Chapter title from "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. Some adapted excerpts in this chapter from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - all credit to J.K. Rowling for the amazingness that is hers and allowing us fanfic writers to adapt.
"They are in the Forest of Dean!" Phineas Nigellus Black returned to his portrait, quite animated. "The Mudblood..."
"Don't use that word!" Dumbledore's portrait berated him harshly.
Phineas Nigellus retracted his word choice and explained that Miss Granger has disclosed their location while opening the bag containing the former Slytherin headmaster's portrait.
"Very good!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "Severus— the sword. Do not forget it must be taken under conditions of need and valor. And he cannot know you are the one giving it. Voldemort can still use his connection to Harry, and if he sees you helping..."
Severus sighed. Dumbledore still felt the need to spell out the most basic of concepts, as if Severus didn't already have a grave understanding of his mission's importance and the secrecy surrounding it. He stood, nudging the corners of Dumbledore's portrait loose to reveal the cabinet behind. He removed the gleaming sword, feeling its weight simply add to the load of everything else on his shoulders. Severus felt a glimmer of annoyance with the bespeckled old man, churning into defiance within him. How could the man expect so much of him, yet not offer the most crucial points of information?
Severus put up his most rigid Occlumency shield, as he always did surrounding this particular matter. There had been clues all along, especially when Dumbledore had revealed the existence of a piece of Voldemort within Harry himself, requiring the boy's ultimate sacrifice. Pieced together with Black's memories of time spent beyond the Veil with Regulus and the truth Dumbledore had somehow felt comfortable divulging to Black, the mystery of Horcruxes was now clear.
"And you're still not going to tell me the importance of the sword?" One last chance— one last opportunity for Dumbledore to prove he trusted Severus as much as he did Harry Potter and Sirius Black.
"I think not," Dumbledore replied tepidly. "Harry will know what to do with it. And do be careful with Harry and his friends— they may not think highly of you after the George Weasley incident."
Snape grimaced and left without another word. Of course Potter hated him. The boy could know nothing of Snape's positive deeds, such as saving Lupin's life during the sky battle, yet was faced with countless despicable ones. Severus couldn't even openly help the boy now; he'd probably be stupefied on sight.
Severus had to commend Miss Granger's execution of protective spells. It was good to know she wasn't just an insufferable know-it-all with an unhealthy attachment to books, but also possessed the ability to utilize such things practically. He had to spend a great deal of time examining for clues as to their precise location, but he found none. The night was bitterly cold and utterly black. He had to take care to erase his own bootprints in the snow so that once Potter accomplished his task, the boy would never be able to deduce the source of the aid. Severus was so focused on staying warm and erasing evidence of his presence that he nearly lost his footing when his boot hit solid ice. He didn't dare light his wand, in case Potter was close. Instead Severus recovered his footing and used his limbs to approximate the size of the body of water beneath him.
It was a large pond — certainly large enough to house a sword and allow plenty of room for entrance and exit. Severus would just need to test the depths. There was a difference between demonstrating valor and walking into a death trap. Waving his wand in the pitch black, Severus broke the ice and used a second spell to measure, deducing that it was safe enough. It surely wouldn't be pleasant; he would have to remain hidden but watchful in case the boy entered a hypothermic state and was unable to reach his clothes or produce warming charms. Surely Potter would be prudent enough to remove his clothes first.
He quickly dropped the sword into the hole he created, watched it slip down to rest on the watery ground, then re-sealed the ice. Feeling around carefully, Severus found a spot where twin trees grew together almost as one, save for a small sliver of space between them. It was just a few yards from the pond. He pressed himself against the cold bark, his eyes focused on the crack. Then with one final wave of his wand, he sent a blue, wispy doe frolicking silently through the forest and held his breath at her beauty. He rarely saw her. He didn't need her that often. He was quite capable of advanced protection and magic on his own, and he was hardened to the effects of Dementors. After all, when you had so little happiness to begin with, you were rarely a target for them. Although, this latest group guarding Hogwarts day and night seemed to hit him just a bit harder. Had Severus Snape finally started to feel what it was like to be happy? He scoffed at the thought.
