Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.
Dumbledore's Spy
Days passed agreeably at Malfoy Manor. The only Death Eater staying in the house was Severus Snape, the others hadn't come back yet, although Amanda feared their return was imminent.
All too soon, the lazy mornings under the sun or the quiet evenings discussing with Severus about potions, politics, books and many other subjects came to an end.
That day, when she woke up, she could feel it already in the air. Darkness. The Death Eaters had come back. Amanda should have felt only disgust about it, but the truth is that sadness was the primary feeling in her heart at the moment. She had come to enjoy Severus' company, but now that his 'associates' were back, those peaceful hours chatting in the library or dinning with Narcissa and Draco would be over. Amanda knew it had to be so, and yet she felt sorry for it.
She wondered how could it be that she, the daughter of a Ming and a McGonagall, had ended up caring for a Death Eater, but Amanda was not a fool nor a liar, and she had to admit to herself that the mysterious Mr. Snape had awoken in her much more than pure interest. And that was a problem, because they were enemies. Amanda might have feelings for a Death Eater, but while he was one of them, she would never tell him. And she didn't know what Severus thought of her anyway. She had wondered... Sometimes he seemed to search for her company, to enjoy talking with her as much as she did, and on other occasions, she had the impression the man was trying to avoid her. Did that mean that he felt something for her too? Something more than friendship? Was he avoiding her because he knew they could never be together? Or was it just coincidence?
Amanda rubbed her temple and tossed aside the bedcover. A few minutes afterwards she was enjoying a warm shower, but her thoughts were still wrapped around Severus. She didn't love him. Not yet. But she felt very much attracted to him. Strange how she had come to value so much someone who she had sincerely hated at the beginning.
She took a deep sigh and stepped out of the shower. The mirror in the bathroom showed her a misty reflection, and Amanda thought it matched her mood perfectly. That was her, not a clearly defined person, but someone confused, undetermined. Amanda looked at herself in the mirror and smiled ruefully. She knew what she had to do. She couldn't fail Dumbledore. She waved her hand at the mirror and the vapour disappeared. Now the mirror was clean again, and her reflection was back to 'normal'. The cold haughty jilguerei was back. In times of war, 'romance' was an empty word.
***
Amanda had managed to avoid the Death Eaters during the whole day. She had met one or two of them occasionally on the stairs, but it was obvious that they had a meeting. A very important meeting. They had been in the library since early morning. Amanda felt lucky that she had taken some books to her room the previous day and could go on working upstairs. Narcissa and Draco were too busy attending their new guests to spend too much time with her, and the intimate meals in the greenhouse were definitely out of the question.
The evening came, and Amanda was trying to calm herself while she waited in her room for Draco. Narcissa had told her that there would be a 'welcome dinner' in honour of the new guests and had begged Amanda to attend it. Of course, Amanda, although not happy about the company, had no intention at all of missing such an opportunity to spy on Voldemort's followers. Nobody would suspect a friend of Narcissa, and an 'agreeable' dinner was the perfect excuse to observe others without attracting too much attention upon oneself.
A knock on her door broke her train of thought. Draco was waiting outside, dressed in his best robes and looking a little bit nervous.
"Aunt Mandy! You look amazing! Merlin, how unlucky that I wasn't born ten years earlier!" Draco complained.
Amanda glared playfully at him. She hoped she looked good, she had put on one of her best dresses. The Malfoys' dinners were usually very strict about etiquette. And well, maybe the hope to impress a certain Severus Snape had had something to do as well with her choice of clothes...
Taking Draco's arm, Amanda started descending the stairs royally. She could hear already voices downstairs. How many Death Eaters had come? How many of them would stay this time? When Draco and her took the last flight of steps, her natural elegance and her beauty provoked a sudden silence in the hall while everybody turned to admire her.
"Mandy!" A delighted voice called from the hall. Amanda had to make an enormous effort to go on descending the stairs calmly instead of turning on her heels and running to the closest bathroom to throw up.
Instead, she searched in the crowd for the face of the man who had spoken and forced a smile, more because Narcissa was watching her reaction than because she really felt the man deserved such a effort on her part.
