Prologue: A Different Beginning

1978

Lucius slipped over a folded piece of paper to Severus, worry knitting his brows. Severus swore to him, if he could find a way to get his younger sister to complete safety, he would take the dark mark. The secrets of Severus Snape’s home life wasn’t lost on him. The boy was too thin, and every time he returned from break or before break, his eating would be minimal. He had seen bruises on the train, scars when they changed at night. It was all the more proof that muggles were savages. Severus’ mother had been a pureblood witch swayed by rebellious spirit to marry a muggle man against her father’s wishes. That rebellious spirit remained, after years of abuse and having had Severus, she acted out against her husband and bore an illegitimate child. If the girl had taken after her mother it would be one thing, but the girl was born with flaming red hair and the brightest green eyes. 

When Lucius had met her he had been surprised himself. For all that Severus was sallow and dull, her features were long and elegant, looking like some wood nymph or high fae. But, she too seemed to be ill treated, something that had worsened for the both of them with time. With the way Severus hovered over her, he suspected that she bore the brunt of their father’s savagery. She was soft spoken, clinging to her elder brother at all times outside of class. At least when she wasn’t clinging to the mudblood. That Evans girl seemed to dote upon Severus’ sister as if she were her own. 

So when Severus begged for help, Lucius couldn’t just stand by. He had spent his summer break scouring the Malfoy library. It wasn’t until he found his father’s personal items that he made any success. It was buried in a diary after a picture from his father’s Hogwarts years. He remembered stories of the original death eaters, the Knights of Walpurgis they called themselves. They had been quite the group of boys, most the fathers of his own classmates. There were only two faces int the group he didn’t actually recognize, a handsome young man, and a woman. In the photo they were next to each other, holding hands. She was laughing in the picture, and most of them looked mildly amused. Lucius could only guess it was the woman who he had heard his father referred to only drunkenly as their lady of the lake. It was behind that photo that the spell was tucked away.  It was a spell ritual his father had made, but never initiated. He had copied it down with precision before returning the diary to its hidden place. 

It was that copy he slid over to Severus the first morning of classes. After this he would do nothing more with it. If Severus followed through or not was up to him. Severus nodded his head and glanced over at the Gryffindor table where his sister was plastered up against the Evans girl. Potter and his band of troublemakers were watching them with concern written in their eyes. While Severus was sporting a black eye, she had a split lip and what looked like the bruise of a hand around her neck that she was trying to cover up. He sighed. Whatever Severus did, he only could hope that it worked. 

Two months later the school was locked down, a student had gone missing. Severus was quiet. Too quite. Hours later, all the students in the great hall, Lucius knew. Amongst the sea of heads, there was one very distinct head missing. Lucius slid up to Severus after he was brought in by McGonagall. 

“Did it work?”

“I don’t know.” he whispered. “She just… vanished.”

Lucius nodded his head and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. 

Severus was quiet and still. The Evans girl was crying on the other side of the great hall, pacing madly. Every once in a while he’d hear someone say that she was too young to go missing, too young for something terrible to happen to her. He knew Severus could hear it too. 

“If it didn’t work.” Severus said so quietly that Lucius almost missed it. 

“We’ll figure something out.” Lucius promised but Severus shook his head. 

“No. Anywhere is better than here. Even if she died… she’d be better off dead.”

Lucius’ eyes bulged. 

“Sev, you don’t mean that-”

“I do. But, I hope it worked, and that she’ll live a happy life where she feels safe and protected.”

An old letter was slammed down on the desk in from of Lucius as soon as he had returned for yule break. 

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t lie to me Lucius Abraxas Malfoy. What did you do?” He had never seen his father this mad before. He took the letter and opened it. It was a report to the board of governors about the missing student, along with a picture of her, which was surprising. Her disappearance was reported in the Daily Prophet, but they didn’t include any photos. 

“Why do you think I had anything to do with her disappearance?”

His father didn’t answer just glared down at him. Minutes passed before he broke down and sighed. 

“The ritual spell from your diary, the one behind the old photo.”

His father swore loudly before falling into his chair on the other side of the desk, head in hand. He waved Lucius off, and he was quick to scurry out of the room but not before hearing his father say,

“It worked.”

