When the Stars Fall

Twenty-One: The Heir of Snape

The boy looked at the man sitting in the plush red chair, and his mouth fell open in disbelief. The man before him was Severus Snape, and Severus Snape never wept. The boy, unsure of what to do, took a seat on his bed, next to his wife and glanced at the weeping man to his obviously concerned wife, and then something in her expression changed, a look of surprise and wonder as she gazed at him.

"What?" he asked her.

"Your eyes, they aren't blue anymore, well they are, but a dark blue almost black, with flecks of silver. Your eyes look like the night sky," she said, as she ran her index finger from his temple, down his jaw and to his chin.

He shied away from her hand and got off of the bed. He approached the mirror on the dresser and stared at his reflection. He looked the same, except for his eyes. They were not the cool blue like his mother's; they were darker, like a midnight sky. He swallowed thickly and then turned around. He looked at the man that was sitting in the plush chair a few feet from his bed and walked toward him. Upon reaching the dark haired, broken man, he grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

"What have you done to me!? What in the bloody hell is happening to me? Why are my eyes different? I know you have the answers you sodding bastard!" the blond boy growled.

The man looked up, a strange calm suddenly passing over his face, a crazed look in his eyes as he smiled and lifted his hand to caress the boy's cheek. He touched it, a feathery caress and took in a sharp breath, the boy was perfectly still.

"I brought you into this world, were you ever told that? I was the first to hold you, and it was the greatest moment of my life. I never thought..." the man paused. "I never thought I would be a father, but your eyes are proof that I am."

"No, my mother, she wouldn't have broken her vows, she wouldn't have..." Draco said irrationally, jerking away from the man's touch.

"I came to tell you," Severus said, "that your mother is gone. She came to me, before passing on completely. You're my son. I've always thought of you as the closest I would ever come to having a son and all of this time you were mine. You've no idea how many times I wanted to take you from Lucius, how many times I wanted to be there in his place to guide you away from the path he had set for you. Can you ever forgive me?"

"But his eyes, they aren't black like yours. How can you possibly know that he is your son?" Hermione asked, and both men turned to her, as though just remembering that she was present in the room as well.

"My mother put a spell on me, an old Gypsy spell. She was a daughter of the Romany. She always wanted a child that had her eyes. Her people called them midnight eyes, because they looked like a midnight sky. Instead I got my father's eyes as well as his nose. So she cast a spell, that any children fathered by me would have her eyes. And you, Draco, have my mother's eyes, Narcissa's delicate features and complexion, and my gestures, and we think so very similarly. I am your benefactor. And every wish your mother ever asked of me, most of it in regards to you, I granted. Your new vault, various things over the years, everything I've done for her, I've also done for you," Severus spoke softly, but with conviction in every word. "She told me that she lost my son. She lied to protect me, I suppose and to protect you. If Lucius had known you were another man's child he would have killed you both."

"Instead she dies nearly eighteen years later?" Draco spat. "You lied to me. You left me at his mercy. I had to find my own salvation. If you cared so much why didn't you do more? Why couldn't you have spared me the years of torment from that bastard? You're lying. You have to be. My mother never would have touched you."

Snape's eyes sparked as his head snapped up and his black eyes met the midnight depths of his son's. "I may not have deserved her love, but I had it never the less, and you are the result of that union. I wanted to spare you more than anything. Think what you will of me, but know that she loved you enough to sacrifice her happiness. I wanted to take her away, I wanted to take you as well, but he would have hunted us down. There weren't very many people that knew about your mother and me. Look at me boy, hate me all you want, but look at me and know your flesh and blood."

"Draco," Hermione said, as she got off of the bed and walked toward her husband who was standing before the man who'd been revealed as his father. "It wasn't his fault. Your mother didn't want him to know. She told him she had a miscarriage, that had to have been it. She didn't want this revealed until after her death. She was protecting you as best she could. Don't blame him. He's tortured himself far too much over the years to have you provide him with new torment, and you heard for yourself that time he demanded to know the truth about his son from Professor McGonagall. It's not as though he didn't try. It's not as though he didn't care."

