Disclaimer: All characters, with exception of Setha Stuart, are not my invention but J.K. Rowling's. I'm not writing to make any profit but for writing's sake, and because I love the HP books.

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A Love Lost - and Refound?

Chapter 1 - The Return to Hogwarts.

When Setha saw the old, familiar spikes and towers of Hogwarts, she was overwhelmed by memories half forgotten. Here she had spent seven happy years, here she had found love, everlasting, yet hopeless love. This love was one reason for the fact that she still looked like a 25-year-old woman. She hadn't changed a bit over the past 20 years. This was partly due to her secret work on the Philosopher's Stone, which she had finally been able to produce. But the main reason was a curse that had been put on her. Age would not be able to touch her until she was truly happy . with the man she loved more than life itself. But this was impossible. He did not exist anymore. He had changed into an evil force. Or had she only imagined that he had a good side?

Unable to die of natural causes she had gone out into the world seeking death. For years she had been working for the Ministry of Magic as an auror. She had caught many death-eaters, but had never been found out by those supporters of Voldemort who remain outside Azkaban. The only way to kill her seemed to be the killing curse - Avada Kedavra - yet no one had been able to perform it.

Setha had been in Gryffindor. She had come to Hogwarts with her childhood friend James Potter. On the Hogwarts Express they had met two other boys, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. They had been friends from the first day. She had also been the friend of the girl, who one day would be the world to James. Lily had come out of a muggle family and was thrilled to find that there was another world to be explored - her true world. And then there was this boy from Slytherin. Everyone hated him, but Setha seemed to understand what he was really like. Behind the backs of her Gryffindor friends she had met with the Slytherin boy, had helped him with his transfiguration homework and finally taught him how to become an Animagus. Like James, Sirius . and Peter Pettigrew . she had realized that Remus was in fact a werewolf. And like them she tried to become an animal. But she was able to transform into more than one animal. Normally she would become into a swan . Swany was born. The Slytherin boy could also transform into a bird . an eagle. No one ever knew about him, no one apart from Setha.

In their fifth year, Setha realized that she was in love . in love with a Slytherin! There was no way of telling her best friends. And there was no way she could see that one of her friends was falling for her as well. Yet this friend destroyed all her hopes of a future with her Slytherin love. In their last year at Hogwarts something happened that crushed all her dreams. The man she loved turned away from her . and became a snake. The eagle was dead for now jealousy controlled him.

When she had lost him, she found, for a short time, consolation in the arms of one of her Gryffindor friends. But she couldn't see it through. She had accepted his proposal to marry him, but her heart still belonged to another. So she had ended the relationship. Her friend, mad with grief cursed her.

Now all this came back to her like a flood. What was she doing here? Why had she accepted to come back to Hogwarts after all these long years? Dumbledore, the answer was so simple. Dumbledore had asked her to come to Hogwarts to secure the safety of the students. She had accepted to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts . she would teach her students how to fight simple curses, the older ones would have to be able to evade even the Impirius Curse, and to tell a death-eater from a normal witch or wizard.

So, she came back. She came back to find an almost deserted Slytherin house, to face constant fear of Lord Voldemort, and to see the man she loved again.