A Love to Hide (Severus Snape x Lucius Malfoy)

Part 1

Chapter 1

The potions master lay in his bed, his mind replaying the shocking events of the Triwizard tournament and its fateful conclusion, Potter's words echoing in his brain. It was well past midnight, yet he got up, pacing about his room in agitation. A kettle was set to brew under a small flame suspended in the air beneath it. The man's cold gaze focused upon it in silent meditation.

Soon, the water began to boil and he reached for a packet of chamomile, throwing a handful into a chipped old teapot. Suddenly, a knocking was heard upon the windowpane of his chamber, startling him from the dark paths which his mind was leading him down.

He approached slowly, his wand poised, for he knew of none who would venture to disturb him at such an unseasonable hour, moreover, from without the castle in such a manner.

The tapping continued, growing fiercer, as if with impatience.

As he drew closer, holding a candle in his other hand, he could see a small figure illuminated – it was an owl, its feathers the colour of soot. Snape did not recognize it, nor could he see a letter clasped in its beak, nevertheless, he ventured the risk – believing that the bumbling creature had lost its way in the night and was perhaps the witless pet of some first year student searching for the Owlry.

As soon as the window was open, the bird tumbled in with a frantic beating of wings, almost like it were being pursued.

Severus shut the window quickly in case it were so, as well as from the cold gust of wind which had extinguished his candle. In the darkness he could see the owl's silhouette moving about his bedside rug, and then, most alarmingly, it began to expand in dark writhing smoke, its wings extending into the arms of a man, growing taller and more angular.

Professor Snape struggled to decide whether he should attack it while it was vulnerable, in the process of its transformation, or wait to see what kind of being it was.

Restoring light to the room, he watched, his back pressed against the furthest corner of the chamber, as the owl turned into the shape of one who he was much alarmed to recognize – Lucius Malfoy.

The other wizard knelt upon the floor, looking at his friend with frightened eyes, so unlike his usual languid demeanor.

"W-what are you doing here?" Snape ventured to speak, approaching him with the candle.

"I am sorry Severus, you must think that I have gone mad to come to you like this, only I knew not where to go on such a night, to seek the comforts of sincere friendship," Lucius smiled forcibly in unconvincing nonchalance.

"What has happened?" the other wizard knelt beside him, draping a blanket over his shoulders to cover the man's pale naked figure.

"Oh you do not know yet?" smirked sardonically, "has Potter told no one, or is it that Dumbledore has yet to tell you?"

"I do not care for guessing games, especially not at this hour," Snape sought to keep his composure while his thoughts ventured to his last memory of Harry in the infirmary.

"The Dark Lord, summoning his neglectful servants about him, had honored myself and the boy to behold the return of his powers," he spoke with a livid malevolence, his brow furrowed as he pulled the blanket around himself and turned from Severus, standing to face the door and enchanting it from unwelcome visitors and the eavesdroppers. "He saw me there, do you understand? The wondrous Harry Potter. He saw the Dark Lord address me, unmask me, in the graveyard where it was done. You must feel it surely, that his powers are returning," the wizard held out his arm before Severus, where the Dark Mark seemed as if it had been freshly engraved upon his flesh. "You see what it is to play both sides, perhaps my fate shall be a warning to you – if it is not too late. As for me, I believe my time has come. A day or two, no more, and I shall be sent to Azkaban to await the Dementors," Lucius wrung his hands as a dread of something worse than death was conjured in his mind, placing him in a near-hysteric state of unrest.