Springfic: "Sleeping Dogs" for bluemoon02
Title: Sleeping Dogs
Author: Djin7
Recipient: bluemoon02
Character(s): Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter, Severus Snape (flashbacks)
Rating: PG-13
Word-count: ~4,700 words
Warnings (highlight to view): Canon character death
Summary: You would be better served if you let sleeping dogs lie. (Chaucer)
Author's/Artist's Notes: For bluemoon02, who wanted "character study, secrets, gatherings, funerals, aftermath, contingency plans, obsession".
Despite the summary, title inspired by the following: "He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person." ~ Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.
Quote(s) from the last scene taken directly from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Betas: All mistakes are mine, though the excellent Cyn, Red and J all did their best to curb them.
Sleeping Dogs
There was a pianist on the dais, gently fingering the sotto melody of a sad and somber affair on the well looked after piano - Bach, if he wasn't mistaken. He resisted the urge to chuckle as he watched the mourners mill about the foyer of the Muggle chapel.
Snape would have adored this.
Lucius stood still and silent off to the side, arms crossed, watching as the maudlin snuck glances at the coffin where the body of Severus Snape lay within. They were neighbours and business owners of the small town in North Yorkshire where Severus kept his childhood home of Spinner's End. Perhaps even some Snape cousins, twice removed.
There was nothing left of the family of Prince, another great Wizarding heritage gone forever with the death of their last son.
*~*
Lucius remembered Snape's Sorting Ceremony, and how, once he'd joined the Slytherin table after a ridiculously fast Sorting (the hat yelled, "Slytherin!" before it even touched the boy's head), he was immediately preyed upon by a fourth year - Nott, he recalled.
Snape was certainly nothing to look at, his robes clearly second-hand and ratty-looking, and his pale skin and terrible hair hanging limply over a nose that was not to be borne.
Nott had sneered at the boy, "What kind of Wizarding name is Snape?"
Lucius, watching the exchange with little interest, remembered how the boy had drawn his eleven-year-old self up to his full height, and sneered right back, "My mother is a Prince!"
Lucius watched him sit down, but not before giving Nott a haughty turn of his head.
He doubted that Nott had even noticed that the boy had drawn his wand under his sleeve, hidden for the best effect. Oh, yes, Prince was a name worthy of respect.
Lucius noted that this boy seemed quite unafraid for a first year. No fear of being alone, of being shabby or ugly, or of a boy twice his size. Having his wand ready and out in an attack stance when most children barely knew how to levitate a feather. How…intriguing.
Lucius also did not miss how the boy - Severus "I am a Prince" Snape - eyed the cute little redheaded Gryffindor first year at the next table with sadness.
*~*
The crowd - such as it was - were mingling and growing restless for the after feast, wanting their teas and cold ham sandwiches, Snape's name on none of their lips. Probably the social event of the season, Lucius thought unkindly. He knew that this little industrial town had little better to do, and losing Snape was like losing a town icon, even if the man was universally hated by neighbours and relatives alike.
He imagined Snape watching them, almost hearing his caustic diatribe about how useless they all were, how terrible this place was, how often he thought of lifting his wand against them. Perhaps, even, how often he had.
Lucius had no choice but to be here to pay his respects, as he was not welcome on Hogwarts' grounds for the Wizarding service. He could not carry his wand outside of his Manor, either - one of the terms of his suspended sentence for his part in the Battle at said school.
He raged at the injustice of it, forced to send Snape off in the company of Muggles he couldn't care less about in a sham of a memorial.
Lucius knew that after this was over, Snape's body would not be going to the family mausoleum, though the Muggles all thought it would be. Snape's empty coffin would be interred there, along with his name etched on a plaque on the wall next to his parents.
His body, however, would be going to Hogwarts for a service likely rivalling Dumbledore's own. As the acting Headmaster defending Hogwarts to his untimely end, Snape had earned the honour of being entombed on the school's grounds, along with Dumbledore.
The irony, Lucius thought, was exquisite.
This surprising turn of events was made possible by the efforts of The Boy Who Lived, who had spent the last week loudly braying to anyone who would listen that Severus Snape was a hero worthy of Godric Gryffindor himself.
It was this thought that enraged Lucius the most.
Because despite all that Snape had done to Lucius, their fellow Death Eaters and the Dark Lord's cause, Severus Snape was a Slytherin to the very core. A Slytherin worth his salt, one the likes of which this world had not seen for a very long time.
Harry Potter really had no idea what made a Slytherin so special, why Snape did the things he did.
It was for these reasons that Lucius was forced to come out to this ridiculous service, unarmed, to pay his respects to a man who'd outwitted most of his compatriots and enemies alike.
One thing Lucius had not anticipated was the sudden arrival of The Boy Who Defeated the Dark Lord with an Expelliarmus (oh, the indignity), along with a small battalion of said boy's worshippers, including the red-haired Weasley horde.
He also noted the Aurors following in their wake, clearly the boy's standard security, though they looked at home in the Muggle chapel. Mudbloods, then.
Lucius lifted his eyebrow as Harry Potter himself, dressed smartly in a dark Muggle suit, cut a swath through the mourners, directly to where Lucius was standing. Lucius imagined Snape cursing the boy with a tripping jinx, which made him smile.
Potter took it as a challenge. Without so much as a by your leave, he spat, "Why are you here, Malfoy?"
Lucius' eyes went wide; Potter was not even trying to keep his voice down. Lucius made a show of looking around him, keeping his tongue to himself.
Potter just smirked. "I've set a privacy spell, Malfoy. I'm not some little school boy any more."
Indeed not. Lucius hadn't even seen Potter's wand. Despite all his tutoring and training, his own son Draco had not yet mastered such subtlety. Lucius wasn't sure if he would ever do so.
