Chapter 48: The Taste of the Bitter Sweet
The silence of night was punctuated by the sounds of sleep. The darkness that cloaked the Slytherin dormitories settled only lightly this chilly night, as the logs within the fireplace burned low. Winter had passed but spring in the Scottish mountainside still brought with it a bite of chill.
Snape arose from his bed, fully clothed, and stalked silently past the shaded beds to stop before the drawn posters of one. He brought out his wand, drawing it along the bed, checking for any wards or traps. It was disappointingly void. How very trusting of a Slytherin sleeping amongst those that stood against his oppression.
But it would have done the boy no good either way.
With a swift sweep of his wand, Snape parted the curtains and stunned Evan Rosier before he could rouse enough to even cry out. With another flick of his wand, he levitated the boy off his bed, sending his catatonic body out through the dormitory stairwell while following silently after.
It was well past curfew, and nobody was hanging about the common room. Snape had ensured it, casting the Human-presence-revealing Spell several times over the course of the hour, biding his time for when there would be no witnesses. This very same spell Snape wore upon himself now as a precaution as he pushed out into the darkened hallways of the dungeon corridors. A precaution needed for breaking curfew.
Snape slipped down those familiar corridors he knew even in the pitch darkness of night, carrying his quarry as he slipped silently forth. The years of stalking these very halls with the softest of steps had served him well for no echo marked his movements.
They did not go far, only down to the closest classroom, one of the disused theory chambers down in the dungeons. Snape could not trust engaging the boy in the common room lest a student meandered down in search for the bathroom. He had need for privacy, and that meant an environment he could control.
When he finally enervated the boy and woke him from his unconscious state, it was with the room silenced and sealed. Should Rosier have had his wand on him, Snape doubted the boy could unwind his wards. But he had been brought out in naught but his sleepwear, and it seemed such constructive thoughts were far from the boy's mind as he sat up from his slump in his chair and glanced with confused fright. The only light in the unlit room was the soft glow of a conjured light orb that sat at his feet. Snape stepped forward with silent steps, looming seemingly from out of nowhere causing the boy to yell out with sheer fright.
"It'll do you no good in here, Rosier," Snape drawled in his deep intimidating tones, "This room is silenced and warded, and we'll have no unwanted ears upon our… necessary conversation."
Rosier visibly shrank into his seat, genuinely intimidated by a man who would stand a foot shorter than he. "L-Look, Snape. I meant no harm to your girlfriend, or whatever. My actions were a little brusque and I apologise for-"
"I am very pleased to hear," Snape almost purred, pulling up a chair to sit himself directly face to face with Rosier, with the orb of light at their feet directly between them. He had no doubts the shadows that clawed at his face painted him a frightening figure, no matter his appearance or stature. Lessons he learned from years of extracting obedience from disrespectful students.
Even in the darkness, Snape could find Rosier's eyes. Though he could not see its shape and colour, he could feel its draw. The gift of a Legilimens. But the windows to Rosier's mind were a haze. Occluded, rather competently, but not well enough should Snape choose to broach it forcibly.
He could hear Rosier's breath shorten, no doubt aware of Snape's prying prods upon his mind. He and Avery were both informed by the younger Black of his abilities in the mind arts, information that would no doubt reach the ears of the unsavoury outside of these walls. The question remained, how much of his power could he afford to be known? Should Snape reveal the extent of his powers in the mind arts, no doubt the Dark Lord could not possibly pass over his presence.
But he could always wipe Rosier's memory of this encounter. To wring him for the truth then Obliviate him. Heavy handed, but effective, and terrible. A tool for the darkness, and the bite that Snape knew too well. This path would be the one Snape was least willing to set foot on, but he was too schooled upon the realities of the world and of war to absolutely refuse an option due to ideals alone.
Twisting his wand between his fingers, Snape stared down the boy, weighing his approach. "Was it you who killed the cockerels?" Snape asked, a direct question, and a pointed one. But one that did not reveal the extent of his knowledge on the matter.
His lips twitched, but only the lightest touch before it disappeared. "I have no idea what you are speaking of Snape. What cockerels?"
"Indeed, what cockerels?" Snape crooned. "So if I were to ask Filch for records on students found out past curfew that evening, I would not find your name written upon the ledger?"
"Feel free to ask the man. I doubt he'd forget a single student he's slated for punishment." Rosier dipped his head, shoulders visibly slackened. Tension left the boy, too obvious a tell-tale sign of relief. Snape's questioning was off the mark, he would not find Rosier's name upon that ledger. But that begs the question…
Why was Rosier in Filch's office?
"I hear Slughorn spared you a stint in detention. How very thoughtful of the man. Especially considering you take every opportunity to hole yourself up in the common rooms." Snape leant forward, causing the boy to lean back instinctively. "It makes it incredibly difficult to catch you for a private conversation like this."
"Some of us need to study, Snape," Rosier remarked, his tone light and conversational but his shrinking form spoke volumes of the opposite. A half-truth at best. There was more to the reason to Rosier's voluntary isolation than he would admit, and Snape had realised what that could be the moment he feared for Lily's safety.
Resting his fingertips gently together, Snape turned his head as if truly contemplating those false words. "I suppose the library is not necessary to that endeavour."
To which Rosier shrugged in quite petulant a way. "Some of us can afford the books ourselves."
Annoyance coiled from Snape's gut, but quashed quickly. Spy work was a delicate game that had no place for ego, a far more difficult ask to adhere for a temperamental teenager. "And it seems that you can also afford the time, for I have never returned to see you studying, Rosier." His black eyes smouldered with such rage he almost expected Rosier to see it even in the depth of darkness.
