"Draco should be proud, he has been given a great honor."
"He's only sixteen, he simply doesn't understand what awaits him! Why, Severus? Why my son? It's too dangerous! It's all revenge for Lucius's mistake, I know it!"
Severus Snape lowered his head and removed the pestle from the cauldron, which he had been stirring for the past five minutes. He still couldn't get Narcissa Malfoy's face, filled with grief, out of his head. Even though he was never a father, he understood her feelings well. And because of that, he increasingly disliked her older sister, albeit secretly but very passionately. Bella didn't seem capable of considering any other point of view, she saw only great honor for Draco in Voldemort's decision - to carry out a secret mission, let Death Eaters into Hogwarts, and at the same time serve as a Master to the Servant called by his father - Hans Christian Andersen.
Undoubtedly, the incarnated Servant, the great writer of the past, resembled a good person, and although he could occasionally blurt out something foolish, he could be a good mentor to Draco on those days when he didn't have his father or beloved professor by his side.
Snape looked at the pleasant bluish glow of the boiling potion in the cauldron. A more difficult task for him was to prevent Draco's accidental death in case he somehow angered Jeanne Alter. He couldn't fully comprehend the power of this Servant, as he had never seen her in battle before, and only from the words of other Death Eaters, he concluded - Draco will act wisely if he stays away from her, or... befriend her.
At the mere thought of it, Snape involuntarily raised his eyes to the ceiling and grimaced unpleasantly. He imagined Draco approaching Jeanne and a few days later they found him tied to the central ring on the Quidditch field. If anything, lessons in good manners were not the path in which Draco Malfoy could be called an exemplary student. Draco's foresight in his actions was barely distinguishable, and he couldn't anticipate every move in advance. If he were even slightly more astute, he would choose his friends wisely, without making mistakes. Now this young man doesn't even have normal friends who would come to his aid at any moment. Draco Malfoy's friends are two uncultured fools who can't find their way around Hogwarts anywhere except the Great Hall. All their acceptable grades in any subject are only due to his head of house's favor towards their fathers, who served Voldemort. Without him, these two would only deserve verbal gratitude for the fact of their presence in class.
The potion was almost ready, and Snape took the cauldron off the fire. He levitated the cauldron and carefully poured its contents into a small vial. Now everything is ready and Draco no longer needs to worry. This potion will not teach Draco how to socialize and it won't attract a queue of admirers vying for his friendship. This potion, brewed according to the recipe of one of his new friends, will open his heart.
Looking at the sapphire and opal hues of the potion in the vial, Snape pondered. Such a move on his part could send him and Draco on a joint mission to hell. Well, so be it. If young Malfoy suddenly changes for the better, then let it be. Snape strongly didn't want this young man to waste his whole life being subservient. He shared Narcissa's opinion and remembered her pained face on the day they made an irrevocable vow.
In the dim golden light of the candles, three complex symbols appeared on Snape's arm. Voldemort's command was never something that could be easily avoided or ignored. One who received it is obliged to make every effort to carry out the Dark Lord's will. That's why he is now a Master. But even his Servant opposes the will of the cruel master and does not wish to follow it to the end, taking advantage of his unique position.
Will Tom Riddle himself dare to challenge the Servant, against whom he has no chance of standing in a fair fight? Jeanne Alter has already proven this. It was because of her that the Darkest of wizards roamed, like a madman, offering these cruel bloody sacrifices in the name of increasing his power. Only one chance encounter temporarily halted this feast of death, the end of which was not foreseen. And only for the sake of it to soon blaze again, three times more terrifying than before, thanks to the summoned Servants.
Snape never asked Hans Christian Andersen where all the people he kidnapped disappeared to. He made superhuman efforts of willpower to hold back from saying that Jack the Ripper was not just limited to simple murders and followed the teachings of his historical predecessor, whose actions and disappearance still remained hidden behind a dark curtain of mystery that no one would ever know. The cruelty of this embodiment of the famous urban legend added a special subtlety to the situation, turning all the predecessor's atrocities into child's play compared to what this sweet blonde girl with huge green eyes did, in which Bellatrix saw almost her own daughter.
