The Sempra Deck 16 - The Tower
Aug. 7th, 2011 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mimimanderly has just released the next card of The Sempra Deck, a set of Major Arcana cards forming the Tarot. Each time Mimi posts a new card, I will post another edition of the story, so you can see how the story and the cards meshed together. Here is the next card - 16 The Tower, and here is the next chapter of the story.
This Chapter is rated R for content and language. Happy Reading!
The Sempra Deck is dedicated to the real mystic goddess Mimi Manderly; to her beloved SeverusMuse, and to my precious Dahlra. All characters with the exception of Mimi Manderley, Peter and Dahlra belong to JK Rowling. I make no money from this publication.
Chapter 8 – The Box Closes Part 1
Dumbledore greeted them in his study as if Severus showed up with a woman in his arms every day. He merely looked at them both, and held up his hand.
“I can see you are both quite distraught.” He looked at Severus, who had sat Mimi down as if she were the most fragile of objects. “Severus, what is wrong?”
Haltingly, Severus told the Headmaster how suddenly the magic that Mimi had originally absorbed had begun to manifest itself.
“She has experienced the first three spells that I know of, but I fear more will be forthcoming,” Severus said, looking down at Mimi. He turned back to Dumbledore, “Do you think – “
Severus’ words died in his mouth. Dumbledore was looking at him with barely concealed dismay. “Oh, Severus. So soon?”
Severus froze at the frightened tone of the Headmaster’s voice. “What are you talking about, Albus?”
Dumbledore touched Severus’ collar. “Your shirt is not buttoned properly, Severus, and it has been carelessly tucked into your trousers. You have bedded this woman, have you not?”
Alarmed, Severus replied coolly, “What business it that of yours, Albus?”
Mimi looked at the two men and was more frightened for Severus than herself. Dumbledore’s face was suffused with a fear that was rapidly morphing into anger, and she rose to defend her lover.
“Excuse me, Headmaster – “
“And you couldn’t leave him alone long enough to let him do the deed, could you?” Dumbledore whirled to Mimi, and she visibly shrank back. “I should have waited to bring you here. I should have known the moment you arrived you would throw yourself at him like a love-struck fool!”
Mimi and Severus looked at each other, stunned. “Brought me here?” Mimi said. Her eyes narrowed. “It was you all along, wasn’t it? You were the one who sent me the Sempra Deck in the first place!”
Dumbledore stood between the couple, anger and power radiating from him. Severus felt his stomach lurch. “Old man, what have you done? Why did you bring her here?” His anger rose to match Dumbledore’s. “Why did you allow her to come, knowing she could be killed this way?”
The Headmaster turned to Severus. “She would have been perfectly fine if you two had been able to keep your hands off one another!” His eyes narrowed into icy blue chips. “How long have you been bedding her? How long did it take you, Severus, to pump her so full of your essences that you made her mortal here?”
Mimi cried out in anger, “What the fuck are you talking about, Dumbledore? How did Severus and I becoming lovers make this happen?” She hissed as another jinx took her legs out from under her, and Severus barely caught her before she crumpled to the floor. He hastily cancelled the spell.
Severus looked from Mimi to Dumbledore, and something like understanding dawned on his pale face. “My essences, Albus? The essences I placed in the Deck? They have something to do with this, don’t they?”
Just then, Mimi doubled over as one of Severus’ hexes hit her with the force of a punch in her stomach. She cried out in pain, and Severus held her, cancelling the spell, feeling helpless and terrified. Tears sprang to Mimi’s eyes, and Severus gently brushed them away, holding her in an attempt to comfort and soothe her fears.
“Shh. It’s alright, my brave girl. We’ll find a way to stop this, I swear it.” Unmindful of Dumbledore, Severus took her cold and nerveless fingers and warmed them with his kisses. “I will not lose you. I will not lose you because of my own fallibility.”
He breathed harshly onto her white knuckles, “I cannot lose my only reason for living.” Finally, Mimi fell back in the chair, weak and frightened.
