The Shattering of Souls

well, we find ourselves back here once more, in our own little corner of the world. the corner where its dark and dreary and not everything is right. hopefully, we can correct that. or maybe we\'ll just break for tea and call it good. this is the part where i tell you that i don\'t own any of this except for plot and a couple of the characters. everything else, what you recognize, is owned by j.k. rowling and i am certainly not trying to steal any of it or them from her. i mean.. why would i want to steal snape? ~whistles tunelessly~ i am not making money on this. it is done mostly to keep me off the streets. i\'m a horrible person, you know.

i don\'t know if there\'s smut or not. but there might be. never know. be on the lookout for that and any thing else that could possibly be detrimental to your health. you never know with the way the bunnies have been lately.

finally, if you find that you like my humble offering, please feel free to let me know. thanks for reading.

Chapter Twenty One: Most Unfortunate Events
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\'How long have you known?\' he barked at her, his hand tightening in her hair until she felt tears sting her eyes. She managed to keep them from falling, but she couldn\'t stop the sigh. Somehow, he\'d figured it out.

She was in such trouble.

\'How fucking long have you known?\' he demanded. He muttered the words that would release the bonds on her wrists then threw her away from him. Bri tumbled back off the table and fell to the floor, landing hard on her arse. He narrowed his gaze on her, studying her for a moment. She stood, refusing to rub her chafed wrists or abused bottom in his presence. She would not let him know he\'d hurt her. Instead, she smiled at him. It was not a very nice smile. His scowl was deep and as black as ink. \' I see. Apparently long enough. And when, pray tell, did you regain your full memory?\'

\'Oh, I\'ve had it for quite some time,\' she replied airily. She gave him a smirk, then allowed her face to go expressionless. She watched him and swore she could see him think back over the time they had spent in Otherworld. He turned his gaze back to hers. She was sure if looks could kill, his eyes would be sickly green and screaming \'Avada Kedavra\' at her.

\' Indeed,\' he snarled, crossing his arms over his chest in an attempt to intimidate her. She gave him a glance, then chuckled and copied the gesture.

\' I\'m afraid that you can\'t intimidate me that easily, Snape.\'

\'Funny, but as I recall, that is not what you were calling me last night,\' he commented, a knowing smile gracing his lips for a matter of seconds before it returned to its typical sneer. Triumph shone in his eyes when she couldn\'t control the blush that rose to stain her sheeks. He knew that she was well aware of just what she\'d called him last night. And why. As it stood, it had been some time since she\'d slept in her own bed.

\'What can I say?\' she shrugged, recovering enough of her wits to adopt a nonchalant pose. \' I\'m the best of the best and my mum always told me I was an accomplished actress. If one as jaded as you was taken in by my abilities, then I must be good.\'

\'You miserable bitch!\' he hissed, his wand suddenly in his hand. She stood in a defensive posture, one hand up and palm facing him. He knew what it meant and lowered his wand, but didn\'t put it away. She didn\'t relax her pose, either. \'Tell me what purpose was served by keeping your memory return from me. What good could that have done?\'

\' I found out what you were up to,\' she informed him, her eyes darkening with anger. His face remained impassive as he watched her. She nodded and gave him that nasty little smile again. \'Oh, yes. I know all about your plans. How you intended to make me love you, then you planned on walking away from me at just the right moment.\'

There was the smallest measure of surprise clearly seen in his eyes before he banished it away and went back to his typical scowl.

\'Plans? Why in the name of the gods should I make any plans involving you? You are the one who killed me! You are the one who has made my life as much a living hell as Potter or any other. Why should I even consider making plans involving you?\' he snapped at her, one finger pointed at her accusingly. \'What makes you think I would trouble myself?\'

\'You may not know this, but I happen to be an excellent Legilimens. I was trained by Professor Dumbledore himself,\' she said smugly.

