Chapter 10: A Deal with the Devil
That afternoon, Hermione started having serious doubts about initiating a physical relationship with her professor despite everything Lucius's curse was doing to her body. She'd been lying on her back on top of her perfectly made bed trying to will herself into a state of calm, nearly meditative relaxation. Unfortunately, she'd failed in that endeavor miserably. It wasn't just her physical pain that was constantly on her mind. Now her thoughts were plagued of unsettling images of Snape's impending encounter with Lucius Malfoy, and perhaps it was due to the intensity of her own pain, but her mind could not help conjuring pictures of Lucius seeing right through Snape's façade and torturing him until he agreed to truly betray her. She did not doubt that Lucius would hurt Snape if he sensed even a little bit of the humanity in his soul. Gods if that happened, . . . Not that she didn't think her potions professor was a match for the Death Eater. If anyone could take on Lucius Malfoy and come out on top she'd certainly put her money on Severus. But still, Lucius was extremely dangerous and Snape certainly wasn't infallible.
There were so many things that could go wrong. Worrying about what would happen didn't help, but she really couldn't make herself think about anything else. If Lucius decided he didn't like the look on Snape's face or didn't think Snape reached his expectations for proving that he was only loyal to Voldemort, . . .
The worst possibility was that Lucius would meet Snape and decide to torture him anyway just to "make sure" that Snape wouldn't double cross him. Hermione knew it was exactly Lucius's style to err on the side of caution and bank on the fact that Snape was still working against Voldemort and figure even if Snape had fully intended to help her at the beginning of their meeting he wouldn't dream of doing anything but what Lucius ordered after their meeting had come to a conclusion. How could she truly trust him when he returned from Lucius? She wished there was some way she could know for sure that he was sincere in his intentions not to harm her.
Hermione knew Snape was a very powerful wizard. But then, so was Lucius Malfoy. Hermione seriously feared that Snape would fail to outsmart or outmaneuver him because unlike Lucius, Snape had a soul that wasn't entirely corrupted by evil. Snape may not be able to truly think like Lucius. Considering the depth of Lucius's sadistic nature, a part of Hermione hoped that Snape couldn't think like him. She could only hope that Snape was strong enough to deflect any suspicion that Lucius directed towards him.
She was beginning to think her life depended on it. Her pain and overwhelming physical desire were beginning to wear her sanity thin. She knew with utter certainty that if she went on like this for much longer she would crack and do something crazy, like climb on top of a naked Lucius Malfoy.
Her desire for him scared her more than anything else she was currently dealing with. It definitely wasn't all because of the curse. No, she was positive now that the curse could only work as well as it did because it made what was already there much stronger. She wondered what it said about her that she carnally desired a man who was over twice her age and who in all likelihood was irredeemably evil.
Hermione let out a shaky exhalation. She thought of the first time she'd seen Lucius Malfoy and truly saw him for the sinfully sexual creature he was. It'd been at the Quidditch World Cup when something had made her meet his gaze fleetingly. It'd lasted only a fraction of second but ever since then she saw him in a very different way. After she'd had her first kiss, she'd had a series of very explicit dreams about him. She'd never forgotten them, but she'd always discounted them as ordinary dreams. After all, sometimes people dreamed about really weird shit. It didn't mean anything. She'd also had dreams about her potions professor, but those never bothered her when she thought about them after she woke up as much as the dreams about Lucius. It stood to reason. Lucius was an evil son of a bitch with a soul as black as Severus Snape's raven colored hair.
Her hands tightened on the coverlet as she fought down the urge to let out a tortured shriek. She hadn't put any silencing spells up in the room, she doubted her ability to even cast something as simple as a Lumos charm right now, and she didn't want anyone who might be in the Common Room to get alarmed. She wasn't sure she could come up with any plausible lies right now for her condition. She definitely didn't want to be forced to try.
She pulled a pillow over her face and let out a muffled whimper.
Something had to give . . . soon.
