Things are not what they appear

As she returned to Stone Hill, as promised, she was amazed to see all the work he had put into the place, it was barely recognizable. Pushing the front door open, her eyes dwelled at the garden for a minute or two, the details were unbelievable, she would never had thought of him to have such skills but apparently, she had been wrong. Or he had had help.

Inside, the hallway was cleared of clutter and all the Quidditch equiptment, a closet had been added for coats, several paintings and a large rococo framed mirror dominated the wall. She nodded in amazement. Further down the hallway she found the door to the kitchen, pushing it open her jaw dropped, seriously? It was spacy, bigger than before, the tiles had been replaced with white ones with a royal blue pattern to it, and decorative drapes prided the windows that now revealed a view of the garden on the back side of the house. A quick look out and she was amazed again, this too had received a much needed clean up and new plants were sprouting everywhere. As she stood on the tip of her toes, she could see pots with herbs lining the outer wall of the house, every kind of herb she could imagine a household would possibly need. A nasty thought entered her mind, who had helped him? Hearing the door open behind her, she spun around, he stood there, hands held up in a protective manner as a response to her flinch.

"Relax, it's only me"

Of course it was him, who else would she expect… or suspect? Walking over he peered into the garden with a small smirk curling his lip, she eyed him closely, he was proud of his work and obviously in need of her praise.

"Better?"

She chuckled while pursing her lips.

"Oh just a bit…"

Seeing his head snap towards her, she laughed loudly, a free and pearly laughter he had not heard since Hogwarts.

"Yes, it's a world of difference! How did you get everything done so quickly?"

Seeing him buff his hails on the chest of his robe before looking at them with a mocking expression, she noticed he had added a snide Oxford accent to his speech.

"I am just that awesome"

Scrunching up her face she pinched her eyes closed while chuckling with suppressed laughter.

"Sweet Merlin I have forgotten this side of you!"

Amanda watched him closely as he gave her a court nod before asking her if she wanted some tea. He continued to amaze her, he seemed so different, too different to her liking. She knew she was being overly suspicious but she was there to bring her son to his new home and this man was to take the role of the father. She had to be suspicious, she did not fancy ending up in the same heap of trouble and royal mess as before.

Severus watched her sleeping form, her arm resting over her head and the hand dropping over the side of the bed. He leaned against the doorframe while flipping through the pages of her journal.

I failed the drug test at work, I do not understand.

He smiled and flipped a page

Time flies, more than before, I seem to miss whole days. What is going on?

Another page

Oliver never replied to my owl

Severus chuckled

"No, he never received the letter and you will never receive one from him"

I buy all the food, I cook and serve it. Why does my test keep showing signs of barbiturates? Where do they come from?

The Potions Master smirked. Because he set the table and her plate was always coated with the potions he needed her to take to keep her in the dark. He needed her to see Marcus and not himself. Theo was almost off his potions, the boy had learned that Severus and Marcus were the same person, it had taken a bit to persuade the boy, make him see and not see and most importantly, not to ask. But it was now a success.

Severus ran a finger over the words written on the page.

He's not Marcus

The Professor smiled before whispering

"No, you're right, Marcus is dead"

Severus was, for once, victorious. Everything had been for personal gain and he had gotten what he wanted though he had stolen it from someone else. He was not too proud to admit it, well, to himself. Should she try to fight him, he could bind her, he had before. He would strip her of her powers and cloud her mind enough to disable her of her potions-skills so she could not try and clean her system, to cleanse her body. No, he had won this time and that had been about bloody time.

((A/N: Yeah, I bet you guys saw this one coming. Originally I wanted three chapters, one where she does not return, one where she does and a nasty ending (this one) but I can't seem to write the chapter first mentioned. I have failed to reply to a few questions, Yellow14, you asked me why there weren't wards up against Marcus and Severus, I honestly had not thought that far, to me the Unplotable-spell seemed enough (where they cannot see her parent's home) but ofc, you're right, there should be more. I started writing this long before the last book was written and I never made up my mind on who won the war so through the story-line, I have, more or less, put the rest of the world in stasis.))