Lily was only half-aware of Sev dragging her into the empty potion's classroom. He guided her into a chair and gingerly parted her blood-soaked hair to look at her head wound. "Do you feel any pain in your neck?" He demanded.
Lily shook her head and immediately regretted it. She pushed feebly at his shoulder with her good arm and promptly vomited over the both of them. "Sorry, sorry," she murmured, feeling shame rise up at the mess she made.
Sev was unbothered. He handled worse when making potions, and said as much as he vanished the sticky mess. "That would be the concussion. You'll need to see Pomfrey for that."
"She'll ask questions."
Sev moved away and Lily missed his heat. She wanted to bury her face into his stomach, into those pretty robes. Who gave those to him? Was it Mulciber? Sev should take them off. She didn't want anything belonging to Mulciber on his body.
"Open wide," Sev commanded, sweeping back to her side. Lily obeyed and something bitter and slightly lemon-flavoured hit the back of her throat. Almost immediately she felt her vision start to clear and the thundering headache began to subside.
Lily blinked and saw Sev's hands hovering near her bad arm, his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he assessed the damage. The piece of bone that had broken through her skin had also torn through the sleeve of her shirt, and while the pain was no longer excruciating thanks to Sev, just looking at it made her want to vomit again. "This is going to hurt," Sev said, and before she could even ask a single question, he pushed the bone back into her flesh.
Lily kicked out on instinct, her face twisted in pain, mouth open but no sound was coming out. She felt something wet and warm land on her arm, Sev's hands worked it in, and then there was another potion in front of her face. She almost snatched it from him, throwing it back without even looking at it, desperate for any way to alleviate the pain.
At once she felt calm. The pain was still there, she was sure, and she thought that if she focused hard enough it would come back. But why would she want to do that? This place was nice and fuzzy. She turned her head to look at her arm and saw that it was covered in a bandage weeping with something purple and foul-smelling.
"A salve," Sev explained when he saw the dull curiosity in her hazy green eyes. "It'll force the bones to seek out the broken ends and reattach themselves."
Now that she wasn't overwhelmed with pain, Lily could take a moment to appreciate what she just accomplished. She won. She dueled Mulciber, she rescued Sev. She did it.
Sev's worried expression slowly melted away into a fierce scowl. "Stop fucking smiling like that," he growled.
She hadn't even realized she was smiling. And was it so wrong if she was? "What's your problem?" She demanded, irritation worming its way through the haze of potions.
"I hate it when you smile like that, like you're the big hero coming to rescue poor, helpless Snivellus," he snapped. "Like you're happy to get a chance at playing the knight even if it's at my expense!"
"God, I forgot how paranoid you can be. I'm not happy you're hurt! I did all of this to protect you! You should be grateful!"
"And if I'm not?" He challenged. "Would you let Mulciber have me?"
"Of course not–!"
"But you'll let Potter strip me in front of the entire school?"
"You called me a Mudblood!"
"And I'm sorry! I'm sorry, but I don't want to be your perfect princess! I don't want you to smile the way you smiled at the lake, so fucking pleased with yourself! I don't want to have to be constantly grateful!" Sev started to pace, shaking his head. "You don't know what you've done. Lily, we're engaged–"
"I know you must find it so disgusting to be engaged to a Muggleborn, but we've only got this year and next. After that we can go our separate ways–"
"You don't understand! You didn't save me! You just prolonged the inevitable! They'll challenge you to another duel, and they'll keep challenging until they win! It only stops when I'm finally of age to marry! God, look at yourself–" He gestured wildly at her. "Mulciber had you pinned in under a minute! How do you think the next duel is going to go for you!?"
He collapsed at the desk across the aisle, folding himself into the chair and burying his face in his hands. After a moment, he sucked in a deep breath, and lifted his head. "We can find someone to stage a mock duel. That would be the easiest way to transfer the bond–"
"No."
Sev shot her a look. "Then what do you suggest?" He mocked. "You want to get married? Have a couple of big-nosed, greasy brats?"
Lily huffed. He always had a way of getting under her skin. Who was she kidding? He had a way of getting under everybody's skin. "We could break the bond entirely."
