Chapter 12

All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks to June for being such a wonderful beta.

Chapter 12

It was Friday morning. Severus let Hermione sleep in a few extra minutes, knowing that she was exhausted, both from her recent nightmares, and their lovemaking last night. He left her a short note on her nightstand, and left to prepare for his first class. Hermione woke up with just barely enough time to get showered and dressed. Just as she was leaving the bedroom, she noticed a note on her nightstand. She picked it up and smiled.

Dearest Wife:

Your Enchanted Husband

She kissed the note and turned to her wardrobe. She took out a small box in which she kept all of Severus' notes written to her throughout their many years together. As she walked out to the study, she heard a sudden commotion in Osiris and Crookshanks' room, then heard their muffled voices.

"Be quiet, will you? I swear, Crooks, sometimes I wonder why you just don't send out Howlers and let the whole world know what we're doing!" hissed Osiris.

"You should talk. Who's the one that almost got us caught last week?" answered Crookshanks in an equally annoyed tone.

"I am allergic to flowers; what did you expect? I sneezed; so what? Would you rather I held it in and have my head explode?" said Osiris, in his own defense.

"It would be an improvement. Now hurry up. Harry said he was going to skip breakfast and go to his class early. We've only ten minutes before he gets there, and I don't want to miss the look on his face," said Crookshanks.

Hermione stood at the doorway of the room with her hands on her hips.

"And just what are you two up to, if I may ask?" she demanded.

Osiris and Crookshanks jumped and looked up at Hermione's towering figure ... at least to them she towered.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Just wanted to get an early start, that's all," assured Crookshanks.

"Really? It sounded like you two were..." she walked into the room and bent down slightly, "up to something," she said as she arched a brow, much like her husband often did.

"That's scary," noted Osiris. "Good lord, that's really scary. You sounded just like Severus when you did that. You know, they say that when two people are together for so long they begin to take on each other's habits and odd little quirks."

"You are changing the subject," said Hermione as she straightened up.

"Well, yes, I am, but apparently I'm not doing a very good job of it am I?" Osiris hopped up on Crookshanks' back, and he and the cat pranced out of the room past Hermione.

"Hey, wait a minute. I'm not done with the two of you," she yelled.

"Can't talk now," yelled back Osiris.

"Yes, we're late for an appointment," added Crookshanks.

"Appointment, my arse," muttered Hermione, as she shook her head. Whatever they were up to, she was sure to hear about it from Harry later. She was glad they had left, though. Apart from being troublemakers, Osiris and Crookshanks were notoriously nosy. She continued on to the study and began to write a note to Remus:

Dear Remus:

Hermione

With that, she folded the note and placed it inside her robes pocket. She intended to go to the Owlery between her morning classes and send it off. Osiris was rarely ever asked to deliver mail anymore. But, every once in a while he would happily agree. Of course, since it was Osiris, there was always a price to pay, mostly in the form of chocolate and brandy. Many a night she and Severus found the two passed out after having too much of both.

As it happens, Hermione couldn't get free to send off the note until after classes that Friday.

*****

Remus Lupin was sitting near the fire at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He had arrived at the home only minutes before. Even though it was Harry's home, Remus still had a room there to use anytime he wished. As he sat alone in the home, his thoughts went back several years to his old friend Sirius Black. Sirius had died at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. How Remus wished he could be the one to catch her. Perhaps he would do them all a favor and rid the world of her presence. As he sat pondering the many ways he would kill her, he heard a tapping on the window.

A large eagle owl had perched itself on the windowsill. Remus got up and allowed it to enter, then gently took the note from its leg. He smiled when he saw the note was from Hermione. He gave the owl some bits of bread, then sat down and read the note. Smiling again, he walked to the desk and took a piece of parchment to write a reply:

Hermione:

Remus

He sent the owl back to Hermione. Remus sat back down and shook his head. They all needed to step up their efforts. He knew that if anything happened to Severus, Hermione would be devastated.

**

Back at Hogwarts, the weekly meeting of the children was taking place in the Room of Requirement.

"Raven, you're crazy. You know damn well you can't go anywhere. None of us can," said Kat. Raven shook his head at his sister, who was sitting next to Vladimir Malfoy.

"I can't stand being caged up in here all day, every day, every week. We can't even go outside!" yelled Raven.

Odette Malfoy put her hand on Raven's shoulder in an effort to calm him down. "Raven, we're all in the same situation. It's for our own safety."

"I know. It's just that I'm tired of it that's all," Raven said as he looked at her and smiled shyly, lowering his head to her shoulder.

"Look mate, we're all getting a bit stir-crazy. Hopefully, things will get back to normal again soon." Armando Potter added what he could in order to make sure his friend didn't get any ideas in his head. It was obvious to them all that Raven had been the most affected by their incarceration. Raven always looked forward to riding his broom whenever he could, and to the Hogsmeade weekends. Armando hoped his friend wouldn't try something stupid.

**

Odette awoke early on Saturday morning, as was her custom. She hated sleeping in too late, as it was the best time to be the most productive. She showered and dressed, then walked down to the Slytherin Common Room. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Raven sitting on the couch near the fireplace. He looked up at her as she approached and smiled.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yes," she said as she took a deep breath. "Do you think we should leave a note?" she asked.

"We'd be back from Hogsmeade by the time anyone found it," said Raven.

Odette shrugged her shoulders, then took his hand as they left. They would take the secret tunnels that ran from Hogwarts to Honeydukes. Once out of the castle, they would mingle with the rest of their classmates. They would be safe from Bellatrix. Or so they thought.

Upon reaching their destination, they managed to creep up the stairs from the Honeydukes basement. It was always chaos inside the store during the students' visits, so it was easy for these two to slip past the owner. They resisted the temptation to buy anything, since their main objective was to be outside. It would not have been so bad for them to be limited to Hogwarts, if only they would have been allowed to go outside. But their parents feared Bellatrix would somehow find a way to see them.

Once outside Honeydukes, they walked down the street, hand in hand. Raven looked at Odette and smiled. He'd had a crush on her since they were little children. When Raven looked into her steel blue eyes, it was like he could see his soul along with hers reflected in them. For her part, Odette adored Raven; he was like her knight. His dark hair waving in the wind, and his piercing black eyes, made her putty in his hands. Raven often watched mesmerized, as her fingers would twirl a strand of her ash blonde hair, which turned as light as her father's in the summer.

They were oblivious to the woman watching them from the alley they had just passed. Bellatrix smiled. In the last two weeks, Peter had managed to find out quite a bit about Severus Snape. The traitor had married a Mudblood, and had fathered two, in her opinion, abominations. Although Bella had no pictures of the woman or the children, there was no mistaking the boy that had just walked past her. She had known Severus as a young man, and this boy was his spitting image. Perhaps his nose was not as large as the man's, but this, she was sure, was Severus' son.

She had formulated a plan the minute Peter had informed her of Severus' family. She was sure he would do anything to protect his children. It would be easy for her to take the boy. She eyed the young girl walking with him. She decided to take her as well. Perhaps Bella could mold her into something. After all, once she killed that good-for-nothing Pettigrew, she would need someone to take his place. What better replacement than a pretty, young nubile girl.

Bella kept her distance for several minutes. Raven and Odette were so wrapped up in talking to each other, that they never saw the dark woman coming up behind them. And they never heard the spell she cast, as she took hold of each of them by the neck.

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Kids, they never listen do they? I'll have another chapter up soon.