Family Matters

A/N: Possible warning: this chapter briefly mentions occurrences of incestuous marriage. Just so you know.

Chapter 4 – Family Matters

"Severus, please tell me that you are not serious."

Albus Dumbledore's eyes were far from the glittering blue he usually displayed. The look he aimed at his Potions master was more than grave--it was cold stone covering something more, something which made Severus's hairs stand on end. Power. Raw power in its most primal form--the kind that was almost impossible to access without tapping into the darker side of magic. The kind he'd always strived for. He met Dumbledore's eyes, concentrating hard not to blink.

"There is no other way, Headmaster. The Dark Lord will never suspect it, nor will any of his followers. It provides a plausible explanation as to why Hermione would waver in her conviction to fight the good fight, or at least as to why she might be interested in learning more about me and her 'real family'. My seduction of her would not be very surprising either, considering... It is the best solution. The only real solution. You understand this as well as I do."

Dumbledore sighed and leaned his head into his hands for a minute, visibly exercising control over his emotions. Finally, he broke the silence.

"And Hermione agrees to this solution?"

"She does."

"Even though you will have to end your... physical relationship?" Dumbledore looked slightly uncomfortable, but the look he sent across the desk told Snape in no uncertain terms that he intended his question to be an order. He sat up straighter.

"Headmaster, please reflect on this for a moment and realise how unproductive your request is--not to mention that it would entail severe suspicions with regards to my behaviour as a Death Eater and as a member of the House of Snape. You know of our history, and you know how relations between relatives are perceived by most of the pureblood families. What reason would I possibly have to refrain from using such an effective tool as seduction to sway her loyalties?"

"You could always blame it on me."

"Not a satisfactory excuse, especially since you are supposed to be completely ignorant of this 'newfound family tie'. The Dark Lord will not consider me to have made enough of an effort to persuade you, and he will wonder why that is. The more of a claim I have on her, the safer she will be." He leaned forward, fixing Dumbledore with his best stare. "We are at war. You cannot seriously be suggesting that you would risk losing everything we have fought for for two decades because of your sense of propriety?"

He knew he'd won the second Dumbledore looked away. He waited patiently while the old man sipped his tea with a sorrowful look on his face, eyes fixed on the mountains outside the office windows. In the meantime, his mind wandered back to the conversation he'd had with Hermione earlier that day.

"Severus, there are a few things I need to ask you, concerning this ritual."

It was two days after their 'study session' in the library (during which he had succumbed to giving her a complete list of required books, down to chapters and page numbers, but had managed to refrain from actually telling her about the ritual itself), and he was sitting at his desk, correcting papers, as she asked the question.

"Did the books not provide you with all the details necessary?" he queried, raising an eyebrow in her direction. She faltered.

"Well, I did find a way... But, Severus, there is no way it could possibly work! I mean--"

"What are your objections, more precisely?" he interrupted, putting the quill down and turning to face her. "Tell me what you have found and what you find unfeasible with that particular plan." She looked like she was going to object, but then closed her mouth and walked over to the chair opposite his desk and sat down. She carefully removed a thick roll of parchment from her bag and began to go through her findings.

"The possible ritual is extremely rare and, from what I understand, it's part of a very obscure branch of magic. This would be an advantage, since not many of the Death Eaters would know of its existence. Which leads me to my first question: does Vo--" Snape's eyes narrowed, and she quickly corrected herself. "Does the Dark Lord know about this ritual?"

"Most likely not. It is part of the same branch of blood magic which is currently protecting Dumbledore's golden boy, but without being too closely related to it. Furthermore, it is extremely uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised if you, Dumbledore and myself were the only living people who knew about it at this date." She nodded and made a note on her parchment.

"That's fine then... OK, so the ritual itself is a kind of adoption procedure, if I have understood it correctly. Essentially, you will drain my blood and replace it with your own, reshaping my colour matrix in the process and making me part of the Snape line." She hesitated for a moment, then looked up to face him. "Forgive me for saying this, but the whole ritual strikes me as rather vampiric, not to mention dangerous."

"No need to apologise when you are perfectly correct. From what I've heard, it was greatly inspired by the vampiric siring process. Through the ritual, my blood replaces yours and will be regenerated by your body from then on. Your genetic code, as the Muggles like to call it, will remain the same, but the magic will assure the continuation of the new line. Magical blood is very powerful, as I assume you know. Since I will only be able to donate half of my blood to you, your own cells will provide the other half."

"So I will appear a half-blood?"

"Precisely."

"See, this is where I'm confused. If I receive your blood, won't my matrix then show three colours? The Snape line, the Muggle brown and whatever line your mother was part of?" Won't that be highly suspicious?"

Snape was quiet for a long while before he spoke.

"See for yourself." He stood up and indicated the wand sticking out of her bag. Totally bewildered, she just stared at him for a while before the meaning of his instruction dawned on her. Slowly, she raised her wand.

