Chapter Seven

Emma concurred that heading to Diagon Alley did make a lot more sense than hoping that an underage, Muggle-born witch might be able help her. Severus even had a good idea in approaching the Hogwarts staff. Such a large collection of experienced, magical persons must surely have encountered her bizarre form of memory modification before. However, his casual suggestion to visit Dumbledore caused her stomach to clench.

"No!" she exclaimed. She didn't want to go anywhere near the celebrated headmaster of Hogwarts. For some unknown reason, ever since she had seen his name in Hogwarts: A History, she had felt a strange dislike for Albus Dumbledore. Dislike or maybe even distaste. She couldn't explain it, not even to herself, but somehow she was sure that he was not to be trusted. She took a deep breath and spoke more calmly, aware that her reaction had caused Severus to glance up in surprise. "No, not him," she concluded, rather lamely.

Something happened then. Something odd.

The room suddenly dimmed, as if a great darkness was rising up to meet her. She felt dizzy and uncomfortable, and her legs couldn't seem to support her.

Thankfully, as swiftly as the feeling had appeared, it left her. The darkness receded, and her vision cleared. Turning back to Severus to demand if he had felt the bizarre and clearly magical sensation, she found him gone.

He had vanished in the split second it had taken for the magic to whirl around her. She had her wand from her pocket in a heartbeat, considering what spell could possibly help her to decipher what had happened to him.

She jumped as the door opened, and a startled-looking Severus stared back at her in shock.

"How did you do that?" she demanded. Honestly, as far as unintentional magic went, that had been very impressive, but she had no wish to see her only friend in this strange place to be dragged before the Ministry for underaged magic.

Severus ignored her question, closing the door quietly and turning to stare at her, his arms folded tightly over his chest.

"Where did you go?" he hissed.

"Go? I've been here the whole time – you're the one that suddenly disappeared!"

He frowned. "Emma, you've been gone for nearly two days."

She stared at him blankly. "I never left," she argued softly. "The lights dimmed, I felt strange, like the moment just before you Apparate. Then everything came back, and you walked into the room."

They stared at each other until the silence was broken by the sound of the front door slamming as one his parents left for work.

"I'm telling the truth," she whispered, searching his face.

"So am I," he replied.

-x-

He fetched her a cup of tea and let her sit on the bed while she processed his version of events. Not only had she lost her memory, butnow she had somehow lost the last thirty-six hours. She was beginning to wonder if she would have to become accustomed to the sick feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach.

They talked quietly about what both of them had seen and felt at the moment she had vanished. Severus had not felt the stifling press of magic that had washed over her, but she was surprised to learn she had flickered briefly before vanishing.

"It certainly wasn't Apparition, then. With that, you are either here or there, there's no midpoint," she mused.

Severus leaned back in his desk chair, his long legs stretched before him. "Maybe both our versions are correct. Maybe you moved, not from place to place, but from Monday evening to this morning."

Emma shook her head. "Spontaneous time travel isn't even a theoretical possibility. The spellwork behind time-turners is a closely guarded secret that even most Goblin craftsmen would be at a loss to explain, and even they can't take someone over twelve hours back in time. Travel forwards, to time that hasn't happened yet, isn't even mentioned. Wizards who attempt it simply cease to exist."

"Maybe you ceased to exist," he reasoned. "Until the time you were aiming for existed too."

"If I did then it undermines Gamp's Third Law of Elemental Transfiguration. You can't create pre-existing life out of nothing, least of all a time-travelling amnesiac," she snorted, before catching his expression. "What?"

"Do you wonder how you know these things? I've never even seen a Time Turner, let alone studied their capabilities. You know mid-level healing spells even if you don't know how you know them. You have all these dormant memories of people and places that only surface when you are reminded of them." He spoke levelly, his words carefully considered. "You recognised my father. You thought you might know James Potter."

"Where are you going with this?"

He folded his arms over his chest. "I just think it's a little strange that you arrived on the doorstep of the only magical family in a two mile radius, especially considering that us and the Evanes are the only magical families this side of Macclesfield. The chances of you finding us were miniscule, and yet here you are."