"I'm as subtle with studying as you are with your relationship, I'm sure," Rosier quipped lightly, his smart tongue doing nothing for Snape's patience. This was the problem, the longer this went on the faster Rosier would find himself grounded. The unbalance Snape struck in the boy could only be kept for so long. This was not some younger student he could intimidate with his presence, but a year mate, taller, richer and one with far darker leanings. As far as Rosier was concerned, what does he have to fear of Severus Snape?
Taking a subtle breath, Snape reigned in his temper, turning tact once again. "I'm certain Professor Slughorn would have changed his decision should he have known you have time enough to spare. Knowledge he will be given this second time round."
Rosier's eyes narrowed, before widening marginally as if something just occurred to him. "You haven't…" He glanced about, as if just realising he was outside of permitted territory. "You brought me out here to frame me for breaking curfew?"
"Oh I'll put in a good word for you," Snape drawled, his lips curled in a sneer. "You do, after all, have prior experience in prefect duties. And it just so happens Mr Filch needs a pair of hands, magical hands, to clean up the messes left by late-year magical maladies. You see he is a friend of mine, and I do hope your efforts would make his life easier."
"You want me to follow around that Squib?!" That word came out in a hiss of anger, but the widening of his eyes held an emotion different.
And it confirmed everything Snape hoped. "Surely you do not fear him? I assure you Squibs are not contagious."
"This is beneath my station!" Rosier demanded, a show of panic and disharmonious emotion that was so unlike him. He feared, not for Filch, but for what being around a man like him could mean. The dangers of standing beside a man of no magical status when the great Slytherin beast is unleashed to hunt.
An ember of rage burned in Snape's heart, a smoulder different to the irks of his pride. "To me your station is naught but of a student. You do not get to pick and choose your deserving." This was a boy who knew what was coming, knew and feared terribly, yet would risk everyone else with his silence. If Rosier would not give up what he knew voluntarily, he would under subtle threats, or if needs be, under far less subtle coercive measures.
"Well good thing that I did no wrong. You were the one that brought me out here," Rosier hissed, no longer settled.
"You would be correct, you do not deserve punishment for getting caught tonight. Think of it as punishment owing for the last," Snape's lips curled almost cruelly, "trespassing into Mr Filches' office to… transgress as you please. Behaviour not befitting that of an upstanding student of your station as you purport to be. As once a prefect who had been so willing to punish me for transgressions of the past, do you not agree, Rosier?"
"I would not! I hadn't… I didn't go in there to destroy evidence, or steal contraband, or anything of the sort!" Without a pause of thought, Rosier's words of admission trickled through before his mind could sift it.
Snape did not let the tickle of satisfaction onto his shadowed face. Rosier was a clever boy, but he was still a boy, and too lacking of experience to play this game with the likes of Snape. "Then please, enlighten me. What was it you were doing?"
The Slytherin boy hesitated, seeming to sense he teetered on the edge of his senses. "I... can't say."
"Can't, or won't?" Snape's patience resettled. They have pushed into territories of no denial, just a little push more. "Because if all is truly as you say, surely voicing it would be to your advantage."
"You have no idea!" Rosier hissed, unable to maintain his cloy calm any longer. "You know nothing of what is happening! You know nothing of what would happen if I speak even a word! You stand back and reap your traitorous rewards without casting a single thought of those you stabbed with your actions!"
"Ah, so it is to do with the Dark Lord?" Snape almost smiled as the boy seized up in his seat. His eyes growing wide as saucers upon realising what he as good as confessed from his very mouth. "I cannot say you have improved your standing with that admission, Rosier. I dare say this might even require… the headmaster's attention."
The boy had no idea that his words gave away nothing that Snape didn't already know, instead the victory lay in fear. Fear that he had crossed that uncross-able line by his own volition, and finding no way out but forward.
"No. No, don't." Rosier shook his head, his eyes wide with horror. "You don't understand. He'll kill me."
Snape tilted his head, the lightest of smirks upon his thin lips. "I guarantee you that is not Dumbledore's style." He was being obtuse on purpose, and from the flash of frustration that touched Rosier's eyes his words were taken as on merit.
"Don't be daft," he muttered, body going limp in his seat. The adrenaline of fear must have abated, leaving him worn and wrought with exhaustion.
Snape threaded his fingers together, resting them upon his lap as he leaned forward. "My purpose right now is to uphold my duties. If what you say is true, and what you were doing did not run counter to the safety and order of the school, then you are not the target of my ire. But you need to give me something."
"I don't suppose money is an option?" Rosier muttered. Even fatigued his sharp tongue bade no rest.
"Two options, Rosier. Tell me why you were in Filch's office, or tell me who killed those cockerels." Snape drew his line. They struggled less when they think they are presented with a choice.
Slowly Rosier drew upwards, straightening upon the seat. "I will cooperate, but… I'm no good to you dead," he grimaced, as dignified as he could possibly be in resignation. "All I can tell you is… keep an eye on Filch's office. Your cockerel killer will be revealed."
Lily could not believe her eyes. The hesitant new spring sun had barely peeked through the castle windows and the first thing she saw this morning upon stepping out of the portrait hole was Severus, standing quite obviously in wait as he scowled away all the curious glances. This was one of those moments that made her question the functioning of her ring, but she knew better than to blame her own lack of awareness on the integrity of her enchantment. She was perhaps becoming too comfortable with his magical presence.
"What's the occasion?" Lily asked as she stepped up beside him, and out of the way of the breakfast traffic. "Is it my birthday?" She joked as they fell into step with the crowds. "Or is it yours?"
"Neither," Sev muttered, taking her jibes quite literally.
