Chapter10: the meeting

Manny and Severus stepped into the clearing 10 minutes later. Tom was pacing around, while Luciuse and Draco looked bored.

"Holy shit, where were you? I had to get away from Pansy, stumble through the forest drunk and I was still here before you two! You are blond." Draco said.

"I had business to attend to. Snape got me off the hook with McGonagall. And you have a little gloss, there on your neck, no, wait, that's a hicky. Good Job." Manny easily diverted the main conversation away from her and Severus' lateness towards Draco's hicky.

"What kind of business is more important than my meeting?" Tom hissed at them quietly.

"The kind of business I ran, and currently still run, with my American contacts. None of which concerns you, your empire, or anything you know." Manny was snippy, the man she wanted more than anything was two feet away and she couldn't have him.

Death Eaters started apparating into the clearing moments later. As the meeting started Manny looked at the men around her. Handsome, young, prominent Death Eaters. All wearing nice suits and dress pants. And all smiling at her like she was the dessert treat.

"Manuela has final say in the matter of course, but you will be prescreened by the four of us before you get near her." Tom was saying to the men.

Manny looked at Draco and then Severus, hoping for an explanation, but they looked as bewildered as she felt. So she got comprehension, "What the hell is this? I am not a contest prize to be given to the winner. I will not sit through this." She drew herself up into the scariest thing any of the men had ever seen: A pissed off, semi-depressed, royal woman. A few men near her shrank back slightly, showing her obedience. Tom drew himself up as well. He had faced hundreds of unloyal subjects. Manny shouldn't be hard, she was only a girl.

"Manny, this is what's best for your future. I know what I'm talking about, I've lived much longer than you," He was cut off by Manny raising her hand in silence.

"Maybe what's best for me is to go back to America. Leave you to your petty war, heirless, and without a shred of hope."

"I can win this war on my own, and you leaving won't solve anything. You'd be back with your parents,"

"No, unlike you, I have friends. And if you could win this war, you would have done it 15 years ago." The truth in her words cut Tom a low blow. The Death Eaters looked on in astonishment, unwilling to believe what Manny had just done.

"Leave, now." Tom spoke quietly, pronouncing each word with care. "I am going to…"

"Going to what? You know as well as I do you can't do anything to me that will even remotely phase me." Manny knew respect to elders was key, but when she felt threatened, she would do anything for the survival of her will.

"I don't like being undermined by a girl!" Tom was loosing patience. He knew he couldn't win, but at least he could make a decent effort to put up a fight.

"Then don't plan my future for me." Manny's simple compromise ended the fight.

Severus watched this exchange with a grim horror. He didn't think Tom capable of human emotion until he saw him control himself for the sake of his granddaughter's life.

As Draco, Manny, and Severus walked back to the castle Draco pulled a bottle of Fire Whiskey out, took a long drink, and passed the bottle to Severus. "I don't wanna even think about what the hell happened back there."

By the time they reached the castle, the bottle was empty and Draco was having his own private party in his head. Outside the commons door, Severus stopped Manny and asked, "What business?"

"A very well to do, slightly dangerous, and very much illegal one." Manny smiled at him and walked into the last hours of the party.