J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.
Chapter 3 – Peace and False Security
It had been six weeks since Albus Dumbledore defeated his second Dark Lord. There had been much rejoicing and celebrations and once again Dumbledore made history by being awarded a second Order of Merlin First-Class. He had received many new honors, the most notable being that he was elected as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards (the "ICW") a post which he had coveted for a very long time and now finally had.
He now had the means of showing other countries the "Path of the Light" as defined by Albus Dumbledore and it all went well then he estimated that by the beginning of the next century he would be the most powerful wizard in the world. If the rest of his plans went well within two short generations all dark magic would be outlawed and all magical schools would be like Hogwarts, meaning only certain courses would be taught and much powerful magic would be lost since it was dark.
It would also mean that by the end of the 21st Century there would never be another wizard more powerful than Albus Dumbledore because their magic would never be allowed to flourish or grow to full potential because Dumbledore would see that their magic was stifled. It was all for the Greater Good, at least as defined by Albus Dumbledore.
Lucius Malfoy had come through and arrangements were made for certain Death Eaters to plead the "Imperius excuse" and get away with it. Dumbledore and Minister Bagnold had forbidden the use of Veritaserum despite the urging of Alastor Moody and Barty Crouch, Sr. the reason being that "sufficient proof" had been given to Dumbledore and Bagnold. Unknown to the general public and the likes of Moody, bags of galleons had exchanged hands in the case of Bagnold and other Ministry officials and Dumbledore had acquired "special oaths" from the likes of Lucius as well as assistance with exposing, capturing and seeing the "true Death Eaters" being sent to Azkaban and even, on occasion, being kissed by a Dementor.
For his own gain, Lucius had betrayed many of his peers. Unfortunately not all of those he betrayed were captured and he was obliged to reinforce and change the wards on Malfoy Manor to protect himself and his family because the most dangerous of all had eluded the Ministry and even Dumbledore's minions and Lucius knew without a doubt that his life would be forfeited if Bellatrix, Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Barty Crouch, Jr., Thaddeus Nott, Benjamin Willowbee and most especially Severus Snape ever crossed his path.
Thaddeus Nott and Benjamin Willowbee were dedicated followers of the Dark Lord and made no secret about loathing Lucius Malfoy. They would never ever accept him as their overlord and he knew it. Bellatrix, Rudolphus, Rabastan, Barty and Snape all had to be killed or left to rot in Azkaban so that Lucius could claim their inheritance for his son Draco. The first three knew why but Barty and Snape had no idea that they were possible heirs to a great inheritance until they were given a full inheritance test.
In any event, even though the Lestranges had escaped "justice" by placing their home under a Fidelius, their vaults had been seized and after the Ministry took its cut in fines, Lucius claimed it for his son as "the innocent and rightful heir to the Lordship of House Lestrange" and once Rudolphus was finally caught and executed, Draco would get the Lordship ring and inherit everything. Naturally it would be held in trust for him until he became of age and even after as, according to Malfoy Family laws, as long as Lucius lived he would control all of Draco's inheritances.
The Malfoy Family laws were modelled after the Pater Familias of Ancient Rome wherein the Pater Familias or Head of the Family held legal privilege over the property of the Familia, and varying levels of authority over his dependents. While the Father lived the son had nothing of his own whether it was the dowry of his wife or anything he earned by his own efforts. Therefore, in theory Draco was an heir and/or a Lord but in reality Lucius controlled it property, wealth and votes and Draco had no control over his life and had to obey Lucius in all things.
All Malfoys "collected inheritances" like others collected art but so far Lucius was the most avaricious in the history of the Malfoy Family. Dumbledore allowed him to get away with it possibly because even he didn't know the full extent of Malfoy acquisitiveness. Other than one rather large one time only "donation" to Hogwarts (c/o of Dumbledore) all Dumbledore had been interested in was to have all of Tom's followers give an oath on their life and magic to Dumbledore swearing that they would never aid in resurrecting Voldemort. Since most of them didn't believe that the Dark Lord had "defeated death" and could come back they gladly swore. But they didn't know what Dumbledore did.
Barty had almost been captured but was warned in time and just barely escaped. His Father's career was in ruins but Barty didn't care as his Father would have thrown him to the wolves if it would save him or his career. He'd miss his Mother as he loved her but he also knew she would prefer that he survive and live as a fugitive than rot in Azkaban or be kissed by a Dementor. She had known he was a Death Eater but also knew the reasons he had become one.