"It's not our anniversary is it?" Lily asked quite seriously, wracking her brain to confirm the day isn't actually when they actually first started dating. "I'm not pregnant am I?"
He actually started at the notion, before turning a grimace of annoyance on her. "Don't even joke about that."
She flashed her perfect white teeth. "Well forgive my confusion. This isn't exactly on your way to the Great Hall, oh husband of mine. Head Boy matters?"
He seemed to relax at the sight to her, a marginal release of tension from his shoulders. "Must I have a reason to come to see you?"
Lily raised a thin red eyebrow. "You do when it's seven in the morning."
"Is this man bothering you?" Marlene joked as she fell into step on her best friend's opposite side.
"I'm doing no such thing," Severus replied dryly, obviously missing the friendly undertones.
Marlene caught her friend's eye, her eyebrows darting about her hairline as if to say 'is he serious?' To which Lily replied with a long suffering smile, intended only half in jest.
"You're in protective boyfriend-mode aren't you?" went Marlene's second attempt conversation, "All wound up about Rosier manhandling your girl."
"Husband, not boyfriend," he muttered, not even the least abashed or denying these allegations.
"Seriously, what's wrong?" Lily urged gently, "You weren't even this protective after the whole… Travers and Wilkes thing." Out of the corner of her eye, Marlene winced. Lily's best friend would never admit it, but the thought of that incident still rattled her.
Her husband's black eyes met hers, seeming to weigh his words before delivering them. "Our relationship back then was… complicated. I didn't think it my business to be protective."
"It kind of still isn't now." Lily quipped back with a bite, probably sounding meaner than she intended.
Sev's lips twitched in a shadow of a grimace. "I think that's more your problem than mine."
Lily with arched her brows, annoyance prickling under her skin. "Hey I can handle myself, I'll thank you to know."
"I'm pleased to hear. You'll forgive me for wanting to ensure you won't have to," Severus replied quite tartly.
It was quite sweet of him, Lily supposed, but that was simply not talk tolerated by the braves of Gryffindor. Marlene narrowed her eyes upon the Slytherin Head Boy, and Lily could feel the backlash build before the first words had even left her best friend's tongue.
"Okay, listen here yah bugger." Marlene all but shoved a finger straight under Lily's chin to jab into Severus' shoulder. "She's not some dainty little Slytherin girl to tuck away in a shelf somewhere. Lily's a Gryffindor, and you better respect her like one. If she says she can handle herself you damned well back off."
Sev's eyes whipped around to glare right back at the offending girl, as if struck into wordless offence by her sheer gall. Lily sighed and braced her hands upon both their shoulders, staving off the bickering that was surely brewing.
Her husband grimaced and seemed to shrink into himself. Quite obviously a goliath effort on his behalf to control his vitriolic tongue, and an effort Lily appreciated from the bottom of her heart. She loved him dearly, but he could be so rude when he's cranky, and a cat fight between her two best friends was not Lily's ideal start to the morning.
They worked their way down the Grand Staircase, their crowd joining the straggling Ravenclaw flock on their decent to the breakfast halls. Among the blues and reds, the lone green stood out quite tellingly. There was no way Sev could avoid the curious glances that came his way, or the outright stares from the boldest of the lot. All the attention was sure to make him uncomfortable. A fact for which Lily felt little sympathy. For a man who spent so much time thinking, surely he'd realise this would be what would happen when he decided to show up unannounced to escort her to her breakfast table. A walk she's managed independently several times in the past, one might think surviving mornings for this long might warrant her some credit. But Sev was doing this out of love, Lily knew, and she was doing her best not to let her annoyance show.
Mary once told her that boys sometimes had to make a territorial show, especially after a trespass of some description. It occurred to her that she had always thought Severus to be above the need for such macho antics, it just always seemed to her that he'd be too level headed to be… manly.
And now that, that uncharitable thought passed her mind, she felt immediately apologetic.
"It's sweet of you, really…" Lily muttered, by means of a truce. Severus lifted his eyes and peered testingly through his thick veil of hair, Slytherin suspicions making him naturally hesitant to take her words on face value. "I appreciate that you care, Sev… I really do." She tried again, putting a little more earnestness into her tone. "But believe me, I'm alright in the mornings. I'm hardly alone on this leg of the journey." She swept her hand about her to emphasise the crowds, many of whom quickly whipped their eyes to the front before Sev could notice their stares.
Severus dipped his head in acknowledgement, ever so reasonably. It was honestly hard to believe he was the same boy from merely two years ago. When she felt like every attempt to convince him of his folly was like clawing at the smooth slope of a steep and slippery incline.
But that erroneous young man exists no longer, a concession he made, and a promise he kept. The Severus who existed now deserved more consideration than she in her questionable patience was willing to give, and perhaps too little less stubbornness. She can't expect him to always act like she wished, and nor should he.
Stepping into his personal space, Lily snaked her arm through the nook of his elbow and entwined her fingers through his. He glanced to her, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. "You can walk me up to the tower every evening, how about that?" Lily offered, and felt his grip tighten about her fingers.
"Well that's a touching display of shrinking independence," Marlene mocked uncharitably as they touched down at the Entrance Hall.
Severus' faint smile evaporated in an instant and a sneer took its place. That sneer that always promised a cruel sting in its wake. "Yet I can't help but notice that despite hailing from the same dorm, Potter never offers you the same courtesy. Your lack of womanly ways must truly do wonders for your independence."
Lily's eyes grew round at the barb of his words, but rather than follow suit in affront Marlene gave a short bark of laughter, "You're a real arse, Severus. It's a wonder why she likes you," before pushing through the doors to the Great Hall and taking the first seat available on the slowly filling Gryffindor table. On days without Quidditch events, it was consistently the last table to fill up for breakfast, but the first for every other meal proceeding.
