Insomniac

Chapter Two

Pansy Parkinson arrived before Draco even had a chance to dress. Bellatrix had made him eggs and sausages - he'd never learned how to cook without magic, and hardly knew even with magic - and he was halfway through when he saw the flame in the kitchen fireplace glow green, and there was her form revolving very fast. She spilled out of the hearth a moment later and brushed herself off, smiling. Pansy looked much more relaxed than she had in the weeks leading up to exams, though she hadn't studied as hard as some of their classmates. Still, she seemed very glad to have finished the term, and very glad to see Draco.

"Good morning," she said, straightening her tortoiseshell glasses. They weren't something she was quite used to, yet - Madam Pomfrey had declared her nearsighted only the January before. She set down the bag she was holding and went to give Draco a hug. "Still having breakfast? How are you?"

Draco could tell from the way she was looking into his eyes as she asked that she really meant it. He shrugged. "I'm doing all right. Come have something to eat."

"Thanks." Pansy took a plate from a cupboard and helped herself to some sausages. She sat down beside him and they ate in silence for a moment or two. They were alone; Narcissa had brought Harry some toast and Bellatrix was upstairs singing loudly in the shower.

"How's holidays so far?" Pansy asked when Draco got up to refill his cup of tea.

"Want some?" he asked, gesturing to the teapot. She nodded. "Okay I suppose," he said in response to her question.

Pansy wanted to tell him that she was sure his father would be home soon, and she wanted to remark on how strange it must be without him, but she didn't want to be the first one to broach the subject. She thought he looked nervous, and a little twitchy - something about the way he was rubbing under his nose - but that was hardly unexpected. One reason she'd suggested staying with him while her parents were away was just to give him some company. The house was bound to feel so much emptier now.

"So I wonder what Umbridge is going to do now she's left the school," she said at last as Draco brought her a cup of tea. She added half a scoop of sugar and stirred it absently.

"Back to Fudge, I expect," said Draco. He hoisted himself up onto the counter and looked out the window. "Good riddance to the hag."

"Hey, it was fun while it lasted," Pansy laughed. "Got us a few places, anyway."

"I know," said Draco. "I think I'll keep wearing my Squad badge next year, see if anyone'll buy it."

"Wonder who Dumbledore'll hire for next year," Pansy mused.

"It had better be someone good," said Draco, "someone who'll teach us actual curses and things. That idiot 'Dumbledore's Army' or whatever it's called can't have the monopoly."

"Dumbledore's Army," Pansy laughed. "God, what a silly name. Oh, we're not learning how to kill one another in class, let's have a vigilante army!"

"Dumbledore already has an army anyway," Draco remarked. "Potter and his groupies just made it official."

"I'm surprised they didn't have badges made," Pansy added thoughtfully. Draco laughed out loud.

"You know, it's really too bad we didn't think to just crash in on their little meeting instead of turning them in for Umbridge," he said. "That could have been a lot of fun."

"Yeah," Pansy sighed. "You know, sometimes it scares me the way they're all so devoted to him."

"Who? Potter?"

"Well, yes, but Dumbledore too. I mean, Fudge kicked him out of school, but then at the end of the year he was just back. I wonder what happened. I thought he'd been sacked."

"I don't know, Dumbledore's got his own army of Gryffindors amassed, ready and willing to do his bidding," Draco sighed.

"I don't see why everyone loves him so much that they'd give up their very lives for him, though," Pansy said. "I mean, they named their silly vigilante army after him."

"Please, Pansy. C'mon. You know what school we go to."

"Hogwarts School of Anti-Slytherin Bias and Gryffindor Worship," Pansy replied promptly. She took a sip of tea and looked at Draco. "It's a pity we Slytherins are only fit for things like becoming Dark Wizards and being pigeonholed into little boxes of evil."

"I like being Slytherin," Draco pointed out.

