Sub Rosa

A/N - Angst ahoy! So thank once again to my angel beta Kathryn (wonderful coincidence on the name!), and to all my lovely reviewers, many who have stuck with me through the whole of this monstrosity. I will do a personal thank you and shout out next chapter, but I\'m on a serious roll with the writing and want to get back to it. : )


Chapter 58 – May Flowers

Kathryn received the letter at breakfast and allowed herself the emotional release of showing her horror and dismay. Severus leaned over her shoulder and his face became set and quiet as he read. Kathryn knew that as a loyal Death Eater he had to appear pleased, but as a man wooing Kathryn Leblanc he needed to look properly sympathetic.

“What is it, Kathryn?’ Albus asked her softly.

“Helene Majere, my cousin, has been abducted.” She answered him in a voice leeched of all emotion. There were looks of sadness and concern, but little surprise. In the last month, some sixteen pureblood girls had vanished. The mounting hysteria had united purebloods and Muggle-borns in a mutual terror. Girls were being sequestered and hidden by their families. At Hogwarts, the Hogsmeade trips were cancelled and no students were allowed off of the grounds for any reason.

So far, Severus had not been summoned to continue Voldemort’s ‘program’, but they both knew it was only a matter of time.

She watched as he forced himself to drink more coffee and eat some toast. He had lost weight in the last month, his dread of the coming ordeal making him feel ill all of the time. Kathryn had been after him to eat, fear for him making her hyper-vigilant.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t done worse things before. He had raped, killed and tortured -- first from obedience and later from necessity. He had done what he had to, time and time again. It was just that the long-term consequences of his acts had never included children that he had fathered being raised by Death Eaters and trained to hatred and prejudice from the cradle. She had done enough terrible things in the name of ‘intelligence’ and to keep a cover persona that she understood what he had been forced to. She wasn’t sure what to do about this though. She had no precedence for thisenicenics program of Voldemort’s.

Breakfast ended and Kathryn shot him a look of helpless despair, his face was bleak as he stalked away down the corridor.

She wasn’t sure afterwards how she got through her classes; she taught by rote, half her mind on the students, the other half thinking of seventeen frightened girls and what they must be enduring.

Class dismissed and she dropped her head in her hands, wishing she could find it in her to weep.

Draco’s hesitant voice cut into her horrified imaginings.

“Professor.” She raised her head to meet those ice blue eyes.

“Mr. Malfoy.” She answered and saw him flinch as their eyes met. Her voice had taken on the deadened quality it did when she was getting ready to kill someone and she guessed that her face had gone blank and cold. She forced emotion back into her heart and essayed a tired smile.

“Um, I got a letter from my mother.” He began and Kathryn nodded for him to continue, having to work to make herself seem human. “She thinks that I should bid for Lillith right away.” Kathryn ran the data through her mind like a good little analyst and nodded again.

“Then do so, Mr. Malfoy.” Understanding flashed between them. If Lillith were a potential target then Draco’s bid would protect her. Voldemort was not capturing the daughters or intendeds of Death Eaters or those loyal to him, he thought of those girls to as already part of his ‘program’. After all, his loyal servants were expected to breed as quickly as possible. Draco was young enough to produce children and their union would no doubt be fruitful. Voldemort could afford to wait a year ‘til they were out of school. “You can always allow her to attend University as your wife.” She hinted. Draco returned a weak smile.

“I wouldn’t crush her dreams, Professor. I just know that we will be ordered to produce children.” Kathryn nodded.

“Time it so that she gives birth over the summer and then she can s att attend classes.” He gave a relieved smile and then began to frown.

“I wasn’t planning on marrying Lillith until after she graduated University, I didn’t expect to have children before I was twenty-five.” He began to pace angrily. Kathryn checked the privacy wards on the room surreptitiously.

“Mr. Potter didn’t expect tose ose his parents. Cedric Diggory didn’t expect to lose his life.” She pointed out gently. He took a deep breath and stopped pacing.

“I don’t really give a damn, Professor.” Draco flashed her a look of arrogance that would have done his father proud. “I am a Malfoy; we don’t change our plans for anyone.” He whirled away from her and returned to stalking back and forth in front of her desk.

“My father’s stupidity has cost me my choices. Malfoys don’t serve, Malfoys don’t bend knee to anyone.” His voice was rising in anger and Kathryn listened in silence. “He should have known that; Grandfather said it often enough.” There was disgust in that statement.

“Perhaps that’s why he did it.” She interjected carefully. Draco looked at her, suddenly gone still, waiting for her to finish her thought. “Your grandfather was a …difficult man to get along with. Maybe joining Voldemort was a youthful rebellion.”

“Why stick with it then?” He was furious and outraged, hands fisted by his side.

“How many times have you heard your father admit to being wrong?”

Draco’s bitter laughter was all the answer she required.


That evening Severus didn’t come up to her rooms with her; he swept away from dinner without a backward glance at her. She watched him go with a feeling of concern. She hesitated, torn between the need to talk to him and the implicit request for space his actions indicated.

