Chapter 5
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
Reaper Man — Terry Pratchett
Albus' lack of honesty suddenly became clear. The old man already knew. He already knew and he hadn't said. That was more than being "not entirely honest", and Severus wanted to let the roaring anger take over. Best to push it all back down again though, back behind those unreachable mental shields where emotions belonged, until he could be alone and he could break. Better still away forever, hidden even from himself. Anger would do him no good, it never did him any good, so ice would have to suffice. Confident his emotions were under control once more, he turned his head in time to see the young woman responsible for his current predicament shaking hands with the headmaster. He watched as the deputy headmistress smiled affectionally at the younger woman and retreated from the room, the door snapping shut behind her. Only then did he approach the centre of the office again, dark eyes narrowed, every motion a lesson in control.
"Not entirely honest Albus?" He questioned the older man, with a raised eyebrow and an undertone of ire in his voice. He placed a hand on the back of the chair he had previously vacated; all but ignoring the woman in the lilac dress who occupied the other chair. "I think already being in cahoots with the woman goes a little beyond not entirely honest." His voice was low, even in control it belayed something darker below the surface.
"Come now Severus, there is no mean to be rude." That blasted twinkle was still in Albus' eyes. "Master Selwyn and I are hardly in…" the headmaster paused, "Cahoots was it?" Severus simply glared at the old man. "Sit back down; I will pour us all more tea and we can get to the matter at hand."
Severus was about to make a cutting comment about what Albus could do with his tea, but curbed his tongue, and sat in poor grace. He was suddenly very aware that the young woman (well younger than him at least) had been serenely studying him during the entire exchange. She was relatively subtle, he would give her that much, but a spy she most certainly was not. She was, however, still beautiful. He mentally scolded himself. Now was not the time to loose control over a woman, but he was only a man, and she was still beautiful. Whilst most people would have shown fear, disgust, or some similar poorly concealed emotion at his outburst, she was simply regarding him with a careful sort of curiosity in her soft grey eyes. It threw him.
Once all their tea cups had been refilled and biscuits had been proffered, and reluctantly accepted on both their parts, Severus returned to glaring at his mentor. His sour demeanour was somewhat ruined by the flowery teacup he had been forced to drink from.
"Master Selwyn, Cassandra, joined the Order soon after Voldemort returned." Albus began. Snape let out a soft hiss at the name; the brunette looked momentarily discomforted. "For a number of reasons only myself, Minerva and Kingsley are aware of her allegiance." The dark haired man simply raised an eyebrow in response to this news; it was never wise to give away too much of ones thoughts around Dumbledore. "As far as we know, and neither you nor she have given me any reason to believe otherwise, Voldemort is not aware of this. Perhaps you would like to take it from here dear?" The headmaster addressed the woman.
Cassandra nodded her head slightly, sending her brunette curls bobbing; she hesitated briefly before she spoke. "I should preface this by explaining that I work for the Ministry, which is where I got my Mastery. These days I focus mainly on archaic magic; the obscure or obsolete. I receive manuscripts and artefacts, authenticating their origin, translating and deciphering their magic, unravelling little magical mysteries. I am not able to say much more than that on the matter, but my skills are of importance in the unfolding of our predicament."
"You're an unspeakable?" Severus jumped in, voice low, when she paused to take a sip of her tea; he noticed that she hadn't touched the biscuit.
"Yes." She nodded, setting her curls bobbing again; if she was surprised at his deductive jump of logic she did not show it.
Snape considered this new information for a moment. Whilst he had known that she was intelligent, he had taught her during her school days after all, she far surpassed any expectation he had formed when the Dark Lord had begun this whole sordid affair. Not only had she achieved a Mastery, no mean feat as he was well aware, but she defied social norms for women in the world she had been born into, maintaining a job when she could have simply lived off her families vault at Gringotts. On top of that she had walked her way straight into the Department of Mysteries, a place filled by the most dedicated and brilliant minds that could be bribed behind the walls of secrecy. He had to admit that she was impressive, and he was not a man easily impressed.
After taking another sip of tea she continued. "Last week I was summoned before the Dark Lord." She seemed relieved when he made no attempt to cut her off, although this statement caused more questions for him than answers. "He gave me an ancient manuscript to translate. It took me several evenings of work and access to the Ministry archive before I could determine that it was a written account of a prophecy. I passed Kingsley a copy of the text, and my translation for the Order in our usual manner, as well as some notes on the Dark Lord's perception of said prophecy. That was yesterday; this morning I was summoned to be told, under no uncertain terms, to accept your courtship."
"You want me to believe that the prophecy is about you and I?" Severus gave a derisive snort and turned his onyx eyes to her grey ones.
"No." The woman laughed; it was just as soft and lilting as her speech. She seemed unaffected by his gaze, when most people would have looked away. A smile lit her face, and his eyes were drawn to her mouth. She was beautiful, and he supposed it wouldn't be so bad to have to kiss those lips. No. He had to focus. Why was his brain running away with him? She was just a woman. He placed his half full tea cup on the headmasters desk, and raised an eyebrow again, trying to reimpose his self control.
