Chapter 10 - James Potter

Lizzie pushed open Remus's classroom door to find Jamie, her six-year-old, coloring on some scrap parchment laid out on his desk.

"Mum!" He yelled. He ran over to give her a hug and Remus looked up at a noticeably distressed Lizzie.

"Hey, sweetie, why don't you go see Neville. Want to?" Jamie nodded fervently and ran off toward the green houses. He'd reached a point where she trusted him to get from point A to B safely, but would go check before she returned to her second class of the day. Remus was staring at her but she avoided some eye contact.

"Did you know?" She asked quietly. Remus frowned in confusion.

"Know what?" He asked.

"About Charlie... about Shell Cottage, I think it was the night Teddy was born..." she tried to explain but it was hurting her chest to think about.

"Liz, I'm not following," he said cautiously.

"I came back from meeting Teddy, and Charlie was possessed by the horcrux we stole from Gringotts..." she said, her memory was faint from him modifying it.

"It was the night Annie was conceived..." she said with a whimper at the end of her words and he became darkly concerned.

"You didn't know?" She asked. He shook his head. "He modified my memory. But he really hurt me that night. His eyes were red, it wasn't him behind them, but..." her face was contorting to avoid crying and he hugged her tight, his own hands shaking some.

"It's why I left," she whispered. "When he built the house, he took the memory. I think I've always known something happened, I haven't been able to fathom all this time why I left or why I was so scared of my daughter..." her voice shook hard now. He put a hand on her heart to try to calm it.

"It came back to you?" He asked. She shook her head.

"Charlie's been working with Draco for years. I found out about it at the World Cup, but he's been secretive about it. Astoria Malfoy's blood curse, I'm not getting answers. I just assaulted my husband over it. I could have probably killed him, all I saw was red. Something snapped. I can't even blame him for forcibly impregnating me under that possession, I killed people under it... I'm mad he hid it. I think I forgave him, and now I have to forgive him all over again. I can't think through it rationally right now."

"If I know him the way I like to think I do, he misjudged what he thought was a mercy. He didn't know that cup could possess him?" He asked.

"No, I should have told him to stay away from it. It didn't dawn on me, he'd had no experience with one except for being around me when we hid in London. I think he was seeing it in me... but the cup was more insidious. The girl Riddle killed to make it was Estrella Black, Riddle was trying to breed an ancient blood line, and she ended up pregnant before her aunt both aborted it and removed her ability to have children. Riddle was furious, and killed them both. He lost his ability to father children when he created that horcrux, it was his sacrifice, but I think he gave that ability to the horcrux. He tried to breed Bellatrix with it by possessing her husband, but she repeatedly miscarried. I think she may have had a child but I don't know if that was the method."

He listened intently to the explanation until the premise of it all dawned on him.

"You're not thinking Annie is..." he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I'm not sure I know..." Lizzie whispered.

"Keep an eye on Charlie, don't tell him I told you unless he brings it up. I dont want him leaping from the Astronomy Tower, he's very obviously racked with guilt and right now I think he deserves it, but a more rational version of me has compassion for him... I was possessed by Riddle for fifteen years. I never raped anyone, but I killed several, including my best friend. That kind of guilt is haunting. I don't want the kids picking up on it," she said. Remus nodded.

He rubbed the pad of his thumb over her cheek sympathetically. "You have endured more suffering than even the world's worst monsters deserve. It's astonishing to me how you can still have any compassion. Truly an ode to superior character," he said with sympathy and admiration. "You loved him enough to throw yourself in front of that curse to spare him. Even though he'd raped you days prior. Not everyone can say their love is that unconditional..."

"It wasn't him. Riddle has never ceased to terrorize my life, even after death."

Lizzie made her way down to the greenhouses again and was relieved to see Jamie playing with the potted dirt. Her son loved Neville, his godfather, and Neville, having no children himself, doted over him and his interest in Herbology.

"You might want to take your offspring before I start this class. Bit of a dangerous lesson..." he said when he saw Lizzie. Mandrakes, the second years were arriving and she waved at Teddy as he sat down.

