Author's Note: All Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling. But I own all original characters.

Note: Thank you to Mythical Witch, Sailor Hecate and The Rogue Author for your reviews. To the Rogue Author, this story is one of those nothing to do with the books stories and sorry if I'm throwing you off with the way I have portrayed Snape, but this is the way the story is going.

Chapter Six

Talking to Kathleen

Snape reached his farm home and walked into the kitchen where there was a cauldron stood with bubbling potion brewing away inside it. It had been brewing for three days now, as it had to be brewed to a thin liquid. Emily was still in a coma, it has been four days and Snape did some serious research.

He wanted to help this girl and her mother. He checked the potion, he stirred and added a little bit of powdered brass shoots, used to help the coma victim come back gently into the waking world and the other ingredients will help Emily recover…how long it determines how bad Emily's condition is.

There was a knock on the door and Snape went to answer it.

"Kathleen?" he said, rather surprised to see her. "What are you doing here? How did you know where I lived?"

"I asked Dumbledore ages ago," said Kathleen.

The two looked at each other. Seeming to have just remembered that they were still at the front door, Severus invited Kathleen inside.

"How is Emily?"

"Still in a coma," said Kathleen, quietly, walking into Severus's home.

She moved her eyes over the area. The whole of the ground floor was an open area, with timber flooring and every section had it's own corner, the living room with a fireplace was to her left and the dining room was passed that and the kitchen was beside the dining room. Over to her right was an open doorway where it led to the bathroom and laundry. In the middle was the stairs that led up to the second floor.

"Nice home," she said, politely.

"Thank you," said Severus. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Just water will be fine," said Kathleen.

Severus offered Kathleen to sit on the couch before going over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Thank you," said Kathleen, when Severus gave her the glass.

Kathleen sipped a little, then placed the glass on the glass topped coffee table.

"May I ask why you came?" Severus asked, sitting down beside her.

"It's a fair question," said Kathleen. "Ever since Emily has fallen ill I haven't been able to talk to many people."

"Don't you have friends or family?" asked Severus.

"Emily's the only family I have left," said Kathleen. "Her father wants nothing to do with Emily or me, and my parents are long dead and I have no brothers or sisters."

Snape nodded.

"As for friends, they all just fell away after awhile," Kathleen continued on speaking. "None of them had children and couldn't, or didn't seem to want to understand. Emily was all I had to keep me from going to pieces.

"I rarely open up to anyone these days, it's been months since I've dared to speak to someone who isn't going to tell me what going to happen to my daughter every time I walk into the room."

"It must be hard," said Severus.

"Have you ever had children?"

"No," said Severus, shaking his head a little.

"Then you don't know how hard it is," said Kathleen, sounding a little harsh. She realised just how she sounded; "I'm sorry," she looked away.

"Don't be," said Severus. "Though I must ask, why you didn't take Emily to St Mungo's Hospital to have her healed that way?"

"Because I have a lot of faith in the muggle treatments," said Kathleen. "Plus to the fact that St Mungo's is more for treatments that are of the magic kind. How many potions are there that are there for something that is more common in muggles than magic?"

Severus understood, it was true that something as serious as leukaemia is more common in muggles than it was of the magic kind. He let out a small sigh.

"Would you be prepared to allow me to give Emily a dose of Amoc-Warrom Potion?" he asked.

"What does it do?" Kathleen asked, a little unsure.

Severus explained that it will help Emily come out of her coma and will help her recover.

"How long it will take, it depends, but…it has worked on many cases," said Severus, carefully.

Kathleen was thinking about it as she held her bottom lip between her teeth.

"If it'll help…" she slowly said. "But for someone who doesn't have kids of his own, why are you helping mine?"

Severus sighed a little. "Because, I want your child to be able to have a better future and…" he stopped, paused, causing Kathleen to raise her eyebrows. "Let's just say no mother should have to suffer a loss of her child."

Kathleen saw a glint of sadness in Severus's eyes.

"Were you married?"

"No," said Severus, looking away from her, but continued to speak; "But I did lose my sister. I was eight years old, she was six and she and I were always loved by our mother. My dad wasn't the kind to know what real love was.

"While this isn't really the same thing, but one day, my father came home and he was drunk again…my sister got in his way and…he beat her to death and whirled upon my mother. I had to sit in a corner and watch this with fear.

"But I can say that my mother suffered more with the loss of Annika than she did with her bruises."

Kathleen couldn't help but show sympathy. Severus turned to face her.

"When I saw you and Emily together on the first day I was there…I could see the same bond that my mother, Annika and I had shared, those are the strongest and…I didn't want you two to lose that."

Kathleen leaned over and kissed Severus on the cheek. Severus looked at her with a surprised look.

"I guess that was a thank you," said Kathleen.

Severus gave a simple nod. The two looked into the other's eyes, seeming to try and read the others. Severus's dark with Kathleen's hazel, just looking deeply at each others.

What happened next, neither one could explain it. Slowly, their lips touched for a fair number of seconds. They pulled away, both felt a little awkward…

"I…better get going," said Kathleen, blushing a little, not sure if it was out of embarrassment or not.

Severus nodded and saw Kathleen to the door. But when they reached the door, they kissed once more before Kathleen walked out on to the porch and began to walk away and apparate when she got as far as halfway down the path.

Severus wondered what had just happened. He walked over to the living room and sat back down on the couch and just thought…

Was he falling for this woman?

He couldn't be…but why could he stop thinking about her?

"Bugger this, I need a drink!" he said out loud and got off the couch to fix himself a scotch…