A/N: Good God, I suck. I know. You don't have to say it, I am very well aware that I am far beyond what even the kindest reader might term 'late.' I am very sorry to make certain someones wait after promising and promising again to update. I am a very bad human being. *Locks self in stocks as rotten vegetables begin to fly*
Without further delay, I give you the final installment of Enough. It is unbeta'd, as per usual. I'm a chemist, I did not graduate last month with a degree in English. Sorry. I wasn't happy with how it turned out, but this is all I'm going to do. At some point I'm going to edit this, after I edit Fragile but that will be a long time in coming. I'm starting graduate school in the Fall! Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: My initials are not JKR. I do not own Harry Potter. If you're angry that I am using these characters and plots for my own twisted fun, please just ask me to take the story down. I have no money for you to sue out of me and I would not do well in prison…
"Black. What are you doing?"
No response. The bloody Gryffindor was catatonic.
Where is that famed courage now? he thought, nastily.
Severus groaned. The bastard was going to undo all of the good work his mother had done if he continued to move around like this. Severus wasn't in great shape right now either – they were out of bone mending potions, thanks to bloody Black, and he sure could use a swallow right now… Tobias was in fine form tonight.
So far gone was Sirius that he didn't notice Severus' approach until the other boy's bony knees connected with the floorboards in front of him. He looked listlessly up and met the grey eyes that stood out sharply against the encroaching darkness. His gaze narrowed as he took in the visage of the hated Slytherin but a vague memory of Lily made him loll his head to the side, breaking the uncomfortably intense gaze.
"Why are you on the floor, Black?"
"Dunno, Snape. Guess it seemed more comfy. Bit of company down here with the dust bunnies and all. Maybe I was lonely… " Sirius was rambling, but the words seemed to spilling out without his permission. He was just so tired. "You keeping a banshee in the next room? Awfully loud 'round here…"
Severus' eyes narrowed, ready to snarl back until he realized that Sirius wasn't being flip. One of the side effects of the many potions swimming through his veins right now was a mild compulsion to tell the truth and blurt out whatever was on his mind. Combined with the exhaustion, the effects were making for a very honest Sirius.
"Banshee, Black? That's really the first connection you made?"
"Well, my mother couldn't have followed me here…"
"How do you know that?"
Sirius drew his knees as close as his aching body would allow and buried his head in the comforting folds of cloth. They smelled of ginger and cardamom. "…n't bleeding…"
Severus jumped as another bottle shattered against the door, missing whatever it was that Black mumbled to the floor. He rose haltingly and turned the full force of his glare at the offending portal. Under his gaze, the latent magic of a set of wards embedded in the door frame crept around the room, muffling the offending sounds from without.
In the resulting silence, the tension began to drain from Sirius' frame and slowly the shaking he had been unaware of, stopped. Severus turned back towards the still figure, considering how best to return the wretched Black to his bed. Nearly every bit that Severus considered using to lever Sirius up was rejected for fear of further injury.
He considered just picking Sirius up and carrying him bridal style, but his own arm twinged more than a bit after the lucky hit that had sent him flying for the most heavily warded room in the house. Severus knew his limitations and he was pretty sure he'd wind up dropping Sirius if he tried lifting him now. How he longed to use his wand…
Severus settled next to Black on the side without the sling. That shoulder looked relatively intact – he should be able to get under it and help Black hobble back to the bed; it wasn't that far. He made Sirius make eye contact with him and explained what he was about to do in clipped tones. Sirius nodded distractedly as Severus wrapped corded arms around him and heaved.
The pair of them staggered drunkenly as Severus tried to find his balance and Sirius fought to lock his knees. After a moment, Snape tugged him forward and they began the journey to the bed as the floor lurched treacherously beneath their tangling feet.
It was a blessed relief when the edge of the bed hit the back of Sirius' knees and he fell onto the quilt with a jarring thump. Severus slid down the mattress and frame to puddle on the floor. His vision swam with spots and he fought to control his breathing as Black flopped back, legs still dangling to the floor. Thank Merlin he hadn't been heavier, or Severus would never have gotten him up.
"Th-thanks."
Severus' eyes refocused above him but all he saw was kneecaps. Surely he hadn't heard that right? "Did you just display good manners, Black?" he bit out.
