The Contract

Chapter 14

Severus sighed softly as he made his way up from his private potions lab, having finished yet another batch of potions - of various kinds - for Corvus Lestrange. He was exhausted, and definitely not looking forward to teaching students tomorrow. The weekend always flew in, and he hated it. Stretching out the kinks in his body, he immediately ambled towards his cabinet which housed his alcohol. Snatching the open bottle of whiskey - the only open bottle - and poured more than a generous amount into a crystal glass, before flinging it back, the burn barely discernible due to the fact he had been drinking it for years.

What he did discern was herbs, strong herbs that weren't being hidden by the strongness of the drink, something had been slipped into his drink. His eyes widened, but before he could do anything, his body pitched forward as pain begun to assault him. He couldn't move, even just thinking about it caused the pain to flare even more alarmingly. 'Dirigentes dolore' thought Severus, it wasn't a major debilitating curse, but it was definitely not minor. It also wasn't fatal as long as he took an antidote, but he didn't have an antidote brewed, and it took five days to brew that particular potion. In other words he was going to be in a world of pain for almost a week...depending on how long it took for someone to look for him.

Then it dawned on him, it had been in his drink, it was open, he'd already drank from it. Thus, someone had been in his quarters and put that in there. In the past twenty-four hours, at that, since he'd had a drink last night as well, it was his ritual, he had been doing it for as far back as he could afford to buy himself a bottle. Someone had been in here...someone could still be in here.

His thoughts were alarmingly proven correct when he heard the sound of quiet footballs approaching him. A burst of fear consumed him, was he about to be killed like this? After surviving both Dumbledore and Voldemort in a duel game of spying? On the floor, in agony, unable to stand and face his potential killer?

A groan of agony burst out of him as he was swiftly magically propelled onto his favourite seat. Leaning his head against the headrest, he tried and failed to glare at the culprit but he was just too damn surprised to see who it was. Corvus Lestrange. Why? What on earth had caused the old man to approach him with the intent to kill? Pursing his lips, as a fresh wave of agony coursed throughout his body. Refusing to show any more weakness, although if truth be told, it wasn't as painful as the Cruciatus Curse, but it wasn't far off.

The urge to ask why was strong, but Severus was too prideful to do such a thing, at least at the moment. Although, even if he had opened his mouth, nothing but a scream would rip out, there was no way he'd be able to ask anything. His eyes slipped shut as he heard shuffling, opening one eye, he noticed that Corvus had moved a seat across from him and sat down, looking for all the world, if he was coming for an amical visit. What the hell had he done to irritate Corvus Lestrange? One of the most dangerous wizards in the magical world? And he was dangerous, the magical population didn't know the half of it.

"You are far from an unobservant wizard, Severus, and I must say I am disappointed in your behaviour," Corvus said, his voice cold and harsh. "What kind of wizard thinks its perfectly alright to bully a sick eleven-year-old boy? Using his parents against him and making Hogwarts intolerable for him?" he didn't care for the Potters' but at the end of the day he refrained from saying anything about that to Harry.

Confusion settled deeply within Severus, at both remarks, why on earth would Corvus Lestrange care about his treatment of Harry Potter? It was the whole purpose of doing so, in order to keep Dumbledore happy and his spying duties unencumbered for when the Dark Lord inevitably returned. If anything the Death Eaters should be quite happy in his actions, wasn't it the reasons the children of Death Eaters were keeping a close eye on the boy? The sick remark did worry him, he did look like he was recovering from a long illness, presumably muggle in nature.