Chapter 52:

Harry had asked Alicia whether she'd had his dream last night and she'd confessed she had. But had instantly taken Snape's steps after they'd woken up.

"Aren't you curious?" Harry asked

"I am, but after last night, a little less so."

"Why? We haven't seen the weapon!" Harry believed. Alicia hesitated.

"Well, we both felt the desire, what ever was in that last room is what he wants. Harry do you remember the room?" she asked

"It was filled with Spheres." he answered

"And?"

"That was it."

"Right, so do you think there'd be some weird weapon in there? I'm pretty sure what ever he wanted was in that room. Could it not be one of those spheres?" Alicia asked looking at him, thinking it over in her mind as she spoke. It was the only conclusion she could come to.

"What kind of weapon is a sphere?" he questioned

"Depends what they are, I doubt their shelf ornaments if they're in the Department of Mysteries. I mean they've got to be important to some extent, the question just is what are they? What ever they are, Voldemort wants one, and apparently a specific one too." Harry looked at Alicia and she could feel the slight disappointment coming from him.

Neither of them told Ron or Hermione about what they'd seen, Ron would get disappointed like Harry and ask a heap of questions while Hermione would not be impressed, which neither twin wanted to bother dealing with.

It seemed Harry was trying to empty his mind as a last minute practice towards the end of the day, but Hermione continued to interrupt him, asking what was wrong and why he was so quiet.

"Hermione, we have an Occlumency lesson tonight, you want to keep interrupting him while he's trying to clear his mind?" Alicia asked annoyed. Hermione looked guilty instantly and apologised before falling silent when Alicia gave her a look.

Harry seemed to be delaying going down to Snape's dungeon and Alicia waited for him to have no other excuse in his delay before they made their way towards Snape's office after dinner.

Halfway across the entrance hall, however, Cho came hurrying up to him.

"Over here," said Harry and he gave Alicia a look who sighed. She waited as they moved over to where the giant Hourglasses stood, Gryffindors was now almost empty.

"Are you okay? Umbridge hasn't been asking you about the D.A., has she?"

"Oh no," said Cho hurriedly. "No, it was only… Well, I just wanted to say… Harry, I never dreamed Marietta would tell…"

"Yeah, well," said Harry moodily.

"She's a lovely person really," said Cho. "She just made a mistake —"

"A lovely person who made a mistake? She sold us all out, including you!"

"Well… we all got away, didn't we?" said Cho pleadingly. "You know, her mum works for the Ministry, it's really difficult for her —"

"Ron's dad works for the Ministry too!" Harry said furiously. "And in case you hadn't noticed, he hasn't got 'sneak' written across his face —"

"That was a really horrible trick of Hermione Granger's," said Cho fiercely. "She should have told us she'd jinxed that list —"

"I think it was a brilliant idea," said Harry coldly. Cho flushed and her eyes grew brighter.

"Oh yes, I forgot — of course, if it was darling Hermione's idea —"

"Don't start crying again," said Harry warningly.

"I wasn't going to!" she shouted.

"Yeah… well… good," he said. "I've got enough to cope with at the moment."

"Go and cope with it then!" she said furiously, turning on her heel and stalking off.

Harry moved over to Alicia.

"You know, remember how Umbridge put Veritaserum in our tea? She could have done something similar to Marietta." Alicia said simply as she watched Cho leave.

"I don't need to feel guilty." Harry snapped at her

"Not guilt. If she's going to be stupid and get jealous over Hermione every time she's mentioned then that's her fault." Alicia turned for Snape's office and Harry, fuming, began to follow her.

Alicia could feel Harry's anger and knew tonight was not going to go very well.

"You're late, Potter," said Snape coldly, as Harry closed the door behind him and Alicia.

Snape was standing with his back to Harry, removing, as usual, certain thoughts and placing them carefully in Dumbledore's Pensieve. He dropped the last silvery strand into the stone basin and turned to face Harry.

"So," he said. "Have you been practicing?"

"Yes," Harry lied, looking carefully at one of the legs of Snape's desk.

