Shadows Unveilled

Thanks to Nakhash Mekhashefah, beta extrodinare.

Severus couldn't feel Hermione anymore. He felt a cold dread fall over him, almost like a Disillusionment Charm had been cast upon him, as he picked up the amulet, which Hermione had worn since before they had been married, suddenly thinking it incredibly stupid to have tried something so simple to protect her.

He focused, trying to think of anything he could do to follow the trail. Also on the floor he found a baby-rattle...a slight hum of magic was left on it...an unauthorised, one-time use, Portkey. Hermione's kidnapper had used a series of them, apparently realising he would have thought of having a way to track her, and, at each stopping point, had left more of her clothing behind. He hoped, how he hoped, that they weren't removing her clothing for any other reason...especially with the strong Fidelity Charm in place...that would only make something like that even worse for her.

He needed help: Aurors, Magical Law Enforcement, the full force of the Order of the Phoenix. Now. But first he had to figure out where he was at so he could return. He was in a Muggle hotel room in what looked to be, judging from the view outside the window once he got to his feet, somewhere in Russia. He grabbed a pad of stationery from the bedside table and placed wards on the room so its contents would remain undisturbed until Aurors could get to the location to investigate.

Resolve firmed, he focused on pulling himself together and Disapparated. He couldn't do it all at once, and at each location he took a precious few minutes to look around and see if he could discern his location.

He found himself, at the next location, inside a log cabin. Light filtered in through cracks in the shutters on the windows, and he found the door. When he opened it, snow spilled inside; it was nearly chest-deep outside. He Apparated the short distance to stand outside, rather than try to clamber out, and saw that there was thick deep snow as far as he could see and a pine forest in the distance beyond an open plain. The sun was very low on the horizon, though it had been mid-morning back in England; a quick check revealed that it would be sunset soon, though it was only about three in the afternoon. He cast a beacon back inside the cabin.

Next, he found himself in an abandoned Muggle flat. Since he had Apparated to each of these locations only moments before, even though he didn't know the exact location, finding them again was possible. Looking out the windows, a thick hedge prevented him from seeing anything, and when he went outside, it was very cold, but the neighbourhood was terribly non-descript. It could have been just about any residential neighbourhood found in most of Europe or the north UK built about fifty or sixty years ago. He walked further up the street and found a street sign – written in Swedish.

The next place would be to the original point that Hermione had been when she'd been attacked that morning. He knew where it was, though he'd never been there. He cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, just in case he Apparated to a point where he might be seen, and Apparated to the mountain village high in the Alps. He found the hotel quickly by following the signs; he was only a few blocks from it, and bright signs, which could not be seen by Muggles, led the way. Nearly at a run, he went into the hotel lobby. No one was present, but as he entered, a chime sounded and an attendant came out of a door behind the desk.

"Welcome to the Magical Alpine Resort," the lady said, looking around in confusion. Severus ignored her and instead proceeded into the lobby, deciding to remove the Disillusionment Charm, producing a startled gasp from the lobby attendant. – He saw the large fireplace at the far wall; the Floo powder canister had been knocked over and had spread powder all over the floor.

"My goodness, someone made a mess!" the lady, who had followed Severus into the lobby, noted.

"My wife was just kidnapped from this very spot. This Floo connection must be closed, and this area sectioned off!" he demanded in his firmest tone.

"What's going on here?" came a familiar voice.

Snape spun around to see Harry Potter standing there, looking around with some alarm at the mess and at him. "When did you last see her?" Snape demanded to know, advancing on him.

"Hermione?" he asked, looking confused. "Just this morning...she was getting ready to leave..." Harry's eyes widened. "What's happened?"

"She's been taken...kidnapped. You stay here, Potter; secure this area. I will return with assistance shortly."

"Wait!" he yelled before Severus could summon the energy to Apparate to the gates of Hogwarts. "How?"

"Portkeys, Potter. It seems Fletcher's report was accurate, after all. I shall have him found, as well," said Severus lowly before he Disapparated.

*****

Harry spent the time after Snape left putting things in order with what little Auror training he'd had already. First, he explained to the lady, who was confused and rather upset, that she needed to call the local wizarding law-enforcement. Next, he began to analyse the scene. Floo powder was on the floor, and a chair had been knocked aside that had previously been sitting against the wall. The Portkey that had been used eluded the tracking spells he knew...and besides, Portkeys were nearly impossible to track, and Apparation was only possible to track if one cast the tracking spell just before the subject Apparated.

