Twelve of the Table

Twelve of the Table

Part X

The funeral was simple. Not many people came. Most of Starr's family had already passed on, her only having one brother who had died in an accident as a child, her mother dead, and her father in a magical elderly home. Narcissa, Lucius, some random death eaters and Severus had attended the funeral on a very rainy 22 October.

Severus had arranged for her funeral, written the eulogy, and picked out a picture to be put in the Daily Prophet. He had done it with a sort of detachment, as if he didn't even care; like he was an outsider, looking in.

The funeral was beautiful. After she had been laid in the ground, Severus stayed and waited until everyone else had left. 'Starr, oh Starr. How did this happen?' He had been told that she killed herself because of all the pressure she was under. Lucius had walked in to the room right after she had done it and tried to save her, but was unable to. A magical autopsy showed no other damage had been done to her, so she had obviously done it. The only surprise the autopsy gave was that Starr had been pregnant. About two months along, in fact. The baby was already dead by the time the autopsy was performed, so Severus had lost not only one, but two loved ones. One whom he had not even known existed.

He sat on the wet grass next to the dirt that covered her casket. The dirt was quickly becoming mud, but he didn't even notice.

Severus's tears were falling onto her grave, mixing with the rain that was falling.

A person apparated near the grave, and walked over to the huddled mass of wet, black robes. 'Severus, you really should go home.' Narcissa's soft voice said from behind him.

'What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, and you shouldn't have been at the funeral either. I don't know why you risk your health and that of your baby's so casually, like it doesn't matter. It's not like I've been a father...I never got the chance,' His voice broke here, but he cut off Narcissa with a wave of his hand and continued. 'But, I know that you shouldn't risk the life of your child, or yourself. Please, just...go.'

'Severus, I just-' Narcissa tried.

'I said to leave.' Severus stood up quickly and walked away from her. 'Just leave. Now.' There was no emotion in his words, or in his eyes. He had blocked out everything.

'Good bye, Severus.' Narcissa said quietly, and then apparated away.

Severus dropped back down onto the ground, and began sobbing. He couldn't stop. All day people had been giving their condolences to him. He couldn't stand people pitying him, never had been able to. Today he had just wanted to have everyone disappear and leave him alone with her.

He sat up suddenly after laying on top of her grave for a long time. He looked around. 'What the hell am I doing?' He whispered into the mist. He sat there for a while, just contemplating what he had done so far with his life.

His childhood had consisted of meeting one nanny after the other. None of them had stayed longer the six months, but Severus never knew why. He guessed it was because his father had been a frugal man, even with all of the galleons stored at Gringotts, and had never paid anyone a fair wage. Though each was short lived, Severus had always had nice, kind nannies.

His mother had always been there when he didn't need her, and gone when he did. She was a social butterfly, who spent her nights at parties, her mornings sleeping off her hangovers, and her afternoons preparing for the coming nights party. She loved Severus, but she was never around very often. She spent her summers in Europe, and her winters in England. Severus had visited her sometimes while she was in Spain, or France, or wherever was popular that year, but it was same as when he was in England, except for being able to swim all the time.

His father had been the business man. He had mostly played around with the muggle stock market, almost doubling the Snapes fortune. But he had always been busy. He was not one to drunk, unlike Severus's mother, so he was able to spend his days trading and discussing new stocks with fellow wizarding traders. His nights were normally spent at parties, but sometimes he would let his wife go by herself.

Then Severus had entered Hogwarts. He had been so excited. He followed both his parents footsteps by being sorted into Slytherin, but he had soon found out that it wasn't easy when you were sorted into the House that was known for spiting out Dark wizards. His house mates had never really liked him, and being in Slytherin prevented him from having other friends from the other houses. He had to find something else to occupy his time, so he discovered his passion for potions. He would spend days researching a potion, and then he would attempt to make it, and test it on himself. Sometimes he ended up in the Hospital Ward, but the majority of the time his potions worked.

When he graduated from Hogwarts, he had no idea what he wanted to do. Then Lucius had swooped in and shown him how he could be a useful, valuable person for Lord Voldemort. So Severus Snape had joined the Death Eaters. At first he had had to do the Dirty work, raiding homes, desecrating buildings. But after a few months, he was brought in to Malfoy Manor and told that he would now be working on making, and testing on innocent muggles, potions that would help Lord Voldemort. So he had started.

Then, one day, at one of the many Ministry functions he was forced to go to because he was a Snape, and to keep up appearances, he met Starr. She had been there as a reporter for the magazine 'Witches Weekly.' She had been wearing a beautiful lavender dress, and had her hair swirled up on top of her head with little pieces coming down across her face.

He asked her to dance, and she said yes. They danced many times that night.

Severus sent her an owl the next day asking if he could have lunch with her three days from then, on Monday. She had owled back saying that she wouldn't be able to make it then, but would be glad to meet him on Thursday. So, they had lunch Thursday, and so started their relationship. After six months of meeting at different places, they made love for the first time. It was beautiful. Severus had invited her over for dinner at his home, as he had many times before, and they had enjoyed a wonderful meal. They went to sit by the fireplace, on a couch, and eventually one ting led to another. Before they ended up naked in Severus's living room, he carried her upstairs to his bedroom.

They had been so happy then. Starr had learned about the Death Eaters and wanted to join. He had proposed, she said no, but after they made up, she agreed. They planned their wedding. Made love at least once a day. Severus had even spent a fortune on buying tickets to go on three different cruises, one to the Bahamas, Alaska and one down around Mexico. Then they were going to spend time at a villa Severus had built down off the coast of Spain.

But now they wouldn't be getting married. She wouldn't be visiting the beautiful villa he had built, and the cruise tickets would go unused. They wouldn't be planning for the arrival of their first child. They wouldn't be making the trip to St. Mungo's for her to deliver her child.

Instead, he was burying her, and their child. The baby, Severus had named her Elle Rose Snape, was buried next to Starr. He had also bought a plot next to Starr on her other side for himself, for whenever he passed on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He stood up away from the graves, and walked away. Once he was a considerable distance away, he apparated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He ended up at the gates to Hogwarts. Not knowing exactly what to do, but hoping that Albus Dumbledore, who had always treated him fairly, unlike some of his past teachers, would at least listen to him before setting the Dementors on him.