Rated M

New Beginning: The Same Refrain

Chapter 31

Poppy watched as Severus poured the blood-replenishing potion into a bowl and then poured the blood sample she had taken from the boy into the portion and stirred them together. He added the bone marrow and looked to Poppy.

"We need to put this directly into his veins. The stomach acids will destroy the marrow before it has a chance to work."

"I keep syringes for the Muggle students that need to take insulin until we can cure them." She looked at the mixture in the bowl. "If it is not too thick to fit through the needle."

"How long before we know?" Hannah paced at the foot of the bed waiting for Poppy to return.

"Oh my dear," Albus said. "It is magic. We will know at once."

"Headmaster." Severus greeted the old man with a scowl.

"Millie is packing your belongings my dear." Albus stroked his beard and looked down on the still form on the bed.

"Poppy thought it best to keep him asleep." Severus explained the boy's state to the Headmaster. "If for some reason this is to fail she did not want him seeing his mother's reaction."

"A wise decision," Albus said. "However, perhaps it would have been nice for him to see her joy."

Hannah looked at Albus oddly. "Packing my things? You already knew?"

"Yes, our Potions Master and I have spoke of this and the necessary safety." He held out the charmed amulet she had worn before. "I believe this is yours?"

"Yes," she said, slipping it over her head. "What of Tobias?"

"The magic that is being injected should track him. I will add a drop of his new healthy blood to our receiver." Albus smiled at Severus. "Is that not true?"

Severus looked up at Albus as he pulled back the plunger of the syringe, pulling potion up into it. "That is enough Albus."

"Magic?" Hannah looked at Severus and then back to Albus. "He said there was no magic for this."

"It is the same magic I feel coming from you my dear. Surly our Potions Master shared his secrete with you."

"Hannah, hold your son's arm for me." He glared at Albus and stepped around him to near the bed.

Poppy used her wand to sterilize the inside of Tobias arms and showed Hannah how to hold the arm straight. "He should not move, but if he does we don't want to hurt him."

Hannah kneeled next to the bed with both of her hands on Tobias' arm and looked up to Severus as he slid the needle into the small arm, found a vein and pushed the potion into the boy's blood stream.

"Poppy, change this thing." He looked down scowling, not knowing how to add the next tube of potion for injection.

Poppy brought over what he asked for, pushed him to the side as she snapped out the empty vial, and added a full one, injecting that as well. Four vials were pushed into his arm before Poppy stood back and Hannah could breathe again.

"Now you wait." Severus folded his arms and watched Hannah stroke Tobias' hair.

"How long before we know?" Hannah did not take her eyes off her son. She did not notice Severus walk away or Albus stop Poppy from running after him. She just stared at Tobias until she saw his eyes flutter and open as he yawned and reached up for her.

"Oh Tobias'" She got up from her knees and sat on the bed, pulling him onto her lap and laughing as tears came down her face. "My big three years old."

She heard Albus' chuckle and Poppy's laugher, and looking to see Severus and found him gone. She turned to look behind her, and stood while Tobias wrapped his legs around her waist and laid his head on her shoulder.

"Albus?" She walked out from the curtained area still searching for him.

"Our Potions Master has asked me to return you home." Albus smiled warmly. "Millie has put your thing by the main gates. She will return with you to help you unpack and get the house ready."

"It is done so quickly?" She hugged Tobias to her and closed her eyes. "I have prayed for this so long, now it is done so quickly?"

She felt her knees begin to waver as Poppy took her elbow and led her back to the curtained area and to the chair. "You best sit there while I get you something to steady those nerves."

"No, I am fine. I just can't believe it."

"Mum?" Tobias lifted his head and yawned. "I am hungry Mum. Fessor got cereal?"

"I bet if you ask Millie she will bring anything you want," she laughed and hugged him again.

"No, Millie does milk toast. " He laid his head down on her shoulder. "I want Fessor."

"Well, he is working. You know he works everyday." She pulled back to see his face, and push his hair out of his eyes. "How about we go home today?"

"My dragon comes too?"

"Yes, your dragon, all your new books and your new comforter too."

"Oh my," Poppy put her hand on the chest and came back around the curtain. "I am afraid I forgot to have Millie pack his blanket."

