WARNING! Depictions of non-consensual sex below.


Every touch burned, from the hands gripping his thighs, to the press of his cheek against his chin, to every push. Severus felt split open and raw, his entire being radiating with pain as Mulciber worked into him.

Severus was lying on his back, in Mulciber's bed, and it was like being home. Left bruised and bloodied, staring at the ceiling and hoping it would be over soon as he listened to his father's drunken shouts from outside his bedroom door. Severus kept his eyes trained on the canopy of the four-post bed, trying to not think about the thing inside him. "You're so tight," Mulciber groaned in his ear. "Fuck."

Severus braced his hand against the headboard; he tried to keep calm, to breathe, but his mind was screaming. And then it was over, Mulciber pulled away. Severus reached between his legs to feel the damage after Mulciber staggered to his feet. Mulciber unlocked the door and Severus quickly grabbed the blanket to cover himself when he heard Evan Rosier and Max Avery enter the room.

Mulciber grinned widely at Evan's stony face. "What's with that look?"

"I'm not standing outside my own fucking dorm every time you want to fuck Snape."

"I'd do the same for you. You know, if you ever got laid."

He shouldered past Mulciber, and Max scurried through in his wake. Evan dropped down on his bed, next to Mulciber's, next to him, and swept a glance over him. Severus felt as if he could see right through the blanket at the broken body underneath. "You okay?" He asked.

"He's fine," Mulciber called out from the other side of the room. "He's just trying to get sympathy. He loved every minute of it."

Evan didn't bother to acknowledge him. He asked again, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I loved every minute of it," Severus parroted, his voice dripping with mockery as he shifted to stand up, still clutching the blanket around him.

"Better watch your tone," Mulciber warned. "Go take a bath. You stink."

Severus stumbled toward the bathroom, the blanket dragging along behind him. As soon as he closed the door, he heard Evan's barely contained fury erupt. "What is the matter with you?!"

"What's got your knickers in a twist? I'm not doing anything wrong. He's my bride; it's my right."

"Nothing wrong–!? Look at his face!"

Severus stood in front of the sink and looked into the mirror. He could see the tell-tale swelling of bruises rising just underneath the surface of his sallow skin. He grabbed the bruise salve and started to work. Wasn't this a familiar sight? Beaten and then fucked. Oh, hello, Mother, what are you doing here?

"Since when did you care about Mudbloods?" Mulciber shot back.

Evan didn't answer – the ground was too treacherous – and changed tactics. "Since when did you? You got engaged to one!"

"Please, it's not like I'm going to get a child on Snape. And he's useful. He should be used. Everybody has their place in this new world, and this is Snape's. If you don't like it, you can duel for him."

Aren't you proud of your son, Mother? I'm just like you.

Evan said nothing. Used to be, if there was ever a leader among the sixth year Slytherin boys, it was Evan. Quidditch beater, dueling champion (before Dumbledore shut down the club), and all-around scary fucker. He had kept Mulciber – Adam Mulciber with the face of an angel, and who shared his last name with a demon from John Milton's Paradise Lost – on a short lease. And then Mulciber had to win that stupid duel and now even Evan was too scared to go against him.

Something like pride filled Severus with the knowledge that it was his magic that made Mulciber so powerful. He twisted the knobs on the tub, dropped the blanket and sank into the hot water that flowed through the pipes. He had always known there was something special about him, that there was more to his heritage than what his mother had told him, and now he had proof–

If only he could use that magic for himself, instead of Mulciber siphoning it off.

He scrubbed himself quickly, without looking at his body or the damage Mulciber had wrought. He heard the door open, and someone tossed in his crumpled clothing, which he pulled on, still damp. He stepped back into the dorm, Max keeping his eyes glued to an Arithmancy textbook – a class he didn't even take – and Evan glaring daggers at Mulciber, who was lounging across Severus's bed. Like he owned it.

"Come here," Mulciber said. "Give us a kiss." He pointed to his lips. He looked like one of Raphael's cherubs.

Severus gave a closed-lipped smile and walked up to him. Mulciber tilted his head back and Severus, avoiding his lips, turned his head as if to kiss his cheek. Severus opened his mouth and sank his teeth into that rosy flesh.


Lily glared at the Slytherin table from across the Great Hall. Snape and Mulciber were sitting next to each other, both looking a little worse for wear. Mulciber had a nasty looking bite mark across his cheek, and he kept shooting Snape dirty looks. Half of Snape's face had that blotchy, discolored look of healing bruises. He didn't do so much as glance in Mulciber's direction, but kept his gaze on his book, his black hair falling over his eyes.

