Chapter Eight: Dinner At the Manor

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

--William Shakespeare

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Severus Snape absolutely despised these meetings with Lucius Malfoy, full of half-truths, hidden meanings, and various other methods of intrigue. He hated the way they constantly tried to outmaneuver one another, and now that they were conspiring to overthrow the Dark Lord, things would likely become even more complicated.

But, Dumbledore had insisted that Severus continue the charade and do anything in his power to remain deeply involved in the plot-- for when Lucius and Severus struck, the Order would be waiting to tilt the axis of power in their own direction.

Damn all of them and their struggle for ultimate power, for whether the noble Order realized it or not, that's what they were after. Now Severus was bound to answer almost any invitation which Lucius extended. It had become his duty to the Order to reestablish a friendship that had been ripped to shreds years ago by the Dark Lord and his love for discord.

So it was with a long-suffering sigh that Severus stepped through the hearth and into his old friend's sitting room.

The Lord of the manor himself was reclining gracefully in his favorite chair from which he rose immediately and extended a friendly hand. Well, this is uncommon, thought Severus.

"Ah, Severus, I'm so glad you've come," Lucius said brightly.

Severus released his hand as quickly as was polite, his face remaining carefully neutral as always. "It is always an honor, old friend."

"Oh, we can drop the pageantry, Severus. Sit down. Be at ease."

As Severus took his seat, Lucius summoned the new maid who appeared almost immediately at his side. She was a fairly attractive woman, he noticed, but more subtly so than the usual trollops he hired. Lovely maids and cooks were hardly unusual for Malfoy. He wouldn't dream of hiring a servant that he couldn't take to his bed.

"Some wine, Rose."

"Right away, sir," she answered brightly.

For a brief moment, her eyes met the professor's and a peculiar sensation akin to panic shot through him. His pulse quickened at that brief glance, and the room seemed to grow warmer. His instinct was screaming that something about her was out of place; not dangerous, just very, very dissonant-- and strangely familiar.

There was no time to concentrate on that now, though. He filed the thought away at the back of his mind where his subconscious could work on it while he concentrated on Lucius.

Curious black eyes followed her as she left the room, and Lucius did not miss the stare.

"She's lovely, isn't she?"

Severus mentally shook himself. "I suppose she's better looking than Dobby," he answered in a bored tone. "Is she working out well for you?"

"Better than well. She's revolutionizing the entire household, enchanting everything she can to work automatically. Hopefully, she'll free up enough time to offer more personal services," he added with a leer. "I'm sure I can allow her a night off of menial labor." He laughed softly as Severus shifted uncomfortably. Must he sit through another of Malfoy's discourses on the various 'gifts' of his previous servants, and listen to him speculate on the specific talents that this one possessed?

Not tonight, not when he missed Alex so badly.

"Will Draco be joining us, Lucius?" he asked, casually switching the subject.

"No. He's with Crabbe and Goyle, practicing Quidditch routines or some such ridiculousness." Lucius pursed his lips in disapproval. "Honestly, why I ever supported his nonsense is beyond me. I suppose I assumed he'd outgrow it fairly quickly. Now I'm sorry I ever indulged him."

"As I recall, Lucius, you were still quite a devil on a broomstick at his age, one of the best chasers Slytherin ever had."

Malfoy sat slowly back in his chair and smiled at the memory; a warm, genuine smile for a change. Then he chuckled softly. "That's true, old friend. I'd forgotten that. It almost seems like a different life altogether." He raised an elegant brow. "You were the studious one, never without a book, if memory serves. In fact," he added, leaning forward in his seat, "that habit of keeping your nose in a tome caused you to miss the most spectacular play I ever made. It was in our sixth year. Do you remember?"

Severus nodded briefly. "How could I forget? You nagged me about it for months," he said, without any real heat behind the words.

"The stands positively erupted. I waved to my fellow Slytherins and there you were, just looking up from your book with an irritated scowl, as if the entire house had come into the library making that kind of noise. Unbelievable! One of our house's finest moments, and you missed it for-- what did you say it was? I've forgotten."

"Persian Poisons and Their Antidotes," Severus intoned dryly.

"Ah, yes, vitally more important than one of the best plays ever made in the history of the Slytherin quidditch team."

