Chapter 4
August 1995
It was not a week later, after Snape found out, that she was summoned again. In the cavernous room in Malfoy Manor that the Dark Lord had claimed as his own for meetings, alone with the wizard himself (save for Lucius and a handful of other Inner Circle members), Civia reported on the Order meeting while kneeling before the Dark Lord, listing off every member that she could remember.
Which is to say, all of them.
"Very good, Civia," the Dark Lord praised lightly. "Very fine work. You may go for tonight."
She stood and bowed deeply. "Thank you, my Lord."
Civia departed, lingering outside in the foyer for a moment as she fetched her cloak from where she had stored it.
"Civia."
The witch turned. "Lucius, my dear," she purred, hip cocked as she greeted her lover. "How good to see you."
"The pleasure is mine," he murmured. "Join me for a drink?"
Her eyebrow rose, teasing. "Is that what we're calling it now?"
She followed him.
Severus was patrolling the corridors that evening, not that he really needed to. Students had yet to arrive, and there were only a handful of staff left in the castle, but really. Moody was correct—Constant vigilance, indeed.
Having expected to meet no one but perhaps the Bloody Baron, it came as a surprise when he spotted a figure slumped to the floor in the entrance hall, a trail of blood in their wake upon the floor.
"Who—Civia?" he exclaimed, recognizing the woman after a moment.
Her head shot up, eyes narrowed and wand in hand before a word was fully out of his mouth. "Severus," she greeted a moment later, perfectly cool despite the fact that she was lying in a heap in the middle of Hogwarts' entrance hall.
"You were summoned," he commented, eyeing the blood and the dark cloak that hid its source.
She nodded minutely. "Yes."
The Potions Master stepped closer, slowly, so as to not spook her. Her lip was split and one eye was black, but her cloak hid the source of the bleeding.
"Do you require assistance?" he asked quietly.
Her lips thinned momentarily, before the witch nodded slowly. "I can't walk anymore," she admitted bitterly. "They broke the bone in my right leg and cursed it against simple healing."
"If you don't mind, I'll bring you to my chambers, where I have the correct potions," he offered, conscious that their truce was a tentative and delicate thing at the moment.
"Do it," she sighed, and allowed him to levitate her body into the air and down to his chambers in the dungeons, guarded by a witch that Civia thought she recognized as Circe.
The chambers that Severus brought her into were not quite what she had expected. Not that she had known what to expect, really, as they were all but strangers to each other. The rooms were well lit and warm, colored in rich jewel tones and absolutely luxurious. Bookshelves lined the sitting room walls, wrapping around a fireplace and several doors.
Carefully, he lowered her with a flick of his wand to the burgundy sofa. "I'll be right back," he murmured and disappeared through one of the doors.
The wizard was back seemingly seconds later, several potions in hand.
If she questioned his choices or doubted that he did not poison them, it did not show on her face as she gratefully drank each one as directed, though a curious smirk quirked her lips, Severus noted.
Belatedly, he remembered that she was a Potions Mistress.
After carefully healing her cursed and shattered right leg, he sat down in the armchair opposite her, studying the witch curiously.
She was much the same as the last time he'd seen her, during Order meetings during the first war, with only a couple more lines upon her face. Her olive skin was clear and spotless, her features delicate and fine, her dark hair shining in the candlelight.
Her cloak was still damp with the blood from a stab wound on her side, her lip split and her eye bruised—but in spite of whatever she had suffered, she gazed at him defiantly, eyes calm and controlled as she looked upon him.
She was a plain woman, but in that moment, she was stunning.
"What happened in the meeting?" Severus asked after a moment of silence between the spies.
"I reported on the Order meeting," she shrugged, suppressing a wince at the jolt of pain at the movement. His eyes still caught it. "Reported on who showed up, who was interested, who they are looking to recruit."
The Potions Master nodded. "Why were you punished?"
"I wasn't," she replied, but paused. "Well. Not by the Dark Lord. I am…well. You'll find out sooner or later, I suppose."
