Chapter 11 holding it together

Arianna stormed into the private living quarters that she shared with her husband and sank to her knees sobbing. She just couldn't believe that Severus would do such a disgusting thing. Her rage intensified as she remembered the look of utter pleasure on his face. She rose to her feet and started casting shrinking spells on all of her personal things and the baby things that she had purchased. As her rage spiraled around in her head her shrunken belongings spiraled around the room and shot into the open trunk, which she shrunk and put into her pocket.

She didn't feel any calmer so she took her frustration and distress out onto the rooms of the apartment. As she walked from room to room she blasted everything that she saw into smithereens. Before she left the quarters to return to her teaching duties she turned and blasted a hole into the large glass window that looked out into the black lake.

The rest of the day Severus was in a foul mood. After Madam Pompfrey repaired his broken nose and healed his bruises he examined his memory of the day's events leading up to Arianna's fist breaking his nose. He was in a state of shock when he saw exactly what had happened. He knew with a certainty that the cuff links were Arianna's intended gift. On thinking about it he reflected that Arianna would never give him anything pink.

Then it hit him like the cruciartis curse. He ripped the cuff links out of his shirt and examined them thoroughly for traces of poison. Finding none he knew that they were not the cause of his horrible mistake. He then looked at the card that was sent with the cufflinks. He found that the card had been tampered with. Part of Arianna's original words had been changed magically.

The words that were changed originally said, tonight in our quarters. The damned bitch had changed Arianna's card to suit her needs. He sniffed the cookies and instantly recognized the scent of a powerful love potion mixed in with the frosting. He tossed the remnants of the cookies into the fire and watched as they burned. Morgana Ashwood would pay dearly for what she had done. He prayed that he could calm Arianna enough to make her see reason.

When the last class of the day was over Severus returned to his quarters to hopefully get a chance to talk with Arianna before dinner. What he got however was another story. As he stepped down the stairs behind the portrait of Salazar Slytherin he noticed that the bottom was covered with about five feet of water gushing from a hole in the glass window of the sitting room.

He cast a repairing spell on the hole and waded through the water and cast a spell at the floor which made the water drain out of the rooms. It looked like everything had been blasted. As he moved from room to room repairing the damage he noticed that all of Arianna's personal belongings were gone. He picked up her brush from the floor and ran his fingers over her initials.

He turned quickly leaving the hairbrush on the bed and ran into the room that was supposed to be the nursery for the twins. Everything was gone. The only thing that was left behind was two green satin teddy bears that he had purchased for the twins to play with when they were old enough. He picked them up and hugged them tightly as he sunk to his knees and wept.

"I can't let it end between us like this. I've got to talk to Arianna; maybe she'll see reason once she knows the truth." He put the two stuffed bears into his robes and ran up to the transfiguration classroom. Arianna was sitting at her desk in front of the fireplace grading homework assignments.

He walked up behind her and started to massage her shoulders. She went rigid under his touch, and stopped her grading. "Get your filthy, disgusting, slimy, cheating hands off of me before I curse you so bad that you wish you were dead," she said with utter disgust in her voice. "Whatever you have to say you can say to my mother. I don't want to talk to or see you ever again," she snarled angrily.

Severus walked around to the front of the desk and leaned down so he could hopefully get her to look up at him. "Arianna let me explain what happened," he pleaded. Arianna slammed the folder full of parchments to be graded closed and got to her feet glaring at him as if she wanted to see him dead.

"Explain what, Severus? That you cheated on me with the slut Ashwood. Or how about how you kissed her the way that you used to kiss me in front of the whole school. If you don't get out of my sight right now I'm going to-"

Her sentence was cut short by a sharp stabbing pain in her stomach. Her face went pale, and she screamed in pain and started sinking to her knees. Severus jumped over the desk and scooped her into his arms. Something was horribly wrong with his wife.

"Hold on, Arianna I'm going to take you to the hospital wing," he said as he ran with her in his arms through the corridors.

Once they arrived in the hospital wing he laid her on a bed and tried to calm her while Madam Pompfrey checked her over. "GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT," screamed Arianna as another stab of pain hit her!

"Severus perhaps you should go and get the headmistress. She may have to be moved to St. Mungos," suggested Madam Pomfrey. Severus ran from the room hearing Arianna's screams of pain echo down the halls.

