Dream & Shadow

43* Escape from Reality

Leonor stuck to Severus like a limpet. They landed first in a garden overlooking a valley, but Leonor couldn't breathe, and the apparition carried them further into a thicket and then to a windy rock towering above the sea.

"Are you world-weary?" Severus was livid. "You could have ended up far worse than Greyback left you! Hope it wasn't noticed that we touched down—" Severus stopped abruptly. The sentence hung unfinished in mid-air. While regenerating, Leonor neither processed where they stopped over nor what Severus said before. The cognition calmed Severus finally and he straightened in triumph.

Leonor coughed laboured, "I need a word!"

"Apparition isn't your best discipline!" sneered Severus in response. He was again composed as always. The fury already vanished behind a fathomless mask of indifference and sarcasm. The dark-haired wizard emanated authority and domination.

"If you randomly change destinations!" complained Leonor first. "You know why I want to talk to you!" shouted Leonor at him.

"Of course, about your daft interest in me."

"Don't tell me that you have not been interested at all!"

"It was worth trying!"

"But you didn't sleep with me, did you?"

Severus just shrugged. "Your body isn't irresistible," replied Severus coldly.

"You played with me?"

"What did you think? That I love you?"

At that moment Leonor lost it. She stared at Severus and for the first time she saw all the warnings alive — the mean teacher, the ugly face framed by the greasy black hair, the ambiguous attitude in politics and private life. Mentioning her body was a low blow.

"I thought you at least liked me! You suggested being friends," said Leonor with weak knees. Her voice was quiet and the shock about the bluntness kept it steady.

"I've got a job to do and I warned you several times. You are not pure enough to be a wife of a Death Eater. The Dark Lord promised me to somebody else and now he'll honour the promise. The arrangements are made. Everything was planned years ago."

"You knew it all the time? You've been waiting for him to return? The impenetrable potions master agreed to an arranged marriage?"

"Sure, I only take the best! Have you heard enough?"

"You lied to me? You're supporting You-Know-Who!"

"You are more naïve than I believed. I hope you fathom now that you should have left the country when you could. It's too late. Greyback will return. He's not used to a failure. I suppose you find your way back into your pathetic life. Nobody cheats the Dark Lord! You are no use to him."

"You are not going to get married! Are you still in love with Lily? Or is it Zora?"

"Believe what you want. I don't care for you. Go back to America! They are waiting for third-rate witches," hissed Severus and looked into eyes filled with tears. He said enough and left Leonor alone returning to the manor of his master quickly. The conversation had been short. Unfortunately, the maximum effectiveness felt like a defeat. Both lives had been full of the wrong things and parting ways meant only one more jigsaw piece of getting more of it. The black magic ruled it all.

XXX

The wind played with the waves and the breeze was chilly. Leonor felt nothing anymore. She was empty. All the love and pride were destroyed. There wasn't enough strength left to even hate Snape with the entire heart. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and she lost every sense for the time until dusk changed into the night. The wind chilled through the bones when she made a final decision.