Love Of My Life

Chapter Forty-One: Always

Lucius and Salem laid in bed the next morning after he informed her of the divorce.

She was laying in the crook of his arm, with her head on his chest, while he laid with his back to the headboard.

"It feels almost surreal." She breaks the silence. "What do you mean?" He asks as he strokes her hair. "We're free. No Narcissa, just us." She tells him. "I wouldn't want it any other way." He says, making her smile. "Who knew that we would have ended up here after Slughorn paired us up for a potions project." She giggles.

Lucius goes to say something but she quickly remembers something.

"I almost forgot." She throws the blankets off and goes to her desk. "What?" He chuckles as he watches her fumble through her stuff. "Aha." She says when she finally finds the box and jumps back into bed.

"What is it?" He asks as she handed him the brown box. "Well open it." She tells him as she sits in front of him.

He pulled the slender box lid off of the top and peeled back the cloth to find a new wand. It looked almost exactly the same as the old one. It was a slender wand, 14-inch wand, with hawthorn wood, dragon heartstring core and it had the snakehead on the end.

"I know it's not exactly the same but I had Olivander try to replicate it." She explains as he runs his fingers over the wand in disbelief. "It's almost a replica except instead of elm, he had to use hawthorn wood. And I know the wand chooses the wizard but it should be enough for you to fight with." She says as she attentively watches him inspect the wand.

"What- How-" He stutters. "Specialty wands are extremely expensive, and it had to be even more if he reattached the snake." He says, feeling guilty that she spent so much money on him.

"I don't care about that. I just wanted you to have a wand, a proper wand that is." She reassures him. "Thank you, darling." He says as he holds his arms out for her.

She snuggles back down into his arms as comfortable silence falls over the two.

After a few seconds, Lucius finally breaks the silence and speaks up.

"Marry Me," He says as his voice shakes from nervousness. Her eyes widen and she sits up, speaking with her heart in her throat. 

"What?" She asks as her voice involuntarily cracks.

"For twenty-seven years of my life, I wanted nothing more than to live my life with you. I thought that I had screwed up and waited too long when I married Narcissa. However, when you came back that night in December, you showed me that you waited and I wasn't going to let you go a second time." He tells her as his eyes become glossy and his heart beats faster. "So Salem.... If we survive this war, will you marry me?" He asks as her gorgeous face smiles back at him.

"Well, I don't plan on dying." She says, making him smile. "Yes, Lucius, yes!" She says as she giggles while he pulls her close to him and peppers her with kisses.

They talk for a little while longer about where and when they wanted to get married before they finally had to get up.

"Where are you headed to?" He asks as he watches her get dressed. 'Severus needs me. He wants me to do a tracking spell on Potter and I have to be at Hogwarts to do so." She tells him as she zips up the back of her boots. "Well, I will see you tonight then." He says before kissing her.

"Yes, you will." She says before the two of them apparate.

Lucius landed in the manor and Salem was now in Severus's office.

***********

She found Severus frantically rummaging through the drawers of his desk, searching for something.

"Hey, I brought the ingredients for the spell." She hesitantly says as he looks up, realizing her presence. "No need. Potter was sighted in Hogsmeade." He tells her before going back to rummaging. "What?" She says, knowing what this meant.

"I already informed the dark lord and I have students headed to the great hall now." He says as he continues to search. "What can I do?" She says, desperately wanting to help her best friend. "Stay close," he says, obviously scared. "You got it." She tells him as she hands him his wand.

They walk through the empty halls in complete silence.

"I think I'm gonna die tonight." He breaks the silence between the two. "What? Severus don't talk like that. We're gonna be fine." She says as she looks into his eyes. "Whoever kills the owner of the elder wand is now the new owner. Dumbeldore had the elder wand." He says as Salem's heart begins hurting at the thought. "He will stop at nothing to be the most powerful sorcerer," he says flatly, almost accepting his future death.

"No. No. I'm not letting you die." She tells him as they stop. "Salem, promise me you won't try anything. He'll kill you without a thought if you try to save me." He tells her. "Too bad." She says as he mentally rolls his eyes at her stubbornness. 

"What did you tell me in the first year when you saved me from those Ravenclaw bullies?" She says as her onyx eyes meet his.

"....I'm with you, always." They say in unison. 

"Now let's go. I'm living long enough to see you marry Lucius." He says, making the two smile through their sad expressions.

The Great Hall

Salem stands in the back next to Slughorn as Severus walks through the hall, full of children.

He talks as she wonders where Lucius was.

Is he there? Is he safe? Was he looking for her? Surely a fleet of death eaters are swarming the school at this very moment.

She is yanked from her thoughts when she sees movement a few rows up from her and the rest of the teachers. She spots glasses and a lightning scar, indicating that Potter was there.

"Seven right." She silently mouths to Severus. He shoots her a look to show that he understood before she walked out of the room.

She quickly jogs through the halls to an opening to the outside. There, she spots a swarm of death eaters just over the hill, with Voldemort on the front line.

She quickly apparates, landing in the middle of the group of people, and begins frantically searching for Lucius.

"Lucius! Lucius!" She yells through the people but it was no use, their voices muffled hers. "Salem!" She hears a call back.

Suddenly, a large man knocks into her and she is grateful to find that it was Lucius. 

"Darling. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He says as he gently holds her head and examines her. "I'm fine, are you?" She asks as she looks at her fiance who now looked way harsher than he did that morning.

"I- I'm fine. Potter was at the manor and he got away before the dark lord could reach him." He confesses and she knew that he had been beaten and tortured.

They all look up and see that a sort of barricade spell was suddenly being put over Hogwarts. 

"They never learn. Such a pity." Voldemort's voice calls out as everyone overlooks the school. "Begin." He coldly tells the group. 

Salem, Lucius, and as well as everyone else raises their wands, sending balls of light at the school, damaging their borders, and giving them a sure entry in.

The gut-wrenching feeling was beginning to form in Salem's stomach. Even though she was undercover for Hogwarts and the Ministry, it still felt wrong that she was on this side of the war. It physically pained her to know that they were all about to go destroy the once happy place that Salem had met her soulmate at. 

Not in a million years did she think she would be behind Voldemort, fighting for everything that went against her morals and beliefs.