Chapter One: Cold Summer
I disclaim anything recognized here! All I own (sorta, kinda) is Kailey/Keena. The rest belongs to J. K. Rowling!
To those of you, who have followed the story from the beginning, welcome back!
To those just joining us, here's a small summary of recent events:
Alright, here's the deal. Kailey is finally back in her own time after 21 years of being in the past. The Harry Potter book series exist in this story and she is the only one who knows about them and has so far had access to books 1-6. She has just found out that her father is the one and only Professor Severus Snape (well-despised school enemy of the Marauders) and she is stuck at Hogwarts with him for the summer (at least that's where we begin). This story is some-what close to canon as far as time and places go, can't really say about the events because I haven't written any yet!
We start off in the summer before the Golden Trio's third year (well, it's not a trio in my story, it's a quartet). James and Lily are secretly alive (only Kailey/Keena, Remus and Dumbledore know) and still searching for the remaining Horcruxes as well as a cure for Lycanthropy. Harry, Ron and Hermione don't know that Kailey went back in time and is 'Keena'. I'm pretty certain that's the important stuff…so enjoy! And if you have any questions please review because I don't get the emails!
I jerked awake at the sound of a knock on my door in Snape's Hogwarts quarters. He always woke me up early so that we could start improving my potions skills as soon as possible.
It was mid-July and he had started calling me by my first name and was no longer afraid to come into my Slytherin plagued room to rip the covers off of me so that I would get out of bed faster. Lucky me.
"Come, we don't have time for this, you will miss breakfast. The minister will be most displeased if 'Keena' is late,"
"Minister?" I asked, groggily, rubbing my eyes and trying to reclaim my bed covers.
"Yes, 'Keena' has promised to escort him to Azkaban today," I think he was angrier that I would be missing a potions class than the fact that I was going to the lair of Dementors. "Now, up,"
Half an hour later I was sitting in the Great Hall with the few teachers that had remained to finish up some last minute work. They included McGonagall, Snape (obviously), Flitwick, Dumbledore (again, no surprise) and a couple of other professors who I was not familiar with.
"So, Ms. Macauley, your father is allowing you to visit a friend today?" Flitwick asked kindly. "That should be fun. Better than staying in this place by yourself the whole summer,"
"It'll be interesting, that's for sure," Snape shot me a look. "Sir," I added hastily and Snape returned to his plate. Damn manners…
It was arranged that Dumbledore would be bringing me to the ministry himself to make certain that there was no foul play, so we would be using a portkey. I transformed into Keena as I would transform into my animagus form and we portkeyed to the ministry, straight into the minister's office. He started visibly when he realized that Dumbledore and I were standing in front of him.
"Right on time, I see," he said, putting away a gold pocket watch, along with that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet, and placing his green bowler hat onto his head. "I trust you are ready to go, Ms. McIntosh?"
"As ready as I ever will be to visit Azkaban," I replied, not bothering to return the smile. It had been a long time since my last encounter with a dementor and I was not looking forward to the trip in the least.
"Right, then, I have another portkey for us to use. The guards will lead us around. They have been instructed to leave you alone, what with your history with them," he added. "What was the name of your child to be?" he asked tactlessly. Aradia, you son-of-a...
"That is neither here nor there, Minister," Dumbledore interjected before I was able to lose my temper out loud. "I will see you back at the castle, Keena," he added before turning to floo back to Hogwarts. As his cloak disappeared in the green flame, the minister held out a golden eyeglass. I put my finger to it and we were dragged away to the Isle of Azkaban.
We landed just outside the doors of the massive fortress. The skies were gray, though no rain was falling. The seas were lapping against the shore in a slightly ominous manner. I shivered at the familiar feeling of a dementor's cold and wrapped my arms around myself, putting up the weak occlumency shield that I had developed at Snape's insistence since the end of term. Dementors were, after all, skilled at legilimens.
Fudge and I walked up to the large, stone doors and waited for a moment before they creaked open. Inside stood (or floated rather) a seven foot tall, hooded monster. A cool mist radiated around its body as it gestured for us to enter. As soon as we were both through the door, the dementor waved a hand and the door shut and bolted. It didn't take long for my head to begin aching at the memories of the war and the deaths I had seen. Fudge and I walked along in silence through the massive prison, and I barely registered the fact that as we went along, the screams from the cells became dimmer. The older prisoners tended to stare off into space, a glazed expression masking any thoughts they may have been having.
