Ashes of Armageddon

Warning: Contents of this chapter are disturbing and extreme and probably should not be read by ANYONE. Chapter contains: humiliation, graphic violence, abuse, corporal punishment.





The Lesson in Humility



The following day, Harry left early, leaving Severus alone. The afternoon came, and went.



It was early evening when Harry returned home, accompanied by, to Severus\' surprise, Oliver Wood, George Weasley, and, a tall, dark-skinned boy Severus recognized as Lee Jordan, the Slytherin-hating Gryffindor brat, who had at one time managed to enrage even Minerva McGonagall.



Harry shoved a paper bag into Severus\' hands. “Go change, and return,” Harry said with a slight smirk on his lips. “Don\'t dawdle. We\'ve got plans for you.” The other three wizards sneered at him with contempt, and memories of Marauders resurfaced instantly.



In his bedroom, he pulled out the set of clothing and rose an eyebrow. He was not sure what he was expecting, although he was certain it would be utterly degrading. He did not, however, expect... this. It was a formal outfit: black polished boots, black trousers, white shirt, black leather belt, and a formal robe with green trim. Oddly enough, the set included some accessories as well: a black hair tie, new shorts, new socks, and a neck tie, in Slytherin colors – apparently, Severus was expected to look more like a student, than a teacher.



Severus smiled derisively, as he stripped, and began to change. He had underestimated Harry Potter, once again. Making Severus wear something openly degrading would have been one thing. To dress him in a formal Slytherin outfit, make him subservient, and place him at the mercy of four much younger, vindictive Gryffindors, was a rather different approach, aimed directly at the heart of his ego.



Severus exited the bedroom, avoiding looking in the mirror. He knew he was dressed well, better than he had ever cared to dress himself in all his years of teaching; which only underscored his humiliation. Just like it was supposed to. For a brief second, he had considered putting up a fight, and declining to cooperate with his own degradation; but then decided to just grin and bear whatever was in store for him. Their small group of conspirators at St. Mungo\'s still had work to do, and he was not too keen on the prospect of Harry deciding to ban him from the hospital, and maroon him at Godric\'s Hollow indefinitely.



When he made it downstairs, laughter greeted him. George Weasley clapped, and Lee Jordan tugged on his neck-tie. Severus found himself freezing involuntarily.



“Stop,” Harry told Lee with a smile. “Not just yet.”



They made him serve them dinner, and mix drinks for them. Harry provided instructions that Severus followed dutifully. Harry patted his back with a smirk:



“Looks like all those years of stirring and mixing potions are finally paying off.”



He did not know how he got through the hours of serving, mixing, and tidying up – without saying a single spiteful word to anyone. In truth, he just moved mechanically, automatically, his eyes half-shut, thinking of his work at St. Mungo\'s, then, of Spinner\'s End, of the time before the Dark Mark, before the Marauders, before the school... before everything else.



Eventually, Harry\'s voice brought him out of his daydreaming.



“Severus. You are zoning out. Are you bored?”



Severus looked at him numbly, unsure if he was meant to answer the question.



“Clear the table,” Harry snapped. Severus complied easily, removing the glasses and bottles, and clearing the surface completely.



“Good,” Harry said. “Come here.”



Severus stepped forward, with a faint feeling of dread beginning to spread through his body. He knew something was about to happen, but he was not sure what.



Harry patted the surface of the table. “Bend over. Lean against the table.”



The simple order made Severus freeze – and he was unwilling to even contemplate the reason for it. Not even Sirius Black and James Potter in all their glory had been this bad. He stood motionless for a moment, and then, without even thinking, bolted for the door.



George and Lee rushed after him, blocking the exit. A moment later, Oliver caught up with them as well. Severus tried pushing past them, but they grabbed his arms. He struggled furiously, attempting to get his hand on one of their wands. Someone punched him, and then, a hand grabbed his tie, constricting his breathing. Soon, he hung limp in their grip, unable to breathe, as they dragged him across the hallway, back into the dining room and slammed him forward, forcing him to bend over, his upper body leaning against the table surface.



