Unrequited Wrong

Chapter 34: Minutes To Midnight

I felt a bit uncomfortable to say the least. Not that I was unwelcome, as Tonks was happy to see that I had come after all to visit her, but still I felt that this was rather more of a family affair and that I didn't quite belong. The only other people in the room were Tonks' mother (who was apparently Bellatrix's sister and who she looked quite a bit like) and of course Remus. "When was he born?" I asked as I stood next to Tonks' bed, staring down at the tiny infant that she was carrying in her arms, whose eyes looked turquoise and the tiny bit of hair on its head seemed to be turning the same shade. I had to smile at that. The kid was absolutely adorable! And so freaking tiny!

"Yesterday, April sixteenth," Remus replied from where he stood, on the other side of the bed. I merely nodded at this, wondering why bells were going off in my head. Shaking my head of this, I focused my attention once more on the little bundle of blankets that Tonks was holding in her arms as her mother stepped out of the room to get another bottle for the baby, stating that it was almost time for him to feed again. Apparently Tonks wasn't going to breast feed.

"Well that's a mighty fine boy you got there," I said with a smile at Remus. He looked years younger now. It seemed a bit odd to me, but I suppose it was just the overwhelming sense of happiness that he felt. "So has anyone else come to visit?" I asked as I turned my attention back to Tonks. It seemed a bit odd to be in their bedroom, you know 'cause they are a married couple and it feels like an invasion of privacy, but this was where Tonks was resting. Presumably she'd given birth here too. The wizarding world is apparently big on the home-births thing.

"Well the Weasley's have all gone into hiding, Kingsley and their lot are on the run and everything..." Tonks was saying, causing my eyes to widen.

"Whoa, hold up a sec. What do you mean the Weasley's are all in hiding? Why?" I asked alarmed as I looked at Tonks. However at that moment, Tonks and Remus exchanged glances for a moment, as if neither were sure that they should tell me. After a moment, however, Remus cleared his throat as Anrdomeda Tonks came back into the room and handed Tonks a baby bottle.

I stepped back for a moment, allowing Tonk's mother access to her daughter, however, I shot a questioning glance at Remus. It seemed more than just odd that the Weasley's were all going into hiding because as far as I knew they had all been all right. I mean I'd known that Mr. Weasley was still going into work and all, but they were in hiding now? It seemed more than just a bit alarming considering what it had to mean. There was no doubt in my mind that wherever Harry was, Ron and Hermione were with him.

However, the word around Hogwarts was that Ron was home with spattergroit, though really I knew that had to be just some cover story so the Death Eaters wouldn't go after the whole lot of the Weasley's for information. Which was why it didn't make any sense that they had all gone into hiding unless.... well unless they were somehow discovered.

I shivered at the thought of that. That could only mean that one of them was caught and I didn't really want to think about that. Turning my attention back to Remus, I could see that both he and Tonks were now both watching me closely. After a moment, I seemed to understand that they were rather suspicious of me. They probably thought that I would tell Severus whatever they told me and that Severus would go running with any information to the Dark Lord. While they were perhaps right about me telling Severus, if I knew where he was that is...

My brow furrowed suddenly. "Whats the date?" I asked suddenly.

"April seventeenth," Andromeda Tonks said as she shot me a look as though she thought that I were daft as they had just mentioned earlier that yesterday was the sixteenth. Something in her pureblood haughtiness reminded me of another pureblood and suddenly it all snapped into place. I was forgetting someone's birthday, coincidentally it was Eileen Prince's birthday. Not that I had any desire to see her or anything, but the reason I was probably trying to remember was because it meant that I knew where Severus would be. He said he ALWAYS visited her on her birthday.

"Umm... I think that I have to go," I said suddenly. "It was nice to see you, wish you all the best," I said as I turned around and headed out of the bedroom hurriedly and made my way across the living room from where I could apparate. However, before I had a chance to pull out my wand from my jeans pocket, I felt a hand clamp down around my upper arm.

