The heart of a Black (A Severus Snape love story)(Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter 24

            It had been a few days since Aria had come to stay at the house. In the same instance, Severus Snape had started staying around the house and it was starting to get on Sirius’s nerves. On Saturday morning Sirius tried to look like he wasn't paying any attention as his daughter sat down beside Snivellus on the couch and they started to talk. For the past few days, he was seeing too much of his least favorite Order member and he was very interested in knowing why would Snape choose to stay in his company. When he asked Dumbledore about it, the headmaster only said that it was for the benefit of Aria's health but that didn't sound right. If he couldn't get the answer, he chose to start noticing things instead. Somehow, Aria seemed to be attached to that man and Sirius didn't like it.

            Sirius didn’t like how close he leaned in to whisper something in Aria’s ear and how she laughed softly in response. He didn’t like the small touches he saw sometimes like when their fingers brush at the dinner table, or how Severus will touch her arm from time to time. He didn’t like how protective Severus was towards his daughter, he certainly didn’t like the way they would go into a room together for while. Again Dumbledore would say Severus was checking her health, but Sirius had a feeling that something more was going on. He was going to find out one way or another. When he went into the kitchen for breakfast that morning, Aria was putting a plate of eggs down in front of Severus; Remus was sitting across from Severus reading the daily prophet with a cup of coffee and his own plate of eggs.

            “Good morning, Daddy,” Aria smiled as she went back to the stove. “Mrs. Weasley was sleeping, I figured I’d make breakfast, give her a break. Would you like something to eat?”

            “No thank you” Sirius spoke then left the room. It was a few minutes before Sirius remembered he had wanted to ask Aria something. When he entered the kitchen Aria was leaning down to give Severus a kiss on the lips. Sirius rushed forward pulling Severus right out of his chair. “I should have known you would try to take advantage of one of your students. What the fuck were you thinking? That’s my daughter! How could you ever thing of doing this to her? You could hurt her.”

            “I would never…” Severus spoke quietly. Aria and Remus exchanged a look. Whenever Severus got quiet, they knew he was angry. “I would never hurt my wife”

            “Your wife… what are you talking…” Sirius followed his gaze to Aria, and then his head snapped back to Severus. He slammed him up against the wall, one hand around his throat, the other curled into a fist. He brought it up and punched Severus right in the nose. Everyone in the room could hear the snap as his nose broke. Blood came gushing out. Aria looked shocked that her father could be so violent. “How dare you?”

            “Dad” Aria moved over to them, and grabbed at his arm. “Please… It was my idea”

            “Aria, don’t” Severus spoke in a rather harsh tone; she looked at him, pleading. Sirius knew something was going on between them. “Don’t get involved, this is between me and him”

            “Severus” Aria spoke softly, but he shook her head. “Please stop, daddy”

            Sirius stopped for couple of seconds and looked from his daughter who was holding back tears to Severus. It all took only couple of seconds before he started against him again

"I can't believe you would do something like this! Why my daughter?!" Sirius narrowed his eyes and ignored Aria's pleas. Instead he continued to watch bleeding Severus trying to stand up rather shakily. He could feel a hand grabbing his arm and he knew that Remus would prevent him from attacking Severus again.

"She's only sixteen...," breathed out Sirius and sneered meanly: "when I tell this to Dumbledore this will be the end of you, Snivellus! He'll never allow this!"

"But he already did," said Severus softly and finally got up. "He was the one who married us.

"You cowardly, stupid, sly liar! You expect me to believe any of that?! Like Dumbledore approved of this!? Coward at least admit that you did this!"
Remus grabbed Sirius by the shoulders and started to pull him away:

"The easiest thing to do is to ask Dumbledore himself Sirius," he tried to calm him down but it didn't really work. Aria immediately jumped by that traitor's side helped him stand on up. He was leaning on her shoulder as she helped him clean up the blood. Sirius hated to see how much power that man had over his daughter. It was defeating to see that with Remus but this was completely different. He remained motionless as Remus called for Phineas Nigellus to fetch Dumbledore and watched the couple before him. He started to pray that what he just heard was a lie. It wasn’t long before Dumbledore arrived at the house. He looked a bit amused, before he saw how bloody Severus was.

“What happened here?” Dumbledore asked softly. They all looked at him, no one daring to speak. Aria stepped forward.

“My father found out... about me and Severus” Aria’s voice was soft. “He didn’t take it very well”

“I refused to believe you would authorize this … marriage” Sirius barely got the word out of his mouth.

“I have my reasons” Dumbledore looked between all of them. “They love each other and I know that Severus, despite his… past, will do anything to protect her. Sirius” Dumbledore placed his hand on Sirius’s shoulder. “Why don’t you ask your daughter why she did it”

“Aria?” Sirius turned to face Aria. She looked at him from under the shelter of Severus’s arm. Sirius noticed that Snape’s nose had stopped bleeding and was fixed. Aria must have been used a spell to fix it. “Why?”

“Because daddy, I love him, and…” Aria looked to Severus, who nodded, giving her support. “I’m dying”

Sirius blinked twice in surprise.

"What did you say?" he whispered and pulled his now crying daughter into his arms. Helplessly he searched the faces of the other men in the room and stopped at Severus'. He might have hated the man for over twenty years but he saw the sorrow on his face as he observed Aria crying. Sirius pulled his daughter closer and closed his eyes; if she was dying and there was no means to help her, he would do anything to make sure the rest of her life would be as happy as possible even if it meant having Snape as a son-in-law.

Their eyes locked and Sirius gave a court nod in his direction.

"So be it," he uttered between his clenched teeth. "If this is what Aria wants then let her have it." He didn't mean to sound so harsh but Sirius didn't quite know how a father should act if he found out that his only daughter that he wasn't allowed to see grow up is dying. He closed his eyes and kept holding onto her, like it could prevent the inevitable.

"Sirius." He looked up at the sound of his name. He felt numb and could barely react to the fact that Snape came up too close to his comfort. "I'll do anything to save her Sirius; maybe there's still a chance. I'm not going to give up on it till the last second, I promise you."

Sirius looked down at his now calm daughter and the back at Snape. He had to give up his daughter to another man. He slowly removed his arms from around her; she kissed his cheek before she went to see Severus. Sirius watched as Severus wrapped his around Aria, holding her against him. Severus had closed his eyes as held on to her. She stayed against him, her head against his chest. Sirius looked away.