Chapter 319: The Unbreakable Vow

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A/N:

SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE UNBREAKABLE VOW.

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"So, what can I do for you?" Snape asked, settling himself in the armchair opposite the two formerly Black sisters. He poured out three glasses of bloodred wine and handed two of them to the sisters. Narcissa murmured a word of thanks while Bellatrix said nothing but continued to glower at Snape. This did not seem to discompose him; on the contrary, he looked rather amused.

"The Dark Lord," he said, raising his glass and draining it.

The sisters copied him. Snape refilled their glasses. As Narcissa took her second drink, she said in a rush, "Severus, I'm sorry to come here like this, but I had to see you. I think you are the only one who can help me. Severus, I know I ought not to be here; I have been told to say nothing to

anyone, but —."

"Then you ought to hold your tongue!" snarled Bellatrix. "Particularly in the present company!"

"'Present company?" repeated Snape sardonically. "And what am I to understand by that, Bellatrix?"

"That I don't trust you, Snape, as you very well know!"

Snape set his glass down upon the table and sat back again, his hands upon the arms of his chair, smiling into Bellatrix's glowering face.

"Narcissa, I think we ought to hear what Bellatrix is bursting to say; it will save tedious interruptions. Well, continue, Bellatrix," said Snape. "Why is it that you do not trust me?"

"A hundred reasons!" she said loudly, striding out from behind the sofa to slam her glass upon the table. "Where to start! Where were you when the Dark Lord fell? Why did you never make any attempt to find him when he vanished? What have you been doing all these years that you've lived in Dumbledore's pocket? Why did you stop the Dark Lord from procuring the Sorcerer's Stone? Why did you not return at once when the Dark Lord was reborn? And why, Snape, is Harry Potter still alive when you have had him at your mercy for five years?"

She paused, her chest rising and falling rapidly, the color high in her cheeks. Behind her, Narcissa sat motionless, her face hidden in her hands.

Snape smiled. "Before I answer you — oh yes, Bellatrix, I am going to answer! You can carry my words back to the others who whisper behind my back and carry false tales of my treachery to the Dark Lord! Before I answer you, I say, let me ask a question in turn. Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?"

She hesitated. "I know he believes you, but . . ."

"You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the highly accomplished Legilimens who no mind can hide from?"

Bellatrix said nothing but looked, for the first time, a little discomfited. Snape did not press the point. He picked up his drink again, sipped it, and continued, "You ask where I was when the Dark Lord fell. I was where he had ordered me to be, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, because he wished me to spy upon Albus Dumbledore.

You know, I presume, that it was on the Dark Lord's orders that I took up the post?"

She nodded almost imperceptibly and then opened her mouth, but Snape forestalled her.

"You ask why I did not attempt to find him when he vanished. For the same reason that Avery, Yaxley, the Carrows, Greyback, Lucius" — he inclined his head slightly to Narcissa — "and many others did not attempt to find him. I believed him finished. I am not proud of it, I was wrong, but there it is. . . . If he had not forgiven we who lost faith at that time, he would have very few followers left."

"He'd have me!" said Bellatrix passionately. "I, who spent many years in Azkaban for him!"

"Yes, indeed, most admirable," said Snape in a bored voice. "Of course, you weren't a lot of use to him in prison, but the gesture was undoubtedly fine —"

"Gesture!" she shrieked; in her fury, she looked slightly mad. "While I endured the dementors, you remained at Hogwarts, comfortably playing Dumbledore's pet!"

"Not quite," said Snape calmly. "He wouldn't give me the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, you know. Seemed to think it might, ah, bring about a relapse . . . tempt me into my old ways."

"This was your sacrifice for the Dark Lord, not to teach your favorite subject?" she jeered. "Why did you stay there all that time, Snape? Still spying on Dumbledore for a master you believed dead?"

"Hardly," said Snape, "although the Dark Lord is pleased that I never deserted my post: I had sixteen years of information on Dumbledore to give him when he returned, a rather more useful welcome-back present than endless reminiscences of how unpleasant Azkaban is. . . ."

"But you stayed —"

"Yes, Bellatrix, I stayed," said Snape, betraying a hint of impatience for the first time. "I had a comfortable job that I preferred to a stint in Azkaban. They were rounding up the Death Eaters, you know. Dumbledore's protection kept me out of jail; it was most convenient, and I used it. I repeat: The Dark Lord does not complain that I stayed, so I do not see why you do."

