Into the Mouth of Hell

Into the Mouth of Hell: Chapter 13

Narcissa's Kingdom

What potions have I drunk of Siren tears

The time Severus spent at the Jagermeister Institute was a grueling two years indeed. There were no holidays, and Severus had no social life to distract him from his work. As a result, he excelled, learning the properties of obscure ingredients and rare herbs with an aptitude and tenacity Severus had never known he possessed. He was never a particularly brilliant student at Hogwarts, with all of the distractions that the Slytherin common room provided. But now he worked tirelessly at perfecting his brewing technique, mastering his antidotes often on the first take, and took particular relish in the self-administered testing of various poisons. The students were expected to develop immunities to some of the more basic toxins, and Severus survived those easily. Soon, he was head of class in both practical and theoretical scores. This caught the attention of Heir Stolz, the most distinguished of the faculty, who took Severus under his wing as an assistant.

Severus spent his weeks in classes and his weekends in the dark of Heir Stolz's office, researching the learned professor's current interest: immortality draughts. Tirelessly, he made long lists for his mentor, tracing the origins of this category of elixir back to the dawn of magic itself. He read accounts by witches and wizards describing, often in detail, the methods and properties of their attempts to stop death: it seemed that wizards had always been obsessed with finding the secret to life. Most of these attempts proved futile, but Severus began to see patterns emerging. Often, the magic was sympathetic, involved ingredients from a spectrum of sources, and more times than not bordered on necromancy. He could see why there was more of an academic rather than a practical interest in this magic: it was very, very dangerous and would probably land one on the wrong side of a very bad deity if botched.

Still, it was fascinating work, and Severus surprisingly panged to miss it as he walked down Diagon Alley in the late morning hours of a fine summer day, his second day home as a recently graduated Potion Master, on his way to meet Lucius at the Leaky Cauldron.

He was walking slowly, measuring in his mind the length of his strides: matching the length of each subsequent stride to the length of the stride before it, thus averaging the length of his strides so that it would appear to the casual observer that Potion Master Severus Snape, who graduated at the top of his class from the highly esteemed Jagermeister Institute, was indeed walking fearlessly with ease and confidence. But truthfully (if one even regarded emotional responses as truth), Potion Master Severus Snape, who did graduate at the top of his class, was neither particularly anxious to meet with Lucius Malfoy nor particularly thrilled to resume his midnight duties in service of the Dark Lord. Of course, no one must ever know that. He had never quite worked it out in his mind why the Dark Lord wanted him to study abroad at Jagermeister when it seemed to Severus that his services as a Death Eater were more useful in Wiltshire. He wondered if the Dark Lord needed a skilled potion-maker, but thought that the Dark Lord was probably more than competent with potions. The more he had thought about it, the more Severus rationalized that the only unique thing about his experience at Jagermeister was studying Immortality Draughts under Heir Stolz. The implications of that made Severus feel uneasy at best, so he measured and matched his steps, eyes up in a street full of down-turned heads, and made his way deliberately to whatever Lucius had in store for him at the Leaky Cauldron.

After nearly two years in relative darkness, Severus had read a month's worth of back issues of the Daily Prophet his first day home in order to acclimate himself to the current state of affairs in wizarding England. Reading between the lines (which was an essential tool in getting anything of value from that paper), Severus had discerned that things had taken a turn for the worse in the war--on both sides. The Ministry was cracking down harder on the Dark Lord's supporters, and the Death Eaters, it seemed to Severus, had turned from calculated executions to outright willful violence. The Ministry had apprehended some faces that Severus recognized from his time spent in the Malfoy dungeons, and Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet reported lavishly with great swirling adjectives how the Ministry's "elite and highly trained" team of Aurors had the Death Eaters ("those consumed by cowardice or otherwise craftily taken up in service of He Who Must Not Be Named, the ruddy traitorous fools!") on the proverbial run. And then, on the second page, more death and destruction as the "seemingly reckless slayings and random torturing of upstanding witches and wizards continue, increasing the sense of distrust that each person feels toward the witches and wizards he or she may chance to meet." Severus had noted with some disgust during his long walk down Diagon Alley that the Daily Prophet had, at last, gotten something right. No one looked up as Severus walked among the thin crowd. No children ran laughing down the cobbled street. Not one woman stood idly chatting about the latest fashion outside Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions as was usual custom for witches on fine mornings such as this. It was as if, despite the cheery sunshine and occasional warm breeze, a fog had settled densely onto the street, shielding each person from the other. And through that dense fog, Severus watched two platinum heads bend to kiss at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Severus instinctively slowed, then returned to measured steps as the taller of the two looked up from the bundle in the other's arms and waved cheerily in Severus' direction.

