Another Dark Star

A/N: Fifty chapters already! And still so many to go. Thank you all for reviewing my story. It really makes my day to hear that you like this and why. A massive thank you to MalfoysBitch for being the most consistent reviewer. Thank you to everyone who reads just for putting up with my inconsistent and sporadic updating too.

Chapter 50


Flashbulbs popped on the steps leading to the main gates of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Severus Snape, the newly-appointed Headmaster stood proudly; flanked by the Carrows who were also pleased at being awarded the opportunity to harass and intimidate students. Since the Dark Lord had placed his influence over the Prophet and the Ministry, life was confusingly better and yet somehow worse for Severus.

The papers were framing Potter for the death of Dumbledore and he was now being interviewed by the press like a celebrity, in light of his new prestigious position. However behind the mask of a satisfied smirk, his heart was heavy at the prospect of a very hard year ahead. He was to be separated from his pregnant wife and child, his old colleagues despised him as a murderer, he had to protect the students from the not-so-tender mercies of his new colleagues and pretend to be an evil bastard; well... more so than usual. On top of all this, and as well as the tedium of the day to day administration of the Headmaster position, he still had to help Potter defeat the Dark Lord without the jumped-up shit realising it.

All in all, it was almost enough to make him give in to his selfish urge to retract his word and bring Sadira and Hadrian to live in the Headmaster’s Quarters with him for the comfort they would bring. Only his wish to keep them safe from harm and away from the horrors this year was sure to bring was keeping them in Spinner’s End, far from Death Eaters and Order members alike.

Hadrian and his mother were unaware of his father’s mental dilemma. He was far too busy trying to work out how to get past his mother’s wards and into the kitchen. Sadira was also busy, making up pots of homemade chunky baby food.

At 8 months old, the boy was now at the stage where he was attempting more solid food and his milk requirements were diminishing, which was a respite on his poor mother’s breasts. It was a relief for her that he would be weaned off her milk entirely by the time the new baby came along. She didn’t think she’d be able to cope with nursing them both at the same time.

She was missing Severus already. They had got so used to each other’s presence during the summer that it was a wrench to see him go. It wasn’t merely the physical part of their relationship that she missed, although she longed for his closeness also. It was more the simple pleasure of sitting in companionable silence of an evening when Hadrian was abed; reading or some other simple activity, just knowing that he was there and being able to just look up at him with a small smile on her face from the secret joy of just how much she loved this man.

He had doted upon her and Hadrian, taking such good care of her whenever the baby was making her ill and keeping Hadrian occupied while she got a nap or a lie in. He left a substantial supply of healing potions also, to save her the trouble of making them herself. She put the last tub of chunky casserole in the fridge and passed effortlessly through the invisible barrier between the living room and the kitchen. She smirked to herself at the perplexed and very Snapish scowl her tiny tot gave her. It seemed that the older he got, the more like Severus he became. He was already long and skinny for his age.

Hadrian gave up trying to pass through the age line and crawled stiltedly to his father’s chair. That was his favourite place in the house, apart from the mystery of the forbidden kitchen. In this chair, Daddy told him stories and let him play ‘bounce’ and made pretty colours come out of a stick for him to smile and laugh at. Daddy wasn’t in the chair, but perhaps he would be back soon. Maybe he would make Fluffy Dragon flap around the room again next time. That was lots of fun! He gave up searching for his missing parent and sat on the rug, chomping and drooling happily on his favourite story; ‘Where’s Spot?’ while his mother set about folding a pile of laundry.

Severus sat in his new office and sighed. ‘Curse the old man for dumping all of this on my shoulders.’ He thought. Slytherin ambition suggested that he ought to be happy to have gained the position of power and prestige he found himself in. However he would have paid almost any price to go back to teaching Potions to morons who didn’t appreciate it, with Sadira and Hadrian in his old rooms. He gave the snoring portrait of Dumbledore another vitriolic glare and swept out of his office to his new private quarters to think.

