Still January 4th, 1977

Severus Snape felt like hell. He rarely got scratches or bruises, unless it was inflicted by Tobias. And it was even rarer he got - dare he even speak the words from his own lips - a cold. His head pounded against his brain, and he felt clogged by his own mucus. It was disgusting.

And now Severus was making tea in the Slytherin Common Room's kitchenette. He rubbed the bridge of his nose when the kettle whistled. It was mint tea, like Eileen would make for him when he was younger and things were simpler. Simpler like when he would run around Cokeworth outside to get rid of the pain, or when he could just knock on Lily's front door and feel more at home than ever.

Whenever Severus thought too much about the past, Lily Evans always seemed to pop up in his mind. He grit his teeth and inhaled the steam from the tea.

When he was finished pouring his tea and cleaning the pot out, Severus walked out out of the common room and following the silent voice of his bed.

But since nothing ever went right for Severus Snape, he was interrupted.

"Severus," a confident voice called from the sitting area.

Most of the students were asleep by eleven so they could wake up in time for breakfast, but not this lot. Parkinson had a prideful smile across his face as he sat amongst Mariah Avery, Alex Mulciber, and Evan Rosier. "Come sit," offered Parkinson.

"I'd rather suffer alone than with such pleasant company," he said stiffly.

Parkinson's expression darkened, and gave Severus a knowing look. "We've been summoned."

Severus nearly broke his porcelain teacup by holding it too tightly. He took a deep breath through his mouth and let it slowly before gritting through his teeth a short "Perfect."

"Well, this plan could've been perfect," murmured Marlene McKinnon, tapping her foot softly. "If she wasn't just sitting there," she added, "what the fuck is Meadowes waiting for?"

Lily Evans elbowed her friend in the rib. "Shut up, Marlene," she whispered lowly, "she'll hear you."

The Gargoyle was reaching its close. Sirius Black looked back to his brother. There was a look in his eye, which James Potter identified as 'I'm going to do a bad thing.'

"No, Sirius," James commanded in a low voice, and yes, it was like a master to his dog.

Sirius snuck a peak back at the Gargoyle and then back to James. With an apathetic face, he muttered, "Sorry."

"Why's Black apologizing?" Lily asked in a concerned tone.

It was almost amazing that neither one of the girls noticed a chubby rat leap out of Sirius' pocket. They were looking to a dumbfounded James instead, so little Wormtail managed to runaway successfully into Dumbledore's office.

"I let a little toot," Sirius lied casually. "Pardon."

"Are you serious- no, don't answer that," Marlene tried in a hushed voice.

James rolled his eyes and scoffed tiredly. He tried not to do look down at Lily Evans who was staring at him. Her green eyes narrowed at him before looking away. Too skeptical for her own good, James thought.

"How do you seriously expect me not to make a serious joke about my name being Sirius?" Sirius Black asked quickly.

Marlene closed her eyes and chose to look away from the imbecile.

"Will you lot shut up?" Lily hissed softly. Her eyes were fixated on the map, and they followed the ink-blotted foots steps of Remus Lupin.

Sirius and Marlene exchanged quick glances before peering over Lily's shoulder.

Luckily, Lily noticed that Remus was coming from the opposite corridor so he wouldn't be able to see the tapestry protrude. But what she was more concentrated on was why. Her fellow prefect was due for rounds with her tomorrow evening.

"We can't concentrate on that right now," Lily mumbled. "What're we going to do now that the entrance is closed? We don't have the password, and we can't leave."

James took a deep breath. He tried not to glare at his friend, but instead looked down at Lily. Her eyes were filled with confusion, yet somehow still focused. The girl was on a mission.

"You're going to have to trust us with this go, Evans," he whispered bending down a little closer to her ear.

Lily raised her eyebrows. She turned her head slowly to him, seemingly un-phased by how close their faces were now. "Unconvincing, Potter," she replied coolly.

"It'll have to do," he said firmly, "because it's all you're getting."

"And I'm supposed to be comfortable with that?"

"You're clever. You'll find a way."

"I'm also stubborn."

"Oh, Evans, don't I know."

Lily had a cunning comeback that involved a ten-points-for-Gryffindor-worthy list of examples of James Potter's egotistical behavior, but was stopped by Marlene. The blond pressed the palm of her hand against Lily's lips. Everyone shifted slightly to the side, and Marlene pointed to the entering Remus Lupin.