His dark eyes flickered up only once, when Mulciber stood up from the table. Then they fell again, and Lily could see his shoulders relax slightly.

Lily stood up too, ignoring James's questions, and followed after him. She caught up to him in the corridor leading back down to the dungeons. "Mulciber–"

He whirled around, wand already out and tapping against his thigh. "Evans," he acknowledged curtly. "Figured you come sniffing around sooner or later. Mudbloods like you are always sticking their noses into things that don't concern them."

Since she and Sev… Since she and Snape were no longer friends, Lily had to learn to cover up her lack of basic Wizarding knowledge, all those little societal things that Purebloods accepted as just the way the world worked but proved so bewildering to Muggleborns. Sev had never laughed at her when she went to him with her questions, not like the rest of the Slytherins or even James who always got this smug, know-it-all expression on his face. She missed Sev's ready explanations, safe from judgement. Missed the safety of being able to just be.

"Well, I am a challenger," she said, mimicking Sev's words, without fully understanding their meaning.

A slow, twisted smile spread across Mulciber's beautiful face, his eyes taking her in from head to foot. Lily felt cold and wondered if she had said the wrong thing.

"I'm honestly surprised, Evans," he said. "I didn't think you actually had the guts. Or do you really still care about the half-blood? I thought you two weren't friends anymore."

Lily glared up at him. "I'm not going to let you keep hurting him."

He laughed. "Come and take him then. Meet me at the Dueling Ground, tonight, at nine. You know where it is?"

"I know," she answered coolly.

Mulciber gave her a mocking bow. "Then I will see you there. May the best–" He raked his gaze over her again, his grin razor sharp. "Person win. Oh, and here comes the prize. Severus."

Lily looked behind her and saw Sev standing in shocked horror behind her. "Lily–"

Mulciber walked around her and placed his hand against Sev's back. "What do you think, Severus?" He asked, leaning forward until his lips were inches from Sev's ear. "Who are you going to put your galleons on, supposing you had any? You think I can beat her? Oh, don't look so glum, you have nothing to worry about. No one is going to take you away from me." The hand drifted lower. Lily couldn't see what he was doing, the sight blocked by Sev's robes, but she could imagine from the startled gasp that escaped his lips. Lily saw red.

Mulciber laughed and delivered a resounding smack to Sev's ass before walking off. "I'll see you tonight, Evans."

He left them standing in the empty corridor.

"Sev–" Lily began, but he cut her off.

"Are you insane?" He hissed. "Did you really just challenge Mulciber to a duel?"

"What, was I supposed to do nothing after I saw him slap you?"

"Why not? A slap is nothing. Your boyfriend's done worse. I don't see you dueling him."

Lily could feel herself shaking. "He's not my boyfriend. You– are you dating Mulciber? Are you– are you sleeping with him?"

Sev laughed, and it was not a nice laugh. "Evans, we're engaged. Don't you know what you've done? You just challenged him for the right to marry me."

"James said that sort of thing isn't done anymore."

"Well, you know us snakes, we're traditionalists," he sneered. "Don't worry, I'll explain to Mulciber that you didn't know what you were challenging him for. He'll get a good laugh about it, and that's it. You are still technically a challenger, so don't worry about him hexing you in the halls. You're safe."

"Snape–" she tried again, but he was already backing away from her, his feet taking him down into the dungeons.

"You don't want to marry ugly, greasy Snivellus, so just stay away from Mulciber."

He disappeared into the shadows just as a crowd of students poured out from the Great Hall, chatting excitedly to themselves, as they made their way to their first class of the day. Lily stood in the middle of the sea; the other students forced to part to make room for her. If Sev thought she was going to turn tail and run, then he had another thing coming. She wasn't going to back down, consequences be damned.

She needed to prepare for tonight.

Luckily, she only had History of Magic that morning, and Arithmancy in the afternoon, which gave her plenty of time to brush up on her spells. Flipendo. Expelliarmus. Protego. She frowned. Mulciber was dangerous. There were whispers that he had even practiced the Unforgivables on a Slytherin first year. Could she really expect to protect herself with these basic spells? Lily leaned back in her chair in the library, thinking. What else could she use? She didn't know any dark spells; that had always been Sev's interest. She wasn't even sure she could use them even if she did know them. It seemed… wrong. Bad. Not to mention hypocritical. Sev would never let her live it down if she used a dark hex on Mulciber after giving him so much grief over it.

She suddenly felt over her head. This wasn't some stupid game, was it?

Dark magic was out. She needed to come up with an alternative way to get the upper hand. She was lucky that first time. Mulciber had been distracted, he hadn't even known she was there until she had sent him sprawling. This time he'll be waiting for her.

