The Pureblood Prince
Chapter 40
Cotton Armor
The heavy black curtains of one of the, what Severus assumed would be, many thousands of bedrooms currently vacant at Lucius Malfoy's newly inherited manor house completely eliminated all light. The benefit of this was that he had been able to sleep uninterrupted for what he approximated to be around fourteen hours or so (a pleasant first for him)… the disadvantage was that whenever he opened his eyes and scanned the room, he was met with complete nothingness, unable to tell if it was light or dark let alone what the time was, and it faintly disoriented him. But he could barely lift his sore head from the pillow… actually sitting up was looking unlikely; walking over to open up the room was laughable. He closed his eyes and let himself be. Severus figured if he were needed he would called upon. He nodded off once more.
When the door was finally knocked on (and he was shaken from a startling vision of the ever vigorous Aurora Sinistra climbing over his body and beginning to undo the ties of her dress), he did not verbally answer the caller, but let time like its course. It eventually opened merely inches and the light from the corridor outside flooded into the centre of the room like a concentrated sunbeam right across the foot of his bed.
"Severus?" came not the voice of his recently endorsed mentor, but of a young woman. "Are you awake?"
He opened his eyes and squinted at the figure at the crack in the door. "I'm awake", he replied.
"May I come in?"
Severus quickly pulled all of the covers up toward his neck and double-checked that he was completely decent.
"I suppose you can". It was her house, after all.
The door opened to its full capacity and now the bedroom was completely visible; its sky-high silvery ceilings, imperial chandelier and pale blue baroque wallpaper a very similar sight to those many rooms at Prince Manor. Narcissa Malfoy, the newlywed wife of the man who had just used the Cruciatus curse on him eighteen times (oh yes, he new exactly how many times he had been forced to suffer the most unbearable of pain… it had rendered him unconscious several times only to be revived back by the Dark Lord and Cruciated by Lucius yet again and again) took a seat at the edge of the bed.
"Did you get any sleep?" Narcissa queried.
"Yes I did, thank you." Severus answered respectfully to the mere acquaintance whom he knew only briefly from school.
"I am glad to hear. Would you like something to eat? You've been up here since yesterday morning…"
He shook his head. "I don't quite feel up to that yet, but thank you for the offer. Where is Lucius?"
Narcissa bit her lip. "Um, well, he had to be called away on duty. He thought it best just to leave you rest for a while before speaking to you any further about… well, business..."
He was trying very hard not to read her; it was an unacceptable invasion of her privacy. But Narcissa's thoughts were so strong and so palpable that Severus supposed even those without any Legilimency skill could easily probe them.
"He could have awoken me, I have never needed much time to recharge" Severus informed.
"He... thought the least he could do was let you –"
"If you speak to him, you can tell him that he need not feel guilty about what he did," said Severus. "It was his duty and he served the Dark Lord well. I harbour no hostile feeling toward him."
Though Narcissa's facial expression showed no change, her mind was becoming substantially more relaxed, and therefore her emotions were not so obvious and easy to read. Before the silence became awkward there was a shuffling of footsteps from outside the door; a scrawny looking House Elf came hobbling through the room carrying armfuls of bandages and tripping over said bandages about every three steps.
"Dobby, I told you to wait outside until I needed you!" Narcissa spat. The elf squealed and toppled over the piles of accumulating bandage on its way back to the door. It was clear that the thing was petrified of her.
"No, Dobby, stay here! You may as well do it now." She rolled her eyes at Severus. "Our hopeless House Elf: a wedding present from Lucius's parents. Do you have any problems like this with yours?"
Instead of awkwardly skipping around the question (what he usually did and was used to doing around those of… complete financial security), he was glad that he could use his experiences at his grandparent's manor to relate to her. "She does an adequate job."
"Hrm. A sight better than him here, then." With one swift movement, she retracted her boot and delivered a gentle kick into the elf's ribs, making him yelp. Severus felt his eye twitch as the kick was delivered.
"Why have you called him here?" he asked with genuine interest; the room was starting to get far too full.
"He needs to change your bandages," she answered simply.