"No!" Jamie shouted defiantly.

"Baby, come on, you can hang out with me, my sixth years won't mind," she offered. He groaned at her.

"When did I become chopped liver?" She asked, offended. Jamie saw Teddy and ran over to him for a hug.

"Hey, kiddo, go with mum," Teddy encouraged, making eye contact with Lizzie.

"Mum, she's not your mother, Lupin," Cyrus piped in with a snide undertone. Teddy shot him dagger eyes.

"Yes she is!" Jamie screamed back. His eyes were so livid she thought her small child might breathe fire at him.

"That's five points from Slytherin, Pucey," Neville scolded. Lizzie pulled a chocolate from from her bag and waved it enticingly at her son before bolting from the room so he'd chase after her. Neville laughed at the how childish of a mother Lizzie was, and giggles could be heard outside of the greenhouse as Lizzie piggy backed him to her classroom.

"Who wants to transfigure my son into a tea cozy?" She asked as she hurried into her own class. Jamie got off her shoulders and ran to the front of the room. His energy was endless. The sixth years were already seated. Smaller NEWT class this year, but only two of her students didn't get at least an exceeds expectations on their OWLS, and she was proud of that. Best she'd had to date.

"Listen, I have to finish my audit reports or McGonagall is going to skin me alive and feed me to the mermaids. So, if you don't mind reading this period... I'd appreciate it."

She didn't have the mental capacity for much. She felt on a cliff emotionally and it was everything she had to keep herself distracted with the reports. Her son passed out the term schedules excruciatingly slow and narrated the whole time. "You get a schedule, but what do you say?" He'd ask. They'd say 'please' and he said, "No, ask in full sentences, and THEN say please," to which Lizzie choked on laughter every time. Then he'd wait and stare until they said "thank you."

"Warthog, giraffe, mouse, bird, flamingo, peacock, earthworm," he listed off, pointing to students he wanted his mother to transform.

"Whatever Jamie assigns you is going to be how you'll spend detention if you act out this term... everyone take notes," she announced. They laughed and she let them read while music hummed softly in the large room.

In the back of the room, a Ravenclaw girl named Tessa Keppler raised her hand. "Go for it, Tess," Lizzie said not glancing up for longer than a second from her nearly finished reports.

"Are we able to learn animagi this term?" She asked. Lizzie paused.

"If you scored Outstanding on my OWL and in Potions, you can come see me about discussing that. It won't be a lesson. I'd rather you learned in a controlled environment, but it must be reported to the ministry and done after you turn seventeen. Understood?"

Tess nodded excitedly and some whispers broke out. "Read!" Lizzie scolded. Somehow she'd managed to elicit some respect, but they also didnt always take her seriously. She was a student favorite amongst the professors, followed closely by Neville and that wasn't a consensus. Team Longbottom v. Potter was a deeply divided rivalry among students. It made Lizzie and Neville laugh, but they let it rage on. Lizzie was narrowly in the lead.

"Can I stay here tonight, mummy?" Jamie asked at the end of the class period. Lizzie smiled, she hadn't wanted to go home for the evening.

"Yeah, sweetie, you can stay here," she said. Her hand gravitated to her stomach impulsively. The more she gazed at her son, the older and more independent he seemed, and she longed for the days her kids were small.

Charlie wasn't at dinner. Jamie spotted Annie at the Slytherin table and left Lizzie's side to go sit next to his sister. He startled her when she realized he was there.

"Jesus, Jamie, go back to mum," she hissed under her breath. He grabbed for a bowl of strawberries and some of the Slytherins took notice of the child.

"What happened to your hand, banana?" He asked, pointing to the bandage from the snake bite. Annie went flush and avoided eye contact with peers.

"I'm staying here tonight, mum said I could," he announced proudly.

"Congratulations, did she get you an assistant teaching job, or what?" Annie asked sarcastically.

"Well sort of, I pass out her papers," he said. Annie laughed. "Oh... sarcasm," he said a little reproachfully.

There was a pause. "Am I going to be in Slytherin too? I hope not..." he said suddenly.

