A/N: Hello, my lucky readers. :) You are in for a treat. Two chapter updates at once. I couldn't just leave the cliffhanger on this chapter the way it was, so I dove right in onto the next. I will admit that I did have to go back through and fix my original idea for this chapter, so if there's a part that doesn't make sense for some reason, I apologize. I likely missed it during editing. As always, enjoy. :)

Fate's Judgment

A few days later, Severus smiled down at his little boy and ruffled Harrison's hair affectionately as he tucked Harrison in for the night. He chuckled when he heard the boy's laughs. There was no doubt about it. He was changing this young child's life for the better. The boy's infectious, albeit high-pitched, laughter proved that every single day. And with each laugh, Severus felt his heart grow and warm once more. He couldn't deny it. He had fallen in love with his little boy, his brat. Though, he'd make sure that his son was anything but a silly Gryffindor this time. Not that there was anything wrong with Gryffindors of course, except their frequent near-death experiences they had. He wouldn't even get started about their sassy, know-it-all attitudes.

"All right, brat," the young father said quietly. "Eyes closed."

Harrison stared back up at him and bit his bottom lip, as he was clearly nervous about something.

"I'll be right here in the morning," Severus added softly, noticing immediately his words relaxed the boy and put his young mind at ease. "Promise."

"Night, Dada."

"Night, brat," Severus replied, sitting down in a chair beside Harrison's bedside.

He'd wait until the boy was asleep for at least an hour before even attempting to move from the chair. Otherwise, he knew Harrison would know something was up and wouldn't go to sleep again. It was still strange to think how well the boy knew him.

As he waited, he thought back on his conversation the other night with the Fates. He snorted silently then. Who would have thought the Fates would show themselves to him as a half-goblin, centaur, vampire, and dryad? Honestly, it sounded more like the start of a really bad joke, one his father might have told to be truthful.

Master of Death. It sounded strange to say. Yet, with all the evidence that was provided, he supposed he should at least consider it as the truth. He rubbed at his face tiredly. All he had ever wanted after realizing his error in joining the Death Eaters was the chance at living a normal life. To make up for that grave mistake. He had thought he had it when Dumbledore hired him as the Potions Master after Slughorn retired, but normalcy hadn't lasted long.

And now he was a man on the run again. Damn it! He was so sick and tired of running. Not to mention, that was no sort of life for a child like Harrison. No. Severus needed to end this. One way or another he would.

Which was why he had decided on his current course of action in the first place. He couldn't find his answers at Ashmore Manor. At least not the answers that really mattered. It was clear that at Hogwarts, though, he'd find them. The Fates had supplied him with that piece during their talk. The only problem was he knew how the other three adults in the manor would react if he told them of his plan, and he had no intention of them trying to talk him out of it.

Fifteen minutes had passed by since he had tucked Harrison in. His black eyes darted to the young boy, noticing that Harrison's breathing wasn't quite even yet. Severus watched the boy start to squirm then and glanced upwards at the ceiling. He hadn't wanted to do this, but he couldn't wait all night for the boy to fall asleep either.

Slowly snaking his hand back into his sleeve, he turned his wrist slightly, so his wand would slide into his hand. He closed his eyes as he cast his wordless sleeping charm on the young boy. Harrison's little body slackened instantly as his magical sleep carried him off to the deepest dreams.

Severus shook his head and suppressed his wince. He knew he shouldn't spell the boy asleep all the time as it'd likely cause the boy to have trouble sleeping later in life, but he couldn't wait any longer really. And deep down he knew the importance of keeping a promise to a son, and he was going to do everything in his power to do just that with Harrison always.

Flicking his wand once more, he locked the door to the room so that only he could unlock it. He didn't need any of the others to know that he wasn't there. In the morning, he'd lie if asked, stating he was just making sure Harrison was safe while they slept.

He then drew in a breath and spun on his heel, knowing the manor's wards would allow him through. The familiar tug behind his navel signaled he had Disapparated away. He knew what the others would say if they knew. That he was a fool for going out there unprotected, but he needed to know.