"Are you going to go see, Snape?" Remus asked in a steely voice as he forced me to turn and look at him. I stared up into his amber eyes, which were glancing down at me sternly. I winced in pain for a moment as I tried to remove his hand from my arm, but there was no getting out of that painful grip.

"No," I replied, which wasn't a lie. There was no guarantee that Severus was going to be there. He might be too busy with everything else going on, or he may have gone earlier and I may have missed him. However, despite all this and despite disliking Eileen, it was a worth a try. The overwhelming sense of missing him was just too overpowering. I needed to see him! "And if I were, Remus, you should know better than to think that I would endanger anyone's life. You know what side I'm on, I've bloody proved it all that time I was in Hogwarts," I said in a low an angry tone as I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and took a step away.

"Delilah, I know what side you're on," Remus said in mild annoyance as he grabbed onto both my arms and pulled me so that I was standing before him once more. However, he wasn't holding me as hard as he had been before, his grip had relaxed. "But I also know that you love and trust him for whatever reason and I can't let you go and say something that can-"

"You didn't say anything of importance, all you said was that the Weasley's are in hiding and I'm sure You-Know-Who doesn't need anyone to tell him that," I interrupted him, speaking rationally as I looked up into his eyes. "And trust me when I say that he doesn't give a damn about you or Tonks, or anything that is going on in you personal lives. So if that's what you are worried about, than you are being an idiot because you know that as well as I do."

Remus sighed at this and merely let go of me. "All right Delilah, but be careful around him. Not for our sake, but for yours and your child as well," Remus said suddenly as his eyes became gentle once more. He turned and looked down at my stomach. I was wearing a sweater to try and keep the small bulge that was forming from being to visible, but he could see it well enough. "Remember that you have more to live for now, someone else that should come first," Remus said as he suddenly looked up into my eyes.

I nodded at this in response, not really wanting to contemplate what Remus was saying as I was impatient to go. I gave Remus a brief hug before turning around and apparating on the spot. Once I was through being sucked and squished through the darkness that was space, I found myself standing on the very same spot that Severus had apparated me too. The room had not changed at all, not that I expected it too, but it still felt as though I had not only moved through space, but that I had actually moved back in time as well. Only this time, Severus wasn't standing beside me and there was no one immediately around to be seen. Turning around, for a moment I stared at the Snape family portrait and I smiled fondly at little Severus, thinking that even if he wasn't here... this should be enough.

Severus

"This is the second year in a row that you have not brought your wife, Severus. Last year you said that she was sick, what is her excuse this year?" Eileen asked from where she stood. Severus didn't say anything from where he sat on top of a pile of boxes on the other side of the attic. He wasn't much listening to his mother as he had other things on hid mind. Like clearing things up with his mother and more importantly what he was supposed to do with Delilah. It seemed thus far that the Dark Lord was not surprised that he didn't have any news for him, but his patience wouldn't last long, of that Severus was sure. He supposed, however, that he could hold the Dark Lord off until May without any maneuvering on his part. "Severus are you listening?"

"Yes mother, but I have more important things on my mind," Severus replied coolly before turning his attention to his mother. "What are you looking for?" Severus suddenly asked as he realized that for some reason or other they were in the attic. When he'd arrived, he'd found his mother up here and after greeting her and wishing her a happy birthday, he'd merely sat in the corner. However, he hadn't really been paying much attention to what he'd been doing. It was all rather auto-responses. Neither had he paid her much mind either.

"I snapped my wand the other day, and I know I had a spare one stowed away here somewhere," she replied as she looked through one box after another. Severus raised a brow at this and was about to say something sarcastic, but was stopped in his tracks by his mother, as though she knew what he was going to say. "Severus, why don't you make yourself useful and try looking through some boxes yourself?" Eileen suddenly said. Severus sighed as he merely got up and did as he was told.

He wasn't paying too much attention as he went through the first couple boxes, which were really just full of clothing and other miscellaneous objects, however, he was looking through his fifth box when he came across something he'd never seen before. Inside one of the many cardboard boxes containing old table linens, there was an oddly out of place silver box in the shape of a butterfly. It was small enough that it fit onto the palm of his hand, but it was slightly heavy and was far more expensive than anything shut up in the attic.

