'V' FOR VENDETTA
Severus Snape eyed the young woman in front of him with hooded, cautious eyes, inwardly marveling at the blinding sparkle of her beautiful face. He resented it; he resented the fact that she could single-handedly ignite the entire restaurant when he himself seemed like a wasted corpse beside her.
"Mr. Snape," she said after the first few customary moments of silence, taking a delicate sip of coffee. "I'm afraid I'm not in the habit of beating about the bush, so I'll get to the point straightaway. I have a job proposition for you."
Severus smiled in spite of himself. He liked frankness in a woman; it was so very rare these days.
"And why do you think me capable of this job offer? It is rather well-known throughout the wizarding world that I'm an unemployed pauper." he said, urged by a sudden drive to acquire a compliment from her.
She raised an elegant eyebrow at him, and said, "Professor Horace Slughorn is my mentor, and he was the one who suggested your name to me. He speaks very highly of you. He told me you are an exceptionally gifted potioneer."
"Too bad that the Ministry of Magic does not recognize me as such," said Severus bitterly.
If the woman had noticed the bitterness in his voice, she did not show it.
"I started a potion-making firm two years ago, called 'The Druid'. I cannot say that it is a very successful firm…on the contrary, it is a struggling firm. We are badly in need of recruits, and funds are hard to come by—"
"Are you Lily Evans, the daughter of Archibald Evans?" Severus interrupted her suddenly.
Lily stiffened perceptibly. "Yes," she said after a moment.
No wonder her name sounded so familiar.
"The Chairperson of the Foxglove Apothecaries?" Severus prodded her.
"The ex-Chairperson," Lily corrected him. "The Foxglove Apothecaries was taken over by Potter Pharmaceuticals ten years ago."
Severus felt a surge of anger wash over him. "It was not taken over by Potter Pharmaceuticals, but usurped illegally, if I remember the Daily Prophet correctly."
Lily gave him a forced smile. "For big, influential people like the Potters, even an illegal Act in the Wizengamot becomes a birthright."
"The Potters are good at that sort of thing," snarled Severus. "Stealing other people's rights, swindling the weak, robbing patents, coercion and blackmail, adulterated potions, fake medicines…The list is endless…and yet they manage to get away with it all."
"Stephen Potter has many useful contacts," said Lily.
That was an understatement, thought Severus.
"If you don't mind my asking, how did it happen?" asked Severus, feeling as if he was playing with fire. But he couldn't help it. His hatred for James Potter needed all the fuel it could get.
Lily eyed him with a carefully expressionless face. "I do mind you asking about it; it is a rather personal matter."
"I'm sorry," mumbled Severus immediately.
"All the same," Lily continued, as if un-interrupted, "I will tell you my story, if you promise me that you will tell me yours."
"What makes you think that I've got a story to tell?" asked Severus with an amused glance at her.
"Mr. Snape," she said with an almost affectionate tone of voice. "Your hatred for the Potters is written all over your face. Its something we both have in common."
All his life, Severus had been used to bargaining with men and escaping scot-free from his side of the obligations. Yet, here was a woman who knew what she wanted, and here he was ready to accept any terms that she could possibly name. He felt a terrifying hunger to know more about her.
"I'll give you more than a promise, Miss Evans," he said, after looking at her long enough to notice the stray feather on her collar. "I'll put my life on an open book before you."
"My father, Archibald Evans started Foxglove Apothecaries forty years ago," began Lily without further ado. "He did it all on his own, and his devotion to his work saw the firm rise to great heights. Within a decade, Foxglove became the leading potion-brewing firm of England. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Potter Pharmaceuticals, who up till then had monopolized the Potions market. Since they couldn't beat their rival—Foxglove-- in efficiency, they tried a new approach to the problem."
"And what approach was that?"
"Something that my father had not anticipated…. Something that he should have remembered," said Lily.
Severus waited with bated breath.
"Stephen Potter, trustee of Potter Pharmaceuticals, persuaded the Wizengamot to implement the Wizarding Restriction Act. The Wizarding Restriction Act states clearly that only wizards and witches of proper wizarding background have the right to establish, own or manage any kind of business-firm in the wizarding world. This, of course, meant that anyone who cannot perform magic does not have the legal power to run a potion-manufacturing firm."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Severus Snape.