The man was waiting for her at the end of the stairs, looking at her with a toothy smile on his face. Caesar Malfoy, Lucius' younger brother, had won the Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award every year since Gilderoy Lockhart had suffered a very strange accident and had ended up in St. Mungo's with no memory at all. Amanda secretly thought maybe the memory loss was due to too much smiling, and she hoped very much her ex-fiancé Caesar would be 'memoryless' in a couple of years.
"Caesar," she acknowledged with a nod of her head while wondering how on earth could she have ever kissed that man.
"Oh, Merlin! Why did I ever leave you, Mandy?" Caesar exclaimed as if they were representing Romeo and Juliet.
Amanda gritted her teeth before answering in the same falsely sweet tone: "What do you mean Caesar? It was me who broke up our engagement, remember?" Maybe there was a relation after all between smiling too much and loosing your memory.
Caesar merely ignored Amanda's last comment and addressed Draco. "Draco, if you'd excuse us, you are too young to have the honour of escorting our beautiful Mandy to the table," and he offered her his arm pompously.
Amanda grabbed Draco's arm with so much force that it hurt. Draco couldn't miss the message. "Sorry, Uncle Caesar," the boy said graciously, "Aunt Mandy is mine for the night."
"For the holidays," Amanda grunted, loosing control over her false smile for a moment.
"For the holidays," Draco corrected himself, smiling.
Narcissa thought that Caesar had been duly humiliated for a while and intervened, taking his arm and walking to the dining-room, followed by everybody else. Maybe she could let Mandy ridicule him a bit more during dessert.
There were small cards on the table with the names of the people to indicate their seats. Amanda realised with a sigh that she would be sitting at the head of the table, in Lucius' usual place. Narcissa had taken her usual seat, on the other extreme of the table. Amanda didn't like this one bit. That would mean she would be surrounded by Death Eaters.
The men lingered a bit, finishing the conversations that had been interrupted by Amanda's appearance on the stairs and her short dialogue with Caesar.
Amanda saw with dismay that Caesar was approaching her, obviously intending to sit close to her. He studied the cards on both sides of her and looked utterly displeased.
"I think you are sitting next to Mother, Uncle Caesar," Draco came to the rescue, "I thought you were the most indicated to cheer her up a bit, you can talk to her about Father, tell her some of those stories about the two of you when you were children... you know, the usual..."
"Oh," Caesar said a little bit mollified. "Of course, Draco, it would be a pleasure to make your mother smile a bit tonight, I'm sure she has been feeling pretty lonely lately."
"Heartbroken, more like," Draco said.
"Yes, yes, heartbroken." Caesar then turned to Amanda, who was listening intently, worried that Caesar would send Draco to console his mother and take the boy's place instead. "Mandy, I would love to talk with you in private if you could spare me some minutes before going to bed tonight."
"Can't we talk in the morning, Caesar? You know you are never up to much talking after a copious dinner."
Caesar didn't look too happy. "Breakfast, then? Ten o'clock in the kitchen?"
"Ten o'clock in the kitchen. Breakfast for you, third coffee for me," Amanda pointed out, "you know I'm quite the early riser."
Caesar nodded courteously, but his smile had faded long ago from his handsome face. He then turned and went to take her seat to Narcissa's right.
Draco took a seat to Amanda's right, and the man sitting next to him immediately engrossed him in conversation about Quidditch. Amanda couldn't see the name printed in the card to her left, and she wondered who would be sitting there. She took the time then to look around the room. She recognised immediately the two men she already knew, McNair and Pettigrew. She wondered if Dumbledore's spy was in the room too. Her aunt had told her they had a spy infiltrated in Voldemort's organisation. Maybe he was here today. But how could she recognise him?
"You look lovely, Amanda," a silky voice said from her left.
Amanda jumped a bit, she had been looking in the opposite direction, studying the people slowly taking their seats. "Thanks, Severus," she said, blushing a bit. What was going on with her? She hadn't blushed like that since she was a teenager!
The meal turned out to be quite agreeable. Amanda talked animatedly with Snape and was having the time of her life, not minding in the least that they were surrounded by a group of Death Eaters, not even caring for once that Severus was one of them too.
But it seems all good things must come to an end...
"Why, Severus! You seem to have made a conquest!" McNair shouted from across the table, turning everybody's attention to Severus and Amanda.
