The Dark Lady (Severus x OC)

4. Freedom plans

Something changed in the Lady the first time she saw Regulus Black. She was fifteen years old, and he wasn't the first young death eater she had met, but there was something about his smile, his eyes, and his dark, wavy hair that made her unable to forget him.

The Lady felt confused by the effects that Regulus had on her. Her body reacted in a strange way when he was near: her stomach contracted as if she had vertigo, her breathing accelerated, and she noticed a curious tickling sensation below her waist that left her confused.

She wanted him to look at her, and be aware of her presence, but for some reason, every time she had the chance to approach him, her mouth would go dry and she was unable to speak.

She was only able to look at him longingly, as if he were someone she had been waiting for all her life. When Regulus was away, her mind thought about him all the time, remembering the sound of his voice, imagining him smiling at her.

Lord Voldemort realized that something had changed in her, because he was still attached to her mind, controlling her, but in his eagerness to forget everything that made him human, he did not understand the sudden hurricane of emotions that flooded the Lady.

However, he imagined that this sudden change could pose a danger, especially if his heiress was influenced by other people than him. And in his desire to control and monitor her, he imposed a new companion.

The widow Nox was an older witch, austere and strict, and was in charge of supervising her every movement, especially when someone approached her.

Additionally, the widow Nox was also tasked with instructing her in matters of female education, but her mentality was traditional and closed-minded, and her advice was limited to repeating in different ways how dishonorable it was to be alone in male company.

But as always, Win had anticipated these events, and true to her custom, she had provided her mistress with various educational books that talked about the female body, and novels that opened her imagination to the most intimate aspects of love.

And so, the Lady listened to Widow Nox 's sermons, nodding silently, but with her head elsewhere, remembering favorite passages from her novels, and imagining what she could do with Regulus if he consented to it.

But unfortunately for her, she never saw him again. Voldemort made sure that no young death eater approached her unsupervised, and kept her locked up most of the time, always under surveillance.

Several months later, the Lady received the news that Regulus had died, and the Lady, for the first time, cried desolately in the solitude of her room, feeling that she had lost something very important.

***

"It was Potter. He and his friends were there," Draco repeated that, over and over again, to everyone who wanted to listen.

He told Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore. For the first time in his life, he was not motivated by a desire for revenge, but by the fear produced by seeing the expression on his mother's face when she found the person she was supposed to protect half dead.

Narcissa corroborated her son's version when Dumbledore questioned her alone. Her trembling voice and her expression of absolute terror revealed to the headmaster that she was telling the truth.

"I don't know if it was them or not," she whispered. "But they were there, and the Lady stopped to talk to Potter."

"What did she tell him?"

"I don't know, they spoke in Parseltongue," then Narcissa raised her head, and for the first time, looked Dumbledore in the eyes. "If she dies, he will kill me. He will kill us all," she whispered with a trembling voice.