Snape's Redemption

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

*Warning: Torture, Suicide and Character Death*

Chapter Eight – The dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy strode into Snape’s house.

“Where is he?” Lucius demanded, his eyes scanning the room, as if seeking out his son amongst the books.

“Welcome to my home, Lucius, Narcissa. Would you care for some refreshment?” Snape glided over to the couple, an ingratiating smile on his face.

“My son, Severus,” Lucius spoke through gritted teeth. “Where the hell is he?”

Severus looked at him intently. “You are looking extremely well, Lucius. Did you receive no punishment at all?”

Lucius growled and lunged at Snape, grabbing him by the front of his robes and pushing him up against one of the bookshelves.

“Where. Is. My. Son.”

Severus smirked.

“Please, Severus,” came a pathetic whisper from Narcissa.

Snape turned to her and raised one eyebrow.

“Let him go, Lucius,” she continued in that quiet, broken voice. Lucius did as requested and stepped away from his former friend. Severus carefully brushed out the creases on the front of his robe.

“I believe I asked you a question, Lucius,” he reminded the blond wizard in a hard voice. “Punishment?”

Lucius turned and walked to the couch where his wife was and collapsed on the seat next to her. He lowered his head into his hands took a deep breath. Then he looked up and stared straight into Severus’ eyes.

“Voldemort had a Pensieve made up of Draco’s and Narcissa’s punishment. I believe that seeing my son violated by a werewolf and my wife used by any Death Eater that responded to Wormtail’s invitation was deemed punishment enough. Well, seeing all that together with the understanding that you had been dismissed in order to kill my son.”

Severus stared back at him in silence. Lucius broke first.

“Please, Severus, on whatever friendship we have ever had - give us his body so we can ensure that he is buried as befits a Malfoy.”

Severus continued to look at him.

“Please, Severus, give us this,” Narcissa begged softly. “The Dark Lord did not say you had to keep his body from us.”

Severus turned his gaze to her and studied her beaten, but not yet defeated, face. He strode over to the concealed door, opening it with a hand gesture and moved quickly up the stairs. He re-entered the room (just as the Malfoys had risen up to follow him) holding an irate, hissing bundle of ginger fur at arms length in front of him. He kicked the door closed behind him and let the half-Kneazle loose.

The orange beast turned back to him, hissing and swiping at Snape’s leg. Severus leapt back, but Hermione’s familiar followed him, determined to hurt the man who had mishandled his mistress. Severus found himself backed up against a bookshelf and was drawing out his wand, ready to curse the creature, when the beast suddenly stilled. He lifted his head and sniffed the air. Snape and the Malfoys watched as the orange ball of fury turned and leapt across the room in two bounds. His feline growl as he pounced out of sight was answered by the terrified squeals of a trapped rat. Narcissa and Lucius turned and looked at each other, understanding dawning simultaneously on both faces.

Severus quickly exited the room through another secret door that led down to his potions lab. He snatched up a Stasis potion and a small cage and hurried back up the stairs.

“Narcissa, grab the cat,” he commanded. “Lucius, get Wormtail!”

The Malfoys burst into action, Lucius grabbing the Animagus as Narcissa plucked the cat from the floor, earning four deep scratches from the angry beast. Lucius shoved the silver-pawed rat into the marginally larger cage that Snape held open. Severus then dumped the potion on the trapped Gryffindor, ensuring that he would be unable change into his human for at least fourteen days. Lucius held the cage up to eye level and smirked at the trapped rat.

“What does the potion do, Severus?” Lucius lazily questioned.

“It keeps a magical being in whatever state it happens to be in at the time of application,” was Severus’ seemingly bored reply.

“Wonderful,” replied Lucius. “Would you have any extra doses lying around?”

“As matter of fact, yes,” was Severus’s polite rejoinder. “Might I interest you in purchasing some?”

“Unfortunately, I am out of funds at the moment,” Lucius said consideringly. “However …”

“Play your stupid games another time!” Narcissa screeched, her slim control breaking. “Give me my son!”

Severus faced her. She still held the cat, but as far away from her body as possible, and tears were pouring down her swollen face.

“Of course, Narcissa. Dump that beast over there and we shall adjourn to Draco’s room.” Severus gestured towards the stairs leading upwards. Both the Malfoys were suddenly still.

