Black Abyss

"What does Rodolphus want from me?" Severus demanded, glaring down at Malfoy who managed to make sprawling look elegant.

The common room was more or less deserted other than Malfoy slouched on an armchair, his legs over the arm of the chair as he spoke quietly to Rosier. Tom was sat a few chairs down, reading a menacingly looking large book that seemed drenched in dark magic with a few other people darted around.

Lucius's cold grey eyes snapped up to meet Severus's furious dark ones before his lip curled in dismay.

"It is rude to interrupt a conversation, it is unbecoming".

Severus barely refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Sorry" Severus said, sarcasm coating his tone "Now, what does Rodolphus want from me?"

"How should I know? Im neither his keeper or someone he would confine in. If you really want to know, ask his brother or Tom. He's closest to them" Lucius drawled.

Severus shot him a dirty look.

He obviously wouldn't be asking Rabastan anything, Severus could barely stand to be around the boy and he obviously would never bring up anything so trivial and embarrassing to Tom. Which Lucius, of course, knew.

Not to mention the fact that Lucius knew everything, the boy was a huge gossip. If anyone would know what Rodolphus was really planning then it would be him. He was a busy body who made it his business to know other people's business.

Nothing got past that snake.

Lucius rolled his eyes before letting out a huff.

"You know what he wants from you, it's incredibly obvious and he's been very transparent. Everyone knows about the little date you two have tomorrow"

"It's not a date" Severus barked, feeling himself redden.

"Well tell that to him, he hasn't stopped going on about it all day. Did you promise to put out for him or something?" Rosier chimed in, a vicious smirk on his face.

Severus's jaw dropped at his words and before he could get his wand out and hit him with a nasty jinx, Rabastan was suddenly next to Severus, spitting out a blood boiling curse that Rosier just about managed to dodge.

"What the fuck?!" Rosier screeched as Malfoy hurriedly moved out the way in case it turned into an all out dual.

"Don't be so fucking vulgar when talking about my brother you moron or next time I won't miss" Rabastan snarled before pocketing his wand and sitting down close to Tom.

"I was joking, you absolute psychopath!" Rosier snapped, shooting him a dirty look.

As they began to argue, Severus was suddenly aware of Malfoys hand on his arm as the boy pulled him away from the other boys.

His face was suddenly serious.

"Rodolphus likes you. Use this to your advantage, if you ever want to be accepted and respected then this is how. It doesn't matter how powerful you are, you are still a half blood and a poor one too. No-one will ever take you seriously and you will always be looked down upon. You'll never get a half of the opportunities we will when leaving this place unless you have someone like Rodolphus in your corner. I know you want to go into potion work after school but you won't be able to get any sort of internship as you're neither well connected or well off but Rodolphus is. Use this Severus" He murmured.

"Lucius, you have to see how ridiculous this is. It doesn't even make any sense" Severus replied, unable to keep the frustration out of his tone.

The whole thing was baffling and Severus still couldn't help but feel like this was all a cruel joke at his expense.

"Use it" Lucius said, his tone firmer before he disappeared upstairs to the dorms.