"Mr. Potter," Lucius acknowledged, nodding at him, refusing to stoop to the same rudeness. "One could ask the same of you. You will most certainly be attending the Hogwarts service - which, I'm sure you must know, I cannot. So I am here, in lieu."
"I know you can't step foot at Hogwarts, Malfoy. That's not what I'm asking. I meant what are you doing here? Severus Snape betrayed you and your Master."
"That, Mr. Potter," Lucius growled, "is precisely why I am here."
The anger in his face at Potter's ignorant arrogance must have shown, because Arthur Weasley and that Mudblood Granger detached themselves from the group to come over to where he and Potter stood, the boy still blinking in confusion at Lucius' admonition.
Lucius regarded Weasley, schooling his face once again to one of detached interest. The man looked terrible.
Then Lucius remembered.
"Arthur, I am sorry for your loss." The unsaid of one of your pureblood heirs lingered.
Weasley gave a sharp jerk of his head, and said gruffly, "Yes. Thank you."
The Mudblood was standing there, and Lucius could tell she was unsure as to how to address him. Her mind was struggling, obviously trying to resolve the conflict between being polite and calm in such a setting versus her need to both protect Potter and attack Lucius for his part in the war that had seen her tortured in his own house.
It amused him, but he was not here for this. He nodded in her direction, not knowing why he was making this easier for her. "Miss Granger."
"Mr. Malfoy." She nodded back, her relief evident as she turned to Potter. "Harry, come back and sit down with us. The Vicar said the service is going to begin shortly." She lightly grasped his arm, tugging him towards the pews.
Potter shrugged her off. "Leave it, Hermione. I'm having a… conversation here. I'll come over soon."
She looked hurt, being so obviously dismissed, and a flash of regret passed over the boy's face before he gave her a little smile. "Go, save a seat for me with you and Ron, all right?"
She looked at him, then glanced at Lucius. "Okay, Harry. We'll be right over there." Nodding once more to Lucius, the girl turned and went back to sit down.
Arthur, who had been standing behind Potter, reiterated what the girl had said, and ambled back towards his family after nodding once more in Lucius' direction.
Alone again, Lucius eyed Potter, who was chewing on his lower lip with a contemplative look. Potter stated, "I don't understand. Snape betrayed you and everything you stood for, all for the love of a woman - my mother, who was both a Muggle-born and a Gryffindor."
The boy stared him down, as if daring Lucius to try to prove him wrong.
Lucius briefly considered walking away, but he always loved a challenge, and baiting Gryffindors was a National Sport for Slytherins.
Lucius made a show of contemplating his answer. "Severus Snape did not betray the Dark Lord out of some sort of pious love for all things Muggle and Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." He looked out to the sea of mediocrity that made up Snape's Muggle neighbours and relatives. "He did it for the most Slytherin of reasons."
"Oh, really?" Potter sneered. "And just what would that be? Success? Money? Power?" he scoffed. "Yeah, he sure ended up with all those things, don't you think, Malfoy?"
Lucius just shook his head. "You don't understand, of course."
*~*
The year Draco had been injured by that idiot gamekeeper's Hippogriff, Lucius recalled being at the school and taking a moment to stop in and see Snape in his office. Severus had gleefully told him the story of the boggart in the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, during which at least one Gryffindor had provoked it to manifest his likeness.
Gryffindor House had never made him happier.
"Imagine, Lucius. Entire generations of Gryffindors whose worst fear is the Head of Slytherin House," Snape had chuckled.
Lucius was pleased for him. It was the little victories that mattered to someone like Snape.
*~*
Lucius stepped back into an alcove, motioning for Potter to follow him. The Aurors would still be able to see the boy, but Lucius himself would be hidden from view. "I will tell you, Potter, if only to try to temper this ridiculous campaign you have going to turn Severus Snape into a Gryffindor the magnitude of Godric himself."
He couldn't help the look of disgust that crossed his face, and made sure Potter saw it, too.
Before the boy could defend Gryffindor, he cut across him, "But first, let me ask you a question." Lucius smiled, hoping to curb the boy's inherent anger.
Potter looked at him, then nodded tersely. Lucius went on. "If you had dedicated your life to a cause, Dumbledore's, for instance -" Lucius raised his eyebrow, "and if the ensuing battles for that cause meant the violent death of someone you loved, would you have abandoned that cause? Even if you thought it true and just?"
"'Course not," Potter was quick to reply, crossing his arms in anger. "If the cause was true and just. I'd be upset, obviously, but it wouldn't stop me from doing what was right." He glared at Lucius. "It hasn't stopped me."
"So what makes you think that Severus Snape was in any way redirected from his beliefs when he supposedly lost this woman of his dreams? A woman who, by all counts, had stopped caring for him, and in fact, had married one of his greatest enemies? Hmmm?"
Potter looked surprised for a moment, but it didn't last long. "His memories are clear and hadn't been tampered with, Malfoy. I know what I saw. He'd loved my mother, since they were children. He was a spy for the Headmaster, and he saved many lives, including mine." Any temporary confusion disappeared from his eyes, a steely resolve taking its place.
"Yes, yes," Lucius continued, "but does that mean he abandoned all his beliefs? Was he any more or less friendly with Muggles? With Gryffindors, in general? Was he trying to be a kinder, gentler person in the name of your mother's memory? Or Dumbledore's?"
*~*
The night Severus Snape took the Dark Mark, Lucius had felt proud, knowing that he'd helped to channel his talents and skills in an effort to override the unfortunate circumstances of the young man's upbringing. As the last of the Prince Wizarding bloodline, one as old as Lucius' own, Severus Snape had much to accomplish, and Lucius would make certain he would do it.
With age and practice, this young man had the kind of ability and power that could vault him into that of the Dark Lord's sphere, with a cunning and intelligence that equalled Lucius' own.
Unfortunately, however, his circumstances would prevent Lucius from ever acknowledging him as truly equal.
