Prologue:
The Shrine in Glasgow
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.
Magical Section.
12th November 1999. {New Timeline}.
Severus Snape walked the familiar path without looking up from his book. He'd walked the same route countless times over many years. He always felt an odd feeling when he strolled towards the wizarding section of the museum, but he never stopped to analyse it.
His friends and mother never understood his infatuation with the woman who cured Lycanthropy; he never expected anyone, not even himself, to understand it. There was just something about Miss Hermione Granger. Many called her The Forgotten Girl or The Girl That Time Forgot. Her mysterious title was given to her because, according to Ministry records, the woman never existed.
Yet, she'd cured the wizarding world of its greatest plague.
No one knows where she came from, not even the first werewolf she'd cured knew of her life. His story was written in her display case a few halls away. She'd arrived outside St. Yalends Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, injured. The priest nursed her back to health, and she promised to return his favour by curing him of his illness.
Low and behold, by the next full moon the man was cured of the terrible disease. Or so that was how the tale was told.
Severus found the whole story fascinating, which is why he regularly visits the display which contains her diary. A lot of the pages had been torn out before being sent out to be seen by the public eye; he found that to be very suspicious, but all of his investigations fell flat. Since the whole wizarding world was werewolf free, the creator of the cure was soon forgotten. Nobody but Severus taught his students about her, he even got them to brew the cure in their last year, although it was useless now since everybody had been cured.
He found himself resembling the way she wrote because he'd read the few pages many times. There was just something special about the name Hermione Granger, and he couldn't work out what it was. He'd only ever had one similar feeling such as this, and that was towards the girl who had saved his life, as well as his friends and, of course, Harry Potter's. Severus had watched her kill Lord Voldemort in front of him. She'd killed his abusive father, Tobias Snape as well.
There were so many things that the girl had done that had shaped them into the adults they are now, and she wasn't around for them to thank her. She perished alongside Voldemort.
Severus remembered December 25th, 1974 as his day of freedom. A mysterious stranger had burst into his home while his father beat him bloody. A frizzy mane of hair surrounded her face and black billowing robes covered her small frame. She tossed his father against a wall and stood in front of Severus to protect him from the demon that haunted his dreams to this very day. Severus tried to stop her by grabbing her wrist, but she glanced down at him and told him to go to Lily, so he did. He arrived back at Spinner's End, with Lily behind him, to find his mother finally emerging from her bedroom beaten and bruised as usual. However, she clutched some fresh potions and a purse of money. His father was nowhere to be found and his mother told him that he was gone now, and that an angel had been sent to free them from Tobias Snape.
An angel sent from...well, no one knows.
The same figure had appeared before many of them: Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Lucius and so many more. However, it was Lucius and Remus who had seen her the most. Although, even when it came to those two, she always had something better to do, until 31st October, 1980.
Lily and James had hired a babysitter to watch over Harry while the rest of them went out to celebrate Halloween. Severus had felt awkward to begin with, but things had worked out in the end, he had long-term friends now and he actually liked them all. After returning to Godric's Hollow for drinks, they saw that the house was charred black and looked to have been hit by a tornado.
All of them ran towards the house to find Harry and the babysitter, only to end up at the back of the house to find the mysterious woman holding Harry in her arms. Suddenly, Voldemort appeared behind her and Severus watched on as she yelled "Sectumsempra!" and successfully cut into the Dark Lord — using the spell from his book. She handed Harry over to a trembling Lily, then raced over to Voldemort's body and pulled a diary from his pocket and destroyed it.
Before any of them could stop her, she screamed "Avada Kedavra!", causing them both to be consumed by a green light. All that remained was Voldemort's body and a burnt patch of grass by his side.
They never spoke of that night often because none of them knew what to say. They'd recognised the girl from numerous encounters, but had no idea why she'd saved Harry then killed herself alongside Voldemort moments after.
Severus dreamed of her frequently; it was in his DNA to be curious about such things, and a part of him wished to uncover the old mystery that had plagued him and his friends for so many years.
He returned his attention to the display case in front of him. There was something different about this visit, he felt like he was being watched. He quickly glanced around to find no one else at either end of the hall. How peculiar? He was never wrong about these things.
Severus shook his head and continued to gaze at the diary. His heavenly silence was interrupted when two idiots came barreling into the hall. The pair almost fell over one another, and Severus was shocked to see they were quite old in age. They glanced around the room, then straightened themselves up at the sight of him. One of them coughed then pretended to look at a nearby painting.
No one ever comes here this late at night.
"What a marvelous portrait, Marco, don't you think?" Severus watched the man with a greying beard elbow his brown haired friend.
"Yes, Uma Redenfield has always had the finest brush strokes."
A high-pitched giggle came from somewhere in the room, and Severus saw a cloaked figure appear behind the two men and place their hands on the shoulders of the elderly men.
"There you are, my dear!" Severus tried to look at her face, but before he could move, the trio stumbled out of the room bantering with one another, leaving Severus bewildered.
Had that woman been there the whole time watching him?