The local law enforcement arrived, and he explained the situation to the one who seemed to be in charge, and who seemed to want to make sure he stayed in charge, trying to push Harry out of the way and getting to work. But still, he felt as if he were in a daze. Hermione...how could this have happened to his sweet Hermione?

It made no sense; Harry had just seen her...had just...well, he'd just done a lot with her. How could he have let that happen? He wondered now what Snape might think, but truly, he didn't really care that much about Snape... Hermione was the one who mattered. Even now, thinking of his former Potions teacher who had made Potions into a nightmare of a class for seven years, his yellow teeth, hooked nose and long thin fingers on Hermione made him shudder.

Snape didn't deserve her.

*****

Hermione awoke groggily, feeling stiff and finding herself swaying gently in a hammock strung between two large palm trees. Above her, a warm breeze caused the dark green palm fronds to rock, and she thought she heard a parrot in the distance. She glanced to her right before moving and saw a hut made of palm fronds and bamboo poles nearly thirty feet away. Eager to get away before her attacker could return to her, she sat up too quickly and tumbled out of the hammock and into the sand below, scrambling to her feet and looking around.

Not far away, she heard the sound of surf on a beach, and of birds. It was warm, and everything was cast with the red glow of the setting sun. She wondered if she'd been unconscious all day, or if her attacker had taken her far enough away that it was now nearly night time rather than mid-morning. It certainly was far enough away for the weather to be warm rather than bitterly cold. Hermione instinctively reached for her wand, but couldn't find it, and found instead that she was wearing a light cotton tank top and shorts, both pink. She shuddered as she realised someone had to have undressed her and then put clothing on her.

Creeping behind a short bushy palm, Hermione watched for her attacker, hoping to take him by surprise. However, there probably wasn't much she could do against an armed wizard. She thought about Apparating, but since she had no idea where she was at, and the furthest she'd ever Apparated was about four-hundred miles; she didn't want to risk splinching herself, or Apparating herself into even worse danger than she was now.

Hermione froze as she heard humming and held her breath, waiting and watching. Then, she saw him. Her heart thudded in her chest as her attacker came out of the hut carrying a large plastic cup. She watched as his arched eyebrows knitted together, and he looked around in confusion while brushing his platinum blond hair, which now fell to the middle of his back, out of his face.

Lucius Malfoy.

There was a bamboo pole not too far away that had fallen, its roots still loosely attached to the bunch from which it had grown. She crawled to pick it up, and then heard his voice.

"Hermione? Where are you? Don't be afraid; I'm trying to help you!"

She grasped the bamboo pole and pulled her legs under her in a low crouch, ready to spring up. The words 'Malfoy' and 'help' could never belong in the same sentence.

"Please, come out," he called, turning in a circle. "I've brought you something to drink." She watched him hold up the plastic green cup and turn in a circle. When his back was turned to her, she decided that was her moment to act. As quickly as she could, she rushed towards him, pulling back to swing with the pole. He continued turning and saw her, but she was fast and had him surprised. The bamboo pole broke with a 'thunk' over his head.

Hermione thought, just for a split-second, that it really was too bad the particular bamboo pole she'd chosen had been so weak. Lucius Malfoy dropped the cup, spilling the contents with a splash and rattle of ice; then he looked at her with a stunned expression and stumbled backwards a few steps, raising a hand to his head and rubbing gingerly. Hermione raised the pole again, this time pointing the jagged broken tip of it towards him.

"Where are we?" she demanded to know. "What do you think you're doing with me?"

He blinked a few times; then lowered his hand. "We're safe," he answered after a moment. "You're safe now. It's okay; he won't be able to hurt you anymore. I've saved you."

Hermione stared at his encouraging smile, his pitying grey eyes – which were warm now, not cold – in disbelief for several moments. She opened her mouth to say something as she lowered the bamboo would-be spear, but she couldn't find any words.

"I know, I know, you're so relieved you can't think of what to say," he said, smiling broadly, showing an expansive flash of straight white teeth. "I understand you might have been scared of me, considering the horrible person I was before, but I've changed, and I'm going to do everything I can to help you recover from your horrible ordeal with Severus Snape."