"As do I, I wouldn't want to be any other House," said Pansy. "I'm just saying, it's a pain."

"What's a pain?"

"Oh, just... Dumbledore."

"Again, it's a shame Umbridge was railroaded out."

"The chaos was a lot of fun," said Pansy with a laugh. "In Career Advice with Professor Snape we talked about my Defense marks, and he was taking shot after shot at her without actually saying her name. It was great."

"Maybe Professor Snape will teach us Defense next year," Draco suggested. "Remember what he said to Umbridge in Potions? He said he'd been applying for the post for years."

"Now, if he were to teach us Defense we'd learn real things, and not just everything Slinkhard has to say on hexes."

"Ah, Slinkhard," said Draco, looking up at the ceiling reminiscently. Pansy laughed. On the night after their Defense O.W.L, all of the Slytherin fifth-years had gathered in their Common Room and burned their copies of Slinkhard's book. It had been somewhat cathartic; Millicent Bulstrode had even included a small effigy of Umbridge that she'd charmed to cackle and shriek as it burned.

"Well, one can only hope," said Pansy. She took a last sip of tea and stood up. "Want to show me where I'll be staying?"

"Yeah. Come on." Draco jumped to the floor and picked up Pansy's bag. Their conversation had taken him away from the day for a few minutes, but now he was remembering that Bellatrix was upstairs - was Pansy allowed to know she was here? He wondered how she'd avoid finding out, anyway - and that up in the attic Harry Potter was being held. Very, very soon, he thought, everything was going to be changing.

:::

Vanished. He'd just vanished.

For a moment Remus stood there in the middle of the road wondering what to do first, and desperately hoping in a small part of his mind that he wasn't going to be held responsible for Harry disappearing. I was doing my job! he thought. Frantically, he tried to remember what he had just seen. Harry - Harry walking, Harry seeing or hearing something, Harry just - disappearing. And then a car took off alone down the road.

He can't have Apparated, he thought. He can't have taken a Portkey - we'd know.

Another small part of Remus wasn't surprised in the least. The Order knew that Harry was in danger of being kidnapped, but here it was only three days into the summer holidays. No one had thought the Death Eaters really had the means to do it so soon, not with nearly all of Voldemort's top advisors trapped in Azkaban. They hadn't had time to even formulate a plan of action were something of this caliber to happen. This isn't my fault.

The rain was beginning to pick up, but Remus hardly noticed. He yanked the Invisibility Cloak off impatiently, not really caring if any neighbors could see, and then he took off down the street to Arabella Figg's house.

"Open up open up open up," he muttered, pounding madly on her front door. "ARABELLA WHERE ARE YOU?" he exclaimed when a minute had passed with no answer. He grasped two handfuls of hair and clenched his teeth in frustration. Oh, he did not want to be the one to have to tell Dumbledore about this. Oh, there weren't enough cigarettes in the world.

With a loud, sudden CRACK he Apparated into Hogsmeade, and he was under a clear Scotland sky, tearing up the High Street to the outskirts of town thinking THIS is why you're quitting! He'd never been a strong runner, and his lungs had long since turned black, but he tried to forget this as he ran up to the front gate of Hogwarts with the Invisibility Cloak tucked under his arm, water bottle forgotten, blood rushing in his ears. Up the wide front lawn - why were the grounds so huge? - Sirius had always said You run like a girl, Moony - Why the hell can't a bloke just APPARATE to Hogwarts? - and up the stone steps. He burst through the tall front doors and stopped only when he was inside the cool, silent castle, hoping nobody had seen such a melodramatic and out-of-breath entrance, and also hoping no one would be difficult to find. The sound of his ragged breathing filled the entrance hall and he stood for a moment doubled over, hands on his knees, just breathing for a minute. He coughed loudly for a full thirty seconds. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. His eyes adjusted painfully to the darkness of the castle. Half-past eight and already a wretched day.

"What are you doing?"

