A/N: Sometimes, some readers see things that others don't - some thing even the author themselves may miss. I was called out on a couple of inconsistencies by SideSlide. I pondered them and found the criticism to be valid. That derailed the planning for the next few months of the plot, but not by much, so I used this chapter to hopefully correct things. Thank you.

This is another short chapter because they seem to be about everything I can manage these days. I'm just happy to be writing, so I hope you'll be, as well. :)

Marcella xxx

Monday, February 23rd, 1996

„Severus," Lucius greeted with a smile, "to what do I owe the unexpected invitation? Your message sounded rather urgent."

Severus fumed internally as he watched Lucius take all the time in the world to carefully siphon every bit of soot from his otherwise impeccable robes.

"If it seemed so urgent," he pressed out, doing his best to retain the aloof manner expected of any Slytherin worth their salt, "I wonder why it took you three hours to make your way here."

The blond wizard brushed the rebuff off with a wave of his hand.

"If you had to cater to a large number of house guests with a wife that was less than helpful, you'd understand," he replied. "Fortunately, I'm always happy to enjoy an evening together with you. But where is this evening's entertainment? I had so hoped to find the lovely Miss Granger here tonight."

Severus had to take a moment to ensure his breathing remained level.

"There will be no entertainment tonight, I'm afraid," he said coolly. "I called you here to discuss your son."

"Ah, Draco," Lucius smiled, half amused, half exasperated. "I do so love to hear about his exploits. Tell me, Severus, what has he done now?"

"Your son," Severus spat, "attempted to rape Miss Granger during Potions class earlier today."

"Has he now?" Lucius mused. From his robes, he procured a bottle of firewhiskey – a very old and fine vintage, no doubt – and looked about for Severus' tumblers. "When you say 'attempted', I take it to mean that the boy was unsuccessful?"

"Indeed," Severus confirmed. "I was just in time to keep him off the girl."

Abandoning his search, Lucius summoned the tumblers. Finding them not to his liking, he vanished them, ignoring Severus' incensed expression at this careless handling of his belongings. A wave of his wand later, the blond wizard was pouring two fingers of firewhiskey into the first of two much finer tumblers.

"Why?" he asked casually.

Raising the bottle and looking at Severus in query, Severus found himself declining a glass of firewhiskey for himself. Lucius, of course, ignored him, and added two fingers of the drink to the other tumbler before making it soar across the room towards Severus.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" Severus asked, ignoring the glass.

"I mean," Lucius elaborated, "why did you keep Draco from availing himself of Miss Granger, when you offered her to me so willingly?"

The tumbler kept bouncing against Severus' shoulder. Annoyed, he grabbed it from the air, if only to stop its jerky movements from spilling spirits all over his teaching robes.

"The girl could have alerted the Headmaster," Severus spat out. "Draco would have been expelled in a heartbeat, the Malfoy name would have made headlines, your family's reputation would have been ruined, and just imagine if the Aurory had decided to investigate Malfoy manor."

"Ah, but there lies the million galleon question, my dear friend," Lucius drawled. "Would all these perfectly sensible reasons not apply to myself, as well?"

Severus stopped short.

"You can hardly be expelled from Hogwarts," was all he could manage.

"That's right, of course," Lucius laughed. It was a pleasant enough sound, but the atmosphere cooled considerably. "Let's have that discussion you called me here for, Severus. I believe it might be best you sit down."

Watching Lucius arrange his robes around his person as he settled into the most comfortable armchair in Severus' private rooms was unsettling, to say the least. He seemed relaxed to the highest degree, and that alone was enough to make the Potions Master very, very weary of the other wizard's intentions.

Taking a deep sip from the glass of firewhiskey that was warming in his grasp, Severus swished the expensive spirit around his mouth before letting it burn its way down his throat. The warmth did little to lend him any comfort. When he couldn't put it off any longer without seeming ridiculous or – Circe forbid – defensive, he sat down in the other chair, facing Lucius.

Lucius skipped all Slytherin tactics and dove right in.

"Why did you allow me to have Miss Granger?"

"You asked to have her, did you not?" Severus deflected. "She was here, available, and so you had her."