Without a word to her husband, Lily untangled their fingers and hurried after Marlene, apology on her lips. "He didn't mean that," she uttered as she found her seat beside her friend on that still mostly empty portion of the table. "He just gets… really defensive."
That half-smirk that had been on Marlene's face melted off, replaced with a dour grimace. "The trick is they can't know they hurt you with their words, you know. That's how you deal with bullies." With a scoff, she shook her head. "That is, if you can't beat their face in. I was two seconds away from knocking in his wonky teeth."
"Severus isn't a bully. He's just…" Lily floundered, allowing Marlene to fix her a sardonic look and reply.
"Mean?"
Lily sighed as she pulled up a plate and loaded it up with omelette. "He's getting better, I swear," she muttered, unable to help a glance over her shoulder at the sullen boy, stalking over to his side of the Hall.
"You're right, he's usually so in control. So good at pretending to be behaved. He just gets cranky when he's challenged. It's his way or bust, isn't it Lil's?" Marlene huffed as she took a full bite of her hotcakes, piled high with honey, nuts and strawberries. "Back in the problem days, it used to really worry me about how obsessive he was. Remember how he got angry that you wanted to hang out with us instead of him? Thought it was getting better but here's him, trying to wrangle you under his 'protection.' And there's you, just… conceding."
"We're married. And he's worried about my welfare. I think that's fair," Lily muttered, prodding her fluffy eggs without much enthusiasm.
"Gonna sign off on your apron with that?" Marlene snipped as she switched her bite for a slice of seared ham, simply sinking the slice in one bite.
Despite the sting, she almost smirked, "If anyone's getting an apron, it's him. He's handier in the kitchen."
"Pink frills?" Marlene grinned, her white teeth flecked with grease and strawberry seeds.
"With ribbons, and daisy patterns," Lily confirmed solemnly, before settling to her first bite in lieu of cooling emotions.
A snort from her best friend heralded that most had been forgiven. A relief for Lily, for they had gone so long without the two coming to a loggerhead.
After a moment of amicable silence, Marlene swallowed her bite, her eyes not lifting from her plate as she spoke. "For your sake, I hope things between the two of you stay as smooth as you hope," she muttered, her voice flat, barbs flattened, almost resigned, "and perhaps, that if things do not, that you'll realise before you feel the sting." She jabbed her fork almost violently into her remaining stack of hotcakes. "I don't ever want to be in the position to have to tell you 'I told you so.'"
Snape had planned his class-free Tuesday in the library, luring Lily under his watchful eye with the promise of homework. He hadn't mentioned again his protective desires he confessed in the morning, not after how well it went over with her. A Slytherin never chose the same approach to meet a goal when he knew it would only result in failure. Unfortunately not all scenarios ran so smoothly, even for a highly experienced spymaster. That was particularly true when tasked with keeping a risk-seeking Gryffindor from the very risks she sought to take.
"With Transfigurations and Potions out of the way, I declare that this has been four hours well spent. But no more books for today, my head's going to explode," Lily declared in a hushed tone as she stood up from her mess of scrolls and textbooks. "Besides, I promised Marlene and James I'd come watch their practice before dinner. Last game of the season coming up, gotta make sure they're not slacking off."
Snape dried his ink with a tap of his wand and had it furled up neatly and stored into his tattered backpack. "I wish you would apply same strenuous dedication to their academics. Merlin knows Gryffindors could stand to apply yourselves a little more to the study halls."
"Is that an offer to invite them to another study buddy session?" Lily asked sweetly as she packed away her books wildly in any random order.
Snape gave a humourless twitch of his lips. "Please take it as rhetoric."
With a gentle heave, Snape shouldered his straining backpack, then fell into step beside his wife. The noise of the corridors fell upon them as they left the calming silence of the library, class having ended for the day. The jostle of children, most of whom didn't give the library a second glance as they passed. Do they realise the finals was starting in merely three months' time? Assuredly not according to the atrocious papers Snape was forced to mark year in and year out. It seemed no amount of homework and research he set could teach those unwilling to learn.
As they descended the stairs, worries began niggling at his mind. The same worries that began yesterday at the first suspicions of what was to come. That threat of the Heir of Slytherin he had faced as a Professor would be repeated while he was a student… that it should loom while Lily is still a student… Lily, his wife, a muggle-born, someone directly under threat by the doctrine of blood purity the legacy of Slytherin stood for.
He could not let her out of his sight and expect his own heart to settle. He could not possibly rest easy with the knowledge of what was coming, with the risk that something might happen, and that he had not be there to prevent it. Another lifetime of regret…
"About this evening." Snape began, already wincing for the backlash that was sure to follow. "You have patrol, do you not?"
"With Rawkas. One of yours I believe," she replied with an easy smile, oblivious to the mortal danger that loomed aroound her.
Snape almost worried his lip, a nervous habit of Lily's that he was fighting tooth and claw not to pick up by proximity. "Could I convince you to allow me to take your shift?"
"You could. When was yours again? Saturday?" Lily asked as she squeezed past a flock of Hufflepuffs, socialising on the ground floor landing of all places.
Snape grimaced as he followed her through the thick crowds. "I was thinking perhaps… you simply let me do your shifts."
Lily froze mid-step, causing Snape to almost careen into her. He braced her before he toppled her over, only to have his hands flung away. "Excuse me?" she demanded, her eyes wide with aghast and offence.
"I just need to know you're safe," he mumbled, knowing as those words left his lips those were not what she wanted to hear.