He wasn't looking where he was going and slammed right into Morgana Ashwood. "Severus, I knew you couldn't stay away my Valentine's lover."

"Damn you bitch; don't you think that you've caused enough trouble for one day," he growled? Morgana looked taken aback at his harsh words.

"Excuse me but what did you just call me," she asked in amazement?

"I didn't stutter bitch, or would you prefer whore, or slut? Get away from me or I'm going to kill you," he screamed.

The exchange of words was noticed by professor Sprout and headmistress McGonagall, who rushed to break up what could have turned into a blood bath. "Severus, what is the meaning of this," demanded Minerva? "First the thing at lunch and now this, what's gotten into you," scolded his mother-in-law? Severus tried to calm himself before he spoke.

"Since Arianna won't listen to me I hope that you will at least hear me out," said Severus glaring daggers at Professor Ashwood wishing that he could kill the women. Minerva crossed her arms and waited for his explanation. "Professor Ashwood tampered with Arianna's card that she left for me on my desk in the potions classroom. She also laced butter cookies with love potion in the hopes that I would eat them," he said crossing his arms.

"Unfortunately I thought they were from Arianna and I did eat about half of them before lunch. Under the influence of the love potion I went to the room of requirements and did something that I will regret for the rest of my life. I was still under the influence of the love potion when Arianna broke my nose. This cow should be punished for what she's caused. Now Arianna's lying in the hospital wing and may need to be moved to St. Mungos hospital for treatment," he said with tears threatening to spill.

"What happened to Arianna," asked Minerva with a note of terror in her voice?

"I think the stress of the day was too much. One minute she was screaming at me to leave her alone and the next minute she was holding her stomach and screaming in pain. I hope and pray that she doesn't have a miscarriage because of this," said Severus as he turned to return to the hospital wing.

Minerva turned to Morgana and narrowed her eyes at her. "Did you change my daughter's card and place cookies laced with love potion in his classroom?" Morgana looked down at her feet and mumbled under her breath. "Come again, I couldn't hear you," said the now very angry headmistress.

"I did," she said a little louder.

"We will discuss your actions after I see to my daughter," said Minerva as she pulled Severus away.

When Minerva and Severus returned to the hospital wing, two medi-wizards were carrying a stretcher with Arianna on it out of the back door of the hospital wing. Severus ran past Minerva and tried to follow, but was stopped by Madam Pompfrey. "Severus, I'm sorry but she's beyond my help. I couldn't get the bleeding to stop," said Poppy with a firm hand on his trembling shoulder.

She was bleeding," he screamed as the two women tried to calm him.

"What have I done," he said as he collapsed onto a bed and started to cry? Minerva sat next to him and held him as he cried.

"Severus, this is not your fault. Arianna will be alright, and I'm sure that once she gets the chance to calm down she will be much more willing to listen to your side of the story," she soothed.

"I hope that your right," he said as he wiped his face with the sleeve of his robes.

Unfortunately it took the rest of the month for Arianna to get strong enough that the Medi-witches of St. Mungos felt that it would be safe for her to go home. She had come dangerously close to losing the pregnancy. For that reason she was not to take on any more responsibility. She agreed to hand the reins of Slytherin house head back over to Severus, but refused to sleep in the quarters that they had once shared.

Actually the only joy that she found was jinxing and cursing Morgana when she wasn't looking. Her favorite curse of all was a rather interesting one that made her disgrace very public. She couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when they saw the end result the next morning. The only thing that she hated was seeing Severus's face on a daily basis. Her mother had come to her while she was in the hospital and explained what she had learned about the incident which almost cost her the lives of her children. She didn't know if she believed it, but she wasn't up to speaking to Severus just yet.

The next morning Morgana Ashwood awoke and walked into the bathroom to wash her face and prepare for the day. She looked into the mirror and screamed a high pitch shriek of horror. Written in black across her forehead was a short but very nasty sentence. At first it said, "I'm a whore!" She reached for a wash cloth and soap, and started to scrub hard at her forehead. To her dismay the writing did not fade or disappear. Instead as she watched in horror, the words changed from "I'm a whore," to "I'm a slut."

