Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Harriet returned home that summer with a heavy heart.
She had said her muddled goodbyes to Tom in a stupor.
For once, her dear friend was not the most prominent person on her mind.
"...Harriet?" Hermione asked.
She and Ron watched Harriet stare out the window at the unusually gray summer day as the Hogwarts Express hurtled along its track.
Ron frowned when Harriet failed to look over.
"...We all miss Cedric." Hermione said quietly, "It's normal to feel sad, really you-"
"-Sad, Hermione?" Harriet snapped as she finally turned her head to meet her friend's gaze.
Hermione stopped talking as Harriet scoffed and went on, "I suppose everyone's sad, sure, but it's……it's not even the sadness, it's the…..it's the guilt."
"It wasn't your fault!" Ron frowned.
"Wasn't it?" Harriet laughed mirthlessly as her emerald eyes flickered to Ron, "If I hadn't……If I hadn't been so weak, if I had made it to the final task, Cedric might still be alive."
"Having a medical emergency isn't a weakness, Harriet." Hermione chided.
"It isn't a strength, either." Harriet retorted.
"Who's to say he would have lived even if you had been there?" Ron asked as he narrowed his eyes.
"I dunno, he might have." Harriet shrugged, "Maybe he would have been lost in the maze and I would have gotten there first, or we would have been lost together and no one could have……no one would have……"
"Harriet, you can't blame yourself for something that happened when you weren't even present." Hermione said comfortingly while she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, "That isn't fair. If Cedric were here now, he wouldn't want you to bear the blame."
Harriet shook herself loose from Hermione's hold and turned to stare out the train window at the depressing day once more.
"...There's something I don't understand and it's driving me mad." Harriet confessed quietly.
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
Ron scowled as he waited.
Harriet looked at them both with a remorseful frown as she asked, "...Why Cedric?"
While Hermione and Ron began to contemplate her question, Harriet grit her teeth.
Lord Voldemort.
Lily and Severus had never spoken that name to her or her brother, but at the Death Eater meeting a few months prior, Harriet had overhead her dear friend addresss himself as exactly that.
She abhorred her own ignorance.
Who had she thought he was?
Did his kindness to her excuse everything else?
Harriet sighed as she passed a hand over her face.
For once, she dreaded the summer.
Instead of looking forward to spending time with her family, she dreaded a season of dodging Draco, being forced to face her……friend, and being left alone with her thoughts.
Once the Hogwarts Express reached its destination some hours later, Harriet wore a grim scowl that could have rivaled her father's as she disembarked from the train without waiting for Ellery, Ron, or Hermione.
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Harriet's melancholy mood failed to cease once Severus and Lily brought their children home later that day.
While Ellery chatted with their parents in the living room, Harriet stomped upstairs and slammed her door shut.
Downstairs, Ellery frowned as Severus and Lily exchanged looks of concern.
Ellery confessed a truth his parents already realized, "She hasn't been the same since-"
"-I'll go and talk to her, sweetheart." Lily volunteered as she moved to stand from the sofa.
"No, allow me." Severus spoke.
Before Lily could further discuss who should go to Harriet, Severus had already swept out of the room to glide up the stairs after their daughter.
"Dad seems really sad too." Ellery frowned after Severus had gone, "I mean, he's always a bit sad, but he's worse now."
"I think we're all sad, dear." Lily smiled wryly at her little boy, "Go on, won't you? Finish your story."
Cedric's death had caused Ellery grief as well.
Severus's son had inherited Lily's kind heart.
The news that a fellow student had been killed had left him crestfallen along with the rest of his peers.
Still, Ellery had enjoyed a small victory, a victory which he tenderly cradled in his heart like the comforting warmth of a flame.
"She invited me to visit her this summer, Mum." Ellery confessed as a happy smile spread across his pale face. He shook his head to toss his silky strands of raven-black hair out of his eyes as he went on, "I know that's……that's not very likely, but may I at least write to her? She's asked me to write to her too."
"Who, sweetheart?" Lily grinned.
"Gabrielle." Ellery breathed with an ecstatic look of vacant dreaminess that amused Lily to witness, "Gabrielle Delacour."
"Ah, yes……….Your father and I have seen you two together around the castle." Lily chuckled.
"...You have?" Ellery asked as his happy expression vanished, only to be replaced by a mortified frown, "...You and Dad?"
"Of course we have, sweetheart. You haven't exactly been sneaking about!" Lily laughed, "Certainly, you can write to her. In fact, if you'd like, I'll reach out to her parents and ask if they'd like to come here for a visit instead."
"Thanks, Mum!" Ellery exclaimed before he could stop himself, "That'd be brilliant!"