It was a statement that immediately brought him back down to earth. As if flicking on a switch, his left arm radiated a burning pain all the way up to his shoulder. "I can change my own bandage," Severus said shortly. "I don't need a House Elf to provide me with any sort of medical attention."
Narcissa nodded, it was obvious that she could not disagree. "Dobby – leave us."
"Y- Yes, Mistress!" the House Elf Dobby stammered. He dropped the pile on the foot of the bed and scurried away – apparently very happy that that order had been given. Now only the witch and wizard remained.
"May I see your arm?" Narcissa requested.
"I told you, I am more than perfectly capable of taking care of myself –"
"I don't doubt that you are…" Narcissa replied softly. "But I think the least we can do is take care of you for a while. Please."
The request was one that appeared to be made because she wanted to clear her husband of guilt; regardless of why it was made, he unexpectedly appreciated it nevertheless.
He allowed her to peel back the outer cover of the bed on the side that exposed his bandaged arm, making sure that the rest of him was very much obscured. She caught a corner of the material wrapped around the lower part of his left arm and gradually unwrapped it to expose the damage underneath. Severus hissed as the last shred of cotton became unstuck from the exudate.
He could tell by the way she avoided looking at it that it wasn't going to be very pretty.
"I'll need to get a potion," Narcissa informed him. As she gathered the bandages up in her hand he could see smears of blood and what looked like ash. "But for now…" she pulled out her black and silver wand from her pocket and scaled it over Severus's inner forearm while muttering under her breath. In an instant the burning sensation had left, and a chill ran from the site of the branding toward his shoulder. As if she had brushed his skin with an ice cube. It only lasted for an instant before the pounding pain came back but it was good while it lasted.
"Better?" Narcissa queried.
"Yes," he lied. He didn't want to deflate her, she was one the few people who appeared to want to willingly help him with no other motive behind it. She dropped her wand and loosely placed one of the pieces of cotton over his arm so that it shielded his gaze from what lurked beneath.
"I'll be back shortly with that antiseptic potion… I'll leave it on the drawer if you want to sleep." She instructed. "Lucius will be back in just a few hours, so if you need us we'll both be downstairs – just call for Dobby."
Severus nodded and managed to heave himself up onto his elbows; it was a wonder any muscle worked at all.
"Thank you for your consideration, Mrs. Malfoy" he said with genuine gratitude.
"Narcissa is fine," she said with a slight smile. "I'm sure we shall become well-acquainted from here on in"
He couldn't help but notice that her eyes flicked briefly to his arm as she said this, but he had no doubt that her warmth was nonetheless sincere. He felt almost lucky to have it… she didn't seem the type that would give it out freely, not if Lucius was any partner to go by.
"Narcissa." Severus amended.
She turned on the heel of her black boot and closed the door with a soft click, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
He couldn't help himself… his arm was pounding both from the site of the branding and also in his head. He peeled the thin piece of cotton of and winced as the scratchy material brought sticky fragments of skin and pus along with it. From the infinitesimal amount of light created by the slight gap between the curtain and the side of the wall he could make out a bloody, raised pattern on his forearm… a serpent caressing a skull, weeping with exudate from where his Masters wand had branded him for life. He couldn't bear to look at it any longer. He wrapped the old piece of bloodied cotton around his arm and shoved it under the pillow as he laid back down… the pounding he could not ignore, though, no matter how much he closed his mind to it.
He wondered how long it would take until Lucius returned, because Severus knew whatever 'job' he had been sent out to do would be the last that he himself would ever be permitted to miss out on.
The new school year was on the mere brink of commencing. Just two weeks, and the halls of Hogwarts would be flooded once again with noise and that divergent air of progress. Albus Dumbledore looked forward to having some distraction after the disturbing events of the past six weeks… he sat in his office, simultaneously gazing out of the far window to his left and listening to the steps just outside the door turn and swivel on their axis; a knock soon followed.
"Please enter," he called, while rising from his chair.
The deputy headmistress, Professor Minerva McGonagall, met him at the centre.
"I have seen our visitor safely back to Hogsmeade, Albus."