We reached a bolted door and the dementor opened it with another wave of its hand. It was the high security section of the prison. The cells were smaller and farther apart and all of the prisoners were obviously in a stage of insanity. Suddenly, a hand flew out from behind the bars, gripping my left arm tightly, digging their nails through my cloak and into my skin. I whipped out my wand and produced a stinging hex, ignoring the screams of curses that issued from the prisoner's mouth.
"She needs stricter security," I observed, taking a closer look at the offending person.
"Make it as strict as you like, love, my master will come, you will see!" Bellatrix shrieked as Fudge edged behind the dementor.
"McIntosh, come, ignore her," Fudge said, obviously wanting to get as far away from her as possible. "And you are right, she does need tighter chains," he added to the dementor, which nodded.
No other prisoners reached out of their cells, though some did shout obscenities at us as we passed. Fudge was flustered by this and had taken out his newspaper, looking as though he would strike anyone who dare try and touch him.
"Ah, a quiet one, well isn't that strange?" he said stopping in front of the last cell, I didn't bother to look in; if he got punched after harassing one of these loonies I wasn't going to help. "Don't you have anything to say to us, Black?"
I couldn't help but give a little gasp and look inside the cell. Sirius looked up at me, a changed man. His handsome face was barely a shadow behind his waxy skin. His once mischievous eyes were shrouded in cold darkness and his hair was lank and long and he had a scraggly beard that did not suit him. I could barely make out the recognition in his eyes as they locked onto mine. He stood, cautiously, and made his way over to the door of the cell, resting his hands on the bars.
"Lied when they said nothing beautiful ever came in here," his voice was cracked and his spirit was all but gone. He attempted a grin but all that came out was a grimace.
"I'll let you two catch up," Fudge followed the dementor to the end of the hall before going behind another door. I shivered as another spike of cold went out throughout the fortress.
"You're lucky; there are usually ten dementors in here at once. It's never empty," Sirius muttered bitterly, noticing my shiver.
"Fudge promised that they wouldn't bother me, what with my 'history' with them," I answered in equal bitterness. I still had nightmares about Aradia's ghost blaming me for not protecting her.
"When did you get on his good side?" Sirius observed.
"He's punishing me one last time, I'm going to be a third year again this year," I answered. "There have been a number of issues involving a certain Dark Lord and he's convinced that I'm behind it all because of my connection to you," I added.
"Knew he was smart," Sirius said, shaking his head. "So, why did you never tell me I'd end up here?"
"I never intended to let you," I replied. Sliding my arms through the bars, I reached out to him for a hug. He gave it to me and I began to slide something to him through my sleeve. He pulled back and touched the spot under his shirt.
"How? I thought they destroyed the prisoners' wands," he whispered, not that his croak was much louder. I shook my head.
"The wand goes to the heir, I lied and said I was pregnant again," I answered. "They let me keep it anyway. I was just a crazy girl after all,"
"I remembered I was innocent, if you can't tell," he added. "I don't know if I would have figured it out otherwise."
"You would have," I whispered back as the door at the end of the hall began to creak open. "Padfoot will escape," I added quietly as the minister and the dementor came back.
"They have chained Lestrange to the walls, for now," the minister announced proudly. "Come; let us leave this desolate place, it is infested with cold."
"Just as Hogwarts is infested with rats," I replied. Sirius straightened ever so slightly before making his way back to his corner.
"Rats? Are the houselves slacking off?"
"No, it's the cats, I told Dumbledore we should use dogs instead but he won't listen to me," I replied as we began to walk away from Sirius' cell. I only hoped that Sirius understood my message.
Once we stood outside the fortress, Fudge stuck his hand out for me to shake. "You have served the ministry for a long time. However, the era that you served in has ended. Thank you for your service. And good luck looking abroad," I blinked, and then nodded.
That's it then…my last day as Keena…maybe even forever…How strange…
I apparated to Hogsmeade and went up to the castle where Snape would be waiting to give me another lesson.
