Gingerbread House

Arriving outside Malfoy Manor, Severus scowled. He needed a conscious Malfoy, or at the very least, someone in the service of a Malfoy, in order to get past the wards. He pointed his wand at Lucius and tried a half-hearted "Ennervate." The Dark Lord must have been feeling particularly vicious when he cast Cruciatus on Lucius.

Honestly, you'd think the man would know better than to do something so spectacularly stupid.

He glared at the imposing and elaborate gates to the Manor's grounds and contemplated just leaving Lucius lying there on the grass. He sighed and cast a charm to summon a house elf with Lucius' wand. The elf appeared instantly. "Master!"

"Is Narcissa home?" Severus asked.

"Yes, sir," the elf replied. "Is sir wanting Neery to take sir to Mistress?"

Severus nodded. He pointed his wand at Lucius. "Mobilicorpus." With Lucius levitating behind him, Severus followed the elf into the Manor grounds. He glanced around, and noticed that most of the automatic defenses had been deactivated. He vaguely wondered if the Malfoys had been entertaining Ministry guests before the summons.

"Mistress is in the Green Room, sir. Would sir like Neery to take Master for you?" the elf asked when the threesome had reached the house proper. Severus nodded, let Lucius drift to the ground, and terminated the levitation spell. He walked away without looking back in the direction of the Green Room.

Severus, no matter how many times he found himself walking around the Manor alone, always found himself afraid of getting lost. The house liked to change. Lucius, fed up with having to track down his friend when Severus got lost on the way to the dining room for parties, finally told him a secret about the house: it had a sense of humor, and found it rather amusing to confound guests. "How can a house have a sense of humor?" Severus asked.

"Easily. It's the embodiment of the first Malfoy," Lucius had answered easily. "And now that you know that, as long as you treat him respectfully, he'll never let you get lost."

Lucius had been right. From that moment on, he had never gotten lost in Malfoy Manor. In fact, he was fairly sure he had found shortcuts that neither Lucius, nor his father Armaros knew about. Not to mention the terrific laboratory he had found one night, wandering around after a meeting, in the dungeons of the castle.

Despite his reluctance to face Narcissa, Severus found himself at the door to the Green Room quickly. He sighed, and knocked lightly on the hard oak door. "Come in," Narcissa's light voice answered. He scowled, and prayed the woman wasn't entertaining. He opened the door, and strolled in.

Narcissa Malfoy had always been a beautiful woman, even when she had simply been Narcissa Rookwood. She was two years older than Severus, and he could still remember Lucius' fascination with her from their time at Hogwarts. What most didn't realize was that under that beauty rested a cunning, but relatively indolent mind. She knew how to protect herself and her own, she certainly had intelligence. But for as long as Severus had known her, she had been too blinded by her own base ambition and needs to rise to her full potential. The same cunning that got Narcissa Sorted into Slytherin was very much of the animal variety; she had instincts. But she rarely planned, she let others know what she wanted and they did the work for her.

"Ah, Severus, how delightful," Narcissa put her teacup down on the table and looked at him. She seemed to be smiling sincerely; Severus highly doubted the veracity of her expression. "Given that Lucius has not accompanied you, I assume the Dark Lord disciplined him. Tea?" She gestured towards the empty seat at the table, already set, presumably for Lucius himself. The curt gesture covered her quick breath of irritation. Severus walked over and sat.

Narcissa was also the one with the balls in the family.

"So, what exactly did my husband do this time?" she asked, pouring Severus a cup of tea.

He sipped it, noting the faint taste of mint, stalling. "He initiated a plan without the Dark Lord's knowledge."

Narcissa laughed. That certainly wasn't the reaction he had been expecting. "I'm surprised our Lord let him leave breathing." She sipped from her own cup, crossing her legs as she drank. The act was manufactured to draw his attention to her thighs. Severus mentally rolled his eyes and obliged. She smiled, a half-lift of one side of her mouth. Lucius, when they were in school, had compared that smile to the Mona Lisa.

