A Working Relationship

A Working Relationship


Disclaimer: All canon characters are the property of JK Rowling and those with whom she has agreed contracts. This story was written for practice not profit.


The Life of a Death Eater


Hermione half-expected Professor McGonagall to give her a hard time after Sus hus had gone. However, the older woman seemed to have decided to bide her time. She and Remus didn’t stay long and Hermione was soon left alone with Severus’ potion. She managed to tend it for another hour before losing control of it. It was hard to say what had caused the failure. Perhaps it had been an insect, a speck of dust or even a slightly tainted ingredient. She cleared away the remnants and tidied the workspace. She then returned to her own work in the sitting room and attempted to give it her full attention. It wasn’t easy. Having seen the state he had come back in the last time, she grew increasingly anxious as the minutes ticked by.

Finally she heard his entrance. It was well after midnight. Her heart in her mouth, she hastened to greet him.

“Dear God! What did he do to you?” she gasped as she saw his stricken, pallid face. “Is that blood on your robes? Here let me help you.”

He held up his hands to ward her off. “I’m quite well,” he said irritably.

“Please Severus, at least let me look after you.”

“I’m not injured.”

“But there’s blood all…”

“It’s not mine.” She stopped reaching for him and looked up again at his face. He could have been carved out of marble. Realisation dawned on her face. He forestalled her comment with, “It’s the blood of my victim Hermione. I’ve been out on a raid tonight.”

“What happened?”

“Are you really sure you want to know?” he hissed. “Are you sure you can cope with what I’m capable of? Do you want to know what I’ve done with these hands tonight?”

Hermione stood her ground. He was every bit as intimidating in that moment as she had ever seen him, but she knew that this had to be tackled now if their relationship was to develop.

“I want to know as much as you can bear to tell me,” she said calmly. “You said that you would keep secrets about the past, but you would be open from now on. Did you mean it?”

“I meant it,” he said quietly, a look of exhaustion on his face.

“Then sit down and tell me about it.”

“Let me change my robes. Perhaps you might pour us both a drink?”

“Wine?”

“Minerva needed a hefty slug of Firewhisky when I reported to her and I suggest you will need the same.”

Hermione pulled the out the bottle and glasses while Severus went to the bedroom to change. He must have used magic because he emerged seconds later, wrapped in a floor length black dressing gown. She handed him a generous glass of firewhisky and sat cross legged on the sofa, facing him.

He toyed with his glass for a few seconds before beginning to tell his tale.

“I normally only discuss these matters with Albus. Outside the Death Eaters he is the only person to know about the things I have done for the Dark Lord in the name of the Order… or I suppose you could phrase it the other way around.”

He took a sip of his drink and continued.

I became a follower of the Dark Lord when I was sixteen years old. I was an orphan by that stage and my few remaining relatives had little time or space for me. I lived here all year round, apart from the Summer, when I would be farmed out to anyone the Headmaster could persuade to show me charity. Lucius Malfoy’s father, Augustus, was a governor and I was sent there for the summer at the end of my fifth year. Lucius had left school the previous year. We had been acquaintances, rathean fan friends, but he remembered my aptitudes well. He and Augustus were already involved with Voldemort… The titles… and the fear were still some years off so that was what I called him. He was also a visitor in their home. I cannot describe what it was like to meet him back then. The very air in the room became charged when he entered it. He inteinterested in me and I was fascinated to hear his political ideas and too naïve to see what would come from them. I can make no excuse for my stupidity other than my youth and the fact that I had been raised to resent the Ministry and its actions.”

He paused again, and Hermione took advantage of the silence to question him.

“Why did your family raise you that way?”

“My family were once one of the oldest, purest, richest and most respected families in Europe. The only families on a par with us were the ones we intermarried with. However my family was suspected of involvement with Grindelwald. There was little evidence of this, but in those days there didn’t have to be. We were related. There was never a trial but every member of my immediate family over the age of seventeen was executed. All our assets were confiscated and absorbed by the Ministry. All I own of their fortune are the family rings. My father was very young and was taken in by a distant Snape cousin who ran an Apothecary in Knockturn Alley. He served an Apprenticeship and married the co’s d’s daughter in order to steal her inheritance. The marriage was unhappy and I was their only child. They both died in a fire at the shop just after I came to Hogwarts. At sixteen years old I would have done anything for anyone who undertook to give me the opportunity to restore my family’s standing.”

“Why didn’t we learn about that in History of Magic? Not your parents but the rest of your family?”

“Surely you have grasped the idea that history is written by those who live to tell the tale. How could it possibly benefit a chronicler to promote my family cause against the Ministry? Anyway we are becoming sidetracked. No amount of family history can justify the role I played in the Dark Lord’s rise. I did play a role Hermione. I brewed for him. Veritaserum and other related potions for the control of Ministry workers who fell into our hands. I started small, but I was the one of the first to take the Dark Mark and I served him full time as soon as I was out of school.”

“When did you stop believing in him?”

He rubbed his eyes with his free hand before answering.

