Pawn to Queen
Claws and Severus

Severus had just time to look up as the door came open and Claudia Teasdale slammed into the room.

She flung herself across the chair by his desk without a word. "Make yourself comfortable."

She glared up at him. "She's strega."

"Eh?" That was a bit of a non-sequitur.

"Hermione Granger." She folded her arms across her chest. "The girl's got everything--- everything."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You in her bed--- and this." She touched her necklace. "Everything." A harsh laugh. "All right--- not everything." she got to her feet ,began pacing. "Just everything I want."

That statement was enough to knock him cold. "Claudia, I---"

"What is it about her?" she asked sharply. "Why would you trust her--- and not me? Me, your old friend?"

"Trust?" He shook his head. "Claudia---- it was a matter of necessity---"

"And you took care of her afterward. You didn't go off and leave her to rot---" Her voice went up. "You didn't go off with never a word--- didn't go off and betray everything you'd shared with her---"

Oh. Gods. This discussion. "Claudia---" She'd said as much to him the night she'd first confronted him--- after Avery had told her....

"You didn't leave her to find out what you were from a monster," she hissed, coming to lean on the desk in front of him, nose-to-nose. "You didn't damn her to the same fate---"

Non-sequitur again. "What?"

"You knew," she gasped raggedly. "You were a Death Eater yourself--- you knew what those monsters were like--- and you let me go blithely off into their--- paws--- and never a word." Suddenly she pulled back from him, very pale except for two dots of color on her cheeks. "You had been there yourself," she panted, "trying to erase your own nightmares, and you didn't tell me." Harsh gasp. "You were my older brother, you know that? The brother I always wanted---"

This he'd heard before, that night, and it still wrenched his heart. "Claudia--- what could I do?" She had been strega, by then--- it wasn't his place to interfere.

"You could have stopped me," she hissed, hugging herself and staring at him with haunted eyes. "You were my older brother, damn it--- that's what you are to me. And you didn't even try."

He stared at her, the realization slowly dawning. "Claudia---"

She stared at him, at first accusingly, then with dawning comprehension. "Oh, Severus--- you didn't know?"

"You were strega. That comes first---"

"Depends on strega--- Oh. Oh." Semi-hysterical laugh. "And your mother... and Claire... they're first-generation.... Oh...." She was laughing so hard she started to shake, tears rolling down her face. "Oh, Severus---"

He got to his feet, hesitantly, came around the desk, not sure what to do.

And quite suddenly, found himself with a double armful of clinging witch. "Damn it, cousin, come here." And she hugged him with her not-inconsiderable strength, as he stood there amazed. "Oh, Severus...." And leaned against him, while he got his arms around her uncertainly, by no means pinning, just the lightest touch. "Damn it, man--- it's all right to hug me."

"It hasn't been for years," he said dryly.

"It would have been, if you'd only---" She shook her head abruptly. "Make that if I'd only." She looked up. "Realized, that is, what it meant that you were Lucretia's son." She reached up and touched his face. "You're my older brother, Severus--- and, after... Black---" it was an expletive in her mouth--- "you were the person I trusted most in the world--- in Muggle terms, it went from God to you to the rest of us, in my eyes." Soft laugh, and the green eyes clearer than they'd been in years. "And you know what it means when strega believes something--- it's true, for her, unless it so violates the natural world that a split happens---"

"And the split---"

"Happened." They finished together. "Moira cuts both ways, cousin," she said gently. "And your place in my moira was at God's right hand, as it were. You were the one person I listened to." She came closer again, rested her head on his shoulder--- then, firmly, pushed him back. "And it never occurred to me that you wouldn't have known the power you had over me---"

"Just as it never occurred to me that you wouldn't have squashed me flat for opposing you." Carefully, he reached up, dried a tear from her cheek, the way he had when they were children together. "Claudia, I'm sorry---"

"No, Severus, I'm sorry." Serious and earnest. "There's... gods, there's nothing I can do to make up for the last ten years, is there?"

"You don't---"

"Yes I do." She cupped his cheek. "You ought to have a chance to see that strega isn't just Lucretia."

He essayed a small joke. "Frankly, I prefer my mother to yours--- mine one can at least loathe with a clear conscience."

Claudia snickered, though her voice was still a little shaky. "There is that."

"And---" he caught his breath--- "it occurs to me that you've already shown me a different way of being strega." He cupped her chin. "Because not once in ten years, no matter how furious you were with me, you didn't gather your power against me."

"I couldn't." This, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, instead of running contrary to all his experience. "You were my older brother, Severus--- I couldn't blast you. Would have upset the order of the world." Shy little grin. "Like I said, moira cuts both ways--- my understanding of you doesn't allow me to... do that."

He regarded her, his rational mind doing full-tilt. "I should have seen it sooner---" wry laugh--- "though, of course, it did go against all my experience of the nature of strega's power."

"That's because you've dealt mostly with Claire and Lucretia, and they both see you as a child," Claudia said matter-of-factly.

"And Blaise---"

"Blaise is her mother's daughter--- which is a very good thing when you're dealing with scum like the Malfoys, but not so good for sorting stuff out in a family--- unless you're married to Michael Zabini, who I suppose does have to be kept on a short leash---" Claudia said--- then blushed. "Not that I can talk--- ten years and change, indeed."

"I had a hand in it too, remember?" Then, taking a risk, he bent down and kissed her forehead.

She leaned into it--- like old times. "I love you, Cousin Severus," she said softly, clasping her arms around him in a much-needed hug. "And I'll... try to make amends."

A familiar cant, to him. He hugged her back. "You already have."

Claudia rest her head on his shoulder; he felt her shake her head. "Not yet, cousin, but I'm working on it."