Short fanfic: "Bewitched and Ensnared"
Title: "Bewitched and Ensnared" by Susan (mooncove)
Pairings: Snape/Lily, Barbossa/Calypso
Fandom: “Harry Potter” meets “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Genre: het/gen, crossover
Spoilers/prerequisites: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End
Rating: PG(-13?) for sexually suggestive situations (no worse than AWE)
Word count: ~2000
Disclaimer: All characters are property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, Warner Brothers, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Walt Disney/Buena Vista Pictures, and others. No profit is being made or sought from this flight of fancy, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Light-hearted imagining of what might transpire immediately following the endings of both stories (above). This reverie was brought on by a sense of melancholy after finishing the final Potter book combined with a plot bunny from The Tailor of Panama starring Geoffrey Rush. (Alas, I haven't been able to find a Beta reader--so constructive feedback and suggestions are welcome here. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.)
~~~~~~
“Look . . . at . . . me.” He rasped the words out with the last traces of breath he could muster as the life drained inexorably from him.
The black eyes found the green, the familiar bright green that he had not seen, been unable to see, for over sixteen years. Now with the painful memories he’d so long girded himself with released at last, he could see as never before: Here she’d been all along, right here in the eyes of the boy he’d been sworn to protect but whose exterior he could never see past for the torment the boy’s father had wrought upon him. And as the green engulfed him, and the sensation of the cloth in his fist faded, faded . . . There she was. Could it really be?
Before him stood an angel. Lily. Kneeling over him, those same bright green eyes he had seen but a moment before but set in a kind female face framed with thick, dark-red hair.
“Severus.” He was in heaven! Never would he have dreamt . . .
“Severus, my friend, I’m so sorry for hurting you. I was a fool; I never thought . . .” The green was diluted by a pool of liquid that leaked droplets upon his black robe. “You saved my child. You sacrificed yourself to save Harry. He--he’s alive! Voldemort is vanquished, dead, never to return, and it’s because of you. Sev, my love, my best friend . . .” And she fell upon his prone body dampening his face with her happy tears.
“I love you.” Severus Snape never imagined he would hear those words coming from his own mouth again. He reached up to touch her hair, instead taking her chin in his hand, his lips parting to meet those of the only woman he had ever loved, who had long ago turned her back on him because of his own misguided arrogance.
Lily turned aside. “I--I love you too, Sev. But . . . I can’t stay. James. And Sirius. They’re here too; they know how you still feel about them and agreed to give us a moment alone. It’s just, well, we can be friends, you and I, but . . . I know you wouldn’t be happy here with us.”
“Am I doomed after all then? Is this purgatory? Be honest; you were the only one I could always trust to be honest with me.”
“Of course not, Sev. There are many places . . .”
“All I’ve ever wanted these past twenty years was to see you again, to talk. To explain, to--”
“There's nothing to explain; I know everything. You’re the bravest man I ever met. Even Harry realizes it now.”
He closed his eyes in bittersweet satisfaction. “So you know I’m just a half-blood?”
“Of course. But to me, Sev, you’re a prince, Sev.”
“Perhaps, now we’re older and wiser, we can all forgive one another--”
“Forgive, yes, but you and I can never be together in the way you want. We’ve always been a part of one another, regardless of anything that divided us--I've seen your Patronus--but James and . . . Well, I know the suffering you've been through, and I just don’t want to hurt you anymore.”
Where moments ago memories had flooded from his black eyes, tears began to form. Tears he had cried under a Muffliatus charm so many nights in his lonely quarters but which no one, no one but Dumbledore, would ever have guessed he was capable of.
“Where am I to go then, Lily? What is the after-life without you? Why must my existence go on so interminably?"
“Well, there’s another way, Sev. Remus--you know how grateful he was to you for the kindness you showed him--and James too . . . they helped me work it all out. Do you remember, Sev, how we used to sit down by the river all afternoon, watching the water rush toward the sea and sharing our fantasies of what we might do if we’d been Muggles instead?”
“How could I forget a single thing we shared, Lily? You were my life, my only reason for carrying on.”
She smiled sadly. “Didn’t you once joke how you’d love to go to sea and be a pirate?”
