CHAPTER 21: TO THE END (PART 1)

INT. THE GREAT HALL, HOGWARTS CASTLE - MORNING (OCT. 23RD, 2018)

Inside the Great Hall, everyone was getting ever more excited and anxious about the coming festivities to Hogwarts. Albus Potter however, was thinking more about the strange dreams he had been having and what they all meant. At the Gryffindor table, Albus was quietly sitting with his cousins Fred II and Roxanne to his left and with his brother James and sister Lily to his right, poking at his plate of pancakes with a fork. Albus's cousins Rose, her brother Hugo, cousins Molly Weasley II and her sister Lucy and Albus's friend Amelia were sitting on the opposite side of the Gryffindor table facing him. After a few minutes, Albus felt a tap on his shoulder. Albus turned around and saw that it was the Scamander twins, Lorcan and Lysander. Like their mother, Luna Lovegood, both Lorcan and Lysander had blondish-white hair and fair skin, but Lorcan had his father's eyes while Lysander did not, which made it easy for Albus and the others to tell the difference between them. Lysander also wore a braided lock of hair on his head, which made him stand out even more from Lorcan. They had walked from all the way from the Ravenclaw table to talk to Albus after having talked with James just before coming into the Great Hall.

"So, we heard from your brother James that you had a dream about a dragon," said Lorcan politely. Albus gave a disappointing glance over at James. James had pestered Albus to tell him about the dream while they were walking to the Great Hall together and after Albus told James, James went off and told Lorcan and Lysander about it after he was told by Albus not to say anything about it.

James, his face stuffed with pancake, noticed Albus looking at him and mumbled, "What? I had the tell someone, especially when it had a dragon in it."

"No, you didn't have to James. That is the last time I'm going to tell you anything about my dreams," hissed Albus.

James gave a sad look and then went back to eating his pancakes. Then Lysander spoke up, "Now, now, Albus, James only meant well, especially since the dream has a dragon in it, not something that normally shows up in a wizard's dream without proper reason. And besides, me and Lorcan know all about dragons from our father. You could have told us about it, we would have identified the species for you."

"Sorry, Lysander. But I didn't want it to be identified. I didn't want it to be spoken about period."

Rose glanced up from the book she was reading, suddenly interested in what was being said.

"Well, since we're here..." said Lorcan as he pulled out a small book on dragons and sat down next to Albus with Lysander, "...we might as well help you identify the species."

After a few minutes, Rose shoved an open book on wizard history towards Albus, "Is this the dragon that was in your dream, Albus?"

Albus picked up the book and looked at the page the book was open on, looking at the picture on it, "Yes, this is the dragon. I think the dragon in my dream called himself Morfyrath and was talking to this woman, a witch. I think she was Auradinthia."

"Auradinthia? thee Auradinthia, the Great Auror?" asked Hugo.

"Yes," replied Albus, looking at Hugo.

"Now that is interesting, Albus," said Lorcan, as Albus looked back at him, "Quite interesting indeed."

"So you're saying. But I've only heard of her once before in a fairy tale my dad use to tell me. Who was she?"

"Are you seriously telling us that you don't know anything about her from history class, Albus?" said Fred II, as Albus shook his head. Fred II continued, "She was like only the very first Auror to ever exist in the Wizarding world. She's was the creator of the legendary Book of Auradinthia, the Book of Resurrections."

"Yes, she was also the creator of the Window of Auradinthia, or so the legends say. We might be wrong though," said Roxanne after.

"I'm sorry, what is the Window of Auradinthia?" asked Albus, confused, since everything was coming at him a mile a minute.

Rose replied, "It's an ancient and enchanted picture frame that is said to allow those who have died once to enter the enchanted portraits and into the World Below, those who were called Once-Deads. Only Once-Deads can enter through it and come back out through it again, no one else can, only they have the power to."

While Albus was talking to the others, Cyrus walked past the Gryffindor table and suddenly listened in. He then walked up behind Albus as Albus spoke, "I'm sorry, what is the World Below?"