“He’s not dead?” Lucius questioned unbelievingly. “The Dark Lord ordered you …”

“To put him out of his misery,” Severus completed. “He is fast asleep and in no pain whatsoever at the moment. I gave him a sleeping and healing draught before I left this evening.”

Lucius and Narcissa gaped at him. Even Wormtail had turned his head to beadily eye Severus. Snape haughtily drew himself up and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I would never hurt a child in my care,” he pontificated. A brief frown flashed across his face as he recalled his earlier treatment of Hermione Granger. “I would not deliberately set out to hurt a child in my care,” he amended, but realised that he had broken that rule as well. He pushed that thought away and concentrated on the matter at hand. Realising that both the Malfoys were still staring at him, dumbstruck, he frowned. “Do you want your son or not?”

He swept up the stairs and they both followed, Lucius still holding the caged Peter Pettigrew.

Draco was still asleep, but Severus noted that he had uncurled slightly from his previous foetal position. He doubted that Lucius and Narcissa would see that as an improvement to be excited about, but it gave Snape some small hope.

With a cry, Narcissa ran over to the bed and clutched the unconscious boy to her chest. She was sobbing raggedly and smoothing his hair down over and over again. Lucius stood over them and studied his son, assessing his injuries.

Severus had been obliged to remove the eye, leaving Draco completely blind. Without the perpetually oozing wound reopening them, the slashes on his face had finally closed up. The scarring left was horrific and caused the young wizard’s mouth to draw up on one side in a perpetual half smile.

“He has half of his tongue left, so communication should be possible, once the pain and trauma recede,” Severus informed them. If it ever recedes, he added quietly in his own mind.

Lucius nodded. Narcissa continued to wail. Severus detached himself from the family reunion in front of him and wondered how Hermione was coping with the effects of the aphrodisiac . He wished he was with her now, in his bed, inside her, rather than here watching the destruction of a once proud family.

“Children?” Lucius questioned hoarsely. He had noticed the protective cupping Draco employed over his groin.

Severus looked up, startled and worried that Lucius had somehow read his thoughts. But Lucius’ gaze was fixed on his son.

“No,” Snape replied.

Lucius nodded once, sharply. “He has destroyed the Malfoys then. Destroyed my son, defiled my wife and wiped out one of the oldest lines of purebloods in this country. Not bad for a half-blood boy, is it Snape?”

Severus remained silent.

“You’re probably loving this, aren’t you, my Prince? See how the mighty have fallen and all that rot. What’s left of us? A father made a felon, a mother a whore, and a son a eunuch. Happy, are you, my Prince?” He thrust the cage into Severus’ chest.

“No, Lucius.”

Narcissa had stopped her weeping and looked up at her husband. Still clutching her son in one arm, she held out her other hand to her husband. He took it gently and sank down next to her, gathering his family into his arms. Laying his cheek on his wife’s head, he slowly began rocking them back and forth, whispering to them. Straining, Severus could just make out the words Lucius repeated over and over.

I failed you. I failed you. I failed you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I failed you.

Severus took a deep breath. “What do you intend to do?”

Lucius slowly looked up at him, an evil grin spreading across his face.

“Why Severus, I believe we should find the rest of the Horcruxes, don’t you?”

*~*~*~*

Lucius and Severus were sitting downstairs, sipping on Firewhisky. Lucius was quietly triumphant while Severus was sullen and brooding.

“How did you break the Obliviate?” he suddenly questioned.

“We can thank our friends the Aurors and the Ministry for that. Apparently, they have been experimenting with different potions to break open any mind blocks magically imposed on people. This is, of course, to gain information from people who have been manipulated by Death Eaters,” Lucius paused and took another sip of his drink. His eyes floated towards the stairs, where Narcissa had insisted on staying with Draco, who had begun to wake up. “They needed ‘test subjects’ for these potions and who better, and more expendable, then their resident Death Eaters. I was told that if I helped them, my sentence would be reviewed.”

Severus snorted.

“Precisely, but I took the drink. Imagine my surprise when the true way Regulus Black died suddenly appeared in my memory. Of course I lied to the Aurors and said nothing had happened. They took that as an affront to their dignity or some such rubbish. I believe I suffered four broken ribs after that incident.” He took another sip and once again his gaze wandered to the stairs leading upwards.

“Do you know what Wormtail did to her? With that hand?” he suddenly asked Snape.

“No,” said Severus. “I regretfully declined his invitation to humiliate and desecrate your wife.”