Furrowing his brow as curiosity got the better of him, Severus gently pried open the silver butterfly to see what was inside. The inside of the butterfly was lined with purple silk and propped up in the center was a goblin-made, engagement ring that he recognized all too well. There was a large, rectangular diamond that occupied the center and on the silver band there were tiny inlaid moonstones and diamonds that alternated. It was a very beautiful and very expensive ring that he'd always seen on the same long, thin finger along with a just-as-expensive wedding band.

"What is granny Lulu's engagement ring doing here?" Severus asked as he turned to look at his mother. His great-grandmother Lulu was probably the only Prince that Severus had liked, and she wasn't even really a Prince. She'd married his great-grandfather, a sour old man who hated everyone but was completely and utterly devoted to Lulu. Lulu, despite being a bit eccentric, was simply the type of person one couldn't help loving because she was kind, generous and loving.

Eileen glanced over, looking mildly surprised, before going back to what she had been doing. "She gave it to me, shortly before she passed away. She wanted me to give it to you when you met the girl you fell in love with. It was so long ago that I completely forgot about it," Eileen said with a shrug of her shoulders. Severus sat back on his heels for a moment and stared down at the ring for a moment, wondering at the fact that Lulu had bequeath to him the only thing that ever seemed to mean anything to her, or rather the only object that had significant, sentimental value to her.

Placing the ring carefully back inside its encasing, he closed it and for a moment, he was reminded of Delilah, though he wasn't quite sure why. He supposed it was staring at the butterfly encasing that reminded him of the special lumos spell that she used, although he wasn't quite sure why it reminded him of that, considering the fact that the spell she used took on the shape of pixies. However, he supposed that it didn't really matter why he was reminded of Delilah. He hadn't seen her since February and after the Dark Lord's visit, that seemed reason enough for her to be at the forefront of his mind.

"You should give it to Delilah," Severus looked up and found that his mother had stopped for a moment in her search and was watching him.

"Why?" he asked as he stared at his mother.

Eileen shrugged her thin shoulders and turned her attention back to her task. "I simply can't think of anyone Lulu would more willingly give that ring to but to someone like Delilah," Eileen said, rummaging through a box with her brows furrowed. "Lulu... she could be quite kind and loving, but she had an aversion to weakness. She was drawn to people who had hard lives, people with battles scars who despite everything had the courage to keep fighting. Delilah, she isn't spineless and she's quite odd. Just the type of person Lulu would have loved."

Severus watched his mother for a moment as she fell silent and thought about what she said. It was true enough, Lulu always seemed drawn to the outsiders. Severus remembered all the stories Eileen would tell him about the way that Lulu had treated her as a child, the way that Lulu had doted on her and she had done the same with him when he was a child. Whenever he had any opportunity to see her, which really wasn't all that often, she had always treated him with kindness and a lot of affection. Really, she'd been the only one. She'd also always given him all the sweets that he could eat and many other gifts.

Staring at the butterfly, Severus merely shook his head of the memories that he had of Lulu. There were so very few now, and there wasn't much that he really knew about her. However, he felt sure that Eileen was right. For some reason or other, Lulu was drawn to people that life was difficult for. Delilah was exactly the type of person that Lulu would have doted on. Delilah was someone who had to learn to fend for herself when she was still only a child, it wasn't fair and yet Delilah had managed to pull through.

However, Severus forced himself to stop thinking about Delilah as he tucked away the butterfly in his pocket. He didn't want to think about her, at least not now. He didn't want to miss her, he knew he'd go look for her if he allowed himself to think on her too much and he didn't want to continue to hurt her. He didn't want to continue to toy with her affections, not that he'd ever done it intentionally, but that didn't seem to matter. At least not to him, whether it was intentional or not, harming Delilah was not something that he wanted to do.

