Author's Note: I don't own anything you recognize.
Chapter 2 A Bittersweet Reunion
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Lily Evans flopped backwards onto her four-poster bed with a sigh. She was completely exhausted after the long train ride, the Welcome Feast, and her prefect duties and thoroughly troubled by the amount of students who were missing from Hogwarts' numbers. As a Muggle born, it was easy for Lily to avoid the harsher realities of the wizarding world; during holidays she went home to Surrey where people had never even heard of wizards, much less any evil ones; her family was unaffected by Voldemort's reign of terror. Even when she was part of the magical community, she was within the relative safety of Hogwarts' walls; people said that where Dumbledore was would be the only safe place in the wizarding world because Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared.
Dumbledore. Yet another concern to add to a growing list. Lily could never recall Dumbledore looking as old as he had that evening at the feast. And that chilled Lily to the bone. Who could get wizardkind through this horrible situation if Dumbledore wasn't there to?
Lily's thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of three of her roommates, Morwenna Marchbanks, Dorcas Meadows, and Alice Prewett, looking as grim as Lily felt. The three girls had been in the Gryffindor common room catching up on any gossip they had missed at the feast, and by the expressions on their faces, Lily gathered that it had not been the trifling sort that usually spread through schools.
"Bad news?" Lily inquired apprehensively, sitting up. Morwenna sighed and made her way to her bed opposite Lily's before answering.
"Well, it's never good news anymore, is it? Frank Longbottom was telling us that there are two more missing from our year, from Ravenclaw. Dorothy Doge, she and her family went into hiding, people think, and Ronan Digby, no one knows what happened to him."
"Two more from Ravenclaw, that makes eight all together," Lily mused, ticking them off on her fingers. "Eleven Hufflepuffs, and of course the six Gryffindors, and we don't really know about the first years."
"Notice Slytherin doesn't seem to have too many missing from its numbers," Dorcas commented dryly from her seat on the bed next to Lily's. "I bet Bellatrix Black or Erebus Avery could tell us something about Ronan Digby or any of the others."
The girls fell silent for a few minutes, all lost in their own trains of thought.
"Er. would it be terrible of me to change the subject?" Alice finally asked in a timid voice.
"I could definitely do with a lighter topic," Lily said, smiling at Alice.
"You know Lils, Frank Longbottom told us a few other things as well," Morwenna said coyly. "About a certain party we all know."
Eager for some lighter gossip, Lily leaned forward. "And who might that be?" she asked, amused.
"Why, James Potter of course," replied Morwenna innocently, ignoring Lily's grimace of repugnance. "Rumor has it that he's still professing his love for you."
"Not that git! Why do the dreadful ones always fancy me? None of the fellows I would choose to date over an early death ever step up," Lily said in tones of deep disgust.
"You have had some rotten luck, Lils," Alice chuckled. "Remember in second year when." she trailed off as Lily shot her a filthy look.
"Oh come off it Lily!" Morwenna exclaimed. "He may be a bit of a prat and a definite show off, but you'd rather face an early death than go on one date with him? How can you hate someone so much that you don't even really know?"
"It's the way he treats people that I don't like," Lily explained. "Take the way he treated Severus Snape last year, for example. Snape may be a slimeball who knows a questionably large amount about the Dark Arts, but what was he doing to Potter to deserve to be publicly humiliated? Potter goes about hexing and humiliating weaker people just because he can, and that's cowardly and cruel. I don't want to know Potter any better; he's a bullying wanker who needs someone to cut him down to a proper size."
"I think Lily has a point," Alice spoke up in her quiet way. "The way people treat other people does say loads about them."
"And I think Potter isn't as black - no pun intended- as he's painted," Morwenna held her ground. "I've known James for years, and he has his faults, but I don't think he's all you say he is, Lily."
"Er.maybe you lot should agree to disagree," said Dorcas hastily, recognizing the stubborn look in Lily's eyes.
"As long as no one makes me go out with him, I can do that," Lily said, shrugging. She didn't intend to change her mind, but she hardly considered James Potter a subject worth fighting with a long-standing friend over.
Morwenna too shrugged her shoulders and the arrival of Kathleen Kirkpatrick, the fifth and final roommate, put a stop to that particular conversation as the girls settled into what promised to be a long conversation.