"That's ok. We can just run down and grab it after he eats." She ruffled his hair. "Right Boy-O?"

"Fessor too?" He looked at her smiling.

"No, he has to work." She looked at Poppy and Albus. "He said he will come to see us when he is done."

"Tobias," Albus stroked his beard. "Why don't you go with Poppy and say goodbye to your good friend while your mother and I talk."

"Haggid?" He struggled to get down.

"Wait." Hannah was scared to set him down.

"I will have his breakfast sent to Hagrid's hut, I am sure he will welcome the company." Albus snapped his fingers and explained to Millie what to do.

"He is quite healthy," Poppy smiled. "He will be tired tonight, and want naps for the next few days, but other than that he is fit as a razor back."

Hannah stood and watched as Millie took Tobias away not wanting to let him go, and not wanting to frighten him by clinging.

"I can take his memories you know." Albus stroked his beard again as if in deep thought.

"No, he needs to remember Severus." She lifted her chin firmly and turned to him, remembering the first time she had met him.

"I made a mistake a long time ago." He knitted his brow together in thought. "I assumed that you were not good for him. I made the assumption that he could not live in both worlds at the same time and survive."

"He lived in my world before he lived in yours old man." She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "If he had not come here he would have been fine."

"I have breakfast waiting in my office, and a hot pot of tea." He took her arm. "Be kind to an old man and join him for a morning meal. I know if I let you go with out making you see Minerva she will not forgive me."

"That would be lovely." She took his arm and walked with him toward the circular stairs. "I wanted to see Minerva before I left."

"Then I am glad the kitchen mistakenly sent three plates." He laughed softly as he watched her from the corner of his eye. "He told you he would visit?"

"No."

"He said he would bring you here?"

"No."

"I see."

"No you don't." She laughed at him. "Do you ever just come out and ask something or do you just hint?"

"Oh child," Minerva said, looking down from the top of the stairs. "He likes to think he knows everything that goes on around here. Just an old busy body if you ask me."

"And that is why I do not ask you," he pouted.

"Now sit here." Minerva patted the chair next to her as she leaned forward and picked up the teapot from the desk, pouring a cup and handing it to Hannah.

"First things first and then I will leave you two." Albus opened the top drawer of his desk and handed a large envelope to Hannah.

"You know that Severus came to us with very little." Albus looked at Minerva. "Since he has lived here he has earned a salary he has had little use for. He has also amassed a large account from the potions that he has made."

"Listen, I am not here for this." Hannah set the envelope on the desk, stood up and pushed the envelope back to Albus.

"If you were I would make sure you did not get it." Minerva sniffed and picked up the envelope, handing it back to Hannah. "Severus was quite clear as to this."

"Our Potions Master wants to make sure you are taken care of." Albus peered over his glasses at her. "It seems he is still quite taken with you."

"He wants this." Minerva said gently. "You do not understand our world, or what it is about to face. He needs to have his mind cleared and put away his worry about you."

Hannah looked from Minerva to Albus to the envelope. Then sitting back down she spilled the contents onto her lap. She shifted through the papers seeing he had turned over the house at Spinners End to her in the event of his death. She picked up the next slip and saw the seal from the Bank of Scotland that held a trust for the education of Tobias, and one that would supply a monthly income as long as she lived.

"No." She stood up letting the paper slid to the floor. "He said to wait for him. He said he would come back."

"I am sure he will try my dear." Albus leaned back and looked at her narrowing his eyes. "This is not a game we play, or one of your Muggle ideas of enchanted castles and magical beings."

"I never thought that it was," she hissed at him and turned to the door.

"Hannah!" Minerva hurried to the door and put her hands on the young woman's shoulders. "It means so much to him. If he comes back …"

"NO!" She pulled back from Minerva. "Not if, when. Don't talk about this as if he were already…"

She put her hands to her mouth and felt as if a hand was squeezing her heart. "I just got my son back, don't take Severus away."

"Hannah, I knew his mother, I have known him all his life." Minerva led her back to the chair and using her wand replaced the papers in a neat stack on the desk. "Take what he offers. It will give him peace."