Severus Snape was usually a confident man. He had to be if he wanted to continue breathing. And he was confident now, at least regarding the fact that Lucius's primary motive was to expose him as a traitor to the Dark Lord. Given all the factors of the situation, it was the only thing that made sense. He wondered if Voldemort had put Lucius up to it, and though it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things Severus was willing to bet that Lucius was doing this all on his own. Taking the initiative was something Lucius would do. And as he and Lucius were vying for Voldemort's highest favor, to prove once and for all that he was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix would only make Lucius Voldemort's new favorite person.
Not for the first time, Snape wondered if Lucius's ultimate goal was to establish himself in his own seat of power. Snape knew Lucius hated Voldemort, though for vastly different reasons than himself. Lucius thought Voldemort to be a power hungry fool who possessed hardly any tact and no finesse to speak of. Lucius's contempt for Voldemort was intense enough that Severus was willing to bet any Legilimens could feel if they physically touched Lucius long enough to see into his mind. If only Severus could make Voldemort lay a hand on Lucius's shoulder when he didn't expect it. Lucius was quite adept at masking his true feelings whenever he was in Voldemort's presence.
Lucius knew that Severus knew how he felt about Voldemort. It was probably the one thing that had stopped Lucius from convincing Voldemort to dig through Severus's mind until he discovered the truth about his loyalty. If Lucius tried to destroy Severus, Lucius would go down right along with him. It would be mutually assured destruction. And it worked both ways. If Severus went to Voldemort now and told him of Lucius's seditious thoughts, he knew Voldemort would investigate the information and once he forced the truth from Lucius's mind he wouldn't allow Lucius to live much longer. But if Lucius could convince Voldemort to be suspicious of him, Severus wouldn't live much longer than Lucius.
It seemed that Lucius thought he'd found a way to get rid of him at last. If Lucius could force him to expose the truth of his loyalty through his own actions, there would be glaring proof of Severus's deception right before Voldemort's eyes. Then, even if he were to say that Lucius wasn't truly loyal, Voldemort would disregard the accusations as being the product of a man who was about to be tortured to death and was grasping at anything he could in order to keep his life. And perhaps Lucius had strengthened his resistance to mental intrusion and was no longer afraid of Voldemort looking through his mind. There were ancient dark magics, hardly practiced anymore for the complexity and verbosity of their spells that could make a wizard invincible to all kinds of magical attacks for a short time before the spell had to be recast. They were usually an impractical defense unless you could be absolutely certain when someone would throw a curse at you. Maybe Lucius had mastered a spell or two of this nature for the purpose of resisting Voldemort's mental intrusion.
In any case, Lucius now had to believe that he had the upper hand. And Severus had to recognize that was true, at least for the time being. For now, caution would serve him well.
Lucius had been given an incredibly luxurious suite of rooms at Hogwarts. The man had a way of getting whatever he wanted. Dumbledore had confided to Severus that he saw no reason to blatantly oppose Lucius and muttered something about keeping friends close but enemies closer. That apparently included setting them in expensively furnished quarters with three times as much space as any other Hogwarts residence except for that of the headmaster.
Severus knocked solidly on the smooth dark wooden door an hour after classes had ended for the day. After a brief moment, the door opened to reveal Lucius Malfoy in all of his haughty arrogance. His grey-eyed gaze was scrutinizing and told Severus nothing of what he might truly be thinking. Lucius was dressed down, wearing only perfectly tailored trousers and a white silk shirt, open at the chest.
"Severus," said Lucius, his tone not unpleased.
"Lucius," said Severus. "I think you are aware that you and I need to talk."
Lucius considered Severus briefly and then stepped back from the doorframe to admit him into the room. As soon as Severus crossed the threshold the door was swiftly shut behind him. Lucius then shot a powerful warding spell that traveled the entire perimeter of the doorframe in ice blue light.
When Lucius was finished with the spell, Severus met his gaze coldly.
"I'm not your enemy. I think you should stop treating me as if I were."
"Oh, is that what this is about? I see no reason why I should extend any degree of trust to you. You've been playing double-agent for a long time. Who knows what the Order of the Phoenix has done to you?"
