Everything but Samaria Kirby is Rowling's. Samaria is mine.

Chapter 10

Severus waited outside as his second child was being born. Elena wasn't even a year old yet and here was another one. The nurse came outside and let him in. He walked over to the bed and looked at the baby. It was pale gray and had two slits for a nose. It's pupils were slits like a snake's; it was a miniature version of Voldemort. "This isn't my child!" he shouted at Samaria. "It is, I swear," she insisted. He looked back at the infant, but it didn't look the same. It now had long, wavy black hair and a black beard. It was a carbon copy of Sirius Black. "You slept with Black!" he accused. "NO!" she said. Shaking his head he starred at her in disbelief. Looking back down at the baby…

Severus sat up in the bed in a cold sweat. He looked around; he was still in his room and Samaria beside him.

"What's wrong, Baby?" she asked.

He sighed, "Nightmare."

"What about," she sat up and used her wand to light a candle.

Severus shook his head, "Nothing important. Nothing that would ever really happen."

"Are you sure you're okay," she persisted.

"I'm fine," he answered, and just then Elena started crying. "I'll get her," he muttered. He walked over to the crib and picked his daughter up. Taking her to the kitchen for a bottle, he looked at her intently.

She had her mother's blue eyes, that may change overtime, but right now Elena's eyes were as brilliantly blue as Samaria's. Her jet-black hair was identical to his, but thank goodness she had her mother's nose.

Angry at his own foolishness at needing reassurance in Elena's paternity, he gave her the bottle and sat on the couch.

Severus could handle the students flirting with his wife, which was nothing to him. But the Dark Lord's attraction to her bothered him more than he was willing to admit, even to himself. If he dwelled on it, his mind started to wander to Black. Was it really only sisterly feelings he had for her?

Before he could think anymore on this, Samaria came into the living room and sat next to him.

"Couldn't go back to sleep?" he questioned.

She nodded and stroked Elena's head. She was deep in thought.

"Still thinking about the other night," he asked, referring to the murder she had to commit.

Samaria sighed, "I can't get it out of my mind."

"It'll pass, in time. At lease, it will fade somewhat. The Dark Lord, however, is very pleased with you. Last night, when he summoned me, he commented to me how surprised he was that you didn't hesitate and didn't have to use the curse more than once to kill her."

"I've been practicing because I knew it was coming," she whispered.

"On what?"

"Roaches, spiders, even a rabbit. I knew the theory of the spell so I didn't have much trouble. You would think that the bigger the object the harder it would be, but it's not. If you make yourself believe for that split second that they deserve to die, then they do." She stopped stroking Elena's hair and leaned back, staring into space.

"I'm proud of how well you held up," he said.

She gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

After Elena was fed the two went back to bed.

Lying in the dark, Severus reached over and gathered Samaria into his arms, "We'll get through this, together."

"I know," she replied and fell asleep in his arms.

~*SW*~

The next afternoon was September 1st and the Start of Term Feast, but Samaria didn't get to attend. Elena had a stomachache and she had to try and pacify her. After hours of walking her around and bouncing her crying child, the baby was finally asleep.

Laying her in her crib, the tired mother went into the living room and lay down on the couch. Just when she got comfortable, Severus came back in and he was grumbling about something.

"Be quiet, I finally got her to sleep," Samaria said as soon as he came over the threshold.

He closed the door quietly and came to sit on the couch. Samaria just lifted her feet enough for him to sit, and placed them in his lap.

"What is it," she asked. "Did Harry come in late again?"

"No, it's that insolent pig of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She interrupted Dumbledore…"

"What?"

"Yes! Interrupted his speech with her 'hmm hmm' laugh and completely clad in pink, stood and gave her own speech."

"You're kidding," she said, but at the look he gave her, she said, "You're not."

"No!"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry, but she's a joke. Talked about how she and the students were to be 'good friends'. They all starred at her as if they would sooner be my friend," Severus told her.

Samaria shook her head. "And why is Dumbledore allowing her to teach?"

"Who knows why he does anything he does," he answered.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe she ain't all that bad." But with another look from her husband, she said, "Or maybe she is. I'll decide for myself tomorrow, but for now I'm going to bed. I doubt Elena will sleep much tonight so I'm gonna sleep while I can."

