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Hogwarts a little longer, fulfilling my useful role as spy.’
    ‘In other words, it doesn’t matter to him if Draco is killed!’
    ‘The Dark Lord is very angry,’ repeated Snape quietly. ‘He failed to hear the prophecy. You know as well as I do, Narcissa, that he does not forgive easily.’
    She crumpled, falling at his feet, sobbing and moaning on the floor.
    ‘My only son … my only son …’
    ‘You should be proud!’ said Bellatrix ruthlessly. ‘If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!’
    Narcissa gave a little scream of despair and clutched at her long blonde hair. Snape stooped, seized her by the arms, lifted her up and steered her back on to the sofa. He then poured her more wine and forced the glass into her hand.
    ‘Narcissa, that’s enough. Drink this. Listen to me.’
    She quietened a little; slopping wine down herself, she took a shaky sip.
    ‘It might be possible … for me to help Draco.’
    She sat up, her face paper-white, her eyes huge.
    ‘Severus – oh, Severus – you would help him? Would you look after him, see he comes to no harm?’
    ‘I can try.’
    She flung away her glass; it skidded across the table as she slid off the sofa into a kneeling position at Snape’s feet, seized his hand in both of hers and pressed her lips to it.
    ‘If you are there to protect him … Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?’
    ‘The Unbreakable Vow?’ Snape’s expression was blank, unreadable: Bellatrix, however, let out a cackle of triumphant laughter.
    ‘Aren’t you listening, Narcissa? Oh, he’ll try , I’m sure … the usual empty words, the usual slithering out of action … oh, on the Dark Lord’s orders, of course!’
    Snape did not look at Bellatrix. His black eyes were fixed upon Narcissa’s tear-filled blue ones as she continued to clutch his hand.
    ‘Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow,’ he said quietly. ‘Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder.’
    Bellatrix’s mouth fell open. Snape lowered himself so that he was kneeling opposite Narcissa. Beneath Bellatrix’s astonished gaze, they grasped right hands.
    ‘You will need your wand, Bellatrix,’ said Snape coldly.
    She drew it, still looking astonished.
    ‘And you will need to move a little closer,’ he said.
    She stepped forwards so that she stood over them, and placed the tip of her wand on their linked hands.
    Narcissa spoke.
    ‘Will you, Severus, watch over my son Draco as he attempts to fulfil the Dark Lord’s wishes?’
    ‘I will,’ said Snape.
    A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.
    ‘And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm?’
    ‘I will,’ said Snape.
    A second tongue of flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a fine, glowing chain.
    ‘And, should it prove necessary … if it seems Draco will fail …’ whispered Narcissa (Snape’s hand twitched within hers, but he did not draw away), ‘will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?’
    There was a moment’s silence. Bellatrix watched, her wand upon their clasped hands, her eyes wide.
    ‘I will,’ said Snape.
    Bellatrix’s astounded face glowed red in the blaze of a third tongue of flame, which shot from the wand, twisted with the others and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.

 
     
— CHAPTER THREE —
     
Will and Won’t
    Harry Potter was snoring loudly. He had been sitting in a chair beside his bedroom window for the best part of four hours, staring out at the darkening street, and had finally fallen asleep with one side of his face pressed against the cold window-pane, his glasses askew and his mouth wide open. The misty fug his breath had left on the window sparkled in the orange glare of the streetlamp outside, and the artificial light drained his face