The clock struck eight o'clock and Lily felt Madame Pince's heavy gaze fall on her, impatiently waiting for her to gather her things and leave so that she could tidy up. Lily did so with reluctance, trudging toward Gryffindor Tower with mounting dread. In less than an hour she was going to duel Mulciber, and she was going to lose. She drifted past a mullioned window, looking out toward the Quidditch pitch. She could see red and gold blurs in the distance, zipping through the air as the Gryffindor team practiced for their upcoming match with Ravenclaw. She watched them for a moment, her mind still turning when the stupidest idea she had ever had in her life popped into her head. Well, why not try it? What else did she have to lose?

Lily raced up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. There was a voice in the back of her head, yelling, Lily, you're a prefect! Go tell a teacher what's happening! And then what? Would Sev get in trouble? It's not his fault. Mulciber forced him. Did he? She didn't know what was happening, how Sev ended up engaged to Mulciber of all people. Maybe he'd agreed to it. Maybe he wanted it. No. She knew enough. She knew Mulciber put his hands on him, knew that it hurt, and it made something in her blood thrum. Sev didn't belong to him.

She ran up the stairs to the boy's dormitory and burst inside James's room. Peter shrieked at her sudden appearance and Remus knocked a pot of ink off the desk with his elbow. "Uh," he said, staring at her wild-eyed. "James isn't here."

"I know. Where's that snitch he's always playing with?"

"It's over–" Remus gestured to a chest of drawers next to one of the beds and Lily started rifling through it before he had even finished speaking. She found the snitch sitting on top of his trousers and, after thinking on it for a moment, grabbed a pair as well.

"Um, you're taking his clothes too? Does James know about this?"

"No. Tell him if you want. He'll probably cream himself at the thought of me having a pair of his trousers."

Remus flushed and Lily ducked back out, heading towards her own dorm. It was empty. Mary and the other girls were probably hanging around the Quidditch stands, ogling James and Sirius and the other players. She cast a sticking charm on the snitch and pulled out her N.E.W.T. level potions kit. She pulled on her work gloves and grabbed the jar of chopped Fat Red Toadstool. Deadly if ingested raw, oozing a hallucinogenic toxin along the underside of its red cap. She dumped the pieces of toadstool onto the floor and rubbed the snitch across them, making sure every inch of its golden surface was covered in it.

When she was finished, she shucked off her skirt and pulled on James's trousers. They were baggy and a bit too long, but with a few alterations she managed to adjust the length. With her hands still gloved; she shoved the snitch into her pocket. Why didn't the female uniform have pockets? It was so unfair. After this was over, if she wasn't brain damaged from a curse or something, she was transfiguring pockets onto all of her school skirts. Lily took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. Fifteen minutes to go. She'd have to hurry if she wanted to get there on time.

Lily hurried to the door, pausing only for a moment to glance at her reflection in the tall, standing mirror beside a wardrobe. She looked… different. Not bad. Her Muggle primary school hadn't allowed girls to wear trousers, and even at home her Mum preferred her daughters in dresses or skirts, jeans only allowed on weekends and never outside in public. She let her eyes linger over her form for just a moment, wondering what she'd look like if she was just a little taller, her chest flatter… and then she took off, running down into the common room and out through the portrait.

She was late. She'd gotten turned around in the dungeons, James's vague directions doing little to help, but she eventually stumbled upon an arched door, flanked by the statues of two women serving as pillars and supporting the crown of the arch. Their arms were raised, their hands supporting the two ends of the arch. Lily had seen many similar statues throughout Hogwarts, serving a similar function, and always the expressions on their stone faces were blank and impassive. But here the two women had been carved to show not just fear, but terror. Their heads were bent at an awkward angle, their arms contorted as if the arch was too heavy for them to support, as if it was crushing them. Lily shivered and opened the door.

There was a short hall that opened up to a massive, circular room about half the size of the Quidditch field. It was dark and damp, like much of the dungeons, and there were numerous pillars, supporting a vaulted ceiling. It almost reminded Lily of a cistern, except for the strange glyphs that had been drawn onto the floor– no, not drawn, but carved.

"Well, Snape, looks like you were wrong," Mulciber laughed. "She's brave, I'll give her that, a true Gryffindor. Not too bright though, is she?"

There was Mulciber, Avery, and Rosier. In the shadows she thought she spotted a few seventh and fifth year Slytherins as well, but the moment she locked eyes with Sev, she couldn't look away. He stood off to one side in robes that she had never seen before. They were dark, and rich-looking and enveloped him like a pair of wings. His hair shone in the low flickering candlelight. He was staring at her in horror.

