In honor of our latest favorite/follower, rose51794, as well as FonzFan and chibi-DJ-pon3, who favorited/followed yesterday, here is the next chapter! A great big thank you to all three of you! Hope you enjoy!

August 1992

"I don't understand- "

"No, you don't understand!" Severus shouted, turning on his heel to glare at her across the kitchen of his home in Spinner's End. His long, black wizard's robes billowed out behind him. "I cannot defy him, Anne. If the Dark Lord calls me, I must go."

Anne wrung a dishtowel between her hands, glancing fearfully around the darkened room. The grimy windows refused to allow any light inside. She had tried to clean them, but Severus would not have it. She believed that he wanted this house to remain dirty- grimy, shadowy, and forgotten, like the miserable childhood memories that taunted him from every corner. How many arguments between his parents had played out in this very room? Unable to contain her emotions, Anne let out a sniffle.

Severus scoffed at her, refusing- as always- to show his own fear. "Do not cry for me, Anne. I have told you a thousand times- I am not yours to mourn."

"You are mine!" Anne burst out, throwing the dishtowel down upon the counter in her frustration. "You are the only family I have left, Severus, and I know that I am all that you have left in this miserable life. I have tried to help you! I have done everything I could to support you, to help you through the loss of Lily, to love you-"

"You cannot love me!" Severus cried, his dark eyes flashing. He looked quite demonic.

"-And now you go rushing back into the arms of the one wizard we have all fought so hard to forget!" Anne continued, unable to restrain herself. "Now that Lily's dead, it's straight back to the Death Eaters? Do you like the power they give you, Sev? Are honor and good and right not enough-?"

Severus had crossed the room in three large strides and closed his hands around the ivory column of her neck. His eyes latched onto hers, and Anne was consumed by the fire in his gaze. "He murdered the woman I loved," Severus breathed, his voice low but shaking with fury. "He took from me all that was good in my world! I will die to protect her boy, if I must! But I bear the Mark, Anne! I cannot refuse him- he will have me killed, and what good am I to Potter's boy, then? It is a dangerous game I must play, but I will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of her son. I must be a spider, and spin two identical webs. Both sides must believe that I support them- both! And instead of supporting me, as a true friend would do, you choose instead to stand in my house- my house- and nag me like some London fishwife!"

His hands shook, and Anne's head wobbled in his grasp. Her hair fell in her eyes, and she reached up to try to claw the golden strands away from her face. "Sev-" she gasped. She blinked her large blue eyes at him. "Sev, please…"

Something changed in his face, and he paled as he simultaneously released his hold. Anne stumbled backwards into the kitchen sink, gasping. When she looked up, Severus was staring at his hands, disbelief etched on his face. He swallowed. "Anne," he said softly, and his voice was pitiful. He met her gaze again. "Anne, Anne, please…please forgive me." He moved towards her, as if to take her into his arms, but she stepped as far away from him as the little room allowed.

He groaned. "What have I done?" he asked aloud, and Anne stared at him impassively, still in shock at the depth of his anger. With one last, pleading look, he spun on his heel and fled from the room.

Anne found him several minutes later, after she had splashed some cool water on her forehead and taken several deep, steadying breaths. He was sitting in the old, ratty armchair in the front room, a tumbler of brandy on the table beside him as he gazed morosely out of the window at the silent, grey neighborhood of Spinner's End. He did not look in her direction when the floorboard creaked under her weight. Anne sank slowly down onto the arm of his chair. Without turning around, he reached out and grabbed her hand with his own.

They sat together for several hours, watching the light fade through the dingy glass as the sun set on their childhood home.

Eventually, Severus stirred. He squeezed Anne's hand and looked up at her pleadingly. Tears slid silently down his pale cheeks. "I am sorry," he said, and Anne reached out and drew him to her. He buried his face in her robes, allowing himself the luxury of releasing some of his pent up emotions as he sobbed into her shoulder. Wrapping his arms around her, he tugged at her waist, and she slid down into his lap.

