"I care for you more than you will ever know." Severus whispers against the top of her head as he pulls her tighter into his arms.
His warm, strong arms release her, leaving her chilled as the late spring breeze drift into the room from the still opened door. The sun had recently set in the sky, the day drawing to an end. Her heart skips a beat, something is wrong. Severus grips his left arm tightly as he quickens his pace down the stone stairs leading to the Headmaster's Office. Danu tries to keep up with him, she calls to him to wait for her, but he ignores her as he rounds the corner and disappears into the office. As she steps through the threshold, Severus closes the main door behind him. She was too late.
Danu freezes a moment, mouth slightly open in confusion. He had made love to her, held her in his arms afterwards, and then fled. Severus left frequently, was called upon at the drop of a hat, and yet, this time was different.
"He has left something for you." Phineas Black's voice cuts through the silence, she lifts her head and looks towards his portrait where he now stood close to the frame craning his neck slightly as if to try and see what it was Severus had left.
"What?" Danu asks, looking around the room for what Phineas was referring to.
"Don't ask me. I only saw him retrieving some memories and stacking bits of things there on the desk." Phineas gestures with his chin towards the claw-foot desk standing proudly mere feet from where she stood.
Danu makes her way towards the desk, her eyes fluttering from her great-great-great-grandfathers familiar face, and the pile of papers and random objects on the desk. Her hand reaches for the small vial on the desk, its contents silvery-blue and swirling around the bottom as if it were fog. It was not liquid, not quite gas, but was hypnotic as she watches the mysterious substance coil and ripple before prying her eyes from it and picking up a letter addressed to her.
Mrs. Snape,
I would like to start by apologizing for any pain I may have caused you during the course of our marriage. It was never my intent to marry; I was quite content remaining a bachelor, and if I am being honest, did not find myself worthy of a marriage.
You may have seen my memories at this point, if so, they may paint some light as to my reasons for this. If you have not already seen them, or if you are unsure of how to view them, you must simply pour the memories from the vial into the pensive next to the desk. I do hope that viewing those memories do not change your opinion of me.
You accused me of not being able to stand you, of not liking you, and even once of hating you. This could not be further from the truth. I must admit, I was apprehensive of you when I first saw you. If you have, in fact, seen my memories by this point, you may have an understanding as to why.
I was quite annoyed when Albus first assigned you to me for extra tutoring. However, I quickly took a liking to you. I would like to take a moment to assure you that I held no romantic interests in you during the time you were my student. It was not until well after we were married that I began to regard you in such a manner.
I struggled rather childishly with the idea of our union; I thought myself much too old for you. I thought it too scandalous, too inappropriate. I took these emotions out on you, and for that I hold deep regret. You had far less say in the events that led up to our marriage than I did.
I asked you to take your own name in the event of my death, not for my own sake, but for yours. While it is true that I would rather the name end with me, I believe you will have a much easier time after my passing with the Black name as opposed to Snape.
Do not think for a single moment that I was ever embarrassed to be your husband. You have been the greatest thing to have ever graced my life. I would have gone to the ends of the world for you. You confided in me shortly before the end of your seventh year that you were afraid you were not good enough, or that you may fail. Do not ever be fearful of this, for you are one of the most capable and competent women I have ever met. You will succeed in anything that you do. You are kind, intelligent, beautiful, loyal, and courageous.
You are not a coward.
You are one of the bravest people I have ever known.
I took your future from you. You would have made a phenomenal addition to St. Mungo's. I can never give you that missed opportunity back. You have made me proud every moment I have known you.
(The summer I found you living in The Shrieking Shack aside. That was quite foolish of you.)
I understand that I have asked too much of you; I have one final request. When you are ready, find someone who adores you as I do, but are not afraid to tell the world. Do not allow them to keep you locked in a dungeon or take their frustrations out on you. They must worship you and never be afraid to tell you that they love you.
My hope is that you have a long and wonderful life. Do this for me. Do not mourn for me, the thought of causing you more pain with my absence is too much for me to bare. Do not for a moment think that this is in any way your fault. I have made my bed. I have done this to myself.
I have taken the liberty of signing our home over to you. You own it outright; you may do with it as you see fit. I have also opened a Muggle bank account for you, there you will have access to any funds you may need for its upkeep. The checkbook associated with it is located to the left of this letter. My Gringott's vault is now yours as well, the key is on top of the Muggle checkbook. Your wand is on file, and they know to expect you. The vault is number 394.
There is enough inside of the vault for you to live a comfortable life. Do not take shame in this, you are my wife, and it is my duty to protect and care for you.
One of the biggest regrets of my life is never telling you that I love you. Thank you for making my final years' worth living. I only wish we could have had more time. I have asked my godson, Draco Malfoy, to check in on you. You can trust Draco. Confide in him, allow him to be a friend. He did not have a choice in his associations.
It has been a joy to call you my wife.
I love you with every beat of my heart.