\'You read my mind?\' he roared, advancing on her. She glared at him and lifted her hand higher. The slight adjustment brought him up short and he once more poitned a finger in her direction. \'What the hell gives you the right to dig through my thoughts and read them at will?\'

\'The same thing that gives you the right to decide that you can attempt to play with my emotions!\' she shot back heatedly. Snarling, she reached out with one hand and silently called her clothing to her. With angry, jerking motions, she yanked her underwear on before looking at the gown and robes she\'d worn all day. With a muttered curse, she threw them at him and turned to stalk from the room.

Severus caught up with Bri in her own rooms. She had already donned a form fitting t-shirt in black and was struggling to drag a pair of jeans up her legs. He scowled at her as she began summoning clothing, dumping them messily into an open pack. \'What are you doing?\'

\'What does it look like? Why do you care? What does it matter?\' she growled in irritation. Her questions stopped him cold. Why did he care? He couldn\'t stand the self-righteous little bitch. What did it matter to him what she did or didn\'t do? Yet, it seemed as if some part of him did care. Some part of him was concerned by her seemingly rash actions. She was packing to leave. He could see that as plainly as he could see that she was madder than hell at him.

\'Just where do you intend to go, Miss Wallace?\' he asked her, once more adopting his favored pose. She looked up at him a moment before scowling angrily and going back to what she\'d been doing.

\'Apparently, your mind has grown weak in the months since I saved your life. So I\'ll be kind enough to give you a quick refresher. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange are still out there,\' she spat at him, not bothering to look up as she spoke. \'They are responsible for countless deaths and they are also responsible for nearly killing me. My job is to stop them. My job is to keep Harry Potter and everyone else in the world safe from their madness.\'

Bri looked up at him and snarled. \'That includes your miserable ass. So I am going to take my things and go find them. Its what I do!\'

\'Do you believe that you can simply seek them out and kill them? That ending their lives will be so simple as all that? You cannot tell me that you will be able to forget what they did to you. That you will be able to simply put all of those dark, depressing, foul deeds from your mind and pretend none of it happened when you finally find them and face them down.\' Snape moved across the room on silent feet and dragged her next to him. His eyes bored into hers as he studied her intently. \'You do. You think you can simply walk into Malfoy\'s lair and kill him. You are utterly mad, woman!\'

\'At least I\'d be doing my job!\' she shouted at him, shoving away in a fit of temper. She didn\'t want him to touch her. Touching her would make leaving him that much harder. And she was leaving him. She had to. She loved him too much to sit back and let him abuse her as he was. As he just had.

\'A fool\'s job. It will end in your death,\' he snapped back.

\'Better to be completely dead than only dead on the inside! If I die, I would at least be with people who care about me! I could see my mother again,\' she pinned him with a glare. \' I wouldn\'t ever have to look at a man who despises me so much that he thinks he can break me by making me love him. For nothing more than petty revenge. I don\'t need that and I sure as hell don\'t need you!\'

\'You do not need me?\' he scoffed, pinning her with a gaze that held sadistic triumph in it. \'You claim you do not need me, yet you have told me on countless occasions that you love me. Explain that away, if you can.\'

\'That\'s simple,\' she grinned at him and she felt that her face must look as evil as his own did at the moment. \' I lied. Its all been a very well crafted act. I hate you with a passion that is only exceeded by my desire and need to see Lucius Malfoy dead. And, once I\'ve succeeded in that quest, there won\'t be anything in the way to keep you from topping my list of things I hate the most. I do not now, nor have I ever, really care about you. As I told you. I don\'t need you.\'

She tossed the pack up on her back and stormed past him. His hand snaked out and curled around her arm. She swung around and glared daggers up at him. \'Let me tell you about what I do not need. I do not need to be saddled with a spoiled brat woman who believes that everything must go her way. I do not need to be locked away like a criminal. I do not need to be forced to watch over a mentally void woman who clings to me as a vine to a trellis. I do not need to be housed with the likes of you!\'

Bri felt her temper blazing. Her magic swirled around her like wind, blowing her hair out away from her head. To his credit, Snape didn\'t back down. He didn\'t let go of her arm and he didn\'t stop looking at her as if he were planning to skewer her on a very large stick. Part of her quivered with the need to unleash her anger and feelings of betrayal on him. It wanted her to use her magic on him and make him feel some small part of what she was currently feeling. But she didn\'t. It would be too simple to just blast him like that. Better for her if she left him with quiet dignity and grace. To make him wonder if he\'d just lost something he might have wanted and could never get back.

