Chapter Ten
"The attack was foolish." Severus Snape said coldly to the man beside him.
"Maybe so," Said the other, "But I'm sure it was fun."
Severus turns to look at Lucius Malfoy, expressionless, and notices a small smirk twisting it's way onto his lips.
"It was untactful." Severus replied emotionlessly.
"Of course." Malfoy said, sobering, " Quite so. Let us hope this does not come back to haunt us."
"Yes." Severus echoed, staring at the murder scene before him, the house's windows splattered in blood, the two children that hung from the widow by their bed sheets- eyes glassy and lifeless-and the Dark Mark glowing ominously above it all proudly. "Let us hope."
The ministry finds the house the next morning, and the dead muggle family residing in it with horror.
"The attack on Gloucestershire was unsuccessful, my lord." Ignor Karkaroff said nervously, his hands shaking by his sides.
"The Ministry were there my lord." Bellatrix Lestrange said, leaning closer as she spoke "The filthy bloodtraitors." For a moment, there is silence.
"Information on the planned attack must have been leaked." Voldermort said in his quiet, dangerous voice that commanded fear and attention. "Although I encourage the elimination of muggles and mudbloods." Voldermort continued, seemingly unfazed with the information from Karkaroff, "The ministry were able to capture some death eaters for an...unscheduled attack. We cannot afford insolence."
Suddenly, Antonin Dolohov is screaming, limbs thrashing. Voldermort watches calmly through his red eyes, his black hair combed back- skin pasty and pale- he casts another Cruciatus Curse.
Severus sees Malfoy flinch, his wife, Narcissa, next to him sitting tall and determined. Lot's of death eaters shrink back in fear, trembling, and others leaning forward in sick appreciation- Bellatrix, being one of them. Severus does not move, he sits, unchanged and emotionless. He can see young Regulus Black next to him watching silently- ever the perfect pureblood, prim and proper.
"I will not be so forgiving next time." The Dark Lord says, and they are dismissed. Severus stands wordlessly. He sees Regulus give a bow-of course he would-and leave.
Narcissa stood, her back straight and her cold expression wavered slightly, perhaps in relief. Severus knew she wasn't a deatheater and never took the mark. Her pale blonde hair sat over her shoulder, as long as her husbands, and left arm in arm with him. Severus left silently and alone.
Severus was 20 and young, with little money. Unlike what seemed to be the entirety of the death eaters, Severus did not have a vault filled with gold. He wasn't poor- he had money from the potions he made, and various other bits of work- but his flat was drab in a drab corner of magical London. Despite this, he liked it. Anything was better than Spinner's End. He'd planned that morning to head to Little Groves forest, a desolate wood relatively close to his home, to collect some Ginger Wix. They didn't sell the extra potent strand in any of the shops he usually went for potion ingredients- and the new potion he was brewing required a strong and pure strand of Ginger Wix, lest the potion explode and cause mayhem. He was rather pleased to find a source growing in Little Groves forest.
He didn't change before apparating to the woods in his billowing black robes, searching quickly for the herb. The trees were tall and their leaves were white and silver, their trunks a dark brown chestnut.
"Are you okay Sir?" Severus, who prided himself in never being taken by surprise, was ashamed to admit he jumped.
"Sorry!" The girl in front of him said, having appeared seemingly out of no where, "Didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't scare me." Severus said coldly, "Did you want something."
"No I don't think so." The girl said cheerfully.
Severus felt awfully sorry for himself, having to deal with the merry girl. "Well then." He said in a clipped tone, "If you'll excuse me-"
"-I know you!" The girl said suddenly, "Severus Snape!"
"And how would you know-"
"I was in the year below you in school, you might not remember me."
Severus frowned deeply, annoyed and slightly curious. She had short, thick and tousled dirty blonde hair and thick, dark eyebrows, quite ordinary light brown eyes, pale skin with a few acne scars and freckles and a small but slightly upturned nose. She was vaguely pretty, but nothing to Lily. An annoying habit that, Severus seemed to compare every stranger he met to Lily. In comparison, this girl was quite unremarkable- no fire lit hair, striking green eyes or captivating aura. Severus, slightly annoyed at his thought line, spoke again.
"No I don't seem to recall your face, were you in Slytherin also?" Severus very much doubted it, with her baggy blue collared shirt and unkempt dungarees, looking like some farmer from up north.
