Humility

HUMILITY

By SCARANDA

The small attic room was becoming stiflingly hot, the air heady with the smell of sex and incense, overlaid with the more subtle scents of lust, expectancy and hate, and more lust … more hate.

‘Enough,’ the man suspended from the ceiling chain attached to the overhead lintel gasped. His arms were spread wide, each wrist in its polished chrome shackle clipped to the steel chain. His legs, spread-eagled, were similarly shackled to chains snaking from a steel ring set into the floor. The toes managed only slight purchase on the cold, black tiles: not enough for relief, just enough to tease at its thought. His glory of white-blond hair was sticking to his face, the wonderful mass now ropy and dishevelled; a hank of it had somehow got caught in one of the arm chains.

Lucius Christ sans croix.

‘Get me down,’ he tried in a voice as close to his own as he could manage: still clear and in control of itself, perhaps slightly contemptuous, a little disappointed.

‘I don’t think so,’ the tall dark man replied.

‘Severus …’ Lucius tried to turn his head to look over his shoulder again, but the collar around his neck was attached to a point in the wall some six feet in front of him.

Snape caught the gleam of Lucius’s grey eyes, but no real contact was made. ‘No.’

Lucius’s head slumped forward as much as his bond would allow. ‘I mean it, Severus,’ he said slowly and distinctly, his measured tones rising to a crescendo of his own control. ‘I’ve had enough … I’m sore. I know all I need to know. Now GET ... ME … FUCKING ... DOWN.’

Snape suspected he wasn’t forcing himself to believe it was still a game, not yet; it was still a … “an experiment” … to find out what he needed to know from the submissive’s point of view. Of course, Lucius had meant it to mean from the point of view of degrees of pain, effects of bondage. What had he said? … ah yes... “Just let me feel the odd flick of the cat, Severus. Chain me up and let me feel what they feel.” Snape couldn’t suppress the sardonic smile which crept to his lips; he was glad Lucius faced the wall.

‘You should have stuck to bedroom bondage and whipping your little subbie boys, you know.’ He let the words float lazily; nothing betrayed the fact that his right arm was tensing. The jerk on the white-blond hair brought a satisfying scream-gasp from Lucius ... good ... that was so good. Severus felt a spasm in his cock. ‘Now the lesson will begin,’ he whispered into Malfoy’s ear.

Severus let the silence drip, broken only by Lucius’s harsh breathing and the hammer thud of his own heart as he forced his own will inward to his aching balls. He was still fully clothed and once he was satisfied that his erection had subsided again he walked around the front of Lucius.

‘What?’ Lucius managed an indignant look; a look without any of the alarm or even anxiety Snape had hoped for. Only annoyance clouded the grey eyes; perhaps he’d underestimated how far he’d got. ’What are you talking about?’

‘You wanted to learn about submission?’ Snape grabbed Lucius’s balls in a vice-like grip. ‘Here beginnith the lesson,’ he said over Lucius‘s yelp of surprised pain.

Snape stepped forward between the suspended man and the wall, with his back facing Lucius, confident in his physical and magical restraints. He raised his wand. The wall looked to be blank, except for the steel rings embedded in a seemingly random fashion about it, until the blackboard from his dungeon classroom at Hogwarts appeared high on the dark space.

Lucius spluttered his indignation behind him. ‘I’m warning you, Severus … enough.’

Snape’s voice was still slow and lazy with the distant timbre of scorn that it always held. ‘Oh, I am going to enjoy knocking that fucking attitude out of you, Lucius,’ he said, turning again. ‘You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy that.’

Lucius’s eyes flared, grey on his, just a slight widening. Oh yes, there it was, Severus exalted, there it was at last … fear. He allowed himself the barest moment to let the intoxication wash over him and reined in his senses again.

‘Nox,’ he whispered.

The only light in the room was the shimmer of white-blond hair and the glow surrounding the blackboard. Snape raised his wand and began writing in his elegant hand in mid-air; the words transformed themselves onto the blackboard in fire.

Accept the unacceptable.
Bear the unbearable.
Think the unthinkable.
Endure the unendurable.
THERE IS NO PAIN.