*****

Severus Apparated outside the gates of Hogwarts in snow that was knee-deep and ran through the gates as fast as he could. The bulk of the students were still not back from the Christmas holiday; that should be tomorrow, he realised. And, as he'd hoped he would, he found Professor Dumbledore in the Great Hall having a relaxed after-breakfast conversation with Flitwick and two other professors he didn't recognise.

"Headmaster, I must speak with you; it is urgent," he said as he quickly walked in.

Dumbledore, recognising that Severus was in a very agitated state, stood and came to him immediately. "It's Hermione, she's been kidnapped; I've failed her."

"I will call the Order immediately, Severus. Come with me and tell me what you know."

They turned and strode quickly from the Great Hall. "It happened earlier today... only... half an hour ago. Before we were married, as part of my protections on her, I gave her an amulet spelled to alert me if she should find herself in danger, and to give me a beacon through which to find her. It was activated when young Malfoy attacked her here at the school last year, then again today. She was on holiday with her friends: Potter, Weasley, and Patil. She was supposed to arrive home this morning. I've spoken to Potter already and he said he saw her last this morning. Before that, though, I followed the beacon to several locations. Whoever has taken her used unauthorised Portkeys to do this. I nearly caught them, but then he - it must have been a man, she could not be so easily overpowered by a woman, I'm sure - he took the amulet off of her. I'm not sure how he knew..."

They were quickly ascending the spiral stone staircase to Dumbledore's office, and soon reached their destination. Dumbledore used his Floo first to make several calls, and then sent Fawkes with a message to Hermione.

Severus noticed what he was doing and stared in shock. "Why didn't I...?" He should have thought of that; he'd never felt so confused before. It hadn't been all that long ago that he'd had a job as a spy, when he'd had to keep his cool, had to think on the run, but right now the thought that someone had Hermione seemed to overpower any other thought. The tightening in his gut made him feel as if he would be sick, and even the simplest thing he could have done to help find Hermione had passed him by.

"It's quite all right, Severus. You're understandably upset." Severus stiffened as Dumbledore's hand grasped his shoulder, giving him a reassuring pat before he turned back to his office door. "We're to meet some people at the site of the kidnapping. Let's go, Severus. I'm sure we will find her soon."

"Yes, Headmaster... we will find her."

*****

"Oh, wouldn't you like to have dinner? Or did you just have breakfast?" Lucius asked. "It's okay, Hermione; you're safe; I won't hurt you." He offered her a kind smile. "I believe I will get some ice for my head, as well," he added. "This way," he said, motioning towards the hut as he bent to pick up the tray he'd placed on the ground. "I thought you might be confused when you woke up, and thought this would be a better place. It's a peaceful place, don't you think?" He started walking in the direction he'd come from, turning his back to her. Confused, Hermione followed warily, but she kept the stick in hand.

"What did you do with my wand?" she asked suspiciously.

"It's in a safe place. Mine is put away, as well. Of course, I'm still working on recovering my magic, re-learning everything. I've gotten through the third year of the Hogwarts' curriculum; not too bad for nearly a year of work."

Once near the hut, the beach was in clear view. Hermione scanned the horizon, seeing nothing but ocean and the sun which had halfway set. She wasn't sure what had happened with Lucius Malfoy, but something was seriously odd here. She had no idea where she was, and it didn't seem her captor would tell her.

"How long was I unconscious?" she asked.

"Only about half an hour," he answered. "I'm sorry, but I found it necessary to Stun you." His gaze lowered to the sandy beach that they were walking along. "I...I had to make sure you didn't have anything which he could track you with; I've read that Tracking Charms can be placed on clothing and jewellery. I'm sorry I had to...well, I didn't want to scare you, but it was necessary to get you to safety. I've been planning this for months; I'm truly sorry I couldn't help you earlier," he said, looking at her with what seemed to be complete sincerity.

"What do you mean, 'help me'?"

"Luckily, Ronald Weasley did invite you to the trip I made sure he would win, and even better, Snape allowed you to go. That bastard, trying to make things look normal to everyone else..." he muttered, trailing off. Then his face tightened and he looked momentarily pained, partly embarrassed. "I know what he was doing to you," he said in a whisper. "I know...I saw the horrible things he did to you, Hermione. I had to stop him. I tried to do it directly, but I couldn't come upon him like I did with the others..."

"The others? You? You've been killing all those people!" she shouted.

"But you have to understand, I had to do it; I had to. Please, please," he implored her as she began to back away, shaking her head slowly, "I only meant to save them; I only meant to keep those who..." his voice broke, and he took a moment to recompose himself.