"Do consider. If I pledged any true loyalty to The Order of the Phoenix, any loyalty at all, you would have already been eliminated as a threat. You know that being a master Legilimens I can guarantee your guilt beyond any deniability. You are a major enemy to them, Lucius. If I were truly with them I would have sent you to prison long before now."
"Or perhaps you merely refrained from locking me up in some deep dark cell just to make it look like you were what you claim to the Dark Lord."
Severus gave Lucius a piercing look.
"You seriously believe that, don't you?"
Lucius only smiled cruelly.
"I'm only being reasonable. After all, what have you done in the past three years since Voldemort's return to prove that you weren't on Dumbledore's side?"
Severus raised an eyebrow at that.
"I've done you. All things considered, I'd say that counts, wouldn't you?"
A smirk appeared on Lucius's face.
"There is that. Can you name something else?"
"I know you're not truly loyal to Voldemort and yet I've not exposed your thoughts to him."
"Perhaps only because you know that if I accused you of disloyalty in turn, Voldemort would find out you side against him as well."
"I haven't interfered with your little pet project regarding that Mudblood bitch."
"No, I suppose you haven't. So she went to you, did she?"
"What can I say? She thinks I work for Dumbledore. She wanted me to give her a potion to stop her physical arousal."
Lucius laughed heartily at Severus's statement.
"I take it you didn't give her any potion that would help her?"
"I only gave her a mild one that wasn't nearly strong enough to have any beneficial effect. There's a potion to counter almost every spell, it wouldn't have been hard to brew one that would get rid of her physical need entirely, especially since I knew you were the one who put the spell on her. I have a good understanding of what kind of strength your spells have, but you must already know that."
Severus wasn't lying about being able to counter the curse with a spell. He hadn't even mentioned anything to Hermione because if he did give her a potion to truly counter the curse Lucius would surely sense the extremely sudden change in Hermione's demeanor and conclude correctly that Severus was the only man capable of brewing such a potion. If he'd done that, Lucius would have stopped at nothing to see Severus dead. The truth of his loyalty would have been undeniable. Severus didn't doubt that it was all part of the test Lucius was giving him to make him prove exactly where he stood once and for all.
"Did you fuck her?" Lucius asked.
Severus gave Lucius a level look. "No. She's still craving intercourse like a bitch in heat at the moment, unless she's decided to let Potter service her. If you want to make her your personal whore that's your business. But if you want to use her to for a greater purpose, like bringing the Order of the Phoenix to its knees, you may want to consider letting me help you. Hermione Granger clearly trusts me. Let me strengthen that trust so that she'll become emotionally attached to me and then I'll betray her. I'll guarantee I can get her to do anything I want. If you want her to turn traitor to her friends, I'll see that its done in a way no one will suspect her of any changes in loyalty."
Lucius snorted.
"And just how can you guarantee the success of your plan?"
"During the next several weeks to months I'll make her believe I've developed true affection for her. I'll coax her into binding her soul to mine. Then after I betray her and she realizes that fighting is futile she'll have no choice but to give in to my demands."
"And while your doing this I'll just relinquish my power over her so that you can take the reins, is that it?"
"After I have her at my mercy, you're free to use her as you like."
"Do you desire her?"
"It's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to take a woman's innocence. And the girl's certainly not bad looking by any means. To answer your question directly, yes, I do desire her now. But if you don't want me to concern myself with her, you have only to say so."
Lucius looked at Severus for several long seconds. There was surprise on his features.
"Now Severus, this is all well and good if you truly mean what you say. But I'm just not sure I should trust you."
"That's your prerogative, Lucius. If that's how you feel, I'll just see myself out."
Severus turned and took a step or two towards the door.
"No, don't go," Lucius told him. Severus turned around and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for Lucius to continue.
"Your behavior doesn't strike me as being in any way indicative that you are working in Hermione Granger's best interest."
Severus made a face.
"Let me tell you something. If I was going to change sides and have a monogamous relationship with a woman, I would chose someone with a little more . . . experience without any Gryffindor sensibilities."
Lucius let an amused half laugh. "You really were about to leave, weren't you? And let me do whatever I please with her."