Focusing his attention back at the task at hand, Severus continued to search through several boxes. Working in relative silence, Severus found that he could hear almost every creak and groan in the house and he furrowed his brow at the faint pop that reached his ear. Standing up, he quietly exited the attic without Eileen noticing and made his way down the stairs. Quietly, he crossed the landing on the second floor and made his way down the set of stairs.

Severus couldn't imagine that anyone would visit his mother being as she was such a recluse. Therefore, he wasn't really surprised to see who it was standing in the living room with her back to him, though he was quite stunned to actually see her, as if all his thoughts of her had reached across space to bring her to him. "Delilah?" he asked in confusion before he could stop himself.

XX

My heart started to thunder at the sound of his voice. Turning around slowly, I looked up to see him standing half-way down the stairs, his brows were furrowed over his eyes and for once his face was not his usual neutral, impenetrable mask. He looked rather confused and stunned. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he recovered himself, his voice coming out as a croak and barely recovering itself by the end of his sentence. I looked down at my feet, unsure of what to say as he descended the stairs and walked over.

"I needed to see you," I replied softly. Almost immediately, he raised his voice in anger to say something, but I raised a hand to silence him. "Things between us, they aren't over yet. But there are things I need to know, to understand," I said, looking up into his eyes. There was something I couldn't bring myself to say. The reason why there were questions that needed to be answered, but he knew or understood without me having to say it, or even think it. I cast my gaze down to the floor and smiled to myself. My ever so brilliant prince.

"I will answer them to the best of my ability, but there is something that I need to do," he said as he stared down into my eyes intensely. I furrowed my brow as I looked up at him, unsure of what he meant. "Go to your place and I will be with you shortly," he said. I nodded as I began to understand what he meant, what it was that he still had to take care of. Looking away from him, I cast a glance towards the top of the stairs as my heart slowed and pained. Tearing my eyes away, I gazed down at the floor as I stepped away from him. This seemed to make things so much more final and I couldn't bare to think of that.

"Severus, tell her you are sorry that life was so difficult, if you made her suffer and forgive her for any mistakes she made," I said softly, as I gazed up into his eyes, which he returned with mild confusion and anger. I stared at him, and for reasons I didn't understand I thought of my father who I had forgiven without realizing it... and oddly enough of my mother, who I couldn't bring myself to quite forgive. Who all my anger had been dedicated too so powerfully, and still had yet to recede. Someone who didn't have the benefit of the doubt, but whom I found I couldn't exactly judge because I knew nothing of her. "She was a better mother than you may be able to give her credit for," I said as I gaze down at the floor.

Severus didn't say anything in response to this, and it didn't really matter. Turning away, I slid my hand inside my robe pocket, trying not to think of anything. It was simply too much to process. However, before I apparated away, I turned and looked toward where Severus was still standing, gazing at me with an odd mixture of emotions that I couldn't even think about at the moment. "Don't forget to tell her that you love her."

He sighed in mild exasperation at this, I assume he was simply getting tired of me telling him what to do. "Delilah, she knows that I do," he said as he gazed at me, causing me to smile in return. It was a bitter sweet smile of amusement, which only served to confuse and perhaps irritate him further.

"You have to tell her. None of us can be certain of another's feelings unless being told explicitly and reminded at intervals. Or else how would we ever be certain, how do we know that time hasn't changed things?" I asked, looking away for a moment as my eyes clouded over with melancholia. "We were made such insecure beings, never certain of how someone feels about us. And in your case especially, Severus. You are almost impossible to read," I said, turning to him with a small smile that was ephemeral like all these moments that would soon be gone and would never be again.

I lifted my gaze and found him staring at me once more with something akin to wonder. But I was reaching the brink, I wasn't sure how much more I could take at the moment. Turning around on the spot without another look, I apparated straight into my room. I was barely able to take a step back and seat myself on the edge of my bed. Trying to not process all the recent events, I pulled myself towards the pillows and lay on my side. Placing a hand on my still small lump, I closed my eyes and thought of my mother with some anger.

