Lupin's cub (Remus Lupin's Unknown daughter)

Into death

Severus stood before the one he'd once called master. It seemed so long ago now that a troubled school boy had gone down that dark path, aligning himself with those who saw even him as inferior, simply for the chance of power, of being strong enough as to at last be untouchable for those who would torment him. "...my lord, their resistance is crumbling—" The man drawled. Nearly over now, you're nearly finished, he assured himself behind his mental barriers.

"—and it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there...almost."

"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."

"I have a problem, Severus," Voldemort said softly as he stood, red eyes locked on his follower.

"My Lord?" Said Snape.

Voldemort raised the elder wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton. "Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

"My—my Lord?" Said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You— you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."

"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand...no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago. No difference," he repeated musingly.

Snape did not speak. He was not a fool. Trapped between two very powerful men the majority of his life he knew when he was treading across thin ice and this, this was the thinnest he imagined he'd ever attempted crossing.

Voldemort began prowling about the room as he spoke in the same measured tone. "I have thought long and hard, Severus...do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"

Snape's eyes were fixed on the snake coiling in its enchanted cage. "No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."

Snape has no doubt the man was correct. "But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by one other than yourself—"

"My instructions to my death eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture Potter. Kill his friends—the more, the better—but do not kill him. But it is of you that I wish to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."

"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But—let me go and find the boy, my Lord let me bring him to you. I know I can—-"

"I have told you no!" Said Voldemort, his red eyes glinting impatiently. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"

The pair continued on in this way, Snape knowing full well this would not end well for him and desperately attempting to convince the man before him to allow him to find Potter. He had no interest in actually bringing him to the dark lord but there were facts the boy needed to be aware of, he couldn't die yet, not without telling him. His task had not yet been completed.