Severus turned to Dumbledore, the fury in his eyes as great as the old man’s. “Explain yourself, Albus, or by Merlin, I’ll -”
“Stop, Severus.” Dumbledore held his hand in a gesture of surrender. “This,” he said, indicating Severus and Mimi, “was not a casual encounter, was it?”
Severus glowered at him. “I would think by now you know me better than that, Headmaster.”
Dumbledore nodded. “Indeed. There is real depth of feeling here. I see it. And I owe you an explanation, if only for that.” He sat down at his desk, looking tired and impossibly old.
He turned to Mimi, and made a complicated pattern in the air with his wand, chanting an incantation. Mimi relaxed somewhat, and her breathing calmed. Dumbledore finished the incantation, and turned to Severus.
“I have placed a temporary stasis spell over Miss Manderly. It will hold back the next series of spells for a short while.” He looked defeated. “I believe I owe you both an apology, as well as an explanation.”
Severus stood, and gently lifted Mimi into his arms. He turned and sat down on the chair, and drew her into his lap, where she lay against him like a weary child. Dumbledore watched them for a moment, then began.
“Severus, do you remember the night I summoned you, the night I was cursed with this?” Dumbledore held up his long, blackened hand. When Severus did not reply, Dumbledore pressed on. “I told you of my plan, that I must die, and that you must assist me. You were devastated, my boy, and when you left here, I knew I had destroyed your soul as much as the ring had destroyed mine.
“I watched you fade away with every passing day. I had killed you. Even Minerva remarked how wan and listless you’d become. You no longer spoke, you no longer listened, you no longer lived. I knew very soon you would no longer be of any use to me.”
Mimi felt righteous anger flood her heart. That bastard! It didn’t matter than he’d hurt Severus, or forced him into agreeing to take Dumbledore’s life, or warped and twisted his heart until he could barely function! Oh, no, none of that was important, as long as the great Albus Dumbledore got his way. Mimi was so angry she could not speak, and Severus’ grip on her waist tightened, and she felt in that gesture an entreaty to keep quiet.
Dumbledore went on speaking, almost to himself. “I knew I had caused this horrible, inconsolable resignation. I had taken away your will to live, dear boy, and I had to get it back. So I took your Sempra Deck, and I sent it out into the void, to your true, rightful mate. I thought…” The old man shook his head. “This illness… I am not sure exactly why I thought it would help you to carry on, but at the time, I truly was thinking only of your welfare.”
Mimi and Severus looked at each other, astonished. Severus, confused, said, “How did the Deck know to go to Mimi? I made the Deck for Lily.”
Something like the old warmth bled back into Dumbledore’s blue eyes. “You created the Deck for your true love, Severus. Within that deck you placed your heart and soul, dear boy. Your very being was contained within the cards by your essence.
“The Deck was pure, because your virginal body was pure. And the deck knew. It knew your true mate.”
“But why did it take so long for it to come to me?” Mimi asked. “Why didn’t it find me as soon as you sent it, in this time frame?”
Dumbledore smiled. “Ah, because in 1997, you were not yet Severus’ true mate. The Deck had to wait until it found what it sought. Until you were ready.”
Severus’ grip on Mimi’s waist slackened. “So you just yanked her here, hoping she would keep me sweet long enough to kill you?” Severus’ face twisted in disgust. “Merciful Nimue, Albus, you are cold-blooded bastard.”
Dumbledore’s eyes grew stormy again. “I brought her here, to see if she could give you back what I’d taken - your will to live. I will confess, I did not think you would become lovers so quickly. After all, Severus, you are almost forty, and were still a virgin man.” He pretended not to see Severus’ face flush with humiliation. Rather wryly, Dumbledore continued, “It seems Miss Manderly was more amourous and aggressive in her intentions than I originally expected.”
“All this, and he has the nerve to call me promiscuous,” Mimi said, through clenched teeth. “So what was your brilliant plan, Headmaster? I would keep Severus all shagged out and happy until you decided it was time to mark him as a murderer and send him out as the Greater Good’s sacrificial lamb?”
