Snape's family (Severus x OC)

14 Decisions

Bellatrix returned to the cell bringing food. She placed the plate on the floor, a considerable distance from Ginny, but did not untie her. She was about to leave when the redhead called her.

"How am I going to eat with my hands tied?"

"Just like a dog, after all, your kind are not very different from them," the death eater sneered.

Ginny felt like screaming in rage but held back as Bellatrix laughed at her. When the death eater left, Ginny looked at the food. She was hungry, that was true, but she wasn't going to humiliate herself like that, she wasn't going to give Bellatrix that pleasure.

She remained where she was, trying to ignore the sound from her stomach, which told her that it had been many hours since she had eaten anything.

Then, she remembered Mad-Eye Moody 's words. "Eat whenever you can, you never know when you'll do it again." How she had laughed then, as she was at home, in front of the mountains of food that her mother had prepared. But now those words made her reconsider.

She didn't know how long she was going to be there, and she didn't know if Bellatrix was going to bother to remember to bring her food. Her stomach growled again, and Ginny decided to swallow her pride.

She dropped from the platform where she was lying and crawled along the floor until she reached the plate. She could barely see what was there, but it didn't smell bad, and she was so hungry...

She thought that if Bellatrix wanted to kill her, she wouldn't do it by poisoning the food. Besides, they needed her as bait, to attract Harry. And on the other hand, she needed to keep her strength, so she could fight when she had the chance.

Determined to survive no matter what, she bent over as best she could, with numb arms and legs, and tried to eat.

She felt humiliated as she imagined herself eating like a pig, staining her face and hair while the silent Nagini watched her from the darkness, but she didn't move until she finished everything on her plate.

Then she crawled back to the platform and climbed onto it as best she could, because there she was more sheltered from the cold of the dungeon and felt more protected from the snake, and she began to think.

She wanted to get out of there at all costs, but it was clear that she could only do so when Bellatrix opened the door for her, so the only solution was to find a plan before the death eater returned.

Something told her that she had a long time ahead of her.

***

Just weeks after Severus and Narcissa reached an agreement, they faced the first problem that tested their fragile alliance.

The witch was planning a big party to celebrate her birthday and had added Severus and Astrid to her long guest list.

"How do you think of doing something so stupid?" he snapped, absolutely angry, when Narcissa told them about her plan. "The idea was to keep Astrid's identity as secret as possible, and do you want her to attend a large event? Why don't you publish it in the press?"

"I see you don't understand anything," Narcissa crossed her arms and looked at him haughtily, without letting herself be intimidated by his furious words. "Precisely, this is the safest way to reveal her existence."

"Our concept of safety couldn't be more different," he snorted. Astrid, sitting between the two, looked from one to the other without saying anything.

"Don't you realize? If I invited you to a small dinner, she would be the center of attention. She is the only person our circle doesn't know, and you intend to present her as your wife, how do you want her to go unnoticed like that?" Narcissa remained impassive, looking him in the eyes with confidence. "However, at my party, she will be one of a sea of guests. No one will notice her, as long as you don't attract attention. Astrid will be able to camouflage herself among my group of friends, as if she were one of them."