Posted: 12/19/15

Beta: MirandNack

A/N: A big shout out to Toraach, my best, new, and favorite Polish reviewer! And of course, once again, to Alice Helena! Reviews are the fuel for my contrary muse. Feed the muse, get more story! A million thank you's.

Severus

Severus was brought out of his vigilant doze by the voice of Lucius Malfoy. As he opened his eyes they were immediately drawn to the glowing form of Malfoy's wolverine patronus.

"The mudblood's been attacked, Severus. Please come to the manor as soon as you are able to advise us."

The briefness of this message only accelerated the donning of his black robes and the running of a comb through his oily locks.

His boots resounding off the marble tiles, he swiftly passed through the antechamber that separated his private living quarters from his headmaster study. As soon as he entered the cluttered, opulent room, all the portraits of his predecessors roused in their frames, sat up, and bestowed him with expectant looks. Severus sought Dumbledore and as soon as his onyx eyes found the hyacinth blues he said, "Jane's been attacked."

Dumbledore's eyebrows knitted as he asked, "What's happened to her Severus?"

"I don't know anything yet, Dumbledore."

He went to the wide fireplace, used his wand to rekindle the dying fire, and reached for the vase of floo powder that sat on the mantle. "Lucius has just sent a message informing me of it, and he requested my assistance."

"The Dark Lord will probably kill them this time, Severus," Phineas Black contributed.

Severus threw a pinch of the jade dust into the fire, stepped into licking, emerald warmth and told them, "Not if I can prevent it. Malfoy Manor, east wing, third floor, sitting room!"

After the dizzy-inducing spin had delivered him to his destination, Severus took two careful strides out of the receiving fireplace and he felt Lucius's steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Lucius," he told him. He was still for a moment while he swallowed a few times against the nausea that never failed to engulf him after flooing. This means of transport was almost as intolerable as flying on a broom.

"Thank you for coming," Lucius said. Thick vapors of alcohol poured over him as he was greeted.

After a few bracing in-breaths, Severus started for Jane's room and charged Lucius – who followed in his wake – for the essentials.

"Narcissa woke me."

"How long ago?"

Lucius hesitated before he replied, "It must have been at least thirty minutes ago. She told me that she heard screaming and, as we listened for a few moments, I heard it as well. It sounded distant and faint. I honestly can not believe it woke her. We rushed to the mudblood's door and waited for Draco and Bella to join us, which they both did momentarily. It was probably less than three minutes before Bella came hurrying from whichever part of the manor she's sleeping in these days.

"We heard a scream again but, though we only stood outside the door, the sound was still muffled. The attacker must have cast some silencing spells around the walls to stifle all noises. Once we were all assembled, we entered the room. Spells abounded. The man we found inside was desperately attempting to stave us off by hurling every dark spell he knew. Luckily, my wife's dueling capabilities are almost a match for her sister's," Lucius related, his voice pregnant with pride. "She dispatched him within a few minutes."

"Who attacked her and what damage has she suffered?" Severus asked.

"We don't know yet. We've never seen him before, but it's only a matter of time before we get to the bottom of this. Bellatrix retrieved his wand and she has him now in the cellar. If he used Polyjuice Potion it's probably worn off at this point, but Bella hasn't come back yet."

The old friends shared a look that left any need for words unnecessary. Lestrange had been deprived of her favorite pastime for too long, and in the dark depths of the manor, she was now over-brimming with her fix.

"Why do you suspect the use of Polyjuice Potion?" Severus asked incisively.

They were outside of Jane's room now. Severus reached for the curved handle but Lucius stopped him. "Wait. Narcissa decided to examine her and instructed me to knock before entering," he told Severus as he rapped his knuckles against the burnished wood a couple of times.

"Enter!" they heard Narcissa call from within.

~x~}{~x~

After her family had departed, Lucius taking her wand to summon Severus with it, Narcissa had helped Jane into the bed.

Jane may have been ferociously opposed to allowing any wizard to see her unclothed, but she possessed not a single qualm in permitting Narcissa to peruse her naked body as she lay on the bed shivering.

"I's cold," she whispered roughly. Jane was intermittently crying, going limp for a bit when her physical and mental weariness overtook her, then she roused again and started to whine softly about the cold.

"I know, Poisson," Narcissa replied, offering lukewarm, perfunctory comfort. "Just let me look you over, child. Where does it hurt?"

Narcissa was running her hands over Jane's body, trying to feel out any fractures in her arms, legs, and ribs – all the while, doing her best not to look at her stubbed leg. Her eyes came perilously close to skimming it a couple of times, and she shuddered with revulsion. When her hand meandered quite close to the underside of her left breast, Jane flinched with pain and began to cry hoarsely again.

