A Road Less Traveled

"You know it's true: all the things come back to you."--Aerosmith "Dream On"

***

The Malfoy boy indeed, mused Severus Snape. Forgetting the memory of the Dark Lord for the moment, he sighed while shaking his head and sunk deeper into the arm chair. It was Draco who got him into this Devil's snare of a conundrum in the first place. Well, even more so was that woman. Narcissa. Starting with harsh consonants, but it ending in a feminine vowel, one almost sounded like a Parselmouth speaking the name. She was always impossibly beautiful, but as snobbish and high maintenance as a show ring Afghan hound. Snape (along with most of the male student population at Hogwarts) could not help but give a perfunctory glance as Narcissa Black seemed to waft on an invisible breeze in between classes surrounded by an entourage of popular Slytherins, especially Lucius Malfoy.

Several years her senior, the proud young man eyed the youthful Black sister possessively as a snow leopard might stare at a hapless deer just before pouncing. Desire for perfect pureblood breeding led the Blacks to negotiate an early betrothal with the Malfoys for Narcissa and Lucius barely days after she received her Hogwarts letter. Every male student at school, including Severus, knew to give Narcissa a wide berth lest they incur the wrath of young Master Malfoy.

Though infamous for putting on airs, Lucius was a practical man at heart and knew--just as all of royal blood in bygone eras knew--an heir to the Malfoy line must be produced quickly. By his wedding date the month after his bride graduated from Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort's reign was drawing nigh and any son of the most trusted of the Dark Lord's advisors would be practically royalty. However, several years of marriage to the beautiful Black sister was not as fruitful as he desired. Despite a generous supply of fertility draughts discretely supplied by a young apothecary friend with an almost unnatural knack for potions, there was not a single sign from his wife that Lucius' seed had planted on fertile soil.

After feeling his biological clock ticking loudly, Lucius became very demanding with Narcissa in his quest for a son. After consulting numerous books, Healers, and even researching Muggle medicine, Lucius was at wit's end. For all the Death Eater hemming and hawing about the power of pureblood, a desperate plan formed in Malfoy's mind.

***

Late one warm early September night, a loud knock echoed on the door in a small house on Spinner's End. Having waited several moments, the blonde man was about to rap his sterling silver serpent tipped cane (a gift from his father Abraxas) once more on the poorly painted door when it opened barely a centimeter. He could discern a flicker of question in the eye that appeared at the door. Lucius nodded and smiled tersely and was rewarded by the door opening to admit him.

"Severus! Good evening to you," greeted Malfoy to the 21 year old wizard.

"And to you, Mr. Malfoy. An unexpected pleasure," responded Snape.

"Oh, now, none of that, Severus. This isn't the dispensary at St. Mungo's. Call me Lucius," said Malfoy amiably as he took in the abysmal surroundings that were a far cry from Malfoy Manor. Attempting to make small talk, he continued in a delicate tone, "Is this your parent's...home?"

"My parents are...gone," Snape said cryptically.

He felt both vaguely embarrassed and a little suspicious as to how exactly Malfoy knew where he lived. Despite the two sharing the same House in school, they were never exactly school boy chums. Morose by nature, Snape tended to spurn the companionship of his peers, even fellow Slytherins, in favor of a quiet evening in study. Only Lucius' intervention as a seventh year prefect one evening during a four against one scrap--well, truth be told, the werewolf was just looking on--his second year triggered a sense of reciprocity when Malfoy approached Snape nearly a year ago. Though far from friends, the Potions Master in training would prove a reliable source of under the table fertility draughts from his apothecary apprenticeship at St. Mungo's.

"Right then..." said Malfoy uncomfortably. "Severus, I'll get right to the point of my visit. You've been very helpful in my...'quest' these last few months. And for that I thank you, of course. That is precisely why I need your help once more."

Snape's brow furrowed but said nothing.

"Severus, you know how much Narcissa means to me. And how much an heir...a son...would mean to the both of us. The fertility draughts, for whatever reason, have yet to work and time is growing short."

Resisting the urge to raise an eyebrow to the borderline ridiculous paranoia that a 26 year old could not impregnate his 21 year old wife after only four years, Snape remained silent.

"And this is why I must ask you for your...assistance. You've been nothing but professional and helpful this past year. I just want to ask for your professionalism again one last time...I remember nothing but the fondest of memories from our days at Hogwarts."

Snape almost rolled his eyes as he knew they rarely had said more than a cursory word or three to each other in the two years their schooling overlapped, but still listened attentively.

"At any rate, you are familiar with the idea that hybrids of powerful animals, like the falcon and the lion, can produce even more powerful magical beasts, such as the Gryfalcon?"

Snape nodded slowly. He was not sure if he knew where this conversation, based on its context, was leading, but he was starting to have an idea.

"I know you are a half-blood, Severus, and you were the most powerful wizard of your year. As I don't know how to put this delicately, I will come right out and say it. I want you to join Narcissa and me in our marital bed for one night so that I might realize my goal of an heir, a son."

Absolutely astonished, Snape could not help but drop his jaw. He was not sure which to be more surprised at: the fact that Malfoy knew he was a half-blood--he had always been very private with that bit of information-- or that Malfoy wanted Snape to sleep with his treasured wife.