Destiny of Souls

Chapter 10: Voldemort's Plan

They had agreed to meet in the lab early the next morning, however he was not there when she arrived. She unlocked the door herself and then locked it behind her as she began her work. The cauldron had to be scrubbed and perfectly clean before she could start. She spent well over an hour scrubbing it with an undiluted Bubotuber solution to make sure that it was pure. Then she began mixing ingredients.

The vaccine itself was simpler than some of the Prixel poisons were to make. It just took time, two days in fact to cure and then two days outside the cauldron to cool. She hoped they would have enough time. She also hoped Prixel's notes were accurate and she would have success on the first round. After the first few ingredients were settled, she flipped an eight-hour hourglass and headed down for lunch. She would make an appearance in her work robes, as she and Snape had planned, to let Malfoy know she had been working in the laboratory.

The bait worked. An hour after lunch, Malfoy and his two companions knocked on the laboratory door. She let them in.

"Yes Mr. Malfoy, how can I help you?" she asked.

"What are you doing in Professor Snape's laboratory? He is away," he said in a protective tone.

"I am... " she pretended to stumble over her words. "Well I am doing some experimental work Mr. Malfoy; something that is none of your business. Now if you have nothing pressing, I need to continue here." She stared into his eyes. She needed to be firm with him.

He simply left without saying another word and she was free to being working on the Prixel Fury poison. It was more difficult than she had remembered. She ruined two batches and two cauldrons before finally finishing. There were dark black stains on the floor of Snape's laboratory now from where it had splattered. She was used to this. Instantly she had put up a blocking charm and the solution fell to the floor where it ate away the wood and left deep scars.

The end result was a thick potion of a dark emerald green color. It was odorless, and if it touched the skin it could amputate body parts instantly. She brought out 20 glass phials that lined up in the air and labeled themselves in an orderly manner. She placed unbreakable charms on each one and filled them with the green solution. Next she put them in a wooden box and set them on the workbench.

Professor Snape's desk moved slightly as she pushed it aside with her mind. There was a small hole in a floorboard. She put a finger in the hole and lifted up. Several spiders ran out and she thought "Avada Kavadra" as she focused on them. There was a sharp pain in her head and the spiders fell dead. Normally she didn't use this powerful spell, but she was not fond of spiders. Beneath the floorboard was a hollow area with several boxes. Green, red, yellow, purple and clear potions were all orderly placed here. This was his poison and Veritaserum store. He had told her about it the night before. She put nineteen of the phials here and kept one out for testing.

She walked over to the mouse cage and levitated one of the mice up. He was rather innocent, as Marie had so poignantly pointed out. He squealed at the sudden shock of dangling several feet above the workbench. Magically the mouse's mouth opened and the lid of the phial came off. A small drop of green poison floated through the air and as soon as it reached the mouse, the mouse died. "Effective, and painless." She said out loud. She placed the little mouse into a small wooden box. When she was finished, she would give them all a proper burial in the forest.

She tended to the vaccine and started the antidote. By 10pm she was exhausted from her fifteen-hour day. She had skipped dinner and stumbled to the kitchens in a famished stupor. After a bowl of roast beef stew and bread she felt better. She set an hourglass for 8 hours. She would need to be up to tending to the rest of the potion work by then. She dozed off.

At 3am a knock came at her door. It was Snape. He looked okay physically, but there was something peculiar in his eyes. It was a look of pain, but there were no obvious wounds.

"Come with me. Dumbledore needs to speak to you," he said in a very serious tone. Her hair was down and she was in a dressing gown.

"Give me a moment. I need to dress," she replied.

"Hurry."

She closed the door and rushed into her work robes and grabbed a hair tie. As they rushed towards Dumbledore's office she put her hair up. She couldn't help but notice his intrigue at this routine female ritual. He had never expressed interest in her hair before.

When they entered the office Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Professor Dumbledore were seated. She sat down and Snape stood behind her. She could feel his presence, but could not see him.

"Hello Kara. I'm sorry to have to wake you. Are you feeling ok?" he asked, concern in his voice. Her face was still a mess, dark circles had formed under her eyes and there was a sharp pain in her head from being woken without enough sleep. She looked visibly disturbed.

"I had a long day, but I am fine. What is going on?" she said.

"Severus?" Dumbledore said.

Snape began talking. Why was he standing behind her and not somewhere she could see his eyes? He had a somber, yet calm tone in his voice. He was forcing it, she could tell, as his breathing was irregular.

"The Dark Lord, as you know, has been searching for the Prixel Fury antidote for some time now. He had sent me directly to Prixel to retrieve it, but I passed the information onto Professor Lynch instead at Prixel's request. I told the Dark Lord that Prixel had already passed the recipe onto someone else, although I did not know who. He then tortured and killed Prixel and discovered that he had given it to Professor Lynch," he paused, allowing Sirius and Remus to take in this information, which they obviously had not heard before.

