Chapters 141-150

A Unique Position

‘You need not concern yourselves with that problem,’ Severus said softly, ‘as I find myself in a unique position that will ensure my return no matter what happens.’

The Headmistress blanched, but he caught her gaze and held it, unflinching. ‘You know what I am talking about.’

‘I do, Severus,’ Minerva said at last. ‘But…’ The older witch hesitated and glanced at Hermione, concern and pity evident in her piercing eyes. ‘There are others you should explain yourself to,’ she added pointedly.

Hermione watched the exchange with mounting trepidation. ‘Severus, what’s going on? What “unique position” are you talking about?’

The expression on his face remained inscrutable as he turned to her. Hermione felt Harry shift uncomfortably in the chair next to her, but Severus ignored him, as well as the others who were present.

Tonight that meant Madame Dubois, Bill Weasley, Professor Flitwick, Madam Pomfrey, and Healer Mugwort.

‘You needn’t be concerned about my return from beyond the Veil,’ he said curtly. ‘I am bound by an Unbreakable Vow not to kill myself. The penalty for breaking a vow like that is not death, of course.’ He hesitated for a moment. Hermione’s mind was racing, connecting memories, things he had told her—

‘Either Madame Dubois is right,’ Severus went on, ‘and Necromancers can indeed move beyond the Veil and back. Or I will die and return anyway, coming back as a ghost because I broke the Vow. You see, one way or the other we will get the information we need.’

‘That’s why,’ Hermione gasped. ‘That’s why you asked me to—’ She stared at him in shock. ‘That’s why you agreed to the apprenticeship. So you could order me to kill you—but it wouldn’t have worked! The conditions of my indenture—you cannot command me to do anything illegal—and wouldn’t the Vow have seen me as just another tool—’ Hermione stopped short. A tool. She had been a tool for him. Nothing but a tool. She swallowed hard. It’s different now, she thought desperately. And I do understand. I really do. But if I understand, why does it hurt so much?

He fixed his fathomless black gaze on her. ‘I would merely have ordered you to burn a piece of wood,’ he explained gently. ‘I would have been gone at that point. Though not dead,’ he smirked. ‘The Vow would have been satisfied. And making a fire for your master is perfectly legal.’

‘You were going to make your apprentice make a fire with her master?’ Harry gaped at Snape for a moment, before he rounded on him hotly. ‘That may be legal, you manipulative, scheming Slytherin bastard, but you know what? FUCK legal, what the hell were you THINKING? She was trying to save your life! And she was—’ He glanced at Hermione, his green eyes aflame with fury, ‘—she is in love with you!’

Severus’ face contorted into a grimace of pain and…Hermione frowned. Guilt? No matter. She jumped up, and, stepping in front of her husband, she turned to face Harry. For a moment she didn’t know what to say. Her confusion and shock threatened to overwhelm her and to destroy the last vestiges of her composure.

‘Harry. Severus. Not one word.’ She inhaled deeply. ‘Harry, why Severus took me on as his apprentice is his business. Whatever he may have wanted to make me do or not is something between him and myself. It is of no consequence for the problems ahead of us.’

She stared at Harry until he scowled at her and slumped back down in sullen silence. When she was sure that her friend was not about to hex her husband, she stepped aside, glancing at Severus in warning. We’ll talk later, she thought at him. He raised his eyebrows at her but leant back in his chair in wordless acquiescence.

An awkward silence settled over the room. Madame Dubois spoke up first, seemingly unfazed by the tangible tension in the air. ‘An interesting Vow,’ she commented. ‘Who made you take it?’

Severus glanced at Hermione. Then his gaze jumped to Harry. A muscle twitched at the corner of his mouth, giving away that he was not as calm as he pretended to be. ‘A—a former friend,’ he replied at last. ‘She was…worried about me. And she feared we would not be—in a position to—reestablish that friendship…’ he trailed off uncomfortably.

Harry came to the same conclusion as Hermione at exactly the same time. Only while she bit down on her lip, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

‘My…mother?’ he croaked. ‘She—when—how?’

Severus sighed. ‘Not long before she…before your parents were killed. She—’ He shook his head. ‘It was the last time I saw your mother before she died. I think she knew what—I’d done—all of it. She—I’d like to think she meant it as a sign of forgiveness. She said that she feared for me.’ He stared blankly ahead as he went on, ‘I told her that I would do anything she asked of me. She asked for an Unbreakable Vow.’

Madame Dubois didn’t appear impressed. ‘Interesting way of showing your forgiveness to a spy, isn’t it? Taking away his final means of escape.’

When both Harry and Severus rounded on her with nearly identical frowns, she just raised delicate eyebrows. ‘However, you’re married now, therefore I imagine you would prefer to come back alive. As I don’t assume that a man’s marital relations would benefit from putting mind over matter quite like that.

‘Therefore, I suggest we concentrate our efforts on solving this riddle in a way that leaves you alive and kicking.’

‘And how,’ Severus asked with a sneer, ‘do you propose to do that, Madame?’

‘With what we know,’ Dubois replied archly. ‘And maybe some additional research.’

‘And what exactly do you think that we know?’ Severus snarled, losing his temper at last.