This one took a while to type as a lot needed to be edited. I hope it clears a few things up!
Chapter 11
Snape, Evelyn and Grace were all pushed into Grace's memory of the night her mother was killed. Something she had never been able to remember and was told it was due to severe trauma, and would probably never be able to recall the memory.
12 year old Grace woke up with a start; she could sense people downstairs. She quietly crept to her sister's bed and woke her. She took her hand and thought to her.
"There are people in the house!"
"How do you know?"
"I can feel them!"
They both kept hold of each other as they crept towards the door; it suddenly flew open. A young Lucius Malfoy was standing in the doorway with his wand pointed at the 2 girls. Grace could feel Evelyn's anger rising, until she suddenly shot a fireball at him, burning his arm and making him drop his wand. Evelyn dragged Grace out and into their mother's bedroom, but it was empty. As they tried to run back, Voldemort had reached the top of the stairs. He flung a spell at them, separating them, leaving Evelyn on the landing and Grace falling back into her mother's room. Just then, as Grace was cowering by the bed, her mother, Helen, apparated right in front of Voldemort. She quickly tried to get to Grace, while Evelyn dashed down the stairs and out of the door. She was knocked unconscious by a rogue spell. Grace was still trying to reach for her mother, when Voldemort struck her down with the Killing Curse. She fell lifeless to the bed. Grace was unable to move or scream. He raised his wand again with the obvious intent of doing the same to her, but was distracted by an explosion. One Death Eater called up the stairs to him.
"Aurors have arrived!"
He left Grace to go fight them off. It was then that a dark figure in black robes Apparated moments later and reached for her. Too scared to do anything, she simply stared at him. He reached forwards and took her arm. He pulled her up and held her wrapping his cloak around her. She clutched hold of the front of his robes and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt a strange sensation build in the pit of her stomach, but before she could open her eyes to see what was happening, she heard the calm voice of an old man.
"Well done, my boy"
"I wasn't able to find the other." The dark man replied, ashamed.
"That's quite alright, I have already been informed Aurors rescued her and have taken her to St Mungo's. She should be fine. I think it's time."
The old man approached her, but she simply clutched tighter, burying her head into the chest of the dark man. He had a faint smell of spice that was oddly comforting. The old man peeled back the cloak from her shoulders and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"It's alright." He whispered, "Were going to take care of you." He sounded sincere, but she held onto the dark man.
"She seems to trust you, I think you will have to take her to Madam Pomfrey, she knows what to do."
The dark man walked her the short distance to what Grace recognised as the infirmary. The dark man sat them both down and Grace looked at a middle aged woman coming towards them. She had a kind smile and warm eyes.
"It's alright dear; we're not going to hurt you." She said soothingly. Grace looked up at the man and saw his face for the first time. He was a young Severus Snape. He was just as pale and his eyes were just as dark, but he appeared to her to be more handsome. She could see no malice or evil intent, just reassurance. She looked back to the woman who had knelt down in front of her.
"Now dear; close your eyes and I'll make all the pain go away."
Grace closed her eyes and felt something warm fill her.
The memory ended and she was back in Dumbledore's office, knelt down in front of Snape. He was looking at her, with the same expression as in her memory. Her eyes were filled with tears as she tried to make sense of everything.
"I'm so sorry." Snape whispered, breaking Grace out of her thoughts. He made to stand up, only to be stopped by Grace grabbing his arms. He looked straight at her wondering if he was going to get slapped. Instead, she threw her arms around his neck, virtually sitting on his lap. She buried her head into his neck, and could smell that same scent of spice. Snape had frozen; he was unaccustomed to being hugged, particularly by women. All he could think to do was rest his hands loosely on her back. Evelyn eventually resorted to forcefully pulling her off him.
"I'm sorry." Grace said to him, wiping her eyes. "It's just, you saved my life."
"I only did as instructed." Snape said. She smiled at him. She could feel his guilt; he'd wanted to tell her the truth. He'd wanted to save Evelyn as well.
"How come you never told me?" She asked him.
"I'm afraid I must take the blame for this, Severus was only doing as I instructed." Dumbledore interjected.
"Why?" Grace asked, rather confused.