“I had hoped for you to be his helpmate, to give him a reason to believe that there was life after all that would befall him.” Dumbledore looked at the couple, his eyes filled with sadness. “I had not counted on you being impervious to our magic, Miss Manderly. It stood to reason, of course, but at the time, it seemed of little import.
“I should have known that, when you two became lovers, you would, in time, come in contact, shall we say, with the very essences that Severus infused into the Deck, to bind his soulmate to him. What I didn’t realise is that the same essences that charged the cards would make you, in effect, on the same astral plane with the deck itself. Your very love for Severus ended your immortality here.”
Severus said, “But this makes no sense! When did you ingest -” He stopped, a tint of pink flushing his pale cheeks. In a harsh whisper, so that the Headmaster could not hear him, he hissed, “You never ingested my urine, or my sweat.”
Mimi was nodding sadly. “But I have, love.”
Fighting tears, she looked into his eyes, and he whispered, “Legilimens.” As gently as he could, he looked into her memory, and saw her before him, on her knees, reveling in his pleasure as she sucked his cock to his first orgasm with a woman. He could sense the bitter, sharp tang of his semen in her throat. Of course, it would have been combined with the few drops of urine, which always resided in the male urethra.
He saw her bending over him, kissing him as he wept the first time they made love. He could taste the salt of his tears and the saltier flavour of the sweat on his temples. And, of course, she had ingested the smear of blood that she’d kissed from his injured finger; the final catalyst to this horrible conclusion. Severus felt sick at the realization that something so precious as her kisses had brought all the pigeons home to roost.
His beautiful lover would be subjected to increasingly painful and crippling curses, one by one, until the final Avada, which would kill her. He could not Finite Incantatum that, no matter how hard he tried. They were on a runaway freight train, heading for an open gorge, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it.
Quietly, he withdrew from her mind, and together they put their arms around each other.
“Oh, gods,” he sobbed. “I have killed you!”
“No, Severus! I’m the one who told you to hex me and curse me! I’m the one that taunted the Death Eaters!” She cupped his face with her tiny hands. “Severus, look at me.”
When he raised his misery-filled eyes to her, she tried to smile. “I’m glad I was able to protect you! Bellatrix was torturing you! Voldemort would have killed you, then and there!” She tried to kiss his tears away. It no longer mattered how many or how few she drank; she was going to die anyway. For a moment, they held each other, each trying to come to terms with what the next few hours would bring.
“I will be here. I will be with you,” he wept. “I will do what I can to take the pain away. I will stay with you until…” Severus felt as if his heart was being torn from his chest; he had never felt such desolation. The loss of Lily had been horrible; it was child’s play next to this. The woman who loved him was going to die. He would lose her, and he knew he would die himself.
“There is, I believe, another way.” The two of them turned to Dumbledore. They had quite forgotten he was in the room.
Severus looked at him in shock. “Merlin’s balls, Albus, if there is a way to save her, do it!”
Dumbledore looked at Severus levelly. “I will have to send her back. Back into her own time and space.”
Mimi gasped. “You were always able to send me back? But why – “
“On the day your arrived at Hogwarts, if I had told you I could return you to your rightful place, can you honestly tell me you would have stayed here?”
Mimi looked at Severus, and lowered her eyes. Dumbledore nodded. “I thought as much. I needed you here; I needed you to stay long enough to befriend Severus.” He gave her a rueful glance. “Are you telling me that you would have rather gone back?”
Mimi was quiet for a long time. Finally, she looked at Severus. “No. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” Something like her old fighting spirit glinted in her sea-blue eyes. “I would have changed the rules a little, but – “
“I can send you back now, Miss Manderly. You will remember your time here, but you will have no physical repercussions from what happened.”
Mimi looked at Dumbledore with dawning realisation. “Could you send us both back?” She looked at Severus with painful hope. “Could Severus come back with me?”
Dumbledore looked at her for a long time. Finally, he said, “He could. But he will not.”