A sly smile curled his lip. “Oh, yes, always quite the joker, wasn’t I?”
“I think you meant it, Sev.”
He sighed and pursed his lips. “You always knew me better than anyone else. Just don’t tell me you’re suggesting . . .”
“Well, you see, you’d have to travel to the past, but from here, for our kind, that’s no problem. You see, there’s this pirate crew, afflicted by a curse they brought upon themselves. Realizing the error of their ways, they managed to lift the curse in time to bring a number of these pirates back from a living death, but one of them, their captain--a lonely sort, but you’d admire his bravery, Sev, and his sense of humor--he was killed. Stone dead. Only moments before the curse was ended. Yet he was revived, brought back to life by the sea goddess Calypso.”
He shook his head, feeling his strength returning as though nothing had happened at all, although he would be content to remain in this position for quite a long time indeed. “Intriguing, Lily, but what are you suggesting? That I sell my soul to Calypso to become a pirate?” He stifled a laugh, and he was pleased to see Lily suppressing one of her own.
“Well, you see, this captain already has a sort of . . . ‘relationship’ with her. And he’s in desperate need of a little magic at the moment. Nothing difficult, not for you. You’d find it a real lark, I know you would. And you could travel the world collecting rare ingredients for your potions. Just for a while, of course, before we meet again. You know that I’m always with you in spirit.” She nodded toward a space in the darkness from whence the walls of the dusty, creaking Shrieking Shack had receded, and following her gaze, Snape saw the faint glow of silver growing stronger as a small doe took shape.
“What? A doe at sea?” he scoffed.
“Why not? It’s no less usual than a wizard at sea, is it? It'll be fun, Sev.” The years had melted away, and the girl leaning over him was a teenager again, his best friend, hanging out by the riverside, her green eyes sparkling in the summer sunlight.
“I don’t want this moment to end, Lily. I want to see you again. Like this. Please.”
“You will. Just keep on the right path. And don’t let the pirates know what side you're on either, or they’ll . . . Well, at least they keep their swords sharp.”
He sighed at the prospect of keeping his allegiances hidden from yet another group of people. “Promise? You’ll never leave me?”
“Never.”
“Very well. For your sake . . why not? As Albus always said, this is just the next great adventure. And you know my spirit is with yours always as well.”
“I know it, Sev. I want so much for you to be happy.” And she pressed her lips to his.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hector Barbossa stood on the quarterdeck of the Black Pearl staring in horror at the gaping hole in the map. “No!!!” he cried before realizing how incompetent he looked to the crew gathered round him, trusting him to set their course and lead them to the Fountain of Youth he'd just promised them. And then how much more foolish he would look when he gave the order to go about and pick up that insufferable rogue who’d got the better of him yet again. No, he would not share command of the Pearl. She was his! Rightfully his. Pirate captains were chosen by the crew and could be deposed at any time; there was no such thing as mutiny among the Brethren! “Calypso!” he heard himself shouting.
He spied the darkly beautiful Caribbean sea nymph slowly ascending the companionway back in her human form, a look of angry suspicion on her painted face. “Why have you disturbed me again?” she demanded, her voice a lovely dagger. For a terrifying moment, she glared at Barbossa. Then her look softened as she began to slink towards him. “Have ye learned to speak like a lover den, Captain? Would ye like to try it again?” She stopped by the side of Ragetti, who blushed, his one good eye rolling, as she brushed against his tall, gaunt body. “Or is it dis young swain I ought t’ be addressin'?”
Barbossa composed himself. “No, my dear, ’tis meself summoned ye.” He took her hand and led her to a far corner of the quarterdeck as the crew, still in trembling awe of the fury she had so recently unleashed upon them, backed away but couldn’t take their eyes away from the spectacle. Jack the monkey screeched gleefully and skittered up the rigging for a better view of the entertainment that was sure to follow.
“Now, Calypso, my dear . . .” Her right hand still in his left, he raised it just to chin level, brushed it chivalrously with his lips, and wrapped his right arm around her back, pulling her against him and leading her in a slow, rhythmic circle. His lips gently grazed the edge of her ear as they danced, his voice as smooth as silk spread over a cold stone floor. “Ye know full well I did me best to release you from your human bonds--and so you have been--but the extremity of our situation made it most difficult to speak as a lover in such a moment, much as I felt it in my heart.”
