A/N Welcome to Series Three Book Three. This wicked little book will explore the dastardliness of what an Obliviation charm can do, and give one a look at one of the most difficult moments of Severus Snape's life...and therefore perhaps one of his best. It's a book that asks questions of "what if" and begins to ask the question what is "harm." This book without question a romance laced with lots of adventure, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you're new to the series three, it begins with Jennifer Craw and the Diamonds of Time. If you want to start with series one, that begins with Jennifer Craw and the Phoenix Wand. Thanks for all the support, and I hope you enjoy the book. Latest Revision date: 5-2016

Chapter One

Elsewhere

It had begun with a simple note.

Severus Snape, Defense professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and temporary Co-Headmaster, was not immediately alarmed when he had gotten the Minister of Magic's Owl Post asking if he knew where Jennifer was. But he was definitely puzzled as he glanced between it and his pocket watch that pointed to his wife as being, "Elsewhere."

It was not completely unlike his wife to wander off and have adventures without telling him. What wasn't like her was to forget something like picking up her oldest two children Alexandria and Aurelius from the train when they got off for the summer holiday. What disturbed Severus the most was how his Dragonheart diamond ring looked. It was in tune with her emotions, the color a reflection her every mood and sometimes giving him warning that her patience with him was coming to an end. Now, however, the ring was as pale as he was. He had only seen it that clear when she was either in a deep dreamless sleep or on the rare occasions she had taken it off. Neither of those made much sense, however, considering she was "Elsewhere." At least, he thought as he attempted to keep himself calm, it wasn't stuck on "Mortal Peril."

He had been in the Headmaster's Study at the time that the note arrived. He had been buried under a pile of letters that needed sent out; school correspondence that had gotten neglected while he was helping with the negotiations between goblins and the current Ministry. To say it had been shaky over the last year would have been an understatement. A series of strange events had taken up his attention, including a strange 'princess' being found and the Fomorian race being held captive by Ciardoth in an ancient goblin city. And those two events had increased the tension between goblins and wizards to escalate to nearly the point of war. But with the help of the school's goblin librarian, Boulderdash, Harry Potter, and Jennifer (not to mention a fluke curse that made the goblins more open to accepting outside help), those tensions finally eased and both sides were willing to compromise again.

School correspondence was once again abandoned with Jennifer's disappearance, and Severus paced the office waiting for more word. He climbed up to the Observatory, looking out at the rain that had begun to fall not long before the note came.

A very irate bat darted in from the cloud soaked night without a note. His wife's familiar was making enough of a fuss that he had Severus' full attention as he tried to calm the usually lethargic bat down. The sinking feeling of dread that had been descending on Severus was getting worse; he had never seen Ratfly act like this before. He rubbed the bat's neck gently.

"Go find her, Ratfly," Severus said after a moment. "Tell her to come home." Immediately the fruit bat took off and flew into the rain. That was the last that Severus saw of the bat for quite some time.

It had been Rose Bailey's mother, Ashley, who had seen the two Snape children standing with their carts alone in the rain on Platform 9 3/4. She had waited with them for a while, chatting with them to keep them company as well as to get information as to where their other two siblings were. Finally, she packed them up and took them over to the Weasley's house.

Molly Weasley wasted no time getting Alexandria and Aurelius to change into dry clothes and get cups of warm cocoa in their hands. Then she sent them upstairs to wait with their other brother and sister, Andrew and Alicia.

Alex quickly got a fire going in Andrew's room and the four of them gathered on the bed. The walls were bare and drawers empty as Andrew had already packed to head home, but nobody seemed to mind not having their games out much, content to sit on the bed and talk about school and about Aurelius' birthday in two days. But all of them were distracted by the noises of people coming and going downstairs, and Alex got up and went to the window in time to see Arthur meeting up with Minister Brown, Thurspire, and a large team of Enforcers on the lawn, Disapparating all out at once.

"Where do you suppose Mum went?" Alex asked, folding her arms against the chill air.

"Probably off to save the world again," Aurelius said acidly.

"Not now, Rel, can't you see that everyone's genuinely worried?" Alex said, heading back to the bed. "This isn't normal."

"Why are you angry at Mum this time, Aurelius?" Alicia asked.

"Aurelius and I got into a slight argument about a school matter a month ago, and I'm afraid he's not gotten over it yet," Alex said.

"She accused me of pulling a wand on you! You expect me to forgive that?" Aurelius snapped.

"Now, Aurelius, we know you'd never pull a wand on a sibling. Except maybe Corey," Andrew amended.

"He's not a sibling," Aurelius said flatly.

"Look, your wand came out. It looked pretty bad and we were fighting, Rel," Alex said. "Besides, considering no one seems to know where she is, you could try to be a bit more supportive."

"Well, I'm frightened," Alicia admitted, pulling her legs to her chest. "I want to know what's going on."

"I guess that's my cue, isn't it?" Andrew said, the other three sets of eyes on him as he stood up. "You sit tight. I'll go hang downstairs until I find something out." As quick as a wink, Andrew disappeared.