"No." She ventured again. "I would not presume such a thing." She set down her tea cup beside his, biscuit still untouched. "I have a copy here." She offered him a scrap of parchment with a dainty hand. Reaching for it, he hesitated, remembering the odd spark of magic when he had taken her hand earlier in the day. He closed his fingers slowly around the parchment, careful to avoid contact with her skin. Magic flared between them again; stronger than before. Their eyes' locked in expressions of mutual surprise; grey with black. Her breath hitched. He swallowed. She wetted her bottom lip slightly with her tongue. He tried not to stare. The headmaster watched with barely concealed interest. Then the moment passed and her fingers released their grip on the parchment. He turned his focus to the words written in a highly stylised hand:
When the snake arises a second time,
a bond will be formed between the emissary and the serpent's heir,
a bond between the power of augurey and phoenix,
between one born for darkness and one whom darkness claimed,
a bond which will bear night or day, and settle the snakes fate.
"This is so vague as to be meaningless." Severus was trying not to think about the other prophecy. The one he had taken to his master, the one that had sealed the fate of his childhood friend and her family. He avoided the blue eyes of his mentor, the man who had failed to save her, but bound him in servitude none the less. He returned with swift steps to his spot at the window, eyes focused in the distance. He wanted no part of anything involving any prophecy.
"Severus?" Cassandra ventured quietly, suddenly at his side. She spoke his name with something akin to concern. He should have been angered by her presumptuous use of his name, but instead his traitorous mind noted that she smelt like roses. "I would not presume to understand the truth of this; ancient prophecies can be difficult, the translation can change the meaning. I can only tell you what the Dark Lord believes. Whether it is the truth is open to speculation."
"Wonderful." Severus spread the syllables as though they were something repulsive. He watched the giant squid propelling itself across the surface of the lake.
"It does not change what must be done." Her response was far too calm for somebody about to bind themselves to their greasy old potions professor. "A year ago the Dark Lord rose again, a second time, the first line is at least clear. You are a spy; an emissary." He risked a glance down at the woman, but her focus was away on the horizon where the sun was casting the sky into pinks and purples. "We both wield ebony wands; your's has a phoenix feather at it's core, mine the feather of an augurey." Snape instinctively checked his pockets, and was relieved to find the weight of his wand there. "My blood line ensured I was born for darkness." She did not expand on this statement, but he did not see any darkness there. "I do not claim to know you, but I know you chose to take the mark; the darkness." He scowled at her, and turned away again. He did not need reminding of his failings. "I also know you have spent the rest of your life repenting." Her voice was so quiet it barely registered as she finished.
He exhaled the breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding.
Severus Snape had spent his entire life at the mercy of one master or another; wether it be as servant to Tom Riddle, as repentant to Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, as devotee to Lily, whom he had loved and destroyed, or even as a terrified boy, beaten and bruised, to his worthless father. He had obeyed his masters at every turn, he had done terrible evil in their names, but they would tie him to yet another master.
He had long ago given up on leading a normal life; he did not deserve as much. He had given up on wishing for a gentle touch, freely given, with no strings attached. He had given up wishing for a family better than his own, to be husband and father; to be loved. He had given up on freedom the night he knelt in the forest at seventeen and accepted the brand on his forearm; and now he was being forced in to the things he had written off, but they would never be real. Severus Snape spent his entire life pretending, one way or another, and this would be no different. This woman was to be just another shackle to his chain of indenture.
A gentle touch through his wool clad arm sent a sudden surge of warmth through his being, so unlike the sharp spike of magic that had passed between them before when skin had met skin. If he had believed in such things he would have said her magic was calling to his, dancing around them, wiping away the cold loneliness that had been his constant friend all these years. Part of him wanted to withdraw from her touch, but he had not felt as at peace as in that moment in his entire life, and hadn't he yearned for a gentle touch for so long?
As a rule people did not touch him, and certainly not out of simple kindness. Yes, Poppy Pomfrey touched him, but that was the touch of a healer, a woman who had fixed his wounds since he was all but a child. Yes, Minerva and Albus touched him, but like somebody would pat a favourite grandchild for good behaviour. The touch of his brother's meant pain, and the touch of the women he took home was one born of simple need. Even Lily had never touched him with the gentle kindness of this young woman. No, Lily would not have left her seat, she would not have laid her hand against him, even before he had said that one awful word. Yet this woman, who not all that long ago had been his student, was so forward as to touch him, and he didn't want to verbally eviscerate her or rip her hand from his person as he would have with any other.