"I believe the Dark Lord was lenient because Lucius may be the only person who is able to fix the mess he created, both at Hogwarts and in the Ministry."

Narcissa slammed her cup down on the table. The tea sloshed over her hands and onto the table. "Hogwarts? That fool actually did it?" Her cheeks were bright red and all pretense of seduction was gone from her manner. Once again, he was reminded of her animal cunning; this was an act of self-preservation.

Narcissa had always been good at preserving herself.

Severus leaned forward. Perhaps he might be able to get some information from this Malfoy. "Neither the Dark Lord nor Lucius have been forthcoming with details. Would you care to explain to me exactly what he did?"

Narcissa leaned back, not speaking. The flushed faded from her cheeks as quickly as it had appeared. "Why are you so interested, Severus? It's not like a loyal servant of the Dark Lord to be concerned about Harry Potter." She reached into the sleeve of her robe, pulled out her wand, and cleaned the tea up before pouring a new cup.

Severus snorted. "I could care less what happens to the little brat, Narcissa. It's Draco I'm concerned about."

"Draco?"

"Yes. Lucius enacted his plan, whatever it is, through Draco, and he was caught along with Potter." Severus sipped his tea, and watched Narcissa's reaction.

Where there had been anger before, Severus thought he detected a faint surge of satisfaction in the way her lips twisted, right eyebrow raised, and eyes widened. There was no surprise at all in her expression. "He was?" She hummed a bit and sipped the tea. Severus raised an eyebrow at her stalling. "What do you already know?"

Severus smirked. "That's not going to work, Narcissa. Why don't you -" The door to the Green Room opened and Lucius trudged in.

"Oh wonderful," he said dryly, "I'm in time for tea." The lines around his eyes seemed darker and more pronounced, and Severus absently noted the faint tremors in his hands as he conjured a third chair for the table. He reached into his robes and pulled out a small vial, setting it in front of Lucius. "What's this?" Lucius picked it up disdainfully.

Severus sighed, and wondered how he had ever decided to become Lucius' friend. Admittedly, there hadn't been much of an option, but at least Braz Zabini had trusted him enough to take his potions without complaint. Well, at least until Claudia had gotten her hooks into him. Water under the bridge, he supposed. On the other hand, Severus had never been very good at letting things go. "It's a general anesthetic, it helps alleviate some of the symptoms of Cruciatus."

Lucius snorted inelegantly, but downed the potion. He grimaced slightly at the taste. "I assume you've been filling in Narcissa on today's events?"

Narcissa poured Lucius a cup of tea, adding a bit of sugar. Severus assumed it was to help wash the nasty taste of the potion out of the man's mouth. "He has told me that you went ahead without approval." She placed the teapot lightly down on the table. "That was very stupid, Lucius."

Lucius shot a look at Severus. "Not now, Narcissa."

Severus laughed harshly. "Afraid to offend the guest?" He rubbed his forehead slightly, Death Eater politics, on top of everything else that had happened over the last two days, were just enough to push him over the edge. Narcissa leveled a dark look at him. "Oh please, just tell me what you did, so I can go back to Hogwarts, fix your mistake, Lucius, and then perhaps even get your son back."

Lucius sneered. "There are only two ways out of the trap. From the outside, a ritual sacrifice of someone close to the trapped. No one knows how to get out from the inside, it's never been accomplished before."

Severus scowled. "That doesn't help very much. Would you care to tell me exactly what the house does?"

Lucius laughed. "I think you've perhaps overstayed your welcome. There's no way to get them out unless they do it themselves." He tossed the potion vial across the table to Severus and pointed to the door. "I'll contact you before the next meeting."

Severus stood, and nodded. He walked to the door, pulling it open, before stopping. "You are treading on very thin ice, Lucius. Be careful what you're doing, because if you keep making missteps of this proportion, you'll have Dumbledore, the Ministry, and the Dark Lord after your blood. You should take help where it's offered."

