The Dream of One Night

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Avrille

It took me hours to unravel the spell in front of the gate enough for me to be able to slip through. The sun had already sunk beneath the trees, and the first stars of twilight were blinking to life when I finally forced the heavy gate open. Dark rust flaked loose and stained my hands as I pushed the iron bars across the gravel of the driveway. Once through, I fell exhausted against the inside of the gate and slid down onto my knees. I fetched my water bottle out of my bag and took a few much-needed swigs, wishing I had filled the bottle with something more invigorating like cola or iced coffee. Severus had certainly done his best to keep people away from his home, and I just hoped that it hadn't cost both of us too much time.

I allowed myself to sit for five minutes against the gate to recover a bit of stamina, letting the evening breeze calm my mind as it played through my hair. The air here smelt thick and salty. I wondered if it would be possible to view the sea from the top of the hill. As I sipped my water, I stared up at Greyadder House. The only light up on the hill came from the crescent moon which was beginning its slow ascent up the heavens. It seemed likely the house was deserted. If someone still lived there, they probably would have felt me deactivating the protective spells and stopped me before now.

Shadows were already stealing down the hill towards me, so once I was standing again, I pulled out my wand and set it alight so I wouldn't trip on the rough rocks of the driveway. The driveway was longer than it had seemed from the base of the hill, and it took me several minutes to actually reach the house. Once there I took a moment to catch my breath and take in the towering edifice in front of me before stepping between the thick columns of the sprawling porch. I grabbed hold of the massive silver knocker, and I let it drop twice. I waited for a full minute, even though I did not expect anyone to answer. When this proved to be true, I tried the handle and was surprised to find the door unlocked, though I suppose Severus probably didn't see the need after setting that monster of a spell to protect the perimeter of the property.

The door creaked open in a rather cliché way, though it didn't slam shut behind me after I entered; I had to close it myself. The light of my wand was instantly lost in the encompassing blackness of the grand foyer, so I increased the power until I had a beam of thick white light to examine my surroundings. Where I found myself now was a large, empty stone hallway. A set of magnificent stairs ran up to a second storey in front of me, and to my right and left were open double doors that led off into distant corridors. Remembering the direction I had walked in my dream, I set off down the right hand corridor into the east wing of the house.

A quick inspection of all of the rooms behind the closed doors I passed showed the house to be practically empty. When I had come this way in my dream, the house had been completely filled with expensive pieces of artwork and sumptuous furniture, but now all of that was gone. Rectangular discoloured patches on the peeling, cream-painted walls convinced me I was in the same place. However, the difference was startling given that it had only been forty years since the time the photo in the conservatory had been taken and now. Along with the paintings, all of the delicate figurines and tables that had once lined the halls had vanished. In what rooms had furniture, it was sparse and covered with dusty sheets. I pulled off each sheet I came to and inspected what lay beneath, opening all of the drawers I could find in hopes of discovering some sort of clue. All of the windows I passed were shuttered tightly and most had the remains of curtains pulled across as far as they would stretch. The air barely seemed to move around me, and it smelled stale and musty. It didn't seem like anyone, even Severus, had been here for years.

At the end of the twisting hallways, I came to the familiar set of French doors, though the once shining golden trim was cracked and dull in my wand-light. I opened them to reveal what had once been the conservatory, though it was even more ravaged than the rest of the place. Faint beams of starlight shining through the dusty glass ceiling panes illuminated a single chair laying discarded on its back beside the white iron table. Only a few plants remained of the lush jungle I had glimpsed in my dream, and these were just dead brown stalks in broken clay pots that bled dry soil. I walked over to the table and stood behind it at the place where I had sat drinking tea with Charlotte. The table's glass top had been shattered, and bits of it crunched beneath my boots. The conservatory was completely empty and devoid of any clues. If Charlotte was somehow waiting for me, this did not seem to be the right place.

I explored the other downstairs wing of the house and found the cavernous kitchens and laundry rooms. At the opposite end of the house from the conservatory, I discovered the remains of a once magnificent library, now containing only two cracked leather arm chairs and rows of lonely, forgotten books which seemed to shiver hopefully as the light of my wand passed across their spines. Large sections of shelves were bare, maybe because Severus had moved those books to his rooms at Hogwarts. On the mantel of the library's fireplace, I found an old, carved box containing some Floo powder. Maybe I would be able to use that later to return to the castle.

Upstairs proved to be just as barren and lifeless. Down the east wing were numerous empty bedrooms, probably for guests, though the only indication of their purpose was an empty bed frame here or a single old wardrobe there. The first door on the right down the west wing opened into what I guessed had once been Severus' bedroom. The room felt slightly more lived-in than the others I had come across, and if I really concentrated, I could almost taste a hint of his magic on the air, though it felt undeveloped and raw. This room at least still had its necessary furnishings, though all other decorative comforts had been stripped giving it a gloomy, Spartan look. A low, child-sized bookcase held numerous volumes on beginner's magic that looked as though they had never been opened. The reason for this I discovered when I glanced under the bed and pulled out a box which held dozens of books on advanced potion-brewing and the Dark Arts. One book in particular, called Defensive Curses to Thwart Your Worst Enemies, had been read so often that the spine had cracked in two, and a dozen pages fell to the floor when I opened it.