-Severus Snape
Tears stream down her face and mingle with Severus' on the parchment she grips tightly in her hands, crumpling the edges slightly with the force which she shook. A commotion within the portraits lining the walls grabs her attention, she lifts her head, whipping it around the room as the many voices make it hard to decipher what is happening.
"What does it say? What does it say?" Phineas' voice booms above the rest, but they do not stop their chatter.
"What's happened?" Danu asks through the sobs wracking her body as her eyes continue to roam the portraits lining the walls.
"The letter!" Phineas demands. "What does the letter say?"
"He—he has gone to die." Danu admits, not wanting it to be true.
Danu runs to the door, the vial and letter still clutched protectively in her hands, and attempts to pry it open, only to finds it to be sealed shut, just as his chamber door had been the first year she was married to Severus. She needed to find him, to convince him not to do whatever it was that he had planned to do. She needed to be with him, even if it meant they both die. She turns and runs back towards the opened doors to retrieve her wand, but a soft glow on the desk catches her eye. With a shaking hands, she places the letter and vile back on the desk before reaching out to pick up Severus' thin gold wedding band between thumb and forefinger, the metal ice cold. She places it in her palm and squeezes it tightly, the edges digging into her skin.
"Where is he?" Danu demands as she looks up at her ancestors stern blue eyes.
"I do not know." Phineas replies with his chest puffed out.
"What is happening out there?" Danu asks, the commotion that had only moments before been confined to only the portraits lining the walls was now filtering through the opened balcony door behind her.
"Harry Potter is in the castle."
Danu's heart stops, her skin turns a sickly white. If Harry Potter is in the castle, then so is You-Know-Who. This means war. It means her husband will either die at the hands of a sadistic tyrant, or by a dementor in a cold prison cell in Azkaban. She slips his ring over her thumb, the only finger it fit on, and goes to turn once more to make her way up to their chambers to retrieve her wand.
"THE MEMORIES!" Phineas bellows once more, practically shaking his frame in an attempt to get out. "View the memories!"
Danu turns back around, grips the vial in her hand, tears still streaming from her face. She makes her way to the pensive which stood in front of Albus Dumbledore's empty frame. She looks around, most of the portraits had left to their second or third frames within the castle to watch the goings on below. Only Phineas and a handful of others remain, each leaning forward and watching her intently as she chokes on her tears before them. She pops the cork and tilts the vial slightly, its contents snaking out and streaming through the liquid within the pensive.
"What now?" Danu asks as she pries her eyes from the swirling liquid and over towards Phineas, who was at this point pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head slightly. She had never used the pensive before.
"Why, you plunge your head in! What else would you do?" A portrait behind her exclaims.
Danu grips the edge firmly with one hand, pinches her nose with the other, and plunges her head in as she was told. She had been expecting it to be like plunging your head in the bath, but it was not. She did not become soaked as her body was seemingly sucked into the small tub.
As an eerie grey fog lifts, Danu sits hunched beneath something in a bitterly cold and dark room. It takes several moments for her eyes to adjust, once they do, she finds herself hiding beneath a table. A man is shouting, his words slurred slightly. Danu peaks her head from beneath for a closer look and as moonlight filters in from a window, realizes she is in the kitchen at Spinner's End. The man was shouting at a woman, who sat crouched against the counter with her arms shielding her head. The man throws a glass at her, as it shatters around the woman, Danu hears a small gasp behind her and whirls around, still on her hands and knees in the filthy floor.
Cowering against the wall with their legs clutched to their chest is a small child. It is much too dark to see their features, or even their age, but Danu crawls to them, nonetheless. She tries to grip their arm, but her hand goes straight through it. She sits shocked for a moment, staring at her hand.
"Can you hear me?" Danu whispers as the man beyond the table becomes louder and louder.
"Mummy!" The child sobs before they are dragged from beneath the table and the scene changes.
Danu now stands in the corner of the bedroom her, and Severus had moved in during the previous summer. A boy no older than seven with ill fitting, mix-matched clothing, shaggy black hair that was so greasy and unkempt it seemed to be deliberate, and a dirt smeared face lifts himself from the bare mattress on the floor. As the boy moves closer to her to retrieve a pair of ratty shoes with holes in the toes, Danu realizes that the boy is Severus. Her heart sinks when she realizes that the child in the previous memory had been him as well.
A shout comes from the main floor. Danu watches as young Severus trembles, his bottom lip quivering slightly. She tries to reach out to him once more, to comfort him, when she notices bruises in the shape of a large hand littering both of his thin, frail arms. It seemed as if someone had taken his little arms in their hands and violently twisted them.
Movie reel like flashes occur now, each snippet lasting only a few seconds before changing to the next. Severus grows slightly older in each one, the woman with him increasingly more bruised and frailer.
First is him and a woman who looked identical to him, no doubt his mother. Severus sits in her lap, her wand gripped in his hand as she uses her own hand cupped protectively over his to guide his movements. Next they are sitting next to one another on the floor, a book opened at their feet as she points to the page. As Danu moves closer, she can see that the book they are reading from is Advanced Potions, and she remembers Severus telling her that his mother had been the one to teach him to brew. Each snippet is similar to the last, Severus looking to his mother expectantly as she teaches him a spell, a potion, or points out meager ingredients lined before them.
