This chapter includes flashbacks

Teddie sighed and rolled over. The time on her watch, which lay on the bedside table, read 3:30am. It was late, or early, depending on one's perspective, but she couldn't sleep either way. Her mind raced with images of her detention with Professor Snape.

It had started like every other detention…

"Enter," Snape's silky voice echoed from behind the classroom door. Teddie sighed and pushed it open. This wasn't the first time she had been in the Potions classroom after hours, throughout her five years at Hogwarts she had been here more than once, it was common knowledge that she had detention often with Snape – always for fighting with Malfoy.

Snape sat at his desk, his head down and grading Potion essays. He muttered to himself about how much of a dunder head his students where, as if they couldn't follow basic instructions and explain the simplest of tasks that he set them.

"Maybe if you weren't such a tyrant student wouldn't be so afraid of you and could actually concentrate on what they are doing for homework," said Teddie, taking a seat on the front desk. She had brought her dragon hide gloves in case.

Snape paused in his marking and glanced up. "If you all paid attention to what is in front of you, and not on what's around you then maybe you would know what I expect in your homework," he said.

"Can you blame us for being curious when she is in the room?"

"She is here to monitor me."

"You think we don't know that?"

Snape narrowed his eyes. "You will do well to watch your tongue, Miss Green," he said. "Professor Umbridge is not a person you want to get on the wrong side of. The control she has –"

"Is what?" Teddie interrupted. "Scary? Intimidating? I think we all figured that out when she got the Minister to appoint her to the position of High Inquisitor. We aren't as stupid as you think, Professor, we know why she is here."

Snape put down his quill and placed his fingertips together, touching the tips of them to his lips. "You think you know everything?" he asked. "You know nothing."

"I never said we knew everything," said Teddie, shaking her head. "I said we knew something's. We know there is something going on at the Ministry, we know that Fudge has sent Umbridge here to spy on the school, on Dumbledore. Mo confirmed the other night that Fudge thinks Dumbledore is forming an army to take on the Ministry – we know they're afraid."

"Indeed," said Snape. "We live in fearful times."

Teddie stopped short and stared at him. She licked her lips and cast her gaze away. "What do you want me to do for this detention?" she asked. "Clean cauldrons? Rearrange the stock cupboard? Tell me, and I'll do it. I just want to get back to the common room."

"I have nothing for you to do," said Snape.

"Then why give me detention tonight?"

"Because there is one thing that we need to discuss," said Snape. "One thing that you have been avoiding for the last three months."

Teddie felt her mouth go dry. She swallowed, hard, and closed her eyes. She didn't want to do this now. She wasn't ready.

"Please don't," Teddie whispered.

Snape remained silent, staring at her. "You cannot avoid it forever, Miss Green," he told her. "You have to deal with it eventually. Or you are, just like the Ministry, sweeping aside what happened."

Curling her hands into fists, Teddie lifted her head and glared at Snape. "I don't want to do this," she said.

"This is your detention," said Snape. "Talk to me."

"I SAID NO!" Teddie yelled, her voice reverberating off the walls. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her heart beating hard against her chest.

As the echoes of her shout disappeared, Teddie realised that Snape had not reacted. She chanced a glance at him. He was still sitting behind his desk, but he was watching her closely. His cold, black eyes watching her every move.

She knew that he was not letting her go without talking. She may has well have got it over with now, then letting it hang around for another three months. It would only fester and be a lot worse if she didn't deal with the emotions behind it.

Yes, she was scared, but how would she fell in three months' time?

"You lied to me," Teddie said, her voice low and quiet. But in the silence of the room it sounded loud and echoing. "For thirteen years, you let me believe I was some Muggle, that I was just an ordinary girl with an extraordinary life."

"Because you deserved normality," said Snape.

"But I'm not normal," said Teddie, shaking her head. "I've never been normal."

Snape stared at her. "No," he said.

Teddie licked her lips. "Why?" she asked, steeling herself. "Why didn't you tell me? After all the times I did something magical, all the times my shield showed itself, why did you never tell me the truth?"

"It wasn't my place."