Snape tensed immediately. He had committed the mistake of relaxing too much. That had been a very big tactical error. As a spy, he was living on a tight rope. He couldn't allow himself the luxury of enjoying himself and definitely not of showing some interest on anyone. The moment he was discovered -and Severus Snape was sure he would be discovered sooner or later-, Voldemort wouldn't be happy with merely killing him, he would make him suffer as much as he could first, and the worst anybody could experience was seeing someone they appreciated or cared about hurt and killed in front of their very eyes. Not that he cared about Amanda. He enjoyed her clever conversation and found her the most beautiful creature he had ever beheld, but apart from that and catching himself thinking of her every two minutes...
He was going to snap back in his more dangerous voice, but Amanda beat him to it.
"Mr. McNair," Amanda said with a sweet smile. "What makes you think Mr. Snape has made a conquest and it hasn't been me who has conquered him?"
Everybody turned to look at McNair, who looked a bit taken aback.
"I bet our dear Amanda has made not only one, but many conquests tonight," Narcissa, always the perfect hostess, interjected, trying to avoid a discussion. "I don't think I have introduced her to you properly, gentlemen, allow me to do it now." Narcissa paused and looked at Amanda, and everybody followed her gaze.
"Gentlemen, this is Amanda Ming, a very dear friend of mine. She is -to my disappointment-, Caesar Malfoy's ex-fiancée, and my son Draco's godmother. She speaks eleven languages, has a muggle degree on Chemistry and Pharmacy, and also happens to be a jilguerei."
Everybody started speaking and exclaiming at once. A jilguerei! Did they really exist then?
Amanda waited stoically until everybody had finally stopped staring at her as if the word 'jilguerei' was printed on her nose.
And then the questions began:
"You can sing then? I think jilguereis are the singing ashanriis, aren't they?" Someone asked.
"Yes," Amanda simply said.
"How did you meet Mrs. Malfoy?"
Well, that was a difficult question to answer. Amanda couldn't tell the truth, of course. Luckily, Amanda and Narcissa had thought of a believable story many years ago, and now Amanda could tell it without pausing once to think. "We met at one of Madame Malkin's fashion show. I had to buy a dress for a wedding, but my aunt was busy and couldn't come with me, so I was sitting alone, and Narcissa sat beside me. We soon realised we had a very similar taste, and started talking. Then Narcissa invited me to have some tea, and as we both enjoyed each other's company so much, we went on meeting now and then. Time passed and... well, that was more than ten years ago and here we are now."
"Why did you go to a muggle university if you were born a jilguerei?" A man with a very thick nose asked from Narcissa's left.
"When my mother died, I had some friends who took me in and then, well, this friend of mine wanted to go to a muggle university and as I had nothing better to do, I decided I would join her. I've never been able to stay at home doing nothing. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. And it was. Now I'm working for a muggle lab."
"You are working?" Another man asked. "I thought ashanriis were so rich that they didn't need to work."
"Well, as I just said, I like having something to do. And I happen to like my work very much. And no, not all ashanriis are rich."
"Yes, ok, but... with muggles?"
"Why not? They pay me well."
"But they are muggles!" The thick-nosed man exclaimed. As Amanda looked politely puzzled, the man added: "Muggles are inferior beings."
Amanda turned very serious. "That's your opinion, I don't agree with it."
There were some smiles and chuckles around the table. The Death Eaters were thinking that, after all, Amanda was just another beautiful girl, no brain at all. How could she fail to see muggles were inferior?
Amanda had the feeling she would regret it, but she had to say it:
"I'm afraid our dear hostess forgot to mention something important in introducing me," she looked at Narcissa, who was looking very serious, apparently knowing what she was going to say and not liking it.
Everybody was silent, looking at Amanda.
"I think Voldemort is a madman and Death Eaters are brainless heartless bullying beasts who suffer an inferiority complex," she said in her sweetest voice, and then raised her glass full of sparkling champagne gracefully and bowed slightly, looking in turn at every men in the room before taking a sip.
The tension was so thick for a moment that it was even hard to breath in the room. Narcissa and Draco reached discreetly for their wands, just in case they needed to defend Amanda, although she had been the one to provoke the Death Eaters. Snape reached for it too, what surprised himself a lot, since there was no way he could defend Amanda. In fact, if he was going to keep his cover as a spy, he should probably hex her. After all, she had insulted him too.
All the Death Eaters looked too shocked to react, though, and Draco couldn't help but think that maybe Amanda was right, at the very least they were 'brainless'.
