Chapter 1
The war had taken its toll on them all. Terwnlery could no longer be trusted with prophecy having gone mad having to witness such death over and over again, Minnie startled at her own shadow half the time and Albus had half his mind in the dark so often it left Severus feeling as if he had never left the tarnished Death Eaters.
At the start of the war Severus had loved his role within the Regime. It hadn’t started with the muggle hating plans and torture, it was more of the final year that those ideals took over but then again Severus had never joined because of ideals in the first place. No matter the case, he had needed a way out. Severus could see the tide turning while he laid amongst the trenches and he knew that the best course of action was to retreat and pretend to give up to strike another day. Severus was always more of a practical guy anyway, if the best course was to play nice, he’d play nice.
However when he had brought the plan up to his Lord and favoured master Voldemort Severus was shaken with dread. The man before him had gone half mad and his subjects had started to suffer for it. Severus loved his Lord wholeheartedly and still burns for him today but he knew that whatever had grasped his Master’s mind and made it this abysmal, scared of death, warlord would not go away so easily, if ever.
So with a heavy heart Severus began to scheme against his Master. Helping the unjust prisoners escape, releasing his fellow men from their dark vow and getting them to safety. Only the ones he managed to convince of his suspicions, some didn’t want to leave but used Severus’s warnings to get their affairs in order, either leaving behind money to Severus for his help or giving things away prehumously to their loved ones. Severus mostly tried to approach like minded individuals but he wasn’t always lucky with who he approached, erasing their memories of their conversation once it turned sour or in the worst case having to kill them. Thankfully he only had to do that twice, easy to hide and excuse the body when asked about their whereabouts.
Minerva had stumbled across one such meeting and was curious as to why the most beloved of Voldemort’s regime would be trying to help wizards get out of the war. Severus always respected Minerva and held her opinion on a bit of a pedestal, a habit from his school days, so when she had asked he took a leap and told her the truth.
At first Minerva was sceptical and hesitant to help but Severus saw in her eyes just how tired of the war she had become and instead of trying to fold her into his plans to help the other death eaters get to safety, he just asked her to help with releasing the unjust prisoners to the other side.
They had a bit of a debate on what justice was and what makes one prisoner more deserving of freedom then others but Minnie(as she insisted Severus call her since they were now partners of sorts) had to concede her point. Severus was the one in hostile territory and putting himself at risk for these people, he should at least be able to choose those that could make the trip.
Severus and Minnie worked surprisingly well together. With Minnie having an intimate knowledge of how some spells interacted and could be implemented to its finest and her connections from Hogwarts being called upon when needed. Whereas Severus had made many new spells and potions that no one had even thought of and a great knowledge of muggle war tactics that the muggle borns would have at least recognized had he not also added in some kind of magic element, Plus Severus had some strong instinctual magic that would always come in clutch for both of them.
One of the most memorable times was when Severus was transferring a group of children from the dungeons to Minnie’s arms at a border crossing by France when a pack of Dementors were scavenging nearby and were attracted by the amount of fear coming off their rendezvous point. After a Kiss had taken one of the prisoners Minnie raised a shield around the rest. Trying her best to keep the dementors at bay, but if it was very difficult to think of happy thoughts after witnessing a child being murdered in front of one's eyes, add in the rest of the children screaming and it was akin to someone ringing a dinner bell.
Severus had at least grown desensitised to wails and screams and was relying on Minnie to distract the Dementors while he quickly mixed up a few of his potions in his bag of tricks. It was a bit more difficult than he thought to mix while having a child in his dominant arm but he managed well enough that when Minnie’s shield fell all he had to do was smash his concoction on the ground. In seconds a sweet smelling gas emanated from the smashed glass and a pink haze reminiscent of cotton candy started to wrap around the hodgepodge group right as the Dementors tried to swoop in for another kiss. Minnie couldn’t bear to witness another death and fell to her knees in defeat, just waiting for the cold to sweep her soul.