Remus clenched his teeth and straightened up. His day had worsened already. Why YOU? he moaned inwardly. Seemingly having appeared out of nowhere, as he had the annoying habit of doing, Severus Snape was standing in front of him holding a half-drunk cup of tea in one hand and looking at him in a way that very much said both I was hoping you were a hallucination, even if it meant I'd gone mad and Do you have any idea how many untraceable poisons are downstairs in my office right now?

"Harry's - been - kidnapped - I think - " Remus managed to say, still catching his breath.

"What?" said Snape, sounding far more bored than Remus wanted him to. He raised an eyebrow. "Do speak English to me, Lupin. Don't you have someplace else to be?"

"Yes," Remus said firmly, nodding. "Dumbledore's office. I think Harry's been kidnapped." Still breathing heavily, he walked past Snape and headed up the great marble staircase, walking quickly and hoping Snape would just go down to the dungeons and finish his tea there.

This seemed to pique Snape's interest a little, though (Remus rolled his eyes), and so he followed Remus up the stairs, taking his tea with him. "What?"

"Kidnapped. I think. He vanished." Remus drew another deep breath and promptly had another great coughing fit. Snape ignored it.

"When?" he demanded when Remus was through.

"Just now. I was on duty, and he just disappeared, and then a car took off, I think he was in it." He rounded a corner, taking his pack of nicotine gum out of his robes and opening two pieces at once.

"He just - vanished? Are you certain?"

Remus stopped and whirled around, so fast that Snape nearly walked into him. "YES! I'm bloody certain. Do you think - " He sighed, crammed the gum in his mouth, and continued walking. Snape raised his eyebrows and followed.

"By all means, Lupin, do continue," he said in one of his designed-to-annoy voices after a moment had passed. "What were you saying?" Remus ignored him. While Snape had changed in some substantial ways over the years, and had mellowed considerably, he was still one of the most infuriating people Remus had ever met in his life. Here Harry had been kidnapped, and was likely on his way to Voldemort, or even with Voldemort - and Snape was - he was being Snape. Just stop existing, please, just for five minutes, Remus thought furiously.

"Who took him?" Snape asked after they had gone another minute in silence and Remus had slowed down some.

"I don't know," Remus snapped.

"You don't know?"

"I DON'T KNOW."

Snape shrugged. "I don't suppose that's something you might have wanted to find out," he suggested, looking at the ceiling. Remus rounded on him again.

"Please. Be quiet. Please." He was shaking. He needed a cigarette. This gum wasn't doing a damn thing. Snape looked at him closely.

"You look like hell," he observed.

"Ta," said Remus through his teeth. They had reached Dumbledore's office, but before either of them could say anything, the stone gargoyle began to shift, and an eternity later Dumbledore stepped out of his office, looking, as usual, both benign and merciless. Remus swallowed. He'd been out of school for nearly twenty years now, but being around Dumbledore still made him feel like nothing so much as the anxious ten-year-old who'd visited Hogwarts with his parents to discuss the precautions to be taken when he started school. Even the year he had spent teaching had done little to change this feeling. He swallowed again.

"Good morning," said Dumbledore, smiling at them. "I must say, I wasn't expecting to see you here, Remus. I thought you were on duty today."

"I was - I am," Remus stammered. "Sir - Harry's been kidnapped."

Dumbledore registered this information with a look of mingled surprise and resignation. "How did this happen?" he asked at last.

Remus, trying not to trip over his words, recounted exactly what he had seen on Privet Drive, including unnecessary details and asides - "And I don't know where but I lost my water bottle too" - in his nervousness. "He's gone, he's vanished, I have no idea who took him or where they've gone," he finished with a helpless shrug. He expected Snape to put in some waspish comment about how incredibly watchful Remus must have been, but he was quiet, watching Remus and Dumbledore, looking as though he were trying to memorize the conversation.

