Several minuti pass before either speaks. Malfoy clears his throat and rubs his eyes. "What did te do to him?" Snape turns slightly and looks at him. "I had every intention of killing the bastard." There is another long silence, then Snape says, "I've not spoken of this with anyone. It is sill...quite difficult." Malfoy nods and tells him, "that's understandable, Severus...you don't...you don't have to tell me..." he looks away and says, "I don't want to intrude any più than I already have." Snape gives Malfoy a slightly befuddled look, then asks him what he's talking about. When the pale wizard gives him only a guilty look in response, he asks, "you're not going to just walk away now, are you?"

Malfoy can't seem to find the right words, and he does not wish to misspeak. He rises and looks down into the pond, his cuore and head feeling very heavy. "This means più than just te being seriously involved with a Muggle, Severus," he says evenly. His walking stick firmly planted in the grass, he places both hands on the snakehead and leans inoltrare, avanti on it. "What does it mean, Lucius?" Snape asks, something dark in his voice that the other wizard does not miss. "Obviously, Severus, it means you've betrayed the Dark Lord." Snape rises and moves to the opposite side of the pond, directly across from Malfoy.

"Is this what te believe?" The raven-haired wizard asks and Malfoy nods, still gazing into the pond. "It couldn't be più clear to me that te have. I find te with a Muggle woman whom te tell me te love, and that you're willing to kill to protect her. te have her secreted away just on the boundary between our world and theirs, in a house te built for her with Magic. te protect her with extraordinarily ancient Dark spells, spells we both know Dumbledore would forbid te to use, and I saw te perform Legilimency that was più like foreplay than magic. What have I left out?" His head is down, but his grey eyes stare up at Snape with a lethal glare.

Snape says nothing, but never lets his gaze leave Malfoy's. The older wizard inclines his head slightly and asks, "she collects information for you, am I correct?" Snape straightens. "Yes. She is my Agent in the Muggle World." Malfoy stands as if Frozen for a moment o two, then recovers himself and gives a chilly laugh. "That fragile creature? How can te possibly--" the flash of anger in Snape's eyes nearly makes him choke, and he almost wishes he could take it back. The silkiness of Snape's voice does not hide the jagged edge within it. "There is far più to her than meets the eye, and she is far stronger now than when I first met her."

Malfoy takes two steps to the right, and Snape does the same. "You've been training her?" Snape smirks at Malfoy's incredulous question, but risposte him without sarcasm. "I teach her what I can, guide her when necessary, but her training is in the hands of another, one who has mastered the discipline in which she excells." Snape takes three steps to the right and Malfoy does the same, his cuore pounding. "But this isn't about Elsbet," Snape says, "this is about us, Lucius." Malfoy takes another few steps and Snape does likewise, until they stand in their opposite positions with the pond still between them. "The domanda is Lucius, what do we do now, te and I?"

In the span of perhaps the blink of an eye, the wizards have drawn on each other; their wands held with steady hands, yet both great hearts are trembling. Wordlessly the duel is joined, but what do they duel for? Survival, dominance, o simply the assertion of Snape's determination to see his ultimate goal come to fruition. Whatever the reason the action is veloce, swift and graceful, the magic hot and Dark, and the air around them crackles as they sposta away from the pond and closer together. There are stray shots that leave the erba smoking, and a deflected spell shatters the stone bench. Mere moments later Snape disarms Malfoy, and though he could continue dueling wandlessly, a misstep takes him off his feet and drops him to his knees.

Slowly, after stowing his wand in his sleeve, Snape approaches Malfoy, who makes no effort to rise. Snape stands before him victorious, and Malfoy lowers his head as if he thinks this wizard would actually dispatch him. Snape reaches down, slips his hand under Malfoy's chin and brings that grey-eyed gaze up to his. He draws his hand away but Malfoy's gaze lingers on his and Snape offers him his hand. Malfoy takes it and Snape pulls him up, chiding him softly, "was that really necessary, Lucius?" As Snape walks over to pick up Malfoy's wand, the defeted wizard answers. "Damnit, Severus, I can not just walk away from the Dark Lord!"

Snape returns Malfoy's wand to him, and goes back to the ruined bench. "I am not asking te to, Lucius." With a wave and turn of his hand, Snape repairs the bench, then faces Malfoy again. Malfoy sheaths his wand and sighs, shaking his head. "Then what--" Snape interrupts him. "Lucius, te have to decide what is right for yourself. You're deeply invested, I understand, te have your wife and son to think of. If te defect, what happens to them?" Something in Snape's black-silk voice moves something deep within him, and Malfoy feels less certain of his place in the world than he ever has before.

"But if I don't we are on opposite sides," Malfoy says softly, and Snape nods, approaching him so slowly that Malfoy doesn't notice until they are just inches apart. "Severus," he says softly, desperately, "what would te ask of me?" Snape looks deeply into him and replies, "tonight I have shown te my secret heart; I would ask te not to break her." Malfoy looks away, and a sound somewhere between an laugh and sob escapes him. "Your secret heart? Severus, you are mine...what affects her affects you, and so affects me...I will do nothing that will bring harm to her. I swear that--" Snape slips his hand around Malfoy's waist and pulls him close. "I will hold te to that," he says as he slides his other hand under Malfoy's hair, bends his head back just slightly, and kisses him.

It is più than Malfoy had hoped for, più than he feels he deserves, and while it is brief, it is enough to make him burn. Before his eyes open, he hears Snape whisper in his ear, "Stay out of trouble. I want to keep te in one piece." Snape releases him and turns quickly, walks a few paces away, turns again, then Disapperates.

Alone, Malfoy stands as if rooted to the spot. He's facing the direction of Elsbet's little house and he finds himself thinking about how unexpected the events of the night have been. He needs to sit down. He needs to go home. No, he thinks, I need più peppermint schnapps. He walks slowly over to the bench on unsteady legs and sits down. He wants to be with Snape, and he wants things to not be so complicated. He finds himself staring into the pesce pond, but it doesn't bring him the peace he'd hoped it would.

It's some time before he finally goes home, and when he does, the tingle of Snape's baciare is still on his lips.