Author's Note: So...how's it been? *ducks under a rock to dodge heavy thrown objects*
I'm going to post a fuller explanation of where I've been and what the hell has happened in the last few years on my profile, but suffice it to say this fic is not abandoned, and will eventually have a few more chapters to close it out. For those who have faithfully checked every few months for an update, I can only hope this lives up to your expectations. Cheers.
Chapter 18
Hadrian stood impatiently in the queue at the muggle store, a few basic food items in his hands, Severus's sealed memory practically burning a hole in the pocket of his trousers.
He'd had the thing for days, yet he couldn't stop thinking about it. At first he wondered if it wasn't some sort of elaborate trick Severus had come up with to deliver a message, or worse, to incapacitate him so that he could be carted back to the manor. He'd quickly dismissed the latter as foolishness, given that Severus easily could have disarmed and stunned him at the park when he hadn't expected it. However, he still didn't know what puzzle Severus thought he could solve about his mother with only the information he had.
He sighed, shifting his grip on the groceries as his turn for the checkout finally came. After almost two weeks of having to go to and fro through the muggle world without any magical aid whatsoever, Hadrian was tired. He missed being able to levitate things or stow them in a featherweight-charmed bag instead of juggling them in his two limited hands. He missed being able to retrieve important things without getting up and crossing a room, or being able to transfigure a piece of parchment when he just couldn't find a quill, or even the pleasant sensation of the everlasting warming charm the house-elves used on his towels at the manor. Everything was just so damned inefficient without magic. It was as though his own magic was itching under his skin to get out, to do the things he knew would make life easier.
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the girl at the register flipped her hair and gave him a simpering smile as she passed him change. He knew he was attractive by most people's standards. He had inherited his father's looks, after all. He hadn't yet come across any girls this stupid at the manor. Not that he came across many girls at all, of course. Thinking about it caused him to grin a little. How would his father react if he tried to bring a girl home? Anyone aside from his closest followers wouldn't even make it past the door...
Hadrian froze.
Mother was one of his closest followers. True, she didn't go out with them to make mischief or torment muggles, but she lived in the manor, she went to meetings with Severus and Lucius and Avery in the Dark Lord's study. They'd stay in there for hours, long past midnight. But if she was only his consort, why would she be there? And how would she hide from him in those meetings, when he was so close and she had so many secrets? Unless…
...unless she wasn't hiding.
Snatching up the sack of groceries, Hadrian walked as quickly as possible to the door, one hand on the stoppered bottle in his pocket.
Hadrian righted himself from the sensation of falling into the Pensieve, looking around at the familiar room in the manor's library, where a younger Severus sat hunched over a table, his nose buried in a book.
On the other side of the room, the fireplace roared to life with an emerald flame, delivering a woman in a purple cloak who muttered curses under her breath as she tripped out of the fireplace.
"Still not used to the Floo after all these years, Scarlett?" Severus teased.
She scowled back. "Too used to it, actually. Fireplace is a perfectly horrid way to travel. Whatever wizard thought sending people spinning through chimneys was a bright idea..."
"You have news, then?" Severus asked. "Since you rarely use such a perfectly horrid method of travel."
"I do. Lucky I ran into you, saves the time it would take you to walk down to his study once he disrupts your reading."
"Disrupts my reading? What a polite way of putting it."
"Sev, you've told me yourself it's not usually that uncomfortable."
"And you are not permitted an opinion on it, since you don't have to actually endure a summons via tattoo."
"True, summons via spectral bird is much more pleasant."
"Ah, yes. How are the old headmaster and his insufferable bird?"
"Smiling and scheming as usual, hence the meeting we are currently heading for. Oh, and I brought you this."
"Is this...muggle chocolate?" Severus asked as he took the candy she held out to him.
She smiled. "Dumbledore knows my fondness for it and always gives me a few pieces when he has them in his stash of sweets. No chocolate frog will ever taste quite the same as Cadbury's. It's one of a number of things muggles do better."
Severus raised an eyebrow. "Don't let anyone else hear you saying that."
"What that muggles do some things better? I'm only stating the truth, Severus, and the Dark Lord knows it himself. Wizards can't afford to underestimate muggles. There's a reason for the Statute of Secrecy, you know, and science has only brought them further. If we're stupid and prejudiced enough not to befriend them, we'll need to be wary of them at least, not just mock them for not being born with the ability to shoot sparks from a stick."
"Still arguing with the traditionalists about saving the world, then?"
Hadrian's mother shook her head. "They'd see the world burn to the ground if it meant keeping their family trees untainted and their bank vaults growing. They can't see the threat of extinction that's staring them in the face. It's absurd, Sev!" she insisted, as they reached the end of the corridor.
"And yet their numbers dwindle further every generation. Something tells me no amount of reason is going to save them, Scarlett. It might be better to save your voice and let them die out in peace."
"Not if their short-sighted foolishness is going to start a war that makes my children a hunted species," she responded tersely, opening the door to the Dark Lord's study without so much as a courtesy knock.
The world flashed around him, and Hadrian found himself back in his grubby rented bedroom, stunned.
They knew. Severus, and the Dark Lord from what it seemed, had known that Hadrian's mother had been a spy. Of course, it made more sense than the idea that Scarlett had kept such huge secret from his father for years while living in the very same building. Talented as his mother was, keeping that sort of secret from an expert Legilimens like the Dark Lord would have been impossible.
Hadrian had wondered whether his father had found out and not let on, feeding her information that would mislead the Order before finally killing her. But, if she knew that he knew...she was reporting to him, playing the double agent and giving up information from one side to earn their trust and get more from them in return. Of course she hadn't really supported the Order; if she had, why was she so casual with Severus, joking about Dumbledore's sweets when she knew she'd be facing the Dark Lord in a few short minutes? But then, she didn't hide her opinions about the strengths of muggles from him, either. She never had, not around any of the Dark Lord's followers. It was one of the things Hadrian had so admired about her, her ability to be so brazen and honest in a sea of sycophantic admirers who would happily announce that the sun was cold if it meant the favor of their master.
A choked laugh bubbled up out of Hadrian, as he considered the absurdity of it all. His mother really had been a spy-for his father. She had used her heritage and her connections from school to pass information to the Dark Lord. Yet something still nagged at him.
Lupin had said that this spying was why his mother died, as though she had been found out and the Dark Lord had killed her in a fit of rage. But if the Dark Lord already knew...why had he killed her?
Hadrian sighed, knowing only one way to get the answer.
He would have to ask his father.