Snakes

They walk in silence for quite a while, glancing at each other from time to time, as if each is trying to guess what the other is thinking. This would be funny (maybe even a little romantic) any other time...but they both know the dangers that lay ahead.

Finally, they come to a quiet little pond, and Snape guides Malfoy to a stone bench concealed by bushes close by. "She loves it here," Snape says as he sits down, and Malfoy kneels at the pond's edge. Gingerly, he dips just the tips of his fingers in the cool, clear water, and looks up. "This is natural, not Magic-made," he whispers and Snape...

It is as if all of Creation has drawn and held its collective breath.

Snape can only sit and gaze up at Malfoy completely dumbstruck. Malfoy closes his eyes and lowers his head, and as the light of that small slice of moon catches his platnum-colored hair, Snape thinks the older wizard suddenly looks much younger than himself. Questions fill his head and demand to be asked, but he can't muster the will to pose even one.

"I've loved you for a very long time," Malfoy says quietly, "but I thought I would never have the chance to tell you. I thougth I would just...die with this still in my heart,...

"You see, Lucius? I will kill to protect her," Snape says evenly, then turns and heads toward his preferred Apparation point. Malfoy stands there looking at the door, a million questions making his head pound, desperately struggling to find the solution to the crisis he feels rising within him. "Severus," he follows quickly, thinking the younger wizard means to leave. "What..." Malfoy tries to choose his words carefully, "what is she to you? I just...I can't..." he glances back at the little house, then back at Snape, floundering. "Make me understand...I need to know what's going on!" Snape...