Mirror, Mirror

Summers were always like this…quiet. Some of the teachers stayed at Hogwarts year-round but he couldn’t do that. He had to keep his ear to the ground, listening for rumblings. Normal wizards believed the Dark Lord was truly gone for good. He knew better and so did Dumbledore. There wasn’t one Death Eater that didn’t believe the Dark Lord would return. It was his job to protect Lily’s son, it was just unfortunate that Lily’s son was also that git Potter’s son too.

His life was empty since his best and only friend left this world. The idiotic Marauders thought his love was romantic, thought it was either him or Potter. Because of that, they made sure she wasn’t his friend anymore. It was him that put the final nail in the coffin, but they were the carpenters of that coffin.

Lily had been his best friend, sister, and the only person that cared if he lived or died. His father was an abusive Muggle who hated his own wife and child. His mother was a witch who didn’t want to be a witch any longer because she picked her husband over her world and even her own child.

When Lily died, she just didn’t take with her the only friend he ever had but she took the identity of his child. A hormone-filled, awkward, and bumbling romp with someone he knew better to be with, lead him to pregnancy. He hadn’t known it was possible because his mother had never taught it to him. Lily hadn’t known it either because she was muggle born. He had been so young and naïve. He knew he was getting bigger but had learned a concealment charm and spelled his robes. He wore his mother’s old ones, and they were large on him anyway.

It had been a day before the start of school. It had been scarily easy to hide that his stomach was the size of a pumpkin from his parents, they never looked at him. It was only when he was supposed to meet Lily at their place did someone finally see him. They went to the old shoe factory that had gone out of business and abandoned ten years earlier. Suddenly he had doubled over in pain, he had been hurting for two days. It would come and go so he didn’t think that much on it. But they started getting closer and started hurting worse.

She said his stomach reminded her of when her mum’s friend was going to have a baby. It all happened so fast after that, he felt something happening. It was the most embarrassing, gross, and painful thing he had ever been through even to this day. That’s saying something because he had been tortured by some of the most talented Death Eaters there were. The Dark Lord had his own special way of testing his most loyal.

The memory of Lily chanting words of encouragement as she delivered his baby was his solace. They were so young and so stupid, they really thought they knew what they were doing.

He told her he couldn’t take the baby home; his father would kill both of them. There was no doubt in his mind that his father would kill the baby and him. Having a wizard as a son was one thing, having a gay son that can give birth, was something entirely different. She wrapped the baby up in her jacket and asked him what she should do. He told her to take it away and give it to someone who could care for it. Lily argued with him for what felt like forever, telling him that she could ask her mother if him and the baby could stay with her. His father could never know, so he told her no. Finally, she left with the baby, he had to clean himself up. Since he couldn’t use magic, it was a long process and he hurt so much.

There was terror that the opening would never heal but with time it did. Lily was gone all day. Just before sundown she came to Spinners End. He made her promise to never tell anyone about the baby. When she asked if he wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl, he told her no. Even after the mudblood incident, she kept her promise. Lily went to her grave being the only one to know where she took the baby. He had been young and so stupid. He had taken the dark mark before his brain was fully developed. After that he knew he couldn’t ask Lily where the baby was. If Voldemort would have found out, he would have had the baby killed just so Severus wouldn’t get distracted.

When he heard the prophecy that implicated Lily being killed, he knew he had to do what he could to protect her. Working for Dumbledore had been the easiest decision he had ever made but it was a lie. Lily wasn’t protected, she was betrayed by a so-called-friend. Finding out it wasn’t the friend he thought, wasn’t that much of a shock. Pettigrew had always been a hanger-on. He wasn’t as talented as Potter, smart as Lupin or popular as Black.

Someone knocked on his door, bringing him out of his memories. Dumbledore wondered why he was already so good at Occlumency at such a young age. He had to protect his child from everyone, even the great Albus Dumbledore. In this world, you never knew who you could trust. If Lily and Potter were killed by their friend, anything could happen.

Opening his door, he was greeted by the sight of one of his better students. But he still didn’t allow students in his home.

“What are you doing here, Mr. Higgs?” he asked briskly.

“I came to speak with you.”

“How did you know where I live? No one knows where I live.”

