Tender Hooks
By: Replacement for the Stars

Chapter Fifty-five:
Party

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

(O.o)
Year: 1972
Date: March the Third

"Severus, come," Lucius called from inside his prefect quarters, his voice barely making it down to the commons, but Severus immediately packed up his homework and darted out of the commons, Narcissa jealously watching the ring on his right hand glitter in the firelight as he strode past her. Nessie stayed for a few minutes, frowning at Narcissa—they had something in common, it seemed; the ones they loved had priorities other than themselves—and then followed his Severus upstairs, twisting his lips in relief when the butterfly flying around his head momentarily obscured his vision. He knew Severus loved him still; the other boy was just easily distracted, and Nessie presumed it would pass.

Slipping into their quarters, Nessie relaxed down at Severus's feet while Lucius was doing something in the bathroom. His eyes drooped shut and he pushed himself up into Severus's arms when the older boy began petting his hair. "I l've y'u," he breathed and Severus pressed a quick kiss to his lips, arms falling from Nessie's sides once Lucius stepped back into the room.

"Severus, I must ask something of you," Lucius rumbled, pushing his long hair back over his shoulder as he stopped in front of the dark-haired Slytherin. "It is imperative you listen to everything I say and think it over before you answer."

"Of course, Lucius," Severus replied quickly, looking confusedly up at the blond Slytherin, unable to stop himself from patting Nessie's thigh when the small boy moved away, hoping Lucius hadn't seen it.

"There is a small, exclusive club that Slughorn hosts once a month named the Slug Club. I am a member of this Club. Now, Slughorn said the more senior members of his Club are allowed to bring a potential Club member to the March third meeting, which is tonight. I am asking you, would you like to come with me?"

All of Severus stopped; Friday nights were the nights he spent with Nessie. He couldn't…there was no way he could choose Lucius and people he didn't know over Nessie, unless…Severus turned his attention to Nessie and frowned, attempting to ask the question with his eyes. Nessie only nodded, sending Severus a bright smile and motioned for the taller boy to reply to Lucius. "Tell me what these meetings will entail, Lucius," Severus demanded, smirking when the blond gracefully sat on the cushion next to Severus, their legs touching.

Lucius smiled, reaching out and grabbing Severus's right hand, causing Severus's magic to settle and the unkempt boy to relax against the taller man. "Good boy. Now, they are usually dinners with very fine food—nothing up the caliber of the food at Malfoy Manor, of course—and Slughorn attempts to get us all to interact and debate with one another. It is generally done to keep Slughorn entertained and a way for him to gain favors from those who graduate and go on to better things. However, he does have a few good contacts and he is the only person I can go through to get a few things I need."

Knowing better to ask, Severus nodded and smiled briefly at Nessie. Nessie knelt down in front of him and without thinking, Severus reached his hand out and pet the boy's hair. "Yes, I will go with you."

"Who are you touching, Severus?" Lucius asked before he could stop himself.

(O.o)
That Night

Holding Severus's right hand firmly in his left, keeping his thumb pressed against the ring on the boy's finger, Lucius led the gaunt halfbreed into Slughorn's crystal clean office, where the elves had set up a long dinner table. To Lucius's annoyance, one of the Gryffindor sixth years had brought the Mudblood girl his Severus was no longer allowed to speak to. "Keep away from her," Lucius ordered, and let Severus go, moving over to speak with Slughorn.

Severus stayed still for a minute or so and then looked up to see Avery and Lily both stalking toward him. Not wanting to anger Lucius by speaking with Lily, he turned to Avery and waited for the boy to come to him.

Of course, Lily made it to him first. "You've been avoiding me!" she accused, jabbing Severus in the middle of his chest with her wand and then crossing her arms over her chest. "Tell me why."

Severus looked around for Avery, trying to will the boy over with his eyes. He didn't want to do this; he didn't want Lucius mad at him even though Lily was the one that came over to him. "I haven't," he denied, trying to turn away from her but she grabbed his hand, her fingers brushing over his ring. A dark feeling swept through him, a sickening feeling of wrongness, and Severus staggered back, one hand clamped to his mouth as he did his best to get away from her. The silver ring was imbued with Lucius's magic (and a bit of Nessie's, which Severus had put in himself) and it was clear that if anyone else touched it, it made him sick. "Don't touch me!"

