Where do you think she went? Let me know in the reviews
Lord Ollivander had been taken to St. Mungo's the morning Robbie found him unresponsive on the floor. He suffered a stroke and was admitted into their Intensive Magical Care Unit. Severus was able to see him, though only briefly. The strong man he once feared now lay in a bed with quickly graying hair and the wrinkles in his face forming deeper caverns.
Given his age and symptoms, they began treatment for Dementia. Severus knew that wasn't the cause, "He doesn't have Dementia, he remembers his name and is aware of his surroundings."
"Who are you, Sir?"
"He's my son… my… my…" Garrick started choking again, both hands went to his throat and his body seized.
"Sir, we need you to remain calm," a nurse fussed, "He's obviously fuddled… Sir, he is not your son."
"Must be a distant cousin, tha's my guess, Lord Ollivander's can't be the last of his line after all." The social worker with the clipboard in the corner said as she ticked off boxes with her oversized quill.
"I'm not fuddled!" he argued then pointed accusingly to the woman in the corner, "Quiet, you heckling gnashgab!"
"No, he's…." another nurse looked at Severus and lost the thought, "he's Lord Prince, recent Order of Merlin to boot."
"He's fa- fa- family and that's all that matters," Garrick struggled as he caught Severus' eye. That's when Severus knew that there was something bigger at play than his wife leaving with the scarred Auror.
"Lord Ollivander, I need you to relax and take deep breaths," the head nurse was standing over him with her wand and a magical instrument in the other.
"I don't need your help, incompetent fools! I need my-" his mouth opened but his tongue did not move nor did any sound come out.
"Lord Prince, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We are going to have to put him under." She tried to shoo him from the bed.
Garrick's hand shot out and grabbed Severus' forcefully, pulling him closer to the bed. Severus almost wretched his hand away from the other man, but locked eyes with what Garrick was trying to tell him. He held Severus' left hand between them, eyes glaring at the ring around his finger.
Silver eyes frantically looking from the ring to him, Severus put a firm hand on his shoulder and bent closer, his hair curtaining his features. He slipped into Garrick's mind easily, as if the old man was waiting for him. Dozens of memories presented themselves that were empty, he couldn't understand. Until he saw one that featured himself.
Garrick was on the second floor, watching a noticeably young Severus being pulled by an invisible force into the wand shop. It was the day he met Juliet, yet she was not in this memory. He watched a younger version of himself walk out of the wand shop after bowing and kissing an invisible hand.
When he pulled out of his mind, he now knew the significance of the ring on his finger. Garrick's eyes watered and gripped his wrist tighter. He was fearful because he couldn't see her in his memories, and if he still had his ring that meant she was real.
Severus' tightly pressed lips barely moved, "You were there."
Garrick knew what he meant, that statement was backed with unspoken questions the onyx eyes above demanded. He wanted to know why he never said anything or got involved that day.
"Misericordiae operator."
He had even more questions, but the Nurse tapped her crooked wand to Garrick's temple and he instantly fell into a peaceful slumber, "Now we'll get him sorted."
Severus followed her trail as best he could, which one would think wouldn't have been so hard given her scent was still fresh. Yet his trail of her went cold in the middle of their kitchen. As if she apparated without a destination.
Moody's trail was just as abrupt. When the man said he would hide her where no one would find her, he meant it. Severus threw himself to books of lay lines and portals, remembering the night Moody summoned Juliet at Grimmauld place.
Severus traced him to various apparition points across the country but ended at a cliff in Northern Scotland. The smallest island far off the coast of the mainland. There was a lighthouse off to the distance that held no meaning.
He paced at the edge of the cliff, staring out into the foreboding sea as the winds whipped around him violently. Other days he paced back and forth at the cliff, waiting, and hoping to catch Moody either coming or going. His senses were spot on to know this was the main point of entrance to wherever the coveted hideout was.
He tried multiple spells, enchantments and runes yet got no further. He had no sense of direction Moody could have gone from that small island.
Weeks had passed since Severus had seen anyone or even left the house. It had been days since he bathed or shaved; his tensed fingers tangled in his stringy, oily hair. He sat utterly defeated on the edge of their bed with his head in his hands and elbows on his knees. The white button-up he wore now torn and disheveled. The sleeves were burnt from the elbow down as proof of his magical outbursts.
He hardly remembered anything, yet he knew the answer to all his biggest question. His inner compass wasn't spinning or pointing North, it remained broken and unresponsive; much like himself. She was gone. Where she'd been cast for imprisonment, he did not know.
What he did know is Alastor Moody was the reason behind the madness he was enduring. His mind was full of memories that he couldn't pin down. As if he always had something nagging in the back of his brain that could easily be brought forward with the right trigger.
Even worse, he discovered the inability to speak at any mentions of her. His throat tightened and his tongue stuck itself to the roof of his mouth. He tried to fight it, as did Garrick but neither came out unscathed.
His mind was being torn apart, all of the memories of her were blurry. He knew all of the details but couldn't see her face in his mind. Even worse is the pictures around their apartment were now blank or only had him in the frames.
He tore apart their home looking through photos of her and found none. He set his desk and all of the notes around it on fire when he found blurry pages of his sketches.
Severus started to hyperventilate, Moody erased her from his memory and he had nothing left to hold onto but his wedding ring and whatever belongings she left in the apartment.
A soft knock on the door went unanswered. As did the familiar feminine voice of his mother calling to him, "Severus?"
He sat in still silence, eyes downcast to the floor and unfocused. She crept slowly into the room and carefully sat next to him on the bed, adjusting her robes at the neck due to the heat in the room.
"Mother, tell me a story."
His sudden request surprised her, yet she sighed softly. After a few moments of thought, she spoke, "There once was a bird who was very tired and hungry. Try as he might, he couldn't find anything to eat. Day after day he hunted and scavenged, yet nothing could be found."
Severus remained hunched over, silently waiting for her to continue the story he never heard as a child.
"On the night he was sure would be his last, a snake approached him, 'My dear friend, why do you look so sick?' To which the bird replied, 'I haven't eaten in days, these lands are barren, and I won't make it through the winter.'" She shifted in her spot and started to fuss with her robes, "'Today is most fortunate, for I know how to get food, the bugs you seek are under these rocks.' The snake explained. 'Yes, but these rocks are too large for me. I can't possibly lift them.' The bird tried to flip one of the large stones yet failed."
"The snake gave a grin, 'They are not too large for me.' And easily flipped a stone over with its tail, 'Eat my friend, and see another winter.' The bird happily ate his fill and thanked the snake, 'I've made it today, but what of tomorrow?'" she cleared her throat and put a hand up as she spoke, "'Give me a feather, and I will trade you, my friend. Watch and you'll learn young one, I'll give you all you'd ever want to eat and to drink.' The bird was hesitant, 'But without my feathers, I won't be able to fly.' To which the snake replied, 'Just a single feather, surely that won't keep you from flying.'"
She put a hand on his shoulder and slowly rubbed her hand back and forth, "So they traded the feather for companionship. As time went on the snake continued to ask for more feathers, 'One was the deal before, but now I want three.' The bird refused, 'But then how will I fly? What is a bird without feathers?' 'What need is there to fly when all I provide is here on the ground? Don't you fret, I'll keep my word if you keep yours, you still need me to live.' As time went on and the snake continued asking for more feathers until the bird had nothing left to give but himself."
Severus' shoulders shook slightly, "They've taken my feathers, Mother."
She wrapped both arms around him tightly, "Then you must go into the belly of the beast and get them back. Even if it tears you apart."