There was a loud slam and I sat bolt upright in bed. Snape may have been lacking in the courtesy to let me sleep in, but he hadn't ever slammed the door open. I didn't have much time to digest what was going on as suddenly all the lights in the room came blazing on. To my unpleasant surprise I found myself facing not only a livid potions master but a furious Dumbledore.
Neither said a word as Dumbledore dropped a piece of parchment onto my bed. I looked down at it and picked it up. It was a letter from the ministry. I scanned the letter before closing my eyes, thinking of the right words to say.
"Has the castle been broken into?" I asked.
"No," Dumbledore replied.
"Anybody dead?"
"No," he repeated.
"Then why the bloody hell am I awake?" I asked, finally opening my eyes to glare at both men. "I told you that I would inform you of what was important."
"A mass murderer escapes from a high security cell in Azkaban a week after you visit him and you think that this is not important?" Snape hissed.
"First off, I, Kailey, did not visit him, Keena did," Snape glowered. "Second off, no I don't think that it's important, at least not enough so to wake me up at," I paused to look at my watch. "Three in the morning! Are you both mental? Who writes letters at this time of night?"
"Watch your tongue," Snape reprimanded. Late night or early morning, neither suited Snape's temper. Apparently I did receive a few traits from him.
"Look, I told you that I wouldn't be telling you everything that is going to happen. I would have thought that had become obvious over the course of these past years," I continued glaring at Dumbledore. "Just because I'm back in my proper time doesn't mean I'm going to change that. Now," I wrenched my covers back out of Snape's hands. "I want to go back to sleep,"
Too short of a time later, Snape woke me up, though he did not yell at me to get ready to go to the Great Hall.
"I have decided against giving you lessons today," he replied when I asked him what we would be doing. "The Headmaster believes some quality time shall relieve us of some tension,"
I snorted.
"That was my initial reaction as well," Snape replied, nodding.
"So…what's this quality time thing going to consist of?" I asked after a moment of silence while I fiddled with my blanket.
"Perhaps we could discuss the years that I have missed out on. I don't think you need to hear about my childhood as you were there in disguise," he answered.
"You didn't miss much," I answered, shaking my head. "Life didn't get interesting until I came here,"
"Good, we have something in common," Snape nodded. "Do you have any—er—questions?"
I thought for a moment. "Can I get dressed? Then it we could have this discussion in the living room or something," Raising an eyebrow, Snape nodded and exited the room allowing me a couple of minutes to myself to get ready for the day.
I entered the living room a few minutes later and sat down on the cool, black leather couch, across from where Snape sat on a recliner, reading a book. Most likely on Potions.
"What're you reading?" I asked when he didn't look up.
"The Headmaster gave it to me a few days ago," he answered, setting the book down but dodging my question.
"What's it about?" I persisted. In all honesty I was hoping it was a fluffy romance novel. A good laugh is the best way to start the day after all, especially after the initial rude awakening I had suffered.
"It's a book on parenting. I skipped the baby chapters and am trying to figure out how to get a teenage girl to talk openly to you,"
"Usually the right to talking about girl stuff is reserved for the mom," I answered. "But if you really want to discuss tampons--"
"No! That's quite alright, I can wait!" I couldn't suppress my laughter as Snape turned Gryffindor red. "It's not funny," he tried to glare, but it came out more of a smirk.
"It really is because just think of all the times you're going to have to run to the store and get me my necessities," I replied with a smirk of my own.
"This is not what I had in mind for bonding," he said, rubbing his temples.
"Get used to it," I paused unsure of what to call him. "What am I supposed to call you? And don't say 'Sir' or 'Professor' because I don't know any kids who call their parents that."
Snape blinked at me before turning to face the fireplace. "You may call me whatever you wish," he answered quietly.
"Would it bother you if I called you 'Dad'?"
"Not if it made you feel more comfortable around me," he answered honestly. "I don't know whether you care or not, but I was glad when Dumbledore told me that my daughter would be attending Hogwarts. He did not inform me who it was but told me to watch to figure it out."