"Are you sick? Have any of them hurt you?" Lily asked quickly, reaching out for him again, those green eyes soft with concern.

Before Severus could answer, Avery was between them and he shoved her away, hissing about nosy Mudbloods under his breath. By now, Severus knew better than to argue about using that word. "Where's Lucius?" he whispered; Lucius was the only one that could make him feel any better. "Get her away from me."

Avery nodded and shoved Lily away, calling for Lucius as he did so. The blond Slytherin left Slughorn's side and pushed his way through the gathered students to make it to his Severus before the Mudblood girl touched him again. "Do not touch him," he snarled, and nodded once to Avery before pulling Severus up against him and intertwining their fingers. "Quiet. She is no longer touching you."

Feeling his magic settle, Severus nodded and pulled away from Lucius, peering up at the blond through his hair. "Thank you," he murmured, and allowed Lucius to lead him over Slughorn, who was dressed in bottle green robes with white ruffles. "Hello, Professor."

"Ah, Mr. Snape. Are you alright?" Slughorn asked, voice sharp with concern.

"Yes, Professor. I—"

"Severus suffers from dreadful headaches, Professor Slughorn," Lucius interjected, making sure his fingers were still touching Severus's ring. Slughorn looked quickly from their touching hands to Severus's pale face.

Severus swallowed and ducked his head, hiding his face. "Have all my life, Professor."

"Well, as long as you're alright," Slughorn bellowed, clapping Severus on the back and causing the boy to gag when Slughorn's hand brushed along the skin of his neck. Slughorn nodded meaningfully to Lucius and moved away, leaving Lucius to pull Severus away to the side of the office and off into a little recess behind a jutting storage shelf.

"Hush," Lucius whispered, holding Severus's right hand in both of his. "No one will touch you again." The ring's magic felt a bit strange to him but Lucius firmly pushed that thought away; this was not the time. The boy's magic needed a bit of time to settle and Lucius was determined to help him.

Something cold slicked over Lucius's hand and he saw Severus's eyes brighten, his unoccupied left hand move as if it was clutching someone's fingers in between his own. Lucius's gaze narrowed but he did not say anything; as with earlier, he figured the boy would simply not answer his question. His boy was really quite stubborn, and while Lucius could respect that, it did not mean he particularly liked it.

So, Lucius merely held the boy for a few long minutes until he felt Severus settle down, and then the two Slytherins waded back into the party, Severus firmly attached to Lucius's hand and it was clear to everyone around them that Lucius was not going to let go.

(O.o)
Later

Severus firmly held his hand to his stomach, holding in a pained groan. He hadn't ever eaten such rich foods and it was clearly irritating his stomach, but he didn't want to be a bother by asking Lucius if they could leave early. It was clear that Lucius was in his element here—back ramrod straight, shoulders aligned and his chin held high, that dear voice smooth and melodic with a hint of arrogance tucked into the corners, with every eye at the table on him, even Lily's—and Severus, in the moments it felt like his stomach wasn't trying to force its way out through his skin, watched in barely concealed awe. Although he knew he would never care enough about other people's opinions of him to work on having even the most mediocre of social skills, he could appreciate a good politician when he saw one, and Lucius was clearly going to go far with his slick personality and fetching looks. Even Lily was hanging off the Slytherin's every word and Severus knew she hated him.

Presently, as much as Severus was able to grasp with his stomach feeling like it was going to burn its way up through his mouth, Lucius was speaking on the current politics in the Ministry of Magic, but as Severus found few things as boring as politics and the general population, he turned his attention down the table to peer nervously through his hair at Lily. She, to Severus's mild surprise, was nodding slowly along with what the Slytherin was saying, as was most everyone at the table.

Severus carefully disengaged his hand from Lucius's own and clasped that one over his stomach as well, gaining a concerned glance from the older boy. He resolutely held in all sounds of discomfort and focused instead on his knees, keeping half his concentration on the pain in his gut and the other half on Lucius.

Clearly, however, half wasn't enough when he heard his name being spoken in a dark tone. Severus looked up again to see nearly all of the Slug Club members staring opening at him, with Lucius repeating his name again. "Yes?"

"Answer my question."

"What was it?"

Lucius frowned but quickly repeated himself, "What is your opinion on the banning of the Cruor Incisura Potion?"