I couldn't imagine anyone being a child in this house, let alone my beloved Severus, though it did help to explain his sullen looks in his childhood photographs, and also why he had looked so happy in that picture at Hogwarts. Greyadder House had seemed pleasant enough in my vision, when Charlotte had been young here, but a great change had taken place since that time. The wallpaper of Severus' room was streaked with water stains, as if the room itself were crying. It was obvious that people had existed here, but none of the rooms felt like they had been truly lived in for decades.

Leaving Severus' old room behind, I walked further along the hallway until I came to a massive set of doors at the end that seemed to suggest a master bedroom. I cautiously gripped both door handles and pushed inwards. The second I stepped over the threshold the hair on my arms bristled as I was met with a hint of that same unnatural feeling which had been in Severus' bedroom the morning he disappeared. Though the room looked innocent enough, containing a large stripped-down bed and several bureaus and wardrobes, I could tell instantly that something evil had happened in here. The malignant edge to the wrongness was far more pronounced in this place than when I had felt it at the castle. If Severus' room had felt like this that morning a few days ago, I would probably have gone instantly to see the headmaster about it.

As it stood I was here completely alone with this old, residual magic that set my teeth on edge. I quickly cast the same Purifying Charm as I had in Severus' bedroom, and that helped to alleviate the discomfort somewhat. However, I knew it would take some intensive spellwork to completely cleanse this room enough for it to be habitable once more. I walked through the room inspecting every surface I could see. The room held a large walk-in closet as well as a ladies' vanity and private bathroom. During my turn through the space, I noticed that the area around the bed held a much thicker concentration of whatever the wrongness was, and I decided it had likely originated from there. Unable to find anything concrete at all, I left the room and closed the doors behind me, immensely relived to be out of that atmosphere.

As far as I could tell, I had now wandered throughout the entire house without finding anything that would suggest where Severus had gone to. In my vision Charlotte had said, "Come see me," but the conservatory had yielded nothing, and I didn't know where else she could have meant. Returning to the ground floor, I dropped down onto a sheet-covered couch and pulled out the two photographs I had brought with me. I looked at them in the wand-light, Charlotte's timeless face smiling up at me as though silently encouraging me to keep searching. Well, since I had found nothing in the conservatory where one picture was shot, I thought I might go look around the grounds and try to find the location of the swing in the other one.

I left my bag behind on the couch, hoping I would recall later which of the numerous indistinctive rooms it was in, and walked back out into the night. Using the angle of the house in the background of the photo as a reference, I set out to a far corner of the park. The moon had now risen high above the trees and lit up the abandoned estate from its perch in the cloudless sky. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was already nearing eleven o'clock. The house had taken hours to search, and I still had nothing to show for it.

A few minutes' walk took me to the very edge of the lawn where it met the thick wall of forest. A bit away on its own stood a single enormous chestnut tree that looked similar to the one in the photograph from which the swing had hung. Though the swing was long gone, squinting at the tree, still a good distance away, I saw something had been added at the trunk's base. Once I had walked closer, I made it out to be a circular area of raised earth, wreathed with sleepily drooping daffodils. Behind the flowers, set against the bark of the tree, was a small stone monument. I stepped carefully around the flowers and shined my wand upon the monument's grey-veined, white marble face. It read, in a beautiful, delicately engraved script:

Charlotte Odessa Snape

b. May 15, 1938

d. December 23, 1980

Most Beloved of Mothers

I dropped to my knees beside the headstone and ran a hand gently over its smooth top to brush off a few dead leaves. I had finally found Charlotte, though she was in no position to help me. I remember Severus had left the castle for a time right before Christmas, and I wondered if it had been here he had come to. I lovingly traced a finger over the etched inscription, tears of frustration and exhaustion falling from my eyelashes into my lap as I read it once more.

"I'm here, Charlotte. I've come to see you... but I don't know what else to do now," I whispered at the stone.

A sudden flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye snapped my focus up to the tree once more. Perhaps it was a trick of the moonlight off of the white marble, but I could have sworn I had just glanced a silvery figure dart behind the thick tree trunk. I jumped up and ran around to the tree's other side, but found nothing except old sticks and half-rotten chestnuts. My shoulders sagging with disappointment, I continued around back to the grave-side once more.

However, when I came back to the headstone, I noticed a disturbance in the flowers. I was absolutely positive I hadn't stepped on any, and I hadn't even been on that side of the grave at all. Moving carefully closer, I bent down to examine the ground. Four daffodils had been pressed flat against the earth, two in a straight line of each other and two more meeting at that line's head. If I squinted my eyes, it almost looked like a crude arrow...

