Chapter 101: Evident Truths
{A/N: Here's Another Update...}
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The Snape Residence, Muggle London, England...
Severus Snape got to his feet in what he believed to have been his loo back at the flat she shared with Hermione and his children. He had been much too weak to move up off the floor as the images came flooding his senses. He felt the unmistakable hardening of his cock as he crawled out of the loo and into the sitting room. His heart was pounding as the familiar cackle of Bellatrix LeStrange filled his ears. His vision blurred and the distant humming came next. Everything went black and before the dour wizard knew it, he had been awakened after quite some time by a very concerned Lucius Abraxas Malfoy. The handsome blond had quickly helped Severus up off the floor.
"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" asked Lucius getting Snape to the sofa.
Snape had been completely disoriented but managed to point toward the briefcase in the far corner of the sitting room.
As quickly as he could, Lucius made his way over toward the briefcase and retrieved it. At Snape's behest he opened it quickly and fumbled until his pale fingers clasped the small black phial within.
He grabbed it and immediately unstopped it pouring as much of it down Snape's throat as he could manage.
The potion appeared to have done the trick as Snape came back to his senses.
"What is going on?" asked Lucius still very much concerned for his old friend.
"It's nothing." replied Snape struggling to sit up.
"You being in crippling pain is not simply nothing." said Lucius eyeing him rather suspiciously.
"Drop it Lucius." said Snape in a testy manner.
"You know very well that I won't." replied Lucius.
"This is none of your concern." said Snape.
"Like hell it isn't." replied Lucius outraged. "Something is obviously wrong with you Severus, I found you here on the floor in a great deal of pain as if you were under the dark lord's curse."
"As I've told you before, this is none of your concern." said Snape.
Lucius grabbed his arm as he made to get up off the sofa.
"Severus what ever is happening to you...I want to know about it." he said serious. "For the past eleven year I've mourned you just as much as anyone else and I'll be damned if I have to endure that again."
Snape looked into the sorrowful gray eyes of the Governor of Hogwarts.
"Muffliato." said Snape then he turned his attention to Lucius.
The handsome blond was filled with anguish from the moment the charm was cast.
"I am dying." said Snape looking his oldest friend in the eyes.
"H-How is this possible?" asked Lucius confused. "Have you come down with some sort of sickness?"
Snape shook his head.
"I wish it were that simple." he replied with a sigh. "No...this is the residual effect of the spell I created...the spell Potter used to try and end my life."
"This can't be." said Lucius outraged still. "We saved you...we brought you back..."
Snape shook his head.
"It appears that the moment Potter cast the spell he ensured that his signature would remain in place." said Snape. "I have been biding my time trying to look for a cure or a counter-spell, even going so far as to trying to craft one myself."
"But it was to no avail." said Lucius feeling the weight of his oldest friend's impending doom upon them. "Who else knows?"
"Master Phaeron." replied Snape. "He's been brewing the potions that keep me functioning."
"Not Hermione?" asked Lucius with an arched brow. "Surely you've spoken to your wife."
"And what would you have me tell her?" asked Snape slightly irate. "That the man she spent a little over eleven year mourning is once again going to die and leave her to raise not one but three children alone?"
"She and your children will want for nothing." said Lucius serious. "Not while I yet draw breath."
"I appreciate everything you've done for her." said Snape. "And it's only a matter of time before she learns of my illness...but as of now old friend... I ask that you say nothing...I have not given up the search for a cure and I do not wish to burden my wife with this new pregnancy to contend with."
"Severus, that witch loves you more than you will ever know." said Lucius.
"I understand that." said Snape not at all looking forward to telling his wife that he would not be there to see their children reach adulthood. "And I love her just the same...but I will not put extra strain on her...you know how delicate pregnancy is for her given what Dolohov has put her through."
Against his better judgement, Lucius agreed not to say a word to anyone about Snape's condition. He had just hoped his friend could find a cure before the end or there would definitely be hell to pay on his end once Hermione got wind of his knowledge about her husband's illness and lack of forthcoming.
"What brings you all the way over here?" asked Snape changing the subject.
"Well when neither of you picked Sidney up from Primary school, they contacted his godfather." replied Lucius unable to resist tooting his own horn at the fact that he had two godsons via Severus and Hermione. There had been no one they trusted more with the lives of their children. Save for Narcissa, who had been god-mother to them both.
"Thank you." said Snape treating his "older brother" to a rare smile.
"Don't mention it." replied Lucius returning his smile. "I was happy to be of assistance little brother."
He tussled Snape's lengthy raven hair and watched as Sidney came bursting from the room fearful of his "Papa's" condition.
"Papa are you sick?" he asked treading carefully.
"I'm fine Sidney." replied Snape trying to reassure the boy. "Fit as a fiddle."
The boy looked over at Lucius for a second opinion.
"He just got a bit winded is all." said his god-father.
Sidney looked over at Snape seeming to study him for the longest time before he raced over toward his father and hugged him tight.
"I love you Papa." he said with a voice filled with innocence.
"And I love you my son." said Snape breifly returning his hug.
Later...
Hermione had awoken late in the evening. Snape had taken it upon himself to cook supper for everyone and get Sidney ready for bed. He had just sat down on the sofa when the sleepy witch entered the sitting room rubbing her eyes. He smiled at how much she had changed and how so much about her had remained the same since the day he met her on her first day at Hogwarts. The same bushy brown hair and intelligent but excitement filled eyes. The very same take no prisoners attitude that always got him to soften when it came to dishing out her punishment.
"Severus." she said in a near on whine.
"Come here love." he replied with a rather contented smile upon his face.
She made her way over toward him and he pulled her close to him as she sat on the sofa. Having this beautiful pregnant witch in his arms had been one of the real highlights of Snape's day. Even when they were battling the dark lord and his tyrannical rule. Coming back to his quarters and finding Hermione Granger curled up into a ball in his bed seemed to make all the ugliness of what was happening around them disappear.
"I'm famished." she said softly.
"Are you now?" he asked.
"Mmmm." she replied. "You've been rather busy Professor."
"Haven't I?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Yes." she replied. "Up to no good in the kitchen?"
"I'll let you be the judge of that." he replied. "Come...let's get you both fed."
"If you say so." said Hermione letting him guide her into the kitchen.
The Snape's shared their supper together and read a bit for the close of the evening. Almost against her will Hermione found herself getting sleepy once more. Her husband joined her in bed as they pulled back the covers and she rested her bushy head against his lean pale chest. The sound of Snape's rapid breaths like music in time with his thunderous heartbeat finally lulled her to sleep.
The thoughts of his impending end came back to the sleepless Severus who could not get himself to fall into the warm depths of slumber no matter how hard he tried. The warmth and love he felt from his wife had been all he had ever wanted in his miserable life. Now that he had found the woman he had been meant for, he was to be taken away from her again.
Unable to come to terms with what he deemed to be inevitable, Severus Snape wept much like he had when he was a child hearing the same brutal roar of Tobias as he struck his mother in the kitchen back at Spinner's End. He had loved this bushy haired witch with ever aspect of his being, and hurting her was the last thing he had wanted to do, but it seemed no matter how hard he tried to avoid causing her pain, it was inevitable.
"Hermione." he said softly in the dark. "I-I'm so sorry...I've failed you yet again."
Blissfully unaware of the fate that awaited her husband, Hermione continued to sleep with pleasant dreams of the future.