Severus let out a sigh, scrubbing his face wryly as Rosier pulled his wand out on Rabastan, feeling defeated.

~~~~~~~~~

Severus felt like he was hyperventilating as he sat at the library table waiting for Rodolphus to show up.

They had never agreed on any sort of time so at around 9am, Severus had headed down for breakfast before going to the library.

Rodolphus always slept in on weekends and almost always missed breakfast but it was just passed lunchtime and Severus felt incredibly paranoid that he was about to pop up at any moment.

Severus had barely slept all night, feeling anxious and sick about the impending 'date' and at Lucius's words because he was right.

Severus wanted to study Potions and his dreams was to be an apprentice to Haruto Watanabe, who was the biggest Potions Master in Japan or Shelly-Ann Sutherland who was the Jamaican Potion Mistress that had invented over seventy life saving potions. However, he wasn't stupid either. He knew that those dreams were just dreams. It would never happen for someone like him.

To apprentice under people like them, you had to be insanely well connected or incredibly wealthy to afford it and Severus was neither. His best bet was finding someone local and working under them, building up his experience so he could help Tom with his cause in the future. But being under the protection of someone like Rodolphus could change all that, he had enough connections to at least get Severus's foot in the door.

Severus knew what Lucius was implying. That he should flirt with Rodolphus and go along with this insane arrangement which was crazy. Severus didn't know how to flirt and even if what Rodolphus said was true, Severus had no doubt that he'd lose interest in Severus and quickly once he got to know him.

Severus was nothing like the people Rodolphus dated. He was sullen, moody and bad tempered. He was average looking on his best day and ugly on his worst. He was unpopular and had an infatuation with dark magic.

Most importantly, he wasn't pureblood.

Very much the opposite of his usual type.

"Have you been down here for long?"

Severus snapped his head up, greeted with the almost sheepish looking Rodolphus.

Good grief, the boy was massive.

His huge and stocky frame seemed to block up half of the library, his thick brown hair was styled to perfection and his amber eyes were curious as he looked down at Severus who felt himself turn bright red.

"I've been down here for just over three hours" Severus replied slowly, unwilling to take his eye off the usually hostile boy in case he whipped out his wand and cursed him.

"Shit, sorry. You should have woken me!"

And risk getting cursed? Yeah, right.

"It's fine, it's not like I really need the help anyway and it's not like all this can be finished in a day" Severus shrugged.

"Yeah. I know you're super smart so I appreciate you humouring me and allowing me to help" Rodolphus sat down, giving Severus a large smile "What do you need me to do?" .

Severus explained what he was looking for and Rodolphus seemed to be genuinely interested and then they spent the next hour in silence unless Rodolphus had a question.

It was weird.

Rodolphus wasn't the most academically inclined and Severus knew for a fact that he usually bullied people to do his homework so it was strange seeing him read and make notes. Although, that only lasted for the first forty minutes before he spent the last twenty minutes openly staring at Severus.

"What?!" Severus finally snapped, self conscious and irritated, no longer able to put up with the intensity of his gaze.

"When you're in deep thought, you purse your lips and scrunch your eyebrows" Rodolphus leaned impossibly closer, the scent of his cherry and coconut body wash overwhelming Severus "I never get to see your expressions so up close, I like them. You're cute"

Severus spluttered, feeling himself become an unseemly red colour "Don't be ridiculous, I'm not cute and I don't make any sort of expression"

Rodolphus came even closer, his eyes darkening "I want to see what other expressions you can make"

Severus slammed his book closed, hastily standing up.

"Well that's enough for today, let's get out of here so we can go to Hogsmeade and we can get this day over with" Severus barked,  a bead of sweat collecting at the top of his forehead.

If Rodolphus was bothered about the rude tone of his voice, he didn't show it as he nodded and closed his own book.

"What do you want to do in Hogsmeade?" He asked curiously as they walked out the library.

"I don't know, I don't usually go"

There was no point in going because he didn't have any money and he couldn't get anything so it was a waste of time. He had only ever went twice and that was after Harry had begged and pleaded for him to go.

"We could go to Honeydukes for some sweets and then Ernies bits and books and maybe Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop for some new Potions equipment too if you like?" Rodolphus suggested.

Severus felt embarrassed at his words.

Rodolphus was so rich that he probably didn't have any sort of concept that people couldn't afford things that were probably seen as basic to him. Severus was poor and the only money he had was money he made from doing people's homework and he spent that on essential things.

He wished he could buy books from Ernies instead of having to get third hand books or borrow from the library. He wished he could get potions equipment so he could conduct his own experiments but he couldn't.

It was another stark reminder of how Rodolphus and he lived in different worlds.

"Yeah, sure" Severus muttered.

He'd go and pretend he didn't see anything he liked as there was no way he was going to confess to Rodolphus that he couldn't afford anything. It didn't matter how much the burly boy pretended to like him, he wouldn't give him any sort of ammunition against him.

Honeydukes smelt amazing and Severus felt his mouth water at the aromas. He avoided sweets because he knew he'd get a liking to them, a liking he couldn't afford. Even when Harry begged him to come to Hogsmeade, they usually just stuck to The Three Broomsticks.