Emma sat back, her empty mug loose in her fingers. "You're right," she breathed. She hadn't even considered things from that angle. "You have a very clever mind, Severus Snape." She added, kindly ignoring the less than attractive blush that immediately stained his cheeks. "Highly suspicious, admittedly, but very clever."

She sat up, carefully placing the mug on the floor. "Okay then, Oh Insightful One, why the hell am I here?"

"I hadn't got quite that far," he admitted. "I can't, for the life of me, understand why anybody would want to come here."

Emma rolled her eyes at him, the uncomfortable feeling lifting from her as she smiled at the boy's dubious expression. "Oh, I don't know," she answered breezily. "It has a certain charm. The chip shop, for one, is amazing. I haven't had chips fried in dripping for years!"

"What do they fry them in where you come from?"

The pulled her up short. "Something else?" she hazarded, vaguely. "The point is, even if I didn't mean to arrive here, I'm very glad that I did. You've been an amazing friend to me so far."

The small smile that had been slowly spreading over his face vanished at that, and Emma wanted to kick herself. Of course he didn't think of her as a friend, and she hoped he didn't think she wasn't implying that he had to help her further. She was just incredibly grateful that she had found herself with someone who could grasp the difficulty of her situation and talk through everything with her without simply packing her off to St Mungo's.

He cleared his throat. "Maybe we should try Gringotts. If we can work out who you are, the whys should answer themselves."

She stood up with alacrity, glad for the change in the conversation. "That is another very good idea," she answered brightly. "Do you think your mum would mind if we Disapparate from inside the house?"

"Now?"

"Why not?" she asked. "Oh, I mean, if you don't want to go, that's fine. You probably thought you were rid of me..." She shifted her weight to her other foot, feeling stupid for the second time in as many minutes.

"No, I'll come," he shrugged. "I just need to get my cloak."

-x-

Severus took his time sorting through his school trunk by the bare light bulb of the cellar, replaying their conversation in his mind. Although he was suspicious about Emma's sudden reappearance, he was finding it harder and harder to remain suspicious about her. He had half expected her to become defensive when he had voiced his thoughts about her arriving on his street, at the very moment his parents had been retuning home. Instead she had grasped at the idea, just as she had done his suggestion to try the wizarding establishments of Diagon Alley.

It was all very odd.

What had started out as a rather unwanted interlude to his summer holiday was becoming more and more intriguing by the minute. Emma probably thought he was being nosy, accompanying her to London, and that honestly wasn't far from the truth. There were so many unanswered questions, he simply had to go with her.

Besides, he couldn't really let her go on her own. She'd probably wander blithely down Knockturn Alley if he wasn't there to stop her.

Unearthing his cloak, he shook the creases out as best he could and glanced round guiltily before fastening it securely at his throat. Wearing magical clothing outside of school felt wrong. Part of him was certain his parents would arrive home unexpectedly and catch him.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs.

Feeling guiltier still, he turned and made his way to the darkest corner of the cellar. It took him a while to move the clutter aside, but eventually he managed to clear a path to the battered cardboard box that contained his mother's old possessions.

-x-

As Emma waited, perched on end of the bed, she wondered how she had ever mistaken Severus for being older than herself when he was so wonderfully adolescent. He was surly, uncommunicative, and prone to blushing fiercely at the slightest thing. He was blushing again as he re-entered the room, his long black cloak billowing slightly as he crossed the room towards her. He wordlessly handed her a bundle of cloth before moving to place her empty mug on the desk.

It was a cloak; dark green in colour and slightly musty smelling. She shook it out and draped it round her shoulders, carefully fastening the clasp at her throat, oddly touched by the gesture. Was Muggle clothing frowned on in Diagon Alley? She wasn't sure.

She smiled at him then, so widely she was glad he was still studiously looking the other way. This was why she had found herself turning to him from the very beginning. He was sulky and silent, and she doubted he had ever held a door open for anyone is his life, but Severus Snape would look after you whether he wanted to or not.

Whatever design or destiny had landed her on his doorstep, Emma Jones was grateful to have met him.