"Help always comes with a price." It was Narcissa speaking.

"Perhaps," he said after a moment, "but considering the stakes, aren't you willing to pay it?" With that parting shot, Severus walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. He clenched his fists in order to help repress the urge to do something destructive.

Not for the first time in the last twenty years, Severus found himself glad of his profession.

The students would know the real meaning of fear in the morning.

With a small, bitter smile, Severus strode towards the exit. He tapped his fingers lightly against his leg as he walked, considering. The house was a trap, Narcissa didn't approve, and Voldemort hadn't known. Lucius had acted on his own initiative, which meant it was probably not some type of power siphon. But Lucius had let slip about the sacrifice. Severus squinted thoughtfully.

A good portion of the Dark Arts were based on three things: power, blood, and sex. At least one element was almost always necessary for the spells to work. Most of the lower to middle level spells required a great deal of power and control. It never ceased to amuse him that the so-called "Unforgivable" Curses, were really middle level as far as the Dark Arts were concerned. The middle to higher level spells required either sexual congress during the spell, or the results of such an act; semen, for example. The Darkest, and therefore most powerful, of the Dark Arts, always required blood. The caster's blood, specifically.

It had been those spells that brought about the transformation in Tom Riddle, making it so that only a select group knew the origins of the Dark Lord.

Some of those spells allowed for a substitution. Instead of the caster's blood, the blood of a relative, or someone who is considered "family" by the caster - and vice versa - could be used. The sacrifice only worked if the substitute was willing to go to the point of death.

All of the Dark Arts of this type called for death.

Severus himself had never preformed any spells of this type. He never quite had the stomach for it, especially considering the disaster with the Bindende Treue spell he had attempted with Theresia Rosier.

She had ended up dead, and Severus himself had ended up in a coma for nearly two weeks. He had woke up in Malfoy Manor and watched Lucius successfully preform the spell with Narcissa. Two days later, Severus had found himself in the office of Albus Dumbledore.

Severus' insistence on not casting the high level Dark Arts spells that the Dark Lord and members of his inner circle advocated lowered his status in the eyes of the Dark Lord. This was a problem for the budding spy, so when he had been younger, he went out of his way to create new potions. Potions to bend the mind, potions to change the body, potions to hurt, potions to heal, potions to poison, potions to kill, potions to create lies, potions to force the truth, potions to hide, potions to reveal.

Some of those potions he had gone on to patent, and were usable in the mainstream. The rest, he had destroyed nearly everything of.

Except his notes. Those he hadn't been able to part with. If asked, Severus would explain that he always knew the Dark Lord hadn't been totally gone after the incident at the Potter's. Deep down, he suspected that those notes provided a last connection to a time of life that had been much simpler. He missed it sometimes.

Severus missed it all the time.

He blinked and came back to himself as he realized that he had not come to the exit to the Manor. In fact, Severus was standing in front of the laboratory he used to hide in as a child. Severus had been fifteen the last time he had entered the room, and surprisingly, it looked like the wards he had set on the door were still untouched.

He pulled out his wand and took them down. It was much easier now that it had been nearly twenty-five years ago. Time made all the difference, he supposed. Time, power, and knowledge. He grabbed the doorknob, relishing the feel of the metal, before turning it.

He coughed as he walked in; twenty-three years of dust accumulation was not a pleasant experience. Severus slipped his wand out of his sleeve, and held it up. "Lumos." The soft light from the wand cast shadows over the entire laboratory. On the right side of the room, Severus noticed the set-up for an old experiment that he never started. On the left was a full bookshelf.

Severus smiled and walked over. He laid a hand on the top row of books; they were all journals for potions and spell experiments that he had tried to hide from his parents. He gently fingered the binding of one of the books, clearing the dust a bit. He pulled it off the shelf and checked the last dated entry. About 17 months before his last entrance into the laboratory. And right about the same time Severus had begun studying the Dark Arts.

