Notes: Once more, // and \\ indicate the beginning and end of memories.
* * * *
Classes flew by and before she knew it, Glory was finishing the lesson during the last class of the day and assigning a chapter in the textbook for homework. The second year Ravenclaws did nothing but jot the page numbers down as the Hufflepuffs began to murmur about all the homework they were already getting on their first day. She stood at the front of her classroom and watched as the students filed out, then began to collect her own books and papers before stepping out into the hall. She expected to see Lucius leaning against the wall, waiting for her to finish class, but the older man was no where to be seen.
Glory waited for a few minutes, then decided that Lucius and Dumbledore wouldn't be angry with her if she decided to drop her things off in her room without her usual supervision. She turned left and walked quickly down the hall toward the area of the school where the teachers' rooms were. She unlocked her bedroom door with a quick incantation and dropped the books on the desk nearby before shutting the door behind her and glancing around for Lucius. He wasn't in their room either, waiting for her to get back from classes like she thought he might be. He had vowed to be her shadow, after all and now that she was looking for him, her shadow had disappeared.
"Lucius?" she called softly, poking her head into the bathroom. Everything looked exactly as it had that morning before they left and Glory shrugged before heading back toward the hall. If Lucius couldn't be bothered to meet her when he said he was going to, she couldn't be bothered to waste her time looking for him. Not when there was an entire school for her to roam, as well as the grounds outside.
The chill of the approaching fall evening was cooler than Glory had anticipated and she wrapped her robes tighter around her body before casting a quick warming spell over herself. The wind died down around her and a familiar warmth spread through her as she began to walk, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dim light of the late afternoon.
The grounds of Hogwarts were far more beautiful than she remembered them being. Leaves on nearby trees were turning shades of gold and red, then dropping off and floating gently to the ground. Some were caught in an updraft and went spiralling through the air before settling down on the soft grass. The giant squid rolled lazily under the glass surface of the lake, sending gentle ripples over the water that lapped softly at the shore.
Glory turned from the lake and walked toward the Quidditch field, then turned to her right and started up the long path that led to a small bluff that hung over the lake. It was a favourite place for the Astronomy teacher to take the class as night when the tower became too crowded and cold. The sky was always clear over the bluff, no matter what the rest of the sky looked like and the stars always shone through.
Glory had fallen in love with the place as soon as her fourth year Astronomy teacher had taken her class there for one class in midwinter. Without knowing why she had made the place her sanctuary from the jeers of adolescent boys and the catty remarks from her so-called friends. She had been popular in school, there was no questioning that, but being popular had it's price. With so many people paying attention to her, Glory felt she had to be the girl she always pretended to be. The snotty, stuck up, beautiful girl, whose head hadn't held a single brain cell and whose heart didn't ache. She had pretended to have no heart.
On her bluff though, she was someone else. It was the place she went to do the homework assignments teachers never expected her to hand in. It had been the place she went to escape the superficial gossip she had always been part of and the only place she ever went to cry.
"What changed?" she murmured, staring at the sky. Shocks of pink and purple coloured the horizon, reaching toward her with their brilliantly coloured hands. "Was it Severus and Lucius? What was it?"
So many things had changed her from what she once was. Through and through, she had been a lost child, a pretty face with a cocky attitude and no nerve to back up anything she ever said. She had gone through life without thinking, just being something she wasn't because no one had ever forced her to be herself.
Then she had met Severus Snape.
He had torn her from the comfortable life she was living, the lie she had been living and forced her to reassess who she really was. In the depths of the Malfoy house she couldn't rely on her physical beauty to keep her alive, it had been her looks that had gotten her into trouble in the first place. Instead, Glory had to call on something she hadn't used in a very long time, an inner strength she had almost forgotten still lived within her. Because of Snape's violent attack and Lucius' brutal rapes, she had become a different person. Maybe the person she had always wanted to be.
The escape hadn't been easy, but she had done it and as soon as she had spoken the words there had been no turning back.
// She wasn't stupid, despite what her classmates might have said about her at one point. If Lucius or Snape had come for her that night she wouldn't have bothered trying to escape because they were powerful and she knew it. Even with a stolen wand hidden under her mattress she wouldn't have won against them. But that night, it appeared luck was on her side, for the man that came to her was an inexperienced Death Eater, not many years older than she was.
