The Death Eater

-Severus Snape-

"-away with this! Let me go! Damn you, DAMN you all straight to hell! LET ME GO!"

I awoke to somebody’s screaming, which echoed off the walls. My question: Where was I?

I opened my eyes, seeing only a blurry room as my brain tried to work, my head throbbing from the blow that had rendered me unconscious. The yeller continued his protests; didn’t he know it was no use, wherever he was? No amount of screaming can get you anywhere.

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" I cried, the pounding in my head growing louder, more painful. "Would you stop your yelling!?"

"I demand to know what you want with me!" the man growled.

"Who the hell ARE you?" I muttered, closing my eyes to steady myself, then opening them again, my vision cleared. The man I saw was none other than the one I had cast my imperious upon! Although he was throwing himself against the bars that kept him in his little cell, I realized that I had been sprawled across a room that I seemed free to exit whenever I wished. My captor was not an Auror. Good.

"Where the bloody hell am I?" I wondered aloud, peering around the dark room.

The Auror’s face spread in amusement. "You don’t know your own master’s dungeons?"

"What?" I asked stupidly.

"Try the door, I bet it’s locked," he continued, pointing in the door’s direction.

"What?" I repeated. "My master has no dungeon."

"Well, you’re in it, aren’t you? Go ahead, try the door," the Auror replied, a look of despising humor in his eyes.

"I will NOT do as you ask! This is a trap, isn’t it? A little Auror game!" I spat, feeling very foolish indeed.

"You’re a bloody fool, and you deserve any punishment your master may inflict upon you!" the Auror hissed savagely.

"Why would Voldemort punish ME!?" I suddenly burst with anger.

"You betrayed him, didn’t you?" the man said, starting to laugh. "You said so yourself. He was probably there the whole time you were telling me your plot! FOOL!" he grinned triumphantly.

"What..." I was angry and confused. My head didn’t seem to be screwed on right. My thoughts were clouded. I remembered telling the Auror my plan. I remember the fist. What was I missing?

"Look," he sighed. "Let me make this easy for you, you stupid piece of garbage. Your master saw and heard everything. He was the one who hit you. Now he’s mad. If I’m lucky he’ll kill you first, then maybe I’ll have a more enjoyable death, myself."

My brain turned on as the Auror stopped talking. It was true! Voldemort could have been listening to all that I had said! Damn, I should have killed that Auror! I should have killed him! I should not have toyed or talked to him, how egotistical could I be!? Thinking I could get away with something like that! Thinking I could get away with telling that kind of thing to an Auror!

I suddenly stood up, ignoring the sharp pain that flew across the back of my head. I rushed to the door and tugged. It really WAS locked! This man wasn’t lying!

"DAMN!" I shouted in fury, searching for my wand and finding that it wasn’t with me.

"Idiot! Your master took it!" the Auror cried, seeming to enjoy himself with my distress. Of course he was. He was an Auror that I had humiliated. I’m probably the most hated being he had ever hated in his entire life!

"Will you SHUT UP!?" I yelled, my head throbbing annoyingly.

"Once you’re dead!" he retorted.

"I’ll kill you!" I shouted, leaping towards his cell. The Auror stepped back and watched me plunge my arms through the bars, reaching for his neck. He was barely out of reach. "Coward!"

In an instant, the man had drawn forward and we were both at each other like blood-obsessed dogs, tearing at each other’s faces through the bars. I planted a good knee into the man’s crotch just as he took a handful of my hair and knocked my face against the bars. The Auror fell back, gasping for breath as I left him to his cell, beginning to feel more and more like an idiot while wandering around the room dizzily.

"Enough!"

I jumped as a familiar icy voice filled the room. "Master, I..."

"You really fucked up this time, Snape! NOT A WORD FROM YOU!" Voldemort roared.

I found a corner of the room to steady myself in and fell silent, watching Voldemort eye the exhausted Auror through his cell. Only then did I realize that Malfoy accompanied him. He didn’t look my way.

"You may have cost me one of my best Death Eaters!" my master hissed to the Auror, stepping up to the bars. I just stood, dazed with my hand against the wall. Cost him? May have cost him? What was he talking about?

"You’ll burn in hell, bastard," the Auror growled in disgust, but he had turned a deathly pale. I didn’t dare make any remark. Neither did Malfoy.

Voldemort just laughed. "You’ll wish you were in hell once I’m done with you," he smirked. "Or should I say... once my Death Eaters are through with you? Lucius! Take this pitiful Auror and get him from my sight! You and the others will kill him nice and slowly, understand? When I come back, I want to see him dead."

