Chapter 5

Nuptials

Snape looked at the contract in front of him with disgust and let it drop back onto the table. He really could not believe that he had allowed himself to be jockeyed into accepting this ridiculous situation. He had no desire to be bothered with a wife or, even worse, children. His situation meant that children would be a burden and a liability. As for having a wife, especially when that wife was her…distractions only led to failed potential. Additionally it was still of great concern to him why Morag wanted to arrange this marriage. As much as he had puzzled through any of her possible motivations, Snape could not sufficiently explain what the Kent family had to gain from the marriage.

Snape pulled out his sand needle case from his pocket and started to take a pinch out of it when he heard a knock at the door. He hastily closed the box and asked brusquely, "Yes?"

A large old woman, built somewhat like a box and possessing a grizzled rough braid that reached almost to her knees, entered the room and bowed low saying, "Master, sir, the family, they is here, sir."

"Thank you, Rem. You may have them wait in the drawing room."

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir." The old woman bowed herself from the room and Snape took one quick look in the mirror behind his desk. What he saw made him smirk, but he was not particularly concerned with his own appearance. He walked directly into the flames of the fireplace and then stepped out in the downstairs sitting room and looked round him. He saw the long, slender black box that was sitting on the table by the cupboard and moved to pick it up. He opened the box briefly and slid the furled parchment from his hand under the lid.

Snape exited the room, walked down the abnormally well-lit corridor, and quickly opened the door to the drawing room. He felt his heart racing and a pleasurable anticipation as his traitorous mind thought about how she would look. He had literally never concerned himself about the fantasy of Patience on her wedding day to himself or anyone else. Yet however brief the moment; Snape was desperate to see how beautiful she was. Before he had the time to strangle these unwanted thoughts, he was shocked to see that his bride, for he supposed that was exactly what she was now, looked ghastly. Whatever they had done to her, whatever influence they had used to convince her to agree to the marriage, it must have been horrible.

Patience looked like an Inferius more than a living, breathing woman. Her eyes were dead of emotion and he could see that she was so uninterested in her surroundings that she had not even looked at him as he walked into the room. When her mother shoved her forward and said, "Say hello to your fiancé, Eurydice," the girl did not look up from whatever portion of the rug she was contemplating before she spoke a dull, lifeless greeting.

"Hello."

Snape was filled briefly with roiling anger. What had they done to his girl? However, as soon as he felt that thought pass through the portals of his mind, Snape reigned himself in. He could never again allow himself to think of her that way. She would be his wife, but that did not mean that he had to like it.

He forced himself to be civil as he greeted the Kent twins, who he realised with some irritation would now be his brothers-in-law, and both Morag and William Kent, neither of whom would he ever refer to as parents-in-law. He was more than civil, however, to the other couple that was waiting with matching expressions of exquisite boredom on the two most comfortable chairs in the room. It was evident that they had been waiting for some time, since there was a pair of drained wine goblets and two empty plates on a table between them.

"I think that we are ready, Gideon. Would you like to read over the contract now?"

The man, his narrow face expressing only the vaguest interest in the piece of paper that Snape was holding disdainfully out to him, took the paper with one long white hand, and stood up. The short, plump woman seated next to him also rose and replied coldly to Snape, "So this is the girl?"

Snape looked over at Patience and reached out his hand to pull her towards them. "Yes, Winifred, this is Patience Kent. Patience, this is Gideon Prince, my cousin, and his wife Winifred."

Patience, who had lifted her head to look at the woman who was openly appraising her, accepted the hand that was extended and spoke almost inaudibly. "Pleased to meet you."

At this moment, Gideon Prince held out the contract for Snape to take and said roughly, "It looks acceptable. We will witness."

Snape nodded to his cousin, pulled Patience with him towards a dark wood prie-dieu by the long, curtained window, dropped the narrow box in his hands onto the flat surface, and placed the contract on top. "Do you have the letter from Gringotts, Kent?"

William unhappily thrust a folded piece of parchment into Snape's waiting hand.

The room was eerily silent as Snape quickly read through the statement that informed him that the required sum had been transferred to his personal vault. Then he waved his wand and a large, decrepit black quill appeared in his hand. He bent over the contract parchment and winced as he began to sign his name in sharp red letters.

