Nine.

Jayden watched Draco walk away from them after a quick good night. She hadn't planned for the events to progress how they had, but she wasn't surprised that they did. Her body ached and despite the exhilaration of flying, the wind had only bit at her skin and further aggravated her tense muscles. Draco may have momentarily forgotten what she had done in the forest, but Severus was standing less than fifty paces from her, staring and waiting. His figure was barely discernible from the darkness around them. Her teeth clenched before she opened her mouth, teeth bared in a silent scream. Tom told her to stay still, but using her bloodline abilities would only speed up the deterioration. There was no way she would last months; she had barely gotten through a week. It wouldn't be long until her mind followed the same path as her body. With a flick of her wrist, her wand was in her hand and magic exploded between herself and Severus, gouging out slashes in the earth. Another flick tore up a different section of the grounds in front of her. Back when they had been students, she had only had to worry about the summer holidays after their bond had formed. After that first mishap the rest had been fine. She should have been able to overcome this small amount of time, but being revived after decades was taking its toll. All of it had compounded together and she could feel the bond wrapping itself tighter and tighter. Her magic was already becoming chaotic; the command to the centaurs pushing her farther than she had the capacity to take. The raven was screaming and screaming and screaming; she could hear it louder than it had ever been. It was all encompassing. She needed an out, and she needed it now. Her body turned to face Severus, honing in on his left arm.

She occluded to the height of her abilities before sending a non-verbal curse towards Severus. The man dodged gracefully, putting up a shield before intercepting another spell with his wand and flinging it back in her direction. Despite her state, Jayden was impressed. That was something that only seasoned fighters were capable of. She pushed him further towards the forest they had just come from with a barrage of spells, mostly non lethal, but still painful. If Severus wasn't able to keep up with her she would be very disappointed. She just needed to get him past the wards and she could invoke his mark with her magic. She allowed a cutting curse to graze her cheek, splitting it open and allowing the blood to flow. She retaliated while pressing closer, hoping that Severus wasn't that great at hand to hand. She was still very attuned to fighting but she hoped that his senses had dulled slightly in this time of peace. Despite all her training, she was still a teenager without much real battle experience.

Severus was precise with his spell casting. There was very little waste in movement. He had noticed that something was stirring as soon as they had landed. He was glad that she had allowed Draco to leave unharmed before beginning her attack. The change had come rather abruptly. At first he had thought that her surroundings would be the limit of her attention until the first spell was aimed at his direction. The magic was swirling around her, but it was as if she was having a hard time controlling it. Her spells, while not losing their potency were becoming sloppy. They were easily dodged, though he did have to jump out of the way when she aimed at the ground instead of at his body. Shield spells were only good for magical attacks, not physical ones. She was close enough that he could see a dark stain on her cheek going down all the way below the neckline of her shirt. It had been about fifteen minutes since they started and he was breathing slightly heavily. While he may have been part of a wizarding war, that had been over a decade ago. It wasn't as if he had many dueling partner's since then. He parried a spell that looked like it might have been an Entrail Expelling Curse but had been too slow on his recast. He turned away to dodge an Expulso that cracked a nearby tree into pieces. He felt the splinters hit his face and reflexively closed his eyes in order to save his sight. In that moment he felt a body slam into him, something being pushed onto his face, and his arm being twisted so that his wand was being pushed under a chin. Next thing he knew, his Dark Mark felt like it was being burned off and the familiar squeeze of apparition engulfed his entire body. Once his eyes opened, he was met with various wands pointed at him in the middle of the Dark Lord's antichamber. He quickly stood still, his wand still jabbed under Jayden's throat. His eyes could only see through slits, but no spells had flown yet. He wondered if he should thank Jayden for masking his face in present company.

"This is unexpected." The Dark Lord said before he waved a hand and Severus felt Jayden's body being pulled slightly as her wand was summoned from her grasp. She wasn't struggling but Severus felt something dampening his arm that was slightly concerning. Her body shifted and he could feel jagged pieces of wood rest lightly on his skin. Severus did not move as the Dark Lord came closer. "You may relax your hold." Severus lowers his arms, but wasn't expecting Jayden to fall forward to the floor. The slap of skin against tile was accompanied by a splattering of blood. He winced inwardly. The Dark Lord stared at the girl for a moment before turning to the rest of the gathered Death Eaters.