"Very good. Have you sent for Hagrid?" Albus enquired softly.
"Yes," Minerva nodded. "Might I now enquire as to what you wish to ask of him? It's not that I don't trust the man, but I must say I found it rather curious… I mean, you're not going to send him… to the Muggle… are you?"
Albus opened his mouth to answer her, closed it, thought again, and then spoke. "No. I require him for something more specific."
"Aye, I see now. I know what you're planning…" Minerva said with an air of apprehension. She crossed him and walked toward one of chairs opposite his desk. Fawkes, his phoenix, squawked happily as she nonchalantly tapped him gently on the head.
"Would it not be quicker if you sent for her?" she suggested harshly. "If Aurora is to be believed, and I can see no reason to think otherwise, the poor girl is out there all on her own – not to mention injured, distraught, exhausted… I could go on…"
Albus stood on the lower level and considered her words for a while. "But of course the easiest way to end her physical suffering would be to track her down and Apparate her right into this office so we may get immediate answers - but it would not be the kindest."
Minerva sighed. "Do you not think ensuring she is out of immediate danger would be the top priority?"
"That is my top priority," Albus replied sternly. "She is far more likely to respond well to the help of an old friend than she would to me, or your good self, or anyone in a cloak brandishing a wand."
"And you know for a fact that she is… she is alive?" she could barely finish her sentence.
"I do not," Albus said quietly. "But if she is, we need to find her a safe place to rest. Even if the Muggle world had been kind to her, it would have soon changed..."
"Severus? Aurora appeared entirely convinced that he had joined."
"I would be inclined to agree with her assessment of the situation. She has a well-reasoned head on her shoulders." Albus concurred. In his peripherals, he could see Minerva draw her hands toward her head.
"More and more of our students!" She whimpered. "At this rate You Know Who will have an entire army of those we ourselves once taught, those who we had held so much hope for. He was such a bright student..."
"This is why we need Hagrid to find her immediately. Perhaps it is not too late. Perhaps he and the other new recruits have not made their oaths yet. We also need to ensure that Severus never becomes privy as to what has happened under his roof."
"You can't be serious!" Minerva objected, snapping around to face the Headmaster directly. "You're not actually protecting that… that worthless Muggle? I knew, I knew I should have taken further action the day I gave Severus detention – he practically begged me not to send an owl to his father. How could I not see what had been happening?"
"I do not want there to be more unnecessary Death Eater involvement within the Muggle realm, that is all" Albus reasoned calmly. "Voldemort will use any excuse to bring this war to its peak… and this will be some much welcomed fuel to him. We can only hope that he is using her as bait in return for her sons loyalty; if that is not the case, then he is lost forever."
Before Minerva had time to respond (because it had taken at least a minute for her to even put her thoughts together and to begin formulating a plan), the office door creaked open once again.
"May I come in, Professor Dumbledore, sir?"
"Of course Hagrid." Albus answered graciously. The gamekeeper creaked open the door to its full width and shuffled inside, where he remained standing at the door looking somewhat confused.
"Please, sit down…" Albus gestured. Hagrid did as he was bid, but Albus could sense that this offer has suddenly made him increasingly nervous. Especially with Minerva seated next to him, looking most concerned.
"What… what's the matter?" Hagrid enquired uncertainly, looking from Professor to Professor.
"Tea?" Albus asked. When Minerva coughed irritably, he took the hint and answered his question. "Hagrid... I have a small task that I would like you to do before the start of school term."
"Oh?" Hagrid replied a tad more cheerfully. "Anythin' Professor, name yer task."
Albus and Minerva exchanged glances over the table. For the first time, Albus begun to feel a tad apprehensive about what he was about to put to him. He wasn't sure if Hagrid's feelings had changed, but he knew that he had loved her once.
"We have been given reason to believe," Albus started "that the Death Eaters have yet again recruited a vast number of our ex-students. There is one, in particular, that poses a particular risk to the separation of the wizarding and Muggle world – he is so far the only half-blood that may have been accepted into the organisation as far as I'm aware."
