A/N- Thank you all so much for the kind reviews. If I resolve all their issues in one go, there is no more story. So they will have to bumble along and figure it out at their own snail's pace. Kind of like real life.

Snow

Of Gold and Steel

Chapter Twenty Five

Sara pulled her coat more tightly around herself. How long she'd been wandering the halls she didn't know. Hours had passed, she knew that, and the first tendrils of dawn were creeping over the trees in the distance. She still sat in the quiet tower she'd found, surrounded by telescopes and models, apparently some kind of observatory. It was there that she was finally able to breathe deeply, freely. How many lifetimes had it felt like since she'd known that she loved him. There was, as Dumbledore had said, something deep inside Severus that was broken. And she was supposed to fix it. But how the hell was she supposed to fix anything if she didn't even know what it was that was broken?

A part of her had hoped, prayed, that he'd weaken that control of his just long enough to admit that he felt something. It was an uphill battle, but she had, even if foolishly, signed on for the long haul. The only problem that remained was finding out just what the long haul really was.

"Sorry, I didn't know anyone was up here." The soft voice of a young man caught her attention and Sara rose swiftly to her feet, scrubbing at her face as she turned.

She was bone tired, exhausted, and had no real idea what time it was. The young man in front of her was the exact image of the one person she'd never hoped to lay eyes on again in her lifetime. Before she even knew she was moving, her wand was out and the hex had flung from it without so much as an uttered word. He went flying back, hitting a railing, eyes wide and stunned.

Her brain, her poor overloaded, overstressed and unrested brain gave up any sense of reason as she struck again, the fear instinctive on a level she'd never known before, consuming her as she flung her wand outward in an overreaching arch, pummeling him once more with the same hex just as he'd begun to struggle to his feet. Beside her head, the chandelier that hung from the ceiling exploded. Rage filled her, consuming her. NO! He wouldn't touch her again!

The pale blond hair of the young man was quickly matting with blood as she turned blindly. He was on his feet and fighting back. Fuck. Sara found herself flung to her knees from the force of the cutting blow to her back. What the hell was that?

"Sectumsempra!" He shouted the spell again, and again she was propelled forward, blood rushing to the open wound on her right shoulder blade.

She hissed in pain as she gripped her wand more tightly and staggered to her feet, spinning to face him once more, wand at the ready, disarming him swiftly. She crossed the room toward him, her eyes locked to his face as her wand tip pressed into his jugular. "Who the hell are you, boy?"

"Draco Malfoy!" The shout from the doorway captured her attention. Sara's hand trembled, shaking from the force of her confusion, her rage, her fatigue. The young man was visibly shaken, wandless. Dumbledore swept forward toward them, his voice sharp. "Mrs. Snape, lower your wand this instant."

It was that tone, a tone she'd never heard the old man use, that snapped her from her reverie. The world spun before her eyes as she pressed her wand into his throat harder. Had it been a dagger he would have lay on the stone floor bleeding already. She didn't recognize her own voice, stricken and broken. "Draco? His... his name is Draco?" Her wand hit the ground, falling from suddenly numb fingers. In the next moment, she crumpled to the ground, the last coherent thought that registered was the irony that it was the innocent young man she'd attacked that was the one to catch her smoothly and keep her from falling over the railing to the ground below.

Severus paced outside the infirmary, his arms folded over his chest. Dawn had broken more than two hours before, as had his restless sleep, awakened to the frantic babbling of Draco Malfoy. The boy looked like hell, and when he extended the wand to Severus, Sara's wand, Snape had paled.

He knew even less now than he had when he'd arrived at the hospital wing, immediately sent out by Poppy before he'd even made it through the door. He gave Malfoy a scathing glare. The boy flatly refused to talk, save to mutter an apology. Severus gripped Sara's wand in his hand, holding to it like a lifeline.

Dumbledore emerged from the infirmary, his eyes lighting on Severus. His expression was inscrutable, as it always was when something was on his mind. Severus resisted the urge to launch himself through the door. He settled, instead, for uttering the single word impatiently. "Well?"

The older man lingered in the doorway for a moment before casting fading blue eyes toward Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, what was the exact nature of the spell you used on Mrs. Snape?"

Severus's eyes narrowed, this bit of information dragging him from his worry long enough to stare toward Draco. The lad hadn't told him this part. Only that Sara was in the infirmary, apparently wounded, but had said nothing of him being the cause of it. Severus stiffened the instant he heard the words, his heart stopping in his chest. "Sectumsempra." The boy said this quietly and Severus's eyes darkened, knowing immediately where he'd learned it from.

