Hermione and Harry remembered the cold, haughty woman from the Quidditch World Cup top box. This Narcissa was the same woman, but seemed about 20 years older rather than just four.
"Mrs. Malfoy. Please come in, and sit down. Severus worked very fast."
"Severus?" Narcissa looked very confused.
"Yes, I asked him to contact you for me; I didn't expect to be seeing you so soon, however."
"I haven't actually spoken to him in a year or two, though I have seen him much more recently. Be certain to give him my best, but I'm afraid I'm here quite of my own accord."
Harry stood and cleared his throat. "I'll just leave you two to talk then, shall I? It was lovely seeing you again, Mrs. Malfoy. I'll speak with you later, Hermione." He left the room, the door clicking shut on an uneasy silence between the two members of the Order of Benevolent Light.
"So, Sister Mary Rebecca. The last time I saw you, you were but a filthy little Muggle-born witch dirtying up the Top Box at the World Cup with the lowly Weasleys. Naturally I believed that I despised you, and your little friends. I was cowed and programmed, you see, into believing that pure blood was all that mattered, and playing Lucius' little games would keep me safe. I've stayed drunk and aloof out of terror and shame, but my son's…regrettable…actions have forced me to rethink my entire life. I've come to you as a Sister; whatever else you may feel for me, my son, or my husband, we are of one Spirit, and I need your strength to do what I must."
"Sister…Joan, is it not?" Hermione hadn't known Narcissa's Order name, but somehow it popped in her mind when she needed it. At her nod, Hermione continued. "Sister Joan. We share a bond that cannot be broken. I want you to feel as if you can confide anything to me, and then I have a question of you."
Narcissa placed her cold hands into Hermione's warm ones, gathering potency from her touch. Lucius would kill her on the spot if he knew what she was about to do, but she was protected now. There was finally another good, strong witch of the Order to help her, and she knew what they had to do.
"Sister Mary Rebecca. I have lived my life as a lie, not listening to my Spirit and running away from my duties and responsibilities as a member of the Order. As my Sister, I ask for your forgiveness, even though I have long been a part of a most dreadful charade that may well cost everyone I hold dear their lives."
Hermione pulled
Narcissa to her, and felt the tears falling on her shoulders. Holding the older
woman, the mother of her rapist and the wife to the most powerful wizard in
Voldemort's organization, she begged her to continue.
"Voldemort knows of Snape's deception. Last night at my home, he
used a new, improved version of the Imperius my husband has developed, that Severus
was not able to resist. It cost Voldemort, Lucius, and Pettigrew dearly in
energy as all three had to cast at once, but they received the reward of
hearing from him once and for all that he had fallen these many years past into
Dumbledore's camp and also was charged with protecting you. When they
could no longer sustain the curse on Severus, they cast enough Cruciatus on him to kill most men. They left him
for dead in my basement. To make certain that Lucius would not kill Severus
this morning, I administered a vial of Draught of Living Death to fool
him."
Hermione gasped, but continued to hold Narcissa and stroke her hair soothingly. After a few moments, Narcissa continued, "Lucius left for London after verifying that Severus was – dead - to attempt to twist arms in the Ministry to get a light sentence for my son. I brought Severus here through one of the hidden tunnels, and left him at your door after casting Ennervate to counteract the Living Death. I've been down at an old friend's home in Hogsmeade, debating suicide, as I'll surely be killed by my husband for my deception. He'd think no more of it than squashing a spider.
"My friend reminded me of my strength all those years ago before I was foolish enough to marry Lucius, and showed me not just the errors I'd made and the paths I should have chosen. He reminded me that I had a chance to help erase my mistakes. I am here to do that. I will do whatever you ask of me, Sister Mary Rebecca. I am your servant and Sister."
Hermione was in tears that the older woman had put so much trust in her. She could feel strongly through her Spirit connection that this wasn't a trick, or a ploy; she knew this woman almost better than she knew herself.
"I ask two things. One: you are needed to help tip the balance in this war towards the light."
"Of course. I will be at your side. As will my very good friend in Hogsmeade; he was the path I should have chosen, and didn't, and have lived to regret it all my life."