"Are you really that surprised?"
"I'll admit I wasn't expecting it. What I want to know is how are you going to pull off gaining her trust? If you're intimate with her, you know she might sense the darkness in your soul. Some people can touch their partners soul during intercourse."
"Yes, Lucius, I know that."
"With her being as powerful as she is and perceptive to the subtle nuances of magical power, I'd say there's a good likelihood that she'll pick up on your deception during your climax."
"No she won't."
Lucius raised an eyebrow.
"I gave her a potion that I said would allow her to communicate with me telepathically as she was untrained in Legilimency. It did that, but I combined it with a potion that would subdue her ability to feel the lack of humanity in my soul."
That wasn't a lie. Severus had changed the potion so that Hermione would detect no impurities if she sensed his soul during intercourse. Of course, he hadn't told Hermione that.
"Clever."
"Yes, quite."
"You'll still have to keep up the act of helping to save her from me when with her."
"It'll be worth it in the end."
"There's really no chance of you actually becoming attached to her?"
Severus rolled his eyes at Lucius's question.
"None. I see her as just another cunt to fuck. Nothing more."
Lucius's expression changed. Clearly, he was impressed by Severus's words. He didn't say anything for several seconds.
"I hope for your sake you're not lying to me, Severus," Lucius said in a soft and dangerous voice. "If I find out you've been playing me, I will kill you. If you actually try to help the girl, I will kill you."
"Good. If that were to happen, I hope you do kill me because it would mean I completely lost my mind and I wouldn't want to live if I was that fucked up."
"I suppose you've convinced me to give you a chance to prove yourself to me then."
"The opportunity for me to seriously hurt the Order of the Phoenix has never favourably presented itself, Lucius. Until now. Surely you can't condemn me for being unable to do what was impossible. Why do you think Voldemort let me into his inner circle?"
Lucius didn't immediately respond.
"Are you asking me to apologise?"
"No. Though I think you assumed too much without giving me a chance to show you my true colours."
"Fair enough," Lucius muttered quickly.
Severus approached Lucius.
"I promise you won't regret this."
Severus then brought his lips to Lucius's and kissed him deeply. Lucius met the display of passion with equal intensity. He stroked Severus's tongue with his own and brought his hands to the top buttons of Severus's coat. Severus only intensified the kiss, punctuating each movement of his lips with a sharp nip on Lucius's mouth.
Lucius had nearly unbuttoned his coat when there was a tentative yet definite sound of knocking on Lucius's door. Both men stilled and Severus drew away from Lucius's lips.
"Ignore it and maybe they'll go away," Lucius whispered to him.
The sound came again, this time louder. Lucius let out a frustrated sigh. He left Severus to fix his coat and went to answer the door. Severus hung back while Lucius partially opened the door. Draco stood in the hallway and asked if he could come in. Lucius stood so Draco couldn't see Severus.
Severus thought that Lucius would dismiss his son, but Lucius glanced in Severus's direction, his look asking if Draco could be let in. Severus supposed Lucius didn't care if Draco was perceptive enough to realize what his father had been doing with his potions master. Severus didn't particularly care what Draco saw. He knew the boy was loyal to his father above all else. Severus acknowledged the unspoken question with a small nod and Lucius let Draco step into his room.
Draco looked a little unsure of himself and Severus wondered what the matter was. He wasn't going to stick around to find out.
He said hello to Draco and excused himself from the Malfoys' presence.
Severus went back to his rooms and took a long shower. He had a lot to think about. In just an hour or two he would talk to Hermione. He hoped she wouldn't ask questions. He wouldn't be able to provide answers, at least not truthful ones.
For in order for this mess to resolve in his and Hermione's favor, he was going to eventually have to make her believe that he truly had betrayed her.
It wasn't something he was looking forward to doing. In fact, it would be the cruelest thing he had ever done.
Hermione would be caught entirely by surprise. And she would hate him. Though if it ended up saving her life, perhaps she'd understand.
But he wouldn't have to deal with that for some time. For now, he'd put it at the back of his mind.
A/N: Another chapter soon.