Hello, I hope you like this. It is a bit different than other stories but that is what makes it a story, right. Originality! Enjoy and please review! This is my first story on Fanfiction.net and I really love this storyline. This story involves a pairing with Severus Snape and this chapter will give you an idea who it is. If you do not like this pairing then I am sorry. Do not criticize me because you don't like it. I am not responsible for you.
Summary: When Harry James Potter was born, Severus Snape decided to let the past lie. Now it is coming back to haunt him. 5th year
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP- order of the phoenix because even though this is a 5th story it coincides with the actual novel so it is not completely AU
Jaded Eyes
Chapter One
"By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule –
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of Space – Out of Time."
~ Dream-Land, Edgar Allen Poe
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place was the vision of all things of a family of the Dark Arts. She remembered stories that Sirius Black had told her of his childhood home. He had mentioned how his parents had hated that he had been in Gryffindor House instead of Slytherin, (which was back in the days of the great Slytherin/ Gryffindor inter-house 'war' and she was not quite sure if that still existed).
The steps she noted upon stepping on were crumbling and were in need of repairing. The wispy trees moved in the storm winds and the rain beat down hard on her head. She bent her head and back and moved quickly to the wooden door. She rapped on the door three times and stood bowing her head against the rain. She vaguely noticed that the door knocker was a serpent handle.
Suddenly the door opened and she was swept into a heated room. Motherly words greeted her as hands helped her out of her sodden cloak. Her modest green robes shone dully by the firelight. She looked up and thanked her greeter as the older woman placed a cozy blanket about her shoulders.
"Hello, Molly," she whispered as the plump, auburn haired woman gathered her into a warm embrace effectively keeping the coverlet on her. The older woman smelled lightly of vanilla and she breathed in the scent contentedly.
"I can't believe it is you," said Molly as she hugged the smaller one tighter. She pulled back and stared into jaded emerald eyes. She placed her hands on either side of the stranger's face and studied her as unshed tears made her blue eyes sparkle. Jewel adorned hands lifted and were placed over the resting ones on her face.
Slowly the hands came down and stayed at each ones respected sides.
Arms wrapped around her from behind and a strong chin rested on her shoulder. A familiar fragrance wafted under her nose and she smiled. "Hello Remus."
"Welcome home, Lily."
Lily turned in his hug and smiled at him making him grin like a school boy whose house had just won the Quidditch Cup. She lifted her arms around his neck and squeezed gently, leaning in to his strong frame. (The blanket surprisingly staying perched on her back). She pressed her face into his robes and breathed in deeply. She sighed and looked up from his chest and a silly smile on her lightly freckled face.
"Oh, Remus Lupin, I can't believe you! Look at you! You are just the same! You look the same and you even smell the same!"
He chuckled pulling her back into his arms. "Lily, I missed you."
"Oh, Remus, you have no idea how many times I wished I was back in Seventh Year with you and James and Peter, (who can just rot) and Sirius." She stopped and looked around the room. It was empty except for her, Remus, and Molly. She turned back to the blond haired man, her brow furrowing. "Where is Sirius?"
"He's upstairs. He's been there ever since we received your first letter last month explaining, well, about Harry and James and…"(He stopped himself from saying the name of the next person when he saw the pained expression on Lily's face). "…him. He only comes down to eat his meals and then he goes back to his room and sulks."
All joy and contentment fled from the woman's face as she closed her eyes to hold back the tears. She nervously bit her lip.
"You know that the only reason I came back was for Harry because I had truly been hiding for long enough. I had wished that I could have stayed hidden, stayed dead but… I knew that what was going to happen that Harry would need me. The changes that will occur will hurt him physically and mentally and his world will change.
"Dumbledore told me that he had to see one of his classmates be murdered by V-Voldemort. This could destroy him, Remus. I wonder how I will feel when I have destroyed his life. Will he understand? I can only hope. Will Severus understand?"
A bitter laugh escaped her.
"No... Because James and I kept him from his son, from happiness for once in his life, he'll hate me. I am afraid that Harry will hate me to. I could stand it if Severus hates but Harry staring at me with my eyes in the face of Severus Snape and loathing me makes me feel so small.
"Sirius can hate me and God forbid, he can hate James. But we did what we did to save lives and I will stand by that till the day I… well I can't say die because I believe that would be a tad unorthodox."
