𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

35. OF SERVANTS & SPIES

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

His steps led him up the stairs. Narrow corridor, bleak house; his refuge and his nemesis. He sent Wormtail away to a pointless task, enough to return to Alice. The vermin couldn't refuse under the threat of Severus's dagger-like glare. Narcissa and Bellatrix lost in the gloomy landscape of Cokeworth – the first relieved, for another would die instead of her sole offspring, the latter dripping doubt, poison, and jealousy. And amidst it all stood Severus, fighting to hold the balance, tangled between the threads of a plot far greater than he ever hoped, far deeper than the dark waters of the Black Lake.

He reached the bedroom's door, his hands curled around the handle and his onyx eyes shone reflecting the thin silvery tongues of the charm receding and dissolving at his touch. The door revealed where before solely the old wall was visible. He pushed it open, faint light bled to the narrow corridor, onyx eyes, heavy with guilt and burden and finality, sought the silhouette of the witch but got caught at two lucid, pagan orbits that stared back at him, hard and unforgiving. Her fingers were curled around her wand, her back against the now opened window.

"There is – more – in all this – than you may think," his words came out almost a whisper, her mind open for him to read, to view. Fear, hatred, disgust, betrayal – all swirling like hurricanes in her pagan eyes.

"I've sought for your guidance," she broke her silence in a painful whisper. "I have trusted you. I have longed for your acceptance of who I feared I was. I gave you all of it, all of me"— she clawed her wandless hand against her chest, her voice low laced with emotions— "Blindly," she breathed out. "And this is how you trick me? Is this why you wanted the beast set loose?"

"Alice—"

"No," she hissed, cutting him off. "No..." she shook her head slowly and straightened her back. "Voldemort wa—"

"Don't speak his name."

"Voldemort," she said through gritted teeth and trembling lips, "wanted a dog of war, did he not?" she tilted her head, eyes narrowing.

Severus stepped slowly, carefully inside the room, the creek between his brows deepening at the sight of her fingertips turning coal black, dark mist surrounding them.

"Alice," he warned silkily.

"And you delivered," she hissed threateningly.

"What?" he growled.

"How can I trust you? You lied— to me, to Dumbledore, to everyone."

"I played my part to protect you!" the rumble in his chest wasn't enough, it pierced through her, but the serpent had already wrapped itself around her heart, fangs bared against her soft flesh, each heartbeat dripping venom.

"Tell your Dark Lord that if he wishes for the hell hound that bears the same blood as he, then he shouldn't keep looking"— she took a slow step back, her wandless hand found the ledge of the window, whilst the other rose to defend her— "For I shall find him myself!"

In a second, Alice hoisted her weight against the opened window to leap out and away but instead of the rain and cold air enveloping her form, she felt the unforgiving hard surface of brick walls digging into her back, Severus's hands pushing her shoulders against it, his teeth clenched, his cloak nearly bathing her in his darkness. "I promised to protect you!" he growled, "I kept you hidden from the Death Eaters! Wormtail would rat you to Bellatrix, and she would kill you for her pleasure— I had no choice!" he hissed.

She fought to release herself, but Severus's grip was made of steel, keeping her trapped between him and the wall. "I didn't betray you!" the growling whisper vibrated from his chest to hers. "I'm putting myself in mortal danger keeping you here."