Chapter 23: Drink the Potion
Severus and Rose laid flat on their backs in the dungeon bedroom. They both stared up at the ceiling, out of breath. The flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows across the walls.
Rose had made love to Severus thoroughly and if out of desperation. If it hadn't been snowing, Severus was certain that Rose would have pulled him behind a tree. The whole walk to the castle consisted of Rose, buzzing with nervous energy. Severus could almost hear it. He wondered if she had been that way since he had left her last night.
"Well," Severus breathed. "That was…"
"I know," Rose returned, "amazing." Severus doubted she was able to register any physical feelings. Rose was a perpetually motion machine with something to prove.
Severus smirked to himself. "Come here." Severus shrugged open his arms to her. Rose instinctively rolled into him, draping herself across his bare chest. "I do not usually feel much older than you," Severus began, "but pull something like that again and you might break me."
Rose looked up at him at once with concern etched between her brows. Severus shook his head slightly and then planted a kiss on her forehead. "The day after Christmas," he assured her, "you will be my wife." He paused to let her process what he was telling her. "If that is still what you want."
A smiled slowly spread across Rose's face. "Of course, that's what I want," she said hurriedly. Rose clung to Severus tightly in a way that suggested she would not let him out of her sight until then. Rose thought for a moment. "but you said…"
"There is a witch in the village who will marry us the morning of the 26th," Severus confirmed. "As for my other news, there is a cottage that has been empty in Hogsmeade for years. I inquired about it weeks ago. Mind you, it is not anything extravagant, but it will not remain empty much longer."
Rose's eyes widened. "You bought us a house?"
"I did," Severus said casually. "This morning."
"I could have contributed towards-"
"No," Severus said gently, shaking his head at her. "It's amazing how money piles up when it remains untouched for decades. I have not had need nor desire to purchase much over the years." Severus caught her gaze and Rose gave him a sad little smile, knowing that he had not been living for himself for so long. "It made me extraordinarily happy to buy a house that I will share with you."
'Extraordinarily happy?' These were not words anyone would expect to be heard coming from Severus Snape. Tears pricked at the corners of Rose's eyes. "Thank you." She kissed his lips with the same energetic passion in which she had just made love to him.
Severus smiled, clearly pleased by her reaction to his gift. Then he gently disentangled himself from her and sat up in bed.
"Where are you going?" Rose asked at once.
Severus slid his gaze over Rose's anxious face. "Nowhere," he assured her. He reached for his wand on the bedside table. "Accio," he said, giving it a quick wave.
A vial of potion zoomed towards them, Severus snatched it up in his fist and handed it to Rose.
She did not drink the liquid at once like she normally did. Instead, Rose fiddled with the vial between her thumb and forefinger. Rose bit her lip and then looked up at Severus. "Severus?" she said hesitantly.
"Yes," he said, watching her hands nervously playing with the potion.
"Hypothetically," Rose continued, "What would happen if I were to not take this potion?" Rose watched the color drain from Severus's face. "Not right away," Rose added hastily, "and after we're married."
Severus's face became unreadable. "You, being an accomplished healer," Severus said rather coldly, "I would imagine that you would know the basics of human biology."
Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "You know that's not what I meant," Rose returned. "I want to know how you'd feel about it."
Severus was painfully quiet. His open eyes closed off to Rose.
"You wouldn't like a little Severus running around?" Rose asked.
Severus signed. "You would inflict the name Severus on another child?" he retorted, giving nothing away.
"Severus," Rose pleaded. "I know it's early to bring this up, but it's something we probably should talk about before we're married. It never occurred to me to ask, but I spoke to my mom last night and told her that-"
Severus threw Rose a sharp look.
"Are we keeping our marriage a secret?" Rose said with sudden exasperation.
"All these months," Severus hissed, "You have seldom mentioned your family. I was under the impression that they did not even know I existed."
"They didn't," Rose admitted sheepishly, "but now they do."
"And you thought that now was the best time to address the subject?" Severus said roughly. "Right before we are going to be married?"
"Yes?" Rose answered questionably. "I mean, what is the alternative? Bring you home one day, introduce you to my parents and then be like 'oh yeah, forgot to mention, Severus is actually my husband. Surprise!' something tells me that would not go over well."
Severus looked away from Rose and scowled at the far wall.
Rose stared at him skeptically. "You didn't think that you could avoid meeting my family if you are going to marry me?"
Severus was silent.
Rose sighed deeply.
"What exactly did you tell them?" Severus demanded.
"About you?" Rose's brows knit together. "I said that I have been seeing a man named Severus Snape and he asked me to marry and I said yes."
Rose's mother, Cora had been silent for a long time on the phone after Rose had given her the news. Rose had thought the phone went dead.
"Mom are you still there?"
"Yes," Core breathed into the receiver. "You're getting married?" she had stammered out.
"Yes, I am. As soon as possible."
"So, you're pregnant?" Cora had assumed.
"What?" Rose returned before realizing how her words could have been misleading. "No mom, I just love him so much and I don't want to wait."