"I sup-pose. Shocking, I kn-now."
They sat in silence for a long time. Finally, Severus levered himself to his feet with his good arm and began pushing Sirius the rest of the way onto the bed. The Gryffindor's eyes regarded him without real focus as he tried to help arrange himself on the bed but wound up falling back against the covers, too weak to hold himself up long enough to move.
Seeing his enemy brought lower than he had ever thought possible, the question Severus finally gave voice to was part academic curiosity and partly a desire to know who to avoid pissing off in the future. "Who did this to you?"
There was a long pause as Sirius' eyes drifted closed and Severus finished pulling the sheet up to his chest and stepped back. "Supporters of Voldemort." The words came out flat and toneless and his eyes remained tightly shut.
Severus' mind kicked into high gear, riffling through a vast catalogue of facts and connections. "Why, Black? Your family supports the Dark Lord, don't they?"
Sirius' eyes finally opened. "They do."
Severus felt sick as it clicked together in his mind. Merlin…his own family had done this to him. He glanced at the wards pulsing faintly in the door and walls and turned back to Black. Whatever words he hadn't been sure he was going to say died in his throat. The other young man had fallen back to sleep.
Severus pursed his lips and thanked whatever deity was out there that the last side effect on that laundry list of potions was memory loss. Black would never remember this night. He lowered the wards and listened to the sounds of the house. Satisfied that Tobias' rage had blown itself out for the night, he crept out of the room and hastily made his way to his own bed.
When Sirius woke in the morning, he was much more in control of himself. He didn't flinch when a strange woman bustled into the room with Lily and began handing him things to drink. He listened intently as Lily told him of the owl she had sent to the Potters the night before and explained again where he was.
Her explanation was cut off by the appearance of James Potter and his father, walking behind the inky black blot that was one Severus Snape. Severus settled in a corner and watched the proceedings with a critical eye. There was a lot of hugging and hand holding and other horribly sentimental displays thrown around. It was loudly announced that Black was to go and live with Potter, rather than return to his own family.
Severus mentally berated the Potters for stupidly painting an even larger target on their backs even as he fought down a stab of jealous rage. No one had ever come to take his mother and him away… No matter, he would protect her – one way or another.
His sharp eyes fell on Lily. It wasn't until that moment that Severus understood true despair. She too had fallen back, watching James interact with Sirius. But her eyes didn't hold the bitterness that lurked in Severus' depths. Rather, they were suffused with tenderness as she watched Potter carefully handle his fragile friend. In a moment of clarity, he saw that he was going to lose her. She was going to give in to that moron's advances after so many years of holding out.
Severus began to close up the crack in the wall that surrounded his heart, the crack that had been Lily. He knew there was no way he would survive losing her if he didn't start preparing for it now. He turned away from the group of morons with no sense of self-preservation and walked outside. As he reached the edge of the property, he pulled a mangled quill from his pocket. Speaking a soft word, he was jerked off his feet only to land in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor.
He was brought upstairs by the family elf. As Lucius Malfoy strode into the sitting room, Severus bowed his head in acknowledgement. "I've been thinking a lot about your offer, Lucius, and I think it's time I accepted."
A/N: Cookies to all you troopers out there who got this far! This is the end of Enough. Disappointing, I know. It's not how I wanted it to turn out either but I'm tired of fighting writer's block and I think I did a decent job of segueing back into canon from here. Severus kind of hijacked the end of the story, but he's been niggling in the back of my head every time I write, so I just let him have his way. He makes the very practical, and Slytherin, choice to follow Voldemort – his followers are obviously dangerous and he knows they're well-connected. What better way to make himself more powerful and protect his mother from the cruelty of his father. There's little that motivates more than the fear of being powerless. Severus' last link to a moral core was Lily and he felt like he would never get her back, likely leading to a series of events where he drives her away. Sirius ends up with the Potters and Lily starts falling for James. All is right with the world!
Thank you for sticking with me, everyone! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorite or PM'd me. You made me feel like a star every time you enquired after me and the story. So sorry to be such a disappointment. Next time I post a story, it will be finished beforehand! I hope you all have a lovely and safe weekend!
galimeril ;D