Princess

Severus had just enough time to erect a shield charm in front of the girl, which efficiently bounced red streak of stunning spell away, but then, he was not fast enough to protect himself. 

Air was electric and full of the girls' cries, and Severus fell under the force of Willkins curse, white hot pain spasming through his body. When he regained enough of control over himself to get up into a kneeling position, he could see Willkins aiming his wand at the babys' head, determined gleam in his muddy eyes.

No.

"Avada Kedavra!" Jolt of green light sizzled through the room and the Death Eater fell down the ground with dull thud. Whole world went completly sitll for a second and then - girls' cry premated everything again.

"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine" Severus dronned absentmindedly as he rummaged to and fro across the room, shoving things down to his leather satchel. The girl still sat on the floor and cried inconsolably and Severus mostly left her to it, as frankly - it was quite reasonable reaction. Severus felt temptet to join her too. 

Nothing was certainly fine. Not fine at all, more like the polar opposite of fine. It was as bad as it could be and in spite of himself, Severus was quite impressed by how the bar for as bad as it could be steadily moved upwards by every conquered hour. Je dreaded to see how bad could the bad go  by the morning. If by that time he was still going to be alive, that is. Hopes weren't too high at the moment.

He finally clasped the satchel shut. It was filled with medicinal potions, all of his savings of both the gold and his muggle money, clean shirt, the sippy bottle and a carrot stick. It wasn't much but it would have to do.

With all he could muster, Severus finally turned to the baby. He knelt down beside her and tried to radiate calm and amiability, which he both lacked in alarming depth. Especially the concept of amiability was something well foreign for him, even under less dramatic circumstances. "Hey, it's alright. These kind of things happens all the time, really" He vauguely motioned towards the body.

The body, yeah right.

Severus fastly jumped to his feet and reluctantly walked towards Willkins. He felt no regret of what he had done. The actuall murder was probably the only thing today which he was totally alright about. Not so alright with the consequences it was going to bring, though.

He took a deep breath and aimed his wand at the body of his former comrade. A corpulent bastard he was. With disconcerning effort he transfigurated the mass of a dead man in to single long bone, and while that was much better, it left Severus to feel somewhat drained. Lot of spell-work went down that day and he had been dog-tired since taking down the cottages' wards. 

He did not wanted to think about taking down those wards though. Not now, or ever again.

With profound disgust Severus picked up the offending bone, wrapped it in to shirt and stuffed it in to the satchel too, for a later dispose.

"Look, we need to make a trip now, alright? You can think of it as a little adventure, I'm sure that even a train ride is going to be involved" He lowered back to the kid and babbled mindlessly.

She stopped crying, but her face was blotched with red and the tiny chin of hers trembled. "Shoo-shoo?" She asked seriously.

"A train... yes, shoo-shoo and all" Severus amended with sigh and despite the pitable mien of her, the girl seemed delighted by the prospect. Trains were apparently the thing.

There was last thing thad needed to be adressed before they could take their leave; the girl was dressed only in the pair of pajamas she wore when her nice life was so rudely interrupted. She needed better garb for a night-time adventure. Honest with himself, Severus admitted that he's not fit for conjuring any passable item at the moment. Conjuring things for actuall use was always tricky and right now there was simply no way. Anything he would try would probably fall apart, let alone keep the girl warm and comfortable.

Instead he took one of his sweaters; nice black and soft, and adjusted its size with a shrinking charm. "Here, you need to wear this" He present the miniature jumper and was astonished when the girl complied and rose her hands to be swallowed by the wooly thing. 

It was nearly three in the morning when they set off. Severus walked in brisk pace through the dreary streets and nooks of Cokeworth, holding the small girl in big jumper in one arm, half against his hip and half atop of the satchel he wore hung across his chest.

The girl was obviously terrifed. Her eyes were wide as they scanned their nocturne surrondings, but to Severus' delight she was quiet. Maybe she was just too scared to vocal anything, but either way, Severus did not mind. There was too much of his own dread to be dealt with, watching their back and front and sides too, and casting an anti-tracking spells every so often.

Without further problems, they arrived at the Cokeworths railway station, a place even more bleak than the rest of the town, if possible. They hadn't met anyone apart from two junkies who were too far in another realm to pay them any notice, and they made their way onto an uniluminated platform. Girl emitted soft sob and tried to bury her face under Severus' cloak. He instinctively brought her closer to his chest, but he didn't sensed any real danger in their vicinity at the moment. It was fine. 

"It's fine" he offered in soft voice.

"Shoo-shoo?" Girl peaked out at him.

"Yes, shoo-shoo. Should be here very soon. We'll take a little ride" Severus said. The girl seemed satisfied and hid herself again under the lapel of his cloak.

Severus picked spot in nearly empty car at the back of the train, the Edinburgh - London night express.

The already half-aborted idea of going to Liverpool got finalitly terminated after their encounter with Willkins. They were going to London, Severus decided, it was big and busy, good for hiding and with everything at hand, which was a certain plus, as apparation was for the moment out of question.

