SNARRY-A-THON10: FIC: The Mostly Entirely Truthful History... Title: The Mostly Entirely Truthful History of Recent Events as told by Narcissa Malfoy Author:shiv5468 Other pairings/threesome: SS/HP, SS/HP/LM, LM/NM, LM/? Rating: R Word count: 2,600 Warning(s): (highlight for spoilers) *A certain amount of divergence from the prompt, a complete lack of graphic sex, and a slightly unreliable narrator.* Prompt: #410 - Harry notices Severus' wandering eye, and tells Severus that he is willing to try bringing in another person to their relationship. Severus brings in ______(Draco, Lucius, Remus, Bill, Sirius, some other guy though prefer one of the ones mentioned) At first things are ok, then one day Severus tells Harry about how he and the other man had a wonderful day and some hot sex. Harry is slowly being pushed out of the relationship. Soon the other man tries to have his way with Harry, without Severus around. What is Harry willing to do to keep Severus? Summary: Narcissa Malfoy may be an unreliable narrator, but she’s more reliable than anyone else involved in the story. A/N: Beta reader scatteredlogic
The Mostly Entirely Truthful History of Recent Events as told by Narcissa Malfoy
I shall not say how or why at the age of nineteen Harry Potter became the lover of Severus Snape. It is the least interesting aspect of their relationship. People come together for the oddest of reasons, particularly in the aftermath of a war. It’s whether and why they chose to stay together that’s the heart of things, which is neatly illustrated by what happened to Lucius.
I have been married to that man for nearly forty years and the way his mind works is a complete mystery to me. My mother said this was because I assumed that he was intelligent and capable of thought rather than the mere flawed male driven by hormones that he was. She may have had a point. Certainly, no one intelligent could have supposed that intervening between Severus and the Potter boy would end well.
But that’s Lucius for you. Always thinking with his cock. And the prospect of debauching the Boy Who Lived Twice was too much for him, especially for a man who still experienced a … little difficulty, shall we say… after his wand had been snapped.
You may suppose that testing his manhood in such a high stakes game was risky. I cannot demur. Whether it was the potential loss of Severus, who he had considered his personal fiefdom these last forty years or so, or that the sheer improbability of staying out of Azkaban had gone to his head only he knows and for some reason he remains silent on the matter.
Not from choice, I feel. There is something quite enchanting about his mute fury. Such a fascinating tale he could tell if he could find a way round the confidentiality charms, but I suspect my version of matters will be rather less partial and a lot less kind to him than he would like.
Given, then, that he had been invited to share the bed of Severus and Potter, flushed with arrogance that he had been selected for the honour rather than our son – the more likely choice, I’m sure you agree – and bound by rules of etiquette as to how to conduct the affaire, it was something like a month before he began to chafe at the restrictions manners and reason placed upon him.
My mother said he had something of the parvenu about him though I quite like the peacocks, flashy though they undoubtedly are. At least they are cheerful in their impudence.
I can imagine the charm he brought to bear on dear Severus to lure him into bed behind Potter’s back.
Rather more than imagine, really. House elves may be discreet creatures, but when they are my dower property the person they are discreet about is me.
The light summer lunch in the conservatory, the tour of the exotic orchids in the greenhouses, the appeal to Severus’ superior potions knowledge, the hand on the arm, followed quickly thereafter by the mouth on the cock, the apparation to the bedchamber, and a good afternoon being had by all.
All but Potter, who presumably waited for the return of his lover with mounting concern and indignation.
Whatever Lucius was after, he did not get it.
I have noted in the past Lucius’ absolute inability to learn when to leave well enough alone.
He moped round the Manor for a couple of weeks, getting underfoot and disturbing my plans for afternoon tea with the Witches Institute until another Strategem made its way through all that blond hair and found its mark in his brain.
And this is when he invited Potter over for lunch.
That Potter accepted showed he was still the same impetuous youth that had defeated the Dark Lord, and that Severus’ tutelage had taught him nothing. Or so it seemed
The deal he offered was simple: a night utterly at Lucius’ mercy in return for his withdrawal from their trio. How the boy sweated, how he insisted that his and Severus’ relationship was not to be bargained with like this, how it was stronger than that, but never once did he plead with Lucius.
I was almost moved to intervene on his behalf. But if Severus let him out without a keeper, then he obviously didn’t value the boy enough to value my protection as he should.
