The Pensive Dragon |Severus Snape Fanfiction|

Chapter Thirty Six

For three days you sat in a cold cell. For three days you were forced to eat food you wouldn't even feed your worst enemy. For three days you were left alone in deadly silence, the only occasional sound being the waves crashing into the building in which Azkaban was.

Today was your trial and you couldn't think straight, you were running on the low energy food and not yet were you accustomed to the loneliness that the penitentiary bore.

You were outside the room where your trail was being held, shackles hung around your ankles and wrists. Your hair was coated in grease and the makeup that you'd worn had been rubbed around your eyes, making them look dull. The guards started to haul you into the room and put you behind what looked like a cage with iron spikes.

They threw you in and you timidly looked around at the crowd, your heart was in your throat when you found Severus' dark brown eyes. You looked to him with a pleading expression on your face, in turn he looked away from you. That alone could make you break down.

You looked to the prosecutor, it was the minister of magic. "(Y/N) Black. Death Eater for...?" The man tilted his head and fixed his papers.

"Eleven years." You answered hoarsely. You leaned your head against one of the spikes, feeling it was dull from holding your past acquaintances. People around the door murmured and whispered. Your objective was to be as calm as you could.

"So you joined when you were seventeen and became good friends with Avery Pollmere?" You responded with a nod, closing your eyes, you were very exhausted and your mouth was dry. "Recently we've documented that you've become an Animagus. That's a very long and convoluted process. Why did you do so? To please your master?"

You shook your head, cringing a bit. "No. I wanted to expand my magical ability... explore the more..." you felt a bit sick, "Animal... side of myself..."

The Minister furrowed his brows as he watched you, your body language was very different from the other Death Eaters that had come through here. "Are you not proud of all the countless crimes you've committed?"

"No one is ever proud of the evil they're forced to do." The whispers erupted again and you looked at the infamous chair behind you. You knew if you sat down you were probably going to fall asleep and that's the last thing you needed. "You join something when you're young because you believe it's the last resort. Imagine you're a kid, straight out of school, you come home, your immediate family is dead or in Azkaban. The only thing you have left is your own mind and Bellatrix Lestrange. You decide joining this... cause and making your family proud was the last option. But then you meet someone when you're older... and you realize... that maybe... it was all a mistake... after all."

You could feel your body failing to stay awake, the energy completely draining from your being. You lost your feet and fell back into the chair. "Let us take a quick recess to reconvene." The minister said before getting up and leaving the room with a crowd of people. You looked around and thanked Voldemort for assigning Severus on this trail. He was to go undercover and report to Voldemort what you had said.

You felt one of the guards prick you with a stick as your eyes started to close, electricity bolted through your body and you yelped, jumping to the side to get away. You felt a sharp pain in your rib and looked down at it, one of the spikes on the cage had gone right through your skin, digging deeper into your rib cage.

The pain of it was almost unbearable, moving like shockwaves though your body. You grabbed the other side of the small cage and pulled yourself off the spike. You looked to where Severus was sitting, his expression, unbothered and stone. He seemed to be carved like a God with a permanent scowl. A scowl that bore holes into your head. The pain no longer came from your body, but from your heart. You almost could feel it shatter into pieces like a fragile piece of china.

You got back into the chair and looked away from Severus, fearing that if you looked at the man much longer that you'd die of a broken heart.

Fudge came back and sat down, staring at you with the slightest tang of sympathy. "Ms. Black. The jury has come to the conclusion that you shall serve three months in Azkaban before a reconciliation. Any last words before you are sent away?"

You couldn't bring yourself to look to your lover so you just stared at the cold concrete floor, "I've lost all my ambition... my will to fight for what my family thought was right. I've lost all motivation to be something that was but an illusion. I just only ever wanted to be the one he loved, and now I fear I've lost that too."

Fudge tilted his head and looked around the room, he wasn't sure what he was looking for but he did anyway. When no reaction arose from the crowd he gave the guards the signal to lower you back down into the dungeon, back to the cold cell that lie waiting for you in Azkaban.