The snippets end as Danu blinks her eyes rapidly to rid herself of the motion sickness she experienced with the flashing images. She sits next to Severus on a bed in what appears to be the Slytherin common room. He is reading a letter, and as she cranes her neck slightly, finds that it is from his mother, instructing him to steal certain ingredients from Slughorn's closet. She knew Slughorn was the current Potions professor, but he had apparently been Severus, and his mother's professor as well.
Danu follows Severus to what will one day be his own private room, and guards the door as he quickly riffles through the ingredients, unsure if she would even be able to do anything to warn him of coming danger.
The scene shifts once more and they now stand in their old bedroom at Spinner's End, the interior exactly the same as it had been when the two of them shared the room. Eileen stirs a bubbling cauldron, Severus paces between his mother and the window.
"It's still clear." Severus mumbles as he makes his way back to his mother's side.
"Good." Eileen replies, her voice frantic yet gentler than Danu had expected it to be.
"Mum. What is this for?" Severus asks as he pulls on his mother's sleeve. She gasps slightly and jerks her sleeve from his grasp, as she does, she lifts it slightly on her arm to reveal what looked to be a badly broken arm based on the color of the bruising and the intense swelling. Danu and Severus each suck air through their teeth at the sight of it.
"Listen to me, Severus." Eileen begins as she sits on the edge of the bed and grips her sons shoulders. Severus straightens his back and looks his mother in the eye, the very shape and color of his own. "I will be quite ill after I take this. I need you to keep away from Tobias. I will not be able to protect you. I will be fine, love. Just look after yourself for me, please."
Severus sniffles slightly but nods his head at his mother as she stands once more and drinks greedily from the ladle she had pulled from the cauldron. Snippets from the night flash, Eileen writhing in bed clutching her stomach, Severus pacing, Severus moping her forehead with a cloth, Severus holding her hand, and then finally, it is morning and Eileen sits propped against the pillows on the bed, her face grey and sickly looking. Eileen stands then, her legs weak and wobbly, only to reveal a large blood stain on the sheets. Danu gasps, wondering for a moment if this is how his mother had died. A chill runs down her spine as she recalls Severus telling her that his father's name was Tobias, and it is why he hates his middle name.
Severus gets to work pulling the stained sheets from the bed and balling them up, Danu follows him to the river where he quickly fills the sheets with rocks, ties a knot in the top, and chucks it into the river. The two of them walk back home, Severus sniffling slightly as he keeps his head down against the cold wind cutting through the valley. Once they return to the bedroom, Eileen is scrubbing the mattress, a blood stained basin of water on the vanity next to the bed. Danu shutters slightly as Severus takes the rag from her hand and sits her at the vanity before turning and cleaning the mattress for her.
"Mum." Severus whispers as he rings the cloth in the bloody basin. "Are you going to be alright?"
"Severus," Eileen begins as she clutches her stomach. "You will be a man one day. I need you to promise me that you will not be like him. I need you to be a good man."
"I promise, Mum." Severus whimpers as he falls to his knees at his mother's side and takes her blood stained hands in his own. "What happened? What did Tobias do to you?"
"There was a child growing inside of me. But not anymore." Eileen sighs deeply as she lifts her head, a tear falling from her long black lashes. "You were the only one strong enough to endure him. I am so sorry, Severus."
The scene changes once more, Severus stands in the tiny kitchen, his fists clenched at his sides, his shoulders shaking slightly. He is older, perhaps late teens.
"You deserve it!" Severus sneers at his mother, her back is to him, her shoulders hunched over the kitchen sink.
"Sever—"
"No! You stayed with a filthy Muggle, let him torture us for years! You deserve what's coming to you!" Severus turns and storms from the house, the scene swirls, and changes once more. Danu wished to go back, to pull Eileen into her arms and beg her to leave the house with them.
Severus is older now, but only slightly. He is cleaner than she had seen him in any of the previous memories, his clothes fitting well, his shoes without holes. He opens the front door, slamming it against the wall. The home is filthy, even by its previous standards. Take-away containers and empty liquor bottles litter the floor. Roaches scurry as Severus' boots make their way into the kitchen.
"Mum?" Severus asks. "It's me; Severus. May I speak with you?"
No answer. Danu's heart skips a beat as Severus looks around the room. Dirty dishes erupt from the sink, the icebox door had been left open. The garbage can is toppled over, trash spilling on to the floor. Broken glass and food is everywhere.
"Mum. I'm sorry. Please, where are you?"
"Out back." A man's deep voice replies from somewhere in the house, no doubt Tobias. Severus stiffens but pushes the door open and makes his way out of the door, Danu right on his heels. They each look around; the garden is deserted except for a large flat stone peeking out from between the neatly trimmed rose bushes. As they get closer, they find a crudely carved E atop the stones face. Severus stares emotionless at the stone, his clenched fists shaking at his sides as he breathes heavily. She wished she could touch him, comfort him in some way.
