Slytherin Queen
For Aaron, Nick, Elena, and Jess
"Don't leave, Severus."
The man turned around sharply.
"How long have you been here?"
"One hour."
One hour, he thought. He had only been here half an hour. That should have been impossible, he should have noticed. It never took him half a second to realize he was not alone in a room, and he had not noticed her in the half an hour he had been here. Maybe if he hadn't been so preoccupied....
She was eyeing him cooly through dark green eyes, and he didn't like it. This was not the Elizabeth Pendragon he knew. Elizabeth was playful, her voice, like her brilliant eyes, were always laughing. Her manner was relaxed, a somewhat cocky and self-assured atmosphere around her, forgivable of course, because she was smart, popular, and a Slytherin....
"Pair up!" came the professor's command. The students hurried to pair up, Defense Against the Dark Arts was a double, and no Slytherin wanted to be stuck with a Gryffindor, or visa versa. Well..almost.
"Hey Elizabeth.", the Gryffindor called from halfway across the room, "How about being my partner?"
"But what about Lily? She'd get lonely.", Elizabeth Tudor replied playfully.
"She can go with James.", Sirius answered.
"You know, as unethical as we Slytherin's may be, we don't make it a habit of killing our best friends."
The class snickered; Elizabeth's ability for put downs was unparalleled.
"Aw, come on, you wouldn't turn down the smartest guy in the school."
"No, but Severus hasn't asked yet."
The class roared with laughter. Sirius growled under his breath, furious as well as humiliated. She loved to instigate like that....
All that was gone, now. Her voice, like her eyes, was cold and commanding, all trace of the fun-loving party girl gone. Her manner, too, had lost all warmth, and had been replaced by an awesome aura of power. He felt a rush of foreboding, she knows, he thought. She knows.
"What do you want?"
"What, no welcome?"
"I didn't hear one half an hour ago."
"I didn't want to disturb you. You seemed to have a lot on your mind."
He didn't answer.
"Spoke to my brother yesterday. Interesting, the things he had to say."
He nodded, but still refrained from speaking. She knows. There was no other explanation for why she was this cold, why she had demanded he stay. She'd never ordered him around before. She'd never been this unfriendly to him. She had to know.
"It would seem he nearly ran into two death eaters a week ago, around 9 at night, London. They didn't notice him, so he listened in on the conversation."
She paused, letting her words sink in, looking directly into his eyes with an appraising look. He still refrained from speaking, but now because he could not. He had been in London at 9:00talking with Lucius. Not that he'd said anything of importance...
"Good evening."
Nod.
"Any news of...."
"No."
"Very well. Can't understand what could have happened."
"Who's there?"
"What?"
"Someone's listening."
"Nonsense. Lumos. See, no one."
He nodded, but he was still suspicious. Lucius was normally good at finding people, no matter how hard they hid, but someone could fool even him. He wasn't unbeatable....
And it seemed he had been beat. Not surprising, though, William, eight years older than his sister, was also a Slytherinand equally as cunning as the Dark Lord himself, although his lax and carefree attitude hid that and any other powers he might posses. He spoke with a deep-voiced Brooklyn accent even though he was British, and he reminded Severus strongly of the gangsters in the muggle movies....
"Hey kid."
"Yes?"
"Come here. I got something I think you would enjoy."
He followed the raven haired man to the library downstairs. William took down a huge black book from the top of the bookshelf entitled "Curses and Counter Curses" by Rasputin Romanov.
"Here. Keep it."
The boy could barley believe his ears. "Keep it?", he said incredulously, running his fingers over the large book.
"Yeah, sure." William grinned, his blue eyes alight as always," With those eyes, you should be able to master them without any difficulty. Darn useful, keeps people off your back- without a wand."
"Th-thanks.", he stuttered
"No problem, kid."
"He found the voice of the one very interesting.", Elizabeth continued, "It was colder, barely more than a whisper. It's owner was on the thinner side, with an angular way of walking (he stayed till they left). Funny thing was, he seemed to think it was you. Of course, with a description that vague, it could have been anybody..."
He nodded, willing her to believe that. It was not that he was worried about what would happen to him; he could get himself out of that. It was that he knew she would disapprove of his choice; she was very outspoken against the Dark Lord and his policies....
