Ex Intempestivo Pax

Chapter 10

Inside the Shadow's Grasp

I cannot say that I care for this, but needs must as the devil drives...

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.

"You MONSTER! Let me GO! When I get my hands on you, I'm going to wring your neck you stupid, disgusting, Death Eater wanker! I hope that you eat a Crucio for each and every one of your victims, then die by being boiled in..."

Severus snarled and did his best to ignore the blibbering harpy, Dorcas Meadowes, scowling as he found himself beginning to wish that the woman would actually die tonight. 'Albus Dumbledore, if I live through tonight, I am going to kill you for this and enjoy doing it; it is certainly easy to see how she and Potter became friends...both of them are stupid, loud, moronic imbeciles who enjoy tormenting me...'

Unfortunately, he had been forced to kidnap this annoying loudmouth of a woman and was going to have to bring her to one of the Revels; it made him suspect that Dumbledore was doing this primarily to make him miserable for the 'crime' of trying to break up the 'golden couple', although Severus couldn't say that he particularly cared what Dumbledore thought about it, as he knew that Lily would be better off without slime like Potter.

Still, suffering through this racket was enough to make him wish that he had reconsidered changing sides...at least until he remembered Lily, then he sighed before smiling slightly behind his mask.

He had quite enjoyed their chat over tea yesterday, as she didn't have to spend all her time working on her potions, and Potter was away on 'Auror business' again. It hadn't been a talk about either the memories in the Pensieve, the war or his feelings for her, which he suspected were topics that were off-limits for now. Instead, they had merely spent time catching up, as neither had heard much of the other's exploits in the field of potions and were quite keen to find out.

It was really a shame that he had to deal with Potter and wrecking their blasted wedding now, as he rather enjoyed being her friend again, even if she had a tendency to talk about HIM a great deal. He would never admit it, but with all things considered, he would probably even allow her to marry Potter tomorrow if it proved necessary if it weren't for two things...

First and most importantly, he KNEW that Potter was a lying piece of slime who would lie, cheat and steal to get whatever he wanted. He was SOOO arrogant that it made even Severus, who had quite a bit of (well-earned in his opinion) pride himself, want to puke whenever he listened to him speak.

Severus had no doubt that the only reason that Lily thought that she 'loved' the scumbag was because he had somehow tricked her into thinking it, perhaps with a love potion of some sort, as he could see it coming from either Black or Potter himself. How else could she even think that she loved a man who enjoyed nothing more than making his life miserable and probably cheated on her with every single woman he saw?

Second, Severus knew that Potter would NEVER allow him and Lily to stay friends after he got married to her; it was the same reason that he had always fought so hard to prevent Lily from getting close to Potter...apart from the fact that he himself was interested in her: Potter refused to accept the idea of competition in any way.

Potter had once said in fourth year that he would stop attacking Severus if he left Lily alone, and made a similar offer to Lily of leaving Severus alone if she went out with him during the INCIDENT, although he had later failed to actually do so when both actually came to pass in their sixth and seventh years.

Still, it showed Severus one very important thing about Potter's character: if anyone else was interested in Lily, they had to go, by any means necessary. Since Severus had loved Lily for years and everyone knew it, including her, there was no way on earth that Potter would allow them to stay friends... Oh, he might not FORBID their friendship aloud, but he would pick it apart ruthlessly; Severus was certain that he had done it once before...

Groaning in annoyance at the continued blithering of his very much unwanted companion, he returned to his infuriating captive and pointed his wand at the annoying witch, then smirked before casting a spell. 'Langlock... perhaps she willfinally SHUT UP!'

As she glared at him with utter hatred, Severus checked the time and checked the time; he needed to bring her at just the right moment, after the Dark Lord had arrived, but before the 'festivities' were in full swing lest he be sick. Well, not really sick, but there were certain things that he just didn't want to see even in his worst nightmares...

Finally, he judged that the proper time arrived and grabbed Meadowes roughly, before Disapparating with a quick "POP"; arriving in the Lestrange mansion, which had been temporarily turned into the Death Eater headquarters, he looked around carefully. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that he was right on schedule, as the Dark Lord was already there, making it quite unnecessary to have to deal with the Lestranges...

