"It's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." (Anthony Robbins)
It was a hot, sun-drenched afternoon in the middle of August. Nibbs, the Malfoy house-elf and two of his friends and fellow-servants sat on a low stone-wall that separated the enchanted grounds of the Manor from the fields outside the small Wiltshire hamlet of Gillington. The air was filled with the hum of threshing machines bringing in the grain harvest.
"Just like every year," sighed Nibbs and dabbed his huge phosphorous eyes with the dirty dish-rag that saved as his loin-cloth. "There they go destroying all the beautiful corn-circles we made all summer with the elves from the other houses. Now we have to wait till spring to continue the game."
The small elf to his right clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll make nicer designs next year," she said. "But listen, we better get back to the house and get started on dinner. Master said, that if we messed up, he'd forget all the nice promises he made the new mistress. After all, it's for her birthday, and we have a guest, too." The three elves hurriedly hopped off the low ledge and disappeared with a series of soft popping noises, leaving the muggles and their harvest machines to themselves.
As they apparated in the cool, dim, marble-clad entrance hall of Malfoy Manor and scurried towards the kitchens they almost ran headlong into Eleanor Sartorius, who walked down the hallway with a young auror. "Sorry, Nibbs bad," babbled one elf in alarm and prostrated himself. Eleanor interrupted her conversation and bent over him. "You don't have to do that, Nibbs" she admonished him. "Not for me anyway." "Yes, sorry mistress, Nibbs forgets," stammered the elf and got up again, dusting down his dishrag. Eleanor sighed. "And please stop apologizing. A delivery guy came by an hour ago and brought the meat and the other top secret stuff I'm not supposed to see that Mr. Malfoy ordered. It's in the kitchen."
The elves ran on and Eleanor turned back to her guest. "Anyway, as I was saying, Marigold, I went up to Durmstrang for a day earlier this week and talked to Professor Magnusdottir, the headmistress. I've resigned as head of House of Fire and given up my residence, but I will continue to apparate in the mornings and teach Defense classes once the school year starts.
I just feel I need to be based here these days. The danger from the Death Eaters isn't over, not by a long shot. Voldemort is a stubborn bastard, and he really wants to eradicate the Malfoys from the face of the earth. Anyway, if you can help us organize adequate magical defense, I'd be happy to teach you and your friends here for an evening every week."
Auror Brannock pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and looked at her former teacher. "What about Mr. Malfoy?" she asked. "He isn't exactly – errm – sympathetic to our agenda. Won't he mind hosting us?" Eleanor laid her hand on the witch's shoulder. "I've talked to him. He's not quite planning on coming by and socializing." The young auror sighed in relief, and Eleanor barely suppressed an amused chuckle. "But he has no objections. Are we agreed then?"
They had reached the tall entrance portal and shook hands. "I will see you and your colleagues next Thursday at seven, then," said the red-haired witch and opened the door. "Remember to disapparate only at the end of the drive way, once you are past the wards," she called to the auror as Marigold Brannock turned to her at the bottom of the steps and waved.
Eleanor smoothed down her robes and with a smile closed the portal on the bright hazy summer afternoon. It was only the eve of her birthday, but she had already had all her wishes granted. Lucius and she were back at Malfoy Manor for the summer, and this September there would be no good-bye. Finally, for the first time discretion also was a thing of the past. She could walk the halls in broad daylight. She could invite and talk to guests as mistress of the house.
The last week Draco had spent with his mother at Grimmauld Place, and Eleanor still blushed at her memories of Lucius' bold plans to christen various places of the manor that had been off-limits before. He had converted Narcissa's old bedroom and suite into an alchemy study, and she was sure she would never again be able to work with him at the central laboratory table without turning beet-red. Without a conscious decision, her steps had led her up the stairs and to the library where she knew she would find her lover waiting for her.
Severus Snape sank his delicate silver dessert spoon into a virtually nonexistent cloud of dark chocolate mousse garnished with plump black cherries. A hint of the tart taste of blackcurrants mingled with the decadent bitter sweetness of chocolate as he gently swirled the confection around his mouth. He barely suppressed a shiver of delight as a wave-front of goose-bumps slowly rippled down his back.