Lily's green eyes narrowed, causing Snape to instinctively withdraw half a step. "Look, mister. I get that you're a little tense about the whole Rosier thing, and I forgive you for freaking out a little today," She closed that half-step gap and prodded her finger straight into his ribs, "but if you think for a moment that I would step back and assume the role of some fragile little thing to be shut away, you are not going to be in for a happy marriage."
Without waiting for her husband to formulate a response, she turned on her heel with a great sweep of her red hair and marched down the Entrance Hall, parting crowds of those who stopped to watch the fracas. Snape stared after her, struck momentarily dumb by her response, before gathering his wits once more and following her out the Entrance Doors.
Those green eyes flashed again as Snape drew level with her upon the winding path leading down the castle grounds. "If you don't stop following me-"
"Please, just listen to me." He reached for her, only to have her snatch her hand away.
She did not stop, frustrating his efforts to reason with her. To make her see things his way. That her safety was far more important than her pride. She had promised not to risk herself unduly for his sake, so why couldn't she simply let him protect her?
She has no idea the direness of the danger she's in. The realisation seeped through Snape's vexation. Had he only paused to consider this from the point of view of one ignorant to what was truly happening, to one whom dead chickens just meant an abhorrent act of animal cruelty… His efforts were inefficient indeed. She had no notion of what it is he was truly protecting her from.
"It's not Rosier I worry about." Snape barked, quickening his pace to overtake her. Lily hesitated a step, allowing him to step in front and halt her in her angry pace. "That's not why… why I'm anxious. I would not be so unreasonable as to believe you cannot hold your own against the likes of any of our peers."
Her red brow raised in disbelief, but at the very least she didn't interrupt him. There they stood, in the middle of the path from the castle to the grounds, straight in the middle of heavy afternoon foot traffic, having this very sensitive discussion.
"Please. A moment of your time," Snape beckoned, indicating the gentle slope off the beaten track, away from prickly ears and probing eyes. After another moment's hesitation, Lily audibly sighed and followed.
Picking their way through the small jumble of rocks that studded the hilltop, they settled in a cosy nook shielded from the view of the busy path. She chose to lean upon the boulder opposite to him, despite the rough jagged texture of its surface. Her ongoing anger was evident in the distance she chose to keep, distance that hurt him immensely.
Clasping his hands together, Snape gathered his words, weighing them carefully before he would deliver them. "I want you to… think on Sunday. The incident you attended by that shack that Hagrid calls home."
"The dead roosters?" Lily tilted a brow, sceptical from the outset. "Surely we're not worried about a chicken killer getting a taste for bigger prey? Because I can assure you I put up a better fight than a flightless fowl."
A grimace graced Snape's lips, knowing his explanation would be as graceless as the butchery that warranted it. "Perhaps… it is not as innocuous as you might think, Lily. Because it isn't what they can do to chickens that worries me, it is what the deaths of those birds mean."
"Yeah…" She frowned, confused and still unconvinced.
It hadn't been part of Snape's plan to reveal what he knew, a play to keep the current Heir in the dark. But whatever the need for surreptitious caution was overshadowed by his greatest goal. The one goal that brought about this second attempt at it all. There was no point in anything if he could not ensure Lily's continued survival. He will not let secrecy kill her again.
"Salazar Slytherin was not a pleasant man. He loathed those not of magical blood."
Lily rolled her green eyes. "Gee, I weren't aware."
Snape ignored the sarcasm and pressed on. "It is well documented that he had left the school over the ideology. Knowledge ever so pervasive in the doctrine of those that live under the House of his namesake. But what most did not know is he had left a threat. A… secret chamber, hidden in the bowels of the castle, in which he hid a dark beast. A creature that only his heir could control to carry out his foul ideologies and cleanse the school of those he deemed unworthy."
"Alright…" Lily frowned, seeming not at all convinced so far. Or at the very least, not seeing the relevance.
"There's been talk in the Slytherin dorms. Unsavoury happenings are…" Snape trailed off with a wince, tasting the bitterness of a lie that painted his own as dark souls once more. He tried again with a different angle. "I need you to know, Lily, that something similar to this happened once before. Perhaps about… forty years ago. The cockerels were killed, and only the male birds, and it was a prelude to something terrible that followed."
Snape had no real notion of how a young Dark Lord had prepared for the opening of the Chamber the first time around, but lie or not it was a better explanation than could be offered than simply claiming it all a random guess, and less distasteful than offering up his own housemates as a scapegoat. "A girl had died in the months that followed, a muggle born student. She was killed by a creature that was sealed within the chamber. A creature that… likely still lives in the bowels of the castle. Because it, and the person that released it, was never caught."
Lily stared, her mouth agape, evidently uncertain what to make of his claims. "And you think this might happen again… because cockerels died?"
"Cockerels were killed, Lily. That was how it all started." Snape turned to pace in that narrow space, an agitated motion bourn of his frustration. He had spent so long weaving lies that truth was difficult. How does he convince her of a truth, when it sounded so much more absurd than any lie he had ever told. "Surely that is too specific a target for simple wonton cruelty. Too…" He winced, stopping in his step, doubled over in hunching frustration.
"What does the cockerels have to do with this girl's death, though? Why the cockerels in particular?" Lily humoured him, shifting to a smoother surface to lean on.
"Because what dark creature fears the crowing of a cockerel?" Snape growled, hoping Lily would follow his train of thoughts. Hoping could be convinced by his leap in arbitrary logic lest he be forced to explain himself to a sceptic that saw not the connotations.
But it seemed fortune graced this exchange, for Lily's eyes drew round. "Basilisk." She breathed, and all Snape could feel was thankful that he had married a woman who spent so much of her leisure time reading on topics not part of their curricular. There wasn't a single Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor in their school years that had ever touched upon the Basilisk, for no one within the British Isles has seen a living specimen for over two centuries.
