More Than Meets the Eye

chapter 6

Draco quickly finished slipping his death eater robes and mask on. He wasn't surprised at receiving a summons. It was two days after the commitment ceremony, and he was pretty sure that news of it had reached Voldermort. He touched his mark and found himself in a large room.

“Mr Malfoy, please step forward,” he heard a voice hiss. He looked across the room to see Voldermort seated on a chair that had been elevated onto a platform. Draco walked to the front of the room and knelled before the black robed figure.

“I hear the you have some interesting news Mr. Malfoy,” Voldermort said motioning for him to stand.

Draco made sure that his mental walls were fully up before looking in to the red eyes. “Yes my lord.”

“I wonder why I did not receive this information from you.”

“Forgive me sir. It happened rather fast and as I hadn't received a summons, I didn't want to disturb you,” he answered spinning out selected images of the past five days, as well as a desire to please him.

“Draco your father was one of my trusted followers. When he died you inherited his position. Do not fear coming to me when something of significance occurs,” he informed him. After a pause he continued. “So how is it that Miss Granger proposed to you? I was under the impression that the witch despised you.”

“Apparently her parents kept her from all things magical when they were on their vacation. When she returned she learned not only of the law, but that all of the good wizards at Hogwarts were already taken.”

“Really? I hadn't heard that someone wanted Longbottom,” Voldermort interrupted evilly.

“Well it seems that even a mudblood has some standards. Even though Longbottom is annoyingly good, not even she could stomach wasting her power on someone who is one step away from being a squib,” he replied with a smirk. Voldermort laughed and nodded for Draco to continue. “Since she doesn't know many wizards outside of Hogwarts I am guessing she thought she could get around the law by proposing to me, assuming that I would reject her.”

“Why didn't you?”

“I thought that it would allow me to discover information for you.”

“You are willing to marry Potter's best friend simply to gather information for me?”

“My lord, I have no doubt that once you are in power you will get ride of this law, thus freeing me. I am willing to put up with the mudblood in order to hasten that day.”

“Mr. Malfoy, I am pleased with your sacrifice, and one day you will be greatly rewarded,” Voldemort responded looking at Draco over tented fingers. “In fact I do believe that you have given us a great gift. I had originally planned on destroying Miss Granger, but now I have a new plan, one that you will have a central role in.”

“What would you have me do sir?”

“I want you to seduce your wife.”

Draco looked at the dark wizard in genuine shock. This was not how he had expected this meeting to go. He had expected to be groveling at the madman's feet in an attempt to gain forgiveness for not getting his approval before becoming engaged. He thought that Voldermort would be furious, and had only hoped that he could get through the meeting with out the Crucio curse being used on him with the promise of information from the other side. Instead he seemed pleased with the idea of him marrying Hermione. “Seduce her my lord? To what end?”

“Why to have her join us of course,” Voldermort answered clearly enjoying the young man's confusion and shock.

“Join us? But she is a mudblood!”

Voldermort's eyes quickly narrowed. “Are you questioning my judgment?”

“No Master! Please forgive my question. I am just surprised that you would give such an honor to someone like her.”

The older man leaned back in his chair. “You have much to learn young Malfoy. Blood is important, but in the right circumstances exceptions can be made for bad blood. Now are you able to complete your mission?”

Draco tucked this information away for later contemplation and assumed an arrogant stance. “Of course my lord.”

“Very well then. Remember this is very important to me. Any information you gain will be welcomed, but this is your top priority. I understand that it will take time, but I want it done, and I want it done correctly. If you succeed you will be rewarded beyond your imagination. If you fail I will have you and your entire family up to your third cousin killed. Is this understood?” Draco nodded. “Then you may go.”

Later that evening Draco sat in Snape's study. “What the bloody hell was that Godfather?” he asked raking a hand through his blond hair. “Why would he want me to marry Granger?”

“I gave up trying to understand him years ago Draco. I can not answer that for you.”

“This whole situation just seems to get messier as time goes on. We'll only be able to Voldermort off for so long, and then what do we do?”

“Don't underestimate the importance of this Draco. While it is true that he is an impatient man, I have seen him wait years for something that he truly wanted. Since it is obvious that he wants Miss Granger for some reason, we will have the time to prepare her,” At Draco's nod he continued. “I would make a suggestion though. I think that you would do best not to tell her about this until after the wedding.”

Draco raised his brows in surprise. “You are suggesting that we keep this from her?”

“For the time being, yes. She has enough on her mind right now without adding to it.”

“I know that I don't know her very well, but I don't think that she will be too happy when she finds out that we have kept this from her,” he pointed out with a small smile.

“Probably not, but it is only three weeks. It isn't as if she can do anything about it now anyway.”

Draco nodded in agreement, noticed how late it was getting and left after a short good night to Snape. Not long after he left the flames in the fireplace turned green.

Snape turned to see Dumbledore's face among the flames. “I assume that you were monitoring tonight's conversation.”

Dumbledore shook his head. “No, I was watching for when he left, but I didn't listen in in case he wished to discuss some personal issues with you.”

Snape snorted. “Well that was certainly good of you,” he commented sarcastically. Pinching the bridge of his nose he spoke again. “Albus, I certainly hope you know what you are doing.”

“Trust me just a little longer on this Severus. So how did things go tonight?”

“As you expected. He is obviously confused as to Voldermort's orders.”

“Were you able to convince him to leave it alone for now?”

“Yes, I was able to buy us some time, but how much I don't know.”

“We just need three weeks.”

“I don't understand why we don't just tell them. I can see why we didn't tell them at the begining, but now?”

“Severus, it is best if they figure this out for themselves.”

“Why? So they won't know that the three of us have been manipulating them for the past four years? Albus, they are very intelligent, they will figure it out!”

“Yes, but by then the link will have been made.”

“I hope you understand that we are going to have a very, very angry witch and wizard on our hands.”

Dumbledore paused for a moment before sighing softly. “I know, but what choice did we have? We didn't set this in motion, we are simply fulfilling our roles.”

Snape smirked. “You go ahead and see how far that piece of rationale gets you when the day comes.”


A/N Thank you all for responding and giving me the codes. I know that this chapter is on the short side, but the next chapter, which I hope to get up soon, is really long.