Calming herself, she gently extracted her arm from his vice-like grip and moved away from him. A serene smile settled over her face as it came to her that he wouldn\'t be reacting to her leaving as he was if there wasn\'t some part of him that was, at the least, concerned about what she planned on doing. He cared. Somewhere in that empty heart and barren soul of his, Snape cared. Bri settled her pack higher on her shoulder and moved for the door. \"Good-bye, Professor Snape. Good luck,\" she intoned in a gentle whisper.

Then she walked out the door and out of his life.

~*~*~*~*~

Professor Dumbledore was waiting for her at the entry way to his office when Bri reached the head of the stairs. There was a soft frown on his face that told her he already knew what was going on. She nodded her head to him and stepped past, into his office. He followed behind her, motioning to a chair with one hand as he moved to sit in the chair behind his desk. She dumped her pack into it and stood, staring down at him with an impassive face.

The farther Bri had gotten from the dungeons, the worse her heart had ached. It had been hard enough to tell Severus that she hated him. It had been far worse to walk out the door and leave him standing there. At the moment, she thought her heart was broken into pieces in her chest. The last thing she wanted the Headmaster to know was that she was so stupid as to actually fall in love with Snape. She intended to stay long enough to tell him she was leaving, then she was going to do just that.

He stared at her for a few moments before clearing his voice. \'Please, Miss Wallace. Sit down so that we may properly discuss...\'

\'No,\' she retorted angrily. How dare he patronize her after all she\'d been through! She felt her anger come to life again, fighting for dominance in her body with the sadness that threatened to swallow her. It could have her. Only not until she\'d done what she was supposed to. She had to stop Malfoy and his goons. No matter the cost. Dumbeldore\'s gaze narrowed on her for a moment.

\'What ever Severus has done,\' he began. \' I\'m quite certain he\'ll apologize for it at once. There is no need to just run off like this.\'

\'There is no way in hell that man will ever apologize for being born. And there\'s no way in hell I\'m going to wait around for him to do so. In fact, that\'s the reason I\'m here,\' she replied stiffly. \' I\'ve done enough waiting. I\'m going after the son-of-a-bitch and I\'m ending this. Once and for all.\'

\' I do not believe that is such a wise idea, Miss Wallace. And, let us not forget, you are still employed by me,\' he pointed out patiently.

\'That is something I can easily recitify. I quit. You don\'t need me to watch over Potter anymore. No one knows he\'s here. He\'s safe under your watchful eye. I\'m washing my hands of this whole, sordid mess.\'

\'Should you manage to find Lucius and kill both he and Bellatrix, it would be in cold blood and thus, you would be labeled a murderer. You would find yourself in Azkaban before you could think to breathe,\' Dumbledore told her softly. \'Your emotions are all muddled at the moment. I believe you need a moment to sit back and think about what it is you plan on doing.\'

\' I\'ve thought about nothing else for the past few months. I\'ve thought of nothing beyond wrapping my hands about that foul-mouthed bitch\'s throat and wringing her neck until I can pay her back for what she did to my mother! And then I\'m going to turn on Malfoy and teach him the meaning of the word pain. I will personally gut him like a fish so that all of his Pureblooded entrails lay out for the vultures,\' she told him heatedly.

\' Do you really think you will survive in Azkaban? You are a child of nature. You would wither and die in that cold, dark place,\' the Headmaster informed her softly. Her eyes narrowed on him in accusation.