Severus Snape would never marry into a great family, would never be welcome in the great rooms of the rich and powerful, no matter his skill. It was a shame, truly.
No, Lucius could not socialize with Severus Snape. Nevertheless, he could challenge Snape to make him greater.
*~*
Potter looked angry, his fists curling. It was obvious he had nothing to say that would ring true in response to Lucius' question.
Lucius raised his hands to ward off the outburst, as he answered it himself, "Though it's quite obvious, I'm fairly certain he did not."
"So?" responded Potter, somewhat belligerently. "I've never claimed he was a nice man. Only that he did what was right, and helped me to win against Voldemort. Without him and his efforts, I'd be dead and we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"Ah, if only," muttered Lucius. More loudly, he responded, "I'm certain that's how you see it. However, I knew Severus Snape for more than twenty years. And his motivations were not what you think." Lucius could hear the strains of the music changing tempo; it was obvious that the Muggle service was about to begin. He began to move toward the pews to take a seat.
Potter stopped him with a hand to his arm. Lucius sneered down at him until he removed it.
"You're wrong," Potter whispered, aware that the crowd was hushing. "He loved my mother, and he knew what was right, and that was why he saved me. Saved us all."
Lucius smiled. "I disagree, Mr. Potter. Snape may have been obsessed with your mother, and thought it 'love', perhaps, but that was not why he betrayed us all.
"He did not spend most of his life walking a razor's edge, using all of his Slytherin skills and magical talent because he wanted to save you. He certainly didn't do it to save the likes of your Gryffindor friends, or for the Muggles of the world, such as your delightful relatives."
Lucius stalked away, finding a spare seat in a back pew, far from the Muggles and Potter's gang.
Potter followed him there, taking the seat to his left.
Precisely how Lucius had planned. He smirked over at Potter's friends, who, still waiting for him, were now glaring back in their direction.
"Fine, then!" Potter whispered harshly. "Why did Severus Snape risk his life every day for years? What possible motivation could he have had? Twenty years, and he'd nothing to show for it except a Pensieve full of regret and the temporary control of Hogwarts. So, what?" Potter was clearly getting frustrated, but Lucius could tell that he'd had this argument with himself before, trying to find his own answers to the puzzle that was Snape.
That was good - it showed Potter had been deliberating Snape's motives. Perhaps he did understand Slytherin, if just a little.
Lucius sat still as the Muggle Vicar began to intone the religious rhetoric that would have made Snape twitch. He waited a long minute, long enough to drive the boy into fidgeting, but pre-empted him from speaking again.
"Mr. Potter," he whispered quietly, seductively. Potter leaned in closer to him, his need to know outweighing his instinct for self-preservation. If only Lucius had his wand. But he didn't need a wand to strike this blow.
He continued, "Severus Snape betrayed the Dark Lord for one reason, and one reason only. He tricked us all, and he was magnificent in his treachery. I have not seen a more Slytherin campaign in my lifetime, and I doubt the likes of it will be seen again."
Lucius couldn't help but let himself chuckle quietly.
Potter was looking at him, intently, waiting for him to finish, and Lucius found that he enjoyed the sensation. Perhaps a little too much. He could take this one under his wing, too - what kind of rush would it be to hone such potential? So like Snape. Half-blood power. Lucius shook his head, clearing it.
Then he looked into Potter's green eyes, yes, so much like his mother's, and smirked.
"Snape didn't play this game to gain power, he did it to take away power. He stripped us all: of our influence, our connections, and our futures. He did it to every single follower of the Dark Lord, and a handful of the Dark Lord's enemies, as well." Lucius pulled back to look over Potter's shoulder to his group of friends. Yes, they were all still glaring. He bent closer, his lips barely moving as he finished, "He did it for revenge."
Potter stilled. Lucius resisted the urge to smile.
"Oh, yes, Mr. Potter. Revenge. Revenge for all the years of abuse he suffered at the hands of people with more money than he, more power, better looks, and the esteem of their peers. Revenge for the lack of respect Snape suffered from nearly all corners, until he was finally able to force that respect out of them."
*~*
When Severus Snape gained the Dark Lord's favour finally and irrevocably, after Lucius himself had fallen so far out of it he was scrambling to keep both himself and his family alive, he had fantasized about several ways to make Snape pay. Retribution for the triumphs that seemed to correlate directly with the Malfoy family's failures.
This man, who had escaped relatively unharmed during the first downfall of the Dark Lord, and had fooled the Wizarding world in general, had not only managed to not get his hands dirty at the whole Ministry of Magic fiasco that had seen Lucius spend a year in Azkaban, but had tricked the most powerful wizard of them all.
Snape had come in like an avenging angel, a weapon with the death of the great wizard Dumbledore on his hands, the control of Hogwarts, and the undivided attention of the Dark Lord.
Snape sat there, smirking, at Lucius' table, in his ancestral Manor's great room, while he and his family were ridiculed and terrorized.
Lucius both hated and feared him. How the mighty had fallen.
How Snape had risen.
*~*
"Revenge," stated Potter flatly. His mouth made a moue of distaste. Then the boy smirked, snorting, "Revenge for the death of my mother, I'd say." He continued, "I'd understand that. Even as a Gryffindor."
Lucius just smiled and stared straight ahead as the service ended and the Muggles began to file out of the chapel, watching as Snape's coffin was wheeled away, mumbling their goodbyes to a man they barely knew.
"Oh, no, Mr. Potter. Because your mother also betrayed him. She married his worst enemy, a partner-in-crime to the people he hated most in this world. People who were allowed to torment him while a certain Headmaster stood by and let them."
He let that sink in. Before Potter could defend, Lucius went in for the kill. "And I need not point out, really, how none of them are left standing, either."
With that, he stood up and joined the throng following the coffin to the churchyard, resisting the urge to look back.