Sev snorted. "Yeah, sure. Why didn't I think of that?"
Lily exploded. "What do you want me to do, Sev!? I'm trying to help you, but I don't understand! I don't understand how you can even be put in this situation! Can anyone be fought over like an object? Can James one day just decide we're engaged and there's nothing I can say or do to stop it unless somebody duels him?"
"No."
"Then why you?" She demanded.
Severus sighed. "Because of an old contract my grandparents had drawn up. They were apparently very traditional and offered up their only child and heir like a trophy. That's why my mother ran away and married a random Muggle at the first opportunity. The contract was voided with her marriage. That is, until I came along. Even though I'm a Snape, I suppose I still count as a Prince heir."
"We should go to Dumbledore."
"No."
"He can help you!"
"That man has never helped me! And– and there's more to it than just that. I'll have to tell him everything– and, no, I can't. I won't tell him, and I won't tell you either so don't ask." Sev stood up. "You should head back to your dorm before Filch catches you."
"Sev–" She said, standing up to stop him, but he was already hurrying out the door.
"I'll figure out a way to get you out of this, don't worry. You really should go to Promfrey for that concussion."
She reached for his arm. "I'm not abandoning you! I can help protect you!"
"Lily, you can't save me. This isn't a fairy tale." Sev let out a bitter laugh. "Or maybe it is. Have you ever actually read any fairy tales? It's all violence and rape. Donkeyskin, The Armless Maiden. Even Sleeping Beauty. In the original story, the prince doesn't wake Beauty with a kiss. He rapes her, and she only wakes when she gives birth to their twins." He pulled away again and this time Lily let him go.
Eileen had done her best to keep her past hidden, hadn't even wanted to tell her son her maiden name, but it was only a matter of time before he uncovered it. Prince. A wealthy name, a Pureblood name. He wasn't a nobody. He had come from a long line of powerful mages. They resided in his blood; their power was his power. The Half-Blood Prince.
"A Prince," Reg had said, one sunlit afternoon in Greenhouse 2. "You're a Prince." Professor Sprout had given him a small space to grow his own potion ingredients, which Severus took full advantage of. He pulled at the leaves of his deathroot, frowning at the brown spots that had bloomed overnight. He hoped it wasn't a fungus.
"Mm-hm," Severus absently hummed as he trimmed off the dead leaves. He had grown used to Black the Younger tagging along since his return to Hogwarts over Christmas break. Unsurprising, after what had happened. Even Severus picked up on the gossip. Sirius Black had finally been disowned, cast out, left bereft. Regulus made a big show of how much he didn't care. He wouldn't even say his name; only ever referred to him as "the blood traitor," which was often enough that the words had lost all meaning. Severus suspected that Black the Elder truly didn't care. He had yet to see the other boy so much as glance towards Regulus, while Reg burned holes into his brother's skull.
Perhaps that was why Reg had started clinging to him. If there was one person who could manage to snag Sirius Black's attention, it was Snivellus. Severus put up with it because– well, what else was he supposed to do? Tell him off? He didn't need both Black brothers out for his blood. So, he put up with it, and tried to ignore the eerie similarities between Reg and his brother.
"You know, my father was supposed to marry your mother."
Severus jerked upward at the words, accidentally ripping off a stem in the process. "What?"
"It was a whole big scandal. Your grandfather had just signed the marriage contract binding our Houses together, and that night your mother was gone. Disappeared. No one ever heard from her again. I had no idea you were her son. Just think, in another life, we could have been brothers." Reg frowned and squinted through the thick glass of the greenhouse. "Is that the blood traitor with Potter? What do you think?"
"I can't tell from here," Severus commented without bothering to look up from his plants.
Regulus told everyone. Of course he told, and at first Severus liked the sudden speculative looks his housemates sent his way. He wasn't just the unknown son of some low family like the Weasleys; he was a Prince, and that apparently meant something to the Purebloods.
He had been in the greenhouse again the following year, only two days into the term, when Regulus approached him, his face turned downward, eyes wide and nervous and glancing all around as if expecting an ambush. "What is it?" Severus demanded. "Is it your brother?"