Severus moved instantly, pushing past Albus and into the infirmary. The urge to flatten the Malfoy heir was only the second most pressing urge. Dumbledore didn't try to stop him this time as he stepped aside and swept into the hospital wing. Poppy was standing over Sara, who lay on her stomach, her face buried in a pillow. For one sickening moment, he stood still, stricken at the side. His kelsalis lay on one of the cots, her back exposed. Twice. The little shit had struck her twice with the spell. Dozens of tiny cuts covered her back, a longer one, a deliberately placed slash over one shoulder blade, marring the lines of her delicate body.

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "I don't know the reversal spell, Severus. All I can do is treat the cuts with dittany."

Snape shook his head, his own wand drawn out as he pushed wordlessly past her, drawing a chair close to the edge of the bed with a flick of his wand. He didn't so much as further acknowledge the mediwitch as he lowered his head, his wand tracing over the wounds as he began to work. Minutes later, or perhaps it was hours, he sat in the same chair, staring at her. His classes were canceled for the day, and Sara still hadn't awakened. Despite the matron's attempt to reassure him he'd undone the majority of the damage, he still stubbornly refused to move from his self-appointed station, refused to even speak to anyone, merely sat and stared, wand at the ready to hex Draco Malfoy into oblivion should he dare to so much as poke his head into the room.

"Severus?" Dumbledore's soft voice interrupted his visions of the many different ways to inflict equal pain on the young Malfoy as had been inflicted on his wife. Merlin, he was so tired. Exhausted was the right word. Snape lifted his eyes to Dumbledore, though he did not speak. The Headmaster's gaze flicked to Sara. "Madam Pomfrey tells me there is no more danger to her or the baby."

The acknowledgement of the child that lay within Sara's womb sent a bolt of awareness through him and for a moment, that shot of joy that went with it came again, only to be pushed away with Dumbledore's next words. "I've spoken with Draco Malfoy. He assures me he did not intend any real harm to come to her. He claims she attacked him first, with a stunning spell."

"He's lying." Severus broke his silence, speaking flatly. "Ask Poppy, she'll confirm it. She was hit with two of them, Albus. From behind. Her back was turned to him, she had to be faced the other direction for him to hit her in the back." His eyes moved back to the older wizard for a moment before he shook his head and glanced down again. "Besides, why would Sara attack him? She doesn't even know him."

Albus stepped forward, lowering onto the chair on the other side of the bed. "I think I know the answer to that, but I'm not sure it's one you'll want to hear, Severus." The unfamiliar hesitation brought a new wave of unease. Severus stiffened in his chair as Dumbledore continued. "When I came to you, asked you to bond with her, I told you that she had been contracted at a young age. You own contract with her would supersede the previous."

Snape's eyes never left Sara's form as she shifted in her sleep, dreaming of what though, he could only wonder. His fingers twitched to reach out and touch her, to bring some measure of comfort. Instead he merely stared. "Go on."

The Headmaster's voice lowered, though unneeded. They were alone in the hospital wing. "Her life story is not mine to tell. But this part… Draco does heavily resemble his father, don't you agree?"

Pieces fell into place, the quiet words zinging around his skull and bouncing around as the puzzle took on a new form. He cursed fluidly, his outward calm broken as he rubbed at his temple. "Malfoy. The contract was with Malfoy."

The older man bowed his head for a moment. "Apparently a week or so before she came to me, he sought her out with the intent of enforcing the contract. Sara was quite upset. She contacted me, asking my help, and well, you know the rest. She never knew his name, only that he was English and that he took liberties she didn't think were appropriate. I obtained a copy of the contract for myself, she refused to read it. But the terms, Severus, they were slanted heavily in his favor offering her no protections save death itself."

Severus's eyes lifted, and he made no effort to hide the sneer on his face. "Yes, and so you came to me, to bind me to her because I'm so much gentler."

Dumbledore's voice hardened a shade. "Yes. You are. You may be a rough around the edges, Severus, but you are not a man to abuse a woman, by your very nature. I entrusted her to you, as I have entrusted other things to you as well."

Snape narrowed his eyes on the other man, his own limits reached. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. I do not want to do this anymore. There's more at stake now, unlike all those years ago, Albus… and because of you… I actually have something to lose now. I have something he can use as leverage against me and I can't make certain she's safe."

For a moment, regret shone in the older wizard's eyes. "Yes. It is a dangerous thing I ask of you. But it is something that must be done. There is no other choice, Severus, you know that. But I think, that if you will be patient, just a while longer, you will understand that she is not the burden you think her to be."

Severus shook his head, his voice holding a note of defeat. "She is not a burden. She is the greatest gift I have ever been given. For the first time, since…" He broke off into silence for a moment before going on. "I do not want this anymore, Headmaster. I want a quiet life. I want to live with my wife, and raise my daughter. And that is precisely why, Albus…" He averted his gaze toward the wall behind the other man's head. "That's why this can't go on. Send her back to America, Albus, as soon as she is well enough to go." With that he slipped his wand into his sleeve and rose to his feet, his voice soft. "Send her away. It is the only way."