Chapter 1
Rabastan Lestrange to Severus Snape, Hogwarts
Dear Severus,
As you are no doubt aware, last Saturday the Lord expressed the wish for all unmarried followers to be married. I would love to call you part of my family and therefore ask you to dinner tomorrow evening.
Rabastan Lestrange
Severus Snape closed his eyes for a moment. It was the third letter of this kind and by now he was fed up. The other fathers were little lights and he could fob them off with a few platitudes and apologies, but Rabastan Lestrange was a serious problem. He had a lot of influence and his daughters were beauties that all the unmarried Death Eaters had been courting for the past week. It would cause a stir if he refused. A muted clearing of the throat from Salazar Slytherin's painting snapped him out of his musings.
"I hate to interrupt, but Professor Dumbledore is waiting outside your door!" the school founder announced to the guest at Severus' door. The Potions Master stood up with a sigh. What did this doddering old man want from him again? Not a day went by without Dumbledore pestering him with new tasks or complaints. "Severus!" the principal greeted his protégé. He raised an eyebrow and begged Merlin to let the old man get to the point reasonably quickly, at least today.
"Aren't you going to invite me in?" asked Dumbledore with mock indignation. With a wave of fate, Severus Snape opened the door to his sitting room and followed Albus. He dropped into one of the velvety armchairs and unwrapped a lemon sweet from its wrapper. "You got a letter from Lestrange?" It wasn't a question, but a statement. The Potions Master turned to Dumbledore in bewilderment. "How dare they intercept my mail?" he asked in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, but anger flickered in his dark eyes. The principal smiled, "An unpleasant necessity, so that you don't do anything nonsensical. Or weren't you planning on canceling?" With a disgruntled grumble, Snape had to admit to himself that Albus was right once again. He was going to cancel, no matter how stupid it seemed.
The principal took the grumbling as agreement and continued: "You will go-" "No!" Severus interrupted him. Undeterred, the old man continued, "You will go, Severus! Listen to me! You will go, you will court the young Lestrange and marry her! End of discussion! Anything else would risk everything! Everything, do you hear me!" It seemed as if everything inside Severus was screaming, but he nodded and Albus rose and left the premises. He didn't want to. Not to marry, no matter who, but especially not a daughter of a Death Eater. That would only make everything more complicated, he would have to hide his identity as a spy for the Order from her.
At 7 p.m. on the dot, Severus Snape knocked on the large, dark front door of Lestrange's manor. The house-elf opened it and only a short time later Rabastan himself welcomed him, followed by his wife Salome. Severus Snape exchanged phrases and had to stop himself from peering deeper into the hall. Only a short time later, two young women entered the sitting room, where the master of the house and his guest had settled down on a sofa and were each chatting with a glass of whiskey in their hands. The older woman was about 20 years old, tall, slim and her green eyes looked bored at the visitor, the younger one was perhaps only 17, half a head shorter, almost even thinner and her eyes were a shade darker. She stood uncertainly next to her sister while Rabastan introduced his daughters as Marjorie and Octavia. Severus gave the two young women an imperceptible smile and a sympathetic nod.
With a visibly artificial smile, Salome Lestrange invited her daughters and the guest into the dining room. It was a large, gloomy hall with stone ornaments on the walls that seemed to come from a century long past. Lost at the large oak table, the table was set for six and Severus spotted Bellatrix and Rodolphus, who had entered the hall through another door. "And you're on the hunt for a bride, Snape?" Rodolphus asked with a shabby grin. "I wouldn't call it hunting," the young potions master replied with a raised eyebrow. Rabastan assigned him the seat to his left, so Severus sat opposite Salome, next to her Octavia and opposite her older sister. The two girls were joined by the seats of the pair of Death Eaters. The first course was served and Severus began a somewhat sluggish conversation with Marjore Lestrange. Neither girl had attended Hogwarts, instead they had been educated at home by their mother, aunt and a governante in the important things in the life of a full-blooded witch from high society.
Marjore showed little specialist knowledge or interest and Snape found it increasingly difficult to keep the conversation alive. After a rather indelicate kick to the shin from her mother, which Severus had not missed, Octavia joined in the conversation and there was a breath of fresh air when she talked about a book of poetry that she and Marjorie had written together. After a five-course dinner, Severus Snape and Rabastan Lestrange went upstairs to a relatively bright room. Severus was sure that this was where the most difficult part of the evening began.