Chapter One
Aftermath
Somewhere in Scotland there exists an ancient castle that is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Many generations of young witches and wizards have attended this school to hone their skills and refine their craft. The students were assigned to one of four houses, which were named after the four original founders of the school, by an enchanted hat. This Sorting Hat, separated them according to their strengths and ambitions. The houses were Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. It was here that alliances were formed, life long friendships were forged and romances begun and ended.
It was also the place that saw the rise and eventual fall of a Dark Wizard named Voldimort. As Tom Riddle, Voldimort had too been a student of Hogwarts, and belonged to the House of Slytherin. His life's ambition had been to be the most powerful wizard that had ever lived, and to rule the wizarding world. A world where pureblooded wizards and witches would be the only ones who could use their magic. A world where half bloods or less would be destroyed or reduced to slavery.
In the dungeons of Hogwarts, resided the school's Potions Master, Professor Severus Snape. Tall, dark Severus Snape was feared and hated by his students and called many a disparaging name behind his back. He was not classically handsome; his nose was just a tad too long and pointed. His hair lank and greasy from hours spent over boiling cauldrons. His eyes dark brown, almost black, his lips full and perpetually sneering. He knew he wasn't liked. He didn't care, at least even the most inept of students learned something useful in his classes, for no one was safe from his cutting remarks if a mistake was made. No one save those students from Slytherin House, until recently. Severus Snape had attended Hogwarts and it was as a student that he became a follower of Voldimort, a Death Eater. It was to Hogwarts he returned when he fled from the Death Eaters to begin his purgatory, to beg for redemption at the feet of a wizard even more powerful than Voldimort. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. It was then that Severus Snape began to spy for Dumbledore and eventually The Order of The Phoenix. Shortly after his purgatory began, it ended when Volidmort was defeated by a baby named Harry Potter. Severus stayed on, teaching potions, frightening students and waiting for the day that Voldimort would return.
Voldimort eventually did return, and was, after a few hard years of war, defeated by a now grown up Harry Potter, himself and Potters two best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Voldimort was gone for good and peace now reigned over their world. Severus Snape had no idea what to do with himself and so he took to his dungeon rooms and fell into a deep depression. He was used to being alone, and preferred the solace he found in his rooms. Yet, now in the aftermath of the war, when there was nothing for him to focus on, nothing he could use to repress the memories of long ago traumas and shorter term memories, his sub conscious released all of the bundled up past. He began to care not if he lived or died.
Albus Dumbledore, for all of his great age, was the most powerful wizard in the world. He took Severus Snape in and made him the Potions Master. It was he that watched over Severus as he conducted his espionage missions to the Death Eater meetings. Over the years, Dumbledore came to care for his dark Potions Master, just as he cared for all of his teachers, though perhaps a bit more. He looked upon Severus as he would
a son. He was very worried about him, as were his fellow teachers. None but Albus dared approach Severus for fear of a temperamental out burst. They were never loud, but said quietly in a velvet-covered voice that cut deeply.
Dumbledore had several daughters of various ages, but it was Anya Dumbledore Bromley, (she had kept her mothers name) his youngest that had him most concerned. At thirty-six years of age, she was still as pretty and headstrong as she had been as a child. She had been living in America for the past decade, living as a muggle 'trying to find herself' or so she explained to her father when he inquired of her reasoning. When Voldimort returned, she had agreed to keep tabs on Death Eater activity in America, and had returned to fight in the final battle. After Voldimorts death, she kissed her father good-bye and returned to her life in America.
Things were not going well for his favorite child, his baby. Reports he was getting (of course he kept an eye on all of his daughters) troubled him deeply. She had fallen into a deep sort of depression, and had begun to dabble in the Dark Arts. This latest information had solidified the idea that had begun to form in the mind of the old wizard. He loved Anya and he loved Severus. Both were on the path to self-destruction, and unless he set them onto another path, the out come would be unbearable.
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"No, Albus. I will not go and that is my final word on the subject." Severus Snape growled over his steaming hot cup of tea. He was seated in the Headmaster's office on a sunny July afternoon. Term had just ended and the school was quiet. Severus Snape was not the most social of persons, yet he had, reluctantly left the dark cocoon of his dungeon quarters at Albus' invitation to join him in his ritual tea. But then again, no one ever turned down an invitation from Dumbledore. Expecting an hour or two of idle small talk about nothing that interested him, Snape had been, well, floored by what had transpired.
He had known about Anya, of course. He had been a sixth year when she entered Hogwarts and the fact that she was the Headmaster's daughter had caused much talk. It also insured that she had very few friends and was treated with a certain degree of caution for her entire first year. Until her, still infamous Halloween prank the following year. After that night she had proved herself to be just one of the students and her popularity had soared. Severus had even been reluctantly impressed. She was soon forgotten after his graduation in all of the commotion of the first rise of Voldimort.
He vaguely recalled a prettyish sort of woman, fighting alongside the others during the final battle, but he had seen no more than a glimpse or so of her until she kissed Albus on the cheek and disapperated as soon as The Dark Lord had been declared dead. Now here was his mentor, telling him that this same creature had begun to dabble in the Dark Arts and that he wanted him, Severus Snape, to try to save her. Ha. No way. Absolutely not. Not just no, Hell no!
"Severus" Dumbledore said quietly "Anya is my most beloved child. You are the only one who has a chance to save her from the same path that you once walked on. That aside, my dear boy, I am worried about you."
"Pah!" he snorted. "What do you know of me old man!"
The old Headmaster sighed. "My dear boy." he said sadly. How could he tell him that he had redeemed himself of his past, when he knew that the man slouched in the chair before him, had not forgiven himself? Dumbledore, in all of his wisdom, knew that Severus would refuse to hear of it. "I beg of you to help my child. To save her. You are the only one who can, by your experience, show her that the choice she is on the path to making will lead to her certain doom."
As the Potions Master met the eyes of the man who had been like a father to him, he was astonished to see a single tear trace it's way down his wizened cheek. The fact that it moved him, astonished him further. He knew that he really had no choice in the matter. He would go to America and try his damndest to save this foolish woman from becoming what he had become.