The Potion Mistress & the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 42: Promises for Tomorrow

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the people or places that belong to the wonderful world of Harry Potter, as they belong to J.K. Rowling. The OC (Katherine) is entirely my own.

The air crackled around him as he hurried down the abandoned alley way. Severus felt like his feet couldn't carry him fast enough, as he rounded the corner and came to a dead stop. There, in front of him, stood a once modest two-story house, that now crumbling and looked like it would collapse at any moment.

Silently Severus made his way inside, pushing open the broken door and stepping into the foyer. A body laid before him; a body of a dark haired man, with hazel eyes laid dead in the middle of the hall. His round glasses a few feet away from him, having been knocked off when he hit the floor.

Severus carefully stepped over the corpse, and hurried up the stairs to the second floor. The second story hallway was worse; the walls crumbled under his touch and the door at the end was broken off at the hinges. Severus slowly and cautiously made his way down the dark corridor, and moved the damaged door off to the side.

From beyond the entryway, he could hear the wailing of a small child, and as he entered he saw it was a small nursery. But as he looked down, he felt his heart shatter into a million pieces.

Red hair fanned out across the floor, and green lifeless eyes stared up at him. Lily. She was dead. Severus sunk to the floor and moved towards the woman's body, in attempts to cradle her in his arms. But as he reached out for her, a cold voice stopped him.

"Did you really think you could fool me Severus?" the voice hissed. Severus flinched, for he knew who the voice belonged to. The voice had caused the young child to cease its' wailing, and Severus slowly looked up in the direction that it came from, only to meet blood red eyes.

"My Lord?" Severus asked. He could feel himself trembling on the cold hard, wood floor.

"First the Mudblood, and now this betrayal," the Dark Lord hissed, as he gestured to the dead woman on the floor in front of him.

Severus' eyes drifted back down to Lily, only to see it changing and shifting. Her hair began to lighten, starting at the roots and running down its' entire length. The green eyes faded as well, changing from their almond shape and becoming slightly rounder. Their color slowly turned from emerald to ice.

Then her body began to change. The face narrowed, the legs lengthened as well as the arms and fingers. The woman now lying dead before him had become Katherine.

His eyes raked down her body, but stopped and widened at the one thing that was different about her. His mouth went dry and the air left his lungs, at the sight of her extended belly.

Katherine was pregnant; very pregnant by the looks of it.

"You have betrayed me Severus," the Dark Lord sneered. "Her first child was to be mine. MY HEIR!" The Dark Lord prodded the dead woman with his foot, then began circling the other wizard.

"And now," Voldemort said coldly, as he stopped before Severus. "You will join her and your child in death.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" A green light shot out form the Dark Lord's wand towards Severus' person.

"NO!"

"Severus!" a voice screamed at him. He could feel a pair of hands on his shoulders, shaking him. "Sev! Wake up!" Severus jolted himself awake, sitting up quickly in his bed. His heart pounded in his chest and his breathing was ragged. He could feel the sweat dripping off of his shaking body, but yet he felt ice cold.