Ad Mortem Festinamus

Lord Voldemort had got unsettling news. He had got word of a prophecy, not quite knowing what to do with the knowledge. Young Snape had overheard it, while on a mission to trail old Dumbledore - Voldemort was still determined to get a foot into Hogwarts, and he would introduce a spy there, some way or other. However, Dumbledore had met with some witch arrogating to be a seer, and this seer had fallen into a trance, in which she had proclaimed that a child would be born, with the power to vanquish him. He was inclined to mistrust both the skills of that woman and her prophecy, but he had never been one to take risks, not in such matters, anyway. He needn't consider his chances for long - he'd see to kill the child in question and that'd be the end of it. Simple enough.

He made enquiries about the possible candidates. The child would be born at the end of July, to parents that had fought the Dark Lord three times without losing their lives. That narrowed the suspects down to two couples - Frank and Alice Longbottom, both Aurors, and James and Lily Potter, all members of Dumbledore's order. The more obvious guess would have been the Longbottom boy, of course, a pureblood from an honourable family, bound to achieve greatness one day. Somehow, he tended to think though that the other boy would be the true menace. He didn't recognise his own bias here, because it was the fact that the child's mother was a muggleborn witch which made him believe that this was the announced threat. Like Voldemort himself and young Snape, this boy came from a shady background, that would kindle his hunger to prove himself, to show that he was as good as all the others...

He communicated his decision to his faithful Death Eaters - as soon as the child had seen the light of day, he would be murdered together with its parents, and their task was to find out the whereabouts of the young family and keep track on them. He told only his inner circle why he was so interested in the child - a mistake, all along the line, although he didn't know that.

Severus Snape, the one forwarding the message, was devastated, and if anyone had bothered to take a closer look, they would have noticed instantly how wrought up the young man was. That Lily Potter... He knew her, knew her better than he would have acknowledged to anyone. If someone had asked him, he would have sworn how much he despised her, for what she was, for the man she had married - James Potter had been the bane of his existence, ever since their time in school. That jerk! That arrogant, cocky, complacent jerk! And Lily - his Lily! - had married this total prick! Because Lily Evans, as she had been called then, had been - was still - the only girl he had ever loved. He quickly excused himself and left the Death Eater gathering. He had to be alone.

Oh god! Oh lord! He was the one to blame, he had brought Lily into that deadly peril - for nobody survived once the Dark Lord had marked them to die. What was he supposed to do, for Christ's sake?! Sure, he had never forgiven her for turning away from him, from their long-standing friendship - but that had been a schoolboy's fury and nothing else. She mustn't die! She mustn't be as much as injured! And neither her child! Lily's child, regardless that the father was an ass! What should he do, what could he do - he must prevent this, he must, he must...

Lucius Malfoy had listened to his master with increasing interest, too. A child would be born with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord...? What did that mean? Certainly, a mere child couldn't do anything, but that child would grow, and so would his powers... In twenty years, this boy could turn out to be a great wizard, right? He had learnt to close his mind, so the Dark Lord didn't find out about his musings. He would have guessed Lucius' other notions on the subject.

Admittedly, when joining up, he had enthused about his master, the Dark Order, the power he had achieved. He had been proud that the Dark Lord himself had trained him, that he had quickly risen within the order - but long before he had been made the master's right hand man, he had begun to doubt. This was the reason why he had put so much effort into learning Occlumency in the first place. The older he had got, the clearer he had seen that he had given the Dark Lord far too much power over himself, and what was worse, his entire family. He had put Narcissa in danger, and he would never forgive himself for that.

