𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗜𝗜 ━━ 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘
069. green-leather book
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗦 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗠, 𝗔𝗡𝗗 Scarlet sat in her Common Room by the fireplace all alone, going through her bag and taking out her diaries where homework plans were laid. Curiosity provoked her, and she pulled out the book she obtained in the library a few evenings ago when James Potter was irritating her.
However, it seemed that irrelevant, excruciatingly stupid Potter had handed her the wrong book considering the one she held in her hand right now lacked a title; missing a proper one, at least. The green-leather-covered book had a large 'S' written on it in glistening silver — so beautifully, she wondered if it were actual silver carved on the cover.
Slowly, she turned it to the first page and her head already started to spin at the number of lists in Latin. The entire book was in cursive, and the letters were not printed but rather written by a person as it seemed.
At that moment, the entrance to the Slytherin Common room jolted open and revealed Severus Snape. He glanced at some of the third-year students chattering in the corner and shot them a look of grimace.
"Snape," she hissed, gathering his attention and he turned to look at her, turning over his shoulder to make sure it was not another individual also named Snape that she was referring to, "You know Latin," she stated although it came out as a question, eyebrows raided and insane level of curiosity lingering in her eyes.
"Not fluently." He walked over to the girl, and she gestured for him to sit on the couch opposite her. He could partially make out some of the Latin words scribbled over the hand-written book that the witch held and concluded that she needed translating. "You need my help?"
The two of them had been in an unpleasant position ever since their argument back in sixth year where he called her a slut in front of Regulus Black. However, Scarlet knew that people could not exactly say no to her, and Snape would definitely help her at any given time just to make up for what he had said.
"Of course, you're smart... and you fell asleep in the library the other night — who else would I ask?" Although she was trying to compliment him, it came out as a sly insult.
Snape arched one brow and blinked. "You saw me falling asleep and did not wake me up?"
"No." She shot back quickly and tapped her nail against the leather of the book. "You looked comfortable enough." He rolled his eyes and led his hand forward, and Scarlet shut the book to hand it to him, somehow wanting him to study the piece—after all, he has always been intelligent enough.
"Merlin, this practically radiates dark magic," Snape's brows pinched together in a suspicious manner as he tugged at the covers of the book in his hands, and his bored eyes travelled back to the witch. "It doesn't open."
"What are you talking about—? Let me see," she snatched it back rapidly, catching him off-guard as he flinched away with an irritated facial-expression. With ease, she opened the book up to the first page and handed it over to him again. "What's the matter."
"I'm not incapable of opening a book, Bridget," Snape snapped back, shutting it again and trying to peer it open.
Scarlet pointed at his struggles, "Your failed attempts suggest otherwise, Snape." The girl moved forward again and harshly opened it up and tapped on it, then leaned back onto her seat. The gesture clearly annoyed him and he rolled his eyes. His cloudy-dark eyes roamed over the page, and he flickered through a few pages for a couple of minutes—Scarlet almost fell asleep in those times.
He concluded, "This hints at immortality."
"Where exactly did you surmise that from?"
"The book, Bridget, the book." Snape replied, separating each word with a grit of his teeth. It was unimaginable that the two could sit and tolerate each other's presence without it turning into an unpleasant scene.
He took out a pen and wrote something down right above one of the emboldened phrases, and turned it in her direction to show it to her.
vivere in aeternum
—to live forever
Scarlet sat up with her curiosity peaking, clasping her hands together in morbid inquisitiveness. He translated the subtitle in his cursive handwriting. "You mean, like a Horcrux."
"What's a Horcrux, now?" asked the boy.
"Oh, Snape, you haven't been doing your wider reading much, have you?" Scarlet mocked in a sickly-sweet tone, blinking innocently before her expression fell back to an icy-cold one with a roll of her eyes.
"Do you want me to explain?" An irritated snap came her way.
"Go ahead," the witch muttered back.