She tried to brush her hair so that it would cover the offensive words but for some strange reason her hair just wouldn't stay covering the writing. She grabbed a scarf and tried to tie it so that her forehead would be covered but the words came through the fabric and started glowing in bright white letters. She reached for a hat and tried to pull it down over the writing, but the hat wouldn't cover the words for some reason and the letters glowed brighter than before. She finally gave up and went to the great hall for breakfast.

When she entered the great hall everyone went silent, because they were all staring at her with their mouths dropped in shock. The staff whispered in hushed tones, and the entire student body sniggered and giggled under their breaths. Arianna sat at the far end of the staff table with a grin as big as a Cheshire cat on her face. Severus was on the other end of the table with his curtains of black oily hair covering his face as he tried not to laugh out loud at his now very embarrassed tormenter.

She took her seat next to professor Flitwick, and jumped back out of her chair as if her rear end was on fire. She tried to stay in her seat of the rest of the morning meal, but the intense heat made it very hard to do. After breakfast she went upstairs to her class room and confronted Arianna Snape.

"I know that you did this to me," she hissed threateningly. Arianna turned to look at her and smiled sweetly.

"Why, Morgana, I don't know what you're talking about. I was and still am very angry with you for what you and my husband did, but I'm not the kind of woman to do childish things like that. All though I have to say that curse your suffering from is quite interesting," she said as she secretly admired her handy work.

Morgana grabbed the skirt of Arianna's robes in an attempt to stop her from leaving. "It wasn't Severus's fault, you have to believe me," she begged. Arianna ripped her skirt out of Morgana's hands.

"I don't have to do anything except for get to my class. Leave me alone." Arianna then thought better of it and turned to face the woman who had destroyed the happy life that she had started with her husband.

"You say that the whole thing was not Severus's fault. Are you willing to prove it," she asked as she removed her wand from her sleeve. Morgana dropped to her knees on the stone floor and started shaking.

"P-please don't curse me again. You're stronger than I am. I'll do anything that you ask of me," she sobbed.

Arianna stood there watching for a while then she spoke her incantation. Using legilamancy she slipped into Morgana's mind. She felt the sexual desire, and saw the vivid memories of every single encounter that Morgana had had with Severus. She saw the expressions on Severus's face and heard and saw him refuse her advances every time. Than the Memory of Valentine's day flooded into her mind.

She saw Morgana brewing a love potion and mixing it into pink frosting, which she spread over the tops of heart shaped butter cookies. She saw Morgana walk down into the potions class room in the dungeons and place the plate of cookies on Severus's desk. Then she opened the card that Arianna had left with the cuff links and changed it. She pulled out of Morgana's mind before she took off Severus's clothes.

Morgana fell backwards onto her rump with the shock of having her mind probed for what was probably the first time. Arianna kept her wand pointed at the cowering witch on the floor and narrowed her eyes with utter disgust and hate. "Luckily for you, my husband is right about me. I don't have it in me to kill anyone. If I did you'd be dead right now for what you've done. If you ever come anywhere near my husband again, I will be forced to do something that you will not like."

She turned and left Morgana standing alone in the corridor. It was a lot for one woman to take in. Her husband had, as her mother told her refused her advances. He had attempted more than once during the past two months to speak with her about it. She knew now what she had to do.

Severus entered the cold and lonely living quarters with a feeling of utter despair settling on him like a cloak of darkness. He had sent owl after owl to his wife, not wanting to cause her anymore stress than needed, with no results. He was starting to lose hope until he caught the subtle scent of her perfume lingering in the passageway.

He ran into the sitting room hoping against hope that she would still be there. The room was empty except for a Hogwarts house elf who was putting away books that he knew were not his in the shelves. He ran into the nursery and saw that the baby things had been returned, and rushed into his bedroom preying that she would be there. Instead he found nothing but a letter sitting on his pillow. He ripped it open, and began to read.

"Severus,

We need to talk. Please go to the transfiguration class room after dinner. Look in the top drawer of my desk and use the green colored flue powder that you find there in the flue.

Still yours,

Arianna"

A/N I hope your enjoying this story because it's almost over. Please review and let me know what you think, and stay on the look out for the Chapter 12 Family is everything.