Mimi looked at him incredulously. “Why?” She looked from Dumbledore to Severus, who looked resigned. A swift, killing anger pierced her heart, and she started toward the Headmaster. “You heartless, heartless bastard! Why won’t you give him a chance for a decent life?”
Dumbledore’s eyes were cold, his expression stony. “He is needed here. He has a destiny to fulfill. He promised me years ago. Severus, you made your pact – “
“With the devil!” Mimi sobbed, and Severus took her in his arms.
“It is no use, Mimi.” He looked like a man bleeding from an internal wound. “I have made my pact with the Headmaster.” He lowered his head until their foreheads were touching. His voice was harsh and bitter. “You could beg him, but it would be of no use. I know. I have begged Albus for my soul since the night he told me I was to be his murderer.”
He looked at Dumbledore, and the older wizard recoiled at the hatred he saw in Severus’ face. It was the same look he would see three months later on the Astronomy Tower, and it was that same hatred that would allow Severus Snape to cast a curse he would utter once, and never again.
Severus felt as if a huge hole had opened at his feet, and he wanted more than anything to jump into it. No matter what, he would lose her. He straightened, and took a deep breath. “Albus, how long will the stasis charm stay in effect?” He was surprised at how steady his voice sounded to his own ears. He turned back to his lover. “I wish to say a proper goodbye. Alone.”
Dumbledore nodded. “It will hold for perhaps three hours, but I must caution you that when it is lifted, I suspect that the respite between the spells will decrease exponentially. Time will be of the essence after the stasis charm is removed.”
“Understood.” He lifted Mimi into his arms, and Dumbledore himself administered the Floo Powder. “Severus Snape’s chambers!”
mimimanderly has just released the next card of The Sempra Deck, a set of Major Arcana cards forming the Tarot. Each time Mimi posts a new card, I will post another edition of the story, so you can see how the story and the cards meshed together. Here is the next card - 16 The Tower, and here is the next chapter of the story.
This Chapter is rated R for content and language. Happy Reading!
The Sempra Deck is dedicated to the real mystic goddess Mimi Manderly; to her beloved SeverusMuse, and to my precious Dahlra. All characters with the exception of Mimi Manderley, Peter and Dahlra belong to JK Rowling. I make no money from this publication.
Chapter 8 – The Box Closes Part 1
Dumbledore greeted them in his study as if Severus showed up with a woman in his arms every day. He merely looked at them both, and held up his hand.
“I can see you are both quite distraught.” He looked at Severus, who had sat Mimi down as if she were the most fragile of objects. “Severus, what is wrong?”
Haltingly, Severus told the Headmaster how suddenly the magic that Mimi had originally absorbed had begun to manifest itself.
“She has experienced the first three spells that I know of, but I fear more will be forthcoming,” Severus said, looking down at Mimi. He turned back to Dumbledore, “Do you think – “
Severus’ words died in his mouth. Dumbledore was looking at him with barely concealed dismay. “Oh, Severus. So soon?”
Severus froze at the frightened tone of the Headmaster’s voice. “What are you talking about, Albus?”
Dumbledore touched Severus’ collar. “Your shirt is not buttoned properly, Severus, and it has been carelessly tucked into your trousers. You have bedded this woman, have you not?”
Alarmed, Severus replied coolly, “What business it that of yours, Albus?”
Mimi looked at the two men and was more frightened for Severus than herself. Dumbledore’s face was suffused with a fear that was rapidly morphing into anger, and she rose to defend her lover.
“Excuse me, Headmaster – “
“And you couldn’t leave him alone long enough to let him do the deed, could you?” Dumbledore whirled to Mimi, and she visibly shrank back. “I should have waited to bring you here. I should have known the moment you arrived you would throw yourself at him like a love-struck fool!”
Mimi and Severus looked at each other, stunned. “Brought me here?” Mimi said. Her eyes narrowed. “It was you all along, wasn’t it? You were the one who sent me the Sempra Deck in the first place!”
Dumbledore stood between the couple, anger and power radiating from him. Severus felt his stomach lurch. “Old man, what have you done? Why did you bring her here?” His anger rose to match Dumbledore’s. “Why did you allow her to come, knowing she could be killed this way?”