Eileen was dead.
The memory swirls once more as Danu tries to catch her breath, her heart aches for Severus, for Eileen, and the pain they endured under Tobias Snape's thumb. Once more, snippets of scenes flash before her as she stands in the background soaking them in.
Severus crouches behind a tree, he couldn't have been any older than ten. Danu crouches down next to him to get a view of what he was seeing. Two girls play at a park, one blonde, the other red haired. The image changes and Severus is now walking up to the red haired girl. As they approach her, Danu is hit with a pang of realization; this girl looks far too much like herself, except with green eyes. They stand in the very park she played in as a child, Danu looks around, realizing that it had not changed at all in all the years between Severus' childhood and her own.
Severus tells the girl that she is a witch, and she believes him to be lying to her. The other girl, the blonde one, sneers at Severus and drags the red haired girl down the hill, away from Severus who stands saddened and confused. The image changes, and now Severus lies with the girl beneath the large tree in the park, a book opened in the grass before them as leaves rain down from the trees, despite the still air. Danu bends down to see what they were reading, The Hobbit. The very copy Severus had given her for Christmas during her sixth year.
The girl, whom she had learned was named Lily, and Severus stand outside of the Hogwarts Express. Severus is alone, neither Eileen nor Tobias are present. Lily stands next to the blonde haired girl Danu had learned was her sister. Both girls look upset, Lily's bottom lip trembles slightly.
Danu's breath is knocked from her lungs as she recognizes Sirius Black. He is young, a truly beautiful child. His grey eyes shimmer with happiness as he clasps another boy on the shoulder, two more trail behind them. To her left, Severus shudders.
The images bounce back and forth between he and Lily laughing, walking through the halls, and Sirius tormenting him. She is forced to watch him lift Severus in the air by his ankles, laugh at him, mock him. The one that cuts her the deepest, is when Sirius instructs him to go beneath the Womping Willow, at the end of the hall, a werewolf. She isn't sure how he got away, but she knows that he did. It would be obvious if her husband were a werewolf.
Severus becomes darker, more closed off and desperate as he becomes older. Lucious Malfoy, and another boy whom Lily calls Mulciber whisper in his ear, convince him he will have everything he wants if he just joins them. Danu watches Severus struggle between them and Lily as she puts them down, tells Severus that they're bad, all while he tries to convince her that James Potter and Sirius Black are the true bad guys.
It all comes to a head one warm spring day. Danu kneels behind Severus as he sits beneath a tree looking over his O.W.L paper. In the distance, Potter, Black, Lupin, and another she did not know sit on the grass. Severus stands suddenly, pushes his paper into his bag, and walks towards the group of boys, simply minding his own business and going about his day.
"All right, Snivellus?" James Potter asks, calling him that awful name Sirius had called him the day she had met him, the name that caused Severus to tense up and clench his teeth. Danu wanted to strike him.
Severus drops his bag instinctively and plunged his hand into his robes to produce his wand.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" James shouts, Danu watches as Severus' wand goes flying as he stands there face turning red in anger and embarrassment.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Sirius shouts between laughs, Severus falls to the ground as he was bent down reaching for his wand.
Other student begin to stand and gather, some snicker behind their hands. Danu feels the rage bubbling beneath the surface as her hands shake at her sides.
Severus lies on the ground panting, Sirius and James look around smiling at the crowed that had gathered. She wanted to kneel down beside him, pick him up, tell him that he was a better man than both James and Sirius combined.
"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" James mocks.
"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment, They'll be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word." Sirius barks viciously, no doubt proud of himself for what he was saying.
"You—wait..You just wait." Severus sneers up at the boys, unable to move from the ground.
"Wait for what? What're you going to do Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?" Sirius laughs.
Severus curses, words she had never heard him say before turning to hexes, his wand sits motionless just out of his reach.
"Wash out your mouth." Says James. "Scourgify!"
Bubbles flow from Severus' mouth, his eyes wide with fear and defeat as he begins to choke and gurgle. Danu squeezes her eyes shut, and breathes heavily as her husband lies defeated on the ground and she unable to do anything to help him. Everyone around laugh and egg James and Sirius on. Her heart breaks all over again. Severus had already been through so much, had known so much pain and fear. He should have been safe at Hogwarts, just like she was.
"Leave him ALONE!" Someone shouts. Danu opens her eyes to see Lily pushing her way through the crowd of people gathered around Severus.
"All right, Evans?" James asks coldly.
"Leave him alone. What's he done to you?" Lily demands. Danu breathes a sigh of relief; thankful someone was there to help Severus when she couldn't.
Lily and James go back and forth for several moments over whether or not Lily should date him. Danu giggles slightly as Lily insults him. Glancing down, she realizes that Severus has been released and now has his wand grasped tightly in his hand as he stands to his feet. Just then, he points his wand at James and after a bright flash zips from the tip of Severus' wand, a deep gasp appears on James' face. Before anyone can move a muscle, James lifts his own wand, blood dripping from his face, and Severus is lifted into the air by his ankles. His robes fall down around his chest, his skinny pale legs shine in the afternoon sun, his underpants old and tattered, and beginning to grey from constant wear. Danu gasps and covers her mouth with her hand, her brow furrowed in pain as the crowd around them howl and cheer.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily bellows, her face red with anger, her wand pointed at James.