His mind concentrated on leading the silvery light through the maze of trees until it reached a clearing where it felt the presence of magic. Severus couldn't see past enchantments, but the Doe could— especially with the energy radiating from the subject upon which her eyes fell. She looked upon him like Snape himself never quite could. He'd never been able to see past the James in him, but the Doe could see what Dumbledore had gently reminded Severus of all along— that the boy's spirit was like his mother's.
Potter had moved outside of the protective shell now, the silvery blue light illuminating him as he shakily made his way through the forest. The boy — man— had changed a great deal. His face was hardened. Severus doubted Black would even recognize him, save for the glasses and the messy hair. Severus started to feel a strange, foreign pang of sadness at the thought of how Black would feel, and he dismissed it quickly. That type of energy would extinguish the Patronus too soon. Instead he focused on her— dark red hair, the most curious and excitable of eyes in those first few moments she'd discovered her magical abilities, while Severus secretly watched. He felt the memory blend a bit with the joy on Rhiannon's face when she'd accomplished something new, all those months in the dungeon with only him for company. He saw Colleen Black's proud smile as she saw the purple shimmer on her first successful potion and looked to him eagerly for praise. Fuck, he cared for them all. Every single one of the damn faces that had crossed his mind since that light had leapt from his wand.
Severus stood stone still. Potter had reached the pond, and the boy watched as the Doe folded itself into a little ball of light and slipped through the ice at the point just above the sword.
"Diffendo," Severus heard the boy mutter, and Severus registered the simultaneous relief and dejection the boy felt at finding the sword and knowing what he would have to do to obtain it.
A rustling in the trees startled both he and Potter. Potter looked up, ready to defend, but when no other sound came, he focused back on the task at hand. Severus used the opportunity to scan the trees a bit more and detect the source of the noise. Someone else was definitely present. Potter started to divest himself of his clothing, shivering immediately when met with the icy air. Severus caught sight of a flicker of light a few yards to the right, just enough of a glow to illuminate pale skin, red hair, wide eyes, and an old ragged hat. Ronald Weasley. Potter dived into the pond without further hesitation, and Severus saw Weasley immediately leap from his hiding spot.
Severus knew his work here was done. The Gryffindors would have to take it from here. For his part, he needed a drink.
The grimy, sawdusty bar of the Hogs Head was abandoned when Severus arrived, though he could hear noises from the back room behind the counter. Severus had stopped off for a late nightcap with Aberforth on quite a few occasions, so he assumed the man would be along soon. Hogsmeade had a curfew in place and was patrolled frequently by Death Eaters, the old man's only customers this time of night. Snape had set off the Caterwauling Charm they had installed to alert for curfew breakers, but of course he knew the incantation to immediately silence it. He perched on the barstool nearest the fire and removed his wet coat and gloves, shaking the snowflakes from his long hair. His ears zeroed in on the words trickling in from the back room.
Hey, there, friends and fellow resisters! This is your host, River. We're coming at you late tonight, but we hope some of you still managed to tune in. Thought we'd change the schedule up a bit— keep 'em guessing, you know? That greasy git Snape ought to be asleep at this hour, so even if he or his minions somehow get hold of a password, he's probably sawing logs after a day of torturing students. Wears you out, I would imagine."
"I have it on good authority that he snores," a voice spoke up with a laugh. It was a foreign accent...Russian, by the sound of it. Familiar...
"And how would you know that, Reg?" another voice challenged. This one was sly but also cautious...and very familiar. Snape bristled.
"I'm...shall we say...'good friends' with his wife."
Severus grabbed a bottle of firewhisky and helped himself, slamming his glass down after the first chug. Aberforth Dumbledore's scruffy mug peered from around the doorframe, and the chorus of laughter emanating from the wireless was promptly shut off.
"Oh, no, please leave it on," Snape sneered. "I would so love to hear the thrilling conclusion."
Aberforth waved a hand dismissively before refilling Snape's glass. "It's just the last death gasp of the Order, desperate to remain relevant. Running their mouths, yapping until the very end. Harmless, feel good stuff."