At least Lucius' slip could help them discern the type of spell surrounding the house. If calling either Potter or Draco back required a blood sacrifice, perhaps if a select few at Hogwarts put their heads together, they could come up with a list of locator spells that might break through the magical barriers on the house.

Severus snorted, realizing that he was actually contemplating working with Lupin and Granger.

He had never been able to play nice with the other children.

Severus conjured a large bag. Placing it under his arm, he cast an area-affected shrinking spell, changing the size of the books until they were all small enough to all fit in the bag. That finished, Severus began loading. He mentally made a note to devote time to look through all the books later. After the current crisis was over, and before the next one started.

That finished, Severus exited the laboratory. This time he paid attention to where he was going, and quickly found himself at the front doors. As he stepped out onto the Manor grounds, he idly wondered how he had ended up at the laboratory in the first place. He highly doubted the house's sense of humor would chose to that specific moment to act up, after a very quiet twenty-eight years.

As he walked toward the gate, he found himself remembering a quote from a Muggle book Albus had loaned him. Lips quirking slightly, Severus passed the Anti-Apparition wards, and prepared himself to make the jump back to Hogsmead. "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot."

Severus arrived back on the outskirts of Hogsmead. The sun was just beginning to set, and with the Auror-enforced curfew due to Death Eater activities most of the shops were closing and people scurrying home as fast as they could. Severus had always found the mass exodus to "safety" amusing. First of all, the Dark Lord could find them wherever they were, no place was safe. Hogwarts itself wasn't safe, despite the Dumbledore propaganda. Secondly, the Death Eater activity had increased recently; raids were happening during the day as well.

He winced at the thought of the Dark Lord's escalation now that he knew Potter was neutralized for the time being.

That meant the next reliable target was most likely going to be centered around Hogwarts and it's power structure: Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Minerva McGonagall, the students.

Albus Dumbledore.

Severus stalked through the village toward the imposing castle. In all honesty, he was rather surprised he'd survived this long as a spy. The Dark Lord, while somewhat blinded by his own ambition, had never been a stupid man. And his increase in power was sincerely worrying, especially in combination with Pettigrew's knowledge of the castle.

Arriving at the castle, he was greeted by Potter's miserable mutt of a godfather. Black was in his Animagus form, and seemed to be pacing back and forth along the perimeter of the wards that guarded the entrance to Hogwarts from Hogsmead. It looked like Black had been waiting, impatiently, for him.

This was going to be fun.

Black, finally catching onto Severus' scent, growled low in his throat. Severus slipped his wand out of his robes, and pointed it at the bastard, ready to hex him. Black glared, trotted up, and sunk his teeth into Severus' robes, trying to pull him toward the Forbidden Forest. It seemed as if the idiot wanted to chat.

Oh, this was going to be incredible fun.

Once the pair of them had gone far enough into the Forest to be sure that none of the students were around, Black transformed. Severus raised an eyebrow at him, before casting anti-eavesdrop and perimeter-detection spells. He refused to be the first one to speak, so he crossed his arms and just stared at the man he hated.

"Snape." Black's voice was low, hollow, and deep. Severus fought a smirk of satisfaction that Black had broken first.

"Yes, mongrel?"

Black snarled. "Remus says you have the Apparition coordinates for the place he found in Peter's journal."

Severus blinked, surprised in spite of himself. "Not with me, no. But I do have them."

"Bring them to the Whomping Willow tomorrow morning before classes start. I'm Apparating there." Black's hands twitched slightly.

Severus snorted. "Make sure you take a wand with you. Wouldn't want your precious Potter to come back and find you dead, now would we?"

"In your dreams, Snape," Black snarled back. His jaw tightened and he seemed to be considering something.

"What?"

"Snape." The name was ground out through Black's yellowed teeth. Severus idly wondered how long it would take the idiot to grind his teeth completely away if he kept that up. "Something smells wrong," he finally continued in one rush.