Footsteps were heard behind the door, but Snape continued to ponder Bella and her emotional attachment to the Servant she summoned. No Death Eater, except for her, held such feelings for their Servants. They all saw them only as tools to achieve their goals, and the Servants did not argue with them. All the speeches of the Servants only supported the Death Eaters in their aspirations, and only a few guessed that behind all these speeches about the duty of the Servants to fulfill the wishes of their masters, there were individuals with their own interests, life experiences, and character. It seemed that Voldemort was not interested in interacting with the Servants as people capable of conveying something to the Death Eaters, teaching them something, and any attempts by the Servants to influence them were not taken seriously. Let Hans Christian Andersen advise Draco on something good at least...
A familiar silhouette appeared behind Snape. Snape did not turn around - he already knew the guest. This guest now often accompanied him and never sought to disturb his peace.
"Now everything will work out," Snape said indifferently.
The shadow of his guest nodded. Thrown on the wall, it allowed Snape to communicate with the guest without looking at him and without unnecessary words. He was sure - if someone suddenly decided to delve into the Abyss of his memory, it would help keep the secret of his communication. But besides that, there was still something, and for a potions master, this circumstance was of paramount importance. He could hardly blame himself for lying, using justifications about the Abyss of Memory. Memories can be changed, erasing faces, words, and replacing real events with fictional ones. At the moment when it seemed that there was nothing that a person could not do, Severus Snape was only concerned about one thing, and it seemed impossible to him.
Trying not to think about it, the potions master turned his thoughts back to his recent conversations with Hogwarts' headmaster. Several months before the holidays, Dumbledore told Harry Potter about the Dark Lord's Horcruxes. Again, Harry guessed something similar only thanks to his friends, and this time the Golden Trio made Jeanne Alter think. She is too clever, no matter how old she is. But even she agreed with the need to follow Dumbledore's plans. And he understood perfectly - the whole upcoming year awaits him with assassination attempts. Poisoning in this case looks like the simplest of the expected troubles. They will try to curse him, try to engineer an accident, all so that at the most crucial moment, young Draco Malfoy dares to say the Dark Lord's favorite curse and forever inscribe his name in the history of the Death Eaters as the person who killed Albus Dumbledore himself. And Snape had to do it for him if Draco suddenly could not or could not overcome him. But the whole plan was discussed with Dumbledore in advance.
Snape saw Dumbledore's face before him, even in the moment of that conversation, maintaining incredible calmness and thoughtfulness. His eyes shone with an inexplicable mysterious light, and the headmaster declared:
"Let it be so."
He presented his deeply worked out and thought-through plan to a small group of trusted individuals, and among all the people in his office at that time, there was no one who possessed such knowledge and experience. None of them could foresee the events that the elderly professor spoke about. But he was the one who was not at all surprised by the recent ascension of King Arthur. His political opponents desperately resisted and even after the queen's abdication, sought loopholes to regain their lost position, but there was nothing they could do. The new king held all the power in his hands, all the threads of influence, and in the end, even made an unprecedented appearance at the Ministry of Magic - an event that the Daily Prophet articles couldn't stop talking about, constantly mentioning the king and his advisor - the great Merlin, who appeared before them in the form of a young man, even without a beard.
But Dumbledore saw further. His plan extended to the following year after his presumed death. He predicted enormous and awful upheavals when the whole world would feel the influence of the Holy Grail War. It was impossible to limit its impact on the surrounding world when the Servant becomes the king of an entire country. It was impossible to avoid disaster if the Grail fell into the wrong hands. You couldn't claim that a hurricane is your assistant when it destroys your fence and carries away your home, breaking it into pieces. This Battle for the Grail had not yet begun, yet it was already dragging the whole rest of the world into it, threatening to become the bloodiest and most terrifying battle that humanity could imagine. No matter what Voldemort wished for, true catharsis was no longer an upcoming event. It was no longer the future, neither distant nor immediate - it had already begun, and soon everyone in this world would see it for themselves.
Snape continued to portray the appearance of a person admiring a potion and judging its quality, although he knew, it was perfect. In reality, he still did not want to look at his guest when he expected some action from him. The guest did not even dare to break the silence, silently observing the actions of the potions master. This guest was one of those burdened with a difficult task - to bring victory in this war, but not to Voldemort. And although this guest's actions could be interpreted in two ways, his deeds differed very little from Snape himself - such a multifaceted and versatile person who by fate's will played a role and was forced to balance on the thinnest line between Dumbledore and Voldemort. His guest knew all this perfectly well and did not utter a word to random people, and what could Snape hide from him? They could only trust each other and go hand in hand along the path ordained for them by Albus Dumbledore until the very end.