Lucius Malfoy was an aristocracy epitomized. His overbearing disposition and condescending demeanor added to his larger-than-life image. His ostentatious robes and lustrous locks made him a striking piece of ornamentation. He was not an amicable person yet his luxurious lifestyle attracted a large crowd of adversaries and beneficiaries alike. But what certain people ostensibly failed to notice was his cunning frame of mind. Behind the mask of glitz and glamour lay a totally barren piece of rock. Somebody who had seen far too much to care.
"How has been your day, minister"Lucius drawled while seating himself regally on one of the three chairs kept in front of a huge oak table. His one hand rested on his ornately carved serpentine stick and his other hand casually drummed on the oak table. On the other side of the table sat the minister serenely.
"As good as it can be, Lucius", the minister replied in a placid tone. Lucius nodded.
"So far the things are working in our favor", the minister continued. Both men were staring intently at each other.
"I am, shall we say, enthralled, "Lucius said with a controlled expression," but I fear, it is too soon to predict anything. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link."
The minister nodded contemplatively."The girl is doing a decent job, I must say."He took out few letters from his drawer and spread them on the table. Lucius preened at them.
"Goldfish eh", Lucius sneered.
"She is talking about her parents", clarified the minister.
"I thought so. You are keeping an eye on them I suppose", Lucius said while settling comfortably on his chair.
The minister smiled."That I am."
"Anything important here?"Lucius said while referring to the letters.
"It has been just two days, Lucius. She has just started."The minister collected the letters and kept them back in his drawer."Though she mentions here that Snape might be a half-blood."He stared at Lucius to assess his reaction.
"I, unfortunately, already know this but I must say that I am impressed. This is something that is not a piece of common knowledge and Severus is not somebody who offers his personal life on a platter. I don't know how the girl managed to lay her hands on this piece of information. It only means that all that I have heard about the girl does hold merit", Lucius said in admiration."Nevertheless, we must not forget that she is Potter's friend who in turn is Dumbledore's puppet."Lucius voiced his concerns.
"Ah you need not worry on that accord", said the minister in a conspirational tone.
" An unbreakable vow. Isn't it? Lucius sneered.
"Yes, an unbreakable vow."The minister smiled in return.
"And what about these letters. Are you sure they won't get intercepted?"
"No, they won't. There is a Chanel. From Hogwarts, the letters are sent to a little girl in Hogsmede. The mother of the child then fluecalls her friend in Diagon Alley from where it is forwarded here amidst junk mail. Don't worry Lucius, the ministry has its own ways", the minister elaborated pompously."Then the girl has been promised her price. Rest assured she would not divulge anything."
Lucius remained silent for few minutes and then he spoke queerly."I just have to know what this man is up to. He is a hard nut to crack. Severus Snape. For the longest time, he has been deceiving either of the two wizards, The dark lord or Dumbledore, or probably both. Cunning man.A very cunning man ."Lucius drawled as though in a trance.
"We will soon find out. How is your son faring with his task? The minister inquired.
"I think he is doing his best, "Lucius smirked.
The minister nodded.
"Narcissa thinks that he has deflected to Dumbledore. I am talking about Severus.", Lucius clarified on seeing the minister's confused look.
"Ah I see", the minister muttered in realization.
"She is a fool to have gone to him for help. She tends to get irrational when it comes to Draco."Lucius scrunched his face in distaste.
"It's only natural." The minister sympathized.
"Even Bella suspects his betrayal. It's just me. I can't accept the fact that someone could betray the Dark Lord so casually for so long."Lucius absentmindedly began fiddling with the globe."I need to be sure. Extremely sure before I take the next step."
"My dear Lucius that is the reason we have set a spy on him. I have full faith in the girl. She would not let us down."The minister tried his best to placate him.
"Alright, I think I should take leave."Lucius got up to leave. He shuffled his robes to extricate two bundles out.
"Here please accept my contribution to the ministry."He handed a blue velvet pouch presumably filled with galleons to the minister.
"Ah, I will use it well. There was a recent requirement for anti-spell robes for the Aurors. Your contributions would be useful."The minister smiled appreciatively.
"And do keep this as a small token from Narcissa", he slid another gold foil-wrapped packet in the minister's direction."These are cashew lava pasties she baked today. She especially insisted that I present them to you."
"This was unnecessary. Narcissa is a gracious Lady. Do send her my regards."The minister said genially.
They shook hands cordially.
As Lucius reached the door he turned back to face the minister.
"And thanks again for getting me out of Azkaban, minister."
"Mention not Lucius. We have come a long way since."
They both nodded at each other.
"One thing minister. To whom did the girl refer to as the crocodile "
The minister laughed a deep belly laugh.
"He, Lucius, is our star player."
Hermione was sitting in her History of magic class.
She was mechanically jotting down ridiculous elfish laws. These laws were as archaic as time itself. They would have been scrapped long back if Hermione had had any say in the matter. She was getting slightly irritable these days she realized.
The moron at the ministry was to be partially blamed for that.
Today when she was somewhat prepared for a duel the moron asked her to memorize certain coordinates! Not that it was a bad thing. This was something she could do easily in her comfort zone but his ability to always catch her off guard and take her by surprise overwhelmed her.
"Stupid man ", she muttered to herself.
