Hello everyone. It was a hard one to write, writer's block got the best of me. I know where the story is headed, but writing the build up to those events has been more difficult than I had suspected. Be sure to check out my tumblr dedicated to this story (snapes-patronus) for a more up to date status on the story. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

XXXXX

October, 1977

Amelia was panting heavily, hands on her knees, her heart racing.

"C'mon Evelyn, again," Jen demanded.

Amelia rose, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Regulus approached her from the left, but she quickly stunned him. Severus came at her from behind. She dueled with him for about two minutes, before she was finally able to hit him with a good expelliarmus.

She turned to face an expectant Jen, who drew her wand.

Jen sent some nonverbal spells her way, all of which Amelia was able to dodge. Amelia threw up a shield and began using Jen's spells against her. Jen easily deflected all of the rebounding spells, and then she hurled a spell that was bright purple at Amelia, shattering her shield. Amelia moved quickly to get out of the way, but her wrist was captured by a magical rope extending itself from the end of Jen's wand.

Amelia used a quick sectumsempra to weasel her way out of that one, but she was progressively losing steam. She kept trying to nonverbally cast expelliarmus, but was not having any success. Jen said that nonverbal spells were one's greatest weapon, because your opponent didn't know what they were up against.

Ultimately, Jen won the duel with a well-timed petrificus totalus.

"You're getting better," Jen said, helping Amelia off the ground.

"I'm still not where I want to be," Amelia griped.

"You'll get there in time," Jen said.

XXXXX

Hogwarts was ablaze with the most recent gossip surrounding the Muggleborn Slytherin. It was all anyone was talking about in the hallway as Lily exited her Charms class. The corridor was in absolute chaos. Lily could feel the confusion on her face.

"Did you hear?" a younger student asked, running up to her.

"Hear what?" she asked.

"Evangelina Fitzpatrick punched Ackley Nott in the face during potions today!" he exclaimed, running off as quickly as he came.

Lily felt yet an additional wave of confusion, mixed with concern.

XXXXX

Sirius had not seemed to take his brother's disappearance very well. He had thought Regulus was as much a Death Eater as any other Slytherin. But after Regulus had said that he'd only expressed desire to be a Death Eater in order to remain in their parents' favor, and Lily had confirmed that Snape apologized, Sirius had found himself conflicted in regards to his brother.

He hadn't wanted to believe his brother, because it would make everything he thought about his family some sort of lie. But with Regulus' disappearance being all over the papers as related to Death Eater activity, and his parents suddenly taking interest in him again, he was questioning everything.

Lily had retired to the Gryffindor common room, working with Remus on Care of Magical Creatures near the fireplace. A group of first years had just returned from the library, and they gained the interest of the entire room.

"Tell us about Fitzpatrick!" someone yelled.

This gained Lily's attention. She knew that Gryffindor first years had potions with the Slytherins.

"She was sitting next to Calvin Warbeck, a half-blood…"

"Do you think we should ask Professor Slughorn?" Marshall asked.

"No, we don't need his help. Just stir it three times clockwise," Ackley said.

Evangelina turned around at this.

"Actually," she said, "You want to stir it three times counterclockwise. Clockwise will cause the potion to blow."

"No one asked you, you filthy little Mudblood. You think you're so clever, sitting there with a measly little half-blood…"

"Nott wasn't able to finish his sentence before Fitzpatrick said BOOM! right into his teeth!" the first year exclaimed, gesturing with his fist.

"Sounds like you," Remus joked quietly.

Lily laughed slightly, but she knew for a fact that even her Gryffindor nerve wouldn't have reacted in that way during her first year. But the way the first year had told the story, like Ackley Nott was about to insult Evangelina's half-blood friend, had her thinking about Severus.

She never really thought about whether or not he was accepted amongst his housemates due to his blood-status, since he had pureblood friends. But if a first-year was willing to pick a bone with a half-blood, then surely the older students were as well.

XXXXX

Amelia landed with a thud on the wooden floor of Room Seven in the early hours of dawn, causing her to cry out slightly from shock. Another nightmare.

Severus, now half-awake, mumbled if she was okay, to which she answered affirmatively. She was greeted again by snores rumbling off the walls.