The boy had the audacity to smile at him and walk in, without permission. Higgs turned around with a smirk on his face, he didn’t know why but there was something the annoyed him about that smirk. It was familiar but he couldn’t place it.

“Severus, can I call you Severus?” the impertinent young man asked, taking a seat.

“No, you may not.” He didn’t remember the young man being so gobby. He had noticed a difference in the boy since Christmas but knew he had a troubled home life. “Why are you sitting down? I didn’t invite you in.”

“Well, I’m not a vampire so that doesn’t stop me. I’m sitting down because that’s how polite conversations go, you may sit too if you please.”

“Did you just give me permission to sit in my own home?”

The boy shrugged. “I didn’t know you were looking for permission but sure, go ahead and sit.”

“I will not. I want you to leave my home.” When he was in Cokesworth, he didn’t wear robes, so he didn’t have his wand on him. It was on his bedside table because before the boy arrived, he had been working.

“Severus, sit, let’s talk through this thing like adults.”

“You are not an adult.”

“Wrong, I’m a fully trained wizard, you’re not my professor anymore.”

Severus wondered how long in Azkaban he would get for turning Mr. Higgs into a toad.

“Leave my home before you force my hand.”

“I will if you come to this address later today.” The young man pulled a piece of paper out of his robes. He wondered if anyone thought it was strange a young man in robes walking down the small desolate road.

“What is this?” He eyed the address. 12 Grimmald Place, Islington, London.

“The Dark Lord is coming back; we’re trying to stop it. Don’t tell Dumbledore, you’ll find out why if you show up.”

The boy got up and started to leave before he turned around at the door. “That potion you made, the one to heal the minds of the most damaged of our kind. It works as is. You won’t get in trouble for giving it to anyone, you may even get an Order of Merlin.”

The boy opened the door and in front of Severus’s eyes disapparated. Would he be going? He had to admit he was curious. What was that about not telling Dumbledore? It wouldn’t hurt to see what was happening. He knew the Dark Lord was out there, in some form. What he did know was that he would have to up his wards. Stupid kid somehow got through them like they weren’t even there.

They were expecting Snape, well some of them were. Sirius and Remus still had no clue who they wanted for help. If they told them, it would have been near impossible to get Snape there.

Once Snape saw the two Marauders, he would likely leave. They needed to have him interested and he hoped Terence had succeeded with that.

“What time is this mystery wizard supposed to be here?” Bill asked. Bill was carrying Lucy; she had woken up just a bit ago and Bill had hit them with a stinging jinx so he could get to the baby first. His oldest brother was working on making himself Lucy’s favorite uncle. Since he’s the only one that knows she exists now, it wasn’t that hard.

Just at that moment, there was a hard knock on the door. It was time and he needed to get the baby out of spell range.

“Sirius, can you tell Kreacher to watch Lucy while we deal with this?”

Usually, he would stay away from demanding because his sister-in-law’s work in the field. But when it came to his daughter, no one else mattered more.

Sirius did as he asked, making Kreacher unable to answer the door. They all looked at each other, deciding who would do it.

“Why do you two look like you’re about to jump out of your skin?” Bill asked him and Terence.

“You’ll see. Please, just give us a chance to explain before you kick off,” he told them.

“Why am I not comforted by that,” Remus said, eyeing them suspiciously.

“Just promise,” Percy said, sounding like the fourteen-year-old that he looked like.

“Fine, we promise. Don’t we?” Remus asked Sirius, giving him a hard stare.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he told them before he went to the door. He could feel them walking quietly behind him.

Opening the door, he braced himself to an explosion, he just hoped it wasn’t a real one.

Snape was standing there with disinterested eyes until they locked on something behind him. Percy knew it was the Marauders.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked, pulling his wand out.

Percy was pushed to the side and now Sirius and Snape had their wands pointed at each other.

“You two are worse than my parents,” Terence said before going further into the house.

“Please, put your wands away. Everyone here has agreed to hear me out. Trust me, it will be way more interesting than hexing each other.”

It took a few more awkward, tense moments to get everyone into the drawing room. Sirius and Remus were on one side, Percy could see that Sirius’s hand was twitching wanting his wand. Severus was sitting as far away from anyone as possible. Terence was watching from his seat near the floo. Then there was Bill who was pacing everywhere.