Severus, knowing he had been caught, smiled rather painfully, and nodded in curt reply as he joined Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

"Why Severus, how good to meet you out! I expect Germany treated you kindly?" Narcissa asked, beaming into the bundle in her arms, which Severus saw was in fact a rather tightly wrapped, although still squirming, pink-faced baby.

"It was an enjoyable experience," Severus replied, looking amusedly into the sharp pointy face topped by a shock of white-blonde hair in Narcissa's arms. "And I see you two have been busy in my absence?"

Severus raised his eyes curiously to Lucius, who looked meaningfully at him. "Severus, allow me to introduce you to the heir of the Malfoy estate. This," Lucius said, comfortably plucking the child from Narcissa's arms, "is Draco Vortigern Malfoy." He handed the bundle to Severus, who quite uncomfortably pressed it to his chest, pleased that the child had at least the good manners to cease squirming. Severus looked down into the likeness of both Narcissa and Lucius: the sharp, angular features, the silver hair, the gray eyes that widened to look on Severus' face with curiosity and interest. Severus looked into the small face, similarly enrapt. If nothing else, thought Severus, Lucius will at least have created this one beautiful thing.

"Lovely," Severus choked out, hurriedly handing the babe back to the anxiously awaiting Narcissa. "How very lovely for you." He forced a smile, wondering at what price that child had come into this world, what awful bargain Lucius had struck to sow his seed, what questions Narcissa had lacked the courage to ask, but decided that he would rather not know.

Once inside the Leaky Cauldron, Lucius made straight for a dark corner booth. Severus slid onto the bench across from Lucius, who was already hailing a waitress. Severus looked around the bar. It seemed that when they had entered, the other patrons had all gone suddenly silent, but the conversation had by now resumed, though he caught several people still staring at Lucius and him. But it was of no consequence.

"So, how are things, Lucius?" Severus asked after his tea had arrived.

Lucius swirled his gin and tonic and scanned the room for perhaps the fiftieth time. "Well, there have been some setbacks," he said lowly, so that Severus had to lean forward over the steam of his cup to hear. "But we are looking into some new avenues as of late, and are quite pleased that you have decided to join us." Lucius said this last bit in a different, much less conspiratorial tone, alerting Severus to the fact that apparently somewhere someone was listening in on their conversation.

"Well, I assure you, Mr. Malfoy, that I look forward to working with you." Severus took another sip of tea and scanned the room himself, looking for the source of Lucius' sudden discomfort. A large man in heavy robes swung open the door of the Leaky Cauldron just then, casting a shaft of bright unwelcome sunlight across the dim room. Conversation once again ceased as the man made his way across the room toward the darkest, furthest corner. Lucius seemed absolutely at ease, and once the strange man got closer, Severus recognized him as Mulciber.

"Lucius," Mulciber said between breaths, "there is a matter to which you must attend urgently." Without even acknowledging Severus' presence, Mulciber hurried from the bar just as quickly as he had entered it.

Lucius stood abruptly, and Severus did the same. "To the Manor, then, Severus?" Lucius drawled unconcernedly.

Severus tried his very best to unhinge the smirk that played across his thin lips. "Yes, to the Manor, Lucius," Severus said, inwardly cursing that his service to the Dark Lord was beginning a bit more suddenly than he had hoped.

At Malfoy Manor, Severus waited in the parlor while Lucius "attended a meeting" in the dungeons. Severus thought he probably had a good idea what kind of meeting it was, and knew it had nothing to do with any chunk of change being delivered from the coffer of the Malfoy Family Foundation. He could hear nothing of what was happening in the dungeons, so he wandered out onto the back patio to overlook the gardens, which were as beautifully kept as ever. He sat very still, closed his eyes, and tried hard to catch the scent he had missed most over the past two years: the smell of mallowsweet to signal Bella's presence. But it never came.