"What's your name?" he asked gruffly, after finishing with her. He was leaning heavily on her chest and she squirmed beneath him, trying to find a more comfortable position. "I asked what your name is."
She stared at him for a long moment. "Glory. Not that anyone ever bothered to use it."
"Glory," he murmured, reaching out and stroking her face. "That's a beautiful name."
"So?" she asked, pushing him away and sitting up in her cot. She began to dress, indicating to the young man that their time was over. If he had been ranked any higher he might have become angry, dressing before he did was not a stunt she ever would have pulled with Lucius, but Glory knew who she could push around and who she couldn't.
"I'll be back," the young man said, tucking his shirt into his pants and shrugging back into his black robe. "You're a pretty one."
Glory nodded, watching him from the corner of her eye as her hand reached toward the stolen wand. She had taken it from the son of a Death Eater, a boy two years younger than her who had tried to take advantage of her. He still didn't even know it was missing.
When the Death Eater's hand was on the door, the key in the lock that she couldn't open from the inside, no matter what spell she tried, Glory pulled the wand from its hiding place. As the door inched open slightly, she pointed it and uttered the word that she knew could kill the young man.
"Crucio."
He dropped instantly and Glory ran for the door, not knowing if he was a screamer. If he was, he could alert the entire house to her escape in less than thirty seconds, so she had to move quickly. Her tired, thin legs took her across the threshold of her cell and into the dank dungeons of the mansion. The Death Eater behind her made an unconscious grab for her leg, but missed and went on writhing on the dirty floor. He hadn't screamed yet and that was good.
Glory moved quickly, the wand still held in front of her as she ran toward the stairs. She ran softly up the stairs, her bare feet barely making a noise on the stone steps and her breath coming out in a near silent whisper. She had practiced being quiet, knowing that her life could depend on her ability to keep her breathing silent.
The hall above her was dark, but Glory didn't dare light the end of the wand to help her see. Instead, she moved soundlessly over the wooden floor, her hand held out in front of her to prevent her from knocking anything over and call unnecessary attention to herself. A voice came from ahead and she immediately shrunk against the wall, making herself as small as possible.
A torch bobbed toward her, but the light barely reached the corners making it easy for her to keep her body in the shadows. She knew the voice of the man holding the torch and she trembled, hoping with everything she had that if she was found, it would not be by him.
Lucius Malfoy passed without so much as looking in her direction, a gorgeous woman on his arm and a small boy by his side. The boy couldn't have been more than ten years old, but Glory could hear Lucius' words to the child.
"You know them now, unforgivable or not at that ridiculous school you'll be attending, and I'll be expecting to see you using them whenever you have the chance."
"But father," the boy began.
"But nothing, Draco," the woman said sharply. "You know your place in this world and by the time you start attending that bloody Hogwarts, you'll be acting like it."
Draco's head fell. "Yes, mother."
Glory's eyes narrowed as she watched the family pass, but she said nothing and kept herself hidden and pressed to the wall. As soon as the torchlight disappeared in the other direction, Glory continued her escape down the hall and soon found herself in a brightly lit foyer.
There was a door. The front door.
For a moment, she abandoned all caution and raced across the front hall, ignoring the fact that a Death Eater could come out of any room at any moment. The wand she held clattered to the floor and she grabbed the door knob tightly in her hand, ready to throw it open and escape into the sunlight.
"I wouldn't do that," a voice said from behind her.
Glory whirled around to see Snape halfway up the staircase, staring at her curiously. She fumbled for the wand she had dropped and knelt to the floor, picking it up with trembling fingers.
"Why not?" she asked.
"There are guards at the front gate. You might get out of the house, but without help you'll never get off the grounds," he said.
Her lower lip trembled. "I'll find a way."
"You won't."
"You can't tell me that I've come this far just to lose now," she murmured.
Snape came down the rest of the stairs, then turned into a room on his left and pulled a black robe off a hanger. He walked toward her quickly and Glory instinctively took a step back, not knowing what he would do to her.
Snape paused, staring at her and for a moment she thought she saw his eyes flash with guilt and sadness.
"Put this on," he growled, throwing the robe at her.