"It seems that we will need to cut our meeting short. You are all dismissed." He turned back to Severus. "Except for you." Luckily enough, it was one of the meetings of the lower tiers and Bellatrix was not present to question their dismissal upon a potential enemy. The Potions Master continued to remain still. The Dark Lord did not move until he was sure that all his followers had left as they were told. It was only then that he knelt down, his wand under Jayden's chin, and looked her in the eyes properly.

"I thought I told you I wouldn't need you for months. You are very early." Jayden's response was to bare her teeth at him. This seemed to make him pause. Severus wondered what the girl was thinking, though she probably hadn't been for the entire night. "Crucio." The word was soft, cast with a bored tone and Severus watched as the girl spasmed on the floor, the tiles becoming redder and redder as she bled out. The screams coming from her throat reminded him of a dying bird; they were so high pitched. The spell was lifted after a few moments, but Jayden had managed to roll over onto her back. Severus could now see the extent of the damage and he wondered how she hadn't lost consciousness with the wound on her neck. The Dark Lord said nothing for a few minutes. He merely stared at the girl as if wondering what exactly to do with her. Perhaps he had been correct in assuming that he would have gotten rid of her eventually. Jayden had been spouting about her connection to the Dark Lord enough in the last week that he assumed there was some form of sentimentality that had been created on the other end. He realized that she was being used as much as all of them were being used.

"Severus, it seems that my little bird has been brought back into my care, though more broken than I last remember. Perhaps you can enlighten me with the details." The Dark Lord remained where he was, just staring down at Jayden. He didn't seem to be in any rush to save her life. He merely twirled her wand within his hands, similar to Jayden's movements in the Headmaster's office.

"I only became aware of her existence recently. Dumbledore led me into a chamber within Hogwarts that一" The Dark Lord cut him off with a look.

"Yes, I am familiar with what happened. I would like to know about the events of tonight and how you have both come here without my summoning." Severus inwardly shivered at the magic slowly curling around his Master. "I suppose seeing it with my own eyes would speed things up." Severus felt himself fall to his knees as Voldemort invaded his mind. The memories went quickly, though no details were spared. Their adventure through the woods, the clash with the centaurs, the thestral ride, all the way up to the sudden duel and subsequent arrival in the Dark Lord's mansion. He hadn't been able to control which things to show or what pieces would be viewed favorably. It was as if his occlumency shields were nothing. Had the Dark Lord always had this ability to dig deep within his mind? Had he always known about his treachery and let him believe that he was able to fool him? The pain in his mind was intense as the Dark Lord's will bore down onto his and he could do nothing as the man dug deeper and deeper until all his secrets were laid bare. Every interaction. Every plan. Every subtle move to deter the Dark Lord's efforts. His Vow to Dumbledore was starting to burn and he knew if the Dark Lord pushed more it would consume him and his magic without anyone the wiser. Regardless, the man in front of him had gleaned enough, more than enough. They were doomed. He was finished. He couldn't even lift his wand arm to defend himself due to the pain in his head. He was sure that Voldemort could hear his thoughts just as clearly as he could see his memories but he couldn't be bothered to care at this point. He had always known he would not survive the war. It took him a long while to realize that he was also on the ground, his face against the cool tile of the floor with the Dark Lord looking down at him in curiosity instead of rage. The Dark Lord then rolled him onto his back with a flick of his wrist before taking his wand to his left arm. Severus closed his eyes. Who would he call to dispose of him? Bellatrix had always been wary of his loyalties. Lucius, while his friend, would follow orders in fear for the safety of his family. Dolohov would love to experiment on his body as much as Mulciber would be quick to castrate him before bleeding him out. It was too bad Rosier had died in the first war. He at least had always been merciful in always using the Killing Curse.

"What a waste it is to lose such a talented individual. Granted, I have known about your true allegiance since the day I walked up the Potters' gate and cast that curse. You see, after much introspection during my time as a wraith, I could only conclude that the magical backlash was a result of not fulfilling my verbal agreement with you. Of course, this came after years of cursing everyone and everything." (1) Here the Dark Lord paused to further inspect the mark on Severus' arm, tracing the magical ink with the tip of Jayden's wand instead of his own. "You recall begging me to spare Lily Potter? I was pleased with your work in bringing me the prophecy so I had decided to humor you. A mistake on my part." He jabbed the tip of the wand into his tattoo before carrying on with his story. Severus could only listen, his mind having become startlingly clear despite his body aching in pain.