"Is this tender?" Narcissa asked, and Jane tried to nod and confirm, but was forced to reply instead, as her entire neck was quickly forming into one enormous, tubular bruise.

Narcissa noted that her small breast did appear inflamed and realized that the assailant must have clutched it very harshly at some point. Narcissa had Jane roll over for a few moments while she concluded the manual examination on her back and spine. Thank Morgana that, except the shallow scrapes on her neck, Jane wasn't bleeding.

In addition to her neck, face, and breast, Narcissa also discovered that Jane's left wrist was swelling and paining her. "Did he twist your wrist, Poisson?"

Jane told her no, and that she didn't know how it had gotten injured. Her whole body was suffused with adrenaline, and while this served to offer a slight numbing of her aches, it had also dried out her mouth, and she kept asking Narcissa for some water.

"In a minute, Poisson," she told her. She wanted to look between her legs first. Well, she didn't want to, anymore than she had wanted to touch one single bit of Jane's anatomy or to see her undressed, but it needed to be done.

Jane was still when Narcissa started to part her legs, but she revived when she felt the intrusion and started to sob and try to push her away again while she issued her raucous protests.

"Shh," Cissa hushed her.

But Jane didn't seem able to calm herself. "Please, Mrs. Malfoy. 'E's ent doin' it. I's telled you's, 'e ent."

Narcissa crawled upward toward her head and began stroking the side of her face that was unhurt. "Shh, Poisson, it's alright," she told her soothingly. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. I just need to see for myself. The Dark Lord will want to know for certain, Poisson. Shh," she gentled her, and finally succeeded in coaxing her into a calmer state.

When she returned to Jane's waist and pushed at her legs, Jane reluctantly allowed her to open them by slow degrees. When Narcissa finally had them enough apart to see the innards of her vulva, a hot sluice of molasses-slow trepidation purled through Cissa's chest and belly when she saw that it was all coated with blood. But as she leaned in closer to find the source of all the bleeding, she realized it was just the natural color of the child's sex – a deep blood-red color exactly like that of her plump lips. It was odd. Sort of pretty, Narcissa thought for a moment. Then she mentally shook herself, disturbed by such a peregrine idea. She forgot the random thought as soon she located the hymen, made a thorough perusal and found no tears in the delicate tissue. Not a drop of blood.

A painful burden that she was not even conscious of dissolved with an effluent release from within. The Malfoys might live to see another day just yet.

With a lighter heart Narcissa threaded a clean nightdress over Jane's head and arms, held a cool drink to her lips while she sated her parched mouth, arranged the pillows and blankets around her for better ease, and cleaned and applied plasters to the shallow scrapes on her neck.

Right when she decided to check the lavatory for some of the Muggle medisinine for the pain, Narcissa heard a sound of entreaty at the door.

"Enter!"

~x~}{~x~

The room looked like a demolished battlefield. Piles of splintered wood and plaster littered the floor, paintings had been knocked from the walls and now lay overturned in disorder, holes rimmed with black had been blasted in the large rug that lay the middle of the room, and cottony viscera were pouring out of several rips in the expensively upholstered furniture.

Severus took this all in as he walked to the bed where the invalid was resting. Jane looked terrible. She was sweating still and looked febrile. He saw that one side of her face was puffed and bluing, and her lips trembled violently. At their approach her eyes cracked and clasped Severus. Immediately she reached out to him. Severus took hold of her quivering hand without hesitating. He knew that to offer uninhibited affection to the Muggle was to compromise his charade, but with Jane, unexpectedly, Severus was taking risks.

Potter was gone. His clandestinely-appointed, painfully average godson, and the replica of his schoolboy arch-nemesis was out of his reach now. But Jane - special, baffling Jane - was desperate and perhaps dying, and Severus was exhausted. Wherever this would end, no one could know. Scryers non-pending, Severus knew his end loomed near. Jane's unexpected presence, her existence, was calling to him inextricably, like a siren. It seemed that Lily hovered near to him in Jane's company and Severus wanted to show the Malfoys that even the second-in-command could spare some much needed mercy for a non-magical.

"Where does it hurt, Jane?"

"All over," she informed him.

"I'll get the paracetamol."

"No! The chemist, please. Get's somefink strong, Mr. Snape," she pleaded with a threadbare voice.

Severus gave her one, promising nod. "Do you need the hospital? Be honest Jane."

She began to issue the customary shake of her head, but then winced. Her ravaged neck was temporarily out of commission. "No," she whispered.

The Malfoys hovered by them, raptly observing this intense exchange.

Severus brought his pale hand to Jane's cheek and, bringing her heavily contrasted olive one to hold it in place, he felt her nuzzling into it. She sighed and Severus stiffened as she breathed, "Sirius." Involuntarily he retracted his hand, her eyes fluttered open, and then she went slack. It was sobering for him to understand that Jane still cherished the memory of a man that he had, always it seemed, reviled.