He worried about Sadira, and about their unborn child. What would happen to Hadrian when she went into labour? Would she finally consent to be admitted to St Mungo’s now he had finally been falsely exonerated? Would she be able to contact him if she were taken suddenly and severely ill? He mulled these questions over while he undressed and lay in bed, trying to sleep. Merlin knows he’d need a full night’s sleep for the strength and clarity to deal with a mutinous staff in the morning.

Downing a small ampoule of purple liquid, he glanced over at the bedside cabinet where a small photo of Sadie and Hadrian rested. He had taken it that summer, as his other picture of his family was so old; Hadrian was much bigger now. Propped against it was the Muggle photo of his unborn child. ‘For them, and for Lily.’ He reminded himself as he drifted off into a potion aided sleep.

A few weeks into the school year, Severus was once again writing his routine owl to his family and trying desperately to think of something to write to Sadie that could give her some comfort and yet would not cause him problems if it were intercepted. Suddenly, the answer to his predicament became clear and he cursed himself for his stupidity in not realising it before. He summoned Dobby, the strange ‘free Elf’.

“Dobby, I require the services of a House Elf. The one chosen for the task must be loyal, trustworthy and obedient. This is a very important task; delivering letters to and from my wife and seeing to her wellbeing. Can you think of a suitable candidate among the Hogwarts Elves?” he asked.

“Oh yes, Headmaster Sir. Winky could do it! She was ever so upset at being freed by the Crouches and is most anxious to be serving a proper Wizarding family again.” Dobby suggested joyfully.

“Very well Dobby. Thank you. Have Winky report to my office for instructions in half an hour.” Snape ordered, dismissing the strange, sock clad Elf. His burden eased slightly, he returned to drafting a letter; this time allowing himself to write exactly how he felt.

Sadira nearly screamed in shock when a House Elf Apparated directly into her living room.

“Is you is Missus Snape?” the small Elf asked nervously.

“Yes?” Sadira answered curiously.

The Elf was clearly female as it was dressed in a neat little blue blouse and skirt set with a matching hat. She appeared to have burned the skirt at some point, but otherwise was clean and tidy. She had sorted herself out, excited at the prospect of serving a proper Wizarding family again.

“I is Winky, Missus Snape. Headmaster Snape sends me with a letter and says I is to help you and bring you’s letters to Headmaster, not owl.” She explained.

“Oh! Thank you Winky.” Sadie replied, taking the letter.

Her only experience of House Elves was Kreacher and he’d been an odd little monster. She sat in the small armchair opposite Severus’ wing chair. Before she opened the parchment she noticed Winky looking at Hadrian where he slept on the sofa with a strange, wistful longing look.

“Are you quite alright Winky?” Sadie asked.

“Oh yes Missus Snape, Mistress is so kind to ask. Is this the Mistress’ child?” Winky asked.

“Yes Winky, that is my son Hadrian.” She explained.

“Will Mistress be needing helping with young Master Hadrian?” the Elf asked hopefully.

“I may Winky, if Severus doesn’t require you for duties at the school.” Sadie replied.

“Headmaster says I isn’t to do school duties anymore. He says my job is to look after the Missus and keep you’s secrets.” Winky assured her.

“In that case Winky, I should be very grateful of your help around the house once the new baby comes.” Sadira sighed with a smile. Winky’s face lit up in rapture.

“Another baby coming too, Missus? Oh, Winky loves children! Winky was good to her young Master.” Then her face fell and she wrung the hem of her skirt in disgrace.

“But then he was a very bad boy and Winky was sent away.” She said sadly. The little Elf seemed so dejected when she brought up her past that Sadie felt quite sorry for her.

“Well Winky, if you wouldn’t mind waiting and returning with my reply; by the time you get back Hadrian will have woken up and I can introduce you!” She said brightly, hoping her beloved boy wouldn’t be terrified by his first encounter with a House Elf.

Winky was true to her word and was a fantastic help around the house. Having a family to serve again gave her hope and sobered her up quicker than a trip to the come-and-go room with Dobby. Sadie and Sev found it a great comfort to know that they could write to one another without fear of discovery of their true allegiance or the reality of their feelings for one another. However mere letters were not enough for Sadira, she missed her husband and she was determined to do something about it.

