The Spy Torn:
The Truth Inside the Half-Blood Prince
---This is a fic which contains dialogue mostly quoted directly from the text. I submit it as evidence that Snape is loyal to the Order. Page numbers are given so you can look for yourself. Everything that is not character speech, however, is in my own words and represents my own interpretation of Snape's thoughts and motivations during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.---
Chapter One:
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT
Dialogue taken from Spinner's End, p. 32-37 in the U.S. Hardback
and from the chapter The Half-Blood Prince, p. 177
Inside Snape's home, at Spinner's End, two sisters sat listening to a tall tale – the story of Severus Snape, the loyal Death Eater. Bellatrix was skeptical, but Narcissa was eager to believe in Snape – that the Dark Lord trusted him, that he had power. For she had come to ask that he use that power.
Snape managed to quiet Bellatrix's questions, at least for a moment. "Now . . . you came to ask me for help, Narcissa?"
"Yes, Severus. I – I think you are the only one who can help me; I have nowhere else to turn. Lucius is in jail and. . . ." She paused, and the first of her tears rolled down her face. "The Dark Lord has forbidden me to speak of it. He wishes none to know of the plan. It is . . . very secret. But - "
Snape was, of course, curious, and he knew at once what would persuade her to speak of it. "If he has forbidden it, you ought not to speak. The Dark Lord's word is law."
"There! Even Snape says so: You were told not to talk, so hold your silence!" Bellatrix snarled.
He must take a risk now, a very great risk. But this information, this most secret of plans, had walked in his front door. And these days, he walked side by side with risk. As Dumbledore had asked.
"It so happens I know of the plan," he lied. "I am one of the few the Dark Lord has told. Nevertheless, had I not been in on the secret, Narcissa, you would have been guilty of great treachery to the Dark Lord."
"I thought you must know about it! He trusts you so, Severus. . . ."
If it were so, Wormtail would not be here, skulking and listening behind doors, he thought. My position with him is always . . . precarious.
"You know about the plan?" said Bellatrix. "You know?"
If no one revealed to him what this plan was about soon, things could become dangerous. But Narcissa seemed quite desperate for his help. He might have to nudge her in the right direction. . . .
"Certainly," said Snape. "But what help do you require, Narcissa? If you are imagining I can persuade the Dark Lord to change his mind, I am afraid there is no hope, none at all."
"Severus . . . my son . . . my only son. . . ."
Something, at last, he thought, and then, Draco?
Bellatrix spoke now. "Draco should be proud. The Dark Lord is granting him a great honor. And I will say this for Draco: He isn't shrinking away from his duty; he seems glad of a chance to prove himself, excited at the prospect – "
"That's because he is sixteen and has no idea what lies in store! Why, Severus? Why my son? It is too dangerous! This is vengeance for Lucius's mistake, I know it!"
Draco's duty? Prove himself? Has the boy been marked already? Snape turned away from the crying Narcissa – he must draw her out, but also he had to think. His fingers were drawn to his left forearm but he stilled them. She is right. Sixteen is far too young – He has no idea what he is doing.
"That's why he's chosen Draco, isn't it? To punish Lucius?"
Half of his mind still wrapped up in memory, Snape thought of what the Dark Lord told young Death Eaters. "If Draco succeeds, he will be honored above all others." It was a lie, of course.
"But he won't succeed!" Narcissa's voice held hysteria now. "How can he, when the Dark Lord himself – "
Everyone in the room was shocked that these words had been said. Snape controlled his face, of course. What could this all-important mission be? Something the Dark Lord had failed at?
"I only meant," Narcissa said hesitantly, "that nobody has yet succeeded. . . . Severus . . . please. . . . You are, you have always been, Draco's favorite teacher . . . you are Lucius's old friend . . . I beg you. . . you are the Dark Lord's favorite, his most trusted advisor. . . . Will you speak to him, persuade him – ?"