Besides she was dying. Her one last gift to him was to free their faithful house elf Winky with orders to find her boy and re-bond with him and serve him all her days like the good and faithful elf she was. Winky had to be set free otherwise Barty, Sr. could command her to find and capture his wayward son. Winky was also given as much money as Barty's Mother could gather as well as some family heirlooms, artifacts and books which she had brought into the marriage. It had taken Winky two weeks before she found her young master and they re-bonded.
Severus Snape had become a spy for Dumbledore to save Lily Evans' (he still refused to call her Lily Potter) life. With her death he finally figured out that he had been tricked and set up and that Dumbledore had no intention of saving her. It was confirmed when he had gone back to make a report to Dumbledore about the meeting Lucius held. Snape was immediately relieved of his wand and magically bound in chains by the great wizard himself. Albus told Snape that had his original plan worked, the boy would have survived and then Snape would have had to swear an oath to "protect Lily's son" and guilted into doing it because it was Snape's fault that Lily was dead because he told the prophecy to Voldemort.
"But the boy is dead and you are of no use to me. I had planned on framing Sirius Black and sending him to Azkaban but Moody found him first and dosed him with Veritaserum and it was made a matter of record that he was not the secret keeper for the Potters as he had switched with Peter a week before October 31st."
Dumbledore had smiled at Snape before further telling him that now without the boy he was more useful than Snape could ever be because "Sirius will inherit the Black Lordship when his Grandfather dies, which will be sooner rather than later. Sirius is my most devoted follower and since I didn't have time to denounce him before he was exonerated by Moody, he still trusts me and would never believe you if you told him what I just told you."
Snape knew that was true as who would believe the poor, Half-blood Severus Snape against Albus Dumbledore or the waste of space but highly connected and future Lord of an Ancient and Noble House with more power and money than they deserved Sirius Black. Snape had been tortured and abused his entire Hogwarts career by Black and Potter with Dumbledore's approval. Black and Potter had constantly bragged that "Snivellus would never, ever win especially against them" and Snape knew it but still tried. That was the real reason he became a Death Eater as Voldemort appreciated and rewarded talent, power and competence and at the very least it would give Snape a chance to get revenge on Black, Potter, Dumbledore and all of the rest.
The final parting shot Dumbledore gave to the betrayed and beaten man was that Sirius Black needed to be pacified for losing James. He needed a reward and seeing Snivellus sent to Azkaban was just the thing to help him get over his grief and find some revenge against Voldemort. Naturally before Snape went there Black would be allowed to "question him" meaning he would legally be allowed to abuse, humiliate and severely torture Snape until such time as Snape either died of his injuries or was rescued – probably by Moody or Amelia Bones – and taken to Azkaban. Of course then Sirius, being an Auror, would be allowed to do inspection tours every so often and "re-interrogate" any prisoner who took his fancy.
"I can assure you that you will be seeing a lot of Sirius Black for as long as you live even long after you lose your mind and sanity to the Dementors" Dumbledore told him with his blue eyes twinkling merrily.
Severus Snape spent the longest week of his life or anybody else's life for that matter being "interrogated" by Sirius Black. Bets were being made by some of the Aurors whether Snape would survive the two weeks given to Black to "interrogate the prisoner" and not even Moody (who never felt sympathy for any Death Eater) had tried to stop the abuse but he was forbidden by Dumbledore who told him that "Snape knows certain things which we must find out and since he has found a way to counteract the effects of Veritaserum, only through 'severe persuasion' can we find out this information."
Moody and everybody else involved knew Dumbledore was lying and Dumbledore knew they knew he was lying but he was Albus Dumbledore, the "Savior of them all" once again and he was only rewarding one of his most faithful followers with a bit of well-deserved "fun" and all Moody was allowed to do was to make sure Snape didn't die of his injuries before going to Azkaban to pay for his crimes and his unforgiveable sins.
After seven days of unrelenting "questioning" Moody stunned and incarcerated Sirius Black until Snape had time to recover from the worse day of abuse he had had since Black began the questioning. Snape had been moments away from certain death when he was rescued and the healer informed Moody that he didn't know if Snape would recover. He spent two days hovering between life and death and was in such critical condition that there was no longer a need for a guard to be placed outside his cell, only a warning monitor to summon the healer if his condition changed.
That was the only thing which saved Severus Snape from an ignominious death as about 3:15 a.m. two house elves entered the Ministry, bypassed the flimsy wards set up and cautiously and gently rescued Severus Snape. If he was indeed fated to die it would not be in a cold Ministry cell, an inhuman cell in Azkaban and definitely not with a vicious, glaring, grinning Sirius Black hearing his last gasp or seeing the light leaving his eyes. No it would be with "his real family" and not his betrayers or capturers.
But he would live and like the others would never be found until he and the others came back and made the world burn.