A/N: AAAAAHHH, I hope you guys are enjoying the story! I know I am! :x Just a heads up that it gets pretty dark after this so beware, but there are still good moments. Now we're going to get to delve into the backgrounds and details of other characters and their headspaces.
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(Zander POV)
After all the exams had been taken and I'd been given permission by McGonagall to do so, I'd decided to take the evening off to go out to dinner with Rose. I knew she'd want me to go home with her, at least for the night, but I knew I couldn't. Especially not with the fear that the boys could sneak out at any moment and go for the Sorcerer's stone.
All their sneaking around was beginning to make me incredibly nervous, but I didn't say a word about it to Rose as we ate. There were only a few days left of term and after that, I was hoping that Dumbledore was going to remove the stone from the school's premises and the boys could stop trying to be little detectives.
It honestly made me pretty angry that the headmaster had even brought things like three headed dogs into the school and put them behind a locked door that literal eleven year olds could get through.
"Zander?" I looked up at Rose, only just realizing that I'd gotten lost in my thoughts, for the third time tonight.
"Sorry…" I mumbled and looked at the table as she reached over and took my hand. She knew I hadn't been telling her everything and I could see now that it was really beginning to bother her.
"Love, what's wrong? Please don't tell me it's nothing, because you know that I'm not that stupid." I intertwined our hands and looked up at her, greenish eyes locking with mine, I knew I had to tell the truth.
Opening my mouth, I intended to finally be completely honest, when suddenly, I saw something that caught me off guard and looked over. A silvery cat patronus was running toward me. "It's from McGonagall." I stood swiftly as the cat opened its mouth and said that I needed to return to the castle immediately.
Rose followed me, "Zander, what's going on?" Now she was demanding an answer, but to this question, I only had a suspicion.
"Rose, I don't know."
"I'm coming with you." She hissed.
"Rose—"
"Zander, I am coming with you." She snapped and finally, after a moment, I nodded. She'd find out eventually.
Taking her hand, I led her from the restaurant we'd been in and then to the place where we could floo to McGonagall's office. When we arrived, McGonagall was with Snape and they were speaking intensely to one another.
"Dumbledore is all the way in London, he won't—" she turned now as we stepped out of the fire. "Zander, oh thank goodness."
"What's going on?"
She looked from myself to Rose, then returning her gaze to me, she said. "The boys have gone after the stone, we believe Voldemort to be down there."
"They, what..?" I asked, my voice rising and when she repeated herself, I suddenly felt so sick to my stomach, I thought I might lose my dinner and though I didn't, I did lose my cool. My boys were gone? After the stone and these teachers were just standing around? Had they all gone mental? Where was Dumbledore?
"Just a few minutes ago, we found Uriella Payne and Draco Malfoy coming out of the third floor corridor to inform us that Henry and James were down in the chamber. We called for you as soon as we were notified."
Heart sinking further as I stared at McGonagall, I let go of Rose's hand quite suddenly. How could she be so calm over this? Why wasn't she freaking out? My boys were down with the stone and possibly with a powerful dark wizard? "WHY ARE WE STILL STANDING HERE!" Before the transfiguration teacher could say anything, I wrenched the door open and took off down the hallway, my heart pounding as I went.
Later on in life, I would never remember how I reached the third floor corridor so quickly, but when I did reach it, I wasted no time and yanked open the unlocked door. My sudden appearance seemed to shock the dog, but it was quickly recovering as I grabbed the viola on the ground and played a few notes.
Once the dog was out, I ran to the already open trapdoor, quickly lit my wand, threw the viola and jumped just as the dog gave a loud bark. I knew I seemed like a madman as I moved and I could only hope that the other teachers had followed, but I had to reach my boys— I just had to. If they were hurt…
Blinking away tears, I ran forward into the next room, not even looking at the keys that fluttered around. Yanking on the door so hard, I thought my arm was going to come right out of my socket, I tried a long, complex string of unlocking spells, but when nothing happened, I swore loudly and kicked the door. Then I turned to the keys and stared at them in desperation, still trying not to cry.
Sucking in a deep breath, I held up my wand and another few strings of complicated spells later, and a battered silver key came soaring at and into my hand, where I turned and jammed the struggling thing into its lock. When the door opened, I yanked as hard as I could on it and ran through as the key fluttered back to its brethren behind me.
I entered next into a room that made me stop dead in my tracks. There was a ginormous chessboard with large black and white pieces lining it. All of them stood perfectly in place as I walked forward, my heart racing. I needed to get through quickly, I couldn't sit here and play chess… I didn't have time for that. I closed my eyes for a moment, then opening them again, I looked at all the pieces and was just opening my mouth to say something when suddenly, a hand was placed on my shoulder and I looked back to see Professor McGonagall behind me, her wand raised. She must've followed me when I'd run and only just caught up.