"Jamie, get out of here, go sit with Teddy, or Ally, or mum!" She growled.

"You're my sister, I want to sit next to YOU," he demanded. Annie caught sight of Zoey whispering something to Aster and laughing about it.

"Flattered, kid, but leave," she said curtly. He took the bread roll off her plate to be petty and ran back to Lizzie who mouthed a sorry back at Annie. Lizzie scanned the hall, smiling weakly at Teddy chatting up Ian deep in conversation about quidditch tryouts. She looked back at Annie who stabbed at her food awkwardly, not minding anyone until Orion Malfoy sat next to her. Lizzie tensed and tried to shake the anger, hoping he was nothing like his father. Ally, however, looked defeated. The more Lizzie looked at her the more defeated she personally felt. Charlie sat down next to her and James climbed into his lap instead. He glanced at Lizzie who didn't want to make eye contact. She felt suddenly too overwhelmed to sit there and eat. She left the hall and wandered into the courtyard where she stared up at the archway. It was a vivid memory, all she had to do was close her eyes and she could see the courtyard in damaged ruins, the survivors of the battle collectively holding their breath while Voldemort pointed his wand at a kneeling Charlie. She heard his sudden yell of raw anguish and her body hanging from the arch. She knew then what he'd done, and she still threw herself in front of the curse.

Her bones felt cold as she looked out onto the lake she surfaced from that day. Reborn, free of him. But carrying the earliest stage of her daughters existence and not knowing yet. Somehow, Voldemort did.

"Mum?" She heard from behind her and she turned around to see her daughter coming to meet her in the courtyard. Annie stopped in her tracks at a familiar sense of pain on her mothers face. It was no stranger to her, she knew Lizzie had suffered immeasurably in her life. She could tell when her mind was elsewhere.

Etched into her memory was the first time her mother struck her, involuntarily. How her father had to sit her down and explain not to touch or frighten her mother when she was sleeping. Annie was about six, Lizzie hadn't gotten out of bed for most of the day. Some days were like that, she just couldn't move. This was not long after her brother was born, the sleeping spells were severe then. Annie crawled into the bed with her. She could tell Lizzie was crying, so she reached for her mother's face sympathetically. Lizzie flinched hard and her hand resting to side of her body moved like a springboard reflex, hitting Annie so hard across her jawline it bruised purple quickly. Annie screamed and Lizzie recoiled, not awake, but defensively curled into a ball. When Charlie got to the room his daughter was sitting in the middle of the bed, holding her face and sobbing. He moved toward Lizzie first and noticed her distressed, mostly unconscious state immediately.

"Lizzie," he said carefully and put a hand on her shoulder. She recoiled more. He tried to wake her and she tensed, the touch put her over the edge of a weakly suppressed panic.

"Get off!" she screamed and got up on wobbly feet, pacing unevenly. She was shaking and not present. Charlie examined his daughters face and hugged her tight to calm her down before pleading with her to go downstairs and ask Remus to help her make the bruise go away. He closed the door behind her and looked at his wife with the saddest eyes. She was looking straight at him but the exhaustion and deadness in her swollen eyes was painfully apparent.

"You hit her," he said quietly. Lizzie swayed on her feet and he moved closer to her. "You hit her," he said again, she wasn't registering the words. "Can I trust you with them, what do you need?" He pled. She was startled by the statement and started to tremble a little.

"Lizzie, I need to know I can trust you with them," he said sadly. She fell into the armchair in the corner and pulled her legs to her chest. He took the baby from the bassinette and left the room. Later that evening he returned to find her curled up sleeping in the same chair.

"What's wrong with mummy?" Annie asked him. He put the children to bed and then moved Lizzie to the bed before holding her protectively for the rest of the night.

Annie knew when her mother wasn't in a good place, even when Lizzie tried her best to hide it. Lizzie's eyes started welling rapidly when she saw her daughter.

"Mum, are you alright?" Annie asked. Lizzie looked light on her feet but pulled Annie in for a very tight hug. "It's ok," Annie whispered. Lizzie kissed the top of her head and held her possessively.