So lightly she didn't stir, Severus caressed a finger over her scrawny neck, intimately tracing the developing bruise. It was already a mangled mess, and he mentally shuddered to imagine how much worse it would look in the morning. He carefully ran his fingertip over the red, snaking vines where the veins had burst.

He turned to the Malfoys, who were somehow managing to look both haughty and contrite.

"What happened here?"

Narcissa went around him and picked up a long leather strap from the night table. "It was made with this."

Severus took the belt and gingerly held it up to look at it. He didn't try to disguise his disgust as he scoured his eyes across it, and then he rolled it up and stowed it in his pocket. "I think it would be for the best if I explain this to our master."

"Yes, I agree," Lucius was swift to agree.

"What injuries has she sustained?" he asked Narcissa. Deciding whether or not to take her to the hospital was the most pressing consideration.

"He must have struck It on the face, as you can see. He used a leather strap on Its neck, to strangle It. I don't know for how long or how many times. It's drifting in and out of consciousness, but nothing It's said has given me reason to worry that It's suffered damage from any prolonged deprivation of blood to the brain. There's also…" Narcissa's pale cheeks blossomed with blood as she said, "One of Its breast is red and bruising as well. He must have squeezed it quite hard at some point."

"Her breast!" he exclaimed.

"He had It mostly undressed when we interrupted him," she told him calmly.

"Did he rape her?" Severus wanted to know.

"He probably intended to. But he didn't."

"Are you positive?"

"I just saw Its hymen for myself. It's whole still."

The revelation that Jane was disrobed by her attacker added a new dimension of malice to this event. Before he could question Narcissa about this development any further, she finished her delineation of Jane's injuries.

"And Its left wrist is a little swollen as well, but It was able to move it when I asked It to, so I doubt it's broken. Just sprained. That may have happened when It fell off the bed."

Severus turned his burning eyes back to the little person lying spent on the bed. Under normal circumstances he would prescribe a hospital visit without delay. But he knew that sending her there would be like signing the Malfoys' death warrant. As long as there was a chance of a recovery unassisted by hands-on Muggle intervention, Severus was disposed to keep her here. The only way the Malfoys might be able to make amends to their master now, would be through nursing her back to health.

Severus pulled back the blanket and began to probe his fingers gently into her soft abdomen. Jane revived enough to see that it was only him touching her, and she remained quiet while he completed the inspection.

"Did he punch you anywhere, Jane?" Severus asked her.

"'Ere," she whispered through dry lips, and she waved her uninjured hand vaguely over the side of her swollen face.

"Do you think we should take It to the hospital, Severus?" Narcissa asked him, the hard edge of the question underpinned with fear.

"For now, no. But if she complains excessively of pain, or if you observe any setbacks in her recovery, inform me straight away, Narcissa."

Once Severus knew that she was going to make it through the night, the next order of business was getting to the 'whys'.

"How do you think this came to happen? Why was she assaulted?"

He watched Narcissa and Lucius – so composed and synchronized – communicating with each other with naught but their eyes. The exchange was brief but heavy, and apparently Lucius was the loser – or perhaps the winner, Severus wasn't sure – for he went to one the armchairs that was bleeding its stuffing and sat down in it.

Narcissa stepped toward him and began to lace her fingers through her hair. Severus had never witnessed this amount of discomposure in her as he watched her fidget.

"It was about a month ago now, Severus," she began.

Cissa attempted to delve into his bottomless eyes as she told him everything but, as usual, she rapidly crashed into the hard wall of them.

Severus watched her as she told him about the events in the Nook. Her sharp angular face betrayed her emotions, animating her in new, supple ways. Her light eyebrows shifted to lows and heights that Severus had never imagined were possible on her sculptured face as she tersely and susceptibly related their anger, their fear and helplessness. Observing Narcissa's expressive, emotional little story had transfixed him.

"It wasn't until Quirke began to raise my skirts with his wand," she confessed, cheeks flushed, eyes lowered, "that It decided to intervene."

This little revelation shook Severus out of his stupor.

"Intervene," he stated. It was a query that had no expectancy.

"It spooked them. Or something," was all she revealed. Her pale eyes were bewildered, with a tincture of defiance.

"How?"

"We don't know." She held his eyes with a scathing look to put her sister's to shame. "It would never tell us. It…" And then she lowered her voice rather ominously, as though what she was saying was too indecent to be spoken at full volume. "Severus, It just knew things. Secrets. Obviously It has spied on them and knew what they were ashamed of. The look in Quirke and Baddock's eyes when It spoke to them…they were terrified of It, Severus."

