Website: silver.glasscases.net
Pairing: Snape, Harry/Draco
Rating: for this PG
Series/Sequel: yes, it's a WIP.
Spoiler: not that I'm aware of.
Warnings: not yet, but they might apply as the story proceeds
Disclaimer: alas, not mine... The characters belong to the great J.K. Rowling. I will never be able to pay her back what she's given me. I earn nothing, I own nothing, nobody would pay me for this any-way. This is an act of love, please don't sue.
Feedback: whereas I may not *write* for feedback I most certainly post for it. So there.

Summary: Snape gets confronted with his past and temptation rises. A cunning plot unfolds that could ruin the lives of everyone.

Notes:
To get into the series fully, you might want to read my preceding stories, 'Uncontrollable Passions' and following, but it's not really required.

The cover art to 'Son of the Dark' can be found here.

Son of the Dark

Prologue

By Silver :-)

       

Severus Snape stood at the window and stared out into the yard below. His arms were wrapped around his lean body and he was frowning gloomily, giving the perfect impression of the stern potions master. In this situation, nobody would have dared to approach him with any request, no matter how important. But he was alone anyway.

His black eyes followed the people who emerged from the shiny black coach that had stopped in the middle of the school yard. As its door swung shut it revealed the magnificent picture of a bright green dragon locked in combat with a fiery red lion, carved into the ebony and decorated with gold leaf. The couple went over to meet Dumbledore and McGonagall who were waiting for them in front of the Hogwarts main entry. They exchanged a few words and a shook hands.

Snape's eyes wandered over to the spot behind the hedges that surrounded the gardens where two boys stood, protected from the others' eyes. It was Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, having a vivid discussion about something. Draco threw a nervous look over his shoulder, checking the position of the new arrival, then said something to Harry again who shook his head vigorously.

A bitter smile appeared on Snape's lips as he watched Draco pull Harry into an embrace, kissing him deeply before letting go of him again to straighten his robes and smooth his hair. With one last comment to Harry he turned around and hastily walked over to the small group, inconspicuously feeling his lips as he walked, probably afraid to have any signs of the kiss left on them. Snape shook his head. Those foolish boys.

When they saw their son approaching, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy turned to welcome him. Narcissa tilted her head to receive her son's kiss and Lucius lifted one of his slender hands to touch Draco's cheek for a moment before letting it drop again. Their welcome seemed to be even more polite than the one with Dumbledore and McGonagall before had been.

The group disappeared into the building and Snape remained at the window, glowering some more. When he could be sure that enough time had passed for them to go to wherever it was their intention to go, he left his observation point and made for the staircase that led into the Great Hall and subsequently down to his safe and quiet dungeons.

Luck, however, wasn't on his side today and he ran into the group at the foot of the stairs. Now he was forced to exchange a couple of polite words with them himself and he cringed inwardly at the desecration of his secluded gloominess.

His eyes met Draco's who quickly looked away. Snape's lips twisted into a cynical smile. He looked over to Lucius who stared at him calmly and mildly interested. He lifted an eyebrow. What was he doing here anyway?

With a mumbled excuse, he left the group behind and hurried down the stairs, longing for peace and quiet. He allowed himself to release his breath when the heavy door to his office fell into its lock, cutting off the annoying noises of people, of school... of life.

The tall leather armchair behind his desk was so inviting. He sank into its depths with a sigh, putting his fingertips together and touching his lips with them. He continued pondering some more. This was one of the days when he didn't feel like talking to anybody. When he got up in the morning and knew exactly that each word he would be forced to say was going to be an ordeal to squeeze past his lips. It was almost as if a word said out loud was an immense loss to the quality of his private thoughts.

What was Lucius doing here then? This question was hammering in his mind constantly. Of all those years that Draco had been a student of Hogwarts he had only shown up here a couple of times and then it had mostly been related to some Ministry of Magic business. Lucius was not the kind of person to attend a parent-teacher-day.

Snape rubbed the bridge of his nose to relieve the tension that built up inside of his head. Soon this was going to be another splitting headache. Maybe he shouldn't frown so much...

His thoughts returned to the Malfoy family. There used to be a time when the thought of Lucius or Draco hadn't given him a headache. There used to be a time when he thought that the darkness inside of him could yield to the light, even if it was just for a few hours. But that was over now. The darkness was a part of him.