Amanda looked quite relaxed. After letting her message sink in the Death Eater's thick skulls, she sighed dramatically before adding: "I must admit, though, now I've met some of you, I find Death Eaters terribly... sexy."
All the men immediately relaxed and even grinned like idiots. Their ego was appeased, and they chose to think Amanda had been joking before when she had insulted them and the Dark Lord. What they didn't know though, was that Amanda had 'turned on' her irresistible Captivare charm. It was a charm that only ashanriis and Veelas could use, and that allowed them to seduce in an instant every single men -with a few reasonable exceptions- in at least a kilometre around them. At the moment, the Death Eaters couldn't have cared less if Amanda had insulted their own mothers, they would still think she was the most charming creature in the world.
Narcissa shook her head at Amanda, silently reprimanding her for taking such an unnecessary risk. Amanda had the grace to look a little bit ashamed.
Draco swallowed hard and then relaxed, immediately realising that Amanda had turned on the charm and seeing everybody was under its effect. He wasn't affected, because he saw Amanda as a blood relative, and although they flirted sometimes, it was only a play for them. It was one of the limitations of the Captivare charm, it didn't work on relatives. He turned to look at Amanda, but froze in place when he saw Professor Snape didn't seem to be under the effect of Amanda's charm. Instead of looking at her with an hypnotised smile like the other men, Severus Snape was looking at the other Death Eaters wondering what was wrong with them.
Amanda had noticed it too, and she found it a bit disturbing, to say the least. How could it be that Severus apparently hadn't been affected by her charm? He was closest to her. He should be down on his knees right now, looking mystified at her. But no, he was looking a little bit lost, but not at all affected by her. Amanda couldn't avoid a pang of worry. Her stomach went to her throat and her hands started to sweat. She was feeling cold too. Could it be... No, no, he had never mentioned another woman. But then, they had mostly talked about potions and politics and stuff, not about themselves. What if he was in love with someone else? What if he was even married? What if he was gay? Because there could be no other explanation. To resist the Captivare charm, you had to be a relative of the caster, not interested in women, or... or in love with someone else.
Severus turned to Amanda and caught her staring at him. She immediately concentrated on the tiny sparks inside her champagne glass. Severus leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear:
"You have put them under a spell, haven't you?"
To have him so close, to feel his breath in her ear, was almost too much for Amanda. Now that she had discovered he was out of her reach, she had suddenly made up her mind that she was indeed in love with him. What was she going to do?
She nodded silently in response to Snape's question, keeping her eyes on the champagne.
"Why didn't you put me too?" Snape whispered again.
Amanda wished she knew. She made some quick thinking, she couldn't tell him the truth: that she wasn't able to affect him. "I..." She finally started to say, but couldn't go on. Then she looked up into his eyes and swallowed, and decided that maybe she could tell him part of the truth:
"I think you are not like the other Death Eaters, Severus. I don't know why you are one of them. You don't really fit into any of the categories I usually classify Death Eaters into. I mean, you are clever. Why would you need to follow Voldemort? You could be great and famous for your own merits if you wanted to. Why be the slave of a madman?"
Severus was very shocked. His usual facial mask faded for a moment and his surprise was clearly written in his features. And his eyes... His eyes showed something else, although Amanda wasn't sure what it could be. Was it happiness, was it thankfulness? The light in Severus' eyes faded immediately, and his mask was back in place.
"What will happen when they recover from the spell?" He asked, choosing to ignore Amanda's previous question.
"They will remember nothing strange. Just that we were all eating and drinking. They'll probably think they've had too much to drink. And they'll think I'm a dear child."
"They won't be angry?"
"No," Amanda said, her eyes back on the sparks.
"Will they know I wasn't under the spell?"
"No," she repeated.
"Very risky, Miss Ming, very risky," Severus said, and straightened again.
"Jilguerei are animagi, right?" Pettigrew suddenly asked.
"Yes, we are," Amanda confirmed.
"I know it because I am an animagus too, and I read it somewhere while I was studying to achieve the transformation," Pettigrew explained proudly.
"What kind of animal can you turn into, Mr. Pettigrew?" Draco asked.
"A rat," Pettigrew answered proudly.
Amanda raised an eyebrow imperceptibly for a second. In her opinion, being able to turn into a rat wasn't something you should be proud of.
