Loving Lily: A Snily Story

Chapter 58- Tears of Stone

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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The secretary kindly showed the three visitors to a room at the end of a long, dingy hallway.

A small sign outside the room clearly read:

Tobias Snape

Voldemort, still disguised as Severus, glided through the doorway as Harriet and Ellery followed.

The secretary nodded at Voldemort, who nodded in return as she left the room to give the family some time alone with Tobias.

Harriet and Ellery frowned as they looked upon their paternal grandfather for the first time in their lives.

From his pitiful bed, Tobias's chest rose and fell with the weight of his laboured breathing as Harriet and Ellery slowly approached.

They could guess he had once been thin and slight like their father, but the nature of his illness had left his abdomen bloated.

His eyes had sunken into his hollow face so much that even the young children could see the heavy haunting of remorseful regret he had endured.

"S-Severus?" Tobias called as he glanced vaguely towards Voldemort, who lowered himself into a tattered chair across the room.

The facility in which Tobias had been placed was far from ideal.

It was obvious no cosmetic improvements had been made to London Morning's Hospice and Palliative Care for quite some time by the chipped paint on the walls and the stained floor tiles.

The smell that permeated the air was nauseating, a foul fragrance which had resulted from musty mildew and the acrid lingering of neglected waste.

Decay and rot seemed to be overall themes in the dilapidated healthcare establishment.

"Hello." Harriet nodded at Tobias as she and Ellery approached his bed.

They came to stand by his side as he scowled and asked, "Who are ya?! Where's my boy?!"

Worried her grandfather would become too agitated, Harriet nodded at Tobias and spoke, "He's right there." She said as she pointed at Voldemort, "We're his children. My name is Harriet and this is my younger brother, Ellery. It's nice to greet you, Grandfather."

Tobias narrowed his eyes as an incredulous scowl crossed his withered face.

He peered at Harriet as if she had just told him a great, unbelievable lie before he scoffed, "My boy has no bairns!"

"Sorry......" Harriet began, "But he does, actually. He has us."

Tobias kept his eyes narrowed as he peered back and forth between the two siblings before he squinted at Ellery.

He grinned as he scanned over Ellery's black hair and hooked nose while he mused, "You.....I can believe. You're as ugly as ya father, aren't ya, boy?"

Ellery frowned before Tobias turned his attention back to Harriet and argued, "But you..........Ya don' belong to us.....I don' see Snape blood in ya at all."

"Then perhaps you should look a bit closer." Harriet quipped, "I am very much my father's daughter."

Tobias snorted as he laid back on his pillows and lifted his hand towards Voldemort while he begged, "Severus........come here, boy. Your Pa has somethin' to tell ya before they put me in the ground."

Harriet and Ellery both looked over at Voldemort who deftly rose from his seat and glided over to the opposite side of the dying man's bed.

"Your mam always loved ya more than she loved me." Tobias laughed as he cracked a smile while he looked up into what he believed was his only son's face, "Be that as it may, I....I....have somethin' of hers for you."