Does love really conquer all?

[proudslytherin]

Who? Pansy Parkinson and Severus Snape
What? Second chances
When? Sev's birthday in grownhp6words
Why? Oh...you know

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[proudslytherin]

Pansy watched with wide curious eyes as he seemed to be transported to some place she couldn't reach him. The more she watched she wasn't sure if that was completely true. It seemed as if maybe he was transported to a place that she had been before. A place with bars and concrete and the sound of dueling all around them. It was a war, and she was about to become a casualty. But she would die with dignity. He would give her that.

How selfish she had been to ask that of him. He was father, mentor, savior, and she had depended on his strength to help her out of the hole she dug for herself so she could be placed in another hole. There were dragons. How did she know that there were dragons?

Draco.

Of course there had been dragons.

Instinctively she leaned into the touch. Warm shaking hands that revealed he was checking to see if she was truly back. How ironic that he would need to check. After all she had been there when his body was carried back into the castle.

"Professor," she whispered, reaching up she ran her hand across his cheek and drank in the sight of him. He was here. He was alive. She was back. This couldn't be easy for him. Eyes brimming with tears that she would not allow herself to shed she managed to say, "Thank you."

[the_iscariot]

She was warm in his hands. Soft. The castle was silent. There was no war. No shouts from the hallway, no screaming.

There were. He heard them. He was Headmaster then too. Amycus and Alecto. He brought them in here.

That was years ago. It didn't exist. It wasn't here. It wasn't now. That was years ago. Another lifetime.

Azkaban. With the shouts of chaos. He called them. He needed the distraction.

So he could kill her.

Severus pulled away, suddenly, staring at her darkly. No. He couldn't do this. He can't. He...no. He can't. He wouldn't. A callous heart was better then losing it again. And he couldn't lose it again. Not for her.

"No." He murmured. Stay gone. Stay away. Stay dead. "This...you're really here, aren't you? Pansy..."

[proudslytherin]

She knew he was going to pull away before he actually did it. Pansy wasn't sure how she knew, but she did. She was studying him just as she had that first day at school. Considering what she saw before her and deciding it he would do.

Of course he would pass the test. He passed every test she had given him. Just as she had tried to do the same. The eager brilliant witch who listened carefully and followed instructions. She may not have been the cleverest witch in her year, but she was one of Salazar's chosen. One of Sev's snakes.

"I am." She tilted her chin up just a bit to level her gaze at him. This was painful for him. Perhaps it should be painful for her too. She didn't take a step back to help with the distance between them. She didn't take a step forward to close the distance either. "How long have I been gone?"

It felt like minutes, hours maybe. But he had aged. The children were not children she remembered. Time had passed, but she was not quite sure how much time. "One year? Five? A decade maybe?" How old was Capella? Was she a student now?

Arms folded across her chest she asked quietly, "Do you wish for me to leave? I do not want to cause you distress. I..." Pansy was rarely vulnerable, and he was one of the few that had actually witnessed that on more than one occasion. "I wasn't sure where else to go. I thought...the forest was so close...it seemed natural to come here."

[the_iscariot]

She was asking him questions. He was grateful the task.It kept his mind occupied. The details hid the main picture. You can hide all the imperfections if you painted a whole picture well enough. It was like those Impressionist paintings. Just a bundle of jumbled dots that only looked real when stared at a distance.

He found himself rubbing his eyes, looking at his shaking hands and then sliding them into his pocket. He wanted a drink. He also knew he wasn't going to get one.

"Ten years, give or take a few months..." He looked up at her at the last question. He blinked suddenly, as he if realized himself. He looked back at him, studying the woman before him as if he had never seen her before. What was he doing, he was Headmaster of the school and she had come for help. "The war ended a little after you...the battle at Azkaban."

Help was always offered at Hogwarts for those who...

He looked up at her again, finding a familiar face and sliding into it. He hadn't played his game in a decade, but there was comfort there. He could be a Head of House again.

"Stay. For a bit." He blinked and looked over at her. "Draco's here. He's in the Great Hall, talking with Capella." He looked at her, searching eyes. "She's one of mine." He hesitated. "Slytherin."

[proudslytherin]

"Draco's here. He's in the Great Hall, talking with Capella."

Just like that the world was spinning and she was struggling to breathe. Ten years. Ten years had passed, and her daughter was downstairs talking to her father. It was past Halloween. Her baby was a young woman now. An adult in the wizarding world.

