Disclaimer: The characters are not mine and I'm not profiting any by playing with them. All the knuts and kudos go to J K Rowling , etc.

For a moment there was nothing to be heard save the slow crackle of the fire. Your winter parlor was never a grand enough room in Lucius estimation to be used often for entertaining but it suited these tete a tete's you'd been having with Severus. You could only imagine what his students would think to see him so relaxed. Clad in his elegant dress robes the colour of iridescent black pearl with one long leg draped casually over the arm of the ebonized, ivory upholstered Gainsborough chair he was a picture of calm.

The heart of the flames in the grate burned no hotter than the indignant wrath in his eyes. When he spoke you were surprised to hear him return to the subject of Sirius, "What disturbs me the most concerning Black is the sway he has gained over those three blasted Gryffindors, especially Miss Granger. I feel certain she'd never have been tempted to break Ministry regulations were it not for his questionable influence."

In that simple statement he revealed to you that which he probably had not even admitted to himself. What you suspected before you were certain of now. Professor Snape had a care for one of his students, and a muggleborn Gryffindor, at that!

You cast your mind back to the World Cup Quidditch Match and the brief glimpse it had afforded you of the young lady in question. She was utterly unremarkable in appearance. All you could recall was a cloud of unruly brown hair and an ordinary face that was either appealing or appalling in its inability to conceal her slightest thought or emotion.

You let a half smile play across your face, "I don't doubt that Miss Granger could certainly benefit from other company or perhaps her own counsel rather than that of Lily and James' boy and one of that Weasley brood."

You heard Severus sigh a second too long to be simple frustration and just short of being longing, "I am not given to idle daydreams as you well know, nor do I have a habit of concerning myself overmuch with students lives, especially those of other houses. Still, I wish there could be a moment in time when she's given due credit for her accomplishments and is allowed to step out of the long shadow of the bloody Boy-Who-Lived and his faithful sidekick."

Prior to that moment you'd generally suspected Snape's loyalties had been awarded according to his own instincts of self-preservation. . Standing up to Lucius to ensure Draco's attendance at Hogwart's and subsequent immersion in Snape's sphere of influence had been a self motivated enough action that had evened things between Lucius and Severus. However, wishing to show favor to Granger would benefit Snape in no way that you could imagine. He was allowing you a glimpse once again that altered your perception of his motives.

You decided to test him a little, "It must be difficult to not be able to aknowledge your best student as such."

You took his silence as encouragement," Not all in our world hold her birth against her."

His eyes caught and held your own trapped, "But enough do." Your eyes stayed locked for a moment more before he fell to studying the fire again adding almost inaudibly, "And I must."

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The pattern remained unchanged for almost two years. Not more than a fortnight, quite often less, passed without the Head of Slytherin gracing Malfoy Manor's hideously baroque dining room. With or without Lucius present there were only two topics of discussion: Your son and the Gryffindor III. Only now you knew that there was worry mixed with the irritation with which Snape described Miss Grangers parts in the extra-curricular student exploits.

When Kreacher came to you to seek service you knew events were about to become interesting. You endeavored to hide from your husband that your newest house elf had most probably come straight from Sirius' presence. You kept the miserable being as far as possible out everyone's way. Your cousin had brought as much infamy to the name of Black as any other family member yet you still honoured the blood tie. You had never mixed in Lucius 'politics' or 'business' and you weren't going to begin now by handing him Sirius Black.

Unfortunately nothing that happened in the Manor went unnoticed by Lucius. Whether your husband believed you to be ignorant enough to not grasp the importance of the situation with the house elf you never found out. Kreacher was never directly mentioned to you. Even the fact that after a day's questioning the elf was sent back to the Black Family home was only acknowledged in an offhand way by your self satisfied husband as he gloated, "For once, 'Cissa, I am glad that Sirius Black is your cousin."

An involuntary shudder passed through you. Evil spawned many years ago would soon be coming home to roost. Lucius mistook your feelings of foreboding for revulsion and drew you into a gentle embrace murmuring into whisps of hair at your temple, "I know Sirius has never been your favorite relative. I have taken care of all of it all, darling." He placed a kiss on your forehead adding, "Soon, 'Cissa. Soon all our discomforts, all our displeasures will be but a memory. I promise you that."

He came to your bed that night. Contact of that sort had waned to almost nonexistence in the years since Draco's birth. But that night and continuing for the next few months it was almost as if you were newlyweds again.

It was never a love match for either of you. You knew that Lucius valued you. He made that quite clear.

The face of a Death Eater he reserved for others. At home he was a good husband and father. Strict, stern, but caring. You'd never particularly agreed with his politics (despite being a scion of the Black family) and you certainly were no supporter of the Dark Lord. Neither had Lucius expected you to be, thankfully .To his mind you were well away from those sordid dealings. Malfoy ladies were to be above all that.

You were beginning to remember all the reasons you had thanked your lucky stars as a young bride that it was Lucius you'd ended up with rather than any of the other eligible purebloods of your time. Physically he was still gorgeous and welcoming him back to your bed was no hardship. He was and accomplished and tender lover, if somewhat lacking in passion, It has always been Lucius way to treat you as if you were fragile and precious -- in or out of bed. What existed between you was bound by the old ways of chivalry. Courtly Love it had once been called. Respect, trust and affection were all yours and your son's . So many Slytherin brides had fared much worse.

You felt the Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head for the rest of Draco's fifth year. One morning in June brought Severus Snape through your hearth with a look on his face that told you it had finally dropped.

You were in the winter parlour again. Lacking the fire in the grate to stare into and the dark shadows of the evening to hide in Severus Snape seemed at a loss. All around him the simplicity or perhaps the severity of the ebony wood and ivory damask of the understated George III furnishings contrasted with the many highly figured, highly coloured Chinese porcelain vases, urns and bowls. In full teaching robes and pacing the marble floor before you he resembled nothing more than a great angel of Death.

"Come Severus, sit. I shall send for tea."

Wordlessly he collapsed on the sofa next to you. An elf laid service for two out on the ebony occasional table at your knees and vanished. You pressed a cup into Snape's hand, while his eyes never left the floor.

"Dead or Azkaban?" you asked.

Pain filled black eyes flew up to yours, "What? How..."

You didn't quite have the strength to laugh but managed a small smile, "Just a good guess, my friend. Hogwart's or some other place?"

You heard the Potion's Master adopt his flat lecture tone, "Not Hogwart's. The Ministry of all places and no Lucius is not dead. Draco was not even present, thankfully."

"There's more though?" you prompted.

Snape's face remained carefully blank. "Yes, there's more. Sirius Black is dead, at Bellatrix' hand.... And Lucius has been sent to Azkaban."

You felt the blood drain from your face even though the news was not unexpected. In that moment Severus reached for your hand and held it, a rare physical gesture from him. "I will make sure that you and Draco are treated fairly. I promise you."

You looked up into Snape's eyes and saw for a second all seven levels of his private hells. You asked quickly, "And Miss Granger? I trust she came through all right?"

There was such a sense of shock and a revelation of the great tangled web of his emotions in his stare that you continued, "Of course the Dark Lord's business had to have been with Mr. Potter and one can only assume the involvement of the rest of the Gryffindor triad."

Snape swallowed convulsively and ran his free hand through his already disheveled hair, "She is not unscathed but she will recover, as will the rest of that unholy trinity." The bitterness in his voice was so pure it crept like wormwood into your own heart.

"There was nothing you could have done to stop her," you offered.