"The Spirit World, young master Albus," said Cyrus suddenly, causing Albus and everyone talking to Albus and sitting near him to look up at him. Cyrus continued coolly, his lips curling slightly, "The World Below is simply another name for it, the seemingly invisible realm that everyone knows about and yet can not reach until their death. The Fringes marks the edge of the World Below...or the physical, living world as well if you like."

While Cyrus was talking to Albus, Albus's satchel bag, which Albus would use to carry his books, was sitting next to Albus on the bench he was sitting on. Cyrus glanced down towards the satchel and soon realized that some one or something was listening in from underneath the Gryffindor table. Cyrus looked back at Albus and spoke once more, "But some boundaries tend to be crossed when they shouldn't be, namely by your little spying friend who is underneath your table right now and about to grab hold of your satchel."

Albus quickly looked down at his satchel, where a pair of small hands were just about to grab his satchel and pull it off the bench. Albus sprang into action, grabbing onto his satchel and struggling to pull it away from whoever or whatever was underneath the table.

"Let go of my satchel, let go of it this instant!" cried Albus, who was staring at the face of Grispell, who somehow had gotten into the castle and was now fighting with Albus for possession of Albus's satchel. Despite being as small as he was, Grispell was still strong enough to struggle with Albus.

Grispell gave a sorry and wide-eyed expression as he spoke, "Please, young master Albus, give me the satchel! I must have it! If I don't get the satchel for my mistress, my mistress will punish me!"

Everyone, including the teachers and those in the nearby portraits, were starting to notice the commotion at the Gryffindor table. Slowly, a garbling of voices were starting to rise up from the students at the neighboring tables and from the portraits nearby. From the teacher's table, Professor Beeblewing and Verena leaned forward in their chairs, looking on and listening to the commotion. Professor Titch and a couple of the other teachers on the other hand, stood up and was about to walk over to see what was going on.

"I've had enough of this," hissed Cyrus, who at the last minute, stepped in and helped Albus free Albus's satchel from the hands of Grispell. Grispell, in a state or fear and panic, then started running away underneath the table, going towards the entrance to the Great Hall. Grispell brushed past the shins of some of the Gryffindor students as he ran, who gasped and shrieked in terror as they sprang up from where they sat. Grispell then found his escape out the entrance to the Great Hall and vanished around the corner. Cyrus then ran after Grispell, soon followed by his siblings Darius and Evangeline.

"What in the world was that all about? And what was that thing?" asked Rose, who had walked around to the other side of the Gryffindor table to help Albus.

"I don't know, Rose," said Albus looking at her, then looking back at the entrance, "But I bet it had something to do with what we were talking about."

As the students and teachers began to calm down and sit back down, Professor Beeblewing suddenly shifted her eyes and then started leaning back into her chair, suddenly frowning and looking on coolly as though she was disappointed by something. Verena then sent a cool glance over at Beeblewing soon after, noticing Beeblewing's reaction. Professor Beeblewing, noticing Verena's glance, soon responded with a strange wide-eyed 'what-are-you-looking-at?' glance, then looked away and settled completely back into her chair.

EXT. HOGSMEADE, THE FAIRGROUNDS - EVENING (OCT. 25TH, 1976)

On the fairgrounds just outside of Hogsmeade, various wizard venues and wizard venders were set up in celebration of the Lifebreath Festival, which occurred from Sept. 30th to Oct. 31st, ending with the Halloween Feast at Hogwarts. Severus, having sneaked out of Hogwarts without permission to come to the festivities, soon found himself completely immersed in all the sights, sounds and activities that moved about him. Various things were occurring, including a small demonstration of Magical Archery, which seemed strange since Magical Archery at this time was forbidden. Severus walked up to the crowd surrounding the demonstration and looked on, peeking through a hole in the crowd. He then noticed a familiar person standing in the front row. It was Verena, who at this time, Severus was still angry with for having a fight with Lily months back, so the sight of her did not please him.

Severus the heard a familiar voice behind him, "Sneaking about out of Hogwarts again, Severus?"

Severus turned and saw that it was Lucius, standing in the company of Scabior, looking on. Lucius had graduated sometime back and was now setting out for newer and better things in his job at the Ministry.