He turned again to Lucius and was pleased to see the stunned look in his eyes, all the more satisfying in the light of the fiery lettering on the blackboard. He moved closer and with a display of affection he untangled the tress of hair that was caught in the chain. ‘You see, Lucius,’ he purred, knowing just the tone of voice which brought the blond man off, ‘I have no wish to hurt you, no wish at all.’ He lowered his hand to the smooth pale cheek, just beginning to show the first stickiness of nervous sweat. ‘I’m going to torture you.’

Snape smiled to himself again as Lucius gasped in what he hoped was realisation. Malfoy had trusted him to this little experiment knowing that he was safe, Severus-arse-licker-because-he-had-no–choice-in-the–matter was always safe, no-one would know of it. He had cajoled it out of him, fuck it; he’d almost begged him for this.

‘Submission,’ Snape said, adopting his best and most intimidating classroom manner, ‘is the willing and consensual acceptance of the domination of another. It requires great mutual trust and great mutual respect; facts that, sadly, we’ll have to overlook for the purposes of today’s lesson.’ He paused for a heartbeat, just to let Malfoy digest that, but not long enough for him to reply. ‘But most of all, submission requires humility. Now I cannot expect you to take that all in at once, so we’ll go in stages.’ He looked up at the ceiling. ‘Mr Malfoy,’ he said with a sigh, ‘are you hearing anything I say?’ He whacked the cane which had appeared in his hand, against his thigh.

‘Severus.’ Lucius met his eyes. ‘I said ENOUGH.’

Snape walked slowly behind him; he took aim and let a series of small, sharp blows land on the other man’s arse cheeks, arse cheeks still glowing from the blows he had rained on them earlier, when the game was still a game. He was rewarded with only a few stifled gasps. He reached between Malfoy’s legs and felt his own balls constrict again; Lucius was hard ... oh good, so fucking good.

‘No, Lucius, not enough,’ he purred and nuzzled the blond hair. ‘Not nearly enough.’

‘Severus … what the fuck do you think you are playing at?’ Lucius’s voice came through teeth that had gritted in fury … cold, hard, distant. ‘This is not a game anymore. Now let me down and we’ll say no more about it.’

Snape moved around the front again and regarded Lucius coolly: defiance, good … and something more, more anger perhaps? No, not anger … cold rage, that was it, the beginnings of rage … good. Fear and rage were a good combination; fear and outrage were even better.

‘Get ... me … down … this fucking second. What do you think you’re playing at?’ Lucius spat the words. ‘I can summon an elf in a heartbeat ... ’

‘…but you don’t want to get caught in such a … compromising situation?’ Snape raised an eyebrow and allowed a quirk of a smile as he let his voice soften. ‘Anyway, the door is warded, the room is silenced, and you are going to pay.’ His gaze met the other man’s look of puzzlement. ‘You are going to pay for destroying my fucking life.’ Slow down, he told himself, slow down; he forced his rapid breaths back to normal, slow down, a bit at a time. ‘And, sad though it is,’ he said, as he cupped Lucius’s balls and gave them a squeeze, ‘you’ll probably look back on it as the best fuck you’ve ever had in your miserable existence.’

‘Severus. Not this way ... let me ... ’ Lucius gasped and trailed off again at the increased pressure.

Snape lashed out and slapped Lucius cleanly across the mouth: not a dungeon slap, not a sexual slap, a clean sharp slap of an angry teacher on a recalcitrant pupil. He was rewarded by the look of shock in the other man’s eyes. ‘Now that we understand one another, Mr Malfoy,’ he said, resuming his teacher role, smacking the cane across his palm again, ‘you may commence by reading the lesson from the blackboard.’ He turned his back to Malfoy and stood expectantly. He heard a mutter from behind him. ‘Sorry, Mr Malfoy, I didn’t catch that.’

‘NEVER.’