"I can't sleep, yet," he grumbled.

"Then stay up," she kissed him on the cheek and went to bed.

~*SW*~

The next morning, after taking a much better Elena to stay with Narcissa, Samaria went to class. Her first class was the fifth year Gryffindor and Slytherins. Being as she had tried to distance herself from Harry and his friends as much as she could toward the end of last year, she didn't know how they would act.

When she came in and greeted them, they acted as if nothing was different, then she remembered; they had visited her as much as Severus had allowed last year while she was in the infirmary, but she hadn't really spoken with them since the incident with Harry and the Dark Lord.

"Good morning," she said to all her students. One thing she always did was, on the first day, she cut them a little bit of a break. This year would be no different, even if this was their OWL year. They would be working extra hard this year, so she thought they deserved a break that they would not be getting later on.

"As you can see, students, I had my baby." There were delighted squeals from some girls at the mention of the baby and a few guys seemed slightly interested, one of these being Draco. Though he had already seen and even held Elena, he paid close attention.

"It was a girl and her name is Elena," she told them. Samaria heard different suggestions; offers to baby sit, some wanting her to bring the baby to class, and some wanting to know if the baby favored Severus.

Laughing at them, she ignored the questions and began to give an overview of the curriculum for the year.

"We will continue to learn to heal cuts and bruises, though worse wounds than the previous years. We will touch on purifying poisons in the blood, though that is highly advanced, I will give you the theory and we'll study it in more detail next year. I doubt, however, you'll be able to perform it for quite a number of years, it is extremely difficult. I will also teach you to detect and lessen brain damage, which isn't as hard as it sounds."

At this she heard Draco tell Harry, "She'll need you for that one, Potter."

"Draco!" she scolded but he merely turned to face the front once more, not giving any sign at being reprimanded.

As she continued through the lessons, she stopped at a scream. It was Parvati Patil and she was pulling at her hair. Walking closer, Samaria saw she had gum all in her hair and Draco, who was behind her, was laughing and pointing.

"Draco did you do that?" she demanded.

He just shrugged.

"See me after class," she said angrily as she took Parvati to her desk to get the gum out.

"Draco, I'm extremely disappointed in you. I can't let you by with things just because I'm friends with your parents and… the others," she told him as he sat in a chair in her office. Samaria paced back and forth in front of him.

He didn't show any sign of regret or of being sorry, which wasn't surprising, but he wasn't even angry. He just sat there as if it were a class or something.

"I'm going to have to give you detention," she said.

"When?" he asked.

"Tonight, eight o'clock." She was surprised he didn't argue. Other teachers had said he would yell, scream, or even pout about punishment, trying to get out of it and here he was asking when he got to get it.

"Okay, see you then," and with that he got up and left a stunned Samaria.

She wondered at his attitude and decided she would find out tonight.

~*SW*~

Eight o'clock came quickly that day. Samaria was torn between dreading it and wanting to know what was up with Draco. She hated giving detention, she thought writing lines was pointless and there was little to do in her class room, so she always had a hard time figuring out what task to put the student to.

There's always knitting Elena some new clothes, she thought with a smile.

A knock came at her door and see said, "Come in." The tall blond stepped in and walked over to the chair in front of her desk. He sat down looking at her expectantly.

"Draco, I've been thinking of what I should give you as punishment. Until just now, I haven't thought of anything. But I've decided you will list 3 to 5 things about each of your fellow students, starting with the Gryffindors. You must list their good qualities and traits, also name something you admire about them."

Draco's nose wrinkled as if he smelt something bad, reminding Samaria of Narcissa. Sighing, the boy took out a quill, some ink, and parchment and set to work.

Samaria watched him struggle with the assignment. It took him a good 15 minutes, sometimes longer, to come up with something for each student. She knew the moment he started on Harry's paragraph, because he sat for 30 minutes thinking with a scowl on his face.

Around, eleven o'clock Samaria took pity on the boy and told him to stop. Taking the parchment from him she began to read aloud:

"Harry Potter has a nice scar. He is good at squirming out of trouble. He sports those ugly glasses well," she glanced up at him with a quirked brow. He merely shrugged.