"I had learned that your family had been targeted and your parents were told to go into hiding. They didn't, and your father was killed. We then placed your mother and you both in a safe house. Apparently not safe enough. To this day we still have no idea how Voldemort found out. I sent Severus in to retrieve the both of you. You see, he wanted you both alive."
"I don't understand." Grace asked.
"He wanted power, and you both had it."
"He wanted… wait… our power?"
"Yes. You see, the reason you could not remember what had happened, was because I had a binding spell placed on you."
"What binding spell?" Grace asked.
"The spell that bound your powers."
"Wait… you mean… I have powers? I'm not a muggle?"
"No. You have never been a muggle. The spell bound you from doing any kind of magic. And for that I must apologise. I know that things have been most difficult for you, but we simply could not risk Voldemort gaining anymore power than he already had."
"But, why didn't you bind Evelyn's powers?"
"Because he didn't want mine." Evelyn spoke.
"Why?"
"Yours are seen to be rarer and highly prized. You already know that there are not many witches or wizards out there that have natural powers. That's why he wanted our parents on his side. And why they refused."
"So, what are my powers?"
"I'm afraid you will have to come to them in time, when they are ready to surface. This cannot be rushed." Dumbledore warned.
"How did Voldemort expect to get our powers?"
"You had to give them to him, willingly, which is why he needed you alive."
"This is unbelievable." Grace sighed.
"I think you should take some time. Get some rest." He ordered politely.
Snape had taken that as a cue to leave. Grace looked to him, and suddenly remembered her dreams.
"Wait!" She shouted at him. "It's you! The Dark haired man I kept dreaming about. It was you!"
Snape had realised back at the bathroom incident, he had known what she was dreaming of.
"You had dreams of Severus saving you?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, several times. I never knew what they meant."
"It sounds like your memories were trying to find a way to re-surface. I had expected it to happen one day. The human brain is a remarkable thing. Spells like this do not last forever. We had never intended for it to be permanent."
"I'm just glad to be like everyone else." Grace smiled at him.
"I think part of you knew you were."
"Maybe. I hoped. I wished."
"It seems you got your wish."
"Thanks, for keeping me in the dark to save me." Grace turned to see Snape leaving and went out after him.
"Professor, wait."
"Grace, it really wasn't my place to tell you." Snape tried to reason.
"No, I know. It's ok. I just wanted to say thank you." She leant forwards and lightly, softly kissed him. Then turned and walked away.
Snape walked back to his classroom trying to work out which was worse, losing a parent, or being raped.
Grace was sat by her window trying to make sense of everything. The one thing she couldn't get out of her mind was his smell.
"Are you ok?" Evelyn said from the open doorway. Grace turned to look at her.
"Yeah. It's just a lot to process."
"You aint wrong." Evelyn laughed. She joined Grace by the window.
"I always knew how she died, but seeing it like that, made it more…"
"Real." Evelyn added.
"Yeah. I can't believe I didn't do anything to stop him."
"There wasn't anything you could do. He was much more powerful then than he is now."
"At least you burnt Malfoy. He looked terrified." Grace laughed.
"You know what I keep thinking about? The smells. I could smell the fire, as you burnt him. And most of all, I could smell spice in Snape's hair when I hugged him."
"You damn near strangled him!" Evelyn exclaimed. "It's made your feelings stronger hasn't it?" She added.
"Yeah. Do you think maybe that's why he doesn't want me? Because he sees me as a child?"
"No, he does want you, but he's even more afraid of it now. He thinks you're vulnerable. What memory did he see when he used his Legilimancy?"
"He saw me being raped." Grace was still sickened by the mere thought of it."
"That explains it. I think you both need time. It anything's going to happen, it'll happen on its own." Evelyn re-assured.
"So, I guess another fumble in the corridor is out of the question?" Grace joked.
"I still can't believe you did that!"
"I couldn't help it; it was a spur of the moment thing! But it was a good size!"
"Oooh, I didn't need to know that! Evelyn grimaced. She left Grace to her thoughts. She had a lot to process. Not to mention figuring out what her powers are. Even though her memory had been released, she couldn't remember what her powers were. It wasn't going to be easy.
