Who: Walden and Severus What: Walden is going to beat the shit out of Severus for fucking his daughter. When: Sunday 9 December 2002 Where: Severus' room, Hogwarts. Why: Because Louisa moved out. Rating: Ugly. Status: Intensive Care Unit.
Walden had always thought that divorce and prison where the worst things that could have happened to him, but he was wrong. Not speaking to his daughter was the worst thing. And it wasn't even something he could discuss with very many other people either. No one seemed to be able to understand the full scope of it, save for Rodolphus. And now- that threat - that threat that if he tried to defend her honour against Snape it would mean that he cared more about her honour than her feelings and she would move out and no longer speak to him - that threat he was forced to give in to, was all for absolutely nothing because she was moving out anyway (prompted by her brother), which meant all bets were off. And Severus Snape was his. Afterwards Snape could do whatever it was he wanted with his daughter, if any of his parts worked afterwards. And as far as Ben went... it would be a very long time before he could trust him again, if ever. Much less speak to him. It wasn't his fucking place to interfere in the relationship between Walden and Louisa, and the fact that he kept doing things to 'protect' his mother and sister from him, even after all this time, made it clear that Ben didn't trust him. The whole fucking thing was maddening, infuriating, and incredibly painful. After five years of continuing to feel and see a divide in his house, a clear delineation of them against him, that they all denied, he had started to think it was all in his head. It wasn't really like that, he was being paranoid and they were all a family- but he had been right all along. This little turn of events was also the thing, Walden assumed, that would end his marriage this time. He knew Katherina would ultimately side with her children, and Walden would be more obviously alone again. (Obvious to everyone else, he had always felt it, in one way or another.) He was preparing himself for it. Had been since Louisa dropped her bomb. He could see it coming.
But finally Walden was going to get to do what he had wanted to do from the beginning, he was going to beat Severus Snape within an inch of his life. It was only his love for his daughter that would keep him from killing Snape outright. He had been planning this for over a year now. It had been a fantasy, what got him through the pain of not speaking to Louisa, the only one who had ever defended him. The only one of his entire family, including his parents, who he had ever felt loved him unconditionally. And he had been wrong. Her love for him was as conditional as everyone else's. And now the only pleasure he got, aside from time he was able to spend with just Katherina pretending everything was fine, was formulating his plan to bring Severus Snape to the edge of death and dangle him over it until he wanted to die - for ruining his family, for fucking his daughter, for destroying his life.
Sunday was when he was going to carry out his plan. Sunday nights were quieter in the castle, few people were around, and the staff didn't tend to be very busy. Walden had lived in the castle long enough to know where he could find the headmaster and when. First he made sure that it was an evening when Katherina had plans with Louisa, so he could be assured she wasn't with Snape when this went down.
Arriving at the castle just after curfew, Walden quietly made his way in and to the dungeon where Severus' room had been for the last quarter of a century. Walden couldn't imagine living in this castle for thirty-two years. Glancing at his watch, he knew that Severus wasn't in his room yet, it was still a little too early, so he went to the end of the corridor, and sat on the wide ledge of the small lead glass window to wait. After about twenty minutes, Snape came around the corner, his bloody fucking robes billowing out as if he put breeze charms under them to give it that effect. Walden waited. The widow was far enough past Snape's room that unless Severus was looking for him, he was unlikely to be noticed. With deep hatred he watched that slimy paedophile go to his door, tap the knob with his wand, and enter. And not until then did Walden jump down from the ledge and hurry to Snape's door. Wanting him to still be on his feet, intending to take him by surprise.
Severus generally liked Sundays, they were normally pretty low-key, relatively quiet, most students were doing the homework they hadn't gotten to earlier in the weekend and curfew was now an hour earlier, due to not having a permanent Dean of Discipline in the castle (How had they ever gotten along with out one before?), professors taking time off, the librarian being out.. but mostly the earlier cerfew was for his own convenience. Frankly, the staffing was mess right now, and a bloody embarrassment for Severus who was trying his damnedest to keep under wraps just how bad things were. He was covering classes, and disciplining students, having to close the library at times, and on a few occasions even cutting his own classes short, something he had never, in almost thirty years of teaching, done. If Voldemort would just let Lucius come back, it would relieve so much pressure. He also wanted to offer Louisa the interim position of librarian, but that idea had come just after she had made the decision to move out of her parents house and into a flat with her brother, and Severus just didn’t want to add to her plate, so hadn't yet brought it up.