‘Ah.’ Snape turned on his black-booted heel. He pointed his wand to Lucius’s blueing hands forcing the blood, which had been draining from them, back upwards; he wanted to keep him in good condition. Malfoy winced at the tingle of the blood flowing back. He raised a hand to Lucius’s cheek and spoke softly, letting the sibilants draw out more than usual. ‘Lucius … at any time we can stop. Anytime, that is, after I am convinced of your complete and utter submission to me. Do you understand?’ He lowered his head to Malfoy’s chest and was rewarded to feel the overloud but regular beat of his heart, and let his tongue flick a nipple. He heard Lucius gasp and lowered his hand to his throbbing cock. He fisted Lucius a couple of times, just enough to let him know who was in charge ... fuck, but he had a beautiful cock, hard as a rock now, glistening. He wiped the beads of pre-come on his fingers and smeared them viciously across Lucius’s mouth. The grey eyes flew open.

‘Now read, you filthy slut.’

‘Never.’

‘READ.’

‘NEVER.’

Snape heels made an oddly echoing clip on the tiled floor as he walked over to the thigh high table he’d set with his implements earlier. He struck a wooden match and lit the black candles that stood on either side of the table; it gave it the look of an alter, a sacrificial alter. He picked up a set of cloverleaf nipple clamps on a long silver chain, smiling to himself again. Lucius had let Snape set up the Malfoy attic room to his own specifications; he had fingered the tools of his trade and laughed at them when he’d first arrived. ‘Tell, me Severus,’ he’d drawled in his supercilious, “bet you’d love to try”, voice. ‘You don’t really find anyone to use these on, do you?’ Snape had thought of saying, ‘I obtained them especially for you, you sanctimonious bastard,’ but he didn’t; it was just a game, after all. ‘Just think of them as wallpaper, Lucius, a little window dressing,’ he’d said instead, smirking at the cocky conceited fuck that was Lucius Malfoy.

His own erection was causing him concern now; the friction of walking was bringing him dangerously near to climax. Severus blotted it from his mind with the control of years of practice, as he walked back. He slowly unbuttoned his long tightly-fitting frock coat, letting the soft black wool garment fall to the floor in a puddle. He stood before Malfoy, tall and magnificent in white high-necked shirt, with full, almost piratical sleeves that were caught tightly at the wrists before falling again to just above the finger joints; black tight-fitting trousers, high-waisted, buttoned at the ankles; black shoulder-length hair, parted in the middle and reflecting the fire from the still glowing blackboard. All marbley-white skin and dark, dark eyes. He let Malfoy drink in the vision and lifted the clamps to the other man’s lips.

‘Kiss the clamps, Lucius,’ he murmured.

‘No.’ The low disgusted growl sounded as though it were concealing something; Severus hoped it was panic.

‘Very well. From now on you will have one chance only to obey every one of my ... requests,’ Snape purred dangerously. He tweaked the first nipple, ignoring the pleasure-pain gasp from Malfoy, until he had a point onto which he attached the first metal clamp. He gave the tiniest tug and was rewarded with the spluttered word, “Bastard”, from Lucius. He repeated the action on the left nipple. The silver chain joining the clamps dangled loosely like a grotesque parody of a necklace. Halfway between the two clamps another longer chain was attached, a chain that Snape still held loosely in his hand. With his free hand he pulled Malfoy’s head to him, his lips to his; he snaked his tongue into Malfoy’s mouth and felt the hungry response, heard the half-moan, felt the spasm of Lucius’s wonderful cock against his thigh. He gave the chain a tug and Malfoy screamed. He dropped his hand to Malfoy’s cock; hard and hot, it responded to his touch with a jump. ‘Well, well, Lucius … not just any old slut, are we? A pain slut, mmmm? Oh, that’s too good.’

‘Severus …’ A dry, husky groan. ‘I …’ He did not finish.

‘What?’ Soft, coaxing, murmuring into Lucius’s hair.

‘Damnit, Severus … I need to come,’ Malfoy gasped.

‘Oh, I know you do.’ The velvety voice was still soft. ‘I know you do.’ Snape watched him, fascinated by the tiny trickle of sweat, which traced its way from Malfoy’s hairline to the side of his mouth. He tried to cast back to when Lucius’s attitude had changed from outright defiance. The pain? That had been it, the pain; it wasn’t so much the control as the pain. Well, he would manage that, just enough pain to keep Lucius happy whilst he worked on the other two, the domination and the humility; let’s not forget the humility, the ultimate lesson.