She decided that if he really wd spd space he could kick her out of his rooms. She knocked lightly at his chamber door and after a moment; it opened to reveal a rather morose Severus Snape.

“Kathryn.” He looked surprised to see her. She didn’t think that was a good sign.

“You didn’t come up after dinner.” She waited while he went through some internal struggle and then let her in. “What’s wrong Severus?” she asked finally as he flopped into the black leather armchair. It was one of the pieces the house elves had put in as part of her remodel.

The whole room was transformed. She had arranged for black leather couches and chairs, chrome and glass end tables and paintings of windswept landscapes mixed with architectural drawings. He hadn’t changed it since her commando raid, redecorating spree, so he must not object too much to it.

“I was afraid that after your letter this morning you wouldn’t want to see much of me.” He admitted after a long pause. She debated the efficacy of beating him about the head and shoulders with a stick versus hugging him. It was a long debate.

“I love you, despite your mental deficiencies.” She said finaand and slipped into his embrace. He released a long slow breath and clutched her against him with some desperation. “You are an idiot. Did you know that?” She hugged him fiercely.

“She’s your cousin.” His voice had that resigned quality that made her want to throttle him.

“Fine, just try not to kill her. I’ll explain to her after the war.” She snorted in annoyance.

“If we live that long.” He drove her mad when he got fatalistic.

“Well, if we all die, problem solved. You are such a morose bastard.” She sighed and pinched him lightly, making him jump. “Cheer the fuck up, asshole. We have work to do.” She reached into her inner robe pocket and pulled out a pile of equations.

“What is all that?” Gods, his voice could arouse her with the simplest sentence.

“This is my map to Voldemort’s brain. I think I understand what he has planned.” She laid out the parchment and weighted it at the corners.

“You have finished your equations?” His voice went up at the end of the sentence, interest and excitement tingeing it.

“Equations aren’t finished, they’re solved. But even then, this is all just hypothetical and it assumes I have factored in all the important data.” She blew her bangs off of her forehead. Thed fed for a haircut was becoming desperate, but she never seemed to have to time to get down to Hogsmeade these days.

“Alright, I grant all your caveats, now what have you figured out?” He gave her the impatient look she had come to expect from people when she tried to explain the limitations of her proofs.

“His long range plans seem to involve replacing the disloyal servants who betrayed him last time with hand-raised shock troops who think of him as their spiritual father. I studied the pairings Voldemort set up.” She pointed to the list he had made based on the meeting in November. “Except for Narcissa, none of the pairs even like each other. Now, the Death Eaters aren’t exactly filled with esprit de corps, but there had to be some way to set up more palatable arrangements.”

“Unless he wanted to sow dissention and make sure the children were unwanted.” Severus broke in, nodding in understanding. Kathryn ran a hand down his cheek and smiled.

“I take back the cracks about your intelligence.” He smirked in reply and kissed her swiftly.

“So, once he has separated the children from their parents, he intends to raise them into an obedient army.” He looked thoughtful. “As they grow older, he will need more than dogma to keep control of them.”

“I’m thinking he will want you to brew up some sort of ‘Imperious’ potion that will keep them docile.” She muttered. His expression of resigned disgust earned him a twisted smile of bitter amusement from her.
“What, you thought he was going to try ‘attachment parenting’?”

“What about this love affair he is trying to get going between us.” The smile faded from her face and she sighed.

“There are two high probabilities and I don’t like either.” He made an encouraging noise at her when she paused. “The first is that he wants me to fall for you, then he will arrange your death in circumstances designed to turn my family against the Ministry.” Severus frowned thoughtfully and nodded.

“And the other delightful scenario?”

“He is planning on you marrying into the family as a way to get access to where Grandmother Olivia is hiding the escaped Muggleborns, as well as La Livre. Grand-mére Marie has a huge library and Great Grand-mére’s volumes of Dark Magic would make Voldemort drool. .” She shrugged. “There are many advantages to that for him.”

“I am not marrying you on Voldemort’s orders.” His voice could have chipped granite.

“Not to worry, Grand-mére would never allow it.” His face went utterly still and she ran over the sentence in her mind again. Oops. “I mean she wouldn’t allow any of those volumes to fall into his hands, not even to save you, so it wouldn’t be a useful action for us to take.” His face was telling her that she was blowing this conversation rather badly. “I love you and I’ll be happy to marry you someday and my family will welcome you, Severus.” Let’s start over again. “There is no benefit to getting married at Voldemort’s whim because it will gain us no advantages.” His face smoothed out as she spoke. There, that was much better.

“Very well. What is his next move?”

“Well, the Potter obsession continues.” She pulled another set of runes and figures from the pile. “I see an attempt to lure him out to Hogsmeade and attack him there.”

“He was discussing an attack on Hogsmeade last month.” Severus agreed. “How will he lure him from the school though?”

“Not entirely certain.” Kathryn shook her head. “I just hope that he comes to us for help if something goes wrong.”

“He has before. Why wouldn’t he this time?” Kathryn relaxed. She was in agreement with him on that. After all, he had promised.