Disclaimer: Characters don't belong to me. The story does, but that doesn't mean I haven't been influenced by other stories. So thank you to those writers.
This chapter was supposed to come out some weeks ago but my computer crashed so I had a bit of a delay trying to fix it without loosing any of my data. Good thing is I didn't! I hope you'll like it, and forget that is supposed to be happening the same time as the latest brilliant book of JK's. Tell me what you think.
oO0Oo
Tuesday 30th September
Someplace in Muggle England
There was only a swish of air betraying the arrival of the old wizard. His first steps were a little cautious as travelling with a portkey was never smooth. He was in a very normal looking muggle apartment. Apparently in the living room, judging by the couches and low table. There were dark bookcases filled with books and glass or silver artefacts in one wall, and a huge grey thing that he thought was probably a television. Windows decorated with red-cream curtains, matching the cream couches, overlooked the illuminated street, allowing a yellowish hue to enter the room, creating shadows. The occasional car that went by had the shadows dance and look as if they were alive.
It was when one of said cars passed by that the man cloakedin black robes and sitting in the far end armchair was illuminated.
"Tom."
"Albus. I hope you found the place easily." The Dark Lord smiled at the irony of them two – the most powerful wizards in their generations – meeting here, in an utterly normal muggle flat.
"I couldn't miss it. The instructions were…detailed." Dumbledore lowered himself onto the comfortable looking couch. His eyes caught the framed photos in the low glass table in front of him and bent to pick one up. It showed a family of four. The parents and two girls. Happily looking at the camera from a place that most certainly was not England. Maybe a picture taken while on holidays, the Headmaster thought. "The family…did you hurt them?"
"You did want to meet someplace inconspicuous." The Dark Lord shrugged, all the while thinking how predictable the Headmaster could be. Even in his unpredictability. Like when he requested a meeting with him. Just him. It had been…unexpected and he was curious to find out what the Great Albus Dumbledore wanted to discuss in private with him, without anyone being the wiser of their conversation. Or meeting, for that matter.
"Oh, Tom…" Dumbledore sighed as he put the photo down. He should have known better. Nothing came without a price when dealing with the Dark side.
"Relax, Dumbledore. They were just persuaded to go for a short holiday." Voldemort did not know what compelled him to tell this to the old wizard, but the image of the shrunken frail old man that was wallowing in guilt might have something to do with that. Or maybe he just wanted to surprise him a little. To destroy his belief that a Dark Lord was indeed the incarnation of all evil and cared not for anything or anyone else. "So, what was so important that you wanted to talk to me?"
"I noticed you do not try to correct me anymore when I call you Tom." Dumbledore said instead.
"I grew up." The Dark Lord said a little bit amused. Was the old wizard trying to figure him out, yet again? "Names have power for those that give them power. You try to insinuate that I am not as powerful as everyone believes by calling me with a name that binds me to the muggle world. Pretty ironic seeing as you also try to have people believe that muggle wizards can be as powerful as purebloods and should, alongwith muggles, be treated with respect, as equals. In any case I know exactly what my boundaries are, no matter the name you wish to call me by."
"I see." Dumbledore mumbled. He showed no surprise on his face or in his posture, but the Dark Lord knew that it was there: that tiny bit of feeling that something had gone amiss.
"So, what was it that had you go so out of your way to arrange a meeting with the notorious Dark Lord?"
"Severus Snape." Ah. The Dark Lord lowered his hooded head, in an attempt to hide the smile that was threatening to form on his lips. So, Severus Snape had done it again.
"Hogwarts Potions Master? What about him?" he asked.
"I know he is a Death Eater."
"You do? And you haven't killed him yet? How…generous of you. But I still don't see what that should matter to me." After all he was playing the part of the black hearted evil monster. But inside him he was beginning to get a little bit worried. Why did Dumbledore tell him this?
"He is your Potions Master. And the Slytherin Head of House." The Headmaster pointed out.
"I can always find another one. Granted he or she probably wouldn't be as good as Snape, but I can live with that. As for the Slytherin House…there seems to be an increasing number of wizards from my own House that refuse to join me, all of them being students since Snape took over." He didn't like saying that but it was true.
Slytherins were avoiding him while more and more people from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuf and even Gryffindor Houses were willing to join him. The irony of life, he supposed. He had wanted Snape to get him new students and the boy did as he was told. Only they weren't from his House any more. He seemed to think that this way, keeping them neutral, keeping them far away from the war, he was protecting them. From both sides of it. Sad thing was he was probably right about it.
Dumbledore, Dumbledore had no idea what his Potions Master was working so hard atall theses years. He had had no idea how indebted the Order of the Phoenix was to Snape. And not just for the information Snape passed on.
"Well, my sources tell me otherwise. My sources tell me you want to remove him from Hogwarts to use his talents elsewhere." The Headmaster said. Voldemort had no doubt who exactly those sources were. The only thing he was wondering was when he had ever said something like that to Snape.