"Yes, master," Malfoy said, nodding, flicking his eyes to me then back towards the Auror’s cell.

Voldemort opened the door, and the Auror, in panic, tried to dart away. My master caught him easily and threw him into Malfoy, who pulled the man by the neck.

"You’re all dead! You’re all dead! When the others come, YOU’RE ALL DEAD!" the Auror shrieked before the heavy door closed with a loud bang, leaving Voldemort and myself alone.

There was a horrible silence for a few minutes in which I stared at the floor, knowing that Voldemort’s eyes were on me.

"I do not forgive without punishment, you understand," the master whispered darkly. I didn’t reply. "Damn you," he said softly, yet with force and loathing. "It’s your fault that four of my Death Eaters are dead now. Because of your enormous head and uncontrollable ‘lust for the kill’ as you call it, my men are DEAD!"

Still, I did not reply.

"What have you to say?" he asked icily. I still refused to answer or look at him. What was I supposed to do? It didn’t matter if I begged for forgiveness, it didn’t matter if I told him I’d never do it again, it didn’t matter WHAT I did, and I knew that because I understood him! One of the only ones, too, and he knew it. He knew that whatever I said wouldn’t make a difference. He frowned.

"Why do you not answer? Why do you not look at me? You’re a pathetic soul, and you don’t deserve to live! I’ll admit that you’re one on my best, but that does NOT give you any privileges, and it’s unfortunate how such a cunning one as yourself should have such an enormous ego! You think you can do anything! You’re a danger to every one of my men! What am I to do with you!? WHY don’t you look at me!? Do you fear me still. dammit, ANSWER!"

"Yes," I whispered.

"THEN WHY DID YOU LIE!?" he roared. I didn’t reply. "ANSWER ME!" he growled, landing a blow on me that connected my already painfully throbbing skull against the wall. For a moment, I saw two Voldemorts before blacking out for less than a second, a cloud passing over my eyes. I believe he had feared that he had killed me before he got some answers out of me for a minute, but when he saw that I was merely dazed, he hit me again, but this time without so much force.

"I wanted..." I trailed off, trying to pull my scattered brain together, but even then I forgot what I was going to say, perhaps I had forgotten the whole English language for a second there...

"What did you WANT!?" Voldemort shouted, his hand ready for another blow.

"Show you - prove to you," I answered hastily, eyeing his hand. "Prove I... Prove to you that-"

"That you were worthy? We’ve had this discussion before, Snape; you had already proven yourself to be! I have ways of knowing, you don’t have to PROVE YOURSELF by killing the Death Eaters! You believe that betraying my trust has proven you worthy!? Well it hasn’t! You are worthy of nothing, and as I’ve said before, a danger to your team!" Voldemort yelled.

"Self-conceited arrogance," I muttered. "That’s what it was."

Silence.

"If you are to kill me now, go ahead now; I pray I’ve been faithful enough so that you might do so painlessly. But you’ve done nothing to me so far, and that’s going to drive me insane."

"You’re already insane," Voldemort said coldly, pulling out my wand and dropping it into my hands. "What are you going to do now? I tell you I will kill you. What do you do? Will you defend yourself?"

"No."

Voldemort brought forth his own wand in the blink of an eye and pointed it directly into my face. "You will defend yourself," he said, grinning.

"No," I repeated with the same calm as before.

"CRUCIO!" he cried.

I screamed before I realized that I was doing it, and I threw myself against the wall in confused panic, hitting the ground hard, writhing.

"You can stop this by cursing me, Snape! You still have your wand!" Voldemort crowed.

I held my wand with a death grip, yet still refused to use it, continuing to writhe and scream, and through my screams I shouted no.

"Why not!? You want this pain to END!" Voldemort yelled, and he continued with the crutiatus for perhaps a very long thirty seconds before I did anything but scream.

I raised my wand, but only to throw it aside, the temptation to stop this curse too great. With that action done, Voldemort stopped the pain and glowered in fury.

"WHY NOT!?" he shouted.

I struggled for breath, gasping and willing myself not to sob. I could have stopped it and died! I could have stopped it and died. Why not? Good question.

Voldemort growled and pulled me off the ground, shoving me against the wall and making me stare at him, pinning me so that I would not fall. "Why NOT?"

Because I am devoted and trustworthy. Because I will not betray you. Because I may be stubborn and arrogant, but will not try to hurt you, master... You know that. I know you do. You just want to hear it from me.

"Why not?" he repeated again.

And then I fainted.