One evening in late September, Sadira left Hadrian in Winky’s capable hands and
Apparated to the Hogwarts gates. Cursing her lack of foresight, she puzzled over the lengthy walk to the school. She decided to send a Patronus to Hagrid and ask him to send a carriage. She received no reply and was slowly walking up the path in the waning light when she saw the carriage.

Sending a grateful thought Hagrid’s way, she hopped into the horseless carriage pulling up beside her. Steadily it drew towards the castle which stood proud amid the gloom as it always had. It seemed indestructible, impenetrable, eternal. Dark times had come and gone and come again, and yet Hogwarts School stood; unchanged by time and untouched by the wizards who grew up within its walls and were ultimately touched by it.

All too soon she found herself walking the corridors with trepidation. She hadn’t warned Severus that she was coming and now she was here she feared he would be cross with her.

“You there, stop! What are you doing out of bed at this hour?” a screeching voice called behind her.

Sadira turned on her heel; the superior, haughty expression inherent in the Blacks pasted to her face.

“Alecto Carrow. I thought you were incompetent, but surely even you can discern the difference between a mere schoolgirl and a fully qualified witch!” She drawled disdainfully. ‘Perhaps I’ve been spending too much time around Severus.’ She thought with an inward smirk.

“Mrs Snape! I weren’t expectin’ you tonight.” Carrow replied with a combination of surprise and loathing.

Alecto was rather jealous of Sadira for two reasons. Firstly, Sadie had a natural feminine grace, whereas Alecto was a rather frumpy and butch witch. Secondly, she had hoped to get her claws into Snape herself for the prestige and power; he was high in the Dark Lord’s favour and was close enough to her age. She had believed him to be single for quite some time and surely desperate enough for female company. She hadn’t bargained on him already being wedded to a young, attractive, pure-blooded witch.

“Clearly not, now if you would excuse me I have business to discuss with my husband.” Sadie said dismissively. Carrow was about to make a retort but they were both disturbed by another member of staff doing the rounds.

“What is going on here?” McGonagall’s lilting Scots brogue asked in clipped tones.

“Professor McGonagall.” Sadie greeted politely with a touch of apprehension.

“Mrs Snape.” McGonagall said flatly. Sadira cringed inwardly at her tones. Clearly the Transfiguration Mistress was angry and disappointed with her.

“I shall accompany Mrs Snape to the Headmaster’s office Alecto.” McGonagall said in a similarly dismissive tone and walked away from the Death Eater leaving Sadira no option but to follow her.

Once they were alone, Sadira found the tension to be too much.

“How are you Minerva? Really?” she asked, genuinely concerned.

“I am in perfect health thank you. You may tell the Headmaster he shan’t get rid of me so easily as to hope for my retirement due to ill health.” She replied snippily.

“No Minerva, you misunderstand me. I’m not his spy, I’m really concerned. With all the terrible things going on at the moment...” Sadie began.

“You have only your husband to blame for that. How could you Sadira?” McGonagall spat, cutting her off.

Sadie felt sickened to hear her former teacher speak to her so harshly, especially about Severus also. Tears began to well due to her hormonal state and for once she could not control them. McGonagall heard the sniffles and turned to Sadie with a sudden rush of pity.

“I didn’t know Minerva, what he was to do. He never told me, I swear it.” She said between shaky breaths before the floodgates opened.

“Oh! Oh now don’t cry. There there.” She handed the young woman a red tartan handkerchief.

“Silly girl, what are you doing here? You and that bairn of yours should be miles away, surrounded by a wealth of protective charms if you retain half the sense you had as a student.” McGonagall softly chided.

“I won’t leave Severus.” Sadie sniffed defiantly.

“Why? After everything he’s done?”

“I love him, I still believe in him. He’s my husband, my place is with him. I do this for the children. He’s still their father, they need him too.” She sobbed, trying to make Minerva understand without giving away Snape’s true motivations.