"My father was a squib, Mr. Snape," said Lily, and suddenly, her story began to make a lot of sense to him. "And squibs are a disgrace to the wizarding world; they cannot perform magic, you know. So, my father's business empire—which stretched over four countries and had a net value of ten million galleons---was snatched from him, and handed over to his rival, Potter Pharmaceuticals."
The injustice of it all struck Severus like a whip. He wondered what it might have been like to the Evans family…a millionaire five years ago, and bankrupt niggards now. And here he was, thinking that he had been hard done by.
"It was my father's dying wish," continued Lily, "to rebuild Foxglove, and to make it even bigger than Potter Pharmaceuticals. And then, I too will take over what should have been mine today."
It was a lofty ambition, but somehow, Severus didn't think that it was impossible. He had a feeling that the woman sitting right in front of him could do anything she set her mind to.
"I wish to be an accomplice in this noble mission of yours," said Severus. "Even if you pay me but a knut."
Lily laughed, a laugh that was as beautiful as Augustus Rookwood had described it. "Your salary won't be much, Mr.Snape, but I hope we'll be able to remedy that soon. With enough profits from numerous small-scale projects, The Druid will be able to improvise on Worker Privileges."
Severus raised his wine to her in a toast. "To the success of our new firm…. And to your beauty, Miss Evans."
"Call me Lily, please," she said gently. She hadn't blushed; Severus supposed that she was used to being complimented about her beauty.
"Please don't think that you can brush off your part of the bargain, Severus. I still have to learn why a talented wizard like you is currently without work," she said, and he looked up at her in some shock.
"My story isn't as devastating as yours," he said, "but it is quite closely linked. …The heir of the Potter Empire, James Potter (considered by many as the 'most eligible bachelor in England'), used to study with me at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We hated each other….right from the first day we met. He was an egoistic, spoilt, arrogant boy and he seemed to believe that the rest of us were fated to be his slaves. I was one of the few who did not succumb to his tall claims. So, he tried incessantly to frame me for wrongs I did not commit, he insulted me at every turn of my life for being poor and ordinary-looking.…And he got away with it, because he happened to be a Potter. Since his is the only Potion-making firm in England, I could not even find a job, despite recommendations from all of my Hogwarts Professors. He also forbade other companies from employing me, because I sued his firm in a court of law."
"And why did you sue his firm, Severus?"
"My father was a patient of Injunium, a disease whose only cure is the Dypraxium Potion manufactured by Potter Pharmaceuticals. My father died two years ago due to the Dypraxium Potion. It was a violet coloured bottle of adulterated, spurious medicine, and it was poison in disguise. My father did not last a second upon drinking it. I saw him dying, writhing and twisting in his bed, helpless with pain. I'm sure you know what it is like, to lose someone you love. You can imagine my rage and my desire for justice. I sued a case against Potter Pharmaceuticals, and it is quite obvious that I lost…. My life has been stagnant ever since then. And so today, I'm unemployed and I'm penniless."
The silence that followed was not uncomfortable, and Severus could see that Lily's eyes were glistening with something that could only be tears. She seemed just as capable of emotion as of business. He decided he liked that sort of a trait in a woman. Both intelligent and compassionate, strong and soft…
"Who are the other employees of 'The Druid'?" asked Severus, wishing she would stop looking at him like that. He wasn't used to such kindness.
"You'll like them," said Lily. "They are very hard-working, friendly people. I've managed to rope in about five hundred workers, all thanks to the donations of my friends and loans of several banks. The Head Committee is constituted by three other people—Olivia McKinnon, Gilbert Evans (my Uncle) and Madame Arkadina. Olivia is a Trainee Healer at St. Mungo's, Uncle Gilbert is a Herbologist, while Madame Arkadina (we call her Marka) is an Alchemist. You'll be on the same Committee."
Severus nodded his head.
"By the way," said Lily, standing up suddenly, "I think you'd look better without that artificial goatee. I'll see you at 8 a.m. tomorrow, hopefully without it."
Severus watched her glide away, wondering again why he felt pleased rather than being resentful.
Lily Cecilia Evans often had that effect on people.
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