After that the questions ended and the conversation went on for a while around the table. Amanda even had the good grace of singing for them all when Draco begged her to entertain them for a little while.
The evening hadn't gone as bad as Amanda had expected after all. She was impressed with herself for being such a good actress.
***
Three o'clock in the morning. Amanda had been staring out of the window for a while now. She found she couldn't sleep. From her bed, she could see the moon looking down at her, like a mighty Queen of the night.
She had been thinking since she had come upstairs. She, Amanda Ming, was in love with a Death Eater. Of all the men in the world! Yamiko wouldn't be happy. The fuocciri had always told her she didn't like Amanda's friendship with Narcissa Malfoy. She said nothing good could come of it. Yamiko had been right, of course, as always, because shortly after meeting Narcissa, Amanda had started dating Caesar Malfoy and had ended up with her heart broken, and now life showed her again how right Yamiko had been. The fuocciri would never approve of Severus. And what about Auntie Minnie and Dumbledore? No, they wouldn't be happy either.
What did it matter anyway? Severus Snape was out of her reach. Amanda had been replaying all their conversations in her head, but she could really find no clue as to whether Severus could be interested in someone else. She avoided the mirror on the room and went straight to the sink to wash her face. The cold water made her headache recede a bit, but she felt still very bad. Maybe a good book would help.
She opened her door carefully and stepped barefooted outside the room. While she walked downstairs, she wondered what could she read. The books she needed for her work would probably only make her headache worse, but maybe she could go on reading that book about the Malfoy Family. If it had been so boring to put her to sleep once, maybe it would be able to put her to sleep again. And then it stroke her. She stopped dead in her tracks, thinking like mad. What if... No, no, it couldn't be. Or could it? She had suddenly realised that she couldn't be sure that Severus wasn't a relative of hers. A distant relative. She didn't remember seeing the name Snape in her family tree, but what if they were related through his mother? What if Mrs. Snape was related to the McGonagalls or the Mings in some way? And Severus had known about ashanriis, which was strange, because most wizards thought they didn't exist. So maybe his mother had been an ashanrii too and she was a distant cousin of her own mother or something like that!
If it was that! Amanda prayed to all the gods that Severus and her were related, and in her hope that his heart wasn't engaged, she forgot that, if they were relatives, a relationship between them would be an incest.
Hope is always a strong medicine, and so Amanda forgot about her headache in a moment and almost flew downstairs and into the library. She paused for a moment at the door, her heart beating madly in her chest. She didn't dare light the candles nor the torches, what if someone found her there looking at the Snapes' genealogy? Taking deep breaths to steady herself, she walked to the centre of the room, only illuminated by the moonlight coming in through the windows. She closed her eyes and commanded:
"Show me any book with the name Snape on it."
Immediately, some fifty volumes -as far as she could see- stood out. It seemed the Snape was a very ancient family or there was a lot to tell about its members. She tried to narrow the search.
"Show me a book about the Snape Family," she ordered.
A book flew down to her from one of the upper rows. It was a thick volume bounded in black leather, and Amanda almost let it fall to the floor, unable to hold it. Lucky for her, a jilguerei didn't need much physical strength. She whispered a spell and the book was suddenly as light as a feather.
She was almost outside the library when a dry sound behind her startled her. She turned and narrowed her eyes. The room was illuminated enough, there was nobody there. She studied the floor, maybe one of the books she had conjured up first had fallen instead of going back to its place. It happened sometimes. It had really sounded as if a book had hit the floor. She started tiptoeing silently along the bookcases, holding her breath and the big book to her chest. Nothing... Nothing... Nothing... Wait! Light! There was a tiny hole on the floor, and through it Amanda could see a little bit of light. The hole was no bigger than a pea, if it hadn't been because Amanda was looking for something, she would have never seen it. She smiled satisfied at herself. So this was it: Lucius' secret study.
Amanda waved her hand to the floor and it turned transparent, but in a way that only people looking from upside would be able to see what was hidden below without the people downstairs noticing or seeing anything strange above them.
Yes, this had to be Lucius' secret study. She could see steps to descend and a big round table with lots of chairs around it. She waved her hand again to see more of the room and tiptoed to the other side of the now transparent floor.
