Chapter 23
Severus Snape
His hands shake as he drops the Floo Powder into the fireplace, the mixture of exhaustion and worry causing his head to spin as he lands back in the apartment. He sighed as he looked around the room, finding once again that Y/N was nowhere to be seen.
Carefully, he placed Nova into her crib slowly so as not to wake the sleeping child in his arms. She stirs for a moment before stilling, snuggling into her bed, and sighing with contentment. Severus smiles a small smile as he runs his fingers through her hair once, admiring his sweet, sleeping daughter.
He stands straight and looks around the room, noting the mess. He hadn’t had time to clean between picking up Y/N’s classes and watching Nova more often.
Anger flashes through him.
How could she be so neglectful?
How could she love him so deeply one moment, and all but despise him in the next breath?
Severus searches for Y/N mentally, finding the bond to remain radio silent. He strips his teaching robes, throwing them in a ball in the corner of the room. He rakes his hands through his hair and exhales loudly.
A thought flashes through his mind, and he doesn’t think twice before storming back into the fireplace and returning to the potion’s classroom. He isn’t sure why he thinks it, but something in him possesses him to brew the potion anyway.
When the bubbling cauldron is finished, he scoops the potion into a jar, carrying it up into the apartment. He opens the lid, blowing the steam around the room.
His heart drops into his stomach as it works immediately.
This is a potion he had never brewed before, it’s magic never having to be used around Severus. But as the steam of the potion highlighted the traces of Dark Magic around the room, Severus knew exactly why Y/N had been acting so strangely.
His blood turned to ice as he walked around the room, blowing steam and watching as more and more of Y/N’s belongings alerted to having been touched by Darkness. He froze at the foot of the bed, his heart hammering in his chest at the sight of her side of the bed being saturated in the Darkness, her pillow nearly pulsating with it.
Severus returned the lid to the jar, his hands shaking so violently with fear and anger that he nearly dropped it. He set the jar on Y/N’s vanity, pressing his hands to his face and trying to slow his breathing.
His eyes flitted to Nova, still asleep in her crib, oblivious to the nightmare unfolding before his eyes. Severus knew he couldn’t stay here, he knew he had to find Y/N as soon as possible.
He ran from the apartment, sprinting down the halls to the kitchen.
“Please, will someone go care for the baby?” He asked, breathlessly entering the kitchen.
The elves looked at him with concerned expressions, but two of the younger women elves nodded and scurried out into the hall towards the dungeons.
Severus didn’t linger, he ran from the kitchen back into the hall, searching for Y/N in every corner of the castle. He ran from hall to hall, not caring that the students in the hall watched him with skeptical eyes.
“Y/N!” He called, as she finally came into view at the end of the corridor by the stairs. She whipped around to face him, her face crumpling with relief as her eyes found his. The sudden softness of her face as she ran to him was unusual for her lately, but Severus opened his arms as she crashed into his chest and began to sob.
Her legs buckled, and Severus dropped to the ground and pulled her in closer as she collapsed against him.
“You’re alright.” He whispered, his throat tight, his voice hardly more than a breath against her hair. “I’ve got you now, and I’m not letting you go.”
Y/N only nodded, her sobs choking out of her. Severus stood, pulling them both into an empty classroom nearby to get out of the eyes of nosy students and staff. He shuts the door, lifting Y/N in a bridal carry and bringing her to a nearby desk. He sits her down on the edge, dropping to his knees to be at eye-level with her.
“Please,” Severus pleaded. “Please let me in, please tell me what’s happening to you. I'm on my knees, Y/N. I'm begging you.”
His voice broke as tears threatened to spill from his own eyes, but he blinked them away, unwilling to let her see him like that.
“It’s this mirror.” She breathed finally. “It’s making me crazy. It's killing me."
Severus’ eyebrows furrow with concern, and he sets a finger under her chin, tilting her face so that her eyes finally drag to meet his. She looked worse than the last time he’d seen her.
Her eyes were sunken in with dark circles outlining the sockets. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot, and her pupils were dilated nearly to encompass the entirety of her irises.
Her face was deathly pale, her cheekbones sunken as though she’d stopped eating weeks ago. For all Severus knew, she could have stopped eating, she hadn’t stuck around him long enough for him to know.
"What mirror?" He asked softly.
She touched Severus’s cheek gently, her fingers were ice cold and trembling slightly at the touch.
“I’ll show you.” She whispered, reaching into her bag. “I found it in the storerooms.”
She reached into her bag, pulling a silver mirror from it. It looked old, and Severus could tell immediately that it was enchanted–or cursed.
Severus reaches for the mirror, and as his hand touches the cool metal, something like electricity jolts through him. His body arches back, but his hand remains on the mirror as his eyes open widely, staring up at the ceiling.
Severus walked into the Headmaster’s office, realizing that he was watching himself argue with Dumbledore in the center of the room. Their words were muffled, but Severus could feel the tension rising in the room.
Dumbledore pointed at Snape’s arm, his eyes scowling at the Dark Mark, and Severus lowered his head in defeat.
The dream shifted, and Severus found himself watching as Voldemort branded him with the Mark, his voice booming through the room.
“You know the price of failure, Severus.” Voldemort hisses.
It shifts again, and Severus’ head reels as he finds himself holding Bellatrix Lestrange's hand as she recites the terms of an unbreakable vow.
“Will you swear to protect the Dark Lord’s interests above all else?” She asks.
“I will.” Severus answers, unable to stop the words from spilling from his lips.
“Will you ensure that the child never fulfills their destiny?” She asks.
“I will.” Severus answers again, his mind screaming for him to drop her hand, to run, to strike her dead. But the cursed dream doesn’t allow for him to do anything but stand there with his hand in hers.
“Will you take the life of the child, should the prophecy come to pass?” Bellatrix asks, swirling her wand around their hands one final time.
Severus pushes at his consciousness, fighting everything in him, fighting to break this curse.
“I will.” He replies, unable to stop it.
The fiery magic wraps around their hands, sending out an ominous pulse that shakes the room. Severus screams within his own mind, trying to stop this, trying to undo it, but no one can hear him.
“Severus!” Y/N screams, shaking him roughly. “Severus please, come back!”
His eyes finally adjust, locking on Y/N’s terrified expression. He moves his hands, finally able to control his own mind and body again. He blinks, sighing with relief as he remembers where he is and what happened.
“What happened?” Y/N breathes. “What did it show you?”
Severus opens his mouth to reply, but a sharp burning on his left forearm draws his attention first. He rolls the sleeve of his shirt up, looking down at his arm.
Y/N’s gasp matches the sudden lurch of Severus’ stomach as he sees what has happened.
“We need to get to Dumbledore’s office.” He breathes, grabbing Y/N’s hand as she clambers off of the desk and swipes the mirror back into her bag. “Now.”
She nods, and Severus pulls his sleeve back down, concealing the freshly burned Dark Mark on his arm as they run to the Headmaster’s office.