"Ah, Evans. Don't make me hex you." James sneers.
"Take the curse off him then!"
"There you go." James sighs as Severus falls to the ground and tries desperately to right himself. "You're lucky Evans was here Snivell—"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" Severus snaps. Danu gasps once more, momentarily disgusted he had called Lily that word when he was so angry when he learned Draco had called her the same thing.
The scenes flash once more, Severus begging for Lily's forgiveness, Lily denying him. Severus leaning more on Mulciber, spending his free time at Malfoy Manor, and finally, standing before You-Know-Who himself, his arm out to receive his mark.
Severus is a young adult now, a terrified look on his face as he stands on the very cliff he had brought her to the night he had told her that she was a coward. With his wand gripped tightly in his hand, a second figure appears in the darkness as the wind whips around them and the oceans waves crash against the rocky cliffs, spraying them with water.
His wand suddenly flies from his hand as he falls to his knees, Dumbledore comes strolling towards him out of the darkness.
"Don't kill me!" Severus pleads, his hands clasped in front of him.
"That was not my intention." Dumbledore says coldly. "Well, Severus, what message does The Dark Lord have for me?"
"No—no message!" Severus exclaims as he wrings his hands before him. He is unhinged and frantic, she had never seen him like this before. "I am here on my own account!"
The wind whips frantically around them as Severus stands to his feet slowly, his eyes wide and desperate.
"I—I come with a warning— no! A request—Please!" Severus pleads, Dumbledore flicks his wand, and the wind stills, the ocean quiets. It is silent at last.
"What request could a Death Eater make of me?" Dumbledore asks, one brow raised at Severus. She had never heard him speak to Severus this way.
"The—the prophecy….the prediction..Trelawney…"
"Ah, yes. How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?" Dumbledore asks, his tone ice cold as Severus slinks back slightly.
"Everything—everything I heard! That is why—it is for that reason—he thinks it means Lily Evans!"
"The prophecy did not refer to a woman, it spoke of a boy born at the end of July—"
"You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son; he is going to hunt her down—kill them all—"
"If she means so much to you, surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?" Albus asks, Danu's mouth falls open, her heart skips a beat. Severus had been the one to give the Potter's to You-Know-Who.
"I have—I have asked him—" Severus is on his knees once more, pleasing with Dumbledore. She felt pity, shame, and most of all, heartbreak. Over everything Severus had endured, everything that he had seen and been through, and now, what he had done.
"You disgust me." Dumbledore spits at Severus.
Once more the scene shifts; Severus in Dumbledore's office, Severus bringing information to You-Know-Who, Severus teaching at Hogwarts. Finally, Severus sitting at the professors table during a sorting ceremony, when her name is called. His face is scrunched, his jaw tight.
Severus paces Dumbledore's office, his fists clenched at his side as he rages, demanding to know who her father is, who her mother is. Severus watching her sitting in the back of his class, walking down the halls with her books clutched tightly at her chest, and her holding vials of potions up to the light. She could not deny the resemblance between her and Lily Evans.
"SIRIUS BLACK!" Severus bellows before slamming his fists down on Dumbledore's desk.
"Don't tell me that you still hold a grudge, Severus." Dumbledore replies coldly.
"Do not think that I do not see the resemblance, Severus. Do not let it be the reason you help this girl." Dumbledore says softly as the two men gaze down at her sleeping with her head resting on Severus' desk the night he found her in The Shrieking Shack. Severus pinches the bridge of his nose as the scene changes again.
Severus is a young boy again, perhaps thirteen. He and Lily sit on the swings in the park, talking excitedly about what they will do first when they return to Hogwarts.
"Lily, love," A gentle voice comes from behind, Danu turns and nearly faints at the image before her. There stands her mother, the spitting image of herself. Tear stings her eyes as she realizes that she can't reach out and touch her, can't hug her, can't even speak to her. "Your mum said to tell you it's time to come home."
"Okay, Rose!" Lily exclaims. "Come on, Sev, walk me to the edge of the bridge!"
Now, Danu is being drug into the parlor of Malfoy Manor, he dress ripped exposing her breast. The man she had been so afraid of two years prior grips her hair tightly before throwing her down on the floor and hitting her with a Cruciatus Curse. Her heart pounds as she watches herself scream and writhe on the floor. No one makes a move to stop him.
Suddenly, Severus is gripping her wrist tightly as You-Know-Who binds them together with a golden wisp coming from the tip of his wand.
Severus tries desperately to hang on as he bounces between class, brewing, lessons with Potter, and caring for her as she fights him every day. He grows more and more exhausted, more on edge, until one day, he screams in her face, and she sees him for the first time. He holds her tight, his arms safety and protection.
