Disharmony in the Dungeons

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 26 ~ A Short Visitation

Two days later, Draco Malfoy sat in the main sitting room of the Manor, drinking a firewhiskey and brooding into the fire. His mother sat across from him, engaged in some ridiculous muggle pastime called knitting. The long thin needles she was using clicked incessantly, the sound working its way into the young wizard’s brain until he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Gods damn it mother. Why are you fucking doing that?” he snarled at the quiet, blue-eyed witch. Narcissa looked up at him calmly. She was used to such outbursts, first from her husband and then from her own son. He was a Malfoy after all.

“I enjoy it, Draco…it helps pass the time,” she replied, continuing to knit.

Draco stared at her, his ice-blue eyes narrowed.

“Mother, go someplace else and do that before I fry the entire mess,” he said in a low voice.

Narcissa looked at her son, then picked up her basket of yarn and obediently left the sitting room. Draco was as violent as his father had been. The first time he hexed his mother, he was fourteen and covered her in boils because she would not let him attend an unsupervised party at Goyle’s house. He hexed her and went anyway. When his father found out about it, he had laughed.

“My son is growing up,” Lucius had said with a grin as he looked at his suffering wife. “Go straighten yourself out and come to bed.”

That had been it. Draco had been bullying his mother ever since. Narcissa had no recourse but to obey her son. Draco could turn her out of the Manor if he chose, and leave her penniless now that he was Lord.

Draco took another sip of his firewhiskey, and sulked. The Dark Lord had turned him down in his petition to get Hermione for his father’s death. The red-eyed fuck had then hit him with the Cruciatus curse until he shit on himself. If Voldemort’s powers weren’t so far-reaching, Draco would tell him to shove his Mark up his scaly ass. He wouldn’t live long after that, however. As long as he held the Mark though, he was safe. Voldemort needed him for his money. As long as he paid the Dark Lord tribute, he was under his protection. Even if he did go after the mudblood, the worst Voldemort would do would be torture him. Avenging his father’s death and restoring the Malfoy honor would be worth it.

He was about to pour himself another firewhiskey when a knock sounded on the door to the setting room.

“What is it?” Draco called in irritation. He didn’t want to be bothered.

A bent and shaking house elf entered, its green eyes whirling in fear.

“Master has a visitor, sir. He says he wants to speak to the Master, sir,” the elf squeaked, its ears flattened tight to its head. Draco was cruel to house elves, often hexing them terribly for absolutely no other reason than he felt like it. Draco’s ice-blue eyes fell on the cringing creature.

“Who is it?” he asked him.

“He wouldn’t say sir. He just says you know who he is sir,” the elf said.

Draco scowled. He wasn’t about to receive an unannounced visitor.

“Send whoever it is away,” Draco said, flailing his hand at the elf.

The elf stood there, looking very frightened.

“I don’t thinks he will leave, sir. He is determined, sir,” the elf said.

Draco whipped out his wand and shot a stinging blast at the elf, who shrieked and fell to its knees. It shuddered on the floor, looking up at Draco with wide, pleading eyes.

“Get rid of him I said,” Draco said to the elf, who nodded and crawled backwards to the door, then stood and disappeared.

Suddenly there was a loud blast and several squeals, then a great crash. Draco leapt out of his chair, frightened, holding his wand on the door.

Suddenly the door was flung open and Severus strode in thrusting his palm out and blasting Draco across the room before the young wizard could react, slamming him into the bookshelves that lined the sitting room walls. The stunned wizard slid to the floor as the Potions Master walked up to him, grabbed his wand and flung it across the room. Then he reached down and grabbed Draco by the throat, dragging him to his feet. He drew the shaken young wizard close to his face.

“Don’t send a house elf to do a wizard’s job,” he purred at Draco, then dragged him across the sitting room and flung him into the armchair facing the fireplace. Severus took the other chair next to him, his black eyes resting on the blonde wizard, glittering intently. He didn’t say anything, simply looked at Draco.

As soon as Draco found his voice he said, “How dare you! How dare you enter my father’s house, you filthy, mud-blood loving cretin! You murdered my father for that little whore you’re bedding. My father was a pureblood. He was worth a thousand mudbloods!”

“I killed your father in a fair fight for tampering with what belonged to me. He had no right to touch Hermione, Draco. She wasn’t willing. He was going to kill her if she didn’t escape him,” Snape responded.