"So, a verbal, informal vow was created between the two of us. Further solidified by the fact that I was your Master and you my servant. At the time the prophecy was so important to me and Lily so important to you that our magic bled into our words. I had in fact asked your precious Lily to step aside, three times. Another mistake as three is a magically powerful number. She, however, asked me to take her life instead of her precious son's. And so, I agreed." Here, Severus Snape was unable to even comprehend what the man above him was saying. This entire time he had thought his Master had merely humored his pleas and answered in order to shut him up. He hadn't known that he had indeed tried to spare Lily's life. Something rolled in his gut. It was more than Dumbledore had done for all his begging to the man.

"Of course, I attempted to kill the boy as soon as her body fell to the floor. Unfortunately, I had not realized that the vow, ours passed between Master and Servant, passed between Lily Potter and myself, and had further been passed along to Harry Potter as the last of a long line of magical blood. I have not made it a habit to kill children, but the unnatural termination of multiple lines of magic is very much abhorred and I had already killed the last Potter scion. Magic intervened on behalf of another ." He forced Severus onto his knees with a flick before walking a few feet towards where Jayden was still sprawled on the floor. A hissing sound filled the atrium as Voldemort moved both his and Jayden's wand in complicated patterns to pull the blood back into her body and to seal her wounds. The floor was spotless as if she had never bled out in the first place. But, Severus could not get the wording out of his mind. The last Potter scion should not have been James; Harry was alive and well.

"It was a common practice for bloodlines to have entire family branches whose main purpose was to protect the succession of magic, much like the Black family. But, there were also entire lineages whose entire reason for being was to protect a specific line; supporting ties that were never meant to cross into their own. Generations of wizards and witches who were but mere guards created in human likeness by alchemy and blood." The Dark Lord waved a hand and Jayen's body rose, her eyes opening to the familiar frightening purple that he had thought was unnatural. "She is so human seeming, isn't she?" Voldemort chuckled. "She isn't even aware that she isn't one of us. I hadn't been aware until I came across one of Slytherin's journals, the book only opening after both Jayden and I spilling our blood after a duel." Voldemort returned to standing in front of him.

"It hadn't clicked until tonight as to why Magic was so unrelenting in it's response to my deeds that Halloween. I was unaware that you were left impotent by one of Sirius Black's parting gifts shortly after the Potter wedding." Severus felt the anger accompanied by that particular memory, especially since James Potter had smugly told him that Lily was pregnant. Of course, he had been silenced before he could reveal that he and Lily had been sleeping together all the way up to the month before the wedding. James may have thought Lily had rushed things because she had been so in love with him, but Severus knew that she had been on the fence about her relationship after really getting to know Potter and his band of friends. When Lily had first showed up on his doorstep at Spinner's End soaked through by rain he could do nothing but let her in and listen as she gave apologies and asked for their friendship back. It was everything he had ever wished for since he had spoken that dreadful word aloud in a fit of embarrassment and anger. It wasn't long until Lily had frequented his place more and more often. At first, she just needed to rant, to borrow his books, to brew and experiment. Then there had been alcohol after an impromptu birthday celebration for himself and they had come together in a tumble of sheets and drunken passion. There had been awkwardness and avoidance for a month after until the cycle started again and again until they had skipped the ranting, book borrowing, and brewing to go straight to sex. It was selfish and stupid and dangerous but he had said nothing and let it continue for months until Lily had told him her decision. She would marry Potter and he had let her, not even saying a word in his favor. He just let her go to the man he loathed more than his father because he loved her, not that he had ever uttered the words aloud. He didn't want to think that it would change her mind, it would have only left him terribly vulnerable.

"Magic was not thrilled in the least that I had gone back on my vows to both parents and aimed the Killing Curse at their child. With you unable to sire any more children and my having killed off the Potter line, Magic intervened to save at least your son's life." What? The Dark Lord's back was facing him, as if he didn't care that Severus' heart was beating so loudly in his chest or that his ears were roaring with sound.