"I think you next wanted to know," he pressed on, a little more loudly, for Bellatrix showed every sign of interrupting, "why I stood between the Dark Lord and the Sorcerer's Stone. That is easily answered. He did not know whether he could trust me. He thought, like you, that I had turned from faithful Death Eater to Dumbledore's stooge. He was in a pitiable condition, frail, sharing the body of a mediocre wizard. He did not dare reveal himself to a former ally if that ally might turn him over to Dumbledore or the Ministry. I deeply regret that he did not trust me. He would have returned to power three years sooner. As it was, I saw only greedy and unworthy Quirrell attempting to steal the stone and, I admit, I did all I could to thwart him."

Bellatrix's mouth twisted as though she had taken an unpleasant dose of

medicine. "But you didn't return when he came back—."

"Enough!" said Narcissa, in a low and deadly voice, looking up at her sister.

Bellatrix still looked unhappy. Taking advantage of her silence, Snape turned to her sister. "Now . . . you came to ask me for help, Narcissa?"

Narcissa looked up at him, her face marred with despair. "Yes, Severus. I — I think you are the only one who can help me; I have nowhere else to turn. Lucius does not want to listen. . . ." She closed her eyes, and two large tears seeped from beneath her eyelids. "Severus," she whispered, tears sliding down her pale cheeks. "My son . . . my only son . . ."

"Draco should be proud," said Bellatrix indifferently. "The Dark Lord is granting him great honor."

Narcissa began to cry in earnest, gazing beseechingly all the while at Snape. "Why, Severus? Why my son? It is too dangerous! This is vengeance for Lucius's mistake; I know it!"

Snape said nothing. He looked away from the sight of her tears as though they were indecent, but he could not pretend not to hear her. "That's why he's chosen Draco, isn't it?" she persisted. "To punish Lucius?"

"If Draco succeeds," said Snape, still looking away from her, "he will be honored above all others."

"But he won't succeed!" sobbed Narcissa. "How can he, when the Dark Lord himself — ?" Bellatrix gasped; Narcissa seemed to lose her nerve. "I only meant . . . that nobody has yet succeeded. . . . Severus . . . please. . . . I beg you. . . . You are the Dark Lord's favorite, his most trusted advisor. . . . Will you speak to him, persuade him — ?"

"The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it," said Snape flatly. "Yes, the Dark Lord is angry, Narcissa, very angry indeed."

Narcissa seemed to lose what little self-restraint she still possessed. Standing up, she staggered to Snape and seized the front of his robes; she gasped, "You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would succeed, of course, you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us—."

Snape caught hold of her wrists and removed her clutching hands. "The Dark Lord would want me to stay at Hogwarts, fulfilling my useful role as a spy, no matter if Draco succeeds or not. However, it might be possible. . . for me to help Draco."

She sat up, her face paper-white. "Severus — oh, Severus — you would help him? Would you look after him, see he comes to no harm?"

"I can try."

"If you are there to protect him . . . Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?

"The Unbreakable Vow?" Snape's expression was blank, unreadable.

Bellatrix, however, let out a cackle of triumphant laughter. "Oh, he'll try, I'm sure. . . . The usual empty words, the usual slithering out of action . . . oh, on the Dark Lord's orders, of course!" She shuffled to Snape, her face close to Snape with wide eyes. "Come on, Severus, if you mean it, vow it."

"Snape did not look at Bellatrix. His black eyes were fixed upon Narcissa's tear-filled blue ones as she continued to clutch his hand.

"Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow," he said quietly. "Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder."

Bellatrix's mouth fell open.

"You will need your wand, Bellatrix," said Snape coldly.

She drew it, still looking astonished. She stepped forward and placed the tip of her wand on their linked hands.

Narcissa spoke. "Will you, Severus, watch over my son, Draco, as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord's wishes?"

"I will."

A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.

"And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm?"

"I will."

A second tongue of flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a delicate, glowing chain.

"And, should it prove necessary . . . if it seems Draco will fail . . ." whispered Narcissa (Snape's hand twitched within hers, but he did not draw away), "will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?"

There was a moment's silence. Bellatrix watched her wand upon their clasped hands, her eyes wide.

"I will."

A third tongue of flame twisted with the others and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.

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Severus Snape - Death Eater - Man bound by a promise

Narcissa Malfoy - Desperate Mother - Anything for her son.

Bellatrix Lestrange - Devout Follower - Provoked and Provoked.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Dark and brooding.

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