After some time, a door slammed somewhere inside the house. Severus opened his eyes. I must have dozed off, he thought, looking first at the red sun, which was just pressing down into the horizon, then down at his pocket watch. It was nearly dark. He had been on the porch for hours. Where was Lucius?

"Lucius?" Narcissa called. Apparently, she had just gotten home. "Lucius?" Narcissa called again. Her footsteps came down the hall. Severus heard the doors to the drawing room, then the parlor, open. He heard her stop at the foot of the stairs. "Lucius? Are you home?" she called loudly.

Severus stood up suddenly. He did not know how Narcissa would react to him being in the manor with Lucius nowhere to be found. But he did not like the tone of rising panic in her voice, nor did he like hiding out on the porch.

He walked into the hall just as she was coming down the stairs. At the sight of him, she screamed at the top of her lungs, which woke the baby, who also started to scream.

"I'm so sorry, Severus. I wasn't expecting to see you," Narcissa tried to explain above the wail of the child. "Caught me a bit off guard. Draco doesn't like loud noises."

Severus resisted the urge to plug his ears with his hands or perform a silencing charm on the boy, so he simply nodded with his hands clasped behind his back as Narcissa soothed the child by humming a random tune, gently bouncing the bundle in time.

"You haven't seen Lucius, have you?" Narcissa asked him in a whisper once the child was calmed.

"He said he had to take a meeting," Severus said. "Something urgent."

Narcissa rolled her eyes. "The market is just so terrible with all this political turmoil. It's like taming bowtruckles trying to get a knut return on a galleon. He's considering selling out of the scotch business, if you can believe it. Anyway, no one else is faring much better. Poor Mulciber has only got his Gringott's stock left, and the Avery's aren't much better off."

"So Eugene got married, then?" Severus asked, trying to involve Narcissa in a lively gossip to turn her mind away from Lucius' absence.

"Why yes! Married some little girl from the class behind yours. Not an old family. Nouveau riche, if you will. No matter. Avery's lucky in that match. She's got plenty of money, pretty enough. Although Avery seems content to spend his time in our parlor as if he was still a bachelor." Narcissa sat down comfortably on the drawing room floor, laying Draco down in the spread of her robes. "We'll have tea and sandwiches, though it's a bit late," Narcissa said, summoning a tray. "I don't suppose Lucius thought to feed you before leaving you to fend for yourself against his wife? I could order something more substantial, if you like."

Severus shook his head. "That will do fine. Tell me," he said shortly, hurrying to turn the subject from Lucius, "how are the Lestranges?"

Narcissa cocked her head to the side and looked at Severus rather severely. "Bella and Rodolphus are well," she said slowly. Then, changing her severe look into a slight smile, "But just between the two of us, I think you would have done much better for her. Better suited to her temperament, I daresay."

"I am flattered you think so," Severus said, taking the cup of tea from the tray that levitated in from the kitchen.

"Well, I would certainly think that someone with any sense about him, a man who knew Bella at all, wouldn't cave to her demands so easily. Rodolphus indulges her, which is hardly good for her. I always thought Mummy and Daddy indulged her, which is why she can be so very stubborn." Narcissa sipped her tea thoughtfully for a moment, and Severus nodded in agreement. "I suppose I was rather lucky with Lucius. He really is a lovely man. At first, we had quite a time separating Lucius Malfoy, Business Man from Lucius Malfoy, Loving Husband, but things got worlds better after Draco arrived." She smiled sweetly. "Now listen to me, prattling on about silly domestic affairs when you have been abroad for two years learning all sorts of interesting things, no doubt."

Severus forced a smile. "Not really, no," he said rather too shortly. "What really interests me," he quickly added, "is little Draco here."

Narcissa beamed down at Draco, who was now sleeping soundly in his bundle of green velvet on Narcissa's blue robes. "Quite an accident, really, he was. You know, I wasn't too keen on trying for another child after--after Callista--but Lucius insisted we keep practicing, at least, and then there was Draco suddenly! Before I even realized I was pregnant, he was already half grown!"

Severus thought he saw her smile falter a bit. "And when did he arrive?"