"No, no, it's–" Regulus fumbled, not even throwing a fit at the mention of Sirius, no shouts of 'He's not my brother!' "I met… Him."
Severus froze.
"He came to dinner to speak with my parents and with me. He– gave me a request."
Regulus had met the Dark Lord. Regulus, who was a year younger than him and not half as good at spellcasting, had met the Dark Lord and been asked a favour. Severus knew Lucius had been dropping his name at meetings, trying to get the Dark Lord to look past his blood status and recognize what a talented asset Severus would be, and here he was, just casually popping over to the Black family home for a light snack and a casual chat. The Wizarding World was unfair. "What did he want?" Severus asked, and it was only through much practice that he kept his voice cool and steady.
"He wants me to marry you."
"What!?" Severus whipped around to face him. Regulus's face was a brilliant scarlet.
"He's very interested in the Prince family, or what's left of them. I don't know why, something to do with the history of Hogwarts, I think. He wants my parents to invoke the old contract and marry us. Mother was completely against it, of course. Didn't want you dirtying the family, but the Dark Lord is… very persuasive. And, anyway, I can always get children from a Pureblood girl." He bit his lip. "I mean, if you agree."
This wasn't how Severus ever thought a marriage proposal involving himself would ever go. Well, to be honest, he never imagined it at all. It was a moot point. Maybe, as a young child, he assumed he would one day get married and have children, but as he grew it became increasingly obvious that it would never happen. He wasn't… he wasn't the marrying type, he supposed (ugly, dark, greasy, unpleasant). But if it was ever going to happen, then Severus assumed he would have gotten on one knee, presented a ring to a girl, like in the movies. But here was little Regulus Black, who looked like his demon of a brother, telling him that the Dark Lord wanted them to get hitched.
Well, why not? What did he have to lose? He was already in his sixth year and he had no money, no way to pay for his potions mastery. He'd have to spend several years at home, living under his father's roof, and hope he could save enough. Just the thought of it made his stomach turn. There was, of course, pledging his service to the Dark Lord. They were in need of someone with his skill, and Lucius had promised him wealth and safety and power if he could get the Dark Lord to agree to him, but until now the Dark Lord had shown no real interest in the half-blood. Is this what it would take? And, anyway, would it really be so bad if he married Regulus? He was nicer than his brother, and the Blacks were wealthy and well-connected. It'd piss Sirius off, and that alone might be enough to push Severus into agreeing with it.
"Alright," he heard himself say and Regulus smiled brilliantly up at him.
He really should have asked to see that contract before agreeing.
For every curse, there was a counter-curse. For every poison, there was an antidote. Lily knew there must be a way to break the bond, no matter what Sev said.
Despite the lingering pain and the exhaustion, Lily didn't return to the dormitory. She snuck into the library, searching for anything that might pertain to the old Dueling Ground and its wards and glyphs. There was nothing in Hogwarts: A History or The History of Magical Education from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Early Middle Ages. Not even so much as a whisper of the ancient chamber she was just in. She pulled out Glyphs and Their Construction and Dark Wards; both books mentioned the use of human sacrifice in the creation of powerful wards, but neither elaborated on the subject, only stating that it was of the vilest of magics.
She idly thumbed through Medieval Ballads and Their History, pausing when she came across a very peculiar passage.
Sweet Godric arose one May morning
And dressed himself in blue
"We want you tell us something about
The long love between Lady Rosalind and you."
"I know nothing of Lady Rosalind's love
I'm sure she doesn't love me."
"And yet we see her coming over the mound
Every day just to speak with thee."
Sweet Godric built for himself
The walls for a new school
And every evening as the sun went down
There appeared an evil ghoul
The walls, the walls they were torn down
On the ground the bricks were tossed
"Never shall you build this school
Until you have paid the cost."
When Lady Rosalind came in the morning
Sweet Godric said to she,
"Close your eyes, close your eyes, my love
And stand very still for me,"
Sweet Godric built for Lady Rosalind
A cold tomb of alabaster stone
Where to this very day we are told
Comes forth a low, soft moan