As promised, here is the next chapter. I sometimes have time to write, there's about half of another done so, here's hoping its done soon. I apologize for any mistakes. I didn't take the extra time to listen to this for a 13th time before posting.

Chapter 34

Severus woke in a cold sweat. Something was wrong. Breathing deeply and reaching out with his magic, he checked the wards.

They had been penetrated. The fear of discovery that had dogged his every step for weeks came upon him in a rush. It was exactly like the other Death Eaters to attack in the dead of night. He might have been caught off guard in his sleep. Thankfully, he had better wards than that.

Throwing the covers back, he slid from bed, snatched up his wand and crossed to the door. Spinners End was old and poorly built to start. As such, the floors creaked with every step. No amount of silencing charms could stop the house from noticing your presence. For perhaps the first time in his life, Severus was thankful for it.

He peered out into the hall, allowing his dark-adjusted eyes to see through the gloom without the giveaway of a lumos. Nothing. Not wanting to make any noise, he waited in the shadows, a stupify on the tip of his tongue.

A blonde head, illuminated by the moonlight pouring in from the front window, rose slowly up the stairs. The floorboards complained with every delicate step. Squinting, Severus thought he could just make out the irritation on his face.

Heart pounding, body tensing for a fight with his friend, he stepped out further on the landing. "Lucius."

The blonde froze in his tracks, wand raised. "These bloody stairs. Honestly, Severus. I had no idea you still lived in such a hovel."

Scoffing, Severus took two steps closer. "Posh git. What are you doing here?"

Lucius eyed the wand pointed at his chest and sighed, slowly lowering his own. "We need to talk."

Mirroring his friend, Severus relaxed minutely. "It's the middle of the night. What could be so important that you would break into my, 'hovel' at…" He cast a tempus. "Three in the morning?"

Lucius glanced around the hall, opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and sighed. "I know you are working with the Prewetts. I recognized the patronus this afternoon as belonging to one of the twins."

Bloody buggering hell. He should never have been so stupid as to receive it at the manor. He should have left. It had been an error born of laziness and now at least one other Death Eater knew his secret.

They were alone… for the moment. Surely it had to mean something that Lucius had come alone. Didn't it?

"As I told the Dark Lord: I approached them to learn about their hats." It was a weak attempt.

"You told the Dark Lord they rebuffed you." Lucius arched a condescending brow. "Did you lie to his face, Severus? Your occlumency must be strong indeed."

"Perhaps I am spying for our master. I can be persuasive, Lucius. I went back to them. I convinced them I could help their cause."

"No…" Lucius shook his head slightly. "My dear sister-in-law was present for your… conversation with the Dark Lord. How do you think everyone knows? She was rather clear about his fury that you'd even try such a thing."

Severus tsk'd in annoyance, allowing his hatred of Bellatrix to outweigh his rising panic. "Loudmouth bitch."

"Yes, she does tend to go on about her victims. Very ill-mannered of her." Not even the gloom of the hall could conceal the other man's disdain for their Dark Lord's paramour. "But Severus, there is also the matter of the item, the item very dark indeed and belonging to our master that you took from my office."

Deny, deny, deny. "You don't honestly believe that I'd steal from you? It could have been…"

"No one, not even the house elves, are allowed in my office, Severus. And you were the only guest I'd received there before or since the item went missing. I know you took it." Lucius took an emphatic step towards him. "It was such a strange thing and I could not make up my mind why you would have done it. Naturally my first inkling was that you had lied to the Dark Lord somehow but, no one lies to him. Surely if you'd turned spy he would have discovered it."

When he advanced again, Severus retreated, the wall suddenly very hard at his back.

"And so naturally, I concluded that you must be working with the Dark Lord to test me. It is no secret to him that this was my father's ambition for me. Had it been up to me I would have married and taken my wife to the continent, leaving this whole business behind."

He gestured angrily at his left arm. All of this was news to Severus. As far as he knew, Lucius was every bit as loyal to their master as Bellatrix. Realizing he had nothing pertinent to add and recognizing a long-withheld tirade when he saw one, he kept quiet.

"So you see, either you'd turned spy against the Dark Lord, or you'd turned against me. I could hardly confront you about my suspicion if the former were the case, but if I went to the Dark Lord and you were, in fact, a spy, you'd be killed.

