This is going to be chaptered, if I can keep it up. It shall have many convoluted pairings, but do not fear. Pray, read on, gentle reader.
Rebuilt by Redex
It was a dark night - rain hissed against the windows.
They huddled over mugs of hot tea, warming one pair of shaking hands, and one pair of all-too steady ones.
"He will know soon," the black-haired one said quietly, finally breaking the silence.
There was no question who "he" was.
The blonde one shuddered and took a gulp of his tea to steady his nerves a little more, wishing it was spiked.
"You don't want to go back."
He was trying to summon more of a reaction from his young charge than this silent brooding.
"I can't. But my mother..."
Severus' face set grimly.
"Dumbledore was right - she could be protected, with the right people."
Draco's head jerked upwards, eyes wide as they set on his former professor.
"But you're-!"
A smirk spread itself over Snape's face.
"Yes, Voldemort's right hand man."
Draco let out a harsh laugh into his mug and took another gulp.
"He'll kill you if he finds out you helped me."
Snape shrugged, affecting ease to calm Draco down, while glancing at the clock.
"I'll die if I don't help you to the best of my ability anyways. I believe I have a much better chance of working my way around Voldemort's wrath than base magical law."
Draco saw Snape's look.
"Are you expecting someone?"
"No. We should leave soon, though. This place will be the first that the other Death Eaters will come when they hear what has happened. We should not be here when they arrive."
They're out in the rain a few hours later, getting ready to appaperate into London. Draco jerked Snape's cloak and he bent down a little to him, not expecting it when wet lips press against his own.
"Thank you," Draco mumbled, blushing a little and turning away.
Snape ignored the jerk in his stomach and hooked his arm through Draco's. "Hold on."
They stepped forward, and arrived in front of the decrepit bar. Snape had a firm grip on Draco's arm and nearly dragged him inside, passed everyone with hoods pulled down low, and stepped in front of the wall.
"Don't speak to anyone. Don't look at anyone. Don't use magic, and don't buy anything."
Draco hesitated, pride bristling at being ordered not to do things he knew he shouldn't anyways, but he kept his mouth closed and nodded.
Just do what you have do to save Mother.
They stalked through the nearly-empty walkways, the usual bustling, loud storefronts hushed and people rushed from store to store. They arrived inside Gringotts, which still looked busy, even if only because half the building was security.
"Cicarix account, if you don't mind," Snape sneered into the air around them. A goblin immediately appeared in front of him and bowed deeply.
"Of course, sir. One moment, sir."
Draco blinked. The last time he had come here with his mother, before school, it had taken an hour before they managed to argue and bribe their way into their account.
It suddenly hit him how long Snape must have been planning the double, now triple cross.
---
The blond hair was disheveled and framed a perfectly sculpted face as it rested in silent repose. He let his fingers brush a bit of hair off of a closed eyelid, eyes narrowed in exhaustion and seriousness.
All this year, Draco had denied him what he had so readily given before. It had come as a goodwill present from Lucius the first time. It still disgusted him to no end that Draco had known exactly what to do as a boy of eleven.
But he had still done it. And done it again.
---
The news that Snape, the killer of Voldemort, was captured rang through the magical world. It was only moments after the capture was actually made that the Order found out in the form of a Tonks-type head in the fire to Remus Lupin.
He immediately arrived in the main hall of the Ministry in time to spot Snape being lead through in heavy chains with multiple auror guards in black. Their eyes found each other in the crowd and Remus pushed his way through to the front. Something wasn't right. He could smell it off Snape from here, and Remus wondered if Snape could use Occlumency without a wand.
He stopped at the edge of the clearing made by a few hundred sneering, whispering bodies and then hesitated. How could he trust this man, who had killed the only man left living that he had trusted with his life? But he pointed his wand discreetly in the folds of his robes and projected his mind... Legilimins
Snape's mind was completely open.
...The binding charm, gold and red snakes around his wrists and the voice of Narcissa binding him to her son...
...Draco, frozen on the parapet, Dumbledore wavering on the edge of death, the sudden bombardment of memories of excruciating pain and a failing heart. The fear of a prolonged death and a trapped spirit. The final decision, made in an instant, bringing a mercy killing to the one man who had trusted him and taken him in despite it all...
...Draco, huddling in a muggle motel just outside London, terrified for his life, hearing the sound of Death Eater footsteps at every moment...
...The knowledge that he would be more safe in prison than anywhere else, but would still be able to keep his lies intact on both sides he was playing, the knowledge of how Draco, like Snape, had only ever wanted to have friends like that...
And the connection was broken, Snape's eyes flickered away as a Knut nearly hit him in the head from an angry passer-by and the guards shuffled him forward. His head inclined ever so slightly at Remus as he passed, impassive and cool as always, the knowledge that he had now done what he could for his young charge loosened the feeling of heavy chains biting into his stomach and tightening so he couldn't breathe.
