capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

WHO: Draco and Snape
WHERE: Snape's, I assume
WHEN: Severely backdated to when Tom first shows up and the tattoos start to awaken
WARNINGS: Don't think so
SUMMARY: Snape has even more to tell Draco. Thanks for all the stupid secrecy, professor.
FORMAT: Paragraph? (feel free to switch to something else)

Draco hadn't noticed the change in the tattoo right away, it had been subtle enough it merely felt like some persistent itch under his long sleeve. Finally, he had lifted it to see if some horrid bug had become trapped in there only to see the tattoo was sluggishly alive again. A dull gray instead of a searing black, but a terrible sight nonetheless. His calm and collected response to it was to immediately panic, pace about his apartment, cast as many protective charms as he could possibly think of, and sit in his darkened room, thoughts racing through all the possible reasons this was happening and what he should do about it.

That was when Snape got in touch with him. He almost ignored the communique, but decided if there was ever a time he needed to be told what was what and what to do, it would be now. He apparated over to Snape's brownstone, looking quite more pallid than usual and eyes hollow with anxiousness.

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The brownstone is slowly coming together -- but is still very much a work in progress. That progress has come to a complete halt. Waiting on his student, Snape allows his his guard down for a moment, knowing he'll Apparate -- lazy brat -- and waits with a kettle of tea on.

This is a conversation that will demand a lot of tea. And possibly some brandy later.

Once the boy finally arrives, Snape has the calm of some metaphysical guru, expression placid and no nervous energy to him. He has felt it, he has known, and now, it is time for Draco to learn the truth of things, no matter how difficult it may be.

But he knows the boy is not loyal in his heart. This is his saving grace. This is why Snape can tell him.

He passes over a tea cup and says, very curtly: "Sit down. You have obviously felt the mark and I did not call you over here to instruct you to rush to the Dark Lord's side, or instruct you in obedience. We must speak of a related, but no less important, matter."

He took the tea without question and sat down gladly when instructed. His legs didn't feel like they wanted to stand much. Trying to take hold of the cup proved embarrassing, for his hand was shaking enough it made it rattle against the saucer, so he just held onto the plate with both hands, holding it to his legs. "I didn't think you were calling me to do such a thing, not after the convention," he told him lowly. He didn't think he had the full story, but he had gotten the impression that Snape had been on the side of Dumbledore after all. "Which is the only reason I came."

Snape's brows furrowed, but he nods.

"Than this will be easier for both of us," he says. "You know I was a double agent. I have been since I was almost twenty. I was used as a spy, though I was not the plant in the Order at that time. That sprang up much later, during your school years."

He prefers to stand, walking to one of the windows, not just a little paranoid. There are baffling spells and a cloying sense of wards everywhere; Bellatrix may not be magical at the moment, but he takes no chances for now.

"When I was twenty or so, a prophecy was given. I was able to hear part of it, and I took to our lord. It foretold the birth of a boy, who would destroy him. We did not have all of it, however, and that is why your father was sent to get the rest, much later, when the Dark Lord has risen." However, he took it to mean a very specific family, a very specific boy, and planned to murder them all to the last man."

And the first lie comes out: "The murder of a family down to a babe in arms made me question. I turned, then, on the Death Eaters and went to Dumbledore myself. I became the Order's spy. It did not save the family, however, though you know as well as I what became of Harry Potter."

"Dumbledore asked me to remain in service, and in a foolish moment--" of grief, "--of rage, I agreed. We both knew he would not remain fallen. And we could no longer endure the thought of what the wizarding world would come to, should he rise again."

"But he is here now," Snape says, turningback to the boy, "again -- and I am in the precarious position of being asked to resume my role if it comes to that. I remain his foe to this day, even though he believed me loyal to the moment that he ended my life."

He appreciated him just spilling it out all at once rather than drawing it out or acting unsure about how much he should reveal. It was admirable, surprisingly so, but at the same time a bit infuriating. He thought of what to say, how he should be reacting, but he was feeling too anxious, too numb, and, moreover, too confused and words floundered. He finally replied, "My, how Gryffindor of you, sir." He wasn't sure himself if he meant that as an insult or not, but it certainly sounded like a Gryffindor thing to do.

"Yet, how devious. We all trusted you," he added, slightly accusatory. "Very kind of you to tell me this time if you do decide to something foolish like that again."

Edited 2011-10-16 00:05 (UTC)

Snape sneers for a moment. "You're not the first to express such sentiments, but I assure you -- no Gryffindor could do what I di. They're brave, but only in numbers and force," he says, turning aside the idea.

He looms over the boy, and thne says, very simply, "Things are different. I couldn't tell you -- or trust you -- before. It would have been dangerous. Now, things are different. He is not-- as far as I can tell -- the Dark Lord we knew. He is a boy still, but make no mistake: he has already killed and begun to fracture his soul to try and attain immorality. Were it not for your growing skill in Occulumency , I would tell you nothing."

Draco's made himself less a liability, and more a responsibility, that's all.

"Too true," he sniffed, vaguely amused but Snape's astute assessment of the Gryffindor's so-called courage--of course, he might be biased, but he thought not.

"You've seen him then?" he asked with morbid curiosity. "He's not--he's from another time, too?" His hand went to his arm, scratching at the mark as it merely felt uncomfortable on his skin. "I suppose that answers one question. How . . . just how powerful was he in his youth?" Bellatrix had told him stories, of course, but how much of them could he consider true? But, then again, it was Voldemort, it could be said he breathed fire like a dragon by age 10 and it might not be out of line.

"I am not certain, and will not be certain until I have met directly with him. But he does not-- it is not the same. That is all I can say. You bear the Mark, but it is fresh. You have not-- learned to note it's subtleties."

It's nothing against Draco; it's just years of experience to learn certain nuances, that's all.

"He killed before he ever left Hogwarts, Draco. He is ruthless, ambitious and already plunging into the darkest of Arts. If he is young, it's unknown. If he is shattered after his encounter with the infant Potter, I cannot say." He shakes his head once. "But I must meet with him, ascertain the thread, and inform the Order. From there, plans will be made."

"I noticed it was weak," he said, slightly affronted, though he had no idea what to make of it until Snape had said something.

His eyes narrowed at him, hardly believing what he was hearing. Not the he had been killing at a well young age, that was not hard to believe at all about Voldemort, but that Snape was going to risk his neck and rub elbows with him yet again. "You're going to return to being his lap dog?" He asked with some concern for the other man but out of disbelief that he would want to return to it after what had been his end from the first time around. Surely Snape wasn't that foolish.

The look Snape fixed on Draco was intense enough to wilt mandrake; he just looked at the boy before he hissed, "I am not, and never was, anyone's lapdog. He feared me at the end."

But he turns and again strides toward the window.

"I am a spy. I will do what I must to find out what he is, how powerful he is, and if we must attempt to destroy him. No more. No less."