"Despite the possibility that you—someone I considered a rare true friend—had betrayed me, I did not wish for your death, Severus. I was a bit annoyed, I'll confess, and more so now that I'm certain of your allegiance, that you must have thought me an unobservant fool. On the night in question, you took advantage of my distress to steal from me. Surely you must have thought that I'd notice?"

"I…" Severus blinked stupidly. Of course Lucius noticed. What a careless idiot he'd been.

"I had done my best to put it from my mind, as occlumency is not something that comes naturally to me. All the while, I kept a closer eye on you. A habit that has finally rewarded me."

Unfortunately, there was nothing Severus could think of to refute his friend's accusations. All that was left to do was hope Lucius was here for him and not the Dark Lord.

"Let's say you're right. Why haven't you gone to the Dark Lord with this?"

Lucius scoffed. "Have you not been listening, Severus? Obviously I'm here, in your… home at three in the morning because I desire to be a part of however you are working against our master."

For almost an entire minute, Severus stared blankly at the other man. He could not have said what he thought he'd just said. Maybe this entire thing was a dream.

"You want… to work with the Prewetts? Against the Dark Lord?"

The pregnant silence was his only response.

"How very Gryffindor of you."

Lucius scoffed again and leaned against the wall opposite Severus. "Hardly. I simply see the best course of action to protect my family and my name. He's been angling to use the manor. Can you imagine living with him?"

Memories he'd seen in Hermione's head suddenly came to the fore. The Dark Lord had in fact lived at the manor during the second war. From what he had gathered, it was anything but pleasant.

This was precarious territory. Trust was a dangerous thing and at this stage, Severus wasn't sure they could afford the risk. Then again, Lucius was perhaps his only real friend.

"You only became a Death Eater because of your father? You're not loyal to the cause?"

Lucius shrugged slightly. "I may not be an advocate for marrying muggles, but neither am I frothing at the mouth to torture them. Even less a wizard or witch with less than pure blood. I never saw the point. I don't think you ever had the pleasure of meeting my father, Abraxas. He was at school with the Dark Lord. Naturally, I had to join his cause when I came of age."

He wanted to trust his friend. But this wasn't his decision to make.

"Lucius, it isn't…"

Halfway through explaining that he couldn't bring him in himself, an idea occurred to him. The plan they had come up with to kill the Dark Lord was reasonably sound. Dangerous, but sound. It did, however, have one potential problem: setting up new wards around the Riddle estate was likely to tip the Dark Lord off that something was up. Their working solution was to wait until the last second to set them up. If they could access a ward stone however…

"Actually, you may be able to help."

GH

"Let me get this straight. You want us to let Lucius Malfoy into our plan? Are you bloody joking?"

If she squinted, Gideon could have been Ron in one of his righteous rages. His face was red with indignation as he berated Severus. Not that Hermione was completely on board with their spy's proposition. It did sound especially dangerous.

"No, I'm of completely sound mind. He has every reason to help us and none to carry on with the Dark Lord."

The two men had been going round for the last five minutes and it was beginning to give her a migraine. George was sat beside her, looking both deep in thought and increasingly annoyed. His hand was on her thigh, fingers tapping lightly.

"You just want to save your Death Eater friend! I remember what his father was like, Snape."

"What a typical Gryffindor. All brawn and bright ideas, not a wit of brains."

"Hermione." George spoke so only she could hear. "I didn't go to the trials. What did Draco and his mum say? I thought I remembered you mentioning Abraxas. Didn't they run away at the end of the battle?"

Rubbing at her eyes, Hermione tried to remember. The trials felt like a lifetime ago. She had spoken on behalf of both Narcissa and Draco and been privy to their entire trials. There hadn't been much she didn't know or hadn't guessed in Draco's. He'd only ever done what he'd had to to keep himself and his mother alive while his father had been in prison.

Narcissa's, however, had been enlightening. Lucius had been much like his son. An arrogant rich prat but not a monster. His father on the other hand… if his wife was to be believed, Abraxas was the reason Lucius had been marked.

According to her, her husband had wanted nothing to do with Voldemort and had in fact planned to take her away to France before his father had forced him to comply. Something about family magic she hadn't understood at the time.

