Manacled

Chapter 47: Flashback 22

Hermione froze and shook her head sharply. "That's not-Draco wouldn't-you said yourself he's not a sadist."

Severus looked over at her from the corner of his eye. "Did you think not being a sadist means he's never tortured anyone to death?" His expression was contemptuous. "I'm sure you read his runes. What manner of things do you suppose he does ruthlessly and without fail?"

Hermione stiffened until her body shook and her jaw twitched. "You kill people too and I've never questioned your loyalty because of it, Severus."

He snorted faintly and his lips curled. "I have only one loyalty; to the purpose of the Order. The horrors I am obliged to commit, I commit out of necessity. Do you think I enjoy feeling my soul slowly tear itself apart and poison me? All while being derided and doubted by those who would never be willing to make a similar sacrifice?" He shook his head slightly. "However, that is irrelevant. Gibbon was not a necessity. He was not important. He was not powerful. There was nothing strategic or in the interests of the Order about killing him. Certainly not anything to necessitate dismembering him while keeping him alive in the process."

Hermione kept steadily shaking her head. "It might have been someone else. You don't know it was Draco."

Severus froze and turned slowly to face Hermione. "It was Draco. I know it was Draco. The reason I know it is because while dissecting the spellwork I came across the signature of an interesting enchantment. One that I personally invented. A containment enchantment I only ever taught one person. You. You were using it to treat his runes, weren't you?"

The whole room wobbled in Hermione's vision, and she caught the edge of the table to keep from falling.

Severus stared down at her, his expression menacing. "I have been a spy for almost as long as you have been alive, Miss Granger. Now stop defending him and listen."

Hermione stilled.

Severus pursed his lips as he studied her. "He has gone rogue. If he ever was loyal, he certainly is not now. Whatever he is in the process of doing, it is not solely on behalf of the Order. He is one of the most powerful Generals in the army now. He reports only to the Dark Lord. He has his own web of informants throughout the army, and he has used that information to make the Order heavily reliant on him; likely to prevent us from ever betraying him."

Hermione felt as though she couldn't breathe. Her fingertips were tingling faintly. She gave a shaky nod.

"I believe I know why he killed Gibbon," Severus added after a moment. "He concealed it and made the process look like a torture, but once I noticed the enchantment, there were several clues that made what he had been attempting obvious. Draco is trying to find a means of removing his Dark Mark without dying from it."

"Dying?"

"If the mark was possible flense or remove by chopping off the arm, Igor Karkaroff would be alive today. There were a few who tried to run or become turncoats during both wars and discovered to their detriment what happens. The mark is a connection between the Dark Lord and his servants; severing it results in a cursed wound. The person bleeds to death, unstoppably. There are no spells or potions to prevent it. Yet it seems Draco is determined to find a way, if he possibly can."

A horrifying detail struck Hermione. "He was left handed. But now he's ambidextrous."

Severus quirked an eyebrow thoughtfully. "That would be the logical thing to do, for a man intending to eventually cut off his own arm. Do you know how long he's been that way?"

"As long as I've been going to him. I've rarely seen him use his left hand." There was a burning sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Severus looked pensive. "So he's been planning this for years then."