Severus Snape apparated back to just outside Hogwarts. It was raining, raining a lot, and he was too tired to do anything in the way of protection. So he got wet. He was, in fact, drenched. He started walking back to the castle, sheltering under trees when he could.
The meeting with the Dark Lord had gone well, he supposed. Voldemort had been pleased. He had wanted to know if Snape could do the task he had been set. He asked, with a look in his eye that meant that nothing would be a bad answer. If Snape could not do it, he would have the pleasure of crucio at least, and would set another Death Eater to the task. If he could, then Kaira would be soon in his power.
"I can do it," he told the Dark Lord.
"Excellent," Voldemort had hissed. And had given him the date, time and place where Kaira was to be delivered. He had made it clear that a failure would not be a good idea.
Snape was met at the door to the castle, this time, by the girl. What was she doing there?
"Severus, you're soaked!" She fussed. She flicked a quick drying charm. "Are you alright?"
"I'm just tired," he told her.
"I'll go with you back to your room," she offered.
"I must talk with Dumbledore first."
"Alright. I'll walk with you as far as the Great Hall."
"Very well," he replied, although at that moment he wished that she was miles away from him. Somewhere safe where Voldemort could not ask him to betray her. Even if he knew that Dumbledore and the Order would be watching.
They walked in silence for a while.
"How do you do it?" she asked him, suddenly. "How do you face him and lie?"
"I know that he will kill me without a moment's thought," he replied. "And I know that I must go to him, or he will be upset – and that I will be disappointing Dumbledore."
"You are very brave,"
He raised a sardonic eyebrow.
"Go back to bed, Kaira," he told her.
She nodded.
"See you tomorrow, Severus," she said.
"Kaira," he said, and she stopped, and turned. "I hated your father. More than anyone I've ever known."
"So did I," she whispered, as he walked away from her. "So did I."
The next day, Kaira visited the dungeons again.
"You have to tell me about my father," she said, without preamble, when Snape appeared out of his office.
He regarded her quizzically.
"Tell me why you never became an Auror," he responded.
She took a deep breath. If he expected her not to answer, he was mistaken. She needed to know more about her father and how Snape had known him. For that, she would talk about that topic, although it hurt.
"They found out who my father was," she said. "I hadn't... told them. I have always used my mother's maiden name. And when I finished my training, they spoke to my mother, and she told them. That was it. They said that a Death Eater's child could not be an Auror, no matter who they were or how qualified they were. They said I was lucky not to be prosecuted for deceiving them and doing the full training."
"That's remarkably short sighted, even for the ministry," he said, frowning.
"That's what I thought," she replied. "But there was precious little I could do about it."
"No, I suppose not."
"Your turn," she looked expectantly at him.
Snape's frown turned into a full-blown glare. Kaira stood her ground and met his gaze. Eventually, it was Snape himself who looked away.
"It is common practise among Death Eaters for a new recruit to be partnered with an established one. They were to instruct and manipulate the new recruits, especially those that seemed weak. Your father was my partner. He was assigned to me because of his above average knowledge of potions. I was... unsuited... for most active tasks, so I was assigned to a research lab as soon as I left university. He was to supervise me." His face remained impassive as he spoke. "The other, more important, task of the partner was to make sure that the recruit could not go back. By any means – imperio if necessary – they were to persuade the recruit to commit some deed that, once done, meant that they could not leave the Dark Lord unless they wanted to go to Azkaban. Your father was thought to be exceptionally good at it." He paused. "I cannot say that it was necessary for your father to use imperio on me. I did what he wanted. After my initiation, I never saw him again."
He turned on his heel, cloak flapping, and shut his office door firmly behind him.
So that was it, Kaira thought. He blamed her father for whatever crime it was he had committed. She felt as if she understood him a little more now. And it was another insight into the man her father had been. The sort of man that routinely encouraged people to commit crimes – even if they were people who had already become Death Eaters.
That night, there was a quiet tap at her door. She went to answer it, wondering who on earth could be calling on her – Sprout or Sinistra never came this late.
It was Snape.
"Severus," she smiled. "Come in." He ignored her invitation.
"Do you still want to be an Auror?"
"Of course!" He raised a cynical eyebrow. "Perhaps not," she sighed. "I love teaching, but I want to feel that I'm doing something to help!"
"You are," he told her. "Goodnight."
She stared after him in bewilderment as he melted back into the shadows.
And that, thought Snape, is called cowardice. He made his way back to his dungeons and sat for a while in the dark.
Kaira went down to the dungeons yet again the following day.
"Good morning, Kaira. You seem to appear in my dungeons with an alarming regularity."
"Morning, Severus. I just wanted to ask you about Jacinta infusion. I've looked it up, but there seems to be remarkably little on it in my books."
"It's a relatively new discovery," he told her. "You'd need to get a book dedicated to it, or a really up to date compendium."
"Let me tell you what I've learned so far and you can tell me how accurate it is, and some more detail."
"Alright, but remember that some of us have jobs to do."
She ignored that.
"It reduces inhibitions. Mostly inhibitions that are based on shyness, politeness and fear. It makes people act differently, but not necessarily badly."
"That is true as far as it goes. Before the discoveries of the side effects, it was fashionable at dinner parties to serve cocktails with small amounts of Jacinta in them. It acts much like alcohol but without getting drunk and has no after effects."
"Side effects?"
"The side effects are what makes the potion interesting in Defence Against the Dark Arts. And in the Dark Arts. If the potion is used regularly, the inhibitions that it decreases begin to stay decreased. After a while longer, they disappear and the next usage of the potion begins the erosion of inhibition based on morals. A large number of the fashionable people who drank it became morally bankrupt without anyone realising what was causing it. Quite a few became Death Eaters."
"I see. So, if someone was given Jacinta regularly, they would be a much easier target for recruitment."
"Yes."
"Interesting."
At that point, the sounds of a class arriving began to filter into the dungeons, and Snape sighed.
"Oh joy, oh bliss, oh job satisfaction," he murmured.