Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

Grief and Graves

[Severus' POV]

Severus couldn't believe that Remus would just up and leave like that. Yes, he understood the man's grief but just leaving was beyond what he had imagined. He had thought that they would joke about Dumbledore's terrible mission idea but no, Lupin had to up and go with it. Just leave, like that. Leaving everything behind.

He forced himself to let go of his original thought: coward. 

No, Lupin wasn't a coward.... he was justified in his actions... regardless if Severus liked them or not.

He stayed a little longer, watching the still form on the bed.

He hated himself for letting this happen, for not understanding what she had been trying to tell him when she had needed him most. For not realizing what was happening all school year. For not doing anything about all the pain she had been caused. For not going to fight by her side. Now two people were dead, and the girl he cared about most wasn't far from it, and it was all his fault. He should have done something, anything. Anything to stop this.

 Forcing himself to break his train of thought, he saw the time out of the corner of his eye and realized that his godson was coming over and he had to get home.

Glancing around, he hesitated before kissing her gently on the forehead and pulling the covers a little higher. Then, realizing he was acting like Molly Weasley, he made a bee-line for the door.

He left Saint Mungo's, turned into an alleyway, and disapparated.

He appeared outside his house and walked inside, passing through his wards.

Grabbing the parchment he was working on, he sat down at the kitchen table, pushing other projects out of the way to make room.

There was a ding as an authorised person entered the wards. Draco had arrived.

"How's she doing?" he asked as walked into Snape's kitchen. He asked the same question every time and every time the answer was the same.

"Nothing." The potions master said glumly "no change, you know the papers would be all over it, I can't tell you any more than you know."

"Yeah but you can see her, I can't even do that. I just." He collapsed into a chair, "I just wanna help her and there's nothing I can do."

"You can stay safe, that's what you can do, and by doing that you can be there to help her once she can."

The boy looked at him silently and Severus took it as an excuse to get back to what he was doing.

He dipped his quill back into his ink and continued to write about the defensive spell he was working on. He crossed out his earlier statement of its properties and tried to rewrite them in a better way.

"Severus," Draco said suddenly, voice shaky.

Severus looked up at him,

He was staring at him, a tear in his eyes and his hands shaking.

"What's wrong?" Severus asked, worried.

"They're talking about forcing me to get the mark. I don't want to, I- I'm really scared, I don't know what to do." He scrubbed his hand across his face.

Severus walked over to his godson, placing his hands on Draco's shoulders.

"I will care about you no matter what happens. If you're forced to get it it's not your fault and having it won't make you a bad person."