“Even if he did kill her…it would have meant nothing. She’s nothing!” Draco said vehemently.

Severus leaned forward in his chair.

“She is my wife, Draco. That makes her something to me. Something I would kill to protect. I already have and I will do so again if I must,” he said, trying to scare the wizard. Draco screwed up his face defiantly.

“The Dark Lord won’t let you kill me, Professor. He needs my resources,” the young wizard said. Severus scowled. Draco did realize his importance to the Dark Lord. Oh well, there was more than one way to get his point across.

“The Dark Lord informed me you wish to harm my wife,” Severus said, his voice going low. “I don’t take kindly to threats being made against her, Draco. Not at all.”

“And I bet the Dark Lord told you not to harm me too,” Draco said, his voice sounding victorious.

“No, he told me not to kill you,” Severus replied evenly.

Then the Potions Master leapt up from his chair, grabbed Draco and proceeded to beat him to a bloody pulp, throwing him around the setting room, upsetting the furniture and breaking expensive vases and glassware in the process as he pummeled the young wizard.

“You want to act the man, Draco. I will treat you like one,” Severus growled, holding the young wizard against the fireplace brick and slamming his fist into Draco’s face several times, breaking his jaw and his nose, swelling his handsome face until it was unrecognizable. Then he went to work on his body, cracking several ribs. His pale hands were covered in blood when he was finished with the wizard. He let him fall to the floor. Draco was still conscious but barely able to move. He had never known such pain.

“Now you hear me, and hear me well, Draco Malfoy. I will return here and beat you senseless any time I even think you have designs on my wife. You will not be able to stop me. The Dark Lord told you to leave her be, and told me not to kill you…but I can make you suffer until you wish I’d kill you. It would be best if you just accept the loss of your father, Draco, and move on with living your life. Forget about avenging him. Your life will be much less painful that way. You come near my wife, and I can assure you the pain you feel now is nothing, nothing to what I can do to you. The Dark Lord is not the only Master of torture. Do you understand me?” Severus breathed down at the broken, bleeding young wizard.

Draco groaned, his mouth full of blood and broken teeth.

“Good. I bid you good night then, Lord Malfoy,” Severus said, straightening. “Oh, and don’t concern yourself. I can show myself out.”

The Potions Master strode out of the study and down the main hall to the front door. He approached the stunned house elf and paused. The creature looked up at him fearfully.

“Your Master is in need of medical help. Go attend him,” Severus said, then continued up the hall, opened the main door and exited. The elf heard a thunder crack as the Potions Master disapparated. The creature rose unsteadily. Severus had hit it with a powerful stunner blast the moment the elf approached him. The Potions Master was well aware how powerful the magic of house elves was and wasn’t about to give it a chance to use its powers on him.

The elf walked into the study and looked down on the broken body of Draco. It smiled and took its time attending him, making the most painful repairs first.

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Severus apparated directly to his bedroom in Hogwarts and walked into the bathroom to wash the blood from his hands. He scowled as he did so. He would have rather killed Draco and removed his threat once and for all. Beating him had brought some satisfaction, but his death would have been much more expedient, a more permanent solution. He wasn’t sure if Draco had his father’s insane drive when it came to getting people back. Lucius could hold a grudge for years. Severus had been unaware of what had happened with Narcissa. True, he had taken the witch around the world when she accepted him. He had only fucked her because she was Lucius’ trophy wife, and Lucius was such a bragging prat.

The wizard hadn’t believed that Severus could make any kind of impression on his wife that he wouldn’t be able to wipe away. He had been wrong. But Severus never intended to make the witch fall in love with him. Most women simply thanked him for the great sex and moved on. Not Narcissa. Well, that wasn’t his fault, and certainly no reason for Lucius to target his wife. But target her he did. And the wizard paid the price for it. Now his son wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Severus snarled as he thought about it. If Draco didn’t get the message, Dark Lord’s protection or not, Severus would make the wizard disappear, scattering his body parts so far and so wide over the wizarding world that no one would ever find them all. He could hide his deed from Voldemort if he had to. Nobody fucked with what was his. Particularly Hermione. She was his one true joy in this rotten world. No one would take her from him.

The Potions Master dried his hands and walked to his study to pour himself a drink. It had been quite a productive evening.

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A/N: Wow. Severus made his point, didn’t he? Whew. What a violent wizard he can be. Draco better get the message. Please review.