Flashes of herself play before her; her smile, her laugh, her asleep on his chest. Severus watching her as she brews, combing her hair after a bath, kissing her on top of the head, and her kissing his neck as she made love to him.
"There's one more thing I need to show you, Severus." Dumbledore says as he pulls a blue strand from his temple and drops it in to the pensive. Danu watches as Severus grips the edges of the basin and plunges his head in just as she had.
She stands next to Severus, the edges of the memory slightly fuzzy, the two of them stand before a large house, snow falls around them. James Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and Remus Lupin stand next to them on the sidewalk. Sirius Black walks down steps holding a bundle tight against his chest. He stops before them, and they all look down at the bundle. Danu stands on her toes and cranes her neck above the men's shoulders and looks down into her own sleeping face.
Sirius had held her, carried her from a strange home. She stands there for a moment, contemplating just how this could be possible, when Severus' voice booms next to her.
"What is the meaning of this?" Danu looks to her right to find Severus standing before Dumbledore in his office, his face red and beaming with anger.
"What you have just witnessed, Severus, is the night we obliterated Rose Evans and left her daughter at an orphanage."
Danu heaves, bile choking the back of her throat. The whole time, Dumbledore knew. Sirius knew, Lupin knew, and Severus knew. They all lied directly to her face. She didn't know who to trust anymore, who had truly cared about her. Her hands shake, she wants out of the pensive, she doesn't want to see any more of the memories Severus wanted her to see but knew that she must. She looks around, and finds herself standing before a smoldering building, Severus choking on a sob at her side.
Craning her neck once more, she realizes she stood before the remains of her old apartment in Hogsmeade. Bram comes running from the shadows, rubs his head against Severus' leg, then bites him hard on the hand when he tried to pick him up before running off into the darkness.
"Watch out for the cat, will you?" Severus asks Madam Rosmerta as she pours him a mug of coffee. "Just until I can get her back. I'll pay you. Its name is Bram."
Severus sits at his desk in his old office, writing feverishly on a scroll of parchment, she looks over his shoulder to find him writing to St. Mungo's, asking for an internship for her. He had told her that it was Dumbledore who had written on her behalf.
Next, he writes to Madam Rosmerta, about her once more. He asks her to find her a place to live, tells her that he will pay the rent in advance. She had been under the impression that the Ministry had funded her home, due to her being an orphan. She feels stupid, naive, foolish, and lost. Everything that she thought she knew, all of it was a lie.
Finally, she stands before Sirius Black and Remus Lupin in the Black kitchen, the day she thought she had met her father for the first time.
"Snivellus. How goo—"
"Don't call him that!" She snaps at Sirius, behind her, Severus seems shocked. For a moment, his jaw relaxes, and he releases his clenched fists.
Danu stands between Severus and Dumbledore, each of their eyes clouded with despair.
"Severus. Please." Dumbledore pleads as Severus lifts his wand.
"Avada Kedavra." Severus' voice cracks.
"NO!" Danu shouts as her hands find their way to her hair.
A grey fog rolls through, leaving her standing in silence. It takes several moments to notice that she is pulling her own hair, her mouth still hangs open. No further memories flash before her. Danu stands there, her mind whirling, her heart aching with emotion. Finally, she stands and is sucked back into the real world, panting, and clutching her chest before she sprints from the office, vomits over the balcony, and runs up the steep stairs to retrieve her wand. As confused as she is about Severus, she refuses to let him die alone.
—
Danu throws every spell she knows at the office door, yet it still does not budge. She becomes angry and impatient as the castle grumbles and shouts come from the still opened door.
"HOW DO I GET OUT OF HERE!" Danu shouts as she turns to face the portraits.
"You should stay here." Phineas says, his voice dull and bored.
"I need to find him!"
"What you need to do, my dear, is stay alive. You are the last remaining Black. It is up to you to carry on the bloodline."
"I am not! There's Narcissa, Bellatrix, and don't they have another sister that your great-whatever disowned!" Danu spits at him.
"I thought you Ravenclaws were meant to be intelligent? Go out there, you will likely die. They say it is madness and mayhem. You know Severus would tell you the same."
"I will not let him die alone!"
"So, you will die with him?"
"I NEED TO GO TO HIM!" Danu bellows, growing increasingly frustrated with the conversation and his lack of help.
"Come here." A voice says from behind her. Danu turns and follows, a small round man with a red face in rose colored robes sits before her, a soft gleam in his kind grey eyes. "Behind my portrait is a tunnel that leads to The Shrieking Shack, Albus created it when a student was staying there during full moons, so he could safely check on the child. However, He is in there, waiting there for Severus. It is much too dangerous. This tunnel leads straight into the room He is in. My other portrait is in the room, I have just come from there. What you need to do, is go four portraits down, behind it is another tunnel that leads to the kitchens. Albus had quite the sweet tooth."
"Thank you!" Danu exclaims as she lunges from the strangers portrait and towards the one he had pointed her to.