Dumbledore sighed. "I confess I am not surprised," he said. "We knew Harry was in this kind of danger."

"I'm sorry," said Remus weakly.

"It's not your fault," said Dumbledore evenly, but that didn't make Remus feel any better. Snape raised his eyebrows.

"Having most of the Death Eaters in Azkaban makes our position less dire than it might be, though we need to act quickly," Dumbledore went on. He began to walk down the corridor, motioning for them to follow. He continued talking as they made their way toward the Great Hall, with Dumbledore in front and Remus and Snape following, single file.

"The first thing we need to do is send word to the rest of the Order," Dumbledore was calling over his shoulder. "Would you please take care of that for me, Remus? Please arrange a meeting for this afternoon, around one o'clock."

"Sir, I'm not sure if most people in the Order can be here at one o'clock," Remus pointed out. "Most of them work during the day."

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "Please have them come to Hogwarts as soon as they can, then." Remus felt that that much, at least, was obvious. Still talking, Dumbledore led them into the Great Hall, where Remus saw that breakfast was being served. The lack of several hundred teenagers made the Hall look cavernous and huge, and the four House tables had vanished, replaced with one long table at which Poppy Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were sitting.

"Good morning, Albus," McGonagall called. "And hello, Remus, I didn't expect you here today."

"I'm afraid Remus comes bearing some unfortunate news," said Dumbledore, taking the seat at the head of the table. Snape dropped into the chair next to McGonagall without saying anything, and Remus sat down opposite him. "Harry was taken this morning from Privet Drive."

McGonagall dropped her fork in surprise and Flitwick gasped loudly. Madam Pomfrey paled.

"What?" McGonagall said at last.

"He was kidnapped, apparently," Snape drawled, leaning his elbows on the counter and giving Remus a nasty look that made Remus want to hang manners and legalities and lunge across the table. "Lupin was supposed to be on duty."

McGonagall gave Snape a piercing glare and handed him a cinnamon roll. "Here. Eat something," she commanded, and turned to Remus. "What happened?"

Resignedly, Remus told the story of what he had seen for the third time. This time his former colleagues hung on his every word and seemed adequately concerned, while Dumbledore helped himself to eggs and sausages and Snape glowered mutinously at McGonagall, pointedly not eating anything. Remus thought vaguely, as he finished his story, that everyone was being awfully calm about all this. His rib cage still felt as though a frantic bird was trying to escape it.

"This is awful," said Poppy Pomfrey when he had fallen silent.

"Though it's hardly a surprise," McGonagall admitted. "Remus, I'm sure you did what you could." Beside her Snape raised an eyebrow and made a soft noise of disbelief, but she ignored him. "Who do you think took him, Albus?"

"There are a few possibilities," Dumbledore said. "The first, and most likely, I think, is Bellatrix Lestrange. She and Peter Pettigrew are the only known members of Lord Voldemort's inner circle who are not currently in Azkaban. Of course, he could be utilizing someone outside that circle, but my guess is that Harry was taken by one of those two people."

"How much time do you think we have?" Remus asked. His mouth was dry, and he still could not stop feeling as though this were all, somehow, his fault. He felt a great need to be useful, to somehow fix this and bring Harry home.

"I do not know," said Dumbledore, steepling his fingers and surveying the table through his cool blue eyes. "The first thing I would like to do, though, is some reconnaissance work. Severus, would you please pay a visit to Narcissa Malfoy this morning?" Snape nodded. "Excellent. Thank you. Remus has already agreed to contact the rest of the Order members, and they will be arriving as soon as they are able to. Hopefully, if my deductions are correct, Severus will have some useful information for us by lunchtime." He fixed a penetrating stare on Snape, and Snape nodded again.