"Nope!" She said, not seeming at all offended, her bubbly and beaming smile still in place, "Hufflepuff, actually."
No surprise there then.
"I remember you though, very good at potions right? I'm pretty awful to be honest. Those Marauders gave you a hard time didn't they? I wasn't quite impressed as everyone else seemed to be with them." Finally the smile ceased and a tiny frown furrowed under her bushy eyebrows.
Severus, bored of the conversation and agitated at the mention of his old enemies (even if it was slightly refreshing to meet someone who from his school time who hadn't been absolutely infatuated with the infamous Marauders) frowned.
"How utterly wonderful." Severus drawled, "Well as fun as this had been," His lip curled, "If you didn't actually want anything, I'd like to be left in peace."
The girl flushed a crimson red, and her hair turned bugglegum pink. Severus, for the second time that day, was thoroughly shocked.
"What...but..."
"Sorry! Oh gosh, I really should be able to control that by now." She said quickly, her hair swiftly dulling to a light tawny.
"You're a...metamorphus?" Snape asked, and cleared his throat.
"Yes." She said awkwardly.
"I am certain I would remember a metamorphus from Hogwarts, they are very rare. Last one I heard of was Narcissa's sisters child..."
"Dora?" The girl said excitedly, "She's great at it. Better than me and she's 6! As for you know, Hogwarts thing- mum blocked my metamorphus abilities when I went to school, said I get into trouble eventually. It was really unfair."
"She blocked them?" Severus asked. The girl nodded.
Severus was, quite frankly, disgusted. It was a crime to block such magical talent and potential.
"I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Abby."
"Abby. I've never heard of it."
"My dads a muggle." The girl grinned. Snape pursed his lips, but managed to stretch them into a tight smile. This woman was a metamorphus- she could be useful. They were rare, and Snape could think of many uses for such a talent.
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Snape said pleasantly, albeit a little tightly,
Regulus returned to the flat immediately after the meeting, still shaken. One hour ago, Regulus and Harry had been ready to remove his mark when he'd felt it burn on his arm- as if knew what they'd planned- and Regulus left for the meeting almost instantly, only stopping to wave his wand so his clothes changed to pristine robes and his hair slick and neat, and say to Harry 'he summons me'.
Regulus hoped he had not worried Harry, he had not expected the calling. What Dolohov had done was simply awful, children hung from their bedsheets covered in superheroes and princesses and blood. Their parents, sat around the table with half filled cups of tea, expressionless with wide, unseeing eyes and cut throats. Regulus had not signed up for murder, he'd signed up for pureblood supremacy- even that sounded like bullshit now.
Regulus took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his robes and quickly walked into his home.
"Regulus!" Harry pounced, dragging him through the door. "Where the fuck did you go?!" His eyes are wide and round, and Regulus knew he wasn't wrong to pin him as a worrier.
"Deatheater meeting." He said, shrugging off his heavy outer robe, "It wasn't important, just an update on failed attacks."
Harry tugged at his long fringe and breathed a sigh of relief, "I was worried." He said.
"I know, I'm sorry."
"It's fine." Harry said, "I dunno, I feel like you're the only friend I have here. It's hard you know, I miss everyone back home so much."
"I can understand, I can't really imagine how awful your situation is." Regulus has a perfectly sympathetic expression on his face and Harry can't tell whether it's genuine or a result of the perfect training of how to behave drilled into him.
"Thanks." Harry said simply, offering up a tiny smile, "But if I can change things, put an end to all the suffering, I'll take that." Harry sniffed slightly and looked away.
"How about a game of chess?" Regulus asked with a smile, and Harry nodded gratefully.
They played chess for the rest of the night, Harry even won two games, however Regulus made one too many stupid moves for Harry to be certain he hadn't made them on purpose.
Nevertheless, Harry felt better when he departed to bed. When he got there, he cried silently into his pillow, and dreamed of Hermione and Ron arguing in the common room, and Fred and George laughing loudly as they hid a spider in Ron's school bag. The images changed, and he dreamed of Padfoot telling him stories about his time at school, and Professor Lupin teaching him the Patronus charm, and taking Luna Lovegood to one of Slughorn's parties. Harry dreams of kissing Cho under the mistletoe, of kissing Ginny in her small box bedroom and Mrs Weasley hugging him goodbye before he left King's Cross, Professor Mcgonagall hiding a smile when he shouts at Umbridge.
When he awakes, despite so many being alive and well now, Harry feels heavy with loss.