At the sight of Hagrid's confused frown, Minerva injected: "it's Severus Snape. He recently graduated only a few months ago. Slytherin boy."
"I know who Severus is," Hagrid assured her. Minerva nodded and handed control of the discussion back to the Headmaster.
"I know that in your school days, you were rather close to an Eileen Prince."
There was a subtle transformation in the centre of Hagrid's eyes that told him he needn't explain who Eileen Prince had become.
"Yeh could say that…" Hagrid said with a faint choke. "What have they done ter her?"
"We… do not know as yet." Albus said delicately. "It seems, at least at the moment, that we should be more concerned with what her husband has done to her." He ignored Hagrid's rising murderous guise and continued. "Yesterday evening, we received an urgent owl from Aurora Sinistra requesting to meet with me. Upon our meeting merely a few hours ago she informed me that she had stumbled on quite a horrific scene at the Snape's household. Miss Prince… Mrs. Snape should I say… was nowhere to be found, and neither was her son. According to Miss Sinistra, however, young Severus Snape had been absent from household for weeks. She had journeyed there once before, you see, to deliver a book to him; upon noticing his absence, she had given the book to Mrs. Snape. A book, she informed me, that contained a disturbing number of dark spells and curses written in his handwriting."
"But there was no sight of Eileen?" Hagrid enquired, it was quite clear that the supplemental information Albus was providing was immaterial.
"No," Albus answered. "We do not know where she is, but we need to find her."
"We need you to find her," Minerva interjected. "Apparently she is extremely distrusting of our kind, of any kind, really… one cannot blame her. Professor Dumbledore thought it best that she was met by someone she was close to, someone she once felt secure with. The situation must be dealt with gently, I'm sure you understand Rubeus."
"O' course," Hagrid said with tears in his eyes. "I just hope ter Merlin we're not too… I mean, where do we start?"
"The rest of Eileen Snape's family are wizards – pure blooded." Said Minerva matter-of-factly, contrasting Hagrid's sentimental air with blinding obviousness. "She would have no where else to turn to in the Muggle world, therefore we suspect that she will return to us herself. We just need to ensure that she does so as soon as possible, else she be intercepted. Once You Know Who finds out that she is missing, he is going to want to hunt her down… he will require her to be under constant observation if indeed she was the reason Severus has turned. If this was not the reason, then she will no doubt eventually be killed under the name of blood traitor."
"Time is of the essence," Albus agreed. "There are many lodgings in Hogsmeade, and it overlooks the very place I would wish to turn to were my son involved in any Death Eater activity. I have no doubt that you will find her there in time. Once you do, spend time with her, offer my assistance; that is all that needs to be done."
"R-right," Hagrid stammered. "If it's all the same, Professor, I'd like ter go now if yer ok with it."
"I think that is a good idea," Albus smiled gently. He reached out and briefly patted the half-giant on the arm. As he walked with Hagrid toward the door, the man turned to him. "And what about Severus? He'll need protectin' too."
"Yes, Hagrid" Albus said kindly, it was more to make the man feel as if there was hope more than anything else. "But we can deal with that. Right now, there is an old friend who needs you."
As soon as it was clear that Hagrid had reached the floor directly below them, Albus turned to his deputy.
"Give me a task, Albus." She beseeched.
"Exactly what I was about to do," he concurred. "I would like you to transfigure yourself and venture to Spinners End. Keep a surveillance on the surrounding area for as long as you can and report your findings back to me."
"And the Order?"
Albus considered this for a moment (or three) and shook his head.
"I would like this to be kept between the three of us, for now."
Minerva nodded her understanding and stood up. "As you wish, Albus. Now, if you excuse me, we have a long week ahead of us; I will take my leave. Goodnight."
"Sleep well, Minerva." Albus responded, though he knew a good nights sleep was beyond a lot of individuals known to him at this moment.
With both of his old friends gone, all Albus could do was turn to another one, Fawkes, his ever loyal phoenix. He stroked the great birds head and murmured to him with a smile: "oh to be anything but human."
Fawkes screeched contentedly and nuzzled his head against the troubled wizard's outstretched fingers.
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