Snape inhaled sharply. "These are not random Latin words, these are recipes to Potion-Making, very advanced Potions," he glanced back up at her intense gaze and continued, "this potion is suggested to be providing someone a path to immortality."
"So, you drink that potion and live forever," the girl nodded at his words, believing about one-third of it. "like a vampire."
"How do you know about vampires?" Snape squinted his eyes, a pureblood reading Muggle-fiction was not a common thing, he heard. "And no, this one here comes with a price."
"And that is...?" A bored Scarlet trailed off, Snape does speak excruciatingly slow.
"Well, to continue living, you take someone else's life," Snape read over it, translating parts of it briefly and a bit inaccurately. "Every time you're on your path to death, you'll be able to take someone's life. Not their soul, merely the energy to keep your heart beating. Of course, one's death must occur for the process of giving life to another."
A humourless chuckle left her lips, "That sounds dark," said the girl. "who would write this thing."
"It's a very ancient book, Bridget," he outlined the spine, "the dialect is quite old—that's why I can't translate it accurately, and most of the products written down are beyond extinct."
"The book looks brand-new," Scarlet shrugged in confusion, eyes flickering between his eyes and the book he held in his lap. "the spine is unbroken."
"Because it's practically unopenable," He deadpanned in return, shutting the book and mustering all his strength to open it again, however, his expression dropped suddenly—he looked like his heart just jumped out of his ribcage, lips parted in astonishing discovery, "unless you're the only one who has opened it."
She was left utterly, horrifyingly speechless. Her crimson-lips parted to let her thoughts flow out, and yet, no words were spoken. Snape shifted uncomfortably in his seat and placed the book gently back into her open-palms. "Ridiculous," she uttered.
"My advice: get rid of it." He stated confidently, his voice never wavering.
"What?" The girl exclaimed, eyes wide open in astonishment.
"You want to willingly keep a book that has instructions to immortality that only you can open?" Snape retorted strongly, rigid eyes never leaving her. "If someone were to find out, they would hunt you down for it — Salazar knows what nasty things they'd do to you."
"Salazar," she muttered, a flicker of recognition flashing through her tired eyes. She glanced away from Snape, and through the cloud of thoughts, Severus' concerned voice faded away and all she could respond to was her path to conclusion.
As distressing as her hypothesis remained to be, her eyes travelled to the emerald-leather book and the giant emboldened 'S' designed upon it in glinting silver, she ran her dainty finger over the snakehead at the tip of the letter. Scarlet was not blessed with a Ravenclaw mind, and yet, her guess seemed flawless.
The letter S. Green and silver. Ancient dialect.
This book belonged to Salazar Slytherin.
She was able to open it because she was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin as Dumbledore very kindly put it. And if she was able to open it and get her hand on the advanced, terrifyingly intelligent potion-making that would lead to immortality... if her touch was able to open it, so could Voldemort's.
"Bridget, hey," Severus' sharp tone snapped her out of her mind-daze, and she blinked at him in confusion. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Fine," she nodded. "How do I know you won't tell anyone about it?" Her heart was clearly thumping at a rapid speed, and the dazy-feeling not disappearing.
He spoke in a neutral tone, "You want me to make an Unbreakable Vow?" The question was laced with sarcasm and void of any bluff.
Scarlet scrutinised her cobalt-eyes at him and watched as his expression did not flicker one tiny bit. She knew he was not going to snitch—after all, he had known about her being an illegal Animagus all along. Severus Snape never sought immortality, he was already sick with life.
CLUTCHING THE BOOK TIGHTLY IN HER HAND, she made a terrifying decision. She was going to keep it — and not tell anybody else but Severus Snape about it. In fact, telling anybody about the book would be irrelevant, right? Who would show any interest, it was not like she was using it to harm anybody. Besides, the ingredients to successfully brew the Potion were non-existent, as Snape mentioned.