Shrugging and realizing I hadn't investigated that half of the park yet anyway, I set off in the general direction in which the flower arrow seemed to point. This way brought me behind the house, yet at more of an angle so I was slowly moving away from the dark walls and down the other side of the hill into a shallow valley. Since I had been in the house, thick patches of clouds had accumulated in the sky above and a cold sea breeze blew a cluster across the moon, shadowing me in sudden darkness. I took out my wand and lit up the tip once more, keeping the beam a few feet ahead of me so I wouldn't stumble upon any night-roving animals.

The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees as I strode down the hill, as is only to be expected in a shallow basin such as the one I was descending into, but the sudden appearance of swirling mist congealing my wand-light gave me a few extra shivers. I pulled my coat more tightly closed against me as my cheeks and bare hands grew damp from the fine mist my passing kicked up off of the dewy ground. I was so focused on not slipping on the treacherously slick grass, that only the sight of my light illuminating a large, square-cut stone of dark granite a few feet in front of me alerted me to the fact I had entered an entirely new area.

I looked up and raised my wand above my head, increasing the brightness of the light. Through the fog I could make out numerous tall, blocky shapes a few hundred feet ahead of me. It looked like I had stumbled into some sort of stone village. I cautiously approached the nearest stone building until I was close enough to see that it had a door upon which words were etched, the growth of moss inside the letters making them slightly easier to make out. The door read in a chunky, gothic scroll, "Gervase Kincaid Greyadder. 1795." Beneath the name and date, a pair of crossed wands were carved over a grinning, winged death's-head. Apparently I had found the family graveyard, though that term didn't really cover the scope of the place.

Before me lay rows of mausoleums, over two-dozen as far as I could tell from my wand-light. I was not normally scared of graveyards in general, but this place, with the rivers of mist flowing down paths of looming crypts topped with the remains of tumbled angels, instantly gave me the creeps. I wished that the moon would hurry up and come back out, but then even in the daylight this place would seem haunted. Besides all of the tombs and statues, the air itself felt Dark and foreboding.

Not seeing what could be gained by investigating this area, I turned right around on my heel and started to walk back up the hill when another something glittered just to the right of where my peripheral vision ended. I spun around just in time to see a glimmering figure dart behind the crypt of old-man Gervase. Now, just because I was used to seeing ghosts all of the time floating around Hogwarts, that didn't mean I was comfortable with them, especially out here in the middle of nowhere on the edge of numerous creepy tombs. I almost high-tailed it straight out of there when a flicker of pure emotion seemed to brush against my heart. It felt of endless sorrow and desperate beseeching. It was at complete odds with that strange, sinister feeling I had experienced closer to the tombs. Hoping I wouldn't seriously regret it, I turned back around and walked over to where I had seen the shimmer disappear.

I had just shone my wand behind the first tomb, where the figure should have been, when I saw it again, darting a little way farther in. I quickly hurried after it, setting the light of my wand as bright as it would go without blinding me. The skeletal remains of rose bushes snagged my coat as I wound my way around several tombs. I tore around the bend where the figure had shone and caught a glimpse of it for an instant before it flickered out into darkness again. The apparition was a beautiful woman with glimmering silvery hair that had flowed down her back to seamlessly fuse into flowing robes that swirled around her body. I held my breath, waiting for the woman to pop up again, wondering if she really had looked like Charlotte or if I was just imagining the resemblance in my desperation.

There, again, I saw the glimmer of silver light behind one of the furthest away tombs. I ran full speed at it and came near to running straight through it in my surprise when I saw it was not going to disappear again. I skidded to an ungainly halt, slipping on the wet grass and falling painfully on my rear-end. The feeling of Dark Magic was even more pronounced here, and it was only the gentle glow of the woman's light that kept me from bolting straight back to the house. As I cautiously glanced up at the face of the transparent silvery woman, I could have almost sworn the tiniest smile twitched across her lips before they returned to their solemn straight line.

I scrambled back onto my feet and took in the apparition before me. She was incredibly pale, even less substantial than a ghost, as though she was on her last ounce of strength. Though she appeared to be noticeably older than the girl in my vision, I was convinced they were the same person.

"Are you Charlotte?" I asked in awe.

The woman did not answer, and her face showed no emotion. Instead, she held the sliver of a pale finger to her lips before backing soundlessly into the sealed tomb before me. I quickly ran after her but my outstretched hands met only with solid granite. I pounded on the stone in frustration, then took a step back to see whose tomb it was. This solid door was only inscribed with a name and no ornamentation at all. It read simply: "Septimus Snape."

The vision of Severus' mother had led me from her grave to that of Severus' father... but why?

Once more I pressed against the tomb door, but it was cemented firmly shut and would not budge. I made a circuit around the large granite block, shining my wand from ground to roof, but everything was sealed tight. Charlotte had disappeared through the wall as though she wanted me to follow her... but there was no way in.

