Melanie's POV

After the Professor left I was alone.

Alone to drown in the thoughts of the possibility that my own insane brother was attempting to kill me.

Because why else would he be here?

Why go through all this trouble?

That senseless and cruel nameless of a brother...

He wasn't going to take everything away from me anymore.

He wasn't.

Severus's POV

How dare he call me by that ridiculous and insulting name.

Unbelievable, uncultured, and an undignified man that one was.

Nothing more than a snake.

And just as I was heading to the potion room Knox appeared again.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Not this time anyway."

I grabbed him by the collar and threw him in the room, as he knocked into a few chairs in the process of falling on the floor.

"Woah, no need to be so hostile." He raised his black-gloved hands up in submission as he sat in one of the chairs he picked up.

"Why are you here snake?"

He glared my way before melting off a smile to a frown.

"I'd wager you already know." He glanced my way as a knife dancing across his fingers, as if to tell me he could kill me at any moment.

"I don't."

He then violently stabbed the wood desk with his knife as he glared at me coldly.

"If you are no fool, you will end whatever you have going on between you to. Just looking at your sorry rear-end hurts my head."

"You are beneath swine."

"If you don't, I'll make it simple...she'll die in your place. So unless you want to play Romeo and Juliet...I'd advise to break off any feelings for her and hurt her so much that she'd wish to never have met you. That way I won't have to kill her. Because you know how the boss gets, impatient and wanting results quickly. And being me, well...I'd gladly bring him results no matter how crass. Even if it's my little sister."

And before I could attack him, he had vanished.

And after a few days time I was tormented in the thought of Melanie suffering because of me.

So when I walked to the door of her room...I hesitated...but still I knocked.

When she opened the door, her eyes stained with tears.

Was I really to hurt her like this?

All because of an insane brother of hers.

A man that was going through unrealistic lengths to stop her...he was stopping her from being happy.

Even the slightest movement and it seemed Knox would cut her throat open.

Or even mine in her stead.

"Melanie...I can't do this anymore."

Her dark eyes grew even more so in sadness then before she laid eyes on me.

"You do understand what you're telling me Severus?"

"I am."

I wonder did she think me cruel?

Probably thinking...how could I...leave her.

After everything we had gone through together. She probably believed that I chose the dark arts over her.

That I was being selfish.

Unkind.

Cruel. Just like her brother.

Just like her father and mother.

...I heard her stories...

They were unfortunate indeed.

Even more so than my own.

"You promised Severus."

"Promises-don't-last-forever. You'd be foolish to think not."

"So I'm stupid to you now? Is that it?" She started to sharpen her speech toward me as my own eyes narrowed.

"Listen closely woman, you have no idea what's happening. So I'd advise you heed my words no matter how awful or dreadful they may seem to sound through your ears. Little petty feelings, and miserable thoughts...get rid of them and leave this place at once. Before we all regret what's about to transpire. I care for you too deeply to hurt you. Therefore I cannot be with you."

Melanie's POV

I hate him.

I hate him.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him....

But I..he means everything to me..Yet I hate him because he's pushing me away.

I could only guess it was because of my brother.

Why else would Severus suddenly want to leave me.

It was unlike him.

"I swear if you leave me because of Knox I'll end you myself!" I pushed him away with tears turning down my face at every corner.

He gave a shocked expression as he stood ahead of me.

"Melanie. You can't-"

"You can't tell me what I can and cannot do! Not my brother and certainly not you! If you truly love me you'd fight for me! If you truly say you feel such affections show me! Show me by staying with me! How idiotic must you be to not figure that out?! I refuse to end things with you Severus!! I love you too much to run my life away from yours!"

Tears streamed down my face like endless rain.

My hands balled in white fists as I almost drew blood.

His hand came up to my face as he stepped past the entrance to my room, closing the door behind him.

"If you truly wish for my stay...I will not go. But.."

His warm hands now went to both sides of my waist as he lifted me to sit on my bed as he kneeled.

"I do not know what will happen and I can't  promise your safety. Even if one of our lives were to end soon, would you still want to be with me?"

"Yes." I answered without a second thought as he pulled out a silver ring.

"It was my mother's. It is now yours. A promise."

He gave me no time to think as he leaned forward kissing me. He already knew my answer was a million yes's.

His body pressed against mine as my hands tangled in his hair.

Our kiss was softer and warmer than ever before.

So much so I didn't wish to part.

The heat between us increased as the night passed us by.

That morning...he lay beside me, his warm body embracing me as if not to let go.

Our full connection was made...and in my heart I knew...I truly loved him.

Not because of what we did but because he chose to stay even when our times were hard and difficult.

He didn't run away like my father had.

He was brave and honest. True to his feelings. Unselfish unlike other men I've seen before.

In our moment of trueness...Severus and I saw each other in our entirety...the delicate and dark parts of ourselves we never shared with anyone else.

And after that evening...three months, six months, and eventually a year had gone by without Severus nor I dying.

In fact, I was now nine months pregnant about to give birth at any time now.