He passed the pen to Patience, who dared one scared look at her mother before signing her own name on the paper. As she passed the quill to one of her brothers, who had stepped forward to witness for the Kent family, Patience was rubbing her chest where she could feel the blood was already forming into a scab. She had been warned by her mother what to expect, but she still found the usage of a quill that drew blood from one's own heart to be terrifying and evil.

Patience stood back so that she would not attract the notice of either her family or her new husband. The reality of the situation was almost more than she could bear. She had never understood what it was about her that made her mother detest her so very much. She had worked her wand to the heartstring to please her mother, but she had to admit that it was probably impossible for her to do anything that Morag would approve.

Patience could not even think of what had been done to her for the last two days. Patience devoutly hoped that however awful Professor Snape was to her, and she was absolutely sure that he would be truly horrible, that he would at least be better than her mother had been. Yet this man was unlikely ever to be kind to her and he would certainly never love her. Therefore, this was the end of every dream. She was unavoidably trapped.

Somehow, she suddenly realised that she was now sitting on a chair, staring into the flames of an angrily roaring fire. She was alone in the room with Professor Snape and not quite sure when her family had left or how long she had been sitting by the fire.

"Back to consciousness?"

Patience turned and saw that Snape was leaning against a wall next to a portrait of a wizard that could not be anything other than a recent ancestor. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

"Don't you?"

"Is it over?"

Snape nodded his head in assent and pushed himself off the wall to walk towards her. "Yes."

"They are all gone?"

"Definitely."

She could not stop herself from shivering violently as he stood next to where she was sitting, but she asked nonetheless, "What happens now?"

He did not say anything for a moment as he looked down at her with a curious expression. Then he replied gruffly, "Now you stay here."

"Is that all?"

Snape picked a small hair off his sleeve and sneered, "Were you promised more?"

Patience knew that there was no answer to that question, so she merely continued to watch him, waiting for whatever was to come.

"You would have done better to stick with Fleming."

Snape walked over to the large chest of drawers on the wall near the door and began to pour himself a drink from a bottle of Black Aquavit. "Do you realise what you have got into?"

"I didn't have much choice, sir."

"No, I don't suppose that they did give you any choice. As it happens, I didn't want you either."

Patience looked away with embarrassment. She had supposed that at least he had had some interest in her. Her mother had led her to believe that he found her very attractive. Hopefully then, he didn't hate her, as she thought she might soon come to hate him.

"Did they warn you what you were marrying? Were you told that you were going to be climbing into the bed of a Death Eater, child?"

Patience could not keep the shock and revulsion from showing on her face. She did not respond, but there was no need.

"They didn't tell you. Very wise. Come with me."

Snape tossed the goblet that was in his hand down on the table and waited for her to stand up and join him. Patience knew from experience that the best policy was non-resistance, so she obediently followed him into the corridor.

They walked up a steep and very narrow set of stairs, which were barely carpeted with an ancient threadbare rug. As they approached the first storey, Snape spoke in a soft voice that was still hard with anger, "This will be your level. That is your bedroom. The room across the corridor will be your sitting room."

He indicated that she was to continue following him up the stairs to the second storey. Her mind was full of questions as they climbed the steep steps. He was a Death Eater? He was not going to make her stay with him? What was he going to expect of her? She hoped that she could withstand it without provoking any violence.

"This level is mine. You will not come up here unless I request it. This room is my own bedroom and that," Snape pointed one long finger at a doorway at the end of the corridor, "is my library. You are not welcome in there."

They walked back to the stairway and Patience followed him for the rest of the quick, rough tour of what was going to be her new home. This was not exactly how she had pictured their first moments alone together, but she didn't know that she didn't prefer it.

"This area is unused. It was once the nursery and there are attics down there. I don't think you'll have any need for anything here, but you may use it if you wish. It is of no consequence to me either way."

Patience stood nervously watching him and saw that he was now regarding her more closely. She felt a desperate fear clawing at her insides and stepped back quickly so that she bumped into the wall. She saw a strange, twisted expression form on his face and heard much unexpected words, "Go on. You may lie down in your room until dinner. I have no need of you now."

Patience stared at him and, when she could see that he was serious and that he wanted her to leave, she made a dash for the stairs and ran down them to find the room that he had pointed out as her own.