Damn Lucius Malfoy, his money, his house-elves, and his parties. And if he didn't have enough to envy the man for, the woman sitting across the table from him, who now raised her glass of velvety dark wine to her blond lover just stole the cake.
When Eleanor Sartorius had first come to Hogwarts, he had felt mildly interested, but his customary mistrust and cynicism had let him see little more than a moderately attractive, smart, if inexperienced colleague. Even now, when she had unexpectedly come back to challenge Dumbledore a few weeks ago, he had merely felt annoyance at her audacity. His memory bore no comparison to the stunning beauty that now faced him.
Eleanor wore a deep midnight blue, dangerously low-cut velvet dress with a tight-fitting bodice and long flared sleeves. Her flaming-red tresses were pinned to the crown of her head in carefully planned negligence with some escaped curls framing her delicate oval face. Her eyes, which he remembered vaguely as green glowed with an intensely dark blue fire. She wore no jewelry, except a thin silver choker encrusted with moonstones that accented the elegant curve of her slim neck and her broad gold family signet ring with a deep blue lapis. He noted with some surprise that Lucius wore a similar ring on his little finger as he now lifted his glass to toast her back.
Severus blinked and took a sip of wine to distract himself. They sat in a small, intimate dining room that faced the carefully tended Manor gardens. Candlelight caught in the cut crystals of a large chandelier that hung above the sumptuously arrayed dinner table and suffused the room in soft rainbow hues of golden light. An enchanted harp played quietly in the corner, and house elves appeared and disappeared with catlike silence and the precision of clockwork to remove empty dishes and refill platters and glasses.
"…what do your think, professor? – Professor?" The potions master snapped out of his envious reverie and faced Draco, who was sitting next to him. "Sorry, you were saying?" he asked. Eleanor gave a soft laugh from across the table. "I think your fabulous dessert has finally bewitched our incorruptible master alchemist, Lucius," she teased her lover. "As it has me. You have planned a divine meal. And this, my dear is ecstasy in a bowl. Morgan le Fay must have concocted this for Merlin, to make him her slave." Lucius lifted her hand and kissed it with a suggestive wriggle of his eyebrows, and Severus found he was now about ready to vomit his entire sumptuous dinner under the table.
"Yeah," said Draco next to him with the world-weariness of an almost sixteen-year-old. "Makes you want to run to the dungeons and dig out the old steel chastity belt, doesn't it? Can I come back to school, please? I just can't take it any more." "Draco!" threatened Lucius from across the table, but for once his voice lacked actual menace. Severus lifted an eyebrow. "I think you have to," he answered his student. "I can hardly stand by and see one of my charges corrupted in this manner."
Lucius took another draught of wine. "Sorry Severus, but parents should bear the sole responsibility for the corruption of their children. As children should be the sole corruptors of their parents. No outside interference allowed." Eleanor ran her fingers across the back of her lover's hand and savored a spoonful of dessert. "So, speaking of tending to the interests of your students, I see you taught Draco the means to escape the unforgivables." Severus nodded, feeling on slightly safer grounds with the new line of conversation.
"Well, you asked me to keep him safe, and I thought Draco might need it. I am sure we will be teaching all the students once the new school year starts. We've named it the 'Sartorius Feint'. Albus thought it was appropriate, despite the rather underhanded way in which you peddled your knowledge." He noted that the witch blushed at that. "Why, I am honored. I think it has a nicer ring to it than 'Karkaroff Maneuver', even though there is some poetic justice in naming a Death Eater defense weapon after a deceased ex-Death Eater."
They eventually finished their dessert, and at the invitation of the Lord of the Manor moved to a conservatory at the back of the house that opened up to the gardens. The elves lit a fire-pit and they listened to the soft chorus of frogs and crickets from the dark trees of the park behind the clipped lawns. Lucius opened a bottle of twenty-five year old single malt and poured four generous glasses. "One, son," he pronounced, as he handed a heavy glass tumbler to Draco, "Then you're off to your room." The young wizard took the glass with a grin. "Yes father," he said.