While Bellatrix was rather attractive, and Severus had originally had a faint crush upon her when he first met her, she had changed; while she had once been a very bright and clever witch whose penchant of thinking for herself had been quite fetching, she had become completely obsessed with the Dark Lord, and she was now little more than a zealot in the name of Voldemort...

Their previous state of friendly comradeship had been marred greatly by this, as Bellatrix had grown to suspect him as a traitor, mainly because he didn't have her manic level of worshipful zeal for the Dark Lord's ideals... 'It would be quite ironic if she and Lily were to compare notes sometime...assuming that one of them didn't end up dead...'

Shoving Meadowes in front of him, Severus walked up to the main table, then bowed deeply as he used his wand to force his captive to do the same. He then froze her in place with a simple hex while unsticking her tongue from the roof of her mouth, although she showed some intelligence in not saying a word in spite of her sudden freedom of speech. This would be difficult enough to wrangle without being impolite after all, as he needed to play it just so...

The Dark Lord, visibly surprised although he tried to disguise it, then said with a frown as his eyes bored into Severus, "It appears that we have an uninvited guest, an uninvited Pureblooded guest at that! Please, do explain why you have brought one of such status into our humble abode..." As he said this, Voldemort calmly drew his wand, making it quite clear what the consequences would be if an explanation wasn't given. Meanwhile, the rest of the table turned to watch, clearly eager to see what might happen to the 'worthless half-blood' if Voldemort weren't pleased...

Nonetheless, Severus swallowed and replied in a passionless tone of voice, "Indeed this is true my lord, but I have it on good authority that Miss Meadowes here has made a mistake unbefitting of her blood-status, joining the Order of the Phoenix... I felt that it would be best if I were to bring her to you so that you could...enlighten her as to the consequences of her actions..."

Severus smirked behind his silver mask as he felt Dorcas trembling in fear as Voldemort surveyed her with a cold glare and a malicious smile. Although he was fairly certain that the foolish woman would live, albeit having survived through what must be the worst experience of her annoying life, he was definitely taking a savage pleasure in listening to her suppressing her whimpering as the Dark Lord locked eyes with her. During this time, Severus' smirk widened as the whispering continued.

After several minutes, during which Severus was sure that he had been picking through every memory he could, Voldemort turned to look at Severus with a frown and said, "It appears that this woman is rather strong-willed; nonetheless... CRUCIO!"

Severus braced himself for an immense level of pain, but the Dark Lord had evidently decided that he might be correct in his suppositions, as the woman started shrieking in pain while Voldemort continued to look eyes with her. He was relieved not to be the target, however he could almost feel her pain as she writhed in front of him, which made his feeling of relief vanish almost instantly...

As the torture continued, Severus turned his gaze from Meadowes and was disgusted to see that many of the other Death Eaters were sitting at the table, calmly eating as if the tortured screams of a woman were nothing of importance. Nonetheless, he had to say that it was better than scum like Rosier, who was watching in utter enjoyment as he clearly savored each and every scream of the unfortunate woman, one of only a few Death Eaters at the table not to be wearing a mask...

Swallowing his distaste for the situation, Severus reviewed what he had been told of the plan: he had been told by Dumbledore that Dorcas Meadowes spent just about every Saturday night drinking at the Leaky Cauldron wherein she would bemoan how she was unable to get a date. After she had been turned out by Tom, Severus would grab her from the street while she was unprepared, then he would take her to the Dark Lord and identify her as a member of the Order. Frankly, it didn't make much sense to him...

Nonetheless, Severus suspected that Dumbledore might be one of those people who preferred the left hand not to know what the right was doing and vice-versa, and this suspicion was blaring at him that something was amiss... His eyes then widened as he realized the true purpose of his mission, while Voldemort spat, "Apparently, her mind is quite strong indeed..."

The Dark Lord then said to Bellatrix with a smirk, as the malevolent smile she had been wearing turned into one of delight, "Take her to your family's dungeons, Bellatrix. A...comrade of ours will be arriving in a matter of minutes, and he will identify her allegiance for us..."