He tucked the spare part of the silver clamp chain into the collar around Malfoy’s neck and stepped behind him again. With a quick spell he released the chains and Lucius slumped to the floor and turned like a cat, already in a crouch to strike; but Snape was ready, cane transformed back into his wand. Malfoy froze.

‘I don’t think so, Lucius. I don’t think an unarmed wizard, even the great Lucius fucking Malfoy, is a match for me.’ Snape smiled again as black silken cords snaked around the still crouched man. The hate in Lucius’s eyes was intoxicating. He relaxed the cords a little, and dragged Malfoy to his feet and over to the table of implements, the sacrificial alter.

He thrust the blond man roughly over the low table, all the time keeping the tension of the cords enough to allow only the movements of which he was the master. With one hand on Malfoy’s back, Snape’s booted foot dragged the prone man’s legs back, spreading them apart. When he was satisfied that Malfoy’s torso rested on the table in a way that he had access to all of the body parts he wanted, he muttered, ‘Accio shackles’. He caught and spelled the obliging bonds once more to Malfoy’s wrists and ankles. He secured Lucius, front to rings on the wall, and back to rings on the floor.

He couldn’t see Malfoy’s face now; it was hidden by the blond mass of hair, but he could hear the murder in his voice. ‘Snape ... you just signed your death warrant. Before I’m finished with you you’ll beg for an army of Death Eaters to finish you off.’

Snape traced a finger down Malfoy’s back, eliciting a gasp of pure rage. He reached up to the hair, that fantastic hair, and toyed with it, caressing the neck below the collar, bending over Malfoy whispering nothing into his ear, letting his mouth caress the other man’s neck. Still playing with the white mass, he let his other hand stray to Lucius’s arse; stroking, relaxing, teasing, slipping his hand between the long legs and stroking his balls, finding his silky cock, gliding his hand slowly the length of his shaft, still whispering, whispering nothings, feeling the rage subside into something else. A low, low groan escaped from Malfoy, a breathless groan Snape knew he had been trying to stifle.

‘Severus . . .Severus.’

Snape debated clinically with himself. How much of this new acquiescence was real? Little, he supposed, just reaction to physical pressure. He pushed his advantage, taking the time to breathe deeply; his own needs had become alarmingly evident again. He brought the hand off Malfoy’s cock and back round again. With the hand, which was still playing with Lucius’s hair, he again began fondling the man’s neck. He whispered again into Lucius’s ear, words this time, whilst he caressed the neck below the collar locating what he sought. With the other hand he began to spread Lucius’s arse cheeks, arse cheeks still red from the caning. He probed with his fingers, dragging them softly along the crack, finding the opening, stroking, whispering. ‘Lucius.’ Whispering. ‘Lucius, tell me, Lucius, tell me.’

Malfoy groaned; tiny beads of pre-come glistened on top of his cock. ‘Fuck me, Severus, fuck me.’ His groan was almost desperate enough for Snape to relent … almost, but not quite. Snape had found the chain again; he composed himself for a moment and gave the chain one sharp tug, and Malfoy screamed in true and terrified agony as the nipple clamps tightened.

****

Snape had translocated the table, Malfoy and all, to face the glowing blackboard. He stood with his back to the wall and raised Lucius’s head by a hank of fine blond hair. The eyes were filled with hate, but they were becoming ... what was it? Tired perhaps ... he’d need to step this along a bit; it had taken longer than he’d expected.

‘Severus …’

The voice intrigued Snape. It was husky, weary, and was that boredom creeping in … or defeat? Surely not. He raised his eyebrow in enquiry. ‘Lucius?’

‘What do you hope to gain from this?’

‘I’ve already told you, Malfoy. Are you so far up your own arse that you can’t hear what other people say to you?’ He let go of the Malfoy tresses and the Malfoy head fell forward. God, but he was beautiful. ‘Lift you head, Lucius.’

Malfoy raised his head; it was the first order he’d obeyed.

