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MissesE: Once again, thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked Claire! here's for you! :D
notwritten: Thank you for review! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter! keep smiling ;)
Chapter 6: Surprise, Surprise
THAT same night, Claire came out the shower, covered by only a robe she'd found in the bathroom, she found a nice round-neck sleeveless knee-length cream dress with big black ribbon, completed with a matching set of jewellery and low heels at the front awaited her.
Smiling, she took a closer look at the dress for inspection.
Yep. Definitely Lucius' taste. Apparently the man had a thing with sophistication. Not that she blamed the man.
After all, he was a Malfoy.
If there was anything Claire had learned after spending some time with the Malfoy Patriarch, was that he was the classic old-fashioned gentleman; opening the door for the lady, standing up when a lady walks into the room, etc...
Claire didn't mind at all really. It felt really nice to be able to depend on a man at times. After all, people often complained that chivalry was dead.
It didn't long for Claire to put on the dress and prepared herself for the night. While she was about to put on the jewellery, there were couple of soft knocks on her door.
"It's open!"
When the person who knocked on her door didn't come in, and continued to knock on the door albeit very softly, Claire got up from her bed and opened the door.
She was expecting Mimi or even Lucius to inform her dinner was served when she opened the door. Neither of them were standing at her door. Instead, she came face-to-face with the man whom she had grown very closed these past few months.
"Severus."
"Good Evening, Miss Rollins."
Severus was well-dressed for tonight. He wore a dark blue turtle-neck long sleeves jacket she'd brought for him the other day when she'd found out his favourite jacket has a hole in it while sorting and folding their laundries and decided to buy one for him.
Severus had been shocked and mildly angered that she would sorted his laundries too. Nevertheless, he was happy to know that she cared for him enough to buy her a new jacket.
Claire snapped out of her thought when she realised the older man was still waiting for her to invite him in.
"Oh! Sorry. Please come on in." She moved aside to let him in.
Severus took a quick glance at her room. Very well done for a guest's room. He then focused his view on the younger woman standing at the door, looking very nervous in his presence.
"Miss Rollins, the reason why I'm here is to make amends with you," Severus decided the best way to handle this is to be direct and straight to the point. "For what'd happened last night."
"I've something to tell you too, Severus. I didn't mean to-" He lifted one hand in the air to silence her.
"Please, let me finish what I wanted to say, Miss Rollins." He took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'd thought over about what you'd said... About Lily. Now, while I don't fully agreed of what you'd thought of her, you made a good point yourself. Lily had been a good companion for me while I grew up in that hellhole's environment I'd called a family. She had been the only one who'd kept me sane until I'd decided to pursue Dark Arts, and she, well Potter, of all the blocks in Hogwarts."
Severus deeply sighed. "I knew what solitude is, Miss Rollins. I'd seek for it and have been living it for the past decades, heck, for the rest of my life! But never before have I ever felt so alone while living in that apartment－home, as you'd kindly referred it, without you in it..."
Severus looked at her straight in the eyes. There were emotions, emotions he couldn't say it directly to her but could only showed her.
Claire smiled.
"Well, what can I say? It takes a strong woman to deal with you, after all." She smirked at him.
"Don't push it, minx." Severus let out a small smile. Hesitatingly, he offered a handshake to her, but Claire slapped his hand away.
"I don't want a handshake. C'mere you!" without waiting for his protest, Claire pulled the man twice her age and bigger her size into a hug.
She felt his whole body stiff as she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face on his shoulder.
"I missed you." It took him awhile before Severus wrapped his arms around her and let out a long sigh.
"I missed you too."
Claire smiled. "This doesn't change anything between us,right?"
"No."
"Are you still in love with Lily Evans?"
"Always."
"But you do care about me...Right?"
"Yes. Though you tent to get under my skin at times, but it's tolerable now."
Claire snorted and loosen her arms from the man before she pulled away. She expected Severus to flinch, but instead of doing so, he laid his hands on both of her cheeks, much to her surprised.
"Lily Evans will always be the love of my life. But you, you are the one true friend I'd always wanted to have in my life. Thank you, Miss Claire. For putting up with me and my bitterness this long and stubbornly refused to quit when things got bad between us. In order to honour our renewal friendship, I shall promise to always be watching over you, at least until you've found someone who's worthy enough to replace me. Be warned that should there be any young lads who wishes to have you, he will have to get through me first. Is that understood?"
"Ooh, Scary. I can with that." Claire giggled and nodded her head. "Thank you, Severus."