A few minutes later, after a cup of very strong black tea, Remus got up and headed for an unused classroom to contact the remainder of the Order. He wondered what he would do all day once he was able to talk to the people on his mental list, now that Harry was gone. He desperately wanted - needed- - to do something. His insides seized up when he thought of Harry, and of what might be happening to Harry now, and of how helpless, really, all of them were. He focused instead on taking out his wand, and performing the incantation correctly to be able to speak with everyone, and on thinking about what he would tell them about what had happened. He needed a cigarette and wondered if anyone would mind particularly. A small part of him said But you've gone three days! He glanced up at a clock on the corridor wall. It was only nine-twenty. He swallowed, but his mouth was still dry.

:::

At Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix sat alone at the table with a pair of knitting needles flashing in front of her, creating something misshapen and royal blue. She was smoking and watching the needles, mesmerized, and listening to the sounds of the fountain in the garden on the other side of the open window. Upstairs were Draco and Pansy; Pansy was settling her things while Draco was in the shower, and Narcissa, after reporting that Harry was well and Stunned and not waking up anytime soon, had retreated to her suite to have the day's first glass of sherry.

A flash of green in the fireplace alerted her attention. "Hello," called a voice. Bellatrix's face lit up.

"Do come in," she said, hoping the voice belonged to the person she thought it did. Only certain people were allowed, with prior permission from Lucius, to floo into the Malfoys'; any uninvited guests tended to inadvertently be sent to Saskatchewan instead of Wiltshire. Sure enough, a moment later Severus Snape was standing in Narcissa's kitchen brushing ash off his robes and looking just exactly as she remembered - still weedy, undernourished, and vicious. Bellatrix had always been greatly amused by Snape, and since her escape from Azkaban had been hoping to see him again. She'd heard things about him in prison - not all the Death Eaters were entirely pleased with him - and had little doubt that the rumors were true. He'd make for an entertaining morning, at the least.

"It's you!" she exclaimed happily. Snape looked at her and took an instinctive step back. "Still afraid of me, are you?"

"I didn't expect to see you," he said, relaxing. "I had no idea where you'd gone - everyone's been sent to Azkaban, I hear, but you and Pettigrew."

"Indeed, it's a sad state of affairs, oh do come and have a cup of tea, I've missed you!" Bellatrix crossed the room in one step and threw her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek. He couldn't help feeling a small twinge of disappointment; he was, indeed, still shorter than her. As she let go he shook his head and reminded himself to keep his mind on his task. Bellatrix was here; that, at least, was a tip-off.

She pulled him to the kitchen table and pushed him into a chair. "My goodness, it's been a very, very long time, hasn't it?" she said, sitting down at the end of the table and propping her chin in her hand. Snape nodded.

"It's difficult for me to stay as involved as anyone would like, being at Hogwarts," he said. "I was relieved to hear that you and the others had been able to escape last year; it was beginning to be very hard going with just the handful of us."

"I can imagine," Bellatrix said. She was staring at him, he realized, and he very easily began shifting memories around in his mind to block any access she might have. He didn't know whether or not she knew Legilimency but he knew better than to take chances. "That business with Barty was dreadful, wasn't it? Things were going so well." She sighed. "I miss him awfully, don't you?"

"Not really," said Snape flatly. Bellatrix looked a little put out. "Bellatrix, you must agree with me, he drove us all mad. What with his whining and his pouting - "

" - And his being so overwhelmingly, ridiculously, flamboyantly in love with Lucius, it was just so wonderful," Bellatrix said. She got up and went to the teapot. "What do you want in your tea?"

"Nothing." Snape turned around in his chair to watch her make it. She's not going to spike your tea, he thought impatiently. Yes she is, he thought next. He rolled his eyes.

"No, you haven't changed, have you," she said. She set a cup of black tea in front of him and sat down again, ashing her cigarette on the saucer before her.

"I'm making a blanket, see?" she said next. She pointed at the blue mass twisting in midair over the table. Snape looked up at it and nodded.

"Yes, I see it," he said.

"It's been so nice, you can't even imagine, to do magic again," she sighed. "Azkaban was such a bore."