James and Lily sent Harry a letter earlier on telling him about the order meeting, and Sirius plucks his reply from the Potter's owl as it flies into their kitchen.
"Letter!" He shouts. James stumbles in and Sirius throws it at him. James is still clumsy with sleep, but manages to catch it. He rips it open idly and scans it's contents.
"He said he can make it and he'll meet us in Hogsmede."
"Brill." Lily says as she enters, flicking on the kettle. She yawns and clutches her stomach.
"You alright Lils?" James asks, plunking himself down next to Sirius.
"Yeah, just a bit of stomach cramp."
James laughs and pulls Lily down on his lap. She shrieks in laughter when James begins tickling her, kissing her belly affectionately. "James will make it go away." He says, smothering her in his gigantic frame.
"Ergh," Sirius said, "Your love sickens me." Lily tinkers a laugh and James flips him the bird.
"I'll be off." Sirius said, "I just wanted to return this." He threw the invisibility cloak on the kitchen surface, before scraping up a handful of powder from the ceramic jar by the fireplace.
"Cheers mate, see you tonight." James replied. Sirius flooed away, hearing Lily shout 'Bye Padfoot!' before giggling, no doubt as James kissed her. Sirius shook his head and smiled, disappearing in a storm of green flames.
It was past 6 when Sirius and Remus met up with James and Lily, and Harry wasn't there yet. He came rushing up the street a few moments later, panting.
"Sorry!" He exclaimed, "I got a little held up." Lily smiled, assuring him that it was fine. When Harry looked at him, Sirius thought just for a second that Harry's eyes flashed green, but he looked away, and when he looked back they glinted a cold blue. When Sirius first met Harry, he felt automatically friendly towards him, protective. He tried to shake off any doubt, and mustered up a smile. Sirius swung an arm around Harry and grinned,
"Good tah see ya mate." He said, and pulled a laughing Harry along under his arm.
"Oi Pete!" James yelled. Sirius saw their other best friend, Peter Pettigrew, walking towards the door of the meeting place. Peter gave them a twitchy smile.
Sirius felt Harry jolt under his arm. He looked down, a confused frown on his face, but Harry was pointedly looking at the floor. While Lily, James and Remus continued to greet Peter, Sirius watched Harry's baffling reaction to Peter. His fists were clenched, and Sirius felt him shaking under his arm- from the cold maybe?
"Earth to Sirius." James said suddenly, and Sirius looked away from Harry. James was giving him a funny look, eyes flashing from his to Harry.
"This is Harry, Wormy." Sirius said, "He's thinking about joining the order."
Sirius thought the look Harry gave Peter could kill him. His dark eyes seemed dangerous, swirling with rage and threat. James looked shocked, and Remus stared thoughtfully. Lily didn't seem to notice. Harry looked away.
Peter and Harry muttered 'nice to meet you' and they entered the building, but Sirius couldn't shake the look Harry gave Peter. Peter, unsurprisingly, seemed positively terrified of Harry, warily keeping his distance.
Sirius had Harry sit between him and James around the large table, and almost as soon as they sat down Dumbledore came sweeping in.
"Hello everyone. Let's begin quickly." Dumbledore said. Everyone in the room was respectfully quiet, a tension crackled in the air. "Welcome to a new member." Everyone turned to Harry. "Harry Mordecai I believe, you wish to join the order?"
"Yes, sir." Harry said a tad awkwardly. Sirius tried to suppress his smile, he saw James hadn't been so successful.
"Seems awfully young." A rough voice said, "What makes you think you have the talent to join, boy?" Alaster Moody was a gruesome man, but Harry didn't appear afraid.
"I'll do anything I can to oppose Lord Voldermort." He said, "For the sake of those who cannot protect themselves."
Moody grunted.
"We have more pressing issues to address." Dumbledore broke in, "We have reason to suspect they're will be a raid by deatheaters at the international Quidditch trials tomorrow." He said gravely, "We will need all the fighting members we have."
"We'll be there." Frank Longbottom said, hand on his wife's shoulder. Several more agreed, many aurors.
"And us, of course." James pitched in. "Harry?"
"Yeah sure." He said, "I'll be there."
Dumbledore nodded. There were several more announcements before the meeting came to a close. Afterwards, Dumbledore wondered over to Harry and the others.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Dumbledore said, "It is a very brave thing you have volunteered to do, Harry." The twinkle in his eye reminded Harry too much of the Dumbledore he knew. He wondered if this man was as manipulative and wonderful as the old headmaster in his time. Harry was reminded painfully of all the adventures he'd been on with man, all the lies and deceit.