"I need to get them." I practically whimpered and with a nod, she brought her wand slicing through the air and without another word, the pieces turned to us and moved out of the way, leaving the door across from us free to open, I ran forward and wrenched it open.
As soon as I stumbled into the next chamber, a foul stench filled my nostrils and was so strong that I immediately began retching, though I continued forward still. On the ground was a great troll, seemingly the size of two of the one that had been in the school on Halloween, but luckily for me, it was knocked out. I only hoped that Harry and Henry hadn't had to fight it.
McGonagall followed me into the next chamber, where two fires sprung forth, but no sooner had I looked at the empty potion bottle on the floor, when the transfiguration teacher shoved an identical one into my hands, as she said that Snape had given it to her before she'd run after me. "Let's go."
Taking the bottle into my shaking hands, I took a swig, then, handing the half empty bottle back, I ran through the fire. They were there, on the ground with… Quirrell?
But Quirrell wasn't right…
He didn't have his turban on and was that… his face? On the back of his head?
There was a sudden flash of red as something flew through the air, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that as Harry — somehow back to his normal appearance — caught the red object, shoved it into his robes, then ran at Henry and Quirrell. I yelled their names, but before I could do so much as move a muscle, Quirrell had put something on his hand and suddenly, they were gone.
There.
Gone.
I screamed.
I screamed their names again, stumbled forward, then fell to my knees in shock, face suddenly contorting in anguish as I began to cry. Where had they gone? What had been so very wrong with Quirrell's head? Those and so many more questions swirled through my brain and I couldn't stop myself as I cried.
I would never really remember McGonagall kneeling beside and coaxing me to my feet, I would find it hard to recall what happened on our way out of the chamber and up through the trapdoor. The next thing I knew, I was in the Hospital wing, as Draco Malfoy was tended to by Madam Pomfrey and Uriella Payne sat beside him, tear-stricken.
Even now, as I sat and waited for Dumbledore, after having been given a soothing Elixir, I blocked everything out, except the echoes of my own voice, as I screamed for my boys.
(Rose POV)
I watched Zander run from the room, slack-jawed, then quite suddenly, I rounded on Snape. "How could you let this happen?" I spat.
"What?" He looked at me, clearly taken aback by my venomous tone.
"Why would you hide the sorcerer's stone in a school!" The potions master held up his hands and actually took a step backwards, my eyes violent in their stare.
"I had no part in that— in fact, I advised Professor Dumbledore against doing such a thing, but he was insistent." Snape defended himself.
"God— I hope Zander finds them." I closed my eyes and turned away, wishing I could do more than just sit here. I was so sick of sitting around! So sick of not being able to do anything and playing the pretty little muggle while all the tough wizards went out to fight. I wanted more, wanted to do something! I unintentionally let out an outward noise of frustration.
Severus stared at me for a long moment and though the room was full of tense silence, I was internally battling with myself on what to do, because I needed to do something… anything!
But… what..?
I turned quite suddenly and looked at Snape once again.
"Lock the door and reveal me." I said softly, my voice ever so quiet.
"Excuse me?"
I couldn't look him in the eyes, but I knew I needed him to listen to me, so speaking up, I said. "Lock the door and reveal my true appearance."
"Um…"
Nodding slowly, he went to the door, locked it and because he was Snape, he put up a silencing charm before pointing his wand at me. "Revelio."
Slowly, I could feel the charms placed over me that hid my appearance begin to vanish and as they did, The Potions Master stared at me in mild shock and deep confusion. Now, I looked back at him though and as if he were trying to put the pieces together, he quietly tapped his mind and at my nod, I could feel him suddenly, like a snake in my skull, finding the information he needed and once he had, he took a step back, his eyes huge.
"Rose."
I nodded solemnly, knowing that I was taking not only a huge leap of faith, but a massive risk by doing this. I had no other choice though.
He continued to stare at me, as if I'd just marched from the grave and came to stand before him— which I suppose I had done that in a way. After a moment though, he opened his mouth to speak before closing it again, though I knew at least one of the questions that must be racing through his mind.
"Yes, I have— or had, Lily's son, Harry." Thinking about losing him again, I finally began to break down and without Zander there to hold me, and promise me that everything would be okay, to let me know that I would be fine, and that all of this wasn't my fault, not having that right now was chipping away at my resolve like nothing ever had before. I'd taken Harry all those years ago, because I thought that I'd known what was best for him, I'd assumed that whatever Dumbledore had wanted was nowhere near what I could provide him and suddenly, I felt so selfish, more so than I had in years.
I let out a shaky breath, trying to stop my spiraling thoughts before they were out of my control. "I've lost him." I continued to breathe deeply. "Where are they, Severus? Why aren't they back?" I suddenly felt so cold, so hurt, so confused. I couldn't even think as I looked at the man before me. It couldn't have even been ten minutes, but my anxiety was rising and it was rising fast.