"Lily," said Molly's voice, slightly shaky. "Come to the kitchen and have a cup of tea. Everyone's waiting to see you."
Lily smiled gently at her older friend before her gaze traveled to the stairs. "I really should talk to him. I know how much he hated Severus."
"Give your mind a rest before taking on such a challenge! Lily, Lily, Lily… You are just like before always studious, always thinking, always having concern over someone… Don't worry so much. I am sure that he will get over it. Just give him time. I know he is dying to see you.
"Now don't give me that look I pride myself in being able to read people and Merlin, that man is stubborn. He's rivaled only by my youngest son, Ron, who you'll get to meet of course. You should ask him about Harry and you can ask Hermione to. They are his best friends. Ron is Ron and Hermione reminds me so much of you. Ask them about Harry because I can tell you want to know it all."
Tears began a steady course from emerald eyes. "It's sad, Molly, that I don't even know who my son's friends are."
She felt Remus place a hand on her shoulder just as Molly reassured her that that was going to change now.
"Hermione quit bouncing in your seat!"
"Ron, quit being such a git. You know that I positively hate surprises."
"Believe me. I've noticed."
The glare that she sent him seemed cold enough to freeze dragon's fire. He coughed a bit and squirmed in his chair as Nyphadora Tonks and Mundungus Fletcher laughed at his suspense. He coughed once more and straightened his back trying to appear less bothered by the staring and the glaring and the laughing.
"Hermione," Tonks started smiling knowingly. "You have nothing to worry about."
"But… But…You said that this has something to do with Harry and you won't tell us if anything is wrong with him. And how come you let me and Ron in here when Fred, George and Ginny were sent to bed and locked in their rooms. I am sorry Tonks but I just want to know what is going on!"
Her wild eyes suddenly turned to the kitchen door as it was pushed open. Mrs. Weasley stepped in and was followed by Lupin guiding a woman into the kitchen. Her green robes hung off of her thin frame and her hair was in rippling waves off a slightly darker auburn than that of Mrs. Weasley. And her eyes were deep emerald like she had never seen before so intense and sad.
Wait one minute, I have seen those eyes before their…their…
"RON!"
The said boy broke his gaze on the strange woman and jumped off of his chair. He stared at his friend like she had grown two extra heads. She stood up quickly making her chair topple to the floor. She gripped the red head's arm in a vice grip and began hopping up and down.
"Bloody hell!" (He promptly ignored the scowl on his mother's face at the use of his language). "What are you Hermione, the amazing bouncing Ninny?" (In a dark corner, Alastor Moody snorted into his drink).
"Ron! She is… Oh my…" She turned to the wide eyed Lily. "But you are supposed to be…" She turned back to Ron. "Ron, can you believe…" She looked back to Lily. "Are you really?"
Lily looked as if she had been hit with a Stunning spell (or Ron thought she looked as if she had bit down on one of Hagrid's rock cakes). She blinked several times and looked to Remus, who rested both his hands on her back and pushed her into a chair.
"Perhaps you'd better explain, Lily."
She took notice of how the boy's eyes widened and looked to the girl. The girl said something that began to make the boy speak in an undertone. She seemed scared and joyful at the same time.
"I sent the letter so I would only have to explain once, Remus! And here you are making me do it again! Once was hard enough!"
He lowered his voice so that Ron and Hermione would not hear. "You don't have to explain about Snape or Harry or the Blooding, but tell them how you survived. It might do us all some good to actually hear it coming from you and it might do you some good to." He smiled broadly as she nodded looking ahead.
Remus stood and shuffled Hermione (who was bounding up and down on the balls of her feet) and Ron (who walked jerkily like he thought that something would jump out at him) over to Lily. Hermione sat in the seat at the end of the table and to the side of her and Ron sat across from her while Remus took the seat next to her.
"Are you Harry's mum?" This statement had come surprisingly from the boy whose eyes kept darting to the sides. Finally they came to rest on hers and stared. "Harry's eyes…" He mumbled under his breath.
"How did you survive?" This statement had come from the girl who seemed to have calmed down into a kind of reverence and seemed content at the moment.
Lily looked to Remus who gave her a patient smile and gestured her to continue.
