Hello all – another chapter for this story. Luc introduces Kate to Slytherin, and she realizes a little of what his protection will cost. Hints and shadows of trouble coming soon. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. Don't sue me.
CHAPTER 6 – THE PRICE OF PROTECTION
"What are you doing with the mudblood girl, Luc?" Lucius spoke softly, under his breath so the other boys in their dorm wouldn't hear – but that disguise the disapproval in his words. Or the curiosity. Luc never did anything without a dozen different reasons, and Lucius knew that very well.
"There's something about her, Lucius…something that could burn, given a chance…"
"And you intend to give her that chance."
Luc made an amused noise deep in his throat. "And to take full advantage of whatever she becomes…"
"Complete loyalty?" His voice was wry.
White teeth flashed in the darkness. "It only seems fair…"
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Looking through his lashes at his newest protégé, Luc wondered just what had prompted the Hat to sort her into Slytherin. She was a typical muggleborn witch, and from the way he had watched her giggling with her sister as she first arrived last night, he had predicted she would go straight to Gryffindor. But after the Hat's shocking announcement, he had taken notice, trying to figure out just what Slytherin characteristics she did have.
When they had first locked eyes…
He had seen determination. Determination, and a very real strength of will, not simple stubbornness; and a fierce pride that would not let her show fear or any kind of reaction to the taunts that had started immediately after she sat down at the table. And, above all, he had seen intelligence. Instinctive insight, understanding….
And the beginnings of an ambition that somehow, in some way, included himself.
He had been intrigued.
Fascinated.
And caught by the sheer potential of what she could become, given the right guidance. Provided she was steered in the right direction – oh no, he wouldn't be able to control her forever, but if he could secure her voluntary and complete gratitude and cooperation…
She would serve him willingly, give him everything she had, and give it freely and unconditionally, along with her loyalty.
And what if she was a mudblood? It would only tie her more securely to him, for protection, for the acceptance she would find in him, for the relief of his lack of prejudice. It was a mutually beneficial trade – she had intimate knowledge of a world he could only dream of, a world completely alien to his own; and he held the same knowledge of the wizarding world and the High Clan. She had the makings of one of the shrewdest analysts of the Game he had ever known, and he had the necessary clout to ensure she stayed alive to realize her potential.
She would become something entirely different from what she would have been in her Muggle life, even from what she would have become in Gryffindor, and in the shaping of her, he would control and guide what she would become, and he would be the one to benefit from it…
And what did her blood matter, when compared to that?
It wasn't like he was going to marry her.
Oh, there were no real, outward, physical differences between purebred wizards and mudbloods. They were both human, both mortal, had the same features and flaws – they could even interbreed and produce viable offspring. The real differences were subtler, even more damning than mere physical makeup.
High Clan wizards were of a different blood type all of their own. Those of the original Thirteen, descended from Brandon Malfoy and his followers, who had all come from a strange land across the sea, tended to have more angular, beautiful features, slightly slanted eyes, and to breed true, generation after generation, to a certain physical characteristic – Malfoy were all fair-haired and silver eyed; when they used their unique inborn wandless magic, their ardeur, which was essentially sex magic, their skin glowed slightly and their eyes grew almost luminous.
And that was one of the few signs of their own difference from the normal wizards of Britain – their own slightly different magic, slightly different mentality, slightly different heritage…
And because they did share so much, especially their worldviews, and because Salazar Slytherin himself had been High Clan, of bastard blood, High Clan children were almost always sorted into Slytherin, with the exception of a children of the younger, more innocent Clans such as the de Sauvigny, who would, every so often, manifest other traits that would send them elsewhere, usually to Gryffindor, which was essentially a mirror image of Slytherin.
But he had never before heard of a complete mudblood sorted into Slytherin.
Now, as he prepared to introduce her and publicly speak his claim to her, he would see just how much credit the Malfoy name had in their world…
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The Slytherin common room was not a particularly welcoming place – apart from the forest green, silver and black colour scheme (a little depressing, when the room itself was deep in the dungeons), the whole atmosphere was aristocratic, formal, and more than a little chilly. Rich wall coverings and thick, plush Persian rugs, antique furniture, esoteric books and scrolls scattered orderly here and there…and everywhere, the overwhelming evidence of old money and power and even older traditions, old and tangled alliances and feuds, and above all, the sense of the unspoken, invisible undercurrents of the Game.
She had fallen in love with it on sight. It was just so…exotic. So different to anything she had ever known before – and she was intrigued by it, although she knew there was something very real, something that could be extremely dangerous, beneath the elegant, smooth façade.
Hence the alacrity with which she had accepted Luc Malfoy's offer.
Everything she was, and everything she could be. Complete loyalty. And in return, she would get – what? A protector. A teacher. A companion – although she hardly lacked for friends; she had her sister Lily, and she had lots of friends at her old school…
But Lily was in Gryffindor, now, and her old friends were even farther away, in the muggle world. She was a Slytherin, had been thrown in at the deep end, in with the High Clan, who all knew each other, whose parents all knew each other, whose children would all know each other, world without end…
She would need someone to talk to. She could not spend all seven years here as a loner – even if she had had the temperament for it, which she didn't, she couldn't survive the undercurrents without at least some sort of allies to back her up, to back up her threat and her standing.
