Lucius was sitting in the courtyard of the castle with Thor and Rodolphus; laughing over the seizure of Severus.
"And he looked so stunned, you'd think he really had no idea," Thor chuckled.
"You know, I don't think he did," Lucius said thoughtfully. "He was raised among Muggles."
"No wonder he can pull off a Crucio so well," Rodolphus snickered.
Lucius frowned and looked down to his prefect's badge. It was vibrating.
"I'm being summoned to the Headmaster's Office," Lucius said with a twitch to his eyebrow. "This should be interesting."
Lucius lazily made his way to the stone gargoyle, stopping for a moment to casually flirt with a group of second year Slytherin girls. They giggled and shooed him off, but he left knowing they found him charming and would remember it in later life when it would be beneficial to him.
As he opened the thick, wooden door he knew instantly he had made an error by dawdling.
The Headmaster sat calmly in a chair as Severus sobbed out great bellowing howls.
Lucius face was stricken as he rushed to the chair and looked Severus over. It didn't look like he had been affected by the Cruciatus Curse. He quickly looked at Dumbledore.
"Mr. Snape has had a death in the family," Dumbledore said calmly.
"He murdered her!" Snape howled. "Because I came here and she gave me her wand and if she'd had had it she wouldn't be dead!"
"Severus, this is not your fault," Dumbledore said firmly, going to his knees and kneeling in front of the boy's chair; putting his hands on the boy's thin shoulders.
Severus continued to cry, his face twisted in an expression of crushing grief.
"Your mother was a trained witch. She could cast with ianything/i as a focus point, even a wooden spoon. Does your mother have any wooden spoons?"
Severus nodded through his tears. He was trying to breathe normally, but his chest and throat felt so tight.
"Then she was armed," Dumbledore said, trying to meet the boy's eyes. "It happened anyway, Severus. There was nothing you could have done."
Severus cast his red-rimmed eyes up at Lucius and the older boy looked aghast, his jaw open in shock.
"Mr. Malfoy, I will be taking Severus to the hospital wing for a calming draught. I would like you to follow us and stay with him until he is ready to go back to your common room." Dumbledore looked very grave.
"Of course, professor," Lucius said quickly.
œ
Severus and Lucius had eaten their dinner in silence in the hospital wing, waiting to see if Severus needed to take another draught. He kept vomiting them up until Madame Pomfrey gave him an anti-nausea potion. She said if he could keep down dinner, she'd try it again.
Severus wasn't hungry, but he ate the sandwich Lucius had placed in front of him when it appeared on the magical platter.
A short time after the meal, Madame Pomfrey came back and Severus finally was able to keep down the potion she gave him.
Lucius noticed the constant leaking from Severus's eyes had stopped and he nodded at healer.
"Well, let him sit there for a bit. When you decide to leave, I'll give you a sleeping potion for tonight. I would suggest you keep to your common room." She gave Lucius a serious look.
"Absolutely," Lucius agreed. "No nonsense."
Madame Pomfrey snorted. "A likely story, but at least keep it to a minimum."
"Are you ready to go?" Lucius asked Severus gently.
Severus nodded, his face looking bleak.
"Bring him back before breakfast," Madame Pomfrey instructed Lucius as she handed him a small red bottle. "I'll give him another before he starts his day. At least this happened on a weekend."
Lucius nodded as Severus slid off the bed and stood near him.
"Come along, Severus," Lucius said softly, yet in a commanding tone. "We'll get you back to the common room.
Lucius led Severus through Hogwarts and down into the dungeons. When they arrived in the common room, the few students that had been milling about looked shocked at Severus' tear-stained, expressionless face.
"Go to your room and rest, Severus," Lucius commanded. The boy was unlikely to recognize anything but concise directions at this point. "I'll fetch you before dinner and I'll be out here if you need me."
Severus nodded blankly and slowly went to the stairwell that led to his sleeping area.
Lucius sat on one of the empty couches his little group usually occupied, his brow furrowed with thought.
He heard the portal open behind him and the familiar shuffle of people he knew.
"What's going on, Lucius?" Thor asked curiously.
"Snape's mother is dead." Lucius stared into the empty fireplace and nibbled on a cuticle.
"How?" Rodolphus asked sharply.
"His Muggle father apparently killed her for sending him here," Lucius frowned.
"Are you serious?" Thor snarled.
"Yes." Lucius turned around to face the other boys. "I think we need to write to our fathers of this. I promised my mother I'd look after him. She was quite fond of Snape's mother. She was a Slytherin herself."