*~*
"Aren't--aren't you afraid, my Lord, that Potter might die at another hand but yours?" he asked, his voice shaking, and hating himself for it. "Wouldn't it be...forgive me...more prudent to call off this battle, enter the castle, and seek him y-yourself?"
"Do not pretend, Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Potter. Before the night is out, Potter will have come to find me." Voldemort dropped his gaze once more to the wand in his fingers.
"Go and fetch Snape."
"Snape, m-my Lord?"
"Snape. Now. I need him. There is a --service--I require from him. Go."
Lucius left the room. He would fetch Snape, but Lucius would not hide his hatred for the man. He owed him a life debt for saving his son the night Snape had killed Dumbledore, but Lucius would find a way to recover from this, and he would have his day. He would make Severus Snape pay for all this humiliation, somehow.
*~*
Lucius stepped out into the sunshine, watching as they loaded the coffin into the hearse.
His own car was not far, his driver awaiting him. Not having his wand was much more than just an inconvenience, but his money bought him comfort.
He glanced up in time to see Potter's throng leave the church, muttering amongst themselves. He noticed that Potter looked thunderously angry, and the Mudblood and younger Weasley were arguing with him, as if to convince him of something.
Potter looked up and saw him, and Lucius couldn't help but smirk. Potter just narrowed his eyes and kept moving, followed by the Mudblood and one of the Weasleys.
Lucius wasn't certain, but he might have noticed a little smile play around Potter's lips - but he must have been mistaken.
He stood, watching Potter, as the people filed out of the chapel.
"Oh, such a sad, sad story, Betty," one of the old biddies was saying to her companion. Both Lucius and Potter looked over in their direction.
"I agree, Vera. I remember when the boy was young, and his mother - Eileen, wasn't it?"
"Yes, Eileen. She was a broken woman, that one." The blue-haired woman shook her head.
"Yes, but she was so happy that summer, you remember? When young Severus was in line to marry that young lady of good standing. Eileen was crowing about it all over town, how she was arranging his match with such a fine lady, a family with money."
The women were gathering around an elm tree in the shade, all chatting and remembering.
Lucius noticed that Potter was listening closely, but he was nowhere near the women. A listening spell, then. Lucius sighed as he moved closer still, cursing the loss of his wand for the umpteenth time that day.
He could not recall a time that Severus Snape had made a good match. Probably errant gossip, but he didn't want all his hard work to be dismantled by the nattering women, and he needed to know.
"Oh, yes, I remember. Happiest I'd ever seen her, the summer of the boy's leaving that boarding school in Scotland he attended. Then young Severus left town to make his mark, and it was not long after there was some kind of tragedy involving his new employer. Killed or disappeared or some such. The Snape boy lost his chance at a great position at the company, wasn't that right, Betty?"
"Yes, I believe so. But by then his circumstances were such that he was then forced to work as a schoolmaster at the very same school. Of course, the girl's family had long pulled out of the negotiations, and it was shortly after that Eileen, poor broken-hearted thing, died. Very young, too."
All the women were nodding in remembrance, commiserating.
"That's right - and that lout of a husband not long after. Suspicious, his death. Accident, they said. Severus had been in Scotland the whole time, but I remember the talk."
Lucius was certain that Severus had not been in Scotland at the time, and he smirked at Potter, who could infer what he wanted from that.
"Right, right. But, dear me, I cannot, for the life of me, recall that girl's name. Do you, Vera?" All the women began to titter, Tobias Snape's 'accident' forgotten in favour of the mystery of the young lady who never was for poor Severus Snape.
"I am certain it was a flower name, remember?"
"Oh, yes, that's right!"
Lucius watched as Harry Potter's face went from intrigued and concerned to smug.
He swore under his breath. All that work planting the seeds of doubt in Potter's head, for nothing.
"Rose?"
"No, that wasn't it."
"Violet? Pansy? Lavender?"
"No, no! It was…exotic sounding, I think."
"Petunia?"
"Ha! No."
"Lily?"
"No. Definitely not 'Lily'. It was a longer name, if I could just …Oh! I remember!" the oldest woman stated smugly, clearly pleased that her memory was still better than that of her friends.
Lucius blew out a breath. So, not 'Lily', then. It was his turn to send a triumphant look over at Potter, who was clearly not enjoying the suspense.
"Don't you remember?" The woman went on, "Eileen couldn't go on enough about how beautiful and proper she was, how her heritage was so very perfect for her Severus, how hard she worked at negotiating the match. Eileen had always claimed her family hailed from a royal bloodline or some such.
"But the name, it was unusual. It was Narcissa."
*~*
His eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.
"My Lord?"
"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."
"I …"
Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.
*~*
Now, Lucius knew, that she'd not been staring straight ahead, oh no, she been staring at someone.
Narcissa. The word reverberated in his mind, as he struggled with memories, trying to recall any instance which could have indicated a past between his wife and Snape. There was that time, when he was in Azkaban, when Narcissa had forced Snape into an Unbreakable Vow. Or perhaps, not forced?
A multitude of plots blossomed in his mind, as he turned over various outcomes of this new information. Though Lucius would be able to go back to the Manor and ply his wife for information, his work of the afternoon, sowing the seeds of doubt in Harry Potter's mind, shooting holes in the boy's theories, seemed all for naught.
Lucius hesitated, then turned to look at Potter. However, Potter appeared to be just as baffled as Lucius felt, though his own face showed nothing.
Potter turned to him, and in a move worthy of a Slytherin, he raised his eyebrow and gave a gallant shrug. Lucius got the message: Potter would not stop his campaign to turn Snape into a war hero, and Lucius would not cease to extol Snape's Slytherin virtues, which were glorious and many.
Impasse.
It now seemed likely that neither of them would ever know exactly why Severus Snape had done what he'd done. To whom he was loyal, to what cause, what woman, what mentor, and to which house.
And this, Lucius Malfoy knew, this was Severus Snape's greatest accomplishment.
