The Little One with Green Eyes

38: Realizations

"The echo?"

Death nodded. "That is why the soul is lost to me. Without a whole soul, the soul is unable to reach the final resting place, nor can it be reincarnated. And so the soul sits in limbo for eternity."

"Can't you... I don't know, take the echo and put the soul back together?" Voldemort asks. Death shakes his head.

"The only way to retrieve the echo is if the body the echo is trapped in is destroyed. However, fiendfyre does not just destroy the body---"

"It destroys the echo too." Voldemort says softly. Death nods his head once more, despair flashing through his eyes. "The soul can never be whole, and you can never take it."

"The moment you brought Harry Potter back to life, his soul was lost to me." Death said glumly.

"I thought you said his path was designed to always lead back to you?" Voldemort said with a frown. "What changed?"

"You did," Death said, finally looking up at him. "You somehow changed my Dear Sister's plans entirely. I do not know how you did it, but you somehow changed Fate."

"So... what does this mean?" Voldemort asked, his wariness returning. "I've ruined your only chance at having a Master. You are doomed to be lonely once more. Do you intend to kill me?"

"That, my Dear, is where you are wrong," Death said, standing once again. Voldemort stepped back, frowning in confusion. "I will never be lonely so long as I have you. My Master will not be lost to me so long as he remains in the Land of the Living."

"I don't understand," Voldemort said warily. "What do I have to do with anything?"

Death stepped forward until he was standing in front of Voldemort's rigid form. He let his forehead rest against Voldemort's, and Voldemort's breath hitched in the back of his throat. A hand comes up to cup his cheek, and Voldemort cannot help the redness that creeps onto his face when Death brushes his thumb against his cheekbone.

"He may be my Master... but you... you were created to be my companion."

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"We have to talk about this, you know." Remus says, sitting next to him. Sirius just groans, letting his head fall back against the plush cushions of the sofa they sat on.They had finally finished their training, and though they were still confined to the Dark Lord's castle, they were finally, allowed to relax. Sirius took that to heart, as he went in search of the comfiest furniture he could find.

It had been... awkward these past few days, to say the least. After the confrontation in the hall with Snape, the couple wasn't sure how to proceed. Sirius wanted to apologize again, keep apologizing until Snape accepted. Remus disagreed, saying that Snape needed space.

So space was given. Despite Sirius' desire to, they did not approach Snape outside of training, and whenever they saw each other in the hall, Remus would drag Sirius away from him in the opposite direction.

"What if we just sat here and slept instead?" Sirius suggested, brushing his hand back and forth against the sofa as if to demonstrate how nice it was. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"We can do that after we discuss what's going on." Remus said, shifting so that he was facing Sirius.

"What? What's going on?" Sirius asked, exaggeratedly looking around.

"Sirius."

Sirius let out a huff. "What do you want to talk about? The confrontation? The apology? Snape?"

"All of it, preferably," Remus said. "But let's start with the confrontation. Wanna explain what happened back there?"

"I apologized to him! He didn't accept. What more is there to talk about?" Sirius demanded. His answer was a deadpan stare. Sirius sighed, a hand coming up to drag through his long curly hair.

"Why don't we talk about why?" Remus asked. "I mean, I've been telling you to apologize to him for ages but you never wanted to. What changed your mind?"

Siriusm sighed, his onyx eyes trailing down to his hands clenched into fists on his lap. "I don't know... it... It was sudden. I don't know why I wanted to, but I just saw him and I... I just wanted to."

Remus nodded, his lips pursed in thought. "Those things he said... about the past."

"It's true," Sirius said stiffly, unconsciously tightening his fists. "What we did to him... I don't even know why we did it, too. Looking back it all just seems so stupid. We were just kids, but it didn't really stop when we grew up either."

"Making amends will be difficult." Remus said softly. "Especially if you don't know why you're making amends."

"How did you do it?" Sirius asked, looking at his lover suddenly. "You and Snape, I mean."

"How did I make amends?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded, and Remus sighed, looking off into the distance. "I didn't really. I never apologized to him about the stuff that happened during school. But I also never actively sought him out. I was more of a bystander, but even then, I should've spoken up. I think treating him with respect, even when he didn't return the favor, was enough."

Sirius suddenly let out a loud yell and slammed his head back into the cushions, causing Remus to jump beside him. "Why is this so difficult?!"

"What on Earth is going on out here?"

Sirius looked up to see Narcissa looming over them. Her face was drawn into a pinched glare, but even then, she maintained a careful disinterest. Sirius grinned. "Hello Cissy." Sirius said, lifting a hand to wave.

"I could hear you from the drawing room." Narcissa said in response. "Is there a problem?"

"Snape." Sirius says with a frown. "He's... I don't know. Everything is weird."

"Boy problems?" Narcissa asks with a raised brow. Sirius scoffed.

"We're not sixteen, Cissy," he said. "This isn't a romance problem."

"Isn't it?" Narcissa asked, moving around the sofa to sit in the armchair next to them. "You are sitting here, lamenting to your lover about another man. A man, may I add, that you have been pulling the proverbial pigtails of for several years now."

Sirius sputtered. "Excuse me?!"

Narcissa sighed and sent a knowing glance to Remus, who nodded in return. "Sirius, you are still impossibly slow. Even your partner figured it out before you."

"Figure what out?!"

"You are attracted to him." Narcissa said simply, ignoring the way Sirius froze. Sirius stares at his cousin for a long time, his wide eyes never straying from her deadpanned expression before he lets a harsh breath of air escape his lungs. He feels his lover gently press against his shoulder.

"Siri?" he asks softly, trading nervous glances with Narcissa.

Finally, Sirius speaks. "I'm attracted to Snivellus! Oh, Merlin!"