from Draco is rather like trying to cast Lumos underwater"
Snape understood this and was suddenly quite glad that he was not himself a father. Draco gave a whole new meaning to the term 'stubbornly tight-lipped'.
"My loyalties are to my godson first and foremost, but you will be kept informed."
"My thanks, Severus."
"Oh and Lucius, there is one more thing."
"Yes?"
"Call it a morbid curiosity on my part, but if you would answer a question?"
Lucius stared at him.
"What would you do if you had your freedom again?" Snape asked.
There was no hesitation or artifice in Lucius's response, which was almost as unsettling to Snape as the reply itself.
"Take my son, willing or not, and run," said the former Death Eater.
"You really would condemn him to that kind of existence?" Snape questioned. "One where he would have to forsake every person he has ever known, always running, always hiding?" The flames were gone, reduced to a faint wafting of green smoke, and the image of Lucius wavered.
"I would," Lucius said, his voice now sounding like an echo. "In a heartbeat."
The Floo transmission ended with the sound of a snuffed candle.
All that was left to mark the conversation was the sooty, coppery scent of the fire, and the fact that Snape was wide awake, alert and more shaken than he would care to admit.
He walked over to his desk and sat down. It was a fine desk, a claw-footed, rosewood and mother of pearl creation that had been in his family for three generations. It was the one of the few things in his life that he felt a sentimental attachment to.
The outside observer would have noted that the desk had four sizeable, brass handled drawers, two located at either end. But as Snape tapped his wand at the centre of the desk and murmured a brief incantation, a fifth, much smaller drawer appeared.
The hidden compartment sprang open, revealing a small bundle of green velvet. Snape stared at the bundle for a moment, and then removed it. His hands might have shook somewhat, but he was a Potions Master, and there was no place in his profession for that kind of weakness.
He gingerly unwrapped the cloth. Nestled inside the material was a bright, golden key.
Chapter Seven
Hermione thumbed the edge of a yellowed page, frowning over the introduction to the book she had unearthed in the Archaic and Little-Used Magic Section of the Hogwarts Library. It was a substantial section, taking up nearly a third of the library's west wing. Even so, from experience, she knew that there was often a waiting list for books from the section, due surprisingly to their popularity.
Archaic and little-used magic, she mused. Senior students invariably picked the dodgier spells when given free rein on assignment projects. After all, a skin-stripping Bavarian Hex (originally used in preparing poultry) was far more interesting to research than something relatively everyday like Scourgify.
"Miss Granger, if you don' t require further assistance, I shall be taking tea in my office," Madam Pince informed her. She had been bustling back and forth replacing the books that Hermione had previously scanned and dismissed.
It had taken their combined efforts to locate the Fida Mia journal from the shelves. According to Pince, Tallowstub's account was the only book on the subject to be published in the last three hundred years, and to Hermione's frustration, it read more like a collection of anecdotes and informal observations rather than being a rigorous piece of research.
Judging from the thick layer of dust covering the small, purple-leather bound book, it was obvious that previous students had perhaps not found the subject to be as stirring as other more macabre, historical spells.
"I should be fine, thanks," Hermione smiled up at the Librarian. A fat silverfish made a bid for escape from the spine of the old book. Hermione gently flicked it from the table and then watched, in resignation, as Madam Pince promptly squashed it under the square heel of her very sensible shoes. With a curt mm-hmph of dismissal, Pince retreated to the seclusion of her office.
Madam Pince, besides Dumbledore and possibly Remus Lupin, was the only other staff member in the castle moderately aware of the type of activities that Hermione, Ron and Harry sometimes got up to.
In fact, the Hogwarts Librarian could perhaps be said to hold the key to the evidence of the trio's prolific body of work over the years. If the often-thwarted Snape were to ever seek incriminating evidence as to the friends' dubious extra-curricular activities,