Severus remembered their night in the Astronomy Tower with Nymphadora; she was blindfolded and bent over the railings as he dripped cold water onto her naked flesh. He reveled in the memory of his nipple clamps swaying in the dark of the night, glinting from the nearby torches on the battlements. They made that night, and that was the one memory that kept him sane and gave him hope after he had to betray the Order to secure his place among the Death Eaters. He remembered every time he used his toys on her, spanked her with his hand, paddle, even the canes once. Severus knew he had made a mistake when he realized that he had fallen in love with her, and he couldn't tell her that it all would have to come to a bitter end. All because I made that fucking promise to a dying man in the memory of a dead woman.