The Other Child

Four years later...

There are spells flying everywhere, it is odd almost scary to see Hogwarts in such a violent state, Hogwarts had always been my safe haven. I need to find him, to know he is ok, that he is still breathing, I run through the castle and out the front doors, everyone is moving inside. Someone smacks into me.

“Amy?” Lucius asks

I nod “Where is Severus” I plead

“He has fallen Amy, Get Out of here!” he growls at me warningly

I grab Lucius by the collar of his robes jerking him hard. “I SAID WHERE IS SEVERUS, LUCIUS!” I growl through gritted teeth

“His body is in the shrieking shack, bottom floor, be careful Amy” He breathes at me “And if you see my son tell him Narcissa And I are looking for him” I snap out of it and notice Narcissa standing at his side, looking terrified. I nod in agreement and take off running towards the tunnel under the whomping willow, tossing myself in before the violent tree gets a chance to strike at me.

I crawl through the tunnel up to the shrieking shack, there is only silence and darkness within, the dark lord and his followers have moved on.

I climb up into the room, the room smells faintly of drying blood, never a good sign. I pull my wand from my robes, illuminating the room. I see him on the other side of the room lying motionless. I slowly move closer, this is going to hurt. My heart pulls when I get close enough to see his throat has been ripped open and he is laying in a large pool of blood, which is slowly sinking into the rotting floorboards, Seeing him like this reminds me of my mother. I shake away the horrible memories. I can see the battle going on in the distance through the one un-boarded window.

I kneel down, straddling Severus at the hips; I can smell snake venom on him, the bitter acrid smell bit at my nose. I mutter a spell to heal the flesh of his neck to keep any more blood from spilling; it is clearly visible from his paler than normal appearance that he does not have much more to lose. I touch his lips gently, but withdraw, I wonder how long he has been dead, and his skin is cold as ice. I part his lips gently, I need to do this quick or I will lose him again and have to start over again. I uncork 3 vials of potions and place them slightly away from his head. I take the first, a small vial of de-venomized vampire blood and pour it into his mouth, pressing on his throat forcing his dead form to swallow. I throw the vial to the side and quickly grab the other two vials, blood replenishing potions. I sit in wait until I feel his body force a sharp intake of breath; I pour both of the potions into his mouth again putting slight pressure on his throat. I pull out a knife making two small holes in his neck, I pull out a vial of olive oil, swishing it around in my mouth then spitting it to the floor. I lean forward and begin sucking the venom from his neck. After several mouthfuls of venomous blood his blood tastes clean. I uncork my last two bottles of blood replenishing potion and pour them into his mouth. This time he swallows of his own accord. He is conscious, just too weak to open his eyes or move.

“We should drop his body outside the castle, leave ‘im as an example for the other traitors” laughs one death eater

“We could undress him and leave him there, shame him for betraying the dark lord” laughs the other.

Shit! I need to get him out of here, I grab him and side-along-apparate us to the first place at Hogwarts that I can remember, His bedchambers deep in the dungeons.

We arrive and I use a wingardrium Leviosa to get him up onto the bed, gently lowering him onto his pillows, after pulling the blanket down to the bottom of the bed. I barricade the door with every protective spell I know. I light candles around the room with one swish of my wand and turn my attention back to Severus. His breathing is ragged telling me he is not quite right yet. I pull open his cupboards and drawers tearing the contents apart until I find what I am looking for, several vials of blood replenishing potion on the top shelf of his supply cabinet. I remove them all and a couple vials of pepper up potion and place them on his bedside table. I move swiftly into his bathroom, filling a small basin with hot water and grabbing a soft cloth from his cabinet and placing both on his bedside table.

I carefully remove his robe and shirt. His neck face and chest are thickly coated in dried blood, I gently wipe of the majority of the dried blood off his neck and bandage up the puncture marks I made, best leave them open just in case. I carefully wash the drying blood off his pale cheeks and turn my attention to the blood on his chest, dipping the cloth back in the bowl; He is getting pale again and shaking slightly from the cold. I grab the Blankets pulling them up to his chin and reach over to the table uncorking another blood replenishing potion. I turn ready to open his lips when I notice his dark eyes glowering at me; I jump in alarm dropping the bottle of potion onto the floor with a smash.

His dark eyes stare furiously at me and realisation dawns on me, what if he doesn’t remember me? His gaze softens slightly.

“A-Amy?” He chokes

I nod, uncorking two more vials of blood replenishing potion.

“Drink these Severus, You’ve lost a lot of blood, I’ll go get you a glass of water”

He tries to lift his hand to take the potions, but he gets in only two inches off the bed where it shakes and drops again to his side. I lean over him tipping the vials into his mouth and rushing off to the bathroom and quickly grabbing him a glass of cool water and rushing back to his side.

I sit him up slightly tipping the glass gently to his lips as he drinks the cool water, I can see it hurts him to swallow but he forces himself to do as he is told.

“How do you feel?” I ask worried, he is still very pale and cold

“Fine” he whispers back

“Severus! Be honest, you need me to take care of you right now, let me in ok?”

“Head spinning” he chokes “Body Aching” he assesses quietly “Freezing to the bone” he croaks, his voice dying from exertion.

I put a warming spell on his bed earning a moan of appreciation as the blankets heat up around him.

“I will be back. I need to see what is going on it the castle”

“No!”

“Why not Severus! I’m not a child anymore, I can look after myself!”

He nods “I know you can, it – it’s just” he stops, emotions flooding his features for a fraction of a second and then disappears “I—I couldn’t bear to lose you again Amy” he whispers as if afraid someone will hear.

“I will be back shortly Severus, and we have much to talk about when I return” I lean over him to kiss his forehead but instead I kiss him gently on the lips, lingering there for a fraction of a second longer than needed before I disapparate out of the room.