"At my expense, per usual," Snape replied, taking another giant sip. He could feel a sting within him, and he hated that he couldn't will it away. What else had they said about him? How long had this been going on, behind his back? Black had been falling in and out of that stupid accent for months now, and Severus had assumed he was just bored and being silly. Not co-producing a full underground radio show behind Snape's back. It wasn't even the jokes— although they hurt, coming from Black. It was the willful withholding of information— the knowledge that there was a gamepiece out there of which Snape had no knowledge, driven by two wizards who were supposed to be his allies. One whom, just moments earlier, Severus had thought he...
"Fuck, I'm going home," Snape muttered, finishing the last drop before returning to the heavy, wet confines of his coat.
"Where is home these days?" Aberforth asked casually. "Never heard you refer to the castle as 'home' before."
"None of your concern," Severus answered grimly. "And I shouldn't have used the word now. It isn't one."
Severus passed through the garden gate, down the white-blanketed cobblestone, to see that Black had returned on the motorbike. Apparently he'd been bold enough to bring Colleen with him on his late-night, underground resistance adventure. She had moved around to straddle him on the seat, and they both laughed and snogged like teenagers, covered in snow from head to toe.
"You were right, flying on this thing is beyond compare," she cooed into his mouth. "It was like skydiving and having an orgasm at the same time."
"You went skydiving before?" Black asked her incredulously.
"Tandem, and yes," Colleen replied. "Sometimes us scaredy-cats do the most unexpected things to conquer our fear, you know. Hell, I married you, didn't I?" She arched her clothed core against his and kissed him hungrily.
"And how the hell do you plan to explain a flying motorbike over a coastal Scottish village?" Snape growled, startling them enough for Black to grab his wand from his jacket pocket. "Gonna insert a likely story into your little radio show?"
Black's eyes instantly clouded with guilt, and he lifted Colleen aside. "Severus, I'm sorry. I promised Remus..."
"Don't blame this on the wolf," Snape replied curtly. "You're an adult, Black, responsible for your own decisions." He stalked inside, Black running after him with a metaphorical tail between his legs. Colleen removed her overcoat and took her husband's, then hurried to the kitchen to put on a kettle. Remus had already arrived and stared at them, wide-eyed.
"He knows about the show," Black explained, looking pained. Severus's jaw felt locked like a pitbull's, determined and immovable. He felt a fire behind his eyes— a hurt he hadn't felt in decades— looking at the two of them, knowing they'd conspired against him again. Only this time he'd been foolish enough to think they cared.
"Severus, we had to respect the Order with this one," Lupin explained, his voice a plea for logic and a level head. "And Sirius and I have been very careful to script and not divulge anything sensitive."
"Yes, I heard your 'scripting,'" Severus spat back.
"Just little jokes, Severus," Black assured him. "In the spirit of the show and the resistance movement. They don't know you're on our side, so you're an easy target. It's all in good fun."
"Yes, accusing me of torturing my students. All in good fun."
"What's going on?" Rhiannon demanded, coming down the stairs with a now obviously pregnant Tonks at her heels.
"We're leaving, that's what's going on," Severus responded. "Pack your necessary things."
Black quickly moved to block the door. "No. Absolutely not. We are in this together."
"Clearly not!" Severus bellowed. "Rhiannon, your things!"
"No, Severus," Rhiannon said firmly. "Whatever it is, it isn't worth this."
He made a move to her, gripping her upper arm tightly, his nose pressed to hers as he sneered, "Now!"
"Hey, now," Black interceded. "That's your wife. She hasn't done anything. Back away from her."
Severus rounded on Black, his wand pressing to the Gryffindor wizard's chest. He continued to stalk toward him, forcing Black against the wall between the living and dining room. The man didn't put up a fight. In fact, those blue-gray eyes started to deepen with an infrared fire.
"Do it," Black whispered. "Hurt me."
"Stop it, now," Lupin ordered. "I believe Colleen is putting on tea. We are all going to enjoy a cup and lay everything on the table. All relevant secrets. Now, tonight."
Severus made no move, and neither did Black. The former's wand still angled into the latter's skin through his leather jacket and sweater, their eyes locked, faces barely an inch apart.
Hate is just passion infused with anger...Rhiannon's words echoed in his brain.
"I should skewer you," Severus heard himself mutter, the firewhisky from the Hogs Head obviously lowering a filter.
"Please do," Black returned brightly.