"Yes, umm… I am Harry's mum but please call me Lily… I survived by, well…" She took a deep breath and began again. "I am alive thanks to a spell I invented to keep my son safe. It was a fairly complex spell and I never told anyone of it for fear that it would not work. It would enable me to create a duplicate of myself to protect my son while the real me stayed somewhere safe.
"I know it sounds cowardly and it sounds like I just gave my son up to the mercy of the Dark Lord, but you see the duplicate was not real in a sense. Oh, how can I … It did not have a soul but it had a body and in such a body can die. I was linked to the duplicate so you could say that I was its soul but a soul can only choose to be in one place at one time.
"I had a potion that I had hung around my neck that was spelled to work like the actual incantation. I faced Voldemort and I pleaded with him to spare Harry. When I saw that he would not (though there really was no hope in it anyway) I turned my back on him toward the crib and stared at Harry for the last time. Voldemort said something about moving away from him. I drank the potion and the body I was in became my duplicate and I materialized somewhere in Scotland. (I really have no idea where actually).
"I know you have questions and I know that my explanation left a few things out."
"How would a duplicate be able to protect Harry?" Hermione looked shocked at her will to even ask that question.
"You see the duplicate was made with all my love for my son. They may not have souls but they have emotions that are relatively stronger than that of actual humans. And because they do not have souls or wills, they are not flawed by the sins we commit. They are pure and purity is a strong magic."
"Then Professor Lupin if this whole story is true how does the blood magic work for Harry? Why would his relatives being alive help protect him?"
Remus looked shocked at the question and turned toward his friend with a realization blossoming over his face. Lily had her head bent and her hair covered her eyes. However they could see a flush wash over her face in shame.
"The potion required my blood."
"Hello, everyone on such a fine night!"
Everyone looked up, shocked at the intrusion and into the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore.
Severus Snape was not a happy camper.
"Damn Albus Dumbledore to the infernal reaches of Hell! Why now? Why, of all bloody times, now? A whole cauldron full of potion – ruined! Poppy will have my head!"
He stalked over to the fireplace, picked up a pinch of floo powder and promptly tossed it into the awaiting flames. He waited for them to turn a satisfying Slytherin green before he stepped in. He felt cold and warm at the same time as apprehension settled into his stomach. He growled out (though clearly), "Grimmauld Place!"
He stepped out of the hearth, dusting off his clothes and looked up into the pensive face of his employer. "What is going on, Albus?"
He was suddenly aware of the movement of one person beside Dumbledore. He saw a petite feminine figure shaking in robes that seemed familiar. Hair that was almost crimson hung over thin shoulders and framed a long slender neck. A cherubic face greeted him as he locked his eyes with hers.
"Merlin… It can't be…"
Her eyes were the color he had never seen in any woman except once.
"Lillian…"
She smiled a weak, shaky smile as her eyes brimmed with tears. "Hello Severus…"
Suddenly, anger flooded into obsidian eyes. "You are not her! This is a trick! Lily Evans died because of James Potter's arrogant son!" He pointed his finger at her. "You are DEAD!"
Tears fell swiftly with nothing to stop them. Her fists were hung at her sides. All power this woman had processed had seemed to vanish at his words. "Words of thine that swiftly kill and a heart to appall, Shall I go with my will as you hold the rope while I fall… I remember the day you told me that Severus." Her pleading eyes locked once more with his. "Don't you, Severus? Don't you remember?"
He seemed to become aware of everyone in the room. His body was trembling with rage and despite himself, hope for who he wanted her to be. "You are not her… You can't be her… She is the past… I buried her… She has been dead for fourteen years…"
"I am sorry that I wasn't here. I am sorry that I deceived you. I am sorry that you hate me. I am sorry that you hate James and Sirius and Remus. I am sorry for everything that I have done. I am sorry to you. I am sorry to Harry. I am sorry to James for dying to save what was mine." And yours…She added silently.
"You are not her…"
"But I am… Believe in me…"
He crossed the room to stand before her and for a moment everyone thought that he was going to strike at her. All of a sudden he reached out and pulled her to him in a bone crushing embrace. She burst into tears as soon as his arms were around her and tremors rocked his body as he stood with her.
They seemed unaware that the other occupants herded toward the door and left them alone with the silence.
So, that is the first chapter! I hope you liked it! I am sorry if you didn't. Anyway, review or mail me at brandinvaughn@hotmail.com! Thank you for reading! ~ Trinity 101