She caught it and shrugged into it, pulling the hood over her face and tucking her dirty hair behind her ears. Snape pulled his own hood up, then grabbed her arm and opened the front door.
"Put the wand away," he hissed as they walked. "Don't say anything, don't look at anyone. Keep your head down and your mouth shut and I'll get you out of here."
"Why?" Glory asked.
"Why what?"
"Why are you helping me get out?"
Snape didn't answer, just tightened his grip on her arm and dragged her along to the front gates. A few yards away he released her, but continued walking and Glory had to hurry to keep up with him. The guards at te gate simply nodded at them and let them pass through.
Glory and Snape walked to the nearby village in silence, even though there was a thousand questions Glory wanted answers for. Instead she kept her mouth shut and the hood covering her face until they reached a quiet Inn.
"You can stay here or keep walking," Snape said.
"I don't have any money," Glory said softly, pushing back the hood and taking in the small village around her. As her hands lowered from her face, Snape's hands brushed up against them, taking them gently in his own.
Glory stared at him in surprise and tried to take her hands back. Snape held them tightly, then pressed a soft pouch into them. The coins inside clinked against one another and she stared at the money in shock.
"That should be enough for two weeks worth of meals and a place to stay," he said. "Don't stick around here for more than a night because they'll be looking for you soon enough."
Glory nodded, still staring at the pouch of money. "Thank you," she murmured. "I really appreciate this."
Snape shrugged. "I needed to help," he said, then turned his back on her and began the long walk back toward the mansion. Glory watched him disappear around a bend, then turned to the Inn, debating whether or not she should stay there for the night.
Her stomach growled loudly and she was suddenly very aware of how weary she felt. Nothing appealed to her more than having a good meal and a place to sleep for the night. A soft bed with real blankets and a warm pillow.
Glory disappeared into the Inn, her mind already past the things Severus Snape had done for her. She never expected to see him again. //
Now she taught in the same school as he did, eight years later she shared a breakfast table with the man who had helped her escape from Voldemort. As she stood alone on the bluff, Glory couldn't help but wonder if maybe she should really thank him for everything he had done. He had changed her and then he had helped her.
* * * *
* * * *
Classes flew by and before she knew it, Glory was finishing the lesson during the last class of the day and assigning a chapter in the textbook for homework. The second year Ravenclaws did nothing but jot the page numbers down as the Hufflepuffs began to murmur about all the homework they were already getting on their first day. She stood at the front of her classroom and watched as the students filed out, then began to collect her own books and papers before stepping out into the hall. She expected to see Lucius leaning against the wall, waiting for her to finish class, but the older man was no where to be seen.
Glory waited for a few minutes, then decided that Lucius and Dumbledore wouldn't be angry with her if she decided to drop her things off in her room without her usual supervision. She turned left and walked quickly down the hall toward the area of the school where the teachers' rooms were. She unlocked her bedroom door with a quick incantation and dropped the books on the desk nearby before shutting the door behind her and glancing around for Lucius. He wasn't in their room either, waiting for her to get back from classes like she thought he might be. He had vowed to be her shadow, after all and now that she was looking for him, her shadow had disappeared.
"Lucius?" she called softly, poking her head into the bathroom. Everything looked exactly as it had that morning before they left and Glory shrugged before heading back toward the hall. If Lucius couldn't be bothered to meet her when he said he was going to, she couldn't be bothered to waste her time looking for him. Not when there was an entire school for her to roam, as well as the grounds outside.
The chill of the approaching fall evening was cooler than Glory had anticipated and she wrapped her robes tighter around her body before casting a quick warming spell over herself. The wind died down around her and a familiar warmth spread through her as she began to walk, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dim light of the late afternoon.
The grounds of Hogwarts were far more beautiful than she remembered them being. Leaves on nearby trees were turning shades of gold and red, then dropping off and floating gently to the ground. Some were caught in an updraft and went spiralling through the air before settling down on the soft grass. The giant squid rolled lazily under the glass surface of the lake, sending gentle ripples over the water that lapped softly at the shore.
Glory turned from the lake and walked toward the Quidditch field, then turned to her right and started up the long path that led to a small bluff that hung over the lake. It was a favourite place for the Astronomy teacher to take the class as night when the tower became too crowded and cold. The sky was always clear over the bluff, no matter what the rest of the sky looked like and the stars always shone through.