* * *
Severus Snape watched through veiled eyes as a few of his straggling housemates scuttled up the stairs to their respective dormitories. In a long list of unwritten rules that governed the codes of conduct within Slytherin House, this one was near the top: never eavesdrop on a meeting in the common room to which you haven't been invited. That rule was especially true of this meeting of a very select few individuals.
Some of the best bloodlines in all of wizardkind were represented tonight: Black, Lestrange, Avery, and of course, Snape. All ancient names, all powerful, and, naturally, all pure.
Names were never listed when these meetings were called. Whoever was calling it - usually Bellatrix Black - would simply tell the others to pass the word along to a "select few."
And those few never changed. Always it was the seven of them: Bellatrix Black, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Evan Rosier, Seth Wilkes, Erebus Avery, and himself, Severus Snape.
They had banded together during their years in Slytherin House due to their common interests, their common abilities, their mutual benefit - and, of course, due to the Dark Lord's common interest in their progress.
Once they left Hogwarts, their real education would begin - in how to best please the Dark Lord. Then they would all take their places at his side and help to bring about the new order. They had been selected to be his elite, to be his most faithful followers.
Bellatrix Black leaned forward and began speaking in a soft tone that seemed to carry nonetheless. "I'll make this brief, we wouldn't want to draw any unnecessary attention."
As Bellatrix's smothered voice droned on, Severus allowed his attention to wander around the room to the others present at this gathering. All listened with keen attention to Bellatrix's plans for recruitment of new people to their ranks, took malicious glee in Wikes's account of a Muggle-baiting he had taken part in. Snape could have cared less about any of these things.
Muggle-baiting held no temptation for him - he had something of a distaste for it, actually. The purity of wizarding bloodlines was a concern, but not a pressing one. Stupidity and ineptness were the real crimes as far as Severus was concerned, and Snape had certainly encountered enough wizards with ancient bloodlines who were both. Also, when it came down to it, Snape did not care terribly about converting other "suitable" wizards to their cause. None of these things were what attracted Snape to Voldemort's ranks.
It was immortality, the promise of power over life and death itself, that drew Severus like a moth to the flame of Voldemort's vision. Immortality, power - the ability to seize fame and glory, to stem the tides of death, and Voldemort's devotion to these goals intrigued Severus. They were heights he aspired to himself, that he attempted to explore through potion brewing and his studies of Occlumency and the Dark Arts.
Voldemort realized that Severus Snape shared his obsessions, and could become a valuable asset in his attainment of them. So he took an interest in Snape's progress through Hogwarts, made certain that other key individuals were aware of Snape's potential and of Voldemort's interest in him. Thus Snape held a position of some prestige in Slytherin House; the others respected him for his abilities and intelligence, a respect that had only been intensified by his appointment as prefect the previous year, recognizing him as an equal and as one of those within Voldemort's chosen circle.
Snape was not ungrateful for this elevation in his status; he knew full well that if not for Voldemort's interest in him, he would be a target for those within Slytherin as well as for those outside it, particularly the Gryffindors. But Snape, skeptical by nature, was leery of the blind, unswerving, unquestioning devotion most of the others felt. Nothing, as far as Snape was concerned, merited such complete faith.
Snape was broken out of his reverie by the shuffling noises the others were making, a clear indication that the meeting was over and it was time to depart. Severus was just about to rise and return to his dormitory when Rodolphus Lestrange's voice cut across the noise.
"Snape, Avery.a word?" Snape nodded once and stepped off to the side where Lestrange, Bellatrix, and Avery were waiting.
Rodolphus Lestrange was a seventh year, tall, handsome, cold, and fleet as quicksilver in all aspects of both his physicality and personality. He and Bellatrix Black had had a deeply twisted, though bizarrely devoted, relationship for the past two years, and possibly longer. Severus supposed he shouldn't have been so surprised by the pair's capacity for devotion; after all, they were two of Voldemort's most devout followers.
Bellatrix, hovering within arm's length of Lestrange as usual, her fingers caressing his left forearm. Snape felt a sudden twinge of annoyance; he was in no mood to play his housemates' usual games, not when the hour was already late and he had a number of things he wanted to do before going to bed.
"Well, Rodolphus?" Snape inquired coolly, letting his impatience show.