There was a man there, but Amanda couldn't see his face, because he was bent, apparently be searching frantically for something in the drawers of a desk. The spy! Amanda felt very silly. Since she had come to Malfoy Manor, all she could tell her aunt was when Death Eaters came and went, but that was all. She had found nothing really interesting so far, and now here was this man, who had to be Dumbledore's spy. He had already found the room she had been searching for herself. How much wasted time! She could as well have stayed at home!
And then Amanda's heart stopped beating. The man she had been looking at had suddenly straightened and run his hands over his hair in frustration, looking at the ceiling, and Amanda had been able to see his face clearly. Severus! Severus was the spy? Her mind was reeling. Severus wasn't a Death Eater! He was Dumbledore's spy! How had she been so silly not to realise? She had even told him tonight. He wasn't like the rest of them. He was different. And that was because he was not one of them. Amanda wasn't in love with a Death Eater!
That thought made Amanda remember what she had come downstairs for. Now more than ever she needed to know if Severus had resisted her charm because he was a relative of hers. She waved her hand at the floor and it recovered its normal opaqueness.
Then she left the library with a smile on her face. Severus wasn't a Death Eater! Oh, what a joyful discovery. Amanda wasn't even worried anymore that he might be in love with someone else. What did it matter now? Amanda would go to any lengths to get the man she loved. Her feelings weren't wrong anymore, because he wasn't a dark wizard.
Feeling suddenly thirsty, she decided to go to the kitchen first to get herself a glass of milk. She was walking upstairs again, the book in one hand and the glass on the other, when she heard steps and whispered voices coming downstairs. In a flash, she vanished the book and the glass to her room and turned into a snake. Some of the Death Eaters knew she could turn into a black cat, and a snake wouldn't be too conspicuous in Malfoy Manor. They would probably think she had escaped from the dungeons. She snaked along quickly to the side, to avoid being treaded on, and waited, trying hard to hear what the men were saying.
"Are you sure?" It was Caesar.
"Yes, I've seen him myself just a moment ago," Pettigrew was saying.
"Very well," Caesar answered. "We'll wake McNair up first. We might need his axe."
They reached the next landing and turned to the left in search of McNair's room, and Amanda turned back into a woman. This was bad. If she had understood correctly, they had discovered Severus. Whom else could have seen Pettigrew if it wasn't him? Maybe Pettigrew was in the library too, hidden somehow, and he had seen Severus searching through the drawers of Lucius' desk, looking for something. She had to warn him, but the problem was that Caesar would be there, and she would recognise her in any of her animal forms. Not to mention the fact that maybe Pettigrew had seen her downstairs before.
She risked turning into her eagle form and this time really flew downstairs and into the library. The door was now ajar, probably Pettigrew had left it like that after leaving in a hurry to wake up Caesar and the others.
The eagle landed smoothly near the spot where she had seen the hole before and turned back into a woman. She waved her hand and looked anxiously downstairs. Severus was now comfortably sitting on Lucius' armchair, reading some documents. She stood for a moment, thinking what to do. She didn't know what she had to do to get downstairs, and she couldn't risk making noise.
She turned into a cat, because felines could see much better in the darkness, and searched for something that would allow her to open a door or a trap. There it was! The Malfoys' crest stamped in gold on the spine of a book. It had to be that. Turning back into a woman, Amanda took the book, but nothing happened. She opened it, the pages were full of scrawled words, but there was nothing that would give her a clue. Then she put it back on its place. Maybe it wasn't that... But in putting the book back, Amanda pressed a bit the crest, and the floor shook a bit. So that was it, she had to press the crest, not take the book.
She was trying to decide if she should go downstairs in her human or in one of her animal forms, when she heard the voices just outside the library. They were coming, there was no time for hesitation.
Amanda waved her hand at the floor to return it to its normal shape, pressed the crest on the book and the floor slid to the side, revealing the steep staircase she had seen before through it. She run downstairs lifting her long nightdress with her hands to avoid tripping just as she heard the door to the library open. At the end of the stairs, she turned to the desk she had seen from upstairs. Severus was sitting there, his mouth open in astonishment.
"Amanda?" He asked.
She run to him and whispered in distress: "They have found you out! They are coming!"
Severus paled and looked upstairs as Amanda turned to the stairs. They could see already the shoes of someone descending the stairs. At least they didn't seem to be in a hurry.