There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls; along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') , fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons.

"What do you want? What are your favourite sweets?" Rodolphus asked, a lot closer than Severus anticipated.

Severus attempted to take a step back but quick as a viper, Rodolphus hand grabbed Severus's elbow with a firm but surprisingly soft grip.

Severus swallowed noisily.

"There's nothing you can't ask for Severus. We won't be going back to Hogwarts until I've spent all the money I bought with me so I suggest you get picking" Rodolphus murmured, his eyes intense.

"You're going to pay for me?" Severus asked, trying to ignore the way his heart was pounding in his chest.

The place were Rodolphus was holding seemed burn in a good way.

"Of course, it's not a real date unless I do. Go crazy and I'll wait at the till"

And with that, he let Severus go.

Severus blinked, trying to wrap his head around what Rodolphus said. However, when Severus realised that a lot of eyes were on him, he arranged his face in its usual scowling fierce mask before marching towards the sweet stands.

Everything looked so good and Severus wasn't one to look a gift horse in its mouth so he grabbed a few of the popular sweets and added some assorted fruit balls, Doxy Floss and Green Apple strips.

He was browsing some sherbet lemons when he felt a presence behind him.

As the presence wasn't all consuming and slightly overwhelming, Severus knew it couldn't bs Rodolphus.

He turned around and was greeted with large green eyes.

Lily.

"What?" Severus asked, his voice coming out harsher than intended.

Their relationship or lack of relationship was still a huge sore spot for Severus. He loved her, for a long time she had been the only good thing in his awful life but she had chosen Potter and Black over him.

He saw the way she looked at Potter, Severus knew she liked him and he couldn't forgive her for that. Potter had tormented him, said and did the most vilest things to him and yet she was perfectly happy to overlook it.

It was the ultimate betrayal, Severus could never forgive that.

Just like she couldn't forgive him for what he had said to her that awful day.

Lily flinched at his tone before clenching her jaw stubbornly "I've never seen you in here before that's all. That's a big sweet collection"

"So what?" Severus replied back , inwardly cursing at how his left hand began to shake.

"Nothing , I'm just happy I guess. You always turned down my offer of sweets so I'm happy to see you've finally given in" Lily replied, her tone almost shy as she shot him a small smile.

Severus swallowed harshly, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Yeah, well I had no choice. I won't be able to go back to Hogwarts unless we spend all of Rodolphus's money so..." Severus trailed off lamely, feeling awkward.

"Rodolphus?" Lily wrinkled her nose in confusion "Why would you need to spend his money?"

However, before Severus could reply, a very overwhelming and overbearing presence was suddenly plastered across his back smelling like cherries and coconut.

Rodolphus.

He tugged Severus into his freakishly big chest, his heavy hand clamping possessively on Severus's shoulder.

"Don't fucking talk to him you disgusting little mudblood" Rodolphus snarled out with so much hatred and fury that Severus genuinely jumped in shock.

Lily's eyes widened, taking a cautious step backwards, her hand gripping her wand.

"Rodolphus?" Severus said, confusion and worry coating his tone as he attempted to turn around to face the boy.

Severus had seen him angry plenty of times but he had never heard him sound like that.

Rodolphus hands were like clamps making it impossible to turn around as he tugged Severus impossibly closer.

Lily gave Severus a concerned look.

Lightening fast, Rodolphus has his wand out and pointed at Lily, his whole body vibrating in anger.

"Don't fucking look at him either if you want to keep your own eyes" He barked.

A slither of fear shot down Severus's body and he was suddenly sure that it wasn't a threat but a promise. Rodolphus would take out Lily's eye if she looked at Severus.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

Severus's relationship was strained with the girl but he didn't wish anything bad to happen to her so he had to take control of the situation before it got out of hand.

Severus was confident in his duelling abilities and in his extensive knwowldge of spells but A. He knew if he turned his wand on Rodolphus then the situation would get worse and fast and B. Rodolphus would more than likely beat him.

Taking a deep breath and attempting to ignore the small crowd that had gathered, Severus's hand came up and covered Rodolphus's on his shoulder.

He squeezed it softly " Rodolphus, please, let's go"

There was a few seconds of tense silence before Rodolphus's amber eyes were suddenly staring at where their hands were joined as he threaded them together.

Severus knew his face was on fire.

"Of course. Come on, let's pay" He murmured, his tone light and soft as if he hadn't been seconds away from performing some more than likely illegal magic.

Severus nodded, feeling dazed.

They made their way to the till where Rodolphus paid.

"There you go" Rodolphus smiled, still not letting go of Severus's hand "Where do you want to go next?"

"Ernies bits and books?"

"Of course" Rodolphus squeezed his hand playfully "I'm really enjoying myself Severus, I'm happy that you decided to come on this date. Are you enjoying yourself?"

Severus looked up at the boy in genuine disbelief.

His face was so open, his amber eyes warm as they gazed down to Severus and Severus couldn't help but realise how truly handsome he was.

Handsome and absolutely deranged.

"Yes, I'm enjoying myself Rodolphus".

Rodolphus let out a blinding smile, his eyes darkening "Good boy".