“Mr. McKean, is there something you need?” Professor Flitwick asked as he opened the door to the staff room in response to the Head Boy’s knock.
“I was looking for the Headmistress, Professor.”
“She is very busy at the moment, with the aurors here. They’re investigating…”
“I know why the Death Eaters attacked the school. It’s important that they know their reasoning.”
Professor Flitwick looked more than a little alarmed. “Oh dear… right this way Mr. McKean, we shall find the Head Mistress together.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
As soon as she had hugged her sisters Viviane asked the all important question, “is she…?”
“We haven’t heard anything,” Dierna supplied. “We tried to go in and Madam Pomphrey promptly kicked us right back out. But Dad is still in there…”
“There’s power in numbers,” Serena said determinedly, “she can’t keep all of us out. Besides, I’m not going to sit out here when Mum could be…” she checked her tear filled voice. She wasn’t going to say anything about dying. Not when it wasn’t certain and not while Olivia was around. She looked around at the sad group they made. Kamen holding Olivia on his arm, Viviane with an arm wrapped around Dierna’s waist, the two of them leaning against each other for support… “Nimue should be here. We should all be together…”
“We’ll probably never be all together again,” Dierna said bitterly.
“Dierna,” Kamen hissed her name, “don’t you dare start talking like that. It won’t help anything.”
“Neither will false optimism,” Dierna shot back.
Just when things were threatening to get ugly Olivia broke in, “are we going to see Mum now?”
Her siblings instantly sobered. “Of course we are,” Viviane took charge, and with a backwards glance to make sure that her brother and sisters were following she threw open the doors to the Hospital Wing. When Madam Pomphrey started their way she made it very clear, in a very Snape-like way, with vocabulary inherited from their father, that they were not going anywhere. The nurse instantly stepped out of their way.
“I want all of you out of here this instant,” Severus said coldly as his children approached.
“You’ll have to hex us if you want us to leave. We’re not going anywhere on our own,” Viviane shot back. It made her angry… at a time when their father should be trying to offer them support and comfort he was coldly angry. She knew it was wrong, and she knew there was nothing she could do to fix it. “We are staying,” she reasserted.
Severus glowered at his children, angry at being deprived time alone with his wife. Possibly the last time alone he would be allowed with her. “You may come back later, for now you will leave.” His tone brooked no room for argument. It was the one that was always obeyed.
He was met with four expressions of determination that at the very least matched his own. Olivia was the only one who was either unaware of the tensions or ignoring it.
“Professor, a word,” Madame Pomphrey called him over. Severus grudgingly complied making sure that they were both out of earshot. “If you can think of anything that will help her, now would be the time to come out with it.”
“The spell they used… I did an incredible amount of research on it while I was with the Death Eaters,” he spoke very slowly, as though each word caused him pain. “There is only one antidote for it. One which I personally concocted, but it only works if there is minimal damage. She was hit far too hard with it...”
“Severus, there may still be time,” Poppy clutched his arm desperately.
“There is not.”
“I can keep her alive for a few more days using magic if necessary and it should cause her no harm if you just…”
“Have you had time to finish running tests on her?”
“No, but I…”
“The spell ruptures the internal organs. The heart, liver, spleen, etc… her body needs to absorb the potion to heal, but…”
“With all the tears in the organs it will seep out and flow freely into the internal cavities,” Poppy sighed, “there will be uncontrolled uptake and her organs will implode. There’s nothing to do…”
“Why can’t you give her the antidote?” Serena asked, not at all ashamed of having eavesdropped. “Why won’t it heal her?”
Poppy spoke up quickly before Severus could. She didn’t trust him to respond in a considerate enough fashion. “Her organs cannot process the antidote. They have holes in them now. The antidote would pour out of her organs and infect the rest of her body. It should cure her, if she was less critically injured. But as it is it will drown her, eating away at her organs and killing her.” The explanation sounded overly harsh to her ears, but it was the best she could do for the children and was certainly better than what Severus would have provided.
Serena turned back to her siblings with that news crashing through her mind. She knew they had all heard what Poppy said. She could tell from the look on her face that even Olivia knew what it meant.
“You should join them,” Poppy informed Severus, gesturing to where the children were gathered Morgan. “You are all going to need each other.”
Severus turned cold black eyes down to stare at the hovering nurse, “I shall let them say goodbye on their own. They do not need me for that.” “They need you more than you know!” she hissed at him.
But Severus remained unmoved, and he stood right where he was. He never took his eyes off of his wife’s face, not even to see the tears of his children.
~~~~~~~~~~
“What was that?” Remus stopped so suddenly that Nimue ran into him.
“What was what?” She was grateful for the reprieve. After the news had come… it hadn’t taken long for Kalliope and Remus to figure out that she had had some inclination of what was to come. They had been trying to get her to talk about it since then. But she didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t as though either of them had the power to do anything about it.
“That sound…” he paused, “there it is again…” he met Cadmus’ eyes across the grove where they had stopped. “It almost sounds like…”
“A baby,” Cadmus confirmed as he located the linen wrapped bundle. “Left out here for the elements to take care of. Probably a girl.”
“Why would anyone abandon a child?” Nimue asked as she joined the warrior, looking down at the infant curiously. She couldn’t imagine even leaving a child of her own out to die. It was inhumanly cruel.
