A/N: Two new chapters! Hope things are becoming clearer now...And for those who wanted to see Snape drunk...
Snape growled, threw a final few token swearwords at the Muggle switches, turned his back on the wall and took another scoop of ice cream. If he ignored the occasional dog hair, the stuff still tasted as fresh as ever, of course. Damn Lily, she could charm some delicious ice cream!
He needed to sit down again. Snape looked about for any small point of light for guidance, but the darkness was absolute, and seemed to dance around him.
Snape hissed in exasperation, and pointed himself in the most rational direction. He took several paces forward, then a few more, until his hand finally came into contact with something wooden at waist height, possibly a chair back. (Without considering that he hadn't seen any chairs in the room before the light failed, and so it was theoretically impossible for it to be a chair,) Snape went to drag it toward him. But the "chair" was having none of it, and seemed to tilt back with a creak-clunk instead.
Rather like a lever...
The Slytherin jumped as a basey rumbling suddenly erupted all around, the floor shaking slightly beneath him.
A booby trap!
Snape span around repeatedly cursing his stupidity as the blackness was replaced by shimmering light - the very walls seemed to be rotating in on themselves, flame torches, banners and portraits spinning out of nowhere. At the far end of the room part of the whitewashed wall seemed to melt away, revealing a giant stone fireplace, bedecked with several gold trophies. Once the room was flooded with light a folded red and gold cloth appeared with a flash of magic above the table, span several times before dropping and unrolling itself across the length of it – the finishing touch.
Ouch. Snape's eyes squinted around the bright room, the curious portraits, the garish banners and gleaming trophies. One moment it had been like a dusty barn, next it seemed to look like some sickly Gryffindor-biased trophy room at Hogwarts...suspicious indeed.
"Ah Esmerelda dear, I do declare we have a stranger in our presence!" intoned one voice.
"We do indeed, Glenys," remarked a second crisply. "Oh, How troublesome, and Master James is usually so frightfully good at introducing new people!"
The first voice let out a small sigh. "Never mind, I shall take the trouble, noblesse oblige. Now young man, if I may first introduce my good cousin Lady Glenys Powell. (Glenys nodded.) And finally myself; Esmerelda Potter, wife of the good Henry Potter, Minister of Magic, eighteen fifty- four to eighteen seventy-nine. And you might be...?"
Snape turned fully round to stare back two gilt framed, grand and almost life-size portraits, which were staring at him inquisitively. From the rich robes and jewellery they were wearing they were obviously both 'well-bred,' witches, (and quite haughty looking he thought, obviously from Potter's side of the family.) There was even a yappy little white dog sat on the fatter witches' lap. Snape had heard Henry Potter's name in history classes, but had already concluded that anyone with that name must be stuck up pigs, so he gave the portraits an icy glare, turned his back and sat down at the table.
The little dog growled threateningly.
"I say," exclaimed Lady Esmerelda disdainfully, "what a rude boy!"
With his back to them, Snape's lip curled still further into a sulky sneer. He loathed portraits. Old dead people. Especially old dead posh, pompous people. Reminded him too much of his father's house...
"Intolerable," scorned Esmerelda. "Henry would never have put up with the likes under his eaves. But times have changed now, haven't they? Truly shocking, the state of wizarding society nowadays."
"So true," replied Glenys, nodding gravely. "All altered now. Most of the youth running amok as poorly-robed as they are, and poorly educated: learning none of the proper old script nowadays, just shockingly fragmented Latin. Abusing their bodies with all sorts of hair-raising concoctions. Mannerless, self-gratifying, neglectful, hardly doing the old families' proud-"
Esmerelda raised a elegant, gloved hand. "Ah – but you see, they will never know how easy their life is – as they never had to go through the times of Grindlewald."
Glenys shuddered. "No indeed. Most haven't the foggiest, my dear Esmerelda, no. But Esmerelda, surely you must agree that Master Potter's young friend has fought well against the tide of the times, and had blossomed into quite the gentleman..."
Esmerelda's frown softened slightly. "Well," she sighed, her mouth threatening to twitch ever so slightly upwards, "I'll give you your due. Master Black is rather charming..."
A Death Eater - in her house. It seemed like a joke at first, but it took more than a couple of seconds of silence to register that Nigel had meant it seriously. Lily gave out a small gasp, someone she cared about, someone she was friends with, was a Death Eater!
Nigel responded by giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry," he replied heavily.
"Nigel – I...but, how do you know?" she whispered hurriedly. "Are you an Auror too?"
Lily felt him shuffle awkwardly next to him. "No. I can't do magic, remember, he sighed. "I just – know."
"Well then," she replied firmly, steadying her tone; bracing herself. "Who is it?"
The answer came too coolly, and without hesitation. The matter-of-fact way he'd said it seemed to echo in her ears, taunting her.
"Severus Snape."
"No!" she replied vehemently. "No. Severus is not one; you have made a mistake – you must have. Severus came to me – the last time I saw him before the end of school – to tell me..." Lily leaned toward him, suddenly weakened, her voice barely a whisper. "To tell me his brother...had taken the Dark Mark."