"So what does Voldemort plan to do now Severus?" Dumbledore asked. It appeared Dumbledore already knew the answer.

"He has devised a plan that will enable me to steal the recipe from Professor Lynch, while at the same time using her to assist my Potions duties for him."

She had suspected this much, since he had asked her to make extra Prixel Fury. With the Ministry possessing the vaccine, it was not something she worried about.

"What is his plan?" Sirius asked.

"I am to make Professor Lynch... trust me, and I am to abuse her trust to steal the recipe from her," he said in a forced voice, stumbling when he said the word trust. She silently wondered whether winning her trust was what Voldemort really had in mind.

The room was silent. Lupin and Black were staring at her. They had questioning looks. She could practically read their minds.

"Headmaster, if Voldemort gets a hold of the antidote before the vaccine is ready for the Ministry, there could be problems," she said.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at her. He was not expecting this response.

"I agree. However there is a more serious issue at hand here that I am surprised you did not consider first. That is of Severus' cover with Voldemort. If Voldemort is commanding him to proceed with this plan, then you must knowingly play a part in it. And that implies certain... sacrifices on your part. One of which is maintaining Severus' cover in front of his students," he said.

She knew exactly what he meant. She couldn't take it anymore She stood up and began pacing the room a bit, occasionally glancing at Snape's face. He refused to look at her. There was something visually different about him, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"How does Voldemort expect you to make me fall in love with you?" she said as she turned to face him. The look in his eyes told her that is just what Voldemort had in mind. Sirius Black and Lupin gasped.

"He knows you are incapable of relating to those feelings."

She looked him in the face, knowing out of habit he would meet her gaze and she could get to the bottom of whatever it was he was hiding.

Instead, he turned away towards the window and stood in silence for several more minutes as if to ponder his next move.

Sirius and Lupin were staring at Snape with wide eyes. Apparently they had thought Voldemort really meant he was to make her trust him, not fall in love.

He finally turned around and raised the left sleeve of his robe. "It's gone," he finally said as he looked into her eyes. "He removed it. I am no longer marked."

A very unflattering look of horror came across her face. Voldemort had removed the mark, and knowingly given him to her for the purpose of exploiting her.

"I refuse," she said finally with resolve in her voice.

"What?" Snape said in a surprised manner. He no doubt expected her to be delighted at the news.

"I refuse!" she repeated.

"Don't be seflish, Kara. This is exactly what needs to happen. Malfoy and the other Death Eater children need to think there is something between us." .

"And when this is finished and he has what he wants, will he remark you?" she said. He clearly had not considered that. "Have you considered how I might feel about that?"

He didn't answer.

"He will expect you to repay him ten-fold for this Severus. He obviously knows something about me... about... you know," she said furiously as she looked him in the face.

"It is possible Malfoy mentioned something about seeing us together and that may be how the plan formed. But there is no way anyone knows anything else about you. And he certainly doesn't know about me," he said cryptically.

They were now speaking about their gifts. Sirius seemed to be the only person completely confused.

"Knows what about you?" Sirius asked.

"You give him too much credit Kara if you think he has any idea about that," Snape said ignoring Sirius.

She was furious. He actually expected her to pretend to be in love with him. She was absolutely sickened at the idea that if they fell in love, Voldemort would be the one responsible.

"Then you didn't tell him like you told Lupin?" she spat. She was angry and was now ready to provoke him.

"Excuse me?" he said. His voice showed he was hurt at her accusation.

Lupin gasped.

"You heard me. He saw me accidentally unlock a door in front of Harry Potter, and then casually reminded me to be careful of doing Dark Arts in front of him. If you haven't told anyone, then explain how Lupin knows what I am. Dumbledore didn't say anything, McGonagall didn't, and I doubt he found out from the Ministry. That only leaves you Severus."

She was maniacal and was shouting loudly at him. Snape only stood there in shock.

"Professor Lynch, I don't think..." Dumbledore said, but Lupin cut him off.

"Sirius, can you wait outside please." Lupin said in a calm voice as he turned towards his friend.

Sirius gave his friend a puzzling look, but agreed and left. Lupin stood and locked the door.

"No one told me Professor Lynch. I knew because..." His hands ran up through his hair. He was uncomfortable. "There is a power that Werewolves have. It's not documented anywhere, because to admit that we have it would mean certain death. I can see what you are when I look at you. I can see that you have Inner Focus. I see the red aura around your body." He looked at her.