“And your mind is no longer in extremity?” she countered.
“Now it is consumed with you.”
Calypso laughed. “You are improving, dat I’ll allow. But what is it you’re truly wantin’ of me now, Hector?”
“A bit of your magic.”
“Like dis?” Her warm, full lips slid against his. He held back a yelp of pain as the part of his lower lip between her blackened teeth threatened to erupt with blood. Then she released him with a scowl. “What is it you’re truly wantin’ of me now, Hector?”
Hoping the crew hadn’t detected his weakness, he stuttered quietly. “There be this chart, ye see . . .”
“Dis one here?” He sighed as her hand slithered sensuously down his right side into his large coat pocket, pulling out the hinged bamboo chart and unrolling it with a flick of her wrist. “Is it dis hole you’d have filled den?”
The charming smile he gave her could not hide the fear in his eyes, yet he kept his voice soft and gentle. “Er, well, yes, it would be, if ye would do me so great a kindness, my beloved.”
Knitting her brows, Calypso gathered the enchanted parchment into her fist again. “Ah, my sweet,” she grinned and pressed her blackened lips to Barbossa’s once more. He closed his eyes and, resuming their dance, holding her tightly, led her backward, backward toward the transom.
“Well, this is touching,” came a deep, rich, velvety voice and refined English accent that was not at all like Calypso’s from the slender body ensnared in Barbossa’s arms. The pirate opened his bloodshot blue eyes which, to his horror, were met by the black, impenetrable eyes of a rather scrawny, hook-nosed man in long black robes whose shiny black hair hung in curtains around his pale face. The crumpled chart was clutched in his hand just as it had been in Calypso’s. “But a little excessive, don’t you think? I heard you were in need of some magic.”
From everywhere and nowhere came the mirthful cackle of the seductive sea nymph, while in the crow’s nest above, Snape glimpsed the faint silver outline of a gentle, winking doe and winked slyly back.
Pairings: Snape/Lily, Barbossa/Calypso
Fandom: “Harry Potter” meets “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Genre: het/gen, crossover
Spoilers/prerequisites: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End
Rating: PG(-13?) for sexually suggestive situations (no worse than AWE)
Word count: ~2000
Disclaimer: All characters are property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, Warner Brothers, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Walt Disney/Buena Vista Pictures, and others. No profit is being made or sought from this flight of fancy, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Light-hearted imagining of what might transpire immediately following the endings of both stories (above). This reverie was brought on by a sense of melancholy after finishing the final Potter book combined with a plot bunny from The Tailor of Panama starring Geoffrey Rush. (Alas, I haven't been able to find a Beta reader--so constructive feedback and suggestions are welcome here. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.)
~~~~~~
“Look . . . at . . . me.” He rasped the words out with the last traces of breath he could muster as the life drained inexorably from him.
The black eyes found the green, the familiar bright green that he had not seen, been unable to see, for over sixteen years. Now with the painful memories he’d so long girded himself with released at last, he could see as never before: Here she’d been all along, right here in the eyes of the boy he’d been sworn to protect but whose exterior he could never see past for the torment the boy’s father had wrought upon him. And as the green engulfed him, and the sensation of the cloth in his fist faded, faded . . . There she was. Could it really be?
Before him stood an angel. Lily. Kneeling over him, those same bright green eyes he had seen but a moment before but set in a kind female face framed with thick, dark-red hair.
“Severus.” He was in heaven! Never would he have dreamt . . .
“Severus, my friend, I’m so sorry for hurting you. I was a fool; I never thought . . .” The green was diluted by a pool of liquid that leaked droplets upon his black robe. “You saved my child. You sacrificed yourself to save Harry. He--he’s alive! Voldemort is vanquished, dead, never to return, and it’s because of you. Sev, my love, my best friend . . .” And she fell upon his prone body dampening his face with her happy tears.
