Chapter Four

Rae shook her head a little too quickly, Harry smiled at her, but this smile was gentle and understanding. "I see… I'm sorry." Rae looked at him again, he knew she was lying, but he was too kind to keep asking for the truth.

The Potters invited Rae to join them for supper and she decided to accept, it would be a little rude not to, and she'd enjoy the company. There was another family there too, the Weasleys, and they also had a cat though it was a lot older, male and called Crookshanks. Still, he didn't say no to chasing mice and playing with Lexxie. The other boy Rae met was James Sirius Potter, and there was also a young girl called Lily Luna and Harry's wife was Ginny. The Weasley family were comprised of Hermione Weasley and her husband Ron who was also Ginny's older brother, (Rae remembered reading a short part about the couple in one of the history books as being Harry Potter's best friend, Rae guessed that Hermione was the friend Harry had told her about previously that day). Then there were two children, Rose and Hugo. Rose and Albus were in Rae's year, James was a year above and Lily and Hugo were two years below – which they didn't seem too happy about.

"So, you're from a Muggle family then, Rae?" Hermione asked interestedly. Rae suddenly became uncomfortable.

"Yes… well, sort of. It doesn't really affect my bloodline, but my mother has a half-brother who is a wizard… well… was. He died nineteen years ago," at that moment, she lowered her eyes and didn't see the glance Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron shared. Rae brought her eyes up to meet Harry's again, and there was that twinge. He cleared his throat, he had to figure this out. Nineteen years had passed without his scar bothering him at all – who was this girl?

"He died… during the war?" Hermione looked a little aghast that Harry would mention such a thing. However, Rae nodded.

"He shouldn't have," Rae said bitterly, not realising what she was saying, "apparently it was all for some 'amazing' wand… he wasn't meant to die. The person who brought me here, a Hogwarts teacher, told me some things. He said this Voldemort guy thought he had to kill my uncle, but it was someone else! My uncle died for no reason…" Rae stood up, looking straight at Harry, "but you, you," you just watched him die! Rae shook her head and cleared her throat, "I'm sorry. Please excuse me," tapping her thigh, Lexxie looked up at her owner and leapt after her, clambering up the stairs and out of sight.

An uncomfortable silence followed Rae's departure. Harry looked hard at the table. It couldn't be who he thought it was… could it? But he did something and it had made her very upset, and it took place during the war. It all added up, but he was missing a few vital pieces. Just then, he realised that everyone was looking at him. Ginny laid her hand on his shoulder, her face uncertain. Then again, everybody looked a little odd. Hermione swallowed.

"Do you think… she's a relative of…" she bit her lip.

"Severus Snape," Harry finished. Albus raised his eyes to meet his father's, he suddenly felt very silly. He'd told Rae his name, but he had no idea… "she didn't finish her sentence, but I'll bet everything she was going to say 'you watched him die'… I guess it's true. I did, but I know that he understood why and he didn't hold it against me. I guess I should go and talk to her." He looked around the table, smiled slightly, and headed upstairs after being told Rae's room number by a very unnerved Justin.

Harry was almost trembling, he knew what was going to happen even before it did, hiding in the small, dark tunnel, watching… watching the end of a man he had hated for seven years. He could see Voldemort clearly, standing in the room in the shack, his company only a snake suspended in the air and Severus Snape. It had all happened so quickly. Harry knew it was wrong. Voldemort thought that by killing Snape, the Elder Wand would be his and his alone, his to command and do his bidding without problem. Nagini the snake had been dropped onto Snape and bitten his neck… killed him. Voldemort wasn't even the least bit remorseful, of course. Harry realised his knuckles were bleeding with how hard he had bitten down on them to stop a shout, a scream, protest! This shouldn't happen. Harry watched as Voldemort and Nagini left the room and Snape twitched on the floor. He was dying.

He knocked three times on Rae's door, wondering if she'd open it. He only had to wait a moment before he heard footsteps, a click and the door creaked open, revealing a very pitiful Rayven. She was in black pyjama bottoms and an emerald green strap top, her hair was down but messy as if she'd run her hands through it a lot and her eyes were red and swollen from crying. Harry immediately felt a whole lot worse. He closed his eyes for a minute, when he opened them; Rae had moved allowing him into the room. He walked in and she shut the door.

"I'm sorry," he apologised. Rae looked at him, he was being sincere. "He shouldn't have died, you were right," her brow furrowed. Did he realise who she had been talking about? "Your uncle was Severus Snape, right?" she nodded. "I had no idea he had family… he always seemed so distant from everyone when I was at school, but I guess I never took much time to figure him out, find out the truth behind things he did. I was stupid in my youth. At that time I wasn't too sure what side he was on, still."

"And that justifies it? It's okay that he died if he was on Voldemort's side?" she asked, getting a little angry. Harry quickly shook his head and hurried to continue.