"It was my fault it happened; I was the one who pushed through the Marriage Law; I had to take responsibility to fix the horrible thing I'd done. I didn't realise how bad it had been for you until... until I got back home, and my son Draco," his features turned hard for a moment, "tried to teach me who I had been; he tried to make me into that monster again. I was such," his face crumpled a moment, and he let out a sob, "such an evil, utterly horrible, monster."

"Well, I suppose I can't argue with that," Hermione answered in a neutral tone.

"Once I saw...the memories," he said, pausing for a moment and looking pained, "I knew I had to do something. And then, that sweet, sweet girl; she was my best friend in St Mungo's... she was murdered. But I knew what I had to do; I had to be like that man, The Shadow. Oh, yes, I know it was all just a story, but it was a story to learn from. And the more Draco showed me...the more..."

"Is Draco here?" Hermione asked, turning in a circle to look around her. Somehow, she felt safe with Lucius...weird, but safe. He was crazy, but Draco wouldn't be.

"Draco Malfoy will never hurt anyone again," Lucius said. "I..."

With dawning realisation, Hermione turned back to the man before her, the man who was now so very changed from what he had been before. "What...?"

"He was too far gone..." Lucius looked to her with imploring eyes, now rimmed with red and with tears threatening to spill from them. "There comes a point at which a person is so filled with evil they cannot ever recover, much like I was before. Like a rabid dog, they must be put down. I was... lucky. I'd hoped I could help him in the way that Snape ended up helping me, even if he didn't know he was helping me then. I couldn't find a way to do it...I didn't know enough..."

*****

Severus paced the floor in what had been Hermione's hotel room. It had become a home base of sorts from which the investigation into her kidnapping was taking place. He sneered over at Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had informed the rest of the team he needed a nap, and had promptly kicked back on the sofa and had gone to sleep.

How can he sleep at a time like this? The bastard... and to think he would have married Hermione had she chosen him. Yes, such a wonderful protector he would have made...falling asleep when she's in danger...

Snape looked over to Potter, who was pacing on the other side of the room. He yawned widely, and rubbed his reddened eyes. Harry had been granted an extension from his vacation from Auror training school.

"What I can't fathom, Potter, is how you let her be snatched from right under your nose? Were you too busy with some tart to notice what Hermione was doing?" he asked harshly. He should have found satisfaction in the way Potter blushed and then turned to face the wall, but he didn't; until he knew Hermione was safe, he had the feeling he wouldn't take pleasure in much of anything. She had been his duty; a very important duty which he was entrusted to uphold, and he had failed. Then, he remembered, Potter had told him that morning that he'd only seen her a short while before.

"Potter. You saw her this morning? But by the way you act...yes, you're quite readable even without looking into your pathetic excuse of a mind, you were..." Snape broke off as Potter blushed again, then started for the door.

"Fuck off, Snape," he said. Since his back was to his former teacher, he didn't see the man come up right behind him, and was taken by surprise as he was spun around and slammed against the wall.

He found himself quickly facing the harsh face and coldly glinting eyes of Severus Snape. He was too tired, too distraught, to put up the Occlumency shields he should have been able to erect to block him as Snape withdrew his wand quickly and hissed, "Legilimens!"

*****

Hermione sat on a futon cushion on the floor of the two-room hut. It was well past dark now, but she wasn't a bit sleepy having just awoken only a few hours before. Neither, it seemed, was Lucius Malfoy. He'd insisted she should eat something, and had roasted fish over the fire outside, bringing it to her along with a side of tinned peas. The plate had sat untouched for ten minutes while Lucius excused himself outside. He'd already shown her where the latrine had been dug...he'd even made a nice little hut to go around it. An outhouse. He'd kidnapped her, brought her to a deserted island, stolen her wand, cooked her food, dug her an outhouse, and all because he seemed to believe he was helping her. She chuckled as she realised what a cliché it seemed to be.

She stiffened as he came back inside and decided to try to reason with him. "Mr Malfoy, really, you don't understand... Please, take me back. I promise I'll explain it all when we get back."