"Everyone needs a bit of happiness right now." Lily said as she reached out and squeezed her son's hand, "A light in the darkness."
"Gabrielle is like a light." Ellery mused.
"Then hold onto her, Ellery." Lily instructed as she released his hand, "Hold onto her and never let go. I made a similar mistake when I was your age…..Don't follow in my footsteps, alright?"
"Yes, Mum." Ellery nodded.
He narrowed his eyes as he asked, "...What do you mean you made a similar mistake when you were my age?...With who?"
"That's a story for when you're older and things have……settled a bit." Lily said with a bittersweet smile.
"...But you promise you'll tell me one day?" Ellery asked.
"Yes, son. One day, I'll tell you and your sister both the story in its entirety, don't worry about that!" Lily vowed.
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Upstairs, Severus stood silently outside Harriet's door before he raised a pale hand and knocked.
"...Come in." Came her quiet reply.
Harriet looked up as her door opened and sighed once she watched Severus sweep into her room.
"Have you come to punish me for being rude?" She frowned.
"No, I've come to commiserate, if I may." Severus answered as he walked over to Harriet's bed.
She sat on top of the covers with her knees pulled to her chest.
Severus nodded at her in a silent of ask of permission, which she granted with a gesture before he lowered himself down onto the bed's edge in one soundless dip.
Harriet frowned at Severus.
Severus frowned back.
"I'm angry." Harriet confessed.
Severus remained silent as he gazed at his daughter.
"I'm sad." Harriet admitted.
Severus continued to silently listen as Harriet scowled, "And I……I'm guilty. I'm guilty, Dad!...Why haven't you and Mum told me? About…..About him?!?!"
"Your mother and I have kept many secrets from you and your brother in order to protect you both." Severus began.
Harriet silenced herself and quelled her rage as she waited or hear her father's explanation.
"The man you know as the Dark Lord is indeed the one who killed Cedric Diggory." Severus nodded, "And many others…….innocent women and children, defenseless muggles who had…..no….idea…..of the threat they faced. He delights in causing pain and suffering…….He mocks the pleas of the dying as if their cries were comedic skits for him to witness……..and he is….truly…..powerful. He is the single greatest threat our world has ever faced."
Severus paused while he wondered exactly how much he should reveal to Harriet.
Had the time come to finally expose the truth to her?
As he watched her eyes widen while she gazed at him incredulously, he decided to pace himself at feeding her information.
Thousands of questions danced through Harriet's mind.
While she considered her affinity for the man known as the Dark Lord, nausea turned her stomach.
"How can you and Mum do this?" Harriet asked in disbelief, "How can you and Mum…….support him? I thought you two were good people."
Harriet's unintended compliment humbled Severus.
His daughter thought he was a…….good person?
Besides Lily, no one had ever labeled Severus Snape as a "good person" before.
He opened his mouth to reveal his and Lily's positions as spies for Dumbledore.
The words were on his tongue until he considered how many more Death Eater meetings Harriet and Ellery may have to attend.
He could uphold Occlumency well enough to guard Lily's thoughts from Voldemort's prying mind, but keep up the ruse to cover four people?
Impossible.
Impossible for anyone, regardless of talent.
With a heavy heart, Severus resigned himself to the fact that he could not yet jeopardize Dumbledore's strategy by telling Harriet the many moving parts of their intricate plans, including her own destiny and his and Lily's dangerous positions.
"Your mother and I have many secrets." Severus nodded, "While we cannot reveal them all to you at this time, I would beg you not to judge us……and not to despise us……..until you learn each one."
"...What secrets?!" Harriet snapped as her face twisted into a distrustful scowl.
"Each one is a conversation for another day." Severus said as he rose from the bed and glided towards Harriet's door, "Should you wish to discuss Mr. Diggory's demise with me or your mother, we would be glad to lend a listening ear."
"Dad! Tell me!" Harriet demanded as Severus put his hand on the doorknob, "What secrets?!"
"For everyone's safety, I cannot currently discuss the matter any further." Severus nodded as he glanced at Harriet over his shoulder.
"Then……..Then how can I trust you or Mum?!" Harriet cried as Severus opened her door, "You're evil! That's it, isn't it?!...You're both evil if you're helping him!"
"I beg you, my daughter……" Severus answered as he looked back at Harriet, "Not to pass judgment on us until all has been revealed, the truth, the lies, and our strategy."
"Your strategy?!" Harriet exclaimed, "What does that mean?! What is that supposed to-"
Severus stepped out into the hallway and shut Harriet's door while she continued to demand answers.
As he walked down the short corridor and descended the staircase, he sighed to himself.
Perhaps he had made a mistake?
Perhaps he should have let Lily go and talk to Harriet instead.