Chapter 1

It must have been nearly two in the morning when a hooded figure swept across an ill-kept lawn towards a large manor house; his black cloak billowing out behind him. There was an odd, unseasonable chill in the June wind. He threw open the door to the house and after closing it securely behind him he hurried into the drawing room to find a thin, snakelike man sitting in a large armchair facing the fire. The cloaked man waited a moment before the man in the chair spoke.

"What news do you bring me, Severus?"

"Master, It's a girl. And healthy. What do you want me to do with it?"

"Bring her to me, I want to see for myself."

"Yes, Master." Severus turned to go. When the man from the chair spoke again.

"Oh, and Severus…Dispose of the mother. Her filth is no longer necessary."

Half an hour later the scene was somewhat repeated except this time with the hooded figure carrying an oddly quiet bundle in his arms.

"Here you are Master. She is already quite strong. I can feel it from her. It is obvious she is the dark lord's daughter."

The man in the chair took the baby. He moved the blankets obstructing the child's face away as gently as a man like he could manage. Looking at her sleeping form there was something almost human flickering behind the slitted eyes.

"Yes, This will work." The Dark Lord muttered to himself. Then he stood, still holding the baby and saying more to the night than to anyone else.

"I shall name her in honor of my most faithful Death Eater and hand her over and she will be raised as I was until that fool Dumbledore comes to sweep her away to try and teach her the good of this world. But it will not work. She is mine and there is no undoing what is in me and what I will pass on to her. But she will not know. Oh, Dumbledore that meddlesome old man will figure it out and try to hide it from her. To protect her from what she will become. And he will be sure he knows just the way she can be manipulated to bring her to his side. But there are some things that can never be changed. Some scars run too deep. Blood is blood. There's no denying where you came from, or who you were born to be."

Seeming satisfied with himself the Dark Lord pulled the baby's left arm from its blanket confines. He pressed the first two fingers of his right hand into the flesh of her forearm and when he removed them a shining black mark lay in their wake. The heat flashed through the small girl's body and with a shudder she let out a fearful cry. Just as suddenly as it had happened though, she feel back into a seemingly enchanted sleep. He waved his hand over the mark and it vanished. Severus looked at the Dark Lord questioningly.

"Can't have any questions asked now can we? It will reappear when the time is right."

Severus started to take the baby from the Dark Lord but he retained the child a bit longer in his arms.

"Go on my child," The Dark Lord whispered. " Go on and grow and never let anyone stand in the way of what you want. Get it by any means you must take. No one will ever be better than you. There is only power and those too weak to take it. Be strong, my Severine."

Chapter 2

As with all things, Severine grew. She was brought up in the same Muggle orphanage as her father she was told a story of her parents. She was told that her parents had been great people. But sadly her mother died shortly after her birth and her father, unable to deal with the grief had taken his own life. As she had no other living relatives, she was delivered to the orphanage.

Slightly smarter than her peers, and much more curious than the others of her age, she always seemed to have a strange aura about her that made her roommates uneasy to spend much time with her, but she didn't mind. She liked the quiet. Now she of course knew she was different than them. She didn't really know what it was but deep down in her soul she felt a twinge of something she couldn't quite grasp. She knew that she was meant for more than to live and die like the others she knew.

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Eleven years passed and Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his study. Suddenly planets on the watch he was wearing began to spin wildly. He sighed and rubbed his chin through his silver beard. He had never been wrong before but lately things had been going so crazy and he wasn't entirely sure if he was reading the signs correctly. He knew that Hogwarts didn't need another child within its walls needing constant supervision and with the Potter boy set to arrive, it would be best to let this one go for the time being.

"I just hope this doesn't turn her," He thought to himself. He knew he was risking a life on his presumptions, but he knew what he had to do.

He took the roll of parchment from in front of him and standing up from his desk he tied a letter to the leg of his phoenix, Fawkes.

"Take this to Karkaroff please, Fawkes." And the phoenix spread his great wings and took flight out the window.

There was a knock at the door.

"Enter," Dumbledore replied tiredly.

