'Wouldn't it be more, prudent, my Lord, to not kill her. As you know for yourself, she could be valuable to our cause. She is skilled in Potion making and Charms particularly.' I placed my hands with delicacy on the arms of the high backed chair that I resided in: it was made of stiff leather that had not been worn in yet and I daren't move despite the rigidness that was setting a pain in my back. The room was grand, airy and I would have suffered from the chill of its vastness if it wasn't for the grate that was burning in full to my left. The Death Eater congregation had passed to leave the dining room of Malfoy's manor house empty to hold the conversation opposite my Master in much needed privacy.

The scarlet slits bored into my black eyes for a long, silent moment. For want of a better word, a smile curved Voldemort's thin mouth as he surveyed me from his similar armchair.

'I do not need a Potioneer Snape, you are more than capable are you not?'

'Yes I am my Lord, however-,' I began but was silenced immediately by a single white long finger.

'As you well know Severus, she has no interest in joining us, nor does her husband as I have already requested their elegance.' Voldemort's stare if possible intensified while my face remained adeptly impassive.

Husband… Acid boiled in my stomach up into my esophagus making it blister and char.

'So there must be another reason for your enquiry?' The smile grew slightly on the face as white as a skull; it was edged with a tang of humourless mirth. I tried to breathe as easily and calmly as I could. Just because this conversation was the most important in nature than I could ever envisage any others being did not mean that I could lose my head. It was essential to stay focused, to be the master of my emotions and mind. Otherwise things would be beyond grave, possibly irrevocable. Yet my heart could not help but thunder.

'She – I do not think – could you not perhaps, kill the husband and child and leave – it is needless to kill Lily Potter!'

'Needless?' Voldemort's voice was like a brush of silk against skin. However it did not inspire beauty or warmth with its softness but made an icy shiver snake down a weaker mans' spine. 'You do not then see her continued existence an abomination? Have you forgotten that it is one of my most revered aims to destroy the disdainful atrocity of her kind in our world? You, did you not, vow to obey my ways when I honoured you with the Dark Mark upon your flesh?'

'Yes my Lord, I feel privileged to have been trusted enough to be at your service-' I was cut off once more.

'Not to mention,' Voldemort continued with a poisonous glaze to his words. 'Her skilled opposition against us is most … undesirable.' The cruel leer became more pronounced on his face as our gazes did not waver when silence enveloped us again. My ears pricked a little when I heard the faintest of disturbances from behind as a soft slapping noise came into contact with the flagstone floor. The hissings of Nagini's entrance caught the Dark Lord's attention, giving me some reprieve when he turned his gaze away from mine to watch the entrance of his snake: the Dark Lord responded to whatever the snake had said in Parseltongue with smatterings of hisses and spits. I saw out of the corner of my eye the smooth, thickly dark body of the snake as it stopped momentarily to raise itself to be stroked by a white, long fingered hand, then to go about the other side of the long oak table.

'You wish to conceal yourself from me Severus?' My eyes which had been on the snake, flickered back to his in an instant. Voldemort's voice had descended an octave into barely more than a whisper. I did not allow the flutter of uncertainty that should have crept into my stomach materialise. I was imploring Occlumency to my very best and very skilled ability and could not imagine how he must think my meaning anything other than what I said aloud.

'Of course not my Lord, I would never mislead you.'

'Nagini tells me differently. Snakes have even powers that I do not Severus. She could feel the vibrations of your pulse through the floor, which as she said was … remarkable. ' I was frozen. It was futile. His eyes had me captured like a man up for the gallows. My mouth was devoid of moisture to such an extreme extent that it was difficult to work it.

'I – Lily Potter - she is not unattractive my Lord.'

My statement made little impact on Voldemort outwardly apart from the slight flicker at the corner of his thin mouth. Revulsion, humour … there was no telling what it could mean.

'It is shameful I know.' I whispered suddenly unable to meet his hypnotic gaze anymore. I felt drained as if I had been in bloody battle for many hours.

'Yes it is.' My heartbeat remained a strong current in the sea of my blood.

I did not dare look up when I heard Voldemort stand to the fire with his front to it, hands at his back.

'You have served me well Severus in your time with me…If the girl is sensible, I will let her live.'

'There are better women, of purer blood. My Lord…I beg for your pardon, it was foolish of me to ever consider such a notion.'

A long silence.

'You are forgiven Severus. For your sake I hope your allegiance never wavers again...'

'Never my Lord, you are ever merciful….'

I did not have to employ Occlumency. I was too numbed to even remember how to feel the emotion of a lie.