"Ah, but she was here and available twice, if you will remember," Lucius countered. "You protected the poor girl from my grasp that first night, and it was only on your command that she was here the week after. Why did you call her here?"

Severus did remember. Of course he did. How could he not?

"Is it not proper manners to share one's pleasures with one's brother-in-arms?"

Lucius chuckled.

"Yes," he readily agreed, "but Miss Granger was not a victim. Not yet, at the very least."

Severus hoped the deep swift intake of his breath went unnoticed, but he knew better.

"We are not talking about a revel here," Lucius continued, "or a raid, or any other situation where there was zero risk of being exposed or reported to any authority, Severus. We are talking about a stranger taking advantage of a schoolgirl in her own school. A school, no less, that is in the firm grasp of a headmaster who also happens to be the leader of the opposing side in a war that has been raging for decades. We are talking about prefect, a high profile student who, while maybe not particularly well-liked amongst the student population, is at the very least well known and even admired. I ask again, Severus: why?"

The Potions Master bought himself some time with another deep draught from his tumbler. The unquestionably exquisite firewhiskey tasted like ash to him.

"The girl wouldn't report you, Lucius, else I would never have brought her near you," he explained. "She's never reported me either, so why would she think to report you?"

Lucius' smile widened. The temperature dropped another couple of degrees.

"Do me the courtesy of not playing dumb with me, brother," the Lord Governor admonished. "There is no comparison between you and me."

As if Severus needed any reminding of that fact.

"It's a tale as old as time: you are a teacher at this fine institution," Lucius continued, his real thoughts on the school evident in his intonation. "You may not be well-liked, either, but you are trusted. Merlin knows how you've managed that, but Miss Granger obviously assumes you are playing for her side. And by the grace of Circe and all the other sorceresses, you have charmed your way into her knickers.

"I, on the contrary, am completely removed from that sacred teacher-student-relationship that bears so much potential for inappropriate behaviour. I have only ever shown her and her kin disdain. My son has bullied the girl for years. I am well known to only disparage her kind. I am rumoured," Lucius chuckled, "to be a Death Eater. Why would Miss Granger ever allow me to have her?"

"I asked it of her," Severus explained simply.

"Listen to yourself," Lucius carried on. "The girl is nothing if not willful. She's opinionated to the highest degree. She considers her cause to be just, and from that conviction she draws the lawful power of the moral high ground. Miss Granger is a fighter, and she would never submit to a stranger from the opposing side. Why would she put all that aside and do it for you?"

Severus took a deep, measured breath. Where the game he and Lucius were playing had been dangerous before, it became even more so now.

"The girl cares for me."

Lucius waved that admission away.

"Enough to allow you to pass her around like candy?" The blond wizard scoffed, and Severus experienced a brief pang of envy that the blond wizard could be graceful in even that. "Miss Granger doesn't seem like a girl who is so easily trained and subdued. She may be happy to fuck a hated teacher – Merlin knows the girl is an academical people-pleaser, always eager to be a teacher's pet in every sense of the word – but fucking someone whom she assumes to be a Death Eater goes very strictly against her conscience. Why did she not report that?"

"The girl would never bring my job in danger," Severus drawled.

"Maybe not," Lucius conceded, "but why would you? Your presence as a teacher here has been hanging by a thread for ages. Only Dumbledore vouching for you has kept you here and out of Azkaban, and you know it. Your teaching methods have parents from three of the four houses demanding your head. A scandal like fucking a student – an underage girl, at that – would have you out on the street in the blink of an eye. The girl may be happy to let you have your way with her, but you know that the threat of discovery grows exponentially with letting me borrow the girl. So why did you do it?"

Severus was grasping at straws. Lucius was right. At the time, it had seemed like the only viable option to lend the girl to his 'friend'. Retrospectively, however, he could see why it would seem highly suspicious. Hindsight, as always, was twenty-twenty. He cursed the girl for making him lose his level head, useless as cursing her was now.

"For all you know, I could've obliviated her afterwards," Severus stated.