She kissed his cheek. "You're a wonderful friend."
Taking his hand, Claire opened the door and exited the door.
"There is something I would like to bring attention to the both of you." Severus broke peaceful silence while they were having dinner.
"What is it, Severus?" Lucius asked at the Head table.
Using wordless magic, Severus summoned this morning's Daily Prophet. Claire's left right twitched as the front page of her kissing Severus was displayed clearly before her.
"Just to inform you gentlemen, I've already made a plan to have this thing burn after dinner."
"I'm afraid that wouldn't do, Miss Rollins." Severus gestured her to pick up the newspaper. "The thing that I would like for us to discuss is the picture of us, unfortunately. Pick it up, Miss Rollins, and have a look."
Claire grunted but did as she was told.
"Okay, what are we looking at here?"
"Look carefully and tell me what do you see." That made Claire raised her eyebrow. She wanted to state the obvious but decided to hold her tongue.
Severus didn't look like he was the type of man who would rubbed something like this to her face just to teach her a lesson. Besides, they've already made amends, right?
Surely there must something in there that he wanted her to...
"Holy shit."
There was something about the picture the photographer had taken that made her gasped.
At first glance, nothing seemed to be wrong with the picture. One would have to look carefully and hard at the whole thing in order to find what Severus was trying to point out:
It was the angle of the picture when it was taken - the picture was taken from where the couple's stood! At the background, stood one Rita Skeeter in disguised as the sluttish school nurse and the rest of the still gawking crowds.
Claire looked up and immediately met with Severus' hollowed eyes, who firmly nodded his head.
"May I, Miss Claire?" Lucius reached out and took the newspaper from her. He looked at the picture carefully.
The picture was slightly disturbed for him to see, but Lucius put that thought behind him and focused on what he was supposed to see.
It didn't take Lucius to figure it out. Putting the newspaper down, he cleared his throat.
"Well then, what do you have in plan?"
"What plan?" Claire asked in confused.
"Miss Rollins, the fact that someone had taken picture of us at such closed up distance is troublesome and dangerous in itself."
"Well," Claire cleared her throat, "I'm not too sure about 'dangerous' but it is kind of disturbing. But it's not possible. I mean we do have camera lenses that captures from far away distance nowadays. Whoever it was, maybe they decided to use it?"
"Possible." Lucius nodded. "However, what Severus meant by dangerous is there's a possibility magic was involved where the picture was taken."
"How so?"
"It doesn't matter how it was used, Miss Rollins! The point is, someone was using it to capture us and we need to find out who it was!" Severus snarled at her.
"Okay!" Claire grunted under her breathe. God.
She then rolled her eyes. "We'll catch whoever the damn bastard is, okay? No need to go all hell-bent on me."
Claire then turned her full attention to the Head table. "Want to tell me what got -face here all worked up?"
Lucius smirked at the nickname and wiped his mouth with the napkin. "Well, Miss Clare, face here is mostly concerned about your own safety."
"Do tell me more, Lucius." Claire whispered playfully.
Unknown to her, her little harmless act had made something inside of Lucius stirred before he quickly composed himself.
Clearing his throat, Lucius whispered, "Death-Eaters, Miss Claire."
Instantly, Claire sat straight. She eyed on the two older men carefully. Both had unidentified emotions in their eyes.
Claire had been told by Severus about the Death-Eaters. She couldn't sleep for weeks after she'd heard and, by her own wish, seen what they'd done to the poor and innocent victims－especially the women.
Claire had locked herself in her room for nearly a month without any food and just drinks, before Severus had busted her bedroom door and forced the Calming Draught and the Dreamless Sleep portion on her, to get rid of those horrible images from her head.
Since that incident, she tried to stay away from any Death-Eaters topics, out of respect for their privacy and for the sake of her sane mind.
It was Severus who broke the spell by clearing his throat.
"After the War ended, and the death of the Dark Lord, many of the surviving Death-Eaters were captured and arrested. Lucius and I have given a pardon in exchanged that we gave out information about the rest of the Death-Eaters who went for hiding. We called it 'Project DEATH.'" Claire listened attentively as Severus continued to speak.
"As a matter of fact, the reason why we are at the Muggle World has a little bit to do with DEATH. Lucius here, in fact, is an active participator for DEATH even more so than I am. His method of gathering information about the Death-Eaters was informal yet very productive."
Claire raised an eyebrow and looked at the said man. "Oh really?"
"Indeed. He's the Minister's favourite man now. Their lap-dog."