"Salazar Slytherin was a Parseltongue, I remember that from 'Hogwarts: a History.' Does Parseltongue work on Basilisks? Because if it does, it would explain so much!" She gushed, positively excited. This was not the response Snape was hoping to elicit from her.
"I think it's safe to assume the king of snakes would fall under the umbrella of the founder's affinity." Snape muttered, as close to an outright confirmation as he could push without arousing suspicion.
But picking apart her husband's wording was the last thing the enthusiastic girl seemed to have in mind. "We got to tell everybody! We need to prepare!"
"There is no we. You have to keep out of the creature's reach." Snape could feel a vein throbbing at his temple. Her reaction was not settling his anxiety. Just the opposite in fact.
But happily contrary, Lily did not seem to be inclined to comply. "There is more muggle-borns than just me here in this school, Sev. If what you say is actually happening then it's more than just me in danger."
The spymaster stared for a moment, in absolute blank reluctance. This was always a possibility, he realised in hindsight. Gryffindors were prone to heroics in absolute abandonment of self-preservation and sense. He realised now that having Lily know the truth wasn't going to make protecting her any easier.
"Honestly, I thought it sounded farfetched at first too but the more I think on it, the more it all makes sense." Lily announced at the dinner table. The stares she was getting in return ranged from scepticism to thoughtfulness, and from some, bristling excitement. It wasn't just her friends listening to her explanation, but it felt like half the Gryffindor table had stopped, or at least slowed in their feasting to listen in on her wild basilisk theory.
"You really think this might be real?" Mary asked, worry marking her brows. She wasn't one to be taken by fanciful notions, but nor was she the kind to dismiss her friend's worries with an eye roll and a scoff.
"Sev had told me about some incident forty years ago that wound up getting a student killed. If this is what's happening… well better be safe than sorry right?" Lily glanced about the table, taking in the responses. Some had returned to their meals, but for a vast majority of them, the prospect of looming heroics stroked an air of excitement in those shining young eyes. This would be a point where Severus would inevitably make a comment about Gryffindors and propensity for peril.
Marlene frowned as she leaned upon her elbows to peer at her friend over her plate piled high with protein. "You really think some terrible dark creature is running 'bout the castle?"
"It kind of does make sense though doesn't it?" Lily smiled awkwardly, feeling unconvinced herself.
"Sure. Because chickens. Why not." She muttered uncharitably, sweeping the strands of hair that escaped her windblown ponytail out of her face and returned to her slices of roast.
Pandora, however, didn't look half as sceptical. "Moaning Myrtle. She's the girl you're talking about." Everyone's heads turned her way, surprise evident on all their features. "Xenophilius" The girl answered by means of clarified. "Nearly Headless Nick throws a Deathday party on Halloween every year, and he used to attend them to socialise with what he called 'the deathly denizens.' He knew all the school ghosts, and Moaning Myrtle in particular. She was a muggle-born Ravenclaw, got bullied a lot in school. She died in the first-floor girl's bathroom after seeing a pair of eyes emerge from nowhere."
Dark muttering rounded the table, this theory no longer so outlandish with input from such a grounded soul.
But Marlene remained far from convinced. "So we just gonna ignore the fact that the information came from Nutty-philius Lovegood? The dude that so famously protested Quidditch matches during each autumn season because it disturbed the mating grounds of some hogus bogus malogus that infested the Quidditch stands?"
"And used to wear butterbeer corks around Christmas for some unfathomable reason or another." Mary added uncharitably.
But the level-headed Pandora did not seem the least bit shocked by these assertions. "Add that he used to write daily fan mail to Newton Scamander, begging him to expand into research of creatures known only to cryptozoology. I am well aware of his eccentricities, you need not remind me." Pandora relented with a wan smile. "But I also know that his ideas all come from sources of deeply held beliefs of one soul or another. He may be… naïve, but he isn't a liar. If anybody has taken time out of their lives to socialise with the non-living, it would be him."
That challenging tone in Pandora's voice piqued Susan's interest in a way a great deadly snake never could. "Is this a crush in your voice I hear?" she positively squealed.
"I would prefer the term, fascination. He is a very interesting man." Pandora just about confirmed.
Even Lily couldn't help but lean over her plate of half-eaten bangers and mash. "So you're actually into this guy?"
"Concentrate, Lily. Evil Slytherin basement monster?" Mary called in a tone equivalent to that of yanking a leash.
"Right," Lily murmured, appropriately abashed by her own gossip hounding. "But yeah, I think I said everything I wanted to say about what it is. Salazar Slytherin, Parseltongue, dead cockerels. Got to be a Basilisk."
"What's this about a Basilisk?" James asked as he rocked up to the dinner table, fashionably late as he was often known for, though oddly never for dinner. He exchanged a quick kiss with Marlene before pulling up a plate and began piling it high with as many animals as he could comfortably spear with his fork.
The rest of his Marauders had rocked up to dinner on time, oddly unengaged with Lily's tales of dark creatures, more content to whisper quietly amongst themselves. They probably hadn't caught a word of what Lily had said by the blank looks they were giving their leader.
"What did he want?" Sirius barked quite aggressively, and a comment confusing in the context of any topic of conversation offered so far.
James, however, just regarded his best friend with seeming nonchalance. "Don't worry about it. I got it sorted." But that sentiment didn't seem to have the desired effect. Sirius returned to his beef and potato casserole, muttering darkly under his breath.
"Your boyfriend seems the jealous type." Marlene teased quite audaciously over her glass of pumpkin juice.