"Bet you didn't think you'd get landed with a Gryffindor, huh?" I asked with a grin. "Speaking of Gryffindor," I added. The look on Snape's face turned slightly sour. "Whether you like it or not, I'm Gryffindor and as such I do not appreciate a Slytherin dictated room. So…when can I redecorate?"
"That question is assuming I allow it," he answered curtly.
"You're not serious are you?" I asked, my voice going low and quiet. "Because if you are then I'm going to go and live in the Gryffindor common room,"
"You may redecorate, but only your room. Sometimes I find myself host to people who do not appreciate inter-house relations. And I offer tutor the more needy of the Slytherins in the extra potions lab. It would not do for them to know I tolerated anything having to do with Gryffindor,"
"Hate to break it to you, but isn't that what you did in the war? Betrayed the Dark Dude in favor of Dumbles?" I asked, lightheartedly with a large, goofy grin.
He scowled. "Obviously those years in the past with Black and Potter have permanently damaged your common sense. Do you have any idea as to how the Dark Lord would react to that?"
"I suspect he'd kill me, but then again if I ever met him he'd probably just kill me anyway," I shrugged. "Besides, death is his fear, not mine," I replied, switching my position on the couch so that I was upside down.
"What are you doing?" he was scowling once more.
"Trying to get comfortable, this leather is so slippery," I answered, continuing to wiggle. "So, when do I get to visit my friends? Or when are we leaving here?"
"I was under the impression that you, as most other students do, assumed that I lived here," was the reply I got. "We'll most likely not go home this year seeing as there is a convict on the loose,"
"You've got to be kidding me," I rolled my eyes and turned over on my stomach so that I could bang my head against the rug. "You honestly think he's that much of a danger?"
"Yes and with that attitude you will most definitely be staying at the castle for the duration of the holidays. You obviously do not understand the gravity of the situation,"
"The only situation that I see is my being stuck in a Slytherin clad apartment in a large, empty castle all by myself. What about Diagon Alley? Could I meet up with my friends there?"
"That depends on how much help you need in Potions for the rest of this week."
"But I'm ahead now!"
"You are nowhere near where I was in school,"
Our conversation ended there and Snape picked up his book once more and opened it to the book mark. Finally, I became sick of the silence and got up off of the couch. I went into my room and came back out holding a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink.
"I'm going to the owlery," I stated. He nodded in reply and I left the room. Once I arrived in the room I couldn't make up my mind on who I wanted to write to. Hermione was still in France judging by what she had told me in her last letter and Ron was in Egypt for the rest of
the month. Remus was an option, though he would most likely be furious with me for not stopping Sirius from getting out of Azkaban. I could've written to Lily and James but I didn't really fancy explaining to them why I was staying at Hogwarts yet. That left Harry.
I wrote a letter to him explaining how Snape had taken to giving me potions lessons everyday and how we had actually started to become much more civil with one another. I also mentioned something about maybe meeting him and the others in Diagon Alley one weekend. It wasn't until I reached the end of my letter that I remembered what day tomorrow was. I swore quietly to myself and wrote "P.S. Happy thirteenth birthday Harry!" and ran out of the owlery, clutching my letter and going to look for Snape.
"I don't know what you expect to find for him," Snape grumbled as I darted around Zonko's shop in Hogsmeade. "Anything you get him here is forbidden to use in the Muggle world as well as at Hogwarts," he added, throwing a glare at another customer who had given the pair of us a funny look. Apparently the people of Hogsmeade recognized Snape and couldn't figure out why he was with a student.
I stopped my search for a moment to roll my eyes at him. "Since when have my friends and I ever followed those kinds of rules?" I asked, going over to the other side of the shop by some of the more exciting looking items.
"You will follow them this year," he stated. I snorted.
"Oh, this is perfect," I muttered, picking up the small, golden ball. The label said that it was meant to look like a snitch, but would hover next to a person and record whatever he or she said before going back to its owner. "What d'you think?"
"If he ever uses that for what I think he'll use it for, I'll give you the detention," he muttered, walking over to the counter and digging some gold out of his pocket.
There's the end of Chapter One! I hope that it made sense and that you enjoyed it! Please review if you have any questions and I will address them when I next post! Until Chapter 2!
:-D