The Ivory Backbone

The Ivory Backbone

Ch. 1: Dominos

 

"I'm bored!" Lucius Malfoy looked at his best friend as if he expected entertainment to simply drop into his lap.

"You're always bored," Severus said drowsily. He had been quite happily snoozing in the sun before Lucius spoke. He looked down at the weighty tomb on his lap. Advanced Curses and Conundrums looked rather inviting on such a lazy Sunday."Go find Crabbe and Goyle. They could probably use some exercise."

"Honestly, Severus. You act like they're dogs."

"They act like dogs," he replied.

"Crabbe and Goyle are busy tormenting the giant squid."

"Didn't Dumbledore threaten--?"

"He did."

"This is their third strike."

"Only if they're caught."

"Lovely." Severus opened his book and started reading. "I don't want to owe Old Man Cadogan any more favors."

"But you're his favorite," Lucius simpered. "I can't just walk up to him and ask him to reconsider the whips and chains. But you, you're a Prefect. And you keep making him those potions."

Severus shuddered. "I don't want to owe him any more favors. I can't keep stealing ingredients from Sullivan. He'll stop blaming the Gryffindors one day."

"Ah! But I'm his favorite. He'd always look the other way for me."

"Makes me wonder what you do for that favoritism," he said dryly.

Malfoy smirked. "That's what I love about you, Severus. Mind's in the gutter, but in such a subtle way."

"I resent that."

"I do too." Malfoy paused. "I'm bored."

"Not this again."

"I'm still bored then."

"Go pick on the Mudbloods," Severus suggested. He'd just found a curse that turned a person's internal organs into soup. "And let me read in peace."

"Still looking for something nasty to do to Potter?" Lucius' eyes lit up with interest. His boredom temporarily lifted.

"Haven't found anything bad enough."

"I thought turning his blood cells into shards of glass sounded pretty bad."

"Not bad enough."

"What about that one spell that...how did it go...'imbued the skeleton with a sudden urge to GET OUT!'"

"The skeleton would have ripped out of him and then attempted to do my bidding." Severus turned to the illustration of the curse. "I think the professors would notice that. I want something long lasting...horribly painful...and untraceable..."

"Maybe you should target one of his friends."

"Why?"

"Untraceable, silly." Lucius flopped in the grass beside Severus and stared up at the clouds. "They'd be looking for someone with a grudge against Remus or Sirius or Peter."

Severus pondered this for a moment. "Sirius is no good. They'd finger you."

Lucius' face twisted at the mention of that name. "That whole episode in Transfiguration..."

"You turned him into half of a chair, Lucius."

"Purely accidental."

"Right," he said sarcastically. "For that matter, Remus is bad too."

"Charms." Lucius smiled. "That's a truly beautiful memory. Remus chasing his ears around the classroom and screaming his head off. I suppose that was an accident, Severus?"

Severus grinned wickedly. "Oh yes, Professor. I meant to say Ergo Flee, not Eargo Flee. Improper inflection, so sorry about that."

Lucius adopted a skeptical look. "Improper inflection..." he imitated Flitwick's impossibly high voice. "And your Charms partner just happened to be in the way?"

"Honestly, sir! He was holding the shoes we were supposed to charm!" Lucius and Severus shared a laugh at that.

"So what about Pettigrew?" Lucius asked after the giggling subsided.

"Peter's too easy a target," Severus said. "What a shame! It'll have to be Potter."

"You've forgotten one."

Severus' shoulders sagged. "No."

"Why do you keep trying to protect that little Mudblood bitch?" Lucius asked absently. "I could pick on any Mudblood in this school. Anyone. You don't care. You might even help. But not her."

Severus shrugged.

Lucius rolled over on his stomach and leaned his chin against his palm. "Tell me, Severus. I am your best friend."

The faintest shade of pink crept into Severus' cheeks as he turned the page. "Oh, look! This curse causes ones bodily fluids to leak out through the pores. It says the victim might survive for days..."

"Wouldn't it be fun to make her squirm?" Lucius asked innocently. "Wouldn't you love to watch her writhing in agony? Turn her blood cells into glass and watch it rip her apart...Wouldn't that be fun?"

The pink in Severus' cheeks was promptly replaced with green. "And it says here that symptoms don't manifest for days..."

"Or maybe you just want to fuck her?"

Severus closed his book. "Language, Malfoy. McGonagall might be around."

"McGonagall is a dried up old prune," Lucius said. "It could be arranged, you know. I could have the right people look away."

"Don't flaunt your connections to me," Severus said. "Hasn't impressed me since second year."

"It's the natural order of things," Lucius said pensively. "They are our inferiors, our slaves if we want. She doesn't have to be willing."

"I'm a little too busy with finals and vengeance for raping and pillaging, Malfoy," he said coolly.

Lucius laughed heartily. "You didn't even flinch. I admire that in you, Severus."

"Why would I flinch?"

"Let me put it this way," he said, very slowly. "If someone suggested that I do what I suggested that you do, but not to Evans. If they suggested that I do that to Narcissa, I'd kill them."

"And?"

"I think you like Evans."

"Thank you for your brilliant insight. How are you doing in divination? Top marks, Mr. Mind Reader?" Severus smirked. "I owe Evans. That's all."

"And the favors keep piling up." He laughed at that. "How many times has she saved your skinny ass from Potter?"

"Five."

"This week."

"Shut up." Severus plucked at the grass absently. "I don't have trained attack dogs like you do, Lucius."

"I wonder how she'd like you to compensate her." Lucius grinned wickedly.

"Monetarily, probably," Severus said.

"You're no fun."

"Which is why you're bored."

"I am bored, aren't I?"

"And I still haven't decided what to do about Potter."

"Just curse him and get it over with." Lucius snatched the huge book out of Severus' lap and randomly flipped the pages. Some of the more fragile leaves shattered and turned to dust. "A curse. Any curse."

"Lucius! Be careful! That's an old book! The best pages are--ACK! The Bubonic Curse! Lucius! BE CAREFUL!" Severus tried to gather up the pieces.

"Here!" Lucius closed his eyes and slammed his hand down on a random page. "Oo...Interesting."

"Wha?" Severus was piling the scraps of paper and dust into his robes.

"This, my friend, may solve all of our problems." Lucius scanned the page.

"What?" Severus looked over Lucius' shoulder. "That old love potion?"

"Think about it this way," said Lucius, conspiratorially. "What would upset Potter more than to watch Lily throw herself on his worst enemy?"

"That could work..."

"Who would even think to blame you, especially when you valiantly fight off her advances?"

"I do what?"

"In public, anyways."

"Oh..."

"And as long as she gets this potion every twenty-eight days, she's yours."

"Once she's under the spell," Severus said slowly, "I could slip it to her when we're alone."

"If you have the time..." Lucius muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

"So the only trouble is that first dose..."

Lucius watched the gears slowly turn inside Severus' head. This is too easy, he thought. All he had to do was line up the dominos and watch them fall. Severus didn't need to know that he'd flipped through that book weeks ago. He didn't need to know that Lucius selected that particular love potion because of how easy it was to make. (Any second year could do it, really.) He didn't need to know that Lucius was just waiting for an opportunity. Dominos. Severus to potion, potion to Lily, Lily to Severus, Severus and Lily to Potter. And Severus thought that Crabbe and Goyle were Lucius' only attack dogs. How quaint.

Getting the potion to Lily would be difficult with her coterie of bodyguards. They would figure out something, they always did. Truth be told, Lucius doubted that Severus would have any idea what to do with a very willing woman. No matter, Lucius thought, he's a fast learner.

Best of all, Lucius had a cure for his boredom.