Severus raised his eyebrow. "How specific. 'Something smells wrong.' Why thank you for that brilliant insight." He smirked at Black and turned to walk away. Black caught his arm.

"Listen to me, you greasy bastard." Black's words were intense, and Severus looked him dead in the eyes. The pale color seemed leeched out by the forest, casting a sinister pall over the other man. "Something, or someone, is not supposed to be here. I don't know who or what, and I don't have time to check myself before tomorrow. I've already told Remus."

"And you're telling me because...?" Severus asked coldly.

Black shook his head, lips pursed into a thoughtful frown. "As much as I hate you, you see things most don't." His grip tightened painfully, cutting off circulation. "Watch." With that final command delivered, Black shifted back into his Animagus form and bounded off.

Severus watched him go and started to laugh. It was hard, cold, bitter, and it felt like each gasp of laughter stuck in his throat. He let the laughter trail off, still standing in the same spot Black had left him, and considered the other man's words.

It was nothing he didn't already know.

He looked up as he heard a trilling in the distance. Against the dark of the sky, he saw a red bird, a fiery bird flying towards the castle. It was Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Severus frowned, and started the follow the bird. As far as he knew, the bird had never left the castle since Dumbledore had become Headmaster.

The bird flew into a window. Severus paused and pictured the cooridor of the castle that led to: Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

And the Chamber of Secrets.

Gathering his robes in his hands, so that he wouldn't trip, Severus took off at a run.

Author's Notes:

Armaros (Malfoy): Lucius' father, and Draco's grandfather. I thought the name would be highly appropriate. Lucius is a derivative of the name "Lucifer." In the books of Enoch, Armaros is a fallen angel, who along with two hundred angels who descended to Mount Hermon and had sex with human women. The leaders of the angels taught charms, conjuring formulas, and the efficacy of plants. The children of these mixed marriages were giants, who consumed everything up to and including men. Armaros was one of those angelic leaders, and he specifically taught men how to raise spells.

Braz (Zabini): Once again, I get to make up a generation of people! This would be the ever-silent Blaise Zabini's father. Blaise is the Latin name for "one who lisps or stammers." Braz is Latin for "stammerer." Guess it runs in this family.

Claudia (Zabini): Blaise Zabini's mother. Claudia, is the Latin form of the name "Claude," and means "the lame one."

Bindende Treue spell: Rough German for "binding loyalty." You can probably figure out from that what I think it does.

Theresia Rosier: I sort of see her as Death Eater Evan Rosier's sister. Theresia is a German name, meaning "the harvester or reaper." And they said you couldn't judge a book by it's cover.

"Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot." Quote is from Arthur Conan Doyle's excellent detective, Sherlock Holmes. Specifically from the story "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange."

And just some general housekeeping of stuff I noticed from reviews:

First of all, I don't speak or read Latin. I make use of a Latin dictionary and my ever-helpful in-med-school best friend who does. I do, however, claim to speak French. I'm fairly rusty, because I honestly haven't practiced since high school (although I was fluent then). I've been learning German and Japanese as well. But in the end, I can only say with absolute certainty that I'm fluent in English.

Second: I know most of you guys keep clamoring for more stuff inside the house with Harry and Draco, but honestly, this is my story. I'm not an incredibly slow writer, it doesn't take me months to update. Generally I have a new chapter out each month. I'm sorry, but I do want this to be balanced - I enjoy writing the switching perspectives. And nearly every canonical Harry Potter character not dead or Dumbledore is going to have a part to play and something to say. This will be a long story. Very long. So, be patient. Trust me, Draco and Harry will get more than enough "on-screen time." In fact, they'll be getting more than anyone else.

Third: Yes, this will be slash. Harry/Draco, specifically. Maybe some other characters. There will also be heterosexual pairings too! So, feel free to run screaming from either one. Whatever suits your fancy. (By the way, since the pairing is not synonymous with the plot, any romance found herein will actually be fairly mild. There's a reason the story is listed as "Horror/Action/Adventure.")