"Im going to bed, can you, dad, or Remus bring Jamie by? I told him he could stay here tonight," Lizzie said quietly. Annie nodded and didn't pry.

"Night, mum," she whispered. Lizzie kissed her temple and left up to her bed chambers. Finally alone behind closed doors, she felt suddenly anxious and restless and closed the door to the water closet behind her as she sat down in the small room. She tried to breathe deeply and evenly. The memories she'd recovered from Charlie were coming together like a puzzle and there was something much more insidious about seeing him being that violent with her as opposed to those she knew violence from. His look of malfeasance, deeply rooted satisfaction the harder she struggled, he wasn't behind those eyes and she knew it but it didn't change how disturbing it was to rapidly relive. It was the most violent assault she endured despite years of abuse. Even Volemort's because he had managed to manipulate her feelings with that curse. So long as he found enjoyment from her pain, she would too. She tried to explain that once to her husband and it just sounded like she somehow enjoyed it, which deeply disturbed her. It had been under the surface of consciousness for over a decade, she could now place where she was all the nights she panicked in her sleep.

Charlie had been a wonderful husband, protective but not demeaning, respected her as a partner in character and in navigating life, he had never hurt her otherwise physically, he hadn't even slept with her drunk on their wedding night. He understood her trauma remarkably well, too well. She was now realizing why, he didn't have to imagine the pain she was in when she'd experienced abuse, he witnessed it. He'd done it.

He held tight onto her when she gave birth to Jamie. She felt astonishingly safe and his hands were working intentional magic for the pain. It was a completely different experience as opposed to when she gave birth alone to Annie.

She trusted her husband, and still would have despite this, if he hadn't tried to hide it. I made her doubt the intentions. At the same time, her heart sank for the pain he'd shouldered these years, the shame he'd obviously felt, the fear of losing his family over it. It wasn't lost on her that perhaps he erased this insidious event to protect them all.

Lizzie had made her way to bed but was far from asleep when there was a knock at the door and her son ran in to crawl into her arms.

Charlie set something of Jamie's down on the end table, but Lizzie didn't look up at him. He sat at the edge of the bed and exhaled sadly. "I won't stay, I just want to know you'll be alright with him..." he said quietly. Lizzie lifted herself up onto her elbows and looked at him for long moment not saying anything.

"You can stay," she whispered. "If you want to..." he moved closer to her and rubbed the aching temple above her eye. She shivered involuntarily at the realization that his habit of rubbing her temple, what he'd done for years to help relieve pain and pressure that isolated itself there often, was exactly where he'd struck her. She closed her eyes and heard the crack before arms wrapped around her protectively.

Jamie kissed her arm and then rolled over to fall asleep. Lizzie got up and strode to balcony that overlooked the lake. Charlie followed and leaned over the stone bannister. "Did you take a potion, from last night?" He asked. "I'm sorry I risked that... I wasn't thinking..." he said apologetically.

Lizzie shook her head no. He straightened up. "I can go make you one now, there's still time..." he offered. Lizzie stared for a long moment out at the lake before shaking her head no. He reached for her hand. "Are you willing to have another baby, Liz?" He asked. She didn't say anything. "It's times like this I wish I was the one who could read minds," he whispered. Tears fell silently.

"I'd never wish anyone the ability to read my mind," she breathed.

"Lizzie, I don't want you to do or risk anything you don't want to do..."

Lizzie exhaled shakily. "I'm having a hard time thinking about anything else. I get it, I know why you hid it. I'm not angry, I don't have a word for what I am..."

"Liz, quite frankly I'm glad you haven't killed me, but this isn't something I ever expect you to forgive me for," he said.

"I want to forgive you!" She snapped. "You think I want to hold onto this!? Fuck, Charlie, you don't even begin to get it!"

"I know I don't get it, you were hurt that way by too many, you never needed your husband on that list," he said slowly.