He asked for time to consider the proposal, it was granted in return for a kiss, and if Lucius had seen the look on the boy’s face as he stood at the door wiping his lips... well, he might have thought twice. Or it might have made him even more eager to push on, determined to quash that bright spirit.
The letter of acceptance came just an hour shy of the limit set, and had a few conditions which Lucius perused leisurely and then signed his name to with a flourish. A man foolish enough to sign a contract which he has not checked for secret clauses, hidden charms, and bindings is a man who gets all he deserves.
I am sure that Lucius would wish to remind me - if only he could - that Potter had access to Severus’ labs and the full range of potions that can affect a man’s judgement, and then point out how easy it would have been to have salted the paper on which the contract was laid out.
But even if he could argue he needed to be led astray instead of dwelling perpetually on the left handed path, he really should have thought of that earlier before embarking on the whole insane scheme. There is a reason one has house elves to handle the correspondence.
So, drawn on by lust, and soothed by arrogance, Lucius bound himself to his fate.
The Ministry Ball to celebrate the anniversary of fall of the Dark Lord was a glittering affair, and one at which it was prudent for me to make an appearance. Lucius would not have been welcome.
Potter and Severus were the centre of attention, moving to and fro between the eddies of humanity, circling round each other, constantly being watched by observers curious to assess the strength of their relationship, and who saw how Potter talked to his little helpers Granger and Weasley, but Severus did not.
And how Severus spent some time talking to the pretty little blond thing that had just started working for him at the Ministry.
Skeeter, in particular, that unlovely but useful bitch, watched with eager eye. She had a knack for ferreting out Severus’ straying eye, making coy reports in the pages that stopped short of naming names but made it clear to all her readers who had done what to whom. Perhaps that was why Potter had agreed to share, to put a gloss on Severus’ infidelities. I knew that accommodation well.
Or perhaps I am sour, perhaps both of them enjoyed a little, light infidelity on the side. Easy come, easy go, assured of their affection, able to toy with others.
And yet.......
That was not how I remembered Severus of old. I would not have supposed that even death would have changed his tendency to constancy once his heart was given though it had been little valued in the past.
A lesson learned? I hoped not, for it would have been a lesson that I had some part in teaching, and I have a fondness for the man even as I used him, which is more than Albus could argue.
Potter did not leave the Ball, and I watched just as carefully as anyone else. There was no moment when he was not in clear sight, and that was in itself unusual. It had the air of a man creating an alibi.
We danced together, Potter and I, exchanging the pleasure of being associated with the hero of the Wizarding World with whatever need he had to appear to be on good terms with the wife of an occasional bed partner. We talked of his work as an Auror, and Severus’ work researching potions for the Ministry, and the health of his acquaintance, and only once did his steps falter. I had my answer – his friend Granger was working on new timeturners for the Department of Mysteries.
Granger who had looked at me so pityingly on my arrival.
You really don’t need Legilimency to know what goes on in a man’s mind, just forty year’s experience of living with a twisty cheating lying bastard Malfoy.
Therefore, I was not entirely surprised to find Lucius tied to my bed on my return, covered in sweat and come, skin striped with red, and with the words cock whore written across his chest in a lurid purple which took several days to fade.
He was suitably apologetic about the breach of etiquette consequent on him being found in my room, but did not appear to regret the evening’s events until I informed him of Potter’s presence at the Ball. It completely overshadowed my refusal to untie him.
Lucius took his defeat – not with good grace – but with a cold eyed determination not to look a failure.
It was noticeable that Skeeter’s visits to the Manor ceased at around the same time that the reports of Severus’ amorous adventures faded to a trickle then stopped. Whether cause or effect, I was certainly pleased to be spared her cheap perfume.
He accepted the invitation to Severus’ engagement party on our behalf, sent a rather nice case of wine as a gift, and then took himself into the library to drink himself into oblivion for a week.
The only comment he offered on his return to normal life was: “Outclassed by a mere boy. I’d regret it more, if the sex hadn’t been superb.”
The engagement party was a select affair. Usually, that means an invitation list limited to several hundred closest friends but Severus’ definition was even more restricted. Not too many Weasleys, thank goodness. Lucius’ already stretched temper would not have taken that at all well.