“I love you.” Severus Snape never imagined he would hear those words coming from his own mouth again. He reached up to touch her hair, instead taking her chin in his hand, his lips parting to meet those of the only woman he had ever loved, who had long ago turned her back on him because of his own misguided arrogance.
Lily turned aside. “I--I love you too, Sev. But . . . I can’t stay. James. And Sirius. They’re here too; they know how you still feel about them and agreed to give us a moment alone. It’s just, well, we can be friends, you and I, but . . . I know you wouldn’t be happy here with us.”
“Am I doomed after all then? Is this purgatory? Be honest; you were the only one I could always trust to be honest with me.”
“Of course not, Sev. There are many places . . .”
“All I’ve ever wanted these past twenty years was to see you again, to talk. To explain, to--”
“There's nothing to explain; I know everything. You’re the bravest man I ever met. Even Harry realizes it now.”
He closed his eyes in bittersweet satisfaction. “So you know I’m just a half-blood?”
“Of course. But to me, Sev, you’re a prince, Sev.”
“Perhaps, now we’re older and wiser, we can all forgive one another--”
“Forgive, yes, but you and I can never be together in the way you want. We’ve always been a part of one another, regardless of anything that divided us--I've seen your Patronus--but James and . . . Well, I know the suffering you've been through, and I just don’t want to hurt you anymore.”
Where moments ago memories had flooded from his black eyes, tears began to form. Tears he had cried under a Muffliatus charm so many nights in his lonely quarters but which no one, no one but Dumbledore, would ever have guessed he was capable of.
“Where am I to go then, Lily? What is the after-life without you? Why must my existence go on so interminably?"
“Well, there’s another way, Sev. Remus--you know how grateful he was to you for the kindness you showed him--and James too . . . they helped me work it all out. Do you remember, Sev, how we used to sit down by the river all afternoon, watching the water rush toward the sea and sharing our fantasies of what we might do if we’d been Muggles instead?”
“How could I forget a single thing we shared, Lily? You were my life, my only reason for carrying on.”
She smiled sadly. “Didn’t you once joke how you’d love to go to sea and be a pirate?”
A sly smile curled his lip. “Oh, yes, always quite the joker, wasn’t I?”
“I think you meant it, Sev.”
He sighed and pursed his lips. “You always knew me better than anyone else. Just don’t tell me you’re suggesting . . .”
“Well, you see, you’d have to travel to the past, but from here, for our kind, that’s no problem. You see, there’s this pirate crew, afflicted by a curse they brought upon themselves. Realizing the error of their ways, they managed to lift the curse in time to bring a number of these pirates back from a living death, but one of them, their captain--a lonely sort, but you’d admire his bravery, Sev, and his sense of humor--he was killed. Stone dead. Only moments before the curse was ended. Yet he was revived, brought back to life by the sea goddess Calypso.”
He shook his head, feeling his strength returning as though nothing had happened at all, although he would be content to remain in this position for quite a long time indeed. “Intriguing, Lily, but what are you suggesting? That I sell my soul to Calypso to become a pirate?” He stifled a laugh, and he was pleased to see Lily suppressing one of her own.
“Well, you see, this captain already has a sort of . . . ‘relationship’ with her. And he’s in desperate need of a little magic at the moment. Nothing difficult, not for you. You’d find it a real lark, I know you would. And you could travel the world collecting rare ingredients for your potions. Just for a while, of course, before we meet again. You know that I’m always with you in spirit.” She nodded toward a space in the darkness from whence the walls of the dusty, creaking Shrieking Shack had receded, and following her gaze, Snape saw the faint glow of silver growing stronger as a small doe took shape.
“What? A doe at sea?” he scoffed.
“Why not? It’s no less usual than a wizard at sea, is it? It'll be fun, Sev.” The years had melted away, and the girl leaning over him was a teenager again, his best friend, hanging out by the riverside, her green eyes sparkling in the summer sunlight.
“I don’t want this moment to end, Lily. I want to see you again. Like this. Please.”
“You will. Just keep on the right path. And don’t let the pirates know what side you're on either, or they’ll . . . Well, at least they keep their swords sharp.”
He sighed at the prospect of keeping his allegiances hidden from yet another group of people. “Promise? You’ll never leave me?”