"I'm sure," he murmured with a small smile. He looked at her, and she smiled a little back at him, leaning back in the chair with her arms crossed. And then he saw it behind her eyes - it was Potter, Potter jinxed, Potter Stunned, Potter in a car -

"Professor Snape!"

Pansy Parkinson was standing in the kitchen doorway looking at him in utter surprise.

"Good morning, Miss Parkinson," he said. Bellatrix turned her head a little to see Pansy. They'd been introduced by Draco when he had taken Pansy upstairs to one of the guest rooms not fifteen minutes before, and Pansy had been nervous but polite in the face of one of the Dark Lord's most committed Death Eaters. Bellatrix liked her.

Pansy wondered how she could ask Professor Snape what on earth he was doing here without sounding like she was being nosy. Unable to come up with something, she smiled briefly at him and Bellatrix and turned around and went back upstairs. Bellatrix smiled at her as she retreated.

"Professor," she snorted when Pansy was on the stairs.

"Quiet," said Snape.

"I can't see you as a teacher, honestly I can't," Bellatrix said, laughing out loud.

"Quiet," said Snape again, but Bellatrix kept laughing. Snape fixed her with the glare he usually saved for crying first years and overly-amorous seventh years, but it didn't have any effect.

"Are you allowed to poison them if they don't do their homework?" she demanded, laughing so hard she was crying. "Do you have to give them detention? Do you have to go to staff meetings with Albus Dumbledore?"

"Bellatrix," Snape sighed, standing up, "where's Narcissa?"

"Narcissa? Why?" Bellatrix slowly stopped laughing.

"I came to see her."

Bellatrix looked utterly perplexed. "Oh," she said. "All right. She's upstairs, I believe she's getting drunk."

Snape sat back down and folded his arms. "How is she getting on without Lucius?"

Bellatrix waved her hand back and forth. "So-so," she said. "I only arrived here this morning. Needed a bit of a breather from Mr. Wormtail and the Dark Lord, and I suspected 'Cissa might want some company. Draco's not much good in that department, I don't think."

"Draco's not a bad sort," said Snape with a glance at Bellatrix.

"He's got a mouth on him, I've heard," she replied.

"That is true."

The room was silent for the next few minutes, save for the clicking of the knitting needles over their heads. Snape watched Bellatrix, who was watching the needles.

"You're staring at me," Bellatrix stated without looking at him. He looked away. She grinned at him.

"Professor Snape, what are you doing here?" Draco Malfoy exclaimed suddenly, coming into the room with Pansy at his heels. Snape relaxed visibly and Bellatrix turned around in her seat to look at them.

"Good morning," said Snape.

"Morning," said Draco, and Snape could tell he was wondering what he was talking about with Bellatrix Lestrange. He felt a twinge of anger; it was a very hard thing to simultaneously strive to maintain Death Eater status with the Malfoys and try, without exactly saying it, to convince their son not to join up when he came of age. And now here he was with Bellatrix, playing catch-up, and here was Draco. This past year's balancing act with Draco had been difficult; he knew the next two would be even harder.

He blinked and took a deep breath. "How have your holidays been?" he asked.

Draco shrugged. "They could be better."

"I'm sure," Snape replied. He watched as Draco crossed the room, rubbing under his nose, and poured himself a glass of water.

"How are your holidays, sir?" Pansy asked. She hadn't moved from the doorway. "What do professors do during the summer, anyway?"

"They drink a lot of scotch," Bellatrix replied, and Snape scowled at her. "A lot."

"I'm doing research," he told Pansy. This wasn't entirely a lie.

"Oh," Pansy said. She looked as though she was quite unnerved by what she was seeing, and that she had only anticipated seeing Draco and Narcissa this week, not Draco, Narcissa, her taciturn Head of House, and Draco's Death Eater aunt, all before ten in the morning.