Hermione knew. "Remus Lupin." No wonder he was so adamantly against the Dark; it had claimed the only woman he had ever loved. So much about Lupin made sense to her now that she had heard the story.
"Yes. My Spirit told me to forsake Lucius and marry Remus, and raise my child as a son of the Light rather than the Darkness. I was a weak, selfish woman who believed that I could live with Lucius despite his connections to Voldemort, and that money and comfort for my son were more important than love. I cannot live that way anymore. I've paid a terrible price for my foolishness, the world suffers as a result."
"That brings me to my second question. Can Draco be turned?"
Narcissa was not expecting this question, from the woman who had been brutally attacked by her son only a few short days before. "Turned? From his destiny? He was born and bred to be the heir of Voldemort; he follows in his father's footsteps. I did nothing to change that when he was a baby and a child; nothing at all." Fresh sobs caught in Narcissa's throat as she remembered the cold upbringing her baby had. She had made so many foolish decisions.
"So you don't believe we could convince him to turn against Voldemort? Perhaps by ensuring he won't to go Azkaban?"
"I don't even know my son. I cannot say. Pardon me for saying so, but you are very Gryffindor; the hat knew what it was doing in your case. You're trying to redeem the monster who raped you. I could not be so forgiving."
"Sister Joan, I assure you, I am not absolving him of his sins. I have just come to realize in the last day that I care more about the cause than myself. It took me only a few hours to realize that. Even though it has taken you eighteen years, you must see that in turning away you will achieve the kind of salvation that comes from living in the world rather than inside your head. It's time to stand and be counted. We'll leave your son as a variable in our plans, rather than writing him off, okay? But the most important thing is that you are with us." Narcissa nodded, wiping her eyes.
The door opened, and Albus, Severus, Remus, Harry, and Ron all stood in the doorway. "Welcome to the Light, Narcissa," Remus said.
*~*
"Tomorrow, at Draco's trial, will be our time to do battle." Ron displayed all his scenarios, including the Draco variable still outstanding, and continued in his role as Master Strategist. "Our greatest advantage, Narcissa, is that they do not know that you have joined us. Snape is going to lay low, and not answer the inevitable summons; they will assume he is dead, though one more source will help. You have a loyal house-elf that is willing to say that she disposed of Snape's body, yes?" At her nod, Ron went on. "Narcissa, you must act as if nothing has changed. Lie in your bed at Malfoy Manor and stay catatonic; Professor Snape has brewed a potion for you that will make you seem very drunk, even though you will be in full possession of your senses. Your husband will of course summon you to go to the trial; act as if you are granting him the hugest favor in the world, but make sure you are there. If he fails to invite you, you'll have to come alone, but it would be better if you were near your husband to disarm him when all hell breaks loose. Narcissa, we all know how much this could cost you. We trust you to draw upon your considerable strength to pull this off. We cannot succeed without you.
"All of our Gryffindor graduating class, plus my sister Ginny and my brothers Fred and George, will be there to keep an eye on any stray Slytherins that show up to attempt anything. They don't know the full story, but they have been apprised to keep wands at the ready; the Ministry is allowing them to keep their wands when they take everyone else's on the way into the trial. It pays to be a Weasley.
"Harry, you and I will be there with the rest of our classmates in a show of support for our Hermione. No one will suspect that we're there with ulterior motives since we're all tight anyway, right? One big happy Gryffindor family." Snape rolled his eyes, and Ron continued with an amused smile.
"Hermione, there will likely be Veritaserum administered. You won't be able to stop yourself from revealing our plans if you're asked. It's a weak point in the plan, but can't be helped. You can, however, tell less than the whole truth if pressed. We'll count on the defense not probing too far into your post-rape activities.
"We know from Narcissa's intelligence that Wormtail will be hiding in a corner in his Animagus form. Fortunately for us, we have a cat on staff who didn't mind being recalled from her intelligence mission. She'll keep the rat at bay, and he won't be able to do anything at all.
