The Raven and the Snake

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter Five


Lucius Malfoy was a lucky wizard. At least that was what he was chanting inside his head as he sat down in the perfectly decorated dining room, in his perfectly decorated manor, to have a perfectly prepared breakfast with his perfectly coifed wife. He gritted his teeth as he watched Narcissa turn down the lavish spread for half a section of grapefruit and a glass of water. He prayed she didn’t attempt to draw him into some vapid conversation about the wallpaper of the library.

She cleared her throat and Lucius fought the urge to run screaming from the room. “Darling,” she said in a mock childish voice, “I really do need your input about the sofas for the sitting room.”

“Narcissa, your sense of decorating far surpasses my own. Whatever you choose will be fine.” Fine if I want to live in a museum made of ice, he thought.

She smiled and turned her attention to her grapefruit, leaving Lucius to his own thoughts. Nexi had been back at Hogwarts for a week now. One week down, fourteen more to go before she’s home again. He smiled at the thought of her returning and played through a few randy scenarios of how to welcome her home. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the raven landing on the table before him. Narcissa gave a slight shriek and broke through a particularly juicy fantasy of Nexi in her school uniform doing a slow strip tease.

“Who keeps sending that bloody bird here?” Narcissa asked, crinkling her nose as though something smelled foul.

“Ministry business,” Lucius lied easily, untying Nexi’s letter from Athena’s leg. He offered her a bit of sausage, but she declined and flew out the open window. She’d kept her promise. Everyday, since she’d been gone, he’d received a letter from her. Sometimes a simple “I miss you”, but other days a detailed account of just how much she missed him and what she intended to do to him when they saw each other next.

“Well, it’s time I’m off,” he said, standing with Nexi’s letter clutched in his hand. He walked to the end of the table and pecked Narcissa’s lips in a quick farewell. Thankful she didn’t try to seduce him as she’d been attempting since their wedding, he beat a hasty retreat to his library where he would floo to work.

He arrived early, as he had everyday since his wedding. He’d begged off from an extended honeymoon with the excuse that he was needed at work. Why he was needed in an office that was basically designed for well bred, wealthy Purebloods, he couldn’t say. He rushed into his office and shut the door. Finally alone, he could read Nexi’s letter.

My Darling, Lucius,
Every day seems longer since I’m not spending time with you. I miss our picnics in the garden and the stolen kisses under the willow. Each day makes those days seem so long ago, almost like a dream. I pray that I wasn’t dreaming, that the moments I spent with you were real.

School seems hardly a priority now and I’m counting the days until I see you again. My lips hunger for the touch of yours. The highlight of my day is when I see your owl dive toward me, with proof that the summer wasn’t a dream.

Until tomorrow,
Nexi

Lucius’ finger traced the path her quill took, wishing he was feeling her skin. He opened the small right hand drawer, and placed the latest note with the others from Nexi. As he was about to settle back for another round of fantasies staring his favorite Ravenclaw, a knock sounded on his door.

“Enter,” he said, rather surprised by a visitor this early in the day.

His secretary, what was her name, Lucy poked her head inside the door. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Malfoy, but a package just arrived for you from,” she entered and looked down at the small parcel in her hand. “Wellington’s Bejeweled Treasures.” She placed the package on his desk and started back out the door, before turning back. “Do you need anything, sir? Coffee or tea, perhaps?”

“No, Lucy, not right now.” He dismissed her. He picked up the package and remembered having ordered Narcissa a small engagement gift. Rather late for that now, he thought, opening the package. Nestled in the small box lay the pendant he’d commissioned. Dangling from a thread thin silver chain was a small disk set in silver was a small emerald serpent slithering around an onyx raven. Hardly something that Narcissa would like, he thought, but rather fitting for Nexi. It was almost as though he’d had her in mind when he’d placed the order. Turning the pendant over, he drew his wand and whispered a spell. Smiling at his work, he placed the jewelry back in the box and tied it shut again. Pulling a piece of parchment toward him, he picked up a quill and wrote a short note to Nexi.

He smiled as he picked up the note and the box and strode from his office in search of the Ministry owls.