Pushing open the large wrought iron gates of Hogwarts, Severus slipped inside onto the quiet grounds. Off in the distance, he could hear the gentle hooting of the owls in the owlery settling in for the night. The castle, majestic as always, looked so foreboding now against the black, threatening skies overhead. He noticed the torches outside the castle, the Headmaster's—rather Headmistress's—office, and a dozen others lit, flickering lights giving way to the illusion of a lighthouse upon the high cliffs of the Scottish loch. Three steps later, he felt the sudden tingle of house elf magic surround him. His eyes widened, but before he could react, he vanished with a quiet pop.

Where there once was an earthly smell, now there was only the smell of neglect. When he reappeared a moment later, he found himself in a large, unfamiliar room stacked high with dusty old things that had been thrown in every which way. Judging by the old stone walls he could see in the distance, he guessed that he had been transported to some room at Hogwarts. But he had never been in this room in particular before he was fairly certain.

Drawing his wand, he looked about the messy room. There was no doubt that the room was stuffed full of crap over the last few centuries. He frowned as he passed by an old lunascope that had to have been at least a hundred years old.

"Hello?" he called out, his eyes darting around and looking for any sort of movement. After all, some house elf had to have brought him here for some reason.

It was a full minute of silence before he finally received his answer.

"Hello, Severus" was the soft reply he heard.

His wand lowered slightly. Aurora? He whirled around to where he had heard her voice and then rushed towards the large crystalline object suspended in the air in the middle of the room where he could see an image reflected in its glass. He paused as soon as he had reached it, feeling a hint of déjà vu as he looked at the large crystal. Maybe he had been in this room before. He couldn't be certain, though. But the crystal did seem familiar to him for some reason. But something was different now.

"Every version of you is always so fascinated by it," an amused voice spoke behind him.

He turned around, gripping his wand a bit tighter. However, when he saw the ethereal image of Aurora approaching him, he frowned before he lowered his wand a bit further. He couldn't necessarily explain why he didn't feel threatened by the image, but he just knew that he didn't need to feel like he was about to be attacked at any moment. That he would be all right if he relaxed if only for a bit.

"I take it that you're Hogwarts?" he stated softly towards the ghostly mirage. It couldn't be Aurora standing in front of him now he knew. The thing seemed too lifeless to be her, too inhuman. As he watched it a second longer, he felt the familiar ache in his chest flair up again. It hurt to look at this thing that had taken her image. To know that it wasn't her, and that she was still gone.

"I am." The mirage then morphed back into a gaseous state colored in various areas with each of Hogwarts' House colors. "Is this better for you? You seemed to prefer this form more the last time we spoke if I recall correctly."

His eyes narrowed briefly. "I'm afraid I don't recall that meeting."

"You wouldn't. I never interacted with you."

"I don't follow." When he heard the soft laughter from the, for the lack of a better term, cloud, he forced himself not to react. "Have I said something amusing?"

"No. It's just that you're not that great at lying yet, I'm afraid," the Cloud replied amused. "Your other half, he could have convinced you that you were a true Gryffindor if given the chance, and you'd have believed him."

"I very much doubt that," Severus bristled, his eyes darting to the suspended crystal again.

"Why do you stare at it like that? The crystal? He did the same when he was here. It's as if you both know something I don't, which would be rather interesting I admit."

The young twenty-two-year-old shrugged slightly. "I don't know. I just feel like I've seen it before, I guess."

"Understandable, I suppose," the Cloud replied. "You were the Headmaster of Hogwarts when you returned to the past."

"What?" His eyes widened into saucers. He had been Headmaster?

"Oh, please, that's hardly that surprising. You have it in you to be a great Headmaster if given a chance."

"I hate the little brats," he declared. "They're all idiots who know nothing regardless of their know-in-all attitudes that they think are cute. Every last one of them wouldn't know the first thing to do if a friend had been poisoned. So, why on Earth would I want that job? To be stuck here for a moment longer and forced to be near them even more?"

