"Tara...the road near the dam...the water flow gate" she heard it again, and knew where he was. She saw it - all of a sudden, there she saw it. Now how would she get there? That was a problem. For her birthday in July, Severus had gotten her her very first broom. She had flown just a little bit and wasn't particularly good at it. She preferred being on foot, but this was an emergency.

Using her wand to light her way, she took it out of the hall closet and sighed. She had never flown unsupervised, but there was a first time for everything. She had learned the disillusionment charm just in case she was seen, but she doubted that. She walked out onto the deck a little bit unsteadily from the wine she had consumed, and wondered if the Ministry of Magic gave citations for flying under the influence. She hoped not. It took her more than a few tries to get her broom to come up, and she was trying to be quiet. Finally, it smacked the palm of her hand, and she mounted it, gave a kick and she was off into the cool night air, trying not to scream as she gained altitude and speed. Flying really scared the hell out of her and it made it that much harder to clear her mind once again to locate Severus. She flew up to the dam and surveyed the shacks which contained the water flow gates. She closed her eyes and hovered and then felt herself being pulled to one of them. That had to be it.

She zoomed to it and hovered to look into one of the broken windows, and gasped. Severus was there, levitated several feet above the floor, unconcious. Tara gasped, and landed at the top of the catwalk going up to the door. She drew her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the door. "Alohomora!" she said quietly and the door swung open. She tucked her broom behind the door and walked up to Severus and felt his wrist for a pulse. His pulse was slow and he was very cold to the touch and it looked like he was not breathing!

"I'm afraid you can't help him," a bone chilling voice behind her said. She whipped around to see the man who had visited standing there. He had apparated so she hadn't heard him.

"Mr. Malfoy! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I should ask the same thing. Your husband has some unfinished business with Lord Voldemort, and he was reluctant to come with me, so I came to get him."

Tara was rooted to the spot. "What did you do to him?" she asked.

"Oh, a little sleeping charm."

"He's not breathing!" she exclaimed. Malfoy smiled evilly, and then the realization came over her - she had read about Bewitched Sleep but had never seen it used. It put its victim into a deep sleep and they did not breathe during this sleep.

"Tell me, Mrs. Snape, how did you get in here? Did you use some kind of muggle lock picking device? Or perhaps a battering ram?"

The realization came over Tara that Malfoy thought she was a muggle!

"It's a long walk from your cabin. Or did you drive your muggle vehicle over and park it somewhere?" Tara didn't answer; she gazed defiantly into Malfoy's eyes. "I couldn't figure out what Severus would see in a muggle...when I heard he had taken a wife, that was surprising enough, but a muggle was even more so. But I see that you are a very cleaver one. That must be what he sees in you," he spat.

Tara felt her blood boil and stared at him angrily. "You're what we muggles refer to as a son of a bitch," she said. He smiled at her. He raised his wand towards her she was instantly bound in ropes which flew from the end of his wand. He pushed her shoulders to force her to sit down. "I wasn't planning on having both of you here. But, I guess we'll have to make do." He turned and walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. He hadn't seen her broomstick behind the door. Tara sighed, tears rolling down her face. Now what? She knew she should have used that disarming spell but she couldn't remember the word. Expell something. She wished she had a cheat sheet. Now it was going to cost them their lives and there seemed to be no way out of it.

Tara opened her eyes. She had somehow gone to sleep and now something had woken her. Severus still was hovering in the air, prone, which was a chilling sight. The moonlight streamed in through the broken glass of the water flow control shack. She heard voices outside, below. She struggled to get up; she was cramped from being tied and the cold was seeping in making it even harder to move. She was no kid anymore, she thought, struggling to her feet. She somehow got to the window to glance outside and gasped at what she saw. Malfoy was there, talking to someone who was completely clad in robes. A hood obscured his face and she shuddered. The hooded figure turned and began coming towards the shack, Malfoy staying behind. Tara sat down again against the wall and pretended to be sleeping. She heard the person coming up the steps of the shack, and something curious happened: Her wedding ring suddenly grew warm on her finger. She couldn't see what was going on with it since her hands were fastened behind her, but she could feel the warm sensation.

The door flew open and she could see the silhouette of the hooded figure, standing in the doorway. Long, skinny, skeleton-like hands pushed back the hood and Tara held back a scream. The eyes were red, and his face was skull-like. He reminded her somewhat of one of the aliens from the film Independence Day but his skin(?) was white, and it looked eerie in the moonlight. He had slit-like nostrils and Tara wasn't sure he was human at all.

"So. Severus took a wife. A muggle, I heard..."

Tara swallowed hard. "On your feet.." the skull said, and she struggled to her feet once more. Her ring was now vibrating on her hand. "Do you know what happens when a Deatheater betrays me?" he asked her, looking to Severus, still floating in the air, then back to her again. "Do you? Answer me, muggle!" Tara shook her head, feeling her heart racing. She had read about all of the accounts of Voldemort and the Deatheaters torturing muggles...and now he thought she was one...

"Well, you are about to find out. Firsthand experience. Then, I'll have to do away with you too." Tara couldn't stop the flow of tears, and Voldemort smiled, and it was the most vile thing she had ever laid eyes on.