‘Very good, Mr Malfoy.’ Snape lapsed into classroom address. ‘Now read from the blackboard.’

Lucius turned his head as quickly as his bonds would allow and spat at Snape’s shoe. ‘That should have been your face, Snape, but I’m just a little indisposed just now.’

Snape raised Lucius’s head. He secured a loop of chain through a D-ring on the collar and attached it to the overhead lintel; now Lucius’s head would be up, leaving his own hands free. He didn’t speak. From the table over which Lucius was still bent, he picked up another ‘implement’. Ten inches of solid stainless steel, one and a half inches across, weighing about two pounds imperial. He let Malfoy see it, but neither man said anything. I will break you, you bastard, Snape thought to himself, I must … I must. He began caressing Lucius again. God, the man was an incredible slut; he hardened immediately again and Snape was pleased to hear a tiny hitch in his breath. Good, that was good ... about time.

He spread Lucius’s arse again, stroking, probing, slicking his fingers with oil from a little pot on the table, easing in one finger, two. Lucius’s breath was coming fast again, hitching breaths, sobs, breaths, sobs, as Snape probed deeper and deeper, careful not to reach his prostate; he didn’t want him spurting just yet. He put the other hand on Lucius’s cock and felt his balls draw up. ‘Not so fast, not so fast.’ He gave the balls a vicious discouraging squeeze; he was surprised he’d spoken aloud.

Severus slowed his pace; much to do before that, Lucius. He continued his probing of Malfoy’s opening, slowly and languorously, leaving the cock to drip of its own accord. In his free hand he hefted the steel plug and guided it to Malfoy’s waiting arse. Lucius screamed just once as the unyielding, cold steel violated him, screamed in a frenzy of pain and white-hot pleasure. Snape came back around the front of him, gave a tiny tug on the nipple clamps and smiled down into the face of the man who’d stolen his life. ‘Now read, you fucking, bastarding, cock-sucking son of a whore, READ.’

‘Severus.’

‘READ.’

‘Sever…’

Snape slapped him as he felt his own anger rise. ‘READ.’

‘Please, Severus … I’ll …’

SLAP, harder. ‘READ.’

‘Fuck me, Severus … I need you to fuck me,’ Lucius whispered now. The defiance had fled, the fear was gone, the hate was gone; all that was left was need … grey eyes reflecting a desperate aching, aching need.

‘Read.’ Softer, now, Snape bent and brushed his lips to Malfoy’s; he pulled back slightly as the prone man tried desperately to respond. ‘Read, Lucius. Read and I shall take you exactly where you need to go.’

He went round the back of Malfoy again and slowly released the steel plug from its erstwhile nest. No blood, good. Severus began unbuttoning his trousers.

Years and years of determination and control kicked in as he kicked the garment aside. His own cock, desperate for release, would have to wait, for now it was merely a tool, a means to an end. He slicked it with spit and guided it toward Lucius’s waiting entrance. He groaned inwardly; damn it felt so, so fucking good. This was always going to be the hardest part, maintaining control, not over Lucius, but over himself. He caught up a slow rhythm as Lucius moaned softly, lost now in the desire for his own release. He pulled Lucius back towards him, brushed the part of his chest that hung over the front of the table; he found a nipple, and slowly, excruciatingly slowly, he undid the clamps one after the other, letting the blood flow back as slowly as possible as Malfoy gasped and whimpered in pain.

‘Severus, Severus … I need you … need you to fuck me.’ Sweat now slicked Lucius’s back; his voice was a low pleading moan.

Snape let himself find his own pace, a pace to maintain Lucius on the edge and keep himself from slipping over it. Softly . . . ‘Read.’

‘I …’

‘Read.’ So softly, the words of a lover.

‘I can’t … help me, Severus, help me …’ The voice trailed off, lost in longing.

‘After me then?’

A slow nod. Acquiescence. ‘After you … I need …’

‘Shhhh … I know what you need. After me ... accept the unacceptable.’

‘Accept the unacceptable,’ Lucius whispered as Snape drove deeper into him.

‘Good boy, I knew you could. Bear the unbearable,’ Snape intoned, his slow, sardonic smile twisting his grim features.