"I suppose." He said. There was a tension between the old wizard and Harry as they stared at each other.
"I have not heard of any Mordecai's." Dumbledore spoke, "Was your father a muggleborn like your mother?"
"No, he was a pureblood wizard. He was French."
"Do you speak the language?"
"Somewhat. He never taught me, he died when I was very young."
They stared in silence.
"I am sorry to hear that, Harry." Harry nodded.
"Right well," Sirius said awkwardly, "Shall we go?"
They bid goodbye, and walked out into the chilly bite of the cold.
"Harry, would you like to come to ours for a while? To have dinner? I always make too much." Lily said kindly.
"That sounds nice, thank you." Harry grinned. James ruffled his hair and laughed.
"Her lasagna is to die for mate, just wait." He said.
Harry felt warm inside when he entered the Potter's residence in Godrics Hollow. It was nothing of the wrecked shambles he'd seen it as. The rooms were comfy and homely, not too big or too small. There were things that were very James, like Quidditch posters and golden snitches, and things that were very Lily like fluffy cushions and throws. It seemed to be a nice mixture of muggle and magical, with moving photographs on the walls and a TV in the living room.
Sirius and James were chatting loudly, often consulting Remus for his opinion, lounged on the duck egg blue sofa's in the neat, tidy living room. Peter listened in eagerly and often laughed loudly. Harry tried to keep calm, but he felt disgusted looking at Wormtail. He betrayed his parents, his friends. Harry had no doubt he was already leaking information to Voldermort. It was so hard to sit back and listen to the other three talk, knowing Wormtail would scamper back and tell his master all about it. Harry bit his lip hard. He wanted to out Peter, but he had to gain their trust first. If Harry and Regulus wanted to track down the Horcrux's and destroy them, they had to do it very discretely. The more people who knew the higher the risk of Voldermort finding out, and Harry's massive advantage of knowing roughly where and what the Horcrux's were would be destroyed.
Despite his reasoning, Harry couldn't bear to look at Peter any longer and wondered off to the kitchen.
"Hi Harry," Lily said when he entered with a warm smile. She was mixing something in a large ceramic bowl with a wooden spoon. Her red hair was tied back, she had flour smudged on her left cheek and she wore a 'Sexy Mrs Potter' apron, which Harry had no doubt James had brought her out of novelty.
"Hey." He said, "Need any help?"
Lily smiled gratefully.
"Thanks Harry, that'd be great," She said, "I'm attempting to bake an Apple Crumble for pudding. You any good at cooking?"
"Not too bad. "Harry said, beaming. He wasn't either, with all the cooking he was forced to do at the Dursley's, "I did a lot of the cooking at home."
It felt wonderful to cook with Lily. He felt like a child again, and he was doing things mother's and sons did but Harry never got to. Lily told him little things about her childhood and school whilst they cooked. Lily stewed the apple and Harry finished the crumble topping, chatting about his own life.
"Hermione and Ron are always arguing, but they're deeply in love now." Harry said, because fuck it he'd talk to his mum about his life, damn the consequences. "And Ron's twin cousins are always playing pranks. Once they..."
Lily was snorting in laughter, gripping Harry's shoulder and wheezing. Harry grinned down at her, and he didn't think he'd ever been so happy.
"And that fat cousin I told you about, Dudley? His mum always called him Duddykins." Lily was laughing loudly.
"Stop Harry!" She cried merrily, "I can't breathe!" They both laughed, and the other four came into the kitchen.
"What's going on here then?" James asked with an absentminded smile at his wife. He always did love her laugh.
"Harry was telling me some very funny childhood stories." Lily replied happily. Harry grinned.
"Must be good if it can make old Lily crack a smile." Sirius smirked, which slipped off his face when Lily threw a tea towel at him with a smile.
"Want me to set the table Lils?" Remus asked.
"That'd be great thanks Rem!" Lily called from the oven. She pulled out a steaming dish from the oven. Lily flicked her wand and french bread cut itself up and appeared in a basket on the middle of the table. Everyone gathered around the table. Everyone chatted loudly at dinner, serving themselves. Harry talked with Sirius, and he'd forgotten how much he loved Sirius' company. Harry ached with grief for his godfather's death, and made sure to cherish every word Sirius spoke. Harry loved meeting his parents, but he didn't think he'd love anyone as much as he'd loved Sirius.