"I don't know." He walked over to me now, his expression slowly turning from shock to a careful sort of neutral one. I knew he didn't really want to show me how he was feeling, but I could guess for myself that they weren't very pleasant, his thoughts.
"Look, I'll stay in here with you while we wait, but you owe me an explanation."
"I'll tell you whatever you need to know, but you have to swear that you won't tell Dumbledore." Our eyes met and as Blueish-green clashed with Black, we stayed locked in that stare for several seconds, before finally, after what felt like an eternity, Severus looked away and nodded.
I turned then and sat on a sofa that was pushed up against a wall, pulling a pillow onto my lap as I did. In that moment, as I looked over at Severus as he moved to sit beside me, I was oddly reminded of that night so many years ago, when at just sixteen years old, he'd come to me, asking for advice and we talked for hours about Lily and himself and how he could do better than what he had been.
"Rose?" I blinked, realizing that I'd been staring at him, lost in my thoughts.
"Sorry." I shook my head, "I just can't believe you're an old man." I gave him the tiniest smile and he finally rolled his eyes.
"Ouch."
I let out a breath of confidence, wiping my face as I did and finally looking at him, I began to tell the whole truth, starting from the beginning. Though, the story I decided to tell, didn't start with Petunia's doorstep, nor did it start with Lily's death, but it started with the lack of trust that Albus Dumbledore had for Zander.
Just like Snape, my husband had found himself diving headfirst into the wrong crowd from the time he was very young. Zanders father, Lester Darken had been an awful man and though very poor, he had been a pure blooded man with very nasty ideas when it came to blood purity and who should be allowed to practice magic. Ander's father had hoped that in being one of Voldemort's loudest supporters, he'd gain respect and wealth within the Lord Lords community.
From what Zander had told me and I now told Snape, when my husband had been just fourteen, he'd been picked out by Lord Voldemort's top confidants as someone they could possibly recruit. The problem..? For one, Zander had been very young and for second, my husband was not one to be simply a puppet and had already decided on what morals he felt he wanted to follow.
Zander Darken was not the type to easily be controlled, or manipulated, but something had happened the summer before his fifth year that had thrust him from what he'd thought he'd believed and knew to be true, and made him unequivocally trust those awful Death Eaters. He then proceeded to work with and for Lord Voldemort for the next four years of his life.
"He never really told me what he did while among Voldemort's ranks, but he promised me that he never directly killed anyone." I said, quietly, hating this part of this story just as much as my husband and thus wanting to get the entire thing over and done with, though I knew I couldn't rush anything. I had to be honest and careful with every word I spoke, so I was. "He was a curse breaker and maker for the Death Eaters."
Snape nodded, listening, seeming fully invested in the story. I knew that he knew the world of Lord Voldemort rather well and that listening to me speak on Zander's experiences, helped him find common ground with the man I loved so dearly. "Zander left Lord Voldemort's ranks when he was about nineteen if I remember correctly." I said. "He'd broken a series of protective charms that had been placed over a muggle village and…" this had always been the hardest part of the story for Zander to tell me and suddenly, I really could understand why. He must've blamed himself for all those deaths, taken their misery onto himself. I knew his past, the things he'd done and allowed to be done, especially the things he blamed himself for, all these things left him with deep emotional scars that I was still helping him cope with to this day.
"I know about the Great Muggle Massacre of 1969." Shape said and I nodded quietly, allowing myself to reminisce on the event. I hadn't been aware too much of it at the time, because the Ministry had quite the time of covering it up, but now that I knew, I reflected often on the loss of lives.
"After that, he couldn't do it anymore, he said that seeing that much horror, it absolutely broke him. That night, he made a big move and he took little Xayla, his sister, who had been staying with Cygnus Black and his family at the time. With her, he went into hiding, deciding that the muggle world would be an easy place to get lost."
"He wasn't wrong." Snape said, quietly, not wanting to truly interrupt me and I nodded.
"I met him several months later." I said, now getting to an easier part of the story. "He'd been hiding out as a muggle, and we ended up living in the same little town. He came everyday into the little coffee shop that I worked in and soon after we met, we became friends, though at this time, I still had no idea magic existed. About a year after hiding out, Zander reached out to Dumbledore and offered to join the newly forming order, since the Death Eater's acts of evil were starting to pick up and everyone could feel that war was brewing."
"I found out Lily was a witch the summer before her first year at Hogwarts, when I was eighteen and it was soon after that that I found out that Zander was also a wizard. He'd been dropping hints for ages and had been hoping I'd pick them up. We'd known each other a little over a year now and he'd wanted to ask me out, but he had two very specific requirements for a girlfriend that at the time, he didn't know if I could fill."
"He wanted a muggle aware of the magical world, but not in it." Snape guessed easily and I nodded, a little surprised that he guessed so easily.