‘Bear the unbearable,’ Lucius moaned. ‘Severus … please …’

‘Shhhh ... it’s going to be all right … think the unthinkable.’

‘Think the unthinkable.’ Lucius’s voice was hitching between gasps of pleasure and sobs of pain.

‘Endure the unendurable,’ Snape delivered in a voice like water flowing over silk.

Lucius sobbed. ‘Endure the unendurable.’

Snape continued his rhythmic grind; he moved his hand to Lucius’s cheek and was gratified to find his fingers wet with the other man’s tears. He wondered if Lucius had slipped so far into himself that he was now past the ability to climax. ‘There is no pain,’ he whispered.

No answering chant, Lucius only moaned. Snape caught his blond hair in one fist, and Lucius screamed, shuddering in orgasm as Snape drove his cock to clip his prostate. ‘THERE IS NO PAIN.’ Malfoy’s words spurted out of him along with the white arc of come.

Snape withdrew, gasping, trying to suppress his own climax, managing, breaths, slow, deep breaths. Malfoy lay over the table his head still pulled back, but his eyes closed now. The words on the blackboard had extinguished themselves at the end of his declaration.

Snape picked up the trousers and pulled them on, tucked his reluctant cock back and re-buttoned them, before walking slowly around to face him. ‘Malfoy.’

The matter of fact voice snapped Lucius’s eyes open, open and wary.

‘What have you learnt?’

‘What?’ Incredulity, shock, that this wasn’t over ... surely ... dawning realisation.

‘Let me refresh your memory, Lucius. There were three basic points of submission.’ Snape snapped his fingers and a thin black cigarette appeared in them; it was a neat trick he’d been practising for some time. He lit the cigarette from his wand and slowly exhaled the first blue smoke into Malfoy’s face. He began to tick his points off on his fingers. ‘We’ve dealt with the domination and control and submission stuff; we’ve thrown respect and trust to the wind ... So, that leaves … let me see . . .what was it again?’ He allowed the slow smile again, the quirky smile people were only too pleased to think was a smirk. ‘Ahh yes … humility ... or perhaps I should have said humiliation.’ He raised his black eyebrow in question.

‘You can’t humiliate me, Severus.’ Malfoy’s use of his given name told him the arrogant bastard thought the foregoing had been an act of mutual lust and craving, the poor deluded fool. ‘You know how I feel about you …’

‘… And you know how I feel about you, Lucius?’ Snape murmured.

‘Of course ... and I want more, Severus. I need more of that ... it was ... it was so fucking good.’ A little frown creased Lucius’s forehead. ‘You didn’t come … why didn’t you come? Do you want me to do that to you?’ he purred in a way that made Snape want to throw up, to hurl the contents of his stomach over Malfoy’s stupid, beautiful face. ‘Let me down, Severus. Let me fuck you like that.’

Snape took a deep draw of the cigarette. ‘Just for the record, Malfoy.’ He paused long enough to register the puzzlement on Lucius’s face. ‘Just for the record, there is nobody in this world whom I hate more than you, not even myself. You have taken from me everything that I ever held precious, even my own son. As to why I didn’t climax, you stole my seed once and you will never have it again.’

He pointed his wand at the wall in front of Lucius just below where the empty blackboard still hung and a dark two-way mirror slid aside revealing Draco and Dobby sitting, still mesmerised, side by side. The young man looked up at Snape; he grinned from the earnest pointed face he had inherited from his mother along with her white-blond hair. ‘Thanks, father, that was really cool.’ He didn’t even look at Malfoy. As he stepped out into the attic room with the little house-elf, the space which had concealed them vanished.

He stooped and took his father’s coat from the floor, brushing it lightly as he folded it gracefully over his arm and they headed towards the door leaving Dobby to tend to his broken, one-time master.

‘Excuse me, Malfoy.’ Snape smiled down at Lucius as he passed. ‘That was … I believe the term is … “really hot” … but I need to go and jack off somewhere clean.’

Father and son left the stifling attic room and were halfway down the spiral staircase when they heard the howl of anguish.