"I'll have a letter prepared before evening." Thor looked darkly serious.
"Yes, I will as well." Rodolphus nodded. "This is an offense against not only our House, but against the Wizarding World as a whole."
"I'll have to agree with you." Lucius took a deep breath as he ran his fingers through his short blond hair. "I'm sure it will be taken care of."
œ
Severus lay in his bed, starting at the dark fabric canopy bottom above him. The potion he had taken made him feel light-headed and seemed to dry out his eyes.
He felt the envelope in his robes feel even heavier than it was. He was going to mail it out today. She never even got to hear about him getting here and how he was doing.
She died to get him here and he couldn't have written her sooner? What type of horrible son was he?
Maybe his grandmother and father were right. Evil and sin did flow through his veins. The evidence seemed to be pointing in that direction.
He heard the door to the room open and he pulled the black curtain around his bed closed. He didn't want anyone to give him any grief about the curses or his mother right now.
"Severus?"
Severus blinked at the sound of a female voice. He pulled the curtain back a little and peered out.
She looked like an angel; her white-blond hair fell in waves about her face and down her back and her pretty face was free from blemishes. Her bottom lip was pink and pouty and the look on her face was a deep concern.
"I'm Narcissa Black. Lucius sent me to check in on you. He's getting the others together to talk about the charges against your father tonight."
"Charges?" Severus blinked and pulled the curtain back. "What charges?"
"Severus, justice will be done." She sat on the bed next to him and pulled him close to her.
Severus didn't want to hang onto this girl he hardly knew, to feel like he was invading her space, but after her arms went around him and he felt her protective, warm embrace; felt her heartbeat in his ear, he found he never wanted to let her go.
Even the potion wasn't enough to calm this wave of abject grief. He held onto her tightly and sobbed. She stroked his hair gently and made soothing noises as his small fingers clenched at her robes and his tears poured out onto the fabric.
He cried until he couldn't cry anymore, his fingers cramped from holding onto her so hard.
Narcissa pulled her wand out of her sleeve and waved it, cleaning the both of them. Severus suddenly felt less bad about messing her up with his emotional breakdown.
"You need something to drink." She said as she pushed a wisp of black hair out of his face. She pulled a bottle out of her other sleeve. "It's water."
"What else do you have in there?" Severus gave a shaky laugh.
"You sound like Lucius." Narcissa snorted.
"What?" Severus asked, confused.
"Nothing. Never mind." Narcissa sighed as he took a drink from the bottle.
The water was clean and cold and Severus found himself downing the whole bottle. He removed it from his mouth and burped.
Narcissa laughed and patted him on the back, as he turned red from embarrassment.
"You are to stay here until tomorrow morning," Narcissa told him sternly. "You may go out into the common room, but you are not to leave the Slytherin area."
Severus nodded miserably. He suddenly wanted Lily.
"You missed lunch, but they sent someone down to the kitchens to fetch something for you," Narcissa said softly.
"People keep trying to feed me," Severus said grumpily.
"Maybe it's because they care about you and know you need to keep your strength up," Narcissa said with a raised eyebrow.
"But I don't know anyone here, hardly." Severus shrugged. "Lily, but she's in another House; and Lucius, but only because our mothers are friends."
"And all of the rest of us because we're Housemates," Narcissa gently chided him. "Don't forget the rest of us. We're your family now."
Severus took a long shaky breath and Narcissa reached out to rub his back. "I know it's a lot to take in. Try to get a little sleep. You must be exhausted by now. We'll watch over you so you won't be alone when you wake up."
Severus nodded and didn't even blink when she waved her wand and he found himself out of his school robes and dressed in a long gray nightshirt.
"In you go," Narcissa encouraged him and he crawled into bed, too emotionally exhausted to be embarrassed.
He didn't have it in him to argue right now. Especially when someone was being so nice to him.
She tucked him in and kissed his forehead before pulling the heavy curtain around his bed shut, leaving him in darkness.
He heard her softly leave the room and after a few moments, another set of footsteps come in. A bed near him creaked and he heard the sound of someone pulling books out of a book bag and the crack of someone breaking the spine of a new book.
Severus let out a relieved breath. He wasn't putting anyone out. They just came up here to study instead of the common room.
He finally snuggled down under his covers, taking deep breaths to calm himself. The sound of turning pages was soothing and soon he drifted off to sleep.
