How Far to Go for a Cure?

A/N: Many heartfelt thanks and much chocolate to my betas, Melusin_79 (who also Brit-picked) and Sahiya. Any remaining errors are all mine. Thanks also to Shalimar1981 for the early-on brainstorming.

Disclaimer: Not mine and not making any money.

How Far to Go for a Cure?

When he awoke, Severus did not have to remind himself not to reach for his wand and cast Lumos to brighten the unfamiliar room. He did not have enough physical energy to sit up unaided, much less magical energy to do anything of the kind. He croaked out the name of the house-elf that had put him to bed last night, and it appeared with a crack.

The elves here did not speak English at all but understood the needs of the humans they served well enough for the most part. The room was quickly lit by candles in wall sconces, and the elf assisted him from the bed to his floating chair, to and from the loo, and finally to the dining room.

After breakfast, the house-elf guided him to the library where a space had clearly been left for his floating chair, a book already disarmed and waiting for him. Severus looked at it with suspicion.

Making Your Straying Spouse's Lover Their Own Punishment

"What is this?" he demanded with a snarl.

"It may be some of the source material Voldemort used for this curse," Hermione replied.

He scowled at her and Krum.

"Severus, did you know that this curse was not originally part of the Dark Mark?" she asked.

"Yes," he grumbled. He had told her as much, hadn't he?

"Did you know it was still cast separately – even once Voldemort had started using it on new recruits?"

He looked at Krum, startled.

"No."

"He vould not haff told you," Krum said. "But many of us knew."

Severus' eyes narrowed. Did the man know why Voldemort would have kept this from him? Did he know why the Dark Lord would have kept this information specifically from him?

"Ve only know how to remoof it before it is activated," the Bulgarian continued, "but there must be a vay."

Severus was instantly seized with a desire to insist that they leave.

"This is pointless," he snapped. "The Dark Lord did not fashion his curses on love spells for disgruntled house-witches."

"Actually," Hermione said, "two of the books we looked at last night held promising information. One covered an imprisoning enchantment to keep the unfaithful partner at the scene of the crime. The jinxes were very similar to the ones on my flat. Another contained a curse to drain the witch or wizard's power, but it went to the wronged party. That would have been Voldemort. So, where did yours go?"

"The Mark would have been necessary to relay the power to him," he pointed out.

"Probably," she agreed. "So where did the power – and your life energy – go? If we can figure that out, maybe we can get it back."

"None of this coffers the physical drain," Krum pointed out, "but Herm-own-ninny's theory is sound."

Severus looked at Hermione with loathing. It had been her blasted lust that had started this. Of course, she was one of Potter's cronies. That just made the whole damned circle complete, didn't it? And now she was plying him with false hope, and toward what end?

"We'll figure it out, Severus," she said in a placating tone obviously meant to lower his defences.

"What you will figure out, you infernal succubus, is how to complete your plan to steal my power for your own! And once you have succeeded, you will probably throw it away, too, in some grandiose act of Gryffindor so-called bravery! Elf!"

The house-elf that had attended him earlier returned and guided his chair out of the library and back to his room.

How dare she? Carrying out some last wish of Potter's, no doubt, to see me disgraced and destroyed.

That Potter had had no opportunity to make, much less communicate, any such wish in the middle of the Final Battle was entirely beside the point. That was the sort of thing the Gryffindor Golden Trio had probably plotted about, giggling at the thought of his humiliation, even as they had accepted his help bringing the Dark Lord down.

He continued to seethe over the girl's treachery long after the elf had re-installed him in his bed, and the anger and resentment even permeated his dreams.

~*~

"So, paranoia directed at the lover with whom the person has been unfaithful?" Hermione asked with forced briskness.

"So it vould seem," Viktor replied. "I haff not seen this in vat I haff read so far."

"Neither have I," she said with a sigh. There was a faint twinge in her chest as the echo of Severus' face distorted with suspicion flashed in her mind. She felt horrible enough to have been the cause of this, albeit indirectly and inadvertently. His words had cut her.

"He deserves better than this," she murmured.

"The vizarding vorld owes him many life-debts," Viktor agreed. "Effen if that vere not true, he vould deserve better because you haff decided it is so."

Hermione furrowed her brow. "What are you getting at?"

"It is obvious ven you look at him," Viktor said. "And any vizard who can vin your heart deserves the chance to prove he is vorthy of you or else to fail trying."

"What are you...? Viktor, it's nothing like that," she protested. "It was just... It was supposed to be uncomplicated."

"It is neffer uncomplicated."

"So I'm learning," she grumbled. "It's still nothing like that."

Viktor raised an eyebrow at her in an eerie imitation of Severus.

"Stop that!" she insisted. "It's not! Even if I did have feelings for Severus, and I don't, obviously he can barely stand the sight of me."

