"You Don't Understand Who They
Thought I Was Supposed To Be
Look At Me Now A Man
Who Won't Let Himself Be"

Alice in Chains- "Down in a Hole"

Severus stood next to the unmarked gray tombstone.  The night sky was ink black, no stars shone through tonight.  He pulled a single blood red rose out from under his robes, dropping it to the ground in front of the headstone. 

He stood there for several minutes.  If someone were to have passed by they would have been hard pressed to have seen him there at all.   His robes became part of the night.  Only the pale skin of his face hovered ghost-like.

He remembered, he felt connected to each and every one of them he watched die.  He remembered her most of all, because no one else would.  She would have been Hermione' s age, if she had lived.  His daughter. 

It was his fault.  She should have never even been born.  He could still hear Augustina's voice, "we do what our Dark Lord tells us to, and we do not question it!"  She had been angered by his protests.

            That was why he held so much bitterness toward Harry Potter.  Harry's mother had given everything she had to save him from Voldemort.  Severus' s wife had taken her baby's life herself at Voldemorts command.  Harry was the famous "Boy who lived", while Serena, his own little girl, had died on the exact same day.

His thoughts chased each other down the well-worn paths in his mind.  Self-hatred, anger, the desire for revenge, sadness, longing for what could have been if Augustina had been who he thought she was when he was young and in love with her…  But his longings had a new twist tonight.  His daydreams of the way Augustina had been when they were both still at Hogwarts were replaced by a new face.  An unsettling face, that of Hermione Granger.    It was wrong; he knew it had to be.  Hermione would have been his daughter's year-mate at Hogwarts. They might have even been friends.

He thought about all he had shared with Hermione today.  It had been so natural to tell her about the magic, to brew the potion with her.  He had asked her to stay and help him again tomorrow.  Would he end up sharing this secret with her as well?  How would she react to this? 

He laughed.  It was a bitter laugh.  He would never tell her about his daughter.  But he would tell her about Augustina, he knew he would.  He would want her to know why he had become a Death-Eater.  He wanted her opinion, he wanted to see her again, he wanted to see her eyes look at him with friendship, and not fear or mistrust.

He stepped away from his daughter's grave, and slipped through the mists to where he had left his horse.  Apparating in this area was very dangerous for him. He always rode Perseus instead.  The blue-black stallion arched his neck as his rider swung into the saddle, but otherwise stood still.  Severus tapped his sides with his heels and they started back to Hogwarts.

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Short chapter, but I hope meaningful.

Severus has to have a horse there is no way he can't if it is my story. It just makes me happy.