Nobody resigned from the Dark Lord's service and lived to tell the tale. That was not an option. He had kept still and given his master no reason to reprove him, to take it out on Narcissa in order to punish him for something. But now Narcissa was pregnant with his son, in five months, there'd be two persons in his charge, one of them perfectly helpless, and the jobs he had to do for the Dark Lord became more and more dangerous. There was a war out there, damn it! The Dark Lord was determined to overthrow the Ministry and wreak havoc over the entire wizarding population, anyone standing in his way. He got the help of whole legions of dark creatures, werewolves, vampires, giants, trolls, a couple of Dementors... And most of them weren't fussy. But the crucial point was that he, Lucius, was demanded to fight in this war. This was a risk in itself - the Aurors had recently got permission to kill if necessary. It also bore the risk that he was discovered to be a Death Eater, meaning that he'd spend the rest of his life in Azkaban. This must never happen, not only for his own sake - he had a wife to take care of, and soon, he'd have a son, too, totally dependent on his father, and he had sworn many times that he'd be a good father. He wouldn't be like Abraxas - he would be there for his son, and he couldn't do that if he was dead, or locked away in that stinking dump of a prison!

Narcissa was still awake when he got home that night. She was lying in bed, cuddled up in a thick blanket and reading some book, but put it away as soon as he opened the door and tiptoed in. "You ought to sleep in your state," he muttered fondly and kissed the tip of her nose. "You need to sleep for two."

"Nonsense, darling... How can I sleep when you're not here!" She hid her face and yawned, then took his hand and pulled him down. "You know I can't. I don't know where to put my hands... My head... What to do with my legs..."

She opened his robes and would have started to caress him, but in that moment, she noticed the pensive look on his face. "What is it?"

"Nothing, chérie. Nothing you want to know."

Narcissa scrutinised him, stopping to fumble with his clothes. Yes, they had a deal. Narcissa didn't want to know a lot of things - practically everything connected with the Dark Order. She found it barbaric, she couldn't stand the idea what that awful butcher was forcing her beloved husband to do, in what peril he constantly brought him.

Instead of sleeping with each other, they simply snuggled up, Narcissa found her usual position - their legs entwined, one hand on his belly, her head on his chest - and she murmured flatly, "Is it something that I'll read in the Daily Prophet tomorrow?"

"No, nothing like that..."

"Come on, Lucius, I can see that you're worried. Do I need to be worried, too? I've got to know that, don't you think?"

"It's - it's nothing that directly affects you, Cissa, honestly. Not indirectly either... It's just - I'm prohibited to even mention this, all right, so you must never give as much as a hint that I've spoken about it - least to Bella..."

"Of course not, mon amour. You forget I'm a better Occlumens than even you are, and whatever you tell me, there's no living nor dead soul that would ever hear it from my lips. Come on, talk to me. I'm sure you'll feel better afterwards."

He told her about that prophecy - that there would be a little boy that was supposed to be capable of overthrowing the Dark Lord... She listened in silence, tickling his chest, and waiting a whole minute after he had finished, before saying, "That could be as good as it could be bad, right?"

"What do you mean?" he asked eagerly, hoping she'd confirm his own notions.

"Well... If the Dark Lord was overthrown, his supporters might be in quite some trouble, am I right?"

"That could happen, I s'pose..."

"If he was not overthrown, you might get in trouble, too -"

"Yeah..."

"But our chances would be much, much better if he was vanquished, and we could properly react, right?"

"That's what I thought, yes..."

"Who are the parents?"

"The Potters."

She raised her head in surprise. "Lily Potter?"

"Yes. You know her?"

"Yeah! And so do you. She was number three in our merry potions club."

"The little redhead?"

"That's the one. And V- excuse me, honey - he wants to kill her? And her little boy?"

"And the kid's father. They've defied him three times already, he wants to get rid of the lot of them."

"There's no sanctity in the whole idea."

"What'd you mean?"

"Everything, starting with the mere idea of a prophecy prompting him to kill someone... I don't believe in any prophecy that I haven't forged myself. I'm astonished that he does."

"You think it's a fake?"

"You don't?"

"I don't know... He believes in it, and that's the end of the Potters."

"Not only does he believe in that prophecy, he also believes that this boy could be a threat for him?"

"So it seems."

"How?"

"I have absolutely no idea."