Severus turned and looked pleadingly up at Lucius, "Lucius, I was just coming to see what was going on. I didn't mean to..."

Lucius raised his hand, stopping Severus in mid-sentience. Lucius then brought his hand down and spoke once more, "It's alright, Severus. I'm not going to tell on you. I myself have come here tonight with Scabior here so that we could meet up with Verena."

As Lucius was speaking to Severus, Verena broke through the crowd and walked up to Lucius, having heard his voice through the crowd, "Hello Lucius and Scabior," - Verena then noticed Severus - "Severus...I must say that I am surprised to see you here."

Severus began to hiss at Verena upon the sight of her before him. Even now, months later, he was still sore about the fight that Verena had with Lily and thus he was in no mood to be friendly with Verena, "What are you doing here, Verena? And why are you even talking to me? I told you I didn't want to see or speak to you again!"

"Now, now, Severus, play nicely. It is all in the past now. And besides, surely you can keep the peace for just this one night for my sake. Though I almost didn't come tonight after the way Verena shunned me," said Lucius, staring coolly at Verena. Even now, Lucius was still feeling the sting of Verena's rejection months before.

"Lucius please, for the sake of our old friendship, let us put it all behind us just for tonight," said Verena.

"Now what is this all about then?" asked Severus, staring back and forth between Verena and Lucius puzzlingly, wondering what could have happened between Verena and Lucius to have caused such a reaction from Lucius.

"It's a long story, Severus..." said Verena.

"I didn't ask you, you foul and wretched woman!" barked Severus, staring angrily at Verena, who gasped quietly and gave an angry stare back, who was just an inch away from wanting to pull out her wand and teach Severus a lesson. But Verena felt that Severus was just letting his anger get the better of him and didn't really mean it, so stopped herself from doing so.

Severus then looked back at Lucius as Lucius continued, "Now, Severus, hear me out. Verena has invited me and Scabior to try and put the past behind us for at least one night and now I am inviting you to join us."

Severus snarled briefly and then spoke softly, "Fine. But Verena better stay away from me!"

Verena narrowed her eyes briefly at Severus, then looked back and spoke to Lucius, "As we are now all aware, Severus here has sneaked out here tonight without a permission slip so that he could stay out here as long as he wishes. I invited you and Scabior to this festival so that we could catch up on old times and at least try to heal some open wounds that have been made between us. None of the teachers or other Hogwarts staff know that Severus is out here, so if you see any teachers or other Hogwarts staff wandering about out here, you all know what to do?" - Lucius and Scabior nodded. Verena then looked over at Severus briefly, getting a cold look back, then looked back at Lucius and continued, "Well then, let us all go enjoy the festivities together as old friends and as old confidants. Come along then everyone, let us...explore."

And with that, Verena gave a soft mischievous giggle, then walked off along with Lucius, Scabior and Severus, set out for an evening in Hogsmeade and at the festival. A couple hours later, Severus, who had wandered away from the others to look at a venue, suddenly noticed a strange blue light coming from an area beyond the fairgrounds. Spurred on by curiosity and the need to investigate the strange light, Severus quietly gave one look back to see where Verena and the others were, then slowly began to walk towards the light. The light sat on the very edge of the Dark Forest, close enough for its light to shine through the treeline, yet far enough inside the treeline that it would hardly be noticed. As Severus got closer, the light began to change shape. At first, Severus thought that it was light coming from a patronus.

But as Severus continued to get closer to the light, he came out onto a small clearing and soon noticed that the shape in the light was not that of an animal as Severus had suspected it to be as a patronus, but a set of glowing pillars which seemed to be almost entirely made of light. The light and the pillars appeared as though they were shinning through a long gash or tear in the air, as if an opening into another realm had been sliced open by an invisible blade. Blue light was bleeding out of the opening, some of which was running across the ground towards Severus as though it were blood. Apart from the area closest to Severus, its edges of the opening were blurred and bleeding into the background. The pillars of light looked like they were in the shape of roman pillars, set ten feet apart from one another. The area was bathed in blue light and sparkles of blue light floated through the air around it.