Severus's wand arm remained in place, but his other hand sent a blazing slap across Black's face before he could stop it. Black broke into an almost lunatic grin. Severus wanted to punish that mouth for all its sass and smirks.
"Remus is right," Rhiannon said softly. "Let's settle this tonight. What we have is too special to let it go without a fight. A fight to preserve, not destroy."
"I still say Sev can destroy me if he likes," Black called back as he sauntered to the dining room table.
Colleen sighed as she placed a tray of tea and homemade tarts at the table's center. "Sirius, please take this seriously."
"I'm always..."
Colleen held up a hand. "No. Not the name joke. Unless you have something relevant to say to fix this mess we're now in, please be quiet."
"Severus, you know our secret," Remus began, fiddling nervously with the handle of his teacup. His other hand rested on his wand, which, like the two other wizards', rested on the tabletop and at-the-ready. Rhiannon and Tonks held theirs as well, presumably to keep the peace. Colleen still wore her spell-deflecting dragon's skin.
"And hopefully you understand our reasons why," continued Remus. "That's the truth behind it all, really, is that there is always a reason for everything, even if it doesn't excuse it. Part of moving past it all is wrapping your mind around the reasons, and telling your emotions to take a backseat."
Colleen, resident philosophy major, nodded in adamant agreement and squeezed Remus's arm with an encouraging smile.
"That being said, Severus," the wolf added, "Perhaps now would be a good time for us to tell Sirius the truth."
Everyone's eyes grew wide, but most of all Black's. "What? You two have a secret you're keeping from me?"
"What a shock, Black, that indeed you are not the center of everything," Severus said coolly. But his stomach ached a bit with the realization of what Lupin meant. "I cannot disclose that, Lupin."
"Why?" Remus challenged. "We are laying everything on the table."
"Because Black will kill me, and like it or not, my services are still needed in this war. And if he tries to kill me and doesn't succeed, it will be because I killed him, and I do not wish to make Mrs. Black a widow for a second time."
"Sirius, I want you to promise me you'll listen and try to understand Severus's perspective," Lupin said calmly. He reached for Black's wand for good measure.
"Give me that back!" Black demanded. "Everyone needs to be on equal footing here."
"Make me a promise to keep a cool head, and I'll give it back."
"Fine!" said Black with a pout. "Proceed, Severus."
"Tell him, Remus," Snape muttered. He couldn't bring himself to say the words. They still caused him too much pain. It dawned on him that he'd just addressed the wolf by his given name, and judging by the wolf's small smile, he must have picked up on it as well.
"Trelawney disclosed a Prophecy surrounding Harry's birth," Remus began. "It essentially laid bare the fact that a child born at the end of July would bring about the downfall of the Dark Lord. Severus overhead the declaration of the Prophecy and told the Dark Lord, resulting in his pursuit of Harry and the murder of Lily and James."
Severus gripped his wand so tightly the imprints of the carvings would surely be etched in his palm for days. He didn't look at Black at first, instead tuning in to the humming silence of the house around them as he stared into his tea.
"You knew about this?" Black asked hoarsely. Surprisingly Lupin was the first recipient of Black's ire, an icy yet crestfallen stare at the perceived betrayal.
"Harry told us, the night Dumbledore died."
Black's eyes moved to his cousin this time, and he looked wounded. "Why would you keep this from me?"
"For the reasons Severus just said, kind of," Tonks said softly. "We figured you'd kill him. Or try. And the alliance formed that same night, and it seemed like the right thing at the time. Like what we all needed, to stay the safest. Having Snape still on our side."
Finally Black's eyes drifted to Severus's own. Severus didn't look away, and he opened his mouth, his words and very breath aching with the effort they required.
"If you don't think, Black, that I am sorry for that, every damn day of my life— that it doesn't haunt me in every silence, every dawn of a new morning, to the last slip of consciousness into sleep each night, then you don't know me at all. My loyalty was to the Dark Lord. The Prophecy didn't name a person, and I didn't know it was Lily's son. Had I known, I never, ever..."
"You shouldn't have done it to anyone's son!" Black barked, his fist meeting the table. "You coward! Sacrificing an innocent child to score points with the Dark Lord! It shouldn't matter who the child belongs to! Snake!"