There were amateurish finger sandwiches passing themselves off as canapés, but some fine wines, courtesy of Lucius’ engagement gift to the pair. Not that anything could have made the atmosphere convivial, short of Imperio and the new regime does frown on that so. There was discussion of Quidditch, and the weather, and the Ministry’s incompetence – wherever three wizards are gathered together that is inexorably a topic of conversation – and the difficulty of getting funding for projects. The young Weasley was teasing the Granger girl about her timeturners. Her expression indicated this research was not going well, and eventually the boy realised how much he was irritating her.
One can see why they didn’t last.
Tired of being ignored watching Lucius and Potter treat each other with cool courtesy, as if they’d never shared a bed, I took a seat in the quieter room to the back where Severus kept some of his books. I picked one up at random and leafed through it.
“You’ve never taken much of an interest in arithmancy before,” Severus said.
“Perhaps I am trying to fathom your mind,” I replied. “Your conversion to domestic fidelity seems a little sudden.”
“Not so,” he replied.
“Severus, dear, I’m entirely familiar with the Slytherin habit of pretending that the ultimate destination is one both desired and planned for.”
He snorted. “In this case, however, it is nothing less than the truth.”
“Indeed?”
“He’s young,” Severus said. “And doesn’t really know what commitment is, for all his professed certainty.”
“So you thought you’d teach him what it was like to lose someone. Using my husband.”
Severus shrugged, casting a quick glance at me, then sighed. “To be honest, I thought that he’d balk at the suggestion of Lucius, and then, well, it was all so... You know what Lucius is like.”
“Fortunately for you, I do.”
“We’re still friends, then?” he asked, looking almost as young as ever.
“No more games with my family.”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll leave those to you.”
“Friends, then.”
We had a glass of champagne, then, to toast the happy couple. And then another, and by the third bottle my exasperation had faded.
We stayed awhile longer, establishing our respectability and our claim on Severus, until the good wine ran out. The Weasley boy was talking about Cherry Brandy cocktails, whatever they were, which we took as our cue to leave.
Our hosts were not immediately apparent, but were finally found in the little room in which I had chatted with Severus. He was still there, wholly uninterested in books.
Potter was on his knees, sucking hard on Severus' impressive cock. Severus’ eyes were closed, his head thrown back, mouth open, breath coming in heavy gasps.
“Really,” Lucius murmured. “I’ve already indicated I can take a hint when it’s offered. This seems to be rather pushing the point.”
I elbowed him sharply and we shifted back into the main room to try one of Ronald’s disgusting concoctions. We had to have three before Severus rejoined us, and we were hardly rushing the wretched things. I swear Severus was smiling fondly.
The Granger girl noticed, even if the others didn’t, assessing them coolly before nodding at Potter.
He grinned at her, as if he’d been given a blessing.
Lucius and I returned to the Manor, taking a night cap in front of the fire in the library, as well as several potions designed to deal with poison, hangovers, and stomach upsets, all of which seemed a likely result of the evening’s festivities.
Lucius knocked off his brandy and Stomachease with a distinct air of gratitude.
“I suppose I shall have to wish them well,” he said.
Now, I am very fond of Lucius, but that does not blind me to his faults. He was bored, he was fractious, and he was likely to head into trouble. I resolved, then, that the trouble would be of my own making.
Severus and Potter appeared to be happy, and one must concede Severus’ right to secure his happiness as seems best to him, even if it does involve trampling over Lucius and I along the way. We do owe him, after all.
Nevertheless, beginning a relationship in such a way, relying on cheating and dishonesty, is ominously fated, and a good friend would do something to see that they were punished began their new life together without such a cloud hanging over them.
“Lucius, dear, you did hear that Hermione Granger has so far failed to build a functioning timeturner?”
He swallowed hard, eyes watering.
“Whereas Severus has perfected that long-lasting polyjuice?” I added. “And has become rather lax as regards security these days.”
I left him to his thoughts.
Lucius, dear man, will no doubt profess himself to be revenging himself when seeking out the identity of a repeat performance with his polyjuiced partner, and this cannot fail to create a frisson of worry for both Potter and Severus.
Something that will turn into more than a frisson once Lucius gets his claws into such an enterprising young person. And I? I shall retire to France and take up with a succession of pretty young men. Setting the whole Wizarding World on its ears will be entertaining, but, I feel it will be better viewed from a distance.
Severus and Potter should thank me. I have only their best interests at heart.
After all, if saving the wizarding world was what brought them together, the constant worry for its future can only keep them together. It’s the inexorable workings of fate, after all.
I have no idea if my suggestion is accurate, but she had the audacity to feel sorry for me, and to show it.