-fin.
Author: Djin7
Recipient: bluemoon02
Character(s): Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter, Severus Snape (flashbacks)
Rating: PG-13
Word-count: ~4,700 words
Warnings (highlight to view): Canon character death
Summary: You would be better served if you let sleeping dogs lie. (Chaucer)
Author's/Artist's Notes: For bluemoon02, who wanted "character study, secrets, gatherings, funerals, aftermath, contingency plans, obsession".
Despite the summary, title inspired by the following: "He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person." ~ Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.
Quote(s) from the last scene taken directly from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Betas: All mistakes are mine, though the excellent Cyn, Red and J all did their best to curb them.
Sleeping Dogs
There was a pianist on the dais, gently fingering the sotto melody of a sad and somber affair on the well looked after piano - Bach, if he wasn't mistaken. He resisted the urge to chuckle as he watched the mourners mill about the foyer of the Muggle chapel.
Snape would have adored this.
Lucius stood still and silent off to the side, arms crossed, watching as the maudlin snuck glances at the coffin where the body of Severus Snape lay within. They were neighbours and business owners of the small town in North Yorkshire where Severus kept his childhood home of Spinner's End. Perhaps even some Snape cousins, twice removed.
There was nothing left of the family of Prince, another great Wizarding heritage gone forever with the death of their last son.
*~*
Lucius remembered Snape's Sorting Ceremony, and how, once he'd joined the Slytherin table after a ridiculously fast Sorting (the hat yelled, "Slytherin!" before it even touched the boy's head), he was immediately preyed upon by a fourth year - Nott, he recalled.
Snape was certainly nothing to look at, his robes clearly second-hand and ratty-looking, and his pale skin and terrible hair hanging limply over a nose that was not to be borne.
Nott had sneered at the boy, "What kind of Wizarding name is Snape?"
Lucius, watching the exchange with little interest, remembered how the boy had drawn his eleven-year-old self up to his full height, and sneered right back, "My mother is a Prince!"
Lucius watched him sit down, but not before giving Nott a haughty turn of his head.
He doubted that Nott had even noticed that the boy had drawn his wand under his sleeve, hidden for the best effect. Oh, yes, Prince was a name worthy of respect.
Lucius noted that this boy seemed quite unafraid for a first year. No fear of being alone, of being shabby or ugly, or of a boy twice his size. Having his wand ready and out in an attack stance when most children barely knew how to levitate a feather. How…intriguing.
Lucius also did not miss how the boy - Severus "I am a Prince" Snape - eyed the cute little redheaded Gryffindor first year at the next table with sadness.
*~*
The crowd - such as it was - were mingling and growing restless for the after feast, wanting their teas and cold ham sandwiches, Snape's name on none of their lips. Probably the social event of the season, Lucius thought unkindly. He knew that this little industrial town had little better to do, and losing Snape was like losing a town icon, even if the man was universally hated by neighbours and relatives alike.
He imagined Snape watching them, almost hearing his caustic diatribe about how useless they all were, how terrible this place was, how often he thought of lifting his wand against them. Perhaps, even, how often he had.
Lucius had no choice but to be here to pay his respects, as he was not welcome on Hogwarts' grounds for the Wizarding service. He could not carry his wand outside of his Manor, either - one of the terms of his suspended sentence for his part in the Battle at said school.
He raged at the injustice of it, forced to send Snape off in the company of Muggles he couldn't care less about in a sham of a memorial.
Lucius knew that after this was over, Snape's body would not be going to the family mausoleum, though the Muggles all thought it would be. Snape's empty coffin would be interred there, along with his name etched on a plaque on the wall next to his parents.
His body, however, would be going to Hogwarts for a service likely rivalling Dumbledore's own. As the acting Headmaster defending Hogwarts to his untimely end, Snape had earned the honour of being entombed on the school's grounds, along with Dumbledore.
The irony, Lucius thought, was exquisite.
This surprising turn of events was made possible by the efforts of The Boy Who Lived, who had spent the last week loudly braying to anyone who would listen that Severus Snape was a hero worthy of Godric Gryffindor himself.
It was this thought that enraged Lucius the most.
Because despite all that Snape had done to Lucius, their fellow Death Eaters and the Dark Lord's cause, Severus Snape was a Slytherin to the very core. A Slytherin worth his salt, one the likes of which this world had not seen for a very long time.
Harry Potter really had no idea what made a Slytherin so special, why Snape did the things he did.
It was for these reasons that Lucius was forced to come out to this ridiculous service, unarmed, to pay his respects to a man who'd outwitted most of his compatriots and enemies alike.
One thing Lucius had not anticipated was the sudden arrival of The Boy Who Defeated the Dark Lord with an Expelliarmus (oh, the indignity), along with a small battalion of said boy's worshippers, including the red-haired Weasley horde.
He also noted the Aurors following in their wake, clearly the boy's standard security, though they looked at home in the Muggle chapel. Mudbloods, then.
Lucius lifted his eyebrow as Harry Potter himself, dressed smartly in a dark Muggle suit, cut a swath through the mourners, directly to where Lucius was standing. Lucius imagined Snape cursing the boy with a tripping jinx, which made him smile.
Potter took it as a challenge. Without so much as a by your leave, he spat, "Why are you here, Malfoy?"
Lucius' eyes went wide; Potter was not even trying to keep his voice down. Lucius made a show of looking around him, keeping his tongue to himself.
Potter just smirked. "I've set a privacy spell, Malfoy. I'm not some little school boy any more."
Indeed not. Lucius hadn't even seen Potter's wand. Despite all his tutoring and training, his own son Draco had not yet mastered such subtlety. Lucius wasn't sure if he would ever do so.
"Mr. Potter," Lucius acknowledged, nodding at him, refusing to stoop to the same rudeness. "One could ask the same of you. You will most certainly be attending the Hogwarts service - which, I'm sure you must know, I cannot. So I am here, in lieu."