1940

There was only one. There would only ever be one. Absent-mindedly, Tom couldn’t think of anything else. As soon has he found out the words engraved on his skin in the small loopy handwriting of an unknown person was fated to be by his side, he was obsessed with the idea. When he wasn’t studying, or focusing on some other project, his mind was on it. He’d stare at it in the mirror every morning, memorizing the print, imagining the intonation of the words of thanks. Even while his peers walked ahead of him chatting idly about their Samhain night, his fingers traced over his shirt where the words on his chest sat, just under his collarbone, shimmering. The soft silver glow simply meant he hadn’t met them yet. And it made him all the more special for it. 

Magic’s Blessing.

That’s what they had called it. Magic herself blessed those of powerful magic to never be alone, to find the one whose magic made theirs complete. Sometimes it was seen like soulmates, of the romantic or platonic sense. There were only a handful every generation, Tom himself only knew of two others who had one, and highly suspected a third. It only confirmed to him that he was special and would make something so much more of himself. He only needed to find that person. 

“Riddle!” Avery’s voice drew his attention, and Tom lowered his hand to stare dully at his roommate. “Do you believe Lestrange?”

“No.” Tom answered without hesitation. 

“What? You weren’t even listening!” Lestrange protested looking highly offended, and completely guilty. 

“I don’t need to be paying attention to your every word to know that you exaggerate to the extreme Lestrange. In fact you’re almost as bad as Black, if not worse.” Tom rolled his eyes. Though the truth was he knew exactly what Lestrange was on about. He had been telling the same story since the second he woke to anyone who had an ear to listen. After hearing the tail several times in passing already, it has changed at least three times, getting progressively more dramatic. Though it was surprising to see Black simply nod in agreement, rather than protest his own dramatic flair. 

“Come now then, what of your Samhain?” Avery asked, practically begging for something other that the prattle of Black and Lestrange. 

“Uneventful, as usual. I do believe you need to know who it is you wish to speak to or acknowledge to participate to the fullest. I am unable to do so for that reason.”

There was an uncomfortable pause of silence. The other boys knew that Tom was orphaned, without knowledge of who his parents were. It had been easy to forget, Tom was quite adaptive to his new environment that if someone hadn’t already known Tom, they would have thought him a pureblood heir. He stared at them, eyes getting colder and harder before both boys muttered an apology. 

“T-Tom.” Rosier called, eyes looking at the great lake. “What do you reckon that is?”

“Giant squid as usual. Unless Prewett tried to dress it up again.” Tom speculated not bothering to look at the lake. 

“That’s definitely not the giant squid…” Rosier trailed off, moving towards the lake. Tom glanced over and inspected the lake and it didn’t take long to spot what Rosier had. Near the shore, bobbing and swaying with the soft lapping water was something white and pale. He narrowed his eyes as he inspected from afar. It was then a wavy and nausea and morbid curiosity hit him. He’s seen something like that before, when he visited the cliffs with the orphanage after there had been a shipwreck. He sill remembered how Mrs. Cole herded the other children away. He had refused, and went with the other adults to help search for survivors. There weren’t any, all that had been found were cold bodies. 

“Black, go get the matron! Lestrange find the first professor you can! NOW!” He ordered, taking off towards the lake as fast as he could. He was already pulling off his robes and outermost layers of clothes. 

“What? Why?” Lestrange squawked as Black started pulled him by the collar in the opposite direction. Tom was already sprinting past Avery towards the figure and the closer he got the more he could see. It was a girl whose long dark hair drifted in the water like seaweed. His first steps into the lake was a shock to his system. It had been cold for the past few weeks and the lake certainly reflected that with its near freezing temperature. He half waded half swam to the girl before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her with him to the shore. As he got closer he shifted his grip to her waist, pulling her closer to him. Her tanned skin was still warm to the touch but he noticed with panic that her chest wasn’t rising. He pulled her onto the rocky shore and pressed shanking hands to her throat, searching for a pulse. He waited a second before pressing his closed hands against her chest and pushing. Come on breathe, he hissed in his mind, trying to reign in the fear pulsing in his blood. He felt the bones under his hands pop the feeling echoed in his hands as he continued.

“What- what are you doing to her?” Avery had come up to them, clinging to Tom’s discarded robes with wide terrified eyes.