Professor Snape entered the room looking slightly less calm than usual.

"Sir, Do you think it wise to let the girl be taught at Durmstrang?" he asked. His eyes looking deep into Dumbledore's.

"Why yes, I do, Severus," Dumbledore said. "Lord Voldemort will be expecting me to take her under my wing and bring her up in the Light. When he learns that she is being taught the Dark Arts hopefully he will believe that I do not know who she is and he will be pleased with her education. We will transfer her here when the time is right."

"I'm sure you know best," Snape replied. "Am I correct in believing you will let me know when I am to fetch her?" He asked.

Dumbledore only nodded to him and Snape bowed slowly and exited back down the spiraling staircase.

"Time will only tell," said Dumbledore to no one in particular. He laced his long fingers together and leaned back to gaze out the window.

Chapter 3

--Six Years Later

Trees branches and vines whipped at his face and hands, tearing his robes as he ran. Ran as hard and fast as he could. He ran until he thought his lungs would burst from overuse. And still he kept going. His mind was racing. Were they coming after him? Was he off the grounds yet? He stopped and leaned his head back against a tree. With a lurch forward he was sick on the ground. Slowly he carried himself a few more steps forward and slumped forward and fell to his knees on the ground.

"What have I done!" He screamed into the night, pain and anguish prominent in his voice. He fell over to one side fetal like crying. He ran his hands through his dark mane of hair and sobbed.

He didn't know how long he had been lying on the ground when he heard voices and the rustle of the leaves and branches underfoot.

"Do you see any sign of him?" a man's voice questioned.

"No, Check all around. Keep searching," a woman's voice urged.

"We're out of Hogwart's bounds now. Who knows where he could be by now. The slimy git will have apparated," came the man's voice.

"Yes, but we have to keep looking," replied a second woman.

Hearing the voices he knew he was in danger. But if he was off the grounds now he could apparate. Mustering up all the strength he had left in him he thought of his destination and disappeared into the night. To his home at Spinner's End.

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The sun streaming in between the curtains of his room woke him. He sat up in bed still fully dressed and tried to assess his surroundings.

"Why am I at home?" Severus thought.

Then all of the memories from the night came flashing back to him…

The room of requirement, the chest, the death eaters, the fight, Draco--Dumbledore. And at this his head fell hard into his hands again.

"This can't have really happened." Severus said aloud to the room. "I…really did it."

He thought back to the conversation that he and Albus had been having probably only 12 hours before.

I "You know the time is near don't you, Severus?" Albus had said to him.

"Sir, are you sure?" was his reply.

"More certain than of anything in my life. There are some things that we just have to let happen in order for other things to go on." Dumbledore looked down at his desk. He knew this would be the last time he would be in there. To look upon all his fineries. His gaze fell on his phoenix, Fawkes. It lifted its head and let out a sorrowful, unearthly note as a tear fell from its eye. Dumbledore smiled sadly at the bird. "I will be calling for Potter soon, Severus. I leave it to you to make sure things go as planned and you know about a certain parcel that will need to be picked up?"

Severus nodded and turned towards the door, hesitated and turned around.

"Sir?"

"Yes, Severus?"

"Thank you for always believing me, for trusting me. Right now I think it will be the only thing that will hold me together. I'm sorry for this sentiment, but before…" His voice cracked. "Well, I just wanted you to know."

"Do not worry about this, Severus," Dumbledore smiled at him with a small twinkle in his eye. This is not the end. We will speak again. After all, To the well organized mind, Death is but the next great adventure." /I

Wiping his eyes with the back of his hands, Severus stood and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He looked so much older than he had the night before. As if the entire world had fallen into his hands.

"There's no use worrying now," He thought to himself. "What's done is done, and I have only done as I was instructed. How odd though that his instructions from both sides were for the same ending. "I guess things do have a way of working themselves out," He told the mirror.

"Of course they do," replied the mirror sleepily.

Severus crossed to his chest of drawers and opened it. He took out a small traveling bag and a clean pair of robes. He had a mission to finish.