Chapter 15
“Have you heard from Draco, my love?”
Lucius had been working in his office when his wife barged in. It was very unlike her to be so…impertinent.
“It’s only been a week, let him grow up. It’s time for you to let him become a man, he’s not going to if he runs to mummy every time, he’s having a bad day.”
Narcissa pursed her lips, he knew that meant she was angry with him. “He promised he would write the first night and tell me how it went. My Dragon always keeps his promises, unlike his father. The least you can do is reach out to Severus. If you don’t, I will, he’s always been fonder of me than you. Maybe because what happened with my dear cousin.”
“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand. Sirius and Severus were in love, and you had Rosier wipe their memories.”
It hadn’t been like that, Severus hadn’t been in love, he was infatuated. The Dark Lord would have loved the set, Black and Severus but it would have to have been an imperious curse to change that much in Black, because he would always revert back to what he was…a filthy blood traitor.
When he found out about Sirius and Severus it had been an accident. Narcissa had witnessed them sneaking out of a supply closet on the fourth floor, they thought they were being so sneaky. Rosier had the mission to make them forget all about their little love affair. But Rosier wasn’t that talented at memory charms and was only able to make them forget about everything up to the night the charm was performed. Luckily, he was able to skew the memory enough neither would look more into it or speak to the other.
His plan had only been to be able to turn Severus back towards their side because he was leaning too much to the light and now, he knew why. But the plan turned out better than he had ever could imagine because Black and Severus became mortal enemies. Whatever Rosier changed their memory to it had caused them to go for the throat every time. Because of that, the attacks between Potter and Black on Severus became much more violent and darker. The two were so against the dark arts but they hadn’t realized they were doing the same thing to the boy as the death eaters in training were doing.
Potter helped keep it going and it was a thing of beauty, he hadn’t even had to push Severus that much to get him to take the mark after Black and Potter humiliated him in front of the school. It also thankfully broke that unnatural friendship between Severus and the mudblood.
“I will contact Severus. Is that all?”
“Yes.” She turned on her heel and left.
Maybe it was because Draco was an only child, but he was unusually attached to his mother. He had done his best to make him into a proud pureblood wizard, but his mother was trying her best to keep him a little boy.
After writing two letters, one to Severus and the other to Draco, he walked over to his cabinet. It was his great grandfather’s, priceless. Pulling out the Pensieve and the vial that kept a memory that would cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people.
Taking his wand, he took the memory and dropped it into the Pensieve. It had been seventeen years since he last viewed the memory. After Narcissa saw the two star-crossed lovers, he had told Rosier who was a 7th year at the time. The memory was from Halloween night during Severus’s 4th year.
Going into memories he usually didn’t like but maybe there was something he could use against Black now. At the time he just wanted Black as far away from Severus as possible.
As he entered the memory he shivered, it didn’t feel right to watch another’s memories. Cissy always said it was odd of him to get uneasy going into someone’s memories but not when he did the things he did for the Dark Lord.
“Shh…Do you want someone to hear us?” that was from the fourteen-year-old Severus.
“Merlin, Sev, you would think you never did anything wrong…oh wait…Come on, you wanted a bad boy for a reason,” Black said, smiling at him.
They were standing inside an unused classroom, the door not completely shut. Rosier was standing at the door, peeking through. Because he was just a visitor to the memory, he slid in the room.
“Lily is going to kill me when she finds out I left.”
“I don’t think she’s going to notice; James is doing his one-man act.”
“Which just means she’ll get annoyed with him just as quick.” Black came up behind Severus and put his arms around his waist. “I’m telling them tomorrow.”
Severus turned in his arms and his black eyes wide. “What? I told you that I didn’t mind.”
“I mind. We’ve been together since last year, it’s time. I hate calling you Snivellus in the corridors.”
Severus laughed. “You do not, you still think you’re so very smart for thinking it up.”
“Well, it was James, if I have to be honest.”
“You’re an idiot,” Severus said with a sigh, leaning his head on the taller boy’s shoulder.
It felt like he was spying on them, watching the memories.
“Yeah. I was thinking, we’ve been together a while now.” Black started to push Severus’s robes open.
“I don’t know, that’s a big step.”
Black stopped his wandering hands and gave Severus a chaste kiss on the lips. “I understand if you’re not ready.”
“But you’ll go get your needs met elsewhere, right?”
Black angrily stepped back. “We’ve been through this, I’m with you but I had to make it look like I was with others. It would just have too many questions. I’ve done nothing with them, it was all for looks.”
“Your friends hate me.”
“Remus doesn’t, I don’t think he can hate. Peter will go with whatever the majority does.”
“What about James?”
“He’ll come around, just like you with him and Lily.”
Severus made an undignified grunt. “She could do so much better than that imbecile.”
“If you call us these things to our faces, I wonder what you say behind our backs?” Black asked with a cheeky smile.
“I wouldn’t say anything behind your backs that I wouldn’t say to your faces.”
“Aww, Sevvy, I think you like me, just a little.”
“I would rather be called Snivellus than Sevvy. If it comes out of your mouth again, I’ll hex your balls off.”
“Such crude words from the brightest boy in our year.”
