A/n: Alright! Our first full length chapter! I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the first chapter! Expect to see our first glimpse of our dastardly spider in this chappie!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual.

NOTICE: This story is based on the first story having an alternate ending! More on that in the next chapter!

Quod Spectat ad Abyssum

(The abyss stares back)

Chapter Two

"Weeping is not the same thing as crying. It takes your whole body to weep, and when it's over, you feel like you don't have any bones left to hold you up."
―Sarah Ockler, Twenty Boy Summer

Trancy Manor was silent save for the sounds of rain pouring down from the heavens.

'The heavens...' I scoffed bitterly. What had heaven ever done for me except scorn and try to kill me? Now Ash was destroyed but the city of London wasn't all that cursed angel had set ablaze. Nothing but cold ashes lay were our blooming love once had been. The bond between my mate and I was dead. Some days, I wished I were too. If we couldn't fix Ciel...

No. I couldn't let myself go there. Not here in the enemy's own territory. Ciel had been strong for me when I had been at my lowest and I had to try to be strong for him too.

Sebastian was keeping the Trancy heir busy upstairs while it was left to me to search for Ciel's soul in the depths of this wretched place. We had tracked him here though the ease with which we had located my little earl was...unsettling. There was the barest effort to disguise the sweet scent of my child's soul and little to no security at the manor. I could sense the auras of five different demons within and yet it had been deceptively simple to slip inside. Almost as if they wanted us to come. But why? To fight?

To steal away another demon's meal or offspring was tantamount to shouting war in their faces. This had to be personal. There was no other explanation for it. Though the thought had crossed my mind, I hadn't questioned Sebastian about it.

The pain was still too raw...Too near.

Just looking at him made me want to curl up inside myself and hide away from the sharp stab of betrayal and once love left to fester inside of me like a rotting wound. Ciel's soulless state only made the gaping abyss between us even more vast. I wanted to blame Sebastian even though I know he could have never predicted this. I wanted to lay my loss at his feet and beat him to death with it. Whenever I started to do it though, I saw this grim, acceptance, this resignation in his eyes corroding at the heart of who he was and I just...couldn't bring myself to do it. Part of me still loved him, damn him to hell for it. If that piece of me didn't exist somewhere inside of me, then it wouldn't be so agonizingly painful to catch his eye. To be in the same house and know that somewhere inside of that vast estate, he was there wanting me too.

It was too late for that though. Too late for apologies or making things right. Things between us could never be the same again.

The darkness of the cellar parted like the Red Sea under the power of my demonic sight. There was an almost preternatural silence here beneath the earth, like a breath being held before a scream. Not even the scurry of a mouse or the drip of water broke through the hush. It was as if even the rodents knew that a predator called this place home.

There was a smell, however.

Sweet, like honeysuckle and flower blooms on a summer day. It was a scent that called out to me and made my chest constrict with love and grief.

Ciel.

My Ciel, my sweet one.

There he was, sitting up on a shelf, his soul cradled in the relative safety of a can of loose leaf Full Moon Drop. A spike of hot, righteous rage shot through me before I could stop it. How dare they! How dare they put my son on the shelf in some dank basement like a forgotten can of vegetables! Someone was losing something important tonight, that was for sure!

I snatched the can off of the shelf, cradling it to me as if it were an infant. Inside...I could feel Ciel's young soul cry out to me, a child lifting their arms to beg for a mother's embrace.

"My, you are a far more pleasant sight than your mate upstairs."

The cool press of a blade against my skin sang at my throat and a strong arm came around just above the swell of my belly to hold me in place. I was pinned against a firm chest, alarm bells clanging painfully within my head. Momentarily, my vision swam and I cursed Sebastian for the pitiful state my body was in.

"He isn't my mate." I bit out furiously, the demon sheath within my palm already dropping my holly wand into my waiting fingers.

I could feel him smirk against my cheek as he tilted the knife in hand, seemingly enjoying the flash of the gold against my pale throat. Regrettably, my poor condition did not seem to go unnoticed.

"No, indeed he must not be. No self-respecting demon would see their breeding mate in such a sorry state. Why, you must be starving." Claude purred and I felt the coldness of glasses at the nape of my skull. Was he nuzzling me?!