Another reason he liked Sundays was because he usually had more down time, which meant he could usually see Louisa. And that was always the best part of any week. Lately he had almost no free time, which was difficult for him now. There was a time in his life, most of his life really, that being busy every minute of the day was a relief, and unfilled time was a burden. How different things were now. However, this Sunday she was busy doing just moved house things , so after the last rounds of the evening, Severus returned to his room alone where he expected to stay up too late grading papers.
Tapping the doorknob with his wand, Severus entered his room, and only had time to lock it behind him, and unbutton the top button of his robes before there was a knock at the door. There were only a couple of people who ever came to his door, some of whom weren't even in the castle right now, so he was a bit surprised at having a visitor, but not so much so that he felt the need to be cautious when he answered. However, he would learn his lesson, and from this point forward would forever be careful, and slightly nervous, opening any door.
Sighing deeply before turning the knob, Severus jerked it open in his patented 'I don’t have time for this' manner, "What do yo-" and then he saw who was standing there, and it stopped him cold. It was impossible to talk when your heart was in your stomach, and your stomach was a sudden heavy black pit. This was it. He knew, no matter what Louisa said, or believed, that this was going to happen at some point, and now here it was. Why in the hell did Walden have to wait until a time when he was busiest and most needed around the school, at least the holidays were coming up and he would have time to recover. But that was as deep as Severus' thinking could go, because Walden barely let the door open fully before he threw the first punch.
The aggressive Death Eater had considered every available possibility for how he would get this started, and as attractive as magic was, he was much more interested in feeling the asshole's skin, cartilage, and bones give way under his fist than being across the room completely disconnected from the harm he was causing. He wanted to feel every bit of it, while giving Severus a very small taste of the pain he, himself, felt.
Walden's fist landed just aside Severus' nose, which was sort of disappointing, since it would be difficult to tell if there was any damage, or worse, he might have accidentally fixed it and made him look better. As the lighter man stumbled back several feet, Walden slammed the door shut with his foot, turned and put his own locking charm on the door, then returned his attention to Snape.
There were actual stars. In the midst of the unexpected pain, Severus noticed that he actually saw stars when he was hit in the face. And here he had always thought it was a trope, but no, there were actual stars in his vision, excruciating pain made stars. The worst part was that he knew this was only the beginning of the pain he was going to feel. And the most he could do about it was to protect himself. He couldn't even defend himself. He wasn't going to risk hurting the father of the person he loved. No matter what Walden did to him. Frankly, Severus didn't even blame the man for this reaction. He loved Louisa too, and would never want someone like himself with her. He got it. He understood how Walden felt about him, far more than he understood what, or more correctly, why Louisa felt the way she did about him.
"She was your fucking student, you fucking pervert," Walden growled angrily. "You’ve been teaching her since she was eleven." Grabbing Severus by the front of his robes, he punched him in the mouth three times, before the other man was able to wrench himself away.
Blood poured from Severus' mouth, and trickled from his nose. He staggered back and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, trying to devise his best course of action. Even knowing this day would eventually come, he had never landed on a good way to handle it when it did. And he was no closer to a solution now.
"Yes, it was wrong," he admitted thickly, through the blood and his swollen tongue that he seemed to have bitten. "You have every right to be angry." Which Severus truly believed. Mostly because of how little he thought of himself, but regardless, he didn't really think Walden was out of line. Excessive, maybe, but certainly within his rights as the father of a quite remarkable young woman to be angry that his colleague, who was more than twice his daughter's age, would become sexually involved with her. Even though he had no children of his own, he could fully sympathise with Walden's position. Perhaps because of the parental feelings he had toward all his students (which made the thing with Louisa even more wrong) or perhaps it was because of how strong his feelings for Louisa were. Not that it mattered either way.
"Don't fucking agree with me," Walden barked, as he approached Severus again. "You don't get to fucking agree with me AND still keep fuck my daughter, you slimy fucking fuck!"
Severus backed up, hands raised slightly, defensively, knowing he should just keep his mouth shut and get this over with, but somehow words just kept coming out. "I'm sorry. I know there is an entire world of wizards with whom you'd rather her be," he skirted around the small table that sat behind the chairs facing the fireplace, putting it between them. "But I'll always be good to her." There was a lot more he wanted to say, but each word was just digging his grave that much deeper.