Draco... he should have known. He should have known that it was a mistake to become attached to him. He didn't really mind that he had been left. Actually, he wasn't even so sure if he had been left at all. You couldn't get left if you never made a commitment. That he had learnt a long time ago. What really bothered him, though, was the fact that he lost Draco to little Harry Potter. The thought alone made him want to laugh. James' weakling son...

He clenched his fist at the thought of James Potter. How many times more was he going to get into his way? It was as if James was mocking him from beyond the grave. First him, then Harry. The Potters were starting to become an annoyingly vague quantity in his book.

What he didn't understand was how Draco could be drawn towards someone like Harry Potter. Potter was so nauseatingly innocent and good. He was so good that evil couldn't even touch him for the longest time. He suppressed a shudder. Draco was a kindred soul. He knew that. They both knew that. Draco was bound to hurt the ones he loved, because he too couldn't fight the darkness inside of him. In Snape at least, he would have found someone who understood.

But would this be fair? Being a substitute was worse than being alone. Oh yes...

With a sigh, Snape tilted his head and buried it into his hands, massaging his temples with his fingers. The coldness of his own hands made him shiver.

Sometimes he was afraid of the darkness. Was afraid that it could break out of him like a nasty rash, openly on display for everyone to see. When he looked into Dumbledore's mellow eyes he wondered if the old man knew. Albus trusted him. He trusted him so much that he had given him a home in a time when extending so much as a hand to him could have meant immediate destruction if you weren't as strong as Dumbledore was. Snape sincerely hoped that he deserved this trust. But how could one trust him, if he didn't even trust himself?

Snape closed his eyes, using a meditation technique he had learnt in those dark years when the pain had been the only proof that he was still alive. It enabled him to drown out the pain and use this concentration to put himself in some kind of sleeplike trance. This was the only way to stop his mind from racing. He knew that once he'd risen from this short sleep again, the pain would be gone and his mind calm again.

The sense of a presence in the room made him snap out of his concentration at once. He didn't lift his head, feeling into the silence to find out who it was. His body discovered the identity of his unannounced visitor sooner than his brain did, for it relaxed and waited calmly, predatorlike, for the person to come closer before he had even decided what to do with him.

Snape stopped himself short in time not to arch into the touch of cool fingers at the nape of his neck, touching his sensitive skin and making him shudder. The hand of milk-white skin reached under his chin and lifted him up. He met the glance of pale gray eyes and closed his own, awaiting the kiss. Soon those lips he knew so well covered his and a light tongue snaked its way into his mouth. The coarse hair of a beard softly brushed his chin. He sighed. "Lucius..."

They parted and Lucius Malfoy sat down at the edge of the desk, looking at him with this amused half-smile that he hadn't abandoned together with the rest of his boyish behavior. Snape's heart tightened at the memory.

"Severus," Lucius said, nodding slightly. It was no question, not even a greeting and yet it was obvious that it contained all this.

For a moment, Snape didn't know what to say. He felt haunted by his past and he didn't like this feeling at all. But then, as he saw Lucius sitting on the same desk that had seen so many hushed encounters between him and his son, he was reminded of the fact that he had been desperately seeking this very memory intentionally.

So he said, "It's been a while, hasn't it."

Those cold eyes rested on his face and they formed such an irritating contrast to the constant air of friendliness that one could imagine on those sensual lips. Snape frowned.

This must have torn Lucius out of his revelry, because his expression suddenly changed, became harder and his attractive features lost their unnatural softness. "They told me you were dead, did you know that?"

So he had chosen the direct attack. Fine. He nodded. "Yes. I learnt about that later." A slight movement directed his attention to Lucius' hands that had been resting casually in his lap. Lucius was clasping his own wrist so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Apparently he wasn't as calm as he wanted to make him believe.

"Did you also know that I spent the following months wandering around, grieving your loss, desperately trying to forget?"

Snape shook his head in a way that didn't betray his thoughts.

Lucius went on. "I bet you can imagine my surprise when I finally heard that you had joined the Hogwarts faculty." His smooth face was clouded with ambiguous emotions as he stared at him gloomily. Then, as if the sun had broken through a thick layer of clouds, he suddenly brightened up and added lightly, "But, fortunately, by that time I was already well over you."

He got up and walked over to one of the shelves, inspecting them. It gave Snape the chance to marvel at Lucius' beautiful body. He hadn't changed, not even as the years had taken the youth off his face. His body was still lean and graceful and when he moved it reminded him of a silk scarf in the wind.

With a stifled sigh, Snape closed his eyes. How many times had he evoked this situation in his imagination and now that it was actually happening, he didn't know what to do.