I returned to the front of the tomb and tossed my wand back and forth in my hands while biting my lip. The growing feeling that I was supposed to enter the grave battled against my aversion to committing holy sacrilege. The vision of Charlotte was not reappearing, though I didn't know if that was permission for me to vandalize her husband's tomb. Finally deciding whatever damage I did to the place I could probably easily fix afterwards, I took a good ten paces back then pointed my wand at the tomb's door. I sent an explosive charge at the stone which broke apart with a thunderous crash. Once the dust and mist cleared, I could see that I had blasted an opening in the door large enough for me to squeeze through. Forcing myself to take a few deep breaths, I gathered up my courage and slowly slid through the roughly hewn hole.

The inside of the structure was pitch black with no sign of Charlotte's silvery glow. I lit the end of my wand once more so I wouldn't trip. It was a good thing I did so, because just one step past the doorway was a long flight of stone steps that would have been extremely painful to fall down. Keeping my light firmly set on the ground in front of me, rather scared that I might illuminate a dead body or something, I crept down the numerous stairs one by one. With each step I took down into the silent earth, the temperature seemed to drop lower and lower while the feeling of evil rose up to meet me.

Once at the bottom, I knew I would have to take a look around, so I let the light of my wand wander up to the ceiling, which when I was above ground had been slightly higher than eye-level to me but was now dozens of feet over my head. The air was stale and felt rank with the unknown sinister presence. All I heard was the almost indiscernible dripping of water from somewhere deeper in the tomb.

I took a few steps forward and forced myself to take in all of my surroundings. In the center of the room was a marble box, probably Septimus Snape's coffin, though a shattered piece of marble on the ground made it look like it had been opened. As I moved closer, morbid curiosity seeming to insist I look inside the gaping coffin, my wand shone for an instant off of something behind the coffin's marble dais. My heart thundered its way up into my throat as upon closer inspection I saw that the gleam had been from a leather boot. Gripping my wand so tightly I felt I might accidentally snap it in two, I inched closer to the boot, sure that I was about to see the remains of a decayed corpse. However, what I saw instead made me drop my wand to the granite floor.

Severus was laying on his stomach before me.

I hastily scrambled to pick up my wand and dropped down beside his still form. With fingers shaking uncontrollably from sheer terror, I felt for a pulse on his neck. I let out a shuddering breath when I felt a faint throbbing beneath my two fingers and hurried to turn Severus over so I could examine him. I raised my wand and tapped Severus with it once to lighten his dead weight. Once he was flipped over, I released him from the spell and gently moved his head onto my lap. Still unable to breathe regularly from shock, I studied him with the light of my wand resting beside us on the ground.

Severus was wearing his pyjama bottoms from the other night, and he had wrapped the rest of his nakedness up in a thick linen cloth; I didn't even want to think about where he had gotten the boots from. His face was gaunt and haggard, the lower half shadowed with several days' worth of beard stubble. His hair lay matted in clumps against his forehead, which shone with pearls of sweat as though he were in the grips of a fever, even though to the touch his skin was frightfully cool and clammy. Beneath his tightly shut eyelids, I could see his eyes darting back and forth endlessly, and his jaw was clenched and unyielding beneath my fingers. I quickly stripped off my long jacket and, tossing aside the suspicious white fabric, wrapped Severus up in it as tightly as it would reach.

"Severus," I whispered, kissing his tense, cold lips, "Severus, it's me... Please wake up..." I patted his cheek gently with the pads of my fingers, but that seemed to only agitate him further. He let out a quiet moan, and his head thrashed back and forth a few times before settling still once more on my lap.

"Severus," I called, more loudly. "Can you hear me?" I took his limp hand in mine, my mind whirling with panicked thoughts of what I should do next. He was obviously gravely ill, and I didn't know what would be the best course of action.

As I was considering whether or not I had broken the spell protecting the property enough to allow me to Apparate out of here with him, Severus suddenly clamped down with his grip on my hand so tightly that I gasped in pain.

"Don't... Don't come any closer..." he murmured, though laboriously as if uttering each word caused him excruciating pain.

"Severus, it's me!" I repeated desperately, cradling his head in the crook of my arm.

Suddenly he roared, "Keep away from her!" and I almost let his head fall from my lap in surprise.

I picked up my wand and was just about to try to magically restore Severus to consciousness when I felt the tingle of Darkness, which had been around us the entire time, swell and increase in strength. I brightened my magical light to the point where I could see the complete interior of the tomb. As soon as the grip of night fell away, I was startled to see that Severus and I were not alone in the tomb; there was a figure standing slouched in the corner, and it certainly was not the spirit of Charlotte.