"Voldemort will be standing by to rush in at the time, as he cannot allow Draco to languish in Azkaban. He will be ready to level as many Unforgivables as he can, as will Lucius and the suddenly corporeal Wormtail. Though Wormtail won't be able to help, and neither will Lucius, because they'll both be neutralized. Voldemort will be standing alone; and Draco will still be a day away from his eighteenth birthday, unable to help. Even if by some miracle Voldemort could tap into his power, and we have to include that as a likely scenario, Narcissa is our wildcard; they won't see this coming, and they cannot muster enough power to overcome Narcissa, Hermione, and Harry working in tandem.
"Professor Snape and Professor Lupin will be hiding under Harry's and Dumbledore's invisibility cloaks. Professors, you'll have only a few seconds to hold Draco and let Narcissa give him the option of turning before he realizes that Voldemort is beaten. If he refuses, he gets Azkaban, and good riddance if you ask me to the stupid smirky git. Sorry Narcissa, sorry, old habits die very hard, and I don't share Hermione's inner bloody goodness. If he turns, and repents, he can join us in the final defeat of Voldemort and be on the right side for once in his miserable life.
"My calculations indicate that if the three of you cast Petrificus Totalis at the same time, the Ministry should be able to have Voldemort off to Azkaban in twenty minutes. If things go wrong, and only two of you are able, Snape, Remus and I will be able to combine to be the third and it should still work. As a final backup, my father will be completely briefed on the plan and will be at the ready. Albus will be there in case all else fails, though we would like him to remain safely out of the way given Voldemort's hatred for him, and basically every single person on the good side will have a wand and a role.
"Voldemort will no doubt be there under an invisibility charm of some kind. He doesn't have a cloak, which frankly astonishes me, but he is powerful enough to maintain an Invisibility Charm for the duration of the trial.
"Does everyone feel we have our bases covered, then?" Ron finished, and sat back expectantly.
Hermione's jaw was dropped to the floor. She had never seen Ron in action as a strategist, and was incredibly impressed. She reached over and hugged him tightly. "You're amazing, Ron."
"Oh, you're just figuring that out, huh?" He blushed a little, and hugged her back.
"Why aren't we killing Voldemort?" Narcissa asked. She had been around Lucius and the Death Eaters just a smidge too long.
"Narcissa, it's a valid question," Albus said, "but we aren't like them. Killing is a last resort. If we can capture him without killing him, we prove that we are the better side and the just choice. It will serve us well in the long run when our actions are recorded for posterity and people have to decide whether evil or good are the greater power in the universe."
"Weasley," Snape said curtly, as if it cost him dearly to speak. "50 points to Gryffindor."
"Only 50?" Harry laughed, and the group broke up to prepare for the next day.
*~*
Hermione, Ron, and Harry giggled like children in her rooms after dinner. "You and that BAT! I can't even fathom it." Harry had filled Ron in on the growing relationship between their Potions Master and Hermione. "And you, a bloody NUN! Oh, Ginny will have a field day with this…"
"You had better not breathe a word to Ginny about any of this. I'll have your head. And for your information, you two overgrown children, there is nothing between me and Snape. I'm becoming his apprentice, and nothing more. Don't go starting rumours."
Harry snorted. "Too late!"
"You guys are taking this extremely well."
"Taking what well? Remember, you don't have a relationship." With that, Harry and Ron planted kisses on each of her cheeks and left the room.
"Oh, Crookshanks," Hermione said, "They really haven't changed a bit." She changed into her nightgown and brushed out her long thick hair, trying not to contemplate the intense desire to slip next door and proclaim her undying lust for Severus Snape. He certainly needed his rest after the events of the previous night and their all-day work session, and while she certainly intended to keep her inner Spirit happy, tonight was not the time.
Fortunately for this storyteller and you, dear readers, Severus was not under such delusions.
There was a soft knock at the door, as if he didn't want to wake her if she was asleep. She opened the door, silently watching him as he walked past her and into the room.
He paced back and forth, not looking up or speaking. She folded her arms, sat in a chair, and waited. And waited. And waited some more.
"Oh, blast it all, Severus. Spit it out."
"I'm ready to throw caution to the wind and take your lovely self to bed right here, right now. I want to make love to you all night and wake up happy and exhausted on what might potentially be our last day to live. And yet, I'm talking myself out of it. Excuse me if I'm not quite trusting myself to speak yet."
