He'd seen the signs of course.

Growing up as he had he was intimately familiar with it.

He saw the jealously , the possessiveness and how quick he was to anger.

How he dominated the conversations, vainly steering them to things that he wanted to speak of.

Others may not have seen the signs , but he did.

So when he announced his departure and said his goodbyes, he shook her hand and her slightly wide eyed gaze as she met his eyes was the only reaction to the piece of paper that he subtly placed in her palm when he did so.

He'd seen the signs.

Which was why 8 months later he opened his front door to find a soaking wet Hermione Granger stood in the rain , heavily pregnant with blood dripping down her face.

He caught her as her knees buckled.

He supported her over to his sofa, when he saw the crumpled piece of paper held tightly in her hand.

It was faded and creased, as though it had been opened, read and folded again many times.

The words were blurred, like someone had repeatedly ran their fingers along them.

But still it was just about legible.

"Severus Snape lives at Spinners End, Cokeworth"

AN : This will probably be a fairly short story , I imagine it ending under 40,000 words.

I also doubt it will be updated as often as my other two WIP stories.

It was just a fleeting thing that came into my head and demanded to be written down.