For a moment I thought I was hallucinating and seeing double. At first glance the figure seemed a doppelganger of Severus, the black hair falling into his face only partially obscuring a very familiar profile. But then the figure straightened up, and I could tell he was markedly different. For one, he was shorter and slightly stockier than Severus. Also, his hair was significantly longer, falling to his bicep while Severus' only brushed his shoulders. And though, when he looked at me, the other man had a similar facial structure as Severus, his eyes burned with a malignant gleam that made him absolutely terrifying to behold.

Tightening my grip on my wand, I asked tonelessly, "Who are you."

The man took a single step forward and stood with his arms crossed. He was dressed in a slightly old-fashioned set of business robes which he wore as though they were made of the finest silk and ermine.

"You people are so keen on asking that first, aren't you? Well, if you wish to know, for the moment I am Septimus Snape," he man replied with a hint of amusement.

"Septimus Snape is dead," I said. "This is his tomb."

"Well it was, but I'm afraid I've rather commandeered it from him to suit my own needs. To be honest I don't think he even ever noticed." The man took another single step towards me. I gently placed Severus' head back on the ground and stood up with my wand raised, effectively blocking Severus behind my firmly planted feet.

"What have you done to Severus?!" I demanded.

The man smiled. "Only what shall be done to you shortly. If you would care to lower your wand and be patient, you can find out for yourself."

"Like hell I will!" I yelled and mentally cast a protective charm around Severus. The man took another two steps forward. He was only a dozen feet away from us now.

"Stay where you are unless you want to find yourself in several messy pieces. I have some questions for you," I said, pointing my wand straight at his chest.

"No," the man said pleasantly, "I have the pleasure of asking the questions around here, and what I want to know is: what memory gives you the most pain, Avrille?"

His sudden utterance of my name momentarily distracted me, and he took advantage of my surprise to attack my thoughts which had inadvertently recalled the day of my father's murder. Within moments I was able to recall Severus' teachings and force the intruder out, but the strength required to expel him from my head was so great that I collapsed to my knees besides Severus' limp form.

When I looked up, I felt the blood drain from my face; looking down at me with an expression of angry disappointment was my father.

"You... you're a Revenant, aren't you?" I managed to stutter out.

"No, Avrille," the Revenant replied sharply, "I'm your father, and you've been a very bad girl." Its tone was so spot on with how my father used to sound when I had disobeyed him that I felt the sudden urge to crawl up into a ball and cry. My arms trembling in fear, I raised my wand once more, knowing it was only the sight of the slender piece of wood that was keeping the Revenant at bay.

I felt myself start to hyperventilate as I was hit with the full realization that Severus had been trapped with this monster for untold hours. Guilt as heavy as lead piled on top of me as I remembered all of the time I had whittled away the past few days, simply hanging around waiting for Severus to come back, when he had been sealed in his father's tomb, probably believing he was going to die. Why hadn't I told Professor Dumbledore of my worries immediately? What did it matter that Severus might lose his job for sleeping with me when his very life was at stake?

My pain and guilt were so tangible that the Revenant seemed able to feed off of them without even entering my thoughts, but I couldn't stop myself.

"Yes, everything is just all your fault, isn't it, my dear?" the Revenant crooned, almost tenderly. "You did nothing while poor Severus suffered, just as how you did nothing the day that I died. You could have told someone, but you refused to. If you hadn't been so weak, you could have made a difference."

"No, that's not true," I said through choking tears, but I had a hard time believing my own words. Wasn't that what I had thought all along? That if I hadn't been so scared of punishment, I could have told someone about my visions, and my father might still be alive today? I felt the Revenant snake out more tendrils of doubt, fear, and guilt. He wrapped them around me like fine gauze scarves and allowed their subtle power to weigh me down.

"That's it, Avrille, feel the pain that you have caused others..." the Revenant said. I could feel it gathering its strength again for another assault on my mind. Without being able to seemingly stop myself, I watched in horror as my hand holding my wand slowly began to drop lower.

But just then a faint touch caught my notice. Severus had draped a hand over my ankle. Since the Revenant's attention was, for the moment, focused on me, Severus had managed to break through its power enough to open his eyes half-way, and I saw his lips trying to shape my name. Seeing him semi-conscious sent a wave of joy so pure through me that I felt the Revenant bristle backwards uncomfortably. I ran a hand over Severus' cheek and found he had warmed slightly. My tears dripped onto his haunted face as his eyes fluttered shut once more. Inside of me I felt a cauldron of sheer fury begin to boil. Severus had been completely alone while this monstrosity preyed on him. Well, he wasn't alone anymore. He had me and the tiny spark of life that was our unborn son with him now, and I would be damned if some jumped up ghoul tried to have its way with him again!

Thinking I was completely distracted with Severus, the Revenant struck out once more to invade my memories for more fodder. This time, however, I was more than ready for it. The second I felt its disgusting presence within a metre of me, I spun back toward it and threw up a shield around Severus' and my thoughts so intense that the Revenant actually stumbled backwards on the impact of my resistance to it. It made the handsome face of my father twist into an ugly scowl before turning around on the spot to reappear as Septimus Snape again, probably being more comfortable with the shape it had been taking for the last couple days.