"Shh," she soothed. "Severus, it's okay. I know you didn't mean to hurt me." She stroked a lock of raven-black hair from his forehead, kissing the skin revealed underneath. "Shh."

"I don't know that I can do this," he whispered brokenly. "Anne, he will kill me if I fail him. But how can I carry out orders that I know will put her boy in danger? This is a dangerous game, and I don't want to play anymore."

Anne placed her hand under his chin and put pressure on his jaw until he looked up at her. "Severus," she said, not unkindly. "You must. You have no choice. We gave Dumbledore our word." She smiled and stroked his cheek. "Besides, you are the only man I know who is clever enough to play the Dark Lord like a puppet on a string."

A ghost of a smile flickered across his face. "Do you really think I can, Anne?"

She smiled sincerely. "I do."

He frowned, contemplating the fabric of the armchair. "I must have absolute control over my emotions- my very thoughts. He is a very skilled Legilimens." He sighed. "That means that I may not be able to see you for long stretches of time, Anne."

"Me? Why?"

"Because, you- " He paused, refusing to meet her gaze. "I cannot have you around me, Anne. You are a distraction." Ignoring her sputter of protest, he continued blithely. "I know that it is only your Veela inheritance- you cannot help it- but I cannot be around you. I could lose control." He squeezed her hands and finally looked up. "I will not put you or myself- or especially her boy- in danger because you and I have...history together."

Anne had stopped listening. "My Veela inheritance? Severus, I have seen the way you look at me, sometimes, and it is not because of the quarter of my blood that happens to be Veela."

"Then what do you suppose it is, clever Ravenclaw?" he sneered, regaining his confidence at her obvious discomfort.

Anne leaned forward and placed her forehead against his. "You love me, Severus- as I love you. You will not admit it because of your feelings- f-for- for her- but-"

Severus sat back. "Anne, please-" His voice was desperate, pleading.

"You do not deny it?" She scooted forward on his lap, closing the distance between them. He didn't need to speak- she could feel his body responding to hers.

"Of course I deny it, you little fool," Severus breathed. His pupils had widened as she leaned closer. He grabbed a handful of her long, blonde hair and twisted, pulling her head back and exposing her neck. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her still closer, until her body was held flush against his. His dark eyes took in her rapid heartbeat as it pulsed at the juncture of her collarbone, and the fear and desire in her eyes as she waited for him to touch her. He brought his lips to within a millimeter of her ivory skin, enjoying teasing her, loving the feel of her body against his own.

But Severus Snape was not a man to lose himself to passion- rational thought won out, and he sat back, breathing hard, but still in control. "Of course I deny it," he repeated. "I do not love you, Anne. I never will. Do not get me wrong," he said quickly, as her expectant face crumpled into a frown of displeasure, like a child that has been denied a toy. "You certainly have my attention. I am a man, after all, and I have eyes in my head. But I have told you- it is simply the Veela in your blood. It is a ploy- a trick- one you are not even aware you are using, most of the time. But that is not love." He turned his head away from her kiss. "It is not love," he said again, more firmly. "I could never love."

Anne, embarrassed and more than a little hurt, clambered out of his lap and frowned. "Why do you deny yourself joy, Severus?" she asked impatiently, tossing her hair in defiance. "Why do you refuse the love that is being offered to you so freely?"

"I loved once," Severus said sullenly, his black hair hiding his features. "And it nearly killed me. Why can you not understand that I cannot allow myself the pleasure of that weakness again?"

Anne smoothed her robes, frowning. "I will come back tomorrow, when you've had time to get your head on straight," she announced, turning to Apparate home to London.

Severus stopped her with his voice. "Don't bother. I will be packing tomorrow. Term starts up again next week, remember?"

Humiliated, and refusing to meet his eyes, Anne vanished.