Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all the characters of said series belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing.
……………………
Snape had always viewed
Draco as a son.
It was no accident that
Narcissa had asked him to give the unbreakable vow. Behind
the
pretenses of showing loyalty to the death eaters, and helping to
accomplish the greatest
mission they had ever undertaken, she had
come to him with the knowledge of what Draco
meant to him and what
Snape would do to keep him safe.
Lucius.
The name still seemed
to carry some sort of magical quality to him, as though he could
summon the elder Malfoy just by using the word. There still stretched
a line of control
connecting Severus to the man despite the years of
separation between them. Duty, and
Narcissa, had held more of an
importance for them then each other. Or maybe it was
that they both
clung too tightly to the emotion of pride to ever admit that what
they had
felt in their youth could have shaped the men they grew
into.
But Snape could
remember.
Mornings spent sneaking
off to the room of requirement to practice the dark arts that
meant
so much to the both of them. Days spent upon the lawn taunting that
Potter boy.
And the one breathless fight shared that ended in Lucius
pushing him against the wall
and stepping forward into Severus'
mouth.
Everything about their
relationship seemed about the struggle of two powers fighting for
dominance. Severus remembered, with a smirk, that the blond haired
man had seemed to
come out on top more often then naught – and in
more ways then one.
There was no doubt in
Snape's mind that it could never last.
After graduation Lucius
had conceded to his family's wishes and married Narcissa - who,
although lacked the heat and finesse with which both Lucius and
Severus commanded the
dark arts, made up for it by being able to bare
children. A son. Which should have been,
and would always seem to him
to be, his son. The one they never could have had together.
So he would keep safe
the Malfoy boy as if he were protecting a piece of Lucius himself.
For him he had sold his soul to the devil, for him he had helped wage
a war against the
rest of the world... and he would protect the one
piece of him he had left.
Or keep trying until the darkness finally claimed him.