He looked at her sadly, sitting down across from her on the floor, resting his elbows on his knees. "Hermione, I won't do that. I'm sorry, but you have too much to work through. And," he reached to the side where a small end table had been altered to serve as a bookshelf, grabbing a thick tome that was filled with bookmarks, "I'm prepared to stay here with you until you've come to your senses. Now, where was I going to start...? Ah, yes, here we are." He looked up at her, grinning a moment before looking back down at the book. Hermione read the page header for the title and chapter upside-down from where she sat: "Psychology in Practice: Victims of Abuse: Denial."

"Now, Hermione," he began, reading from an index card which had marked the place in the book, "what happened was not your fault. You didn't deserve it..."

Hermione sighed, rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall. Well, at least he's not out to rape and murder me, she thought sarcastically. No, he just wants to psychoanalyse me.

Hermione, now knowing the immediate danger had passed, started thinking about the things she had to get back to. Her friends would be worried, as would her parents, and she was sure Severus would be worried, too. She had to be back to work in only a day. Lucius Malfoy was obviously insane...so probably would be difficult to reason with, but she decided she should try. And if that didn't work by tomorrow, it would be time to try something a bit more forceful.

*****

Snape held the struggling young man by a handful of his tousled black hair as he gazed deeply into Potter's eyes, searching through memories.

...A Basilisk with fangs bared lunged towards the boy...a rotund boy, the same he vaguely remembered seeing during Harry's Occlumency lessons, punched him, while a much younger Potter tried to fend him off...Potter as a snake slithering through a corridor, attacking Arthur Weasley...cold biting wind on his face and snow all around, rushing headlong down a mountain...

Snape was getting frustrated...Potter hadn't blocked him completely, but was obviously hiding something important from him. Swiftly, Snape brought his knee to impact in Potter's groin, eliciting a squeal of pain from the boy. The distraction of pain weakened Potter's Occlumency shields, and Severus dove into his mind...and then wished he hadn't...

...Hermione's lips pressing against a lightly tanned chest, more muscular than Snape's...her deep brown eyes looking into Harry's in a way she had never looked at Severus...Hermione's denim-clad thighs clasping Harry's hips as her hand gripped and squeezed him through his trousers...

"NO!" Potter screamed, and pushed Snape away.

Snape, stunned, fell back against the wall, staring at nothing for a moment before recovering his senses. "So, Potter...found this to be the perfect opportunity to ensnare her, did you? Thanks to your hormones, and Hermione's pity for you – oh yes, Potter...she felt sorry for you...that was a pity fuck and you know it – not much actual fucking involved. A pity, really; she's good."

Snape seemed to hear the words come out of his mouth as if through a haze...it was a response he hadn't thought about, hadn't calculated. Inside, somehow, he felt a buzzing rushing sensation. He felt like he would be sick, felt like he'd like to rip Potter to shreds, felt like he wanted to find Hermione and make sure she was safe, and then to scream and rail at her until she regretted it...

Regretted what, though? So she'd found a creative way around the Fidelity Charm. Perhaps this was a good thing, all things considered. It wasn't as if any of his former sexual partners had been monogamous to him, nor had he ever demanded fidelity of anyone. It was simply an unusual situation with Hermione due to the circumstances of the Marriage Law; he had been with her, and her alone, since their wedding night... which had also been her first time....

Her first time. That was it!

Without giving a single word to Potter, he summoned his strength and Disapparated. When he arrived at home outside the Apparation wards, he rushed inside and down to his cellar with a surge of hope. As he began sorting through phials, he pushed the images he'd seen in Potter's mind out of his consciousness. He had more important things to focus on now. Whatever had happened between Potter and Hermione, he would deal with later, once she was safe.

*****

Lucius Malfoy looked down upon Hermione as she slept, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was exhausted...physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted. He had done so much to try to help her, and now she was trying every way she could to reason going back to that evil, horrible, sadistic man. He felt a twinge of guilt when he realised that he could place the blame for that man's sexual sadism firmly on his own shoulders. Like all his guilt since discovering the man he had once been, he turned it inward, focused it, shaped it and turned it. While he had once been a man of evil, a man known as slippery, powerful, dangerous, sadistic and cruel, he now was a man who put everything he had towards the forces of good.

He'd even sacrificed his own son to the forces of good. That was simply how it had to be. Draco had become suspicious, had started asking too many questions, and finally, when his plan was only a day from fruition, Draco had discovered him. Lucius hadn't really wanted to do it.