Bellatrix Black gave him a psychotic, smug little smile that was in some bizarre way almost maternal. "Severus has no time for us, my love," she addressed Lestrange, her tone complacent, everything about her inner glee reminding Snape of a cat who has just devoured some coveted treat. "Let's show them then, shall we?"
Without further warning, Bellatrix pulled up the left arm of Rodolphus' black robes, revealing a small black skull with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue burned into Lestrange's forearm. The burn looked to be fresh; it still had an angry red outline to it, suggesting it might still be painful. If it did hurt, Rodolphus didn't show it; he maintained his usual cold, deadly demeanor.
"You know what this is, of course," Rodolphus stated flatly. Avery nodded slowly, but Snape did not move a muscle. "The Dark Lord chose to honor me with this symbol of trust, of brotherhood only four days ago. He also wants you to know that you too will be honored." Lestrange looked from one to the other, a fanatical gleam in his eye that reminded Snape forcibly of Bellatrix. "He feels you are ready, are worthy of his ultimate trust." Lestrange once again fixed them with his quick, probing gaze. "And, if you are indeed worthy of that trust, you won't hesitate in the face of such an honor." Lestrange's gaze came to rest on Snape.
Snape wasn't thick; he recognized a warning when he heard one. Voldemort might have been convinced of Snape's mettle, but Lestrange wasn't. Snape knew he didn't show the devotion that the others did, was frankly contemptuous of some of their beliefs and ideas, and Lestrange was suspicious of that.
'Get in line and wave the flag,' Lestrange's cold gaze said as plainly as words ever could have. 'Or the Dark Lord will hear about my suspicions.'
Snape didn't let his gaze waver for an instant as he cocked a brow at Lestrange before sweeping past him toward the stairway, averting his gaze as Bellatrix began to lick her way around Lestrange's mark. Avery hastened after him, seemingly too honored by his good fortune for words and clearly, like Snape, not wanting to bear witness to Lestrange's and Black's twisted sex life any longer than necessary. Silence suited Severus for the moment, he too was preoccupied by his thoughts.
Voldemort had earned his trust and his devotion, Snape did not waver from that conviction. But the Dark Mark would bring with it an entirely new set of expectations and duties, ones that Snape did not know if he was ready for.
Or even, he reflected, if he wanted to be ready for them.
Chapter 2 A Bittersweet Reunion
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Lily Evans flopped backwards onto her four-poster bed with a sigh. She was completely exhausted after the long train ride, the Welcome Feast, and her prefect duties and thoroughly troubled by the amount of students who were missing from Hogwarts' numbers. As a Muggle born, it was easy for Lily to avoid the harsher realities of the wizarding world; during holidays she went home to Surrey where people had never even heard of wizards, much less any evil ones; her family was unaffected by Voldemort's reign of terror. Even when she was part of the magical community, she was within the relative safety of Hogwarts' walls; people said that where Dumbledore was would be the only safe place in the wizarding world because Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared.
Dumbledore. Yet another concern to add to a growing list. Lily could never recall Dumbledore looking as old as he had that evening at the feast. And that chilled Lily to the bone. Who could get wizardkind through this horrible situation if Dumbledore wasn't there to?
Lily's thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of three of her roommates, Morwenna Marchbanks, Dorcas Meadows, and Alice Prewett, looking as grim as Lily felt. The three girls had been in the Gryffindor common room catching up on any gossip they had missed at the feast, and by the expressions on their faces, Lily gathered that it had not been the trifling sort that usually spread through schools.
"Bad news?" Lily inquired apprehensively, sitting up. Morwenna sighed and made her way to her bed opposite Lily's before answering.
"Well, it's never good news anymore, is it? Frank Longbottom was telling us that there are two more missing from our year, from Ravenclaw. Dorothy Doge, she and her family went into hiding, people think, and Ronan Digby, no one knows what happened to him."
"Two more from Ravenclaw, that makes eight all together," Lily mused, ticking them off on her fingers. "Eleven Hufflepuffs, and of course the six Gryffindors, and we don't really know about the first years."
"Notice Slytherin doesn't seem to have too many missing from its numbers," Dorcas commented dryly from her seat on the bed next to Lily's. "I bet Bellatrix Black or Erebus Avery could tell us something about Ronan Digby or any of the others."
The girls fell silent for a few minutes, all lost in their own trains of thought.
"Er. would it be terrible of me to change the subject?" Alice finally asked in a timid voice.