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Elizabeth Pendragon." , Bellatrix said, pronouncing "Pendragon" with a sneer. She didn't think much of Elizabeth's marriage to Edward Pendragon, and anyone could tell why; Edward not pureblood. Worse, he was not even a Slytherin; he was a Gryffindor. The barley eighteen year-old redhead looked up from her goblet. The other five girls at the table whispered and muttered to each other, and the look on Lily's face was one of concealed dislike, barely concealed dislike.
"Bellatrix, what a surprise to see you here.", Elizabeth said civilly, " Pull up a chair."
Elizabeth's disciples gave her a look of disbelief. Even the normally tactful Lily was unable to mask her surprise (and disapproval). Bellatrix sneered at Lily as she sat down.
"Are you sure it's safe to be here, Bella?"
"Why shouldn't it be?"
"The Auror's love this place, aren't you afraid of being arrested?"
"Me? Arrested by those buffoons?", Bella gave a cold laugh "Really, Elizabeth, they haven't got anything on me."
"It's not as if anyone has any doubts.", Lily said darkly.
"Sorry, Lily dear, but you can't arrest me for agreeing with him, nor say that I work for him because I agree with him. Too bad, isn't it?"
"Don't worry Lily", Elizabeth said, smiling all too sweetly, "She's a Black, it's only a matter of time before the world knows"
Bellatrix smiled back, "I expect you'll be waiting, then, won't you Elizabeth? Love to be the one to catch me if I worked for him, wouldn't you?"
"Don't be absurd, Bellatrix. You weren't worth my time in Hogwarts, you aren't worth my time now."
He could tell that blow had struck home. "One day, Elizabeth...", Bella growled before leaving. But the curly haired redhead didn't seem to notice; she and her girls went on talking as usual...
He'd never thought of what he'd do if she found out, and pushed the idea out of his head any moment it surfaced. He had disappointed her, and now it was staring him in the face...
"Honestly, Sirius, will you lay off him?"
"Really, Elizabeth, you're being naive. How can you actually believe that Severus is on our side?"
"Just because you don't get along with him doesn't mean he's a death eater."
"And just because he may know more about the Dark Arts than Voldemort doesn't mean he's a death eater either?"
"As I recall you're the one with the assassination attempt on the record."
"But it wasn't.", She said, bringing him back to earth. "He was right, wasn't he?"
"Of course not. I never said that."
"But you're saying it now. Or at least your eyes are. Don't lie to me, you can't, you don't even want to."
"Am I saying that too?"
"Yes"
There was a long silence.
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why join him? What can you gain from him?"
Another long silence.
"I see it never occurred to youdid it? Did anything ever occur to you when you went over to him?Like the fact that you can't benefit at all from him, not being pure-blood? Like the fact that he has this habit of killing people for no reason, for fun? Like maybe the next person he kills could be you?"
"I know how to keep out of trouble."
"Like you did with James and Sirius?", she answered scathingly.
"That's different.", he snarled.
"You're right, James would never kill you, would he?"
"He saved me to keep himself in school."
"And he hasn't tried to kill you now has he?"
"If Azkaban didn't exist-"
"Did you not hear the news three months ago? According to Crouch, killing Death Eaters is not considered a crime by law."
"James doesn't know."
" About the new rules or about-"
"The latter."
"If he really wanted you dead, do you think he'd have worried about details?"
She paused,"What's interesting, though, is that you haven't made the attempt to kill him either. Why?"
He didn't answer.
"He's evaded Lord Voldemort, that doesn't put him on the hit list?"
"The Dark Lord's, not-"
"But surely he would not mind if you spared him the trouble?"
"No, however-"
"However what? Still too noble, too high minded? "
He was silent.
"Then why, Severus, why?
He did not answer; he could not answer.
"Answer me, Severus."
Her voice sounded almost as if she were crying, and yet no tears ran down her face. Elizabeth never cried. Too full of mirth to cry, and when that mirth was gone, toosensible to cry, too proud to cry. A queen doesn't cry, a rose can't cry.
At last he spoke,"If I refuse your request..."
"Demand, you mean, not request."
"Very well, demand."
"If you won't return to us in a month's time, I will kill you personally."
"Come now, you wouldn't be able to."
