Life couldn't be much better for Severus and Avrille. They have a wonderful marriage, a healthy--though quite energetic--son, and the summer holiday is right around the corner. However, the mysterious events of one night in a faraway graveyard suddenly threaten everything they hold dear.

Knowing Severus is now going to be risking his life almost daily, Avrille comes to the quick conclusion that she can't sit idly by, doing nothing to help. But when she tells Severus of her wish to join the Order as well, he refuses to even discuss the possibility. However, Avrille has never been one to give up easily...

To escape the stress of recent events, Severus and Avrille take Char on his first trip to the seaside. While there, Severus finally comes to terms with the fact that he can't keep Avrille in the dark about Order matters any longer.

While helping Molly continue to clean headquaters, Avrille accidentally overhears a conversation she wishes she hadn't. A conversation with another Order member helps to rectify some of the prejudices she has toward Sirius Black, most of which were inherited from her relationship with Severus.

While Avrille assumes the only unusual event happening one day early in October is Severus's class inspection by Umbridge, she finds herself mistaken. That evening she receives an invitation to tea from a woman she has never met followed by a panicked plea for help from another woman she knows intimately.

Avrille proves she is able to hold her own by playing the part of a loyal Death Eater's wife while meeting with Narcissa Malfoy. However, when Avrille returns home to Hogwarts later that night, she is unable to stop herself from speaking her mind when she discovers a favourite student has been mistreated.

During the course of her administrative work for him, Dumbledore reluctantly asks Avrille to undertake a dangerous but vital mission to aid his quest of unearthing the secret of Voldemort's immortality.

Avrille arrives at the location of her mission for Professor Dumbledore: Wren Hill Mental Asylum. Darkness is falling fast. In the untamed woods surrounding the hospital, Avrille encounters the chilling guardian of Lord Voldemort's dangerous secret.

With a disturbing suspicion growing in the back of her mind, Avrille delves into the long-forgotten patient records of Wren Hill Mental Asylum with hopes of uncovering the true identity of the lost little boy in the woods.

Avrille returns safely to Hogwarts from her mission for Professor Dumbledore. Unfortunately, she soon finds Severus is already back and demanding an explanation for her absence.

An expected visitor arrives for New Year's and Char's birthday. Avrille is told a secret about her birth that seems to provide an answer to her biggest mystery.

Avrille's nightmares continue with increasing frequency and violence. A few days after Severus's disasterous confrontation with Carrington, Avrille is summoned again to Malfoy Manor for a mysterious meeting of her own.

After Professor Dumbledore sustains a life-threatening injury, Severus can no longer delay informing Avrille of a difficult decision he's come to over the past few months, a decision that will require all of those involved to make immense sacrifices.

The Ministry has fallen and Lord Voldemort rewards Severus for his "faithful" service by appointing him headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While he's waiting to take up his new post, Voldemort also grants Severus three days' leave to visit Avrille and Char in Nova Scotia.

Still reeling from the fall-out of the events in the Shrieking Shack, Severus follows Lord Voldemort to the Forbidden Forest to await the arrival of Harry Potter, who Severus knows must die in order for the war to have any chance of being won.

They all exit...