Glory had fallen in love with the place as soon as her fourth year Astronomy teacher had taken her class there for one class in midwinter. Without knowing why she had made the place her sanctuary from the jeers of adolescent boys and the catty remarks from her so-called friends. She had been popular in school, there was no questioning that, but being popular had it's price. With so many people paying attention to her, Glory felt she had to be the girl she always pretended to be. The snotty, stuck up, beautiful girl, whose head hadn't held a single brain cell and whose heart didn't ache. She had pretended to have no heart.
On her bluff though, she was someone else. It was the place she went to do the homework assignments teachers never expected her to hand in. It had been the place she went to escape the superficial gossip she had always been part of and the only place she ever went to cry.
"What changed?" she murmured, staring at the sky. Shocks of pink and purple coloured the horizon, reaching toward her with their brilliantly coloured hands. "Was it Severus and Lucius? What was it?"
So many things had changed her from what she once was. Through and through, she had been a lost child, a pretty face with a cocky attitude and no nerve to back up anything she ever said. She had gone through life without thinking, just being something she wasn't because no one had ever forced her to be herself.
Then she had met Severus Snape.
He had torn her from the comfortable life she was living, the lie she had been living and forced her to reassess who she really was. In the depths of the Malfoy house she couldn't rely on her physical beauty to keep her alive, it had been her looks that had gotten her into trouble in the first place. Instead, Glory had to call on something she hadn't used in a very long time, an inner strength she had almost forgotten still lived within her. Because of Snape's violent attack and Lucius' brutal rapes, she had become a different person. Maybe the person she had always wanted to be.
The escape hadn't been easy, but she had done it and as soon as she had spoken the words there had been no turning back.
// She wasn't stupid, despite what her classmates might have said about her at one point. If Lucius or Snape had come for her that night she wouldn't have bothered trying to escape because they were powerful and she knew it. Even with a stolen wand hidden under her mattress she wouldn't have won against them. But that night, it appeared luck was on her side, for the man that came to her was an inexperienced Death Eater, not many years older than she was.
"What's your name?" he asked gruffly, after finishing with her. He was leaning heavily on her chest and she squirmed beneath him, trying to find a more comfortable position. "I asked what your name is."
She stared at him for a long moment. "Glory. Not that anyone ever bothered to use it."
"Glory," he murmured, reaching out and stroking her face. "That's a beautiful name."
"So?" she asked, pushing him away and sitting up in her cot. She began to dress, indicating to the young man that their time was over. If he had been ranked any higher he might have become angry, dressing before he did was not a stunt she ever would have pulled with Lucius, but Glory knew who she could push around and who she couldn't.
"I'll be back," the young man said, tucking his shirt into his pants and shrugging back into his black robe. "You're a pretty one."
Glory nodded, watching him from the corner of her eye as her hand reached toward the stolen wand. She had taken it from the son of a Death Eater, a boy two years younger than her who had tried to take advantage of her. He still didn't even know it was missing.
When the Death Eater's hand was on the door, the key in the lock that she couldn't open from the inside, no matter what spell she tried, Glory pulled the wand from its hiding place. As the door inched open slightly, she pointed it and uttered the word that she knew could kill the young man.
"Crucio."
He dropped instantly and Glory ran for the door, not knowing if he was a screamer. If he was, he could alert the entire house to her escape in less than thirty seconds, so she had to move quickly. Her tired, thin legs took her across the threshold of her cell and into the dank dungeons of the mansion. The Death Eater behind her made an unconscious grab for her leg, but missed and went on writhing on the dirty floor. He hadn't screamed yet and that was good.
Glory moved quickly, the wand still held in front of her as she ran toward the stairs. She ran softly up the stairs, her bare feet barely making a noise on the stone steps and her breath coming out in a near silent whisper. She had practiced being quiet, knowing that her life could depend on her ability to keep her breathing silent.
The hall above her was dark, but Glory didn't dare light the end of the wand to help her see. Instead, she moved soundlessly over the wooden floor, her hand held out in front of her to prevent her from knocking anything over and call unnecessary attention to herself. A voice came from ahead and she immediately shrunk against the wall, making herself as small as possible.