"I would assume that since you know that he is a Death Eater you would be happy to see him go."
"I don't want him gone. Or hurt." Dumbledore said with so much force that it startled the Dark Lord.
"You care for him." It was a statement. "And yet after all these years he has spent by your side, he still just calls you 'the Headmaster'. I wonder why."
"Snape is a very closed person. I've tried many times to become his confidant but he won't let me." Dumbledore didn't understand why he felt the urge to justify himself on the Dark Lord, but he did. Maybe it was because Voldemort was right. Maybe it was because he had failed to give anything back to his spy for all that the man had given him. Maybe it was because he was betraying his spy even now.
"If you say so. In any case. I do have other things to do tonight so if we could go back to the topic?"
"Severus is the topic." Dumbledore argued. "What are you going to do tonight?"
"Try to take over the world, Pinky." Voldemort rolled his eyes, then snorted at the bewildered expression of the Headmaster's.
"Pinky?"
"Never mind. It's a thing only a muggle would understand." Which in itself, he supposed was quite funny. He, a full pledged Dark Lord, quoting a damn irritating cartoon mouse.
"Very well." Dumbledore said hesitantly. "I want you to allow Severus to stay at Hogwarts."
"You want me to do something?" Voldemort was incredulous. "You must be joking."
"Look, Tom. I do care for Severus and I do not want him away from me-"
"Because then of course you wouldn't be able to control him." He surmised.
"Because then his life will be in danger." Dumbledore replied annoyed. "He is a Wizard leaning towards the Darkness and he doesn't need this. There are those who suspect him for what he is and unless he is near me I fear they would try to harm him."
"And you think that this would happen if he was out of Hogwarts, with me?"
"There are many in your ranks that consider him a traitor."
"And is he not?"
"What?"
"Come on, Dumbledore. You care for him? You want him to stay close to you. You know he is a Death Eater and still you keep him. How stupid do you think I am? The only reason why you might care for him all that much is if he betrayed me." The Dark Lord said with some annoyance. Dumbledore had just made possibly the single most stupid error in all these years of conflict. He had just exposed the very person he was trying to protect.
"I…he…yes." The Headmaster said lamely. "He is my spy."
"For how long?" At least Dumbledore didn't know that Snape acted as a spy for both of them. Maybe there was still something he could use that would enable him not to actually haveto kill his dark child.
"Since '79."
"I see."
"Tom, what are you going to do now?" Dumbledore asked.
"What is there for me to do? He betrayed me. Has not been one of mine for some time it seems. It is only fair I recognise that and fulfill my end of the contract." In other words, kill him.
"You don't have to do that." Dumbledore reasoned. "You needn't call him again. He can stay in Hogwarts and not be my spy any more. He won't harm you that way."
"Headmaster, if Snape broke the agreement he had with me he must suffer the consequences. He has always known that. It is just sad that he was revealed by his own side. By you. So careless."
"Tom, if you spare him, I'll…I will be in your debt." Dumbledore said with a sigh.
He had known before he came here, before he had asked to meet with the Dark Lord that Snape's role in the wars would probably be revealed. He had accepted the risk trying to think ways he might avoid it or at least come to an understanding with the Dark Lord. He always wondered why Severus Snape held such an important place in his heart, but he did and he wasn't going to refuse it. Maybe it was because of the name he carried. The family he was the last descendent from. He wasn't very worried that Lord Voldemort would now know that Snape was a spy. He knew that the game was up anyway for his Potions Master. If Snape had left Hogwarts as were his Master's orders he would have lived on borrowed time anyway. Maybe this way…he could come into an agreement.
"A life debt?" The Dark Lord raised his non-existing eyebrows in surprise. "Well, I must say, it's not always that the Great Albus Dumbledore begs for someone's life. It is intriguing." He was speaking while his mind was working in furiously to come into a decision of how he could best take advantage of this.
"You'll do it then?"
"Yes. But you won't like the price." The Dark Lord smiled under his hood, suddenly feeling very good. He had the perfect plan and it was Dumbledore that had provided the means to implement it, no matter how accidentally that was. "I want a life for a life."
The silence was only broken by the occasional passing by car.
"My life for his?" Dumbledore asked quietly not really knowing if he was ready to leave the world of the living, no matter how long he might have lived.
"As tempting as that may sound, no." Lord Voldemort bent forward allowing the Headmaster to see his pale glamoured, skull like, face in the yellowish light of the room. Dumbledore shivered involuntarily as he remembered the handsome boy Tom Riddle had been all these years ago. Half a century now. "I want Harry Potter."
"No." the answer ready, absolute. He wouldn't sacrifice what he saw as the only hope of the Wizarding world. Not for Snape.