"Severus." Lucius glared at his good friend. "I appreciate you wanted to boost my ego right in front of Miss Claire, but kindly let it low, if you don't mind?"
"Of course, Lucius. Forgive me." Severus raised his cup and drank the fire-whiskey.
Claire cleared her throat. "So, about this DEATH, how many people do you have in total, if you don't mind me asking? And what does he means by informal method, Lucius? I mean surely, with your assets as the Malfoy Patriarch, with your influence and power, you could get any information that you want with a snap of a finger, right?"
Lucius let out a deep chuckles, as well as Severus.
"My dear, you have absolutely no idea how innocent those words sounded like... Do you?" Lucius stared at her through his glass of red wine. "Influence and power could only get you far, but it won't be able to get you to where you want it to be. Sometimes, all you need is your assets and little push to get the work done."
"I don't-"
"It means, Miss Rollins, Lucius has been using his assets to get the information he needed."
"That's exactly what I'd just said!" Claire said exasperatedly.
"No, no, Miss Rollins. He meant his other assets." Severus poured another Firewhiskey's bottle to his cup.
"Well what other assets could he possibly－Oh. OH!" Hands covered her increasing blush on her cheeks. She dared not to look at the man sitting at the Head table, with a smirk on his face.
Severus reached out and tapped her back softly. He didn't even bothered to hide his grin as the young Muggle covered her red face with both hands.
"So," Claire took her glass, a plain ice water she'd requested from Mimi a while ago, and dipped her finger to her drink, ignoring the looks she received from both men, before rubbing her cheeks with the cool water. "T-The ladies you'd often brought back home, they were your..."
"Ah, yes." Lucius nodded. "They were very useful and easy to get with. Those women knew more about the Death-Eaters more than anyone could ever afford to give information." He then smirked. "Give them what they wanted, and they will give you the same deal. Or even more."
"Okay, spare me the details." She gulped on her drink.
"Back to the topic on hands, the reason why we need to find out who took the photo, is to avoid the Death-Eaters from finding out about you, Miss Rollins. As far as we concerned, the entire Wizarding world now only knew you as a Muggle who is also my 'Princess Charming'. That doesn't mean they won't stop digging until they discover your true identity." Severus sneered. It wasn't to say he was disguised by her, oh definitely no. Unfortunately, it was the insult to the name that got under his skin.
"Why not just ask the bitchy cow, Rita Skeeter? For all we know, she might be the one who-"
"That's impossible." Severus rapidly shook his head.
Claire raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms. "Oh? And how did you know it wasn't her, Severus?"
Severus began to fidget uncomfortably on his chair. He raised a hand and brushed his hair to the back. "Because I'd already asked her about it!"
"And you'd actually believed her? Really, Snape!"
"I made her drink the Veritaserum." Severus countered.
"What the hell is that?"
"A Truth serum, Miss Claire. The finest, powerful and perhaps, dangerous weapon to be used against any wizards and witches who do not know how to resist it either by its antidote or Occlumency." Explained Lucius.
Claire sighed, grunted and scratched her head in frustration. "So, if it's not her, who is it then?"
"Someone named Allen Roberts. He's a half-blood wizard who works as a freelance photographer. According to the old cow, Allen had been the one who approached her with the information of my whereabouts. He had also been the one who offered for the photo of the two of us to be published under her name, with a request that his name will not be mentioned."
"So said Allen Roberts has a little grudge on you, Severus?" asked Lucius.
Severus shrugged. "I've never heard of him before nor was he a student of Hogwarts. I've checked."
"Well, at least we have a lead." Lucius stood up. He walked over to Claire and offered her his hand.
"Miss Claire, would you mind joining me for a little night walk in the garden?"
"I'd love to. That is, if that's okay with you, Severus? Cause I need you to send me back home and-"
"You won't be going back, Miss Rollins." Severus cut in shortly. "You will be staying here at the Manor where you will be safe until we get to the bottom of this problem."
"For how long? Weeks? Months? Years? Honestly, you two! I doubt they will find me anyway! I'll be the last person they'd suspect Severus to be with! On top of that, I have two jobs waiting for me! How do you expect to keep me here without informing them that I couldn't come in to work because some lunatic may or may not be after my very life?"
"Ah, that problem has already been arranged." Severus smirked. "Apparently being your 'uncle' paid off. I'd simply told your bosses that my 'precious niece' needed a little break from work. Hence, I would be taking you away to home to meet with the rest of the family for a little while. They were kind, your bosses. They'd told me to tell you they understood what you're going through and allowed two months of rest. Albeit, it's unpaid."