A noise at the shelves brought him back to reality. He saw Lucius looking at him, holding something in his hands. His elegant eyebrow was curved into half-amusement, half-question. He recognized the object at once.

He got up abruptly, walked over to Lucius and took it briskly out of his hand. Much to his own dismay he realized that his fingers were shaking softly when he carefully placed the green jade dragon back onto the shelf, moving it until it had its perfect position again. The light of the candles hit its sapphire eyes and sent a sparkle over his hands. He pulled them back quickly.

"You still have it?"

"Of course," he answered roughly. "It's a valuable object. I'd be a fool to leave it behind."

"Ah." This wretched half-smile again! Lucius turned away from the shelf, giving him a wanton look. "And here I was thinking it was the melancholic fool in you, keeping an old lover's gift."

Snape scoffed. "Hardly. Why should I have felt melancholy at all? You were well occupied with other... activities and your sudden rise among Voldemort's men made it easy for me to leave. There was no room left for me."

Lucius smile deepened, but it didn't get any warmer. "Room, where? In my bed or among us? And as what? My lover? Or a traitor..."

A sudden flash seemed to flare in Lucius' eyes and they crossed swords with their glances, both fighting for the other one to avert his eyes first. It was Lucius who finally did it and Snape felt a silly joy over this small victory.

"Why now, after all these years?" he asked Lucius' back.

It seemed to take forever for Lucius to answer. "Can't I just pay an old friend a visit?"

"No."

Lucius chuckled. "Looks like I'm not wanted here."

"Are you surprised?"

"Not really." He turned to look at Snape, a dishonest smile on his face. "But at least you could have lied about it."

"I never had your talent."

Lucius laughed artificially. "Oh, that was low." Then his face melted to a mask of insincere compassion. "What made you so hard, Severus? What happened to the eager boy I knew at school?"

Snape felt his jaw tighten and clenched his fists. Lucius would never know and never understand what he'd been through. "He died a long time ago."

With that he swung round and walked back to his chair, putting the desk between them. When he sat down, knitting his fingers together, he felt more self-assured again. "I'm not in the mood for games, Lucius. Tell me what you really want from me. What's the true reason for your being here?"

"Ah, as matter-of-factly as ever," Lucius said lightly, sauntering back to the edge of the desk. He sat down and crossed his legs gracefully. He started inspecting his hands, driving Snape crazy with it.

Frowning, Snape felt his headache start again. He didn't want to put up with this and he just wanted Lucius to leave, yet he'd be damned if he let him know how much he threw him off his stroke. So he leaned back and waited with an air of patience around him that he didn't really feel.

"You know," Lucius finally began. "I don't hate you." He looked up and their eyes met. Snape sucked in his breath painfully at the memory of how beautifully those eyes could sparkle when they were clouded with passion. "In all those years I never managed to find a person quite like you. Someone who understood what was going on inside of me. A kindred soul."

The effort to conceal his expression almost caused Snape physical pain.

"But it was doomed from the start," Lucius continued. "We both knew that." For the first time since they spoke he smiled a genuinely sad smile, but it didn't last longer than it took Snape to swallow. "I probably never would have gotten this far in life, if I had stuck to this unspeakable inclination of mine. So, in a way I'm even grateful, Severus. Your betrayal has set me free."

Snape shivered from a sudden cold. He wrapped his arms around his body.

"It took me a while to see this, though. When you were gone, I..." He clicked his tongue. "I guess you could say, I tried to cope. I've fucked them all, those slender black-haired boys. I made them scream and cry and their pain satisfied my own."

Snape stared at Lucius in horror, unable to say a word. He flinched, when he felt Lucius' hand at his cheek, the touch as light as the kiss of a butterfly.

"Oh Severus..." Lucius said wistfully. "Do you know why I married Narcissa?" Hardly waiting for Snape to answer he continued, "Because she was nothing like you. Her light skin and fair hair didn't remind me of you in any way. I knew I could bear her touch without feeling..." He left the sentence unfinished and Snape wondered if it was ever meant to end at all.

This conversation wasn't going at all like he had expected it to. Snape shook his head slightly, shaking off Lucius hand and the memory of his touch. He leaned further back in his chair. Only with physical distance between them he could keep a clear head. "Oh, stop this sentimental drivel! It doesn't suit you."

Lucius looked at him for a moment. Then he said, "Of course."