"Your place?" Teddie scoffed. "Of course, it was your place! You were put there to keep an eye on me, don't try and lie to me and say you weren't."

Snape held up his hand. "I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "Yes, I was there to keep an eye on you, but no, I was not placed there specifically. Spinner's End was my childhood home, I knew that the Green's wanted to start a family, and yes, it was I that suggested them when Caroline turned up on my doorstep with you."

"How did you get my parents to agree to keep me?" Teddie asked. "I can't begin to guess that it was easy?"

"No. It wasn't," said Snape. "It took a lot of magic. A lot of memory spells and alterations. You were already two years old when you came to them, I had to change two years of their lives to fit around you. It was complicated and took some time, and the maintenance meant that both Caroline and I had to be close by."

Teddie grit her teeth at the idea of her parents being tampered with magic. They were good people, and they didn't deserve their lives to be altered just so that she could be hidden in plain sight.

"Why didn't either you or Caroline take me?" Teddie asked. "It would have been simpler."

"Because of the implications," said Snape. "Caroline was compromised, what with her being Avery's sister. It was obvious that she would take custody of you when her parents passed. And I –"

"- being a known Death Eater," Teddie interrupted

Snape pursed his lips and fell silent. He had been expecting this for three months, and he had been the one to push Teddie to start talking.

"Yeah, I figured it out," said Teddie, standing from her seat. "I mean, how else could you know where to find me? No one knew where I was, No one but them. Not Mo, not Cerberus, not even my friends. They weren't stupid when they hid me because they knew people would be looking for me. But you knew!"

Teddie stopped in front of Snape's desk, staring at him with hard eyes. He could see unshed tears glittering in the iris', emphasizing the brown flecks that he knew belonged to Faye.

"You knew where Avery's torture was taking place," Teddie continued, her voice shaking. "Only someone on the inside could know that. Avery told me… she told me… she said that no matter how they tried, no one but Voldemort's most loyal would know where I was."

"I –"

Teddie hit her fist against the table to silence him. She was not finished. "Avery told me that she had a plan," she continued. "She had a most 'delectable plan' for me. A plan that would break me. She knew you were coming. She knew that I trusted you, and that knowing you were one of them would break me."

"They want you broken," said Snape.

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!" Teddie yelled. "They want me second guessing myself. They want me second guessing my friends. They want me to question who I can and can't trust, that's why Parkinson and Malfoy are being so nice to me."

Snape sighed and sat back in his chair.

Teddie turned her back and strode back to her desk. She picked up her dragon-hide gloves and twisted them in her hands. Suddenly she had the urge to hit something, the punching of the desk had done nothing to quell the anger rising inside her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Teddie repeated. "It may not have been your place to tell me about who I really was, but you had ever right to tell me what you were. So, why didn't you?"

She turned to face him.

Snape remained silent as he stared at her.

Teddie scoffed and then sniffled, tears cresting her eye lids. "I wish you had told me," she whispered. "It would have made all this a lot easier. I would have known I could come to you because you would understand. Instead I had to hide it, hide it from the people that I knew I could trust."

"Hide what?" Snape asked, cocking his head to the side. He stared at the girl before him curiously. He noted that she looked agitated, all her anger had gone and was now replaced with fear.

Teddie hesitated. Her body rigid as she glanced at the floor.

"Miss Green," said Snape, his voice soft and full of concern.

"Hide this," said Teddie, her voice breaking as she dropped her gloves and reached for the sleeve of her robe. She muttered something under her breath and rolled back the black fabric.

Snape felt his heart speed up as he watched her. He noted that the sleeve on her left arm, and instinctively he reached for his own. They hadn't, had they? They wouldn't. He had been under the impression that the mark had to be taken by someone of their own accord, and he knew that Teddie would not have agreed to a bare it.

But he was wrong.

Teddie stopped rolling her sleeve up, and there, burned into the tanned skin of her left forearm was the black outline of a snake, wrapped around a skull with its head protruding from the mouth.

The Dark Mark.

Teddie groaned and pulled her pillow over her head. She had revealed her secret to the one man that she thought could help her, the only person that, in her mind, knew what to do next. Granted, they still weren't on the best of terms, after all, he had kept a great but secret from her, but then, hadn't she done the same?