"Oh!" Draco exclaimed suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him; he was holding his hand under his nose trying to stem a thin, dark stream of blood. "I'm bleeding!" he exclaimed thickly.

"You know any charms for that?" Bellatrix asked Snape.

"I'm a Potions Master, Bellatrix, not a Healer," he replied.

"Draco, tilt your head back," Bellatrix advised. Draco did so, and stared at the ceiling for a few moments.

"C'mon, Draco, let's get a handkerchief or something," Pansy said, and he allowed her to tug him out of the room. Snape and Bellatrix watched him go.

"Huh," said Bellatrix. "Something about him doesn't look right, would you agree?"

Snape didn't reply.

"I suppose that means you want me to get the sister," Bellatrix sighed, standing. "Narcissa! Narcissa! You drunken witch, save some sherry for me!" She went down the hall to the stairs, her knitting needles clicking over her head as they followed.

A few minutes' respite. Snape drank his tea and stared at the wall. He wondered what had happened after Harry had gotten into the car and was hoping Narcissa would have more information stored in her memory when a shuffling noise behind him attracted his attention.

"Mistress says she wants another glass, another glass for my Mistress, my dear, dear Mistress and her sister, oh her sister, her lovely sister, oh how nice this is," croaked a low and somewhat sinister voice. Snape grinned.

"Hello, Kreacher," he said, turning around in his chair to see the ancient house-elf opening a low cupboard door. He'd always liked Kreacher when he used to skulk around during Order meetings; sometimes he'd hear Kreacher muttering things about Sirius with which he'd always wholeheartedly agreed, and he sometimes found himself wanting to give Kreacher an extra bottle of butterbeer from the table, as though Kreacher was the Order's pet rather than, as he always used to say, Sirius himself.

The house-elf swiveled slowly and regarded Snape with his huge, watery eyes. "Kreacher did not see sir," he said.

"That's perfectly all right, Kreacher, you're filling your Mistress's requests," said Snape.

Kreacher stared at Snape a moment longer. "Kreacher knows sir," he said somewhat suspiciously. "Kreacher has seen sir at Master's house, yes, with the blood traitors and brats and unnatural - "

"Yes," Snape said hurriedly, waving his hand to quiet the elf. Kreacher had been one of many obstacles to securing peace of mind these past few months; Dumbledore had reported that Kreacher hadn't told the Malfoys everything he might have, but Snape was not comforted.

Before he could say anything, however, there was a loud squeal from the doorway and Snape looked up to see Narcissa, still in her burgundy dressing-gown.

"Oh hello! Bellatrix told me you'd come to call! I see you've met our new house-elf," she said brightly. She was holding a glass of sherry in one hand. "Kreacher, never mind about the glass, Bellatrix can get one herself now that she's down here - " Narcissa turned around and looked out the doorway into the hall. "Bellatrix! Where did you go?" She turned around again and looked at Snape. "You look like you could use a drink as well. Shall I pour you some sherry?"

"Sir is keeping secrets, Mistress, secrets all about the blood traitors in Master's house," Kreacher muttered, shuffling toward the doorway behind Narcissa. Narcissa laughed, and Snape was somewhat relieved to see that she was obviously on her second or third glass of sherry.

"Kreacher, dear, it's so nice to have you around," she said. He glared ominously back at them as he disappeared into the dark hall. "Don't you like him?" she asked, turning back to Snape, who shrugged.

"Yes, he seems very... he seems very devoted."

"And indeed he is, Severus. Tell me. What brings you here today?"

"I wanted to call on you and see how you were faring without Lucius," said Snape. "I'm sure this isn't easy on you."

Narcissa's face darkened. "It isn't," she said, and dropped into a kitchen chair. "We've no idea when he's coming back."

Snape bit his lip and looked at Narcissa, who had rested her chin on her arms and was staring blearily at the fireplace. He closed his eyes and opened them. "Tell me what's been happening," he said.