No, he wouldn't fall for it. Not this time, never again. His heart was sealed now, hard and unmovable. Now he could deal with Lucius adequately. "My dear Lucius," he started. "You don't expect me to believe that you've missed me oh so much when you could have come and see me already years ago."

There seemed to be nothing that could shake Lucius' nonchalance. "That's true. I didn't have any use for you then."

Snape didn't even twitch. At least he was being honest. "Explain."

But Lucius attention had already been diverted again. He took a glance around the shelves, seemingly revolving important issues, judged by the expression of sheer concentration on his face. Then he said casually, "I'm very pleased with Draco."

Startled at the sudden change of subject, Snape hissed, "What?"

"He will make me proud one day. Soon, perhaps."

"What do you mean?"

"We are all part of one great plan, Severus. We all have our part in the Great Chess Game. Some are destined to be the pawns and some are the ones who move them."

Snape didn't even contemplate for a second which of those two groups Lucius belonged to.

"You see, Severus, I have given my son the time to develop his individual abilities and... sow his wild oats, so to speak. But now it's time for him to do his part for the family honor."

Snape was getting increasingly impatient. "I still don't see what this all has got to do with me."

Lucius smiled "Great changes are ahead, Severus. The dawning of a new era, the reign of the Purebloods. And you can be a part of it, if you only want to."

A cold draft swept through his body and gripped his heart when it finally dawned on Snape what was going on here. 'Oh no... not now...' he thought desperately. He closed his eyes for a moment and then said, "I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about."

Lucius' smile deepened. "What would you say if I said 'The complete and total destruction of your enemies, the demise of Harry Potter and the rise of Lord Voldemort'?"

"I'd say you're insane." And with a draining sense of defeat when the darkness rushed over him he added, "But keep talking."

       

Harry was lying on his stomach, the warm evening breeze caressing his damp skin. He was looking from under heavy lidded eyes at Draco who was leaning against the trunk of a tree, playing absentmindedly with a blade of grass. The blanket had slipped down to his hips and revealed his naked chest. Harry smiled happily and yawned, nuzzling the soft skin of his boyfriend that was in his reach without having to move too much.

Draco looked at him and returned the smile, brushing the dark hair out of his eyes and touching his cheek. Then he stared into the void again, turning the bit of grass between his fingers. "I wonder what he's doing here," he finally said.

"Hm?" Harry croaked sleepily.

"My father. It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know." Harry yawned again. "He probably just wanted to see how his son was doing."

"Are you kidding?" Draco laughed humorlessly. "That would be a first. It's bad enough when I have to put up with him during holidays and term breaks. I really can't use him prowling around here, too." He flicked away the blade and sat upright, pulling the blanket with him.

To preserve the warmth around him, Harry snuggled up against Draco, putting his head on his lap.

Draco started stroking Harry's back. After a while he said, "When he's near me I'm reminded of things I don't want to think about."

"Like what?"

He hesitated briefly. "Things... like unpleasant memories. And... why I'm not supposed to be with you." His caresses stopped when he felt Harry going rigid under his hands. Gently, he pulled him up to look into his face. "You don't like me saying so, do you?"

Harry cast down his eyes. "It's not important."

Smiling lovingly, Draco pushed up Harry's chin. "Well, to me it is, anyway. You are important to me." He kissed him.

When they parted, Harry licked his lips while pretending to be thinking hard before he said with a sly grin. "Maybe we shouldn't have sex for a while..."

"What, why??"

"Because you're always so thoughtful afterwards. It's pressing down on your mood."

"Oh, I'll show you what's pressing down on me!" With that, Draco pulled him on his lap and captured his lips in a passionate kiss.

Later, Draco was hugging Harry from behind, his chin resting on the other boy's shoulder, their hands entwined in front of Harry's stomach. They were watching the sun cast a reddish glow over the surface of the lake as it disappeared behind the small clearing they had made their own private refuge on those warm early summer evenings.

"Relax... take your mind off it. It's gonna be all right," Harry whispered, patting Draco's hand.

"I'm not saying anything."

"I know, but I can sense that you're not here. Your mind is somewhere between Hogwarts and Malfoy Manor."

"Sorry..." Draco mumbled, pressing a kiss on Harry's shoulder. "I just don't want him to be near, that's all. There's something fishy about it..."

Harry sighed, turning on his back to look at Draco. "You think too much. Your worries are probably unfounded."

Draco looked at him for a long time, then shook his head slowly. "No Harry. That's something you must not forget: You cannot trust a Malfoy."

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