"Nor would I be able to hand you to the aurors, but obviously, if you stay on his side, I must make the choice and I will not see you in Azkaban."
"Thanks.", he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm, "Honestly, Elizabeth,"he added, "Do you even think you have the skill to defeat me?"
"Do you want to find out?"
"I know you can't."
"Then you'll have to kill me, won't you?"
He still did not answer. Elizabeth looked at him through emerald eyes he had never seen before. Eyes he hoped never to see again. Eyes so full of agony it was painful to look into them. Eyes that still held the bearing of a queen.
"Three years ago, you'd have never hesitated to answer me."
No, he thought. You're wrong. Four years ago he'd have never hesitated. Four years ago he'd have never betrayed her. Four years ago he'd have remembered all the times she was there, not just for him, but for any Slytherin, even Bella. Four years ago he'd have said she never deserved this abandonment from her own house. He certainly would never have abandoned her. But three years ago he'd have said and thought those things only half-heartedly. Two years ago he'd have only half-remembered. One year ago he wouldn't have cared.
How had it gotten this way? How did things change so much in three years?How had he become so indifferent? What had happened to their days in Hogwarts? Had it been only three years since they'd left Hogwarts? It seemed like an eternity ago. They called her the Tudor Rose. She was there for you, anytime she was needed. She brought you the notes and homework you missed, or arranged to have them brought to you. She did you favors now and then, she wanted to see you succeed. She was a prefect, and might have been head girl...
"I see Dumbledore didn't make you head girl this year." , Bellatrix smirked, as Elizabeth walked into the common room.
"Notice he didn't make you one, either.", Elizabeth replied.
"You were supposed to be Slytherin's hope for glory. Everyone was talking about how we would have our first head girl in a decade. Yet you lost it to a mudblood!"
"I would watch what you're calling Lily.", Elizabeth said in a dangerous tone. The room became very quiet.
"Still standing up for her?" Bellatrix said, voice dripping with disgust, not seeming to notice the tone Elizabeth had just used, "You're a disgrace. That a pure blood shows that much affection to a muggle-born like her! I suppose you gave the title of Head Girl to her?"
"No, I just told Dumbledore not to make it me."
She never regretted that decision either, he remembered. As much as no Slytherin had let her live down the fact that she had as good as given the position of head girl to a muggle-born Gryffindor- No, he had never bothered her about it...and yet...
"Can you believe it?!" Bella exclaimed during lunch (Elizabeth was at the Gryffindor table talking with her husband, far out of hearing range, though she wouldn't have cared if she had heard), "Lily! She let Lily Evans, a mudblood, become head girl! A Gryffindor!"
"Disgraceful.", Rodolphus agreed "That a Slytherin could lack that much pride..."
"And then everybody loves her! Elizabeth, Elizabeth! So perfect, so brilliant, so much better than the other Slytherins! Isn't she just the model student, befriending those with no wizard blood, always so helpful, such a suck up!"
They went on for the rest of lunch bashing Elizabeth, and as much as he disagreed, he did not stand up for her. True, he did not join in, but he said nothing, did not even try to stop them. He did not remind Bellatrix of all the times Elizabeth had helped her. He did not remind her that Elizabeth never permitted her friends to talk about Bellatrix as Bella was talking about her now. And yet Elizabeth would not have allowed anyone to talk about him like that in front of her either...
He was so deep in thought that the next moments became a blur. Had she said anything else, or just left, realizing there was no more to say? Had she been crying as she departed? Or had she waited till she thought she was alone, leaning on the old beach tree by the lake? How long had it taken him to go after her? How long had it taken him to tear his eyes off her, to leave? How long...
"Severus!" His thoughts were interrupted by a suffocating hug and the distinct smell of roses. He found himself looking into the brightest pair of green eyes he had ever seen.
"Good Luck!"
"Thanks."
"Don't worry, you'll be fine."
"You didn't rig the jury, did you?"
Elizabeth laughed. "Of course not, silly. Do you think I'd do something like that?"
He'd bet almost anything she had, but he didn't say anything. Instead he just shook his head, a small smile on his face. He watched as she left, wishing he could follow. Instead he returned to waiting, noting that he only had five minutes....
"Don't leave, Severus."