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Severus kept an unreadable look on his face as he walked down the rickety, aged wooden boards that led to the boathouse.
A figure around the corner emerged and to his chagrin, his heart skipped a beat for a single moment until he realized he saw-
"Good evening, Lucius." Severus nodded as his friend walked up to him.
Lucius's pale face had grown impossibly white from whatever meeting had just taken place, but he managed to hold onto his manners as he cast Severus a joyless smile and nodded, "Good evening, Severus."
Severus's black eyes scanned over his features as he silently asked for more information about what waited for him inside.
While Lucius offered no words of comfort, Severus couldn't ignore the sense of mortal dread that seemed to emanate from his friend, as if he knew something tragic had been planned.
"I will not ask you to say what you cannot." Severus said in his low drawl.
"...Then may I say what I am able?" Lucius asked.
Severus nodded.
A pause lasted a single moment before Lucius glanced down at the floor, moved his eyes back to meet Severus's dark gaze , and sniffed, "...Goodbye, my old friend."
As Lucius stepped past him, Severus's dark eyes widened as his mouth fell open.
He had no time to send for Lily, it had been all he could do to convince her to wait in his office not fifteen minutes earlier.
He had no time to bid Ellery or Harriet goodbye…….
Through the heavy, glass windows of the boathouse, he could see Voldemort's imposing figure waiting for him, like a reaper on the horizon of a new day.
Severus clenched his jaw.
His end had come.
He couldn't help but give into his survival instincts as a single jolt of panic raced through him while he silently contemplated what he should do.
As he reached out to grasp the door knob to the boathouse, he closed his eyes for a split second and took a deep breath.
He had upheld his promise.
He had kept Lily and his children safe.
That was all he had ever really wanted to do.
With a resolute sigh, he opened his eyes, turned the doorknob and walked into his inevitable execution.
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Instead of a wide grin, Voldemort cast his general a snarl that signaled the newfound holes in his trust as Severus glided into the wooden room.
The black water lapped against the dock as Severus's black robes swished across the floor, their ends absorbing the moisture that had gathered on the boards.
"Severus……." Voldemort began, his voice somewhere between a hiss and a whisper, "I knew you'd come."
"Of course, my lord," Severus replied with a nod as he stopped some distance in front of his dark master.
He forced his pounding heart to slow as he watched Nagini raise her head in interest from the floor she lay draped across, at her master's feet.
"You've always been obedient, Severus," Voldemort began.
The past tense he used sent alarm bells ringing in Severus's head as his dark master stalked towards him in long, slow strides.
As Voldemort began to circle him with gnashed teeth and narrowed eyes, Severus pled his reasoning, "Forgive me, my lord, for whatever I have done to displease you……I was not told of the plan to detain Hogwarts' students until-"
"-Never mind that, Severus!" Voldemort hissed, "Never mind that at all! I could hunt each and every one of these children, if that would be necessary! Though I'm convinced it won't……Not to find the Potter child!"
Severus let out a silent breath of intense relief.
No matter the source of his anonymous tip about Hogwarts, Voldemort still did not know or understand exactly who it was that he searched for.
"Of course, my lord." Severus replied with his usual level of stoic calm as he put his head down.
"So, then, Severus……" Voldemort said slowly as he stood in front of him and stretched his pale arms out, slowly, from side to side, "...I'm waiting."
Severus's heart fell into the soles of his feet.
"I beg your pardon, my lord?" He asked.
"My information has come from many sources, Severus." Voldemort snarled, "From blood and pain, from the screams of the tormented as they died, from floors soaked with the sweet, metallic scent of crimson blood."
The diabolical grin Voldemort had on his face once he finished speaking was difficult for Severus not to openly scowl at with a heaping amount of pure disdain.
"...I am not in the mood for riddles tonight, Severus, although I'm certain you'd be talented at telling them…..Instead, tell me, where is the Potter child?" Voldemort asked.
Severus braced himself to avoid stumbling with despair.
His instincts had told him correctly, he had in fact come to his final destination.
Voldemort may as well have been death himself standing in front of him.
"I am not certain why you would ask me that, my lord," Severus frowned.