"How dare you try to challenge me, you weak little girl-child?!" the Revenant spat, its black hair hanging madly over its wild eyes.

The Revenant swelled, splitting the form of Severus' father in two then absorbing it as it grew to enormous proportions. It tried to suck up the light of my wand into its opaque blackness, but I simply increased the output of the light's power so it could not use the shadows of the room to add to its bulk.

I have roamed this earth for three hundred years, the Revenant roared in tones that sounded like rocks sliding off the face of a mountain, and this man whom you seem to care so pathetically much about is nothing compared to the kings and enchanters I have consumed.

"Really? How profoundly interesting," I replied, with as much sarcasm and disdain I could muster. I think Severus would have been quite proud of me.

This just infuriated the Revenant further, and its pulsating black form sparked with bits of lightning the colour of midnight. However, I knew that all of this was just for show. Without the pain and suffering of Severus or myself to feed off of, this was all that it could do. Rather annoyed with all the melodrama, I flicked my wand and forced the Revenant to resume the shape of Septimus.

"How dare you!" it screamed, but I could hear the faintest tremble of doubt in its voice. I stared at it unblinking, refusing to take its bait. Severus was in need of my care, and I was growing tired of this game.

The Revenant took my pause for hesitation and slid effortlessly once more back into the form of my father.

"Avrille," it murmured lovingly, "Don't you want to be with me again? Just put down your wand, and we shall never be apart!" It crept slowly toward me with a hopeful smile on its face.

The sight of my father once more sent my boiling anger surging through my body, every nerve ending in my skin tingling with barely held back power. Who was it to think that I would risk the welfare of my baby and my baby's father for a moment of happy illusion? I braced my feet firmly against the granite floor and held my wand out in front of me with both hands clasped around it tightly.

"Don't fuck with me," I whispered icily.

The Revenant had only one moment to raise its eyebrows in surprise before I loosed my fury straight at it in a single, searing ray of fire. It exploded into countless specks of black light which swam in front of my eyes for a moment before being sucked into the vacuous void with a deafening crack. All that was left behind was complete silence. It was over.

With a shuddering sigh, I filled the tomb with the closest thing to a cheerful light I could create and knelt back down beside Severus. Now that he was free from the Revenant's grip, he had calmed and seemed to be quietly sleeping. Not wanting him to have to wake up in such a terrible place, I cast a Weightlessness Charm upon him so I could gently gather him up and guide his feather-light body back up the stairs of the tomb and into the quiet night.

Now that I knew most of the danger had passed, I thought it best for Severus to regain some strength before trying to return to the castle. Therefore I brought him back into the house and laid him down upon one of the beds in the servants' quarters behind the kitchens. I figured after all that he had relived, he would want to wake up in a place that held no memories for him.

After casting a light sleeping charm on Severus to ensure that he rested for the remainder of the night, I went into one of the bathrooms to see if the plumbing was still intact. Fortunately it was, and after a few minutes of flushing old slime and cobwebs from the pipes, I was able to collect a bowlful of clean water. This I heated with my wand then brought it and a bar of soap into the room where Severus slept. As gently as I could, I washed the dirt and sweat from his body and face, then ran a hand over his jaw to magically remove his beard stubble. Except for a slight hollowness in his cheeks from going without food for days, he looked almost healthy once more. His skin had warmed up, and his cheeks were beginning to show a hint of colour.

Next, I Conjured two pillows and the down blanket off of my bed in the castle, hoping that Caligula had not by some chance been sleeping on it and been completely freaked out as it disappeared from under him. I carefully lifted Severus' head and slid a pillow beneath it, tossing the other next to him, and wrapped him up tightly in the blanket. I also Conjured for him a set of clean clothes for the morning and a Nourishment Potion which I knew he had in his medicine cabinet. A trickle of the potion between his parted lips would at least help his body to begin to return to normal until he was able to eat something solid.

I myself was ravenous from all of the magic I had performed, but I made do with the biscuits I had brought and a cup of hot tea. Puddingbrook had not looked like the type of place to have twenty-four hour mini-marts, so I resigned myself to wait until the morning to fetch provisions. As I sipped my tea, I silently watched Severus sleeping peacefully, a thick ray of moonlight shining through the bare window making his skin look like alabaster. When I was done with my tea, I stripped out of my outer layers and crawled into bed next to my fiancé. I can't pretend I didn't feel the tiniest bit of worry that he would somehow be missing in the morning, but nevertheless, after a while of listening to Severus' deep breathing, I fell asleep.