The Headmaster turned to Severus. “She would have been perfectly fine if you two had been able to keep your hands off one another!” His eyes narrowed into icy blue chips. “How long have you been bedding her? How long did it take you, Severus, to pump her so full of your essences that you made her mortal here?”
Mimi cried out in anger, “What the fuck are you talking about, Dumbledore? How did Severus and I becoming lovers make this happen?” She hissed as another jinx took her legs out from under her, and Severus barely caught her before she crumpled to the floor. He hastily cancelled the spell.
Severus looked from Mimi to Dumbledore, and something like understanding dawned on his pale face. “My essences, Albus? The essences I placed in the Deck? They have something to do with this, don’t they?”
Just then, Mimi doubled over as one of Severus’ hexes hit her with the force of a punch in her stomach. She cried out in pain, and Severus held her, cancelling the spell, feeling helpless and terrified. Tears sprang to Mimi’s eyes, and Severus gently brushed them away, holding her in an attempt to comfort and soothe her fears.
“Shh. It’s alright, my brave girl. We’ll find a way to stop this, I swear it.” Unmindful of Dumbledore, Severus took her cold and nerveless fingers and warmed them with his kisses. “I will not lose you. I will not lose you because of my own fallibility.”
He breathed harshly onto her white knuckles, “I cannot lose my only reason for living.” Finally, Mimi fell back in the chair, weak and frightened.
Severus turned to Dumbledore, the fury in his eyes as great as the old man’s. “Explain yourself, Albus, or by Merlin, I’ll -”
“Stop, Severus.” Dumbledore held his hand in a gesture of surrender. “This,” he said, indicating Severus and Mimi, “was not a casual encounter, was it?”
Severus glowered at him. “I would think by now you know me better than that, Headmaster.”
Dumbledore nodded. “Indeed. There is real depth of feeling here. I see it. And I owe you an explanation, if only for that.” He sat down at his desk, looking tired and impossibly old.
He turned to Mimi, and made a complicated pattern in the air with his wand, chanting an incantation. Mimi relaxed somewhat, and her breathing calmed. Dumbledore finished the incantation, and turned to Severus.
“I have placed a temporary stasis spell over Miss Manderly. It will hold back the next series of spells for a short while.” He looked defeated. “I believe I owe you both an apology, as well as an explanation.”
Severus stood, and gently lifted Mimi into his arms. He turned and sat down on the chair, and drew her into his lap, where she lay against him like a weary child. Dumbledore watched them for a moment, then began.
“Severus, do you remember the night I summoned you, the night I was cursed with this?” Dumbledore held up his long, blackened hand. When Severus did not reply, Dumbledore pressed on. “I told you of my plan, that I must die, and that you must assist me. You were devastated, my boy, and when you left here, I knew I had destroyed your soul as much as the ring had destroyed mine.
“I watched you fade away with every passing day. I had killed you. Even Minerva remarked how wan and listless you’d become. You no longer spoke, you no longer listened, you no longer lived. I knew very soon you would no longer be of any use to me.”
Mimi felt righteous anger flood her heart. That bastard! It didn’t matter than he’d hurt Severus, or forced him into agreeing to take Dumbledore’s life, or warped and twisted his heart until he could barely function! Oh, no, none of that was important, as long as the great Albus Dumbledore got his way. Mimi was so angry she could not speak, and Severus’ grip on her waist tightened, and she felt in that gesture an entreaty to keep quiet.
Dumbledore went on speaking, almost to himself. “I knew I had caused this horrible, inconsolable resignation. I had taken away your will to live, dear boy, and I had to get it back. So I took your Sempra Deck, and I sent it out into the void, to your true, rightful mate. I thought…” The old man shook his head. “This illness… I am not sure exactly why I thought it would help you to carry on, but at the time, I truly was thinking only of your welfare.”
Mimi and Severus looked at each other, astonished. Severus, confused, said, “How did the Deck know to go to Mimi? I made the Deck for Lily.”
