This story starts at PoA and continues to after DH. Rated M for sexual content.
A new school year. The final one.
The last chance to enjoy freedom, before adult life truly began and brought with it the demands and duties that being grown-up entailed.
She should have been excited, but she was not.
The Great Hall of Hogwarts buzzed around her, the start of term feast in full swing.
The chamber was brightly lit, the food inviting and the chatter cheerful, but Lynette couldn't shake off the cold feeling of dread that had found her on the train.
Unlike the friends who occupied the carriage with her, she had known what was happening as soon as the train had ground to a halt, and the overwhelming sickness had once again crept over her...
She had just turned four when Gaheris had been taken away. The war had ended and the Death Eaters rounded up and sent off and left to rot. She loved her brother, and memories of him were tinged with the adoration that a small child has for their older sibling. After he had gone away she had written to him weekly, for years and years, even now she sent him letters, even after she had seen what had become of him.
A sudden shriek of laughter jostled her from her brooding.
Further along the Slytherin table, a student was putting on some pantomime that involved over-the-top fainting, much to the amusement of the third years surrounding him.
"What's going on?" she asked turning to the young man next to her.
Marcus Flint grinned in reply, "Haven't you heard? Poor little Potter fainted on the train when the Dementors got on… You alright, Travers?".
"What? Oh yes, I'm fine. Just a bit cold," Lynette responded, forcing a smile to hide the stab of pity she had felt for the boy.
"Want me to warm you up?" smirked Marcus.
Lynette rolled her eyes in reply. "No, thank you."
"One day, Travers, I'm promising you one day you'll say yes!" he said, before turning to watch Draco's further theatrics.
Lynette sighed and turned back to her empty plate. He was right of course, one day she might have to say yes...
The women of the Travers family had one thing to do and one thing only - to marry well.
Marrying well meant marrying into another pureblood family, giving them the heirs of the next generation and keeping free of gossip and scandal. Love didn't come into it.
It certainly hadn't for her parents.
It always amazed her how they managed to conceive her younger brother considering how much they loathed each other.
Of course, needs must. Gaheris was in Azkaban for life, the line couldn't die out with him and so they had forced themselves to create Bedivere.
He'd be starting at Hogwarts next year, though Lynette had overheard her father threatening to send him away to Durmstrang, something her mother could not bear to consider. Travers' wives loved their children... well, their sons anyway.
And so it was that Lynette was facing a future where marriage was the only option, with a limited scope in grooms as well. Never mind her talent for potions. Never mind that all the eligible pureblood heirs made her skin crawl. She had an inescapable duty to her family.
She sighed again but it went unnoticed by her fellow Slytherins.
She was just thinking that she should force herself to eat something when the food vanished, and with a wave Dumbledore called the feast to a close.
There was the scraping of benches as the students got to their feet.
"Can you believe it though, that oaf teaching us? Us?!"
Lynette tottered slightly, suddenly feeling light-headed, but she regained her equilibrium as Draco joined her and Marcus.
Us - the twenty-eight, all interrelated somehow, and she mentally reminded herself to get married before Draco came of age. The thought of Lucius Malfoy as a father-in-law would be enough to put her off, even if Draco wasn't such a little weasel. Besides, her father had some colourful names for the man who'd slipped the net and escaped Azkaban while his heir was caught.
Dizziness struck Lynette again and this time the room pitched violently. She reached out to steady herself but her hands closed on nothing.
"What's wrong with her?" a voice asked, but the floor had fallen away and darkness descended.
The unmistakable scent of the hospital wing gradually filled her nostrils as she blinked open her eyes - chamomile and ginseng with a bottom note of valerian.
The bed beneath her was soft but the back of her head throbbed on the starchy pillow.
"What happened?" she croaked, her mouth feeling full of sawdust.
"You fainted, Lynette."
Turning her head slowly and wincing at the pain, she took in the speaker who sat in the visitor's chair regarding her.
"I'm sorry, professor."
"You have nothing to be sorry about," her Head of House replied. "I don't suppose you chose to faint, you have more sense than that. Especially as it was Mr Flint's arms you fell into."
She grimaced at the thought and caught Snape trying to hide his amusement at her reaction.
"I'm afraid Mr Flint was caught off guard and dropped you."
"So that's why my head hurts," she murmured reaching up gingerly to touch the bandage wrapped around it.