Nexi sighed over her toast. Another day of studies, another day without Lucius. Fourteen more weeks and they’d be able to see each other. She sighed again before a shadow fell over her and an owl landed in the butter dish. Shaking her head at the clumsy bird, she noticed the package and note it held out to her. She took both from the owl and offered a bit of bacon to the poor creature.

“Oh, a present,” Darina Carrington squealed from beside her. “Who’s it from, Nexi?”

Nexi raised her eyebrow, never one to share easily she was rather shocked that Darina had asked. She shrugged and said she didn’t know.

“Well, open it, silly.” Another girl, Nexi wasn’t sure of her name, offered.

She knew it would be suspicious if she didn’t just open the box now, but at the same time she’d hoped for a bit of privacy. Surely it was from Lucius, his was the only consistent mail she’d gotten this year. Biting her lip, she untied the box, deciding she could simply say it was a gift from her parents. Laying inside the plain box was a beautiful necklace of silver. A small pendant dangled from a fragile chain, and upon closer inspection she saw the emerald snake circling the onyx raven. How perfect, she thought, turning it over. She gasped as words lit up on the back.

There isn’t a dream that can hold a candle to the reality.
Lucius

She smiled, and realized the usual chatter around her had died down. She looked up and noticed interested faces staring at her. Great, an audience.

“Just a gift from Mother and Father.” She said, holding up the necklace so the raven and snake were visible. “My parents were in Slytherin, and since I’m in Ravenclaw,” she shrugged, hoping the explanation would satisfy the curious.

Nexi slid the necklace over her head and felt it settle over her school robes. She remembered the note, but decided to read it later, when she had more privacy. Already her day felt brighter.


“Interesting necklace,” Severus offered, as he sat down beside Nexi in the library.

She nodded, scowling at her parchment and checking the open book in front of her. Groaning she crossed a line through what she’d written and made a notation with her quill. She didn’t know how she’d confused Belladonna with Wolfsbane, but she had.

“Who’d you say gave it to you?” He asked, opening his own book.

“My parents,” she offered, turning the page and writing a paragraph about the adverse effects of Wolfsbane during various phases of the moon.

“Hmmm,” Severus said, taking a bit of parchment out of his bag along with a quill. “That’s odd, your parents hardly ever send you mail.”

Nexi finished another paragraph on the useful properties of Wolfsbane and looked up. Since when is Severus so curious about my mail, she wondered. “It was a late birthday gift.” She offered, closing the potions book and pulling her History of Magic text out of her bag.

“I see,” he said, carefully flipping through the pages of his own book. “Odd, isn’t it?”

“What’s odd?” Nexi asked, tearing her eyes away from the Goblin war of 1776 and looking up at the scrutinizing face of Severus.

He sat back and folded his arms over his chest. “It’s odd that your parents sent you a package when you told me that they prefer to not send you post to school. Something about it making you more independent. Strange that they’d change their mind so suddenly.”

Damn it, Nexi thought. Why do I tell him so much about my family and their little quirks? Probably to show him that his family isn’t the only screwed up group of individuals connected to our world. Well, he’d just have to settle for this little lie, because she was not going to tell him about Lucius.

“Yes, well Mother’s note said they’d had it commissioned for my birthday, but the jeweler hadn’t gotten it completed in time.” Nexi said, dismissing Severus’ questions and hoping that would be the end of it. She turned back to the blank parchment and wondered how she’d be able to write two feet on a war that lasted only long enough to retrieve a Goblin made cup from the extended family of the person who’d purchased it.

Severus too turned to his open book and blank parchment. She wasn’t telling him the truth, he’d bet on it. That pendant came from someone other than her parents, he was sure of it. He was more suspicious because Nexi never lied to him, in fact she told him even the most embarrassing of facts about her and her life that he often found himself wanting to tell her to keep something to herself. This, however, was different. She’d been getting owls daily, he’d noticed from his seat at the Slytherin table. Her parents definitely weren’t the source of so much mail. Now this rather expensive gift, if he weren’t mistaken, showed up. Sure her parents could have given her something so expensive, but anything they commissioned would have been finished in time for her birthday. Her parents weren’t people to muck about with, they’d cursed people for less than being tardy. Things just weren’t adding up.

He shrugged off his questions and started reading up on the antidotal qualities of Wolfsbane. Soon she’d tell him, she’d never been able to keep anything else to herself, after all.