"Because you have a very strong protective streak that runs deep within you. And while you may claim you hate them, let's be honest. You haven't necessarily resigned quite yet. Now, have you?"

"I've been a little busy if you haven't noticed."

"Oh?" The Cloud of Hogwarts hovered a bit more to his left. "Have you been attacked since leaving Hogwarts then?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Don't you think that's strange, though?" the Cloud interrupted. "That the attacks stopped?"

"No, not really, because I'm staying at Ashmore Manor now." He shrugged. "So, whomever my attackers are, they likely can't penetrate the wards surrounding it."

"And yet when you were outside of my wards just now, you weren't attacked then either."

"They likely hadn't had time to Disapparate here quite yet." That seemed logical to him. After all, they'd have to have some sort of tracker on him first to be able to track his location. So, if there wasn't a tracker on him, it'd likely take his attackers a bit to figure it out.

"Or maybe," the cloud drawled, "no one is after you anymore, hmm?"

"That is—"

"What if I'm not wrong, though, Severus? What if Aurora managed to fix the timeline and repair the damage, and all of that from before has been fixed now? After all, weren't those the questions you wanted to ask? Why you came here in the first place?" He could almost hear the Cloud's amusement again. "To see if I knew about her, about the Fates, about everything."

He couldn't deny it, because it was true. He had come here wanting to know those answers. However, now, he was finding that he wasn't quite certain he wanted them anymore. In fact, he didn't know what he wanted anymore. Finding Aurora was the primary goal, yes, but . . .

"But what if the answers you receive are worse than the not knowing, right?" the Cloud said, finishing his thought for him.

"I care for her."

"Almost as much as he had, yes, I can see that."

"But I don't know her. Not really. I-I just know that when she's around, it feels right. That . . ."

"He gave you hope, Severus. A dangerous weapon for someone like you, someone who has needed it for a long time. It's a stronger force than almost everything in the world. Only love is stronger. And that, oh well, that's a weapon that is almost always fatal in the end."

"Do you know about this Fate's Judgement thing? Anything that could help?"

"I'm aware of its existence, yes, but that's all."

He sighed heavily, running a tired hand over his face.

"But I know how you can get the answer to your question, though, Severus."

"How?"

His eyes narrowed in puzzlement when he watched the colored lights in the cloud brighten almost tenfold before it erupted into a blinding light suddenly. He shielded his eyes almost instantly, wincing as he felt the warmth of the lights. A moment later, though, the bright lights were gone, and the Cloud of Hogwarts was once again lit at its normal strength.

"Hello, Filius," the Cloud stated cordially.

Severus stared dumbfounded as he now noticed that the small Charms professor now stood where the blinding lights initially had been. Had the Cloud brought Filius here? Why?

"Hogwarts," squeaked the Charms professor before his eyes fell onto Severus.

"I think it's long overdue that you ended this, don't you?" the Cloud replied bitingly.

"I can't—"

"Oh, you very well can, Filius Flitwick!"

The man grimaced at the Cloud's tone, as did Severus for that matter.

"Now, end this poor boy's suffering once and for all and tell him the truth. Or you will not remain here any longer, Fate! I am under no obligation to allow your presence here seeing as how Dumbledore is no longer the headmaster. So, end this."

Filius opened his mouth to speak, likely to argue, but closed his mouth a moment later and sighed. He glanced towards Severus.

"It's true then?" the young man asked quietly. "You're truly one of the Fates I saw?"

"I am."

Severus took a step back, his mind reeling. He had taught beside Filius. Hell, he had been taught by Filius! The man was one of the Fates? It was . . . incomprehensible, maddening. He—Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw, Charms professor—was a Fate?!

"This entire time . . . you . . . you knew?" Severus could hear his voice tremble as he stared at the short wizard. "You knew where she was? You knew about . . . him?" He couldn't find it in himself to say his future self. "About Harrison? About everything?"

"Yes."

"And you said nothing. This entire time, you said nothing."