After she had revealed her secret, Snape and waved his wand and the Mark had disappeared. He didn't say anything, and for a split second Teddie thought he was angry with her. But, instead, he stood, strode around his desk and grasped her by the shoulders, bending at the waist to stare her in the eyes.

"You mustn't tell anyone about this," Snape said. "Not even your friends. The Dark Mark is enough to scare anyone away, and you being alone is what Avery and the Dark Lord wants."

Teddie stared at him in silence.

"Without your friends, Teddie, you aren't a threat," Snape continued. "Without your friends, you don't have a reason to be powerful. They know this. They know that your shield is connected to your emotions, and they know that you're emotionally attached to your friends and family."

Teddie looked away. She heard Snape sigh and release her shoulders.

"What is it?" Snape asked.

"Nothing."

"Miss Green," said Snape, sternly.

Teddie heaved a sigh and looked back at him. "I already told Mo." She admitted. "He came to see me. To interview me, take my statement. It was after you had brought me back, and before I was allowed to return to Spinner's End."

"What did you tell him?"

"At first? Only the basics," said Teddie. "He wanted to know what had happened, so I told him about Professor Moody and Avery –"

"Barty Crouch Jr," Snape corrected.

Teddie nodded. "I told him that they took me somewhere, I didn't know where," she continued. "I told him that Avery tortured me, and I told him that she revealed who I really was. I didn't believe her, at first, I mean, who would? But, after a while, I knew it was the truth."

"When did you tell him about the Mark?" Snape asked.

Teddie thought for a second. "He took my statement to the Minister," she said. "Tried to get him to see the truth, but Fudge refused to believe it. Mo came back to me and asked me to go over what had happened one last time, I did."

"And this is when you told?"

Teddie nodded. "To say he was disappointed would be an understatement," she said. "He confessed that he couldn't convince the Minister with this revelation."

"Of course not," said Snape. "Anyone thought to be a bearer of the Dark Mark is a threat. They would've arrested you and put you on trial, if you were found guilty, you'd be carted off to Azkaban."

Teddie nodded. "This is why I wish you had told me," she said. "I was scared, and I had no one I could turn to."

"You knew and could've come to me," said Snape. "Petty grievances aside, I could've helped you."

"You lied to me," Teddie growled. "How was I supposed to know that you would be helping me and not just doing it because they told you too?"

"You could've trusted me!"

"Trust works both ways."

Peeling the pillow away from her face, Teddie stared at the canopy of her bed. The last words of her conversation with Snape echoed in her head – Trust works both ways – she sighed as guilt bubbled in her stomach. How could she expect Snape to trust her when she didn't trust him?

The same went for her friends. She had kept a massive secret from them, she hadn't told anyone, apart from Mo and now Snape about the Dark Mark that resided, hidden, on her forearm, she had been extra careful to not show anyone.

It had been Mo that had hidden it. He had used a charm that Teddie had never heard of before, but he had taught her to control it, depending on when and who she wanted to reveal her secret, he trusted her enough to be discreet and to not reveal it to anyone.

Teddie had chosen to keep it a secret, simply because she remembered the reaction that Witches and Wizards had to the Dark Mark's appearance above the campsite at the Quidditch World cup last year. Everyone had been running and screaming, the idea of Voldemort being back struck fear into the hearts of even grown men and women.

The fear that her friends had for her, especially Theo, when the Dark Mark had appeared. He had feared that she wouldn't be able to keep quiet and speak out against a Death Eater – he feared she'd be tortured or even killed for being a Muggleborn.

But now, she was the very thing that he feared. She was a Death Eater. She bore the Dark Mark. Would he trust her after this? Would any of them?

How could she expect them to trust her when she didn't trust herself? She didn't trust herself to tell them the truth; she didn't trust them to not abandon her if and when she revealed the truth.

Teddie whined and closed her eyes. What was she going to do?

Trust was the key to every friendship she held. But could she trust her friends to be discreet? Could she trust them to not turn on her?

More importantly, could they trust her to not turn on them?