Danu pries the portrait open to reveal a long, dark passage. She lights her wand and holds it in front of her, her heart pounding with each step. All around her is the sound of destruction and violence, the ground shakes beneath her feet. Finally, at the end of the hall, is a light. Danu extinguishes her wand, dries the sweat from her hands on the front of her dress, and peaks around the corner. House elves shout and trip over one another, all fumbling to get out of the kitchen. Danu files in behind them, hugging the wall as she goes.
The hall is empty, but just beyond she can hear the shouting and fighting. She takes another deep breath, flexes her hands at her sides, and runs full force from the hall, up a short flight of steps, and comes out near a busted out window with a short drop. Without hesitation, she climbs into the windowsill, closes her eyes, and drops. Her feet land on the ground with a soft thump as curses fly above her head, she ducks slightly, and makes a run for it. She only needs to get around the corner, and then it is a clear shot to the Womping willow.
As Danu rounds the corner, she is hit full force by a disarming charm thrown from somewhere across from her and is knocked down to the ground, her wand just out of reach. She tries scrambling to her feet, desperate to reach Severus in time, before she is able to fully stand, a black shoe cuts through the darkness and kicks her wand towards her. As she looks up she meets the face of a terrified Draco Malfoy. Danu grips her wand, but before she can begin take up her chase once more, his hand captures her wrist and begins pulling.
"NO!" Danu shouts. "I have to find Severus!"
"He told me to keep you safe!" Draco objects, his usual slicked back hair spilling forward onto his forehead.
"No, I need to go to him! I need to save him!" Danu pleads just as a red stream of light comes barreling towards them.
"PROTEGO!" They both shout at the same time, shielding one another from the blast. They both duck and run towards the Womping Willow as the fighting from the side of the castle she had just been on spills over onto the side where they stood.
"Go!" Danu shouts at Draco as they near the tree. "Go. Severus is in there; I can't let him die. Please, just go!"
Draco stands there in confusion for a moment before clenching his jaw before releasing her wrist and running back towards the castle. Danu crouches down, presses the knot on the tree, and sits down on her bottom to scoot her way down to keep from sliding and making too much noise. The Dark Lord was down there, with her husband. Either He kills them both, or they convince Him to let them walk. The later highly unlikely.
Her heart pounds in her chest as she makes it to the end of the darkened corridor, her foot hits something soft in the darkness. Through the cracks in something that had been placed at the end of the corridor, she can see soft blue glow of moonlight.
"My Lord!" Severus' voice cuts the silence as her heart stops beating in her chest.
For a split second she contemplates pushing the barricade out of the way, but as soon as her hands make contact with the wood, a hand appears from nowhere and grips her ankle firmly. Danu covers her hand with her mouth to stifle a gasp as a head of a girl appears, their finger pressed to their mouth. The girl flicks something invisible back, her shoulder and arm appearing from nowhere, and pulls her down next to her tight against the wall. She crouches down next to the girls now visible body. Next to the girl sits Harry Potter and another boy she did not know. The three of them shake and breathe heavily as Danu turns her attention back to Severus.
"It cannot be any other way. I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last." The Dark Lord says coldly.
A scream sticks in the back of Danu's throat as she watches a cage fall from the sky and on to Severus' head, trapping him inside. Hands hold her back, pin her against the wall. Another clamps down over her mouth as she struggles silently against the strangers holding her back, keeping her from the man she loves as he screams on the ground. Time stands still, Severus' scream replaying over and over again in her head as the barricade slowly lifts from the door and Harry Potter slinks through a small gap. Danu frees herself from the grip and follows the boy through the small gap beneath the barricade.
Severus lies jerking and gurgling on the floor as she places her hand over his to staunch the flow of blood.
"Take…..it….take…it." Severus says to Harry Potter as a blue wisp escapes his lips.
Severus' hands are ice cold, his face drained of all color as she looks down at him, not knowing what to do. She was frozen, staring down into his face as he struggled to breathe, struggled to hold on. Severus was wrong, she would not have made a phenomenal addition to St. Mungo's.
He turns his head to her, his black eyes glazed over as tears fall from her face. Her hands are hot and sticky with his blood as she grips his hand tightly in her own. She looks down at them, the gleam of his wedding band on her thumb catching her attention. Danu removes it from her thumb, and wish shaking hands, slips it back over his ring finger before bringing his hand to her lips and kissing it, not caring that it was covered in his blood. Her hands go back to his neck where his pulse beats slow and irregularly against her fingers.
Foolishly, she remembers the vial around her neck. The anti-venom that he had told her not to remove. Danu looks up, all eyes were glue to her as she tries desperately to pop the cork with her slick, blood soaked fingers. Potter reaches across Severus to help her, his hands shake just as much as hers as they finally manage to uncork the vial and working together, pour the contents down Severus' throat. He groans deeply, his entire body trembling.
"I…I….love…you." Severus manages to get out between groans.
The pulse beating beneath her fingers becomes slower as she throws herself across his chest.
"Don't leave me, Severus. Please don't leave me." Danu begs as his blood soaks through her dress.