\'You know? How long have you known?\' Bri snarled at him. Her temper was beginning to spiral out of control and it was all she could do to hold onto it.

\'You will sit down and behave, Miss Wallace,\' Dumbledore informed her in the sternest voice she\'d ever heard. His eyes were not twinkling at her. They were pinned on her with a gaze that was filled with authority and sadness. Immediately, she sank into the chair that was empty and stared at him. \'As Headmaster of my school, it is my business to know as much about my students as I can. I knew your mother well. She told me of the circumstances of your creation and birth shortly before her death.\'

\'You\'ve known all my life who my father was? What I am? And yet, you said nothing to me. How completely arrogant of you,\' she spat sarcastically.

\' It wasn\'t my place. I made a promise to your mother. Perhaps it was unwise to keep it. But you always felt as if you didn\'t belong here when you were a student. I didn\'t wish to alienate you any further.\'

\'Alienate me?\' her eyes were wide with disbelief and shock. \'Thank you so kindly for sparing my childish sensibilities. Never mind the fact that I shouldn\'t have been here in the first place! I belong here as much as I belong with my father! No,\' she shook her head and stood. \'This is the end of it. I\'m going after them. When I find them, I\'m killing them. Then they can put me in Azkaban. Or, if I\'m lucky, perhaps either Malfoy or Lestrange will get in a lucky shot and there won\'t be any need.\'

\'Miss Wallace.... Bri.....\' Dumbledore stood and moved after her. \'Please don\'t go like this. I don\'t know that I could live with myself if anything happened to you. I promised your mother that I would look after you as best I could. It would break her heart to know you were off on a suicide mission.\'

\'My mother is dead,\' she said in a soft voice.

\'And there is nothing you can do to bring her back, Bri. Let her go. Let her rest in peace. When the time comes, you will have your revenge. But to go now, when you\'re so angry, would be a suicide mission,\' he told her, gently putting his hands on her shoulders from behind. Bri felt tears well up in her eyes. Tears of anger and frustration and bitter pain that wouldn\'t leave her. Dumbledore didn\'t pull her closer or say anything shallow in an attempt to make her feel better. He only stood there with his hands on her shoulders and let her cry.

It was a very long time until her tears had dried and she only gave an occasional sob. She didn\'t look up at him, but she didn\'t pull from him either. He felt her shoulders sag in defeat and couldn\'t help the wave of relief that washed over him and brought a sad smile to his face. \' I can\'t stay in the dungeons any longer. And I can\'t stay with Harry and Izzy. I need some privacy.\'

\'Of course, my child. I will allow you to stay in the Shrieking Shack. However, should you attempt to leave there to go anywhere but to come back up to the castle, I will not hesitate to lock you up in Azkaban for your own good,\' he told her gently. She nodded her head in silent acquiescence.

Dumbledore stepped away from her and moved back to his desk. \'You may Apparate to the Shack from here.\' Bri scooped up her pack and was gone in a flash.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry stood in the window of the Owlrey, staring out at the grounds surrounding the castle. Hogwart\'s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His prison. He\'d been confined to the castle, to a small section of the castle, for the better part of two weeks. He as sick of being held captive by Dumbledore. He was tired of hiding from his problems. Tired of hiding from Malfoy.

He knew Malfoy was out there, looking for him. Waiting for Harry to appear so that Lucius could finish what he\'d started and make good his promise. Malfoy wanted to kill him. There was something happening, something that Harry had been left out of. He was sure of it. The Headmaster\'s attitude and behavior were indicative of secrecy and lies. Harry knew that well. He\'d been through it nearly every day of his school life. Dumbledore had hidden so much from him. And it had brought about Sirius\' death. Now the Headmaster was doing it again.

Harry wanted out. He wanted to fly away on his broom. He wanted to go some place where he wasn\'t known, where Harry Potter was just another name. There had to be somewhere he could go where the people wouldn\'t know the lightning bolt scar, the messy hair and the piercing green eyes. He wanted to stop being Harry Potter. He just wanted to be.

