Yours, SS [Book 1]

Chapter 38

Severus walked over to one of the bookshelves; he tapped his wand on both of them to see which would be the doorway between their rooms. "You should pick a password. We do not need students figuring out how to get into your private chambers from my office."

"That...is actually a good idea." She stood next to him, "How do I do that?"

Severus explained the spell that would be needed and then stepped aside. Amilia drew her wand and muttered the incantation, and then breathing deeply before speaking the password, "Adam."

Severus's eyebrows knitted together. A male name, this bothered him, and he did not know why. Is it the name of the baby? Amilia saw the question on his face, "Yes."

He looked away from her, the heaviness in the air weighed down on him. "Why?"

"It is only something you and I will know."

"But...you are just now telling me his name." he could hear her walking closer to him, her footfalls softened by the carpet.

Amilia placed herself in his downcast gaze, "Severus, it was time that you knew." She touched the locket still around her neck, "I cannot always keep him a secret." She took his face in her hands, "We are going to be building a life together soon. while I want to keep my trauma away from you, I cannot do that and expect you to tell me yours."

Severus folded his arms around her, "I will tell you soon."

"I know." She laid her head on his chest.

"His name was Adam," Severus mumbled, staring off into the distance.

"Yes. My son's name was Adam."

Severus and Amilia sat across from each other a table in the corner in the Three Broomsticks, picking at their food. Amilia was second-guessing using his name as her password; she wondered if it bothered Severus more than he let on. Severus was aching to ask her, he had held off for so long now, and with this new information, she dropped in his lap today. "Is the tattoo on your foot the day he died?" he blurted out.

Amilia's head snapped up, "What?" She watches him chew his thin lips; he was distraught. It made his features sharpen in a way she found unattractive. Sighing, "No, it is the day that I lost my family. I was not able to bury them."

He took her hand in his, "Why?"

She squinted at him and shivered at the memory that played in her mind. The flash of green and her brother's body falling from the air, her mother was screaming his name. Her father lunging at Voldemort only to end up tackled to the ground and stabbed by the crazy witch Bellatrix. Her mother was defying him again, refusing, shielding her remaining child behind herself. Amilia shut her eyes against the flash of green that exploded in her memory, both of her parents falling to the floor. Voldemort, pointing his wand at her, considering it, then scoffing and telling her to run along and take care of the children while the adults talk. She could still feel the tears running down her face and the scream that was clawing at her throat to escape; she remembered the loving touch of a woman that smelled of rose water and vanilla...pulling her away from the scene. She remembered the word that fell from The Dark Lord's lips, oddly loving and warm, "Nagini."

Severus stared at her, he had remembered many a time where his master's pet ate the corpse of people, but there was only one time he witnessed her eating three bodies laid to waste by the killing curse. That had been her family; I watched as that blasted snake ate her family. His stomach turned into knots. He had seen her, once, hiding behind a woman with auburn hair and eyes that reminded him of Lily. He had noted that the child was so tiny, so...frail. He remembered Narcissa pulling her away from the disgusting scene about the play out in the large room. "I am so sorry."