“Children? You mean child?” Minerva corrected in confusion.

Sadie rested a hand on her belly and Minerva realised it was not merely voluminous robes making the girl look so big.

“Again? So soon? Oh foolish girl.” McGonagall sighed, pulling the weeping young witch into her arms comfortingly.

As much as she hated Severus for everything he’d done, she pitied the bright young girl who had fallen for him so completely and was now stuck in the middle of a war with a small child and soon a tiny baby. The older woman wondered what Snape had done during her time at school to have made such an impression on her; to have earned such devotion that even the darkest and most evil of acts could not turn her from his side.

McGonagall left her at the gargoyle. She uttered the password and stepped back, allowing Sadie to rise to the door with the golden knocker. Sadira rapped smartly on the door and awaited his reply with bated breath.

“Go away. I haven’t time for petty squabbling or foolishness this evening.” His deep
melodic voice called out with irritation. Sadie who knew him better than any other could also detect a trace of weariness in his tone. She opened the door slowly and quietly.

“Have you got time for me Love?” she asked quietly. His head shot up from the parchments he was reading and he stared in her direction.

“Sadie? What in Hades are you doing here?” he asked, rising swiftly from the desk and crossing the room with the natural poise and grace she loved to watch.

“I missed you, letters aren’t enough.” She said softly, placing her hands on his face fondly.

He rested his hands on her hips and smiled at the loving gesture. A moment later however he stepped away from her, shaking his head.

“You shouldn’t have come here. You aren’t safe. And where is Hadrian?” He reprimanded, returning to his desk. He swept his parchments to one side and rested his head in his hands.

“Hadrian is safe with Winky. What could possibly harm me in your office?” she asked, coming to sit on the Headmaster’s desk in front of him. He glared at her from his seat.

“You know full well what I meant.” He chided.

Once again she placed a hand on his face, caressing his soft sallow cheek before leaning in and kissing him lightly.

“I missed you too much to stay away. I think you missed me too?” she said. He sighed, a deep cleansing sigh and grabbed her hands, clasping them to his chest.

“I have missed you so much. You have no idea how much I need you.” He said at length, finally meeting her eyes with a combination of longing and guilt.

“Come here Severus.” She sighed softly, pulling her hands back and hinting for him to stand.

He stood and she wrapped her arms firmly around him, pulling him close and burying her face in his robes. He breathed in deeply, inhaling her scent as he relented and put his arms around her too. She clutched him to her, trying not to cry again as the relief of being near him again overwhelmed her.

He leant down and kissed her with passion, his lips saying without words just how he loved and needed her. She tangled the fingers of one hand tightly in his oily sable locks, kissing him harder. They had been separated for nearly a month and she had spent every evening longing for him. Her other arm was firmly around his waist, holding him as close as her growing tummy would allow.

The paintings seemed to enjoy all this drama unfolding below them, watching with all the voyeuristic fascination of a soap opera. When Severus slid his hands lower to Sadira’s hips and drew her closer to the edge of the table without even breaking their heated kissing, Dilys Derwent began to feel quite faint at the steamy scene. Phineas Nigellus Black made things worse by slinking into her portrait and making a lewd comment about how ‘Slytherin Headmasters know how to do things properly!’

Unfortunately for the gallery of nosy former Heads, Severus heard their muttering and reluctantly pulled away from his wife. He smirked in satisfaction to see her kiss bruised lips and her eyes glazed with desire.

“I believe we should continue this in private.” He whispered, offering her his hand to help her down from the desk. He led her up the stairs to the Headmaster’s private chambers.

It was a sumptuous room, decorated in rich, jewel tones of emerald, plum and scarlet, with accents of gold. It seemed like it belonged in a byzantine palace rather than a school.

“Now, where were we?” Severus asked, turning to his wife once more and lifting her into his arms.

“I believe we were about here.” She replied, kissing him; a soft loving kiss that once again became yet more passionate as they expressed how much they missed one another.