"No, Minerva I can't take it. It would be like accepting what may happen." She put the envelope back on the desk. "No."

"Then just know that it is here," Minerva said, patting her arm.

"Now, Minerva has graciously agreed to give you a little history of our world and what we are facing." Albus stood and walked to the floo. "If we do not meet again be assured that I shall do what I can to keep him safe. Our future depends on it."

Minerva poured some more tea, and began a long story that started with a young girl marrying a Muggle. She held nothing back, telling Hannah about his treatment at home with a mother emotionally unable to help him and a father that did not care. Hannah nodded, knowing most of the story from first hand experience.

Hannah shared tales of Spinners End and the plight of the other children they had known. She told his childhood stories of broken windscreens and candy stolen from the corner store. She could not bring herself to tell Minerva of her horrors, but shared some memories of the smells that Severus was famous for and the death of his mother's canary.

"Strange," Minerva said. "I never really thought of him as a Muggle. Of course, he would be at home there. I always think of him as one of ours."

"He was right fine." Hannah laughed at the look on Minerva's face. "The other boys did not think much of him, he was always had his nose in some book, or corrected them if they gave the wrong answer in school. But the girls, my goodness the girls."

She reached for the last piece of toast and bit of a piece as she smiled. "They would roll up their waistbands to hike up their skirts and walk back and forth in front of his house."

"Oh my," Minerva laid her hand on the chest. "How unbecoming."

"Yeah, well tell that to Severus. He looked alright." She smiled, and then became serious. "I used to watch them and wanted to scratch their eyes out. Then that last time he came home for summer vacation…"

"Yes, what happened then? One minute he is home and the next he was staying up at the Malfoy Manor." Minerva shook her finger at Hannah. "Mark my words, if what ever sent him to the Malfoy had not happened he would not here now. Something happened that he has never spoken of."

Hannah looked at Minerva, then turned back, and picked up her teacup, only to put it back as her hand shook.

"Oh my dear," Minerva said looking at her oddly.

"He used to walk up to the far end, up near where the rich kids lived." She looked down in her lap as she felt the tears start again. "I used to get jealous, and before he came back the last time I heard someone died up there. One for his friends, some Lily I think they said."

Minerva told her of how Severus had spent the summer at the Malfoys, returning to school and making wrong decisions. She told her of Lily, and the dark Lord and of Severus' madness from the part he played and of his confession to Albus. She told her of the oaths, how he had fought the last eight years to regain his standing in this world, and his work at St Mungo's. She told her of the demons that he had found at the bottom of a bottle and the years it took him to find himself.

"He is not a nice man Hannah. He is cold and abrasive and sometimes cruel." Minerva poured a hot cup of tea from a fresh pot that Millie had brought. "And I worry what revisiting all this will do to him."

"He is honest, and truthful, and would give his life to protect yours," Hannah said. "That summer, that last summer he was home. You know before he went to the Malfoys. He… he saved me. I never knew what it cost him to do that."

"Oh my dear." Minerva reached over to take her hand.

"He is different now. I don't know how to say it, but he is just different somehow."

"I hope so, if the madness comes back I fear for him." Minerva patted her arm.

"It is called hope child." Albus appeared in the floo. "For the first time in his life our Potions Master has felt hope."

"You crazy fool." Minerva snorted. "Here it comes Hannah, his love conquers all speech."

"He does have hope, why else would he have created a potion just for his witch." Albus smiled and walked to his desk. "I have added you son to the receiver that Alastair carries. You can rest easy that he will be protected."

"What potion?" Hannah frowned; she knew she was not going to like this.

"Did you know that the life expectancy of our people far exceeds that of a simple Muggle?" He asked as he picked up a small handful of treats from his desk and walked to Fawkes.

"What potion old man?" She stood, putting her hands on her hips.

"Did you know that witches in our world do not, now, how should I put this." He turned stroking his beard and looked at the ceiling as if the answer were written there. "Ah, yes, they do not hear their internal clock ticking until much later in life than a Muggle."

Hannah stood still, lowering her hands from her hips. "What potion? What is this portion for?"

"Your life expectancy of course." He smiled at her over his spectacles. "It appears our Potion Master plans to have a family when this is all over and desires to match your life time to his."