HP: "The Rapture," R, Snape/ Lucius
Aug. 25th, 2006 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishafelSummary: Snape and Lucius find a peace of sorts.
Sequel to Marksman and High Magic. But they all work as standalones, too. Um, I make no excuses for this, but just so you know, the working title was, "The One Where Snape & Lucius Join the French Foreign Legion"
Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sinick
After the war there was no place for them in England any longer. And so they went looking for another war. Northern Ireland. The Balkans. The Ivory Coast. Sierra Leone. Iraq. Lebanon. California. They killed for money, because it was what they knew, what they were good at. They did not have their wands any longer, but the guns were as comforting, and more useful, than magic had ever proved to be. And sometimes it was enough and Snape forgot there had ever been anything else.
Sometimes when Lucius kissed him he tasted iron, green fields and grey sky, England and home and magic. The sun was bright everywhere they went, and the blood they spilled looked the same on grass, concrete, pavement, sand. They put down rebellions. They started wars. Lucius learned to fly a helicopter the way he'd once flown a broom. Snape taught himself the chemistry of artillery, and built bombs instead of mixing potions.
They did contract work for the CIA and Lucius's old connections in the French government, until one of Snape's grenades went off at the wrong time and killed a dozen UN peacekeepers. After that they mostly worked for the wrong side, so many acronyms not even Snape could keep them straight, groups called The Coalition, The Committee, The Band. For a while they were at the top of the terrorism list, until an Arab with a grudge knocked them back.
By then they spoke a dozen languages each, Arabic and Farsi and Russian, Krio and Korean and Hindi. They had not been back to England in ten years, and Lucius had grandchildren he'd never seen, and a son who'd stopped speaking to him in 1998. They could assemble and disassemble any gun ever made, in half the time it took the average Marine recruit. They'd killed people on every continent but Antarctica. They'd fucked each other on every continent but Antarctica.
For Snape, it wasn't any different than being in the Death Eaters. He liked the new places, the interesting people, the killing. He liked Lucius's lean brown body, with its railway lines of scars. He liked the freedom, and the lack of consequences. Lucius had been the believer, the one who thought he was doing the right thing. Snape was only ever along for the ride.
And somewhere along the way, the ride had become the destination, even for Lucius. There was no more talk about the wizard's burden. The university student who had quoted Thomas Hobbes and Hegel and Aleister Crowley was gone: there was no room in the man Lucius had become for idealism. Snape was a little sorry, because without it Lucius burned less brightly-but there was no question that he was still a killer of the first order.
They might go on this way forever, two old warhorses growing steadily older, until one day they drop in the traces and are buried where they've fallen. Snape would kind of like that. It would almost make up for the way the magic's gone out of the world. But they aren't that old yet, and there's still killing to be done.
Back in the hotel for the night, he puts on the news. The Americans are at it again, and this time the EU will be in on the action. He's already on the phone arranging transport to Venezuela when Lucius gets out of the shower. He can feel the old excitement burning in his stomach, and he doesn't look up when Lucius drops a kiss on the back of his neck. After all, this is what they were made for.
Sequel to Marksman and High Magic. But they all work as standalones, too. Um, I make no excuses for this, but just so you know, the working title was, "The One Where Snape & Lucius Join the French Foreign Legion"
Written for
sinickAfter the war there was no place for them in England any longer. And so they went looking for another war. Northern Ireland. The Balkans. The Ivory Coast. Sierra Leone. Iraq. Lebanon. California. They killed for money, because it was what they knew, what they were good at. They did not have their wands any longer, but the guns were as comforting, and more useful, than magic had ever proved to be. And sometimes it was enough and Snape forgot there had ever been anything else.
Sometimes when Lucius kissed him he tasted iron, green fields and grey sky, England and home and magic. The sun was bright everywhere they went, and the blood they spilled looked the same on grass, concrete, pavement, sand. They put down rebellions. They started wars. Lucius learned to fly a helicopter the way he'd once flown a broom. Snape taught himself the chemistry of artillery, and built bombs instead of mixing potions.
They did contract work for the CIA and Lucius's old connections in the French government, until one of Snape's grenades went off at the wrong time and killed a dozen UN peacekeepers. After that they mostly worked for the wrong side, so many acronyms not even Snape could keep them straight, groups called The Coalition, The Committee, The Band. For a while they were at the top of the terrorism list, until an Arab with a grudge knocked them back.
By then they spoke a dozen languages each, Arabic and Farsi and Russian, Krio and Korean and Hindi. They had not been back to England in ten years, and Lucius had grandchildren he'd never seen, and a son who'd stopped speaking to him in 1998. They could assemble and disassemble any gun ever made, in half the time it took the average Marine recruit. They'd killed people on every continent but Antarctica. They'd fucked each other on every continent but Antarctica.
For Snape, it wasn't any different than being in the Death Eaters. He liked the new places, the interesting people, the killing. He liked Lucius's lean brown body, with its railway lines of scars. He liked the freedom, and the lack of consequences. Lucius had been the believer, the one who thought he was doing the right thing. Snape was only ever along for the ride.
And somewhere along the way, the ride had become the destination, even for Lucius. There was no more talk about the wizard's burden. The university student who had quoted Thomas Hobbes and Hegel and Aleister Crowley was gone: there was no room in the man Lucius had become for idealism. Snape was a little sorry, because without it Lucius burned less brightly-but there was no question that he was still a killer of the first order.
They might go on this way forever, two old warhorses growing steadily older, until one day they drop in the traces and are buried where they've fallen. Snape would kind of like that. It would almost make up for the way the magic's gone out of the world. But they aren't that old yet, and there's still killing to be done.
Back in the hotel for the night, he puts on the news. The Americans are at it again, and this time the EU will be in on the action. He's already on the phone arranging transport to Venezuela when Lucius gets out of the shower. He can feel the old excitement burning in his stomach, and he doesn't look up when Lucius drops a kiss on the back of his neck. After all, this is what they were made for.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 01:21 am (UTC)I just saw "Killing In The Name Of" and saw it was the _fourth_ in the series. Went 'buh?' and clicked on the link to this.
See, what with Lumos and Worldcon just after that, I've missed weeks out of my friendslist, and this was posted right in the middle of that time.
And DAMN am I glad I've FINALLY seen this! *boggles* You've got no idea how VERY VERY HARD this vision of Lucius and Snape - deadly in both worlds but still together despite everything - mashes my buttons!
Thank you SO MUCH for this! *does I'm Not Worthy kowtow*!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 01:36 am (UTC)BRIGHT BE IS BACK!
Date: 2006-11-03 05:59 pm (UTC)Beckett's put Bright Be The Place Of Thy Soul back on geocities.com/tabeckett22 - Book I at the moment, with Book II to follow in about a week or so.
It's now password protected, so you'll have to email her at tabeckett22 at yahoo com with a statement that you're legally old enough to read adult material.