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Shades of Grey	By : SpeedyTomato Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 103926 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 21
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money off this dance in the realm of strangeness and smut

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Chapter 4

It was close to midnight when a snarly Severus showed back up at the house. It had been a long night for him. First, there was a meeting with the Dark Lord then he had to turn up for an emergency gathering with the Order, something that, in his mind, was worse than dealing with Voldemort since it was absolute chaos. When that was done, he was trepidatious about coming back, not knowing what he might drop himself into when it came to Potter. As he knew well, the brat and Lucius didn't have the greatest of relationships. In fact, the word enemies came to mind to describe it. No, he and the entitled brat didn't get along at all but there was some trust involved. There was none of that with Lucius so he wasn't sure what kind of havoc he was going to return to. He hadn't wanted to leave until he was assured that Potter was settled but the summons wasn't something he could ignore unless he wanted several hours of torture the next time he did. No, this was better and hoped that an all out confrontation hadn't taken place.

Feeling a dread creeping up when he heard nothing anywhere but the soft sounds of the house elves doing what they do, the Potions Master swept through the halls looking for either Potter or Lucius. Stepping into the library, he found his old friend sitting in a chair surrounded by books that had obviously been brought over from Malfoy Manor, drinking what looked like potent elven wine. From the look of how much was left in the bottle, it appeared that Lucius had consumed quite a bit of it. That didn't bode well as a sign that things had gone well in his absence.

Seating himself by Lucius, he called for a house elf to bring him something to eat then settled back and waited for the furor that he was sure was coming. The only thing he didn't know was what it was about but it was a good bet that Potter caused all kinds of problems while he was gone. Sneering after he took a long drink of the beverage the elf returned with he nodded to Lucius when he looked up then buried his nose back in the book. With an internal sigh and roll of his eyes, he asked, “What did the brat do while I was gone? How bad was it?”

Holding up his hand for Severus to wait a minute, Lucius quickly finished the page he was on then marked the page, set the book down on a stack by him then leaned back in his chair and took a sip of the excellent wine. An almost pained expression on his face, he gave a weary sigh then rubbed his face before saying, “Old friend, we have a big problem.”

Snorting, Severus took another drink then asked, dryly, “What did Potter do to cause problems? And how badly did you hex him for it?”

Shaking his head, Lucius said, “If it was just a behavior issue, there wouldn't be a problem. No, that's not it.”

Alright, that didn't sound good and as if there were going to be issues beyond what he already knew about. Taking another drink, he then set his glass down on the table beside him and crossed his legs. “What happened?”

“That connection you noticed before you left? The one you gave him something to dull the pain of?” When he saw Severus nod, he continued on, “I think it's something stronger than you suspected. After you left, as the day wore on, it grew worse and Potter ended up in extreme pain. Not only that, but as the Dark Lord grew more agitated and angry, I assumed that's the case as I went by what Potter said and, with the condition that he was in, I doubt he was lying, what connection appears to be there became more 'active', for lack of a better term. Potter was hearing and feeling everything from the Dark Lord. He was, at my insistence, repeating everything he was getting through it. I doubt Potter knew ahead of time the names he was coming across with let alone the information he was imparting to me. And, quite frankly, listening to him spew what he was, happened to be too eerily similar to the way the Dark Lord speaks for it to be Potter making it up or something he could know. It was like listening to the Dark Lord in person. Even his voice changed and I could swear, at one point while things were at a peak of some kind, there was a glint of red in the boy's eyes.”

Picking up his glass once more, Severus downed the rest of the contents then held it out for Lucius to fill. After taking a sip of the wine, he settled back then rubbed his eyes in a tired way. “This is not good,” he muttered to no one in particular.

Nodding, Lucius agreed. “If there is a connection there, something I'm sure of, it won't be long before the Dark Lord figures it out then begins to use it for his own gain. If it's as strong as it appears to be, he will be able to slip in then dig around in Potter's head for things. That is bad news, old friend.”

Grunting, Severus looked more dour than he had before but nodded. “Though there are ways to shut down the connection...”

“Right now, the main one won't work,” Lucius interrupted, sounding exasperated. “Occlumency is the perfect way to deal with this but that takes time to teach. Even then, it's not assured that Potter can master such a hard technique since so many never really manage to do so.”