She knew she was pale as she made her wait to the chair and sat down. Holding her head in her hands she could feel her body shaking. She'd held her little girl for such a short time before she had to give her up. She'd trusted Lucius to watch over his granddaughter after she knew she was going to die. Draco. Oh did he hate her? Did Capella understand why she made the choices she made?

"She's one of mine. Slytherin."

Looking up, she nodded her head the way she had as she had passed the staff table at the age of eleven. "Naturally. Seventeen. She's seventeen, and she is speaking with her father. He must hate me. I should leave before he knows I'm back. I don't want to cause any more problems for his family. Is she happy, Professor? Is my daughter beautiful, healthy and happy?"

She sat back in the chair and looked down at at her hands. If she was going to leave she needed to say something to Severus. They couldn't pretend that she hadn't asked him to do what he did. She couldn't make light of the sacrifice he made.

"I'm sorry it had to be you. I struggled with the choice for so long, but it always came back to you. You were the only one I could trust to make it quick, and to preserve my dignity. I never wished for you to have to do that. I never wanted to hurt you or put you in danger." As she spoke she stared at her hands, trying to remember what she learned in divination. When she finally looked up at him she said quietly, "It didn't hurt. I didn't feel anything. I wish it could have been the same for you. Will you ever be able to forgive me for what I asked of you?"

[the_iscariot]

Ten years had passed since he said these words and he meant them again. Pushing away from the door, he moved forward again. He was tense but that was the thing with snakes wasn't it? You couldn't show fear. They would sense it of course. But you didn't have to confirm it.

"He will always love you." He said, as he took a seat on the desk. He looked at the signed guitar. Time was playing tricks on him. The party seemed lifetimes ago. He reached forward again, placing a reassuring hand on her wrist, just lightly enough to wordlessly tell her how near he was. He hadn't let her falter. "She is very happy, very spoiled. When she can pull away from her outside life, she makes an exceptional student."

He withdrew his hand as she spoke to the last. He had died that night. With her. She had been the one thing he never meant to sacrifice. Her. The House. His children. He wasn't suppose to be asked to surrender them. Not the war.

He felt Nagini slide across his back, suddenly. Felt blood on his hands from a fight against the wall. Heard a promise a boy made once to a 'father.' Heard the screams of tortured children. He swallowed a little, and remembered.

She had never been his to keep. "There was nothing lost that night that hadn't already been ransomed." He turned away. "Will you stay here tonight? I can arrange private quarters somewhere...we're in the middle of a tournament, so there are strange teachers and students meandering around for you to pass unnoticed...if you would like."

[proudslytherin]

"It always comes back to love, does it not?" She didn't sound cynical. She was never a cynic when it came to love. Her love for Draco and his for her had never been picture perfect, but it was real. It was strong and passionate, and it had been worth everything she did.

She loved Severus too. That was why she could trust him to see her request through. She'd lost her parents to the second war. He had been there to help her regain her footing. He had been a stand in for all of his snakes when they spent ten months away every year.

The look in his eyes when he said that nothing had been lost that had not already been ransomed made her wish to point out she knew he was lying. But you didn't do that when you were Slytherin. You nodded your head, you offered a small smile, you allowed the other the comfort and safety they found in the lie.

"I will. That would be lovely actually. Perhaps it will give me time to reconcile that I am truly back. I'd rather no one was made aware that I am back yet. I'll need to speak with Capella of course, but first...I need sleep. Then I will see Draco. I do not wish for either of them to stumble upon me by accident." Like you did. She did not add that part.

Pansy stood up and walked over to him. Her hand reached out and grasped hold of his, a simple touch, a sign of affection, she expected him to flinch. "I'm sorry that you had to stumble upon me. I didn't have time to prepare you or anyone else. I simply found myself lost and went in search of home." Another step forward and she wrapped her arms around him. He would always be home.

[the_iscariot]

Love. Heh. Is that what they were calling it these days?

Severus pushed up a weak smile and half nod. He guessed. He didn't really remember. The instances were real, the lost, the blood, but the emotions were jumbled. Like memories pouring from a dying man. Severus flinched again when she touched him but nodded, taking in all she said. It didn't really matter.

And then just like that, she was holding him...

He felt his heart twist in his chest, before he wrapped his arms her. "Qui-" He paused, as he shut his eyes for a moment, feeling the beating of a heart. "I always take care of my snakes."