"Revelo Sanguinem!"

A cloud started to form around Snape's head, swirling fast before coming to a hovering state of relative stillness. The colours in it were clearly visible: a dark red, almost the colour of blood, centred in the middle, and... an all-too-familiar shade of brown circling it. She lowered her wand, noticing that her mouth had fallen open, and hurried to close it again.

"Your mother was a Muggle." She could hear the surprise in her own voice as the words seemed to fall unbidden from her lips.

"Not exactly," he replied. "Though it did become rather a hobby of my father's to 'collect' Muggle women after she died. He preferred them to witches. Easier to control, unable to fight him..." His voice faded and the look he gave her told her that that was all he intended to say on the matter. She went back to her notes, her brow furrowed.

"Then how? I don't understand... And wouldn't the ratio red/brown be askew? If I really were your..." she swallowed hard "your sister, wouldn't the ratio be 50/50?"

"Hermione, think," he prompted. "What makes up the colour matrix?"

"The dominant colours of your parents."

"Which are?"

"The combination of your grandparents' lines."

"Correct. It so happens that if my father were, in reality, your father, your colour matrix would be 6/8 brown and 2/8 red, whereas, through this ritual, it will become 5/8 brown and 3/8 red. Since the colour of the Snape line is concentrated at the centre of the matrix, the visual difference will be indiscernible unless thoroughly studied."

The confused look on Hermione's face deepened, and she turned her face back to the parchment, the quill in her hand performing quick calculations. When she looked back up, feelings of disbelief and shock were warring for dominance on her face.

"But... but, Severus... that would mean that..."

"That what?" he challenged.

"Um..." She looked down again, not knowing how to formulate her findings. "Um... well... it would mean that both your parents carried the Snape line and that your mother had it twice."

"And this shocks you?"

"Well, yes... since that means that your parents must have been cousins and that her parents must have been brother and sister!" she said, incredulity in her voice because of the pronounced casualness in his.

"My great grandfather had children by two different women," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Laetitia, my grandmother, was born in his marriage to Jane Lestrange. Cornelius and Richard, my two grandfathers--brothers, as you rightly assumed--were born to his mistress, a Muggle woman named Carol Williams. He acknowledged both his sons, naturally, as they both turned out to be wizards."

The way he was describing it, as though it was perfectly normal, made Hermione's head spin. She swallowed hard and tried to think rationally. Suddenly, pictures of some of the Slytherins floated before her eyes. Could their deficits in looks and intelligence have something to do with situations such as this one? Was marriage to close relatives common in the pureblood community?

"What are the laws on marriage?" she asked instead.

"You can marry anyone who isn't your parent, child or sibling," he answered. "Half siblings, uncles, nieces, cousins and the like are completely acceptable. You should see the Crabbe and Goyle lines." He smirked, as though he had been reading her mind.

"Oh," was the only thing she could think of as a reply. She went back to her notes.

"When and where would we perform the ritual?" she asked, trying to pull her thoughts away from the twisted relationships that apparently lay at the centre of the pureblood community. "I guess the summer solstice would be the closest opportunity, but it is only a few weeks until then. Two days after the end of term if I have calculated correctly." Snape nodded.

"It is very little time in which to prepare the ritual, to be sure, but if we don't do it now, we will have to wait another year before the opportunity returns. The winter solstice is in the middle of the school year, and you will need at least a month to recover from the ordeal, perhaps two. We cannot afford to lose a whole year in that way. As for the place, there is a loch up in the Highlands which will prove very suitable, I think. The concentration of magical energy is very high in the area, and it's quite secluded as well."

"All right then." She rolled up her scroll and returned it to her bag before getting to her feet and moving to stand behind him. She slid her hands across his shoulders and down to caress his chest, leaning down to catch the skin on his neck with her lips.

He responded instantly, capturing her head with one hand and pulling her down for a kiss, which quickly grew in intensity. Her breathing was considerably faster when he let her go.

"Let's go to bed," she whispered, catching his right earlobe between her teeth and pulling carefully. "If we only have a few more weeks in which to do this, we'd better make the most of it, don't you think?"

"Most certainly," he answered blandly, taking her hand as she began to lead him towards the bedroom.

He kept silent about the fact that he had no intention of letting her out of his bed once the ritual was over. Seeing her struggle with her social morals was something he was really looking forward to. No reason to scare her away by giving her too much information too soon, however. She would become aware of his intentions soon enough. And by then she would be ready to take the fall...

A/N: There you go, the ritual is explained. As I said in the beginning, this story is called "Shades of Gray" for a reason. Poll: Do you think that it would count as incestuous for Snape and Hermione to sleep together after the ritual when they're technically brother and sister, or does the fact that they've artificially created the family bond count for something? Just curious to see what you think. Please review!