Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

After so many years in the dark, I am not who I once was. Despair will warp you, and I despaired. Now, I am back in the light of day, and they expect me to be as I once was. I can't be that person anymore and they don't understand why. They will never understand why, unless they experience what I experienced, and I would not wish that on them. Not Snape, not even traitorous Wormtail. I cannot even remember what I once was, because it was a happy memory, and my happy memories have faded like newsprint in the sun. They are unrecognizably distorted, and I can't believe that I was ever really that happy and carefree. I was such a fool. I should have known that it could not possibly last, that it was an illusion. Back then I could not imagine that I would be betrayed, that I would be thrown to the darkness and despair like a piece of garbage. I thought that being friends meant something, that they would believe in my innocence. I thought that my so-called friends would defend me against accusations I thought would realize were false. I was the ultimate fool.