Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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While Severus and Lily sat through yet another Death Eater meeting late one August night, Ellery and Draco found themselves unfortunately headed down the same hallway towards the same room at the same time.
Forced to walk side by side down the seemingly unending corridor that led towards the Malfoys' dining room, each boy wore a frown as they approached.
Draco stopped abruptly as they listened to the conversation that echoed through the empty corridor from the dining room.
"What's the matter?" Ellery asked his foe before he thought better of it, as Lily's kind heart led him to frown in concern at the suddenness of Draco's unexpected halt.
"Now that I've finally gotten you alone, Snape, I can ask you what I need to know." Draco spat as a horrible scowl twisted his features.
Ellery grimaced in fear as Draco took a threatening step towards him while he demanded, "Where….is your sister?!"
"...What?" Ellery blinked.
"Where is your sister?!" Draco hissed, "I know your parents are lying!...They know where she is! You know where she is! She isn't ill at all, is she?"
Ellery let out a startled gasp as Draco found the courage to berate someone younger and smaller than himself.
Without hesitation, Draco grabbed hold of Ellery's collar and hoisted him towards his face as he snarled, "TELL ME WHERE SHE IS OR I'll-"
"-Draco?"
Draco whirled around with Ellery still in his grasp to see his mother standing in the doorway to the dining room, having come to look into the hallway once she heard her son's voice.
"The meeting's about to start, my dear." Narcissa frowned, "The Dark Lord will join us any moment, please…..You can revisit your quarrel with the Snape boy afterwards. Come along and take your seat."
Grateful for the interruption, Ellery still cried out when Draco gave him a rough shove backwards as he relinquished his hold on his robes.
Disappointed and miserable, Draco stalked off to obey his parents yet again after Narcissa closed the door, but before Draco's fingertips touched the knob, Ellery called to him.
"I told you the truth!"
Draco scowled as he snapped his head in the direction of Ellery's voice.
"What?" He demanded in a gruff tone.
"We don't know where sissy is." Ellery confessed with a shuddering sigh, "We don't know if she's dead or alive……We don't know…..anything. We don't!"
Draco turned away as Ellery put his head down and tried to stop the tears that gathered in his dark eyes.
He mistook Draco's march through the door, away from him as a sign of angry indifference.
Draco had been unable to bear the pained look on Ellery's face.
Harriet's brother's awful expression of pure dismay had sent a festering pit of anxiety gathering in the bottom of his stomach.
As Draco sat at the long, ebony table and confirmed Ellery's claims to be believable by the nervous scowls on Severus and Lily's faces, he wondered if he would vomit.
How could he be expected to do anything knowing that Harriet was in danger?
How could he possibly go on living if she……if she never returned?
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Clinging to the small amount of peace they could find in each other's arms, Severus and Lily shared an intimate cuddle that evening after they finally returned from listening to Voldemort's long-winded speech.
"What are we going to do, Sev?" Lily sighed as she closed her eyes and listened to his steady pulse, "You heard him, he's coming next week to visit Harriet if she doesn't attend the meeting……What will we say when he gets here and sees she's nowhere to be found? That she's not at St. Mungo's either? That's she's gone?!"
"We won't have to say anything, Lily." Severus answered in a low purr as he kissed her forehead and clutched her against him more tightly, "As the Dark Lord wishes, Harriet will be present at the next meeting."
Lily blinked as she sat up and threw Severus an incredulous look.
"...Have you gone mad, Sev?" She asked in a little chuckle.
Severus's dark eyes glimmered with an unprecedented softness as his black gaze flickered over Lily's fair face before he took a moment to admire the way her crimson hair cascaded over her pale shoulders.
"My love, I will send a message or a messenger capable of finding and returning Harriet, if only for the evening." Severus explained, "Voldemort will see her, she will pander to him and he will be pleased. That will give him the confidence to allow her a bit more time to complete her task."
"...He'll read her thoughts!" Lily exclaimed in exasperation as she sat up and threw her hands into the air, "Sev, he'll see everything! He'll…..He'll-"
"He will see nothing that we do not wish for him to see." Severus nodded, "I will speak with Dumbledore on the matter. There's always a way, Lily, I just have to find it. Perhaps there's a splitting spell for my Occlumency or a bit of it she can successfully learn in time. He will learn nothing of our plans, my love, I will make certain."
"Learn Occlumency in a week?" Lily exclaimed.
"It may be possible for her to learn enough to maintain the practice for an hour or two." Severus nodded, "...She will have a great teacher, I'm certain."
"You can't go to her, Severus." Lily scowled, "You'll put all of us in danger! How do you-"
"-I was not referring to myself, my love." Severus slowly drawled.
Lily frowned.
"In an unexpected turn of events that neither myself nor Dumbledore anticipated, it seems there are two young men madly in love with our daughter, not only one." He explained.
Lily's frown softened as she gazed into Severus's dark eyes.
"No matter the final outcome that will result between the three of them……..We will see that Harriet's suitors are each given…….necessary missions." Severus added.
Before he and Lily went to bed that night, a tawny owl flew through the air as it left the Snapes' cottage, directed by an advanced tracking spell, and soared towards Harriet's hidden camp with an untraceable message tucked into its beak.
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Harriet was the first to rise the next morning.
As she began to prepare the meager breakfast she and her traveling companions would eat, the edge of her father's letter caught her attention as the dropped parcel lay stuck between two mossy rocks.
Harriet furrowed her brow, reached out, and collected the envelope.
While she silently berated herself for her own impulsiveness and hoped the parchment hadn't been cursed, she hurriedly removed the letter inside.
Her green eyes narrowed as she read over the lines the letter contained:
Malfoy Manor a Week from Thursday
Your Presence is Expected
Prepare to Stand in Front of the Dark Lord
Use the Resources You Have Nearby to Guard Your Thoughts
The letter bore no signature but Harriet could easily recognize her father's surprisingly elegant handwriting.
She let out a heavy sigh as the letter slowly destroyed itself in her hands, unraveling into soft embers until the last fibers of it vanished into the morning breeze.
"I can help you." A smooth voice called out behind her.
Harriet frowned as she looked behind herself and found Tom peering over her shoulder.
"If whoever sent that wants you to come face to face with my better half, you'll need to practice Occlumency to protect yourself." He nodded.
"How can I possibly learn something like that in a week?" Harriet frowned.
"...You're a bright girl, Harriet Snape." Tom smirked, "I'm certain you'll make a wonderful student."
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In a distant corner of Malfoy Manor's magnificent gardens, Severus pressed Draco against the hedge with his towering stature.
His dark eyes bore into Draco's gray gaze as his black robes draped around his feet like the ominous swirl of some dark creature's threatening, phantom form.
"I took the unbreakable vow for you, Draco." Severus whispered, "Surely in return, you can do this small task for me?"
Draco swallowed as he bravely stared into Severus's pale face, "I'll do it." He sniffed. His eyes went to the ground for a moment before he raised them to meet Severus's once more as he added, "Still...I confess….I'm frightened."
"Of being apprehended?" Severus asked.
"No, of seeing them together again. Harriet and that bloody Tom Riddle!" Draco spat.
The jealous hatefulness in his voice surprised Severus as Draco roughly pushed past him and walked away.
Regardless, Severus breathed a sigh of sweet relief while he closed his eyes.
He knew that he could undoubtedly rely on Draco to find Harriet in the forest, ensure his message had been delivered, and to make certain she had been well-prepared for the task to come.
A man in love never failed to protect his beloved.