As if Severus did not have enough to be getting on with, Voldemort gave him a roommate. He was not sure if his master had stationed the rat at his home at Spinner's End to babysit his spy or vice versa, but he did not wish to be anywhere near Peter Pettigrew in either capacity. Consequently, he was a very poor host to the parasite, and he often contemplated practicing the killing curse on him.
Severus Snape liked the dark. The tendency grew stronger in him over the years, but he liked the nighttime since he was a child. Now, as a man whose life depended on remaining hidden, he felt that life behind the curtain indeed suited him best. The few moments when he allowed himself to be seen took place in the nighttime. He felt his happy childhood memories were like the film in Muggle cameras - direct light would destroy them. He was a nocturnal creature and he liked solitude.
In addition to his many other faults, Pettigrew infringed on his solitude, and dared to protest when Severus punished him with household chores.
This was a long summer, and it was not over yet.
He finally got his "death wish", as he was named defense against the dark arts teacher; Dumbledore, knowing his days were numbered, knew he could not risk another incompetent monster teaching the kids what they needed to know, now, more than ever.
He longed for solitude, he yearned for peace and quiet, but he was denied that simple pleasure for yet another night by a visit from the Black sisters.
As if there was any solitude, peace, or quiet to be had with the rat with the silver paw around anyway.
The visit had made one thing clear to him, however: as long and painful has his summer had been, it was nothing compared to the summer his friends and benefactors the Malfoys were going through.
Bellatrix, poor, misguided, Bellatrix, was innocent in her own way. She was a true believer, just like he was, and she was ruled by love, just like he was. The object of her love, though living, was as far from her as Lily was from him. The poor soul was strung along by a man less capable of love than his squib friend was capable of magic. Finally, he saw what Dumbledore meant when he called her a victim. Her pathetic little interrogation told Severus more about Bellatrix than it could ever tell Bellatrix about Severus. He rehearsed the answers to her tired questions a thousand times, they slid off his tongue so easily, they hardly felt like lies. When he blasted the rat away from the door, he did it not to protect himself, but to protect Narcissa, who seemed to be on the brink of collapse.
Poor, misguided Bella had none of the insight and none of the near magical empathy he had come to love in his other Bella. She asked all the wrong questions, and she was satisfied, shocked, even, by the very slim proof he offered. His admonition of Cissy's willingness to speak of the Dark Lord's unholy plan, his acceptance of a task he had already committed to, though he still didn't know how he would perform, left her speechless.
Narrow-minded Bellatrix assumed he was like her, that he was motivated by admiration for a great wizard (though she assumed it was Dumbledore, of course, that he admired), that he could never be devoted to someone who was weak enough to die. She was wrong on all counts. She saw him begging the Dark Lord to spare Lily Potter all these years ago and she hadn't asked about her once. She forgot. Dead mudbloods were simply of no concern to her.
Her line of questioning showed him only that she was desperate – she was losing favor, she was shocked that the love of her life confided in another about his plans. She might as well have said it outright: I am losing him, I wish I could give him a son. But he had no sympathy to spare for Bellatrix, as Narcissa was literally begging him to help her. When he told her that the Dark Lord was angry, that there was no chance at all to make him spare an innocent life, just because they were loved – he was speaking absolute truth, and his tone was flat and emotionless. He was looking out the window as he said it. Good liars lie like they are telling the truth. Great liars, he had learned, tell the truth like they are lying, and he was nothing if not a great liar.
Narcissa Malfoy of the House of Black was kneeling on the floor of the half blood's house in the Muggle dung hill, and her mind was wide open to him. He learned that except for Draco, the Malfoy family had all but defected from the cause and were interested only in making it out in one piece. He learned that Draco was loved, loved enough that he could truly be saved, and as he glanced at the soul of a mother who was willing to do anything for her son ,he thought for a moment he saw a glimmer of green in her blue eyes.
He knew he could not refuse, and if it shut Bellatrix up, all the better.
In the back of his mind, the wheels started spinning. He will be teaching defense against the dark arts, just as he was about to perform the darkest spell of all.
"My dear Bella, have you given any thought to my offer? There will come a time, soon, when things will be very different. I cannot tell you more. I must ask how you became so observant; I have been interrogated by a great which today, and I fooled her with ease. I am sure, had she learned a trick or two from you, I would've failed miserably, but fortunately for us she despises Muggle-borns, and does not even take notice of Wizard-borns enough to despite them."
Her reply said: "I still wish only for you to stick around for as long as you can. Do you think it is possible to grow up powerless among wizards without developing the ability to anticipate and manipulate people, Severus? I do not much like doing these things, but we all do what we must to survive. I was also able to fool the paranoid Dursleys, remember? That is why I prefer the company of cats to that of most people – they are not fooled so easily. Take care, my dear."
As he was reading her letter, he heard the rat scurrying about. He felt his presence behind the door, and he blasted him casually.