"Have you ever gone Side-Along before?" she asked, ignoring his sudden smirk at her unintentional double entendre.

"I haven't," he answered seriously. "Have you ever taken anyone Side-Along before?"

It was her turn to smirk. "I'm not entirely without experience, young Severus. Now where would be best to Apparate to?"

He frowned. "Not that I'm an expert, but isn't it usually a requirement for the person Apparating to know the place they are heading to?"

"Destination, Determination, Deliberation," she replied succinctly. "Where to?"

"The yard behind the Leaky Cauldron."

"Describe it to me."

"It's a yard," he shrugged. "There are bottle crates, some dustbins. There's a brick wall you need to tap-"

"To access the Alley," she finished for him. "I remember now." She grasped her wand securely and reached for Severus's hand. "Now, you need to hold on tightly and try not to be sick," she cautioned.

"What?" he demanded before the air swallowed them with a resounding crack.

-x-

It was like being squashed into a space far too small for his body. Everything went black, and he felt the air being squeezed from his lungs and his breakfast being squeezed in his stomach.

The sensation itself lasted less than a second before light returned and he could gasp gratefully at the smoggy London air. Emma's warning about being sick reasserted itself, and he swallowed convulsively, decidedly less than steady on his feet.

"Horrible, isn't it?" Emma asked cheerfully. "It's easier when you do it yourself." When Severus didn't reply, she gave his finger's a squeeze before dropping his hand. "Do you want to head into the pub for a bit, have a sit down?"

"I'm fine," he protested, feeling anything but. "Let's just get moving."

-x-

The trip to Gringotts was less than successful.

The goblin they spoke to treated them with the utmost suspicion before caustically informing them that, unless they had an account, they had no business being in the bank. Emma's request to speak to speak to a manager was countered with an offer to bring out one of the security dragons. Emma had paled then, and allowed Severus to lead her back outside into the sunshine.

"That's just a rumour, you know," he assured her. "There aren't really dragons in there."

She huffed at that and set off down the street. By the time he had caught up with her she was standing outside Fancy Familiars staring wistfully at a litter of ginger kittens playing boisterously in a large cage in the window.

"I've got a fair bit of gold on me," she informed him quietly. "I should have thought to change some of it into Muggle currency while we were in there. I doubt they'll let me back in now."

"Goblins aren't allowed wands of their own. There's a small chance he may have thought you were making a joke at his expense, handing it over like that."

"A small chance? They're the prickliest creatures around," she sniggered, before becoming contrite. "Although that's hardly surprising given the years of persecution they've suffered at the hands of wizardkind. Anyway, I would have liked to pay you back for the chips"

Severus nodded at a glass fronted shop on the other side of the street. "Why don't you buy me an ice-cream instead?"

They sat at one of the little tables outside, sharing a massive concoction of cream, cherries, and raspberry ice cream. It was rather too sickly, but it was fun to be in Diagon Alley and not to have to rush from store to store to finish their purchases and return home. Severus watched the shoppers passing by. This was the real wizarding world, not the hothouse environment at Hogwarts. In just one more year, he would have finished his schooling, and he would be free to leave the Muggle world behind and truly become a wizard.

He could hardly wait.

He tensed slightly as a group of Hufflepuffs from the year below strolled past, laughing. They didn't look up from their conversation and Severus was surprised to feel slightly disappointed. For the most part he wanted to keep Emma a secret; their mission to uncover her identity was uniquely theirs, and he didn't wish to share it with anyone. Yet a tiny, oddly vocal part of him wished that someone he knew would walk past a see him sharing a sundae with the pretty, older witch.

She was definitely older than him, he had decided, although it was hard to tell just how old given her small stature. She was at least eighteen, he mused. No older than twenty though, despite the occasional look in her eyes that suggested she was older still.

She glanced up and caught him staring. He glared automatically and was surprised to be treated to a rather guilty smile in response.

"I know, I know," she sighed. "I'm just stalling."

She placed her spoon down on the table and stood, collecting her cloak from the back of the chair.

"Let's go see what the wandmaker can tell us."