do anything to break the silence, but even he wasn't foolish enough to try and prank a demon, less of all without a wand. He didn't stand a chance.
_. It seems like something really stupid to ask, but… do you hate me? I just get that impression from time to time. - He said, trying to gauge the demons reaction just staring at this back.
They were sitting in the study and the bluenette was going through some of his books looking for something, Sirius didn't want to pry, but he couldn't bring himself to leave the room and Regulus behind. It was foolish. After all, he had abandoned his baby brother years ago and when he still breathed. But he just couldn't leave.
The remains were kept on a coffin (he really didn't want to ask why they would have that sort of thing in the house) and it was placed on the deceptively sturdy coffee table in the study.
_. Whatever gave you that impression? - asked his host, leaving aside his books and giving the wizard his undivided attention. Man, those eyes were scary. It kind of reminded him of the few instances where Professor McGonagall was angry enough to want to hex him into the next century.
_. Don't know, just the way you stare at me sometimes when I'm doing something you don't like. And Merlin just knows how you look at me like a hawk whenever I'm playing with Harry.
_ I don't despise you in particular. I just don't like reckless behavior and even less reckless people. And you fit the entire bill for recklessness as no one else I've met in the last couple of centuries. You´re making an honest effort to improve on at least that aspect- which I respect and approve- and this is the most I've spoken to anyone since my late cousin was around, but it seems it's something I need to do with you, so pay attention since I hate having to repeat myself. I don't do words; I find action is more efficient. You've shown you do want to improve, but then… you go back one step after advancing two. You need to sort out your rubbish and I won't go further, that's not my business. I've already fulfilled my filial duty to you. I know you don't believe much in that; I can't blame you with the upbringing and treatment you received. But some of us weren't lucky enough to scape. We had to do our best with the hand we got dealt.
That last part stuck with Sirius after their conversation and haunted him for hours, since that first night at the manor he had tried to catch a glimpse of that girl to no avail. And he didn't want to ask about it, not in the face of everything else he had to deal with. And it paled compared to the cold reality of getting a glimpse of your younger brother´s corpse.
Regulus wand had been clutched on his hand when they fished him out of the water, he had died fighting it seemed. And he, Sirius, wasn't there to help him. Why, he didn't even know what had happened, he just assumed his brother died on a raid or an all-out brawl between aurors and death eaters, or Voldemort had killed him on a whim.
Instead, Regulus died doing something completely unexpected and more amongst the lines of something he'd do. Wasn't it surprising? Oh but he was angry.
He wanted… revenge.
And it seemed that was something the lord of this manor planned to rain down on death eaters and their supporters.
He had to earn passage if he wanted to take part in that, besides assuring Harry´s safety that is. He knew why he had gotten out of Azkaban; he was the legal guardian James and Lily agreed on if something were to happen to them.
No one could contest that. And if his innocence was proven the Ministry will have to agree. But that couldn't be the only plan they had. That couldn't be. If he had learned something on his brief time in this manor it was that Lord Phantomhive didn't stand failure.
Message received and driven home, he had some work to do. And he'd better get to it now; time was running out.