But it never did, and soon laughter began to fill her ears. Stunned, Minnie glanced around expecting terror and death but instead, seeing the Dementors the very things of nightmares for many of the magic society, were brightly coloured and gazing confusingly at each other. Minnie could not keep her laugh in and just fully cackled in the face of these ‘dark’ omens. With how much laughter and joy that was surrounding their group and the bizarre new colouring they found themselves in the Demontors lost interest in the human and started to fight among themselves not recognizing friend from foe. With their lives no longer being in such peril Minnie had turned towards her old student and slowly began to see the man before her in a new light.
As a child he had always seemed so small and skittish, only really sticking to Miss Evans during his first few years and to a lesser extent, to the Heir Malfoy in later years. Great grades and mostly clean record in terms of detentions, Minerva never really interacted with him much. But seeing him now, Holding onto the children around him, making sure no one is following them or were alerted by the sounds they all were making, she could see the man he had become and couldn’t help but want to get to know him better. Maybe even call him a friend.
His pale almost pearl white skin peeked in small bits out from under his dark clothes, which were a mixture of both Wixen and Muggle sensibilities, Letting the mind run wild with ideas of what could be hiding beneath. Intense eyes of obsidian black that one could get lost in accidently. His ink black shoulder length hair spilled around his head and while it was unkempt and messy she could tell that it was thick and wavy, it had an almost downy like look to them, daring any to try and touch. His voice was deep and smooth with hints of an accent long suppressed, Minerva knew that Severus could make a history book sound wonderful should he have ever tried.
Yes, Minerva knew that she would try her best to become closer to this man, not for the sake of the war, but for the fact that Severus was the only constant in her life that seemed to always keep her busy and entertained. And her life while in the war was anything but calm, Severus always seemed like the better person to be with. Whether that meant on the battlefield or over a chess set it didn’t matter. He would always be worth knowing.
So on they went. Fighting on the battlefield, smuggling refugees across the lines unbeknownst to their masters. Growing an unlikely friendship, built upon each battle and strengthened after every victory and seized tightly during their shared losses.
Soon came the dreaded day. When Severus gave his beloved master half an overheard prophecy from a pub and unknowingly signed his old friend's death certificate and that of her family. Once he realized what he had done he rushed to Minnie’s side, eager for her help. Instead he found Dumbledore, the old fool had told Severus that Minerva had been injured and was in need of Poppy’s healing. He pressured Severus for the reason for his visit as it was well known that Severus was the Dark Lord's most favourite. Severus is ashamed to admit that he was not in control of his emotions in that instance and begged Dumbledore to save Lily, His little sister in all but blood. Severus was told to swear an oath to Dumbledore before he would lift a finger.
While Severus may have been emotionally compromised he was still a Slytherin and so he had worded his oath to hinge on Lily’s survival, if she died he would be free of the oath. Severus knew that Albus would never think twice about the words in an oath, the old man always believed that one's intent would be taken into account as long as magic was concerned. Oh how wrong he was in that way of thinking. How he could be worthy to wield one of the hollows was beyond Severus.
Severus had felt Lily’s heart stop, he couldn’t explain it but as soon as she hit the floor of her newborn son's nursery Severus knew to his core that she was lost to the living. He had let out an inhuman shriek that rattled the walls of Grinwald Palace, his magic had poured out of his body. Staining the walls around him pitch black, The wooden floor boards beneath him warped as if from years under the sea. The windows seemed to melt from an intense heat and black ink seemed to seep from within the glass making it seem like creatures were looking inside, watching the spectacle. Many of the Order had fled from the house, believing that some old curse from the Black family had taken root in the house. Minerva had been roused from her Medical Induced Sleep and was urged to run but she felt a familiarity to the magic around her and went to investigate.