Amanda turned to Severus with panic in her eyes. They were going to kill him! She had a sudden idea:
"Follow my lead," she whispered urgently, and then almost threw herself in Severus' arms and kissed him soundly.
Severus didn't even have time to react before Caesar's voice resounded in the room:
"What the..."
Amanda stopped kissing Severus and turned to look at Caesar. She feigned surprise and rose in a flash from Severus' lap.
"Caesar! What are you doing here?" She asked angrily.
"Me? You have the cheek to ask me? What are you doing here? In his arms?" Caesar added with a revolted look.
"Caesar, stop behaving like a child," Amanda admonished. "Our relationship is o-v-e-r. Do you understand me? I'm free to kiss whomever I want."
"Amanda," Caesar said walking menacingly up to her, "don't ever dream our relationship is over. You and I are meant to be together. We'll marry and you will bear my children, whether you like it or not."
"Oh!" Amanda exclaimed in exasperation. She had already forgotten about Severus being in danger. What did Caesar mean she would marry him whether she liked it or not?
"For your information," she said, "I happen to be in love with Severus. And he is in love with me. Aren't you? Tell him Severus!" She commanded, turning to look at him.
Snape couldn't believe his ears nor his eyes. He looked at each and every person in the room, Caesar and Amanda, both glaring daggers at him, and Pettigrew and McNair, frozen at the end of the stairs, gaping at him with their mouths open and their eyes bulging. Snape thought for a moment their surprised expressions didn't probably match his own. He shook himself mentally.
Rising from the armchair slowly, he addressed Caesar. "This is not the time nor the place to discuss this." Severus said, and felt the look of admiration Pettigrew and McNair were giving him for his cold blood. "I've found the information we needed. The main thing now is to rescue your brother and the others, the soap operas can wait." He addressed Pettigrew next: "Are you sure it was Lucius?"
Pettigrew sighed exasperated. "How many times do I have to tell you. I saw him with my own eyes! It's him!"
"Right, then we'd better get going," he said, and taking the parchments he had been consulting strode imposingly between Caesar and Amanda and started to walk upstairs.
Caesar towered over Amanda menacingly. "What is going on between you and..."
"CAESAR!" Snape called in an angry tone from the stairs. "LATER."
Caesar reluctantly left Amanda standing there and followed Snape.
"What about her?" McNair asked. "Nobody should know where we are going." McNair was hoping to get an excuse to pay Amanda back for her scratch.
"It's ok, Amanda won't tell anybody," Caesar said in a bored tone, and then the four men finally disappeared and Amanda was left alone in Lucius' secret study.
***
It was quite cool outside. Amanda didn't want to loose time in getting slippers and a jacket. She didn't even think about it. She walked with decision to the greenhouse, and then further away from the house. A few meters behind the greenhouse, there was a small pond. Amanda's favourite place in the Malfoys' property. Nobody would be surprised to find her there at any time of day or night. She usually went there when she wanted to think or just be alone. That's why the pond was the perfect place to contact Hogwarts.
Amanda waved her hand at the greenish waters and they moved, like rippled by a soft breeze.
"Minerva McGonagall," she said low but clearly.
The waters seemed to boil for a moment, and then they calmed once more. Professor McGonagall's sleepy face, with her hair hanging down in a loose plait, appeared in the water.
"Amanda, dear, what is it?"
"The Death Eaters have found the place where the Ministry keeps hidden Lucius Malfoy and the other captured Death Eaters. They have left a few minutes ago. I came to warn you as soon as I could."
"I'll tell Albus," Professor McGonagall said. "Now go back to bed and try to get some rest."
Amanda nodded and was going to wave her hand again at the waters when her aunt spoke again:
"And Amanda..."
"Yes?"
"Take care, dear," Professor McGonagall said with a wary smile.
"I will," her niece answered with a sad smile, "you too, Auntie Minnie, you too."
The old witch nodded and disappeared.
***
Once back in her room, Amanda knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. The glass of milk and the book with the Snapes' genealogy laid on her bedside table, but she wasn't thirsty nor interested in the book anymore.
She realised now how silly she had been. She had been daydreaming about a man who was her enemy. It was obvious that Snape not only wasn't Dumbledore's spy, but even worse, he seemed to be one of the leaders of the Death Eaters. Even Caesar Malfoy had followed his orders without daring to object.