The rage seemed to nullify my breaking heart. However, all the emotions seemed to drain me. I suppose the fact that I was pregnant didn't make things any better. Sometimes it really made me so tired. I suppose that was the reason that before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, my room was considerably darker and I was no longer alone. Raising myself slightly, I was surprised to find that my head was resting on a man's shoulder, and in my drowsiness, I smiled up at him when I realized who it was. Momentarily, every painful thought was forgotten.

"I couldn't bring myself to wake you, but considering the fact that you didn't stir at all when I moved you, I doubt I would have been able to," Severus said as he brushed stray strands of hair from my face as he gazed down at me with a small smirk on his lips. I could feel his arms wrapped around me, and he was holding my body to him. Staring up into his face through the darkness, I could barely bring myself to smile. While a part of me was curious about what occurred between he and his mother, I didn't want to ask. I didn't want to waste, what I knew in my heart to be the last time we would be together. However, I wasn't really sure what to say.

Reaching across him to the nightstand, I grabbed my wand and whispered a spell. From the tip of my wand, pixie shaped lights of white, with purple edges floated out and around us to give more illumination to the room. When I looked up into Severus eyes, I found his eyes were looking at the pixies with mild interest as he always seemed to when he saw my lumos spell. However, I was surprised to see that there was a slightly pink edge around his eyes, which I could now see due to my Lumos. It almost looked as though he had been crying, but had glamored away the puffiness and redness.

A smirk spread across his face. "I was reminded of your spell today," he said as he turned his gaze to me. I couldn't bring myself to say anything, because my heart was breaking to see that his eyes were slightly pink. I merely looked at him questioningly, because I didn't trust my pain not to show through in my voice. "There is something that I wanted to give you."

I furrowed my brow as I straightened up and sat back on my heels, looking at him in confusion. His mind seemed a bit scattered to me, as that seemed a rather random statement and change of subject. Perhaps he'd noticed the way I was looking at him and wanted to draw my attention away? Well if that was his intention, he succeeded. "What is it?" I asked. Being stunned by the fact that he brought me a gift made me forget for a moment that my heart was breaking because he wouldn't be in my life for much longer.

Severus didn't say anything as he too sat up and reached into his robe pocket and pulled out what looked like a butterfly-shaped box made of silver. "It was left to me years ago, by my great-grandmother Lulu. She was a great woman; Extraordinary, just like you and she would have liked you to have it," Severus said as he stared down at the box in his hands and opened it. I stared at him in mild confusion before looking down at the box he held open for me.

I was startled to see the most beautiful, diamond ring that I had ever seen, worth more money than I'd probably ever made or would make working. The large diamond, and even all the tiny ones around the band, refracted the light it caught from my spell It was really a stunningly beautiful ring, that made my breath get caught in my throat. He wanted to give it to me? That didn't seem to many any sense at all, I couldn't comprehend it. "Severus, I can't take this," I said as I shook my head and tried to back away from him, thought that was rather difficult considering I was kneeling on the bed. Severus smirked at my reaction.

Plucking the ring out of the box, he wandlessly levitated the box from his hand and made it float over to the nightstand. With his now-free hand, he reached out for my left one and and gently but firmly pulled it closer to him. "It was meant for you, Delilah," he said softly as he slipped the ring on the finger next to my pinky. He smirked once it was in place. "See, fits perfectly," he said as he looked up into my eyes. I almost gasped to see how unguarded his eyes were, how deeply pained.

I had to look away and found myself staring down on the ring on my hand. It did fit perfectly on my long, thin finger, almost as though it were made for my hand. I couldn't believe that he'd given it to me, and not simply because its material value, but because it was his grandmothers and given by the way he'd spoken of her, he'd loved her. "You know, I don't know why I never thought about it, I suppose because it only made logical sense, but we never had wedding bands," I said, trying to distract myself from the way my heart swelled painfully due to this gesture. "I guess I already knew the reason, its not as though we would have really been able to wear them, not if our marriage was supposed to be kept secret."