"I know you can't step foot at Hogwarts, Malfoy. That's not what I'm asking. I meant what are you doing here? Severus Snape betrayed you and your Master."
"That, Mr. Potter," Lucius growled, "is precisely why I am here."
The anger in his face at Potter's ignorant arrogance must have shown, because Arthur Weasley and that Mudblood Granger detached themselves from the group to come over to where he and Potter stood, the boy still blinking in confusion at Lucius' admonition.
Lucius regarded Weasley, schooling his face once again to one of detached interest. The man looked terrible.
Then Lucius remembered.
"Arthur, I am sorry for your loss." The unsaid of one of your pureblood heirs lingered.
Weasley gave a sharp jerk of his head, and said gruffly, "Yes. Thank you."
The Mudblood was standing there, and Lucius could tell she was unsure as to how to address him. Her mind was struggling, obviously trying to resolve the conflict between being polite and calm in such a setting versus her need to both protect Potter and attack Lucius for his part in the war that had seen her tortured in his own house.
It amused him, but he was not here for this. He nodded in her direction, not knowing why he was making this easier for her. "Miss Granger."
"Mr. Malfoy." She nodded back, her relief evident as she turned to Potter. "Harry, come back and sit down with us. The Vicar said the service is going to begin shortly." She lightly grasped his arm, tugging him towards the pews.
Potter shrugged her off. "Leave it, Hermione. I'm having a… conversation here. I'll come over soon."
She looked hurt, being so obviously dismissed, and a flash of regret passed over the boy's face before he gave her a little smile. "Go, save a seat for me with you and Ron, all right?"
She looked at him, then glanced at Lucius. "Okay, Harry. We'll be right over there." Nodding once more to Lucius, the girl turned and went back to sit down.
Arthur, who had been standing behind Potter, reiterated what the girl had said, and ambled back towards his family after nodding once more in Lucius' direction.
Alone again, Lucius eyed Potter, who was chewing on his lower lip with a contemplative look. Potter stated, "I don't understand. Snape betrayed you and everything you stood for, all for the love of a woman - my mother, who was both a Muggle-born and a Gryffindor."
The boy stared him down, as if daring Lucius to try to prove him wrong.
Lucius briefly considered walking away, but he always loved a challenge, and baiting Gryffindors was a National Sport for Slytherins.
Lucius made a show of contemplating his answer. "Severus Snape did not betray the Dark Lord out of some sort of pious love for all things Muggle and Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." He looked out to the sea of mediocrity that made up Snape's Muggle neighbours and relatives. "He did it for the most Slytherin of reasons."
"Oh, really?" Potter sneered. "And just what would that be? Success? Money? Power?" he scoffed. "Yeah, he sure ended up with all those things, don't you think, Malfoy?"
Lucius just shook his head. "You don't understand, of course."
*~*
The year Draco had been injured by that idiot gamekeeper's Hippogriff, Lucius recalled being at the school and taking a moment to stop in and see Snape in his office. Severus had gleefully told him the story of the boggart in the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, during which at least one Gryffindor had provoked it to manifest his likeness.
Gryffindor House had never made him happier.
"Imagine, Lucius. Entire generations of Gryffindors whose worst fear is the Head of Slytherin House," Snape had chuckled.
Lucius was pleased for him. It was the little victories that mattered to someone like Snape.
*~*
Lucius stepped back into an alcove, motioning for Potter to follow him. The Aurors would still be able to see the boy, but Lucius himself would be hidden from view. "I will tell you, Potter, if only to try to temper this ridiculous campaign you have going to turn Severus Snape into a Gryffindor the magnitude of Godric himself."
He couldn't help the look of disgust that crossed his face, and made sure Potter saw it, too.
Before the boy could defend Gryffindor, he cut across him, "But first, let me ask you a question." Lucius smiled, hoping to curb the boy's inherent anger.
Potter looked at him, then nodded tersely. Lucius went on. "If you had dedicated your life to a cause, Dumbledore's, for instance -" Lucius raised his eyebrow, "and if the ensuing battles for that cause meant the violent death of someone you loved, would you have abandoned that cause? Even if you thought it true and just?"
"'Course not," Potter was quick to reply, crossing his arms in anger. "If the cause was true and just. I'd be upset, obviously, but it wouldn't stop me from doing what was right." He glared at Lucius. "It hasn't stopped me."
"So what makes you think that Severus Snape was in any way redirected from his beliefs when he supposedly lost this woman of his dreams? A woman who, by all counts, had stopped caring for him, and in fact, had married one of his greatest enemies? Hmmm?"
Potter looked surprised for a moment, but it didn't last long. "His memories are clear and hadn't been tampered with, Malfoy. I know what I saw. He'd loved my mother, since they were children. He was a spy for the Headmaster, and he saved many lives, including mine." Any temporary confusion disappeared from his eyes, a steely resolve taking its place.
"Yes, yes," Lucius continued, "but does that mean he abandoned all his beliefs? Was he any more or less friendly with Muggles? With Gryffindors, in general? Was he trying to be a kinder, gentler person in the name of your mother's memory? Or Dumbledore's?"
*~*
The night Severus Snape took the Dark Mark, Lucius had felt proud, knowing that he'd helped to channel his talents and skills in an effort to override the unfortunate circumstances of the young man's upbringing. As the last of the Prince Wizarding bloodline, one as old as Lucius' own, Severus Snape had much to accomplish, and Lucius would make certain he would do it.
With age and practice, this young man had the kind of ability and power that could vault him into that of the Dark Lord's sphere, with a cunning and intelligence that equalled Lucius' own.
Unfortunately, however, his circumstances would prevent Lucius from ever acknowledging him as truly equal.
Severus Snape would never marry into a great family, would never be welcome in the great rooms of the rich and powerful, no matter his skill. It was a shame, truly.