Of course Snape was different from the rest. Most of the Death Eaters were only puppets of the Dark Lord, but he needed clever men too who would help him control those puppets. Lucius was one of them. He wasn't either like the other Death Eaters, he was more like Snape: clever, cunning, cold-blooded...
She snapped her fingers and the book disappeared and went back to its usual place in the library. Then she went to the wardrobe and searched for something: a tiny black bottle. In reaching for it, something caught her attention: her mother's portrait, she carried it with here everywhere she went, although she usually kept it hidden. Amanda took the small photograph of a young serious woman. Her mother hadn't had many reasons to smile in life.
"Mother," she said, "I can understand what you meant now. I know you won't be happy to hear it, but I must tell you something: I've made the same mistake you did, the one you warned me about. I've spent all of my life trying to be different from you, as you told me I should, trying hard not to commit your same mistakes, but in the end, destiny has been stronger than my own will. How ironic that I should end up loving the wrong man too." Amanda paused for a moment, a sad smile on her face. "But mother," she said with determination shining through her eyes, "I have an advantage over you: I know I must fight this feeling. I can't become another puppet of the Dark Lord. I won't, I promise." Amanda opened the small bottle, dedicated a silent toast to her mother and then swallowed its contents in one gulp. She hid the bottle and the portrait again and went back to bed. She forced herself to drink the milk now. The Dreamless Sleep Potion had a very bad taste and the milk would help keep her stomach down.
She'd think about it all in the morning, although there wasn't much to think about really. Amanda knew her decision had been taken long ago. She wouldn't fail the Order. Severus Snape was just another enemy, and she would treat him in accordance: she would be polite, but keep her distance from the man.
And then sleep engulfed her, and her worries vanished... until morning would break.
*****
Thanks for the reviews!
Thanks all for reading and reviewing!
This chapter was very hard to write. In fact, I wrote first another version, and then deleted most of it and started anew. That was hard. :-(
In the following chapter, you'll find the summary I promised you about the different ashanriis we have met so far. Not all of them, just the really important ones. And we'll see some familiar faces again. Yes, Dumbledore's Army will be back in Chapter 24!
hermionegreen: I can understand it must be confusing, with so many names. Hopefully everything will be much clearer after you read Chapter 24. Yes, the house to which Black Manor is connected now is the house of the Sams, Yamiko and Samako. We'll know more about Bantu's prophecy in the next chapter too. :-)
LyssasPen: Thank you! I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you. ;-)
Kadi Rilla Wholi: Wow, how many questions! :-) You are lucky, because you will get some answers in the next chapter. You'll have to wait a lot, though, to know about the others. And about Remus and Sandrine... I'm not telling. :D
Lily Skylo: Well, Snape is back in this chapter, but things don't look too well for our poor Amanda. We'll see Remus, Dean, Ginny and Benjamin in the following chapter, which should be a little bit funnier.
dweem-angel: I do my best to update soon. That way I make myself write a bit every day. If I were to stop writing for some days, I would probably stop writing altogether, because I would find it difficult to recover the thread of the story. Let's hope my work allows me to go on writing regularly. :D
iNsAnEgUrLrOx: Oh, my dear, what a difficult name! :D Thanks a lot for your reviews. I have the feeling you don't like Snape much, am I right? Well, as you can see in this chapter, Amanda does like Snivellus, and he seems to like her too, but he is such a difficult man... so I can't tell for sure yet. Don't worry about Sirius, though, I have plans for him too. :D
Makalani Astral: :D Many reviewers are sure there will be a SB/AM/SS love triangle. Well, let's see. I hope I will be able to surprise you all, just give me a few chapters more. ;-)
kt: Ok, I'm glad you will still be reading my story. Harry and Cho will meet again in the next chapter, but there won't be much about them yet.
Katiekins: Thank you. I hope you like the rest of the fic too. ;-)
Lupin: Welcome back! I have good news for you, there will be some action again in Chapters 25 and 26, which should be up soon. Initially, there was going to be some spell work in Chapter 24, but I preferred to insist more on the various ashanriis, so the action has been a little bit postponed. I'll think about your web site. I'll e-mail you if I come up with something. ;-)
PaigeGirl-nee: I'm glad you like the story. And yes, I was a little bit carried away by my imagination in Chapter 9. I'm afraid there are other very long chapters too after that, I hope you enjoyed them, though. :D