Harry looked untroubled and unconcerned by any of it: neither Severus\' desperate escape attempt, nor the explosion of violence that followed. He grabbed Severus\' wrists and, uttering a few spells, created bonds that restrained him, bending over the table: his arms stretched forth, and his ankles positioned firmly on the floor.



“Well,” Harry said with satisfaction. “Time to move on.”



Severus pulled on his bonds violently, to no avail. Oliver\'s laughter answered his futile attempt.



“Just relax,” Harry advised him pitilessly, and moved out of his field of vision. “You are not going to be able to escape, you realize. Lee – did you bring it?”



“Sure did,” Lee said with a smirk.



Severus heard the sound of something passing into Harry\'s hand.



“Nice,” Harry said. “And the holes? Sweet.”



Lee chuckled. “Only the best for the Potions Master.”



Severus felt someone\'s hand on his back – he instantly recognized Harry\'s touch. Harry was stroking his back almost soothingly.



“So, I wonder. How many points do you think Severus Snape had deducted from Gryffindor while we were in school?”



“A lot,” Oliver said meaningfully.



“Well, give me a ballpark figure,” Harry muttered. “Five hundred? A thousand?”



“I have no idea,” Oliver said. “Who was counting?”



“I\'m guessing it\'s close to a thousand,” George said gravely.



“Two thousand four hundred and ten,” Lee Jordan said suddenly.



Harry\'s fingers dug into Severus\' back. “What?”



“The number of points he had deducted from Gryffindor throughout his miserable teaching career,” Lee said vehemently. “Two thousand four hundred and ten. I looked it up in school records.”



“Oh my,” Harry murmured. “That many?”



Severus tensed when Harry\'s hand lifted his robe, pulling it up. Then, Harry reached around Severus, and unbuckled his belt. He yanked down the trousers, and patted Severus on the backside through the fabric of the shorts. Severus could not suppress a mortified shudder.



“Let me tell you this,” Harry said coldly. “Your adventures with the Marauders will seem like foreplay, compared to what the four of us will do to you.” And then, Harry\'s hands grabbed the elastic of the shorts, and pulled, exposing his buttocks. Someone laughed again, and someone else\'s hand touched him.



He felt a pressure of the cool wood against his flesh – along with some irregularities in the wood. Holes.



Harry stood behind him, and traced a line with his finger across Severus\' lower back. “Okay, guys. No blows above this line. And nothing below here,” Harry\'s fingers ran across the top of Severus\' legs.



Severus bit into his lower lip, doing his best not to dwell on the realization that his body was being partitioned as if it were an inanimate object.



Harry leaned to him, bringing lips to his ear. “Where\'s your pride now, huh, Prince?” he whispered. “Bullying isn\'t as much fun when you are on the receiving end of it, is it? You are pathetic.”



Severus craned his neck as much as his position allowed it, and without hesitation, spat in Harry\'s face. Harry appeared to be taken aback by it, but only momentarily.



“I see you are desperate to get a good thrashing,” Harry smirked, wiping his face.



Severus grit his teeth, not dignifying the words with a response. The paddle struck against his buttocks, again and again, the blows falling rapidly, setting his skin on fire. He growled a few times, and grunted, struggling against the pain, eliciting appreciative laughs from his young tormentors. Then, it stopped, the paddle changed hands, and the blows became more measured, stronger, and fell more slowly.



It went on and on. The degradation was overwhelming, to the point of screaming, perhaps to the point of madness; but then, blissfully and unexpectedly, his emotions went completely blank. Eventually, the agony overtook him, and he drifted off into a benumbed, dazed state where his mind was simply bringing up random memories that had no connection to anything that was happening to him. A potions recipe he had never managed to complete ... Nagini, poised to strike... An unpublished essay on Boggarts... His father, screaming at his mother, raising his hand to strike her... A nursery rhyme, sang by his father in the twilight of the evening... an old, large nail he had found playing outside the following morning...



At one point, he realized that it was over. His entire backside was throbbing violently, and his entire body was trembling furiously, as if exposed to cold wind.



“Spectacular,” Lee said with a smirk. “We should do this again.”



“A swat for every point,” George confirmed. “If we do this every week, he should repay his debt to Gryffindor in about a year, give or take...”