Severus frowned for a moment, trying to remember if he had had an opinion at all when Lucius had told him about that a week or so ago. "Well, it doesn't quite make any sense, as the Blood Line potion—which is technically classified as a poison because of the antimony and if brewed by anyone less than a Master, it is generally considered fatal—is the only manner of verifying lineage that the Wizarding world has. We have no spells that give consistent results; one of the most common, the Genus spell, generally does not give regular results and has been shown to be terribly flawed. It's quite clear that the Ministry's Potion department does not know what they are doing."

Severus saw Lucius smirk darkly at Slughorn before he dropped his gaze back to his knees again, and his reply generated quite a bit of discussion. Lily, of course, being the bold girl she was, was vehemently arguing the opposite point, that it was correct of the Ministry to ban the potion, especially if it was truly a poison. Adrian, a Slytherin who always had a magical camera somewhere on him, was arguing Severus's point with Lily, trying to show her that even if it was a Dark potion, that was still no reason to ban it. After all, they used potentially Dark curses all the time in class, such as Duro, which could potentially turn a human to stone, or the Disarming Charm, which could kill a person if used with enough force. Avery also mentioned Severus's argument from earlier in the year on Dark curses—one could Summon a person's heart or how a great deal of Light wizards used the Fidelius Charm on their homes—all of which went right over Lily's head. While the girl was smart, she didn't spend all her time reading books like Severus did, and, like most Gryffindors, did not have the advantage of knowing spells before they were taught in school.

Severus shook his head at that thought and peered up at Lucius, feeling the blood drain away from his face as saliva pooled in his mouth. "Will you show me where the bathroom is?" he asked softly, immediately gaining Lucius's full attention.

"Of course. Excuse us," Lucius said to the table, and then stood, pulling Severus's chair out for him. Frowning at the action, Severus flushed when he had to jump down from his chair and scurry after the blond Slytherin, trying to quickly swallow the pooling saliva in his mouth, feeling his stomach start to loudly rebel. "It is only just down the hall, my Severus."

Ignoring the sudden churning of his stomach and the way Severus felt as if he was about to faint, Severus trudged along right behind Lucius, silently urging the blond to walk faster. He could feel the bile rising in his throat and wished terribly that he did not throw up all over Lucius's elegant robes. While he knew the Malfoy would forgive him, Severus never did like ruining clothes. Having worn the same clothes nearly all his childhood, Severus always been taught it was in bad taste to have to throw clothes away, and whenever he happened to rip his clothes, which wasn't very often as he wasn't the most active of children, his mother always carefully sewed them back up, doing her best to make sure the job wasn't even noticeable.

Sighing to himself, Severus pushed past Lucius once he saw the door to the bathroom and ducked inside, throwing himself into the nearest cubicle and curling over the toilet, waiting for his food to come back up. Lucius did something that made a comfortable chair appear in the doorway to the cubicle and sat down in it, leaning forward to rub his hand up and down the gaunt boy's back. "You are still too skinny," Lucius murmured, bring his hand up to touch each and every jutting vertebrae, causing Severus to sigh happily and try to lean back into the touch while still keeping his head over the toilet. "Have you gained no weight the seven months you have been here?"

"Don't know," Severus whined, and looked up when he heard a soft sound coming from behind Lucius to see Nessie and Peeves both looking worriedly at him.

"You are far too skinny. I will order Nutrition and Restorative Potions for you and you will begin taking them at every meal. It is unhealthy for you to be so thin," Lucius said, turning his head to see Peeves. "If you hurt him or bother him in any manner, poltergeist, I will have my father remove you from the school."

Peeves looked thoughtfully at Lucius and turned his head to look at Nessie, who only floated over Lucius to get a better look at Severus's pale, drawn face. "S'ck?" Nessie asked worriedly, causing Severus to slowly nod and lean back into Lucius's touch. "L'cius t'ke c're of y'u?" Severus nodded again, wishing he had the strength to sit up and pull his boy into his arms. "G'od. P'eves 'nd I w'll st'y 'ut of th' w'y, th'n." Severus twisted his lips and then groaned, turning himself back over the toilet bowl and gagging as his dinner began to come back up.