But still, complete loyalty? That seemed a bit…mediaeval…
Ah, well. There didn't seem to be anyone else willing to offer her protection. She would take whatever she could get. She didn't want to endure another night at the mercy of those Slytherin bitches, who were just as dangerous as their male counterparts, and far, far more vicious.
Entering behind Luc, after dinner in the Great Hall (and that had been an interesting – she had been far too nervous and dismayed to take much notice of it last night) she looked around to see the whole of the first year Slytherins gathered together near the fireplace, all watching them come in – examining her with disguised curiosity, and open calculation.
They had seen Luc claim her, this morning – now they would wait to see in what way.
There were eight boys in the first year, not including Luc – the blonde haired boy whose features mirrored Luc's must be his legitimate brother Lucius, the Malfoy Heir; he looked like a smooth predator, in the same way as Luc did, but then that was hardly a surprise – they would have had all the same tutors and lessons, surely? They were eerily alike, the only difference she could see, on first impression, was that Lucius was more…utterly confident of his place, of his position.
With Luc's hand on her shoulder, he introduced her to Lucius, who was the highest ranked among them, first. "Lucius, this is Kate. She's mine." She would have blinked in surprise, in outrage, if the hand on her shoulder hadn't tightened in warning. Play along, it said – so she gritted her teeth and looked straightly at Lucius. Luc had told her not to smile, but to look properly solemn – he also said that if Lucius rejected her, not even his credit could protect her.
She stood still and held Lucius' silver, far too perceptive gaze for what seemed like an eternity, her heart beating double time in the stretched silence – and then, finally, he nodded, and said, "Hello Kate. Welcome to Slytherin."
He didn't offer to shake her hand – Luc had said this would happen. Once she was acknowledged as his, no other High Clan scion would touch her without his permission, unless they wished to challenge him and through him House Malfoy.
Luc introduced the awkward, pale black haired boy with the piercing black eyes as Severus Snape – he was sitting with Lucius, so they must be allied in some way, but it was an odd alliance where both Snape and Lucius tried not to look at each other, or to acknowledge the other's presence. There was something uneasy there, something below the surface…
Snape sneered at her with black, insolent eyes – but he would not reject what his nominal patron Lucius had accepted, so he said nothing. He did not want to get on the Malfoy's bad side. For the first time, the implications of her bargain came home to her. No one would touch her, raise a hand against her, because they did not want to cross House Malfoy. But that didn't mean that those who wished to challenge the Malfoy, or to cause them some sort of harm, or even to score some sort of point in a bizarre, twisted game, would not harm her…
Hadn't she said that there was something dark beneath Slytherin's surface?
The other white haired boy, with his sharp green eyes and thin smile, was Rayden Lestrange, cynical and sardonic, with a mocking smile. He nodded negligently at her, his green eyes assessing her thoroughly, weighing her up in a quick, comprehensive glance. His cousin Shan was blonder, softer…warmer. His quick smile was genuine, but his eyes were no less perceptive. And, unofficially connected to the two of them, was dark haired, lazy-eyed Brandon Avery, who appeared to be so languid and world-weary, it was hard to believe her first impression of smooth, velvet menace. He looked at her through heavily lidded eyes and lifted a white, elegant hand in acknowledgement.
The venomous looks he and Snape exchanged dispelled any impression of softness she might ever have received.
Dirk Courtney, insolent, mocking and curiously innocent, in some ways, was accepted as Luc's companion – he looked at her with dark eyes, as if warning her to stay away from Luc, who should be his alone. She wondered if she would have trouble there, and just what lay between them that Dirk felt he had the right to jealousy…
And Dominic and Michel de Sauvigny sat on their own, apart from the others, as if they needed to protect themselves from the rest. They watched Luc with reluctant fascination, as if he were a dangerous predator in their world that was rapidly spinning out of control…and, conversely, as if he were the only thing that could save them from the darkness.
They, alone out of the Slytherin boys, were truly on their own. If Luc chose not to acknowledge them…unless they learned something of how to survive in this world, unless they shed their notions of Gryffindoric fair play, they would only be slightly safer than she had been. And that wasn't saying much.
But Luc was not altruistic enough to offer his protection without a promise of something in return. So what could they possibly offer him that would be payment enough for Malfoy protection?
She thought she knew.
And she wondered at the complexity of a mind that could formulate such long-term plans at this age…
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But not even Luc, the skilled player that he was, master player that he would one day become, could have foreseen the whole picture and the way that it would unfold.
The High Clan had stood together for centuries against any outside threats, against anything and anyone who had threatened them, and they had prevailed. The Houses had all shared different alliances, different blood, different agendas, but one common thread united them all.
They were High Clan.
But very, very soon, the world as they knew it would change forever…
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