"I can assure you, Lucius, that I have used the information in that text for many long years while your 'spectacular' play is forgotten by all but a few."

Lucius opened his mouth to respond, but his attention was refocused on the maid reentering the room with a bottle of aged wine from the Malfoy's private stock (worth more than Severus made in a year) and two fine crystal glasses.

Severus sighed inwardly as they were served. He loved fine things as much as the next wizard, but Lucius made it a point to take extravagance to it's extremes.

As she left, Rose reached up to touch her earlobe, activating the magical listening device with a whispered word. It was enchanted to pick up the voice of Lucius Malfoy and anyone speaking to him. The receiver was a tiny, flattened crystal wedged in her ear and erased from sight with an invisibility spell, the same as the transmitters which she'd placed in strategic areas around the Malfoy home this afternoon as she'd cleaned.

The device within the hearth in the sitting room seemed to be working perfectly. Lucius Malfoy's voice was as clear as if he were speaking directly into her ear, an arousing thought which she vehemently pushed aside before her traitorous body could respond. Stirring the sauce for tonight's dinner, she listened intently.

"So, have you heard from her, Severus?"

"Alex?" Lucius nodded once, his eyes intense with interest. "No, old friend, I have not."

Lucius released an exasperated sigh. "Not one bloody word. No retaliation. Nothing." He ran his hands through his pale hair. "What is she waiting for?"

"Would that I knew," answered Severus.

You won't have much longer to wait, thought Rose.

"Do you think she knows who killed her friend?" Lucius asked.

I know enough.

"I have no idea what she knows or what the hell she's thinking, Lucius. She has conveniently removed me from her life."

Rose could hear the sincere bitterness in her lover's voice and it cut her to the core. I just want you to be safe, Sev. You've suffered enough.

"I want to believe that she packed up and ran, never to return, but something tells me she hasn't, that she's just biding her time." Lucius mused. "If you could have seen the look in her eyes when she stumbled out of that woman's shop-- and she looked at me. She was devastated, fragmented, but furious as well. With one look she swore to me that she'd get even. She's isn't going to dismiss her friend's death out of hand, I assure you."

Rose touched her wand to the kitchen chime which played a short, sweet melody throughout the mansion, announcing that dinner was ready and the two wizards left for the dining room. She didn't feel the need to be there as the table was set, the appetizers and salad served, and the wine glasses full. Instead, she returned to the sitting room, levitated the wine glasses and sent them sailing back to the kitchen on their own to wash and store themselves, a trick she'd learned from Nan, one of Tamburo's house maids. Lucius would summon her when she was needed.

Meanwhile, she listened with great interest to their continuing conversation.

"Have you discovered any more hidden entrances to the manor?"

No, he hasn't, but I know of a few. Rose smiled grimly.

"No. I haven't. The tunnel that Alexandria used has been sealed permanently. How she learned of it I'll never know for certain, but I suspect my traitorous house-elf. Merlin knows what else he told her," Lucius spat.

Severus responded with silence. He didn't know what Dobby had told Alex, either. He did know that Malfoy could never discover that he had known of their meeting. Gently, he nudged the thought over a steep cliff in his mind and watched it fall into oblivion.

"If she does contact me, Lucius, what would you like for me tell her?" Severus asked.

"For once, I want you to tell her the complete truth--."

Rose paused, polishing cloth in one hand, an ancient vase in the other.

What truth?

"--that I had nothing to do with her friend's death." Lucius finished.

The vase fell to the floor in slow motion and shattered.

Had Severus told her any such thing, she would have called him liar. How could this be? He had been standing right outside the shop, looking as guilty as sin.

Of course, it would be stupid of him to stand around the place where he had just committed a murder. But, she had seen it as logical, had even taken a cue from him and decided to hide right out in the open, as well.

Maybe she had just been looking for a scapegoat.

Her hand, without mental assistance, reached for her wand, repaired the vase, and levitated it back to the mantle over the hearth.

Rose sighed deeply, sinking into Malfoy's chair. She had, apparently, been mistaken, but it was better to find this out now rather than later. Thankfully, she had planned for Malfoy to be the last to die, anyway. Meanwhile, his estate was a logical base of operations. It was an excellent hiding place in case the Death Eaters found their way around that contract, and she'd soon give them incentive to do so. Besides, if one wanted information on Death Eaters, this was definitely the place to obtain it.