Voldemort then turned to look at Severus again, while the rest of the Death Eaters listened with bated breath, before saying, "Your reward, should what you have given us proves correct, has the potential to be very great indeed... However, I need to have a word with you about some of your other activities..."

As the Dark Lord guided him away from the main table, with Bellatrix having her husband shove Meadowes into the dungeons in the background, Severus thought frantically; Voldemort could be implying any of a number of things, but he felt that odds were high that he was referring either to his meeting with Dumbledore or to the time he had spent with Lily.

The difficulty was that Severus didn't know how much the Dark Lord knew, and thus was unsure how much to admit. If he were to assume that Voldemort knew everything...well then he was going to be leaving here in a matchbox regardless. Still, while telling him too much would likely be fatal, telling him too little would be equally fatal...

As they moved into an alcove where there was little light, and no-one nearby, Severus decided that it would be best to let Voldemort speak first and took off his mask to give himself an excuse to wait. After a few moments, the Dark Lord spoke in a a falsly-nonchalant tone of voice that didn't fool Severus in the slightest, saying smoothly, "How have things been going on the...Dumbledore front, Severus?"

Thinking quickly, Severus responded in an equally smooth tone of voice as he sneered, "I have managed to convince the old fool that I 'saw the error of my ways' before I joined our dear brotherhood. Earlier than I had even hoped, let alone anticipated, he agreed to allow me to join the Hogwarts teaching staff as we have planned. I believe that this might bode well for the possibility of getting him to grant me permission to join his pathetic 'Order', should we need it..."

At that, the Dark Lord nodded slowly while using Leglimency to attempt to burrow into his mind and find memories that would confirm it; thinking quickly, Severus mixed some of his older memories with his newer ones to create what ought to be a seemless tapestry, hiding his treachery. Finally, just as Severus thought he was in the clear, Voldemort said mildly, "It has come to my attention that you recently have been seen talking to Miss Lily Evans; why would you do that?"

Severus felt a pulse of cold fear, but mastered it as he quickly responded with a feigned calmness he didn't feel and a touch of mirth, "It is true that I encountered the girl at her sister's...birthday celebration, but it was only with an intent to harm her fiance, James Potter... I enjoyed very much watching him ineffectually attempt to come to her rescue, as it gave me the opportunity to humiliate my most hated rival..."

Realizing an opportunity, Severus then smoothly continued with an evil smirk, saying, "Perhaps I shall do so again, should I get the chance; the Evans girl seemed rather taken with me, and she is reasonably attractive, in spite of her awful heritage..."

Voldemort laughed slightly, in his cold, cruel variant of what should be an expression of happiness, then said, "Very well, should you get the opportunity, feel free to do so. Now, feel free to join the festivities, as it appears that we will have plenty of 'dalliances' here for all..."

Suddenly, shouting could be heard coming from the direction of the dungeons, and then a cry rent the air, "Help! The Order's here! HELP...!"

After glancing at Voldemort, Severus was about to pretent to go sprinting off towards said dungeons, when he felt one of the Dark Lords thin, pale hands grasping his left shoulder. The evil man then said calmly, but with a sense of malice that Severus could feel in the air, directed towards the direction of the shout, "No, it wouldn't do to reveal your allegiaces too early; return to your abode, and we shall have to see about your reward later..."

Glad for the opportunity to leave, Severus quickly apparated back to Spinner's end, wondering just what Dumbledore would hope to discover from the memories he had obtained in this venture. Personally, he suspected that it might have something to do with that spy...

Severus then smirked as he put his cloak and mask in a secret closet, having realized something: unless the Dark Lord had 'lowered himself' to consorting with Muggles, it was possible that Severus had found their spy, as the only three people with magic other than himself who had been at Petunia's birthday 'party' had been Lily, Potter and Black...

Author's Note: I assume that some of you are wondering why it would be unknown to the Death Eaters that Dorcas is an Order member. Remember, the 'unknown spy' hasn't necessarily revealed everything he knows, as he might not reveal its importance. On the other hand, Voldemort probably wouldn't want to reveal that there might be a spy in the Order's ranks in the first place...

The next chapter is going to show what happened from the point of view of the Order, and why they knew to come to begin with...