Severus stretched in a comfortable wicker chair and gingerly moved his nose across his glass savoring the spicy malt and peat scent of a truly splendid premium whisky. They talked about inconsequential school gossip until Draco finally took his leave. As the younger Malfoy was out of earshot, the potions master finally sat up straight and faced his hosts. "I have to say I am puzzled," he confessed. "This is obviously a rather intimate family party. I may flatter myself that you feel indebted to me for looking after Draco, and I know we used to hang out in the Slytherin common room as students, Lucius, but despite our common work for the Dark Lord we are not exactly bosom friends. Why invite me tonight?"
Only the crackle of burning wood broke the silence for a while, then finally Lucius began to speak. "Severus, you may contradict me, but I believe we are having more in common than you think." Snape gave a small derisive snort and looked around at his luxurious surroundings. "You could have fooled me," he said coolly. The blond wizard seemed undeterred. "We are both outsiders. We are both sitting precariously on the fence that separates the so-called bad guys from the good, or am I mistaken?"
The potions master's face grew very still. "What makes you say that, Lucius?" he asked cautiously. The former Death Eater laughed quietly. "Simple, Severus. Eleanor told me that she revealed the Sartorius Feint to both you and Dumbledore. She could not have known you secretly are a Death Eater." "What?!" Severus watched the red-haired witch almost drop her drink, but the elder Malfoy placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "Keep listening, sweet. No need to be alarmed."
"Anyway, your first duty would have been to inform the Dark Lord of your knowledge. Yet, every single Death Eater we have fought since has been ignorant with regards to the new technique. So you obviously failed in your loyalty. You also kept my son safe instead of killing him as your master had commanded the Death Eaters. You deserve death for that. I also believe that Dumbledore trusts you, despite the fact that he knows about certain tell-tale scorch marks on your left arm."
Lucius leaned back and took a slow sip of his whisky, regarding his guest over the rim of his glass with a predatory glint in his eyes. "The Dark Lord and I had suspected for some time we have a traitor in our midst. I remember the time several years ago, when you tried to cut the mark from your arm. Dumbledore referred to it during the hearing, so he knew of your attempt to free yourself. At the time you told me you had a potions accident, but I was suspicious, though I held my tongue. I thought you would be more useful to me alive than as a piece of flayed meat at my feet. Now I am convinced that I was right, Severus. Come on, be a man about it. What do you say?" Eleanor watched the two wizards silently seize each other up. Then Severus Snape licked his pale lips. "If it were true, what would you do with that knowledge, Lucius?"
The blond wizard gave a mirthless chuckle. "Absolutely nothing, Severus," he said. He swiftly leaned forward. "I don't know what harebrained idealism you were besotted with when you turned from our path and became a traitor, but you still call the 'muggle-borns' mudbloods when no one hears you, am I right?
I on the other hand was turned against my master under duress. I was made a warlock against my will, and now by a twist of fate we meet in the same place, between the battle-lines of this great war. You by choice, I by force. It is a dangerous place, and frankly I am looking for allies. We may not necessarily have the same friends or loyalties, but we do have the same enemies. Help us, and we will help you."
Snape pushed a stray strand of lank hair out of his face and considered. When he spoke, Eleanor thought she might hear Salazar Slytherin himself talk. "Fine, Lucius. Say we cooperate. What do you stand to gain? And more importantly, what's in it for me." Her lover gave their guest an approving nod then turned to his companion. "What do you think, Eleanor? Tell him."
The witch exchanged a quick glance with the blond wizard. Snape had to admit she had recovered very well from her obvious initial shock. Her calm serenity seemed a mirror of his old school mate's. "Simple, Severus," she said silkily. "Lucius gets to know that Draco is safe at Hogwarts next term. We get to know what you find out about any plans against our lives as they are discussed at your meetings with the Dark Lord. That's good enough for us.
And for you: Dumbledore gets the ability to better fight his enemies. I can only speak for myself here, but I would join you in battle if you decide to fight against the Death Eaters. I am already committed to training some aurors. Lucius on the other hand was chief Death Eater, and possesses secrets the Dark Lord and he would have zealously kept from everyone else, especially from someone Lucius suspected to be a spy. We may be persuaded to share them now. What do you say?"