Stifling an inappropriate giggle, she settled for a small grin. "Talking yourself out of it? Whatever for?"
"Because you and I are under the influence of some idiotic spell which that…old bat…of a Mother Superior put on us. We're not acting of our own volition, and I won't become a slave to some ridiculous mumbo-jumbo primal female Spirit religious idiocy."
"Let me guess. You wouldn't sleep with a Gryffindor?" Oooh, she had scored. He was much angrier. Perhaps she wasn't actively aware of the connection to another Sister of hers, the Lily Evans that he had scorned too many years in the past, but the Sisterhood knew no boundaries of time. She knew he had said, or felt, something similar at one point in time.
"That's…not…the blasted point and you know it! I don't want you to want me because I'm some prize for your inner bloody Spirit! I don't want to crave your touch because some Irish hyper-female demigod is forcing the issue! How can we know what is real and what isn't? Three days ago you were a bloody know-it-all obnoxious little prat, and now I can't keep my mind off you. Heaven help me." His pacing resumed anew, and with more fury than before.
"Severus," she said evenly, "If you're so determined not to abandon yourself to me and my 'inner bloody Spirit', why are you even here?"
It was a fair question.
He sank into the chair opposite her, and stared at the fire. "I don't know."
"I'll be honest, then. You're the horrific professor that never, ever, acknowledged that I had any value until you thought I was gone for good. If I hadn't been raped by your student; if you hadn't been forced to find me and confront me, I'd be sipping tea at the Burrow and sharing pillow talk with Ginny Weasley, and you'd be miserable and brooding in your dungeon alone."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Things change, Severus. Just because you were an insufferable, unapproachable, thoroughly biased Slytherin git that terrified all my friends a week ago; and I was the obnoxious little schoolgirl who insisted on helping those who couldn't help themselves in such a hideously Gryffindor way; things change. Usually you get more warning, of course, but that doesn't mean the changes are any less valid. Look at Narcissa."
"You might have a point, but I can't trust that we're not just under some spell and we'll wake up tomorrow horrified and much more unhappy than we are now."
"Have you ever heard of faith, Severus?"
"Can you come to the point and spare me the flowery nonsense?"
"All right then. I'll come to the point." And she leaned over and kissed him before he could register surprise. "Stop talking this to death, and just feel. You deserve this and so do I. Let go."
He found he couldn't argue with her logic with her arms wrapped around his neck and her eyes inches from his, and suggested that her bedroom might be a more comfortable place to continue the discussion. As he tasted, felt, and memorized every inch of her beautiful body in the next several hours, he realized that he wasn't under any kind of spell at all. He was simply in love with her, and that was that. It might be insane and revolting and the polar opposite of what he had expected and deserved for this life, but there it was.
As for Hermione, she reserved judgment. Part of her held back on admitting "love", because that wasn't an emotion she had ever felt before, and she liked to analyze these things. Teenage crushes and kisses stolen in the Astronomy Tower were nothing like what she was experiencing now. She promised herself to just go with the incredible feelings that were washing over her. Later, as they held each other tightly after their passion was consummated multiply and beautifully, she stroked his hair until he fell asleep, and listened for her inner Spirit to explain things to her.
All parts of her soul were satisfied and ready for the next day. Her little inner slice of divinity was at peace. She knew with certainty that this was the right thing to have done; not because she needed him to protect her, or any other antiquated notion of having to have a male "complete" her, despite the Mother Superior's admonitions.
After everything that had happened to her, and would happen the next day, she needed to have something just for herself. Everyone was used to taking, taking, taking from her, but Severus gave. Very simply, of himself, gave her a gift that she wanted, that she needed. He asked for nothing in return but her pleasure, though she knew she'd given him plenty of that in return.
She thought about reconsidering her disbelief in God; because she knew she had seen a small piece of heaven here in the Hogwarts dungeons, and felt completely healed after the trauma that Draco had put her through. Sappy and sentimental? Of course, but after all as Severus was so fond of pointing out, she was a Gryffindor.