It didn't take long for Severus to realize that this was something out of the ordinary and walked closer to investigate. Soon, Severus began to hear a garble of soft voices coming from the opening as some of the sparkles of blue light began to drift away from the opening and float around Severus. To Severus, it felt as though the voices and the light were drawing Severus in. Severus did not understand why it was drawing him in, all he knew was that their was someone or something within the light that was wanting him to come inside it. Feeling compelled to enter, Severus looked dreamily on at the light, as if he was suddenly in a trance. And just before he was about to enter into the light, he suddenly began to feel light-headed and started to stumble, until eventually, he fell to the ground, inches away from the opening. And as he slowly began to black out, he noticed that the sparkles of light began to swarm around him. And then, blackness.

INT. THE SNAPE FAMILY HOUSE (SEVERUS'S HOUSE), COKEWORTH, NORTHERN ENGLAND - EARLY EVENING (APR. 22ND, 1976)

A few moments later, light began to enter Severus's eyes. The blurred images began to clear and sharpen, until finally, Severus found himself in his old bedroom at home, lying face first on his bed. Severus pushed himself onto his back and then sat up, rubbing the back of his head briefly. He felt achy all over, if not a bit tired, but was still able enough to stand up and walk around. Upon hearing familiar voices outside his bedroom door, Severus stood up and walked over to his bedroom door, stumbling slightly. Severus began to listen to the voices as he walked into the hallway beyond his bedroom door. Following the voices, he then stopped and listened at the closed door to his parent's bedroom.

"Now Edward, I am counting on you to protect this. It is a very old and dangerous item for a boy of your age to possess. Should Morfyrath and Lord Dianphor ever return and get a hold of this, it will be the death of us all, do you understand?"

"Yes, Madame Snape. I will not betray your trust in me and shall guard it with my life."

"Very good, Edward. You know where to take it where it will be safe for the time being. As for myself, I shall hold onto the key for now and when the time is right, we shall meet again. Until then, you may go out the way you came in."

"Yes, Madame Snape, I shall do as you say."

Upon hearing footsteps towards the door, Severus quickly stepped away from the door and hid around the corner as it opened. Looking around the corner, he noticed the familiar face of Edward Groset, who at this time, was going into his 5th year at Hogwarts. Edward Groset was in House Slytherin like Severus was, and thus was adorned in Slytherin dress robes. Curious to know how Edward had managed to get all the way to Cokeworth and why he was there, Severus began to follow Edward, noticing Edward holding an object under his arm that looked like a book covered over with a crimson red silk cloth. As Severus started to follow Edward down the stairs, he stopped in front of the open door to his parents bedroom, only getting a brief look at his mother Eileen inside the bedroom. Eileen, dressed in her best dress robes, was sitting at her dresser table holding up a shinning silver tin with strange inscriptions on it. The silver tin glowed with the same strange blue light that Severus had seen only minutes before. Severus was about to enter into the bedroom until he heard another familiar voice, "Eileen! Our guests are arriving! It's time to come down!"

"In a moment, Abigail!" called Eileen towards the door as she stuffed the sliver tin into her robe pocket. Eileen then quickly brushed her hair, then hurried her way towards the door.

"Mum!" said Severus, upon seeing his mother before him at the door, his face lighting up and smiling softly at her. But then, as Eileen closed the bedroom door and turned towards the stairs, it became apparent that she could neither see nor hear Severus. Severus quickly followed after her down the stairs.

Downstairs, Severus came upon the sight of quite a few people that he recognized, several of which were recognizably of the Snape Family as well as of the Prince Family. The lower level of the house was filled to capacity. Everyone who was not sitting down was either standing really close to others or being forced out into the courtyard behind the house.

"Looks like most of the Snape Family is here," said a voice nearby, as some woman's laughter, a garble of voices and the clinking of glasses could be heard floating through the air. Severus then noticed his mother standing next to his cousin Abigail Prince in the kitchen and walked over to investigate. Upon seeing Abigail, Severus noticed that her face was not scarred or burned, appearing as she did prior to the fire that killed Severus's family. Abigail was of House Ravenclaw and was coming near the end of her 6th year at Hogwarts, coming near the end of May. How or why Abigail was there was a mystery to Severus, just like in the case of Edward Groset.