"You love him?" Cora quickly regained her composure. "How long have you even known him?"
"Long enough," Rose had shot back.
"Rose, you have hardly dated anyone and no one seriously. We were honestly beginning to wonder if you even liked men."
Rose was silent. Her family did not know about Tiberius.
"What was his name again?" her mother had pressed. "It was something very different."
"Severus Snape."
"Severus Snape? What a strange name that is. Where is he from?"
"England."
"And is he like us or like you?"
"Severus is a wizard," Rose had informed shortly.
"What does he do for a living?"
"He is a professor."
Hearing this had made Cora's voice brighten slightly. "A professor of what?"
"Potions."
"Oh."
Frustration had built up within Rose. "He has a very respectable career at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry."
"Hogwarts," Cora had repeated, trying the word on her tongue. "And how old is this 'potions' professor?"
"Severus," Rose had corrected, "is 39."
'That had gone over well.'
Severus stared furiously around the room, avoiding Rose's eyes. "And is it a condition of our marriage that we immediately start procreating," Severus said irritably.
"No," Rose protested. "My mom just brought up a few things." Rose tried to sound casual.
"Like what," Severus asked, snapping his gaze back on her frustrated face. He had not anticipated Rose telling anyone about their plans to marry until after it had happened. Severus was not entirely sure why Rose confiding in her mother bothered him so much. Or maybe he did know why. He was not exactly the ideal or most obvious paring for beautiful and sweet-hearted Rose. Severus did not want anyone's interference in their plans for fear that it might result in Rose changing her mind.
"Well," Rose breathed. "My mom asked me if you wanted children and I told her I didn't know."
Severus drank in the surrounding air and rolled his eyes back. He would not even bother asking Rose how she felt on the matter. Based on her attentions towards Ephraim and her general nurturing personality, she was the type of woman who would thrive as a parent.
"And," he pressed.
Rose let out a humorless laugh. "And she remined me that I used to say I would let my second cousin, who is a minister, perform the wedding ceremony."
"Why would you want that?" Severus said coarsely. "Muggle customs have no bond to you. You're a witch, you should want to be wed in the traditional magical way."
Rose looked at Severus somewhat scandalized. "I may not be a 'muggle' but I do come from nonmagical parents. I wouldn't exactly call myself 'unbonded.'" Rose massaged her temple. "It doesn't matter though, I told my mom that we have other plans."
"How did that go over?" Severus asked, his voice becoming calmer.
"Well, I'm sure my minister cousin, Jeremey, will not be too hurt. We are not close, and I think I told him he could officiate my wedding when I was about five. I'm sure he will not hold me to it."
"I don't mean with your cousin," Severus said impatiently.
Rose looked away from Severus. "It could have gone over better," Rose whispered.
Her mother had cried and said that she doesn't even know who Rose was anymore. Her mother's words stung but they were not surprising. Plus, the idea of waiting to marry filled Rose with so much fear and anxiety she could not even think straight.
Severus watched Rose's face carefully; though her eyes were cast down and her face remained stoic, Severus could see the conflict raging within her. "Merlin," Severus swore under his breath.
Rose looked at him curiously. "What is it?"
"Perhaps you better ring your cousin," Severus said bitterly.
"Severus are you saying that-"
"Yes," Severus said irritably. "Let's go to bloody America."
Rose grinned suddenly feeling overwhelmingly happy and then just as quickly she felt overwhelmingly nauseated. Her smile faded. "I haven't seen my family it almost two years."
Severus slowly wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sure you have been well missed."
Rose caught Severus's gaze. "It makes it easier for me to face them knowing that you will be with me."
Severus sighed, thinking that Rose's family was going to despise him. They were going to get her back for two minutes before a cynical man, almost 15 years her senior, would take her away again. Nothing about this homecoming would be easy. "You will never have to face anything alone," Severus told her firmly.
Rose rested her head on his shoulder. "Neither will you."
Severus held Rose for several minutes. "Rose." He loosened his grip on her slightly. "Drink the potion," he said, "please."
Rose still held the vial in her palm. She looked down at it regretfully, then back at Severus who she loved so deeply. She pulled the cork and drank the syrupy liquid.
Severus took the empty vial from her and placed it on the bedside table. He pulled Rose into him again. "I want to give you everything you desire out of life," Severus muttered. He breathed in sharply. "I have no idea what it looks like to be a good father." His voice became hard.
Severus felt Rose nodding against his chest. "I know," Rose assured him. "I won't push you. I promise." She paused. "But for the record, I think you would make a very good father."
Severus let out a noise of disbelieve.
"I feel so fortunate to be loved by you," Rose whispered, running her hand across his chest. "Any child would feel that way too."
Severus highly doubted this, but regardless Rose's words made him feel better. Severus shook his head. "You have an overly high opinion of me," Severus said smugly.
"Yes," Rose agreed with a smile.
DEAR READERS,
Thank you so much for reading this far! I will do my very best to continue to post regularly. Please review. I enjoy reading your comments SO much.
Sincerely,
Thora Jane