"It occurred to me on several occasions, but it wasn't possible," Severus said, pausing at the end as though he were about to say something and changed his mind about it. I looked at him and smiled for a moment, and he seemed to be briefly thinking about something and I wondered at what he said. I wondered if perhaps he was thinking that he had to explain why we'd never had rings.

"I wasn't reprimanding you. I understand. Especially as when this all started we both seemed to desperately want to get out of it," I said with a small smile as I thought of those early days. Sometimes it still seemed so surreal to me that I fell in love with him. If someone had told me three years ago that I would marry Professor Snape and fall in love with him, I would have said that person was daft. Not that I'd ever hated him in the past, but I didn't like him very much. I could muster some respect for him, but to say that I even liked him as a professor would have been an overstatement. "I think when I was your student I was either invisible to you, or at times got under your skin, but when I saw that you objected to our impending marriage as much or perhaps more than I did, I thought perhaps you loathed me more than I'd ever thought."

Severus chuckled at this and it startled me. Severus very rarely laughed. I could probably count on just one hand the amount of times I had seen him do it. I looked up at him startled. "I didn't realize that you managed to see beyond your own feelings that day. You were far more adamant, and may I add loud, in your objections to us being married. I thought you'd do anything to get out of it, even if that included fleeing the country or killing your intended spouse-to-be," he said with a smirk at me. It caused me to blush and look away.

"But you did object to it as much as I did," I said, as I thought of something that had happened a few months before. "Severus, the day I accused you of not caring... you showed me the memory of the day we were married and I still don't understand. When we married, you didn't want anymore to do with me than you would have with any other of your students, and that was simply what I was. So why that memory?"

Severus turned away at this. His hair covered his face so I could not see it as he turned and dropped his legs over the side of the bed and sat on the edge. "Before that day, you were only a loud, disruptive student to me. Even when you were quietly sitting in Potions, your hair was loudly crying out for attention. Though you showed intelligence and even talent, I always ignored you. With the years, you became louder and more outrageous, you seemed to me rather crude at times," he said, causing me to frown. His impression of me as a student seemed rather harsh. And I frowned as I recalled our first year together. His objection to my way of speaking, his intolerance for my messy ways, his annoyance with me fighting with everyone...

"That day, you looked... beautiful. Contrary to my belief that you would flee, you showed up and you stood there the entire time, quietly resigned to our marriage. I hadn't really seen beyond my own sentiments about the marriage, and I saw that this was ruining your life far more than it was mine. You were still so young. And I suppose I saw you for who you really are for the first time, and it floored me because I realized that I everything I knew about you wasn't nearly half of everything you were. I could see that there was so much more to you and I could sense that you were more than I deserved. That this could possibly be fortune finally smiling on me, but only at your cost. And though you were hardly there, you could manage to look graceful. You were amazing, and I could see that even then."

I stared at the back of his head as he fell silent. My heart beat hard in my chest and my eyes filled with tears that were a mixture of happiness and pain and I didn't understand the mixed emotions. Rubbing my eyes free of tears, I scooted closer to where he was and wrapped my arms around his waist, before running my hands up along his chest and resting them there as I leaned my head against his back, embracing him.

"I am not amazing, Severus. I haven't done anything," I whispered into his back as I closed my eyes and held onto him. For a moment, I concentrated on my breathing, and the beating of Severus' heart beneath my fingertips. For the first time in a long time, I could sense his magic. For a moment, it startled me because ever since my addiction I had stopped being sensitive to it, and I didn't expect that I would feel it again. However, in this moment, I could feel his magic thrumming to me and it wasn't what it had been. Though still laden with sadness, though still dark and mysterious, it wasn't so oppressing. It was beautiful. As though it sang to me, like a sad requiem that could make anyone tear up because it was so beautiful.

"Delilah," Severus said as he pried my arms from around me and turned to face me. I looked up into his eyes slowly. They were almost shining down at me, luminescent with what I would have thought of as tears in any other person. "You are amazing. You are the only person to ever... love me," he said as he gently held my face between his hands, his voice almost choking with the last words. He turned and looked down for a moment, composing himself, before returning his gaze to mine. "You don't know what it has meant to me."

