Where the Heart Is

A/N: Input is greatly welcomed. Please read and review. There\'s not too many chapters before this is completed.


Chapter Fourteen: Persuading the Dark


Severus woke up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom. He cast the sheets aside and went. When he came back out, he smirked at the vision of the beautiful, naked woman in his bed. Slowly, he crawled over her and kissed her lightly on the lips. He was beginning to feel aroused again as he lightly ran his hands over her body. He began to kiss the side of her neck.

“You are insatiable, Severus Snape,” Cassandra stated as her eyes fluttered open.

He looked up at her and smirked. “Are you complaining, my love?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. “Not at all.” She kissed him deeply. He toyed with her breasts while kissing and nipping her neck. She moaned softly and then suddenly winced. Her left arm was burning. “Ugh! I have to go, love. Master calls.”

“Forget him.”

“You know I can’t.”

He sighed. “I know.” He kissed her lightly on the lips and then rolled off of her. He did not like her going along, but he wasn’t called. He watched her get up and dressed. “Do be careful.”

She went over to him. “I will be. Don’t worry.” She kissed him lightly on the lips. Then, she straightened up and apparated to the Dark Lord. “You wanted to see me, my Lord,” she said as she bowed before him.

Voldemort rose from where he was sitting and stood before her. “Yes, I did. Rise.” She stood up before him. He lifted his hand, lightly brushing his fingers against her cheek while noticing that she flinched very slightly. “Do not worry, my dear.” He began to walk around her. “You are my most prized Death Eater. I know that we will win with you by my side.” He was standing behind her and brushed her hair away from the back of her neck. “I want to make you my queen. I….” He caught a scent on her that was distinctly male. With a fluid motion, his left arm went around her pulling her close to him as his right hand grabbed her hair at the base of it, pulling her head toward him. “Who is he?” he ground out.

She was completely surprised and couldn’t react. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

He yanked her by the hair toward him, hearing her give a yelp in pain. He breathed in. “Whom have you been with? I can smell him all over you.” He pushed her against the wall as he pressed his fingers firmly into the flesh of her arms. “You belong to me. I protected you from them and their appetites. I love you, so you better damn well tell me whom you are sleeping with.”

She was trembling in fear as he held her against the wall. Her eyes were wide. She couldn’t believe that those sames ths that wanted to destroy like Muggle-born and take over the wizarding world and such hatred could also profess love. He shook her slightly. “Tell me,” he demanded. “S-Severus…Severus Snape.”

He let go of her. “I’ll kill him.” He turned to go find Severus as his red eyes blazed in anger.

She fell to the ground. Gods, what had she done? “No, no, please don’t.” Her mind was working quickly. “If you do love me, then you will not harm Severus. I love him.”

He stopped walking and slowly turned toward her. “Of course, you would love him.” He looked at her as his immediate anger was passing. “He can give you even more than I. He can love you as you deserve.” He sighed. There were disadvantages to coming back, especially since it had rendered him impotent. “Stand up,” he said almost like a request. Slowly, she stood up, watching him. He walked toward her, noticing that she was trembling. “You don’t have to fear me, Cassandra.” He touched her cheek, noticing that she flinched slightly. “You and I are a lot alike, Cassandra. We are both halfbloods. We had a wizarding parent who loved us but abandoned us. We were betrayed by our Muggle pare We We were orphaned. You will still be my queen. I can be a father to you. Your and Severus’ children will inherit the kingdom I will create for you. You have my blessing, child. Severus is a good pureblooded wizard.” He leaned his head down and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

She closed her eyes and fought back the urge to move away from him. She did not trust him one bit. It was very unnerving. Slowly, she opened her eyes again and took a deep breath, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. “I will be a good queen…father.”

He took her hand and went over, having her sit in one of the chairs. He sat in the other one. “I want to show you an old picture of me.” He reached into his robes, pulling out a ure ure of him at age seventeen. “I was Tom then. You have permission to call me Tom when we are alone.”

She reached out and took the picture. The boy looking at her did not look anything like the wizard before her. “You were so handsome back then,” she said softly. “Why did you change?”

He laughed lightly. “This is quite more intimidating, my dear.”

She smiled softly. “Yes, it is.” She looked back at the picture. How could this young man turn out to be the horrible monster before her? She sighed inwardly and looked at him. Now was as good as a time as ever to tell him of her plan. She knew that he would trust her. “Tom, do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “I may have the answer. You will get your kingdom. I know exactly how.” She noticed that he had leaned in toward her. “I can arrange it for you to be able to walk right into Hogwarts and take it over.”

He gave her a skeptical look. “Dumbledore is not going to just let us walk in and take over. It’ll never work.”

She held up her hand. “I’ve seen it in a vision. Here is the plan. We need to stop killing and raiding…just for a while. We need to act like things are calming down. Perhaps we could even spread some rumors around that you are gone. Then, in December, we can do raids on some of the wizard families that are against us. We will NOT kill them. We will just take them and hold them captive. During Christmas, we will walk in. You, me, Severus, maybe a couple others. Dumbledore won’t know that we are coming. We’ll take the castle, since so few are left during then. After that, we hold a huge meeting with all the Death Eaters. We present our captives and kill them.” Her eyes sparkled mischievously. “We can take it. I know we can. Plus, with the spectacle, none of your Death Eaters will ever disobey you. They will know your power when you go and take Dumbledore and Harry Potter out.”

He loved the idea, although he wasn’t sure that it would ever work. “Can you arrange this to happen as planned?”

She leaned in very close to him. “I’ve seen the visions. They do not lie. We have several months to plan. You will get your kingdom, Tom. You will get what you deserve.”

He reached up and touched her cheek. “It is brilliant. WE will get our kingdom. You will be a wonderful queen.” His red eyes raked over her body. “Our beautiful queen.”

She smiled. “There are some details to work out later on, but the plan will work. I’m certain of it.” He nodded. She was glad that he had agreed with her. Right now though, she wanted nothing more but to leave his presence and get back to Severus. She held out his picture back to him. “May I leave, Tom? I would like to get back and plan some more.”

He nodded. “Yes, you may. Keep the picture as well. It’s yours now.”

“Thank you.” She stood up and started to bow when he stopped her and told her that she didn’t need to any more. She smiled at him and disapparated back to Snape Castle. She looked at the picture of the boy again before putting it in her cloak. He was a lot like her. Hate did horrible things to people, and it was obvious that it was just so easy for one to become evil. She shivered at the thought. “It’s not going to happen to you. It can’t.” she told herself.

“How did it go?”

She turned around and hugged Severus tightly. “Fine. He agreed with my plan. We just have to tell Dumbledore and present it to the Order.”

Severus gently stroked her cheek. “Are you sure about this plan of yours?”

She nodded. “It’s the only way. He has to be destroyed.” She considered telling him more about what Tom told her, including the fact that he loved her, but she couldn’t. It didn’t matter anyways. She definitely did not love him back. She sighed as she leaned against him. She had the dark side persuaded. Now, she just had to persuade the others, and she felt that would be more difficult actually.


A/N: Reviews are greatly appreciated. Please review. It makes me happy, and it really only takes a moment.