"Ron Weasley's second hand robes almost fit him nicely. His red hair isn't as ugly as some. He is almost an okay wizard," she sighed and kept reading. "Hermione Granger is a smart mudb… (scribbled out) girl. She doesn't use any chemicals in her frizzy hair. She doesn't care that she is a mudblo… (scratched out again) muggleborn."

Samaria lay down the parchment and rubbed her eyes, "Okay Draco. Thanks for the effort. You can go."

He nodded and stood, but didn't start for the door.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked him.

Draco hesitated before saying, " I really like you Professor Kirby and I need to tell you something." He paused. "Um, you know the, uh, organization that you and my parents are members of?" He didn't want to say anything that could give them away if someone was listening.

Samaria's hand went to her left arm and Draco nodded.

"Well, the, uh, person over it has asked me to keep an eye on you and report back to him. He wants to know who you're friends with and what you're like out of his eyesight."

He stood there with an apologetic look on his face.

Her hand went to her mouth in shock. Did the Dark Lord suspect her? Did he not trust her?

"I know you're just nice by nature to Potter and his friends, but I've noticed that you were also closer to them than is normal for a professor." He looked at her a moment, then continued, "I haven't told him that, though. And I won't. But if he finds out…" A look of fear crossed his face but he hid it quickly.

Quickly, Samaria thought of a cover up, "Draco, you must know that I knew Harry's parents before he was born so naturally I would want to converse with him. But have I spoken to him, other than in the class room, since… our organization started again?"

He shook his head, "I wasn't accusing you of anything. I know you're faithful to him, otherwise, how could you have done what you did to become a… you know."

Samaria smiled and walked over to him. "I'm glad you trust me, Draco. There won't be anything that I do that will cause you to have to lie on my behalf. I promise."

He smiled at her and said, "Believe it or not, even though I had to do that crap about the Gryffindors, I enjoyed tonight." And with a blush covering his face, he left the room.

Samaria stood in the center of a room with the Dark Lord in front of her in his winged chair.

"Come here," he said, smiling. She walked over and at his demand, knelt before him. He took her left arm and pushed up the sleeve. He caressed the under side of it and looked into her eyes and smiled. She could almost feel Severus behind her stiffen.

After what seemed an eternity, Voldemort stopped rubbing her arm and lifted his wand.

"This is a token of your devotion to me and my way of summoning you," he said as his wand traced a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth onto her skin. With each stoke, it burned more.

Samaria bit her lip and had to keep herself from sighing audibly when he finished.

He began to caress her arm and again, cause her to want to wrench her wrist from him, but stay still. The Dark Lord pulled her sleeve back down and said, "My faithful follower, you are now a Death Eater."

Samaria smiled at him and rose. She bowed before him and Severus joined her and bowed, too.

The evil wizard looked at her husband, "Take her home, Severus. I imagine you want to celebrate." With a slight curl of his lip, the Dark Lord waved them away.

Samaria shook away the memory that seemed to haunt her. She was sat in her living room feeding Elena, thinking of what Draco had said and the memory came unbidden. It always did.

Severus walked in and sat beside her, "Are you okay?"

She nodded. Having told him everything Draco had said, she felt better that it didn't seem to worry him. She felt better yes, but a small bit of worry lingered that she couldn't shake.

"It's fine, one as powerful as he didn't become so by trusting people. If he didn't think you were genuine you wouldn't be alive. This is just a precaution," he told her.

"I know," she sighed. She looked down at her baby, who was fast asleep with no worries. If only life was as simple as that. Eat, sleep, and cry for mommy when something didn't feel good and she made it better.

Samaria had to chuckle at the thought of Severus crying for anyone, much less his 'mommy'.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said, rising to take Elena to bed.

"Um-hum," he replied, not believing her. "Go to bed. You've got a big day tomorrow."

Sighing Samaria remembered the invitation to the Malfoy's for dinner she and Severus had received when picking up Elena that night.

"Okay. Goodnight, love" she said.

"Finally picking up some British expressions?"

"I've always liked that one," with a smile she went to bed.