Lily heard Nigel's breath come out in a sharp huff. "Then Severus Snape lied to you," he growled, gripping her hand even harder. "Lied to cover his own tracks. It was Severus Snape who took the Dark Mark when he turned eighteen, Lily, not his brother."
"How can that be?" she returned in slightly panicked tones. "Half the Death Eater gang used to pick on him – why would he go to them?!"
"Don't ask those sorts of questions," said Nigel coolly. "The weaker succumb to their peers, it is a fact of school life."
"Severus wasn't weak," retorted Lily, poking Nigel in the stomach. "For your information, in the last two years of school he faced -"
"Well how would I know – I'd gone!" he snapped back abruptly.
Lily fell silent in shock. Nigel's breath shallowed as he realised what he'd said. They stood motionless in the dark as the thrill of horror spread through them.
Lily felt his hands begin to pull away from her own. "Y-you were at Hogwarts?" she blurted out suddenly, quivering.
"Yes..." he replied quietly, after an awful pause. "I didn't mean to say -"
"And did I know you?" cut in Lily, desperate to know the truth.
Nigel gave out a long sigh. "Probably more than you should have," he swallowed painfully.
Lily felt the tears well up in her eyes as she gripped back his hands. Merlin protect her - it was all a lie – a deliberate lie. She was glad that it was dark, so that he would not have to see her suffering, and she wouldn't have to endure gazing into those eyes. She bit back her tears.
"How do I know you aren't lying to me," she replied quietly.
Nigel swallowed audibly, a note of regret creeping into his tone. "Answer one thing before you make your mind up. Have you noticed any change in Nigel Norway the past few months?"
Lily frowned slightly. "I think – but I don't understand? Why would you-"
"I'll put it better. When exactly did you begin to fancy your...milkman?"
Lily decided she didn't like the way the conversation was going. "I...can't answer that," she muttered.
"Yes you can Lily. Think – please!" he urged.
Lily sighed bitterly. "Probably. I think...about three months ago."
"Three months and three days perhaps?" ventured Nigel carefully. "About the same time as the Dragon attack in Abergavenny town centre?"
"Yes, I remember the Daily Prophet reporting one escaping," replied Lily impatiently. "But why should that matter today?"
"Because..." he replied gravely, "that was the night three Muggles died in house fires started by the beast."
"The paper said two Muggles died!" she interrupted.
"Three. The third, was a certain milkman squib..."
Lily's breath hitched as she realised. "You! Oh my...oh no...Merlin," she trailed off in horror. "But what on Earth were you doing there anyway? Were you called in to capture the dragon?"
Nigel smiled grimly. "Not quite. The initial rumour was that it had been a rare wild one, and I had been attracted by the reward..."
"Prove to me then," she whispered. "It's almost as if I know you – but some part of me needs something...to know this is real...that it's you."
"Come on! You know you don't need proof, girl," he scoffed. "But I will give you it anyway. Like the Sunday morning I woke very early and went down into the grounds. I thought I would pick a bunch of Lilies from the greenhouses and charm them to hover above your bed along with the words – "Sing thee, Immortal flower of Elysium, and with one breath, make my love for you last longer than eternity-"
"That was you?" she breathed, "I thought it was James! Oh, I should have known – it's so obvious now!" She laughed, and paused a few seconds to take it all in. "So..." she finally managed, "you have been disguising yourself as..." she paused, still quite horrified (she'd been kissing a dead person, in a way) "as a, deceased, these past few months, for what exactly?"
"To see you," was the simple reply.
Lily tensed. "And what for?"
He moved closer, until Lily could feel his breath against her face. "I realised that I still loved you," he replied emotionally. "That I had been a fool to end it."
"So you decided to deceive me?" came the slightly chill reply. "Strange way to show your love with a cheap trick, don't you think?"
"It's easier to start again, Lily," he replied meekly. "We had so much baggage before."
"Yes, I remember," she replied smartly. We got tired of lying to everyone all the time, didn't we? So; look at us now, has anything changed?" She pulled one hand free from his grasp and turned it, pressing his fingers firmly around her wedding ring. "Still lying, still deceiving people. What do you reckon? Can we start again now, do you think?"
Nigel set his teeth. "So you're not willing to break wedding vows with me," he uttered lowly, "but, you are quite happy to break them with a mere Muggle?
"You know," she replied shakily, "I might tell James that I've quite gone off the idea of having our milk delivered..."
"Go right ahead," he growled suddenly, pushing her away. "You tell James and fix the lights, while I fix the Death Eater. There's a convenient plan now!"
"No!" shrilled Lily, pulling him back. "Please don't hurt him!"
"Oho, there we go!" he snorted, wrenching himself free again. "You hear his dirty little secret and still defend him. I always heard rumours about your fancies, Lily. Now I know I was a complete idiot to ignore them...and trust who? My...brother...of all people, to keep his word. Stupid troll I was!" he spat nastily.
Lily hung on to him again. Why did he always have to explode at things? "Please..." she pleaded wretchedly. "For Merlin's sake! I give you my word as you give yours, and Severus gave his! It was never, ever like that..."
They paused in the darkness hearts pounding, throats sore – painfully aware of each other. Their breathing, the warmth coming from their bodies. Something had to happen, someone had to move first...