"I don't understand it, auntie." said Abigail, punching at the door to the empty cupboard in the kitchen, "It just doesn't want to close all the way like it should. It keeps wanting to get stuck in that spot for some reason."

The cupboard had a slide open door and was built inside the wall. In many ways, it looked more like a closet rather then a cupboard, where a person could simply crawl inside and hide. The cupboard also had a special spell on it that made the outside of it fire proof. Thus, in the case of fire, someone could simply crawl in and close the door, keeping them safe from the flames. Severus had hidden in that cupboard many a times in the past to get away from his parents while they were arguing. But every now and then, like in the case now, the door to the cupboard would jam or seize up in one particular spot, forcing Eileen to leave it open about five inches.

"I know," said Eileen, mildly irritated, "I wish that Tobias would do something about it. Magic seems to work in closing it, but it doesn't fix the problem for some reason," - Eileen pushed on the cupboard door to try and get it loose, trying not to have to use her wand to close it, "There's simply no way around it. Tobias has got to fix it sometime soon. The door is the only thing keeping the mice out of it. I wish we had a cat sometimes."

Upon hearing another familiar voice, Severus soon walked away towards the courtyard, walking past members of his family that he had not seen in ages. Out in the courtyard, Severus came upon the sight of his father Tobias, talking to Lily Evan's father, Alfred James Evans. Sitting next to Tobias near his feet, was Hansel, who was panting and looking up at Alfred.

"It is nice to know that my advice has not gone to waste, Tobias." said Alfred softly, "I'm proud that you now realize the error of your ways. But your parents will still need a bit of convincing, this I don't doubt."

"I'll talk to them in a while. I'm sure they will come round eventually," said Tobias, who was sounding usually calm and acting more like he did prior to discovering that Eileen was a witch. Severus came up closer to his father and stood next to him. Severus could see and smell everything that was going on around him and for the first time in ages, Severus could not smell a single trace of alcohol on his father's clothes. Nor did Severus see any lipstick on his father's collar, which was a common sight on Tobias whenever he came home after a night of drinking and skirt chasing. Tobias was acting as though he was a totally different person from how Severus remembered him as and it made Severus curious as to what had brought about such a dramatic change in his father's actions and mood. Thinking about Lily, Severus looked up at Alfred, knowing that he was Lily's father and had been looked up by Severus many a times in the past as a sort of second father to him. It was nice for Severus to see Alfred again, but it was also nice to see his mother Eileen as well, despite the fact that either could not see or hear him.

Tobias soon spoke, "How am I ever going to forgive myself, Alfred? I've treated my wife and son so cruelly for all these many long years. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to heal the wounds I've made between them. And of course, there is the others I've wronged, which I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fix the problem with."

Alfred smiled and placed his left hand on Tobias's right shoulder, "I am sure you will find peace or neutral ground with all of them in the end, Tobias. Just you wait and see."

"I hope so, Alfred. I surely do." said Tobias as Alfred brought his hand down and brought it behind him. Alfred then looked over and noticed Edward Groset walking up out of the darkness, only this time, Severus didn't see Edward holding any object under his arm and had walked up to stand next to Alfred.

Alfred spoke once more, "My nephew Edward Groset, Tobias. He's in Slytherin House like your son Severus is. He's here doing some field work for school on finding and studying some of the rare floo flower species that grow around here."

"Well, I hope you do well with that, young Edward," said Tobias, bringing out his hand in greeting.

"Thank-you, sir, I'm hoping I will," said Edward, shaking Tobias's hand and them bringing his hand down again. Edward then turned to Alfred and spoke, "Uncle, it's time for me to do a nocturnal search for the rare Jewelilwyn Floo Flower. We only have the first 3 hours of every night till next week when it's not raining to look for it."

"Oh yes, we better go then and get on with it," said Alfred looking at Edward, then looking back at Tobias, "Good luck tonight, Tobias. I hope the meeting goes well."

