Hermione stiffened until her body shook and her jaw twitched. “You kill people too and I've never questioned your loyalty because of it, Severus.”
He snorted faintly and his lips curled. “I have only one loyalty; to the purpose of the Order. The horrors I am obliged to commit, I commit out of necessity. Do you think I enjoy feeling my soul slowly tear itself apart and poison me? All while being derided and doubted by those who would never be willing to make a similar sacrifice?” He shook his head slightly. “However, that is irrelevant. Gibbon was not a necessity. He was not important. He was not powerful. There was nothing strategic or in the interests of the Order about killing him. Certainly not anything to necessitate dismembering him while keeping him alive in the process.”
Hermione kept steadily shaking her head. “It might have been someone else. You don't know it was Draco.”
Severus froze and turned slowly to face Hermione. “It was Draco. I know it was Draco. The reason I know it is because while dissecting the spellwork I came across the signature of an interesting enchantment. One that I personally invented. A containment enchantment I only ever taught one person. You. You were using it to treat his runes, weren't you?”
The whole room wobbled in Hermione's vision, and she caught the edge of the table to keep from falling.
Severus stared down at her, his expression menacing. “I have been a spy for almost as long as you have been alive, Miss Granger. Now stop defending him and listen.”
Hermione stilled.
Severus pursed his lips as he studied her. “He has gone rogue. If he ever was loyal, he certainly is not now. Whatever he is in the process of doing, it is not solely on behalf of the Order. He is one of the most powerful Generals in the army now. He reports only to the Dark Lord. He has his own web of informants throughout the army, and he has used that information to make the Order heavily reliant on him; likely to prevent us from ever betraying him.”
Hermione felt as though she couldn't breathe. Her fingertips were tingling faintly. She gave a shaky nod.
“I believe I know why he killed Gibbon,” Severus added after a moment. “He concealed it and made the process look like a torture, but once I noticed the enchantment, there were several clues that made what he had been attempting obvious. Draco is trying to find a means of removing his Dark Mark without dying from it.”
“Dying?”
“If the mark was possible flense or remove by chopping off the arm, Igor Karkaroff would be alive today. There were a few who tried to run or become turncoats during both wars and discovered to their detriment what happens. The mark is a connection between the Dark Lord and his servants; severing it results in a cursed wound. The person bleeds to death, unstoppably. There are no spells or potions to prevent it. Yet it seems Draco is determined to find a way, if he possibly can.”
A horrifying detail struck Hermione. “He was left handed. But now he's ambidextrous.”
Severus quirked an eyebrow thoughtfully. “That would be the logical thing to do, for a man intending to eventually cut off his own arm. Do you know how long he's been that way?”
“As long as I've been going to him. I've rarely seen him use his left hand.” There was a burning sensation in the pit of her stomach.
Severus looked pensive. “So he's been planning this for years then.”
Hermione was reeling; trying to reevaluate everything she thought she knew. Draco was playing a long game. She was merely a ripple in it, or a tool. She didn't even know.
Severus stared at her, his expression more tense than Hermione had ever seen. “He would be quite deadly for everyone involved if the manacles of his servitude were ever removed.”
Hermione nodded. Without the Dark Mark restricting Draco, it would no longer be necessary for him to appease the Order into maintaining his cover. If he was vying for power, getting his mark off was the next step.
Especially since Hermione had admitted that Harry didn't intend to kill Voldemort.
Severus gave a faint sigh and suddenly seemed old as he stared down at Hermione. “I'll admit, I expected the June attack to be the beginning of the end for him. With the punishment he submitted to, I assumed he'd be on borrowed time.” He eyed her carefully. “That it wasn't, I suppose, must be attributed to your exceptional care.”
There was a pause. For a moment it felt as though the world had frozen around her, then it shattered.
“You knew he'd take the fall for the attack in June,” Hermione said slowly, staring at Severus wide-eyed. “You, Kingsley and Moody. That's why you were willing to make the attack so elaborate and use so much intelligence. You weren't concerned about exposing him. You expected he'd be killed for it.”
Severus said nothing.
“Why — why didn't you tell me?” she finally said. Her voice shook faintly with rage.