"He was born on April thirtieth, oddly enough."

"Why odd?"

"Oh, nothing really. It's exactly opposite the calendar year from Halloween, is all. Walpurgis Night. You know the stories." Narcissa took another pensive sip of tea, and then shook her head, redisplaying a wide smile. "Well, I'm quite exhausted." She sat down her cup, and then heaved sleeping Draco into her arms. "Don't think me a rude hostess, Severus, but I must get to bed. All that shopping!"

As she turned at the door, she said, "Feel free to make yourself at home in any of the guest rooms, Severus. I trust you remember your way?"

Severus nodded. "Thank you, Narcissa, and good night."

"Good night, Severus."

* * * * *

Sometime during the night, a commotion in the hall awoke Severus. Much past three a.m. he had fallen asleep on the parlor couch, sure that Lucius would be home any minute. Rising swiftly and drawing his wand, he stepped into the hall.

It was very dark away from the embers of the fire. He felt his way along the wall, not wanting to light his wand and alert anyone to his presence.

"Dammit, Roddy! Can't you hold him!"

Severus stopped just short of the foyer. He knew that voice.

"Keep your voice down! You'll wake Narcissa!"

He knew that voice, too.

"Not with the amount of sleeping potion she takes a night!"

Severus recognized the last voice without a shred of doubt. "Lumos!" he whispered, shedding light onto the scene before him.

Bella, Roddy, and Lucius stopped and blinked at Severus in the sudden brightness. Bella and Lucius each had an arm and Roddy the legs of what appeared to be a very limp, or very dead, person.

"Hullo, Severus!" Roddy said cheerily, dropping the legs with a loud thud onto the stone foyer floor. Roddy stuck out his hand, and Severus shook it, quite bewildered. "How was Germany?"

"For fuck's sake, Roddy!" Bella sighed, dropping the arm she was holding. "No wonder everything is going to hell, what with total fuck-ups like you in the mix!"

Roddy didn't seem to notice his wife's outburst, but Lucius gave Bella a warning glare while Severus looked at her, now totally baffled. Lucius dropped the arm he was holding, too, so that the head of the person they were carrying, whom Severus was now quite sure was dead as dead could be, hit the stone with a sickening sound. "Why don't you just wake the dead then, Bella, and do us all a favor!" Lucius hissed.

Bella crossed her arms and sighed again. "He cowered. He was too weak. He was just in the way."

There was a finality in her tone that made Severus quite uneasy. He stepped closer to the mass of tangled black robes and limbs on the floor, holding his wand aloft to spread light on the body. Severus stooped and removed the black mask covering the deceased's face. He brushed away the locks of black hair, at first thinking it was Sirius, his heart flipping. But then he recognized the face, although two years of maturing and a five o'clock shadow made him look much older than the sixteen year-old Severus remembered as Regulus Black. He looked from the dead cold face of Regulus into the dead cold gaze of Bella. "What have you done?" he whispered.

While Bella and Roddy discharged the body to the dungeons, Lucius told Severus what had happened. While on a mission, Regulus had frozen, refusing to carry on after a sudden turn of conscience, causing the squad to lose a precious moment of time that led to the capture of their charge, Igor Karkaroff, whom they were to be transporting to a safe location after they received a tip that his current position was compromised. Karkaroff had at one time been the leader of a very prolific hit squad, until the over-zealous Auror Mad-Eye Moody had moved in on them after the attack on the Bones family and identified Karkaroff, which had forced him into hiding for the past six months. Karkaroff captured, the squad dispersed to various safe-spots designated around London. After the "all clear" was issued, the squad was supposed to re-convene in the Malfoy dungeons for debriefing, but after several hours, Bella, Roddy, and Regulus failed to show. It was at this point that Mulciber had contacted Lucius, who had gone off to find them himself as soon as he was able to do so safely. By the time he had located them in a barn in Devonshire, Bella had already killed Regulus, and was advancing on Roddy, threatening the same punishment for the same crime of insubordination. And now Lucius was stuck with a body to explain away to the Dark Lord and a death to gloss over with one of the oldest wizarding families in Britain.