And then he was gone, taken in a service elevator down into the holding cells to await his probably eminent trial.
Remus turned around immediately and rushed back into the first fire he could, barely pausing in Grimmold place to scribble two notes before focusing on the room he had seen in Snape's memories, praying it wasn't a trap, that the Death Eaters hadn't already gotten Draco...
When he apperated just outside the door he was slightly surprised, and then realized that Snape had cast a charm to deflect all apparitions. Clever. The door was locked by more than muggle means as well, so Remus mused for a moment before simply knocking.
There was no answer. Remus worried his lip for a moment. If the Death Eaters had come, they would have come through this door, and there's no sign of a struggle... There was a small, curtained window beside the door. He tapped on it with his wand. The curtains rustled and an eye flashed into view before disappearing again. Before long, Lupin heard someone fiddling with the door from inside. It opened a small amount and it was Draco Malfoy who looked out at him, lines of fear haunting his face. All Remus' doubts dissolved.
"Snape has allowed himself to be taken by the Ministry," Remus said quietly.
"You're alone?"
He nodded and the door opened a little bit more.
"I'm going to take you to our safe place," Remus continued, listening for the sounds of anyone approaching. "If you want to come, that is. I believe that was the plan. If you'll get your things, we'll leave right away."
Draco hesitated for a moment.
"You know then?"
"Poison killed Dumbledore, not Severus."
Draco nodded curtly as if a password had been given and opened the door.
"You might as well come in while I get a few things. You can apperate out, but not in..."
Remus shut the door behind him as he surveyed the musty room. One bed was disheveled and smelling of... Draco flushed and cast a blanket over that bed before rummaging around underneath it and coming up with a book bag and a cloak.
"Alright, let's go."
"Can you do it on your own?" Remus asked mildly, tucking his wand inside his robe's sleeves and reached out to take the bag.
"Yeah, passed my test on the first try."
There was only a trace amount of the old smugness Remus recognized from his year teaching the boy.
"You'll have to hold on to me anyways, since you've never been there before."
They hooked arms, and on the count of three stepped forward into Grimmold Place. Draco looked back and forth, looking expectantly for something, but obviously not finding it.
"Is it one of these places?" he asked, eyeing the decrepit old buildings lining the abandoned street.
"Not quite," Remus said quietly, rummaging around in his cloak and coming up with a small folded piece of paper - one of the notes he had written earlier.
"Read this, memorize it, and then drop it on the ground."
Draco's eyes widened as he read the note and the paper promptly burst into flames.
"It's unplottable? But our house... I thought ministry weren't allowing that any more?"
"The ministry can't enforce the law on something they don't know exists," Remus said grimly, stepping towards the newly-reformed House of Black.
Draco followed closely behind. When they stepped inside the darkened corridor, Remus tapped the gas lamps with his wand, lighting them up all down the hallway.
"Don't make any noise," Remus said quietly, quickly walking passed what looked like a curtained window.
When they went down into the kitchen, Kingsley Shacklebolt was already there with Arthur Weasley and Tonks. They looked up immediately from what Remus recognized to be his note. Tonks started forward with "What do you mean..." but trailed off with a small "oh" when she spotted the blonde teen standing behind Remus hesitantly.
"Draco, this young lady is Nymphadora Tonks, preferring her surname only, and ah, Kingsley Shaklebolt, and of course you'll have already met Arthur," Remus said calmly. "And we'll go up and find you a room. I'll be right back down."
And Draco was ushered back up the stairs and through a living room, where he spotted the crest over the fireplace.
"This is the Black family mansion?" he asked, incredulous, following Remus up the worn stairs to the second story.
"Sirius wasn't a Death Eater, as well you should know," Remus said quietly. "He gave the house to Harry when he died. They both donated it to Order of the Phoenix's use."
Draco could tell he had stumbled upon a painful subject and didn't say anything until Remus left him in a warmly-furnished room, obviously updated since its previous inhabitants.
"You can come down when you feel up to it," Remus said gently, eyes all too knowing. Draco only sat down on the quilted bed and nodded.
When Remus arrived back downstairs, he was immediately accosted by the three Ministry workers for information. Sitting down at the table and accepting a cup of tea from Kingsley, he told them what had happened between he and Snape, editing out the personal parts, knowing that they were meant for him and him alone.
They all sat around in silence when Remus finished his tale with Draco's arrival at the house.
"You trust him?" Arthur asked wearily, looking at him over his glasses.
"Yes," Remus sighed, massaging his prematurely graying temples. "I do trust both of them."
For better or for worse...
They accepted his decision in the way that they usually did: with doubts of their own, but trust in him.
The children would not be so trusting.
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