"You didn't, though," Lucius called his bluff. This was bad. "Miss Granger clearly remembered having met me a week prior to our little fuckfest. There was too much of a spark in her eyes. Her gaze was not nearly empty enough to reek of obliviation."

"I'm good at obliviation," the Potions Master tried again.

"Oh, you are brilliant at it, and no mistake," Lucius readily agreed. "But even you are not that good. And before you go there, the girl wasn't imperio'ed, either. Believe me, I would know. So why did Miss Granger give up her lovely virgin arse to a Death Eater?"

Severus played his last card.

"The girl is happy to obey me."

It was admittedly a weak card.

"Is she, now?" Lucius mused. "It makes one wonder…"

The pale wizard took a sip from his own tumbler. Severus could see him allowing the spirit to linger on his tongue for a long while before swallowing. Not giving in to these obvious Slytherin tactics, Severus followed suit, enduring the silence. Whoever was first to break it would be showing their cards, and Morgana knew, Severus was all out of cards.

"It makes one wonder," Lucius eventually – finally – continued, "what big plan the girl thinks she knows of that makes her obey such an intrusive command."

"Big plan?" Severus drawled. Internally, he was twitching.

"I don't know what plan that may be," Lucius admitted. "The only thing I'm quite certain of is this: the Dark Lord doesn't know about that plan, either. And isn't that curious in and of itself?"

Severus paled and thanked the gods that his usual pallor didn't make that too obvious.

"Spit it out, Lucius," he prompted, tired of this cat-and-mouse game.

"Why," Lucius began again, "would Miss Granger allow her teacher to hand her over to a friend? Why would she not naturally struggle and fight me for all she's worth, no matter how little use it was? Why would she not report that assault to Dumbledore? And even if, like most victims, she was too ashamed to report a sexual abuse, why would she not at least go telling on the fact that a Death Eater was seen in the chambers of that one teacher who is still suspected to be a Death Eater himself? Why wouldn't she do any of those things?"

"The girl trusts me," was all Severus could think to counter.

"No," Lucius said, "this has to be more than just trust."

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly, Lucius inhaled sharply, apparently coming to a revelation.

"Dear Merlin," he marveled, "don't tell me the girl fancies herself in love with you, Severus?"

A few tense moments of silence followed. Severus pondered the blond wizard's words. Did the girl think she loved him? It could not be. She certainly had never given any indication that she felt anything towards him other than her too-often-proclaimed respect and, since Christmas, a certain duty to take care of his sexual needs.

"My my," Lucius drawled, "how the tables have turned since your own school days, Severus. Now you have an eager little mudblood vying for your attention, willing to spread her legs for anyone and everyone as long as you pay her any mind. Is that it?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Lucius," Severus said, his tone forbidding any continuation down that road.

Lucius, of course, ignored him.

"I'll be honest, that mudblood you fancied in your youth was far comelier than the one you have now," he plowed on. "I guess you'll have to take what you can get. I myself certainly wouldn't have minded having a go at the young redhead."

Memories of his first Christmas at Malfoy manor played unbidden in Severus' mind. In them, pictures of young Miss Carlysle's body being desecrated by Lucius were overlapping with Lily's face as she lay in Severus arms, warmth rapidly leaving her cold body.

It was too much.

"I think it is time for you to leave now, Lucius," Severus stated.

The finality in his voice could not be ignored this time.

Lucius finished off his tumbler.

"Fine," he agreed, setting the heavy crystal glass onto the side table.

"Best not bother coming back here anytime soon, either," Severus added. "The girl's trust has been heavily shaken from your son's little stunt earlier today. We wouldn't want to stir up any more trouble."

"No, I presume we would not, would we, now" Lucius mused. "Not to worry, Severus, I won't be back at Hogwarts for a while. You can keep the lovely Miss Granger all for yourself within these castle walls. Outside, however… Well, you know me, dear friend. I'm not one for making promises I cannot keep."

"Thank you for the firewhiskey," Severus dismissed his 'friend'.

"Keep the bottle," Lucius generously offered. "You might need it more than I do."

And with a swirl of green flames, the Lord Governor was gone from Hogwarts.