The cruelly bright sunshine forced my eyes open much earlier than I would have liked, but I decided to be forgiving since it lit up the room to show that Severus was still sleeping peacefully beside me. I sat up and stretched, my spine feeling like a few vertebrae had slipped out of place from laying on the old, lumpy mattress. After freshening up a bit in the bathroom and changing into my other set of clothes, I pulled a chair up to the bedside. As I raised my wand to release Severus from the sleeping spell, I found myself hesitating. Though I wanted more than anything to see him awake once more, I was worried about what damage the Revenant might have inflicted on his mind. Finally, after a good five minutes of delaying, I flicked my wand to dissolve the charm. I then ran my fingers lightly through Severus' hair to gently bring him into consciousness.

Severus opened his eyes slowly, and for an instant I thought everything was fine. He looked up at the ceiling, adjusting his focus in the bright sunshine, then turned to look at my face. When he saw me he started, grabbed the wrist of my hand that was stroking his hair tightly, and gasped with his eyes wide and mad-looking, "The Revenant... in the tomb..."

"It's gone, Severus. I destroyed it. You're safe with me now," I said soothingly and gently removed his clenched fingers from my wrist.

However the terror etched on Severus' face did not fade, and he whispered in the tones of a lost boy which broke my heart, "But... how do I know that you're real?" His grey eyes shone with both hope and the self-protectiveness of a wounded animal.

Instead of delving into a long explanation of what exactly had happened in the tomb, I leaned over and kissed him long and tenderly, his lips only hesitating for a moment before softening and yielding to mine. The kiss lasted rather longer than I had meant it to, and I couldn't help a flicker of arousal stirring as he held my face gently between his palms.

When Severus released my lips he looked me deeply in the eyes, still holding my face inches away from his own, and asked quietly, "You're not hurt?"

"No," I reassured him. "I'm absolutely fine."

Severus sighed with relief and allowed me to drop my forehead onto his chest. "Where are we?" he asked wearily. I sat back up once more and held his hand in both of mine.

"In your mother's house. I didn't want to move you back to the castle yet." Severus nodded, staring blankly at the peeling plaster ceiling.

"And what day is it?"

"Friday. It's been days since you disappeared. I..." I stopped, the familiar ball of guilt lodging itself in my throat. I forced the tears back by sheer force of will. Severus had enough to deal with at the moment without having to worry about me because I was crying.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come sooner," was all that I finally said.

Severus shook his head, finally glancing back over at me with a faint smile. "No, the fault of this whole mess is entirely my own. I should have told you everything right from the start, and I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself for putting you through this."

Then, with his gaze fixed on the ceiling once more, Severus recounted to me all of the details of his past that he had, until now, kept hidden. He talked about growing up in this house, and how brutal his father had been. He told me how, when he went away to school at Hogwarts, he was so happy there compared to at home that he decided as a mere boy he wanted to teach there for the rest of his life so he never had to leave. He told me more about Lily Potter, and the falling out they had had before her death. Finally he arrived at the part I had been most curious to know about, which was why he had disappeared in the first place.

I could tell that it was difficult for Severus to have to remember once more his father placing the Death Wish curse on him, but I was still glad that he told me. However, as I listened to the details of his father's final evening, I decided that as soon as I could get away from Severus for a minute, I was going back down to the tomb and utterly demolish it on top of that bastard's remains.

When Severus finally got to the end of that tale, and how exactly his father had cursed him, I saw, for the first time since I met him, tears glimmering on the edges of Severus' eyes.

"He didn't want me to have children..." Severus whispered, a single tear breaking free and rolling down the side of his face to disappear into his hair.

Realizing that my own time of revelation had come, I moved to sit next to Severus on the bed and said quietly, "He failed in that respect."

Severus scoffed, closed his eyes and said, "Yes, but only because you managed to get to me before it was too late."

"No, what I mean is, even if..." I still found the words hard to say, though Severus was perfectly safe now, "...even if I had never found you... He still failed..."

Severus' eyes flashed open, and he scrambled to sit up in the bed. Reaching forward to touch my shoulder he said, "You mean... Are you...?"

I nodded, ducking my head as tears of my own broke free. "I did a test yesterday. It's a boy."

Severus grabbed me and pulled me tightly against him. "I don't believe it..." he murmured. "I mean, it was only one time and... I just simply don't believe it..."

Just as suddenly as he had grabbed me, he pushed me away slightly so he could look straight into my eyes. "And... you're happy about it?" As if I could even deny it when he was looking at me with those pleading eyes.

"Of course!" I said, laughing. However, Severus was still looking a little concerned.

"It's just... If we have a baby now, you won't be able to start teaching like you wanted to."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him reassuringly. "I can just as well teach once he's a little older. This baby apparently couldn't wait to be born, and I'm not about to stop him."

Severus gathered me up into his arms once more, breathing a quiet sigh of relief. "I don't believe it," he repeated once more. "I'm going to be a father..."

After another moment of holding me, he said into my ear, "I'm going to have to tell Dumbledore about all of this." With another sigh he fell back against the pillow once more, and I laid down beside him with my cheek on his shoulder. Severus fingered my hair absentmindedly as he thought.