"I hope it will to. Good luck with your pursuit as well, Alfred," said Tobias with a smile.

"Thank-you, Tobias. Me and my wife will see you soon."

And with that, Alfred left with Edward, going out the back entrance to the courtyard and out onto the cobbled back alley beyond it. Tobias then turned around and walked back inside the house. Severus followed soon after. Severus soon followed his father to the front yard area away from all the other people inside and as Severus stood in the entrance to the front door, soon finds his father talking to a member of the family. It was at this moment, as Severus's eyes fell upon the face of the person that his father was talking to, that he finally realized where he was and what he was looking at.

To his utter horror, Severus finally realized that this was the night that his family was killed in the fire that was set by Lady Mapheria, or by her other name, Mapheria Snape. Because of this, Severus truly despised Mapheria for killing his family and wanted so much to run up to her and strangle her. But since Severus was neither seen or heard, it was likely that all he would do was run right through her, like a ghost. So Severus was forced to watch from the front entrance to the house as Mapheria spoke to his father, watching the scene play out. Mapheria was wearing amber and white dress robes, looking fairly pleased with herself as she began walking in circles around Tobias.

"I am so glad to see you in better spirits tonight, Tobias," said the cool voice of Mapheria Snape, looking alluringly at Tobias as she slowly walked in circles around him.

"I didn't invite you here Mapheria and you already know the reason why. You're only here to cause trouble and chaos in the family. Trouble when all I want to do now is heal the wounds between all of us. I already told you once before and I will tell you again...I won't run away with you and leave Eileen and Severus behind."

"But surely you realize by now that it is to late for you and Eileen to mend things. You've already dung the hole you stand in now with her and Severus. You might as well let it fall out and come with me," said Mapheria as she stopped in front of Tobias and turned to face him, "I am your cousin, Tobias. And not only your cousin, but your friend. And surely you know by now that I've been fighting these feelings I have for you for far longer then I dare to remember. We grew up together you and I. We know each others likes, wants and needs." - Mapheria walked up to Tobias and embraced him affectionately, looking into his eyes, "You loved me before, Tobias. Surely you can love me again, if only you would try. I have not forgotten how to love or be loved, despite whatever has happened between us in the past."

"You nearly had my brother killed, Mapheria! My own brother Edward! I will never forgive you for that! You lost whatever love I had for you that day and all the days after and now. I don't love you anymore, Mapheria. I love Eileen and I will always love Eileen!" - Tobias then angrily shoved Mapheria off of him.

With a wide-eyed look of anger, Mapheria snarled and stepped back away from Tobias, "You've forgotten, Tobias. Our parents paired us together! We were meant for one another, Tobias, you and Eileen were not! She is not worthy of you or of your parent's money! You're a fool Tobias to think that you could get away from me that easily! I will have what is rightfully mine and take you away from Eileen! Just you watch!"

Tobias stared at Mapheria as if she had gone mad, "What's happened to you, Mapheria? You use to never be like this! You use to be soft spoken and good natured! Now look at you! A selfish, pitiful, fool of a woman whose jealously and lust has brought her to madness! You are not welcome at my house anymore Mapheria! Now get out of here and out of my sight before my parents find you here!"

Mapheria let out an enraged shriek, then snarled as she spoke to Tobias one last time, "Very well, Tobias! This will be the last time you'll ever see me and the last night that you will see your family alive...ever!"

Tobias's eyes suddenly widened to what he had just heard, then began to snarl angrily at Mapheria as she ran off, "How dare threaten me and my family you mad old hag! Don't you dare threaten my family! Ever!"

"Oh, we'll see about that, Tobias! I'll show you! I'll show all of you! No one steals from me and gets away with it!" yelled back Mapheria as she ran around the corner, vanishing from Tobias's sight. Tobias then ran to the corner to see where Mapheria went. But even though Mapheria was nowhere to be seen and everything was at peace for the moment, there was no doubt in Tobias's mind that Mapheria was going to get her revenge on him...one way or the other.

CONTINUED...CHAPTER 22...