She continued laying on the floor, streaks of sunlight gently illuminating the room. Her eyes wandered to the area under her bed. It was dusty, but the reflection of gold lettering caught her eye. She reached under the bed and grabbed the book.

"Right," she whispered, seeing Manipulating the Energy Within spelled out in the gold lettering.

She dusted off the old cover, and decided that she had found what she was going to occupy her early morning. Jen had been gone for a few days, and Severus had been spending his time at the Apothecary whereas Regulus had been cooped up in a few of the local bookstores. Amelia had planned on joining him today, but the rainy October weather had caused her to decide otherwise.

She quietly made her way downstairs to the tavern area, ordering a coffee from Sabine. Amelia gently opened the book, sipping her coffee as she did so. It was obviously quite old, and in all her time spent in the Hogwarts library, Amelia had never stumbled upon this branch of magic.

"The world is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. Each person on this planet, be they wizard, witch, or Muggle, have magic inside of them. However, it is how that magical energy is utilized that separates us in our abilities. Energy is defined as the capacity of a physical system to perform work. In the Muggle World, energy exists in several forms such as heat energy and light energy. In our world, something causes our magical energy within to be activated, whereas something in the Muggle World causes their internal magical energy to never become activated, even if they try…"

"Are you coming with me today?" Regulus asked.

Amelia jumped. She had become so invested in the book that she hadn't noticed that the tavern had come to life around her.

"No, I don't think so," she said.

Regulus' shoulders deflated in disappointment.

"Oh, okay," he said, "whatcha got there?"

"The book I took from the store our first day here," she said, "I found it under my bed this morning."

"I heard you had a nightmare. Are you okay?" he asked.

She hesitated, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

The truth was her nightmares were increasing in frequency. They had stopped for a while, but had been occurring more and more since the encounter with the man in the bookshop two months prior. It has caused her to relive her rape over and over again in her dreams. She always awoke at the same moment of the dream. Waking up always made her feel so inadequate. She had been amongst in the top of her year in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but those little weasels barely scraping by with an A on their OWLs were able to hex her, and get her in a vulnerable position.

That was one of the reasons why she was having Jen train her. It was very untraditional for close combat to be used in duels, but Jen had told them that duels are never fair, so why not bend the rules in your favor?

Amelia felt bad that her nightmares had caused her to act coldly towards Severus and Regulus recently. She cared for them both deeply, and she knew that they were only trying to extend the same care to her, but she found herself to be nervous around all men, even them.

Amelia had retired to bed early that night, only to be awakened by another nightmare when both of the boys were getting ready for bed. She sat straight up in her bed, noticing blonde roots at the top of her dark head. Her disguise charm had lasted four and a half days this time around. She recast it, pointing her wand to her scalp.

The boys watched silently as she brushed by them, exiting the room. She knew what she needed to do.

XXXXX

"Another," Amelia slurred out to Sabine.

She hadn't been drunk in a very long time, probably not since the end of her fifth year to celebrate the end of OWLs. Jen had consumed a few drinks with her as soon as she had come downstairs, the redhead having returned from her few days of tracking a vampire in Yugoslavia, but she had since retired to her own room.

"I think that's enough for you tonight Miss Evelyn," Sabine said, placing a final shot of firewhisky in front of the girl.

Amelia threw back the shot, enjoying the burning sensation.

"Fine," she grumbled.

Amelia accio-ed her satchel, and placed a galleon and a few sickles on the bar. She stumbled up the stairs, turning the knob to Room 7 loudly. She smacked her left knee on the corner of the dresser as soon as she stepped foot inside the room.

"Bloody hell!" she groaned out, landing with a thump on the floor.

By this point, Severus had awoken and magically returned light to their lamps.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, still slightly groggy.

"Don't...don't worry about it. 'M fiiiine" she slurred out.

"You're drunk," he concluded.

She giggled, rolling slightly on the floor.

"What in Godric's name were you thinking? Getting yourself into this state?"

"Mmm I just wanna sleep," she whined.

"Choke on your vomit in your sleep more like," he gruffed, helping her off the floor.

She sloppily clung to him, her eyes watering.

