Princess

When the Dark Lord left both Lucius and Bellatrix were imedilately clustered by their fiancés. No one paid mind to Severus and that was just fine with him. He gingerly lowered back on to floor and took couple of deep breaths in try to supress his violent shaking. With great regret he noted that the little of breakfast he managed to indigest earlier was at some point regurgiated on to the fancy flagstones, and with disgusted flick of wand he made the mess vanish.

When he regained enough of strengt to stood up he did so, and this action recieved surprisingly ardent reaction. He was not even fully straightened up and Rodolphus and Lucius were both upon him. Clearly, he was still one popular cretin.

There was no question of who held more dominance at the moment, so Malfoy imedilately stepped aback, making space for Rodolphus, who towered over Severus in a way that he could taste his stale breath. "Where is Willkins?" He growled.

Severus blinked. He was feeling too ill for that. "Willkins? I haven't seen him since the feast" He said numbly and rubbed his face.

Rodolphus wasn't having any of it. He grabbed Severus by the front of his shirt and shook him, nearly lifting him of off the ground. "He went to see you after you disapeared. Where is he?"

But ill or not Severus wasn't about to fear this simpleton brute. He wouldn't deny his fear of the Dark Lord, there he was terrifed, and rightfully so, but Rodolphus and the likes could go to sit on a spike.

He jerked away from the larger man and imedilately withdrew his wand. "I have no idea where he is. I left my house after Lucius' visit and spent the night searching for the damned kid" He spat and was pleased to see how Rodolphus eyed the wand pointed at him, trying to engage the thick brain of his in to action.

Severus would be able to take him down in a duel, he was sure of that, even after a torturing session, the problem was that should a fight break, it wouldn't be a duel at all; Bella and Rabastan would imedilately join in and then he wouldn't stand a chance. The flippant lift-chined stare he was casting them was purely feigned. It worked though. Severus did stood his ground well enough among the ranks, to make others uninclined to openly antagonize him. 

Good, that was good.

Rodolphus backed away two and half paces and Bellatrix slithered to his side. She placed her palm on to his massive chest that heaved, and whispered something in to his ear. Rodolphus' lip curled at that, he nodded to his brother and they both set to leave the room. Bella followed them, but not before she shoot malicious sneer towards Severus. "Let's see who is going to deliver the brat to our Master"

Severus felt as to empty his stomach again.

On the other side of the room Narcissa just pressed quick kiss on to her paramours' bloodied cheekbone and hurried away the same way as her sister did, though making sure to leave considerable scope in between them. 

"Severus we need to find her" The blonde was imedilately next to him, talking in hushed, urgent tone. He still shaked all around and his letf eye twitched with slight tick.

"We will" Severus answered with calm confidence.

On the inside he screamed though. At that moment he could not care less about Lucius, not even about the Dark Lord, but he could not possibly stress enough how much was he scared of Bellatrix and her inferior stooges. His sixth sense roared in alarm from the bone-chilling air of triumph she left the premises with.

He needed to get to the girl, and he needed Lucius to shut the fuck up, cut his whining and get off of his back. "I have a plan" He told him and Lucius' waxy face imedilately loosened.

"Do you?" He asked eagerly.

"Yes. I searched among their kin and magical acquaintances, but it's possible that muggles got to the kid first. We should check the muggle authorities in the surronding cities, to be sure. We split, and should we not find anything, we will meet at your manor by the dusk, alright? I know what to do" Severus fired in consistent stream, fueled by a sudden inspiration. 

Lucius - for once - seemed to be absolutely content not to be in charge of anything and nodded through the whole recount of the plan, an embodied cooperation now. "Yes, right" He said, but Severus was already gone.

.

Severus' knees buckled and hit the pavement. "Hell" He mumbled and scrambled back to his feet. Quick glance around told him that he was alone, in the nook behind their shabby motel. By the time he ran up the flight of stairs to his room he was out of breath, as his heart virtually obstructed his trachea.

Just don't let the baby be dead. Don't let the baby be dead - he prayed, to no one in particular.

And the baby was certainly not dead; Severus could hear her scream even before he had pulled the door open. Small grin flashed over his lips, even if second later there was no trace of it. 

The state in which the obnoxiously brown room was when Severus stepped in was a clear testimony of rather challenging morning. The temporary nanny lady appeared as though she had aged ten years since the morning, and the girl, Ide, seemed to be in a middle of her - now already well known - hysterics. At least she was more than alive, obviously.

"Hello" He announced uncertainly to the room and was surprised by the effect it had. First of all the girl, Ide, that is, imedilately cut the scene off and turned to him, all teary and drooly and snotty. The exhausted woman jumped up of the chair, vague confusion and intangible presentiment etched upon her wrinkled face.

"You are back" She stated.

"I am" Severus agreed.

"Aghuu" Said Ide, probably eager to contribute to the conversation.

"Yes" Severus agreed seriously and the turned to the woman. He should have asked her name in the morning, doing it now would be only awkward. "Was everything alright?" He asked instead.

"Well, yes" the woman said, her expression not in sinc with her words. "Ide woke up shortly after you left. I bathed her and gave her breakfast, but she missed you and your wife dearly"

"My wife?" Severus asked stupidly. For some reason those words felt like punch in to his guts, and he could make no sense out of it. He was very tired.

"Yes dear, she kept calling for her mum and papa" Lady smiled, and as the obvious sank in it felt like couple of more punches. Indeed.

"Yeah, right" He mumbled and lowered himself on to chair.  Ide began to sob again.