James swept his free hand through his hair, making that dark bird's nest stick up a little more aggressively. "And you're not bothered that I skipped out immediately after training and arrived at dinner late without explaining myself?"
"Something you want to confess?" Marlene arched her brow, a touch of nervousness ruining her grin.
But it was Sirius who answered. "He's cheating on us both with Snape." To which the entire table burst into rambunctious laughter and to James' eye rolling annoyance.
"He just wanted to talk to me about something," he muttered with a hint of distinct annoyance. "We're not enemies anymore."
Lily could not help but feel her hope pique at that statement. "So you've patched up?"
"Well… no. I don't think… no." She had never seen that confident boy look so uncertain. "I'm thinking… there really is no way to smooth things over with him."
"Well you did kind of string him up and pants him." Marlene pointed out, to Lily's utter horror at the reminder.
"Live and let die, I say." Sirius muttered without a shred of guilt over his own involvement.
"Again. Giant Slytherin snake monster." Mary called everyone back to attention, seemingly the only one able to keep focus on that quite dire topic.
Lily pulled herself back together quickly. "Right. Well you weren't here for the whole explanation, but here's the short version. Severus thinks there's a basilisk living somewhere under the castle, and that someone's going to try to use it to kill muggle-borns."
"Holy crap. Really?" It wasn't scepticism that underlined his exclamation, but a truly serious concern.
Marlene swallowed her bite of roast. "What, you're not really buying into all this are you?"
But unlike his girlfriend, James did not seem the least bit doubtful. "It's Snape. He might have the personality of a sack of daylight mooncalf dung, but he's not the sort I'd ever think that'd just make up a… basilisk. He's not the attention seeking type. Can't fathom any other reason."
"How about to get Lily to sit tightly under his thumb?" Marlene pointed out relentlessly. "Why not a story about a giant snake that eats muggle-borns?"
Lily sighed, leaning her fork against her plate to sink her face into her palms. Her friends had never been generous in giving Severus the benefit of the doubt, but he hadn't always deserved it. Things have changed since and he deserved a little now at the very least. And though Marlene's concerns were not without warrant, it just didn't seem likely.
Because Severus seemed genuinely scared. And unless he was as brilliant an actor as he was in all his other walks of life, it seemed to her that he truly believed what he was saying. That there was a threat in the castle, to not just Lily, but to all that lived within Hogwarts' walls.
Snape had walked Lily up from dinner, as she had promised he was able to without reprimand. Through that steady ascent, she had been oppressively silent. Deep in thought, he assumed, for the outlandish story he had unloaded onto her.
The Gryffindors at her table had been rather muted this evening. Their drop in volume was noticeable even from the other side of the Hall at which he sat. He could only conclude she had laid this story upon their table for scrutiny, and endured the no doubt mockery that would have followed such a proposition. Perhaps she was finding doubt where she had none earlier this day.
She bade him goodnight at the portrait hole, with a gentle smile that held none of his fears. He leaned in for a kiss, wearing the mask of seeming to be uncaring of what those who were passing might think, but starkly aware of every mutter that passed.
"I'll see you in the morning." She murmured to him, as they parted from their goodnight, all smiles despite the confronting day they had. Unfortunately, Snape could not leave the evening at that. His heart could not settle knowing that Lily would patrol the hallways tonight, even alongside a trusted known element of Slytherin. So he had an arrangement made with Lincon Rawkas that would settle his anxieties a little.
Snape was the patrol partner waiting for Lily when she descended to the Entrance Hall that night. A change, he knew from today's exercise in protectiveness, would not go over well.
The moment she drew close enough to recognise his features through the dim glow of green of his ridiculous sash, she demanded in a foreboding tone, "What are you doing here?" This would be a tense evening it seemed.
Snape could not help but avert his gaze from those green eyes, bright even in the darkened gloom of the unlit past-curfew evening. "I'm here as your partner on patrol tonight." he replied as he set off briskly to begin their route. A truthful statement, if incomplete. Something that the head girl did not let just slip by.
Lily jogged to catch up with him, falling in step beside his long strides. "This is ridiculous." She muttered as she lit her wand and settled into her duties, sweeping beyond the first door they came across. Snape felt confident enough to allow her to do so, knowing that even if the Heir would act recklessly and release the Basilisk before he took all his precautions, the creature would be very unlikely to appear within a classroom. It had used the plumbing during the previous time its villainy reigned, and every attack had occurred close to a pipe-facilitated region of the school, allowing the creature easiest access.
Failing all that, Snape, at the very least was well schooled in the use of Presence-Revealing spells, the human version of which he would often use to catch curfew breaking students. He used it now, pulsing it intermittently as he walked, reassuring himself no great dark creature would loom out of the darkened halls and take away all that he held dear. But all the spell whispered back to him was the little sparks of busy elves, going about their nightly efforts. Sweeping the rooms clean and disappearing with expert efficiency beyond that of any mortal human's capabilities. The only other strong inhuman presence sung to him from up high in a tower. More likely a phoenix, than basilisk.
They settled into their routine in silence, but Snape never once allowed her to take the lead. Despite being fairly certain that the creature was not yet unleashed, he would not gamble her life on it. Something that Lily eventually came to notice to her grand displeasure.
"It's going to be like this, is it?" She huffed, jogging to catch up to his long strides. Another recent growth spurt had granted him a foot and a half height over Lily. He was beginning to reach the height he possessed in his professorial years with perhaps another inch or two left to gain. He had drawn even with James Potter, a fact he noticed with great delight earlier today. Snape would never outgrow Sirius Black, but at the very least he would never look small beside Potter ever again.
