His eyes took hold of hers. “What happened?”

“They wouldn't tell me. There's something wrong with the baby or Emily or both. We will take care of Hope for you. Just go and don't worry about her.”

They took him to the correct room and pushed him through the curtains. Emily was as white as the sheets within which she sat and was holding a bundle that was too small to be real. “I'm sorry, Severus, your son—they couldn't stop it. I tried...” She offered the bundle to him.

The bundle was light, far too light, and so very still. It was hard to reconcile this bundle with the strong thumps he had felt against his hand just a few hours earlier. He was surprised to see the blue eyes staring at him. He felt a surge of hope. “Not dead?”

“He can't live the night. He's already struggling to breathe. We needed to wait at least until the end of November. I fed him, though. He's a good eater.”

She sounded just as proud as she had when commenting upon how well Hope had nursed. This dry-eyed, placid woman was not his Emily. “Emily, are you all right? You seem so...calm.”

“I want to enjoy every minute of his life. Severus, he needs a name.”

Severus looked into his son's eyes and the name just came to him. “Marcus.”

“I like it. I think it suits him.” She smiled as if it was the most pressing concern at the moment and not as if their son was dying. He sat next to his wife on the bed, facing her. She moved to make room for him and winced.

He looked at her with concern. “It was not an easy delivery, was it?”

“I didn't go into labor, I started bleeding. They kept giving me Blood-Replenishing Potion and I kept drinking it and bleeding and then it was as if he fell out. I thought that if I just lay still like they told me...” A tear ran down her cheek. She blinked the rest back and smiled bravely. “Look at me, crying, when it's the day of our son's birth.”

Hours later, Severus and Emily were alone, their little one taken to be prepared for burial. He had met his sister, but at the end he was simply held in the arms of his parents. They took every labored breath with him. When he finally took his last breath and closed his eyes, the tears started running down Emily's face. After a few moments a teary eyed Margo came and took the baby, and one of the assistants took Hope someplace where she could get a nap.

She finally looked up into his face. “I failed you, Severus. We made that beautiful baby and I failed to protect him long enough. I should have stayed home like you wanted.”

He held her tighter and kissed her head. “Emily, dear, the Healers told me that if you had been anywhere else, even at Hogwarts with Poppy, you would probably have died, too. They told me it's a condition that can happen to anyone.”

“It didn't happen to anyone, it happened to me.”

“To us, and at least we were able to meet him and hold him. Emily, the last thing he saw was your smile. It was the most beautiful thing in the world to him.”

Her trembling became sobbing, then. Her husband put his arms around her and allowed his own grief to consume him.

It took a while to get Emily to go to sleep. Margo sent Severus and Hope home to rest. He went home and tossed on his bed for a while before showering and dressing. He couldn't sleep without Emily next to him, so he decided to back to the hospital.

She was wakeful and fretting. He got back onto the bed and held her in his arms. She seemed to calm down a bit. After a while, he chanced speaking to her. “Emily, last summer I took you to all of the childhood places where I ever hung out with Lily. I wanted to see what it would be like. As it happened, Emily, I enjoyed them at least as much with you as I ever had with her. It proved what I already knew. I never loved Lily so much as an idea that went with her.

“When I first met the Dark Lord and he probed my mind, even he could tell I didn't really love her. Later, when he told me that he would kill all the Potters, he probed my mind again. He found my horror at the destruction of yes, especially her, and he assumed I wanted her. Dumbledore thought the same thing until he probed my thoughts and saw only you.

“Emily, I don't know what made me say her name the other night. I saw your face, I was with your body, and there was no place else I wanted to be. I've known for some time that she was just an idea I admired while you are the flesh and blood woman I love with all my heart. Your face is the one I want to see when I have a very bad day or a very good day. I love you, Emily Snape.”

She was nestled against his chest and he wasn't sure she had heard him until she started talking. “I never doubted you, really. He was just so convincing. He said that since I had kept you from the Death Eaters he wanted me to give him an heir. He told me he would kill you if I didn't do what he wanted and when I told him that you would try to kill him and would possibly get killed he said it was a chance he would have to take. Then he realized about the baby and said it would be just as well to wait because you could be with Lily while he was with me.”

“And you believed him?”

“Just enough of it was true, at least at one time.”

“Why did you never come to me? Why would you never talk about it?”

“I worried that you might be killed, trying to fight him, and...” She buried her face in his chest, taking a deep breath. “He touched me. He ran his hand along my body, and Severus, my body responded. I'm so ashamed.”

“Emily, my dear, did you think you could only feel that way with me?”

“It was nothing like what I feel with you, but still. If he hadn't discovered the baby and if he kept going, I might not have hated it.”

“He would rather seduce than rape.”

“But why? He could have just overpowered me. He didn't need my cooperation.”

“For the very reason you wouldn't tell me any of this, before. He wanted you to think of him, to constantly be aware of him, fear him and to be ashamed around other people. It's the way he was with all of his followers.”

“Even you?”

“To some extent.”

“Things will be better without him, won't they?”

“Much better. Did he really say he wanted an heir?”

“He said he didn't actually need one, but that one could come in handy.”

“I think you need to tell Dumbledore.”

“Everything?”

“I think he might want to know about the Dark Lord wanting an heir. Emily, would it be possible for you to let me see how it was that night?”

“Do you really have to?”

“I think I know how to look without asking, now, but I wish you would show me.”

It was Severus. She had known him almost half her life and she could trust him. She lifted her eyes to his and Severus felt her fear in the conversation, heard the voice whispering comments that were really threats, and felt her distress and revulsion as her body responded to that well-practiced touch. He understood her sense of violation and shame.

Emily saw the hatred and anger in her husband's eyes in the instant before he clutched her to himself and whispered, “Never again.”

“Severus, I won't doubt you any more.”

The tears came more quietly this time and with them the start of healing.