Body Pillow
In the Dead of the Night
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Author’s Notes:
Please excuse the mess. I am new
to this humble abode, and although I write frequently (outside of Potter Fic)
this is the first story I have written for this website.
mythology—and my mythology will differ (slightly to greatly) from real
mythology. Sorry historians and mythos
folks, but don’t complain: you have
been warned. Also, for those of you
looking for PWP, sorry, but you won’t find it here. This isn’t to say that I’m not going to have a lot of smut here
(wink, wink, nudge, nudge) it’s just to say that I will have a storyline
too. As to how well written my
storyline is, I will leave that up to my readers. The Solidifius charm, and Tangentia plant are my own
creation. And now that I’ve written you
a novel before the novel, the following is the Greek mythological explanation
of the fates and thnamenames:
The fates are three daughters of Nyx who decided the fates
of men and gods alike. Clotho spun the web of life. Lachesis measured its
length, and Atropos cut it. Together, they were known as the moerae.
Information attained from:
Once again, my “fates” will differ from these somewhat.
Usual Disclaimer: I
’t o’t own anything Harry Potter, that entire universe’s creation belongs to the
beloved J.K. Rowling (bow down before her greatness!).
I am only satisfying my own twisted little desire for creating adult
fairytales.
II.
In the Dead of the Night.
Darkness was everywhere.
Dead and Silent night crept its descent upon the lonely edge of wood
where footfalls trod lightly over the early fall blanket of leaves.
dense thicket, dying trees only occasionally marked the stall of a lone figure,
dressed in black, as it ground its way slowly and softly over the dying
earth.
Suddenly the figure stopped. A single dark bird screamed its way forth from the brush, alarming
the forest, but not the figure. It
stood still, monstrous in the dark, as if some mechanization in its being had
failed, and it waited. A single flash
fell before the creature, missing its soul by inches. Then the heavens opened up and growled in the birth of a new
Autumn rain.
Drops of heaven’s darkness, fell softly at the feet of the
black-clad creature. A single dip, ebb
and bow of the heavens and the night lit again in fiercest fire and bellowed
out a heavy and torrential downpour.
The figure stood stock-still in the night, its face alight with every
lightening strike as heavens tears cascaded down its long, prominent and pale
nose and fell softly to the earth, dying as quietly as their creator.
Soon the rain ceased, but the lightning remained.
and pale arms out of its cloak to rest fondly at its side.
the earth and began digging, illuminated momentarily by bursts of lightening
through the cloud enshrouded night.
Digging and digging its way through the earth, searching,
seeking, breathing quiet and deep breaths the man lifted the soft earth to his
nostrils. Touched his tongue to stained hands, illumined in the darkness with
blood and soil. Toiling through layers
of earth sensing, searching breathing for the thing he needed, a thing most
desired, a prize he had to have. The
dark one did not stop until he had dug so deeply, a grave-like pit swooned
before him into the sweet Fall earth.
Lightening fell and Thunder sounded as the heavens opened up once more
the sweet and wet dripping rain began again.
And, before the man-creature lay this darkness, his darkness, dug of his
very own flesh and blood. He felt
himself pulled to the earth, falling and falling and falling to the sound of a
name, into the open mouth of a grave. . . .
***
Severus Snape awoke with a tremendous scream into the early
Autumn night as he found both himself and his bedclothes drenched with rivulets
of something wet and cold. One long,
lonely and pale hand came up to wipe heavens tears from his face as he sat
breathing heavily between layers of drenched Black Velvet and Satin
bedclothes. Sighing heavily, he bowed
his head into his pale hands and desperately whispered, “Not again.”
Brilliant Lightning and Crashing Thunder awoke him from his
silent reverie as he realized that the dungeon window had been left open in his
chambers above his bed allowing the first storms of the fall to come cascading
down upon him.
“Damned house elves…” he muttered to elf elf “…worth
nothing, the entire lot of them…”
It was at this precise moment that he realized he had been
the one to leave the window open earlier yesterday upon his headmaster’s visit
to his chambers. Remembering clearly
Dumbledore’s words,
“…My dear Severus, so nice of you to agree to join me in a
spot of afternoon tea…”
“As if I had a choice,” thought Severus
“…But really, my dear boy, you do like to keep yourself in a
grave don’t you?” Dumbledore gestured
to the emerald and crystal stained glass set high on the wall, very close to
the ceiling “…Why don’t you open up the window and let in some late afternoon
sunshine and air Severus?”
Severus turned toward the window, rolled his eyes and
grudgingly obliged the senior headmaster.
Pale hands reached heavenward and, barely touching the glass, as if it’s
heat would stain, deftly and swiftly threw open the dungeon window.
Slowly turning around and scowling Severus replied, “’there,
now it’s open…” and sat sulkily down into his favorite emerald-green velvet
chair opposite Dumbledore.
Dumbledore just chuckled and looked at Severus fondly, “yes,
that is quite a bit more pleasant than this stuffy room you keep yourself in
all day and night Severus…”
“Merlin’s Beard” thought Severus, “Here it comes…You really
should get out and spend time in the open air, get some sunshine and….”
like the ever-present father figure Dumbledore was. And Dumbledore’s voice, outside of Severus’ head echoed back to
his ears those thoughts exactly, word for word.
“Headmaster…”
“Really Severus, Sunshine is a great stress-reliever…”
“Headmaster…”
“And fresh-air will do wonders for a headache”
“DUMBLEDORE!!!, Severus masterful voice resounded in the
small room, albeit a little more
harshly than he expected.