He sighed. Things had gotten monotonous in the past week. First had been those ludicrous meetings between Izzy, Bri and himself. He\'d found that he disliked being in the room with the two of them. Izzy was lost in her feelings for Bill Weasley. It wasn\'t that he minded that. He thought that it was a good thing. But he was coming to find he didn\'t like himself very much. He\'d been absolutely horrible to her when they\'d been in Otherworld and he didn\'t know how she could stand to even look at him any more.

He didn\'t understand how he had let his anger take control of him the way he had. It was like he\'d fallen into a deep, dark hole and he couldn\'t see what he was doing. His eyes took it in, but the actions didn\'t seem to go past them. His mind was in the dark as to what was going on. All he knew was that she\'d been a wonderful outlet for all the pent up aggressions and frustrations. He\'d felt as if he were powerful and strong every time he\'d laid his fist on her. Any time he\'d done so.

He would admit that, in some small way, the affair hadn\'t been completely bad. The sex had been fantastic. But it had been just that. Sex. And he found, now that Izzy was involved with Bill, that he wanted and needed a real relationship. A woman who would love him for who he was on the inside. Not on the outside. He wanted someone to love him as Harry Potter. Not as the Boy Who Had Lived To Kill Voldemort.

Which brought his thoughts around to Bri. If he was being honest, he would admit that he\'d developed a crush on her during their confinement together. It couldn\'t, in some ways, be avoided. They had spent a large amount of time together, where they had been each other\'s only company. He had always thought Bri was a very pretty woman. There was something... unusual about her. Something almost exotic. Something that drew him to her as a moth to a flame.

It had damn near made him nutters to find her with Snape. The fact that she had let the greasy git touch her as he had, that she\'d let him... fuck her... It was more than he could stand. He hadn\'t understood how she could want to be near him. It hadn\'t been until he\'d realized that she\'d actually lost her memory that he\'d come to understand how she could be so enamored of the man. She honestly hadn\'t known that she hated Snape. She\'d gone into Snape\'s arms willingly. And that was Harry\'s fault. He\'d sent Snape to rescue her and, in doing so, had given Bri a reason to fall into the man\'s snarky embrace.

The visits had stopped a week ago, right after Harry had found out Bri\'s memories were returned. He hadn\'t seen her since then. He hadn\'t seen much of anyone. He\'d heard that Snape had locked hismelf away in his dungeons and refused to even speak to the Headmaster. Izzy hadn\'t seem concerned at Bri\'s not joining them. She spent increasingly more time with Bill as the days passed. It was what had finally driven Harry to flee the tower they had been housed in so that he could sneak into the owlrey, hidden deep within the folds of his Invisibility cloak. Hedwig, whom he\'d thought long lost, was presently sitting on a perch near him.

He ran his fingers lightly over the soft, white feathers that covered her frame. She was making small sounds of delight in her throat, basking in the attention he was giving her. Harry was so lost in his
solitude that he failed to notice the door to the Owlrey opening. He didn\'t hear it creaking open and closed. He didn\'t know that someone was standing there until the rest of the birds began flapping their wings and screeching loudly. He turned and saw the shadowy figure moving across the floor toward him.

\'Who are you? What are you doing here?\' he asked. The light flashed upon a strip of pale skin hidden deep within the folds of the cloak\'s hood. His eyes flicked to the exposed wand. \'Hey! What\'s that for?\'

\'STUPEFY!\' a soft voice that Harry swore he knew whispered. A bolt of red light shot across the room at him. Harry saw it coming and couldn\'t react to stop it. The last thing he saw was darkness as it closed over him and pulled him into its waiting arms.