Hermione was peacefully eating her lunch when she saw Harry entering the great hall. She beamed at him. Though her happiness was short-lived. Trailing him were a very much in love couple Ron Weasely and Lavender Brown. The manner in which these two were gazing at each other with doe-eyed expressions was attracting a lot of attention from all sides. But what amused Hermione, even more, was a sullen-looking Parvati who was trailing behind the trio. Hermione had a sudden urge to laugh but she controlled herself in time. Parvati looked a bit relieved as she spotted Hermione and quickly seated herself beside her. Harry seated himself on Hermione's other side and the so much in love couple seated themselves across the table. Soon the couple got busy feeding each other portions of pumpkin pasty. Hermione suddenly found her food very interesting.
"All the best, Hermione", Harry said encouragingly," for your first lesson with Snape today."
Hermione felt as though she was going for a battle. In a way she was.
"Thanks, Harry." She muttered.
"Yes, I heard you are apprenticing along with Professor Snape. Is it true?"Parvati asked excitedly.
"Yes, that's true", Hermione replied while munching her treacle tart.
"Really. That's great. I wonder if he has additional time for this. Do you know he still supplies potions for the infirmary even though he is not teaching potions?", Parvati's eyes sparkled as she divulged.
"Really, how do you know?"Hermione asked casually.
"Well, a number of people have seen him deliver the potions. Well mostly on weekends."Parvati spoke vociferously.
"I see"Hermione responded.
"Yes, there are rumors that he is working on a potion to cure the Headmaster's diseased hand", Parvati continued.
"That's absolutely great."Hermione gulped a large quantity of Pumpkin juice and coughed.
She looked at the staff table. Dumbledore was busy in some discussion with her head of the house. Snape on the other hand was staring towards the Slytherin table apparently towards Malfoy.
"Uhm Hermione I have a lesson with Dumbledore today in the evening. I will discuss Malfoy with him."Harry whispered emphatically in her ears.
"It's alright Harry, do as you wish."Hermione conceded. This would be the most viable time to meet the octopus. Most probably Harry won't check his map in the headmaster's company she reasoned."I'll be going to the library to update my assignment", she declared to her friends. She finished her lunch quickly and came out of the great hall. Then she headed towards her favorite place in Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Library. She greeted the librarian, Irma Pince, and surged into the library.
Once inside she marched ahead to the section titled 'Magical herbs and remedies'.On the ninth shelf, she reached out for the ninth book titled 'Common magical herbs'.She opened the ninth page which was a blank page and scribbled a note on it.
"The great barrier reef,8 pm".Then she muttered a charm and the words disappeared. Octopus would know the counter charm. She then cast a Notice- me -not charm on the book so that anybody surfing through the library would find the book extremely unappealing. She kept the book in its usual place and went to the astronomy section to update her assignment anyway.
After spending a good half an hour revising her essay on 'Mysticism of the constellations' she decided to leave the library. As she was making a swift exit, she saw the octopus entering the library. She smiled to herself.
It was 4:30 pm in the evening and after half an hour Hermione was supposed to go for her first apprenticeship lesson with Snape. She felt jittery. She was not the one to be intimidated by Snape. All these years she had continuously stood up to Snape by raising her hand very well knowing that he discouraged it. Yet now she felt like a frightened eleven-year-old. Her brain subconsciously knew that the equation had changed. She was no longer an annoying Know-it-all student and he was no longer an irritable and impatient teacher. He was a veteran master spy and she was a novice yet determined spy who had been given an insurmountable task to spy upon him. She took few deep breaths to calm herself. She conjured a glass and pointed her wand towards the glass and muttered, 'Augmenti'.A spray of water filled the glass. She gulped the entire glass of water in one go and got up swiftly. She picked up her satchel and walked towards the dungeons with a purposeful stride.
The dungeons were dark and misty. She wondered how could people live here. Well, they obviously could.
She reached the door of Snape's classroom. The door swung open the moment she raised her hand to knock on it. She tentatively stepped inside. There was nobody around. A set of unmarked assignments were lying on the teacher's table. A quill was lying neatly on top of them. Something was brewing inside a cauldron on the other end of the teacher's table. Something she strangely couldn't discern. It was bubbling with purple effervescence. She decided to maintain a safe distance from it since she did not understand the nature of the brew.
She kept her satchel on the first desk and looked around."Professor" she called meekly in the silent room. She got no response from anywhere. She peeped in the potion storeroom but that too was empty. Did he forget about the apprenticeship classes altogether? Maybe. Parvati had said that he was keeping too busy these days. Even he himself had admitted before Dumbledore that he was overburdened with responsibilities. She shrugged to herself. If such was the case then she could look around the room albeit with caution. She reached out to a bookshelf and began shuffling through the titles. Most of them were potion periodicals. She noticed a black leather-bound book with similar spiky handwriting filling its margins. Hence proved that she was right she thought smugly. Moments later she heard footsteps behind her. She quickly kept the book back and turned to find a sneering Snape glaring at her.
"Good evening Sir. There was no one here when I came. I thought you had forgotten about my lessons. So I thought I could utilize my time in reading some potion journals."Hermione soon realized that she was blabbering so she shut her mouth.
They both stared at each other for a while before Snape spoke, "I do not forget anything, henceforth always remember that", Hermione swallowed a lump in her throat" and no you can't touch my books without my explicit permission ", Hermione nodded meekly "and Good evening to you too, Hermione."He paused for a moment at Hermione's startled look and continued, "I suppose I can call you by your given name now that you are my apprentice."
Hermione was flabbergasted.