Something like the old warmth bled back into Dumbledore’s blue eyes. “You created the Deck for your true love, Severus. Within that deck you placed your heart and soul, dear boy. Your very being was contained within the cards by your essence.
“The Deck was pure, because your virginal body was pure. And the deck knew. It knew your true mate.”
“But why did it take so long for it to come to me?” Mimi asked. “Why didn’t it find me as soon as you sent it, in this time frame?”
Dumbledore smiled. “Ah, because in 1997, you were not yet Severus’ true mate. The Deck had to wait until it found what it sought. Until you were ready.”
Severus’ grip on Mimi’s waist slackened. “So you just yanked her here, hoping she would keep me sweet long enough to kill you?” Severus’ face twisted in disgust. “Merciful Nimue, Albus, you are cold-blooded bastard.”
Dumbledore’s eyes grew stormy again. “I brought her here, to see if she could give you back what I’d taken - your will to live. I will confess, I did not think you would become lovers so quickly. After all, Severus, you are almost forty, and were still a virgin man.” He pretended not to see Severus’ face flush with humiliation. Rather wryly, Dumbledore continued, “It seems Miss Manderly was more amourous and aggressive in her intentions than I originally expected.”
“All this, and he has the nerve to call me promiscuous,” Mimi said, through clenched teeth. “So what was your brilliant plan, Headmaster? I would keep Severus all shagged out and happy until you decided it was time to mark him as a murderer and send him out as the Greater Good’s sacrificial lamb?”
“I had hoped for you to be his helpmate, to give him a reason to believe that there was life after all that would befall him.” Dumbledore looked at the couple, his eyes filled with sadness. “I had not counted on you being impervious to our magic, Miss Manderly. It stood to reason, of course, but at the time, it seemed of little import.
“I should have known that, when you two became lovers, you would, in time, come in contact, shall we say, with the very essences that Severus infused into the Deck, to bind his soulmate to him. What I didn’t realise is that the same essences that charged the cards would make you, in effect, on the same astral plane with the deck itself. Your very love for Severus ended your immortality here.”
Severus said, “But this makes no sense! When did you ingest -” He stopped, a tint of pink flushing his pale cheeks. In a harsh whisper, so that the Headmaster could not hear him, he hissed, “You never ingested my urine, or my sweat.”
Mimi was nodding sadly. “But I have, love.”
Fighting tears, she looked into his eyes, and he whispered, “Legilimens.” As gently as he could, he looked into her memory, and saw her before him, on her knees, reveling in his pleasure as she sucked his cock to his first orgasm with a woman. He could sense the bitter, sharp tang of his semen in her throat. Of course, it would have been combined with the few drops of urine, which always resided in the male urethra.
He saw her bending over him, kissing him as he wept the first time they made love. He could taste the salt of his tears and the saltier flavour of the sweat on his temples. And, of course, she had ingested the smear of blood that she’d kissed from his injured finger; the final catalyst to this horrible conclusion. Severus felt sick at the realization that something so precious as her kisses had brought all the pigeons home to roost.
His beautiful lover would be subjected to increasingly painful and crippling curses, one by one, until the final Avada, which would kill her. He could not Finite Incantatum that, no matter how hard he tried. They were on a runaway freight train, heading for an open gorge, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it.
Quietly, he withdrew from her mind, and together they put their arms around each other.
“Oh, gods,” he sobbed. “I have killed you!”
“No, Severus! I’m the one who told you to hex me and curse me! I’m the one that taunted the Death Eaters!” She cupped his face with her tiny hands. “Severus, look at me.”
When he raised his misery-filled eyes to her, she tried to smile. “I’m glad I was able to protect you! Bellatrix was torturing you! Voldemort would have killed you, then and there!” She tried to kiss his tears away. It no longer mattered how many or how few she drank; she was going to die anyway. For a moment, they held each other, each trying to come to terms with what the next few hours would bring.
