Rating: Mature

Spoilers: HBP

With someone of his stature, Death Eater, Pungent Potions Professor, All-Around Greasy Git, carnal opportunities would not often come without promises of remuneration.

Still, that didn't stop him from dreaming.

Night-swaddled fantasies of Lily before Potter defiled her maidenhead. Dreams soaked in history that denied 17 years of Voldemort, Horcruxes, and blame.

Yet now those desires from a schoolboy fantasy were joined by something richer and darker. A thirst for the truth to be revealed… vows to be uncovered…

…an addiction to absolution now his greatest vice.