"Well, we'll soon find out, won't we?" said Snape smoothly. As usual he didn't bother to ask Alicia. He did his best to still ignore her even within these lessons. She didn't bother about it. She'd been getting better while Harry hadn't. "Wand out, Potter."

Harry moved into his usual position, facing Snape with the desk between them.

"On the count of three then," said Snape lazily. "One — two —" Snape's office door banged open and Draco Malfoy sped in.

"Professor Snape, sir — oh — sorry —"

Malfoy was looking at Snape and Harry in some surprise.

"It's all right, Draco," said Snape, lowering his wand. "Potter is here for a little Remedial Potions while Evans is having extra credit."

Harry had not seen Malfoy look so gleeful since Umbridge had turned up to inspect Hagrid.

"I didn't know," he said, leering at Harry, who knew his face was burning. He would have given a great deal to be able to shout the truth at Malfoy — or, even better, to hit him with a good curse. Alicia shot Harry a look and he caught it.

"Well, Draco, what is it?" asked Snape.

"It's Professor Umbridge, sir — she needs your help," said Malfoy. "They've found Montague, sir. He's turned up jammed inside a toilet on the fourth floor."

"How did he get in there?" demanded Snape.

"I don't know, sir, he's a bit confused…" Alicia was trying her best not to laugh

"Very well, very well — Potter, Evans," said Snape, "we shall resume this lesson tomorrow evening instead."

He turned and swept from his office. Malfoy mouthed "Remedial Potions?" at Harry behind Snape's back before following him.

Alicia bursted out laughing.

"A toilet!" she managed to get out.

Harry it seemed didn't find it funny, he was still angry and was pocketing his wand before turning for the door. Alicia got to her feet before Harry suddenly stopped. She followed his gaze to see a shivering light dancing on the door frame. Alicia knew the light, it was from the pensieve but as she looked at it she realised that the light also looked like that from their dream. The second room in which the spheres were all in…

Alicia turned to the pensive as Harry did and she looked at it as her brain worked.

Could the spheres hold memories? Was that was Voldemort wanted? How could a memory be such an important weapon? Well she did say knowledge was power…

Harry was beside her and it seemed was just as curious about the pensieve but took more time to reach it than her.

Alicia watched as Harry gave the silvery gas-liquid like substance a poke with his wand.

"Harry!" Alicia scolded "You can't!"

"What if it's about the Department of Mysteries?" he demanded of her

"First of all Snape could have many things he doesn't want us to know. Does he seem the type who grew up crying in a corner while his father abused his mother?" she asked and Harry looked surprised "Yeah I saw that. Sirius and Dad didn't like Snape and I bet there was something more there than that. Snape probably doesn't want us to know, and if he catches us… with our O. coming up…"

Harry had stopped listening as he'd leaned forwards to look into what seemed to be the Great Hall, as though looking through a window in the celling.

"Harry!" Alicia grabbed his arm to pull him away angrily, thinking him stupid for letting his anger control his actions. But as she did Harry plunged his face into the Pensieve and Alicia was pulled with him into the memory.

They was standing in the middle of the Great Hall, but the four House tables were gone. Instead there were more than a hundred smaller tables, all facing the same way, at each of which sat a student, head bent low, scribbling on a roll of parchment. The only sound was the scratching of quills and the occasional rustle as somebody adjusted their parchment. It was clearly exam time.

"I am going to kill you!" Alicia seethed at Harry. "I can't believe you!"

He wasn't listening.

Sunshine was streaming through the high windows onto the bent heads, which shone chestnut and copper and gold in the bright light. Harry looked around carefully. Snape had to be here somewhere… This was his memory…

And there he was, at a table right behind the two. Harry stared. Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a plant kept in the dark. His hair was lank and greasy and was flopping onto the table, his hooked nose barely half an inch from the surface of the parchment as he scribbled. Harry moved around behind Snape and read the heading of the examination paper:

Defence Against the Dark Arts — Ordinary Wizarding Level

Harry pulled on Alicia's robes and pointed, encouraging her to read it too. She glared at him but did as he asked, reading without a word.