"You must be Claude Faustus. I've never had the pleasure of your acquaintance." Faux formalities went right out of the window though when the man shoved his nose into the curve of my throat and inhaled as if I were some living aphrodisiac.

"I assure you, the pleasure is all mine."

Alright, that was enough! Clutching Ciel's soul to me and noting Sebastian's aura's quick approach, I pointed my faithful wand backwards at where the demon would have been pressed against me and prayed to Merlin I didn't miss.

"BOMBARDA!"

The explosion shook the entirety of the manor and if Faustus had been expecting the magical attack that I leveled on his pelvis, no doubt we would not have made off so lightly. However, even as Sebastian and I escaped into the night with Ciel's soul in tow, rather than joy, a surge of uneasiness overtook me. Glancing back into the distance at Trancy Manor, I could see a tall, dark figure standing in the yard, watching our exit. Claude Faustus stood in the night and even from a distance I could make out the smirk on his face.

"When it's gone, you'll know what a gift love was. You'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it."― Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

There was no taste as sweet as the satisfaction of prey taking bait laid out so delicately, drawing a butterfly into the waiting spider's grasp. And Harry Potter...He certainly had the beauty of a butterfly. It would be so very satisfying when I snatched him from Michaelis' life forever. My eyes watched them escape into the night and caught an anxious pair of emerald eyes glancing back at me. The smirk that slid across my face was entirely beyond my power to hide.

Yes, it would be so delicious when at last I could see Michaelis brought low as I stole away everything he loved. And his mate had rejected him. How marvelous. Whelping, unattached, weak and so very unprotected.

The night breeze carried the exhilarating scent of the fleeing beauty back to me and a shiver of delight sped down my spine. I would have Ciel Phantomhive's soul and own Michaelis' mate as well. We would see who of us was truly the more powerful when that wretched raven was pleading at my feet.

"Claude! Claude, you let them get away!" His 'master' raged, slapping a weak, pale hand against my chest.

A curl of disgust slid up within my chest. Alois Trancy had served his limited purpose for me now. He was pathetic. Needy and wholly dependent on my 'love'. Not even the weakened and pregnant Harry Potter was so helpless. No, those eyes had glared out at me with a tantalizing defiance. It would be a pleasure to possess him. Without another wasted word, I slapped the child away and watched with complete disinterest as he fell from the manor's roof, screaming, until he shattered on the cobblestones below.

Yes, a pleasure indeed.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."―Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

Ciel's cobalt gaze opened groggily, as if he had been merely taking a long nap and my soul gave a shudder of agonized relief. He was here, he was back! My arms were not complete without him in them and when I finally, finally was able to wrap him up within them, it was as if a piece of my heart was coming home. I didn't realize that I was sobbing like a hysterical loon until I felt the quiet chuckle against my shoulder.

"Harry, I'm okay...Really, I am." His small hands rubbed my back lightly and I was immediately aware of how knobby and thin my spine was through my skin. I felt as though I might crumble to ash and blow away with the lightest breath.

In the corner of the room, half hidden in shadows, Sebastian stood and watched our reunion with an expression of stone. There was no way to know what was on his mind but I liked to imagine that there was just the slightest relaxation to the slant of his shoulders, the barest softness to his eyes. But I turned from him, just as he had turned from us.

A hot meal for Ciel and a mug of cocoa later found us sitting together in the dimly lit study, the lone lamp casting a pale glow over the room. Very little had been said since Ciel's awakening and it seemed that now was the time for the young earl's questions to come spilling forth.

"What went wrong? Why am I not a demon?"

Sebastian and I caught one another's sideways glance before I broke the contact at once. There was something in his gaze that was raw and wounded, hidden away there and I simply couldn't bear to see it. Not after what had been done to me. To us.

"There was an interloper, Master, who...interrupted, one might say." The butler replied smoothly, giving the lightest, most solemn bow.

I fought not to snort in disgust over my own steaming cup of tea. As if he really cared. He only put up with Ciel's turning because I had whored myself to him. Maybe that's all it ever was to him. Just the chance to get what he wanted and nothing more. Perhaps...he had never cared about us to begin with. Were me and my baby just a means to an end for him?

But...