Her tone was hesitant, but she sighed nevertheless. "I am the Death Eater's whore, you see. Morgana."
Ah. Well, that explained some things. He'd heard of the call girl in the Inner Circle, who worked hard to serve the higher ranked Death Eaters. She was called Morgana, nicknamed for the legendary sorceress and seductress.
Before he'd been outed as a spy, he was on the fringes of the Inner Circle, never quite inducted but never quite separate, and had heard a great deal about this Morgana.
It was difficult to imagine this plain woman as a legendary Death Eater seductress, but…well, Severus knew better than most not to judge by appearances.
"Morgana," he acknowledged aloud. "I have heard of you, but I never knew you were a spy as well."
She let out a brief little cackle. "Ah yes, my little nickname—and my surprise purpose. No one expects a whore to be a spy too. But that is why I am known amongst the Outer Circle as Morgana. It explains my presence as well as my secrecy—no one wants their physical vulnerabilities shared. It keeps others from approaching me to proposition me. I'm a prize for the Inner Circle exclusively."
Civia's face was strangely prideful as she explained, though it was a bitter pride. And he knew there was a price for her status.
But she sighed and changed the subject. "Albus wishes for us to cooperate with each other—form a partnership, of sorts."
"He does," Severus agreed noncommittally.
She continued. "Upon giving it more thought, I suppose…I agree. We could do well together. Help each other."
His eyebrows rose. She'd changed her mind rather quickly then, after a rather vehement denial.
—and I don't need you! Her voice echoed in his ear.
"Besides," she added, "I believe Albus wishes for you to become the Order's official Spy Master. This would be the first logical step—you and me working together and forming a partnership. You being my handler, I suppose."
"And you would agree to it?"
Her hazel eyes were guarded. "Only on agreement of certain conditions, Severus."
"And they are?"
"No pity, no pandering. If I need your help, I will ask for it. In return, I will tell you everything," she outlined.
He nodded slowly. "It sounds…fair."
"But first I assume you have questions," Civia added.
She was a sharp one, that was sure. "How did you come to be Morgana? And a spy?"
The Potions Mistress sighed, but appeared calm and collected, unbothered by his questions. "I was two years ahead of you and my brother in school, as you may recall. I was in Ravenclaw. It was sometime in my third year that I purposefully fell in with a group of older Slytherin students. It was sometime in my fifth year that I seduced Lucius Malfoy and was subsequently introduced to the Dark Lord."
Severus cocked his head to the side, doing the math. "He was engaged to Narcissa at the time," he argued after a pause. "And you were fifteen."
She laughed. It was a high, cold laugh. "Oh my dear Severus," she replied mockingly. "You really think that stopped him? For it did nothing.
"He saw my supposed innocence and crushed it under his heel," Civia replied coldly. "He took that from me, that which I supposedly gave willingly. In exchange, he gave me what I wanted…after a few months, I suppose. He served his purpose and took me to the Dark Lord, who was amused by this curious, plucky little Ravenclaw who thought she could be useful.
"It was then that I became their whore, before my sixteenth birthday. I spied on my fellow students and sent the Dark Lord reports on who was likely to defect to his side. Meanwhile, I was also sending Albus anonymous notes about who to look out for, who was growing curious about the Dark Arts. I recall sending both your name.
"I soon graduated and received the Dark Mark not a week later, in addition to joining Albus' merry band called the Order of the Phoenix. I have been serving both ever since. Does that answers your questions?"
Severus nodded slowly. "All save one. Why?"
"Why?" she repeated slowly.
"Why put yourself through that? Why offer to spy for Albus? Why any of it?"
She smiled coyly. "That, I'm afraid, is an answer for another day. Now, if that is all, I will take my leave."
August 1998
With the castle restored, many people leave Hogwarts, with only the staff and a couple Order members left in the school.
Soon after the Astronomy Tower debacle, Civia and Severus moved from the Headmistress' chambers back into their old chambers in the dungeons near the Potions classroom.
Her depression did not yet abate, but she did feel somewhat better, knowing how furious Severus was when he found her—how much he cared.