I didn't say anything to this, my throat constricted and I could barely manage a smile in response. Gently, I reached up and placed my hands over his and pried them from my face. However, I continued to hold them. There was really only one last thing that I needed to know from him, however, I couldn't bring myself to ask. While at many points in my life I felt that he genuinely was in love with me, I couldn't believe that he loved me at all. At least not in that sense. "I think it is you that can't imagine how much having you has meant to me, even if you can't reciprocate my feelings."

I looked up into his eyes, and found him furrowing his brows to comprehend. "You have called yourself a monster, said that you can't understand how it is that I could love you, but I do. You've become my closest friend. You've helped me grow. You've consoled me and even helped me out of my darkest moments. Perhaps I haven't lived a fairytale beside you, but I think that without great pain, there can be no great love. Without pain, you can't appreciate or truly value it and I wouldn't exchange a moment with you... for a painless existence."

The expression on his face became more and more tender, while his eyes seemed to sadden more. I hated this, having him so near and feeling that this was a farewell, the final one. Severus hands moved to touch my cheek and he leaned in to place a kiss on me, but I turned my head slightly and felt his lips lightly touch my cheek. I wanted to hold him, wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me and feel his warmth. However, I didn't think I'd ever be able to let him go if I did so. If I felt his soft lips upon mine once more, I didn't think that I could trust myself not to beg him to stay. For once in my life I wanted to be selfish and ask him to fight to stay here with me, and with his child. I wanted to ask him to never leave me, to love me as I loved him.

However, I knew that he couldn't. That he didn't love me anywhere near to the way that I loved him. I couldn't ask him to stay. "Severus... I'm not strong enough, I love you too much," I said as I turned my gaze to look at him, feeling pained that for him I couldn't be strong enough. However, there was only understanding in his gaze. Gently, he placed a gentle, lingering kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes, and the moment stretched on for what seemed an eternity. It was so bittersweet to feel his lips against my forhead, to feel his breath against my skin, to breath the same air and know that it might be the last time.

"You smell like lavender and cookies," Severus said softly when he pulled away. I looked up into his eyes wilth confusion. He had leaned back slightly and had his eyes clased. When he opened them and turned to gaze at me, there was a small smile tugging at the left corner of his mouth. "You smell like a heaven sent mother."

I smiled at this, feeling my cheeks becoming rosy. "That has to be the oddest... yet sweetest copliment I have ever heard," I said as I looked into his eyes, feeling a geuine smile of amusement spreading over my face. Severus chuckled lightly as he sighed and looked down. I furrowed my brow at this, wondering what ws going through his mind now. I always wished that I had some insight into what he was thinking, and how he was feeling. Sometimes no matter how close he seemed, he felt as though he were an entire universe away. No matter how much I thought I knew his heart, his mind was unreachable.

"I know you will be a wonderful mother, Delilah. I can see that already. I'm sure she will never want for anything, and that you will take care of our precious treasure. I hope with everything I am that she is exactly like you," Severus said as he looked up into my eyes, his own sparking with a great mixture of emotions. My breath felt caught I my throat with his words. I had never heard him say anything kinder, and the fact that he had called her Our treasure, made my resolve to not say anything crumble into dust. However, I almost felt certain that he didn't mean to say that, and I couldn't find the words to ask him to stay with me. "It's getting late."

"I know, you have to go," I said, feeling my heart pang. Severus nodded at this, while pulling his wand from his pocket. For a moment, were merely stared into each others eyes. I wanted to ask him, as I searched his face, if he was in love with me at all. However, I couldn't ask him. I think that a part of me really didn't want to know, because what good would it really do me at this point? Staring into his eyes, I knew that he was simply waiting for me to be ready. "Well," I said, searching for the words... the last ones I'd ever say to him. I smiled when they suddenly came to me. "Good night, my sweet prince."

TBC...

A/n: Hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, as always sorry for any mistakes I may have missed. I think that after this, there is only one chapter left, two if you count the epilogue. Anyway, as always please review and tell me what you think.