'I stretched the hand that wasn't cradling my belly out towards him, a fond smile sliding over my face. He took in the expression as if he would commit the loving sight to memory, savor and examine it when no one else was around in the dead of the night. His gloved hand took mine with a near timid reluctance like he didn't trust the sudden magnanimity so soon after Tom's departure.

"Be my mate?"

The mix of emotion that suddenly shot through his eyes and dominated his face was all the reassurance I needed that I had made the right choice. I would have to thank Tom later. Shock, desire, wariness and most fetching of all, hope. Sebastian didn't dare take my word for it right off hand. Not after so many years of rejections and anger. Not after my beloved Voldemort had just spent the week with me. But...it was all of those things that made me realize that this, that Sebastian, was what I wanted with my unnaturally long life.

His hand in mine clenched, almost of a spasm of pent in emotion, but he pushed past it. As he kneeled in front of me, my hand still wrapped within his own, his smile was small but the feelings behind it were clear as day within his gaze. My knees felt weak at the stunning sight.

"Nothing would please me more, my raven."'

The memory of that day, all of the soft, tender nights after that, few as they might have been, wavered between us and I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes.

How? How could I explain away what had happened? How could I make sense of it? One day we were happy and the next...he had been gone. But this wasn't the time or the place for it. Not when my little ones needed care and answers. Ciel deserved answers.

"The demon who commandeered you, my lord, goes by the name of Claude Faustus. He is currently butler to the Trancy family head, Alois Trancy. I suspect he thought he would steal an easy meal-" Sebastian iterated, waving off the happening as if someone had simply splashed water upon his shoes by mistake. His outward expression was unconcerned but in his glowing ruby eyes there was rage.

He stopped short when I interrupted him as if he'd never been speaking at all.

"Did you notice that it was easy? Too easy? And when we were leaving, I saw him just standing there on the roof watching us go. He didn't look angry or upset. He looked...pleased."

The demon's eyes flashed with hate at the idea and Ciel sat up a little straighter in his chair, hot cocoa forgotten in his small hand.

"You think he let you escape on purpose." The earl's response was not a question. I nodded. "But why? What purpose would that serve? If he were going to let you escape anyways, why bother stealing my soul at all? If he truly wanted to eat me, he would have done so immediately, not placed me on a shelf to wait for rescue."

"Perhaps his aim was not to eat you at all, young master. What did Faustus gain by drawing us to him? By allowing us to escape?" Sebastian mused out loud.

Ciel's dark head bowed in silent contemplation and the surge of warm affection I felt for him rose in it's own sort of tide. My heart was an ocean and the tides therein sounded out a soothing flow of 'love, love, love', against the beaches of my spirit. Love was all that made my muscles move around my bones and air fill my lungs. It was all I had left.

"We'll have a better chance of figuring it out on some sleep, yeah? Ciel, off to bed with you. We can talk more in the morning." The young teen looked as if he might protest but at the affection in my eyes, he nodded with the faintest blush.

Sebastian put his young master to bed under my careful, razor sharp watch. My instincts still saw him as a rival male. A potential threat to my young. All I could remember on the inside when my demonic mind took hold was that he wasn't my mate and that he had hurt us. Logic didn't rule in those moments. No matter how much I told myself that Ciel was still Sebastian's master, when humanity folded away, reason meant nothing.

Ciel met the blessed relief of unconsciousness at last, leaving me and my sire standing silently in the darkness of the hallway. I stared out of the window at the moon, remembering a similar scenario seemingly a lifetime ago, back before betrayals and matings. Before everything went so...wrong. At last, Sebastian spoke. I wished he hadn't.

"I won't ask for your forgiveness because there's nothing in all of the planes that I could possibly do to deserve it. I have no right to ask for your trust again either. But know this, Samael. There is nothing that I will not defend and protect you, my young master and our child from. Please believe that." His whispers were like a soft breeze, imperceptible to a human ear.

A long moment of silence passed before I turned to meet his dim, ruby eyes. The thick swell of emotion between us, fury, hate, longing, broken love, regret, stretched on into eternity.

"Your protection has done all of us so much good. Your protection is meaningless."

I left him there in the hallway, staring at my back in the darkness of the new moon.