AN: I started this on a whim when the 6th book was released with every intention of continuing and finishing it before book 7. Obviously that did not happen. So, I've decided to start fresh with it and give it a slightly new twist. The flash backs are the same as those I had initially planned, only the "present day" section is slightly different.
I'm going to say it here so I don't have to keep typing it over and over again (although, if I'm supposed to please send me some sort of email or private message). I own nothing except for Vivienne who is my own original character and any others I might come up with along the way.
Thanks for reading and please let me know how I'm doing in a review or private message.
Prologue
Two months had passed since the Battle for Hogwarts and the death of so many. Harry had found himself agreeing to sort through what was left of the meager belongings of Severus Snape and was staring at the final box in the deceased man's home in Spinner's End.
It was a small wooden box painted black with gold accents and ruby and emerald gems decorating the outside. Harry couldn't help wondering at the mixing of Slytherin colors with those of Gryffindor, hoping the contents might explain the outside. Much like everything else in the house all the protection spells seemed to have disappeared with the death of their former owner.
"What do you suppose he used it for?" Hermione asked, coming to stand beside him.
She had agreed to stay and help him finish his task, and he had been glad for the company. The contents of the home as well as Snape's private chambers at Hogwarts had held nothing that surprised Harry and the work had not been difficult, yet he was glad for the company.
With a slight shrug, Harry opened the box. They had quickly learned Severus Snape had not been one to hold on to many worldly possessions and mementoes of the past. So he was slightly surprised when the first thing he saw was an old photograph.
It was perhaps one of the only photographs Snape had ever posed for, and judging by the man's appearance he would have guessed the picture was over fifteen years old. There was a woman with him in the picture and it showed Snape placing his arm around her and looking at her with a rare slight smile on his lips. She was quite beautiful with long brown hair accented with strands of red and blonde. Harry thought perhaps it captured one of the few moments of true happiness in the man's life.
Turning the picture over, he found an inscription on the back. After spending his sixth year studying Snape's handwriting in his potion book, Harry was sure the woman in the picture must have put their names and the dates on the back.
"Severus and Vivienne Snape, Rome, Italy, August 1982," Hermoine read aloud, looking over Harry's shoulder. "He had a wife."
He saw Hermoine reach out and pick up the next item in the box. It was a black leather book with no letters or inscriptions. It was old and reminded Harry of another journal he had found during his second year at Hogwarts and he couldn't help smirking slightly when she opened it and found the pages were blank except for the first one that held the full name of the woman in the picture, "Vivienne Campbell Snape".
"Do you suppose this one will work like the one you found in the bathroom second year?" Hermonie asked him, reaching for a quill and ink from the table next to them.
"There's only one way to find out," he told her with a slight smile as she quickly scribbled a hello onto the first page.
He suddenly felt a quiver of nervousness at possibly getting a glimpse of another chapter in the life of the man who he had only recently come close to understanding. There was still much he did not know or understand about Snape, although he felt a twinge of excitement at the possibility of getting the chance.
His smile only grew as Vivienne responded to them, answering in kind to his greeting. Yet he was distracted for a moment by a picture that had been hidden below the journal, a picture with many familiar faces.
Vivienne looked about thirteen years old in the picture, and Harry was unable to resist flipping it over to look at the date. He read it aloud as Hermione raised a questioning eyebrow, "Vivienne Campbell, James Potter, Lily Evans, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, February 1979."
"What should I ask her?" he heard Hermoine whisper slightly next to him.
"Ask her if she'll show us the moments of her life that will tell us who she is," he replied.
She nodded and quickly wrote the message to the diary's owner. A moment later he felt himself being drawn inside the pages of the book before him and was unable to stop himself from reaching for Hermione's hand as they tumbled down into whatever Vivienne decided to show them of her life and what secrets it might reveal.