"I could definitely do with a lighter topic," Lily said, smiling at Alice.
"You know Lils, Frank Longbottom told us a few other things as well," Morwenna said coyly. "About a certain party we all know."
Eager for some lighter gossip, Lily leaned forward. "And who might that be?" she asked, amused.
"Why, James Potter of course," replied Morwenna innocently, ignoring Lily's grimace of repugnance. "Rumor has it that he's still professing his love for you."
"Not that git! Why do the dreadful ones always fancy me? None of the fellows I would choose to date over an early death ever step up," Lily said in tones of deep disgust.
"You have had some rotten luck, Lils," Alice chuckled. "Remember in second year when." she trailed off as Lily shot her a filthy look.
"Oh come off it Lily!" Morwenna exclaimed. "He may be a bit of a prat and a definite show off, but you'd rather face an early death than go on one date with him? How can you hate someone so much that you don't even really know?"
"It's the way he treats people that I don't like," Lily explained. "Take the way he treated Severus Snape last year, for example. Snape may be a slimeball who knows a questionably large amount about the Dark Arts, but what was he doing to Potter to deserve to be publicly humiliated? Potter goes about hexing and humiliating weaker people just because he can, and that's cowardly and cruel. I don't want to know Potter any better; he's a bullying wanker who needs someone to cut him down to a proper size."
"I think Lily has a point," Alice spoke up in her quiet way. "The way people treat other people does say loads about them."
"And I think Potter isn't as black - no pun intended- as he's painted," Morwenna held her ground. "I've known James for years, and he has his faults, but I don't think he's all you say he is, Lily."
"Er.maybe you lot should agree to disagree," said Dorcas hastily, recognizing the stubborn look in Lily's eyes.
"As long as no one makes me go out with him, I can do that," Lily said, shrugging. She didn't intend to change her mind, but she hardly considered James Potter a subject worth fighting with a long-standing friend over.
Morwenna too shrugged her shoulders and the arrival of Kathleen Kirkpatrick, the fifth and final roommate, put a stop to that particular conversation as the girls settled into what promised to be a long conversation.
* * *
Severus Snape watched through veiled eyes as a few of his straggling housemates scuttled up the stairs to their respective dormitories. In a long list of unwritten rules that governed the codes of conduct within Slytherin House, this one was near the top: never eavesdrop on a meeting in the common room to which you haven't been invited. That rule was especially true of this meeting of a very select few individuals.
Some of the best bloodlines in all of wizardkind were represented tonight: Black, Lestrange, Avery, and of course, Snape. All ancient names, all powerful, and, naturally, all pure.
Names were never listed when these meetings were called. Whoever was calling it - usually Bellatrix Black - would simply tell the others to pass the word along to a "select few."
And those few never changed. Always it was the seven of them: Bellatrix Black, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Evan Rosier, Seth Wilkes, Erebus Avery, and himself, Severus Snape.
They had banded together during their years in Slytherin House due to their common interests, their common abilities, their mutual benefit - and, of course, due to the Dark Lord's common interest in their progress.
Once they left Hogwarts, their real education would begin - in how to best please the Dark Lord. Then they would all take their places at his side and help to bring about the new order. They had been selected to be his elite, to be his most faithful followers.
Bellatrix Black leaned forward and began speaking in a soft tone that seemed to carry nonetheless. "I'll make this brief, we wouldn't want to draw any unnecessary attention."
As Bellatrix's smothered voice droned on, Severus allowed his attention to wander around the room to the others present at this gathering. All listened with keen attention to Bellatrix's plans for recruitment of new people to their ranks, took malicious glee in Wikes's account of a Muggle-baiting he had taken part in. Snape could have cared less about any of these things.
Muggle-baiting held no temptation for him - he had something of a distaste for it, actually. The purity of wizarding bloodlines was a concern, but not a pressing one. Stupidity and ineptness were the real crimes as far as Severus was concerned, and Snape had certainly encountered enough wizards with ancient bloodlines who were both. Also, when it came down to it, Snape did not care terribly about converting other "suitable" wizards to their cause. None of these things were what attracted Snape to Voldemort's ranks.
It was immortality, the promise of power over life and death itself, that drew Severus like a moth to the flame of Voldemort's vision. Immortality, power - the ability to seize fame and glory, to stem the tides of death, and Voldemort's devotion to these goals intrigued Severus. They were heights he aspired to himself, that he attempted to explore through potion brewing and his studies of Occlumency and the Dark Arts.