"I was hurt that way because of Riddle's sick fetish. He watched girls in that orphanage get taken advantage of and how it silenced them. He targeted them, he killed them, he left a piece of that in me and I don't know how much worse it was because of it. I don't know how many of those men were possessed by that. I'm angry about the violation, I'm angry you suffered from it too. I killed most of them because they were monsters and maybe I was the monster. I don't actually know! But you're the only one I know would have never chosen to hurt me. That's why this feels like being gutted alive."

"So you want to risk another pregnancy to what, exactly?" He asked. Lizzie was furious and her eyes drowned in anxiety. "Are you trying to keep yourself here, or are you just going to disappear?" She slapped him before she caught herself. His eyes flashed with a mixture of resentment and pain.

"I wouldn't leave my family," she hissed through gritted teeth. "I wouldn't take my children from their father... I want to forgive you, and maybe a game of roulette isn't a bad idea."

"I'm making you a potion," he said in response. "Having another baby to trap yourself is delusional and it's not going to make me worry you'll leave any less," he argued.

"I could care less right now that you're worried I'll leave! I'm worried I'll leave! I can't lose another family. So we're going to just wait and see what happens," she snapped.

"Fine. You need to tell me if you are though," he responded firmly. She glared at him and his face softened. "You need to promise me that..." he pled. Lizzie bit her inner cheeks.

"I want the memory, I want to see the memory, and I'll make that promise," she said. Charlie couldn't gamble her not telling him or vanishing. You cant apparate a pregnant woman so he couldn't summon her if she did. He had a potion she'd need to take that could prevent another baby from Annie's fate.

"You don't want to see that memory," he whispered. She gave him an intense stare and he ultimately obliged the request.

Lizzie took the memory and headed for the door. "Lizzie!" He snapped and seized her wrist. "Promise me you'll tell me..." she nodded.

"You are staying here, I'm doing this alone," she said firmly and left for the headmistress's office.

Lizzie walked up the stone gargoyle staircase and pushed the door to the familiar chambers open. The headmaster portraits snoozed in their frames and Lizzie summoned the pensive to the center of the room and dropped the memory into the basin.

Lizzie's hands shook, but she inhaled deeply and dipped her face in until she felt the familiar fall into the past.

"Hey, I'm back," her past self said happily. "He's beautiful. Teddy, he's beautiful. Tonks is over the moon, I've never seen Remus this happy," she added. She was undressing and the injuries from Gringotts were prevalent. "Charlie?" She asked. He'd been very silent. The cup sat atop the mantel of the fireplace in the bedroom. "Char-lie?" She asked more slowly. He smiled at her when she caught his attention and pulled the covers back for her to climb into the bed. A few minutes passed, it was dark but for the moonlight coming through the window.

His arm wrapped around her body and he groped at her enticingly. She responded by pressing herself into his body.

Lizzie watched him become more aggressive with her. The aggression turned into pure violence. The way she screamed and sobbed was unlike her, normally she froze and held her breath to take it silently. She was beyond any control of her emotions. It was the most violent she'd ever endured conscious.

Her skin felt like ice, no color was left in her body. He left when he'd finished. Lizzie watched herself peel her trembling limbs from the mattress, shock and denial was apparent with every movement. Lizzie watched as the flames in the fire ignited. The cup hissed at her quietly, she looked up at the mirror to see a white eyed girl sitting beside her in the bed. She jumped up and toward the door. Lizzie followed herself down the hall as she hobbled in pain. At the end of the stairs she saw Charlie making tea. He was himself again, from what she could tell, he was asking about Tonks. His face fell into shock and confusion when he saw her bloodied one.

She started screaming at him not to touch her, but the sentences weren't coherent, she was crushed under the pressure. He seemed to pick up that it was him and was terrified. Lizzie turned to go back up the stairs and saw a figure at the top before collapsing.

Lizzie couldn't breathe bearing witness. She fell backward against the wall as she exited the memory. She sunk into an arm chair in the office and wept. Charlie was who she felt safest with and this was becoming all she could see. She looked up and across the office to see Snape's portrait staring back.

"Did your abnormally large nose smell misery?" Lizzie asked with a snide undertone.