"There is a statute of secrecy on this, as I'm certain you would assume there'd be. Albus only knew the truth about my being a Fate because he connected the dots. And once he did, he hired me to be the Charms professor."

Severus stared at Filius for a good two seconds before he reacted, his age and inexperience showing itself royally. He clenched his hand tightly into a fist and threw a half-dozen curses towards the older wizard. He didn't care that not a single one had hit the man. He just wanted to hurt him, to show him feel how angry he was right then. To know that a man he had considered a friend, a coworker, had betrayed him, had let him down again.

"Where is she?!" Severus yelled, throwing yet another cutting curse that Filius waved away effortlessly. "Where is Aurora? Answer me!"

Filius said nothing, though, only stared back with sad eyes.

The twenty-two-year-old then drew his wand and slashed the air dangerously, sending his specialized curse at the man. Overhead, he could hear the crackling of his magic. He wanted to hurt him, to kill him. The darkness that he had kept at bay for so long was rooting in the back of his mind again, squirming through and spreading throughout his body like Devil's Snare with a victim caught in its vines. When Sectumsempra did nothing, he opened his mouth to snarl an Unforgivable. He'd get his answers from the man even if Filius had to die as a result. Only the Unforgivable curse died on his lips at the sight of an image reflected in the large suspended crystal next to Filius.

"The light to your darkness? Isn't that what he said to you, Severus?" the Cloud spoke softly beside him. "That she is the light to your darkness?"

His wand clattered to the floor as he stared at the crystal with a trembling breath.

"Do you see now why I want you to end this, Filius? Do you see the tears on that boy's face?" the Cloud stated a moment later as Severus continued staring at the image. "He needs her back."

"It's not as easy as—"

"Look at him, Filius Flitwick. Look at the young man before you whom we all failed. Look at him, and then tell me that you cannot end this. That you cannot do something."

Severus closed his eyes then, blocking them out. It had just been an image of Aurora standing somewhere watching him. It shouldn't have affected him as much as it had. And yet it had, which he supposed he should be thankful for as it had stopped him from killing Flitwick.

He breathed in deeply, the strong scent of raspberries and other berries filling his nose.

"It's not so literal, you understand? To be a Master of Death, I mean. It's not like Death will appear one day, bow before you, and ask you what you wish of him like a genie. It's subtler than that. To be a true Master of Death, as we hope you to be, you have to have the strength in your resolve when Death comes and takes friends of yours. You have to have the understanding that you will in time see them again. That their departures are only temporarily. That every life taken, one is restored. Do you understand this, Severus? What is being asked of you? That you will go through life and experience losses just as you had before, but you cannot lash out as you have, curse Death for it. For Death is only doing its job. Just as you will. With great power comes great responsibility."

"I don't want it," Severus declared firmly, opening his eyes. The other Fates he had seen before had joined Filius and the Cloud now. "I don't want power. I don't want any part of it. Not anymore. I lost everything in my quest for power. I lost the woman I had cared for. I lost friends. Family. I lost myself even. I don't want it. You can—tell Death he can have his gifts back. I don't want them."

The four Fates looked to one another and smiled warmly.

"Which is why it must remain with you, Severus," the dryad softly stated. "For when you die, the gifts Death provided to the brothers will no longer have their power on this world. Every person who has had these gifts before you have failed. Oh, they could reunite them just fine. But greeting Death later, they couldn't hide how much they had loved the power they had felt, hide their arrogance. It was Death's curse on them. You've had a taste of power, though, and seen the dangers of that."