"UNPAID?! B-But-"
"Now, now Miss Claire. Severus has gone the extra length to ensure that your safety is what most important more than any money counts."
Claire gave him a sharp glare. Of course it's very easy for him to say that to not worry about money. He's a bloody Malfoy for God's sake!
Lucius sighed, knowing what she was thinking at his words. "If it makes you happy, Miss Claire, I will give you weekly allowance-"
"I don't want your money, Malfoy!"
"-In exchange, while you're staying with me, you'll be my personal assistant at home. Meaning that I need you to handle everything that is DEATH related. Is that agreeable?"
No bad. His offer was highly tempting. But...
"How much are you willing to pay me?"
At this, Lucius smirked. "£300,000－your total earning for five months from you working both as a waitress and salesperson. My dear, I'm a fairly generous man. If you do your work well, Miss Claire, I will pay you more than what being offered. Call it benefits for your hard work."
Sweet Mother of-
"Deal."
It was a big fat cheque, and she would be crazy NOT to accept it. Besides it was a legal job. Not to mention,this DEATH matters sounded very intriguing.
Lucius smiled and offered his arms. Together, the two of them headed to the garden.
"COULD you kindly tell me more of the young lad who'd stolen your heart, Miss Clare?"
Claire was surprised by the sudden question the moment they sat down on the grassy field, surrounded by the beautiful roses.
Lucius gazed softly at her.
Claire took out the white rose he'd put on behind her ear and smell it. She avoiding his gaze.
"Why are you interested to know?"
"Just because." Lucius shrugged. He was getting tired to deny it. Denying her.
He didn't know how it happened, but it did. He was attracted to her.
The great Lucius Malfoy was attracted to a Muggle.
No doubt Arthur Weasley would died out of happiness should he ever heard about this.
Lucius was attracted to her strange yet fascinating personality. He was attracted to her fierce and in-your-face attitude. He was attracted to her big heart for willingly to befriend Severus, despite their harsh shaking friendship at first, and even saw the man behind the monster. He was attracted to her wits, her sense-of-humour, her laughter.
Merlin, her laughter. The sweet sound of it was enough to make him mad!
When Lucius finally admitted that the feelings he had toward the young Muggle who was young enough to become his daughter, was more than just admiration, he was bloody terrified.
He had every intentions to ignore her after the Spring Ball, to kept his distance away from her, and to forget whatever feelings he had toward her was nothing but lust－because he missed his late wife. He missed Narcissa.
One passionate night with the young Muggle would finally get rid of these surreal and ridiculous feelings he had for her, Lucius had once argued. But at last, his morale got the best of him when he'd showed up at the apartment they both shared later that same night of the ball－she had been sitting in front of their front door for Merlin knows how long with red puffy eyes, trembled from the cold and had told him that his good friend had kicked her out of their home.
Since that night, Lucius had tried to be civil with her, as much as he could possibly be. When Draco showed up, made a scene and insulted her, that was when Lucius had realised how terribly messed up he really was.
He'd defended her against his own son!
He'd defended her rights to be in the Manor as if she was the new Madam of the Manor his son had to respect! He defended as if she had every rights to be in the Manor, which had gotten him hit by Draco that he oh so rightfully deserved.
Then, Lucius remembered what his son had said to him and the threat he'd left behind:
"You'd better solve this problem quickly, Father, before it gets any worse than it already had. I will never accept a Muggle into the Malfoy Family. Sink or swim, you have to get rid of the disgusting feelings you have toward her. Or else, I'll tell everyone and I'll disown your every rights as the Patriarch of the Malfoy's family."
"You have no rights to do that to me, Draco."
"Do I really? While you were serving you time in Azkaban, Mother had my name being put on as the Patriarch of the family. Now that I'm at the legal age, I have all the rights to the Malfoy's fortunes. Hence, the rights to disown you. Think wisely, Father."
"Lucius?" Her soft voice brought him back to reality.
"Are you all right?" Lucius shook his head and put on a small smile.
He took her hands and kissed the back of her palms. "I'm all right. Forgive me, Miss Claire, I shouldn't be forcing you to tell me about your beloved when you not yet ready."
"His name was Caleb. Caleb James." Claire looked at her hands still being held on by Lucius. "He was a prep boy I met back at the university. Silence but smart, he had a sense of deep compassion and always be there for you when you need him."
Brown eyes met with dark grey eyes.
Claire broke to a small smile. "I'll always be missing him."
Lucius nodded slowly. He got up and offered her his hands.