“Just our year?”
Black grabbed Severus’s robes and pulled him closer. “Well, no one can accuse you of being humble.”
“Same.” Severus looked serious again. “Malfoy’s been sending letters.”
“I thought you weren’t going to reply?”
“I didn’t but he hasn’t stopped. I can’t flat out tell him I don’t want to join them because I’ll be dead within a year.”
“Stop talking like that. You said yourself that not all Slytherins follow him. It would look bad if some Slytherins started dying off. At least for the school.”
“I somehow made myself indispensable.”
“Shows me falling in love with a genius.”
“You love me?”
Black looked worried for the first time. “Is it too soon?”
Severus looked like he was about to pass out. “I want to…tonight with you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I even had a sip of fire whiskey earlier, pretty wild of me.”
“I saw you spit it out. I promise, I’ll make it a night you’ll never forget.”
Lucius was pulled out of the memory because soon after was when Rosier did the charm. He had been lucky to get the memory before Rosier fell in the war, killed by Mad-eye Moody but luckily took a piece of the Auror with him. The Prewitt brothers died in that fight; they were much more skilled than they anticipated. It took five of them, because of that Rosier didn’t have others watching his back.
Severus had just been infatuated with Black. The boy paid attention to him, that was all. He would have never told his friends. The Dark Lord knew the value in the half-blood when no one else did. He should have been honored to want to follow the Dark Lord. Rosier only gave him a little nudge. Memory charms can’t change how someone thinks or feels, the reason why they couldn’t get Black. But Severus forgetting everything between him, and the blood-traitor was all it needed. That and Black and Potter labeling him Enemy Number One. All because Rosier made Black forget his changing feelings of Severus. He had heard from other Slytherins that after that was the worst Severus ever had it. It’s when his spells and potions turned darker too.
When the owl dropped the letter in front of him at breakfast, he almost ripped it up. It was Saturday morning, their first day without classes since arriving. When he was small, he dreamed about going to Hogwarts and being in Slytherin just like every other member of his family except for a few they cut out years ago.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Dean Thomas asked him.
He wasn’t sure who he hated more from his dorm room. Dean was pretty high up, but Seamus was too cheery, it was annoying.
“Not that it’s any of your business, no I wasn’t going to open it.”
“Who’s it from?” Seamus asked.
“My father.”
He spun the letter in between his fingers. What was his father writing him about? Had Snape told him about the travesty in his life. It had to be an error, but Dumbledore wouldn’t hear of it.
“You can’t keep ignoring your family.”
Draco glared at Percy Weasley; the redheaded know-it-all had been getting into his business from the beginning. First, he tried to get him to make friends, then he tried to make friends with him himself.
“Shut up, Weasley, my life doesn’t concern you.”
“Hey, he’s just trying to help,” Oliver Wood, said.
Ignoring them both he put his letter in his robes and got up to leave.
“Mr. Malfoy, may I please have a moment of your time,” Professor Snape asked, startling the group.
“No. You’re not the head of my house.” Snape had been a long-time friend of his father’s. There was no way he wasn’t being a spy for him.
Not waiting for a reply, he left. Saying no to a professor would probably get him in trouble but right now he just didn’t care.
“I’ve never seen anyone say no to Snape before.”
Looking up he saw one of the Weasley twins, he didn’t know which and didn’t care.
“Go away.”
“Someone needs to remove that chip from your shoulder. You’re not in Slytherin, you should count your blessings.”
The first few days he had begged anyone and everyone for him to be re-sorted. No one listened not even Dumbledore.
“We have different opinions on that.”
The other twin joined them. “It’s going to be a long seven years without any friends.”
“You don’t understand. My dad will disown me as soon as he finds out. Not everyone is lucky and have parents that don’t care.”
“You think our parents are going to be skipping around now that Ron is a Slytherin? I don’t even understand it. If you’re going to make your father mad for just being a Gryffindor, you might as well go big.”
He had to admit that did sound fun. Always being what his father and mother wanted; it was exhausting.
“Like what?”
“So glad you asked my friend,” the twin on the left said. He had a very bad feeling about this, especially when they smiled in unison.
He tried a few times more to get Draco to speak with him unsuccessfully. The boy had ignored him at every turn. Students had been watching so he took points away. He was expected at Grimmald Place today so he wouldn’t think on it too much. Draco was supposed to be a Slytherin just like Potter’s son was supposed to be Gryffindor. There was no changing it so they would have to deal with the fallout.
After returning to his chambers, he grabbed what he needed. Weasley had said that his potion had worked, it didn’t need anymore research. He hadn’t been able to even test it on himself to make sure it wouldn’t kill the drinker because that was considered breaking wizarding law too. He would take the potion over to Grimmald Place and take it in front of his sworn enemies. The only reason he did this was because in case Weasley was wrong, hopefully they would cover up how he died. If it worked like he expected, nothing would happen because he didn’t have any magical damage or charms to his mind. The potion was to heal magical damage to the mind, no matter how bad. Percy said that it healed a woman who had fallen from a broom so maybe it healed even non-magical damage, he would have to look into it. In theory it would heal people from the mind snapping after extreme torture all the way to simple memory charms.