"A lot of people died during the war, a lot of people I loved and cared about but I couldn't make a move to save them. If I could have, I would. Even though I hated Snape, or I did then, I would have saved him. But you know, he understood what I did," Rae stared at him, "I think for the first time in his life, he didn't hate me. I went to him as he was dying and he gave me his memories, to explain it all. To prove that he was good and to give me reasons for the things he did, for why he was so harsh to me. Finally, we understood each other and I respect him so much. I thought I'd never like a Slytherin, but he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

It was silent for a moment, then, without warning, Rae burst into tears. Harry was a little shocked, but then he smiled gently and put his arms around her. He'd be like that too, he thought, it must be very hard for her. But at that moment, like the time he met the Weasley family on his first visit to Kings Cross Station, that his family would take care of this girl as much as they could and there would be a bond that would never break.

*

The next morning, Rae was sleeping so soundly she didn't hear Albus knock on her door. All four times. When she finally did wake, though, she had the distinct feeling she had missed something. Lexxie was curled up on the pillow beside her head, so she moved slowly so not to wake her. Brushing her hair and washing her face, Rae pulled on her slippers and black dressing gown and headed downstairs for breakfast (despite it being eleven a.m.) Harry and Ron were downstairs talking to Justin when she got there, though when they saw her Justin immediately asked her what she wanted for breakfast – so suddenly, in fact, that she didn't reply for about a minute.

"Umm… just toast please," she said, taking a seat.

"Albus knocked on your door about four times this morning, were you tired?" Harry laughed. Rae almost hit herself, four times? She nodded in reply, "well Ginny and Hermione are taking everyone out shopping later on and they thought they'd invite you. They're all up in their rooms at the minute but I can tell them if you'd like to go." Rae accepted happily as her toast was being placed down in front of her.

About one p.m. Rae was waving goodbye to Harry and Ron with the rest of the Weasley and Potter family and then followed them all through the brick archway once more into Diagon Alley. This time it was still busy but not as much as it had been the previous day. Rae had bought all of her money, eager to check out that clothes shop. Apparently, the other girls were planning on doing the same thing. However, the boys were more interested in looking at the store selling broomsticks. They split up into two groups, Hermione went with the boys and Ginny went with the girls (as she was more interested in the clothes than Hermione, who wasn't really that bothered).

The store was rather big inside though it looked small outside, and had two floors, the basement was for men and the ground floor was for women. The owner was a young, very pretty woman with long curly blonde hair tied up in a loose ponytail. She gave the group a wide smile and hurried over to ask them if they needed any assistance.

Most of the group split up inside the store, each looking for their own thing. Rae bought quite a bit (though she hadn't planned to) and was quite surprised to find that wizards had a very good fashion sense and most of it included clothing non-wizarding folk would wear. After scouring the women's section, Rae headed downstairs to find a nice big top to wear to bed when winter came. It took a while, but she finally settled on a plain white shirt with a big red splatter in the middle and a black and white radio cassette on top of it. She was admiring it when a voice sounded behind her:

"You have good taste," she whipped around and saw a young boy looking through the clothes rack behind her. He was smiling. Rae smiled back at him. He looked about her age, with slicked back platinum blonde hair and cool grey eyes, his face was quite pointed and feminine, he was very pretty.

"Scorpius, have you finished yet?" someone else said. A tall man approached them, Rae noticed that he looked very much like his son, except his hair wasn't slicked back and instead was very short at the back with loose strands of hair falling over his grey eyes. He looked at Rae for a moment, she looked back. It seemed to last forever and it seemed that the older man was holding back a gasp, or a scream, she didn't know which. But moments later, he nodded at her and said: "I expect you're starting Hogwarts this year also?" she nodded. "Where are your parents?" he looked around the store as if they were hiding behind a rack of clothes or something.

"Um… they're… not like me," she replied, not knowing how to phrase it. This didn't seem like the right thing to say, she decided, as the man's polite air turned a little cold and he nodded, quickly saying goodbye and taking his son by the shoulder, leading him away from Rae. Just as the two males were walking up to the ground floor, Ginny came down, her eyes following the older man in a hateful way. She approached Rae, "does he not like people like me?"

Ginny sighed a little sadly, but smiled, "that's Draco Malfoy and his son Scorpius. They're not very nice people. They're pureblood, which means all of their family have magical blood. A long time ago, most people thought that if you had Muggle blood, you were… well, not as good, so you got treated badly. And for people who had no magical blood running in their family whatsoever, they got the worse of it. It's not so bad now, but if anyone calls you a 'Mudblood', give them a good old punch in the face. Or I could teach you the Bat Bogey Hex, you'd love that one," Ginny winked at her, laughed, and led the girl back upstairs.

Rae got one last glimpse of Scorpius as he was leaving the shop. His father didn't look very happy and Scorpius looked a little sad, he smiled at Rae as if to apologise and she smiled back, but it was a happy one.

Chapter Five Preview:

"Thank you," she said, opening it very carefully so she didn't miss anything. Inside was, as expected, a solid chocolate frog and a card. Albus told her that they were Famous Witches and Wizards cards and you collected them. Rae turned hers over and laughed out loud, showing the others a smiling picture of Harry Potter. A second later she screamed and the card tumbled to the floor. "It moved!" the compartment roared with laughter, which Rae didn't find so amusing. Pictures weren't supposed to move.

"I forgot Muggle photographs don't move," said James, wiping a tear from his eye, "you'll see when you get to Hogwarts, even the staircases move," this, she thought, wasn't too reassuring.