A torch bobbed toward her, but the light barely reached the corners making it easy for her to keep her body in the shadows. She knew the voice of the man holding the torch and she trembled, hoping with everything she had that if she was found, it would not be by him.
Lucius Malfoy passed without so much as looking in her direction, a gorgeous woman on his arm and a small boy by his side. The boy couldn't have been more than ten years old, but Glory could hear Lucius' words to the child.
"You know them now, unforgivable or not at that ridiculous school you'll be attending, and I'll be expecting to see you using them whenever you have the chance."
"But father," the boy began.
"But nothing, Draco," the woman said sharply. "You know your place in this world and by the time you start attending that bloody Hogwarts, you'll be acting like it."
Draco's head fell. "Yes, mother."
Glory's eyes narrowed as she watched the family pass, but she said nothing and kept herself hidden and pressed to the wall. As soon as the torchlight disappeared in the other direction, Glory continued her escape down the hall and soon found herself in a brightly lit foyer.
There was a door. The front door.
For a moment, she abandoned all caution and raced across the front hall, ignoring the fact that a Death Eater could come out of any room at any moment. The wand she held clattered to the floor and she grabbed the door knob tightly in her hand, ready to throw it open and escape into the sunlight.
"I wouldn't do that," a voice said from behind her.
Glory whirled around to see Snape halfway up the staircase, staring at her curiously. She fumbled for the wand she had dropped and knelt to the floor, picking it up with trembling fingers.
"Why not?" she asked.
"There are guards at the front gate. You might get out of the house, but without help you'll never get off the grounds," he said.
Her lower lip trembled. "I'll find a way."
"You won't."
"You can't tell me that I've come this far just to lose now," she murmured.
Snape came down the rest of the stairs, then turned into a room on his left and pulled a black robe off a hanger. He walked toward her quickly and Glory instinctively took a step back, not knowing what he would do to her.
Snape paused, staring at her and for a moment she thought she saw his eyes flash with guilt and sadness.
"Put this on," he growled, throwing the robe at her.
She caught it and shrugged into it, pulling the hood over her face and tucking her dirty hair behind her ears. Snape pulled his own hood up, then grabbed her arm and opened the front door.
"Put the wand away," he hissed as they walked. "Don't say anything, don't look at anyone. Keep your head down and your mouth shut and I'll get you out of here."
"Why?" Glory asked.
"Why what?"
"Why are you helping me get out?"
Snape didn't answer, just tightened his grip on her arm and dragged her along to the front gates. A few yards away he released her, but continued walking and Glory had to hurry to keep up with him. The guards at te gate simply nodded at them and let them pass through.
Glory and Snape walked to the nearby village in silence, even though there was a thousand questions Glory wanted answers for. Instead she kept her mouth shut and the hood covering her face until they reached a quiet Inn.
"You can stay here or keep walking," Snape said.
"I don't have any money," Glory said softly, pushing back the hood and taking in the small village around her. As her hands lowered from her face, Snape's hands brushed up against them, taking them gently in his own.
Glory stared at him in surprise and tried to take her hands back. Snape held them tightly, then pressed a soft pouch into them. The coins inside clinked against one another and she stared at the money in shock.
"That should be enough for two weeks worth of meals and a place to stay," he said. "Don't stick around here for more than a night because they'll be looking for you soon enough."
Glory nodded, still staring at the pouch of money. "Thank you," she murmured. "I really appreciate this."
Snape shrugged. "I needed to help," he said, then turned his back on her and began the long walk back toward the mansion. Glory watched him disappear around a bend, then turned to the Inn, debating whether or not she should stay there for the night.
Her stomach growled loudly and she was suddenly very aware of how weary she felt. Nothing appealed to her more than having a good meal and a place to sleep for the night. A soft bed with real blankets and a warm pillow.
Glory disappeared into the Inn, her mind already past the things Severus Snape had done for her. She never expected to see him again. //
Now she taught in the same school as he did, eight years later she shared a breakfast table with the man who had helped her escape from Voldemort. As she stood alone on the bluff, Glory couldn't help but wonder if maybe she should really thank him for everything he had done. He had changed her and then he had helped her.
* * * *