"I had always wondered if your acting was just that good at times. It wasn't until my resurrection that I was sure. Blood never lies after all. It was also one of the reasons I had to purify that body of any blood that wasn't magically mine. I hadn't realized that taking in the blood of the one whose Vow started this mess would cause my mind to falter to the point of insanity and my body to become deformed. Magic can be subtly ruthless when it wants to be." The Dark Lord stood once again at Jayden's side, the girl had not moved since being tortured and stood with a stillness that reminded him of dead bodies. Was it true that she was just a magically made construct? Suddenly the Dark Lord wrapped a hand around Jayden's neck as squeezed tightly. The girl did nothing, she was unresponsive despite her skin flushing and her lips lips bluing. She was released just as quickly, as still as she had started. Something about it made Voldemort furious as he turned his wand on Severus with a quick "Crucio!" He had felt his Master's rage course through him plenty of times before, but it had never been this intense, this bright hot. His nerves were on fire and his body was spasming. He had prided himself on the fact that he had never screamed and had taken his punishments silently, but he realized now that Voldemort had always been holding back. He had always been waiting for this moment when Severus realized his role in everything.

Voldemort kept Snape under the curse for a few minutes only, but his rage burned its way with enough vigor that the man was twitching uncontrollably by the time his screaming stopped. Harry bloody Potter had never been a Potter by blood, he had always been a Snape, the last in the line of Princes. That revelation had infuriated him to no end when he found out. He had hoped that Severus would be permanently swayed to his side eventually by the actions of the Light alone. All the distrust despite bringing them useful bits of information should have bought his loyalty eventually, especially when Dumbledore had been the one to set the wards; he was the one that knew that Pettigrew was a Death Eater and still allowed the switch to happen. But, Severus would never turn from his own son with Lily Evans. He turned and faced Jayden and his rage returned. Oh, he had felt betrayed once he read that book. It explained why Jayden had suddenly stilled, as if nothing more than a machine to be turned on and off, not that she would remember. She had been his first friend. Of course, she had told him who she was, but that had been a fabrication made by her family. Jayden was the last of the constructs made to protect the Slytherin line, the last of the gifts given by Ravenclaw's blood. She had no idea that her existence was not real in the sense that he was real. The reason he had told her to stay away was so that he could figure out his plans; he had wanted to change some things if she was going to be a more constant figure again. All his fantasies and wishes aside, nothing could go back to the way it was if the magic was gone. Using the bloodties to Rowena in the forest while he was not there depleted the magic used in her making. They were stronger together because they were attuned to be so; their magic fed off each other's to the point that she could use it to sustain herself. Her magic had been separated from his for too long and he had made too many modifications to his own for hers to recognize. It was too different now to take in. He hadn't bothered to consider it when he thought her to be dead and gone. Every spell and rush of magic depleted what was being used to sustain her. He knew it immediately when she bared her teeth at him after having forced two magicals through his mansion in order to get to him. She hadn't known who he was and her mind had closed off from his. He was unaware of what magical beast or blood made up the majority of her body, but she had started to revert to the more animalistic parts of herself in his presence. She had felt her need to be close, but had damned herself by coming through now by force. He had lost her once, had mourned her then. Now, her existence was more of an inconvenience when she would wither away in due time. She would become more beast like in manner. Then, her body would just simply stop. He stepped away from her and sat on his throne. There was a reason why golems, homunculi, and other such lifelike constructs had been forbidden.

The Knights of Walpurgis had been formed as a way to protect Magic; though the creation of his horcruxes had led to terrible decisions. Now that he was free of any mental deficiencies, he realized that killing their people was not the way to go. Sure, the Muggle hating agenda had worked to garner people to his side, but before when it had just been him, Jayden, and his friends they had spoken about collecting magical wisdom around the globe. He had also wanted to find a way to make Jayden fully human. Severus was struggling to move on the floor, capturing his attention. His Dark Mark contrasted well against the pale skin. He tilted his head in thought. How many Death Eaters had he marked before changing his body? Most of the pureblood scions and at least one son. How many were alive now? He stood, straightening his robes before grabbing hold of Jayden's wrist and pulling Severus towards them with a wordless Accio. The three disapparated with a loud crack.

...

...

...

(1) This "theory" was not my original creation and is based on the explanation given by Harry Potter to Severus Snape in chapter 3 of Again and Again by Athey. I'm not sure if this is the only mention of it, but it is the only one I have seen so far. I've tweaked it a bit for my own purposes.