He put the girl down at the seat between window and himself and she excitedly looked around. Kids were funny, really, Severus decided. Since they stepped in to the fabled shoo-shoo the girls' spirits rose significantly, and Severus wished he could share the sentiment. But saddly for him, he could hardly remembered to ever feel this bad, maybe with the exception of the terrible night of reciving his Dark Mark. Yes, the despair of that night was close enough to the recent plight, but since that fateful night three years ago, Severus always had a plan.

Abhorrent things happened during those three years, yes, but no matter the each shitstorm, Severus always landed on his feet, like a black malnourished cat, and he figured his way out of things. There was always a plan, even if it had to be plan B or C or even D, but tonight he did not had any, which made him genuinely terrified. They were just going to London and that was it.

When the train set off from the station Severus fished the water bottle and carrot stick out of his bag. "Eat this. I have full faith in you that you won't choke on it" He said and cocked his eyebrow. Girl took the offered vegetable and stuck it in to her mouth.  Severus watched with slight disgust as the drools driped down her chin, soaking in to his sweater, and he could feel his eyelids dropping. God, he was tired. 

There was no heating on the train, or if there was, it was decidedly turned off, and the air inside was damp and stale. Severus took off his cloak and arranged it around the girl to keep her warm. It made him profoundly uncomfortable, to sit there only in the white shirt of his, as being so colourful was just the same as screaming look-at-me in Severus' opinion. He weighted the possibility of gracing himself with notice-me-not spell, but he could not use it at the girl too, hence it would be rather pointless. Maybe even brought more attention in the end. No, thank you.

With the terrifing prospect of hours long journey demanding his highest vigilance, Severus decided to chug down one of the stimulant draughts he had brought. Of course, as a potioneer prodigy ( which he clearly was. He was) Severus was acutely aware of the fact that such potions should not be consumed on to empty stomach, but hell, he needed to stay alert, thus he decided that the possible consequences were going to be a problem for future Severus.

Alas, the future Severus entered the scene in about thirty minutes later.

The following couple of hours were pure hell. Severus sat slouched in his seat, drenched in sweat and trembled violently with the waves of nausea and magical exhaustion and the non-magical exhaustion washing over him. To add insult to the injury, whatever force the train held over the baby and kept her content so far, started to wear off, and the girl was becoming very upset very quickly.

Despite the efforts ( efforts Severus wouldn't have believed he was capable of performing twenty-four hours ago) he could not figure out what the screaming mouth, and the rest of the toddler body attached to it wanted. Was she hungry? Or maybe tired or maybe she just wanted her parents, that Severus helped to murder? He did not know. 

They babys' woe obviously could not pass unnoticed, and Severus could feel the murderous looks of the passengers that were rudely woken up. It was quite difficult to stay inconspicuous like this. Before all those tears Severus liked to think that they looked somewhat alright for the occasionaly passing-by muggles, like he was the babys' older brother or uncle ( any ideas about young father forbiden) but now, since she was bawling all around, Severus knew that along with his sicky sticky appearance he was giving out a total junkie kidnaper vibe. Which was, of course, truth in a way, at least the latter part. 

Severus wouldn't be even surprised to have a muggle police on his back now too. Oh the merry life, right?

"Please, it would make it lot easier for the both of us, if you just went to sleep" He found himself pleading in soft voice. The girl didn't had any of it of course. She was unhappy and everyone apparently needed to know.  Severus decided to change his opinion; kids weren't funny, not at all.

"Muum" She suddenly wailed and Severus reflexively covered her mouth. Bad move. Definitetly a bad move. She tried to jerk away from him and doubled her efforts.

"Is everything alright sir?" Middle-aged conductor reached to them and casted Severus with look full of suspision.

"All is fine, she just hate trains" Severus snapped. The man frowned, but after few seconds or so turned away, to continue his train-long patrol. Weird looking men with despair-filled babies weren't probably something too out of ordinary on the night trains.

The sudden intervention had its perks though. After the man left the baby snapped her mouth shut and didn't open it again, only for occasional hiccup and gasps.

Severus' relief with such outcome was only short lived though. Despite the fact that the possible functionality of his heart and soul settings was for him acutely questionable question ( question which was most of the time purporsefuly unadressed) the view of the girl was heartbreaking. Poor damn thing.

"Can I pick you up?" He asked softly and demonstratively held up his hands. The girl babbled something incoherent and then reached her arms towards Severus. He carefully pulled her on to his lap and she imedilately snuggled to his chest. It was strange. Severus hardly dared to breath as the tiny warm body curled towards him, rubbing her bloodshot eyes and soaking his already sweat soaked shirt with tears and snot. He placed his palm on to the trembling little back tentatively and in a while the baby visibly calmed down. So damn strange for sure. 

And also somehow nauseating. To Severus it felt like a cruel joke, that it was him from who the girl had to seek comfort, as he was the very cause of all the wrong-doing. The sooner and further he gets the girl away from himself the better, he thought with renewed resolution, as she fell in to another fitful slumber in his arms.