He swallowed down his heart and drew in a slow breath. "All of that, though, is a moot point without Aurora in my life." He held their gaze and trembled slightly. Not out of fear, but out of barely holding back his turbulent emotions. "I have been alone my entire life, Fates. Relying only on myself and no one else." He watched the dryad and Filius glance away. "Do you know what happens to a person when he's been by himself for so long? What happens when the isolation takes over? When the loneliness is your only friend? No? I do." The centaur glanced to the vampire then. "I know the feeling of intense suffocation one has when he has no one but himself. I don't ever want to feel that again. I don't ever want to feel like I'm a drowning, and no one, I mean no one, will save me." The vampire stood a bit straighter as he listened. "I have his memories, his words and hers committed to my own memory. I admit I have knowledge I shouldn't have. But to punish her because of this, it's absurd. She was just trying to save me, as she's always done. Do you understand? She asked for your judgment on her because she was trying to save me. Because, for reasons I still haven't fully figured out yet, she cares deeply for me, has for years now. I need her in my life. I need her. So, tell me. Tell me what I have to do in order to get her back. To fix this. And to end it once and for all so I can get back to a normal life, the life I should have had if people like you and Dumbledore and Voldemort and all the others hadn't meddled in my life."

The vampire's reddish eyes darted to the centaur, who in turn looked at the dryad female, who looked at Filius.

When none of them spoke, the Cloud did. "I would think the way is clear, Fates. Don't you?"

"It's right," the dryad spoke. "It's the only way to rebalance nature again."

"It would fix things after all," Filius said, turning to look towards the vampire.

"What do you think, Bane?" the vampire asked, looking to the centaur.

The centaur only inclined his head.

"What does that mean? Is Aurora coming back?" Severus glanced at each of them.

"I believe we can just make some tweaks without destabilizing the timeline entirely."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we can do as she asked; take away the knowledge you shouldn't have and return her."

"All right. What about the people after me, though? After my family?" Severus asked.

"Diana Selwyn was the main driving force behind some of it. You gave her a piece of her niece back. We will leave that alone. Regarding the others who have attacked you, they will have been dealt with already for their transgressions against you." He nodded. "That is not to say that when time restarts again, that you won't be attacked at some point along the way. But that attack, if it occurs, would have nothing to do with your future self playing God this time, though. It would likely be a result of you betraying Voldemort and his ideals instead."

"So, a redo in other words? That's what you're offering?"

"Yes, and in turn, we ask that you remain the Master of Death for us. A fair trade, I believe."

"You get your normal life, and we get a chance to see if you can return Death's gifts."

"Deal?"

"What about Harrison? My parents? Everything that's been changed?" He didn't want to ruin someone's life just so his was better with Aurora back by his side where she belonged.

"There will be tweaks, but it will mostly remain the same as what you've experienced thus far. You won't know the differences, though. We will ensure it, so it doesn't cause any repercussions again."

"Do we have a deal?"

He thought on it. He'd get Aurora back. He'd not have the pain he felt when she was away anymore, but he'd have her back. And he wouldn't know that her favorite flowers were asters. Or that she smelled like raspberries. Or that she couldn't really handle her Absinthe at all. But he would have her back and a chance to get to know her.

But magic, especially this kind, always had a price. And the deal they were offering, it seemed to be too good to be true to him. There had to be something else that they weren't telling him, some other price that would be paid.

It was a risk. There was no doubt about that. If he said yes, he'd have her back, but he'd surely lose something in return. If he said no, he'd never get her back likely.

His future self had given him a boy, entrusted the child with him. His boy. His sweet Harrison. The Fates said that it'd be minor tweaks to the timeline, but what if they were wrong and something happened and Harrison was taken from him? It'd kill him for certain. He had lived without a woman in his life before. But he couldn't go back and abandon the boy now, not when he had fallen for the brat. Harrison deserved a second chance just as much as he had. That wasn't to say that he wanted to live entirely without Aurora either. But a chance to get to know, really get to know her, and fall in love with her the right way? Wasn't that worth at least trying?

"Do we have a deal, Severus?"

He looked towards the Cloud of Hogwarts and slowly closed his eyes.

He was learning how to trust again, and it was getting easier, he'd admit, but he didn't want to be wrong either. He wanted Aurora back. Aurora and his family . . .

"Severus, do we have a deal or not?" the dryad repeated. "We need an answer."

"Yes," he murmured a moment later, wondering if he had just damned himself to hell again.

The Fates clapped their hands. "She has already returned." Everything then faded to black for him.