They couldn't see much, but they could definitely listen.

"Thanks for meeting me," Remus said.

Dorcas shrugged, "No problem." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cigarette tin.

"She sure got some dangly bits to be doing right in front of Dumbledore's office," Marlene commended quietly.

"No, McKinnon, she definitely does not," chuckled Sirius.

"I was hoping you could help me out a bit," Remus said, grabbing the everyone's attention.

Dorcas had lit her cigarette and let out a large puff. The smoke twirled into the night sky. "What about it?" She asked. "I thought we were both pretty clear on New Year's."

That caught everyone's attention.

"Did she sleep with him at my house?" Marlene whispered hotly to Lily. "After she kissed Max or something?!"

The redhead shook her head in ignorance. She was more interested by Sirius' clenched fists.

"That's not what I'm talking about," Remus replied flatly.

Dorcas chuckled weakly for a moment. "Sorry." She took another long puff before adding, "Well then, what would you like to discuss?"

"I have a favor to ask of you."

"Interesting," the Slytherin mused, letting the smoke trickle up her moonlight face.

"I need the password to Dumbledore's office," he said as if there were nothing wrong with breaking into the Headmaster's office.

Dorcas scoffed, "Aren't you a prefect?"

"That doesn't mean I have the password."

"If he caught you, you'd be kicked out."

"You and I both know that Dumbledore would not do that to us."

"So you're going to betray his trust?" Dorcas asked in sharp voice.

Remus hesitated for a minute before saying, "I would not do that to him. This is important and isn't technically betraying his trust. He's keeping something from us, Meadowes. The entire student body, at least."

"Like what?"

"Why haven't you been getting the Prophet for the past two days?"

"I don't get the Prophet."

"What?"

"I read the Quibbler," Dorcas explained offhandedly.

Behind the tapestry, James couldn't help but smile, "A girl after my own heart." The other three punched him in response.

Remus coughed and tried not to laugh. "Well, no Prophet subscribers have gotten their editions in the last two days. Dumbledore is hiding something from us."

It was Dorcas' turn to pause, which she did for a long time. She finished her cigarette and put it out. "You think he has one in his office?" There was no edge in her voice this time. She almost sound defeated, which no one really ever heard before from Dorcas Meadowes.

"My friend's rat already has already retrieved it," Remus explained. Lily and Marlene looked to the boys in shock. Neither one peeped a word, but thought of many in their heads. "We just need to let him out of Dumbledore's office," Remus continued.

Dorcas paused for another moment. From what the hidden Gryffindors saw, it looked like she was rubbing her temples. She then stood up and placed herself right in front of Remus. She titled her head up so that she could look right into his eyes.

"Don't think that I'm doing this just because we have some dirt on each other, understand?" She said in a cold voice.

"Wouldn't expect you to," Remus agreed, smirking softly to himself as Dorcas walked in front of the Gargoyle.

It was evident that everyone behind the tapestry would be interrogating Remus Lupin in the Common Room, but right now they just gawked at the two.

Dorcas sighed. "Marshmallow Cakes," she said in a clear voice.

And just like that, the gargoyle slowly shifted open and to the side. Remus watched in curiosity as it did so, but when the gargoyle cleared the walkway, he focused on the little rat with a gigantic newspaper in its mouth.

"Ah, well done, Wormy," Remus smiled as he bent down with an open palm. The rat skittered into his hand and released the paper into the other. Wormy sniffed in Dorcas' direction a few times before looking away.

Remus was about to open it but noticed that Dorcas was walking away. "You're not curious?" he called out, tapping the Gargoyle to close.

"Not really," she replied without looking back. Remus noticed how shakily she was moving; she was doing a subpar job of hiding it. "If it's not in the Quibbler, chances are it may be bullocks. And no one has time for bullocks."

Remus narrowed his eyes at Dorcas as she headed down towards the Dungeons. Once she was completely out of sight, Remus headed towards the tapestry hiding his friends.

"How'd you know, Moony?!" James asked upon his arrival.

"Shh," Lily insisted. "We'll talk about it when we get back to the Common Room. Let's just go first before we get caught."

James gave a look like he was about to rebuttal, but instead kept it to himself. "You're right," he conceded. "Get under the cloak."

Sirius, Marlene, and he huddled together on the cloak, just barely, but followed Lily and Remus back up the castle. Their interest in Remus was tearing at each one of them, including Lily, but they knew it would be best to wait.

