Harry Potter and the Elder Race

Chapter 02

Harry Potter and the Elder Race  

Chapter Two

In a lonely thicket of trees lit by a sliver of moonlight, a dark hooded figure suddenly appeared. The man lowered his hood, and stood for a time in a sea of jasmine and wild flowers under his feet. With the summer in full bloom and with the dawn approaching, the jasmine buds had started to open and the air was redolent with its fragrance. Severus Snape had kept the plant growing and flourishing for more than twenty years now, for that was what Lily's hair always smelled like.

This was where he'd been happiest, and he invariably returned here to try and recapture the time when he and Lily were still young, when they had made this private place their own, where they could be themselves freely, before Hogwarts, before she met that arrogant man....

He needed to come here, to remind himself of the promise he had made to Dumbledore, his vow to Lily, to protect her son's life - no matter how much he believed the Potter boy was dead. But Dumbledore insisted that Lily's son was still alive. But how could that be? And yet... and yet... Dumbledore was so certain, though he detected a certain misgiving in the Headmaster.

"Lily," he whispered longingly into the night. Would she know? Could she feel? Time and again he had heard Dumbledore say he believed in the afterlife. Is it true?

He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the scent, the memory of her, trying to imagine she was still here, trying to remember what it was like, when it was just the two of them, when she still depended on him... when she was still his....

"For you... only," he said, his breathe entwining with the perfumed particles of her flowery scent in the air.

Snape then turned on his heel, allowing the void to engulf him, as he Apparated just outside the warded borders of Malfoy Manor.

There were a couple of Death Eaters - new recruits - standing guard at the Mansion's front door but Snape ignored them and walked straight up the front steps. The door swung inwards, the magic recognizing the Dark Mark on his left arm, and he stepped into the hallway. He found the massive foyer empty, but he knew where he would find the Dark Lord. He walked straight on ahead and through the large parlour room. Off to the left side was a door. He knocked once, and had to wait a few moments before it opened and Narcissa Malfoy's face appeared. He immediately plastered a pleased look on his face, but knew it probably came off as a grimace. She graced him with a condescending smile back - a little stiffly, he thought. As far as everyone was concerned, his loyalties still lay heavily under suspicion.

"Severus," Narcissa said, inclining her head slightly. Behind her was a small anteroom to another, bigger room which served as the office of the mansion.

"Narcissa," Snape said, inflecting a tone of affection in his voice that he only used if it was just the two of them in the room. He knew she felt slightly guilty for this - of his "attentions". And he also knew that the Dark Lord had seen this in her mind, bolstering his own lie that he was in love with her, a lie that he took care to uphold for years now, knowing that the Dark Lord might someday return.

"The Dark Lord is still in a meeting with my husband," she said, with not a small hint of pride at this proof of the special position her husband held in the Dark Lord's inner circle. "If you can just wait a few minutes more."

Snape nodded. He sat waiting while Narcissa called in Wormtail to serve them. Secretly, he smiled at this inconvenience to them. One of the few things that he begrudgingly approved the Potter boy had accomplished. No house-elf was willing to serve in the Malfoy Mansion now, and he doubted any house-elf ever will. He knew Wormtail resented this, being made a veritable servant in Malfoy's house, but he did eat at the Malfoy's table, and the Malfoys made sure that Wormtail did not so much as sing for his supper as slaved for it.