Chapter 39, Ready Or Not,
Severus knew that being Regulus's friend was what truly made Lucius Malfoy interested in him. Of course Lucius was likely interested in all Slytherins to some degree as potential followers of Voldemort, but it was no secret that Regulus considered Severus a particular sort of kindred spirit. Sirius and his git friends had a hate on for both of them, after all. One would think they would hate Regulus more, considering Sirius had grown up with him and thus, by all rights, had more time to grow to hate him. Severus seemed to be particularly gifted at inspiring the hatred of all the Gryffindor gits, though.
His friendship with Regulus seemed to make things worse rather than better as he'd initially hoped would happen last year. He'd hoped that ganging up on them with one more on his side would make them back off, but he supposed he hadn't thought out the logistics of that. Just like Heather and Raislen, Regulus was never in any of his classes, between which much of the bullying took place. Regulus was never there, so he could not help by having Severus's back. The gits rarely started with him when he had back up. He assumed it simply wasn't as much fun for them. Not to mention, the bigger the group was, the more attention from professors or other students it would gain, so having the gits vs Severus, Raislen, Heather, and Regulus meant more people were likely to notice.
In such cases everyone got detention, and the gits never enjoyed that. Their unwanted attentions did benefit Severus, though. It gave him the necessity that he may otherwise not have had to come up with various spell combinations that worked well against entire groups of people. Thanks to James, Sirius and Peter, Severus was becoming quite good at nasty hexes and curses in a charming variety of combinations.
The other surprising upside was the unexpected attention of Lucius Malfoy. Regulus clearly spoke often and well of Severus to Bellatrix and that lot, for Lucius, in particular, seemed to think very highly of Severus if one were to judge by the friendly, nearly affectionate way in which Malfoy frequently addressed him. Without Regulus's friendship, Severus certainly never would've seen Lucius Malfoy again after the later had graduated Hogwarts.
He came along with the Lestranges at least two out of the three times they all met at the Hog's Head on those Hogsmeade weekends. Lucius always made a point to greet Severus as though the two were old friends. This was a bit surprising, because the first time they'd met on the first Hogsmeade weekend when Severus was finally allowed to go, Lucius hadn't greeted anyone in particular and had seemed bored to be there.
Severus assumed he was just there because Narcissa wanted to be with her sister that day. With that in mind, he was a bit surprised to see Malfoy turning up again, sometimes even without Narcissa. Once he offered to buy the next round of drinks for everyone, then asked Severus to come up with him and help carry them. Severus felt like a git saying no, so went along even though Malfoy could've easily floated all the drinks without requiring help. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that Malfoy had no ulterior motive, but likewise, he was smart enough to know that he could use it for his own ends. Malfoy was a Death Eater, after all. Severus had planned to use Regulus as an in, so this was still workable. Rather than serving when they were older as a direct in to Voldemort himself, Regulus was serving as an in to the Dark Lord's inner circle right now. Though Severus wasn't at all ready to begin his path of revenge against Voldemort yet, before even finishing school, he'd learned that life did not seem to wait until one was ready for it. Life had not seen fit to wait for him to get a bit older before it killed his father or set the Gryffindor Gang of Gits on him, after all. If he was anything, Severus was a fast learner.
"So what do you plan to do with yourself after graduation," Lucius asked him as they stood together at the bar waiting for Aberforth Dumbledore to ready their large drink order. There were five Firewhiskies for Lucius, Narcissa and the three Lestranges, and five Butterbeers for Severus, Heather, Raislen, Regulus and Kreacher.
"I... I have many options, so I have yet to settle on one," Severus replied, after only a second of hesitation.
"Hm," Lucius said. "Wise already at such a young age." As he had not posed another question, Severus made no reply, leaving Lucius to continue, which he did. "You know, Our Lord could use someone like you." As he spoke, he dropped his voice, leaning conspiratorially closer to Severus.
Severus was careful not to appear too eager, instead, pausing to pretend to consider. "Perhaps."
Lucius smiled, apparently satisfied for the moment. A laugh from the direction of their table caused both to glance in that direction. The younger Lestrange was laughing at a comment that Raislen had made, while Kreacher and Regulus appeared to be strenuously objecting to it. "He takes that annoying elf everywhere," Lucius sneered.