He laid her gently on the bed and carefully helped her out of her dress as though she were made of the finest china. Her nimble fingers worked swiftly over his buttons. Soon they were both lay in just their underwear, entwined in a loving embrace, kissing and stroking each others bare flesh. They were committing to memory every curve and plane to ward away the loneliness on the solitary nights ahead.

Sadira’s small hand snaked lower, gripping him firmly through the fabric of his pants. He inhaled sharply in surprise and pleasure at her touch. He looked into her eyes and saw his want and need mirrored therein. He stroked a hand fondly over her pregnant belly.

“Are you sure you’re up to this kind of activity?” he asked in concern.

“I’m quite healthy, really Sev. I need this as much as you do.” She told him.

He smiled at her answer, but he doubted she could need and want him as much as he did her at that moment. She was radiant in the soft candlelight, despite or perhaps because of the extra weight of their child in her womb. He was amazed at how full his heart could feel, knowing he had created the life that grew within her. His bed had felt so empty without her in it.

He quickly divested them both of their remaining scraps of clothing and pulled the eiderdown over them both. For a while he was content to just lie there in her arms, kissing her mouth and body, stroking her large tender breasts. He loved the feeling of the entire length of his body in contact with hers, skin to skin, and how well they fit together. It was harder now, with her new shape, but they had managed before. By the sound of her gentle whimpers and the way she was grinding against his hardness jutting into her thigh, it was about time they remembered how.

Severus turned onto his side, facing her and she moved to do the same. Lightly tracing his hand down her thigh, he curled his long slender fingers around her knee and brought her leg up over his hip. Slipping a leg between hers, he carefully positioned himself at her entrance; teasing her by sliding his tip against her clit slowly and firmly.

“I love you Sadira.” He whispered huskily, kissing her as he entered her wet channel.

“Oh Severus, I love you so much.” She gasped, curling her leg around his hip, urging him on.

He set a slow, steady pace as she was getting quite advanced in her pregnancy, in her sixth month, and he feared causing her any harm. Despite this, they needed to make love to each other after being so long apart. Gently they caressed each other, while his deep, long strokes stoked their passions higher and higher. It wasn’t long before Sadira felt her body tremble and shiver as her passion peaked, and then the fulfilling rush of warm fluid as her husband followed her soon after into the arms of ecstasy.

They held each other close as the aftershocks subsided. Now their frustration had been satisfied, they could talk without getting distracted.

“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you that I would be coming. I knew you would tell me to stay at home and I really needed to see you.” She said, stroking the sparse dark hair on his chest distractingly.

“I am glad to see you my Love, as always, but I still say this is no place for you to be.” He sighed, giving her a brief squeeze.

“I don’t see why you don’t let us move in. Other Headmasters, and even the odd Headmistress, have kept their families in the castle in history.” She complained, propping her head up on one arm.

“Because; the staff despise me and are creating a hostile environment towards myself which would also extend to you, the Carrows are using Crucio as a routine form of punishment and the students are rebelling secretly under cover of darkness. I would hate for anything to happen to you or the children as a means of hurting me.” He told her.

“Believe me, I would not be missing out on being there for my family were it not absolutely necessary.” He added in low tones, as though she had accused him of avoiding them on purpose.

“I’m sorry Love, I know. Hadrian’s crawling now and I hate to think how many more milestones you may miss due to this charade.” She groused.

“But how have you been coping here?” she asked.

“I keep to myself as much as possible, taking meals in my office as often as I can get away with, without arousing suspicion. I have had no word on Potter’s whereabouts or how close he is to success in his mission.” He yawned, exhaustion creeping up on him.

“Oh Love! You shouldn’t be locked in here all day with just the portraits for company. Let me and Hadrian come and stay with you once in a while. We could Floo in here and back if you set up the connection yourself.” She suggested.

“I’ll think about it.” He replied noncommittally, pulling her head to rest on his chest and closing his eyes contentedly.

Sadira smirked as she joined him in a brief nap before returning to their son. She knew full well that reply meant she had won!