Snape lifted his glass and regarded the deep amber color of his drink that caught the firelight. His decision came to him quite quickly. Nothing was ever as predictable and reliable as selfishness in oneself and in others. "Deal," he said quietly. Lucius lifted his brows and got up to top their glasses. As he sat down he placed a soft kiss on his lover's bare shoulder. "You know, Severus, Eleanor told me six years ago that an outcome very much like this had been Dumbledore's objective all along. Who would have thought that the fates would conspire to eventually prove the old fool right? Your master should be pleased.
In any case, that takes care of business," he declared. "It's almost midnight. And now I believe we have a birthday to celebrate."
Epilogue: The Legacy of the Old Houses"There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again." (Clint Eastwood)
Lucius woke from a loud holler in the garden and sat bolt upright in bed squinting into the bright light of morning. Another attack in broad daylight? He grabbed his wand from the night table and sped over to the window, snatching up his dressing gown on the way. He cursed under his breath as he tried to ignore a splitting headache, and the fact that Eleanor was not lying next to him. As he peered out from behind the curtains he soon saw the source of the racket: Draco zoomed right by the window on his Firebolt rattling the panes in hot pursuit of a snitch.
The wizard gripped his wand angrily. Now, they had discussed this before, and his son knew surely better than to raise hell around the house in the early morning, but then Draco turned his head to shout back at someone, and Lucius did a double-take as he next saw Eleanor race by, robes billowing behind her and her red hair streaming out. She threw her head back and laughed as she twisted her broom into a tight death-defying corkscrew roll. "It works, Draco!" she laughed. "Look! Wow! This is craaaaazyyyy!" And with that she was gone.
A few seconds later he saw his son and his lover turning spirals above the park diving after the snitch and waving at each other. He found an involuntary smile tug at the corners of his mouth. Still, the sunlight hurt his eyes and he soon dropped the curtains and made his way over to the side table that held his potions bottles. "Hecate, I swore I'd stop doing drinking games with Severus when I was still at Hogwarts. Where's the damn Cephalalgia-elixir," he murmured with knitted brows as his hands searched among the glass vials. He wondered briefly how Severus was dealing with his hangover this morning and hoped the potions master's was worse.
Eventually he had finished washing and dressing and had to admit that he was finally ready to face the day. It was Eleanor's birthday, and even through he had enjoyed their advance celebration the night before, he had some plans for her still. He ordered coffee from a house elf and instructed him to lay out breakfast in the garden for the three of them. Then he picked up his cup and made his way to his study.
Lucius Malfoy stretched his legs under the desk and held up the contents of a small box he had taken from a drawer. He twisted a filigreed gold band between his fingers. The metal lacework held dozens of tiny cut emeralds trapped in its mesh that sparkled like so many green dewdrops among miniature golden branches and leaves. His mother's handfasting ring was as beautiful and as extraordinary as the woman had been herself. Again Lucius regretted intensely that he had never been able to get to know her.
The blond wizard lifted a brow. Times were changing. Old alliances had broken and new ones were about to be forged. His life as a Death Eater was over. So was his connection to the house of Black. He held the last final link in his hands. The Dark Lord's great struggle for the supremacy of the old pureblood wizarding houses would go on without him, and he would be forced to watch the victories and defeats from the sidelines.
But goals could be reached by many ways. Where open fight would not serve, stealth might. The bloodlines could be conserved by different means. It was time the ancient and noble house of Sartorius got a legitimate infusion of pure blood. And he knew just the right man for the job. Lucius Malfoy suffered neither from self-doubt, nor from procrastination. With his usual unerring sense of purpose he put the ring back in its box, pocketed it, straightened his robes and headed for the garden.
Well, end of story! I would like to thank all of my faithful readers and reviewers, especially chisox and Sternenlicht, who didn't miss a chapter(!), Lady Lizzy who posted her notes to me on the UYJI forum and Vicky, who spread the love. Your feedback and support has been fantastic. It has been fun writing the continuation to "Secret of Sartorius" and I probably wouldn't have done it without your encouragement.