Severus was ready to scream, rip his hair out, do anything to take back what he had said. Though it held the most truth in anything that he had said as of late that still didn't change the fact that they came out at the wrong time. Now he couldn't find his neice to applogize. What kind of person was he? To say such things about her own father when he knew damn well that she would be there soon. He let his anger and hatred out when it should have stayed within him. If anything happened to Jill it would be his fault and his fault only,

"Sweet Magick prevent anything from happening to her before I can get to her. Protect her from the evils of this world." He whispered softly as he wandered the halls of the cursed Black Manor.

"Severus! Were you able to find her?" Remus choaked out as he leaned heavily on the banister of the stairs still halfway up the stairs looking intently at Severus who was at the top of the stairs. Standing there, defeated.

"No, Lupin." Severus told him quietly, wishing that his own words had not been true.

"I was unable to as well. Perhaps Sabine has had better luck."

Sabine. She was in the kitchen desperately contacting friends and family to see if they had had any contact with Jill, this probably to no avail. If Jill were anything like her father she would know just how to escape the eyes of everyone, especially in the state she was in. The look in Jill's eyes had been devestating, emotions that a child at eleven years old should not know. Severus ticked off the list of emotions as he followed Lupin's form down the stairs and to the kitchen.

Emotion one: Betrayl, one he knew all to well, the emotion in another girl's eyes as she fell from his grasp. Emotion two: Hurt, dammit he hurt her! A child! Emotion three: Confusion, of course she was confused, her father left her as a baby, she never knew him yet people spoke of him so vehemently. Not only that but learning of the relationship of her mother and her godfather (though not completely comprehending what it entailed) is enough to confuse anyone. Emotion four: Love, love for a father she never knew, love for a mother that cared for her, love for a father figure, her godfather. And he hoped a love for him, her uncle.

Severus and Lupin walked into the kitchen and upon hearing their footsteps Sabine looked to them, a bruised look in her eyes that matched the same bruised look Severus saw in Jill's eyes.

Just before she turned and ran away from me.

Ran away to some unknown place, where she could be hurt or dying and none of them would know it, until it was too late.

"Nothing Sabine?" Lupin asked and Sabine shook her head as she walked up to him and he held her tightly to him whispering sweet nothings to her that made Severus want to vomit. And he would have had the situation not been so serious, he really would have.

But this was no time to get his emotions or his disgust out of whack. He needed to be calm and level headed if he wished to see Jill alive again and safe.

He took a deep breath as he leaned on the counter next to the sink, still close enough to Remus and Sabine but far enough away to hold his lunch in. He began to think, if he were Jill where would he run off to? Family? No, too many questions. Hogwarts? Absolutely not. Of all the places it would definently not be that place, for the time being anyway. Where would she go? That's when the realization hit him. She went to him, she went to be with him. The one man in the world that would understand her pain.

"No, she can't. She just can't!" Severus whispered softly as he braced himself away from the counter in horror.

"Can't Severus? Can't what? What do you know?" Remus demanded and Severus stuttered,

"I-I am not sure. I cannot be sure unless I go and check it out. You both must stay here in case I am wrong and she comes back here."

Sabine made a sound and attempted to protest but Remus held her tighter, silencing her.

"I trust your judgement Severus. Be careful and if you do indeed see her, send her our love and appologies."

"I will." Severus walked around the couple and went to the door grabbing his long black trench coat as he walked out the door, the door slamming behind him.

"I just hope that I am wrong, or that I am not too late."

With that he quickly put on his jacket and briskly walked off, the fall colors brilliantly shone around him as the sun began to set. But the man paid no heed to the brilliancy around him, intent on his path. His path to hell, his path to the Wizard Prison, Azkaban.