She looked at Snape and he looked positively frightened. She knew exactly what he was thinking. Lupin had known what Snape was for nearly twenty-five years and Severus had no idea.

"I knew from the moment I saw you. I had only seen it once before, but it is hard to miss. Dark witch, dressed in black, a huge red ball of fire around her body," Lupin went on.

Dumbledore was equally shocked. "You have known all this time about Severus?" he asked. This seemed to be Severus' question too as he looked from Dumbledore and then to Lupin unable to speak.

"Sort of. The first time I saw Snape I saw the aura. Despite all my friend's... discussions about him, none of them ever mentioned it. At the time, none of them knew what I was, so I wasn't about to say anything in case they figured me out. In my fifth year I finally stumbled across a small hint of what the aura meant. By then, Snape already knew I was a Werewolf. If he knew that Werewolves could sense him, he would certainly kill me on the spot. He already hated me. I wasn't about to let him or anyone else know. So I kept quiet."

Severus was now pacing.

"You never told Potter?" he asked after several tense minutes.

"No I never told James, and I certainly never told Harry," Lupin replied.

A look of realization and comprehension came over Snape's face.

"Wormtail..." Snape said, trailing off.

"And I never told Peter. Believe it or not Snape, not all of us trusted Peter completely. We knew he was not a strong person," He replied.

Kara wasn't quite following the conversation, but Severus seemed to be.

"You realize the consequences if Wormtail knows, Lupin," Snape said in a silky voice.

"If Peter knew, you would be dead already," Lupin replied.

"I never told anyone at all. I didn't even tell Dumbledore. I knew that people would never accept you for what you were. Believe it or not, we do share that in common. I wasn't about to put you through the very thing I feared. Being discovered and shunned, or worse killed for what I was." There was as long pause before he continued. Snape was just pacing around the room in a very angry manner. "I had hoped we would reconcile what happened so long ago while I was here... but that wasn't meant to be."

There was a sad tone in his voice and Snape had a regretful look on his face.

"I got you fired by telling people what you were..." Snape said.

"Yes. " Lupin replied. And then quickly added. "But if you think that somehow means I am going to tell people about you, you're wrong. I wouldn't do that."

Snape approached him and Lupin stood.

"I can kill you with a single thought, Lupin. If you ever tell anyone, you will be dead before you know what hit you." Snape said in a calm but dangerous voice, as his face became just a few inches from Lupin's.

Kara walked over to them and put herself between Lupin and Snape.

"Severus. Let's get on with the issue at hand. Lupin, let Sirius back in." Kara looked in Snape's eyes. There was a mixture of fury and fear there, but he didn't look away from her. It was like they were having a private conversation while blocking out the rest of the world.

When Sirius came back in everyone but Snape and Kara sat down again.

Dumbledore finally broke the silence.

"Kara, I will understand if you do not want to be a part of this, but please realize it is extremely important. Doing this for us -- for everyone -- will be a great help," he said. His eyes were honest and twinkling.

She thought about it, pacing softly around the room. Severus was avoiding her eyes now as if he was afraid of rejection after all he had been through. She wondered how he was feeling.

"Fine. I will do it. The Prixel Fury is already in your stores. I made nineteen doses. The first antidote batch will be ready tomorrow. The vaccine takes four days. I doubt either the antidote or the vaccine will be ready on the first try. The best I can give you is a few weeks for the vaccine," she said.

"Severus, you and Professor Lynch should work out in private how you are going to deal with the other part of your plan." Dumbledore said.

He nodded.

"Get some rest Kara, and thank you," Dumbledore said.

They left Sirius, Lupin and Dumbledore and headed back towards her quarters.

When they reached her rooms, she closed, locked and protected the door as usual. She made them tea as he paced the room, searching for something to say. He was a deep thinker. He was no doubt wrestling with her reaction to his news.

"I'm not angry at you Severus," she said. She couldn't look at him, she was afraid she would break down.

"I thought you would have been pleased," he retorted.

"If you had come to me an hour ago and said he had let you go and removed the mark, I would be pleased. Instead you came to me and practically said he gave you to me as a gift. I cannot take that gift. I refuse to let him be the reason I have you especially if there is a chance he will remark you later. Please tell me you understand that," she said. She finally turned to face him. He was sitting down now and his face was in his hands.

He sat up and took the tea she offered him. They sat in silence for almost five minutes.

"I do understand. However, it does not change what must be done," he finally said.

"Yes. We need to plan that carefully," she said

"I am going now. I will see you in the morning in the laboratory after I have had some time to plan how we are going to handle this."

He rose and left the room without saying another word.

She sat in her room in silence for several hours until the hourglass she had set went off. She freshened up and headed back to the laboratory in fresh work robes.