"It's in the past..." Rhiannon spoke up quietly.
"It's NOT in the past!" Black continued to lash out. "James and Lily are still dead! It hurts just as much as the day they died! And now their son is out there, in the dark and the cold, hunting down pieces of Voldy's soul like needles in a fucking haystack..."
"Pieces of the Dark Lord's soul?" Lupin inquired. "What do you mean?"
"Yes, Black, why don't you tell your bosom friend the secret you've been keeping from him?" Severus said. He didn't mean to sound so callous when Black was in such pain, but the dog's inability to see logic and his need to swim in dramatics was frustrating.
Black sighed, clearly not ready to venture to a new topic. "It's nothing I kept from you for any big reason, Remus. It's just the nature of Harry's mission. Dumbledore only told me and Harry. He gave a great deal of information to Severus, too, although I have no idea why. Obviously he can't be trusted," Black said bitterly.
"Well, what is the mission?" Tonks asked impatiently.
"Dumbledore believed the Dark Lord studied the Darkest Art— the making of Horcruxes, by dividing one's soul throughout enchanted objects. It's achieved through committing murders," Severus explained. "Black was made aware of this through a connection he forged with Regulus beyond the Veil, concerning a locket that held one of these pieces. I helped him bring the memory to the forefront last year. Dumbledore brought Black along on his mission to search for the locket and for others, so Black learned more about it at that time. Dumbledore chose not to share all of that with me, but I gleamed the missing pieces from conversations with Black. Dumbledore has charged Potter with locating the Horcruxes and destroying them. It is the only way the Dark Lord will fall."
Lupin made a move to stand. "Then let's help him. Why are we here? This is too much for a boy to do alone."
"He's not alone. He has Ron and Hermione. And Dumbledore was insistent that it be Harry," Black replied.
"Why? He's a boy," Lupin repeated.
"He's no longer a boy," Severus corrected. "And the reason has something to do with a fact Dumbledore did in fact deem me worthy to know, it seems only to burden me with even more agony and guilt."
"Oh, poor Severus," Black mocked.
"Sirius," Lupin warned gently. "Severus is truly burdened by the guilt over Lily."
"Over Lily," Black spat. "Just Lily. The hell with her husband and son."
Rhiannon stood, her green eyes blazing. "Severus has sacrificed EVERYTHING to protect Harry. You have no idea what he goes through— being hated and distrusted, having to lie to everyone to play his role, cowering down to my father, whom he despises, knowing that my father is the reason the love of his life is dead. Losing sleep, haunted by nightmares and guilt. Checking every corner and every face for a sign of danger or betrayal. Not even knowing who he truly is anymore because of what everyone forces him to be. And he does it all to keep Harry alive. Not just alive for some mission, which is all Dumbledore saw fit to ensure. But alive and safe and healthy, for the sake of Lily's memory and her love."
Severus gazed up at his beautiful wife, her chest heaving, chin defiant, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. The knot in his stomach from this whole evening finally began to loosen a bit as the intensity fell back and faded into love for her.
"Now, I don't doubt Severus's sacrifice," Lupin said in reply to Rhiannon's monologue. "But I don't know why you disparage Dumbledore like that. He was always a friend and a mentor to Harry."
Silence befell the table again. Rhiannon looked expectantly to Severus, and he heard her inner voice telling him to reveal the last secret. After all, what else did he have to lose?
"Part of the mission requires that Harry die in order for the Dark Lord to be fully destroyed," Severus said simply. There was no reason to mince words.
"And Dumbledore knew this, for a very long time," Rhiannon added. "So Dumbledore's monitoring, caring for, and mentoring Harry was for...the greater good."
Black broke down into a sob, and the sound was excruciating. It's like the man didn't even take time to process the words or to question, instead leaping into an immediate outburst of emotion.
Lupin placed an arm around his friend's shoulders. "We'll find him, Sirius. We'll bring him home, and we will end this. There is no sense in asking a boy to be a sacrificial lamb."
