Chapter 102: Frustration and Suspicion
{A/N: Here's Another Update...sorry for the delay...worked a double this weekend and was definitely tired...late post sorry for the missteps...}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S
Make-shift Lab, Cokeworth England, Muggle World...
Sorrowful smokey gray eyes scanned the make-shift lab of one desperate Severus Sebastian Snape. There had been no sign of the Potions Master for near on two weeks with his excuse to his worried and still heavily pregnant wife that he had been swamped with work for much of the time. Hermione had been growing suspicious and her concern for her husband prompted a watchful Lucius Malfoy to take the initiative and investigate on the bushy haired witch's behalf. With a sigh the elder Malfoy made his way inside the lab and found to his unstated horror that Severus had been passed out on the floor from what Lucius could only classify as sheer exhaustion.
"Severus!" he said immediately making his way to his ailing friend's side. "Severus can you hear me!?"
The ailing Potions Master gave no response for several minutes.
"Severus Sebastian Snape if you don't wake up right now, I am going to tell your wife all about your little project."
This threat proved to be quite useful as Snape's obsidian eyes immediately snapped open. His brow furled in agitation at the prospect of Lucius informing a very pregnant Hermione of anything pertaining to his impending doom.
"You will do no such thing." he said rather slowly from lack of breath.
Lucius breathed a sigh of relief.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack." he said in a tone of concern. "Do you not get the implication of your wife's fury that would be visited upon my house should she ever discover I knew you were sick and that you died?"
Snape rolled his eyes.
"The great Lucius Abraxas Malfoy afraid of a Muggle-Born?" he said with a sneer. "I never thought I'd see the day."
Greatly annoyed Lucius narrowed his gray eyes at his "little brother".
"Make no mistake I fear no Muggle-Born." he said rather testy. "But "little sister" is a Snape and by extension an honorary Malfoy...which makes her dangerous, formidable, utterly brilliant, and equally deadly...besides even you are afraid to tell her about your...condition."
Snape pulled away from the elder Malfoy's supporting grasp and scrambled to his feet.
"I am not afraid of telling her." he said bitterly.
He walked over toward his table with various books and potions already in use.
"Severus...perhaps you should take it easy." said Lucius still heavily concerned. "You are putting a good deal of strain on yourself as of late."
"I cannot afford to "take it easy". said a still very bitter Snape. "I have no idea the kind of time I have left...should my magic become drained then..."
"There would be no way for you to keep the spell from draining your life." said Lucius coming to the same conclusion. "But Severus surely there is..."
"I've tried it." replied Snape. "For the passed six years I have been searching for a way to counter the spell so that it does not drain my life energy...but have come up short...it begins on a set path...first my magic than my life...no reprieve."
The Potions Master suddenly threw half the useless books he had been reading through off the make-shift desk in a fit of rage. The handsome blond wizard said nothing as he watched Snape, The angry wizard's pale chest rising and falling from the force of the activity he had endured.
"I have to find a way to cure this." said Snape meeting Lucius Malfoy's concerned gaze. "I have to be there for my wife and children...Sidney is so much like Hermione...to see him make it to Hogwarts and beyond...is more than what I could have imagined I would experience from the day he was born...I've missed so much with Phaeron...and...he's got this rage...my death would only intensify that...he's too much like me...I won't have him making the same mistakes I did...and...then there's my wife...Hermione had been through so much...from all the missteps that I have taken when dealing with her as a student to my failures during the first few year of our marriage...I owe it to her to be the man that she deserves..."
Lucius understood all too well the enormous amount of pain Snape had been in...not just physically but emotionally as well. His experiences during the second wizarding war had taught him to appreciate much, especially where Draco and Narcissa were concerned. Though it all Severus had been the one to see him to the other side. Severus had been the one to keep his wife and son safe from both Dumbledore and The dark lord's clutches.
A spasm of pain ripped through Snape's weakened body and his knees buckled.
Moving faster than the time for thought had taken place, Lucius caught the younger wizard before he again fell to the floor, possibly causing himself more damage on the way down. Snape seemed ashamed of showing such weakness in the face of his elder.
"I-I apologize for my weakness...brother." said Snape with his fists balled and his weakness evident.
"I'll have none of that Severus." said Lucius meeting the younger wizard's sorrowful obsidian eyes. "We are not death eaters any longer...we are men of flesh and blood...we get injured...we grow ill...and we meet our fates with dignity."
Snape tried his best to ignore the continued spasm of pain shooting through him. Once it was gone his eyes once again met those of Lucius Malfoy.
"You are the most talented, brave, cunning, and most tragic wizard I have ever known." said the handsome blond in a deathly serious tone. "From the moment you were born you were thrust into a world of unfairness and sorrow...still you grew stronger and you've managed to beat out every last one of us when the time came...you survived not one but two wars that sought to end you...two masters that tried to control you...an abuse drunkard that tried to kill you...and a stupid self-righteous brat that did his best to end you...there is no doubt in my mind that you love your wife and children as you have loved my family...and it is because of this that I can truly say...you will find a way to survive Severus...because that is precisely what you do...you are the former Head of Slytherin House for Merlin's sake."
Lucius help Snape to his feet.
"We will find this cure." he said with a smile. "And you will be with your family."
Snape sighed.
"When did you get so optimistic?" he asked.
The handsome blond simply shrugged.
"Guess little sister is rubbing off on me." he replied.
"Lucius Malfoy going Gryffindor?" asked Snape.
The elder Malfoy's eyes widened in terror at the thought.
"Absolutely not." he replied almost bitterly.
"Just checking." said Snape making his way back toward his table.
"I see you still retain your horrid sense of humor." grumbled Lucius.
Snape smirked and lifted a tome from the table that he hadn't thrown in his rage.
"Always." he replied.
Lucius sighed and made his way toward the other books that littered the floor.
"Severus." he said serious again.
Snape looked up from the tome.
"I meant what I said." continued Lucius. "You do whatever you have to do to survive."
The echo of Severus Snape's own words to the handsome blond Pureblood during the second wizarding war.
"I will." replied Snape with his obsidian eyes lighting up as he echoed Lucius Malfoy's own words to him.
"Good." replied the elder Malfoy. "I'll hold you to that, Little Brother."
Both wizard's turned their attention back to researching a cure for Severus. When none could be found so quickly they ventured back to Muggle London where Hermione had not truly bought the cover story that the Potions Master had been working late despite him having several alibis at the school stating that he did. She had a suspicion that something was going on with her husband, something that he was intentionally keeping from her but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.