"Severus, calm down!"

"No!"

Albus rolled his eyed slightly as the enraged Professor paced the floor of Grimmuld place. Veronica sat at the table with Kingesly and Sirius, going over her relocation papers with Kingsley and trying to block out Severus's objections.

"This is absolute madness."

"Last year, you asked me to keep her safe, didn't you?" Albus challenged him. "Well here you go, Severus. Sorry if it's not like you imagined."

"Veronica." Severus turned to the witch insistently. "Are you sure you don't want to take a few days to think this over?"

"I've thought about it plenty." Veronica informed him. "It's a good idea."

She turned to Sirius, who sat across the table from her, and passed him a pen. "Sirius, you sign at the bottom."

"Sign what?" Severus snapped, eyes flashing at the wizard who nodded and scribbled his name across the bottom. "What are you signing?"

"Sirius is to be my secret keeper."

"What?!"

"He offered, I accepted."

Severus's jaw dropped. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be.

"Why him?"

"You have enough secrets already." Veronica stated plainly. "Plus, Sirius is already on the run. This way I'm not putting another person in danger, I'm just adding to Sirius's"

"And I accept it proudly." Sirius assured her.

"Yes, because we all know how reliable you were the last time."

The room went dead. Sirius stiffened instantly and Veronica swallowed hard before straightening up and turning to her partner coldly.

"That was completely out of line, Severus."

"I don't care."

"You ought to apologize after all Sirius has done for us."

"I will not." Severus hissed.

"That won't be necessary, Veronica." Sirius shook his head. "In truth, my past failure is why I am taking you on now. There will not be a second mistake."

"Oh, how touching." Severus sneered. "How utterly unselfish of you, Black. I'm glad such an opputinuty to redeem your shoddy track record came your way."

Veronica threw down her pen and shot up out of her seat. "Severus." She barked before lowering her voice. "May I speak with you privately?"

Severus's frown didn't shift but he nodded and followed her out of the dining room and into the entry hall, unaware of the young ears of his students listening above them.

"You are behaving like an absolute child!" Veronica snapped at him. "It's ridiculous!"

"What ridiculous is you pulling such a scheme without consulting me!" Severus retorted. "Not even a curtesy visit to warn me before signing the papers."

"Why?" Veronica yelled in a whispered. "Why should I have to consult you before I do anything?! We aren't married! We barely see each other anymore except to put on some ridiculous display for those terrible people! I'm practically raising our baby alone, why shouldn't I do it someplace where I'm not under constant scrutiny?!"

"Don't say things like that!"

"Why?" Veronica laughed angrily. "It's true! Name to me one thing you have done to earn any sort of influence over me! Nothing!"

Severus sputtered, admittingly at a loss with her request but unwilling to concede.

"And another thing, I'm sick and tired of you constantly having a go at Sirius!" She added, "I've defended you when he says something mean while you're away, but you know what? I'm starting to understand what he means! You are being selfish! I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I am tired of pretended like everything is okay when it's not. I'm tired of having to fake a smile everytime you're around. And I'm just of just going with whatever you say because I have no other choise than to do so."

Veronica took a breath, glad to finally get everything that had been weighing on her out into the open.

"Sirius has been the only person I have been able to talk to who actually listened to what I have to say and understands what I mean. Without him I would have gone mad in that cabin, and you wouldn't have even noticed!"

This stunned Severus into silence. It was one thing when she spoke for herself, but the mention of Sirius's name made him clam up. Something inside of him clicked on like an ingrained sequence in his mind that he had no control over.

"If that's the way you feel, then perhaps you'd find Black company more agreeable than my own." He growled. "Then again, with the time you've been alone together, perhaps you already have."

The words went straight into Veronica's heart like bullet. Their loaded meaning and spiteful accusations poisoned the very air around them and turned it bitter and sour in the mouth.

Their coldness froze the air in her lungs and her mouth hung open for a moment as she struggled to find her breath. But when she did, Veronica simply shook her head at the statement.