So Snape had to be fifteen or sixteen, around Harry's own age. His hand was flying across the parchment; he had written at least a foot more than his closest neighbours, and yet his writing was minuscule and cramped.

"Five more minutes!"

The voice made Harry jump; turning, he saw the top of Professor Flitwick's head moving between the desks a short distance away. Alicia looked up with amusement but it vanished instantly when she saw who the Professor was walking past. It was a boy, a boy with untidy black hair… very untidy black hair…

Alicia moved forwards but Harry, Harry seemed to charge. Had he been solid, he would have knocked desks flying.

The boy was straightening up now, putting down his quill, pulling his roll of parchment toward him so as to reread what he had written…

Harry and Alicia stopped in front of the desk and gazed down at their fifteen-year-old father.

James was almost exactly like Harry it was scary, though there were some differences. James's eyes were hazel, his nose was slightly longer than Harry's, and there was no scar on his forehead, but they had the same thin face, same mouth, same eyebrows. James's hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry's did, his hands could have been Harry's, and Harry could tell that when James stood up, they would be within an inch of each other's heights.

"It's like it's a mirror." Alicia mumbled but she had turned to look around. If James was here, then so had to be Sirius, and Lupin, even Peter. And of course, their mother, Lily.

James yawned hugely and rumpled up his hair, making it even messier than it had been. Then, with a glance toward Professor Flitwick, he turned in his seat and grinned at a boy sitting four seats behind him.

Harry brought Alicia's attention back again as Sirius give James the thumbs-up. Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs. He was very good-looking; his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed. And two seats along from this girl was Remus Lupin. He looked rather pale and peaky and was absorbed in the exam: As he reread his answers he scratched his chin with the end of his quill, frowning slightly.

Alicia chuckled slightly before she looked around again, trying to find the mass of bright red hair that she knew belonged to her mother just as much as it did to Ginny.

Harry poked her and she looked at him then down to James' page. He was doodling and had drawn a snitch before he started to trace the letters L.E.

"L.E.?" Harry questioned. Alicia looked at it as she racked her brain before she grinned. She looked at Harry.

"Lily Evans." she responded "Bet you." Harry seemed to realised his mother was within the room as well as he suddenly began to look around, but Flitwick interrupted.

"Quills down, please!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"

More than a hundred rolls of parchment zoomed into the air and into Professor Flitwick's outstretched arms, knocking him backward off his feet. Several people laughed. A couple of students at the front desks got up, took hold of Professor Flitwick beneath the elbows, and lifted him onto his feet again.

"Thank you… thank you," panted Professor Flitwick. "Very well, everybody, you're free to go!"

Harry looked down at his father, who had hastily crossed out the L. E. he had been embellishing, jumped to his feet, stuffed his quill and the exam question paper into his bag, which he slung over his back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.

Alicia turned for Snape, they were in his memory and would have to follow him. He was moving away through the table towards the entrance hall. He was still absorbed in his own examination paper and was round-shouldered yet angular while standing. He walked in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider, his oily hair swinging about his face.

"Come on." Alicia mumbled

"Hang on." Harry mumbled. He was listening to their dad and his friends as they walked with them, watching Snape.

"Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.

"Loved it," said Lupin briskly. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question."

"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" said James in tones of mock concern.

"Think I did," said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. "One: He's sitting on my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin…"

Wormtail was the only one who didn't laugh.

"I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, and the tufted tail," he said anxiously, "but I couldn't think what else —"

"How thick are you, Wormtail?" said James impatiently. "You run round with a werewolf once a month —"

"Keep your voice down," implored Lupin.

Harry looked anxiously behind him again. Snape remained close by, still buried in his examination questions; but this was Snape's memory. Alicia knew he didn't want to follow Snape and would rather follow James and the others.

Alicia glanced at Snape as well but found that they were going to the same place, James moved off down the lawn with his three friends and Snape followed, still reading the paper as though not knowing what his feet were doing.

Alicia turned back as Sirius spoke.

