Chapter 12. The Cost of Silence

Harry heard the floo activate and frowned to himself. That had been quick. Hadn't Severus intended to be out all day? Harry was in the dining room, sorting the new shipment of ingredients to arrive by owl mail. He couldn't imagine any of these ingredients came cheaply and wondered if Severus had first joined the Dark Lord because the potion's budget had been astronomical. Surely it was better than what Severus had at Hogwarts.

"Well, well, well…What do we have here? A slave wearing clothes and out and about while its keeper is gone? And riffling through the mail no less…"

"Lucius," Harry said calmly, though his heart began to race, faster and faster, until he was sure it was going to burst. They had tried so hard to keep up appearances with Draco, and now, it was all for naught if Lucius went straight to the Dark Lord now with this memory. He turned slowly, putting down the bouquet of dried lavender beside the armadillo bile. "I'm afraid Severus is out at the moment."

Lucius didn't seem one bit surprised. "Oh, but I didn't come to see him."

Of course not. "What do you want?" Harry asked steadily. He took a step away from the table and half-turned so that his upper body was facing the unwelcome guest.

Lucius shook his head, smirk in place. "Tsk, tsk. Wrong question, Harry. The question has always been what do you want and what are you willing to do to get it? For instance," Lucius stepped further into the room, shrugging off his outer traveling cloak and throwing it over one of the dining room chairs as if he owned the place. "You might desire that I hold my tongue before the Dark Lord when I see him next…but then again, you might not."

Harry could sense that Lucius, despite his words, didn't actually want to follow through with his threat. He had come here for something else, someone else, and clearly intended to get it. "And the price?" Harry asked lightly.

Lucius quirked an elegant eyebrow and fixed Harry with an expression that was altogether too falsely compassionate. "But Harry, it isn't my price. It's what you're willing to pay." He shook his head, as if he couldn't quite believe Harry didn't understand yet. "I recall having mistakenly believed I knew what it was you would pay before. What was it again? Ah, the lives of two of your closest friends. A miscalculation I do not intend to repeat. So tell me, Harry, just what is your currency?"

Harry bit his lip as the older wizard began to take off his gloves, slowly, savoring Harry's moment of indecision, of panic. This was bad. Hadn't the wards alerted Severus to an unexpected guest? Would he be able to stall for time? Or was he to take care of this himself? What if Lucius went to the Dark Lord?

"I can't bow down to you," Harry began. The Aegis would not allow him…but there was some flexibility where the Aegis was concerned. If Severus willed it, or if Harry could convince the bond that this was truly in Severus' best interest, the Aegis might let him walk the line between submitting and temporarily agreeing. Temporarily being the operative word that prevented him from swearing loyalty to Voldemort.

"That's not remotely interesting to me," Lucius drawled. "That is for my lord, after all."

"So what do you want then?" Harry asked, wary of giving Lucius too much by setting the initial conditions of their negotiations too high.

"Giving up already? But you haven't even tried. Perhaps I should just go and alert—" His hand hovered over the Dark Mark, ghosting over the ink, and Harry found himself panicking despite his better judgement.

"I want to know what you want," Harry insisted, his voice high with panic. "I want to know what will buy your silence, Lucius. Please, I want you to just tell me."

"Well, if that's what you truly desire," Lucius sighed, but removed his hand from above the mark much to Harry's relief. "What I want is to get even with Severus. Not kill him, Merlin no, just hurt him just a bit." His silver eyes locked onto Harry's. "You see, Harry, it was Severus who told me exactly how you could be broken, and I trusted him, fool I. And I have paid dearly for it with my son."

"I know," Harry said. "He told me."

Lucius didn't seem all that surprised about that either. "I have a theory, Harry. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Severus would be quite displeased if I were to use you. I asked him about it once or twice, and he seemed quite adamant that you were his and his alone. Quite the hypocrite, I should add, seeing as he's taken with my wife…"

Narcissa? That was certainly news to Harry and delivered in such a callous way. Was that why Severus was gone so often these days? Was that where Severus was now? Shagging the wife while Harry had to fend off the husband alone? He shouldn't have felt so hurt, but he did.

