AUTHORS NOTE: For those of you who read my other fics, you may have seen this note already. But I want to apologise for the long delay in updating A cure for magic and many of my other stories. I've been in a very dark place over the past few weeks, and it's made it difficult for me to find the energy or the will to write. I hold all of my reviewers and readers in such high esteem that I felt it would be better to wait until I felt more human and perhaps give you a shorter chapter, than give you a longer chapter that was sub par when you've waited so long for it.

At times I've been that low over the past few weeks that I was considering things that I haven't in a long time, and it was only the fact that I had promised you all I would leave nothing unfinished, that got me out of bed and stopped me from doing something drastic.

So here's the next instalment of a cure for magic for you all, and I'm sorry again for the delay.

But I also want to thank you all for the constant support you give me, especially those who responded to this authors note already on Father Mine Sins of the Father and NTSG. It really does mean more than you know to have you all there for me when I need it.

"Severus, I can't stay here." She whispered, as tears continued to course down her face.

I can't see him

He sat upon the floor and she leaned back into his chest. His arms came around her and he sighed deeply, and he knew that it was a sigh of relief, that despite everything she was not rejecting him.

"I know" He whispered.

"I know"They packed up their things and moved out the next day and took the long way that skirted around the edge of the village. It took three times as long, was more exposed and didn't provide them any scavenging opportunities. But it had one distinct advantage.

it avoided the playground.

Severus had sat in the darkness and internally debated all night about going back there. The tortuous thoughts swirled violently around his head, making him nauseous and causing him to vomit more than once. He felt that he owed it to him, that he needed to bury him...if there was anything left of him to bury. And that thought got him thinking what he would do if there wasn't. If there was barely enough of him left to bury or if he went looking for Sam and Sam found him. Did he have it in him to do what needed to be done?

After the second time he vomited in the past 30 minutes, Hermione, sensing where his thoughts must have been as he stared gloomily ahead into the darkness, placed a calming hand on his shoulder that made him jump in shock at the unexpected contact to his bare flesh.

"Don't" She said simply.

He opened his mouth to argue but this time it was her turn to ground him. "He's gone Severus" He's gone Hermione.

Her hand pulled his to her rounded stomach and his mouth snapped shut when he felt the movement there, rippling under his palm. Her unsaid words clear as day even in the stillness and blackness of the night.

He is gone, but we're not. He doesn't need you anymore, but we do. We need you now Severus.

Resting his head on the swell of her stomach, he allowed his own tears to fall as she threaded her hands through his hair, they wept together for most of the night until they fell into an exhausted slumber.

They gathered their things in the morning and prepared to leave. Severus turned and looked at the house through narrowed eyes. The last place they had been together, the building loomed above him as though mocking him with its very presence. Did you know? He thought to himself as he mentally addressed the building before him. Did you know what would happen, as we all slept happily with you the night before? Were you witness to our suffering, were you complacent in it?

With a roar of anger Severus cast fiendfyre over the house as they left. And smirked as its mocking presence caved in on itself. It served it's purpose in a way. The magical fire would draw any of the immune and screamers towards it, as they hastily made their way away from it. And it helped Severus's sanity. The anger that was rolling in him quieted a little, and he felt that it was necessary to turn the building to ashes. It was far better for his sanity this way. To burn the damn thing down to naught but a pile of ashes, than to stand here arguing with it.

oOo

They clung to each other more fiercly now, night after night. All too aware that the world they were living in now was as harsh and unforgiving as ever. Without a child sleeping in the room, they had no reason to remain clothed and so each night they pressed fully naked to each other and took each other with a passion that was bordering on desperation. Sometimes he would take her so furiously fast it knocked the headboard into the wall with each of his thrusts. Other times he would be so gentle and tender that they would both weep from the sheer emotion of it.

Sometimes she was too tired to make love, and they would simply hold each other close and slip their hands beneath the covers to bring each other mutual pleasure. It was impossible now for him to lay on top of her, so rounded was her belly, so he would spoon behind her and slipped his hands between her legs, teasing her with deft fingers on her swollen clit until she fell apart into release.

She would reach behind her and grasp his firm shaft in her hand, stroking him firmly, fast and hard until he was begging whispered pleas into her ear, as he buried his face into her neck. She would tighten her grip and tug on him harder until his hands on her hips gripped her tightly, and the pleasured moan that she felt through his chest was only shadowed by the spill of warm liquid on her lower back and ass.

oOo

As they moved, within a few days Severus had decided on a new plan and a new destination.

Eigg had been their plan as long as they could remember, but it no longer offered the comfort they had originally wrought from it. Eigg had been where they were going to go, where they were going to be a family. It was the place they had told Sam about, where Severus had sat him on his lap and pointed to pictures in a mpa and the boy had smiled and excitedly drawn pictures of islands and seas and boats. He'd write EiGg on there, but always got his G's didn't need to convince Hermione, for Neither of them could bare to go there without him. So instead they settled on a new destination.

So they set plans to land in Port Mor. It was further away by boat than Eigg, which is what had put Severus off originally, though now he was more content with the certainty that the screamers really could not swim, once they were in the open water, it would be safe to use magic to aid the movement of the boat, at least until they arrived there.

The island was only 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. Before the outbreak it had a population of 38 people.

Port Mor was where they'd arrive at the Island, and there was little else there but a school, a pub, a farm and a bunkhouse. It seemed fitting though, even the name itself was more in tune with their current feelings.

It was smaller than Eigg, which seemed fitting as their world had become so much smaller without Sam.

And instead of settling in Sam's long awaited EiGg... they were going to the Isle of Muck.