“Nor is it an option to even start trying to teach him now as to even attempt it requires a level of trust. He's not even going to try yet with the circumstances he's found himself in.” Snorting, Snape shook his head then took another drink. “This... is not good.”

“I agree,” Lucius nodded. “With the Dark Lord being as astute as he is about things, he's going to realize, probably sooner than later, that the connection exists then use it to his full advantage. When he does that, both of us are in real trouble.”

Nodding, Severus leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, holding the glass of wine in both hands, looking at the floor as he tried to think. After a minute, he asked, slowly, “Where is Potter now? And what shape is he in?”

“He's back in his room, sleeping soundly the last time I checked. I gave him more pain killers after you left but they didn't seem to be doing a good job the angrier the Dark Lord seemed to get. When it got so bad that the only other option was a stronger pain killer, I gave him some Dreamless Sleep. I figured, even if the Dark Lord kept going, that was the best option we had at the moment. Potter wouldn't feel it and, if the first niggling of the connection started to be felt, this would make it to where the Dark Lord might end up confused by it as he wouldn't pick up on anything.”

“Good idea,” Severus nodded. “It won't work forever, Dreamless Sleep is far too addictive for him to keep using it, but we can employ it until we can come up with another stopgap measure to disrupt whatever the connection might be.”

“That's what I was researching when you came in. I've come up with a couple potions that might, from what was said, build an artificial barrier for a time. They say it won't work forever but it can be employed until we can figure out the exact nature of the connection, what caused it and another way to block it.” Lucius explained, as he reached over and grabbed the book with the potions in it then handed it to the Potions Master.

Taking the proffered book, Severus quickly skimmed through the pages that were bookmarked. One of them he had heard mentioned before but the other he hadn't seen before. On the plus side, though, neither would be too taxing for him to brew. They were complicated, yes, but he was more than capable of taking them on. It was just going to take a couple days was all. In that time, they would have to come up with some kind of stopgap measure if the Dark Lord continued on as he was. That and they were going to have to explore the connection a bit more to see what caused it. What it came from might give them another out to put a stop to it. He wasn't counting on that but the more they knew the better off they were going to be.

Running a long, stained finger down the index of ingredients on the pages, he was even happier to find that none of the things needed were exotic enough to warrant a raised eyebrow. Sure, some were not widely used but they weren't rare enough that they would raise any suspicions when he purchased them. Most he actually had. The others were easily purchased in Diagon Alley from a reputable shop with no issue.

While his friend was perusing the book, Lucius was sipping at his wine, keeping an eye on him. When it looked like Severus was done, he asked, softly, “Do you think that manipulative old coot knows anything about this connection?”

Sitting the book aside, Severus leaned back, brow furrowed slightly as he thought over some of the conversations he had with the headmaster since school had let out for the year. There were some things that had been said which were disconcerting in that area. They were enough to make him think that, perhaps, he did know, such as keeping Potter where he was for the time being and that he needed to stay away from him for awhile. Nodding slowly, he said, “I think he might. No, I’m not certain how much he knows but it's my feeling that he might know SOMETHING about it.”

Sighing, Lucius nodded at him. “That old man holds his secrets far too close. I think this is one you might want to wheedle out of him, Severus.”

Nodding, the Potions Master silently agreed, adding it to a long laundry list of things he was going to try to wiggle around and find out with the old wizard. Leaning back, he took another sip of the excellent wine and thought over both meetings he had attended. For the one with the Dark Lord, there wasn't anything they needed to discuss. It went, basically, the same as the one Lucius had with him aside from the extra task of delivering news of the Order the next time he was summoned or sooner, if something of Potter's whereabouts were found. However, when it came to the Order, there were some things needed.

Looking at Lucius, he told him, “There are some precautions we need to take when it comes to Potter. I found out some most interesting things tonight that we're going to have to guard against.”

Making a motion for his co-conspirator to continue on, Lucius focused on him and waited.