"The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it," Snape said. It would, indeed, be foolish, considering he was meant to know nothing of the plan. "I cannot pretend that the Dark Lord is not angry with Lucius. Lucius was supposed to be in charge. He got himself captured, along with how many others, and failed to retrieve the prophecy into the bargain. Yes, the Dark Lord is angry, Narcissa, very angry indeed." Only facts, facts that they all knew – but said in such a way as to indicate that Snape knew the Dark Lord's motivations for this new plot.
"Then I am right, he has chosen Draco in revenge! He does not mean him to succeed, he wants him to be killed trying!"
Snape thought there was more information to be gained before he truly involved himself, and so he remained silent. He was right; soon he found himself nose to nose with Narcissa, her hands grasping his robes.
"You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would succeed, of course you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us – "
Removing her hands from his robes, he looked down at her and thought furiously. He could...but then it must be at Hogwarts that the plan would be carried out? Could Draco possibly have been told to kill the Potter boy? No, no! The Dark Lord still believes he must do that himself. Then what? Snape could not think of the answer. Well, there was no turning back now, he must play his part.
"He intends me to do it in the end, I think. But he is determined that Draco should try first. You see, in the unlikely event that Draco succeeds, I shall be able to remain at Hogwarts a little longer, fulfilling my useful role as spy."
"In other words, it doesn't matter to him if Draco is killed!"
Of course not, Snape thought, but what he said was, "The Dark Lord is very angry. He failed to hear the prophecy. You know as well as I do, Narcissa, that he does not forgive easily."
Even this was too much for the devastated Narcissa. She collapsed to the floor.
"My only son . . . my only son. . . ."
Bellatrix glared at her sister. "You should be proud! If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!"
Snape took pity on her, sitting her back down on the sofa and giving her wine with a calming potion in it. "Narcissa, that's enough. Drink this. Listen to me." He watched her drink before he spoke. "It might be possible . . . for me to help Draco."
She looked at him, finally with real hope in her eyes. "Severus – oh, Severus – you would help him? Would you look after him, see he comes to no harm?
"I can try."
Suddenly she was kneeling before him, kissing his hand.
"If you are there to protect him . . . Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?"
"The Unbreakable Vow?"
"Aren't you listening, Narcissa? Oh, he'll try, I'm sure. . . . The usual empty words, the usual slithering out of action . . . oh, on the Dark Lord's orders, of course!"
Snape looked into Narcissa's wide eyes. After all, right now they wanted the same thing . . . to protect Draco, to stop the Dark Lord's plan from being completed. It was the good in her that came forth now.
"Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow. Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder." He knelt beside Narcissa. "You will need your wand, Bellatrix . . . and you will need to move a little closer."
The point of Bellatrix's wand hovered over their hands as Narcissa began the Vow.
"Will you, Severus, watch over my son, Draco, as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord's wishes?"
"I will."
The magic began to work, to bind him.
"And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm?"
"I will."
"And, should it prove necessary . . . if it seems Draco will fail . . ."
Snape could not stop the twitch. What was she asking?
". . . will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?"
If I withdraw now, I will most certainly die, Snape thought. If not from the unfinished vow, then from what Bellatrix will gather from it . . . my refusal to carry out the Dark Lord's will. If I agree . . . I will have a little more time to give to the Order, before the Vow is broken, if it must be.
"I will."
The Vow closed around him. It was done. He had sealed his own fate.
-------
Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Who knew better than he how hard the Dark Arts were to escape?
He looked at the faces of his class. His eyes fell on Harry, and he remembered what Dumbledore had told him of . . . his little army.
Let me see . . . Umbridge taught them nothing. . . .
"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe." He didn't smile. "Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an O.W.L. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be much more advanced."
Snape now began the lesson.
"The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before."
Yes, he thought, and despite all my work I have allowed myself to be bitten. There is no such thing as enough knowledge of the Dark Arts.
"You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."
And there is no more valuable lesson than keeping your mouth shut.
As Snape attempted to teach his class nonverbal spells, he remembered his conversation with Dumbledore. The headmaster agreed with Snape that it had been foolish to agree to make an Unbreakable Vow. But there was nothing for it now. He must somehow find out what Draco's orders were and how much it would hurt the Order if they were to be carried out.