"You're mistaken, Lucius, if you think that would hurt him," Harry said with a confidence he didn't feel. "I'm nothing to him. He cast the imperius curse on me. He's obliviated me before. He's lied, many times. If anything, he'll appreciate your interference. It would make it easier to confuse me and have me running between his legs for protection. He'd thank you afterwards."

But if Harry thought that would put Lucius off, he was mistaken. "And yet, here you are, wearing clothes, with free rein to roam the house in his absence, instead of being chained in the cellar. I think, Harry, that maybe you are already confused."

"Perhaps you're right," Harry said tonelessly, trying and failing to come up with more protests to stall for time. Severus is with Narcissa…Severus isn't coming…Harry met Lucius' silver, gleaming eyes anew, resigned that he would need to pay for Lucius' silence by himself.

Lucius picked up on the change immediately and radiated with pleasure. "Now that we're on the same page," Lucius said with a feral grin as he advanced on the boy. "Won't you show me what dear Severus has been keeping to himself all these months? Nothing uncouth. I'm not greedy, after all, and I have no need to beg. Just one kiss…"

Lucius was a liar.

-o-o-o-

"It's been a pleasure, Harry," Lucius said as he pulled on his outer cloak once more. Harry had turned around and was hastily throwing on his clothes. "A pity I can't stay longer…"

He made it two steps towards the floo when Harry's voice called out to him, unwavering but weary. "Was that enough?" Was I enough?

Lucius turned around to face him, his eyes alight with malice. "It was more than enough, my dear Harry. It would have been enough after the first kiss, if you had just asked, but this wasn't about what I wanted. It was what you wanted, and you certainly wished to buy my silence."

Harry sank into himself then. The taste of Lucius bitter on his tongue. They had done everything except for the deed itself, perhaps because Lucius was still scared of the Dark Lord changing his mind once again about who Harry's virginity belonged to, as if that was still for the taking. It didn't stop Lucius from getting creative though, but mainly things that would leave visible marks. It seemed that Lucius had been truthful enough in his motivations and clearly wanted Harry to look worse for wear than he actually was— the better to hurt Severus without any real risk of retribution. They were still friends, after all.

Harry numbly forced himself to take a shower, scrubbing himself thoroughly. At times, he caught himself staring at the wall. He never thought of himself as an innocent person, but as he watched the slightly pink water flow down the drain, he wondered when he had truly stopped being an innocent. Was it the moment Moody held him down, the moment he agreed to Draco's plan behind Severus' back, the moment when he allowed Lucius to use him just to hurt another?

It was like falling down a spiral staircase with no end in sight, but knowing the bottom would hurt when it came. Tom would understand. Tom had been through it all, had been with him through it all. Tom would at least appreciate the lengths Harry would go to, had gone to, understand why Harry had bent over the dining room table that afternoon and counted out the blows.

Would Severus? Harry wondered this as he passed briefly by the man when he came home, touching his arm gently to settle the Aegis. Harry scrunched his nose up in surprise when the scent of alcohol hit his senses. Where had Severus been? Harry couldn't help but wonder if what Lucius said was true…

-o-o-o-

His feelings came to a head at dinner that night. He could no longer contain himself. Who was Severus to go traipsing around with the likes of Narcissa Malfoy when he was right here? The Aegis was pissed and so was Harry.

"Are you dating Narcissa?" Harry asked suddenly at dinner, slamming down his fork as Severus was just about to dig into his ravioli.

Severus shot him a startled look then, and did Harry imagine it, or had Severus looked nervous for a split second? "I don't date women, Harry. I thought that was fairly obvious."

"Are you seeing Narcissa, then?" Harry asked again, unperturbed.

"She is a Death Eater, Harry. Unmarked, but a Death Eater none-the less. Of course I see her." Severus' eyes sharpened as he studied the boy, a shade coming over his face. "Why? What's brought this on, Harry?"

Harry bit his lip. He wanted to know if Narcissa had touched him, but did he dare push the issue? Did he really want Severus to know what happened today, what Harry had done for the both of them? Did he maybe want Severus to fly into a rage, just for him, and promise unbreakable vows to never leave him alone again?