Lily gave the Fat Lady the password and apologized for waking her at this late hour. She and Remus made sure to pause before entering their tower to ensure that the three under the invisibility cloak had time to go in. Once the door shut, James pulled the cloak off. Without missing a beat, he pointed at Remus and said, "You have some explaining to do, Mate."

"I got the job done, didn't I?" Remus replied as he plopped down on the couch.

"How'd you know Meadowes was going to be there?" asked Sirius.

"How'd you know that we were going to be there?" asked Marlene.

"And how'd you know that Meadowes would actually let you in?" Lily concluded.

Remus blinked quickly before taking a deep breath. "One - I had seen Meadowes walking in Dumbledore's office for that meeting. It was pretty lucky, actually. I was coming from McGonagall's office and saw her about to go in. I made a relatively impulsive decision and just asked for her to meet me after she was done with the meeting. I also knew that it would be the same time you lot would be failing the mission."

"We did not fail the mission," Sirius mocked. "We got it all in the end."

Remus scoffed, "And that was because I saved your arses. You lot were going to wait until Dumbledore came back? You think Dumbledore wouldn't be a wee-bit skeptical with a rat and a newspaper?"

The rat twitched its nose and then turned inward towards Remus' body.

The four others exchanged awkward glances because everything that Remus said was true. The surprise rat could have seriously been a step closer to disaster. They imagined several horrible scenarios if they had been caught: endless detention with Filch, probation, or even expulsion.

"How'd you know Meadowes would help you?" James inquired after a moment. "You two seem… intimate."

Remus shook his head and said, "She's just a decent human being."

"What's the supposed dirt you have on her?" Sirius asked curiously, with a twinge of bitterness in his tone. "Wait, what does she have on you?"

Remus paused. "I can't tell you that."

"Aw, come on, Lupin," Marlene said, pushing his shoulder encouragingly. "Whatcha got on Dorcas Meadowes? She's… so secretive. Only recently has she been social."

Remus wanted to tell his Marauders that the Slytherin knew about his lycanthropy, and he was completely terrified by her potential power. In a way, he also knew that Meadowes wouldn't because that just didn't seem up her alley. As long as he had known Dorcas, which was limited to a handful of classroom experiences, he never took her as the type who craved attention or was interested in ruining someone's life. It seemed like she genuinely enjoyed keeping to herself. So, he knew that she wouldn't tell Remus' secret. It would necessitate too many interactions with others. So, Remus decided that he shouldn't share either. Not even to his Marauders.

"She is secretive," Remus agreed. He looked up to each one of his friends and said, "And I want to respect that, because she respects that about me too. So, please don't ask me anymore."

Lily bit her lip and felt bad for intruding on something that made Remus so vulnerable. "Sorry," she apologized. "We won't ask anymore questions about you and Meadowes."

Remus smiled flatly. "Thanks." He dug into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled newspaper. "Here you go," he said as he passed it to Lily.

"It better be worth it," Sirius grumbled. There were only a few pages of it, but there had to be something. They refused to believe that there was nothing strange about this censorship.

"MASON NAGUT SENTENCED DEMENTORS' KISS IN AZKABAN PRISON. EXECUTION DATE ANNOUNCED," Lily read from yesterday's front page. She crooked her head and repeated, "Mason Nagut… That's a terrible surname to be born with."

"Bloody Hell," James murmured in astonishment as he reached over for the front page.

"Who's Mason Nagut?" Lily asked. All of her friends' eyes were wide like they had seen a ghost.

Sirius laughed a little and said, "A bloody compost site now. Thank Merlin he won't be wasting oxygen anymore."

Lily's eyebrows raised. She was more than aware that Sirius had a dark sense of humor, but he never really talked about someone that maliciously before. "What'd he do?" She asked curiously.

Marlene sat down and explained, "He was a Grindlewald fanatic. One of the most barbaric ones. He was rather close to Grindlewald too, I think."

The female prefect sucked in her breath at just the name. Some say that Grindlewald was even worse than Voldemort, and was even more savage. In History of Magic, Professor Binns actually held an interesting lecture (for once) about Gindlewald, and it was terrifying. The cities he nearly destroyed, the number of muggles he killed and enslaved, and the dark magic that he produced from his wand were all too much. And his followers were just as cruel. Lily remembered that lecture last semester and how she nearly cried at how barely anything changed in the decades passed.

