Chapter 8

His fingers itched to clutch his wand. Not to curse someone, but to have it readily at hand in the event that someone might want to curse him.

At this moment, being cursed was not an unlikely scenario. The corner of Rodolphus' eye twitched, only slightly, but enough to make Snape just a bit concerned. His fingers tightened around each other more forcefully in his lap, fighting against his instinct to just grab his wand and duel it out with Lestrange if the need arose.

The eyelid twitched again.

Rodolphus' hands clenched into fists, then released, the fingers stretching in a clear attempt to calm himself. "Yours?" he repeated, as if perhaps a bit of earwax had disrupted his hearing and he had simply misunderstood.

"Mine," Snape confirmed.

This time, a vein in Rodolphus' forehead throbbed at the same time that his eyelid twitched. "Do you care to explain?" he asked, his voice strangled with the effort not to shout.

"Do not forget that you did the math yourself; the girl was born before you married Bellatrix," Snape began, hoping to sooth the wild beast. "It was a one-time occurrence, I believe a bit of rebellion and experimentation on her part and a simple desire for sex on mine, and neither of us approached the other for a continuation of those events once they had concluded."

Rodolphus did not appear to take the notion of his wife sleeping with another man well, even if it had happened before he had any claim on her. "How long have you known about the child?"

"Two weeks," Snape said. "And that was only of her existence, not her parentage. That I discerned only tonight."

"How?"

"She told me."

"Bellatrix?" Rodolphus demanded, his eyes flashing. "She dares to talk to you on this matter before myself?"

"No, her daughter, the girl."

"Ah." Lestrange settled back into his chair. "And why has this girl not sought out her father before?" This was said slightly mockingly, and Snape bristled at the tone.

"She has been told little, not even my name, only that her father was a Potions master. Bellatrix clearly wanted to hide her parentage, for whatever reason."

"So why keep the girl if she did not want to acknowledge her?"

Snape did not answer immediately, letting the silence stretch between them. "I have a theory," he said slowly. "I have yet to confirm it, but I owe you the truth as far as I know it."

"Yes, yes, go on," Rodolphus urged, impatient and irritated.

"The girl said that is being groomed to be presented to the wizarding world, but she is unclear in what sense she is to be presented. However, she seems certain that she will be attached to a man of high standing, someone who Bellatrix informs her will become very powerful in a short time." Snape paused again, wondering if it was truly the right thing to say what he suspected. "I believe your wife intends to marry her daughter to the Dark Lord."

Rodolphus laughed, the sound harsh and jarringly loud in the quiet room. "To the Dark Lord, are you mad?" He chortled some more, but there was little humour in it. He quieted after a short while. "The Dark Lord. Do you really think so?"

"The only alternative, based on her wording, is Harry Potter, and I much doubt that Bellatrix would send her own flesh-and-blood to wed that bloody Gryffindor."

Lestrange let out a short laugh at that. "No, I dare say she wouldn't." He drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair, staring off into a corner that held nothing particularly of interest. "Perhaps Draco Malfoy, if he manages the task the Dark Lord has set out for him, but I don't believe he has the balls necessary to achieve it. And besides that, they'd be cousins, although I'm not sure that would be enough to deter Bellatrix from arranging it." He laughed again, dryly. "It would explain all the time she's spent away. She's with the Dark Lord right now, probably talking about how she's ready to hand over her own child without a second thought." Rodolphus grimaced. "I'd have taken her in, you know," he said, his eyes finally snapping back up meet Snape's. "Even if I'd known she was yours, I would have taken the girl in and made her my heir. If I'd known we'd never have our own children, well, it wouldn't have been a hard decision to make."

"Even with her sullied blood?" Snape asked, slightly astounded.

Rodolphus chortled, and Snape wondered if he truly looked so shocked. "Even with your Muggle father's dirty blood running through her veins. But you're a Prince, too, Snape. It might not mean much anymore, but I remember when the Prince line was rather prestigious."

Snape wished he could remember such a time, but the only Prince he had known had lived in squalor and allowed a Muggle to take away her wand.

The two men sat in silence for some time, Snape watching the other with wary eyes, hoping that the calm would last long enough for him to escape with his head still attached and his heart still beating. Rodolphus fished another cigar out of the box at his elbow, lighting the tip and taking a long drag.

"I can't imagine what she's thinking, giving a girl to the Dark Lord."

It was quite possibly the closest thing to treason that Snape had ever heard Lestrange say.

"And I have to admit, I wonder if our Lord would even be capable of, well, engaging in the sort of activities one indulges in with a wife."

Snape wished desperately that he'd never have to imagine that particular situation ever again. It was simply too nauseating to bear.

Rodolphus tapped the ash into a tray and brought the cigar back to his lips. "Curious, though, that the Dark Lord would want a child when he claims to be immortal."

Dark eyes met pale blue, and the two men stared at each other.

"What does an immortal man need with an heir?" Snape mused aloud, turning the thought over in his head. "Dynasty and succession are unimportant if you can live forever."

But neither could come up with a suitable answer, and so they continued to sit in the quiet room across from the fire, watching the flames flicker against the stone and charred wood.