"I see. Then I suppose there is nothing to talk about any longer." Lord Voldemort sat back again hiding in the shadows.
"I can't let you kill him."
"Who? Your spy or your hero?"
"Either."
"Let me explain this to you, Dumbledore. Severus Snape was chosen, by me, to inherit everything of mine afterImove on. I am not so mad as to fail torealizethat I might not succeedin my quest for immortality and the years have gone by. I need an heir and Snape was my choice."
"And yet, you are willing to kill him." There was surprise mixed with anger and surrender in the Headmaster's voice. Suddenly it became apparent why the Dark Lord wanted his Potion Master so close to him. Why the Dark Lord even cared for Snape after a fashion.
"He betrayed me. Though it only intensifies how good an heir he could have become. He is a powerful wizard. I will admit that I wanted him out of the school to begin this transition exactly." The Dark Lord snorted in his mind. There had never been any talk of him removing Snape from Hogwarts. The boy had always been considered his heir and he knew it as well. It wouldn't change no matter what the Headmaster might be lead to believe. "But if you wish to keep him, you may do so only if you hand me an appropriate replacement."
"Harry."
"Yes. Mr. Potter."
"The boy hates you, Tom." Dumbledore shook his head slowly. "He would rather die than join you."
"The boy," Voldemort argued, "will do whatever it takes to defeat me. Even if that means learning the Dark Arts. Learning from me. Slowly becoming me, without him ever realising he is. I think it will be fit indeed to be defeated by the Boy-Who-Will-Then-Become-The-Dark-Lord-In-My-Place. As you know, he did receive a gift of my powers that fateful night. And I have peered into him. There is much hatred and darkness surrounding his core. You must have noticed, Dumbledore. Your little Hero is beginning to break."
"All the more reason for me to keep him away from you." Dumbledore said, accepting what he already knew of his favourite student.
"Still, you keep throwing him in my way."
"Not by choice, Tom. Like it or not you are bound by a prophecy."
"Whatever." Lord Voldemort snorted. He knew the prophecy was broken, nullified almost a year and a half now. "It is getting late, Headmaster. As I said I have other things to attend to. Are we agreed? Your Spy's life for your Hero's?
"On one condition only."
"I wasn't aware that life debts came with conditions." Lord Voldemort sounded amused.
"If I leave now, Tom, you know very well that I will keep Harry and you will kill Severus, so we shall both lose. My condition is that you shall allow Harry to complete his studies in Hogwarts and then you may try to approach him as you wish."
"It will do you no good to try and waste my time, Dumbledore, but nevertheless I will agree on it. You realise of course that since I am unable to approach the boy for the remaining two years, your dear Potions Master is still under my command."
"You will not kill him."
"Of course not. A promise is a promise. He will not leave Hogwarts either, for two years. I will keep calling him to my side and I will expect him to perform his duties as always – no spying included obviously. And also you will swear to secrecy. This is not to leave these rooms."
"I swear." Dumbledore nodded in agreement.
"On the eve of Mr. Potter's graduation, though, you had better make sure your little hero is someplace easily accessible to me. You will not hide him from me."
"I will not hide him from you, but I will prepare him to hide himself and rebuff your advances."
"I didn't expect anything less than that. Have a good day, Headmaster." Lord Voldemort said, still hiding in the shadows, as the Headmaster activated the portkey back to Hogwarts.
oO0Oo
So Severus' game is finally over. This time for good I should hope. And I did get Harry Potter out of the whole ordeal. I can't help but smile. All in all I am very satisfied. I do wonder, however if Severus had this whole thing in mind when he said all those absurdities to the Headmaster about leaving Hogwarts. I suppose he was trying to follow my orders but the way he chose to go about it was cutting it rather close. Quite a liberty my boy took here, telling the Headmaster that he was to quit. After all,Dumbledore might have let him go. Or had him thrown in Azkaban. To me that would be the obvious choice but it seems the boy somehow…somehow had known exactly what button to push. Had known how far he could stretch the truth. Very dangerous when dealing with the Headmaster, but the old man seems to have a soft spot on my spy. And it did work fashionably well, I have to admit. However, some forewarning would have been welcome.
Still the boy knows how I work and also how Dumbledore – it seems – works.
"You can come out now, who ever you are." I say to the silence that has filled the room.
I felt the presence moments before the Headmaster portkeyd in. I didn't say anything because I wondered…wondered if the Headmaster had managed to break my charms on the portkey I sent him and was able to bring some other with him. I stayed silent the whole time, waiting for their move. Would he try to attack me? With only one man as back up? Was he then so certain of his power? But he had done nothing. In fact it seemed as if he wasn't aware of the third presence in the room. And I couldn't help but wonder; was he so good an actor?
Maybe he really didn't know. Then how had said third party arrived here? The portkey was locked onto the Headmaster's signature and could only carry one person. So I kept my silence and the knowledge of the intruder to me, intrigued to see what would happen.