"What did Nagut do specifically?" Lily asked. "I don't remember Binns discussing him during the Grindlewald lectures."

"That's because the shite Nagut did was too vulgar to even share in a classroom," Remus informed. "He was sick, Lily."

An uncomfortable silence shifted through the air. Everyone looked down, not wanting to say it themselves. But eventually James spoke up. "You know Gindlewald's ideology, right?" He asked in relatively calm tone.

"Of course," Lily nodded.

"Then, you're aware that his whole thing was magical supremacy and muggle enslavement. Well, Nagut took this notion… too far," James struggled towards the end.

"Beating around it isn't going to make it easier to say," Lily said in a considerate voice.

James rubbed the back of his neck. Something about saying this to Lily was hard for him. He knew that she was sensitive, and especially when it came to others. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, but no one else was stepping up either. He took a deep breath and said, "Nagut advocated for the muggle enslavement portion greatly. He believed that it was efficient, and said that the only muggle with a little sense was that evolutionist pioneer. What's his name… Dante, Dothan…"

"Darwin," Remus helped.

"Right, Darwin. Anyway, he believed in all that in regards to magic. However, this is where he turned left. Even for many pure blood supremacists."

Lily waited patiently with her teeth clenched. Mason Nagut already sounded bad, and how much more worse could one person get?

James bit his lip before saying carefully, "Nagut and his extreme-extremists used to attack muggle women."

Lily straightened up and muttered, "An attack as in…?"

"Attack as in rape," Marlene finished in crossed tone. "He was a complete animal, Lily. He thought that muggle women should be used to further the lineages of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. This man deserves to have his soul sucked out and be spat in the deepest part of the Atlantic."

Lily nodded slowly, taking time to process the story behind Mason Nagut. She looked back at the paper and then asked, "Why would Dumbledore hide that though? That seems like something… that would make people feel... I don't know, content?"

"Elated, you mean," Sirius smirked. "He should've been executed a long time ago."

James flipped open the newspaper and read aloud:

"Last night, the third of January 1977, the Minister of Magic released a statement concerning Mason Nagut's execution. As many may know, Mason Nagut was previously serving a life-long prison sentence in Azkaban for numerous charges for the use of all three Unforgivable Curses on muggles, wizards, and witches alike between the years 1942-1945 and the continued reign of terror through much of the 40s and 50s before being caught by HitWizards in 1961. During his sentence, Nagut had repeatedly attempted to escape from the prison surrounded by Dementors.

However, yesterday morning Nagut came too close for comfort. Officials will not make a statement as to how, but the infamous Grindlewald Worshiper somehow managed to produce a Patronus Charm wandlessly and large enough to distract and deter the guards long enough. Nagut jumped into the ocean and attempted to swim before being picked up by Dementors.

The Minister and his advisors declared that Nagut would be sentenced to receive the kiss from the Dementors. He also claimed that more Dementors will be added the guard the premise to ensure that this sort of mistake never occurs again. The Minister revealed that he will be executed on the first of February, in line with prison protocol. When sentencing an escaped prisoner to the Kiss, the excutionee has one month, unless under special circumstances, to live in peace without the presence of Dementors. Mason Nagut will be placed in a special magicless holding cell at a secure location.

Protocol also calls for the executionee's final requests. Many of the requests that prisoner's make often cannot go through for obvious reasons, but the Ministry does allow supervised meetings with non-convicted friends and family. Once the execution verdict and date had been decided by the Head of the Department of Magical Law during the Court Hearing, Nagut shouted his final request.

Nagut roared angrily and shouted that his work for Grindlewald would pass on without him, through his kin. It should be noted that Mason Nagut had no next of kin legally, according to the Ministry of Magic. This means that he most likely vulgarly alluded to his former muggle rape victims. Nagut continued by saying that he knows he has a child who should be around the age upperclassmen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and that he can feel the child's magic through his veins. He claims that the child is close and ready to overcome muggles and even the 'unworthy' Dark Lord himself. His final request is to meet the heir to the Grindlewald and Nagut reign before the Kiss Sentence.

It is unknown if the Ministry will comply to find the child, but it seems highly unlikely. More curiously is what Headmaster Albus Dumbledore will do or say in these circumstances. Chances are that Nagut has truly lost his sense and only thinks that he may have a biological offspring at Hogwarts, but it still raises shivers to think of such a situation.