"Don't be a child," he responded.

"Can you read minds as a portrait, too?" She asked. He scowled at her.

"No, but something has obviously happened..." he said evenly. Lizzie shook her head evasively.

"It was always Voldemort, wasn't it? He possessed my uncle and possibly every person who ever..." she trailed off.

"You're far from the only victim of the Catholic Clergy, Azalea... but your uncle was undoubtedly possessed, yes. I'm afraid it's impossible to tell what extent was him and what was possession. I'm sure it was a contributing factor to all of that kind of suffering..." there was a pause. Lizzie stared off at a shelf of artifacts absently. "You're not the only victim within the new wizard order either. Those death eaters married off their daughters young, raped their wives, and groomed their children into cult indoctrination not unlike your upbringing. That was largely mandated by the dark lord, so you could argue it was all him to varying degrees."

Lizzie still didn't say anything, she already knew this. "Who raped you, Azalea?"

Lizzie exhaled. "... my husband." Her voice broke at the end and she got up and started pacing anxiously.

"How so?" Snape asked after a long pause.

"What do you mean, how so? He... violently beat and..." she shook her head, the nausea was climbing.

"I just want to go back to bed, but I can't be there with him. I don't feel safe anymore. I felt safe for so many years. I could sleep, I could sleep... I could actually sleep," her voice got weak, and she breathed the last of her sentence. More than nausea was climbing, the vomit would surface as boil.

"When did this happen?" Snape asked, confused.

"It was how my daughter was conceived. He was possessed by the horcrux we stole from Gringotts. Days before the battle. He took the memory. But it resurfaced."

Lizzie frowned, something dawning on her suddenly. "What did Voldemort curse the Greengrass girls with?" She asked.

He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "Meladictus... I brewed those curses."

Lizzie raised her eyebrows. "Astoria is dying, Draco's wife. My husband has been helping him cure her." Snape nodded.

"There's no point. Nothing cures it," Snape said.

"What did you know about Voldemort wanting an heir?" Lizzie asked.

"He wanted a Black for that," Snape said.

"Bellatrix?"

"He tried many times with her. She could never carry the baby."

"She did eventually though, right?" Lizzie asked.

"With a different man," Snape admitted.

"Riddle did what... in response to that?"

"He cursed the baby. It was a boy. I don't recall the name. This was very shortly before the battle," Snape explained.

"What curse?" She asked, intrigued.

"That I don't know," Snape said.

"One of the horcruxes, the cup in Bellatrix's vault... That's what Charlie was possessed by the night he assaulted me. The night I got pregnant with my daughter."

"You got pregnant despite the ophidian curse?" Snape asked, intrigued.

"No, well not in full effect, Charlie gave me something he'd created, he just added the dragons blood."

"Your husband had been illegally experimenting with Dragons Blood for a considerable amount of time. Dumbledore enlisted his help after you were cursed because he had already discovered what Mr. Weasley had been doing in Romania. I don't believe the most ethical methods were used... to put it lightly," Snape added.

"Stop - my husband has not done anything illegal," she said flatly.

"You're overwhelmed by how much you've discovered he kept from you..."

"Well, of course I am!" Lizzie shouted. She ran hands through her hair anxiously.

"The Dark Lord had plans to use you the way he did Bellatrix. Once he cursed you, he realized those chances were slim. It took a good deal of persuasion to convince him to kill you. There was an underlying obsession," Snape explained.

"Your tact never ceases to amaze, Severus," she hissed his name in a way she knew would annoy him. "Was Bellatrix the only one he tried that with?"

"He eyed all the Black sisters. Lucius sterilized Narcissa so he couldn't use her when Bellatrix failed the third time. He even had plans of kidnapping Andromeda or Nymphadora, but Nymphadora wasn't pureblooded," he explained.

"Did you know why he was obsessed with Black lineage?" Lizzie asked.

"No."