"Did it seem that vay ven...?" He let his voice trail off.

She felt herself flush.

"Well, no," she admitted. Fragments of memory almost made her smile: the way he had looked at her once he had removed her robes, the sensuous touch of his hands teasing her breasts until she swore she'd come from that alone, the unguarded expression he'd had as he came undone inside her. No, none of that fitted with someone who actually hated her. None of it meant there was anything more than great sex involved either, though. She gave herself an internal shake and refocused on the present. A different, more immediate memory intruded.

"He called me a succubus," she said thoughtfully.

"That vas the curse talking."

"Maybe, but that's not the point. If his powers and life energy were supposed to go to Voldemort and couldn't... what if they went to me?"

Viktor frowned as he considered this.

"Think about it. I slept barely three hours last night, and I'm still wide awake and ready to go."

"You vere alvays excited by your research."

"Yes, but I still get tired. I haven't really done much magic, but... what sort of spell would work best to test...? I know!" She drew her wand. "Expecto Patronum!"

The silver otter that erupted from her wand was so brilliant it nearly blinded them both. Several of the Darker books screamed in protest.

"Finite Incantatem!"

She blinked for a minute or two until the colourful spots disappeared from her vision, and she could see the library again. Once they did, she looked at Viktor and asked, "So, what do you have on incubi and succubi?"

~*~

"Severus," he heard someone say. "Severus, wake up."

He opened his eyes to find himself looking at the evil bitch responsible for his present condition.

"What the fuck do you want from me now?" he demanded. "You have already stolen my magic and my life. What more could you possibly want from me?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he was unable to suppress a shudder – a response he had never shown even before the Dark Lord.

"Now you listen to me, Severus Snape," she said, "and you listen as if your life depended on it because it does."

"My life is already forfeit," he snarled. "Your façade of helpfulness is painfully transparent."

"This isn't you, Severus," she insisted. "This is an effect of the curse. It's making you paranoid. It's supposed to make you hate the person you betrayed Voldemort with."

"Do not speak the Dark Lord's name!" he shouted. For a moment, he could not understand why he had not felt the searing pain that normally accompanied the sound of it. Then he remembered that the Mark was gone.

"Your Dark Lord is the one who did this to you," she said firmly. "And if you've already decided you're doomed, what's left for me to do to you?"

"That's what you've been researching with your lover, isn't it?" he countered. "You tried to distract me with irrelevant lines of inquiry, but your mistake was to admit there was sex magic involved."

Now the look in her eyes was damnable pity.

"He built this in, Severus," she said. "It's all part of the curse – partly to punish the person you'd got involved with and partly to make sure you never managed to break it."

That brought him up short.

"What? I told you that only the Dark Lord could remove the curse!"

"Yes, you did." Her features brightened. "So, you remember that he's the one who cursed you. Not me."

"I..." He considered her words. He did remember coming to that conclusion, but that was before she had slipped and revealed the nature of her plan.

It wasn't a very good plan, though, was it? Not the sort of thing he'd have expected from her at all.

"Are you with me, Severus?"

"I suppose I am," he replied cautiously. "For now."

"Did you ever see this curse triggered on any of the other Death Eaters?"

"No," he replied. "I heard of one instance, but I never saw the man."

"Was he allowed to live?"

"No."

She chewed her lip in a painfully familiar manner, suddenly looking very much more like the earnest student he remembered. This, too, seemed inconsistent with the plot she had sprung on him this morning when she... but why would she do that? She might have changed in many ways, even to the point of being willing to kill a man for an increase in her magical powers, but surely she could not have become stupid enough to hand that man such a clue to what she was doing. No one would do that unless they wanted to gloat.

She was not gloating.

"Why do you care? What are you planning now?"

"I'm planning to help you," she said. "That's the only plan there's ever been. Are you... Are you going to be able to trust me?"

"What difference could that possibly make?" he snarled. "If you are correct, and I am wrong about your role in this, then once you cure me, I will know the truth. If you are lying, then you have already killed me and have no need of my trust."

"It matters," she said hotly, "because I can't help you by myself. You have to be... willing. We could try a potion or something, maybe, but I'm not sure that would work. Even if it did, I'm not sure I could go through with it that way."

"What the devil are you on about?"

"Severus, the only way to break this curse is the same way we triggered it."

He stared at her, uncomprehending for a long minute. Then he felt all the pieces slip into place. It was all so very, very clear. How diabolical.

"Get out!" he shouted. "If you think I would bed you again, even to save my life, you are more insane than Bellatrix! I said, get out!"

As the door closed behind her, he was surprised by a stabbing pain in his chest. Perhaps the curse was finally moving into its last stages, and he would soon be free of this torture. That the pain might not be physical never entered his mind.