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Chapter 4: The Truth will Out

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Severus was making himself a tea in a less than attractive beige coloured plastic cup. He hadn't slept a wink last night and couldn't get his brain to shut off all the thoughts that were whirling around it. Their Healer still wasn't happy for Harry to go home yet, therefore he would still be here till the evening, if not later. He took a sip of his drink and grimaced. As he was about to walk back to Harry's room, Ron and Hermione appeared by his side.

"How's Harry?" Hermione asked, concern etched in her voice.

"Honestly? Not good, it's hit him hard. He thinks it's all his fault and on top of that he feels terrible about missing the funeral yesterday."

"That's absurd" Ron said. "After what he's been through, he should be thinking about himself, not everyone else."

"Can we see him?" Hermione asked.

"Sure, he's been up a while, just don't expect him to be too jolly… actually can you tell him I'm nipping back to the house for a bit?"

"Of course, be as long as you like, we'll be here for him."

"Thanks Ron."

Ron and Hermione headed off and Severus took one more look down into his cup and threw it into the nearest bin. Anger was penetrating his whole body. He could feel his pulse vibrating from every part of his skin. He knew who was behind all this, who was behind everything. And he was damned if he was going to hang around any longer to let this person get away with it, or worse, give them the chance to do even more damage.

Deciding exactly what he was going to do, he rushed to the entrance to the hospital, stepped outside and disapparated on the spot.

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Draco Malfoy was lounging around in his home. As he walked past a large mirror in the hallway, he arrogantly checked his appearance, giving his reflection a wink of approval before carrying on. But as he turned into his sitting room he halted. Standing there with a face of thunder was none other than Severus Snape. Having been momentarily stilled in shock, Malfoy was not quick enough to react to the spell that Severus had just wordlessly cast his way. He felt his whole body stiffen and he fell backwards onto he hard wood floors.

Severus lowered his wand and walked over to the body binded Malfoy. Kneeling down on the floor, he twirled his wand in his hands for a few moments before speaking in a very clam tone.

"It's quite handy to be mastered in the art of wordless magic" he sneered. "It's also quite handy being a potions master… it means I have a plentiful store of this…" he pulled a bottle out of his pocket. "… lying around. Veriteserum. Truth potion."

Severus thought he saw a flicker of fear flash in Malfoy's eyes but chose to ignore it. Instead, and with the best smirk he could muster, he opened the bottle of Veriteserum and tipped a generous amount into Malfoy's mouth. He the took Malfoy's wand out of his trouser pocket and snapped it into tiny little pieces before lifting the body bind curse and having ropes bind themselves around Malfoy to keep him from moving.

"First things first…" Severus began, wanting to get this over with quickly, as even looking at Malfoy made him feel physically sick. "Are you Matthew's biological father?"

"No" was the toneless response. Severus inwardly felt a huge relief at these words, but didn't show any emotion to Malfoy.

"Did you cause Harry to have a miscarriage?"

"Yes."

Severus had to resist the urge to kill him right there and then. Anger engulfed his entire being and before he could stop himself, his fist collided with Malfoy's nose with a loud crunch. Blood started pouring down his face but Severus didn't care, that would be the least of Malfoy's worries.

"How?" Severus spat venomously, losing his initial cool. He and Harry had lost a child and the reason for that was lying pathetically on the floor with a face full of blood.

"Poison."

"How?"

"Invisibility cloak. I've been getting into your house."

"Did you pose as the Healer who told us Harry wasn't… wasn't pregnant?"

"Yes."

"Polyjuice potion?"

"Yes."

"WHY?"

"Revenge for my father. You lot are the reason he's dead."

"Did you kill Arthur Weasley or Nymphandora Tonks?"

"No."

Severus hadn't been expecting that response. He had been positive that Malfoy had been the cause of their deaths. Something didn't add up, if it wasn't Malfoy, then who was it?

"Do you know who killed them?"

"No."

Severus didn't need to hear anymore, he'd heard enough. Roughly pulling Malfoy up from the floor, he threw him with all his might for good measure against the nearest wall, revelling in the shout of pain he got in response, before dragging him out of the house and disapparating.

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Severus stood outside Harry's hospital and braced himself. Taking a deep breath, he walked in to find Harry sitting up in bed looking thoroughly worried. Although as soon as he saw Severus he smiled and let out a huge sigh of relied.

"Severus, thank god. Where have you been? I've been worried."

"I went to see Malfoy" Severus said, rushing to Harry and hugging him tightly. He was so glad to be back in his arms. His encounter with Malfoy had left him feeling dirty and shaky. Pulling away he sat on Harry's bed and held one of Harry's hands in his own.

"It was all him Harry. Everything. He's been hiding under an invisibility cloak, poisoning your food and drink and he used polyjuice potion to pose as that Healer we saw."

"So… so he's the reason I…"

"Yes" Severus replied, seeing Harry's eyes well up. Harry couldn't speak for a moment but then his eyes widened.

"He's, he's not Matthew's father?"

"No, he's not."

"Oh thank God… where is he now? I want to kill him."

"He's in Azkaban. I forced to him to tell me the truth with Veriteserum and then took him to the ministry and had him reiterate what he'd told me to the Aurors."

"How could he… how could he be such an evil little fucking bastard?"

"His father was one, do we really expect any less from him?"

"But it's so unfair. If he hadn't… we'd be having another baby."

"I know… I know" Severus said. "But we can't change what's happened and it won't do us any good to let it rule of lives."

"I want to see the kids" Harry said, wiping his eyes on the sleeve of his top.

"I'll go and ask the Healer if I can take you home."

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"Are we ready to go then?" Severus asked Harry. They were at Ron and Hermione's, fetching the kids.

"Yep" Harry replied, who was holding Lily in his arms.

