The Sacrifice // Severus Snape X OC (Sequel to Spiteful Beginnings) DISCONTINUED

Prologue

His hands trailed along the long and dusty dining table, not having been used for years and collected the dust in his fingertips. Frowning, he brushed it away onto his old and tattered pants and paced back and forth, somehow anxious.

Creaking noises rattled throughout the house, the floorboards setting had startled him too many times as he turned, expecting someone or something to be there but there wasn't. Aside from the Elf.

Walking into the hallway, the scent of damp lingered and the sight of peeling wallpaper made him feel seldom as he thought back to how his house was when he was just a boy. Each step he took, their footsteps would echo on the wooden floor which to him was once pleasing to the ears but now it was cold and somehow deafening.

The pictures on the wall had been scratched out as was his name, although it was more or less burned out, on a large tapestry inside one of the rooms which he thought ill of to even enter.

Then, he heard movement. Real movement this time and it didn't come from a mutter of a miserable and cruel Elf.

A door had opened, the hinges whining as it did and he heard the peculiar sound of irregular movement creeping down the hall.

He had reached for his wand, just to be on the safe side as he silently moved to a corner and peaked an eye around to see who it was.

He didn't recognise them but then again, they weren't directly looking in his direction. In fact, they had stood still and had taken in the environment around them. Their face didn't scrunch up in disgust as he thought they would but they were seemingly curious.

He watched from afar, not even feeling bad that he was, so to speak, spying on this individual but he would soon reveal himself as they watched with a pained expression as they reached out to grab a curtain that was blocking an old portrait.

"No don't!" He had called out, stepping around the corner with his hand stretched out but it was too late as they pulled the curtain open only for them both to be met with the painful scream of an elderly woman, cursing and yelling any obscenity they can.

"FILTHY MUDBLOOD! HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY HOME WITH YOUR FILTH! YOU WILL PAY FOR ENTERING THE BLACK HOUSEHOLD YOU VICIOUS LITTLE QUIM!"

He raced down the hall to the aid of the person who looked aghast at what had just occurred but after a moment's hesitation, they too began to grab at the portrait, pulling it off its hinges and trying to turn it around but the woman in the portrait was relentless. They were squirming and banging against the canvas, almost trying to break through as they turned her to face the grubby wall.

"Oh be quiet, will you?" The man snarled as they finally managed to save themselves from the ongoing canon fire of insults not only was this person getting but what he was getting now, too.

After they shut the curtains, the pair of them took a step back and caught their breaths until the person had spoken up.

"What a charming woman." They laughed dryly, leaning their back against the wall as they stared at the now closed curtains, instantly regretting even going near it in the first place.

"That is my mother you just met." The man responded, a sardonic chuckle escaping his mouth.

"Oh," they said, turning to face them with wide eyes, "sorry. I mean no offence-."