At the end of his last year at Stoddard, Andrew Albus Snape had been voted unanimously by his classmates as the student most likely to have been switched at birth. He was patient and kind, quiet and attentive, and yet still outgoing enough to jump into any class project that happened to be in the works, a think tank that preferred to sit back and let someone else take on the headache as leader. But although he had gotten along with all of his classmates well, there was never one or another that he particularly was close to. And his talent as much as any other of the Snape's talents had to be a safely guarded secret, for Andrew could make himself nearly undetectable at will.

That talent had proved to be quite useful over the years in his never-ending quest to fill his stomach, as well as overhearing adult conversations he wasn't supposed to be privy to. That hadn't always worked at home, however, for his father often wore a chain that told when someone else was around. But Andrew had found on those occasions that if he kept his mind on his food run and not particularly on the conversation they were having, the chain seemed to ignore him. But that did, of course, mean quite a number of food runs whenever he wanted to learn anything in the Broom Closet.

The Weasleys, however, didn't seem to have such troublesome devices, and Andrew had soon taken to the habit of sitting on the steps invisible in the evenings and listening to Arthur talk with guests of every sort, barging in for one reason or another to discuss something that happened at the Ministry.

That rather took an unexpected turn one day when they were talking at breakfast, and Andrew had forgotten himself and made a rather startling conclusion to one of the problems to what Arthur had been working on. In fact, what he had forgotten most was the fact that Arthur and Molly listened to them, and that Arthur was quite interested in the insightful ideas that Andrew came up with.

That had been the first weekend that Arthur had invited Andrew with him to the Ministry on the odd Sunday that he went, and Andrew had learned quite a lot from those visits, not that much really happened there on the weekends. One thing he learned was how to never take anything at face value. It was an important lesson for someone with such an uncanny talent for information gathering.

Those talents were certainly going to come into play now, he knew, and Andrew took his position as 'family spy' even more seriously than usual, sitting on the step and waiting for something to happen. Only Molly was there at that moment, cleaning the kitchen while taking a break every now and then to check her knitting project… probably a new jumper for Aurelius' birthday, Andrew thought, for it was made in green wool yarn. Then she straightened the living room, not that it needed it… it was busy work, he realized, trying to keep herself occupied. Finally the door opened and Arthur came in, drenched from his reddish silvery hair down to his boots and a solemn expression to match.

"No luck?" Molly asked, knowing the answer already.

"Hermione is on her way to the school now to take his place. I expect he'll be arriving soon. It'd probably be best if they stayed here another night," Arthur said.

"Yes, you're right. I'll make up some hot drinks and try to get them settled in, then," Molly said, going over to the wood stove and getting out a pot and getting out the milk. "What should I tell them, Arthur?"

"Tell them… we're doing our best," Arthur said quietly. Just then there was a pounding at the door and Andrew slipped down a couple more steps to see Arthur open it up, letting Severus in.

"So? What happened? Any sign of her? Where is she?" Severus asked. Arthur put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

"I just got back from Diagon Alley, Severus, I have a full team down there now. So far we know that she had been seen at Gringotts sometime between six and seven. After that, we can't find anything."

"She was going to go to Knockturn Alley," Severus said. "Why aren't you looking there?"

"We talked to all the shop owners in Knockturn, but none of them report her having come in tonight."

"Of course they wouldn't report it! It's Knockturn!" Severus snapped.

"Severus, Jennifer to her credit has always been very open about any business she has in Knockturn, and despite its… problems, I believe the shops are truthful in saying they hadn't done business with her. Whatever happened either happened somewhere in between or somewhere else entirely, but right now there is no evidence that anything at has happened, other than the fact she is missing." Arthur said. "Have you any idea where else she might have gone?"

"No, the only other place would have been is at the station," Severus replied.

"Thurspire has some men there now," Arthur said.

"Then I'm going."

"I'll join you."

"We'll just keep the children here tonight, Severus. You just take care of what you have to," Molly assured him.

"Don't tell them too much," Severus warned.

"I won't worry them," Molly assured him as the two men went back out into the rain.

Andrew slipped upstairs as Molly finished pouring the milk into cups, slipping in the door and turning visible, quickly hushing their questions and sitting on the bed. She knocked and peered in, pushing the door open when she saw they were all there.

"I thought I'd bring you something to help you sleep. It seems you'll all be staying here with me tonight, just like old times," she said cheerfully, handing them each a cup while they thanked her quietly. "You need me to help you through your trunks for your bed things?"

"We're all right, Mrs. Weasley," Alex insisted. "Any word about Mum?"

"Oh, nothing to worry about, Alexandria, I'm sure she just got waylaid somewhere," Molly said pulling Alex's bangs out of her face. "She's a very accomplished witch and I dare think she can take care of herself. But since it's so late and she's been delayed, we all thought it'd be best if you stayed here one more night. Well, I suppose I'd be making up your beds, shouldn't I?"

"If it's all the same," Andrew said, "I think we'd rather all just stay in here for the night." The others quickly agreed, valiantly attempting to prove to Molly that they could all fit in the same bed still.

"Making a sleeping party out of it, are we?" Molly smiled. It was a very strained smile. "All right then! But do get your sleep. And I'm sure when you wake up in the morning, everything will be all right," she assured them, closing the door behind herself and resisting the urge to collapse.

"Everything's not really going to be all right, is it?" Alicia asked quietly. Andrew slowly shook his head.