"He had so much trauma he was dealing with at that time, Severus and was so scared that anyone could be working for Voldemort, that to him, only muggles were safe."
The Potions Master nodded as I finally reached the part of the story that I knew he'd been anticipating. "At first, Dumbledore let Zander join and he was always off with them in the beginning of our relationship, helping them do what he thought was the right thing, but as time passed, Zander and Dumbledore began to lose trust in one another and both began to keep secrets."
"Dumbledore didn't like that Zander stood up to him, when he didn't agree with his ideas— especially if it was in front of the order. Zander refused to be manipulated or controlled again, he had sworn that after he'd left the ranks of Voldemort's men, he would always think for himself and Dumbledore didn't like that. He said that Zander was being 'selfish', 'not a team player' and 'that his actions were showing that he didn't really have the world's best intentions', so eventually, it got so bad, that Zander had had enough and left the order."
Severus nodded after a moment and said, "I've had my fair share of disagreements with the Headmaster."
"How have they all ended?" I asked and at my question, Severus seemed to sit there for a long moment and genuinely ponder my question. Then after his pause, he said.
"He's always ended up deciding to do what he thinks is best, and when he did do something I'd suggested, it was usually because of his additions to the idea." I nodded, not surprised.
"Do you think some of your ideas might have been better?"
"Certainly."
"Severus, how old were you, when you defected from Voldemort's ranks?"
"Twenty-one."
"You were so young then." I smiled at him, then with a breath, I added. "Severus, you're thirty one years old now. You're a brilliant wizard— I mean you always have been. I never knew you very well, but Lily did and she always yammered on and on about how smart you were and how you knew so much." This seemed to make him smile, though the devastation he was constantly feeling at her death showed just beneath the surface..
It seemed that the more we spoke of Lily, the more emotion I was getting from him. This was confirmed to me as he moved his lips ever so slightly to say, "I ruined everything with her."
I nodded, solemnly, remembering quite vividly the tearful letter I'd gotten from my sister about Severus. She'd not written about it to my parents, because she didn't think they'd understand and Petunia wouldn't have cared. That next Hogsmead weekend, Zander and I had come up, so I could see Lily and he could see Xayla. If I was correct, that was around the time that young Sirius— or had it been James? One of them had approached me to see if I'd speak with James about Lily. Kid was desperate to woo her.
"You hurt her really badly." I admitted. "Though, it's not your fault she didn't forgive you for so long though." I added when he gave me the most hurt look I'd ever seen him have.
"What does all this have to do with Harry?" He suddenly said and I nodded, knowing that my little sister would never be an easy topic for him.
"Zander went to Dumbledore the night the Potters died and offered to take Harry. He even asked if there was a chance that if I might not be dead, if he'd let me take him and Dumbledore said 'absolutely not' to this 'hypothetical'."
Now, Severus really looked stunned and blinked at me. "So you took him anyway?"
I nodded, "You know as well as I did that Petunia was in no place to take Harry at that time." His nod of agreement said so many things as I continued. "Dumbledore said no, because he never trusted Zander and he needed things to go exactly as he planned them. Even if it put Harry at risk. I wasn't going to sit by and let it happen though, so that night Zander and I made a plan and we went through with it swiftly and quietly."
"Dumbledore was furious."
"Good. He needs to learn that not everything can go his own way. Harry was my nephew, as well as Petunias and had it been hinted at, that Dumbledore would've considered letting me take my nephew in, I most definitely would have revealed myself to him, but he didn't trust Zander and thus me, so we didn't trust Dumbledore in return."
Severus blinked for a moment. "He definitely suspected you of taking the boy." He said. "When he told me of his suspicions, I honestly thought that he needed to just let you keep him— I told him that you would be a far superior caretaker but he insisted that Harry should be with his aunt Petunia."
I shook my head and with a sigh, I put my face into my hands. "This is all such a mess…"
"Yeah." Severus Snape stood now and turned to look at me. "I want to make my own decision though." I looked up as he continued, "I want to help you get James— Harry and Henry back. It's the right thing to do, it's what Lily would want." I smiled and took the hand that was then held out for me.
"I can't say I'm perfectly happy with this decision." He told me, "but it's the one that feels right right now. Dumbledore has done a lot of kind things for me, but I never agreed to be his lifelong servant."
I smiled and with that, we left the room to go find my husband. I didn't have complete trust in the man beside me, but as we walked, I was glad that he knew the truth and was on my side. I'd have to leave here before Dumbledore returned, which I knew would be any minute now. When we found Zander in the hospital wing, I ran to him and throwing my arms around him, I cried with him when I was informed that the boys were gone.
As we cried though and then moved to leave as Snape informed us that Dumbledore had arrived, I knew one thing was for sure, I was not going to just sit this war out, no matter what came. I was going to save my boys.