"Bring him home to what?" Severus questioned with narrow eyes. "You think the Dark Lord will let him live out his days with you in peace? Marry the Weasley girl? Father a brood? And what happens to the brood? The children of the famed Harry Potter? And to Black's future half-bloods? Colleen's Muggleborn son? All of them living under Death Eater reign, if they are lucky enough to live at all. This is the only way the Dark Lord dies. The only way the reign of terror ends. Dumbledore knew that. I hate it. And I told Dumbledore so. It sickens me to the core. But facts are facts. Unless Harry sees this through to completion, there is nothing left to live for, so his life is already forfeit."
Lupin shook his head stubbornly. "There has to be another way."
"There's not," Black said quietly. "Snape is right. Harry's a Horcrux, isn't he? The visions? The Parseltongue?"
"The rebound curse," Severus added. "The final part of the Dark Lord's soul that remained, chained to the only remaining living thing in the room when his body was destroyed."
Black nodded, his posture suddenly resolute. "I'm going to find a way to be with him. When the time comes. Somehow. I'm not going to let you all talk me out of it this time."
Severus nodded also. "That's fair."
"How can you just accept this?" Lupin asked, his tone almost a wail. "We're the only family the boy has. You don't just give up your family."
"If Harry doesn't do it, then everyone gives up their family," Black said solemnly. "Everyone on our side...plus Muggles...Muggleborns...blood traitors. Harry is a hero and I'm sure accepted his fate. I'm assuming he knows this is the end game, Severus?"
Snape once again looked down at his tea. "Dumbledore has charged me with that as well. He has set some guidelines for determining when the time is right."
"You're going to tell Harry?" Black scoffed. "Harry wouldn't let you within ten yards of him or his friends without blasting your left nut off."
"I'll find a way," Snape said testily. "I always do."
"I know it probably seems impossible, but shouldn't everyone try to rest?" Colleen suggested meekly. "We've all had a big night, and sometimes a fresh look at things in the morning helps them not seem so bleak. There may be hope yet— a possibility that will reveal itself, at the end."
Severus looked into her soft blue eyes and at the delicate fingers that shyly twisted a curl of red hair. She wasn't just the Muggle in all of their lives; she was an angel. And he cherished her. He stood, crossing to her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She caressed his forearm in return. Black seemed to watch the interaction with surprise, as if in all the evening's angst he'd forgotten their entanglements.
"Yes, sleep," Black agreed gruffly. "Colleen, do you have my potion?"
Colleen looked to Severus hesitantly. "I think we may be out."
"I'll brew more tomorrow morning," Severus promised. "First thing."
He soon followed Rhiannon upstairs to their room, grasping her hand to stop her before she went back to sleep.
"I appreciate what you said down there," he told her. "But you were wrong. Lily's not the love of my life. You are. Even more so because you still let me love her."
Rhiannon smiled wistfully. "I don't have to be, Severus."
"No, but you are."
The air was damp but warm inside the cave, a contrast to how it had been when Sirius discovered it with Dumbledore almost a year before. But Dumbledore wasn't there this time. Regulus was...so much clearer than the memories had been before, and present even without Snape's help. Regulus pleaded with Kreacher, begging him to take the real locket and leave. It was clear now that Kreacher had been successful. And now Sirius saw the aftermath— Regulus being pulled into the water by the whipping, lashing, inhuman grasp of the Inferi— a tense, desperate human arm being the last thing to dip into the watery black. Seconds passed, then the same arm came to the surface for one last grasp, only now it had the same grisly gray, corpse like skin of its captors. Sirius made a lunge forward, instinct driving him to do something, but he was pushed back as Regulus's spirit ascended from the water, abandoning its eternally damned shell.
The cave scene faded to black, and now Sirius was faced with the distinctly heavy sensation of being beyond the Veil.
"It is finished," Regulus spoke. A silent wind caught the tendril of black hair on his forehead. He didn't smile, but somehow his face was at peace. It was a beautiful serenity...alluring, beckoning. It must be incredible to feel this way. Could Sirius stay, and make the feeling his own?
Before he could give it much thought, Sirius heard a hissing sound, like a hot metal iron meeting skin. The locket was in his mind's eye again, boring into flesh. Harry's flesh. The boy's face was contorted with agony and fear— the exact opposite of the peace he had just felt from Regulus moments before. Water...he was back again in water...only this time it was searingly, numbingly cold. The locket twisted this time like thick, sinister seaweed around Harry's neck. Again, Sirius felt the urge to lunge forward and act, but someone else beat him to it.