Then suddenly, the flames flashed green, and Bellatrix stepped out of the hearth, her wild black hair framing her face in a tangled riot of curls. The fire faded back to orange, and she stepped closer to the two chairs before her.

"Rodolphus, what were you thinking, letting this half-blood tramp through our house?"

"He's sitting, not tramping, and I hardly think your objection to him is due to his blood status."

Bellatrix sniffed. "Giving him your best cigars, even. What has this world come to?"

Rodolphus' eyes narrowed, and Snape suddenly wished he had a clear route from his chair to the fireplace. What he wouldn't give to be able to leave before Rodolphus undoubtedly told Bellatrix what he knew and the whole situation went to hell in a hand-basket.

"What has this world come to, indeed. Did you know, Bellatrix darling, that I found out the most intriguing bit of information today?"

She looked suspiciously at her husband, who had leaned forward in his chair and stared down the witch before him. "I'm sure anything that intrigues your little mind is positively too boring to mention."

"Nonsense. I think you'll quite enjoy it. You see, Severus here informed me that you have a child."

The moment that Rodolphus had named him, Snape had reached for his wand. He'd only just managed to free it from his pocket when Bellatrix whirled on him, pointing her own wand in his direction and firing a Blasting spell. He ducked, letting the back of the chair take the blast, and rose to his feet, conjuring a Shield while casting to disarm her.

It had to be sheer dumb luck that Bellatrix's wand flew from her grip and into his own, but his joy was short lived. The witch charged at him physically, her talon-like fingernails straining to claw his face. It was Rodolphus who flicked his wand and pushed her away, giving Snape enough time to conjure a length of rope to restrain her.

"He speaks lies!" Bellatrix screeched, trying madly to shake off the ropes. "You dare listen to his treacherous words?"

"Snape knows better than to lie to a Lestrange," Rodolphus said softly. "But it appears that you have not learned the same lesson."

"There's no girl!" Bellatrix shouted at him.

"Ah!" Rodolphus exclaimed, smiling broadly at his wife. "I didn't say anything about a girl, did I?"

"You... I... that is..." Bellatrix stuttered, ceasing her rocking motions. "Well, it's not a boy, either!" she proclaimed, thrusting her nose up in the air.

"A pathetic response," Rodolphus said. "The girl, Hydra, you've been keeping her at your mother's for seventeen years. She knows nothing of the wizarding world, and I blame you for that, Bellatrix. The only children who grow up that ignorant are Mudbloods, and even they are introduced to our society at eleven. You plan to give her away to someone, but you haven't told her who. Snape believes that you've arranged for her to wed the Dark Lord, and I'm inclined to believe him. Ah, yes. That's right. Snape. He's the father of your little half-blood mongrel, isn't he?"

Rodolphus had slowly made his way across the carpet to where Bellatrix sat bound on the floor, finally kneeling before her to stare her in the eyes. "Don't lie to me, Bellatrix. I won't have the truth hidden from me any longer."

She swayed once, her dark eyes rolling towards Snape where he stood by the fireplace. He met her gaze with unblinking eyes, determined not to let her frighten him. She looked back at Rodolphus, who remained where he was, crouched before his wife.

"The Dark Lord wouldn't let me destroy it," she finally snapped. "I appeared before him with the hopes of obtaining a potion or a charm to bleed the child from my body, but when he heard who the father was, oh, he was pleased." Bellatrix smirked at the two men. "Can you imagine? My loyalty, my beauty, my talent, my lineage, combined with Snape's ability with potions and his sharp mind? He might be a half-blood nobody, but no one can deny that he has intelligence. The child could only be a marvel to behold, could only be a dedicated Death Eater with the ability to do anything and everything. And so when the Dark Lord asked that I keep him, to raise him to become his right-hand when he was grown, I could only say yes. And then when he turned out to be a girl, I improvised and promised the Dark Lord a broodmare of a wife who would provide all the basic genetic material he needed to spawn a Dark Line. And I would be there with her every step of the way, declaring my rightful place as the girl's mother, the grandparent to the Dark Line, the one who had transformed a useless half-blood into the girl the Dark Lord could have at his side."

Her breath was coming in harsh pants, her dark eyes gleaming. "And she's very nearly ready. I will have her presented to the Dark Lord on the Ides of March, and she will have borne him a son by the New Year."

Snape closed his eyes for a moment, wishing that he'd never heard of Hydra, that he'd never been stupid enough to sleep with Bellatrix Black, that he wasn't in this horrible position of listening to a mad woman talk about giving his daughter away to the only thing he truly hated in this world. He opened them again to see her staring right at him, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

"You're not upset that I hid her from you, are you, Sevvie?" she cooed. "Your poor baby girl, all tied up with a ribbon and given to the Dark Lord before you could even know her. You would have held her back, you know, made her ordinary just like every other witch in Hogwarts, and you would have held me back right with her."

"The least you could do was educate the girl before dropping her at our Lord's feet," he snapped, unsure why he'd chosen this point above all to be furious about.

"She will be a blank slate for him to write upon, the truest tabula rasa in existence, and he will thank me for it."

"I rather think he won't," Snape said, and in a single fluid movement, he turned and thrust a handful of powder into the Floo and left the Lestranges behind.