"That's mean," she slurred, "I just...got drunk so I that could...sleep."

"Drinking is not going to solve your problems," he said harshly.

Amelia burst into tears at this point, "I just want to be able to sleep," she sobbed.

Severus' eyes widened as he realized what she was implying. Her nightmares, he remembered.

"Well, you're going to sleep quite good tonight," he said, "but you're not going to enjoy it in the morning. Nor are you going to continue to drink yourself to sleep."

He placed her on her bed gently, resulting in her grasping his biceps firmly, having him lean over her.

"Se...Severus," she slurred, "you're not a bad person, I know you feel like one because of what you said to Lily, but you're really not. Your old friends and the...the Marauders are," she babbled, "they're bad people."

"My name is Charlie now, remember?" he grunted, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Well whoever you are, I know...I know you aren't bad," she said, letting go of his arms, rolling over to have her back face him.

He leaned back with a sigh, conjuring a trash can beside her bed. Amelia already seemed to have fallen asleep.

Severus returned to his own bed, and was about to turn the lights out when Regulus' voice finally made itself known.

"She's really going through some shit tonight, huh?" he said.

"It would appear so," Severus replied. In the year that they had known Amelia, she had never opened up much about her past or how she was feeling.

"Do you think we should try to talk to her?" Regulus asked.

Severus hesitated, "Perhaps," he said, extinguishing the lights.

XXXXX

With the anniversary of finding Amelia's body quickly approaching, Lily had found that her nightmares were increasing in frequency as well. She often spent longer on her rounds than she needed, anything to avoid going to sleep.

One evening, she made her way into the library around two in the morning. As she made her way deeper into the shelves, she saw the faint glow of a light. Prepared to take away points, she strutted towards the light, only to stumble upon Evangelina Fitzpatrick sniffling to herself.

"Evangelina?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," the girl sniffed, "I'll leave."

She began to gather her things, but Lily stopped her.

"You don't have to do that," she said, "...do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Evangelina said, "It's nothing."

Lily's eyes landed on the Muggle photograph of Evangelina and Amelia on the table. It looked fairly recent, probably the last time Evangelina had seen her sister.

"I just miss her a lot," the first year cried softly, "I know you found her, I read the paper."

Lily stiffened, but took a seat across from the girl.

"Yeah, I did," she admitted, "I didn't know your sister very well, but the people who did know her say that she was a great person."

"She was the greatest person I knew. She was always trying to teach me things about magic, and protect me from Dad."

Lily looked at the girl quizzically.

"Our father is an Archdeacon," she explained, "He never really understood why we had magic. He used to spout all sorts of things about Amelia and I going to Hell. He used to punish Amelia for doing accidental magic, thinking he could 'scare the devil out of her' but her first summer back from Hogwarts she threatened him and he never touched her again, and he never tried to punish me."

Lily nodded, though she felt her anger flare up slightly at the girl's words. How could a parent treat their child like that? Severus' dad had been like that, her mind whispered.

"Being her sister is hard sometimes, some of the older students act weird towards me."

"Like who?" Lily asked.

"Mulciber. He never engages when all of the older Slytherins decide to tease me or call me a mudblood, he just stares at me."

Odd, Lily thought.

"Stay away from Mulciber," Lily said, "There's not a good bone in his body."

"I know," Evangelina yawned, "I think I'm going to go to bed now."

Lily watched as the first year gathered her things and brushed by her, a new sense of protectiveness washing over her, "Let me walk you back to the dungeons," she said.

XXXXX

Amelia awoke the following afternoon with a pounding headache. She looked around, gathering her surroundings. There were two vials on her bedside table.

Drink the red one now, and the blue one before you go to sleep, read the piece of parchment whose corner was tucked gently under the red vial. She recognized Severus' rushed scrawl immediately.

She did as instructed, and minutes upon taking the potion she was beginning to feel less hungover. She changed her clothes, made her way downstairs, and ordered a sandwich from the barman.

Upon finishing her sandwich, Amelia finally had the realization of how stir crazy she was, having stayed in the tavern for days. She grabbed her coat and decided to head out into the city. She felt the desperate urge to go dancing, so she apparated to the Louvre, figuring she could probably find somewhere close by. Eventually she stumbled upon a pub that was playing live music. The band on stage was playing some sort of folk rock song whose French words she could not understand, but the rhythm of the songs made it easy to dance to them.

