Chapter 34: Dispute
Diagon Alley.
Severus pushed the door open and drew a long breath as the familiar interior settled around him.
"Home. Three days, and I already missed that feeling of not having to perform."
"You were not really performing," Nagini said, crawling out of his sleeve and into the kitchen.
"Not entirely, no. Slughorn is different, and I have gradually let some people closer. But with most of them I still keep a certain distance. I do not socialise much in my own house, except with Regulus." He paused. "He reminds me of someone I was once close to."
"Is that the only reason you spend time with him? Not because of that woman?"
"That woman is the most delicately put description I have heard of her. She is genuinely unhinged. But." Severus smiled. "My tastes have always been strange. As for Regulus, he is only part of the reason." He watched Nagini rummage through the refrigerator. "If you need me, I will be upstairs, in the training room."
"Fine."
He climbed to the second floor, stopped in front of a blank wall, and tapped it several times. A magic circle appeared in the air. He pressed his palm against it, and a door materialised to the right.
The room beyond was small, and then rapidly was not, as it expanded outward.
"Right. To work." A vial of blood appeared in his hand. He tipped it carefully onto the floor. When the last drop fell, he tossed the vial aside and turned both palms toward the blood.
It began to move, spreading into a circular pattern across the floor, and within it symbols took shape. The one at the centre stood out most clearly inside its own ring of runes: a dragon's head with glowing turquoise eyes.
"First part done. Now the second." As the runic circle flared, a large dragon heart dropped into its centre. It began to come apart slowly into tiny fragments, forming the shape of a dragon: a long tail studded with spikes, an imposing face covered in the same. The roaring image did not frighten Severus. It mildly disappointed him. "Not the best specimen. But there is no choice."
He pressed his palms together. The dragon's image shrank rapidly, the heart breaking apart faster and faster. A roar of uncontrolled magical energy crashed out toward Severus and pressed against his mind.
"A little weak. Try harder."
As though it understood it was being mocked, the roar redoubled, and still did not manage it. The heart dissolved completely, and where it had been a dark yellow crystal sat on the floor, radiating warmth and something close to menace.
"Not bad, all things considered." He took out a small box, put the crystal inside, closed it, and put it away. "Just a short rest, and then the second ritual. What a chore. These things drain almost everything I have."
Closer to ten in the evening, Nagini had settled on the first floor to avoid disturbing him. The faint streams of unpleasant aura leaking from the training room were hard on her, and she was more sensitive to that kind of thing now than she had been before.
Curled up on the sofa Severus had put in place of the old tables, she was snoring quietly when she heard the front door open and came awake immediately.
A thief would not come through the front door. Which means.
She looked up. Bellatrix stood in the room in a dark dress, long dark hair over her shoulders, frowning as she surveyed the space with her wand still in hand. Nagini watched her from the sofa.
"Hm." Bella continued looking around, and then she found the sofa. "That colour. Very striking. He has an interesting pet," she said, aiming her wand at Nagini with a lazy smile. "I wonder how angry he would be if I killed you."
Nagini caught the glint in Bella's eyes and that smile. She looked at the wand pointed at her and felt nothing but contempt. She did not move first: she did not know how Severus would react to that, and she was fairly certain it would not be positively. But if Bella attacked, she could bite her with a completely clear conscience.
"What are you staring at? Do you really want it that badly?"
Hessssss. (Try it, then.)
"You actually want me to?" Bella narrowed her eyes and hissed back.
At that moment, footsteps sounded on the stairs.
"I see you have met." Severus came in smiling, already feeling Nagini's faint irritation through their link.
"If you had been even a few seconds later, you would have found a dead snake."
"Do not be so certain. If Nagini had decided to act, you would have been dead well before that." Bella's expression shifted slightly at that. Severus sat beside Nagini, who immediately crawled into his lap. "And you behaved foolishly. If Nagini had moved first, I would not have done anything to you, but I would have been offended."
Tch.
"All right, forget it," Severus said, looking up at Bella's frown. He smiled at her and waited.
"My Lord wishes to meet you. And." Her expression curdled noticeably at what was coming. "He offers you the great honour of a place among the Death Eaters."
"I see."
"That is all?"
"Were you expecting me to dance? Forgive me, Bella, but I will decline. I have no interest in branding myself with a slave mark. My freedom matters to me."
"How dare you call it a slave mark!" Her wand hand trembled.
"I call it what it is. And I have no desire to become a piece in the game between Dumbledore and Voldemort. Why constrain myself that way, when I could become the third player?"
"So you want to be our enemy?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Not in the slightest. I will leave the country as soon as I graduate. I could not care less about your war, whoever wins it. But you." Severus rose from the sofa, crossed toward her, and Nagini gave a disgruntled hiss behind him. He stopped close, touched Bella's cheek, and smiled. "That is entirely different. What about joining my side instead?"
Instead of the fury and immediate murder attempt he had expected, Bella laughed. Severus was briefly thrown.
"On the side of a half-blood with no power, no wealth, and no influence?"
"So if I have all of that, you will be mine?" His eyes narrowed, and he let a certain sweetness into his voice that sent a small shiver down her spine. "All right. I accept your terms."
"Why would I agree to any of this?"
"Because if you do not, I stop supplying the potion. Why should I help your group if I get nothing from it?"
"Fine! Prove it, within two years, and I agree. But if you fail, you become my servant and do everything I say. Do you accept?" She met his eyes with a contemptuous smile, looking for fear and finding none of it, which irritated her considerably.
"No problem. But I want something as proof."
"Oh, shut up and do it. I want this finished."
Severus raised an eyebrow as Bella rose onto her toes and closed her eyes.
"Since you are asking," he said. He pulled her toward him, covered her lips with his, and settled both hands on her waist.
She was not content with something simple. When his hand pressed to the back of her head and his tongue moved against hers, she tried to bite him again. It was useless: he was simply too strong for it. She tried to push him away: the odds were too unequal. She had no choice but to stay, and then, a few seconds later, she found herself caught up in it against her own better judgement, her mind slightly clouded by everything she was feeling.
When Severus finally stepped back and let her go, the satisfaction was quiet but clearly present.
"Pervert!" Nagini said from the sofa, with feeling.
"Did you enjoy it?"
Bella came back to herself and shoved him. She raised her wand with real anger, and only a couple of sparks came out.
"You suggested it," Severus said, with an indifferent shrug, examining something in his hand with interest. "Though this is actually what I had in mind."
Bella looked. "Give that back! That is a gift from the Dark Lord! You have no right—"
"Then I will keep it as proof of our agreement." It disappeared. An identical one appeared in its place. "Here: a temporary replacement. And do not make empty threats. If you truly wanted me dead, you would have already used the dagger on your left side, the one you can reach easily."
Bella's gaze burned into him. He could not help smiling.
"When you become my servant, your life will be absolute misery!" She snatched the replacement from his hand, turned, and walked out, slamming the door behind her before she did something she would be punished for, because he was still too important to this war.
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