Disclaimers:  All Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling.  Only Jillian belongs to me, as she is a mix of my two children.  I know that my Snape is a little OOC, but as this is my first fan fic…I’ll work on making him a bit more snarky in the next one.  I really did try, but he just refused to listen to me.

Thanks go out to Beth who helped beta chapter one, then went out to live her life away from the glare of the computer…and to Amber who is the greatest beta in the entire world…and who did not put me up to saying that, and did not pay me to say so. 

“Devoted

Chapter 1

Severus Snape stood looking out the window, but the twinkling stars on this summer evening held no charm for him and went unnoticed.  His life had been almost perfect…and in the blink of an eye tragedy had struck.  Even breathing hurt, it felt like some one had hit him in the solar plexus.  He had almost lost it all, or was in the process of loosing it all… hell, he couldn’t think straight anymore.  He ran a weary hand through his hair.     He had no control what had happened; even the most powerful wizard couldn’t bring back the dead…well, not with great results anyway.  She was all he had left, and he’d be dammed if he would stand by and do nothing while they tried to take her from him. 

He felt her cold hand slip in to his, and instinctively he began to rub some heat it to it.  Turning he looked into her wide cinnamon eyes, which were rimmed red with sorrow.  Sitting down in his favorite chair he opened his arms to her, she in turn didn’t hesitate to turn to him for comfort.  Sitting on his lap he pulled her slight body to him, and gently pushed her head to rest his shoulder. 

“If you really don’t want to go, I’ll make up an excuse.  But I think that you should talk to them; it’s the right thing to do.  They need to know that it’s your choice that you stay with me.”  He gently lifted her chin looking into her eyes.  “You know that they love you, and only want the best for you…”

“What’s best for me is staying with you.” she said, her voice resolute.  “I want to stay with you, and the Weasley’s can just go to hell for all I care!”  Her chin jutted out stubbornly.

His sigh hung in the stillness of the room.  “Language…if you keep this up and they are going to think I’ve had a bad influnance on you.”  But this was said with a small smile on his lips.

“Humph.” She answered as she leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck, placing her tear-streaked cheek against his.  “They can make me go with them, but I’ll just come back.  I’ll keep doing it till they get tired and just leave me here.”  An impish smile appeared.  “If I’m too much trouble they might even bring me back all on their own.” 

“I don’t know about that, you’ve been nothing but trouble since the moment I laid my eyes on you. And you don’t see me trying very hard to get rid of you, do you?”  He turned his head and buried his nose in her long curls, memorizing her scent.  “Let me worry about it, and when push comes to shove I’ll do whatever is necessary.  Don’t doubt that, I’ll even go as far as using the Pensive if need be.  It will hurt the Weasley’s to know that their son lied to them, but if that’s what it takes then so be it.”

She sat up, pulling her feet under her robes, her eyes if possible, growing even larger.  “Will I be able to go into the pensive too?”  She asked quietly.  He eyed her wearily, before giving her a flat “No.”

“But I…” She started, trying hard to keep her lower lip from quivering.

“No.”  He said again firmly.  “Someday, but not today.  Let’s not fight about it.  There are some things in there that you wouldn’t understand, not now anyway.  When we have had time to adjust…we just lost…not today.”  He said finally and pulled her close to him, kissing her head softly.

“We’ve had a tough day, I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted.  Let’s just make it an early night, shall we.  Go on to bed, I’ll clean up and be there in a few minutes.”  He watched as she walked towards the bedrooms.  In the time it took him to get ready for bed, she was already curled up sleeping.  The tears were still wet on her cheeks and pillow. 

Thankfully he had asked Albus to push the meeting to tomorrow after lunch.  Today had been hard enough, without adding to it with a meeting with the Weasley’s.  Gently he knelt down at the side of the bed, and brushed a damp strand of hair away from her face.  Then he did something he had seen her do countless times, but until then had never considered doing himself…he prayed.