“It was the raids. Initially we were targeting Aurors, Wizengamot members and Ministry workers. We would devise ways to trap them, use them for our purposes and then Obliviate or dispose of them. We were able to do this qui quite some time without attracting too much notice. I was quite happy to convince myself that these people were my enemy and fair game. However, once we had grown in numbers we became more visible and we moved on to conducting raids on the homes of those who attracted the attention of the Dark Lord. It could be for any reason. Perhaps the head of the family refused the invitation to serveerhaerhaps an Auror had interfered with us and we would raid his family to strike back. I wasn’t involved at first. My other work was deemed to take precedence, but then the raids became central and I was called to take part in them. I knew that they happened. I had read accounts of them in the Prophet but they didn’t reflect what actually happened. The Prophet in those days made no mention of what happened to the women and even little girls before they died. There was no inkling that the Death Eaters competed to sink to new depths of depravity each time. I saw one raid and the very next day I bumped into Albus by accident, or so I thought, and before I knew where I was, I was telling him everything I had seen and done. The spying started then.”

“And now the raids have started again. Who was raided?”

“There were two raids tonight. The first was on Seamus Finnegan’s parents’ house. They were both killed. The second raid, which was the one I participated in, was on the Creevey household. They were in the midof aof a family gathering and we killed twelve.”

“They’re going for the Muggle families,” she cried. “What about my parents?”

“Remus has gone to your parents now. We’re going to invite them here. They’ll be as safe as we can make them. This was decided some time ago, as soon as you came of age and became a member of the Order.”

“Is this thing with you and me likely to make them more of a target?” she enquired.

“It’s hard to say. Lucius has lost no time in spreading our news. To be honest I think that’s why I was included in tonight’s proceedings. I think he was hoping I might show weakness when called upon to kill.”

“Who did you kill?” she asked, in a whisper. He looked like an old man as he answered.

“I assume she was the youngest Creevey child. She looked to be about five years old. She was asleep upstairs. Very pretty little girl… I made it as quick as I could. I cut thr throat and she barely woke before she was unconscious from the blood loss. She was a witch though. I really had to struggle to stop her flying out of my arms. I finished off an older girl too. I think she was a Muggle. To be honest Dolohov had been torturing her for about twenty minutes and she was beyond repair.”

Hermione let go of her glass and barely noticed as the liquid spilled over her robe. Her face was white and she started to tremble.

“The little sister was called Mary. Colin said she sparked in the holidays. She was six and…” she trailed off.

Her eyes filled with tears and she began to sob. Severus got up from the sofa and began to pace. Nothing was said for several minutes. Eventually she got herself back under control. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she said,

“Do they know yet?”

“Minerva will break it to all of them in the morning. They may as well have one last night of undisturbed natural sleep. You can go to your room if you want. I can understand you don’t want to be anywhere near me.”

“Don’t say that. I don’t blame you.”

“I blame myself. Why shouldn’t you?”

“You didn’t choose to do it. If you’d been alone when you found the little girl, you’d have hidden her wouldn’t you?”

“If I could.”

“You’re a soldier Severus. You strike the blow, but everyone behind you is responsible for what you do. You didn’t choose to go on the raid. Even the spying probably wasn’t your idea, even though you’ve done it all these years. What would have happened to you if you hadn’t participated?”

“My life expectancy would be even shorter than it already is.”

“There you are then. What kind of woman would I be… to fall in love with a soldier and then hold it against him because he has to fight? I might end up killing people myself before this is over.”

“Hermione, I kill innocent people,” he said with an effort. “There’s no way that child could have been a danger to me. There is a difference.”

“There is… but I still love you… I’m still glad to have you home in one piece.”

“How can you love me, now that you know?”

She got up and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around his ribs and rested her cheek against his chest. He gradually relaxed into her embrace and began to stroke her hair.

“I can’t explain the love,” she said, “but I am willing to prove it. If you want me to.”

“What are you saying?” he asked in confusion.

Hermione gathered her courage in both hands.

“I’m saying that I will make love with you… If you want me to.”

He disengaged himself from her arms and took hold of both her hands.

“If we are to make love,” he said slowly, “I would like to see it as a step towards commitment. I will not use you… nor will I be used. If you can tell me honestly that you hope to become my wife and you feel you can deal with my temper and all my other flaws, then we will make love soon. Not tonight. Tonight is too overshadowed for such a step. I will wait and we can discuss it again tomorrow.”

“The answer tomorrow will be the same as the answer tonight,” she said firmly. “I don’t change my mind with the wind… Severus?”

“Yes?”

If you don’t want to make love… might I stay with you tonight?”

“You should try to sleep Hermione. The work has to carry on.”

“I meant to sleep. I’d like to sleep with you… share your bed. Will you allow that?”

“I have never slept with a woman before. I have never cared to have my guard down longer than necessary.”

“Is that a no?”

“It’s not a no,” he said, pulling her closer to him. “You may stay.”


Thank you to all my reviewers.