Oliver yawned heartily. “It\'s getting late,” he said. “I should be going.”



“Me too,” Lee said. “Till another time, Harry. Next time, I\'ll bring something else.”



“See that you do,” said Harry.



Severus heard footsteps heading towards the door, and people leaving. He was still tied down, and still in pain, when Harry stood behind him.



“By the way, Severus,” Harry said with a clear note of malice in his voice, “ Spitting in my face? Grabbing people\'s wands? And... running? What was that all about? That was just stupid. Are you that much of a coward that you don\'t even have any self-control, or common sense left? If you are outside this household without my approval, you\'ll be in so much pain, Cruciatus will feel like petting. And, even if you by some miracle, manage to run off, I assure you, the tracking spells embedded in your brand will enable me to find you. And I will find you, and bring you back, each and every time.”



Severus issued a slight sigh, and cursed Nagini under his breath. Would that she had bitten him harder, and killed him back in the Shrieking Shack...



He heard the sound of Harry unbuckling his own belt, pulling it out, and folding it. Severus pressed his face to the surface of the table, as the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach became all-pervading.



“Let this be a lesson to you. You will not run from me.”



The belt impacted against his already wounded buttocks. Severus gasped involuntarily, and when the belt struck again, nearly cried out out loud. Harry laughed, and reached to touch the injured flesh, running his knuckles along the welts and the blisters. Then, the hand was withdrawn, three more lashes landed, and the agony became almost unbearable.



Severus groaned quietly. Out of the corner of his eye , he saw Harry come around, and stand by his side. The belt was raised again, and landed on Severus\' fingers, with full strength, several times, breaking the skin. Severus did not know how he did not scream through that – but somehow, through some unfathomable miracle, he managed to utter nothing but a single low, almost animalistic grunt.



And then, it was over, truly over for the night, at least where the physical punishment was concerned. Harry released his wrists and ankles from the bonds, and Severus straightened out tentatively, winching against the ache in his back, and the agony in his backside, and absolute, violent, horrifying pain that was gripping his bleeding fingers. He allowed his robe to fall down and cover him, but even in spite of his utter humiliation, he could not bring himself to pull up his shorts or trousers – the agony in his fingers and the backside dissuaded him from any attempt at dressing himself. He simply stepped out of his trousers and shorts, picked them up, and stared down in absolute silence.



Harry was standing a few feet away, putting his belt back on. For some reason, the mere sight of it, of his young owner, putting away the tool of torment in such a casual way, underscored his powerlessness to such extent that he found his hands shaking. And then, he heard himself laughing, very quietly, very softly, laughing at the absolute agonizing ridiculousness of it all. That Dumbledore\'s most trusted spy, the Head of Slytherin, the part of the inner circle of the Dark Lord – was reduced to this, by a twenty-three-year old boy...



Harry came up to him suddenly, and sunk his fingers into his hair, gathering fistfuls of it, and pulling Severus towards himself. Severus winced as he realized that the beloved green eyes – the copy of Lily\'s eyes - were gazing at him with contemptuous amusement.



“Are you going insane, do you think?” Harry demanded, smiling slightly.



“I can only hope, Mr. Potter,” Severus said with a shake of his head. “Are you done with me?”



“For the time being.”



Harry released him, pushing him away. Severus stumbled slightly, and left, walking painfully and slowly, up the stairs to his bedroom. Once there, he stripped off the remnants of his clothing, and stretched himself on the bed face down, burying his face in the bedspread. He was still in pain, but it was beginning to subside, if only slightly. On an impulse, he reached to touch his backside, and was rewarded with a fresh stab of agony, at the connection of the two equally wounded parts of his body. He withdrew his sore hand at once, and issued a sigh of resignation.



He forced himself to remain still, and breathe evenly and deeply. As far as pain was concerned, he had seen worse. As far as degradation, the current predicament had no equal to it. As far as powerlessness, the only time in his life he had felt more weak, more frail, and more helpless, was the first time he had experienced the Cruciatus curse. That was the time he had begged for Lily Potter\'s life, the Dark Lord offered no reassurances, and Severus was reckless enough to ask twice.



...To Be Continued...