"Thank you for dinner Lily," Harry said, "It was great." The others agreed enthusiastically.
"You're very welcome. I hope you're all ready for pudding, Harry practically made it."
"In that case I'm sure it'll be lovely, Lils is terrible at crumble." James grinned cheekily. Lily swatted his head on the way to the oven.
The apple crumble was indeed delicious.
"Urhmmmm." Sirius moaned loudly, "Harry you can come live with us if you promise to cook us dinner, right Moony?"
"This is quite amazing Harry, where did you learn to cook?" Remus asked.
"I did a lot of the cooking at home." Harry said simply.
"Any siblings?" James asked, "I always wanted a sibling, then Padfoot came along." James grinned at Sirius.
"No," Harry said, "My father died when I was young and mum never remarried. So Sirius you have no siblings?"
"Well I have James, but I have do have a brother by blood too." Sirius said, and his face twisted into a bitter smile, "We don't talk anymore."
"Sirius comes from a line of very ancient pureblood wizards," Lily explained, "I'm sure you know the type."
"Right, of course. Sirius Black, right. Yeah I've heard of the Black's. I'm guessing you didn't agree wholly with their beliefs right? I had a mate a long time ago, he was a Rosier, he got kicked out of his family for being a 'blood traitor'." Harry lied, hoping to spur on Sirius telling him more.
"Yeah, I guess I was the Black sheep. Reg wasn't, we haven't spoken properly for a long time."
Harry thought of Regulus, most likely alone at home, reading, and felt awfully sorry for him.
Remus quickly changed the subject to stop things becoming awkward, but Sirius was very quiet after that.
"So Harry, after the war what do you plan on doing?" Remus asked after a while of lighthearted chat.
"I'm not sure, perhaps an auror. I think I'd make a shit healer."
"Lily's training to be a healer, and Pads and I are doing Auror training, it's alright really." James chipped in.
"Yeah, medical research seems cool. I was thinking of maybe looking into a cure for Lycanthropy."
Everyone seemed more tense now. Peter openly stared at Remus for his reaction. Harry almost rolled his eyes at how unsubtle he was.
"Really?" Lily said, too casually, "What made you interested in Werewolves?"
"Well," Harry said nonchalantly, acting as if he didn't notice the thick air in the room, "I know there is a lot of prejudice towards werewolves."
"Are you one of those who partake in these prejudices?" Sirius said, a little harshly.
"Sirius." Remus muttered in perhaps tired reprehend, "Leave it." Remus was looking pointedly down and glum.
"No, of course not." Harry laughed, "My uncle was a werewolf. Great man. He died recently in the war, but he had a child, nice kid really."
"He had a child?" Remus asked, quite shocked, "Why would he put an innocent in danger? They could inherit the disease!"
"Well they didn't." Harry said, "Just because he's a werewolf doesn't mean he shouldn't have a family."
"I agree," Sirius said, staring at Remus, "I am happy for your uncle."
Harry smiled. "Yeah well, I know a researcher who is making progress in treatment for werewolves, so maybe other werewolves can be as happy as he was."
"I-I think we would like it if you kept us up to date with this research," Lily said, and she looked as if she might cry, "It could help many."
Harry thought he saw Remus' eyes glisten with a tear, but he excused himself to the loo quickly. Things got a lot more lighthearted after that, and they were all laughing in no time. When Harry saw it was pitch black out, he knew it was time go. He hugged everyone, but Peter, goodbye, and thanked Lily and James.
"You're welcome kid," James said fondly. He ruffled Harry's hair and pulled him into another hug.
Harry apparated to the apartment.
"Regulus!" He called, "I'm home." When he entered, Regulus was asleep on the sofa, he looked younger with his dark hair falling over his pale face. Harry smiled and covered him with a blanket, before heading off to bed.
I'm really sorry I haven't updated in forever. Thank you for all your kind reviews/faves/follows etc, you're awesome! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, however it was kind of a filler. The action will begin soon I promise! Please stick with this story :)
And don't worry, Snape's progression won't become annoying and cliche.
I'm sorry if I didn't do any of the characters justice!
Hopefully i'll start updating more. I'm re-reading Heroes of Olympus at the moment, does anyone else love those books? XD
Please review and tell me what your thoughts! :)