Chapter 4: 4
Chapter 4: The Truth (Or A Reasonable Facsimile)
Draco was ticked off, but not furious as he made his way to the medical wing. Potter was a right prat, but he was unknowingly following The Plan, so he wasn't going to bitch about him much.
"Things didn't go well?"
Draco was surprised to see Snape in the wing's hallway, apparently waiting for him. "About what I expected from Potter."
"Just what I wanted to talk to you about-your expectations. Please accompany me to my office."
"I need to get some potions from the nurse to help ease the cramping."
"I have them ready for you-in my office."
Fuck. He hadn't grown up in Malfoy Manor for nothing; he could spot the onset of a very unpleasant conversation from the inflection of a single word. Snape was in confrontation mode. Was he still upset that he'd covered for Potter? Or that he'd agreed to be alone with him? Aware that nothing of importance should be said without a well-placed silencing spell or two, Draco quietly followed his professor to the dungeons and watched as he set the wards.
"When I first found out about the rape, and your perceptions of it, I started investigating spells and potions which could have facilitated such an act upon your being," Snape began as he sat behind his desk. "I narrowed it down to two lust potions. One causes the victim to succumb to desire already present. Copulation will occur, however, violence is not necessarily a factor. The other is a Dark potion-a rape agent, pure and simple. It was created in 1791 to avenge a rape of an Italian wizard's daughter. He took a possession of the rapist, incorporated it into the potion, then slipped the potion to a half-giant living peacefully in the woods nearby. The half-giant then attacked the rapist, literally buggering him to death.
"Both potions are extremely complicated and far beyond anything any student at this school could master-with the exceptions of you and Miss Granger. Indeed, up until today, Miss Granger has been my chief suspect. I surmised that she prepared one of the potions and fed it to someone in order to 'put you in your place.' In her defense, you have treated her and her friends harshly during her tenure here at Hogwarts. Still, the simple lust potion would have got her expelled and the darker one would've landed her in Azkaban."
Draco had been trained by the best not to show any reaction. "What happened today to change your mind?"
"Miss Granger would have not used Harry Potter to carry out her plan. The boy is-unstable. She wouldn't have added that guilt to his already heavily-laden shoulders."
Draco nodded. "The potion could have been purchased by someone totally inept in Potions," he offered.
"That would require an extraordinary amount of money. And I've contacts with the only other three wizards who could have possibly brewed the darker of the two potions-which is the one, from the state of your condition afterwards, that was used."
"Potter was an animal, but considerably less endowed than a half-giant," Draco agreed. He looked into his teacher's eyes and made a decision. Snape knew the truth. The professor wouldn't have brought up the subject if he'd had any doubt. So he could make a fool of himself, and an enemy of Snape, if he continued with the misdirection, or he could confess and possibly make an ally of a very powerful wizard. "I was in no danger of dying," he said casually.
Snape accepted the admission without any outward reaction. "Why, Mr. Malfoy?"
"I didn't want to become a Death Eater."
"I carry our Master's Mark."
Draco laughed, hearing the "you idiot" Snape had silently attached to his statement. "I excel in Arithmancy as well as Potions, Professor. Adding one plus one is not a problem for me. I know you're a spy for Dumbledore. I applaud your ambition." He kept his eye on the drawer where Snape's wand lay. Being obliviated would play hell with the Plan.
Shaken, Snape poised on the edge of his chair. "Who else knows?"
"In my family? No one knows for sure, but Father is wary of me talking to you about anything other than schoolwork. I have, on occasion, backed up some of your intelligence reports about the school and Potter."
"Hedging your bets?"
"Always, sir."
"You are very astute."
"I owe it all to the teachers in my life."
"Your greatest teacher has been your father."
"Yes."
"Yet you do not want to become what he is?"
"I am not my father. I wasn't aware that you had bought into that particular Gryffindor fallacy. You've been around Dumbledore too long."
Snape ignored the slight. "Why this sudden change in loyalties?"
"I saw the Light?" Draco teased dryly, then sighed as Snape merely rolled his eyes. "Father took me to the Yule Revelry."
Snape paled. "Did you-participate?"
"What do you think? I wouldn't have made it out alive otherwise. Were you there?"
"No. The Headmaster and I attended a MAAS conference."
A Magical Academies and Schools get together was a convenient out. It was considered quite the honor to get chosen to attend. "Lucky you."
"It did not meet your approval?"
Draco began pacing, aware that it broadcasted his uneasiness, but not really caring. "I am a pureblood, superior to half-bloods, mud-bloods, and muggles. Why do I need to waste my time killing everyone to prove a point that is already proven? If I'm naturally on top, why then do I have to forcibly place everyone on the bottom? It's redundant, it's messy, and it distracts me from doing what I want to do. If Voldemort-and yes, I can say his freakin' name-is having an identity crisis, why do I have to get involved?"
"Your father-"
"My father got himself into this mess long before I was even conceived. It's not my problem."
"I see. And this all occurred to you because of the revelry?"
"That, and the Dark Lord being a perv."
Snape covered up a snort with a cough. "I must say that no matter the reason for your actions, I'm pleased that you are no longer bound to be part of the Dark Lord's court. But your solution to the problem leaves me confused."
"I needed a way out that was believable. The Light side believes that the parent-child bond is the strongest bond in existence. Potter's mother protected him from Avada Kadavra by it. Surely, my bond with my child would lead me to drastic, sacrificial measures."
"But...Potter?"
"You would prefer Dumbledore?" Draco asked, his nose wrinkling in distaste. Then he shrugged. "Potter may be a self-righteous, moralistic, do-gooder, but he has a hot body and is not old enough to be my great-grandfather. I could have done a lot worse."
Snape shuddered. "So why didn't you just seduce him? Why the Rabidus Potion?"
"The higher guilt/lower blame factor. If I had seduced him, I would be partially to blame. With the rape-my injuries catalogued by you, the nurse, and the Headmaster-Potter's completely at fault. It makes manipulating him easier."
"And what of the War, now that you are on the other side? Can you in all honesty face your father in battle?"
"I won't be fighting. The pregnancy will keep me on the sidelines for the next several months. And after that, well, Potter's survival is constantly in question. It would not be fair to our child if both his or her parents are in mortal danger."
A smile snaked its way onto Snape's face. "Fifty points to Slytherin for excellency in scheming."
Draco relaxed. He figured that Snape would approve once he knew of the whole Plan, but he'd still been anxious. And he hadn't wanted to blackmail him with the whole, "I'll tell Daddy you're a spy" thing. It would've been a lame threat at best, because he had no intention of telling his father anything but to fuck off. "Thank you, sir. May I have my potions now? I think the earlier ones are wearing off."
"Of course." Snape stood and went to a large wooden cabinet. "I hope you took into consideration the difficulties that may arise from this pregnancy. For you to be a Progenitor, the original spells must run heavy in your blood. You will have to take care."
Draco looked down at the floor and then up at his professor. "I was hoping, sir, that you'd, as the mud-bloods are fond on saying, 'have my back'?"
Snape bowed his assent. "As you have had mine, Mr. Malfoy."
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