He looked at Severus again and muttered something, and Severus was then on his feet, though still asleep. Tara didn't know what to do. She was still bound in ropes, and her ring was pulsating like a gyroscope on her finger. Voldemort stopped for a moment, and Tara thought he looked as if something was making him sick, if that was possible. Something was wrong with him. Clearing her mind, she could feel that there was something amiss and he was concealing it from her. It became louder and louder in her mind...and then, he raised his wand towards Severus, and suddenly the ropes fell away and she had her wand in her hand. "Expelliarmus!" she screamed, and Voldemort's wand flew out of his hand and out through the broken panes.

Good shot! Tara thought. Then she glanced at her left ring finger and saw that the Atlantis Stone was fully illuminated, casting a blue beam and the colors were gyrating as if it was about to explode. Voldemort stopped in his tracks, staring at the ring. Tara looked down, confused, then realized that the stone was having an effect on Voldemort. A bad one! Tara held out her left hand, casting the light from the Atlantis stone right at Voldemort like a flashlight beam. Voldemort shielded his eyes, wailing, stepping backwards. Tara was horrified, but kept her ring aimed at him, and he vaporized right before her, his cloak floating out through the open door, taking flight of its own. At that moment, Malfoy appeared in the door, saw Tara with her wand and her ring glowing.

"So--what have we here--" Malfoy began and then Tara screamed "STUPIFY!" Malfoy slumped to the floor, unconcious. "Now how do I undo the Bewitched sleep spell?" she asked no one in particular, looking at Severus, who, although he was on his feet, he was still asleep and not breathing.

"Finite Incantatum." Tara turned to see Dumbledore standing, with his wand pointed at Severus, whose eyes fluttered open. Tara stepped up next to him so he wouldn't fall over. He rubbed his eyes, and looked from Tara, to Dumbledore, and noticed Malfoy's unconcious form on the floor.

"What happened?" he asked them.

"I just got here," Dumbledore replied. "Tara can tell us."

"Um, well, it was awful - there was this beacon in the sky and Severus told me to go to my mom's house right away, and I came back, and he was gone--"

"Tara, I told you to do as I said," Severus began.

"You didn't tell me to stay there."

"That's stretching the point...Tara, you could have been killed..."

"And you surely would have!" Tara said, tears coming to her eyes again. She recounted the incidents and then a voice startled them. "She's not a muggle!" Malfoy had regained conciousness.

"No, she's not, and you have a lot of explaining to do," Dumbledore said sternly. Malfoy got to his feet. "I'll take care of him. It's almost time for you two to return to Hogwarts. The Ministry will be in touch with you both before then, as will I. Come Lucious."

Dumbledore and Lucious left the shack, leaving Tara and Severus alone. They fell into each others' arms. "Are you allright?" she asked him. "Yes. But what about you?"

"I'm a bit tired. Oh Severus, that thing was just awful!" she said, referring to Voldemort.

"I know. Let's go home now," he said. She grabbed her broomstick and he gave her a puzzled look. "You didn't."

"I had to."

"Unsupervised?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What choice did I have?"

"I suppose..."

They flew back to the cabin just as the sun was just starting to illuminate the eastern sky. They stayed close to the trees so they wouldn't be seen.

After sleeping for an entire day and a half, Tara returned to her mom's house to pick up Henry and Heidi. Dumbledore had filled her in on the events of the night where Voldemort came back to get Severus and how Tara stood up to him, a feat which was not easily accomplished.

They spent the next week preparing to return to Hogwarts a little early. Tara was locking up the doors and windows, still not clear in what had happened that night. Dumbledore promised to meet with them as soon as they returned, and she felt the sooner the better. She joined Severus in the living room before the fireplace.

"Ready?" he asked her.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

She threw a handful of floo powder into the flames, and off they went...to their life together at Hogwarts.

Epilogue
Upon Tara and Severus's return to Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore met with them, as promised. He came to see them on the balcony of their new quarters which had been prepared for them during the summer. It was beautiful and airy, and the balcony overlooked the lake. It made Tara think of their mountain cabin.

"So the Atlantis stone has powers?" Tara was asking Dumbledore. He nodded.

"Yes, but those powers are unique to each wearer. I once read that it had shown to render some wizards powerless just to be in its presence when combined with a certain wearer's abilities. I thought it was pure legend, but evidently not."

"You mean it's Kryptonite to Voldemort?" Tara asked excitedly.

Dumbledore glanced at Severus who shrugged.

"Oh you guys," Tara laughed, "I forget you never read muggle comic books!"

That evening, Severus made dinner and they ate on the balcony. He began to pour her some wine and she shook her head. "No, not tonight," she said to his puzzled look.

After dinner, he brought out her clove cigarettes to her and lit one for himself.

"You'd better stop that," she said, making a face. He didn't smoke a lot, maybe 2 or 3 per day, but she blamed herself for the fact that he had started up again. He held the pack to her and she shook her head. Unusual.

"Have you?" he asked her. She nodded. "What's this all of a sudden? No wine either?"

"Nope. Not for about nine months on the wine. But smoking--nope, I'm all done with that. Not good to do around infants you know, so you'd better cut it out too."

"I know it's not good for infants, but what does that have to do--" the realization hit him just then, and he looked at Tara, who was grinning. "You mean you're--"

She nodded. He was overwhelmed with happiness, and took her into his arms. His life was complete, and so was Tara's. They had each other, and now they were expecting a new life.

That night under the covers, Tara verbalized her worries that they might end up with a squibb; a non-magical child. Severus calmed her fears.

"As long as its our child, it does not matter."

"Well it isn't the milk man's kid..." Tara joked.

"Milk man? I'm not sure I understand--what's a--"

"Never mind...never mind..." she said snuggling close.

THE END