"Harry?" Severus prompted again, his voice softer. That's when he noticed the faint purpling bruises along Harry's neck. He hadn't been paying much attention when he had arrived back at the house, his head full of plans and dates and odd little pieces of unsolicited advice Albus had decided to share…Things like, don't be afraid to get close to Harry, but not too close! "Where are those bites from?" Already fearing the answer.

"Didn't you feel the wards when the floo activated?" Harry countered bitterly. "Aren't they keyed to you?"

It took Severus a second to work out what Harry was implying. He stood up suddenly, his hands slammed on the table. "I'll be more specific. WHO MARKED YOU?" Severus roared, nearly foaming at the mouth. He wasn't sure what triggered it, unbridled jealousy perhaps, the need to protect, to claim…

"WERE YOU WITH NARCISSA ALL DAY? Is that why you didn't come when you knew, when you knew I was no longer alone?"

"I—" Severus frowned as he tried to recall if the wards had alerted him to an intruder that day. He opened his mouth to protest, when it hit him. He had been in a heated argument with Narcissa over when to give the Order the go ahead on their rescue attempt. Narcissa wanted Draco out now and naturally, that spelled suicide for everyone involved. The wards had been prickling at the back of his mind, then. He had ignored it, not expecting anyone that day, and wrote it off as the onset of a headache which only alcohol could cure. Besides, only those with special permission could enter it anyway, which meant…the Dark Lord had known Lucius would come. "Harry, Narcissa and I have a working relationship. She is the headmistress of Hogwarts and access to Dumbledore's portrait is invaluable." And somehow completely useless. "Lucius, for obvious reasons, cannot know the nature of our meetings, but I assure you, they are strictly professional." His lip curled. Was professional having a shouting match that culminated in several portraits screaming at them to stop at once, lest they shatter every valuable instrument still left in the office?

Harry didn't seem too happy that Snape was indeed seeing Narcissa, and that he was seeing Dumbledore on top of it, and kept them both from him, but he nodded stiffly.

Good. Now Severus could get the answers to his own questions.

"What did he do to you, Harry?" Severus asked, more gently this time.

"Nothing I didn't want," Harry replied vacantly, to which Severus deeply frowned. It was only the desire to figure out what happened in his absence that kept his mouth shut. "It was a game to him. He said I had to buy his silence for clearly not being treated like a slave and he wouldn't tell me what he wanted. I gave him the chance to get even with you, he said, for Narcissa. The marks are mainly for show. I wasn't hurt, not really…" He only choked me for a few seconds and beat me, but really, it could have been worse.

"Did he…did he—?"

"No," Harry shook his head. No thanks to you, Harry wanted to add. If Lucius hadn't known Snape would be back by dinner, his resolve might have wavered and Harry might very well have had to answer yes to that question. "He's scared the Dark Lord will change his mind and want my first time for himself." His lips twisted in wry amusement, but Severus was already looking away, unseeing.

"I am sorry, more sorry than you will ever know, that I was not here earlier today to protect you." Because what else was it but a monumental showing of his failure. What good was his plan to save them both if the boy was at the mercy of any murderous Death Eater who tumbled from the fireplace? "But I wish you to know that I may not have been able to stop it, even if I had."

Harry's voice broke. "Of course you could have. You claimed me. He's not supposed to touch me."

Severus shook his head and reached for Harry's hand across the table, trying to convey his sincerity. "The only people with the ability to use the floo in this house are sanctioned by the Dark Lord himself. No one goes in and out of here without the Dark Lord's knowledge, at least by floo. Lucius might have wanted to convince you that he was acting alone, but it was with the Dark Lord's blessing that he came here today. The fact that I was not informed…" Severus frowned, "simply means the Dark Lord is letting us know he has not forgotten about us."

Harry's hands began to shake. So there had been more at stake today than he had thought, and he just hoped that he had passed whatever test it was with flying colors. Would Draco be proud of him? Would he even tell Draco?

Severus pulled Harry into his arms, letting the boy lean against his chest. "It's a good thing I found the healing salve," he said. His chest rumbled. Harry could hear the beating of his heart beneath his ear. "It should take all the marks away…All the physical ones at least."