"For the love of fucking everything, Shut. The fuck. Up!" Then with very little effort Walden flipped the table between them out of the way, and reached for Severus' throat, backing him between the chairs to the mantle, where he banged him against it, several times, hard. The wind had been knocked out of Severus, and he couldn't help himself. He was holding Walden's wrist with both hands, trying to pry his hand off his neck, while actually being choked, but he lost his grip with the sharp pains to his back, and he started swinging wildly, but weakly, landing nothing. Even with all his exercising and working out, even with all the muscles under his robes, Severus was no match for Walden. Walden also worked out, plus Walden had self-esteem and fury fueling him. Severus, no matter how many ripples he built in his stomach, was still that skinny, awkward kid who was always picked on.
Walden suddenly released his grip on Severus' neck, and as it came completely unexpected, Severus crumpled to the ground like he had no bones. "Get up," Walden growled, looming over the pile of pathetic headmaster on the floor . And because he wanted this to go as smoothly, and come to an end as quickly, as possible, Severus pushed himself to his feet, with a great deal of pain, even more humiliation, and a lot of assistance from the fireplace. Eventually he was standing. Or actually, leaning to the left a little. His head wasn't feeling like it was on correctly.
Pacing in a tiny angry loop, Walden waited, impatiently, for Snape to be upright and as soon as he was Walden hauled off and punched him in the stomach. Severus doubled over, giving an "uff" noise, and Walden pulled his hand away looked at it in surprise, then he shook it out. He hadn't been prepared for the hard muscle with which his fist made contact. That discovery only served to piss him off further, and create a morbid curiosity.
Severus wanted to help the situation, to say the right things, but he knew that was impossible. And for Walden, every word out of Snape's exacerbated what he was feeling. And nothing was helped by the discovery that Severus was apparently all muscle under his clothes, which his daughter would be familiar with, made Walden's skin crawl. But the worst was the fuck wouldn't fucking fight back.
"Take out your wand," Walden said slowly, as he pulled out his own. His breathing was ragged and he was tired of beating someone who wanted to be beaten.
One arm curled around his middle, Severus swiped the back of his hand across his still bleeding mouth as he tried to straighten. It hurt too much to be able to stand fully. He couldn't even take a deep breath. "No," he croaked. "I'm not going to fight you, Walden. I care too much for Louisa. It would hurt her too much."
At this Walden couldn't help but laugh, as he shrugged, put away his wand, and rolled up his sleeves. It was as if someone had handed Severus a script that gave him word for word the absolute worst things he could say. Now Severus was implying that Walden didn't love his daughter. That he cared for her more than her own father did. That was just a step too far. And Walden no longer cared whether or not Severus fought back. If he didn't, all the better. Walden would walk away unscathed. Or so he thought.
"I always thought you were smart, you fucking son-of-a-bitch," Walden spat between clinched teeth. Then, swinging from low to high, he delivered an upper cut, catching Severus under his chin. Head thrown, he was knocked off his feet to land on his back on the floor. As Severus went down, his robes tangled around a chair that toppled with him, the leg of which smacked him right between the eyes just before the back of his head struck the stone hearth.
Severus was rather amazed by his ability to feel so very much pain at once, and be able to distinguish each kind. Also impressive was just how much pain he was capable of feeling in his head alone, while still managing to hold a thought. It wasn't a helpful thought, but at least it seemed to be keeping him from passing out. Though fainting would be a relief, he was afraid Walden just might take that opportunity to kill him. And for the first time in his memory, he liked his life and he didn't want to die.
Walden pulled the chair off of Severus and tossed it aside, then reached down and pulled him up by the front of his robes. "If my wife is going to leave me, and my daughter is never going to speak to me again, because I am fucking disgusted by you being sexually involved with my child when you should fucking know better, then I am going to make it worth my while." He noticed the small pool of blood on the hearth that had to come from the back of Snape's head, but Walden was too full of indignant fury, deep sadness, and dangerous adrenaline to be able to care, or stop.