No, Lucius could not socialize with Severus Snape. Nevertheless, he could challenge Snape to make him greater.
*~*
Potter looked angry, his fists curling. It was obvious he had nothing to say that would ring true in response to Lucius' question.
Lucius raised his hands to ward off the outburst, as he answered it himself, "Though it's quite obvious, I'm fairly certain he did not."
"So?" responded Potter, somewhat belligerently. "I've never claimed he was a nice man. Only that he did what was right, and helped me to win against Voldemort. Without him and his efforts, I'd be dead and we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"Ah, if only," muttered Lucius. More loudly, he responded, "I'm certain that's how you see it. However, I knew Severus Snape for more than twenty years. And his motivations were not what you think." Lucius could hear the strains of the music changing tempo; it was obvious that the Muggle service was about to begin. He began to move toward the pews to take a seat.
Potter stopped him with a hand to his arm. Lucius sneered down at him until he removed it.
"You're wrong," Potter whispered, aware that the crowd was hushing. "He loved my mother, and he knew what was right, and that was why he saved me. Saved us all."
Lucius smiled. "I disagree, Mr. Potter. Snape may have been obsessed with your mother, and thought it 'love', perhaps, but that was not why he betrayed us all.
"He did not spend most of his life walking a razor's edge, using all of his Slytherin skills and magical talent because he wanted to save you. He certainly didn't do it to save the likes of your Gryffindor friends, or for the Muggles of the world, such as your delightful relatives."
Lucius stalked away, finding a spare seat in a back pew, far from the Muggles and Potter's gang.
Potter followed him there, taking the seat to his left.
Precisely how Lucius had planned. He smirked over at Potter's friends, who, still waiting for him, were now glaring back in their direction.
"Fine, then!" Potter whispered harshly. "Why did Severus Snape risk his life every day for years? What possible motivation could he have had? Twenty years, and he'd nothing to show for it except a Pensieve full of regret and the temporary control of Hogwarts. So, what?" Potter was clearly getting frustrated, but Lucius could tell that he'd had this argument with himself before, trying to find his own answers to the puzzle that was Snape.
That was good - it showed Potter had been deliberating Snape's motives. Perhaps he did understand Slytherin, if just a little.
Lucius sat still as the Muggle Vicar began to intone the religious rhetoric that would have made Snape twitch. He waited a long minute, long enough to drive the boy into fidgeting, but pre-empted him from speaking again.
"Mr. Potter," he whispered quietly, seductively. Potter leaned in closer to him, his need to know outweighing his instinct for self-preservation. If only Lucius had his wand. But he didn't need a wand to strike this blow.
He continued, "Severus Snape betrayed the Dark Lord for one reason, and one reason only. He tricked us all, and he was magnificent in his treachery. I have not seen a more Slytherin campaign in my lifetime, and I doubt the likes of it will be seen again."
Lucius couldn't help but let himself chuckle quietly.
Potter was looking at him, intently, waiting for him to finish, and Lucius found that he enjoyed the sensation. Perhaps a little too much. He could take this one under his wing, too - what kind of rush would it be to hone such potential? So like Snape. Half-blood power. Lucius shook his head, clearing it.
Then he looked into Potter's green eyes, yes, so much like his mother's, and smirked.
"Snape didn't play this game to gain power, he did it to take away power. He stripped us all: of our influence, our connections, and our futures. He did it to every single follower of the Dark Lord, and a handful of the Dark Lord's enemies, as well." Lucius pulled back to look over Potter's shoulder to his group of friends. Yes, they were all still glaring. He bent closer, his lips barely moving as he finished, "He did it for revenge."
Potter stilled. Lucius resisted the urge to smile.
"Oh, yes, Mr. Potter. Revenge. Revenge for all the years of abuse he suffered at the hands of people with more money than he, more power, better looks, and the esteem of their peers. Revenge for the lack of respect Snape suffered from nearly all corners, until he was finally able to force that respect out of them."
*~*
When Severus Snape gained the Dark Lord's favour finally and irrevocably, after Lucius himself had fallen so far out of it he was scrambling to keep both himself and his family alive, he had fantasized about several ways to make Snape pay. Retribution for the triumphs that seemed to correlate directly with the Malfoy family's failures.
This man, who had escaped relatively unharmed during the first downfall of the Dark Lord, and had fooled the Wizarding world in general, had not only managed to not get his hands dirty at the whole Ministry of Magic fiasco that had seen Lucius spend a year in Azkaban, but had tricked the most powerful wizard of them all.
Snape had come in like an avenging angel, a weapon with the death of the great wizard Dumbledore on his hands, the control of Hogwarts, and the undivided attention of the Dark Lord.
Snape sat there, smirking, at Lucius' table, in his ancestral Manor's great room, while he and his family were ridiculed and terrorized.
Lucius both hated and feared him. How the mighty had fallen.
How Snape had risen.
*~*
"Revenge," stated Potter flatly. His mouth made a moue of distaste. Then the boy smirked, snorting, "Revenge for the death of my mother, I'd say." He continued, "I'd understand that. Even as a Gryffindor."
Lucius just smiled and stared straight ahead as the service ended and the Muggles began to file out of the chapel, watching as Snape's coffin was wheeled away, mumbling their goodbyes to a man they barely knew.
"Oh, no, Mr. Potter. Because your mother also betrayed him. She married his worst enemy, a partner-in-crime to the people he hated most in this world. People who were allowed to torment him while a certain Headmaster stood by and let them."
He let that sink in. Before Potter could defend, Lucius went in for the kill. "And I need not point out, really, how none of them are left standing, either."
With that, he stood up and joined the throng following the coffin to the churchyard, resisting the urge to look back.