"The money in the vault, was that an attempt to buy my affection?" Draco asked as he narrowed his gaze on the man.

Severus shook his head. "No. I simply wanted to be certain that you would be taken care of for a while. I was so pleased when I heard that you'd escaped your father. I was so proud. You did what I could not."

"And what is that?" the boy asked.

"You chose the light the first time. You chose well, and now look at you. You've a lovely wife and a family in your future. I would love to be a part of that, but that is entirely up to you, isn't it?" Snape said, with a small sigh of defeat, already knowing the boy's answer.

Before Draco could speak though, Hermione cut in. "He is your father Draco. He's family, your family, my family. You can't possibly turn him away. He is the grandfather of our children. He helped to bring you into this world, and he's looked after you over the years. He has a right to be in our lives Draco. Without him, I wouldn't have you," she whispered, and her voice cracked.

Draco turned to Hermione, and closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, and then realization hit him, a wave crashing on a rocky shore. He let go of her, and sunk to his knees, he wrapped his arms around her thighs in a tight embrace, and rested his head against her abdomen. He took several shaky breaths and then the tears building behind his eyes found their release. He hid his face against his white button up shirt that she wore, and he didn't even notice that the only other article of clothing that she had one aside from his shirt was her panties. She made soothing sounds and ran her hands lovingly through his hair, anything she could think of to sooth him.

As her fingers ran through his platinum blond hair he slowly tilted his head upward and look at his wife. All of the rage and confusion he felt about the loss of his mother and the discovery of his true father seemed to disappear with the serenity that surrounded his wife. He took a shaky breath and slowly got to his feet. He swallowed thickly and then looked toward the man he'd known as a godfather, now he saw him in a new light, as the only father he'd ever really known, and as his real father.

He held out his hand to Severus Snape and the man look quizzically at the proffered hand and then grasped it before pulling the boy into a tight embrace. Draco didn't fight the show of emotions, as he was quite shocked by the fact that Severus Snape was actually displaying affection. When Severus finally relinquished the hold he had on the boy, Draco looked up at him.

"I never would have expected that of you," he said.

Snape smirked. "And I never thought I would have a son. I think that balances everything out. You know I haven't always been the cold-hearted man so many fear. There was a side to me that only your mother ever saw. She was my sunlight, my very breath. I ache for her, even now, and I would give anything to take her place if it would only bring her back. But you know the love I have for her. You have it for your wife. You are so lucky, so foolish and lucky. I envy you. You have the life I've only dreamed of."

"I can accept that you are my father, it's a relief to know that I couldn't possibly become Lucius. But I can't just forgive you either," Draco said, and then he cocked his head at the man. "Tell me, did you know about this before you drank the hemlock?"

The Potions Master swallowed thickly, having feared this question, before nodding.

"Why?"

"I had my reasons, all foolish," the man answered solemnly and then sighed. "Tell me how I can earn your trust in me."

"I trust you with my life, and the life of my family. I know you would die for us," the boy answered.

"Now that we have these issues of trust out of the way, where do we go from here?" Hermione asked, so she could cut the self-hating monologue that would probably have followed Draco's last statement before it began.

They both turned to her startled. And she rolled her eyes and said, "Do we tell the world the truth about this, or keep this to ourselves?"

"I was always Narcissa's secret. I'm good at hiding in the background," Severus answered.

"No. There will be none of that. You are going to be a part of this family. You owe me that much, and we have years to catch up on. I've always wanted a real father, and you were the closest I ever came to know, and you've hidden for long enough. Don't you ever tire of the Dungeons?" Draco asked, a smirk beginning to play at the edge of his mouth.

"Insolent boy," Snape muttered.

Draco almost smiled, but an image of his mother fluttered across his mind, sitting on his bed, tending to him as he cried over a nightmare when he was a small child. He closed his eyes against the memory and for a moment his breath caught in his throat. When he opened his eyes, he looked straight into his father's eyes.

"Do you know if she was at peace as she died?"

Severus Snape looked grim. "Her death was wrought with violence. Lucius strangled her," he answered honestly, and that declaration was followed by a gasp from Hermione.

"And for that he will pay," Draco said with conviction that startled both his father and his wife.