Title: Executioner's Promise
By: Becky Hoadley
Email: beckyhoadley@hotmail.com
Catagory: Drama/Angst
Rating: R for disturbing content
Warnings: Dark. Dreary. Depressing. Death.
Summary: Remus and Severus are locked in a cell with no way out, magical or otherwise, and the full moon's a-comin'
Notes: Don't say I didn't warn you.
Disclaimer:I don't own them, and if I did I can think of better things to do with them than fanfiction. Characters and places are property of JKR. No money is being made from this,don't sue me.

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"This is your fault you stupid, bloody, werewolf," Snape said, pacing the tiny, stone, cell that they'd been dumped in hours before.

"How is it my fault?" Remus asked, affronted.

"How is it your fault? HOW is it your fault?" Snape sat ackwardly on the stone bench that was the rooms only furnishing. "Excuse me but *you* got kidnapped, thanks to your own foolishness. I," Snape winced, his broken ribs protesting as he raised his voice, "am here because Dumbledore insisted that I at least attempt to free you."

"Dumbledore sent me here too Snape," Remus reminded the other man, "Look, let's blame him instead of each other, he's not here."

"That is the best idea I believe you have ever had," Snape said rubbing his eyes with his good, left, hand. The other hand and arm had been broken in several places, rendering it essentially useless.

"You look like shit Snape," Remus said frankly, finally getting a good look at his long time antagonist.

"Thank you," Snape said drily. He knew he looked horrible. He'd spent the better part of the past month being tortured. He'd even died once, he thought, but had been brought back. Death at that point would have been too easy. Voldemort had a *special* execution in mind for the traitor who had betrayed him twice.

"You're welcome, I'm sure." Remus said, every bit as drily.

Snape looked at the executioner Voldemort had chosen for him. Snape had spent the better part of the time since he'd been dropped in Remus's cell unconscious. Even if the moon hadn't been rising full tonight, he doubted he would have lived long. He'd been starved too long, and injured too seriously.

Still. He didn't want to die. Not like this. The werewolf still haunted his nightmares. Even after all he had seen, and all he had done, that night at the Shrieking Shack stood out as the one moment, the one instance he had known true terror. Death at the teeth of that creature was--horrific.

"Snape? Are you alright?" Remus asked. The spy's skin had taken on a waxy pallor he didn't like the look of.

"What do you think?" Snape asked wearily, "Of course I'm not alright! I'm about to be torn apart by a werewolf!"

"You're scared," Remus said, voice tinged with disbelief. Not that he really blamed him, but... SNAPE? Scared?

"Yes," Snape admited, deflating and resting his good arm on his knee, and using his hand to support his head, "Absolutly, completely, terrified. Can you really say you're surprised? You know what I've been like since the Shrieking Shack. I'd never been so frightened in my life." Until now, he silently ammended.

"I'm sorry," Remus offered lamely.

"Oh get off it Remus," Snape said weakly, wincing again at the pull of torn muscles when he turned to look at Remus, "it wasn't your fault anymore than it was mine. Black orchestrated it. If his plans had gone right I'd have been dead at the wolf's teeth, and you'd be in prision."

Snape paused, lifted an eyebrow and snorted. "Oddly enough it seems that the past 25 years have lead us back to that point. Seems that Black had the right idea all along."

Remus stood up and paced around a bit--thinking. He knew he couldn't let Snape face down the werewolf. He'd not only die, but he'd die slowly and painfully, ripped to shreds and screaming. Snape might not have been his favorite person all the time, but he deserved some dignity.

But what could he do? If he'd had the means to end a life he would have ended his own and spared Snape. Snape and anyone else who would cross his path without the wolfsbane that Snape had always provided for him.

He paused behind Snape, resting his hands lightly on the other man's shoulders. Remus realized Snape was shaking, rather hard. Shock or cold or just simply fear, Remus didn't know. It didn't really matter.

He rubbed the other man's shoulders lightly, digging his thumbs into the muscles that ran up his neck, rubbing firmly. In spite of himself Snape groaned slightly and dropped his head. He was so damn *tired* and he *hurt*.

Remus spoke, so quietly Snape almost couldn't catch it, "You are not going to face that again Severus. I swear, you will not be killed by a rampaging werewolf."

"What are you--," Snape sputter, confused. How the hell could Remus say that? Clearly he'd gone around the bend.

"Shhh," Remus said cutting him off gently, and continuing to rub Snape's shoulders. Snape's head fell back against Remus's chest. His eyes actually drifted closed in spite of the tension and fear and general pain. It had been so long since he'd been allowed to sleep....

Snape felt a hand slide up his throat to settle with the fingers against the side of his face, palm cupping his chin as the other slid lightly through his hair and then settled, resting against the side of his head.

Snape reconized that particular positioning and his heart stopped for a moment and then began to race as his eyes flew open. He found himself starring directly up into Remus's suscpiously bright golden eyes.

"Shhh," Remus repeated, stroking hard over his jaw and throat with his thumb. "I'll be ok. I promise." Snape grimaced, shallowed hard and forced his eyes to close. Ok it was not, but it beat the shit out of the alternative.

Remus waited until he felt some of the tension bleed out of the man, until he could feel the moon rising, before he tightened his grip and twisted hard, snapping Severus's neck.

He had just enough time to lay the body flat and wonder what exactly Voldemort planned to do with him now? Would they kill him? Try to turn him? Keep him here as a demented executoner? Then the change was on him and he didn't think of anything else at all.

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Nope, no sequel. Just a demented plot bunny that wanted out. If someone wants more than this...well write it yourself *G*. It all started when I asked my husand a question about a plot I was stuck with and he said "Just have Remus kill him off...."