A few moments later, Severus sat back against Lucius's legs as the older Slytherin Banished the nasty mess in the bowl, opening his arms so Nessie could curl up in his lap. The small boy did as wished of him and sat in Severus's lap, ducking his head so it could fit under Severus's chin. To Severus's surprise, his boy was bigger than he remembered; when had Nessie grown without him noticing? He wanted to say something but was nervous of what Lucius would say; how could he explain Nessie, after all? In thinking about it, he couldn't explain Nessie. Nessie was a small, abused boy that no one other than Severus could see, a boy that fit Severus's needs perfectly and could only be seen by ghosts and the resident poltergeist. It would make Severus look nutters and possibly drive Lucius away from him.

Severus couldn't survive Hogwarts without Lucius's protection, he just knew he couldn't. The Gryffindors' treatment of him was terrible enough and Severus knew it would escalate even more if he drove Lucius away, so he had to do what Lucius wanted to keep himself safe.

Somehow, both Nessie and Lucius ended up touching the ring on Severus's right hand, and, overwhelmed with the magic encasing him, closed his eyes and fell asleep, holding on to the most precious people in his life for all he was worth.

(O.o)
Year: 1972
Date: March the Fourth

Severus scowled at the third time a Slug Club member came over and asked him if he was alright, firmly turning away and ignoring the sixth year Slytherin. Lucius had coddled him enough and while Severus secretly appreciated that, he didn't want anyone else touching him. Other than Nessie of course, but that was a given. When someone else stepped up and softly asked him if he was alright, Severus spun around and snarled, "Go away! I'm not dead, I'm fine!"

It was Lily, with wide green eyes sucking him in. She frowned at him and Severus wanted to apologize but couldn't. "Professor Slughorn said you were pretty sick," she told him, and Severus bit back a sneer.

"I'm fine," he ground out, and moved to turn back around but a small hand on his stopped him. Severus gagged again as he tried to wrench his hand away but Lily seemed to be a bit stronger than he was. "Let me go!"

"No, not until you tell me why you've been avoiding me, Sev," Lily demanded, narrowed green eyes taking in his strange, mismatched outfit and the still-uneven cut of his hair, the Salutem hanging from his neck and the grey-green pallor of his face. She moved her hand to get a better grasp on his fingers and felt her flesh touch something cold and metal; looking down, she saw a thin silver ring on Severus's right middle finger, gleaming against his sallow skin. "Why're you wearing a ring?"

"Let go of me," Severus rumbled, and tried again to tug his hand away, slapping a hand over his mouth when Lily intentionally brushed her finger along his ring. "Don't touch that, Lily, please."

"What's it doing to you? You need to take it off!"

Merlin, he would do anything to flush his system of that terrible feeling of wrongness that encompassed him whenever someone other than Lucius or Nessie touched him, and Severus felt his left hand move toward his ring as if to pull it off. Just as long as his magic stopped rebelling, he would do anything…

"Step away from him this instant, Mudblood." Severus looked up relief when he heard Lucius's dark voice come from his left, and he peeled his eyes open to look up at the blond Malfoy. "Now." To Severus's relief, Lily stepped away, releasing her grip on his hand. "Come, Severus. I told you not to defile yourself by associating with such…trash."

Severus nodded and scrambled out of his seat, stumbling over to Lucius and blindly following the older boy out of the Hall, desperate to just get away from the stares. Once they were in the dungeons, Lucius reached down and grabbed Severus's hand, making sure the boy's ring touched his skin, and smirked at Severus's audible sigh of relief. "She came over to me," Severus finally told him, peering up to meet Lucius's silver-grey eyes as they glinted in the green light of the deeper dungeon halls.

"I know. I merely needed a reason to pull you out of there as quickly as possible. I am not mad at you, Severus, rest assured."

Severus nodded once, feeling some tight tension in his gut relax, and he let Lucius lead him to the Slytherin commons and cloister them away in Lucius's prefect quarters. Nessie joined them on the bed, Severus in the middle, and Nessie pressed a kiss to Severus's cheek just as Lucius slipped both his and Severus's shirts off, pulling the boy into his arms, intent on assisting his boy by having as much skin-on-skin contact as possible. Nessie watched jealously as Lucius splayed a hand low on Severus's abdomen and refrained from sticking his hands through the blond's wrists to keep him away from his Severus.

But he had to share Severus now, and could do nothing about that.


A quick note: I know the last few chapters have been focused mostly on Severus and Lucius, with just a bit of Nessie thrown in. Don't worry, this will change soon. It's important to the plot, so please be patient.

-Replacement