Broken Vow

Chapter Two

Give me the touch,

The one you promised to be mine.

Or has it vanished for all time?

Professor Snape walked quickly through the torch-lit corridors of Hogwarts, robes billowing behind him. He knew the dungeons like the back of his hand. They were where he'd spend most of his time when he had been a student here. He smiled to himself. It was really quite ironic. Here he was, a professor at Hogwarts but when he'd graduated he'd sworn that he would kill himself rather than see this school ever again. He would have kept his promise too, were it not for...he grimaced and pushed that thought from his mind. He shoved his classroom door open so hard that the wooden door slammed against the stone wall beside it with a loud BANG, startling the 5^th year Slytherins and Gryffindors into silence.

"Now," he barked, "who can tell me the first ingredient in a Restorative Draught?"

I close my eyes

And dream of you and I, and then I realize,

There's more to love than only bitterness and lies.

I close my eyes.

"Crucio." Severus Snape's voice was cold and clear under his Death Eater mask. The old man in front of him fell to the ground, screaming bloody murder. Severus glanced down at the writhing man at his feet with little pity. He'd had the curse put on him many times before, and although it had been unbearable he'd survived. He couldn't say the same for this man, though. The Prewetts had been enemies of the Dark Lord since the beginning and Severus had his orders. The Death Eaters were to torture the family, show them the error of their ways, but not kill them. The Dark Lord wanted that privilege for himself.

Just then, he was sidetracked by a loud scream. Two Death Eaters were dragging a young woman, kicking and screaming, into the sitting room, where Severus was. He was struck suddenly by how much she looked like Leila. She looked towards him and he was relieved to see that she had brown eyes, not blue. One of the Death Eaters yelped as she bit his arm. It started to bleed, leaving dark red stains on the Oriental throw rug. More blood than just that would be spilled in the house that night.

"Crucio!" bellowed the bleeding Death Eater. The girl stiffened. Distracted, Severus removed his wand from the man in front of him, leaving him twitching, unconscious, on the ground. The girl collapsed, knocking a vase off of the table, which shattered. The noise made Severus start. The room had gone eerily silent; it seemed that the whole world was holding its breath along with him, waiting for something. He was glad her black hair was covering her face, so he wouldn't have to look at the expression of agony he was sure she was wearing. The girl's eyes started to roll back into her head. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Avada Kedavera!" he yelled. There was a rush of green light and the girl lay still. The two Death Eaters looked at him in astonishment.

"Severus Snape," came an ice-cold voice behind him, making his heart stop. He turned and saw a tall figure in a dark cloak, eyes glittering with malice - Lord Voldemort.

"My Lord - I was just - I didn't mean to -" he stammered.

"I would have expected better of you," the Dark Lord snarled.

Severus readied himself. He knew what was coming.

"Crucio."

* * *

There was a soft light pouring through the window of Severus' stone cottage.

"Blast," he muttered. The reason he'd bought this cottage was so that he wouldn't have to deal with people. It was on the outskirts of a small village and nestled in a clearing in a thick forest. He didn't think anyone else even knew it was there. It seemed to be the perfect place.

Just then the front door flew open and someone ran outside. He reached for his wand, but couldn't move his arms very far without screaming in pain. One side-effect of the Cruciatus curse that isn't widely publicized, he thought bitterly, is your aching muscles afterwards. The person was coming closer and closer to him and he was starting to get worried. He didn't have anything to defend himself with. He noticed that the person was much shorter than him, maybe he could fight them. I doubt it, said his nagging inner voice, you can barely walk. I'd like to see you try to fight someone. He waited anxiously for an attack, but when the person got close to him, two slender arms were thrown around his neck. Although it was dark, he could tell by the soft smell of her hair that it was Leila. You're such a prat, he chided himself, getting all worked up over nothing. Who else knows where you live? The truth seemed obvious now. Leila and he had been seeing each other for more than six months. She was the only person who knew where he lived, aside from the Death Eaters. But then again, they weren't really people in Severus' eyes. Leila's shoulders started to shake and he realized that she was sobbing into his chest.

"What on earth is wrong?" he asked softly. She tried to reply but all that came out was a choked sob. "Come on, let's go inside." He put his arms around her shoulders and carefully steered her around the exposed tree roots until they were inside his cottage.

You could barely tell it was someone's home. The only furniture that he had was his bed, a couch, a coffee table, and a small round dining room table with two wooden chairs. There was a kitchen in the cottage too, though he never used it. He was actually quite good at cooking magically and had no need for a kitchen, although he'd never admit that to anyone. He sat Leila down on the couch and waited until her sobs turned into sniffles before asking again what was wrong.

"My neighbours, the Prewetts," she sniffed and Severus felt his stomach twist itself into a knot. A few of the Death Eaters had toyed with the idea of raiding the neighbouring houses, just for a laugh. He couldn't bear to imagine what had happened if they had. "They were mur-mur-murdered." She fought to regain control of her voice. "I was coming home and saw the Dark Mark hovering over their house and I knew-I knew that something horrible had happened...I didn't know where else to go. I just had to get away from it." It was customary for a Death Eater to send the Dark Mark, a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth, into the sky after they had killed. It was the Dark Lord's signature. Severus had never thought anything of it before. He nervously tugged on his left sleeve, making sure it was pulled all the way down to his wrist. She had no clue how close to the Dark Mark she actually was.

She leaned into his chest and took a long, slow, shaking breath. He tried to lift his arm to stroke her hair, but his aching muscles made him gasp in pain. Thankfully, Leila hadn't noticed his agony; he didn't want to have to lie to her. He resorted instead to intertwining his fingers with hers.

"I can't go home," she whispered, "I just can't. I wouldn't be able to bear living so close to a place where something so...evil..." she trailed off.

"Well I guess you could stay here," Severus heard his voice say before he could stop himself, "if you want to, that is," he finished quickly. She sat up suddenly.

"You'd do that?"

"There's not much room but-"

"No...it's perfect," Leila interrupted, her sniffles slowly coming to a stop. "But, I don't even have a toothbrush, everything's-"

"-at home," Severus finished with a scowl. "Of course it is. Why can't things ever be easy?" he muttered under his breath.

"I'll just have to go back and grab some stuff then." She started to stand up.

"No." With some difficulty, Severus stood up too. "I'll go. There might still be Death Eaters everywhere." His face darkened, and his tone turned very serious. "Leila, if you're going to live here, there are going to have to be some rules." He pointed to the curtains hanging over the window. "If you want to be safe, always keep these closed. And never ever question anything I do." Leila slowly nodded. There was a loud POP as he disapperated.

For a few minutes, Leila stood there, a frown on her face, staring out the window. Then, seemingly making up her mind, she reached for the drapes and wrenched them shut.