Conscious of the Dark ~ {Severus Snape fanfic} BOOK ONE

18. Death

"I'm sorry...", she muttered and with a swift motion she released herself from Severus' holding and aparated like a true Death Eater.

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The black vortex swallowed her as her mind for the first time in so many years was connected to that of Voldemort. Her pain was great, for the unjust death of Cedric, for the way she spoke to Severus, for the Dark Lord himself who despite what happened he returned. That son of a bitch had to die but Regina knew in her bones that she would never be able to kill him. Never. Only Harry could do this yet he returned back to Hogwarts empty handed.

When her feet came in contact with the ground she opened her eyes widely. Her frightened gaze wandered all around the foggy place. She was in a graveyard. In a very familiar graveyard. The black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to her right. A hill rose above her to her left. She could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

It was Little Hangleton's graveyard. The final resting place of the Riddle family.

She shivered. The most striking feature of the grave was the large stone statue of the Angel of Death. The angel bore a raised scythe in its right hand and featured a skull face and skeletal hands.

"I thought you'd never show up...", a sibilant, high cold voice sounded from behind her and the blood froze in her veins. She literally lost her breath as the hair on her back stood up. It was him. It was definitely him.

With a lot of self-control and courage Regina slowly turned around to meet the reborn Dark Lord. What her gaze encountered though was utterly unnatural. There he was. A man -more like, a beast- staring at her like a lion would stare at its victim. He looked nothing like he used to. He was taller than before, his features warped, completely. The colour of his skin was pale white and his body was skeletally thin. Black robes were wrapped around his figure. A pair of dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils watched her calmly. He had no hair, no lips and no nose. Only a pair of snake-like slits for nostrils. His fingernails were long, sharp and pale blue. His hands were large with unnaturally long fingers like spider's legs.

"I should never show up", she finally found her voice, though she sounded shaken. Her palms were sweating even though her entire body was icy cold. "After what you did to--.."

"Bow!", he whistled like a snake, raising his wand.

Fucking imperius curse. Regina's body unwillingly bowed before him even though she struggled to fight it. She groaned irritated and then the Dark Lord lifted the curse with an evil chuckle.

"How impolite of you", he smiled coldly as he ran his long fingers over his wand nonchalantly. "We have company, Regina."

She raised her head to look behind the Dark Lord as he stepped aside. There they were, all the scumbags she used to work with. Walden Macnair, Crabbe, Goyle, Avery, Nott, Peter Pettigrew and of course... Lucius Malfoy. She let out a dry chuckle as she turned to the Dark Lord. His expression turned serious.

"Why don't you just kill me and get this over with?", she narrowed her eyes. It was like all the fear she felt a few minutes ago was suddenly gone. Certainly, she didn't wish to die but she would prefer to be killed rather than acting like a Death Eater again.

"Fearless...", Voldemort's lipless mouth formed an eerie smile. "You came here to die?"

"Actually, I came here to see you", she responded, her head high, looking straight into his scarlet eyes. "You sent me a lot of messages. It would be impolite of me not to show up", she sneered. "Just a question. Who the hell barged in my chambers and placed the book? I assume it was your order."