“The family may be poor and cannot afford to feed her. Or there may a birth defect. Not many will keep an inauspicious child around,” Cadmus explained, “we’d better keep moving.”
“We aren’t going to leave her here,” Remus said as he moved toward the child who was still lying on the ground.
Cadmus shrugged, “she was left out to die, no good will come of taking her back with us. If the parents had thought that her life was worth saving they would have brought her to the temple, not left her out here.”
“There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with her, except that she’s a bit cold,” Remus said as he bent to pick up the baby. He cradled her against his chest, “Hello there little one,” he looked down into the blue eyes that we just barely open. “You’re not very old are you, not more than a day or two…”
“Remus, you can’t take her back to the temple… if there is anything wrong with her the priestesses won’t take her in.”
“Nonsense, she’s a helpless baby, they’ll have to help look after her. Besides, Kalliope is already feeding one child, how much difference will one more make?”
Cadmus shook his head, “I’m not sure my friend. Women are tedious creatures, they can get funny about things like that.”
Nimue snorted at the comment about women, but stood up on her toes to get a better look at the baby in Remus’ arms. “She’s really small,” she plucked at the blanket covering the child, “where do you think she came… from…?” her voice trailed off as the blanket fell away. Her gasp was echoed by the warriors, who all took several steps backwards.
“I beg you, my friend,” Cadmus said with feeling, “leave the child here. She was not meant to live.”
Remus glared at them, “she wouldn’t have lived this long if she was meant to die!” His heart filled with compassion as he gently rewrapped the baby, making sure that the stump she had in place of a left arm and hand was covered, “we’ll get you home and get you warm and fed. You’re almost the exact same age as Angelos, you’ll almost be twins.”
“I wouldn’t count on Kalliope taking that one in,” Cadmus advised. “Priestesses are awfully superstitious.”
“Nonsense,” Remus replied, as he wrapped his own cloak around the newborn as well, “how could she possibly refuse to take her in?”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Severus had not interfered as his children talked to their mother. But he had made sure that they did not linger. Part of him knew that they should have been here still, perhaps not Olivia, it would be hard to explain to her… but he was a selfish man. He always had been.
“Oh Morgan…” he was once again cradling his wife’s small hand between his larger rough ones. “It should have been my life. I should never have married you, never drawn you close to me… I made you vulnerable. I put you into danger.”
He laid her hand back down on the bed as he began to pace, “I’ve shown you how much I love you in a thousand different ways. I’ve provided for you, allowed you to have as many children as you wished, bought you more jewelry than you could ever begin to wear… and I’ve said the words. But I have never been as good at it as you. I am not a man who openly shares of himself, as you well know… but I want to make a few things right before… it’s selfish really, for my own peace of mind…”
He shrugged off his robes and laid them over the foot of Morgan’s cot and unbuttoned his frock coat. “You have stopped asking me about my childhood, for which I am grateful, but the basics of it are that my father beat me and I loved my mother dearly, but she died an early death. I blamed my father for it and have never forgiven him. He was not a Death Eater, but he approved of them wholeheartedly. He was pleased when I joined them, which was a large part of leading me to regret my decision.”
“I was young and foolish, and I wanted to change the world. I’ve since learned that such idealist intentions are worthless, thus I resigned myself to life. I was ready to be miserable and lonely with only my Slytherins for companionship, and then you came along. You turned my world upside down, and I deplore change, but for you… it was well worth it.”
“There is another topic I wish to address… that of Mr. Malfoy. I want you to know that I truly trust in him with no reservations. He was forced into the life of a Death Eater and he fought it every step of the way. As a student he hid behind a mask of coldly confidant arrogance to hide his uncertainty in his future. Lucius was as kind to him as my own father was to me and so I played the part of a father to him wherever I could… it’s a long a complicated story all in all, but I want you to know that I am truly sorry that I did not at least try to explain it to you. You deserved better than that, you deserve better than what I have been able to give you…”
He halted in his trek and approached the bed once more, he brought up one hand to gently cup Morgan’s face, “I apologize for all the pain I have caused you over the years. I love you far more than I can say.” His lips brushed hers for one last kiss. There was no sense in delaying any longer, “Poppy,” he called the nurse over, do what you think is best.”
“Are you sure Severus?” Poppy reached for him, but he pulled back.
“Yes.”
“Sit down Severus, hold her hand if you wish,” Poppy’s voice was tear-filled and compassionate. She waited until Snape had seated himself on a rickety metal chair by Morgan’s bedside and taken her hand in his. And then she had to stop to pull out a handkerchief to blow her nose before she continued. One by one she removed the healing charms and spells that she had used to keep Morgan alive. She paused as she reached the last one… the one that was breathing for her. “Your last chance Severus…” she reminded the Potions Master.
Severus nodded his consent as he brought Morgan’s soft hand up to his lips. His own breath caught as Poppy removed the last charm. He watched Morgan’s chest rise once.
“A reflex,” Poppy reminded him, “she will appear to take several breaths, but the air will not go anywhere.”
He watched her chest rise again. He tried to imagine it being still forever. “Leave us,” he said heavily, “I wish to be with her… alone…”
Poppy was only too glad to leave for the sanctuary of her office as tears streamed down her face. She left Severus to watch his wife die by himself.
~~~~~~~~~~