Once she had found Severus all she could do was stare. Taking only a few moments to compose herself she walked towards Severus, careful not to scare him. She could only make it within a step away before his magic refused to let her get closer. Speaking softly Minerva started to talk, not really about anything important or pressing, just making idle chatter. Her late husband Elphinstone had started to get panic attacks shortly before his accident. She knew that one's experience with one incident doesn’t mean that she is an expert on the subject but she didn’t really have anything else to go on. Minerva was in the middle of things and while she knew that she could be making things worse she still felt the need to try.
It was working to an extent, as the room around them stopped shaking and the windows began to lighten although she knew they would never look the same. Severus didn’t really see Minerva so much as he was glancing in her direction but she would take it. A few more minutes of the one sided conversation had him turn towards her fully, although his eyes still seemed so empty. Minerva couldn’t stand it any longer and caught him up in a hug and held on to him tightly, as if afraid to let him go for even a moment in case he never came back.
Severus didn’t react right away, slowly embracing Minnie back and tightening his grip to a near grueling state. Once she was firmly in his grasp and had shown no signs of fleeing he started to wail. No words were capable of expressing how he had felt right then and there but the pressure in his head was too much and so he wailed. Minerva just held tighter to the young man in her arms and gently rubbed his back, she knew that he was beyond words right now and that all she could do was wait. So she did, using every ounce of patience she had, she waited for Severus.
Once Severus had gotten his fill of affection and had gone silent once more she glanced into his eyes, just trying to start a conversation about what happened, but Severus beat her to it by pushing her into his mind and letting her see first hand, all of himself. Minerva could not help but marvel at the man before her. His emotions were so intense, even through memoires, It managed to bring tears to her eyes. Seeing all that was done to him and all that he had done, Both the Good and the Bad, It just raised her respect for him even more. His breaking point was so poignant that Minerva could not bring herself to blame him for the destruction he inadvertently caused. The fact that Severus had even more power than he was showing and yet still managed to not crumble the house to a mere dust fragment was a feat in and of itself.
After she had emerged from his mind and settled her weary mind to some extent, Minerva maneuvered the both of them to lean against the wall for a modicum of comfort. Once they both had been settled she turned Severus towards herself and opened her mind to him fully, admittingly she didn’t have as many mental protections as he had but it was the thought that counts. Severus had entered very timidly and with great care, that alone brought a smile to Minnie’s face. They were both just dozing within each other's minds, never fully closing off to one another for the rest of that night, thankful for the comfort of each other.
Dumbledore found them together the next morning and immediately started barking orders citing that since the Dark Lord was vanquished they should be celebrating, Yet Minerva couldn't bring herself to care, not after everything Severus revealed to her. She knew that Albus had become a bit power mad during the war, She naively believed it to be a result of the war but watching him turn Severus away at every turn for no apparent reason during his school years, before the war had even started had just revealed the insidious old man for what he was.
Hell, the so-called Dark Lord had looked all the more appealing in comparison. Minerva could now see what Severus had meant all those nights ago when he had claimed that his master had gone mad from something. She saw through his own eyes how fast of a change the Dark Lord had from his original objective of monitoring muggles more tightly and giving more power back to the Wixen (a non-gendered term which Minnie had never heard of before but rather liked) old traditions rather then trying to embrace muggles religion and holidays, to the mad War Lord she saw in the news. It was almost overnight. Minerva couldn’t quite shake the feeling that Albus might have played a hand in the madness as everything seemed a little too stacked in the old coats' favour.
So, clutching Severus closer and trying to rouse him from his sleep, Minerva made a vow to Lady Hecate herself, another new ideal she had never known but was eager to accept. That she would not forget about all that Severus had shown her, And that she would try to help Severus in any way she could, no matter what that may be.
And so the day was filled with celebrations while Minnie and Severus were dragged behind Dumbledore, neither of them knew what the old man would want from them but as long as their was air in their lungs they swore to magik herself that they would try to protect the children from the mad mans greater good.