Prologue
There was no life wherein Sirius Black was not drawn to Severina Snape. There was no reincarnation, nor alternative dimension, nor divergent timeline where he remained unaffected by her. No matter what form or shape either of them took, he was doomed to love her.
There were realities where he did not realize the feeling was love. In fact, in most cases, when his soul recognized hers, the experience was so intense that it pained him to feel it and he took it for hate.
Sometimes he would learn how his hate lived on a continuum with his love. In those lives, he found in her something more than a soulmate; something more ancient and more deeply engraved.
No, Sirius Black and Severina Snape were not soulmates. They were something else…
They were not a lock and a key like two soul mates would be, opening up beauty and life and salvation for themselves and others around them. No, they were not soulmates. Fate could not trust them with that amount of power again.
Certainly, not after the first time…
Sirius had fashioned themselves as gods among the non-magical mortals simply because he thought it would be ‘fun.’ He made himself the god of chaos and she the goddess of fidelity. They were the gods of what they desired.
It didn’t go well for anyone.
“The bowl is almost full,” she said softly.
His muscles tensed involuntarily, pulling the chains which bound him and caused him a different kind of pain. His eyes watched his wife’s chest breathe evenly in and out as she held the bowl above his head.
He wondered why she stayed with him.
He wondered if she was his curse or his comfort, her presence did both. Guilt and grief shrouded him in her presence. She didn’t accuse or nag him. She didn’t speak at all except to warn him when the bowl would be full.
He wished she would just leave him in his pain.
And she would. When the bowl was full, she would leave him to empty it. He had a reprieve from her for less than a breath before the snake’s venom dripped onto his brow and seared his skin. He cried out in agony. The world quaked with the strength of his pain as he begged her not to leave him, to come back to him. In those moments he wished for nothing more than her return.
When she did return, she dabbed the venom from his brow ever-so-gently as to not smear it across his skin. In those moments he wondered if she stayed because she loved him. In those moments his heart swelled to bursting for her. It was in one of those moments when curiosity controlled his tongue and he asked,
“Were you not also punished?”
He observed her face as she carefully watched the venom drip into the bowl. She showed no emotion but dutiful calm. She blinked and tear by tear dripped from her eyes and fell hotly on his bare chest, just above his heart. He wondered if he preferred the snake’s venom to her tears when he realized his question had been his answer-- this was her punishment.
He was her curse.
So fate tried to do them a favor and never destined them together again. But fate only had so much control… and every few centuries or so, Sirius defied fate.