"Some worry that Bella has gone off the handle, let it go to her head, you know, but it is her unconventional and often unorthodox leadership that makes her such an asset to the Dark Lord," Lucius said, stirring a gin and tonic in one hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose with the other.

Severus was not moved by what he figured was the oft-recited speech Lucius frequently gave in Bella's defense. "She killed her own cousin."

"An unfortunate outcome."

Severus knew enough about Lucius to know when he wasn't being honest, but before Severus could push on, Bella and Roddy came in, mid-fight.

"It takes a thousand steps, even though I make haste, to equal a single stride of Lucius,' and you know that well and good," Bella roared.

"But it was supercilious. It was excessive, baby."

Bella withdrew a thin hand from her black robes and sharply slapped him. The sound of her hand hitting her husband's face seemed to echo through Malfoy Manor. When she spoke, it was in a low and deadly voice. "Don't call me baby. And don't paint my decisions as errors."

"Fine," Roddy said angrily, putting a hand to the sting on his face. With a pop, he Disapparated.

Bella turned her head quickly to Lucius and Severus, who sat watching her. "Hello, Severus. Piss off, Lucius." And with a pop, she too was gone.

"At first, it was normal marriage bickering, but it took a turn for the worse after the McKinnons," Lucius said, rising. "Get to bed, Severus. We have a couple long days ahead of us. Rosier and Wilkes should be glad to see you at least."

Severus climbed the dark stairs silently, three steps below Lucius. Not exactly the "Welcome Home" party he had expected.

* * * * *

Turns out, Lucius was right: Rosier and Wilkes were quite glad to see him. Lucius had persuaded Severus to stay for an extended visit at Malfoy Manor, as he was to be out a lot "on business" and didn't want Narcissa to be alone with "the boy." At midnight, Severus and Lucius descended masked through the parlor floor for the meetings, at which Lucius would dispatch the squads with their orders. Severus, however, was never sent out. Instead, he read in Lucius' study and awaited the master of the manor's return. Only Lucius' days were busy spent in London: Severus kept to the Manor, often accepting "visitors" on Lucius' behalf and protecting Narcissa from the life Lucius led in the dungeons. A week into Severus' stay, his schoolmates finally found their way to welcome him home.

"Severus! You cad!" Rosier called loudly, striding into the drawing room of Malfoy Manor. He was in Muggle clothes, surprisingly enough: a tweed sports jacket and a pair of gray slacks. He was broadly grinning while he puffed on a pipe that emitted puffs of slightly pink smoke.

Wilkes was right behind him, dressed similarly in a dull tweed ensemble. He was grinning broadly, too, twirling his wand in his right hand and swinging a dark mahogany walking cane in the other. "Severus! Welcome back!"

They both flopped down in chairs before the fire beside Severus, who was reading the Evening Prophet. It seemed to him that Rosier and Wilkes had not aged a single day since graduation. They were even wearing their hair exactly the same: shaggy and over the ears. Severus smiled reflectively, remembering their school days. He folded his paper finally and set it aside. "Well, boys, I hear you have been up to no good."

"Good?" Rosier laughed. "Well, that's a bit subjective, now isn't it? If you mean 'good' as in law-abiding, walk your old auntie across the road, then probably not."

"However," Wilkes interceded, still twirling his wand, "if you mean 'good' as in striking down the powers that be and all that jazz, well then, yes, mate, we've been up to nothing but good, come to think of it."

"And how have you been? Off in Germany sucking the necks of fair frauleins and frolicking in the forest?"

Severus grinned. "Hardly."

"What?" Wilkes said in mock-shock. "Don't tell us you were hard at work in your subject, so immersed you didn't even nibble one Greta?"

"Sorry," Severus said, "I had more pressing matters to which I had to attend."

Rosier and Wilkes both snorted. Severus bared his teeth in a vague grin.

"Well, you must come out with us some time," Rosier announced, standing up. "Not tonight, of course, but perhaps to the pub, or what have you." He shook Severus' hand.

"We have some do-gooding to be good doing," Wilkes said, winking. "Catch us up tomorrow, eh?"

Severus nodded and watched them go, bobbing and twirling, out of the drawing room. He felt his stomach lurch once again in a familiar uneasy way that usually meant something was off.

