Worth A Thousand And One

"Potter?"

"Is that you, Malfoy?"

"Bloody Hell!" exclaimed both boys at once.

After a rather poor four hours of sleep, Severus was feeling quite out of sorts this morning. The large, common-looking, barn owl that swooped down half-way through his breakfast and knocked his extremely hot coffee on him was just the cherry on top of a terrific twenty-four hour period. That the owl was carrying postage was of little concern to the pissed-off professor as he stormed from the head table with students snickering at all the tables in the hall.

Thin lips compressed into non-existence by his determination not to start screaming profanities, Severus swept into his apartments and directly into the bathroom to rinse off and change his now ruined robes. Just as he pulled his outer robe off, he heard the tapping of an owl at the magical portal that served as a window for his suite. "For the love of Merlin's mother! Can I not get a moment of peace this morning?!" Severus bitterly muttered as he opened the pane for the same owl who had ruined his clothing and made a laughingstock of him in the Great Hall. "I ought to wring your pesky neck!" The owl just stared at Severus and hooted before once again extending its leg towards the potions master. Taking the postage from the owl, he shooed it back out the window and began opening the envelop while walking back towards the bathroom. He had just reached the room when he got the letter open and pulled out the only piece of paper inside.

"It's a photograph," was the first thought that ran through Severus' head, before he was able to flip it around to view the image on the front of the paper. As he saw it, he sucked in a breath a little to quickly and began choking and coughing. He was able to recover himself after a few moments of wheezing and look at the picture again. Its just as well the owl hadn't given him the envelope in the Great Hall, he wouldn't have been able to control his immediate reaction to such a brazen photograph.

The picture showed an elegant Persian rug with ruby and golden threading with early morning sunlight streaming in through a cracked-open window curtain in the background. Lying spread-eagle and tied that way was a young man completely naked and apparently sleeping if the closed eyes and peaceful expression were any indication. Also in the left hand side of the photograph was an emerald and silver diamond patterned velvet setee also featuring a tied-up naked youth with closed eyes and relaxed epression. That Severus recognized the furniture in the picture was inconsequential to the fact that he also recognized the persons in the picture. This would definitely qualify as a breakthrough, Lucius would be pleased,