"Yes, the flagstones saw to that," Snape remarked, not unkindly. "I'm glad no real harm seems to have been done," he added getting to his feet, "I'm relying on you to bring the N.E.W.T Potions' average up. You are the only one in an abysmal year with an ounce of talent for it."
"Thank you, sir," she smiled, her thumb rubbing along the callous of her left index finger. The burn mark had been caused when she had retrieved the letter that her father had thrown into the flames. The letter that Professor Snape had written to Lynette's parents encouraging them to allow her to pursue a career in Potions, that a talent like hers should not be disregarded. Her father had thrown it into the fire with contempt and called Snape an 'upstart half-blood'.
"Madam Pomfrey wants you to spend the night here. I wish you good-" began Snape, but a creak from the door interrupted him and they both turned to look at the new arrival.
A figure in shabby robes stood at the door smiling softly.
Lynette vaguely remembered seeing him at the feast. A new professor or something. She hadn't been paying attention. As soon as Dumbledore had started talking about the Dementors she had been back in that cell, back in Azkaban, six years old and terrified out of her mind.
"I thought I told you I would bring it to your study," glowered Snape.
The man seemed not to notice the hostile tone. He was looking past Snape to Lynette, the gentle smile unwavering.
"Yes, Severus, of course, please leave it on my desk. I'll drink it promptly, but I came to see how the patient was doing."
Snape's lip curled in response, "And what is the health of one of my house got to do with you?"
"I recognise the after-effects of a Dementor encounter and I wanted to make sure that Madam Pomfrey was aware and treating accordingly," the man replied, seeming to be unaware of the contempt radiating from his fellow professor.
"Is that right? It's the Dementors that caused you to faint? Mr Flint told me you hadn't touched any of the feast. I assumed it was lack of food that had caused the episode," Snape asked Lynette, an edge of accusation in his voice.
Lynette gave a small shrug as the other man approached her bed and sat down in the wooden seat that Snape had so recently vacated. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a bar from Honeydukes and handed her a small piece.
"How are you feeling now?" he asked after Lynette bit into it.
"A bit better, thank you, Professor…"
"Remus Lupin. I'm the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."
So that's why Professor Snape didn't like him, Lynette thought as she settled back against the pillows, the taste of the chocolate continuing to soothe her.
"You should really eat some more," Remus said, breaking off another chunk.
She reached out to take it, her fingers brushing his and a warmth flooded her that had nothing to do with the chocolate.
The intensity of the reaction scared her, and looking up she saw the surprise in Remus' eyes as well.
Coughing slightly, he broke eye contact, "You shouldn't feel ashamed... I mean, about the Dementor's effect on you. We all react differently the first time we experience them, it all depends on our memor-"
"It wasn't the first time," she interrupted softly.
"What?! You've met them before?" Remus asked with a mix of confusion and concern.
Lynette nodded, "My brother is in Azkaban. I went to visit him when I was six."
"Six?! Your parents allowed you to go to Azkaban when you were six?" Remus asked, recoiling in horror.
She nodded, and from the corner of her eye she saw an involuntary movement from Professor Snape who was still watching them both.
It felt good to say it. She'd never told anyone else before. Of course, everyone knew her older brother was in Azkaban, but she'd never told them that she'd been there as well.
"What is your name?" Remus asked curiously.
"It's Lynette. She's Geraint Travers' daughter," said Snape before she had time to answer, and a slight smirk played across his face as he looked at Lupin.
Remus turned back to her with a pained smile. "Well then, I suggest you eat the rest of the bar," he said placing it on the covers. "Good night, Miss…Travers, I expect I'll see you around the school."
"Oh, you will, Lupin. She's studying Defence Against the Dark Arts as one of her N.E. ," Snape intoned, the smirk again on his face.
Remus almost looked back at her but at the last second avoided eye contact and with a nod left the hospital wing.
Snape let him pass before looking Lynette dead in the eye, and then turned to follow his fellow professor.
Hours later, the hospital wing was bathed in the darkness of the early September night, as Lynette lay awake wondering about Professor Lupin's strange reaction.
She was used to her name causing ripples, but why was he so upset, and why did she care so much? She thought of the feeling when his fingers brushed hers...Oh, a crush on a professor - how ridiculous, she scolded herself. Still, Lupin - was that a pureblood name? Not one of the 28 for sure, but a minor family perhaps? She rebuked herself again, he was a professor and she was a student, and he didn't look like he had two knuts to rub together. Get it out of your mind, she commanded herself.
