InsaneJournal

[Fic] Enslaved (Remus/Severus, PG-13)
Title: Enslaved
Author: Envinyatar (aka envinyatar15)
Pairing/Characters: Remus/Severus, Harry
Rating: PG-13
Highlight for Warnings: *canon character deaths, zombies, obscure magic, general weirdness*
Canon-compliance: up to Deathly Hallows
Word Count: 1,168
Summary: What is dead should stay dead.

Notes: This possibly takes the cake of all the odd fics I've written yet. In answer to lupin_snape's May Challenge: the Dark Side of Lupin/Snape, though I'm not using the prompt I was given. Inspired by HIM's "Resurrection"; I've been meaning to write this fic since maybe '05, though I didn't anticipate it would be quite like this. Beta'd by the lovely zebraspots05, who made this hopefully readable. (Are you scared yet of reading? :P)

For challenge_the: #049 power; lions_serpents: #41 author's choice (death).


We've been slaves to this love
From the moment we touched
And keep begging for more
Of this resurrection


Act I

Not everyone in the Order is trustworthy. The least trustworthy of all is Harry Potter himself.

*~*~*

The moment Remus Lupin dies, a brittle bond is broken.

The moment Severus Snape dies, an unbreakable bond is forged.

The moment Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, dies, a myriad of bonds rearranges, tightens, and snaps.

Harry Potter, caught in the middle of a web of too-tightly woven gossamer, cracks and bursts under the pressure, pieces flying everywhere.

*~*~*

"You weren't supposed to lose him," says Harry, sitting on the floor cross-legged.

Severus sneers, but his eyes remain blank. "So you brought me back?"

Harry smiles a dark smile. "I did."

*~*~*

"He wasn't supposed to lose you," says Harry. Again on the floor, again cross-legged; again smiling a dark smile.

Remus looks at him, but his eyes, too, remain blank. "You brought me back because you want to give us a second chance."

"I did."

*~*~*

Harry Potter is extraordinarily powerful. Much of his power lies dormant, unused, until the moment he cracks and bursts, the walls guarding this power breaking down.

The rush of magic is extraordinarily powerful. It floods Harry, his eyes shining black as he's swept away on a wave. The wave is anger, is hate, is sorrow; is all the death and pain and confusion, pent up inside, combined and bursting forward.

Harry rides the wave down to the dungeons. There he gives in to the urge to do what he thinks needs to be done, paying his respects to two heroes.

*~*~*

"You need him," says Harry.

Severus stares at him, unblinking. "Do I?"

Harry nods decisively. "You died for me. You gave him up for me. I need to give you a second chance."

*~*~*

"He needs you," says Harry.

Remus remains passive. "He does."

"You died apart. I need to rectify that."

*~*~*

Harry watches them. They meet; tension is in the air.

Harry feels them. They kiss; hunger is in the air.

Harry listens to them. They fuck; blood is in the air.

Harry smells them. They come; moans are in the air.

With a flick of his wand, Harry evaporates the scene in front of him. His deed is done. They are re-united, in death as they were in life.

Leaning forward, Harry tastes them, wondering whether he will ever have a bond of love this strong. He licks at the pools of black water they leave behind, taking their essence into him. Feels gratified and satisfied, thinks he's given them what they deserved.

*~*~*

"What have you done? Harry? Harry? Harry!"

His eyes shine black when he moves them to his friend's face.

"I killed them," says he. "I gave them a second chance. They died together."

*~*~*

Act II

Except they don't die. Playing with resurrecting magic is the most dangerous kind of game. What is dead should stay dead. What comes back is never the same as before; the soul found its well-deserved rest. Yanking it back causes irreparable damage.

Cheating Death results in the worst evil imaginable.

Remus and Severus are but shells of themselves. Their bond, relinked with the heat of the crest of passion, is earth-bound; their love, refound with the need for reassurance in a world not their own, is life-enslaving. Every touch strengthens their fear for the world beyond; every kiss, their pain at the thought of returning; every release, their hollowness inside.

"I wasn't supposed to lose you," says Remus, rocking down onto Severus' cock.

"I need you," says Severus, thrusting up into him.

"I love you," they say; moan, pant, chant. But what these words mean, neither of them knows.

*~*~*

War, as war goes, demands everything each side has to offer and then some. For Remus and Severus it meant they had to play their roles, regardless of anything else.

In a war, as war goes, individuals don't count. It's the lines on a map that do.

*~*~*

They exist outside our visibility, but they are there nonetheless; not in the plane where they belong. Caught somewhere in the middle, neither here nor there. They cannot move back into life and do not want to return to death. They are less than ghosts, bound to the earthly plane by magic so strong, it cannot be broken unless a sacrifice is made.

*~*~*

Act III

"Harry. Harry. Harry." Harry stares into space. "Harry." He doesn't react, just keeps on trembling, shaking, twisting.

"Harry, something is happening. We need your help. Can you blink if you understand?"

He doesn't blink. He stares. Shakestremblestwists.

His eyes shine black.

*~*~*

They exist outside our visibility. Unable to move on or fully return, caught in a loop, they have become angry spirits; taking out their anger on each other, they pounce; fightfuckcome; and everything in the vicinity evaporates as raw energy pours from them.

*~*~*

Harry's immovability continues, Dark magic coursing through his veins. His friends try reaching out to him, but the power within him is too great, too uncontrolled a mass for him to reign back in. He stares. Shakestremblestwists.

Harry's immovability continues until Dark magic isn't only inside, it's outside him, too. He hears them talk, voices pitched low. His eyeballs twitch, straining to catch the shadows, but there are none. He feels the danger; but instead of coming closer it stays where it is, concerned only with itself.

Something is happening, he hears the words repeat in his mind. Remembers in a moment of clarity that this is happening because of him. Then the Darkness takes over again and clouds his mind, and he's angryangryangry the shadows don't show him any attention.

*~*~*

They feel they are close to the source of their misery, but they cannot make it out in the darkness that surrounds them.

"You," snarls Severus, and lunges. "You're the reason I'm here."

"You," Remus snarls back. "Why are you here?"

Fists fly. Teeth tear. Cocks come.

Sex, death and violence is all there is to their existence. They don't understand any finer emotion beyond lust and anger, all feeling left behind somewhere else; forgotten. Act on instinct alone, and you've become nothing more than an animal.

They hate each other. They need to hate each other. They hold on tightly, still slaves of something more, but at least the imminent danger of being torn apart is gone. They are all they have, in the here and now.

If you're supposed to be dead that's little comfort. If you're supposed to be dead, there is no comfort except for what unreachable peace the afterlife offers.

*~*~*

The web of anger, now two more figures in the middle with the first having moved to the side (more powerful, more confused, more anything than the two could ever be), tightens. Tightens. Tightenstightenstightens.

Breaks.

*~*~*

The explosion is massive.

In the middle of the ruins of the house sits Harry Potter, unscathed, looking about him dumbfounded. His eyes shine green.

*~*~*

Power and power cancel each other out, and life continues the way it should.

What is dead stays dead, together.