Dropping it in a corner of her closet, a sudden hit of nausea hit her and she almost fell over of it weren't for the mirror that she flattened her palms against, trying to regain her lost balance. She looked back into the mirror, biting the insides of her cheeks to get rid of the awful feeling floating at the pit of her belly.
Scarlet clutched onto the rings in her hands and felt the sharp edges dig into her skin, watching as a hint of darkness swam in her irises. As she stared into the mirror—soon enough, she noticed that her reflection was not the only one she saw in it. Her eyes locked with the familiar pair staring at her through the mirror.
"Sirius?"
She didn't turn her frame around to look at the grey-eyed boy's face, instead, she was frozen in place—continuing to look at him through the reflection. Her heartbeat picked up its pace.
"Look at yourself," Said Sirius, still holding their gaze through the reflection of the mirror. Scarlet's hands gripped over the side of the dressing table, and they started to grow clammy and shaky.
"What?" She replied, her voice only coming out as a whisper though.
"Look at your eyes," Sirius replied, nodding his head at her reflection. "Look at your bloody hands."
Scarlet subconsciously looked at her shaky hands, allowing the rings to stop digging into her own palms as soon as she saw blood. A gush of blood held at the palm of her hand. She let out a whimper at the sight. Merlin, she did not even feel the hurt. The blood kept oozing out, more and more until her entire hands were bloody, fully crimson.
"Can I ask you something?" Sirius spoke up again, drawing her attention to him again. She just nodded in response. "Do you ever... hate yourself? I—I mean, everything you've done, the ounce of darkness running in your veins..."
"Why—do you think I should?"
"I know I would." Suddenly—Scarlet noticed the shift in his appearance. It wasn't much, he still looked the same. But it was something small but significant enough for her to notice it.
She spun around, her back coming into contact with the wooden table behind her. Her breath hitched in her chest as she observed Sirius' demeanour before her. She swallowed a lump in her throat, wondering what sort of torment her mind would decide to put her through now. She thought she was done with these dreams—she thought she was about to wake up and be back to the real world.
This surely could not be real, how would he get into her room? Why would he?
His eyes—they went darker. Out of nowhere, like a snap of a finger. They were no longer grey and faded into deep-brown. The way he was looking at her was different, finally, he tilted his head ever so slowly to the side in a way that sent shivers down Scarlet's spine. It was an action that made her uneasy, paired with the way he was staring into her eyes with a darker look.
"I'd hate myself so much," he finally spoke in reply, his voice lower, huskier. Scarlet stood frozen, more and more on edge as he took a few steps forward, starting to eliminate some of the space that was between them. "I don't think I'd be able to live with that much blood on my hands. All that pain caused, all the screaming... what you did to Nancy Stanley."
"Stop," she whispered lightly, gritting her teeth to distract her mind. He continued nonetheless.
"You know she lost four months of her life, right? All because of you... she had such a bright life ahead of her, and now she's always so scared, she's curled up in the Ravenclaw Common Room, afraid to go out... all because of you."
She squeezed her eyes shut at the cruelty of his words. Trembling.
"Oh come on—don't be like that..." Sirius spoke in a miserable tone, and she could feel how close his body was to hers. "Open your eyes for me, Blondie."
She refused, and as she felt him get even closer to her, she swallowed a nervous lump that formed in her throat. Her eyelids fluttered rapidly while closed, which only amused him more.
"You don't ever have to hide from me, Scarlet," Sirius added in a peculiar soft tone, and then she felt his hand come into contact with her cheek—as he slowly grazed his finger down her face to her jaw. "You know that..."
At a loss for what else to do, Scarlet slowly opened her eyes again. Sirius' face was inches away from hers, as his fingers rested on her jaw. She just desperately wanted to curl up into a ball in the corner of the room. Where nobody could find her.
"There you go," He spoke and the corner of his lips slowly crept into a small smirk which made her jaw harden under his soft touch. "So much darkness, hatred in your eyes, you can just embrace it you know?"
