A Secret Worth Keeping

A new chapter, whew. Thought I’d never get it out. I hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, only those that I created myself. Please do not harm me in any way. I only do this for fun.


A personal thank you to my Beta reader, LadyDeathFaerie. Thanks LDF!


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A Secret worth Keeping


Chapter Thirty-Three: A Serpent’s thoughts

\"This will NOT do!\"

A glass shattered into tiny shards as it collided with the wall. The tall man strode with furious steps, pacing before the giant hearth of his library. The smaller figure sat hunched over in a chair, trying to appear smaller than he was. A smaller target at least.

Draco watched his father pacing madly. The elder man’s face contorted with an anger that Draco didn’t understand. He had just informed his father that, by his own acknowledgement, the baby that his father seemed to be all too interested in was indeed Harry and Hermione’s.

\"Father? What won’t do? I thought you would be pleased to find out that Harry has something else for you to strive for. I mean, Father, forgive me for asking, but couldn’t this be his downfall? The Dark Lord could pay handsomely for this bit of information.\"

Lucius turned his dark, stormy eyes onto his son and snarled angrily. \"You are NOT to speak to anyone about this, Draco. No one else must know of this… brat… just yet.\"

\"But, Father… the others already know. All our houses, the professors…they all know of the Potters’ baby. It’s not like it’s a great secret.\"

\"Be that as it may. Draco, I want you to inform your co-conspirators that I do not want them informing anyone in or out of their house about this… problem. I have to think about what to do with this bit of information first. I want the facts before I bother our Lord with it. Now…\" Here he waved a dismissing hand toward his son. \"I think you had best be getting back before you are discovered to have gone. Dumbledore would not approve of his charge leaving grounds without authority. Now go.\"

Draco got to his feet and, without another word, crossed to the hearth. His hand dipped into the well-filled floo bowl and stepped within the harmless flames.

\"Slytherin Common Room.\" He called out and immediately was gone, leaving Lucius to scowl into the flames.

\"Oh, this is not good, this is not good at all.\" He mumbled, sinking into the chair with a put out groan. If this was indeed Potter’s child then it meant that that Granger bitch had already been pregnant when he\'d forced Severus into raping her. It was either that, or the baby was Severus’s.

But… that wasn’t the case. Draco said that the baby resembled his parents, just as Potter resembled his parents. James’ hair and Lily’s eye color gave that away. And Draco wouldn’t lie to him, he knew that his life depended on it.

His fingers thrummed on the soft leather of his chair as his brain ran through his thoughts. He was almost certain that the Mudblood had been a virgin at the time. He \'d been able to smell the innocence on her. It was the one thing that had made him want her and the one thing that had kept him going, knowing that she was to be his when the war was over. He was still looking forward to it. Her bounty was still his to claim after the war. New mother or not, she was going to be his when all was said and done. He was actually looking forward to ripping into her ripe little body.

Why he\'d decided to give her body up to Severus, to this day, dumbfounded him. He had practically begged the Dark Lord into promising her to him. Promised him that when all was over with, that the girl would be his to do with as he pleased. He was still a bit curious as to why he\'d allowed Severus to be the one to take her. It wasn’t in his nature to be giving, especially of something that he had wanted for so long.

Lucius stood to his feet and started to pace once more. His mind a whirlwind of activity as he recalled that day, nine long months ago. He had gone to Hogwarts, of the mind to finally claim what was due him. He had wanted that bitch for far too long and he\'d been determined to gain his reward before the day was through.

What he hadn\'t taken into account was Severus’s intervention. He hadn\'t considered that his friend might have had his own designs on her. With a frown, Lucius remembered their little tussle. He\'d thrown a quick unforgivable curse at the darker man. The Cruciatus Curse, to topple the balance in order to get the shift of power back over to him. Then there was the use of the Imperious Curse. That had been stupid, really. He\'d been just so furious with his friend for trying to intervene that he\'d literally thrown the man on top of the girl. Poor Severus, he really hadn\'t had much of a chance that night. Everything had been piled against him.

\"Severus.\" Lucius laughed a bit at the thought of what he\'d forced his friend to do. To this day, the man had no clue about what he had done to his little student. A frown drifted across Lucius\' face as he thought about that fact. At first, he thought that his friend was just opting to ignore what happened. In his curiosity, he had allowed himself to delve into Severus’s thoughts but couldn’t find a trace of his taking of Hermione Granger.

So, no… Severus had no clue that he\'d viciously fucked the little bitch, and made her scream. Too bad… for it was a nice little scene that had left him so horny that he hadn\'t let Narcissa out of the bedroom for four straight hours. He had forced his wife to consume polyjuice potion with a strand of hair from his chosen victim. For four straight hours that night he had fucked Hermione as well. If not the real thing then his wife in her form, but even that wasn’t enough for him.

When he\'d finally let Narcissa out of the bedroom, he\'d contemplated what to do next.

The next day, he\'d learned that Hermione had fled into the night. Pity. He\'d taken a moment out of his life to talk to Severus that next morning to ‘see how he was doing’. The look on Severus’s face hadn\'t shown either hate or mistrust, but there\'d been a dash of confusion there. Lucius had used Legilimens to access the confused man’s thoughts and was a bit confused as to the lack of memory from the evening before. Lucius had determined that what had happened must have forced Snape to remove the image. That had to have been it. When Severus had realized what he had done, he must have obliterated the memory from his own mind or banned it to the bottom of a pensieve somewhere.