"Don't lie to me…….Severus Snape!" Voldemort bellowed as he raised his arms and sent his dark, tattered robes swirling at his sides.
Severus bravely stood still at the intimidating motion, even as Nagini let out a fearsome hiss from sympathy for her aggravated master.
"Tell me where Potter's child is hiding and I will allow your wife and children to survive! I know that you alone know the brat's whereabouts!" Voldemort grinned.
Severus morbidly returned his austerely happy expression as he silently made peace with his own impending death.
He opened his mouth and spoke yet another lie with the same steady calm he had used for nearly twenty years, "...I haven't the slightest idea where Potter's child is, my lord."
As Voldemort and Severus continued their standoff, the door to the boathouse quietly creaked open as Harriet crawled into the room.
By then, she couldn't have stood if she had tried as one, mind-numbing pain after another gripped her belly and kept her tethered to the floor.
Crouching behind a pile of crates, she nearly bit through her lip as her body seized into one ball of agony while she tried to focus on what Voldemort and her father said.
"An, Severus…..what a pity we must part." Voldemort said with a frown that almost seemed genuinely sad as he gazed at his general's pale face, "...It would have been wonderful to have used your services a bit longer."
Severus braced himself for whatever would come next, Nagini, the Killing Curse, the-
In one smooth, deadly motion, Voldemort sliced all the way through Severus's collar and into the flesh of his neck with the jagged end of his wand's tip.
Severus stumbled backwards as Voldemort's face twisted into a hideous scowl while he shouted to Nagini in Parseltongue.
Harriet's mind was temporarily put off of her pain as she watched the massive python ruthlessly strike her father in quick, brutal blows over and over and over………
Tears filled Harriet's eyes as Severus fell against the glass while Nagini slithered away.
As Severus slowly slipped down to the boathouse's wet floorboards, gasping and bleeding from the large wounds in his neck, the panes turned red behind him.
Voldemort leaned over his mortally wounded servant as he held out a hand in a great flourish and cruelly smiled while he mockingly whispered, "...I regret it."
Voldemort and Nagini vanished with one, blinding flash of light as Voldemort curved his wrist again and flicked his wand.
Severus blinked his eyes as the room began to grow dark.
It was over, it was all over then.
He tried to steady his breathing as he waited for death's embrace.
Before his wide eyes, he could see them clearly, his mother……then Lily, Ellery, Harriet.
"D-Dad!"
Severus blinked.
His mouth fell open as he felt a trembling hand press against his throat.
"D-DAD! H-Hold on!" Harriet huffed as she reached inside the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a vial she had thoughtfully taken from Hermione before leaving their encampment so many months ago.
"Snape!" Draco called as he stood and revealed himself at last, "It's too late for him! We've got to get you back…."
Harriet's face reddened with the effort of not crying out as she uncorked the vial and poured its contents down his throat.
"It's going to take a good amount of luck for him to survive!" Draco hissed,
"GOOD!" Harriet screeched with a deepness that surprised both Draco and Severus, "A bit of Felix Fe-...and," As Severus swallowed the mixture, she pressed a hand to her belly, "...And some sort of healing poti-...Hermione….."
Severus had never felt so grateful for his daughter as he did the moment he realized his wounds were closing.
His strength returned to him as Nagini's poison was neutralized in his veins while the wounds on his throat sealed themselves as his blood count multiplied to instantly replenish what had been lost.
"DAAAAAADDDDDD……" Harriet moaned as she fell forward on her knees.
In one single, terrifying second, Severus realized he had escaped one peril only to watch his daughter be thrown into another.
"Help me!" He roughly commanded Draco in his low drawl.
"How?! We need to apparate her back to the manor!" Draco hissed.
As Severus tried to lift Harriet by her shoulders, the sound of dripping water ruptured the tense silence.
Both men realized that the noise was different than the water that lapped against the docks as Harriet groaned.
A single glance beneath her sent Draco's gray eyes widening and Severus's resolve strengthening.
"There's no time for that." He calmly told Draco over the sound of Harriet's harsh panting, "...We must make her comfortable here."