More will be updated as the story progresses."

No one spoke for a long moment. It may have been a minute, five minutes, ten minutes, who knows maybe even a half hour before Lily repeated in a disgusted voice, "More will be updated as the story progresses. Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Evans," James scoffed, "I know that the final statement is not the thing that's getting you riled up right now, is it?"

"Of course not!" Lily countered. "It doesn't help though. Is the bloody reporter just going expecting Dumbledore to hand over the name whoever this child potentially may be? That's atrocious."

"And how would Dumbledore know?" Marlene added. "Some sort of charmed genetic test?"

"Dumbledore won't do that," Remus argued, "He would never even investigate who this student was for the sake of Mason Nagut's final wish."

"I agree," Sirius said, "this is nothing to worry about. Even if the Nagut scum is in the school, the kid is probably some dark fucked-up meth addict. Probably goes to Dumstrang too like every Grindlewald follower does. The bigot doesn't even know what he's talking about."

"He did specifically mention Hogwarts though," Lily reminded them.

"But Dumstrang is the old home of Grindlewald! It's much more likely the kid ends up there than here."

"How d'you reckon that?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"Because they're all mental barbarians," Sirius concluded simply.

"You don't know who this potential child was raised by though," Lily said irritably. "You can't just jump to the biological similarities."

"Tell me the thought of Mason Nagut's child does not frighten the shite you, just a little bit?" Sirius insisted.

Lily paused before she argued, "If the kid was raised in a nurturing and loving home, then he or she may turn out great. You can't give all the blame everything on the biological parents."

Sirius was about to provide some very raw evidence, but chose to keep his mouth shut.

"This would cause a stir though," James said, making everyone look at him. He had stayed quiet for too long after he read the article. He had just been staring aimlessly at it. "All the students at Hogwarts would go into a frenzy."

"You're right. The castle already devours rumors as is," Marlene agreed. She sighed, "it would be a mess."

Remus looked back at the newspaper, causing his chest to stir. He hoped that Dorcas Meadowes was right about saying that the Prophet was rubbish, but this was too much. He should've kept this secret hidden locked up. "Dumbledore was right to hide this," he said wearily.

"We can't tell anyone," James said in a serious voice. "We really cannot or else the students will be at each others' necks than we already."

"But what if the 'Nagut' heir is really at Hogwarts?" Marlene murmured. "Would they… you know, want to know?"

Sirius let out a mirthless laugh. "No one wants to find out that their parent, birth or not, is a rapist, homicidal maniac, Blondie."

Marlene punched him squarely in the arm. Sirius took a deep breath before saying, "McKinnon, I am not above punching a girl."

"Neither am I."

"All right, stop it," James demanded as he stood in between Sirius and Marlene. "He's right, Marls. We shouldn't dig into this. It would be best for everyone that way."

Marlene rolled her eyes and looked away.

"No one goes digging on this, agreed?" Lily requested.

There was a moment of hesitation before they all said in unison, "Agreed."

The Slytherins watched Dorcas Meadowes unison enter the common room quietly and head towards the dormitories. They made sure she was fully gone before Parkinson checked in with his comrades. "Is everyone clear?"

"You really mean it?" Evan Rosier asked excitedly, like a child about to go on a roller coaster. "Voldemort wants us to find Nagut's kid?"

"My contact says that it is imperative to the Death Eater goal to find out who he may be," Parkinson explained.

Severus Snape tapped his cup quietly with his fingers. His cold did not help the mental processing of what he had just heard. The Dark Lord wanted to find a student, around the age of sixteen and seventeen, who may be the biological child of Mason Nagut. That seemed time-consuming and useless to his rising. "That's all the contact gave you?" Severus inquired.

"Don't ask questions, Snape," snapped Parkinson in an authoritative tone that made Severus want to chuckle. "Questioning his explanations is like questioning the Dark Lord himself."

Severus wanted to point out that is exactly what he meant by that but chose not to waste his breath. "Fine," he said shortly, "what're we to do then? When do we begin?"

Parkinson smirked, "We start tomorrow."

A/N - THE PLOT THICKENS! I hope you enjoyed this installment, please stay tuned for the next chapter :) In the meantime, drop your girl a review, a follow, or a favorite maybe? Hehe.

Much love,

Rose