The locket now lay on a rock, waves of thunderous power emanating from it in a series of words and images that Sirius only heard as indistinct echoes. He couldn't make out what it was saying, but he could feel the terror of its force. Then suddenly it burst with a bright light, and everything was still. His mind went blank, like it was hovering in some celestial realm. He heard his brother's words once again: "It is finished." And Sirius calmly opened his eyes to moonlight, the silence of a snow covered night, and the faint smell of a sweet perfume.
"Lumos."
Sirius tied his robe around the red and gold pinstripe pajamas given to him by the Lupins and made his way through the darkness of the house slowly. Making too much noise in the middle of the night in this house could result in finding oneself acutely petrified. He'd noticed that the Snapes' bedroom door was ajar. Had Severus made good on his threat to leave? Rhiannon's coaxing could only go so far when tempers ran that high. He noticed a candle glow coming from the library, and he let out an involuntary sigh of relief. Whatever the four of them were, he didn't want it to end so angrily and abruptly.
Snape sat with three candles lit and incense burning, scrawling notes furiously on parchment from a book he held open with his other hand. Apparently he'd never come to bed, as he still wore his black frock. The light of a candle made the man's hooked nose a bit less prominent, his face a bit less pale, and the lines of his face more fraught with stress.
Sirius swallowed the familiar pang of guilt that welled in his throat. When was he going to stop berating himself for what he'd done to Snape? It felt like a lifetime ago. He'd apologized. They had new problems now, which were just laid bare. New reasons not to trust, new resentments through which to sift. But they all still seemed to be rooted in that fundamental hatred from the past. Sirius just wanted it to go away. Once and for all. But he didn't know how. He could guess...hope...but honestly it just seemed like grasping at straws. Straws that Snape himself cast aside like rubbish. It seemed the man would never meet him halfway, even though he now knew, with the news about the Prophecy, that Snape should feel just as guilty, if not more so.
"It's done," Sirius told Snape softly.
The man's black eyes cut like razor blades as they rose to meet his, the rest of him perfectly still.
"What is done?"
"The locket. It's destroyed."
"Good."
"You don't sound surprised?" Sirius studied Severus, who still wore the straightest of faces.
"I gave Potter the sword of Gryffindor tonight," Snape told him, closing his book. Sirius was shocked to see it was Rita Skeeter's book, of all things.
"And what does the sword of Gryffindor do?" Sirius asked blankly.
"It's impregnated with basilisk venom, thus having the power to destroy Horcruxes."
"Wow," Sirius said with a nod. "Thanks. You really do take care of Harry. How did you manage to get it to him?"
"I have my ways," Severus answered. "Like I said before. You're just going to have to trust me."
"After what was revealed tonight?" replied Sirius, aghast.
"Like Lupin said, we couldn't tell you. We didn't want the alliance to break."
"You can't willfully keep me in the dark on big things like that anymore," Sirius insisted. "I understand that some details of your methods and plans are sensitive, but you have to tell me the big things. Especially when it impacts my family...Harry...Colleen and Ben...Rhiannon...you. And our friends."
Snape let out a small chuckle and stared into the candle. Sirius was no Legilimens, but he knew the man was chewing on the word 'family.' Good. He needed to.
The black-robed wizard stood, stretching to the ceiling after his hours at the desk. Sirius didn't know why, but he felt his pulse accelerate a bit. He almost wanted to say something bratty, but he didn't. He'd probably showed his arse enough that night. A compliment would probably be better. But those were hard.
"Hey, Snape...I want you to know...what Rhiannon said tonight, about everything you're doing for Harry, for the movement. I just want you to know, that I think it's really brave. You know, for a Slytherin."
Snape walked over to Sirius and stood close, but with crossed arms. He wore a smirk, and Sirius wasn't sure why.
"What?" Sirius asked, nervous by his proximity.
"I was thinking about something Dumbledore said, not long before he died," Snape replied. "He said Hogwarts sorts too soon."
Sirius grinned. "You can borrow Colleen's Gryffindor PJs sometimes. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. They might be a little snug, though."
"Better not. It might excite you too much," Snape said wryly, and he left the room without looking back.