She eventually sat down to take a break, but she was hardly able to sit alone for two minutes before a gentleman approached her.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked, a slight Nigerian accent on his tongue.

Amelia, so relieved to hear someone speak English, couldn't stop herself from saying yes. Initially feeling anxious and regretful over agreeing to the beverage, she soon found herself slipping comfortably into conversation with him.

The man's name was Azi, and he had arrived in Paris some two weeks ago to find work so he could send money home to his family. Amelia could sense his magic, but decided not to comment on it. Maybe they both needed to visit a Muggle establishment in order to temporarily forget their Wizarding reality.

They talked for about three hours, before Azi announced he should get going. Amelia agreed, though they decided to meet for breakfast the following Tuesday at the bakery two doors down.

XXXXX

Upon apparating back to the tavern in Allee Deschamps, Amelia could hear the commotion happening inside. As she entered, she discovered that a drunken oaf had decided to pick a fight with Jen. Jen was easily able to take down the drunk and his friends who joined in after he had fallen, and that both amazed and amused Amelia. Her goal was to become more like Jen. Fearless, cunning, and quick on her feet.

Amelia said a quick greeting to Jen and Sabine, and made her way up the stairs.

"Where have you been?" Regulus demanded as soon as she walked in the door.

"I went out," Amelia shrugged.

"Out?"

"I just wanted to get out of here for awhile. It was fun, I went dancing at a pub. I even let someone buy me a drink."

Regulus' eyes flashed, "Never do that again. You reek of smoke. We were worried about you all day."

"Don't tell me what to do," she snapped, "I can do what I want."

Regulus' nostrils flared in frustration.

"Well you seemed to be having a pretty rough night last night, and when Charlie and I came back from town earlier, the barman said you had left without saying where you were going. We were worried about you. Now we learn you went out to some Muggle pub and let some stranger chat you up for a couple of hours? It's not safe."

Amelia sighed, she knew that Regulus was only trying to look out for her. She crossed the room to stand in front of him.

"I'm sorry," she said, lightly touching his crossed arms, "I didn't mean to worry you."

He took her into his arms, hugging her tightly. Amelia stiffened initially at the contact, but began to relax. He smelled like eucalyptus and vanilla.

"He and I care a lot about you," he said, "We don't want something else bad to happen."

"Thank you for caring about me," she said, looking up at him.

His eyes bore into hers for a moment, but she broke eye contact first, hearing the knob on the door turning.

"Stephen, I think that...oh, am I interrupting something?" Severus asked, noticing Regulus' hands lightly gripping Amelia's arms.

The other two answered negatively. They separated, and headed for their respective beds.

Regulus tossed and turned all night, unable to shake the feeling that had caused him to hug Amelia. He'd known for awhile that he fancied her, but that was the first time he had ever been so straight forward about displaying it. She smelled like lavender, he thought dreamily to himself. And then she had looked at him, and he hadn't expected what had come next. That feeling. He'd felt it a little with Emily Vanity, but it was nowhere near as strong as it had been when Amelia's eyes had stared into his. He and Emily may have hooked up a few times during his fifth year, but he'd always known it would never evolve into something steady, Emily had still been infatuated with Severus.

Regulus felt his member twitch with excitement thinking about Amelia and sex, and he let a small groan escape his lips. He rolled over with a huff, unwilling to let his feelings for Amelia make their situation awkward. He doubted she felt the same anyways.

Amelia had dated Amos Diggory off and on for three years, until her 'death'. They were 'off' the day that her assault happened, hence why she was walking alone in Hogsmeade. Before her assault happened, she was young and naive enough to believe that she was going to marry Amos one day. After what had happened to her, she was hesitant to trust any man, even the two she had grown close to over the last year.

She needs help before she can love again, Regulus concluded.


I hope you enjoyed. As this chapter was very Amelia-oriented, the next will be focused heavily on the boys. Once again, be sure to check out my tumblr dedicated to this story (snapes-patronus), and have a great day!