Merlin-Damn-All, the Headmaster’s age was either driving him
to deafness or he was maddeningly pursuing what he thought was a good
cause: the health of his beloved
potions-master. Most probably, realizing
Dumbledore’s cleverness, the latter was the case indeed.
“I’m sorry sir,…it’s just that…just that I….don’t think…”
Severus tried to explain.
Dumbledore sat in complete silence for a second, as he
inwardly chuckled to himself and contemplated that the sunken figure and
furrowed brow of the ever-sulking potion’s master indicated a level of utmost
agitation at the fatherly advice offered.
Taking this as his cue Dumbledore merely apologized, “It’s okay Severus,
no explanation needed” as he gently patted the pale dextrous hand, and
proceeded with their afternoon conversation.
It was the same conversation they had shared many times
before. The fatherly advice was always
followed by tea and discussions of dark things: He-who-must-not-be-named, his minions, his followings, and
everything in-between.
Ever since that Potter brat had been ingenious enough to
confront Voldemort in his very own threshold, both Hogwarts, and Severus,
double spy that he was, had been under constant threat of a new and more deadly
attack from the Dark Lord and his followers, the Death Eaters.
Several hours after Dumble’s i’s initial arrival to Severus’
inner chambers, most of the tea had been drunk and all the discussion possible
on the subject of the dark lord spent, as Dumbledore finally looked up over his
last cup of tea and, despite the serious discussion, chuckled at his Potions
Master, who had ended up in the oddest of positions possible in his favorite
chair.
Severus was slumped so low down into the green velvet cushion;
he had quite nearly become a part of the chair itself.
would seem, had been slanting in the window at an ever greater degree as the
afternoon waned, and most of the light was now directly positioned on Snape’s
chair.
Finishing the last spot of tea, Dumbledore stood and
announced his departure. Slowly, as to
not disturb the setting sun, Severus clambored at the oddest of angles out of
his chair well away from the open window and walked Dumbledore to his outer
chamber.
With a quick embrace, pat on the back, wink, and the comment
“take care of yourself dear boy” Dumbledore left Severus standing in his much
loved, dark, dank, and dusty outer chamber.
With a quick glance around the chamber to verify he was
alone, though he was quite sure he was alone, it still miffed Severus a bit
that the old codger liked to hug him, Severus put on his best scowl and went
out to check the corridors of Slytherin House for stragglers and goody-goody
stray Gryffindors.
p>
***
Of course he would forget about his open window, especially
after perusing the halls for an hour, narrowly missing one of Peeves more
devlish pranks, and finally catching the poltergeist with a Solidifius charm (a
charm that solidifies ghosts) and throwing him, screaming, into a heavily bogarted
closet.
And if that weren’t enough, he had to take 150 points from
Gryffindor for that Granger girl’s gaul at blatantly turning Malfoy into a
potted Tangentia plant. The only plant
you have to “untangle” before you can turn it back into the creature it was
charmed from. Needless to say, Malfoy would be spending at least a week in the
care of Professor Sprout, and that was before he would even be untangled enough
to be seen by Madam Pomfrey. Lucius
Malfoy would have to be informed, and he would not be happy.
As he returned to his personal chambers, Severus was
contemplating the best way to reach Lucius when he realized exactly how tired
he was. He must get in bed soon.
to be the death of me yet.”
Settling for not having to see Lucius face, he took out his
quill and parchment and wrote a personal letter to Malfoy Senior.
not see the three creatures that flittered very quickly in through his window,
and then scrambling desparately over the window pane, they all ran into one
another. Getting up from his desk,
parchment ind, nd, he walked quickly to the door, only to be stopped by a very soft
noise directly behind him.
Whirling nd, nd, wand at the ready, Severus saw nothing, he
called out “SHOW YOURSELF.” After
several incantations and discovery charms led to nothing he warily exited his
inner chambers and locked his door headed for the owlery.
***
A small white-winged creature, no bigger than an index
finger, popped out from behind Severus’ Armoire. Yet another red-winged creature splashed up and out from the
water basin beside the bed with a gurgle and loud suction of air.
came crawling out from under Severus’ silken bedcovers, with a great big grin
on her face.
Black-winged Atropos exclaimed, “this is going to be quite
fun…” to no one in particular.
with menace, get out from under there right now and help us quickly, before he
returns, while Red-Winged Lachesis, ever-the-relaxed-one announced:
Cyclops and that half-wit, what was his name…oh yeah,…Hagrid…this’ll be a piece
of cake.
Clotho replied to her sister Lachesis, “Let’s just remember
to get this one right, or the Goddess will have our heads served in Hades on an
Essence of Silver Platter at the festival of Samhain.” All three sisters
shivered simultaneously and spent no time at all in getting right down to
business.
***
… “Damned House Elves….” Severus muttered to himself again.
The completely naked and soaked figure of Severus gently
slipped out from between saturated silken sheets, his drenched skin slowly
dripping water from every appendage, as he slid his way menacingly over to the
open window and slammed it shut with such fury his wet body and all the walls
around it shook violently.
Teeth clenched, Severus glared at the window for several
seconds, mumbling, and cursing, words slowly forming upon his wet red lips, he
noticed some small movement on the glass as it reflected the winking figure of
a tiny black winged insect… “No,” Severus exclaimed softly closing his eyes,
counting to three, he re-opened them slowly,
the left one first, and then the right…Nothing there.
Watery tears began to form in Severus’ dark eyes as he hung
his head in defeat and soundlessly slid to the floor whispering desperately…
“NO! …Not again…haven’t I paid the price yet?…it was so long ago…..Not….again…!”