“The Ministry, as expected, is keeping what happened under wraps. From what I heard tonight, they are going to ensure that most don't know the Dark Mark was there or that the house that burned was the one Potter lived in. However, there are certain factions of the MLE that are going to be investigating what happened quietly. From what Tonks and Kingsley said, that section does seem to be going by that it was an actual Death Eater attack and that Potter is missing. They are also going on the supposition that it's no stunt on his end. To that end, they are going to try to use what they have to track him. The first thing they're going to use is the Trace. It's not done often, but it can be used to track a child in extreme circumstances. I know you broke it long before you were of age so that you didn't have to abide by the restriction on underage magic. We need to do that for Potter as well. With what we have to teach him, we can't do it without him using magic.”

“It'll be easy enough,” Lucius told him with a nod. “It just involves a simple potion he takes that even I can brew and a spell I'll do on his wand and it'll be gone. I'll make sure that I attend to that tomorrow.” Changing the topic, he asked, “Does the Order believe this is a Death Eater attack or are they suspicious that it might be a red herring?”

“On that end of things, we're safe. From all I heard tonight, they are taking the disappearance as the work of a Death Eater. I, of course, told them that the Dark Lord doesn't seem to be involved directly but that even he thinks that it's one of his followers. The only other consensus of who it might be is that it may have something to do with Fudge and the Ministry as a way to shut him up or discredit Dumbledore even further. No one, from all I heard tonight, seems to believe that there is a third party involved in this. They have, from what I understand, interrogated the brat's family about the incident but they were no help as they were away somewhere.”

Rubbing one elegant finger over the rim of the crystal wineglass he was holding, Lucius nodded in a thoughtful way then told his cohort, voice having a far away tone to it, “Perhaps it might be best to distract the Dark Lord with the information that the Order is at least considering that it might be someone in the Ministry that did it. That way he would be thrown onto a different track of thinking thus not keep going through his ranks looking for a traitor of some kind.”

Seeing no downside to what his friend said, Severus agreed. “After the next Order meeting, I'll go to the Dark Lord and let him know that is a suspicion of theirs. Hopefully, he will focus on that end of things to distract him.”

Sighing, Lucius shook his head. “I understand why we jumped on the opportunity we had, Severus, but things are cropping up at this point that makes me wonder if we shouldn't have waited a while to do this so that some of the complications we are coming across would have been known first.”

“When it comes to Potter there is always something to throw in the cauldron to mess it up, no matter how much information we had ahead of time. It's best that we did it now then ride out the mess that's coming rather than try to wait. Chance are, if we did that, it was going to be harder to grab the brat.”

Shaking his head, Lucius downed the last of the wine then stood. “I believe I'm going to sleep. It's been a trying day.”

Waving his old friend off, Severus stood to go find his meal. After he ate, he was going to do the same thing. As stressful as the whole situation was bound to be from here on out, rest was something that he was going to need.

The next evening, Severus was in the well stocked and furnished lab the Malfoy family had created in the basement of the cottage cataloging what ingredients were already there, then what he had at Spinners End so that he knew what he had to buy the following day for the two potions that purported to block the connection on Potter. In reality, he would have preferred to have a week or so to look into things himself to see what else he could find on them but, from what they had gone through that day, they didn't have the luxury of that kind of time. Once again, Potter had spent most of the day drugged to the eyeballs from the pain caused by the connection. From what he told them, and what they observed from his reactions, it was causing him a tremendous amount of agony. Fearing what could happen if the Dark Lord sensed his emotions through that link, they thought this was a better option than chancing it. The only exception to it had been when they let things wear off enough to allow him to take the potion to break the Trace on him. Between it and the spell Lucius cast on his wand, it had been effective. The spell he had cast on the boy to detect it came back negative. Though that didn't totally put the boy out of the reach of the Ministry, it did negate one of their biggest ways of detecting then tracing him. That pleased both of them.

Now, however, things were stalled out until such time as they could do something about Potter's link to the Dark Lord. As it was, they were just stalling until the potion was done and they could use it to block things. Once they had that in place, they were going to start working towards other things. No, right now they didn't expect to get far with the brat, it was too soon for that and he didn't trust them to be cooperative about things. Severus assumed that much of the real training wouldn't start until after he was at Hogwarts for the term. For now, they were going to be content to build up some kind of trust with the brat for whatever they needed to do to be effective. Neither of them figured that anything they would try now with him would work as he didn't trust either of them or anything they said. With that being the case, the pain in the backside wasn't going to put effort into anything.