"Once you give birth, it will be obvious that your conception date was during the school year. There's really no way now for you to continue your apprenticeship with me."

"I know," I replied. "I already assumed that, but I don't mind. At least, assuming Professor Dumbledore doesn't kick me out of the school, I can finish up with Professor Sprout."

"I'll talk to Dumbledore once we get back. I'm sure he'll understand."

Just then our stomachs both rumbled simultaneously. Severus looked down at me and said, "You need to eat something. It's important for you to keep your strength up now."

I sat up and stretched. "I was thinking of walking down to the village to buy some things to eat. I think you should rest for the remainder of the day, so we'll need something for lunch as well."

"Let me go instead," Severus said, holding me back and trying to rise himself. "You really shouldn't walk that far in your condition."

Oh boy. He was going to be one of those expectant fathers...

"Severus," I said, trying to keep from laughing, and pushing him back down onto the bed, "I'm four days pregnant. I don't think you need to start thinking like that for another good eight months or so."

"No," I said, standing up and pulling the blanket back over Severus' bare chest, "You are the one who needs rest after what you've been through."

"I'm perfectly fine," Severus replied huffily, crossing his arms petulantly over the blanket.

I shook my head and crossed my arms as well. "You didn't see what you looked like when I found you last night. I insist that you stay in bed at least until the evening."

Sitting down on the floor to tie my boots and make sure I had my wallet I said, "Right beside you there's a Nourishment Potion you should drink right away. That will get you through until I return with something to eat. I also drew a hot bath for you in the next room, if you want. You have my permission to get up for at least that. I also Conjured some fresh clothes for you." I pointed to where they lay on a rickety bureau.

"You know, if you joined me in the bath, I'm sure it would help me to feel much better..." Severus said with a devilish smile and folding his hands behind his head.

I stood, raising an eyebrow as I looked down at him. "Apparently you are feeling better already," I said wryly, brushing the dust off of my pants. "I should be back in an hour." With that I turned and left him behind before he could start to really lay the charm on thick.

Before I left the house, I cast quick spells on all of the doors leading outside to keep them securely locked. I suppose I was rather paranoid after what I had gone through the night before, but I wasn't taking any chances until I had Severus safely back at the castle. The walk down to the village didn't take quite as long as I thought it would. Fortunately, I quickly located a small grocers where I bought two loaves of freshly baked bread, some delicious-smelling cheese, and some bananas and grapes for breakfast. I also picked up some canned soups and some fresh tea bags, knowing that a good, hot cup of English tea was going to be the first thing Severus would want as soon as I returned. Lugging the heavy plastics bags, I trekked back up the hill toward the house until I was far enough away from the village to send the food along to the kitchens ahead of me. Without being weighed down with groceries, I jogged back up the hill and managed to get back within the time I had promised.

Severus had bathed and dressed in my absence so, after hitting the old dishes in the cupboard with a few cleansing charms, I prepared a simple but delicious breakfast for the two of us. Severus was so hungry I had to remind him to eat extra slowly so that his stomach would have a chance to get used to having food in it after such a long time of starving. After breakfast we laid together on the bed, and I recounted to Severus my half of the week. He was, of course, most interested in my vision of his mother and asked me to retell it several times before he was satisfied. For myself I didn't ask anything about what had gone on in the tomb between him and the Revenant, and for the moment Severus seemed alright with dealing with it on his own. He did mention, however, how at several different times, he had heard his mother's voice speak in his mind, encouraging him to keep fighting until I arrived. I listened silently as he talked about that, wishing with all of my heart that there was some way I could repay her for protecting Severus even after her death. But I was sure, at the very least, I would tell our son every single day how much his grandmother loved him.

After laying together for a little while longer, Severus grew rather feisty and would not stop trying to undress me. I finally gave in, figuring at the very least he would have one good memory of the house now, and we made love tenderly under the soft down comforter. Afterwards, I held Severus tightly against me as he slept some more, knowing that he was safe now but still not wanting to take any risks. At least I knew that if anything happened, the tomb was now open and Severus could simply walk out. But all of my worrying ended up being for nothing, and when Severus awoke two hours later, starving for another meal, I knew everything was back to normal.

Since Severus had demonstrated quite effectively earlier in the day how well his strength was returning to him, I figured he was healthy enough to go back to the castle. He told me he could easily create a one-time link from the fireplace in the living room to his own rooms at the castle. After Vanishing all of my belongings back to where they had come from, I left Severus for a few minutes while he crouched in front of the fireplace setting up the spell. I walked quickly out a back door of the house and down to where the mortuaries were located. Though the setting sun was bright and cheerful, the place still obviously boded ill with me, so I made my business short.

I blasted the hell out of Septimus Snape's tomb.

If Severus had heard the noise, he didn't comment on it when I re-joined him in the living room. He had finished the Floo linkage, so with a few flashes of Floo powder, we were back once more in the castle as though nothing at all had happened.