“They had a Healer there,” Lucius explained. Severus felt a tightening in his gut. He did not want to hear this. “The rat told her that since she was unable to have more children, she would no longer need the necessary equipment. Not in those words, of course. He is a crude and stupid Gryffindor.”

Severus nodded, swallowing the bile that rose in his throat. He knew what Lucius was going to tell him, but he did not know how to stop him.

“Ripped it out. Her womb, of course. I saw it in the Pensieve. Ripped it straight out. After the Healer fixed her, Wormtail raped her. Claimed it was roomier.” Lucius took another sip before leaning forward and vomiting on Snape’s floor. Severus quickly Evanesco’d it away. With a sort of sick humour he wondered how many more people were going to regurgitate on his floor this week.

Lucius sat up straight and rinsed his mouth with a glass of water Severus conjured. He looked up the stairs again.

“Do you think she’s done it by now?” he asked his old friend.

“Done what?” Snape replied, confused by the question.

“Killed Draco and herself,” Lucius replied matter-of-factly. Severus looked at him, shocked. Lucius turned his gaze to meet Snape’s.

“Why are you so surprised?” he questioned. “You left all those potions there. I thought you knew.”

But he was talking to an empty seat. Severus was racing up the stairs. Dimly Lucius heard his frenzied yells of Ennervate. He waited patiently, finishing his drink and pouring another, until Snape reappeared at the bottom of the stairs with a slightly stunned look on his face.

“You cannot be surprised,” he continued as if Severus had not just done his best to revive his family. “Narcissa was never strong, and this thing,” he spat out as he kicked the cage containing Wormtail. Taking a breath and regaining his previous sang-froid, he continued, “He destroyed her. But you gave her what she wanted, Severus. She wanted to die with Draco, and she did.”

Severus, outwardly composed but seething inside, watched as Malfoy drained his glass.

“Now,” continued Lucius. “How are we going to destroy our Master?”

Before Snape could answer, Wormtail suddenly started squealing, desperate to get out and inform the Dark Lord of this treachery. Severus looked down at him and noted that the little silver paw was bending the bars of the cage. Gazing around the room he spied what he needed in the corner, but Lucius was already moving. He grasped the orange bundle to his chest and walked back to his chair. Sitting, he lifted the cat until he could look into its eyes.

“I’m sorry I don’t know your name,” he began. “But I have a very important task for you.” Severus smirked as Lucius turned the orange beast so it could gaze at Pettigrew. “You see that rat. I want you to eat it. Very, very slowly and painfully if you please.” He gently released his wife’s redeemer onto the ground and opened the rat’s cage, lifting it up until the quivering Animagus dropped on the floor.

Crookshanks’ had been waiting for this moment for years. He pounced and pinned the perfidious Gryffindor to the ground, relishing its squeals and pathetic attempts to escape. Almost delicately, he wrapped his jaws around the little silver paw and ripped it off. He then proceeded to avenge the death of a woman he did not know.

Severus sat back and closed his eyes once the paw was gone. It had been his only worry. Aside from that, he had great faith in the ginger monster. He rolled his head, avoiding the carnage on the ground, and looked at Lucius, who was expressionlessly watching the dismemberment of Peter Pettigrew. He sighed and allowed the pain of the death of Draco to show briefly on his face. It was then, of course, that Lucius looked up and caught the unguarded moment.

“Severus, my brother, I did not know how much my family meant to you,” he idly commented. Only his hand shaking as he poured yet another Firewhisky betrayed Lucius’ true emotions.

Severus slowly shook his head and dropped his face down into his hands. There was no escape for him and Hermione anymore. Draco, their Bonder was dead, and all his plans were ruined.

Trust Lucius Malfoy to royally fuck up his life once again.

*~*~*~*

A/N Title is from Musée des Beaux Arts by W H Auden, probably more famous for the opening line “About suffering they were never wrong”.

GinnyW & Claraminutes – you are gods among insects! (That’s from X-men 2…)

And once again to all my reviewers – you really are amazing and inspire me to keep on writing and I relish every review. Even though I cannot reply to those on AFFnet I read every single one and get really excited when I see the review number has gone up. I also check the stories around to see if I have more reviews than others (shame on me – greedy, needy, greedy).

Sorry to everyone who thought the visitors were Harry & Ron – hope you’re not too disappointed.

Next chapter – Hermione & Severus oh my!