“Seen muggles do this to restart the heart.” Tom growled out before sighing. He moved his hands the second the girl started to cough, water spurting out of her lips. He motioned for Avery to hand over his robes which he quickly threw around the girl, noticing how she was in nothing but a thin white nightgown that clung to her. “Look at me.” He ordered, his hands finding her cheeks as her lids flickered open as she stared at him with bright green eyes through her lashes. “Keep your eyes open, you need to stay awake.”

She blinked again her glassy eyes staring at him unfocused. They were truly the brightest green he had ever seen, however glassy and unfocused they were. Her mouth moved as if she were speaking. He quickly casted a drying charm followed by a warming charm. To his relief the girl did nothing but stare at him weakly through glassy. 

“Avery I need you to keep up and keep casting warming charms.”

Avery nodded looking paler than normal as he pulled out his wand. Once Avery started making the complicated wand movements Tom slipped an arm under the girls knees and around her shoulders lifting her up. She was light incredibly so that his mind screamed at him for how wrong it was. 

“Keep your eyes on me.” He ordered again, though more for his sake than hers. She blinked again and he could see her struggle to keep her eyes open staring unfocused at his face. He started running. It wasn’t an easy feat moving up the grassy slope still slick with morning dew. His wet shirt tightened and when he looked down he noticed her small hand had gripped his shirt. 

He cursed in his mind as they passed through the threshold of the castle and still saw no sign of an adult. Then, like they had walked into a wall, his shirt loosened again and her head dropped against his arm as she went limp. He tightened his grip and forced himself to move faster, at one point choosing to abandon his dew-wet shoes to move quicker through the corridors without fear of slipping. As they rounded the corner he spotted Lestrange with a haggled looking Slughorn whose eyes went wide. The larger man quickly took the girl from Toms arms, though Tom did hesitate to hand her over and the group together ran. Lestrange was talking though Toms entire focus was the girl. Luckily Avery was quick to answer the questions as the rushed into the hospital wing. The matron was there with Black, a bed already ready as well as several potions. She set to work on the girl quickly, ignoring the men in the room. They watched on in a tense silence as the matron cast several healing spells and poured potions down the girl’s throat, until finally the matron stood back and sighed. 

“That’s the best we can do for this young lady. We will have to wait and see now.” The matron said looking sadly at the girl before turning to the boys and professor. “What happened?”

“We were taking a morning walk,” Tom started, snapping back into focus like a spell had lifted, speaking in his calm level tone. “While Lestrange and Black were bickering, Avery noticed something in the water and pointed it out to me. It took me a second to realize what it was and immediately sent Black and Lestrange to get help while Avery and I worked to get her out of the water and here. Her heart was not beating, so I had to preform muggle chest compressions to restart it.” 

The matron hummed in response and went to fetch another potion, muttering about broken ribs. Tom’s eyes went back to the girl, she was still sickly looking, a sheen of sweat glistened on her brow and an unhealthy looking flush sat high on her cheeks. Now dry, he wondered at her bright red hair, not ginger. His eyes drifted down and he could see bruised skin peeking out from her neck down her shoulder until it disappeared behind the nightgown.

“75 points each for your quick thinking.” Slughorn said, also looking at the girl, his face scrunched in concentration. “I think it would be best if you boys go about your day.”

He moved slowly, herding his students towards out the door. The other boys nodded and willingly moved out the exit but Tom hesitated. His eyes had caught a glimpse of something. A soft golden glow peeking out from the nightgown. He shook his head and smiled at his head of house. 

“Of course, Professor. Would it be possible to be updated on her condition? I feel responsible since we were the ones to help her.”

“We will see Tom, now off you pop.” Slughorn ushered Tom to the door and closed it behind the boys. Tom frowned immediately. 

“Did any of you recognize that girl?” Tom asked turning to the others. He was sure he already knew the answer, he’d have noticed hair like that otherwise. 

“No, but she could just be in another house. Hufflepuff maybe?”

“Not Hufflepuff. Sarah is Hufflepuff, and has introduced me to her classmates. She didn’t look young enough to be a first year.” Avery said, looking towards the doors. 

“Black?”

“Well, she’s not in Slytherin or Gryffindor.”

“Lestrange?”

“Not in Ravenclaw that I know of.”

Tom’s lips narrowed as he glanced towards the door. Something strange was going on, and he wasn’t sure if he should like it or be wary of it. One thing he was sure of, things were changing.