Sorry been so caught up with work, this is just a little taster to let you know I've not forgotten about my CURE readers ! x
"Samuel...he calls you mum?" The words fell from his lips and he wished he'd had the strength to hold them back, afraid of breaking the tranquil peace they were laid in.
She regarded him with a sad smile, but kissed his pectoral gently to let him know it was alright.
"I'm the only mother he's ever known"
The night after they made love for the first time, she opened up to him about Samuel. She'd spoke very little of her time alone with Samuel before they had crossed paths, or of what had happened before she was alone.
The boy was Weasley's it turned out, only the Brown girl was his mother, who he vaguely remembered from her list.
They'd been on the run together, there was Her, Potter, and the brown girl along with 3 Weasleys; Ronald, Ginerva and Percy as well as Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas.
Percy had been the first one to die, the cowardly boy had fled in the night, along with most of their supplies, barely a week after the outbreak. He only got half a mile before the immune got him, and his screams had woken them in the night, thankfully it had been a large horde of immune and when they were finished with him there wasn't enough left of him to turn.
Ginerva and Potter spent all their time together, likewise had Ronald and Lavender 'distracting' themselves, only they were less careful about it and roughly a year after the outbreak, Samuel was soon to be the result.
Lavender Brown had haemorrhaged and died in childbirth, though not before her accidental magic outbursts during a difficult labour had drawn screamers to their location.
Ever the Hero, Potter was bitten then, while attempting at keeping them all back. They managed to barricade themselves inside long enough for Brown to give birth, but they needed to escape. As they began to break through, Potter held them back while the others attempted their escape from a back door. The boy had refused to go with them, knowing he was infected and he had just been turning as they made their way out of the building, a sobbing Ginerva had refused to leave his side, the last thing they saw was the windows going through as Potter dived on the girl in a deadly embrace and the immune forced their way into the building. They barred the door behind them and never looked back.
Things had only gotten worse from there. Samuel had been a difficult child, he'd colicked and cried and made it impossible for them to go unnoticed. They could stay nowhere for longer than a day, for his loud and plaintive cries would draw the immune. Nought but a fortnight after his birth, Seamus and Dean took half of the supplies and left in the middle of the night, the word 'Sorry' written on the wall, leaving behind Ronald, Hermione and Samuel.
A week after that, Hermione was woken by Samuel's continual crying, and wondering why Ronald was not attempting to quiet the boy, as it was his shift to care for him while she slept. She'd gone to check on him, only to find the boy hanging by his neck from the rafters.
She'd been alone then, with Samuel, and had been more or less ever since. Once or twice she'd travelled for short distances with muggles, but they were quick to leave her behind. Samuel was too much of a hindrance, a danger. Once, whilst hiding in a barn, a paranoid muggle had tried to silence the crying boy, permanently. She'd put an arrow through his chest.
That was the last time she tried to join a group. She could rely on nobody but herself. So she carried on alone, just her and Samuel.
Until Severus came along.
And he swore to himself, he would fight to protect them until his last breath.