Voldemort realized that Severus Snape shared his obsessions, and could become a valuable asset in his attainment of them. So he took an interest in Snape's progress through Hogwarts, made certain that other key individuals were aware of Snape's potential and of Voldemort's interest in him. Thus Snape held a position of some prestige in Slytherin House; the others respected him for his abilities and intelligence, a respect that had only been intensified by his appointment as prefect the previous year, recognizing him as an equal and as one of those within Voldemort's chosen circle.
Snape was not ungrateful for this elevation in his status; he knew full well that if not for Voldemort's interest in him, he would be a target for those within Slytherin as well as for those outside it, particularly the Gryffindors. But Snape, skeptical by nature, was leery of the blind, unswerving, unquestioning devotion most of the others felt. Nothing, as far as Snape was concerned, merited such complete faith.
Snape was broken out of his reverie by the shuffling noises the others were making, a clear indication that the meeting was over and it was time to depart. Severus was just about to rise and return to his dormitory when Rodolphus Lestrange's voice cut across the noise.
"Snape, Avery.a word?" Snape nodded once and stepped off to the side where Lestrange, Bellatrix, and Avery were waiting.
Rodolphus Lestrange was a seventh year, tall, handsome, cold, and fleet as quicksilver in all aspects of both his physicality and personality. He and Bellatrix Black had had a deeply twisted, though bizarrely devoted, relationship for the past two years, and possibly longer. Severus supposed he shouldn't have been so surprised by the pair's capacity for devotion; after all, they were two of Voldemort's most devout followers.
Bellatrix, hovering within arm's length of Lestrange as usual, her fingers caressing his left forearm. Snape felt a sudden twinge of annoyance; he was in no mood to play his housemates' usual games, not when the hour was already late and he had a number of things he wanted to do before going to bed.
"Well, Rodolphus?" Snape inquired coolly, letting his impatience show.
Bellatrix Black gave him a psychotic, smug little smile that was in some bizarre way almost maternal. "Severus has no time for us, my love," she addressed Lestrange, her tone complacent, everything about her inner glee reminding Snape of a cat who has just devoured some coveted treat. "Let's show them then, shall we?"
Without further warning, Bellatrix pulled up the left arm of Rodolphus' black robes, revealing a small black skull with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue burned into Lestrange's forearm. The burn looked to be fresh; it still had an angry red outline to it, suggesting it might still be painful. If it did hurt, Rodolphus didn't show it; he maintained his usual cold, deadly demeanor.
"You know what this is, of course," Rodolphus stated flatly. Avery nodded slowly, but Snape did not move a muscle. "The Dark Lord chose to honor me with this symbol of trust, of brotherhood only four days ago. He also wants you to know that you too will be honored." Lestrange looked from one to the other, a fanatical gleam in his eye that reminded Snape forcibly of Bellatrix. "He feels you are ready, are worthy of his ultimate trust." Lestrange once again fixed them with his quick, probing gaze. "And, if you are indeed worthy of that trust, you won't hesitate in the face of such an honor." Lestrange's gaze came to rest on Snape.
Snape wasn't thick; he recognized a warning when he heard one. Voldemort might have been convinced of Snape's mettle, but Lestrange wasn't. Snape knew he didn't show the devotion that the others did, was frankly contemptuous of some of their beliefs and ideas, and Lestrange was suspicious of that.
'Get in line and wave the flag,' Lestrange's cold gaze said as plainly as words ever could have. 'Or the Dark Lord will hear about my suspicions.'
Snape didn't let his gaze waver for an instant as he cocked a brow at Lestrange before sweeping past him toward the stairway, averting his gaze as Bellatrix began to lick her way around Lestrange's mark. Avery hastened after him, seemingly too honored by his good fortune for words and clearly, like Snape, not wanting to bear witness to Lestrange's and Black's twisted sex life any longer than necessary. Silence suited Severus for the moment, he too was preoccupied by his thoughts.
Voldemort had earned his trust and his devotion, Snape did not waver from that conviction. But the Dark Mark would bring with it an entirely new set of expectations and duties, ones that Snape did not know if he was ready for.
Or even, he reflected, if he wanted to be ready for them.