"Well, I thought that paper was a piece of cake, I'll be surprised if I don't get Outstanding on it at least."

"Me too," said James. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a struggling Golden Snitch.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Nicked it," said James casually. He started playing with the Snitch, allowing it to fly as much as a foot away and seizing it again; his reflexes were excellent. Wormtail watched him in awe.

They stopped in the shade of the very same beech tree on the edge of the lake where Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione had spent a Sunday finishing their homework, and threw themselves down on the grass.

Alicia and Harry both looked at Snape this time to see he'd settled himself on the grass in the dense shadows of a clump of bushes. He was as deeply immersed in the O.W.L. paper as ever, which left Harry and Alicia free to sit down on the grass between the beech and the bushes and watch the foursome under the tree.

The sunlight was dazzling on the smooth surface of the lake, on the bank of which the group of laughing girls who had just left the Great Hall were sitting with shoes and socks off, cooling their feet in the water.

Lupin had pulled out a book and was reading. Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking rather haughty and bored, but very handsomely so. James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom farther and farther away, almost escaping but always grabbed at the last second. Wormtail was watching him with his mouth open. Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped and applauded. Alicia thought this annoying but James it seemed was enjoying the attention. Alicia thought her father a little too immersed in himself at this. She did notice however how he seemed to have had a habit of rumpling up his hair as though to make sure it did not get too tidy, and also that he kept looking over at the girls by the water's edge.

Alicia took to looking a little more closely at who was there. Instantly her eyes were caught by the thick dark red hair that fell to her shoulders. Alicia couldn't help but move over to see her.

Alicia always knew she was like her mother while Harry was like their father. Each having one distinct feature of the other. Alicia was her mother but with the black hair of her father. While Harry was their father but with the green eyes of their mother.

Alicia watched her mother smiling before she head James call loudly.

"All right, Snivellus?" she turned to see James and Sirius on their feet and looking at Snape.

Snape reacted so fast it was as though he had been expecting an attack: Dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his robes, and his wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Snape's wand flew twelve feet into the air and fell with a little thud in the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.

"Impedimenta!" he said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet, halfway through a dive toward his own fallen wand.

Students all around had turned to watch. Some of them had gotten to their feet and were edging nearer to watch. Some looked apprehensive, others entertained.

Alicia wondered what Snape had done and moved over to ask Harry.

"Nothing, they just spotted him." Harry shrugged. Alicia looked surprised.

Instantly she began to wonder why Sirius hated Snape so much when from this view it seemed that Sirius had been the bully for Snape to hate, not the other way around?

Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water's edge as he went. He seemed such the show off. Alicia wondered whether her mother liked that in him.

Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" said James.

"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," said Sirius viciously. "There'll be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."

Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular. Wormtail sniggered shrilly. Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes.

"You — wait," he panted, staring up at James with an expression of purest loathing. "You — wait…"

"Wait for what?" said Sirius coolly. "What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"

Snape let out a stream of mixed swearwords and hexes, but his wand being ten feet away nothing happened.

"Wash out your mouth," said James coldly. "Scourgify!"

Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape's mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him —

Alicia wanted to say something despite the fact that she wouldn't have been heard before someone got there first.

"Leave him ALONE!"

James and Sirius looked around. James's free hand jumped to his hair again.

Lily had moved over from the lake.

"All right, Evans?" said James, and the tone of his voice was suddenly pleasant, deeper, more mature.

"Leave him alone," Lily repeated. She was looking at James with every sign of great dislike. Alicia assumed the answer to her question was no. "What's he done to you?"

"Well," said James, appearing to deliberate the point, "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…"

Many of the surrounding watchers laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book, didn't, and neither did Lily.

"You think you're funny," she said coldly. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."

Alicia rose an eyebrow.

"I will if you go out with me, Evans," said James quickly. "Go on… Go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again." Behind him, the Impediment Jinx was wearing off. Snape was beginning to inch toward his fallen wand, spitting out soapsuds as he crawled.

Alicia's mouth was hanging open in surprise by the scene before her. She couldn't understand how these two ended up so happily married.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," said Lily.

