Prelude

Contemplating Matters

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore walked with steady pace near the edge of the Forbidden Forest as a sombre Severus Snape glared at him and shielded his eye against the now setting sun.

"So…" Snape said cutting the silence between the two men. "How long have you been planning this?" He asked Dumbledore.

"Ah Severus you know as well as I that I did not design this complex but genius plan but I am the one who will carry it out, well for my part at least" Albus Dumbledore said, Severus glared once again at the elderly man. He will never give a clear answer to anything. Snape thought to himself. "You are bothered by something my friend." Dumbledore then said it was not a question but a statement. Snape scowled as they edged ever closer to the forest.

"You seem to think that this plan will solve everything but how can it, especially in these dark times! She's a mere child! A young girl!" Snape said snapping slightly causing Dumbledore to laugh.

"Severus you know as well as I do that mere young woman can change a man's life forever." Dumbledore said. Snape's dark eyes instantly filled with hatred, his wand hand flexed causing Dumbledore to laugh once more. "Severus I mean nothing by that remark. Not what you think anyway. I was simply saying that young women can shape the world just the same as a man." Dumbledore said. Snape still shook his head at the idea, it seemed foolish that Dumbledore could place all the problems of the world on a child's shoulders, he'd already done that to the Potter brat and it hadn't gotten them many places. "Now Severus do not be so cruel" Dumbledore said, Snape froze where he stood and stared at the Headmaster.

"Since when have you been listening to my thoughts Albus?" Snape asked.

"I tune in and out, it is highly fascinating but I feel you are too hard on your Gryffindor students many a time. Plus Severus I hate to break this news to you but when you are angry they tend to broadcast themselves. I'd work on that" Dumbledore said. Snape ignored this remarks and asked Dumbledore why he believed this child to be the source of their unanswered questions "I don't'" replied Dumbledore "But I do believe that she could quite easily rewrite our futures." Dumbledore smiled, picked up his pace and started back towards the castle. Snape asked where he was going when there was still matters to been sorted. "Yes Severus but there is also students arriving in an hour that need to be sorted. Our 'matter' amongst them" Dumbledore said smiling. Snape sighed but followed the eccentric old man.

"Albus" he called.

"Yes Severus."

"I still don't agree on you employing Remus Lupin" Snape said scowling at the thought of that moronic werewolf. "Regardless to his relationship to Black"

"Oh I know Severus. I know" Dumbledore said, a small chuckle escaped his lips as he opened the front doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Snape emitted a low sigh and followed the Head Master up the steep stone steps muttering under his breath.

Meanwhile many miles away, more than Dumbledore could have guessed a fourteen year old girl life was about to change because of a simple package.