“Before we say our part, I want everyone’s wands,” Percy said.

“NO!” Four shouts came.

“Look, no one is going to like what I’m going to say. Terence and I have discussed it and have decided that because everything has already been changed drastically, we’ll tell you what we know. All of it.”

“What is all this about?” Snape snapped.

“We’re from the future, the year 2005 to be exact,” Terence said.

“Have you been hit by a mind befuddlement jinx?” Snape asked.

“Typical,” Sirius sneered.

“If everyone is keeping their wands, I have to ask you not to use them. We aren’t delusional, we haven’t been cursed…well, not enough to damage our minds,” Percy said.

“Get it over with,” Terence said.

Since Sirius and Remus already knew this part, he wasn’t very nervous. But then again, Severus Snape had always terrified him.

“Both Terence and I work in the Ministry of Magic. I was taking a short cut through the Department of Mystery.”

“Are you a moron?” Snape asked. “I may have completely misjudged your intelligence.”

At least he wasn’t saying he didn’t believe him. “I know, it was stupid, but I had done it several times before. This time was different, I could hear my brother Fred calling for me. I followed his voice until I found a mirror. It showed Fred outside of our home, the Burrow, trying to get George to let him in. They were so young it felt like a dream. I touched the mirror; I don’t know why, more than I just missed him so much. Terence saw me and did the same, he came back but not to where I did.”

Bill stopped pacing. “Why did you miss him? Did he move away?”

“Fred fell in the final battle, along with two other people in this room.”

“You already told me that I died in the battle,” Remus said.

“And I died before that,” Sirius added.

The eyes went to Bill and a look of pity came over their faces. “Bill’s still alive in my time.” He looked at Snape. “Your death was spoken about extensively after the fact. Harry wanted your name cleared so there was a post-mortem inquiry.”

“Harry? Our Harry? Why would Harry want to clear the name of this scum? He’s a Death Eater, always has been, always will be. Just look at his arm,” Sirius roared.

“Tell them,” Terence said, looking at Snape.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Snape told them.

Percy knew he would die rather than give up his secret. He wanted to protect Harry for Lily and wouldn’t risk it.

“Severus Snape is Dumbledore’s spy, he has been since before Lily and James Potter’s death,” Percy said.

“What? That can’t be true,” Sirius said. Remus had been quiet since this all started but he usually had to think things through.

“How did you know?” Snape was up, pointing his wand at Percy. Severus Snape never looked scared, but Percy could see the flair of worry in his black eyes.

“Everyone knows. The inquiry turned over every stone in your past. You would have hated it, Professor,” Terence said with a smirk.

“It really was invasive. But it was the only way to clear your name. Some of the things you did under the disguise of a loyal Death Eater was called into question. But everyone knew you would stand out and be noticed if you didn’t go along. You saved so many people, including Harry, who you never did warm to, if I must say.”

“He didn’t warm up to anyone,” Terence added.

“But that’s expected after everything, right? He couldn’t trust anyone, not even the man he swore his allegiance to,” Percy said.

“Who is that? Voldemort?” Sirius sneered.

“Dumbledore. Snape knew he was keeping something from him, he just couldn’t figure it out. Not until it was too late that is.”

“What is it?” Snape asked. This time he looked sadly curious. He must already be having these doubts.

The only way to stop any of them from running to Dumbledore and telling him everything was to make them see what he had done.

“You gave your youth, future, and life to protect a child because you loved his mother. As long as he was alive, so was a part of Lily. It was the last thing you could do for her since you were unable to save her.”

“He was probably there,” Sirius said.

“Only Voldemort was there that night, but Snape did come when he found out what was going on. He was too late though. You didn’t think Dumbledore just went to check on the family that night, did you? Snape was the one that alerted him. Tell me when I say something wrong, Professor, after all, this is all hearsay since both you and Dumbledore were dead by the time that came out. Although I do have to admit your portraits are always arguing with each other.”

“Dumbledore is dead in your time?” Sirius asked.

“Yes.”

“What happened?” Remus asked.

“Probably old age,” Bill said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

“I’d rather not get into it,” Percy said.

He knew he had said the wrong thing because all of them were glaring at him. All except for Terence who just looked exasperated.

“What are you hiding?” Bill asked.