"Bad luck, Prongs," said Sirius briskly, turning back to Snape. "OY!"

But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James's face, spattering his robes with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greying underpants.

Many people in the small crowd watching cheered. Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter.

Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, "Let him down!"

"Certainly," said James and he jerked his wand upward. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes, he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, "Petrificus Totalus!" and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a board.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily.

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," said James earnestly.

"Take the curse off him, then!"

James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse.

"There you go," he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus —"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"

Lily blinked. "Fine," she said coolly. "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

"Apologise to Evans!" James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.

"I don't want you to make him apologise," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're as bad as he is…"

"What?" yelped James. "I'd NEVER call you a — you-know-what!"

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can — I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."

She turned on her heel and hurried away.

"Evans!" James shouted after her, "Hey, EVANS!" But she didn't look back.

"What is it with her?" said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him.

"Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate," said Sirius.
"Right," said James, who looked furious now, "right —"
There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"

But whether James really did take off Snape's pants, Alicia and Harry never found out. A hand had closed tight over both of their upper arms, closed with a pincerlike grip. Alicia didn't even bother to look. She closed her eyes not wanting to see what was in front of her or behind.

If someone was touching her, they were not part of the memory. Harry would not be so harsh and the only other person would be—

"Having fun?" Snape's voice sounded.

They were rising into the air, the summer's day evaporated around them as they floated upward through icy blackness. Snape's hand still tight upon their upper arms. Then, with a swooping feeling as though she had turned head over heels in midair, Alicia felt her feet hit the stone floor of Snape's dungeon.

Alicia still had her eyes shut and she didn't bother to remove Snape's grip from her arm despite how tight he was holding it.

"So," said Snape. "So… been enjoying yourself, Potter?"

"N-no…" said Harry, trying to free his arm.

It was scary: Snape's lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared.

"Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?" said Snape, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses slipped down his nose.

"I — didn't —"

Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard onto the dungeon floor while Snape released Alicia who hadn't moved or spoken. He turned his back on her while rounding on her brother.

"You will not tell anybody what you saw!" Snape bellowed.

"No," said Harry, getting to his feet as far from Snape as he could. "No, of course I w —"

"Get out, get out, I don't want to see you in this office ever again!"

Alicia opened her eyes to find a few tears spill over her eyelids. She heard the door open as a jar exploded before Harry's footsteps disappeared down the hall.

Snape had rounded on Alicia, she expected him to shout at her too, but nothing happened. Eventually she chanced a sideways glance at Snape to find him staring at her. She looked away.

"He was an arrogant prick." she muttered, confirming what Snape had shouted at Harry so many times. "I'm sorry we intruded on your memories, Professor." she turned to leave the office without looking at him.

Alicia wished she'd never seen that. At first it had been fun, knowing her parents a little while they were at school. But what she had never needed was to see her father in such a way. He had no reason to be so cruel, he couldn't even seem to see what was wrong did, Lily knew it was wrong, and yet, James tried to use it as a sort of blackmail to get what he wanted with her. All he had to do was be nice and decent instead of showing off all the time to impress Lily, but it seemed James' mind didn't work like that.

He was arrogant. She had never wanted to believe Snape's version, his hatred had never exactly helped, of course she'd want to believe Sirius' side of things. It seemed Lupin was the person to talk to, he had clearly disapproved of the two's treatment of Snape and yet, as a Prefect, he hadn't done anything either.

How had the people she cared about so much, been so unnecessarily rude?

And it wasn't getting caught or shouted at that upset her, but that small scene, she had tried to believe her parents nice people, and it turned out Lily was, she was sensible. But her father…

All she had now was hope that he changed. Lily fell for him after all eventually, so something must've happened. Alicia clung to that small hope as she moved for a bathroom and a mirror. She cleaned up her face before she moved off for the Gryffindor Common room.

She poked her bruising arm with her wand as she went to help heal it up and after a few deep breaths, she put the memory behind her. She'd never tell anyone, not just for Snape's sake, but because she didn't want to admit that her father had done such things.