He joined Narcissa and Draco the next morning for breakfast. Lucius, as was common, was absent. Draco had just discovered that his hands were in fact connected to his arms, and so he spent most of his time babbling to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists in the most innocent of fascinations. This freed up Narcissa's attention to turn to Severus, who found himself in the worst of moods that morning. He had been up all night waiting for Lucius, who had never arrived.

And so Severus sat, idly balancing his teaspoon on the edge of his saucer, as Draco cooed and Narcissa fired questions.

"So, what do you plan on doing with yourself now that you are a Potion Master?"

Severus shrugged. "I hadn't thought much on it."

Narcissa laughed. "Surely you must have some idea for a vocation. Why else would you have gone?"

Severus finished his tea and turned his cup upside down on his saucer out of habit. Perhaps it was Narcissa's perpetual nagging which put him in the mood of his mother. Perhaps he was just bored. "It was a wonderful experience."

"Goodness, Severus!" Narcissa said, somewhat exasperated. "You can't base your entire life around the thrill and pleasure of idle experience. You have to have a plan. And a back-up plan in case that one fails. And a back-up plan for the back-up plan. You'd think men never faced defeat, the way they run their lives."

"I suppose I could teach."

"That's a lovely idea, Severus, although I wonder if you have the right disposition for teaching. They say it is easy enough, to teach as you have been taught. Nonetheless, I hear Jigger is retiring soon, and they have had the most unlikely trouble trying to fill Meadowes' position."

Severus looked up at her. "Meadowes?"

"Yes. Oh!" Narcissa gasped. "You don't know! Of course you don't know! Over on the continent for two years, you'd have no idea. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but she's dead, Severus."

"Dead?" Severus dropped the teaspoon with a quiet clatter onto the lace table linen.

"They suspect it was You Know Who," Narcissa whispered, glancing at Draco, who continued to stare at his tiny hands.

"But, why?" It didn't make much sense to Severus for the Heir of Slytherin to kill, or have killed, the current Head of Slytherin House.

Narcissa sighed and set down her cup. "Well, Violet Parkinson, was Violet Kyteler at Hogwarts, told me that her husband heard from someone at the Ministry that Moody, that twitchy Auror, thought that it had something to do with her work at the school. They say," she lowered her voice to a conspiring level, "that she was working with Dumbledore against the Dark Lord, and it put him in a right state. Imagine, a traitor directing his own House against him!"

Severus started at the familiarity with which Narcissa spoke of the Dark Lord, and the very fact that she had spoken of him as "the Dark Lord" alerted Severus to the possibility that Narcissa perhaps knew much more about the goings-on in her dungeon than she let on to her husband. He looked at her curiously. "Something you're not telling me, Narcissa?"

Narcissa smiled slyly. "They say a man's house is his castle. Well, as of late it is my entire kingdom, Severus. There is safety in secrecy, as well I'm sure you know."

Severus had no response for that. Instead, he nodded, showing that he understood, then set about to righting his teacup for another round. But before he could pour, Bella burst through the galley doors, Mulciber at her heels.

"Where's Lucius?" She panted, looking furiously around the room, pausing to smile at Draco. Severus noted now in her eyes a look that very well could be mistaken for lunacy, but knew it as the emotion which had much the same effect in Bella: panic.

"He's not with you?" Narcissa said, rising.

"What's happened?" Severus asked simultaneously, rising as well.

Bella stomped her right foot on the floor, startling Draco, who did not cry, but peered at Bella as if she was the most absurd thing he had ever seen. "It's just like him to be away, up to something no doubt." Bella turned quickly on her heel, making to leave the dining room, just barely giving Mulciber the time and room to side step her.

"Wait!" Severus said, hurrying after her. He caught her arm, and she turned to face him, her eyes wild. "What has happened?" he repeated.

Bella tore free her arm. "Rosier and Wilkes are dead," she said fiercely, then disappeared with Mulciber out the door.

Narcissa covered her mouth with her hand and rushed from the room.

Draco returned his attention to his fists, cooing like a dove in bush.

Severus sat back down at the table, turned his cup counterclockwise three times, and saw again the same things he always saw in his tea leaves: the cross and the falcon. But as he continued to turn, he saw for the first time what was quite unmistakably the two-headed visage of Janus.