"I am not certain that she would believe me, Lucius."

"She doesn't trust you?"

"I don't think she trusts anyone, at present. However," Severus continued slowly, "assuming she does accept the truth, she will likely ask me to reveal the names of those responsible. As they are loyal to the Dark Lord and would defend him to the death, their removal would prove advantageous to us. Shall I assist her in her quest for vengeance, should she seek it?"

There was a long, weighted pause before Malfoy responded. "Yes, Severus. Tell her whatever she needs to know. Those two are butchers, good for nothing but slaughter and torture. I can perform those necessities myself in a much more subtle fashion. Alex is a fairly clever woman. Perhaps she'll find a way to do away with them. If not, she will at least cease to be an obstacle in our path."

Rose narrowed her eyes in anger. An obstacle? The nerve of that bastard!

She hadn't much time to fume as the summoning bracelet began to glow.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Malfoy?" she asked cheerfully.

"Please do not wait to be summoned between courses, Rose," he admonished sternly, smirking at his companion. "The gentlemen are hungry."

"I beg your pardon, sir," she replied hastily, lowering her head in submission as her face grew warm.

Damn it, Lucius! You could have told me sooner.

"Dinner will be served straightaway." Rose rushed from the formal dining room and down the hall to the kitchen as fast as her feet could carry her. This was the kind of infraction that could get her fired.

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

On returning with a heavily-laden dinner tray, she hastily cleared the table with a swish of her wand, served the food, and began refilling the wine glasses. How these two drink so much and still remain healthy is a mystery, she thought.

It was as she retrieved Malfoy's glass from the table that she felt the familiar tingle of questing eyes and raised her gaze to Severus. The potions master was staring intently at her with the same expression he'd had in the sitting room, one of unbridled curiosity.

Oh, no.

She should have known this would happen.

She knew that look. He suspected something, and that brilliant mind of his was working furiously to figure it out.

Damn it, Sev. Do you have to be so inquisitive? Please don't say anything, she begged silently, accidentally fixing him with a pleading glance.

It happened in an instant. Snape's eyes shot open and his jaw dropped slightly.

Oh, Shit.

Come on, Sev. You're the most subtle man I know. Don't give the game away.

A second later, his placid expression was back in place, but his eyes remained locked onto hers. Lifting his glass to his lips, he took a small sip-- and smiled.

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Thanks again, everybody!

Rycca: How did you know about Severus? Have you been taking Jedi training from Fleur K? He is brilliant, though, and he knows Alex pretty well. Perhaps it was inevitable. I got the juggling idea from a dear friend who told me one Friday that she thought she'd like to juggle. By Monday, she could. She's just one of those people. (grumble) If I didn't love her, I'd hate her. By the way, you're welcome, but understand that I review your story because I love it. I'm in awe of your gift.

Silverfey: Draco will be around quite a bit in this story, so I'm glad you like him. I'm hoping that hearing Rose defend his father will lighten his suspicion of her, or at least make him hate her less. As to your story, when I love a story, I review it. I don't do negative reviews because they seem pointlessly cruel. I truly appreciate your talent. You've written one of the most adorable Draco fics I've ever read and I'm waiting impatiently for an update.

Fleur K: Thanks for the Yoda impression. I laughed my butt off! Yoda rocks! He was the only reason I watched Episode II.

PPP: Something about Severus when he's angry gets me hot. I'm glad it's not just me. Thanks, by the way for mentioning the bracelet. I agonized for days over what I should use to summon the maid: A gong? No. Too Addams Family (still, ya gotta love Lurch!). Telepathy? Eeww. Too creepy! It was a dilemma and I'm relieved you liked my solution.

Lady Jenilyn: Draco is just a sexy beast, no doubt about it. Besides, there's something about those bad guys, even miniature ones. I'm actually envious of your ability to give advice to others. I've always been too unsure of myself to do so. I couldn't agree with you more about using appropriate curses, insults, exclamations, etc. A Judeo-Christian reference does tend to seem to be way out of place in HP fics. And, I love your friend's philosophy about writing stories. It's very inspiring!