"The horcrux he made of Hufflepuffs goblet, the one in the Lestrange vault, was made upon the murder of Estrella Black, thought to be a squib, aunt to the Black sisters. She was sent away. Riddle cursed and tried to breed her as young as thirteen. He sacrificed his ability to bear children to the horcrux, I'm assuming he was using Rudolphus under possession."

"You think your daughter isn't you husband's?" Snape asked after a long pause.

"She was born on Riddle's birthday, almost two months too early," Lizzie admitted. Snape's portrait stared at her intensely.

"It could be a coincidence. My son was born on Halloween. My goddaughter was born on my birthday. There are only 365 possible days to be born after all," Lizzie added.

"Azalea, you should not have kept a child having been cursed the way you had. How could that have not crossed your brilliant little mind?" He asked scathingly.

"I killed him! That curse is gone," Lizzie hissed back.

"It wasn't when you conceived."

"I didn't have a choice in that! Charlie held me down and beat me to a pulp," her voice cracked and her lungs seized tight around the words.

"Don't be stupid! That should have made you fear it more. You were hoping it'd kill you, didn't you?"

"It? My daughter? I reasoned that I'd either have her and have someone to live the rest of my miserable life for, or I'd die trying and go home to my family either way," Lizzie snapped.

Snape winced and glared at her reproachfully. "I'm unsure if Bella's baby survived, last word I received was that he hadn't. I'm surprised your daughter has. I'm impressed by the strides your husband made with Astoria. Perhaps I'm mistaken on cures, but I doubt it."

Lizzie shifted on her feet uncomfortably and bit back tears. The door creaked open and Lizzie saw Charlie peak around cautiously into the room. "Were you talking to someone?" He asked. Lizzie shook her head no and glanced at Snape's portrait which appeared to be asleep.

"Come to bed?" He asked. Lizzie's heart hammered and he could see the pulse in the way she clenched her jaw. He approached her and she tensed involuntarily. His eyes screamed in apprehension and pain, Lizzie could read fear that he'd never be able to touch her again without surfacing those memories.

Lizzie held her stomach, Snapes words mulling over in her head about not having a cursed baby. Her breathing was heavy suddenly and panic started to climb through the web of her veins. Charlie's fingers closed around her upper arm as she started feel dizzy. One of his hands moved up over her chest and slip under her blouse over her heart. Her heart started to slow more steadily. She closed her eyes around the warmth she long felt safe and accustomed to. There was a loud crack of a fist and the red eyes blazed inside her eyelids. Her body jerked involuntarily and she pushed away from him. He was pale and heartbroken.

"I'm going to give you one opportunity to tell me what's wrong with my daughter," she said and stared intently at his reaction.

His face sunk in anguish, and she could hear his heart race violently from a few feet away. "Lizzie, I don't know what's wrong with Annie. There has always been something wrong with her. I have spent a decade trying to figure that out."

"You didn't think I could help?" Lizzie asked.

"You didn't deserve to be saddled with it," he responded.

"Not if it means I would lose my daughter!" She yelled. "Maybe if you hadn't been helping Astoria..." she hissed bitterly.

"Why do you think I was helping her!?" Charlie yelled back. "She's a guinea pig for our daughter. I couldn't give my baby something I made without knowing it at a minimum wouldn't hurt her!"

"Did Astoria know?" Lizzie asked, horrified.

"Her and Draco agreed to it, yes. I'm not sadistic," he said, running hands through his hair anxiously.

"Is it the same curse?" Lizzie asked. Charlie shook his head.

"I don't know what it is, Lizzie. Annie has visions, not from your past, from someone else's. She has memories, nightmares, and ailments identical to what you described in your books."

"The girls Riddle killed?" Lizzie asked, remembering Annie's question about dismemberment. Color flushed rapidly from her face. "Jamie never showed signs of this did he?" Lizzie asked, racking her brain. Charlie paused but shook his head.

"Come to bed, please," Charlie begged. When Lizzie made it back to her bed chambers, there was a potion on the end table for her to take.

"I made you one in case - I think it would only work for maybe another day unless you've already conceived," he whispered so as not to wake their son. Lizzie sat on the edge of the bed looking at her sleeping child and took it.