Severus soaked up this information with unfaltering calm. "I see." He didn't actually see. Not quite.

Even five years ago Severus should never have had the inclination or enough authority to speak to Narcissa as he did now. If his position beside the Dark Lord wasn't so secure he would not feel comfortable asking, "So, you are saying that Jane stopped these… jackals from what was heading in the direction of rape. Yet you still call him 'he' and her 'It'?"

Narcissa barely flinched. "He's a Pureblood." Then, her eyes narrowing slightly, she practically whispered, "It's a cockroach."

Severus bore into her adamant eyes for a half minute before she broke the intense, searching look.

"Have you called the Dark Lord?" he asked.

As a shake of her head indicated a negative, another knock on the door sounded.

"Come in," Severus called, his eyes still on Narcissa.

Draco opened the door and joined them. His hands were in the pockets of his pajama trousers and his shoulders drooped - he looked positively haggard. His face was pinched and ashy with stress and he was staring at Jane's unconscious form with fear and loathing.

"Good…night, Professor," he greeted Severus absently, his eyes on the bed. He turned to his mother. "It's Baddock."

Severus expected Lucius to join them, but saw that he was passed out; his blonde head slumped over the back of his seat.

"Is she… Did he… How did she…check out, Mother?" he asked delicately.

Hastening to give her son some hope, Narcissa told him, "He did not succeed in raping her."

"Where's your auntie?" Severus asked.

Draco looked at him with raised eyebrows. Pretending he was holding a wand, he made some specific wrist movements and succinctly explained with a toneless, "Crucio."

"Lucius!" Severus called.

Nothing would infuriate the Dark Lord more than if he arrived to find the patriarch of the family snoozing.

Lucius didn't stir.

Now Narcissa's consternation was pronounced as she went to his side and began to call his name and shake him. He murmured a bit and then tried to roll to his side and curl up in a more comfortable position.

For Merlin's sake, his world might be ending and he just wanted to nap through it.

"I'm sorry," Narcissa apologized to Severus, clearly ashamed of his behavior. "He was having trouble sleeping earlier so I gave him some Somniferus to help," she lied quietly. Everybody present knew she was lying, and she probably knew that Severus knew, but this had always been the way of the Malfoys. Appearances preserved at any cost.

Finally, just when Cissa feared she'd have to douse him with cold water again, he regained wakefulness and stood up, looking around blearily.

His contempt for his old friend etched in every line of his face, Severus said, "I'm going to the chemist now. Jane needs some stronger medicine to help manage her pain. I need you… or perhaps two of you to go to the cellar and pry Bellatrix away from her prey. The Dark Lord will not be at all pleased if he finds Baddock too badly damaged when he arrives. He will want to…question him."

The confusion clearing to a degree upon this announcement, Lucius gave him a sloppy, half-drunk nod.

"Narcissa, I believe I'll need your wand," Lucius said, crossing the room to his wife's side.

"I gave it to you already. Remember? To send Severus the message."

Severus sighed wearily. This wouldn't do, not at all.

"I will go with you, on second thought," Severus swiftly decided. "Narcissa, perhaps you had better come with me, or even you, Draco."

"I am perfectly capable-" Lucius began.

"You," Severus cut in softly, caustically, "are perfectly drunk, Malfoy. And if you have any Sobriscendia about the manor I council you to drink some before I summon our master." Briefly sweeping Lucius with grave and supercilious eyes, he then asked, "How did Baddock gain access to this room? Why didn't intruder-repelling charms around the windows… repel him? Or at least alert you three to the fact that a revenge-intent psychopath was lurking in here?"

"I don't know why!" Lucius yelled. "I cast some spells around the door!" He punctuated his remarks with some wild motions, waving his entire arms at the door and window and even at the Muggle on the bed, as he continued, "Perhaps it's because that…that little freak is impervious to magic! Or has it occurred to you that Baddock might have some surprisingly advanced powers!?"

"Baddock is a complete imbecile who could not even matriculate into our ranks, Lucius," Severus impugned quietly. His own blithe stance and tone were perfectly calculated to make Lucius' unhinged rants and gestures seem all the more buffoonish. "I was his professor at Hogwarts. He was an idiot. A Hufflepuff idiot."

"Well, then perhaps it's because that…thing is too abnormal!" the gesticulator rejoined.

"These pathetic extenuations do not suit you, Malfoy," Severus told him with careful conviction. "Now I suggest you find your Sobriscendia, and work out what you will say to our master when he arrives. I also advise you to drop the self-righteous façade. At least for the time being."

Severus headed for the door and called back, "Narcissa, lend Draco your wand while he accompanies me to pay the attacker and his auntie a visit. And be quick about it."

Without waiting for a response Severus turned and swept from the room, his long black robe billowing out behind him.