He turned his eyes down to where Cassandra had rested her hand softly against his robes, before lifting them to meet her gaze. He expected to see pity there, at least then he could rile at her, turn anger against her. He didn't need her pity. What he saw there instead was curiosity, of which he could not fathom. When she withdrew her hand, tucking an escaped curl of hair behind her ear, all the desolation rushed back into his being. For a moment he considered taking her hand back, to check that it had been real, but control won out and he adjusted his stance to ensure there was no further contact. If it had been real, if their magics had truly been calling to one another, he wasn't sure if he would ever let her go again. If he felt that sudden warmth he didn't know if he would ever be able to give it up.
Severus Snape did not believe he deserved such warmth, such kindness. In fact, he was entirely convinced that nobody believed he deserved anything but the pain that he brought down on himself. His punishment for the events that had been set in motion after that one stupid word said in humiliation when he was barely grown. If Cassandra believed otherwise she would quickly realise, just like all the others, that he deserved all that he got; her kindness would not last long bound to somebody like him.
"I am not a good man." He focused his eyes on some distant point again, trying to ignore the headmaster straining to hear them from his desk. "I am not even a nice man. Why agree to this farce?" Words said with a sneer.
"Do you truly believe either of us has choice?" She sighed, turning her face away from the window, away from him, her voice soft when she continued. "Even if I was to say no, if my life did not become forfeit, my brother's have sold me for the Dark Lord's favour. Who do you think I would be bound to instead? Do you think that anybody in his favour is a nice man?" He felt her eyes on him again, but he did not turn to her. "And what of you if I say no? Bound to some other daughter of the cause sold for favour? Perhaps somebody you would perfect, but your role would be in great danger of exposure."
"You know she is right Severus." Albus interjected, he was done with his biscuit, and was carefully selecting a lemon drop from a bowl on his desk. "Neither of you are in the position to say no."
Snape shot the old man a glare as a response, but he gestured for Cassandra to return to her chair in front of the headmaster's desk, and took his own. He eyed the woman suspiciously as she refused the offer of a lemon drop from the old man; she seemed so nonchalant about her fate. He had to assume that she was simply hiding her emotions, it was not seemly for a woman to overtly emotional in public after all, but keeping a serene expression was not the same as hiding the falsehoods necessary in the roles they found themselves in. Despite what most of the Order seemed to believe, it was not a trivial matter to lie to the Dark Lord's face and live to tell the tale. He doubted they would even be able to imagine the horrors the megalomaniac, and his ever faithful servants, were capable of should he be caught in a lie.
"If you are going to attend the Dark Lord regularly we will need to work on securing your mind." There was no point in dancing around the matter he thought; Severus was certainly not one to soften any blows.
Albus raised a hand in response, and Snape rolled his eyes, of course the old man already had a plan. "Cassandra is a sufficient occlumens Severus. I would not have agreed with this plan if she had not been; she has been passing us information for the last year without any problems…"
"It's okay Albus. I knew he would want to check my defences." Cassandra turned to Severus, "I understand you do not trust me." He nodded, wanting to be angry at her assumption that she knew anything about him, and yet, nobody had ever been so understanding of his constant need to guard his own back, to trust nobody, to rely only on himself. If he hadn't known all his guards were in check, he would have assumed he was leaking emotion through his usual stoney mask. How could this woman be so perceptive? A question to ponder, along with another million, later.
"Since it will be expected that you will reside together, and you must be at the castle to keep an eye on the Slytherins Severus, now more than ever, I have suggested that Cassandra take over some of the History of Magic classes, probably from fifth year upwards." Albus was ever a man with a plan; a plan to ensure his potion's master was well and truly under his thumb thought Severus. "When she isn't teaching she can floo to the Ministry as required. I believe you have already made enquiries with your boss to this end?" Cassandra nodded in response to the headmasters question, chocolate curls bobbing again; part of Severus wanted to brush those curls behind her ear, a thought that he wanted to punish himself for. This was just another task to be fulfilled for the ever present "greater good", she was not ever going to be anything to him, or him to her. Best his mind realise this from the very beginning.
"And how are you intending to oust Binns? Not even death could stop the man." Snape smirked.
"I thought we might just move the classes to a different classroom." Albus almost laughed, his blue eyes were twinkling again. "I think it will be best if the Order believe that this is of your own volition, and we re-induct Cassandra to the Order in front of the others so nobody is aware you have been with us for sometime now." They both nodded in somewhat reluctant agreement. "Severus you will need to persuade Voldemort that it is necessary to induct her into the Order to keep your cover." He bowed his head in agreement once again, although this was not a task he anticipated with any joy. In all likeliness the Dark Lord would agreed that it was necessary deception, but only after a sufficient amount of pain on Snape's part.
"Right then," Albus stood from his chair, "the rest, as they say, is up to you two." The old wizard shot Snape a knowing smile, although what he thought he knew the potion's master did not care to know. He replied with a glare. "I'm sure Severus will be happy to escort you back to the gates Cassandra." The headmaster wandered off in the direction of his private quarters as though the lives of two people hadn't been irreparably changed that day.
Severus ushered his bride-to-be out of the office. He was grateful that she seemed to have no intention of trying to start up conversation. Perhaps this was not going to be quite the torture that he had assumed.