During the first war, Lucius had gotten away with the bare minimum violence and mayhem. Apparently his financial contributions and the occasional blood traitor torturing had been enough to keep him in Voldemort's good graces. When he'd returned, there had been almost no pleasing their master.

By the end, it had been all they could manage to attempt to escape the final battle with their son. Something that Lucius had paid for with his life, fending off an enraged Lestrange brother while his wife and son escaped.

Assuming all of that was true, and considering how testimony was collected she didn't see how it could have been lies, Hermione wondered if Severus's idea didn't have merit after all.

With a heavy, resigned sigh, she told her husband so and stood to intervene.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Prewett! Why isn't my word good enough? You trust me don't you?"

"Excuse me!" Hermione shouted at both of them, but neither one seemed interested in ceding their argument.

"Kid, I hardly know you. I trust you because the future duo trusts you. All I know about Lucius Malfoy is that he's an arrogant, blood supremacist twat!"

"Honestly, would the pair of you shut up?" This time she emphasized her words with a stinging hex to each of their backsides.

"Fuck!"

"Bloody hell, woman. What was that for?"

Arms crossed and hair slightly sparking, Hermione glared at both of them. "I tried interrupting but neither of you could hear me over the sound of your shouting."

Gideon sighed in frustration and scrubbed a hand across his face. "My apologies. I suppose that got a bit out of hand."

Severus merely scowled.

"I have spent the last few minutes thinking about this and I'd like to share but before I do that… Gideon, you need to apologize."

The blotchy faced ginger did a double take. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You need to apologize. Severus has more than proven his trustworthiness, mine and George's future memories notwithstanding."

From behind one of the flaps separating a bed from the room came a mumbled, "She's right, Gid."

After an exasperated sigh, he relented. "Fine. She is right. I do trust you, Snape. On your own merit. But this is… we're so close to the end and walking such a fine line as it is."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Severus seemed equally exasperated. "Which is precisely why you should at least hear my idea."

Interjecting quickly before things devolved again, Hermione took a step between them. "Listen Gideon, I know you don't like it and I understand why, but I think we should trust Malfoy."

"What?"

"Just, listen to me, will you?"

Gideon looked about to say something, but a glance beyond her to where George was sitting stifled whatever it was. When she turned around to see why, her husband merely smiled encouragingly at her. Rolling her eyes, she turned back around.

"Lucius Malfoy has always only cared about his family. After the war, the second one, I sat in on Narcissa's trial. She said some very revealing things. I don't know how much you know about Wizingamot trials, Gideon, but I believe that we can trust him."

"Hermione," Gideon gave her a flat look, "considering I occasionally sit in the family seat for those trials, I think I know plenty." He eyed Severus again before seeming to relent. "Fine, let's hear this new plan. But I'm only willing to consider Malfoy based on your future knowledge."

"He's willing to let us use Malfoy Manor." When no one immediately responded, he sighed. "Instead of the Riddle estate. He'll allow us access to the ward stone to set up the anti-radiation wards and then take Narcissa on holiday. Apparently the Dark Lord has been angling to use the manor for his meetings. A 'proper magical home.' Lucius thinks that will be enough of a prize for him to allow the trip to the continent."

Relief at such a perfect solution to their biggest problem filled Hermione's chest. She'd been laying awake the last several nights agonizing over this very thing. Now they'd been presented with a solution at last.

Gideon looked thoughtful, finally smiling. "Hmm. That could work." Suddenly he frowned. "Can he occlude well enough to get away with that though?"

The reticent look on Severus's face answered for him. "We will have to obliviate him once we've set the wards. Keep the thoughts of the trip and relenting to open his home, get rid of the rest."

"Wonderful." Finally deciding to join the conversation, George stood from the sofa and draped an arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Time sensitive decision then, I'd wager?"

"Yes. He came to me early this morning. There is no knowing when the Dark Lord might call him. I need to get back to him as soon as we decide."

George gave Hermione a long, searching look. When she only gave a slight nod, he made up his mind. "Alright then. Gid, why don't you drag your brother out of bed and wake up Ambrosi. The three of you can go with Severus to Malfoy Manor as soon as they've had a pepper-up potion."

Gideon crossed his arms and scoffed. "And who put you in charge, nephew?"

George tipped his head toward Hermione. "She did. Obviously."

With a shake of his head and something muttered about 'married men,' Gideon did as he was told.