Severus and Lily: The Snape Family

Chapter 47 - Into the Fire

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!

Please note that the tags are the way they are for a reason! Sometimes things are darkest before the dawn breaks!
—————————————————————

Severus remained under house arrest.

Zinnia continued her summer holiday home from school.

By the end of the season, Lily's condition had grown desperately worse.

Ginny was there with Harry while Molly and Arthur watched their small children.

One warm August morning, Severus sat in front of his wife as she clutched onto his hands and struggled to suck air into her papery lungs.

The gasping sounds that came from Lily's throat had tears rolling down Zinnia's and Ginny's cheeks.

Harry kept trying to help Severus position her better on the mound of pillows so that she may have an easier time breathing, but there was no angle that could ease Lily's discomfort.

Her chest heaved until she eventually relinquished her battle.

Severus's brow furrowed as his mouth fell open in horrified disbelief.

The healers had come and gone, come and gone, every day for the past few months.

There was nothing more they could do.

No potion, no charm, no enchantment, no elixir existed that could alleviate Mrs. Snape's suffering.

Severus fell into abject disbelief as he watched Lily's chest stop heaving.

The horrible veil of nothingness had come for his wife and he sat powerless to defend her against it.

There was no war that Lily would find her end fighting, no great cause she had dedicated herself to, there was simply........the end.

When Harry realized what was about to happen, he looked over at Ginny and croaked, "Can...Can you take Zin out?...Please?...Ginny.......Take her out, please."

Ginny wiped her tears away and began to pull Zinnia towards the door, but Zinnia thrashed out of her grasp and cried, "NO! She's my mother too!.....I have every right to stay! I have every right to stay here!"

Severus didn't hear either of his children as they bickered.

He couldn't possibly hear anyone or anything besides Lily at that moment.

He tuned out the world as he watched Lily's purple-stained, emerald eyes hover on him for a few seconds as she gave him one last smile.

"It'll.......be alright.......Sev." Lily managed to gasp out as she weakly let her fingers move over his, "It's........beautiful there........I'll wait.........I'll wait for you.......there......where it's beautiful."

"Lily......." Severus said urgently as he swallowed thickly, "Lily, listen to me!....Don't give up! I-I....I can find a way.....You and I can find a way to rectify this!.....Don't you want to see our grandchildren grow?"

Lily smiled softly at Severus.

Her last gasp sounded like a joyful chuckle as she answered, "It's beautiful..........Sev."

Severus realized that Lily's eyes looked past him.

After one last, anticlimactic motion of her chest, he came face to face with the crushing reality that she would never look at him or anything else......again.

"Mum......" Harry whispered as tears gathered in his eyes.

Zinnia went wild.

She screamed into Ginny as Ginny hugged her tightly to her chest, but Severus had no tears to shed for his lost love.