"It's because you have daddy issues!"
"For goodness' sake, Mabel! Keep your voice down!" hissed Lynette two weeks later.
At her friend's announcement, several first-year Hufflepuffs had looked across in astonishment, and there was loud sniggering from a group of fifth-year Gryffindor boys sitting at a neighbouring library table.
"Sorry, but it's true!" Mabel whispered back, "that's why you care so much about what Snape thinks, or what you think he thinks! Personally, I can't see any difference in the way he is speaking to you, you still got praised for your balancing potion today while the rest of us got sneered at, didn't you?"
Lynette shrugged, Mabel was right, she had still received the highest mark in the class that morning, but Professor Snape had definitely been off with her since the hospital incident, regardless of whatever "daddy issues" she may or may not have.
Sighing, Lynette returned to searching in the book she had pulled from the Genealogy section of the library.
"What are you reading?" Mabel asked pulling the tome towards her, "The Minor Wizarding Families and their Fortunes, why on earth are you reading that?...Oooh who are you looking up?" she asked, realization dawning, "Oh do tell, who is he?".
Lynette snatched the book back, "It's nobody, I was just interested in something."
She quickly shut the book so Mabel couldn't see that it had been the L section that Lynette had been scouring.
"I don't believe you!" Mabel smirked.
"Like I care what you think!" Lynette snapped back, losing patience with her friend, and immediately regretting it.
There was a loud and pointed "Shush!" from Madam Pince who glared at the two witches.
"Fine! Be like that," Mabel hissed gathering up her study books in a huff.
"Mabel, wait, I didn't mean to-"
"You know Professor Snape is a half-blood, don't you?" Mabel interrupted loudly, "So you can forget about your parents letting you marry him!"
There was a gale of mocking laughter from the Gryffindor boy's table, and with a satisfied sneer, Mabel marched out of the library.
Ignoring the whispering and quiet tittering from the other tables, Lynette reopened the book to the L section flicking through the families until she found the page she had been studying.
A spark of joy erupted inside her, the name was there. So he did come from a Wizarding family, she searched down the list to find his name and ancestry...and there he was. Hungrily she devoured the snippet of information, taking in his father's name Lyall Lupin, so far so good, and his wife…Lynette's stomach dropped, a muggle...his mother was a muggle.
Closing the book in disappointment she scolded herself. What did she expect? What did she think she was going to find? She knew what she'd hoped for, a pureblood, some muggle-born mix somewhere of course back many generations, but so little that it might, possibly, have been overlooked by her parents, but a muggle mother? Out of the question!
She replaced the book on the shelf, next to The Sacred 28: their Legacies and Legitimacy, and ran her fingers slowly down the spine of the gilded book. Her whole family's history was laid out on those pages.
It's a schoolgirl crush, she reasoned with herself, based on one encounter that she'd probably read far too much into, and now the only thing to do was to get over it without anyone realizing she was infatuated by a half-blood with a muggle for a mother.
But it hadn't been just one encounter.
Lynette had been nervous going to the first DADA class of the year, she had thought again to see the pained look on Professor Lupin's face when he read out her name, to have him avoid eye contact, and keep that awful distance in his voice.
As it was, he had greeted her warmly when checking the register, enquiring if she was completely recovered. He had also referred to her by her first name while the other students were addressed as Mr and Miss. He'd helped her with her spell work when she'd faltered against the Boggart, and she could still feel the pressure where he had supported her arm.
If he had acted as he had done in the hospital wing, perhaps the crush would have fizzled out before it could begin, but now? Well, now he was all she could think of.
Grabbing the book back off the shelf she took it over to Madam Pince's desk to check it out before leaving the library in a hurry.
It was lunchtime and she was hungry but she wanted to take the book back to the dorm, she didn't want to get caught carrying The Minor Wizarding Families and Their Fortunes by anyone else and have to answer more awkward questions.
Rushing to her bed, she pushed aside the fern-coloured velvet curtains of the four-poster and slipped the book under the pillow.
For a moment she paused, perhaps there was a safer place to hide it? Perhaps it wasn't worth the risk, too many questions, and the chance that someone might work it out. She chided herself for being paranoid and exited the Seventh Year Slytherin girls' dorm giving one last look at the pillow that contained clues to her secret, before making her way to the Great Hall.