Chapter 1: The Welshire Brothers

Four years later, London

I once again wake up from the same nightmare I'd had every night this week, compliments of the Welshire brothers. Yes, I do realize how pathetic it sounds to blame a reoccurring nightmare on three wizards after surviving everything thrown at me in the past. If it weren't for the threatening notes I'd blame it on my imagination.

The brothers, Marcus, William, and Luke, had gotten frighteningly angry after I saved the life of a man they'd have preferred dead. Though I have no evidence to back up my claim, I've long since come to the conclusion that the three wizards are a few of the pathetic fools who use the reputation of deatheaters to scare people into giving them whatever they want. There had been several of them in the past few years. They weren't really any danger, so the ministry doesn't do much more than give them a stern lecture before sending them on their way. Not many people really did that much wrong, but the Welshire brothers had crossed the line on more than one occasion. The only problem is that the only man who can prove they did anything wrong is now lying in a bed a St. Mungo's, too terrified to say anything.

I moved to London four years ago and almost immediately taken a job at St. Mungo's. The couple of years before that are memories that, quite frankly, I wish I didn't have. I had worked at Hogwarts, fell in love, got engaged, then ended up losing my man in the final battle against you-know-who. The Dark Lord had, without warning, ordered his snake to kill my fiancé, Severus Snape. Or shall I say 'ex' fiancé. He had survived the attack, and after spending a year in a coma, recovered quickly with no lasting damage…besides the fact that he had absolutely no memory of me. I'd might as well have never met him. I came to London after he was released. It had taken me a while to get over the experience, especially since he'd been the first, and last, man I'd ever truly loved. With the exception of my father, of course.

My parents had died in the war, doing everything they could to bring down Voldemort and his followers. They were against everything the Deatheaters represented, and had been proud of me for choosing a career as a mediwitch. In their eyes, deatheaters destroyed life, I helped rebuild it. Needless to say, they hadn't been very fond of Severus.

"Brush your hair, Tara." My mirror advised as I move to stand in front of it, getting ready to go out.

I'm off work today, but after waking up from that nightmare for the fifth morning in a row, I'm determined to make the ministry see reason and do something about the Welshire brothers. I've already reported the harassment three times, but they hadn't done anything about it.

I quickly pull on my cloak, silently promising myself that if it didn't work this time, I'd try something else.

"I wish I could help you, but the Welshire brothers aren't really doing anything wrong." The woman tells me, handing back the latest threatening note the brothers had left me.

"They're threatening me and messing with my head!" I object in frustration.

"They aren't acting on the threats, and you can't prove the nightmares are from them." The woman points out.

"Yeah, well you can tell that to the prophet when I'm found dead and raped in their attic!" I throw at her before storming out of the office and heading for home.

I rip another note off my door before going inside the decent sized flat, slamming the door behind me.

I grab my head as a searing pain rips through my skull and wait for the voice I know is coming.

"We told you not to turn us in again!" snarls the deep male voice.

"Get out of my head!" I shout angrily.

The voice laughs.

"The nightmares will get worse and worse until you wake up in one. Then you'll know we've come for you. Be ready to get fucked and we might consider reducing the amount of pain you'll go through before we kill you in place of the bastard who's pathetic little life you saved." It threatens in amusement.

"Stay away from me!" I demand.

The laughter of three men bounces off the walls and the pain tears through my head again before the room goes back to normal.

I carefully put up wards around my flat and begin pacing back and forth in my study. The ministry is obviously not going to be of help in the matter. After fighting in the war, I'm pretty sure I can defend myself against three wizards who are probably all talk and no action in regards to what they're actually threatening to do. The head trick that they pull, however, kills me. They are probably pretty decent with ligillimens, considering the fact that they're able to give me splitting headaches and talk to me at the same time, but-

"Ligillimens!" I exclaim victoriously. "That's the trick. To counter ligillimens I need occlumency. Who do I know that's a good occlumens?"

I quickly struggle to remember the skills of everyone I've worked with at St. Mungo's. None of them would be able to help me. Then I resort to the colleagues I'd had at my previous job.

"Minerva…no. Filius…no. Poppy…no…Severus-" I break off.

Severus had been a master in both occlumency and ligillimency. And so I proceed to engage in the first sign of insanity—arguing with myself.

"Absolutely not!"

"There's no one else, and he's good at it. On top of that, he's a professor, which means he's also good at teaching…"

"I don't give a damn about how good he is! I don't want to see him!"

"He doesn't remember you, which means you can pretend he wasn't the first man you shagged…at least long enough to learn how to keep the Welshire brothers out of your head."

I sigh, remembering the pain that had shot through my head. I move to the nearby desk and sit down, pulling out a quill and a piece of parchment. If I'm going to take a trip down memory lane it will be on the arm of Minerva…not him.

This is going to hurt enough as it is.