"Well, look at you, all dressed up in big brother's clothes," Mulciber mocked. "Where's your second?"

"Second?" Lily asked.

The Slytherins tittered with laughter. Sev looked like he was close to hyperventilating.

"I'll be her second," Rosier offered.

"Knew you were soft on the Mudbloods," Mulciber accused.

Rosier shrugged. "I came to see a duel. Won't be one if Evans doesn't have a second." He walked over to Lily, and said, too low for any of the others to hear, "My role is to negotiate, if you don't want to fight. The duel ends when the loser is disarmed. Mulciber won't kill you, if only because a corpse would be hard to explain away to the professors, but anything else goes. Word of advice? Don't bother defending. He'll tear through your shields. Dodge as best you can."

"Are we doing this?" Mulciber called out.

Rosier pulled away from her and gestured for her to step into one of the glyphs. Lily sucked in a breath and pulled her wand out before walking forward. Mulciber was already waiting for her. Lily suddenly realized she had no idea when they were supposed to begin. Was there a gong or something?

It only took a second for Mulciber to raise his wand arm and Lily found herself careening to one side as she dodged the oncoming red streak. Nope! No gong! She threw out a Knock-Back Jinx but was too busy running to see where she was aiming. Mulciber's laughter rang out and echoed against the stone.

There came a sudden pull from around her ankle and she was gasping, scrambling for something to hold onto as the ground was ripped away from her. She was pulled by an invisible string up into the air to dangle upside down in a sickeningly familiar scene. With a jolt she wondered if this was a trap, if Snape had asked Mulciber to do this to her as revenge, but a quick glance in his direction – even upside down – she knew that wasn't true. He remained standing to one side, frozen, not speaking, but his eyes were wide with fear. He was shaking.

Thank God I didn't wear the skirt.

Lily struggled to untangle her arms from her robe. She had managed to keep hold of her wand and the snitch… the snitch! She thrust her hand into her pocket as Mulciber sauntered up to her. "What do you suppose we should do with the Mudblood?" He called out to the waiting Slytherins. "Tsk, tsk, a prefect out of uniform. You're no wizard, Evans. Where's your pretty skirt? I think we need to get you into something more… fitting."

Her gloved hand wrapped around the snitch and Mulciber, only a foot away now, was an easy target. She launched it at him, hitting him square in the face, coating his nose and eyes in the mushroom's psychotropic toxin. Almost immediately she crashed into the floor, hitting her head on the stone. Lily would wonder later why she hadn't felt any pain. She didn't even remember feeling the impact at all. She saw the stone rush up to greet her, and the next thing she knew she was sitting in the center of the glyph, her wand still in hand, blinking confusedly. Lily wiped at her face, patting at her wet hair, frowning at the red clinging to her hand, when a streak of purple light blazed right past her nose.

Mulciber was staggering around the edge of the glyph, his wand moving left to right like he couldn't focus. He suddenly turned on his heel and launched a curse into the crowd of Slytherins, causing them to scream and scatter. Lily managed to get her feet underneath her, nearly pitching forward onto her face as the room spun. She lifted her wand and screamed, "Expell–"

She never got to finish the incantation. Mulciber suddenly whirled back around and flung a Knock-Back Jinx at her. She moved to the right, but this time she couldn't dodge it. It struck her in the left shoulder.

Lily didn't play Quidditch. She didn't even like it. Sev was a casual fan of the sport, but not the raving fanatic James was. James wanted her at all of his games. She had never played Quidditch, but she thought this is what it must feel like to get hit by a bludger. It burned. She couldn't breathe. There was no air in her lungs. She dimly thought she heard Sev scream her name, but she couldn't focus outside the pain. Oh God, oh God, her shirt was covered in blood. She looked down and saw something white poking through the sleeve of her shirt. Was that her bone?

Lily managed to get her knees underneath her. She was kneeling on the edge of the glyph. She had been almost squarely in the center mere moments before. That was a distance of nearly fifteen feet. A Knock-Back Jinx only sent a person back about five feet and it certainly didn't do the sort of damage Lily received. Was Mulciber really that powerful? She looked at him as he wandered around the glyph in a daze, sometimes throwing spells at phantoms only he could see. "Shut up!" He growled. "Stop talking! I can't think with all of you talking!" No one was saying a word. The room was silent and empty, the other Slytherins having fled in the wake of Mulciber's uncontrolled casting, with the exception of Lily, Sev, and their seconds.

She still had her wand. She still had her wand.

Lily lifted her wand and whispered, "Expelliarmus." The wand flew from Mulciber's hand and like a spell being lifted Sev rushed to her side to grab onto her just as she began to fall.