The Little One with Green Eyes

24: Her Dying Wish

-October 22 1991-
It's a grand room, full of beautiful decor and fancy furniture. It does a fantastic job of distracting it's occupant from the fact that the beautiful room is actually a prison. The massive oak doors were covered in metal embellishments, but the handles were spelled shut, impossible to open from the inside. There were no windows in the room---suite, more like it. There were three rooms attached together, a living room, a kitchen and a master bedroom complete with a bath.

It was a comfortable prison cell, Severus had to admit.

It had been two weeks now, since Severus had confessed his traitorous actions to the Dark Lord, and was subsequently locked away. Severus had had plenty of time to think over his past two weeks of isolation (mainly because there was literally nothing else to do.) and whenever the boredom threatened to take hold, his mind would wander.

Severus knew that the Dark Lord had punished Pettigrew for attacking Little One---destroying, obliterating, ripping from limb to limb was more in character for the Dark Lord, Severus thought with a shudder. Severus was waiting for his punishment, and Severus had to concede that forcing him into isolation for two weeks with nothing but his thoughts and the anticipation of what's to come was a fantastic torture method.

Severus stood from his position on the plush sofa and began to pace around the confines of the living room. Severus still had trouble believing that pathetic Peter Pettigrew was the one who attacked Little One.

It was strange because, according to Dumbledore, Pettigrew became a spy to atone for his mistakes and attempt to ease his guilt at the passing of his friends. If that were the case, why would he attack Little One? The child of said friends? As much as Severus didn't want to admit it, if you really looked, you could see the resemblance.

No matter, though, as Pettigrew was probably six feet under by now.

At least now, Little One would have some closure from the attack and feel safe. Seeing the usually happy and bubbly Inferius so drawn in and afraid had hurt Severus deeply. He could feel the pang in his chest every time he witnessed the child flinch away from someone that wasn't the Dark Lord.

Deep down, Severus wondered how different things would have been if he'd done what he'd been asked all those years ago. Would Little One's fate have changed?

If he'd listened to Lily...?

-May 7 1980-

Severus shouldn't be doing this, Severus knows he shouldn't be doing this---this could ruin everything he was working towards, could ruin him, yet he couldn't stay away. Severus wished that he had the strength, yet the second he saw the familiar handwriting on the parchment, Severus knew that he wouldn't be able to stay away.

Severus had sat in his kitchen until the sun went down, his gaze boring holes into the letter sitting by his hand as he debated with himself. As he searched for any ounce of willpower inside him that would keep him away.

He found none.

And now, as he walked the familiar brick path down Diagon, he couldn't find it in himself to care. His dark gaze lifted from the worn bricks to the old wooden sign hanging off the equally old building. This was his last chance to back out. He could just turn around and pretend this never happened. He would have no reason to be ashamed, as he never disobeyed the Dark Lord.

Then he caught her gaze in the window.

She looked, in a word, exhausted. Her usually fiery hair looked dull as it was pulled into a bun on her head, a few strands hanging limply down her face. Her face was rounder than when he'd last seen her, but the determined glint in her emerald eyes was just as bright as before, if not brighter. The heavy bags hanging underneath her eyes showcased just how tired she was, and her fingers played absentmindedly with the ring on her finger---the ring that seemed to mock him. Her posture was grim and hunched and for a second, Severus could have sworn he saw defeat flash in her eyes.