He felt guilty, too, at keeping the young woman against her will. And he also hoped that she would be more amiable about getting to sleep. Hermione had been determined to not sleep in his presence, and so he had basted the fish, which he had cooked for dinner, with a touch of sleeping potion – and teriyaki sauce to cover the flavour of it. She seemed to be a strong person, but he knew well enough that there was a part of her that had been defeated, especially in the nights after he'd tripped the wards around their house and had taken up watching in the windows from a greater distance. He vividly remembered watching in the upstairs bedroom window while he sat astride the Thestral who accommodatingly held her place for him. He had watched in a mixture of horror and fascination as Severus had stripped Hermione, then had bound her and had begun whipping her. And now, recalling the image, he felt a twinge and a tingling in the vicinity of his cock.

NO! I'm not like that! he thought, then quickly got up and left the hut.

Once he was sure he would not wake the peacefully sleeping woman, he broke out into a full run, reaching his hidden place with a painful stitch in his side and legs screaming with the burn of effort. He collapsed outside the door of the hidden place, raking his hands along the rough volcanic rock of the exterior of the cave. He wondered what he should do for penance...

"Shadow...Shadow...what do I do? Tell me? I've had those thoughts again...I can't do that; I can't be like that...."

Lucius waited, rocking back and forth on his heels, for the message he knew would come. He had to listen closely to hear the messages, but if he concentrated on clearing his mind, concentrated on his intent - his true intent to serve the force of good that, while good, was still dark - The Shadow would speak. And soon enough he stilled as he heard the voice.

"Disciple...my Disciple." Lucius nearly startled as the voice spoke. He resisted the urge to look around for the spirit; he felt that would be disrespectful.

"I am here, Shadow. I have taken her to save her, but she doesn't seem to want my help. Please, tell me what I should do. And also tell me," he said in a quieter whisper, hanging his head, "what my penance should be. When I thought of that time I saw him whip... when I... gods no! I felt...stirrings.

"So, Lucius, the evil ways have still not been completely purged from your mind? I suppose it is understandable; you do, after all, have great evil in your past to overcome."

"Yes, Shadow... my Lord, I have great evil..." he said, feeling more hot tears of shame and fear slipping down his face. "Give me your wisdom, and give me my penance."

"It will take a long time. Persistence will prevail, however. Keep her here; show her you mean her only good, and she will recognise that you bring her a beacon of hope, a way to escape her former enslavement. As for your penance..."

Nearly half an hour later, just after the sun had risen, Lucius Malfoy entered the hut again, having hobbled gingerly on the way back. Hermione was still asleep. He sat on the futon on the opposite side of the hut, looking again upon the woman whose fate had concerned him for the better part of the last six months. Surely, the fact that he had had so few obstacles in his way in this path was a sign that he was meant to rescue her. His many self-inflicted pains, as he had approached the path of righteousness, were the price he had to pay for a former life of evil and destruction.

Ever since The Shadow had become his guide in that time shortly after the Oblivion, that blessed Oblivion that had saved him, he had worked for nothing but to right the wrongs he had inflicted on so many. It had been difficult to do so, what with the constant deception he'd had to carry on so that his own son wouldn't suspect him and try to stop him.

There were still many, many sins to account for, but, as he lay down and smiled hopefully towards the sleeping figure opposite him, he felt satisfied that he was making progress in rectifying his wrongs. She would thank him later for this, of that he was certain.

He pulled the healing salve from its place under his futon, wondering if it would be wrong to go ahead and use it. The walk back had likely been enough penance. He hoped it had been enough, at least. The memory of the pain would surely drive away his horrible stirrings of desire at such cruel acts. He applied the salve thickly to the blistered soles of his feet, sighing as they eased the burn the hot coals had left. After all, he couldn't be incapacitated if he were to help Hermione.

He wondered if he should show her the memories to convince her...those horrible memories had made him physically ill, even while sometimes stirring a certain desire in him. The more thoroughly he followed his assigned penances set by The Shadow, however, the less he felt any stirrings of desire at those horrid atrocities. He knew, deep down, that besides being evil, he had been truly sick. He'd even found a chapter, in one of the second-hand psychology texts he had, on deviant sexual behaviour.

Lucius decided he would wait to show her the memories. He wanted to keep the magical basins, the Pensieves, safe in the cave. Her wand, too, was there, as was a Portkey to one more location, which he could take them to if he thought this location had been discovered, or in case of a serious storm. He didn't want her to find that and possibly use it against him before he had finished helping her.