Snape did not slow his step, as they rounded the corner, ensuring it was his wand that peeked around before all else. "Come on. This is getting silly! Stop!" She reached to for his hand and yanked hard. He stopped, but did not turn to face her. He could not face the anger he knew he would see in her eyes. The frustration he was stoking within her with his inability to tolerate even the smallest of risks on her behalf.
"Sev." Her voice came so gentle, so unlike the fury he had been expecting. "I know you're scared for me. I get it okay?"
"No you don't." He growled as he whipped about, his words invoked in a tone far harsher than he intended. Even in the dimness of wand light, he could see her green eyes grow round. Was it fear he saw, mingled with surprise? It would be so simple to know her thoughts, the temptation too ripe, but he withheld. The privacy of her thoughts would be one freedom he would never deprive her of.
But instead of withdrawing, shrinking away like so many he's burned with his temper, she reached for him. Her fingers tracing the contours of his angular cheeks, quieting the anxious fears and causing the shame to burn.
"I understand what it's like to lose someone I love. Recent expertise, one might say." She gave a wan smile, still able to smile despite the bleak topic. "If I lose you, I'll lose the only family I have now. So I get it."
But she couldn't possibly understand… How could she?
"Lily, it isn't the same at all." He muttered, prompting her red eyebrows to pinch into a frown, but she made no attempts to interrupt. "You once told me… should you lose me… you'll be sad. You'll cry. But then you'll move on." He shook his head. "That would not be me. There is no point to my life should you leave the world." Not again…
"Don't say that." She hissed. "It's not the end of the world. You could-"
"Nobody will ever love me as you do." Snape forced through gritted teeth, an admission that silenced Lily, for the truth of the matter made difficult an arguing response. "And I… I will never love another… as I love you." He laid his hand upon her shoulder, a gentle touch.
Lily closed her eyes, seeming to roll the words about her mind. "But…" She whispered, bracing her hand against his arm, and pushing him away with a gentle motion. "You can't let this fear rule your life. You can't let this fear rule our life. Because I don't want to live for your fears."
There was a hint of apprehension in her voice, so faint, but so clear to him. She was fearful that this was an oppressive glimpse of their future. That he would never allow her to live by her Gryffindor nature.
And he felt so ashamed at the thought.
"I'm sorry." He murmured, turning away. He could not let go of the knowledge, of the fear.
The worst had already happened in his lifetime, scars that remained embedded in his soul. As they draw ever closer to that moment of reckoning once more, his anxiety darkened contentment and chafed him from within. He feared so deeply the loss that might come, how bitter life would become should everything be taken once more, especially now that he had a taste of how sweet things might be.
He wanted her to live, no matter what it cost him. No matter how much it would cost her. And he hated himself for it, because he knew she could never be happy living like that.
The sound of footsteps brought him from his own inner torment. From behind them came the footfalls of a fast approaching unknown. Snape moved quickly, almost yanking Lily off her feet in his haste to position her behind his readied wand.
But no figure emerged before the tell-tale steps, and Snape only had a moment to put this new information to theory before a hand darted out of thin air to wave off hostilities. "It's just me, Snape. It's James."
Lily yelped with surprise as Snape lowered his wand. "As opposed to every other student with access to an invisibility cloak." He scathed sardonically, annoyed how high this stunt had set his heartrate. He did not startle easily, but his nerves were on a wire. "Breaking curfew so brazenly, I see. Not even bothering to hide from the patrols anymore."
But not a hint of contrition touched Potter's arrogant features. He whipped off his cloak, more confident than any rule breaker had any right to be. But in his hand he held a scrap of roughened parchment, inked markers standing boldly upon that vile contraband. "The thing that you asked me to watch out for. It's happened, Snape."
And in an instant, the entire scenario changed.
Snape snatched the map from the Gryffindor boy's hands, his eyes searching that first floor corridor for any signs of human movement.
"He's already gone." James clarified with a sweep of his bed-matted hair. "Didn't hang out for long. He dashed back down to the dungeons before I could rush down here."
"He's from the dungeons?" Snape uttered, dreading the worst. The heir had been a Gryffindor the last time around, and some twisted part of Snape had hoped that a similar situation with an innocent bystander from another House might be involved. A vain selfish hope for the sake of a house that was finding its feet amongst kinder eyes.
"But he's definitely your guy. He went straight to Filch's office," the boy continued, to Snape's frowning confusion. "The old Crumugeon's currently shuffling about the fourth floor so he has no idea he's just been burgled."
"How quickly he must have procured his unlawful gains then, to disappear before you could lumber down to inform me." Snape noted, accidentally putting a compliment in his backhand.
Potter nodded, not even phased by that turn of phrase. "Yeah, in and out. Pro job. He knew what he was looking for."
Snape froze suddenly, his usually quite adept mind finally lacing together the last piece of the puzzle. For once his utter aghast was not directed at a Potter, but at himself. He should have realised this the moment Rosier emerged from that treasure hoard of contraband storehouse without a single misappropriated article upon his person.
He wasn't there to steal anything, he was there to hide it. And there was only one item associated with the Chamber of Secrets that came to mind.
"The name!" Snape hissed urgently. "I need the name!"
And for once, a Potter did as he was asked. "Avery. Your man is Alexander Avery."
A/N: I think this was the chapter I intended for people to start figuring out who Pandora is. Kudos to all of you who figured it out far sooner.
A/N: Update. I'm working through my scheduled update time. So for anybody searching for the next chapter, I'll be putting it up a day late. Unavoidable this time.
A thank you to my Beta readers Sattwa100 and MrsNanna for your work on this chapter.
Next Update: Saturday 15th December 2018 AEDT.
Chapter 49: For the Greater Good
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe and do not seek to profit in any way, shape or form from this fan work.