~*~*~*~*~

Severus Snape sat on his couch, staring into the hearth at the flames that licked along the sides of the logs settled into it. One of his hands was curled loosely around the neck of a bottle of Ogden\'s Old, which he lifted to his mouth and swallowed a drink from. For the past week, he had held himself prisoner in his rooms. Ever since Bri Wallace had walked out of his life. Every night had seen him downing a bottle of Firewhisky so that he could sleep.

He was alone here. Since Bri had left, he had not allowed anyone entrance to his dungeon sanctuary. The House Elves that weren\'t afraid of him and would come to his rooms to clean or deliver his food were now banned from entering. As were his colleagues. Right down to the nosy Headmaster and his busybody Deputy Headmistress. Dumbledore and McGonagall couldn\'t understand why he was hiding way down here. He wasn\'t about to enlighten them. In fact, he wasn\'t entirely certain he knew why himself.

If Severus was being honest with himself, which he wasn\'t, he would admit that it had something to do with Bri\'s abrupt departure. She had simply up and left him as if he didn\'t even exist. Why that was, he couldn\'t guess. But there was this feeling of being dismissed and dumped that hung about his shoulders that nothing he tried could dispel. It was almost as if he wanted to be involved in Bri\'s life.

He frowned at the very idea. It was preposterous. A Snape did not pout. A Snape did not pine over a woman. Severus Snape did not sit about in his underwear, swilling ale and bemoaning the fact that the love of his life had left him in the lurch.

He sighed and took another drink from the bottle he clutched. He didn\'t impress easily, but he would admit that he was impressed with the likes of Bri Wallace. There was something about her that he couldn\'t pin down or name. He only knew that she appealed to him. Despite his intense and extreme dislike for her, he found her appealing. He knew she was smart. Oh, the Know-It-All Granger had her beaten with book smarts. But when it came to common sense and street smarts, the annoying figure of Bri Wallace sprang first to his mind.

Severus hated that he couldn\'t stop his brain from wandering to her time and again. It seemed that the damnable organ couldn\'t help turning to her at all hours of the day, despite his best efforts to keep it firmly in check. He found that she was there when he woke in the mornings, teasing him with past mornings woken to her sweet ministrations. Meals saw him remembering how she ate, how her mouth worked around the food she put into it. Showers brought her to mind. Dressing and undressing saw her there in the corners of his mind.

Evenings.... He shuddered when he thought of the evenings. She was always there, naked and waiting for him. Moaning for him. Calling his name and making him want her all the more. The damned wench had found some way to get under his skin. He despised her with every fibre of his being for making him think of her every minute of every day. Even now, in his drunken solitude, she was there.

The unstoppable thoughts of Bri Wallace that danced through his mind included several images of her naked and writhing beneath him or with her soft lips wrapped firmly around his engorged shaft, sucking up and down the thickened length of it with gleeful abandon. In return, his cock promptly filled with blood and refused to deflate until he either found Bri and forced her under him, which wouldn\'t happen in a million years, or he curled his hand about it and stroked himself off like some addle-pated teen boy, which would never happen in a million years. Severus refused to admit that he needed Bri any more than he needed a frontal lobotomy.

The clock on the wall chimed the hour, telling him that it was long past time to seek his bed. He stood and waited a moment, disliking the way the world around him spun and shifted. Damned Ogden\'s Old. It always threw his balance off-kilter like this. He waited until the feeling of disorientation left him, then he staggered for his bed chambers. After settling the bottle of liquor on his bed side table, he began stripping his clothes off. When the pile of black lay in a heap on the floor, he fell into bed on his back. His cock thobbed as he felt the ghostly hands of the woman who haunted his dreams curl around him and tease their way up and down his tight body.

A groan rolled up his throat and his resolve broke. With a shaking hand, he reached for his swollen shaft.....

~*~*~*~*~

\'Enervate.\'

Harry woke, feeling groggy and very confused. He could recall being in the Owlrey, petting Hedwig and allowing himself to stay lost in thought. There had been the disturbance, then the cloaked figure. A spell and red light. Then nothing until now. He blinked his eyes open and groaned, shielding his sight from the blinding light surrounding him. Everything was fuzzy, telling him his glasses had been removed. He looked around until he found several large blurs to stare at. He knew who it was even without his glasses.