"Wow." She scoffed, reaching up to wipe her eye and laughing bitterly. "What a thing to say. How long have you been holding onto that one?"

Severus knew the mistake the instant the words passed his lips, but he hadn't been able to stop them. He didn't even mean them; their sole purpose had been to hurt her. And they succeeded spectacularly.

"I-"

"Save it." She sneered painfully, forcing a smile across her face. "I'm going to go finish filling out the paperwork. If you want to see your son before we leave, he's with Molly upstairs."

There was no goodbye.

She returned to the table in silence and picked up the pen once more.

Sirius watched her for a moment before standing up with a furiously indignant look on his face. He reached for his wand before Veronica stopped him without looking up.

"Don't" She commanded. "It's not worth it."

"He shouldn't even think such a thing about you."

"Well, apparently it's crossed his mind." Veronica popped her neck. "But it doesn't matter, not now."

"Let's just get this finished." Kingsley insisted. "Here are the details of your relocation, and the rules you will need to abide by."

Upstairs, Severus had asked Molly for a moment alone with his son. It was willingly granted, and Severus sat on the ground with Valerian in his arms.

He was so beautiful.

So important.

The idea of being separated from him even more than before tore at his heart and Severus quickly pressed his eyes shut to will away any tears that threatened to spill over his hot face.

"I-" He swallowed. "I don't know if you can really understand me yet." He began, sitting Valerian up to look into his eyes. "But you need to know that, no matter what happens between your mother and I, I will always love you. And I will always take care of you in whatever way I possibly can."

Valerian stared at his father, and for a moment Severus felt like he was listening, which urged him to continue talking.

"Know that whatever I did, I only did it because I wanted to keep you both safe. Because I love you both so much that I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to you. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me, and no matter what I will always be there if you need me."

Severus let out a ragged breath and swallowed hard. "You don't have to do what I did, Valerian. Ask you mother about me, and even if you don't like what you hear. Even if you decide that I was a mean, selfish son of a bitch, learn from my mistakes. And know that even if I was a mean, selfish son of a bitch, I will always love you. Don't ever feel like I don't."

Valerian sneeze and Severus laughed a little, a rough, breathy laugh that seemed born of desperation then mirth. He held the baby closer to him, not wanting to upset him but also never wanting to let go in case it was the last time they were each other.

When Veronica had finished the paperwork, Albus sent some of the order to collect only necessities from the cabin and assured her that most of what she might need would be provided to her by Sirius.

"And it will just be me and the baby this time?"

"That's right." Sirius nodded, "I'm staying here incase of a fight, but I will write you and keep you updated if you like. Any mail you get will be ferried through me."

"I appreciate that." Veronica took his hand. "You're doing so much for me, why?"

"Because." Sirius smiled a little. "You didn't ask for any of this. All you did was try to save some kids."

Veronica nodded before turning to Dumbledore.

"Albus." She caught his attention. "When I'm gone, I want you to go to my greenhouse. in the back, there is a trunk of gardening tools, empty it out. In the bottom is all the work I have done on Horcruxes."

"What?" Dumbledore stood, "You continued your research then?"

"That week I spent in my room." Veronica confessed. "I was desperately searching for someway to kill him. I tried to remember every detail from the meetings I attended, and I wrote them down. Anything that stood out, I wrote down."

"you think there are more." Albus nodded knowingly, "More than just the diary."

"I don't know how many." Veronica nodded. "And I don't know where they are. Everything I know is in those papers. Please, don't let anyone get to them before you do."

"We won't" Sirius assured her, hugging her tightly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know." Veronica shook her head. "part of me thought that if I said it out loud, something would happen, and it would all be for nothing." She pulled away and turned to the headmaster. "And one more thing, Albus."

"Yes?"

"Go back along my family tree." She instructed him. "To the Gaunts. He's proud of them for some reasons. That's the only reason he kept me around. If there's anything connected to them that remains, destroy it. Just in case."

Dumbledore nodded seriously.

"It will be done."