“I will be here. I will be with you,” he wept. “I will do what I can to take the pain away. I will stay with you until…” Severus felt as if his heart was being torn from his chest; he had never felt such desolation. The loss of Lily had been horrible; it was child’s play next to this. The woman who loved him was going to die. He would lose her, and he knew he would die himself.
“There is, I believe, another way.” The two of them turned to Dumbledore. They had quite forgotten he was in the room.
Severus looked at him in shock. “Merlin’s balls, Albus, if there is a way to save her, do it!”
Dumbledore looked at Severus levelly. “I will have to send her back. Back into her own time and space.”
Mimi gasped. “You were always able to send me back? But why – “
“On the day your arrived at Hogwarts, if I had told you I could return you to your rightful place, can you honestly tell me you would have stayed here?”
Mimi looked at Severus, and lowered her eyes. Dumbledore nodded. “I thought as much. I needed you here; I needed you to stay long enough to befriend Severus.” He gave her a rueful glance. “Are you telling me that you would have rather gone back?”
Mimi was quiet for a long time. Finally, she looked at Severus. “No. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” Something like her old fighting spirit glinted in her sea-blue eyes. “I would have changed the rules a little, but – “
“I can send you back now, Miss Manderly. You will remember your time here, but you will have no physical repercussions from what happened.”
Mimi looked at Dumbledore with dawning realisation. “Could you send us both back?” She looked at Severus with painful hope. “Could Severus come back with me?”
Dumbledore looked at her for a long time. Finally, he said, “He could. But he will not.”
Mimi looked at him incredulously. “Why?” She looked from Dumbledore to Severus, who looked resigned. A swift, killing anger pierced her heart, and she started toward the Headmaster. “You heartless, heartless bastard! Why won’t you give him a chance for a decent life?”
Dumbledore’s eyes were cold, his expression stony. “He is needed here. He has a destiny to fulfill. He promised me years ago. Severus, you made your pact – “
“With the devil!” Mimi sobbed, and Severus took her in his arms.
“It is no use, Mimi.” He looked like a man bleeding from an internal wound. “I have made my pact with the Headmaster.” He lowered his head until their foreheads were touching. His voice was harsh and bitter. “You could beg him, but it would be of no use. I know. I have begged Albus for my soul since the night he told me I was to be his murderer.”
He looked at Dumbledore, and the older wizard recoiled at the hatred he saw in Severus’ face. It was the same look he would see three months later on the Astronomy Tower, and it was that same hatred that would allow Severus Snape to cast a curse he would utter once, and never again.
Severus felt as if a huge hole had opened at his feet, and he wanted more than anything to jump into it. No matter what, he would lose her. He straightened, and took a deep breath. “Albus, how long will the stasis charm stay in effect?” He was surprised at how steady his voice sounded to his own ears. He turned back to his lover. “I wish to say a proper goodbye. Alone.”
Dumbledore nodded. “It will hold for perhaps three hours, but I must caution you that when it is lifted, I suspect that the respite between the spells will decrease exponentially. Time will be of the essence after the stasis charm is removed.”
“Understood.” He lifted Mimi into his arms, and Dumbledore himself administered the Floo Powder. “Severus Snape’s chambers!”
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 08:26 pm (UTC)Poor Mimi and Severus. They have only three more hours to be together before she will die. Or maybe they will decided for her to go back to her time. But I don't see that happening.
Could Severus possibly come up with a way to kill the Dark Lord in such a short time, then kill Dumbledore, and then go back with Mimi to her time? Would that even work? Geez, I'm grasping at straws here. Hopefully there are some straws around that can work like magic wands. Hopefully.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 01:11 am (UTC)I'm afraid Severus can't go back with Mimi. Dumbledore won't allow it...
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Date: 2011-08-07 08:34 pm (UTC)This... it cannot be happening! They have to be able to grow old together! They have to have their HEA!
Dumbledore... what an arse. But he did bring them together, so he can't be all bad. But, I still don't like him.
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Date: 2011-08-08 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-08 12:44 pm (UTC)http://pics.livejournal.com/morethansirius/pic/000597x0/g48