It was hard not knowing what to with her life, where she would go, what she would do, but Minerva made no attempts to make her leave.
In fact, the new Headmistress solved her problem, one Saturday early in August.
Civia and Severus were lounging in their shared living room, which they had made into a shared library as well, while reading and doing research respectively, when Minerva knocked upon their door.
It was Severus who answered the door.
"He—Severus?" the Scottish witch's brogue was more pronounced in her surprise. "What're ye doing here?"
"I live here, Headmistress," he replied in amusement, with a twitch of his lips.
"Oh. Excuse me, I thought Civia had these chambers."
"I do."
Severus stepped back to allow her to see Civia, where she was curled up on the couch with her book.
"Erm," Minerva paused, mind visibly whirling. "Oh. Well. I wanted to speak with you both, actually, so this works out quite well. May I come in?"
"Of course," the Potions Master stepped aside to allow her entrance.
Minerva sat down in one of the two armchairs, both a rich Slytherin green opposite the Ravenclaw navy couch where Civia sat, and cleared her throat. "Well, as I'm sure you are both aware, the school year is nearing, and I find myself lacking Potions and Defense teachers."
"I would be grateful to resume teaching Defense," Severus replied calmly, with a gracious tilt to his head.
Minerva smiled. "Excellent! Civia?"
"I—" The witch stared. "You can't possibly be serious, Minerva!"
"Why ever not?"
Civia flushed. "Must I spell it out? I'm a Death Eater, a, a—"
"A hero," the Headmistress cut in. "I'll hear nothing less, my dear. You won us this war, and you are a hero for all you did. I'll tell the Board the same thing if they dare question my decision. What do you say?"
And what did she say?
Well, what could she say?
"Alright. I will return to teach."
"Civia and Severus have agreed to return as professors," Minerva explained to her colleagues.
Her new office looked much as Albus had kept it, bright and airy, full of whirling and occasionally smoking mysterious objects, of which one could only guess at their purpose. There were, perhaps, more books along the walls, and they were certainly more organized.
"Oh, excellent!" cried Filius, clapping his hands together excitedly.
Pomona nodded. "Yes, it is…though I admit, I'm surprised. I thought Civia had had enough of it all."
"She thought she wouldn't be welcome anymore," Minerva explained sadly. "She thought after all that—that, that she would just be kicked out and banished from the school, I swear! The look on her face when I asked…" the Headmistress trailed off sadly.
Both of the Heads of House likewise looked saddened by this news.
Poppy Pomfrey rolled her eyes. "That girl. I swear. Brilliant as Rowena Ravenclaw herself, but sometimes…" the matron shook her head. "Sometimes she more clueless than anyone else I've ever met."
"She doesn't realize all she's done for the wizarding world, much less for Hogwarts," Filius added sadly.
Minerva nodded to that. "She thinks herself a pariah, most likely."
"Well," Pomona decided loudly. "We'll just have to show her she's wrong!"
"Hear, hear!" cried the Charms Master.
Minerva chuckled, cheered by her friends and colleagues, before a thought occurred to her. "So you know…I went to find Civia, only to be faced with Severus."
"What's so strange about that?" asked Poppy. "They're closer than peas in a pod."
The Headmistress nodded. "Yes, but I realized that they are staying in adjoining rooms in the dungeons."
Eyebrows rose all around.
"Well," Pomona murmured. "Are they—?"
"Not as far as I know," Filius offered. "Minerva?"
"I don't think so. Not yet, anyway."
Poppy grinned. "Not yet. How interesting…"
Minerva cleared her throat. "I suggest we keep this to ourselves, however, save for in the event of an emergency. They enjoy their privacy, after all."
"Of course," Filius agreed. The others nodded solemnly, before smiles broke out again amongst the four of the staff.
"Not yet," echoed a portrait on the wall, chuckling to himself.
"Oh, shush Albus," scolded Minerva lightly. "Enough of your schemes."
The portrait again chuckled, interlaced his fingers, and began to think and, perhaps, plot.