The first week of October was terrible for poor Eliza. Melanie's revelation paired with the nightmares made Eliza quite grouchy. At school, her lessons were deflated and monotone; nothing like her usual lively lessons. She snapped at the children for minor infractions when she was at the front of the classroom and let them play at their desks when they should have been working. Even the other faculty members noticed her odd behavior and on more than one occasion, it was suggested that she take a personal day to relax.
When Friday finally arrived, everyone was looking forward to Eliza going home. She knew that she was being unusually cranky and felt bad for her students and colleagues. As she left the school and began walking home, Eliza wondered if her students now had an idea what it was like to be Professor Snape's class. Despite her irritability, the thought that she was adopting some of her neighbor's teaching habits brought a small smile to her face.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as she unlocked front door to her cottage and hung her coat on the hook. Kicking off her shoes, Eliza headed into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, or maybe a strong glass of whiskey. Opening the kitchen door, Eliza screamed when she spotted three men seated at her table. Standing frozen in the doorway, she quickly calculated whether it would be safer to run back into the living room or to dive across the room and dig her wand out of the drawer.
As she made for the drawer, the older man with a wooden leg and rolling blue eye lunged forward.
"Don't even think about it, Missy," he barked, pointing his own wand at her. Eliza glared back at him but his stance didn't change. Looking over his shoulder she saw that the other two men were Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Her eyes widened when they landed on her cousin.
"What is he doing here!" She shrieked at the man whom she recognized to be Mad-eye Moody. "How dare you bring a murderer into my house!"
"It's not like that Eliza," Sirius said softly as he stood up. Eliza jumped back. Seeing her fear, Sirius sat back down and gave her a pleading look.
"Sit down," Moody directed, pushing her towards a chair. "you are going to hear us out."
Eliza crossed her arms tightly across her chest and fixed a hard glare on each of them. Seeing that she was ready to listen, Lupin leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table.
"Well I guess we should begin by explaining Sirius' innocence," he started, casting Sirius a weary look. It was getting tiresome explaining how the man had been falsely accused of his crimes and with the ministry's recent slander it was no wonder Eliza was afraid of her own family member.
"No, you should start by explaining how the hell you got into my house. I'm not on the Floo network and I know he is not supposed to be out and about," Eliza said, her eyes darting back to Sirius.
"Oh that," Lupin said, a little surprised by her concerns. "We just used Snape's fireplace and then broke in over here. It was really easy. We're going to have to set you up with some better wards." Eliza huffed a bit at his suggestion that her house wasn't properly secured. Of course he was probably right since until now she had never felt the need to use anything more than the deadbolts on her front and back doors.
"Anyway, fourteen years ago, Lily and James Potter assigned Sirius to be their secret keeper. But to avoid interception by Voldemort, they decided to have Peter Pettigrew be their secret keeper instead."
"That little creepy boy you used to run around with?" Eliza asked. "But he was the one that Sirius killed."
Lupin shook his head. "No, he faked his death. After Peter turned over the information to Voldemort and Lily and James were killed, Sirius confronted Peter outside the home."
"I would have killed him if that damn rat hadn't of gotten away," Sirius snarled, shaking his head at the memory.
"But the muggles, there were a bunch of muggles there too. He blasted them away," Eliza said, jerking her head towards her cousin.
"That was Peter too. He turned against us all," Lupin said softly. Eliza stared at the table as the news sunk in. She didn't like the explanation but she knew that there was truth behind it. Sirius had been so dedicated to the cause, there was no way that he would turn his back on his best friends. Eliza had been quite shocked at the time, and now as Remus described the events, she knew it was so easy to believe because it was true. As hard as she tried to remain skeptical, she knew that they were right. Sirius was innocent.
"So why are you here now," She asked wearily. Lupin and Sirius exchanged a brief look of elation, thrilled that she was quick to accept their explanation.
"We are here to extend an invitation," Sirius said smiling widely. Eliza was his second favorite cousin, even though they hadn't spent much time together since they were children, and it felt good to have her approval once again.
"I don't get out much," She replied icily.
"It's not a social invitation," growled Moody. "We need your services in the Order of the Phoenix."
"No," she answered blankly. The three men all stared at her in surprise. With her quick acceptance of Sirius, they had expected her to follow it up by joining the Order. It was a little foolish to think she might be ready to help considering she had refused the last time Voldemort was powerful, but hope in the time of war can be a powerful thing.
"You know Voldemort is back," said Sirius, leaning forward. "You know what he is capable of. Why wouldn't you want to fight back."
"Because it is safe here. Voldemort is not going to come walking down Spinner's End looking for muggle-borns."
"But what about Uriah and Leonidas, did they die in vain," Sirius whispered, bracing himself for Eliza's reaction.
"Do not bring my husband and son into this," Eliza said her voice now quite deadly. Lupin fidgeted with his cuff, clearly uncomfortable with the change in Eliza's voice. Moody tightened his grip on his wand. But Sirius remained stone-faced, meeting Eliza's hard glare, which now greatly resembled to icy scowls of Narcissa and Bellatrix.