“Dumbledore was killed by his most loyal. This man was loyal enough to do what Dumbledore could not.”

“What in the bloody hell does that mean?” Sirius asked.

“It was me, wasn’t it?” Snape asked, no emotion on his pale face.

“He made you promise. A child, a Slytherin child was tasked with killing him. Everyone knew it was a death sentence for the child, he and his family had already served his purpose to Voldemort.” Bill hissed but Percy paid him no mind. “Dumbledore was already dying, you just saved him a painful death.”

“You’re lying, Dumbledore would never trust Snivellus,”

“For Merlin’s sake, we’re technically supposed to be the children, but you would never tell by the way you speak,” Terence told them.

“I’m glad everyone seems to believe us about our time travel. My plan was to get home as soon as possible but I don’t know what that would do to Lucy. Until I know, I won’t risk it.”

“Who’s Lucy?” Snape asked.

“I was pregnant when I came here. We had to do a memory charm on my family. They gave my baby to her other father. In my time, he’s a reformed man. But now, here, he is a dangerous, conniving, murderous Death Eater.”

“Who?” Snape asked.

The others knew but they didn’t speak up. “Lucius Malfoy.”

“We’re getting off topic here. Lucy’s paternity isn’t why we’re here. The reason why Dumbledore can’t know about what we are doing is because in our time he decided Harry was expendable,” Terence broke in.

“What do you mean?” Sirius asked.

Harry was with Mrs. Longbottom and her grandson until after the meeting. Because he knew it might get tense, he made sure Harry was out of the home. There weren’t a lot of people Sirius trusted with his godson, but the old woman was a tough old bird. She also thought it would be nice for her grandson to get to know Harry. She worried he would be a walking disaster at school. Percy couldn’t remember how many times he had found Neville outside the common room trying to remember the password. But she need not worry, Neville shows his mettle when it’s needed most.

“This is going to be hard to hear but I’ve heard this from Harry Potter’s own mouth.” He was three sheets to the wind at the time though. “There are seven magical artifacts that have a piece of Voldemort’s soul in them.”

“Horcruxes?” Snape said, finally looking shocked.

“Yes. I only know a few of them: Tom Riddle’s diary and the locket. He made six but one was made against his will the night he killed the Potters. They will be something that have historical importance or personal importance to him. Harry and Ron were very vague on this part, I believe because the Horcruxes were made with such dark magic, they have a hard time with how it made them feel. I don’t even think the three of them talk about it together.”

“The three?” Remus asked.

“The golden trio. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The three of them gave all the professors at Hogwarts a bigger headache than anything the Weasley twins or you Marauders did combined,” Terence unhelpfully filled in.

“We don’t know if they will become friends this time around. But like I said, Dumbledore had put it in Harry’s head early on that he would be the one to bring Voldemort down. He was the puppet master.”

“The what?” Sirius asked. He had forgotten the man was Wizard born and spent the last ten years in Azkaban.

“It means he pulls the strings and puts people where he wants them you dunderhead,” Snape said, he had a wicked smile, it was a bit frightening.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, stopping whatever Sirius was going to retort. “We need to stop Voldemort from coming back.”

“How did he come back before?” Snape asked. Percy was very shocked that Snape was so accepting, almost eager to find out about the future.

“Looking for tips?” Sirius snapped.

“Padfoot, please, you need to let this go. If Percy says he’s on our side, we have to believe that,” Remus said.

“Who says Percy is to be trusted?” Sirius bit back.

“Are you saying my little brother is lying?” Bill was now face to face with Sirius.

“Calm down, don’t get your robes in a twist. Pettigrew brought Voldemort back with some dark ritual.”

“Wormtail’s in Azkaban now, he can’t ever get out,” Remus said.

Terence and he exchanged an uncomfortable look. It didn’t go unnoticed.

“What was that about?” Snape asked.

“People can escape Azkaban. Sirius did it in our time. So did Barty Crouch Jr. then there was the mass escape of most of the Death Eaters.”

“That’s troubling,” Remus said.

“You said I died. Who got my vault at Gringotts?” Percy didn’t understand the longing for the answer in Snape’s eyes.

“Ummm…no one. It was sold off after the allotted time went by.”

“Oh.”

“What else do we need to know?” Sirius asked.