Where Dark Meets The Light

Chapter 17: Love is in the air

Warning: This chapter contains internalized homophobia.

Severus was getting worried. He had known from the start that taking her to the dark lord would cause problems. When Vance was killed right in front of Jennifer, he expected nightmares, crying and panic attacks. What he wasn't expecting was the unsettling silence that seemed to follow her everywhere.

He'd tried talking to her about it and all he got in return was, "I know. I know it wasn't my fault. Sometimes sacrifices must be made, right? And it wasn't like I killed her. Even if I had helped, I would probably be dead too. What would have been the point?"

And it worried him. The dead tone, the bruises under her eyes becoming more and more profound while she got quieter and quieter.

Severus felt like a failure. It was his job to protect her. it was his job to ensure she was safe, and happy... and he had failed her just like everyone else had.

What was worse was that Bellatrix, in her insane glory, was now insisting on teaching Jen how to be a death eater. The room opposed to his laboratory was changed into a 'classroom' of sorts. Bellatrix took great pleasure in teaching Jen all sorts of spells and curses that made him feel like he needed a shower just thinking about casting them.

Right now, she was teaching her a rather nasty bone breaking curse, that would fracture a femur with ease and, when casted correctly, could break the bone into several pieces with just one curse.

The crunching of old bones could be heard as Jen casted the curse for the fifth time. He wondered if he should interrupt as he had done before when Bella had tried to teach her the cruciatus curse.

He expelled the thought though. There were only so many times he could interrupt without it becoming suspicious.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Neville was staring off into space again, Charlie noticed.

Ever since he'd come to the manor with his gran, he was a lot different as he'd been before. It reminded him of first-year Neville, in a way. Only now instead of shyness, it was guilt that hung around the other boy, and Charlie found himself willing to do just about anything to change that.

His mum had told him what had happened, how proud everyone was for protecting not only himself, but also his gran.

It seemed like Charlie was the only person to notice how much it was eating him, though. It might have something to do with the fact that he knew Neville was having just as many sleepless nights as he himself had.

The long, warm nights when they shared some of his dad's whiskey that he'd snuck from a party some weeks ago, over a game of muggle poker as pop poker might have someone checking up on them. The way that Charlie seemed to be the only one recently to magic even the slightest grin on Neville's face, or when he woke up from a nightmare and went to the training room, only to find Neville already there.

Charlie woke from yet another nightmare with tears on his cheeks and a scream of agony lodged in his throat. It took him a bit to convince himself that he was safe, that Voldemort couldn't reach him where he was. He sat on the floor with his back pressed against the wall and roughly dried his eyes. He let out a deep and defeated sigh. He was wide awake, despite it being only four thirty in the morning.

Once he felt a little like himself again, he got up from the floor and grabbed his set of cards. He wondered if tonight he'd be the first one down, or if Neville would already be waiting for him. It was seldom that either of them managed to sleep through the entire night, and although it should make him happy whenever his friend slept the whole night, it left him lonely.