"Harry," Danu hears the girl ask as she presses herself protectively across Severus' chest. "Who is that?"
"I don't know." Harry replies.
"I'm his wife." Danu replies, the vibration of her voice causing another groan to escape Severus' throat.
"You have fought valiantly," A voice hisses in the air, whether in her head or in the wind, she could not be sure. Danu buries her head in Severus' chest, feeling his heart thump slowly against her cheek. "Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magic blood is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour to dispose of your dead with dignity, treat your injured. I speak now to Harry Potter, directly to you. You have allowed your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest."
Danu drowns out the rest of the speech the best she can, forcing her entire focus on her husband's slowing heart. Her hand remains pressed into his neck to staunch the flow of blood, to ensure he still has a pulse. A hand grabs her wrist, attempting to pull her away. Danu jerks her hand from theirs, pressing it further into Severus' throat.
"We have to go." The girls gentle voice says from behind her.
"No. I'm not leaving him. You go, I'll be fine."
Danu hears the others leave slowly, pausing only a moment to look down at her protecting her husband's lifeless body, then leaving without a word. Danu stands slowly, careful to keep her hand covering Severus' throat. She uses the other to rip a strip of cloth from the bottom of her dress, presses it against his throat, and pries the portrait on hanging on the wall above them open.
Carefully, she lifts Severus from the ground with her wand, and cradles his head in her arms as she climbs through the hole and walks backwards to support him.
The light on the other end blinds her momentarily as she climbs through the portrait hole and into the Headmaster's Office. Glancing around, she finds Phineas to be the only portrait remaining in their frames in the office.
"Alive?" Phineas asks as he peers down at Severus' blood soaked body.
"Yes." Danu breathes as she lies her husband on the floor and sprints up the small staircase to the small library above.
She finds a small pillow, a throw blanket, and a decorative basin on one of the side tables, she tosses each into a cardboard box of Blood-Replenishing Potion and runs back down the stairs to where she had left Severus. She folds the blanket and places it beneath his head, the pillow beneath his feet. Using her wand to fill the basin with water, she removes the ripped strip of cloth from his neck and begins to attempt to clean some of the blood from his skin. It was simply too much to clean at the moment, so she abandons the job and opts to slowly feed him potions instead. He gurgles and sputters, his breath coming out deep and harsh. He was breathing though, and that was all she cared about at the moment.
"Is he alive?" Someone asks over her shoulder.
Danu jerks and whips her head around. Behind her stands Harry Potter, his hands stained with dried blood. Her husband's blood.
"Yes." Danu breathes as her heart begins to calm in her chest.
"I'm sorry. I came to—" Harry cuts off and shakes the vial in his hand that he had used to capture the silvery-blue substance that spilled from Severus' mouth in the Shrieking Shack. Danu nobs her head sharply as he makes his way to the pensive.
Danu covers Severus' body with her own once more, her head resting on his chest. She closes her eyes, counting each of Severus' heart beats in her head as she grips his hand tightly in hers.
She couldn't be sure how much time had passed, but a sound behind her catches her attention. She opens one eye to find Harry Potter lying on the floor before the pensive. His chest heaving, his fists clenched at his sides. She closes her eye and leaves him be, she only cared about Severus at this moment.
"If he…" Harry begins, his voice catching slightly. "Just—tell him I said thank you." Danu peaks her eye open once more to catch sight of Harry leaving the office. He closes the door gently behind him.
Severus moans, his fingers jerking slightly in her hand that grips his.
"Please, don't go. We didn't get enough time. I can't do this without you, Severus."
—
Danu lies across Severus' chest, not daring to leave his side. Footsteps sound behind her, but she does not care. She buries her head further in to Severus' neck, his breathing deep and labored, his heartbeat had become more stable, his pulse slightly stronger. A hand touches her shoulder gently, she jerks it off.
"We've come to take him." A woman says firmly.
"No!" Danu objects, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
Someone crouches before her; she opens one eye to find the solemn face of Harry Potter before her. She softens her hold on Severus slightly but does not move.
"They will take him to St. Mungo's." Harry says, his eyes are kind, his voice low.
"I'm not leaving him." Danu whimpers, a tear slowly rolling down her face.
"You can go with him." Harry assures her as he takes her hand in his and pulls her from the floor.
Before her stands the boy and girl from inside of the Shrieking Shack, McGonagall, and several other faces she did not recognize. Danu looks down at Severus. His black eyes had opened just a bit, whether it be from the presence of others, or perhaps they had never fully closed, she was not sure. His skin shockingly white and covered in blood of varying stages of dryness. His fingers jerk as they lay palm up on the floor as if searching for something. She watches as two men lift him from the floor on to a white stretcher and parade him from the room. Harry looks down at her, still clutching her hand in his, and the two follow.
"You're my cousin." Harry says as they cross through the portrait hall outside of the Headmaster's Office.
"Yeah." Danu whispers back to him, a lump in her throat.
Footsteps follow closely behind them as they walk hand in hand past the destruction and out of the castle.