"Please, Professor Dumbledore," the dark-haired woman begged. Her brown eyes, worn from years of sorrow, bore into his own.
"If he's back.. which, we both know he is.. if he ever finds me, you know he'll go straight for her. She won't stand a chance."
Dumbledore sat, motionless. "Do you truly believe so, Rebecca?"
The woman nodded frantically, her long, waves of hair bouncing. "And you know it to be true. I was a Death Eater, Professor, you know that..and, I know now what I did was wrong, what Regulus and I did.." she trailed off, her voice sad. Her eyes lingered on the floor by Dumbledore's desk, and sat silent for a moment, lost in memory.

"Rebecca."
Dumbledore brought her back to reality, and she immediately continued talking.
"What I did was wrong, but I've learned from that. What he was willing to do..that wasn't a road I could follow. You must know by now, when Regulus died.."
The nimble, elderly man nodded. "I know. Don't let my appearance fool you, Rebecca, I am still curious as a teen. I'm sure to know everything about everybody."
The woman smiled, wrinkles creasing at her eyes. Her professor hadn't changed one bit since she was a student. She nodded, but was then serious again.
"So, please. Please ensure she gets a letter. She needs this school's protection. I'll do anything. She'll even do the job I was supposed to do for you. I swear it-"
Dumbledore shook his head, raising a hand to silence her. The woman's desperation had caused her to ramble. He gave her a good look-over; she had changed since her days as a student. Rebecca Knott had quickly been sorted into the Slytherin house her first year at Hogwarts, and lived up to the name very well. She was ruthless in almost all ways, except to those very few close to her. One of those people being Regulus Black, even after Dumbledore had given her the duty of spying on her fellow Slytherins to see if any had heard any rumors of the Dark Lord's rise, with the incentive of special privileges within the school as a reward. The wise professor knew if anyone were to know anything of what Tom Riddle had become, it would be those of the Slytherin house.

She went back to Dumbledore, reporting every so often of what she had heard, up until she and Regulus Black fell in love. A dangerous love, but very deep, Dumbledore noted, and didn't say a word when Rebecca stopped reporting to him because he knew exactly what was happening.
But he wasn't going to meddle. Some things are just meant to happen, and some things are just not meant to be stopped. Like the relationship that bloomed between two of the smartest Slytherins he had ever seen. And so he watched, from a distance, as the two became inseperable, a team, one going no where without the other. Everyone knew who they were and what they were capable of; they graduated top of their class. The only reason the old wizard knew the two really had become quite loyal followers of Lord Voldemort was because Severus Snape had told him so. Snape also went on to tell him that out of the blue, Regulus Black mysteriously died, and that no one had known if Rebecca had died as well or just disappeared.
Until now, and here she was, sitting right in his office, right in front of his face, begging him to allow her daughter - Regulus Black's daughter - come to Hogwarts for protection.

Rebecca still wore her wedding ring on her left finger. A Black family heirloom, he'd always told her, something his mother gave to him the day he graduated. She practically planned the wedding herself, she was so gung-ho about it. Her only "true" son, Regulus, in love with a pure-blood Slytherin, who was intelligent and classy; Walburga was in bliss. So she sat her son down and gave him her blessing, and he asked Rebecca's hand the very next day.
Not that he wasn't planning to do so himself; he was. He was even going to go out and buy her a big, ostentatious diamond ring to show her how much she really meant to him, but his mother made it that much better by giving him something that meant something to the family.
And of course she said yes. Everyone was thrilled. They were wed quickly, and no one knew of two Slytherins who loved more than they did. Of course, the only people they loved were each other, and showed practically no care for anyone else in the world. Which made them formidable opponents, and great pure-blood advocates. But, once they both found out what the Dark Lord was really willing to do to make the world a place where only pure-blood wizards roamed, their opinions slowly changed. Sure, pure-bloods were superior, and mudbloods were disgraceful. But as Regulus and Rebecca came to realize, muggle-borns couldn't control what they were. And it wasn't right for anybody to put them to death for how they were born.
So slowly, but surely, they extracted themselves from the close circle of Death Eaters. All their friends, their family, and then Regulus died.
Rebecca's heart died that day as well.
And then she found out she was pregnant.

And that's all that mattered from then on. Which was why she had come out of hiding, to ask Dumbledore's protection of her daughter.
"Please.."

And the old wizard's eyes twinkled, and he gave her a deep nod.
Gemma Black would begin school at Hogwarts the following Sunday.