Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from the Harry Potter books.

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Chapter Five: Planning

Snape had to pause and check his anger as he walked from the apparition point to the entrance of the Manor where Hope was on that Friday night. School had started a week ago on September 1st, and no less than twenty cauldrons had been ruined since then. Today had been a particularly bad day, because he had Potter of all people in his advanced class.

Gaining control of his emotions and quickly occluding, he went and took his place in the circle before the Dark Lord. He listened as the Dark Lord ranted on about his latest failure and tortured the two death eaters he blamed. Snape tried to keep focused so he could give an accurate report, but his mind kept sliding to Hope.

"Severus, step forward. The rest of you, leave us!" The Dark Lord called out after a few more minutes. Snape stepped forward and bowed low.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"How are things going with the young Collins girl?" He asked in his cold careless voice.

Snape thought about an answer he could give. In reality, things were going good with Hope. Snape had given her a journal that never ran out of pages so that on the nights he wasn't here, she still had some way to let out the emotions that came from the torture. She was even less close to breaking than she had been before, but he couldn't let the Dark Lord know that.

"Slowly, my Lord. She is wary to trust someone after being tortured by others." Snape closed his eyes at the curse he knew was coming. After breaking the curse, the Dark Lord spoke again.

"Have you made any progress with her? I was hoping to present her at my Halloween ball, but the girl must learn proper pureblood etiquette first."

"My Lord, may I make a suggestion?"

The Dark Lord glared but waved at him to go ahead. "Rather than show her the penalties of being on the wrong side, show her the benefits of being on ours."

Voldemort seemed to ponder this for a moment. "How do you suggest I do this, Severus?"

"Rather than torturing her, give her a proper bedroom. Allow me to train her on the proper etiquette of purebloods. Have Narcissa help her in the clothing range, because she's more talented in that department. Basically, just show her everything she could get by being on our side; wealth, power, and so much more."

Voldemort actually liked this idea. Snape smirked as he turned to go to his usual visit with Hope. When he got to her cell, his smirk was knocked off his face as his goddaughter was curled up in the corner of the cell sobbing audibly.

He sighed and entered the cell, going over to sit next to her. "What happened, Hope?"

"I couldn't help it…I tried…"

"Tried what?"

"Not to cry in front of them. They killed them, Severus, all of them," she cried, in hysterics now.

"Who did they kill, Hope? You're making no sense."

"My parents. My adoptive parents." She was crying harder than Snape had ever seen anyone cry, so he pulled her close to him and just let her cry.

For the next hour she just cried and mumbled incoherently into Snape's robes until she fell asleep. Snape sighed again and picked her up to lay her down on her cot, noticing the trails of tears on her cheeks. He muttered a spell to clean them so they wouldn't be noticeable, before turning and quietly leaving the cell.

As he made his way back upstairs, he ran into Lucius Malfoy.

"Hey, what did you guys do to the Collins girl today? All she could do was mumble about her parents."

Lucius laughed. "We bound the girl and then made her watch as we tortured and killed her muggle, adoptive parents. First time I've seen that girl cry the whole time she's been here." His voice carried humor, showing how glad he was she had finally cracked.

Snape shook his head and started to walk off, but Lucius stopped him again. "Draco's future is really looking good right now, Severus."

Snape turned back around with a confused look on his face. "Whatever do you mean, Lucius?"

Lucius smirked. "Our Lord is presenting him at the Halloween ball. I assume you will be able to get him away from Hogwarts? He will be the youngest death eater ever admitted."

Snape was shocked to say the least. From the conversations he had with the boy, he thought that Draco didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. He'd actually arranged for Draco to talk to Dumbledore and had told him about his spying position.

Severus realized with a start that Lucius was still talking. "Yes, from what I understand, he is wanting to present both him and the Collins girl together and have them be a couple. Of course, I would prefer him have nothing to do with her, but who am I to challenge our Lord?"

"That's excellent, Lucius. I'm sure Draco will make an excellent death eater. Now I must return to the school or that old fool Dumbledore will grow suspicious."

Lucius nodded and headed off towards the rooms while Severus headed the other way towards the doors. He sure had a lot to tell Dumbledore tonight.

Snape entered Dumbledore's office with an idea freshly in his head, but it would only work if Draco really was on the side of the Light.

"How are you, my boy?" Dumbledore's cheery voice made Snape scowl even more.

"Bloody great," he snarled sarcastically, causing Dumbledore's eyes to lose their famous twinkle.

"What's happened?" He asked, his voice turning more serious.

Snape sighed. "They killed Hope's adoptive parents right in front of her. Needless to say she's devastated.

"I see." Dumbledore's face fell. "What else, Severus?"

"Draco is being presented at their Halloween Ball. It seems he must not have been serious about switching sides. He knows I'm a spy so my position could very well be compromised."

Snape frowned even more when Dumbledore's eyes twinkled once again. "No, my boy. He is completely on our side. Even he could not lie through Veritaserum. However, he is merely following the plan."

Snape growled. "What plan is this that I have not been informed of?"

Dumbledore laughed. "He is not allowed to be marked until he is out of Hogwarts, Severus. That is almost two years away. You know as well as I do if he doesn't listen to his father and follow Voldemort, he will be killed. He might as well use both sides."

"Albus, he is just a boy! You can't let him risk his life to spy for you when I'm already doing that. Do you want the boy to end up dead!"

Dumbledore held up his hands to stop the man's rant. "Draco knows perfectly well the risk he is taking. It will not last long however. I assume your offer to adopt him if he switched sides still stands?"

He waited for the man to nod. "Then that's what you will do. That ball on Halloween is the perfect opportunity to get Hope out of there. You cannot wear a tracing charm because of that mark, but Draco is not marked, and he will be in the building that night. The tracing charm will alert us of the location and after the ball we will come."

"Then what? Both of us will be revealed. Draco's father will be out for blood and his mother would rather disown Draco than go against Lucius. I adopt Draco and abandon Hope?"

"How close are you with Miss Collins, Severus?"

"She's my goddaughter, Albus. She's my responsibility. I can't just leave her there. Besides, she's the only hope for the light side. If she loses another person she trusts, it could very well cause her to do something drastic. You didn't see her today. This is the girl who has refused to scream or cry in front of a death eater the entire time she was in the Dark Lord's clutches. And guess what she did today Albus? She started bawling, in front of them."

Dumbledore nodded. "We'll figure something out, Severus. For now, you are tired and grumpy and could use a nap," he said with a smile, causing the potions master to scowl. He stood from his seat and left the headmaster's office without another word, causing Dumbledore to shake his head and chuckle.

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A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. If you haven't already, please do, because it really does help encourage me to write.

Thanks again to Nita, my wonderful beta. Even if I thank you every chapter it would never be enough.

If you have any questions in the story please let me know and I'll try to answer. I realize it could be a bit confusing.