"We should get some sleep now, Miss Claire."
EARLIER the next day, Lucius, Severus and Claire went to the Diagon Alley, in searched for the private office of Allen Roberts.
For Claire Rollins, it was a thrilling experience to be in Diagon Alley. She was obviously excited to finally stepped away from the Malfoy's Manor and into the Wizarding World. She had to be discreet not to be identified by the others though.
Which was why, she had to wear a disguise. Severus had preferred her to drink Polyjuice to save the time, but Claire had put her foot down and demanded that she would wear a Muggle's disguise.
Here she was, with a black curled wig, and in a dress robe (which Lucius had kindly had it tailored for her), looking around her like tourist when she felt someone grabbed her arm.
"Miss Rollins!" A sharp baritone voice hissed at her. Once she'd heard thousand of times before.
Standing before her with a sneer, was not the ex-potion Mastion of Hogwarts. Rather, it was a young, good looking man in his late twenties, dressed in a wizard robe. The only familiar thing about his whole feature were the permanent scowl and his tunnel endless eyes.
" ."Claire smiled sweetly, hiding the smirk that threatened to come out any time now.
'Darcy' snarled at her before he pulled her arm closer to him and whispered as they walked away.
"I'd appreciate your liking to use my name often, Miss Rollins. Bear in mind, if it wasn't for the bloody Allen Roberts' sake, I would have blast you away to the oblivion for not only convince me, but made me transformed to this ridiculously figure－from your bloody Muggle's storybook!"
Claire had to giggle at his angry outburst. "Oh, hush now, Darcy! You should be glad that I didn't ask you to refer me as Elizebeth Bennets. Now that's what they say being 'true to one's character', ain't it?"
The couple proceeded in silent and finally reached in front of an old building with a creative design on the signboard that says－'Robert's Photography's Studio - We'll snap beautiful pictures just for you'.
Lucius was already waiting for them by the time they arrived.
"Thank Merlin you both are here! Did you by any chance, gotten yourself lost, Miss Claire?" Lucius asked.
"Err, for a moment, yes." Claire guiltily nodded.
"I think we've wasted enough time. Let's just get this done and over with." Severus walked over and pulled the door.
The door cracked soundly before a young pretty blonde greeted them behind the desk.
"Welcome! How may I help you?"
Severus approached the desk read the name board on her desk, Agnes.
"Miss Agnes, we would like to see with Mr. Allen Roberts, please."
"Oh, have you make an appointment with him?"
"No."
"May I ask what this is about, Sir?"
Severus groaned and snapped his finger, almost instantly, his '' transfiguration spell dissolved in the thin air. It replaced with the Severus Snape that everyone feared.
Using a wordless spell, he summoned yesterday's morning newspaper and pointed out at front page.
"To ask him some questions."
"I'm sorry, Sir. I'm afraid is not in at the moment. You'll have to make an appointment-"
Severus slammed his hands on the desk. "Listen, girl. Either you let us in right now or we'll let ourselves in. Either way, it won't be pretty. I can guarantee it."
"Severus." Claire warned.
Before Agnes could answer, a crack sound from the room behind her was opened.
"Agnes? Is something the matter?" Asked a male voice from inside.
"I'm sorry, Allen. These people are persistence..."
It can't be.
Claire's eyes grew widened at the sound of the voice. she felt her heart beating rapidly in her ears.
How could this be?
Changing her gaze from Severus to the man standing in from of her.
B-but that's impossible! He's already...
Claire let out a loud gasp and she stumbled backwards, into Lucius, who caught her just in time before she fell down on the ground due to her weakened knees.
Caleb.
"Miss Claire? Are you all right?" Lucius asked in concerned. Her face was pure white as the snow. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost.
While the two older men were busily fussing over her, a clear strained voice broke their fuss.
"Claire? Claire Rollins? It's that you?" Said the young man, Allen Roberts, in shocked.
He looked very disturbing like an older and matured version of Harry Potter, with an exception of his slightly longer messy hair and dark grey eyes, and slightly lean, muscular figure he wore a blue checks shirt with a jet black pants.
Even Severus snarled and swore silently when their eyes met. Lucius who was still holding onto Claire in his arms, subconsciously tightened his grip on the Muggle.
Claire kept her eyes focused on the younger man. After she recovered from her shock, waves of emotion came to her all at once.
She pushed herself away from Lucius and walked toward the stunned young man. Looking directly into his eyes, she whispered slowly.
"Caleb Roberts Johnson. How nice it is to see you again."