\"Of course.\" Lucius thumped his chair. \"That’s what happened. Severus couldn’t take the memory of fucking her svelte little body, let alone let the old man he works for accidentally see that image, so he erased it from his mind. Good going, Snape, old man. But...\"

Lucius smirked up at the family portrait over his mantle. \"Really, Severus…such pleasant memories shouldn’t go to waste. I think I will loan you a few of mine.\"

With a chuckle, he stood and walked over to his desk. A quick wand wave and dropping of wards and he pulled out a gold toned pensieve.

\"Perhaps, if I loaned you a few particular memories… you and I will have some delicious conversations over our next dinner. I’m sure I can get Narcissa to consume more of our delectable Miss Granger’s essence and we can have a most enjoyable evening.

***

\"SNAPE!\"

Hermione jerked her head up at the sound of the loud voice.

\"Draco?\"

Draco’s blond head popped into the nursery and he frowned. \"Where’s Snape?\"

\"Probably with his class. Is there a problem?\" She raised up and placed Sebastian back into his crib before turning once more to face the young man.

\"I need to talk to him. I have just came back from my father’s and I have some information for him.\"

Hermione frown and crossed over to the outer room. \"Nanny!\"

The nurse elf appeared with a pop. \"Yes, Mistress?\"

\"Watch Sebastian, I will be back soon.\"

The elf nodded and entered the nursery and Hermione gave Draco a glance. \"I will go and get Severus… stay here.\"

Draco watched her go before crossing over to the nursery. He opened the door to see the Nanny elf cooing over the kicking baby. Draco crossed the room and stared down into the dark eyes of the off spring of the only man he respected. His hand reached out to the baby and Sebastian eagerly grabbed onto the man’s finger cooing happily. A grin crossed Draco’s face as he allowed the infant to cling onto his hand.

This was what he wanted.

This was what he wanted to fight for.

The door swung open and he looked up into the eyes of his mentor.

\"Draco.\"

\"Professor… we have another problem. I don’t know why, but my father doesn’t want The Dark Lord to know about the baby. I think he has his own agenda. I’m afraid of what he is going to do.\"

\"I know Draco.\" Snape crossed the floor to smile down at his son whose hand was still clutching the finger of Draco. \"It would mean his life if the information was released especially if the knowledge of his parentage was confirmed. It is bad enough with everyone thinking that he belongs to Potter.\" Here Severus’s voice showed a bit of anger and Draco glanced up at the man in sympathy. \"However, if it was revealed that the child… is mine… then it would be even worse for your father. The Dark Lord doesn’t abide deception. In any way.\"

Draco frowned down at the baby. \"He won’t like you not telling him of your own child.’

\"I have no inclination to do so. I will see him dead first.\" Severus stated simply as his hand rested on top of his son’s head. \"I will not have my son living in this world as it is. We will overcome this, Draco… We will… conquer our demons and we will survive to reap our rewards.\" With those words, Severus gave Draco a look that told it all.

Draco nodded once then gently untangled his finger from the grip of the baby. \"I will continue on then. I’ll let you know what he does next.\"

\"Thank you, Draco.\"

Draco crossed to the door then stopped, looking back.

\"He is a beautiful baby, Sir…I only hope that things do work out. In our favor.\"

Severus stood watching over his son as the door closed behind the younger man.

\"I hope so too, Draco… I hope so, too.\"


****


A/N’s and Acknowledgements:

June W: LOL. I agree to all those statements of yours. And there will be more moments between our little family, but I need to set up the plot more. Hope you liked it.

Jessica: I honestly don’t know if that is where I got DeLacour…probably did now that you mention it. Just a different spelling I think. LOL.

Davina Icaras: LOL, you are gonna have to do something about that boy of yours. Distraction can be murder. LOL Did you post your story yet? I havent been over to read in some time. Fictionpress.com? I’ll have to go and check it out.

EvilEye: Aw, I hope you had plenty of tissues handy.

Eve/roarke: Aww, enchanting? Why thank you. I like that description. Pansy will be fine. Don’t worry.

AnyuBoo: LOL…I always did have a problem with apotheosis’s. I will try to keep those rules in mind in future.

Spaz141: I hope you have reconsidered reading since our conversation. I would hate to lose you.

Wizarding Angel: Thank you so much. I’m grateful you have read this story.

Moe: LOL…and it s GREAT that you reviewed again. I love it!

Estella: Okay, sorry to keep my fans waiting, but here you go! Enjoy! If only I could give up my day job…sigh.

Cdkobasiuk: Glad you like the RATS. I like writing them.

DDMalfoy: I know, It’s been awhile. But here’s the next chapter. Hope you like it.

Jayne Elizabeth: Thanks, I’m glad you think this story is hot. I really like writing it that way.

Minerva Ann McGonagall: Sure, I just have to find your email addy. Where is it? Ah…okay then.

Lu Ling Oi: There you go. More story.

Thanks for all your support. I hope to have more up soon. Much Love...Red