"No—no, please step back," She whispered. His face was brought closer as she tilted her head to the side with a whimper, feeling his lips touch the skin on her neck.
Sirius tilted his head to the side while keeping eye contact with her, his face lighting up with amusement. Slowly, he rested his hands on either side of her as she stayed clasped between his arms. She was shaking, lips trembling more than ever. "Now, now, I thought you only whimpered in bed."
"Get off!" She yelled, pushing his chest away. Before she could take another breath—she suddenly felt his hand grip around her neck—and her frame was being slammed into the wooden wall of the room. She gasped out for breath, her hands flying to her neck, trying to pry Sirius' strangling hold off of her—but she couldn't.
Blood rushed to her head, body weakened under his attacking hold.
His voice changed. It was not Sirius' voice anymore, despite his figure and face remaining the same.
"You'll always be alone, someday, you'll die and rot and nobody will come to see you because nobody cares about you, don't you see? Nobody will ever love anyone from that disgusting family like yours, cruelty will curse you right back, and you'll die alone."
"Please—please," She managed to choke out under his harsh grip. "Let—let go."
"You think I'll ever love you? You'll be tossed aside like a doormat once I'm done with what I want." He said with a husked murmur, even a bit of amusement in his tone as he smiled sadistically. "If you want me to let you go... you're gonna have to kill me."
It felt too real, even though she knew it was not. His voice started to sound a lot like Tom Riddle's through the distorted aura. Then she realised, his eyes were also the colour of Riddle's eyes.
"You know you can," Sirius shook his head to express his disappointment. "You were destined for something like this, to have blood on your hands, you can kill me with a flicker of your wand, embrace who you are, Scarlet."
Scarlet's eyes squinted shut as she still tried to use her limited strength to pry his hands off of her neck, but she knew that wasn't working. She also knew he was right—she could get herself out of this easily.
"Come on, Scarlet," He said in a mocking voice. "Don't you want to make mummy dearest proud? Imagine the look on her face if I just killed you right here, or maybe, she wouldn't even care, because you're not worth anything."
Scarlet took in a deep breath before he lost control. Her wand was out and she screamed the spell. "Sectumsempra!"
A gush of blood was drawn from his chest, sending him flying backward and he landed on the floor with a loud thud. He let out a grunt, then a cry at the impact. Scarlet struggled off the floor and hovered over his waist, and the look in his eyes was different.
"No..." She whispered aloud, she touched his face. "No—no, no..."
"Why would you do this to me, Blondie?" Sirius spoke weakly—and with his pained voice, paired with sudden softness in his eyes—Scarlet felt her heart drop to the pits of her stomach. His voice was his again, and his demeanour seemed to change back to her Sirius again.
"No—" She pleaded, "No, Sirius, NO!" She removed her hands from his face and covered his wounds with her palms, trying to slow down the bleeding before his heart stopped. She started to sob and her mind was doing a worse job of reminding her this wasn't real.
"You're just like the rest of them," He whispered weakly, eyes flattering close. "You—you're a terrible person."
"Sirius, stay with me okay?" She cried, "I—I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry, please! Stay with me!"
His face was beginning to pale lifelessly. "You did this... to me."
"I didn't mean to, I—I thought you... stay with me, don't close your eyes, just listen to—to my vo-voice, hm?"
His eyes eventually fell shut after stopping the fluttering and flickering.
"Sirius, please..." She whispered shakily. "Open—open your eyes for me, okay? P-please?"
Nothing.
"Sirius—wake up!"
Silence.
"Wake up!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, "WAKE UP!" Her mind was about to go into a state of hysteria.
"Just—wake up!" A new voice boomed. Except, it wasn't her own. It belonged to Everest Chasseur, just before everything went dark. All she could see was darkness. All she could feel was darkness.
𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑨 𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑲𝑺
anywhoooo
whats u guys' fav chapter in this book??