Lost in his thoughts, he was startled by the house elf, Noddy, popping into the room. Because he was staying here but wanting everyone to assume that he was still at Spinners End, Noddy was assigned to alert him if there was a floo call or visitor so that he could keep up appearances. Looking at the elf, he asked, “Who is it, do you know?”

Bowing low, the small, wrinkly creature replied, “It is Professor Dumble'ore, Master Snape. He tells Noddy 'tis urgent!”

Scowling, wondering what that demented old man wanted now but, quickly, he sent the creature back to tell the headmaster he would be there shortly then went to find Lucius. After informing the aristocratic blonde where he was going, he Apparated back to Spinners End then made it look like he was coming up from his lab.

Sweeping into the room, normal scowl firmly in place, Severus knelt before the fire then glared at daggers at the head of the headmaster that was surrounded by green flames. “What is it, headmaster? I'm in the middle of brewing!” A quick glance, using his normal observational skills honed by many years of spying, he did noticed that the normal genial look of the old man and twinkle in his eyes were absent.

“Severus, I hate to disturb you but we have a situation that has arisen. Can you come to headquarters as quickly as you are able?”

Scowling like he normally would, he asked curtly, “Is it that important, headmaster? I'm in the middle of something that requires my undivided attention.”

“Unfortunately, my boy, yes it is. It's rather urgent.” The headmaster sighed.

“Care to give me a hint as to what it is so I can judge how long I'll be gone? I don't want what I'm working on to be in stasis one minute longer than necessary. It's quite volatile and sensitive.” Already, his razor-sharp mind was running over what scenarios might have taken place that would require Dumbledore to seek him out this late at night. Though he couldn't think of anything specific, he assumed that it probably was something urgent that was going to take most of the night. After all, it was a risk for the headmaster to floo him at all.

“Not this way, no, Severus. It's far too sensitive to do over an unsecured connection such as this. But I think I can safely say that you can expect to be gone all night.” Dumbledore sighed.

Figuring that whatever happened couldn't be good, Severus gave a long-suffering sigh then nodded. “Alright, headmaster. Let me make sure that everything is stable here then I'll be there.” Without giving Dumbledore a chance to reply, he disconnected the call. Standing up, he quickly Apparated back to the cottage. Heading towards the lounge where he knew Lucius was, he ran through all the scenarios he could think of that would precipitate him being called out at this time at night then take that much time. There were, of course, plenty of them, each more grim than the one before.

Finding Lucius with his head in another book, he explained the situation to him gravely.

Aristocratic brow furrowed, Lucius nodded, taking it all in. “That doesn't sound good, old friend. If it's something that emergent, send me a Patronus message so that I have a heads up.”

Nodding, Severus agreed then said, “Though improbable, I would say that you need to gather a few elves in case you need to move yourself and Potter. If that is the case, when I finish for the night, I know how to contact you or you can have Noddy meet me at Spinners End and take me where I need to go.”

Looking slightly alarmed, Lucius nodded then started calculating what needed done to affect such a move before saying, “It'll be taken care of. Hopefully, that's not the case as Potter is so out of it that moving him would be troublesome.”

Snorting, Snape replied, “That is true, yes, but at least he wouldn't argue every detail of things while doing it!”

“There is that,” Lucius replied with a wry smile.

Figuring that was all the time that he had for any last minute planning to cover themselves, Severus nodded to his old friend then strode out then Apparated away. No, he wasn't foolish enough to go straight to Grimmauld place but would make at least four Apparations before he finally showed up at headquarters.

Though not sure what nightmarish scenario he could be walking into it, Severus straightened his robe, stiffened his spine then, with his normal confident stride, he made his way into the most Ancient House of Black.

The second he opened the door then stepped in, he was hit by a wall of sound so loud that it was almost a physical thing that made him flinch. Not only was the portrait of Mrs. Black shrieking like she always was, there were plenty of bellowing coming from the other room. Only that set of lungs seemed to be coming from a male whose voice he didn't recognize. From the sound of it, whoever it was, was infuriated. Considering that there was no one to meet him there like there usually was, he took that as a signal that most of the Order that was in the house was occupied and just expected him to join them when he got there.

With a deep internal sigh, knowing this wasn't a good sign, he made his way to where the noise seemed to be coming from, wary of the maelstrom that he may be walking into it and wondering just how bad it was going to get.
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Shades of Grey