The Death Debt

Chapter 2

Sirius breathed harshly through his nose as the world shifted, colors started to warp, changing, taking on a different shape. The snow under his feet was white marble; the spidery, black-haired boy grew taller, more feminine- a woman. His mother. Walburga.

A book laid across his lap. There were pictures, woodcuts of Muggles twisting in pain, frothing at the mouth, as the wizards and witches surrounding them drank from goblets. Arms hung from tree limbs, swaying in the breeze. Blood dripped from severed heads. "Start from the top," Walburga commanded, and Sirius read the Latin scrawled across vellum pages with ink made from human blood.

"Tibi, magnum Innominandum, signa stellarum nigrarum et bufoniformis Sadoquae sigillum."

Sirius reacted without thinking; the Latin, the book, the black hair and the twisting smirk had all triggered some primal, animalistic fear inside of him. He lunged forward, his hands wrapping around the milk-white throat, barely noticing the scream that was suddenly silenced or the way the soft body beneath him collapsed onto the ground. He wanted the words to stop, for the voice to be silent. He wanted-

Sirius came back to himself as pain registered through the blood-red haze. He leapt away from Snape, the palms of his hands sizzling as the first few layers of skin bubbled and burned. Snape managed to roll onto his hands and knees, coughing and hacking, as he half-crawled, half-stumbled away from him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Sirius hissed and shoved his hands underneath his armpits as if that would help stop the burning. "What the fuck did you do to me!?"

"Binding," Severus rasped out, rubbing at his neck. He collapsed back on the ground, and even though he was weak and injured there was a mad grin on his face as he leveled those dark eyes onto Sirius. "You can't hurt me... I'm off-limits... Part of the rules..." He broke off into another coughing fit.

Sirius, afraid and reluctant, pulled his hands out from where he had hidden them and looked down. The burns weren't as bad off as he had initially believed; they would blister and cause him no amount of agony for the next few days, but they would heal. He wasn't so sure that would still be the case if he hadn't let go, however. "What rules?" He bit out as Snape got his breath back.

"The Death Debt you owe. Whether you know it or not, you promised Death a soul when you tried to kill me. You failed, and so now I get to choose the substitute, or else it'll be your soul that gets reaped." His smile grew wider, showing off those crooked teeth.

"So, what, if I don't kill whoever you say I'll be burned alive?" He lifted his hands to show Snape the burns.

"Sometimes that happens, or an accident will befall you, or your heart just stops because of an unknown condition. The book said that one woman was struck by a meteorite. I think it's different every time; but the point is, you will die if you refuse to take another life, and it can't be mine." Snape crawled over to where he had dropped the book and Sirius let his hands drop. He grabbed fistfuls of snow, clutching at it, thinking, surely the heat from the burns will melt it in seconds. "You already tried to kill me and failed," Snape continued as he shook the snow off of his book. "Did you ever used to play Hide and Go Seek? It's a little like that. You didn't catch me, and now I've reached 'Safety.' You'll have to try again with someone else."

"I always knew you were an evil freak," Sirius spat at him.

"You tried to murder me!" Snape snapped back. "Twice now! Don't you ever think you are better than me because you're not! You are just as vile and disgusting as the rest of your family!"

Sirius jerked to his feet and stormed over to where Snape continued to lay in the snow, hands itching to wrap around his neck again despite the pain. Snape did nothing except stare defiantly up at him. "Go ahead," he dared. "Try to hurt me again. I'd love to see what happens."