Nothing happened. Apart from the fact that when Dumbledore left the third presence didn't depart with him. It lingered as if waiting to see what would happen next.
"I do not understand." The voice is thin and high pitched, but surprisingly quite pleasant to the ear. A form disentangles from the shadows – now that is what I call a nice trick – and moves towards the couch.
"Who are you? Or better still, what are you?" I ask as the form is illuminated by a passing car, just enough for me to see a creature that looks female, perhaps, no taller that a meter and a bit, with brown skin and white hair flowing all the way to the ground. It is impressive, even if so short. It – she? – is dressed in outlandish clothes that remind me of Arab Princess dresses with thin lace and silks that conceal little of their form. Her clothes of blue and gold reveal a tiny brown body, whose skin resembles that of dry parchment – and indeed, I can almost feel it against my fingers, though I do not touch her. Her skin covers a figure that is firm and strong if willowy, with no breasts, not even nipples. Disproportional big blue – almost white – eyes look at me and yet I cannot say that this creature, with the big elfish ears and eyes, sans eyelashes – I thought all humanoid creatures had eyelashes, the dry skin and the absence of anything that could be called female other than her silhouette, is ugly.
Indeed she –it – looks endearing to me, and is in a strange way beautiful.
"I am Nebet, the Lady Mistress." She answers my question of who she is and her gender. But what is she?
"And what would the Lady Mistress be doing here?"
"I came here to listen, and yet I do not understand." She replies and it seems to me that she is a small child asking things that are beyond her comprehension. And I feel I just might indulge her.
"Why don't you take a seat?" I offer and she sits in the same exact spot the Headmaster sat just a few minutes ago. "Now, do you know who I am?"
"Tom Marvolo Riddle." I can't help but roll my eyes on her answer.
"Does every one know that name?" I mutter.
"I knew you before you took upon yourself the name of Lord Voldemort." Now that is surprising. She knew me from where? Why can't I remember her?
"I see. You know who I am and yet you do not fear me?"
"I have no reason to fear you. You cannot harm me. My Master's magic protects me from you."
"You have a Master?" I raise my eyebrows. Someone who is so powerful that I cannot break his protection charms?
"I am free."
"But you just said-"
"I know. My Master is a kind man and I choose to serve him."
"Might I know the name of the kind man?" I think she is smirking!
"If you might know the name of the kind man, I would not call him Master." She is amused! By me! Well, I never! This is a day full of surprises.
"Very well. He sent you here to spy on the Headmaster and me. But I want this conversation to remain secret. What stops me from forcing you into silence?"
"I told, Dark Lord, you cannot harm me. Now I want answers." She somehow seems authoritative now. Somehow she seems to be glowing in power, magic. And I feel compelled to give her the requested answers. I do not like this. There is a passage from a book in my mind and I try to remember what it said. I think…I think it described creatures like her and it said what they were…
"And what would be your questions, my Lady?"
"You care for Snape. You will not see him harmed." she states. "Why?"
"I raised him. He is my heir and in every sense but birth, my son."
"Yet you are willing to trade him for Harry Potter?"
"I cannot trade what does not belong to me. The Headmaster is easy to manipulate and too honourable to break his promise. In two years, I will be allowed access to the boy with no interference his part. And Severus will go or stay as he wishes."
"But that does not mean he will come back to you."
"He has never left me."
"And what about the boy?"
"I can't harm Harry. And I don't really want him for an heir, I already have one. Though it would be nicely ironic if that were to happen. Maybe I'll drop him on some corner of the Earth, threaten him with the death of anyone and anything he believes of value if he is to return to England."
"I see. Thank you for your answers."
And like that she melts back in the shadows and disappears as silently as she arrived and I find an image in my head of a House Elf, all those long years back in Hogwarts. A House Elf whose name was Nebet and who told me one summer rainy day, the day before I leave Hogwarts for the first time for summer vacation, to go back to that accursed place that I was forced to call home, she told me then not to worry, because Master Riddle would become a great wizard. She could tell from my name. And I had smiled, and wiped away my fearful tears as she gave me an empty pouch that provided me with chocolate and anything I desired for the whole summer away from my real home, Hogwarts.
That Nebet had been a House Elf.
This Nebet was a real Elf.
She had broken the bonds of magic that held her submissive to wizards and I would bet that her Master, the kind man, had something to do with that.
And I can't help but wonder if she did it, and she is from Hogwarts, then how many more are free? And who dwells in that castle that has the power, the knowledge, and the desire to set them free?
oO0Oo
That's all folks for the moment. I am leaving for vacation tomorrow so next chapter won't be posted for a while. Thank you for your reviews – old and new. And Marble Glove, thank you so much for beta-ing this story. It just wouldn't be the same without you.