prologue
September 1st, 1993
As the Hogwarts Express jolted along the rails, three teenagers entered into a compartment to find a sandy haired man fast asleep.
"He must be our new Defense professor." The redhead whispered, as the three took their seats opposite the man.
The bushy-haired girl nodded, "Professor RJ Lupin."
"How do you know that?" The redhead asked, turning to the black-haired boy next to him, "How is it she knows everything."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Honestly Ronald, it's engraved on his luggage."
As time went on, the professor stirred in his sleep but did not wake. Only when the train had almost reached Hogsmeade station, everything suddenly went cold and dark and the train stopped suddenly in its tracks. Professor Lupin jolted awake, and immediately sprang to his feet to cast a charm which let out a silvery spark from his wand, vanishing the darkness.
He sighed with relief when normalcy was regained, but almost gasped when he saw the boy that was passed out on the floor.
Blinking a few times, he waited until the boy returned to conciosness and then handed him a piece of chocolate. "Chocolate always helps." He smiled, repeating the words his best friend James had once told him.
He turned to one of the girls and then did another double take, before recovering and handing her another bar. "Give this to him later."
With that, he left the compartment and began to pace around the train until they finally reached the school, doing his best to avoid a certain potion master.
When he sat down for dinner, however, he happened to be seated next to that particular colleague.
"She looks like her mother, doesn't she?" Severus whispered, smirking as he saw Lupin flinch beside him.
"I have no idea to whom you're referring, Snape." Remus replied, trying to keep a calm face as he sat at the table with the other professors.
"I think you know very well what I'm talking about." Severus nodded subtly towards the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter sat with his friends.
Remus finally snapped, "What part of the word 'dangerous' do you not understand, Snape? We took the oath to keep all of it a secret for a reason. If the truth comes out, things could be much worse than they already are."
Severus snorted in response, "I don't remember ever taking such a pact. As I remember, it was you and Potter, Black, Pettigrew and the others who made it."
Remus flinched at the names of his three childhood best friends, two dead and one recently escaped from Azkaban for betraying the others.
When he got no response from Remus, Severus continued. "Frankly, I think you're pathetic, Lupin. You betrayed her, you all betrayed her, and now you're trying to pretend she didn't exist, like she didn't mean a thing to you."
"You don't know what you're talking about Snape." Remus snarled.
"How can you just sit here and pretend that erasing a woman from history is the right thing to do?" Severus spat.
Remus attempted to turn away quickly, as if it didn't bother him at all, but Severus caught a glimpse of sadness and hurt in his eyes.
31st July, 1997
"'To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it '... That is a valuable object. It may even be unique. Certainly it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you an item so rare? Dumbledore must have taught thousands of students, yet the only ones he remembered in his will are you three. Why is that? To what use did he think you would put to the Deluminator, Mr Weasley?" Scrimgeour asked, and Ron simply shrugged.
"Put out lights, I s'pose. What else could I do with it?"
"To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive." Scrimgeour read, passing the book to Hermione. "Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger?"
"He... He knew I liked books." Hermione stuttered.
"'To Harry James Potter, I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill'... I noticed that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch. Why is that?" Scrimgeour asked, as Harry snatched away the snitch.
"Oh, it can't be a reference to the fact Harry's a great Seeker, hat's way too obvious. There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!" Hermione replied sarcastically.
"Yes well, there is one more thing."
"To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave this cardboard box of possessions that belonged to someone I used to know, in hopes that she will find parts of herself within it." Scrimgeour read, and a large box appeared on the table.
The trio exchanged confused looks.
"Do you know who this box belonged to Miss Granger?"
"Shouldn't you know? You probably opened it."
Scrimgeour flinched. "Yes, um.. well.. we weren't able to. It seems the box is sealed wby Goblin magic and those blasted goblins refused to open it."
The trio gave him matching glares.
"Well, um.. I'll leave you three to it."
31st July, 1980
The cries of a baby echoed from a crib as her mother answered the door.
"Snape," she said, peering out. "What was the first spell you created?"
"Levicorpus," Snape responded. She sighed in relief and allowed him inside.
Snape, tall and pale in plain black robes, flinched at the baby's cries, which abruptly stopped as if sensing his presence.
"Where's Rosier?" Snape inquired.
"Out," she replied, pouring two glasses of whiskey. "Probably on Our Lord's business."
Snape nodded. "I heard some Death Eaters were on assignment today. Something about the Prewett brothers?"
She shrugged. "If it's him you came to see, he should be home soon."
"I came to see both of you," Snape said, glancing around nervously. "I have important news."
"We'll wait for Evan to return," she said.
"Actually, he doesn't need to be here for the first part. Lily and Potter have had their baby," Snape announced, looking down.
"Oh," was all she could manage.
"Packing up to leave?" He asked, motioning to a cardboard box in a desperate attempt to change the topic.
"We're thinking of escaping to France." She said, half-jokingly. "No, I'm just putting together a box of some of my old stuff. I just figured it would help me get over... you know."
He nodded in understanding and she poured herself some more whiskey.