They heard the doorbell ring from their location in the living room. Ron went to answer it and they all heard him shout "Oh my God" as he opened the door. Everyone made their way out into the hallway to see who had caused such a reaction from Ron. They all stalled as their eyes lay on who was standing on the doorstop. It was Mr Weasley… and Tonks.

"What the fuck?" Ron said, drawing back from the two of them as though they were some how contagious. "You're… you're both dead… what… what is this, some kind of joke?"

"Dead?" Mr Weasley asked, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

Molly walked forwards, her mouth open and her eyes wide in shock. "This, this can't be" she said in disbelief.

"Molly, it's me" he said, looking into his wife's eyes. Tonks and I have been kept captive. We escaped and disapparated to The Burrow, but nobody was there… what's all this about us being dead?"

"What's your nickname for me?" Molly asked sternly.

"Mollywobbles" Mr Weasley replied, going slightly pink around the ears.

"Oh Arthur" Molly exclaimed, running forwards to embrace her husband.

"I'll send a letter to Remus, hopefully he won't be too far" Hermione said, rushing off to the kitchen to find a pen and paper. After hugging her husband, Molly embraced a teary looking Tonks, who said in a quiet voice "where's Remus?"

"He's gone away, he thinks you've died" Harry said, walking towards her and hugging her too. "We thought you'd both died. There were, there were bodies."

"We've been kept prisoner by Draco Malfoy" Mr Weasley began to explain. "He cut some of our hair off and effectively left us to rot with an odd slice of bread now and then. But we suddenly found that we could open the door to the room we were in and the house was empty, no sign of Malfoy. We ran outside and immediately disapparated here."

"He's in Azkaban" Severus told them. "He'd been secretly poisoning Harry, and I confronted him and took him to the Ministry. I guess without him there the spells he'd cast on the room to keep you captive wear off some time after he'd left."

"Thank you" Tonks said to Severus.

"But, but there were bodies" Ron spoke up looking thoroughly confused. "We saw your body dad, we… we buried it."

"He must have used the ancient advanced polyjuice potion" Severus suddenly said, and everyone looked at him. "It's extremely tricky to make, even I haven't attempted it. But it makes it possible to turn into another person for two hundred hours, instead of one. He must have been planning this since his father died. He must have killed a couple of muggles and then turned them into Mr Weasley and Tonks."

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"We're home" Severus said to Harry as they walked through the front door a few hours later, Harry carrying Lily in his arms, Matthew and Joseph walking behind them. Severus walked up to Harry, kissed Lily on the top of the head and then kissed Harry on the lips. "Everything is going to be fine. No-one can hurt us anymore."

"I know" Harry replied, as he watched Matthew chasing Joseph up the stairs, the pair of them laughing.

"Here, let me take care of Lily, you go and have a nice long bath." Severus took Lily from Harry's arms and he gratefully took up the suggestion of a bath. An hour later he returned downstairs to find Severus, Matthew and Joseph all sitting on the sofa together, eating ice cream and Lilly beside them in her high chair, smiling and laughing as Severus made faces at her.

Harry felt a lump form in his throat and he couldn't stall the tears that sprang to his eyes. But these weren't sad tears, they were happy ones. He walked up behind Severus, and leaned down to rest his chin on his shoulder.

"Are you ok?" Severus asked.

"I'm fine" Harry replied, beaming around at his family.

"A letter came from Lupin whilst you were in the bath. Said how sorry he is to hear about the miscarriage and how delighted he is that he and Tonks are reunited. They've been crying non stop apparently. Says when you're up to it to go round to theirs for dinner."

"Sounds good. God, I am so ecstatically happy for them. I bet Remus couldn't believe it when he received Hermione's letter."

"More ice cweam" Matthew said, looking at Harry, who laughed at the state of Matthew's face.

"You've got ice cream all over your face" he said, standing up and lifting Matthew up from the sofa. "You're getting heavy mister. Tell em you love me and you can have some more ice cream."

Matthew giggled before saying "love you daddy." Harry put him down and then lifted Joseph up from the sofa, who had also managed to get the majority of his ice cream all over his face. He laughed as Harry carried him into the kitchen, Matthew in hot pursuit.

"Your dad seems to have failed to ask me if I wanted any more ice cream" Severus said to Lily, who just stared at her daddy curiously for a few moments before yawning and rubbing her eyes. Severus chuckled. "I wish I could bore you to sleep when you're screaming your head off at three in the morning."

Later that evening once the kids were all in bed, Severus came out of the bathroom having brushed his teeth to find Harry already lying on his back in bed. He laid down next to him, looking down at him and noticing how tired he looked.

"You look shattered" he said.

"I feel shattered. But I'll be ok in a few days."

"Harry, I want you to know that… whatever happens… whatever may crop up, whether it be at the right time or the wrong time, I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere, we're a team."

"I love you Severus."

"I love you to Harry."

"Um, while we're kind of on the subject, er, maybe in a few months time we could start to…"

"Go on" Severus prompted, running a hair through Harry's hair and smiling down at him.

"Um… start trying for another baby… a planned one this time."

Severus laughed and then smiled down at his husband. After all they had been through, life was back on track and everything was perfect. Harry, their three children, their home, their lives, their friends… there was only one thing that would be able to improve their perfect life, and that was another addition to the family.

"I'd love to" he replied, and Harry grinned adorably, grabbing the back of Severus' neck and pulling him down for a kiss.

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THE END

Reviews: If you're reading this, please take a few moments to leave me a review one last time. I want to say a huge thank you to everybody who has reviewed. I had originally planned for this story to be a couple more chapters longer, but compared to my other stories doesn't seem to be as well received, so thought I'd wrap it up here to give me time to concentrate on my other stories.

(This chapter was posted on July 25th)

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