\'Good morning, Mr. Potter,\' the voice was cultured and refined and as slippery as a snake. Harry sat up, still keeping his unfocused gaze at the two largest blurs before him. \' I trust you slept well?\'

\'Malfoy,\' he spat nastily, as if the word left a foul taste in his mouth. He saw a hand coming at him and steeled himself for the blow. It never came. Instead, he felt his glasses sliding up his nose, the ends of the bows hooking over his ears. He blinked, bringing the world back into focus to him. Malfoy stood over him, his icy eyes glaring down at Harry where he sat.

\'Welcome to my humble abode, Mr. Potter. I\'m so pleased that you could join us,\' Lucius purred civilly.

\'How could I resist such a polite invitation?\' he asked, standing slowly.

\'Ah yes. My little messenger. Barbaric, I admit. But terribly effective. Forgive me for not delivering it to you in person. Sadly, were I to step foot out of this lovely home, I would be snatched up by Ministry Aurors and I\'m afraid we can\'t have that.\'

\'Of course not,\' Harry snarled. \'You\'re so much better at dishing it out than you are at taking it. Not to worry, though. I\'ll make sure to cure you of that habit.\'

\'With what? Your acerbic tongue? Your Gryffindor courage? Your wand?\' he held the smooth piece of wood up for Harry to see.

\'My bare hands, if the need arises,\' Harry told him evenly. He didn\'t intend to lose his temper now. It would only mean more trouble and now was the time to keep his head and try to think his way out of this. If it was even possible. If there was one thing his time in hiding had taught him, it was that he needed to use his brains as much as he did anything else. He sighed and adopted a nonchalant pose. \'Well, you\'ve got me here now. Why not kill me and be done with it?\'

\'Because there is more that needs done. While I want you dead with a fervency that is topped only by my desire to see the world brought to the Dark Lord\'s way of thinking, it simply isn\'t enough anymore,\' Malfoy snapped at him and advanced. When he was only a few inches away, he reached down and grabbed Harry\'s robes, dragging him closer to him so that they looked each other in the eye. \'There is the matter of your little helper. Miss Wallace has to join us before I put my plans into motion. You see, Potter. I intend to kill her, too. And I think I\'m going to give you the honor of watching her die.\'

\'Bri won\'t come for me. She\'ll see right through your plans,\' Harry informed him.

\'Oh, I do believe you\'re wrong on that account, Potter,\' Lucius released him and stepped back. \'You see, I\'m sending her an invitation as well. And I can be most persuasive when I chose to be. She\'ll come. I happen to have something that she simply won\'t be able to resist.\'

\'I told you. She won\'t come for me. She doesn\'t give a rat\'s ass about me,\' Harry retorted hotly.

\'Perhaps she does and perhaps she doesn\'t. But I do know that she gives a... rat\'s ass... about a certain Potions Master. And that will get her attention.\'

Harry stared and hoped that his thoughts didn\'t show on his face. Malfoy knew about Snape. Shit, shit and more shit. He knew now, after their last discussion, that Bri had fallen in love with Snape. Some how, some way.... she loved the greasy git. And Malfoy was going to use him to get to Bri.

Gods help Malfoy when Bri got through with him....

end chapter twenty one.
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all the usuals here. thanks to my support group. it seems to be growing and i love everyone who keeps telling me that i can do this. they mean the world to me and i wish i could show them in more than just words how much they do mean. blessings to them all and lots of love.

as always, i would like to state that i am my own beta. as of yet, i am still only human, so mistakes are inevitable. the goddess thing is still on hold. so please be kind if you find any errors. they are entirely my own.

finally, if you like this, please feel free to let me know. i really appreciate your opinions. thank you.