Turning them around, he pushed Severus up against the nearest wall, and with one hand holding him there, he repeatedly punched him in the face, at short range, with all he was made of. Walden wasn't even seeing anymore, he wasn't thinking, or even fully aware of his actions. Severus on the other hand was all too in the moment, as he struggled to breathe between the fist hitting his face, and his head rebounding off the wall, through a mouth and nose filled with blood. Each blow sent new, sharp ripples of pain through him, and he was willing himself to remain conscious. He kept telling himself that Walden couldn't keep this up forever, and even thought the blows were coming fast, he could tell that Walden wasn't fully present. And he didn't become so until he felt the bones in Severus' cheek give way with a sickening crunch under his fist and he lost the ability to help hold himself up, that Walden came around and stopped battering his daughters boyfriend.
Releasing his grip, he let Snape crumple to the ground, and took out his wand again. By this point Severus was having problems with his vision, he couldn't tell if he had actually lost sight in his right eye, or if it was just too swollen and full of blood to see through right now. His nose was and at least one cheek bone were broken, and blood was pouring from his nose, mouth, and the back of his head. Now he didn't even care if Walden might kill him, he was just hoping to pass out before that happened. Everything was becoming shadowy.
"I may not be able to stop you from fucking her forever," Walden said breathlessly, as he stared down at Severus' body. Wand trained on him, he kicking at him until the man finally rolled onto his back. "But I can certainly put a fucking damper on it for a while. ENGORGIO!" And at very close range Walden blew Severus' genitals up three times the size they should have been. Severus screamed in pain and curled up into a ball, which only made it worse.
Hot angry tears stood in Walden's eyes as he leaned over, bending low to get close to Severus' barely recognizable face. "I have spent the last five years changing and adapting into what my family needed me to be. I have spent the last five years rebuilding relationships with my wife and children and fighting against my past. " By this point the tears that had been collecting began to fall straight from his lower lids to splash onto Severus' blood covered face. "And in one fell swoop, you have ripped it all from me. This was it, this was the final test, it was something I couldn't possibly keep from reacting to, and I failed. Utterly failed. You won. Congratufuckinglations. I don't think I've ever hated anyone in my entire life like I hate you. I'd rather her be with a dirty fucking muggle than spend one more second in your company."
And with that, Severus lost consciousness. Walden saw it happen. He gave a disgusted scoff, a last unseen sneer, then turned and left the room. Feeling lightheaded, he made his way up the dungeon stairs and was almost half way up when he stopped. He tried to talk himself out of what he was thinking, but finally uttered a loud curse before he turned around and went back to Severus' room, absolutely hating himself for what he was about to do.
Striding over to where Severus was passed out on the floor, Walden kicked him over, making sure he was no longer on his back, to keep him from drowning in his own blood. Then he sighed and looked around the room trying to decide how to do what he was going to have to do now. He needed to get Snape out, and to St. Mungo's, he couldn’t leave him here this injured. There was no telling how long it would be until someone found him. And Walden's intention was not to kill him, as much as he would have liked to.
It was the bloody fucking no apparating in and out of Hogwarts that made things extremely difficult for Walden in this particular situation. Then he recalled something-- the Headmaster and Voldemort were the only ones who were exceptions to that rule. Squatting down next to the bleeding, unconscious form, Walden riffled through his pockets, under layers and layers of clothing to find Snape's wand, which he then attempted to use to disapparate from the school to hospital. It didn't feel good, but it worked without any splinching. (Or at least Walden hadn't been splinched, it was hard to tell whether or not Severus had taken on any more damage.) They landed outside St. Mungo's A&E, and as quickly and efficiently as possibly he used a levitation charm to get Severus in the doors, placed his wand on his chest, left him with the first orderly he saw, and got the hell out of there.
From there Walden made three apparation jumps, paying no attention to where he landed. The man was too full of aching despair and debilitating grief. He found one lonely wizarding pub that was still opened, ordered a pint, and took a booth in the back. Reluctantly, he took out his wand and journal, and hexed a message to his daughter, then after giving it some thought, sent one to Amycus, to alert someone in the castle that the headmaster was incapacitated, and then one to Antonin, to let him know he wouldn't be into work tomorrow. After that he closed his journal and didn't open it again for the rest of the night. For the night he sat in that booth and drank, eventually switching from beer to fire-whiskey, until the bartender got too tired to stay awake and was ready to go home. Walden left, but he still didn't want to go home. He expected it to be empty, and that was worse than people being there to yell at him, or ignore him. For hours he wandered, thinking, finding the pain from the cold preferable to the pain in his heart.