"You are hurt, my dear" The woman commented and pointed to Severus' cheek.

Damn him, he forgot.

"Uh, it's alright. I am that firefighter thing, you know" He mumbled and tried to clean himself with his sleeve. The poor, confused woman seemed impressed. "Anyway, thank you for your help. I will need to go back to work by the evening, can you stay over here again?" Severus asked.

She agreed and after giving Severus the number of her room, she patted Ides' head and left.

That was some surreal shit, really; playing a house with some woman he captured without her consent and a baby he had kidnaped. Severus vauguely considered the possibility, that yesterday, back in the cottage during the skirmish he might have recieved a blow to his head and this all now was some comatose dream. He would wish that very much.

But surreal or real, the baby was crying and it needed to be dealt with, even if only to cut off the annoying noise. With great effort he rose from the chair and took of his cloak, spelled his face and shirt clean and then he knelt down next to the girl. Next to Ide. He should stick with that name, all right.

She paused the tumult again, as she watched Severus tie his hair back. "Mum?" She asked then.

Severus sighed and shook his head. "No, she's not coming back"

Ide contemplated that for a moment and then shrilled "Hooo?" while pointing her finger at Severus. "Hoo?"

"What hoo? You mean me? Who am I?" He frowned and the girl either nodded or he was already imagining things. "I'm Sever... Uh, I'm Sev.  I'm Sev and I am going to help you" He said, and the confessed promise held a great weight of responsibility. At least for him it did.

Ide cooed and then tried "Sev?" Her expression curious, waiting for an approval, whether she figured the conundrum right.

"Yeah, that's me" Severus could not hold back a smile.

.

The following afternoon was strange, for the lack of better words. It was the longes stretch of time so far, that the two of them spent together, while Ide was not either sleeping or screaming her head off. 

Severus felt uncharacteristically wrongfooted, unsure of how to aproach the little being.

In general, the basic human interactions always seemed to be a concept that Severus somehow struggled to grasp, but as the day progressed, he learned that toddlers were actually lot easier to interact with, than ones' peers or authoritative figures. In the end Severus came to conclusion that if the girl was not actively exposed to some imediate source of terror, all she needed was food and someone to hang out with. And that was something he could manage. Feed her and keep her company, and of course, keep the psychopathic murderes that were after her at bay. Keep the psychopathic murderes at bay most of all.

As Severus settled in in the room - and by that answered the question of what their next step shall be - the clinging sense of responsibility significantly grew in intensity, but it also brought some kind of finalitly and relief.

Even though a common sense was telling Severus not to linger at one place and rather stay in move, he felt exhausted and unable to arange an undercover transport of a toddler across London before sunset. It would be too tiring, too foolhardy and infinitely dangerous. 

They were simply going to stay put, here in this dingy place, with all the wards in place and the deranged lady for help, and if that was going to get them killed, well, then they were going to be dead.

And it was not as though they had anywhere else to go, anyway.

Moreover, should Severus' plan work alright, the sword swinging over Ides' head was about to be gone by tommorow morning. They had just a little bit more to conquer, little bit more and then she should be all alright. Well, as alright as an orphan could be, that is.

.

The high-noon came and swung over, bringing a superimposition of thick, rain soaked clouds, though one could not possibly fathom that much from the inside of the poky room, where Severus kept all the curtains drawn, at least for the illusion of safety it gave him, and where a fire merrily cracked in the grathe.

They had a row over lunch; lunch that consisted of some undefinable vegetable stew with mashed potatoes, that Severus obtained from the locals' canteen. He put it down on to the low table, and was completly disgusted by the sight of Ide burying her bare hands in to the mash and stuffing it to her mouth. 

"Oh my god, this is gross" He screwed his face as she ate another handful. "Look, this is spoon, you scoop the food like this and put it in to your mouth, you see?" He demonstratively ate a spoonful. Ide watched him while sucking potatoes from her fingers. 

"Here, you try that" Severus handed her the spoon. Ide accepted it and with surpising proficiency scooped some mash and looked Severus dead in the eyes. He nodded encouragingly, but Ide decidedly dropped the spoon, which splashed down the table, and stuck her hand back in to the meal, giggling like a mad.

"Hey you cheeky monkey, are you making fun of me?" Severus lifted his eyebrows in amused disbelief, while Ide was laughing out loud.

"No, I can let you to continue with that" He then said softly, yet firmly, when the girl seemed ready about to dive head first in to the potatoes pile. Severus was determined to keep this food in his stomach for a change, and that plan didn't go well with such a display. No matter the situation, eating with decorum was always a thing.

He took a clean handkerchief and tried to wipe some of the mess from girls' hands and face. She still giggled and attempted to attack the plate. "Hold on gourmand, you will get more, don't you worry" Severus huffed a chuckle, as he tried to restrain the adamant toddler.

"All right, here you go. Open up" he picked up the spoon again and aimed it to girls' mouth, which was now - only out of sheer spite - tightly shut. "C'mon, open your mouth" Severus felt the frustration mounting in him, but Ide just stared at him with stoic determination.

"I can't believe that you made me to do this" Severus finally huffed in desperate resignation, lifted the spoon higher and accompanied the movement with whooshing sound. "Aye, a broom is flying in to your mouth, open up and let it land, whoosh" He didn't even had time to feel foolish, because the cheap trick apparently worked miracles; Ide roared with laughter and obedieantly swallowed the offered bite. And so since then the flying broom it was.