"Why not?" challenged Sirius. "Were they not enough to motivate you? I survived Azkaban on the memories of Lily and James, isn't vengeance alone enough?"
"I didn't join the Order before and I'm not going to do it now!" Eliza shouted, her eyes now blazing. How dare these men come into her house and expect her to just throw away the security she had built up just to join a futile war. Even worse, how dare Sirius throw her late husband and son in the mix. It was bad enough that she had lost them, now she was expected to use them as a motivating force to propel her into a fight she wanted no part in?
The room was silent for a few long moments as Eliza and Sirius gave each other their best Black family glares. Finally, Lupin cleared his throat loudly, trying to diffuse the tension. He had long ago concluded that the Black's thrived on theatrics and that fighting would get them nowhere.
"C'mon, she's not going to do it," Moody grumbled as he grabbed hold of Sirius' collar. Sirius allowed himself to be pulled up from the chair and away from the table.
"Dumbledore wanted you to have these," said Lupin, dropping a thick stack of parchment on the table. "He thought you might want to look them over." Eliza jerked her head in response, not wanting to look at any of her intruders. Lupin slouched his shoulders in defeat and turned to leave with Moody.
"If you ever changed your mind, just show up at the old house, you remember the address, right?" Sirius said. "Just show up and it'll let you in." Eliza continued to look away from him as he started to follow Lupin and Moody out the door.
"One more thing," Sirius said after the other two men walked outside. He tossed the morning paper from London on the table. "It's happening again. Just like before." With that, he turned and walked towards the door, transforming into his dog form just before exiting.
Eliza snatched the paper off of the table. It was just the muggle news, but inside, under crime reports, she found listings of several house fires across the country. All of the inhabitants were killed in each of these fires. The authorities were stumped by this sudden surge of arson and were seeking any information regarding the events. The very last report brought Eliza face-to-face with a muggle family portrait. The picture was of a young couple and their infant son who looked to be around the same age that Leonidas was when he died. Like her own son, this baby had a shock of black hair and pale eyes. He was smiling and deep dimples sunk into his cheeks. Below the picture was an article describing how the young family had perished in a house fire also caused by arson. Above the house, in a rare moment of beauty in the midst of tragedy, there was the most unusual light display. Eliza felt her stomach in her throat as she realized that muggles couldn't see the shape of the Dark Mark, just the light.
Throwing the paper aside, she grabbed the stack of parchment that Lupin had brought. Rifling through the old pages, Eliza recognized her notes, her pages of research from fourteen years before. Her eyes stung as she looked at the notes and back at the muggle family in the picture.
It was not fair. Why couldn't she just have a peaceful, quiet life that was free from meddling, magic, and Voldemort? Why did Sirius have to come back? Why did she have to live next door to Snape? Why did Melanie have to be one of her former students?
As she continued to look back and forth between the photo and her notes, Eliza knew that there was no escaping Voldemort. It was no safer to be a muggle than a witch so it was better off having magic on her side.
Collecting her papers up into her arms, Eliza started walking down the hallway to her small bathroom. In the back of the cupboard was a very special potion that Eliza had brewed when she first moved to Spinner's End.
Desperate to push away any connection to the wizard world, Eliza had developed a potion that would shut out her memories. It made her forget how to use magic (except the spells she chose to remember), it made her forget people, and it made her forget the happiness that magic brought her. The potion had been quite effective and lasted much longer than Eliza had anticipated. But the night that Snape had landed in his front yard near dead, the potion began breaking down and Eliza remembered the things she tried to forget.
Even though the potion was continuing to fall apart, she was still foggy about some memories. She couldn't quite remember how to transfigure things or certain charms. She couldn't remember the healers she worked with at the hospital or the faces of her classmate. Occasionally, a name would come back; a glimmer of a memory, but it was usually gone as quick as it came. But ever since that night, when her defenses were down and instinct kicked in, she remembered one classmate more than ever: Severus Snape.
There in her bathroom cupboard sat the potion she needed, the reversal to her memory blocker. Eliza gave the bottle a wry smile as she read the label. Invitation is what she called it because she would be inviting her memories to return after a long absence. How funny, she thought as she tipped back the swirling sliver liquid, two invitations in one day.
Eliza collapsed onto the bathroom floor after drinking the potion. She clutched her head and gritted her teeth as the memories came flooding back. She had no idea how long it took for her memories to be replenished, she felt like she was writhing on the floor for days. Her ears boomed with voices she hadn't heard in fourteen years. She remembered being taunted and teased for her skinny legs and awkward ways. She remembered long hours spent studying in the library while others were watching Quidditch or romping about in Hogsmeade. She remembered watching him, Severus, as he followed Lily like a lost puppy, only to be tormented by the marauders. She remembered everything.
At last the room seemed to stop spinning and the voices quieted down. She slowly opened her eyes to see a set of hard black eye staring back at her. She wondered what memory this could be and began to slip back into the roaring flood of voices from before. She heard a low murmur and the noise stopped again. The eyes were still there and Eliza realized that they did not belong to a memory, that Severus Snape was in fact there above her, bring her back to the present.