Chapter 14

A/N:

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Dumbledore sent them from his office with a wave of his hand. Lily stood, carefully holding Juniper to her chest, frowning at her husband when he did not follow.

"Headmaster," said Severus, staring at the old man with neither respect nor fear. "What were those dreams about?"

Dumbledore's bushy grey eyebrows rose. "What dreams?"

"The ones you made me have all through my O.W.L. year. The nightmares, the bad futures."

Dumbledore shook his head, looking entirely nonplussed. "Severus, I never made you have any dreams, not in your time as a student or ever."

The headmaster made no attempt to block Severus's stabbing Legilimency, and Severus saw that the old man told the truth—he hadn't given Severus those cruel dreams. He shook his head and fled from the room. After a curious glance back at Dumbledore, Lily followed, shushing Juniper's cooing.

(*&^%$#$%^&*(

Severus knelt on a cold stone floor, blood sheeting down half of his pale face. His knees were bruised from the hard flagstones, his neck aching from the strain of holding his exhausted head up.

"….I know nothing, My Lord, I swear it," he was murmuring fervently to a pair of long, deathly-white feet which protruded from under robes as black as the night outside.

One of the feet shifted. "Such lies, Severus…. No matter. I will break you. There is world enough, and time…. I have you for the rest of your days."

Severus made a muffled choking sound, and several droplets of blood dripped onto the floor beneath his face. "My Lord," he sputtered. "Surely you realize… I cannot tell you that which is unknown to me."

At this, the man standing before him let out a high, cold laugh. "Crucio!"

For the first time in that long night, Severus could not bite back his screaming.

^&*(%$^&^%$

Lily shot upright, panting, and looked into the eyes of her husband, who had somehow simultaneously awoken beside her, her fear and horror mirrored in his eyes.

"Sev," she gasped, grabbing his shoulders. "You, I, I saw," she babbled senselessly, disgusted at both her shaking and the tears in her own eyes.

"I know," Severus replied, equally as panicked, kissing her eyelids. "I know, I saw it too."

"Are those the dreams?" she whimpered. "The ones you thought Headmaster Dumbledore was making you have?"

"Yes."

"And you had them back in fifth year?"

"Yes, and they were always horrible, you were dead and I was older. But one of them, one of them was nice, it came true, I saw June, she was about eleven."

"Blimey, Sev," Lily breathed, calming down some. "D'you reckon there's Seer blood in your family?"

He let out a shaky laugh and was about to reply when a long, keening scream sounded from the next room over.

Juniper's nursery.

Lily, reacting with the speed possessed by only a mother whose cubs are threatened, tore off the covers and sprinted from the room. Severus followed but a moment later, carefully snatching his wand from the bedside table.

Lily, however, who had been raised by Muggles, had gone wandless to face the unknown danger.

Severus peered cautiously into the now-silent nursery, wand lit, breath bated at the possibility of what he might see. Lily was on her knees beside the little crib, hands wrapped around the bars, unmoving.

Suddenly, she let out a piercing wail, not lifting her head up. Severus approached the crib warily, terrified of what could be inside. He let his wandlight bathe the crib in light, taking in the downy lavender blanket, the one or two soft toys, the silent and motionless hanging mobile.

Empty crib.

Black brand burned into the mattress.

The Dark Mark.

His sign.

Severus too fell to his knees, mouth agape, brain unwilling to accept this horrible turn of events. His only child, the tiny, perfect DNA mix of himself and Lily, snatched away by the merciless Dark Lord, that evil King of Shadows. He put out a shaking hand and grazed his wife's shoulder, trying futilely to soothe her aching. After several long moments, he found the courage to speak.

"Lily," he said softly. "I'll go find her." He noted with self-loathing that he could not bring himself to say his daughter's name.

His wife did not move. "I'll go with you," she whispered.

Severus shook his head fervently. "We're the Longbottoms' Secret-Keepers, remember? If we die, whoever we told becomes Secret-Keeper—only we haven't told anyone. I don't know what happens then. You need to stay alive."

Lily seemed to accept this. Severus stood in a fluid motion, leaving Lily kneeling on the floor. He had never been good at comforting her, or anyone.

She said nothing, merely drew a limp hand across her own stomach, and Severus knew that she was longing for a time past, when her baby child had been safe within her own womb, never apart from her.