*~*
"Aren't--aren't you afraid, my Lord, that Potter might die at another hand but yours?" he asked, his voice shaking, and hating himself for it. "Wouldn't it be...forgive me...more prudent to call off this battle, enter the castle, and seek him y-yourself?"
"Do not pretend, Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Potter. Before the night is out, Potter will have come to find me." Voldemort dropped his gaze once more to the wand in his fingers.
"Go and fetch Snape."
"Snape, m-my Lord?"
"Snape. Now. I need him. There is a --service--I require from him. Go."
Lucius left the room. He would fetch Snape, but Lucius would not hide his hatred for the man. He owed him a life debt for saving his son the night Snape had killed Dumbledore, but Lucius would find a way to recover from this, and he would have his day. He would make Severus Snape pay for all this humiliation, somehow.
*~*
Lucius stepped out into the sunshine, watching as they loaded the coffin into the hearse.
His own car was not far, his driver awaiting him. Not having his wand was much more than just an inconvenience, but his money bought him comfort.
He glanced up in time to see Potter's throng leave the church, muttering amongst themselves. He noticed that Potter looked thunderously angry, and the Mudblood and younger Weasley were arguing with him, as if to convince him of something.
Potter looked up and saw him, and Lucius couldn't help but smirk. Potter just narrowed his eyes and kept moving, followed by the Mudblood and one of the Weasleys.
Lucius wasn't certain, but he might have noticed a little smile play around Potter's lips - but he must have been mistaken.
He stood, watching Potter, as the people filed out of the chapel.
"Oh, such a sad, sad story, Betty," one of the old biddies was saying to her companion. Both Lucius and Potter looked over in their direction.
"I agree, Vera. I remember when the boy was young, and his mother - Eileen, wasn't it?"
"Yes, Eileen. She was a broken woman, that one." The blue-haired woman shook her head.
"Yes, but she was so happy that summer, you remember? When young Severus was in line to marry that young lady of good standing. Eileen was crowing about it all over town, how she was arranging his match with such a fine lady, a family with money."
The women were gathering around an elm tree in the shade, all chatting and remembering.
Lucius noticed that Potter was listening closely, but he was nowhere near the women. A listening spell, then. Lucius sighed as he moved closer still, cursing the loss of his wand for the umpteenth time that day.
He could not recall a time that Severus Snape had made a good match. Probably errant gossip, but he didn't want all his hard work to be dismantled by the nattering women, and he needed to know.
"Oh, yes, I remember. Happiest I'd ever seen her, the summer of the boy's leaving that boarding school in Scotland he attended. Then young Severus left town to make his mark, and it was not long after there was some kind of tragedy involving his new employer. Killed or disappeared or some such. The Snape boy lost his chance at a great position at the company, wasn't that right, Betty?"
"Yes, I believe so. But by then his circumstances were such that he was then forced to work as a schoolmaster at the very same school. Of course, the girl's family had long pulled out of the negotiations, and it was shortly after that Eileen, poor broken-hearted thing, died. Very young, too."
All the women were nodding in remembrance, commiserating.
"That's right - and that lout of a husband not long after. Suspicious, his death. Accident, they said. Severus had been in Scotland the whole time, but I remember the talk."
Lucius was certain that Severus had not been in Scotland at the time, and he smirked at Potter, who could infer what he wanted from that.
"Right, right. But, dear me, I cannot, for the life of me, recall that girl's name. Do you, Vera?" All the women began to titter, Tobias Snape's 'accident' forgotten in favour of the mystery of the young lady who never was for poor Severus Snape.
"I am certain it was a flower name, remember?"
"Oh, yes, that's right!"
Lucius watched as Harry Potter's face went from intrigued and concerned to smug.
He swore under his breath. All that work planting the seeds of doubt in Potter's head, for nothing.
"Rose?"
"No, that wasn't it."
"Violet? Pansy? Lavender?"
"No, no! It was…exotic sounding, I think."
"Petunia?"
"Ha! No."
"Lily?"
"No. Definitely not 'Lily'. It was a longer name, if I could just …Oh! I remember!" the oldest woman stated smugly, clearly pleased that her memory was still better than that of her friends.
Lucius blew out a breath. So, not 'Lily', then. It was his turn to send a triumphant look over at Potter, who was clearly not enjoying the suspense.
"Don't you remember?" The woman went on, "Eileen couldn't go on enough about how beautiful and proper she was, how her heritage was so very perfect for her Severus, how hard she worked at negotiating the match. Eileen had always claimed her family hailed from a royal bloodline or some such.
"But the name, it was unusual. It was Narcissa."
*~*
His eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.
"My Lord?"
"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."
"I …"
Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.
*~*
Now, Lucius knew, that she'd not been staring straight ahead, oh no, she been staring at someone.
Narcissa. The word reverberated in his mind, as he struggled with memories, trying to recall any instance which could have indicated a past between his wife and Snape. There was that time, when he was in Azkaban, when Narcissa had forced Snape into an Unbreakable Vow. Or perhaps, not forced?
A multitude of plots blossomed in his mind, as he turned over various outcomes of this new information. Though Lucius would be able to go back to the Manor and ply his wife for information, his work of the afternoon, sowing the seeds of doubt in Harry Potter's mind, shooting holes in the boy's theories, seemed all for naught.
Lucius hesitated, then turned to look at Potter. However, Potter appeared to be just as baffled as Lucius felt, though his own face showed nothing.
Potter turned to him, and in a move worthy of a Slytherin, he raised his eyebrow and gave a gallant shrug. Lucius got the message: Potter would not stop his campaign to turn Snape into a war hero, and Lucius would not cease to extol Snape's Slytherin virtues, which were glorious and many.
Impasse.
It now seemed likely that neither of them would ever know exactly why Severus Snape had done what he'd done. To whom he was loyal, to what cause, what woman, what mentor, and to which house.
And this, Lucius Malfoy knew, this was Severus Snape's greatest accomplishment.
-fin.