Severus had to struggle to keep the surprise from his face. The group at large seemed to accept Kreacher, taking him as a given and even liking him. He nearly asked Lucius what Kreacher had done to him, but decided that it would be safer to ask Regulus later instead. Showing Malfoy as little of his true thoughts as possible was surely the wisest course, all things considered. Fortunately Aberforth presented their order then, pushing two chipped wooden trays across the counter.
Lucius paid without tipping and scooped up the tray of Firewhisky, leaving the Butterbeers for Severus. Lifting his tray, Severus approached the table at Lucius's side. As the two placed their trays on the table and resumed their seats, Severus's eye was caught by something silver spinning across the table to end sticking straight up in the wood beside Malfoy's hand. It was an ornate dagger topped by a skull covered in equally ornate swirls of filigree. The thing had an antique look, and Severus wondered where it had come from. Lucius drew in a sharp breath and scowled at the extremely close proximity of the blade to the tender flesh of his hand.
"Isn't my pretty new dagger nice, Lucy," Bellatrix asked dreamily. "Roddy gave it me last week. I want to turn it into a wand." She cackled at the frown of distaste on Lucius's face as he looked down at the sharp blade not a millimeter from his little finger. "Don't worry. I didn't miss. If I had intended to take the finger, you would no longer have it," she crooned.
"Is Miss Bella high again, Kreacher wonders," the elf rasped quietly, lips pursing in low key disapproval.
"All three of us are high, Kreacher," Bellatrix said. "Now if you ruin our fun, I will have to send you and Regi away on an extremely dull errand, so do shut up for your own bloody sake."
"What sort of errand, Kreacher wonders?"
"And don't bloody call me that," Regulus added darkly. Severus wondered exactly how the three Lestranges were supposed to be high. He did not bother to hide his perplexed frown as he looked to Heather and Raislen for the answer, but they looked equally confused.
"Bella," Narcissa interjected smoothly, a low tone of warning in her voice. "Be nice, do."
Bellatrix sighed, not even glancing at her sister as she snatched the dagger's point from the table. "Anyway, as I was saying. I want to turn it into a sharp shiny wand that can cut people when I point it at them and wave it!"
"Not subtle enough," Severus said without thinking. "Anyone can see a dagger coming. It's a spell that does the same thing that you want."
Bellatrix scowled. "No. I want a dagger wand. I enjoy knife-throwing and playing with pretty pointed things."
Severus felt his lips turning up into a smile as a sweet realization struck him. "Very well. In that case, it is I who need something more subtle that can't be seen coming, and you've just given me an idea."
Bellatrix smirked, waving the dagger happily at Severus. "Well in that case, you are welcome."
Raislen and Heather exchanged an uneasy glance before both returned their focus to Severus.
"Be careful, Kid," Raislen said. "That's all."
Severus nodded. "Careful is my middle name." Well it may as well be, he decided.
"I can't decide if I want to be horrified or excited," Heather said. "I think I'll go with excited and trust you to be careful."
"That spell we were talking of at the beginning of the year on the train? The one to use on Sirius and his lot," Regulus asked eagerly. Severus nodded. Kreacher gave Regulus a questioning glance, so the younger Black leaned close and began whispering into the elf's bat like pointed ear. As he spoke, Kreacher's large round eyes narrowed in thought, then his face broke into a grin.
"I thought those gits had sodded off, at least mostly," Heather said.
Severus shrugged. "Mostly. Now it's more pretending that I started it or pretending that they're only joking, or pretending that whatever rubbish thing they do is a bloody accident," he sneered. "In other words, they've gotten mildly creative, at least for them."
"Not to mention, they've begun calling me Baby Black for running to older kids for protection," Regulus said. "That's surely you and Raislen," he told a now darkly scowling Heather. She nodded tersely before turning her gaze to Severus.
"Did they say that to you too, Kid?" She demanded.
Severus shrugged. "Something like that. They don't call me Baby Black, though." No. Instead they called him something far worse when accusing him of running to Heather and Raislen for protection. They called him Snivellus.