“Never.”
“Very well. For your sake . . why not? As Albus always said, this is just the next great adventure. And you know my spirit is with yours always as well.”
“I know it, Sev. I want so much for you to be happy.” And she pressed her lips to his.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hector Barbossa stood on the quarterdeck of the Black Pearl staring in horror at the gaping hole in the map. “No!!!” he cried before realizing how incompetent he looked to the crew gathered round him, trusting him to set their course and lead them to the Fountain of Youth he'd just promised them. And then how much more foolish he would look when he gave the order to go about and pick up that insufferable rogue who’d got the better of him yet again. No, he would not share command of the Pearl. She was his! Rightfully his. Pirate captains were chosen by the crew and could be deposed at any time; there was no such thing as mutiny among the Brethren! “Calypso!” he heard himself shouting.
He spied the darkly beautiful Caribbean sea nymph slowly ascending the companionway back in her human form, a look of angry suspicion on her painted face. “Why have you disturbed me again?” she demanded, her voice a lovely dagger. For a terrifying moment, she glared at Barbossa. Then her look softened as she began to slink towards him. “Have ye learned to speak like a lover den, Captain? Would ye like to try it again?” She stopped by the side of Ragetti, who blushed, his one good eye rolling, as she brushed against his tall, gaunt body. “Or is it dis young swain I ought t’ be addressin'?”
Barbossa composed himself. “No, my dear, ’tis meself summoned ye.” He took her hand and led her to a far corner of the quarterdeck as the crew, still in trembling awe of the fury she had so recently unleashed upon them, backed away but couldn’t take their eyes away from the spectacle. Jack the monkey screeched gleefully and skittered up the rigging for a better view of the entertainment that was sure to follow.
“Now, Calypso, my dear . . .” Her right hand still in his left, he raised it just to chin level, brushed it chivalrously with his lips, and wrapped his right arm around her back, pulling her against him and leading her in a slow, rhythmic circle. His lips gently grazed the edge of her ear as they danced, his voice as smooth as silk spread over a cold stone floor. “Ye know full well I did me best to release you from your human bonds--and so you have been--but the extremity of our situation made it most difficult to speak as a lover in such a moment, much as I felt it in my heart.”
“And your mind is no longer in extremity?” she countered.
“Now it is consumed with you.”
Calypso laughed. “You are improving, dat I’ll allow. But what is it you’re truly wantin’ of me now, Hector?”
“A bit of your magic.”
“Like dis?” Her warm, full lips slid against his. He held back a yelp of pain as the part of his lower lip between her blackened teeth threatened to erupt with blood. Then she released him with a scowl. “What is it you’re truly wantin’ of me now, Hector?”
Hoping the crew hadn’t detected his weakness, he stuttered quietly. “There be this chart, ye see . . .”
“Dis one here?” He sighed as her hand slithered sensuously down his right side into his large coat pocket, pulling out the hinged bamboo chart and unrolling it with a flick of her wrist. “Is it dis hole you’d have filled den?”
The charming smile he gave her could not hide the fear in his eyes, yet he kept his voice soft and gentle. “Er, well, yes, it would be, if ye would do me so great a kindness, my beloved.”
Knitting her brows, Calypso gathered the enchanted parchment into her fist again. “Ah, my sweet,” she grinned and pressed her blackened lips to Barbossa’s once more. He closed his eyes and, resuming their dance, holding her tightly, led her backward, backward toward the transom.
“Well, this is touching,” came a deep, rich, velvety voice and refined English accent that was not at all like Calypso’s from the slender body ensnared in Barbossa’s arms. The pirate opened his bloodshot blue eyes which, to his horror, were met by the black, impenetrable eyes of a rather scrawny, hook-nosed man in long black robes whose shiny black hair hung in curtains around his pale face. The crumpled chart was clutched in his hand just as it had been in Calypso’s. “But a little excessive, don’t you think? I heard you were in need of some magic.”
From everywhere and nowhere came the mirthful cackle of the seductive sea nymph, while in the crow’s nest above, Snape glimpsed the faint silver outline of a gentle, winking doe and winked slyly back.