Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter One-Hundred-and-Five

I'm baaaack!!!

Also, do any of you think Aberforth blamed himself for James and Lily's deaths? Because he was the one who didn't stop Snape overhearing the prophecy? And that's why he so readily helped Harry by sending Dobby and allowing them into the pub in Deathly Hallows?

Because I do :)

It had been three weeks since the end of Silvanna's fifth year. That was three weeks of avoiding her dad and Severus. Three weeks of letters between her and her friends. Three weeks of sorting though the things of the late Eileen Snape. And shockingly, three weeks of complete tranquility.

Shed hardly heard a thing from her dad, despite his unemployment keeping him firmly at home. The drink was keeping him quiet, she thought. Or maybe something else. Maybe something had changed in his life. She'd expected anger and aggression - especially without his wife to pick on. But something had changed inside him. He'd seen something or done something. If it wasn't for the magical involvement, Silvanna would have suspected it was him who had killed her mum.

At the end of the third week though, something happened. Silvanna was thumbing through some old letters again - not really reading them, just looking - when she heard a shout from downstairs. Unsurprisingly, it was Severus that had set their dad off. And Silvanna, being bored and Silvanna, went steadily downstairs to take a look.

"...freak, you're a freak," her dad was spluttering, rather loudly. "Go - I don't care - go to your freaks-"

"It's so-called freaks like us that will end your-" Severus began. Silvanna rolled her eyes at his dramatics, before realising he had his wand out.

"Stop it, Severus," she warned, stepping out from behind the corner she'd been spying from. "You can't use your wand, you know that."

"I'll just blame it on you," he sneered.

"They'll check our last spells," she told him, her voice snide. Imbecile. It was only now she saw him in his travelling cloak. "And where are you going?" She crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow.

"That," he said, brushing down his frontwith his palms, "Is none of your concern. I won't be seeing you," he added, narrowing his eyes at their dad, before taking a single step towards the fireplace.

It was only a single step, because in the next moment their dad lunged towards him, arms outstretched and fingers curling and greedy. He grasped Severus around the neck, and Severus, caught off guard, wheezed and stumbled back into the counter. A plate clattered to the ground, and Silvanna had to dart to the side to avoid the shard that flew her way as it smashed.

"Merlin!" exclaimed Silvanna. She realised with a jolt as she reached into her pocket that her wand was sat on her dresser upstairs. She should run up and grab it before-

"And you!" spat her dad, shoving Severus into the floor on top of the smashed plate and rounding on her. "You think I don't know you're rummaging through that bitch's things-?"

Silvanna straightened up to her full height. "Don't you dare talk about her like that," she warned him softly. "She never did anything to you - and all you could do was treat her like shit-!"

He rammed into her, and Silvanna felt the air knocked from her chest as she fell into the wall next to the stairs. "She was a fucking weirdo that's what she did! And she brought you ungrateful little fucks into the world-" He grabbed the front of her blouse and used it to shove her down to the ground, as he had Severus. Her head collided painfully with the edge of a wooden stair, and she closed her eyes briefly, taking a moment to register the throbbing of her skull.

She gasped again as his boot landed in her chest, then again and again in her ribs. She well knew the feeling of a broken one. A kick to the face and the iron taste of blood filled her mouth, she didn't dare open her eyes, but instead curled into a tight ball, wincing and shuddering as the ribs crunched under her. Don't break anything important she hoped.

She didn't know why but she hadn't expected it. The belt was brought down in her, so hard it tore at the fabric of her top. The next two lashes cut through the top layers of her skin, and it only took a few more for the familiar feel of a trickle down her back. Each time Silvanna cried out involuntarily, but she would not beg. She would take each and every hit, every lash, every kick, knowing that it would soon end. Knowing who she was taking it for. Knowing why. Knowing that Severus was safe while she was there. And knowing that the wizarding world had one less Death Eater while he was there.

All Silvanna could feel was pain. It was painful. It hurt, burned, and stung. It would be over soon, she was sure. It would be over. But it wasn't. Her vision was blurry, but when she peeled an eyelid away - for the other one was firmly shut from swelling - she could see the bright lick of flames in the grate. The flick of a corner of a cloak. "Sev." Her voice was barely there, and she wasn't sure she could say anything else.

It had his attention though. He'd dropped something in surprise, clearly not expecting her to have made a sound or heard his own presence. He didn't bother to pick it up, instead taking his booted feet towards the flames. Silvanna saw a flash of green, followed by a murmur of something 'manor'. He was gone. He'd left her.

She closed her eye and listened intently for anything else. The only breaths were her own raspy ones that made her lungs twinge. There were no footsteps, nor swearing, and no drunken burps or hiccups. She was alone in the house. But there was blood, so much blood, and everywhere but in her body. Even opening her eye made her woozy, either from the pain or blood loss. Whichever. Both were there.

It took all the effort in the world as she crawled, twitch by twitch, across the carpet and to the burning fire. She picked up a handful of the powder that Severus had dropped in his surprise from the carpet and threw it into the fireplace.

The flames turned green.

She managed to haul and arm in, then a shoulder, a head, and some torso. "Remus," she gasped, rasping as though they were her last words. "Remus Lupin."